It's been far too long since I posted

Well, we can about see when things fell off the rails for me, can't we?
Well, I'm back on the train, though what train it is I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I'm just a passenger in this life. I wish I knew who was driving so I could steal the wheel.

I haven't been drawing too much either. Rather, I have just obsessed over one drawing in particular.

And, I stopped charting food about three weeks ago. Not a surprise that I haven't lost any weight in that time. However; I want to note that I do believe my stomach is flatter, and certainly I know my hamstrings are stronger because I can do ten of those brutal hamstring flexes without having to stop for a breather.

I've started making very simple portraits of the other non-Koreans here. Today I made one one of myself. It was intimidating. Mostly because now everyone will see how I see myself, and how I want to portray myself. Thus starts a round of drawing the women here, something I'm much more nervous about than I was or am about drawing any of the men. Men are a lot less sensitive about their faces. And, I worry that the women won't take kindly to the simple-cartoon style I've been doing the portraits in. I hope that in drawing myself I will set them at ease. I also know they're going to be a lot less thrilled than any of the guys, who will mostly be happy that someone has been thinking of them enough to draw them (or at least that's what I assume).

This is why I like drawing strangers, or flowers, or furniture, or trees. Trees do not frown and say "that looks nothing like me."

Jobs. I need to have a job in approximately 4 months. I have put off this job stuff for too long because of fear, and I look back into the past and see myself doing the same thing over and over again. I see this is one character flaw that clearly isn't going to fix itself, or lend itself to being fixed. Why am I so afraid?

I'm back in South Korea

Well, I was planning to go to Seoul today. One really must visit Seoul as soon as possible once you arrive in Korea. It will give you the neccessary contrast. However, I didn't finish doing my weekly cleaning until almost 3. Largely because I played on the internet for a couple of hours. So, I'll go tomorrow.
I thought about going to Gumi but since I've never been there before I'd rather go knowing I'm meeting someone so that was out as well.
Instead I went to the nearest bike shop and bought a used bike for 60,000 won (roughly 55 dollars). The tires are new and the chain is good. The breaks also have good tread and it's clean. The back break is good though the front break is pretty mushy. I don't know whether I should tighten the break myself or take it back to the shop (which is also a bike repair shop) to have the break tightened. It has a basket and a place on the back for bungee cording boxes. It also has a little horn and it came with a lock. The handlebars were loose at first but I showed the shop owner and he tightened them.
I then rode to Emart where I bought a small plastic drawer for my socks, a pillow, a place mat, and some wall hooks. I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow. I haven't ridden a bike in probably two and a half years. Haha, I was rather embarrassingly wobbly for the first ten minutes or so.
I'll go to Seoul tomorrow morning. But, I can't spend as much because I chose to buy the bike today. I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

Now, for all of you who know me, and for those who don't. The tooth feels fine. I'm still amazed that I even had to have an emergency root canal. I spoke with some other EPIK teachers yesterday who also go to the same dentist and said he's very good and his prices are quite reasonable. I think reasonable is an understatement, they're fantastic.

Ah, yes, would you like to see where I'm living?
Well, it's Sanju. That would be almost-the-middle-of-nowhere-south-Korea, as opposed to Seoul which is everything-is-here-south-Korea.

My apartment complex. Well, not just mine. It is also home to another elementary school teacher, and three other EPIK teachers. There are a handful of families with children and many singles. Probably because of the size of the apartments. I don't think I'd be able to share this space with even a spouse. In defense of the families here, there are also two room apartments here. And, yes, you read that right, not two bedroom, two room. ^_^ Welcome to Asia.

This is the view of the town to the left of the apartments.

This is the view three or four blocks past the previous image.




I'll show my actual apartment in another post.

There was a prayer meeting tonight but I didn't know where or when so that was kind of out. There's also a party tonight but I was out last night and I try to make it a habit to never drink more than once in a week. Also, I'm waking up pretty early. At least with the bike I can get to the bus station in less than half an hour.