heavenly_metal

in response to this post, where i listed off the songs that reminded me of my years at university, i will do the same for my fourth and final year.

cd 4: fourth year.
1. m.i.a. - paper planes
2. coldplay - lost!
3. pink floyd - fearless
4. neil young - touch the night
5. ramones - judy is a punk
6. blue oyster cult - harvester of eyes/flaming telepaths
7. fleet foxes - white winter hymnal
8. john lennon - bring on the lucie (freed people)
9. the jimmy hendrix experience - all along the watch tower
10. neil young - albuqueque
11. the monkees - i'm a believer
12. kings of leon - closer
13. the flying burrito brothers - hot burrito #1
14. the flying burrito brothers - hot burrito #2
15. neil young - sample and hold
16. grizzly bear - two weeks

this year was of course marked by the three month t.a. strike, so many of these songs aren't necessarily associated with my memories at york, but more with the feelings that went along with my situation at the time. the songs are in chronological order, from september to may (when the school year finally ended), so they tell a story. perhaps the story is only visible to me, but that's good enough at this point.

i've been writing my annual recap for the year over the past few weeks. it's turning into a really long confessional, with a lot of details that weren't otherwise expressed either in person or on this livejournal. it's kind of epic, but i'm not sure how to really edit it down into something tangible, without it being cryptic and silly. i want you to understand the year i've had.

this week has been okay; school is weighing me down now. i want to be finished... i need a vacation. sadly i have two weeks until i have my first period of vacation, which lasts a week and is then immediately followed by three weeks of english camps at another elementary school nearby. due to the many stipulations in my contract, i am obliged to teach a minimum 20 hours of english camps during both the winter and summer vacations. however, the class periods only run until noon, so it isn't a full day of school like it is normally, where i am not allowed to leave until 4:30pm. and once the three weeks are finished with, i will be able to take another weeks worth of vacation, at which point i will return to school for another two weeks for proper classes which is then followed by another two weeks of spring vacation. but here's the kicker for spring vacation, as a native teacher i'm not entitled to an actual vacation period. my contract states i can only have ten days in winter break, and eight for the summer break. the korean teachers won't be coming to school during this time, but i will. where is the logic in that? i'm trying to not let it bother me too much, but deep down it's really fucking stupid. even my co-teacher thinks so, that it seems ludicrous for me to have to come to school when there won't be anyone else there. i will, essentially, be sitting at my desk and twiddling my thumbs all day. now i can look at this any number of ways, but for the time being i'm choosing to look at the injustices of the situation. however, any number of things can change between now and then.

saturday night. i'm home alone (what else is new?), but i did go out to get pizza earlier. but i almost chickened out about going into the shop, by myself, which i have done three times before tonight. for some reason, talking to korean people by myself is the most terrifying thing i can do. and it's because i can't speak korean; not that i'm even doing anything to change that. i'm hopeless.