New Term

We started our new term on Monday, which means a fresh start, a new schedule, and a fresh batch of students for me to complain about. My schedule is OK, but my selection of classes is a little...uh, let's say diverse, resulting in me having a ton of prep work each week. It goes as follows:

 

Doesn't look too bad when I write it out like that, I suppose, but it's a good amount of work. Each new class I have to prep for is shaded in a different color, so I have 5 classes, and one from each program (Memory, Reading, Listening, and iBT). iBT, by the way, is a test prep class which teaches the TOEFL, or the test that non-native English speakers take in order to get into an American University (and which Foreign Language High Schools in Korea require for admission). 

Memory Giga is the lowest level class we teach for students who are just starting out in English. On Monday they did a project where they picked their favorite witch and then had to fill out a paragraph that looked like this:

My favorite witch is ____________________. I like her because she _______________________. She is _____________________ and _________________________.

One of my students filled in every blank with "witch." 

This week has been a little nutsy because, in addition to a brand new schedule, we also have to deal with the beginning-of-term busy work: introducing ourselves to the students, discussing classroom rules (No Korean, no food during class time, etc.), and making hundreds of handouts of syllabi and other nonsense. I suppose it's necessary but it all feels like a giant pain in my... And every night I've been feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Oh well, it will ease up next week, I'm sure.

In other news, Jon and I went to a dog cafe called Bau Haus. It is pretty much what it sounds like; a cafe with dogs. Some of the dogs are owned by the cafe owner, but customers can also bring in their own dogs, or have them boarded. 

I dubbed this one "Trousers McGee."

We called him "Bear."

Also, a new Mexican restaurant called Mr Kook's opened up near my apartment building. I know, the name doesn't sound very Mexican, but pretty much everyone who has been there has raved about it so I decided to go check it out. They've got garlic fries, huge sloppy burgers, and very spicy tacos made with corn tortillas. I was sitting there wondering how such an awesome place could exist right across the street from me, until I saw this:

...and then it all made sense.