The first week at work

My first week of work was a bit of a blur. Unlike most Hogwans where the teachers move around, at Unium (oh yeah, my school is called Unium College) we each get our own classrooms. This is a nice perk since we can make the room our own teaching space.
Anyway, when I first started I was told that I would be working from 9-4:40. The normal hours here are generally start from 2-4 pm and end between 8-10pm. Which works well for night owls like me. But during the summer and winter regular school vacations, the Hogwans (private English schools) go into normal day time hours while the children are not in school. Anyway, I went in for my first day of classes with trepidation. I hadn't had any training from the Hogwan on what my classes would entail (pretty usual) and I had never taught ESL before. In the end it wasn't that difficult. I was given a pretty good textbook which fit reasonably well within the time frame of the class. I made it through without to many screw ups. Although I did need to run to a computer a couple of times to look up grammar definitions between classes. The first shock came when late in the day the boss pulled me aside and asked me if I would be willing to do some overtime. The summer and winter holiday terms are the busiest times for any Hogwan. I said that it would be ok and then he laid it on me. He wanted me to take up 3 over time hours after classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Now that doesn't sound so bad, does it? Well the classes were from 5:30 till 7:10 and then from 8:50 till 9:40. So what started as an 8 hour normal working day now becomes a 13 hour stretch filled with frusterating gaps with nothing to do. Well I knew that I could use as much money as possible in my first month so I said ok. On the plus side, when I counted it up the overtime would equal an extra $1000 in my first month. However to anyone out there who has ever worked double shifts, you have my sympathy. It can really kick your ass.
I actually got used to it and it certainly made the weeks pass quickly. Anyway, in case any of you are interested, the picture attached to this post is of me and one of my P600 classes (P600 stands right in the middle of the Pre-TOEFL/TOEFL series which goes from P100 to T600) A really fun bunch of kids.