He woke up that morning, tired from the night before. He lay in bed for a time looking at the ceiling of his 7-pyong apartment, wondering why he persists in going out so late at night and trashing himself all the time. Well, he said to himself as he looked at the clock, time to get up. He got up just as his phone rang.

Picking it up he answered "Yeobosayeo" and was greeted by the sound of his mother on the phone.

"David," she said, "I will never get used to you answering the phone like that. How are you doing?"

He answered, "Well, you know mom, when in Rome. Anyways I am doing ok, how is everything there? How are dad and Beth?

She said, "everything is good, Dad is at work right now and Beth is out on a date."

"A date" he said, "when did this start?"

She said, "she met this guy about two weeks ago and she says things look good."

He looked at his watch and thought, I should get my ass in gear or I will be late. He said, "That sounds good, it is about time that she got back on the wagon and started dating again, that last asshole should have his head beat in."

His mother said, "I agree with you, but I do not like it when you speak that way, David."

"I know," he said, "but it is the truth, and you know it, mom."

"Yes, it is true, but it is still not nice to talk that way, and I thought you knew better," she said.

He looked at the ceiling and thought to himself, now I know why I left. I thought I was old enough to be past this, but I guess I never will no matter how far away I get from them. He looked at his watch and said, "Mom, I have to go quick now, I have to be at work in thirty minutes and I still have to eat and clean up."

His mother, being accustomed to this lackadaisical approach of her son, said, "Ok, I will give you a call this weekend. Bye."

David said, "Bye, Mom, talk to you later." And he hung up the phone. He quickly looked at himself in the mirror and thought no need to shave took his hand and swiftly ran his fingers through his hair and said that looks all right. He threw his clothes on and ran out the door, grabbing a cup of ramion as he passed the cupboard door.

He went out the door, just barely remembered to lock it and went to the elevator. He pushed the button and waited, looking again at his watch, grimacing in pain as he watched the time tick slowly by. He looked again at the elevator and cursed as he saw the number stuck on eleven. His frustration growing, he looked at the elevator and his watch and then turned and ran down the stairs. As he got to the eleventh floor, he glanced out and saw that they were moving someone out of the building.

He continued running down the stair and cursed the stupidity of going out, getting tanked, and then having to talk to his mother. He thought to himself as he was running down the stairs, why did I choose Korea. Why didn't I go to Europe and teach there if I wanted to teach. Far better conditions, better money and more variability in the everyday things, not to mention better coffee.

As he was going out the door, he snagged his pants on a piece of the furniture, stacked by the door waiting to be packed up by the movers. He cursed and continued running, knowing that he boss would be pissed if he were late for class.

He ran past the local corner store, in such a rush that he did not see the local vendor nod good morning to him. He was beginning to sweat and he could smell the alcohol seeping through his pores and embedding themselves in his clothes.

He burst through the door to the school, and looked quickly at the time, good, he thought to himself five minutes to spare. As he walked past the window to his bosses' office, he noticed his disheveled appearance and once again brushed his hand through his hair. He noted that it gave him a rumpled and a little grunge look and then he went quickly to his classroom.

He went into his room, and sat down to gather his thoughts for a moment. He took a quick glance at his schedule and saw that he had the middle school class first today. Good he thought, an easy class, nothing hard, since most of them will be busy studying for their tests, so I should not have too many questions.

His boss looked through the door into the room, nodded his head, but he did not look too happy. He thought, dare I ask, or just keep my mouth shut. What the hell, he thought to himself and he said, "Good morning, Mr. Noh"

Mr. Noh looked at him and said, "David, you need more careful," in his broken English.

Now he was intrigued and out of curiosity, he asked, "what do you mean Mr. Noh?"

Mr. Noh came into the room, and pointed to David's pants. He said, "you have tear in pants."

David looked down at his pants and swore to himself. He said, "I was on my way to work and I snagged my clothes on some furniture being moved from my apartment building."

Mr. Noh, nodded his head in understanding, which of course did not exist, and said, "David you need more careful, and when break come you go home and change, bring pants to cleaner, they fix."

David nodded his head in agreement; not wanting to say anything else, since doing so would encourage Mr. Noh to remain and talk to him at which point Mr. Noh might notice that David was still hung over. Mr. Noh shook his finger again and once more said, "break time you go home and change, yes, David."

David, nodding his head in agreement, replied, "Yes, Mr. Noh." Cursing at himself, he took his book off his desk and opened it to the last page they were doing on Friday morning.

The first of his students began arriving and sitting down. He looked at them, and muttered to himself, typical the ones who do the least are the first ones to arrive, just typical. He looked down at his page and said, "Open your books up to page twenty-eight and look at section C."

One of the students, Joe looked at David and said "Whey, you no teacher, whey I do what you say.'

David looked at his watch and thought of all mornings for this to happen. He looked at Joe and replied, "Joe, what do you know?"

Joe looked at him and replied, "What you mean, teacher?"

David, laughing to himself, said, "that is whey I am the teacher and you are the student, Joe. So just do it."

Joe, muttering under his breath, opened his book. David heard part of what he said and with his understanding of Korean, knew enough to understand. Looked at Joe and said, "Goodbye, Joe, go stand in the hallway and do not come back until I ask you."

Joe went into the hallway and then went to the front desk and complained that the teacher was not being fair. David readied himself for the onslaught from the vice-director, who promptly came into the room and asked David to come and explain.

David looking at her diminutive form replied, "Joe referred to me as a Miguk Michin Gissekki, and so I kicked him out of class". The vice-director said, "you do not understand Korean way of life and he say he joking. He want to come back to class."

David rather than dealing with her replied, "I understand enough to know that students are not supposed to curse their teachers, regardless of their culture."

The vice-director, looked at him and stated, "he apologize, he come back, ok."

David replied, "sure, whatever."

The vice-director brought Joe over and shook him. Joe, looked at David with pure animal hatred and said, "I sorry David teacher."

David could tell that this was far from over. He looked at his watch and said, "Joe, go back into the classroom." The vice-director smiled her half-smile and went away.

David returned to his room and looked at the other students. He looked at Joe, who had his feet up on the seat in front of him and just shook his head. He began his lesson as he thought to himself, this is just another day and I only have 200 of them to go, thankful that at least his nights were his own. Little did he know.

After he finished his class, he looked at his watch and checked out his time, he had to get home and change and return before his next class in an hour. He looked at his desk, put out the materials for his next class and then left to go home and change.

He got home and found that the movers had finished, for which he was happy since he did not relish walking up the 19 flights of stairs to his apartment. He reached into his pocket fished out his cigarettes and pulling one from the package lit it up, got into the elevator, an old adjumma got on and, looking at him dirtily, pushed the number for the eleventh floor. David reached over and pushed the button for the 19th floor.

He rode the elevator up in silence, thinking about the events of the class, and wondered how he would deal with Joe and how he would explain it fully to Mr. Noh and the vice-director if they asked. He got off the elevator and went to his room, finding his utility bill jammed into the doorframe he took it into the apartment and put it on the table.

David thought he should probably have a quick shower, before he went back. So he quickly jumped into the shower and scrubbed the smell of alcohol and smoke off his skin, thankful that Mr. Noh had not been close enough to smell him earlier. He got out of the shower, and dried off, going to his laundry rack he pulled off a clean pair of pants and a new shirt put them on and went back out the door to go to work.

On the way back to work for the second time this morning, He stopped at the bakery and picked up a bagel to eat, thinking that it would be a bit before he had a break so some food would probably be a good thing. He thought twice and picked up a second just in case and he figured they would go well with the ramion anyway.

He left the store and went back to the school. He stepped into the lotteria near the institute to pick up a cola and some fries to eat just before he went back to work. Eating them he got into the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor. The elevator went up and he opened the door. He looked the girls at the front desk, nodded, and went off to his room once again.

Mr. Noh put his head into the room and this time said, "Look much better David." David smiled and nodded a facetious smile toward his director thinking, to himself, these people just do not understand sarcasm.

David then turned and looked at the class schedule in front of him in the wall. He double-checked his materials to make sure everything was ready for his classes. He reached over to his drawer and pulled out some board markers. He double checked the time and saw that he still had some left before his next class. Then with everything ready he reached into his bag and pulled out his most recent paperback novel.

He was just settling into the book, when in came his vice director. She was a younger Korean woman, nice enough, but for the most she could be rather small-minded. She asked him, or perforce the way he thought of it, surreptitiously ordered him to take another class on his already hectic class load. He thought about protesting for a moment, but then resignedly just said whatever. She smiled and then went on her way. David thought well I would get a little bit more money out of it, not that I really need the extra class.

He put his nose back into his book and began to read.

He finished the chapter, just as his first students began to arrive, so he put his book back into his bag and pulled up the textbook and his handouts. Thinking, well at least they cannot say that I am unprepared for classes. He looked out at his students and realized that this was one of his favourite classes. He waited until everyone was in their seats and said in his most jovial voice, "Good morning children." And was rewarded with a bright and loud, "hello, teacher."

He worked his way through the material explaining it to them as easily as he could. There were a few students who did not catch it the first time, there always were. He helped them while the others worked on the handout he had prepared. After they had all finished, he played a little guessing game with them and then they were off to his Korean co-teacher. After they left he settled into the mechanical process of teaching some of his less fun classes, knowing full well that they would be over by nine. He realized then that he had to meet his friend for drinks at their favourite meeting hole.

The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur, as they typically did for David. Class followed class at a rate that any normal teacher back in Montana would balk at, but for Korea it was just another day for an expat English teacher. He got his dinner break at 7:30, a whole 20 minutes to eat and get the rest of his evening classes prepared. As much as he liked some of the students, he hated having to work this late, since it just made him all the more tired.

His last two classes went by quickly and he put his books away. He made sure that he had the next day's handouts ready. He was really happy that he had taken the time to make all the photocopies back at the beginning of the month when he had been assigned the classes. After taking one last look around the room he turned off the light, walked toward the elevator, and said, "Anyong haseyo," to the girls at the desk as he got on the elevator. He was the last foreign teacher to leave at night because he always had the last class.

He left the elevator and walked up the street to the bar where he was supposed to meet his friend. He went up to the third floor and into the bar. Going through the door, he noticed his friend sitting there eating a pizza and drinking some Korean beer. He looked at him and said, "How was your day?"

His friend replied, "Just another day." As David sat down to relax and have a drink, thinking tonight I have to stop drinking earlier and get my as home sooner, but knowing that he would not do such a thing because after all tomorrow would be just another day.