Baaad Blogger (Warning: Stream Of Consciousness Below)

I can't believe I let more than 2 weeks go by without writing. Other than providing optional updates for family and friends, the main purpose of this blog is to keep track of things that I did / do here so I can look back and reflect and possibly re-form into something that might serve an ornamental function in a bookshop someday. Thus, I am very upset with myself to have let such time go by. Having said that, regret is for those who live in the past, so I will just focus on attempting to remember in the present.

In the absense of time, I will briefly summarize through stream of consciousness, so this blog might be uncomprehendable for those outside of my head (although some of my other blogs I'm sure could fall into the same category).

This past week has been pretty rough, one of the worst since I have been here (but again, overall, I have to say my life is still pretty sweet). I lost the companionship of one of my best friends here in Korea (ultimately for the best, but in the here-and-now it stings a bit, a feeling I'm sure most of you know), so I've been a little down and confused. To be fair, if I had just listened to my Coach 4 months ago, I wouldn't be dealing with this now, but - no regrets. I learned a lot, had some good times, and parted in an amiable manner.

I've had to deal with another apartment debacle - sink breakage. That is, if I decide to use my sink, the water comes pouring out all over the floor. Not the worst thing in the world with a drain on my floor, but, while I tried to fix it (and it should have been at least temporarily fixable by an amateur), the pipes are so brittle that it was impossible. So now I am washing my face and brushing my teeth in my kitchen sink. Something I'm sure that will not contribute to my apartment selling more quickly.

I was stiffed, once again, on a prompt salary payment, which I was in dire need of this month due to the fact that I had to somewhat re-fit my wardrobe due to the enlightenment that my principal has been complaining about my clothes in my ignorance. One of my teachers decided to finally tell me last week, and told me that she hadn't told me sooner because they didn't want to be rude because they thought what I was wearing was my style. I can completely understand and appreciate that, but I would rather just know what my principal wants - I am not here to show my sense of fashion - and one of my objectives here is to offend the least amount possible (I, in my ignorance, thought that long skirts would be more appropriate for school than jeans (which teachers wear often) but I was very wrong - and I had been wearing long skirts maybe 33% - 50% of the time to school. Yikes. One of them, to be fair, I can understand the objection, but the other two I thought were quite nice and somewhat elegant, much nicer than jeans. But, whatever they want I will of course oblige, providing it does not encroach upon what I believe to be people's fundamental rights. I got paid finally, but more than 48 hours late, and with everything else going on (the sink, my lack of internet at work for 2 weeks, the absense of a powerpoint program on my computer (which they said they will put in when I have internet...) such that I have to do work at home often which really peeves me, and lots of additional work at school (which I am fine with but I would hope with all of the extra work they would recognize that I need proper working conditions)), I was very, very upset. But, I'm over it. Occasionally I am still upset about the fact that I am still living in this ****hole, but, as I don't spend much time here, and I don't have much time to spend putting my own energy into finding other ways to move since their tactic is proving to be incredibly slow and nearly futile, I can't complain too much. Well I can, but I'm not too justified in doing so. Arg.

I have a new class starting next week, for 5th and 6th graders who wish to take an extra English class, so that should be fun and interesting. I have a lot planned, and I will be teaching it mostly by myself, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out.

I ran 32km two Sundays ago (about 20mi)...and was sore for about 4 days after. It was awesome though. And last week I did my last long bike, 5 hours - which was fun. Tomorrow I think my Coach wants me to run 40km...haha. Hahaha. Yea, that should be very interesting. :)

Soon I will be tapering! Ironman is in 21 days. So excited! Almost set to go - I just need to go to the travel agency to get my Visa, and everything will be set. Yay! Only 13 more days of school until I leave... :) Although I will still have lots of school stress until that last day of school, so...I'm just hoping it comes quickly.

Korean has kind of been put on hold, but I'm working at it little by little (I don't have any free time at work to do Korean now so that's a bummer) and hopefully after Ironman, despite my next, more intense goal, I will still have time to study. But once I start up full-on training for the Olympics, I will have a very strict schedule, and it will be easier to put Korean in there for 30-50 minutes a day when I am not sitting around wasting time doing nothing (assuming I abide assiduously by my schedule).

Time to watch a bit of a movie before biking - I am going to enjoy my last few weeks of freedom to watch movies as often as I can find the time, because once Olympic training comes around, I will only be watching movies if I have scheduled free time, which will not be often, and might be filled doing other things. Tonight after swimming, I am going to a wedding celebration with my Coach - I'm really excited - I'm not sure what to expect, especially since he said I can wear whatever I want, so I'm thinking its not at all like celebrations we have in the States. I'll be sure to write about that soon!