The Easy Life

Hi. I’m back. I know you missed me, it’s been a whopping 48 hours since my last post.  I’m trying to keep up with this as a diary to myself, but I hope that you are enjoying the story along the way.

This weekend was quiet, I didn’t do much at all.  I found a new park for Charlie so that was good. The one they originally showed me to take him to was all pavement and bricks, with a few park benches.  That is not a park.  While Charles has no problem, ummm, taking care of business on the pavement, I just don’t think it gives a good impression of us to the locals.  I did a little more exploring and found a very nice little park just a few more blocks away.  It’s still not by any means what you or I would consider a “park”, but I am living in the downtown district so it’s really the best I can expect. 

Several people have asked how Charles is acclimating.  I think he’s doing well. The last month or so in Orlando was really rough on him since things were constantly changing. I’ve never seen him act confused and concerned and that last month was really stressful for him. Now that we are in one place, seemingly unpacked (all two suitcases of my belongings) he seems to be calming a bit. His aggression issues are fairly entertaining in the States but they are not entertaining here.  After an especially loud outburst in the apartment Saturday night we had a major come to Jesus talk about his behavior. (For Allison: it means getting called on the carpet, dressed down, or otherwise chewed out in a severe manner). It seems to have worked.  He’s been behaving much better since then and we can successfully walk all three blocks to and from the park without major incident.  Except bikes.  Bikes are still the enemy. 

I also found the mall.  It’s huge! and it’s only about a 7 minute walk.  I didn’t go inside but I do know where it is now and that’s what’s important. The grocery store was finally located too.  All 5 floors of it. I could pretty easily find everything that I needed. All the normal stuff is there it just takes a bit of creativity and patience to figure out exactly what is in each package and what makes one box different from the one next to it.  It’s like Wal-Mart, only much bigger and cleaner! and with an entire aisle dedicated to mushrooms.  Fat mushrooms, skinny mushrooms, tall, short, and hairy mushrooms.  Yes, hairy mushrooms.  Like mop-top hairy.  I don’t think I’d eat that.

I just finished up my Monday night classes.  They were fantastically better than last Monday.  I had a little time this weekend to prepare and that (obviously) makes all the difference.  We played HangMan with colors, and wrote paragraphs about recycling and such.  Exhilarating, I know. I brought a bunch of stickers to Korea with me and they have been a saving grace. All kids love stickers.  Especially the good smelling kind.

I love teaching.  I am so glad that I finally get the chance to do what I’ve been wanting to forever.  I still think it’s ridiculous that I had to fly to other side of the world to do it, but you know what, I’m pretty sure that this is way better anyway.  Life is good here. Life is easy here.  Probably because I’ve only been here one week and haven’t had much time to stir up any drama (I don’t even have a phone yet) but still, it’s easy.