Due to unsafe ocean conditions, our province-sponsored trip to Dokdo Island this week was postponed to September. I was sad less for the missed opportunity to see an important Korean landmark (a disputed chunk of rock between Korea and Japan) and more so for the sudden loss of free vacation time. Looks like I’ll need to slap lesson plans together for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wendy consoled me. “The vice principal feels bad that the trip was canceled but he says the weather will be beautiful in September.” Cool but does he feel bad enough to give me extra vacation days this week…? I took this Monday easy, doing comic…

Today was mandatory CPR training. No one else would understand The Office reference so I just laughed to myself, as I usually have to do. I wondered why I was even required to go since the whole presentation was in Korean but then also appreciated that I was considered part of the team. A funny lady with a strong southern accent kicked off the meeting in a small auditorium I didn’t even know our school had. I got the gist of most of what she said if I concentrated, and not by virtue of exact internal translation but rather understanding some words and guessing the meaning from context. Wendy leaned…

I drove down to Busan for a face peel and my yearly underarm Botox to prevent sweating, a necessity when half of the homeroom teachers refuse to turn on the A/C. The young female translator met me at the counter and then led me to another room for the face peel. An older esthetician prepared my face and we chatted in Korean. “Oh are you talking to me?” I asked, having zoned out under her gentle touch. “Oh no, sorry, I’m talking to the doctor,” she said, gesturing to her earpiece like dermatology secret service. “And oh, you speak Korean! Your intonation is so nice.” Yesterday, the pharmacist got all…

I was asking Yana for some grammar help while making plans with a blind date man MJ set me up with. MJ is friends with the head teacher whose younger sister has a single coworker. She proposed the idea last week and I agreed, because I’m an extrovert and a masochist. “Oh, I got set up on a blind date so I’m trying to figure out the details but we’re texting in Korean since he doesn’t know English.” “Oh, do you want to date a Korean man?” She asked. I mean, I’m not too specific. “I think that would be hard here.” She added, and we both understood that as…

월요병. Monday disease. In English when I hear this phrase I think of corporate motivational posters but in Korea it feels like a real affliction. The only temporary fix I’ve found is a hard workout or daydreaming about a beach trip to Thailand and never coming back. This semester has been absolutely non-stop between my day job, evening tutoring, evening Korean classes, TOPIK self study, and teaching weekend debate. Mondays this year have, without fail, punted me into the ground. Today was no different. My five classes vacillated between fine and straining. Helen’s homeroom class is my biggest offender. I actually thought to myself, quite shamefully but no less truthfully,…

Two of my students who are brothers have haunted me all across town. The sixth grader I’ve seen at the Lotte Mart crosswalk, most recently with his mom. I wondered how long it would be until I met the whole family. Both found me at the cherry blossom festival where we took some selfies together, one more a close-up of little J’s nose as he had grabbed my camera mid snap while giggling to himself. We parted ways at the train tracks and I met up with a friend. We took turns taking each other’s photos among the thousands of other tourists doing the same and it wasn’t until I…