A Matter of Scheduling

For anyone who's talked to me in the past few weeks, you'd probably have a hard time pinning down exactly what days off I have over the next two months. Even friends here in Korea, whom I've talked about this in great detail with, will probably have trouble being sure about what exactly is going on with my schedule between now and March. That's because I don't really know exactly what's going on, and I'm pretty sure my school doesn't either.

Here' what I do know. I have to work for 10 days in January, but I'm not 100% sure when. Probably near the end, with the last 3 or 4 days being an overnight camp on Jeju Island, 4 hours south of Mokpo. The rest of the time working is still a muddled mess, and may not be sorted out till the day before I come in, which is most likely the 14th of Janurary.

After that, I come to school for two days on Feb 4th and 5th, during which time I'm sure I will do zero work, and then I'm off on vacation until March 3rd when school starts again. It's that long February break that Shannon and I will use to do something exciting, though we havne't found anything that's got us really pumped to go do. I think we just need to find some cheap flights to a warm beach.

Christmas is over now, and the kids are bringing all their fun toys to school. So many foriegners here in Mokpo have mentioned how little it's felt like Christmas lately, and I've been trying to come up with a few reasons why. The lack of cold is one reason, as even for Korea it's been unseasonally hot. No visits with extended families are happening. There's no malls to go to, which I never realized how much a crowded mall made me think of Christmas until now. And Wham! That silly Wham! song, "Last Christmas" is the most played Christmas song by far here in Korea. The only problem is, it has so very little to do with Christmas, it doesn't bring out any holiday or festive feelings at all. But, Christmas is in the title, and people here seem to love it, so I'm sure next year it'll be the #1 Christmas song again.

Anyhoo, today is the last day of school before the holidays, so I thought I should finish off the blog before I leave. I've got 3 hours of free time now which will be sent entirely on cleaning my classroom. It's not too bad of a disaster, but it's messy enough that I'll need all 3 hours. I'm off to Seoul again for New Year's Eve. I don't expect to be blogging again until a few days after then, so I should have some more exciting tales from the big city when I return! So long, and Happy New Year!