My life has recently been a whole new series of open doors and windows...
I just forget what an amazing world there is beyond my little life. While waiting for my friends this evening, I opened the windows in my apartment...all the way...wide open. Light poured in and so did the sounds of the world. I'm sitting by the windows now, loving every moment of it! It has been so stinkin hot and humid until now that there has been no chance that i would have left them open for more than a few minutes for a picture. It is still summer so it will be too warm after about fifteen minutes, but for now, I'll take it!
After finishing my first full week of school, I can say I'm exhausted physically, but my heart is soaring! I love this life. It's hard work, and exhausting, and stressful, and hard at times when I miss friends and family. I have also reverted into first year teacher mode again since I am teaching three new classes and switching to a block schedule. It is long days and work on the weekends, but I feel like I'm Doing what I was made for. Not that I wasn't ok before, but there was something...my heart needed something.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life Prov 13:12
How true.
So I keep enjoying the little things and the small victories.
Here was my first day of school picture...thanks to my friend Becky!
Now for a few weird and/or entertaining things for you.
1) I have discovered how odd it is to overhear a conversation that I understand! We went to itewan the other day which is the foreign area of town so there are a ton of people speaking English. I hadn't realized that I had so quickly adjusted to never hearing it outside of school and our group of expats. We also enjoyed a bit of Taco Bell...that's right...food I would never eat at home, but is was deliciously familiar! Nice treat :)
2) personal space...it's a funny thing here. It really doesn't exist, unless you are white. More so for the guys than for us. Matt was riding the bus to school the other day and it was jam packed, almost no standing room, and yet there was an empty seat next to him...weird. We do get a lot of funny looks, and people generally give us plenty of space. Although I am sad at why it happens, I'm not sad that I have my own space! Don't get me wrong. People are really nice! They just seem to give us lots of space.
3) Things are already normal. Riding the bus to school, asking a taxi driver to take us to school or home in korean, eating shabu-shabu or sundabu for dinner, my surroundings, and the idea of living and working in Korea. Every once in a while it strikes me as funny, but really it's just normal now.
I'm sure I'll keep having these little things, but that covers it for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment