Saturday, April 25, 2009

Next Week

Next week at Young-il High School is mid-term exam week. There is no English Conversation exam, but I still have to show up every morning and stay until 11:20. On Monday, the company that put in the new English listening equipment (Howdy) will demonstrate how to use it; after that, we will go to lunch on the school's dime at a restaurant near Gimpo Airport called Sky Park or Sky Inn (?). I am told it is the best food west of the Hangang.

Then, the next week, after exams are finished, Monday is school picnic day, and Tuesday is Children's Day, a national holiday. So I will have three days of classes (actually two and a half) over the next two weeks, with no papers to grade.

Sometimes it is a challenge trying to get 37 or 38 students to speak English, but I balance that with the fact I never have to grade a paper or give a test. And I only prepare two lesson plans per week. And my workday ends no later than 4:30 every day. No faculty meetings, no basketball games to announce, no parent conferences ...

Bonus Photograph: We sometimes joke in the States about stores having perpetual 'going-out-of-business-sales'. Well, the Hi-Mart (kind of like Circuit City) next door has been having a 'Grand Reopen Sale' for the last three months and counting. They put in new counters and shelves and set up a PA system outside, which a pretty young woman uses to yammer for hours on end about the good deals you can get inside.

Hi-Mart's Perpetual Grand Reopen Sale

1 comment:

Andrew Lasher said...

Not to brag, but I reckon I have a better deal than you. No classes this week, and next week Mon-Wed is vacation time. To make things better, the following week, the first year students are going to Jeju Island and the second year students are going to some army boot camp. That means I have 4 days of classes in the next three weeks.