Sometimes You Learn By Losing.

So I had my second slew of Saturday students.
And by slew, I mean six.
Two of my classes no-showed entirely, so now I'm not getting paid overtime for those four hours.
That's a decent bit of money, but it's not too much.
And now I've learned exactly where they stand.
The solution? Never work on Saturday ever again.
I don't have to, and if they're going to decide that they don't want to pay me when ridiculous things happen (such as zero of fifty-four students showing up), then, well, that doesn't give me much incentive to do it now, does it?

That's not all that I've learned, though.

Never heard back from Julie even though I sent her a few texts here and there when I was in her neighborhood. It probably has something to do with the awkwardness of our conversation on Sunday. That's fine, it doesn't really bother me. But it's nice to know that, in the future, it's probably best to ask for a number in a context other than 'I'm leaving but I want your number'. On top of that, it's best to be less awkward during the first actual conversation you have with someone. So I've deleted her number. I'm really just happy that I was able to walk up to a complete stranger, ask her for her number, and end up getting it. That's enough for me. Now it's time to learn how to be less fucking weird.

I'm pretty sure my students from last semester were pretty annoyed with me. Let's see... I rushed through units, asked them to come in on Saturdays, and was totally authoritarian with them. I did everything that the worst of my teachers did. I didn't really have much of a choice, but could my students have possibly known that? Nah. I've learned from that too, though- my students have usually had about eight hours of public school before coming to my school, and then they have other schools they go to, etc etc etc. I heard about one student who had five private schools to attend outside of public school and had legitimately attempted suicide by the age of eleven- some of these kids have serious issues at this point in their lives because of the academic stress, it seems, so it really helps to try to level with them. At the same time, though, you have to get through the book- it's a delicate balance, it is. Today was the first day of the Fall semester, and it seems to have gone pretty well. Some students still acted out a bit, but they were awesome for the most part.

Y is Style are cigarettes for women. They're like Korean Capris. Aaaaand there goes 25,000 Won.

X-Tune speakers aren't very good. You can't hear sub-bass through them. There goes 30,000 Won.

The Eye-Fi hotspot feature only works in the States. Furthermore, the card only works with wireless networks. There goes some more money.

I'm covered in mosquito bites because I haven't been looking for the corpses of mosquitoes I thought I'd slain.


The list goes on and on, but I'm learning from it.
That's the important part.

Not much else to report. Putting new pictures up right now, though!

As always, be well.
-토맛