All You Need is Love

I've done so much in the last few weeks, I thought I'd document it all so I don't forget when I look back on this in a few years.

Last weekend, Kenneth and I went on a tour of a farm to do apple picking, to Pocheon Art Valley, and Herb Island. Pocheon Art Valley is literally a big quarry that wasn't being used so a few years ago they put a small science center and bunch of different statues there to attract visitors. There was a restaurant, a small convenience store and a cable car that would take you up if you didn't want to walk. It was pretty neat. At the top we saw the deep quarry which they made into a beautiful lake with man-made waterfalls.

We were told they put the silver cellophane down to reflect 

sun so the apples on the bottom get equal sunlight.

chestnut

Lake in the quarry

Beaute 

Some of the statues in the Art Park

My fav - a statue of a dog peeing

Herb Island is just a big area (pretty sure it's not an island) that grows herbs and in each building does something different with those herbs (bakery, spa, greenhouse, etc.) plus other random stuff that makes no sense like a Santa Land that was all purple and a European village with some shops and a bunch of famous statues. We had a few hours to explore there and we made the most of it.

I went into the Herb Experience where I was given a very aggressive 10 minute neck/back massage and a foot soak. It all smelled lovely and I left in pain!

Overlooking Herb Island

Nothing to do with herbs.

Purple Santa

Santa Land - I think everything was purple to show off the 

lavender growing in the field.

Just a couple of dudes

Rosemary

Size matters

The same weekend, a group of friends went to Yeoido Park which is a lovely park with a water area for kids to play in. We were pleasantly surprised when at 6:30 a food truck festival started up. Between the four of us we had pizza, kebabs, and Laotian food. There was so much to choose from but the lines were so long! Next time we'll have to stand in line right at 6:30!

Fish statue on the way to the park. Outside a restaurant called 

Pig in the Garden which I wanted to eat at but I just ate! It had delicious looking salads.

Yeoido Park along the Han River 

A food truck making brick oven pizzas? yes please!

This past weekend the group of us went to Bosan-do which is a few subway stops from Uiejongbu because it was having the 1st Annual Beatles Festival. Who knew? Apparently Kenneth who works in that town. It was really fun! A bunch of different acts performing and dancing to Beatles music (and some other oldies.) I took mostly videos which I can't figure out how to post on here. One day I'll figure that out. The headliners were a group called Counterfeit Beatles and they were really good. Kenneth talked to them after their set and he is going to try to bring them to do some shows in Nigeria. He's organizing it with his brother who lives there. (Kenneth is always doing deals and things like this to earn extra money on the side.)

I ordered a coke and it came in a Beatles's era bottle?

Cool bridge in town

I was literally the only person dancing at some points.

I just felt the music and couldn't stop!

It's been a fun few weeks. In 3 days I leave for Beijing for a week. Stay tuned!

Love,

Alli

The Cat(ch) Came Back

I'd just like to start off by telling you that I'm extremely thrilled with myself for thinking of that title.

Many of you know when Kenneth and I first met he left for Nigeria about a week an a half later. So much happened in that week and a half that we knew right away this would be a forever thing. Except, I'm so pessimistic that I thought he wouldn't come back. In fact, I told him many times that I thought he wouldn't come back. There was so much that could have happened when he went back home. Swirling in my head were these possibilities:

• He meets someone else back home.
• His family introduces him to someone else back home and he settles.
• He doesn't want to come back to Korea because he misses his family/friends/job/homeland
• He gets injured there and no one knows about me so doesn't contact me and all communication is lost

He always laughed and said to me, "Of course I will come back." But I always questioned it. I didn't really believe it.

Before he left he told me he would call me every day and we had text and email, but I just had it in the back of my mind that I might not hear from him. So, I didn't fully commit to the idea of "us" to protect myself.

And then low and behold he did what he said he would do.

COMMITMENT. TRUST. This is what it looks like. 

He called he every day, often more than once. Even if I missed his call because it was at 2am, he still called. When he got home he told me his parents (who stayed with most of the time) don't have a good wifi signal so he would often drive into town to call me. Just think about this. Multiple times a day he would drive in just to call me for 5 mins AND WE JUST MET. He gave me his word and he kept it. And it's not like he was just sitting around when he went there. He was clearing things up with his job, sorting it all out. He was buying land as an investment, catching up with family and friends, meeting cousins he'd never met before. He bought land and excitedly called amongst a patch of tall grass with a man standing beside the beginnings of a pillar where the house will be built. "This is for us!"

What?

But he knew. He knew and I knew hoped and he COMMITTED TO IT WHOLE-HEARTEDLY WITHOUT LOOKING BACK.

I just can't get over that.

I have major abandonment and trust issues. I told him that right away. And he has met the challenge with his consistency. I can't tell you how fulfilling this is to me.

The cat(ch) came back. He just couldn't stay away!

Love,

Alli

Pics from this past Sunday at Seoul Forest. 

Thank you

What I know for sure is that if you are feeling down there are two things that can help you get out of it: gratitude and humour. I'm setting out to do both in this blog post.

Thank you so much for your support both in the short term (as I reached out feeling unhappy and stuck) and in the long term just being away from home: being my champion, sending me mail, sending me social media messages, doing video chats, and being my friend both in Korea and Canada. The smallest gestures can mean so much - I will try to remember that when I return to Canada. I usually like to do something big and showy, but now I know the small things can equal the big. One time a teacher here gave me a chunk of cheddar cheese from a giant log that was gifted to her. Do you know what the gift of cheese means in Korea? It's so expensive here! I promise if I have a cheese windfall, I will give you a chunk.

I'm not going to leave Korea now, as some of you suggested to me privately. It was nice to feel that support, knowing that if I couldn't handle it - I would be okay. If it was THAT bad, I would. I have done it before and I would do it again - to leave a job that makes me unhappy. Life is too short to do something that doesn't bring you joy. But, there's just enough that is tipping me the other way to stay:

1) I am able to save some money here and would have to pay the school back my recruitment fee and the reimbursement for my flight here, so it wouldn't be worth it financially.

Although, money isn't everything - sticking it out for the next 5 months doesn't cause me enough pain to give that up.

2) I have 2 planned holidays coming up plus I really hope to travel when my contract is over. I would lose those opportunities if I went home.

3) We just applied for Kenneth's Permanent Residency using a Korean address and just the hassle in re-routing that makes my eye twitch.

There's so many other ones, but those are the big ones.

Now to give you some funnies:

It's a first for me to have a man cook for me for two reasons: The men I've dated aren't great cooks and I have some food anxiety that makes people too nervous to cook for me. Mostly I'm just scared of not liking it and then offending them for not eating it. But, Kenneth has cooked for me a few times and had great results. One time he made me spaghetti and the sauce was so delicious and flavourful.

Me: What tomato sauce is this? It's so delicious! Canned? Jarred?
K: Round
Me: What?
K: Real tomatoes . . . round!

Just typing this made me laugh so hard. He one upped me and made his own tomato sauce. Okay, Martha Stewart!

I'm enjoying my students learning more words and piecing together things once they realize they are connected. Last week Derek said to me:

House . . . . fish . . . . three! (which he's told me many times)
House . . . fish . . . two .  . .
One. . . dead

After he said "two" I wasn't sure whether he got two more or one died, but didn't want to pry. Luckily he was okay to talk about it. A few days later he said, "House . . .  fish . . . . new small."

Later that day he drew a "fish house" on the back of a worksheet which was giant blue square!

I hope this brightened your day. It did for me as I wrote it!

Lots of love,

Alli