I’ll write something soon, I think

*This was supposed to be posted Sunday night. I’m back from the orientation now. And Season 4 should be over now. I’ll try to write a proper closing for the season. But for now, you can read the belated following.*

I’m going to GEPIK orientation tomorrow. I was told by my co-teacher that this orientation is optional. But I’m pretty sure my contract requires me to attend it. But either way, I’d like to break up the monotony of my daily routine. Things are still going fine here, but I’d just like to do something different.

I’m not expecting much from it. The orientations for the JET Program were pretty useless…actually, they weren’t. There were some good ideas given for classroom activities. I just never got to use them at my school. But I did get to meet people. So, I’ll at least be able to do that tomorrow.

Anyway, if it’s interesting, maybe I’ll write something about it.

My winter break is fast approaching. I’ll get, like, more than a month off between late December and February. It’ll be a bit broken up because of English Camp, but I’ll get about a week in December. Then English camp the first two weeks of January. Then the last two weeks of January I have off. Then school will be back in session for, like the first 8 days of February until graduation. Then I’ll get two weeks off again.

Not bad for a winter break. The trade-off is that there won’t be a spring break later (not that I’d expect more time off) so the next long break won’t be until July.

Anyway, thinking about making a trip to Japan this winter. Not the best time of year to go, but, hey, this is when I’ve got the time off and there are people there I haven’t seen in a while.

I’d like to maybe see more of Korea, too. And the nice thing I’ll mention again is, I only have to use my paid vacation days when I leave the country. If I stay in Korea, I can use my “research leave” if I don’t want to sit at school over the vacation. Didn’t have that option with the JET Program. I don’t know if I’ll need to use any leave for December or January, but I will in February. Most of the teachers will still come to school after the graduation.

(If I’m not accurate on any of this, I’ll correct this entry later. And speaking of making coprrections, my bank, Shinhan, does not give international debit cards to foreigners. They only give domestic debit cards. But it doesn’t look like it costs much to transfer money to my American bank, for which I do have an international debit card. I could open an account at KEB, but honestly, it’s not that big a deal. It’s still way nicer to have a debit card than to have to carry cash all the time, and I’m in Korea most of the time anyway.)

Hmm…looks like I did write something. I should change the title of this entry. *sigh*