Too much stress

It hasn't been good. They've been working me hard: for the past two terms, 6 solid teaching hours per day, plus a couple of hours to prep and grade. It might not seem like a lot, but teaching can be intense. It requires a lot of energy, as anyone who has taught before surely knows. And at my school there are very few breaks. Just two weeks a year, to be precise, plus a handful of 3-day weekends. We don't get the normal vacations the public schools get. And when you're teaching full-time (I'm actually teaching overtime and have been for more than four months) you really need those breaks to recover and recuperate. I'm not a fan of jobs that keep you constantly going at a high output and leave you with little time to relax or reflect. So I'll probably never be rich, but then again I probably wouldn't want to be anyway.

This blog entry really has nothing interesting in it about Korea or anything, so I apologize for that, but my life really has been very work-a-day. What's more, and maybe this is unfortunate, having to work this much and sustain a high level of stress for so long has worn me down emotionally and has turned my attitude toward Korea somewhat more sour than it was a few months ago. I feel myself resenting things about everyday life here, little things that normally wouldn't bother me. And I've gone from being sure about returning for another year, to not so sure and sure I need a break even if I do come back. There is the EPIC program teaching in public schools that sounds interesting, but thus far I haven't found the desire to look into it very much. 

In addition to not being sure about my occupation next year, I've even lost motivation to plan the trip to China I had assumed I'd be taking at the close of my contract in October. I was going to spend maybe three weeks in Szechuan and Yunnan provinces in southwestern China, exploring the beautiful mountains and interesting towns. But of course, that takes a lot of planning and the trip itself would not be without stress. I definitely want to do that at some point, but right now I've started to think about instead going somewhere where I can just relax and kick back for awhile before returning home to visit my family. Like visiting friends in Spain or Europe.

We'll see. Maybe just starting to plan the China trip would get me excited about it. Whatever happens, I still am going to Yakushima (Japan) a little over a week from now. It'll be a week of camping, backpacking and just generally bumming around. I'll keep you posted.