Things To Come

Just now, as I was taking out my garbage, I had a conversation with an eight year old kid whose English was better than most of the students in my middle school.

Some things I'm looking forward to:

1. The weekend.

2. Teaching. I've spent the last week and a half at school doing very little work. Today, I browsed the internet for at least six hours. Although I'm not super excited about teaching, I'll be glad to actually earn my salary. Also, two teachers told me that their kids were on the verge of rioting when they found out that I won't start teaching until next week. Strangely, the kids seem to really like me. I hope I can live up to their expectations. It's also kind of weird because I live right by the school, and I see them all over the neighborhood. I still haven't gotten used to them bowing to me on the street.

3. Hapkido. Some of the other foreign teachers and I are going to start taking classes on Monday. I think we may begin on Monday. It should be fun to kick some ass, and I'm sure it'll make my dad proud.

4. One of the science teachers at my school is organizing some clubs for the teachers. We're going to play ping-pong on Wednesday, and I think we may start going out for dinner once a month because he wants to introduce me to more Korean food. This teacher is hilarious. When we first met, he introduced himself as, "Harry...Harry Potter," because he wanted to give himself a Western name. So, I just call him Harry. He's never even told me what his real name is. His English isn't that great, but we can usually communicate okay. He's always learning hilarious phrases and saying things like, "Juh-suh-tun teachuh, do you know 'hair of the dog?'" Today, he said, "Juh-suh-tun teachuh, butt out!"

5. The district coordinator is planning some "cultural tours" for the foreign teachers. In April or May, we're supposed to go camping at the DMZ. Maybe we can watch our country turn to rubble when North Korea launches its "test missile."