To a new year?

Well, March has come and gone..thank god. April arrives on our doorstep tomorrow and I couldn't be more ready. I hate to say it, but I'm hoping time flies here. The last few weeks have been quite confusing for Shan and I. Her job seriously went down the crapper, her old boss Michael was fired for running this school into the ground (his 3rd business to go bankrupt). Thank god he was fired though, this was an evil man. Not even evil in the sense of being a jerk for a boss but he wanted to completely control his staff under him. Luckily enough Shan had nothing to do with that, however, one of her coworkers became quite submissive to Michael. Her co-worker was a gentle soul who would do what he could to help, he had a couple social problems and a few physical ones as well, but he was just a nice guy in general. Michael saw this in him and exploited it in its fullest. Making him spend time with him on the weekends (because Michael is a sad and lonely man), making her co-worker practice martial arts until he cried, he was abused physically and mentally. There's so many other stories that I'm not even getting into here...it's crazy. But her coworker decided that he had enough of Korea and we did we could to help him leave, thankfully.

So this left Shan in an awkward position. Teaching at a school (in the same building) owned by her previous chairmen, being the only foreigner, and not being able to speak with her boss...at all. So, she's been having problems getting her money and has had to go to the labour board and immigration and all this...it's messed up. As of now, she's been paid in full and we've been trying to get her over to work at Maple Bear where my boss wants (needs) her desperately. We don' think any of this will actually be able to happen becuase her schools owner wont release her Visa allowing her to work at another school. So we've decided to leave Korea at the end of my contract and hopefully be able to do some travelling around Europe. So something good can from this eh? We're trying to figure where we'll fly into from Korea and what countries are considered 'a must see' and which ones are expendable..and which ones are just not possible. It's hard to weed throught hte countries so we're trying to pick the ones that are most important to ourselves, two each. Ireland and Scotland are mine, and she's picked Italy as one of hers...and we'll wait for the other after we get alot more of research. Her research is so different from mine, of course our motivations are different too...I want to photograph :) haha

Things at Maple Bear are fine, my old kids are gone and I know have twice as many younger kids. It's sad because I really can't teach that many kids effectively. I'm lucky if they learn anything honestly. But our Business Director makes all the academic decisions in the school (which isn't a great idea). She's cut costs everywhere she could, hired new teachers becuase our old experienced teachers wanted nothing more to do with her, and upped the price of the school. So she's offering a subpar product for something that costs alot more now. Short term gains equal long term loss. This concept means nothing to her. I'm sure she's a fine person and I want to believe she is, but sometimes you have to question your beliefs.

So yeah, things have been down here for the past few weeks (months, really). But life is starting to come back to Korea and I'm back out with my camera and trying to find more ways to get into the woods here. The Cherry Blossoms are just starting to bloom and I see a little light coming from them in my life. As important as having Shannon here with me, I need nature.

I'm doing better mentally over the past few days then I have in a few weeks, I've become very cynical and bitter towards this place and I'm really trying to let go of it. Physically, I'm doing better than I have in over 10 years. I now weigh 149lbs. I haven't been this light since, well I don't remember. I feel great, so much lighter on my feet, muscle tone is back and I can't wait to get back to the gym. I think I was going too much in the past and I'm going to cut back to give my body a break and my head a chance to relax in my apartment with a book or outside with my camera. I feel like a new person, with old clothes that dont fit...even the new ones I bought two months ago!