Spring in Korea

Well it's been a loooong time since I last updated this blog, and a lot of things have happened!

March
My birthday was lovely. I spent it with a good group of friends, had a lovely dinner and enjoyed a late night of norebang (karaoke). Unfortunately I had been sick with bronchitis and though I was on the mend, the weekend made me worse and I ended up with laryngitis and brochitis. I missed a day of classes the following week because I had no voice to teach with! But even with no voice, I had a wonderful time at the Busan Kite Festival the next day where I saw some amazing kites and a really cool turtle. It was fun taking shots with my new camera, and I loved seeing Dadepo Beach, which is closer to my house than the more famous beaches and which is much more serene.

April
April started with the Cherry Blossom Festival. Some friends and I traveled by bus to Jinhae, a coastal city about an hour outside Busan, where they have, I was told, the most famous Cherry Blossom Festival in Korea. The trip was really lovely. One of my favorite parts of the day was when we stumbled upon the largest and heaviest hula-hoops I'd ever seen, and I managed to swing the biggest ones around my hips! It was a blast, it was funny, and it was kind of bizarre : ) The only downside to the entire weekend was that I discovered only after the trip that my new camera had been on a VGA setting, which meant the pictures all turned out pretty grainy and aren't photo quality : ( But, I suppose some memories aren't meant to be captured beautifully on film - though they remain unmarred in my mind.

Later in April, one of my best friends from college came to stay with me for 10 days, which was really exciting. That same weekend I also performed in the Vagina Monologues, which was a rewarding experience. I had learned earlier in the year about a shelter for migrant women who were victims of sex trafficking near Camp Humphreys, the largest US military base in Korea. We decided to raise money through donations for the shelter. That night we raised over 1.6 million won, which is approximately $1,500. $170 was given to the official V-Day cause, for women in the Democratic Repbulic of Congo, but the rest stayed here in Korea to assist victims of sex trafficking. I'm glad that we were able to educate people about a problem that matters a lot to me, and raise money that can really help the shelter in supporting these women. The shelter can't get government funding since they are helping migrant women and under Korean law that makes them ineligible for federal aid. This is me counting the money after the show and feeling super excited because there was so much to count!

May
So now May is almost over and it's been a good month overall. I got great news last week: I was accepted for graduate school this fall at Charles University in Prague to earn my Masters in Geopolitical Studies. I'm still trying to decide whether to stay in Korea another year or head to the Czech Republic for a new phase of my life. Right now I'm leaning towards grad school because I am really passionate about what I want to study there, and I would love to see a new part of the world and open up more possibilities for the future. Still, I am really happy in Korea and I can pretty easily imagine a second year here. I'll have to decide in a few weeks, so I'll make my official decision public when I need to.

Anyway, in addition to finding out about grad school, it's been a busy month. The weather has gotten nicer - though this weekend we had what I can only assume is a preview of what typhoon weather must be like. I got sunburned pretty badly a week ago and am finally becoming tan as opposed to lobster-red.

I took a trip to Gyeong-ju last weekend, considered the cultural capital of Korea, an it was really nice. My friend from training last fall came down from Seoul and another friend joined us on the trip. Since Buddha's birthday was this weekend, there were paper lanterns all over Korea this month, especially at the temples, which was stunning to see. I really loved the stupas - the piles of wishing stones. I even made my own, and it's now the background picture on my computer. It really has brought me some peace of mind as I try to make this decision about grad school.
In addition, we saw the traditional burial mounds, which are gigantic. Growing up in Wisconsin, I had seen a fair share of Native American burial mounds, but those are generally quite small. Here, the mounds are like perfectly shaped hills, and some even have trees growing on them! The whole trip was fantastic and I look forward to visiting again.

So I guess that brings me up to date! This is my last week of classes for the spring term, and I'm looking forward to starting new classes next week. I'm even more excited that in just 3 short weeks I'll be in the USA for my week-long vacation!