February

Well February is over, and March is beginning. Saying good-bye to February isn't too hard - it wasn't the best month. My favourite supervisor was transferred out of our branch, and we have a new lady who is nice, but I think she's more of a co-worker and less of a friend. It's not a bad thing, but I miss Jenny anyway.

Also with March comes a huge switch in classes at school. A few weeks ago the students did a placement test, and their classes were re-arranged. In March is when these new classes start. So, here is my old schedule:

• MWF 4-6 Junior 6
• MWF 6-8 Senior 3
• MWF 8-10 Junior 5
• TTh 4-7 Junior 2
• TTh 7-10 Middle School

Up until now, every day has been work from 2-10. For March-May though it will be 12:30 - 8:30 on MWF, and 2-10 on TTh. Which means when my parents come in April I will be able to get off of work earlier and spend part of the evening with them, which will be nice. (Note to Mom & Dad - Chinatown will happen on the Thursday now, and Aiin's World will happen on Friday because I need enough time in the morning to bring you to Chinatown!)

Anyway, this is my new schedule for March-May

• MWF 2:30-4 Basic 3
• MWF 4-6 Junior 2.1
• MWF 6-8 Junior 2
• TTh Science 2
• TTh Basic 5

So, in general terms, my next 3 months will be spent, on average, teaching younger students and lower levels. That's alright with me though, it will be a nice break from my Senior level class I had. I am only keeping one class that I had before, which is the Junior 2.1 (the old Junior 2 class).

Alright that's enough about school. This weekend I went to Itaewon for Keri's birthday. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Keri is a friend who I took my TESOL/TESL course with at McMaster Uni. It was a fun night, and I feel like I left when it was just getting started! I had to catch the last subway home from Hondae, so I could only stay out until just about midnight.

Speaking of the last subway, I have no idea when it runs. So I got to the stop where I had to transfer, and all the subways had stopped running! I was slightly worried, but nonetheless I thought it would end up being an adventure. So. I left the subway station, looked around and didn't recognise anything around me. I had a few options open to me. a) go to the shady hotel across the street for the night (and probably end up paying for the room by the hour!) b) curl up behind the bus shelter for the night and take the first bus (or subway) home in the morning or c) catch a cab home. I considered my options. I eliminated a), because I didn't want to catch something as a result of staying overnight in a bed which may or may not have been disease-ridden. I thought of how inexpensive b) would be, but then I thought I might be arrested if I had chosen that option. Finally, I had no choice but to hail a cab and, in broken Korean, explain my situation. I had no money so I had to be driven to an ATM first and then home. The cab driver was really nice, and really patient considering half of my Korean was probably wrong. Anyway, he wanted to charge me 30,000 Won, but I told him it was too expensive (너무 비싸요), and got it down to 20,000 Won (roughly 16.50 Canadian).

Anyway, I was so thankful to finally get home that, while I was getting my money from the ATM, I bought him a coffee from the convenience store. He was really thankful - he bowed and said "thank you" in English. It was nice.

Just another adventure in Korea!

Now I'm lesson planning for my new classes, which feels like lesson planning in November all over again - I have no idea who my students are, or what their abilities are like. I'm sure I will catch on to all of that soon though.

In other news, payday is in just over a week.

That's scrumptious.

Also I've included a picture of me eating octopus! haha