"Money can change a person's hobby and wives."

I've been grading a lot of essays lately. On the whole it's been alright. Reading college application essays, though somewhat nerve wracking as I feel the immensity of it all, is really fun. I have one student who is a very skilled writer, so skilled that when he gets tangled up, it's in metaphor - which is really hard to unravel! (c: But a delight nonetheless.

Today I also had the unspeakable joy of going to the doctor with Jesse! Since I know I never would have imagined what I would see there, I will assume your imaginations are similarly limited (please take no offense) and come out and say that I have never seen live video feed of a stranger's nasal cavity while sitting in the waiting area at a doctor's office. Indeed, I knew not that nose-cams existed. (I probably could've imagined that far, but let me tell you, the ridges on the inside are difficult to express quite so vividly in words.)

Take care.

Each and All

". . .
As I spoke, beneath my feet
The ground pine curled it's pretty wreath,
Running over the club-moss burrs;
I inhaled the violet's breath;
Around me stood the oaks and firs;
Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground;
Over me soared the eternal sky,
Full of light and of deity;
Again I saw, again I heard,
The rolling river, the morning bird;
Beauty through my senses stole;
I yielded myself to the perfect whole."

R.W. Emerson

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.
John Cage
US composer of avant-garde music (1912 - 1992)

Sunday Dinner

Yesterday I went on a long hike. It was so good. I found this recreation area that looked like it would be awesome for picnics, and there was a river (read "stream") running down from the mountains you could wade in. Very nice.

I (praise God) had an epiphany for making rice pudding instead of French toast for my cooking class this week, so I tried out my recipe today, it was incredible (I thought). I'm going to try adding raisins and cinnamon next time I think, but it was very orangey. I like.

Jesse and I also made breakfast for dinner for everyone. Things I learned: Chocolate pancakes are the man, and you want to start before dark if you're cooking outside. (c: Next time. I think we may do it again next week. It'll be byob - bring your own bacon, and we'll have fried potatoes and eggs. I think we'll do meatloaf and potatoes some night too, but Leo's going out of town the next couple of weekends to get things ready for his wedding and I'd feel really bad about making something he'd enjoy so much while he was gone. It was really fun though, and I look forward to doing it again.

Hmm . . . what else? I've taken to binge reading (and book-buying). I bought SEVEN books a couple of weeks ago (not all at once . . . but still). I'm about half-way through them and I'm making excellent progress on Les Misérables, so I've decided not to be that upset with myself for spending so much money.

In two weeks "summer intensives" will end and my schedule will get another overhaul. There are also several teachers leaving this month, including Alex and Steve. I'm not sure if they're being replaced, or if they're just going to give more classes to everyone else. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Sorry this is so episodic, but that's how life feels right now - like it happens in brief spurts between sleeping and doing dishes. (c:

God keep you.

Blah

Life continues. I got to walk in monsoon season this week. I went on a long hike last Saturday and over-extended a muscle in my foot. I walked down the river the other day just to listen to the silence and bought corn on the cob at a little market. I think I'll eat it tomorrow for lunch.

I don't lie

To say I have a lot going on right now would seem so unrealistically large an understatement that it might pass into the realm of falsehood.

In other news, I have now successfully breached the six-month barrier of living abroad. It has been 10 weeks since my last 3-day weekend, and I'm feeling it, but look forward to a long hike, a hot shower, and a lot of extra sleep the 11th, 12th and 13th.

The Truth is that I'm only writing this to pacify my sister. As most of the people who've spoken to me can attest, there's not much I have to say that's fit to print. Life gets hard, but I'm really thankful for all the people the Lord has built into mine who make it much easier to handle.

If you want to know what I've been doing lately: (This is complete rubbish, you don't have to read it.)

I've taken (in June especially) to measuring my time in Korea by the other teachers' contracts. Ray just left the end of June, Steve leaves the end of August and Luke is out of here the end of September. Fortunately for me we recently had two new additions to our little set, Jesse and Cassie arrived the end of June! They're both really sweet, wonderful young women, and I look forward to getting to know them better.

On the fourth we all went out and had hamburgers and french fries (because we couldn't come up with anything more American than that) and then while everyone else went off to enjoy their various festivities Luke and I took a walk down the river. It's been pretty (relatively) cold and rainy this last week, so the evening was nice. (When I say, "Evening," you should really read, "Night." On my Korean schedule 'evening' begins at approximately 10 pm.)

These last couple of weeks I've been teaching SAT classes in the evenings. It's really fun and I enjoy the students a lot. Ostensibly this will continue for the next two months until the students are sent back to the US for school, poor things.

Other than that I've been sleeping . . . lots and lots of laying in bed staring at the ceiling and talking to God.

Job 2:13

"Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was."

Please pray for my family.