All Work and No Play

....you know the rest. To go on a tangent (if I can go on a tangent on the very first line of my blog), there was a discussion about proverbs on bbc radio 5 live today. Who the hell is Jack and why is he a dull boy? Who is this 'Larry' who's always so infuriatingly happy? Anyway, yeah, I definitely have fallen into the rat trap recently that I'm usually so keen to steer clear of. Go on Bob...



It's only Tuesday and I'm already living for the weekend. I cannot tell you strongly enough that that is not how I want to live my life. A big part of working in Korea is my desire to steer clear of the illusions of career, materialism, competition at work, and having to give due consideration to disgusting expressions such as 'work/life balance'. I don't want there to be a balance, I just want to have a life!

I guess my schedule has been tough since I started back after the summer holidays but it was do-able and I was feeling positive about it all. What has driven me to complain about my job (mere days after having chastised foreigners in Korea for complaining about their jobs...) is that I found out on Monday morning, from students, that I'm actually not off work next week, as I had been told by my boss. It might not seem like a big thing (and it isn't) but it's the principle of it that really bothers me. A co-worker pointed out that last-minute, inexplicably frustrating changes like this are just a part of working in Korea - and he's right. But they don't have to be. The end result is that I'll have lessons next Monday and Friday, pooping on any plans I had to get away for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). On top of that, I'll have classes on the eighth week of this session (originally supposed to be a holiday) so I don't have any solid time off between now and going home for Christmas. Ok, I know a lot of people have it worse, but it's still frustrating. And needless.

Of course, it's out of the question to really criticize or inquire why you couldn't have found out earlier or why you had to be told by students (making you look as though you don't know what you're doing) or why this directly contradicts what you had been told at an earlier meeting. I nearly did that a bit when I first talked to my boss about it because it was at the end of a long Monday and I was pretty ticked off, but nothing good comes of that approach here. You have to do it because what the boss say, goes, and that's it. At a time of the year when I am, genuinely, working my ass off and cutting no corners in the hope of delivering good lessons consistently, it's tempting to ask yourself why you bother. My two DDE classes last night reminded me of the answer, if I had really even doubted it. When I went back to class to collect my computer at near enough 10pm, about half-a-dozen students were sat there in silence studying their TOEIC textbooks. Absolutely unbelievably. Brilliant. As a teacher, when the powers-that-be fuck you off, you've got to remind yourself that it's the students that you're really doing it for. Ok, no more complaining about work...for now...

FC Seoul Foreigner's Day? Well, you'd have to say that it was a pretty successful day for the club. I am indebted to Matt at Hollywoods in Itaewon for four free tickets to the game. It was bizarre seeing so many foreigners in Sangam World Cup Stadium and, to mark the occasion, the club kept showing reveling non-Koreans on the big screens throughout the game. There was a nice family atmosphere where we were in the East Stand. Check out the highlights of what ended up being a comfortable 4-0 win over Daegu, the highlight being a wonder-strike by the one and only, Dejan. That's eleven goals in our last three games, with only one conceded (against Pohang). K-League fans should also check out the latest (and ever improving) 'The Outside View' podcast, greatly enhanced by Matt Burnett this week, but still a little too Suwon Bluewings flavored for my liking. I can see that it's still a work in progress, and I'm looking forward to following it over the coming weeks and months.

No much more to say today because, these days, I'm eating, sleeping, laying awake in bed thinking about and dreaming about teaching. I kid you not. In fact, my goal for the week is to care less about my job. Thinking about an escape usually does the trick. I was reading about International Schools in Poland last week. Maybe I should toy with the idea of wrapping things up in Korea (for a while) in March, which is much easier said than done...