Loyal BTS followers will remember the days before BTS was even a thing and I lived in Gwangju and taught at Seokang University. Back then I posted pics and descriptions of my beloved walking/exercise trail behind the school. I was all OVER that thing! Well, I'm gonna be all over THIS one too! It's just past the Lotte Super, about a 5-minute warm-up walk away from my door. And it's got all of the trail exercise equipment I like. I even think, from pretty solid evidence, I know the name of the little mountain the trail is on. Believe it or not it's called Dong San. That'd translate almost exactly into "poop mountain." Here is just one of a few buildings on or around Dong San that lead me to this supposition.
Aside from the name, it's going to be a great way to exercise and relieve any stress I might encounter. It's got all the usual Korean exercise machines. You know the air walking machines. No idea why they would have them on a GROUND walking trail. Why change the scenery while you walk when you can look at the same exact thing the entire time? Don't get that. They also have the stair climbing machines right beside actual stairs. But whatever...I just won't use those machines. Or the hula hoops or the round circly machines. I've never really figured out how to use them. You know the ones I'm talking about? Here's a pic:
What is a guy supposed to do? Turn those wheels? And then what happens? You get better at drawing big circles? And notice right behind it is the ubiquitous massage machine. I didn't find any of them on the Poop Mt. trail. I never used them either. What they have are benches where I can do push-ups and sit-ups, bars for pull-ups and shoulder presses, bench press stations where I do curls, and those disks you stand on to do oblique twists. And plenty of fresh, piney air to breath while walking the trail and climbing the stairs and hills.
Just look at those gnarly, red Jack Pines! And the nice bed of needles to add to the cushion effect of whatever footwear you use. And the smell! Mmmmm!
One other really nice bonus of Poop Mt. hiking trail is the views. It's not a very high mountain but still on one side you get a view of the ocean:
And on the other, a view of the mountains. The mountains are a bit farther away and my phone cam lens isn't professional quality so you can't see the layers of mountains that there were in this pic. But imagine three more layers to this scene all shadowy and mysterious. It's a nice view.
As for the list above, I haven't yet found all the things on it. I actually observed Anne for her entire 6-hours of teaching on Thursday. That'll soon be me. I was pretty hungry afterwards so I think I'll be bringing snacks every day I work. I went to the Dog House bar after work with Anne. I met a few of the other expats in town here. We played darts and talked. Really nice folks. Anne paid! What an excellent early Christmas present!
The kids I met were pretty good I have to say. And the classes went off without a hitch. Anne is a very good teacher and she keeps the kids on task. I will take some pointers from what I saw her doing for sure! Thanks Anne.
But that was just Thursday. Close to a dozen kids in every class and all doing different lessons. I've crunched the numbers and it's going to be about four times the lesson planning than I did at my last job here in Korea. Quadrouple! Also there won't be 5 months off a year. AND, they're kids, not adults.
Why, you might ask, have I done this to myself? The answer is simple: I have given up trying to find the best of both worlds, search high and low though I have, in the Korean ESL job market. Nowadays even moreso than when I began my career back in '97, there appears to be no such thing as a job at the university level with those fantastic hours I mentioned that also comes with a relationship of mutual respect with management. It's a snuffleuppagus as far as I'm concerned. And because I've had jobs with amazing schedules, lots of vacation and adults and I was miserable because I was working for assholes, and I've had jobs with heavy workloads, little vacation and teaching kids and I was treated well, I think I prefer the latter. The only reason I left any of those jobs was to try to get the same respect from owners/management from a school with more vacation and a shorter work-week. I hereby give up! I'm not going to even apply to these ads that promise wonderful working conditions then break the contracts a month in. That is now what I EXPECT from other jobs.
I have to satisfy myself with the idea that this is as good as it gets here. And although 6 hours a day seems like a piece of cake to a lot of people who might read this, that also comes with lesson prep. For a good teacher that'll be at least a few more hours. So I'll be a-workin'! But I find I'm a-happy when I'm a-workin'. So I think this is going to be a good new experience for me.
I am off to Fukuoka December 21st to obtain my official work visa, (FINE-skal-ly!!!), and will return to Korea on Christmas Eve. I'll go directly to the Spiwak/Peet residence to have a late-night nog with their whole family including Omma and Pap, and then spend Christmas day with them all. I may even spend the weekend. But starting the 28th I've got massive curriculum planning to do! Then in early January I'll get down to some serious teaching and money earning. Possibly by the end of winter I will have dug myself out of the massive financial hole I will name Indonesian Wall Street.
But who knows? With my nose to the grindstone working, and hiking at Poop Mountain a few times a week, maybe, just maybe come summer I'll have my beach body back again!
This is as close to a New Year's resolution as I come.
P.S. Today I found Homeplus, Macdonalds, the movie theatre, (where I could see Star Wars), a liquor store with slightly overpriced but hard to find alcoholic supplies, and a store called Bestco. It's a bit like Costco only smaller. But most things are sold in large quantities. I can get a can of spaghetti sauce that has about 30,000 won worth of sauce in it for 8,000! Big spices too. Homeplus was a bit of a let-down. It really doesn't have much that E-Mart doesn't. And E-Mart is closer. The things you find out when you wander around...
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