Monday, May 31, 2004

Message 7: Shaking Things Up a Bit

So, a couple of hours after posting the last update on Saturday, I was sitting around, reading my book, when the building starts to shake. I thought at first that maybe some heavy vehicle was going by, but it seemed to be taking an extraordinarily long time to get past. The shaking wasn't much, but it was consistent and last about 30 seconds. I began to suspect an earthquake. I looked online for live earthquake trackers, but they came up with nothing for this area. I figured I was still checking too early, and left it until Sunday morning. Turns out, I was right. A shallow earthquake out in the Sea of the East (aka Sea of Japan), just off the South Korean coast, an earthquake of 5.3 on the Richter Scale occurred (considered a moderate quake). It was apparently felt throughout the country, but no damage or injuries occurred. I thought that was pretty cool. Click on the title of this posting for the link to the site that confirmed what the shaking builing told me.
Other than that experience, my weekend was extremely uneventful. I listened to the hockey game on Sunday morning, then went for lunch with Edward and his family. We went to a new nearby Japanese restaurant and had pork cutlets. They were tasty enough. Nothing spectacularly good, though. He also bought me a book to help me learn Korean. I thought that was awfully nice of him. I spent the rest of the day reading and looking at potential lesson plans for classes next week.
This morning (Monday) I again did very little. I looked at more lesson plans and chatted on the computer. In the afternoon I met up with my fellow teachers to discuss tomorrow's plans. Classes begin on Tuesday and it was time to prepare. There really wasn't much for us to do. We saw our schedules and I'll be teaching a well advanced 15 year old girl first, then a class of younger kids just starting out. My day starts at about 4:00pm. I'll also be teaching a class of high school students and adults who are also fairly well along in their English until about 10:30pm. And that is my schedule every night for next week and likely at least a little while after.
On a side note, I discovered that there is a stalactite forming in the stairwell leading up to my rooms. I've named it Roger.
I'll let you know how my first day of teaching went in my next posting.
Go Flames.
Crocodile Steve

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sUPER-DUPER BLOG crocodile steve.

-Rodney Pipenthorpe

Anonymous said...

An earthquake...you really have ALL the fun. well i hope your class today goes well. i am sure it will just be a shittonne of fun. oh...and say hi to charles for me.

-bif