Strange days

Okay, this has not been an average week (more about that later.) I've been feeling a bit out of place this past week, sort of like a foreigner in a strange country, ha ha! Very unusual for me though, I haven't felt homesick or anything like that since I left Newfoundland last year and this is past my 6 month mark now. I was starting to think that I was born to live out here, somewhere else.

This week has been a bit different. I felt kinda alien this week, strange customs that don't usually bother me here started to rankle, kinda like in the Doors song "People are Strange".

Last night, at the height of this feeling of strangeness, the lady who runs my neighbourhood convenience store, and her friends, invited me to sit and eat with them in front of the store. It was completely unexpected, interesting, strange and touching. I dined on the curb outside the convenience store with three ladies who spoke no English and felt I was finally part of the neighbourhood. I know I'm one of very few foreigners in my neighbourhood that's seen by daylight (again, more on that later.)

Thus began a whole cycle of even more strangeness so far today. A feeling of blissful, near-perfection that is almost unbearably easy but yet, somehow, unnerving. I know that I probably shouldn't question this strange grace that I feel today, but it's so calming that it's making me worry. This morning I was the first teacher to arrive at school.

Actually now that I think about it, the whole cycle of difference really began yesterday morning when I walked part of the way back home with the Korean teacher who teaches Chinese language classes, I've been here for six months and I didn't even think she could speak very much English (and my Korean is still too piss-poor for conversation beyond buying lunch), but yesterday we walked and had had a conversation for about 20 minutes. She just dropped by now and got my name and phone number, I'm not sure why but it's all part of the strangeness of this thing.