because I'M SICK!!! :( And it sucks. My friends are out watching the new James Bond movie, but I literally can't stop coughing for five minutes even. I'm on day 4 of a common cold...past the sore throat and into the non stop coughing...and should have a lovely runny nose in time for the weekend. It suuuucccckkkkksssss. I'm also the biggest suck in the world when I'm sick. I usually just mope around until one of my roomates takes pity on me and makes me tea or food or buys me some soup. Since I'm roomateless I'm just sitting curled up in a blanket on my bed warming myself with my laptop's warmth. The schools I work at are both quite cold, and this seems to be pretty standard from what I hear from the other foreign teachers here. Not only does the heat not seem to be turned on, but they like to keep the windows open. Most of the teachers and kids wear their coats in class. Today I was actually thinking about how I need some fingerless gloves for working at my computer...my hands were soooo coooold...my nose too :(.
Ok, enough whining. Just understand that I am really cold ALL the time, and I'm also sick. What else is new? I made a trip to Costco and found 1 Litre of maple syrup from Canada AND pumpkin pie! It was a good trip...and now I know that they have pie all the time, so I can get some anytime I need it. And as you may know I'm not super picky about pie. Halloween weekend was last weekend so we went to Busan to check out the celebrations there. It also coincided with a huge International Fireworks Festival. Unfortunately it rained all day on Saturday so the postponed the fireworks until Sunday. Most people left before it started, but we decided to stick around. We ended up catching the very last train back to Daejeon (home) that night by about 10 minutes, which was a little stressful, but totally worth it. The fireworks lasted for an hour and was one of the most incredible, breathtaking things I have ever seen. I couldn't have watched it for 10 hours and not gotten bored or eaten or used the washroom I think.
I also managed to find a pair of pants that fit. Most Korean stores only carry up to a 30...which is a US 8 or 10? 30 is JUST too small, but too small none the less. I found ONE place where she had bigger sizes and it was a total victory. I have now purchased pants in TWO Asian countries where I though it would be impossible. In your face ASIA! I did have to endure a bit of a body fat pinch in my waist/hips area from the lady I bought them from, but things like this no longer surprise or alarm me. Old ladies do not care about whether I am comfortable with them touching me, they are going to do it anyway. I would say it's like I'm invisible to them, but some of the impacts are definitely premeditated...like the elbow to waist move. The subway on a Saturday is mostly grandmas in hiking gear throwing elbows hahaha! Not joking! I do my best to stay out of the way of any old ladies I see in case they start yelling at me or elbowing me.
I still haven't got my winter vacation plans nailed down, although I DO know when at least 2 weeks of my winter camps are. First 2 weeks of January I am here for sure, and then I MAY get stuck with another week of this other Ministry mandated camp. I'll let you know when I know where I'm going. It's almost definitely somewhere warm...a type of Thailand-ish place perhaps. OK, I should try to do something productive like get a lesson ready for tomorrow or learn Korean or something. Although I'll probably just nap because I'm SICK AND PATHETIC!
