six months ... still under construction

so I am at the six months mark in my journey here in Korea.  what have I learned ... what have I forgotten and must soon re-learn?  well ... the basics in life I'm sure.  

all is well.  work is good ... I rather enjoy teaching ... teaching English is good, but I really like teaching the kids more random things, like an idea to aide them in learning will come into my mind and it will end up being the most enjoyable thing we did that day.  I love days like that, they are moments that truly cannot be replaced.  back to the topic at hand ... what have I learned ...

I miss my home / I miss my family / I miss my friends / I love the new sights / I love learning the new culture, I truly cannot get enough of it / learning language is hard but it's enjoyable and most people who speak what you are learning are patient and so it works out almost every time I attempt to speak this Asian tongue and screw things up / I still have a strange back-of-my-mind desire to get a motorcycle / I really enjoy learning martial arts more so than what I did for all those years in the gym lugging weights around / I like that I can still talk to my friends and family over the internet or phone call, it makes me feel less far away / I like the food / I like how I came to teach little ones but they are teaching me more than I could ever teach them / I hate that I've missed out on my nephew's first few months of life / I hate that I have to miss the weddings of friends and families / I hate February / I enjoy cold weather - not a surprise! / I like that I don't have or need a car / I like that I can speak 3 languages, one well and the other two sparingly but still I can speak and function ... somewhat (english, spanish, korean) / I like that I make six figures in Won / I like being an outsider / I don't like being an outsider / I hate culture-shock / I like that I've realized how much I love and miss my family, I had to come to the other side of earth to realize that: I would like to say that proves the pure stubbornness of anyone with the last name Mitchell / and ... I'm sure there's more!  but another time!  

John

the cold ...

so I realized just how adjusted to the colder weather I am when I work up and check the weather and see that the hi today will be in the upper 30s ... oh, that's not bad at all, in fact that's kind of mild ... what ... has ... happened ... to ... me ... I still fully don't know ... but it's in the 30s and 20s most of the time, sometimes less ... and it's really not that bad.  I think perhaps it's easier to adjust to the cold, you put on warm clothes but the heat, you are always hot, no matter how little clothing you wear, unless you are in cool water of course.  At any rate, I found this interesting ... my left foot is larger than my right ... I'm finding out all this stuff about my limbs this year, my arms, now my feet ... perhaps next I'll find out I have super human strength ... oh wait, I already knew that one.  

hope this finds you well!

John

public nudity

yes I said "public nudity."  Feel free to squirm a little, I'll wait.  

First, here are more pics of Thailand ... I though you would enjoy the perspectives of different views in the world and these are among the most interesting and beautiful.  Now to my thoughts ... 

For the last few weeks I've been able to frequent a public sauna and bath house near my school.  This is a new and interesting thing to me.  They have these huge rooms, saunas really, where Koreans, and a few Westerners, cram into and sweat out the sweat.  It's all quite nice and relaxing and the end of the outing is finished by washing off in the public bath house.  Personally I have no problems with showering in public places ... I have been used to this from my summer camp of my youth at Camp Sea Gull in North Carolina.  But this is not just some row of shower heads ... they have everything, and I mean everything.  In my mind I will simply enter in and shower and head out ... but this is not the complete way of doing things.  There are several hot spas, there is a sleeping area and little "caves" for one person to take a nap, they have steam rooms, cold baths, and really, really hot baths all coming from some underground upward welling spring source.  There is a level of, "man this is weird" but I realized hell everyone else here is naked why do I care.  I think perhaps I stand out a bit with my different physical features that are not normal to Korean men such as hair on my chest, the color of my hair, and being the only naked Westerner in there.  As I'm writing this I'm wondering why exactly I'm sharing this with you ... I don't fully know so forgive me if this is odd for you.  There is one thing though ... aside from the strange display of public nudity that my western mind is simply not used to I rather enjoy it and always leave feeling refreshed and renewed a bit.  So who knows, perhaps soon there will be public bath houses in the US ... I would say to try it ... it's weird and different but it's a unique thing to experience a way, however strange and odd to us, how a different culture relaxes on the weekends.  

Also this weekend I picked up the Planet Earth DVD series fro BBC.  It's quite amazing and I highly recommend it ... the visual aspect and the landscapes are quite breathtaking and there is so, so very much about this world that I had no idea about.  Especially if you have the HD thing on your TV, apparently that's what it is made for.  

Ok, all is well!  Enjoy yourself!

John  

just words ...

Above are more photos of my trip to Thailand ... as you can see, we saw many things ... including a Muay Thai fight where the first bouts were between children no more than 10 years old.  Yes, I was disturbed by then until I looked near the ring and saw one of the young fighters mothers yelling at him in much the way a soccer-mom in the west would yell at her kid.  It was a truly universal moment ... and a unique view into this culture.  The country side is also beautiful, this area at the foot of some mountains on the island of Phuket, was, I believe, somewhat new.  After arriving back in Korea I read an article stating that Phuket received 30% of all Thailand's' tourists.  This is a huge amount ... something like 1.5 billion dollars.

I have been trying to post all of my photos from my trip but have been having a bit of trouble with uploading them ... so hopefully soon I will be able to get more loaded to share with you all.  

Now for the update on me ... I am doing well.  I believe, and hope really, that I have somewhat passed through the difficult stages of the whole culture shock cycle.  It did, however, coincide with the holidays so with that it was especially hard this season.  It's a peculiar thing to be so far away from family during the holidays with all that has happened this past year ... I can remember enjoying time with family but also wanting to be elsewhere doing something other than what we had always done ... but this year wanting, more than I thought I would, to be doing the very thing I had done for the past 20 years of my life or so with my family.  The question seems to linger at all times ... what will I do after my contract is up?  I will be the first to inform you, I have no idea.  I find that my mind changes as much as the weather ... two months ago I would have told you I'm going to stay ... now at this point I would say I'll probably leave.  All this talk and thoughts of "what's next" can be very consuming but it seems to come back to the fact that truly I still do not know what I would like to do.  I may want to finish out the school year with my kids in the end or may feel that moving west is the best course.  I do question the longevity of it all being here ... perhaps a bit more schooling for a different part of the world ... perhaps something in the humanitarian field ... perhaps teaching in the States.  The options seem to be endless.  

As for school right now.  The school year is coming to a close soon when we will get new classes and new schedules.  I'm trying to make the most of it and give my students all that I have and to, more importantly, teach them the best and most effective ways that I know how.  

So that updates you as of now and what I am thinking and other things.  Email if you get a chance!

John 

photos

Thailand

I'm very sporadic with my postings and if I said I will try to post more I would probably be lying ... haha.  Things have been great here.  It's snowing quite heavily here in Daejeon, which is odd ... it seems everyone felt it only snows, "a little" but I'm looking out there and it's coming down pretty heavy ... but then again I'm from Florida so my perspective is off a bit.  

Just got back from a week in Thailand.  An interesting place is a great way to describe it.  We first went to Bangkok for about two days before our flight into Phuket (poo-ket) ... a times the country reminded me of my travels in India or of Mexico as well.  Bangkok is of course a highly modernized city with some interesting sites to see.  While there we visited the largest street market I've ever seen where all things from soap to shoes to puppies were all sold by hundreds possibly even thousands of vendors.  I bought only a couple of things, Reef sandals for about 4 dollars, a shirt for a buck 50 ... everything was cheap.  Later on in the trip in Phuket I bought two Polo shirts for $2.50 each ... I know you can't find that deal anywhere.  They are probably rejects from a factory somewhere or simply not real at all.  

I will be writing more about the trip in the coming days.  There are many stories to tell and thoughts to share about all that I saw and witnessed.  So for now I'll leave you with the photos at the top ... this was a one day trip we went on for sightseeing of beautiful islands and snorkeling, as you can see, in some of the most crystal clear water I've ever seen.  If I were to ever go back to Thailand, I would simply make it a diving trip and spent all my time on the islands.  They are truly beautiful.  We even went to the same island where "The Beach" was filmed.  There ... that'll leave you intrigued for a while.  I hope your holidays have been good.  

John 

a flood ...

just after I posted my last ... well ... post.  I was catching up on some grading I had been neglecting and set my foot down in just the right spot on my floor to hear the soft squish of my sandal catching the incoming tide into my room.  Confused as always these days I look over my shoulder to see my laundry room overflowing ... yeah what fun!  So what do I do?  I jump into action and start throwing towels on the floor ... in no particular order to do any good really just throwing ... I even started taking my clothes off and throwing them at the laps of water getting closer and closer to meaningful stuff.  

Long story shortened ... and many towels later ... I now have a slightly cleaner floor than I did this morning ... and I held back the tide ... and I finished grading my papers too ... all on a otherwise lazy Saturday.  No picture for this ... nothing exciting to look at really.  I think we've all seen what water looks like on the floor.  And no, even my sweet camera skills can't make that look special.  On another note ... the Korean word for camera still sounds like camera ... so there you go, I teaching you Korean now!  Exciting.  Take care!