My school is doing some major renovations right now. Everything is being redone; the offices, teacher's room, classrooms. Its going to be really, really nice when its all finished. I will take pictures. I am horrified, as a level 2 occupational first aid attendant, however by the danger that all the construction workers are constantly in while they are working. No steel-toe boots, no safety glasses, no face-masks. Heaven forbid they shut down the school for a week to get everything done and not risk the students' or teachers' health. There is a giant band saw running in the hallway when the students arrive everyday, flinging sawdust into the air. Yesterday, the walls were freshly painted with toxic-smelling paint (way worse than at home), but several kids got paint on their clothes, because they are kids and that is what they do. Garbage bags are PILED in front of the stairs, one of the fire exits. The door to the teachers' room was blocked the other day while a guy with a blow torch was firming up the plastic coating on one of the new walls. Just picture a large ball of fire from the hall, while we are stuck in the corner of the building with one door. Worksafe BC would have a field day in this country. The conditions are right up there with having a propane heater on full blast within an enclosed space for the whole winter, which we had.

All middle school students in Korea are studying for their midterms right now too. The exams in middle school are more important than high school exams. The marks students' get in middle school determine ultimately what university they get into, by determining what high school they get into. Right now they are studying 20 hours a day, no joke. Sucks to be them. Awesome for me! I teach 4 classes on Tuesday and Thursdays normally and two of the classes are middle school students. They still come to the school, but they are studying with a different teacher, only for midterm prep. Now I only teach two classes (for the next 2 weeks anyway) and the rest of the time is planning/free time/working in the research room. My planning is all done for the semester, so by planning I mean wasting time on the internet, writing blog postings (like this one. Yep I'm at work), or reading my book in the teachers room by disguising it behind a novel that I'm teaching. So clever, Sam Teacher.

As my contribution to the research room work, I am plagiarizing storybooks by changing the words so that the school doesn't have to buy the books and then make their own, I'm guessing. They are all pretty common normal books for young kids. How to get dressed, food, my parents still love me even though they don't love each other, friends, school, the playground, don't be mean to the kid in the wheelchair, girls can do anything boys can do, blah blah blah. I thought it would be funny to submit a book with a less commonly-published theme, such as "Daddy hasn't been home in three nights and mommy is mad" or "Mommy likes to drink gin for breakfast." Wouldn't that be awesome? I mostly just want to do it to see if they would do anything. The girl in the research, affectionately known as Skeletore (she's skinny), that gives us the work doesn't have the greatest English so I don't know if she would get it. But I get it and I think its hilarious.