::A Geek in Korea::

The last class of the week, where I got to chat with students about my teaching style and learned that I should rethink my approach to classes has stuck with me. There have also been some new schedules posted, and it turned out that I did have to change my schedule next semester. Because of my new schedule my family is going to have to make some choices as to how to support ourselves and pay for our growing daughter. This new schedule won’t be in effect for a few months, but we’ll have to do something to make it work. My wife and I were discussing our options late into the evening and decided on a few options to make it better for everyone.

A few months ago, on the weekends I was so burned out from teaching children I would not like to do anything at all during the weekends. My time alone was spent doing nothing around the house. My wife would send me out while she cleaned the house by hand, and I’d walk Yoshi. Then we got the steam cleaner to make cleaning easier, Glow was born, and suddenly I had a new job. Things changed.

These days, when my wife goes out with Glow, I’m in charge of getting the house clean. I do the vacuuming. I do the steam cleaning. I walk and wash the dog. It’s basically the only time I have to myself in the house every week, and I spend it doing the little things my wife just doesn’t have time for now that we’re parents. I still don’t like to do much after I get home from work because I’m mentally fried, but on Sundays I am a cleaning machine. I have a three or four hour window where I get everything done and I really like that time now.

While I’m cleaning and working I just listen to podcasts and forget about my problems. I catch up on all my weekly programs and mentally prepare for the next week. I forget about work and just worry about the spots I miss with the steam cleaner. When I got finished with my cleaning regiment today I actually felt bad when I sat back down in front of the computer with nothing to do but post something on Twitter. I took a break and got some grammar class planning finished, but I still didn’t feel like I had accomplished anything until I had some dishes to wash sitting in the sink waiting for me.

My wife still does the majority of the housework. Laundry and childrearing while I am away most of the day is exhausting for her. Still, it was rather zen like to just focus on what needed to get done and get it done for once. So many tasks I am assigned are nuanced, subtle things I have to pick apart and ponder for a long time before I undertake them. Finding out I need a new syllabus to develop on my own for the classes I’ll be teaching in the next few months really had me down, but when I was cleaning I really could forget about it.