The working life

I'd like to open this up by saying, "Oh man, the past two weeks have been so crazy I just haven't had time to write an update LOL!" but in reality it's actually been the opposite. I'm settling into a routine now so not a whole lot new is happening on a day to day basis. You know how in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" the kids wander into Narnia and they're like, "Oh cool! Neat! Wow! That dude's like a half goat man, the fuck is with that?" [not an actual quote]. That's kind of what the first week or so was like here. Now I'm settling into that time where everything just seems normal and nothing surprises me.

Forgive the Narnia comparison by the way; I've been teaching children in a foreign country for three weeks and there's only a handful of things that we both know. Incidentally, it might be time to re-read Harry Potter. They're nuts about that here.

A lot of what I'm trying and failing to deal with now is ordinary domestic stuff. Today I had to buy a broom, only they don't make brooms for people who like to, you know, stand upright. The broom is half the length of a normal broom which forces anyone over four feet tall to hunch while sweeping. And I know the average height in Korea is lower than that of North America but it's not like everyone here is Tyrion goddamn Lannister. That's about as much as I want to say about household chores. This is definitely not going to be one of those blogs.

I hang out with my fellow teachers a lot, which is fun. They're an awesome crowd, and I'm not just saying that because I have a lot of them on Facebook and need to cover my ass. They're genuinely great to be around. I joined a gym but due to a slight cold the past week or two I haven't been able to go as often as I want. The nights are getting cooler so I'm jogging more frequently. I can't imagine I look super endearing, lumbering around a quarter-mile track in an empty stadium at 1:00a.m., but it's keeping me healthy. Fortunately the only other people I run into that late look just as weird as I do.

It's strange, I haven't been here very long but I feel like I'm changing a little. Things I do and say, how I react to certain situations, stuff like that. I can't tell if I'm imagining it or remembering wrong but I do feel different. In a good way though, don't get me wrong. I think it might have to do from switching from a no-stress but unbelievably tedious and unfulfilling job to a stressful albeit highly rewarding and enjoyable job. For those of you who don't know: I used to work in a warehouse, a job with a skill requirement so low that people driving past the building were technically employees for a few seconds. I do miss the lack of stress, but not as much as I used to miss being proud of what I do.

This weekend I'm going on a retreat with my co-workers which I'm excited about. New locations! Woo! Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to say next time.



Today's title