As far as embarassing friends and family . . . if only. Most of the time I embarass myself.

Thanks for the compliment, James!

Your blog entries are pretty fun to read! It’s making me want to start actually writing interesting life stories in my blogs again rather than just post random photos. Unfortunately, the best stories come usually at the expense of embarassing friends/family and insulting coworkers, so that’s one thing that keeps me from completely expressing myself when writing, now that I think about it…

Oh, and it’s cool seeing someone bring up comics. I was really into them in the 90s. It’s all about Age of Apocalypse’s Astonishing X-Men!

I’ve been trying to get back into comics again… I’ve been out of the loop for a few years, and too lazy/poor to buy a bunch of back issues/tpbs of crossovers and stuff that I missed when I was an exchange student in Tokyo for a year. Right now, I’m just kinda waiting for a nice #1 issue of a good superhero comic to come out so I can start fresh.

Alright, well, keep up the fun reads!

- James.

In this particular case, Bar Bar was referring to the post following this one, KPop and Talks on the Train. He also believes certain events and conversations in my blog were fabricated.

While his comments were mean-spirited, if he’s going to take the time to read my blog, he can write whatever he wants, as long as he is only addressing me, my writing or the blog as a whole. I know I’m not a great writer, and not even a great blogger, so I expect people to tell me my writing sucks. As much as I love it when people say they like my journal, I also understand when people tell me otherwise.

As long as a reader does not insult other posters, and the comment is related to something I’ve written, he or she can take as many shots as he wants.

As for learning the language–I don’t know how people expect to get around without knowing basic Korean. I can kind of understand if some expats don’t want to commit because they’re only going to be in Seoul for a few months, but you seriously limit your experiences when you don’t try to learn. Anyone can read Amanda’s site and see that she accomplishes so much more than your average expats because she goes out of her way to learn and speak the language and get to know actual Korean people.

Just memorizing the alphabet, which doesn’t take more than three or four hours, goes a long way.

John: I had a lot of “problem students,” and I know I wasn’t the best teacher in the world. I felt very discouraged, very often.

But the few darlings I had made the job worth it. I really do miss my kids. It’s unfortunate I can’t contact them.

It’s true that I got very dramatic over the course of my blog. I get emotional pretty easily–throw in homesickness and adoration for my students and friends–and you’ll see why I cried often, especially as my departure date drew closer. I think they way I acted and reacted over my year in Korea was a little over-the-top at times, but all of the expats I know got depressed and weepy every now and then. Placing yourself in a new country, where you don’t know a soul and don’t speak the language, makes you very vulnerable.