So this week I did a full week of classes for the first time since mid-July. Yes, life out here is so hard. How do I cope. But that doesn't mean there wasn't any disruption.
On Wednesday rumours started swirling around. A storm was gathering. That's not a metaphor - literally, a typhoon was gathering in the East Sea (to all the Japanese who claim its called the Sea of Japan, go cry into some sake). I went to bed with the harmony of light drizzle rhythmically tapping against my window.I woke up at 5am to a different sound. The sound of a cable violently, and not very rhythmically, crashing into said window. In spite of this rude awakening, I didn't think that the storm was particularly bad - just sounded like a bit of a gale, and we have them at home from time to time. I actually fell back asleep for a brief moment, before awaking for school.
The first signal of what had really happened came when I opened my window to find the plastic chairs from the bar across the road scattered across the gravel. Still, they are only plastic chairs, I can kick them over with little effort. So I step out into a slightly strong wind, take a turning and find this:
It's a neon sign. On the floor. Not where a neon sign belongs. OK, pretty strong.
More carnage was noticeable on my walk to school, which at this point I was hoping would have been cancelled, or at least delayed. Oh no. It was for elementary schools, it was for some middle schools, but in high school? No chance.
That's fine, I thought as I walked into my office. The workplace seemed different, however. Darker, for one. And hotter. And lots of items from the fridge were on the table. Marvellous - a power cut. Well, at least I wouldn't have any lessons. Or that's what logic would dictate when 95% of lessons I do rely on a PPT. But no. I had to teach old-school. In rooms that were getting increasingly hotter without fans or A/C.
It was actually good fun, and proved to myself that I might be a half-decent teacher after all. Though I didn't teach anything remotely constructive - we played pictionary for two lessons, then the electricity came back. It allowed my students to be quite creative as well - one team had apple, so drew an iPhone.
The majority of lessons that week were spent trialling the topic I was doing for my open class the next Wednesday. More on that next time. In the meantime, I think we are finally going to start adopting the British winds of austerity out here in Korea. We had a night in Hongdae on Saturday, naturally, but I have had FIVE leaving do's in the past week. Brittany on Sunday; Phil on Monday; Deb on Tuesday; Nat (and Deb again) on Friday; and Sean on Saturday. Not for the weak, a week like that. I will miss them all.
Apart from the first, I have attempted to save cash by not drinking on these occasions, though this is also to do with my impending 10k race. It is actually quite nice to wake up on a Sunday and not feel as though I'm at death's door. Something I might consider for when I get home, though unlikely. This time in three months I will have left Korea...but will NOT be at home...twist!
Love you all
Matt
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