I'm not sure what entirely possesses me to a.) listen to this stupid song, b.) walk to the local PC bang to write this entry when I am dead tired or c.) what makes me even want to Tabulate instead of playing some Brood War to unwind... but here goes another whirlwind post.

I'm beginning to like my Korea stay. I think whenever I travel to another country, I go through different phases on whether I'm liking my stay or not. So right now, I like it. But capriciously, I will probably start disliking it tomorrow. Or something.

Teaching is so tough. I never had much respect for teachers ... but boy, has that changed. I'm not sure whether it's because my job is actually harder than it sounded, but I'm pretty much a teacher 24/7. Although I'm only "contracted" to work 24 hours a week (6 hours a day for 4 days), I am pretty much always at the school from 9am --> 9pm every day).

The 6 hours is teaching ... the difficult part is I teach three 'different' SAT classes. Two of them are new track, but they are different levels, so I prepare slightly different lesson plans for both. The other class is the Old Track SAT class ... the problem is I assign homework to all three classes, but I also have to do the friggin' homework (and be able to explain it). Compound this with the fact that I usually have to spend a lot of time grading each assignment (I do not like for a 'menial' office person to do my grading because grading helps me learn more about the student; I can learn their weaknesses and help address those problems on a personal level) ... and you can see where all the time goes.

Of course, I also teach both verbal and math sections, so I have to prepare tons of lessons. Between grading, doing the kids' homeworks, grading their homework, and taking the practice SAT tests to explain each answer and also to check for errors in the actual SAT test ... I'm left with 0 time to do anything else, which is fine. Being busy is so great; I can finally push out my problems and my thoughts ... I tend to think a lot and sometimes this is probably the direct reason why I've had various sleeping problems in the past. But when I come back at 930pm, I pass out. So it's great. I'm getting sleep, getting a new perspective on life (culturally and personally), getting paid, and having a good time by myself.

I also pick up a few random classes every week (each class being two hours), so I end up teaching 8 hours every few days. Which is fine, since I'm getting paid overtime (I think...)

. . .

In any case, when I first decided to come to Korea, I really didn't want to bring my camera (film was too expensive to develop, and I didn't want to lug my film scanner over here). But I just feel this urge to take photos of the cute little things I see every day ... so I ended up buying the Canon G5 (finally). I got a great deal on eBay ... got the camera, 128MB flash card, and the remote and all the normal stuff for a nice $450. Plus the guy is super nice (he isn't one of those "Power Sellers" I've grown to dislike) and will place personal attention ...

So once I get the camera, expect a lot of pictures :)

. . .

So the local restaurant I frequent is owned by this older couple, and they are totally nice. The personal attention paid by these people help me feel not isolated ... Koreans are truly incredibly nice (although the Southerns are definitely nice, the Korean 'niceness' is a bit different) and it's helping me cope quite well.

Plus, their daughter is totally cute. The type of girl I could imagine dating seriously. There's something about working girls that I love. Maybe it's their diligence or their acceptance that life is not about getting everything handed to you (I know, this is funny, coming from me, but at least I'm aware of my problem and am working to fix it!) ... not sure what it is. But I think whatever girl I marry will have to be a working girl. As much as I joke about marrying a 'rich girl' so I can be lazy for the rest of my life, I don't think I could deal with that.

. . .

Koreans are really obsessed with looking nice. The girls all wear unhealthy amounts of makeup, and the guys all dress really 'cool' (which means feminine, which you know coming from me actually is a euphemism for 'gay') ... so when I bust out my gym shorts and my Carolina ROYBOY (a gift from Mina and Christine a long time ago; I absolutely love it!), I look so underdressed.

But hey, comfort before style. I'm not here to impress no one. I'm here to make some money to help with Tabulas/Lightbox/Audiomatch growth (I should have a few thou I can invest in a better network architecture once I get back...)