Back In The Saddle Again

Aaah.. it doesn’t take much getting better to feel better. Got up this morning, did my normal morning things and headed up to my Computer Science class for which I was massively unprepared. Got there early so I could buy the student book that I had lost but, alas, the bookstore was out of it. Still, they said they would have it by the time I got out of my first class and I took that as a good omen. Even better, as usual half of my Computer Science class had gone missing. This always makes it more fun to teach as with a handful of students I get a better vibe (better kibun?) and I can spend more time with the ones who really aren’t getting it. Class went splendidly and I talked to the kid who spent high-school in Ohio. Asked him how bored he was and if he would help the kid who is flushing down the drain (despite showing up – he will get his 20% for attendance!). Also asked if he would consider helping me (for pay) when I get around to Ms. Kim Yong-Ik. He said sure on the first (in fact was also proposing it as a way to blunt his boredom) and maybe on the second – he wants to make sure he can actually help me. So that all was splendid.

Walking in to all of this I passed the Pink Courtesy Women who swarm over the campus each morning. They clean, move desks, and do weeding in big waves of Ajummassivity. Here they are weeding. Some morning I need to film them at their tasks.

Went to the bookstore and the book was in. Went to the Post Office and paid my bills; 85K which is not as bad as it could have been and still leaves me well within my projected budget for this month.

Headed over to the cafeteria for my healthy Korean lunch and pondered that eternal question. If you’re having Kimchi rice, why do you also need a bowl of Kimchi? Shouldn’t you also then need a bowl of rice?

Although I study the tricksy Koreans daily, I fear I will never understand them.

Then off to my JS3 Class (Should have some pics of that tomorrow) and they never fail to entertain me. They are quite rambunctious, but also respectful and good learners. They and the CS class have cottoned to the “full sentence” and “how to make a sentence out of the question you are asked” trick and even compete with each other to make more complicated ones. It’s my class of retarded Chinese students that still concerns me.

Then back to the office for an hour of palaver with the LSM (Leaving Scotts Man) and a timeous departure to academic writing. Always a fun class and I’m starting to get the sense that one of these women is smarter than I am.

Not possible, of course, based on the fact that she’s a chick. Still, she’s smart.

Then back home. It’s Social Club night, but that has already begun and I haven’t headed up. Just not feeling it tonight and LSM and a few other key folks don’t plan to show up.

Today even the weather cooperated. It was sunny and mild and I enjoyed my walk home. Even at 8:30 this evening, it was playing relatively nice.

Yesterday afternoon, as I walked home under a nearly entirely clear sky, the Korean heavens mysteriously opened up and pelted me with icy rain. This country, for good or bad, seems to pile on.

Tomorrow is glorious Friday (and 8.333333% of the way through my contract. Not that I’m counting) and on the weekend I have some writing to do, but will also take whichever day is clear to head to Expo Park for a photostravaganza of globally ubiquitous hubbed nature.

Cause I’m down with Korea. It’s like it’s sparkling, or something!

Finally, the last picture shows two of the three cigarette receptacles that lie within ten feet of the door to my CS class. Let’s just say that Korea isn’t going to go for any of that pansy “25 feet from a door” smoking prohibition thing.

Cause they’re ultra-manly.

It’s a good thing they drink their coffee adulterated with all kinds of nasty shit (sickly creams, sugar, artificial flavors). If they drank their coffee black they’d probably rule the world (by what I call the “Starbucks Coefficient” which is that numerical relationship between the ongoing fruitification of US Coffee and our descent from a world power into buffoonery – I suppose there is also a “George Bush Coefficient” in there, but the trend began long before his monkey ass jumped on and accelerated it).

And, now, having written the longest parenthetical ever, I retire, gracefully, from the fray.

Is it I, or were there a lot of commas in that last sentence?