When work follows you home (and asks you to go jogging)
 

I wasn't entirely sure where to put this, but I thought it was quite funny (and rather encouraging, too), so I wanted to share.

I recently moved abroad to teach English. I live in a small city by my host country's standards, though in my standards it's more of a town. I happen to live on the same street and in the same area as many of the students in my classes, and I often see them while walking to and from work and while working out in the evening.

This evening, I was in the middle of doing some squats and other exercises that will supposedly and wondrously sculpt my tiny bump of a butt into something a bit more bootylicious when my door bell rang. One of my students was at the door and asked if I would like to go on a jog!! He had heard that I liked to go jogging and had seen me out once before. Somewhat befuddled, I agreed, threw on my running shoes, and went on a 2k with him, his friend, and his dog.


While I really and truly hope that all of my 400+ students don't make a habit of knocking on my door, I was actually quite pleased by tonight's events. I'm glad that my students like me enough and like English enough that they want to spend time with me outside of class. And (perhaps with more relevance to this site) I absolutely love that I have become the kind of person that is known as a jogger! Two months ago I couldn't even jog half a kilometer without stopping to catch my breath, and now jogging is apparently known around my workplace as one of my hobbies! How cool is that? And how cool is it that I live in a place where there is so much external encouragement to exercise?

May I ask what country?

That is so cool!

I'm an English teacher abroad too! I often see my students when I'm jogging around the neighborhood, but I jokingly refer to my school as the "Hitler Youth School" because it's so hardcore about athletics. I am going to run in the school "marathon" (which is 5k for girls) in December because like you, I'm really excited about my progress as a jogger!

That's funny :) and awesome! It's nice that they thought to ask you to go with them. They sound like nice people.

That is so cool - to have others see you in that new way, you are the healthy runner teacher! nice :)

Thanks for the responses! I was highly amused to find that the situation repeated itself on Wednesday night. It was very nice, and I am now able to say, "I want to throw this computer out of the window" in Finnish.

Caryesings, I'm living in Finland at the moment.

Krampus, are you enjoying teaching in Japan? I considered going there and even had an interview somewhere, but ultimately decided to come to Finland instead. Are you there with JET? I'm glad to know that it's not just my school that seems ridiculously sporty! When I first arrived, the school had a sports day, and I think watching all these little kids (I teach at a primary school) easily doing things that I would never dream of trying (like the javelin throw) was one of the things that pushed me to get into better shape. Good luck with your school marathon!

Hee hee, I'm teaching in the Persian Gulf. I only go running within the confines of my exercise club. They have a whole city block with a 5km circuit around a golf course, all inside high walls, and a nice gym. Running on the streets would attract some attention, so I have avoided it. My students almost all wear hijab (females) or kandoura (males). If they saw me in my running shorts most of them would probably die of embarrassment.

I WISH I had students who were into exercise, it's unfortunately not much a part of the young people's culture, except for a few who play the futbol. We do have a nice new gym with a pool on the women's campus, carefully protected from prying male eyes (even teachers) so we're hoping that will encourage some of them. Sadly I think a lot of the girls think exercise is unladylike.

Nienna,

Yeah, I'm teaching via the JET Program, ding ding ding! I'm in my third and final year before moving back to NY. Finland is a super competitive English teaching market, you must be TEFL certified and everything. I've always wanted to visit the Nordic/Baltic countries - how do you find life there? It must be completely opposite to my experience, as Finns all speak English...

So how do you say "I want to throw this computer out of the window" in Finnish? Can you spell it also? LoL