Stay at home non-mom.

Yesterday was my first day of being a stay at home non-mom (which sounds kind of like a hand crocodile eating noise, so I guess it's not an unfitting position for the hand-crocodile queen...nom nom nom nom nom nom nom). I was not super great at being an unemployed lay-about in Canada, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be less than great at it here! I mean, at least in Canada I could go home to my family for a visit, or hang out with friends to pass the time. Here everyone I know is at work during the time that I'm alone, since literally EVERYONE I know will work with me in the future...y'know, when I actually start work! I had a meeting with the director of my programme today and found out that my actual start date will be at the end of May even though the teacher I'm replacing is leaving mid-June...I guess that's two weeks better than I thought it would be...be happy about the small things I suppose! I always feel like such a freak when I'm in situations like this. It seems like pretty much anyone else would be rabid with joy at the thought of having a whole month of do whatever the hell you like time in a whole other country, but to me, it's like, the worst thing ever and I'm freaking out. I think right now it seems extra daunting because I can't even communicate well enough yet to get a cab back to my place if I go exploring...and if one is lost in a whole other country, it's pretty essential that one is able to communicate at the very least where one lives...y'know, to avoid death from the elements and starvation and stuff.

In my meeting today I asked the director if I could volunteer to observe classes over the next couple of weeks so that I can at least get my bearings and if maybe I could get my hands on the syllabus (hop on the silly bus...I'm pretty lame...ignore me) and textbooks I'll be using, so I'll probably be nerding it out doing volunteer prep-work for my future job! It's not really like I have anything else to do, so I guess I'm not that lame...right?

I think aside from that, my goal for the month will be to learn Hangul and maybe hook myself up with another teacher who I can do a language exchange with. I think it'll have to be a Korean teacher at another school though, since the time I'll be wanting to do the exchange in is during the time everyone else I know is at work...it'll be an adventure finding this person I'm sure! I can up with a plan earlier this morning to create some Hangul "posters" to put up on our walls...I figure it's always helpful to see what you're learning everywhere everyday...okay, so it can't hurt right? I'm going to go out later on and see if I can find some paper to make them out of. I banned myself from bringing any of my art supplies or even my sewing and I'm already really regretting it. Yesterday I actually went into this store that I'm fairly certain was meant for children and grabbed some markers and pencil crayons. The reason I'm pretty sure that this store was meant for children (specifically the children going to our Hagwon) is that while I was in there several children I recognized from our short tour the preceding week came in to buy the English notebooks they were selling...that and my new supplies have strawberries and b-nans on them...and cute little creatures on the label...and I'm pretty sure I had the Canadian equivalent during my own childhood. Whatever, I have no shame and I definitely need to get stuff where I can get it for now! Don't judge me!

I guess aside from that little foray, the best part of yesterday was the street dog that Aubrey and I saw when I was walking her to work (that's right guys, I'm so bored that I walk my friend to work!) It was really short, fat and stumpy like a Yorky, but it had dark and brown hair like a German Shepherd. I pretty much wanted to kidnap him and bring him home right then and there. It was actually pretty funny since we didn't initially see him...in fact, we were made aware of his extremely cute existence when the little Korean boy walking in front of us stopped dead in fear ("I'm afraid of doggssssss!"...Cora). I don't know why because this dog appeared perfectly healthy and perfectly precious...maybe he'd had a bad experience with street dogs in the past? Regardless, I don't think this dog could ever hurt anyone since he was kind of too short to even bite anyone's ankles...Maybe I'll go on a hunt for him today and get myself all nice and diseasy by touching animals that I shouldn't. I'm always like this. I'm pretty sure you could put a dog with a visible abscess in front of me and I'd still not be able to keep myself from petting him/her. I have a serious problem here people. I have a compulsion to disregard all of the "don't touch animals you don't know" lectures that we all received as children and get my grubby little paws right in there. I can't help it!

Maybe I'll have a little nappy-poo-poo on our lovely double bed that was delivered this morning. Come on people, I'm open to suggestions for magical activities I could do while I'm being a lay-about...anyone?