Rolling Into Week -24

The flags on my fridge are getting noticeably fewer. They're not as weighty as they once were, but it's still satisfying to pull one off every Friday afternoon. And thus I roll into week -24, riding high on a wave of optimism, though likely about to get jerked under by the lingering riptide of jetlag.

Actually, the jetlag hasn't been nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. Both ways, it's mostly manifested as late-night narcolepsy. Normally, I need a little wind-down to actually fall asleep. In the first few days after arrival, however, I reach a point where I shut down as if by switch, around 7:00 the first night and working back to a more manageable 10 or 11:00 now. The first nights back in Seoul, I also had the familiar waking with the roosters, but, instead of lasting a week like it did in August, I only had to put up with it for 2 nights this time. I guess after staying awake for 30 hours straight, one's body doesn't really care what time it is anywhere.

It's been a pretty low-key week. I threw together a lesson Tuesday morning (Monday was Korean Independence Day) before learning that I wouldn't need it this week, so I've had 4 days of deskwarming without the agony of birthing a lesson. The changes and developments at school are mostly on the positive side. Our office is now a henhouse, and the new arrivals include the art teacher who's been really friendly and helpful to me throughout the last 6 months, and a new English teacher, Ms. Yi, who seems to be on my wavelength. Everyone's English is stellar, and though most of the banter is in Korean, I like the vibe.

My classroom is just about ready to go. We had a small setback when someone(s) apparently came in and made off with a few desks and chairs, though they did make the effort to replace them with a handful of dwarf chairs. At least there's a heater now, and the computer at long last has a working mouse. Ms. Cho, my new advocate, said that the kids would schlep the desks when I have my first (and only) class on Monday. I must be turning into a real teacher because the news that my class would be 10-15 minutes shorter elicited more panic than relief.

There has been a shift in my reality. I still spent more time this week reading blogs and weeding emails than writing lessons, but I'm in good shape for next week, I have ideas about the rest of March, and I have a SYLLABUS. More or less. After getting my hands on the school calendar yesterday, I laid out each week, when classes would be, what blocks of time I'll have, and came up with topics through July for both grades (and it still is just 2--more on that in a minute). I found this so compelling I actually continued working on it after I got home. I've never understood people who bring work home when it's not imperative, but I got a little taste of it yesterday (and again today!). Coming up with topics is still a LOT easier than teasing them into lessons, but I feel much more adept at it now, and comfortable with the idea that it'll work out one way or another.

I've been in a bit of a planning frenzy in general. In some ways it makes the time seem shorter...August looks frightfully far away, but when you think of it in terms of "I'm gonna do A, B, C, D, and then I go home", it's practically tomorrow. And I actually do have to sketch out right through to the end to make sure I'm getting to everything I want to get to. I've signed up with 2 Adventure Korea trips in March, a cave thing this weekend that a friend recommended a while back, and a Temple Stay at the end of the month--one thing that every visitor here should experience. I'm a little leery of going with a bus group, but I've been trying for months to arrange something and gotten absolutely nowhere, so bus it is. If friends follow through, I'll also be visiting the National Museum of Korea, and going to the Seoul Racecourse, then in April taking a weekend trip to one of Korea's southern provinces. I've even picked the weeks I want for summer vacation, though they'll have apoplexy at school if I mention it. I'm looking at a week in the Philippines with an extended layover in Hong Kong for July, then a 4-day weekend in Tokyo in August before my valedictory road trip.

Getting wordy here, but 2 happy things I want to mention. I was afraid that this semester was going to be a death march. EEP, the evening program I taught in the fall, is moving to Saturday this year; AND there was a rumor in school that I was going to be teaching all of the 1st graders instead of just the advanced ones, bringing my weekly class load to 25 (anything over 22 and we're entitled to overtime). I assented to Saturday EEP most unwillingly and was bracing myself for writing more plans with just one planning period a day. Turns out there are only 6 Saturdays that EEP is meeting...not so bad over the course of 6 months (though it does mean I can't go camping in the DMZ with Adventure Korea). And, getting my class schedule today, the 25/week plan was apparently scrapped. My 20 classes are actually one less than last semester. And I don't have an additional level to write lessons for (though I may still if the low 2s are as bad as they seemed during camp).

On top of it all, Spring does look like it's going to come this year. Temps have been in the high 40s, and look to stay that way for the foreseeable future. I had to put my umbrella back in my school bag after getting caught without it yesterday. Going out without mittens is actually worth considering. It's a happy time. I'm optimistic.