Laurie Johns Weblog

Gokseong County, South Korea

I’ll be flying to Gokseong county in the southwest of Korea on September 26th. I just got a job teaching English there and I am  ecstatic.

I will be living in Okwa just 25 minutes from Korea’s 6th largest city, Gwangju (Korea’s city of arts).  Gwangju, 4 hours south of Seoul by car or train, is the capital of Jeollanam-do Province. In 2002 it was one of the five host cities in Korea for the World Cup.

I feel that I owe you all so much in the way of words and that I am hopelessly behind, but I will try here now to get up to speed. In many ways I am in a weird sort of holding pattern as I wait for calls from Korea to come in and as I attempt to prove myself a suitable candidate under the scrutiny of a somewhat formal and formidable opponent. I have been fingerprinted and background checked, ordered copies of diplomas that I recently decided took up too much space in the filing cabinet (and threw out), and have updated every known documentation of my worth. One particular recruiter asked that I have my speeding “arrests” (they were mere citations and warnings) removed from my file. And finally after weeks of subjecting myself to this interrogation, I found a Canadian working out of Korea who I think is actually going to help me find a job teaching English in Korea by September 20^th. Not working and looking for work is far more stressful than actually working at a job that I don’t care for all that much.

I haven’t been able to work on anything creative though my studio is cleaned, re-organized and waiting for me to bring to life an idea that has been brewing since leaving Marin in June. I wrote a quaint story called “Bird and Bear go to the Beach” based on a lovely evening that began at Limantour Beach that I spent with an editor at McSweeny’s one of last weekends in Marin County California. I have plans to illustrate the story with a series of painted collages and the further I get from it, the more the pages blend into a single blurry memory.

We enjoyed the most wonderful summer, weatherwise, in Vermillion to date. Record low temps, mild sunny days and cool evenings. I have re-painted nearly the entire interior of my house and cleaned every corner. Our bathroom project is at a stand-still, but I’ll have to leave the rest (all the tiling) to Caleb and his dad. We purchased beautiful jade colored stones for the shower stall and slate for the walls and I’ll post pictures (hopefully from Korea) when it’s finished.

I have ordered study guides for the GRE and plan to submit an application to UC Berkeley by December 10th. I will, hopefully, write the 20 page writing sample on some aspect of art history/aesthetics from Korea.

My yoga practice is not the same without Yoga Garden Studio in San Anselmo,  but I have been attending as many of Sarah’s classes as possible and teaching 2 of my own.

Things are quieter at the house without the constant sound of work, but I miss William more for his ability to understand me than his wielding of a hammer.

Caleb has begun bringing dishes home from restaurants to study and re-create. His dishes are, without fail, better than those he purchases. Ailee continues to rock the classes at St. Paul college.

When life gets hard, I try to stay in the now.

Project as of September 7, 2009

Caleb, cutting tile

Beau, helping

Slate

Sink supports

colors

wall behind stool

cutting stones for shower floor

the stones

stages one and two, west wall, toilet and shower