Day 526 -- Unexpected Tutoring, Tokyo Planning, One Year

UNEXPECTED TUTORING

The coffee shop lady asked me too meet up with her son, and since she always gives me free "service" waffles and apple pie when I buy a coffee, I dutifully went to the shop to meet him.

About an hour later, this extremely exhausted middle-school boy drags himself in the door, textbooks in tow. He has the biggest eye bags I've ever seen on ANYBODY, let alone a little boy. He offers a kind of shaky "hello" smile. I try to start up a conversation with him -- what's your name, where's your school, what are you studying -- and after about 10 minutes he has said about 20 words. He mostly just looked like a zombie and I felt really bad for him.

Then when I was leaving, coffee shop lady pushes an envelope at me. I told her it wasn't necessary, but she insisted. Her son goes to a middle school, where he studies English. He then goes to hagwon, where he studies English. Now, during his freetime, he's being forced to study English.

This system is not working.

TOKYO PLANNING

I'm headed to Japan tomorrow to see Tokyo and visit a friend studying there (helloooo Sarah!) for five days. I'm excited to get traveling again!!

ONE YEAR

Wednesday will be Doyup and my one year anniversary. I, um, will be in Tokyo. I met his mother yesterday, and she seemed pretty nice. At least not as bad as I feared (I was picturing a typical super-scary-boyfriend's-mother from a Korean drama, like Boys Over Flowers or that other one). There was still a lot of very awkward questions, for example "Doesn't your mom as you when you'll get married? Aren't your parents worried that you aren't married yet? How old are you? And you're not married?"

I guess Doyup and I have dated too long, in her eyes. You date for 6 months, then you either get married or break up. Womp womp.

japan!