[Just as a preface, I wrote this blog entry two days ago, when my apartment suddenly decided to stop providing me with free internet. As such, you are essentially reading the past (as will be clearly evident from my last sentence). So just think of it as a little gift of quantum mechanics.]

So, once again I have done a terrible job of keeping this blog updated. But in either case, all this time means I have much news to report! I began teaching, and am just about to start my third week in the classroom. At the beginning, teaching definitely took some getting used to. At my school, all teachers are given a very detailed and jam-packed schedule that we are supposed to follow for each class. It makes planning out class a lot easier, but it took me a few classes to be able to figure out just how to manage fitting everything in.

The teaching itself has its ups and downs. I’d say that the two biggest factors that affect my enjoyment level of each of the seven different classes I teach every week are who I’m teaching and what I’m teaching. Most of my classes are prep courses for the IBT, or Internet-based Toefl, the foreign language fluency test that students take here (and everywhere else in the world) to get into competitive schools, international schools, and foreign universities in English-speaking countries. Those classes tend to be relatively dull, something along the lines of an SAT prep class, but the kids are much younger (most of my students are middle schoolers) so it’s my job to make class fun, or if not fun than at least not mind-numbing. My other two classes are called Interview and Discussion classes, in which I work with kids who are preparing to have interviews for some of the country’s top international middle schools. Those classes are definitely livelier, just because the whole point of them is to get kids to talk and voice their opinions.

In general, a lot of the kids I see are just plain old exhausted, and honestly I don’t blame them at all. Students in Korea who attend private English academies like the one at which I teach are in school from 8 in the morning until 10:30 at night. That’s right- that was no typo. These kids are literally in the classroom for 14 hours a day. By the time I get them, it’s 4:30 and they have already sat through a full day of school, so it isn’t any surprise to me that they spend the five minute breaks we give them every hour of the 3 hour lessons with their heads on their desks. If I am exhausted after teaching for six hours straight, you can imagine what my students must be feeling. But in any case, teaching has been going well so far and each class that I teach gives me more and more confidence and allows me to relax a bit more.

Outside of the classroom, life has been settling in well. Last week, I was able to put together and hang up a large set of curtains for my enormous windows, which made me feel like a pretty handy guy. Over the weekend, I did a little decorating my apartment with some posters I’d brought from home, so the place is starting to feel a bit cozier; as long as I have the Catalan flag above my head and Tupac and Ringo looking down at me, I think I’ll be alright. I also picked up a used bicycle today from a rather sketchy looking shop/lot that should come in very handy; just about everyone here has a bike, and with school only a 10 minute ride away it makes things very convenient.

I should probably hit the sack now, as I’m waking up in 7 hours or so to catch the Pats live on Monday Night Football (it’s actually Tuesday Morning Football here, but still it’s a party).