Last night, I went out to dinner with my friend Mr Kim. I wasn't really in the right state of mind to go out to dinner, but since I'm leaving Yeonggwang County in a matter of days, I wanted to get together one last time. I struggle with the Korean fetishization of food, sometimes – we went to a gulbi place in Beopseong (what else?). So much food gets wasted, since any "true" meal requires zillions of side dishes, most of which are only sampled. It's a weird food fetish, that works differently from the flat-out gluttony embedded in American culture: you must be willing to eat anything, and keep eating, but it's not as volume oriented.
Mr Kim, nuclear engineer, is struggling with the fact that in order to get promoted at work, he has to transition to being able to present his training materials in English. Now that I'm going, he's losing an English practice friend. Likewise, I'm losing one of my better Korean Language teachers. I'm sure I'll see him again, as he comes up to Seoul at some point or I make a trip sometime to Gwangju.
It's raining today – you could taste something almost summery in the air last night, and in Korea, summer means rain. I have two teaching days left, and a weekend in which to try to pack my stuff together. I'm feeling a little bit stressed by that, and sad at all the kids saying goodbye.