The reason that we teach more in the winter and summer is simple. This is the time when Korean universities are on break--more specifically in Jan-Feb and June-July (our sessions are 8 weeks long, by the way)--and when the universities are on break, a certain number of students choose to brush up on their English; thus, more students. This in turn means that we have more classes with more students in each, which then translates to more hours teaching and more hours grading various papers, tests, and recordings.
But it's all over now and life is looking good with less work, the heat beginning to subside, and the best time of year for sports quickly approaching.
I believe I wrote a bit here about the weather during the winter. It was cold, cold, cold. Well, the summer has been pretty much the opposite, which has caused me to question why anyone would choose to live here. But I am a California boy and from what I hear, the weather almost everywhere else in the world seems harsh when compared to California, so I guess I've been rather spoiled for most of my adult years, but really, the humidity has not been fun. The heat, in terms of raw numbers, hasn't really been that bad. I think we had a week or two where it consistently got up into the 90s, which is pretty common in California. But normally it's a pretty steady 80 to 90, which doesn't sound bad at all to me, but throw in the humidity and it's a different beast altogether. Going on a beer run, a mere two-minute walk, results in sweat down the back and a t-shirt that needs to be changed upon my return. And it only gets worse from there. Biking to work is work for the last half mile or so because it's uphill, meaning that I then spend about 3-4 minutes standing in front of the fan by my desk with the breeze on my back. I've also taken to leaving my pants at work and wearing shorts on the bike there and back and then changing just before classes start and almost immediately after my last class finishes for the day. And running......Well, the sweat tries to keep up and keep me cool, but it's nowhere near as effective as it was in Cali. I know when I'm biking/walking to work in January I'll forget why I ever said this, but I'm looking forward to the winter.
During this 10-day break between sessions, the little lady and I are heading over to an island on the "West Sea" (aka. the Yellow Sea). It's actually not far from the mainland and is accessible by bridge, but it's an island nonetheless. I'm not exactly sure what there is to do there, but I will be happy just to get out of Seoul and away from the masses. And it might not matter much what there is to there because apparently there is/will be a rather large typhoon (hurricane for you Americans) headed directly for us.
If what Ami said is true, the typhoon will be a little south of us on our travel day and will then hit us on our first full day there. We're taking a deck of cards in case we can't go out--and books and our computers (though, I'm not sure about internet access). I'll also be taking the camera so I can take a few videos of the thing as it rips by. Should be interesting.
And finally, I'd like to close this brief update with something I read which was apparently announced on North Korean State TV. It is in regards to the NK Olympians who did not medal in London: Our glorious leader will merely send those athletes to special sports retreats for four years where they will play fun games in the grassy fields and eat and drink as much crackers and water as they wish. Is that supposed to make them feel better?
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