(20) 90 in 90: Time Zone Fatigue

It's been awhile.

After two weeks of close friends leaving Korea, going back to a wedding in America and getting rejected from the three jobs I applied for earlier this year, I'm finally back in Korea. I'm back in my normal Korean work/teach/write mode and ready to start everything over again.

The last three weeks seem more like three years. Events came and went at such a rapid pace that they seem further away from the present than they really are. Being someone who usually likes to dwell and reminiscence about the past, the fact that the past seems further away than t is makes my time here seem that much more important.

When you're busy, when you're involved with things on a daily basis, time is something you never seem to have enough of. It leaves us in an instant and suddenly we're left looking back at the past, yesterday has become years ago.

Crossing time zones to go back to America has also made time more relevant in my life. I've learned the hard way that time zone differences, or rather 13 hour differences can play havoc with you body and end up making the day time, the time where you need to be at your most attentive and active, a time flow limbo in which your body chugs along with aching eyes and groaning muscles struggling to stay awake and active while time time left at school versus the time in your bed at home seems completely out of reach.

You can always tell when the fatigue starts to set in, even while wide awake, you can feeling it. Its a pressure that starts behind your eyes and slowly creeps to the top of your eye lids, a heavy tingling feeling that finds relief only through closing your eyes.

Even with your eyes closed, the pressure is still there. A reminder of just how exhausted your body is and the desperate need for your body to sleep.

For me its an indicator to let me know that I have still unsuccessfully managed to battle jet lag and still spend the first week coming back home, getting used to a new time zone and letting my body readjust itself. I hope that one day, I'll get used to this duel time zone thing and nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.

Until then, its awkward sleep schedules and waking up at 5 AM until I master my sleeping habits again. I am struggling to write this simple update as I fall asleep at my keyboard. Traveling is great, the changes you have to get used to, not so much.

 

(10) 90 in 90: Back again aka working is hard!

Today marks the first day back for the second school semester and while I wish it was a little more exciting with a little more fanfare... there wasn't.

The mood today was incredibly dour and quiet. None of the enthusiastic greetings from teachers, none of the normal greetings from students. Everyone today was tired and not looking happy to be there.

I guess you could have included myself as well. After having an extra long vacation and having to start my normal schedule again, I also felt incredibly lethargic and sluggish throughout the day. Something about being back and working didn't register in my brain. Thank goodness the activity level of everyone today was low because I'm pretty sure the thought processes in my brain were tumbleweeds.

I'm hoping that this is only temporary and I'll be back in the work and teaching mode by the end of the week. It's such a weird feeling having a different mind set when you need to be doing something. It feels weird, not right and yet you know it has to be done. Your body is rebelling against you while your brain yells at you for being a lazy ass.

You tell em lazy cat. You tell em. 

I wish there was more to say but today was incredibly meh, a solid 5 out of 10. Here's hoping my students and more importantly myself are ready to go at this whole teaching and learning thing again soon. Doing simple warm up activities was a long and time consuming task that took a large amount of effort just to get the students doing what they were supposed to do. An activity that was supposed take thirty minutes took almost the entire hour.

I can't help but feel bad for the students though. Their summer vacation wasn't really a summer vacation like I was used to. Students still had to go to school and attend classes until noon. Afterwards, they were required to stay and study until 6 pm. Some of the teachers also had to stay full days as well not only to teach them, but to monitor the study sessions as well. I consider myself very lucky. I have a feeling that besides myself, very few teachers or students had the opportunity to relax and go on vacation like I did.

So now, I head to bed. Wish me luck tomorrow world. Let this laziness go away and get my butt back in gear. I'm a big boy now, time to start acting like it.