Predictibility is Boring

Opie (a korean guy) also said my head is like texas - no plants (no hair) and no animals...and VERY BIG

Monday Dec. 21^st

8:33 A.M

According to Friday, the 18^th….I’ll know nothing what kind of teaching I’m looking at during the ‘vacation.’ (don’t forget the air quoting)…

8:43 A.M

Oh how I hate it when my co-teacher’s on the phone – looking at me, saying my name…

에 따르면 어떤 가르침을 바라보고 금요일, 알고 있는 어떤 가르침을 바라보고 있어를 방학 동안겠습니다."(을 잊지 말Mike을 인용해 공기 오는 걸 보면 직장 동료와 교사 전화를 - 내 얼굴을 보면서 얼 어떤 가(miker teacher)르침을 바라보고 굴을 보면서

8:58 A.M

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, nothing yet…gotta teach!

12:44 P.M

Good lunch, still no word! No worries, just a bit nervous. Here, look at pics between Mokpo and Seoul, good train trip!

Still no idea about January…

3:44 P.M

Hahhaha, ohhh poor homegirl. So she comes over to me with a piece of paper, written WORD for WORD about what she wants to get across to me. The exact transcript of our conversation I feel so bad, so, so bad.

Poor, poor girl.

Anyway, I’ve commendered the piece of paper that she wrote down what to say to me. She just left to go give my new schedule to the Principal.

Mike,

Are you busy now? I am sorry to say, but our principal has decided on a different plan that you and I have chosen to take. I feel very bad to say this on you but its time to deliver the news. Please don’t hate him or me, but you must have a mandatory teaching time in January. The Vice Principal said you must teach 2 and a half weeks, he said like that. I’m sorry, but I hope we can work an out.

…sigh.

Oh well, what are ya gonna do? Now, for the days that I'm not teaching. Do i have those days off? Am I staying from 9-5 but only teaching from 10 to 12:30....?

(its hard not to love it here)

Tuesday Dec. 22^nd

12:22 P.M

Poor kid, he’s been ‘chosen’ to compete in the district wide English Speaking Test. Homegirl didn’t know about it til 3:30 yesterday and she asked me to write out a dialog for him. I made it as simple as I could and everything would be perfect.

Well homegirl wanted something harder.

And he had to memorize it…

And I have to come up with 26 to 32 lesson plans in a week and a half.

And go to a conference…

Sigh, now they want me to teach 3^rd graders…

Make that 40 lesson plans in a week and a half.

Or lots, and LOTS of hangman.

3:13 P.M

Woah, so after an interesting day to say the least. Looks like I have to teach from Jan 14^th til Jan 29^th. Still no idea yet, I could end up teaching the 3^rd graders from Jan 3 til the 6^th. Still no idea, but I’ve been lesson planning for 3 hours.

Trying to get ready, for something…not that I know what it is?

3:58: P.M

Apparently there’s a new and old contract now. Hopefully my school doesn’t expect me to sign into a new contract, but they (national offices) are trying to make all the proviences do the same thing. So I may have a new contract….hmmmm.

Honestly I can’t say I’m that worried about it. I just expect 26 days off in February, my pay – my rent paid, and a bonus at the end of the year. And the 22 hours of teaching a week, as I signed into.

In America, lots to expect, Korea…could be the same pretty soon…:-\

Here's my take on it all:

At the end of the day though, I’m having a hard time bitching about not having January off. I came over here to teach, and figured I’d be doing it. Besides, predictability is boring…I wanna see how far I can be pushed in a Korean classroom. Teaching alone is one thing, but for 2.5 weeks, could be another. Plus, no co-teacher...or CD to go off of. All me...There is only one way to find out if I can handle it/do it…

I’m ok with teaching, just don’t take away my ‘mandatory vacationing time.’ This is crazy, but fun. I feel weird complaining about what I do here.

I see the private teacher’s who’ve got 10 days off the ENTIRE year. They also don’t have a co-teacher, or a curriculum to work with. They’ve gotta do what I just did all day – for a year. Its hard to bitch when ya hear some of their stories. Friend of mine just got fired from her job because no one liked her, and she’s the sweetest person in the world. We’ll just see what happens over the next few days – it’ll be fun!

Sunday Dec. 27^th

Ok so I’ve got the next week and a half off, not as I assumed…I’d be teaching. I thought.

Right before I left Friday, I was told I AM teaching 3rd graders, but for the week I was going to teach 6th graders. So now I must re-lesson plan...I like to push these kids, but thats a bit much.

I’m stuck with the old contract, which is a good thing.

Apparently there will be no more suprises.

We’ll see…

Strait answers are overrated!

oh how I love KOREA!!!

Tuesday Dec. 8th

8:43 a.m.
The vacation goes like this. Dec. 24th til March 2nd….buuuuuuuuut.

So I may have just lost all of January, I may have to teach when my school is closed. I'm not sure (of course) yet. And neither co-teacher knows whats up. I got an email from the director over here saying something about teaching while I'm on 'vacation' - that most every school will do the same thing. So I may have to do an english camp….

4:23 p.m.
After Kor-english with homegirl, I've understood that I'm obliged to do a camp for parents and teachers of the school. It could be in January, maybe Feb. maybe even every Friday in March. No. Idea. Yet.

it is snowing though...

Haha, sooo, there's no point in planing….EVER. Either way, I will have off for 26 days in february, maybe all of it depending on what happens with January.

The school doesn't know about the 'mandate' to make us English teacher's come in when the school is closed - if I MUST teach, I'd rather do it when the school is 'open.' Maybe teach every Friday in March for an hour or two. Open to who ever wants to come. Now its up to tomorrow to decide if that is 'ok.'

4:51 p.m.

I've been trying to kill a fly for 10 minutes…

it snowed ALOT

Friday Dec. 11th

Still no idea what I'm doing in January...but I'm off to Seoul tomorrow!

Sunday Dec. 13th

Woah, good times in Seoul...

So here's the deal, it was amazing. We didn't get in til about 7 PM in Seoul so we didn't have anytime to go see stuff...but I'll be up there again in January so we'll do much sight seeing then...







I'll be honest though, I got some GREAT pictures on the way back...

Noribong

Monday Nov. 30^th, 2009

8:47 A.M

So I wonder if teachers in America are that worried about their lesson plan. I’ve got a general idea of what I’m doing, God knows if its gonna work. Only one way to find out!!!

Worst case scenario…hangman.

12:24 p.m.

sigh, long day. Those kids were crazy…lesson plan worked well though

7:17 p.m

Son’s of anarachy is awesome!

http://one-tv.net/tv/sons-of-anarchy/

Tuesday Dec. 1^st, 2009

8:41 a.m.

This is probably the most stressful time in the Korean life I live. if homegirl (hunni) doesn’t show up…what, happens? Do I teach alone? Do I teach a lesson that I haven’t been told about? Nor do I know what lesson it is…I’m just not supposed to worry about it…Do I teach with homeboy? Do I teach at all?......It always feels good when she shows up.

I’ll trade 20 minutes of stress for this Korean life though – that’s for damn sure…haha

8:47 a.m.

She’s here, no worries....

8:54 a.m.

Hm, teaching alone. Didn’t expect that…haha. This is fun man, ya gotta keep on your toes!!! Monotonious? Not a bit.

Wednesday Dec. 2^nd, 2009

…taught some english, found sportscenter.com

checked the facebook….the norm

Thursday Dec. 3^rd, 2009

It was just a matter of time before my co-teacher got in a fender bender. Dwoode, this chick does NOT know how to drive…haha. Its cross cultural that women have a hard time doing the whole…driving thing.

Thank GOD she’s ok though, she’s a tough cookie.

Anyway, word around the campfire is there is some type of conference for all public english teacher’s to learn about the Korean culture’s work place. Here’s a snap shot of my work place:

4 teacher’s: all on ebay....co-teacher: reading a book...me: blogging

I wonder what’s gonna happen? Either way, I’ve gotta work 4 days out of 2 months, that’s not too bad. Not to mention, I’d love to learn about what I’m supposed to do. Really, what AM I supposed to do…haha. I don’t lesson plan. I've actually gotten yelled at for trying to get ahold of the CD we use. Homegirl told me to 'finally relax' ....haha. I allow my co-teacher’s to teach their class, I’m their co-teacher…they’re not mine.

Anyway, so homeboy (k-won) just told me a story about his honnymoon…christmas 2004. He was supposed to go to Bali, instead he went to Vietnam because something came up at the last minute – didn’t tell his family.

Remember what happened Dec. 26^th, 2004??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

…woah

Saturday, Dec. 5^th

So it is time to show you around Mokpo. A few friends of mine and I went to “Peace Park” but must be said as “piss park” in order for the taxi drivers to understand ya. Freaking snowing, SNOWING, when we got there…and about 17.84 mph winds.

I had a wind-o-meter on me…I take it everywhere.

Then, it was time to show these rookies Moes and Noribong. Baha, Noribong is kareoke Korean style as you should WELL know by now. Its WAY too much fun. (there’s a fly on my screen – its massive…)

Then we grabbed some dunkas (fried pork with cheese in the middle) and it was off to Moes...

then it was time to teach about Noribong - karaoke, Korean style.

you get your own room, and a free bucket of 'fries'...actually, not bad

adam had lots of fun...

Anyway, noribong was great. Noribong is a collection of great hits done by...myself. such as….

My girl, bohemian rhapsody, walk this way, hey jude, piano man and i was actually…living on a prayer. (haha, get it) I’m sure I lost my voice at some point during THAT song….hah

Sunday Dec. 6^th

Wow UT…really? Only by a point?!?

Hey Jude

That's me and Plan (p.laaaaaan)
He's a goofy guy, he's the music teacher

Monday Nov. 15

8:30 a.m.
Damn its cold. I wore under armor underneth my 3 piece suit today. Don’t judge, I can’t feel my fingers as I type. Under armor is the stuff that football players wear when its cold. I know im no football player, but damn its cold, and I don’t wanna be cold. So…HA. It’s a bit of a tool thing to do to wear under armor…but then again I’ve got a black shirt with really dark black pokadots. It’s the only black dress shirt available in asia, seriously, I checked.

So…umm, is Korea making me soft?

Fantastic weekend though, gotta say…I met my neighbor Joel, really good guy…very interested in what I’ve got to say. He cooked some bbq, which was FANTASTIC!

8:37 a.m.

I’m supposed to teach with homegirl all week but homeboy just let me know that I’ve gotta teach his two classes after I teach with homegirl. So, 6 classes. 4 with fifth graders and 2 with 6th graders. Yeee hawwww!!!

So funny story from this weekend, I hopped a cab from my apt to Moes and the cab driver started speaking english to me…kinda went like this….

Me: New York Bahhh (bar, but the ‘r’ is a bit weird here)
Cab driver: Sounds good man
Me: Uh, you know English?
Cab driver: ohh, very little
Me: Nice, you’re very good
Cab driver: thanks! (then he turns up the music)
Radio: …don’t make it bad, you can take a sad song and make it better. Remember to
Cab driver: LET HER INTO YOUR HEART
Me: to make it better, better better BETTER BETTER BETTER WAAAAA
Cab driver: naaaa, NAH NAH NAH NAN NAN NAAHHHH NAHHH
(THEN the radio cuts off, at the best part of anysong in the history of ever, didn’t stop mr cabbie though, he kept jamming out. Show must go on guys!! )
Cabbie: NANANAHHHHHH HEYYYYY LOOOOOODDDEEEEEEE
Me: Dude, uh…its Jude.
Cabbie: HEY LODE LOODE LOOODDDIEE LODDIE LOOODIE
Me: Uh, we’ll go with it…

Then it we pulled up to Moes as about 12 of my friends were watching us just, make a complete ass out of ourselvs. It was AWESOME!

10:44 a.m.

ANNNNYWAY, little Jason has a brother. Jason is a 3rd grader from San Francisco and his brother is Jordan. They look A LOT alike!!! Apparently Jordan doesn’t like being called Jason. Haha, whoops.

Jordan says to me: dude, you’re from texas but you don’t have an accent. I explained the differences between ‘cool’ texas and…well the rest of texas. You should know what I mean. Jordan’s a 6th grader with a bit of a chip on his shoulder about learning english…wonder why?

9:48 p.m.

The Dallas Cowboys suck. Ugh.

Tuesday Nov. 16th

8:32 a.m.
I just got a big pat on the back from my principal. Literlly, he smacked me on my back…a bit harder than I would have expected. I got here like 5 minutes ago and I pulled up a psyche article I’ve been reading. I’m at that point with all the graphs and stuff. The stuff I usually skip over (no one understands it, really)…and principal man goes: you work very hard, I like this. Smack!!!

Honestly, it kinda hurt.

11:01 a.m.
Thank god no ‘thatta boy’ from the prinicpal. Got one of those from an old lady and a collegue of mine. Big test today for all my kids…so I’m done at 11. Hm. Now what?

Wednesday Nov. 17th

8:48 a.m.
So, big trip planned for sometime today. No idea where, or with who, or when or…well a majority of the: who, what, when, why, how…haha, oh how I love Korea. Seriously its awesome.

1:47
Ahhh dankas. Gooooooood stuff. Man dude for real its this deep fried steak (pork), cheese in the middle. Covered in ‘bar-b-que’ sauce. Num. freaking. NUMS!!!!

Friday, November 20

2 months ago, I was supposed to leave for Mokpo. I remember sitting at Sean Patricks drinking a Ziegen Bock thinking: SHANE CALL ME!!!!!!!!!

Sigh, all is well.

Anyway, I’ve got the morning off then I’ve got 3 classes of third graders. Little munchinks who are SO SCARED of talking to me. I feel so bad. They talk REAL loud in groups, especially when I say…what?!? But one on one, they’re just intimidated. As any 3rd grader, in any culture. Would be talking to a foreinger, using their language.

Anyway, its time to teach…But I’ll leave ya with this: North Korea has reported NO cases of Swine Flu.

…hmmmm I wonder why?!?

I shall also show you around my apartment:

...my (dirty) kitchen

ya walk in, around a fridge to the....

couch...then

hop in your un-made bed (who makes beds anymore?!?)

Its time for an update

There's Hunni (aka homegirl), me and the gym teacher (no clue what his name is)

Wednesday 11-4

I taught alone today….it was uh…interesting. The co-teacher bailed on me half-way through the first class, so…I was alone…like ALONE alone. 30 korean kids, 4 times in a day….and just me. Not like last time alone. Like, the REAL definition ….of alone. I was a little weirded out by the whole thing. I guess I never realized that the kids would take me so seriously. When I talk. They stop. It was weird. Its all good, I've got my random stuff from home like my trusty cowboy woody:

it wasn't til recently that i found out i accidentally bought a doll of my good friend Josh....

its UNCANNY

...annnnyway

Theres this teacher here, she hahah, shes got this 2nd grader. Shes about, 6, I think. She always walks with her mamma to school and everytime they pass me on the way, the teacher asks her daughter to say hello. So I bend down and say: Hiiiii

Little girl: ….teeee heee
Me: hiiii
Little girl: …..tee heee hee
Me: good morning
Little girl: hello michael(r) teacher.

Friday 11-6

Uh, yeah, taught some english. Ate some great food. Got on Dallascowboys.com.....then facebook....That’s my day.

I just got a guitar though

I've named her Tracy. I don't know why...


Monday 11-9

Pardon the lack of bloggage, but there hasn’t really been anything going on. I’ve had a great weekend, with all my Canadian/British buds. Met a girl from Seguin on Friday, we spent most of the night making fun of Seguin. It’s a small freaking world. Seriously, like 92.55% of the foreigner’s here are from Canada. Remember, from just outside Toronto. Not, toronto.

…ey

(that's Neil..the tall one - he's from canada, tricks everyone, and Joe...good guys)

Anyway, the kids go to school from 9 AM til 2 PM with us. Then they’re off to private academy’s to learn whatever. Math academy, English academy, Karate…whatever. They’re there til like 10 PM!!! Poor 5th graders have 13 hr days, and like 5 hrs sleep. Poor kiddos!

Tuesday 11-10

Well yesterday was quite productive, taught 4 classes of energetic, borderline crazy 4th graders. They’re fun though!!!! Funny moment in class when we were going over “sorry, I can’t.” Homeboy (just found out how to say his name…Kwon…pretty easy :-\...) anyway, K - won and I were going over “sorry I can’t” and he was playing a song that is still stuck in my head. I was kinda out of it all day, and wasn’t really ‘paying attention’ (air quote!!)…and, uh…yeah…He goes: mike….mike ….mike ….mike, can you pronounce this?

Its not good for the teacher to have a.d.d

Wednesday 11-11

11:44 a.m.
Haha, whoops on yesterday. Happy vet’s day!! Great lunch today, I was supposed to teach 6 times today – it changed to 2 classes this morning. Homie’s gotta go to a wedding…(who has a wedding on Wednesday???)

5:55 p.m.
Ahhh, just got my hair cut at the E-mart (I think it stands for everything mart…haha) Old korean lady shaved my head and washed my hair for me. Rubbed my ears and used a que-tip to dry off my ears. It was kinda odd, “I’m like dwoode, hows a towel ay?”

I just said (typed) ay – I gotta stop hanging out with canadains…next thing I know I’ll be loving hockey and afraid of the dark…haha

Thursday 11-12

Quick week so far, all the sudden its Thursday. Taught a few kids the ‘rock on’ sign, similar to that of the longhorn. In case you don’t know….. Again, phenominal lunch today!! Good gravy that’s like, the second best part of my day. For. Real.

The best is when I get to teach one-on-one with the munchins. Theres this left-tackle kid in one of my classes. I’m sure I’ve mentioned him before. Who is he?!? Well I’m glad you asked…

About 11, maybe 12. 5 ft. 7in. 160 to 190 lbs. Dude, is, massive. He’s got a very, like ganster – laurence fishburn voice….and I call him left-tackle because one day…he WILL play left tackle for UT.

Anyway, he’s having a hard time with this lesson and I love it when I can teach him one-on-one and he finally gets it. It’s a pretty cool feeling. Then (as reinforcment) we always ‘fist-bump’ or as fox news called it…’terrorist bump’ (air quote!!) when he gets something right. I finally taught him to blow it up…going….

…boooooomahhhh (not a fart sound…you know what it sounds like…whatever)

Friday 11-13

9:12 a.m.
Lucky 13, I’ve got the morning off then its 4 classes. I had plans to go to Seoul this weekend but they fell through, we’re gonna try again next weekend. Stupid rain. I handed in my man card at a convient mart when I bought an umbrella. Its for my backpack that I carry my computer in. Seriously, Korea’s making me soft.

12:50 p.m.
So, apparently no more teaching today. Rock on. Wow.

Everest

...well not quite, i'm in short sleeves.

Its a monk house! apparently monks drive TINY little trucks, haha

Mk, so we'll start here. So this is the mountain that i climbed. This is what it looked like from all the stuff you've seen thus far. Its saturday morning around 9:00 and i realize my power has gone out and I've gotta get to the bus station by 9. Crap.


Haha, its no worries as my canadian friends waited for me, and we ended up leaving Mokpo for Hanam around 10. Hanam is about an hour south, on a bus that cost 5 bucks.

We walked around in Hanam and finally found the bus, then walked 20 minutes to...

[ pass this ]

...and that

INTO THIS!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKZQXnmbCxk

(play this song in the background while ya look at the pics)

THEN, we stared hiking. Ended up being quite a hike. about 2 and a half hours of a 40% grade. But, as you can see, the pics were worth it.

Man, even looking at it now, I'm still blown away. I can't even describe it, sorry for no words to go with the pics, but, I've got nothing.

I am at a coffee shop around the corner from my place and about 3 fire trucks just drove past...hm, did i leave the gas on???

If I’m going to a bar, am I coming to a bar too? Am I going or coming? Man this language is crazy!!!

The old downtown in Mokpo

10-21-09 12:23 p.m.

So, this will be a two-day span worth of bloggage. Tomorrow’s the first day that I teach alone – 4 classes of 5th graders with the same lesson. I’ll do that once every 2 weeks….Maybe. Again, no idea! The lesson’s consist of 4 parts, and the 4th part of the lesson I’m supposed to teach alone. Every class is on a different part of the lecture – so I have no clue when I teach alone. Good times. I’m on that tomorrow…

Seriously nothing interesting happened in the last few days, hence the lack of bloggage.

10-22-09 8:50 am.

So, in 10 minutes I’ll be teaching 30 of 5th grade Korean kids how to speak english alone…alone, alone. Like no co-teacher there for any type of classroom management. So, we’ll see how this goes. 4 classes of 5th graders from 9 til noon. 40 minute classes…no Korean teacher back up. Its all on me. Hm, I’ve been told it’s a little odd that co-teachers don’t come to class – but its not uncommon. They do..do it, and its kind of part of the whole Korean experience.

9:44 a.m

OH thank god for hangman. FLEW through the lesson today – it was the school’s lesson book they gave me and it didn’t take 40 minutes. It took 20. So for like 15 minutes we played hangman…good times. Then we played “whats this” with my body. Don’t be dirty, it turned into head…shoulds back and toes BACK AND TOES…I don’t think I have that right. Google just told me its, KNEES and toes…haha…whoops :-\

The kids schooled me on my hangman ideas. For real, they were really good!

3 more classes today, hopefully home girl will join me in the classes as she just did. Its nice to have her around to speak Korean if the kids get all nuts. She just sits there and watches but, she’ll yell at students in Korean if that’s needed…or explain the directions I just gave.

10:47 a.m. (dramatic music)

Whoooooo – damn these kids are good at hangman. Serioulsy here was my phrase: “ I sat down on my couch in my living room, put my feet up and relaxed.” THEY’RE FIFTH GRADERS FROM KOREA!!! Ugh, they’re going down next class – for real!!!

12:28 p.m.

Sigh, theres a little girl that looks identical to a friend of mine from San Marcos, Yere. I call her ‘yere’ and she is very confused to why…I would do this. I need to stop, lets be honest. Hah, I’ll just give her this american name…that way there’s no confusion. HA! Take that!

Anyway, again nothing all that eventful happened today. I got my rent bill today and an internet bill. Its all in thousands so my bill was 430,000 won, so around $430 for rent – the school picks that up. The internet bill was 7800 won so its like…$7.80? I’m not sure if that’s right, I’m sure it will go up next month.

I’ve got one more class today at 1:30 and uh, that’s….thats, that. I’ve got nothing interesting to say today. Sorry, no anologies or anything fun. Just hangman and Koreans. Good times!

Little idea of the economy over here:

Kia Motors top of the line car: 22, 480, 000 --- that’s 22, 480. It’s a nice freaking car!
Dinner: 9,000 won for two to eat at this place around the corner. $9 bucks
Coffee: 2500 for a Medium Americano (american style sizes) $2.50
Beer: 2,000 for a half pint – 2 bucks, that’s kinda cheap. Its $5000 for a full pint
Cabs: 2300 start, then it goes to around 2800 or 3000 for a ride to school. (3 bucks ride!)
Electric Bill: 17,694…$17.69 (woah)
Water Bill: 7,289…$7.28 (that’s normal I think for a one bedroom) oh and I shower…THANKS
2 liter coke (yeah that’s right Favra): 1000 won…that’s a dollar for 2 liters…!

2:05 p.m.

Dude, my freaking phrase for hangman was: “I like to relax when I get off work at my house on my couch. Then I like to go into the front yard and play football.” They got it in 5 minutes. Do they really need me????

Anyway, if nothing very cool happens in the next few hours…cheers!!!

9:47 p.m.

Just got back from Moes – the bartenders (two sisters) there said I look like eminem…

...thats the owner, shes MARRIED to a guy named Mike and she gets us confused apparently. Haha, shes awesome though. We all love her!

The day I ATTEMPT, to get a cell phone.

9:19 a.m.

Last night was good, met a bunch of foreigner’s from Canada. They were giving me shit for saying: where ya’ll going right now? They were like…ya’ll?!? Then of course, they were like…the pasta is amazing here! But they said, paaaaahhhhsta. Bah, haha, haha.

So bad

Anyway, I’m supposed to teach with homegirl today but no idea (as always). I asked her if we teach at 9:40 (like it says on the schedule) and she goes…no "you teach with you’re 재외동포 (homeboy) teacher today!" I’m like…he told me that I teach with you today…48 seconds later (serioulsy counted) she goes…ohhhh, I see!!!!

Hows a bit of a Korean lesson?
An-yong-say-o = hello!
Amm-sam-ne-dah = thank you!

If you say it really fast, it sounds like Korean. Just be sure to say it realllllly fast. Haha

She’s so nice, I’m hoping we can try to get a cell phone today. I’ve got my alien card and everything. Its kinda weird, it has a picture of Will Smith from Independence Day on it…just kidddddinnnnnnggggg.

"...now thats what i call a close encounter"

I just found out the way the coffee situation works over here. What cha do, is heat up water in this little thingey. Like a pitcher that has a hot plate on the bottom, and ya hit a button and it boils the water in like 20 seconds. Its pretty cool to be honest. Then ya just make instant coffee, that’s not too bad.

I’ve got one at my apartment, but I’m not sure if it’s the same kinda. Judy from ‘Nebraska’ left it for me. You didn’t forget to ‘air quote’ did ya?

Just talked with homegirl and we’re supposed to try to get a cellular today. The Education Ministry keeps wanting my cell number, and I try to give them my email. I honestly think skype will suffice for a qhile, but…its kinda annoying when ya wanna call someone at a bar.

Apparently we’re teaching in 3 minutes? Seriously, I guess I may just be anal about time. But, its nice to know when something (or if) its gonna happen.

10:45 a.m.

Oh, it happened. Its gonna be nice to be here and not worry about time…all the time. According to Canadian Connection’s book thing, apparently time just doesn’t exist to Koreans. Its not a biggie to be late – to anything, ever! 2 more classes, then lunch, then cell phone (that I leave early for work for…makes me feel shady)

11:33 a.m.

Was it Law and Order that did the dramatic music when they showed the time?? I’m gonna have to figure out how to put in some sort of dramatic piano riff each time you guys see the time. Anyway, the first class I taught today was on freaking CRACK, and SPEED, and like 1000000 cups of coffee.

Second class…not so much. They were more like on…valium

So co-teacher lady says, you guys look very tired!!! I’m like, yeah like they were drugged last class. So, its our job to wake their punk asses UP! Haha, naw I kid I kid, I’m not a mean teacher. I’m just…energetic…I guess. We did a chant and I got them all clapping and singing (yelling really) and going crazy. By the end, I swear they were on crack!

One more class at 11:40, then its time for lunch. Freaking excited, as I am everyday. But, I’m supposed to go waterskiing this weekend, but things typically fall through when this particular group of canadians get together. Weird stuff always happens to them apparently, they tried last weekend but their boat they were gonna get ran out of gas in the harbor and never made it to the place where they were gonna go.

Maybe a little American juju will bring good luck to them!

Anyway, I’ve underestimated the power of facebook. Its pretty crazy how easy it is to get ahold of people here via facebook. Its how I meet up with everyone or how I get phone numbers to skype them. Its pretty awesome.

12:23 p.m.

So that class was on…crack, speed, heroin, hyper crazy pills, and caffeine. Those kids are CRAZY, same class that asked me what happens if ya say f*ck you to Obama. Haha, they’re fun though.

Sigh, its weekend time now (that’s how co-teacher lady says it)…its pretty funny.

I just got on my buddy’s facebook, he’s gay, and he’s got this quote that says…

“Homosexuality is a disease….let’s all call in sick tomorrow…”
“Hello, Pizza Hut”
“Hey man, I’m still sick!”
“Ah, still queer?”
“Yep, still queer”

Haha, I’m sure the younger crowd reading would appreciate that more. Sigh, good times.

3:28 p.m.

Yep, just haning out at schoorrrr. Glad I didn’t forget about lunch today…that’d been lame. Anyway, I’ve got nothing today, other than…

Yeah nothing…

Cheers from Mokpo!!!

Laughter and a smile...is understood in every language

(we'll get to this later)

8:02 a.m.

Although it could be nervous laughter, like ‘thats not a good thing’ laughter…or, like.."i dont understand you, mike" the worst, ‘fill the silence’ laughter.

hah…

I got to school around 8…found out about a staff meeting through gmail last night. It’s at 8:15, and I’m just waiting around for it to start. Its kinda a bit like this…

서비스 약관 · 지적재산권 구제센터 · 스팸 가이드라인 · 개인정보취급방침 · 청소년보호정책 · 보안센터 · 이메일 무단수집거부 · 고객센터 스팸 가이드라인 · 개인정보취급방침인 · 개인정보취급방침 · 청소년보호정책 · 보안센터 · 이메일 무단수집거부 · 고객센터 스팸 가이드라인 · 개인정보취급방침

인 · 개인정보취급방침 · 청소년보호정책 · 보안센터 · 이메일 무단수집거부 · 고객센터 스팸 가이드라인 · 개인정보취급방침

인 · 개인정보취급방침 · 청소년보호정책 · 보안센터 · 이메일 무단수집거부 · 고객센터 스팸 가이드라인 · 개인정보취급인 · 개인정보취급방침 · 청소년보호정책 · 보안센터 · 이메일 무단수집거부 · 고객센터 스팸 가이드라인 ·인 · 개인정보취급방침 · 청소년보호정책 · 보안센터 · 이메일 무단수집거부 · 고객센터 스팸 가이드라인 · 개인정보취급방침
개인정보취급방침
방침

(for about a half hour)

Its pretty funny for me cause I can KINDA tell whats going on based off their expressions. Like when they’re getting their asses chewed, or when just one teacher is getting their ass chewed. Or when they’re having a SERIOUS talk about swine flu…haha, its just a flu guys…come on!

Anyway, theres some little kid in here, who’s from America apparently. He was born there, he can speak a lot better english than my co-teachers, and lady co-teacher’s talking to him…haha listen (read) this…

Lady co-teacher: your….voice is...kind of…uh…how you say
Little kid: a little quiet?
Lady co-teacher: yes….it need…it needs…to be a more…loud
Little kid: ok, got it
Lady co-teacher: Now we have some sort of, audition, can you…(points to the door)
Little kid: go outside, and audition?

The little kid was speaking in normal pace english, but home girl is talking reallllly slow. Its interesting, honestly, just interesting that this little kid is fluent in both Korean and English, he’s good!

Dude I may give my co-teacher’s a hard time about not knowing the english language that well, but they are GOOD teachers. I mean that, they really are. They are so nice too, so accomadating. They’ll go out of their way for me, and act as if its nothing. That’s kinda the norm here.

Crap, 8:14 now…gotta go to this meeting!!

8:17 a.m.

Soooooo…I didn’t have to go…haha, I guess I don’t understand it anyway so….? I don’t teach til 9 today so I’ve got some time to kill. Met up with a canadian named Joe last night, had a few beers and talked sports. He’s a huge maple leafs fan…that’s baseball right. JUST KIDDING!

Anyway, I just got an email from the director of the Sports Psychology program at Florida State. I asked him what’s a ‘guarantee’ score is for admittance on the GRE. He said, 1150 is avg…1200 is high.

So, 1 billion it is!!! God that’s a hard test. I’ve got til June to apply, so all sorts of time.

12:45 p.m.

Mother of GOD that lunch was good!!!! I love the lunches here, they’re so freaking good. I can’t even describe what it was, its too hard…I’ll have to snap a picture of it one day. Two things I can’t get pass here…the food, and the nice-ness of the people.

Class was class, I recorded me teaching for JB and Sandy…and I’ll have to figure out a way to put it on here. Few pretty funny recordings! I’ll TRY to email a few of them, doubt it will work though. I’m working with a stupid program.

2:59 p.m.

I’m looking up GRE stuff…man, this is lame, who cares about analogies?!? Stupid test…

All the teacher’s here got mcdonalds from some parent, they MADE me have a big mac…wouldn’t let me say no. After that lunch it was tough to get down!

3:39 p.m.

I just got stopped by two 5th grader kids…they go: awww I want to go to the english speaking contest!!!

Lady co-teacher and I had to choose the best english speaker. She and I chose the dude from America. As, he’s fluent. ;). Well, not ‘fluent’ just can pronuciate very well, doesn’t have a very good vocab though. But that’s where I come in

I’m taking to these kids and I say: …

Me: well I’m sorry, but we already chose who’s going to speak. I’m sorry!!!!
She goes: but I want to go tomorrow!!! (all whiney…WHINEY)
Me: I’ll go ask if ya can!!
(They wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom for like 10 minutes. Just saying how bad they wanted to go…it was kinda funny. But I really had to pee!!! So they didn’t follow me into the bathroom and lady co-teacher said they can go to the contest and watch) THANK GOD I GOT TO PEE!!!

I’ve got BIG plans tonight, haha, nah not really. Just run over to a place called KTX and grab some coffee with some non-korean people. Lots of canadians, few americans and ….one tiny little british guy. In the spirit of the productivity today and the GRE…we’ll do an anology!!!

TINY LITTLE BRITISH GUY : FACETIOUS

A) KOREA : HORRIBLE FOOD
B) HOT & TALL GYM TEACHER : DATEABLE
C) GRE : STUPID
D) CANADIANS : AUSTIN-ITES
E) PEE WHEN YOU LAUGH REALLY, REALLY HARD: MY MOTHER


Now, for a recap of today’s lesson. Lets find out the answer to this anaology! Let’s face it, the term ‘tiny little british guy’ is quite amusing. Leading us to believe…

1) its HORRIBLE to think that because this guy is like 5 ft, very scronny and who always wears a top hat… its funny to use this term ‘tiny little british guy’
2) He is quite the character and can very easily pull off the top hat, ‘oh me lucky charms’
3) I am treaing a quite serious height issue (that I also suffer from) with inappropriate and deliberate humor…(i.e facetious)
4) Therefore, this is a ‘true, true’ anaology.

A…KOREA : HORRIBLE FOOD can’t be right…as the food is AMAZING!!! SERIOUSLY EVEN THE FREAKING BIG MACS ARE AWESOME. I’m not sure if it was beef in there, but the market across the street has dead cows hanging in their stores…hm. HANGING!!! I wanted to go in there and start punching them though…pull a Rocky!

B…GYM TEACHER : DATEABLE could be right. But she doesn’t speak english in case you didn’t recall. So therefore, she is (granted) freaking HOT, but not ‘dateable’ as she doesn’t fulfill my newest ‘number one’ on my long list of attributes MUST be fulfiled before any type of ‘relationship status’ change occurs.

(be sure to air quote whenever I use quotes, its an interactive blog!) If you don’t know what air quoting is, simply visit any of John McCain’s speechs during his election campaign. You’re sure to see a few…(see top picture ;) )

C…GRE : STUPID could be right…while I do (personally) agree that it is border line audacious to judge someone based off ONE test ONE time, (just like our old friend the SAT does) it will save those of us with 2.71 last 60 hr. GPA’s…only .29 pts away from minimum requirements at most graduate schools. Remember college algebra?!? Yeah has no impact, 2.71 last ‘60 hr’ GPA. Meaning since Cant.terbury last year…

…remember the air quotes…pull a McCain!

D…CANADIANS : AUSTINITES could be right. They are quite similar but not a simple, true-true answer. (I mean that, they’re pretty damn cool people) The right answer is therefore… E!!!!

E… PEE WHEN YOU LAUGH REALLY, REALLY HARD : MY MOTHER. This is the exact RIGHT answer. This is a PERFECT, ‘true-true’ relationship. Granted doesn’t happen EVERY time, but it is a goal of Cori and I’s. Be it throwing pens at her butt, or (hopefully) by the time she’s finished reading one of these blogs she says…

…wait, wait…wait, wait,…WAIT-AH…oh I gotta go to the bathroom!!! AHHHH!!!



BAHAHAHAHAHA, what a good session class. Haha, I guess I’ve got teaching (and a bit of alcohol from last night) in my blood!

Dude there is a kid in one of my classes that looks EXACTLY like the little kid from Indiana Jones!!!

4:05 p.m.

Anyway (needless to say), I’m not going to promise that’s the last anology we’ll do. I’m still just hanging out, found a vitimin water around the corner at the store. (not on the street). The Koreans pronounce it just like the British do…I’ll do my best to type it out phonetically, but, whoo…

Vit.ah.men. I guess. Cori will know how to pronounce it, Thanks BEAR GRYLSS!!!

Anyway, weird the Korean’s do that eh? Apparently the last native speaker that was here, Judy…lives in ‘Nebraska.’ (AIR QUOTE!!!) She’s originally from England so, there are a few funny nuances between the dialects.

I wondered why my co-teacher said the word (and I quote)…in a korean accent. oh, chappy. It took me all week to realize that she didn’t say cRappy.

By the way, hopefully you stuck with me and ‘air quoted’ on the ‘Nebraska.’ The reason we ‘air quote’ on ‘Nebraska’ is due to the fact that its ‘Nebraska.’ A small state north of Texas and south of Canada, filled with nothing to do. Except watch a sub-par college football team, or visit one of the many corn fields around. Maybe even drive down a road for 3 and a half hours and not make a turn. That’s why we ‘air quote’ ‘Nebraska.’

Haha, whats my deal with ‘Nebraska,’ never been. Why did this vit.ah.men water change into nebraska-hater-ade

4:12 p.m.

AAAAAAAAAANYWAY. So its like 4:13 right now. Took me a minute to write that…really did. I’ve gotten a kick out of myself today. I’ve been oddly productive this week. For real…read like 3 psyche articles (the long ass ones from Texas State’s database). I’ve studied for the GRE, I’ve talked to many of professors from Grad Schools and taught 11 classes! Also, showed the co-teacher’s Jason Mraz’s REAL music, not just “I’m yours”

…she loves that song (youtube it. he does a GREAT version in Korea, its really good, the ending’s pretty funny)

Last time I heard “I’m your’s” I was driving around San Marcos, hot as hell…no gas…no time…stuck on aquarena with some POS Izuzu ahead of me going like 10 mph…Damn you 94.7…damn you

Which brings us to a debacle, do we air quote on “I’m yours?!??”

Nay, we simply read through and do not interact as, “”’s are used for conversations…or song titles. Yes, it’s the English language according to mikey…!

Mwahahahah, TAKE THAT ‘OXFORD’ (air quote, air quote for the whole experience)

Anyway, yes, uh, co-teachers learned about Jason Mraz on youtube. Dude, for real…look it up he’s pretty freaking awesome. All his mainstream songs he does good randitions of.

…why did I just go Yoda on that?

I’ve also met a BUNCH of foreigner’s, paid for it in the morning. Seriously I go to bed around 10, 10:30 everynight. Get up at 6. I’m a working man, MAN!!! And old apparently, who goes to bed that early and is dead all day?

Ah, its time to leave you now. I apologize for the length of this. But the length is always a ‘function’ of the amount of classes I teach each day. I leave you with something to consider…

Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet soup?

...cheers from mokpo!