Back in Korea

If you followed my tweets you'd know that I'm back in Korea. I arrived early this morning and spent most of today sleeping as I did not sleep on the plane; instead, I watched movies on the in-flight entertainment. I watched Beastly, Mars Need Moms, and some other movie I can't remember . . . o yeah, it is that one with that anaemic dude from the Twilight movies and a circus and an elephant . . . Watering Elephants, I think it's called.

My apartment is a mess. I had hoped that it would magically tidy itself up while I was gone for four weeks. It did not. There is also an unhealthy mouldy smell, which is not surprising as it is monsoon season in Korea. This year have seen especially high levels of rain, even serious flooding and even landslides.



Thankfullly the flooding did not affect the apartment building I live at -- apart from the mould, of course. One pair of leather shoes of mine has completely changed colour, from brown to grey-green! I put them in a plastic bag and will probably throw them away, which is a pity as I was quite fond of them. I'll try and assess the mould problem in more detail later. There is sure to be more mould casualties once I look closer. I spent half an hour doing dishes and will have to clean the rest of my apartment soon.

But tomorrow I might go to Gyeongju and Pohang to visit with a friend of mine who is returning after nearly two years of working in the Philippines.

I'll try to give more updates -- or at least upload some photos -- of my adventures in South East Asia, particularly of the project with the mountain people I was part of, but kept mostly quiet about as it may have compromised the mission in Laos and China. (Communist countries aren't too fond of "foreign devils" coming in and sniffing about.)

Busy time ahead. Apart from cleaning my apartment, I need to prepare for the coming semester. I'm teaching one new course and another one that I haven't tought in a while, not to mention other courses that I have taught, but for which we are using new textbooks. And then there are some martial art activities that requries attention like a black belt promotional test at our gym here in Korea next week and the upcoming Taekwon-Do Hall of Fame gala event in two weeks.