My (edited) Journal

New Blog

2005-06-13T22:14:00.000+09:00

What do English teachers do when they return to their home countries? Well, I decided against teaching, at least for the time being. The local public school district didn't impress me and I don't have the qualifications to teach in a private school. Plus there are frequent stories in the news about students assaulting teachers, parents causing problems, legislators telling teachers what they have to teach and what they're not allowed to mention, etc. etc. etc.

I got tired of not writing anything, so have started a blog about my new job. The new blog is completely anonymous, though. If you're interested in reading the new blog, email me at chunjaeteacherNOSPAM@yahoo.com.

One More Goodbye

2004-10-01T23:20:00.000+09:00

The trip was average and my first 3 days home have been less jet-lagged than in the past. Sure I'm sleeping practically 12 hours every night, but they're 12 hours that most people on the Western side of the world sleep at. No crazy stuff like falling asleep at 7 PM--I think the hurricane shutters blocking out all of the light might be helping my body adjust faster!

The yard is a mess of tree limbs and leaves, while there's a lake behind the house and the pool is a nice green color with more tree limbs in it. There are fallen trees all over the city, some smashing cars or houses, some blocking roads, others knocking down power lines. More of the traffic lights are working now, but Grandma and Grandpa T. still don't have power (day 6). The latest storm (on Sunday, Jeanne) hit Lakeland harder than the others.

It's weird being home, but nice. I went to Cody's high school football game tonight and played with Hanna a lot while there. She has to be the cutest and smartest almost-2-year-old ever!! I've done some yardwork and cleaning in the house the last several days. Yesterday I unpacked most of my stuff; now I just have to find room for all of the new books. I suppose I'll get the process for applying as a substitute teacher started next week, as I've heard it takes as long as 6 weeks to get approved (background check, fingerprinting, drug test, physical, besides all of the normal job paperwork). Once I get that going I'll get more into life here. I need to get new health insurance, as my old policy expires in 2 weeks but I can extend it for another month. Car shopping should be fun, then there's that insurance. Grandma P. is letting me drive one of her cars for the time being. I haven't driven yet, though. I need a more professional wardrobe than I wore at the hogwan--outlet malls, here I come! Then there's stuff like eye doctor, dentist, dermatologist, etc. that I couldn't or didn't want done in Korea.

I've thought about it for the last several days, and decided that this blog has reached its end. I'll continue a paper journal, though it won't be quite as long largely because things here are more normal. Reasons I've reached this conclusion:

I expect the re-entry shock might be quite an experience and interesting to hear about, but I don't want my family to read about my feelings and feel responsible for how well I might or might not be adjusting.
If I'm going to write an online journal, I can't help but be detailed. Now that I'll be working in a place where people speak the same language as me, there'd be more chance of them stumbling upon this. I don't see pseudonyms working well for me. I don't want to get in any trouble with hurt feelings or worse, a lawsuit for libel or breaching a student's privacy or anything like that.
I enjoyed sharing my experiences with people and hearing your reactions from time to time, but now that I'm around people who speak English and I can communicate with my family face-to-face or by phone more easily than before, writing a blog wouldn't be nearly the priority that it was while I was in Korea.

So instead of having a randomly updated and not very detailed page, I decided to not have a page at all. Thank you for reading and goodbye!

Saying Goodbye

2004-09-28T00:03:00.000+09:00

The week of saying goodbyes. There were too many to say!!
Sunday the 19th started the week. Because a ton of people would be traveling during the Chuseok holiday, they did the customary sending-off then. Bill and Dave said some nice things and they gave me a framed Psalm 121:1-2 in Korean and English. Many people wrote messages on the back. I gave a short speech which I managed to stay composed for.

At Shinbok there were 15 kids, so it was pretty chaotic. Octavia gave me a gift certificate to Lotte. After the kids left, Octavia, John, and the other guy stayed and talked for an hour. I followed the conversation decently, I guess, though couldn't add to it.

I went home for a short time before meeting people at Pizza Hut for my official goodbye party. A total of 11 people were there. It was loads of fun and we eventually got kicked out for being too loud. Oops. Miran, Danica, and Moses had to leave then; the rest of us stopped in a store with a major sale and then went to a coffee shop.

More fun there, a lot of it at Ryan's expense. He was the first to order, so everyone was still at the counter when he got his coffee. There was a container of red and blue packets of (presumably) sugar on the counter. He opened a red packet of white powdery stuff and put it in his coffee. Shelly very believably and with a perfectly straight face asked him, "Why did you put salt in your coffee?" Ryan looked at her to see if she was serious, then turned to Dave and asked, "What's in the red packets?" Dave (who acted as if he hadn't been listening) replied, "The red packets are salt and the blue ones are sugar. Why?" With an exasperated voice, Ryan answered, "Because I just put salt in my coffee! Can you ask [the employee] for a spoon so I can get it out?" Dave asked for the spoon and handed it to Ryan, who dipped all of the whipped cream off of the top of the coffee. At that point Shelly admitted that it wasn't salt, and I asked Ryan why would a coffee shop have salt! For the next 1~2 hours Shelly and Dave must have worked about 10~15 "salty" jokes into the conversation. Poor Ryan!

Saying goodbye once again—hard! Dave, Katie, Shelly, and Kendall—such a good part of my time here. Then I stood outside talking with Ian and Jodie for practically another hour. At one point the owner came outside to say hello to Ian and expressed some concern about how his business is going. It's been open for 5 months but being near the university, there are tons of other coffee shops around. We made some suggestions on how to get more people to buy from him. It was great standing around brainstorming how to make his business more profitable. What American business owner would listen to youngsters' advice?

Tuesday the adult class took me out to lunch at a traditional place in downtown. The atmosphere was great; the food was strange. There were 20~30 side dishes so although I didn't like any of them very much I was able to sample enough to get full. One dish looked like seasoned green beans. I took one, put it in my mouth and started chewing—oops—green pepper, and an especially potent one—I almost died coughing. The day was good, but I wasn't sure how to tell the kids I was leaving and what special thing to do for them.

Miro's 4 PM class that has been one of the most challenging asked me if I was leaving Korea to go to Iraq and fight. Certainly not! They reminded me that my name was "E.T." and acted as if they were glad to be rid of me. Well, I was somewhat glad to be rid of them, so if the feeling is mutual, fine! I asked them what they would do for the Chuseok holiday and one of the boys told me that he would bow and get money. Another kid proclaimed, "Babo! That's New Year's Day, not Chuseok!" First kid: "Oh yeah!"

In Mona's 5 PM class (long one of my favorites) I bought them snacks, since Friday would be speaking tests. We talked a lot, studied a little. Sure we didn't quite finish the book, but I would rather enjoy my last time with them than rush through the last chapter (which they didn't need for the test).

Thursday and Friday I brought out the camera for a few pictures—Miro's 3 PM class with Ally, Jenny, Cindy, and Ju-young; Mona's 3 and 5 PM classes.

The last adult class was awkward, as none of us knew exactly how to say goodbye. I gave them my email and mailing address, then Jennifer asked for my phone number. I hesitated, not sure of why she wanted it. After making sure she realized the time difference, I gave it to her.

Tomas asked if I liked his card, and told me that Mona had helped him. Then he said "Don't forget Tomas! Don't forget Korea! Don't forget Korea talking!" I explained that I don't have anyway to practice Korean with at home, so I'm sure to forget some of it.

On Friday from 5~7 it was a little insane with fitting in some speaking tests I didn't finish on Thursday plus doing Friday's tests. At 5 the kids knew the material so well that I was able to get through all of them and still have time for pictures and a tiny bit of talking. The girls all gave me gifts—Luby gave me coasters she had made herself from traditional Korean paper—very nice, along with a sweet letter; Laura and Sally also gave me wonderful letters and candy; Lily (after asking me on a couple of different days what my favorite Lotteria food was) brought me a shrimp burger set and insisted that I drink the cola while giving them their test because otherwise the ice would melt and it would be disgusting.

In the 8:30 class after the speaking test I told them goodbye, made sure they knew my email address and asked them to email from time to time to tell me what they were up to. They seemed pleased that I was interested in them.

Despite all the tests, I only had to stay 10 minutes later than normal to finish everything. I had started the evaluations about 10 days before, and flew through grading the writing tests. I did the last of my computer work, got rid of a few last things off my desk, and was struck by the sudden thought that I'm now unemployed!

Miro said a nice goodbye—after all, I was her main co-teacher. Lisa nearly started crying, which nearly got me going. Jane translated for her. It's weird—we haven't been able to talk very much because of the language barrier, yet I like her better than some of the teachers. We always greet each other, do a little simple conversation, and show concern for each other. She's often the only one there when I come in for adult classes, and I think we have a mutual respect for the work that the other does. Julia (the secretary when I came) rarely did any work—she preferred to gossip all day long. She made no effort to speak with me—at all. The next secretary was tons better, but, and perhaps it was only because of personal problems, she often seemed unorganized and distracted. Lisa does a good job yet still manages to be friendly to the students and teachers.

Mr. Kim gave all the teachers Chuseok gifts—a huge box of shampoo, soaps, toothpastes, etc. and he gave me a going-away present of pottery. I gave both of them away—too big and heavy to carry home. I thanked Mr. Kim for my time at his school, saying I'd enjoyed it and learned a lot. As I left he was on the phone, but I bowed to him and he, although seated, gave me a low goodbye bow.

Jane offered to drive me home, since she was meeting her friend in Mugeo-dong. Joelle was going to go along with us, too, but after waiting in Jane's car for awhile Joelle text messaged Jane that she had to stay and talk with Mr. Kim, so we were to go on without her. So no goodbye to Joelle—too bad, I'll forever regret it….yeah right! I can't even begin to pretend about that!

I stayed up pretty late writing thank-you and I'll miss you notes to some of the students, then did some packing. It must have been around 2 AM when I went to sleep, then got up at 8 AM to meet Octavia to go to Busan. I haven't gotten back to a normal sleep schedule since then.

Saturday Octavia drove John and me to the Nampo-dong area. I expected her to do what she's done in the past and just drive to Nopo-dong and take the subway from there, but later I understood why she drove all the way to Nampo-dong.

We did some shopping Korean-style. In the past I'd only visited the outdoor markets or the 1st-floor shops. I had no idea there was a maze of shops on the second floor! Up a steep staircase and down narrow halls, hoping the building had been properly constructed. Open rafters above, uneven flooring below. Steel walkways from one building to the next. Not a place to be if a fire broke out!

We had a quick lunch at the street-side vendors. I never eat on the street by myself, but I figure that with a Korean it's safe—they know what to look for as far as cleanliness and the type of food that's safe to eat even when it's been sitting out all day. We had an appetizer of dukbokki, and then had some noodle-ly dish at another vendor. Slurp, slurp, slurp, seated on low stools surrounding the woman who dished out the food for us. People scurrying past, an old man shouting at people to buy his fruit and/or get out of his way. Finding a hair in the noodles—yuck, but get it out and continue eating—can't get behind in this race. No talking at all during the 10-minute-or-less meal. We then walked to the area I was more familiar with and into an older (for Busan) hotel to get coffee. We sat for over an hour and talked as we rested. Then Octavia and I headed to her friend's store while John returned to Ulsan via the subway and bus to help his mother get ready for Chuseok. Shopping with them was OK, but I felt like a child shopping under mom's watchful eye, as if my purchases were being evaluated as to their practical-ness or value.

Around 4 PM we met Octavia's friends. One was the same one from the Haeundae Beach day who brought her daughter and niece and we went to the Pet Café, etc. Today it was only adults. Three, then later four Korean women in their late 40s or early 50s chattering up a storm and me. I understood very little, as they were talking so fast. The fatigue that suddenly hit me contributed as well. On the way to the big bridge we got in a traffic jam and I fell asleep for a bit, but the nap didn't help at all.

We went to a raw fish restaurant. I didn't like it very much. Perhaps it was because it was only 6 PM and my stomach was still digesting the half-chewed noodles from our 1 PM lunch. The actual raw fish was good, but the side dishes weren't appetizing. The thing that really turned my stomach was the whatever-it-was that was still moving. I tried one because they urged me to, but didn't eat much after that. Memories of the last time I had raw fish with Octavia and spent the next 12 hours puking went through my mind—the last thing I needed was to be sick when I should be packing or too weak to make the long trip home. My stomach felt weird for the rest of the night but no further problems. The bridge was really nice—huge and lit up with green and blue lights. Gwangali or something like that, built before the 2002 World Cup. Driving around, a bakery, another coffee shop, and finally arriving home after 11 PM and going almost immediately to bed. That meant I was fully awake by 8 AM Sunday morning.

I did a ton of cleaning and packing. I made a new stack of things to take to church with me. Mostly a few canned goods and the Chuseok gift from Mr. Kim. I found that most of my stash of medicine has expired or is close to it, so that takes care of not having to pack that! Sunday mornings are usually quiet, but this week it was like a ghost town. I wasn't looking forward to more goodbyes. There were only about 20~25 people there, with so many people traveling abroad. Roger gave a sermon—he was dressed up and was quite serious, in contrast to his normally joking personality. At the end Pastor Cho did some announcements, including the September birthdays yet to come, and his was one of them so David called out, "Happy Birthday!" and Pastor Cho joked, "Where's my gift?" David suggested giving him the gift set and I said sure, but I wasn't going to do it. So David jumped up and ran it up to the front, to a very embarrassed Pastor Cho!

I was hoping to see Mrs. Yoon, but she may be traveling. We said goodbye last month, but with the expectation that we'd see each other again at church. Oh well, it didn't work out.

At Shinbok there was a small crowd. We didn't study, but the 4 girls (the 2 boys disappeared early on) sat and asked me a lot of questions (with help from John). I didn't realize that two of the girls (the talkative elementary school one with the really positive attitude and her older sister who is constantly whining) were the pastor's children. The younger one gave me a gift, so afterwards Octavia took me to their mother so I could thank her. The family actually lives in the church. I'd never met the pastor before. He took Octavia and me into this study, where we chatted a tiny bit with Octavia as translator as needed and then he prayed for me, thanking God for the work I'd done there and asking blessings for my future. He talked entirely too fast for me to understand, but Octavia told me later. At the time, though, it was one of the "language doesn't really matter" experiences because I could hear the passion with which he prayed and feel the power of his words.

As she drove me home I wondered if Octavia was going to cry—her eyes were certainly damp. Again, it was awkward because we didn't know when we would meet again.

I walked down to the market to buy another big trash bag, and then wandered around the neighborhood. The last few days I've been more observant about the differences. It's almost as if since I'll soon be home, that I'm seeing things with the newcomer's eyes once more. People out working, kids perfectly safe out playing by themselves, grandmothers squatting and sorting through the trash.

Jodie called to ask if we could meet later; I agreed and then lay down for a short nap. After I'd been up for a bit Sandra called to ask if she and Lee could come by. Mr. Kim had told them they could take whatever they wanted from the apartment after I was gone, so she wanted to make sure they could find it. They came in and visited for 20 minutes or so, and I gave them the pottery set, the bread from Octavia, and the thank you notes to deliver to the kids. Sandra again said how she'd miss working with me, and I said I felt the same. Another goodbye.

Jodie came around 8:00, and stayed until after midnight. Go away! She's a little strange, but I was so tired. And hungry, actually. I ate lunch at around 2 PM at Shinbok, and then Sandra came, then I kept expecting Jodie to come, so I had put off eating dinner. I finally had yoghurt and a sandwich at around 12:30. Jodie took quite a few things with her; I felt good that some things would get some more use out of them.

That brings me to the last day of Korea. More packing, more cleaning. I took the remaining unwanted clothes outside to find the donation box gone, so I left the clothes where the box used to be in the hopes that an ajumma will find it and do something useful with the clothes. I went down the Lotte Department Store to spend the gift certificate. At first I spent 38,000 won, thinking (as Octavia had told me) that they'd give me cash back. Well, they did—12,000 won, and a 50,000 won gift certificate. Ugh, more shopping! The actual department store part wasn't too crowded, but the discount store was. I finally found some more stuff to buy, but ended up spending the entire thing plus 1,000 won.

Back to the apartment, again being extra-observant on the bus ride and walk home. Another nap at home, more cleaning, more packing, and pleasantly surprised to find that everything seems to fit (tomorrow morning will be the final test!). I hope neither of the bags is too heavy! I'm also hoping there won't be a problem with the carry-ons. I have my computer bag, a purse, and a shopping bag with the framed verse from Simin (with the frame and glass cover, I didn't trust it to be checked, even if I sandwiched it between clothes). If need be I can stick my purse in the shopping bag to say that I only have 2 bags to carry on, right?

Has it really sunk in that I'm leaving? The apartment is looking pretty bare, I'm excited to be going home, yet I feel as if my goodbyes were insufficient. A week of saying goodbye somehow doesn't seem enough for a place that's been my home for over 2 years. I guess it's the whole leaving-and-probably-never-coming-back thing. Now that I'm leaving, I feel as if I know Korea so well. In some ways, I think I know it better than my own country and culture. Reverse culture shock—how bad will it be?

Internet Censorship

2004-09-26T18:20:00.000+09:00

Well, mu.nu blogs are inaccessible again, but I'll be gone soon and the Korean government has shown how (not) concerned they are about foreigners. With my American brain, my first thought is that Korea can't expect to advance much within the international world or as the desired hub of Asia when they do stupid things like internet censorship. However, some things recently have put it in perspective.

First, the Brainysmurf's writings about internet censorship in China show me that some countries have it worse off.

Secondly, I've learned some things that show me just what a new democracy Korea is. Octavia said that prior to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, they had a midnight to 4 AM curfew. She got caught once, and got some sort of ticket. Things I read in the newspaper about the 70s and 80s and how they were filled with demonstrations and assassinations and if you said something against the government something bad might happen to you. Octavia said that because Koreans didn't have to fight for democracy they don't value it as much; women didn't have to fight for the vote so it's not very important to them. How about the Korean War? Wasn't that fighting for democracy? All the protests?

Economically the country has come a long way, too. Octavia said (primary sources are the best source of information!) that even 15 years ago her apartment complex had 300 families and only 4 of them had a car.

!!!!!

That's within my lifetime! (Public transportation in the form of buses and such were used to get around.) Nowadays nearly every family has one car, and more are getting second cars.

Korea as it is today doesn't seem that far off from the USA, yet it's come to this point so quickly that minor setbacks are bound to occur from time to time. As the kids grow up with freedoms, setbacks will occur less often. The political system has a long way to go, though, with lots of growing pains along the way as Koreans strive to achieve their own national identity independent of the Americans, Japanese, and Chinese.

As to how/when unification of the peninsula will occur.....I'd love to see it happen within my lifetime, but the difficulties are immense. Anyone feel like assassinating Kim Jong Il? The longer they stay separate, the harder unification will be. The longer the North stays isolated, the more out of touch the people will be with the international world that the Southerners live in.

I loved Korea Unmasked by Won-bok Rhie. It explains things pretty well without the academic jargon.

Webpage Edit

2004-09-24T23:01:00.000+09:00

I can finally access the mu.nu blogs without using a proxy--only 92 days of blockage! I still agree with the Benjamin Franklin quote, but it's time for it to come down, too. "He who sacrifices freedom for security is neither free nor secure." President Bush could do well to remember that.

Ramblings on Getting Ready

2004-09-24T12:29:00.000+09:00

I began packing today and determined that I don't need to ship anything home. I practically filled up one bag with books and such; I'm pretty sure the other bag has room for my clothes and everything else. Of course I'll be rearranging things at least a time or two for both the fit and the weight--right now the bag with the books is a little heavy. But how heavy? Still under 70 pounds, certainly, but by how much? I can lift it to waist-level without much difficulty, so I'm thinking it's around 40~50 pounds. I'll move some of the books into my other big bag, though, to even things out. The clothes weigh practically nothing. Shoes--they're all worn out, excepting sandals and the pair I'll be wearing home. I went through clothes to throw out the ones in bad repair--no use transporting them across the Pacific Ocean. Every little bit of space/weight helps.

I've found some more things to take to school with me today and more for the church people on Sunday. I'll email Jodie and have her come over perhaps Sunday night to take anything she wants--fans, shelves, a nice plant, winter clothes, etc.

Last night I wrote thank-you notes to the kids who gave me gifts. I tried to use easy words, but their Korean teachers might have to help them understand. I can't believe it's the last day! I have 3 classes to teach, 3 classes to give speaking tests to, several classes of writing tests to grade, and the bank to visit during my break. Things are coming together. I'll have to buy one more 50 liter trash bag, as this morning's wild mess-making practically filled up the one that was only a quarter-full. My apartment hasn't been this clean in quite a while!

Tomorrow Busan, Sunday church and Bible study, Monday Lotte shopping (gift certificate!) and perhaps out for one last look at Daewangam, then Tuesday I say goodbye to Korea--take my last taxi, see the last of the Taehwa River, take the last airport bus, give up my resident ID card, change the last of my won into dollars, and get on the plane for the long trip home.

One Day Left

2004-09-23T23:15:00.000+09:00

The day was insane, but in a good way. There was a never-ending stream of kids into the teachers' room to give me cards and gifts. Only one day of work left--I can't believe it. So far no tears, but I don't know how much more I can take!

Mona helped him, but Tomas wrote:

Dear Beth teacher
Hello Beth
America live Beth to Beth I love Beth
Thank you for teaching me. Don't forget Korea and don't forget
Tomas. My Beth Don't forget USA Beth. a gain meet good bye to your home town bey Beth I love you and Monna take Beth to your homtown surpereg bey pretty (heart) Beth (heart) (Tomas' name in a heart) I'm miss you
From Tomas (another heart)

He obviously hasn't learned punctuation yet! He's one that barely knew the alphabet when I started teaching him--how far he's come! (Me patting myself on the back) He still has his moody days, but has the potential to develop a really high level of English (he's in the 3rd grade now).

The other cards and letters were similar: "I love you," or "I'll miss you," or "Thank you," or "Don't forget me." I wager they'll have me crying before I leave tomorrow. I was pretty close after reading all of the cards from Mona's class!

Mina's 2 PM class (Kate, Danny, Maria, Penny, Clint) came to say goodbye again, with fake tears. At 3 PM the four girls (3rd grade) had gifts for me, and happily received their gifts from me. Ask and you shall receive! They're one of the few classes that asked for gifts, and it's small enough that I could do it. I told them that I didn't buy gifts for the other classes, so it was a secret. I worried about what to buy, but little girls like anything pretty; they were happy with the rings. Ally gave me a pen and a picture frame with a picture of her on the beach; Cindy gave me lip gloss (which Jenny put on me, then they tried out, then they put more on me--I know, Mom, not very sanitary) and a Harry Potter pen; Ju-young came back to school later to give me lip gloss, a cell phone accessory, and a hair band. We did absolutely no study from the book, just talked in an odd mixture of English and Korean. Ally and Jenny performed a play for me that they'd made up before class. Jenny played herself and Ally played me, and it consisted of Jenny begging Ally not to go to the USA and trying to go with her, but then finally saying goodbye. Then when she was 20 years old she came to the USA to see me and I was pregnant and she had to help me to the hospital. I'll miss their silliness.

Later in the day Elaine and Sera (from Mona's class) returned to school with gifts for me: a hair pin, artificial flowers, and huge hat. Mona liked the hat, so I gave it to her--is that terrible? I told her not to tell Sera. It's just too big to get home without squashing it beyond recognition.

The other crazy part of the day was the speaking tests. Even with the big classes I was able to get most of the students finished. I should be able to finish in the 10 minutes between classes tomorrow. I practically ran over to the photo shop to have the pictures developed, then have reprints made so I can give Ally, Jenny, Cindy, and Ju-young their picture tomorrow. I expected the reprints to take longer; the man had me wait, which put me back to school late. Oops! On my next-to-last day when Mr. Kim was there, too!

Mr. Kim signed the letter of recommendation that I wrote for myself, as well as using his name stamp. I had hoped that he wouldn't really look at it, but he read it all. It's embarrassing to "toot your own horn," as Tanya put it. I was busy later and he had to leave so he had Lisa (the secretary) give it to me. She also gave me some school envelopes--that's a nice touch. Matt suggested that perhaps I should have Mr. Kim sign more letters for me since most places want the original letter. I guess I could do that since I have to talk to him tomorrow to find out what to do about the apartment keys and to make sure he pays me early tomorrow so I can go on my 4 PM break and change the money into American cash.

The last adult class was awkward, as none of us was quite sure how to act. Melissa gave me a note and slippers, while Grace gave me a letter. Tanya later told me that Grace's daughter (the university student who Tanya is teaching a special one-on-one class to) called her this morning to ask how to spell my name. Tanya said it sounded like the daughter wrote the whole thing!

My Students

2004-09-22T15:30:00.000+09:00

I am going to miss my students!!

Today Mina's 2 PM class that I used to teach came into the teachers' room and gave me goodbye cards. They were really sweet:

Thank you Beth Teacher
I will miss you Beth Teacher!
I am sad.
very very sad.
Beth love you
I am very very sad.
name: Maria (and Korean name)
2004.9.22

I will miss you Beth Teacher!
Thank! you Beth Teacher.
Good bye!
I love you!
From: Kate

I thought that it was so out of character for Matt to have them make cards. I thanked him, and he explained that it wasn't his idea. He told them that I was returning to the USA, and Kate suggested making cards. These are kids that have only been studying English for perhaps a year! She was able to explain to him what she wanted to do, then explained to the other students in Korean. Matt then got the supplies, and they wrote the cards themselves. They mimed "miss" for him, and asked how to spell a few other words, but otherwise it was on their own--the ideas and English are theirs! Matt said that I must have done something right. Hooray! Part me, part their positive attitudes, part Mina threatening to beat them?

Jenny brought in hair pins and a letter for me. I guess it's a reminder to give them a gift tomorrow!

Dear Beth...Teacher! How are you? I'm very sad. Becaus your going to the U.S.A. But we are not cry. We want your happy. Your going to the U.S.A. Your school teacher...speaking I'm
listen. Your gift is a hairpin. Than happy CHUSEOK!! Goodbye teacher. Korean your think Korean come on please....Jenny

I can understand what my professor (Dr. S) was talking about near graduation time. He said that he often wonders what happens to his students and how they're doing. I thought he was being all sappy and I thought it was out of character for him, but I suppose even big grumps can be sad when their students leave and go out into the world, worried about what will happen to them next. He wasn't on campus the day I visited in March. I'll make sure to see him when I get back.

Kyungju and a Play

2004-09-22T11:58:00.000+09:00

The weekend was great, as I've already said. Saturday we left around 9:45 (after meeting at 9 AM--had some sleepyheads meeting us!). It was overcast in Ulsan; by the time we reached Kyungju it was drizzling. Dave suggested returning to Ulsan for lunch and an activity like bowling or a singing room, but most of the foreigners didn't mind the rain (as it was only the slightest bit chilly). We're in Kyungju, so let's see something!

As that was being agreed on, the vehicles were moved from one parking lot to another and back again. At some point Kendall and Shelly had a motorcycle accident. Nothing major, but a bus changed lanes without signaling and because of the wet roads he couldn't stop in time so had to swerve off to the side too sharply, so tipped the bike. Shelly had a scraped elbow and possibly fractured collar bone (an x-ray that evening showed nothing); Kendall had a gash on his arm and another on his leg. The Koreans in our group yelled at the bus driver for a bit, but because the bus and motorcycle hadn't actually hit each other and there were no witnesses, they couldn't call the police.

After Kendall got patched up at the firehouse we entered Bulguksa and spent an hour there. There was a special event so tons of people were there and dressed up. Monks and nuns were out everywhere walking with umbrellas. In one of the temples loads of fruit and rice cakes were being delivered as offerings either to Buddha or the dead monk's picture. Shelly told me that they don't eat any of it!

I asked Roger's wife if she knew who the man in the picture was. She doesn't speak much English, but she seems to be comfortable speaking with me. I think she thinks I know more Korean than I do. Of the Koreans that I've heard speak Korean, I understand her better than many people--is it the tone of her voice, or the fact that she repeats the important words several times, or something else? I also understand Dave pretty well—he tends to speak slower than many people, and perhaps an easier vocabulary??

Anyway, she went into this long story about how she used to be Buddhist but then she met Jesus and became Christian but her family was still Buddhist. I don't often hear all the church words in Korean, but she was able to make me understand "trinity" and a couple of other words. My church vocabulary in Korean was limited to words like God, Jesus, prayer, church, and love. Then the story got weirder as she used yet new words. I understood the word "ghost" and from her body language that she was scared. I also understood the word "Satan" (in Korean it sounds a little the same as in English). Later I asked Miran what another word she kept saying meant. I had guessed correctly: 마기 means evil spirit or demon. I didn't understand everything she said, but got the idea.

Next we went to a buffet-style Korean lunch, then to Seokguram Grotto, which was incredibly foggy. On the 15-minute walk to the temple and then as we looked around I talked with Jo, a new teacher from Ireland. Her accent wasn't strong enough to be difficult to understand, but was just strong enough to be adorable. She's only been here for 2 weeks, so had lots of questions about everything.

Then the bus ride back to Ulsan. We arrived at 5 PM. Pastor Cho dropped people off along the way (it helped that most of the people in our vehicle lived in Mugeo-dong). Euri went shopping while I went home for a short time.

At 6 PM Euri, Miran, Danica, and I met for a "girls' night." We ate at the new Italian place near the university, then went to the first ever play by foreigners in Ulsan. About 200 people showed up, at least 60~70% of them foreigners. The play was written by one of the 6 actors. Owen helped with music, someone else collected money (3000 won) and handed out programs. It was really well done. The play itself was just under an hour and a little strange, yet entertaining. The title was "Twenty-four five," referring to how the workday is always the same and people are tired of doing the same thing over and over everyday and thinking that their lives have purpose when it's really just an endless pursuit of nothing. On second thought, how depressing! After it was over Miran met some people from her academy and Danica, Euri, and I went to Baskin Robbins. Their newest flavor, "alien mom," is pretty good, but what an odd name! Finally we said goodnight.

Hacking Test

2004-09-22T00:11:00.000+09:00

Monica (7th grade) really hates tests! The students have to memorize words from a book called "Hacking." It's pretty much a waste of time because they don't know how to use the words and the words are entirely too complicated for their ages, so they forget the words immediately after the test. Occasionally I'll say a word and it will ring a bell that they've seen that word before. The student will dig the Hacking book out of his bag and flip around to find the word (as he can't remember the Korean meaning without his book). From three of Monica's journal entries:

Tomorrow I have to hacking test I hate hacking I will see the made the hacking book man I fighting the that man Why made a hacking book? I don''t know exactly Hacking is mess Very not useful I don''t see hacking book anymore hum..... I don''t want to hacking hum...

I have to test schoo test,academy test... I have many test I hate test always.. I hate academy test very much. because I don''t like English and other subject My favorite hate test is a hacking test I hate remember words The every is for me, but I hate test

I will kill made a english books Maybe I see him I will kill him I anglry very much Why did he made a book? Just because a money? It makd me a offend I will kill him

My adults mentioned this story to me, but I couldn't believe them. I thought there must have been some kind of misunderstanding. However, it's true! The dog was worth 70,000,000 won ($61,000) and the owner's employees took the dog and ate it. The men won't face criminal charges, but a civil suit is being filed.

Time is flying! I'm working on my "to do" list, but there's still a lot on it! Six days left.

Kyungju Pictures

2004-09-20T23:42:00.002+09:00

Until I get around to writing about the fabulous weekend, here are some pictures from Saturday's rainy trip to Kyungju. (Pictures by Ryan)

Women waiting for the bus.

Most of the people who went standing in front of the main gate at Bulguksa.

Lunch

Lots of fog at Seokguram Grotto (on top of a mountain). This was less than 50 meters away.

Where did they come from?!

Kendall after the motorcycle accident. A bus changed lanes without signaling. Because of the wet roads he couldn't stop in time, so swerved too sharply, tipping the bike. A couple of cuts and bruises, yet the guy at the fire station bandaged him up pretty well!

There was some kind of special event, so tons of people were there. It was funny to see the monks in traditional clothes, yet carrying umbrellas and some wearing Western-style athletic shoes!

On of the outside hallways at Bulguksa.

Roger and his wife in the van. He was being extraordinarily silly and we were all laughing to the point of tears!

Another temple building.

The statue is alive!

Walking in the rain.

At Seokguram Grotto

Some kind of weird fruit that sounded a lot like the Korean word for "ice." Everyone tried a little--was it ever slimy!

Steps

2004-09-19T17:45:00.000+09:00

Also on Friday I studied processes with another class. This class did a better job of writing down all the steps of how to do something.

How to Cook Rice (girls)

washing hands
scoop rice
put the rice in the bowl
washing the rice
throw the water in the sink
scoop the water
put in water and rice pot
close the pot
push the button
wait and wait
open the pot
scoop the rice in the bowl
eat!
washing the bowl and spoon

Getting on a Bus (same group of girls)

going to the bus stop
wait and wait
on the bus
give the money in money box
sit down!
wait
ring the bell
get off the bus
speak "bye!"

Changing a Flat Tire (boys)

put the car
take out tire
put the new tire
change the tire
put down the car
go

Starting a Car (different boys)

open the door
sit the chair
put the key
turn on the key
down the side break (sic)
go

They persist in calling Ivan "summer bear." I think it's the cutest thing, and he doesn't seem to mind. It has even made him a little more alert in class!

A "Crazy" Day

2004-09-19T17:03:00.000+09:00

Friday was a really excellent day. In the 3 o'clock class we spent half the class laughing. When I came in the kids started saying random things. "An elephant has a big nose." Yes, it does, but why are you telling me that? "I am short." Yes, you are, but what does that have to do with anything?

It started to sink in a little later when Tomas started insulting Sera: "You're ugly! You're fat! You're short! You're slow!" A-ha! You guys studied the adjectives chapter with Mona! Part of me hates to teach that chapter because the kids will inevitably insult each other, yet by insulting each other they remember the words and make them a part of their vocabulary. After all, one of the first words my students learn is "crazy," and it usually doesn't take them too long to figure out that the way it's used in English isn't the Korean word that the dictionary says that it is. The Korean equivalent for "crazy" is more along the lines of our "psychopath," or "lunatic," or another similar word said in the worst way possible. The Korean word is a very strong insult. In my classes I say "You're crazy!" or ask, "Are you crazy?" quite often. Occasionally a student will get upset, but then all it takes is me adding, "and I'm crazy, too!" for them to realize that if I'm saying it about myself, it can't be that bad of a word.

Sera took Tomas' insults pretty well, although she did tell me that Mona teacher said they weren't supposed to say that a person is 'fat,' they're supposed to say someone is 'chubby.' That's right, Sera! That she could explain that to me surprised me even more that just her knowing what's polite to say.

A little after that Tomas (the loudmouth that he is) started in on making up love stories. "Brian heart Sera," "Kelt heart Lynn," "Beth heart Tim." I responded, "Of course I love Tim!" as I kissed the tip of my finger and put it on Tim's cheek. He acted disgusted, while the other children roared with laughter. Tomas continued, "Beth heart Kelt," and Kelt hid under the table before I could plant my finger-kiss on him. (I got him when he wasn't expecting it, though!) Despite all of the distractions, we still got the planned lesson done. But those kinds of distractions are good--they're still at a pretty basic level, but fairly comfortable with using their limited vocabulary when speaking--most adults with even extensive vocabularies aren't that comfortable.

After class several of the students went into the computer room to study, and when I passed by 10 minutes later they were still grinning, and upon seeing me broke into laughter again. I can't help but think that they'll remember those adjectives, just from the sheer craziness of it all. Mona was pleased that they remembered what they learned in her class the day before. The other teachers looked at me pretty strangely as I continued the insane laughter while telling Mona about the class. I explained, with stray tears exploding out of my eyes, that I'd had a "crazy class." Mina looked concerned, so I clarified, "It was a good crazy!"

At 4 I wrote some more evaluations, printed out the tests I made in the morning, surfed the 'net, and talked with Jane. It was a really productive hour.

Later on in the day I teased some middle school students about having "grandfather heads" since they didn't remember their homework. A student came in late, also without his homework, and I asked him why he hadn't done it. Tom was quick to say, "Teacher! You too!" 'Me too' what? "You too 'grandfather head!' Charlie wasn't here last time!" Okay, you're right. I'm forgetful too.

Apparently there was a misunderstanding regarding Matt working on Saturdays. A day or two ago Matt agreed to work Saturdays, but not for the next two weeks. This weekend a friend from Japan was visiting, and next weekend he'll be in Singapore. So halfway through the day Mr. Kim asked me about working this Saturday and next. I apologized and said I couldn't—I already had plans. Come on! It's my last two weekends here!

Foot Care

2004-09-18T23:20:00.000+09:00

I thought I'd give some helpful advice on what I've learned about foot care in the last couple of days.

If you think you have athlete's foot but can't get the official cream to get rid of it, then let your DAD mix up his special home remedy HIMSELF; this is not something you should be doing on your own. Although, as a learning experience, you could have the once-in-a-lifetime experience of pouring bleach into the bucket of warm water when your feet are already in it. I say once-in-a-lifetime because after that experience you won't have any skin left. Is Korean bleach stronger than Western bleach??

OK, so the athlete's foot is gone (of course it is, as all of the skin is gone!) but those pesky calluses persist. Since the home remedy turned out so poorly, you decide to go the store route to deal with the calluses. You go to your local Missha and look around and see something labeled "Cooling foot scrub" that has those little abrasive beads in it and nice, natural, mint. Again, soak, then rub the product on and into the skin, then rinse. Yeah, good idea. The all-natural product left a rash on the remaining skin. Perhaps I shouldn't touch my feet for the next little bit!!

The original reason I went into the Missha store was to look for deodorant. A week and a half left and I can't stretch my deodorant any further. I know Wal-mart has the roll-on stuff but it's a little far and out of the way. In the Missha store I looked at everything, then approached the salesgirl. I asked her if she spoke English. She answered "a little" in a way that I truly believed she only spoke a little. I asked if they had deodorant, and she had no clue. I mimed putting it on, and she showed me a tiny spray bottle and let me smell it. No way! That's not deodorant! If I put that under my arms I don't want to even think about what kind of rash I'd get! She obviously doesn't use the product.

At that point the owner approached and asked, in perfect English, if I needed help. He immediately knew what I was looking for, and said that what the girl showed me was perfume. Yeah, no kidding. No deodorant there. I knew I'd seen some in a convenience store somewhere. I looked one place, they had some for men. The second place had for both men and women and sensitive skin for women. After the last several days, I'd better go with the sensitive skin one! The price was outrageous--7500 won ($7) for 45 grams of the spray-on kind. Will that even last until I get home?!

Just a Note

2004-09-18T17:30:00.000+09:00

Yesterday and today have been incredibly fantastic. It was drizzling most of the day, but we had fun in Kyungju anyways. I've dropped by the apartment for about an hour between things--I'm meeting Euri, Miran, and Danica for dinner and then we're going to the play that the foreigners are putting on at Ulsan University.

Monster

2004-09-17T10:07:00.000+09:00

International Truck and Engine Corp. is producing what it calls the world's biggest production pickup, a 14,500-pound monster capable of towing 20 tons. The 5-passenger CXT is nine feet tall, eight feet wide, 21 1/2 feet long and gets about seven miles on a gallon of diesel. The truck is manfactured in Garland, Texas. (AP Photo/Ketchum Communications, File) Full story

Now I can see the benefits of this for people like contractors or others who do heavy towing but want a decent-looking vehicle to drive at other times (despite the poor mileage). It's pretty expensive ($93,000~ $115,000) but its distinctive look makes me afraid it might become more popular than it needs to be. Look at the size of the thing! It DOES NOT require a commercial license to drive. I can imagine some contractor's 16-year-old borrowing it, speeding off, and at 14,500 pounds, crushing any normal-sized vehicle that I'd be driving.

Extra Care

2004-09-17T00:30:00.000+09:00

Some good things from Wednesday: the 5 o'clock class was very curious about my trip home, how many airplanes it takes, how expensive it is, etc. That's the class I invited to come and see me! Ben and Joseph were arguing about pounds and kilograms so asked me which one the USA uses, and Europe, and Canada, and I stopped them—boys, I don't know everything!

At 7 o'clock Paul was my assistant teacher. We were doing the listening book, and after he marked the answer in his book he would rush around the class checking the other students' books and if they didn't know, show them the right answer. It was cute at first, but then the other students got annoyed so I stopped him.

More frustration: I couldn't get Jin to do anything, so put him outside. Stephanie was walking by so stuck her head into class, interrupting my lesson, to ask what he had done. After class she explained that he is a special boy and that I should take "extra care" with him. When he's sitting there boring a hole in his eraser with his pencil, talking about completely non-class related stuff in Korean, and in general being disruptive and disrespectful, I think it would certainly NOT be giving "extra care" to the majority of the students by allowing him to stay in class.

Today I walked into Miro's 3 PM class and Jenny and Ally performed a choreographed version of the song "Arirang." They might both be actresses some day!!

At 6 o'clock we studied things tourists might see (buildings, bridges, churches, villages, etc.) and adjectives used to describe them (famous, spectacular, lovely, etc.). A student was surprised by a picture of a Gothic-style church. He called it a "devil church." Another student, when making sentences, wrote that "Heaven has a lot of lovely churches."

Tonight I wrote evaluations for 2 classes; I'll write the tests tomorrow and then tape the listening ones on Monday. I basically need to have all of the evaluations written before the kids take the tests. It's doable, but I need to stay on top of things. This is essentially my last weekend with friends since everyone will be traveling next weekend, so I need to be careful not to let work stuff interfere with my social life. If need be I can finish writing evaluations next weekend and leave them in the apartment for Mr. Kim to pick up, or finish grading writing exams and email the results, or wait to correct online diaries. The most important things are to enjoy my time with friends who I'll probably never see again, write the letter of recommendation, and figure out if everything will fit in my suitcases or if I need to ship some stuff home.

Fighting (not the Korean meaning!)

2004-09-17T00:04:00.000+09:00

Well, only 8 days of work left but I couldn't restrain myself any longer. Wednesday I snapped and Joelle heard only the slightest bit of what I had been keeping to myself. I am usually a pretty quiet person who doesn't express frustrations, but Korea has taught me to be more aggressive and to protect myself.

The day began with yet another small irritation. In the past we made copies of the phonics book because the parents were already buying too many books. (Anyone who is in Korea knows that copyright doesn't mean much here.) However, today Mona told me she was giving books to our class. I didn't see Jane, who is the co-teacher of the class I was teaching phonics to that day, so I asked Joelle if we were to continue making copies or if the students would buy the book now. She predictably replied, "Ask the Korean teacher." She's not here right now, and I have her class NOW! Are we, AS A SCHOOL, making copies or making them buy the book? "You must talk with the Korean teacher." Excuse me, but who's the manager??

I made the copies, taught that class, and returned to the teachers' room. Before I had even put my books on my desk, Joelle came up to me and said that she needed to talk with me. Uh-oh, that's never good. She went on to say that we had to re-do the speaking, listening, and writing tests for ALL OF THE CLASSES. Wait . . . it gets better! The tests, they've just decided, are next Thursday and Friday. That gives the 3 of us foreign teachers 5 working days to make 15 tests. I don't think so.

Instead of doing the Korean-style, "OK, I'll do it," I did the Western-style, but not so common for me, "WHY??" as I argued about the logic of making new tests when we already had perfectly good ones. She tried to rationalize it, "Oh, but some students repeated the book this time so they can't take the same test again." So it's our fault that the kids are dunces or that they're in too high a level?! Are we going to make new tests every time a kid fails a level? We've never done that before!! The kid couldn't pass the test the first time; perhaps he'll do better the second time. I raised my voice several times, making several heads turn. Matt and Tanya glanced curiously at us but stayed out of it (pretty wise on their part!). Despite my extreme anger at the irrationality of it all, my voice stayed level and no tears came. All right! Perhaps I'm getting better at confrontation!

The part that I particularly loved (sarcasm) was when Joelle said that the Korean teachers had to make new tests, too. Yes, that's true, let's count how many Korean teachers there are. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And how many tests? Reading and grammar X 5 levels=10 tests to make. Now let's count the foreign teachers . . . 1, 2, 3 . . . oh, you mean there aren't any more to count? Now let's see how many tests there are to make . . . speaking, writing, and listening X 5 levels=15 tests. Korean teachers: 3 people with 2 tests and 4 people with 1. Foreign teachers: 3 people with 5 tests. Is my math okay there? I am an English teacher, after all.

Towards the end Joelle thought to add that Mr. Kim was the one who told us to make the new tests. Uh, don't you think that might have been an important thing to say at the beginning?! Is that even true? How talking with Joelle works: she says something, you respond and she pretends like she's listening, then she says, "Yeah, but…." and repeats what she said before. You voice another objection, she pretends to listen, then says, "That's right, but…." and repeats what she said before. Do you see the pattern? It's very frustrating talking with someone that ignores everything you say.

When I told Matt and Tanya the glad tidings, my voice began shaking a little, but I was still mostly composed, though furious. I had a break that hour—one of the reasons why I was so strong in my argument—I didn't have to get ready for my next class and I knew that I had some time to calm down before facing children again. I hightailed it out of there at that point—had to get some fresh air and get some of the adrenalin out of my system. I walked the 2 blocks to the bank and did the money transfer. It took 30 minutes, but the teller seemed to know what she was doing and didn't do anything weird like call the school for their tax ID number. The exchange rate was the best it's ever been when I've transferred money. When that was finished I walked down to the river and took the long way back to school, arriving just as classes were finishing.

Well, guess what Joelle did? Or shall I call her Miss Tattletale? Yes, before long I was being called in to see Mr. Kim. He handled it really well. Joelle has studied overseas; why doesn't she understand foreigners better? Mr. Kim was able to give his instructions without making me feel like an idiot (Joelle's preferred form of communication). He said he realized that I was leaving soon but that the new tests needed to be made. He said that I could have the other foreign teachers do more than me. Yeah, like that's real fair. If we have to do it, I'm going to do my fair share. But can you explain WHY we're doing it? I was completely calm with him, although I must say the fact that Joelle talked with him about it made me think even less of her, then think that she must be insecure. She walked by once as we were talking and was that a GLOAT on her face?! Well look at me, Joelle, with my head held high and completely confident—you didn't do anything to me!

Mr. Kim's explanation was slightly better, but still not completely satisfactory. Something along the lines of maybe the students tell their friends what's on the test. Yeah, right. First of all, like they can remember many of the questions. Secondly, since when have we been concerned about cheating? It's a fairly frequent thing. His second big reason was that they wanted to have a bank of tests to choose from so that the teachers could be compared to each other. He implied that some teachers are trying to teach the test to the kids. That's not what he needs to be concerned about. I have seen some teachers tell the kids the answers while they're taking the test. Anyway, as we finished our conversation I couldn't help but add that the timing was difficult and that in the future it would be helpful if they gave us more time to make the tests. He apologized, but said that because of Chuseok the tests were earlier than they had expected. Yeah, so the date for Chuseok hasn't been the same all year? Did it suddenly jump up on the calendar?

On my dinner break I was going in a million different directions at once trying to figure out stuff about the tests. Finally I got my brain under control and got it to concentrate on one thing at a time and actually got some stuff done. Matt and Tanya were also not thrilled about making the tests, but I think may have appreciated my effort to keep us from having to make the tests. They were cooperative and willing to do whatever I assigned them. I guess it's not terrible, but I have so many things to get done before I leave that adding another few hours worth of work was the last thing I wanted to do.

Tickets

2004-09-16T13:47:00.000+09:00

The tickets arrived! All right! And yesterday I transferred money, so I'm getting closer to being ready to go home. The break today was spent mostly getting ready for tests, so yesterday's events will have to wait until tonight.

How to . . .

2004-09-16T01:17:00.000+09:00

From a Pink 2 class--we were studying processes, and these are the students' instructions on how to do different things:

From the girls, how to cook rice:

wash the hands
bowl in the water
bowl in the rices
in the pot
set the timer
wait long time
bowl in the rices
eat!

From the boys--how to make a green salad

in the dynamite
in the ddong (Konglish for "poop")
in the knife
in the computer
in the ketchup
in the rice
in the ham
finish

The girls again--how to get on the bus

get on the bus
pay the money
sit on the chair

A better boys' group--how to get on the train

go to the train station
go ticket sell the man
buy the ticket

Yes, I know, that class needs some work!!

Sandra's Email

2004-09-15T23:33:00.000+09:00

Sandra wrote me an email telling about her wedding and honeymoon which included the following:

What's happening at the school? Joelle sent me an e-mail and she made it sound awful. She said all the teachers want to quit. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds. She also said that a lot of students have quit. Is it really that bad or is it the same old thing.

How to respond to that? Especially after what happened today!! (I'll fill you in on that tomorrow; it was quite a day and I'm quite proud of the way I handled things.) I wrote quite a long email with the frustrations of the last several weeks, but then thought better of sending it. It's one thing bashing people on a blog on the WWW where they're unlikely to find it, but sending an email to a co-worker who has a decent relationship with the bashee perhaps isn't such a good idea. My original email, after answering her questions and commenting on the honeymoon and making some small talk:

I'm not really sure what's going on at school. I was planning on
filling you in before you came back, so now's a good time, I guess. Are you sure you want to hear all this?!

It's hard to put my finger exactly on it, but the atmosphere is certainly different. Not terrible, but different. I know the foreign teachers are frustrated, primarily due to Joelle's lack of managing. The lack of information (even among the Korean teachers) is miserable.

As far as a lot of students have quit--totally not true. Joelle was
using that line with Tanya about how many students had quit over the last month. The foreign teachers compared classes, and if anything we've GAINED a few students over the last month or two.

One day Joelle went through EVERY SINGLE CLASS and wrote down the days that daily reports were missing from the computer, then spent the time to divide them up into which teacher was teaching that day, and then placed a paper on each
teacher's desk. No explanation, no "hey, you need to do your daily reports," just a paper laying on the desk (half of which weren't even my classes and some were from before we started using the computer system). Some of the teachers have stopped doing daily reports in the computer completely (guess who) and don't seem to care if it upsets Joelle or not.

In one of my classes that only sees a foreign teacher once a week I'm having trouble getting through the Impact book. I've talked with the Korean teacher about needing help to get through the book, but the teacher doesn't go beyond explaining the word box words, if even that much. I mentioned the situation to Joelle, and she said I needed to talk with the Korean teacher. I told her that I had already done that but it didn't change anything. A good manager would step in and address the problem at that
point, but Joelle did nothing.

They've been changing classes around without letting us know why, which is annoying. Again, the lack of information is pretty bad. Mostly we guess as to what's happening next. It sounds like, aside from the returning class, that you'll probably be getting most of my classes when you come back (a hunch).

There's extra work in the form of grading student diaries on paper again. Again, an area that hasn't been made clear, despite repeated questions. The Pink level kids aren't writing online diaries anymore, but the more advanced kids are for the time being but might not be starting next month??

Joelle just happened to mention that we have to do speaking test **in our class time** this session instead of on a special test day, yet still hasn't told us when the tests are so we know when we need to plan to give the speaking tests. There seems to be some whispering going on amongst the Korean teachers; I can only guess that they're just as frustrated at being ignored or not being told anything until they're being chewed out for doing something wrong.

So there, that's a very blunt and very unorganized idea of what's going on. I love my students and most of my classes, but the administration side of things isn't good. Mr. Kim isn't around much so I'm not sure what he knows about what's going on. Joelle is a good teacher, but she's not a good manager. I know she was forced into the role, but Mr. Kim needs to find someone better suited for the job or risk losing teachers.

And the kinder, much shorter version, which I plan to sleep on before sending:

I'm not really sure what's going on at school. It's hard to put my
finger exactly on it, but the atmosphere is certainly different. I know Matt and I are frustrated, primarily due to Joelle's lack of managing, but also her ignoring everything we say. Tanya is more easygoing. I could go on for pages about the problems I've been having with Joelle, but I won't. The last couple of months have been progressively worse; if I didn't have the finishline to look forward to, I might not have made it.

There seems to be some whispering going on amongst the Korean teachers; I can only guess that they're just as frustrated at not being told anything until they're being chewed out for doing something wrong.

As far as a lot of students have quit--totally not true. The
foreign teachers compared classes a few weeks ago, and if anything we've GAINED a few students over the last month or two.

It sounds like, aside from the returning class, that you'll be getting most of my classes when you come back. There's also extra work in the form of grading student diaries on paper again, in addition to on the internet site, though nothing is very clear, despite us asking for clarification.

So that's sort of what's going on.

Bad Words

2004-09-14T23:10:00.000+09:00

I felt like a dictator today, especially in the early classes. There were 3 hours between adult and afternoon classes so I was quite bored, to the point of nearly falling asleep. Tomas and Sera's class was so-so, but Miro's 4 PM class was pretty bad. I took away a game and a comic book and gave one kid a good yelling-at in the first 5 minutes of class. I hate yelling at them and I don't do it frequently, but sometimes raising my voice and letting loose a tirade of words too fast for them to understand is enough for them to realize just how serious I am. Then for the rest of class I gave any misbehaving kids a sharp look.

Fred asked for his comic book back at the end of class, explaining that it's due at the store tomorrow (the kids rent comic books for around 10~30 cents, depending on how big or popular the book is). I originally told him I'd give it back next week, but it is the first time he's done it so I suppose I'll give him the option tomorrow of staying after class and writing a bunch of lines to get the book back early.

The middle schoolers were a little better than normal, although few of them can tell time. Reasons for being late ranged from sleeping to playing computer games. Come on! Be on time for class! Kara's class was GREAT. The final class was also good. Brandon (a different Brandon from yesterday) really benefited from his trip to the Philippines. His English is greatly improved and he now understands at least some about the world outside Korea. He shared with us that when he was in the Philippines he couldn't understand what a boy was saying so he started cursing at the boy in Korean. The boy kept saying, "What? What?" I can imagine what a funny scene it must have been.

Tonight Brandon (remember, a different one from yesterday) said "Shut up!" to another student and Julie acted shocked as she said what a bad word that was. I told them that while "be quiet" is a nicer way to say it, "shut up" isn't a bad word, maybe only a little bad. Then Brandon asked me if "go to hell" was bad. Uh, yeah, I'd say so. Don't say that. Then he asked which was worse, "go to hell" or "fuck you."

The difference between this Brandon and yesterday's Brandon saying the exact same thing is, of course, in how they said it. Today's Brandon was curious; yesterday's Brandon wanted to shock and annoy me. I told them that both expressions were pretty bad and that they shouldn't say them. "But HOW bad, teacher? I say it and man kill me? I go to police station?" Well, it totally depends on how you say it. If it's to a friend in a not-so-serious way, your friend is maybe just a little angry. But if it's to a stranger when you're really angry, then they're really angry too and maybe they'll fight you. It's all in the intonation of things, body language, etc., so you kids shouldn't even think about using English curse words with native speakers!

A Dam?

2004-09-14T09:34:00.000+09:00

The Marmot has a good analysis of the latest from North Korea--why attributing the explosion to building a dam is implausible.

The Chosun Ilbo also questions the North's explanation, saying that the geography of that area isn't consistent with having a hydroelectric dam.

Catching Mr. Kim

2004-09-13T22:35:00.000+09:00

It was a pretty typical day for a Monday. Brandon hates me, but whatever. He and Kane were both being bad the entire class, so I kept them after class to clean the classroom--straighten the tables, push the chairs under the tables, erase the board, and pick up trash from the floor. It took all of 2 minutes. As he was finishing up, Brandon felt the need to say "fuck you" for the fourth and fifth times this evening. Even though not necessarily directed at me, it still annoyed me so I dragged him in to see Kara after class. Yes, dragged. I took hold of the back of his backpack and used it to propel him down the hall and to Kara. She saw us coming and I could see the "Oh no!" look on her face. (She can't do anything with Brandon, either.) I explained the problem and listened to her yell at him about not doing his writing like he's supposed to, bringing a pencil or eraser to class, asked if he was a baby, etc. My Korean is finally getting decent just as I'm about to leave. : ( Then she sent him into the lobby to hold his heavy backpack over his head. Since he missed the bus after his class, I suppose he had to stand there for a whole hour until the next class got out. Maybe someone will get through to him someday.

Joelle . . . I'm glad that name isn't too common, because for the rest of my life whenever I hear it I'll cringe. Today I asked her if Mr. Kim would be in today because I needed to talk with him about the ticket home since it's coming up soon. "When?" she asked in her blunt way. "Chuseok Day," I replied, equally as coarse and to-the-point as possible. "You can't get a ticket then," said in a certain voice. "Well, I already have a ticket, it just needs to be paid for," said in an equally certain voice. It's lucky that we don't have to work together for much longer because if I didn't see the end in sight, I just might break into a yelling match with her. Then she asked me if I knew when Sandra was coming back. "Yeah, sure, sometime during the Chuseok vacation." "But when, exactly? We have to make sure of when she'll be back before you leave." Do not even try to pull that. I've stayed a month past the end of my contract and I'm not staying any longer. Joelle was writing Sandra an email as we were talking. Fine, write an email, but Sandra may very well be on her honeymoon now or too busy preparing to come back to reply. The way foreigners (at least responsible ones like Sandra) work, is that if anything had changed from what was originally set up, ONLY THEN would she have contacted us to let us know about the change. There's no need for her to email saying, "Hi guys, I'll be back when we arranged for me to be back." Who cares when she's coming back to Korea! It just matters when she's coming back to work. I was worried that Joelle would say the ticket couldn't be paid for until after they made sure of when Sandra was coming back--again, don't try it!

A little later I asked Joelle when the tests will be for the advanced kids. Her reply: "at the end of September." Yeah, but WHEN? "Before or after Chuseok?" (So I know how quickly to move through the last little bit of the books and if I need to write the 100 +/- evaluations before the tests or not.) She looked at a calendar, "Next week, maybe." But WHEN? "Is that a yes or a no?" "I have to talk to Mr. Kim." Are you the manager, or is there someone else that I should ask? Pick a date and let us know! Do you have to ask Mr. Kim about every little thing?! Take some initiative and make some decisions on your own!!

Mr. Kim came in around 3 PM. I went into the teachers' room to make a copy of the book for a kid who had forgotten her book and saw him. I asked him if he'd be around later for me to talk with him a little. Over the next several hours he disappeared between classes, or was talking with a parent or on the phone. Finally between the 6 and 7 PM classes I caught him free. I gave him the paper with the info to pay for the plane ticket, telling him that since it was coming up soon, if he could pay for it tomorrow it would be best because the price might go up otherwise. (Throwing in the possibility of having to pay more is always a good way to get prompt action!) Then I mentioned the other important issue right away--a letter of recommendation. "You know, most jobs in the USA want a letter from the last job saying what kind of a worker the person was, etc." I didn't quite get around to asking him to write one when he suggested that I write it and he'd sign it and put his stamp on it. So I'm going to write a letter of recommendation . . . for myself?? Let's see . . . "Beth is the best teacher on the planet; you should pay her oodles of money . . . " This won't necessarily be easy!

As I was heading to my next class I saw Mr. Kim showing the secretary the info about wiring the money, so probably first thing tomorrow it'll be wired. The travel agent contacted me today that he reserved the tickets and as soon as he got the money he'd send them to me. I've got to check with Mom about my American bank info and perhaps Wednesday morning transfer a bunch of money home, and then see if Mr. Kim will pay my severance and last paycheck next week a day or two early so that I can close my account and change the won into dollars at the bank, where I'll get a better rate than the airport. I also need to find out what to do about the keys to the apartment.

The radio/tape/CD player goes to David on Sunday; the Christmas tree/nativity scene/snowman go to Ryan. That leaves some shelves and fans to find a new home for, if possible--no sense my employer getting stuff I've bought (a new teacher won't be moving into my place--they'll be emptying it out).

This has turned into a to-do list for me--sorry. It's hard to think about all of the things that need to be done in the next two weeks! Saturday's the Kyungju trip, Sunday's the going away party (a week early because of the Chuseok holiday), Sunday I'll also say goodbye to John and Octavia and the kids at Bible study, next week might be tests--writing and speaking and the evaluations to write and saying goodbye to my students. The adults want to take me out for lunch--a 3-hour ordeal. It's hard to believe that I've already spent more than 2 years here and now there are only 2 weeks left before I leave, with no definite plan to ever return.

The latest on the North Korean explosion: it was planned? Sounds like an excuse for an accident. If it was indeed planned, why wouldn't they have let their neighbors know, or responded quicker instead of having everyone wonder what it was and preparing for the worst?

Books, Anyone?

2004-09-12T22:33:00.000+09:00

I still have some books to give away; I can mail them if anyone wants them. They're all novels, pretty light and easily read. Read them, then pass them on.

Brad Meltzer's The Millionaires --thriller/mystery--"A tale of two brothers trying to hide in a world where every step you take can be traced."--very good book
Mitch Albom's the five people you meet in heaven --not quite as good as Tuesdays with Morrie, but still ok
Nicholas Sparks' The Rescue--tasteful romance
Nicholas Sparks' The Guardian--same

That's not all I read, but I'm keeping most of my Korea-related books and I haven't finished wading through the U.S. foreign policy or in-depth Korean war books yet.

Foreign Drivers

2004-09-12T22:25:00.000+09:00

The rain wasn't too bad today, mostly just in the morning and an occasional sprinkle the rest of the day. After church I rode with Ryan (who is using Scott's car while he's in the States on vacation) to Shelly and Kendall's neighborhood. On the way we saw Adam so picked him up to come along to eat with us. We had--what was the name of that--some kind of fried rice and vegetables and meat dish. Yeah, I know, really helpful, that describes a lot of things. I don't know the names of half the stuff I eat here, but most of it is good. I tend to remember the names of stuff I don't like so I don't order it again. Ooh, and this place used cheese--delicious!

As we walked to the car I asked Ryan if he had to get a Korean driver's license. He replied, "No, I guess I might get one eventually." HELLO! He didn't mention having an international driver's license, and even if he did have one of those, since he also has a work visa here I don't think he would be able to drive with just his American license. ??? Actually, I don't think he has the work visa yet (even though he's been working for 5 weeks now). Anytime I ride with a foreigner here I'm somewhat nervous--the unwritten rules of the road here and at home are completely different. People parking anywhere, crazy taxis, cars swerving in and out of lanes, narrow streets . . . insane!

North Korea Explosion

2004-09-12T22:01:00.000+09:00

For those of you not in Korea, you may or may not have heard about the series of explosions in North Korea late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. The thing is, even those of us in (South) Korea are just hearing about it today!! What if there was a real issue like northern troop movement or a possible invasion--would they let us know ahead of time or just let people go about their daily activities?!

As usual, no one knows anything yet and the North hasn't admitted anything. The explosion was bigger than the April train explosion; the damage is big enough to be seen by satellites. At first because of the mushroom shape of the cloud people feared a nuclear test, but now officials are saying such a thing would have been easily picked up by whatever equipment they have, besides it being too dangerous to the North Korean people. It also took place near the Chinese border, making a nuclear test a suicide move. The explosion occurred near a base where weapons are stored, so perhaps it was an intentional or accidental thing there. Others are speculating an earthquake or forest fire (???) or volcanic activity. In other words, no one knows anything. For a few of the facts (which I've summarized here) see the Korea Time's account .

Rain and Photos

2004-09-12T01:02:00.000+09:00

I had planned to do some shopping in Busan today, but didn't want to make the trip in the drizzling rain. All day was dreary, with sudden heavy rain at times. It's feeling more and more like fall--it's cool enough that I had to close the windows. Besides a brief walk during one of the breaks in the rain, I stayed home--doing some cleaning and laundry, then putting some photos into albums. I haven't done that in a while--still have several rolls left. There may be more rain tomorrow, so perhaps I'll finish then.

Before I closed the windows a very big mosquito managed to get in (I think through the hole at the bottom of the window for water that drips in through the screen to drain out of) and now it continues to fly in and out of my field of vision. It even landed on my hand, yet disappeared before I could kill it. It's already big and healthy enough, it doesn't need to feed on my blood all night! I must go mosquito-hunting now. After I kill him, then I can get some sleep.

Death's Door

2004-09-10T23:57:00.000+09:00

Kids are brilliant. Really, nearly every day someone says something that older people should listen to. In one class we were studying superlatives and I was asking them about their classmates: Who's the tallest? Who's the smartest? Who's the richest? About the only student willing to admit to being the richest was Blake, who waved his hands wildly in the air and proclaimed to everyone, "I'm the richest! I'm very very very rich!" Charlie responded, "I am no rich but (pause as he thought) happy happy happy!" He said it very enthusiastically, as if he didn't care at all about money because he was so happy.

In one class they messed up one of the idioms we were studying. Instead of "I smell a rat," one boy said "I have a rat," while another said, "I smell a mouse." I emphasized that the expression doesn't have the same meaning if they use the other phrases.

In my first class of the day (2nd graders) Ricky persisted in leaving his seat and giggling insanely at every opportunity, so I put him in the corner. He continued to distract the other students there, so I sent him to the hall. I hesitantly grabbed a child-sized chair and had him hold it above his head--yes, he's young and small, but he would have continued the craziness in the hall had I not done something harsher than usual. With the older and bigger students I stick them outside and often forget about them for 10, 20, even 30 minutes . . . oops. But with Ricky I kept a careful watch out the window in the door to make sure he didn't get too fatigued, and a careful watch on the time, too. After about 3~4 minutes I brought him back into class. He was sweating and rubbed his arms like they were tired. He listened a little better for the rest of class. I told them that starting next week Matt would be their teacher, so they had lots of questions about for how long and why and such. Billy said that he wanted to change classes, too!

In Mona's talkative 5 o'clock class Laura was late. Her teacher had kept the entire class (about 40 students) after school because a few students were playing Go-Stop during the lunch break. Go-Stop is a card game that adults frequently play, with gambling usually involved. It's the Korean equivalent of Poker, although from what I've heard a lot more complicated. The students in Laura's class weren't gambling, only playing. However, parents and teachers don't want the kids to play it at all. Why not? Luby and her friends were playing it at one of their houses but when they heard the mother coming home they quickly hid the game and started doing something else. What's so wrong about teenagers playing a game that their parents play all the time? It's not like smoking or drinking or something that's harmful. They're not neglecting their studies. Sally said she doesn't understand it; neither do I.

In that class today I also got asked one of those "did the student really just ask that" questions. This one was worse than the others because I wasn't sure if I needed to take any action on it or not. Luby asked if I ever thought about what it would be like to die. Do you mean what it's like after death or the actual moment that I die? "The moment that you die." No, not really, I like to think about happy things. Why? Do you think about that? Some of her school classmates were discussing what it would be like to die, and some of them wanted to experience death. Luby said that her classmates knew how to bring themselves to death's door (an idiom we had studied). I told her that maybe she needed to get some new friends because that sounded pretty dangerous. The whole topic was really weird.

In the USA as a teacher I would probably be expected to make a huge deal out of it and contact I don't know who. But here, what is standard? If I told Mona she would dismiss it as nothing; it's not like I can contact the school and tell them that some of their students are dangerously stupid. No one's in immediate mortal danger. Or am I just trying to rationalize my inaction? Luby didn't sound particularly worried, just curious as to my opinion.

So many situations show the culture difference: a student drawing a picture of himself killing Tanya--no problem, it's just a joke. Students bringing toy guns to class or using small knives to sharpen pencils--normal. People asking each other, "Do you want to die?" isn't a real threat, just an expression. Me hitting a kid on the back of the head with a paperback book--fine, I'm the teacher with the authority to do that to bring the kid out of whatever dream land he might be in. One of the students today told me about a teacher who was fired for beating a kid so badly that he had to go to the hospital (middle school or high school, the kid didn't know many details). The punishment: the teacher was fired, that's it. It's a different country with a different culture. I can only hope that Luby's friends were hypothetically discussing things.

Mr. Kim didn't come in all day, so I couldn't give him the info about paying for the plane ticket. If he's not in early on Monday then I suppose I'll give the account number for the wire transfer to Joelle and ask her to pass it on to him. But I do really need to talk to him about end-of-contract things. Lately anytime he's been at school he's been busy on the phone or with a parent. Do I need to make an appointment?!

Beginners

2004-09-10T16:23:00.000+09:00

I found out yesterday why they gave Matt my 2 PM class--next week I'm getting a new 2 PM class of BEGINNERS. We're talking about kids who barely know their ABCs and can't yet read. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I worked so long and so hard to get my two 2 PM classes to a decent level, and then management goes and gives them both to Matt! Although, I guess with his tolerance for younger kids, I can probably do a better job of teaching them. First and second graders take so much energy!

Grace was here for a long time after class yesterday talking with Mr. Kim. I found out that Tanya will teach her daughter one-on-one three days a week. The daughter will be going to university in Canada in 6 months and studying science and since Tanya was a science major for a year or two it makes sense for her to do it. Joelle gave Grace Tanya's cell phone number for the daughter to call her--I warned Tanya to be careful to not be taken advantage of.

Because Tanya will be tutoring the college student at 2 PM, that means that Sandra will get the two beginner classes when she comes back, and it sounds like most of my schedule. Sandra will NOT be happy about it--she set things up so that she could keep her same classes, kids, and schedule when she got back, despite being gone for 4 months. She really shouldn't be surprised because of the way the academy business is, but because of the way Mr. Kim gives her her own way about most things, she might have a problem with it. I suppose I'll send her an email this weekend or next to clue her in on some of the things going on: schedule changes, extra work checking diaries, Joelle in general, etc. so she can be ready for it. Something I admire about Sandra is her ability to say offensive things without being offensive about it. She can tell someone very bluntly: you are wrong, this is unacceptable, you must change it, and then the same day they'll be laughing together and the best of friends. I can't figure out how she does it!

The 10~15 year age difference between me and Joelle was easily apparent yesterday when she asked me to help her with an achievement certificate. I told her there was a special way to write the date on formal things but I couldn't quite remember how, so I would search the internet to find it. She said that she'd already done that and couldn't find anything. Well, in 5 minutes (the computer crashed and had to reboot) I had found lots of stuff. Joelle was secretly trying to write down how I did it: the search engine I went to and the search terms I used, as if that would help her in the future. I changed the appropriate lines and retyped it, then left her to adjust the size and such (since I'm not familiar with the hangul word processing program). Mona had to end up helping with that part (Mona's a year older than me). It ended up looking decent.

$200 Bill

2004-09-10T10:21:00.000+09:00

I read about this a few days ago (a week?) and I thought what a stupid clerk to accept a $200 bill! But more than one clerk has done so—and given change!! Does this look real to you?

(click to enlarge)

However, one of my managers back when I worked retail took the opposite extreme and tried to refuse a $2 bill because she thought such a thing didn't exist. Come on—who would produce such a real looking bill that small? Granted we had just had a fake $20 bill that one of the employees accepted. Corporate said the employee should have known it was a fake so deducted it from that manager's paycheck. The $2 bill customer started to get upset at the manager's implication that it was fake; I quietly told the manager that it was okay, $2 bills do exist.

Hurricane Ivan

2004-09-10T09:19:00.000+09:00

The projected path of Ivan keeps turning farther and farther north. Now it looks like perhaps another direct hit on Florida--this is insane! I liked a quote from an AP article. It discussed the visitor evacuations from the Keys (now everyone is being evacuated):

The question is where to send the visitors, said Scott Simmons, who owns Islamorada's 178-room Holiday Isle. "They don't know where to go: the east coast, the west coast or to Canada."

At this point the only truly safe place is Canada! It could turn at any time and go anywhere, and it's super strong.

The school board in my county has suggested canceling the big standardized tests for this year because the kids have missed 6 or 7 days of school already due to hurricanes. If Ivan hits on Monday/Tuesday as anticipated, it would be another 2~5 days missed, maybe more depending on the damage. The school board also pointed out the stress to the kids. I don't know about that point. If the kids lost their houses and everything they had, then that would be hard, but I remember hurricanes being really fun as a kid. We got to huddle in the hallway in the dark and use the lanterns and it was all quite exciting! I suppose being without electricity and water for days on end would be stressful, too.

I had been worrying about the economic impact to the state from all of the damage, lost jobs, lost fruit, etc., but I was somewhat relieved to read that construction, roofing, furniture, and other businesses will keep the state growing as people repair/replace damaged property. Hotels are staying busy with people fleeing their homes; Disney and other parks are still there to get back to business once the hurricanes decide to leave the state alone.

Delta or Northwest?

2004-09-09T21:51:00.000+09:00

I've only flown Korean Air (once) or Northwest (multiple times) on the transpacific flights. Is Delta decent? Problems with delays or anything else? The entire trip with Delta is an hour shorter but the longest flight will be 3 hours longer. (Delta=Busan-Narita-Atlanta-Tampa; Northwest=Busan-Narita-Minneapolis-Tampa.) Delta is cheaper. Advice?

Update: I assume everyone's satisfied with Delta's service or maybe you get to fly really nice airlines like Singapore Air; anyway I'll go with Delta.

Talkative Middle School Students

2004-09-09T14:10:00.000+09:00

And finally, yesterday's 5 PM class. I came into class and Luby wanted to talk about the terrorism in the Russian school. Apparently they've talked about it a lot in her middle school classroom, because she knew about the Chechnyens and how that all fit together. I asked them if they knew about the Basques in Spain and France. At first I got blank looks but once I explained it they figured out what it was in Korean. Wow at the sophisticated thought they're capable of, and to be able to express it in English--triple wow! I don’t think they’re worried about a similar situation happening to them, because Korea doesn’t have any fringe groups who want independence.

Lily then said that Mona had suggested that she invite me to her home for Chuseok, but she still had to ask her mother. Oh, that's nice, (and it would be great to see the traditional ceremony and everything that they do), but I'm going to the USA (I hope!!!!) on Chuseok Day. "Oh??" Shocked looks from everyone. "You're going for a visit? You're coming back to Korea, right?" Uh . . . no, at least not right away. Maybe someday. Edward asked, tongue-in-cheek, if I'd been fired. No, you crazy boy! I've been here for more than 2 years and now it's time for me to go home. They asked me who would be their new teacher, and when I answered probably Tanya (unless Joelle does any more crazy rearranging of the schedule), Lily groaned. "Tanya is dirty!" Why is she dirty? "I was in her 8 o'clock class and she was picking her nose! Then there was a cockroach on the wall and she tried to catch it with her hand!! She always puts her feet in the chair! She's dirty!" Hmmm . . . Luby shook her head from side to side and said, "My image is broke." What do you mean by that, Luby? "I saw Tanya far away and thought she was good, but now my image is broke. She is dirty." Perhaps a little (by Korean standards), but she is nice!

The next way the conversation went was to what my house in the USA is like. They wanted to know how many rooms it had, and if it was big, and everything about the swimming pool. They kept saying, "You're rich!" and I kept replying, Many people in Florida have a swimming pool! We talked some about the differences in weather, and Luby sighed, "I wish I could see your house." You should come and visit me! "REALLY?" Yeah, sure--come and see what the USA is like, practice English . . . "I want to see your house for one year!" Now wait a minute!! A year?! NO! I knew I needed to make that part VERY clear. Why do you want to come for a year? “To see your house in summer and winter." Oh, summer is just like Korea--VERY hot and sticky. Winter is nicer. One week, two weeks--that's great. That would be fun. But one year? I would be calling your mother and begging for her to come and get you because all of your talking would drive me crazy! My parents would be okay with a short-term visitor (I think!) but a year is too long. The boys didn't seem interested--good--it would be awkward to have a middle school boy. The girls wrote down my email, and Lily said she would ask her mother. The chances of it actually happening--small--but it would be great for the kids if they could.

We finally got around to opening the book with I think 10 minutes left of class--oops! Next time we'll have to study, study, study. But our conversation was good for them--expressing their opinions about current events, learning about the USA, and thinking about the possibility of international travel. Luby asked for a picture of me before I leave. A picture of me with our class? "Any picture, teacher!" OK . . . a little strange, but I suppose that could be arranged.

E.T. Pen's Death

2004-09-09T13:31:00.000+09:00

Yesterday Beth (4th grade?) asked me, "Where is E.T. pen?" I explained that it had died, so she responded by crossing herself and pretending to pray. Oh come on! It is a little sad, though--I've been using that pen for quite a long time, but the ink is almost too light to see now and I don't think it can be refilled. The top doesn't fit properly anymore, either. The pen came to identify me and was yet another of the jokes that I shared with my students. They would point at E.T. on the pen, "Teacher! It's E.T.!" and I would hold it up to my face and respond, "No, it's me!" as I did E.T.'s 4-fingered wave and gave my best impression of his stupid grin. E.T.=English Teacher in my classroom! As some of the kids liked to point out, foreigner and alien mean the same thing, so it's pretty fitting that my pen have an alien on it, too.

A Poor Manager

2004-09-09T12:55:00.000+09:00

Have I said what a poor manager Joelle is???

Yeah, I probably have at some point, huh?

In my short working history I've been pretty lucky to have had from at least decent and semi-competent managers all the way up to should-have-won-an-award managers. Joelle is at the bottom of the bottom of the bottom.

After Grace's sickeningly sweet "Good morning!" they asked me where the book was for the new student because it was ordered on Tuesday. Well, it's probably not here yet! That's only two days! After class Joelle was on the phone so I only said hello as I went into the teachers' room. A few minutes later when the adults had come out of class and asked her about the new book, she came into the teachers' room and very rudely asked me where the new books were because she had put them on my desk. Joelle, do you see any books on my desk? I certainly don't see any books on my desk. I haven't seen any new Impact books anywhere. Well, it turns out she meant the books that she put there two months ago. Oh, those books. I gave those to the students who were in my class then, and then the new student last week got the extra one. We don't usually keep extra books for a small class around the school. "You should have told me that you needed more books." Well, I didn't know I needed more books because no one told me if the newest student, the one who was observing my class on Tuesday, was going to continue in the class or not!! Now that I know that she'll be in the class, despite her being at a much lower level than the other students, I can tell you that she needs a book!!

There's a good probability that she told the mothers that it was all my fault for not telling her about needing a new book. She doesn't take responsibility for anything or communicate anything to anyone (especially not the foreign teachers). The schedule changed again yesterday. Kara's 2 PM class will be taught by Matt now, bringing him up to 30 hours and me down to 27 hours per week. Why? She gave no explanation whatsoever, only the order from Her Royal Highness. If she's trying to pull a "the 3 hours of adult class is part of your base hours"--in my LAST TWO WEEKS--she'd better forget about it!! Despite any money difficulties that might be going on, Mr. Kim isn't that devious or stingy. With teaching 27 hours per week now (plus the 3 adult hours), down from 29 (plus 3), I'll still be here the same amount of time as before because I don't have a 2 PM class on T or Th (days I teach the adults). There's no time to go home, so aside from a walk down to the river, I'll try to snag the good computer or get caught up on some reading. If they add another 8 PM class to my schedule, I'll be upset!

Blogger is Fixed

2004-09-09T08:34:00.000+09:00

OK, so Blogger is finally working again. All day yesterday I couldn't post anything. During my 3 hour break between adults and afternoon classes, I'll write about yesterday.

Making a Difference

2004-09-08T15:42:00.000+09:00

I am really going to miss my students!!!

I was filling up my water bottle when Kate and Maria waved at me from the computer room. (They're second graders in the class that Matt is now teaching.) Then Kate came out and gave me a huge hug and asked which class I was teaching now. I told her which class and as she continued to cling to me I asked if Matt was fun, and she broke away from me long enough to say, "No! He's scary!" as she made her body shake like she was scared. Then she wrapped her arms around me again and I asked what about Matt was scary--His beard? Is he really tall? "Yes, teacher!" She is really sweet and I'd much rather have their class than the beginner monsters that they gave me instead.

I didn't tell her that I'd be leaving Korea at the end of the month. I was having enough trouble not getting emotional about her missing me as her teacher; I didn't want the possibility of her crying. Two years here--I've made a difference. I can see it easily when a student can answer a difficult question or write a good story, but who knows what other ways I've taught them. I'm constantly encouraging the kids to pursue their dreams, especially the girls, as being a police officer or lawyer isn't exactly what most parents would encourage their daughters to be. I try to show them how big the world is and how while Americans might do some weird things like wear shoes in the house, we're basically the same as them. The kids never tire of rubbing the hair on my arms and proclaiming, "Your hair is white!" No it's not, it's blonde. And if you think I'm hairy, you should see my uncle!

I've strayed away from what I started to say, which was what I started out with: I will truly miss my students. I will wonder about what they're doing and how they're growing and I will worry about them surviving the stressful educational system. I know that I'll probably not hear from many/any of them because of their busy lives and the effort of writing in English, but I'll still wonder.

Stranded?

2004-09-07T21:30:00.000+09:00

Normal day--the kids were pretty good, Joelle was obnoxious, the Korean teachers ignored the foreign teachers, Mr. Kim was nowhere to be found.

Recently the Impact Intro classes were doing a chapter on jobs and I asked the students what job they wanted to have one day. Brad (6th grade) answered that he wanted a job that he liked, and that he could have a house and a car and a family. Brilliant! It doesn't matter what job I have, as long as it's one that I like and that allows me to live comfortably. There's not a job in this world that I'm going to like 100% of the time; as long as I like it some/most of the time then it's a good job for me.

The latest in the trying to get a ticket home is not necessarily good news. There's something really disconcerting about being on a virtual island and not being able to get off of it!

Following is the correspondence I've had with the travel agent, one I've used many times before with good results. I don't think it's necessarily his fault, but he could respond a wee bit faster.

9/1:

Dear Mr. xxxx,

I need a one-way ticket from Pusan to Tampa, Florida, USA. I finish my job on 9/24. I realize because of the Chuseok holiday it might be difficult to leave the country then. I could leave anytime 9/26~10/2. Can you please tell me what's available then and what kind of prices.

Thank you.

9/3:

Dear Beth,

Thanks for your e-mail. I checked the possible flight itinerary and quote with Northwest Airlines as follows,

NW 6 28SEP BUSAN/NARITA 1015/1225
NW 20 28SEP NARITA/MINNEAPOLIS 1520/1200
NW1760 28SEP MINNEAPOLIS/TAMPA 1519/1925
FARE : \785,800 + TAX\58,800 = \844,600

Would you like to book these flights ? If so, please advise me your full name on the passport. Thank you, waiting for your reply.

xxxxx xxxxx

9/5:

Mr. xxxx,

The flights sound good. The full name on my passport is _____. I live in Ulsan so if you tell me your bank information I can have the money transferred to your account. Thanks.

Despite the flights leaving on Chuseok Day, it's good--doesn't leave too early, layovers aren't excessive but do allow enough time to go from gate to gate and enter the country in Minneapolis. I'm in a bit of a hurry to get the tickets paid for and in my hands because:
1. It's just 3 weeks away.
2. I don't know if Mr. Kim will have a problem with the price.

Then today (9/7):

Dear Beth,

I'm so sorry but I just got the info from Northwest Airlines yesterday that they raised the airfare suddenly due to the oil crisis. So, the new fare for your flights is,\935,800 + tax\58,800 = \994,600

They raised it \150,000 more....it's crazy.. this kind of thing make my business difficult.

For alternative, I checked American Airlines as follows,

AA7264 01OCT BUSAN/NARITA 1340/1540***OPERATED BY JAPAN AIRLINES
AA 60 01OCT NARITA/DALLAS 1825/1530 : WAITING
LIST
AA 832 01OCT DALLAS/TAMPA 1706/2024
FARE : \830,000 + TAX\64,600 = \894,600

If this is OK, I will try to get confirm the waitlisted flight. Please let me know.

Thank you again.

xxxxx xxxx

Do you see any problem with that? I see many problems! Besides the fact that I would be waiting around without a job or people to hang out with for 3 days, I would be on a waiting list from Narita to Dallas. Also, the long flight would be a couple of hours longer than the Narita to Minneapolis route. It would also give me only 90 minutes in Dallas to go through immigration, pick up my bags, go through customs, recheck the bags, and get to the right gate (not counting any extra security). In Minneapolis, an airport that I'm at least somewhat familiar with now, it usually takes at least 90 minutes, sometimes more, to do all that. I'd be arriving in Tampa on a Friday night instead of a Tuesday, which would mean it would be more annoying for Mom and Dad to pick me up and I don't know Dad's schedule but Mom would be working all weekend so I wouldn't be able to see her much, plus I'd be dead tired all weekend so wouldn't feel much like seeing my friends. 100,000 won ($80) difference--so not worth it, regardless of whether I was paying for it or not. So I replied,

Mr. xxxx,

Thanks for checking with the other airline, but I'd rather have the Northwest flight. It's worth the extra money to me to leave earlier and have a sure flight. So please book the Northwest flight.

Thanks.

I really want the ticket finalized before the weekend!!

Worms

2004-09-07T13:23:00.000+09:00

The typhoon is stronger today. The 7~8 minute walk to the bus stop left the front of my pants soaked and my bag rather wet, too. The wind wasn't bad, but it was annoying to hold the umbrella just right to keep it from breaking. I was wearing thin clothes so within 90 minutes I was all dried out, although my shoes will be wet for the rest of the day.

There were 7 women this morning. The one student who "only knew her ABCs" knows a little more than that, but still not enough to continue in the class, I think. I asked her a few questions to figure out her level and she could answer only one or two words, nothing approaching a full sentence.

I downloaded the Yahoo toolbar onto both of the work computers and used the antispy feature to see what might be lurking. I didn't expect it to be able to find worms, but it found the Netsky worm on both computers (the same worm my home computer had). Delete, delete. The pop-up blocker is good, too. And when I'm signed into Yahoo I can easily access my favorites from the toolbar--nice!

Hurricane Frances

2004-09-06T23:55:00.000+09:00

The path the two 2004 hurricanes took through Polk County, my home county, in Florida. I'm hoping there aren't any more!

Typhoon Songda

2004-09-06T23:47:00.000+09:00

A drizzly day due to another typhoon coming. The maps look like Typhoon Songda will go to the east of Korea, but may come close enough to cause some severe weather. Probably a few days of rain. Little wind to speak of so far, though.

The adults were SO annoying today!! A new adult will "observe" my class tomorrow. The mother told Joelle that she only knows her ABCs, yet Joelle suggested she observe my class of intermediate level students who know far more than just the alphabet! And "observing" a class and "participating in" a class are very different, anyway. She's going to feel completely out of place with the talkative women. Whatever.

I walked Tanya down to my doctor today--her eye was red and swollen and nasty looking. The doctor, of course, didn't really know what it was. He gave her the usual 4 or 5 pills and a couple of different kinds of eye drops. She thinks it might just be allergies. I may have to visit the doctor once more before I go home--my ear felt weird last night so I put some swimmer's ear type stuff in it. Then today it's sore to the touch. Outer ear infection? I'll wait another day or two. I wonder if the pharmacist would give me drops without actually visiting the doctor for a prescription.

The 2 PM class was better than I had expected. They could answer basic questions like what's your name, how old are you, your favorite color, etc., and could perform basic tasks like stand up, sit down, raise your hands, open or close your book, be quiet (at least they knew what it meant, following it is an entirely different thing!), etc. Pronunciation was, for the most part, good, and about half of them could easily read. About five 1st-graders, five 2nd-graders, and one 4th-grader (what were they thinking putting him in that class?). The rest of the day was pretty average.

추석대 버스 있세요?

2004-09-05T21:26:00.000+09:00

I slept later than normal today, which left me drowsy during church. After the service I was talking with Shelly when John came up and practically dragged me away because of where his car was parked. Okay, okay, I'm coming. We had lunch at Shinbok--the biggest bowl of seaweed soup I'd ever seen, cucumber kimchi, what looked like seasoned hot dog cut up into bite-sized pieces (good despite me not usually liking hot dogs), and of course a big blob of rice. The seaweed soup, though slimy, was much better than what I'd had before. Today it was warm and well-seasoned with pieces of something floating in it (good somethings!) while in the past I had cold soup with strictly seaweed and water. It provided me with enough iron to last at least a month or two!

Five boys came today, one toting a horn that sounded like a kazoo but looked like a homemade plastic french horn. One boy is doing much better at reading. He still gets confused creases across his forehead as he reads, but he's nearly as good as the other kids now.

Instead of driving me home like normal, I asked Octavia to drop me at the main road so I could take the bus to the Taehwa Rotary. I was thinking about walking the hour, but didn't want to tell her that because she might feel obligated to drive me there. Well, she offered to drive me there--sure, great. I figured I'd feel better if I checked for myself about whether the airport bus runs on Chuseok rather than having someone at work call and ask about it. Octavia said she'd wait for me to drive me home. I replied that I was going downtown next so could walk across the bridge from there. She said she could drive me there; I insisted that it wasn't necessary. She insisted right back that she had free time so would drive me. Great for me if you don't mind doing it!

The older lady at the ticket booth understood my Korean better than most people do, especially in the older generation who don't seem to tolerate mispronunciations. The older man just sat with his jaw resting on his chest and stared at the foreigner speaking Korean. I don't do particles and such, and I rarely make complete sentences. What's the big deal about verbs, anyway?! I make myself understood some of the time. I didn't use the more respectful form of speech that I should have with an older person; instead I used the everyday, semi-respectful form. Our conversation went like this (I can't spell or type well in Korean, by the way):

안녕하세요, 추석대 버스 있세요? Hello, is there a bus on Chuseok Day?

네, 있세요. Yes, there is (a bus).

시간 무엇을 입니까? What time is it (does the bus run)?

She got a 3X4 sheet of paper to give to me, noting that the first bus wasn't running. 5:30 AM? No problem there!

I asked, 추석대 시간 도가타? Chuseok Day also the same time?

네. Yes.

고맙습니다. Thank you (very much?)

네. Yes (of course, you're welcome, etc.)

She seemed pleased by the exchange, and I was happy that she understood without me having to repeat myself or resort to gestures.

Octavia then dropped me in downtown where I had 맥빙수 at McDonald's. Probably the last time I'll have that summer snack/dessert, so it was extra good. To get to Wal-mart I walked down the "fish road" which they've finally finished repaving. They've also installed huge iron arches over the street which I assume they'll turn into another covered walkway like on the other pedestrian street. I see what they're trying to do--make downtown a little more sophisticated looking or Seoul-like. However, how will that work with all the raw fish being sold? The smell is bad enough without closing the area in!

Ulsan is not by any stretch Seoul or a big or sophisticated city. Until the 1970's it was purely a farming and fishing village and now its claim as the industrial capital of Korea is due to Hyundai and the factories that followed. I don't see Ulsan ever being sophisticated like the new downtown development tries to make it. The smelly fish all over the place, the eels being skinned live, the red peppers and anchovies out drying in the sun, the 4-year-old girl trying to figure out how to pull up her pants after using the bathroom on a vacant lot (with no parent nearby), the toothless old women squatting by whatever they might be selling, etc.

The Wal-mart trip was short and easy and the bus had plenty of room on the way back. When I got home I took out the trash and recyclables and put away the groceries before settling in to do nothing particularly productive for the rest of the evening.

Today this site was loaded for the 1000th time (since May 20) by someone in Paducah, Kentucky. It's nothing compared to the big guys with more than that in one day (one hour?), but it's a milestone nonetheless.

New Schedule

2004-09-04T23:28:00.000+09:00

Mark is back in Kara's 2 PM class. He must have had the worst case of chickenpox ever—he has marks everywhere; I'm afraid they might scar rather badly.

At 3 PM the listening exercise was to listen and write down the person's name, nationality, and occupation. Before we started I had to explain what those two long words meant and give plenty of examples. Kelt started singing under his breath, "America, America, du du du…" over and over again. Hey! You watch that TV show?! "Yes, teacher! America's Funniest Home Videos!" He acted surprised that I had seen it, too. We discussed it for a few minutes, since a couple of the other students had seen it, too. Words like "dorky" and "lousy jokes" were impossible for them to understand, so I said I liked the videos but not the man on the show. Tomas had never seen it, so asked what channel it was on and when. The kids told him what channel, but didn't know when it was on.

The schedule will change slightly starting Monday. I have the same number of teaching hours but will be at school an additional hour each week. One of my 2 PM classes that was just getting to a decent level and has only 6 students was taken away and instead I got Tanya's really low level class of 11 students, only half of which can read at all. It's only for 3 weeks, no sweat.

I spent the whole 4 PM break writing up new attendance sheets for my 17 classes while the Korean teachers who had the hour off talked with each other, ate an early dinner, or otherwise goofed off.

At 6 PM after Zach used the wrong word, I reviewed the difference between "clock" and "watch"—A watch is on your wrist; a clock is on the wall. Mr. Smartypants then asked, "What's a clock on the floor? What's a clock in the toilet?"

Blood Types

2004-09-04T22:54:00.000+09:00

Somehow or other we started talking about blood in Miro's 5 PM class. AIDS has gained some notice in Korea after some hemophiliacs were infected from the tainted blood supply (like the USA and Canada in the 80's). I don't know how bad the problem is, but I wouldn't want to get a blood transfusion here. The kids were talking about blood donation and how old you have to be and how you get a choco pie to thank you for giving. Monica said something along the lines of it's dangerous to give blood because you might get AIDS. Where'd she hear that?! Giving blood doesn't seem to be common because of the Confucian thing of keeping your body intact; Korea doesn't need a whole generation of people afraid to give blood! Organ donation is rare for the same reason, according to my adults. However, it's no problem for them to accept an organ if they're sick and need it!

I told Monica that as long as the needle is clean there's no danger of getting AIDS from giving blood; in fact, I do it all the time at home (as I showed them the scar on my arm). I wondered what other misconceptions they had about AIDS. Yeah my job isn't health teacher, but although I'm paid to teach English I usually end up teaching a lot of other things—mostly American culture or world geography, but all kinds of things. I don't know what info they get at school and the average kid doesn't hear anything at home, so I dove into the topic. You guys know how you get AIDS, right? From dirty blood or . . . hmm . . . just what is appropriate to discuss in English class? It's a small class—two 8th grade girls, one 7th grade girl, and a 5th grade boy. I don't know how common it is for teenagers to have sex here, but the girls are getting to the age that they need to know the risks. As I hesitated, I could see from Monica's face that she knew—blushing and saying that the boy didn't know about that kind of thing. He acted clueless and asked her what she was talking about. Monica then covered his ears and started humming while she motioned for me to utter the taboo word. Luckily the girls didn't need an explanation of what the word meant!

We also talked about blood types, which got me wondering if the percentage of blood types are the same here as in the West. They didn't know what types were common in Korea, but they did say that O was "clean." Why? Because it's not mixed? In that class there was one of each blood type, and it being so small didn't help me determine anything, so in the next two classes I asked them their blood type. The results:

O—8
A—8
B—2
AB—1

The classes also told me that there was another blood type that only 2 people in Korea and 3 people in Japan had. I skeptically looked at them—are you sure? I don't think that's possible! I thought it was an urban legend, but they kept insisting it was true.

When I got home that night I did some research into blood types and found that while everyone has one of the 4 blood types, everyone also has a string of letters after the main blood type which further defines their blood. There are some rare combinations that tend to stick to certain ethnic groups.

My research also agreed with how the percentage of blood types differs around the world. In the USA it's:

O—45%
A—40%
B—11%
AB—4%

In Korea (adds up to 101%, I know, no explanation on the site):

O—28%
A—32%
B—31%
AB—10%

So my completely unscientific survey didn't coincide with the official figures. I guess I could try surveying all 150 of my students, but some of them can't understand English well enough. Or is it that the percentage is different in the (presumably) higher class (those rich enough to afford multiple academies)?

In the three classes every kid knew their blood type! How many adults in the West don't know their blood type?! It's the whole "blood type determines personality" thing. Only a few kids knew if their blood was + or -, though.

I spent perhaps an hour browsing various "bloody" sites; it was all quite interesting.

The Ice Cream Lady (aka the Statue of Liberty)

2004-09-04T22:01:00.000+09:00

During the free conversation time at the beginning of class Jenny (3rd grade) came up to my desk and asked me to stand up. Why? "Just because! Please, teacher!" Okay, I'm standing up, now what? "Teacher! Teacher!" as she bent her neck to look up at me, "Teacher! What is tall, teacher or ice cream lady?" Thinking, thinking, ice cream lady? A-ha! Which is taller, me or the Statue of Liberty! Jenny, the Statue of Liberty is very big! "How big?" I went inside the Statue, along with lots of other people! It's as big as the 63 Building—maybe. It's very very big! And it's not ice cream, it's a torch with fire!!

Jessie's Mother

2004-09-04T21:48:00.000+09:00

Jessie quit our academy. The reason? Her mom didn't like her grades. Actually, her mom was so upset that she ripped up the evaluation sheet. Jessie wrote about it on our class bulletin board—that she wanted to continue attending our academy, but she didn't think her mom would let her. Our grading scale has 5 letters—Excellent, Above Average, Normal, Poor, or Bad. As I best I remember, I gave Jessie A's for reading comprehension and pronunciation, N for speaking, and P for attitude/classroom behavior because she's constantly chatting with friends or looking out the window or otherwise not listening or working. Mona gave her N for presentations. Mona was a little upset about it, probably dreading calling the mother to discuss it.

Mona used the typical Korean teacher "she's fine in my class" line. Of course she is—she knows she'll get beaten if she misbehaves, or you'll call or her mother, plus with some kids they might hear negative things about foreigners at home (I'm not sure what causes it) so they treat foreigners like a circus side-show or a non-authority figure. I keep most of my students in line, but with some there's a huge difference between how they act in the foreign and Korean teachers' classes—huge. Because Jessie is only in the 3rd great it's not too bad—yet. However, I can see it starting—the way she looks at me when I tell her to do something, such disdain and defiance. The mother can try another academy, but it won't do any good until Jessie learns that foreign teachers deserve the same respect as Korean teachers. The bad thing is, her English has really been improving, despite the inattention. If she stops studying now, she'll forget everything she's learned.

The adult class was so nice this week with the new student and a couple of the older students back again. With 5 students Grace's annoying comments and incorrect answers are diluted. Before she would often correct the other students or they would ask her something and at first because of her age I was very careful about correcting her. Now I don't care about her age—if she says something wrong I bluntly correct her, correct her again, and continue correcting her until it finally sinks in. The new student's high English ability makes her the new expert. In fact, the other students are joking that Chris is the small teacher and I'm the big teacher. It's the same thing as "big father" (father's older brother) and "small father" (father's younger brother), I guess.

Thursday I got a bruise on the bus ride. It was nearing my stop so I was standing next to the door with my arm wrapped around a pole. The bus suddenly slowed down and then immediately sped up again. The motion sent me flying forward and then back, with my body slamming up against the pole and pinching my arm. It started turning colors almost immediately and the muscle was sore all day so I was worried it might be a pretty bad bruise, but it ended up being about the size of a dime, if a dime were oval. It's also healing quickly—red, purple, today yellowish-brown. Buses are dangerous!

Accumulation

2004-09-04T19:07:00.000+09:00

Had a productive day, due to one of my yearly (sometimes twice a year) sudden loads of energy. I went through a lot of stuff deciding what to throw away, give away, put in the donation bin, or pack. I accumulated a lot in two years! Packing won't begin for another couple of weeks, though. I may be able to fit everything into my bags (and not have to mail things home); I'll have to wait and see. I put about a dozen shirts, a couple of pairs of pants, some towels, and winter clothes that I would never use at home into the donation bin stack, some books will go to church, others I'll scatter among friends or foreigner hangouts, others I'll pack. I pulled everything out of the closet and wiped down the floor and the luggage. Everything was really dusty, while mold was growing on two bags. I took a picture of the mess when everything was spread out all over--I couldn't help it. It's just too bad I haven't entered the digital age yet to let people see the chaos for themselves! The apartment is plenty big enough when everything is put away where it belongs, but today I couldn't walk more than a couple of steps without tripping over something.

Other things: washed the dishes, scrubbed the sink and gas range, wiped the counter, washed clothes, water-proofed the new tennis shoes, threw away a ton of miscellaneous papers, swept the floor, got the trash and recycling ready to take out, cut and repainted my fingernails, plucked my eyebrows, scrubbed the calluses off my heels and applied moisturizer; I think that about covers it. I haven't actually left the apartment today, although I did have a brief conversation with the gray cat across the way. The black one doesn't like foreigners.

The travel agent replied about available flights--it's going to be 845,000 won (a little over $700) for one-way. It would leave on 9/28 (Tuesday) when I finish work on 9/24 (Friday). That's fine, but because of the holiday I won't be able to go anywhere and all the foreigners will be off traveling, so it might be a boring few days. I need to have someone at work call and make sure the airport bus is running on Tuesday (that is Chuseok Day, after all), and then let the travel agent know it's okay and get the information for Mr. Kim to transfer the money to him.

House Wormy Party

2004-09-03T22:21:00.000+09:00

Another couple of good yet tiring days. Lots of funny things to write about--tomorrow. For now, the latest from the student journals:

One student wrote about going to a "haose wormy party."

Another showed how homework in the lower grades isn't really teaching the kids anything:

l am homework homework kind is sports newpaper. l''''m wrighting. my mom is materials cut and paste that''''s board but monday is opening of shcool so Earnestness

Yet another student had mixed feelings about returning to school:

I am going to school tomorrow. I am happy about that. But I don`t like boys. because boys are afflict girls. I am miss my friends. And teacher too. I`m for got my set. In vacation I meet a lot of friends. I wait to go school tomorrow.

September!!

2004-09-01T22:38:00.000+09:00

It's September already. I can't begin to explain the feeling when I sat down at my desk at work and ripped August off of the calendar, crumpled it up, and tossed it into the trash can. It's September! I mentioned that fact to Matt and he apparently read my mind, because he offered a high five to mark the occasion.

Shock--only 17 days of work left. How did that creep up on me?!

The day was fairly normal. Because the new books haven't arrived I've been playing more games than normal, but always teaching a little something, too. The elementary school kids went back to school today. Most of them were really tired from not getting to sleep early enough last night. Charlie was absent in the 8:30 class and I think Mina might have talked to the whole class about needing to study hard with me and respect me, etc. It was much better.

This morning I got a look at the stuff growing on the wall under my sink and behind my toilet. You're not supposed to leave apartments here particularly clean, but I figured I'd get rid of that nastiness. The bathroom has no windows, however, so even with the vent fan on I inhaled far too many bleach fumes. I left the bathroom door and the veranda window wide open when I went to work, and luckily by the time I got home the smell was gone.

A War Casualty

2004-09-01T00:13:00.000+09:00

Apparently the military is cracking down on soldiers' blogs. Here's one casualty: MY WAR - Fear And Loathing In Iraq, who has discontinued his blog without specifically saying that he has or why or anything. The title changed to "Over and Out," though, and the only entry still there quotes some singer: "Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?" Even his archives have been deleted. A supervisor found out about the blog a couple of weeks before, but he was supposed to be able to continue blogging after the supervisor read it. I find the soldiers to be careful not to release anything that could put themselves in danger. The enemy can get plenty of info from the news! I guess the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to soldiers. I think hearing stuff straight from Iraq is helpful, especially for people with no military experience.

Over the weekend Norton caught two viruses (the same one) on my computer. How did they get there?? I don't download stuff, my firewall is up, what's wrong?

The first two days of the week were really good, perhaps because of my determination to have a positive attitude and enjoy my last month here. Even Joelle yelling across the room, "BETH! Pick student diaries!" like I was an animal didn't bother me. Less than 4 more weeks of her; I can make it.

Monday Jim came in briefly to get Mr. Kim to put his stamp on a housing form or something. Jim's been only doing privates this year (because he's gyopo he's got the good visa). After 5+ years in Ulsan he's moving to the Seoul area to see what kind of trouble he can stir up there!

The secretary was upset about something tonight. She's usually so cheerful, yet today was barely holding back tears. Did she get bad news? Did Mr. Kim yell at her? I felt so helpless--she doesn't speak much English. As I left I asked her if she was okay (yeah, great question when it's obvious she's not) and she tried to say yes in the "Hey, I don't really want to talk about it right now" embarrassed way. She looked like she needed to go home and have a good cry, but had to work for another hour or so. I felt bad leaving when she had to stay--let's trade places! I'll answer the phone and handle balancing the books--let's see parents' response to my horrible accent and awkward Korean!

Joshua's Book

2004-09-01T00:03:00.000+09:00

There were SO MANY mistakes in Joshua's book! I discussed it with him today for about a half hour. He didn't seem at all phased, and even talked about writing a teacher's book to accompany that book. Nearly everything I criticized he had an explanation for. Now I don't imagine that writing a grammar book is easy, and I realize that it's not his first language, but I think if someone is going to write a book then they should have some handle on what they're doing. Most Koreans are better at writing than at speaking, but he's the opposite. His speaking is quite understandable, but his writing……..

He's been working on the book basically full-time for 4~6 months. It's totally disorganized and almost completely plagiarized. He's had about 4 different grammar books that he's been pulling bits and pieces from to create a completely disjointed book. It has all the marks of a plagiarized paper—writing style drastically changes, some sections are surprisingly good while others are horrid, word choice goes from lots of slang and overused idioms to university-level writing. Sometimes it's "airplane" and sometimes it's "air plane." Many times he put two sentences together by using a comma splice. I'm not claiming to write perfectly, but if you're writing a grammar book you should make some attempt to write it correctly! One whole chapter didn't make any sense. It had phrases like this:

When I called him, I couldn't hear him clearly.
Calling him, I couldn't hear him clearly.

If you have CD player, you can borrow my CDs.
Having CD player, you can borrow my CDs.

As I answered the phone, I watched TV.
Answering the phone, I watched TV.

I understood the point—that in English you can change the order of phrases and have it mean the same thing. However, those are not correct! When I questioned those phrases, he pulled up a (Korean) webpage that had, word for word, what was in his book in that chapter.

There were so many errors that the spell check and grammar check would have caught (typos, subject-verb agreement, etc.). There are lots of things that a computer can't check, but be courteous and make it easier on the people editing it!!

Each unit started with a dialogue. Some dialogues sounded like two intellectuals were talking; some sounded like a 2-year-old. Use some consistency! The vocabulary was too difficult for children. American children don't even use words like "metropolitan!" This is perhaps the second-worst dialogue in terms of, who talks like this?! (The worst one was slightly longer and went from "boxers" (??) to "cookies" to "babies" to "travel" in the same short conversation! The only people I know who might talk like that are my two nearly-deaf great aunts when they're talking to each other!

Davis: Where are you, mom? Are you still at the bank?

Mom: I'm at uncle Jim's now. But I will go home soon.

Davis: Can you buy some milk on your way home?

Mom: No problem. Did you have any call for me?

Davis: Sorry, I don't know because I was in bed until now.

Mom: There's some chips in the cupboard. Get some. bye-

Besides what should be, "Were there any calls for me," why is Mom telling the kid that was already in bed to eat some chips? Shouldn't Mom be telling him to go back to bed, or at least eat something more healthy? Is the bank open at night? Who's watching Davis while Mom is gone?

Other interesting phrases:

Her name is Jeanne d'Arc who is the heroin of France.

Since this is an English book, perhaps use her English name. Either this is a typo or it's one of the few non-plagiarized sections, because on another page heroine was spelled correctly. Is she still the heroine of France, or she was the heroine?

Wow, you eat a horse.

No, not usually. I prefer cows, but a little bit at a time. The whole thing is a little much. If you're going to use idioms, use them correctly!

He is very kindness.

He is every kindness? He is very kind?

My mom wants to loose her weight.

Yes, she probably wants to loose her weight but she probably wants to lose it even more. And people don't think of weight as belonging to them.

I wake it up very early.

What? Your cat? Dog? Horse to take you to work?

An Excellent Weekend

2004-08-31T23:39:00.000+09:00

At some point during the weekend I figured out (maybe) that the problems Thursday~Friday were culture shock. It's partly work BS that you could have in any job, but certainly a large part related to the culture. So I largely neglected the work duties this weekend, doing approximately an hour on Saturday and two on Sunday, and instead immersed myself in having fun and interacting with people from all over the world, part of the reason why I work here.

Friday night I met about a dozen people from church to have a late dinner with Holly and Jody near the university. Holly and Jody went to Thailand and then to Canada; in all they were gone about a month, and were only in Ulsan for a couple of days to get some stuff before going back to the area near Seoul where they have a university job. Lucky them!

On Saturday I was the only student in Korean class, which felt a little weird, yet gave me some good practice with reading and I didn't feel as stupid asking what a word meant. After class I went to get a haircut, and while he was cutting my hair he asked about the highlights, as he almost always does. I explained, again, that I do them myself at home using a spray-on stuff and the hairdryer. He sounded very interested, and asked questions about where I got the stuff and what company it was (USA, and I don't remember). Then he asked if he could highlight my hair—"service"—Konglish for free. Why? I don't know if he wanted more practice with foreign hair (as my hair strands are rather thinner and silkier than Koreans') or if it was because I've been a regular customer for so long, or because I had to wait for 45 minutes, but I agreed. I must say I was somewhat nervous, knowing that he gave Sandra jet black hair one time when she asked for brown. He brought me a board with sample hair strands on it, and he suggested one that was entirely too light—I explained I didn't want anything too bright or crazy. I picked a somewhat conservative color, he suggested a lighter one, we decided on a shade between the two with lighter highlights. It took a little over an hour of two people working on me. They painted the strands and combed the dye through, let it sit a while, then painted the roots and let that sit (maybe used the blowdryer some) and then shampooed the hair. Then they did the highlights, blowdried that some and shampooed it again before drying and styling it. 10,000 won ($8)—pretty good deal.

As he was doing it he asked if it was the first time getting my hair colored in Korea. Yes. I didn't say that it was the first time getting my hair colored--ever! At the end he asked, somewhat concerned, if it was too bright. Actually it's not too different than the color it was before. It looks good, just a subtle difference. I reassured him that it was perfect and I liked it. At some point during the visit I told him that I was going home soon, but I didn't specify when. If I don't get there again before I go home, I'll email Sandra and ask her to tell him again that I liked his work. Otherwise I'm afraid he might think that I never came back because of what he did!

Only a couple of people even mentioned the haircut (which is slightly different than before). At work one class talked amongst themselves about me when I walked in, but didn't say anything to me.

Saturday night I met people at Java Coffee at 9 PM; we saw The Terminal. There were 10 of us—9 foreigners and 1 Korean, all English teachers. It was a hilarious movie and so applicable to our lives here—we've experienced a lot of the culture/language problems Tom Hanks did, and his English mistakes we've heard from our students. Some of the stuff obviously didn't translate well, as we were the only ones laughing in some sections, especially those about American culture or immigration procedures or English mistakes. Examples: Cher losing underwear on Virgin Airlines; Tom Hanks getting "cheat" and "shit" mixed up; the maze of forms and how strictly immigration laws are followed; some stuff just from how Tom Hanks said phrases with the Eastern European accent.

After the movie we went outside to talk (as inside was rather warm). It was perhaps 12:30 AM by that point. We were standing not too far from the door, and within 10 minutes a security guard came out, sort of shuffled around, cleared his throat, then hesitantly said, "Excuse me……" The message was pretty clear without any words—Get outta here! We moved farther away, yet still within the courtyard area. We stayed another hour goofing off and wondering if the guard would return. Nope. A group of dangerous foreigners standing near a door propped open into the main department store is much better than having them stand near the door to the still-open movie theater!

On Sunday there were tons of people at church, both old and new. Kendall was extremely funny with the announcements; it was a good atmosphere. Some people were going bowling in the afternoon but I went home to do a few productive things. Later I met everyone in old downtown to have a goodbye party for Bridget and Alex. We ate at a Chinese restaurant (owned by a Chinese guy). I haven't had that much meat at one meal in ages! Sweet and sour pork, garlic pork, honey chicken with cashews, a vegetable dish, sweet rolls, dumplings….everything was so good, and only 14,000 won each. We were stuffed. It's always so sad to say goodbye! They're headed to China and India for a few weeks of travel, and then to England. Because Alex's mother was born there, they can work there. They don't know what they'll do yet, but they want to do a little more crazy stuff before settling down in New Zealand.

Complaints about Friday

2004-08-31T23:12:00.000+09:00

Friday was chaos. Not even organized chaos, but complete chaos. This was the first time that the foreign teachers had to proctor the tests, as the Korean teachers are so overworked. I mean, they only spend 2 hours socializing every day. They should be spending at least half of their hours at work doing nothing whatsoever. So anyway, I figured that when I'm instructed to watch the kids take a test, that I could do other paperwork or something, but no. In the first class, Ricky finished the test (including the listening portion) in EIGHTEEN minutes (of a 50-minute class). The slowest student took 25 minutes. That left me with an awful lot of time that I didn't have anything ready to occupy them. The next class finished the test in about 30 minutes, but I had some easy readers which they did fairly well at reading (except for Tomas, who tore the cover off his).

In the next period, usually my break, I wrote evaluations while the Korean teachers goofed off. Mr. Kim asked the foreign teachers to correct the books that Joshua (the laptop guy, he's adopted an English nickname now) has been writing. He even said we'd get paid extra (yeah, right, how much, is this hourly, when?). It's my last month, can't make waves, yeah, sure. Once I looked through the 2 books I was given (each 75 pages long) I saw how long it was going to take and I got upset because of all the work things that needed to get done on the weekend: evaluations, daily reports, student diaries (which I'd been putting off while I wrote the tests), and edit 2 books!

The next two classes were too silly/bad and I got a bad headache and felt sick. Then another test. Then in the last class they were incredibly stupid. I know Ken has a decent English ability because I had him in a previous class. But in this class, he barely says a word per class. I asked him a simple question: "What do you think happens next in the story?" and he wouldn't respond. I sent him outside to think about it, and it took 5 minutes before he finally came back in with an answer.

!!!!!

Joelle also bothered me, on top of everything else. She is not a good manager. She complained that the students couldn't hear my voice on one of the listening tests—made me go into the classroom to read it and then demanded that I tape it over again. Is it okay if I wait until next week when some of this other stuff is finished, Your Royal Highness?! When I made that tape 6 months ago we didn't have any decent tape players, thus the quality of the recording. But that doesn't matter—it was my voice on the tape, so thus it's my fault. Joelle made Tanya re-write lots of her evaluations because Tanya wrote her comment too low in the box. Who cares where it's written! The parents can't even read it!!

I'm Back to Writing

2004-08-31T23:09:00.000+09:00

So it's been light blogging for a few days. Usually I respond to stress by writing, but I just didn't feel like it at all on Friday, and then the weekend was too busy to write and yesterday and today I've been incredibly tired. Following is at least the major details of the last 4 days or so.

Not Quite Free Access, But Better

2004-08-30T22:01:00.000+09:00

I can access blogs.com and typepad.com sites now! Finally! After only 67 days! Mu.nu sites are still blocked, though.

A More Positive Attitude

2004-08-29T01:51:00.000+09:00

So I stayed out as late as possible and am just now getting in . . . one day later. OK, not really. The weekend is going a lot better than I expected, though, with lots of fun both last night and tonight. For now, I need some sleep.

A Terrible Stressful Day

2004-08-27T22:35:00.000+09:00

What a day. Unfortunately, the weekend will continue the terrible-ness, to a certain extent. For now, I'm going out with friends and staying out as late as possible. I won't even think about what has to get done before Monday. Party now, take care of things later.

Teacher, you're strange!

2004-08-26T23:21:00.000+09:00

Now that I've finished writing about the bad day today, I'll skip back to yesterday and the mostly good day. I had some caffeine before work, which led to me being a little hyper. I think I heard from every single class today something along the lines of, "You're crazy," or "Teacher, you're strange!" or "Are you OK?" or rolled eyes or laughter.

In one class we were doing a conversation exercise where they were to ask their partner, "What did you do yesterday?" and practice the past tense when answering. Vio responded to his younger partner's question with, "Shutthefuckfuckerfuck." Now I'm sure he didn't understand entirely what he was saying, but he had some idea what it meant. If adults want to use profanity, whatever, but I'd prefer them to not use it around me. But for the students--do their parents want them using that kind of language?! From my perspective, that kind of language does not belong in the classroom and a kid who says that in my classroom is being disrespectful. The kids also need to learn that while profanity seems to be everywhere in Korea, in English speaking countries it seems to be more situational. There are some times that you don't use profanity. So I responded very strongly to show him that what he said was not at all appropriate. I sent him outside for about 20 minutes, and then before letting him back in I told him how those words are very bad words in English and that he can't say them in my classroom. Maybe that means he'll try them out more outside of class, but as long as I don't hear them, fine.

Also in that class there was a rap chant and as I walked around the classroom making sure everyone was participating, I couldn't help but walk to the beat of the chant. Some of the kids noticed and thought the teacher's dance was the funniest thing in the world.

In the next class the middle school students had all kinds of excuses as to why they hadn't done their homework. First they were busy with their school vacation homework, and then they had started school again. They promised that they'd do it before the next class. Luby noticed my purple toenails and told me that purple is worn by crazy people or artists. I responded, "and.......what do you mean by that?" Luby didn't immediately understand, but Sally did. "She's saying you're crazy, teacher!"

In Miro's 7 PM class the last workbook page was writing a postcard to a friend or family member. Daniel wrote to his mother, "I'm in English class. The teacher is student hit. I'm sad." He made a special point of showing it to me. I acted shocked and before I knew it he had added, "The teacher is crazy." I pretended to punch him, and again his letter changed. This time it said, "The teacher is student kill." Oh? Does anyone have a knife? Anyone? I pretended to pull a knife out of my pocket to stab Blake with. Of course, a dramatic death from him. I doubt any of that would go over well in a Western school, but here it's no problem!

I am Superman

2004-08-26T23:04:00.000+09:00

The rest of the day wasn't much better than the morning. The first two afternoon classes were OK, but then the next class wouldn't answer any questions or speak any English at all. The next class was average. The last two classes of the day--terrible. I put Tom in the corner and before I knew it he was writing bad things about another classmate on the board! I kept him after class to write my signature phrase, "I cannot learn if I do not try" (in Korean too). Some of the other boys were entirely too rambunctious, so I kept the entire class 3~4 minutes after the bell. My last class of the day was also bad, but I was way harsh with them to start with, so we managed to get everything done and have time for the word search (which I almost never do) to review words from a previous unit.

One of the activities in the current Impact chapter is to write down four "secrets" about yourself--1 true and 3 false. Billy's wasn't too hard to figure out:

1. I can fly.
2. I can't fight a tiger and win.
3. I am Superman.
4. I am a human.

My "secrets," which I gave the kids as examples--see if you can guess which is true! Perhaps 30% of the kids got it right.

1. I love kimchi.
2. I have two brothers.
3. I like cats.
4. I've visited 20 countries.

You're Late!

2004-08-26T12:29:00.000+09:00

I am so aggravated right now.

I got on the bus at about the normal time, but there was some road construction so it took a little longer than normal. It should have been no problem because I walked into school with 3 minutes to grab my book and marker before the bell rang. However, Grace and Jennifer were standing at the secretary's desk (I guess paying for the next month) and Grace had her too annoyingly perky sing-song "Good morning!" Yeah, yeah, hello. Then as I walked into the teachers' room she called out after me, "You're late!" No I'm not, class hasn't started yet. And you're late 70% of the time; maybe I need to start pointing that out to you!

I got my book, pen, marker, CD player, and filled up my water bottle, took some deep breaths as I told myself that I can't kill my students, and walked into class.

Right away the "Good morning!" came again. STOP IT. I haven't been awake that long and anyone who talks to me with that tone of voice in the morning usually gets their head bitten off (ask my Dad). I am not a morning person. I have no tolerance of people who are. THEN she comments on my choice of clothes: "Are they training pants?" If you mean "exercise pants," then sure. They're comfortable, they're not hot, can't I dress down from time to time?! They're certainly not "training pants."

Then Grace felt the need to comment on my being "late" again. I tried to restrain myself as I answered in a tone of voice that would be considered rude in the West, "No, I'm not late. I'm right on time" (as I point to my watch). She continued. "But usual is you are early in the school, isn't that right?" Well, since you're never early, you wouldn't know, now would you? "I was here very late last night getting ready for the test so I'm tired." Grace: "Test? What test?" SESSION TEST FOR THE NORMAL STUDENTS, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

We did the very minimum of small talk and then I steered them into the book. A new student came in a couple of minutes late. Her pronunciation is nearly perfect--she was an English literature major and her husband used to teach high school English. Grace and Jennifer were being silly: "I'm nervous," "Oh no, I'm scared." Are you adults or children? Oh wait, I can answer that question for you, forget I asked. Grace, as she does with every new student, had to make a big deal of pointing out that she was the oldest student in the class.

At the end of class I gave them homework to find a news article about cloning in Korea. The two old students complained that it was too difficult, and I was changing the class because of the new student. Uh, no! Yes this chapter is more difficult than some of the others, but I've given them this assignment before, always on a Thursday so they have time to work on it until Monday. I was glad when class was finished.

Annoying Blogs

2004-08-26T00:23:00.000+09:00

I like the new bar on the top of the blogger pages--ad-free, can search within my site, and check out random blogger sites. However, some of the random sites are complete trash! Everyone has their own thing they find interesting or want to write about--fine. However, the ones who have the strange-colored backgrounds so that it's impossible to read the blog--what's that all about? Or the ones that play L O U D music--deafen me, why don't you? The worst has to be when the popups come up saying you have to download a popup-blocker in order to continue on to their site. You click no, but it continues popping up until you're quick enough to hit the x in between it popping up. I don't want to download the self-proclaimed popup-blocker that could be a virus or spyware or anything!

The other thing that annoys me is the people who don't think they need to use standard English. Abbreviations, OK. But if there are no capital letters or punctuation, it's not worth me reading it. WoRsE iS WHen THEy dO thIS beCAusE iT's pRActicALly iMPosSiBle tO rEaD. What's the point?

A good number of the random blogs are ones with only 1 entry--someone started them because they were bored and then did nothing further with them. They shouldn't show up as a random blog until they have at least a few entries.

The last thing that annoys me about some blogs that are decent that I usually read is when they say something along the lines of, "You have to read this!" I thought the point of blogs was to provide links, but also to comment on them. I'd like to know what the link is before I click on it!

Students' Crime Stories

2004-08-25T23:17:00.000+09:00

I entered the 6 PM class today to hear cries of "Game! Game!" They told me that while I assumed they finished their book this week, they don't finish until the end of September. That's fantastic! We have 5 pages of the book left, and that's supposed to last 5 weeks?? The thing is, that book usually takes 3 months, but because they used the higher level book last session (and didn't do well), then they need for this lower-level book to take 4 months to keep them on the right schedule. Nice of the Korean teacher to tell me that, huh?

With that particular class it's not a huge deal, though. There's only 7 of them and their behavior is decent and they're at a high enough level that I can be a little creative and teach them something that's not straight out of a textbook. I'm actually looking forward to being something other than a tape player drone who makes conversation from time to time.

I'm an expert at thinking on my feet now, so I told them that yes, we would play a game, but not for all of class. I had them write a police story, drama-style (such that they can act it out later). First we brainstormed characters together. Police officer, robber, victim, witness, news reporter. Then the 3 girls worked together and 2 boys worked together and the other 2 boys mostly just sat there and did nothing. They did a lot better than I expected. They spent a full 20 minutes on it, and would have continued if I hadn't promised them a 15-minute game at the end of class. (Hacking test took up some time, talking some more.)

I had Stephanie come into the class to look at John's very pink eye that he was rubbing, then touching the desk and his classmates. She said it was no problem, but told John to wash his hands and then not touch his eye again. She instructed the rest of the students to wash their hands after class. If John does indeed have pink eye, he should not be in class!! Public school resumes in one week--just enough time for the disease to spread among our 400 students, then it can get started with the 3000 in the elementary school.

We finished class by playing what I call tic-tac-toe. It's like tic-tac-toe in that you try to get three in a row, but each square has a category and a number in it. It's usually girls vs. boys. They have to choose a category and then name the certain number of things from that category. I usually try to do roughly half things they know well, some that they've recently studied or need to review, and one or two that they might not know but should be able to figure it out or guess what it is. Zoo animals, family relationships, school supplies (that took several rounds of guessing!), countries, capitals (a little difficult because the cities sometimes have slightly different names in English than in Korean), furniture, jewelry, etc. It's a fun way to review vocabulary and learn new category names. It works well with most level classes that I try it with, I just adjust the categories.

So here are the students' stories. I'm thinking that I'll correct the mistakes and return them next week. Then maybe I'll have them add a little more to the stories and practice before acting them out for the other group.

Boys:

News Reporter: Now police officer catching a robber.

Victim: Please catch a robber.

Police Officer: Don't worry. We will catch a robber.

After second day police officer asked to witness.

Police Officer: What does he look like?

Witness: He is thin and tall and he has red curly hair.

Police Officer: Thank you! very much.

After 1 week police officer went to the robber's house but robber is run.

Police Officer: Hey, stop there.

Robber: No I can't.

So police officer shot the gun but gun is miss.

Robber: My speed is faster than your gun.

So, police officer is shot the gun again and robber is hurt.

Robber: Ouch!

and police officer catch him the next day

News Reporter: Police officer catch the robber.

-F I N I S H -

Girls (short because they were trying to get every word perfect):

News Reporter: Today was a robber steal a much money in the sidewalk victim's bag!
Police Officer: Suddenly a man was steal a victim bag and run away. This robber will 1 year in prison because before this robber kill some people.
Robber: I don't know when I was stold money....
News Reporter: Now is Kim Ha Nul report....

Spoonfeeding

2004-08-24T23:00:00.000+09:00

I've figured out why I have so many problems in the 2 PM class. We were talking about jobs, and 3 of the kids want to be a "gag man" when they grow up (comedian). Fine and good, kids, but for now, tone down the crazy jokes and giggling in class!

Matt and Tanya didn't really understand how the listening test works, so I had to help them tweak their tests. Nothing huge, just the format of them so the kids are listening to everything--the questions and the possible answers.

Glen was moved UP from 1st Impact to High Impact because that's the only time he can come to our academy. He was already doing extremely poorly in the old class. I told Stephanie this, but she insisted that his grammar was good (yeah, right--his journals are atrocious --grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization--all horrible or missing) and his speaking ability is zero and his listening comprehension is in the below zero category. But I guess he fits in perfectly with that class--I have to spoonfeed them everything. I could probably go into class, sit down, and have a staring contest with them and they wouldn't say a single word during the entire 50 minute class. I am not exaggerating.

In the hall Tom and Sally/Steven were close to fighting--defensive poses, nasty tone of voices. I told them to stop and asked why they were arguing--no response. Later I asked Tom, and he explained that yesterday Steven (5th grade) pushed him (possibly intentionally) and Tom (6th grade) told him to not push. Steven replied with "profanity" (where did Tom learn that word?!) so Tom hit him or tried to hit him. Today Sally (7th grade and Steven's older sister) got involved and threatened Tom.

Cleo had a high opinion of today's vocab quiz--"It's a disgusting test." Zach had studied well, so said "Bravo!" as he handed his perfect paper to me. The idiom review game was lots of fun, although Cleo got his feelings hurt (not a surprise) and quit halfway through.

In the 7 PM class we did some exercises that the Korean teacher had skipped. Some writing that I guess she thought was too hard for them (I explained it easily enough to them, why couldn't she?) but also some drawing exercises. They were supposed to complete the pictures using the sentences. It was supposed to be a bus, and that's what they drew, but some of the boys made an alligator out of their bus--really cute.

Green Thumbs

2004-08-23T22:04:00.000+09:00

I woke up feeling miserable and considered calling in sick, but had a lot to cover in my classes before Friday's tests, so dragged myself out of bed. I was feeling a little better by time to go to work, besides a headache. Yes, the same headache that's been basically non-stop for weeks now. Is it my filthy school or my eyes? One of the first things I'm doing when I get home is going to the eye doctor--my vision doesn't seem as crisp as it used to be.

After the adult class I had finished preparing for afternoon classes but no computers were free, so I cleaned a ton of old papers out of my desk. It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate in 2 years! (And that's just my desk--what will happen when I start going through my apartment?!) I also sorted the school policy type papers that will stay at my desk for Tanya to refer to and the worksheets or quizzes that I've made for my classes. I suppose taking at least a sampling of the things I've made here home with me would be good.

The kids were mostly good, yet I still succeeded in making one kid cry--all right! I'm a successful teacher! I warned the class to speak only English or go outside, yet the boy (5th or 6th grade) intentionally spoke Korean, so I sent him outside and then forgot about him so he was out there for around 20 minutes. When I let him back in I gave him a short lecture using simple words. He started tearing up. On second thought, he was in the hall next to one of the scarier Korean teacher's classrooms--maybe she had already yelled at him before I did. The whole day I struck the appropriate balance between being in charge and not being overbearing.

Both my students and Tanya might have a problem when she takes over my classes when I leave. Especially with the 2nd grade class, we use a lot of Korean to aid in communication. It might be quite an adjustment.

In Jenny's and Ally's class they got a little crazy but Jenny did a great job of speaking English. She showed me her newly-painted nails and then begged me to let her paint my thumb. Am I crazy, or what? I ended up with two neon green thumbs all day!

The headache was made worse on the way home by the bus driver who thought that since I was the only one left on the bus that he could light the foulest smelling cigar ever without even bothering to open a window!

Enough complaining. I received a couple of nice long newsy emails today. Those are always nice!

Fahrenheit 9/11

2004-08-22T23:20:00.000+09:00

I finally got around to watching Fahrenheit 9/11. Granted before I watched it I had heard and read all kinds of criticism about it, but even just watching it a lot of questions were raised in my mind about things Moore was leaving out or distorting.

The part about the ties between Bush Senior, all the big Saudi Arabian people, Cheney and whoever, the younger Bush and his people, etc. wasn't that valid in my mind. Rich and powerful people tend to at least know each other, if not move in the same circles. That's true in most walks of life--if you're in the same occupation as someone or in the same geographical location as them, it's probable that you'll be involved in more than one thing with them.

Alleging that Jeb Bush being governor of Florida and Katherine Harris being secretary of state caused Bush to win the state--come on, this is a democratic system with checks and balances to prevent corrupt things from happening! Lots of people from both parties were watching things very carefully.

On at least two occasions in the movie when Moore was interviewing people and they gave a number or percent estimate, he took the number that benefited his idea and went with it. Did he look into the real number on his own, or just accept his interviewee's estimate as fact? The times I noticed this were when someone estimated how much of the U.S. economy Saudi Arabians were invested in (6-7%) and when someone in Flint, Michigan estimated the unemployment rate.

Check out Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11 for the full story.

And for a hilarious parody on Moore's work, see: I Am Not An Asshole, the Michael Moore Story.

Goodbye, Hello

2004-08-22T23:04:00.000+09:00

Today at Shinbok we studied a particularly difficult verse. I wondered if John had messed up the typing or if the NIV version was that bad, but I actually had to use my NKJV to make sure who "him" was referring to. Later I looked online, and John had typed it correctly. In both versions the "who" was particularly difficult because who is never used that way in Korean. I wonder if the Greek is as confusing as the English?!

John 1:18
NIV--No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

NKJV--No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

As we studied the verse I had to struggle to understand it well enough to explain it to them. At the end Octavia asked me for my comment (which they translate into Korean so the kids understand it completely). She doesn't always ask for a comment from me, but I suspect she does when we either need to fill up some more time or she doesn't understand the verse. This was one time I really didn't want to make a comment! But suddenly something popped into my head that made sense and was fairly applicable and easy enough to understand. Something along the lines of, "No one has seen God, but God shows Jesus to us in different ways. Since we can't see God, we must have faith that He is there."

Today the middle-aged guy who always says hello to me joined our study, so it was him, Octavia, John, me, and 4 elementary school boys. A good adult/child ratio! The guy might be one of the assistant pastors, I'm really not sure. His English was at about the same level as the boys'. He was concerned about me going home soon and who would take over. Octavia asked me, as I suspected she might, if I could introduce a new teacher to them. Most of the people I know have already gone home or are going home soon--sorry!

It was Alex and Bridget's last day at Simin today. They'll be around next Sunday, but will be moving out of their apartment to stay with Kendall and Shelly for a few days, so won't be able to make it to church. Their goodbye speeches made me realize how much I'm going to miss things here, but especially that church and the people there. It truly feels like my home, with brothers and sisters and for a while there mothers and fathers (the older people from out at the factories).

David (M.) was back--Professor Cho got him a job at Chungwon National University--nice! It's nearly 2 hours away, though, so he won't be able to make it to Ulsan too often, at least not until he makes some money to buy a motorcycle. It was good to see him again. He said that while he was home he went to 4 different churches but none of them felt right to him--he was glad to be back at Simin.

Should I be leaving a place that I feel such regret about leaving? Or, as Bill said today, is Korea a stepping stone, a training place, for future things? I've certainly learned a lot here, matured, become independent and more assertive, many lessons that should prove valuable regardless of where I end up. I've seen the best and worst of humanity, lost a good bit (but perhaps not all) of my naiveness, learned about negotiating a contract, dealing with difficult bosses and co-workers (in the past I was blessed with excellent bosses and at least tolerable co-workers), and learned how to determine what a person's goal is by largely ignoring what they say and instead paying attention to how they say it, their body language, and the way the situation feels. (For that last one, I mostly learned from interacting with people who wanted to be "friends" solely so they could practice speaking English.)

I had another strange dream Friday morning. Nothing too important, though. I dreamed I was in a tall building for some kind of business meeting. As I was waiting in the lobby for the meeting, I glanced toward the elevators. People were getting on but I recognized one of the people already on the elevator. We had never met, but knew each other from online things (how crazy is that!). I ran to the elevator and got on just before the doors closed. We exchanged pleasantries, mostly along the "Oh, it's nice to meet you in person" type, and then were silent. That was it to the dream. Why did I abandon my (apparently important) meeting to catch the elevator? Why did the elevator take so long to go down? Why weren't the other people making any noise? I must establish some kind of regular sleep schedule!

Student Diaries

2004-08-22T19:00:00.000+09:00

The latest sampling of my students' diaries follow. Most of them are getting pretty decent, although some of them still don't feel the need to use punctuation. Some are better than others, but at least I can read about something other than the latest video game all the time!

Mary (4th grade, really quiet in class but excellent with written work):

I went to an outside swimming for my summer vacation. I had tons of fun. It was great! I ate some snacks and went swimming with my brother and dad. My mom just stayed outside the pool. Too bad we didn''t have any tube or balls but it was still a bunch of fun. I got a bit tan... My family forgot to bring sun lotion.
My family and I was about to go eat some meat after swimming, but the traffic was so, so heavy we were a bit late to got to the meat restaurant. So we ate Korean food called Sul-lung-tang. It wasn''t that bad because Sul-lang-tang is one of my favorite food but I was looking forward to eating meat. Oh, well I''m sure my dad will buy me some next time. Today was such a happy day. It was a bit tiring but I''m wishing if we could go there again! I thank my parents a lot for taking me out to an outside pool! Even my brother who never wants to go outside had enjoyed a lot! I think he enjoyed more than me!

Blake (5th grade, genius, clown, very talkative, great pronunciation):

My class is always happy! My friends together Work.We are happy! sometimes we are fight but happy! therefore,we ary always happy! I love My classroom,and I love My friends. T-8 class room is always nice and happy. and good student many
many. It''s very good classroom I like it !!!~ my classroom is very G O O D!

Kevin (5th grade, generally good, too opinionated, needs to give the other students a chance to answer):

Tuseday,August 17th,2004 Unide State of America Today, I read some books. One of them Mun Nara Le Ut Nara is very funny and interesting. "Oh! It''s story interesting!" I want buy this book very very long time ago. This book''s writer name is ''Yi - Won - Bock'' His jobs is Universty teacher. I read this book. Then I know Unide State America is very interesting country. I want go Unide State America. Then I want see a Statue of Liberty and I want see Grand Canion. I want go,please..

Rooky (4th grade and too talkative for his own good--both the Korean teacher and I are on the verge of strangling him all the time):

Today Hurricane come to Ulsan. Hyundai carfactory is move the car. Ulsan airport is stop the airport. This Hurricane is fifteen hurricane Megi. This Hurricane is 1012hps. It''s very horrorand scary. I want broke hause and hong soo pihaza is small.

Chad (7th grade, decent student):

Today was rainy and cloudy. Today was Independence Day of Korea. I studied a holiday task(Math)of school. It was very easy and very hard. I studied homework of academy. The homework content was classroom English. It was very very easy. It was a paper in English book. I played the harmonica. It was a holiday task. I learnt harmonica. My teather was my sister. she had bad character. It was hate. I played harmonica not well. I could play harmonica very well. Today was a very nice day.

Justin (7th grade, cutest kid, hard to be angry at him because of that smile, a bit mischievious):

I hate Mosquito.The mosquito is people bite and injure.Probably i bit a 9 last night.but come to fall. Why mosquito bite a people?? I really difficult to understand.Today I never bite a mosquito. aja aja justin~! the end~!

Harry (6th grade, good at getting his point across, but weak at writing); using the dictionary is bad--Today Korea got a bad SCORE!

Today in the Greece opening the Olympic game. I like Olympic. because the world is very very peace. so I like olympic. Today Korea is bad sexual. The player is lose the maney games. But a nation isn''t disappointment. tomorrow player will good.

Laura (6th grade, good all-round student, very helpful in class):

We usually drew a picture in art class. But today, we played with clays. Every one could make what they wanted. I made a duck and a teacup. I made a teacup first. I made a bowl and put the handle. It was perfect. I decorated it and made a duck. It was very fun! I made a duck shape and decorated all over the duck. My duck looks like a jewel. I made a rabbit too. But it broke easily. So I didn''t take to my home. I love making with clays.

Lily (8th grade, pretty quiet but good when she does speak, always ready to study); I'm not entirely sure what she's talking about.

I go to my cousin''s restaurant. The restaurant''s name is Hong cho bul darck. Hong cho bul darck sell beer,really spicy chicken. Hong cho bul darck mean Hong cho is name, bul darck is fire chicken. Why call fire chicken? If You eat fire chicken and you know~ very very spicy!!! Korean people eat chicken and they shed tears. I eat little chicken , in my mouth It feels fire breaks out . And I shed tears~ ㅠㅠㅠ.... But, It was delicious. I asked my dad, "Why people eat this chicken what taste? Dad said , "People eat spicy taste" In the restaurant, many young people. they eat beer and fire chicken ~ My cousin is very busy. I want to be a Hong cho bul darck''s president. And I am going to rich!!

Steven (5th grade, strange Sally's younger brother, very strong all-round in English):

Today is on the vacation. But I went to the school. Because I have a computer lesson. So I went to the school in early mornig. So I was hungry. I hate my computer lesson. My computer teacher likes girl. So boys hate my teacher. But girl like my teacher. I afraid the girl. Why is my teacher like girl? I don''t konw forever!!

Annie (5th grade, one of the toughest girls I know--she looks sweet, but she doesn't take any nonsense from the boys!):

Today, I have a cleaning the school. I felt very angry because, the typhoon is came yesterday. So, the school is very dirty. The trash is very many in the school. So, We are the cleaning the scool very hard. And, a schoolmaster is make our clening very hard. So, I felt very angry to schoolmaster. I remorse about I go to the school yesterday. My friends angry, too. Today is very angry day.

Glen (7th grade, in a class that's WAY too difficult for him, but he can't study at any other time); a new student came to class with the same English nickname, which totally confused me.

today my friend is Glen my name is Glen, too my friend is Glen is fun my friend Glen is meet schoos every day my friend meet school he is very very fun my friend with l play soccer soccre is very fun

Tom (8th grade, Luby's twin brother, pretty good when he wants to be, same class as the two Glens); "It's that Glen too"--I realize what he's talking about--I was joking around about "this Glen" (the one who sits closer to me) and "that Glen" (the one who sits in the back) and apparently he picked up on that!

I think Charlie is very bad student. Because he bored heis hitting me and that glen. But Charlie is same age. He born in january. I born on May. So we are same age. I hate charlie very much. It''s that Glen too. So we are don''t like charlie very much.

Must-See Video

2004-08-22T10:12:00.000+09:00

Take a look at the newest site I've found that I can't access from Korea without going through a proxy server: Kerry on Iraq. It's a timeline in video form of Kerry's speeches and votes on the Iraq issue over the last 10 years or so, concentrating on the last 3 years. Very interesting. Thanks to The Foggiest Idea.

This Swift Boat thing is getting pretty interesting now that the mainstream media is starting to cover it. They sure are distorting things, though. The Straight Face Test and The Mudville Gazette are pointing out some of the distortions.

The River

2004-08-21T22:49:00.000+09:00

Back to Wednesday morning's dream:

I had this dream two times that I remember, perhaps three. I usually don't dream often, perhaps once a month. This time I dreamed in the hour or so before I woke up, so the dream took place in the world between deep sleep and wakefulness, thus why I remember it so well.

As I dreamed I became aware that I was dreaming, largely because I had had the dream before. Once I realized it was a dream, I heightened my senses to take in all of the dream that I could, hoping to make better sense of it.

This time the dream started later than before and ended a bit later. I was on a bridge with a person I never clearly saw. The bridge was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom style with wooden slats and a hardly-moving river below. However, it wasn't nearly as sturdy as the bridge in the movie because the sides were single ropes that were unconnected to the bridge. This resulted in the part of the bridge that we stood on tipping wildly back and forth as we ran across it. I don't know how we got on the bridge or why we were there, but it seemed as if we were both running away from something. It also felt as if we were competing with each other and perhaps even enemies.

We stumbled along, running, running. I was out of breath and my side hurt. My shoes kept catching on the boards and pitching me forwards; my hands grasped at the sides and I felt pain as the ropes cut into my hands. As the bridge dipped in the middle, I grabbed on to the sides more frequently but found the single ropes unable to support me. I continued stumbling along, sometimes in front of the other person, sometimes behind, but always propelled forward as if shot out of a gun.

At one point when I was behind, the bridge tipped and I fell off while holding on to the rope on the side. I went down a bit but was able to pull myself back up onto the bridge, feeling the strength in my arms. I wiped the sweat off my brow and continued. Running, running.

A little later the same thing happened again, but this time the rope lowered me all of the long way into the water. The other person also fell into the water, just ahead of me. We clung to the rope, trying to pull ourselves back up onto the bridge. No alligators came to swallow us up, but we were in a big hurry to get to the other side. Again, I wasn't sure why. The first time I had the dream, it seemed that we continued to compete even while we struggled in the river. This time, though, it seemed that perhaps we were cooperating.

We tried to get back up onto the bridge, but it was impossible. Pain was shooting through my arms; I had no strength left. Yet, the person and I were able to use the rope to pull ourselves across the river at a high speed, practically skiing on the surface of the water. Again, I felt an urgency. I had to continue; I had to get across. I didn't feel fear at what may have been chasing me or panic at what would happen when I reached the solid rock wall on the other side of the river; I simply felt an urgency to get across. Pulling, pulling.

While I was dreaming my logic wasn't turned on, but now that I analyze things more fully, there was a highway bridge crossing the river less than 100 feet away—why weren't we using that to cross the river instead of this pathetic excuse for a footbridge?!

As I got closer to the rock wall on the other side of the river, the other person was no longer there. Had I passed the person? He/she had been ahead of me but was suddenly no longer there. The closer I got to the wall, the fuzzier things got. It wasn't a fog or anything, but my sight grew worse and worse, like I was suddenly very nearsighted. Things had a ring around them like after you've been in a highly chlorinated swimming pool all day. Despite my distorted vision, I thought I saw a break in what was previously a solid wall. Was it a beach with people swimming and children playing? Was it a cave? What was it?! I peered ahead, squinting, straining to see what lay ahead of me. I woke up.

Having dreams like that, no wonder I'm so tired when I wake up! Thinking about it more, the river was definitely the Taehwa River. The setting was a cross between the river at the Sam Ho Bridge, where it's wide and slow-moving, and the smaller part of the river at Standing Rock, where it's swifter, perhaps deeper, and with huge cliffs on one side. The river in my dream is much, much, wider than either of those places, though, almost like the ocean, but with no waves. It's weird how our brains take settings we know and mix them together and make crazy dreams out of them.

I thought about this dream a lot. Usually I don't think dreams are important, but in Korea I've had more frequent, vivid, and strange dreams than ever before. A couple of them have also come true. When I have a dream more than once I can't help but wonder why.

What does this dream mean? It was so important to get across the river, but what was on the other side? Where am I going? Why am I in a hurry to get there? Who's competing with me? Or does it only seem that we're competing? There was more than one way to get across, yet I was on the more dangerous path—what does that mean? There's more than one path to where I'm going, so choose carefully before setting out? Or do both paths have their share of danger so it doesn't matter which path I choose? Some paths have visible dangers and some have dangers that you can't know until you try them? As I got closer to the other side things became less clear. Is that anywhere along the lines of how we have to make decisions and then have things become less clear as we wonder if that was the right decision or not?

I'm nearing the end of my time in Korea. I do have a lot of questions as to what's next, and things certainly aren't becoming any clearer as time goes on. Could this dream be my worries about the future?

Back in June I wrote a paragraph to remind myself of decisions or things coming up. Of the four major things, two have already been taken care of, and pretty easily. Granted the other two are more complicated, but perhaps they'll be just as easy as the first ones? Maybe? Perhaps the smallest chance?

Yeah, yeah, it was just a dream. But it was a very real dream, and it felt like it meant something, or that I was supposed to learn something from it. What?

A Restful Saturday

2004-08-21T22:45:00.000+09:00

I was rather lazy today. Slept late, went on a long walk (no hiking, I didn't want to go on that long of a walk!), and did some computer stuff, including some correspondence, grading the students' online journals, and finding some new blogs--a few good ones and a thousand bad ones. There are some weird movies on TV tonight, so I had to settle for reruns of America's Funniest Home Videos.

A 5th-grader's Philosophy

2004-08-20T23:45:00.000+09:00

I loved Randy's response in his homework. They were supposed to practice the idioms by filling in the blanks. He wrote, "I'm fed up with nothing because life is fun." What a positive outlook! Of course he's only in the 5th grade, but people should strive to have that attitude more often.

In the 7 PM class they were particularly loud so I got rather strict with them. Apparently they thought I was stressed, because Charlie showed me a way for "stress to fly away" involving twiddling of the thumbs and each of the fingers 10 times on each finger. If you're doing it in a quiet room instead of in a room full of rambunctious kids, it might work.

Edward was bugging me for money so I gave them each a penny and we talked about American vs. Korean money a bit before moving on to other topics. They do such a good job with conversation that I hate to stop them, but we have to cover a certain amount of the book each class.

Another weekend already. Mrs. Yoon called Tuesday night to tell me Korean class was cancelled this week. I considered going to Busan or a hike up Munsu Mountain, but I'll see how I feel tomorrow before deciding.

Solve this Problem!

2004-08-20T22:55:00.000+09:00

At work the first class was terrible but the next class was fantastic--go figure. Tomas had a much better attitude today and worked really hard. The "take a break" page in their book was a mind puzzle, I don't know what else to call it. It was a rectangle with an "X" through the middle. You're supposed to figure a way to connect all of the lines without lifting your pencil or going over any lines more than once. They understood the directions perfectly, but couldn't figure out the solution. It had been a while since I'd taught that book so I couldn't remember the answer, aside from it being a somewhat tricky solution. The problem is, someone decided that since the teacher's books weren't valuable to her, then we should get rid of them. Guesses as to who that might be?! Since we no longer have the teacher's books, I'm left with a bunch of perplexed kids who want the answer to the puzzle! Any ideas?

Connect all of the lines without lifting your pencil or going over any line more than once.

Kerry Opposes Troop Withdrawal

2004-08-20T16:32:00.000+09:00

At work I read the following in the Korea Herald (there's no link because I didn't see it on their online site):

Kerry Opposes Troop Withdrawal from S. Korea
CINCINNATI, Ohio (AFP)

Democratic White House hopeful Senator John Kerry warned Wednesday that
President George W. Bush's plan to withdraw 70,000 troops from Europe and Asia
would hinder the war on terrorism and embolden North Korea.

"Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in
foreign wars, but it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible
way. This is not that time or that way," Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War
veteran, said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

I thought Kerry wanted the troops to come home? (I don't have anything in writing about that, but that's just what I remember.) The press likes to throw around that phrase "decorated Vietnam War veteran," huh? Is Kerry the only "decorated Vietnam War veteran" worth listening to?

"This hastily announced plan raises more doubts about our intentions and
our commitments than it provides real answers," Kerry told the organization,
which groups some 2.6 million members at about 9,000 posts worldwide.

What "hasty" plan? They've been talking about this for awhile now.

Kerry, a senator from the state of Massachusetts, argued that reducing U.S.
forces from South Korea would reduce Washington's leverage with Pyongyang in
talks to defuse the crisis over the Stalinist state's nuclear programs.

"Why are we unilaterally withdrawing 12,000 troops from the Korean
Peninsula at the very time we are negotiating with North Korea--a country that
really has nuclear weapons?

"North Korea has probably never been more dangerous than any time since the
end of the Korean War. This is clearly the wrong signal to send at the
wrong time," said Kerry.

Kerry is so clueless. Come on! 12,000 troops against the North's over a million is nothing. 12,000 troops against nuclear weapons is nothing. I know appearances can be a big thing, but the U.S. troops aren't disappearing, they're just moving around a bit and some are going to other countries. They're not backing down at all from the North; they're not underestimating the threat of the North.

Matt saw me at the copy machine copying the article and he stuck his nose in where it doesn't belong and we got in an argument about Kerry. Just because you hate Bush doesn't mean you should blindly defend the other guy!! I am not at all fond of Bush, but he's better than Kerry. Matt said it well as he bowed out of the argument--"Well you have a vote and I don't." EXACTLY! And stop criticizing a country that's not yours!!!!

Name Confusion

2004-08-20T16:22:00.000+09:00

How insane is this: Tom's name is 홍영택. He's in my and Miro's 6 PM class. There's another Tom in that class, too, 이창한. The first Tom's (홍영택) younger brother's English nickname is also Tom. That Tom (the younger brother) is in my and Miro's 4 PM class. His name: 홍형택. Why would a parent name kids like that?! It's not quite the same thing as American parents do with naming kids starting with the same letter or rhyming or something. The Korean teachers are getting the two boys confused all the time. Hong Young Taek, Hong Hyung Taek--they're so similar!

Touch, Hit, Shake

2004-08-19T22:45:00.000+09:00

I challenged the adults quite a bit today with all of my questions about current events. I'm just not satisfied with what I read about Korean politics in the English language newspaper because I feel like they're leaving things out or not explaining things well enough for a foreigner (who doesn't know all of the background info) to understand. I saw on the front page of the newspaper that the Uri party chairman was resigning because his father had collaborated with the Japanese during the colonial period (pre-1945). The students had quite a hard time explaining everything to me, but reading the newspaper later and hearing Matt's explanation of things helped.

At first I thought that the chairman was being forced to resign simply because of what his father had done. I asked the students if they thought that was fair, and they said that yes, it was. Grace talked about her parents living under the Japanese police, and while she didn't go into detail, it was obvious that it was not a good part of their lives. Later I learned that it's not just who the chairman's father was that's an issue, but that he hid his father's past for so many years, and that for the last little bit he's been leading a witchhunt to expand the definition of a "Japanese collaborator" and prosecute those people, despite it being 60 years after it happened. It's quite an emotional issue; I understood a little more of it from Grace's reaction, but Professor Cho's statement back at the retreat has stayed with me. He said he attended primary school under the Japanese, and that "the Japanese treated us like slaves." There was such emotion in his voice as he said it.

I have a more objective view, having had a couple of Japanese friends. What's in the past is in the past--shouldn't they give the younger generation a break? Yet I also understand that when such horrible things happen, it's good to remember what happened to prevent such things from happening again. It's one of those issues where neither side is completely right.

I also asked them what they thought about the Koguryo issue and China. They thought it was bad about China distorting history, but hadn't heard the conspiracy theory that if North Korea fails in the next 10~20 years, then China wants it firmly established in their history books that the North historically belongs to them. That way the Chinese can keep North Korea as a buffer state between them and the capitalist South. (Or try to take control of the entire peninsula?) Of course anytime there's a regime change it's potentially dangerous, but if/when the North falls, things could get really interesting in this part of the world!

The day was good, with lots of laughter, yet I stayed in control of my classes. They thought Andre Agassi's name was hilarious, because his last name sounds like the Korean word for "miss." I had to keep reminding Billy and Andy to use their "inside voices," as my parents used to call it. They were speaking English--good. They were speaking it as loudly as possible--bad.

Kane and Brad were funny. The kids are always hitting each other for some reason or other, it's just what they do. Well, Brad went beyond hitting so Kane asked, "Why you touch me?" I told Kane that the word wasn't "touch," it was "shake" and I demonstrated the difference. Then to show that he understood what I was saying, Brad demonstrated the difference between "touch," "hit," and "shake," on Kane, several times, as he chanted, "Touch, hit, shake, touch, hit, shake!" Then Kane had to show that he, too, understood what the words meant as he used Brad as his demonstration subject. "Touch, hit, shake! Touch, hit, shake!" Then it turned into a rather girly slapping match until I reminded them why we were in the classroom--TO STUDY!

Joelle needs to chill and treat us like adults capable of teaching without her constant supervision. Nothing more has been said about the missing daily reports in the computer. I would not be at all surprised if she approaches me some day and demands to know why I haven't fixed them. I have my answer all ready. "Joelle, you never told us to do anything, I simply found a piece of paper with a bunch of random class numbers (many of them not mine) and dates (most of them before we started using the computer system) on my desk. What did you expect me to do with that piece of paper?"

I've been asking for a couple of weeks; we finally found out today that our session test is next Friday. I had already discussed with Tanya about the listening tests that we need to make, but Joelle, being the all-knowing and all-powerful manager that she is, felt the need to assign who should make what test: "Matt, you do HHH4, Beth, you do HHH6, Tanya, you do HHH1." Uh, we already have a HHH6 test made from last time, but we don't have a HHH2 test. How about let us handle what tests need to be made, since we know what we have/need?!

This time we have to proctor the tests in the classes that we'd usually have on that day, while in the past the Korean teachers took care of things and we hung out in the teachers' room and wrote evaluations. OK, sure. However, I'm sure it's because the Korean teachers complained about having extra work. What do they do with all of the time that they're not teaching??? We teach nearly twice as many classes as they do!!! It's just one day every three months! I asked Joelle to tell the Korean teachers to at least go into the classroom and explain the test to the students. The kids get really nervous when they hear the word "test" when they don't understand the directions 100% because the foreign teacher is explaining. I am SURE some of the teachers will "forget" about going into the classroom, or conveniently make themselves scarce when they're needed, or act like it's a big deal to spend two minutes making the kids comfortable with taking the test.

The other big Joelle thing today was that the level progression has changed slightly at the intermediate level. Matt and I had discussed that the CYBI 1 book would fit better between the second and third Impact book. But that was a private conversation, and without asking any of the foreign teachers, Joelle changed the progression so that the first CYBI book comes after the first Impact book. It's not horrible, but it's not the best, either.

With the new level progression, the Pink level kids will stop writing English diaries and instead will start using a diary book (published by our school, so thus filled with mistakes but an additional 10,000 won per session per student). Within two minutes of thumbing through it I found a mistake!! "I live with my parents, old sister, and young brother." Sue (the b****--sorry, some people warrant strong words), Natalie, and Nathan made the book. Sue thinks she speaks good English (nowhere near it), Natalie is pretty good, Nathan is a native speaker but has too much to do. They couldn't even get the biography page right! Natalie is listed as having been a "teacher's assistantship" at some school in Canada. With Western textbooks, the books are written, edited, checked again; very few errors get through. These books.....oh my!

The logistics of how we'll be able to check the new books will be a nightmare--they're supposed to do two units a week (they're only writing once a week now) so are we supposed to check it twice a week, too? The older students will also start doing a book published by the school, in addition to all of the books that they're doing now. Is Mr. Kim trying to drive all of the students away by overworking them?? No idea yet if we'll be expected to teach/correct those, too. There simply isn't enough time in class to teach anything else!!

As Joelle told us about the new books, I couldn't help but be thankful that I'll be gone in 6 weeks. There's certainly BS in other jobs, too, but hopefully not as much as there is in Korean academies!! I've mostly enjoyed my time here, but I don't know if I'd ever want to come back to a place where my opinion means so little and I'm treated like I am (besides things changing so frequently and with so little notice). I'd like to get some real responsibility at some point, some input into decision making, etc. I had more of both of those in the jobs I had in high school and university!

At Pet Supermarket I was trusted with a whole lot of money, handling lots of management functions (don't tell anyone, the corporate office wouldn't like it!), training new employees, hanging around to help find mistakes when things wouldn't balance, staying late the night before a district manager's visit to make sure everything was as close to perfect as possible, etc. When an employee meeting was held, the manager often asked me ahead of time if I had anything that I thought should be discussed at the meeting. It was truly a team where while a few people had the official power over the others, that power wasn't flaunted but the management treated everyone like the integral part of the company that they were (with the exception of a certain district manager). People want to feel important and if you treat them like the dung on the bottom of your shoe or an inept kindergartener, then they're not going to be happy, regardless of what continent they're on!

A "Smart" Canadian

2004-08-19T22:13:00.001+09:00

I read about this from the Marmot's Hole and it's so great--the Canadians at work are definitely hearing this one tomorrow! A Canadian in Seoul was meeting some friends to go hiking but he was worried that they wouldn't be able to find the right subway exit. His solution was to sprinkle coffee creamer from the subway train to the exit. An alert Seoulite called the police and before long a vehicle from the chemical, biological and radiological warfare unit showed up, closed down the subway station, and arrested him. After about four hours, tests on the powder came back and he was released. Foreigners and the trouble they can get into!

Water in the Hall

2004-08-19T12:44:00.000+09:00

As I stepped out of my apartment this morning I stepped into a puddle of water about an inch deep. No, it wasn't my upstairs neighbor. At least I don't think so. When I got up this morning the water sound had stopped and my water pressure was down to practically nothing. Tonight it's a little better. The cause of the water was Typhoon Maegi (in Korean, 메기, or catfish). What an odd name for a storm! The windows in the hall are kept open and apparently enough rain blew in through them to create a puddle. The halls and stairs were completely wet.

I didn't know it was a typhoon until I got to work--they just don't do storm warnings in the same way here as at home! I just thought it was a really bad thunderstorm or something--it poured all night, with a raging wind. By the time I left for work, the rain had stopped and the wind was a little weaker, but still with 30-40 MPH gusts (my estimate based on the Beaufort Wind Scale). Large branches were definitely in motion and umbrellas used with difficulty (25-31 MPH); whole trees were in motion but it was only slightly inconvenient to walk against the wind (32-38 MPH). However, twigs were breaking from the trees, too (39-47 MPH).

A Great Day

2004-08-18T23:55:00.000+09:00

Today was one of the best days I've had in a long time. I mean a really, really, really great day!!!! Nothing in particular, just everything worked together well. In the first class Tomas was disrespectful so I kept him after class. He studied well with me one-on-one, so I let him go when I went to my next class. Eric continues to respond to any command I give them with, "Yes, sir!" I continue to ask him, "Am I a man?" He says yes. It's become quite a joke in that class. Eric also started them on replying to nearly any question with, "I don't know. We don't know. They don't know. He don't know......" Yesterday I made a big deal out of making sure that they at least use the right grammar if they're going to be silly. I was glad to see that Joseph remembered that it's "He doesn't know."

In the 5 PM class the girls told me that many male drivers think that women are bad drivers. Sally said that when her father gets behind a slow or bad driver that he always assumes it's a woman. If a man and a woman get in a traffic accident, the man assumes the woman is at fault and yells at her that she should stay home and cook rice. They are so sexist here!! I told the students (both boys and girls) that I don't think women should only stay home and cook, and that perhaps women aren't as good of drivers because they don't get as much practice.

In the next class I thought we were all going to die from laughing too much. Not a fake or half-hearted kind of laughing, but the guffawing that makes your eyes water and your sides split and you can't stop laughing no matter how hard you try. There were only 5 students, yet there were 7 parts in the story we read. The first time we read it Steven played the parts of both the man and the woman (who were talking with each other in one scene). He read them in a monotone voice and went straight from one character to the other with no change. I stopped him and told him that he needed to use a different voice for each character. He asked me how, so I demonstrated in an overly dramatic way, then he made a pathetic attempt at imitating me. We read the story several times, and anytime someone had two parts the other students made sure they read the parts with different voices. It was a great class.

After that hilarity, I noticed Tanya's shirt said "I am Canadian." I asked her about it, thinking it was some kind of political statement. It sort of is, but is also an advertisement for a beer. She and Matt told me about some of the commercials made by that company, which left us all laughing, despite their anti-American slant.

Because we were having such fun, I was a couple of minutes late to my next class. Some students pick up on things I say quickly, so asked me, "Why are you late?" Sorry! I was talking with the other teachers! Mary said that Paul acted the same as her 7-year-old brother; another student said that Paul had a goldfish I.Q. He certainly was silly today! When I asked why Ivan was absent, Blake gave me the "Ivan's a summer bear" line again, as he said that Ivan was home sleeping. In other words, he doesn't know.

The next class (now up to eleven middle school students) was remarkably well-behaved and receptive to learning. They asked for a game, but we ran out of time. Certainly on Friday--they deserve it.

Lastly for today, dreams. Living in Korea I've had more strange dreams than I've ever had before. I don't know if it's the spicy food or the different surroundings or the always experiencing new things or the strange sleep patterns. I still don't dream often, but the dreams are more vivid and memorable here than at home. When I dream something once (assuming I remember it when I wake up) it's not such a big deal, but when I dream something multiple times I can't help but wonder what it means. It's getting late so I'll continue tomorrow.

(I have the dream written down so I don't forget; I just have to write it better so that it makes sense to a person who wasn't there. I've been thinking about it all day, considering the possibilities, searching for reasons why my subconscious mind would be working how it is. No clear answers.)

Neighbors

2004-08-18T23:15:00.000+09:00

At one point do you call your landlord or the police to report that something might have happened to your upstairs neighbor? What if you're in foreign country--tell your boss that something odd might be going on and risk it being nothing?

I like my apartment. It's a one room, but a good size for me, bug-free (now, not when I moved in), new, quite satisfactory. The walls are solid concrete so usually sound isn't an issue. The doors, however, are quite thin and might as well not be there. One neighbor likes to pretend he's an opera singer (although he sounds like a dying cat), another likes to have loud arguments with a boyfriend at all hours, another has occasional late-night soju parties. Some of the female residents clomp up the stairs late at night with their high heels, slamming the door as they enter their apartment. The doors aren't too big an issue, though.

The bathroom, on the other hand, is worse. Somehow the vent system is connected so that both sounds and smells are shared. If my next-door neighbor is smoking or cooking a particularly strong chiggae, then the smell permeates my apartment as well. Sometimes smells come up through the drain. If I'm in the bathroom and the next-door neighbor turns on the water or closes their cabinet door, I can hear it. Likewise, if the upstairs neighbor is taking a shower, I can hear it, too.

Well, from the sound of things, the upstairs neighbor has been taking a shower for the last 24 hours. Yes, it's hot, but no one can take that many showers in a 24 hour period! Every time I've been in the bathroom the water upstairs has been running. On Wednesdays I'm home a lot later than on other days, too. So the question is, what's going on up there?

Because mostly students live in this building, my first thought was that someone came home drunk (yes, mid-week, getting drunk is fine anytime here!) and took a shower to try to wake up but passed out and/or died with the water still running. Yes, I have an over-active imagination. Second possibility: the resident decided to do a midnight run and left all the lights and water on to make the bills higher for the boss. (There are supposedly 4 other foreigners in this 15-unit building, although I've only met one of them.) Third possibility: with the water problem that every now and then the water slows to just a trickle, perhaps leaving the water on all day keeps the water from slowing down again. (I don't know how these things work! It might be possible!) Fourth, and perhaps the most reasonable possibility that I've just thought of: the unit is either vacant or the resident is away, and something broke so water is always running. As long as the drain continues to work, it should be OK. However, standing in the bathroom wondering if the ceiling is going to collapse on me is not a pleasant thought!

Partial Revenge

2004-08-17T23:33:00.000+09:00

Last night I was particularly tired and out of it, so rather inadvertently partially got back at Matt for all of the anti-American jabs he's always making. I was talking about a former co-worker who was from Canada and he asked what part of Canada. Not remembering where she was from, I answered, "the Canada part." Then feeling bad that I worked with her for 3~4 months and couldn't remember where she was from, I thought harder and said, "You know, one of the normal provinces." As he started laughing in a "I can't believe you insulted my province (New Brunswick) like that" way, I continued, "You know, one of the ones in the middle with a lot of people. Maybe Ontario." Tanya helped me clarify, "Oh, you mean one of the provinces with the majority of the population." Yeah, sure, as I reveled in Matt being on the receiving end of criticism about his home! For all of his criticisms, I still owe him, though. I've got to think of something really good before I leave!

Sometimes I wish I had an inconspicuous camera--either the camera phone or otherwise. On the bus the other day a teenage boy had a lovely pink and purple floral shirt on. He was very self-confident, no problem with wearing it. Yesterday Rooky (4th grade boy) had tiny flowers painted on his fingernails. It looked like a salon job, not something he did himself. Today the flowers were still there. When gender roles in regards to who's the boss or what job a person should have are so firm, it's surprising to see the guys wearing such feminine fashions. (Not to mention the purse-things the guys carry!)

The adults continue to amuse, confuse, and annoy me. Yesterday Grace talked about how there's stagflation in Korea now (a stagnant economy with high unemployment and inflation). I didn't even know that word; how did she learn it?! Start with the easy words and basic sentences before moving on to the difficult words and weird idioms that you never use correctly!!!! Then suddenly she was talking about how neckties are wider and skirts are shorter these days. Uh, are those topics related to the stagflation??? According to her, yes. So if the economy gets better ties will get narrower and skirts will get longer??? No response from her.

Mary (4 PM) is back from a month in the Philippines. She supposedly went there to study English, but she seems to speak less English now than before. She stayed in a hotel while she was there, apparently under the supervision of middle school girls (I assume Korean). So when she wasn't in class, she was speaking Korean the whole time that she was there. Her parents spent how much money for her to go?!

At 5 PM I walked into class and heard some awful sounds. Sally had the radio tuned to traditional Korean music, and it was turned louder than I could stand. The moaning music makes me think of the whine of bagpipes--just terrible! The only place it fits, at a low volume, is at a Buddhist temple--then it's OK. Not great, just OK.

In the CYBI class we read a story about a man who played his stereo so loud that after repeated complaints from his neighbors and warnings from the police the police came and took his radio and smashed it on a public street. (Of course, broken up into more than one sentence, but that's the basic point!) I asked them what a public street was, and Zach pointed outside, "There!" Yes, a public street is where anyone can see or go. Zach thought he'd be funny and asked if anyone can see into a public toilet, too. Sometimes the kids know English a little too well.

The special class had only Suzi there today, which was fine with me. We were able to do the capitalization worksheet and read the story a couple of times together. School will be starting back soon (middle school next week) so I guess the kids are enjoying their last bit of vacation.

Hurricane Charley

2004-08-15T23:06:00.000+09:00

Hurricane Charley ended up being a category 4 storm, but spared Tampa Bay, where the storm surge would have been disastrous. Punta Gorda, where the storm came ashore, had a much smaller population, which led to less damage and fewer casualties than would have occurred in Tampa Bay. However, the damage was still immense.

Lakeland missed most of the worst weather. Our neighborhood has a lot of leaves and small branches in the streets, but that's it. Dad estimated that the winds were around 70 MPH. At one point he wondered if some of our trees would come down, as the trees were bent so that the branches nearly touched the ground. The storm missed the Palatka house, which Dad had also readied.

Some people in south Lakeland might be without power for several days. Anything south of Bartow was pretty bad, especially near Lake Wales--trees on top of houses and blocking roads, downed power lines, roofs ripped off. Whole mobile home parks were flattened, but flooding was minimal. Some communities, including Polk, have curfews to prevent looting, while in addition to power outages that may last for weeks, some people have to boil water for drinking. There's no public school in Polk County for a week! They have to repair the schools, clear the roads, restore power to the east part of the county, etc. Gas is running low at the gas stations with power; ice is precious.

A map of Polk County for reference. It's in the very center of Florida, with Tampa to the west and Orlando northeast of Kissimmee (along I-4). It takes roughly 1~2 hours to drive from my parents' home in Lakeland to Lake Wales. Despite the physical size of the county, only half a million people live there. It's mostly orange groves and cows, especially in the southeast.

The death toll is at 13....15....17 so far, with several due to traffic accidents. (The number kept changing while I was searching for a particular piece of info that refuses to be found! Search engines aren't perfect.) It sounds like there may be some more from mobile home residents who refused to leave, but nothing official yet.

Charley looks pretty calm from space.

A destroyed house.

Liberation Day

2004-08-15T19:30:00.000+09:00

The weekend has been a particularly lazy one. I didn't feel at all like studying Korean yesterday, so I went downtown for a late lunch and shopping instead. I also spent a couple of hours correcting the students' journals on the school website. Today I was really tired and sore (from carrying everything home yesterday), so stayed home to rest. I called Mom and Dad to make sure everything was OK there and went for a late-afternoon walk, but otherwise not much. I noticed the Korean flags out everywhere, so thought it must be another holiday. Yep, today is Liberation Day, celebrating the August 15, 1945 independence from Japan and the August 15, 1948 founding of the modern-day Korean government.

Blog Organization

2004-08-13T23:51:00.000+09:00

I spent a couple of hours reorganizing blogs tonight. I had been reading over 50 and even with the aggregator, it was becoming too much. I looked at the blogs on my sidebar and saw a few who were no longer updating, and other good ones that I read that weren't there. I deleted about 20 blogs from my favorites who either don't update often enough (at least once a week) or that I don't really enjoy. I'm down to a more reasonable 30 blogs now.

I caught several kids cheating today. At 5 PM Edward had a tiny 3 by 2 inch paper with all of the words written on it. I ripped up his test paper and made him take the test again, then gave his cheat sheet to Mona for her to do whatever is appropriate here. In the next class Cleo's book was in the chair next to his in a way that he could see it (he swore that it just happened to be on the page that the test was on--he put the book down there when I handed out the test--sure, so believable), while Jenny's eyes were wandering.

In the 5 PM class the girls asked me what I cooked at home and I said not much, it's easier to get Korean food from restaurants. They were amazed that I haven't cooked rice even once in the two years I've been here. When they heard how little I cooked anything, they asked if I had a refrigerator and what was in it. I named off the things for them: milk, orange juice, cola, water, yogurt, bread, eggs, butter, jelly, syrup. Again, amazement from them. No kimchi?!

In the 7 PM class they called Ivan a bear because he's always sleepy. I pointed out that bears sleep in the winter, so now he's a "summer bear."

I had forgotten what taking a shower with water pressure felt like. For the last two weeks it's been barely more than a drip. Now it's back to full pressure. It's happened 5+ times this year. What's up? The sink is also barely draining, despite using the liquid drain unclogger stuff. I don't have these kinds of problems at home. On second thought, maybe occasionally I do, but Dad takes care of them. : )

The headache continues, and nothing helps. Medicine, caffeine, chocolate--no good. Hopefully with some rest and quiet time this weekend it will go away.

Hurricanes and the Bushes

2004-08-13T16:23:00.000+09:00

As I read about Hurricane Charley, I wonder if it could influence who is elected president in November.

The facts: Florida, with its 27 electoral votes, is a key state in the too-close-to-call column for the presidential election. A third of Florida's population is in the path of what might be a very strong hurricane.

Partly/sometimes true: People have trouble separating Jeb Bush and George W. Bush.

A line of thinking that popped into my head: Even if the hurricane does severe damage but the state responds well afterwards by providing quick relief and supplies, then people will like Jeb and by association his brother and might vote for him (George W.) in the election.

It's improbable that things would happen like that, but....Jeb has already ordered a lot of people to evacuate--the right thing to do. He's declared a state of emergency, which by itself causes a lot of other things to happen like schools and government offices to close. He's mobilized the Florida National Guard. Law enforcement is on alert, the highways are moving as well as they can with all of the added vehicles, airports and private businesses have limited hours. Lots of things are controlled by local governments and carefully formulated hurricane and disaster plans, but if you're governor and things go well with a minimum of fatalities, injuries, and damage, then it would be easy to take credit. Could this be one of those events that people look back on and say, "Why didn't we guess how that would change things?"

An event like Bonnie (with winds of around 50 MPH and some rain) and Charley (a major storm) striking so close together (something like 12~24 hours apart) hasn't happened since 1906. With all of the development that has taken place since then and all of the rain they've had already this year.....yikes! The flooding could be quite bad, not to mention the damage to mobile homes.

I talked to Mom and Dad last night. Mom was watching Dad prepare for the storm: all of the normal stuff like putting the pool furniture, potted plants, and water hoses inside, but Dad was even climbing up the antenna to anchor it down. Charley is still predicted to hit Tampa Bay, and continues to strengthen. Mom will get the hurricane she's been waiting her whole life for! I wouldn't mind being there myself, actually.

Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service

...HURRICANE CHARLEY LOCAL STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL 249 AM EDT FRI AUG 13 2004
... INTENSIFYING HURRICANE CHARLEY MAY BE A DANGEROUS THREAT TO THE SUNCOAST TODAY...

... HURRICANE WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FOR THE ENTIRE WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA COASTAL AREA...

... THE INLAND HURRICANE WIND WATCH HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO A INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING FOR WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA.

... A FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA...

... A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR CHARLOTTE AND LEE COUNTIES...

A HURRICANE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS IN WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA:

CITRUS CHARLOTTE DE SOTO HERNANDO HILLSBOROUGH LEE LEVY MANATEE PASCO PINELLAS SARASOTA INCLUDING... THE COASTAL WATERS FROM BONITA BEACH TO THE MOUTH OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER... CHARLOTTE HARBOR AND TAMPA BAY.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS IN WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA:

HARDEE HIGHLANDS POLK SUMTER

... STORM LOCATION... AT 2 AM EDT... THE CENTER OF HURRICANE CHARLEY WAS LOCATED NEAR 23.0 NORTH... 82.6 WEST... OR ABOUT 335 MILES SOUTH OF TAMPA. CHARLEY WAS MOVING TO THE NORTH NORTHWEST AT 14 MPH... AND IS EXPECTED TO GRADUALLY TURN TO THE NORTH TODAY. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 105 MPH... AND ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST AS THE STORM MOVES OUT OVER THE WARM WATERS OF THE GULF OF MEXICO. CHARLEY COULD BECOME A MAJOR HURRICANE LATER TODAY. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE WAS 973 MB... 28.73 INCHES.

... STORM SURGE FLOOD AND STORM TIDE IMPACTS... WITH CHARLEY EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY... THEN ACCELERATE... ALONG THE SUNCOAST... THE THREAT OF A RAPIDLY DEVELOPING STORM SURGE IN THE STORM'S SOUTHERN SEMICIRCLE IS GREAT. CURRENT INDICATIONS SUGGEST THE HIGHEST SURGE WILL OCCUR FROM THE COUNTIES NEAR TAMPA BAY SOUTH TO LEE COUNTY.

A STORM SURGE OF 10 TO 13 FEET IS POSSIBLE TO SOUTH OF WHERE CHARLEY MAKES LANDFALL. A STORM SURGE OF 6 TO 9 FEET IS POSSIBLE NORTH OF WHERE THE CHARLEY MOVES ON SHORE AS THE WINDS COME AROUND TO ONSHORE BEHIND THE STORM.

... WIND IMPACTS... CHARLEY IS FORECAST TO INTENSIFY AND COULD BECOME A CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE AS IT APPROACHES THE SUNCOAST ON FRIDAY... WITH WINDS IN THE INNER EYEWALL PERHAPS AT LEAST 130 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. HOWEVER... NO MATTER WHERE THE CENTER CROSSES... CURRENT FORECAST DATA SUGGEST TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS OF AT LEAST 40 MPH WILL AFFECT ALL AREAS OF WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA BETWEEN FRIDAY EARLY SATURDAY.

... VERY DANGEROUS WINDS WILL PRODUCE WIDESPREAD DAMAGE... ... DESTRUCTION OF MOBILE HOMES NEAR THE CENTER OF THE STORM IS POSSIBLE...

... STRUCTURAL DAMAGE... THE MAJORITY OF MOBILE HOMES WILL BE SEVERELY DAMAGED NEAR WHERE THE STORM MAKES LANDFALL. HOUSES OF POOR TO AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION WILL HAVE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE... INCLUDING PARTIAL WALL COLLAPSE AND ROOFS BEING LIFTED OFF. MANY WILL BE UNINHABITABLE. WELL CONSTRUCTED HOUSES WILL INCUR MINOR DAMAGE TO SHINGLES... SIDING... GUTTERS... AS WELL AS BLOWN OUT WINDOWS.

PARTIAL ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED AT INDUSTRIAL PARKS... ESPECIALLY TO THOSE BUILDINGS WITH LIGHT WEIGHT STEEL AND ALUMINUM COVERINGS. OLDER LOW RISING APARTMENT ROOFS MAY ALSO BE TORN OFF... AS WELL AS RECEIVING SIDING AND SHINGLE DAMAGE. MUCH OF THE GLASS IN HIGH RISE OFFICE BUILDINGS WILL BE BLOWN OUT. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL CAUSE DAMAGE... INJURY... AND POSSIBLE FATALITIES.

... NATURAL DAMAGE... ALL TREES WITH ROTTING BASES WILL BECOME UPROOTED OR SNAP. NEARLY ALL LARGE BRANCHES WILL SNAP... AND MAJOR DAMAGE IS CAN BE EXPECTED TO CITRUS GROVES... INCLUDING NUMEROUS UPROOTED TREES... MOST COMMON WHERE THE GROUND IS SATURATED.

RESIDENTS IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS SHOULD RUSH TO COMPLETION PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT THEIR PROPERTY... THEN MOVE TO A PLACE OF SAFETY.

IN RURAL LOCATIONS... SMALL STREAMS AND CREEKS WILL SURPASS BANK FULL FOR MORE THAN 6 HOURS.

URBAN AREAS WILL SEE SIGNIFICANT FLOODING AS RAINFALL OF 3 TO 6 INCHES WITH ISOLATED AMOUNTS AS HIGH AS 8 INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED AND THE STORM SURGE WILL LIMIT EVACUATION OF THE WATER.

HEAVY RAIN WILL CAUSE RIVERS TO SWELL LONG AFTER THE STORM PASSES. PERSONS LIVING ALONG RIVERS SHOULD MONITOR EVENTS THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK.

THE NEXT HURRICANE LOCAL STATEMENT FROM THE TAMPA BAY AREA FORECAST OFFICE WILL BE ISSUED AROUND 6 AM EDT.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS DANGEROUS FLOOD. HEED ALL EVACUATION ORDERS FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT OR MILITARY PERSONNEL.

In2Books Survey

2004-08-13T10:03:00.000+09:00

Today I received a survey to rate the 2003-2004 pen pal experience. Wouldn't it have made more sense to do it immediately following the last letter instead of as the next year is starting?! It was multiple choice, but I didn't really like some of the choices as answers.

1. What have you found most meaningful in your student correspondence this year?
Uh, nothing? If you force me to choose, "Student relating book content to his/her life."

2. Which of the following do you feel would most increase your engagement in the In2Books program?
Getting the books on time? "Viewing scientific assessment of In2Books impact on student progress," if there is progress.

3. Which of the following In2Books program activities are you most interested in learning more about?
"Classroom implementation (including photos and narrative)"—have the teachers gone to university?

4. Did you feel the frequency of In2Books-initiated communication with you was:
"About the right amount" (6 letters in the school year)

5. Please rate your overall pen pal experience:
"Not rewarding"

6. Are you planning to participate as an In2Books pen pal this coming school year? If not, why not?
No--Not receiving materials at all or receiving them too late to easily meet deadlines. It's hard to write a letter about a book that I haven't read. If you can't allow time for international shipping or properly address the package, then you shouldn't accept pen pals outside of the U.S.

7. Will you recommend volunteering as an In2Books pen pal to others?
No--The students didn't seem to show any improvement over the course of the year. They seldom answered questions I asked them or added a personal touch to their letters. In most cases the letters sounded like a dry book report. In one cycle their beginning paragraphs were virtually identical and with the same difficult word misspelled, leading me to believe that their teacher told them what to write and the teacher doesn't know how to spell.

8. Please offer any other comments you have about the In2Books program, your personal experiences with it, and/or your recommendations on how we can improve the program:
It's a great idea but it needs to be more organized with better teacher training.

A Mickle of Annoyances

2004-08-12T23:57:00.000+09:00

Day 4 of the headache. I know my mother would tell me to go to the doctor, but I already know what he would say. He would ask my symptoms, try not to act surprised at me coming to see him with only one minor thing wrong, blame it on the heat or the air conditioners at work or something, give me some medicine, tell me to drink lots of water, and send me on my way. I can take medicine and drink lots of water on my own. The idea of preventative medicine doesn't seem to exist here. The medical care seems similar to how they treat typhoons: don't do anything to get ready but then solicit donations to repair all of the damage. Nearly every summer the same storms come, yet nothing is done before the typhoons hit. My head could explode tomorrow and they'd talk about how it was too bad that it happened, but then not change how anything is done. Such is Korea.

I was going to take a day off from exercising yesterday, but found myself too hyper to not do anything. I went a shorter distance than normal, but when I returned home the new shoes had rubbed the back of my feet so badly that my sock was soaked with blood and sweat. Yuck! Today I used band-aids before going out, so have kept the damage from getting any worse, although it doesn't seem to be any better.

As for yesterday's classes, Tomas (3 PM) made a big deal of saying that Sam was his friend, so I asked Sam (4 PM) if Tomas was his friend. Sam very emphatically said "NO! Tomas is a bad boy!!" I thought maybe they'd had a fight (they're in the 3rd grade) but Sam went on to explain how Tomas takes things from the supermarket.

At 5 PM we read a story about teenagers stealing a car and the owner hanging onto the car as it drove away. The 7th and 8th graders said that they felt bad for the teenagers because their future was damaged, but that as long as their parents paid lots of money to the car's owner then they wouldn't have to go to "teenager jail" for very long. I asked them what would happen if the parents were poor and couldn't pay anything. Sally said that the teenager would have to go to jail for longer. She added that if the kid is under a certain age (14 or 15 Korean/12~14 Western, she wasn't sure exactly) then the parents had to go to jail, too. I asked her why, and she clearly explained that if a young kid does something wrong, then their parents didn't teach them well. Then Ben asked how Sally knew all of these things--was she spending a lot of time at the police station in trouble?!

The day ended with samgyetang since we missed eating it on whatever day we were supposed to have it. I was not at all impressed. I don't like ginseng, and the soup consisted of half a chicken and a little rice, with a lot of spicy side dishes. Not a great dinner.

I finally got my resident ID card back today. I asked Mr. Kim about it again on Tuesday, and he said that the director of the academy out by the airport picked it up and would give it to Mr. Kim when they got together Wednesday evening. Today Joelle gave my card back to me. I don't like it going through so many hands--more chance of it getting lost that way! The new expiration date for the visa is written by hand on the back of the card. The previous time it was typed/computer generated. Is that something to be concerned about? I guess I'll find out when I try to leave the country!

Word of the day: mickle. One of the adults (Grace) used it today and at first I thought she was remembering a word wrong or pronouncing it incorrectly (or making up a word, she's been known to do that, too!). She showed me the word in the dictionary, and I had no clue--I'd NEVER heard or read it before. After class I looked it up in two different English dictionaries--not there. Then I looked it up online and found it, but there was very minimal information like how old of a word it is and if it is still in common usage and if so, in what countries. My feeling was that it's an old word but the limited etymology didn't help. I had Mom look it up in the 1828 dictionary we have at home and it said that it was obsolete but still used in Scotland. The word was obsolete in 1828--what's it doing in a present-day Korean-English dictionary?!?! It means great, a lot of, much, etc. and is also written muckle and mockle. Synonyms are: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mint, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad, whole lot, whole slew.

Joelle....................sometimes I want to scream!! Today she was going through the various Daily Reports and writing down which ones hadn't been done. She asked me if the other foreign teachers knew that they had to be done at least once a week and I told her that I was pretty sure they knew. Later I asked them and they both told me that they do them most of the time, but then Tanya said that Matt had stopped doing them because of his extra classes. Matt's attitude got to me today--yeah Joelle is annoying, but she is the manager. His feeling is that he shouldn't have to hang around after work putting the reports into the computer because he doesn't have "breaks" during the day to get them done. I'd much rather have a streamlined schedule than have two days where I have an hour off in the middle of classes and then have to be at work later.

Back to what I was talking about.....later Joelle put papers on everyone's desk showing what daily reports that person had missed. She didn't say anything, the paper was just waiting when I came back from my first class. It made me angry, especially when I started looking at the classes she had written down that I had missed. She wrote down classes starting in the first week of June, the week before we were told to put them into the computer. Hello! Then one class wasn't mine, while another I share with Matt so it's unreasonable to expect him to tell me what he did in his class and me to input that into the computer. (The system is designed such that only one foreign teacher and one Korean teacher can have a class listed on their online schedule, or so they say. It sounds strange to me.) Yet another couple of classes I looked back on the paper record that I keep and saw a check next to them showing that I entered them into the computer. Either there's a problem with the computer program, or someone deleted them, which isn't so difficult to do as there's no confirmation "are you sure you want to delete this" warning that comes up. I wrote notes on the paper as to some of the major things, and then filed it away. I have 7 weeks left. While I'm still working hard at teaching, I'm not about to go back over 2 months to put data into the computer that no one will ever use! Matt told me that he had torn his paper up into tiny little pieces and placed it in the paper recycling box. That Joelle had enough time to do all of this tells me that she needs more to do! Wow was she ever pulling the power trip today.

During the 5 PM Hacking test I caught Allan cheating. One of the kids said something to him in Korean and I looked at him at about the time he moved his backpack slightly and handed his paper to me saying "I don't know." All of the words were spelled correctly except for the last two which he had left blank. I looked at his bag and found his hacking book (5"X7" size) propped up inside such that he could see it but the bag would keep it from being seen by other people. I didn't want to accuse him unfairly, but the evidence was looking pretty strong. I asked him one of the harder words that he had written correctly on his paper and he couldn't answer it orally. He then admitted cheating and tore up his own paper and begged me not to tell Miro. I wanted to keep him for an hour after class for him to study and retake the test but he had a doctor's appointment. I ended up giving him a stern lecture and having him retake the test before he went home. He got 5 of 30. He promised that he would never cheat again. Or at least be more careful about how he does it, I guess!

Miscellaneous tidbits: Billy kept saying "hair driver" instead of "hair dryer." Kane guessed that the girl in the story we read was getting a bomb for her birthday gift because her boyfriend didn't like her anymore. Brandon said that I looked like a sumo wrestler with short arms, while Jessie disagreed--I look like a chimpanzee with long arms. Great students I have!

Spiders; Headache; Dream Date; In2Books

2004-08-10T23:49:00.000+09:00

Ally was funny on Monday. There was a spider on the wall so she asked me to kill it. I explained that spiders eat mosquitoes and that it wouldn't hurt her, but she refused to study with it in the classroom. I got some tissue and grabbed the spider and took it outside to let it go. I didn't take it all the way outside, but only to the stairs. When I came back into class Ally asked me where I had put the spider, and she made a big deal out of how when she went home the spider would get her, so she made me agree to walk down the stairs with her. After class she took my hand and we ran down the stairs together. She's so silly!

Also in that class Jenny, as her usual talkative self, was chattering on about whatever she chatters about, and asked me the word for a "girl uncle." It's "aunt," don't you remember?

The heat in the Pineapple classroom caused/contributed to a horrid headache. I thought I was going to die. After the 4 PM class I took some ibuprofen but the headache persisted throughout the next three classes, on the bus, and even at home. When I woke up today it was still there, but in a much milder form. Most of the day it didn't bother me, but began to get stronger in the evening. What's up? Anyway, the headache left me totally unable to do anything at home Monday night--I went to bed incredibly early. That left me scrambling after adult class today to prepare for the next "How to Write an English Diary" class. I got it done in time, largely because I already had some stuff printed out from earlier this year. Today's topic was punctuation and capitalization, things the kids attending the class probably already know, but other students ignore.

The adults' homework was to describe either their dream date, a real date from the past, or a date they take with their husbands. It's a little weird having that topic in a class where everyone is married! Grace's was about a guy she knew in university and how he was poor so they just went on walks as a date. He believed that if he climbed Namsan (a moutain in Seoul, I think) 100 times that his wish would come true. She never learned his wish, but she did climb the mountain with him--100 times! Jennifer wrote something that sounded like a cross between Cinderella and a romance novel. By the third or fourth sentence I started to blush, wondering where she was going with it. It stayed decent enough, and ended with, "To be continued." I told her I was expecting the continuation next class! They misused a couple of idioms in class. They were trying to describe someone who is agreeable or easygoing, in Korean a "yes man" but Grace said an "easy guy." NO! I laughed, and explained what it means to say that someone is "easy."

At 2 PM there's a new 12-year-old with the five 9-year-olds (Western ages 11 and 7-8). It's just for summer vacation, but the difference between kids at those ages is immense. Physically, but mentally, too. The younger kids understand and catch on to English a lot faster, learning less from the book and more naturally, but they're also little monkeys. The older boy sat in his chair for the entire class, but if he didn't understand every word of what I said, then he refused to answer the question. I got tired of repeating myself.

My 6 PM class that is normally pretty good was absolutely horrible today. The boys were passing notes and playing around. I put Cleo outside of class for a long time because I was close to killing him, then I kept four of the boys after class to copy the story into their notebooks, which took about 5 minutes.

The next class that is normally bad was excellent. Has the earth started spinning in the opposite direction?! They got a little too hyper when we started playing a game at the end, but otherwise they listened, they read, they spoke, they did nearly everything they were supposed to!

The In2Books thing is insane. I had originally replied (back in May or June) that I would do another year. I didn't hear anything further from them until 8/3 when I got an email with the subject line, "URGENT! Your Introductory Package is Due August 13!" Then the following day I got another email titled "Your Introductory Project is due {taskDueDate}!" That email said that my deadline had already passed but there was still time to submit the materials. If I hadn't received my welcome package yet, I should contact them. I wasn't ready for another year of getting materials late or not at all, so I sent them an email on Saturday (8/7). I thought about going into how unorganized they are and how they don't understand how long international mail can take, but just said that I didn't have the time to devote to the program this year (which is true, when they give me short deadlines or I have to go searching the web to find enough info about a book that I haven't read to write two letters about it pretending that I've read it).

On Monday (8/9) I received the welcome package, postmarked 7/22, with a letter in it dated 6/8 that gave a deadline of 6/28 for the welcome package. Goodness! This one had my correct address on it, but it had another sticker on it that said South Africa. Someone is really confused about their geography. At least before they sent it to Asia (China). Where did "Africa" come from?! I don't know that it made a stop there, but it couldn't have sped the package along when two different country names were on it! No response from my email, as they're probably busy getting things organized and there's really no response to make. I felt a little bad about bailing out after I had already said yes, but I really can't deal with the lack of organization, especially with finishing my contract soon, and possibly doing a little traveling, then returning home. Things may be a little crazy and I don't need any added craziness.

Curiosity

2004-08-08T22:51:00.000+09:00

Bill's on vacation so Pastor Cho preached. It was better than last time, but still a little difficult to follow. At Shinbok we ate lunch before leading 6 very hyperactive boys in studying the next verse in John. We started earlier than usual so the two sisters showed up as we were finishing. It didn't take them long to study the verse, although the younger one kept messing up the pronunciation. Having "through" and "truth" in the same sentence is hard to say! Then we waited around for Octavia to meet her friend about something and then she drove me home.

After putting my bag inside I went for a long walk near Munsu. I now have a different take on the expression "Curiosity killed the cat." Curiosity threatens other things, too! I saw some stairs up a steep bank, so I followed them to see what was there. At the top of the stairs I had to climb up some loose dirt/mulch/rocks. It was a construction zone, I guess. I walked around a bit and when I turned to go back down, the bank looked a lot steeper than when I had gone up. I was wearing white capris, so didn't relish the idea of sliding down on my rear end, so I decided to look for another way down. I walked a short distance to what looked like a road down. I carefully descended, to find that the "road" ended with a jungle between it and a paved road. I took some careful steps in before determining that it only got thicker. Especially with sandals on, I wasn't about to step where I couldn't see the ground! Snakes aren't common here (as far as I know) but I still wasn't going to chance it. So I went back up that part.

On the way up I lost my balance and sunk into the soil, leaving my hands and feet covered. By that point I was sweating so intensely that sweat was running down into my eyes and I couldn't very well wipe my face with my muddy hands, so I wiped the mud on my (black) shirt before wiping my face. Then I went back to puzzle over where I came up. I studied it from several different angles and saw that where I had first started to go down wasn't the exact place that I had gone up. I tried the other place and descended without incident. Another parallel to life--sometimes looking at a situation more than once and from a different angle presents a solution.

At home I stepped directly into the bathroom from the entry and took a cold shower, not wanting to get the apartment dirty by walking through to turn on the water heater. The cold shower was perfect. The evening was typical. I should have worked on stuff for my special class, but I figured that it wasn't until Tuesday, so I'd work on it later.

Ulsan City Tour

2004-08-07T20:45:00.000+09:00

I am red!! Is the sun here stronger than in Seoul?? No hat today, so my face and neck got lots of sun, along with my arms and the back of my still-white legs. It was an incredibly hot day. I also have a rash on my legs, from the heat and brushing up against weird plants. Yuck! After a shower it's not too itchy.

When I got to church and saw a ton of Korean kids going on the tour with us, I was not particularly happy. I thought this was an English tour for the foreigners!! To a certain extent it turned into "We let you use our facilities, so you have to talk to, teach, and entertain our kids for the day." I'm surrounded by kids all week! I like to avoid them as much as possible on the weekends!!

At the first stop of the day there was a getting to know you game where we interviewed people and got their name, age, address, and job. I felt like I was in the classroom, coaxing answers out of the kids and adults who surrounded me and asked questions faster than I could answer them. You do the math: 50 Koreans, 10 foreigners. AUGH! Stay away from me!! With the kids, it wasn't so bad, especially when they were brave enough to interview me on their own. But one adult came up to me and interrupted a kid like she was more important than the kid. The annoying lady came (the one with an adult's body but a child's mind). Just the little bit of time before and after church is bad enough, but a whole day of her following us around, interrupting our conversations to add stupid comments, etc. was maddening.

However, all-in-all it was a good day. It lasted 10 AM~5 PM. The tour was in Korean, with Kendall reading a few comments that he'd pulled from the internet. I understood a little of the Korean, but the guy's accent was strongly southern, so mostly I heard "left" and "right" so turned to that side and tried to figure out what they were looking at. Kendall was hilarious. Since we had copies of what he was reading from, he had to read so the kids could hear the native English speaker. He added in several not-so-factual parts which left the foreigners roaring with laughter and the kids looking around trying to figure out what was so funny. "And at this place, the queen played volleyball, and soccer, and hockey with her attendants." I sat in the back of the bus with Sarah, Owen, Allan, Kendall, and Shelly. We had fun joking around and flying off of our seats as the bus hit bumps in the road. I felt like one of the cool teenagers as the "adults" and children sat farther up.

The first place we went was Ju-jeon Beach, famous for its black pebble beach. Usually people just wade in the sea, but the heat drove lots of people into the water. Many tents were set up on the beach for families to rest in. Next we went to Daewangam, where we had lunch and the kids did a treasure hunt. Sarah skipped school to come on the tour. Well, sort of skipped. She asked her teacher if she could come, and he said no but she came anyway. She was funny going over the bridge. Apparently she's afraid of heights, so kept asking me if the bridge would fall down, and how it would be better if it were made of stone. No, I think stone would be too heavy!

We were all glad to get back on the bus. After lunch and all of the walking, the air conditioning and the rocking bus put most of the adults to sleep. It took a while to reach the next stop. The narrow winding mountainous coastal road made for a rough ride. (Were there enough adjectives in that sentence?!) Back and forth, forwards and backwards, hitting a bump so flying at least 6 inches off of your seat.......several people weren't feeling well, but I had no problem. I'm sure glad I outgrew the motion sickness!

Third stop was Standing Rock. It took less than 10 minutes to see the 12 meter high rock standing in the middle of the Taehwa River (an inland portion out in the countryside, much smaller than the river is in the city). Many people were wading or swimming in the shallow part.

Last stop were the Petroglyphs in Cheonjeon-Ri, Ulju (National Treasure number 147). I had seen models of them at Munsu Stadium, but the petroglyphs themselves were greatly disappointing. Despite the mountain blocking the sun and the slant of the rock blocking the rain, the carvings have eroded horribly. Surely the heat and cold each year can't help. In another fifty years they probably won't be there at all. The upper part of the rock had pictures and symbols, while the bottom part was newer (how is that possible?) and had what looked like Chinese characters from the Silla period. At the same place on the other side of the stream were some fossilized dinosaur footprints. Most of them looked like plate-sized craters in the ground. We were allowed to walk all over the area--around the footprints and in the footprints. How's that for preserving them?! Danica was a little too close to the stream and slipped in. Less than a minute later one of the little kids fell into a 2-foot deep puddle. The tour guide (a man in his 60s who used to be a teacher) freaked out a bit and ordered everyone away from the slippery ground near the stream. A couple of minutes later he sent everyone back to the bus.

After we got back to church some of us went out to a new Italian restaurant near the University--Kendall, Shelly, Owen, Sarah, Roger and his wife, Allan, and me. After the heat and all of the walking, the food was among the best I've ever had! I arrived home just after 7 PM, and will be going to bed early tonight. I am so tired!

A Short Week

2004-08-06T23:21:00.000+09:00

The last several days have been normal. Wednesday I slept really late, did some cleaning and laundry, took a long walk, watched TV, and spent three hours typing all that happened on Monday.

The short 2-day workweek went well. Two adults showed up for class: Jennifer and Grace. Grace must learn to listen!!!!

Alvin asked me about my trip to Seoul: "People look at you strange?" No, not at all, barely a second glance. In Ulsan still all-out stares. The girls were telling me about a trip to their grandmother's house, and about how they saw their "big father" and "small father." KIDS!! It's "UNCLE!" Is your father big? In English it's not important, but if you feel the need to specify, you can say "My father's older brother" or "my father's younger brother." Alvin asked me if we call all of our father's brothers "uncle," then isn't it confusing when the whole family gets together? I explained that we add the person's first name with the title. Alvin deemed that "So strange!"

Brandon was his normal self--cheating on the hacking test, speaking constant Korean, and using his classmates as punching bags.

On Friday Sally and I exchanged stories about our trips to Seoul. Her family went to the National Assembly building on Sunday, so couldn't go in. She found it unfair that I got to go in. She asked if I had been to the Blue House (where the president lives) and I said yes, last year. At first she thought I meant inside, but I hurried to explain that I was just in the yard. She complained about how many pictures her parents took of her and her brother and how they were so embarrassed. When her family visited Seoul University there were "so many buildings" but they had to see a lot of them because that's the school her father wants her to go to (she's in the 7th grade now!). At the national cemetery her father asked a soldier something, and the soldier laughed at her father's 사투리 (accent, dialect). Seoul people think Ulsan is way out in the middle of nowhere.

This is a humorous look at the taxes rich vs. poor people pay.

I'll try to finish writing about the last day of Seoul tomorrow, but I'll be on the Ulsan City Tour for most of the day, so might not be able to.

Seonyudo Islet

2004-08-04T23:53:00.000+09:00

The man from the National Assembly tour said that the Islet was 1 KM away. It wasn't. It was more like 4 KM. I had more to drink on the way, and tried to enjoy the slight breeze coming off of the river. The Islet was a disappointment. A small island on one side of the Han River, it's connected to either side by a bridge for cars and to one side by a pedestrian bridge. After floods in 1925, rocks were taken from the Islet to build banks on the Han River, which led to degradation of the island. Later it was used as a water purification plant. Now it's basically a park. The remains of the plant are used to support a "wild plants" area that amounts to some cattails and bamboo and a separate shallow pond area for kids to splash around in. A big deal was made of the World Cup Fountain, reaching 202 meters high, apparently the tallest in the world. Everything in Korea is the tallest or the biggest or the fastest or the best!

When I got back to the mainland I could not find the subway station. I walked one way and then another. I asked a man walking with his daughter where Dangsan Station was (in Korean), and he told me in perfect English how to get there. I continued walking, saw a bus stop with lots of people across from a building under construction that said Dangsan Station on the side. Huh? Are people taking buses instead of the subway from here? I'm not doing that, especially hearing about how horrible navigating the buses are. I'll walk back to Yeouinaru Station (on Yeouido Island) if I have to!

I walked some more, noticing how different the neighborhood was from the downtown part of Seoul. This neighborhood was no different than Ulsan--mostly 3~5 story buildings, people in more subdued fashions, fruit being sold from the front of stores, etc. It also looked like a newer area of town, or one that was being redeveloped. There was construction everywhere.

After eating at a McDonald's I crossed the street to what I had figured out was a subway station. I was expecting to see it underground like the others, not raised above the ground.

Back in Insadong I visited the tourist information center to ask about the postal museum. The volunteer was fascinated by my booklet full of Seoul museums, and asked if she could copy it. OK, sure....aren't they still available? Well, apparently the Seoul government put out a lot of tourist literature during the 2002 World Cup, but hasn't done much since then. I warned her that some of the information wasn't accurate or was outdated. While she copied I used the internet briefly.

I was really hurting at that point. I had gotten entirely too much sun over the course of the day, especially on my lower arms and on the back of my legs. My legs which were previously white white white white had changed to red. I was tired and sore and had aching feet. I had a heat rash on my lower legs (some left over from wearing pants yesterday). I returned to the yogwan shortly after 8 PM and ate half a Subway sandwich (another food I rarely get in Ulsan) before going to sleep at 11. What a long but exciting day!

Yeouido Island--National Assembly

2004-08-04T23:45:00.000+09:00

While the 63 Building is on one end of the somewhat long narrow island (in the middle of the Han River), the National Assembly, my next stop, was on the other end. On the half-hour walk there, I saw lots of Korean tourists. The kids were complaining to their parents, along the lines of, "It's too hot!" "I'm thirsty!" "I'm tired!" "My feet hurt!" "My bag's too heavy--carry it for me!" Hey, I feel the same way, kids! If my parents were here, I'd be making the exact same complaints to them!! But as it was, I had to continue plodding along in order to see everything that I wanted to see, and there was no one to complain to (or carry my bag!). I continued drinking a lot--some water, Gatorade, Powerade, anything to stay hydrated. I didn't end up eating until 6 PM--my body was too busy keeping itself cool to be hungry.

The National Assembly building is an impressive building. It has 24 HUGE pillars and a greenish dome. Other government buildings surround it, and a fence and security guards and police officers surround the fence. I hesitantly approached the gate--too many authority figures with weapons today!--and the guard waved that it was OK to come in. Again, gestures were used as I asked if it was OK to come in, then I asked if pictures were OK. The overly-enthusiastic guard said, "Yes, yes! Pictures OK!" They were inspecting any vehicles that came in the gates, but people carrying backpacks are OK, I guess!

There was a fountain in front and many older people were working on the impeccable lawn and flowers. I approached the front door of the building with its 2 guards and asked if I could go inside and if there were any tours. They directed me to the back of the building downstairs. I walked through another metal detector and placed my bag on the airport-style x-ray machine. Again, keys and change in my pockets, no problem. They directed me to the information desk where I had to fill out a form with my name, nationality, address, and phone number. They didn't ask for ID there. I used my American address because something about all of the security guys made me nervous. What looked like the most senior guy escorted me to the elevators and up to the 3rd floor.

I had no clue what we would see. Since the Assembly isn't currently meeting, they were doing some construction so the hallway was a mess. We approached a door; it was locked. He got the key and when he opened it I was in awe--I actually got to see the National Assembly Hall!! The place where the dramatic filibuster took place when Roh Moo Hyun was impeached! It was the spectators' section, like the U.S. has, but with no glass separating the visitors and the legislators. The man gave me a lecture about the Assembly Hall in decent English, once he got started. He even knew words like "bicameral," but his pronunciation could use some help. He asked me the difference between an Assembly and a Parliament--I don't know! If you have a Parliament you have to have a king/emperor figure??? There are 299 legislators in the unicameral body; cabinet members and various helpers also attend meetings; press areas are off to the sides. Usually the legislators vote using an electronic system which displays their votes on a board, but if it's a really important vote like choosing a chairperson they vote in secret in 6 booths, 3 on both sides of the hall.

The tour was a little longer than I would have liked, as he was happy to practice speaking English. I learned that he wanted to be an acupuncture doctor, and had visited California, and.....I stopped listening after awhile. Two groups of around 20 people came and went while he talked, gave me advice on what to see in Seoul, gave me his handphone number and email address, wanted to hear my life history, etc. Finally we went out of the hall and into an adjoining area which had pictures of past Assembly leaders and various documents which he didn't go into detail about--I probably wouldn't have understood, not knowing the background info.

Then he gave me the choice about which way to go out. There was the way that I had come in, or the front entrance with the red carpet. I thought you told me that only legislators could come in that way. "Yes, but with me you can go that way, too." O....K.....red carpet exit it is!! We walked down while several guards watched us. We passed a TV screen showing a hearing in progress over Kim Seun Il and who was responsible for his death. We got outside and he asked me where I was going next. I told him, he wrote in Korean, "This person is going to Seonyudo Islet. Please help her and show her the way." I appreciated his concern, but how does he think I normally survive in Korea? I do fairly well without using perfect Korean!

The back exit was best to go to the Islet, so we went back into the building and down a side hallway that looked like only official people should use it. Quite a few guards were outside and gave us looks and perhaps even said something to him about me not supposed to be there. I heard a voice on a microphone, and he pointed out that the important hearing was going on inside that room, and then he started to open the door.

Do you recall what else I had been doing that day?! Let's see, Police Museum, park, hike up the mountain, hike down the mountain, subway, long walk to the 63 Building, even longer walk to the National Assembly building, 100 degree weather. I was dressed in a pink t-shirt, mid-thigh-length shorts, sandals, a dorky hat to keep me a little cooler and to keep the sun off, a backpack, and sweat everywhere. And you want to let me go into the equivalent of a U.S. Congressional Hearing?!?!?!?!

I protested and backed away from the door. NO! Look at me! Had I been properly dressed, it would have been awesome to sit in on such an important meeting, even if I couldn't understand much. But given my appearance, it would have been totally disrespectful to go in. I was in such shock and worried that he was going to push me in, that I didn't even get a good look at things. I just remember the voice on the microphone got a lot louder and there were lots of camera flashes going off and perhaps the woman speaking turned to look at the opening door.

The guy sitting at the desk outside of the room also said something to the man accompanying me. I HOPE it was something along the lines of, "Are you crazy? She can't go in there! Look at her!"

We continued outside the building, with me still astounded that he didn't have more sense, and horrified that anyone in the room might have seen me. He gave me detailed instructions in how to get to the Islet (I have a map!) and then made me repeat them back to him.

Yeouido Island--63 Building

2004-08-04T22:58:00.000+09:00

It only took about 20 minutes to get to Yeouido Island on the subway. It truly looked like the pictures I've seen of Manhattan. So that's what skyscrapers look like! Nothing in Ulsan even begins to compare to that. I arrived at around 11:45 to see businessmen going to lunch in droves. I thought the 63 Building would be easy to find (as the tallest building in Korea) but with so many other tall buildings it didn't stand out. I stopped in at Starbuck's for a cold frappucino and to ask directions. (Another 100 degree day!) The employees told me how to get there (in Korean, and I understood!) but said that it was a long way. No problem, I can walk. It wasn't too bad, not over 15 minutes. Most of the walk was through Yeouido Park, a nice oasis of greenery amongst all of the traffic and buildings.

When I got to the 63 Building it did stand out. There were several 20~30 story buildings near it, which made its height seem even greater. The outside of the building was completely unimpressive, however. Just a plain boring building. It was built in 1985 and is 264 meters high. The buildings near the park were much nicer and more modern looking. I went inside to find TONS of Korean families going to the aquarium, theater, and observation deck. Too many people! No air! Do I really want to do this??

After buying a ticket I waited in line about 15 minutes for the elevator. It took roughly one minute to go up the 60 floors. The glass elevator was great; my ears popped several times on the way up. The view was OK, but nothing better than the Busan or Namsan Towers. I stayed around 45 minutes, enjoying the air conditioning and the pictures of Seoul circa 1900. The street scenes showed people in traditional clothes, men with long Japanese-style beards, traditional houses (no apartment buildings or skyscrapers!), dirt roads, horses and carts, and lots of hard work in everyday life. The pictures of the foreign tourists were particularly interesting for me. One French tourist was pictured on his horse with all of the supplies he needed, plus a sleeping bag. A Korean (servant?) led the horse through the crowded streets. In that era, foreigners lived like kings and were completely isolated in their own little foreign section of town.

Sajik Park and Soldiers

2004-08-04T22:33:00.000+09:00

From what I understand, this park is important to Korea because together, Sajikdan and Jongmyo form Jongsa, which symbolizes the nation. To say "Sajik is at peace" is to imply that the country is doing well, while to say "Sajik is in danger" means conditions are poor. An important national figure is referred to as a "Vassal of Sajik."

There was an enclosed courtyard and in the middle of the area was Sajikdan, where sacrifices or incenses or something were (are??) burned. There were a couple of statues, but otherwise the park is a shady place to rest or for recreation. In this park the remains of the legendary figure Dangun are enshrined. Dangun is referred to as the father of Korea; he is said to be descended from god and a bear. The shrine was being painted so I couldn't go inside, but I looked in through the side gate.

Next on my list was to try to find the Fortress Wall. The booklet put out by the Seoul government that showed the wall as an attraction neglected to say that there's also a military base on that mountain. From the back of the Dangun Shrine I walked up some stairs to the road. From there I walked about 15 minutes up a somewhat steep road. About 10 cars passed, some military and some civilian. At a fork in the road a policeman stood guard in a roofed pavilion. I approached him and asked about the wall. He didn't seem too receptive to me; perhaps he's not supposed to talk to people while on guard duty??

The booklet didn't include any Korean, so I pointed to the wall behind the policeman and said "Choseon" because that was the only word I could think of to portray the "really old" concept. (Choseon was a Korean dynasty, perhaps the last one.) He still didn't get it. I saw an information sign 50 meters ahead so I asked if it was OK to go a little farther up the road; he said OK. As I started to walk off he said that I couldn't go to the top of the mountain today, but I could go tomorrow. ??? As I passed the guard house that I had thought was deserted, it came to life.

At this point, remember that I hadn't gone through any gates or climbed any fences or passed any menacing signs. I had simply walked through a public park, up some stairs, and then up a road.

Inside the tiny guard house two soldiers rose from their chairs clutching their machine guns and one shouted out at me. The policeman said I could come this way?? {weak excuse in my mind} I couldn't think of anything to say in any language, {MACHINE GUNS!!!!} so I tried to look as innocent and harmless as possible as I kept my hands visible.

When they saw that it was just a foreign woman, they relaxed. I pointed at the sign, and through gestures we determined that it was OK for me to go and read it. I was in such a state that I don't remember too much of what it said. Basically that the mountain had a couple of important cultural treasures: the Dangun Shrine and the Fortress Wall. It didn't say if or how people could see the wall, though. I turned and walked back down the mountain and back to the subway while thinking about how the military is present in Korean everyday life.

Police Museum

2004-08-04T21:46:00.000+09:00

Back to Monday. I woke up a little after 6 AM (that bright sun shining in the window!) and got up an hour later. I stayed at the normal yogwan, but in a different room. This one was a good bit smaller, especially the bathroom. Otherwise, the same as the other room. I had breakfast in the room (bought the night before) before another busy day.

Everything went perfectly today. I saw everything I'd planned and more. I walked past the main Seoul Immigration Office to get to the Police Museum. A Korean man walking out of Immigration gave me a strange look. Not the normal "Oh, it's a foreigner" look but "Oh, it's an illegal foreigner!" How did they find out about me in Seoul?! OK, so I'm a little paranoid. I'll feel a lot better about things when I get my ID card back with the extended visa properly marked on the back.

The Police Museum was appropriately enough located in the Seoul Metropolitan Police Headquarters. I hesitantly approached the guard to ask about the museum. He asked for my passport, but his buddy said an ID card was OK. My Korean ID card? {wince} I thought, "Uh, I'm a tourist?" as I tried to portray a confident air as I handed over my American driver's license. No problem. They gave me an ID badge which I pinned to my clothes, and then I went through a metal detector. Was it even turned on, though? I had keys and change in my pockets, and they didn't look inside my backpack at all.

One of the police guards took me into the main building and downstairs to the basement. It was only a few minutes past the 9 AM opening time so he shouted for whoever was in charge of the place. The cutest policeman ever hurried out and gave me a 45-minute private tour of the museum. The labels on individual artifacts were in both Korean and English, while explanations were only in Korean. His English was fantastic. When he didn't know a word he'd do his best to explain what he meant. He used actions a few times to get the point across. Trying to explain an electric gun or lab techniques or other such things isn't the easiest thing in your own language, but especially in a foreign language! He has one year (of approximately 2) left to fulfill his mandatory duty to his country (instead of military service) and then he'll enter his sophomore year of university.

The museum covered mostly the 1800s~present, but included clothing and a few artifacts from the dynasties. In the past hats were important in telling a captain from an everyday policeman. Police uniforms in other countries were displayed as well. While the Seoul Metropolitan Police had their first woman officer in 1946, it sounded like even today they can't do much beyond traffic control. Part of the display dealt with crowd (riot) control devices—the shields, gas, etc. used to contain hostile protestors.

At the end of the tour he escorted me back to the gate while making some small talk. "Where are you going next?" Sajik Park. "By train?" No, I thought I'd walk. Is it far? He had no idea where it was, so asked another policeman. They said it was close by, and that they'd show it to me. That's OK; I have a map! However, they insisted, so I went along with it.

The two policemen (also young, cute, and buff compared to the Ulsan scarecrow policeboys) walked with me the 10~15 minutes to the park. I would have had no problem finding it on my own, but their knowledge of the neighborhood did save about 5 minutes. They didn't speak much English at all, so we mostly just walked. When we had to cross the street, the policemen confidently walked in front of cars, even taxis! No hesitation on their part, and the cars didn't come anywhere near them. With normal people, it's never certain if the cars are stopping. I received lots of looks along the way—people wondering what the two policemen were doing with the foreigner. If they had handcuffed me I don't think people would have looked at me any more strangely! When we got there I thanked them both and bowed. As I turned and started to walk into the park, the more talkative policeman shouted after me, "Have a nice day!"

Back in Ulsan

2004-08-04T02:16:00.000+09:00

I'm back in Ulsan but absolutely exhausted. It was another great day of seeing things and interacting with people. Will write more tomorrow.

Drama

2004-08-02T19:57:00.000+09:00

I'm alive but.......something like 15~20 miles of walking today, no joke. I wore a hat, but no sunscreen, so I'm pretty pink and getting pinker as I type (and it's after dark and I'm inside!). I saw and experienced a lot of cool things today, way too much to write about now. I'm writing from the tourist info center (free internet!) and have notes on everything I did today, so expect a book when I get rested. Highlights to get you hooked: I got a police escort, was chased by some soldiers, was nearly on TV in the middle of a government hearing.....what a weird day!

Walking and Getting Lost in Seoul

2004-08-01T21:22:00.000+09:00

I'm in Seoul and yes, I couldn't stand being away from my computer, so I'm in a very well airconditioned and only slightly smoky PC room. Every part of my body hurts and I may never move again.

I didn't get to try out the KTX train.

{disgusted sigh}

I guess I didn't think about how buses run less frequently on Sunday mornings. The bus made good time once it came, but I arrived at the train station at 9:25. Korean public transportation is always on time. I went to the ticket area, hoping I could at least get a refund on the Daegu to Seoul portion of the ticket, since they might still be able to sell that seat to someone else. The guy had no problem refunding the whole ticket, but minus a 30% fee. Well, that's not so bad. I was angry at myself for not leaving earlier, though. I'd gone to the trouble of going there last week to buy the ticket but couldn't get to the station on time!

I walked from there to the bus station (about 20 minutes). I was able to get immediately on the bus (I think someone had returned their ticket). The bus left at 10 AM and got into Seoul at 3 PM. I didn't understand the breaks--around 12:30 we stopped for what was supposed to be 10 minutes but it turned into 15 because some people were late. We got back on the road for about 15 minutes, and then we stopped again for another 15 minutes. Hello? What's going on here? Let's just get to Seoul!!

From the bus station I took the subway to the train station. It's grand in its size and the architecture is nice and modern in an unfinished way. I had patbingsu in Lotteria, and then asked at the information desk where the railway museum was. "The railway museum is closed now." Oh, it's only open during the week? "No, this is the new train station and it closed when we changed stations." Oh, I see.

I walked back outside, wondering if the older building was possibly the old train station. With everything in Seoul being built mostly after 1950, old buildings really stand out. It was the old railroad station, completed in 1925 by the Japanese. The sign for the railway museum is still on it. I walked around and took a picture of it and the new station to show the contrast. They should keep the railway museum open!

I usually feel really safe and not at all uncomfortable in Korea, but as I was walking I started feeling uncomfortable very quickly. At first only a couple of people were lying down on the benches. OK, it's a hot day, they're tired, whatever. But as I walked just a little farther there were more and more people lying on benches, on the ground, sleeping, half-dressed, unshaven, and the worst smells ever.

Ulsan only has a few (visible) homeless people. With very few exceptions, they stay away from people and don't really look (or smell) that bad aside from being a little scraggly. These people, however, looked bad. Some of them looked at me; I tried hard not to look at them, yet still being alert to know where they were and if they were moving towards me. The contrast between the normal people walking around and the homeless people lying there with hopeless looks on their faces (for those who were awake) was extreme. I'm isolated from that so much that it's hard to remember that other kinds of people exist.

Then I walked forever, trying to find a couple of obscure museums. I could have gotten back on the subway, but the stop I was going to wasn't far away so I thought I could find my way on the surface.

I thought I could find my way on the surface.

It took me an hour to get from Seoul Station to City Hall. An hour!! By that time the closing time for the one museum was getting close, so I decided to try for the one with the later closing time. By that point I was getting better at following the street signs and the information signs and picking a direction based on the map. I couldn't find the other museum, though! I found some kind of Sejong Convention Center with an art museum inside, but no Seoul City Museum. (The museum booklet I have is a year or two old. Is everything in it obsolete??)

It was a nice time walking, though. In front of City Hall there were many families and children running through the fountain. I passed the police headquarters and even the MIC building! Is it ever huge--what do they do there?? Obviously they don't answer their email.

When I saw Gyeongbokgung (the big palace) I knew roughly where I was. I had to make quite a detour to be able to cross the street, then walked leisurely past the palace and eventually to Insadong. I checked in at the yogwan, went upstairs to take some things out of my bag (which had seemed so light to begin with but after 3 hours of solid walking was killing my shoulders), and wash my face. That made me feel refreshed enough to go out again.

I ate dinner at Burger King (I eat Korean food all the time! I don't often have access to Whoppers!). Then I went looking for the book store. (Not Kyobo, but the other one. What is it? Young-poong? I visit there nearly every time I come to Seoul. My reasoning is, "Let's support the smaller store, not the great giant." OK, the real reason is that I stumbled upon it the first time I was in Seoul and only found Kyobo this visit.)

On the way I saw some DVDs. The guy let me "test" a DVD on his machine to make sure it worked. 10,000 won for what can be downloaded off the internet, but this way there's no (or little?) virus risk. I asked him, "If I buy 2, can I get a discount?" I guess I could have named a price or been a tougher negotiator, but that's what I felt like doing at that point, and it's more than what I usually do. He thought about it like it was a difficult decision before letting it be 18,000 for 2 (a discount of about $1.60). I got Fahrenheit 9/11 and i, Robot (the one that just opened in the theaters here this weekend). The guy insisted the disks were region-free, but the first one's case is in German and lists region 2. Both disks are just plain DVD disks with no labeling at all. I'll have to see if my computer plays them.

I got a little lost in one of the under-ground passageways, and was totally unable to find the exit I needed for the bookstore. I passed these two foreign guys a couple of times, and one of them stopped me to ask for a donation. They supposedly work for some world-wide organization (that I'd never heard of) helping with education, food, medical, shelter, etc. The guy I talked with lives in India. They seemed legitimate, with flyers, business cards, and a website, so I gave them a little (totally out of character for me). If they're crooks then they're pretty good at it.

I finally found the bookstore, bought a single book (the others were outrageously priced) and headed for the PC room. I've walked at least 10 miles today (estimate based on my pedometer). In sandals. So far no blisters and the bottoms of my feet feel OK, but my ankles feel a little weak. For now I'm going back to the yogwan, take a cool shower, and either read my new book or watch TV for a bit before going to sleep. Tomorrow--lots more walking!

Off to Seoul

2004-08-01T08:30:00.000+09:00

I'm glad I'm leaving today instead of yesterday, and I'm really glad I'm taking the 9:20 train instead of the 7:20 train!

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. I explored by the soccer stadium and spent a couple of hours figuring out what I was going to do in Seoul. I have things broken down into days--mostly museums, an old fortress wall that promises to be quite a hike, the 63 Building, an island, and a little shopping.

What was I thinking to even consider the 7:20 train? Leaving at that hour should be done only when absolutely necessary! I've got to grab a few things, then take the bus the 20~30 minutes to the train station. Bye!