The end of intensives

August 24-30
Intensives are over and we can get back to our "regular" lives again.
This week was the first week of being back to our regular afternoon schedule and as much as we thought it would be nice to be back to the later schedule, this week dragged on as if it would never end. For me it was weird because while I was at the middle school every semester meant changes in classes and books, and getting to know a large number of new faces. However, up in the Nokchiwon it is for the most part, the same kids and material as last semester. This made it a little less exciting and a little more monotonous to start the semester. Adding to the is the fact that I am teaching the same two classes all week, 5 times a piece, to a bunch of kids who just want to freak out at life for dragging them down.
We started the week giving out books and going over class stuff as usual and trying to adjust back to the afternoon schedule. At midweek Margaret and I went in the morning to see Ice Age 3 with one of our Korean coworkers. Unfortunately she had to cancel to take care of her kids, so we saw the movie just the two of us and had a good laugh even though we both could have used the sleep more than the laugh. The rest of the week went by at a snails pace and made the head cold that I had been fighting that much more annoying and hard to live with.
By the time Friday came around there was nothing short of a nuclear war that could have kept me in that building. We took off and headed to the Wa Bar in my neighbourhood to meet up with most of our friends from the elementary school to celebrate Brett's birthday. It was a good party and we hungout talking and having a few drinks until about 3am. On Saturday I woke up at a relatively decent time and went with Margaret to the Seoul Museum of Art to see a Renoir exhibit. Unfortunately we didn't have much time and only got to see half of it before leaving to make it to Myeongdong for Brian's belated birthday lunch.
For lunch we went to a restaurant called Todai, which is an all you can eat sushi style place that also includes some other styles of food. It was a bit expensive but well worth it. After that some of us stuck around to check out some stores before going our separate ways to have a rest before we got together later that night. Eventually we decided to get together in Gangnam for some drinks, which eventually turned into Hookah and drinks and a trip to noraebang (to give Emily her first experience) until 5 am. After that we all headed home and crashed.
We didn't get to sleep long though, because around 11 am one of our coworkers called Margaret to invite her to the movies; who in turn phoned to invite me. We dragged ourselves to the theatre to see the new G.I. Joe movie, which was totally awesome and then had a quick bite before I had to come home to get some rest before Sunday trivia. I never did get the rest but I had a chance to get some things tidied up before heading to trivia. While at trivia I started to feel pretty bad, as life was catching up with me and eventually ended up as more of a sideliner than a participator. Eventually it ended and we got on the subway and I came home and got some rest.
I'm hoping the coming week goes much better.
Hope you are all enjoying the end of the summer.