the weekend circuit

Not too much is new here. The new week is getting underway and trucking along nicely. I'll have a little more breathing room this week because my Korean teacher at the University canceled our class today, and because final exams are looming I won't have an evening class on Thursday. I'm actually done with classes today already, but I'm hanging around because my co-teacher is taking me to the bank in a couple periods. I'm finally getting around to getting a new ATM card after my wallet was stolen. Though actually, I've been doing pretty well without a bank card. I don't think I've made any withdrawls since the first week of March. My school pays me in cash for my evening teaching, I got an excessive stipend to cover my Jeju trip, and my host mother has been slipping me gifts of cash in thanks for my frequent tutoring of my host sisters, so I've been doing pretty well in keeping money in my pocket for traveling and such. Since I hope to save a substantial amount of money by July, it's nice to know I won't need to touch the money in my Korean bank account for awhile.

I did have to borrow some cash from my host mother when I took my trip to Gwangju last weekend though. It was a good trip. On Friday afternoon I took the train an hour and a half north to Jeonju, where I met Joanne for lunch and then visited her afternoon club class. It was good to see her, and actually a lot of fun to visit her class. Since the weather was wonderful that day, Joanne devised a lesson where her students (high school boys) would have to participate in an English conversation and if they paused for too long, their peers could throw a water balloon at them. I ended up being the sort of catalyst for the lesson, as each boy had to converse with me for a minute. I was impressed with the level of her class. They all did quite well. No water balloon were broken until the period ended and a free for all ensued. Her students seemed to be a higher level than mine, but I wonder what results I might get too if I added a water balloon to the equation.

Friday night Joanne and I went down to Gwangju to meet up with some other ETAs. It was Tanya's birthday, and we had dinner at this great Thai place, then did a little of the typical bar hopping. Strangely enough, I ran into Mr. Chae, the stalker, at one of the bars. I knew he took trips to Gwangju but it was an odd coincidence that we ended up in the same bar. I went and sat at his table and asked him again for my wallet back. He gave me his typical denial, then offered to buy me a drink, which I of course refused. A few moments later he was scurrying out the door again. I have to admit I take some sadistic pleasure in seeing how uncomfortable I make him. The tables have turned, it seems. But next time I see him I think I'll just ignore him. It's pretty clear he either can't or won't return my wallet at this point, and though I've always been calm and civil when talking to him, if I keep bothering him, he might decide to retaliate in some way.

Anyway, I had a good time drinking and talking with the girls, and exploring the city a little on Saturday. The weather was great all day Friday and Saturday. On Saturday I actually walked around in short sleeves for a little while. Sunday, the weather wasn't as clear but it was still warm. I returned to Suncheon Saturday night and on Sunday went to Gurye to see a pressed flower exhibition--essentially a bunch of 'paintings' made from dried flowers and other plant matter. They were really impressive. We spent a few hours there. A woman involved with the exhibition was excited about getting foreigners to attend and even had a shuttle bus for a bunch of us between Suncheon University and the exhibit, so about 25 foreigners from Suncheon went.

I've had less time for reading this semester, but I have been keeping up on it. Since the Jeju conference I've finished The William Saroyan Reader, Dead Man Walking, The Color Purple, and an anthology of Modern Korean Literature (all borrowed from other ETAs). I recently started Middlemarch by George Eliot, which I'm liking. I was unduly excited the other day when Seo Young gave me the 5th Harry Potter book which she'd borrowed from her school's library, knowing I'd been trying to get my hands on a copy. Sometimes there are real perks to having host sisters.