Open House kicks off

Usually the computer room where I spend my precious little free time at school is fairly peaceful, but occasionally a class of children descend upon it. Hence, right now I have Cosmos class with me. Each of them is playing the same English game, spread across 9 different computers creating a surreal cacophany of repeated English words blasting at different times from the computers. It's a little like the nightmare you might have if you went to sleep in a room with nine jumping record players.

Today, so far, had my first Open House class, with Ocean class, and it went pretty well. After the director's criticisms, I managed to liven the kids up a little and although much more subdued than usual, hence much easier to teach, I think they still had some of the youthful enthusiasm the director was wanting.

I'm feeling quite healthy today, in contrast to the end of last week where I was very tired, although didn't realise it so much at the time. It was only Saturday morning I realised that I needed aome proper rest. As well as my usually exhausting teaching schedule, my countless early mornings to study Korean had crept up on me and I was well in need to some time to do nothing.

I didn't do that on Friday night, unfortunately. I went out with Matt, Rebecca and some friend of theirs called Cheryl from South Africa who was about to leave Korea. It was a quiet night and I only had a few beers, but my general lack of health conspired to make Saturday morning hell.

I still made my Korean class, but had a thumping headache, a stomach in knots and nausea waving through me. It was then I realised that this undeserved hangover was exacerbated by my general state of tiredness and that it was time to fully rest. So my Saturday afternoon was spent asleep in my bathroom.

This isn't because my bathroom has any magical qualities of regeneration, but because it's pleasant and cool in there. I have no control over the heating in my apartment, which is a pain in the fat hole, and means the underfloor heating makes going to bed like sleeping on a hotplate sometimes. But my bathroom is free of underfloor heating, and I got some very good rest there and woke with my pains all gone and feeling like a brand new Nev.

Which was good, because I was meeting the Gin Girls in the evening for a few drinks downtown, and wanted to be in good health. I also wanted my Korean to be on good form, as it seems to go through cycles right now. Sometimes it's all there and I find I can say most of what I want to, albeit slowly and patchily, but sometimes I'm absolutely uninspired and can't think of a word.

Fortunately, on Saturday, the former was the case and it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening. My Korean was on terrific form and we all got on well. The Gin Girls really are very lovely girls, so lovely in fact that I no longer want to destroy them with gin and brutalise them. I know, I don't know what's wrong with me, but they are just so pleasant and innocent.

Anyway, I have tired of writing already. I will detail the rest of my weekend in bullet points:

- Maebh & Eileen joined us at AU.
- As did a magician
- Later saw Hellboy with Matt and Rebecca at a DVD Bang but walked out before the end. It is very dull.
- Sunday was spent relaxing.
- Went for dinner with Jessy/Suk-jeong and her sister in the evening.