I've been watching Korean TV lately, it's a mild distraction. For the most part I cannot watch many of the channels due to the lack of my Korean, however there are some channels that I am able to watch due to the frequent American films and tv shows. TV is similar to American TV in that there is an obscene number of commericals, however they are in a rather different pattern. In America there are frequent breaks and a fair number of adverts. In Korea however, there are fewer breaks but an obscene number of commericals. It is easier to avoid them though, because I can generally guess roughly how long they would last. But something that is a little odd is that the adverts that they show are only of a limmited number. They will just show the same ones over and over during a single break. I remember the first time I left the TV on as I did other things, the same one commerical must have run at least 8 times and a few of those times one after another. That particular break must have been 20 minutes in total. Painful if one were to sit through many of them.
I have also noticed that when showing American TV shows a channel will show the episodes one after another until the series is complete and then continue again. This can go on for a few weeks, before they will switch to another show. This is fairly common place for old shows on cable channels both in the UK and the US, however in Korea they will even do this with new shows which I find rather odd. Plus they will show no repeats in between in case one missed an episode. One must instead wait for the next cycle to see the episode.
Of cousre I am not forced to only watch Korean TV, I have my computer and therefore have access to the massive databases that the internet holds. But the few channels I can watch on TV are a worthwhile stand-by, that is once you get past the adverts that quickly become very annoying due to the frequency of their showing.
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Diet
It's not a suprise that my diet has changed while I have been living in Korea. However, because I cook most of my meals myself I am not fully enveloped in the standard Korean diet. However due to a lack of basic ingredients my diet is rather restricted. Generally during the school year my diet is mainly rice and fish at school and then a mix of rice, potatoes and the odd scrap of meat at home. I realised recently, while it has been the summer holidays that I generally I am maybe eating meat once a wek when I go and meet up with friends, but otherwise the meat I can get a hold of to eat in cooking, is either not worth it or far too expensive. Another problem with meat is that, that which you can get at resteraunts is fairly fatty. There are very few good cuts of meat out there and those that do exist will cost you the earth to buy. For the most part I get my protien these days from tuna (I cannot find a great deal of choice with fish that I would actually like to eat) and what they call cheese here (which basically amounts to the most plastic like cheese you can think of).
While I have been in Korea I have successfully put weight on, this is counter to what I prefer. I have come to the conclusion that my weight gain is mainly due to the fact that I live in such a boring place with little to no friends. This makes it rather easy to turn to foid as a means of enjoyment. Also I fail to get regular exercise, it is especially difficult to motivate ones self to do so when the temperature is so high and humid. I have atempted to change my diet of late to cut out some of the bad stuff and not to over eat. Hopefully by adjusting my diet I can cut down some of the weight I have gained. Most likely it will be a slow process, but if I can just keep my mind on it I should be able to bring my weight down and maybe I'll even be able to motivate myself into propper exercise when the temperature comes down a little.
While I have been in Korea I have successfully put weight on, this is counter to what I prefer. I have come to the conclusion that my weight gain is mainly due to the fact that I live in such a boring place with little to no friends. This makes it rather easy to turn to foid as a means of enjoyment. Also I fail to get regular exercise, it is especially difficult to motivate ones self to do so when the temperature is so high and humid. I have atempted to change my diet of late to cut out some of the bad stuff and not to over eat. Hopefully by adjusting my diet I can cut down some of the weight I have gained. Most likely it will be a slow process, but if I can just keep my mind on it I should be able to bring my weight down and maybe I'll even be able to motivate myself into propper exercise when the temperature comes down a little.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Long Walk in Ulsan
I went to Ulsan on Friday to see Jake, before he goes back to the US. I had more time since I had some holiday. I arrived mid afternoon, but I arrived to an empty flat which was a little odd. He had given me the access code, but it was just me in the flat until about 9pm that night when he and his girlfriend finished work. Before he got back I just spent some time exploring the area and only a small time on my laptop, since it over-heated too well at his flat. Once he did arrive we went out his friend's resteraunt. The guy who owned the resteraunt was a 60 odd year old Korean with a fair level of English. Jake supplied the whisky and the guy supplied the food. It was good food too. I don't eat out all that much in Korea, but this was right ot my tastes. So the food was good, the drink was alright and the conversation was good. After that we went to a Norebang and I proved what a terrible singer I was once again. Just as ever I did only enough songs so I could escape. Jake seems to like singing, he's...well, not good, but very serious about it and the other guy was actually alright. Chana, Jake's girlfirend, had no intention of singing and succeeded in not doing so.
We went back to his place, but after coming to a conclusion that there was little to do there we decided to go down to the beach. It was already 3am but I though waht the hey, I'm on holiday. So when we arrived we played a couple of the carnival sort of games. Hit the batting cage, hit the punch bags, played a couple of hoops. It was pretty fun, but I messed up my last punch and bruised my knuckes. Then we headed down to the beach. Jake had come to the conclusion that he would be far too hung over to do anything the next day, so if there was anything we wanted to do, we may as well do it now. So we headed over to a rock formartion on the coast, it was pretty nice, but odd making out way over in the dark. By the time we were heading back the sun had risen over the sea. People were arriving to see the rocks, even at 5am! Koreans.
To get back to Jake's we needed to take a taxi, but I decided it would be good to walk back. Jake agreed, however he wanted us to drink as we did so, not really my choice. I was done with drinking. He brought along some Soju...bleugh. The walk back ,ust have taken us about 3 hours, we got some food on the way back. It was really good though, I got some exercise and I got to see the city at it's best as far as I'm concerned. People were heading to their work places in the huge industrial buildings in huge numbers and the city was otherwise quiet, but waking up. I enjoyed the walk, Jake seemed to also, but he was propper drunk, no control over his motor skills.
Once back, I got about 5 hours sleep and then headed home later in the afternoon. Jake on the other hand was barely awake, I would not be suprised if he was not still hung over to some degree.
A side note - I had successfully messed up my right hand a bit, with that stray punch, but I also messed up my left hand a little too. This was done a little differently, I had opened the Whisky bottle early on in the night and the casing was basically sharp metal, so I scratched the crap out of my hand. It looks like I had a fight where I was fending off a rather small knife.
We went back to his place, but after coming to a conclusion that there was little to do there we decided to go down to the beach. It was already 3am but I though waht the hey, I'm on holiday. So when we arrived we played a couple of the carnival sort of games. Hit the batting cage, hit the punch bags, played a couple of hoops. It was pretty fun, but I messed up my last punch and bruised my knuckes. Then we headed down to the beach. Jake had come to the conclusion that he would be far too hung over to do anything the next day, so if there was anything we wanted to do, we may as well do it now. So we headed over to a rock formartion on the coast, it was pretty nice, but odd making out way over in the dark. By the time we were heading back the sun had risen over the sea. People were arriving to see the rocks, even at 5am! Koreans.
To get back to Jake's we needed to take a taxi, but I decided it would be good to walk back. Jake agreed, however he wanted us to drink as we did so, not really my choice. I was done with drinking. He brought along some Soju...bleugh. The walk back ,ust have taken us about 3 hours, we got some food on the way back. It was really good though, I got some exercise and I got to see the city at it's best as far as I'm concerned. People were heading to their work places in the huge industrial buildings in huge numbers and the city was otherwise quiet, but waking up. I enjoyed the walk, Jake seemed to also, but he was propper drunk, no control over his motor skills.
Once back, I got about 5 hours sleep and then headed home later in the afternoon. Jake on the other hand was barely awake, I would not be suprised if he was not still hung over to some degree.
A side note - I had successfully messed up my right hand a bit, with that stray punch, but I also messed up my left hand a little too. This was done a little differently, I had opened the Whisky bottle early on in the night and the casing was basically sharp metal, so I scratched the crap out of my hand. It looks like I had a fight where I was fending off a rather small knife.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Last Day of Term
Today was the last day of term. Therefore it meant most of my day consisted of desk warming. I was pretty sure that would be the outcome of the day really. I saked around to see if the day would end early, but I was assured that would not be the way of things. For the most part of the dayI get watched tv or read, etc. I had absolutely nothing I had to do, although I did also do a little bit of prep for summer and I cleaned my room. I played with the kids and that was about it. After lunch the teachers were all runnign around like headless chickens trying to finish everything before the very end of school.
So I just sat around and waited for the end of the day. However after a whilke I realised that it was super quiet. I went out into the corridoor to discover that everybody had left. I believe they had gone on that trip, but even so, they could have told me they were leaving. Anyway, it was about an hour before the propper end of the day, so I decided to cut my losses and just leave. There was one guy left, but if he had any objections he wouldn't be able to voice them, at least not in English. I wasn't doing anything bad really, I was just leaving an empty school where I had nothing to do.
So I just sat around and waited for the end of the day. However after a whilke I realised that it was super quiet. I went out into the corridoor to discover that everybody had left. I believe they had gone on that trip, but even so, they could have told me they were leaving. Anyway, it was about an hour before the propper end of the day, so I decided to cut my losses and just leave. There was one guy left, but if he had any objections he wouldn't be able to voice them, at least not in English. I wasn't doing anything bad really, I was just leaving an empty school where I had nothing to do.
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Someone tried to get into my flat!
It was fucking weird and scary. Last night I was soundly asleep, when heared what sounded like by door being banged by a heavy wind, I did not rouse initially, but the banging continued, so I got up. I went out the 'hallway' of my flat and I found that it was not the wind, but rather that someone was trying to unlock my door. I quickly came to the conclusion that this was someone who must be drunk and was attempting to gain access to my flat. I quickly tried to come up with a plan to deal with this, I was afraid that a drunk person could pose just as much a threat to me as someone attempting to burgularise my flat. Unfortunately my door does not have a spy hole, so I had to prepare to deal with an unknown. The best I could do was to grab a big knife and ready myself. I waited for a short while, hoping the person would leave. But no, they just tried over and over and over to access my door. Eventually they became more violent and begun to bang my door. So I decided it was about time I dealt with it. My body was coursing with adrenaline, so I was ready as I would ever be.
I shouted through the door in the most threatening voice and manner I could muster "What the FUCK are youd doin?" I don't know if it was a loud, angry froeigner or just threatening, but I heard footsteps leading away after I shouted. I left the footfalls continue before I peaked out. I recognised the sound of heels, so the attemptee was a woman. I deemed her far enough away, so I chanced a glance at this woman. She heard me open the door and her pace increased. She wanted to escape actual notice. She failed. I waited, but she did not leave the building, she simply went to the floor below and tried her luck on the door directly below.
I can only conclude that she does in fact live in this building, but she continued to struggle with the door below, before she finally either gave up or actually found her room. I returned to my room and the adrenaline rushed from my body, but it still took me a while to go to sleep.
This was not a pleasant experience, not by any means. I am of course glad that the event ended as it did, with no violence, but I would much prefer it to never have occurred in the first place.
I shouted through the door in the most threatening voice and manner I could muster "What the FUCK are youd doin?" I don't know if it was a loud, angry froeigner or just threatening, but I heard footsteps leading away after I shouted. I left the footfalls continue before I peaked out. I recognised the sound of heels, so the attemptee was a woman. I deemed her far enough away, so I chanced a glance at this woman. She heard me open the door and her pace increased. She wanted to escape actual notice. She failed. I waited, but she did not leave the building, she simply went to the floor below and tried her luck on the door directly below.
I can only conclude that she does in fact live in this building, but she continued to struggle with the door below, before she finally either gave up or actually found her room. I returned to my room and the adrenaline rushed from my body, but it still took me a while to go to sleep.
This was not a pleasant experience, not by any means. I am of course glad that the event ended as it did, with no violence, but I would much prefer it to never have occurred in the first place.
Saturday, 16 July 2011
This week
This week was the departure of Jeff. His departure menat that there would be one less whitey, therefore menaing that I am now representing one quater of the the English speaking foreignes in this town. He left on Tuesday so we (all the whiteys) met up to say a farewell to him on Monday. At first I was led to believe that we would be going out for a meal, which would then be followed by a couple of drinks. However he was delayed at work and such, so we did not in fact go out until 9pm. This was less than perfect for me. I generally have no interest in a late night when I have work the next day, but I thought I would make an exception this time. I kept a handle on the amount I was drinking unlike my companions, I could accept being tired at work, but not drunk or hungover. The night lasted until about 2 am, but it was follwed by almost an hourt of faffing about as I gathered various items from Jeff's place that he was otherwise going to be leaving behind. Although pretty tired when I got to bed that night, I was pretty happy. I had obtained a variety of cooking implements and dishes, but most importantly of all I had got my hands on a blender, which now allows me to make soup :-D
The next day at work was not very difficult at all, due to the fact that the students in the 6th grade were taking a country wide exams. So it was probably the perfect day to follow a late night. I only had the one class.
Thursday
Thursday was abysmal in the morning as ever. However rather than the standard crap that I have to go through with my co-teacher, it was a different ste of events. This would be our last class before the summer holiday, therefore she wanted to allow the kids to just play games and watch movies. I am by no means adverse to this. However having taught in my school for seven months I have finally got a feel of what the kids like generally. She had brought some word games for the kids to play, where they had to arrange scarbble like tiles into words. Now that's all well and good, but the kids I teach on a thirsday morning are generally, not able to do such activities. Also they have a tendency to lose focus easily (most probably because they never see any discipline). Therefore when she produced them for the first lesson, I knew they would go down like a lead balloon, but she never listens to me, so I didn't even try.
It took a good two minutes before they had scattered them all over the floor and another set had succesfully made a sort of mosaic, nice but completely missing the point. In an effort to regaing some control she then wrote a bunch of words up on the board, which the students could then recreate. However that move therefore removed the very point of giving them the letters, because they just copied the words and then gave up. They had no interest in it. Finally having given up on that she moved to have me put on a movie. I knew exactly what would happen next, they would indulge her for a short period and then the majority would get bored, while a small percentage tried in vain to hear the film over their companions acting out loudly.
It happened just as I had predicted. Now it may sound a little like I was just waiting for this to happen and had had no intent in averting it. However at the start of the day, she told me her intent...rather than ahead of time so I could properly prepare. But still I had a go I created some games that I know the kids would at least mildly enjoy and it would tug at their competetivness. Plus it would also still practise some English. Yet my ideas were shot down, by the 'all knowing all crap' co-teacher. Therefore rather than argue I just sat back and watched chaos ensue.
She actually made it worse though, perhaps 20 minutes into Harry Potter she decided that she didn't want to watch it and instead put on another film, that of course finally turned off the final behaving kids because they had been removed from the film they were actually trying to follow.
Well all of the above for Thursday occurred in just two lessons, that being with the 3rd grade. I still had another two more lessons to get through with her. These next lessons being with the 4th grade. There would be more kids to keep a handle of. I just hoped that she would at least have learnt from her mistakes in the first two lessons and leave her word game alone and just let me present the games I had put togetehr. However I was of course proven wrong.
She started by telling the kids there would be no lesson, which they all cheered to, then she brought out the word game, to which most students looked at blankly as if she had just told a big fat lie, because to them, no lesson means, no speaking English. So just as before the letters quickly dissappeared to the floor and the kids started to go psycotic. To try and restore order she went ot her back-up, a film. Yet for some reason she chose Harry Potter again, a film which we had already seen the beginning of and she had rejected part way through. At this point I entirely gave up on any for of logic making it's way into her head. So I just grabbed some Uno cards and went to the back of the room and try to attract as many of the kids who didn;t want to watch the film as I could. This worked ro some degree, those who wanted to watch the film could and those that didn't could play with me.
However this only successfully worked for half of the lesson and for the second half it descended into chaos and by this point I had sort of died inside and I just settled playing with the kids until the bell rang.
After school I brought in some ramen and icecream for my 6th graders so that we could just have something to eat, relax and talk. It is by far my favourite class and I am willing to shell out for something a bit different to sort of thank them for being my saving grace on a Thursday afternoon.
Friday
This day was fairly easy int he morning as it normally is, however the afternoon held a few suprises. The first being that my 5th graders actually turned up and in force. But of cousre they didn't actually want to do any work, but I saw it through.
No, thing that was a 'suprise' or so to speak and pissed me off was what my co-teacher had to say in the last minutes of my working day. I had packed up my room and locked up too. I was just about to leave to get my bus, when my standard co-teacher told me that there would be a staff trip on the following Tuesday and if I wanyed to come I would have to tell them there and then without any further knowledge. I deemed this ridiculous and bargained a day in which to consider it. So I left at that point, I had my shoes on and my foot out the door, when she caught up with me again and told me that I needed to let the school I would be doing my summer camp at know what I would need and what book I wanted use. Except that I should told them by yesterday. But because she had forgotten to tell me it was basically now my problem. So I left school in a fairly fould mood.
I, thankfully had already sorted out my summer camp problems, but the fact that she did not tell me until it was too late is the thing that pissed me off.
Saturday
It is Saturday now, I have not done a great deal today, but one thing I did do was come to a conclusion about whether I wanted to go on the staff trip. I have decided that I do not. Although I can just about stand a mela with my co-workers a full two days without any form of control in my life for that time. There are various factors that I had to weigh but my overall findings were that I would spend most of my time being ignored. Now I am not saying that I dislike the staff at all in fact they are generally very nice people. But I do not think it would be good for my netal health to suffer through two solid days of very little human interaction and any that was given to me would likely be forced. Well that's that, I'm up to date. I have a little holiday coming up following this Tuesday, so maybe there will be more ranting on my blog.
*One Final Note* Although I may rant a lot about Korea and Koreans, it is generally because my experiences are generally not all that good. However I know other people that enjoy their time here much more significantly I do. I do not hate it here, but I do not have nearly as much of a good time as they do.
The next day at work was not very difficult at all, due to the fact that the students in the 6th grade were taking a country wide exams. So it was probably the perfect day to follow a late night. I only had the one class.
Thursday
Thursday was abysmal in the morning as ever. However rather than the standard crap that I have to go through with my co-teacher, it was a different ste of events. This would be our last class before the summer holiday, therefore she wanted to allow the kids to just play games and watch movies. I am by no means adverse to this. However having taught in my school for seven months I have finally got a feel of what the kids like generally. She had brought some word games for the kids to play, where they had to arrange scarbble like tiles into words. Now that's all well and good, but the kids I teach on a thirsday morning are generally, not able to do such activities. Also they have a tendency to lose focus easily (most probably because they never see any discipline). Therefore when she produced them for the first lesson, I knew they would go down like a lead balloon, but she never listens to me, so I didn't even try.
It took a good two minutes before they had scattered them all over the floor and another set had succesfully made a sort of mosaic, nice but completely missing the point. In an effort to regaing some control she then wrote a bunch of words up on the board, which the students could then recreate. However that move therefore removed the very point of giving them the letters, because they just copied the words and then gave up. They had no interest in it. Finally having given up on that she moved to have me put on a movie. I knew exactly what would happen next, they would indulge her for a short period and then the majority would get bored, while a small percentage tried in vain to hear the film over their companions acting out loudly.
It happened just as I had predicted. Now it may sound a little like I was just waiting for this to happen and had had no intent in averting it. However at the start of the day, she told me her intent...rather than ahead of time so I could properly prepare. But still I had a go I created some games that I know the kids would at least mildly enjoy and it would tug at their competetivness. Plus it would also still practise some English. Yet my ideas were shot down, by the 'all knowing all crap' co-teacher. Therefore rather than argue I just sat back and watched chaos ensue.
She actually made it worse though, perhaps 20 minutes into Harry Potter she decided that she didn't want to watch it and instead put on another film, that of course finally turned off the final behaving kids because they had been removed from the film they were actually trying to follow.
Well all of the above for Thursday occurred in just two lessons, that being with the 3rd grade. I still had another two more lessons to get through with her. These next lessons being with the 4th grade. There would be more kids to keep a handle of. I just hoped that she would at least have learnt from her mistakes in the first two lessons and leave her word game alone and just let me present the games I had put togetehr. However I was of course proven wrong.
She started by telling the kids there would be no lesson, which they all cheered to, then she brought out the word game, to which most students looked at blankly as if she had just told a big fat lie, because to them, no lesson means, no speaking English. So just as before the letters quickly dissappeared to the floor and the kids started to go psycotic. To try and restore order she went ot her back-up, a film. Yet for some reason she chose Harry Potter again, a film which we had already seen the beginning of and she had rejected part way through. At this point I entirely gave up on any for of logic making it's way into her head. So I just grabbed some Uno cards and went to the back of the room and try to attract as many of the kids who didn;t want to watch the film as I could. This worked ro some degree, those who wanted to watch the film could and those that didn't could play with me.
However this only successfully worked for half of the lesson and for the second half it descended into chaos and by this point I had sort of died inside and I just settled playing with the kids until the bell rang.
After school I brought in some ramen and icecream for my 6th graders so that we could just have something to eat, relax and talk. It is by far my favourite class and I am willing to shell out for something a bit different to sort of thank them for being my saving grace on a Thursday afternoon.
Friday
This day was fairly easy int he morning as it normally is, however the afternoon held a few suprises. The first being that my 5th graders actually turned up and in force. But of cousre they didn't actually want to do any work, but I saw it through.
No, thing that was a 'suprise' or so to speak and pissed me off was what my co-teacher had to say in the last minutes of my working day. I had packed up my room and locked up too. I was just about to leave to get my bus, when my standard co-teacher told me that there would be a staff trip on the following Tuesday and if I wanyed to come I would have to tell them there and then without any further knowledge. I deemed this ridiculous and bargained a day in which to consider it. So I left at that point, I had my shoes on and my foot out the door, when she caught up with me again and told me that I needed to let the school I would be doing my summer camp at know what I would need and what book I wanted use. Except that I should told them by yesterday. But because she had forgotten to tell me it was basically now my problem. So I left school in a fairly fould mood.
I, thankfully had already sorted out my summer camp problems, but the fact that she did not tell me until it was too late is the thing that pissed me off.
Saturday
It is Saturday now, I have not done a great deal today, but one thing I did do was come to a conclusion about whether I wanted to go on the staff trip. I have decided that I do not. Although I can just about stand a mela with my co-workers a full two days without any form of control in my life for that time. There are various factors that I had to weigh but my overall findings were that I would spend most of my time being ignored. Now I am not saying that I dislike the staff at all in fact they are generally very nice people. But I do not think it would be good for my netal health to suffer through two solid days of very little human interaction and any that was given to me would likely be forced. Well that's that, I'm up to date. I have a little holiday coming up following this Tuesday, so maybe there will be more ranting on my blog.
*One Final Note* Although I may rant a lot about Korea and Koreans, it is generally because my experiences are generally not all that good. However I know other people that enjoy their time here much more significantly I do. I do not hate it here, but I do not have nearly as much of a good time as they do.
Gum
For fuck's sake!
I can undersand the allure of chewing gum, it tastes pleasant and it gives you something to do. But it sure can be fucking annoying. Older women in Korea seem to be intent on chewing it into oblivion. They'll just stick in a slice if gum and chew it until their mouth implodes due to over use. But the thing is that they chew gum with their mouths open so that you can hear each and every chew. This is something I have come to notice much more significantly since my mp3 player stopped working. I suppose that this could just be a regional thing, but I think not and I have observed this, much to my irritation from many women. However it only seems to be with the 40 somethings, that likely have a family and most if not all have stopped caring.
I can undersand the allure of chewing gum, it tastes pleasant and it gives you something to do. But it sure can be fucking annoying. Older women in Korea seem to be intent on chewing it into oblivion. They'll just stick in a slice if gum and chew it until their mouth implodes due to over use. But the thing is that they chew gum with their mouths open so that you can hear each and every chew. This is something I have come to notice much more significantly since my mp3 player stopped working. I suppose that this could just be a regional thing, but I think not and I have observed this, much to my irritation from many women. However it only seems to be with the 40 somethings, that likely have a family and most if not all have stopped caring.
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Stuff
This week has been a fairly average week. However I find there are generally things worth talking about in Korea, even though as a whole I have a boring life. On Wednesday we had a meal to welcome the newest member of staff. The main administrator of the school had left at the end of last week, which meant that one of the people I have been incapable of having a conversation with all year would be leaving. However she would also be taking her rather cute two boys in the kindergarten. So as normal I was not clued into whatever would be occuring in would be occurring. Normally that would mean that we would be going to a resteraunt for a billion years and I would have to go and would not be able to leave until I had drunk far too much and been forced to do norebang. However this week it was a suprising and welcoming change. We had a meal at the caferteria, with food that had been brought in from the outside: Watermelon, sweet and sour pork and chicken. Really good food and I did not have to loose my entire day to have it.
Thursday was not too bad, not good, but certainly much better than last week though. I was actually given a chance to do some of the teaching and of course I was completely relied upon to provide games for the lesson which I had been given no time to prefer...great...
Friday was going pretty normally up until later in the afternoon. When I got a phone call from my co-teacher/supervisor. She was calling from a local school that I would be teaching the summer camp from in about 2 weeks time. Apparently I needed to be at the school to talk about the camp and make some plans, however I was not. Therefore she would have to return to the school to pick me up, she should have told me before and brought me along, but she had not read the instructions properly. Anyway I am used to that sort of thing, but on the way over to the school she backed into another car. Great Korean driving to see in person... Okay the rest of the meeting was fine and so brings me to the end of the working week.
On Saturday I went into Busan as usual, nothing special happened there, but it did rain all day and it was super heavy. Possibly the heaviest I have experienced in here in Korea. So as you can imagine we got fairly wet and spent our time dodging in and out of shops.
Finally here on Sunday, I decided to make some bread. It went well, I was able to find some yeast at the Homeplus in Busan so it was a resounding success rather than the catastrophic failure I have come across when trying to make cakes with the available ingredients here in Korea.
Well, that's it I guess. I always experience the weird stuff of course, but that's seeping into my brain turning it into standard reality and so I fail to report on it quite as often. For instance the noises you can hear when out and about. The hacking noises people make as the hock up flem and spit it out (something that happens overly much), a man who sneezes in a similar manner that a Turkey 'talks' and a fella in one of the toilets sounded like he was trying very ahrd to produce a baby.
Night all.
Thursday was not too bad, not good, but certainly much better than last week though. I was actually given a chance to do some of the teaching and of course I was completely relied upon to provide games for the lesson which I had been given no time to prefer...great...
Friday was going pretty normally up until later in the afternoon. When I got a phone call from my co-teacher/supervisor. She was calling from a local school that I would be teaching the summer camp from in about 2 weeks time. Apparently I needed to be at the school to talk about the camp and make some plans, however I was not. Therefore she would have to return to the school to pick me up, she should have told me before and brought me along, but she had not read the instructions properly. Anyway I am used to that sort of thing, but on the way over to the school she backed into another car. Great Korean driving to see in person... Okay the rest of the meeting was fine and so brings me to the end of the working week.
On Saturday I went into Busan as usual, nothing special happened there, but it did rain all day and it was super heavy. Possibly the heaviest I have experienced in here in Korea. So as you can imagine we got fairly wet and spent our time dodging in and out of shops.
Finally here on Sunday, I decided to make some bread. It went well, I was able to find some yeast at the Homeplus in Busan so it was a resounding success rather than the catastrophic failure I have come across when trying to make cakes with the available ingredients here in Korea.
Well, that's it I guess. I always experience the weird stuff of course, but that's seeping into my brain turning it into standard reality and so I fail to report on it quite as often. For instance the noises you can hear when out and about. The hacking noises people make as the hock up flem and spit it out (something that happens overly much), a man who sneezes in a similar manner that a Turkey 'talks' and a fella in one of the toilets sounded like he was trying very ahrd to produce a baby.
Night all.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Thursday
Had a crappy day on thursday. It was the sane old bullshit as ever, I had to do 4 hours of classes with a teacher who wants me to give absolutely no input to the lesson and just sit at the back of the room like a useless piece of shit. I am used to her manner to some degree, but never so far has she pushed me entirely from any control of the classroom. It was a total affront to me. I have no interest in being a useless piece of furniture. I think I could abide being ignored if my co-teacher were able to actually do the job, but that is not the case. She is unable to control the class in any form, which is a main aspect of her job. Another issue is that her English is not of a high enough level for her to teach alone, she makes many basic errors that should not be passed on to the kids. However it appears as though I have no real options though. I could rock the boat, but saving face seems too important to the Koreans. So I am forced to see that the best step forward for myself is just to let it pass me by and try to let go of the problems the kids may later face due to her teaching.
This is not a favourable result but it is the only one I can come to at this time.
This is not a favourable result but it is the only one I can come to at this time.
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