Palmtree Contemplations

"Since love is work, the essence of nonlove is laziness." -The Road Less Traveled-  I remember the first time I read this quote. I was sitting on top of Mr. Knightley (my car) at City Lake enjoying a golden, green, summer day. Korea was a month away and I had very little to do except teach some piano lessons and bid long farewells to all my friends. That day at the lake, I watched ducks in the pond, listened to men with trucks fishing to my left, and felt so certain that I understood this idea of love being work. I didn't. I don't know that I still completely fathom its implications, or am properly acting on the knowledge of what it means to really love. I am learning, though, and that is a good thing. I have been thinking about this quote a lot as it pertains to teaching. My fellow English teachers and I work 50+ hours a week, teaching 11 classes three days a week and 10 on the other two. Every day is full of moments and decisions that are surely defining and wort

Whose idea was this? Kids are hard enough to interest as it is. Try making them sit in class and communicate in another language. I've never taught full classrooms before. It's exhausting. There's this one kindergarten kid who hates me. I know because every day in class he screams at the top of his lungs just to make me jump. This is a common occurrence. He spits in my face at least once a class period when I kneel down to try and help him. He hits me in the chest with his little fists, and climbs on or under the table constantly. He calls me "poo" in English and in Korean every ten minutes. The hours are so long there is no time to figure things out. I meant to get a phone within my first week. I've been here for almost a month and still don't have a phone. So that's really working out. Whose idea was this again? I'm living with the Lyme disease diagnosis and it's awful. I can't eat anything with gluten, dairy, or sugar in it. I a