Holidays are Busy Season

January is "busy season" which means that there's a good chance I won't have a significant amount of time to write. This just happens to be the way it is.

Busy Season
You may or may not recall the following facts:
1. Korean children go to regular school just like most children in Western cultures (America, Canada)
2. They attend school during the same general time frame - 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
3. However, after regular school, many Korean children attend "Academy"
3a. "Academy" is a private school specializing in a particular subject - Math, Science, Animation, and the most popular (as well as my place of employment) being English Academy.
4. Korean Children attend "Academy" (my school) anywhere from 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

That is a review of the facts. Now, take a second to think a little further. Ask yourself, "Do Korean children have breaks similar to breaks that Americans have? For example, a couple weeks in the Winter and 2-3 months in the Summer?" Good question, my inquisitive reader! In fact, Korean children do have breaks that are almost similar to Western school system holidays. In Korea, they have one month off in Winter (usually January) and one month during the Summer (usually August). That sounds reasonable, correct? Almost.

Now, you may be thinking "But, Shawn, you just said that they had all of January off, yet earlier you mentioned that January would be 'Busy Season' for you?" Indeed, you are correct my friend. You have not been misled. Korean children have break from Regular School during January. However, Korean parents cannot stand the thought of their children missing out on the joys of education for two whole months out of the year. Therefore, these month-long breaks become "Busy Season" for the private Academies. I now no longer have the luxury of my students being at regular school during the day allowing me to sleep in (or go snowboarding from 9 AM to 1 PM before work which I did today). This luxury is missing during January thus forcing me to make up for the 'slack' of the Regular School by teaching from 9 AM to 10 PM with an hour and half or so for lunch. Yes, indeed. Korean children just cannot get enough of that sweet sweet candy-flavored knowledge!

All of this is true. It is also true that I am slightly excited about such an intensive teaching schedule. Call me strange, but I get my kicks off of being productive. And hey - it's only for January! Not to mention I'll get my first extended (two day) holiday come February for the Lunar New Year! Get there celestial celebrations!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has an even better New Year! Don't worry about me. Santa comes to Korea first!

Postscript: Oh man, have I got some stories for you guys. Here's what I realize about this kind of blog - the more that's going on worth writing about, the less time there is to write about it; the less that's going on, the more time there is to write. So, suffice it say that when updates are sparse, I've had a lot going on, and that's a good thing. I'll do my best to keep you all updated as soon as I can.

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