A Typical Mundane Day in Korea

Now that vacation is over and the first week of school is just about finished, there is not much to look forward to. Sure, in less than a month I'll be imprisoned in a North Korean gulag hopefully awaiting my rescue from an ex-president (come onnnn Willy), but until then it's just another day after day in the office. If I'm going to be bored, you will be to. So in the spirit of mundanity (google says it's a word), here is a typical weekday in Korea in the perspective of Greg.

6:40am: Alarm goes off.

6:48am: Alarm goes off again.

6:56am: Alarm goes off again.

7:04am: Alarm goes off, I get up. I think about resetting my alarm for a later time, but quickly dismiss the idea because tomorrow I'm going to have a nice long morning at home catching up on the news from home.

7:15am: Stare at my face in the mirror. Do I need to shave today?

7:20-7:49am: Enjoy reading the bad things I read on the internet because they are blocked at my school.

7:50am: Depart for school.

7:54am: Arrive at school walking up the stairs with groups of students as the practice their pronunciation of 'morning.' When I see a teacher that doesn't speak English, bow, not forgetting to make an awkward grunt noise in place of 안녕하세요.

7:55am: Turn the air conditioning to a chilling 22C. Bask. Immediately being to worry that the principal will make a random visit and be angry that I'm the only one in the building using air conditioning regularly.

8:30am: First class. "Teacher! Beard!" Continue ongoing clapping experiment. I can say anything I want and so long as I clap afterwards, the students will clap and say "Yaaaayyyyy."

Typically I'll have two classes in the morning, except Wednesdays and Thursdays, when I'll have three.

12:20pm: Lunch. Hope that either my co-teacher, or at least some teachers from grade 1 will also be eating, so I won't have to answer the same food-related questions I've been answering every day since I arrived.

12:45pm: Badminton and/or ping pong, but only if I ate lunch with the physical education teachers.

1:20pm: First class after lunch. "Lincoln lunch!"

Typically I'll have two classes after lunch, except Wednesdays and Thursdays, when I'll have one. Four classes totaling 200 minutes per day. I used to have teacher training classes placed sporadically in my schedule, but because of my [rigorous?] classes they have dimished to one teacher coming after school on Wednesdays. We now just go get coffee and discuss our lives.

4:10pm: Classes over. Students come in to clean my office and classroom. Students come in to stare at me briefly, then run away. Students come in to steal pens. Students come in to scream and generally be insane.

4:30pm: Go home.

Special note: There are ten minutes break between each class. This time consists of students swarming my office/English Zone to play Halli Galli, which is Satan reincarnated into a game. I've hidden all the games that annoy me, but Halli Galli always finds its way back into the arms of the students.

4:34pm: Arrive home, put on pajamas, make tea, read. This is my absolute favorite part of the day.

5:45pm: Probably fall asleep.

6:30pm: Go to school's gym. Free gym membership! Of course, I could run outside, but I stopped when the largest colony of gnats ever claimed ownership of the sidewalk along the river.

6:30-7:30pm: Students will come in during their dinner break to watch me exercise. Vice principal is also a regular spectator.

7:45pm: Bathe. While showering, rice is cooking. Multi-task!

8:10pm: Mix tuna with rice. Flavoring varies. Mercury poisoning imminent.

8:15pm: Eat. Watch Daily Show from yesterday. Watch Colbert Report from yesterday.

9:00pm: Go to local Dream Mart to pick up any necessities. Tuna, rice, ice cream, orange juice, milkis, coffee, et cetera. Practice my Korean numbers. Let the store-owner bag everything I buy regardless if I need the bag or not. Get yelled at if I attempt otherwise.

9:15-11:00pm: Maybe I walk around town a bit. This is, however, dangerous. The students leave school at this time so I will see them everywhere. Sometimes with their parents, at which case I'm forced to a late-night coffee.

Of course there are exceptions to this daily routine. I do things, I swear. I occasionally leave my bubble of rural east Daegu. Sometimes I almost buy a new pair of shorts downtown only to realize that I probably don't need new shorts, and the shorts' lengths here average halfway between knee and naval. Yet I still hold hope for next time.