What's your working day like?

Pretty good actually. Last year I got used to not having any kind of life outside work from Monday morning until Saturday afternoon. I was at work solidly from 7am to 8pm, and it was horrible. One of the reasons that I chose to go into the public school system was to avoid that this year, and it's certainly worked out well.

Monday to Wednesday I teach at the high school, and I have to be in at 8.20am and I am done by 4.30pm. Thursdays and Fridays are even better, I am done in my elementary schools by 3pm, which is just beautiful. The sun is quite often out on my walk home and I know that I have 6 or 7 clear hours to myself before I have to go to bed.

I am trying to use this time as constructively as possible. As I mentioned, I've started to play football here, which will keep me fit, allow me to meet real Korean people and do something I really enjoy. I'm also going to try to blog a little more, learn Korean and try some Korean cooking. I feel like I've done well tonight, having washed my clothes, tidied and cleaned my entire apartment, cooked an OK stew and then wrestled with Rosetta Stone Korean for an hour. (I swear I'm not saying it wrong, it must be the microphone's fault). Now I'm writing this blog post and feeling pretty pleased with myself.

While I was tidying today, it struck me that this is the first time that I have really lived alone in my life. I'm really enjoying it too. Some people who have lived with me might be surprised at how tidy my apartment is. In my defence I prefer things when they are tidy, but I also have a very high tolerance for mess. I even enjoy tidying when it's just my stuff I'm picking up, and not some other bastard's who's too lazy to clean up after himself. However, if I feel like someone else has made the mess, I'm quite happy to leave it lying around until someone else tidies up. Hence I have ended up living in a few real tips over the years, but my apartment right now is sparkling clean, apart from the kitchen floor, which is suffering from my lack of a mop.

Living alone makes you completely responsible for your own entertainment. I am trying at the moment to catch myself when I am wasting time (I have now completed Death Penalty more times than I care to remember) and forcing myself to do something useful. I'm beginning to get there too, although the urge to have another go at kicking footballs at zombies when I opened the page to get the link was almost overwhelming. However, with a language to learn, a blog to write, and the restaurants of a new town to explore, I think I can probably ixnay the flash games for a little while.

OK, I have wandered wildly off topic here, but never mind. I'm going to finish things off with a story and some predictions. First, the story. Last night I went to football, and ended up on a team with some other young guys who spoke a tiny bit of English. During a break we were chatting, and they were asking me the usual questions (Yes, including "Do you know Park Ji Sung?") about my age, job etc. Korean's are always very interested if you're married too, and the guy I was talking to attempted to ask me if I was married. He was close to getting the question right I guess, but his friend fell over laughing when he asked "Do you marry me?". I think that's the first proposal I've had in Korean, but perhaps not the last.

Lastly, two predictions. I want to put these here in order to be smug if they come up. Firstly, the premiership. I've done the BBC Predictor and I get United by a point from Chelsea (which will upset me a lot), Liverpool 4th and Hull to go down with Burnley and Portsmouth. Bolton to scrape to 40 points on the final day and wind up 14th, but looking forward to a better year next year. If these turn out to be wrong, I'll probably come back and subtly remove this post, but if they're right you'll never hear the last of it.

Secondly, a musical prediction. I've been listening to The Sleeper by The Leisure Society and it strikes me as one of those albums that could be huge if it gets heard by enough people. I don't particularly like it, but I reckon that in 2010 "Someone Who Cares" will be on an advert somewhere (probably for a bank) and go on to sell a lot of copies.

Anyway, that's it for today. I have four classes in a row tomorrow morning, so I'm off to get some sleep as it will be exhausting. I also have no co-teacher for two of them, so if I don't ever post again, I've been eaten alive by class 3-1. Otherwise, I'll be back soon.

A