Not Sleeping

I always have trouble sleeping on Sunday nights. I suppose it's a combination of the late nights and the later mornings. With my schedule I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the week which results in being lazy in the a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, if I see the a.m. at all. So, instead of sleeping I am sitting at my computer writing a blog, listening to Hooverphonic and drinking coffee. This has led me to one irrefutable conclusion:

I need a day job.

I could totally get used to this whole waking up and having time to ease into my day with some decent tunes and coffee gig. As it is I wake up around 5:45 which gives me just enough time to get ready and get to work a little early and get off at 10 p.m. just in time to go home and go straight to sleep. Granted, I have 9 hours in between class blocks to do a bunch of crap, but split shifts suck any way you slice it.

Now there are a couple of ways I could go about achieving this lofty and lucrative goal.

1. Stick it out until February and then beg off of my contract a little early, giving notice so I can get my release letter. This would allow me to POSSIBLY get a university job, which is kinda the Holy Grail here. Daytime hours, comparable pay and 14 weeks of vacation, plus still teaching "adults".

2. Stick it out until the end of the contract in March, take a little vacation and then come back and apply for an after school program (which requires at last a year of experience). Better pay than University and still only teaching 6 hours per day but only 2 weeks vacation.

3. Give notice as soon as I have round trip airfare fly back Stateside and start the whole E-2 process again, thereby restarting my 9 month newbie penalty over again but armed with the knowledge of how the system works and a better grip on what kind of job to look for.

I feel it's fairly obvious which one is the best option.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really comfortable here in Suwon. I fee like I'm getting somewhere by being here even though I have no idea where that somewhere is. I very much enjoy the life here with only a few exceptions, but those exceptions are in no way Korea-specific.

I guess loneliness has set in a bit and my family is going through some bullshit right now. At the risk of sounding like a whiner, making friends here is hard. The language barrier has been getting in the way of really getting to know Koreans and expats are both scarce and stand-offish, which is understandable since it seems like you're always saying goodbye to someone. Add to that an inability to have a social life any time other than Saturday and Sunday and pretty constant exhaustion due to my work schedule and you have a recipe for hermitude, which I am already inclined toward and need no help with.

I don't know, maybe it's the heat. Maybe I'm just getting worn out. Maybe I'm just a Grouchy Bitch. Probably that last one.


See You on the Dark Side

O Frabjous Day...

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"


He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.


And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!


One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.


"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

-Lewis Carroll


If you've been wondering what I've been doing these last few days, here's an update:


Skipping with glee.


That's right, I am the happiest bottle of whiskey on the shelf right now. Not so long ago I recieved a hastily penned note from the administration of my school stating that in order to prepare for my intensive summer classes I needed to prepare 7 weeks of lesson plans in the space of about 12 days. For those of you who don't know, my hakwon usually only has class from 6:30 am until about noon and then from 6pm until 10pm of which I work about 7 hours leaving me the afternoons to get errands done, catch up on precious precious sleep and generally have no fun whatsoever. However, during the summer and winter "breaks" they open up the school in the afternoons for university students to come and study away what little vacation time they have. And who is to teach these courses? Why the people who are already working split shifts of course. So you can imagine my ire at the prospect of spending my free time prepping work for a wide range of skill levels (there is no prep time built into our paid working time mind you) and then spending the two hottest of months teaching 10 hours per day on no sleep.

And now you're wondering about the happy.


I have been spared my children. The whimsical gods of fate and fortune have seen fit to once again reward my faith by stripping me of any additional duties this summer. now I may have to work a few extra hours in the morning and evening to cover for the teachers who are not as favored as I and are being forced into teaching intensives, but no afternoons for me, Huzzah! There was dancing involved, but so enraptured was I that I forgot to turn on my webcam and record the festivities. Now it remains unspecified, but since I will not be teaching those classes I see no reason to actually prepare for them.

Who says procrastination doesn't pay off.


See You on the Dark Side

Sad Days

Everyone has them, and now it's my turn.

I've been in a bit of a funk this last week and, like a true recluse, I have crawled into my Handy Hidey Hole and refused to come out for less than 20000 won an hour. This happens to me sometimes. Something completely innocuous will rear it's ugly innocuously shaped head, stick out it's innocuously purple tongue and "THPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTHAGHLTHPPT". Innocuously. This serves to remind me of one of the three things that can actually bring my crushingly charming optimism crashing down around my ears.

I miss my dad. He was a damn good man. One of the best I've ever met and one of the few who could completely disagree with you, let you know about it, but leave you feeling stronger for sticking to your own opinion. He's been dead for 3 1/2 years now, but I have... episodes... now and again. I can usually drown this out with a quick pity party involving a few (many) beers in a dimly lit (seedy) pub and listening to some Ulrich Schnauss albums. Sadly, I have yet to find pub, beer (Cass and Hite are no more beer than Busch or Bud Light) or Ulrich Schnauss albums as I lost all of my music in the tragic PC Genocide of 2009 and Pandora doesn't work here. Also, I drank the last of my Scotch last weekend and have not yet been paid, preventing me from purchasing said sacred nectar. So the best I've been able to do for drowning is Massive Attack and Burger King, which isn't as therapeutic as one might initially believe.


Well that's it. Bleh. Poor me, whatever.

See You on the Dark Side