I was struck with stage fright today. From the moment I awoke in the morning, I was dreading teaching my classes. I was convinced all of my lessons would fail completely and this though terrified me. I would have thought I’d be beyond performance anxiety by now, but I still get it all too often. I think it’s especially bad when I haven’t been teaching much, because I fall out of the routine and become so flustered and unsure of myself. But I didn’t need to worry—the lessons were not terrific by any means, but I got through them intact and I’m ready to attack them again tomorrow!
Tonight we all went out to dinner again, making this our fourth meal out together in the last week. I enjoy it, but it does get tiresome to sit at those little tables for two hours at a stretch, especially when the vegetarian fare is sparse. They all had raw fish, while I feasted on peanuts (ddangkong), eggs, some leafy vegetable, black beans in soy sauce (kongchapan), and another brown plant of sorts (mowi). This dinner was to celebrate the recent marriage of the daughter of one of the other teachers. The old man who works at my school must not be as old as I assumed if his daughter is just getting married! He gave us all 24 carat gold bookmarks in addition to taking us out to dinner. It was pretty nice, especially for a guy who once told me he was afraid of people!
I am currently cursing this stupid “report” I have to write for the upcoming elementary ETA conference in Cheonan. I said I’d have it done by tomorrow, and I currently have three sentences instead of three pages. Grrrr.