Lord of the Rings…

We saw Return of the King, it was pretty good! The last LOTR movie I saw in the theatre was in the front row. All I remember seeing were giant hooves, and noses. This one was much better.

PLUS the seats in the theatre in JeonJu are big semi-recliners, that VIBRATE when massive armies are approaching. The seats are hooked into the bass / sound system. Awesome. … slightly reminiscent of ‘the feelies’ in

Brave New World, but awesome nonetheless.

Hooray for Holidays!!!

Wahoo!!! Our boss just decided to give us Boxing Day off! So instead of 24 hours off for Christmas, we’ll have 4 days. Sweet deal.

She’s also added 2 extra days to the lunar New Year holiday, which will work out to be an unprecedented NINE DAY holiday in January. Yes, I know that doesn’t mean much to those of you with vacation time in your jobs, but here I’m nearly beside myself with giddiness. Yes indeed – giddy giddy giddy.

To make the joy even greater, both Mike and Paula are planning to travel outside Korea during that time. I’ll have the apartment to myself for DAYS!! oh sweet bliss. I love living by myself. Infact, I’m pretty sure that if I ever get married, I’m going to make my husband live next door with the neighbours.

Oh – also, this weekend Gina, Liam and I are heading to the cultural city of Jeon-ju and staying in a traditional inn. AND seeing Lord of the Rings in their new theatre. Good times all around.

Mittens, Change and Turkey…

I got new mittens. With idiot strings. They’re striped ~ the 1st stripe matches my orange fleece, the 2nd matched my gray sweater, the next 3 match the great scarf Ken gave me for my birthday, and after that it’s every colour for themselves. I miss my Grandmas mittens though. I didn’t think it would be cold enough for them here.

Yesterday as I was biking to pottery class, I thought about change. Mostly because the path/road I usually take was all torn up, so I ended up splashing and sliding through the mud on my Mary Poppins bike. (I had a few really nice things to say about the guy who invente paved roads). That got me thinking about how they had waited until after the rice harvest to rip up the road…which got me thinking about how much i had enjoyed watching the rice during it’s growing season…which got me thinking about how nice it would be to settle down sometime and have a piece of land that I could watch go through the seasons year after year. I think these thoughts also come from facing another move in the next few months. The only time I think about settling is when it’s time to pack up my life again. That part sucks, but as long as I keep loving where I wind up, ( I always do) I can’t see how I’ll ever stop.

And finally – Turkey!!! (A rare bird indeed in this part of the world) We had a fabulous Christmas dinner after a candlelight service at church today. Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie…and of course, kimchi. I’m not a huge fan of turkey, but there are some times during the year that just aren’t right without it. So now, it’s a warm sunny Sunday afternoon, and I’m full of Turkey ~ there just isn’t any other option but to have a nap…mmmmm.