Six More Laps to Go!

1. It was as gross as it looked.

2. These are the faces of English teachers after work in the snow.

3. Nice burberry sweater.

4. Playing in Ansan!

5. Woooooo

Bear with me in an attempt to embellish a very normal- seeming life.

It seems that lately I have been becoming more Korean in my efforts to marry my job. It's not exactly voluntary. Between essays to correct, lessons to plan, tests to grade, and seminars to plan, I don't have enough time. Just weeks ago I was flaunting my abundance of free time. I guess this is a great chance to rely on the grace of God. I have two hours to plan every day. I want to spend that time researching (especially the three days a week I'm teaching literacy to children who don't know their alphabet, or 99% of the English language), but by the time I look up effective ways to present an entirely new language to a group of children, I have thirty minutes to plan for three classes.

Today I took a mental health break and handed my adorable 5-7 year olds pieces of paper with colorful letters on them. Somehow they figured out it was their job to put them in order of the ALPHABET! James was sweet enough to hand me gum at the beginning of my class, and I noticed he was handing it out to the other kids as well. "JAMES! WAIT! AFTER CLASS!" 5 year olds + gum. Awesome possibilities.

Monday Lewis (11) and I spent a good 15 minutes after class, as he poured out to me all of his complaints against the female sex. Some of the worst grievances against girls include: wearing fake designer earrings, laughing too loud, not getting hit by teachers as much as the boys do, saying bad words, and constantly moving seats on the bus. "Lewis, I promise, in a few years, you're going to like girls. They're not going to be annoying anymore." He responded by telling me that when he becomes a government leader, he will seperate all schools by gender. Oh well, kid, follow your dreams. They'll come to an abrupt halt when a pretty girl in middle school pays attention to you.

The girls in the same class reprimanded me on Monday for wearing a skirt I had promised I would throw away. They have eyes like hawks. Granted, it is an H & M knee length cordurouy A-line skirt from 2005, with one side covered in mysterious pen scratches and a hole ripped in the back hem from me bending down and getting my heel caught in it. I explained to them that the only other thing that matched my shirt were jeans, and if I wore jeans I would look like a student. Today when I walked in wearing jeans and Converses (seriously, I think the blazer balanced it out!) they raised their eyebrows and reminded me of my rash comment. Might I add, the converses were an EXCELLENT choice, because as I was late to work this morning, as I usually am, they were so much easier to run in than heels... ahhh... this is my life!

This weekend I went to Seoul and wandered around Kyong-Bok palace with a mixture of Korean and foreign friends. Since everything was bombed by the Japanese, Koreans are slowly re-building the old historical monuments in the midst of skyscrapers. It's odd to look past the palace's sloping roof to see towering, grey buildings, and behind those, mountains.

Sunday Jamie and I spent the better part of the day painting our nails in a makeup store. They're smart enough here to provide "tester" nailpolishes, and, ok maybe I do have a good amount of free time, because as we painstakingly painted a rainbow across our hands, I noted that I haven't done this since middle school. We were apprehended by an adorable, bright eyed clerk (our age) who was so eager to practice her English, and covered her mouth with her hand while she talked, and promised us she would remember our names if we ever came back in. She also gave us free soda that, when you shake and drink it, it's like Fanta with little pieces of jelly in it, and they're carbonated. I think it's awesome. I voluntarily bought some today.

Sunday night I played music with some people at church, at let me say it was exciting for myself and my guitar to get it out of the house. I brought it to church in the morning, and almost knocked a few people unconscious when I got on the bus. I think when Korean bus drivers see foreigners they lurch as much as possible. As soon as you scan your card and step on, they SLAM on the accelerator. I've never fully fell down, but I've definitely come close. Things got more intense on the way home, when there was only standing room, and I had one hand gripping the pole above me, one holding my heavy awkward guitar case, balancing on my heels like a giraffe trying to tightrope. I must have awesome calves for all the balancing I do in this country. If I'm not running in heels to work (you miss the green light at the crosswalk and it's 5 minutes LOST!) or practically doing an extended pullup on the handle of the swerving bus, or standing like a surfer on a subway so packed there is nothing to hold onto, I'm walking up stairs to my apartment or work (the elevators are so capricious).

Yes, Korea is go-go-go. I'm frantically stir-frying food to eat at work before I go (no oven, no microwave, very few options), clomping about the halls of school like a Clydesdale with my head cut off, dashing back and forth trying to return cell-phones of students I've confiscated (I always forget until they're halfway down the stairs- today I completely CHECKED a small child, and had no time to apologize), half-jogging across a cross-walk to avoid becoming a statistic, shoving food in my mouth during 10-minute breaks, wringing my fingers under a bank counter as I'm praying A.D.D. teller will transfer my money and not make me late for work, shoving my way onto an already-too-full subway or elevator, running down the streets so I won't miss the last train home on the weekend...

Oh gosh. I need to go back to Thailand.

I was sick for almost two weeks, well, I felt fine but just couldn't breathe and was coughing up my lungs, and I had to force myself to sleep this week, because I didn't want to and I would rather do other things. But when I had no voice with which to instruct my students, and my boss looking at me with concern when he heard my voice (well, maybe it was because I hadn't put on my makeup yet- which I also do at work), I had to take some form of action.

Whew ok that's enough! Life isn't exciting, but it's so Korean in the sense that it never, ever, ever stops running. Kuna had to leave work early today because her teeth hurt so bad she couldn't speak. Meagan thinks it's because she clenches them in her sleep. After a few months in this country... who wouldn't?