Four months gone by

Last month I was amazed by my little children. This month I don't even want to write about work because it's been a bad one. I can wonder what has changed from one month to the next. Is it the table arrangement? Is it Stephanie? Was it the theme? Is it me? I can't be sure.

Despite my job I am happy here. That may seem ludicrous because my job takes up about seventy percent of my free time, or so it feels. Usually the weekends make up for a bad week at least, as long as I get out of bed and do something interesting. I'm happy to report that I've been doing interesting things and seeing interesting places.

Yesterday I was going to go to the traditional market that I visited last month with the puppies but it was cold and we were lazy so instead checked out a nearby town. D'Arcy got her hair cut in a scuzzy looking salon that we noticed from the street. The hairstylist man was wearing plaid pants and a flower print shirt and colourful shoes but he did a good job. While she was getting trimmed I was chatting with a woman under a hair dryer of some kind. She wants me to teach her English privately on the weekends. At first I said no and used the excsue that it's illegal. Illegal doesn't really bother me that much but what does is teaching any more than I already have to. It would be much different, and probably much better, to teach a grown woman who already has decent English skills. She even offered to help me learn Korean which would definitely be an interesting experience.

Alas, I'm not interested in the committment. I don't want to be obligated to anyone or anything every weekend. Next weekend I'm heading to Busan. The weekend after that who knows? I don't need the extra money and I don't need another student. So that's that.

Last night was a good bye party for my coworker; the first good bye I've had with people I actually came to know and like. I was emotional watching them say their goodbyes, she and her boyfriend, because not only are they leaving but they're heading towards a new life together, with a third party on the way. It's difficult to imagine myself in that position, well, not the pregnant position but the leaving position. Eight months from now I will be. How does that sound to me? Tempting.

It's funny. A lot of us talk about this whole experience as if it's a sentence. How much time you got left, Mac? Ohh, two weeks left, lucky you!! Oh, you just got here. Start the countdown now. It's a love/hate relationship we've got going on here.

Four months down, eight months to go...