I have officially been back on Jeju Island for almost a month now. I have been teaching regular classes for a little over a week, and life has quickly returned to "normal." I say this in quotations, because life in Korea is anything but normal when compared to the way I've lived the previous 25 years, but things have returned to the way my "normal" Korean life was before winter vacation, with a few minor exceptions. My classes are going really well; the girls are as enthusiastic as ever. Today one of my co-teachers commented, almost suspiciously: "All the girls really like you." I said, "Oh, I'm glad." And she continued as if I hadn't gotten her point, "I mean, when I ask them if they like you they all say "Yes!!!" like this," and she threw her arms up in the air to demonstrate. This makes me feel good, because I like them too. I'm sure there will be the normal troublemakers, but generally I fell that I have finally achieved a balance of mutual respect between student and teacher in the classroom. It's important to me, because it's what I remember most clearly about the relationships that I shared with my favorite teachers (not to mention, it makes teaching a whole lot easier.) I am back on my daily schedule which consists of jogging, Tae Kwon Do, teaching, the internet and reading (not a bad life). My Tae Kwon Do class has changed slightly, because it is much larger and the children are in fact children (like the age that I would normally babysit.) This means that instead of the refreshing "I'm too cool for the foreigner" attitude I got from the 12-16 yr. olds with whom I shared the class last semester, there are now 30 highly energetic, cute and very-excited-to-have-a-foreigner-in-their-Tae-Kwon-Do-class kids between the ages of 7 and 12. Luckily, I still have a class on the weekends for two hours on Saturday and Sunday with the aforementioned high school students, where we actually do Tae Kwon Do. The weeknight classes have helped me discover other talents that I didn't know I had, like dodgeball and hopping on one leg (the sole purpose of that game is to see who can do it the longest.) I'm not sure if I should go back to America and join a professional dodgeball team just yet. I try to remind myself that I am the tallest and oldest person in the room by at least double, but everytime I catch that small rubber ball, I can't help but think I might have a rare gift that has previously gone unnoticed. Tonight when I walked into the Tae Kwon Do class I caused an uproar; all I could hear were little squeals of "Jennipa, Jennipa, Jennipa!" Most of the kids I didn't even recognize, because I've only been to this class maybe twice before, and I don't even recall telling them my name. I couldn't help but smile when a chubby boy, who couldn't be more than 9 years old, approached me and said very gravely: "Hello, Jennipa." From his voice you would think that we were in one of those black and white movie s, and he was an old lover that I hadn't seen in years. I have tried to imagine how I might have reacted at 9 years old if, one day a 7 ft. tall Brazilian man suddenly showed up as a student in my after school ballet class. When I think about this, their reactions to seem much more ordinary. Sometimes I feel like I have so little time left in Korea! I tell myself I should get out more; I should buy a car so I can see more around the island; I should study Korean at least a few hours a day; I should travel more on the weekends! I mean, the clock is ticking and there's only a few months left!!! In the end I don't do any of those things; rather, I continue with my weekly routine, because I know that the everyday experiences that I'm having and the Korean friends that I have made are what I will remember and miss the most.
