A cup of coffee, a vape device, a little remote-control thingy
for turning off the lights, a kindle (currently reading The Dark
Forest by Liu Cixin)
2. Five items you "can't" live without.
Nothing that I'm proud of - the vape device, some kind of
container with coffee, my computer (not this computer
specifically, but just access to some kind of computing device),
my glasses, some form of money. I'm sorry, I couldn't really
think of 'personal' forth or fifth items. When I was young and
had to go travelling somewhere, my mother always had a minimal
check-list: passport, money. Anything else that we forgot could
always be purchased with the money. This is especially true
where I'm currently living - South Korea. You barely have to
walk half a kilometre to find any other 'essential' items in
some kind of store. I realise now that this is quite sad. I have
no 'unique' or personal items that I'm attached to, I've fully
(and unconsciously) embraced capitalist/consumerist culture
where everything is substitutable. The upside of this is that
less attachments to things makes it easier to travel.
3. What are some words or phrases specific to where you live?
I don't speak the language much (Korean). And I've had to work
to change language I do speak (English) quite a bit, since
everyone teaches "American" English here. So, I now say
"elevator" instead of "lift" and "apartment" instead of "flat"
(the first example that came to mind, since there are so many
lifts and flats around here).
In terms of Korean words, there is a specific word for "spacing
out"/just sitting doing nothing. It's 멍 때리다. It's a popular
activity here (people work a lot). During a class on 'free-time
activities' a middle school student even said that it was his
favourite hobby. They even have spacing-out competitions where a
bunch of people just sit in a park. If you check your phone or
fall asleep you're disqualified.
There are hundreds of unique words/phrases from where I grew up
(Donegal, Ireland). Again, I've had to suppress most of them.
The two that sometimes slip through are "grand" and "good luck".
We say "grand" all the time to mean 'fine/good' when someone
asks "How are you?" or "How was it?", and we say "good luck"
instead of "good bye".
4. What are your healthiest habits?
Another embarrassing one for me, I don't have many. I go cycling
whenever I can, but not in a 'habitual'/routine way. I just go
because its fun, not as exercise. I usually go on really long
cycling trips at the weekends. If I wanted to be healthier about
it I would go on shorter, more intense, trips daily I suppose.
I've been thinking about doing that, but I'm always so tired
from work in the evenings.
I'm always able to get a lot of sleep. I can fall asleep easily.
I have to get up early for work, but I still manage around 8
hours a night.
5. What are the rewarding aspects of your job? (if you have a job
quashing your will to live, I provide a bonus sixth question for
you)
I don't really have a good opinion about 'work' in capitalist
societies, I've seen too many friends destroyed -
mentally/spiritually - by awful bosses and working conditions.
Having said that, I've been mostly lucky in that regard. It
helps that a lot of my 'work' so far in life was as a grad
student. Currently, I work teaching kids. I know it is a cliche,
but teaching kids really is so rewarding. Maybe just because
they're a little bit more 'chaotic/unpredictable' than adults.
Just when you think you have them figured out, they surprise
you. I think surprise/novelty in an important ingredient in work
(and most other things). They are endlessly kind and endlessly
funny.
