My sixth month

I have somehow found myself in the sixth month of my teaching gig here. In the short amount of time I've been here, I can say without much pretense that I love my job. I also love living in Seoul. That's not to say that life and work have been easy for me. It seems that every two or three weeks I experience another personal crisis. However, this is not necessarily related to the fact that I'm in Korea. My issues exist in spite of Korea, not because of it.

Toby's work schedule has changed and so far it doesn't look as if we'll be able to meet much if at all this month. Fortunately, I've learned how to type in Korean (it's actually much easier than you would think) and we will be e-mailing each other with our language questions. In the meantime, I continue to seek out ways to improvise my Korean study.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to make small talk in Korean with a kind old woman on the subway. It made me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere with all of my studying.

Much of my life here, in and out of the classroom, continues to be a delicate exercise in figuring out Korea's unspoken cultural assumptions. One significant insight I've learned is not to panic when I encounter silence and hesitation in the classroom. I'm learning to better appreciate how difficult it is for students to speak in English in front of a foreigner in a classroom setting. I've discovered through numerous conversations with Koreans that many of them are quite intimidated by speaking with foreigners. This sounds like an unfair generalization, and I wouldn't have written if so many Koreans hadn't told it to me.

The New Year's holiday weekend was particularly nice for me. I was able to spend some enjoyable time with some old and new friends. Sunday afternoon at church I became friends with David, who teaches English in Japan but was visiting Korea for a weeklong vacation. After service we hung out for a couple of hours, and had a very enjoyable conversation over dinner at a restaurant in Myeongdong after church. Unfortunately we got ripped off at the restaurant with a sky-high bill (which doesn't usually happen), but we still enjoyed ourselves. Later that evening, I went to Pastor Bill's apartment for a low-key get-together with a few other folks from church. I took my guitar and a few of us shared songs with each other, some serious and some humorous. We also watched a video of the joint English worship service from Christmas Day (it was more like a concert actually) and a DVD of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I don't watch much TV anymore, and I sometimes forget how much I like certain cartoons. I was laughing hysterically at the rehearsal scene involving Lucy and Snoopy. Everyone else was laughing at me laughing.

Then we watched the countdown on TV just before midnight. Normally at this time of year I'm at a get-together with friends in New York and we watch the countdown in Times Square on TV. It was interesting to be watching it here and hearing a screaming audience counting down in Korean.

Monday I went out to Suyu to visit Samuel (his English name), the music director for my church's 3 p.m. service, with whom I've recently become friends. It's been a long time since I've just relaxed, and I got to do just that at his house. I had a great time out there. A few people have asked me about my New Year's resolutions. I avoid resolutions that I can't keep. I prefer to set goals and make determinations. I guess these are like resolutions, but somehow they seem more attainable. They are many, but the ones I'll mention here are becoming a better teacher, improving my Korean, exercising more and updating this blog more often.