Numbers game

Earlier this week my youngest class had a whip round and presented me with some birthday presents. A lemon vitamin tablet, an (in)edible sweet, some money (160won) and my favourite kid in the class bought me a pen. I saw the funny side and went on to have a fun class. Yesterday was my actual birthday, my fifth consecutive away from home in Korea. A pretty uneventful day but with some highlights, particularly an after work dinner. Birthdays continue to become an irrelevance as I age.


I'm starting to get very annoyed/frustrated with my workplace, my branch and its management. In truth I think I would like to move on from where I work (the branch) but I have some ties to the area where I live. These days work is becoming less and less enjoyable and it is inevitable that my effort is diminishing - I need another holiday! A number of curriculum changes don't seem to be working. Even if well meant, the change from reading classes to listening have been ineffectual and the students put in minimal effort, only studying to avoid retest and not to actually improve.

Far away from home

Today is my brothers 40th birthday. Just one of the many occasions I have missed since coming to Korea some four years ago. I can just about remember when my brother was a teenager which now makes me feel a little old, though I know at thirty one that is not the case. Has time really flown by so quickly or have I just pretended to be oblivious of its inevitability? Time is easy to define but becoming harder for me to measure. Stuck in my self-inflicted bubble of comfort, at times I feel like I will be home soon and sometimes an age away. I would love nothing more than to wish my brother happy birthday in person but that will have to wait. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Many happy returns, dear brother.