Wrapping up Jeju thoughts

I had grand plans of writing while I was on break in Korea. Of emptying all the cluttered thoughts out of my head onto paper (or my hard drive), organize them, and be able to start this semester focused and fresh.

The writing part didn’t happen, as you’ll notice by the slim blog post pickins, but I am feeling so much better for my time in Korea and so much more confident about my semester.

I spent a lot of time in Korea doing little to nothing, which seemed to confuse and perhaps frustrate Christian who felt it was his duty to show me the island and keep me entertained. I had a marvelous time lying around watching old Poirot episodes and reading.

We also did have PLENTY of adventures. During my last week I went to class with Christian and made some buddies, particularly in the third grade (It was one of the days when he’s on his own, with no Korean co-teacher to translate and help him, so I’m pretty impressed that he has had any kind of a first grade class. The kids have plenty of energy but don’t understand any instructions that can’t be mimed). At one point Christian was asking his class to sit down and they were too busy talking about their last activity and/or not really understanding, so I sat down at one of the student tables and two girls shrieked and ran across the classroom to sit next to me. It was very sweet, and pretty hilarious.

You don’t wear shoes in school in Korea (or homes). When we walked in Christian led me to a set of shelves with extra plastic slipper-sandals and gave me a pair before going to his cupboard and taking out his own personal pair. The sandals were the kind with lots of almost sharp plastic bumps on the bottom, which I suspect are good for reflexological or circulatory reasons, but made my feet feel awful weird and tingly by the end of the morning.

We ate (twice) at a restaurant that served pie-sized Herb Burgers, cut into eight pieces and requiring the help of at least two friends to consume.

We played a lot of games with friends, most notably Settlers of Catan and Warcraft III (I’m expecting my Huge Nerd badge to be upgraded to a Super Huge Nerd badge any day). We ate pancakes and broccoli (not at the same time) and I think I made up for all the cereal I had not eaten all semester in Nanjing.

Being on Jeju felt WAY more like home than my time in Nanjing has, and while I think Christian “Chuckles” Yetter (only super special people get obnoxious nicknames, dude, trust me) was definitely the main reason, it’s made me think about changing the way I structure my life in Nanjing. I’m going to try to read and maybe write every night, and spend more time just talking to people. Basically, I’m going to do less homework. Probably this is a good plan.