Last call

Yesterday I placed my last call to Korea.

For the past year I've set aside five hours a day, five days a week for practicing conversational English with South Korean professionals. I taught online with an internet phone. My first call usually began at five o'clock in the morning (seven at night in Korea). Calls ranged from ten to thirty minutes with my student and me discussing everything from the dialogues in the textbook to Global Warming to the earthquake in Japan to their dateless Friday nights. 

At the beginning of the semester, the director of the English Language Program at SVSU asked me to teach a second class. Since I couldn't devote five hours of my day to Korea students in addition to teaching eight credit hours and tutoring homeschooling students, I decided to resign my Korean job. Since then, the number of calls each days has been dwindling until yesterday I made my last two calls.

My Korean job was an easy, work-in-your-pajamas job, which provided me with a purpose, an income and experience at the time I needed it. Now, I am looking forward to functioning at more normal hours and getting the day off for American holidays.