this week

well I'm still really new to this whole blog thing, so I'm just going to fill up with what I've been doing this week and see how it goes.

With winter here on the peninsula it is again flu season, complete with Korean kids who don't seem to ever want to cover their mouths no matter what is coming outta there. The result: I have managed to get sick on successive weekends. It was kinda nice just relaxing and watching Supernatural all weekend, but with the really cold weather coming in we only have a few weekends left so I was hoping for another road trip, maybe to Andong. Geoff and I had also planned to go to Gwangju last weekend, but of course it was not to be.

Of course the other side to spending last weekend at home is that we got to spend it on my new bed. It was one of my requests when I renewed and so far I'm more than happy with it. For anyone who has not been to my place, it's sort of what you'd imagine a hobbit ghetto to look like (but it's free, so I can't complain) but that means that having a new piece of furniture in there is great, especially when I plan to spend eight hours a day on it. It also replaces a very old, sagging mattress that was okay for one, but impossible for two.

Finally, there's been a few big changes at work. One of our oldest Korean teachers, Michelle, decided to leave last week. Unofficially I hear it's because she was getting passed over for promotions, raises etc. and was not happy about it. Also, they are changing the curriculum around and all the teachers seem really stressed. What really bothers me though, is that she didn't bother to say goodbye to any of us (I mean, we did work together for a year). We just showed up on Monday morning and she wasn't there. When Jiny left (another teacher that was there a long time) it was big goodbye's, phone number exchanges etc. The personnel and curriculum changes are making for a stressful few months but overall I am pretty happy with our SEI, especially given how the teachers at the other one are being treated. I'll spare everyone Bobby's saga, but it's enough to make anyone angry (and does). Another big change coming up is Sterling leaving at the end of November. It's strange for me both in that he's been there a year already and that it's been a year since Kris and Miranda left Korea. He's a good guy but he is not being replaced (part of the changes means less native teacher classes) so it will just be two of us from now on.

Finally, my favourite Korean student quote for today: when describing how someone appeared she said: "you look humourous"