Some days all your classes go bad, none of your students want to do even the least bit of work (not even for rather savoury candy), you veer close to telling the wrong person off, and your water heater works even less well than it has been all year.

But there’s something to look forward to, at least. Maybe you happen upon a farmer’s stand where you can buy 모과 (papaya) dirt cheap, and they’re firm enough to need to be left till the weekend or so before you eat them.

Or maybe you figure out a really good, fun, and easy lesson plan to use with students who suddenly have just decided English isn’t fun enough, no matter how many board games and candies and activities you throw at them, because it’s hours 8 and 9 of the schoolday and they’re bored.

Or maybe it’s just knowing you get a chance to call your girlfriend so she has an excuse to sneak out of a mandatory drinking-meeting with her fellow hospital-interns. (Those mandatory drinking-meetings alone make me glad I didn’t grow up in Korea. Everything from the forced drinking to the fact everyone has to contribute the same amount though some people don’t drink at all, would drive me to violence, I’m sure.)

Or for those with really bad days going on, well, there’s Christmas, and hell, in Korea it’s even 귤 (mandarin orange) season already. Just don’t buy them at a shop if there’s a street market in range: you can get them much cheaper from the people selling from boxes on the sidewalk than from any neighborhood shop.