I look like Emma Watson, and other lies we tell ourselves...

Well, I made it back from the conference. It proved to suck less than I had anticipated, which was awesome. I was stressed about the transportation situation, because I just hate flying now, since all those 14 hour Korea flights. But it was remarkably painless. Security was unintimidating, and the flight itself was literally 45 minutes... just barely long enough to doze off or get into a good book, which was fine by me. The weather was quite nice, and I got to room with my two favorite (female) ETAs, Meghan and Amy, so all in all it wasn't an entirely unpleasurable experience. 

This was helped, immensely, by the fact that the actual conference portion of the conference was remarkably short compared to previous ETA gatherings. From like, 2pm to 5pm on Friday and 9am to 12pm on Saturday. We had a few short speeches, and then small groups to discuss how to improve the handbook and Orientation for next year. Those were pretty painful at times, but not too long, and it really was over before I knew it. I ate too much at the first two American buffets, as I should have expected, which led to my stomach feeling a little sketch, so I almost skipped out on sightseeing with my friends, but I'm glad I didn't. We went to the Teddy Bear Museum and the Museum of Sex and Health, and they were both titillating in their own way. 

The Teddy Bear Museum isn't what you'd expect... if it were, I wouldn't have gone. Instead, the Teddy Bear Museum is full of re-enactments of important (and not-so-important) historical events with... teddy bears. Sometimes moving teddy bears. (Think fall of the Berlin Wall.) The other gallery is imitations of great works of art... with teddy bears. Anyway, it's obviously a must for any history major, and was well worth the cost of admission ($7). I can't upload pictures at the moment, but I'll do it tomorrow first thing at work, because you've just got to see it to believe it. 

The Museum of Sex and Health is just as exciting as you might expect, and I won't be uploading any of those pictures to this blog, because my Grammy reads it. (Sorry, Grammy!) It wasn't actually my choice to go to said museum, but the posse was really excited about it, and I went. It was strange, and would have been more interesting if I could have read the information provided, but the highlight was probably the two phone booths (one for men and one for women), where you could pick up the phone and hear Korean phone sex. (I'm not sure how interesting this is for Korean people, because presumably they could pick up almost any phone and hear Korean phone sex), but whatever. It was thoroughly... educational, including an extensive display about sexually transmitted diseases that reminded me of high school health class. 

More interesting than the fact that Jeju Island has a sex museum is the fact that Jeju Island actually has two or three sex museums. I saw some pictures from ETAs who went to Loveland, another sex museum, and it seems much raunchier. Up until just a few years ago, I guess, Jeju Island was the #1 honeymoon destination for Korean people... as up until a short time ago it was difficult for Koreans to go anywhere else. It's picturesque, beautiful, and warm, and aside from its famous oranges, it's just a tourist attraction, which means it's literally covered with weird museums and stuff, and we only scratched the surface with Teddy Bear Museum and Sex Museum. (Another high point, the Africa Museum, where many Korean people go to have their picture taken with "a real African," as they will proudly tell you.) Jeju actually looks a lot like Florida... complete with palm trees and beaches, so if I'd gone there, I might have been able to forget, on occasion, that I was in Korea. I would also probably have to eat a lot more fish, so I'm happy with my Naju placement. :) 

That's about all I have to say about the conference. I came home today on another pleasantly brief flight, took a short bus ride to Naju, and then got started on my lengthy to-do list. I've done all my laundry, so now all I can do is hope that something will dry in time to wear it tomorrow. I've been having a really cute conversation with one of my favorite third graders on and off on messenger all day. High point: I look a lot like Emma Watson. (Hermione? How old is she nowadays anyway?) Okay, I've consulted Google Images and Wikipedia, and I'm pretty sure that all Emma Watson and I have in common is brown eyes and lighter hair, but whatever. I'm sure it was intended as a compliment. 

I haven't exactly finished my first grade lesson for tomorrow, but whatever. I'll slap it together in the morning. I found out that I DO get to have an after-school club class at my good school too (for two hours on Friday), including lots of students who I really like, and who actually really like English, so hopefully that will prove to be lots of fun. 

Oh yeah... there was one more thing. I succeeded in following my reading-every-day April goal this week, and successfully finished the 450-some page Australian classic Cloudstreet, which I absolutely loved. I'm definitely going to have to look for more of Tim Winton's stuff when I get back to America. I haven't felt this sort of immediate love for a novelist in a long time, and not often in my life, but something about the book really affected me. I just loved it to pieces. It's only my #10 book for the year, which puts me still behind pace, but I have a stack of six books sitting on my desk that I acquired at the conference this week, so combined with the 50 pages a day goal, I should be caught up in no time. I'm shooting for 4 books a month, so now I'm only 3 behind. Progress.