Enjoying Life, Working Hard, Taking Trips, and Somehow Keeping It ALL Together...

... most of the time, at least. 

I've been busy lately. Not the kind of busy where someone asks how you spend your time and you stare back blankly and answer, "Oh, you know, the usual."

No, my kind of busy has been well documented in my scheduler and would surprise surely even the busiest of busies. 

In addition to my regular teaching job, I've also got my weekly radio show and am now a regular writer with Gwangju News, a local magazine in my city here in Korea. I write at least one article for the magazine every month (distributed monthly), and I'm also a copyeditor there. Add into this mix graduate school and all the accompanying readings, assignments and discussions, and I'm surprised I've still got a growing social life. 

However busy I may be, I am enjoying everything to the fullest. I have no regrets in taking all of these things on because, though I may sometimes be tired and energy drinks have lost all effect on me, I actually want to be doing everything I'm doing. I haven't woken up once in the past couple of months and thought to myself, "I don't want to go to do __ today." Having worked at jobs I've disliked in the past, it makes me so happy to be able to say I actually enjoy everything I currently do. 

I consider myself very lucky because, even if I had similar opportunities back home, they would be on a far less grand scale. To be able to be on air on the radio here, discussing things and using my educational background, and to have my articles be on the cover of magazines is simply wonderful, and hopefully these things further propel me into my next career endeavor whenever and wherever that may be. 

I haven't been completely busy these past few months, though. In early August, I rented a car with a good friend and we took a 5-day road trip down the east coast of Korea. To get there, though, we drove northeast through the country and saw some lovely scenery dotted with mountains and even more mountain tunnels. 

We started at the very tip top, at the eastern border of the DMZ, which I was worried I wouldn't be able to tour because I had mistakenly left my passport at home. (The armed military guard took one look at the two foreign ladies in the car, laughed at his lack of ability to speak English, and waved us through.) The eastern DMZ is much different from what I've heard about the part of the DMZ that offers tours near Seoul. That one is very strict and only allows tour buses in, while this one was much more relaxed. The eastern side is a 'guided' tour (by which I mean that a guide lets you past the initial gate) and starts at the northern most part of Gangwan-do province where you don't need an escort, and you must be in a car (no bicycle or walking allowed) in order to enter. You and the rest of the parking lot is then allowed to proceed past a guard booth and into a little border town, and then finally into the DMZ Observatory parking lot. It is extremely close to the border and you can actually see the fence dividing the two Koreas from the side of the observatory that overlooks the North. I still need to do the tour near Seoul, but I believe this particular excursion provided a much more relaxed feel and experience. As an interesting side note, all of the beaches in the top half of Gangwan-do are lined with barbed-wire fences, not just the ones closest to the DMZ. However, there are gates in the beaches so that they can be used during the day during the peak months of July and August. 

From there, we traveled south to see Naksan Temple, which was quite possibly the loveliest temple I've ever seen (and I've seen a bunch this summer, and Naksan Beach, and then it was down to Sokcho to see that famous beach, Gyeongju to see the famous Budda carved into the side of the rock-face, Pohang to see the famous Hand of Harmony that stands in the sea, and finally to Busan where we spent 2 days on the beach drinking Bernini-ritas in the middle of a light typhoon. The trip was filled with excellent driving conditions (yay for me!) and lots of sketchy hotels that we somehow survived, the realization that I need a new glasses prescription asap, one Subway stop that was everything we thought it would be (and probably the best food of the entire trip), lots of great conversation and music, and we had a great time. 

The second week of September was Chuseok vacation and I went to my favorite beach in Wando - twice! Aside from the beautiful east-coast beaches that take forever to get to, I hold that Myeongsassimni (sp?) Beach, located on the tiny island linked by bridge to Wando, is the best beach in Korea. I've gone there a handful of other times this summer, too, and it's one of my favorite places in Korea.

I've also spent numerous afternoons at my favorite place in Gwangju, the rooftop of a Starbucks overlooking Mudeung Mountain. Arranged with comfortable outdoor sofas, tables and patio umbrellas, it's quickly become one of my favorite places to tan, talk and - I need another 't' for alliteration purposes but, sadly, I haven't got one at the moment.

Unfortunately, I've been so busy lately that I have a folder of photos accumulating on my computer that need to be uploaded when I get the time. Just to write this post, I've taken a break from this week's [grad school] required readings of books and articles. I'm halfway done and have read about 100 pages of a book this evening along with 4 or 5 articles, and I still have about 5 articles left to read. However, they may need to wait until tomorrow as I've learned it's better to sleep when needed than keep working and be stressed out for an entire day for the sole reason of not enough sleep. 

Goodnight to all, and to those of you at home, see you in 3 months! 

xoxo

Kate