Just because.

I'm blogging today not because I have much to say but because I just need to say something. If I don't, I may go crazy.

I'm at school and just had a rough first period. There's a girl in my class named Hippo and she's my biggest trouble maker out of both schools. She's obstinate, lazy, completely apathetic towards my class, snotty, and all around a pain. I don't know what to do with her. I've separated her from her friends (whom she could never stop talking to) and set her with a group of girls who work hard. However, instead of working, Hippo does nothing and tries to get another girl behind her off task. I found myself constantly trying to get her working today with absolutely no results. I can't motivate her with anything. She doesn't care about grades. She doesn't care about candy. She doesn't respond to punishment. The only thing she seems to excel at is frustrating me. And this happens every Wednesday. Every Wednesday I have her in class and every Wednesday I return to the office stressed out. I really wish she didn't affect me like this. I've got too many things to worry about right now. Having some bad students plaguing me as well just intensifies all those other troublesome things.

Plans for India are moving along. I've set a date to depart--September 4th--and I'm going to the embassy tomorrow to apply for my visa. I'm getting really excited and I've been reading a lot of my India travel guide, but I'm still scared to go alone. Why? This is so unlike me. Or maybe it isn't... I don't know anymore. Sometimes I seriously doubt whether I have enough courage to make this trip on my own. I'm really not as brave as you all might think. I'm only brave when I have to be, not when I want to be. And then I get to thinking and I tell myself, "Kortney, it's not Iraq. You'll be fine. There's nothing really dangerous about India." I think my biggest fear is going and finding myself alone the whole time. I don't want to be alone. I want to share every one of my adventures with someone. But maybe that's what this blog is for... Will you promise to comment on my posts? I need to know that someone is with me, if not in person, at least in thought.

I realized yesterday why so many Koreans struggle with pronunciation--they transliterate (is that a word?) everything from English to Korea (meaning they spell out English pronunciations in Korean). This causes some big problems because first, Korean is separated by syllables. Take for example my name: Kortney in English is only two syllables but Kortney 콜트니 in Korean is pronounced Kor-tuh-nee. Second, they add in certain symbols in order to make the word work in Korean. My name for example; instead of running the t and n together, they actually insert an uh sounding symbol between the two. Third, most Korean letters/symbols are not as flexible with sound as English letters. For example, the letter s has two sounds in English, s as in see and a combination sound with sh as in sheep. In Korean, there is only one s sound, that's sh. So when students try to say words like simple I often hear shimple instead. Make sense? You may need to study Korean in order to understand what I'm talking about.

Time for class! Be right back...

Hmm. Just finished my second class and I'm not sure what to say about it. Most girls did well and were really fun to work with but four girls refused to work; three of them stood in push-up position for 15 minutes; the fourth student followed the previous three but also did an additional 30 minutes for swearing at the Korean teacher. For the first time EVER I saw one of my co-teachers actually DO something to punish students without me initiating it. I hope my next and last class doesn't follow in the fashion of the first two...

I also just sent a fax to good ol' NU to request transcripts. Now THIS makes me angry. I had FIVE transcripts here in Korea and they have all disappeared--along with my iPod charger. What's up with that? It's not like I would have thrown them away. I never throw papers away. This seriously puts a kink in my UQ application process. It's going to take a lot longer to get my official transcript to UQ and longer for me to hear back. *Sigh* I'm not even really sure if the fax went through. I guess I'll have to call sometime tonight.

Funny side note: one of the ladies in the admin office is wearing a shirt that says "English Rocks" today.

You know what I need? A really good distraction. I need something to consume my thoughts and make me happy at the same time.

I'm going to go down town and get some passport photos. And eat lunch. Mmm. Yes, lunch.