Day in the life of...

It is amazing how simple life has become here in Korea. I am 8 months into my 1 year contract and my daily routine can be the same as it was at home some days, mundane and boring. Wake up, take the bus to school, check my email, teach some classes, have lunch, teach some more classes, fuck around online/lesson plan, walk home, go to the gym, eat dinner, shower, sleep, repeat. (Sometimes spruced up with a little Woodstock Wednesday action but I keep it real during the week, real being I cannot function hungover and teaching the last thing I want to do after a night of booze.) That is the true life in the day of a English teacher in Korea (hey MTV, you should do that one!) During the week that is . The weekend is a different story.


Last weekend started out like any other, counting the last few minutes until 4:40 (aka FREEDOM) but this week I went to dinner with the teachers in my office, courtesy of our school we feasted on carbonara and squid pizza at a local Italian joint. Afterwards I met up with some other English teachers the GS25 (a popular convenience store chain) to drink magkolli in the tent out front loaded with tables and ajosshi's drinking, snacking and chatting. It sounds weird to everyone back home, and did to me at first, but now its my favorite thing to do on a Friday night! Its cheap, you can get all your friends there, self service (you just go get a new bottle when your finished and you can grab a snack while in line, though they usually give you one with your drink!) and the walk home is always close! I used to laugh at the people that would hang out in front of the convenience store in my small town growing up, but look at me now!


The rest of the weekend was pretty average, all you can eat sushi on a conveyor belt, waiting to bowl at a swanky bowling alley in the nicest part of Seoul (which was sad French clown themed btw) but never actually getting to (too many shots of vodka - eh shots of straight vodka, who does that over the age of 16?), drinking long islands while watching fire throwers and magic shows at the flare bar around the corner from our place, you know, the usual. Some bike riding on the Han river and volunteering in a homeless shelter to wrap up the busy weekend. Also got to skype with many people from back home and I can never say enough how thankful I am for skype! Not sure if I could do this whole travel around the world thing without it!


This is just the average weekend in the life of an English teacher in Seoul. Many weekends also include bar hopping in Hondae, eating some Korean BBQ with plenty of soju and 갈비 (Korean beef), a norebang or two, and some drunk older men hassling you of course. Granted, it is not every English teachers prerogative to drink all weekend, nor is it mine. I enjoy seeing life through fuzzy glasses sometimes but mostly just want to enjoy my life. And that does not mean I have to always have a drink in my hand, a lesson I have learned over time, I am an ASU graduate after all and well, the rumors are true.


Here's to hoping this weekend will be just as grand, as will yours, wherever you are! Happy Friday! 







Ellie Teacher

onedayillflyaway.com