I also saw the results of parking your scooter behind a trash truck on a hill. CRUNCH. The trash truck driver had apparently gotten out of his truck without setting the brake, or maybe without even thinking about the fact that he was on a hill, or maybe the brake failed? I dunno. He yelled and tried to get people out of the way, and all escaped unharmed, except one scooter. Mangled. Just utterly destroyed. Poor thing, never stood a chance.
As my time winds down over here I am becoming paranoid with thoughts of personal injury. Twice today while I was biking I thought about how awful it would be crash. The other day I was riding along behind an old man. He had a flat back tire. He also had a huge load of junk balanced precariously on the back of his bike. As he rode along he was honking his horn, to warn people he was coming. It's a good idea. So he was approaching this one girl who was walking along, listening to her iPod. He was honking away but she wasn't looking. Then she must have heard him because she started looking around, and then, HORROR of horrors, she stepped INTO his path, instead of out of it. So he swerved and missed her by an inch, but part of his pile of stuff caught on her. Everything avalanched off his bike onto the sidewalk, she jumped out of the way and kept going, but he wiped out. Poor old guy. So I had to swerve around him and his mess to avoid becoming part of the accident. He wasn't hurt at all. He managed to leap, gracefully, out of harms way and remain upright while his bike crashed. Crazy Koreans and their balancing skills. But, now I am paranoid. Some people ride their car horns, I ride my bike bell. Ding ding, GIT OUT OF MY WAY.
Yesterday I met up with what's left of my orientation group. We get along so much better now than we used to. I think anyway. We had a nice time eating and talking. Lots of laughing and joking. What a funny bunch.
On Thursday I have invited my religion students over to eat at my place. I am going to make lasagna and brownies. Two of my favorite things in the whole world. I don't know if they will like it at all, but if they don't that's ok, more for me!
Also, today my fellow teachers at this institute got me a cake and shot confetti at me. Small, impromptu going away party during staff meeting. It was fun. I had to make another speech. I guess I should have just prepared some speeches, since I have already had to give two. Hopefully that is the end, but probably not. Sigh. It's hard to leave people. I will miss these people a lot. I have been working with some of them for the whole year that I have been here. Others only a few months, but when you work together, fight together and live together you become close quickly. I want to come home more than anything but I will miss these dear people who have become like family to me. And I will miss this church. It is such a close group. We all spend insane amounts of time together on the weekends. It feels like home, and it is always hard to leave a home.
But I need to come back to my life. I need to try to make my home in Americaland again. Speaking of homes, I really want to get a house. Not today. Someday soon. It would be so nice not to have to move every year. For the past... four years? Every year I have moved to a new apartment. It is exhausting. I am sick of packing and unpacking. I want to unpack and stay a while.
Anyway, my countdown is getting smaller. It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in orientation, learning way too much way too fast. And now... I am leaving. It took so long and happened so fast. My brain doesn't even know what to do with it all.
the end for now =)
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