Falling apart I am!!!

The Korean school year is almost half over now. It's hard to believe. It turns out I will be teaching some courses this summer, thankfully only for a week. The suck of it is that I'll be teaching the courses 'as I please...' which means I'll have to come up with a small curriculum and have it ready by the 25th. I've also got my vacation time put in. I'll be off for over over 14 consecutive days!! I wish I had more friends in hagwons so I could really rub it in. So work life is good.

Unfortunately I've been pretty sick this past month. I started out with the cough. Anyone who has lived in Korea for a few months will know immediately what I am talking about. That cough that never goes away. Then the sinuses went. Then the fever came. I was bad enough that I took a sick day during the worst of it. I took some meds which completely turned my stomache inside out. Even after I finished the meds I had stomache issues for a few days. There was a beautiful and blissful day where something didn't physically break down. Then on Thursday I got a blister and rash between my toes, By saturday it had grown so I wen to the doc who gave me some cream and 15 days of fucozol an anti-fungal pill (the name sounds like ****-us-all to me which still gets a juvenile laugh). Anyways the rash has been growing since the and I'm probably gonna wind up going back to the doc and getting a skin-doc referral if it continues to grow. The worst part of this is that it's mucking up my summer resolutions, mainly where getting in shape is concerned. I'll have to wait until my foot is healed before i can exercise again. Despite the ailments I am in good spirits. I've been taking another Korean cooking course and will actually get to go shopping at the traditional markets for cooking class materials in a couple of weeks, it should be fun. Maybe I'll try working on some kind of guy - ae-gi-yo(beautiful way - I think) with the market ajumas.

Night and Day (saying thanks)

The difference in my second and third years in Korea are like night and day. After last year, I wasn't sure if coming back again would be a good decision. But today I am two months into my new working contract. So far switching to public school has been really great. My class load is a lot smaller and my work hours are far better. Best of all is working in a more professional environment. My place last year had some good people, and I do miss some of my colleagues. But there was also some people who made it a very long year for me. Anyways I prefer not to dwell on the negatives. I do dwell; but not online, and not in public.

After last year I had doubts about whether or not I could handle another year teaching overseas, but I've found myself really enjoying my time at school and in the classroom teaching. I think I should say thanks to my folks who I visited in Labrador back in January. It was my first real vacation in quite some time, and it really helped my to recharge my batteries and rest. I should also thank my girlfriend for her patience last year. I know i wasn't always the easiest person to deal with but she was always good to me, even when I didn't derserve it.

I've come up with some more summer resolutions. I know it's early, but weather here is already pushing mid twenties and that's summer enough for me.
1. Continue learning Korean (I must finish my pc programs and all my texts, this should be done before number 4)
2. Visit the remaining National parks that I haven't yet seen.
3. Get in shape (200 pounds again --> 170 pounds is where I'd like to be!!)
4. Road trip (to be done on vacation - drive around the country on bike)
5. Learn Gostop (Korean card game).

I didn't do so well on the last set of resolutions so a couple are recycled here. I'll revisit the resolutions after summer vacation to see how well I did out of five.

Public display of Affection

I'm pretty much settled into the new job and I have to say so far I am really loving it at public school. I was nervous when I found out that I would be at middle school but so far everything is quite good. My paycheck for march was in full and on time and my co-workers have all been really great. Most of my students are pretty low-level as I'm teaching in a school that I would say straddles the city limits border, but they seem really enthusiastic and a pleasure to se in the classroom. March has been a pretty busy month since it started off with some extra teacher training but some of the sessions were actually pretty useful. It's nice to be in a place where I can get feedback about what I'm doing well and not-so-well (there's actually been a lot more of the former and only a little of the later so far). I'm excited about the prospect of what this year will hold.