The Latest "Plan"

Okay.  So it should be obvious to anyone who has been reading my blog to this point that me and travel itineraries don't really live on the same plane of existence.  One word: PENCIL - I can only write them in pencil!!  However, that being said, some want to know what the heck I'm doing with myself so here you go...

I have a general idea about what I'm doing:

I think I mentioned that my friend Jill has changed over her travel plan and as such we're not doing the whole big thing together that we'd planned, yah?  And I think I already mentioned that I don't want to redo some of the places I've already seen since I'll be on my own, correct? 

So, here we go.  Plan B, or C.  Or maybe it's D... something like that...

Until near the end of April when my visa runs out I am going to keep my butt in sweet, beautiful Bangladesh. 

When the government MAKEs me leave (because that's what it's going to take!), I will head to lovely (if grossly touristy and polluted) Nepal for 2 weeks. 

After that I will come back to Bangladesh for a month before heading out for a month in Sri Lanka (which I am still very excited about) and a few weeks split between Laos and Thailand, and heading back to Canada for July 31st (Mom's birthday, I promised, but liklely not a day sooner!).
That, is my approximation of a new travel plan.  No map, no sticky notes, just a rough guess to answer curiousity. 

It's kind of a "plan."
Feel free to laugh now, I won't hear you.

Lists and plans and *A*n*Y*t*H*i*N*g* but homework!

So I got to thinking (I am supposed to be doing homework, so it was bound to happen!) about the different things I want to do while I'm in Korea. I had started thinking about this when plans were bantered around for a return last Spring, so here's where I'm at for now...

• Continue studying Korean (I have Rosetta Stone on my computer and am making a committment to do an hour of studying at least 3 times/week for the next 3 months - I hadn't been doing this but will start tomorrow, I'm hoping more will sink in since I'm surrounded by the language now!)
• Practice yoga (The gym downstairs offers yoga a few times a week, and I've scheduled a 'viewing session' with them on Tuesday next week after work - if it looks good I'll be starting Wednesday 3 days per week for the next 3 months, otherwise I'll look around, there are yoga places all over!)
• Spend my weekends outside of my apartment doing things, not sitting at home in front of the computer/TV (cuz let's face it, while it's easier to sit on my butt at home, that just sucks the life right outta me, so I've committed to going out and doing something new or meeting new people at least one day out of each weekend - I've been out every weekend so far!)
• Make Korean friends, and not just hang out in the foreign community (On Sunday I'm meeting KiJeong and her daughter Cathy (old kindy student and her mom from Suji) for shabu-shabu in Suji, it's a start at least! I've also thought about maybe going for coffee with a couple of the Korean helper-teachers because they're so nice, but my Korean is just so... ugh, sketchy!!)
• Reconnect with old friends that are still in Korea (I have gotten back in touch with most old friends that are kicking around here and even managed a visit here and there! I hope to stay in touch and hang out now and again, we'll see how that goes as none of us live in the same area)
• Join a hiking/climbing group and go out with them regularly (I've joined a hiking group in Seoul, but haven't gone out with them yet - I hope to in April! Had to cancel March plans due to school project deadlines, yuck)
• Let go of my attachment to converting Korean Won to Canadian Dollars everytime I want to make a purchase (I can honestly say that I haven't even thought about this once since I've been back. It was such a knot in my head the last 2 trips, I've managed to let it go though)
• See the English theatre shows that visit and Go to at least one international concert a year (So far I've seen signs for Phantom and Miss Saigon, but both shows are in Korean... I might go see Miss Saigon anyway, but I'll keep watching; Bob Dylan is coming next month, but he's not really my thing... another thing I'll stay tuned for)
• Keep in touch regularly with friends and family back at home by email and bloggin' (so far so good with this one too, yay!)

To add to the old list, I would also like to do a temple stay, do a bike tour of GyeongJu, go somewhere where the cherry blossoms are in bloom this spring for photos, take a vacation in Busan, get into a pattern of taking care of myself better (maybe regular relaxing massage and accupuncture sessions??), and perhaps if I get up the gumption (yep, getting old, I just brought out the gumption) I'll find somewhere they'll teach me how to dance... we'll see, I hope the list keeps growing as I find out more about what goes on around here!

Things I Want to Do in Korea

• Continue studying Korean
• Visit the countryside
• Try some kind of art class (maybe painting?)
• Visit a few of the small farming islands and spend time with a couple of farming families
• Go to Everland and Caribbean Bay
• Take a martial art for 6 months consecutively
• Cliff dive over near ChiriSan, if I can find the spot
• Practice yoga
• Take a digital photography course
• Spend my weekends outside of my apartment doing things, not sitting at home in front of the computer/TV
• Make Korean friends, and not just hang out in the foreign community
• Participate in the Vagina Monologues again
• Work as a counselor in one of the schools
• Reconnect with old friends that are still in Korea
• Join a hiking/climbing group and go out with them regularly
• Let go of my attachment to converting Korean Won to Canadian Dollars everytime I want to make a purchase
• Do a run (maybe 5km?) just for the fun of it
• See the Broadway shows that visit
• Go to at least one international concert a year
• Climb a mountain
• Go to the mud festival
• Keep in touch regularly with friends and family back at home by email and bloggin'

The list is much longer, so needless to say I will continue to add to it!