Well, over here, spring is in the air, and that can only mean one thing; the arrival of the fearsome "pockets of ___" (for those hangman enthusiests, the word has one two consonents, and one vowel, and rhymes with "bass"). for those of who have never been overseas to visit places such as China, or Japan, or anywhere where the rise in population has fought with the increasing demand for sewage disposal (and won, handily..) your end result is what is known as a pocket of ass(pardon my french..). in its simplistic form, it's pretty much a complete smell of sewage that blows in from absolutely nowhere, completely overwhelms your sense of smell, and then takes away your appetite in double time. its how you know that spring has arrived, because in the winter, the smell is clearly not as strong; unfortunately, i've heard that in the summer, they increase in smell - super - i'm sure that some of you already have checked off South Korea on your list of places to visit.
thats one of the frustrating things with Korea - as the population continues to rise, there is a complete overwhelming of public supplies such as drinkable water from a tap, or the availability of public services such as disposing of waste. these cities have been around so long, and theres no way that they can change things by upgrading pipes, or changing an entire neighbourhood; theres no way that you can do it. the same thing goes for social services. one of the pluses with Korean society is that there is not a lot of homelessness; the families bear the brunt of taking care of whomever cannot afford to live on their own. its why taxes here are so cheap, or non-existent at all. the price you see on anything is the total price you will pay; it makes it easy to calculate groceries, and multiple-purchase items, but when you realize that their is no such thing as pensions, etc, then you get a good idea why the people here work for sixty hours a week; they're trying to keep up with the stress on the family to provide for everyone. but that's just the way they do things here. when you try to explain things to them as to how we operate in North America, they just shake their head when you explain to them about welfare? if you can't work here, you create a job, and stay busy. over here, you find a niche where they need help, and fulfil it. its one of the things that continues to throw my mind; i'm pretty much over the cultural shock, (i don't think i ever really felt it....) but there are still things that throw me.
as in regards to making more posts, i know some of you check quite frequently. i've now moved into another apt, with more space, where i also have wireless internet. i'm hoping to make more postings now that i can write at home, but theres still a lot of kinks that are still not working in my favor. i know some of you have posted comments, and for that, i appreciate all of them; but i can't actually look at my own blog site; my last two postings i've done without actually being able to look at my blog. so if you post a comment, when i figure out the reason for the inability for me to look at my site, then i will get around to replying to them.
well, i must go - its dinner time for me (4:45pm), even though its 3:45 am for you - thank you all for the prayers and well-wishes; know that i pray for you all as well, and wish the best. i wish i could say that i miss the cold weather and small snow that you've received in the past few days - right now, its a nice spring temp of 20C, which we've had for the past week and a half....
take care, and God Bless
Bryan