It All Makes Anti-Perfect Sense
I went for a walk tonight after school.
Being that everything is kind of shifting between semesters, I have that kind of time. I haven't had that kind of time since before winter camp, back in January. I have no online classes to come up with, I have to extra stuff to worry about, and I have no grade 3 and 4 elementary now (which actually makes me sad, they're my favorites).
So I went for a long walk with my camera strapped to my back. I probably went about 7 or 8 kilometers. It took me 2 hours, but I stopped 3/4 of the way through because I saw two of my students. We talked, kicked the soccer ball, and then I asked them what the building was that were playing in front of (I knew it was City Hall, or kind of the version of it being we're nowhere near a city.)
Then I asked them what the building next to it was. It always looks vacant, cold, and dark. They said, "eun dong". Exercise. As in, a gym. As in, I lamented for a year to my students, the citizens (if they asked what I thought of the island), the teachers (if they ever listened), and my co-teachers (obviously they weren't paying attention or they just don't give a shit) about not having a place to work out last winter. It wasn't so cold, but the wind...the *fcuking WIND...my GOD...all god damned winter long. 4 months of howling, window rattling, door sucking, wind. And I could have been working out in a shitty little gym.
I should have known. If it is not happening to them, Koreans cannot and do not relate, understand, or empathize. It's a cultural thing. They are not discoverers. They don't go looking for things. They are wonderful people who love to laugh, but they really could give two shits about what is happening to anyone around them, especially a foreigner.
I need that machine from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. God I need that machine.
Being that everything is kind of shifting between semesters, I have that kind of time. I haven't had that kind of time since before winter camp, back in January. I have no online classes to come up with, I have to extra stuff to worry about, and I have no grade 3 and 4 elementary now (which actually makes me sad, they're my favorites).
So I went for a long walk with my camera strapped to my back. I probably went about 7 or 8 kilometers. It took me 2 hours, but I stopped 3/4 of the way through because I saw two of my students. We talked, kicked the soccer ball, and then I asked them what the building was that were playing in front of (I knew it was City Hall, or kind of the version of it being we're nowhere near a city.)
Then I asked them what the building next to it was. It always looks vacant, cold, and dark. They said, "eun dong". Exercise. As in, a gym. As in, I lamented for a year to my students, the citizens (if they asked what I thought of the island), the teachers (if they ever listened), and my co-teachers (obviously they weren't paying attention or they just don't give a shit) about not having a place to work out last winter. It wasn't so cold, but the wind...the *fcuking WIND...my GOD...all god damned winter long. 4 months of howling, window rattling, door sucking, wind. And I could have been working out in a shitty little gym.
I should have known. If it is not happening to them, Koreans cannot and do not relate, understand, or empathize. It's a cultural thing. They are not discoverers. They don't go looking for things. They are wonderful people who love to laugh, but they really could give two shits about what is happening to anyone around them, especially a foreigner.
I need that machine from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. God I need that machine.
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