home and away

the other day in my 3rd grade class we read about disco fever. some of the shit we read is just ridiculous. i am not even really sure what grammar point it was enforcing. something for past verb forms maybe. we just ended up clarifying who starred in saturday night fever and what 'thriller' meant (both as a word and as an album). apparently thriller overtook the snf soundtrack as highest selling record in history at some point in the 80s? oh, i also had to explain what a soundtrack was. yeah, on top of being ridiculous, the material is very misinterpreted (or not interpreted at all) by the students. and this was an advanced class.

anyway, i did identify with one of the sentences. it was a quote from a reporter at the new york times during the 70s and it went something along the lines of "the current generation graduated, it secured employment, and endures. and every saturday night, it explodes." i feel like my present life is somewhat reflective of that statement. i obviously don't have anything close to a serious corporate style job, nor do i go dance at the discos every weekend. BUT i feel like my new life has fallen into a pattern-- a new pattern-- that i have never really experienced in all the chapters of my life. even though my job is not a really very serious job (after all, i am a teacher without a teaching degree), it is a job with a certain amount of responsibility. i had to take a drug test (first time ever), i have to be present for all my classes everyday (substitutes are very hard to come by), i have to do my own planning no matter how long it takes, and many times i am tired by the end of the day. this leads to a somewhat boring, though not unpleasant, existence.

i have to be at the school by 10 am, which means i have to leave my house to walk to school (which i love) by 9.50. not a bad schedule. i pretty much always get a good night's sleep. i have a two hour break for lunch, one hour of which we have to be at the school for planning and to show our faces for the parents who come by to pick up or drop off their kids. that's why they pay the money for this school after all, because there are white people doing the job. after planning (which might take 20 or 30 minutes.. we follow the books so there isn't much wiggle room), the rest of the time is for reading. classes begin again at 2.30 and i am finished by either 5 or 7. then it's home again. i cook myself dinner-- like, an actual good meal, then i sit on my balcony and read while the sun goes down. i drink some tea, maybe clean for a bit or shower, go online, then bed. i suppose i could go out on the weeknights here in pyeongtaek, but the reality is that i really enjoy the evenings to myself in my apartment. if i need something at the store or feel like a walk, i'll wander around town for a bit. but i can wait for the weekends for the fun stuff... and this is the 'explosion' part i was talking about before.

every weekend (well i guess i have only been here for two weekends), plus one tuesday, i have journeyed up to seoul. it's an amazing, and amazingly HUGE city complete with subway, beautiful wide river, tall buildings for miles, and plenty to see and do. the first weekend was a crazy time in hongdae, which is one of the central club/bar/young people/shopping areas. so much stimulation, so many foreigners, so much music, drink, dance and such late hours, with bars and clubs shutting down at 8 in the morning (or maybe never) in many cases. the next tuesday i journeyed up for a short, mellow goodbye bar run for the departing teachers. this past weekend i met another friend up in seoul yet again, this time in a different neighborhood, and got a whole different experience drinking with students from his school (from everywhere- thailand, china, kasakhstan, u.s.a., and korea) around a back table, with plenty of pitchers and soju.

i feel like i'm leading a sort of double life. one here in pyeongtaek where i am a teacher/worker and homebody/relaxer. then another on the weekends where the far more exciting big city awakens the desire to dance and drink and socialize. my different moods and actions coincide with the the separate places.

maybe as i (or if i) begin to make friends here in pyeongtaek, things may change, but for now the prospects remain bleak. the foreigners consist of military and, well, military. not a bad thing. not the best thing. my fellow teachers are one military and two friends from houston. they are all very nice. but, so far, none of us have really made attempts at including each other. and i'm content to keep my social life within the confines of the big city and enjoy thoroughly my vast amounts of free time to read, cook, relax, and enjoy a balcony.