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Another day of work. The exhausting and hilarious antics of little kids (my students range in age from preschool to 3rd grade), and the exhausting and hilarious antics of my fellow ESL teachers! Hot open-window classrooms versus stale chilly air-conditioning. Time management, marking homework assignments, classroom management, attempting to be a disciplinarian. And so on. Standing and talking literally all day long.

A summer evening. Stretched out and did some writing and reading before the beautiful smoggy-orange sunset, in one of my favorite places: a row of benches shaded and half-hidden by overhanging vines. Vegetation dense enough to sit under and stay dry in the rain (I’ve done it more than once). A place where high-school kids sit to smoke cigarettes and gaze longingly upon their handphones.

When it was too dark to read, I went for a walk in the lingering heat of the evening, under the green green trees, under the towering rectangles of near-identical apartment buildings. Endless straight lines and windows, endless lights. Blue television flickers. Someone practicing piano. Streets busy as usual, sidewalks crowded with uniformed students pouring out of academies, loitering around convenience stores, filing onto the waiting fleets of colorful buses. Walked around the bustling Joongkye area, people-watching, notebooking; bought some not-quite-ripe plums and apricots from a sidewalk stall before heading back to call it a night.

Just over one month left in Seoul! Hard to believe. The days and weeks at this job are just flying by. I’m sure I’ll return to Korea, someday, possibly to teach again. Hopefully at a university this time. Seoul again? Jeju Island? Or . . . ? The ocean certainly sounds appealing, but both the idea and the actual thing are too far away at present.

This morning it’s cool, but today is apparently going to be 30 degrees. The humidity is increasing daily: rainy season is almost here! Pale orange peaches are growing bigger outside the apartment window. On the 3rd floor, I can look out directly into the trees. Lush green growth everywhere. Roses are wilting and dropping petals beside sidewalks; here and there a pumpkin vine is blooming big bright orange flowers. Little vegetable gardens in random places wherever you go. I feel like I could endlessly explore this place. I felt that way when I first arrived in the city of Gwangju in 2005, and I still feel it 4 years later. The architecture, the natural landscape and climate, the culture and traditions here . . . the food . . .

Morning coffee number two. Shady trees outside, with all their mesmerising layers of green; slow whir of a circular fan inside. Quiet time with a book. Another day with high-energy children about to begin.