Teaching, Learning and Other Adventures Around the World: Autumn Adventures

It's officially autumn here in Korea, but I fear it won't last much longer. I have been spoiled with over a month of lovely low-70s temperatures and almost no rain, which has made for many wonderful outdoor activities and adventures. The leaves have been showing off their vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds, and the rice fields have been exhibiting their tall blades of gold and green preceding their near-future harvest. During my entire life I have tried to get excited about autumn, but when I enjoy warm summers and dread winter, autumn has always bummed me out. This year has been a slight improvement, partly because the summers in Korea are not so nice, and I have had a lot of fun this season. But then Mary likes to remind me, in a creepy, sadistic voice, that "Winter is coming!"

Aside from my collection of easy jobs I have been working since my return to Korea, I have been able to partake in some fun activities, the most prominent of which is being the newest member to an ultimate frisbee team. We have two teams here in Pohang that compete in a nation-wide league composed mostly of foreign English teachers. This is the first year Pohang has had teams in the league, and with the exception of a few players, we are all new to the sport. So naturally we were expected to be mediocre at best. But what people from other Korean cities didn't realize is that Pohangsters (yes, that is what we call ourselves) are the most awesome group of foreigners in all of Korea. So of course our two teams have been kicking major butt this year, beating some pretty tough teams! I have struggled with the high amount of running/sprinting involved in this game, but despite that, I feel I have fared quite well for a beginner. The league keeps stats on all of the players, and I can proudly say I have averaged 2.8 points per game!

I have also done a fair amount of dressing up in fantastic costumes. The first of which was for a joint birthday party for two friends. A recent craze among the Pohang foreigners has been to purchase cute animal costumes. You can choose from around 50 different animals from a website, and our community probably has all 50 represented! (I was given a flying squirrel costume for my birthday) So these two friends decided to ask everyone to wear their animal costumes for their birthday party. It was an adorable night of the cutest and happiest animals the world ever saw.

Then came Halloween. Two friends of mine had the brilliant idea of gathering a big group of foreigners in downtown Daegu (Korea's third-largest city) dressed and painted as zombies to do a zombie walk through the city streets. Approx. 100 of us showed up with faces painted and clothes representing various forms of zombies (I was a disco zombie) and we walked for about 45 minutes through the busy streets with one purpose: scare the bajeezus out of Koreans! Luckily for us, Koreans are easily frightened. We had them screaming, running, hiding, and then of course taking photos with us. We were quite the sensation, and fortunately the general public was more pleased and entertained than disturbed by our antics. Halloween is hardly celebrated or acknowledged here, so this was just one more thing we foreigners could graciously share with this country.

Like Mary says, winter is coming. And I can't help but be reminded about my dismal chapter last winter in Korea. But there are things to look forward to, such as the mosquitos leaving, being able to snowboard on the weekends, being able to stay home watching movies and not feel guilty, and spending the holidays in Taiwan. And lastly, I am looking forward to seeing this election season end! I cannot wait for news headlines to stop being about election polls, I cannot wait for the end of needing constant fact-checking because people can't seem to tell the truth, and I cannot wait until I can stop hearing the same political platforms that I've been hearing for the last year! Korea has a presidential election in December, and most people still don't know much about the candidates because the real campaigning has hardly begun. Doesn't that sound nice? Sounds like a dream come true to me!

I am going to spend the last remaining days of autumn enjoying this weather, enjoying the end of frisbee season and having picnics and walks along the beach and not having the moisture sucked dry from my skin by bitter cold.