Late for Work

I did it. My first six day week.

Though, to be honest, it's really like a five day week with a guest appearance for two hours on a sixth day. Although I spent all of Saturday (yep, six hours of in class time) complaining to my students about my first 'working weekend', I realized that at my previous job (which I had almost four years ago now) I used to work Saturdays all the time. The only difference is that I would walk out of work with a couple hundred dollars of cash in my pocket to go spend on milkshakes by the beach the next day. . .the rewards were a bit more, well, tangible I guess.

Okay, so I'm lying even further. I didn't quite put in a six hour day Saturday as I showed up half 'n hour late for work. Oops!

At around quarter to two on a beautiful Saturday afternoon Nate and I headed off to the Bagel Shop to grab breakfast. Dressed in my sleepwear, I figured I could have a bite to eat then take a short 'nature walk' before heading into work. Who knew my plans would fall through so quickly.

Immediately after I placed my order, I received a frantic call from David, Junggye's other FT who is also supposedly our 'Team Leader.' Here's how it went. . .

Yo, Adam, like, where are you dude!?

Um, at the bagel shop getting breakfast. Why?

You know you have a class right now, right?

Um, no? What time is it.

It's two o'clock.

Yeah, okay, I don't have class until 4:30.

No dude, you have class right now, you gotta come in.

Uh, okay, I just ordered food though and I'm in sweat pants so it'll take me a bit.

Well, hurry up I guess.

Okay? See you in fifteen or twenty.

Alright. Wait, do you know where Nathan is?

Yeah, right next to me, I'll tell him, don't worry.

Oh yeah, okay, good, he has class.

Yep.


Though we ate more quickly than usual, I didn't exactly make any attempts to fly in to work that minute, figuring that I'd be then when I got there. What doesn't quite make sense is that we are supposed to report to work half 'n hour early yet nobody decided to call until class had actually begun and we were still absent. . . welcome to Korea.

Scarfed down a bagel sandwich, burned my mouth on a cup of coffee (not true, since living in Korea I can practically eat fire without it having any negative effects on the condition of my mouth), and headed back towards Doota. I decided that I'd stick with the 'hurried' in to work theme leaving on my Tulane sweatshirt and simply sliding into a pair of jeans (and brushing my teeth) before heading back out the door.

Got to work around 2:30pm after double checking that I was correct in reading my schedule that says Saturday I have class from 4:30-10:30pm. . . it's amazing that I would assume I had work at that time. Silly me.

Anna caught us coming in and apologized for any confusion. As I suspected we were reprimanded at all, partly because we dodged the front office but also because our tardiness honestly had nothing to do with anything other than a lack of foresight by everyone except for us!

Not sure if classes themselves are actually more relaxed or if it was my 'Saturday' mentality but anyways I managed to make it through three, two hour classes with out a whole lot of problems. By this I mean I was left alone for the good majority of the time and simply allowed the students to talk and ask me silly questions rather than force them to 'do' their unproductive workbook that accomplishes nothing more than boring every involved party to near death.

My biggest problem now is that for my Monday and Tuesday classes we have finished the Superb books and have no set material for class. This is exciting in one sense because the Superb books are simply anything but. This is also extremely frustrating as now I have to come up with some sort of 'lesson' to pass six hours of class time (or, three classes of two hours each). I have done debate articles and simple side lessons (such as Mardi Gras Trivia) but nothing along the lines of taking up a full two hour class period. So what am I going to do? Well, that remains to be seen. Today is my one day of rest a week and as a devote student of Judaic principles I feel that it is my obligation to observe the Sabbath by resting. . .aside from my soccer game.

On that note, SSFL's Spring Season has started up and we're already two weeks under way with a revamped Spitfire squad. Last week we allowed a fluke goal in the last few seconds that sealed our defeat against the number one ranked Jokers (final score 2-1). Not a bad showing for our first day out however as we were predicted to lose by double digits on the league's forum. Today's game was almost as disappointing as 90 minutes of incredible soccer yielded nothing but a 0-0 draw against the International Storm. Again playing a topped ranked team in our league, coming out with a clean sheet on the defense end says something for those of us in the back (*cough cough*). Now it's just time for our forwards to start sealing the deal.

That's it for now, only two more weeks of this random spring 'intensive.' Then our 'special' R&D classes begin. Not entirely sure what these are really except that students have to pay extra for them and that our names our actually on the sign up forms. This means students, and their parents, have to actually make a conscious effort to pay DYB extra to take 'my' class. Exciting but also nerve racking as I again face the problem of what the heck am I supposed to do.

Oh, all that and as of today (Sunday) I've been in Korea 200 days. . . .as one of my students keenly pointed out, that means only 165 to go. Not that I'm counting. . . .