1 To you I call, O LORD my Rock;
do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.

2 Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to You for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward Your Most Holy Place.

3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.

4 Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back upon them what they deserve.

5 Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD
and what His hands have done,
He will tear them down
and never build them up again.

6 Praise be to the LORD,
for He has heard my cry for mercy.

7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to Him in song.

8 The LORD is the strength of His people,
a fortress of salvation for His anointed one.

9 Save Your people and bless Your inheritance;
be their Shepherd and carry them forever.

A quick blurb about my adoptables. I've joined several adoptable websites, namely Valenth and GPXPlus. I found both to be wonderfully thought out with great art, pets, and methods. The people in their forums are friendly too. I can't say the same thing about their mods though. All their mods seem to be mean and nasty--I even seen one on GPXPlus cussing at a user. While I like their sites I'm terrified to post in their forums out of fear of breaking some unknown rule or code.

Anyways, if you're into adoptables, I do recommend those sites. And please feed my pets? Daily, if you're bored?

[link]

[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

Thanks!

EDIT: Looks like Poketech Adoptables is back too! Just ignore that stupid smilie that dA gives...I don't know how to turn it off.

[link]oke_profile&id=36523
[link]oke_profile&id=36570
[link]oke_profile&id=48011
[link]oke_profile&id=48014

When I started uploading information and pictures here about some things going on in my new job I didn't think relatives would see this has a private blog where I'm expected to update regularly and incessantly about every single little detail about my time abroad.

Quite frankly, I'm pissed. I hate livejournal, myspace, and facebook for reasons. I have no intention of "blogging" or journaling. Plus, this is a vastly public site! I have no intention of posting certain private details of my life for anyone and everyone to read and see! There's reasons why I avoid posting images of myself here. And there's reasons why I send people specific links of pictures or journals to view.

To make it worse, these unnamed relatives, I don't know who because I wasn't told--they went to my mom and told her to tell me to update here more! I am not some main act at the circus! I hate the fact that people are now treating my life like a side show for their own entertainment. I am a fairly private person and I want to keep it that way. I'll tell what I want to tell to who I want to tell.

So, because of this, I have no intention of continuing my posts about Korea. Half my relatives don't speak to me all that much now all of a sudden they want daily updates?? And now I feel like I can't even share the things I usually share because then everyone will know through the family gossip chain. So, for the long time being consider me retired.

Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awakening, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.
Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
'Twere better than the cold reality
Of waking life, to him whose heart must be,
And hath been still, upon the lovely earth,
A chaos of deep passion, from his birth.
But should it be- that dream eternally
Continuing- as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood- should it thus be given,
'Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven.
For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright
I' the summer sky, in dreams of living light
And loveliness,- have left my very heart
In climes of my imagining, apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought- what more could I have seen?
'Twas once- and only once- and the wild hour
From my remembrance shall not pass- some power
Or spell had bound me- 'twas the chilly wind
Came o'er me in the night, and left behind
Its image on my spirit- or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly- or the stars- howe'er it was
That dream was as that night-wind- let it pass.

I have been happy, tho' in a dream.
I have been happy- and I love the theme:
Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life,
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality, which brings
To the delirious eye, more lovely things
Of Paradise and Love- and all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.

I have about 45 minutes to kill before I observe another class. Then, at 11 AM Korean time I teach my first class. It's completely discussion based so I look forward to it. Then, from 4-6 in the afternoon I teach the middle school level classes. And after that from 6-9 I teach adult classes. So I'm going to be very busy. I plan on going back to my apartment in between for lunch and a nap. I'm already zoning this morning.

My apartment is nice but very different. The shower isn't seperate from the rest of the bathroom. The shower head hangs right beside the sink. The heating comes from the floor. The bed is pretty stiff and has a pink spread but one of the walls is yellow. But it already has internet working. It has a nice large washer but no dryer--I don't think many Asian countries have dryers. It has a stove and microwave but no oven, I'm looking forward to cooking for myself and wondering what kind of independent chef I'll turn out to be. It might have to wait until my first payday all the way on March 15--what a wait.

The people are very nice, especially my co-teachers. Fiona is very helpful and very fluent in English. I also talk a lot with Huge who is from England. But at the end of the month he is returning home with his new wife--he married the Japanese teacher.

The city itself is very unique compared to American cities. There's street vendors and sidewalks sales that appear about noon and stay open until after sunset. There's all kinds of stores everywhere where I live mixed right in with businesses and apartments. There's a fried chicken stall that I pass every time I walk to and from the school I might have to try. It's about a ten minute walk and the school is actually on the ninth floor of a ten story building. In the summer they're going to expand and rent another floor in another building for their middle school classes.

I really can't get over how dirty it all looks though. People put their trash on the curbs (I'm not yet sure what day(s) are collection days) and they tend to spill open right on the sidewalks. There is litter everywhere! Plus, since it is winter all the plants are dead and there's not leaves on the trees so everything is dirt brown as well. There's also hills everywhere. It reminds me more of West Virginia. Except the hills aren't constant. The land is flat and all of a sudden there's a massive hill/series of hills. As I was on the bus to Gumi I noticed three temples or shrines at the top of certain hills. Also, there were weird patterns on many hills, they were mounds that looked like noses. Turns out those are all small graveyards. I tried to get a picture but the bus window was dirty and it didn't come out.

I have more paperwork to do too. I need to get a physical here and then we take that and my teaching permit to the city hall to get my Alien Card. With that I can get a cell phone and open a bank account.

Starbucks here has something called a Green Tea Latte. Huge loves it. But I thought it was horrible. It was like sweetened green tea made with milk. It was gross. I also had something like country fried steak with a pizza made on top. It would have been very good except for the onions and peppers--I abhor onions. They're still trying to talk me into kimchi but I don't think I'm that brave.

Since this is like a prep/cram school the class sessions run in 20 day cycles, although students can return for the next level during the following cycle. Today is the first day of the new 20 days so I ended up arriving at a good time.

Hmm...other differences...Koreans consider the day you are born to be your 1st birthday. So here I am 25. And they -all- have American names that they have picked out for themselves. From what I gather they find Korean names to be awkward to use and somewhat redundant from person to person ie, there's a lot of Chun's, Park's, Hyang's etc. So they pick American names. But it does seem odd to be calling them Winston, Emily, Jack, and the rest.

Well, that's where things stand now. I might do a big news dump later in the future. Plus I'll probably upload some images sooner or later. I got a digital camera for myself the week before I left. But anyways, those of you who pray, keep praying for me. I still am very nervous about all of this, a bit blow away by the remaining 363 days because it seems so long now, and there is a lot of things that could go wrong that need protection. So thank you and until next time.