Today was a homesick day, not helped by the fact no one thought it would be a good idea to inform me that the school would be closed for a holiday. Which in turn wasn't helped by my forgetting my phone and so waiting for an hour and half for my principal to randomly turn up and look confused at me. So yes not an entirely happy day but not a terrible one either. The wasting of about 2 hours mid way through the day meant I could not do anything as interesting as I did on Sunday.
On sunday I braved the rains and humidity and took a trip to Gyeongbok Palace in seoul. Seoul is big, very big and so finding Gyeongbok palace became almost an adventure in itself. I discovered odd alleyways and streets full of beautiful shops, too crowded for me to feel comfortable taking pictures however. Maybe next time I go i'll try a less busy day. The Palace and it's grounds where beautiful, and reminded me why I was really doing this. To see the world. I manage to enter the park through a side entrance rather than the massive front gates and so came upon all the side pavilions and park areas before I found the palace. As always walking anywhere near trees means you are accompanied by the Korean Cicada making the loudest insect noise I have ever heard, which sounds something like an engine starting on a motorboat but never quite getting there. I walked around the park for hours, avoiding stepping on the many children running about the place, and saw many westerners doing the same thing. While Incheon is near Seoul it doesn't have nearly the same amount of westerners in it as Seoul does.
The park like all other parks I have seen so far (that's 3 so not exactly a standard yet) is surrounded by the city, which is a shame when on one side you can look up past the rooftops of Korean pavilions and see mountains and then you turn around and are reminded of where you really are. But for many a moment you can forget you are surrounded by a giant kinda dirty city and enjoy the park for all it's beauty.
By the end of the day the humidity had really got to me, that and forgetting to eat, so I decided to head home. So far I haven't yet witnessed a normal or at lest what I would consider normal subway journey. Almost every time someone is singing in the middle of the carriageway and then awaiting people's money. This time was no different only it was literally just a man with long greasy hair in a pink shirt singing and then holding out a plastic bag to take the money in. Money that wasn't forthcoming from anyone. This was then followed by a different guy appearing right next to me moments later trying to sell raincoats, having had my earphones in at the time I did not notice him for a while until I noticed people were staring in my direction more than usual. I get the normal looks as do most westerners, maybe a little more because I'm the only person I've seen so far with tattoo's, but this time I could tell there was something else at play here.
To be honest it's probably the music that's making me homesick, for the first 2 weeks I didn't listen to any, I didn't want to close myself off to any experiences that might occur during my journeying, until I realised that it was like any other commute when you do the same journey day after day. Never a boring journey however, because it doesn't matter how many time it happens, feeling your bus suddenly tilt at an almost 90degree angle because the road is for some reason at 2 different levels at various points on the journey, never gets old. Neither does your bus drivers inability to recognise other road users as anything but things to bounce off. But yes listening to music again has lead me to drift off and think about home more. So I need new music, music that I have nothing from home connected to it. Maybe it's time to start listening to kpop.
Kpop aside, whilst I have the days like these and the days when the kids are just impossible to teach, I'm still glad I'm here. I have plans and this has started them off, so let's hope that tomorrows medical check results yield the news I can stay and not that I have too high a cholesterol level and have to go home. This is something I am worried about, not STD's or anything like that but I have heard people failing their medical checks on that basis and cholesterol levels is an issue in my family. But at the same time on a day like today I have been thinking of contingency plans if I have to come home. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow.
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