Thanksgiving conviction and I'll miss my kids.

I know, I can get lazy sometimes. This is one of those times.

Thanksgiving:

For Thanksgiving I was planning on going to an American pub in Itaewon for a Thanksgiving Buffet. My plans ended up changing though.
Thursday afternoon I was in downtown Nowon. I had just run into a friend,I talked to him for awhile. He wished me a happy Thanksgiving, which was nice of him to remember-he's Korean-and I complained that the Turkey would be dry, and more than likely the potatoes would suck. Then I went to cross the main street to go get an afternoon coffee at Krispy Kreme.

Standing at the crosswalk I noticed two beggars. They're there every day. One is in a wheel chair, and has what appears to be muscular dystrophy, the other guy has nothing below his waist and deformed hands. Neither can speak. Both their boxes are filled with a couple of singles and change. Both are clearly malnourished.

Then there's me. Im in $100 shoes I bought the day before, on my way to get a $4 Latte, and complaining that my turkey was going to be dry. And it crosses my mind-"Man am I thankful I'm not them."...and then I feel about as convicted as one can possibly feel.

These guys are on the same street corner 10 hours a day, they beg no one, just desperately need a few dollars to stay alive, and I'm going to go spend $40 on turkey and cranberries.

I decided if there was a shred of decency in me there was no way I could spend that money like that. So instead I gave each guy $20, went to the department store down the road and bought a piece of pecan pie(that ended up tasting like crap.)

So, I ended up waking up at 3 AM, watching a quarter of the Packers/Lions game and eating ramen noodles(traditionally Korean by the way) and then a piece of Pecan pie.

I always like getting smacked in the face like that. Sometimes I can get so wrapped up in my comforts that I can easily forget just what there is to be thankful for, and that no matter how crummy I may think my life is there are hundreds of millions of people in the world that without hesitation or qualification would trade places with me, or if you can afford the internet to read this-you.

I'm not one of those utilitarians that look at the world that way and feel totally crippled and unwilling to do anything but give everything away. But I still feel like I should, and can, do a whole lot more than I do. When someone is so utterly desperate it's so easy to change their outlook. A dollar here, a dollar there can do so much. If I can't remember that on a day dedicated to giving thanks, I have no idea when I can.

Anyway, I wrote out that whole story because I know there's a lot of good people who read this, and maybe it's a chance to remember how lucky you are, and how unlucky others are, too. To remember how much you really have to be thankful for-and not the cheesy crap none of us really mean around the dinner table-and how easily you could give someone else a chance to be thankful.
Now go find a bell ringer and give them $5 damn it!

Other than that:
Well, it's been cold here. Like in the 20s most of this week. We even had snow on Tuesday and Thursday. It's feeling really Christmasy over here-snow, cold, there are Christmas decorations everywhere already-and that's something even the Koreans can't really mess up. Christmas in the city seems like a lot of fun, or at least ascetically pleasing.

I do have a couple day trips in the works in the next couple of months, so hopefully I'll get a chance to talk about those. I'm trying to do all the typical Asian stuff I can before I leave-who knows if I'll ever get to come back.

I only have a couple of weeks left at the Elementary school. I don't know how regular elementary school teachers do it-letting their children go every year. As much as I can't wait to leave the school-I'm going to miss the kids like crazy.
Even the kids I don't really like I've come to care about. It's funny, there's a couple of boys who are totally out of control-notorious through the whole school, not just my class-but still, when they take their speaking test, and I can see how nervous and vulnerable they are I really feel for them. As bad as they want to act, they're still just little kids.
I'm awful in general at giving tests though-I like all the kids too much-it kills me to have to give someone a bad grade. I have to force myself to stick to my rubric, otherwise I'd just give them all A's and hugs.

There was a school wide English contest Wednesday. I wasn't a judge, but I had to go watch-I was actively rooting for my kids, not to win, but just to be proud of themselves.
Actually funny-not sappy-story from the contest. Koreans are UBER competitive when it comes to their kids. This was a speaking contest, each kid told a story. They were encouraged to dress up and make props. Sounds nice. But these parents took it SO far. Apparently there's a large industry for MAKING this crap for them. Every single kid had a professional visual aid-either a giant pop-up book, or an illustrated flip book. And each kid was dressed in tailor made turtle suit or sheeps suit. I mean, sure, they all looked good, but I think it's pretty pathetic that it's a contest of who can spend the most money on getting it done by professionals than actual personal talent.
(My 5th grade student colored his own picture. He just had his one picture, not a 7 page artistic rendering of the story with attachable velcro pieces. It looked like he was totally outclassed, but I was so much more proud of him for making his own than I would have been if he had done what everyone else had done...of course, the next day he told me I was lazy, so I don't think the admiration is mutual.)


Ok, this is long-and lots of overly thoughtful thoughts too. Sorry. I'll be funnier next time. I promise.