So as you may remember, this month Jessie and I have almost no bills.
But we did receive a building utilities bill, so I went to the banks where I usually go to pay it.
They wouldn't let me! I have no idea why (I don't speak Korean), but they kept pointing out the door, so I assumed they meant the other bank where I sometimes pay bills.
So I went there, and they wouldn't let me pay it either. They circled something, so I'm going to show my coteacher. I don't know what the words she circled mean (it doesn't mean room, bread, or beautiful, so I'm lost).
Anyways, it was embarassing, because I could tell that the teller was trying to enlist help in talking to me, and that meant that everyone aroud was hearing about how I didn't understand something that to them, was probably very simple.
Looking at the bill later, I noticed that it was for the period March 30 to April 30, which hasn't happened yet. So now I am really confused.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Questions
Almost every day in the caf, I am asked two questions.
Questions number one:
"Don't you like delicious Korean Kimchi?"
I seriously think that these words are taught together. As in, they learn the question form "Don't you like..." (always in the negative) and then they translate the hangul "kimchi" into "delicious Korean kimchi". Because I rarely just hear kimchi. It's always "delicious Korean kimchi".
The reason that I am asked so often now is that I have passed the point where I see the polite consumption of kimchi as being necessary. I have "earned my stripes" as I see it, so I don't need to endear myself to everyone by pretending that kimchi is my favourite thing about Korea. So I often pass by the kimchi in the cafeteria line without a second glance, and that is apparently scandalous.
The other day after lunch Mr Hyun was acting surprised as usual that I hadn't joined him in wolfing down four pounds of kimchi at lunch. He was singing it's praises in his "cute" broken English and finished on "Many people think that delicious Korean kimchi is the greatest food in the world." I felt like saying "I think you mean 'many Koreans' think that delicious Korean kimchi is the most delicious food in the world.", but instead I went with "Everyone is entitiled to an opinion." Since he couldn't argue that (for two reasons) that was the end of our conversation about why I didn't eat kimchi.
Some of it is good, I will admit. But it is not the most delicious food in the world. By far. It apparently has health benefits, but if a lifetime of eating kimchi will only gain me a few more years of eating kimchi, I'll pass.
Question number two:
"Don't you like vegetables?"
Yes, I like vegetables. I like them a lot. In fact, I have had days where I have been unable to eat dinner because I spent all afternoon eating carrots. I have had purple pee from cabbage. I like spinach, and for a stretch of about three weeks, my broccoli intake was at one head per day.
So yeah, I like vegetables.
However, I do not like vegetables drowned in caustic red pepper sauce. The fact that it has sit so long that the vegetables are now soft from soaking it in is also far from reassuring. Not liking pickled radishes does not mean that I do not like vegetables.
Listen, I know you are the school nurse and you think that I just eat meat and bread all the time, because I'm from the West. But I do eat vegetables, I just prefer them fresh and/or cooked without pepper sauce.
WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!?!
Questions number one:
"Don't you like delicious Korean Kimchi?"
I seriously think that these words are taught together. As in, they learn the question form "Don't you like..." (always in the negative) and then they translate the hangul "kimchi" into "delicious Korean kimchi". Because I rarely just hear kimchi. It's always "delicious Korean kimchi".
The reason that I am asked so often now is that I have passed the point where I see the polite consumption of kimchi as being necessary. I have "earned my stripes" as I see it, so I don't need to endear myself to everyone by pretending that kimchi is my favourite thing about Korea. So I often pass by the kimchi in the cafeteria line without a second glance, and that is apparently scandalous.
The other day after lunch Mr Hyun was acting surprised as usual that I hadn't joined him in wolfing down four pounds of kimchi at lunch. He was singing it's praises in his "cute" broken English and finished on "Many people think that delicious Korean kimchi is the greatest food in the world." I felt like saying "I think you mean 'many Koreans' think that delicious Korean kimchi is the most delicious food in the world.", but instead I went with "Everyone is entitiled to an opinion." Since he couldn't argue that (for two reasons) that was the end of our conversation about why I didn't eat kimchi.
Some of it is good, I will admit. But it is not the most delicious food in the world. By far. It apparently has health benefits, but if a lifetime of eating kimchi will only gain me a few more years of eating kimchi, I'll pass.
Question number two:
"Don't you like vegetables?"
Yes, I like vegetables. I like them a lot. In fact, I have had days where I have been unable to eat dinner because I spent all afternoon eating carrots. I have had purple pee from cabbage. I like spinach, and for a stretch of about three weeks, my broccoli intake was at one head per day.
So yeah, I like vegetables.
However, I do not like vegetables drowned in caustic red pepper sauce. The fact that it has sit so long that the vegetables are now soft from soaking it in is also far from reassuring. Not liking pickled radishes does not mean that I do not like vegetables.
Listen, I know you are the school nurse and you think that I just eat meat and bread all the time, because I'm from the West. But I do eat vegetables, I just prefer them fresh and/or cooked without pepper sauce.
WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!?!
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
From the e-mail files: my exciting life.
Here's an e-mail that I recently sent to my mom:
I'm sitting in the staff room using Mr Lee's computer because I am bored out of my damned head.
Anyways... the vice principal is standing about thrity feet and I can hear him smacking that disgusting red bean paste filled bun that they tried to make me eat, but that I just hid under a couch cushion when they weren't looking.
Oh, now he's closer, but still smacking right out loud. He just swallowed... but he's still smacking!
Oh well... he's better than the old VP, he lets me go home when my classes are over rather than making me stay until five.
No wait, I take it back. STOP SMACKING!
Wish you were here... haha.
To understand the humour, you maybe have to know that the sound of smacking will actually drive my mom to do things like jump off a cliff or touch your hand with a hot spoon.
Here's an update sent only minutes later.
The guy the vice-principal was talking to while smacking just came over, tried to read what I was writing/reading on a website, then read "Englishee" off a text book spine, and said "You english teacher? English conversation teacher." Luckily, he answered his own question.
Then he said "Beautiful conversation teacher", and pointed to his nose.
Okay!
Man, I have an exciting life.
Yeah, the fun never stops.
I'm sitting in the staff room using Mr Lee's computer because I am bored out of my damned head.
Anyways... the vice principal is standing about thrity feet and I can hear him smacking that disgusting red bean paste filled bun that they tried to make me eat, but that I just hid under a couch cushion when they weren't looking.
Oh, now he's closer, but still smacking right out loud. He just swallowed... but he's still smacking!
Oh well... he's better than the old VP, he lets me go home when my classes are over rather than making me stay until five.
No wait, I take it back. STOP SMACKING!
Wish you were here... haha.
To understand the humour, you maybe have to know that the sound of smacking will actually drive my mom to do things like jump off a cliff or touch your hand with a hot spoon.
Here's an update sent only minutes later.
The guy the vice-principal was talking to while smacking just came over, tried to read what I was writing/reading on a website, then read "Englishee" off a text book spine, and said "You english teacher? English conversation teacher." Luckily, he answered his own question.
Then he said "Beautiful conversation teacher", and pointed to his nose.
Okay!
Man, I have an exciting life.
Yeah, the fun never stops.
In the green
On Monday I got a phone call at the girl's school.
It was Mrs Lee, at the county office, offering me a job in the next county. It is a one week camp during the six week summer holiday. Now, even though I am on holidays, I am getting payed as though I am working. On top of that, I will be payed 5-600000 won for the week.
That's pretty sweet.
Apparently they planned this camp and then wound up one foreigner short. Maybe Mrs Lee forgot that my last camp ended with four students actually dying from a combination of boredom and slaps upside the head.
At any rate, they asked me to be lucky foreigner number three.
She called again to ask for my passport number. Maybe I should know that by heart, but I sure don't. After a few minutes struggling to explain this to her, it turned out that she needed my alien residence number. I had that.
It was Mrs Lee, at the county office, offering me a job in the next county. It is a one week camp during the six week summer holiday. Now, even though I am on holidays, I am getting payed as though I am working. On top of that, I will be payed 5-600000 won for the week.
That's pretty sweet.
Apparently they planned this camp and then wound up one foreigner short. Maybe Mrs Lee forgot that my last camp ended with four students actually dying from a combination of boredom and slaps upside the head.
At any rate, they asked me to be lucky foreigner number three.
She called again to ask for my passport number. Maybe I should know that by heart, but I sure don't. After a few minutes struggling to explain this to her, it turned out that she needed my alien residence number. I had that.
The English McGyver (almost)
Now, I know what you are thinking.
"Don't you mean James Bond?"
No, I don't, you idiot.
Allow me to tell you a story about teaching English in Korea.
Yesterday I had a class. It was a good class, but what made it really great was that when it was over, it was lunch time.
Class ended. I had left MSN messenger on during class by accident, so I noticed a little flashing message at the bottom of the screen when I looked down. I wanted to respond to the message before I went to lunch, but my other coteacher (see "The Other Coteacher" post [scroll near the bottom]) was waiting, because on Tuesdays I eat with him.
I said "I'm going to write a message, can I meet you in one minute?"
He said "Yes." But he just stood there.
I said "I will meet you in the cafeteria."
He said "Yes, lunchee." But he just stood there.
I said "I have to write an e-mail, you should go ahead."
"Okay." He turned and left.
Two seconds later, he reappeared.
"Lunch time?" he asked.
"Yes, but I still have to write the message!"
"Oh. I will cafeteria meet you."
"Oh, thanks. Good idea!"
Then he left.
Lunch was also a giant ball of fun. This is a man who, after seven months of working together, still inquires at lunch "You don't like Korean kimchi?"
Actually, I don't like any kimchi.
The gem of the meal was "Korean's food different your country's food, I think." Other than that, conversation was non-existent.
You know how on McGyver, there's always a desperate and nearly hopeless situation, and it seems like nothing could possibly get McGyver off that prop altar with the giant medieval torture axe slowly descending as it swings over his head? Yeah, of course you do.
Now, also on the scene are these random, seemingly useless pieces of crap scattered about. But after tying his shoelaces together with his feet and lobbing them through the air, he knocks over a mop, which hits the on button on a giant industrial fan that rolls over and cuts the ropes that bind him just as the axe reaches a lethal height, and he escapes.
Wow, what a resourceful guy!
Now, my other coteacher is a lot like McGyver. The axe hanging over his head is conversation with me. The random, seemingly useless pieces of crap scattered around the room are the vocabulary words that he hasn't even looked at outside the classroom since he got his ENGLISH DEGREE at unversity.
The difference though, is that McGyver got the job done, and the other coteacher is still waiting at the door. Also, McGyver got a lot of smoking hot eighties chicks.
"Don't you mean James Bond?"
No, I don't, you idiot.
Allow me to tell you a story about teaching English in Korea.
Yesterday I had a class. It was a good class, but what made it really great was that when it was over, it was lunch time.
Class ended. I had left MSN messenger on during class by accident, so I noticed a little flashing message at the bottom of the screen when I looked down. I wanted to respond to the message before I went to lunch, but my other coteacher (see "The Other Coteacher" post [scroll near the bottom]) was waiting, because on Tuesdays I eat with him.
I said "I'm going to write a message, can I meet you in one minute?"
He said "Yes." But he just stood there.
I said "I will meet you in the cafeteria."
He said "Yes, lunchee." But he just stood there.
I said "I have to write an e-mail, you should go ahead."
"Okay." He turned and left.
Two seconds later, he reappeared.
"Lunch time?" he asked.
"Yes, but I still have to write the message!"
"Oh. I will cafeteria meet you."
"Oh, thanks. Good idea!"
Then he left.
So Korea, listen. I may have found the weakness in your english education formula. It seems that your English teachers don't speak English. I know it is hard, but it explains a lot of the problems that I have been having with teaching conversation. It also explains why it seems that the students don't recognize simple english commands that I use in the classroom. It's because their teachers do not understand either.
Now, I know. I am teaching in Korea, so I should know how to speak Korean. It would make thigns a lot easier, and would probably make me a much more effective teacher. But let me inform you of one very important fact.
I would not dream of teaching Korean if I could not speak Korean.
Lunch was also a giant ball of fun. This is a man who, after seven months of working together, still inquires at lunch "You don't like Korean kimchi?"
Actually, I don't like any kimchi.
The gem of the meal was "Korean's food different your country's food, I think." Other than that, conversation was non-existent.
You know how on McGyver, there's always a desperate and nearly hopeless situation, and it seems like nothing could possibly get McGyver off that prop altar with the giant medieval torture axe slowly descending as it swings over his head? Yeah, of course you do.
Now, also on the scene are these random, seemingly useless pieces of crap scattered about. But after tying his shoelaces together with his feet and lobbing them through the air, he knocks over a mop, which hits the on button on a giant industrial fan that rolls over and cuts the ropes that bind him just as the axe reaches a lethal height, and he escapes.
Wow, what a resourceful guy!
Now, my other coteacher is a lot like McGyver. The axe hanging over his head is conversation with me. The random, seemingly useless pieces of crap scattered around the room are the vocabulary words that he hasn't even looked at outside the classroom since he got his ENGLISH DEGREE at unversity.
The difference though, is that McGyver got the job done, and the other coteacher is still waiting at the door. Also, McGyver got a lot of smoking hot eighties chicks.
Embarassment
So the bell just rang to indicate the end of lunch.
I got my stuff together, got all organized, and made ready to go to class.
Then, I (practically) yelled "Oh, wait!" and started laughing.
Then I realized how loud I was being.
Then my coteacher started to laugh, because we had no class.
Now I am writing about my embarassment.
I got my stuff together, got all organized, and made ready to go to class.
Then, I (practically) yelled "Oh, wait!" and started laughing.
Then I realized how loud I was being.
Then my coteacher started to laugh, because we had no class.
Now I am writing about my embarassment.
Only a Korean would hit himself with a stick and call it a massage
On Saturday Jessie and I went on another GIC tour.
The morning started very early, because we had to catch the bus at 7:00 to make sure that we were there on time. Surprisingly, the bus left when the schedule said that it should have.
I feel asleep almost as fast as Jessie did, which was really something. After two hours on the bus, we finally arrived at our destination, Mai-san (Horse-ears mountain).
It's pretty neat, it actually looks like Horse-ears (pictures to be posted shortly). But the most amazing part of this place was a temple where a lay Buddhist built over 100 pagodas, many of which are still standing after 100 years. Some of them are huge, too. The larger ones would have been prayed over for 100 days before the final stone was placed, and the prayer that was placed on the pagoda will stand or come true as long as the pagoda does.
We were invited to try to build our own for our prayers and wishes, but I'd rather not tie the fate of my hopes and dreams to whether or not some rocks will fall over. I mean, there's no escaping genetics, and that means I will never be able to build anything. I mean, my dad spent something like $6000 once trying to frame a window.
Anyways, it was a beautiful place. I got to hit the biggest drum in Korea (which was probably world famous). I noticed everyone was waling around with newly purchased bamboo sitcks, about 2 inches in diameter. It was split up one side, so that when struck against something, it made a cracking sound. I thought it must have been a prayer device or something, but it turns out that it was actually for massage.
As Jessie so eloquently put it "Only a Korean could hit himself with a stick and call it a massage."
So after we had gone up and down the side of the mountain to see the temple, we were directed up another path. It just went up and up. Then, there was a rest area. Then, more stairs up to a cave.
Let me tell you, if you're going to climb up a mountain to see a cave, as around to make sure that it's a good cave. I'm a geography major, and even I found this cave boring.
Then, we walked back down.
After the thrilling cave adventure, it was time for lunch. We all walked down the other side of the mountain. Waling down is the hardest part. Walking up is tiring, and you feel really worn out abouthalf way, and you wonder "Will I ever make it?", or "Can Jessie carry me?". But walking down is way harder. First of all, you are tired from the walk up. Unless you're a regular climber, you probably have jiggly knees.
JIGGLY KNEES + WALKING DOWNSTAIRS = BAD IDEA (JEANS)
So now you're wondering "Will my knees give out on this stair?" Which is a great feeling. I walk a fair bit, but walking up and down stairs for a couple of hours is a whole other thing.
Lunch was just fine, but not worth writing about. One interesting thing is that I managed to pick out most Canadians versus Americans with no mistakes.
Then we went to make dokk. For those of you who aren't hip to the rice beat, that's rice cake. First off, let me just say that this is a misnomer. Dokk is no more rice "cake" than spaghetti is flour "cake". Just because it is cut into squares does not mean that it is cake.
First, you take delicious glutinous organic(ous) rice. Then you steam it, so that the delicious flavour of water is locked inside. Then, you take it outside to a stone basin and beat it with a hammer. Oh, and don't forget to add the mugwart (Hogwart's)! Douse the rice with more flavourful water while smashing it into a submissive ball of goop.
Voila! Delicious rice cake! mmm! No wonder they dislike Western food!
Then we got back on the bus, and went back to Gwangju.
We got some chicken ham and coup, and nacho cheese.
All in all, a pretty good day.
Oh wait! I forgot to mention that on the bus they kept trying to do trivia even though 60% of the bus was trying to sleep! AND the woman sitting accross from me kept "massaging" herself (producing loud cracking) in spite of many glares that would have killed most people. She finally got the hint, but every five or ten minutes the pain of holding this wicked toy and not making noise with it would get to be too much and she would crack herself over the leg. GOD! It's called rubbing, and it's silent. Now put it away before I start massaging you! Over the head!
The morning started very early, because we had to catch the bus at 7:00 to make sure that we were there on time. Surprisingly, the bus left when the schedule said that it should have.
I feel asleep almost as fast as Jessie did, which was really something. After two hours on the bus, we finally arrived at our destination, Mai-san (Horse-ears mountain).
It's pretty neat, it actually looks like Horse-ears (pictures to be posted shortly). But the most amazing part of this place was a temple where a lay Buddhist built over 100 pagodas, many of which are still standing after 100 years. Some of them are huge, too. The larger ones would have been prayed over for 100 days before the final stone was placed, and the prayer that was placed on the pagoda will stand or come true as long as the pagoda does.
We were invited to try to build our own for our prayers and wishes, but I'd rather not tie the fate of my hopes and dreams to whether or not some rocks will fall over. I mean, there's no escaping genetics, and that means I will never be able to build anything. I mean, my dad spent something like $6000 once trying to frame a window.
Anyways, it was a beautiful place. I got to hit the biggest drum in Korea (which was probably world famous). I noticed everyone was waling around with newly purchased bamboo sitcks, about 2 inches in diameter. It was split up one side, so that when struck against something, it made a cracking sound. I thought it must have been a prayer device or something, but it turns out that it was actually for massage.
As Jessie so eloquently put it "Only a Korean could hit himself with a stick and call it a massage."
So after we had gone up and down the side of the mountain to see the temple, we were directed up another path. It just went up and up. Then, there was a rest area. Then, more stairs up to a cave.
Let me tell you, if you're going to climb up a mountain to see a cave, as around to make sure that it's a good cave. I'm a geography major, and even I found this cave boring.
Then, we walked back down.
After the thrilling cave adventure, it was time for lunch. We all walked down the other side of the mountain. Waling down is the hardest part. Walking up is tiring, and you feel really worn out abouthalf way, and you wonder "Will I ever make it?", or "Can Jessie carry me?". But walking down is way harder. First of all, you are tired from the walk up. Unless you're a regular climber, you probably have jiggly knees.
JIGGLY KNEES + WALKING DOWNSTAIRS = BAD IDEA (JEANS)
So now you're wondering "Will my knees give out on this stair?" Which is a great feeling. I walk a fair bit, but walking up and down stairs for a couple of hours is a whole other thing.
Lunch was just fine, but not worth writing about. One interesting thing is that I managed to pick out most Canadians versus Americans with no mistakes.
Then we went to make dokk. For those of you who aren't hip to the rice beat, that's rice cake. First off, let me just say that this is a misnomer. Dokk is no more rice "cake" than spaghetti is flour "cake". Just because it is cut into squares does not mean that it is cake.
First, you take delicious glutinous organic(ous) rice. Then you steam it, so that the delicious flavour of water is locked inside. Then, you take it outside to a stone basin and beat it with a hammer. Oh, and don't forget to add the mugwart (Hogwart's)! Douse the rice with more flavourful water while smashing it into a submissive ball of goop.
Voila! Delicious rice cake! mmm! No wonder they dislike Western food!
Then we got back on the bus, and went back to Gwangju.
We got some chicken ham and coup, and nacho cheese.
All in all, a pretty good day.
Oh wait! I forgot to mention that on the bus they kept trying to do trivia even though 60% of the bus was trying to sleep! AND the woman sitting accross from me kept "massaging" herself (producing loud cracking) in spite of many glares that would have killed most people. She finally got the hint, but every five or ten minutes the pain of holding this wicked toy and not making noise with it would get to be too much and she would crack herself over the leg. GOD! It's called rubbing, and it's silent. Now put it away before I start massaging you! Over the head!
Friday, March 24, 2006
The ajoshi is me
Today has been pretty good. Aside from some stress related to the fact that my money has yet to be transferred from my bank account to my credit card, everything is great. I'm not worried, it's from TD to TD, but I want it to happen so that I can sign up for my Athabasca University course.
The chapter we are working on this week is called "Is this York Street?". It has a dialogue that is way over their heads about some people looking for a Korean restaurant in New York, apparently the only people in the world outside Korea who would do so. Sorry... lunch was especially bad today. The soup actually made me break my usual fake face of "mmm" in favour of my "WTF?!?!" face.
Anyways, it is really fun. It's tough, because there is a much larger language barrier here with new kids, before they learn to recognize the same questions that I ask every week. I'll give it two more weeks...
Jessie had a really good idea for a game, and it worked out really really well. One student leaves the class, and then you hand out cards with the place names on them. Then, the student comes back in and says, for example "Where is the bank?". Then the class directs them to the student with the bank card. "Is this the bank?!", and all the kids scream "YES! BANK!!!!"
So it's a lot fo fun. The last class caught on to the fact that they could lie, so it was really really funny.
I caught a kid calling me "ajoshi" today, which is the first time that I have caught it, but definitely not the first time it has happened. "Ajoshi" is kind of a blanket term you can use to call men older than yourself. It literally means uncle. I'm pretty happy that I caught it.
Anyways... I have had a pounding headache, which has made the yelling a little harder to deal with, but it's okay. I'm happy anyways. The only bad thing is that the weather is beautiful, I am being let out of school early for all Fridays now, but I have this damned headache, when all I want to do is walk around and experience the sights, sounds and aromas of a Southeast Asian spring.
The chapter we are working on this week is called "Is this York Street?". It has a dialogue that is way over their heads about some people looking for a Korean restaurant in New York, apparently the only people in the world outside Korea who would do so. Sorry... lunch was especially bad today. The soup actually made me break my usual fake face of "mmm" in favour of my "WTF?!?!" face.
Anyways, it is really fun. It's tough, because there is a much larger language barrier here with new kids, before they learn to recognize the same questions that I ask every week. I'll give it two more weeks...
Jessie had a really good idea for a game, and it worked out really really well. One student leaves the class, and then you hand out cards with the place names on them. Then, the student comes back in and says, for example "Where is the bank?". Then the class directs them to the student with the bank card. "Is this the bank?!", and all the kids scream "YES! BANK!!!!"
So it's a lot fo fun. The last class caught on to the fact that they could lie, so it was really really funny.
I caught a kid calling me "ajoshi" today, which is the first time that I have caught it, but definitely not the first time it has happened. "Ajoshi" is kind of a blanket term you can use to call men older than yourself. It literally means uncle. I'm pretty happy that I caught it.
Anyways... I have had a pounding headache, which has made the yelling a little harder to deal with, but it's okay. I'm happy anyways. The only bad thing is that the weather is beautiful, I am being let out of school early for all Fridays now, but I have this damned headache, when all I want to do is walk around and experience the sights, sounds and aromas of a Southeast Asian spring.
Updates
So, I have now had my first response to the teacher's workshop survey, and I am happy, because it was really positive. The answers were far from specific, but I guess I can deal with that at the actual workshop. Apparently I scared a few of the teachers with the amount of work it seemed that I wanted fromthem, which is good, because I think that that may have been my goal in the first place. So I wrote back (the first response came from the best speaker) and explained front-end loading (work hard at the beginning so that there is less work later) and that the survey was their big work for the semester. Hopefully that does the trick, and makes them less scared.
The dinner/ping-pong party at my school was actually awesome. There was a lotof ping pong, and some delicious food. And when I turned down soju, no-one got offended (asopposed to usual) because instead of just saying no, I said "Aniyo, nokcha juseyo" or "No, green tea please" so at least they got to hear some Korean, which made them happy. I played pingpong to warm up with the new Korean teacher, who is very nice, and is always making me tea and asking me questions in english, then when I answer he says "I am english baby!" because he can't understand. It was fun, and by the end of our game, I was getting the hang of holing the racket Korean style. You actually can't hold it North American style, because the handle is shaped differently and there is no padding on the backhand! so whenever I hit it backhand, it usually flies off and breaks a window or something.
The food was good, there was a delicious sauce (dokjang, I think) and lots of grape tomoatoes and greenhouse strawberries.
Then, it was game time! Turns out, we were playing doubles, whichis near impossible for me when playing Korean style. Plus, it's intimidating to have to jump in front of/around your partner, and they seem to flipflop between "my side your side" and "my turn your turn" so that I never know when to get in there, and often narrowly avoid getting whackedin the face. Plus, with no backhand, I have trouble when I can't stand off to one side. Of course, we lost horribly.
At piano, I have had some measure of success as well. I am now on piano book three! Oh yeah, I am probably the best piano player ever. It is green, and introduces one sharp and one flat.
Watch out Billy Joel!
Last night we went back to the Ryus for our Korean lesson. We reread the story book that I had read alone on Monday. Once again, I was very embarassed. This time, because Jessie is such a good Korean reader. I swear... I can't do double consonants to save my life.
All of my debts are now paid off. It's a good feeling. Now I will sign up for a course at Athabasca and be one step closer to a biology teachable.
The dinner/ping-pong party at my school was actually awesome. There was a lotof ping pong, and some delicious food. And when I turned down soju, no-one got offended (asopposed to usual) because instead of just saying no, I said "Aniyo, nokcha juseyo" or "No, green tea please" so at least they got to hear some Korean, which made them happy. I played pingpong to warm up with the new Korean teacher, who is very nice, and is always making me tea and asking me questions in english, then when I answer he says "I am english baby!" because he can't understand. It was fun, and by the end of our game, I was getting the hang of holing the racket Korean style. You actually can't hold it North American style, because the handle is shaped differently and there is no padding on the backhand! so whenever I hit it backhand, it usually flies off and breaks a window or something.
The food was good, there was a delicious sauce (dokjang, I think) and lots of grape tomoatoes and greenhouse strawberries.
Then, it was game time! Turns out, we were playing doubles, whichis near impossible for me when playing Korean style. Plus, it's intimidating to have to jump in front of/around your partner, and they seem to flipflop between "my side your side" and "my turn your turn" so that I never know when to get in there, and often narrowly avoid getting whackedin the face. Plus, with no backhand, I have trouble when I can't stand off to one side. Of course, we lost horribly.
At piano, I have had some measure of success as well. I am now on piano book three! Oh yeah, I am probably the best piano player ever. It is green, and introduces one sharp and one flat.
Watch out Billy Joel!
Last night we went back to the Ryus for our Korean lesson. We reread the story book that I had read alone on Monday. Once again, I was very embarassed. This time, because Jessie is such a good Korean reader. I swear... I can't do double consonants to save my life.
All of my debts are now paid off. It's a good feeling. Now I will sign up for a course at Athabasca and be one step closer to a biology teachable.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Foreigner Belt
Last night Jessie and I took a walk around Yeongam. I actually cancelled my piano lesson (I told here I was busy with school stuff) so that we could do it.
It was really nice yesterday. The temperature actually reached about 18 degrees, and it was sunny for most of the day, but it got cloudy later on. We walked out behind our building through the farmer's fields. One very cool thing was a temple, very small, in a small neighbourhood in the middle of the fields. The doors were open to the little treed courtyard inside. And wedges in between the planks of the door was a phone bill.
I really wish I had had my camera, because that would have been an amazing picture.
For the last few weeks, I have been meaning to call Robert, the other foreigner in our town. It's been a long time, and hanging out with him always makes for a pretty interesting evening. Anyways, invariably, I will say "I should call Robert and go get a drink or something" and then about seven hours later (at eleven or twelve at night) I think "Oh, FUCK!" and another day is gone.
(Finished the following day)
Anyways, after Jessie and I returned from our walk, the phone rang almost immediately after we walked in the door. Jessie said jokingly "It's for you" because it usually is Mr Lee if there is a call in the evening. Then she added "It's Robert."
I recognized the voice, but I had no idea that it was him. I did, I guess, but I refused to believe that it was, because it was just too weird that Jessie had called it like that.
We wound up going over to his place for tea, which was awesome. Sylvia was also there, but undeniably Robert's son was the star of the evening. That kid is insane. One second he is begging to be lifted and laughing at me riding around on hishobby horse, the next he is screaming at the top of his lungs, while beating me with the hobby horse. He also thought he would clean, so he was running around with the swiffer. He held it about a foot and a half from the ground, so it left about three and a half feet on the other end that were constantly buzzing through the air just inches from my everything.
We left pretty early, but it was a full evening.
Actually, it was a great evening.
It was really nice yesterday. The temperature actually reached about 18 degrees, and it was sunny for most of the day, but it got cloudy later on. We walked out behind our building through the farmer's fields. One very cool thing was a temple, very small, in a small neighbourhood in the middle of the fields. The doors were open to the little treed courtyard inside. And wedges in between the planks of the door was a phone bill.
I really wish I had had my camera, because that would have been an amazing picture.
For the last few weeks, I have been meaning to call Robert, the other foreigner in our town. It's been a long time, and hanging out with him always makes for a pretty interesting evening. Anyways, invariably, I will say "I should call Robert and go get a drink or something" and then about seven hours later (at eleven or twelve at night) I think "Oh, FUCK!" and another day is gone.
(Finished the following day)
Anyways, after Jessie and I returned from our walk, the phone rang almost immediately after we walked in the door. Jessie said jokingly "It's for you" because it usually is Mr Lee if there is a call in the evening. Then she added "It's Robert."
I recognized the voice, but I had no idea that it was him. I did, I guess, but I refused to believe that it was, because it was just too weird that Jessie had called it like that.
We wound up going over to his place for tea, which was awesome. Sylvia was also there, but undeniably Robert's son was the star of the evening. That kid is insane. One second he is begging to be lifted and laughing at me riding around on hishobby horse, the next he is screaming at the top of his lungs, while beating me with the hobby horse. He also thought he would clean, so he was running around with the swiffer. He held it about a foot and a half from the ground, so it left about three and a half feet on the other end that were constantly buzzing through the air just inches from my everything.
We left pretty early, but it was a full evening.
Actually, it was a great evening.
Frustrations
So, in typical fashion, our coteachers told each of us about school dinners happening today yesterday. And in typical fashion, Jessie and I do not really want to go.
Jessie's case is the worse one. Her school has only two teachers who speak to her, one of whom is her coteacher. If this is an indication of the conversation, it won't be great. Jessie's coteacher is really nice, but her english is not so good. She also has this habit of not realizing that a) Jessie does not speak Korean, b) not being able to talk to anyone makes dinners boring, and c) that talking about someone who doesn't understand is still really obvious when you continually refer to "Che-she-kka" and "Canada".
As I am writing this, Jessie is trying to fake sick in order to get out of attending. It is a work function, but it is after school hours, and honestly, no-one seems to have any idea that these dinners are less fun for her than the Korean participants.
Honestly... the dinners are just really long boring periods. For the other teachers, it is an opportunity to unwind, talk to eachother, and to form team bonds. But they do not realize that they just make us uncomfortable because we cannot communicate with them!
Yesterday I was told that today the teachers would be playing pingpong, and that the students would be sent home early. So I wore jeans, which is pretty normal anyways.
Today I got told that after the pingpong, we would be having a party. My situation is a little less dire, because there are two co-teachers that I converse with, and a couple other teachers in the new staff that talk to me too. But a whole dinner is boring.
Anyways... I'm going to have fun playing pingpong, no matter what. But I will probably skip the party because I have a piano lesson. Which normally I would skip in favour of a party...
I'm also frustrated because of my grade threes. Last year, they were in grade two, and they were my favourite students. Favourite classes. They were very involved, and they really seemed to be excited to practice their english.
Now it is like pulling teeth to get them to say hello. I guess at some point you realize that english will not help with YOUR career, so you give up on it. And it is just horribly disappointing to me, because I had such high hopes for them.
My grade twos are also frustrating, but at least there it is no surprise. They are at such a low level it is actually shocking, because they are behind even my grade ones. I did the same lesson with them that I did with the grade ones... I will have to split it in half for the twos. They can't handle so much stuff.
Ridiculous.
Enough complaining!
Jessie's case is the worse one. Her school has only two teachers who speak to her, one of whom is her coteacher. If this is an indication of the conversation, it won't be great. Jessie's coteacher is really nice, but her english is not so good. She also has this habit of not realizing that a) Jessie does not speak Korean, b) not being able to talk to anyone makes dinners boring, and c) that talking about someone who doesn't understand is still really obvious when you continually refer to "Che-she-kka" and "Canada".
As I am writing this, Jessie is trying to fake sick in order to get out of attending. It is a work function, but it is after school hours, and honestly, no-one seems to have any idea that these dinners are less fun for her than the Korean participants.
Honestly... the dinners are just really long boring periods. For the other teachers, it is an opportunity to unwind, talk to eachother, and to form team bonds. But they do not realize that they just make us uncomfortable because we cannot communicate with them!
Yesterday I was told that today the teachers would be playing pingpong, and that the students would be sent home early. So I wore jeans, which is pretty normal anyways.
Today I got told that after the pingpong, we would be having a party. My situation is a little less dire, because there are two co-teachers that I converse with, and a couple other teachers in the new staff that talk to me too. But a whole dinner is boring.
Anyways... I'm going to have fun playing pingpong, no matter what. But I will probably skip the party because I have a piano lesson. Which normally I would skip in favour of a party...
I'm also frustrated because of my grade threes. Last year, they were in grade two, and they were my favourite students. Favourite classes. They were very involved, and they really seemed to be excited to practice their english.
Now it is like pulling teeth to get them to say hello. I guess at some point you realize that english will not help with YOUR career, so you give up on it. And it is just horribly disappointing to me, because I had such high hopes for them.
My grade twos are also frustrating, but at least there it is no surprise. They are at such a low level it is actually shocking, because they are behind even my grade ones. I did the same lesson with them that I did with the grade ones... I will have to split it in half for the twos. They can't handle so much stuff.
Ridiculous.
Enough complaining!
Further awesomeness.
I wired home 2.5 million won yesterday. Canada just got $3000 richer. oh yeah.
Now, I will pay my credit cards entirely, pay for a correspondence course towards a biology teachable and still have some left over... sweet.
Also, I am loving my grade twos right now. I just did a lesson on phonics with them. It went well, but it looks like I will have to work with them at about half the pace that I work with my grade ones. It's hard to believe how far behind the grade ones they are. But that's cool, they can trail the grade ones, it just makes one less class I have to plan for, really, if next week I just teach them the other half of what I taught the grade ones this week.
Also, I dealt with my workshop issue, I think really well. I sent them an e-mail with a survey, so that they can direct the course of the workshop, and I made it much more detailed than last semester's survey, and I put more on their shoulders in terms of what they are responsible for bringing.
I don't think they will like it, really. But it is what they asked for, at the same time.
They remind me of the students who ask for tutoring. Then when I say that they should bring questions for me to help with, they don't come, because they want to be spoon fed. It doesn't help that the school of thought here is that you can learn by osmosis.
But, it's dealt with, and I think that things will run very smoothly this semester.
I feel so in control and potent. I rule!
Now, I will pay my credit cards entirely, pay for a correspondence course towards a biology teachable and still have some left over... sweet.
Also, I am loving my grade twos right now. I just did a lesson on phonics with them. It went well, but it looks like I will have to work with them at about half the pace that I work with my grade ones. It's hard to believe how far behind the grade ones they are. But that's cool, they can trail the grade ones, it just makes one less class I have to plan for, really, if next week I just teach them the other half of what I taught the grade ones this week.
Also, I dealt with my workshop issue, I think really well. I sent them an e-mail with a survey, so that they can direct the course of the workshop, and I made it much more detailed than last semester's survey, and I put more on their shoulders in terms of what they are responsible for bringing.
I don't think they will like it, really. But it is what they asked for, at the same time.
They remind me of the students who ask for tutoring. Then when I say that they should bring questions for me to help with, they don't come, because they want to be spoon fed. It doesn't help that the school of thought here is that you can learn by osmosis.
But, it's dealt with, and I think that things will run very smoothly this semester.
I feel so in control and potent. I rule!
Easy Street
I have a great story of greatness to tell.
When Jessie and I got back from Thailand, we had our bills waiting for us. Big bills, because January had been cold, so our utuilies were very expensive. Anyways, within a day or two of our return, I went out to pay the bills which were long overdue by that point.
A couple of weeks later, we received our February bills, which showed us still owing the January amounts. Clearly the bills had been printed before our payment had been received. No biggie. I mean, that is a very understandable thing, and I assumed very easy to communicate, even with a language barrier.
I set out to present this very clearly. I brought the old pay stubs, with a date stamp on it showing that the bills had been payed. I wrote out the name of the bill, the amount claimed owed, and showing the amount already payed being subtracted to show the amount owed for February. It was quite a presentation, I was very proud of it.
Well, the teller was having none of it. She waved it all aside, and just circled and recircled the amount being showed as owing.
I will admit, I was feeling the temper rising. But then I figured, what the hey, I am probably wrong anyways. I mean, the bill is in Korean, and I am no Korean expert.
So I payed the full amount owing.
Our bills for this month are arriving now.
We owe NOTHING. Not only do we owe nothing, but we have credit being carried over to next month because we double payed the most expensive month.
So, we had a month that really was not even tight. It was just normal, and now we have a month where the only reason we owe money is because I have been calling Athabasca University to try to enroll in some correspondence courses. Other than that, we are on Easy Street.
Booyeah.
When Jessie and I got back from Thailand, we had our bills waiting for us. Big bills, because January had been cold, so our utuilies were very expensive. Anyways, within a day or two of our return, I went out to pay the bills which were long overdue by that point.
A couple of weeks later, we received our February bills, which showed us still owing the January amounts. Clearly the bills had been printed before our payment had been received. No biggie. I mean, that is a very understandable thing, and I assumed very easy to communicate, even with a language barrier.
I set out to present this very clearly. I brought the old pay stubs, with a date stamp on it showing that the bills had been payed. I wrote out the name of the bill, the amount claimed owed, and showing the amount already payed being subtracted to show the amount owed for February. It was quite a presentation, I was very proud of it.
Well, the teller was having none of it. She waved it all aside, and just circled and recircled the amount being showed as owing.
I will admit, I was feeling the temper rising. But then I figured, what the hey, I am probably wrong anyways. I mean, the bill is in Korean, and I am no Korean expert.
So I payed the full amount owing.
Our bills for this month are arriving now.
We owe NOTHING. Not only do we owe nothing, but we have credit being carried over to next month because we double payed the most expensive month.
So, we had a month that really was not even tight. It was just normal, and now we have a month where the only reason we owe money is because I have been calling Athabasca University to try to enroll in some correspondence courses. Other than that, we are on Easy Street.
Booyeah.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Happy as pie
I am in love with my job right now, at this moment.
I think that this semester is going to be much much better than last.
First, I have received an awesome compliment. Well, indirectly. The bottom line is that at both middle schools that I teach at, the grade ones are being declared much more advanced than the other grades. This is a compliment, because I taught them all last year.
Thank you, thank you.
I taught three grade one classes today. They were all great. I taught one class phonics, and one class got the "these are classroom commands that all of your teachers should have been using", minus the "that all of your teachers should have been using part. I am surprised at how well it has worked with the classes that I have already taught it too, as they are very very quick to repond to the simplest commands, such as "Take out your notebook" already, which got no responses before.
Also, they love me. They rush me before and after class and ask if I remember them. Of course I do. I think that there are some students here that I will never forget. And for some reason, I connect much better with the younger students. I think it is because they are too young to have realized that they have no real reason to learn english.
I also had a grade three class today. Somehow over the course of the summer, they transformed from my favourite students into the same class of a-holes that I had in grade three last year. They all pretty much ignore everything I say, and I often just feel like sitting down in class and just waiting out the clock...
But... HOW ABOUT THOSE GRADE ONES?!
Really, the grade twos will be in a sorry state, because they were the lowest level classes last year. But I have more better ideas now, and they all were engaged in class last year, so it should be okay. Two classes out of twenty with non-cooperative grade threes will not kill me... more cloze excercises and text book activities will hopefully be good work for them while preventing any more huge flops in that class.
Well... I did not mean to start complaining. I will now stop.
I am super happy. This is going to be a really good semester.
I think that this semester is going to be much much better than last.
First, I have received an awesome compliment. Well, indirectly. The bottom line is that at both middle schools that I teach at, the grade ones are being declared much more advanced than the other grades. This is a compliment, because I taught them all last year.
Thank you, thank you.
I taught three grade one classes today. They were all great. I taught one class phonics, and one class got the "these are classroom commands that all of your teachers should have been using", minus the "that all of your teachers should have been using part. I am surprised at how well it has worked with the classes that I have already taught it too, as they are very very quick to repond to the simplest commands, such as "Take out your notebook" already, which got no responses before.
Also, they love me. They rush me before and after class and ask if I remember them. Of course I do. I think that there are some students here that I will never forget. And for some reason, I connect much better with the younger students. I think it is because they are too young to have realized that they have no real reason to learn english.
I also had a grade three class today. Somehow over the course of the summer, they transformed from my favourite students into the same class of a-holes that I had in grade three last year. They all pretty much ignore everything I say, and I often just feel like sitting down in class and just waiting out the clock...
But... HOW ABOUT THOSE GRADE ONES?!
Really, the grade twos will be in a sorry state, because they were the lowest level classes last year. But I have more better ideas now, and they all were engaged in class last year, so it should be okay. Two classes out of twenty with non-cooperative grade threes will not kill me... more cloze excercises and text book activities will hopefully be good work for them while preventing any more huge flops in that class.
Well... I did not mean to start complaining. I will now stop.
I am super happy. This is going to be a really good semester.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Weight gain
So, I was just flipping through my blog and showing my students pictures that I have taken in Korea, and pictures of my friends.
And I noticed, I have put on weight. A lot, apparently. I did not realize that it happened... I don't have clothes I can't wear anymore or anything... and yet, I am now Mr Chubby Cheeks.
Hmm... good thing it is getting warm. Maybe it's time to get out once in a while. Chubby Cheeks could be the motivation I so desperately need!
That's all for now.
And I noticed, I have put on weight. A lot, apparently. I did not realize that it happened... I don't have clothes I can't wear anymore or anything... and yet, I am now Mr Chubby Cheeks.
Hmm... good thing it is getting warm. Maybe it's time to get out once in a while. Chubby Cheeks could be the motivation I so desperately need!
That's all for now.
Ups and Downs
This week, so far, has been full of ups and downs.
Downs (get them out of the way):
Jessie is sick. She may have caught what I had, but it is hard to tell... I thought I had caught it from her. She wound up staying home yesterday, planning to convalesce/prepare some applications for internships, but was a little too worn out.
My teacher's workshop ganged up on me.
I meet on Mondays with Korean English Teachers to help them be better english teachers. Gotta love Korea for this, putting someone with six months of experience in a room with professional teachers and telling him to teach them how to teach.
Anyways, I had some big ideas last semester, but everyone wanted to leave early, thought the activities I prepared (such as reading an article and then discussing it) were not so good for them, and alternatively wanted to learn idioms and then though we spent too much time on idioms when they should be learning real english.
Yesterday, I was told in the morning that my workshops were beginning for the new semester that afternoon. I threw something together, figuring that introductions from the new people and catching up with the returners would carry us a while, and then the lesson would carry us for a while. Since they always wanted to leave early anyways, I figured that that would be okay.
Well, when I wrapped up and asked if they had any suggestions for the coming weeks, one of the new women said (approximately) "I pay a lot and do a lot of extra things to come here, and it's a logn trip, so I expect these meetings to last the full two hours [they're actually only an hour and a half]. Also, I expect to see real progress in my conversational abilities through these meetings. Free talk is fine, but I get bored if I do not like the topics. I want to study articles and comment on them, and I want to have a choice in the topics so that I do not get bored."
All fair enough.
But then the returners started saying that they found the meetings last semester too short (even though I usually only did half of my planned activities because they all wanted to leave) and they wanted to do more activities like reading articles and commenting on them (an idea which I had tried and they had disliked (vocally) in one of our first meetings. Even when I tried to do topical conversations, with the topics sent to them in advance (albeit only a short time) they usually just wanted to chat. They also want more teaching techniques... even though they often complain that they have no time for the things that I suggest (or anything other than the curriculum, really).
They had some legitimate complaints too, like that I didn't correct them enough (which is tough, as it is intimidating to correct a teacher, and it tends to shut them down and make them shy when I do). Also, they wanted more notice on what we would be doing week to week, which was fair enough. But when the topic week to week is "more idioms and free talk at your request" I rarely felt the need to warn them.
I think the solution to the teacher's workshop is going to be to send them a survey, so that I have in writing what they say they want, so that they can not go back on it like they have their comments from last semester. And then I will teach to the surveys, and if they say that they do not like it, I can point to the surveys as being why they are being taught that. I hate to have to operate like that, but their feedback week to week clearly meant nothing!
Also... I will give them more notice on the topics. That really was only my fault, there is no denying it.
EDIT: In both my third and fourth period class, Mr Hyun came right up to my face to ask quiet questions about the topic while I was teaching! I understand that he was asking a question that a student asked him, but the personal space violation and whispered questions were more than enough, really.
Neutral:
In conversation with Mr Lee, it came out that I would not be returning to Yeongam next year, a fact that I had hoped to keep to myself for about another month. So, I'm leaving, so that means Jessie must be leaving, as Mr Lee caught on to really quickly. But she's not ready to tell her school yet... so now I have to convince Mr Lee to keep it to himself. It's very awkward, but it is also very nice to not feel like I have a secret anymore.
Awesomeness:
My grade ones at the girls' school all remember my lecture about not saying "I'm fine, thanks" every time I ask how they are.
There's a joke in ESL circles about a teacher finding a student shortly after they are hit by a car. He rushes over and asks the student "How are you? Are you okay?" and the student replies "I'm fine, thanks. How are you today?"
It is true that they still reply automatically, BUT they remembered almost all of the words that I had taught them last semester to use instead of fine, and they made a mighty list on the board. So, one of my pet-peeves is closer to being weeded out of my students. Yes!
Yesterday on the way to lunch, one of my students said "Hello!"
I replied "Hello!"
Then she said "Nice to see you again!", which made me want to hug her, because my other pet peeve is that my students always say "Nice to meet you!" every tiem they see me. It is technically correct, but not correct in conversation. The problem is that Koreans say "Nice to meet you" in that every encounter is a "meeting" of people. But engliish people do not say it the same way in conversation... and I have been tryign to teach them to say "Nice to see you again" instead. So I was really happy when I saw that it had sunk in.
I am debt free in two days.
I am sending money home this afternoon. This will eliminate all debt (financial) and leave enough to pay for a course at Athabasca. Sweet. Biology teachable, here I come.
Yesterday, I went to the Ryus for the Korean lesson, and we read a storybook called "The Lion in Love". I can not read Korean. At all. It was laughable. But, what I need is to read with someone, to sound out the words and have them correct me. Even if it has to be one of my students (embarassment).
EDIT: It is geting warm. Warm enough that I can finally wear all of those dress shirts and ties to class that I have been unable to wear because of the poor insulation at Korean schools. Why wear it if you have to cover it up with three sweaters? Anyways, I've been wearing ties (that they can see!) and all my students have been telling me that I look very good. Which is awesome.
the tie thing "that they can see" is not an allusion to some fetish or anything... just that if I wore a tie before, it typically remained hidden beneath three sweaters.
As you can see, an eventful day and a bit. I also had a piano lesson in there.
Downs (get them out of the way):
Jessie is sick. She may have caught what I had, but it is hard to tell... I thought I had caught it from her. She wound up staying home yesterday, planning to convalesce/prepare some applications for internships, but was a little too worn out.
My teacher's workshop ganged up on me.
I meet on Mondays with Korean English Teachers to help them be better english teachers. Gotta love Korea for this, putting someone with six months of experience in a room with professional teachers and telling him to teach them how to teach.
Anyways, I had some big ideas last semester, but everyone wanted to leave early, thought the activities I prepared (such as reading an article and then discussing it) were not so good for them, and alternatively wanted to learn idioms and then though we spent too much time on idioms when they should be learning real english.
Yesterday, I was told in the morning that my workshops were beginning for the new semester that afternoon. I threw something together, figuring that introductions from the new people and catching up with the returners would carry us a while, and then the lesson would carry us for a while. Since they always wanted to leave early anyways, I figured that that would be okay.
Well, when I wrapped up and asked if they had any suggestions for the coming weeks, one of the new women said (approximately) "I pay a lot and do a lot of extra things to come here, and it's a logn trip, so I expect these meetings to last the full two hours [they're actually only an hour and a half]. Also, I expect to see real progress in my conversational abilities through these meetings. Free talk is fine, but I get bored if I do not like the topics. I want to study articles and comment on them, and I want to have a choice in the topics so that I do not get bored."
All fair enough.
But then the returners started saying that they found the meetings last semester too short (even though I usually only did half of my planned activities because they all wanted to leave) and they wanted to do more activities like reading articles and commenting on them (an idea which I had tried and they had disliked (vocally) in one of our first meetings. Even when I tried to do topical conversations, with the topics sent to them in advance (albeit only a short time) they usually just wanted to chat. They also want more teaching techniques... even though they often complain that they have no time for the things that I suggest (or anything other than the curriculum, really).
They had some legitimate complaints too, like that I didn't correct them enough (which is tough, as it is intimidating to correct a teacher, and it tends to shut them down and make them shy when I do). Also, they wanted more notice on what we would be doing week to week, which was fair enough. But when the topic week to week is "more idioms and free talk at your request" I rarely felt the need to warn them.
I think the solution to the teacher's workshop is going to be to send them a survey, so that I have in writing what they say they want, so that they can not go back on it like they have their comments from last semester. And then I will teach to the surveys, and if they say that they do not like it, I can point to the surveys as being why they are being taught that. I hate to have to operate like that, but their feedback week to week clearly meant nothing!
Also... I will give them more notice on the topics. That really was only my fault, there is no denying it.
EDIT: In both my third and fourth period class, Mr Hyun came right up to my face to ask quiet questions about the topic while I was teaching! I understand that he was asking a question that a student asked him, but the personal space violation and whispered questions were more than enough, really.
Neutral:
In conversation with Mr Lee, it came out that I would not be returning to Yeongam next year, a fact that I had hoped to keep to myself for about another month. So, I'm leaving, so that means Jessie must be leaving, as Mr Lee caught on to really quickly. But she's not ready to tell her school yet... so now I have to convince Mr Lee to keep it to himself. It's very awkward, but it is also very nice to not feel like I have a secret anymore.
Awesomeness:
My grade ones at the girls' school all remember my lecture about not saying "I'm fine, thanks" every time I ask how they are.
There's a joke in ESL circles about a teacher finding a student shortly after they are hit by a car. He rushes over and asks the student "How are you? Are you okay?" and the student replies "I'm fine, thanks. How are you today?"
It is true that they still reply automatically, BUT they remembered almost all of the words that I had taught them last semester to use instead of fine, and they made a mighty list on the board. So, one of my pet-peeves is closer to being weeded out of my students. Yes!
Yesterday on the way to lunch, one of my students said "Hello!"
I replied "Hello!"
Then she said "Nice to see you again!", which made me want to hug her, because my other pet peeve is that my students always say "Nice to meet you!" every tiem they see me. It is technically correct, but not correct in conversation. The problem is that Koreans say "Nice to meet you" in that every encounter is a "meeting" of people. But engliish people do not say it the same way in conversation... and I have been tryign to teach them to say "Nice to see you again" instead. So I was really happy when I saw that it had sunk in.
I am debt free in two days.
I am sending money home this afternoon. This will eliminate all debt (financial) and leave enough to pay for a course at Athabasca. Sweet. Biology teachable, here I come.
Yesterday, I went to the Ryus for the Korean lesson, and we read a storybook called "The Lion in Love". I can not read Korean. At all. It was laughable. But, what I need is to read with someone, to sound out the words and have them correct me. Even if it has to be one of my students (embarassment).
EDIT: It is geting warm. Warm enough that I can finally wear all of those dress shirts and ties to class that I have been unable to wear because of the poor insulation at Korean schools. Why wear it if you have to cover it up with three sweaters? Anyways, I've been wearing ties (that they can see!) and all my students have been telling me that I look very good. Which is awesome.
the tie thing "that they can see" is not an allusion to some fetish or anything... just that if I wore a tie before, it typically remained hidden beneath three sweaters.
As you can see, an eventful day and a bit. I also had a piano lesson in there.
Monday, March 20, 2006
DELICIOUS DINNER
We had Rodrigo and Sarah over for dinner yesterday. It was amazing. Here is the proof, in picture and caption form. 
Here is what was left after one course. That bowl is full of homemade pasta, care of Rodrigo. The pot is filled with chickeney sauce and the white bowl is what is left of garlic bread, care of me. Not pictured: delicious bruschetta.
DELICIOUS PASTA!!!
Here is what was left after one course. That bowl is full of homemade pasta, care of Rodrigo. The pot is filled with chickeney sauce and the white bowl is what is left of garlic bread, care of me. Not pictured: delicious bruschetta.
DELICIOUS PASTA!!!The after dinner stroll. On the rocks. 
This apple pie was family reunion quality. Note our delicious booze collection.
I LOVE OUR NEW OVEN!
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
PIZZA!
Kneading dough. Kneading it hard. 
Here's the semi-cleaned aftermath. 
Here's the pizza, in the oven... mmm...
Here's the pizza cooling for the cutting, and there's our tiny little oven!
Here's our living room, complete with brand new air conditioner (the huge white thing)!
Monday, March 13, 2006
The easiest battles of our lives
A few weeks ago, Jessie was told that there was some extra budget money around to buy her textbooks and resources for class, as well as a DVD player for the apartment, and anything else we might feel that we needed. It was a total budget of close to $1000, which is awesome.
So we debated a bit, and decided to ask for no DVD player, as there is nowhere in this town to rent DVDs, and the last thing we want to do is collect a bunch of Korean DVDs that will not play in Canada. Jessie teaches out of the textbook, so she really has no need of money for supplies.
The one things that we really could use is an air conditioner, so we suggested that, since it gets so hot here in the summer.
Anyways, last week, we were told that we would not only be getting an air conditoner, but also a DVD player (yay!), and an oven! The oven was exciting news, since that was another thing we had specifically said that we did not need to increase the air conditoner budget.
So, that is awesome. We had the stuff installed on Thursday night.
On Saturday, I went to Mopko to dig out some pizza ingredients. When i got home, I made some crust, and we had home-made vegetarian pizza (good luck finding pepperoni here!). I made some other stuff (rolls of sugar and cinnamon crust with apple sauce in them, bad) and garlic crust (good).
On Sunday, I made one with some fried chicken on it... so good. So good.
Today, I arrived at school. I told my coteacher in passing that Jessie and I had been feelign a little under the weather over the weekend, and that my throat was really sore. We also talked about the yellow sand storm, a yearly phenomenon where dust from the Gobi desert in China rains down on Korea for a few days, namely this past weekend. It's kind of the buzz on the ESL boards right now, so I was interested in it, and he said that it bugged many westerners, and made some sick.
About half an hour ago, Mr Lee came into the english lab and said, "Maybe tomorrow you should stay home because of the yellow dust." I felt bad, because I thought maybe I had overstated how bad I was feeling. I tried to clear it up.
The Mr Lee cleared it up. Apparently Mr Hyun has yet to have classes with hs grade ones, whereas tomorrow would be my second class with them. Me coming and not teaching them would not fly, but my not coming so that he could have his classes is cool. So, it is, as Mr Lee put it, "our little secret".
It is so weird! I can't believe that happened that way.
Coming soon... pictures of pizzas!
So we debated a bit, and decided to ask for no DVD player, as there is nowhere in this town to rent DVDs, and the last thing we want to do is collect a bunch of Korean DVDs that will not play in Canada. Jessie teaches out of the textbook, so she really has no need of money for supplies.
The one things that we really could use is an air conditioner, so we suggested that, since it gets so hot here in the summer.
Anyways, last week, we were told that we would not only be getting an air conditoner, but also a DVD player (yay!), and an oven! The oven was exciting news, since that was another thing we had specifically said that we did not need to increase the air conditoner budget.
So, that is awesome. We had the stuff installed on Thursday night.
On Saturday, I went to Mopko to dig out some pizza ingredients. When i got home, I made some crust, and we had home-made vegetarian pizza (good luck finding pepperoni here!). I made some other stuff (rolls of sugar and cinnamon crust with apple sauce in them, bad) and garlic crust (good).
On Sunday, I made one with some fried chicken on it... so good. So good.
Today, I arrived at school. I told my coteacher in passing that Jessie and I had been feelign a little under the weather over the weekend, and that my throat was really sore. We also talked about the yellow sand storm, a yearly phenomenon where dust from the Gobi desert in China rains down on Korea for a few days, namely this past weekend. It's kind of the buzz on the ESL boards right now, so I was interested in it, and he said that it bugged many westerners, and made some sick.
About half an hour ago, Mr Lee came into the english lab and said, "Maybe tomorrow you should stay home because of the yellow dust." I felt bad, because I thought maybe I had overstated how bad I was feeling. I tried to clear it up.
The Mr Lee cleared it up. Apparently Mr Hyun has yet to have classes with hs grade ones, whereas tomorrow would be my second class with them. Me coming and not teaching them would not fly, but my not coming so that he could have his classes is cool. So, it is, as Mr Lee put it, "our little secret".
It is so weird! I can't believe that happened that way.
Coming soon... pictures of pizzas!
Thursday, March 09, 2006
We have big noses
So, we (Westerners) have big noses.
This is the conclusion I have reached as I flipped through my grade three middle school text book. Big to the point where it has to be exaggerated to the point where it looks ridiculous. In fairness, we have bigger noses than Koreans. So when they are drawn in the text in cartonnish style, they give themselves big noses. To keep the proportions right, white people must be drawn with this elongated probiscus sticking out.
I polled several Korean coworkers, and compiled this composite image using advanced software of what they believe is "typical" for people of European descent.
This is the conclusion I have reached as I flipped through my grade three middle school text book. Big to the point where it has to be exaggerated to the point where it looks ridiculous. In fairness, we have bigger noses than Koreans. So when they are drawn in the text in cartonnish style, they give themselves big noses. To keep the proportions right, white people must be drawn with this elongated probiscus sticking out.
I polled several Korean coworkers, and compiled this composite image using advanced software of what they believe is "typical" for people of European descent.
wow.
...
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
First days
I'm back at school, and I am really enjoying it.
Yesterday, I was at the girls' school where I got a lot of get well wished from students whose classes I had missed on Monday. That was nice.
In class with my grade ones (three classes of them) I had a lot of fun. Most were students that I had already taught before at the elementary school. They all knew me, how I taught, and were very good and attentive. The grade threes were also good, they've seen me, but I have only taught them one class (which I volunteered for) before, so I still have some mystique there.
Mr Hyun came upon me in the english lab after my last class (at around 3:30) and asked me what I was doing.
"Nothing." I said.
"Maybe, you go home."
And I was gone...
I had my first piano lesson in a week and a half too, and was surprised at how easily I took to it again. I was really struggling with this left hand pattern, but after half an hour of practicing, my teacher told me "Small practice, big percentage!", which I decided to take as a compliment.
Jessie's school had a dinner last night, which kept her out until 9:00. I made stirfry, officially perfecting my imitation of mom's recipe (frighteningly easy).
Today I am back at the boys' school. My first class was again with old elementary students, and it went well. I'm teaching them class commands and words, like "May I go to the bathroom?" and "Please open your book to page number..." That's good, it's reallly something they need.
It looks like I will be filling in parts of the textbook too, so that will make my life a LOT easier, as it will mena a lot less planning on my part.
I was dreading my grade threes, as I was worried that they would be too hard to handle. They are very loud, but I did okay, which is a good sign. We wrote "Three goals for the upcoming school year" and then presented, after I covered classroom commands, of course. It was busy work, but some of them got into it, and one short kid actually declared that he wanted to get tall. I told him to work hard, and about half the class laughed, which was a really good sign for their listening comprehension.
Just before lunch, I was complaining about the food to a friend from university. But it was actually good today. However, I was horribly embarassed when, in attempt to communicate that the soup had duck in it, one caf lady quacked loucly, causing her coworker to double over in laughter, right in front of my grade threes. To make matters worse, I recognized it as duck soup before she said anything.
So, I am looking forward to the new semester. It seems like I can avoid a lot of the mistakes I made last year, and I'm also learning how things work here, so I will have a lot fewer surprises.
Yesterday, I was at the girls' school where I got a lot of get well wished from students whose classes I had missed on Monday. That was nice.
In class with my grade ones (three classes of them) I had a lot of fun. Most were students that I had already taught before at the elementary school. They all knew me, how I taught, and were very good and attentive. The grade threes were also good, they've seen me, but I have only taught them one class (which I volunteered for) before, so I still have some mystique there.
Mr Hyun came upon me in the english lab after my last class (at around 3:30) and asked me what I was doing.
"Nothing." I said.
"Maybe, you go home."
And I was gone...
I had my first piano lesson in a week and a half too, and was surprised at how easily I took to it again. I was really struggling with this left hand pattern, but after half an hour of practicing, my teacher told me "Small practice, big percentage!", which I decided to take as a compliment.
Jessie's school had a dinner last night, which kept her out until 9:00. I made stirfry, officially perfecting my imitation of mom's recipe (frighteningly easy).
Today I am back at the boys' school. My first class was again with old elementary students, and it went well. I'm teaching them class commands and words, like "May I go to the bathroom?" and "Please open your book to page number..." That's good, it's reallly something they need.
It looks like I will be filling in parts of the textbook too, so that will make my life a LOT easier, as it will mena a lot less planning on my part.
I was dreading my grade threes, as I was worried that they would be too hard to handle. They are very loud, but I did okay, which is a good sign. We wrote "Three goals for the upcoming school year" and then presented, after I covered classroom commands, of course. It was busy work, but some of them got into it, and one short kid actually declared that he wanted to get tall. I told him to work hard, and about half the class laughed, which was a really good sign for their listening comprehension.
Just before lunch, I was complaining about the food to a friend from university. But it was actually good today. However, I was horribly embarassed when, in attempt to communicate that the soup had duck in it, one caf lady quacked loucly, causing her coworker to double over in laughter, right in front of my grade threes. To make matters worse, I recognized it as duck soup before she said anything.
So, I am looking forward to the new semester. It seems like I can avoid a lot of the mistakes I made last year, and I'm also learning how things work here, so I will have a lot fewer surprises.
Monday, March 06, 2006
The Dawson's Creek Effect
I keep hearing "Oh, you look so young!"
I'm not alone either, apparently this is a pretty common thing for young male ESL teachers to experience. I'm often told I look like a high school student, which I think is a little off the mark.
I mean, have these people seen even Korean high school students? I know I look young, but come on!
Anyways...the point of all of this is that I have a theory about the cause of this youngening.
Here it goes:
In Korea, there's not a lot of interaction with other cultures (if you've read along, you know that) aside from TV, especially in our area of Korea. Who do they see on TV? Well, they see Dawson's Creek, The OC and the like
In Dawson's Creek, you have a 21-year old van Der Beek playing 15 year old Dawson.
So, let's take 23-year old Matt, de-age ( for benefit of the doubt) by two years, and I apprently look like I am fifteen, to someone who has never seen a teenager of european descent in real life.
Here's the formula:
Apparent age = actual age + no beard - six
In my case, I added a "no beard" coefficient. You see, at 21, Mr van Der Beek had a five o'clock shadow at 4:30 (am). If you are wondering what your apparent age in Korea might be, simply head for the mirror, and count the hairs in a 1cm squared patch just above your lip (ladies are excluded).
Here's the formula for the no beard coefficient:
"no beard" = (40-x) * 2 (where x is the number of hairs)
If x is greater than 40, the no-beard effect can be ignored.
That is the Dawson's Creek effect on apparent age.
I'm not alone either, apparently this is a pretty common thing for young male ESL teachers to experience. I'm often told I look like a high school student, which I think is a little off the mark.
I mean, have these people seen even Korean high school students? I know I look young, but come on!
Anyways...the point of all of this is that I have a theory about the cause of this youngening.
Here it goes:
In Korea, there's not a lot of interaction with other cultures (if you've read along, you know that) aside from TV, especially in our area of Korea. Who do they see on TV? Well, they see Dawson's Creek, The OC and the like
In Dawson's Creek, you have a 21-year old van Der Beek playing 15 year old Dawson.
So, let's take 23-year old Matt, de-age ( for benefit of the doubt) by two years, and I apprently look like I am fifteen, to someone who has never seen a teenager of european descent in real life.
Here's the formula:
Apparent age = actual age + no beard - six
In my case, I added a "no beard" coefficient. You see, at 21, Mr van Der Beek had a five o'clock shadow at 4:30 (am). If you are wondering what your apparent age in Korea might be, simply head for the mirror, and count the hairs in a 1cm squared patch just above your lip (ladies are excluded).
Here's the formula for the no beard coefficient:
"no beard" = (40-x) * 2 (where x is the number of hairs)
If x is greater than 40, the no-beard effect can be ignored.
That is the Dawson's Creek effect on apparent age.
Walks
Last night I took a great walk around town.
It was really nice, weather wise, and it looks like it is a trend that will continue. It is supposed to be 18 right now, I don't know if it actually is, but that is stunning, either way.
I went after dark, which I think will be something that I am going to pursue a lot more often. It was so nice! It was like home, just with different smells. Forest all around (or fields) behind the building and no people at all. No kids sniggering, and no awkward run-ins with people from work where they feel that they should try to talk to me, even though we don't understand eachother.
ANd it's really nice at night. It kind of stunk, I guess because it is warm again (garbage/farms thawing) but other than that, it was really quiet and peaceful and exactly what I needed.
Maybe another one is in order for tonight.
It was really nice, weather wise, and it looks like it is a trend that will continue. It is supposed to be 18 right now, I don't know if it actually is, but that is stunning, either way.
I went after dark, which I think will be something that I am going to pursue a lot more often. It was so nice! It was like home, just with different smells. Forest all around (or fields) behind the building and no people at all. No kids sniggering, and no awkward run-ins with people from work where they feel that they should try to talk to me, even though we don't understand eachother.
ANd it's really nice at night. It kind of stunk, I guess because it is warm again (garbage/farms thawing) but other than that, it was really quiet and peaceful and exactly what I needed.
Maybe another one is in order for tonight.
Bored
Sick days suck.
I've played my gameboy.
I've read a bit.
I did the dishes.
I went on eslcafe, and played Kingdom of Loathing.
I watched the oscars.
I'm debating now whether to go to piano or not today. I don't think it will be too professional to call in sick to work and then go to a piano lesson. But I think mypiano teacher was a little peeved when I called in on Friday to tell her that I would bemissing that lesson too... my fifth missed of five that week.
Monday? Sarah, Rodrigo and Shona were coming for dinner.
Tuesday? Hungover (see previous)
Wednesday? Went, but was reminded on encountering locked doors that March 1st is a national holiday here.
Thursday? Had a headache from the damned boys, it would not have been good.
Friday? Was going to Kwangju to play that night, wanted to get place clean, everything otherwise wrapped up beforehand. Opted out.
On Friday when I called to tell her I was too busy (I legitimately was though), she said "Otukae!", which when pronounced properly, is equivalent to saying "Oh my God!" in an exasperated way. I think that only way to fix this and still miss tonight is to use the word "maiu", meaning very, before "apayo", meaning sick.
Sucks, because I kind of want to go, but I just don't think it would be good, especially because MinAhn has dropped by before after school when I was not feeling well.
So, I'm bored, worried, and convalescing. And the worst part is that there is no MacGyver on. I mean, throw me a bone Korea. I just sat throughfour hours of Korean babbling over Jon Stewart at the Oscars.
You made me sick, the least you could do is give me a MacGyver marathon. I need my Richard Dean fix.
I've played my gameboy.
I've read a bit.
I did the dishes.
I went on eslcafe, and played Kingdom of Loathing.
I watched the oscars.
I'm debating now whether to go to piano or not today. I don't think it will be too professional to call in sick to work and then go to a piano lesson. But I think mypiano teacher was a little peeved when I called in on Friday to tell her that I would bemissing that lesson too... my fifth missed of five that week.
Monday? Sarah, Rodrigo and Shona were coming for dinner.
Tuesday? Hungover (see previous)
Wednesday? Went, but was reminded on encountering locked doors that March 1st is a national holiday here.
Thursday? Had a headache from the damned boys, it would not have been good.
Friday? Was going to Kwangju to play that night, wanted to get place clean, everything otherwise wrapped up beforehand. Opted out.
On Friday when I called to tell her I was too busy (I legitimately was though), she said "Otukae!", which when pronounced properly, is equivalent to saying "Oh my God!" in an exasperated way. I think that only way to fix this and still miss tonight is to use the word "maiu", meaning very, before "apayo", meaning sick.
Sucks, because I kind of want to go, but I just don't think it would be good, especially because MinAhn has dropped by before after school when I was not feeling well.
So, I'm bored, worried, and convalescing. And the worst part is that there is no MacGyver on. I mean, throw me a bone Korea. I just sat throughfour hours of Korean babbling over Jon Stewart at the Oscars.
You made me sick, the least you could do is give me a MacGyver marathon. I need my Richard Dean fix.
Sick Day
I woke up today with a really bad headache. I started getting ready, and put away the laundry from yesterday (casualties: one sweater). But I was just feeling so bad... I was just thinking that maybe I should call in sick when Jessie said "Why don't you call in sick if you aren't feeling well?"
That's been happening a lot lately. Yesterday, I was thinking "It's almost ten, I can't forget to watch that 'How Techies changed the world' show."
Just then Jessie said "What time is it?", and it turned out she was thinking the same thing.
Not the best example, but it keeps happening again and again...
"How Techies Changed the World" is hilarious, and if you liked Star Trek, you should watch it.It is the funniest thing. God bless William Shatner for having such an awesome, self-deprecating sense of humour.
That's been happening a lot lately. Yesterday, I was thinking "It's almost ten, I can't forget to watch that 'How Techies changed the world' show."
Just then Jessie said "What time is it?", and it turned out she was thinking the same thing.
Not the best example, but it keeps happening again and again...
"How Techies Changed the World" is hilarious, and if you liked Star Trek, you should watch it.It is the funniest thing. God bless William Shatner for having such an awesome, self-deprecating sense of humour.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Jam Sessions and Love Motels
Last night, Jessie and I went to Kwangju with Shona, Rodrigo and Sarah. We were supposed to meet at the motel, but that proved to be more of a challenge than we had anticipated.
We were staying at “The Windmill Motel”, or “Winduhmill” as it is known locally. The first cab kicked us out when he could not understand us. The second did too, but luckily, before we had loaded our stuff. Jessie called her coteacher for help, and she told the third cabdriver the name for us. He still didn’t know where it was, but her seemed to have no problem driving in a random direction while he worked it out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t listed, so we decided to head straight to the Speakeasy and just hope that when we didn’t show at the motel, they would call us.
On our way, we finally got ahold of Rodrigo, who was in the lobby, and could hand the phone over to the attendant who could work things out with the cabbie. Yess!
Our first night in a love motel was a strange one. These places are like the private hold of a secret society. The parking lot had hanging tarp shreds hanging so that you could not see the cars parked inside. The desk in the lobby had frosted glass, except for a small area a stomach level with a hole to pass the key out to the customer/receive money. In the elevator, there was a basket to turn in your keys so that you did not have to interact at all with anyone. It’s completely incognito. I guess that comes in handy for the amount of affairs/frowned upon (to the point of ostricization) pre-marital sex.
Anyways, after that we headed to the Speakeasy, where I was to be playing the guitar and singing some songs, just like in days of old.
It turned out to be a lot like days of old, as the owner and his friend were basically the new little James and big James from Fionn MacCool’s. The place even came complete with “Fionn’s Broads” who danced the night away to such highly danceable hits as “The Other Side” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. One definite improvement over Fionn’s was the talent, as Dave, the co-owner of the place turned out to be quite a good guitar player. Another improvement was that I was allowed to play more than three songs, and my second set (originally to be one song) became four at the request of the audience!
We had a pretty good time, and I was allowed to jam along with Dave’s electric on th group jams at the end, which was pretty sweet. I was surprised that I could still pull off a solo after six months without an electric, but it came very naturally again. I’m sure the bends were out of tune a bit, but it still went pretty well.
There was an older couple from Naju as well, in Korea teaching in a hagwon that is associated with their church. Anyways, the guy got up and sang Karaoke, and it was AWESOME. He sang a Cat Stevens song, and then two Jim Croce songs, and he had this perfect AM radio voice, and did a really good job. Then his wife got up and sang a song I didn’t know, but she was really good to, probably even better than him. She was pitch perfect (at least to my drunk ears).
In random news, I ran into Katie Berger, a friend of a friend from my early Queen’s days. She was in the same form, dressed for a night at Stages and dancing with the Fionn’s broads. It was pretty neat, she was actually one of the people who came out to see me performing that first time at Queen’s, so I celebrated by performing “Happy Together” by the Turtles, as song I had performed with the as yet unnamed Riding Pine that night. It was so random that we ran into each other in Korea. It turns out that she is teaching in Kwangju, so perhaps more meetings will be happening in the future.
Her boyfriend was also there, and apparently is a really cool guy. So cool, apparently, that he necessitated a huge speech about it from Dave (the guitar-player co-owner). Anyways, he and his friends took to the stage at one point and requested to sing “Asshole” by Denis Leary. Thanks to the OAC farewell performance with Jim, I was able to do that for them. That was very fun and random, and I even threw in some “He’s a real fucking asshole!” harmonies. After that, her boyfriend asked if I knew “The Lemon Song”. Well, out comes the Zep fan, who’s been asleep for a few years now. That was FUN! He was really into it, and was screaming it out in his best Robert Plant impression.
The only downside of the evening was that there was so much time between performers sometimes, including a long section of mp3 playing when I was totally ready to go, and the rest in the gang were pretty bored of it.
And that was our big exciting night in the city.
We were staying at “The Windmill Motel”, or “Winduhmill” as it is known locally. The first cab kicked us out when he could not understand us. The second did too, but luckily, before we had loaded our stuff. Jessie called her coteacher for help, and she told the third cabdriver the name for us. He still didn’t know where it was, but her seemed to have no problem driving in a random direction while he worked it out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t listed, so we decided to head straight to the Speakeasy and just hope that when we didn’t show at the motel, they would call us.
On our way, we finally got ahold of Rodrigo, who was in the lobby, and could hand the phone over to the attendant who could work things out with the cabbie. Yess!
Our first night in a love motel was a strange one. These places are like the private hold of a secret society. The parking lot had hanging tarp shreds hanging so that you could not see the cars parked inside. The desk in the lobby had frosted glass, except for a small area a stomach level with a hole to pass the key out to the customer/receive money. In the elevator, there was a basket to turn in your keys so that you did not have to interact at all with anyone. It’s completely incognito. I guess that comes in handy for the amount of affairs/frowned upon (to the point of ostricization) pre-marital sex.
Anyways, after that we headed to the Speakeasy, where I was to be playing the guitar and singing some songs, just like in days of old.
It turned out to be a lot like days of old, as the owner and his friend were basically the new little James and big James from Fionn MacCool’s. The place even came complete with “Fionn’s Broads” who danced the night away to such highly danceable hits as “The Other Side” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. One definite improvement over Fionn’s was the talent, as Dave, the co-owner of the place turned out to be quite a good guitar player. Another improvement was that I was allowed to play more than three songs, and my second set (originally to be one song) became four at the request of the audience!
We had a pretty good time, and I was allowed to jam along with Dave’s electric on th group jams at the end, which was pretty sweet. I was surprised that I could still pull off a solo after six months without an electric, but it came very naturally again. I’m sure the bends were out of tune a bit, but it still went pretty well.
There was an older couple from Naju as well, in Korea teaching in a hagwon that is associated with their church. Anyways, the guy got up and sang Karaoke, and it was AWESOME. He sang a Cat Stevens song, and then two Jim Croce songs, and he had this perfect AM radio voice, and did a really good job. Then his wife got up and sang a song I didn’t know, but she was really good to, probably even better than him. She was pitch perfect (at least to my drunk ears).
In random news, I ran into Katie Berger, a friend of a friend from my early Queen’s days. She was in the same form, dressed for a night at Stages and dancing with the Fionn’s broads. It was pretty neat, she was actually one of the people who came out to see me performing that first time at Queen’s, so I celebrated by performing “Happy Together” by the Turtles, as song I had performed with the as yet unnamed Riding Pine that night. It was so random that we ran into each other in Korea. It turns out that she is teaching in Kwangju, so perhaps more meetings will be happening in the future.
Her boyfriend was also there, and apparently is a really cool guy. So cool, apparently, that he necessitated a huge speech about it from Dave (the guitar-player co-owner). Anyways, he and his friends took to the stage at one point and requested to sing “Asshole” by Denis Leary. Thanks to the OAC farewell performance with Jim, I was able to do that for them. That was very fun and random, and I even threw in some “He’s a real fucking asshole!” harmonies. After that, her boyfriend asked if I knew “The Lemon Song”. Well, out comes the Zep fan, who’s been asleep for a few years now. That was FUN! He was really into it, and was screaming it out in his best Robert Plant impression.
The only downside of the evening was that there was so much time between performers sometimes, including a long section of mp3 playing when I was totally ready to go, and the rest in the gang were pretty bored of it.
And that was our big exciting night in the city.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Thailand Pictures!
This is one of the hundreds of Buddha statues at Wat Pao, where there is the world's largest reclining Buddha. These statues were used as ballast when the Koreans were shipping something from China (or something...).
These are some monks on a river boat. There are monks everywhere!
This is Jessie and I at the huge reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. Not sure if smiling is appropriate, I went with this dumb look. 
This is Jessie at Wat Phra Keo. Everything was covered in gold!
Here's Jessie and I at the snake farm. These pictures were great for freaking out the students when we showed them the slide show, because they all hated snakes.
Here's me at the butterfly farm. Whee!
More Thailand pictures
This is Jessie asleep on a tuktuk. They're three wheeled taxi things with poor shocks and really loud engines. I don't know how she did it, but I guess we all have our own special gifts. 
This is a guy at the snake farm. The whole experience would be better forgotten, but I just can't say no to that face.
Here's me at the monkey farm. Warning: photo not to scale. 
Here's the "mosquito man". He believes in God, and he's got a house full of poetry and natural treasures to prove it!
Here I am with a load of pumpkins for the elephants. This is on our way to the park for the first time. 
These are stupas at Wat Suan Dok. Very bleach white, very cool.
I knew you wanted it... full frontal nudity!
More Thailand Pictures
These tiny flowers were growing everywhere at the elephant nature park, and they looked like little fireworks. 
There were tons of dogs everywhere, just lying about all over the park. Here's a few. 
This is pretty much the exact moment that Terry became Tarzan. 
Here's me after the pit, much cleaner, but note the feet.
This is our first night in Ao Nang.
This is Ao Nang, a few minutes later. 
This is where we spent our first night, in a little cottage we rented for about twenty bucks. We moved after the first night because it was REALLY hot, even at night, and the sounds of things scratching on the tin roof kept me awake all night.
So, "The Man With the Golden Gun" was filmed very near here in Ao Nang, so there are a lot of James Bond-themed things, including a tour of "James Bond Island" where the scenes with the assassin and Miss Goodnight were filmed. Anyways, by far the funniest was "Roger Moore Tailors". 
On our horse-riding adventure, Happy, the foal of Jessie's Ping-pong took a liking to me, specifically the taste of me. He was continually biting me, and trying to eat my hat. Once he took a good nip on my shoulder, which actually hurt a lot. 
This is one of the caves that we stopped in. It was huge, and full of stalactites/stalagmites.
Here is my mangy, mangy horse. There were tons of bare patches, and I felt bad, because I could feel how hot the horse was, and here he's carrying around this bug guy... poor thing.
Note to bootleggers everywhere: If you are downloading quotes from the internet to try to make your product seem more professional, please have a native speaker proofread it to ensure that you do not make a horrible, horrible mistake.
Bootleggers: please see previous blurb. The zebra wants to be a racing "horse". Not house.
Jessie and I in a cave, on our day kayaking. This is a big shallow poond that only fills with water at high tide, and that can only be accessed by kayak through a cave tunnel, or by descending the 150 or 200 meter tall rock walls.
This is the exit from one of the later caves. We're in it right now!
This is Jessie and I in a freshwater stream. It was reallly fast-moving and clear. Amazingly, our tans don't show up in this picture. Oh, wait. We have no tans. I changed my mind at the last minute, after almost posting a picture os me with a Thai kid in it. Unfortunately, the presence of us both caused the contrast button on my monitor to melt.
This is the sunset on the last night that we were in Thailand. Pretty good ending.YESSS!
So, last night I could not sleep at all.
I went to bed around midnight (not even tired, probably due to the huge nap), and tossed and turned for about an hour. I felt bad, because I kept waking Jessie up, who was having issues of her own, apparently dreaming she was arguing with someone about how easy something was, based on her disjointed ramblings. So I woke up and had some hot milk, went back to bed, and tossed and turned until around two, I think, and then finally drifted off.
I woke up, and got ready, fully aware that I may be arriving to a school where my coteacher no longer worked, and I was not expected or even remembered.
I arrived, and I was not expected. I was remembered though, and my coteacher, who still works there came down to see me.
"We did not expect you today, you have no classes."
So, I just sat around for a while, and then I was brought to classes to introduce myself, even though I had taught all the "new"students last year in grade five (not to mention the two grade sixes who seem to have been held back).
Then, I was told I could go home, so I have been here since. I think I should catch up on sleep now, since I did not last night.
Good news though!
My coteacher at the elementary school who is awesome, is now a full time english teacher, which means that we will be teaching in the english lab, AND she will be my coteacher there, to deal with discipline issues! YESSS! So that is GREAT news.
I went to bed around midnight (not even tired, probably due to the huge nap), and tossed and turned for about an hour. I felt bad, because I kept waking Jessie up, who was having issues of her own, apparently dreaming she was arguing with someone about how easy something was, based on her disjointed ramblings. So I woke up and had some hot milk, went back to bed, and tossed and turned until around two, I think, and then finally drifted off.
I woke up, and got ready, fully aware that I may be arriving to a school where my coteacher no longer worked, and I was not expected or even remembered.
I arrived, and I was not expected. I was remembered though, and my coteacher, who still works there came down to see me.
"We did not expect you today, you have no classes."
So, I just sat around for a while, and then I was brought to classes to introduce myself, even though I had taught all the "new"students last year in grade five (not to mention the two grade sixes who seem to have been held back).
Then, I was told I could go home, so I have been here since. I think I should catch up on sleep now, since I did not last night.
Good news though!
My coteacher at the elementary school who is awesome, is now a full time english teacher, which means that we will be teaching in the english lab, AND she will be my coteacher there, to deal with discipline issues! YESSS! So that is GREAT news.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Does anyone know what is happening?
So, the rest of the day just got stranger and stranger.
After the ceremony, I went to the office, and sat around for a while. I was then informed about fifteen minutes before class that I would be teaching.
I had been planning on teaching some classroom commands, like "repeat" and "come to the front", but having been reminded in the opening ceremonies just what I was dealing with, I decided on charades and a game called "bananas", where students asked questions of a volunteer who could only respond "bananas". It couldhave been better, if my students could think of questions other than "How old are you?" and "What is your name?". Seriously, that ruined the game.
In the office, it was pandemonium. There are more teachers now than there were last year. So, there are not enough desks in the staff room. Also, rather than just giving the desks that belonged to the old teachers to the new ones, they rearranged everything so that all the teachers had to move. Now, clearly the easiest way to do this is to have the students lift the removable shelves off the desks and move them accross the room, spilling books, pencils cases and trinkets all behind them.
When I got back from class, my desk was gone, and my computer was on a coffee table being held up by three legs and piles of dust bunnies. My things had been scattered around the room, I was annoyed.
But luckily, I got to go home early after lunch.
And then I took a super-sweet nap.
Life is good.
Tomorrow, another adventure. I'm at the elementary school, and I don't even know if my coteacher still works there. I don't know if they are expecting me. I guess I'll find out tomorrow, when I show up.
That's all for now.
After the ceremony, I went to the office, and sat around for a while. I was then informed about fifteen minutes before class that I would be teaching.
I had been planning on teaching some classroom commands, like "repeat" and "come to the front", but having been reminded in the opening ceremonies just what I was dealing with, I decided on charades and a game called "bananas", where students asked questions of a volunteer who could only respond "bananas". It couldhave been better, if my students could think of questions other than "How old are you?" and "What is your name?". Seriously, that ruined the game.
In the office, it was pandemonium. There are more teachers now than there were last year. So, there are not enough desks in the staff room. Also, rather than just giving the desks that belonged to the old teachers to the new ones, they rearranged everything so that all the teachers had to move. Now, clearly the easiest way to do this is to have the students lift the removable shelves off the desks and move them accross the room, spilling books, pencils cases and trinkets all behind them.
When I got back from class, my desk was gone, and my computer was on a coffee table being held up by three legs and piles of dust bunnies. My things had been scattered around the room, I was annoyed.
But luckily, I got to go home early after lunch.
And then I took a super-sweet nap.
Life is good.
Tomorrow, another adventure. I'm at the elementary school, and I don't even know if my coteacher still works there. I don't know if they are expecting me. I guess I'll find out tomorrow, when I show up.
That's all for now.
Opening Ceremonies
So, my school day is officially one period in.
The day started with what I thought was an opening ceremony. There was supposed to be one in first period, so I was shocked when it turned out to be all the teachers just gathering for a regular staff meeting. I was wrong actually, it was just a warm-up for the real thing.
And once they get the ball rolling, watch out!
So, after a few minutes of wondering why everyone had stopped talking (including the teacher whose cellphone rang in the middle of the meeting and had to leave) I was asked if I wanted to go to the ceremony. Always being up for a ceremony, I accepted.
When I got there, I saw two rows, one of grade twos and one of grade threes. No grade ones though, which seemed strange. Well, no grade ones at all, except for what I have to assume were grade ones being led around by their mothers this morning.
It was chaos, they were pushing and shouting, and a teacher at the front was attempting to restore order.
Finally, it was time to start, so cue the national anthem! Oh wait, there's a curtain in front of the framed flag! Oh crap, it's tied and pinned together! Well, we can pull those out easily enough by jerking the curtain! Oh, the curtain won't open that far! Too bad it cost us about 5 curtain hooks being torn out to reach that conclusion! Oh, now they're tied together! Someone run and get scissors!
So, it was crazy.
Finally, the curtain was opened, and the national anthem began. I'm not sure it was the official one (not that I could pick it out of a lineup), but it was strange. I couldn't find a melody, it was just all fanfare. Really strange.
Then, the new teachers were introduced, and they lined up at the front and bowed. Then the students bowed. Then the administration bowed. Then I got awkward and bowed for no reason.
The principal then gave about a ten minute speech, which sounded like he was giving the students a stern talking to. I felt guilty, and I didn't even know what he was saying. I did hear what sounded like "Pope John Paul" at one point, but I think that that was just a coincidence more than anything.
Then, he bowed, the students bowed. Then the teachers bowed. Then I bobbed around a bit.
And now I'm wondering what just happened. Where are the grade ones?!
The day started with what I thought was an opening ceremony. There was supposed to be one in first period, so I was shocked when it turned out to be all the teachers just gathering for a regular staff meeting. I was wrong actually, it was just a warm-up for the real thing.
And once they get the ball rolling, watch out!
So, after a few minutes of wondering why everyone had stopped talking (including the teacher whose cellphone rang in the middle of the meeting and had to leave) I was asked if I wanted to go to the ceremony. Always being up for a ceremony, I accepted.
When I got there, I saw two rows, one of grade twos and one of grade threes. No grade ones though, which seemed strange. Well, no grade ones at all, except for what I have to assume were grade ones being led around by their mothers this morning.
It was chaos, they were pushing and shouting, and a teacher at the front was attempting to restore order.
Finally, it was time to start, so cue the national anthem! Oh wait, there's a curtain in front of the framed flag! Oh crap, it's tied and pinned together! Well, we can pull those out easily enough by jerking the curtain! Oh, the curtain won't open that far! Too bad it cost us about 5 curtain hooks being torn out to reach that conclusion! Oh, now they're tied together! Someone run and get scissors!
So, it was crazy.
Finally, the curtain was opened, and the national anthem began. I'm not sure it was the official one (not that I could pick it out of a lineup), but it was strange. I couldn't find a melody, it was just all fanfare. Really strange.
Then, the new teachers were introduced, and they lined up at the front and bowed. Then the students bowed. Then the administration bowed. Then I got awkward and bowed for no reason.
The principal then gave about a ten minute speech, which sounded like he was giving the students a stern talking to. I felt guilty, and I didn't even know what he was saying. I did hear what sounded like "Pope John Paul" at one point, but I think that that was just a coincidence more than anything.
Then, he bowed, the students bowed. Then the teachers bowed. Then I bobbed around a bit.
And now I'm wondering what just happened. Where are the grade ones?!
First day of school!
SO, today is the first day of school.
Jessie left a few minutes ago. It was actualy pretty easy to get up early, the sun is up at that time now, so it was not such a big deal. Too bad for Jessie, today is the beginning of another five months of long commutes she never agreed to.
Last night, we each called our coteachers to find out what was going to be happening today. Results? mixed.
Jessie's coteacher told her that there were no classes today, and a welcome back ceremony tomorrow. I was told that there was a ceremony today, and when I asked what I should do for any classes I might have, she said that she didn't know, because it had not yet been decided what I would be doing today. Last night! So, I have to go to school today with what students I will be teaching, if I am teaching at all! Insanity!
Oh well... if nothing else, the ceremony will offer a chance to catch up on some sleep! (Just kidding... sort of)
Jessie left a few minutes ago. It was actualy pretty easy to get up early, the sun is up at that time now, so it was not such a big deal. Too bad for Jessie, today is the beginning of another five months of long commutes she never agreed to.
Last night, we each called our coteachers to find out what was going to be happening today. Results? mixed.
Jessie's coteacher told her that there were no classes today, and a welcome back ceremony tomorrow. I was told that there was a ceremony today, and when I asked what I should do for any classes I might have, she said that she didn't know, because it had not yet been decided what I would be doing today. Last night! So, I have to go to school today with what students I will be teaching, if I am teaching at all! Insanity!
Oh well... if nothing else, the ceremony will offer a chance to catch up on some sleep! (Just kidding... sort of)
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
We are blowing Yeongam's collective minds.
So, we have had a lot of guests in the last few days.
Steve and Crystal came on Friday, for a relaxing weekend of small town hospitality. We spent Friday night just venting (as per usual), and I made a home-cooked meal of garlic mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli, and of course, chicken-ham. It was pretty standard for us for dinner (except for TWO vegetable sides), but Steve and Crystal were really happy to have some home-cooked food. They eat out a lot (a result of options, mostly) and they have a really tiny kitchenette in their apartment, so that kind of a meal isn't really an option for them. We had a pretty chilled out night, and then we took a walk around the city. The weirdest thing was that we walked the track and saw the usual dozen or so people walking laps. It's this thing I've noticed a few times on walks, just people walking around the track. Doing laps, over and over. I guess the town doesn't have the excitement when you've explored it all of your life before.
When we got back, we watched "Wet Hot American Summer", which was a hit with all assembled.
On Saturday, we had a big breakfast, and we headed out for a hike. It was pretty non-hikey, it was more long-walky. We walked around the rice fields behind our apartment building, and then tried to head up the mountain, but we took a wrong turn, so we wound up running out of path, and heading back early. We took them to the market, just to contrast it against their big-city market. It was just lucky that they happened to be here on a market day.
We headed to Gwangju, got some coffees at Starbucks, had some great Italian dinner, and headed to the Speakeasy for drinks. We ran into some hagwon teachers that Jessie and I had met on our GIC tour (remember the winery and nude spa?), and they will be teaching in Yeongam on Thursdays this semester! Craziness! We went from three foreigners to seven in the blink of an eye (of course, back down to five as soon as Steve and Crystal leave, but still, it is big). Anyways, we came back early, and wound up drinking into the night over a game of poker. Then, we listened to some music.
On Sunday, we woke up early, had some breakfast, and got them out in time to get their 1 pm truck. The rest of the day was spent resting our queasy (hungover) stomachs and resting after a weekend of hosting.
On Monday, Shona, Rodrigo and Sarah came over for dinner. They arrived around 2, and we showed them around town, and brought them home. I made a mom-style stirfry, which turned out well, in spite of flour-thickening fears. We had a good time, and watched "Wet Hot American Summer" again. Afterwards, we were starting to worry about the bus, since the last bus from Mokpo to Yeongam leaves at 9:20, so maybe it went back, but we wanted to be sure, and it was getting on 8:30, so I figured we should just go straight away to be safe. Jessie thought we should ask the Ryus, in case maybe the buses ran later, and then we could hang out later. I thought it was better to be safe, but Jessie went over anyways.
It turned out that we were both wrong. The last bus left at 8:00 for Mokpo, so they were spending the night!
That was when the real drinking began. We went through five bottles of wine, and a considerable amount of scotch. Whee! We played some poker, some asshole, and Jessie and Rodrigo (the latest convert) played Kingdom of Loathing. Then we worked out the sleeping arrangements, luckily the mattress was still out from when Steve and Crystal were over.
Breakfast was french toast and juices, purchased on an early morning run, made AFTER Rodrigo came back from an early morning coffee run. How he found the grocery store by himself, I don't know, but apparently my mention the previous night of "It's straight out and to the left" was enough for him to find it. Jessie can't believe it either. It's really strange.
So, that was three foreigners to ten in the span of five days.
And the local kids will probably still call everyone "Matthew".
Steve and Crystal came on Friday, for a relaxing weekend of small town hospitality. We spent Friday night just venting (as per usual), and I made a home-cooked meal of garlic mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli, and of course, chicken-ham. It was pretty standard for us for dinner (except for TWO vegetable sides), but Steve and Crystal were really happy to have some home-cooked food. They eat out a lot (a result of options, mostly) and they have a really tiny kitchenette in their apartment, so that kind of a meal isn't really an option for them. We had a pretty chilled out night, and then we took a walk around the city. The weirdest thing was that we walked the track and saw the usual dozen or so people walking laps. It's this thing I've noticed a few times on walks, just people walking around the track. Doing laps, over and over. I guess the town doesn't have the excitement when you've explored it all of your life before.
When we got back, we watched "Wet Hot American Summer", which was a hit with all assembled.
On Saturday, we had a big breakfast, and we headed out for a hike. It was pretty non-hikey, it was more long-walky. We walked around the rice fields behind our apartment building, and then tried to head up the mountain, but we took a wrong turn, so we wound up running out of path, and heading back early. We took them to the market, just to contrast it against their big-city market. It was just lucky that they happened to be here on a market day.
We headed to Gwangju, got some coffees at Starbucks, had some great Italian dinner, and headed to the Speakeasy for drinks. We ran into some hagwon teachers that Jessie and I had met on our GIC tour (remember the winery and nude spa?), and they will be teaching in Yeongam on Thursdays this semester! Craziness! We went from three foreigners to seven in the blink of an eye (of course, back down to five as soon as Steve and Crystal leave, but still, it is big). Anyways, we came back early, and wound up drinking into the night over a game of poker. Then, we listened to some music.
On Sunday, we woke up early, had some breakfast, and got them out in time to get their 1 pm truck. The rest of the day was spent resting our queasy (hungover) stomachs and resting after a weekend of hosting.
On Monday, Shona, Rodrigo and Sarah came over for dinner. They arrived around 2, and we showed them around town, and brought them home. I made a mom-style stirfry, which turned out well, in spite of flour-thickening fears. We had a good time, and watched "Wet Hot American Summer" again. Afterwards, we were starting to worry about the bus, since the last bus from Mokpo to Yeongam leaves at 9:20, so maybe it went back, but we wanted to be sure, and it was getting on 8:30, so I figured we should just go straight away to be safe. Jessie thought we should ask the Ryus, in case maybe the buses ran later, and then we could hang out later. I thought it was better to be safe, but Jessie went over anyways.
It turned out that we were both wrong. The last bus left at 8:00 for Mokpo, so they were spending the night!
That was when the real drinking began. We went through five bottles of wine, and a considerable amount of scotch. Whee! We played some poker, some asshole, and Jessie and Rodrigo (the latest convert) played Kingdom of Loathing. Then we worked out the sleeping arrangements, luckily the mattress was still out from when Steve and Crystal were over.
Breakfast was french toast and juices, purchased on an early morning run, made AFTER Rodrigo came back from an early morning coffee run. How he found the grocery store by himself, I don't know, but apparently my mention the previous night of "It's straight out and to the left" was enough for him to find it. Jessie can't believe it either. It's really strange.
So, that was three foreigners to ten in the span of five days.
And the local kids will probably still call everyone "Matthew".
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