Last night I went to bed at midnight (of course I only fell asleep around an hour later) and got up at 4am. The reason for my sleep deprivation was to see my friends off at the airport. I remember clearly how, after my first time to Korea, Young and other friends saw me off as I returned to Korea. Now it was my time to see him off – a strange irony that the foreigner should see the native off. I am going to miss him a lot. We customarily had lunch once or twice a week, so his presence in my weekly schedule will be surely felt. Not to mention our fellowship. I have very few friend with whom I can discuss the things Young and I discussed. As I said, I will miss him a lot.
When I returned at my apartment around 8am, I had just a couple of minutes to quickly eat something and then dash off to the continuation of the Faculty Meetings that commenced yesterday. As with most meetings the Faculty Meetings were boring; especially so if you only had three hours of sleep in.
I also heard today that I will be moving apartments on Sunday. My moving has been a contentious topic over the last couple of weeks, and it wasn’t until today that I had real clarity about the matter. I look forward to the move for at least two reasons: First, I will have a bigger bathroom in which I can install a bathtub. Korean bathrooms do not customarily come with bath tubs – only showers. My current bathroom is too small to install a bathtub. The new apartment, however, has a roomy bathroom, and another teacher who left recently left his bathtub for me. Soaking in a hot bath is one of my favourite recreations. Second, I will have my own laundry machine. At the moment everybody on my floor in our department building shares one washing machine in a shared laundry room. I almost never find it unoccupied, and frequently have to wash my clothes at odd hours in the night. In fact, at this very moment someone else is doing laundry, and I again have to wait for a gap to get a turn. It is starting to really frustrate me. Luckily, my new apartment comes with a washing machine installed! The apartment is a little further from my workplace, but these perks make up for it.
....hope you will still be able to communicate with Young & family inspite of him being psyhically absent......(dynamics of life)
ReplyDeletegoodluck with the move it sounds good....
I am sorry you will be missing your friends. You can still keep in touch. I am sure they will like their new place once they get settled into it. There are a lot of Koreans there and they have nice housing for married/older students. Young will be at a very good school for his studies. There are still many friends here for you :).
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a tub. I can't get one here. It is a great place for reading a book and drinking tea. Many of my paperbacks have flaky edges from the steam of the bathtub I had in the USA. I also wish I had an oven like you have where you are. Why don't we switch places? You can have my "box" and I'll gladly move on campus...:D
L: Yeah, I'm sure we will still be in touch. I look forward to the move, even though I would have liked to settle in a bit before the semester starts next week.
ReplyDeleteC: Switch places?! Even though I probably get paid less than you, I like living here too much. The wonderfully fresh air alone is something I won't easily give up.