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Groundhog Day (Nan's 101st birthday).
A quiet weekend in Changwon, doing very little except shopping and cleaning. It's what I need after going to opposite ends of the country over the past two weekends. I will be heading off again, however, next Wednesday... determined to do something different over the upcoming Seollal / Seol-nal - Lunar New Year Holidays. The plan is to go Gangneung on the North East coast, but I would have to change at a central place, like Chungju. I am set to travel on possibly the busiest day on the roads in Korea - everyone trying to get home for the festivities. Then it will be off to Seoul again for the weekend.
The actual Seol-nal is Thursday 7th - it coincides with the Chinese New Year. This year it falls close to the weekend so a total of 5 days off in a row will give citizens a chance of a decent break.
Plans may go awry unless I get a ticket in advance for both my bus journeys as all buses are likely to be booked up. So I may yet end up in the middle of nowhere.
A few changes at work this week. It's the end of the winter teaching program. It hasn't meant any extra work for me but classes are back to their normal 2.55pm start time. Some new students have come on the back of what could be seen as the January Transfer Window. We said goodbye to the lovely Moon Yun-jin, who is Canada bound, on Wednesday and formally welcome three new Korean staff. I will miss Moon - she is/was funny, disciplined and always interested in what I had to say.
Ongoing problems concern the amount of teaching time for each class. They really needs to be a revised timetable... although I don't seem to have as much of a problem with it as others. Generally, I manage my time quite well... I am also getting better at discipling them - i am organically growing as a teacher - prepared to be strict rather than just getting frustrated when the kids don't pay attention. My gentle use of the stick helps - although I use it entertainingly, not aggressively. I am focused more on what is expected of me, rather than trying to be too alternative. Which means I will keep my job. Some of the kids really like me, too... which is touching.
The best thing this week has been joining the adult English Conversation Group, populated by Koreans wishing to improve their English.. some of whom I met and went drinking with last weekend in Gangnam, Seoul.
I chatted in a forum on Tuesday and Thursday, whilst also having an informal chat on Wednesday with Jin and Lee (who I met in Gangnam). The subjects were the Korean Honorific System and Future Government Funding on English Teaching. In the former, I learned about the difficulty of being a 'chingu' (friend) with anyone more than 5 years younger or older than you! Strange, but a common concept in Korea.
By being part of this group it is already opening up other possibilities of travelling to other parts of the country and to meet more and more Koreans... it is great to have a worklife balance - i get on with the people i work with but i don't socialise with them (Except for Eun-jung) and i have a life outside... just crossing fingers for that special person... which as you all know has to be female!
It continues to be great to have Garry around as a travel partner / fellow Samgyeopsal eater and generally cool dude who goes along with just about any suggestion I make.
So no more photos yet until after I get back from Seoul for the third time. The New Year photos have shot past the 1000 mark... and over 5000 views/hits quickly appeared for my Simpsons vs Sweeney Todd video, inspired by Blowfish in Busan. Unfortanately, Twentieth Century Fox have forced You Tube to remove it from the site! A shame, but I had some nice comments about it... and it still exists of course, just not for public viewing anymore.
So, it just remains to wish everyone a Happy New Year (of the Rat). I know that Dad and the family will be having a Chinese themed evening on Saturday. That Pete's no dim son!
Send me messages - it's gone a bit quiet again!
Phil.x.
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