Springtime in Korea

So it is on to another month here in Korea. It feels like spring already, as I have been playing soccer and riding my motorcycle in shorts already. I was even able to do that a few odd times in February as well. Since it looks like winter is coming to an end here, I can say it is not nearly as severe as those harsh winters spent in London trying to walk to school with snow up to your knees. So this winter was a nice surprise. As I try to think back to any significant snowfall, I think it goes back to December before Christmas when we had about 4 inches on the ground for a couple of days. Ever since then, we have had nothing more than a dusting, which I am not going to complain about.

I have begun working my new schedule at work, starting at 3pm every day and finishing at 9pm on Mondays, Wednesays and Fridays and at 7:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So far, I enjoy the schedule, but the first day with the new schedule was a little hectic. Perhaps in typical Korean fashion, my class schedule was changed at the last minute; meaning I was no longer teaching the students that I was supposed to teach. So after preparing to teach a certain level of children and entering the classroom, I was told that I needed to change classrooms. This left me with nothing prepared and not even the slightest clue of what level of English these new students had. If I am underprepared for something, I can accept that. But when the actions (or in this case, decisions) of other people make me look unprepared, I get angry. Not that the kids would notice that I wasn't prepared, but it was a waste of my time and a struggle to fill the time of the class. Let's hope this week flows a little smoother.

As for my free time in the day. I have reactivated my slightly dusty gym membership after a hiatus dating back to before Christmas when I started to take on a lot of overtime and extra private lessons. Now that things seems to have settled once again, I will try to get back on some sort of routine. If you remember in one of my earlier postings, I wrote about starting to read again and I can happily report that I am continuing that and should be done 1984 in a few weeks (it's a long book!).

I decided to take my motorcycle in for some repairs and a seasonal tune up after the winter. I needed a few random things such as mirrors (they were victims of a few collisions), and a new brake, etc. I also needed to get some welding done on my exhaust and had all cables and the chain checked. After it was all said and done, I had to pay a nominal fee of around $60 for everything, including an oil change and I even got a FREE second helmet! I think for something like this done back would cost almost 10x the amount, so I was very happy. Unfortunately, and ironically, today my motorcycle sits immobilized in my driveway as it has a flat tire. But hopefully that will not cost too much more. The reason that I am having it tuned up is that now two of my friends have motorcycles as well and with the better weather approaching, we are planning some road trips around the country. Should be fun!

I played a soccer game again this weekend with my foreigner team. We played on this great artificial turf field against a team that works for a newspaper. It seemed almost too nice of a surface for a team like ours to play on, but we were invited, so we did it! We continued our winning ways in our marathon match that lasted four 25 minute quarters. It was a great time, but with no substitutes, we were all very tired after the match. A small price to pay for victory.

At this time, I am about 4 days shy of my 8 month anniversary in Korea. Looking back, the time seems to have flown by. Maybe because of my lack of understanding of the Korean language, I still feel like I just arrived. My latest plans to arrive back in Canada are for sometime in late August/early September but it's still a long way away and who knows what can happen in the meantime. Right now I am just looking forward to watching this city wake up from the dead of winter and having some fun outside again. That's it for now. I hope everyone is well back home... don't worry, spring will come soon for you too!