Day: July 1, 2013

Caveat: Mexica Tiahui, Defrosted

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling

This will possibly be my last post “by computer” (as opposed to using my smartphone) for quite some time.
I intended to take a walk, and somehow found myself cleaning my fridge instead. A certain compulsity is as work, right now, and I’m giving some free rein, but it’s strange to watch. The thing that’s odd is that normally cleaning a fridge is one of the most distasteful chores imaginable, for me, but I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I think I’m craving banality. Listening to music and scraping the layers of accumulated frost out of my freezer – an apt metaphor for my moment in life.

There’s nothing like some hardcore Chicano rap music to spice up a rainy afternoon and distract a troubled soul.
What I’m listening to right now.



 
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El Vuh, “Mexica Tiahui.”
I couldn’t find the lyrics to this track published online anywhere.

I’m off. I’m going to walk there.
 

Caveat: Check-in 6:30 PM

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Life in Korea

I got the call. The poor man. I answer my phone in English, nowadays, to establish at the outset that I’m a foreigner, because if I answer in Korean people just plow into mile-a-minute Korean that is beyond my comprehension. So, I answered in English.
Long silence. “Uh. Cancer Center. Me.”
“Yes,” I said.
Long silence. “Korean do you know?”
“조금 밖에 몰라요.” This is my standard answer to that question – it means “I only know a little bit.”
Sigh of relief. Then launching into rapid Korean. I asked him to slow down. Finally I heard the time, and recognized “check-in.” I confirmed it back to him, first in English then Korean. He said “Yes, 6 30.”
So now the waiting shifts to being ready. I’m already packed – not much to pack, a change of clothes, laptop computer, 2 books plus notebook, some toiletries. I guess if I need something else I can have a friend fetch it from my apartment later.
I think I’ll make a few blog posts and surf the internet and meditate and walk in the rain.
I found a comic circulating online that I really liked. It made me laugh.
 
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It’s attributed to an artist named *Inkless-Pencil. I looked at her other stuff and found this, too, that was very funny.
 
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Caveat: Waiting For When, And Knowing Where

Banalities & Journaling / Cancer

I am in waiting mode. At some point today, I will get a phone call telling me to go to the hospital to check in.
I made a map of points of interest in Ilsan. I won’t give a specific address – the National Cancer Center (국립암센터) is a major landmark in Ilsan and the city’s largest employer as far as I know. If you’re coming from out of town to see me, just walk from either Jeongbalsan subway station (Line 3 = Orange Line) or Pungsan subway station (Gyeongui Line = Aqua Line), or hop in a taxi and say “National Cancer Center” – the place is about 1 km from each station.
On my map (made from googlemaps), the green star in the southeast is the National Cancer Center. The purple star is Jeongbalsan subway station (which is basically “downtown” Ilsan) and the blue star is Pungsan subway station. The red star at the top is KarmaPlus Academy, where I work, and the brown star on the west is my apartment. The large green area in the center is Jeongbalsan Park and the green area with blue is the famous Ilsan Lake Park.
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Caveat: The Forecast

Banalities & Journaling / Cancer

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No, this is not about prognosis. It’s just the weather forecast.
I awoke to the sound of thunder, and checking the weather, I see that the monsoon appears to have arrived.
The phone rang.
I talked on the phone with my sister. My sister has been sitting vigil with her best friend, who has cancer, of all things. Yes, cancer. Her friend had exhausted all treatment options and has been in what they call end-of-life palliative care. And I swear what follows is true, because it sounds like a scene in a novel.
I was talking to my sister, about this and that, serious things – what I would do if scenario x, scenario y – the complicated aspects of undergoing major surgery as a foreigner in Korea, how would power-of-attorney work, who advocates for me, etc. These are difficult things.
And then my sister said, “OK. Jared. I love you, but I have to go. My friend just died.”

Caveat: Growing Up Making Speeches

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Today turned out to be a much busier day than I had intended. I went to work and spent much of the day providing training and orientation to my replacement. This is a good thing, as I want my replacement to do a good job, but I feel stressed and overwhelmed now by some evening projects I had intended to get done on this last night of being a "civilian."

Over the weekend, while sorting through my harddrive, I found some old videos of student speeches – I mean really old – they're from 2009, when I first started making videos of student work, at LBridge.

Lo and behold, in that collection I actually ran across three students that are still, today, my students! That means I can see them changed over a period of more than four years. I couldn't resist spending one free hour at work today (waiting while my replacement was in class so I couldn't spend it harassing him with my ideas about pedagogy) making a set of three "before and after" videos. It's so amazing seeing these kids growing up, to me.

I feel an almost parental pride to have been their teacher, on and off, over such a long time.

 

 

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