I guess I've finally settled into a routine enough that I noticed I was in Korea and would be here for a while. I was feeling kind of blue, and I didn't know what was wrong, but Justin guessed I might be homesick and it rang a bell when he told me.
True, this is probably the longest time I've ever spent away from my family AND in a foreign country at that. I don't miss them like I did when I went to summer camp when I was 12, but I miss them all the same. And I miss being in America a lot.
Justin and I are trying a new furniture arraignment in the living room. I guess it's more than just a living room, it's the biggest room in our place. Now we have an office area, the dinning table and our couch/tv area. We're probably going to move things around every few months since that seems to be both our styles of living. Also the kitty fort we built from cardboard boxes is kind of big now, and takes up as much floor space as a lazy-boy. Which isn't a problem since we don't have much furniture here, but I'd rather have the lazy-boy.
It's warmer now than it has been all year, I've noticed not just lots of plants and flowers but bugs coming up too. Mostly outside, but there have been a few waterbeetles turning up inside. Luckily we have a little hunter (Gambit) who kills the bugs when he can get his paws on them. We've only had to help him out once. I love cats that are also pest control. Teddy is pretty good at it too.
With the warmer weather also comes the Yellow Dust, Justin is very allergic to it this year, and I'm okay most of the time, but it definitely give me the sniffles.
Yellow dust from the semi-arid and desert areas of China and Mongolia descends on the Korean Peninsula each spring. This yellow dust can reduce visibility and can be harmful to human health. The very young, the elderly, and those who are sick or who suffer from asthma or heart-related illnesses should reduce or eliminate outdoor activity on days when yellow dust levels are above 400 µg/m3 (parts per million per cubic meter of air). In addition, healthy people should avoid outdoor activity, especially if it involves heavy physical exertion, on days when dust levels are predicted to be above 800 µg/m3.
I'm just amazed at the weather still. It's May and I walked like 4 miles (round trip) in jeans and a long sleeve cotton shirt and only got a little hot and sweaty. IT WOULD BE 100 DEGREES(F) AND HUMID LIKE THE JUNGLE SINCE FEBRUARY IN TEXAS, but it's supposedly going to get hot and humid here sometime in June. Summer that doesn't take over the seasons on either side of it is just refreshing.
There is the fact that it WILL be hot and humid (eventually) and the AC are wall units that plug into electrical outlets (it's the main kind of AC here) and electricity is rather expensive. So Justin and I have a lets-not-pay-an-arm-and-a-leg-for-AC-this-summer-plan... we only turn the bedroom AC on at night. The rest of the time, well, we get a nice cross breeze in the living room. Let's see how long we can stick to that plan.
That and I might have just planned our month long 'hell yeah! we're in America! tour for the month with the highest utility bills (September). Aren't we clever. Also my college roommate is getting married and I'm in the wedding, but things have a way of working out.
yes, I realize this entry is a little dry and maybe even boring. But that's how things feel at this moment. I paid our rent today, which is a little more complicated here than other places I've lived. I have to go to our bank on base withdraw X amount of Won, walk the large sum of money down the busiest street to deposit it in a Korean bank. The bank tellers don't speak English, so I have to just hand them the envelope full of money and a deposit book from my landlord and they give me a receipt. Nearly all Korean landlords insist on cash so they don't have to pay taxes.
I also purposely waited to run my errand until after the Civil Defense Drill. Eerily sirens, check. People leaving their cars in the road and going into the subways. Check. Me thinking that not the best place to be IF bombs we actually falling. check. If you happen to be caught out and about when those sirens go off, you have no choice but to follow the drill. It's like a city wide fire drill. Or so I've been told. I have no desire to be out and herded into the subways with a ton of Koreans.
The next thing on my mind is how to pick up a couch I'm in the process of buying second hand from On post and get it to our place here. There are a surprising lack of moving trucks that are allowed on post and aren't like $100 an hour. It wouldn't take long to get the couch, but that's more than I'm going to pay for the couch it's self. Part of the appeal is how little the couch cost. *sigh* I'll think of something..
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