Setback

This past week began with a metaphorical bomb being dropped on the academy, and ended with the equivalent of the Marshall Plan promising the beginnings of a recovery.

To put it in current Korean events, the start of the week was analogous to the all-out brawl which erupted in the Korean Parliament this week, and the end of the week was like the opening of the new subway line in Seoul.

These fights, in conjunction with North Korea's insulting of Hillary Clinton, make the politics of the Korean peninsula quite possibly the most entertaining in the world

The aforementioned bomb was the mass exodus of over half the academy's students at the end of the first session, an event not anticipated by the academy's administrators. In prior years, students had continued to take classes in the second session, but this year they seemed to view the ending of the session as a convenient time to finish their SAT studies and pursue other activities. Monday morning, the manager announced to the teachers that over half the academy's classes were getting cut. I went from teaching 30 hours a week to 8, with 3/4 of my classes gone. As a result, I was offered extra hours doing office work in the main Gangnam branch of the academy, but for half the pay rate.

The office work for the director primarily consisted of proofreading and editing, doable tasks but tedious nonetheless. It also meant I had to travel from "suburban" Bundang to urban Gangnam everyday.

The relative serenity of Jeongja (Bundang)

...and the congestion and hustle-bustle of Gangnam

After a few days, I was becoming increasingly drained by working next to the over-stressed and somewhat jaded director (a nice guy but he has to deal with all of the academy's problems). I came to the realization that I would rather be in the classroom, interacting with students and building off their idealism instead of absorbing the stress of the director. If anything, this experience has taught me exactly how important job satisfaction is, and how much less important the figure on one's paycheck is.

The happy ending to this story is that on Friday I was able to sub for two classes, SAT Reading and World History, both good experiences. More importantly, although there's essentially no way to get my old classes back, I'll pick up some extra classes next week, teaching elementary schoolers. Even though it's not the most ideal situation, I've actually been interested in teaching some of the rambunctious young'ns who arrive at the academy screaming and pulling their roller backpacks around 3 pm everyday. Even if they get to be a handful, I'll be able to find solace in the fact that I don't have to teach members of Parliament.