Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Enjoying a White Christmas

It's 4:23 AM and I am wide awake. No time for napping today, so I'm not sure exactly how I will function during my yoga class, hair appointment, and evening at my friend Vanessa's house. Hopefully the excellent conversations she and I always share will keep me semi-conscious.

Every night I've managed to sleep from ten until two thirty, at which point I wake up and am unable to get back to sleep again until about seven, when I manage about another three hours. Last night I made the mistake of staying up until eleven, thinking that pushing through the extra hour would tire my body out enough that I could sleep through the night. Instead, it upset the whole delicate balance, and I have not slept AT ALL. I am this strange combination of alertness and exhaustion.

Even with the jet lag, though, it's still been good to be home. I was lucky enough to make it into Ottawa before snowstorms shut all the airports down, so I have just been kicking back, eating my mom's cooking, and chatting to friends. Since the snow did not interfere with my travel in any way, I haven't had any qualms about enjoying it. The cold air here has made me realize that Canada is really in my blood. I get cranky if I don't get a dose of Canadian winter every year. My daily treks to the gym down the snowy street has been the highlight of each day, even if I haven't had the energy to do any more than that. I love rural Ontario, the old houses, the empty fields, the friendly people.

It's also good to have a chance to sit back and reflect on how the semester has gone. I feel like my life is on an excellent trajectory right now. I am doing a job where I have lots of opportunities to help others, and I am gaining a lot of experience that will serve me very well in my intended field of librarianship. There are still a few tough decisions to make about how long I plan to stay at GSIS, and how long I want to live overseas in general, but I don't have to decide that definitively until October. There is plenty of time. Overall, I am on track and heading exactly where I want to go.

Merry Christmas everyone!

2 comments:

mary said...

Hi Rora! It's Mary from kimchi mamas. Hey! I taught English in Korea for 1 year about 7 years ago. really really enjoyed it. =) at YBM sisa in jong ro. =) Cool to get to know other esl teachers.

Did you sign up to sponsor a compassion child yet? =) I hope you do.. if you haven't yet, but plan to, would you mind mentioning "grassroots" and my name (Mary Choi) when you sign up?

I just got another letter from my child and she was telling me how she plans to go to college next year but she is worried because of the costs... she's grown so much over the past 10 years. I really hope that you can experience the joys of being a sponsor too! =)

anyway, merry Christmas and thank you for reading Kimchi Mamas!

Amy Anderson said...

Hi Laura - I have been meaning to drop you a quick note for a while now and am just getting around to it. I think you read my post about my trip to Korea on Kimchi Mamas. I'm the Korean adoptee who was in Korea in December. Anyway, I have skimmed through a little of your blog and it sounds like quite an interesting life you have in ROK. An amazing country with beautiful people and such a culture of contradictions. I'm not sure I could hack it there.

Anyway, thank you for the nice comment on my blog post and Happy New Year to you!

Amy Anderson