Every now and again I catch one of my co-teachers talking to another co-teacher of mine in Korean - away from me and quietly. I try not to easedrop but lately I've heard my name come up in these conversations now and again. So, they are most likely talking about me. They also know that I can understand a fraction of Korean - hence the quiet discussion part. Am I nuts for suspecting they are just gossping about me? Are they talking about my poor performance as a teacher so far? It makes me want to cry whenever I think these thoughts and it's quite pathetic of me to be so paranoid about my co-workers.

But I am being evaluated weekly. I just found this out. Lately, I've been working and teaching very poorly. After a half-semester of adapted lessons, some of my co-teachers became fed up with me wasting time so they've assigned me certain parts of each chapter from a really mediocre textbook. I've been instructed to do these parts first and follow the book, not come up with my own material. "If you have extra time left after these parts, THEN you can do teach some of your own material." This isn't a bad thing though - these kids are being tested only on material in their textbook and in the end, they need to pass tests.

But Lord o' Lord how those lessons suck. The English is fine but it's all quite unorganized and I end up teaching a bunch of different English for a clusterf*ck of different situations not related to each other at all. I'm not really creative either so I can't make any good games around them. What happens in the end is that my boys are really, really, really bored and their attention and effort levels just plummet. In turn, that really discourages me and I end up not caring about the lesson or if they're learning anymore. It's really quite disappointing. So I'm going to try a little harder to put a more fun spin to these lessons - I do want to re-contract with this school for another year but I don't want to waste their time and money.

Also, my camera is still at home and my parents don't know how to fix it unless I'm there and Costco says the warranty already expired. I think I might just buy a camera here, one of those fancy schmancy digital high quality cameras, so hopefully I'll have some pictures for you soon.

Also, if someone gives me a phone number...I should call them first, right? Right? Even if it's just to talk, right? I'm not asking them on a date, right? Platonic friendships don't seem to exist here.