So this is what a year feels like.

Lots of elementary schools have hi-tech classrooms with talking walls and computers and stages and touch screens.  But almost everyone I talk to who works in one says that no one knows how to use any of it or that it's all broken, or that they have to stand in the front of the class and teach from the textbook unless it's a demonstration class and in that case everything is set up to be shown off but boxed up or put back off limits when the boss' boss leaves.  This is the kind of bullshitting that feels like confidence when I do it by myself and off the cuff, and seems like institutionalized lying when I hear about it in a dozens schools across a city.

South Korea was having riots for democracy in the late 80's.  The government was torturing student dissidents.  People in their fourties can remember when all movies that weren't explicitely pro-regime were banned in South Korea.  They used to go to secret underground film houses that were subject to police raids.

If you are standing on a bus and you have a bag, someone who is sitting down might just grab it from you.  They have a seat, so they will hold your bag on their lap for you since you don't have a seat.  They are going to give it back, you don't have to worry.

I don't like the way that the word "foreigner" is used here, but I use it myself now because it's the easiest way to talk about people who aren't from Korea who live in Korea.  If I try and use other words it just gets confusing.

My Vice Principle sent me recipes so I can start cooking more Korean food.  I say more, because I told him that I cook Korean sometimes (I don't.  I am not good in the kitchen).  He even printed out pictures of the stuff I needed to get so that I'd recognize it in the market.

In the middle is my friend Baromi.  I met her on a small Koran island, but she happened to live in the same city as me.  She is going to school in Mongolia though.  I owe her about 14 pounds of favours for all the nice things she's done.

I'm coming home soon to visit, and everyone's going to ask me, "how was Korea" and I'm not sure exactly what to say.  Good?