Got an extra banana Wednesday

No teaching for me today. Once again I'm in the English room with my laptop while Mr B speaks in Korean. I've been working on some new research and writing about using needs analyses with young ESL learners. I want to submit it to an ESL teaching website and see if they'll publish it online. I've got the draft maybe just over half done. I was so engrossed in my writing that at one point Mr B was asking me a question during class and I didn't hear him until about the third time. Turns out he wanted to know if I knew of the song 'My Heart Will Go On'. I was like, 'yes', and that was it. That was all he wanted. Then one other time he wanted me to do something, he said "Sam teacher, can you do step 3 please?". I said "Sure, what would you like me to do?" (It was some sort of writing exercise, they'd already done it and I wasn't sure if he wanted me to check everyone's answers or what). Anyway, he just looked at me like I'm the dumbest person ever and goes "Ok, I'll do it", and swings away before I can reply and does it all in Korean. He didn't act angry or annoyed or anything afterwards, but it's so frustrating. I'm more than happy to help, but sometimes I need to know what he actually wants. I believe the problem actually is that his English isn't strong enough, or he is not confident enough, to explain to me further, so he does it himself to save face. I will be extremely happy when I don't have to work with him any more.

Dragging myself through the job everyday sure is wearing thin. I'll make it to then end, but man, it drags! I'm trying to organise lots of fun things to do each day so I have something to look forward to. And things that don't involve Andy because I'm just not convinced my happiness is one of his central concerns. It's not his fault, but I have been spending most of my time looking forward to the time I get to spend with him. This makes the time when I see him kind of special and a really nice part of an otherwise shitty day or week. But when he shows me he doesn't value out time together the same way, it makes me sad. Like last night I had spent all of Monday and Tuesday looking forward to spending the evening with him. We usually have dinner together and then hang out at the coffee shop, or walk, or whatever. Last night though he went home right after dinner - I'd only seen him for about an hour and half and it was only about twenty past eight at night. I felt bad that he obviously wasn't enjoying my company enough to stay any longer, and it was obvious (REALLY obvious, like he knew) that I was sad about him going, but he just left any way. He's done that before, left when I'm upset, and it's not very nice. Makes me think he's perhaps not very supportive? But then he called me later and asked if I'd like to go away with him for the weekend in a few weeks, so I don't know.

Anyway, long story short, it's not good to rely on another person to make you happy, so here I go finding other fun things to look forward to. For example: Tonight I'm having dinner with Nathan to plan some future evens for the Lost in Seoul Meetup group, on Thursday I have a possible Skype date with Jetts (and if not I have a bunch of chick flicks with my name on them!), on Friday there's an Osan teachers' dinner, on Saturday I'm leading a meetup group to the Ice Hockey, and on Sunday I'm Skyping mum and then going into Seoul to go to a Jimjillbang (Korean Bath house) with TMI Amy. Phew - that lot should keep me quiet!

Ok, new topic. After school class yesterday went pretty well. I had three 2nd grade girls, which is a pain in the butt number of students because it's hard to play team games, but at least they're easy to control :) We had a good chat about Justin Beiber. I've got a whole lesson on Justin Beiber that I think we'll do next week, they should like that :)

And now for today's five:

1) The super-cute kid who always says 'hello' gave me his banana after lunch today. We have been given fruit at lunch maybe twice since I've been here, and today we got surprise bananas! I guess he didn't want his because he came into the teachers room and gave it to me. It was really sweet. And they're really nice bananas!

2) I'm so looking forward to the jimjilbang on the weekend. I want sauna and spa, and a scrub, and a massage. Oh, so relaxing!

3) It's sunny today. I'm wearing one of my favourite dresses - the black and white polka-dot one.

4) I'm going out to dinner tonight - probably to a Peruvian restaurant. I have no idea what kind of food that is, but it should be a nice night.

5) There's a cute, cute dog that lives on the same street as my building. I see him most mornings and he ignores me, but he is so adorable. He looks a bit like Benji. Along with him and the Mortal Kombat/Rocky theme song arcade games, my morning is a win :)

Like this only all beige.