BEEEPPP!!!! BEEEEEPPP!!! BEEEEEEPPP!!!!
Yet again, I missed my alarm. It's been becoming a habit these days; I often oversleep my alarm and end up running to work in an attempt to get to work on time.
The problem, you see, lies in the scheduling. My schedule is very irregular, and, as such, my sleep schedule is quite screwed up. Some days I start early and finish earlier, whereas on other days I start work much later, but end up heading home much later as well.
I guess I shouldn't complain, though, seeing as now I'm getting many more hours at work than I did when I started up in July, and I really do love my classes, so all is good.
My week begins, as all weeks do, with those infamous Monday mornings. While not ally my coworkers need to work then, I'm up as early as 8:45 AM. I do breakfast Italian-style. I make myself a nice espresso shot with my wonderful Italian coffee maker and I accompany that with some delicious bruschetta!
It's time to go! I get changed, pack my lunch, and take off! I'm slow in the morning, and usually show up to class without any additional minute to spare.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday starts off like this. I teach an adult lesson at 10:00 AM. The lesson lasts 70 minutes, but honestly, it's one of my favourite classes of the week! I teach three ladies, all mothers, who come in to the hagwon in order to learn a little English, but I personally believe that they also enjoy interacting with foreign teachers and learning a little about our culture. My adults are the sweetest people ever! They are always offering me food and coffee/tea during our lessons, and we have lots of fun in class. They truly are sincere, as a couple of times when I was a bit under the weather they brought me special ginseng tea (which apparently can cure anything), and, on some occasions, even some special medicine.
One of my adults actually has two children studying at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and she can actually relate to a lot of what I say about Canada. We meet thrice per week. On Mondays we read an article together and learn some vocabulary (I usually give them some articles from my website), and on Wednesday and Fridays we go through a grammar textbook. It's a lot of fun!
In reality, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday goes pretty much the same way. After my adult lesson ends at 11:10, I generally have a 3.5 hour break until my real classes start. This is when I take the time to get all my work done, and, frankly, I'm kind of thankful for it. I'm usually very inefficient if I have to go home and do work on my own time, so having to wait out my long break at work actually helps me focus on getting all my work done for class. A typical day's work may include: writing tests or quizzes, correcting tests or quizzes, correcting students' homework, preparing worksheets, writing student comments or writing report cards. I also take some time to go through all the material I need to teach in class, even if it requires little to no prep, just so that I know what I have to do. Writing tests usually ends up being the most time-consuming, though I actually really enjoy writing them and I try to make them as thorough and fair as possible. My students actually tend to get good grades on my tests, so overall I'm quite proud of them.
At my hagwon, parents can choose from two options for their kids. They can opt to send their kids for Monday, Wednesday and Friday lessons (MWF), which would be roughly six hours per week, or they could send their kids for Tuesdays and Thursdays (TTH), meaning these students would be getting four hours per week. I'll let you guess which option tends to be more popular among parents (hint: more learning time is usually the preferred option). Learn more about what it's like to work at a Korean hagwon HERE, or about the general hagwon culture in Korea HERE.
My MWF classes are a lot of fun. I particularly enjoy teaching one of my classes, a group of five 8-year olds. We've been together since I started working in July, and at this point we've grown extremely comfortable around each other, and their improvement has been incredible! I certainly hope to keep them until my very last day here.
Classes begin at 2:30, and end at 7:15, though this term I'm actually done teaching at 5:55, though I teach a private lesson with a student heading out to Kansas City for university thereafter. Once that's all done, I can't go home just yet. Teachers have to write "Daily Reports" at the end of the day, where we document what we've done in class, if there were any deviations from the syllabus and if there were any behavioural issues with the students. Some students can be quite energetic, but normally there aren't too many problems.
If everything goes according to plan, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm home by around 7:15, which is fantastic! Sometimes on these days I'll go out for lunch or dinner with some coworkers, though otherwise I'd just bring my own food or cook at home, which is also good.
In fact, I really try and limit how many times I eat out, and I cook at home whenever possible. Some of my favourite at-home recipes include: risotto (either mushroom, seafood or vegetable risotto), spaghetti (duh!), potatoes, fish, and my new discovery, Asian tofu with rice. In fact, I've even made beans, quinoa, couscous and chicken-noodle soup on a couple of occasions. I must say, I do eat quite well at home.
Seeing as I'm home so early, on these days I like to go for a jog after dinner. Unfortunately, cooking, eating and cleaning up can take time, so I rarely head out for jogs before 10:00 PM. The jog is quite refreshing, and I regularly do 12km runs, which takes nearly two hours, so I'm feeling quite good these days.
Tuesdays and Thursdays run a bit differently. On these days, lessons don't start until 4:00 PM, which means I don't have to be in until then (cue the bad sleep schedule!). The lessons usually run until 8:00-9:00, with middle schoolers coming in later in the day. My schedule has fluctuated based on the semesters, but I would usually finish working anywhere between 8:00 and 9:30, depending the classes I have. This is also when most private lessons are held, and so I've taught many students private lessons on these days.
Fortunately, my TTH classes require less prep, and so I usually tend to sleep in quite late on Tuesdays and Thursdays due to my 3:00 AM bedtime the previous night, which is why my sleep schedule is so bad. The irregularity of it all does not help me, but really I have no one to blame other than myself, which is why I am trying hard to just go to bed earlier and run more errands in the morning (such as groceries) instead of at night.
Seeing as I get home so late on these days, I usually eat leftovers or even instant ramen, though I only really allow myself to indulge in the deliciousness of instant ramen once per week.
Finally, Friday night comes around, and it's the weekend! As you can imagine, after working with kids all week long, it definitely takes its toll. I absolutely love the kids, but it is draining, so it's nice to get a break during the weekend. Unfortunately, I have not had as many opportunities to travel as I would have liked, mainly due to the lack of 3-4 day weekends thus far, but I do travel on every possible opportunity. I've taken a few weekend trips within Korea thus far, such as when I trekked the East Coast, marvelled at the scenic South or even when I was within arm's reach of North Korea at the DMZ.
When I stay in Seoul, I like to explore the city and/or hang out with coworkers and friends and maybe go to a good restaurant or bar. Recently I've even taken up the opportunity to attend some language exchanges and meet some new people here in Seoul, which has actually been quite fun.
And, of course, when I do get the luxury of a long weekend, I do leave the country! I've had two thus far, and I took advantage to go to Busan over the summer and to Vietnam over Chuseok! Oh, and I'm going to Taiwan over New Years!
Overall, though, weekends are my time to relax. It's usually when I do my groceries, when I do my cooking for the week, and when I dedicate some time to write this very blog. It provides a good break amid a very busy week.
It's a different daily routine, a different lifestyle here in Korea, one that I've never really lived before. I live alone, and I'm entirely independent, so in that regard it's even different than when I was studying abroad in Madrid, but I love it. It's a constant learning exercise, a constant culture shock, but a truly enriching experience.
-Daniele
