Today was…too long to be only Tuesday. It was a day of crazy emotions. I must be going through menopause or something.
I taught TOO MANY classes today. They went all right, I suppose, but not spectacular. I’ve been feeling off…maybe I’m getting sick again? My head hurts a lot of the time. It could just be the whole weird routine thing. I found out today that I missed the deadline to request roommates and the shuttle from the train station to our hotel at the Fulbright conference in Gyeongju, and it felt like the end of the world. This seems to be a clear indicator that my obscenely intense emotions are more than out of whack. I think not exercising vigorously is getting to me, to be honest. So this was definitely something I needed to remedy, and quick!
My num friend picked me up after my last class of the day (one of the fifth grade extra classes, which got out at 3:30) and we went to the TKD school in “downtown” Hongsan. There were a bunch of my students there and they thought it was really funny to see me. In fact, one of them kept saying “Oh my god!” all throughout practice. It was quite ridiculous. A side note: some of my students seem OBSESSED with saying OMG…I wonder if they even know what it means? And they really like to say crazy, too…specifically to point to their friends and say “She’s crazy!” I usually agree, just to be funny, and it’s earned me some pseudo enemies. Yesterday was the kicker—this one sixth grade girl pointed to her two friends, who were holding hands (which is not out of the ordinary here…it’s a very affectionate culture) and said, “Lesbians.” I have NO IDEA how she picked up the word, but I definitely tried to discourage its use as an insult. Back to my story. I thought I would be in this class with them and was kind of looking forward to it, ‘cause my little bud Ee Bin is in it, but then I remembered all the conflicts I have with the 4-5 time slot. Also, the majority of the kids were slackers, and I’m looking to get a REAL workout. So I’m going to do the 6-7 class with middle- and high-schoolers. Evidently, they are of varying ability levels, but I am sure I will be the lowest. And everyone will stare at the whitey doing front kicks (or TRYING to do front kicks…). At least I’m used to it now. They will probably clap at anything I manage to do right, so it’s all good. I get my self-esteem boost, and they get free tickets to the Jen Circus.
I took a walk this evening after work, as I usually do, and right at the beginning I was flagged down by a police car with its lights on. Thinking they had some kind of emergency safety information to share with me—ie, there was a wreck back there and you can’t walk through it—I stopped. Turns out they basically just wanted to stare at me. We had a bit of a conversation when they finally got out of their car (after obstructing at least 4 cars from passing), but yeah…they just were amazed I was there. And told me I was beautiful, of course. It was a little weird…I mean, shouldn’t they be busy upholding the law? Then again, it IS a sleepy place.
Tonight I had my conversation class with the SK engineers, and it was actually quite enjoyable. It was just two of us—Mr. Nam (my chauffer) and Mr. Kim—and they are both low-level, so they asked me to just teach out of this little book from approximately the 1600s that Mr. Nam has. It was a little ridiculous, I thought, but I am happy to help them in the way they want. I mean, they are adults…if they want me to help them conjugate the verb “to be,” then who am I to say no? I also arranged a new time to meet with them because of conflicts with my TKD class. They are very accommodating. And kind…today, Mr. Nam gave me a box full of organic produce and later he dropped by $200 worth in Lotte gift certificates (that’s the nice department store in which I saw the movie with Kyoung He Sam and her daughters). Sweet! Even though I’m not officially paid, I am still makin’ bank. I mean, I’ve only met with them 5 times now! I don’t mind doing it, really…I just feel bad about spending that time away from my family. We were really bonding tonight—at least, me and Eun Ho were. He is helping me with my Korean. We spent some time eating snack together and working on the puzzle some more. The kids also think it’s really funny I am doing TKD. I think my host mother asked Eun Ho if he wanted to do it, too! I cannot imagine this gangly little guy doing side kicks…it would be HYSTERICAL. So at least I’m ending the day on a high…