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The scorching heat is blasting us here in Korea; it reached almost 40 degrees Celsius last week, and the rest of the month will be somewhere between 33 and 40. Add in the humidity and it is quite unbearable to be outside. It is so hot that the normal swarms of mosquitoes don't exist. That's right. The mosquitoes are AWOL.
You're not going to find that many people outdoors during this time of year. People shut themselves inside their homes or spend the day in an over crowded, well air-conditioned coffee shop to pass the day (and save on electricity bills.)
Why am I nattering on about the weather?
Because, dear reader, the air conditioning broke in work today and I am teaching in this sweltering heat. Students are dropping off my list like flies, refusing to come to school because of the idea of being shut in a small room for an hour sweating like veggies in plastic wrappings.
So now my desk looks like this:
I wrote the above section of the blog yesterday. Today, the broken air conditioning continues to torture us while we wait for the engineer to come save us. The nice man that cares for our building came up with a handy solution! There is a bar in the basement that shut down and lies in abandonment with all facilities still intact. Why don't you teach down there? So today, my co-teachers and I am switching between here and downstairs creepy bar:
Seriously. The place looks like the owner closed up last night, started to pack it all up and then gave in and left. Even the beer taps still have kegs attached. These bottles are unopened!
Anyway......
For anyone who follows me on social media, you'll see that I recently took a short trip to the wonderful Jeju Island. I really needed to get out of the city and get in touch with nature, so I headed off to my favorite volcanic spot and dove right in. Here's a summary in pictures:
I managed to get a lot of reading and relaxing done and basically lounged on the beach or under trees trying to find my long lost energy.
I found it!
I feel so much more energetic, despite this insane heat. Living in the city has always been hard for me. There is a certain grumpy part of me that detests crowds and concrete, that feels a rise of bitterness when people are too close or too noisy or too, just, annoying. I find myself getting irritated by the smallest of things at times. But that feeling, my dear friends, departed when I lazed on this island and swallowed in the calming effects that nature has.
Armed with a pen and paper, walking through the deep nature of Jeju brings about great writing epiphanies that I just can't find in the city. In fact, I can say that there is a certain element in book two of the Aronia Series that has a direct link to Jeju. And that is the stones that stood at the entrance of the dwarf caves. Those were inspired by these guys:
Spoiler alert: they are returning in abundance in book 3! Can you guess why?? ;)
:D
You still have plenty of time to vote for The Watcher of the Night Sky in the 2018 Reader’s Choice Awards by TCK Publishing. You can find her in category 12. YA and Middle Grade.
https://www.tckpublishing.com/2018-readers-choice-voting-page/
:D
My author friend Gideon Fields made a few videos for her website - you can hear / see little old me in some of them :D Check it out if you have the time!
https://gideonsfields.wixsite.com/website/trailer
That's all for now.
Stay cold.
Stay Gold
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