Cadaverous
While waiting for my laundry to be done on level 12 I thought I'd write a quick update. Things have been so busy here that it has been hard to find time for this. So I thought I might tell you about my day today as an insight into what life is like here at Kyung Hee University (Suwon).
Woke up this morning to the sound of my travel alarm clock, feeling exhausted after yesterday. Yesterday finished in a not atypical drinking session at the notorious Beer Plus (soju/beer bar across from the university gates), this time to celebrate Steph's birthday. Got dressed and slumped down to the convenience store outside the girl's dormitory, had a sandwich, a canned iced coffee, and a cigarette - so much for a healthy lifestyle, although I'm eating well, for the most part. Although I can't seem to put on weight - I must be really burning through calories. Then classes.
The first class was How to approach pronunciation for Korean Elementary School Students, which was actually really good - the lecturer was very engaging, there was lots of stuff derived from Chomsky, and it was useful. It was followed by the legendary "How to Utilize Drama and Storytelling". I'd been warned in advance so got a seat close to the air-conditioners and prepared to catch up on some rest. The nervous Korean woman who gave it read straight from the textbook, then we spent a half hour on a mind-numbing group exercise. Everyone slept through it. After that, lunch - I made the trek across the mountain to the cafeteria, which is such an arduous walk that many people refuse to ever go there. The food is sometimes really good, sometimes not-so-good. Today it was pork stir-fry, again. I ate a whole octopus. It was OK. I then went back to my room to rest up a little in the air-conditioning before...
Tae-Kwon-Do! The organizers have been very diligent in providing us with cultural experiences as well. I have bad memories of tae-kwon-do from childhood (don't ask) but quite enjoyed the class. Except while practicing spinning kicks, when I somehow managed to kick a bin instead of the air I was aiming for. It made a tremendous crash, everyone looked at me, mostly with concern. "Are you OK?" "I'm fine!" I said, perkily - of course my fear of being embarrassed outweighed the considerable pain I was in. I stuck it out for about eighty of the ninety minutes, but quit before the star jumps at the end. Afterwards we had yet another class detailing games we should use with the kids - we've had about six of these and everybody was exhausted from tae kwon do; I can hardly even remember it.
Afterwards I was smoking with my friends and some of the nice girls from my class promised me that they were going to seize my cigarettes whenever they saw me smoking. I went off to eat dinner with Junh - Korean blood sausage, surprisingly good - then the girls turned up and we had a second dinner of massive loads of fried chicken. The conversation turned to rating the current Hollywood super-hunks and that lasted about twenty minutes and showed no sign of ending, so I came back to the dorm to do my washing. Had to climb to the 12th floor to find a free machine. Had two oo-bek-wan coins for the washing machine, but none for the dryer. Came back down to my room; called home. Then went back out to the girl's dorms to find a change machine. Talked to the Unkrainian girl whose name I forget while having a cigarette (of course), about exhaustion, and going too hard. She has an infected wisdom tooth and a fever, and we talked about how we'd both wanted to give it our best shot, but were feeling completely spent.
It is exhausting. Today at least three people said to me, "I can't be bothered meeting new people any more. It's too tiring." It is. There are people I talk to and like, people I don't talk to, and a scarily large group of people who come up to me, know my name, and who I simply can't place. I say, "What's happening, man?" an awful lot. This has been tremendous fun, but I'm looking forward to heading off to my province at the end of next week, although that will provide plenty of new challenges.
Still - tomorrow, up at nine to go into Seoul and do the tourist thing with some of my non-Korean-speaking friends, because I was feeling too insulated by the Korean kids. They're great, but I always end up letting them order food for me. So for now it's suck-it-up and on-with-it. But I'm looking cadaverous.
Woke up this morning to the sound of my travel alarm clock, feeling exhausted after yesterday. Yesterday finished in a not atypical drinking session at the notorious Beer Plus (soju/beer bar across from the university gates), this time to celebrate Steph's birthday. Got dressed and slumped down to the convenience store outside the girl's dormitory, had a sandwich, a canned iced coffee, and a cigarette - so much for a healthy lifestyle, although I'm eating well, for the most part. Although I can't seem to put on weight - I must be really burning through calories. Then classes.
The first class was How to approach pronunciation for Korean Elementary School Students, which was actually really good - the lecturer was very engaging, there was lots of stuff derived from Chomsky, and it was useful. It was followed by the legendary "How to Utilize Drama and Storytelling". I'd been warned in advance so got a seat close to the air-conditioners and prepared to catch up on some rest. The nervous Korean woman who gave it read straight from the textbook, then we spent a half hour on a mind-numbing group exercise. Everyone slept through it. After that, lunch - I made the trek across the mountain to the cafeteria, which is such an arduous walk that many people refuse to ever go there. The food is sometimes really good, sometimes not-so-good. Today it was pork stir-fry, again. I ate a whole octopus. It was OK. I then went back to my room to rest up a little in the air-conditioning before...
Tae-Kwon-Do! The organizers have been very diligent in providing us with cultural experiences as well. I have bad memories of tae-kwon-do from childhood (don't ask) but quite enjoyed the class. Except while practicing spinning kicks, when I somehow managed to kick a bin instead of the air I was aiming for. It made a tremendous crash, everyone looked at me, mostly with concern. "Are you OK?" "I'm fine!" I said, perkily - of course my fear of being embarrassed outweighed the considerable pain I was in. I stuck it out for about eighty of the ninety minutes, but quit before the star jumps at the end. Afterwards we had yet another class detailing games we should use with the kids - we've had about six of these and everybody was exhausted from tae kwon do; I can hardly even remember it.
Afterwards I was smoking with my friends and some of the nice girls from my class promised me that they were going to seize my cigarettes whenever they saw me smoking. I went off to eat dinner with Junh - Korean blood sausage, surprisingly good - then the girls turned up and we had a second dinner of massive loads of fried chicken. The conversation turned to rating the current Hollywood super-hunks and that lasted about twenty minutes and showed no sign of ending, so I came back to the dorm to do my washing. Had to climb to the 12th floor to find a free machine. Had two oo-bek-wan coins for the washing machine, but none for the dryer. Came back down to my room; called home. Then went back out to the girl's dorms to find a change machine. Talked to the Unkrainian girl whose name I forget while having a cigarette (of course), about exhaustion, and going too hard. She has an infected wisdom tooth and a fever, and we talked about how we'd both wanted to give it our best shot, but were feeling completely spent.
It is exhausting. Today at least three people said to me, "I can't be bothered meeting new people any more. It's too tiring." It is. There are people I talk to and like, people I don't talk to, and a scarily large group of people who come up to me, know my name, and who I simply can't place. I say, "What's happening, man?" an awful lot. This has been tremendous fun, but I'm looking forward to heading off to my province at the end of next week, although that will provide plenty of new challenges.
Still - tomorrow, up at nine to go into Seoul and do the tourist thing with some of my non-Korean-speaking friends, because I was feeling too insulated by the Korean kids. They're great, but I always end up letting them order food for me. So for now it's suck-it-up and on-with-it. But I'm looking cadaverous.
posted by Nicholas at
6:54 AM
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