Backpack

I've noticed my spelling and grammar has gotten REALLY bad. In fact, I'll be writing about how "scary" something is, and going back, I'll realize I've written "scared"...common Korean mistake. Later in this blog I write the word "weighed" but I misspelled this word twice as "weighted". Or I was writing the title to this blog, Backpack, and my fingers mis-typed and wrote "backbaby". I don't know why, but that's one thing I'm looking forward to going home for....improving my spelling and grammar!

Anyways...

I was cleaning out my classroom/workspace at KBU tonight after meeting a student there, [sidebar: there have been so many kind students giving me little gifts to remember them by!] and with all my stuff I put it in a backpack. There were things like books and papers and pens and pictures. little things that I've collected over the year. Well, after packing up, I met another student to have dinner and coffee. At the coffee shop he taught me how to play Go-Stop, a Korean card game. I've had the cards a long time, but didn't know the rules exactly. So I just used them for a matching game. So I was SOO thankful to learn how to actually play!

On the way to dinner, he noticed me struggling a little bit with my backpack, but we kept on going. After a few blocks, I was having trouble breathing because the backpack was pulling on my shoulders in such a way that was blocking my lungs from getting enough air. Plus, the polluted air this summer has really taken a toll on me.

He switched backpacks with me (he'd been carrying one too with nothing but his wallet and a book in it), and after realizing how heavy it was, he said my going away present was him carrying it home for me. Wow! It was a really sweet gesture. So after saying "no" a few times, I gave in and was very grateful. We took bets on how heavy the backpack was. My guess was 6 kilograms (13lb), his guess was 7-8 (15-17lb). When I got home I weighed it, and it was 10.5!!!! That's 23 pounds! Almost double what I'd guessed. He's been a good friend this last year, so when we got home, I asked him to play football together, and after a while, we finished and I gave it to him as a present.