Weekly Letter Home

Dear Family and Friends,

I was tempted to write just a general “Hello, from Korea! I’m still alive,” letter to you all. Sorely tempted. This was a lazy weekend for me in general. I slept for about half of it, and the half I did not sleep I spent either in front of a history book or in front of the television, often times both simultaneously. (For those of you who think that reading a history book isn’t exactly being lazy, consider this: I’m a history major. I kind of miss it actually, and so if it wasn’t lazy it was certainly at least recreational.) I even broke out my over sized baggy khakis which I have to pin up to make them 5 inches shorter than usual so I don’t trip over them.

If you remember from last week, I am simply tired.

My work at the school is keeping me busy, and this is part of the reason for my exhaustion. The weather this week was dismal. It rained for the most part, and the news tells me a typhoon is on the way for Korea. I only know this because I can read a meteorological map when it has a big, swirly cloud on it and because “typhoon” is a loan word and thus easily recognizable despite the fact that the “f” sound escaped the Korean language somehow. All that is to say that I had to work extra hard to keep the kids interested this week in my lesson on expressing emotions. My energy was given to those fine young men and women of my hamlet’s highest educational institution, and I pray they are the better for it.

TKD is also keeping me busy. The children have been preparing a routine set to music as well as some demonstrations of form and different possible moves. I think this is because the dojang is recruiting for next year’s classes. This should give me a break of sorts, as the sabeonim is entirely preoccupied with preparing the children. As it is, however, the kwanjangnim has been stopping in to check on the children’s progress. When he sees me resting, he promptly puts me to work. This means either stretching my inflexible legs (which have always been inflexible, even when I was a child) or having my inflexible legs kick at a padded target for an hour straight. I will be in prime condition after this year, I assure you, but in the meantime I feel it in my eyes and in my muscles.

Oh, yes. Add in the fact that I still don’t know Korean and that my brain is consistently trying to find patterns between language and actions…

Thus, the laziness this weekend. Thus, the temptation to not write what I usually write to you all—even though this is for my own benefit, also, as I would not have a journal otherwise. As you can see, however, I have not given into temptation. (Now, the question arises, may I be delivered from evil?)

Unfortunately, the email will suffer a little. There were several times this week where I thought to myself, “I should make a reminder to record some thoughts about that.” I failed to do this for the most part, however, and my mental notes, which are usually good enough by Sunday night to satisfy at least my desire for breadth of experience and detail, have been less than perfect this week—another symptom of the fatigue, I fear. (I can only hope that those things will inspire me yet again in the ensuing weeks and in a similar or even better manner.) I have done my best however, and the fruits of those labors follow.

With Love,

Jeremy

P.S. To those who are concerned about my fatigue, I am still tired. Thank you for the concern. I press on.

P.P.S. Having written for nigh on five hours now, I have decided that my memory is working just fine despite the fatigue. It seems that writing has dredged up those things that I had forgotten, or else fatigue has made me carefree about how much I actually write. The fact that I’m trying to recalibrate my MacBook’s battery by draining it, which takes a long time using only a word processor, probably helped as well.

P.P.P.S. I find it intriguing that Microsoft Word recognizes Walmart as a spelling mistake and will ask you to change it to Wal-Mart, but MacBook, which I can plainly read on the machine I am using and have positively spelled correctly, is not recognized by the program.