There hasn't been much noteworthy to report yet. I've slipped into a good routine that I need to shake up with a gym membership pretty soon. I feel at ease at work and things rarely surprise me there anymore (the kids excluded, of course). A couple of weeks ago I took a second trip to Busan for the International Film Festival. My friend Tim and I went and had a wonderful time. We caught the tail end of summer sunshine on the beach, saw some weird and one fantastic movies and hung out on the beach at night setting off fireworks and (once again) getting eaten to death by mosquitoes. Two of the films were not very good and rather creepy, so I won't write about those, but we saw a Korean movie called "Secret Reunion" and it was really great. It was about two spies, one from North Korea and one from South Korea that strike up an unlikely friendship. It was mildly cheesy, but mostly just entertaining: action-packed, heart-warming, and dramatic all at once. We both loved it! Especially after the two other weird ones.

Peter and Ryan will be here to visit me in less than two weeks! I'm so so so excited to see Peter! I know we'll have a lot of fun! And the week after they leave, the Flaming Lips will play a show in Seoul that Tim, Mallory, and I are planning on seeing. So I should have more stories to report soon.

For now, things are relatively peaceful and I am content. The kids are wonderful. We had a Halloween party this week so I got to actually play with them and have fun like I used to in Extended Day. It made me miss that kind of work so much, but it also seems to have changed the way the kids see me in the classroom, which I like. They look to me as more of a source of joy and someone to joke with. Some of the other teachers may worry about the students showing them a lack of respect, but I strive more for a balance of mutual respect. I want my students to like me and enjoy class with me so that they will want to do their work and have fun learning.

Anyway, book tally continues:
The Giver by Lois Lowry
One Day by David Nicholls

Still deciding what should come next. I was thinking something more difficult like Morrison or Faulkner or Woolf, but I might keep things easy and quick. And I want to begin research on a paper I'm going to write on the role of women in daily life in South Korea and how it is reflected in their public access pornography. It's provocative, but I really want to write something publishable so I can apply to grad school with something under my belt.