Mission Impossible

I love Korea but there are times when I just don't get it. Yesterday was one of these moments. In January and February I will be doing day camps for the students. I will start at 9 and finish at 12. It's going to be two glorious months of (non)work.

A few weeks ago my supervisor and I sat down and planned our camp out. For one of the weeks, I am supposed to be at another school down the road. This camp is different because I will be with the same kids for the whole three hours a day. This isn't a problem as there are a ton of things to do and it's better way to get to know the kids. I planned to bring in various games for them and we were also going to work on singing a pop song to help get our noses out of the books. Everything looked good for this camp until Mrs. Evil regional boss stepped in.

I didn't like this lady when I first met her (she carries herself funny) and now I've confirmed my distaste for her. On Monday she met with my supervisor and told her we needed something different for the camp at the other school. She wanted it to be like the multi-million dollar camp near Incheon where kids enter an English village. It's an immersion program of studying and living, her version translated into, "No books. Just daily topics." My boss then asked me to create this 20 hour camp with readings, worksheets, flashcards and games/activities supporting the preselected topics.

Korea has and always will be run in a last minute style. I know this and have come to accept this but sometimes it's just insane. Being told at lunch time and having only four free hours until my holidays start to complete this was impossible. Had she told me about this last week I'd of loved to of designed the camp but doing this at the last minute was unreal. I called my supervisor on this and told her I could not do this. She giggled in the way Koreans do when they are uncomfortable.

Traditionally you are not supposed to question the boss and should just get on doing what you're told. 90 percent of the time I do this but yesterday I just couldn't bring myself to follow the directions. In the end I'm the one left in the classroom with the kids and knowing I'd be ill prepared I couldn't accept it. We finally worked out a compromise of doing the camp half in the original way and half in the style of Mrs Evil.

Snow!

I have a three day week and to make it even better a ton of snow fell on the weekend. Cue the carols because I'm ready for Christmas.

Saturday night Saejin and I kept getting updates about the snow from his cousin who was driving in from Incheon to meet us. We were in the middle of Seoul and the there was no snow in sight. I thought she was making it all up but I'm glad I was wrong.

Here's a picture from right outside my house on Sunday morning.


School pictures from today.

Nuckin' Futs!

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More Overtime in January

My last nine Wednesday afternoons I have had to teach teacher's from all over Gwangmyung. It's considered overtime work for me but instead of earning a cheque for it I just get extra time off. Seeing as my day is mostly time off, imagine a baker working for cupcakes. It's definitely not the ideal set up but I've dealt with it and next Wednesday will be our last class together. The teacher's have been a fun class but I don't enjoy teaching adults. Filling my Wednesday afternoon's with TV, Spider solitaire and reading is simply, much better.

It looks like I will be seeing a couple of the teacher's again as they have asked me to teach their children on the side. Doing these privates is where English teacher's can make a lot of easy money. You charge by the hour and I'll just say it's an unreal the amount we can ask for. I always feel guilty when I have to tell the parents how much it costs for an hour. Because it's such a large amount I'm considering taking my price down because the class will be very close to here (I can't say where because it is illegal doing privates) but the commute will be very, very, very short.

It will be good to have the extra cash again as last year I didn't have any privates (all the privates I was offered were for adults). We decided to talk about it in our last class together because the ladies are worried about our being able to communicate over the phone. Hopefully it works out and hopefully I will still be charging the going rate and not get consumed by guilt. We'll see.

I Hate Oprah.

This entry has nothing to do with Oprah, I just hate her and felt like writing that. Seeing her on a TV screen makes my hand suddenly slam the thing off. (How many life changing moments can one person honestly have?) Now cutting the power to a TV isn't an easy thing for me to do. What follows is my shameless admittance that I love TV. I watch way more TV now that I'm away from Canada than I did living in it. These are some of my favorites:

Prison Break (I have to drink when watching this one it's so intense).
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (This replaces The West Wing).
House (Anything with Hugh Laurie is amazing).
QI (Anything with Stephen Frye is amazing and this trivia show staring comedians is full of useless information).
How I met Your Mother (This one surprised me especially as Doogie Howser's in it).
Friday Night Lights (Being no fan of Middle America I should hate this show but like a fat kid drawn to a buffet I can't stop eating it up).
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (Gordon Ramsay is an asshole but I can't get enough of him. I also like his F-Word show).
Heroes (I just started this one and I think it has potential).
Grey's Anatomy (Each episode is a heart warming jaunt).
The Rick Mercer Report and Corner Gas (for Canadian Content reasons).

Cheese + Wine = ?

Saturday night was our Christmas fondue dinner at Alt Swiss Chalet. So, to get you in the moment, imagine a slow burning heat that swells, bubbles and pops food all meal long. Now stop thinking about the pot of cheese and all it's flavour. Instead, zoom in onto my stomach as it continued its week long tradition of being upset. This kind of ruined my dinner. I tried to tough it out but in the end the heart burn was wicked and I left everyone around midnight.

Saejin, Joel and Adrian getting psyched for the fondue feast.

Rachel Lynn and I trying to ignore the sounds blaring from my mid-section.

Saejin getting cheered up by Shelly. He was grouchy because Heidi was late (she's always late) and it's to quote him, "it's his hobby to be mad at her."



These last two are from B-One(B1) Bar. The first I stole from Jes and the second is of Saejin and Yoon Jung who joined us after dinner.

Switzerland Rules

My friend James hates the Swiss. It's the only collection of people on Earth you can get him to say something bad about. Every time we went out together he would meet someone new and have them join us for drinks. James likes everybody even though he is British who for sport enjoy taking the piss out of every other nation.

James' dislike has something to do with the time he worked there and occasionally for fun after he'd had a few drinks we'd bring up a neutral (yet loaded) topic like delicious fondue. This set him off. The only good thing about him not being around anymore (he's not dead, he just works in England but will work in Shanghai from January...I smell a road trip in 2007) is we can go to a Swiss restaurant this weekend in peace.

This Saturday is the last time (my liver is already cheering) our usual gang can get together before the holidays scatter us all over the World. We are going to The Swiss Chalet (not the greasy yet tasty Canadian version) but this place that serves brilliantly gooey Cheese and meat fondues. We went there last year as well (minus James) and had a festive time. We like this restaurant because it's all decked out like an actual mountain Chalet. It has a huge burning fire place, real wood beams that they hang Christmas cheer from. It should be a great time.

I Love Test Days

As a Canadian student, apart from the final exam it was pretty easy to hide when upcoming tests were. Here in Korea it's very different every parent knows when test days are. They grill their child with extra work in preparation for the giant red circle on the calendar.

Yesterday, was a test day and how (you politely ask) did I spend my time "working"? I watched the Toronto Maple Leafs crumble in the third period to Atlanta. I was so busy then reading my book that I forgot to post. So while the kids were stressing out over grade three math questions of 1732/10 x 36/4=? I was able to sit back and relax as if I were at home. I love test days.

Sign Language

These are some pictures from my 10 minute trek to the bus stop. In this first picture you can see many older buildings from my area. You may be able to notice they all have signs that jump out over the sidewalk. In Korea, addresses are known only by a select few in the post office so if you want to direct someone somewhere you need to use landmarks and well known stores as your guide. The giant new CGV building in the background is where Saejin and I have been going to watch the latest movies.


This building is the best example of just how much Koreans love signs. In fact if these signs were removed from the building there is an urban legend that suggests the thing will collapse. This two story building has more signs plastered on it than actual businesses operating from it.


This last picture is of the entrance to the Gwang Myeong Market. This is a cool little market that has small covered streets running all over the place. You can find almost everything you need inside. There are butchers, fruit and veggie sellers, clothes, blankets, supermarkets and some stinky shops(fish vendors) all selling stuff inside. I usually only go here to buy some fine, fine kimchi mandoo (steamed kimchi dumplings) from one of the restaurants. The big building next door is a huge department store and also (again) where the CGV is.

Note to Self

I need to remember that when Rachel Lynn texts me mid afternoon on a Friday with, "What do you say to a quiet burger at Gecko's?" I should always reply with a loud capitalized, "NO!" Believing RL's words to be pure I went about convincing Saejin that it would be only a burger and a couple of beers. This wouldn't spoil our plans of staying in for the weekend and we did have to eat dinner after all.

Soon after work I realized RL had other plans. She had organized for Heidi and Joel to also enjoy the "silence of a burger." Seven bites into the burger and Jes was on route to join us with Shelly not far behind her. This wasn't to be a quiet night.

As I've written before, Gecko's is in Itaewon which is right next to the U.S. Army base. Itaewon has tonnes of shopping, tasty restaurants and many, many bars. Once you venture off the main street you find two very different hills. The first is known as Hooker Hill and running parallel to this is Homo Hill. (Two army staples.)After we all realized this quiet burger had changed into a night out we choose to head over to the better of the two hills to reunite with our good friend Chan Young who just returned from OZ where he was studying.

Soho is a bar we used to frequent a lot. Their happy hours of two for one gin tonics are hard to beat. We stopped going to this bar awhile back when the bar changed owners and the new guy decorated by spray painting the walls, floors and ceiling. He then went and replaced the intimate couches' with a pool table and coverings that don't match. In short, he turned a once classy bar (as classy as two for one bars can get) into a grunge bar.

Chan Young is now working here so we reluctantly went in. After saying hi to Chan Young we got into our favorite habit of bitching about how the place has been spoiled. But Chan Young wouldn't have any of it. He said some people like it and some don't. Get used to it. He then told us the owner was one of his best friends and ushered him over to our table.

This simple introduction made our quiet night out a distant memory. The owner went out of his way to treat us to tasty shots topped with whipped cream that we simply didn't need. It was a nice way to return to Soho and made seeing Chan Young even more memorable. My liver is already cursing the fact we will be back to see him in Soho soon.

Here are pics:


Chan Young is in pink and the owner has the scarf and bad hair. The other two are the regulars, Shelly and Joel.

Saejin, Heidi and I before we drank the shot.

Joel, evil planner Rachel Lynn and her new found boy.

December Eve

Yesterday morning, we were hit with the season's first real snow. Huge, wet snowflakes feathered down and collected around objects. The kids did a snow dance in celebration but as they danced the temperatures started to rise. Cute snow soon morphed into dreary rain.

This is a section of hot houses I pass on my way to school.

Here are the climbing ropes that the kids actually climb in P.E. class. In Canada we just used the things to ape Tarzan.

From afar you can see it wasn't much a of a blizzard.

These are the garden's that run along the face of the school.