April 7, 2003 (idea)

Wouldn't want to disappoint anyone. It has been a quite a while, actually, over a month and a half since I've written a daylog, or much of anything in fact, although I still drop in to read E2 almost every day.

Let's see where I'm at. Since last time, Go Pro has moved out of the apartment (at my behest, since he was a disgusting individual who never cleaned, made a huge mess, and worst of all, drank my beer), and Eun Jung has moved in. Yes, my Korean girlfriend moved into my apartment about a month ago. She asked me if it would be possible, at some point in the indefinite future. I said it would be, if my roommates didn't live with me.

Apparently, one out of two leaving was good enough for her, since she moved in soon thereafter. It kind of took me by surprised. She'd slept at my place a couple of times before, so when we went out that Friday night, I asked her where she wanted to sleep. She said my place. She had a bag with her, and I asked her what was in it. She said a change of clothes. But then, I had somewhere to go the next evening. I asked her if I should call her when I finished, or whether we should just meet the next day. She gave me the "What, you don't know?" look and told me that she'd be waiting at home when I got back. That Sunday night, I figured that she'd be staying over again, but I still thought it was just for the weekend. The fact that she'd actually moved in only hit me when, the next morning, she asked me to give me my keys before going to work. "Don't worry," she said, "I'll be here to let you in when you get back." And that was that.

All is not well, though. I've realized that I can't marry this girl, and I'm going to have to break up with her soon. The problem, strangely, isn't what she does when I'm around, but what she doesn't do when I'm not around. She doesn't do anything. She sits at home and watches television and waits for me to get home. Having common interests isn't really important to me. I don't need a girl who loves roleplaying games, Go, creative writing and physics. I do need a girl who loves something, though. As I said in an email to my family and friends, "If she was passionate about, say, basket weaving, and spent the days filling the apartment with useless wicker baskets, I'd be content." But I love life, and want to appreciate every last minute of it by doing stuff, and being with a girl who is letting it slip through her fingers makes me feel like I'm doing the same.

Of course, I'm getting inane "I told you so," comments from my more annoying friends, who don't seem to understand that I haven't done anything worth regretting. These are the people who told me that I was a fool for getting into a relationship with a girl who said that she would expect to get engaged after a year or so if we were to be together. They don't realize that what has happened proves them wrong, rather than right. The idea behind their argument was that a year is not enough time, and that it might be a mistake to get married to someone after that little time, as you might later discover that they weren't right for you after all. The fact that I realized it after just three months proves that a year is, at least for me, more than enough time to realize if a girl is not the right one. To claim that they knew she was wrong all along would be ridiculous, as they've never met her. So I fail to see how they "told me" anything.

Enough about love. What about the rest of life? Bill and Maria have quit our school. Good riddance, except that it means more work for the rest of us. For a while, it was looking like a British friend of mine might come work here for a few months, but she had to cancel, since she got a job interview for the BBC position she's been desiring. We finally have found a new teacher, however, a middle-aged Australian woman by the name of Gayl. We're all desperately hoping that when she starts work, they're planning on giving her some of our classes, rather than creating new classes for her. Technically, our working hours are all within the provisions of our contracts, but six hours of class back-to-back is starting to erode my sanity.

Aside from love and work, what is there in life? Go. I made it into the single-digit kyu on IGS recently, and quickly soared up to 6k*, which seems to be a plateau for a lot of people. Another 6 ranks, and I'll be at the much coveted shodan level. Given my current rate of progress, I should make it at just about the same time I finish my contract at Evan-Moor School. I went to the kiwon (Badouk club) on Sunday to play some games in person, a refreshing change from always playing over the Internet. After playing a bunch of even games against similarly-ranked Korean guys in their 30s and 40s, I played a few three handicap stone games against some guy who must have been about 70 years old, and about shodan skill level or a tad weaker. He couldn't speak any English, and I don't know any of the Korean badouk (Go)terminology, but I learned a bit just from watching his reaction to my moves. Bad moves were met with a sad, slow shake of the head, while good were met with a grunt, a moment of contemplation, another grunt, and then a slow nod. I felt like I was playing with Yoda. It was great fun. I beat him by four points the first time (with 3 handicap stones, remember), while the second game, he managed to kill one of my corner groups so I had to resign.