Friday

For some people, Wednesday is the hump day, assuming that all days are the same. For me, Friday is the hump day. It's the last day I have to get over, to see the weekend. Friday is an extra hassle for me, because I finish late (9:30pm), and I have 3 classes of middle school students. The only good thing is that I start later than my other days (3:30pm). Its not much to complain about. Teaching 6 classes, with a break for dinner at 7pm, but, at least its something.

Every now and then I'll guy come candy for class, play a few games and stuff. It's Friday. The kids don't wanna be there during the week, and they don't wanna be there even more, coz its Friday. I don't blame them. After two and a half years of the same shit, I'm over it too. At least I can leave. They can't :p

With the tickets "issues" out of the way, it was good to go to work and not have to worry about stuff. Got there on time to get stuff ready (and by "get stuff ready", i mean "photocopy"), and to chill out before the first class. Lately, I haven't been going to the gym or exercising, because of hurting my back, and then getting this nasty cold (which is almost gone), so I'm not feeling as energetic as I used to be. I'm thinking of going back next Monday, if I've got enough cash.

Even though I don't have to, I buy notebooks for students to write in in my class. The teacher before me only used to photocopy stuff. I tend to be a bit more random, and get kids to do some writing (it gives them time to think about better sentence production, and improves their handwriting). I don't have to buy them, but I just though it was weird, for students not to have notebooks. I am meant to be teaching them, so they should be able to write shit down. I don't know how much I've spent on notebooks, but by surprise, the boss handed me 2 packs of notebooks, which was nice.

Every now and then he'll ask to borrow one, which I don't really mind, because its not that often. I think it comes down to the way Koreans think - the "we" phenomenon. For the people who haven't been in Korea, I'll try to explain it. In my opinion, Korea is still kinda socialist. Stuff is "ours". If a Korean family has a child, its a child of Korea. Even speech in Korean, "my" is replaced with "our" as a possessive adjective, but means "my". Anything that "Korea" or its people does, is labelled with "we/our". There are good aspects and bad aspects because of this. Korea is a mono-cultured society, so there's unity and everyone "fits in". On the other hand, it feels stagnant, and not tolerant of things that are different.

Anyway, the middle schools classes weren't too bad. Just gotta know how to deal with them. The grade 2 boys class is the worst. There is one main ring leader. Once he's on my side, things work out well.

I'm looking forward to going to my Geomdo class tomorrow. I didn't go last week because of my terrible cold. Gonna hang out in Jeongeup and spend the weekend there.