Thursday, March 04, 2010

Paparazzi, Me?

Another decent day at the new job. I finished a round of speaking tests and we spent some time doing a "reading" test with the six year olds. Conclusion: they can't read. This is no surprise, as half of them didn't know what the word colour meant yesterday during the speaking test. Then I "prepped" - I have to do a review of a book for a month before the kids will be ready to start the next level (hahahaha - we hope!) and so I was trying to download some free worksheets from the publisher, but the computer and printer at work are both so slow, it's not even funny. I spent a fair amount of time on Facebook. I was counting the minutes until I could leave. Plus, I was freezing - I don't know why Korean schools can't pay to heat hallways and bathrooms. Every time the door was open to the teacher's room, I got a cold, nasty draft. I dread the winter.

I spoke too soon when I stated on Facebook on my first day that the food was good. Turns out we were eating with the high school teachers that day and now, we eat with the kindergarten students. They don't eat quite as well. Aside from the daily kimchi (which is sort of meh, as kimchi goes) and some sort of daily soup, and some sort of daily meat (sometimes, not meat I can identify), and a whack of rice, there is a special teachers only portion of the meal each day. Yesterday it was seafood pancake, which was okay, and today it was steamed cabbage with red sauce. I'm not really sure why they didn't inflict that on the kindie kids too, but it was fine. The most hilarious part of the whole thing is that I have to eat at a kindie sized table - I can't even get my legs under it! I'm just too tall in general in this place; there are also decorations hanging from the ceiling that hit me in the head every time I walk down it.

Perhaps you've noticed the daily photos - I've committed myself to doing Project 365. I read all about how it changes the way you look at things and that claim isn't wrong. Since I have to take a photo every day, I'm always on the look for one. I don't really thing all my photos will be good, in terms of artistry, rather I'd like it to be a reflection of my life for a year, with some "arty" shots of crap in my house when I've been lazy. Like on day one. So, I see more than I think I used to, particularly colour and oddities. I've got a few ideas percolating. Thing is, it's also caused me to think a lot about how to stalk high school students - you see, I've been noticing that many of the boys have skinny uniform pants, though not the majority. .I'd love to get a photo of the two pants types together and I saw it, but how does one go about taking such a photo? I could see being that bold on the subway, but only if I was about to get off on the next stop! Then I briefly entertained staking out the bench across from the entrance for the high school. Yep, stalker. I only want their legs, though. Does that make it better.

In the poorly composed shot I did take (it was a quick snap that was as inconspicuous as possible), I also got this guy, the stereotypical subway-taking ajoshi. I like his type - sometimes they invite me to sit in the reserved seats on the subway, though I'm pretty sure they don't include foreign in the list of people those seats are intended for. The commute's not so bad. I like listening to music for an hour before work, though I tend to doze through the ride home. I refused to move to Nowon so that I could continue to have a social life, but I'm so damn tired by the time I get home, I'm not sure I can stay awake long enough to have a social life. Let's hope this is just the adjustment period.

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