Cheers to testing negative for covid-19!
Though that doesn’t mean that I am okay, just means that I need to stay on my new norm. It hasn’t been fun at all, not being able to go outside and sit on a bench to take in this nice weather and stare at the cherry blossoms. Or to order fried chicken via yogiyo. What I miss most is my cafe study time with my co-teacher. Really, I miss seeing my co-teacher Honey (Not their real name, clearly. An inside joke between the two of us).
But that is now part of the new norm for me. Right now in Korea there are no public schools open. No after school classes are taking place, which means that there is no need for my co-teacher and I to meet up after school like we use to each week. I have yet another English teacher. They are nice enough but I still miss my first English teacher. And if I’m being completely honest, since I’m not teaching at the moment, it is taking all that I have to not just ‘check out’ professionally.
My school has ‘requested’ that I come in to the school at least for my 15 hours each week, and desk-warm during that time. Though with me not having any classes to prepare for at the moment and loads of new ppts and activities/games already prepared to begin with – I usually just end up doing anything besides the classic desk-warming that I would usually do during my time at school.
This past week I’ve updated my resume, search and bookmarked future jobs to apply for in July, fine tuned my freelancing plans list, and found 2 great YouTube channels to help me study for College Algebra and Physics before my online classes begin next month.
It’s almost funny, before this pandemic I was ready to take a breather from in class teaching. Just teach online for a few months and travel. Now with over a month off I feel like I’ve had the breather in advance and could see myself teaching in class sooner than when I had planned. Though as far as travel, obviously I haven’t been able to do any of that. And now I’m wondering if I will be able to navigate those plans in the future. I know for sure that almost the last place I want to be in is the States, so right now I’m making a list of places that I would like to visit and keeping up with how those places are handling this pandemic.
Even as I type all this, I realize what a privilege I have to be able to plan such a thing.
Some folks wish to desperately leave their countries, hell, even their homes, for a chance at a better life. And it may come across to some that I am just being flighty for no reason, but I’m not. I have always wanted to travel the world, almost went into a state of deep depression from the need to and not being able to, so now that I have begun the journey I cannot stop now.
All I can do is save as much coin as I can, plan as best and as responsibly as possible, and try to adapt to this new norm as much as possible.
-Soprano Musings
Soprano Musings Abroad! 