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