My apologies to my loyal readers, though I doubt there are any of you left. I have a few excuses for the lack of posts here, but I bet you'd rather I just get on with things...so I will.
A lot has happened since my last post. The big three that come to mind are: 1) A trip to Thailand, 2) A running injury, and 3) A move.
1) Ami and I went to Thailand over the holiday break. We met my parents there, who, by the way, were staying in Thailand for a full six weeks, and had a great time. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things, meaning that I doubt we'll ever meet my parents in Thailand again. We will meet them in other places and I certainly plan on going to Thailand again, but I rather doubt both will happen together.
Anyway, we stayed on Kho Samet for five nights, in Bangkok for two, in Sukhothai for one, and then up in Chiang Mai for three--this excludes the two nights near the airport upon arrival and departure. It was all great and just don't think it's possible to tire of Thailand--though visiting a country and living in one are two entirely different things. Just as things were on Koh Chang last year, the touring was fun, the food was great, the warm weather was very welcome, and the people were awesome.
In Koh Samet it was lot of relaxation with conversation, card games, and Chang beer. In Bangkok we did some shopping and looking around. In Sukhothai we enjoyed a night of old rock and roll and Belgian beers. And in Chiang Mai we walked around, got massages, and met a guy (and his wife and young son) from England that I used to work with here in Korea in addition to meeting a Thai student I had when I taught in California.
Over the two weeks, we laughed, we talked, we ate great food, we drank good beer, we explored, we met some of the locals, we rode (for too long) through the Thai landscape, and we got to know Thailand. It now seems a Frame family tradition to spend Christmas in a different place every year. Over the past few, we've been to San Antonio, Orlando, Key West, Mexico, Panama, and now Thailand (though we were missing my brother's family from this last one, much to our disappointment). Next year? Who knows.
2) As for the running injury....I have no idea what happened. Injuries for me have always been of the kind that creep up on you like an elephant in the tall grass. You know it's coming and you can't stop it. It arrives. You give it some tlc. And eventually it wanders off. This one was different however.
I was doing a simple 4-mile loop on a Monday morning. I hadn't run in the two weeks I was in Thailand, but in the previous week (my first back) I'd done four runs of 3 and 4 miles. So I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. I wasn't running fast. I wasn't going long. I wasn't just starting either as I was 3.5 miles into the run when suddenly my right calf seized up on me. I've never been shot, but I imagine the suddenness with which this hit is quite comparable.
I stopped and thinking it was just a cramp, a very aggressive and evil cramp but a cramp nonetheless, I bent down and tried to massage the thing out. It hurt. It really hurt. And it wasn't going away. So I tried that great piece of advice that all child athletes across all sports have heard from their adult coaches, I tried walking it off. I walked about a block stopping a couple times to massage the thing and then I tried to take a running step and was promptly shot again. "Well this ain't good" I thought as I pulled up. I then decided just to walk and see how it would go.
I ended up sporting a major limp for the rest of the day and gradually beginning to feel better. By the second day off, I was feeling pretty good when I realized that I'd forgotten the attendance sheet as one of my classes was about to being. So I told the students I'd be right back, walked out of the classroom, and then started to run down the hall. I got about one step in when the sniper struck again. I won't tell you what I said, but I will tell you that if any students were still lingering in the hallway, they heard a very natural English.
Over the next few weeks, I mostly rested it getting out to test it maybe three or four times. Mostly it felt ok, but one time I felt the pain coming back and stopped. I was merely trotting around the block so that if the sniper struck once more, I'd be within about 200 meters of my apartment.
As the end of the school session and the move to a new residence approached, and as winter barely began to subside, I decided that I'd just go ahead and let the running go until I moved--sort of a new beginning on many fronts. So with that, I will start the running quite soon. I hope that whatever it was is gone.
3) Around November we had a lunchtime teachers' meeting--these happen about once a month--during which time I was informed that I'd have to move out of the apartment provided by the school and into a new apartment provided by me (well, partly). Apparently, rents in the Gangnam area have gotten so out of hand that even the Gangnam government (my paycheck provider) can't afford them.
Now, Ami and I had already had a strong desire to move. The Gangnam apartment was a mere room, a large room, but still just a room. And I don't do well unless I have a place to escape to with no one else--sans maybe a cat. Since I've moved to Korea, the girl and I have tiptoed around when the other is sleeping or sick or just in a bad mood, being careful with noise and light, waking times and sleeping times. It was in these times that I had the profound thought that walls and doors can be a man's best friend. Thus, when Gangnam told the boss and the boss told me that I would have to move, it wasn't unwelcome news. It was the kick in the pants that Ami and I needed to get it done.
I had until August of this year to do it, but Ami was searching online one evening and found a place that sounded good--decent location, floor plan and pictures looked ok, and the price was right. So she made an appointment to check it out, we checked it out, we liked it, and we made the deal. It was all rather painless (well for me anyway since I can't speak the language and really just agreed that it all looked good).
Our move date was March 1st, which turned out to be a thing of beauty because the last day of the session at my school was Feb 28th and I would then be getting six straight days off (I am currently enjoying the last of these days). The move was fairly painless and easy thanks to Ami's stellar language skills in setting up the proper appointments, my packing skills (honed by a nomadic lifestyle since I was born), and Andrew, who came to help us on moving day. All in all it was one of my easier moves.
I don't know if I ever made myself clear here, but I never much cared for the Gangnam area. It's nice enough, what with its tall buildings, its wide polished sidewalks, its overabundant coffee shops, and it finely dressed people scurrying this way and that, but I never much liked it. The streets were all at 90-degree angles so it was impossible to get lost, there were very few street vendors like in other areas of Seoul, and the people always had an air of entitlement about them--this was the worst part.
So I am happy to report that we've moved to an area that so far (and I'm less than a week in so more research is needed), but so far seems better. Yesterday I took a short walk around the new neighborhood and was overjoyed when I got lost. The roads around here are crazy and what's better are all the little alleyways that you'd be hard pressed to walk side-by-side with someone through. It's like a maze, a labyrinth of concrete and residences. It's great! It's going to take me months to learn the area.
The rather good aspect of moving here is that we are about 10 minutes away from the "foreigner" district. Now, I don't much care to make these foreigners my friends, but what I do like is the mix of people I see walking around and the mix of restaurants from which to choose--just have to watch the bank account. Yesterday, I walked to the foreign foods market (and when I say "foreign" I don't mean "American"). It has food from all sorts of different places and I was happy to find a few things I've missed--Italian dressing, balsamic vinegar, pancake mix, different pastas, cookies, and more--no beer though, to my great disappointment.
Anyway, the new neighborhood is older, less organized, grittier, and much more what I expected when I moved to Korea. And so far, I love it.
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