This past Monday I started the Winter term at CDI. Each season the students start new classes, and my teaching schedule changes. Well as far as time goes, my schedule is exactly the same as last term. But I am teaching a whole new set of students. I teach 5 different classes, and they are basically the same levels I taught last term (elementary students in the afternoon and middle school students at night). Almost my entire EC1 class from last term leveled-up to EC2 this term, so I am teaching many of the same students in my two EC2 classes this term. It's nice to see some familiar faces, and plus they already know my teaching style. I have a new classroom on the main floor and I like it a lot better. Aside from the extremely slow computer, I now have a bigger classroom that is closer to the desk staff and the other English teachers. Plus it has two windows, unlike the dungeon I had upstairs. Overall my classes were so much more well-behaved than my students from last term. It's only the first week though, so maybe the students are just quiet because some don't know me. Next week I don't teach any night classes, because the middle school students have school exams again.
On Saturday, I ran the KM Marathon 5k race in Seoul with Danny and some of his coworkers. One of his coworkers is friends with an English teacher that started "Team Dirt," which is the fundraising organization that we ran with in the race. Team Dirt is basically a group of about a hundred or so foreigners and Koreans (but mostly English teachers from America). The group runs races every few months to raise money for a rare eye disease. You can check out Team Dirt's fundraising page here. So the race entry was a bit steep compared to American road races (around $30), but we got free warmup pants, shirt, hat, socks, and free food after the race. The race was along the Han River that runs through Seoul. Unfortunately it was 30 degrees on Saturday with a wind chill that made it feel like 20 degrees. It was cloudy and even flurried after the race. Not ideal race weather, but luckily I decided to wear many layers and a huge scarf over my face. Team Dirt's theme was "zebras and big cats," so many guys from our team were donning cheetah-print spandex pants and some even had furry tails. Everyone from our team wore animal-print headbands, so it was easy to pick us out in the race. I think the race organizers were trying to torture us, because the race that was supposed to go off at 2pm didn't start until 2:30pm. The two Korean girls in bellydance costumes on stage in the biting cold definitely had it worse than me. It seems as though most runners ran in the half-marathon and 10km races at the event. The 5km went off last, and we probably only had about 100 people in our race. I'm not in the best shape now, because I've only been running about once or twice a week, but once I hear a gun go off I suddenly feel great. So I ran with Danny and his coworker (both tall, fit guys), for the first half of the race and I left them in the dust at the end. Well I didn't leave them too far behind...I finish in 23:32 and they were both within 30 seconds of me. That time would have been extremely slow for me in high school or college, but somehow I got 1st place for women in the race. After eating a post-race meal of spicy sour tofu soup and sweet red bean cakes, I got to stand on stage with the other top 4 runners in the women's 5k. I was given a fancy glass trophy and a certificate in a velvet case (and the announcer pronounced my name right!) All of the runners also received medals, so I got that too. Of the top 5 women in the race, I think 3 or 4 were foreigners from Team Dirt. After the race we went to COEX mall nearby for some food and Christmas shopping. Although most women in the mall were dressed in fur and high heels, I didn't get too many weird looks with my spandex and running gear on.
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