So, who is really really frustrated with their precarious position within South Korea? ME!
Today is Chuseok. The Korean version of Thanksgiving. For me, this means going to the supermarket, Lotte Mart, and to McDonalds. Now let me explain my relationship with Mickey Ds. I do not like to purchase food from them. However, today, the French Fries were delicious. I have been craving salt for way too long. Never in my life have I looked forward to a snack at McDonalds or been so satisfied that I had eaten there.
Other than being way too American during this traditional Korean holiday I have been worrying about my next step. I am looking in the United States for a job just in case Asia does not work out. But, I am also looking for teaching jobs in South Korea with bosses who would actually go up to bat for me and find out what I need to do to placate the immigration office. It would be really nice to work for someone with a modicum of intelligence or gumption not to mention a working knowledge of english.
Right now the best prospect is a school system for which a friend of mine works. I would not be working in the same school, but at least I could ask her for some advice. I really hope this works out. But, considering my luck in the land of the morning calm, I am not holding my breath.
Anyway, everyone have a happy Chuseok and enjoy all of the American food that I am not capable of obtaining.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Keep on Truckin'
When I was younger, after peeling off a mass of wallpaper in my bedroom so that painting could commence a message written on the wall in pencil was discovered. "Keep on Truckin'." This is exactly what I plan to do.
After a mentally harrowing week filled with incompetent English speakers I was told, via email, that YLS, the school where I work would be finding a new teacher because the Korean government has a huge stick up it's ass and doesn't want to give me a residency card. True I failed the drug test, however, there was a study done that apparently shows that it is very easy to fail this drug test. For instance, more melanin in the skin (yeah okay, this one doesn't apply to me, but still it illustrates the point) could make the drug test come out positive.
Well, quoting Lady Chablis from the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil :"Two tears in a bucket mother fuck it." In a way this ruling is a relief. I don't like the school where I work, so moving on sounds like a wonderful proposition.
Once again I am job hunting in Asia. This time in the beautiful and cosmopolitan country of Japan. I really hope something pans out for me.
I do have to say though that I enjoyed a wonderful weekend filled with new friends from the Air Force Base and another ESL school. I ate delicious Korean food (yeah that's right not all Koreans are obsessed with what they term healthy food and which I deem to be disgusting), went to a soccer match, and went to a place where you get a private room with your friends and you can sing karaoke until all hours of the night. I had a marvelous time!
After a mentally harrowing week filled with incompetent English speakers I was told, via email, that YLS, the school where I work would be finding a new teacher because the Korean government has a huge stick up it's ass and doesn't want to give me a residency card. True I failed the drug test, however, there was a study done that apparently shows that it is very easy to fail this drug test. For instance, more melanin in the skin (yeah okay, this one doesn't apply to me, but still it illustrates the point) could make the drug test come out positive.
Well, quoting Lady Chablis from the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil :"Two tears in a bucket mother fuck it." In a way this ruling is a relief. I don't like the school where I work, so moving on sounds like a wonderful proposition.
Once again I am job hunting in Asia. This time in the beautiful and cosmopolitan country of Japan. I really hope something pans out for me.
I do have to say though that I enjoyed a wonderful weekend filled with new friends from the Air Force Base and another ESL school. I ate delicious Korean food (yeah that's right not all Koreans are obsessed with what they term healthy food and which I deem to be disgusting), went to a soccer match, and went to a place where you get a private room with your friends and you can sing karaoke until all hours of the night. I had a marvelous time!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Whitney Loves the Little Children... It's Just not Mutual
Hello readers from many locales.
I am blogging to recap my past week. I am really starting to like Korea. This past weekend I went exploring near my neighborhood in Suwon, by Hwaseo Station. I found a small river, maybe it is more of a large creek, that has a trail on both sides that is very close to the train station. I went running on Sunday on the trails and it was fun to see all of the people out and about on their day of leisure. There was finally some sun (hallelujah). It made my little jaunt very picturesque. Dang, I didn't have a camera. It was fun to watch the kids playing in the river near some really bizarre workout "equipment" that is found in all of the parks that I have seen thus far and is utilized by the scary Korean grandmas who like to run the young'uns like myself off the road with their little rolling shopping carriers. They have got places to be people!
Anyway, besides the river, I found a school resplendent with a dirt soccer pitch not far from my abode. I also spotted some weird compound that had two baseball diamonds and more grassy areas very near to where I live. I didn't think this was very common for Korea. I mean most of the land is allotted for something. For instance, next to Hwaseo station there is a small garden patch that an old man tends that is maybe three feet wide but much longer. And this sizing is being generous. I mean in the USA nothing would be there. It truly amazes me.
When I went to get groceries at Lotte Mart I looked around the surrounding area as well. I found a lot of different boutique type stores (or think a small Nike store because American brands have thrown up all over Korea), and a 24 hour MacDonalds (American pride?) and the ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts. Oh and yes I stopped in and devoured a simply delicious glazed donut. What a treat.
All of my food excitement has worn off (where as all the good cheese gone?). Especially since my captors, now I have officially become Jenny's problem, worry constantly about my eating habits. It is not my fault that I am not crazy about tofu. Leave me alone! Good grief. These people are health nuts in a very judgmental way. I mean, yes, I judge morbidly obese people when they decide to supersize everything in quadruple servings, but I just want to eat some ice cream or eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich in piece thank you. I am a satisfactory size. And just a side note, air conditioners do not kill people when set below 75 degrees. The students even want it cooler. So there!
Okay, meandering rant done. School has gotten better in some ways and worse in others. First, I finally decided to talk to Jenny about the problems I have been experiencing with some of the students. Such as Ha Na won't look at me because she is ashamed that she doesn't understand english or because she hates me. I can't decide. Or, another example is a class of three boys who do not want to study english and who are completely obnoxious. She completely understood my frustration and we worked somethings out, basically she will be in the room with me. Yay! I just hope everything gets fixed satisfactorily. I apparently committed a sin when I took tests away from students who were cheating and threw them in the garbage. Apparently, that was sacrilege of the worst kind in the eyes of Educator Jenny. Oh well. You win some and you loose some.
The biggest joy of my week comes from the smallest bodies. My youngest classes are the most fun to teach. Especially the children who have just started english. They are freaking adorable. I want to take them home with me. Especially one seven year old boy. He is so precocious and crazy. I love it. There is also the sweetest little girl in the same class. She paints her nails, read her mom paints her nails, and she wears pigtails and I just think about wanting to talk to her in Korean to hear the crazy things she says in Korean first hand. My heart screams out "You want one" and then I realize... jam hands. Ewww gross. Scratch having a cute Asian five year old off the bucket list. Hopefully my other classes eventually will bring me as much happiness as the adorable one.
That was super long and I appreciate if you actually read this far. Have a wonderful week!
I am blogging to recap my past week. I am really starting to like Korea. This past weekend I went exploring near my neighborhood in Suwon, by Hwaseo Station. I found a small river, maybe it is more of a large creek, that has a trail on both sides that is very close to the train station. I went running on Sunday on the trails and it was fun to see all of the people out and about on their day of leisure. There was finally some sun (hallelujah). It made my little jaunt very picturesque. Dang, I didn't have a camera. It was fun to watch the kids playing in the river near some really bizarre workout "equipment" that is found in all of the parks that I have seen thus far and is utilized by the scary Korean grandmas who like to run the young'uns like myself off the road with their little rolling shopping carriers. They have got places to be people!
Anyway, besides the river, I found a school resplendent with a dirt soccer pitch not far from my abode. I also spotted some weird compound that had two baseball diamonds and more grassy areas very near to where I live. I didn't think this was very common for Korea. I mean most of the land is allotted for something. For instance, next to Hwaseo station there is a small garden patch that an old man tends that is maybe three feet wide but much longer. And this sizing is being generous. I mean in the USA nothing would be there. It truly amazes me.
When I went to get groceries at Lotte Mart I looked around the surrounding area as well. I found a lot of different boutique type stores (or think a small Nike store because American brands have thrown up all over Korea), and a 24 hour MacDonalds (American pride?) and the ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts. Oh and yes I stopped in and devoured a simply delicious glazed donut. What a treat.
All of my food excitement has worn off (where as all the good cheese gone?). Especially since my captors, now I have officially become Jenny's problem, worry constantly about my eating habits. It is not my fault that I am not crazy about tofu. Leave me alone! Good grief. These people are health nuts in a very judgmental way. I mean, yes, I judge morbidly obese people when they decide to supersize everything in quadruple servings, but I just want to eat some ice cream or eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich in piece thank you. I am a satisfactory size. And just a side note, air conditioners do not kill people when set below 75 degrees. The students even want it cooler. So there!
Okay, meandering rant done. School has gotten better in some ways and worse in others. First, I finally decided to talk to Jenny about the problems I have been experiencing with some of the students. Such as Ha Na won't look at me because she is ashamed that she doesn't understand english or because she hates me. I can't decide. Or, another example is a class of three boys who do not want to study english and who are completely obnoxious. She completely understood my frustration and we worked somethings out, basically she will be in the room with me. Yay! I just hope everything gets fixed satisfactorily. I apparently committed a sin when I took tests away from students who were cheating and threw them in the garbage. Apparently, that was sacrilege of the worst kind in the eyes of Educator Jenny. Oh well. You win some and you loose some.
The biggest joy of my week comes from the smallest bodies. My youngest classes are the most fun to teach. Especially the children who have just started english. They are freaking adorable. I want to take them home with me. Especially one seven year old boy. He is so precocious and crazy. I love it. There is also the sweetest little girl in the same class. She paints her nails, read her mom paints her nails, and she wears pigtails and I just think about wanting to talk to her in Korean to hear the crazy things she says in Korean first hand. My heart screams out "You want one" and then I realize... jam hands. Ewww gross. Scratch having a cute Asian five year old off the bucket list. Hopefully my other classes eventually will bring me as much happiness as the adorable one.
That was super long and I appreciate if you actually read this far. Have a wonderful week!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
One Week Down
I have finished my first week living in Korea!
Many things have transpired since I have been here. Most notably the incomprehensible response to the medications I take from the Korean government and my host school. No one in my school speaks or understands english tremendously well. They also cannot understand that I cannot just stop taking certain medication (even with two doctors notes). I might yet be kicked out of Korea. It is really fun to explain dysmenhorrea to a Korean man who does not wish to believe that, indeed, my doctors believe my medicine is important to my health.
Speaking of Dave, let me describe this annoyance. I have finally come up with a pretty good personality description of Dictator Dave (DD). He has a weird way of blinking his eyes repeatedly. It reminds me of Gollum for some reason. He also has a machismo problem. Luckily, I think he has figured out that, in fact, I do not like him to touch me, or guide me in the streets, and I don't particularly like to talk to him. Furthermore, he finds himself to be very smart and funny. I can assure you that in english this does not translate. Maybe it works well in his native korean. But, as far as not talking to anyone, even the U.S. Embassy disagrees with DD. In short, everyone thinks he is a moron.
Other than this hang up teaching has been interesting. I am not a good teacher. Most of my students, before they walk in the door, do not wish to be there. I can't blame them. I am not supposed to deviate from the textbooks they use. Basically I push a button on a CD player so that they can repeat after an english speaker. Wait... why am I here again? Oh, so that they can hear me speak english? Hmmm... interesting, I don't get that impression. Making these textbooks fun seems impossible to me. There is no creativity in the learning process they are supposed to memorize and that is all. How to use the language is irrelevant. So, I am frustrated to say the least.
This weekend, I spent time with a high school friend outside of an U.S. air force base. It was great to see her and many other native english speakers (from the U.S. and Canada). It was a fun night and I met new friends, which was awesome. I left early, at about 1:00 in the morning, to return home because I could barely keep my eyes open. But, will hopefully get to hang out with them again.
Oh and amazingly I lived through a typhoon! Not only that, but I slept through the entire thing. Check out the CNN article on it : http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/02/korea.typhoon.deaths/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
All in all I really like Korea. Where I work is a bummer, but as I get better as a teacher maybe the students will be more engaged. :)
Many things have transpired since I have been here. Most notably the incomprehensible response to the medications I take from the Korean government and my host school. No one in my school speaks or understands english tremendously well. They also cannot understand that I cannot just stop taking certain medication (even with two doctors notes). I might yet be kicked out of Korea. It is really fun to explain dysmenhorrea to a Korean man who does not wish to believe that, indeed, my doctors believe my medicine is important to my health.
Speaking of Dave, let me describe this annoyance. I have finally come up with a pretty good personality description of Dictator Dave (DD). He has a weird way of blinking his eyes repeatedly. It reminds me of Gollum for some reason. He also has a machismo problem. Luckily, I think he has figured out that, in fact, I do not like him to touch me, or guide me in the streets, and I don't particularly like to talk to him. Furthermore, he finds himself to be very smart and funny. I can assure you that in english this does not translate. Maybe it works well in his native korean. But, as far as not talking to anyone, even the U.S. Embassy disagrees with DD. In short, everyone thinks he is a moron.
Other than this hang up teaching has been interesting. I am not a good teacher. Most of my students, before they walk in the door, do not wish to be there. I can't blame them. I am not supposed to deviate from the textbooks they use. Basically I push a button on a CD player so that they can repeat after an english speaker. Wait... why am I here again? Oh, so that they can hear me speak english? Hmmm... interesting, I don't get that impression. Making these textbooks fun seems impossible to me. There is no creativity in the learning process they are supposed to memorize and that is all. How to use the language is irrelevant. So, I am frustrated to say the least.
This weekend, I spent time with a high school friend outside of an U.S. air force base. It was great to see her and many other native english speakers (from the U.S. and Canada). It was a fun night and I met new friends, which was awesome. I left early, at about 1:00 in the morning, to return home because I could barely keep my eyes open. But, will hopefully get to hang out with them again.
Oh and amazingly I lived through a typhoon! Not only that, but I slept through the entire thing. Check out the CNN article on it : http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/02/korea.typhoon.deaths/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
All in all I really like Korea. Where I work is a bummer, but as I get better as a teacher maybe the students will be more engaged. :)
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