It's a rare occassion that I have a Tuesday off but here I am. Due to some strange scheduling, I have a one-day holiday. I was hoping to spend the day with Vivi but she has schoolwork to catch up on and we are having a thunderstorm at the moment, so I figured it would be good to update the website!
As the title suggests, it is indeed monsoon season. Which means that it rains just about every day (or at least threatens to). I was about to say that I am "getting used to it" but that's not true. I'm pretty miserable on days that are hot and rainy. I have taken to wearing khakis and sneakers to work because I just can't deal with wearing "nice" clothes when they are wet. I guess monsoon season will last a few more weeks and then it will simply be "summer": hot and humid instead of hot and raining. I can't decide which is worse.
Vivi recently finished her spring semester, which means that she only has one more to go before she graduates. She was a bit stressed out at the end of the term, of course, but is glad to have the next two months off. On the last day of her final exams, we went to the Mariah Carey concert at the Olympic Park. I am not a particular fan but Vivi *LOVES* her. She had a great time and I guess I did, too. I was just happy that Vivi was happy, of course.
In June I had quite a few students, much to my surprise. Probably about 110 in total. As expected, though, the July class is sold out and I suspect that the August one will be, too. It's because college students have those months off, and they have to take the GRE AWA portion before Sept 13. I guess the class is really popular and I am said to have a good reputation, so that's why we have so many students. As I've said before, I enjoy teaching the really big classes but don't like having to grade all the papers!
At the end of May, I decided that I didn't want to continue studying with the same Korean teacher. I had given her a second chance but was continuously frustrated by her so I decided to give up. Unfortunately I had already registered for another term and the school wouldn't give me a refund; nor were there any other viable options for June. So I guess they are expecting me to go back in September, which I suppose I might do.
My roommate has a new girlfriend and so we hang out even less than we used to, which wasn't all that much after all. He seems pretty happy about it so I am happy for him. She's tall and from Texas, which I think is more his speed than a short Korean girl (he is about 6'4" and also from the South). So I think it will work out very well.
The Princeton Review's summer program is underway and there are a few of our old friends who have returned. I meant teachers, not students! But I have seen a few of my old students and understand that Lolita is around sometimes, but I haven't actually seen her. Anyway, I hang out with the teachers every now and then but they don't seem to go out during the week (and neither do I anymore) and on the weekends I'm either busy with Vivi or they all go to clubs (which I hate). So I fear that the summer will be over before I know it and we won't get the chance to hang out very much. But I think that this group is a lot less exciting (and controversial) than last summer's.
The only night out worth mentioning would be this one. The Saturday after my friend Eric returned to Korea (he was a teacher here last summer, too), we walked past The Flair bar and thought "hey, let's just go in for old times' sake". We walked in but didn't recognize anyone working there. This isn't too strange because I hadn't been there in quite a while, but there weren't even any girls working there anymore. Eric went to the bathroom and told me to order him a drink. While waiting, though, I decided that The Flair sucks (to be brutally honest) and it wasn't worth paying $5 for a crappy Korean beer. So we left.
The next day, Rob reported that when he walked by The Flair, it was closed. He commented that he was surprised that it had closed early on a Sunday, but I seemed to remember that they were open late every night. Two days later, with that in mind, I walked past it and... it wasn't The Flair anymore!!! All the signs were gone and in their place were signs that read "Tom Bar". Which makes me wonder, did Eric and I go to The Flair on its last night of existence??
Since then, I have actually been to Tom Bar and, well, it's pretty much exactly the same. They didn't do anything different to the interior (except change some signs) and I don't know if it's different wait staff or what, but they have the same drinks, same prices, and same "cocktail show". I sort of wonder what inspired the people who own Tom Bar to open up essentially the same bar that had been there originally, considering that The Flair almost always seemed empty. It makes me think that it is actually owned by The Flair but is just branded differently. Oh well, I don't actually care that much.
When I'm not teaching or "playing" with Vivi (which is what Koreans say), I have been doing a bit of research into graduate school programs for fall 2004. Soon I need to renew my contract with TPR but I will almost definitely be staying for a few more months. But the long-term plan is to return to America in about a year. I want to get a Masters so that I can do some college-level math and/or computer science teaching, so these days I am trying to figure out which program/degree would be best. I will probably want to go to school near SF, NY, or Boston but we'll see.