Highlights of my Day... Tuesday, April 28

1. Myyyy…eyyyyyyesssss….are….sooooooooooooooooo….dammnnnnnnnnnnn…. ITCHY!!!

2. As the yellow sand continues to blow in from China, my throat continues to feel incredibly scratchy, my eyes itch like there’s no tomorrow, my nose is running like it’s doing a marathon and trips to the pharmacist are getting ridiculous. And what’s worse is that none of my Korean friends are having problems with it. Isn’t that brutal, that they’re so immune to it?! What I would give for the clean blue skies of Canada at this point!!!

3. Ended my second period class a bit early and took my time walking to the bus with one of my students. Him walking me to the bus is now officially our “thing” we do. He left the class and I stuck around to clean up but when I walked out, there he was, waiting for me. Out of the four days a week that I work, three of these work days end with a “traditional walk” with one of my students… hahaha.. and I love it too cause it gives me the chance to really bond with some of them.

4. They say grocery shopping on an empty stomach is never a good thing, I guess they’ve never been to Home Plus (or any other Korean major grocery store for that matter) where they bombard you with free food samples. Today Q and I went grocery shopping but while doing so, I ate my fourth meal of the day thanks to of Home Plus… hahaha. I must have tried all that they were offering. I ate some grapes, a piece of banana, a kiwi, some chicken, beef, a piece of a pastry, some tofu cooked in eggs, kimchi, and then I washed it all down with a shot glass worth of chestnut milk, green tea, and some other funky mixture that I had no idea of what it was.

5. Junior Mint killed me at training… and he TOTALLY knew it, too. He made me do extra rounds of various exercises and instead of him using the usual 4-foot-beat-stick, he used the hand pad to whack me around. He’s lucky he’s my coach and I love him or else I’d be laying the beating on him!!!

6. With the exception of the pad work I did with him, the rest of my training was done while he was training. Junior Mint usually heads off to weight training after work but occasionally he train beside me. Tonight we both trained. I always feel like I’m competing with him when he trains beside me. I always try to push myself to do whatever exercise he’s doing longer or whatnot and I think he senses it too.

7. I’ve mastered the double-skip (when your skipping rope spins twice for every one jump) but trying to work on the triple-skip tonight proved almost dangerous after I successfully did it but in doing so, I got so excited and ended up losing my balance. A couple of inches no less, that’s about that distanced me from smacking my head on one of the corner ring poles… yikes!!!

8. I’m a slave… minus the pretty pay check that rolls into my bank account each month that is. I feel like a slave to my marking. Instead of giving myself extra time like I’m sure most would, I’ve given myself one week to mark and record the marks for about 110 quizzes, 200 reading reports and 310 midterm exams. Quizzes and exams aren’t the problem, it’s the reading reports that my students submitted.

9. One report takes about 5 minutes to read, grade and comment on. 5 minutes times 200 reports… yikes. I’m feeling it, too. Tonight I marked 83 reports.

10. Three more days… three more days and I’ll be back to getting a good night’s sleep and won’t be feeling like I’m eat, sleep and breathing student marks.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Is anyone else dying from this yellow sand?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.
-- Kin Hubbard