Joseph Heller Spent Time on Imja-do
He had to have spent time here. Nah, he couldn't have. Not only that, but back when he was writing his fantastic book, he wouldn't have had the connectivity I have here. Maybe that's what is the matter. But I still contend that this island basically becomes a ghost town on weekends, and I just don't have the resources to blow 1-300 bucks every weekend leaving the island. I would love to, but I can't.
The catch is this: I claim to need my computer to stay up to date on things like the news and messaging with friends and family. I wonder now how much I really need it as I just don't get that many messages or anything from anyone. Outside of a random drive by message from either email or Facebook, I kind of feel like I have fallen off the radar. I basically have I guess. What have I done for anyone lately, right?
The other part of the catch that seems to grind my gears is seeing all of the people I ended up in orientation with and how they all seem to be in populated areas, eating a variety of foods and doing so with a great many friend or new acquaintances. I must be jealous, because then I think, "What the fuck do I have?" I recently saw a couple posts about great "trips" that people went on with their schools and students. I got none of it.
I found out 3 days before our "trip", but I was finishing my plans for a winter camp I have to do with one of my elementary schools. As it is, I should have just gone, because the number of students changed yet again, and the levels are all so varied (3rd grade to 5th grade and levels within those) that much of the stuff I provided on day 1 seemed much too difficult for them and not nearly fun enough. But I wanted to really work on English and using the language with them, getting them to produce it in both speaking and writing...and I can see after the first day, it will be very difficult.
So, tomorrow, we're making pizza, doing a fun vocabulary worksheet, word search, cryptogram...and to hell with the mainland, everyone else's "Black Panther Parties", or whatever else they have planned. I need to buckle down, realize if I make it out of here alive, there might be something more after Imja. Anywhere. Korea the second time around has not proved to be a beautiful, fun, or anywhere near as enlightening as I found it the first time (or had hoped to find it again), but I am already less than 8 months away from leaving. I will certainly miss many of the students here, but as for what this place and it's isolation has done for my mental state in just 4 months...
Perhaps that is my enlightenment.
The catch is this: I claim to need my computer to stay up to date on things like the news and messaging with friends and family. I wonder now how much I really need it as I just don't get that many messages or anything from anyone. Outside of a random drive by message from either email or Facebook, I kind of feel like I have fallen off the radar. I basically have I guess. What have I done for anyone lately, right?
The other part of the catch that seems to grind my gears is seeing all of the people I ended up in orientation with and how they all seem to be in populated areas, eating a variety of foods and doing so with a great many friend or new acquaintances. I must be jealous, because then I think, "What the fuck do I have?" I recently saw a couple posts about great "trips" that people went on with their schools and students. I got none of it.
I found out 3 days before our "trip", but I was finishing my plans for a winter camp I have to do with one of my elementary schools. As it is, I should have just gone, because the number of students changed yet again, and the levels are all so varied (3rd grade to 5th grade and levels within those) that much of the stuff I provided on day 1 seemed much too difficult for them and not nearly fun enough. But I wanted to really work on English and using the language with them, getting them to produce it in both speaking and writing...and I can see after the first day, it will be very difficult.
So, tomorrow, we're making pizza, doing a fun vocabulary worksheet, word search, cryptogram...and to hell with the mainland, everyone else's "Black Panther Parties", or whatever else they have planned. I need to buckle down, realize if I make it out of here alive, there might be something more after Imja. Anywhere. Korea the second time around has not proved to be a beautiful, fun, or anywhere near as enlightening as I found it the first time (or had hoped to find it again), but I am already less than 8 months away from leaving. I will certainly miss many of the students here, but as for what this place and it's isolation has done for my mental state in just 4 months...
Perhaps that is my enlightenment.
Above, you can see Imja-do, sucking everything into its vacuous nuclei, stamping out all known life. But where does the energy from this life go? Or does it just feed Imja-do. Scientists study this very phenomenon.
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