south korea follow up

ive been back in thailand for a few days now and have had time to think about my trip. first, i was really surprise by the feeling i got when i arrived in the airport and heard thai again. i dont understand it any better than i do korean, but something about hearing that familiar foreign language was comforting. also, i was literally hit in the face with the heat when i stepped off the plane. i wasnt happy with the snow and cold in korea, but this heat is not much better. is there anywhere in asia where i can find a happy medium???

sightseeing on my own, freezing my booty off.

the flowers hopes were crushed by mother nature.

anyway, it may be because it was something much more like home than my life here, or because im heading back to work and no longer on my time off, but its funny how much i miss korea when i was only there for such a short time. the people, the food, the semi-routine i had gotten into...all of it. my friends who are still here have been asking me about my trip and i cant stop gushing about everything i did and all that i didnt get to do that i want to go back for. two of those friends are actually heading to teach in korea in the next few months, so obviously they are pleased with my report.

i stick with my statement that if i had gone to korea before resigning my contract i would be going there instead, but im accepting the reality that i am staying here. i do love thailand, and have things to look

forward too, and at the end of the day, i still have steph here.

a few things i learned while in korea:

-gamsa hamneeda means thank you. its the one korean word i mastered.

-korean ages are very strange. they are born and are automatically 1 and then on january 1 everyone turns a year older. as erik put it to me, a baby could be born on december 31 and on january 1, even though its only 2 days old, would be considered 2 years.

-seoul is much more fashionable than bangkok. by far.

-they celebrate valentines day, but then a month later, on march 14, is something called white day. apparently, on valentines day guys give girls gifts and on white day girls give gifts to the guys.

-couples like to wear matching outfits on the regular. down to their underwear.

-heated floors. best invention ever, in my opinion, considering how affected i was by the cold. they have a special name for it and stuff, but all you need to know is that its heated from underneath. erik insisted on giving me the bed most nights but one night i did take the floor and it got so hot i was sweating without a blanket!

-thai sounds like whining and korean sounds like you are constantly being reprimanded.

-korean is much easier to learn to both read/write and speak than thai...i taught myself in the span of one morning. nevermind that i couldnt tell you what i was saying, but i still could make out the sounds.