It's March. March 1st. Next month marks my third full year of blogging. I give, (I'm not sure "credit" or "blame" would be the right word), to Heather for showing me how to blog. Thanks, Duderino. Over these three years it's been a useful way to vent for me. But I was just searching for an entry I alluded to in my most recent post about being walked in on while in the shower, (May '96), and started to realize that this is just as good as a journal. For as long as Blogger.com remains, and remains free, I have access to a history of my tales, and sometimes pics, of the past. I wish I'd started doing this long ago. I'd absolutely LOVE to read some blog entries about my years in university! And I'm sure I'd enjoy reading about how foolish, and how bad a writer I was when I was young.

I HAVE kept journals at times during the past. In my university days I used to get the Sports Illustrated day planner every year for about 6 years. Still have those and MAN are they fun to read! I even recorded dreams off and on during university. I have very weird dreams! So those too are fun to read about.

Probably the most complete history of my life in one spot would be all the letters I've written to my dear old Gramma Vickers. And I don't flatter myself to think that she's kept them all over the years, but if she had they'd be a great read!

I have Mormon friends who keep journals. I think it's one of the things the church tries to encourage. I think it's a great thing to encourage. If I could get all my students to blog just think how much their English would improve! And I could just read their blogs and make grammar corrections in the comment box. But that's never gonna happen. Besides it's a lot of work for me. We don't want that. But if I had smaller classes filled with students who really wanted to learn English...

So I thought I'd try to put an entry here that gives a feel for my life at this time. It will be this sort of entry I really like to read in the future. Like when I watch movies I sometimes get into moods where I don't care about the quality of the movie or the acting or whatever, it's the scenery that holds my attention. I watched Home Alone recently because it has some really nice cinematography of things I miss about home. Houses. Sidewalks being shovelled in winter. Christmas lights. American cars. Mailboxes. Who knows what I'll be reading in my blog in the future that will conjure up old memories of Korea? I think it'll be details. So I'm gonna try to make this a detailed entry.

As I sit at my computer drinking Ahmad black currant tea, which I bought on one of my infrequent journeys to Hannam Supermarket near I Tae Won in Seoul I'm glad it's in a blue mug. I like blue mugs. They make things taste better. It's a blue Starbucks mug that I think I might have purchased during one of my infrequent journeys to Starbucks. I only go if someone else wants to go. I think I got this mug when I was hanging out with Mike and Heather in one of about 50 Starbucks in downtown Seoul. I think this was purchased at the one across from the Kyobo Building with the view of the Lee Sun Shin statue. Mike loves Starbucks. More than anyone should really. I think it might have been in October cuz Heather and Mike got pumpkin flavoured coffee.

The tea is steaming quite copiously as it sits on my "I love to cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food." potholder, which was a gift from Jocelyn who I worked with at Mokpo U. last year. Thanks Jocelyn. And also thanks for telling me the word, "potholder". It was a struggle for me at the time to come up with the right word for this object. It had been buried in my brain for years so that retrieval was impossible. Ever forget a simple word like that? I had to send Jocelyn a message on facebook asking what the word for that large, material, coaster thingy we use for pots was. That's embarrassing.

The tea is steaming a lot because it's a bit chilly in my dorm room at Seogang today. I turned my heater off a few days ago when it was warm outside. The heater takes over a day to turn off. So I was sweating like a banshee for two days. Then the third day was fine but wouldn't you know it, today it's colder. I could turn on the heater but it won't heat up till sometime next week when it will most likely be warm again. So I'll just wear extra clothes until spring.

I can't see them because my purple horizontal blinds are closed, but I can hear students talking, and probably flirting, very audibly while sitting on the picnic tables in the courtyard outside my window. They might even be drinking soju. It's only 3 PM but it's the Sunday before the first Monday of class here. Might as well drink in that last blast of freedom.

Luckily for me I don't work tomorrow. I teach Physical Therapy from 9-11 and Hotel/Food from 2-4 on Tuesday. Wednesday I have Physical Therapy again from 2-3, and first year stewardess from 3-4. Then Thursday I have first year stewardess from 9-11, (when most will be catching beauty z's), and from 2-4 I have second year stewardess, who I taught last semester. I'll be doing a special class from 4-5 every day but that doesn't start for a couple weeks. It's a really sweet schedule! No Fridays! But it can and most likely WILL change dramatically before we fully get going here.

Now I have a girl, (what she's doing in the boys side of the dorm I don't know), talking, nay yelling into her phone directly outside my door. I wonder why anyone would stop there for a phone call. Yesterday the "Woo" guy returned. There's some kid here who is constantly running around yelling that. He's woken me up on many occasions. I think he might be like Timmy from Southpark. All Timmy can say is "Timmy." I think maybe all the Woo guy can say is Woo. But with different intonation depending upon the circumstances. But I'm sure even HE can pass here at Seokang.

I haven't been sleeping right for over a month. Sinuses. I'm pretty sure I'm not allergic to Korea but it's a theory I've mulled over. It could be the Chinese sand but upon checking my past blog entries I find that May is when that is worst. I've found only one thing that helps: Otravin. But as is my way, I choose not to medicate unless it's absolutely necessary, so I have a wastebasket full of dirty snotrags beside me and a roll of TP beside my blue tea mug. I slept from about 7 AM to noon today. I was up watching live streams of the Accenture Matchplay Championships. I think Ogilvie will win. I also watched hockey and a little bit of Sopranos. I had trouble with my video. Both streaming vid and the Sopranos cd were coming up on the screen as just green and red stripes. Sound was okay though. I went into control panel, display, settings and mokeyed around. That worked so I was able to watch. I am pretty sure that playing Guild of Heroes on facebook is what messed up my video settings. It has happened before. How is still a mystery.

See? This'll all be good stuff to look back on if I have these problems again.

We had hot water all through the day yesterday so I did my dishes and made some Chilli. I have two pickle jars of it left. I bought some sour cream and marble cheese from the underground market a couple days ago. I grated some of the cheese yesterday into the chilli. Mmmmmm. I think today I'll have some sour cream in my chilli. I wanted to go grocery shopping this afternoon for eggs, bread etc. but that was dependant upon hot water. As I walked into the bathroom to check I said out loud to myself, "I'll bet next month's salary we don't have hot water all day today." And sure enough I won the bet. So now I have to wait until 7 PM to shower up and go shopping. Hence, this entry. Usually we have hot water in the dorm from 7ish to 9ish AM and PM. That's all. I think that's starting today.

I think at 6 I'll play some Wii and work up a sweat then shower at 7. Till then I guess I'll just putter around at my computer.

Well this has been a good entry. Not especially interesting but time well wasted. See you soon.