Super Bowl!

I'd be lying if I said I expected the Packers to be in the Super Bowl.  When the season started, yeah, I thought they had a good shot, but after racking up an ungodly amount of injuries, including offensive playmakers in Ryan Grant and Jermichael Finley, it seemed like a cursed team.  Boy, was I wrong.  Kudos to the entire team for sticking with it, having guys step up and getting the job done.  What a season!

Just like with the Rose Bowl, it's so strange that the Packers return to the Super Bowl the one year I'm out of the country.  Unlike with the Badgers, I missed a lot of Green Bay's games this season because Sunday noon starts are either 2 or 3 a.m. starts on Monday morning here in Korea.  That's pretty hard to pull off, while college games start early on Sunday morning, which leaves plenty of time for the much needed recovery nap.

I guess it's fitting too that I won't be able to watch the big game.  I don't think that has fully settled into my subconscious yet, even though I've known about the possibility for quite some time.  You see I'll be on a boat in the middle of Halong Bay (look it up; it's beautiful) off the coast of Vietnam.  I'm extremely excited for my trip but just can't believe I'm going to miss my team playing in the Super Bowl.  I guess it's better than throwing up all through the game like I did last time the Pack was playing for all the marbles.  Let's hope that's not the case again, or I'll really be miserable.  Knock on wood...

The Doldrums of Winter

Every once in a while life's twists and turns leave every one of us in a bit of a funk.  Life in Korea for me, and seemingly many of my friends, has been a constant roller coaster of love and hate; questioning what I'm doing here; and fits of fantasizing about getting out of here ASAP mixed with thoughts of prolonging my stay.

Let's just say lately I've been more on the negative side of the ledger.  I think it all truly started with catching my third cold in the first four months in country back in early December.  This all for someone who doesn't get sick all that often.  Normally a cold isn't a big deal, but this one hung around for three weeks.  It sapped all my energy, making my daily routine limited primarily to school, eat and sleep. 

I'm a person of routine.  I like to follow the same pattern every day, if possible.  It keeps me on track and generally positive.  So any kind of illness naturally gets in the way.  Nobody likes being sick, but for me I feel like sometimes it's a double whammy. 

Before my early December onset of the common cold I was in a groove:  I was studying Korean often, working out at least five days a week, reading and generally feeling good about life.  That all went away in a huff.  The cold eliminated my desire to study or read and kept me from the gym.

I know this isn't true for all people, but for me, working out keeps me on track.  When I get regular exercise, I feel better, I eat better and I'm more productive at work and at home.  So again, getting sick and being unable or extremely unmotivated to work out was a killer.

Finally, with the coming of a new year I was healthy again.  I was surprised that I picked up at the gym where I left off pretty quickly.  But that wasn't the end of my winter blues; although it certainly helped.

Many people who have been in my position has said the experience starts to wear thin at about four months.  Guess where I'm at.  Knowing this ahead of time, and being pretty level-headed, I think I've handled it well, but there have certainly been days I've been tempted to hop a plane and escape to somewhere familiar.

It also certainly doesn't help that it's winter, with record low temperatures on the peninsula pushing the mercury to zero (might as well be sub-zero when you have to walk everywhere and buildings aren't insulated/have substandard heating).  Add in the fact that most of my friends here are on vacation somewhere warm, and it's not a good combination.

So when I arrived home last Saturday night with no running water let's just say I was not exactly in the best mood.  On top of that, it's not exactly a great situation to find yourself in when you don't speak the same language as the best person to fix said problem.  Eventually it got worked out, and I'm back among the civilized.

Now I'm just trying to hold on for the last five days of classes and 12 days on the calendar before vacation delivers me the best present it can - someone special to help whisk me away to warmer climes.  Vietnam and Cambodia await!

The trick now is to find a way to stop thinking about it, so the time doesn't drag by.  Any ideas for distractions are welcome!  :)

Old News?

I was given the opportunity to write a piece for my former paper, The Waunakee Tribune, about my first semester.  I thought it might be worth sharing here.
Tribune piece