So...

I know I haven't been doing a very good job at keeping my blog up-to-date.

Here's the low down...

Things have been incredibly busy, but I'm loving it. I started taking guitar lessons twice a week as I have already mentioned. I'm hoping to buy a guitar this weekend...if everything works out timing wise.

I'm still volunteering at the orphanage every Monday. I have been incredibly fortunate to have been provided a room in which I can actually teach in. Before, I sat in a circle on the floor with the kids, and it was incredibly difficult to teach in the environment. As much as I would have preferred to simply play with the kids, I am happy to help in whatever way they need me. They need an English teacher, so that is what my role is. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the orphanage entails, because I'm not so sure that it is an orphanage in which children can be adopted from. There are orphanages in Korea that simply take care of children until their real families can again take care of them and this might be a similar place. Nobody at the orphanage speaks English and my Korean is still at a fairly low level, but we try to communicate as much as possible.

I am taking yoga classes three times a week with a Korean instructor and a room full of Koreans. They find me entertaining and the instructor often times chooses me as part of a number call out as we do rolling crunches. By the way...I'm really tall. Most Korean women are quite short. So, when we do partners' yoga...well it's fairly hilarious to say the least.^^

I am taking jazz dance classes which are incredibly fun! I'm not awesome at dancing, but I love it. The instructor is young and funny and sooo nice! I'm not sure why I chose jazz dance, but I'm really glad I did! This past Thursday, a girl talked to me and told me that she's been trying to get the courage for about 2 weeks now to talk to me. It was pretty adorable. She and I talked as we walked home. She's close to my age and is a teacher as well.

I'm am still going to the Friday Korean English meetings. A few foreigners have been coming off and on.

Story time: I also have Korean tutoring once a week. A woman from the Friday club meetings offered to tutor me. Her nickname is Flight. While I was at our first lesson, two other members of the club came in and said that they were all going over to one of the foreigners' apartments. I agreed to go with them for dinner. Well, when I walked in...there were about 8 foreigners there. I was in shock! Apparently there is a large foreigner population in Wonju that I never knew about. Some of them came the next few times to the Friday meetings, but it is very off and on. I spent one night out with a bunch of them until super late; it was a lot of fun.

The thing is...I still very much feel disconnected from foreigners. I believe I still have the mentality that, "I didn't come to Korea to meet foreigners," ingrained in my mind. I was, however, incredibly fortunate to meet the amazing women I did through the performance of the Vagina Monologues. It was such a positive experience and it opened my eyes to a new level of Korean culture and life.

Many Koreans still gasp at the word "vagina." Sex is a topic of taboo. Abuse is such a foreign concept because in many cases it is simply not acknowledged as something of concern in Korea. The Confucius society that places men in a superior light is slowly being broken down through newer generations, though it is still quite prevalent and noticeable.

While our audience was predominantly foreigner-based, there were also a large number of both male and female Koreans in attendance. To see such an explosive turnout compared to the 150 or so in last year's audiences is hopefully a sign of further acceptance of female equality and of positive changes to come.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. I'll try to stay more on top of the blog even though I don't know that too many people actually read it.^^