June and July were pretty rough-We were both feeling frustrations with our schools, swing dancing was more stressful than fun, the kittens had becomes a major time consuming chore, and the weather was dismally hot. To sum it up, Korea was not making us happy and we were both very homesick.
But by the end of August things started looking up. It was really hard to say goodbye to our 5 kittens, but we were proud knowing we saved them and they now have good homes. It was also sooooo much easier in terms of housework. We pretty much quit swing- a necessary but sad decision, as it means an end to our Friday night outings with Koreans. But we were just not enjoying the dancing for various reasons. Maybe we will go back to it, but for right now we are not. our obnoxious worthless private tutoring phone calls ended, thank God, so that is a relief. And not any less important, the weather became tolerable again. One life lesson for me-don't live in a city in the summer, especially in a hot place like Busan. Actually maybe my life lesson is don't live in a city, period.
Anyway, September has been pretty relaxing and fun. Warren wrote about his visit to a tiny ex pat flying club that first weekend. Since I was not interested, and something I have been obsessed with lately is stray animals in Korea (I spend a lot of time on Animal Rescue Korea's website) I went to a dog shelter instead. So we took a high speed train to Daejeon and went our separate ways.
I spent the day with a group of about 5 other really nice foreigners. We took a taxi out into the middle of nowhere-just a bunch of agricultural fields. A long driveway took us to a tiny house and a greenhouse-full of barking dogs. One Korean woman was living in this space, taking care of about 60 dogs-most of them small dogs, but there was about 12 big Jindos-a Korean breed which looks similar to a husky. The place was pretty shabby, but it worked as a place for the dogs to live. In fact, this woman used to have about 150 dogs in this area-but since she was told that she needed to move off the land, some very devoted foreigners have worked very hard to get the word out and get some dogs adopted. So the dogs that are left are kind of the bottom of the barrel. Most of them had some behavioral issues-they were very afraid of us. So we spent most of the time trying to walk them or just spending time showing them some love. It was heartbreaking in a way, but I got a lot of joy and satisfaction spending time with animals and wandering the countryside. I just wish the place was a little closer, so I could go more regularly. Although many of the dogs seemed hopeless, I met some little gems among them, and I wished with all my heart I could find them a new home. Unfortunately we couldn't possibly handle another animal, especially now.
About 3 weeks ago, during the major Korean holiday Chuseok, which is essentially the same as our Thanksgiving, we found ourselves with two new additions to the family. One of my students had discovered an abandoned week old kitten, and after a few days of caring for it, incorrectly, her mother told her she needed to get rid of it. So she went to her resident cat lady-me. What could I do???? Next thing I knew I had a cardboard box with a shrieking orange baby cat inside. I went to the vet and she/he was looked over and fed with a tiny baby bottle. And then I bought my own formula and was on my way. So for a week, every four hours I bottle-fed my little charge.
But Warren and I had coincidentally decided around the same time we were going to bite the bullet and rescue another little orange destitute living around the dumpster in front of our apartment. This little guy was about 5-6 weeks old, and had been abandoned by his mom a little too early. After an embarrassing morning chasing him in front of the locals, we finally caught the guy, suffering only a few painful scratches, and carried our prisoner in a sack back upstairs. We let out the small wild thing on our balcony and with much spitting and hissing he retreated behind our washing machine and refused to come out. The next 24 hours we questioned our decision to bring a feral animal into our home. But we watched him through the glass-he scarfed his food and snuggled up in his cardboard box home and just looked so weary and worn out, we knew we did the right thing. And very soon, with a little Warren charm, he started coming around to us. Warren gave him some pets and at first he stiffened and then suddenly he was in our laps, and purring. He was all skin and bones, and he had diarrhea, so we nursed him back to health for a week and brought him to our vet, who sees us constantly now, and got his ear mites and parasites taken care of. When he was finally healthy we let him into our apartment. And it was amazing to see him become a lovely little house cat. He was very well behaved, always using the litter box and never yowling for attention. His play could be a little rough-the poor boy had no siblings to wrestle, but he made up for it by snuggling often. Just an awesome little cat. We named him Raptor. And a week or so later, we got him adopted! I took some really nice pictures and put up a heart-wrenching story and I had to turn people down! Everyone wanted him. So he went to a really nice couple living in Busan, and Warren and I were so proud of him and ourselves!
On the other hand, our adult cat, Aona, has been in heat, or something. She is a complete wreck, yowling all night long. She stopped using her litter box, and she is just making life hard in general.
And our little wee one, after a few weeks of pretty good eating, peeing, pooping and sleeping, started to get diarrhea a few days ago. He (its been confirmed we have another boy, so the name is shortened from Autumn Rose to just Autumn) spent a few nights at the vet while we went on a little field trip, and the vet couldn't explain it. So he just gets treated with medicine and hopefully it will go away, but its not a guarantee he's going to make it. In all other ways he is thriving though, especially playing, so I am pretty hopeful.
Our field trip was a two day trip we took with about 30 other English teachers from Busan. It was pretty bizarre, and I was somewhat disappointed. We went to a strange place that even now is difficult to explain-something between a science facility, New Age retreat, health and fitness club, Korean Nationalism center and religious cult for followers of something called "Dahn Hak". Read about the founder and his vision here. I cant explain it much more than that. We spent the day listening to people describe "Brain respiration" and we used a computer that showed us our Auras, and we went to a big celebration for the Korean holiday-foundation day. The people of this group believed that the legend of foundation day-a bearded god falls out of the sky, offers humanity to a bear and a tiger if they live in a cave and eat garlic for 100 days, the tiger fails and the bear succeeds, the bear is turned into a beautiful woman who weds the bearded god and thats the start of the Korean race - is completely true. The group even successfully lobbied the Korean governemnt to have this story changed from "myth" to "fact" in history textbooks. We then spent a couple hours doing martial arts that focused on our inner energy, and then we made lanterns and floated them into the sky. The last part was pretty fun...
The next day was only slightly better. We went to the place I really wanted to go to, Gyeongu, which is supposed to be the best preserved historical place in Korea. But because it was a holiday weekend every place was beyond packed, and we even missed some of the sights because we had so many deadlines to meet. We saw some cool things but overall it was a bust-most of our time we were on a bus, so we are resolved to do it again on our own soon.
Next week is midterms, so its looking to be yet another easy week for us at our jobs. So far second semester has been a breeze. There are no more days off through October and November, so reality is going to set in soon for us I think.
sadly I have been sick for a week and a half-I had a cold and fever last weekend and have spent the past several days dealing with a leftover chronic dry cough. So I'm not sleeping very well and probably annoying everyone around me. But luckily Warren is a deep sleeper, and he has been good to me in my whiny state.
The leaves are just starting to change colors, so we are super excited about getting out and seeing the fall foliage. Our plans for our big spring trip are underway, and we are throwing around ideas everyday about what to do when we are finished with Asia. Or goals include but are not limited to: spending a lot of time with family and friends, living somewhere with a lot of access to nature/probably not a city, Exploring our interests further-Warren wants to fly again, and I want to work with kids and teaching possibilities, as well as look into grad school. More traveling ideas exist, but we are not sure when and how we want to do that. Let us know if you have any awesome ideas.
We love and miss everyone and we hope you are enjoying the harvest season. Eat lots of delicious pies and jump in some leaves and admire some pumpkins for us!
