A Good Day...For Real

I really don’t think it is necessary to blog today. I’ve had a really good day. But I guess I will continue the habit just in case this is the last good day I have in a while. Then it can go down in the record books that Brent Dirks (aka 도영웅) had at least one good day. And the truth be known, I have probably had many good days.

I’m not exactly sure what made today so good. I’m not complaining or anything it just seemed to be a normal day and for some strange reason I am feeling good even after I ate kimbap that was probably a little old. Hopefully this day won’t end with food poisoning.

It started with a trip to the bank to transfer funds. This can be a depressing experience with the exchange rate but since the Bank Manager assures me he’s giving me a better rate than the standard one, I’ll receive his goodness with gratitude. After that I consulted with colleagues about Korean culture, starting with a question about 나는 하고 내가, and led into a discussion about church. I had to cut that short so that I could find the person who brought me kimbap, a beverage, and two oranges. Then it was back to my office to write out a letter to the bank that recently closed. Now that is an interesting thing to try to inform an organization about your current address when there is a check with your name but nobody can pick it up because their name isn’t on the account. Note to self: if you start up an account before leaving the country, put a family member’s name on the account. After I finished that and attached questions for the Mid-Terms coming up tomorrow and next week I went to the copy (not 거피) shop to make some copies but the form I printed had too much gray background so they wouldn’t make the copies. That’s okay because I ended up saving paper this way. And I faxed the letter to the bank for the third time. Hopefully this time it went to the right place.

That was just for the morning activities. The highlight of the day was having lunch with a Korean colleague. We walked around for quite a while and we finally settled on kalguksu (갈국수) even though we both had bibimbap (비빔밥). My colleague wanted rice like a good Korean and that is what she got. I didn’t care what we ate. Since I had a class at 1pm both of us were under a little stress to eat, talk and get back to campus on time. But it worked out just fine.

I was a little nervous about class because this was supposed to be a review day. The students often lack motivation and I knew this would be no different during Mid-Terms week, a time when few students get sleep. I think they are hoping that the professor will give them extra points for every hour they don’t sleep. Of course they used some of the time in my class to sleep. But it was during this time that I negotiated the final. I started with 45 questions and ended up with 15 questions by the end of class. This mostly changed the fact that the students know what they are expected to present and raised the bar on my expectation that they be ready to knock the socks off their “professor” so to speak. They seemed to be happy with my compromise (each group is responsible to present five roleplays, for a total of 15 roleplays, which should take two or three hours) and I feel good about not getting upset with the students when they lacked the motivation to work with their groups and I think I treated them with respect by reasoning with them about the Mid-Term. I guess time will tell whether or not this is true.

After that was the second highlight of my day when I accepted an invitation from one of the students in that class to join him for coffee. He invited another student who also free-talks with me from that class to join us. I remembered another student who also free-talks with me and I invited her to join us there as well (thank goodness for cell phones and text-messaging). She brought a friend and we talked for a few hours. Another free-talking student also came during that time.

An awkward moment came at the end of the conversation when one student invited another student to his house for dinner. He asked me what my evening plans were and I wasn’t sure if he was inviting me or not. I asked him after embracing the awkwardness for a moment and he said he would do that another time. I made it clear to him that I wasn’t trying to invite myself but I was just trying to make some clarification. Hopefully he won’t feel obligated to invite me in the future.

After that I packed my belongings and came home to enjoy the food that a lady from church gave me earlier that day. Now I have come to the end of the day and am having an online conversation with one of my Vietnamese friends. What better way to end the day?

I think there are some good reasons why I feel the way I do. Of course this is one day, and it could just be the luck of the draw, but I suspect the lack of pressure also has something to do with it. Because this is Mid-Terms week most of my free-talking has been canceled. This subject is a puzzle to me as to how to manage free-talking with students without getting overwhelmed. Also, I am not responsible for the early-morning Bible study this week because of it being Mid-Terms week.

So I guess another thing, perhaps the most important thing, I’d like to do with my free-time is to develop relationships with people. I have also been able to continue the practice of studying Korean and doing a little bit with classroom work to prepare for tomorrow. Now I think I need to figure out a way to add exercise to my routine. I have done less chatting online tonight which I think has given me a chance to do other things.