Back to school, back to school

Well, the Korean lifestyle never ceases to amaze me. More specifically the Korean work lifestyle. I was warned that I should be ready to operate on a day-to-day basis and be open to last minute changes, but I think today was a new extreme.

We were told at the beginning of December that the school had decided to open more classes and get additional teachers. In order to do this they would be renovating the entire third floor, which used to be just the library, TV room, teacher's office and a few dark cell like classrooms for some of the classes taught by the other school in our building (owned by the same family that runs us). In just one week the floor was completely revamped. Now only the library looks the same. It was like walking into a totally different building this morning. Most of the teachers came in early to try and set up their space and get things together for the day. Of course most of us had copies to make and worksheets to print. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, we walked into what can only be lovingly described as a "shit show", which is used to describe most "organized" events at Kid's College. Computers, printers and the copier were not set up yet. No clock and we couldn't hear the bell on our floor. We didn't even have chairs for our desks until about 15 mins before school started. We all just stood around twiddling our thumbs, thinking of what we could with our kids without any worksheets. Heaven forbid! To top it all off, I was told 5 mins before going down to greet my children that one student had dropped out and was already replaced by another...good thing I had already been down in the classroom setting up the name tags for their new seats...thanks for the heads up guys. I was also delighted to find that I have a new student in my elementary class. The good times just keep on coming.

Two new teachers are due to arrive at the end of the week. Apparently we will have full time classes on the third floor by the end of next week. This is going to be a major change, as we are used to peace and quite during our 10 minute breaks between classes. Soon there will be no escaping the children. We even get to share a bathroom with them...yikes!

There is one thing I can say about this whole experience. If you are in a rut or just unhappy with the situation you just have to wait a month or two, because chances are everything will be completely different....