Finally Friday

Oh boy - Friday at last! I am SO excited for this weekend. Not because I'm doing anything extra special, but I just can not face another day of work. Mr B just once again told me I could go early at 4.10 or 4.15, even though I came to work at 8am, so my finish time is actually 4.00. I guess I'll wait until 4.10 just to keep him happy. The bus doesn't come until 4.5 anyway, and it's cooler inside than out.

So I found a few jobs to apply for this afternoon and actually got a positive reply from one recruiter. He passed my info on to a kindergarten in Dongtan and seemed to think they'd be very keen to talk to me, so that's promising. However, I don't know anything about the job yet other than that it's kindergarten in Dongtan, so early days yet. I need to find out the wages and work hours - some hagwons (after school schools) pay awfully low for really high work hours and teaching hours. I'll accept slightly lower pay than what I'm on (but I won't tell them that!), but I'm not willing to teach more than 30 hours a week. Plus I want to find out if they'll swap my airfares for more paid vacation and if they'll agree to give me my vacation in blocks - I've heard of some schools giving their teachers random Wednesdays off with no warning and using up the paid vacation that way. That would suck - no real break, can't plan anything, and you don't even get a long weekend. So, I'm planning to be a bit picky this time around... definitely don't want to be puling my hair out for another year :)

Today I got to teach two classes by myself! It was so much fun! I totally forget how much I love teaching when I don't get to do it. In typical Mr B fashion..... well, lets start this at the beginning:

I got into work at 8am. School starts at 9, but the first English class isn't till second period, at around 10am. So, I've been at work for two hours, and so has Mr B. 5 minutes before class he comes and asks if I can please teach alone. I was like "Sure, what would you like me to cover?", and he just looks at me for ages in confusion and then is like "Oh, can you practice your open class lesson?". I said "Um, you only told me about it yesterday afternoon. I know I'm a fast lesson planner, but even I'm not that fast", which he obviously knew just by looking at him, but he thought he'd try anyway. So then he says "Well, just use the flash cards we used yesterday". Ok. For 45 minutes you want me to go in there with a bunch of 11 year olds, I now have 2 minutes to plan the lesson and all you've got for me is flash cards? Well, thank goodness I'm a little bit of awesome, because man did we have fun with those flashcards. 2 minutes with scribbled plans on the back of some scrap paper and we were revising body parts, learning illnesses, and even had a small test. I was impressed with myself.

Anyway, I keep coming across ads for my job while I'm job hunting. I know it's my job because of the location and start dates (they're out of synch with the public school system). The ad I came across today said that the school is ONLY looking for a female teacher and that because it was a private public school they wanted someone with either a teaching certification, a CELTA, or a degree in education. I'm just like "WHY?" Why do you want that? To look good and so the principal can boast to all his principal friends, I guess, but there is no effing way you need any of those qualifications to do this job. In fact, having those qualifications makes you almost certain to be thoroughly dissatisfied with this job. If you're insisting on hiring someone with teaching qualification, who has spent time, money, and effort to get them, and probably likes teaching as a result, don't hire them for a job where you never let them teach. It blows my mind. 

But, I suppose it does allow Mr B to randomly ask you to teach a class in 5 minutes time with no materials and no lesson plans and you can do it well and without panicking. Luckily, when I worked as teacher in NZ my boss actually identified this as a real skill of mine and used to give me those jobs on purpose because he knew I could handle them. Sadly, I didn't work for them long enough for him to be allowed to write me a reference letter saying that, but at least I know it's still true.

Ok, only one hour of work to go. Here's today's five things:

1) I still love teaching. This makes me happy. I also actually got to teach, which makes me doubly happy.

2) Only six weeks of this job left to go. That's not long :)

3) It's the weekend!

4) I did get to see Andy last night. We went and hung out in the coffee shop under my building and just talked. It was actually great.

5) Now it is time to browse amazing pictures of sea life on pinterest.

I mean, look at this amazing stuff!

A lot of rain Thursday

So, there's a tropical storm today. It's not as exciting as it sounds. There is so much rain that they cancelled my after school class, though. Which means there might actually be a God... I so did not feel like doing this arvo! I would have, and I'd probably have enjoyed it, but I'm feeling so blah! 

In related news, I've linked my mood problems to my hormones. I think. I've had really sore boobs (haha, TMI?) for about a week and after some googling found out that my contraceptive implant starts off release a crap ton of hormone and then after about a year an a half it settles down and releases slightly less. It's been almost 18 months since I got it in, and it would explain all the upsy-downsy moods, sore breasts, and weird clingy relationship behaviour I've been having. So, I'm hoping my body adjusts soon, 'cos they're really sore! If it's not better by next Wednesday, I'll go to the doctor. And now I'm not sure if all my stuff with Andy (as in me feeling annoyed at him) was just my messed up chemicals. They can affect you so much!

So, I have not been feeling super happy today, for no real reason, but it has been a good day. Mr B finally gave me my reference letter after I told him I REALLY needed it. He was SO reluctant to put the school stamp on it, and flatly refused to have the vice-principal or principal sign it, saying it was 'his personal letter'. Ah well, hopefully I'll only need to use it in Korea, so they won't know that that is a bit weird. I did get it printed on an official School letterhead eventually, but he wouldn't budge on the signatures.

What else is going on? I've got a skype date with Jenni on Saturday morning and Lunch with TMI Amy. Then on Monday I'm getting together for dinner with the guy who organised the meetup last weekend to brainstorm some more meetups. His name's Nathan, if I didn't tell you already, and he and I seemed to hit it off quite well. Not, like, romantically hit it off, just friends hit it off. So, might get more involved with running some meetups. Actually, I'm already more involved, as I've started organising my own meetup to go to an ice hockey game in Anyang next weekend (the 8th). I'll probably do it again if it's a success.

And that's all from me. I'm off to wait for the bus and try not to get soaking wet! Also, hormones = killer chocolate cravings.

1) Get to go home early and came in to work late. Win-win!

2) I got an open class lesson all planned because Mr B gave me the details about it the other day. Today he says he's changed his mind and wants to use a different lesson. After I'd already planned the first one. What's good about this? Well, the lesson he wants to use instead is the first open class I did last year so I can just re-use the old plan!

3) Got my reference letter at last!

4) I am wearing a cardigan for the first time in....nearly 5 months!

5) mmmmm..... dark chocolate.

So angry Tuesday

I am so angry I can barely type. Horribly, when I get majorly angry it makes me want to cry, so I'm not only super angry, I'm trying not to cry too.

So, this typhoon - there're storm warnings all over the show. School has been cancelled for all students in a big chunk of the country (all of Seoul and Gyeonggi province (where I live)), Andy's work (the American air base) is closed, they've shut down sea ports, grounded flights, and so on. But guess what? I still had to come to work. Yup, no kids, major storm warnings, and I have to go to work to do nothing. I called Mr Baek this morning to say I was scared/worried about the storm and could I please use one of my sick days to stay home? He said no. He said that only the students got leave today. I said "So, the students aren't coming in to school because it's too dangerous, but the teachers still have to? Even though it dangerous?" He said "Yes. It's Korean rules". I said that I was still worried - if it's dangerous for the kids then it's dangerous for me too... Then Mr B got really frustrated, talked to the whole staff room in Korean (while I'm still on the phone to him), they all burst out laughing, and then he tells me that if I don't come in to work immediately he will give me a warning. Yeah, there's no students, I'm scared of the typhoon, want to use a sick day and instead get threatened with a warning. Nice.

Andy was/is really worried and said I should just have taken the warning. But, it's like my whole life in Korea is owned by the school, so they kind of own me a little bit. If they fire me, they can demand I move out and revoke my visa. It makes a good argument for renting my own place the next time around. Andy said he'd help me out with it, and I'm sure it would make me feel more in control.

Bah, so that's today's crap. Well, so far, anyway. Even crappier, I forgot to bring my glasses to work and I have no lunch. And I'm pretty sure it'll be too stormy for Andy to come over after work. Well, I'm off to research some anti-anger techniques because I'm really not doing myself any favours by being so mad.

Lol, and now the school is having intermittent power cuts. I guess I should open a bunch of webpages to read when the internet goes down and there's not enough light to read my kindle and all the teachers have to sit here in the dark. As ling as we're at work, though, right?

Also: The key to calming down? Tell the person you forgive them. I still think Mr B is a giant prick, but I told him it's not his fault and that I forgive him, and now I feel better.

Ok, five things in an attempt to salvage my day:

1) I caught a taxi to work instead of waiting in the wind and rain for the bus. My taxi driver was really nice and managed to make me laugh through my rage. Thanks taxi driver!

2) I just discovered the sock bun yesterday. I tried it last night and it actually works and looks really good!

3) I ate some of the hokey pokey chocolate Jenni sent me. It's really sweet, and a real treat.

4) I'm going to have salmon for dinner. Even if there is a massive power cut and I can't cook it - Imma eat it raw, dammit. What makes me feel better when I'm down? Salmon!

5) I've just started exploring 'Pinterest'. Man, what a time blackhole that is. It is perfect for my work day! I was totally going to do some lesson planning today for after school class and the open class next month, but screw it. I don't wanna. I'll do it tomorrow.

Wonderful Weekend update Monday

So, a big weekend update for you. After saying all the stuff about Andy, he ended up being around for the whole weekend :) Which was nice.

So:

Friday was an uneventful day at work, but in the evening I met up with an acquaintance in Osan and another guy who teaches English, and Andy, for some yummy Shabu Shabu for dinner. It was a nice evening.

Saturday Andy decided to come with me to the meetup I was going to. We caught the train into Seoul and met up with the group (about 20 people) at Seoul Grand Park. We had lunch as a group and then split of into smaller groups to do whatever people wanted. Some went to the theme park, some went to the zoo, and some went to the contemporary art museum. I did the museum, and really enjoyed it. Then Andy and I went for a walk through the sculpture park. I just realised I took exactly zero photos of anything. Oops! Then, at 5pm we re-met up with everyone to catch the train to COEX where we were going to get pizza. My friend TMI Amy was already there and had gotten the group a table, which was awesome because the wait time was HOURS. So we got straight in and had deep dish Chicago style pizza. It was actually pretty good pizza. The meetup host, Nathan, was really nice and a very good group leader. We got on well and might try to do some meetup planning together in the future. He wants to take a casual group up to the DMZ, so I might help with that. I had an awesome time at dinner, I sat with the funniest bunch of people - I laughed harder than I have in ages! It was a fantastic Saturday. Luckily, Andy is really outgoing, so he spent a lot of the time having his own conversations so I didn't feel like I dragged him along to hang out with a bunch of people he didn't know.

Sunday was the laziest day ever. Spent the morning sleeping and hanging around home and then went with Andy to Dongtan for lunch. He took me to a ramen place he'd seen because he knows how much I like ramen :) It was nice, but the ramen in Japan was better. Then we just hang out in the park for hours, sitting, walking, and reading. We were there until dinner time. We went to a restaurant in the mall and had shabu-shabu (I know, twice in one weekend!). It was such a nice sunny day, and Dongtan is a lovely town/city. It's all really new and clean. So, another great day.

And now it's Monday. There's a typhoon warning for tomorrow and there are very mixed reports on how bad the storm is going to be. Apparently schools have permission to close tomorrow if things get too bad. I'm going to Emart tonight to buy some emergency food and candles and stuff. Mr B. says he'll call me in the morning if school gets cancelled. Andy said I should take the day off, but I can't really do that. I'll just have to wait and see how bad it is. It might end up being nothing. There was a typhoon warning before and it barely even rained. Luckily, I have after school class tomorrow, which means I don't start work until 10, so there's plenty of time for me to find out what's going on before I have to go outside :)

And that's about all from me. Good weekend, typhoon warning - yeah. The end.

Moday's five things I'm thankful for:

1) The internet. I have no real idea of what job hunting was like before the invention of the internet, but man it must have sucked. Now all I have to do is check a bunch of websites each day and email any ads I'm interested in. I even found one today! In Dongtan, no less. Though I've heard accommodation in Dongtan can be VERY small and expensive.

2) Mr B randomly decided one of the classes today was too sleepy so he took them all outside. So, I had to do read-and-repeat outside. It was sort of nice for a change. Good thing is wasn't too hot and humid. I don't think the kids thought much of it, though :)

3) My parcel from Jenni arrived for me. She got me some chocolate, some Tim Tams (now deceased), and some delicious tea. And none of it melted! My favourite is the Whittaker's Dark-Mint chocolate. It is SO good!

4) I had a wonderful weekend.

5) Mr B has just told me I'll have four students in after school classes. That sounds like a manageable amount.

Origami swans Thursday

Well, my influx of classroom time was short lived. I managed to be in two classes today (out of 5) and during that time I got to read 12 lines of text once. I'm a bit surprised that I am still complaining about this really. I mean, it's been the same for nearly a year now. Apart from that one glorious week at the start of the school year when Mr B gave me a third of the teaching schedule as 'English only time', and I got to teach alone. It only lasted, maybe, six days though.

Anyway, cute-as-Grandma's-kid (that almost sounds like a race horse) gave me a couple of origami birds he made. It was really sweet :) Sadly, it's my last summer-camp after school class today. I'm not sure what's going to happen next week. I assume I'll get a new after school class. Well, I hope so - it's sort of the only pleasure I get out of my work day. It's also the only work I do in my work day :)

I've got a pretty busy weekend planned! I'm looking forward to it. Tomorrow night I'm meeting up with a bunch of other teachers in Osan and we're going to dinner and then to Songtan to some bar that does country dancing (Yeah, I don't know, but it could be fun? Haha, mum). On Saturday I'm going to a meetup with TMI Amy to Seoul Grand Park and out for pizza for dinner. Then on Sunday I'm going to work on something for Jess' wedding (which I can't go to, but I am happy for!). I'm also going to make an awesome intro video to send to prospective employers. 

You'll notice the lack on Andy in the above plan? Well, that's because I keep inviting him to things and he says things like "I don't know" or "I'm not sure", or the weirdest "I have no idea". (Seriously: "hey Andy, I want to go hiking with a meetup group next Saturday. Would you like to go with me?". Answer: "I have no idea". Oooookaaaay). I assume all these things mean 'no' because if you really like someone and want to do things with them, you'd just say "yeah, I'd love to!", or at the very least "Hm, I don't really like hiking. How about we hang out on Sunday instead?". So, rather than sit around home and wonder when he's going to feel like randomly contacting me to hang out in a coffee shop (because he's decided the air in my house is not good for him - "it has no freshness"), I'm gonna go get on with things and he can get his fresh air elsewhere.

In other news, I can hear the intro videos mr B is watching as he tries to find a new English teacher to replace me. They all sound like such nice people. Interestingly, it's all girls. I think they first teacher this school had was a guy, maybe they had a bad experience or something. Anyway, the one who chooses, if she's got her wits about her, should ask to talk to me about the job. I will be professional.

Sadly, this job doesn't even have that as a perk.

Lol, it's not 'stay late', it's "come to work today".

Mwahahaha! That was fun. And now that my work bitterness if out for another day, let's have a look at today's five things:

1) Tiny origami birds made by a cute kid are awesome.

2) I ate an entire bag of marshmallows last night and completely ruined my dinner. Now that I'm 25, I am totally allowed to do this.

3) I'm cooking up another idea for something to try and get published (still waiting to hear about the last one). I'm going to try and work on this one with my laptop in coffee shops, because that's where cool people work, right? Plus, I need to get out more. Amazingness is probably not hiding in my apartment.

4) A parcel from Jenni is waiting for me to pick it up today after work! Wooooo - I'm so excited! I hope it has yummy things inside it!

5) It's nice and cool today. Most of the humidity has gone, so I'm enjoying not feeling sticky 24/7. I have plans for this winter. Involving leggings and boots.

Wet Wednesday

So there's this kid in first grade, and he's a bit unusual. His English is pretty good, he's a totally good two shoes suck up, but is such a sweet heart you can't hold it against him, and is just a bit socially retarded, in a cute way. I've been dealing with him a lot in my after school classes, and I was thinking about him yesterday. In my head, I was like "he's exactly like a kid who's been raised by his grandmother". I'm not sure why I thought that, it's just what this kid is like. And lo and behold, today I find out he's been raise by his grandma. There was no real point to that story, just funny how I had tat feeling and then it turned out to be right.

So, I'm not sure what's up with Andy, but he seems to be pulling away from me even further now. I barely saw him over the weekend, he's upped his gym time from twice a week to three times and now never comes o see me afterwards, and has stopped doing all the nice (but unnecessary) things like opening doors for me and holding my hand. He barely replies to most of my text messages and call only rarely. There was one point there where he called me every morning before work to say hello. He also won't (or can't) talk about it, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. If anything. Just get on with my life I suppose, and if he comes around, take it from there. I am actually learning a lot from this experience about myself. He is a lot like me in many ways, so it is interesting from that perspective. I do keep getting hurt when he semi-abandons me, though. Ok, 'semi-abandons' is totally over stating it. Which is exactly what I mean about learning about myself - I'm just used to a different kind of relationship and have never dated, so... learning. Or possibly he's an emotionally unavailable dick-wad. I think he's doing his best with what he's got... I truly do. Which is why I'm sticking around to see if he gets his shit together. Not sticking round too much longer though :)

I swear, I am more lonely being with Andy than I was without him. How does that work?

Anyway, today's five:

1) Just did a hilarious 'draw a robot' game with the after school class before watching the first half of "Wall-E".

2) I'm going to try making my own bulgogi for dinner tomorrow. I'll try to remember to photograph it.

3) I was in 5 classes today plus taught 2 hours of after school class. While the 5 classes weren't me teaching, and I sat there doing nothing about 85% of the time, at least it was slightly more entertaining than being at my desk all day. God, this job sucks.

4) I'm wearing the pretty dress I got in Japan. In hindsight, a full length dress wasn't the best choice for a day pouring with rain, but I feel nice wearing it.

5) Wall-E is such a cute film :)

Little things Tuesday

So, you know a few weeks (months?) ago I wrote about how now the VP of my school wanted me to get this attendance book signed by myself, my co-teacher, and him every single day? And I had trouble chasing him down every single day? So I decided to leave the form on his desk so he could sign it at his leisure? And I didn't have to chase him? Well, now Mr B informs me that leaving the booklet on the VPs desk is 'a little bit rude', and so now I have to do it in person. *Sigh*. When I do do it in person, the man never even looks at me. He never speaks, no matter whether I say 'hello' and 'thank you' in English or Korean. He never even smiles at me. Now, I'm all for understanding cultural differences, and I certainly don't want to be rude to him. Now that I know it might be rude for me to leave my form there for him to sign, I'll do it in person, but I do feel just a tad indignant. Really, if I've made the effort to do as you've asked and get you to sign this thing every day, you could at least smile at me like I am smiling at you. You could at least look at me like I'm a human being, right?

These little things. Oh, these little things.

Anyway, today's five things to be thankful for:

1) I made Korean seaweed soup yesterday and it turned out pretty good. Obviously, I'm no expert, but I like it.

2) It's raining and stormy. I'm going to go home after school (Ergh, at 6pm) to eat some chocolate and curl up in bed!

3) Because I finish at 6 tonight, I didn't go to work until 10am, so I got a couple of hours of zombie killing time this morning, which is a pretty good way to start the day :)

4) I've signed up with two or three more recruiting companies, and will post some job requests on Facebook when it's closer to October. No one's been in contact yet, but it's pretty early for Korea time.

5) I just finished reading a good book. Nothing beat escaping into a good book.

8 weeks to go Monday

Yes, that's it folks. Just eight weeks to go before I'll have been working at Namsa for an entire year. Where did it go, I ask you? It's certainly been an adventure. Not the work, so much, but being in Korea. I am really excited to be moving on! I'm seriously keen to try something new and ridiculously hopeful that I'll get to be a teacher for the next year. I can't say I've been disappointed with this job, as I didn't have any concrete expectations from it, but I am relieved that they saved me from my lazy self by not renewing my contract. I think that if I felt they had given me any chance as a teacher and *then* decided not to keep me, I'd feel differently because it would mean they didn't think I was any good, but I honestly feel that have no idea of who I am or what I can do, so their decision is either personal or economic (you get increased pay and more holidays if you stay a second year). I don't much like them as people, so I don't mind if it's personal, and I obviously don't care if it's economic, so I don't feel bad in any way. My ego hasn't been damaged, so all is well :)

These eight weeks might be a bit of a drag, though! Hopefully I get a great job offer and can get everything settled. No worries if I don't though. They've introduced a nifty new visa (the D10) that'll let me stay in Korea for 6 months looking for work. I'm pretty sure I won't do that/need to do that, but it is a relief. It means I won't have to resubmit all the pesky documentation I had to do to get here (serious pain in the butt!). I actually want to teach at a kindergarten. Perhaps I've gone temporarily (??Or not??) insane, as the minute I mention this to people they tell me how awful it'll be (just FYI: none of them have actually done it), but I'm kind of eager for a challenge. I guess I feel like I've wasted the past year, work-wise. Perhaps that was what I needed after working so hard for so long at school and university, but man, I'm ready for something more! Bring it on!

I am also ready to not have a co-teacher. More specifically, I am ready not to have to work with or see Mr B ever again. Just now I got finished asking him a simple question: when does after school class start today. God forbid we have a schedule or anything. It changes every day. Any way, he asks someone else, goes over to look at the school day written on the board and tells me "thirty three". I was like, "What time, sorry?", and he repeats "thirty three". I pulled my screwed up, I don't understand face and said "I don't understand", and so he goes, really slowly, loudly, and pretty rude actually -ly "THHHHRRRREEEEEE THIIIIRRRRTTTTTY". I was like ooooooohhhh, right. He has no idea that the first two times he told me 33. It's not the mistake I mind, it's that he was rude. Which is actually not normal for him. He's a pain in the ass, but not rude. Must have been having a bad day.

I just got finished emailing a bunch of local universities. I doubt anything will come of it, but it was worth a try. I'm also a bit early in looking for work. By about the middle of next moths the timing should be right, but doesn't hurt to get in early. I'm also setting my start date back by two weeks, to the beginning of November. If I take a private school job, they only give 10 days vacation, so if I take two week before, 10 days during, and then some after, maybe I can not go crazy As much as I want to work in a good job, I like my holidays, too!

Ok, update on the weekend: It was really quiet. I spent Saturday playing The Secret World and having a blast, and then I spent Sunday hanging out with Andy ( and having a blast, too, might I add). We went to a coffee shop and chatted, and I read my book, and he did some study. Then we went to E-Mart and got some picnic food and went to the river in Jinwi and had a dinner picnic. There was a sandy island in the middle of the river which we waded out to and had dinner on. Ok, 'island' is over-selling it a bit. It was a sandy bit of ground not underwater :) It was nice, anyway.

Right, that's it from me. Five things, and then I'm off to find some Korean recipes to try out. I'm feeling like cooking.

1) It's raining, which means it's cool. Wet, but not boiling hot for a change.

2) I have after school class today. I'm going to make the kids do weather report skits. If I can get a video camera, all the better :D

3) My order of coconut oil arrived on Friday! I cooked with it that night and it was pretty good. It smells very coconutty, but wasn't too overpowering in the food. I like it!

4) I finally got around to emailing the local universities. That's one job out of the way!

5) Lunch today was good.

Feeling good Thursday

I have done lots of work today! Not the work I'm being paid to do, but still work :) I've fully cleaned my desk and my work computer, everything is sorted, filed, of thrown out/deleted. My CV is up to date and I've written the cover letter, emailed my reference letter to Mr B so he can put the school letter head on it and sign it (I hope - not telling with him), and stared checking job boards. All the jobs start a little too soon for me to actually start applying, but from what I can see, I should be able to find something suitable. Tomorrow's job is to make a list of local universities and star sending them my details on the off chance they want me :)

Although the new semester started today, I once again have a day at my desk. This is because Mr B wants me to teach two hours of after school class today. That's cool, but he only told me about it this morning (after telling me last week that it'd be tomorrow), so I'm actually going to work over time by an hour today. But whatever - I'm pretty sure that's why he told me he'd teach alone today. Luckily, this morning I decided to come to work at 9am instead of 8 like I normally do - that'd mean I'd be doing 2 hours overtime and would probably refuse.

But, I'm so happy. I think it's having work to do, like a project to work on. With an actual point that has some benefit. Plus the prospect of not having to work with Mr B any more is fairly cheering. I'm just sad about losing my apartment. It's 95% certain that my next place won't be so nice :( But, what do I need really? Warmth, light, comfort, somewhere to cook, sleep, and an internet connection. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Also, if I have to take a Hagwon job, I'll only get 10 days vacation for the year, so I'm thinking I'll maybe get a start date two weeks after the end of my current contract, and take a vacation then :) Leaving Korea between jobs would make the visa stuff too complicated, but there're lots of good places I haven't been yet here. Maybe a holiday on Jeju?

Thursday's 5:

1) Today's my mum's birthday! Happy Birthday, Mum! (I know I said your present was on it's way, but I lied. I was going to post it today - but now I have to work and the post office will be closed. I'll send it tomorrow.)

2) I'm looking forward to packing up my apartment. I want to get rid of all the crap! There's not much, but I want to simplify again.

3) Andy and I have decided that instead of eating out every time we get together, we're going to cook at home more. I said that was fine, but I was worried that I'd end up doing it all, and I wasn't keen on being 'the cook'. He totally understood, and says we can do it all together. We'll see how it goes, we cooked lunch yesterday and it went well.

4) I emailed the journal I submitted my article to, and the lady replied to say they hadn't forgotten me and she was going to chase down the reviewers who had my article :) I'd be really excited to get it published.

5) I've decided that when I get a new job, to celebrate, I want a pair of sheepskin lined ankle boots for winter.

Something like this:

or 

5 for Tuesday

Better get back to 5-ing it! Gratitude is clinically proven by 9 out of 10 nutritionists to increase your happiness by 4/3rds. Or something like that.

1) I ordered some coconut oil online. I have read outrageously amazing things about how healthy this stuff is and how you can use it for everything from cooking to moisturising, to conditioning your hair. While I'm going to keep the oil out of my hair for the time being, I am looking forward to seeing how adding a healthy fat source to my diet makes me feel.

2) My favourite season in Korea is autumn. It's sunny and warm without being crazy hot, sky is mostly blue, and towards the end the leaves to amazing things. And Andy tells me it's officially autumn now, and it's definitely cooled down a bit.

3) Tomorrow is a public holiday. I'm going to go for a picnic by the river! Andy might want to come :)

4) I'm stopping my 'whole30' eating experiment. It's just stressing me out. While I agree with its basic principles, I'm not ready to make them a priority. So, we'll just stick with regular, moderated healthy eating for now.

5) Sadly, I'm not going to Busan this weekend. Not only were all the good trains and accommodation booked, but there are some gross, huge jellyfish floating around - a kid even died from them. I'm not sure if they're down in the Busan area, but I'm not taking any chances. I'll try to get to the water park (like Wet'n'Wild) in the next few weeks. The longer I wait, the less busy it will be!

Talking myself up Tuesday

I'm working on updating all my work documents to look for a new job. Mr B said he should know by this afternoon whether the school is going to keep me. Regardless, I will be looking for a better job, but if they do renew me, it takes some of the pressure off. If they don't, no worries, I'm awesome. As you can see. This is the draft of my cover letter. I like to write like this first and then translate it into formal language later. Though, I might leave this a bit less formal - if I'm going to stand out of the crowd, they're going to need to know about my awesome-ness :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear sir/madam

Thank you for your consideration for the position of _____ at _________.

I am the perfect candidate for this role.

I love teaching. I love Korea. I love teaching in Korea. I'm also really good at it. I can lesson plan like a boss, have the most amazing time management skills you've ever seen, and am a really nice person to be around. I'd honestly be an awesome addition to your school.

I work really hard. I'm continuing to develop myself as a teacher by doing independent research and writing articles for publication. I make my own worksheets, I design my own lessons. I try to get a good balance of activities within a lesson. I try to give the students some control over their own education. I try to actually listen to what students say and give them what they want. I am respectful. I am punctual.

I'm a great teacher and I love teaching. Here's some feedback I've had from past students:

[put feedback here]

In short, I am a fantastic and dedicated teacher and would be an asset to your school.

I want to continue to develop my teaching career with your school.

Thank you and best regards,

Sam

The best ESL teacher in the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Man, *I* want to hire me!

Gonna git me some vitamins Friday

So, I'm still feeling really down. Well, mildly really down, not 'there's no hope in the world my life sucks why don't I just end it all' down, but 'Oh poos... I don't want to get out of bed... I'm just going to cry about it' down. Now, I think I've mentioned this before, but ever since I had that brush with depression about 4 years ago, I am terrified of any mood like this that lasts longer than a day or two. Terrified. So, although I've only been feeling bad since the weekend (so, almost a week now), I am taking action. Exercise will be done, friends will be chatted to, and multi-vitamins with B-complexes will be taken. Screw you, low mood - you will not win!

In other news, tonight I have a date with some zombies. Well, two dates, actually. 1st date is using my zombie phone app to do some walking/running (I'll try to run a bit, better depression fighting chemicals that way). 2nd is playing some more of The Secret World. I haven't gotten very far yet because I restarted with a new character because I wanted to use swords instead of a gun and I didn't want to waste my starting points.

Also, I lied. I'm not sorry. I'd do it again. I told Mr. B I want to go to the bank, so could I please leave work at 2pm (it's another one of those 'there're three people in the office and no kids at all' work days). He said sure, so now I get to go home early and have a slightly longer weekend. Win!

And tomorrow I'm going out with Amy in Seoul to see a show, which hopefully will be awesome. I'm forcing myself to go, as really I just want to stay home and sleep, but I need to go. Sunday can be sleep and play the computer day.

You'll notice there's a distinct lack on Andy in this weekend's plans. That's because he's doing some weird, unexplained, pulling away thing. For the first almost two months I saw him pretty much every day, now this week I've seen him twice in 8 or 9 days. It's confusing and hurtful, but he is proving to be rather difficult to discuss this kind of stuff with. So the current plan is that he can do whatever the heck he likes and I'll live my life happily (I'm working on it, ok?!) without him, and he can come back if/when he wants to. I'm torn between 1) trusting that he's a good person who is just working through issues of his own; and 2) telling him to go fuck himself for abandoning me when I need him. Sadly, because of my impaired mood and brain function, I don't trust myself to be reading the situation correctly and I don't want to make a mistake.

Bah! Anyway, only two hours until I can go home and play with Zombies!

P.S. it actually did rain today :D

boys vs girls Thursday

It goes something like this:

~~~

*ring ring* (that's my phone ringing. It doesn't actually ring, but it's impossible the reproduce the tune in text)

Sam: Hi Andy! How's it going?

Andy: Good. You?

Sam: Yeah, I'm ok. Just walking to catch the bus.

Andy: Oh.

*Long pause*

Sam: Er, yeah. So, what's up?

Andy: They say it might rain tomorrow. Or sometime this week.

Sam: Really? Well, that'll be good. It's been so dry. The farmers will be happy.

Andy: Ok.

*Long pause*

Sam: Um, right. Blah blah blah.....

~~~

Sam leaves this conversation thinking: Man, our relationship must not be that great if all he wants to talk to me about it weather. I feel unfulfilled by this conversation.

Andy thinks: I'm glad I told Sam about the rain. I like to help her.

Well, that's my working theory, anyway.

Great Day Wednesday

So, I've been having a bit of a hard time of it, emotionally, these past few days. Nothing in particular that I can tell has caused it, but I've been pretty down. But! Yesterday I got my birthday parcel from home! So awesome!!

Twisites as packing material - genius!

Such a nice pen!

Mum knows me well

I actually thanked you out load when I saw this mum!

Chocolates and stickers

Best pins EVER!

I'm wearing the hearts today.

Apparently this used to be a chocolate frog. He... uh... didn't make it. He was, however, still delicious after some time in the fridge :D

Cracked me up (but also: how did you know I wanted more!?)

I was hopeful...

But had to eat the carnage with a spoon. Still totally delicious!

Seriously awesome birthday presents!

And I wore my snazzy sheep hat to go walking!

Also, I just finished my 3rd day of awesome classes. I've got 4-5 kids showing up to summer camp classes, and we're having a great time. They're all willing to talk and play in English, and are just competitive enough to make games fun, but not so extreme that anyone's upset. This morning we had an excellent scavenger hunt, and I'm so proud of their effort :)

Also, I bought the 'Secret World' game and finally got it running this morning. It wasn't easy! First, I bought it online and that went ok, but then it simply crashed every time I went to run it to download the game. The program would not even start. So, I did some research and tried a few different things from disabling my antivirus, to changing my screen resolution. I wasn't very systematic about it, so I'm not 100% sure what worked, but I got it going after some fiddling. However, then it REALLY warned me about my super outdated graphics card drivers. So, I tried to update them, and again, nope. It just brought up a failure notice every time with no extra info. So, I ended up having to uninstall my old drivers, and then install the new ones. That worked, and I got the game running (after over 9 hours of downloading!!) this morning. I managed to create a character and run a few steps before it was time to catch the bus. So, tonight after work we'll try killing some zombies! I'm really hoping my laptop can handle it and it doesn't crash or anything - I just wanna play.

And yesterday evening I did my first walk with the Zomies! Run! app I got on my phone. It's so much fun! It's a story played in between your music tracks, and it used GPS to see where you are, and zombies sometimes chase you and you pick up items along the way to put in your base (on their website). It made going for a walk a bit different, and I got so involved with the story :) Haha, pretty fun!

Madness on a Monday

Hey blog! Long time, no see :)

I will be putting up a few select pictures of Japan here, and whole heap more on FaceBook when I manage to collect them all off Andy's phone. Suffice to say, Japan was awesome, but very extremely unpleasantly hot. But, the reason I haven't update my blog since I got back is there all this feeling a pressure to write about my holiday, but that's such a big job, it puts me off writing. So, instead, I'm not gonna. I'm just going to blog like normal.

Today's the first day back after my vacation (always sucks), and work tried to stick me with 32 hours of teaching in 4 days this week (note this is only teaching time, not the time I spend at work). My contract specifies I can only teach 20 during this two week period, with a maximum of 6 more hours paid over time. They were going to give me 12 extra hours, not give me over time, and never even asked if it was ok. I'm super bad at confrontation and feel really guilty about "not being a team player", but 32 hours is a crap ton of teaching. So, I talked to my co-teacher about it, and he changed it so quickly that I suspect he 100% knew he was violating my contract. So, Now I'm doing 16 this week and 16 next week, which is SO much better. And legal.

You know, if they'd talked to me, asked me beforehand, offered me the overtime pay I'm entitled to, I totally would have agreed and helped them out of a tight spot. But no, they try to get it past me and hope I won't notice they scheduled me for a week of ridiculous hell. I was hoping to re-sign at this school, but now... maybe not so much. He even tried to blame me, saying it was because I went on vacation. The vacation I'm contractually owed. Bah!

And now I feel bad and like no one will like me because I didn't do what they wanted. Which is stupid!

Anyway, funny story time. Yesterday, I went to the COEX mall, just for a wander and a browse. As I was coming through the main entrance an older Korean guy starts welcoming me to Korea. That's normal, happens fairly regularly. They don't ever ask how long you've been here, but love to say 'Welcome to Korea! Where are you from?". Well, this guy welcomed me and asked if I was American. I was not in the mood to talk. Sometimes I humour them, but I get a bit annoyed sometimes - I'd never stop a person and talk to them because they came from another country! - but anyway, I was like "No, New Zealand", and he goes "Oh, England". I said no, NZ, but he insisted that because we both have the union jack, NZ and England were 'the same-same". 

Ok, fine. 

Then it got interesting. He wanted to know what I did, and I said 'teacher'. The guy actually looked me up and down, with an expression of disbelief on his face and said "Oh. Not gentlemen?". Um, no you perv. My job is not 'gentlemen'. 

Not sure what even gave him this idea, or if it was just wishful thinking. I was wearing no makeup, no jewellery (unless you count a digital watch), flip-flops, my hair was pulled back tight in a ponytail, and the dress I was wearing fell to mid-shin and showed no chest (as anyone who knows me would know). So, weird. I was just like, 'yeah, ok, bye', and walked away. He told me I was very beautiful and followed me. He wanted to know if I had one or two boyfriends. I took a sharp turn and he took the message and left. Good times.

So, it's 35 degrees, 56% humidity, and two hours until home time. 
Here's a few random picture of Seoul yesterday:

An outfit I didn't buy.

Street sculpture in Gangnam.

Holey building!

Summer flowers

Danish I thought would be great, and it was, but made me feel ill.