another day, another won

kelly here. it's about 9:30 in the am. i always wake up early here completely on my own. i'm not sure if it's because of all the light that comes into the bedroom or just that i'm still not totally comfortable. either way, i'm up.

happy halloween! it's the morning of november 1st here, but back home, halloween night is just getting started. and how i miss it! all that the kids here know of halloween (and probably not even all of the kids, but the ones in our school at least) is "candy, teacher! candy!" luckily deb and i both marched into school yesterday armed with an arsenal of bite-sized snickers, which are heartbreakingly expensive here for a snickers aficionado such as myself. i did get the proverbial lions share, having many extras and eating upwardsof forty myself. but, i digress. last night, we did celebrate halloween, albeit on a small and costumeless :( scale, by watching "the rocky horror picture show" over a few beers at our coworker's apartment (soon to be deb's apartment). we met some english teachers from another school in gunsan, which is cool. it's always a real treat to meet anyone new around here that we can communicate with. i believe the count is up to about 12. oh wow. anyway, it was fun.


yesterday we also got paid for the first time. and get this: we get paid in cash! what a dream. our boss takes out the 5% for medical/taxes (don't worry, we're not getting fleeced; no fuzzy math here) and then hands us a white envelope stuffed with won that has the amount written on the flap and the following written on the front:

kelly teacher!

thank you very much!

or, in deb's case:

deborah teacher!

thank you very much!

priceless. i lied about one thing though. our envelopes weren't "stuffed" as i said. we only got payed for the last 3 days on october, as our first week of training was unpaid and the second, paid. still, we got our fair share, in cash, in an envelope. we also got a good look at all the other teachers' envelopes, which were indeed STUFFED, in every sense of the word. they will be ours. next month, they will be ours. on that day, we will be able to scatter won to the wind and use it to light our ceegars.

today, deb and i take over our very own classes for the first time. the old teachers are out, deborah teacher and kelly teacher are IN! no teachers sitting in the back of the room watching us, which is quite a relief, really. however, this is also the first day we have to teach a FULL CLASSLOAD: six classes in six hours. and all of the classes are of different ages, levels, and general vibes. it's gonna be no picnic, i tell ya. and lemme tell ya something else that if you're a teacher, i don't even need to tell ya: teaching is f'n hard! no joke. but, as i've said, deb and i are getting the hang of it and i have no real worries. we both have one class each of absolute hellions, though. some of these kids are just maniacal. pray for us!

our working hours are a little different than we thought. deb teaches 2:30-8:30, and i teach 3:30-9:30. It's crazy getting out of work so late, i haven't done it since i closed the dunkin' donuts in the cheshire stop n' shop when i was sixteen. it kind of sucks, but i don't have to be at school until 2 pm, so i guess i really can't complain (which is mighty paradoxical of me to say, considering that i just did.)

well, that's about all the news that fits. other than that, things have been generally good and very busy. seems there aren't enough hours in the day no matter where you are. i gotta go prepare myself cause this day is gonna be a big one, and i've yet to have to prepare more than 3 classes for a day. hope all is well in ct, ny, IL (had to give you some love, adam, with your killer comments), or wherever else you may be reading from. love y'all, have a good night.

.kelly