바빴어요

(ba-ppas so-yo = I've been busy)

It daunts me to know that I have not given my blog the attention it and my readers deserve. This new semester has brought many new responsibilities my way and I have found myself drowning in lesson planning, paper work and mini art projects for class. I have also picked up a few extra activities outside of school that keep me busy after my work day has ended. My extra involvement in the community comes as both a curse and a blessing to me as it leaves me feeling like an adequate member of the Korean society as well as a successful ex-pat but it also leaves me feeling exhausted and at times depleted. This semester, I have been teaching 28 classes a week, which is 6 more than last semester. On top of that, my regular classes that I teach (grade 5) have been given an English boost and now I see each class 3 times a week as opposed to the outdated 2 times a week. This means that the lessons move much quicker and keeping up is at times a true difficulty. My weekly schedule also includes teaching a teacher's class, a parent's class, an after school class, and a science class. Yes. That's right. I'm teaching a science class to elementary age Korean students...in English.

After school, I have a pretty regular schedule. Mondays, I attend Korean class in the next town over. Tuesday-Friday I go to Muay Thai class at a hole-in-the-wall-Rocky-look-alike-boxying-gym in my hometown. Wednesdays, I go to a conversation class in my hometown that allows Koreans and foreigners to meet, chat and study language together. Weekends, I'm traveling or taking part in one of the many festivals that are constantly going on.

In the midst of all of this, I managed to hurt my ankle recently. I let it go untreated for a week but after it was so swollen that I appeared to have no ankle bone (I already had cankles so that wasn't an issue but a swollen cankle is never desired...then again neither is a cankle...)and hurt so much to the point where I was hopping from place to place, I decided it was time to get it checked out. I went to doctor's office(made possible via city bus)--yes A doctor's office, not MY doctor's office because I don't have a doctor that I call my own; it's not like that in Korea. So I went to the doctor's office and in the time span of 45 minutes, I saw the doctor, got an X Ray, saw the doctor again, got a cast on, paid and left. Korea is incredibly efficient when it comes to any process such as going to the doctor's office, the license bureau, etc. Oh, and the cost? The cost of EVERYTHING (yes, X Ray, cast, doctor's visit) put me back $35. IN-CRED-IBLE!!

There is more to come soon in regards to some events I've recently done and some volunteering experiences I've encountered but for now, It's back to work!

Quinlin