Beautiful weather

Jeonju Spring is officially the most beautiful season in any country anywhere.  Or maybe it's just that I finally have a break, a real break at that.  Or maybe it's just that I'm finally taking charge of my stuff and cleaned my whole kitchen today (and did the dishes much sooner than normal).  Or maybe it's that I haven't turned on the TV or my music all day, and I'm just listening to the outdoors.  Or maybe it's just that my whole house is open to the outside air, the sun is shining in through my windows, and I'm finally relaxing.  

I've been tensing up a little the past two evenings thinking "Wow, today feels like Sunday already." But the thing is, it wasn't Sunday, wasn't even Saturday.  And I don't have work until late Monday. It's like every weekend is just a little too short, I never have a day completely to myself, with nothing to do.  Saturdays I have work (and my boss just signed me up for another of his 5 hour Saturday class - yippee), and Sunday is church.  Not that I'm knocking church or anything, but it's just another thing that is built into my schedule, so that when I look at my week, I don't have a single blank day.  I actually really love Sundays because I get to meet up with some of my guy friends that I don't see during the week and we always have lunch, coffee, play tennis, play pool, play board games (board game cafes here), eat dinner, have ice cream, etc, etc, or any combination thereof, so Sundays are quite a nice change of pace from the usual week.  But, I'd still like a big blank in my schedule.  And I finally got one.

Five days off this weekend, and only working 2 hours a day on the other days of this week is better than I expected (I usually don't expect much).  Since February 22 I've not had my normal kindergarten classes during the day, only morning and afternoon class.  Then a weekend, then only afternoon class M-W the following (last) week.  Thursday was a National Holiday, and Friday I had no work (though a short meeting).  I also have no work Monday until late in the evening, and no work in the afternoons or evening until March 19 when I resume university classes.  Like I said, at first I started tensing up thinking about the quickly approaching week and resuming of work, but then I realized how slowly the week actually was approaching and I'm finally starting to relax.

I started getting sick again on my first day off, Thursday the holiday, and then I started thinking about why that was.  I spent nearly all day in my house doing pretty much nothing.  I did clean up some (boy it was a big project, letting things pile up for so long), but after a few hours, just turned on the TV for the rest of the day.  I had planned to go for a run that day, but because I started to get sick, I canceled that, and just stayed in.  However, the longer I was in my house, the sicker I got (or so it seemed when coughing worsened and included a headache eventually).  I started looking online for reasons and found some interesting info on mold, and noticed that I definitely had symptoms of a moldy house, at least the "sick causing mold" that literally causes cold and flu-like symptoms after too much exposure.  Considering I've been sick for most of the winter, and constantly getting better, then worse, and always with a "cold" I really started to think about that.  If nothing else, at least I realized the danger of my lack of good quality air.  Recently when I've come home from classes, I've noticed a slight difference in the air between outside and inside.  But in the middle of winter, in a small apartment, who wants to leave windows open if you're trying to heat the place?  I left windows closed nearly all winter to try and contain the heat.  Of course it worked, but at what cost?  Anyway, if nothing else, I should have closed the kitchen door and opened the windows in the kitchen when I was heating, since that is where the heater is located (it pumps heat under the floor, so the floor is actually what is heated in the main apartment).

Anyway, around 8 or 9pm I started to get really sleepy, and almost thought about going to bed, but then I thought that I couldn't go to bed with bad air, so, despite my headache, I went for a 6 mile walk to Homever (Wal-Mart) and back, and opened my house the whole time.  Upon leaving my house, I felt slightly better, but after the 6 mile walk around the city, I was exhausted.  I came home and left my windows open all night and all day Friday, all night Friday night, and I will continue to leave them open ALL the time now.  After completely cleaning my room and getting all the fresh air circulating, I'm sure things will be looking up.  Even if I don't have mold, at least getting new air, and getting rid of all the old dirt and dust will help.  If I do have mold in some place that I have no idea where to look for (I've checked all the dark, sometimes wet places I can think of for now) at least keeping my windows open all the time will keep the air quality in my house consistent with that of the outside.  And since there are always mold spores in the outside air, I don't think it will be a big problem.

Anyway, as for the whole cleaning thing.  It's a big job to clean this whole apartment, and especially if I just let it pile up.  I think I'm going to have to break things down a bit.  Maybe clean the kitchen every Monday, bathroom every Wednesday, and main house every Friday (when I have the afternoons off).  That way things can't ever get THIS bad again.  I never realized the importance of cleaning until my house started making me sick (so it seems).  

Things like this sometimes just frustrate the hell out of me.  I feel like I'm just fumbling around half the time, trying to live, but not really knowing how.  I always seem to find out things the hard way.  Even if someone gives me good advice, because usually the good advice is just "wash your dishes more often."  I never hear the consequences, like "if you don't you might have to throw your dishes away."  And even if I do hear the consequences, the reality of the situation doesn't really hit me until after it happens, when I actually DO have to throw my dishes, or my moldy towels, away.  I feel like I'm just learning things the hard way more often than not.

I learned the hard way not to keep old rotting food in a trash can in my kitchen when I started having maggots and flies growing off of that (gross).
I learned the hard way not to keep kimchee too long in my fridge after it started leaking, and rotting and stinking in there.  
I learned the hard way not to keep rice in my rice cooker too long after it started fermenting and turning into rice wine in there (stinky).
I learned the hard way to clean my dishes more quickly when I had to throw some away from mold (the same with towels kept too long unwashed in my clothes washer).
I learned the hard way to clean my apartment and open the windows more often when I started getting sick from spending too much time in there.
I learned the hard way not to buy more food in a week than I WILL eat in that week, when I had to constantly throw out old stuff (living alone is so much different from living in a family, where you can stock the fridge with random foods.  Here I actually have to PLAN everything or I'll end up with too much or too little of something)

I think I'll end up learning the hard way about preparing meals (or at least planning them) before I get hungry (because I constantly just get pizza or McDonald's if I need something to eat NOW).

Oh, one more thing I learned the hard way, though not related to housekeeping.  If in a group of foreigners you happen to mention that you are an American, NEVER mention that you voted for George W. Bush (even with the quantifier "before the war" OR even though over half of the US did vote for him) because NOBODY likes George W. Bush overseas.  And even if someone did like Bush, they would certainly keep their mouth shut about it.  The other foreigners will just lynch you about it.  Maybe that's why I don't like to go drinking with the foreigners here.  I prefer Koreans.

Anyway, one last thing about the relaxing before I wrap this up.  I used to feel really pressed for time about everything, my goals, learning Korean, Japanese, studying robotics, cooking, cleaning, etc, etc.  But I'm starting to learn that not everything is a sprint to the finish.  I'm starting to see things more like reading a long book.  Do a little at a time, relax, enjoy it, and eventually you'll finish it.  After all, I'm only 25 years old, and I've got lots of time left to do what I want to do.  At first, thinking about the hugeness of my goals, or tasks, I used to get really tired just thinking about them, and they seemed far too overwhelming, because to me, everything was a sprint, to learn or accomplish all in one breath, or as short a time as possible.  But when training for the marathon (though I've missed a few days), or reading the book, or reading any book, or even just cleaning my place one piece at a time, I can start to see things in a better light.  I can start to see things now as a progression, building piece upon piece, part upon part until the goal is finally accomplished.  Even in learning Korean.  I study a little today, tomorrow, I'll recognize more words (at least one) on the TV, or in public.  In calming down about such things, and slowing down my pace, I'm able to relax in these things more and to enjoy the process.  Instead of rushing things so much, I'm starting to learn to slow down, and not get ahead of myself.

Anyway, hopefully I'll remember these things later, when I'm back at work and the pressure is on again.  This will be my last long weekend off in a long time, and I intend to make the most of it.