Back to school (for good this time)

First day back to school, and surprisingly enough, even to me, I’m glad to be back.  I really enjoyed making new friends at winter camp, and God knows I loved our honeymoon, but somehow it’s nice to be back at work.  I’m eager to meet the new students even though I won’t be seeing any of them today.  The first day of school is such a busy day for everyone but myself.  I have my schedule already but I don’t know who I’ll be teaching with or what exactly I’ll be teaching, so there isn’t much to do along the lines of lesson planning.  I’ve met a few new teachers and they all seem really nice.  The guy sitting next to me now is a new Korean language teacher and he’s a sports fan, so that’s cool.  I’ll get to talk sports and he’ll get to practice his English, so it’s win-win.  I guess that’s about it for now.  I’ll write a post about the honeymoon soon.  See ya later.

Back to school (kind of).

I’m back here at school, at least for a while.  Actually, I just finished three weeks of English winter camp on Friday, and I’m back at my school for a week and a half to “lesson plan.”  Nothing is actually required of me, I just have to sit here at my desk from 10am to 12pm and make it look like I’m doing something.

Let me tell you about winter camp.  I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it at first, but it turned out to be a pretty cool experience.  Camp was Monday through Friday, from 9:00 to 12:00, and voluntary for the students.  Class sizes were 8-9 students, but after attrition my class had only 6, and they were all relatively well behaved and proficient in English.  During the first session, from 9:00 to 10:20, we taught a series of language based lessons.  Mostly having to do with grammar, but some were pretty fun.  Some hard-core old-school English teachers out there might say, “but grammar is fun!”, to which I say, nonsense!  After first session, we had twenty minutes to practice for the last day’s performance, in which we had to teach the students something to perform in front of their fellow students and parents.  I wrote a little skit for my students about English camp and their plans for winter vacation.  It didn’t blow anyone away, but the kids didn’t embarrass themselves either, which as middle school students, was all they were really concerned about.  After that, they had a twenty minute break, followed by session two.   Session two ran from 11:00 to 12:00, and it was a chance for each teacher to present their own “activity-based” lesson.  We taught two different lessons, one for 8 days, and the other for three days.  My first lesson was about zombies, which I love, and the second lesson was about movies, which I also love, particularly zombie movies.  Intesperced with normal class days were special activities such as culture day and golden bell quiz day.  They mostly served to give both the students and teachers days off from normal lessons.

The best part of camp wasn’t the short hours, which I liked, or the small class sizes, which I appreciated, but my fellow native English teachers.  I was very lucky to get a camp where everyone genuinely got along.  There were eight of us, and we were all unique in our own ways, but we got along great.  We hung out after school, having lunch and throwing parties.  Even Melissa and I threw a party, and if you know me very well, should surprise you at least a little.  It was so nice to have other English speakers around all the time, mostly just to bullshit with.  I really hope we can remain close now that camp is over.  Of course, there will be a certain amount of growing apart, but I hope we’ll hang out together at least once in a while.

Other than that, things have been going well.  It’s been cold, and surprisingly snowy the last few weeks.  I’ve still been riding my bike, even in the snow, which isn’t too bad.  Beats riding the bus, at any rate.  The next thing on our agenda is our long-awaited honeymoon.  We won’t be leaving for another two weeks or so and we’re trying to decide exactly what we want to do.  There are some things that are pretty much set in stone, like the night zoo in Singapore and lounging on the beach in Bali, but the rest is still wide open.  I think I’ve convinced Melissa to take the PADI open water scuba diving certification course with me in Bali.  I think scuba would be a really cool hobby that we could do together.  Not that we would get to go very often, but if we travel as much as we hope to, maybe once or twice a year would be do-able.  It really depends on where we end up.  In some places it could be often, other places not at all. 

I guess that’s about it for now.  This is already one of my longest text-only posts ever.  I know I keep saying this, but I’m going to try to post more often and keep my few readers (mom and Gene) satisfied.  Talk to ya later!

12 degrees and as warm as a bug in a rug.

I’m still getting crazy looks riding to school in the morning wearing my balaclava and goggles, but I’m still staying plenty warm.  I’m really kind of surprised that more people aren’t doing the same, since its warmer and faster than walking and faster than the bus during rush hour between 1-3 miles.  I guess they’d rather shiver at the bus stop then crowd on in and pay the admission price to do so.  Admittedly, I’m not saving much money by riding versus taking the bus, only about $1.50 a day, $7.50 a week, about $30.00 a month, and roughly $350.00 a year.  Considering that I have about $80.00 invested into the bike so far, I think I’m doing pretty well.  Over the course of a year, the bike will cost me about $0.25 a day, versus at least $1.50 on the bus, which is a great deal all on it’s own.  And of course, the longer I ride the bike, the better deal it becomes.  The only improvements the bike really needs is a new chain, bar-end mirrors, and some slick tires to replace the nobbies when the threat of snow passes sometime in March.  Mountain bike tires make for pretty good snow tires, but they’re tiring to ride along the sidewalk.  I guess that’s about it for now.  School is easy now, but a bit boring.  See ya later!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Yesterday went pretty well.  I didn’t really have to do anything at work, and then around noon I went to Outback with some of my fellow teachers for lunch.  They were treating me as their English teacher for the teacher’s class on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  I had the Queensland Chicken and Shrimp, as usual, which was delicious.  The interesting part though, was the snow storm I rode through to get to the restaurant.  It started as a flurry and quickly grew into a squall.  By the time I got to the restaurant, the sidewalks were covered with about 1/8in.  I didn’t know if I was slipping or not, but I slowed right down just to be safe.  It melted by the time we were done eating, and I  rode home without incident.  Later that afternoon I got some really great news from Melissa.  She finally got her vacation extended to match mine, and it’s 99.9% certain that her evil head co-teacher will be leaving in March.  So whether she gets a new job or not, things will almost certainly improve for her in the spring.  As for me, I’m pretty content with this job, though I still hope to get an elementary school next year.  I just hope I’ll be treated as well there as I am here.  Tomorrow Melissa and I go on the native English teacher’s trip to Mt. Sorak, and that should be fun.  So effectively, this is my last day of work this week.  I guess that’s about it for now, so see ya later!

Roasty-Toasty

I had my first chance this morning to ride to school wearing my mask and goggles, and I’m proud to say that I was roasty-toasty.  I know I shouldn’t, but I felt pretty superior as I rode past all of those wind-burned people on the sidewalk today.  Sure, I got some funny looks, but I think they’re looks of envy rather than looks of scorn.  Of course, on the surface they’re thinking, “Look at that foreigner, what a baby!”  But why should I suffer in the cold if it can so easily be avoided?  I must say that my plan of riding my bike to school throughout the winter seems to have been validated, so long as the sidewalks don’t become too treacherous with ice. 

Melissa and I had a rather nice if uneventful weekend.  On Saturday we went to Itaewon and Yongsan for our usual book and movie fix.  Speaking of movies, we’ve been trying, and failing, to see the new Christmas Carol movie with Jim Carrey.  Every time we go, it’s either sold-out or unavailable.  We tried three different theaters on Saturday, all sold out.  We tried again early Sunday afternoon to find that they were only showing it once that day, at 8:00am!  Who in their right minds would schedule a movie that early?  Who is it for?  The stay out until 7:00am party crowd, or the before church movie crowd?  I’d be suprised if either exists.  Maybe we’ll have better luck next weekend, or maybe we’ll have to wait until it comes out on DVD.  That would be my choice, as I’m a bit of a Christmas-Scrooge my Melissa’s standard, but she really wants to see it, so we will.  I guess thats about it for today.  This week looks really easy, as 1st and 2nd year students have finals and I’m showing videos to the 3rd years.  Also, on Thursday and Friday all of the foreign middle school teachers are going to Sorak Mt. for some professional developement of some kind.  All I know is that it involves a bus ride, eating, and a short hike.  I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun.  I’m sure I’ll write about it next week.  And with pictures and video!

December already?

How can it be December already?  Sometimes it just feels like yesterday that I was sitting here at my desk, sweating, wondering why they kept turning off the fans.  Actually, it has been unseasonably warm so far this fall, with lows in the upper 30s and highs in the low 50s, so I guess I shouldn’t complain about the weather, at least.  From what I remember of Korean winters, we’re about to enter the more dreary part of the season.  At some point the wind direction will change, and it’ll become dry, windy, and bitterly cold.  I guess I can hope for a warmer-than-average winter, but I’m not holding my breathe.  Actually, I’m kind of looking forward to trying out the mask and goggles I bought a few weeks back.  I have a balaclava and sun/wind/dust goggles to wear in the cold.  I’m sure I’ll get a lot of funny looks, but I don’t care.  The last thing I want to do is half-freeze my face riding to work and then have my nose run as I thaw.  I guess I shouldn’t be looking forward to that, though.  I’m sure I’ll be dreaming of the summer soon enough.

Not a whole lot else going on, really.  I just found out that we have another native english teacher meeting on Friday, which is just as well since that’s the day my school gets their flu shots, and I have nothing else to do that afternoon.  It’s supposed to be from 1-5, maybe with dinner thrown in, so it shouldn’t be too bad.  I’m supposed to have my winter camp lesson plans ready by then, so maybe i’ll work on them this afternoon, if I can wrangle-up the motivation.  What’s far more likely is that i’ll procrastinate until the very last minute and do it on Thursday evening.  I hope I don’t, but I’m starting to get to know myself pretty well.

An Iranian at Thanksgiving dinner.

I’ll tell ya what.  The food may not be as good, and most of your loved ones won’t be there, but expat Thanksgiving is likely to be more interesting than the one back home.  Melissa and I went to a slightly belated Thanksgiving get-together at our friends Shannon and Jaime’s apartment on Saturday afternoon/evening.  It was a pretty motley crew that was invited, to include Melissa and I, Shannon and Jaime, a Canadian by the name of David, and Chrissie, who is Mexican-American along with her Iranian boyfriend Darius.  Darius, though he spoke little to no English, semed like a pleasant enough man, seemed a little awkward at the party.  Maybe the irony of being Iranian at the second-most American of holidays had him weirded out a little bit.  I’m not trying to tie his nationality to his politics, as he must be pretty liberal to even be dating an American girl, but I can’t imagine how I’d feel as the only American at a specifically Iranian holiday party.  All in all, the party was a lot of fun, just really laid back, and the food was pretty good as well.  Melissa and I, and by that I mean I made green bean casserole, and there was also mashed potatoes, stovetop stuffing, carrots, candied yams, and some spit-roasted chicken.  I know that we should have had turkey, but its three times the price here as at home, and no-one had the means to cook such a large bird.  We have the largest oven by far, but it’s just a countertop model.  Oh, and there was pumpkin and apple pies for dessert.  All in all, the food was good and everyone ate themselves to misery, as it should be. 

As Saturday was dominated by Thanksgiving, on Sunday we went to the electronics market to buy Melissa a new laptop.  Hers was fried about two weeks ago when she spilled quite a bit of lemonade through the keyboard.  Her little Macbook only lasted 6 months, and I hope her new one lasts longer.  We couldn’t afford to get her a new Mac, as they’re a little more expensive, but we got her a nice Samsung model for about $650.  It’s not blazing fast, though its more than capable of email, powerpoint, and facebook, which was mostly what the old one was used for.  I hope this one lasts a little longer than the lasts.  Two laptops per year gets expensive fast.

I guess that’s about it for now.  Classes are about to start, so I’ll see ya later.

Surprise Field Trip!

Sometimes I love being the odd man out.  Sure, there’s a bit of sarcasm in that statement, but it sure can make for some interesting mistakes.  I came in at 7:45 as usual for my before-school 2nd year class, and no-one showed up.  One student is ok, none is boring as hell.  I sat there patiently until time expired, then I came upstairs to get ready for the day’s classes.  At 8:50 I went downstairs to my English classroom, as usual, and waited for the 3rd year students to show up for their regularly scheduled class.  Class started at 8:55, and no one was there, which really didn’t bother me since that class is notoriously late, even normally.  9:00 comes around, and I start to wonder.  I went upstairs to where their normal classes are held, and surprise, surprise, no one’s home.  Not a soul.  “Where are they?” I thought.  I went to the teacher’s room and as soon as they looked up, the teacher that is in charge of schedule changes starts to curse herself in Korean.  Through my co-teacher, I was told that the 3rd year students have gone on a special field trip today and they forgot to tell me.  Now don’t get me wrong, I like goofing off as much as or more than the next guy, but I’d like to know at least 5 minutes in advance.  Perhaps that’s too much to ask for, but a guy can dream, can’t he?  I guess I shouldn’t complain, though.  A sudden decrease in work shouldn ‘t be looked at as a problem.  So, instead of 5 classes today, I have two, and they’re spread way apart.  The first one is at 10:45, and the other is at 3:05.  All in all, things could be worse.

In non-school related news, it’s been damn cold this week.  Actually, the cold weather struck on Saturday, when Melissa and I went to see the musical, Jekyl and Hyde.  It was in English with Korean subtitles, so we were able to understand anything, but I wasn’t too impressed.  Granted, it was my first real live musical, but I wasn’t blown away.  The singing was great, and the sets and lighting were cool, but it just seemed too long.  Melissa wants to see Miss Saigon in March or April, and from what I know, that sounds much more my speed.  Melissa feels the urge to see musicals from time to time, and I suppose I could stand a little culturing along the way.  I’ll trade her arts for sports.  Since I suppose it’s my turn, we’ll go to a basketball game next. 

As I was saying, the cold weather worsened on Sunday was we met up with some friends to go to the zoo.  You might ask, why on Earth would you go to the zoo when it’s freezing cold?  I asked the same question, never-the-less, we went.  It was actually a pretty good time.  The only other two people to show up were Todd, a guy we met at a Halloween party, and a Japanese girl named Emi, who is a friend of Todd’s and a Japanese teacher here in Korea.  The Seoul Zoo is located near the Seoul Land amusement park a little south of the city, and is quite a nice zoo and probably a lot more fun to visit when the weather is nicer.  Just the same, we had a nice time even though Melissa was cold throughout.  I asked her, do you think it’s such a great idea to visit the zoo in the freezing cold, but once she has her mind set on something, you might just as well go along with it.  Let’s just say that we won’t be going to do anything outside again until it gets nicer.  And now this whole week so far has been quite cold, bitterly so in the mornings and only mildly so in the afternoons.  It still hasn’t snowed yet, though it’s more than cold enough.

I guess that’s about it for now.  Work has been going on reasonably well recently.  I guess I shouldn’t complain.  The job is easy if a bit tedious, and my co-teachers are really nice to me.  I just have no passion for teaching this age group.  I guess I’ll just finish out this contract and ask for elementary school next year.

My best class all semester

I had my best before-school class so far this morning.  I arrived at 7:45 as usual and started to read by book, waiting for the students to arrive.  They usually get there about 8:00 and  then we begin.  When the first student arrived, I looked at my cellphone to see that it was already 8:10.  That’s when I realized that he was it.  Just one student!  The first day there were 14!  The second day there was about 7, and it has gone on from there.  At least the best student is the one that keeps coming.  I found out this morning that he lived in California for three years, which explains why his English is so conversational.  There are students here that speak English well, but you always know when they’ve lived in an English speaking country.  They can just hold a conversation a lot better.  They can repond to unexpected questions and ask unique questions of their own.  We talked about what we did yesterday, since we didn’t have school because of the Korean SATs, if you will.  The test has a proper name, but it’s basically the Korean version of the Scholastic Aptitude Test.  They just love tests here, and that one is the most important one in life.  If you don’t do well on the test, you can’t get into a good college.  If you don’t get into a good college, you can’t  get a good job.  And if you can’t get a good job, you’ll be a disappointment to your family and a failure in life.  So, a student’s entire life is based on one day.  As I was told this morning, the test is only offered once a year, and if you’re sick or somehow otherwise incapable of taking the test, tough shit.  Wait till next year.  Which is what a surprising number of students are forced to do.  If you can’t get a sufficient score to go to a good enough college, you can spend a year studying for the test.  They have special apartments and cram schools just for this eventuality.  It’s a whole industry.  I can’t imagine anything like that happening back home.  The SAT is offered at least a few times a year, and it’s not the end of the world if you don’t do well.  You can still get into school somewhere, and if you do well, you can transfer.  Not so here.  You’re just stuck.  I  think that is way too much pressure to be placed  on a 17 year old.  But my disapproval of the system here isn’t going to make it change one bit.

Well, am I sick or not?

I wish I had the answer to that question.  On Monday I felt pretty rough, but nothing terrible.  On Tuesday I woke up feeling much better, but by the afternoon I was feeling it again, and they let me go home early.  I slept for five hours yesterday afternoon and that seemed to help a lot.  I woke up feeling better yet this morning, and I’m still holding up pretty well as I write this at noon.  I’m coughing a little more than I was this morning, but I don’t think I’ll have to go home early.  So, am I sick, or not?  I know that more students and teachers here are coming down with the flu every day, so if I don’t have it now I suppose its just a matter of time until I do.  I’d certainly like the week off that a confirmed case of swine flu requires, but I don’t want to be sick the whole time.  Yeah, I know.  I want my cake and I want to eat it too.  Who doesn’t?

Other than my on-again, off-again sickness, not a whole lot is going on.  Today is my first day of both 1st and 3rd year after school classes, so I’ll probably be here until about five or so, which isn’t so bad.  I’ll probably get home about the same time as Melissa does, which is just as well since there isn’t much to do at home when she’s not there.  I guess that’s about it for today.  See ya later!