life as i know it

deery-lou.
yet another week has passed here in the land of the morning calm. it has now been 1 year 6 months and 17 days. in a strange way it feels like i've only just got here. this week was filled with hellos, good byes, and drinking. we had yet another farewell dinner for horace on monday. we also welcomed a new foreign teacher. this week at school felt uber hectic. a majority of my classes are started to get maxed out. where are all these kids coming from? i rearranged my classroom this week. it never fails that everytime i do the children freak out. they definitely don't like change. one of my classes wanted superhero names so on friday i put a bunch of super hero names in a hat and had them pick. they seemed to like that. i told them i'd find pictures of the hero they chose and print them out for them. it makes me so happy to see them interested in superheroes. perhaps i will leave a lasting impression on some of them. i saw my friend bill a few times this week. we only get to chat ever so briefly since he's always on his way out. however he always takes a few minutes to say "hi ethan" and tell me about his day. the whole time he's talking with me he's trying to put on his coat, which is almost as long as he is tall. bill method is quite simple. he doesn't believe in unzipping his coat all the way. he leaves it half zipped and puts it on by stepping into it. its quite a sight. this week i always found myself engaged in another "dialogue" with my buddy tae from taekwondo. its his mission to have dialogue with me at least twice a week. he wants to be my korean teacher and i'm happy to obligue. so far i've learned the korean words for train, airplane, ship, bread, and the currency. he would teach some words and then say quiz. he tried to teach me sentences but i told him words would be easier for now. it was quite charming. in tkd i started to learn a new form as well as back kicks and a turning kick. the turning kick is quite hard for me. i can't seem to make myself spin as fast as i need too. my sahbanim always makes it seem so easy. my fellow classmates are also started to notice that i have my black belt. i caught a few of them trying to read my name on it. one of them even pointed to it and then said something to the sahbanim. then they all started to sing the congratulations song. a few came up to me after class and said congratulations again. these kids are really great. my kwang gang nim wants me to help him with his english. i brought in a book the other day but when he looked at it he said "too much english" and got very animated. he then pulled a korean book off his self, opened it, and asked if i could read it. i said no. then he made a comment about feeling the same about the book i brought. i think he wants a book that has both english and korean in it. although i think he can actually do this book. he's just panicked. it was quite funny though. he kept saying over and over his english very bad. i don't think he's as bad as he thinks. i can tell he really wants to learn thought so i will do my best to find a book for him. i met up with young, anna, and christine last night after tkd. they were at our usual haunt: gas station. they have the best friend chicken there. we kicked back some beers and chanted the night away. every time we go we end up getting some free food. its a great little chill place. and now here i am. its almost 4pm on saturday and i've done nada. well actually i watched king kong, the amazing race, and managed to get some laundry done. my life feels like one giant routine these days.

be well…