for a while

big stories, big stories.

the big news: justin and i are coming home early. we told our boss last monday that it was time for us to go home. we were motivated to do this because we thought i was pregnant. i've since found out that i'm not, but we will still be coming home.

since making this decision, i have come to appreciate korea more, somehow. maybe because im going to leave it sooner than i thought, but i think it's because im no longer trying to force myself to live here. it was pretty lonely trying to "live" in a place where you can't make more than rudimentary connections with others. the ex-pat community here is nice, and we have already made some friends that we will certainly miss. but i need a more contextual, nuanced life. i think the most significant thing that has occurred on this trip is that i have learned this about myself.

it was a nice, long weekend. it was a korean holiday, chuseok, so we had some days off work, and i think we spent them well. we spent one day in justin's old stomping grounds, bundang. it's a pretty fancy pants place, lots of starbucks and $90 discount shoe stands. i was impressed that korea's inner-city rivers are still clean enough to have cranes in them.

on friday we met up with a couple who we are almost POSITIVE are our anti-matter opposites. we were afraid to touch, lest we disappear forever. kate and sam, our new friends. they spent their honeymoon hitching peru, whereas we were in thailand. anyway, the four of us went hiking all over namhansamseong, the local sacred buddhist mountain, and it was very nice.

saturday we spent indoors, as it was the big holiday and everything, absolutely everything, was closed.

sunday we got out of town, and went to some buddhist temples up in the mountains. an old monk was singing an old song, and a lady shared some of her chuseok goodies with us. these consisted of a pine-flavored glutinous rice snack with beans in it, a kind of sweet rice drink (hopefully not fermented?), and a chestnut. My chestnut had a little maggot in it, but i managed to not flip out.

and then today we went to the ocean. the little ocean between korea and china. the tide was out, and there were lots of people out there gathering mussels and clams and who knows what. justin and i thought about getting some sea food, but we would have just ended up with a big plate of slimy something and not known what to do with it. so we enjoyed some cherry cokes on the wooden beach steps and then hopped on the bus back home.

so here i be, home again home again. another two months in korea, and a big ol' cliff of the unknown ahead.