It's been said that time prevents everything from happening at once, and it appears to be true. Those enslaved by time might be inclined to point out that a year has passed since this blog's last entry. Piffle, I say. We're still here, we're still there, "then" is the new "now". It's all a question of perspective. In short, I'm granting myself carte blanche to shake off the shackles of strict chronology, and write about whichever "when" suits me at a given time (or non-time).
There will (hopefully) be future posts to expand upon the following, but, in a nutshell, we've been to China, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand during the intervening months. More interestingly, we've taken a summer vacation from our spastic around-the-world junket in order to visit family in New York, B.C. and Alberta. We had some time-consuming chores to execute while there, and have returned to tropical weather and a fairly open schedule in Seoul, so it's hard to say what is vacation and what is simply life. It's a surprisingly satisfying problem to have.
It has taken very little time for Seoul to feel like home again. We were welcomed with open arms to our old spot at the Hongsi Guest House, and even greeted like long-lost friends at our neighbourhood grocery store. Getting around in this immense city has been second nature, which may not seem too surprising after only a two-month departure, but Seoul might as well be on a different planet. Some of the attached photos may hint at this.
One thing that takes some getting used to here is the constant jumble of comings-and-goings in the expat community. At home, months or even years may go by between visits with a particular friend, but you always expect to find them where you left them, more or less. Not here. Our circle of friends and colleagues is constantly in flux; a situation that will hopefully remind us to enjoy our friends while we can. Brenda, whose advice got us to Seoul in the first place, has been back in Vancouver for months now, leaving quite a hole. Several of the voice actors have left or are planning to leave in the coming months. Thankfully, none of the bands I've been playing for (The Pines, Short Bus, Voodoo Children and L.R.D.) have been perforated by departures, although the heat and vacation season have put them in limbo for now.
Our reacclimatization to Seoul is behind us, the jobs are slowly beginning to come in again, and we've fallen into a healthy new routine. Courtesy of jetlag, we now get up at 6am, stomp to a park to wreak havoc on the public exercise equipment (to the amusement of the alarmingly-fit geriatrics we see there), head home, shower and eat an outdoor breakfast, all before our former wake-up time. A tip for the chronically draggy: change your sleep pattern. When you find your magic numbers, you'll feel like a new person. I myself am over seven feet tall now, and have won the Nobel prize in medicine.
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