My life has definitely calmed down now that I am only teaching at 3 schools instead of 7 and have been able to thus develop a routine. I was told by many, many people that after the first 3-4 months, which seem interminably slow, that time really speeds up. I was skeptical about this, due to the snail’s pace at which my life seemed to crawl for awhile there, but it is definitely proving to be true. It feels like I go from Monday to Friday in about 3 days, which is good, because right now I’m just counting the days until I go back to the states for my month+ long winter vacation. For those curious, here’s how I generally look at my work-week:
Monday: My first two classes of the day are also my worst-behaved of the week. So, if I can make it through those two without getting too angry, things are good. Plus, at that school (which I will call GS), the teacher has decided that she doesn’t like my lessons, and so I’m basically a pronunciation monkey for her. Makes my life easy, so I don’t complain. Mondays I teach 4-5 classes, and I am usually done teaching by 2 or 3, and my remaining hours (until 5) are spent anxiously awaiting someone to upload the week’s new episode of True Blood, and then downloading it. That evening, I go home and treat myself to one of my Belgian or German beers that I hoard when I find them.
Tuesday: On Tuesday I am at my favourite school (which I will call US), and the students there love me and come to my desk to try and practice their English with me, which 90% of the time is cute, and not too annoying the other 10% of the time. The students there are generally actually interested in learning English, and their pronunciation is the best on the island, in my opinion, so my job there is relatively easy. Plus, the teachers there are generally happy, so the environment is nice. The best part about Tuesdays, though, is that by 1:00 or so (and I only teach 2-3 classes), I get to head home, because that school is sane and releases me after I’m finished teaching, rather than making me sit uselessly at my desk until 5. Tuesday evenings I spend either in front of my computer or out walking, or both.
Wednesday: Wednesday I am back at GS, which is rarely pleasant as the teachers always seem very angry and stressed. The students are my worst-behaved and their English is the worst, so my job there can be relatively stressful sometimes. But, my afternoons I have no classes, so I spend that time working on my various websites, or on editing photos, etc. Plus, after that day is done, I only have two days left in the week. I theoretically have a workshop for the middle school teachers that day in the afternoon, but it only happens about half the time. I teach 3-4 classes on Wednesday, plus the occasional workshop. Wednesdays are cooking days, so my evening is usually a mix of cooking and cleaning.
Thursday: Thursdays I am at GN, which is a decent school. I love my co-teacher there, and like US, the teachers and students are generally in a pretty positive mood, so it’s a comfortable environment. Some of my students there are good, some are bad, though the ones that are good are really good, so that’s nice. I usually teach 3-4 classes on Thursday, and they’re almost aways all in a row, which can be hard, but I’m usually done by 2:30 at the latest, and then I go home. I teach a workshop for elementary school teachers at 4pm at another school, and so I go home and surf un-censored internet for an hour or two before I have to head out again. The teachers in that workshop are pretty low-level, which is a challenge, but all my previous experience has been with teaching adults, and the teachers are nice, so it’s usually fun. Thursdays I almost invariably eat at the street-stand sandwich place in town, where they know me so well they start making my sandwich as I walk up to the counter.
Friday: Friday is, well, Friday, so it’s almost always a good day. Fridays I am back at US, and I usually only teach 2 classes, so I’m done by 11:30. I usually stick around until lunch at 12:30, as a free meal is welcomed, and US has the best food of the three schools, but if I need to head out earlier to catch a bus or something, I can. Because I am finished so early, and my days at US are so easy, Fridays almost don’t feel like a work day, which results in my weekends feeling almost like a three day weekend.
So, in short, Monday sucks, but then Tuesday goes by like a bullet train, Wednesdays suck but then Thursdays are okay and I spend them looking forward to Friday, then Friday is almost a non-workday. So, really, it makes things go by rather quickly. I have mostly been sticking around on the weekends, though I was going to head up to the province north of here to check out the foliage this weekend, until the weather called for rain and clouds there. Maybe next weekend. Sometime in November I need to make a trip up to Seoul to hit the expat store and an expat bar or two (I now have a ring I wear to fiddle with in class, and if I go to a bar by myself, I just switch which finger it’s on and the men mostly leave me alone – haha), but in general, I’m trying to stick around town more, since with the economy the way it is, I need to save my money. I am still going to do the Trans-Siberian on the way home, but I may cut my time in Europe a little shorter than I originally planned, unless the economy rebounds.
Anyway, this entry is long enough, so I’ll stop now, especially since I’m cross-posting it to Waygook Next Door.
Things have been kinda crappy here for the last week or so. Without going into detail, I’ll just say that I hate working for Koreans and that the exchange rate is at the bottom of the garbage bin right now. In two months, my salary has dropped by more than 1/3rd. It’s rather depressing.
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