Yeah, Well Lesson-Plan THIS!!!

Hey, I'm back ya'll. I have been beyond tired this past week. I'm sick...sore throat, voice randomly going out, bright yellow flourescent snot. But not really a cough, which is good. So anyway, my being sick didn't help. Then I've experienced a lot of, "Hey, schedule 9,000 lessons in 2 days" deals. Yeah, I usually plan my lessons the night before and now you're asking me to plan 30 lessons, the last of which will occur at the end of Dec? I was complaining about it a bit to my co-teacher and she just said, "Make something up. Lie. Then change it later." Good advice. Not like they haven't changed shit on me at the last minute. They also wanted me to plan out 4 weeks of the English Camp I have to do over winter break. I randomly wrote shit down, but again, it'll probably be changed.

I was trying to find out about my winter vacation today, as well as negotiate a little. I think it kind of sucks that I only get 2 weeks off (esp when there are at least 3 months when school's not in session). I was reading over my contract (they actually gave me back a copy of one without me having to ask, wow!) and there was a part talking about OT hours...of which I now have 6 a week. [Side note...I teach 28 hours a week and the average other person in this program teaches MAYBE 20/wk] At least I get an extra $480/mo. But back to my point...I can either get $20 for every OT hour or exchange 1 OT hour for 2 paid vacation hours. Now, in a "normal" week that would mean 20 OT hours (40 hour weeks). BUT...my contract states that during the school winter/summer break I only work up to 20 hours/wk. SO...I want to try and trade in only 10 OT hours to get another week off this winter, making it 2 weeks. So I was asking about this and she was confused on that (but I think she understood it and thinks it's possible). But I was trying to figure out what weeks I wanted off and she didn't know when school resumed in Feb...which kinda put a hitch in me planning when I wanted my vacations. If I had my way, I'd "buy" one week right after Christmas and have the last week of Dec. off. The Korean New Year is apparently at the end of Jan, so I'd want to use my 7 days vacation tacked on to that holiday to get about 12 days off total (including the holiday and weekend days) at the end of Jan/beginning of February. Cross your fingers!!! If this works out I'd also want to "buy" more time off for my summer vacation.

Man, this is going to be long as I haven't written about anything really for a while. Maybe I'll make one post for "things that have been/are happening" and another for "Things I find amusing." In case you don't know, this post would not be in the latter category.

I had super excitement about a week ago when I received a package from my mom. It was sent to my school, so that was kind of funny. I went down to the office to get it (after a long and confusing conversation in Korean and broken English with the office lady after which I only understood, "Mother...come down now"). Wow, she knew it was from my mom, kudos to her. Anyway, on the package the huge custom slip was stuck on there and on the custom slip everything in the package had to be listed. So the office lady starts reading the list of stuff to me. Which was both funny and a little embarassing. I mean, it was all food. I wonder what she was thinking. She seemed confused by the beef jerky. Dude, it's my mail and in a way, you're reading it. Stop. So I got home and cracked that baby open like it was friggin' Christmas. Mac and Cheese! Velveeta cheese (not generally thought to be quality, be in Korea, it IS...and it's made some killer grilled cheese sandwiches...or 'sandwitches' as they spell it here), mashed potato stuff, various packaged cheesy pasta meals, Chips Ahoy!, Riesens, beef jerky (I finished that off in approx. 10 minutes), and a great microwaveable cookie that I saved until last night. It was really good. THANKS, MOM!!!!! It only took 8 days for the package to get here, but she sent it fast mail (by accident, apparently?) and it cost a small fortune. It's been taking 3 weeks for letters to get to me. Yikes.

I had a low-key weekend, which was nice. Colleen and Will came over Friday night and we had a sleepover at my place. We had Mac and Cheese. Originally it was only going to be Colleen and I, but Will heard about it and bought his way in by bringing a block of sharp cheddar cheese that he bought at the underground market in Seoul. So we had that, too. It was good. We had a lot of cheese. Although none of us are from WI (Colleen is from St. Paul and Will is from someplace in Ohio). We then watched A&E's 'Pride and Prejudice' because Colleen really wanted to see it. Which means we were up watching it until 4:30am since it's so damn long. I don't think Will was the most pleased with the choice, but he's a trooper and a gentleman so he sucked it up.

Anyway, fast forward to now because I don't feel like talking more about my week. Tomorrow night I'm going to a party at Will's that he's hosting. Ok, get ready because this is a weird-ass party. It's a Disease Party. You go and you wear a nametag with your 'favorite' disease on it. At first I was like, wtf?, but it makes a little more sense when you have the explanation. I guess 2 years ago on Oct. 22 he was diagnosed with this rare disease. I can't remember what it is right now. Anyway, he's pretty much fine now but he has to take a lot of medication and stuff. So now he holds an annual "Disease Party" in celebration of the fact that he's not dead, perhaps? I'm not quite sure of his overall motive. Anyway, I've gotten clearance to have jaundice. I wasn't sure if that was a disease, but I was told that anything that makes you turn funny colors counts. JAUNDICE ROCKS!!! Can anyone remember where my love of jaundice originated?? Because I can't. Anyway, it should be interesting.

Ok, I think I'm pretty much updated. Oh, it was Jaclyn's Bday last week so we celebrated. Here are a couple pictures of us at World Beer House not far from my apartment.