Wednesday, April 23, 2014

(A literal) Quick hit: The kickball firing squad

The weather's been warming up, so the students have been able to venture outside and run around between classes. Some of them actually run and some of them do this:


I'm not sure how these things start, or why the start--not yet, anyway--but here's a slice of student life.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Farewell, Matt and Alli

[This was long delayed. My apologies!]

Matt and Alli in Dong Song have officially finished out their contract year and have flown out of Korea. They left an indelible mark during their all-too-short time in Cheorwon. Not only did they expand our knowledge of restaurants four-fold, they excelled in the classroom. Their vigor and verve's inspiring, both for us and for the students. Their blog Koronicles documents their time here.

As my custom, here are the big things I'll remember from Matt and Alli:

Alli's laugh could fill a room and the adjoining garage.

Matt always had a quip at the ready.

Both had boundless enthusiasm being here.

Both of them rocked it in the classroom. They always had positive things to say about the schools and the students. They made this video in one of their after-school classes:


Their blog Koronicles tells the story better than I can. Enjoy!

An unintended absence, some tunes, and a big piece of news

Taking over a month off from blogging here was never part of the plan. It simply happened because the activities of the day precluded writing anything. Not that I didn't want to write anything, or that there wasn't anything to write about, there was no time to write it. Or there wasn't time enough to write it well. So it goes.

As I type this, it's the evening of Easter Sunday. Sanulrim's (산울림 ) rocking  3rd LP has concluded and I'm wondering which song of theirs to play again. I played all their first three albums today and have been deliberating on which of them is the best. But I digress--Sanulrim and other K-rock will grace a future post. I brought them up because every post here should have something of use to the world, and goodness knows that my saying "Yeah, life's busy" is too prosaic to go up here by itself. So there's that.

Sanulrim's grooving music also keeps me from thinking too much about the recent Jeju ferry disaster and the high school students who drowned. Those kids are in my thoughts. The poor souls, they were undoubtedly on their way to great things.