A drop in looking for Self Improvement

Well a Holiday came to Gumi just in time...again. Tis the Season for new beginings thus meaning its the Lunar New Year. The official recognized start and begining of the New Year. I went on a solo excursion to Suwon in order to spend time with my friend Hyung Jin.

Hyung Jin works 6 days a week as well. She has a company job, and also takes part in her church activities. She is very organized and is very dedicated to her work/livlihood. She is taking a computer class in order to get ahead in the company. We all seem to be too busy: Me, Hyung jin, min young.
I understand why she is working so hard. The Work Philosophy in Korea defines almost everything people do. For example, if you dont work you will fall down and be amongst the bottom rung of the social ladder. The reason why most people wear the same type of clothes is because everyone is wanting to fit into the business profile and survive.
I have come to the conclusion that its not about being the same as all other Koreans but in order to survive one must compete and work really hard.
Now I am in a crux. The following story is based on the events of the last 2 days in no particular order.

Sometimes, I am really confused nowadays by Korean culture. I wish I knew more before I had decided to come. more explanation to follow later.

I spent my first day there shopping and watching a movie. I had to get up before 6 am in order to catch a train and make my way to Suwon a 3 hour trip in total. I was very tired to say the least. I got to the station to basically shop for the next 6 hours. I ended up getting somethings from Polham. Hyung Jin and I had a few meals and also watched a movie.

The movie was " Charlie Wilsons War" and it was a good story based on real events but I dont know if I actually liked the Senator Charlie Wilson he didnt seem like a "hero" to me. All in all though I thought it was a great movie.

After getting 8 hours of restless sleep I witnessed the traditional New Year. Let me just say that I had a great time in Suwon. I enjoyed the meal and I enjoyed my friend and I can't wait until I can go back again. I am happy to have good friends even if I dont see them much.


A few things of interest and things I need to discover more later. My friend really hopes I can go to Seoul with my girlfriend. She wants to meet Christina and I hope the same as well. Also, I hope that my friends will come to see me in May or sooner.

I have decided to 1. Work harder in every possible way I can. 2. Travel more and take more time to learn about Korea. 3. WORK much harder at my goals.

There is many things that came out of this trip. I felt like I was riding an emotional roller coaster though. I was sad a little bit due to some of the things that were talked about. I also felt out of place a little. I am not used to being around people in a social situation simply due to the fact that I can't do it much or at all here. I wish things could be different because I really wanted to spend the holiday season with my Baby or at least a lot of quality time with her. Its really hard for me to say just how much she means to me and how sad I feel at times when I am apart from her.

I dont know if any of this is making sense anymore or not but all I know is I stayed up half the night thinking about many things.


I took the Mugungwha train to Suwon and the Sammael train back. The Sammael is a little more expensive but I didnt want to stay in Suwon alone I actually was in a hurry to get back and begin planning as I have many things to mull over nowadays.

this holiday was an eye-opener for me and gave me many questions which only time will tell what the answers are. I believe that I truly want to expand my own self and become more involved in anyway possible. I think its really important to work hard and I would like to get a 2nd job or just do some more activities instead of waiting for work to come about. As soon as I can I am going to look into ways to expand my way of thinking and work

Some ideas....
1. Travel more extensively.
~Every weekend that I can possibly go somewhere I am...I am hoping that it will not necessarily mean that I go alone all the time.
2. I want to improve my teaching. How? I dont know work on projects that can be used to help develop a learning program for later. Any way I can I will.


3. Maybe a big one. Gumi has been referred to as "Blow me" or Gloomy. Why? because there hasn't seemed to be much to do. I have had bad feelings about here many times. I think its because I have closed off some opportunities with the excuse of Oh I just have to work too much. Sometimes, it works and sometimes its a bad excuse.

I do want to Explore Gumi more. I read today there is an amusement park and I also read about many of the places I had explored with Christina already. I think we seriously need to look into more of Gumi.


This is my report or feelings for the last 2 days much of it needs some explaining or additional information. I am trying to be more pragmatic. I am feeling very OTL at the moment simply to the fact that I have a lot of things on my mind and some of them I want to get rid of them.

More to follow. The New Year has begun and with that means work is going to be insanely busy next week. If it isn't going to be sooner.


Talk soon.
PArt 1 of 2?