Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Status in the South

Considering its been quite the time since I last updated my blog, or really anything pertaining to my life in Korea, I thought I’d sit down in the warm spring air and crank out a couple little tidbits.

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I am currently halfway through my second year in Korea.  Everything is going by very smoothly and life itself is almost stress free.  I make a nice living wage in Korean standards, and I have all the important aspects of a life I’d like to lead.  I am able to travel every weekend to different and exotic places.  The mountains that backdrop my town are fun to hike and gorgeous.  The river in the middle of the city is a great reading locale with few civilians at its bank.  The beaches are even an hour away and great for seeing the little puppy run around.  There is really nothing to complain about, which in turn, is possibly why I haven’t updated my blog in a long time.  I really enjoy writing when I can be bitter or dismissive, but at the moment that’s not the case.

faye,tongyeong,jirisan,school2011 461Lately my girlfriend has been taking a break in her hometown in England.  This has left me to do things a bit more freely, which in turn, has resulted in hiking several of the mountains in Korea.  If you need to know one thing about me, it’s that I really enjoy nature and being outside.  The warm sun feeling is like a pregnant girl’s chocolate bar.  It pretty much makes the whole week.  The mountains are a fun way to keep my attention at bay and my body outside.  They can be grueling at best, but the views from the top and the occasional hiking company is greatly appreciated.  As of three weeks ago, my partner at hand was a South African girl that had a good sense of humor.  She is gone now and I have yet to find another hiking buddy.  I am currently taking applications!

 

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Besides from hiking, I have recently gotten into photography, as highlighted by my previous post.  I was always interested in photography, and I even took a few courses in college.  Lately though, it has gotten to the point that I really want to capture the world.  I am mainly interested in portrait photography.  While all my photos don’t actually contain people, its mainly due to being timid.  I want to take pictures of people, but it’s hard to approach someone and start snapping a couple.  There’s an initial approach that I need to prepare myself for.  Current ideas to hopefully alleviate my timidness are creating an actual decent flickr/picasa website.  This way I can create a few business cards to give to my subjects.  Now I am not planning on becoming anything near a professional, I feel that giving the subject an option to see their picture later might help with the process.  Tell me what you think!

 

As far as my job is concerned, I am planning on finishing my contract in October.  From there I plan to go home for possibly a month and renew my batteries and get together with my good friends.  Genuine friends are hard to come by here.  I feel that it is possibly my closed minded attitude, but I really don’t appreciate what many people have to offer.  I have met several people. but to really hit it off with someone is hard sometimes.  Many of the people that I have surrounded myself with have left recently (finished their contracts) leaving me to rethink my exact Korean-life plan.  While I am still happy, I have become a bit jaded with friendships here, which in turn has led my mind to resolve itself to just one more year in Korea.  That’s it.  Now that’s easy for me to say, as when I first came here I was already at that mindset, but I believe that shall be the case.  Now I don’t intend to quite return home, but I am currently seeking other options these days.

Anyways, I hope to post more these days!  I  have lots to say, but I just hate proofreading my own work and typing it out if I can’t include a little bit of sass into it.