The stranger

Yesterday was an unexciting day at school. All of my classes were canceled for test preparation. One of my teachers noted that her students couldn't focus in the English classroom, which is true but disappointing. So I set about cleaning the storage room that had become a dumping pile of English materials and past student work. Incidentally, this is what an empty classroom looks like.

On my walk home I had to move out of the way of a student on a bicycle. As I did so, an old man and maybe his slightly younger son approached me. He gave me a hearty smile and asked me who I was, etc.; next he put his hands on my chin like I was his long-lost grandson and wished me goodbye. That was the most intimate moment I've ever had with a complete stranger. I have learned that Koreans are touchy-feely people though. I heard today that a Korean is being sued somewhere in the US for touching a stranger.

Today I taught 2 first grade classes and 3 kindergarten classes. I did my usual routine for meeting young students. I introduce myself and try to catch them by saying or doing silly things. Next I juggle a lot plastic fruit and have them say the words as they fly through the air or fall to the floor, which they find endlessly hilarious. I pass a soft object around and have them say, "My name is ..." We do some total physical response, like "stand up, sit down, clap clap, tuuuurrrn," etc. Then we sing songs like "ABC song" and "Daddy Finger." For the most part young children love to sing. These kids are super adorable, but their energy washes over me like a wave. But it is even more exhausting when you have to yell at them because they aren't yelling for you! I really need to get some ear plugs. And now with these new introductions, I hear my name EVERYWHERE: "Ughh, OH, HELLO CUHRISUTEN!!" they shout at me. It is light years from conversational English, but at least they seem to like me. Actually, I think they are just fascinated with petting my arm hair.

I recently finished reading Pride and Prejudice. The challenging writing style of Jane Austen has been coloring my thoughts and language recently. And it has caused me to dwell upon the expectations involved with relationships. Today I finished The Giver, a short and thought-provoking story about a boy who is chosen to learn the horrific details about his myopic Utopian culture. I highly recommend this book, but I think it could have been much longer. Earlier, I read Number the Stars, also by Lois Lowry. It is about the Danish Jews escaping to Sweden when the NAZI's took over the country in WWII. It's like Anne Frank, but fictional with a relatively happy ending.

Hobbies

The weather has been a little hot and humid, but nothing like what the rain will soon bring. The mosquitoes have abated, thanks to the labors of the mobile bug-fogging squad. The worst thing is when you are walking down a narrow block and you hear this low constant humming noise coming your way. There is nowhere to run. You just put anything over your mouth and nose and charge through the white cloud in faith. It's pretty gross, but the locals are well used to it, one of the drawbacks to living in a rural city. Needless to say, I take more showers these days.

I have been enjoying the use of my electronic drum set more. I have a book of jazz patterns that I am "wood-shedding," in the hopes of liberating my swing feeling on the kit for future jam sessions. There are so many great drum books that I want to work my way through! My guitar has been a bit too dormant these days, hibernating its way through a winter of my lack of inspiration. No doubt that will soon change. Recently, I made an important decision to leave the ranks of taekwondo. I am not keen on the idea of practicing the same material for another 3 months just to take a black belt test that I am competent to take now.

My friends will go to Jeonju tomorrow to test and I hope they do well. At any rate, none of us are convinced that we are learning much about fighting skills. It is unfortunate that much of our practice time has been running around the mat, yelling numbers and shouting, doing a kind of

coordinated dance to some Korean-pop music with accents for the moves. It has been a great help to improve my stretching and condition my legs. I will take some time off from formal training, and use my leisure to improve upon my tai chi form work. At some point I will seek an introduction to a local hapkido studio and set myself down that path. It is a discipline that shuns the repetitive form work in favor of a fluid capacity to manipulate an opponent with the least resistance.

I have been making but little progress in learning Korean these last few weeks, but I am going to wake up early and push myself to study in the morning. (Taekwondo practice was a problem because I didn't get home until 9:15 pm and my dinner schedule was inconsistent.) I have a plethora of learning materials now, so it is up to me to take advantage of them. I recently realized that I have a knack for collecting materials and tools to excel in my hobbies and interests, but I rather too consistently neglect to capitalize on their advantage. I am relatively lazy.

These days I am reading "Pride and Prejudice" and some books about the culture and history of Korea. The former book is my girlfriend's favorite, and upon loosing a board-game bet, I promised to write her a one page essay, in Korean. In return she will read a Korean translation of my favorite book, "Walden" by Thoreau. As for the culture books, I am not content to indulge in the common stereotypes of Korea without first considering some of the complexity of this country. She is now reading a book on American customs and we are having some lively discussions about who these strange people are. I must confess that I read the news rather less than I should, it being forever easy to indulge in a relative solipsism when things are going good. I know that there are some horrible problems yet in this world, and my affluence is not wholly independent of them. If for no other reason than to be thankful for my blessings in life, I find it indispensable to take some account of recent history. It's funny how some news, like today's soccer or weather headlines will guarantee an easy entry into conversation; whereas more timely topics such as war and suffering are conversation stoppers. Speaking of which...

Update

I am still using Windows XP on my 2006 Toshiba Satellite (Intel Dual Core...) and it suits me well. I have an older version of Office and I try not to overload my computer with new programs and junk. I don't do gaming or audio/video/photo editing so I don't put too much strain on my system and it rarely crashes. I use Advanced System Care and AVG Free and defrag every once in a while. I did recently buy a 1TB hard-drive, to supplement by 320 GB external - internet downloading is crazy these days! My apartment is furnished with a nice desktop, but the OS is in Korean, as well as are all the PC's I use at school. I had no problem installing the Korean character recognition and typing software in XP. I put stickers on my keyboard with Roman and Hangeul letters, and I press ALT+SHIFT when I want to change between them. Incidentally, I type in Korean about as fast as my dad types in English!

I am learning the language slowly. I can read and write in hangeul, but pronunciation is very difficult. The phonology of Korean has far less accents than English, but the cadence and whiny sounds are about impossible for me to produce accurately. So I can say things correctly, but not apply them in the right context and not get the total sound right and Koreans won't understand me. As you can imagine, I am swarmed by young kids all day who ask me a blizzard of questions in Korean: Are you Married? How old are you? Where are you from? Why are you here? Why don't you remember my name? Why are you SO hairy and tall? Are you dating the co-teacher? etc... When I get tired of trying to translate, I just answer them in English, afterall, I am here to teach them, right? I am in an ideal situation to learn a language: constantly exposed to its source, with access to lots of internet learning tools. The people in America who rate language difficulty say that Korean is a Level 3 for English speakers, meaning that it takes us, on average, 65? weeks to reach a VERY basic proficiency, so it is considerably more challenging than a European language.

I am doing well with taekwondo: I will be tested for black belt on August 28th. I will be ready for the late June test, but I haven't been in Korea for six months yet! (Actually I won't be able to take the test until October 27th now...) After this, I hope to switch to hapkido, a more harmonious style related to Aikido. My uncle in Olympia was a 3rd degree black belt in this style, so I am following in his steps.

I haven't been saving money yet, but I plan on staying for another 1-2 years. Recently, I bought an electronic drumset, which I could conceivably make money with at some point. I still owe $15,000 on my subsidized college loans, but they are in deferment now, so I pay no interest (6%?) until I start making payments. I make around $24,000 a year here, low taexes, rent-free except utilities and cable, with many of my lunches paid for, so I could really put some money in the bank for grad school, etc. Next year... :)

There is lots of farming in my area. Terraced rice fields everywhere, soaking in a watery mud, harvesting more mosquitoes than people to bite soon... Guys on mopeds ride through every alley with a giant bug-fogging machine, spraying this toxic fragrant stuff in the air, truly disgusting. But I am glad to be here, seeing a much more traditional side of Korea, than the big, Westernizing city view. I have been traveling around to the big cities and some smaller ones. Busses, food and hotels are cheap, and I have plenty of free time and friends in various places to visit. I have a friend going to Beijing and the Great Wall for the summer holiday, so I may consider spending more money, but I have a "girlfriend" now, so we'll see. But more on that story as it develops.