A couple weeks ago my co-teacher approached me about taking a side job teaching a Saturday conversation class twice a month at a third middle school. Drawn by the extra money (I was to get about $26 and hour), I said yes. I didn't want to give up my weekends, but I would still have every other weekend free. It occurred to me that this may not be within the bounds of my contract, as I am barred from taking any part-time jobs or private tutoring gigs outside of my assigned schools. But since it was at another public middle school and was offered to me by my co-teacher, I went with it and signed the contract this past Thursday.

I was promptly invited to go to Seoul with some friends over the weekend and started to regret . my decision. True, I have half of my weekends free but what if the other half is the cool half? But, I had signed the contract so I tried to fill my head with what I could do with the extra $150 a month. Go shopping, I thought. But Saturday is the best shopping day since I lesson plan on Sunday. True, I will have extra spending money, but I won't have as much time to spend it. Hmmmm. My brain went on like this for hours. I am notoriously bad at making up my mind. But before you tell me what a pain that type of person is, just imagine being one for a minute. Should I have? Shouldn't I have? Will I regret it? Will I get another chance to go to Seoul? What if I just don't show up... what can they do? Eventually, in true Korean style, I just stopped worrying about it and decided to let it be. Something I am getting better and better at.

The next morning when I arrived at school, things seemed tohave worked themselves out. All because I let it be. Hey! This Korean go with the flow thing is really working out! My co-teacher turned to me and said she had some bad news. The vice-principal had pulled out my contract and located where it said I could not work side-jobs and said I could not work at any other school but the two I was assigned to. Oh, bummer. That's too bad. My co-teacher then told me that although the vice principal had said this, she had "spoken" to the Daejeon Office of Education (technically my employer) and they had said it was okay. It sounded fishy to me, but it got even fishier. She told me I should keep the contract with the third school, just pretend I'm not working there in front of the vice principal. He is too busy to know anything, she said. I told her I wasn't sure if I was comfortable deceiving the vice principal, but agreed to go ahead and teach the first Saturday class since they were relying on me. I know what you're thinking. That I just wanted to get out of the whole thing and was using this uncomfortable with deceptetion thing as a handy excuse. In a way, yes. That extra money was looking less and less appealing as the day wore on. My students had a major case of Friday cabin fever (which is odd to me since they all go to class on Saturday anyway) and weren't paying attention in class at all. I felt like a crummy teacher for not being able to keep control, and all I wanted to do was sleep. But, I wouldn't be able to this weekend. At least not Saturday. I'd have to be up by 7am again.

And I was. Well, it was more like 7:45 but let's go by when my alarm actually went off. The Korean English teacher from the new school picked me up at 8. She told me that she didn't want me to be uncomfortable teaching at her school, but it was just was my vice-principal likes me so much he didn't want to share me with another school. Really? I was flattered. In that case, I really don't want to pull the wool over his eyes. To settle things, I told her I would need to talk to the Office of Education about the situation and then decide if I can continue teaching there after today.

Then came the lesson. I'll admit, I didn't over-prepare, but I had a couple games and activities to fill the 3 hour class. By the end of it though, I had made up my mind. I don't care if the Office of Education tells me that it's the best idea in the world to fool ,y principal. Count me out!

And now I will mention that the school is an all boys' middle school. I had a total of 11 fifteen year old boys (actually 13 years old if you go by the standard age system). I couldn't get them all quiet at the same time for more than 20 seconds. The only thing that went mildly according to plan was English conversation Battleship (a genius invention I found on www.eatyourkimchi.com). Aside from that hour, it was a lot of punching, throwing paper airplanes, reading computer game manuals, etc. Not a lot of practicing English. Then at the end, they all said Bye, teacher and gave me a cupcake and a soda. These kids are geniuses. They misbehave and give you hell, then do something really cute. It reminds me of that Sour Patch Kids candy commercial. First their sour, then they're sweet. Nonetheless, after teaching 20 periods a week at my regular schools, I just don't have the time or energy to take on this challenge.

If for no other reason than the sake of my sanity, I must let this opportunity go. One can always use more money. But one can also always use the weekend.