5:57 am

So, I've been having such a problem waking up in the morning for the past, oh, seven months. Which makes me almost late sometimes, since I feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck every am. Well. Last night, I was praying and I asked God if He could help me wake up, and then, if I was awake I could have time for to read my Bible too. Didn't think much of it and set my alarm for 6:15 am.

5:57 am. I'm having a nightmare, as I do. Something about tigers getting out of their cages, a long hill I have to walk up carrying a leaking duffle bag full of Dr. Pepper that's quickly losing it's fizz and a building when I finally get to the top of the hill full of lackluster Christians and visible manifestations of demons. You know. Just a regular Monday night terror. I start quoting Romans 8:38 to the silly faux-Christians in my dream. "Hey people, don't you know that these silly "ghosts" can't hurt you. Neither death nor life, angels nor demons..." I wake up, full adrenaline going, because as much as I'm quoting Paul here, I'm terrified of demons. I'm also terrified to look at my alarm clock, since it probably says 2:35 or something retarded like that. 5:57 am. Oh, wait... Ok, God you want me to... Yep. Got it. So I read Romans 8 this morning.

All things work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose...

~Christina

Just another manic Monday

I brush my teeth either squatting over the drain in my bathroom, or while conditioning my hair in the shower. When I want to wash my hands, I hike up my pants, put on rubber shoes and stand as far away from the faucet as possible. Lean in, wash as fast as possible and get out before the back splash can find me. When I want to clean my bathroom I simply remove the shower head from the wall and spray down the entire area.

When I walk down the street I look for spit on the sidewalk. I carry my umbrella if it's even cloudy. the acid rain will make me go bald otherwise. Or so the legends say... I try not to gag as I pass drains. I watch for scooters shooting out of side alleyways.

I had a really scary thing happen to me on the subway the other day. I hesitate to tell you because I fear the response I will get, but I want to tell anyway.

I was riding from my place to Christina's place, it takes about an hour on the train. I have done this trip many times, and had already done it once that day. It was about 10pm Saturday and the train wasn't very full anymore. I had an empty seat on either side of me. A drunk man entered the car I was in and stood on the other side, facing away from me, yelling at the window. No one seemed to care much, just moved further away from him. I was listening to music, so I just kept my eye on him and sat there. The next thing I know he comes over and sits down beside me. This makes me uncomfortable. So I shift away from him, trying to let him know I am not interested in talking to him. He appears to be about 75 and reeks of alcohol. So I am not paying attention to him until he starts yelling AT me and hitting me on the shoulder, arm and chest area. Then I got worried. I didn't really know what to do. I tried to tell him no, and that I didn't speak Korean. I thought that if I got up he might try to follow me. I couldn't get off the train, we were moving and there were at least other people around if I stayed. So I just kind of sat there and got more and more alarmed as he continued to yell at me and hit me. Then a woman a couple seats down came and grabbed me and motioned for me to follow her so I did. We moved across the isle and sat down. Then this crazy old man followed and sat down right across from me and started yelling at me again. At this point I was about to burst into tears. What did he want? I have no idea... he was just yelling and pointing. And I didn't know what to do. Thankfully the woman came back and motioned for me to follow and I followed her into another car where there were tons of people. She stuck me down in amongst a bunch of hikers that had all kinds of gear piled around them, so I kind of sunk in and tried not to be too noticeable. Thankfully I didn't have much further to go. I called my friend Kenton when I got to my station and he came and met me at the door so I didn't have to walk anywhere by myself. I felt a little rattled and wasn't too sure I could handle any more encounters with the crazies that night.

So I am alright. There is not a lot that could have been done to prevent that situation. And I don't know what I will do in the future. The subway is the main form of transportation here and it is actually the safest place to be most of the time. So I guess I will just practice up my karate skills and next time beat up some old guys.

I am getting pretty sick of being here. I like it alright, but I am really over all the unnecessary attention. I miss being able to blend in and be normal. I miss being average and boring. I can't wait to just be another random white girl, who speaks the same language as everyone else and who wears jeans and tshirts and is happy with it.

And that is it for now. All my random thoughts thrown out there for you all to read and freak out about =)

michelle

New year.

I guess I have been slacking with the blogging. I apologize to any faithful followers! It's been a hectic month or so.

Let me start after the last post I made. I went to TN to visit my favorite guy, Justin. I wasn't planning on visiting with any family because 1) I didn't know if my mom would even be around 2) if she wasn't in TN by then I didn't want her to feel bad, 3) I was lazy.

But once I got there and found out she had made it to the States I felt I must go surprise her. It was the right thing to do. So Justin drove me over to their place and I think I scared her. She was in the stairwell sweeping cobwebs off the ceiling I think, and wouldn't come when my dad called her. So I went over there and true to form, she did her shrieking thing that she does. That kind of half yelp, gaspy laugh thing. If you know her, you know what I am talking about. (love you mommy!!) We had a nice little visit after she got over the fact that I was standing in her country.

The trip there was horrendous. I am not a fan of travelling for 24 hours, crossing international time lines, layovers, airplanes, or even flying in general. The first flight was short, just hopped over the sea to Japan to sit in the airport for a couple hours. Then the second flight was TERRIBLE. I was stuck beside a slightly wide man. He wasn't really obese, just massive. I was also trapped by the window so getting in and out to stretch, use the bathroom etc, was not fun, or easy. Got there on the same day we left, after travelling all through the night. Talk about confusing your body. Time travel sucks!

But I had a nice time, it was worth it. If only to smell the sweet sweet air of America for a few days. To drive through the country where you can see for miles without any buildings getting in the way... To eat food I could recognize, and pronounce.... Ah, it was perfect. Every part of it! And it was far too short. The trip back wasn't as bad. I took some sleeping pills and had a whole row to myself so I slept most of the way. Which really was great because I had hardly any jetlag.

Back to Korea. It was almost like coming home. And that bothered me. It smelled bad and there are far too many people everywhere, but somehow it has become a place I can stand. I can say without cringing, too much, that I live in Korea.

Then the new year began. And that has been truly overwhelming. Not only do we have a whole new batch of kids that can hardly speak, we have a whole new batch of teachers. And I am not saying they are bad teachers, but it is frustrating to be used to a certain way of doing things, and then all of a sudden switch. My class that used to be manageable with the old teacher, now has learned they can get away with almost anything with the new teacher. So of course, I got super sick at the end of the first week. Fever, so tired I could hardly move. I thought I had the flu. Turns out I just needed to sleep, for about 20 hours. So I did that. I got in about an hour at Kinderest, sleeping in the library, then went home and slept from 5:30 til 9 pm. got up, ate some food, took a shower and went back to bed until 3 pm the next day. It was fantastic.

I felt like a new human after that. Like I could tackle anything. Too bad you can't just store up sleep and use it when you get low later. This week wasn't as bad, so maybe things are evening out. My violet class is the worst. They used to be tough when they were Pink. Now they are just horrendous. Like, out of control, terrible, awful, very bad, no good. It is tiring just being in the same area as them. And yet somehow I still enjoy it?

Which brings me to my next point, which I am sure as soon as I say it out loud will stop being what I want. I really want to teach. Like for a real job, when I get back to the states. I want to somehow get early childhood education stuff and be a preschool teacher. And teach kids that can understand my language. Ahhhh... that would be delightful. But I really like teaching this age. They are fantastic. So there's that.

Hmmm, what else. Oh, on Wednesday we passed the 7 month mark. We are officially on the homeward stretch. Ahh. I am very happy about that. It has been a long half a year.

And that about does it.

Michelle