Happy day

I have to admit, today was pretty sweet--and not just because I recently made a decision that everyday that I'm left in Korea will be great.

The weather was beautiful--I would say that it "felt like spring" except it didn't really, it just felt warm. Which I appreciated. Today was a bit boring because it was a test day, and since this is my second semester the teachers at my school have decided that I don't get to play hooky on test days anymore. So this time around during all the periods I usually teach on Tuesday, I sat and supervised them. They're pretty well-behaved, so this really meant spacing out for 50 minutes. When I had a free period before lunch, I took a little walk up the mountain behind our school. I really enjoy walking around up there. It's this weird mixture of homes and terraced fields, these roads that sometimes narrow down to paths winding around up. I wish I'd taken more pictures of the area in the summer and fall, when it was most lush and colorful, but I think the spring will have more opportunities for that. If the weather stays this warm, I think I'm going to try to do some walking every day. It's better than what I usually do with my time between classes, which is just mess around on the internet.

Anyway, the real excitement of the day started when I rushed down from the last class of the day, which I'd been left to supervise alone til the end. Since I had to collect the tests and such, I was a couple minutes behind schedule. Starting this week I have a Korean class at Suncheon National University every Tuesday and Thursday starting at 3:00. On Tuesday and Thursday my last class ends at 2:50. This is after much difficult wrangling by my co-teacher, since Wednesday evening also needs to stay free for my volunteering at SOS Children's Village. So I made it out of the school at 2:52 and ran down the hill to the main street. The University is actually only a few long blocks down the main street, what would normally be a short bus ride or moderate walk away. But with 5 minutes before class officially started, I jumped in a cab and paid a buck fifty for the short distance. Then I had to locate the classroom and find my way there. All in all, I managed to get there maybe seven minutes late, which I was grateful for. I think I can probably work the commute down to ten minutes with a little practice.

I think the class is probably one of the best situations I could have asked for. It's small, eight people, and the students and the professor are all really friendly. A lot of them knew each other from last year (here is where I regretted not finding out about this class sooner). Except for me, the class was exclusively made up of graduate students from Asia. There are three Chinese students, one Japanese, one Vietnamese, one Pakistani, and one guy of Portugeuse descent from East Timor. All of them are doing research at Suncheon National University. Most of them were about my level at Korean, or were sort of the inverse--experienced in speaking Korean but not confident when it came to writing and reading. Except for the guy from East Timor, he was new to the class like me, and didn't yet have the alphabet down. He seemed a bit overwhelmed, and rightfully so. Even though the class didn't cover too much new stuff for me, for someone who isn't confident with the alphabet, it was definitely moving fast. The professor speaks English pretty well, and all of the foreign students know some English. I think they're all capable conversationally, so I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. All in all, the class was fun and the two hours went quickly. I'm looking forward to the second class on Thursday, and to getting to know the other students better outside of class. This semester I'll be teaching an evening class every Thursday from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, which means I'll probably stick around the University/high school area for dinner after the Korean class ends at 5 pm--an opportunity to hang out with my classmates more.

Gotta go now, Seo Young and I are going to play badminton at the local playground. We did this last night, and I hope it becomes another routine.

Reading: Yes, I have been reading. I've finished many books since I last bothered to mention it, but current I am working through "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," great book by Jane Jacobs I got for Christmas from my mom, and I just finished "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" a bestseller from the 80s that was actually pretty engaging. I read the entire 800 pages pretty quickly. Sort of not the style of the books I usually enjoy, but I was definitely hooked on it. It actually posed some interesting questions in my mind, both about writing and representation, and about the issues surrounding the Civil War.

Writing: Yes, I've been writing too. I actually wrote an entire short story at about 2 am a few weeks back. I don't think it's all that good but a good exercise at least. And over the weekend I added a few pages to the longer story I'm working on at the moment. But I am finding it hard to write. There's no "fire," as Pete, my thesis advisor, would call it. Which reminds me, he has a new novel coming out this month. Gotta check that out. (Amazon.com --> Peter Rock).