A verbal ramble,

as opposed to a ramble in the woods. But that'd be nice too, were there to be any woods in Seoul. There are parks around, not that I've ventured to any of the bigger ones - yet. But there are mountains - plenty of mountains - but again, despite there being a big one just down the road, I'm yet to get my hiking boots on.

I guess my reason for this inane post is because I don't really have a reason. But I've been meaning to give an update on our working situation for a while now (but it's so demoralising), so here it goes.

The whole working 9 to 6 thing kind of sucks. But I'm over it, nearly. What sucks more is that we've been in Korea over five months now and we're only just getting settled. OK, so our ride has been less than smooth, but what's an experience in Korea without a hagwon closing down on you, running away from a school who tricked you into working without signing a contract, then slogging out at a kindergarten with no other English speakers?

I know that we experienced lack of communication issues at our old hagwon; I mean, it closed within a month of us arriving for a start...who told us that was going to happen?! But in a way it was kind of amusing to see what new stories we'd hear each day. But when it becomes a daily pattern, it gets a little tiring.

The thing is, is because this is the first year that this school has had English lessons and/or teachers, (English teachers you pedant), we have sole responsibility over everything remotely English related. Except we don't! We plan all our lessons, we write all our plans, we make all our materials, just like good little angelic teachers. And WHAM! SMACK! "You should arrange your classroom this way," or, "Oh, no, I think too hard for children," or, "By the way, we have no English lessons tomorrow."

Another thing is that because it's still a Korean school, the kids aren't forced to speak in English in our lessons. The "NO KOREAN" tactic just hasn't taken off here, since I'm not sure they even understand that. They don't understand when they are being reprimanded and think it's funny when I say I'm angry. It's not totally surprising when each kid is only getting between 20 and 60 minutes of English learning in a day. Sure, there are these new afternoon lessons that are supposed to mirror a hagwon style environment, but the kids see these as an excuse to run around in our classrooms after their hard slog of singing songs at kindergarten.

All in all, after all that job hunting over Christmas, we landed ourselves with a less than ideal job. We'll know better next time. "Next time," she scoffs.

I sense this post has turned a little sour since its nice rambly outset. It's not all bad. We came to Korea to have fun, relax, and a cultural experience. The latter we've definitely had, if not in all the best ways. But the sun is coming out these days more and more, and that certainly makes the job worth going in for, if only to enjoy coming out to a bright day at the end of it.

My Korean learning hasn't been going that well lately, but in the spirit of good intentions, I hope that April will bring with it much practice and motivation. It's supposed to be the start of the Yeouido cherry blossom festival now so hopefully the streets will start to look pretty, and next weekend we're heading out with WorknPlay - our original recruiting agency - to the city of Jeonju.

Oh! And yesterday we found out that next Wednesday is voting day - so no work! (Nice of them to let us know when they all found out, *grumble grumble* :D) The campaigns around here have certainly been eye catching, generally involving keen followers dancing and singing the number of their chosen candidate. I don't even know what they're being elected for, but I will welcome the unexpected day off.

For now, I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of Spring and is not too stressed with their own jobs/dissertations/looming exams. Roll on the sunshine!