Back to the old stomping grounds

Sorry for the delay between updates. I tend to only catch the writing bug when I've consumed some of the Toad Juice, and it's been a while.

So, after I was dicked around for awhile by Lingua, I decided to say goodbye to my free time and hello to a guaranteed paycheck and benefits. I went back to wonderland.

I talked to my former boss and negotiated my new salary which wasn't too bad. I was also taking the afternoon/evening shift which meant not only no phone teaching but no bullshit weekend work or any other nonsense, or so I thought.

Wonderland had changed. They bought a different franchise which I thought I would like, Reading Town.

Towards the end of my first year, my boss had taken an interest in the Reading Town Franchise. He purchased some of their materials and had the teachers try them out. I enjoyed them. I liked the idea of using children's books and basing classes around the stories, grammar and vocabulary in real books rather than half-assed konglish stories about nothing. I thought that the layout was good, and that a lot of important things were emphasized in the workbooks. Granted, I would still say that Reading Town has a decent educational philosophy and system, but I would never work there again.

My boss picked me up and moved me to my new apartment in my old neighborhood. This was an ok apartment in a really great spot. The apartment was really tiny, but it had a veranda and was fully furnished. The kitchen was in the veranda, but that wasn't too important because I don't cook that often, and the immediate neighborhood was great.

This was back in the neighborhood of Siheung-dong. No, not Siheung-Si. Siheung-dong in the southwest corner of Seoul. About thirty steps away from the front of my apartment was a market street where I could buy almost anything I needed for a ridiculously low price. I also found my favorite food a stone's throw away from my new apartment.

In my new, immediate neighborhood, there were/are tons of Chinese immigrants. One Chinese(sort of) food I had not tried before was yang gochi. This is a very simple but delicious food. It's lmab meat on skewers. Not shishkebabs. This is just lamb meat. You grill it for a while and then move the skewer away from the grill/charcoal. You then roll it in whatever you call the red pepper salt/powder. GochuSogeum??? I don't know. Nevertheless, it's one of my all time favorite foods.

Anyhoo, my apartment wasn't so great, but my neighborhood was amazing. I was also much closer to my school than I was my first year.

I knew I would have to adjust to a higher workload than I had become accustomed to the previous year, but I was willing to sacrifice a little bit of free time for a stable and honest employer.

My new found appreciation for the wonders of reading town soon faded....