Yesterday was Max and Sunny’s last day at the academy and so afterwards, Max, 태진 and I went out for some drinks and nibbles. It was a nice little place that I’d walked past a few times and we sat in there and talked about everything for about three and a half hours. It was really good fun and it’s just a shame that Max is leaving to go to the army, but we agreed that after he comes back from China we’ll meet up again and have another drink.
Today I had no plans so last night when 태진 told me that he was having to work today I thought I’d take some ice creams to the teachers. Well, later on in the evening, after the shift finished, 태진 phoned me and told me he had bought me toast :D He came over to the apartment and look what he gave me :D I know I’ve said it before, but I really like the people I’ve met here.
. AT SCHOOL
School was busy but awesome yesterday :D All the students knew it was my birthday and they all said, “Happy Birthday, Alex!” when they came in. Some of them even gave me presents which you can see in the picture below ^^
And yes, that is Stand Up o_O My students are freaking awesome :D Credit for that purchase goes to Jennifer and I have to say I was totally amazed. You will also note the little chocolate cake given to me by Alice :D I haven’t eaten it yet but I’ll probably tuck into it tonight, after the concert. She was so sweet about giving it to me yesterday, it made me ‘blee’ a little XD The little flower was from Christine and William. There was a can of coffee too but I drank that at work ^^” You can see who gave me the Vitamin-C tablet in the video :P Oh, there was also a big, white chocolate cake from Max which we ate at the first bar and 태진 형 said he’d take me to the cinema next month when he has some money XD
I will definitely be saying some big thank you’s on Monday and better yet, there are still some presents to come :D
. AFTER SCHOOL
School was great, but it really kicked off afterwards. I’m going to blitz through the venues and then pick up on the best bits in the next paragraph.
01 Local restaurant for dinner [joined by Mr. Lee's wife, Sunny/Susan leave] 02 Small bar/club for beer and cake [joined by maths teacher's husband] 03 Smaller bar for soju and drinking games 04 Club for more drinks
Dinner was nice and I ate my fair share of the meat :D It was a shame that Susan and Sunny had to leave but I didn’t really imagine them staying. We moved on to the first club and started the drinking. I also got to eat some of my cake but not much because Mr. Lee told me I had to go and give some slices to the other people in the club XD 태진 형 was with me so it wasn’t so bad but damn, it was embarrassing. Oh, and that was after I had to stand up while they put on some special birthday light show and played this annoying birthday song XD
We took some pictures and a video so you guys could finally see who I work with :) There aren’t many pictures but I think the video is more than enough.
The drinking games involved the usual mixing of drinks and then mixing of anything and everything on the table. This included some of the liquids contained in the snacks we had. I did my share but Mr.Lee kept drinking mine for me so I didn’t get drunk XD When we left the second bar, I could feel myself being a little ’soft around the edges’ but I was still OK. Mr.Lee was definitely drunk, as was 태진 by the end but not to quite the same extent. Max and the rest were just a little sociable.
The best present was definitely getting closer to all the teachers and enjoying their company. I have some new phone numbers to call and it was great to come together as a team after a rough Summer. Mr.Lee said some really nice things to me before and after he was drunk which meant a lot and the other teachers said they had really enjoyed working with me and were only sorry they hadn’t spoken to me more ^^”
Got home at about 3am, grabbed a shower and went to bed ^^
As always, you can see all the media in the gallery :)
It’s been a while since I actually talked about what was going on here in Korea rather than just media updates. I don’t usually like throwing so many different topics into one post but I don’t have enough to write multiples entries so my friend the bullet point list will lend a hand again.
. talk
I get the feeling that things are changing quite a bit in the school at the moment. With James arriving to take on a teaching and management role which basically has him liaising with the other teachers and the change of staff, it’s all feeling a bit odd. I was just getting used to the place the way it was and now it’s all up in the air again.
On a slightly lighter note, one of the new teachers actually speaks some pretty good English :D His name is 천진 and he started speaking to me at dinner yesterday. He asked my name and how long I’d been here. It was so nice to meet a guy closer to my age that speaks some English.
On a slightly random note, one of the younger male teachers has been telling the older students that I have a girlfriend o_O I wish he’d introduce her to me because I’d love to meet her.
. play
Injections are not fun and I’m more aware of that now than I was before coming here >> I had to have the first of threeHepatitis B shots yesterday. I am to go back in a month for another and then a month after that for the last. I went there by myself too which didn’t make it any better.
. love
I’ve been meeting with a lot of friends over the past few weeks which has been great. Tomorrow morning I’ll be meeting Ashley and two of her friends for a day in 서울, shopping for bits and pieces. I’m definitely looking forward to it but despite having met before I do feel as if this is our first proper meeting and I’m a little nervous ^^”
I’ve probably mentioned this before but I love my phone and I love using it so much more than I have in England. I actually want to talk to people and text them and I enjoy having the phone with me ^^ I never quite went for that whole texting all the time but now I think I’m making my way over that side XD
I’ve to be at school an hour early today for a meeting with Sunny and Susan about the way I’m teaching some of my classes. Apparently, some of the pupils have been underachieving in their tests despite having done the work during my class so they want to get it straightened out before it gets worse. Susan has shown concern before when she mentioned that some of the students had moaned about me not talking and explaining enough and I thought I had taken it on board and made the changes but apparently not. I want them to know that I take this seriously so I’ve jotted down some points that I want to make during the meeting and am more than ready to take on everything they have to say. It’s a bit of a slash at my pride when they say I’m not doing my job properly but I understand that I’ve only been teaching for a little over two weeks and accept that I need some pointers. More info on that tomorrow.
In lighter news, the cute little girl that’s always there early decided to steal my camera and run around snapping things but none of them came out right because she was in the wrong mode and running at the time. I did manage to salvage a shot I took of her and one she took of me though:
Anyone who guesses who is who gets some of my leftover candy and a sticker saying, “I am a genius I am.” :D Anyone who guesses wrong gets beaten with rolled up Super JuniorDon’t Don posters D;
