culture shock?

so i've been hanging out with our new teacher. i'm glad she's cool and fun to hang out with. i guess i forgot how it feels when i first came to wonju and i didn't know anyone and didn't know the language. the loneliness can be quite overwhelming. you miss all your friends, your life back home, and the comforts of living in a country where you can actually communicate and get around. you get here and everyone feels it. the alienation...so we make friends real fast and try to stay above water. i tried to stop hanging out with foreigners because they always end up leaving me.

when i had my friends here it felt like every day was so much fun. but then their time was up and then they're gone. forever. and then i'm here alone again. of course i know bum's here...and i know i have my korean friends and my students, but sometimes it's just nice to be able to communicate with people without getting lost in translation. lately i'd been sucked into that english comfort zone...you know the drink until daylight, dance like a mad man, forget about your worries and pretend you're in america zone. i was losing my mind but it was a lot of fun. now of course i'm trying to maintain normal relationships with friends, having girls night eating pizza and watching sex and the city. i'm practicing for our wedding band performance on saturday. the couple who own the bar where we are regulars at, are getting married this saturday and we're gonna play the wedding songs. i'm playing bass guitar. haha...lots of practicing is needed.

oh and i had an interesting run in at the bank today. i dunno whether i was getting hit on or just being asked out for the purpose of practicing English. my usual bank teller who i'd gone to for the last 2 years changed last month. i was bummed cause the guy was cool and usually took care of all my translation problems at the bank. i was trying to get the new guy to set up my atm card to send money home so that i didn't have to go upstairs every time i wanted to send money home. he told me he didn't really wanna set it up cause then i'd have no reason to go see him. i just brushed it off and figured koreans are just like that when they're around english speakers. then i went in today to tried to use my card to send money home but that didn't work either. so sure enough i had to go upstairs to see him. it took an hour to get everything sorted out. i mentioned going back to the states in august and he was relieved when i said it was only for vacation. again he said he didn't wanna get the atm thing done cause then he wouldn't get to see me. then he proceeded to ask me when i had time we should go get some coffee or something to eat. i pretended i didn't hear him and asked if my transaction was done. i thanked him and left confused. this man had a huge gaudy wedding ring on his finger and so i figured i wasn't getting hit on but normally if this was in the states this kind of behavior is not common right? it made me feel uncomfortable and so i asked bum if this was normal korean behavior and he said the man is stupid and asked where he worked. lol korean culture is weird...is it possible to still feel culture shock after 2 years??

sorry for the ranting...i know i should have more substance in these updates but life is "same same" as they would say in korea. i'm just excited for vacation!! about 2.5 more months before i get to go HOME!!! HOME SWEET HOME!!! :-D