tis the season...

photo courtesy of hannah johnson

I've an insatiable, uncontrollable desire for two things this summer: 냉면 and watermelon. It's literally out of hand as I find myself eating 냉면 at least five times a week and watermelon most nights. Just can't get enough.

This summer poses to be a busy one. School lets out on the 17th. I start teaching summer classes on the 20th for two weeks, followed by a week in Mongolia, another week of summer classes and then two weeks in the states. The fall semester commences the day I arrive back in Korea. I worry for time to breathe. I feel overwhelmed with all that's on my plate and fret that I am half-assing my way through this period of life. On top of that, I feel uninspired. The desire to creatively communicate has left me. This causes me to wonder about the brilliant minds who kept themselves in such pain for the sake of their art. Affliction, internal turmoil and misery truly can infuse great material for an artist. But I do not experience any kind of true misery. In spite of the load of work ahead of me, there is peacefulness and merriment in my life due to the observation of little things such as the chubby little legs of a toddler running alongside his mother, the coy smiles of couples walking hand in hand, the dew-heavy scent of a summer morning, the dance of colorful umbrellas on the sidewalks under a misty gray sky, the peals of laughter in the school hallways... If not for these things, would life be worth living?

On a side note. I've often been asked how I subsist at home. Do you cook? What do you eat at home? For any of you who were curious, here is the answer. Behold, the refrigerator of a single girl living in Korea with no talent for nor desire to learn domestic work: