My own personal hell (aka: Summer Intensives Month)

At the present moment I am teaching approximately 48 classes per week. For those of you that don't know. This sucks... a lot! I basically have to arrive at school at 9 AM and teach with practically no break time (not even an actual lunch break on some days) until 7PM. Then at that time I have to stay at school and make worksheets and tests and God knows what else. I'm exhausted most of the time and what makes me feel even worse is that because I'm so tired I'm not as energetic and involved in class plus I'm a lot more cranky and on edge.

This recent crankiness has brought about the installment of several new classroom rules including: if the students play with their chairs I will knock their chair sideways and they have to kneel for a to-be-determined period of time. I'm such a mean teacher. But these little delinquents are driving me up a wall. In reality, it's not their fault, this is their summer vacation and their parents force them to take extra classes. I was always a nerd and I always went to summer school even though I never failed a class in my life, so I probably wouldn't have complained at their age. But lord knows a lot of them really don't want to be here and the last thing they want is more work during what is supposed to be their summer break. Nevertheless, when they're in my class, they will learn something. I don't care if I have to beat it into them... God I hope anyone reading this knows I'm kidding.

On top of everything else this is Liz's last week in Korea. My partner in crime is leaving me. What am I going to do? We're having a going away thing for her this weekend so that should be fun. But there's also the fact that I miss Nick. He's been gone for almost two weeks but it feels like longer. Lucky for him he's been getting to miss the crappy Daegu weather and the recent Susy crankiness and he's getting to see his family and friends so that's a good thing.
Still, last weekend was the first time, since we first me that I went out in Daegu without him. It was funny because boys kept hitting on me and I wasn't sure when, in the course of their attempt at flirtation, was the appropriate time to tell them that I have a boyfriend. I'm thinking about getting a button and just wearing it when I go out (it's more subtle then the hat Liz suggested that says "OWNED" but I give her creativity points). In the end, I just danced with my friends and got to spend some time with all the new friends I've made from Nick's (former) neck of the woods so I had fun. Oh, and on Sunday Liz and I hit up Seomun Market and I almost bought a dog. There was this adorable black little puppy that just kept looking at me with his pleading little puppy dog eyes that kept saying to me "please get me out of here" and they only cost $20. But then you have to pay for all the shots and I don't think I could handle potty training a dog. Potty training a child was hard enough.

For now I think I'm going to try to take a nap before my next class. I've got 20 minutes. Let's see what happens.

Update: Here are some pictures from Liz's going away party.
--- Liz, Julia, and me at Hotel Ariana for dinner.--- We were playing a silly Korean drinking game.--- This is what the game looks like... I won't even try to explain it but let's put it this way: The last finger on the cup has to drink it.--- I was showing Michelle how to do the "Crank that Soulja Boy" move.--- It was also Jace's going away party, he was having a good night... Lol!

Mudfest!!

So this past weekend was Mudfest and honestly...

It was freaking awesome. It's like the craziest and most chaotic environment ever and then just for the heck of it everyone is covered in mud. There's mud wrestling, mud pits, mud slides, mud crowdsurfing... It's insanity. At one point I got into this mud pit with this girl Ely and Nick and as soon as I stepped in I felt someone just lunge at my legs and within half a second I was flat on my ass. It reminded me of that Dane Cook joke where he's like "Let's turn off the lights and just feel around." It's pretty wacky. The only problem is that there are certain logistical issues that you don't really consider before getting covered in mud, such as: What do you do if you get mud splashed in your eyes but your hands are also covered in mud?? Yes... um... it's problematic. But then after you just lay on the beach and veg out. Oh wait, did I mention that there extremely large quantities of alcohol involved? Most people were completely obliterated. But that's what happens when a bottle of alcohol that will fuck you up costs less than a dollar. The end of the weekend was a little bittersweet since Nick left for a month back home right after Mudfest, but we had a wonderful weekend and he'll be back soon. I wish that next year for Mudfest Susa could come back for another visit or maybe I can convice Tati and Caro and Kristi to come on down for the Muddy debauchery.
----- Nick and I all covered in Mud at the Boreyong Mud Festival
--- I was being silly. And annoying David (one of the funniest/funnest brits I've ever met) is a pastime of mine. :-p

But I must admit this has not been the only crazy weekend I've had as of late. Just the previous weekend we had an extremely off the wall experience. Last Saturday night started off great. It was Nick, Tyler and Steven's going away party. As I'd mentioned, they were having a "Sweaty Marker Party" which basically means that you wear a white t-shirt and everyone takes turns writing the most inappropriate and demeaning things they can think of. I for one had "I love hentai" (which I do not) and "Abusive girlfriend" (which I will also dispute cuz Nick likes to play fight so he's asking for it) written on my shirt. I won't even go into what kinds of horrible things were written on Nick's shirt. But it was all in good fun. After hitting up a few bars we ended up at Old Skool, which is where we normally wind up on Saturday nights to go dancing. It was awesome. The deejay even played some reggaeton and merengue. It was awesome. Obviously none of this is odd, but I'm getting to that.
As we were leaving the club (at about 4 AM maybe) Nick and I notice that there is a Korean guy a little further down the street getting pounded on by two other Korean guys. At first it seemed really bad, since it was 2 on 1, but then they started hugging, which is odd but at least it seemed like they were friends, so we decided to stay out of it and just kept walking. Behind us, Tyler had also walked out with a couple of Korean girls that we'd all been hanging out with. All of a sudden there's an ear-piercing scream and as Nick and I turn around we see that the (extremely drunk) Korean guy had reached out and grabbed one of the girls by the hair and was pulling her down to the ground. Mind you, he did not know this girl, he just randomly reached out and grabbed a girl by the hair. Immediately Tyler was trying to make this guy let go and Nick went over and landed two kicks to this guy's head and he was still not letting go. I have no idea what this guy was on but he just wasn't even feeling any pain. It was ridiculous. He finally let go and his friends made him walk away and they kept on hitting him. You just know that that bastard was in a lot of pain the next morning. But it was just one of those things that you just feel like "where did that come from?!?!?"And it turns out that as Megan was walking home she was also accosted by some crazy drunk Korean guy, who kept telling her he wanted to have sex with her. This makes me want my black belt really bad.

So yea that was my last few weekends. A little nutty but not too bad over all (except that part where Nick had to kick a guy in the face).

It's that time of the month...

No, I don't have my period. That's not what I meant you sick-minded individuals. It's monthly evaluations time. As always, I have procrastinated to the last second and now evals are due tonight and I'm still not finished. Furthermore, I'm having trouble mustering the energy or drive to even get going on them. In my defense, the shit has really been hitting the fan at work. It all started with what I mentioned in my previous blog and it only got worse from there. At our monthly teacher's meeting we came to discover that, because they are splitting monthly intensive classes over two pay periods, we aren't going to be paid overtime for doing a substantially larger amount of work. Yes, it sucks ass. In their defense, the dates of the kids vacations (and thus the summer intensive classes) were determined by the government, so it's not really their decision to screw us. Or is it? Maybe it's some big X-files type conspiracy with the government. I don't know.

What I do know is that ever since we found this out, almost everyone has been in an extremely foul mood at work. I think it just came at a really bad time because most of us foreign teachers had been feeling dicked around for a while (Luke's apartment is a shit hole, Megan's is infested with bugs, Kate hasn't been helped to get to an important doctor's appointment, I haven't had a computer for more than 4 months now and yet I'm expected to make tests, reviews, worksheets and tons of other stuff, oh and don't even get me started on Liz, the poor girl's frustrations have reached epic proportions). All of these things and then to feel like yet another thing is getting thrown on, things came to a head. I feel kind of bad for out academic director, after all this is not entirely her fault, but it is her job to be our liaison and make sure that the things we need get done. Whatever. Then to have to start yet another month without any resolution and tons of work to be done. It's been a stressful week. But enough venting.

The ray of sunshine in my life has definitely been getting to spend time with Nick. I'm trying to take advantage of time now before he has to go to the States for a month. I know that it will not be too long, but I'm gonna be lonely without my Ninja. Last Sunday he had his black belt test for Tae Kwon Do. I think he did really well, especially on the sparring part. I helped him practice for that part on Saturday during fight club and I'm still nursing a few monstrous bruises :-P. He doesn't know the results yet but I'm willing to be optimistic.

Luckily, today is Friday so I get a couple of days to rest and help Nick move out of his apartment. And then on Saturday night he and his two best friends here, Stephen and Tyler, are having their big farewell party. It should be a lot of fun. They're having something called a "Sweaty Marker Party." Now I had never heard of this but apparently the idea is that everyone wears a white t-shirt and carries around a sharpie marker and throughout the party (and as the level of intoxication increases) people write on each other. A very strategic place on my body has already been claimed as a box will be drawn around it and the words "My boyfriend is a cage-fighter" will be written in it. I'm amused, to say the least. Anyways, I'm looking forward to that and a couple of weekends ahead as the following is Mudfest. Yay!!

So that's it for now.