A new project!

As I wrote before, I am really having a great time exploring this city.  I keep finding awesome things to do; I keep meeting awesome people.

I’ve started a Korean language club.  I found some other people interested in studying, and we have started to meet and practice Korean!  So far it’s just been once, but it will become a regular thing.  I’ve made a blog to complement this group, you can find it here:

http://portlandkorean.wordpress.com

I make no apoligies

Contrary to what you may think, I am still alive.  I am also still in Seoul.  I just haven’t been blogging so muc here. I have been doing it here.  Also, I feel like there hasn’t been a whole lot of things to say over the past fe months.  My life has been pretty consistent recently.

Anyway, I do want to spend some time talking about the recent protests here in Seoul.  Perhaps you heard about them.  If not, read this.  It will bring you up to speed in a very fair way.  The most recent news is that the South Korean presdident has agreed to some of the citizen’s demands.

The recent protests mentioned have been quite a spectacle.  I have dozens and dozens of pictures that will eventually make it on my my flikr site.  I’m also working on a video to share some scenes from a recent march and to translate some of the picket signs I collected.  Look for that in the next few days or so.

Anyway, comments make me feel loved, and probably encourage me to write more. (hint, hint)

I might just be nuts..

I won’t make any apologies about my rather infrequent updates! You’ll just have to deal with it!

The school year is winding down in a couple weeks (sort of) and winter vacation is coming up! I ’say sort’ of because the semester isn’t actually over. School closes December 22nd, and opens again on Jauary 28. Then, closes again from the 6th, reopens on the 11th, only to close yet again on the 14th. The second semester officially begins March 3rd. Part of the craziness is due to the Lunar new year, but I still can’t understand why they close for all of January, only to have 10 more days of nothing (all exams and what not are finished) before students graduate or move up, and then close again for 2 weeks. It defies my Western logic.

Anyway, even though that’s a LOT of vacation time, I still have to work during 3 weeks in January teaching English day camp. Better than doing nothing, I guess, but I wouldn’t turn down vacation!

Some of you may recall that I want to go study Spanish in Latin America after leaving Korea. I’ve toyed with Spanish before, albeit very briefly when I was teaching in Maryland. The school was developing a Spanish immersion program, and I got to learn some Spanish there. Spanish comes pretty easy to me, but I’ve never really studied it formally. I want to. Right now, I’d like to go to Honduras, and maybe Mexico for a few months just to study Spanish. But I’d like to start right now! Leaving Korea right now isn’t really an option, but I can take advantage of the internet and all the new language learning tools available! So, in the midst of my Korean, I’m also going to be working on Spanish.

Adios!