I have continued to stay very busy here and time has continued to fly! The weeks seem to come and go pretty quickly but when I think back to Warrens wedding and saying goodbye to family at the airport it seems like ions ago.
Quite a bit has happened since my last post. Last week I contracted my second infection since being here so that was pretty exciting! This time in the throat which I am happy to report is all cleared up now. I managed to find an ear nose and throat doctor who speaks English although I am hoping I won't have to see him too often. Many of you may have seen the Korean 'diligence' video on my Facebook page and unfortunately it is only funny because it is true. Nothing short of hospitalization warrants a day off here and the same 'diligence' is expected of foreign teachers (hence the fact that I only get 3 sick days a year). Someone at the school always has something so staying healthy here seems like it will be an ongoing battle. I have been cooking with a ton of garlic in every meal though so I am hoping that will assist me in the combat.
Last weekend I spent Saturday at Namdeamun market here in Seoul. It is the second biggest outdoor market here but I wouldn't have known that had I not read it in a travel book. The market is enormous and has just about anything one would be interested in buying although knock off clothing and accessories seemed to be the most prevalent of the shops. I have never been anywhere more crowded in my life! Think rush hour commute on the Bloor line except you are in a huge outdoor market and trying to walk around. It was a cool experience but after about an hour I was done with the crowds and made my way back to the subway. At least now I know where to get a knock off Gucci tie at a reasonable price!
I had my first baseball game this Saturday and it was a lot of fun! The league is made up of other foreign teachers from all over but predominately from the States. There is a guy on my team from Scarborough though which was a funny coincidence. He has been teaching here for 4 years in total and just got back from his first trip home in that time. He said it was complete reverse culture shock! We lost the game 7-2 but I am proud to report that I cracked a home run on my first at bat and I was wearing a red Canada t-shirt so I represented us well in front of all the Americans!
It is Sunday night here now and I just got in from Thanksgiving dinner. A fellow teacher at my school has friends on the American military base here and they were kind enough to offer to host the dinner and prepare all of the food! It was an extremely nice gesture and because they are able to go to the commissary on base, they had everything! Mike, who is a sergeant in the marines and spends his days doing surveillance on North Korea deep fried 5 enormous cajun turkey breasts and his wife prepared yams, squash, mash potatoes, stuffing, and 3 pies! It was by far the best meal I have had since I have been here and will likely be a tough one to out do in the for seeable future.
I have a week off for Christmas and had been looking at which tropical island I was going to spend it on (the Philippines, Thailand and Bali were all in the running) but I am happy to report that I have decided that if I am getting on a plane at Christmas, it is going Pearson! See you all on December 24th :)
So long till my next post!
