Friday, July 18, 2008

Six Months

As of tonight after work, I will have been here for six months. Time hasn't gone by as slowly as it did when I was in Kenya, which I'm glad of. In Kenya, I was ready to go home after a month, but here after six months, I still feel okay living here. I guess it's just the difference between third and first world countries.

The first three and a half months went by wicked fast. After that it seemed to take forever to get to five months. The last month has gone by at a fair clip. I'm sure the next six weeks will be going by quickly, as I have planned a trip to Thailand, a couple backpacking trips, and some trips visiting my only two friends in Korea, who are both leaving soon.

At this point, I'm beginngin to settle better into my classes. It takes me less time to plan lessons and correct homework now. It's a little more routine. I've also started a reward and punishment system for homework that seems to be working a little better. I'm starting to have a better handle on the whole discipline situation, or I'm at least just not letting the kids get to me.

My Korean skills are getting better, but very, very slowly. I like Rosetta Stone, but I wish it would give me some more useful skills. Saying that the red circle is bigger than the blue square isn't exactly something I need, although the individual parts of the sentence have their applications.

I'm a bit concerned that I haven't had the chance to leave the country yet. I had wanted to take long weekend trips to maybe Hong Kong or Tokyo, but that just hasn't happened yet. Now that I only have a couple more three day weekends, I'm afraid I won't actually get to do all the things I wanted to do. I still have a week long vacation in December, but I want to go someplace a bit further than China or Japan, and not in a city, for that.

Other than not meeting my travel (and financial) expectations yet, everything's going pretty well. Now time to get ready for work.