29 / Because I Have To

It always really blows my mind sometimes how much time passes between updates when I remember I should be updating. I feel like we saw and wrote about the tanuki like two days ago? Apparently not.

Harrison went home yesterday & things have gone back to normal, or as normal as they can be. My apartment is back to feeling very empty. When my students saw me today, the first thing they asked about was him. I wonder if they'll miss me half as much :p

Then I went home with a stomachache. I got my stitches out today and didn't feel well on the bus*, so I was walking around all nauseous. I feel like for a person already prone to that kind of thing, Korea really brings out the random  in me. Lolllll

*death machine above the law 

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So my... third? month of teaching is nearing an end. It doesn't feel like three months. I don't know quite what it feels like, but I can say that the thought of two more months is somewhat daunting at this point. I don't dislike being here. I like my school, the other teachers, my students. I greatly appreciate what has been given to me and what I feel I'm taking and contributing, even for all the obvious difficulties. I guess it's just that the difficulties are so hugely obvious it's sometimes hard not to be a little blindsided by them. In many situations I feel like I am personally the largest, most obvious difficulty of them all.

I still really have no idea what I'm doing, though I've been here long enough that I begin to make very educated guesses. My reading is quite fast now -- not to say my comprehension is any better -- and I understand simple conversations in Korean though I cannot replicate them. I am still for all intents and purposes like a baby, so that's not really news. :p I did come here really hoping to get a different insight into language acquisition than I had before, though, and I can say that I very much am. I don't know that I am applying this insight to actually teaching language however. I still often feel that no matter how much I plan, the actual activities matter so little. Something works one day, and then if I modify it to include new vocabulary it totally falls apart. Sometimes I think I've made a breakthrough with my kids and finally understand how to get through to them, and then as we progress it's clearly just a lot of optimism on my part. At least I can say that I empathize with them: people shout foreign words in my face all the time too, and no matter how many times it doesn't seem to stick. :p

Here's some pictures & stuff.

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These things are delicious. Like... little steamed things with walnut stuff inside? I don't know what they're called, but I love them. It's l-o-v-e

We had shabu shabu the night before Harrison left. Mmm. It's like... boiling broth, and you cook your stuff in there. I don't know if it's Korean in origin. I think that you can get it all over Asia under different names. Like a big hot pot of goodness.

In a noraebang (singing room)... I perform only the classics, like I'm On A Boat and Hot In Herre.