New teacher/New Motivations

When I got from my walk today between classes, the new teacher Samantha had already arrived and had started getting settled in to her room next to mine. After having her sit in a few classes, Samantha, Marc, Carey and I went out to eat. The conversation was sort of a background questionaire for her to share her past and whatever questions she had about us or the school. She seems nice, polite, but has an Aussie accent and all the slang that comes with it for sure.

She isn't a picky eater, so she had no problems with any of the dishes served with the meal. Marc pointed it out well enough when in Korean he said (I think) "Matt is the eating (or food) outsider." I felt a little like that since I don't eat some of the more exotic things on the table most of the time. I feel like the progress I have made was completely overshadowed since she was able to pick and choose even the odd tasting things. Petty jealousy at it's finest.

After dinner I wanted to go to the PC-bong and get away from everyone, but since Samantha forgot her keys in the room, I invited her along rather than walk back to the area that I was twice. I think Samantha was being polite, and honestly I think she wanted to just go home, but she ended up coming along since she really didn't have another choice. She even started her own character up in Diablo 2 and played along (I wasn't going to play that game anymore, but I couldn't exactly sit and play Quake 3 while she waited for my keys.)

I tried to give her some basic crash course Korean customs and words that will help, but in doing so I realize that my Korean is terrible and that I need to study. Will the realization of how slow my progress thus far has been intensify my studying? I hope so. I should study to make myself more independent, because in the future I predict that is going to be very important to my stay here, so I might as well get started preparing for it. Besides, independence is ultimately what I prefer over almost anything else.