Anniversary

It was one year ago today that I arrived in Korea. It's gone by pretty fast, and I've done a lot. I feel busy all the time, even though that's not necessarily true. I guess that's just life. Lately I haven't been traveling around the country as I once did, since all the people I used to know in other cities have returned to the US, and I haven't made a cycle of new friends yet. I'll start getting around more soon, starting next weekend, the lunar New Year holiday, when I have a four-day weekend.

I just gave you a progress report a few weeks ago, so I won't talk too much about how I'm doing. I have been feeling a bit down the last couple weeks, though, and missing home. I have been doing a lot of planning and considering for my return home, and have been trying to decide on a plan for beyond that, as well. I've noticed that my low periods here have come about every four months. This one seems complicated by the fact that I COULD have been going home next week, but chose to extend, mostly for reasons of wanting to continue paying off my students loans more rapidly than I could in the States. Although I don't regret extending my contract, I could totally go home about now.

At work, though, everything is going pretty well. I have a pretty good routine going now, where it doesn't take me as long to plan my lessons, and I stopped taking homework home to correct months ago. Now I can get it all done during my breaks. I have a good relationship with most of my students, too. Some of them have been asking when I'm going home, because their parents have kept track, and realize my contract is up. I always ask them if they're asking because they want me to go home, and all but one of them have said no. They seem to really like me, judging by all the gifts I get on gift-giving holidays, and just the way they act with me. Even the kids who were transferred to other classes still always say hi to me when they see me. It's good.

I get the feeling my homesickness will pass pretty quickly. I used to do a lot of ten-hour days at one of my jobs in LA, and I found that I would dread the extra two hours all day, but then once I hit the eight-hour mark, that extra time was pretty easy to sail through. I think that's just what's happening now. Now that I've done my one year, doing the extra five months won't be so bad. Also, knowing your end date at a job just makes you kind of go out to lunch, and I guess that's playing a part here. It's going to be a long lunch, so I hope time continues to fly like it has been.

Moving on, I saw Yes Man with Jim Carrey today with Leon. Something funny happened. Here's a copy of the email I sent to the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where I took Korean language lessons before I came here:

"Hey, I hope I'm not clogging up your email, but I wanted to share an experience with you that I thought was cool. I attended the Korean language program in 2007 for two full quarters and 7 classes of a third before I came to Ulsan, South Korea to teach English. Today is actually my one year anniversary here, and I extended my contract until June.

Anyway, I see a lot of movies here, and I saw a preview for Yes Man a couple months ago. In the trailer, there is a scene of Jim Carrey in a Korean language class, and I said to my friend, hey, I think that''s my Korean teacher from LA. But then I thought, no, that's just wishful thinking. It couldn't be.But then I saw the movie today, and again, I said to my friend, I swear that's my Korean teacher. He joked I was racist and think all Koreans look alike. It has been over a year since I've been to KCCLA, so I really couldn't remember what John Song looks like, and thought maybe I was just projecting. But lo and behold, there in the credits, John H. Song. Awesome!

Seeing Yes Man in Korea was fantastic, by the way. The scenes in Korean were really well taken by the audience, and the fact that I could understand some of the dialogue and the cultural references, and enjoy it with that same culture, made it so much funnier. I also got to amuse/confuse the rest of the audience, as there were several moments where I was shrieking with laughter... and no one else was. That's my favorite part about seeing American movies here.

I thought I'd share that with you all over there, and congratulations to John Song for the screen credit. Nice work."

Now that I think of it, I should have written "conglatulations" instead. Damn it. I hate it when Korean jokes go untold.