Chusok 07

It is now the Chusok holiday. I have off till Thursday, thus a little time to write. I was up in the center of the country for about a day and a half in the pictures that you see here. Some good and bad things happened on that trip. Bad- 1. My ongoing hip pain was exacerbated to the point of not being able to sleep on my side, or shift my left leg to the right or left. 2. The weight from my new backpack was bruising my hips. Good- 1. I got to see a lot of those cool spiders. 2. I got to see a lake. 3. * a possible reallignment of my hips as the pain has ceased (my hypothesis being that the weight on them from the pack added the pressure needed to shift back into place) We shall see if this conjecture holds true or perhaps the pain is just taking a short vacation. But right now I am home, hoping to make it through the day before I test my mobility with a bit of soccer.

One thing which came to attention again this week was the need for Korea to think up better names for their cities. In America it's pretty easy to get around in the sense that if you ask for a ticket to Chicago it's likely you can get there without too much confusion. But in the past week I have traveled through Chunju, Chongju, and Chungju. The latter two happen to be an hour apart so at least your not far off with a mispronunciation. But really who does this? It's like putting a Hauston in Texas. I couldn't have survived without my excellent Korean phonetic skills. I appreciate Korean community in many aspects, but this lack of indivualism when it comes to name is a bit of a nuisance.

I have been in a bit of a rut with the lack of physical activity but hope that the recent progress will result in a return to normalcy that will allow me to get out of the house a bit more now that I have the time. I hope you all like spiders.

Well I am back in Korea after a wonderful time home with the family and a few friends. It was a great time of relaxation and time with my family. It was a bit of an adjustment coming back to the Korean heat, but it just broke two days ago and has been rainy with highs in the 70's: sweatshirt weather. I can't describe it, its sooo nice. Yesterday Joy and I were able to go to one of my old (her current) student's piano/violin recitals. It happened to be the same music school for several of my students. So I was able to witness Korean musical training. It is safe to say I was at a near to world class performance. It is unbelievable to see how quickly these kids learn. The student I went to see was an 8 year old girl and she was performing the first movement of Vivaldi's Concerto in a-minor on the violin...not a short piece by all reasonable judgments. This after a year and a half of lessons. After the recital we went out to dinner with her family. Sarah was too shy much to me, but I did get to talk to her 3 yr old brother as he ran through the restaurant.

Tomorrow will be the first day of my new schedule. We are doing a switch of afternoon classes for the last half of the year, and this means that I will not be working so late. A welcome shift. We also have a new teachers room on the 6th floor which is very nice. We have a little courtyard outside, which is the roof. Hopefully the transition to new classes will go smoothly. But I cannot express the relief shorter hours will be. Thats the latest news from Korea. I am also on the injured reserve. I went to the doctor to check out some hip pain I've been having for the past few months. I was able to get an x-ray for $40. It seems that I have an area of higher bone density caused by stress from overuse/poor posture, so I will be out for this soccer season and any possible racing opportunities. Not the best news, but at least I know what I need to do now.