What I Do Between My Last Two Classes

Another draft, this one from '06

I don't do this, exactly (although I might start, if I get bored enough).

Usually, I surf the interblag (aka the webweb) and webcomic archives. A friend just put me onto this one. Of course, everyone knows how much I love chickens (scroll down to read the one about the cat, and PROC3000 has to be one of my favourite characters), and then there's Partially Clips (but I've already been through their entire archives, and I'm subscribed to them on GoogleReader, (ahh, the goodness of google) so am automatically updated with any new ones).
I find odd stuff by people with too much time on their hands (Colin, you'll like that one, I think. It takes a few minutes to load), and even odder stuff (that makes me laugh) by people with what I assume to be even more time on their hands and a warped sense of humour.

I'll also browse music videos, do random google searches for friends (it's how I found out this on GoogleVideo), and pretty much any of the intermehnetting ways to procrastinate.

Captain in the Order of Intermehnetting Procratinatoriness. Intermehnetting. Or should I say 'blagoblaging'?

YouTube

They put an electric shock dog collar on a human. This is the result.

The Painters and Decorators are In

Going through my archives, I found this one as a draft from '05.




Riding The Crimson Wave, Planting Cotton, Taking Carrie to the Prom, Backing the Reds, Entertaining Vampires....

The River of Life, The Painters and Decorators, Aunt Flo, and The Communists....

I'm on the BUS, and Seeing Red.


You can go here to learn more about the topic of this post (if you have not clued yet, this will be an eye opener).

Captain Chopsticks
(with the communisits in the summer house)

Leaving Korea; Pros and Cons

Things I'll miss about Korea:

- being given a laugh every time I see Konglish advertising and clothing.
- being within a 5 minute walk of a large cinema, a department store and two grocery stores, my bank, my work, cafes, restaurants, 4+ major bus routes and more.
- being within a 15 minute walk of the beach, a hiking mountain, another cinema, two more department stores and another grocery store, bars, clubs, my salsa classes, and more.
- friends
- Sunday night Trivia
- my perfect-for-one-person apartment
- cheap bus and taxi fare
- my tutoring job


Things I won't miss about Korea:

- asshole bosses
- idiotic directors
- depressing work situations
- leery men on the beach
- being asked if I'm Russian (code for if I'm a prostitute)
- manic drivers
- being stared at wherever I go (and not in a nice way)

Plans of Finality

I've never really been a good one for big changes. It freaks me out a little leading up to it. I tend to get comfortable with doing and living something a certain way and have trouble imagining myself being ok and just as comfortable with something else.

This change: moving back home.

When I first came to Korea, it wasn't a life-change. The first time was kind of like a paid educational opportunity/ holiday. When I decided to come back for work, it was a paid adventure/holiday. But that quickly but imperceptibly turned into just "life". And for the most part, it's been a good life. I've had fun, met life-long friends, and grown in "life" sort of ways. It hasn't always been good, and as those "not so good" aspects of living here have become more significant (maybe not "bigger" or "worse", but certainly occupying more of my field of vision as I drive on the highway of life), I've known for a while that this would be my last year here.

But to choose an exact date... to make those plans of finality... I struggle. I somehow envisioned my last month here and the actual return home could happen like in a cloud; I don't actually need to DO anything, things will just happen and one day I'll wake up back in Australia with everything already posted home and whatnot.

Unfortunately, flights don't book themselves, bank accounts don't close themselves, and loose ends don't tie themselves off.

So, the planning begins, and now that I've set an actual real-life date with an actual plane with a seat that will have my name on it, some part of me has woken me up (actually quite literally - it's 4am). This part of me dauntingly tells me about everything that can go wrong and endlessly lists what I will need to do to wind up this chapter of my life for good... forever.

It's like drawing near to the end of an entralling novel, but knowing you will never be able to read it again.

Escaping A Burning Building

Last night I was at PubQuiz, a weekly trivia night I attend at a local pub. Always lots of fun, and a time to catch up with good mates.

Anyway, last night, about halfway through the quiz, there was suddenly a lot of commotion towards the front of the place (behind where I was sitting the in far back corner). Looking around, I noticed that it seemed really dark, and realised that the ceiling was covered with black smoke. Then I noticed the flames, which had engulfed the kitchen behind the bar, and were quickly engulfing the bar (which was near the door) and the ceiling.
People started shouting, get out, get out. At first everyone was like a deer caught in headlights, and my first thought was actually "it's only a fire. put it out and let's get back to the quiz." Well, I didn't do that :)
I grabbed my jacket (thank God, because I would have died of exposure outside) and joined the herd rushing the door (between seeing the fire and getting out the door was only actually about 8 seconds, but in that time the fire was on the ceiling over the door, so we had to run bent over).

So, we stood outside and watched the place go up. The Koreans there called the fire dept, we shouted to the people in the upper floors of the building (who took the elevator down), people took photos and video on their phones, some called loved ones, and a few cried, and me and others stood a respectful distance back since the place had gas (there was a small explosion). Of course, the guys who had a girlfriend got to look very manly and protective standing and wrapping their arms around their girlfriends while the guy watched the fire and the girl buried her face in his jacket (why? fires are fascinating.)

It took a bit for the fire trucks to get there (but not that long if you know anything about Korean traffic). The fire guys quickly put out the fire, had one truck which decided to spray a hefty dose of water on a car and the people standing behind it (including me, but I got out of the firing range before the truck really started gushing), and the fire guys eventually went in and retrieved items left in the bar (cell phones which actually still worked, melted bags, etc). By that time many people (all the couples, noticeably) had left, and everyone left was starting the freeze, so we went to Sunset (another bar nearby) for some after-fire-we-survived-wow drinks.

All in all, certainly an interesting PubQuiz (I take it my team won).

Work Frustrations

Work is pretty stressful this week. We just got new books, and one of them is ridiculously hard. It's way above the students' levels (I doubt even some of my Korean coworkers would be able to understand it fully), and the subject matter is not suitable for elementary school students - it has questions like "how much do you smoke? Would you marry someone who smokes? How many lottery tickets do you buy each week? What are the pros and cons of using credit cards? Would you ever sign a prenuptual agreement? What do you hope your children will be?" and discussion topics like "My friend smokes and he said I should try it". This one is obviously to provoke a debate about smoking, but there's no way elementary school students have that understanding or experience, let alone the language.
So, I went to my director and explained all of this, and she said "just skip those questions." It's absolutely not that easy, and it's still in the book for students to read, so I said I couldn't do that. After an extremely frustrating conversation trying to make her understand that 1) the language was too hard and 2) the topics are inappropriate for children, and having her keep repeating things like "but you must", I finally said point blank "I'm not going to teach that book." Probably not the most tactful way to put it, but nothing else was getting through. In the end I called a guy on another campus of the school whose job is to act as a go-between and translator when there are problems between the foreign and korean teachers. He's a Korea who grew up in America, so he is bi-lingual and also understands Western culture. He understood the problem with the book at once, and talked to my director who finally agreed to find a new book. For the rest of the day she ignored me and acted like I killed her dog.