So it's 8:30 PM.
Where am I? I'm at work. I've been here since 8:20 AM. Twelve hours of work at this place. No lunch, because it was primarily tentacles (I'm tired of tentacles now) and I'm just about done.
The amount of work we put in here is, frankly, insane. Eighty students each, speech contests, schoolwide competitions, handouts, certficates, endless meetings. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid with a normal job... On the plus side I get to ass-around for most of the day, while everyone else screws up their plans, and makes me stay until 9PM.
So tired now.
Hungry too.
Showing posts with label so much work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label so much work. Show all posts
Monday, 19 July 2010
Friday, 9 July 2010
Long Time, No Posts
So it's been five or six days since I last posted.
It's been hectic once again; as we had three days of welcoming parents into our classrooms. The school holds annual open events over three consecutive days, and we had to prepare for them. The event was extremely high pressure, the pressure was entirely placed upon us by those who had previously participated, and our bosses. I went into the event expecting to be eaten alive; I come out of the event realising that the people I work with might be borderline autistic, such is their inability to communicate with other adults. Maybe, after several months of working in this field, I too will become afraid.
The way my colleagues talked about the parents was reminiscent of a first watching of 'alien,' or 'the hills have eyes.' The fear was palpable, and the smell was only superseded by the noxious insect repellent they happened to spray through our windows in the buildup to these events.
As events unfolded, my suspicions grew. Could the parents here be particularly awful? Maybe the ridiculous amounts of money they earn give them the pompous self-entitlement some of the children possess? Maybe they have acid for blood?
The school holds an annual contest between the different classes within a grade, so during the open days we were to hold in-class contests to find the most suitable combatants. The parents were tasked with the impossibly challenging: stand at the back of the class and do nothing.
So were they demons?
No. They were all just normal people. Some were extremely kind, some even smiled, believe it or not. Most just talked through the other childrens' presentations, talked on their mobile phones or talked to their own children. Some applauded after every presentation, some after their own child, some didn't applaud at all. Some left after their own child had finished, some stayed the course. All things considered, they are normal people. I don't know why everyone else is so afraid. I'm nervous that I missed something, or that my cruise-control attitude means that on Monday, I will wake up to having no job, on account of being uncouth.
Unless I am very much mistaken, they are normal people. Terrible parents, but normal people nonetheless. (Not all Koreans are terrible parents, some subdue their crying babies, some even talk to their children!)
On a side-note, I recently found out the scale of the ship building activities here. One company is currently building eleven oil drilling ships, each with a value of five hundred and fifty million dollars. These are being built concurrently, alongside container ships and oil platforms. I don't know how many other ships are being built right now, or their value. This half of the island houses the second and third largest shipyards in the world, and the largest is just up the road. I can't remember whether I mentioned this or not, but they rebuild the pavement every few months here, adding different patterns and colours. I mentioned that it is a chronic waste, but the fact is, they have too much money here.
If you've seen in the news that there's a massive oil spill down Mexico way, that drilling ship was built here too. It's an extremely interesting case of, 'I wonder why we didn't see that coming...' and the story is readily available on the internet should you want to find out exactly what happened, but I'm pretty sure if I say it here, people will disappear, only to reappear three weeks later on the beach, wearing concrete shoes.
On a lighter note, I participated in an eating contest of sorts on Wednesday. I still feel rough, and I would not recommend anyone eat too much pizza; having tried it myself I can say it was an awful, if not somewhat entertaining experience.
I vowed never to eat pizza again, only to eat it the next day for dinner.
I'll put some pictures up with the full scoop at a later date.
It's been hectic once again; as we had three days of welcoming parents into our classrooms. The school holds annual open events over three consecutive days, and we had to prepare for them. The event was extremely high pressure, the pressure was entirely placed upon us by those who had previously participated, and our bosses. I went into the event expecting to be eaten alive; I come out of the event realising that the people I work with might be borderline autistic, such is their inability to communicate with other adults. Maybe, after several months of working in this field, I too will become afraid.
The way my colleagues talked about the parents was reminiscent of a first watching of 'alien,' or 'the hills have eyes.' The fear was palpable, and the smell was only superseded by the noxious insect repellent they happened to spray through our windows in the buildup to these events.
As events unfolded, my suspicions grew. Could the parents here be particularly awful? Maybe the ridiculous amounts of money they earn give them the pompous self-entitlement some of the children possess? Maybe they have acid for blood?
The school holds an annual contest between the different classes within a grade, so during the open days we were to hold in-class contests to find the most suitable combatants. The parents were tasked with the impossibly challenging: stand at the back of the class and do nothing.
So were they demons?
No. They were all just normal people. Some were extremely kind, some even smiled, believe it or not. Most just talked through the other childrens' presentations, talked on their mobile phones or talked to their own children. Some applauded after every presentation, some after their own child, some didn't applaud at all. Some left after their own child had finished, some stayed the course. All things considered, they are normal people. I don't know why everyone else is so afraid. I'm nervous that I missed something, or that my cruise-control attitude means that on Monday, I will wake up to having no job, on account of being uncouth.
Unless I am very much mistaken, they are normal people. Terrible parents, but normal people nonetheless. (Not all Koreans are terrible parents, some subdue their crying babies, some even talk to their children!)
On a side-note, I recently found out the scale of the ship building activities here. One company is currently building eleven oil drilling ships, each with a value of five hundred and fifty million dollars. These are being built concurrently, alongside container ships and oil platforms. I don't know how many other ships are being built right now, or their value. This half of the island houses the second and third largest shipyards in the world, and the largest is just up the road. I can't remember whether I mentioned this or not, but they rebuild the pavement every few months here, adding different patterns and colours. I mentioned that it is a chronic waste, but the fact is, they have too much money here.
If you've seen in the news that there's a massive oil spill down Mexico way, that drilling ship was built here too. It's an extremely interesting case of, 'I wonder why we didn't see that coming...' and the story is readily available on the internet should you want to find out exactly what happened, but I'm pretty sure if I say it here, people will disappear, only to reappear three weeks later on the beach, wearing concrete shoes.
On a lighter note, I participated in an eating contest of sorts on Wednesday. I still feel rough, and I would not recommend anyone eat too much pizza; having tried it myself I can say it was an awful, if not somewhat entertaining experience.
I vowed never to eat pizza again, only to eat it the next day for dinner.
I'll put some pictures up with the full scoop at a later date.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
What a Hectic Week
So this week has been all kinds of crazy.
First off, work is a real pain at the moment. We have to write end of year reports for all our kids. This is a nightmare, because each child needs a custom written report; not like England, where each kid falls into one of three pre-defined categories, each with a standard form. I've known classmates who received identical school reports, with someone else's name and date of birth. Each comment is bespoke, and each one requires five to ten minutes. Multiply that by eighty or so and you see how annoying this particular task is. It would be okay if we had fewer daily and weekly tasks to complete - but I guess there is never enough time.
My finger is officially healing in the wrong direction. It's pointing outwards, where the same finger on the other hand is pointing inwards. I've managed to keep the actual pain of it from my manager and co-workers, so I shan't be discouraged from playing sport by them.
On the sporting side-note, I might finally have cracked the american football conundrum. There is a training session next Wednesday, and I've been invited along with a couple of colleagues. It's not rugby, but beggars can't be choosers. Plus I'll finally be able to fold some chumps and work out the inner aggression I've been barricading inside. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to lay out some of the aforementioned colleagues too!
I made a girl in my year six cry by pronouncing her name incorrectly. I checked, it wasn't swearing, and it wasn't rude - I just said it wrong. If she hasn't figured out that people make mistakes by the age of twelve, I fear for her growing up. When she steps outside of the school gates for the first time, her little head will explode.
We played a little basketball on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, and again on Wednesday this week. Basketball is fun, but there are a couple of societal rejects who play, who score fewer than I do. This would not normally be a problem, but they whoop and yell and shout and scream as if they were gods. Not to mention that they hit me and push me, (past the point of it being a foul) and jump on my toes; and when I run at them with the ball they call fouls that would make a footballer blush. They're pathetic, and must have been bullied by someone who looks like me at some stage in their lives. I have heard that one of them plays american football though, so I will go out of my way to destroy him. If I break both of his legs, then he can't play basketball next week and I will be much happier.
We played football with a group on Wednesday. It was good fitness, but I'm worse than hopeless at football. I still can't see the appeal of it, if I'm honest. I'd play any day of the week though, I was up and down the pitch like a terrier (a mentally handicapped one, but a terrier nonetheless) and as a result have surely gained .1% lunch capacity over my previous fitness.
So basically between the gym, basketball/football and work, I've had no time to even write an entry on my blog. (I finished at 7pm today, went to the gym but wasn't really feeling up to it and came back early.)
I'm going to finally pick up an alarm that works this weekend, if I survive tomorrow, that is.
First off, work is a real pain at the moment. We have to write end of year reports for all our kids. This is a nightmare, because each child needs a custom written report; not like England, where each kid falls into one of three pre-defined categories, each with a standard form. I've known classmates who received identical school reports, with someone else's name and date of birth. Each comment is bespoke, and each one requires five to ten minutes. Multiply that by eighty or so and you see how annoying this particular task is. It would be okay if we had fewer daily and weekly tasks to complete - but I guess there is never enough time.
My finger is officially healing in the wrong direction. It's pointing outwards, where the same finger on the other hand is pointing inwards. I've managed to keep the actual pain of it from my manager and co-workers, so I shan't be discouraged from playing sport by them.
On the sporting side-note, I might finally have cracked the american football conundrum. There is a training session next Wednesday, and I've been invited along with a couple of colleagues. It's not rugby, but beggars can't be choosers. Plus I'll finally be able to fold some chumps and work out the inner aggression I've been barricading inside. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to lay out some of the aforementioned colleagues too!
I made a girl in my year six cry by pronouncing her name incorrectly. I checked, it wasn't swearing, and it wasn't rude - I just said it wrong. If she hasn't figured out that people make mistakes by the age of twelve, I fear for her growing up. When she steps outside of the school gates for the first time, her little head will explode.
We played a little basketball on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, and again on Wednesday this week. Basketball is fun, but there are a couple of societal rejects who play, who score fewer than I do. This would not normally be a problem, but they whoop and yell and shout and scream as if they were gods. Not to mention that they hit me and push me, (past the point of it being a foul) and jump on my toes; and when I run at them with the ball they call fouls that would make a footballer blush. They're pathetic, and must have been bullied by someone who looks like me at some stage in their lives. I have heard that one of them plays american football though, so I will go out of my way to destroy him. If I break both of his legs, then he can't play basketball next week and I will be much happier.
We played football with a group on Wednesday. It was good fitness, but I'm worse than hopeless at football. I still can't see the appeal of it, if I'm honest. I'd play any day of the week though, I was up and down the pitch like a terrier (a mentally handicapped one, but a terrier nonetheless) and as a result have surely gained .1% lunch capacity over my previous fitness.
So basically between the gym, basketball/football and work, I've had no time to even write an entry on my blog. (I finished at 7pm today, went to the gym but wasn't really feeling up to it and came back early.)
I'm going to finally pick up an alarm that works this weekend, if I survive tomorrow, that is.
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