BUSTED!

By the garbage police. I went downstairs after dinner to put out the garbage and one of the building complex guards was in the garbage area. He told me to come back Sunday night with my garbage because tonight wasn’t the night to put it out. I’ve never seen the garbage police there before and have always taken out my garbage when it’s full. Sorry. Not allowed.

And, you have to separate your garbage. The garbage police guy happened to speak some English. You never know where you’ll find English. I know I’ve mentioned this before but it always amazes me. Anyhow, he opened my garbage and was taking things out that are supposed to go in different areas on different days. Cans have their own section, bottles have their own section, food has it’s own section, paper has it’s own section, Styrofoam has it’s own section and I think that’s it. I have no idea how to do this. Do I need to have about six different garbage bags in the house in order to sort things for their appropriate day? I find it humorous because it’s next to impossible to find a garbage can on the street. For example the subway in Seoul has no garbage cans. And here they are caring so much about recycling. Like many Korean things it’s hard to understand their lack of consistency.

Min Kyung needed to tell me some things today. We went out of the teacher’s room into the room which will be my English room. She wanted to talk to me about the camp plan I gave her yesterday. She had shown it to the teacher head of student affairs and that teacher went and talked to the principal. Min Kyung said she didn’t know the other teacher would get involved. Anyhow, I can't take the kids out of the school. All I said when she told me was something like they were a bunch of stupid asses. I wasn’t upset about it. I had half expected it. When I called them asses, Min Kyung started crying. I was shocked. She said it’s so hard for her with so much to do and all this pressure. I took out a Kleenex from my pocket and gave it to her. I consoled her by telling her that everything would be all right and we need to stay focused on the important thing which is doing the best we can for the children under the circumstances. I taught her the saying, “don’t shoot me, I’m only the messenger”. She’s the messenger and I’m not mad at her. I’m not mad. The principal is a shallow and short-sighted moron but so what? We just work around him as best we can. He doesn’t get involved in the classroom so that’s good.

I wanted to buy 60 books. I want the kids to read “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” which was recommended to me as something that was easy and fun reading. I’m going to follow that with the 1971 film, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. However, although they will buy the 2 movie DVD’s I want, and my copy of the book, they won’t buy books for all the kids. And we can’t ask the kids to pay the $6 for a book. So their solution to this problem is to photocopy the book. I told Min Kyung that it was illegal and I found it absurd that a school wants to break the law. I also pointed out that it shows the kids that the law and the rules aren’t important. I really don’t think they see any problem with copyright infringement. She asked me if I would copy the book and I told her no. But I did say that if the school copied the book I’d use it. I said I won’t break the law by copying it. It’s a moral dilemma. I really want the kids to read this. I think more than half of them will enjoy it. I don’t have the $360 it would cost for me to buy everyone the book. I’m tempted though. I don’t know. It would be my non-violent protest. So I guess I care more about the kids getting a good book to read by any means than I do about copyright laws. It’s funny, I download music without paying for it but copying a book seems so wrong. So they’ll buy 1 book and copy it. What a bunch of asses and in a way I’m no better. I’m no better in a different way than them though.

Then she told me that the school won’t pay for cooking ingredients. We are going to do a cooking class (there’s a cooking room in the school). I thought the school could pay a few bucks so we could have small groups of kids each make the recipe. So I told Min Kyung that I would personally buy all the ingredients needed. She was quite shocked. I just told her that I was serious and she should let the school know I was spending my personal money on this. I don’t think it will be much and we’ll have fun. This place and it’s people can be frustrating. I hope that I shame them and they know that they have lost face by me paying for the kids. Face is all important and the school is rapidly becoming faceless in my eyes.

I repeated to Min Kyung that we need to focus on doing the best we can for the kids. She agreed. She was a lot calmer. I told her that when I hear something that bothers me, I let out my anger right then. Then I calm down. I won’t keep things bottled up inside and poison me. I told her I never make a decision when I’m angry (anymore) and just wait until I’m calm before I decide if I’m going to take any action. I think she should quit. She’s not cut out for the pressure. I don’t think she likes her job. And she’s driving me crazy. I feel like I have to look out for her which is funny since she’s supposed to look out for me. My instinct when she started crying was to put my arms around her, pat her on the back, and say, “it will be alright”. That would have been funny. It probably would have terrified her.

I’m now leaning towards Mongolia for my vacation. I don’t know anyone who’s been to Mongolia. Japan is cool but lots of people know people who’ve been to Japan. I don’t know anyone who’s ever mentioned anyone going to Mongolia. I should find out by Monday if Yoon-soo will join me for the Mongolian excursion. He has a desire to go to Mongolia and ride a horse. I guess he has some sort of Genghis Khan complex. Mongolia. Could you think of anything cooler? You can get tours where you hang out with nomads, or herd some animals, or travel where the yaks carry everything. The Gobi desert is only 3% desert. I’m becoming a mini-Mongolia expert.

BECAUSE WHEN MARTIN GOES KOREAN, HE GOES KOREAN ALL THE WAY

In a rare occasion that was marked by fireworks and national celebrations, I had dinner last night in a Korean restaurant. Mee Kyung took me there after our “hike”. I don’t think a 5 minute walk qualifies as a hike but then again, when a Korean person says something there’s a good chance you really don’t understand what they’re saying.

We met and I followed her to this mountain that I just couldn’t see. We walked for about 5 minutes to some benches in the shade. She brought out a container of fruit (bless her heart) and we ate and chatted. She’s a doll. I find it easy to talk to her and I think she understands (or appears to) most of what I say. I know that if she doesn’t understand she tells me. She speaks quite freely with me. She’s quite amazed that a woman like her (married, kids, in her 40’s) is going out alone with a man. She said, “what if people see us”? I said that tongues would way. (I explained the meaning to her). I said she would become a celebrity. I told her that her picture would be plastered on the front page of the paper. I like her because she gets my bad jokes and laughs at them. I give her credit for stepping outside the “regular” Korean behavior and going out with me, because there is nothing wrong with that. It’s funny that when you’re younger you can be “just friends” with people of the opposite sex and no one questions it. When you’re older and just friends, no one believes it.

We chatted for a couple of hours and then she took me for dinner as I was her guest. She was very thoughtful and asked if I wanted fast food. I told her no. Even a Korean place would be fine if they served meat. She suggested going for “shabu shabu”, and I said okay.

What is “shabu shabu”? We go into the restaurant which was a take off your shoes and sit on the floor place. They start boiling this large pot of “soup” there. They then bring out raw meat and vegetables and you throw it in the pot and it cooks very quickly. You take it out and eat it. They had a sauce that had a lot of soy sauce in it that I like, so actually enjoyed my meal. I will reciprocate her kindness. I’ll take her to Bennigans. For some reason she told me she likes Bennigans. Weird.

So how was my attitude yesterday at school? First off, on Wednesday night I called Yoon-soo since he’s sort of friends with the principal and I asked him if the principal might have been joking with his “Korean or nothing” remark. He didn’t think so. He said most Koreans just follow the orders of their bosses regardless of how stupid they are and just get along. I’ve always believed the best bosses gather smart people around them and cherry pick the best ideas. It happens here, but not much. One of the differences between me and other teachers is that they may need the job to put food on the table. I don’t need the job. If it doesn’t work out, I just go elsewhere and do something else. They don’t have the threat of firing me to hang over me.

Now as to Lou’s comment about if I run amok it’s Min Kyung who gets in trouble. That’s why I’m not writing the letter telling him that he was rude and disrespectful in what he said about me. That’s my concession to Min Kyung. As for the rest, even though she has my sympathy, and even though she’s in a no win, I don’t care. She is beginning to annoy me. I think (and it’s only I think) that she misrepresents my position when talking to the bosses because she doesn’t listen carefully to what I say and she misconstrues my meaning. This occurred to me yesterday. I got an email (along with several others) from a teacher who was at orientation with us in May. He was quite upset because his Korean co-teacher has kicked a student and was laughing about it. The English teacher told the Korean it was wrong and to not do it in his class. The Korean laughed at him. The English then said that he would tell the principal. The Korean laughed some more and told him to go ahead. So he told the principal and the principal said to not worry about it. All in all a sickening and disheartening story.

I told Min Kyung about it. I told her I GOT AN EMAIL FROM AN ENGLISH TEACHER I WENT TO ORIENTATION WITH telling me this story. Later she says to me that I should stop surfing the Internet looking for bad things about Koreans. I just looked at her and told her I was angry with her, and that she doesn't listen carefully to anything I say. I was not surfing the Internet, I got an unsolicited email. I told her that if she listened she would know that most of the things I say about Korean people in general are positive and flattering. I told her that as with any people, there are good and there are bad. If there is a jerk Korean teacher, it doesn’t mean all Korean teachers are bad. I wanted to slap her. She apologized but I’ve cooled considerably towards her because I don’t see her as my friend anymore. I don’t think she’s against me, I just don’t think she listens to what I say, or if she does and doesn’t understand something, she doesn’t ask. She’s dangerous without knowing she’s dangerous.

I have looked like an idiot a few times due to misunderstandings. When I voiced my concerns about the camp and she presented them to the principal they probably came off as complaints. No, they were not complaints. I had no idea what their objective was. I didn’t know that camp in Korea doesn’t mean playing sports and having fun, it means “extensive classes”. So my questions were to clarify exactly what they wanted out of this camp. Whatever answer I got was fine, as long as it was accurate and I understood that. I can now see that she was telling them that I disagreed with what they wanted. I got screwed over again. Of course if I was fluent in Korean, this wouldn’t have happened. If I had been present and there was an ongoing translation taking place, this wouldn’t have happened. If she’s my mouthpiece I’ve got problems. I’ll just look like a fool instead of someone who really cares about doing a good job. And her being on the defensive about all Koreans doesn’t help.

It’s funny, her English is better than Mee Kyung’s, but Mee Kyung spoke for me just fine. There were no misunderstands when she was in the middle. These misunderstandings come with Min Kyung. I just have to beware.

I decided to ignore what I heard from the principal. When I have something to say, I’ll say it. If there is any detail to it instead of a short question, I’ll write the letter in English and ask Yoon-soo to translate to Korean for me. The principal can trash it if he wants but it’s in his best interests to meet me half way if he cares anything about the students. I submitted my camp plan yesterday and included the forbidden trip to Ilsan. They can scratch it off if they want but it came with a reason and the practicality of going there. We shall see.

One of my students gave me a chocolate bar yesterday. How sweet of her. She’s a doll. I just wonder if that means we’re engaged now.

My first class this morning was deadly. Some kids were sleeping and others looked dead. I think they’ve been burning the midnight oil in preparation for their exams last next week. I wasn’t making much progress so I just stopped what I was doing and told them a few simple things and tried to entertain them. I know they have enough on their plates and their heads are bursting that I hate to add to their burden. After exams it will be fine (I hope). There will only be one week until summer vacation. I think maybe I should just trash the text book for the last week and find lots of games and puzzles to play. For some bizarre reason I think that just having me blabber at them will teach them some English.

When I was leaving school yesterday the vice-principal was walking into the school. I worked up my nerve and said goodbye to him in Korean. That drew a big smile from him. I have been lax in learning simple phrases. I have to do it. It will endear me to the people if I show I attempting to speak some Korean phrases no matter how feeble I sound.

CAPTAIN’S LOG, SUPPLEMENTAL

I’ve always wanted to use that line. I think it’s so cool. Not that I envision myself as James T. Kirk but there is just something about the line that’s made it stick in my head for years. As all who know me, I will use any quote from anywhere if I can fit it in somewhere (even if it’s a stretch). “Captain’s Log, Supplemental” has avoided that fate for years, but today the day has come.

I have posted once today so as my second post in the same day it qualifies for the “supplemental” rating. What prompts me to write again? A couple of nice things and something that is weighing heavily on my mind.

I want Bose speakers. That has nothing to do with anything, but I thought with my 52nd birthday approaching (51 outside Korea) that I would drop some hints to those looking for gift ideas. Now back to our post.

I went to the open class today. I almost fell asleep. I suppose the only thing more boring than one’s own class, is watching someone else’s. The school we went to is much larger than where I teach. Their foreign teacher only works with the 2nd year students and that fills his schedule, so that should give some idea of school size. When Min Kyung and I got there, we signed in and waited in the computer lab which is situated in the Foreign Language section. Right away I knew that this school had some serious money to play with.

There were about 20 observers. They were mostly teacher’s from other schools. There was only one other “native speaker” (as we foreigner’s are known) in attendance. To confirm my “small world” theory, he was from Toronto. The class had about 40 kids and they were all boys. It seems that the school has a boy’s school and a girl’s school, yet this is a public school. Weird. I asked about it and was told they’ll be integrating next year.

They said afterwards that this was a normal class in the curriculum and not a special event for the visitors. I believe that and I approve. I asked if the kids were more well behaved than usual and was told that they chose the best class on purpose, so they were only a little quieter than usual. I liked their honesty. They used a power point presentation and other visual aids for the teaching. I was impressed by that, both the work that goes into creating the class materials, and the money they have to be able to use these things in a classroom environment.

Afterwards we went back to the computer lab for refreshments, a couple of speeches, and a question period. First we had to stand, place our hands on our hearts, face the Korean flag, and some sort of “pledgey” kind of thing was played in the background. Interesting. Then the principal gave a long-winded and boring speech in Korean. I have no idea what he said, but there were no jokes because no one was laughing. Fortunately he was the only Korean there who spoke in Korean to everyone.

They wanted the input of the visitors so they picked me to go first. I did not say it bored me to tears. I focused on the positive, told them I was impressed with both how much money they obviously had, and how they were actually using it in a practical manner. I commented that visuals work wonders with children, regardless of what they are. My comments were well received. Sometimes I can be quite tactful and friendly. However, it’s a side I try to keep hidden.

I had plans to meet Mee Kyung for our hike at 5pm. When we were at the school Min Kyung said she had many things to talk to me about that were important but she knew I had a date with Mee Kyung because I had told her. Min Kyung is just so nervous seeming and jumpy that it almost makes me nervous. She gets worked up and I sit back and say, “Relax, it will be all right”. She’s 30. I asked her that today and when she told me I just shook my head and said that I was old enough to be her father. Scary.

When we were at lunch today (I digress) she said that she is so bothered and worried about her work that she worries it will make her sick. She mentioned she worries about her worrying causing her cancer. So naturally I had to tell her I had cancer. And my carotid surgery. And my open-heart surgery. That shut up her worrying herself into cancer.

Anyhow, I said to her that I would cancel my hike if it was really important and she said no, that’s okay. During the question and answer period she asked me if I could call Mee Kyung and delay our hike for a bit. I wanted to slap her. I offered already. Anyhow, she just gets so agitated that I called Mee Kyung and cancelled until tomorrow.

After all was done we went outside and sat on some benches on the school property. She told me that she had talked to the principal about the camp and what I wanted. I was told that the camp should not exclude people and we can’t just take the “best”. We had to take 20 students per year because it had been decided. Never mind that means that some will be excluded because only the top 20 test scores can come to the camp. If you want logic, it was checked at the door.

I said that was fine. I wasn’t going to argue, I just needed to know the objective of the camp. I assumed camp meant fun and enrichment. Not here. Camp means intensive classes. Oh joy. I was also told that I have no say in who comes. It’s the test scores. It doesn’t matter that the test scores are no indication of the student’s verbal skills. I didn’t like it, but what could I do.

Then I was told that my various day trip ideas were not acceptable. Seoul was too far. The English village was too difficult to get to by public transportation. It was suggested that I go to a local mall because there is public transportation. In fact, I can go anywhere in Paju. Guess what? There is nowhere good to go. I can’t go to the park in Ilsan or go to Ilsan. It doesn’t matter that it’s only a 30 minute bus ride and the bus stop is minutes from the school. It made no sense. I was starting to get annoyed because I wanted logic and not just stupid things that made no sense being said. I can go on a 50 minute bus ride in Paju, but a 30 minute bus ride to Ilsan is no good.

Then came the thing that killed me. I had told Min Kyung that I wanted to be included in any discussions involving my classes. As I had written earlier, I didn’t need a blow by blow translation, just to be able to straighten things out if questions arose. The principal is only interested in me discussing school issues to do with my classes or anything only if I speak to him in Korean. Yes folks. If it’s in English and translated, it worthless. If it’s not Korean, it’s crap. I was now angry. I explained to Min Kyung how disrespectful it was to me. I also used the word “bullshit” a few times. She said that we must follow what the bosses say and I told her that I understood that. They have the final say. But to not want my view on things that involve my classes because I can’t voice them in Korean is absurd.

I let her know that I now had no respect for the principal or the vice-principal and I had nothing to say to them. I said I’ll shut up and do my job and anything interesting I come up with can be forgotten. I also said she could tell the principal that there would be no day trip for the camp so he didn’t have to worry about any problems about the kids leaving the school. Fuck him. I guess that’s what you get when a physical education teacher becomes a principal. The vice-principal is also a former physical education teacher. In fact, a lot of physical education teachers have become principals. Why? Because in Korea there is a point system for teachers for various things and when you get enough points, you can be a vice-principal and a principal. Physical education teachers used to get points for their schools sports teams winning competitions. So they had an advantage over non-physical education teachers. They have now removed those bonus points to even the playing field.

I spend a lot of time trying to get across to Min Kyung the difference between “cultural” and right and wrong. I don’t know if I’m making headway and I don’t know why I try so hard to get her to understand. She doesn’t even like being an English teacher. She wanted to be a Math teacher but she took English in University because her parents wanted her to. Parents like their daughters to major in languages I was told. I guess you can’t really reason with people like that. AND IT’S NOT CULTURE. IT’S DUMB!

I wasn’t raving but I was showing my displeasure with the whole thing. I feel very bad for Min Kyung because she’s in a no-win situation having to be the “middle man”. She said she worries that she won’t translate properly and there will be misunderstanding. I told her that even if her English was perfect, the middle man can always screw up. It’s a position no one should be in. She does have my deepest sympathy and I hate being a burden on her and try hard to lighten the load.

I then decided to make a joke. It was a good one. I got a book in Austin as a gift of translations of phrases into Korean. There are all types for informal things. It’s almost a joke book. I took the book out of my bag and found the phrase I wanted. I told her that if the principal wanted me to talk Korean, I would go and see him and say, “ssee-bahl nawn”. That translates to “fuck you”. The color drained from her face. She thought I was serious. She’s going on that I can’t say that and so on and so on. I’m trying to calm her down and tell her I’m joking. I thought it was hysterical. I’m sorry she missed the joke.

So our meeting came to an end. It ended with her being more upset than me. I told her that I might write a letter in Korean to the principal to tell him how disrespectful he is being of me. I told her that I wouldn’t do that right away but I would wait until I was calmer to decide. I told her that I wouldn’t get her to do the translation but someone else. She said if I do that, she might get in trouble. She does have a point. It puts me in a bind because he’s wrong and I want him to know it. I don’t want Min Kyung to get in trouble. I really like most Koreans, but they are a weird crew. Before we left I told her to relax, everything will be all right. There was nothing to worry about. I’m the one insulted and I have to try and get her to relax.

When I got home my toilet was leaking again. I didn’t want to walk to the office again so I phoned. There was a different person in there who spoke a little English. He came over and announced it was a different problem. I think he said someone would come tomorrow or the day after to replace the part. Who knows. He took my number. I’ll ask Min Kyung to call the office tomorrow for me to see what’s doing.

I was eating dinner when my door buzzer went off. I thought it was the toilet fixing crew but it was a woman with a paper and pen in her hand. She gets a few words out and I tell her that I don’t speak Korean. I ask if she speaks English but she doesn’t.. Through the odd word or two it seems she wanted me to sign this paper. What the hell. I’m a nice guy so I signed it. She then told me she lived in apartment 802 and this is where it gets a little confusing. She invited me to visit and to eat. I don’t know if this was an open invitation or I’d agreed to a set time. I just thought it was very hospitable of her. I think she meant it but I have no idea how the communication would go. Maybe her husband speaks English. Who knows. When she left she said either, "pleased to meet you" or "see you again". These are 2 phrases all Koreans know because they've been taught to them in school. It's funny. If a person can only say 2 things, then these are the two.

Mee Kyung calls me again tonight. I think she’s lonely. We spoke for a half hour last night. We spoke today to change our hiking date until tomorrow. She didn’t have anything to say. There was a long period of silence and she says, “okay goodbye”. I just said I would see her tomorrow. I thought I was lonely at times but there are those who live here who seem to be even more lonely than me.

I had an email from the liaison between the teacher’s and the school board for the province I work in. I had called him yesterday for information on the programs run at the English village to see if it was worth going to. Of course, this was before I knew all my ideas were worthless. He was writing to tell me he’d have the information for me tomorrow. I took the opportunity to tell him I didn’t need it because the principal didn’t like the idea of going there. I also told him that the principal had no interest in what I had to say because it wasn’t in Korean. I also told him that it’s difficult to work in a school where they condone the hitting of children. Yes, I do like to stir the pot a bit. I wouldn’t have written him this, but his email was sitting there. Timing is everything.

So I’ve thought about it more and more. There is one other possibility that has occurred to me. Maybe he was making a joke when he was talking to Min Kyung. I can see what he said told as a joke. I can’t see any thinking person saying something so ignorant. Maybe she didn’t get the joke. She’s so intimidated by her bosses that everything they say is like the word of god. I will ask her if it’s a possibility that he was making a joke. But I don’t think I’ll ever know.

I will just go along as business as usual. If I have something I want to say, I’ll ask Min Kyung to tell him for me. I’ll ignore the Korean crack. And when I submit my camp plan it will include a trip to Ilsan. I will choose to just follow the convenient public transportation being used that he wanted. I’ll ignore what I don’t like. If push comes to shove, I won’t go to Ilsan but if I go on like I will go, perhaps he won’t say anything. We wouldn’t want to upset the crazy foreigner, would we?

So ends the captain’s log, supplemental.

THE DAYS MELD INTO ONE ANOTHER

I suppose that means that I’m in a routine, or just bored, or have no life. I’ll have to work on that one.

Here I am in school again killing time. I had 2 classes today. In 1 hour Min Kyung and I go to another school to view an “open class”. What is an “open class”? I guess the best one word answer would be “bullshit”. It’s an English class that other teachers, parents, school board officials, or anyone else can watch. I’m absolutely sure the children will be talking up a storm and being themselves in front of all these people. I think not. What’s the point? It’s just another dog and pony show. Min Kyung and I get to do our own dog and pony show in October. I’m thinking of teaching the kids a song filled with 4-letter words to see who catches on. At least it will be interesting.

I went to Starbucks last night with Yoon-soo. We drank coffee and chatted for a couple of hours. The time we spend together goes by quite easily. He never seems to be at a loss for what to say, and I manage just fine. He told me that Koreans are known for their impatience. A Chinese man who visited Korea 3,000 years ago wrote that Koreans are impatient people. At least that explains the drivers and running the red lights. I gave him his Texas Longhorn figurine and he appeared to like it which pleased me. Just one more to give away and that will be later today.

When I got home from school in the afternoon the bathroom floor was filled with water. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from and then I noticed it was coming from the side of the toilet where the flusher is. I panicked a bit because how was I going to let the office know about this problem. I called Yoon-soo to see if he could call them for me, but he didn’t answer his phone. I decided to go to the office prepared to play charades or whatever it took to solve the problem. I get there and the first thing I say is, “Does anyone speak any English”. And lo and behold, there was a man working there who spoke excellent English. I explained the problem, he came back to my apartment and looked, and then called an engineer to come and replace a washer. That was easy. It’s nice to know that I can find English at the office when I have an apartment problem.

When I got home last night I had a call from Mee Kyung. She wanted to know if she could change our date next Monday to today. So we did. So when I get home, I’m going out again and meeting her and we’re going hiking. I’m crazy. Hopefully it won’t be too strenuous and I have no idea how hot it will be. But I most do some exercise once in a while, even if it kills me. I’ll be able to give Mee Kyung her Longhorn so I hope she likes it. The pressure of worrying if your gift will be liked is quite the burden.

Robert is coming up on Saturday for a visit to see where I hang out. One of the things we’ll do is go up to the DMZ for a tour. I’m looking forward to that. I’ve never seen a North Korean. Are they men, or are they myths? Time will tell.

WE DO WHAT WE DO

I think last night was the first weeknight I haven’t posted. Why is that? I guess I wasn’t really in the mood or I didn’t have much to say. Maybe I’m getting burned out from all the writing. Maybe I’m getting depressed. Who knows? Not me.

Saturday was a quiet and boring day but I liked it. I was awoken at 8AM by a phone call that lasted over 2 hours. It’s amazing how the time can fly on the phone. If I’m going to have a 2 hour conversation, getting up for it is a good thing. After that I cleaned the apartment and decided I want a cleaning woman. I’m old and lazy when I choose to be, and when it comes to cleaning I’m old and lazy. So, I’ll be checking into the cleaning woman idea. There are just too many glass windows for me to handle.

The rest of my day was spent reading and then watching 3 movies. I was only going to watch 2, but you can watch 3 when you have no plans. I saw “Lonesome Jim” which I don’t think is out on DVD yet. It was one of my “streets of Seoul” purchases. It was pretty good and directed by Steve Buschemi. I thought Mary Kay Place was most excellent. I’ve been carrying the torch for her for over 30 years and she’s developed into one fine actress. After that it was Bogart and Bacall in “Dark Passage”. You can’t go wrong with an old Bogart movie. Granted, it wasn’t his best effort but it was an enjoyable time waster. Lastly it was “The Ice Harvest” with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thorton. That one gets a big “eh”. It was okay and nothing more and not really worth talking about.

Sunday morning I ventured into Ilsan where I had a morning coffee in Starbucks (of course). From there I went to the supermarket to pick up a couple of things. I think I’m turning into my mother. My couple of things quickly turned into $70. It’s amazing what you can decide you need once you’re roaming the aisles.

The rest of my day was spent either just sitting at the computer or reading. My life is lacking a certain excitement at the moment. The loneliness is bothering me more than it has since I moved here. This isn’t good and I hope it passes. It preys on my mind.

Monday it was back to work. I saw no kids being hit so I suppose that’s a good day. This camp thing is beginning to worry me. I’m not sure what goals they have for the camp, but I don’t think the powers that be have given it much thought. I would say that more than half the kids are below average. They want 20 kids from each grade. That would still mean a huge range in abilities. If you want the camp to be the same crap as teaching classes, then 20 is fine. If your objective is take the best kids and give them an enrichment experience, you need to cut down the numbers. I’m trying to convince Min Kyung. She probably is but I think she’s afraid of the principal. We are trying to work a compromise on the numbers and then she says she’ll talk to him. I asked if I could be part of the meeting and she said that I don’t speak Korean. Doh, I know that. I just think it shows my interest and commitment if I’m there, and if any questions come up, I can answer them. If I’m excluded, I’m just a nobody.

They will select the kids in two ways. First, the child has to apply. Second, they will use the highest test scores to select from the applicants. I told Min Kyung that I wanted to be part of the selection process, and test scores were worthless. There are plenty of kids who write a fine test and can speak minimal English. There are kids who speak fine, but their written skills stink. These tests don’t take speaking into account. So I have to convince her that this is not the way to select students. I hate this having to go through a 3rd party thing.

Mee Kyung (the former substitute English teacher) called me last night and we chatted for about 30 minutes. She likes to talk and she barely complained about her lousy English. I was surprised to hear from her just to chat. She either likes talking to me or she’s bored. Who knows? We made plans to meet next Monday after school. It will be good to get out.

I finished my speaking test this morning with the 3rd year students. How bloody depressing. “Is it important to learn English” and the answer is a blank stare. This is their 7th year of taking English. It’s sad and I don’t know how I can miraculously give them the knowledge they need. It can be depressing.

Next week are exams so I have no classes from Monday to Thursday. I still have to be here to pick my nose for 8 hours so it should be quite unexciting. I’d rather be teaching. Min Kyung told me yesterday that after the exam she’d give me more classes because she’ll be finished the text book with her 2nd year classes. It’s all about finishing the textbook. It doesn’t matter if the kids know nothing, it’s just matters that they’ve rushed through the text book. She said the kids would rather be with me and would get more from me than her. That’s probably true and I’m happy to have more classes.

So that’s it’s for now. My first daytime post from school. See how busy I am.

SOMETIMES I’M JUST NOT IN THE MOOD

I know (and I don’t think I’m being paranoid) that sometimes people talk about me when I’m in the room. How do I know? I recognize the word “Martin” which is the same in Korean as in English. I accept this and assume that they’re not saying anything nasty about me. I know that I’m a bit of a joke to them because I don’t speak Korean so therefore I appear like an imbecile. I accept this. But I do have my moments when I just want to scream to shut up and not mention my name. Today was one of those days. I wasn’t in the best of moods either for some unknown reason or because I am sometimes tired of being the object of other people’s conversation. However, what can I do? Stand up and scream to not talk about me? They wouldn’t know what I was saying anyhow. So I suffer through it. I’m glad it only bothers me occasionally or I’d have a big problem.

This morning Cecilia (who shall now be known by her real name of Min Kyung, not to be confused with the previous English teacher named Mee Kyung) asked me for Yoon-soo’s number so she could discuss what happened with my vacation problem. I guess this is weighing heavily on her mind because I think they’ve saddled her with making sure I’m happy and making sure that I’m not a problem. It’s a lousy job to have. I didn’t want her to phone him before I spoke to him, but I said nothing. If it makes her happy to get involved, I can’t stop it.

About an hour after this I got a call from Yoon-soo. I guess the principal, vice-principal, Min Kyung, and Yoon-soo had a big powwow over me. I apologized to Yoon-soo for him getting dragged into this and reviewed the situation with him. I think there was a misunderstanding on that first day. He assumed I meant going to Texas was vacation time when I specifically said it wasn’t to be counted as vacation. He told me not to worry, I would get my 2 weeks vacation. I said I was worried and I wasn’t very happy. I said that if they would have said from the start it was to be counted as vacation time, I would have walked out of the school. I was getting angry. He went on to explain to me that you get 1 day off in Korea for a family member’s wedding so therefore they should take five days from me. I told him that was stupid because I can’t run off to a family member’s wedding half a world away in one day. He then said that all Korean teacher’s only get 14 days holiday a year. That’s the “personal” holiday. The rest of the summer and winter break are “study” holidays where the teacher doesn’t come to work but is “studying” at home. It’s just some bullshit to get around the rules. I love the people here but it’s one fucked up place. (I will further elaborate on that later). He said that I’ll get 2 weeks vacation in the summer, and 2 weeks in the winter. One of the weeks will be “personal” vacation, and one of the weeks will be “study” vacation. As far as the one day holiday for the wedding goes, the principal has the discretion to give more time off and not report it to anyone so it’s like it never happened. What a load of crap. However, since I now have more time off than I was supposed to, I shouldn’t complain. Even if the whole thing is stupid.

After I got off the phone with him the principal made an appearance in the teacher’s room and invited me to sit with him. I’m sitting, he’s sitting, the vice-principal is sitting at his desk, and the lowly Min Kyung is standing and translating. I don’t know why she couldn’t sit down. I guess she wasn’t invited to, and god forbid you should sit down without the godlike principal inviting you to. (I know, cultural differences). The only thing I wanted to express to the principal was that I was very sorry about all the misunderstandings. I think he was telling me what Yoon-soo had told me on the phone. I only listen with half an ear because the translations don’t always match the words being said. There are five weeks off in the summer. The first week will be my “study” week. The next 3 will be the camp I run. Then the fifth week will be my personal vacation. So I think we all parted friends after that.

Later on in the day I’m sitting in the teacher’s room (I could use some classes) and there are two girls standing near the door. This woman teacher walks in and whacks each of them on the back. It wasn’t a love tap. She’s smiling like it’s a big joke. I have my jaw on the floor. After I pick it up I ask another teacher (who has good English) if she just hit them. I saw it, but I couldn’t believe it. He said yes, she did. I said she was stupid because it’s against the rules of the school board. It’s wrong for a multitude of reasons, but let’s stick with the obvious. I said how are the children supposed to learn to respect the rules when the teachers can just ignore them. He went on about how traditionally the teachers could hit the kids. I said those days are gone. There are rules against it. I also said that if any teacher would have hit my kids, I would have come to the school and whacked them with a baseball bat. What is wrong with these people? You don’t hit other people. It’s wrong. You don’t hit children. It’s wrong. Wrong. It’s not a cultural thing, it’s a question of right or wrong. I’m beginning to doubt my staying power here because these things upset me very much. I wanted to smack the teacher to see if she thought that was funny.

I had a discussion with Min Kyung about how I thought it was terrible how many families ship their kids off because they have to work too much. I said family is more important than work, but in Korea it seems that work is more important than family. She seemed surprised I said that. This is a woman with a four year old daughter who lives hundreds of miles away. She works from 8AM until somewhere between 5PM and 8PM. Her husband works from 7AM to 7PM minimum. Am I crazy? Do I have strange priorities? I’ve said these are the nicest people I’ve ever come across, but they are bonkers. I said I would accept whatever cultural differences came my way but I never expected them to be questions of right and wrong. You raise your kids if you can. You don’t hit children. I want to scream.

Tonight the teachers had dinner together. As we were walking from the school to our cars my new friend Minkee (he’s a science teacher who has excellent English) asked me if I ate dog. I said no, were we eating dog tonight. He said yes. I said you’re kidding me and he assured me he wasn’t. We get to the restaurant and they bring out the raw meat (because you grill it yourself at the table) and I said, “is that the dog”. He said yes. I said, “really? Dog as in bark, bark”. He said no. Apparently he never said dog but the accent fooled me. It was duck, not dog. I don’t know why they made such a big deal out of duck, but they did. I really did think we were going to a dog diner.

Some of the teachers, and the principal, like to drink. They pour down the Soju (the Korean alcohol) one glass after another. The principal got pretty relaxed and when we were leaving he bowed to me, took my hand, shook it and said “thank you”. He was definetly drunk. Then outside he walks up to me (and this guy doesn’t talk to me) and says “have a good night, see you tomorrow”. It was a joke because there is no school tomorrow. I told Min Kyung and Minkee that the principal should drink more often. He’s much more pleasant after a few drinks.

Then the physical education teacher comes up to me to tell me he’s handsome (we settled that argument at the last dinner with paper, scissors, rock) and I reminded him that I was the most handsome. He then wanted to know what soccer team I wanted to win in the World Cup. (This is all in Korean with translation). I told him Korea of course. He then told me that Canada is rotten in soccer and I agreed with him. He then said, and the vice-principal agreed, that Canada was good in ice hockey. These men know their sports. The physical education teacher was blitzed. He may have a drinking problem I told Minkee and Min Kyung that unlike the principal, he needed to drink less. Actually I think the whole country needs to go on a bender and lighten up and reexamine their priorities. But that’s just me.

After dinner I went to Starbucks and had a Banana Cream Frapichino. Mmn, Mmn, good. That was my first one. I recommend it. Now I have to decide if I will get up at 4AM to watch the World Cup game between Korea and Switzerland. Most of the country will be up, but if I get up, the soccer will put me back to sleep.

TRAVELS WITH MYSELF

I called Yoon-soo at about 5:30 to see if he was busy and if he wasn’t if he wanted to go out for dinner or maybe just to Starbucks. He thought dinner and Starbucks was a good plan so we made arrangements for him to call me about 6. Shortly before 6 he called and said he couldn’t have dinner with me because he had to have dinner with someone else, but we should meet at 7 for coffee. That was fine although I really don’t understand why he accepted the dinner invite in the first place. He then called me at about 6:20 to say he had to cancel coffee because an emergency came up and he had to go see his brother. No problem I assured him. We would do it some other time. Now, I really wanted to get out and hit the road, so I decided I would venture to Starbucks in Ilsan by myself. I had a rough idea of how to get there and figured it would take me about 20 minutes.

Wrong. It took me 1 ½ hours to get there. Every wrong turn I could make, I made. I couldn’t even get on the highway properly. And as someone who can smell out a Starbucks from 5 miles away, I even managed to drive by it once I got close. I had quite the drive but where I was, I have no idea. I think Paju in area is quite big. I thought I was in another city, but I saw signs for the Paju police department and city hall. Once I got to Ilsan I got off the highway at the wrong place. I lucked out and saw the street I wanted so I cut over a couple of lanes to turn right. Wrong. I should have turned left. Whatever I did, the right way would have been the opposite way.

I finally made it to Starbucks and had coffee and cake. It was kind of cool to be able to go out to Starbucks and sit there with my magazine and relax for a bit. Of course, I would have been more relaxed if it didn’t take my an hour and a half to get there. But the car means I can do things like that. Go where I want to go, and even go where I don’t want to go.

I learned some interesting things at school today. I learned that Cecilia and I will have an open class on October 25th. I like lots of notice, and this is lots of notice. An open class means that school officials, other teachers from other schools, parents, and whoever the hell wants to can come and watch the class. What a joke. I mean, the kids will be quiet so it won’t be real life. We don’t team teach so that will be new. I think Cecilia is nervous already so she should be a wreck by October. We are going to another school next week to see an open class and watch the show.

I found out that they have counted my trip to Texas as vacation time. That annoyed the hell out of me. I told them that they should dock my pay as it was to be unpaid leave. Now they are saying it’s too late to do that. I’m gearing up for a mini-battle because someone screwed up. Either Yoon-soo didn’t understand me on the first meeting, he didn’t translate what I said properly, or the principal has no memory. Cecilia says we need to respect the principal and the vice-principal. I say that when they are right we should respect them, and when they are wrong then they don’t deserve the respect. It’s very difficult to subscribe to the always following orders of the higher-ups on the food chain. She was going to tell the principal that I had a problem with them making my trip to Texas vacation time, but I told her not to. She wasn’t there so I’m going to talk to Yoon-soo about it and get him to say something. Cecilia has enough on her plate so she shouldn’t be saddled with translating my disagreement when she wasn’t even present during the discussions.

We talked about the summer vacation. I think the students are off for four weeks. The plan (at the moment) is to have a “camp” for three of those weeks. They will select 20 kids from each of the 3 grades and the lucky kids (I’m being sarcastic) get to come and be with me for 4 hours a day for 1 week. I have no idea how I will amuse them for 4 hours a day. Forty-five minutes is hard enough. Then she tells me that she has to work for 1 week during the vacation with the worst students to help them. The reason for this is that the classes are so big that you don’t spend enough time with the bad students. I say hire more teachers. Why should she have to work during her vacation because they can’t staff a school properly? I asked her if there was a teacher’s union and she said yes. I told her to go on strike but it seems that teachers cannot go on strike in this country because they are government officials.

Cecilia is upset about this working for a week. I learned that her 4 year old daughter doesn’t live with her, but lives with her mother in Mokpo (which isn’t close to here). Vacation is the time when she can be with her daughter for an extended period of time. Of course, I don’t understand farming your kid out to your parents in a far away city. She says her hours are too long at the school. I have no idea of the day care situation here, but you lose so much by not being with your children that I can’t understand why anyone would give up their kids unless it was a dire emergency. I’ll never get the Korean mentality down straight.

I asked Cecilia what punishment she decided on for the boys who were abusing the girls. She said she got them to close their eyes and think about what they did. Then they had to write a “reflective” paper on what they did and get their parents to sign it. I guess that’s okay but guess what? The same boys did the same thing again today. I think she’ll be inviting the parents in for a chat. And when the parent comes in, they will have to bow low to the teacher because their kid is an animal. It’s quite humiliating for the parent to have to do this. Good.

I told Cecilia to tell the principal that I wanted to be a home room teacher. I think it would be a blast with me not speaking Korean and the kids not speaking English. It would be a form of immersion. She can’t be sure that I’m serious but I assured her I am. She said she didn’t think I could be because I’m not Korean. I know that no one will go for this crazy idea but if she tells the principal that I am willing to do this, I figure I’ll look good because I want to participate in the school and help. I did tell Cecilia that was one of my motives in volunteering. I’m curious what his response will be.

Tomorrow night is another teacher dinner. Cecilia asked me if I was interested in going, and I told her that of course I was. I told her about the first one I went to, and that I thought it important that I participate in teacher activities where I can. I am looking forward to it because it’s good to go out with others, it’s a Korean thing, and it helps further break the ice between the non-English speaking teachers (all of them) and the non-Korean speaking teachers (that’s me).

Mee Kyung (the substitute English teacher) phoned me tonight. I emailed her yesterday telling her I was back and letting her know that I was interested in continuing our friendship. It was hard for her to call because her English isn’t very good and I think it was the first time she had ever had an English phone conversation. I think she phoned instead of writing back because her writing must be worse than her speaking. I keep telling her that her English is fine, and she keeps telling me it’s not and that I need to speak Korean so she doesn’t have to speak English. I think she’s going to call me next week and we will go for a hike after school one day. I hope the exercise doesn’t kill me. I was quite glad she called.

When I was in Austin I bought 3 hand made colorful Texas Longhorns. I can’t explain what they’re made from (I think it’s a light wood) and they are colorfully hand painted. They are not cheap but I wanted to get some nice gifts for some special people and it’s good to give a gift from your country. (I know I’m a Canadian, but I was in Texas). I gave the first one today to the money guy. I also got his kids something small. I think he was quite surprised and touched, and I think he really did like the Longhorn. I was very happy about that. I have another Longhorn for Yoon-soo, and one for Mee Kyung. I took a picture of one of them so you can get an idea of how they look.


If anyone has any ideas of what sort of performance I can give kids for 4 hours please let me know. The only thing I’ve come up with so far is to take a day trip to Seoul. Of course this has to be approved by the principal but I think it would be fun. We could have lunch and catch a movie. Some real English like activities for the little tykes.

DOES THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME?

Even when both parties speak English there are communication problems. I was told yesterday that today I had no classes because there was provincial testing going on today. That was not quite true. I went into school at 8:30 because I assumed because I was told I had no classes that meant I had no classes. Not quite. It seems I was to have my 8AM class because it’s considered “before classes”. Testing was to begin after that. I heard the principal and the vice-principal were bothered by my not showing up. That makes three of us because I was bothered by it too. I look like a fool who everyone assumed just took the class off. The other English teacher (Cecilia) told me that when she said I had no classes it meant that I still had the 8AM class. I asked her to explain to the principal and the vice-principal the misunderstanding and I was under the impression that no classes meant no classes. When she came back from talking to the principal I was informed that my hours were always to be from 8 until 4 (that was new to me), and that if I didn’t show up without letting anyone know that I wouldn’t be paid. Of course that’s fair but I don’t think that was the time to mention it. It’s a good thing I don’t speak Korean because I may have said something to the principal. I won’t be docked for this time and I’ll just have to let it all pass. I can’t be questioning everything I’m told in English just to be sure. I’ll just have to take my chances.

It also seems Cecilia was a little bothered by my not “approving” of the punishment of the girls by having them bow continuously. I was told it was the “Korean way” and the culture is different. I accept the different culture but I was tempted to ask her what she thought of the Saudi’s and their public executions and the cutting off of the hands for stealing. Is that just a “cultural” difference? Of course I didn’t say anything and just told her that I’ll try and keep my opinions to myself. I let her know that I try and adapt to everything here (which is true), but some things bother me such as kids going to school for 12 hours a day and public humiliations. I like Cecilia and I think we’ll be friends. She’ll have to adjust to me having opinions if we are to be friends. It’s not like I’m standing in the town square and announcing what I approve of and don’t approve of.

I was told that the Korean’s practice another punishment which requires the offending student to go the front of the class and lie on his stomach for about five to ten minutes. I just shook my head and asked her to warn me of any other punishments I might find strange. She couldn’t think of any.

Hitting students is not allowed. At one time it was quite common but supposedly it’s not allowed anymore. Some teachers still do it. It depends on the school and the situation. Naturally I don’t approve of hitting children. This is war and it’s teachers versus students. If you hit a student, then the student wins because the teacher has lost control and can’t handle the situation. It seems that a woman teacher at the school hit a child yesterday (not hard I was told) and the child’s parent called the teacher at 11PM last night and was yelling at her. This upset the teacher greatly and she sat with the vice-principal in the teacher’s room crying and blabbering on. Before that, she was blabbering at all the teachers which is how I found out because I asked Cecilia what all that was about. Once again I shared my viewpoint with Cecilia. I told her that the teacher was wrong and foolish to hit the child because it’s against the rules of the school. She could lose her job for doing that. It’s stupid and that’s the only way to put it. I think Cecilia understood that in terms of it being against the rules. She told me that in the “old days” the class sizes were so big (around 50 or so) that hitting the kids was the only way to keep control. As I’ve always said, I’ll bend to their ways but I am entitled to my opinion. And my opinion is that some things are just wrong regardless of the culture. To take it to the ultimate degree, it was okay in Nazi Germany (and I’m not comparing Korea to that) to exterminate Jews and others. Does that mean that because it’s part of the “culture” that it’s okay?

Then to top off this punishment crap Cecilia told me she had a problem with her class. Besides being the English teacher, she’s also a home room teacher. It seems a bunch of boys in her class (about 15 of them) had singled out a couple of girls and were saying bad things to them and humiliating them in front of others. She wasn’t sure how to punish them. I was quite upset by this news because I had such a high opinion of how the students were a group and cared about everyone in their class. I guess that’s not true and they’re the same as other places in the world. I’m naïve. This really changes how I look at things because if I saw something like kids picking on others I think I’d flip out. It’s just not tolerable. The girls who were humiliated want to leave the school and not come back and who can blame them. I suggested that Cecilia call all the parents and get them to come into the school. She said there were too many of them. I wasn’t going to argue with her but to me the “crime” was so serious that you have to get the parents involved. You have to have a punishment that teaches the kids something. You can explain that what they did was wrong, but do they understand? If my kid was a bully I would want to know so I could do something to help. Too many kids to call all the parents? Give me a break. I also suggested that she could have them all lie on their stomachs and have everyone in the school (students and teachers) walk all over them. I don’t think that’s going to happen but I despise cruelty.

Cecilia and I won’t be team teaching as the province wants. I asked her why and her reasoning is quite sound. If we both did all the classes as team teaching then the teaching hours would be about 25 which is over the limit. We have to split up to keep the hours to within reasonable limits. I have about 10 hours and she has 15 or so. She has to have more because she has a strict curriculum to follow while as the “native speaker” I only need to see each class once a week and am pretty free to do as I please. I have convinced her that I didn’t want to use their textbook because the Korean instructions in them bothered me and had no business in an English textbook. She likes the textbook I chose and I told her that as a new teacher I liked that the book I chose came with a teacher’s guide which would help me. A problem here is that the school board wants you to finish the textbook within x amount of time. It doesn’t matter if no one understands what’s in the book as long as you “finish” it. Since no one can fail, there is no need to be sure anyone understands anything. I gave my opinion that it’s better to just do 35 pages and have most kids understand than to do 200 pages and have most kids not understand. The school system has some problems. For a country where they care so much about education, they are really screwed up in some ways. If I were king of the school system the first thing I’d do is hire more teachers and cut down the class sizes to manageable sizes. Forty kids is absurd.

She told me that since the kids have to pay for textbooks that some parents will complain that they’ve already bought 1 textbook and they don’t want to buy another. We agreed that there are some parents who will complain about anything so we can’t worry about that. I told her that if a student doesn’t buy the textbook that I would buy it and be sure to let the parent know that I did buy it. I think it would humiliate them and cause them to lose face and that would be my objective. I’m here to try and help the kids learn the best way I can. If the parents don’t cooperate then they deserve whatever subtle abuse I can heap upon them.

Boy, where is my “I love Korea” talk? Nothing is perfect. It should be an interesting school year. I told Cecilia I wanted to be a home room teacher. I was joking (I think) but it would be cool to be a home room teacher. It would be a blast not knowing Korean and the kids having poor English but it would put us both in a situation where we had to make a real effort to communicate. I think I will tell her tomorrow I’m serious and to mention it to the principal. I doubt it will happen but at the least it should make me look good for offering and showing I want to help out.

There are mid-term exams coming up and Cecilia has to make up exams of 30 questions each for the 3 grades. The questions must be multiple choice and have 5 choices. There can be no questions that are not multiple choice. She asked me if I would help by making up 10 questions for each grade. I told her I’d be glad to and would do more if she wanted. She then asked me to do 15 each and I said it was no problem. She seemed a little surprised that I was so helpful. I explained to her that everyone is so nice to me and I have few chances to reciprocate so I’m thrilled to do something for her. I told her to never hesitate to ask me to do something for her and she doesn’t have to thank me a million times because I want to help. I think she was very happy to hear all this from me.

I told her I would have the questions for her in an hour and her eyes about popped from her head. I let her know I was joking about the hour. I told her she’d have them by the end of the week but I did them all in a couple of hours. It’s not so easy coming up with multiple choice questions that are a little challenging. We don’t want too challenging because everyone passes. I managed to keep the silly choices to a small amount. She kept telling me to take a break because I didn’t have to do it all now. I told her that I’d just as soon get it over with. When I gave them to her she was so happy. She said it would take her hours and hours to do 45 multiple choice questions. It’s such a relief to be able to do something for the people who do so much for me.

I think that next week I’ll find some martial arts class to take. I think I’ll look for a Gomdo class. That’s some sort of martial art using sticks. Hopefully I won’t get hurt. The time moves quickly but I don’t want to fall into a sitting in every night routine. I slept like a log last night so I suppose my jet lag is over. Last night I cooked a steak for dinner and tonight I had chicken breasts. This is crazy. Basic cooking and half-decent eating. And in a totally strange experience, I actually ate a full lunch at the school today. They had spaghetti and buns and salad (and rice of course, but I skipped that). Eating spaghetti with chopsticks is a challenge. I am getting pretty good with those babies. I don’t think they’ll ever replace the fork, but it’s nice to know that I can manage them. I think I can fool a North American that I’m holding them correctly, but I can’t fool the Koreans. As long as a decent amount of food makes it to my mouth, then I’m pleased.

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

I’m back. It was approximately 24 hours from door to door but I made it. I left the hotel in Tyler about 7:45 on Sunday morning and arrived at my Paju apartment at 9PM Monday night. What a joy.

I went a little overboard with my book purchases (okay, a lot overboard) so I had to have some mailed back to me. I should have just had Amazon ship them to Korea. The cost would have been close. I had way too much stuff so I bought another new carry on to put my books and DVD’s in. However, security at the Dallas airport said I had too many carry on’s (suitcase, backpack laptop) so they made me check it. Then when I get to Seoul, the bad didn’t come with me. However, the airline says I should have it tomorrow.

It was a weird trip in the sense that I loved seeing everyone, I miss everyone, and I like my life and adventure here. Sometimes it would be good to be in two places at once. The wedding went off without a hitch. Leah was gorgeous and she was herself. She was beautiful and a little goofy. She laughed and she cried as she walked down the aisle. The service by Taylor’s brother was very good and I don’t think anyone (religious or non-religious) could or should have been offended. They each gave some words to each other. Taylor had his memorized and they were quite beautiful. Leah cheated and read from a sheet but like her, they were beautiful too.

The pictures I have aren’t good. Lousy photography by all who used my lovely new camera (including me) wasn’t that good. Here is a decent one of Leah and I before the wedding. Actually I look bad but Leah is gorgeous.


There is some video of the wedding that isn’t too bad. You can catch them here if you’re interested.
Click the link to check them out.

When I got to Seoul I called Yoon-Soo to say I was getting on the bus. He was going to pick me up at the Baeksok station in Ilsan. I listened carefully as the stops were announced and still managed to get off at the wrong stop. I got off at Paeksok, not Baeksok. I called him and tried to explain where I was but he wasn’t getting it. I walked up to this Korean man in the street and handed him my phone. Him and Yoon-Soo discussed where I was and he found me.

He offered to take me out to eat which was quite nice. He also had a friend waiting for him back at school. Typical kindness. When we brought my things back into my apartment he gave me a hug. I was quite shocked as it’s not the typical Korean thing to do. He’s a good man.

I expected to sleep the sleep of the dead last night but it didn’t happen. In spite of being exhausted I only slept about 6 hours on and off. I was fine today so that was good but it was weird that I didn’t sleep.

I met the regular English teacher today. She told me her name and then said I wouldn’t be able to pronounce it so I should call her by her English name. So she’ll be Cecilia. She’s quite nice and I think we are going to get along. It was funny because she already knew I didn’t like Korean food. My eating habits are becoming the stuff of legend.

I was asked to give speaking tests to the classes. I made up a bunch of simple questions and I would go around the room asking question ranging from simple to simpler. Very few excelled at this test. I was told that the lowest grade I could give was a 6/10. If a child shows up to class it’s considered he’s participating so he qualifies for a passing grade. It’s crap but them’s the rules.

I have no classes tomorrow as the province is giving all the kids a test. I haven’t had a full work week since I got here. But as usual I have to sit there for 8 hours.

The weirdest thing I saw today was after one of my classes I went back to the teacher’s room. There were two girls there who were deep bowing over and over again to no one in particular. I asked Cecilia what that was about and she said it was a punishment. I thought it was just plain humiliating.

I think tonight I’m tired. I can’t keep my eyes open so this is it.

TEXAS BOUND

Tomorrow is the day. In a little over 14 hours I’ll be boarding a plane to Osaka where I will have the joy of sitting in the airport waiting for my connection to Dallas. All in all, the trip (not including the bus to the airport) is 18 hours. Not bad.

Yoon-soo will pick me up in the morning and take me to Ilsan to catch a direct bus. He’ll pick me up in Ilsan when I return after I take the bus there from the airport. If my plane comes in late and there is no bus, he’ll drive to the airport to get me. He is very kind. Maybe we can stop at Starbucks in the morning and get a coffee to go. I need to get back in my Starbucks habit so I can feel at home in the States.

I drove my car to work today and am I happy to have it. It’s nice to get to work not covered in sweat. The class I had at 8 was a first year class, and boy were they noisy. I asked them to be quiet several times. I told them that if they wanted to be friends with me, they’d have to be quiet. As usual there was much apologizing followed by more noise.

Giving this non-test of 41 questions is quite depressing. I would say most of the kids are below average in English, and are below average in world knowledge. It’s a real pleasure when I read some good answers but they’ve been few and far between. I’ve giving the same questions to all grades, and some of the 3rd year students would flunk out of first year.

It seems that now I don’t just get gushing hellos and handshakes in the halls. Today it evolved to getting hugs from students. These are kids of 13 and older (in North American years). I get them from boys and I get them from girls. I get “I love you” from several students. I have to say it puts the pressure on to do a good job and live up to what they appear to deserve in the way of a teacher. It is kind of cool to get these unsolicited hugs. (So much for the inscrutable Oriental).

I brought my lunch to school for the first time because I couldn’t stomach the thought of rice again. I have no idea how they eat this plain and tasteless white rice day after day. It’s served every day along with food I can’t eat. But because I brought my lunch today they had chicken and it was quite edible. I had chicken, my cheese and tomato sandwich, and an apple. I left the cafeteria full and not nauseated today.

I gave my questions to the class of noisemakers that I had at 8AM when I had them again at 2:15. During the class I made them stop writing and told them to look at me. When I had dead silence I told them that if they kept on talking I’d be giving them an hour’s worth of homework nightly. That seemed to quiet them a bit. Then there was one boy throwing things across the room. He saw me looking at him, yet he persisted. In my strictest voice I said to him, “Get out of here”. He just sat there surprised. I told him to get up right now and get out of the classroom because I didn’t want him in it. He did. I think it made an impression on the class.

I asked Mee Kyung afterwards what the discipline procedure is. She told me that if I have a real problem, I should bring the student to the vice-principal. He’s the designated bad guy who students fear. That will be my court of last resort. Next time I’m in class I’m bringing a big roll of tape and taping kid’s mouths shut. I’ll try to win through humor first before launching the heavy artillery.

I closed a couple of classes with some old tongue twisters. I wrote the “How much wood can a woodchuck chuck…” on the board and asked a volunteer to read it. They did in that class and that was good. Then I said to do it fast and they could only get 2 words out before stumbling. They got a good laugh out of that. They asked me to do it and I can do that one at super-speed. They were quite amazed and I told them that by the end of the year they’d be able to do as I did. (I doubt it, but it sounds good).

I did “Peter Piper” with another class and that was tough for them. I was able to do that one quickly too, and blow them away. The one I can’t do fast is “She sells sea shells by the seashore”. However, I’ll do that with them. I need to find more of them because I think it’s a good and fun way to practice pronunciation.

I stayed a half hour after I could leave just to chat with Mee Kyung since she won’t be there when I return. I thanked her profusely for all she’s done for me. I felt like Lulu. I wanted to sing, “How do you thank someone who’s taken you for crayons to perfume”, but it wasn’t quite appropriate. Supposedly we will visit this mountain she likes and she asked me if I played tennis. I told her not in years but I’d like to. So we will see.

When I finally left it felt to me that it would be appropriate to give her a goodbye hug since we’ve bonded and are friends. At least I believe we are. But I was smart and I said that’s what we do in North America. She got all embarrassed and made an X with her arms and said, “no”. Koreans do the “X” sign for no. I shook her hand. I’ve been so lucky.

I got my computer today with Windows in English. They didn’t put Office on it yet so hopefully it will be there when I return. I hope the English teacher and I hit it off. She is another Mrs. Kim like 60% of the country. How can so many people have the same last name? I swear about 80% of the people have a last name of either “Kim”, “Lee’, or “Park”.

When I got home the elevator wasn’t working yet. I was pissed. I trudged upstairs but when I made it to the 10th floor it was back in action. Finally. I rode it up to the 13th. I don’t think it was actually broken. I think they were putting a new floor in. The elevator has just had wooden boards on the floor but now it has a nice floor. It’s a good thing it’s fixed because carrying my suitcases down would be a hell of a problem.

I’m about packed. I don’t have to take too many clothes and all I am bringing could fit in one suitcase. However, I’m bringing two because I’ll be going back with much more than I came with. Anticipating going away and going away is so weird. You anticipate, you go, and before you know it, you’re back. I’m not sure if I’ll post while I’m away but you never know. It should be both a good time, and an interesting time. I’m sure all will go well but because I am who I am, I’ll be worrying a little. I hope I don’t forget anything and I hope they let me in the country. I’d hate to be deported after such a long plane ride.

THE GODS OF EXERCISE GET THE LAST LAUGH

I took the bus to school today. The reason for this is that I wanted to leave school early to get a bus into Ilsan and pick up my car. The bus ride was short and it was about a five minute walk to the school from where I got off the bus.

I went to my 8AM class and there were only 2 kids there. I asked another teacher and he said that they didn’t know they had a class today so I should just skip it. Another well planned out Korean thing. (I said they were nice people, I didn’t say they were organized people).

I had 2 other classes today where I foisted off my questionnaire on them. It’s depressing. It’s bad enough seeing their English level, but their knowledge of world history is overall quite poor.

Mee Kyung spent a good deal of time on the phone for me getting me car insurance. She thinks she found the cheapest one, but I have to pay higher for now until they see my driving record. I’ll pick that up in the States. But, maybe when they see my driving record, my insurance will be more. At the moment it’s $700 for the year which I believe is less than I was paying.

I got permission to leave school early today to head out and get my car. I was quite excited. I took the bus to Ilsan and then a taxi to the car place since I didn’t know where it was. Either did the taxi driver, but I had the salesman’s card so he called him to find out how to get there. It was close and easy. The salesman was downstairs waiting for me and he saw that I was alone. That frightened him because he doesn’t speak English. I figured it would be no problem since I had all the papers.

We went upstairs to sign the last few papers and to pay him and he called Yoon-soo. I think he wasn’t sure I understood. I didn’t want to ask Yoon-soo to go with me because he was working, and I could do it myself. We got everything straightened away and off I went in my new Daewoo Nubmia (or something like that).

I still say it rides quite nicely. My first stop was to get some gas. Gas is not cheap. I spent about $40 and got a little more than a half a tank in a compact car. I guess you have to take out a mortgage to get it filled up. After the gassing up, and filled with my new freedom, where do you think the first place I head to is? Yes, that’s right. Starbucks. I grabbed a coffee and ate a piece of cake. I put my coffee in my cup holder and got practice at driving a stick and drinking coffee at the same time.

I can’t explain how excited I was. I’ve had nicer cars, but I already love this one. It’s because it represents a new level of freedom, and will give me the adventure of getting lost and not speaking the language. I felt like I was grinning from ear to ear.

When I got back to Paju (which I figured out by myself) I headed out to the E-Mart so I could buy some Snapple Ice Tea. It’s funny that I never drank ice tea in Texas, but here in Korea I do. E-Mart is not an electronics store which at first I thought it was. E-Mart stands for “Economical Market” or something like that. Anyhow, it was great to just go and get what I wanted without it being a major excursion. (Actually, I wouldn’t have gone without the car).

I came home and parked the car. I took my grocery bag and went into the apartment and that’s when the exercise gods began to laugh. The elevator was out of order. I live on the 13th floor. It’s a long walk up. I did not enjoy that at all. The elevator will be out of order until 5AM tomorrow, or so they say. I have no idea the ages of the people who live here, but I’d hate to be some old guy on the top without an elevator. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an elevator in a one-elevator building being out for so long.

I didn’t want to walk downstairs and then walk back up, so I took a couple of pictures from the 13th floor of my car. Here they are.



Tomorrow is my last day before my departure to Texas. I just got to the school, and now I’m gone. I’m sure my loving fans (the kids) will miss me. I’ll be sad that the regular English teacher will be there when I return as I'll miss Mee Kyung. I don’t know if she’ll miss me, because she says it’s so hard to talk English.

Yoon-soo called tonight to see if I got the car and to make arrangements to pick me up on Saturday morning to take me to Ilsan so I can catch the bus to the airport. He said that if I call him when I return, he’ll pick me up in Ilsan and drive me home. How very kind. But I’m thinking of driving and parking at the airport. There are two reasons for this. One is I don’t want to be lugging suitcases on the bus and the second is that if my plane is a couple of hours late returning, I’m stuck at the airport without a bus. With the car, I’m guaranteed transportation home. Another dilemma to figure out.

I took out some books tonight to take on the plane along with some DVD’s. With bringing my computer, I have the option of watching movies I want to watch. I also made a note reminded me to shut my windows before I leave. So I suppose the packing, or at least the getting ready, has finally begun. Two days from this time I’ll be somewhere over the Pacific (I think) on my way to my old Texas home. I can’t wait to hear those accents again. (That was being sarcastic).

JESUS IS EVERYWHERE

Today was the big school birthday bash. Okay, it wasn’t so big. There were the dignitaries which included a policeman in some sort of military uniform, a representative of the school board from the province, one of the big shots of Paju Book City (a group of publishers in the city) and others I have no idea who they were.

There were women dressed in Korean traditional costumes. I found out they were some mothers so that was nice of them. I was at school at 8:30 like I was supposed to be and I went and asked the money guy if there was any way I could get my alien card today because I needed it to get my car. He was very busy but he said he’d call.

He tried calling a few times, but it was either busy or he’d be put on hold and then disconnected. It didn’t look promising. All this while the guests came in to be greeted by the principal and the women in traditional dress.

A small gift was given to each visitor. It was a box of hand towels. Why hand towels? I don’t know. Mee Kyung (the other English teacher) and I went down at close to 11. We went into the office to see about my alien card but no luck. She then went out and came back and told me I didn’t have to go to the ceremony. I was ready to explode. I asked who told her that and she said the vice-principal. I asked why and she said that it was all in Korean and I wouldn’t understand it. I was quite angry.

Why? Because I’m a teacher there and I want to fit in as best as possible with the other teachers. It doesn’t matter that there is a language barrier. I went to dinner with them so I could make friends and break the ice and show that we are all just people. You can’t have rules for me and then rules for everyone else. This is quite unusual for me to want to be one of the crowd, but I feel in this case it’s important. I tried explaining that calmly to Mee Kyung and I think she understood. She asked me if I wanted to go, and I said yes.

We went into the auditorium which was filled with the guests, the teachers, and the 2nd year students. There were a couple of incredibly boring speeches. They were boring in Korean and I know they would have been boring in English. They should have asked me to talk. It would have livened things up a bit.

The representative of the province picked up the school flag and handed it to the principal who put it back. I’m sure that meant something. When the principal spoke, one of the teachers gave a command and all the 2nd year students stood up and folded their hands and bowed. They sat down again. When he was finished, they bowed again, this time from a sitting position. I don’t know why they didn’t get up again. They had to do this bowing thing for one of the other speakers.

Then came the entertainment and I’m not being sarcastic when I say I really enjoyed it. First they had a string trio accompanied by a piano player. They did two songs. The first one was a traditional Korean song, and the second was “The Phantom of the Opera”. It was quite good. Then they had 6 kids who came from a high school to sing. The first song was one from the musical Rent (I think). They sang it in English and it was so cute because their accents were quite heavy. But, their voices were quite good. They then did an American song I can’t remember the name of, but this time the lyrics were in Korean. I really enjoyed them.

Then we went outside for the tree planting ceremony. This was weird. There is a tree with a plaque at the front of the school. It’s planted. However, they handed out white gloves to six people and shovels and they each put a shovel full of dirt in the planting box. Dynamite stuff. Then it was back inside.

I found the string trio and told them I really enjoyed their music and got a thank you. I found the high school kids and told them I loved their work and I got a very enthusiastic thank you. Then it was into the cafeteria for the popping of the champagne (no joke), the cutting of the cake, and lunch. There was beer served with lunch and also Soju (the traditional Korean alcohol) if you wanted it. And the usual stuff I can’t stand but today they had a treat. There was fruit for me. Yellow kiwi, pineapple, and watermelon. I filled myself on fruit and I was quite content.

The vice principal of a school about 10 minutes away introduced herself to me. She told me she had heard lots of good things about me. Big lies travel fast. Her English was excellent and her school is new too. They are having their birthday ceremony next week.

I finally found out how a school can be open since March and have a birthday celebration in June. In Korea you celebrate a babies (or a schools) first birthday when they are 100 days old. I think it’s so you’re sure they’ll survive. I was so glad to learn that because I was confused as hell.

We were supposed to stay at the school until 4:30 even though there were no classes and nothing to do. Mee Kyung now tried to call immigration for me but she couldn’t talk to a live person. She then had to go out for a moment so I called since I knew there was an English recording. I called and when they said, “press 7 for English”, I did that. I got a live person that way.

“Do you speak English”? I said. They didn’t but they dug up a body who did. I asked if my alien card was ready. It took them a while to understand that as they thought I was asking how to get one. Once they understood the question they looked it up and then told me it wasn’t ready yet and I’d have it next week. Now they have my passport too, and I’m leaving for Texas on Saturday, so I started freaking out. I told them I needed my passport back right now. They then told me that if I came into their office, they’d give me my passport and they’d make my alien card ready. I was hopping mad. What a stupid system. They told the money guy on Monday that we’d have it this week. How can it not be ready but it will be ready if I go.

Mee Kyung came back and I told her what was up as calmly as I could. I don’t think I got the calm part right. She said she’d take me and she’d go downstairs to tell the money guy what was up. I said I’d come along. She told me no, to just sit and wait for her. I guess I scared her. She really is a sweetie. She came back and told me that we were going to this city about an hour away to get it.

Now, as one of those flukes, this is also the city where she had arranged for me to meet her friend she told me about who’s a high school teacher and a Baptist pastor who has a family in Toronto. We were to meet at 4:30. So all this worked out well since we now how 2 reasons to go to this city.

Mee Kyung must have stopped 15 cars on the way to ask for directions. I was cracking up. She’d never driven there and she was totally clueless. It was so cute how she’d drive for 5 minutes, then look lost, then ask someone else. But we did make it to the immigration office.

We go to the desk, give my name and birth date, and they hand over my passport and alien card. I don’t understand why it was such a hassle to prepare. Obviously it takes 2 minutes judging by the fact I didn’t have to wait.

From there we headed to where we were to meet her friend. Mee Kyung got lucky and the first person she asked how to get to Home Plus (where we were meeting him) was also going there. So we got to follow.

We met Peter Kim there. Peter’s family isn’t in Toronto, but in Vancouver. He’s not going to join them in 2 years as Mee Kyung told me, but in July. He emigrated to Canada because God told him to, so he could serve the Korean Baptist and Canadian Baptist communities. Well, if that makes him happy, so be it.

We got in his car and he drove us to this church to meet the pastor there. This guy was an American and he was quite excited to meet me and doubly excited when he found out I was Jewish. We went in his office and he began talking. Peter and Mee Kyung excused themselves after a few minutes. For about an hour this guy was telling me about how Jesus was the messiah, it’s been mathematically proven because there are 48 prophesies that were fulfilled by him, and other crap. He had a book on Passover that was written by a Jew that converted and I could borrow it if I wanted. I told him I had plenty of books I wanted to read already so no thank you. I was polite. I just basically said the bible is open to different interpretations and he believes it was written by God, while I believe it was written by man. Let’s just say he couldn’t convince me to convert.

I didn’t tell him that proselytizers make me nauseous. I guess I’m getting more diplomatic in my old age. He was sorry I couldn’t be a “true Hebrew” which means a Jewish person who believes the same as he does. These people aren’t happy unless you believe the same as them. I told him that if he’s happy, then I’m happy. He’s been here 8 years on a mission to convert poor, ignorant Koreans. He gave me his card when we left and told me to call or write him with any questions. Yup. As soon as hell freezes over.

Peter asked if we would be staying for bible study. I looked at Mee Kyung and told her that if she wanted to, it wasn’t a problem for me. She’s a good Christian and said no. So Peter, Mee Kyung, and I went for dinner. He barely spoke to me. I guess he lost interest when he saw I couldn’t be converted. I told him that if he’s happy, then I’m happy. He asked if I was “really” happy. I told him I was. I have 2 beautiful daughters, I’m having an adventure, why shouldn’t I be happy? What a pompous ass.

We went to the food court at Home Plus for dinner. He asked if I ate Korean food and I told him no. We went to the Burger King and he said I should order from there but Mee Kyung and himself wanted Korean food because they didn’t like American fast food. I said I understood and I’d meet them where they were going once I was served.

I got there just in time for him to start praying before dinner. Mee Kyung bowed her head and Peter didn’t just do a 30 second prayer. He must have muttered on for five minutes. I don’t know who he was trying to impress, but the food was getting cold.

After dinner, Mee Kyung and I headed back to Paju. I asked her (and I knew the answer) if she knew they were going to try to convert me. She said she didn’t. I told her that her friend stopped talking to me when he knew I couldn’t be sold on his religion. I explained to her that I’m very happy for her (or anyone) who believes in anything that makes them happy as long as no one is hurt. I told her that I really didn’t care for people who proselytize. I think she understood and wasn’t offended. We get along so well, and even though her English isn’t the greatest, she knows enough to laugh at my lame jokes. I will miss her when I get back from the States. I hope we stay friends. If we don’t, it won’t be because of a lack of effort on my part.

She only needed to stop about nine times for directions on the way back. I was impressed. All in all it was an interesting day. I also found out why Baptists have services on Wednesday night. According to the pastor there is no big reason. It’s just the middle of the week so it’s a good time. And I thought that there was some significance.

I have all my paperwork so tomorrow I get my car. I will look funny out there being the only one stopping for red lights while driving.

FIRST MEAL I’VE COOKED

Yes, the end of days is near. The signal for it was that I cooked my dinner tonight. I don’t call my microwave spaghetti cooking, or my microwave risotto. In fact, heating things in the microwave is not cooking. See, I do have standards.

Now it was nothing fancy. In fact, it was easy as pie, or even easier than pie. I broiled a steak and I made some frozen French fries. Boy, what a taste treat! I knew having an oven would come in handy. The steak wasn’t bad. In fact, I’m so inspired by it that I may buy salt, pepper, and some seasonings. I had to make do with mustard tonight. I knew I should have bought the steak sauce. Those chicken breasts in my freezer are just aching to come out now to be a meal.

Okay, so I’m not Julia Child. But it’s a baby step forward on the highway of life. Who would have thought I’d ever get excited over having an oven. The Korean surprises never stop.

Yoon-soo called me at 7:30 this morning. He awoke me from a deep sleep as I didn’t go to sleep until about 2:30 in the morning. I watched “Two For The Money” and it’s always a treat to see Al Pacino chew up everything around him. I then read for a while “The Broker” by John Grisham which I’m sure I read less than a year ago. However I don’t remember enough of it so I’m enjoying it.

Yoon-soo apologized for not calling me last night as he got home late. He was supposed to call to set a time for going out today. He told me he had an appointment at noon so he couldn’t go out then, but could he visit my house at 8:30. (As you’ve probably noticed Koreans never say “come to your house”, it's always “visit”).

The plan was to go to Ilsan so I could look at cars. I know I’ve had some people tell me it’s a bad idea (all these people telling me are from North America), and perhaps it’s not a great idea. However, for me it comes down to quality of life and how I want to spend my time here. One of my reasons for coming was to save money, and buying a car goes against that. But a bigger reason was to have a damn, fine adventure. It didn’t start out like that but things are going in the right direction now.

I hate riding a bicycle to school and arriving there covered in sweat. I got an oil stain on one pair of pants and I don’t want to ruin another. It’s a little too warm to wear jeans so I’m wearing decent pants now so the oil stains stick out. I want to drive to work.

I want to go shopping without spending an hour on the bus lugging bags, or depending on the kindness of Yoon-soo to take me. I want to go when I want to go, and I want to be able to just get out and pick up things when I want to without it being a major production.

I will sign up for some sort of class when I return from the U.S. At the moment I’m leaning towards one of the martial arts. There is one called “Gomdo” or something like that. It’s fighting with big sticks and it sounds interesting. I didn’t have fun at yoga, but it was better than sitting in my apartment. Now that I have a choice, I’ll choose an activity I may enjoy. With a vehicle I’ll be able to easily go wherever it is. Where I live would require a bus ride of undetermined length.

I’ll be able to go to Ilsan and visit occasionally. Now whenever I go it’s Yoon-soo that picks me up. I tell him I’ll take the bus, but he won’t let me. It’s very kind, but it makes me feel like I’m taking advantage and that’s not a comfortable feeling. I’ll also be able to drive to Ilsan to catch the subway to Seoul (I’m not driving in Seoul because I’m not that crazy) and leave my car at the subway station.

I will be able to visit out of the way places on the weekends. With the bus, I’m limited to large areas with regular bus routes. This way I can visit along the DMZ, the mountains, and the various temples in the countryside. With the nice weather here I want to get out on the weekend and I enjoy the peace and serenity I find when visiting temples.

So those are my main reasons. It will improve my quality of life and give me more freedom. So, we looked at cars and I test drove one. It rode quite nicely, it wasn’t an ugly white, it has less than 150,000km on it, and it wasn’t a sub-compact. I bought it. The mileage is good and the price was good. The car including tax, title, and license was $2000. I’m told that Korean cars get about 300,000km on them before dying so I feel safe with a car of “only” 130,000km. It’s not a Hyundai (the top Korean car), but a Daewoo. It has air conditioning that works, the heat works, the radio works, and most important, it will get me where I’m going.

The sticker price was $2,200 and I asked Yoon-soo to offer $2000 before I got in the car to test it. He said that they won’t deal but he asked for me. The salesman said $2,000 was fine. When we came back from the test drive I asked Yoon-soo what the tax would cost me and he told me about 10%. I asked him to tell the salesman I’d take it if he threw in the tax. Yoon-soo said they won’t do that. I told him to ask, because the worst that could happen would they’d say no. He asked and they accepted. Yoon-soo was quite surprised. I asked him if he ever negotiated when buying or selling a car and he said no. I told him I knew that because he practically gave his old car away.

I couldn’t take the car because I don’t have my alien card yet. The school applied for it last Tuesday so I’ll get it any day. I also need an official government document saying that I live where I say I live. I’ll go to the government office tomorrow and get one. I also need insurance. My fellow English teacher deals with a place that is only on the Internet that she says is the cheapest so I’ll ask her to order me some tomorrow. From what I understand, insurance is quite cheaper than Texas. But then again, most places are cheaper than Texas.

I think Koreans are terrible drivers and I joke about it with them. But what’s really funny is that as bad as they drive, I’ve never seen an accident. I don’t know how that’s possible, but it is.

I asked Yoon-soo if I could call him Friday night to ask him to order a taxi for me for Saturday morning to take me to Ilsan to catch the express bus to the airport. I was shocked he didn’t offer to drive me to the airport, but he said he would pick me up and take me to Ilsan. I knew something like this would happen, but I can’t order a taxi for myself. He is a good and helpful man.

I was telling him my story from Sunday night about the woman who called her brother to come and find my apartment and he was impressed by their kindness. He told me a story of when he was in L.A. He was riding a bicycle when the tire went flat. He had no one to call and didn’t know anyone so he was carrying the bike and the tire looking for a repair shop. A man saw him and offered to help. The man went home and got his pickup truck. He loaded the bike in it and took Yoon-soo to find a repair shop. So there is kindness in other places which is quite nice to hear.

I hope I get my alien card tomorrow so I can get my car. I’m quite excited about it. My other exciting thing today was that I got a haircut. Yoon-soo and I went to Starbucks (of course) after the car purchase. When we left he said, “what will you do now”? I said I’d probably go home and he apologized that he couldn’t take me home because he had to hurry to Seoul for his appointment. I told him it was no problem and that I could take the bus. I then asked him if there was a barber close by, and he said he’d go back into Starbucks and ask. He came back out and said there was no barber, but there was a beauty salon. He said most people went to a beauty salon to get their hair cut. I knew he was taking barber too literally as North American men say barber wherever they get their hair cut. I didn’t explain that subtlety in the language.

He took me to the beauty salon and it was full of people, mostly women. I told him what I wanted done to my hair and he told the “barber” girl. He then left. She cut my hair but I had to let her know how to do it since she really wasn’t doing what I wanted. She finally got it to where it was “okay”. I don’t know if she had ever cut a white guy’s hair before but I now look like a Korean. I have straight, thick, black hair. Weird how a haircut can change the way you look in such a drastic way.