Bring On February

Do you ever have those moments where you suddenly realize a good chunk of time has passed without you realizing it? I had one of those last night. I was heading home, tired, and realized it was Friday. Then I realized it was the end of January. How did that happen? For a month where days seemed to drag on, it flew.

Intensives are over, at last. I am back to my beautiful, relaxed schedule complete with a 3PM start time on Mondays. Nothing has really changed from my December schedule, with one notable exception. I am now teaching a Kinder Warm Up class on Thursdays. This class is for kids starting our kindergarten program in March. I am excited/nervous. For the last little while I have been thinking that I want to teach our Apple class once the new session starts (Kindergarten runs from March-February and my class is graduating). Apple class is the youngest class (5 years old in Korean years, 4 in Western years), and brand new to school. I just like the idea of starting fresh with classroom routines and the little ones are super cute. That being said, they speak no English. My kindies now are one of my most fluent classes - I often find myself having more engaging conversations with them than my oldest students... even if it mostly about stickers or someone's pencil case. Anyways, this Warm Up class will be full of non-English speakers, so it will be good practice for March. They are giving me a textbook, but I feel like I will mostly ignore it in favor of my own lessons. I am slowly realizing many of the books we are given are useless.

In other news, I joined the gym down the street from my apartment. I'd been feeling really anxious and restless for a few weeks and figured it was the best way to channel my energy. I'm aiming for 4 times a week and (after one week) seem to be able to pull it off. Of course, I woke up with a cold today, so ask me again Monday night if it's still working out (geddit? working out? oh, shut up). I am also starting my Spec Ed Part 1 AQ course on Monday. I'm excited to do it - I actually miss school.

China in two weeks!

January: Simultaneously Busy and Boring

We're right in the middle of intensives at school. Korean kids get two months off a year - January and August. Naturally they use this vacation from school to... attend more school. Our hagwon offers winter intensive classes during these months. Basically, kids come in for three forty minute classes back to back in the mornings or afternoons. These classes are during the day, so they overlap with the kindergarten schedule. Teachers have one of these intensive classes added to our schedules and they rearrange our kindergarten classes to accommodate them. In other words, I now start work earlier everyday, but still finish at the same time. It's been tiring - I am at school at least 10 hours a day - one day a week I am there 12 hours. I have a decent amount of breaks, but they are filled by prep and lesson planning. It is for this reason that my month has been less than exciting - not much free time during the week and weekends are spent resting and recovering. Hence - busy, but boring.

On the bright side, I must be doing something right. We have new Korean teachers that are in training coming to observe a few classes this week and I was one of three teachers chosen for them to watch. Not a huge deal, but a big compliment given that I have only been here about two months. It's the most positive response I've had in the land of no feedback. Unless they picked me as an example of what NOT to do...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year's everyone. It is just past 2PM here in Korea on New Year's Day - midnight New Year's Eve back at home. I just watched the ball drop in New York thanks to live streaming on the internet. I cannot say enough how wonderful technology is. New Year's has never been a big holiday for me. I tend to think of it as overhyped and often a let down. That's why I opted for a quite night in watching the Gossip Girl marathon on OnStyle instead. I binged on junk food with a vow to eat less of it (but not none of it, because - seriously? never going to happen) in the new year.

I definitely do not regret my decision, given that I was able to get up this morning before 9AM, hang over free. I even got in a small work out!

The whole idea of New Year's has not been entirely lost on me, however. I have caught myself thinking about the past year and the future a few times over the last few days. It is still a bit incredible to me that this time last year I had not even considered Korea as an option, yet alone planned to be here. I was working at Chapters with no plans beyond heading to camp that summer. Now I'm on the other side of the world, having a great time and wondering why I didn't decide to do this two years ago.

I'm not making resolutions... I never keep them. I am, however, going to try and continue this little mission to better myself this year. It shouldn't be too difficult; most of the things I want to try and do are things I have been missing anyway. This means getting more active again, cutting back on the comfort food, eating more vegetables, etc. I am also going to take an AQ course in Special Education from Queen's so I can have a foot in the door when I apply for teaching jobs back home. I started most of these things in the last week or so, so I am allowed to say they aren't resolutions.

Not much exciting on tap for this week. I finally get a bank account and, more importantly, a pay cheque to put in it mid-week. Katie and I are going to see Avatar in 3D on a little play date, and I am going to sort out my expenses so I can start saving for China, paying off my student debt and possibly saving for a trip to Thailand before I head back to Canada. Hope your holidays were great and have a Happy New Year.