"this is my heart"
I think that an interesting study in culture shock/cultural adjustment would be to track how many pictures people take in different months of their extended stays in foreign countries. I feel the same way about blogging. There was a definite lull in my desire to photograph and my desire to blog during the months of...let's say...March to now. And now I have about 15 posts burning the tips of my fingers off but tonight I should only write these three. The first stage and the final stage of culture shock are so similiar--the phase in which everything seems quaint and sweet...the phase in which you take out the camera at every moment...the phase in which you must go out and try taste touch feel and see every new thing (now "I've-been-meaning-to-try-that-thing) possible.
I am wrapping up, and by wrapping up I mean taping the box closed and tieing it with a t-minus-9-days-colored ribbon, my time here in Seogwipo. I am leaving my sometimes beloved and sometimes notsobeloved Jeju Island next Friday. I am in tears at almost every moment at school. Today two of my students hung out of the third floor art room window trying to catch some breeze and yelled after me "hallooooo baaahh-neeee" as I walked back from the bank in the wet afternoon heat. I looked up at them and smiled and immediately burst into tears. There are just no words for the sweetness that these girls possess in simple moments like this one. I am so lucky to have been their teacher.
I was putting some things in a bag to bring to the post office a few nights ago and my host mom knocked on my door. I opened it slightly ajar as to not reveal the catastrophic mess that lay behind me and she handed me a small ceramic cup...and then another and then another. Next came the teapot and the saucers. She was giving me my favorite tea set of hers. We drink tea together two or three nights a week at our kitchen table with various sets that she has.
She said in her sing-songy English "One time you say you like this. I give you this. Pack in your clothes. This is my heart."
I am wrapping up, and by wrapping up I mean taping the box closed and tieing it with a t-minus-9-days-colored ribbon, my time here in Seogwipo. I am leaving my sometimes beloved and sometimes notsobeloved Jeju Island next Friday. I am in tears at almost every moment at school. Today two of my students hung out of the third floor art room window trying to catch some breeze and yelled after me "hallooooo baaahh-neeee" as I walked back from the bank in the wet afternoon heat. I looked up at them and smiled and immediately burst into tears. There are just no words for the sweetness that these girls possess in simple moments like this one. I am so lucky to have been their teacher.
I was putting some things in a bag to bring to the post office a few nights ago and my host mom knocked on my door. I opened it slightly ajar as to not reveal the catastrophic mess that lay behind me and she handed me a small ceramic cup...and then another and then another. Next came the teapot and the saucers. She was giving me my favorite tea set of hers. We drink tea together two or three nights a week at our kitchen table with various sets that she has.
She said in her sing-songy English "One time you say you like this. I give you this. Pack in your clothes. This is my heart."
posted by Kate B. at 9:31 PM
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