It's time for bed. But, it was such an interesting day, I don't want to forget it, so I'll write just a little:
1. In the morning, I did language exchange with a Korean woman who is married to a Muslim gentleman from India. He owns an Indian restaurant along the waterfront. I had gone there initially because I could get vegetarian food there--that's how I met them. There is an upstairs in the restaurant with a view of the water, facing east. Before the restaurant opened, we sat by the upstairs window to do the language exchange. He kindly served us an omelet with nan & coffee, which I drank, just this time, to be polite. What fascinating people, and what a fascinating location.
2. After finishing language exchange, there was a three-hour gap before the start of work, so I walked lazily back home. There is an interesting, very human street that runs along the waterfront, one block in from the water. It's not quite an alley yet not quite a street. It's cozy with lots of real human activity. There are restaurants of all kinds, bars for foreign workers, and coffee shops. Regrettably, the city government has posted pictures on signs of a redevelopment plan for the whole street, which, as depicted in the pictures on the signs, looks very artificial. I'm trying to be happy that I got to experience this alley-street before it goes away.
3. Before going home, I decided to drop into a 'dabang'. A dabang is a coffee shop, an older kind of coffee shop, that was very prevalent all over Korea before the arrival of Starbucks, which initiated a whole new kind of coffee shop culture in Korea. In the older coffee shops, the dabangs, people smoke; in the evening there is wine, etc. I had been thinking about going into a dabang for quite some time, but had always hesitated previously. There was no one there, except one person, a worker. I guess that she was in her fifties. We had a good conversation. She was completely genuous, plain, calm, and friendly, as people used to be here. She told me about her life. What a fascinating person.
4. Two of my low elementary students are at different levels of English. For the student at the lower level, when they studied together, despite my best attempts at helping him adopt a different way of thinking about learning, this has meant stress, embarrassment, and tears. So, the class was split, and they study separately. But today, on Friday, they were together. I decided to play with them together (bowling with a paper ball and a box) and introduce English naturally into the conversation. My intuition is not good and not usually correct, but this time it worked out. They were overjoyed to be playing and they repeated some of the English that I said.
5. I cleaned the bathroom. I'm not a hard worker, but I was able to make that contribution, so I'm happy.
6. On YouTube, I listened to a live version of Anarchy in the UK this evening, just before writing this. Brings back memories of when I had my own Sex Pistols album.
Good night from Asia!
