I, me, you — personal pronouns overused by us Fulbrighters this week.
  What region do you want?
  Where will I be placed? 
  Who am I  <=>  Who are we?
Korean cultural workshop presenters have emphasized the Korean use of “우리” or “our” when describing possessives. The western educational mentality of “my students” becomes “우리 학생—our students”; “my country” becomes “우리 나라—our country.”
Despite this, the American mentality dominates leading up to our placement ceremony, with anxieties exposing our one-sided upbringing that contrasts those of our future students.
Tenets of individualism and collectivism seem to be more akin to different ethnic foods than to dogma. Korean cuisine is not inherently better than American cuisine, and there is no right or wrong way of life. Only right and wrong attitudes.
Sometimes, life calls for a full bowl of 순두부찌개, other times it’s a 3×3: no cheese or spread, ketchup instead, grilled onions, protein style.
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전주 (Jeonju) is the city, and 전주영생고등학교 (Jeonju Youngsaeng High School) the school. All boys, Christian, private, grades 10-12, 700 students, and I’m the 12th Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) in the school’s history.
One slip of paper decided one year of the future: August 2017 – July 2018. Some to Jeju, others to within 8km of the NK boarder, others to within five minutes of Jeonju. 
Nervousness came from lack of knowledge and ability to plan ahead, rather than fear of any future. What happens will happen, decisions will be made with the information known.
Calvin: “I simply won’t think about anything I don’t like, and I’ll be happy all the time!” Hobbes is right, though; sometimes that is a irresponsible way to live. 
Now if only the monsoon season would chill, so I could say it was pretty outside.
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Rapid fire:

  • *Where is Jeonju?*
  • GoT in S. Korea: uni desktop rerouted to VGA cord to converter to Mac to Chrome VPN to 5 different rooms b/c of regional restrictions & slow wifi.
  • ~22 yrs with two younger brothers was just prep for a year with over 700.
  • Eat first, then ask what you ate.
  • Koreans—qualitatively allergic to reracking weights.
  • If Fulbright is a grant, not a job,but I’m not a student…am I unemployed? 

For the mind:

From my archives:

  • Starting a conversation in the office.
  • Faith, sports, life at Harvard, ft. Jeremy Lin.

And tomorrow will be better than today,

CYL