My Little Scooter

In my last post I mentioned that I bought a scooter. I recently got some work done on my bike. I discovered that I I had a button that I didn't know what it did.I pressed it to the left and to the right, but nothing happened on my back. I asked some Koreans what the toggle was for. I was guessing that it was or hoping that it was some turbo, because my scooter didn't go as fast as the guy said it was. He said it would go 100 km/hr. I think that I maybe get up to 60 km/hr or maybe 70/80 km/hr when I am going down a hill. Well it turns out that it was the turn signals that the toggle triggered. So I had a bike with turn signals, I also discoverd that I didn't have a tail light or brake lights and the LED's on the side of my scooter weren't even wholly working. So I took it to a couple of bike shops in Gapyeong (the town where I live) and no one there could fix it. So I took it to another town close by and they were willing to fix it for 100 bucks. It was expensive, but I thought that it might have been even more expensive considering the guys in my local town couldn't fix it. I got some sweet new LED's put on my bike that change color. I found out that I don't ever have to change the oil on my bike, just add more as it burns up; the same principle applies to gasoline. I learned how to say 'fill 'er up to the gas attendants' [everything is full service] in korean so I felt pretty good. I also drove to a big city close by and discovered that it was much bigger than I had previously thought. After getting there I thought that I would explore a little, so I took a road that I had never been on before just to see where it lead. I thought when I get to the outskirts of the city I'll turn around. Well after about 15 minutes of traveling I decided to turn around (though I hadn't reached the outskirts yet). It only took me 30 minutes to travel there too, so its a pretty big city. I didn't get to any really cool places, but I did find a really big shopping area, kind of like a walmart that I previously thought was only a convenience store. I enjoyed riding my little scooter a lot. I think that I found God a little bit. I remember my father telling me about a book he had to read in college for philosophy about Zen and riding a motorcycle. I can certainly understand how it can be a spiritual experience. I am giving driving lessons to Heidi, my coordinator. It is a little scary at times and at times she is a little scared while driving which makes me even more uncomfortable while riding alongside here. This week kids aren't here. There is big scare for H1N1 in korea. Some people have died and so people are little paranoid of foreigners, travel and closed communities. Schools typically come here for a week and then leave. People are afraid to let their kids get isolated. Since we don't have anyone here this week, it gives us some time to prep for our lessons and get other things done that we wouldn't normally get done. Its nice to have a little break. This week i'm doing prep-work for next week and continuing to design some materials for a reach-ahead program that we have for kids who are behind other kids in their language ability. Last week I had an administrative position and I was put incharge of reach-ahead and co-teaching or at least trying to better understand them and solve some problems we had with them. Reach ahead is continuing to be fixed this week while co-teaching is on a hold until I hear back from a gentleman that I met with to express my concerns about the program. Next week we should have kids and the week after that I have a week of vacation. I am quite excited because I will hopefully be able to ride my bike a bit more. I've also been considering lasic (sp?) surgery for my eyes. I think that it would be neat. I am really enjoying my job here and am glad that I came. I hope that I continue to grow and develope and learn to love others more and more.