...Great Teacher Thomas?

Teaching today was a snap. A breeze. No sweat.
Classes were anywhere from 70-80min, much longer than the 45min classes I was teaching yesterday. So how the blast did I manage to do so well today?

Not sure.

I only finished three of four lesson plans today, and one of them was shot to Hell when the students told me "teacher, teacher, teacher! we did already."

Those are the worst six words to hear from students. Aside from "give me detention, I don't care," I suppose. But I still managed to work things out and keep my students from landing themselves in detention while powering through a full unit in each class. So I'm sticking to the schedule that the higher-ups want me to stick to, which involves keeping the students well enough in order to get through the material.

They really love it when you tell them "If we can finish everything in class today, there's no homework. So please don't talk while I'm talking." The promise of one or two fewer pages of homework means a lot. My co-workers tell me that they're swamped with homework from public school, not to mention the homework they get from the other teachers in my school. So any little bit helps, right?

To further solidify my point, I handed out five reward pencils (five!) today and was actually told "good lesson, teacher" by one of the students. That and they actually did what I asked instead of sitting there and doodling.

I think it really helps that I have some beef with the public school system in 'merica. I never had any motivation to do my work. It was boring and the teachers didn't really get me into it- even the ones that tried really hard to get their students involved ended up dishing out more work than anyone could really handle unless they dropped all of their free time into studying. That makes it really hard to be motivated, you know?


Tom and Joel invited me to come out to Touchdown for pool tonight, but they got a call from one of their friends in the area who wanted to go to dinner with them, so Tom came to my door to explain the situation- he apologized a lot, which was crazy. But really considerate of him. It's just funny because I tried to pay the cab fare back from work today but they wouldn't have it. "Don't worry so much about trying to pay us back for every little thing. It's only $1.50." I told them I wanted to based on principle, and they liked the idea of that but still wouldn't take my money. Fair enough.

The weirdest possible thing that could happen is that I come home with an Australian accent, but who knows. Haha. I caught myself nearly telling Joel that one of my students was whinging about the possibility of detention... funny funny.

So instead of going out to play pool and drink soju, I decided to explore. Tonight I walked to the street I'd walk down for school, but went the other way instead. I managed to snap a few pretty choice pictures along the way. On top of that, I found a grocery store! It's not nearly as far from my place as Lotte Mart is, and doesn't have some of the stuff I need so I will need to hit Lotte Mart eventually, but it's nice to know that there's a grocery store so close to me. The walk is still a bit farther than I'm used to, so it was something else to walk back home with two huge bags filled with all sorts of things, but I managed.

One of the items I bought was a loaf of bread labelled "Happy Plus Toast." Everything here cheers me up and whittles away at the bit of homesickness I feel here and there, it's amazing.

I don't know that I'd call it homesickness, but... life in Denver really started picking up a few weeks before I left. I got to see a number of people I hadn't seen in a bit, started spending more time with old acquaintances and watched those relationships start to blossom into current friendships, I was given the chance to play a set (and offered a second chance) which made me really happy, and I finally came to understand the purpose, rhyme and reason of everything that's happened to me since last April. All of this stuff is important, but that was really the icing on the cake... that's really what made my coming to Korea feel like the start of a new chapter, because the previous chapter was concluded. Sense was made of everything that I'd dismissed as complete nonsense, complete madness. It's really an amazing thing that happened, and it all happened on the night before I was set to leave. So I guess it may not have happened if I didn't leave, but. Well. Like I said, life in Denver really started picking up a few weeks before I left. And I learned a lot about myself and my life in Denver during those few weeks.

It's okay, though. I've been listening to upbeat music, which always seems to keep my spirits up... and it seems like every little thing that I see here does the same. I walked by a pet accessory store and smiled the happiest little smile when I saw the dog leashes, all of that. I saw a dad give his son a piggyback ride. I went to a small bakery near the grocery store and got a sweetroll. I'm learning to appreciate the small things again due to the change of scenery- I'd become so accustomed to Denver that I forgot to appreciate the small things. I think it's an important part of being a happy and well-rounded person, to appreciate everything around you.

Like the two guys sitting behind me playing a soccer game against each other. Or the girl a few computers down rocking some Tetris. It feels like this huge picture is being painted for me, a picture that will become my life perspective when it's all finished. And I can already tell that it'll the loveliest picture I've ever laid eyes on.

Speaking of pictures! My Picasa photoblog will be up pretty soon. I gave my passport to one of the Korean teachers so that he could get my Alien Registration Card with it. He says it should take a week for processing. This means that I can spend some of my vacation getting things together- this means a handphone, bank account and, most importantly, internet at home. Then I'll be able to Skype and post pictures, video, all of that.

Okay, going to try to call my mom again.
Hopefully this time the international calling code I use doesn't get all pissy at me.

Take care,
-토맛