New apartment, new life.

Again, I find myself enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon in a coffee shop. I'm not at Starbucks this time, because I finally moved into my apartment. I live in a high-rise apartment building one block from my school. It's great. My apartment is huge; it's a studio loft. It took me over 3 hours to unpack everything on Friday night, when I moved in. I did a much needed load of laundry, cleared out my backpack and suitcases and sat back and enjoyed the crazy view I have. I'm on the 13th floor (lucky, huh?) and one of the walls in my apartment is a window; yes, the entire wall is a window. Which is good and bad. It makes the place feel bigger than it actually is, let's in a lot of light during the day and I have a fantastic view of the entire Jangsan district (where I live and work). But, at night, the lights love to flow in from the busy streets below and the sun likes to shine through early in the morning. So, I am desperately trying to find affordable curtains. I went to the store yesterday to buy groceries and a new comforter, and while I was there, I looked at the cost of curtains. WOW... 200,000. That's about $200. A bit high for me right now. I still haven't been paid, we get our check on the 30th of every month, so I think I'm just going to have to wait it out.

This last week has been very exciting. I starting teaching full time. I have my own classes, students and papers to grade. I teach 7 different classes. And out of all of them, one is the "hell" class. These kids are a lower level of English and are all in 6th grade. If I was in school until 9 pm everyday at age 12, I would probably act out too. These kids have no incentive to learn, and attempt to make my life suck. So, I return the favor. It's kind of nice- I get to take all my built up frustration on these lucky 14 children that grace me with their presence every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7:35-8:50 pm. I only have 3 weeks left with them until we start our Winter intensive classes and all the teachers get a new schedule, so I really don't care if these kids end up hating me because of my strictness as a teacher. Other than that one class, I've enjoyed my other students. It's nice not having to write my own curriculum, but the lessons do become mundane and boring after awhile. But this gives me more freedom to explore and make friends.

Cheers till next time, and as soon as my apartment is fully moved into, I will post pictures!