yellow sand, and other hazards of living in Korea

It's been awhile, but here I am. It's Monday (this blog entry is only a day late), and this is my first day of relatively normal school. It's not really normal, since we had "Opening Ceremonies" for the new first graders today, and I'm only teaching one class (in about 15 minutes), but things are maybe starting to settle down.

I find it difficult to believe, but according to my co-teacher they haven't made the schedule yet, so I don't know how many class I'll be teaching or when, but hopefully that'll be resolved by Wednesday. I was really (really) dreading coming back to school all yesterday, but I managed to shake off most of that and get in a more positive zone this morning when I arrived. We have a new vice principal, and a few new teachers (I think teachers are required to change schools every few years), but otherwise it seems to be business as usual. Part of the reason I was dreading coming back here so much is that all of my favorite students graduated. Whereas, at DK, I really loved the second graders, the second graders here at N were the ones who made me cry--they're not bad kids, they're just really talkative, which is frustrating. So there's no remaining students with whom I have a very strong bond, but alas... it's a fresh start.

I started making a list this morning in my notebook during Opening Ceremonies titled "Ways I Can Make This Semester Suck Less." So far, it's pretty short. I'm going to give less candy and use the threat of homework in hopes of creating a less rowdy environment. I'm hoping this semester will be less stressful as relates to lesson plans, because I already have a huge stockpile from last semester. (Unlike my friends who didn't have textbooks and thus could just teach the same lesson to all of their classes, I had to create three different lessons each week, so I could just theoretically do the same thing this semester.) But, some of the lessons were crappy, and some of my Friday lessons at DK I did with all the grades. I'm hoping to make my lessons a little more cohesive and organized this semester, and to review every single week, so that some of the more diligent students can really have learned something meaningful in my class. I'm going to try to shed my shackles to the textbook completely, if possible. I'm going to be more organized.

Those are my goals, anyway. I'm hopeful. I'm also going to force myself to do all of my lesson planning at school, so I can have more time for myself for jogging and studying Korean, and just so I can generally enjoy my time outside of school and not have to worry about what I'm going to teach tomorrow.

I ended my exercise embargo two days ago by going jogging both days this weekend, and it felt good. Not really... it sort of hurt, and I'd lost a lot of my endurance I'd built up, but it felt good to be out there. Spring is finally (finally) starting to make an appearance-- it's usually in the 30s when I go lately, rather than the 10s as it was two weeks ago, but I've been warned to expect some frequent(ish) super-cold and snowy days at least until the end of March. I also have a new "meteorological phenomenon" to worry about in the form of Asian Dust. I'm not sure how serious this actually is, but it's caused my co-teacher to warn me not to go outside on certain days. (Unlikely. I can't afford the gym this month [but the Macbook is paid off], and I'm not going to stop jogging because of some dust... SARS would be another matter.)

Anyway, my Mom and I are both committed to losing 10 pounds this month. I've been hovering in the high 180s for the past few months, and I really want to get over this last hump. I have about 30-40 more pounds to lose, so I'm maybe a little over halfway there. It's tempting to let it go at this point... I feel so much better about myself now than I did 45 pounds ago, and I'm able to shop at normal stores (I love my Gap Jeans so much!) , so I really could just become very comfortable at this size. I'm okay-looking. It would just be easy to become complacent, is what I'm saying. But I have to believe there's an awesomely awesomer looking person underneath the last 30 pounds, and I should at least give her a chance to come out. It's hard for me to imagine that I could be thinner than this, because I was around this size in high school, and that's as far back as I can remember. But I was in better shape then, and playing softball, so I should keep going until I'm at least in good shape. Like, I can run a mile without getting winded, and all that crap that's a measure of good health.

So yeah, nine pounds this month. It's not unheard of. I just have to stop snacking and keep working out, and try not to get lung cancer from the yellow dust. All in a day's work.