to pyongyang! (Silmido)

I didn’t update at all this weekend, but I’m feeling pretty tired, so I don’t know if I’ll write very much. I’m fantastically unprepared for school tomorrow. I feel like I write that a lot, so you must think I’m a slacker teacher, but I assure you I’ll put it all together before tomorrow. I sat down for a chunk of time on Saturday with the expressed intention of lesson planning, but when I looked in the third grade book I became demoralized. There’s so many grammar bits there, and it’s so involved and difficult, but I think they really expect me to teach it. But I’m supposed to have a conversation class! And there’s no use trying to get kids to talk using grammar they haven’t learned yet. I should, as we’ve agreed at the other school, be coming up with activities to practice things they’ve already learned. But I’m not, and it makes me depressed, because I know I’m going to do a poor job explaining this stuff—because I’m speaking a foreign language. I don’t get it.

So once again I’m pressed for time, waiting for inspiration to strike. I can’t really think of anything spectacularly important that happened on Saturday. I bought a very pretty pink polka-dot umbrella. Today I got up and took the bus to Gwangju with Meghan for the first time. Despite a few minor hiccups, we arrived relatively unscathed. We walked about for a bit and did a little shopping with Tim, then met one of the OCs for pizza. And after that we went to… DVD Bang!

So here’s my review for today’s movie Silmido. This was the second-to-last of the films that JJY has a major part in, so I’m getting close to the end, and it’s very sad. I give Silmido 4 out of 5 Bs. It’s, allegedly, based on a historical event, but since I don’t have internet on my laptop, I’m not doing any research about it tonight. Anyway, it tells the story of thirty death row inmates who are taken from prison and brought to an island. They are being trained for a top-secret mission—to go to Pyongyang and assassinate Kim Il-Sung. They’re told that if they are successful, they will be hailed as heroes of the unified republic. The training is grueling and more than one of them die, but over a few years they become crack soldiers and develop a strong relationship. Three of the toughest are selected as captains of their respective teams, JJY being one of them. But, of course, things don’t go as planned. The ending of the movie is heartbreaking and incomprehensible, anyway. Suffice to say, I love JJY.

Okay, maybe I had other deep thoughts, but I’m tired, and I still need to clean my room and lesson plan.

Take care!