Any other wordpressers who have been getting tons of spam comments? It just keeps getting worse on my blog. I feel like all I am doing lately on here is cleaning out the spam. >.<
I’m at the end of my initial contract and summer is heating up which = me feeling burnt out. Change will be good, and it begins in about 4 weeks. I’ll start working 9-5:30, as I did in January. Getting up early for me is no fun, but having my evenings free will be a nice treat.
I’m sure 4 weeks will fly by, but on a day-to-day basis it feels like time is crawling. I’m trying not to whine, because I have life good in so many respects. I can’t believe how fast a year has gone by though. A year ago I was beginning to pack up for life in Seoul, I was in a different relationship, held a more romanticized view of life in Korea, and wasn’t sure when/if I’d return to Minnesota. I was feeling a lot of inner turmoil leaving my parents, and there are still days I feel guilt, but overall I feel I’ve gotten stronger in one year.
Now I know that I want to and I will return to Minnesota in 7 months. I guess Korea has kicked my ass when it comes to feeling comfortable or in my niche here. The illusion that everything will feel more natural simply by looking the part wore off months ago, and now I just long to see women of any race with an athletic build again, someone not wearing super skinny jeans if possible. Oh wait, this includes men, too. I am eager to have smoke-free buildings surround me, and to know that 9/10 people will hold the elevator doors open for you, especially if they’re closing in on your stuff.
Last week a friend and I got into our apartment’s elevator, and the doors began to shut on her food. She yelped because it is rather scary when elevator doors are pressing in at you with no regard for an object being there requiring the doors to open up again and show some mercy. Upon hearing her yelp, an older woman standing right next to the button panel starts overreacting, heaving heavily and making noises as if she’s going to have a heart attack. I was soooooo annoyed. The thing is, it seems rare here in Seoul for the average Seoulites to give a damn when someone is struggling as such. Instead of pushing the door open button to help my friend out, the woman just stands there and fans herself and acts like we’re in the wrong for scaring her. There were other people in the elevator and it was a prickly feeling of everyone staring at my friend and I. These sorts of things happen here often – people standing around like dummies and unwilling to help out, but then acting like they’re shocked when something happens. I just wanted to say in perfect Korean, “Well why didn’t you open the door for her you dumbass!?”
Ugh. Sure, sure I’m probably overreacting and maybe it’s the result of my own Korean temper acting up here, but seriously – coming from the friendly midwest, where strangers actually do talk to each other, (and usually it’s out of friendliness), it just annoys the hell out of me that people act this way here! Cultural or not, I’m annoyed!
So other than the doldrums of finishing up my teaching contract and being ready for a fresh start soon (still same job, same place, but at least a fresh start), and what I perceive as a fairly rude awakening to how a lot of Seoulites act, life has been fairly normal.
0 Responses to “Spammed Out/Burnt Out”