Places I Go - My School

I got a good picture of the front of my school today.

This is the school where I work. I have to walk about 30 minutes to get here. (or 10 min bike ride/5 minute bus ride + 5-10 minute walk... depending on buses) I usually choose to walk - because it's free and because it's good exercise. 

Some of my 6th graders were playing soccer when I walked by. They all said hi to me. :D It's good to see them being brave. (braver than that 5th grade boy this afternoon who kept repeating "teacher, no englishy. no englishy." (on my way to class, the 5th graders were in the bathroom getting their mops ready to clean my classroom. i heard this mop slapping sound. the one boy was whacking the water out of his mop by hitting the wall with the mop. he's not really supposed to do that. so i stopped to watch, and laugh at him. this is when another boy was saying "teacher, no englishy. no englishy." as if i was even talking to him. they asked me why i was laughing (in korean) and i said "it's funny" and then said the korean phrase which doesn't... exactly work. you see... chemiseoyo means "fun/interesting/funny". *facepalm* This is why my students will tell me "It's funny." but they mean "It's fun." We have a lot to work on.)) 

I took this on a smoggy day. See? This is what air pollution looks like. On a clear day, it's beautiful. But meh - smog. 

This is the view from the first building (the one you can see in the first picture) if you stand on the second floor. The building with the blue roof is the gym. I've yet to go in there. 

Here's my office. I share it with the Chinese teacher. (she's really nice) My desk is the second chair, the one in the back. I've got my red thermal cup and generally my desk is clean... except the line of sticky notes on the monitor to remind me of stuff. The space is pretty small, but that's ok - all the better to air condition (for the few measly minutes it will turn on.) 

My office is in the 2nd building, which is behind the 1st... so my view is this: 

Not very pretty. In fact, I'm right across the alley from the main office.... And in the summer our windows are all open. I realized that if they really wanted to, they could look over and watch me. It's a little unnerving. 

I realized it the one time I was rocking out to music on my headphones (while working, mind you... rocking out is stress relief... really). I hope no one saw me. 

That's about it. Nothing very special. Our school is pretty big. The cafeteria has 2 floors. I teach around 600 students, and I only teach 3 whole grades (most teachers teach 4). The way it is... I end up teaching 27 class hours - which is 5 over contract.... And I am not being paid extra for 1 of those hours. Even with a contract - they really do try to squeeze things in - and call in favors... and it's really stupid. 

I can't complain much though. I have decent coteachers and the kids are not all that bad. :D 

Recent Shopping

I wanted to post pictures of school but I can't seem to find the picture I took of the front of my school! SO I must do that tomorrow.
Has it really been a whole month since I posted? Time flies when you've been busy!
June flew by. It was filled with classes and even more lesson planning. Summer break is quickly approaching, which means summer camp is nigh.

So instead I'll show you my recent shopping.

Bought these almost a month ago. Not on sale. But I will love them to pieces (and quite literally, i'm afraid... i do a lot of walking, and korean sidewalks are very unforgiving. i just wore a hole in my favorite flats. those flats were about 11 months old! :(  ) ((i bought these from 'the god of shoes' here in JP. it's this store in shinae called Tomato. that man is like a shoe genius. he's got good taste, and he can find a pair of nice shoes from just a few questions.))

I bought these 2 dresses and the little sweater last weekend. You see - shoulders are 'sexy' here in South Korea, so to be able to wear these dresses (or a few of the dresses i own!) I needed to buy that little sweater. It's very light and quite see-through (loose knit, almost mesh-like).
I was excited that I got these dresses for 15,000 won each.
The pink one is very light and gauzy. I wore it yesterday and it was extremely comfortable.

Confession time: I rode the bus to school yesterday because it's really ungodly hot right now. The bus is air conditioned. I was lucky enough to catch the bus that goes right up to school. So there I am, wearing my light gauzy rose dress. But when I got off the bus, I kind of fall down/out of the bus. It's all very quick. And well, as I got off, my skirt flew up in the back.
>.<'''' I could have died right there. Except I think I caught it in time, and I told myself at least the people still on the bus are high schoolers or older (as the bus lets off in front of the middle school).
That's when I discovered the guy from the admin office also got off the bus right in front of me. I had to recover instantly so as not to give myself away.
He was very surprised to see me there. Ahaha. He had to practice his English first thing in the morning. ^^'
Builds character, right? (besides - i never quit practicing korean)

I also bought these shorts. I kind of fell in love with them as soon as I saw them. Totally wearing them to Korean class on Saturday. 

Which reminds me - this Saturday is the last Korean class of the semester! While I can't wait to sleep in - I also will miss going to class. Class motivates me to leave my house. I don't like going out with no aim. Now I'll have to find something to fill my Saturdays til class starts again. 

Okay. Now if I can remember to take a picture of my school tomorrow, I promise I'll continue the "Places I go" series.