Bringing up the Past... LSU French Studies

LSU in Ubaye Valley

What an interesting Friday: a definite other-than-ordinary for a day bringing me closer to my month-long February vacation. Yee-hah.

This evening, I met Ahsan at Yeungjin after a bit of weekend teaching preparations at the old work (photocopies and the like; definitely a fun way to spend my time with the big dawgs when I don't have to be there!) We hopped in Ahsan's purple beater and went over to pick up our travel tickets during, coincidentally, rush-hour traffic at the Manchon eMart--way across town. Loads of fun, I assure you. I have nothing but good things to say now about Korean crazy drivers: as of tonight, I have christened myself as a contribution to the daily dose of impetuous traffic art otherwise polluting the Korean roadscapes (kudos for the lingual forplay, there, Chels!)

As usual, I spent my day teaching from 9:30am until 12:30pm. Now, in a nutshell, Kids' Camp at Yeungjin is a little bit like attending a seminar English 101 class at a mid-sized college in the U.S.: You have your mixture of kids who wanna be there, those who don't, but overall, it's a clusterfudge of bees, books and chaos, and you--as well as the other foreign teachers--are the honey that glues everything together. Mind you, the glue is so very little, indeed, and is expected to perform miracles under great pressure. Leave of course, the worst part, that the bee-hive has very limited supplies, like a photo-copier that rarely works, with a disproportion of malcommunication, where the communication lines from the big-Momma (or Poppa bee, for those readers who lean towards patriarchal systems) trickle down like a new river downstream an impoverished, dry African village.

Now, seeing as I have one more week of Kids' Camp, I just hope that I keep my hair in-tact long enough to not have to express-order a wig from the local ajumma nylon shop, or be impelled to wear my cancer patient knitted hat. It truly wouldn't be a pretty picture.

After my daily kid-screaming dosage, I grabbed lunch with my fellow teacher and friend Marinel, who I recently find out is leaving us... a tragic but evident realization that Yeungjin has many kinks to work out. Hmmph. Then at 2, I flew over via taxi to attend my DELF preparation French class at KyungPook National University. Yes, I have to agree, pushing myself academically has been a great affair thus far (all 2 classes that I have attended); however, what lies ahead of me will be quite an arduous task~ that is, studying daily, French articles, reading response questions and digging deep into the cobwebs of my French studies know-how to prepare for this test---which I take just 4 days after I return from my vacation. Is this not dedication or what? Perhaps I don't reckon doing some studying while I check out the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, or while I make my way to a Pakistani Mosque... yeah, that wouldn't hurt.

And as I simmer down from my evening, having eaten some dok-yah-cheh-bok-um-bop (Chicken with fried rice and veggies) and watched the chick-flick While you were falling in love at the local DVD bong, I come to the realization that my travels have taken me to quite a number of places. In fact, while Ahsan sang to the sandman shortly after returning home, I decided to gander at a bit of history: my Alumni, LSU, and the Department of French Studies website. Interestingly enough, I decide to check out the Ubaye Valley Program which I attended after graduating, in summer of 2004... thereby coming across a marvelous picture of me (with short hair and all, slaving away at an internship making French pastries!) What a blast it was to dig up this history! I come to find as well, that LSU French Studies and Academic Programs Abroad department had put up, for the majority, my pictures that I had taken during the program! I guess I have Mrs. Roark to thank for that one! Great stuff, huh? Awesome pictures, indeed. Maybe I should have asked for royalties for the gems they're using to attract students to take the program! Hmm...

Which reminds me, it's about time I dig up some old pictures to put up on Flikr! Ah, but tomorrow is another busy day, and this history-making gal needs her beauty sleep. Stay tuned for nearly 10 more days of cram-packed posts leading up to my vacation. In the plans: packing for 30 days; buying souvenirs for my peeps in 2 countries and 3 states; attempting to move my apartment from the 7th to the 11th floor (I assure you, it'll be worth the hassle, and disgusting cleaning I have to endure to get into the new pad..) as well as, oh, a zillion trickles of sweat imagining how I'm going to attempt to do all of this. Amazing...

Lights out ~

Chels

"Space-time displacement" in the wee-hours of the morning...

It's already 4:00am.

I expect the sun to rise here in about 2 and half hours from the East, and hopefully by then, I'll be fast asleep.

The sound of the floor heater rumbles in the background, and my love is sleeping soundly---weezing occasionally. It's soft background noise apart from my computer fan, rumbling to the waves of fatigue that are starting to hit me now.

I've felt this strange sense of urgency lately to make change; and while much of my life here in Korea is a constant adjustement in acclimating myself to that change, part of me is displaced between the boredom of daily life and the speed of light with which the events in my life are taking place.

Parts of my daily life are becoming a little ritualistic--motorcycle it to Taekwondo, then put on a happy face for gruelling work and kids, off for tutoring, coordinate dinner, feed the rabbit, shut eye bed-time. On the other hand, so much change is taking place that I cannot keep up: thinking primarily due to this guy that I'm totally enamoured with, combined with ballistically learning Korean so we can communicate better (mind you, he's not Korean, but he sure does speak like one~ more on that subject later!) So when the weekend hits, I usually end up stairing at the ceiling Monday morning, wondering where the weekend went! Where did the time go, and why do I feel bored with I'm moving faster than I can remember?

I think back to how I dealt with this strange occurance of what I call "space-time displacement" in the past; college life set me somewhere in the middle of this madness, so this feeling is nothing new. However, the difference between then and now, is simply how I'm gonna deal with it this time! Sure, being proactive is the key. But it's interesting to note, though, that it took me some 5 years to come up with a shortened explanation of this phenomenon. Actually, it was apart of my French thesis in college, stemming way back into the studies of Freud and Le Refoullement, or repression, and my stance that everyone stands on a fine line between repression and sanity, and it's up to our creative side to filter that madness; creativity is the transferring medium with which we materialize that energy or substance, from the organic to the concrete or inorganic. We have to materialize those repressed feelings and thoughts into a concrete resolution in order to maintain that balance; and the only way we can do that is to make that transfer from repression to material through creation. So it's not so much the end result, but the transferrence process that one goes through...

Okay, okay.. it's too dense. And it's too late to remain on that awefully weighty subject. GAWD!

Anyway, the acronym I've coined is called ACME, which stands for analyze, create, materialize and enjoy. So in other words, you assess your situation, realize you need to do something about it, create something (like an art piece, a song, a new danse move, write a book, etc.) and materialize it, making it real, and thereby enjoying the process, culminating with the end result.

Ta-da. Wow, talk about reliving your thesis... way too many nights, did I spend typing page after page, in French for Christ's sake, over a bottle of good port or red wine. Ahh.. those were the days.

Earlier, I spent a good part of 2 hours searching the internet on Switzerland, thinking of all the places I visited, remembering how fast the year flew by as I traveled the country and watched the seasons change working as an au pair. Another mental note: finish writing my story on my Swiss travels, and somehow manage to put up the 3,000 some-odd digital photos I have of my year there on Flikr. Ahhh.. alright, so the prospect of me achieving this by the new year is, well, slim. But it's food for thought.

Closing in on 5:00am. The eyes are drooping. The floor is cold and I know the bed is warm next to my sound sleeper. What's in for tomorrow? It's Sunday. Weather willing, a little trip to Woobang Towerland and the sports park. Wooppee! Time for a little picture-taking, park walking and... a spin on this super cool 2 wheel skateboard. So check back for flikr pictures.

Until then, happy dreaming ~ sheesh, this is NOT the time to be thinking about FREUD! :)