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 It’s the New Year and there’s a lot of new roads up ahead. To clear the way for the new paths, I’m doing some housecleaning and in the digital world, that means trying to get through the backlog of photos I have on my computer and putting them up online. Right now I’m working on May.
In late May, Greg and I went to visit Sokcho, a seaside town in Gangwon-do. We checked out the markets and it was the first time that we went to eat raw fish from the market by ourselves. I’ve got lots of experience doing it, but always with a Korean to help.
 It was fun and pretty tasty. We also got to eat a tasty tasty dish called ojinga sundae – stuffed squid. Man oh man was it ever tasty. We tried going to an outdoor spa/waterpark that’s quite famous but the spa part was closed. We ended up at a hot springs bathhouse nearby. It was nice, but nothing special. The hotel we stayed at, on the other hand, was positively ridiculous.
The next day we went to Sokcho beach, ate ojinga bokkum – stirfried squid. Usually it’s overcooked and chewy. Often tasty but very chewy. This time, however, wow. Delicious.
 And we got to eat it all while looking out at the sea.
 All the pictures from this trip can be viewed on Flicker in the Sokcho 2009 set.
(Also, all these pictures will link back to their Flickr pages)
I have blogged before about the importance of my Christmas Eve PJs.
My second Christmas in Korea, the package from my parents didn’t arrive. My roommate at the time remembered how special they were to me and got me a pair.
This year, Greg was under strict orders that if my package did not arrive in time for Christmas, he was to provide me with Christmas PJs. It was his Boyfriendly Duity.
Well, here it is Christmas Eve and no package has arrived. I am, however, sitting around in a very comfortable pair of new fleece pants.
 Additionally, we set a spending cap on Christmas this year. We’ve been known to go all out on other occasions but, especially being in Korea, Christmas doesn’t seem special. Brian’s blog post details the disconnect that is Christmas in Korea far better than I could (although I might suggest staying away from the blog comments. It gets a pretty snarky in there). I know I’ve tried in the past to explain just how different it is. This year, not living in Seoul, I didn’t even get to see all the department stores and their Christmas lights. And, after looking at the pretty photos you read Brian’s comment comparing Christmas in Korea to the Uncanny Valley, it just might start to make sense.
And I just might be that homesick.
But I digress. I have a wonderful boyfriend who bought me wonderful fleece pants and what might be the best under 10,000won Christmas gift ever.
 A rolling foot massager thingy!
I’m pretty sure I squeed loudly upon opening my gift.
“I did good?” he asked.
“Mmmm,” I replied already rolling my foot over the delightful little bumps. “Very good.”
 “When I was buying the box to put your jammies in I saw it and I thought, ‘Marie always likes me to rub her feet hard bordering on abuse. She’ll probably like this.’ So, I bought it.”
“Mmmm…” I replied again pressing down hard on the unforgiving plastic.
In less than 48 hours my boyfriend, best friend, partner of nearly two years will be boarding a plane back to the US. In an uncertain future, at least I won’t have sore feet.
There’s a lot going on in my life right now and it can be hard to view through an objective lense.
Greg moved his stuff into my apartment today. He will not be doing another year at his elementary school. How that affects the future is anyone’s guess. He has a flight home to Cincinnati on the 26th.
I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist and have chosen to go on medication for the first time in nearly 6 years. While we’re still working out the kinks, if this recent bit of blogging is any indication, the cloud is lifting.
I could lose my job for admitting to this.
It’s not all doom and gloom around here, however. Last Tuesday was my last class teaching some of the teachers at my school. They got together and had a small party for my co-teacher, Mickey, who left to go to graduate school in the US, and I. They wrote me a beautiful card.
Everyone wrote their notes to me in English and while they all have a special charm, this one from Jackson takes the cake:
 I’ve started a Flickr set of photos from the goings on at my school. Click on over there if you’d like to view the rest of the cards, or perhaps take a look at some of the other cute notes that have come across my desk so far this year.
Remember how every year I say I’m not going to do it? And how every year I do it? well, this, this right here is what *grumble grumble* Christmas knitting will do to you:
 Thankfully, no, that is not a knitting-induced suicide attempt, those are my acupuncture bandages.
In an attempt to lesson my tendonitis, I’ve begun seeing an acupuncturist. He’s the husband of one of my adult students, Esther. (And, incidentally, the father of two of my regular students Hyewon and Chaewon). I’m not experiencing a lot of pain right now but I was last week and all my adult students urged me to go see Dr. Park. So today I did.
First he poked me to find out where my pain was, drew some circles around my pain zones with a ballpoint pen, and I went to lay down. Dr. Park came in and poked me strategically on my hands, wrists, and elbow with acupuncture needles and left me to rest under a heat lamp.
This is about when his daughter Hyewon came in to my little cubby and started chatting me up. Her favorite animal is a gorilla and her favorite food is sushi.
When that was over, the nurse type lady came in and attached these electrostimulation muscle thingies to my wrist and zapped me for about 11 minutes. All while having thrilling conversation about what kind of books I like to read and how many brothers and sisters I have.
 Finally, the nurse came in and tried to do some sort of cupping thing but my skinny, bony wrists were having none of it. The doctor came back in with this pen looking thing and says only to me “endure” and proceedes to jab me in each wrist 7-8 times with what is clearly a needle inside that tricky little pen. I believe in the West the warning I would’ve gotten was, “this is gonna sting a bit.” Now that I’ve gotten a little bloody the nurse is somehow able to get better suction with her weird little tool and sucks the area the doctor just jabbed. I am wrapped with these fancy little bandages that are full of herbs, and probably menthol because they’re cold, and told to leave them on for 2-3 hours.
 And I get to come back tomorrow.
Oh yea, and I’m not supposed to knit for a few days.
If I can.
Today is my father’s birthday. Being so close to Christmas and all, I and the rest of the world usually forget to do something special.
Well, Dad, I made this just for you:
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