I just finished watching "Snakes on a Plane".
It was, at once, the best and worst movie I have ever seen.
Good:
Bad horror movie feel. w00t!
"I'm tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"
...
... ...
Okay, that was all the good, but hearing Samuel L Jackson say the word motherfucker is like hearing a glorious aria by a masterful soprano. It basically justifies the whole film.
Bad:
Seriously, a guy getting bit by a snake on the "snake" after asking "How's my little 'snake' doing?" or something equally ridiculous? That's just stupid.
The snooty guy getting eaten after throwing the purse dog to the anaconda type snake. Good for him! Throw one for me too! It wasn't comeuppance, he was right, anyone would do the same. I'd throw a small child if it meant I could get away, so yeah, I'd throw a bug-eyed freak dog too.
The fat lady getting aroused by a snake slithering up her dress. Come on, I get it, haha, fat lady getting turned on. I really expected more high-brow humour from this film.
WORST:
The music video at the end. It's so bad that it justifies the cost of rental, you MUST see it. Or, actually, just watch it on youtube, I'm sure it's there.
Anyways, thanks Jon. Best/Worst/Best again Christmas present ever.
Happy New Year Everyone!!!
May your year be filled with non-poisonous snakes! Snakes of JOY!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
MIRACLE BONUS!
Yesterday was the last day of school before the new year, and the last day before winter intensives.
Classes went pretty well.. tests, talking, just goofing off with the students.
The best part was during my break when Mr Lee handed me an envelope, said "Happy New Year", and smiled. There was 200 000 won in it! That's about $230! w00t!
I had been invited out to the acoustic jam night at the Speakeasy, so as soon as school was out, I booted 'er over there. About halfway, I walked by a guy scraping ice off his windshield. He dropped his ice scraper on the ground, looked at me, said something in Korean, then got in his car. I was in a rush, so I just kept walking. I thought it was pretty weird that he hadn't picked up his ice-scraper.
Anyways, I got to the Speakeasy, and chatted up Dave for a bit. Then, I went to get a drink, and reached for my envelope. IT WAS GONE! I was in a panic for about three seconds, then I calmed down. Hey, what the hell, it was a bonus, I wasn't banking on it, so if I lost it, it sucks, but nothing is really going to go terribly wrong. I told Dave, he told a guy at the bar, Gary, and they were panicking for me. I put my coat on and headed out to look for it.
I was in the underground arcade walking under the main street. Then I remembered the ice scraper... it wasn't an ice scraper at all! It was my bonus envelope! Then I broke into a run. I was sure that the guy had probably picked it up, or the guy who walked by at the same time as I did got it... anyways, I got there, finally, and started looking under cars.
Then, in the distance, I saw it! a white envelope! It was a little worse for wear, and had clearly been run over a few times. But all the money was there!
It was a miracle on kumnamno street!
I bought a lens for my camera with the money. I brought it home and I've been playing with it all afternoon. The bad thing is, the kitten is afraid of the sound of the autofocus! haha. It's pretty entertaining. I can set it up, but as soon as I take a picture, she's off like a bolt of lightning to hide under the bed!
That's all for now!
Classes went pretty well.. tests, talking, just goofing off with the students.
The best part was during my break when Mr Lee handed me an envelope, said "Happy New Year", and smiled. There was 200 000 won in it! That's about $230! w00t!
I had been invited out to the acoustic jam night at the Speakeasy, so as soon as school was out, I booted 'er over there. About halfway, I walked by a guy scraping ice off his windshield. He dropped his ice scraper on the ground, looked at me, said something in Korean, then got in his car. I was in a rush, so I just kept walking. I thought it was pretty weird that he hadn't picked up his ice-scraper.
Anyways, I got to the Speakeasy, and chatted up Dave for a bit. Then, I went to get a drink, and reached for my envelope. IT WAS GONE! I was in a panic for about three seconds, then I calmed down. Hey, what the hell, it was a bonus, I wasn't banking on it, so if I lost it, it sucks, but nothing is really going to go terribly wrong. I told Dave, he told a guy at the bar, Gary, and they were panicking for me. I put my coat on and headed out to look for it.
I was in the underground arcade walking under the main street. Then I remembered the ice scraper... it wasn't an ice scraper at all! It was my bonus envelope! Then I broke into a run. I was sure that the guy had probably picked it up, or the guy who walked by at the same time as I did got it... anyways, I got there, finally, and started looking under cars.
Then, in the distance, I saw it! a white envelope! It was a little worse for wear, and had clearly been run over a few times. But all the money was there!
It was a miracle on kumnamno street!
I bought a lens for my camera with the money. I brought it home and I've been playing with it all afternoon. The bad thing is, the kitten is afraid of the sound of the autofocus! haha. It's pretty entertaining. I can set it up, but as soon as I take a picture, she's off like a bolt of lightning to hide under the bed!
That's all for now!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
MILK MOTHER!
Today I was playing with the looper.
The doorbell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone, so I shut down everything so as not to freak them out with the qeird sounds emmenating from the amp.
It was a woman.
She gave the usual "OH!" and look fo shock that happens when salesmen open the door to find a foreigner. She asked if I spoke Korean. I said no.
Then she got a pained look on her face and thought for a moment.
"I am milk mother!" she said, holding out a pamphlet with all different brands of milk on it.
Turns out they have a milk delivery service here.
Good times, Milk Mother.
The doorbell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone, so I shut down everything so as not to freak them out with the qeird sounds emmenating from the amp.
It was a woman.
She gave the usual "OH!" and look fo shock that happens when salesmen open the door to find a foreigner. She asked if I spoke Korean. I said no.
Then she got a pained look on her face and thought for a moment.
"I am milk mother!" she said, holding out a pamphlet with all different brands of milk on it.
Turns out they have a milk delivery service here.
Good times, Milk Mother.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
My Vet
I went to the vet again today.
No, foreigner hospitals aren't so bad, it's not a joke... actually, it was for vaccinations for Sam.
Anyways, the vet I found is awesome. He's right across the street, which is really convenient, and he speaks English! I mean, he have communication issues, because his English is pretty basic, but it's enough to communicate basic ideas.
The great thing is that he is pretty patient with me, even when I don't understand what he is trying to say.
Also, he sends me e-mails all the time with info he downloads about cats and kittens, and reminders of appointments.
Basically, he's super-awesome.
That's all, I just had to mention.
No, foreigner hospitals aren't so bad, it's not a joke... actually, it was for vaccinations for Sam.
Anyways, the vet I found is awesome. He's right across the street, which is really convenient, and he speaks English! I mean, he have communication issues, because his English is pretty basic, but it's enough to communicate basic ideas.
The great thing is that he is pretty patient with me, even when I don't understand what he is trying to say.
Also, he sends me e-mails all the time with info he downloads about cats and kittens, and reminders of appointments.
Basically, he's super-awesome.
That's all, I just had to mention.
Christmas Eve Dinner Photos
The tree and gifts.
The evening was extremely exciting. There was never a dull moment.
Me doing my usual thing.
Vanessa's Christmas Gift
Giving Vanessa's gift a try.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Christmas Day Dinner Pictures
Here's the Munhwa gang. Well, and ex-Munhwa-ers and a boyfriend. Back: Ryan (Brooke's boyfriend), John (the ex-Munhwa-er), Laurien (the new addition). Front: Emily (John's wife) and me, of course.
Brooke with a home-made egg-nog.
The wrapping on my gift from John.
Me wearing the shirt that John gave me. It's so fun! Also, a nice scarf, and some bootleg DVDs! Yay "Snakes on a Plane"!
Here's my kitten having horrible things done to her.
Making Teaching FUN!
So, I know that I have not been the king of updates, and that those of you who were reading the blog regularly have probably grown frustrated and moved on to more reliably updated pastures.
Truth is, I've been too busy. Last year was a year of boredom and being in need of venting, whereas this year I am frighteningly content, and finding lots of ways to fill my time. Unfortunately, many of these activities cost money, which means that my saving thus far has been less than spectacular. Far less. They haven't even been "Spook-tacular", which is abysmal.
One thing that has really changed is the teaching. Last year, it was a matter of getting through it, with the payoff of that huge vacation constantly on the horizon to brighten even the darkest days. At Munhwa, the classes are smaller, the kids have more ability, but there is NOTHING coming. Just more of the same. For a year.
As a result, I have had to find ways to make teaching more interesting. This usually means making jokes at the students' expense, which is terrible.
Terribly fun, that is.
There's a kid in my grade six class who looks like a photo of my dad from the early seventies. ie, a little hoodlum. So of course, I call him "Dad", and I talk about how proud I am all the time when he gets something right, and say "Come on Dad!!!" when he's struggling, which usually rouses a chorus of laughter form the rest of the class. So, that's fun.
There's my new grade seven class too, which had an awesome happening last week. One of the girls had a new red lib balm, which she used to write "First kiss tonight" or something in her notebook. I caught a glimpse of the writing, but not the content, and attempted to grab the notebook to check it out and show off the artwork to the rest of the class. But she was not having it. Finally, I got the notebook later, by which time the page had been torn out and presumably eaten to destroy the evidence. Unfortunately for her (and amusingly for me) the reverse page had an imprint which was quite legible. So... that led to lots of fun in class. I should qualify this whole story by saying that it was just that girl and her friends in the class that day, so the embarrassment was not too extensive. But still fun to refer to on later dates when more people were around.
My grade fours are just painfully cute, and in an awesome coincidence, the easiest to win over. If a kid is mad at me (because I yelled at him or her for doing something stupid/annoying), I'll just walk up behind him and do an entire exercise with my hand/book/board marker resting on his or her head. Suddenly, they're all smiles, and they love me. Actually, I almost started crying in class one day, because this really loud kid started hugging my arm when I did it to him and he wouldn't let go. He wasn't being annoying, it was genuinely affectionate. I felt really good that day.
It's funny, but being a disciplinarian teacher hasn't seemed to affect how the students feel about me too much. I punish them regularly, but I think these kids are even friendlier to me than the students in Yeongam ever were. Well, most of the Yeongam students, anyways.
Anyways, that's just some of the things that I do at school to keep myself from getting too bored with the situation. I have a lot of nicknames for individual student. Some they will understand, some they will have no clue about. Examples are "Mr Corner", "Grandpa Corner" (classroom geography references), TKO (always wears a Tae Kwan Do outfit), Judge Reinhold (Why not? he want's to be a judge!), "Street Legal" (he wants to be a lawyer), "Handsome Guy" (because he's always dressed nicely), "Favourite Lady" (when I asked a boy to choose his favourite lady to continue reading the story, he chose his male friend), "Han Solo" (his name is Han Sol). Anyways, as you can see, there's a lot of fun to have, and the kids seem to respond well to the nicknames.
There's one kid named Chan who is a real handful, and he has a long list of nick names. He started off as "Chan", but he quickly became "Jackie Chan", then "Channarammadingdong", then "BaChanarramma", then "Chan Gang"... and I'm sure more will come to me as time goes on.
Another huge change that has happened is that Jessie and I have broken up. It's been quite strange being here alone, but the bigger adjustment has actually been trying to think of myself as unconnected. I spent two months establishing myself as the "long distance relationship guy", and suddenly I have to reintroduce myself to everyone. Not literally, but I'm sure you understand. It's a total reworking of the headspace, and one that is going to take a good deal of time, I think.
In other news... I almost killed Sam on Christmas. There's a little storage area off the kitchen of my apartment that is not insulated. I used to have the litterbox for the cat in there, but I've recently moved it into the bathroom so that I could keep that room closed. The door to the room is this heavy steel thing that has been painted just too small for the frame. This means that in order to close it, it really has to be slammed hard. Basically, it's a big ugly cat guillotine. On Christmas I was putting my bag into the storage room, and as I slammed the door shut, Sam ran in, because a room full of bags is a room full of super fun straps and zippers. I heard a sickening scream from her, and she stumbled away. I was sure that I had broken some ribs or something, so I picked her up and cradled her, poking around to see if anything got a response. Her paw hung weakly, and I was worried that I had broken it, but in the day since, she has started to walk normally again, and is pawing with it like normal again. So, that is great news. But man, my stomach was absolutely churning with guilt and worry while I tried to figure out if she was okay.
That's all for now.
Truth is, I've been too busy. Last year was a year of boredom and being in need of venting, whereas this year I am frighteningly content, and finding lots of ways to fill my time. Unfortunately, many of these activities cost money, which means that my saving thus far has been less than spectacular. Far less. They haven't even been "Spook-tacular", which is abysmal.
One thing that has really changed is the teaching. Last year, it was a matter of getting through it, with the payoff of that huge vacation constantly on the horizon to brighten even the darkest days. At Munhwa, the classes are smaller, the kids have more ability, but there is NOTHING coming. Just more of the same. For a year.
As a result, I have had to find ways to make teaching more interesting. This usually means making jokes at the students' expense, which is terrible.
Terribly fun, that is.
There's a kid in my grade six class who looks like a photo of my dad from the early seventies. ie, a little hoodlum. So of course, I call him "Dad", and I talk about how proud I am all the time when he gets something right, and say "Come on Dad!!!" when he's struggling, which usually rouses a chorus of laughter form the rest of the class. So, that's fun.
There's my new grade seven class too, which had an awesome happening last week. One of the girls had a new red lib balm, which she used to write "First kiss tonight" or something in her notebook. I caught a glimpse of the writing, but not the content, and attempted to grab the notebook to check it out and show off the artwork to the rest of the class. But she was not having it. Finally, I got the notebook later, by which time the page had been torn out and presumably eaten to destroy the evidence. Unfortunately for her (and amusingly for me) the reverse page had an imprint which was quite legible. So... that led to lots of fun in class. I should qualify this whole story by saying that it was just that girl and her friends in the class that day, so the embarrassment was not too extensive. But still fun to refer to on later dates when more people were around.
My grade fours are just painfully cute, and in an awesome coincidence, the easiest to win over. If a kid is mad at me (because I yelled at him or her for doing something stupid/annoying), I'll just walk up behind him and do an entire exercise with my hand/book/board marker resting on his or her head. Suddenly, they're all smiles, and they love me. Actually, I almost started crying in class one day, because this really loud kid started hugging my arm when I did it to him and he wouldn't let go. He wasn't being annoying, it was genuinely affectionate. I felt really good that day.
It's funny, but being a disciplinarian teacher hasn't seemed to affect how the students feel about me too much. I punish them regularly, but I think these kids are even friendlier to me than the students in Yeongam ever were. Well, most of the Yeongam students, anyways.
Anyways, that's just some of the things that I do at school to keep myself from getting too bored with the situation. I have a lot of nicknames for individual student. Some they will understand, some they will have no clue about. Examples are "Mr Corner", "Grandpa Corner" (classroom geography references), TKO (always wears a Tae Kwan Do outfit), Judge Reinhold (Why not? he want's to be a judge!), "Street Legal" (he wants to be a lawyer), "Handsome Guy" (because he's always dressed nicely), "Favourite Lady" (when I asked a boy to choose his favourite lady to continue reading the story, he chose his male friend), "Han Solo" (his name is Han Sol). Anyways, as you can see, there's a lot of fun to have, and the kids seem to respond well to the nicknames.
There's one kid named Chan who is a real handful, and he has a long list of nick names. He started off as "Chan", but he quickly became "Jackie Chan", then "Channarammadingdong", then "BaChanarramma", then "Chan Gang"... and I'm sure more will come to me as time goes on.
Another huge change that has happened is that Jessie and I have broken up. It's been quite strange being here alone, but the bigger adjustment has actually been trying to think of myself as unconnected. I spent two months establishing myself as the "long distance relationship guy", and suddenly I have to reintroduce myself to everyone. Not literally, but I'm sure you understand. It's a total reworking of the headspace, and one that is going to take a good deal of time, I think.
In other news... I almost killed Sam on Christmas. There's a little storage area off the kitchen of my apartment that is not insulated. I used to have the litterbox for the cat in there, but I've recently moved it into the bathroom so that I could keep that room closed. The door to the room is this heavy steel thing that has been painted just too small for the frame. This means that in order to close it, it really has to be slammed hard. Basically, it's a big ugly cat guillotine. On Christmas I was putting my bag into the storage room, and as I slammed the door shut, Sam ran in, because a room full of bags is a room full of super fun straps and zippers. I heard a sickening scream from her, and she stumbled away. I was sure that I had broken some ribs or something, so I picked her up and cradled her, poking around to see if anything got a response. Her paw hung weakly, and I was worried that I had broken it, but in the day since, she has started to walk normally again, and is pawing with it like normal again. So, that is great news. But man, my stomach was absolutely churning with guilt and worry while I tried to figure out if she was okay.
That's all for now.
Christmas in Korea
Well, my three-day Christmas weekend is coming to a close... man, it was an eventful one.
Friday was pretty standard, just kicking around really, no big whoop. Well, except that one of the desks in my classroom fell apart (not on top of a student's legs, thankfully) and I arrived to find two of my grade six girls jumping on a board that was propped up on to a chair like a ramp. Man, I yelled at them like a champ.
Saturday was the fun day... lots of cleaning and prep. Sunday, Christmas Eve, I was heading to the city of Suncheon for a party hosted by my friend Carol. And Monday, Christmas Day, I was hosting a little get-together for everyone from work. So that meant that before I left for the party on Sunday, I had to have everything ready for the party on Monday! I was planning to make pies, and the crafts I had planned still had to be made... bla bla bla...
So all day Saturday was cleaning, and I had the added distraction of the looper, which I had just realized was, in fact, not broken. The looper is this obscenely expensive piece of equipment that I picked up in Canada before coming here. It lets me record loops of myself that I can play over, and then make live performances sound more full. I thought it was burned out after I plugged it in here (serious miscommunication between me and the staff at Steve's Music in Toronto) and it stopped working. It turned out that all that had happened was that the adapter that plugs into the wall was burned out, so I could
buy a new one here for about $5! So, of course, I was experimenting with that, creating epic loops of vocal and guitar harmonies for every song that popped into my head, including "Christmas Time is here again" by the Beatles, which I managed to duplicate all the harmonieson, and even add some of my own... which I then listened to on a loop
for like an hour, until I was ready to go insane.
I had a practice with the Jordan Emmans Band on Saturday, which went well. I was feeling a little useless in that group for a while, but we did some work on stuff, and I think it'll go better now. After that, I went back home to start making pies!
a friend came over to help peel and to keep me company/Sam occupied whille I baked. We got to planning things out, and I couldn't find the pie plates! We had a little more shopping to do anyways, so we headed to E-Mart, the local huge-ass department store and grocery.
Luckily I had a friend with me afterwards to keep me company and to help out with the peeling. She took a casserole dish to put the peels into, and what should she find other than the pie plates! So... that was annoying.
I made two perfect butterscotch pies, which is cool, because it's a family tradition. After the pie baking (and sugar daddies, which were amazing) I made a Christmas tree made out of rice paper and construction paper, which actually worked out well. I had no plans, but it actually looked pretty good. I've included a picture.
On Sunday, we headed out to Suncheon, which is about 70 or so minutes from Gwangju. Anyways, we had a butterscotch pie for the dinner party, but unfortunately the heat of the bus combined with the vibration of the trip left us with a pie crust full of liquified butterscotch. so, that was too bad.
Anyways, the party was fun. Apparently, I have come to Korea in order to meet people from Canada, especially North Bay. I met a guy who actually used to work at The Fox in North Bay (the rock radio station), and he is now engaged to my friend Mel, who went to Nipissing. It's so weird, most people think North Bay is Thunder Bay, and now it seems like a bunch of people I meet here have lived in North Bay! It's very strange.
It was a very great drunken evening, and it was great company, and I had a wonderful time. I played guitar and sang a lot, and of course the 151 proof rum I was drinking sure helped me with getting into the right mood.
Today we came back home, later than I had planned (of course) which meant that I just got in the door of my apartment a few minutes before I was expecting people to arrive. Of course, things were cooking more slowly than expected, so luckily I had lots more time to get ready before the others arrived with their food.
Everyone finally arrived around 5:30, and it was another wonderful meal that went off without a hitch. I even experimented with making eggnog, and it turned out to be SO easy, and delicious. Brooke, Ryan, Jon and Emily prepared a roast, two chickens and mashed potatoes, Laurien prepared some veggies, and I contributed two pies and some
appetizers.
We all ate until we were sick, drank a bunch, and then played Taboo.
Jon got me a copy of the Borat movie, which we watched, and everyone enjoyed. It was a good Christmas!
So, things are going really well! I'm not too happy that the weekend is over, but I have another four day week and then another three day weekend, so I think that it'll be no problem.
And I forgot to mention the weirdest thing... it was 16 degrees yesterday!
Friday was pretty standard, just kicking around really, no big whoop. Well, except that one of the desks in my classroom fell apart (not on top of a student's legs, thankfully) and I arrived to find two of my grade six girls jumping on a board that was propped up on to a chair like a ramp. Man, I yelled at them like a champ.
Saturday was the fun day... lots of cleaning and prep. Sunday, Christmas Eve, I was heading to the city of Suncheon for a party hosted by my friend Carol. And Monday, Christmas Day, I was hosting a little get-together for everyone from work. So that meant that before I left for the party on Sunday, I had to have everything ready for the party on Monday! I was planning to make pies, and the crafts I had planned still had to be made... bla bla bla...
So all day Saturday was cleaning, and I had the added distraction of the looper, which I had just realized was, in fact, not broken. The looper is this obscenely expensive piece of equipment that I picked up in Canada before coming here. It lets me record loops of myself that I can play over, and then make live performances sound more full. I thought it was burned out after I plugged it in here (serious miscommunication between me and the staff at Steve's Music in Toronto) and it stopped working. It turned out that all that had happened was that the adapter that plugs into the wall was burned out, so I could
buy a new one here for about $5! So, of course, I was experimenting with that, creating epic loops of vocal and guitar harmonies for every song that popped into my head, including "Christmas Time is here again" by the Beatles, which I managed to duplicate all the harmonieson, and even add some of my own... which I then listened to on a loop
for like an hour, until I was ready to go insane.
I had a practice with the Jordan Emmans Band on Saturday, which went well. I was feeling a little useless in that group for a while, but we did some work on stuff, and I think it'll go better now. After that, I went back home to start making pies!
a friend came over to help peel and to keep me company/Sam occupied whille I baked. We got to planning things out, and I couldn't find the pie plates! We had a little more shopping to do anyways, so we headed to E-Mart, the local huge-ass department store and grocery.
Luckily I had a friend with me afterwards to keep me company and to help out with the peeling. She took a casserole dish to put the peels into, and what should she find other than the pie plates! So... that was annoying.
I made two perfect butterscotch pies, which is cool, because it's a family tradition. After the pie baking (and sugar daddies, which were amazing) I made a Christmas tree made out of rice paper and construction paper, which actually worked out well. I had no plans, but it actually looked pretty good. I've included a picture.
On Sunday, we headed out to Suncheon, which is about 70 or so minutes from Gwangju. Anyways, we had a butterscotch pie for the dinner party, but unfortunately the heat of the bus combined with the vibration of the trip left us with a pie crust full of liquified butterscotch. so, that was too bad.
Anyways, the party was fun. Apparently, I have come to Korea in order to meet people from Canada, especially North Bay. I met a guy who actually used to work at The Fox in North Bay (the rock radio station), and he is now engaged to my friend Mel, who went to Nipissing. It's so weird, most people think North Bay is Thunder Bay, and now it seems like a bunch of people I meet here have lived in North Bay! It's very strange.
It was a very great drunken evening, and it was great company, and I had a wonderful time. I played guitar and sang a lot, and of course the 151 proof rum I was drinking sure helped me with getting into the right mood.
Today we came back home, later than I had planned (of course) which meant that I just got in the door of my apartment a few minutes before I was expecting people to arrive. Of course, things were cooking more slowly than expected, so luckily I had lots more time to get ready before the others arrived with their food.
Everyone finally arrived around 5:30, and it was another wonderful meal that went off without a hitch. I even experimented with making eggnog, and it turned out to be SO easy, and delicious. Brooke, Ryan, Jon and Emily prepared a roast, two chickens and mashed potatoes, Laurien prepared some veggies, and I contributed two pies and some
appetizers.
We all ate until we were sick, drank a bunch, and then played Taboo.
Jon got me a copy of the Borat movie, which we watched, and everyone enjoyed. It was a good Christmas!
So, things are going really well! I'm not too happy that the weekend is over, but I have another four day week and then another three day weekend, so I think that it'll be no problem.
And I forgot to mention the weirdest thing... it was 16 degrees yesterday!
Monday, November 13, 2006
Christmas decorations go up
No no, not in my apartment. I just was downtown yesterday (and at E-Mart today) and I've noticed that there's already decorations going up. yikes.
I've been walking a lot lately. The temperature is just perfectly crisp, you are very comfortable in a sweater and jeans, so basically it's like heaven for me. Feeling the wind? throw on a nice jacket, and you are a well dressed foreigner that everyone will smile at as they pass.
Sam is adjusting well to the new environment, which is good news. She hasn't been sick again, unless you count the diarrhea that luckily landed on me instead of the fleece blanket on the bed. I clean up much more easily. She's less needy, more likley now to follow than to just sit in the other room mewling when I leave. She's full of energy, which is good. And earlier estimates of age have been abandoned after further internet research (now with pictures) has revealed that she is probably close to seven weeks.
She's running around like she's crazy, stopping midstride to go 90 degrees to the left... or pouncing on my hand, but not realizing that her legs can't do that yet, she bounces off the wall and falls behind the bed.
I'm having some people over on the weekend for an American Thanksgiving feast. It should be a lot of fun, and I'm getting pretty excited about it.
Other random notes:
I had a ride with a cab driver whose breath was so bad that I ahd to roll down the window. In the backseat.
Sam is stirring up more dust than I knew was possible in the apartment. Trouble is, she fits in all the places that a vacuum doesn't.
I saw a guy whip a rock into a flock of birds the other day. A grown man.
The river is still entertaining. I saw a new kinds of bird yesterday. The walk to the river has climaxed though, with all the leaves turning and now beginning to fall. But now there's that great rotting leaf smell that I love so much, and makes me crazy missing home.
Marking tests still sucks. I'm getting better at making the tests shorter to mark though. I made some multiple choice, and on a question that went "Why did the boy's mom say the rollerbaldes were okay?" (the answer was "They have no bones") one student selected "They were already dead". hahaha. I had to penalize a lot of classes this wekk, so the marks are really low. I hope I don't hear too much flack over it.
That's all for now.
I've been walking a lot lately. The temperature is just perfectly crisp, you are very comfortable in a sweater and jeans, so basically it's like heaven for me. Feeling the wind? throw on a nice jacket, and you are a well dressed foreigner that everyone will smile at as they pass.
Sam is adjusting well to the new environment, which is good news. She hasn't been sick again, unless you count the diarrhea that luckily landed on me instead of the fleece blanket on the bed. I clean up much more easily. She's less needy, more likley now to follow than to just sit in the other room mewling when I leave. She's full of energy, which is good. And earlier estimates of age have been abandoned after further internet research (now with pictures) has revealed that she is probably close to seven weeks.
She's running around like she's crazy, stopping midstride to go 90 degrees to the left... or pouncing on my hand, but not realizing that her legs can't do that yet, she bounces off the wall and falls behind the bed.
I'm having some people over on the weekend for an American Thanksgiving feast. It should be a lot of fun, and I'm getting pretty excited about it.
Other random notes:
I had a ride with a cab driver whose breath was so bad that I ahd to roll down the window. In the backseat.
Sam is stirring up more dust than I knew was possible in the apartment. Trouble is, she fits in all the places that a vacuum doesn't.
I saw a guy whip a rock into a flock of birds the other day. A grown man.
The river is still entertaining. I saw a new kinds of bird yesterday. The walk to the river has climaxed though, with all the leaves turning and now beginning to fall. But now there's that great rotting leaf smell that I love so much, and makes me crazy missing home.
Marking tests still sucks. I'm getting better at making the tests shorter to mark though. I made some multiple choice, and on a question that went "Why did the boy's mom say the rollerbaldes were okay?" (the answer was "They have no bones") one student selected "They were already dead". hahaha. I had to penalize a lot of classes this wekk, so the marks are really low. I hope I don't hear too much flack over it.
That's all for now.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
No updates, I know
And I haven't even finished the hallowe'en one, have I? haha.
One good thing about being in Gwangju is that I have things to focus on other than the blog, which is tod bad for you if you're coming here to learn all about me.
So, I'm in a bit of a transition right now. I'm getting used to living alone, and I'm really finding a niche at work.
Today, Jon and Emily came back to the school (Jon is the one who recommended me) came back, and you could really see how much the kids loved him. They were mobbing him! I felt god too, because all the kids from my grade four class were crawling all over me. One kid has been bringing his gameboy, and I told him I had one. I finally remembered to bring it today, so I gave it to him, and they ran off like I had just given them a key to a candy store.
The big news to share was of course my new cat. Yep, I got a kitten. Today! This morning! before work! I decided on Sunday that I needed a cat, not just that I wanted one. Now, you mgiht be thinking to yourself "But didn't he go on and on about dogs?!?!" Yeah, I did, thanks for bringing it up. But it's just too big a time commitment. The way my life has been going, I can't afford to set a walking schedule, because I will be constantly breaking it. But I have been really lonely, so I decided to rescue a cat. I went to the dog cafe on Sunday to check out their kitten selection, and I fell in love with a little Persian kitten that I played with for about 45 minutes. My heart was quickly broken when i found out that she cost $450. Of course, not so quickly that I didn't consider it. But that would be a terrible waste for me, and I would have been living on whatever I could lick out of the drain trap for the next month.
I talked to Harley about it, and he suggested that I wait and try the local market. Apparently the local farmers bring in litters from their farm cats and sell them for like $5! So I tried that. But the local market didn't have any kittens. So I tried the big town market.
I walked around the market for about ten minutes or so before I found the animals. The market is huge, and it's all the same stuff. I don't know how businesses work here, because everyone seems to sell the same things for the same prices. Anyways... I wandered around, and then I started to hear clucking. I headed down birdflu alley, figuring that if there was going to be live pets anywhere, it would be near the other live animals. I was right! I spotted that horribly emaciated puppy first. His rubs stuck out from here to there, I'll tell you. There was another fluffy little pup in a cage, and on top of that cage was a little cage with two little kittens in it. They were just lying on grating with some toilet paper around. I asked to look at them, and I feel in love with the first one I picked up. I pet the second one for a while, but I decided that I had to go with the first. The lady sold her to me for "ocheon won" ($5) and gave me a kettle box to bring her home in.
The car ride was interesting, she kept trying to suckle on my fingers. Also, the cab driver kept trying to tell me that he had brought me to the right place, but he brought me to "Moa Line 2", not "Moa line 1".
When I got her home, I realized just how dirty she was. Man, did she ever smell like the market. I let her walk around and explore, and she hid under the table straight away. After about twenty minutes she came out, and soon she was mewling every time I was out of line of sight, and climbing up my pant legs if I ignored her.
Brooke came over to meet her, and quickly decided that she was both "Adorable" and "Precious". We gave her some milk and water, and everything seemed to go just swimmingly.
Later, at work, I asked Brooke if she would pop in to see how she was (she gets off an hour earlier than I do). When I got home, I was surprised to see that Brooke was still here, and more surprised that the entire apartment smelled like vomit. haha, seriously. Apparently the little thing had gorged itself and made itself sick, which I really should have seen coming. I mean, it was in a cage with no food or water, and she clearly would have been like that all day if I hadn't picked her up, and had probably been like that for days already.
Anyways, the joys of hardwood floors, it was cleaned up in no time.
She's an expert leg climber, and will do it whenever my ignoring her makes it necessary. I'm excited about this, I think she will be a good addition to my life here, and hereafter. Her name is Sam, by the way.
I've been walking to school lately, which has been wonderful. My route takes me along the river, and I have been spotting no shortage of wildlife lately. There's a turtle who always seems to strand itself on the same rock, and cute little birds bathing in the shallow parts. Plus, there are a lot of friendly old Koreans who love seeing a smartly dressed foreign lad walking along their river.
Last weekend, on November 4th, I had my first gig with a band here in Korea. It went really well. I opened with my usualy mix of Bob Dylan and Hawksley Workman covers to open, and then we did one set as "The Matt Amond Band". Then we had another break, and we came back on as "The Jordan Emmans Band" for another two sets. It was fun! I was worried, because we hadn't been practicing together too much, but it worked really well, and everyone seemed to communicate well, and get along musically. I'm excited, they're really good. The lead guy, Jordan Emmans writes kind of Coldplay-style music, with Christian influences, which I have decided is cool! It's not too heavy handed, and it's just his passions coming out in his writing. And his songs are pretty fun to play, as well. The bass player, Dave, is amazing. Just amazing. And the drummer, Dan, is in the Speakeasy band, that I might eventually be playing with. hopefully...
So, lots of exciting things are happening.
Here's some pictures of little Sam.
One good thing about being in Gwangju is that I have things to focus on other than the blog, which is tod bad for you if you're coming here to learn all about me.
So, I'm in a bit of a transition right now. I'm getting used to living alone, and I'm really finding a niche at work.
Today, Jon and Emily came back to the school (Jon is the one who recommended me) came back, and you could really see how much the kids loved him. They were mobbing him! I felt god too, because all the kids from my grade four class were crawling all over me. One kid has been bringing his gameboy, and I told him I had one. I finally remembered to bring it today, so I gave it to him, and they ran off like I had just given them a key to a candy store.
The big news to share was of course my new cat. Yep, I got a kitten. Today! This morning! before work! I decided on Sunday that I needed a cat, not just that I wanted one. Now, you mgiht be thinking to yourself "But didn't he go on and on about dogs?!?!" Yeah, I did, thanks for bringing it up. But it's just too big a time commitment. The way my life has been going, I can't afford to set a walking schedule, because I will be constantly breaking it. But I have been really lonely, so I decided to rescue a cat. I went to the dog cafe on Sunday to check out their kitten selection, and I fell in love with a little Persian kitten that I played with for about 45 minutes. My heart was quickly broken when i found out that she cost $450. Of course, not so quickly that I didn't consider it. But that would be a terrible waste for me, and I would have been living on whatever I could lick out of the drain trap for the next month.
I talked to Harley about it, and he suggested that I wait and try the local market. Apparently the local farmers bring in litters from their farm cats and sell them for like $5! So I tried that. But the local market didn't have any kittens. So I tried the big town market.
I walked around the market for about ten minutes or so before I found the animals. The market is huge, and it's all the same stuff. I don't know how businesses work here, because everyone seems to sell the same things for the same prices. Anyways... I wandered around, and then I started to hear clucking. I headed down birdflu alley, figuring that if there was going to be live pets anywhere, it would be near the other live animals. I was right! I spotted that horribly emaciated puppy first. His rubs stuck out from here to there, I'll tell you. There was another fluffy little pup in a cage, and on top of that cage was a little cage with two little kittens in it. They were just lying on grating with some toilet paper around. I asked to look at them, and I feel in love with the first one I picked up. I pet the second one for a while, but I decided that I had to go with the first. The lady sold her to me for "ocheon won" ($5) and gave me a kettle box to bring her home in.
The car ride was interesting, she kept trying to suckle on my fingers. Also, the cab driver kept trying to tell me that he had brought me to the right place, but he brought me to "Moa Line 2", not "Moa line 1".
When I got her home, I realized just how dirty she was. Man, did she ever smell like the market. I let her walk around and explore, and she hid under the table straight away. After about twenty minutes she came out, and soon she was mewling every time I was out of line of sight, and climbing up my pant legs if I ignored her.
Brooke came over to meet her, and quickly decided that she was both "Adorable" and "Precious". We gave her some milk and water, and everything seemed to go just swimmingly.
Later, at work, I asked Brooke if she would pop in to see how she was (she gets off an hour earlier than I do). When I got home, I was surprised to see that Brooke was still here, and more surprised that the entire apartment smelled like vomit. haha, seriously. Apparently the little thing had gorged itself and made itself sick, which I really should have seen coming. I mean, it was in a cage with no food or water, and she clearly would have been like that all day if I hadn't picked her up, and had probably been like that for days already.
Anyways, the joys of hardwood floors, it was cleaned up in no time.
She's an expert leg climber, and will do it whenever my ignoring her makes it necessary. I'm excited about this, I think she will be a good addition to my life here, and hereafter. Her name is Sam, by the way.
I've been walking to school lately, which has been wonderful. My route takes me along the river, and I have been spotting no shortage of wildlife lately. There's a turtle who always seems to strand itself on the same rock, and cute little birds bathing in the shallow parts. Plus, there are a lot of friendly old Koreans who love seeing a smartly dressed foreign lad walking along their river.
Last weekend, on November 4th, I had my first gig with a band here in Korea. It went really well. I opened with my usualy mix of Bob Dylan and Hawksley Workman covers to open, and then we did one set as "The Matt Amond Band". Then we had another break, and we came back on as "The Jordan Emmans Band" for another two sets. It was fun! I was worried, because we hadn't been practicing together too much, but it worked really well, and everyone seemed to communicate well, and get along musically. I'm excited, they're really good. The lead guy, Jordan Emmans writes kind of Coldplay-style music, with Christian influences, which I have decided is cool! It's not too heavy handed, and it's just his passions coming out in his writing. And his songs are pretty fun to play, as well. The bass player, Dave, is amazing. Just amazing. And the drummer, Dan, is in the Speakeasy band, that I might eventually be playing with. hopefully...
So, lots of exciting things are happening.
Here's some pictures of little Sam.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Hallowe'en
Wow, what a good and awesome and strange weekend.
On Thursday, I started on my costume. In University, one of my housemates had dressed up as a milk carton, so I thought I would see how I fared in a boxy costume of my own. I went to the local "Big Mart" in an effort to find me some big boxes. I was out of luck though, they didn't seem to have any that would suit. But they did have chicken breasts and garbage cans, so I picked those up while I was there.
I went to the post office, my last resort. It should have been the first place I tried, the boxes were only 180 won each (about 18 cents), and they were perfect for it. It was fun too, because I walked in and asked for two big shipping boxes carrying a garbage can and a pakcage of chicken breasts. They kept asking me where I wanted to ship my stuff, and it was a little confusing. Finally I asked if I could draw them a picture, which looked something like this:
Well.. I was going to draw a picture, but it turns out I don't have a "paint"-type program on this new laptop. Basically it was box +box+ stickman = man in a milk carton.
Anyways, he laughed, and sold me the boxes.
Then it was off to the paint shop. I picked up a jug of white housepaint, which turned out to be a bad decision. Once I got the first two coats on (Thursday and Friday nights) and started doing the detail and blue painting, it became obvious very quickly that the housepaint did not like having other paints put on over it. Luckily, the other paints dried really quickly, so multiple coats were possible on Saturday before the party.
Here's how it turned out. I'm not wearing it, because I thought I would need help getting into it, and I did need help to cut arm holes. I would have been hard to set up the webcam with no armholes! It's reversed, I don't know why.
The trip to Yeosu was quite an adventure. Foreigners here get a lot of looks, but they get a lot more when they are walking around with a huge milk carton with a head hole cut in it. When I was waiting in line for the bus, little kids kept coming up and looking in the head hole, like they thought it would be full of candy or something. And old ladies and young people would smile and laugh, and say "Oh my God! MILK!" in Korean. But people whoe were in their thirties or forties would ignore me! Blatantly! They were actively avoiding looking at me, as though they didn't want to condone my mischief! I'm not exaggerating, it was painful to see the lengths that some people would go to to avoid looking at me, or making eye contact. Like trying not to look at the girl you like in church! Dude! It's obivous!
When I got there, I was a quick hit with the crowd there, and started to feel a assured of a prize in the costume competition. I continued feeling confident when we moved from the hotel to the bar. When we arrived, it was actually pretty dead! I had expected the halloween party to have more of a dance component to it, and I was honestly disappointed to arrive in a lounge-type bar with couched and little to no dance floor. Mostly because I was in a costume that made it really difficult to sit down. Or impossible, actually.
I wandered the room, and introduced myself to most of the people there. It was pretty difficult, because my movement was pretty limited. Reaching my beer over the bar stools when getting served was a problem that limited my drinking all night. I was pretty assured that I had a chance at the top prize though: a bottle of whiskey. Sweet.
Then some really awesome costumes arrived. The competition was thus is order of threat:
Terribly offensive pope: In a full gown and big hat, with a huge erection that created a nicely tented region and a baby boy doll to carry around.
HOLY SHIT!: Dressed entirely in brown, with a pantyhose leg stuffed with foam to create a piling effect, corn kernel shaped yellow cardboard cutouts, and a halo.
Fan death: If you're a faithful reader, you'll know that fan death is a phenomenon that occurs in an apartment with the fan on and the windows closed, where the oxygen in the room spirals up, suffocating anyone who might be asleep in the apartment. Fan death's costume included fan blades in the hair, a burned and artfully coloured paper fan, deathly makeup job and a phone cord around the neck. Why the phone cord? Well, it turns out that fan death is a bit of an excuse used to hide family suicides! I had no idea, but it is good to be educated.
Oompa Loompa: I'm not talking about the digitally multiplied "Deep Roy" kind from the new film, I'm talking about the classic green haired, brown coveralled, white eye-browed kind. As soon as he walked in, I knew that I had no chance at the top rpize anymore. Seriously his suit was custom tailored. It was breathtakingingly awesome.
On Thursday, I started on my costume. In University, one of my housemates had dressed up as a milk carton, so I thought I would see how I fared in a boxy costume of my own. I went to the local "Big Mart" in an effort to find me some big boxes. I was out of luck though, they didn't seem to have any that would suit. But they did have chicken breasts and garbage cans, so I picked those up while I was there.
I went to the post office, my last resort. It should have been the first place I tried, the boxes were only 180 won each (about 18 cents), and they were perfect for it. It was fun too, because I walked in and asked for two big shipping boxes carrying a garbage can and a pakcage of chicken breasts. They kept asking me where I wanted to ship my stuff, and it was a little confusing. Finally I asked if I could draw them a picture, which looked something like this:
Well.. I was going to draw a picture, but it turns out I don't have a "paint"-type program on this new laptop. Basically it was box +box+ stickman = man in a milk carton.
Anyways, he laughed, and sold me the boxes.
Then it was off to the paint shop. I picked up a jug of white housepaint, which turned out to be a bad decision. Once I got the first two coats on (Thursday and Friday nights) and started doing the detail and blue painting, it became obvious very quickly that the housepaint did not like having other paints put on over it. Luckily, the other paints dried really quickly, so multiple coats were possible on Saturday before the party.
Here's how it turned out. I'm not wearing it, because I thought I would need help getting into it, and I did need help to cut arm holes. I would have been hard to set up the webcam with no armholes! It's reversed, I don't know why.
The trip to Yeosu was quite an adventure. Foreigners here get a lot of looks, but they get a lot more when they are walking around with a huge milk carton with a head hole cut in it. When I was waiting in line for the bus, little kids kept coming up and looking in the head hole, like they thought it would be full of candy or something. And old ladies and young people would smile and laugh, and say "Oh my God! MILK!" in Korean. But people whoe were in their thirties or forties would ignore me! Blatantly! They were actively avoiding looking at me, as though they didn't want to condone my mischief! I'm not exaggerating, it was painful to see the lengths that some people would go to to avoid looking at me, or making eye contact. Like trying not to look at the girl you like in church! Dude! It's obivous!
When I got there, I was a quick hit with the crowd there, and started to feel a assured of a prize in the costume competition. I continued feeling confident when we moved from the hotel to the bar. When we arrived, it was actually pretty dead! I had expected the halloween party to have more of a dance component to it, and I was honestly disappointed to arrive in a lounge-type bar with couched and little to no dance floor. Mostly because I was in a costume that made it really difficult to sit down. Or impossible, actually.
I wandered the room, and introduced myself to most of the people there. It was pretty difficult, because my movement was pretty limited. Reaching my beer over the bar stools when getting served was a problem that limited my drinking all night. I was pretty assured that I had a chance at the top prize though: a bottle of whiskey. Sweet.
Then some really awesome costumes arrived. The competition was thus is order of threat:
Terribly offensive pope: In a full gown and big hat, with a huge erection that created a nicely tented region and a baby boy doll to carry around.
HOLY SHIT!: Dressed entirely in brown, with a pantyhose leg stuffed with foam to create a piling effect, corn kernel shaped yellow cardboard cutouts, and a halo.
Fan death: If you're a faithful reader, you'll know that fan death is a phenomenon that occurs in an apartment with the fan on and the windows closed, where the oxygen in the room spirals up, suffocating anyone who might be asleep in the apartment. Fan death's costume included fan blades in the hair, a burned and artfully coloured paper fan, deathly makeup job and a phone cord around the neck. Why the phone cord? Well, it turns out that fan death is a bit of an excuse used to hide family suicides! I had no idea, but it is good to be educated.
Oompa Loompa: I'm not talking about the digitally multiplied "Deep Roy" kind from the new film, I'm talking about the classic green haired, brown coveralled, white eye-browed kind. As soon as he walked in, I knew that I had no chance at the top rpize anymore. Seriously his suit was custom tailored. It was breathtakingingly awesome.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
random tidbits
I walked home from work today. I was thinking that I would have to remember to write about how everything here is divided into little shopping districts, with several of the same type of store together. The reason that's significant is that on the way home I have the pleasure of walking through the "artificial limb" district. VERY creepy. Almost led to a Buster Bluth hallowe'en costume. Well, that was what I was thinking, but then I looked up and realized that I had taken a wrong turn.
Luckily, it wasn't TOO wrong a turn, and I got back ontrack pretty quickly. Actually, I think I shaved a few mintues off my trip.
In other exciting walking home news, I found a 10 000 won bill folded on the sidewalk on the way home. That's good, since I have been living off my air fare reimbursement since I returned, and it's almost gone! I picked up some samgyeopsal on the way home (think bacon with more fat) and had a rather delicious meal when I got home of friend pork and tofu (vegetables? What;s that?).
I went to Mokpo this weekend for Mary's birthday party. Mary's a girl I met through Jessie last year. They worked together at a couple of JLP camps. It was good to see the old JLP gang. The night started off with some initial awkwardness. I didn't know where the pub was where everyone was going to meet, so I met everyone at Mary's apartment. Everyone turned out to be all the girls doing some pre-party primping... It was a little strange, a little high-school-esque and a bit awkward to meet new people in that situation. I wasn't in the parfect mood for that situation, unfortunately, so it left me more shy than outgoing.
We ate a good dinner at a small restaurant (23 of us altogether, I think) and then wound up at a club called "plastic". We were promptly kicked out. We weren't rowdy, or too loud. We were told that we were being kicked out becuase we didn't order any "anjou" or side-dishes. But that was honest-to-goodness bullshit. We were kicked out for being a big group of foreigners. The proof? No waiters or waitresses even come to our tables to give us a chance to order anjou. I was super pissed, as were many of the people.
To lighten the mood, it was decided that we should sing Mary Happy Birthday. Then it was decided that that was the perfect way to communicate that the manager of the club was a dick, so we went back inside and sang it in the stairwell. He, of course, called the cops. Fortunately, we were long gone before anyone showed. And besides, what are they going to do? Arrest us for singing Happy Birthday?! You jerk!
We wound up ending the night at P-Bar, and then I slept on Mary's floor for the night.
I went a little overbudget, and wound up with only about $10 to get myself home. Not the wisest thing I have ever done. The train was only 3400 won (about half the price of the bus, somehow) so I went with that option, and spent the rest of my money on oranges for breakfast. I felt bad because I had tentative plans with Brooke and her boyfriend from work, and I had no way to communicate to them that I would be later than I had expected, and no way to even know if our plans had been upgraded from "tentative".
SIDEBAR: I was just going to crank my stereo to get some kickin' "The Drinking Song" by Moxy Fruvous going, only to realize that it is 12:30 am. I'm still not used to working nights.
Anyways, I was out of money, so I had to tkae the bus home, and that takes about 45 minutes from the train station on the edge of town. I was late... but the plans fell through, because everyone was hungover, apparently. I picked the wrong night to be responsible and not drink too much. haha.
Last week's students were a little more challenging. Especially a grade nine class that refuses to speak. That's fine, I'll just give them writing assignments. I mean, it's not really why their parents send them to the school, but hey, that's what they seem to want. Wait, idea! I'll get a novel, and everyone will take turns reading from it. Take that, a-holes! Seriously, you have no idea how frustrating they were.
In complete contrast to my grade nines today, a class of six, who all talk, even the exceptionally shy boy. I like that class! What a fun way to end every day!
Well, I should go. A guy I met named Darren is coming over to play guitar tomorrow. I should clean up a bit, and get all my work done for tomorrow.
Luckily, it wasn't TOO wrong a turn, and I got back ontrack pretty quickly. Actually, I think I shaved a few mintues off my trip.
In other exciting walking home news, I found a 10 000 won bill folded on the sidewalk on the way home. That's good, since I have been living off my air fare reimbursement since I returned, and it's almost gone! I picked up some samgyeopsal on the way home (think bacon with more fat) and had a rather delicious meal when I got home of friend pork and tofu (vegetables? What;s that?).
I went to Mokpo this weekend for Mary's birthday party. Mary's a girl I met through Jessie last year. They worked together at a couple of JLP camps. It was good to see the old JLP gang. The night started off with some initial awkwardness. I didn't know where the pub was where everyone was going to meet, so I met everyone at Mary's apartment. Everyone turned out to be all the girls doing some pre-party primping... It was a little strange, a little high-school-esque and a bit awkward to meet new people in that situation. I wasn't in the parfect mood for that situation, unfortunately, so it left me more shy than outgoing.
We ate a good dinner at a small restaurant (23 of us altogether, I think) and then wound up at a club called "plastic". We were promptly kicked out. We weren't rowdy, or too loud. We were told that we were being kicked out becuase we didn't order any "anjou" or side-dishes. But that was honest-to-goodness bullshit. We were kicked out for being a big group of foreigners. The proof? No waiters or waitresses even come to our tables to give us a chance to order anjou. I was super pissed, as were many of the people.
To lighten the mood, it was decided that we should sing Mary Happy Birthday. Then it was decided that that was the perfect way to communicate that the manager of the club was a dick, so we went back inside and sang it in the stairwell. He, of course, called the cops. Fortunately, we were long gone before anyone showed. And besides, what are they going to do? Arrest us for singing Happy Birthday?! You jerk!
We wound up ending the night at P-Bar, and then I slept on Mary's floor for the night.
I went a little overbudget, and wound up with only about $10 to get myself home. Not the wisest thing I have ever done. The train was only 3400 won (about half the price of the bus, somehow) so I went with that option, and spent the rest of my money on oranges for breakfast. I felt bad because I had tentative plans with Brooke and her boyfriend from work, and I had no way to communicate to them that I would be later than I had expected, and no way to even know if our plans had been upgraded from "tentative".
SIDEBAR: I was just going to crank my stereo to get some kickin' "The Drinking Song" by Moxy Fruvous going, only to realize that it is 12:30 am. I'm still not used to working nights.
Anyways, I was out of money, so I had to tkae the bus home, and that takes about 45 minutes from the train station on the edge of town. I was late... but the plans fell through, because everyone was hungover, apparently. I picked the wrong night to be responsible and not drink too much. haha.
Last week's students were a little more challenging. Especially a grade nine class that refuses to speak. That's fine, I'll just give them writing assignments. I mean, it's not really why their parents send them to the school, but hey, that's what they seem to want. Wait, idea! I'll get a novel, and everyone will take turns reading from it. Take that, a-holes! Seriously, you have no idea how frustrating they were.
In complete contrast to my grade nines today, a class of six, who all talk, even the exceptionally shy boy. I like that class! What a fun way to end every day!
Well, I should go. A guy I met named Darren is coming over to play guitar tomorrow. I should clean up a bit, and get all my work done for tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
the day's events
So today was exciting. I had a new crop fo kids, and I msut say that for the most part it went pretty well. We were all laughing and talking to eachother, even after I "laid down the law" and introduced them to rules, which are apparently new to them.
I don't think that these rules are unreasonable, but maybe you do:
1. Raise your hand to ask a question.
2. Be Quiet when Matt is talking. (we're encouraged to use our first names)
3. Always bring your pens and books. Every day.
4. No speaking in Korean. English Only.
Well, apparently that is totally unreasonable, a point which my grade nines felt they had to drive home by refusing to speak at all if they could not speak Korean.
Seriously, this was my first class, and they weren't asking about me (unheard of for foreign teachers), and they wouldn't answer my questions about them.
So then I asked them some easier questions... still nothing.
So I said, Fine, if you don't want to talk, then you can write about it, and told them to write ten sentences about themselves. They finished pretty quickly. I asked if they would rather write or speak, and they said write. So then, five more sentences about their families.
I told them at the close of class that the other classes had had fun, but that being stubborn wouldn't get them anything... they probably didn't understand stubborn. Crap. I told them that starting tomorrow participation would be five marks per day.
I don't know what I will do.
But at least my other classes are still good, with the exception of some bad notes being passed to me that led me to embarassingly reassign homework today.
Crap. haha.
But I have my first band practice tomorrow ngiht after work, so that should make everything better. Or at least seem better.
W00t!
I don't think that these rules are unreasonable, but maybe you do:
1. Raise your hand to ask a question.
2. Be Quiet when Matt is talking. (we're encouraged to use our first names)
3. Always bring your pens and books. Every day.
4. No speaking in Korean. English Only.
Well, apparently that is totally unreasonable, a point which my grade nines felt they had to drive home by refusing to speak at all if they could not speak Korean.
Seriously, this was my first class, and they weren't asking about me (unheard of for foreign teachers), and they wouldn't answer my questions about them.
So then I asked them some easier questions... still nothing.
So I said, Fine, if you don't want to talk, then you can write about it, and told them to write ten sentences about themselves. They finished pretty quickly. I asked if they would rather write or speak, and they said write. So then, five more sentences about their families.
I told them at the close of class that the other classes had had fun, but that being stubborn wouldn't get them anything... they probably didn't understand stubborn. Crap. I told them that starting tomorrow participation would be five marks per day.
I don't know what I will do.
But at least my other classes are still good, with the exception of some bad notes being passed to me that led me to embarassingly reassign homework today.
Crap. haha.
But I have my first band practice tomorrow ngiht after work, so that should make everything better. Or at least seem better.
W00t!
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Test notes
So, at this school I give the students tests. This means that you get updates on hilarious mistakes!
So far, one student wrote "favourite", with a u, and then drew a Canadian flag above it and wrote "Canadian" above it after I made a point in class that I might sometimes write it differently from the text, and that both were correct. Very cute.
One student just wrote "anally" in the vocab section when he should have written "alone". It's spelt correctly... so I wonder where he learned it. Hopefully it's just a coincidence.
A student just wrote "fart" instead of "part of".
(hours later)
So, that was not quite as entertaining as I had hoped... oh well, there will be plenty of tests to come.
Marking them though, I realized how much I like it at Munhwa. I was recognizing names of kids and imagining their faces as I was marking their tests! I've never known kids' names before, how the heck did I ever teach before? It's so nice, and they are really cute. I'm happy here so far.
So far, one student wrote "favourite", with a u, and then drew a Canadian flag above it and wrote "Canadian" above it after I made a point in class that I might sometimes write it differently from the text, and that both were correct. Very cute.
One student just wrote "anally" in the vocab section when he should have written "alone". It's spelt correctly... so I wonder where he learned it. Hopefully it's just a coincidence.
A student just wrote "fart" instead of "part of".
(hours later)
So, that was not quite as entertaining as I had hoped... oh well, there will be plenty of tests to come.
Marking them though, I realized how much I like it at Munhwa. I was recognizing names of kids and imagining their faces as I was marking their tests! I've never known kids' names before, how the heck did I ever teach before? It's so nice, and they are really cute. I'm happy here so far.
catch up!
Hello everyone.
I'm back now, in Gwangju, South Korea.
I was a little worried for a few weeks about how life was going to go here, but it seems like everything is coming up roses.
Things are pretty tough without Jessie here, I'm having difficulty adjusting to living alone. It's weird, I tend to forget to eat sometimes, and I am a little lazy about going to bed. I mean, I'll stay up just because I don't want to change. weird, eh?
Anyways, the new school is pretty good. It's an interesting cast of characters. For the most part, teaching there is a breeze. There's enough curriculum that I can lean pretty heavily if I want to, but I'm also allowed to divert and change it if I want to. So that's good, because it means that the adjustment to planning with curriculum will be pretty easy. The kids are easier to handle too, because I mark them, so I can take marks off of their tests for disciplinary matters. W00t! That makes things super easy.
The other teachers are a mixed bag. There's two other young teachers. One is pretty awesome, very funny and easy to get along with. Her boyfriend is also pretty cool, and is another audiophile, so we should get along well. The other seems very cool, but she's up on the next floor, which has proven to be way more of an obstacle to getting to know her than maybe it should have. She's almost finished her contract, it sounds like she will be leaving in early December. There's one who has a lot of physical problems, that seem to be effecting her in other ways, including jumping from topic to topic in conversation. She's pretty lonely, but she can be a little hard to be around, because she's pretty needy. Harley, also know as Mr C, is pretty nice. He really cares about the kids, and they really seem to like him too. He drinks more coffee (instant) and smokes more than I think is healthy, but hey, that's his business.
The other night we were walking home and chatting, and he tossed a butt in the sewer. The streets here are pretty disgusting. Korea hasn't really clued in to the harm of littering yet, and apparently they don't see it as a problem. Apparently tonight was different, and the careless tossing of his butt (which I still don't really approve of) into the sewer was enough to light a small fire under a nearby man. He started to bellow at Harley. Harley got right in his face and started bellowing back, and I got pretty freaked out by the whole thing. While Harley is pointing to all the trash within a foot of the sewer where he had tossed his butt, the guy gets right in his face, like within an inch. Then he sneaked his hand up and tried to poke Harley in the eyes!!! I couldn't believe it! It was the dirtiest fight move in history. We started walking away, and when we went into the restaurant where we were going to eat, he tried to follow us. I blocked him at the door for a bit, but he pushed his way in eventually, and proceeded to disturb everyone in the restaurant while he went on a huge tirade about us, and probably about how "Americans use the world as their trash can", I can only assume. The staff showed him out, and he just waited outside for us for about fifteen or twenty minutes. He was gone when we left though, thankfully. It wasn't that nice, and it's especially bad for Harley, who is extremely stressed out right now (he's writing text books and drinking about 15 instant coffees a day) and not in the best health (15 coffees).
The new apartment is pretty nice. I have a nice little kitchen (only a small fridge, unfortunately), a living room (big flat screen TV) a dining area, a real western shower, and a huge bedroom. Oh, and a spare room. My room is basically set up as the sweetest-ever dorm room, which is a little sad. Laptop for TV, recording stuff, and an over-filled closet. Damned parents and their bargain-hunting/clothes shopping addictions rubbed off on me! The neighbourhood is pretty good so far, except for the occasional angry Korean street fighter (cue Three Stooges eye-poke-block).
I played at the speakeasy for the first time on Friday night, and I think I played for at least an hour or so, although time gets all warped when you are onstage. It went pretty well. I wound up staying until almost 4:30 and going up on stage with the owner and the durmmer from the band I played before for a little jam.
The good news is that from the looks of things, we will be forming a band for the bar. So that should be really fun!
I went there last night again. There was a band playing from Suncheon, and I have to say, the guitarist was pretty incredible. It was a good night, because I wound up meeting up with a bunch of old JLPers that I had met at the camp in Novermber of last year in SeongAm. So it was a good night, and we got some good catching up/meeting in, and I wound up staying out again, until like 3:00 or so.
Anyways, that's all the pertinent news. There will be more updates now, as I have broken the ice, and all awkwardness is gone. haha.
I'm back now, in Gwangju, South Korea.
I was a little worried for a few weeks about how life was going to go here, but it seems like everything is coming up roses.
Things are pretty tough without Jessie here, I'm having difficulty adjusting to living alone. It's weird, I tend to forget to eat sometimes, and I am a little lazy about going to bed. I mean, I'll stay up just because I don't want to change. weird, eh?
Anyways, the new school is pretty good. It's an interesting cast of characters. For the most part, teaching there is a breeze. There's enough curriculum that I can lean pretty heavily if I want to, but I'm also allowed to divert and change it if I want to. So that's good, because it means that the adjustment to planning with curriculum will be pretty easy. The kids are easier to handle too, because I mark them, so I can take marks off of their tests for disciplinary matters. W00t! That makes things super easy.
The other teachers are a mixed bag. There's two other young teachers. One is pretty awesome, very funny and easy to get along with. Her boyfriend is also pretty cool, and is another audiophile, so we should get along well. The other seems very cool, but she's up on the next floor, which has proven to be way more of an obstacle to getting to know her than maybe it should have. She's almost finished her contract, it sounds like she will be leaving in early December. There's one who has a lot of physical problems, that seem to be effecting her in other ways, including jumping from topic to topic in conversation. She's pretty lonely, but she can be a little hard to be around, because she's pretty needy. Harley, also know as Mr C, is pretty nice. He really cares about the kids, and they really seem to like him too. He drinks more coffee (instant) and smokes more than I think is healthy, but hey, that's his business.
The other night we were walking home and chatting, and he tossed a butt in the sewer. The streets here are pretty disgusting. Korea hasn't really clued in to the harm of littering yet, and apparently they don't see it as a problem. Apparently tonight was different, and the careless tossing of his butt (which I still don't really approve of) into the sewer was enough to light a small fire under a nearby man. He started to bellow at Harley. Harley got right in his face and started bellowing back, and I got pretty freaked out by the whole thing. While Harley is pointing to all the trash within a foot of the sewer where he had tossed his butt, the guy gets right in his face, like within an inch. Then he sneaked his hand up and tried to poke Harley in the eyes!!! I couldn't believe it! It was the dirtiest fight move in history. We started walking away, and when we went into the restaurant where we were going to eat, he tried to follow us. I blocked him at the door for a bit, but he pushed his way in eventually, and proceeded to disturb everyone in the restaurant while he went on a huge tirade about us, and probably about how "Americans use the world as their trash can", I can only assume. The staff showed him out, and he just waited outside for us for about fifteen or twenty minutes. He was gone when we left though, thankfully. It wasn't that nice, and it's especially bad for Harley, who is extremely stressed out right now (he's writing text books and drinking about 15 instant coffees a day) and not in the best health (15 coffees).
The new apartment is pretty nice. I have a nice little kitchen (only a small fridge, unfortunately), a living room (big flat screen TV) a dining area, a real western shower, and a huge bedroom. Oh, and a spare room. My room is basically set up as the sweetest-ever dorm room, which is a little sad. Laptop for TV, recording stuff, and an over-filled closet. Damned parents and their bargain-hunting/clothes shopping addictions rubbed off on me! The neighbourhood is pretty good so far, except for the occasional angry Korean street fighter (cue Three Stooges eye-poke-block).
I played at the speakeasy for the first time on Friday night, and I think I played for at least an hour or so, although time gets all warped when you are onstage. It went pretty well. I wound up staying until almost 4:30 and going up on stage with the owner and the durmmer from the band I played before for a little jam.
The good news is that from the looks of things, we will be forming a band for the bar. So that should be really fun!
I went there last night again. There was a band playing from Suncheon, and I have to say, the guitarist was pretty incredible. It was a good night, because I wound up meeting up with a bunch of old JLPers that I had met at the camp in Novermber of last year in SeongAm. So it was a good night, and we got some good catching up/meeting in, and I wound up staying out again, until like 3:00 or so.
Anyways, that's all the pertinent news. There will be more updates now, as I have broken the ice, and all awkwardness is gone. haha.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Inactivity
Hello everyone!
I would like to apologize for the inactivity of late, I was at home in Canada, and my parents cancelled their internet. So I had nowhere to write in, and really, not much to write about.
But all that is changing!
I've been back in Korea for one week now, just started at a new school, and things are exciting out the wazoo. I'm getting internet tomorrow at home, so look for lots of updates to come in the near future.
Here's the short version:
That's all for now.
I would like to apologize for the inactivity of late, I was at home in Canada, and my parents cancelled their internet. So I had nowhere to write in, and really, not much to write about.
But all that is changing!
I've been back in Korea for one week now, just started at a new school, and things are exciting out the wazoo. I'm getting internet tomorrow at home, so look for lots of updates to come in the near future.
Here's the short version:
- The new school is great. It's no dream, but it's quite nice. And apparently, it is quite impossible to get fired from. Woohoo! Just kidding, not an issue.
- The apartment is great. It might actually be bigger than the apartment that Jessie and I shared! I'm starting to get it a little bit personalized, which makes it feel a little more homey. I shared it for a week with the teacher that I was replacing, which was actually really nice, because I didn't feel quite so overwhelmed. He was an interesting guy, and he'll be hard to replace.
- My arm hurts.
That's all for now.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
CRAZINESS
So I definitely have not updates in a long time.
Jessie and I are in a PC bang right now, killing the last few hours before our plane. Some of you may be thinking "Shouldn't you be sightseeing?", but you should just shut right the hell up, because it is HOT here!
This week was insane. We arrived back from Mongolia on Sunday night (that will be blogged about when we get to Canada) and went to bed.
We were awoken on Monday morning by a phone call from Jessie's coteacher telling us that we had to have all the furniture ready to be moved out by Wednesday. This was after weeks of being told that we had to remain in Yeongam until the end of our contract. We would also have the option of staying in our apartment with no furniture or moving to Samho, which for all the North Bay-ites out there would be equivalent to moving a Korean who spoke no English from Callander to Powassan.
So we demanded that we be allowed to stay until Thursday at least, and they said that that would be alright.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were rushed days to pack.
I got a phone from Mr Lee on Monday night, and he won his speech competition! I am very proud of him, and he is definitely pretty proud of himself. He has been having interviews all week and every time I see him, even though I don't understand what he is saying, I know that he is dropping to people that he won, because I hear them say congratulations and he says thank you. It was a really good speech, and I knew he would do well, but I was very surprised to hear that he had won! It was a national competition for teachers, and even though he worked very hard, I knew he would be up against some stiff competition. But he won, and I am really happy for him.
Anyways, we told him about the moving situation, and about how it would make banking difficult if I got payed on Friday (as we would have to leave town earlier). I asked if I could be payed earlier like Jessie was told she would be, on Wednesday. He said he would call and find out, and then call back.
He called the county supervisor at eleven o'clock at night! I got payed the next morning.
Tuesday night he took us out for dinner with the Ryus, and they gave us a beautiful lamp. Dinner was nice, but the Ryus were shy to speak English with us in front of Mr Lee, so we didn't get to chat much.
He came by the next day to pick up all the stuff I was leaving in Korea, which turned out to be a LOT! I had a big black duffel, plus two boxes and some other loose stuff that could not be boxed. I felt bad to give him so much. If I had been leaving, I would have just thrown it all out, but since I was coming back, there was no point in buying spices and things again, and my cheap winter coat and stuff could all stay too. And why bring all my winter clothes home if I don't have to?
Thursday monring we woke up at 9:40, and lay in bed for a while. The staff came to inspect and move our stuff at ten! I was a little emabarassed to open the door to all the office ladies in my pyjamas, but that's just how it worked out. haha.
We left after a while, because it was pretty stressful with them moving all of our stuff out. We had to return out router to the internet building and wire our money home. Surprise surprise, Jessie had not received her money yet! We wired home what she had, and yesterday she got the rest. Well, in bits. Her pay and severance were deposited, then withdrawn, then deposited again 600000 won short! We were freaking out, and we were told when Jessie called her coteacher that the money was taken off because our contract ended on August 20th, so we should not be payed for the last five days!
We argued, and I drafted some nasty e-mails (but never sent them!).... I'll finish later, we're going to head to the airport now!
Jessie and I are in a PC bang right now, killing the last few hours before our plane. Some of you may be thinking "Shouldn't you be sightseeing?", but you should just shut right the hell up, because it is HOT here!
This week was insane. We arrived back from Mongolia on Sunday night (that will be blogged about when we get to Canada) and went to bed.
We were awoken on Monday morning by a phone call from Jessie's coteacher telling us that we had to have all the furniture ready to be moved out by Wednesday. This was after weeks of being told that we had to remain in Yeongam until the end of our contract. We would also have the option of staying in our apartment with no furniture or moving to Samho, which for all the North Bay-ites out there would be equivalent to moving a Korean who spoke no English from Callander to Powassan.
So we demanded that we be allowed to stay until Thursday at least, and they said that that would be alright.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were rushed days to pack.
I got a phone from Mr Lee on Monday night, and he won his speech competition! I am very proud of him, and he is definitely pretty proud of himself. He has been having interviews all week and every time I see him, even though I don't understand what he is saying, I know that he is dropping to people that he won, because I hear them say congratulations and he says thank you. It was a really good speech, and I knew he would do well, but I was very surprised to hear that he had won! It was a national competition for teachers, and even though he worked very hard, I knew he would be up against some stiff competition. But he won, and I am really happy for him.
Anyways, we told him about the moving situation, and about how it would make banking difficult if I got payed on Friday (as we would have to leave town earlier). I asked if I could be payed earlier like Jessie was told she would be, on Wednesday. He said he would call and find out, and then call back.
He called the county supervisor at eleven o'clock at night! I got payed the next morning.
Tuesday night he took us out for dinner with the Ryus, and they gave us a beautiful lamp. Dinner was nice, but the Ryus were shy to speak English with us in front of Mr Lee, so we didn't get to chat much.
He came by the next day to pick up all the stuff I was leaving in Korea, which turned out to be a LOT! I had a big black duffel, plus two boxes and some other loose stuff that could not be boxed. I felt bad to give him so much. If I had been leaving, I would have just thrown it all out, but since I was coming back, there was no point in buying spices and things again, and my cheap winter coat and stuff could all stay too. And why bring all my winter clothes home if I don't have to?
Thursday monring we woke up at 9:40, and lay in bed for a while. The staff came to inspect and move our stuff at ten! I was a little emabarassed to open the door to all the office ladies in my pyjamas, but that's just how it worked out. haha.
We left after a while, because it was pretty stressful with them moving all of our stuff out. We had to return out router to the internet building and wire our money home. Surprise surprise, Jessie had not received her money yet! We wired home what she had, and yesterday she got the rest. Well, in bits. Her pay and severance were deposited, then withdrawn, then deposited again 600000 won short! We were freaking out, and we were told when Jessie called her coteacher that the money was taken off because our contract ended on August 20th, so we should not be payed for the last five days!
We argued, and I drafted some nasty e-mails (but never sent them!).... I'll finish later, we're going to head to the airport now!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Starting off six weeks of vacation in a grand fashion.
Last night was the start of six weeks (or so) vacation. I finished my camp in Bucheon with a stunning round of interviews.
I had to do interviews with the students as part of their final evaluation. For many of them, it was the first time I had heard them speak in two weeks! Then I found out why.
The interviews were only supposed to be three minutes or so long, but because I hadn't heard them speak before, I just let them go once they hit their stride. As a result, it took me almost three hours to finish their interviews! But some of them were so interesting, and I just wanted to learn about these faces I had been seeing for two weeks. Some were disappointing, especially one of the best participators in class, who in one-to-one conversation relied on charades and waiting for me to fill in the blanks for him.
There was this woman at the camp, she was an art teacher, I think. She was so cool! On top of being stunning (and one of the few women here who do not cake on make-up and wears her freckles proudly) she was a traveller, and had taken time off to go to film school. She definitely stood out in the crowd of other Koreans I have met, because she had "independent thought". Last night, while out with Steve and Crystal's friends Ryan and Kristin, Ryan said that his coteacher had once said to her class that one of the worst things (or downsides) to living in the city of Seoul (she had to help because the kids could only come up with pollution) was the amount of independent thought. Shocking!
Anyways, there were a lot of pretty cool teachers, and a few that I am hoping to stay in touch with. There were a few in the advanced class that I hope write to me, and a few in the general classes, especially a guitar player in the general class. I was trying to hammer home the idea that the English on their t-shirts is sometiems nonsense, and in some cases things that can be offensive to them or the people who see it. It seemed really strange to me that a teache, who had some English knowledge could buy a t-shirt with English on it and be totally unconcerned with what it said. I tried to emphasize the idea that the words are ideas, and that they should try to figure out what they are saying to people by wearing those ideas. The advanced and older general class got it, but the younger class really didn't care. How can they not care?! How are they not even curious about what they are saying to people? I actually get a little angry about it.
Anyway, the guitar player was wearing a Slayer t-shirt, so I asked him is he liked slayer, and it turned into a huge conversation yesterday about different guitar players yesterday, which made a bunch of the other teachers chuckle, because the guy's pronunciation is so bad and we were doing impressions of different songs and such... it was funny. anyway...
Once the interviews were over, I had to slot everyone into this ridiculous belled marking scheme where the lowest mark possible was a 24/30, and I was marking them on fluency, accuracy, pronunciation, vocabulary and understanding of the questions. No-one deserved perfects across the board, but the lowest mark I was able to give for some was a three out of five on one factor just to make it fit. Same with participation, no-one was allowed to get a mark lower than five out of ten. So people who never ever spoke got fives, and deserved zeros. brutal!
Once the work was over, we headed back to the goshiwon and into the PC bang. I wond up taking a nap, because I was a little exhausted. Aziz came to pay us at around 7:30, which made for a tight trip tot he train station for Rodrigo to catch his 8:25 train. Mr Lee, the organizer/recruiter for the camp wanted to take us out for dinner, but didn't tell us that he wanted it to be after seven, so we backed out, because Rodrigo wanted to go home, and I had to "get ready for Mongolia". wink wink.
I actually went to Hongik (a university/bar area in Seoul) to meet with Steve and Crystal and their friends. What a night! On several occasions we laughed until we cried, it was awesome. We went to "U2 Bar", which a fabulous little place, and where I had my first tequila, ever. It's good! It makes me pretty rowdy though.
After that we headed to a bongo bar where they usually have music, and everyone sits around on the floor and plays the bongos along to the music. But last ngiht they had really slow music with a guy singing along to a tape, so we left early, because it was not so fun. Great to chill out, but not very fun.
We ended at a hookah bar, another first for me. That was so relaxing. And it's not harsh, like other smokeables. We just sat around and laughed and talked and drank expensive drinks. The hookah was on me, because I made $2000 extra this month! woohoo! It was so nice, and it made your head swim just enough to make it unnecessary to buy a ton of really expensive drinks.
Well, it was a great start to my longest vacation yet. In life!
Have a good one everybody! I'm off to Mongolia in five hours!!!
I had to do interviews with the students as part of their final evaluation. For many of them, it was the first time I had heard them speak in two weeks! Then I found out why.
The interviews were only supposed to be three minutes or so long, but because I hadn't heard them speak before, I just let them go once they hit their stride. As a result, it took me almost three hours to finish their interviews! But some of them were so interesting, and I just wanted to learn about these faces I had been seeing for two weeks. Some were disappointing, especially one of the best participators in class, who in one-to-one conversation relied on charades and waiting for me to fill in the blanks for him.
There was this woman at the camp, she was an art teacher, I think. She was so cool! On top of being stunning (and one of the few women here who do not cake on make-up and wears her freckles proudly) she was a traveller, and had taken time off to go to film school. She definitely stood out in the crowd of other Koreans I have met, because she had "independent thought". Last night, while out with Steve and Crystal's friends Ryan and Kristin, Ryan said that his coteacher had once said to her class that one of the worst things (or downsides) to living in the city of Seoul (she had to help because the kids could only come up with pollution) was the amount of independent thought. Shocking!
Anyways, there were a lot of pretty cool teachers, and a few that I am hoping to stay in touch with. There were a few in the advanced class that I hope write to me, and a few in the general classes, especially a guitar player in the general class. I was trying to hammer home the idea that the English on their t-shirts is sometiems nonsense, and in some cases things that can be offensive to them or the people who see it. It seemed really strange to me that a teache, who had some English knowledge could buy a t-shirt with English on it and be totally unconcerned with what it said. I tried to emphasize the idea that the words are ideas, and that they should try to figure out what they are saying to people by wearing those ideas. The advanced and older general class got it, but the younger class really didn't care. How can they not care?! How are they not even curious about what they are saying to people? I actually get a little angry about it.
Anyway, the guitar player was wearing a Slayer t-shirt, so I asked him is he liked slayer, and it turned into a huge conversation yesterday about different guitar players yesterday, which made a bunch of the other teachers chuckle, because the guy's pronunciation is so bad and we were doing impressions of different songs and such... it was funny. anyway...
Once the interviews were over, I had to slot everyone into this ridiculous belled marking scheme where the lowest mark possible was a 24/30, and I was marking them on fluency, accuracy, pronunciation, vocabulary and understanding of the questions. No-one deserved perfects across the board, but the lowest mark I was able to give for some was a three out of five on one factor just to make it fit. Same with participation, no-one was allowed to get a mark lower than five out of ten. So people who never ever spoke got fives, and deserved zeros. brutal!
Once the work was over, we headed back to the goshiwon and into the PC bang. I wond up taking a nap, because I was a little exhausted. Aziz came to pay us at around 7:30, which made for a tight trip tot he train station for Rodrigo to catch his 8:25 train. Mr Lee, the organizer/recruiter for the camp wanted to take us out for dinner, but didn't tell us that he wanted it to be after seven, so we backed out, because Rodrigo wanted to go home, and I had to "get ready for Mongolia". wink wink.
I actually went to Hongik (a university/bar area in Seoul) to meet with Steve and Crystal and their friends. What a night! On several occasions we laughed until we cried, it was awesome. We went to "U2 Bar", which a fabulous little place, and where I had my first tequila, ever. It's good! It makes me pretty rowdy though.
After that we headed to a bongo bar where they usually have music, and everyone sits around on the floor and plays the bongos along to the music. But last ngiht they had really slow music with a guy singing along to a tape, so we left early, because it was not so fun. Great to chill out, but not very fun.
We ended at a hookah bar, another first for me. That was so relaxing. And it's not harsh, like other smokeables. We just sat around and laughed and talked and drank expensive drinks. The hookah was on me, because I made $2000 extra this month! woohoo! It was so nice, and it made your head swim just enough to make it unnecessary to buy a ton of really expensive drinks.
Well, it was a great start to my longest vacation yet. In life!
Have a good one everybody! I'm off to Mongolia in five hours!!!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
random notes
Considering how much time I have spent in a PC bang in the last two weeks, I have done startlingly little in the way of updating my blog.
So, this week has been full of ups and downs. We have been taking it really easy. Just sitting around. It is SO hot here. You have no idea. I've been hot in Canada, but never hot like this. When you step outside, it's actually like opening an oven. Not just saying that, it actually is, I promise. The wind does not help, it's like trying to cool yourself by open-mouthed heavy breathing on yourself.
The frustrating class continued to be frustrating and difficult to motivate. They finally talked to Rodrigo though about what they wanted, and it was more group activities. They will talk to eachother, but they are too shy to talk to the teachers. So last night Rodrigo and I put together a big shopping/running errands roleplay. It went well! We are cutting out curriculum (now that we have written the test) to make time for more interesting activities and practice. The marks don't matter, so really it doesn't matter if everything gets covered, as long as the important things for their test are covered, so they can show their principals a mark. Of course, it'll be a good mark.
Why, of course? Because we're marking out of thirty, and the requested mark distribution is 30 - 1, 29 - 2, 28 - 4, 27 - 6, 26 - 4, 25 - 2, 24 - 1. So their marks mean nothing. BUT, we have to doctor things so that they fit that distribution. It sucks. It also sucks that no-one can do poorly, because there are a bunch of people who just sat and occupied seats, and do not deserve a mark above 80. It also cheapens the marks for those who made effort.
Not much else to report yet. It's not even sunk in yet that I'm going to Mongolia... in three days. I have so much to do, and so much else to think about. I hope that when I get there I can really be in the moment, and not be distracted.
Well, that's all for now... back to online poker, which I'm playing now. For funsies only, of course.
So, this week has been full of ups and downs. We have been taking it really easy. Just sitting around. It is SO hot here. You have no idea. I've been hot in Canada, but never hot like this. When you step outside, it's actually like opening an oven. Not just saying that, it actually is, I promise. The wind does not help, it's like trying to cool yourself by open-mouthed heavy breathing on yourself.
The frustrating class continued to be frustrating and difficult to motivate. They finally talked to Rodrigo though about what they wanted, and it was more group activities. They will talk to eachother, but they are too shy to talk to the teachers. So last night Rodrigo and I put together a big shopping/running errands roleplay. It went well! We are cutting out curriculum (now that we have written the test) to make time for more interesting activities and practice. The marks don't matter, so really it doesn't matter if everything gets covered, as long as the important things for their test are covered, so they can show their principals a mark. Of course, it'll be a good mark.
Why, of course? Because we're marking out of thirty, and the requested mark distribution is 30 - 1, 29 - 2, 28 - 4, 27 - 6, 26 - 4, 25 - 2, 24 - 1. So their marks mean nothing. BUT, we have to doctor things so that they fit that distribution. It sucks. It also sucks that no-one can do poorly, because there are a bunch of people who just sat and occupied seats, and do not deserve a mark above 80. It also cheapens the marks for those who made effort.
Not much else to report yet. It's not even sunk in yet that I'm going to Mongolia... in three days. I have so much to do, and so much else to think about. I hope that when I get there I can really be in the moment, and not be distracted.
Well, that's all for now... back to online poker, which I'm playing now. For funsies only, of course.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Numerous updates
DOG
So, the dog thing is on hold. Have I mentioned this already? I'm only going home for three weeks right now, and I think it would be really unfair to take a dog on such a long flight after such a short "getting to know you" phase. So maybe I will get a dog while I am here, but maybe I will just wait, because maybe I didn't think enough about it. I know I could handle a dog, I just don't know if Korea could handle me with a dog.
CONTRACT
I signed my contract with Munhwa on Saturday morning. The contract is a little nebulous, but I'm not too worried. I have a good personal reference, I really like the head teacher, and the director asked me the right kind of questions in the interview, and seems like a decent man. So, that's exciting. I met with Harley, the head teacher on Saturday to go over the contract, and then it was done.
CAMP
Camp continues this week. It was pretty good last week, the only frustration is that you are dealing with teachers who don't seem to want to be taught to, at least in one class. Koreans seem to have this crazy idea that they can learn a language by quietly memorizing things, and somehow even the teachers are buying into this. Harley and I talked about it... there's no synthesis, just memorization. But, the older teachers are a lot better, and on most days they make up for the frustrations of the younger, feed-me-English crowd.
BUSY WEEKEND
I had a super busy weekend. I travelled back to Yeongam on Friday afternoon/evening, a three hour train ride, followed by an hour on a bus. Got home, and had to do laundry, so that I could pack for both camp and Mongolia, as I'm heading to Mongolia straight from Seoul this weekend. I wound up carrying a bag full of wet laundry back to Seoul, in spite of the fact that I left the air conditioner blowing on it the whole night. Oh well.
Jessie and I hopped on a bus, met Harley, signed the contract, and then took a train to Seoul from Gwangju. We got about an hour from Seoul when the train stopped and didn't start again. We just hung out, we actually had a pretty good time buring the delay. Since we waited for so long, I figured there would be some sort of reimbursement, but I didn't know how to ask. I figured if we followed the crowd when we got off, eventually they would lead us to the money. They went one better, and a young woman helped us by running to ask all of our questions of a local steward. So, we wound up finding out that we were entitled to free tickets! Sweet!
We went to our hotel, and I hung up all of my clothes. We went to Itaewon for subs, which was awesome. We had them for breakfast too, but they weren't so good cold.
We took the airport limo bus from the hotel to the airport, and wandered around trying to find out where to check in. There was no apparent line, so we just got into one for the Mongolian airline and asked at the counter "Where do we check in for flight 308?". The guy said "Ticket!" and we gave him Jessie's ticket. He said "passort!" and we gave him Jessie's passport. Two minutes later a boarding pass was produced, and he pointed and circled as he talked.
"The flight boards gate 45 (or whatever) and is nine hours delayed." and waved for the next person in line.
Nine hours delayed! So we wound up coming back into the city, playing some computer games at a PC bang, getting a pizza, and watching a really sad Korean movie. It was really good though, it was about a group of minstrels who go to the big city of Seoul and wind up playing for the king. But of course, tragedies occur.
We left at about quarter to seven to get her on a bus back to Incheon. We went to Sosa station, which is where the bus dropped us when we came back. We were nervous, because we don't know the schedule, and decided that we should go back into town to catch the bus from where we had before. We got back onto the subway platform, and then Jessie thought better of it... the timing would be pretty tight, so we wound up walking out and finding the bus again. Pretty exciting no? It felt silly.
She got off safely, and there was some interesting miming through the bus window going back and forth that ended with me chasing after some guy... we're weird people, there's no denying.
I just got another e-mail from her saying her flight was further delayed until 10:55 tonight... that's about ten and a half hours total. Brutal!
Little visitors
I keep forgetting to mention, but the week before last, on Friday, Jessie and I ran into some students on the way home from arranging our pension reimbursement. Specifically, my "one way lover" and one of her little friends. They had asked before if they could come visit sometime. That night, they wound up inviting themselves for breakfast the next day.
They showed up just after ten with some frozen food, and I went to work cooking for them. They are pretty sweet little girls, and it was a really nice visit. I killed the food they brought (we don't have a deep-frying pan, or enough oil to cook what they brought) but it only looked bad, it tasted alright.
It was super-nice.
So, the dog thing is on hold. Have I mentioned this already? I'm only going home for three weeks right now, and I think it would be really unfair to take a dog on such a long flight after such a short "getting to know you" phase. So maybe I will get a dog while I am here, but maybe I will just wait, because maybe I didn't think enough about it. I know I could handle a dog, I just don't know if Korea could handle me with a dog.
CONTRACT
I signed my contract with Munhwa on Saturday morning. The contract is a little nebulous, but I'm not too worried. I have a good personal reference, I really like the head teacher, and the director asked me the right kind of questions in the interview, and seems like a decent man. So, that's exciting. I met with Harley, the head teacher on Saturday to go over the contract, and then it was done.
CAMP
Camp continues this week. It was pretty good last week, the only frustration is that you are dealing with teachers who don't seem to want to be taught to, at least in one class. Koreans seem to have this crazy idea that they can learn a language by quietly memorizing things, and somehow even the teachers are buying into this. Harley and I talked about it... there's no synthesis, just memorization. But, the older teachers are a lot better, and on most days they make up for the frustrations of the younger, feed-me-English crowd.
BUSY WEEKEND
I had a super busy weekend. I travelled back to Yeongam on Friday afternoon/evening, a three hour train ride, followed by an hour on a bus. Got home, and had to do laundry, so that I could pack for both camp and Mongolia, as I'm heading to Mongolia straight from Seoul this weekend. I wound up carrying a bag full of wet laundry back to Seoul, in spite of the fact that I left the air conditioner blowing on it the whole night. Oh well.
Jessie and I hopped on a bus, met Harley, signed the contract, and then took a train to Seoul from Gwangju. We got about an hour from Seoul when the train stopped and didn't start again. We just hung out, we actually had a pretty good time buring the delay. Since we waited for so long, I figured there would be some sort of reimbursement, but I didn't know how to ask. I figured if we followed the crowd when we got off, eventually they would lead us to the money. They went one better, and a young woman helped us by running to ask all of our questions of a local steward. So, we wound up finding out that we were entitled to free tickets! Sweet!
We went to our hotel, and I hung up all of my clothes. We went to Itaewon for subs, which was awesome. We had them for breakfast too, but they weren't so good cold.
We took the airport limo bus from the hotel to the airport, and wandered around trying to find out where to check in. There was no apparent line, so we just got into one for the Mongolian airline and asked at the counter "Where do we check in for flight 308?". The guy said "Ticket!" and we gave him Jessie's ticket. He said "passort!" and we gave him Jessie's passport. Two minutes later a boarding pass was produced, and he pointed and circled as he talked.
"The flight boards gate 45 (or whatever) and is nine hours delayed." and waved for the next person in line.
Nine hours delayed! So we wound up coming back into the city, playing some computer games at a PC bang, getting a pizza, and watching a really sad Korean movie. It was really good though, it was about a group of minstrels who go to the big city of Seoul and wind up playing for the king. But of course, tragedies occur.
We left at about quarter to seven to get her on a bus back to Incheon. We went to Sosa station, which is where the bus dropped us when we came back. We were nervous, because we don't know the schedule, and decided that we should go back into town to catch the bus from where we had before. We got back onto the subway platform, and then Jessie thought better of it... the timing would be pretty tight, so we wound up walking out and finding the bus again. Pretty exciting no? It felt silly.
She got off safely, and there was some interesting miming through the bus window going back and forth that ended with me chasing after some guy... we're weird people, there's no denying.
I just got another e-mail from her saying her flight was further delayed until 10:55 tonight... that's about ten and a half hours total. Brutal!
Little visitors
I keep forgetting to mention, but the week before last, on Friday, Jessie and I ran into some students on the way home from arranging our pension reimbursement. Specifically, my "one way lover" and one of her little friends. They had asked before if they could come visit sometime. That night, they wound up inviting themselves for breakfast the next day.
They showed up just after ten with some frozen food, and I went to work cooking for them. They are pretty sweet little girls, and it was a really nice visit. I killed the food they brought (we don't have a deep-frying pan, or enough oil to cook what they brought) but it only looked bad, it tasted alright.
It was super-nice.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
GUITAR SMASH!
We got together after work today with Steve and Crystal.
We went to this awesome barbecue place where we had a feast for the low low price of $5. AFter that we wandered around aimlessly for a while before settling on walking in the direction of a starbucks.
We were walking and talking and reminiscing and planning when we noticed a guitar sitting on the ground next to a garbage bag leaning against a tree. It appeared to be abandoned with the trash, so we took a look.
It was pretty shitty, and only had two strings, although it did have two halves of what was once one string. I was going to just leave it there, but Steve reminded me of how often you actually get to smash a guitar. Noting the logic, I threw it over my shoulder.
So then the hunt was on to find appropriate means of destroying the guitar. We were on the lookout for a T-money stop. I'm here for two weeks, so it makes sense to get one of the T-money cards, which can be used to pay for subway and bus rides. So that was a good opportunity to let the guitar body get caught by the closing doors as we walked into convenience stores. Then there was the telephone poles that it was smashed into as I excitedly looked around at the big city sights.
We must have done it for about half an hour, and then we finally arrived at Steve's apartment area. We sat for a while tryign to decide the final fate of the guitar, and it ruined the moment. There was too much pressure to make a great scene with it.
We settled on taking it into the front of the building and running with it so that it slammed into things as we ran by.
Seriously, you can't understand how much fun it was. It was unnatural.
We went to this awesome barbecue place where we had a feast for the low low price of $5. AFter that we wandered around aimlessly for a while before settling on walking in the direction of a starbucks.
We were walking and talking and reminiscing and planning when we noticed a guitar sitting on the ground next to a garbage bag leaning against a tree. It appeared to be abandoned with the trash, so we took a look.
It was pretty shitty, and only had two strings, although it did have two halves of what was once one string. I was going to just leave it there, but Steve reminded me of how often you actually get to smash a guitar. Noting the logic, I threw it over my shoulder.
So then the hunt was on to find appropriate means of destroying the guitar. We were on the lookout for a T-money stop. I'm here for two weeks, so it makes sense to get one of the T-money cards, which can be used to pay for subway and bus rides. So that was a good opportunity to let the guitar body get caught by the closing doors as we walked into convenience stores. Then there was the telephone poles that it was smashed into as I excitedly looked around at the big city sights.
We must have done it for about half an hour, and then we finally arrived at Steve's apartment area. We sat for a while tryign to decide the final fate of the guitar, and it ruined the moment. There was too much pressure to make a great scene with it.
We settled on taking it into the front of the building and running with it so that it slammed into things as we ran by.
Seriously, you can't understand how much fun it was. It was unnatural.
CAMP!
I'm in Bucheon right now, for the camp that Aziz set me up with (Aziz is the father of one of Steve's students). The thing started off as a bit of a gong show.
We arrived and met with Aziz right away, and he gave us the material so that we could prepare for our classes. Unfortunately, even he didn't know how to read the scedule we were given. The schedule seemed to show us teaching way too little, and only for two classes, somehow, when there were three of us, and another schedule seemed to conflict with what we were given. We had two books, but none of us could figure out why.
We are spending our time here in Bucheon staying at a "goshiwon". I was a little worried when Aziz described it, but it is awesome! It's about $120 for fifteen days or any number less. That's a good deal, when many other cheap options, like love motels are up to $30 a night! There was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding the cost of the place, because as I've said before, Koreans tend to mix up numbers. They don't think in thousands, they think in ten thousands, so when they translate to English, they tend to mix their numbers up in our system. So when three foreigners ask about the price (expecting a nightly fee) and are told 11000 won, we get a little weird when one of us has to pay 110 000 won for nine days... but we finally worked it out.
We get a tiny little room that is about the size of the bathroom of our apartment in Yeongam. The cot goes under the desk, most of which is covered with a TV. Basically the room is only for sleeping, but that's fine. There's a great PC bang right downstairs, and lots to do otherwise.
When we arrived at work yesterday (one half hour early, to give lots of time for talking about the schedule) we were very much alone. There was no-one there. No students even! Turns out that we were not supposed to be there until ten (an hour and a half after when we thought we had to arrive) so we had a lot of time to kill. It took about half an hour for the schedule to be communicated, because the woman telling us about it made it sound like two of us would be in the same place and no teacher in the other, but we finally got it worked out.
The reason for the second book that no-one could explain was that there was a general and an advanced class. So poor Rodrigo had the advanced class first, with no preparation, because there had been no warning that we would have to prepare from the second book.
So we had six classes yesterday and six classes today. The camp is largely unremarkable, it's just teachers, and many of them are pretty shy. They participate if you tell them to, often immediately, but getting volunteers is like pulling teeth. No complaints when they are "voluntold" though.
Well, that's really all the news. I've got nothing else.
But I'll post more later.
We arrived and met with Aziz right away, and he gave us the material so that we could prepare for our classes. Unfortunately, even he didn't know how to read the scedule we were given. The schedule seemed to show us teaching way too little, and only for two classes, somehow, when there were three of us, and another schedule seemed to conflict with what we were given. We had two books, but none of us could figure out why.
We are spending our time here in Bucheon staying at a "goshiwon". I was a little worried when Aziz described it, but it is awesome! It's about $120 for fifteen days or any number less. That's a good deal, when many other cheap options, like love motels are up to $30 a night! There was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding the cost of the place, because as I've said before, Koreans tend to mix up numbers. They don't think in thousands, they think in ten thousands, so when they translate to English, they tend to mix their numbers up in our system. So when three foreigners ask about the price (expecting a nightly fee) and are told 11000 won, we get a little weird when one of us has to pay 110 000 won for nine days... but we finally worked it out.
We get a tiny little room that is about the size of the bathroom of our apartment in Yeongam. The cot goes under the desk, most of which is covered with a TV. Basically the room is only for sleeping, but that's fine. There's a great PC bang right downstairs, and lots to do otherwise.
When we arrived at work yesterday (one half hour early, to give lots of time for talking about the schedule) we were very much alone. There was no-one there. No students even! Turns out that we were not supposed to be there until ten (an hour and a half after when we thought we had to arrive) so we had a lot of time to kill. It took about half an hour for the schedule to be communicated, because the woman telling us about it made it sound like two of us would be in the same place and no teacher in the other, but we finally got it worked out.
The reason for the second book that no-one could explain was that there was a general and an advanced class. So poor Rodrigo had the advanced class first, with no preparation, because there had been no warning that we would have to prepare from the second book.
So we had six classes yesterday and six classes today. The camp is largely unremarkable, it's just teachers, and many of them are pretty shy. They participate if you tell them to, often immediately, but getting volunteers is like pulling teeth. No complaints when they are "voluntold" though.
Well, that's really all the news. I've got nothing else.
But I'll post more later.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Random thoughts
Jessie and I were talking last night, and she pointed out something that is absolutely stunning.
If we hadn't taken the GIC tour at the beginning of July, I would never have heard about the job from John, and I would probably be working at crappy hagwon number two just because I had nothing to contrast it to.
So yeah, if you haven't been paying attention/I forgot to post about it, I got the job at awesome hagwon number one.
Jessie was telling me about her camp. It sounds like she had a pretty fun time, teaching and socializing and TPing indoor trees and imitating ninjas. The downside of the whole camp is, of course, the competition aspect. Specifically that if there are four pretty even teams, one has to lose, and in this country, that's just not cool. The kids can't ever have fun, it always has to be about the competition.
I didn't feel bad when my team won, because they pretty much swamped the other teams. But when they're evenly matched, and the effort is pretty even, it sucks that one team has to be told that they are the losers.
The closing ceremony is today, and is scheduled to be forty-five minutes long. However, this is the first year that they are deciding to give each student an individual award. SO they made up awards like "Best actor" and "best singer" and the like. SO, those awards are pretty individual, right? Well, they want the teachers to make little speeches about each student. I really doubt that this will take only 45 minutes.
Today we are meeting in Mokpo to go to the pension office. We have to arrange to have our pension money reimbursed to us after our contract is over. We're going with Jessie's coteacher, so hopefully it will go well. I can imagine quite a few ways that this could get screwed up.
Well, I should go, because my attention is wandering and I can barely string my thoughts together. Time for a coffee, I guess.
If we hadn't taken the GIC tour at the beginning of July, I would never have heard about the job from John, and I would probably be working at crappy hagwon number two just because I had nothing to contrast it to.
So yeah, if you haven't been paying attention/I forgot to post about it, I got the job at awesome hagwon number one.
Jessie was telling me about her camp. It sounds like she had a pretty fun time, teaching and socializing and TPing indoor trees and imitating ninjas. The downside of the whole camp is, of course, the competition aspect. Specifically that if there are four pretty even teams, one has to lose, and in this country, that's just not cool. The kids can't ever have fun, it always has to be about the competition.
I didn't feel bad when my team won, because they pretty much swamped the other teams. But when they're evenly matched, and the effort is pretty even, it sucks that one team has to be told that they are the losers.
The closing ceremony is today, and is scheduled to be forty-five minutes long. However, this is the first year that they are deciding to give each student an individual award. SO they made up awards like "Best actor" and "best singer" and the like. SO, those awards are pretty individual, right? Well, they want the teachers to make little speeches about each student. I really doubt that this will take only 45 minutes.
Today we are meeting in Mokpo to go to the pension office. We have to arrange to have our pension money reimbursed to us after our contract is over. We're going with Jessie's coteacher, so hopefully it will go well. I can imagine quite a few ways that this could get screwed up.
Well, I should go, because my attention is wandering and I can barely string my thoughts together. Time for a coffee, I guess.
Bored
SO this is my last night alone in Yeongam before Jessie comes back from camp. The first two days weren't too bad, because I had things to do, but today and yesterday were brutal.
Everything's pretty much wrapped up. I have a job lined up, my work is done here, I'm almost packed... everything's just winding down. SO two days in Yeongam is a long time when it is too sweltering hot to go outside.
I ate a lot of wheat thins and cream cheese today. Man, I am bored.
I took a walk tonight, once it cooled down a bit. I heard explosions, so I left my usual route to see what was going on. I was very curious about it, but I never found exactly what was causing the sounds. I got close, but I was afraid to really go see what was burning, in case it blew me up with it. I just got close enough to say "Oh, it's a huge fire", and then gave up.
There's this series of commercials running for a brand of fruit juice.There's this girl, kind of dancing around and music is playing, and she is surrounded by huge bottles of juice. In the first commercial, she picked up a tomato and bit right into it, and they digitally added droplets of tomato juice dribbling down her chin and squirting out. That was a little sick... now they have a series with her biting into a grapefruit. It would be bitter enough right there, but she bites into it still peeled. That's right, a super-bitter grapefruit peel bite.
Disgusting.
There's another series of juice ads with people making the sickest gulping and swallowing noises. It sounds like gagging... but somehow these ads make people want to go out and buy juice, so more power to them, I guess.
Everything's pretty much wrapped up. I have a job lined up, my work is done here, I'm almost packed... everything's just winding down. SO two days in Yeongam is a long time when it is too sweltering hot to go outside.
I ate a lot of wheat thins and cream cheese today. Man, I am bored.
I took a walk tonight, once it cooled down a bit. I heard explosions, so I left my usual route to see what was going on. I was very curious about it, but I never found exactly what was causing the sounds. I got close, but I was afraid to really go see what was burning, in case it blew me up with it. I just got close enough to say "Oh, it's a huge fire", and then gave up.
There's this series of commercials running for a brand of fruit juice.There's this girl, kind of dancing around and music is playing, and she is surrounded by huge bottles of juice. In the first commercial, she picked up a tomato and bit right into it, and they digitally added droplets of tomato juice dribbling down her chin and squirting out. That was a little sick... now they have a series with her biting into a grapefruit. It would be bitter enough right there, but she bites into it still peeled. That's right, a super-bitter grapefruit peel bite.
Disgusting.
There's another series of juice ads with people making the sickest gulping and swallowing noises. It sounds like gagging... but somehow these ads make people want to go out and buy juice, so more power to them, I guess.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
interviews
SO, I had two interviews in the last two days. Going to Gwangju two days in a row was not such a great idea. That is such a long long trip, and it takes a whole day to go there and back, it's likea day of work.
Let's begin with the bad interview...or the good. Oh man, let's just do some contrasting.
Location:
Number two SAID they were in Gwangju. I'm not sure if this is technically true, since it took a twenty minute ride from the bus terminal (Thank God cabs are so cheap here, only $8.50) and we had to go through a forested, undeveloped area to get there. So right there, it's just as expensive to get to downtown as it was from Yeongam, unless of course I took the bus, but let's be honest, this (points at self) was not made for public transit. Of course, anyone who knows me knows I get giddy about efficient bus systems, so nevermind.
Number one is a five minute walk from downtown Gwangju, about seven minutes from the Speakeasy, and two blocks from Art Street, so it means I'll have lots to do before and after work, and I am only a fifteen minute bus ride (I'm taking that to be a 45 minute walk or so) from work.
Pay:
Tie- both said 2.0, but I think I canget them to bump up to 2.1 quite easily. Err... Well, maybe.
Airfare:
Number one will reimburse me on arrival, and they have no money problems, with a waiting list of over 200 students, they have no reason to say they do. Ever.
Number two thought since I was already in Korea that I should not be given an air ticket. When I said that I would not work without a ticket, they said they had misunderstood the situation, and suddenyl they would "do their best" to get me money for a ticket. Then I was told that this would all change if I signed on for two years, then they would even find me a better apartment! Apparently, it is SO hard to find good native speakers... so they don't have the money for one year, but they have the money for two years. So, that smacks of "we are running on so low a budget that if a student leaves our academy, you may not get payed next month!"
Hours:
Number one tells me the hours are typically 4-9 or 5-10 each weeknight. During the summer, they go to a normal work day, but you work the whole day, you don't sit around and fill a desk (still bitter over my public school experience). That's 5 classes a day. Some weeks four, some weeks six.
Number two tells me normal hours are 2- 7:30, that's 7 forty minute lessons. It's more work...but when I asked about over time, I found out that lessons regularly go until 9:30, but they seemed really wishy-washy about comitting to any time.
Students:
So, Number two tells me nothing about their students, outside of the size of the classes. I ask, and I get nothing.
Number one invites me to sit in on two of their classes. The first class was a new class that the teacher had never had before. They asked me what my name was, where I was from, what my hobbies were, and if I was going to be their new teacher. They then LISTENED to my answers, and knodded that they understood, and asked me followups! The class was a little rowdy, apparently all of the trouble makers had been herded into the head teacher's class, and it was his job to "break them". He apologized after class for their behaviour, but it was like a dream compared to the boys' school here in Yeongam.
Number one also tells me that the students are not selected only on those who can pay, but based on entry test scores. The tuition is kept low so that everyone who does well enough can afford to attend. So it's all smart students, and they all are from different class groups, so it's very interesting. And not snobby!
Questions about me:
When you are meeting a person that you will hire to work with children under your care, this is a pretty important thing, right?
Number one asks me a lot. I was at the school for almost four hours. The head teacher and I talk about our hobbies, about my work experience, about why I want to come to Gwangju, about how I have enjoyed Korea this year. We talk about my students now, what I hope for next year, what I am looking to gain from the experience. In conversation with the owner of the Hagwon, he only asked "Why would you choose to work here when other places have more vacation?" So I talked about how public school had more vacation but that there were other problems, like classes that could not be controlled, classes with too much spread in level, and studens that I could not develop relationships with because I only saw them once a week. They seemed pretty impressed with that.
Number two asked me "Can you sign for two years?"
Now, in fairness, Number two had been told that I just wanted to come and look around, so they had not prepared for an actual interview. But still, it doesn't say much about your "school" if a teacher who you have already offered a contract to is coming by to look at your school, would you not want to ask them a question before you put ink on paper? I really wasn't impressed with their lack of interest in who I am.
SO, overall, the choice is clear. I ahven't had any more offers, but that's not surprising since I really limited my search to only one city, and I am looking so far in advance. I'm not worried about limiting myself by accepting an offer from number one, since I have a good recommendation for them and a good feeling on top of that.
I'm pretty excited.Last night number one e-mailed me to start getting things arranged for my visa, and I have another meeting with them on next Saturday.
Everything's coming up Milhouse.
Let's begin with the bad interview...or the good. Oh man, let's just do some contrasting.
Location:
Number two SAID they were in Gwangju. I'm not sure if this is technically true, since it took a twenty minute ride from the bus terminal (Thank God cabs are so cheap here, only $8.50) and we had to go through a forested, undeveloped area to get there. So right there, it's just as expensive to get to downtown as it was from Yeongam, unless of course I took the bus, but let's be honest, this (points at self) was not made for public transit. Of course, anyone who knows me knows I get giddy about efficient bus systems, so nevermind.
Number one is a five minute walk from downtown Gwangju, about seven minutes from the Speakeasy, and two blocks from Art Street, so it means I'll have lots to do before and after work, and I am only a fifteen minute bus ride (I'm taking that to be a 45 minute walk or so) from work.
Pay:
Tie- both said 2.0, but I think I canget them to bump up to 2.1 quite easily. Err... Well, maybe.
Airfare:
Number one will reimburse me on arrival, and they have no money problems, with a waiting list of over 200 students, they have no reason to say they do. Ever.
Number two thought since I was already in Korea that I should not be given an air ticket. When I said that I would not work without a ticket, they said they had misunderstood the situation, and suddenyl they would "do their best" to get me money for a ticket. Then I was told that this would all change if I signed on for two years, then they would even find me a better apartment! Apparently, it is SO hard to find good native speakers... so they don't have the money for one year, but they have the money for two years. So, that smacks of "we are running on so low a budget that if a student leaves our academy, you may not get payed next month!"
Hours:
Number one tells me the hours are typically 4-9 or 5-10 each weeknight. During the summer, they go to a normal work day, but you work the whole day, you don't sit around and fill a desk (still bitter over my public school experience). That's 5 classes a day. Some weeks four, some weeks six.
Number two tells me normal hours are 2- 7:30, that's 7 forty minute lessons. It's more work...but when I asked about over time, I found out that lessons regularly go until 9:30, but they seemed really wishy-washy about comitting to any time.
Students:
So, Number two tells me nothing about their students, outside of the size of the classes. I ask, and I get nothing.
Number one invites me to sit in on two of their classes. The first class was a new class that the teacher had never had before. They asked me what my name was, where I was from, what my hobbies were, and if I was going to be their new teacher. They then LISTENED to my answers, and knodded that they understood, and asked me followups! The class was a little rowdy, apparently all of the trouble makers had been herded into the head teacher's class, and it was his job to "break them". He apologized after class for their behaviour, but it was like a dream compared to the boys' school here in Yeongam.
Number one also tells me that the students are not selected only on those who can pay, but based on entry test scores. The tuition is kept low so that everyone who does well enough can afford to attend. So it's all smart students, and they all are from different class groups, so it's very interesting. And not snobby!
Questions about me:
When you are meeting a person that you will hire to work with children under your care, this is a pretty important thing, right?
Number one asks me a lot. I was at the school for almost four hours. The head teacher and I talk about our hobbies, about my work experience, about why I want to come to Gwangju, about how I have enjoyed Korea this year. We talk about my students now, what I hope for next year, what I am looking to gain from the experience. In conversation with the owner of the Hagwon, he only asked "Why would you choose to work here when other places have more vacation?" So I talked about how public school had more vacation but that there were other problems, like classes that could not be controlled, classes with too much spread in level, and studens that I could not develop relationships with because I only saw them once a week. They seemed pretty impressed with that.
Number two asked me "Can you sign for two years?"
Now, in fairness, Number two had been told that I just wanted to come and look around, so they had not prepared for an actual interview. But still, it doesn't say much about your "school" if a teacher who you have already offered a contract to is coming by to look at your school, would you not want to ask them a question before you put ink on paper? I really wasn't impressed with their lack of interest in who I am.
SO, overall, the choice is clear. I ahven't had any more offers, but that's not surprising since I really limited my search to only one city, and I am looking so far in advance. I'm not worried about limiting myself by accepting an offer from number one, since I have a good recommendation for them and a good feeling on top of that.
I'm pretty excited.Last night number one e-mailed me to start getting things arranged for my visa, and I have another meeting with them on next Saturday.
Everything's coming up Milhouse.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Homestretch
So, this is officially coming to an end.
I have a week off before I return to camp for two weeks, then Mongolia, then off to Canada!
This week I have a couple of interviews, and am planning to do some serious work on my correspondence course so that I can write my exam in the month that I am home.
I have to think about packing now, because the next few weeks will be too busy. I'm starting to think about whether or not groceries will keep. Will Tabasco last for a month? It's about $10 a jar, I don't want to start again and have to buy a new one! Is that really cheap?
It feels weird, because I look around and marvel at the stuff we have and think "How can we possibly get all of this home? But then I realize that we don't earn the furniture... Especailly with leaving stuff here, I think I will have no issues getting my stuff home.
I'm starting to get excited about seeing my family, Bridie, my first second-cousin, and about looking for a dog of my own.
I went out today to buy some chicken and baguette to make some subs for dinner tonight, and I had so many students say hello. As much as I complain about the lack of anonymity, I will really miss having everyone say hello to me all of the time. The thing that annoys me is random people saying hello not to say hi or be nice, but just for the novelty of getting the response. But I really will miss living in a town where half of the people know me because they either are my students or the parents of my students.
Seriously... about 700 students or so, plus family, plus the shopkeepers and such that I have become acquainted with? I am the biggest fish in this tiny pond, and I'm going to miss having someone to say hi to me everywhere I go.
I have a week off before I return to camp for two weeks, then Mongolia, then off to Canada!
This week I have a couple of interviews, and am planning to do some serious work on my correspondence course so that I can write my exam in the month that I am home.
I have to think about packing now, because the next few weeks will be too busy. I'm starting to think about whether or not groceries will keep. Will Tabasco last for a month? It's about $10 a jar, I don't want to start again and have to buy a new one! Is that really cheap?
It feels weird, because I look around and marvel at the stuff we have and think "How can we possibly get all of this home? But then I realize that we don't earn the furniture... Especailly with leaving stuff here, I think I will have no issues getting my stuff home.
I'm starting to get excited about seeing my family, Bridie, my first second-cousin, and about looking for a dog of my own.
I went out today to buy some chicken and baguette to make some subs for dinner tonight, and I had so many students say hello. As much as I complain about the lack of anonymity, I will really miss having everyone say hello to me all of the time. The thing that annoys me is random people saying hello not to say hi or be nice, but just for the novelty of getting the response. But I really will miss living in a town where half of the people know me because they either are my students or the parents of my students.
Seriously... about 700 students or so, plus family, plus the shopkeepers and such that I have become acquainted with? I am the biggest fish in this tiny pond, and I'm going to miss having someone to say hi to me everywhere I go.
CAMP!
The rest of my week at camp was awesome. I was worried, because I had been told that the students were very low level, but we had no problems. I couldn’t believe how good the kids were, actually. They were so well behaved, and they managed to, for the most part, keep up a pretty good level of enthusiasm.
Our team, the red mailboxes, actually swept most of the events. I actually started to feel bad towards the end, because every time there was a group event, they would win. I was worried that the other groups might just give up. Then we got to the skit competitions on the last night, and the yellow team (Golden Stars), who had been shy all weak crawled out of their shells and blew everyone else away.
The kids did a great job of our skit, but there wasn't too much to do with it, it was not funny or anything. But man, that yellow group rocked theirs. They even had the Canadians laughing right out loud. Of course, a couple of the kids blanked on their lines - maybe our time would have been better spent practicing than playing games together.
I really got lucky... I had such a good group. Another Canadian, Chris, had a problem with his guys forming a little posse, and Steve had a problem with his kids being so shy. I had a good group of outgoing kids, although I'd like to think that the old don-training had something to do with the "team unity" that he developed. Our team was always cheering and helping eachother. Even in the single-person games, they refused to go after their team members.
One of the best parts was the time hanging out with the other Canadian and Korean teachers. I really notice just how isolated I have been in Yeongam when I start talking to other people who understand me. I just giggle like crazy and blather on for hours.
I don't know if I mentioned this in my last e-mail - but the showers were cold. The whole camp had no hot water. At all. This meant that I spent a bunch of my personal time in the shower room simultaneously chasing myself around the shower room with the shower head in my hand and running around and arching my back in crazy ways to avoid the stream. It's so weird because I want to rinse myself, but my body just says "No, I'm having none of it." I also found myself strangely intrigued with the full length mirror in the shower, especially considering the temperature of the water...
On Friday we had a field trip to the Mokpo Natural History Museum. It was great! I mean, I couldn't read anything, but I had fun anwyays, I mean, I knew what most of the displays were between my obsessive reading of a book on dinosaurs as a child and my university study of various geographical phenomena, and my post-university study of all sorts of biological things. So I had fun trying to explain to the kids all the different things that they were looking at in really basic English. I had quite a group though! They didn't seem too bored either, in fact they hung on my words, which was pretty great after a year of teaching kids who couldn't follow anything that I said.
I found out after that some of the kids had abandoned their groups to join me. Chris told me that the reason he was given was "So Cuuute!". SO yeah, maybe I wasn't so interesting after all.
After we walked through the museum, the kids watched a movie in the theatre there, and the teachers went over to the art museum next door. That was really neat too. I'm falling in love with the Korean water colour on ink painting style. Actually, I guess it's Chinese.
Mrs Min, the head teacher at the camp, who was awesome and took good care of all the children (including the three Canadian teachers) said that I would really enjoy living in Gwangju next year because it is trying to become the art capital of Korea and that I would have lots of art to look at whenever I wanted to.
The kids had to ask us each 30 questions for a bonus mark, and I got sat next to a kid on the bus who was SO shy! He was really struggling to come up with my questions, and he was too shy to pick up on the hints that I was giving him.
"Who are your favourite Korean singers?" I would ask him.
"I don't know." he would say, before returning to his notebook.
Anyways, I'll write more about camp as it comes to me, but I think that pictures are the best way to do it.
So here's two shots of my team. The first is us on the first day with our team poster (which won first place) and our slogan ("English from around the world is in the mailbox"). The second picture is the team cheering after they had won the english relay race, where they all had to run, read a sentence, and then communicate it to the team secretary. The guy in the yellow shirt won the prize for the top student for the week. The girl in the middle was really smart, but always seemed to blank whenever she would have gotten points. It was funny, because she would basically dominate the team events and win them for our team almost singlehandedly, but then fall out of the individual competitions really early.
So one strange thing about this camp was that the students had to cook for themselves! The teachers ate take-out almost every meal, including breakfast. But the students had to cook, and it was part of their lessons! What a great ting for them, to get at least a little experience cooking. Now this is a picture of only girls, but the guys cooked too, just none of those pictures turned out.
Our team, the red mailboxes, actually swept most of the events. I actually started to feel bad towards the end, because every time there was a group event, they would win. I was worried that the other groups might just give up. Then we got to the skit competitions on the last night, and the yellow team (Golden Stars), who had been shy all weak crawled out of their shells and blew everyone else away.
The kids did a great job of our skit, but there wasn't too much to do with it, it was not funny or anything. But man, that yellow group rocked theirs. They even had the Canadians laughing right out loud. Of course, a couple of the kids blanked on their lines - maybe our time would have been better spent practicing than playing games together.
I really got lucky... I had such a good group. Another Canadian, Chris, had a problem with his guys forming a little posse, and Steve had a problem with his kids being so shy. I had a good group of outgoing kids, although I'd like to think that the old don-training had something to do with the "team unity" that he developed. Our team was always cheering and helping eachother. Even in the single-person games, they refused to go after their team members.
One of the best parts was the time hanging out with the other Canadian and Korean teachers. I really notice just how isolated I have been in Yeongam when I start talking to other people who understand me. I just giggle like crazy and blather on for hours.
I don't know if I mentioned this in my last e-mail - but the showers were cold. The whole camp had no hot water. At all. This meant that I spent a bunch of my personal time in the shower room simultaneously chasing myself around the shower room with the shower head in my hand and running around and arching my back in crazy ways to avoid the stream. It's so weird because I want to rinse myself, but my body just says "No, I'm having none of it." I also found myself strangely intrigued with the full length mirror in the shower, especially considering the temperature of the water...
On Friday we had a field trip to the Mokpo Natural History Museum. It was great! I mean, I couldn't read anything, but I had fun anwyays, I mean, I knew what most of the displays were between my obsessive reading of a book on dinosaurs as a child and my university study of various geographical phenomena, and my post-university study of all sorts of biological things. So I had fun trying to explain to the kids all the different things that they were looking at in really basic English. I had quite a group though! They didn't seem too bored either, in fact they hung on my words, which was pretty great after a year of teaching kids who couldn't follow anything that I said.
I found out after that some of the kids had abandoned their groups to join me. Chris told me that the reason he was given was "So Cuuute!". SO yeah, maybe I wasn't so interesting after all.
After we walked through the museum, the kids watched a movie in the theatre there, and the teachers went over to the art museum next door. That was really neat too. I'm falling in love with the Korean water colour on ink painting style. Actually, I guess it's Chinese.
Mrs Min, the head teacher at the camp, who was awesome and took good care of all the children (including the three Canadian teachers) said that I would really enjoy living in Gwangju next year because it is trying to become the art capital of Korea and that I would have lots of art to look at whenever I wanted to.
The kids had to ask us each 30 questions for a bonus mark, and I got sat next to a kid on the bus who was SO shy! He was really struggling to come up with my questions, and he was too shy to pick up on the hints that I was giving him.
"Who are your favourite Korean singers?" I would ask him.
"I don't know." he would say, before returning to his notebook.
Anyways, I'll write more about camp as it comes to me, but I think that pictures are the best way to do it.
So here's two shots of my team. The first is us on the first day with our team poster (which won first place) and our slogan ("English from around the world is in the mailbox"). The second picture is the team cheering after they had won the english relay race, where they all had to run, read a sentence, and then communicate it to the team secretary. The guy in the yellow shirt won the prize for the top student for the week. The girl in the middle was really smart, but always seemed to blank whenever she would have gotten points. It was funny, because she would basically dominate the team events and win them for our team almost singlehandedly, but then fall out of the individual competitions really early.
So one strange thing about this camp was that the students had to cook for themselves! The teachers ate take-out almost every meal, including breakfast. But the students had to cook, and it was part of their lessons! What a great ting for them, to get at least a little experience cooking. Now this is a picture of only girls, but the guys cooked too, just none of those pictures turned out.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
CAMP!
Okay, this camp is FUN!
I have a really great group. They are all pretty enthusiastic, except for one guy. Oddly enough, he's wearing a Ramones T-shirt. Of course he has no idea who or what the Ramones are, but I still asked him. Yeah, I was right.
I taught one class yesterday, and two activities. The class was on "Getting ready for English Camp" which was actually fun. It was just a dialogue, and with ten students, it is really easy to keep things moving. And then after we had done the diaolgue a few times and covered the vocab, we went into a camp game. Thank goodness Jessie and I went to the elephant sanctuary, because that's why I learnt about half of my camp games.
The first activity was ice breakers. As an ex-don of two years, I basically sleepwalked my way through it. hahaha. Way too much time spent trying to get apathetic uni kids doing crap means that I am at least a little prepared to deal with apathetic Korean kids. The only problem was that the kids were too shy to go when it was their turn... oh well, they're getting over it.
The good thing about a week long camp is that you can be over the top and strange without worrying about the kids thinking you are a weirdo and not listenign in class... you still have that "new teacher smell" that captivates them.
The second activity was designing team posters, which I was surprised I manage to get. It's a no brainer, really, you just give some ideas and some markers, paint eyes on your glasses and take a nap.
My team is red, so they came up with the idea of having their mascot being a giant anthropomorphic mailbox that joined the globe by allowing communication between English speakers the world over. Okay, I may have helped a bit, but come on, they chose "mailboxes" as their mascot. Sure, it was a step up from their original choice of "blood", but they clearly needed some help thinking. Their slogan came out as "English from all over the world is in the mailbox", which is pretty clever, but it took a lot of coaxing.
"What do mailboxes do?"
"Stand?"
"Wait?"
"What do they wait for?"
"write postcards!"
"Yeah, you can write postcards and send them to all over the world! What is that called?"
Well, I was going for communication, but of course I never got it. haha. I think that they did really well for their level though.
Today my class was on "Talking about Canada". The first class was good, but I got more and more excited and fast talking as time went on, because I had six coffees somehow. I'm not sure how it happened, they snuck up on me. Something about fifteen minute breaks between classes in a room with instant hazelnut cappucino packets... it'll get you every time.
I worked in too much stuff though, and the class was too long... no big whoop though, because it turns out that the follow-up exercise I had planned was way too difficult anyways.
The activity today was "Learn an English Song". I did "... baby, one more time". That is a catchy little tune, and the kids took to it pretty quickly. Most of them already knew it, so it was easy. Then we split into teams, and judged them on their singing (enthusiasm, mostly). My team won! I was pretty proud.
Then we did chants, and I think we did a really good job of that too. It was really simple, but everyone was really into it (I taught them a new slang - "Get pumped up!!!"). We all screamed really loudly, and I got so pumped (slash full of caffeine) that I shook afterwards.
So camp is a lot of fun. The teachers are all pretty funto hang out with, so that's a big plus too. Otherwise it would be pretty boring.
The only downside is the weather... it is raining all the time, and it is so humid that my pillow feels wet all the time. Last night I slept on the floor with just one blanket, and I kept sticking to the floor. Tonight I'll have a mattress of five camp blankets.
Well, I will update again if we ever leave the camp again to come to a PC bang.
I hope everyone is doing well, I am GREAT!
WOOHOO!
I have a really great group. They are all pretty enthusiastic, except for one guy. Oddly enough, he's wearing a Ramones T-shirt. Of course he has no idea who or what the Ramones are, but I still asked him. Yeah, I was right.
I taught one class yesterday, and two activities. The class was on "Getting ready for English Camp" which was actually fun. It was just a dialogue, and with ten students, it is really easy to keep things moving. And then after we had done the diaolgue a few times and covered the vocab, we went into a camp game. Thank goodness Jessie and I went to the elephant sanctuary, because that's why I learnt about half of my camp games.
The first activity was ice breakers. As an ex-don of two years, I basically sleepwalked my way through it. hahaha. Way too much time spent trying to get apathetic uni kids doing crap means that I am at least a little prepared to deal with apathetic Korean kids. The only problem was that the kids were too shy to go when it was their turn... oh well, they're getting over it.
The good thing about a week long camp is that you can be over the top and strange without worrying about the kids thinking you are a weirdo and not listenign in class... you still have that "new teacher smell" that captivates them.
The second activity was designing team posters, which I was surprised I manage to get. It's a no brainer, really, you just give some ideas and some markers, paint eyes on your glasses and take a nap.
My team is red, so they came up with the idea of having their mascot being a giant anthropomorphic mailbox that joined the globe by allowing communication between English speakers the world over. Okay, I may have helped a bit, but come on, they chose "mailboxes" as their mascot. Sure, it was a step up from their original choice of "blood", but they clearly needed some help thinking. Their slogan came out as "English from all over the world is in the mailbox", which is pretty clever, but it took a lot of coaxing.
"What do mailboxes do?"
"Stand?"
"Wait?"
"What do they wait for?"
"write postcards!"
"Yeah, you can write postcards and send them to all over the world! What is that called?"
Well, I was going for communication, but of course I never got it. haha. I think that they did really well for their level though.
Today my class was on "Talking about Canada". The first class was good, but I got more and more excited and fast talking as time went on, because I had six coffees somehow. I'm not sure how it happened, they snuck up on me. Something about fifteen minute breaks between classes in a room with instant hazelnut cappucino packets... it'll get you every time.
I worked in too much stuff though, and the class was too long... no big whoop though, because it turns out that the follow-up exercise I had planned was way too difficult anyways.
The activity today was "Learn an English Song". I did "... baby, one more time". That is a catchy little tune, and the kids took to it pretty quickly. Most of them already knew it, so it was easy. Then we split into teams, and judged them on their singing (enthusiasm, mostly). My team won! I was pretty proud.
Then we did chants, and I think we did a really good job of that too. It was really simple, but everyone was really into it (I taught them a new slang - "Get pumped up!!!"). We all screamed really loudly, and I got so pumped (slash full of caffeine) that I shook afterwards.
So camp is a lot of fun. The teachers are all pretty funto hang out with, so that's a big plus too. Otherwise it would be pretty boring.
The only downside is the weather... it is raining all the time, and it is so humid that my pillow feels wet all the time. Last night I slept on the floor with just one blanket, and I kept sticking to the floor. Tonight I'll have a mattress of five camp blankets.
Well, I will update again if we ever leave the camp again to come to a PC bang.
I hope everyone is doing well, I am GREAT!
WOOHOO!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Middle school photos
Grade three girls.
More grade three girls
The staff at the boys' school. I never got a picture of the staff at the girls' school, I guess because I spent more time with this school, they always invited me to events and stuff. I only was invited to one event at the girls' school, but it was on an off-day (when I was at another school) and I forgot. I guess I was a bit of a jerk.
Class 3-1 at the boys' school. 
Class 2-1, I think... I can't remember if it's 1 or 3. Anyways, these guys were the fun grade two class. 
This was the grade 2-2 class. Man, these guys were so frustrating. There were a lot of hagwon kids, and kids who were smart but just would not say anything!
This is class 1-2. They were the ones who threw me the little party. They were so good, always. And they were so wound up that day, because they were full of candy and chips. Elementary Class Photos
This is 6-6, the horror class. Well, except for the last day, when they were wonderful.
This is 6-5, the great great class. 
Farewell Address
So, I was asked to do a farewell address at the girls’ school. I agreed to do it if, and only if, Mr Lee would translate it live for me. He said yes, so I said yes.
I went to find him a few minutes before the assembly, to see if he wanted to run through it with me so that he could look up or ask about anything he didn’t understand right away.
Guess what! He said he wouldn’t translate it for me. He said that if I spoke slowly and used easy English that they would have no problems.
You know what? That’s bullshit. They understand about 12% of what I say in class, and that is a generous estimate. I was a little angry, but not nearly as angry as Jessie was when I told her about it later. So I would be giving an address to an auditorium who had little or no idea what I was saying.
Since there’s only so many ways to say things, and I had already chosen pretty simple things to say, I just stuck with what I had prepared (earlier this morning).
I was first.
I got introduced, and then passed along an assembly line of teachers who each took me by the hand and guided me to the next teacher, who would take my other hand and then pass me on.
As soon as the girls heard “Matthew-sonsangnim” they erupted. I am not exaggerating, and there is no way that anyone who has not been here could ever understand just how little it takes to whip Korean girls into a cheering frenzy. But they were going nuts!
They finally settled down, and I started in on my address. Note the high amounts of repetition and almost Koreanized English:
“I can’t believe how quickly my year*has gone by! This year has been so fast! I feel like my first class here* was yesterday! Yesterday I said hello, I think, and today I am saying goodbye. That’s why in English* we say ‘Time flies when you are having fun’.And it has been fun*! So many of my best memories have been here with the students* of Yeongam Girls’ Middle School. I have enjoyed my time with all of you and I really appreciated, I am really thankful*, and I thank you* for trying to speak to me – in English!In the future, when you are ‘English Experts’ I hope that you will visit me. I will show you around my part of Canada [I gesture a small area]. You have my e-mail, just ‘drop me a line’. God luck to all of you in four futures. Thank you* so much, thanks* for the memories.”
The stars (*) indicate where I had to pause to wait for the re-erupting applause to die down. The single quotes show where I had to make quote-y fingers to let the girls know that I was using an idiom. Haha.
Then, I left the stage. I was nervous, so I forgot to bow. And since no-one really understood what was happening, I have a feeling that I was not given an exit cue, because when I just left the stage, everyone started laughing. Well, great.
Afterwards, Mr Lee informed me that Sukkyeong had called and said that she wanted to bring me to the boys’ school so that the other teachers could say goodbye. Apparently they had not known that Thursday was my last day. It was really nice that they wanted to say goodbye, but it was honestly a little insulting that I apparently register so little that no-one thought it was strange that the students had thrown me a farewell party when apparently no-one knew that I was leaving.
Anyways, let’s focus on the good.
She came to the girls’ school at eleven to pick me up, which was a long time considering that I had nothing to do there, and I was finished my speech at 10:10. Even the internet was down, so there was literally nothing.
She finally came, and we headed out to the boys’ school.
I was ushered into the office and told to sit down on the chair next to the VP’s desk. I sat there, awkwardly, for about five minutes as the other teachers filed in. Finally, they did, and the VP stood up, and said something. They all stood up, so I did too. I was just standing up, when I saw Sukkyeong running over gesturing madly that I should stand up, as if I would miss the “subtle” cue of EVERYONE ELSE standing up, remain seated and offend everyone.
The VP spoke for a while, and I heard a few words that I recognized. I’ll give you the run down, with the Korean represented by “k”:
“KKKKKKkkkKKkkkKkKkkkkKKKKKKkKKKKKkkkkkKK Matthew KKkkkKkKkKKKkkk Canada KKK Good KKKKkkkKK Students KkKkkkKkk school KKkKkKkkkkKkk teacher KKkkkKkKKkkkKKKKKkkKkKKKKk goodbye kKKkKkkKk Canada KKkKkKKKKkKkKk Matthew KkkK teacher!”
Then everyone clapped, so I joined in too, and I smiled.
Then everyone just stared at me.
Then it got awkward.
Then Sukkyeong leaned forward.
“He wants you to give a short address to the teachers…”
Well great.
I don’t know if addresses are randomly sprung on Koreans all the time, or if they are in Canada too, and I have just never been in the position of someone who is expected to give them so often.
I dove in:
“Well… Thank you very much for being so kind to me. You have always made me feel very welcome here at Yeongam Chung Hakkyo.”
…
“That’s all, thank you!”
Then they laughed.
Then they gave me a gift. I delicately tore off the wrapping, because I was unsure of the decoration protocol here. I was apparently being too careful, because they joined in to help. I reached in the box, and saw this beautiful wooden bow, and I was touched that they would get me such a nice thing to keep all of my Korean souvenirs in. What a thoughtful gift!
And then I turned it over and saw the hole that you pull the Kleenex out of.
Yep, it was a Kleenex box cover.
I don’t care though, it will be used to store all of my Korean souvenirs, and the ones in the middle will just get a little dusty, I guess.
There was also a nice framed set of Korean masks, which was awesome. I wanted to get one before I left, so it was pretty great that they bought me one.
Then I said some more awkward goodbyes, which were even more awkward, because I had said what I had thought were my last goodbyes two days ago.
And then I walked home.
Man, is it hot.
I went to find him a few minutes before the assembly, to see if he wanted to run through it with me so that he could look up or ask about anything he didn’t understand right away.
Guess what! He said he wouldn’t translate it for me. He said that if I spoke slowly and used easy English that they would have no problems.
You know what? That’s bullshit. They understand about 12% of what I say in class, and that is a generous estimate. I was a little angry, but not nearly as angry as Jessie was when I told her about it later. So I would be giving an address to an auditorium who had little or no idea what I was saying.
Since there’s only so many ways to say things, and I had already chosen pretty simple things to say, I just stuck with what I had prepared (earlier this morning).
I was first.
I got introduced, and then passed along an assembly line of teachers who each took me by the hand and guided me to the next teacher, who would take my other hand and then pass me on.
As soon as the girls heard “Matthew-sonsangnim” they erupted. I am not exaggerating, and there is no way that anyone who has not been here could ever understand just how little it takes to whip Korean girls into a cheering frenzy. But they were going nuts!
They finally settled down, and I started in on my address. Note the high amounts of repetition and almost Koreanized English:
“I can’t believe how quickly my year*has gone by! This year has been so fast! I feel like my first class here* was yesterday! Yesterday I said hello, I think, and today I am saying goodbye. That’s why in English* we say ‘Time flies when you are having fun’.And it has been fun*! So many of my best memories have been here with the students* of Yeongam Girls’ Middle School. I have enjoyed my time with all of you and I really appreciated, I am really thankful*, and I thank you* for trying to speak to me – in English!In the future, when you are ‘English Experts’ I hope that you will visit me. I will show you around my part of Canada [I gesture a small area]. You have my e-mail, just ‘drop me a line’. God luck to all of you in four futures. Thank you* so much, thanks* for the memories.”
The stars (*) indicate where I had to pause to wait for the re-erupting applause to die down. The single quotes show where I had to make quote-y fingers to let the girls know that I was using an idiom. Haha.
Then, I left the stage. I was nervous, so I forgot to bow. And since no-one really understood what was happening, I have a feeling that I was not given an exit cue, because when I just left the stage, everyone started laughing. Well, great.
Afterwards, Mr Lee informed me that Sukkyeong had called and said that she wanted to bring me to the boys’ school so that the other teachers could say goodbye. Apparently they had not known that Thursday was my last day. It was really nice that they wanted to say goodbye, but it was honestly a little insulting that I apparently register so little that no-one thought it was strange that the students had thrown me a farewell party when apparently no-one knew that I was leaving.
Anyways, let’s focus on the good.
She came to the girls’ school at eleven to pick me up, which was a long time considering that I had nothing to do there, and I was finished my speech at 10:10. Even the internet was down, so there was literally nothing.
She finally came, and we headed out to the boys’ school.
I was ushered into the office and told to sit down on the chair next to the VP’s desk. I sat there, awkwardly, for about five minutes as the other teachers filed in. Finally, they did, and the VP stood up, and said something. They all stood up, so I did too. I was just standing up, when I saw Sukkyeong running over gesturing madly that I should stand up, as if I would miss the “subtle” cue of EVERYONE ELSE standing up, remain seated and offend everyone.
The VP spoke for a while, and I heard a few words that I recognized. I’ll give you the run down, with the Korean represented by “k”:
“KKKKKKkkkKKkkkKkKkkkkKKKKKKkKKKKKkkkkkKK Matthew KKkkkKkKkKKKkkk Canada KKK Good KKKKkkkKK Students KkKkkkKkk school KKkKkKkkkkKkk teacher KKkkkKkKKkkkKKKKKkkKkKKKKk goodbye kKKkKkkKk Canada KKkKkKKKKkKkKk Matthew KkkK teacher!”
Then everyone clapped, so I joined in too, and I smiled.
Then everyone just stared at me.
Then it got awkward.
Then Sukkyeong leaned forward.
“He wants you to give a short address to the teachers…”
Well great.
I don’t know if addresses are randomly sprung on Koreans all the time, or if they are in Canada too, and I have just never been in the position of someone who is expected to give them so often.
I dove in:
“Well… Thank you very much for being so kind to me. You have always made me feel very welcome here at Yeongam Chung Hakkyo.”
…
“That’s all, thank you!”
Then they laughed.
Then they gave me a gift. I delicately tore off the wrapping, because I was unsure of the decoration protocol here. I was apparently being too careful, because they joined in to help. I reached in the box, and saw this beautiful wooden bow, and I was touched that they would get me such a nice thing to keep all of my Korean souvenirs in. What a thoughtful gift!
And then I turned it over and saw the hole that you pull the Kleenex out of.
Yep, it was a Kleenex box cover.
I don’t care though, it will be used to store all of my Korean souvenirs, and the ones in the middle will just get a little dusty, I guess.
There was also a nice framed set of Korean masks, which was awesome. I wanted to get one before I left, so it was pretty great that they bought me one.
Then I said some more awkward goodbyes, which were even more awkward, because I had said what I had thought were my last goodbyes two days ago.
And then I walked home.
Man, is it hot.
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