Days 53-61

I think I must have settled into a routine here in Korea. How else could time be flying by so quickly? They say time flies when you're having fun, but honestly, I feel more busy than anything else. This weekend is 추석 (Chuseok), Korea's Thanksgiving Day. Everyone is visiting family, and I finally have some time to breath. But this weekend, I'm still busy. The International Affairs Office of KNU had a lunch and dinner today for international students that I felt obligated to attend as the first American student. Especially when I was on my way to the dinner location, and I recieved a call from Mr. Kim with a minute left asking me where I was.
Both meals were rather awkward for me, as I don't know Korean, and I only knew a few people there. The guys from Central America were there, but we haven't really talked since that dinner at the end of the first week of classes. Two girls from one of my conversation groups (Jess and Angela) were at lunch so I sat with them. I was also forced to sit with two guys I didn't know. Mrs. Kong said they spoke good English so she told them to sit by me and talk with me. It was weird. I was really tired (stayed up until 3am) and I didn't know them so I didn't want to talk with them. I was also feeling a little homesick, so I wasn't in the best of moods.
For dinner, Jess stayed in the dorms because "she's lazy" (Angela's words, not mine). I spent most of my time there with Angela and her friend from China who doesn't speak any English. Her friend was sweet. I could see us being friends, even though we don't have any language in common (she knows Chinese, Korean, and Japanese).

Well, that's what I did today. What else have I done recently?

Monday night, I met with two girls in one of my conversation groups for a walk by the river. They had never actually been down to the river, so I was happy to show them my favorite place in all of Gongju. They couldn't seem to understand why I enjoy the fishermen so much. I'm not really all that sure why I like them so much either, but I tried explaining it. I mentioned how it made me feel like I was a little closer to home, because fishing is the same back home. People just sitting on a quiet river, watching nature, not saying anything. It's very peaceful for me. After going to the river, we went to a coffee shop and had waffles. They were good but made me crave pancakes.

I went to a stationary shop on Wed. afternoon and bought some postcards and stationary (go figure, that's what I would buy at a stationary shop), as well as a cutting mat and some construction paper for my class on Thursday. My Wed. night conversation group was good. We went out for samgyupsal and then coffee. We joked around and had a good time as usual.

Thursday, I had my kids make sticker books so I can do a rewards system. Surprisingly enough, my 1st/2nd graders disliked the activity the most, and my 5th/6th graders liked it the most. Part of that might have been that I got better at explaining how to make the books, and we watched Kpop music videos in 5th/6th grade (also in 3rd/4th grade, but they seemed uninterested).
When I got back from teaching, Jina and I tried making pancakes for the first time. It was quite....interesting. We didn't have a spatula so we had to use a mix of using a ladle and throwing the pancake in the airto turn them. They weren't the best pancakes ever (tasted fine but looked funny). I got better with each one. Next time, I'll be even better! We then went to the movies to see Fame. About a minute into the movie, I knew pretty much everything that was going to happen in the movie. It was just like every other movie about a performing arts school when they try and focus on more than two or three people.
After the movie, Jina left for home, and I went to exercise with Nari. She wanted to play badmiton, but I'm terrible at it. After a while, she (mercifully!) said we could quit. We then walked the track for a bit, until my legs started hurting. I feigned being sleepy, and we went our separate ways.