War is Hell

(<---an oldie but a goodie from www.horkulated.com via this blog)

This is old (note: number of dead courtesy of Dubya has pretty much tripled since it was created) but I just thought I'd try to remind everyone there's still a war on. Apparently that won't stop us from starting another one, in the land of the morning calm. That's Korea, for those of you who maybe haven't had your Wheaties yet. Or don't quite have all the circuits firing. I feel a bit like that myself at the moment.

No nukes! No nukes! No nukes!

Really, though! Could we not? Could we just not?

I'm rather fond of Korea these days. Yeah, sure, you might say it's due in part to the fact that I can overlook its drawbacks now that I have unfettered access to Mexican food, movies in English, and the occasional bathtub. Assuming arguendo that those things are significant factors, I still cherish the experiences I had there and all that I learned. And you know what? I miss some of my students. Today, to keep myself awake in Civil Procedure, I was trying to list all of my Korean students class by class in the margin of my Civ Pro notes, mixed in with my doodles of pumpkins and ghosts and witches on broomsticks. (Note: Civil Procedure doesn't actually bore me, I just got precious little sleep last night and my brain cells were in rebellion.) I got totally stuck on my pre-school. Isn't that the craziest thing? I love my preschool! Everyone who has read this blog knows that! Remember the field trips? The holiday parties? The time Brian cracked my skull open? Ahhhh, sweet memories. But today I could come up with only 16 of the 17 pre-schoolers I taught. It's making me crazy. It also made the last 20 minutes of class pass pretty quickly. I cannot for the life of me figure out who I'm missing! I feel like Maria in The Sound of Music: "Oh, well, god bless what's-his-name."

And another thing, also familiar to those who've been reading this blog for the entire year of its existence -- oh no! I totally forgot to celebrate the first anniversary of my blog! I'm sorry, blog. I will have a belated birthday party for you this weekend -- is that there was one particular fly in the ointment that was me living in Korea. Fly, thy name is long-distance relationship. Now, as everyone knows (and good god if you haven't heard, sit up and take notice! and spread the word! I've heard shouting from rooftops is nice this time of year) the person with whom I was involved in said long-distance relationship is a total maniacal liar. So, while it turns out he was a colossal waste of my time and energy (not to mention money), he did in fact sometimes make me not want to be there because we wanted to be together. Or something like that. Granted, you learn something from everybody you encounter in this world even the ones who sell you out wholesale, but as I said then and reiterate now it would have been nice not to have had that issue preventing me from being 100% present 100% of the time because I really, really liked so much about being in Korea. Fly. Yes. He is a bit like a fly, now that I think about it.

But I digress. Frequently.

Korea is my new back-up plan for life!

I no longer have to fret and wring my hands and weep and wail and gnash my teeth over what to do with my life because when the going gets tough, I can always just go to Korea for a while to teach and make some money and figure it all out. Except, hello, in or near Seoul this time, so as to provide continued unfettered access to Mexican restaurants. Either that, or an apartment with an oven so I can make my own enchiladas. They exist, those ovens. Nary an English teacher I knew had one, but the American army vet and her husband I hung out with, they had an oven in the apartment Uncle Sam rustled up for them. And speaking of the Army, right, that's my whole point. NO WAR! Because in order for Korea to be the fail-safe, no worries, even-if-you-drop-out-of-law-school-there's-nothing-to-fear option in life, the country still has to BE there and not be blown to smithereens. Are you listening, world leaders? And world leaders pretend?

Oh, and the people who live there might also appreciate not having a nuclear war. Just a thought.