flies, flies everywhere

So this is similar to my last entry… Something amazing happened, and I just had to share it. I had my last class of the day during 5th period, and it was a little draining—the weather’s getting hot, the activity was boring, and the students were tired. So as I walked the 200 feet between the English classroom and the Teacher’s Office, I started to dream about a nice cold beer. Then I walked into the Teacher’s Office, and all the teachers were drinking beer. At first, I thought perhaps it was a mirage, like an oasis in the desert… then I realized it wasn’t, and I just started laughing.

They were all gathered around the table in the center of the office drinking bottles of beer and eating dried squid, and they looked up when I came in, I imagine sort of guiltily. And just the way they looked at me, and my culture shock, conspired to make me start laughing. Then they laughed, and it was all very culturally enlightening. (I’m used to teachers drinking… I’ve seen them drink when we went out for lunch, then come back to school. I’ve drank with them on the field trip, one table away from the students. I’ve seen end of the day soju shots in the Teacher’s Office. But just to see them all sipping bottles of beer was a new sight.) So I went to my desk, and then they offered me one, and I said “Yes!” really enthusiastically with an arm pump, which they thought was hysterical. (I don’t even really like beer, but I figured hey… this is a good way to ingratiate myself with them without having to eat rice cake or something still alive.) So we had a nice time. Now, it’s 2:25 and I’m still sipping on this baby as I write this.

Oh, Korea. It was good that I had one of these moments, because lately Korea’s offered me a lot more disappointment than usual. Seldom are my prayers answered so directly and promptly, so thank you.

I’m very behind in blog entries, but it’s time to play catch-up, so be forewarned, this’ll be a long one… I was in a month-long slump, but I think I’m ready to get back on track. I wasn’t depressed or sad or anything, I just… didn’t have the energy. Maybe that’s not true- I wasn’t necessarily lacking in energy. I just couldn’t really bring myself to plan ahead, which meant the daily to-do lists that had helped me be so productive for the previous few months fell by the wayside, and so did everything else. Everything was up in the air—going or staying in Korea mainly, I guess. And I finished the 5k, which felt like a bigger accomplishment than I had expected, so it was easy to just sit back for a week after that… then one week turned into two. Last night was the first time I ran since the end of the race. I haven’t written any emails. I haven’t blogged. I just sort of… stopped doing anything but exactly what I had to do. I planned every lesson the morning (or period) before.

So, inspired by my sister, and without further ado…
5 Things I Haven’t Blogged About Yet But That I Probably Should:
1. Chances of me staying in Korea are up to about 92%. I finally got an email from the Fulbright Director informing me that I’d been approved to extend for the 2008-2009 year. Now, I made it abundantly clear I was only staying until Christmas, so I’m not sure why they refuse to acknowledge that fact in writing, but whatever. The Naju School Board has given at least verbal approval, but nothing’s set in stone yet, and I suppose things could still possibly go wrong, but I feel like we’re solidly into the 90th percentile. I’m definitely enthusiastic about getting to stay, although less so than when I made the decision to try (though I suppose that’s inevitable). Korea’s just been unusually annoying lately, but again, that’s to be expected. I’m still happy to be staying. (As a side note, I realize that sometimes I blame things on Korea that are not necessarily Korea’s fault. I lost things in America, I got gum on my shoe in America. There are schedule changes in America. Granted, almost any inconvenience is a little more difficult to deal with in a foreign language, but contrary to what I may have been thinking lately, annoyances are not a uniquely Korean trait.)

2. Along the same lines… I recently found out that I can probably stay with my current host family for the next 6 months. I would prefer that, obviously, despite the fact that they’ve been a little annoying lately too.

(Host Mom, at breakfast: “So, Brittany, why don’t you exercise these days?” Me: “Because I don’t want to.”

Then, host Dad’s still bothering me to tutor him, which just irritates me. I actually don’t have to help him, though I do when I can, but he’s not even polite. I just feel condescended to, and it’s irritating.

Yesterday host mom inexplicably decided to challenge me about cereal for breakfast, and made me eat rice and chicken soup. She’s like, “But you like chicken soup?” In my head, I think: Well, yes, but not as a breakfast food.)

I haven’t been extra helpful around the house for the past month in my sloth, but I’ll try to break out of that now. I don’t want to have to move my stuff and get used to a new family, especially for only 6 months… unless of course, they have air conditioning. In which case, I’ll move tomorrow.

3. The last tidbit about the future: I was getting really paranoid about whether or not I would even be able to come home, as everyone kept warning me about how expensive gas (and by extension of that) everything is, so I vowed that if the ticket would cost me more than $2000, then I wouldn’t come home. Just the thought of paying anything near that, actually, made me cringe. But a few days ago I finally got on track and emailed for a quote… \1,800,000. Which is… probably about $1,600, and slightly more than one month’s salary. It seems like a ridiculous amount of money (waste) to come home for only 28 days, but I think it’s a necessity, for several reasons. 1. I really need new bras. Theoretically, if I went to Seoul, I might be able to find something, but… I don’t really know. And having good bras is important to me. I also need new clothes, and although I’ve managed to buy a few things in Korea lately, I’m dreaming of Gap. 2. I think I need some time away from Korea to fully appreciate it. As hard as coming back was after Christmas (and it was, I assure you, especially thanks to the bedbugs), I was definitely in a better place after coming back than when I left. I had renewed patience for host family, I missed my students, and I just had a nice fresh start. This time I’ll be home for even longer, so I can only imagine it’ll be good for me. So tentatively we’re looking at something like July 16 to August 13, I think.

4. I ran the 5k. There’s more detail about this in the diet blog, but I’ll go ahead and give you the important details. I stopped running about a week before (the beginning of my burnout, I suspect), and ate pretty much nothing but sweets leading up to the big day (What’s a vegetable?) We made our t-shirts, which turned out to be more offensive than I expected, but we escaped without incident. As we lined up for the race and Korean people pushed into me from every angle, I definitely started to wish it was all over. But then there was a shot and we were off. It was… hard, but not too hard. I ran the whole way. My time was 27 something, which means, among other things, it definitely wasn’t a full 5k. (My friend Meghan, a more seasoned runner, agrees.) I got 18th place among women (Meghan got 8th), but before you get too excited, there weren’t that many women, and most of them were old. I got a box of cantaloupe-ish fruits as a prize.

And two of my students showed up to cheer me on! It was so adorable. We ran into them as we were leaving, actually, so Meghan and I donated our free Korean lunch to them, and we had a nice little picnic at the festival grounds. Then they walked us home, carrying our fruit, and I hung out with them for a little while. We went bowling, I think, if memory serves. Tim also showed up to have lunch with us, and brought us both carnations, which was super-sweet. It was just a nice day.

5. Flies. I don’t know why, but Korea has a serious fly infestation right now. It’s insane. We all have fly paper installed on top of our computers, and there are, no joke, about a hundred dead flies on mine right now. Since last week. But it’s not even making a dent. There’s 4 on my computer screen as we speak, 6 on the desk. I don’t understand it. And they’re soooo annoying. Sitting and trying to lesson plan I have flies landing on me every 10 seconds. Just a tickle, but it drives me crazy. All of the teachers have fly swatters too, so some of them just walk around the Teacher’s Office swatting flies for whole periods. The Vice Principal apparently has nothing better to do than that, so she snuck up on one and swatted it right on my desk. I didn’t see her coming, and it scared me to death. Plus… have you ever watched a fly on flypaper die? It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. Yesterday I watched a little baby fly get caught, and it broke my heart. They keep struggling hopelessly to free themselves, writhing as they die. I mean, if they were mosquitos, that would be one thing. But flies don’t hurt anyone… That’s what you think as you watch one die, then 2 more fly around your head for 5 minutes, and three obscure crucial parts of your computer screen, and then the murderous rage wells up in you again.

Well, that’s all for now. Pictures of the fly paper, and other exciting things, including the race, probably, will be forthcoming. Have a nice day!