various stories...

i was on the bus and i was talking to a lady. her english was very broken, but like i said, i've come to appreciate that. it's endearing when they still try to talk to you. at one point she said to me:
"can I ask you a personal question?"
i thought " there isn't possibly a question you'd be be willing to ask me that is too personal" so I said "yes".
She said "are you happy with how much money you make?"
I said "why?" usually when they ask that it's because they have a job proposition.
Finally, after much struggling with language I understood what she was suggesting. she said that another english teacher told her about his job, which was similar to my except that he had to go work at many different schools. basically it is an on call english teacher job.
she told me this with amazement that i can make a lot of money doing this even more than she makes. so i said how much. she confidently wrote with her finger on a wall a number that she assumed would impress me. i quickly realized her error, and i felt very bad for her. she wrote 2,000,000 won on the wall. and i tried to say in a humble way, i make more than that. incredulous, she asked how long do you work. i said 7 hours a day. even more incredulous she asked if i work on the weekends. i said no. she was in a stupor. i tried to be humble but clearly not enough. the thing is, in korea, english teachers make a lot more than their korean counterparts. also they work a lot less, and their apartments are paid for. i try not to tell any koreans how much i make because they'll probably be jealous, and resent foreigners. it's amazing, we have such an easy job and we can make really decent money. the only drawback is that we are far from friends or family.

i have another interesting story, but this is already too long. i've gotten into a habit of writing really long notes.