This week has really raced by without the regular schedule to rely on and Monday off. That brings me even closer to my trip…I cannot believe I’ll be celebrating my birthday in Vietnam in one week! Yesterday I finished On the Road, my Christmas present from Sam, and it’s made me itch to travel. This trip is coming at the perfect time…I’m sick of the cold, snowless weather and feeling a little bit restless. I’m sure Southeast Asia has the cure for all of this.
It’s been a good week so far. I wrapped up the third and fourth grade winter camp on Tuesday and I’ve been teaching fifth and sixth graders the past two days. I lucked out and only have angels in the class…always a plus. And there are so few of them! Only fourteen of the twenty-one who initially signed up were there yesterday, and only nine today! I don’t know whether to be relieved that my job is made that much easier or offended I’m not more popular among the 12-13 age group. This experience is reaffirming my suspicions that the difficulties of teaching grow exponentionally with group size. True, I probably have good students to begin with in this small class, but still…this is the EASIEST class I’ve ever taught! And with so few kids, I have a lot more flexibility to make the class more engaging and fun. I can also interact with every student. So even though the class is three hours long (can you IMAGINE taking a three hour foreign language class as a fifth grader!), we still manage to have a good time. Gotta give myself kudos for that. Two of the boys told me class was very fun today—something I rarely hear from my male students especially.
I asked my co-teacher about the writing on the fan I was given at the traditional dance performance last weekend. It’s written in Chinese characters that correspond to sounds in Korean (the writing system Korea used until hangeul was invented in the late 15th century, I believe). I am just glad they don’t use it much now…I can’t imagine trying to learn two alphabets, especially when one is so ill-suited for the language! Anyway, it reads as “Il chon yoo shim do” (I think!) and it’s evidently a traditional Buddhist saying that translates to something along the lines of the mind is all and controls everything. A pretty nifty souvenir, overall.
Otherwise, I’ve just been trying to recover from my cold. I watched A Muppet Christmas Carol last night and the kids came in to watch it/bother me. Toward the end, Eun Ho brought in the same book in Korean and marveled at the correspondence between the action in the movie and the pictures in the book. I was amazed that he could figure out what the story was and that the book was in my house at all. He is such a funny little man. I have been spending a lot of time with the younger two lately because they have overcome all reservations concerning me and are constantly bothering me. It’s a good thing I am used to this and find it more endearing than annoying, for it would be easy for my patience to wear thin the 77,000th time Ye Eun asks me to translate something into English or Eun Ho points to a horrific picture of a pig and cries, “Jen!” I really should spend more time with them doing things besides just halfheartedly paying attention to their antics, but I never seem to get around to it. The ol’ to-do list is long these days.
I was talking to my family earlier this week and realized for the first time that my absence was hard on them. To be honest, I didn’t really think about that too much when I decided not to come home…I didn’t think it would be a big deal. I was mostly thinking about my emotional well-being and bank account. I suppose I should have taken other people into account when I made this decision. It is weird to think that I still won’t be seeing them for so long. I’ve been away from home for a touch over six months now—my longest time ever—and I’m still not coming back for nine more months by my calculations. Good thing there are so many other people in the family—they should hardly miss me. That said, it is much easier to be the one who leaves, creating a new life from scratch. The ones left behind must contend with a gaping hole. Guess they’ve forgotten how moody I can be around the holidays! Oh, bless the selective memory!