American Pie - Almost Full Circle
Well, here I am again, nearly full circle. Winter intensives were the month of January and summer intensives are through the end of August. Korea is where the over-educated (is that possible? Maybe over-saturated with academic materials is more appropriate) spend their free time learning. Studying. Reading. What ever happened to swim and slumber parties, sunny afternoons in the sprinkler, hide-and-go-seek with the neighbors, riding bikes down the street to get a snowball, hours watching movies or old sitcom favorites? These poor children! Though they tend to do better than counterparts even when they aren’t raised in such a rigorous academic environment, I’m not so sure the benefits of all this work balance the efforts. Regardless, none of that seems to matter to them, and they trudge on with their studies. Thus, I plod on with the teaching. Three solid hours of the ins and outs of communicative grammar is, as you may guess, nothing short of an absolute blast! Tack it on to my regular teaching day, followed by up to two hours of tutoring, and you can imagine I’m a regular cheerleader come midnight. At least the severity of the workweek comes to an end for the teachers and we have two full weekend days to recharge (and rethink a choice to extend the contract for some)! And if I think it’s that much fun, I can only imagine what these children think, considering that even after all I’ve done, they have to go home and study and learn it all in a language less familiar to them. Talk about paying your dues—Phew!
Alas, my remaining FOUR weeks in this city/country are here. I have discovered a Round The World (RTW) ticket that allows between 3 and 15 stops to be used in 365 days for anywhere from $1500 to $3000. Considering I know that a round trip ticket to the contiguous US can run $1800, I think this is an absolute steal of a deal! Now it’s merely the planning, sleeping, touring, funding, and language that have to be worked out. However, the adrenaline that gets going when I get an itinerary from an agent suggesting I layover in Dubai and Prague (but not the one who suggested Tel Aviv), well it’s not a difficult thing to get motivated for!
Other than this, the last of my days here will be busied with farewell visits with friends, any other touring on my “To Do” list, packing up and shipping home anything I can’t live without at home, and searching for a new suitcase wheel since my luggage suffered a blowout in Bangkok that has yet to be repaired. It should all be fun… My life seems to be on such a high right now that I have not a single complaint. To add to all the thrills of the travel, at the end of it all, I’ll be back home to see those I’ve been missing terribly and eat the food hard or impossible to find in these parts. It will undoubtedly be a whirlwind visit (ideally, perhaps not realistically) with visits, restaurants, TAILGATING, job searching and some jet lag to boot, before heading out again either for interviews or a move—eventually both. But it excites me each time I let my imagination run with it. Driving again will be weird but welcomed. Being at LSU to see people who’ve never left—the world doesn’t stop just ‘cause you’re gone, always a sobering and fun realization when one is reminded of all that carries on. Friends with new homes, offices, (boobs for some who chose to spend their FEMA money that way), significant others, cars, scars for those still recovering from the storm, yet still the same souls I’ve loved from the start. And really, the most obvious, is how changed it truly will be, since I departed a mere fortnight before Katrina spun through my home state.
Bring it on!
Copyright 2006 Olivia R. Reed
Alas, my remaining FOUR weeks in this city/country are here. I have discovered a Round The World (RTW) ticket that allows between 3 and 15 stops to be used in 365 days for anywhere from $1500 to $3000. Considering I know that a round trip ticket to the contiguous US can run $1800, I think this is an absolute steal of a deal! Now it’s merely the planning, sleeping, touring, funding, and language that have to be worked out. However, the adrenaline that gets going when I get an itinerary from an agent suggesting I layover in Dubai and Prague (but not the one who suggested Tel Aviv), well it’s not a difficult thing to get motivated for!
Other than this, the last of my days here will be busied with farewell visits with friends, any other touring on my “To Do” list, packing up and shipping home anything I can’t live without at home, and searching for a new suitcase wheel since my luggage suffered a blowout in Bangkok that has yet to be repaired. It should all be fun… My life seems to be on such a high right now that I have not a single complaint. To add to all the thrills of the travel, at the end of it all, I’ll be back home to see those I’ve been missing terribly and eat the food hard or impossible to find in these parts. It will undoubtedly be a whirlwind visit (ideally, perhaps not realistically) with visits, restaurants, TAILGATING, job searching and some jet lag to boot, before heading out again either for interviews or a move—eventually both. But it excites me each time I let my imagination run with it. Driving again will be weird but welcomed. Being at LSU to see people who’ve never left—the world doesn’t stop just ‘cause you’re gone, always a sobering and fun realization when one is reminded of all that carries on. Friends with new homes, offices, (boobs for some who chose to spend their FEMA money that way), significant others, cars, scars for those still recovering from the storm, yet still the same souls I’ve loved from the start. And really, the most obvious, is how changed it truly will be, since I departed a mere fortnight before Katrina spun through my home state.
Bring it on!
Copyright 2006 Olivia R. Reed
posted by LSULiv | 1:18 PM
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