Caveat: 똥배

I had fully intended to take advantage of having this Saturday off to travel down to Gwangju, this weekend. I had even declared my intention, which often serves to get me more motivated. But I have lost my motivation, once again, to travel. I have been so not-interested-in-traveling, in recent months – or even longer. The longest trip I’ve taken since moving back to Ilsan over a year ago is to Gangnam, on the south side of the Han River in Seoul. Why am I not into going places?
My journey has felt very interior, lately. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
As far as traveling this specific weekend, to Gwangju… I suppose I’ve been feeling a little bit depressed, and it’s harder to get out and do stuff when in that state of mind, obviously. Foremost, I’ve been depressed about my health: my inability to lose the weight I’ve targetted for losing, my inability to exercise as much as I promise myself I’ll do, a sort of general feeling of poor health. My students don’t help – yesterday I had a grumpy student muttering under his breath about my 똥배 [ttong-bae] – literally, “shit-gut” but basically it’s a low-talking word for what we call beer belly. Students are often unkind.

I’m not as depressed about work as I had been feeling earlier this Spring, but I continue to despise my lack of DRIVE with respect to trying to improve my Korean. Although realistically, I am doing things, I am studying it, I am improving. But it’s so very, very slow. And take, for example, my recent resumption of my custom of posting vocabulary words alongside my blog entries, in my “-Notes for Korean-” (e.g. previous blog post).  It’s pretty discouraging to go back and look at Notes from 4 years ago on this blog and see the exact same vocabulary items …talk about feeling like being on a treadmill.
Anyway, apologies to my various friends in Gwangju for the fact that I never go there to visit. To my other friends and family, apologies for blogging about utterly banal and depressing personal topics (TMI?)- but this blog is also, more and more, a kind of continuing journal of my life and state of mind.

This weekend, I am going to draw some pictures. Maybe.

Caveat: Finance

There is some guy in Russia who was previously convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme during the go-go post-communist 90's (his conviction was originally delayed because he managed to get elected to parliament, which gave him immunity). Now, he's operating a ponzi scheme again – but this time, he's announced that that's what he's doing, thereby perhaps avoiding illegality – seriously, is it illegal to bilk stupid people of their money, if you tell them that's what you're doing? He argues that that makes him no different than a major bank or a casino. See the article, here. It does rather raise ethical issues, and/or connect to what would be the various appropriate liberal/libertarian/conservative stances with regard to it.

Today I had a busy day despite the start of the test prep time – one of the other teachers was absent, and so I covered some extra classes. And I tried to study, some. And I saw Stephen Colbert

-Notes for Korean-
노래하는 분수대 [no-rae-ha-neun bun-su-dae] = the "Singing Fountain" at Ilsan's Lake Park
수위 [su-wi] = janitor
경비원 [gyeong-bi-won] = building watchman, doorman
바닥 [ba-dak] = floor, ground
마루 [ma-ru] = wooden floor
천장 [cheon-jang] = ceiling
칠판 [chil-pan] = blackboard, whiteboard, chalkboard
부엌 [bu-eok] = kitchen
거실 [geo-sil] = living room
전자레인지 [jeon-ja-re-in-ji] = microwave (electric-range)
가스레인지 [ga-seu-re-in-ji] = stovetop (gas-range)
오븐 [o-beun] = oven
커튼 [keo-teun] = curtain(s)
블라인드 [beul-la-in-deu] = blinds
유리장 [yu-ri-jang] = a pane of glass
시계 [si-gye] = clock, watch
벌 [beol] = punishment
체벌 [che-beol] = corporal punishment (observation on usage: Koreans seem to preferentially use this term for what I, personally, prefer to call "hazing" – it's punishment of the body not by hitting or hurting someone, but rather by compelling them to hold positions or engage in actions which cause discomfort to their own bodies, e.g. making students stand with their arms up in the air for extended periods of time, making them hold heavy objects, making them jog or do pushups or that kind of thing – it's basically boot-camp-style discipline; I don't think this really means corporal punishment the way Americans use that term, although the literal meaning is corporal punishment [body-punish])
교실 [gyo-sil] = classroom
식당 [sik-dang] = dining room [also restaurant]
침 [chim] = bed
침실 [chim-sil] = bedroom [bed-room]
의자 [ui-ja] = chair
창문 [chang-mun] = window
문짝 [mun-jjak] = door [one panel of a multi-part door]
문 [mun] = doorway, gate
책상 [chaek-sang] = desk
책장 [chaek-jang] = bookcase (or, the pages in a book)
식탁 [sik-tak] = table
소파 [so-pa] = sofa
(진공)청소기 [(jin-gong)cheong-so-gi] = vacuum [(vacuum) clean-machine)]
드라이기 [deu-ra-i-gi] = dryer (dry-machine)
기계 [gi-gye] = machine
냉장고 [naeng-jang-go] = refrigerator, cooler
식혜 [sik-hye] = Korean rice drink, cf. horchata
생강 [saeng-gang] = ginger
도토리 [do-to-ri] = acorn (powder, flour)
도토리묵 [do-to-ri-muk] = acorn jelly
염원하다 [yeom-won-ha-da] = to want strongly, to long for
호치키스 [ho-chi-ki-seu] = stapler (really, this is a brand name = ~Hotchkiss?)
절대 않다 [jeol-dae anh-da] = (I/you/he/she) never do/es that
절대 안했어요 [jeol-dae an-haess-eo-yo] = (I/you/he/she) never did that
절대 안할 거에요 [jeol-dae an-hal geo-e-yo] = (I/you/he/she) never will do that
뛰어넘다 [ttwi-eo-nam-da] = to hop
열대 [yeol-dae] = tropical (climate)
온대 [on-dae] = temperate (climate)
냉대 [naeng-dae] = arctic  (climate)
아열대 [a-yeol-dae] = subtropical (climate)
야단맛다 [ya-dan-mas-da] = to be scolded
야단치다 [ya-dan-chi-da] = to scold
사랑스러운 눈길로 [sa-rang-seu-reo-un nun-gil-lo] = with a loving gaze
X스럽다 [seu-reop-da] = to feel X about someone else
받아들이다 [bad-a-deur-i-da] = to receive, to get
수용하다 [su-yong-ha-da] = to accept, to receive
수염 [su-yeom] = whiskers
뉘우치다 [nwi-u-chi-da] = to repent a sin
한 [han] = regret (N) [this is one of many homonyms of 한]

[Daily log: walking, 4 km]

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