I wanted to post to tell the world abroad that I'm still alive. I haven't been very motivated to write recently, but nothing is wrong. Things have been going along as usual. I'm busy and working hard. I think this year a bit of Korea's novelty has worn off and life feels more ordinary. Things are generally comfortable. I'm feeling a bit stir-crazy at the moment and eager for a new adventure. Aside from that, though, no real complaints.
Have a glimpse of my ordinary Thursday life:
I saw sections of all three of my courses today. My freshmen are just starting a career research project and are wrapping up a miniunit on voice. My sophmores are in the final stages of a short story unit in English 10. They are researching world cultures in Writing 2. All pretty interesting stuff. My creative writing magazine editors delivered a copy of our second issue of Inkblotz. Phenomenal Women leaders popped into my classroom between every block to hand me crumpled wads of cash they collected for our recent fundraiser. I fled campus for a few minutes during lunch to grab a latte. One of my notorious characters marched into class post-lunch and, after flailing his bag at his desk and emitting a high pitch squeal, marched over and told me in very broken English that I had to turn on the AC at once. His body was simply "too hot" for him to take off his coat (I'm pretty sure the intended connotation was "too attractive"). You know, a typical Thursday.
Right after school, I had an Amnesty meeting. This year our TCIS chapter of Amnesty is going to be focusing on North Korea. We had a good brainstorming meeting and considered many ways to spread awareness of the issue. I have been really interested in North Korea lately. I read a graphic novel, Journey to Pyongyang, that got me started. The more I learn, the more my heart is softened for the North Korean people. It blows my mind how much poorer North Korea is than South Korea. It is really going to take huge global efforts to really provide enough aid to the people.
After Amnesty, I had a brief meeting with my fellow English 10 teachers. Then I went home to do work for a bit.
At dinner time I went back to campus to play soccer with some high school hopefuls. We have off-season training 1-2 times a week. It is fun to kick the ball around and nice to see the girls taking the sport seriously. We go to Beijing this spring for our APAC tournament, so we will have our competition cut out for us.
After soccer, I had two of my students last year over for apple cider. It was the first time either had ever tasted homemade cider. It was fun to expose them to something new. I love that I'm able to get to know my kids on a deeper level than schools in the states would allow! I really feel like a youth pastor a lot of the time here.
It is about 10:30 now and I am finally sitting and thinking about tomorrow. I am going up to Seoul for the weekend to see RUTH!! The one and only Ruth who I have known since elementary school is here in Korea from DC to see me! (well, really she is here for a work conference, but I'll pretend I was her sole motivation) I can't wait to give her a hug tomorrow! Now I just need to pack.
I guess that's enough to prove that things are chugging along as usual. Welcome back to my life :)
