Like a river flows

This update took a lot longer to get out than I originally intended, largely because it's been a busy six weeks since I moved up to Seoul, but also because I didn't really know what I wanted to say. I'll get this out of the way right at the start, because I don't want this to be the whole post: I originally intended this update to be entirely about what happened at the end of my previous job. I had and still have a lot - a lot - to say on that subject, but honestly, what's the point? I could type ten thousand words here about it and nothing will change, so why dwell on the past when there's so much awesome stuff going on in my life right now? Suffice to say it sucked, and it's time to move on. So that's that.

Seoul! I'm living in Seoul now! My address has the word Seoul in it! I look out my window and boom, there's Seoul. Which is to say there are a bunch of buildings and a ton of noise. I've wanted to live up here ever since I moved to Korea and so far it has been pretty great. It's just such a colossal city; you could take the subway in any random direction from my apartment for about an hour without ever leaving. Feel free to test that out if you'd like, doesn't sound like the best way to spend an afternoon but I'm not one to judge.

My new apartment is, uh...well it's...

I'm biking more now too! That's been great! Seoul has rental bike stations every couple blocks and it only cost about $40 to use them for an entire year, so I've been cycling in to work every day that it hasn't dumped down rain. We're moving in to fall weather now which might be my favourite season in this country. The five month heat wave that is summer is finally over and it's no longer an agonizing experience just walking out my front door.

I'm also studying Korean a lot more now, which I know I've said in the past but I'm actually really committed to this new program. I found workbooks in a bookstore for a website called Talk To Me in Korean and I started doing their grammar lessons. They're program is fantastic and a huge percentage of their curriculum is free (I paid for the workbooks and bought some additional vocabulary / conversation books because I wanted them, but the lessons themselves are completely free to listen to). If you are new to studying Korean and stumbled across this blog by accident and then actually read all the way down to this point on, I don't know, a dare or something? Then I would highly recommend checking that site out. My skill level has actually increased a ton in the last month alone and I'm only on to the second level of nine.

Work has been great as well! Not a lot new to say on that front as it's the same job I've been doing since I moved here, but the staff has all been helpful and my coworkers are very friendly people. I'm teaching a Masters Literature course which I absolutely love as it gives me a lot of freedom to plan out curriculum and projects. I actually started creating my own dice-rolling tabletop style games themed around the novels we're studying for my students to play in class, which has been a lot of fun. Hopefully some more good news forthcoming on the job front, but we will see.

And of course - burying the lead here a lot - Chloe and I got engaged last month!

One thing I love about this picture is you can't hear Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" which was unfortunately playing somewhere in the background at the time

I proposed at the Han River, where we met and had our first date all the way back in March 2016. I had thought about the proposal for a long time and I had this image in my head of how it would go, and as all good plans eventually do, the whole thing kinda fell apart. The river was absolutely packed by the time we got there and it took a while to find a good spot with some relative privacy. I was incredibly giddy the entire time so it was all I could do to not just physically chase some people away from the area. But we eventually found a great place with a view of Namsan Tower across the river, where we went on our first date after we became an official couple.

The tradition at Namsan tower is for couples to buy a lock, write their names on it and attach it somewhere at the top of the tower. This is meant to represent their bond to one another and help their relationship endure forever. I thought it was kinda cute at the time, but never really took the symbolism to heart until the day I asked the woman I love - and profoundly do not deserve - to marry me.

And so begins another great adventure.


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