Hurts so good

Fruits of my hitting labors

Roller derby. YES. I met a woman in Black Rock City wearing a derby shirt and we instantly bonded. One thing she said struck me, "Roller derby has taught me more than anything about femininity. I can be strong AND sexy without apologizing for either." It has been fantastic to get to know a group of strong and sexy women who are amazingly empowered and often quite crazy. Because my crazy has needed some company for a while, and the military folk are a different brand of crazy.

Not only has the exercise and social network been amazing, any time I'm frustrated with foreigner troubles (I know, first world problems) or freaked about not knowing what's next in life I know it's only a matter of time before the next practice where I can hip-check the crap out of someone with no hard feelings.

For anyone else out there who needs an amazing outlet... you'd be surprised where derby leagues are springing up and where they already exist.




Vocab of the day: 
Korean: 더비= derby
Military: CSC = combat stress control

When it rains....

So, Seoul has been great for my life and bad for my blogging. Not a bad tradeoff, but sorry to those few readers who have hung in with me.

We've had a most delightful string of Couchsurfers, most recently a Portugese-turned-Belgian couple Juana and Antonio who are on a honeymoon year (the Belgian government allows a year of unpaid travel with the guarantee you can get your job back- how awesome!). They also had great stories about their previous 5 years working with a computing giant, one in particular about a cultural training they had to attend. The trainers characterized French people's response to anything as, "That's terrible! It will never work!" and Americans' as "the happy dance," where things aren't good, they're AWESOME! That presentation wasn't fair, it was FANTASTIC! I love this idea of the "happy dance" and was amused that Juana and Antonio identified my happy dance so many times- "We're totally lost, what a great ADVENTURE!" and so on.

Juana and Antonio were also greatly amused at the phrase "when it rains, it pours" as there's no equivalent in Portugese. It's turned out to be a very timely phrase these days. No more moping in front of tv-on-my-computer for days, I have to schedule in lazy days now! Between museum docenting, general domesticity I undertake, part time online work, and travel/party planning, I decided to join ROLLER DERBY. Probably more on that later, but it's consumed my life and thighs and I couldn't be happier. The team is still pretty new and hoping to get bout-ready by spring. Which of course means...

Today got word we might be back in Seattle as soon as December. Eeek! After all that time pining for the US, work, friends and family there... of course it's now that I really wish I could stay until spring. But, of course it's not official yet, and can change a dozen times or not happen at all. When it rains, it pours.



Vocab of the day: 
Korean: rain= 비 (bee)
Military: "uncertain environment" = just what you think it might be