Nothing to actually write on this past week. I came back to Korea and started back working and living like a normal human. The one thing I do have to report is that life is good. We are happy and settled in nicely to our home. MyeongHee and her son have taken a liking to Cheonsang, which is a much brighter and more open neighborhood than their previous home. We’ll have a housewarming party on the 2nd, so I hope to have some pictures from that to share.

While I was in Texas, I had taken a few video clips of folks. I had hoped to put together a collage of people thoughts – kinds words of wisdom and wishes for MyeongHee and myself. My computer, however, isn’t cooperating. I have some intermittent hardware problems that are causing my Windows system to freeze. My Linux setup does a much better job of handing errors, but I don’t have the video editing suite there. So for now, all those clips will have to wait to see the light of day.

Yesterday, we went to the middle school graduation ceremony for DongHyun, MyeongHee’s son. It was a rather military affair with all the boys (girls go to another school) standing at attention throughout. Fortunately, it was short and sweet. They called a few of the high performers up to the podium to get their few minutes of fame, they sang a school song and then they dismissed them.

He only just went  back to school after winter break in the 2nd week of February and now he’s out again until the 4th of March. It seems strange to me to have a 4 week vacation beginning around Christmas, go back for two weeks and then have another two weeks off, but then, this being Korea, few things amaze me anymore. When he goes back to school in March, he’ll begin high school in 10th grade.

I think the two weeks off will be needed to mentally prep for the grueling schedule high school will impose on him. School will begin at 9am (he’ll take a bus around 8:30am) and  it will finish at 10:30pm. Afterwards, he’ll attend a private academy to further reinforce curriculum lessons until 12:30 or 1am. They he’ll head home and do it all over again, five or six days a week. Saturdays he’ll have off every other week. Sometime during those hours, he’ll have to do his homework and any other things that come up.

If it were me, I’d find a way to get myself adopted out to someone in another country. But since this schedule is all that Korean kids know, they seem resigned to go through it. I hope he enjoys his time off before the work begins.

I had thought about taking pictures or some video of the apartment before I left. I knew that by the time I returned from America that MyeongHee would have moved in with her son and all their belongings. I thought that maybe a before-and -after collage would be interesting. I was wrong. And the old adage about one picture worth a thousand words doesn’t work either. It’s not about how different it looks. It’s about where everything went.

The bedroom was completely changed over,  with not a stick of furniture left. The living room got a makeover, too, with only the sofa standing guard over all the new recruits. But it’s the little things: the cupboards, the refrigerator and the junk drawers. Once everyone’s gone to work and school and I’m home alone, I can’t find anything. I was sort of messy, but at least I knew where everything was. Now, the entire apartment is immaculately clean and ordered. I just have to understand the order.

What a fabulous vacation! I’m back in Korea after a luscious two weeks in Texas. I’ll write more later, but I at least wanted to say I’m home, safe and tired but elated to be home with my bride-to-be.  I have to go to work in 3 hours and I’m still running on CDT.

@}– @}– @}– @}– @}– @}– @}– @}– @}– @}–

Ah ha!! See what happens when your bestest friends waits for you to cat nap so she can write in your blog that YOU left open?

Muwahahahaha

Marty, this visit has been awesomely comfortable with loooaaadddsss of time just hanging out and chatting up to find out where we have grown. Discovery of wonder in my friends great love for his Lady MH (affectionate name I have used for her since day one :)…and okay also because I am afraid I will spell her name wrong. MyeongHee, if I do not spell it correctly then please blame Martin.)

I managed to pull a couple of practical jokes on my friend during his stay. Then a last minute gab party to say ¨until next check in¨ which endeared friends that braved teh weather to show up at my apartment for a relaxed and full of talk party.

Now it is 3:56 AM on 2/16/08

I have to get Marty up in 2 hours to go home to Korea.

I will miss my bestest friend very much. I am SO very happy for him and his new adventure of Life with MH. It promises to be full of laughter, love, cooking, and cuddles.

Perfect for what Marty deserves. MyeongHee deserves the very best also.

I am not prejudiced but see the truth. I hear the love for MH in Marty’s voice. I am so happy he has peace when he is at her side. I could not have found a better one myself, bucko. I look forward to my pictures of MH and Marty. Stories of how they spend the spring exploring with SaTang the Wonder Pup. I have not known Marty to be so happy and peaceful and I am so pleased to have been selfish enough to call DIBS on him staying with me.

I missed you dearly my friend and you made my heart feel better about my loss of Leslie (whether you knew it or not).

Oh… btw, MH…not much changes about Marty, I see. Marty slept on the couch the WHOLE time. He still sleeps in that scary dead pose. I have pictures but cannot figure out how to add them to his blog…..yet 🙂

He ALWAYS was sleeping on the couch when we were roommates. Frustrating when you want to watch TV 🙂

Bless his snoring huge heart

Circe

I’m back in Texas. A long flight and a diversion to Seattle to unload a sick patient was the most exciting thing I could say. I like my flights boring, actually.

and no, it’s not a misspelling in the title.

Pronounced “Possil Cue.” She’s my person of the opposite sex sharing living quarters. I love this woman dearly. She works hard, saves money, isn’t materialistic at all, loves to clean and cook but she can dance and throw down a pitcher of beer with the best of them. She’s amazingly sexy with smooth, soft alabaster skin. And, bonus, she loves me too!  We’ll get married sometime after I come back here to Korea.

I’m conflicted. I really miss my family and friends back home, but this lovely creature will be waiting for me in my house (our house, by then) when I come home. I want the time at home to last, but I’ll be thinking of her moving in here while I’m there. Usually vacations are something that when they’re over you dread going back to the daily grind. Not me. I will look forward to coming home to this woman and living with her. I look forward to going back to Texas, but I will look forward to coming home as well. I’m conflicted, but life is good.

I snapped this picture in Beijing last summer just before we went out for dinner. She drew lots of appreciative stars with her short skirt and tank top. I almost didn’t want to go out once she got dolled up.

And this one in August while we chilled along the mountain stream to escape the city heat. Black is her favorite color and it makes her creamy complexion look great. Hard to believe she’s 42.

The dog, by the way, is happy spending time with Mina, the teacher I got her from. She is hands down the best dog I’ve ever had. I’ll miss her, too.

I go wheels up in about 11 hours. I can’t wait to see everyone in Texas!

I went to the exchange bank today and turned a bushel of won into a handful of greenbacks. I took the won in a small fag-bag that’s big enough to carry a couple of dictionaries.

When I left I could fit the same amount nicely in my pocket. At nearly 1000:1 ratio of won to dollars, even the 10,000won notes consume a lot of space since they represent close to just US$10. One of the $100 bills is worth ten of the won notes in the previous picture. Paper to paper, therefore is a 10:1. If they ever do the 100,000won note, US$5K would carry about the same weight in paper as won.  If you ever need to buy something big here in Korea, you either carry a satchel or create a bank check – personal checks aren’t done here. So far, neither are debit cards.

With her house ordeal finally settled and money in hand, MyeongHee is now able to physically move out. She had to stay until the very end or otherwise she couldn’t claim any of the $40k owed her. So, now she’s moving in to my place. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view such things) I won’t be here to help her move. I’ll be in the US. She’ll have to move herself. She’s contracted with a moving service who will come in and pack it all up and move everything for her. That will make it easy on her, but I’m worried about what will happen to my stuff while I’m gone, though. After living the bachelor life for the past 6+ years, having a woman come in and rearrange it all to her tastes is a little scary. Even more scary is that I won’t be here to negotiate what goes and what stays. I don’t have a lot of decor, but at least I know where everything is. It’ll be like coming home to a new home.

Honey, where’s the xyz? Oh, and where is my abc?