Gratitude

코리아타운에서 한국 음식을 포장해서 파는 <우리집>에 오랜만에 갔다가 김치막국수가 있길래 먹었는데 맛있었다.

어젯밤에 또 남편이 자기 추천으로 테라피를 받고 있는 사람들 얘기를 했다. 그래서 왜 자꾸 나한테 그 얘기를 하냐고, 나는 perfectly fine하다고 하니까 그는 할말을 잃고 웃는다. 오케이, 내가 좀 과장을 하긴 했지만, 사람들(주로 남편)이 나를 귀찮게 안하고 내가 하고 싶은대로 내비두면 나는 정말 평온하다. 그래도 그랑 이런 저런 얘기를 하다가 한가지 아이디어를 얻었다. 매일 감사한 것 세가지를 꼽아보기. 

 

Today I'm really grateful for:

1. My language facilitator, Eli Cho

He's been working as a Korean interpreter for 5 years and helped me practice interpreting for the last 3 days. He patiently and candidly answered my questions and he even told a few Korean jokes! It made me relax a bit. I feel more hopeful about this job now because he is such a nice and mature Korean in his sixties and he gave me a lot of positive feedback. I thought it would be quite isolating to work from home on the phone without any interaction with coworkers, but now I at least know two people, Eli and Min (the other Korean trainee I mentioned yesterday), even though I don't know when I will see them again after this training (the company doesn't allow us to exchange personal contact info during the training...yes, very impersonal). 

 

2. My tutoring student, Kathy ssn(선생님)

I help her with English once a week, but it's more than just English. We talk about personal stuff for 0.5~1 hour and then study 1~1.5 hours. It's a big part of my limited social life. She is great in many ways, I am especially drawn to her because she is one of very few Koreans in NY who doesn't go to church. 

 

3. My room

I wouldn't be still here if I hadn't gotten my own room. It is my sanctuary, haven and panic room. It has a full bathroom, two printers/scanners, a 27" iMac, two laptops, a trampoline, books and two cat houses. I got this room thanks to my husband and his employee George. They warrant a separate mention.