Saturday, December 29, 2007

B.K. South Korea


I'm still waiting my first paycheck for the past two months of living abroad. It will be arriving on January 10th. Until then the entire fleet of new recruits at Chung Dahm Institute will be sucking the marrow out of chicken bones to get by. And you know what, it really isn't that bad.

I'd say the worst thing about the past month and a half has been trying to figure out what is a suitable investment, especially when it comes to hanging out with the rest of the staff after work. If it were up to me I think that I wouldn't spend a dime on anything social wise - that's another reason why I'm thankful for Kristen, she pushes me to not become a recluse that hoards his money.

The kids that I work with are great. Every day I have at least 2 new classes of students that complain to me about school as much as I did to my own teachers. "Teacher, let's take a break," "teacher, no more homework," "teacher, CDI is the devil." In the end we almost always get along though, and there are those times when a surge of energy just sweeps the classroom beyond a simple 'oh great, everyone is paying attention for once,' it's that feeling that they're actually learning how to do something. I remember how my physics teacher in high school, Mr. Skinner used to smile all the time; this smug little look that was like he always had a secret to tell, and with that secret he always fueled his classes with this unworldly energy that us kids couldn't help but gobble up. He used to teach us all about how to make calculations about things that I have never used again in my life as a non-engineering undergraduate, but I still remember him as one of the best teachers in my life.