Sickly

Went away for the weekend to visit people in Naju (we had a bet) and I got pretty sick while I was there. I should've known--I had this sore throat all week but I just thought it was dehydration or something. And then on Friday when I was sneezing with a runny nose, I thought it was just allergies since I usually get them around this time. But then on Saturday when I felt like absolute sh*t I realized too late it was NOT allergies and most certainly a cold.

This is the second time I've been severely sick in Korea. The first time was last winter when I had the flu. But god, I didn't even realize I had the flu and went to work anyway. I don't know how I managed to move, let alone teach while having the flu but somehow I did. But really, everything from that time is in a fog because I was just so out of it.

I think being sick when you're a teacher is probably the worst thing ever. It actually takes lot of energy and concentration to teach properly. Being sick and teaching leaves you in a particularly vulnerable state--you're not in full control of yourself, let alone your class. And knowing you look like crap and still having to get up in front of a group of people (even if they are just students) is the last thing anyone would want to do. Standing for 50-60 min. at one time is also especially tiring when you don't even feel like moving one inch. And loud students are the last thing you want to hear when your head is pounding and you feel like you've been submerged underwater.

Basically, teaching when you're sick is terrible. I also become short and crabby when I'm sick, not a great side to show my students. However, that's the way they do things here in Korea. Teachers rarely miss a day for sickness. For one, there's inexplicably no substitute teacher system here. When a teacher has to miss school (usually for a funeral), another teacher or two is assigned to cover their classes. Which means for those poor teachers, they have to teach thier own classes and cover a few more.

Most teachers in my office are sick now, actually, but they're all here. Even students when sick are still expected to come to school. My host sister was pretty sick awhile ago and while she did go to the hospital, she went straight to school after her check-up. It's kind of insane. Even though my parents did the same thing and never let me or my brother and sister miss school unless it was for a very,very good reason (sadly, there never was one) if we had even been super sick, they would've let us stay home. (Un)fortunately we never had more than a bad cold.

The silver lining in all of this is that I have off next week for Midterms. Thank god.

Exactly

This article is a bit old, but amazingly well-written; it really gets to the serious issues Asian-American women are facing.

Definitely one of the best articles I've read on the issue. Go read it. Seriously.

Easter Eggs

My students are so sweet. They left me some Easter eggs on Friday, but I didn't get them till today, of course.

In other news, when I came back yesterday from Jeju, the piano had been moved to my room. Which was weird but ok with me b/c my room is pretty big by Korean standards. Especially for an apartment. And my host mom seemed worried I'd be mad or something. But I wasn't, I was just surprised. But I was in a bad mood when I came back because it was horrible coming back from the airport. And I was really tired and hungry and it just was a really stressful and intense weekend. So I think she thought I was really annoyed about it but I really wasn't. I hope she doesn't think that. Anyway, every time I go into my room now, I'm completely thrown off by the giant piano in it.

I guess I should explain that the reason why they moved the piano to my room is because my host family is moving to the countryside in September. I'm assuming potential buyers are going to start coming to check the place out and my host mom wants to make the apartment look as nice as possible. She did a massive cleaning yesterday and threw out like half the stuff in the apartment. I feel like I should help or something. And it's freaking me out too, how fast this year went by. I have to start thinking about packing up my stuff and moving soon.

Jeju, Here I Come!

Away for the weekend on a business trip to Jeju; back Monday with hopefully some great pictures.

Frustrations

My last class of the day--40 students--sat and blinked at me the whole class. And I know they understood me. I explained the activity about 1 million times in about 1 million different ways and yet they still just sat there in dead silence. Makes me want to throw something (not at them of course), just to see if they'll react. Then they complained when I went over time--we went over, dear class, because none of you could be bothered to give me one response to any of my many questions.

Does anyone else feel this way? Or am I just a horrible teacher?

I am starting to suspect I'm not a good teacher. At all.

Lent

I meant to blog about this before. About 3 weeks ago I met up with some friends in Seoul and one of them asked me what I'd given up for Lent. Being the bad Catholic that I am, I had totally forgotten it was Lent. I mean it's partly being in Korea I just don't think about things like that, and I don't even remember most American holidays anymore. Actually I usually don't give up anything for Lent, not because I don't want to, but because I can't ever think of anything good to give up. And because Lent is so long, I'll usually forget at some point what I've given up. So basically, FAIL every time. Also, I'm not the most devout Catholic (full disclosure: I'm agnostic.)

This year, me and my friends made a pact to give up Facebook. It sounds lame, but I realized I hadn't been off Facebook since I'd joined it in college. And really we all spend too much time on Facebook, or at least me and my friends do. So that day we all went to a PC bang (place where you can "rent" a computer for $2/hour, usually populated by gangly Korean guys playing computer games) and deactivated our accounts together.

At first it was kind of weird because I was so used to "checking" Facebook the way I'm always checking my email account. Now, a few weeks later, I'm so used to not having it that I've pretty much forgotten about it. And honestly, it's kind of nice to be on this break. While it's been great to see what my friends are doing, look at pictures, write stupid wall posts, etc. it's also such a waste of time. Really. And it's like once you start looking at something, it can lead you to looking at other things, and soon you've been on facebook for far longer than you meant to be.

But I'll be back as soon as Lent is over because I can't resist seeing what people are up to. How else will I find out who's engaged, had babies, got a job, moved, broke up, got back together, etc. etc.?

It's been nice being out of the loop though.

Frankie Says Relax

Playing catch-up this weekend on work, laundry, and studying; embracing the mundane.

[Completely unrelated: I've been digging this old Kpop song lately. The MV, though, is the strangest thing I've ever seen, even without subtitles I think you can still appreciate the weirdness. The song, though, is all about the uncertainty we face when choosing between the different paths our life can take us; how do we ever know we're on the path that will lead us to where we want to go? I guess we never do.]