everybody JECHEON tonight

New blog!

2010-11-25T17:17:00.001+09:00

It's up! Go check out http://theurbanagrarians.blogspot.com/.

It's good to be back, guys!

Good(bye) Things

2010-07-22T04:31:00.001+09:00

Our time in Korea has not been ideal. It's been far less rewarding than most expats'. The main cause of all our trouble here has been our hagwon (Yoon's English Forest), but sometimes it's difficult to separate our business culture experience from our overall culture experience.

So, I thought I'd post the top six "good things" that have come out of living in Korea. No, not all of them are directly correlated to Korean culture, but they've been made possible by this journey.

Personal Growth

Korean culture is backwards from U.S. culture in many ways. Working and living inside it has been a challenge from day one. It seems that everyday I had to relearn how to problem solve and step outside my comfort zone. I tend to keep to myself and not ask for help, so starting from the ground up has been a really good experience for me.

2. The Kids

Working with kids is always rewarding. While they give us hell sometimes, it's only a handful that are actually true troublemakers. The rest of them are a mix of clownish girls and boys who just want your attention.

I wish I had more photos of students, but here are some memorable kids:

Jenny and Ann. You might remember Ann from a video I posted when Mom was here titled "Ann talks about bodily functions."

Cameron. He's a smarty, but he's a crier. He cried about everything from forgetting his homework to losing a foot race from the street into Yoon's.

Mattew and Eric. This dynamic duo will do anything to weasel out of work. But, it's all in good fun. Mattew knows just about every way to say "What?" in English. There were always periods of class which were punctuated with Mattew's barely restrained giggling and repeated "Pardon me?" "I'm sorry?" "Come again?"

3. Korean food

Being a vegetarian in Korea is difficult, but manageable. It really taught us how to eat our veggies and enjoy a wider range of flavors and textures (both in Korean recipes and others).

Remember the first time we ordered pizza and it came with ham? We were so sad. And hungry.

First experience with bibimbap. Note that in this post we call Chun wha "Kim." Is that her English name? I actually have no idea.

Fishy bread!

Homemade puchingeh and overcooked rice.

Kimbap and ramen.

Rainbow ddeok (rice cake). My favorite.

Homemade bibimbap with brown rice.

Ddeokguk (rice cake soup) for Korean New Year's.

"Nostalgia Drink" is not for Ian.

Sushi and yubu chobab (I can't remember the fried tofu stuffed with rice's Japanese name).

Take out bibimbap, all mixed up.

4. The People

Sure, our company sucked and the director is an evil dictator. But, we met some really wonderful people here (Korean and otherwise) and we've built some international friendships.

Haso teachers (and Chang su).

Hayley, SJ and Kate.

Jeff, Adam, Matt and Albert.

Tania.

Iris and Michelle.

Tina (in the maroon, I don't remember her friend's name, we only met her the once).

Rahee (far right).

Ben.

Amy.

Chun wha, Chang su and Min su.

5. Travel

We're about to embark on a trip back around the world and we got to spend New Year's in Japan. Neither of those things would be possible without our time teaching here.

Zojoji Temple, Tokyo.

6. Our Marriage

Hopefully, it's a given that a married couple be best friends. But, dropping ourselves into this new culture has made Ian and I iron clad. We've shared a one room apartment for almost a year. We (literally) do everything together. And, we faced a bully of a company together.

Thank you for reading!

Good night!

Ugly Bread

2010-07-21T00:19:00.000+09:00

I made some banana zucchini bread tonight. I had intended this loaf to be a goodbye gift to Chun wha and her family. But, I overfilled the pan and it got a little too fat.

Luckily, I made two loaves worth of batter. So, we'll bring the ugly loaf over to Ben and Amy's on Thursday and I'll give the (hopefully) better looking one to Chun wha.

Tomorrow will be the last official post on Everybody Jecheon Tonight. As requested, I'll recap the good experiences we've had and share some of my favorite photos. On Thursday, I'll open the blog and make it 'public' once again.

Good night!

Working in Korea

2010-07-19T22:26:00.001+09:00

I realized today that there will only be about three more posts on Everybody Jecheon Tonight. There might be the odd photo post from our travels, but it's more likely we'll use Facebook to keep the family updated.

It'll be sad to let go of this project, but Ian and I will be starting a green lifestyle blog once we're settled in Portland. It'll be a challenging undertaking and I'm excited to get it started. I'll link it through this blog when we've begun.

I figure that the last few posts should be dedicated to helping people find good work in Korea. Obviously, the first step is not to work for Yoon's English in Jecheon. But, as they're not hiring anymore foreigners, it's unlikely for someone else to get duped by them.

Tips for Finding a Good Job in Korea

Go through a major recruiting service. People have complaints about all of them, but, the bigger the company, the more of a support base you'll have (other recruits, different recruitment agents) if something does go wrong.
Know what you want (do lots of research) and stand your ground. Recruiters work for you and you can fire them if they don't make you happy. You don't have to take the first offer that comes and take your time before saying yes to any offer. Research the company.
Spend time on job forums and get to know the lingo. If you know what's normal, legal and acceptable it's less likely that you'll get worked over. Dave's ESL Cafe is a good start, though it's tough to navigate. One of the forums is for people to post their contracts and have them reviewed by teaching veterans.

Questions to Ask any Potential Company

How many foreign teachers are currently working at your institution? Generally, it's better to work for a hagwon that has more than 1 or 2 on staff. There is strength in numbers.
How many teachers have renewed their contracts and stayed for more than one year? You can take renewals as a vote of confidence in the hagwon.
What is an average day like for a foreign teacher at your at your hagwon? How many classes will I teach? How long are they? How much time will I have between classes? What other duties will be expected of me? This is where it's important to know the game. Research what's acceptable and normal and then go for exactly what you want.
Will I be covered under the National Pension Scheme? Hagwons are legally required to provide pension, but many still try to wiggle out of it.
Will I have a co-teacher or Korean helper? From what I can tell, it's mostly public schools that have co-teachers, but some hagwons do too. It's not a necessity, but they can be very helpful and take some of the pressure off you.
What will my actual take home salary be? It's important to iron out all these details. Is the company providing housing or will you have an allowance? What are your overtime options?
When are my vacation days and how many do I get? Public schools get a lot more vacation days than hagwons and their schedules are more concrete. If you're looking at a hagwon, try to figure out whether their vacation dates are already set or whether you'll decide them later as a company. Now is also the time to make sure that Saturdays and Sundays are always free days.
Where is the school located and where will I be living? Is it within walking distance? If not, is there a transportation allowance or a school bus that I can take advantage of? Will I be working at one campus or several?
Is this hagwon really a part of the "___" franchise? Just because they're under the umbrella and carry the name doesn't mean they are operated in the same way or with the same curriculum. Many "franchise" schools are actually run independently.
What age group will I be teaching? What are this school's students like? Are they advanced, beginners? Kindy classes are tough and they take a lot of energy, but they can be the most rewarding. Older elementary students tend to have a lot of behavioral issues. Middle school students are quieter and reserved, but they usually show you more respect than their younger counterparts.
How long has the school been in business? In my opinion, if it's less than two years, walk away.
Can I have some contact information for other foreign teachers who currently work for your school? Any school should readily provide this.

Always remember that everything is negotiable. Don't be afraid to push, but do show your employer the proper level of respect (they're taking a gamble on you, too). But, if you feel like a potential school is hiding something from you or giving you wishy-washy answers, simply decline and wait for the next offer. There are plenty of good opportunities here.

Good night!

Goodbye Sunday

2010-07-19T00:54:00.000+09:00

Today is our last Sunday in Korea.

We spent it cleaning (so that Thursday will be a cinch) and then we met Ben and Amy at Mr. Pizza for one last western restaurant dinner. After gorging on pizza and crappy "American" salad, we went back their place, watched Wall-E and drank gin and tonics (because we're classy grown ups).

Our meeting was bittersweet, since we know we'll say goodbye soon (we're staying with them on Thursday). Meeting Ben and Amy has definitely been one of the best things about coming here. I really hope that they decide that Portland is a good fit for them (they're seriously considering it) because I don't think I'm ready to give them up quite yet.

Tomorrow is our last Monday at Yoon's. I'm am so happy that it's almost over and that we'll soon be going on our trip. But, I'm terrified of going home and starting a new life. Again.

But, change is what makes the world go 'round.

Good night!

East Sea

2010-07-17T22:47:00.000+09:00

Today was a blast, but difficult as I didn't get enough sleep last night and we actually spent the majority of the day in the car.

The weather here (Jecheon) sucks right now, but it was partly sunny and much less humid in Gangneung-si, where we went to Gyeongpo Beach. The day was much more laid back than our usual sight-seeing tours with them. I wish we would have had more time to spend at the actual beach, but it took about three hours to get there, so the short stay was understandable.

On the way, we stopped by Yi I's (the scholar who is on the Korean 5000 won bill) birthplace. His mother (Korea's premier female artist) is on the 50000 won bill.

Black bamboo.

Yi I.

Pomegranate tree.

Shin Saimdang, Yi I's mother.

Gyeongpo Beach. It was a bit gray, but the air was wonderful.

Spicy fish soup delivered to the beach! It's called 매운탕 (maeuntang) or, simply, "spicy soup." Of course, Ian and I did not partake. We had packed a picnic lunch of onigiri (rice balls) for ourselves.

매운탕 sees you coming to eat it.

Ian is a pirate.

I'm not so talented when it comes to drawing with my foot.

Bathing suits (or, at least, exposed bathing suits) are not common place in Korea yet. Instead, people go to the beach, and into the water, fully or mostly clothed.

Four girls had Superman shirts (the dark blue).

Since 99% of people were fully dressed, the lifeguards really stood out.

See the Speedo? There were five or six lifeguards all in Speedos. They were terrible swimmers, too, I don't think they would have been very effective if someone needed them.

Rain on the beach. Luckily, it was clear while we were actually hanging out.

On the way back, we stopped at the Morae Shigae (Hourglass) Park. It's the largest hourglass in the world and it counts one year at a time. They rotate it at midnight every January 1st.

They took us out to dinner back in Jecheon at an acorn themed restaurant. All the food had something to do with acorns. Who knew they were so versatile?

This salad was made with acorn noodles, veggies, pears, and a spicy sauce.

We mixed them by hand. It was delicious. It, and the acorn flour pa jeon (veggie pancake) were my favorites.

Now it's time for bed as we've got to scrub down our apartment tomorrow morning! Oh, joy!

Good night!

Surprise!

2010-07-16T23:14:00.000+09:00

Just as Ian and I were getting ready to pack up and leave today, Montana came in and handed us a packet of information regarding our tv/internet/mobile bills.

Apparently, Julia signed us up for 2 and 3 year contracts (with the companies) when we first got here. The longer contracts saved on start up fees and also gave us a discounted monthly rate. They knew that we were only signed up with Yoon's for one year, but they figured that they could pass on the services to the next round of foreign teachers. But, the company has decided that we will be their last foreigners, so, they must cancel the contracts early. Because of this, the company is asking for that the difference (from the one year contract monthly fee and the discounted multi-year rate we've been paying) be paid in full. The bill came to 545,604 won or approximately $450.

So, naturally, Yoon's decided that this was our responsibility.

We told Montana that we were never in control of these contracts and therefore were not going to pay for the company's mistake. It was the company's responsibility. Ian left to call Julia, who did not answer, but promptly called Montana's phone.

He spoke with her, asked us if we would like her to come down and speak with us and we said yes.

She showed up about 15 minutes later.

Before she would let us say anything about the bill, she wanted to discuss why we wouldn't just talk to Montana about these things. We tried to explain that Montana has been working for Yoon's for less than a quarter of the time that we have and he, more often than not, does not have the answers we need. As we are running out of time, we figured it was best to talk to Julia directly (or as directly as one can speak through a translator).

We finally got down to talking about the bill. At first, Julia couldn't seem to understand the difference between paying a lump sum and a monthly bill (as in, we would have paid a higher amount each month with a 1 year contract, so what's the difference now?). Then she went on to attempt to guilt trip us by telling us she signed up for these elongated contracts to save us money. After all, she argued, the company could have charged us the full price and pocketed the difference. But, they wanted to be moral, you know, so they gave us the discount. She even threw in the busted white board from the Janrak campus (closed down 8 months ago), blamed Ian for it and basically said that she didn't charge us the 900,000 won for it out of the kindness of her heart. That white board split because they drilled into for access to a power outlet behind it.

Through all of this, we kept pushing. We told her that the company was taking money from us left and right and that this extra $450 was a very big burden. Then she tried to ask us whether or not we thought she had a conscience, which we declined to answer based on the fact that we're supposed to have a professional relationship.

And then, finally, she bent and told us that the company would cover the bill and that she didn't want to say anything else. Montana signed our printout as a safeguard and we went on our way.

It was a small, exhausting, but thrilling victory.

Good night!

The Beginning of the "Lasts"

2010-07-15T21:25:00.000+09:00

Today was our last Thursday with Yoon's. Thursdays' hold the dreaded Basic B27, so I'm happy to say goodbye.

Rahee told me that she called the National Pension Scheme and found that she and her mother are registered as "self employed." She did some further hunting and found that all of Jecheon Yoon's employees are registered as self employed. I haven't yet been successful in my hunt for legal help, but I don't intend to let this fight go just because we've gone home. I will contact the NPS (and whomever else necessary) and do my damnedest to get this company held accountable for something.

Julia was at Goam for about a half an hour today during one of my classes, but she was hold up in Mrs. Choi's office in a meeting with her the entire time. I only saw her on my way to make copies a few times.

This weekend is packed full. On Saturday we are going to the East Sea with Chun wha and Chang Su (I'm excited!). Then Sunday we will be cleaning, packing and seeing some of the teachers (at least Ben and Amy).

Good night!

Mixed Emotions

2010-07-14T16:24:00.001+09:00

I'm having what we expats tend to call an "I hate Korea day."

But, it's a little more complicated than that.

Sure, I'm angry. So angry that it feels more like helplessness than actual rage. I'm angry at Yoon's for taking advantage of us. I'm angry for the potential money we lost. I'm angry for the time and effort spent on a fruitless project. But, most of all, I'm angry at what this experience has done to my outlook on life. I don't trust people to have the best intentions. And I certainly don't give them the benefit of the doubt.

Though I've always considered myself more of a realist than an optimist, I think my youth and inexperience gave me the kind of naive happiness that my generation is known for. I believe this year was the final straw on that proverbial camel's back.

On top of all this, I have conflicting feelings about leaving Korea and even our trip.

I'm not a quitter and Yoon's is robbing me of the opportunity to finish what I started.

I can't wait to go home, but I'm terrified of the prospect of not finding a job. I can definitely see why many people stay abroad, hopping from one country to the next teaching English rather than facing the market back home.

I'm excited for our trip, but I'm so tired and stressed that I find myself sometimes wishing that we were going straight home.

It's all a bit much, really. I just keep saying, "I look forward to looking back."

Avoidance

2010-07-13T21:17:00.002+09:00

If there's one thing that Julia and David (the directors of our hagwon) have become very adept in, it's avoiding us.

Julia (via her son, Terry, I'm sure) finally emailed me back today just before work. I had been emailing her demanding that we set up a face to face meeting and telling her that docking our pay in June for the day we took off (right after we were fired to get some of our personal business in order) was deceptive because there was no prior communication about it.

Dear Casey.

sorry, i didn't check your mail until now. i was so busy .

As you mentioned 'sick days', you should submit copy of prescription or letter from a doctor to prove you used the day off for medical reason. And there's no exception.
We both know you two used the day off for your personal business, not medical purpose.

About your medical insurance, yes, we will provide proof of insurance coverage.
We'll ask insurance company for the copy.

Please send your mail to suprevise, Mr,Sin from now. That is his job.

Thanks.

I responded thus:

Hello-

I am unsure of who "Mr. Sin" is, but I assume it is Montana. I do not have his email address.

As for the money taken out for days off, I do concede that they were not sick days, I was simply pointing out the lack of agreement and communication between us since you defer everything to someone else.

I think we can manage to schedule one meeting face to face before we leave. This is an issue that I will continue to push.

Thank you for your reply.

Even in her reply, she avoids us. She didn't say a word about scheduling a meeting and she basically told me not to contact her anymore. I haven't heard back yet. She was on campus today when I arrived, but by the time I put my things in my classroom and came back to the lobby, she was gone. I won't make that mistake again, as soon as I see her I will approach her, though I'm uncomfortable with the idea of actually talking to her.

David was on campus for a large part of the day. But, anytime I got within ten feet of him, he was suddenly needed in another room. One time I came out of my classroom to make copies for a student and he was watching the video screen in the lobby. One must walk through the lobby to get to the copy machine. As I approached him, he (without even glancing at me) turned sharply and headed quickly down the hallway. The copy machine is near the end, so it was as if I was chasing him. It was simultaneously amusing and frustrating. Not that talking to David would get me very far. He would simply defer to Julia.

Montana did give me a copy of our proof of insurance today. And it's real! They went with a private company (AIG), so that's why we never had health care cards. I'm happy that there's one less thing to feel crummy about. At least Yoon's wasn't stealing that particular money from us. Granted, they went with a private company because they didn't want to pay pension.

I haven't heard back from any lawyers yet. I will call someone tomorrow and see if I can get some advice without paying a consult fee. I think it might be better to leave the country and then send a letter to the government (National Pension Scheme) through a lawyer. That way, we don't end up paying into it and then getting hosed. We could pay into it from the states, if necessary.

Six more working days left!

Good night!

Eggplant Parmesan Mini Cutlets Over Greens

2010-07-12T22:17:00.001+09:00

Instead of closing the circuit of negativity that's going around here and continuing to tell you faithful readers how crappy Ian and I feel, I thought I'd post our fabulous dinner. After all, we'll be out of here soon and I'm trying so hard to move forward and feel good again.

Yum!

The eggplant and greens recipes can be found on the Jen Goes to College blog that I recently started following. In the background you can see Ian's cinnamon-sugar apples. He doesn't use any oil of butter, but just lets the apples get juicy in a frying pan with the seasonings.

Good night!

A New (and Sadly Short-lived) Tradition

2010-07-12T01:19:00.000+09:00

Though we didn't go running in the park today because the weather was too unpredictable, we still met Ben and Amy for dinner over at their place, as we've done for the past few weeks. I never remember to take pictures of our get-togethers because we have too good a time.

Amy cooked cubed potatoes for a DIY potato salad (a fabulous idea which I am totally stealing). Ian and I brought greens (spinach and baby bok choy) and parmesan crusted eggplant. It was great. After dinner, we went to a new gelato place that opened down the block, went for a walk to the airstrip and then came back to their apartment and watched Leatherheads.

We will be very sad to leave Ben and Amy behind. Their friendship has been one of the few positives about our time here in Korea. They are looking in to Portland as a possibility for when they come back to the states (at the end of December). I think we've convinced them to come visit shortly after their return even if they choose not to move to the city.

I looked up the Oregon Humane Society today and I'm very excited about the volunteer opportunities they have. There's a group of people who take some of the dogs running on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. I can't wait to get back into that. There's been a big hole in my life for the last year.

Good night!

Odds and Ends

2010-07-10T21:44:00.000+09:00

It's difficult to pack up your things while you're still living somewhere. Especially since we can only leave the things we will take in our rucksacks unpacked.

Ian and I packed another big box full today. We filled our suitcases with bedding (we have the bedding that they gave us to use for our last week) and put them in the box. Then we weighed it repeatedly to make sure we were just under the 20 kilo maximum. It'll go on the slow boat sometime early this week.

The last box will be a (hopefully) smaller express box with the laptop and other electronics in it. We're going to have to toss more stuff (like a low quality roller bag that I have) than we had hoped. But, that's the way it goes when you move.

I'm looking forward to apartment shopping in Portland. We'll be looking for a place where we can comfortably live for the next 5-7 years. It'll be nice to have a more permanent residence. Since I just graduated last year, I've been moving each year for the last five years. It gets to be a hassle.

But, it feels good to be moving on. Monday will start our last full week working for the nightmare that is Yoon's. I think I'm starting to see the light.

Good night!

Stand Still

2010-07-09T21:29:00.000+09:00

There isn't anything new to report on the "hagwon from hell" front. And, frankly, I'm so frustrated and tired that I don't have much to say.

We just got paid tonight and they've overcharged us for our days off in May and they've charged us (with no prior agreement) for our day off in June. Considering we still have sick days left, I'm pretty unhappy.

I've emailed two lawyers with a rundown of the situation. So, I'm playing the waiting game. I'm guessing that I won't hear back until Monday.

We don't have any plans this weekend other than packing the rest of the things we don't use on a daily basis and shipping them on the slow boat.

If any of you know anyone (or anything) that could help us, please email me. As it looks right now, we're going to lose this game.

Good night.

An Island

2010-07-08T22:22:00.000+09:00

I emailed the US Embassy in Seoul today to see if there was anything that they could do for us or if they had any advice. They emailed me back very promptly and expressed sympathy about our situation. But, all they could tell me was that the embassy isn't permitted to give us legal advice regarding or represent us in employment matters. They could only suggest that we consult a lawyer and tell them about our legal issues. They provided us with two links to lists of English speaking lawyers in Korea. I will email them for advice, but we can't afford legal representation and we don't really have time for a case. We just want the company to be looked into.

I'm really starting to feel like we're on an island and no one can help us. It's pretty maddening and damn depressing. I don't want this company to get away with this just because we don't have the resources or time to push for legal action.

So, after work Rahee and I walked out of the building and I told her everything that the company has done to us. I told her to look into her pension, health care and taxes. Her mom works for the company, so she'll be checking for her, too. Also, if the laws are the same for Korean citizens as they are for foreigners, Rahee is owed 30 days pay because they fired her without written warning. She told me that Montana told her that she shouldn't speak to Ian or me unless she wanted to suffer a similar fate.

If I can help Rahee get the ball rolling and turn the company over to the Labor Board, Taxation Office or someone that can hold them accountable, possibly audit them and (fingers crossed) remove their business license. Rahee isn't as gung-ho about going after the company as we are because her mom has worked for the company for several years. I told her to call the Labor Board and ask them about all the possible consequences.

I just don't even know what to do with myself anymore.

Good night.

The Reveal

2010-07-07T20:21:00.002+09:00

We found out something very interesting this morning when we called the National Pension Office to discuss the legality of a hagwon not paying into the scheme. When they ran our Alien Registration Numbers they found that we are listed as "self employed" (as in, free agents who came to Korea [not under contract] looking for work on our own). We read them our contract and they agreed that Yoon's has mis-registered us. They did this to skirt around tax, health care and pension laws. So, before we can go and apply for our pension refunds (meaning we and the school will have to pay back pension that we will get back in 6-8 weeks) we have to go to the tax office and change our status to "worker."

Our meeting with Montana this morning was terribly anticlimactic. It's not that I wanted a fight, Montana went from "You've made a big mistake" (on the phone with Ian last night) to "Do whatever you need to, it's your choice," (the gist of his input during today's meeting) in a real hurry. I don't think he was prepared for us to have found out about the school's shady fraud situation.

Julia did not show up for our meeting. Ian tried to call her today and she refused to talk to him, stating that her English is not good enough and that she'd have a "recruiter" call back. Sure enough, ten minutes later a girl from ESL Park called. She tried to convince us that pension was a contract issue and that it isn't mandatory. When it was obvious that we weren't convinced, Ian told her that she wasn't privy to our plans and hung up.

In discussing this new circle of hell with fellow teachers, I've discovered that the school has been stealing the money that it claimed was going to pay for health care from us (15,000 won a month each). We have no health insurance cards and David/ Julia accompanied us to the hospital the three times we had to go. That adds up to roughly $220 and I want it back.

I'm really tempted to open the blog early, but I worry about libel laws and our last paychecks.

The last few entries will be suggestions and warnings regarding Yoon's and working in Korea in general. Here is a draft of the "blacklist letter" that I've been posting on several different ESL sites:

-Yoon's English Forest (영어 숲 ) has three campuses in Jecheon-si (Haso-dong, Sinback-dong and Goam/Jangnak-dong)
-The director's English name is Julia Lee and her Korean name is Park Eun-hee
-The corporate website is yoons.com (there is no website for the hagwons as of right now) and the phone number is 010.651.0580

From the start, the school was difficult to work for. I chalked my feelings up to cultural difference, kept my head down, worked hard and pushed through. I should have listened to my gut. 10.5 months in, I'm regretting ever getting on a plane and coming to this country. I work for this company with my husband, Ian.

Our director threatened to terminate our employment starting when we were 8 months into our contracts. It took us very much by surprise. We had had our differences, but we had always worked hard and found common ground in the past. It all reached it's peak then when they gave us a letter stating that we would be terminated if our "performance" did not improve in two weeks time. While this warning came as a shock to us (we had had a couple rough meetings with our director before then in which she was unhappy with one or two small things, but the overall feeling was that we were doing well), we took it very seriously and worked very hard (putting in extra hours and showing a lot of submission to our director) to show that we were serious about keeping our jobs.

Two weeks later, in a meeting to discuss whether we would, in fact, be terminated, our director told us that we seemed to be "doing our best" and that if we kept that up, everything should be fine.

Then, two weeks before the end of our third term with this hagwon our director made some changes to our schedules, switching the campuses that we worked at and such, and told us that if enrollment didn't improve in two weeks that we would be terminated (this time with no letter). Again, two weeks later our director told us that if we kept up the good work that our jobs were not in jeopardy (she seemed happy with our performance at this point and said that the "switch" was a very good idea).

Then, two weeks into the term, she called another meeting. She stated that she was very unhappy with our performance and said that our teaching skills were not up to par with what she had hoped for. The meeting ended with nothing concrete being said about our employment. The next week our director failed to show up to our meeting. Instead, it was conducted by our translator/supervisor. He told us that the company had decided to let us go and gave us a letter listing the reasons (which included ludicrous claims of inappropriate language and behavior in the classroom and poor class preparation [we have folders and folders of lesson plans, activities and worksheets to prove otherwise]). We have little room for legal action because they gave us four weeks notice (meaning we'd have to wait until we were no longer employed and housed to make a claim).

Additionally, we found out this morning that Yoon's registered us as "self employed" to skirt around tax, health care and pension laws. As we are American citizens living as "workers" (not self employed free agents as Yoon's falsely told the government) we are required to pay 4.5% of our income into pension with the school paying a matching 4.5%. Then, when we are leaving the country, we can apply for a full refund as per the agreement the US made with Korea in 1993. They have also used this illegal loophole to fly under the radar with National Health Insurance (which they have also not been paying or providing). Our hagwon has tried to convince us that their (and our) payments into this are optional. They are not. We will be going to the tax office, changing our status then taking the appropriate steps (including paying our back pension) to hold Yoon's responsible for this indiscretion.

Less shady and illegal, but still important things to know about this hagwon are:

-The school is incredibly unorganized and has no foundational curriculum to speak of. It (and the schedule) change upon the whim of the director.
-The school employs CCTV and regularly forces teachers to watch hours of themselves teaching and write down any mistakes or flaws and report them to the director
-There is no meal provided to foreign workers or time specifically allotted for consuming one's own, making for days in which one cannot eat for 7 hours
-There is no transport or stipend provided (while its common to make one's own transport, make sure you're living within walking distance to the campus or that the school provides a bus/van [as Jecheon GnB does])
-The director is known for her contradictory behavior. She will be happy with you one week and sit you in a two hour meeting discussing your faults the next.

Please, do your research. There are plenty of great schools and great people in Jecheon. Just DO NOT work for Yoon's.

Good night!

A New Low

2010-07-06T21:34:00.000+09:00

I asked Montana for the pension paperwork right as I was leaving work tonight. He said that he didn't have it because Julia hadn't been into the office today. Then he asked a question (which I don't remember) to clarify and he referred to it as "taxes." I corrected him and told him that our pension and taxes are two separate things. He said he didn't know what our contracts say, to which I replied that it had nothing to do with our contracts, that it is the law (we must pay 4.5% into it and the company must match 4.5%). He again stated that he didn't know anything about foreign contracts, and I repeated myself. Then we said our goodbyes and I left for home.

I tried to call Ian to tell him that we may have a problem, but the line was busy. A few minutes later he called me, telling me that he had just received an angry phone call from Montana. He had called Ian after I left to clarify this whole taxes versus pension situation. When Ian told him that we and the company must pay our 4.5% halves, things started to get ugly. Montana wasn't having it and when Ian asserted that it is the law, Montana said that Ian was threatening to shut down the company. Of course, Ian stated clearly that he did not say that or even imply it, but Montana was adamant. He told Ian that we'd have a meeting (including Julia) tomorrow at noon to "figure this out." He basically closed the phone call by telling Ian he'd made a big mistake. Remember, Korean libel laws are archaic and extremely harsh.

So, I met Ian at the Sinback campus where we printed out the English information regarding pension from a site for expats and directly from the National Pension Scheme's website. We did the math and figured out that our "taxes" taken out of our paycheck don't add up to 4.5%, which means that we most likely haven't been paying into the plan and neither has Yoon's. As we were walking home, Ian decided to call Montana back, hoping to end things on a lighter note. Montana insisted on referring to our pension as "taxes" and stated that pension was "not a must." The US has an agreement with Korea (France, Germany, Canada and Hungary have the same kind of agreement and other countries have different stipulations) and it is legally required for both parties to pay the tax. While it's our fault for never having run the math before, Yoon's was in charge of any and all deductions from our paychecks. If it hasn't been paid by either of us, I'm not sure there's anything we can do. If that's the case, we've lost another $2,500.

This nightmare just won't end. I miss my country. At least I understand its flawed labor laws.

Can someone tell me the feasibility of taking legal action from the US against a foreign company? I'm going insane here, I need options.

So tomorrow we will have a meeting at noon with two people who want nothing more than to screw us over in every way. It'll be our first face to face with Julia since she canned us.

Good night.

Trip Planning

2010-07-05T21:36:00.001+09:00

Planning for a vacation is equal parts stressful and fun. In the guide that I'm putting together (so that we can plan our days as we go without being tied to a computer) I've made it as far as Prague, the fourth city out of our nine (not including the night we'll spend in Bangkok). It's incredibly tedious, but I'm so looking forward to getting out of here and leaving this job behind.

I asked Montana for a copy of Yoon's pension records in regards to our paychecks. He said that he had spoken to Julia and that he'd give me the paperwork tomorrow. We shall see.

Two of my classes were really rowdy and obnoxious today. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, they are just kids after all, but the students at the Goam campus are so spoiled and bratty it's just unforgivable. They're rude, packed full of self righteous expectations and to them, as we're foreigners, we are the help and nothing more. I have less patience, tolerance and energy with each passing day.

I just hope I can make it another two weeks without cracking.

Good night!

A Quiet Night

2010-07-05T00:39:00.000+09:00

Today was more like any other Sunday than the 4th of July. We met Ben and Amy for a run in the park, it was completely packed today and some of the kids were a bit obnoxious. After we went home and showered we met later for dinner in (at their place) and a movie. We watched Greenburg which was alright, but I think the film was trying very hard to be something specific instead of just letting the writing and acting speak for themselves.

It's always great to hand out with the Nanneys and tonight was no exception.

But, I'm not feeling all that great (I think it's too much dairy from the two slices of pizza I had for dinner), so I will keep this short.

Good night!

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T12:51:00.000+09:00

Ian and I aren't doing much today. Last night we went over to Arienne and Tristan's apartment for a Canada Day (July 1) and 4th of July party. We met some new people, drank some sangria and generally had a great time. Their apartment is amazing. It's still small by American standards, but it's one that I wouldn't mind living in stateside. The layout (it's much more open than most Korean apartments) is very desirable.

I don't really mind a low key 4th. I do miss my family, as this holiday is one of the quintessential summer days spent at my grandmother's house on Mason Lake. But, I'm not a fan of fireworks. They make me anxious and I'm always worrying about animals on the 4th.

Speaking of animals, Mipa from Alien's Day Out linked a petition to help Moon Bears in Korea. They are facing extinction, as only 19 bears live in the wild. The real problem is that there are 1400 Moon Bears in captivity, kept and tortured for their digestive bile and other body parts in the name of Oriental Medicine. Go to moonbears.org for more information and, if you're moved to, sign the petition.

I hope you all have a wonderful, fun, and safe holiday weekend. Be sure to wish our native land happy birthday for us.

Going through the Pantry

2010-07-03T18:03:00.000+09:00

Ian and I are trying to get through the dry goods in our pantry. Mostly, we have a lot of noodles and lentils to get through. So for dinner tonight we made jjajangmyun, or stir fried veggies with black bean sauce over noodles. It supposed to be wheat noodles, but we used the cellophane ones we already had.

Looks like a big mess, but it's yummy!

Fun with Korean Snacks

2010-07-02T22:53:00.000+09:00

We found a few new products of interest at Lotte Mart.

Dick Stick! They come in three flavors: fried chicken, bulgogi and (these) sesame seed.

We bought a three pack of gum because it was on sale. We opened it while we were waiting for a taxi in the dark. Because it was dark, we couldn't see the packages very well. Figuring we'd save the peppermint looking one for last, we tried the Acacia first, it tasted like a cross between liquid dish detergent and perfumed lotion geared toward the elderly. Then we tried the Sunkist Mangosteen; it tasted a bit like flat Fanta, but it wasn't terrible. Last was the silver package. It is the most terrible thing I've ever tasted, very akin to laundry detergent. It wasn't until we got home that I realized it had a "no smoking" symbol on it. I'm guessing that means it's nicotine gum. Gross.

Good night!

Death and Taxes

2010-07-02T22:36:00.000+09:00

The former is what we wish for Yoon's, the latter being the latest matter of interest in our downward spiral with them.

Before we left work tonight, we quickly asked Montana what he had found out about our pension. To remind you, we get reimbursed for the Korean pension we pay here because the US and Korean governments have an agreement. So, we just wanted to make sure that Yoon's had been paying their half and that there wasn't anything else that we needed to know before filing for our reimbursement. But, when we asked Montana if he had any information for us he said that he had talked to Julia and she said that there was nothing we could do, that because we're leaving Korea we will not be able to get our money back.

We told Montana very firmly that this is not true. Then we clarified that Yoon's had been paying their part and Montana insisted they had. So, we're going to the file the paperwork as soon as possible. We won't be able to get any money back until our last paycheck is issued (because that's when our last payment will go to the National Pension Scheme), but we want to make sure everything is good to go before we leave. Click here for Korea4Expats' explanation of the pension scheme.

Replacements

2010-07-01T21:45:00.000+09:00

Thursday is very rough and I am exhausted. It's my longest day, as the first class starts at 2 and the last ends at 8:40. I have a couple of breaks, which I used to work on our guide for our summer trip. It's going to be a big packet and when all is said and done I'll have probably put over 20 hours into it. I'm excited, though. I found some vegetarian restaurants in Ho Chi Minh, including a vegan pho restaurant.

Danny and Montana were at the Haso campus with Ian today. Danny was sitting in on Ian's classes, but Montana didn't really have a purpose there. Maybe he is required to go wherever Danny goes. They do live together, after all. It seems that Danny will be taking over the Haso campus once we're gone.

I'm no expert in Korean law, but as far as I know only native speakers of English (only those holding documents from countries like the USA, UK, Australia, etc) are supposed to be teaching conversational classes. For a hagwon to be operating legally, there must be an hour of classroom time with a foreigner for every hour of classroom time with a Korean English teacher. Yoon's system is already a little different than most of the others (with the tapes and everything), so I'm not sure if they are within the lines of the law there or not. I also know that many places hire Filipino teachers and that seems to be legal.

Danny was born in Korea and his parents relocated to the states when he was very young. He is a Korean citizen; and though he speaks very little Korean, Yoon's currently has him teaching the grammar classes that are designed for Korean teachers. I'm not sure whether his citizenship makes him an illegal conversation teacher or not, but I will be looking into it. I've nothing against Danny, but I'm after anything I can find against Yoon's.

It seems that my replacement might be lined up as well. I haven't met or seen her, but Yoon's hired a Korean-Canadian named Maria recently. I think the company has had its fill of white people, since the foreigners they are bringing in are Korean by heritage.

I couldn't be happier to be leaving rigid homogeneity behind.

Good night!

Coworkers

2010-07-01T00:04:00.000+09:00

This will be brief, as I am absolutely exhausted.

Chun wha invited us out with the teachers from Haso tonight. We briefly walked around Uirimji and then headed to a hof (tavern/ bar) for dinner and a couple of beers. It was amazing to relax and hang out with coworkers. I will sincerely miss them when we leave. We even talked a little about our firing and found that most of the other teachers feel the same way we do. David (the teacher who replaced Eun wha at Haso) told us that he worked one day at Goam and quit because it was too stressful and he didn't like the students or the boss. I think Yoon's may find it even more difficult to hire and keep employees on its next round.

Chun wha and Chang su have invited us to the East Sea (or a trip somewhere else if they decide another place is better) on the 17th. I'm excited.

Good night!

Rewind

2010-06-29T19:04:00.000+09:00

Today's meeting was bizarre. We were about 15 minutes late, which turned out not to matter at all because Montana was in a meeting with Julia. We came and sat in my classroom and a few minutes later, Montana joined us. No Julia. Even though she was on campus she did not show her face at our meeting.

Montana jumped right into giving Ian a rundown of how the classes went on Thursday (the day after we were fired). Montana covered them at Haso while Ian and I took a day off work to clear our heads and figure out what we were going to do. I stared out the window while Ian and Montana talked. The meeting was hardly relevant to me at all. It reminded me (exactly) of when Gene was working here. This meeting was basically a carbon copy of every meeting we ever had with Gene, pointless and short. At one point, Montana sketched a worksheet template suggestion (saying the note was from Julia) for Ian that is literally the graph style template we use for 95% of applicable worksheets.

There was no mention of the firing. There was no chastising or correcting. It was as if we were normal, well liked employees and it made me so angry. I will never let something like this happen to me again. I know, now, how to see this kind of shafting coming and I am no longer naive enough to give an employer the benefit of the doubt. There is too much at stake.

Montana went to close the (20 minute) meeting, but Ian and I stopped him to ask him some questions and clear up our timeline. He supposed to get back to us with tax information, since he doesn't know much about that. But, our last day of work is the 21st and we'll have someone (Julia, David or Montana) inspect the apartment on Thursday. As soon as they see that we've left it in good shape (aside from a couple of burn marks from our gas range which we hope they'll overlook) they'll give us our last check. Based on the bizarrely kind way they've been treating us this past week, I have a feeling they'll say the apartment is up to snuff. After all, they've already got what they wanted, they're already saving themselves $6,000. With check in hand, we'll be off to the bank to send the last of our money to our Chase account, change some currency and close our Korean accounts. That will be a good day indeed.

Good night!

Out of Steam

2010-06-28T19:54:00.001+09:00

The only other time I can remember being so thoroughly exhausted as this was UPS finals/ graduation.

For me, it's not necessarily all of the things that I am doing that make me tired. It's the thought of everything that needs to get done. I'm a notorious list maker. Through college I had a cafe board on which I made lists of everything that needed to be done. Everyone always talks about wonderful it feels to cross something off the list; I get almost as much relief our of making them.

But, sometimes the lists don't help. Since we got fired I've been having trouble sleeping. It takes me an hour or two for my brain to stop cataloging all that needs to be done (packing, cleaning, Visa applications, itinerary finalizing, etc) and fall asleep. Then if I wake up at any point, it starts all over again. Last night I nearly hopped out of bed because I randomly remembered that I wanted to find a vegan whipped cream recipe for Mom. Stress does ridiculous things to me.

It's not as if I was sleeping well before we got fired; our bed is rock hard and the mattress is starting to break down where I normally sleep because it has no give at all. I went to bed at 11:30 last night and got up at 8:40. I was doing a little reading during one of my breaks and I actually dozed off for a minute or two. I should be functioning better on 9 hours of sleep.

Aside from physical energy, I don't have much either. I'm so disconnected from this job. The lesson plans I made today are lazy and while I feel bad for the students (the ones who aren't urchins), I honestly don't think they care. I'm officially a warm body to fill a (legally sanctioned) position until they find a replacement.

Julia tried to greet me in the hall and I mostly ignored her. I tried to smile a little to be polite, as I don't want any complications regarding our last paychecks. But, I think I only managed to twist my face into a grimace. Later, Montana popped his head into my classroom to tell me there was pizza for the staff. I said okay and sat back down at my desk, not intending to do any interacting that wasn't obligatory. Then Terry (Julia's son) came in with the pizza box and a cup of Coke. I told him I didn't want any. I wanted to tell him where he could put the pizza and coke, but I didn't. He seemed very surprised and left.

We have been told that our presence is required at a meeting tomorrow at noon. I don't know what it will be about, but Ian and I have several things we need to clear up (taxes, date of our last payment), so we will take full advantage. I'm not sure if Julia will be there. Either way, we're going to discuss the effectiveness of such meetings. We don't want to attend any more. After all, our letter cites seeing no solution to our faults as a reason for letting us go, so why bother?

Good night!

Inner Child

2010-06-27T18:15:00.001+09:00

When I was a kid, I was really into making bracelets out of embroidery thread. At first, they were simple braided things, but then I learned a few different knot patterns and they got more interesting. Unfortunately, I've forgotten most of the patterns.

Today, Ian and I were in the Daiso downtown and I saw a packet of embroidery thread for 2000 won. I couldn't resist. So, I spent several hours today making silly little bracelets and necklaces.

I made Amy a little bracelet.

And myself one, too.

I got these two dol hareubang (grandfathers) from Jeju Island. I bought them specifically to make a necklace.

We had two ¥50 coins, which have holes in them, so I decided to make another necklace.

The two necklaces share a lot of elements, so they can be warn layered or separately. I'm pretty stoked about them.

Good night!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANT!

2010-06-27T10:31:00.001+09:00

Dear Grant,

Happy 5th birthday! We miss you so much and we can't wait to see you. Have the best birthday, buddy. Tell Mom and Dad to take you to the Grilled Cheese Grill. I have a feeling you'll like their menu.

We remember your first birthday when you smeared blue frosting all over your cute face. I hope you have as much fun with your cake this year. We wish we could be there with you, but we'll have to make up for it when we get back. What do you want to do when we get home?

Happy birthday, little man. See you soon!!

Love,

Casey and Enon

대한민국!!

2010-06-27T10:21:00.000+09:00

(Said "Daehan-Minguk!!) That's the chant for Korea's World Cup team. Actually, it's just "Republic of Korea" in Korean. We had a good time last night, but Korea lost 2:1. They pushed for it at the end, but it was too little too late. Uruguay's defense was like a wall.

We didn't have the best view, but most of the bars were so packed that we were lucky to get seats at all.

Bar snacks. This particular bar served pupa as one of their snacks.

Amy was brave and actually tried them. Throughout the night different people tried their hand at stomaching the infamous street food.

Though they were a fun challenge for those brave enough, they remained largely rejected compared to the other snacks. I didn't eat anything from that tray as it was all a little too close to the critters for comfort.

Enchilada Dinner

2010-06-26T21:23:00.001+09:00

Ian made enchiladas tonight for dinner. He made the sauce from scratch using this adapted recipe.

Served with a heap of sauteed "mexi seasoned" (garlic, onion, green chili and salt) veggies.

Surprise! They were stuffed with seasoned tofu and purple sweet potatoes. The sweetness of the potatoes went well with the spiciness of the sauce.

Tonight we are heading over to Metro (a bar) to watch the Korea/Uruguay game. It should be fun and this time I'll have the camera.

Good night!

Another Day Another Dollar

2010-06-25T21:49:00.000+09:00

Today was one of the most difficult days at work I've had in a long time. My students were fine, I just had absolutely no motivation to be there. It got better as the day wore on, which is good because when my first class began I was considering just sitting there and letting my students read or something.

I'd love to walk out on Yoon's now. Leaving them without wanamines (foreign teachers) would leave them in financial and legal limbo. But, if we quit now we'd lose July's paycheck and likely June's.

I've done a little more research on "Unfair Dismissals" and it isn't looking good. Because Yoon's gave us a letter of warning two months ago, it would be nearly impossible for us to prove our side of things. It doesn't really matter that Ian and I worked hard to do well by them or that their complaints are mostly ridiculous, the company followed proper procedure and are therefore in the clear. I feel ridiculous in saying so, but I'm certain they planned their moves from that point on very carefully. I wrote up a report on a major ESL Blacklist site and I will contribute to other sites' lists as well. For now, it seems that's the best we can do.

By the way, Julia was at Goam today. She completely ignored us and didn't even make eye contact. I'd like to confront her, but the possible consequences (financial and legal) aren't worth it.

The good news is that we'll have about a $1000 refund from our Korean taxes coming back at us. I want to get it before we leave, but it might be easier to apply from the states.

We booked our flight home last night. Instead of flying directly from Munich on the 26th, we're flying from Prague (an easy train ride away) on the 27th. It's saving us $850. We will arrive at SEATAC at 7:53pm on Friday, August 27th. Who's picking us up? Do know that whomever gathers us from the airport thereby agrees to take us to Denny's (Ian stipulates that it's the Aberdeen Denny's or bust, but I have no preference).

This is a much needed weekend, indeed.

Good night!

The Beginning

2010-06-24T23:42:00.001+09:00

It's the beginning of the end around here. The more Ian and I research the Labor Board, the more it seems like it would be a full time job (before and after our actual dismissal) to bring any kind of consequences to Yoon's. And, while I believe in fighting for one's rights, it's always important to weigh the cost and benefit and choose one's battles wisely. We haven't given up, we're still looking for options. But, if it comes down to it (and it likely will) we will choose moving on and traveling instead of bringing Yoon's to justice.

We packed up our winter clothes and some of the things that we don't need around here. That's what is in the two big boxes. The small box is full of textbooks and teaching materials that we need to give back to Yoon's. It felt really good to get some things packed away. Parts of our apartment look a little empty, but it brings us a lot of relief to be finally moving on, even if it is under unfortunate circumstances.

We fully planned our trip today. The only thing we have left to do is actually book our flight home (either in to SEATAC or PDX). Here is our basic itinerary:

We fly out from Incheon Airport on July 24th at 2:15pm. After a four hour layover in China, we'll arrive in Ho Chi Minh City at 9:55pm.
We will stay in Vietnam until the 27th, when we will head to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for two nights.
Then, on the 30th of July, we'll head up the river to Siem Reap where we will spend five nights (including our one year anniversary)!
On the 4th of August we'll fly from Siem Reap to Prague (Czech Republic) via Bangkok and then Moscow. Our layover in Bangkok is 12 hours long. It's at night, but we're going to see if there is a safe place to get something to eat so that we can get a little view of the city. We'll spend 4 days and 3 nights in Prague.
On the 9th of August we'll hop a night train for the 7 hour trip to Budapest, Hungary where we'll spend 3 nights.
On the 13th of August we'll get on the earliest morning train (3 hours) to Vienna, Austria. We're spending 3 days and 2 nights there.
On the 15th we'll get another night train (7 hours, again) to Venice, Italy where we'll spend 3 days and 2 nights.
On the 18th we're hopping on yet another night train for the whopping 11 hour trek to Paris. We're hoping we don't have to change trains, but we might. We'll be in Paris for 4 days and 3 nights. Our original plan included spending my birthday in Paris, which can't happen, but (ironically) we'll be in the city during Mom's. Hey Mama, what would you like?
On the 22nd we'll get on our last night train (6 hours) to Munich, Germany where we will be until the 26th, when we plan to flight back home. We haven't bought that last bit of airfare yet, we're still scanning for a good price.

For those of you keeping score at home, that's 10 cities (9 countries) in 33 days. It'll be one hell of a whirlwind, but it's what we've been waiting for.

I don't want to go to work tomorrow. It's tough to be motivated for a job from which you've already been fired.

Good night!

A Strange Encounter

2010-06-24T21:59:00.005+09:00

Ian and I spent some time downtown today. We picked up our American Eagle package at the post office, had lunch, spent some time drinking coffee and planning our trip and did a little shopping. Right after lunch, as we were walking through the shopping center we came across a group of young people fervently praying, led by a man with a guitar.

The sign on the left has the word "sarang," meaning "love" on it. Other than that, I have no idea.

Her sign simply says "Jesus Christ."

It was very passionate, but peaceful. The group prayed aloud and did some call and answers with the guitar man. People walking by watched passively, but left them alone.

Response

2010-06-23T21:28:00.001+09:00

I know that I'm most likely preaching to the converted, here, but I'd like to take a moment to talk specifically about why the reasons listed on our letter of termination are complete and total bull. So, beware, for below is an organized rant. I don't blame you if you choose not to participate.

Abiding complaints from students and their parents as well as principals for the last 8 months

I cannot account for the principles, but students complain about everything. If I gave them a lot of challenging work, they complained. If we played language games (taboo, pictionary, charades, etc.) they complained to the principals because they thought it was funny to see if we'd get in trouble. As for the parents, they send their kids to hagwon once a week and expect them to be fluent in one term (3 months). It's common knowledge that Korean parents will pick up their kids' text book, flip to a random page and ask their kid to translate/answer/explain. If they cannot do it perfectly in English, the parent calls the hagwon.

2. Caused serious financial damage to school management as well as lowering school's reputation by losing students

Personally, I think that opening four campuses in a small town of 140,000 people within your first year of business is financially ridiculous. There are many established hagwons in Jecheon, it would have been smarter to open one campus, build a rapport with the city and move from there. Oh, and as for a reputation, it's the hagwon division of Yoon's first year of business, so there was no reputation to "lower."

3. Poor class preperation

This is a stack of lesson plans from one month of Ian's time at the Goam campus.

This is an average lesson plan of mine for a forty minute class. Some of them are more interesting than this, but all are at least this thorough.

4. Using inappropriate words and behavior in the class

About two months in, Ian and I were told that we weren't to use the word "crazy" or the Korean equivalent "babo" in class. Since then, neither of us has used it and we've implemented disciplinary measures for students who use it in class. In fact, Ian made a list of inappropriate ("do not say") words on his board at Goam and I retained it. Ian has been reprimanded for playing with his students. He pokes, teases and bops them on the head, riling them up and making them laugh. For several months, this is how Ian bonded with his students with no one telling him not to. Last week, when Montana was sitting in on his class, Ian was playing with the students when he used the paper folder to lightly bop them on their heads. Rebecca, a student that is all around good but routinely whines and needs attention, began to cry. She told Montana that she had fought with her friend earlier that day, had been hit in the head and it still hurt. Later that week, at our meeting, Montana flew off the handle at Ian and told him that he could invite lawsuits for "hitting" the students.

5. Not using textbook with felicity

I don't even understand this complaint. We use the textbooks and as for "felicity," we've never complained about them unless they've explicitly asked us for criticism.

6. Assignment is not checked up properly

I can only assume that this is referring to homework. I check the student's homework everyday at the beginning of each class. Julia even once complimented my thorough grading. They have hours of CCTV videos of my teaching to prove that. When Ian first started working for Goam, there was a lot of confusion regarding the essays that were assigned and who (the students see their main teacher and then come for our conversation class) was supposed to assign homework to the younger students. Every time the question was posed to Julia or any authority figure, a different answer was given. But, for the last two months Ian has had complete control over his classes, which means that he assigns and checks homework everyday.

7. Teaching method is not as developed as expected

There's really no way to argue this. Maybe we're not good teachers. Maybe we're not what Yoon's wants. But, the time to fire us for that was months ago.

8. School management can't find any possibility any of the above situation would be corrected

Right, because finding a solution would mean paying us our severance.

Our notice of dismissal is illegal on two counts. A) It is not signed or dated by both parties. B) It lists a time of less than 30 days. This could mean that we're due another 30 days wages. So, we're gathering information. We asked for the day off tomorrow (and got it), so we'll be getting our ducks in a row.

Good night!

Worst Case Scenario

2010-06-23T19:13:00.001+09:00

"What's the worst that could happen?" That's the question you ask yourself each and every time you stand at a juncture, deciding whether or not to take a risk.

Ian and I were no exception when we were looking at jobs in Korea. We were fully aware (or, at least, as aware as we could have been) of the potential problems and deceptions of taking work as a foreigner in Korea. But, we came anyway. With that in mind, we are trying to move forward (up and out) during this time of crisis.

This morning we arrived for our scheduled meeting at Goam. Only Montana was here. We talked to him casually for a few minutes and then he instructed us to wait in his office while he sent a fax. A few minutes later he came in and told us that apparently Julia wasn't going to come. Then, he bluntly but professionally told us that, "The company has decided to let you go." Ian and I didn't react. We just stared at him, so Montana repeated himself, said he was sorry, but "that's business." We walked out of his office and he gave us our official letters (which, still unsigned and undated by anyone are not legal):

OBJECT: TERMINATION OF YOUR EMPLOYMENT

Casey Whitlatch

We regret to inform you that your employment with Yoon's English School in Jecheon is terminated effective in four(4) weeks from receipt of this letter for the following reasons:

Abiding complaints from students and their parents as well as principals for the last 8 months
Caused serious financial damage to school management as well as lowering school's reputation by losing students
Poor class preparation
Using inappropriate words and behavior in the class
Not using textbook with felicity
Assignment is not checked up properly
Teaching method is not effectively developed as expected
School management can't find any possibility any of the above situation would be corrected

Please vacate the premises with your personal possessions within four(4) weeks. We will forward your salary to date in due course or pay at your leave only if both you and Yoon's English School agree.

Please contact the management if you need explanation for these items and the school management also will arrange with you for the return and maintenance of any company property including housing. If school management finds any maintenance issue including cleanliness, the cost will be deducted from your last payroll.

Sincerely,

Yoon's English School

56-1 Haso-dong

Jecheon-si, Choongbuk-do, Korea

The good news is we have the day off tomorrow. We'll be heading to the labor offices in Chunju. Stay tuned for a post responding to our outlined deficiencies.

Internet Food Fad

2010-06-22T22:20:00.000+09:00

Hasselback Potatoes!

They're all over food blogs, but this Swedish-born creation is just a fancy baked potato. Most recipes call for Russet, but we don't have access to those, so we used yellow.

Before cooking.

Cut the potatoes in thin "almost" scallops. Be careful not to chop through the bottom. Brush (we use a little spray bottle) on a little oil and top with a generous amount of the seasonings of your choice. We used salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper and basil. Then, to save on cooking time, we nuked them for about 7 minutes. We "baked" them on the stove top, but most recipes say to brown at 400.

Served with tofu steak (with sauteed mushrooms) and steamed broccoli. Mine fell apart a bit where I cut in a little too far.

Good night!

Something

2010-06-22T19:45:00.000+09:00

There's a strange feeling in the air at Yoon's. Everyone (all the teachers, that is) can feel that something is happening. Changing. Maybe. No one is really sure.

The "secretary" (there's a man who works at the Goam campus fixing computers, making schedules and doing the other odds and ends- my mother would remember him as the man with the shiny suit) told Rahee today that he saw a new schedule and that her and Stephanie's names were missing from it. In fact, they weren't just missing, there were other names in their place. But, Julia told Stephanie today that if she wanted to work another thirty day cycle that Rahee needed to work, too. Somehow, they're contracts are contingent on each other's. Neither Rahee nor Stephanie have any idea why.

I talked to Rahee for about a half an hour today. She was told that someone would be sitting in on her classes today. She couldn't remember the girl's name, only that she was Korean-Canadian. But, when I walked by her class, no one unusual was there, just her students. I wonder for what position this person is being hired. Terry (Julia's son) is also back in Korea for summer break, so they'll probably find a position for him here, too. The amount of excess baggage at this company is unbelievable.

Rahee's mother, who is a "home teacher" for Yoon's, has been ill recently, so she has been unable to take on her normal load of students. David, Julia's husband and the real owner of Yoon's, has been pushing her to take a larger load. Her mom has worked for Yoon's for six years, but she's seriously considered quitting. She told Rahee that she may even leave before Rahee is finished.

Julia and her children lived in Australia for four years. During that time, David was running the Jecheon Yoon's franchise. Julia and her youngest (Terry stayed for university and to get out of mandatory military service) came back to Korea and the family went to work expanding their franchise to include hagwons (the Korean word for cram school). Julia is in charge of the hagwons and David still runs the home-study portion of the business. It seems that her management style has poisoned that division, too, because they are losing home teachers left and right according to Rahee via her mother.

I'm very nervous about our meeting tomorrow, but I'm ready for it. I hope that the idea of firing us or "shortening our contracts" doesn't even come up, but if it does Ian and I are armed to the teeth with information. My guess is that they do not expect us to know the laws. They expect us to take everything they say as gospel and, in the beginning, that's what happened. Julia and David think we're stupid and they treat us like children. Because Korean workers rarely act on their own volition, they will be surprised if they end up confronted with our appeal to the Labor Board.

I'm trying to find information on the web about Wonderland Jecheon (the hagwon that Julia worked at before Yoon's), but I'm not having any luck.

Delay

2010-06-21T19:07:00.002+09:00

Ian and I got up this morning and went to the gym as usual. Luckily, Ian happened to check my phone when we got back because Montana had called and texted to say that the meeting was moved to Wednesday.

I'm not sure what signal to take from that. Is she delaying the inevitable? Julia did tell Rahee that she avoided dealing with her because she found it stressful. Or is the meeting much less weighty than we're imagining it to be? I don't want to wait any longer. I just want to know so that I have a clearer picture of my future.

Rahee is seriously considering quitting. Julia is trying to push her out. Rahee is going to wait and see if Stephanie leaves (another teacher who told Julia she wanted to quit about a month ago, but agreed to stay for another thirty days). If I understood her correctly, Rahee will leave if Stephanie does.

I'm fairly certain that this hagwon won't make it past the end of the year, if it makes it that far at all. This hagwon has been shady from the beginning (if you'll remember, they didn't properly put our information through with immigration until we'd been here for three months). I can't wait to open this blog and write about the abusive practices here. I really don't want anyone else to come in as blindly as we did; which is why the very last post on this blog will be a guide to getting good work in Korea and making the most of your experience.

The good news is that my students have been especially wacky and energetic today. It's tough to resist that sort of pick me up.

On a side note, Laurie at the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee has begun her fund raising for the Pierce County Humane Society's Dog-A-Thon Fundraiser. All donations made through her group go directly to help the cats and kittens at the shelter. Last year, she and her group raised $23,000 and helped build an entire new wing in the cat area. This year her goal is $40, 000. I gave last year and I will again. If you're feeling generous, please visit her blog and follow the links to give. To learn more about the Dog-A-Thon, go here.

Good night!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

2010-06-21T00:29:00.000+09:00

Here's wishing a happy Father's Day to the main dads in our lives: Poppa Max, Al, Bruce, and Rob.

And, of course, Grandpa Swan and Grandpa Bob who are no longer with us, but always in our hearts.

For fun, here's some dad related humor from Engrish.com:

Runners' High

2010-06-20T20:20:00.000+09:00

Nothing looks quite as bad after a good run.

Even if I'm in a terrible mood, a good run turns it 180 degrees. But, today I was already in a good mood, so our trip to the park just made it even better.

Ben and Amy met us at our apartment at 5 o'clock and we all walked to the park that's just a few blocks away. It was pretty packed today, lots of kids and parents and also many elderly folks getting some fresh air. It used to make me nervous to have such an audience, but I've gained a lot of confidence in my running, so it doesn't bother me anymore. And most of the little kids that run after you are more cute than obnoxious, so it just makes the run more interesting. A treadmill can be very mind numbing.

We guess that it's roughly 6 laps to a mile (the track is about 3/4 the size of your average school track, we think). I easily ran 18 laps, pushing it to a sprint for the last one. But, Ben is hands down the fastest runner out of all of us. We're no competition for him; he ran 21 in the time that it took me to run 17 of mine.

We decided to make this a weekly event. Every Sunday (unless it's pouring) we'll head over to the little track and put on a waegookin (foreigner) show for all the people there. I'm really excited it.

I am not, however, excited for tomorrow's meeting. We know our rights and options. If Julia fires us outright or threatens to without putting down a four to six week time line, we will take action. The tricky part will be not losing our cool and not "threatening" her by telling her that we're prepared to go to the Labor Board. We actually emailed the Ministry of Labor today. We didn't name our hagwon or Julia, since we're just hoping to get some advice.

Here's hoping it turns out we don't need it. Good night!

Dinner and a Show

2010-06-20T13:19:00.000+09:00

Ben and Amy came over for dinner last night. We made stuffed pepper, spicy sweet potatoes and glazed steamed carrots. Amy brought pa jun (veggie pancakes) and peanut butter cookies. We stuffed ourselves. Then we stuffed ourselves again with popcorn and mini snickers while we watched Lovely Bones.

Just as the movie ended, around midnight, a thunderstorm picked up outside. It was really active with high lightening and thunder every few seconds. So, being the silly people that we are, we ran outside to get a better view. We ended up underneath the covered entrance to Sinback elementary. We watched the storm and talked for another three and a half hours. We didn't get in until after 4am, which is why this post is late. My apologies.

There aren't any pictures because we were having too much fun. I promise I'll get better at getting photographic evidence of such events.

Ben and Amy are considering Portland for when they return to the states. Ian and I couldn't be more excited about that. We try not to be pushy (well, I try, Ian's pretty open with his peer pressure), but it would be fabulous to have them there. I think they would fit very well with the other great people who already live in that area.

We're currently doing more research on the labor laws in Korea. So far, we've discovered that if Julia does fire us or threaten to, we must walk a very fine line. If we tell her outright that we will go to the Labor Board, it could be taken as a threat and (because of archaic libel and other laws here) she could have a civil case against us. So, we have to inform her that we know what we are owed without alarming her or coming out and saying what we will do. Stay tuned.

Rights

2010-06-19T13:40:00.001+09:00

Here's an update in case you find yourself wondering.

Ian and I did a little research this morning about our rights in case we get fired on Monday. Here are a couple of points of interest from the more experienced folks on the Dave's ESL Cafe forums:

The written warning we received a few months ago is null and void because no one signed and dated it.
Because of this, if we are terminated on Monday it is as if we were never given warning. Therefore, we are (supposedly) entitled to a percentage (83%, since that's the amount of our contract we've completed) of our severance pay and airfare or equivalent payment. This goes against what it states in our contract, so I am a little confused.
This money would be owed to us on the day of termination.
Also, because we would be fired "without notice" we would be owed one months pay for lost income, but I don't really know how this works.
If we do file a report with the Labor Board, it will take 14 days for anything to happen. But, after that it seems (by most accounts) that things would turn out in our favor.

I emailed Asia to see if she had any information that could help us. This is all very confusing and overwhelming, but we're not going to take it laying down. A few people on the forums reported similar incidents (which is where we got this info) and most people agreed that they were being hosed by their hagwons. If necessary, we will go to the Labor Board and the US Embassy.

As we learn more, I'll keep you posted.

Loose Lips Sink Ships

2010-06-18T22:42:00.000+09:00

Ian's a big fan of these propaganda posters and today's events reminded me of this one.

Randomly, and in passing, Danny said something very troubling to Ian. He said, "So, I heard you might be leaving soon." To which Ian replied, "Not that I know of. Who said that?" Danny just seemed confused and said he didn't know. Since they live together, we figured that it was probably Montana who said something. So, Ian mentioned to Montana what we'd heard and asked him if he knew anything specific. In true Montana form, he vaguely alluded to Julia being the boss and him not knowing anything. He said we'd all discuss it on Monday (here's to a relaxing weekend, right?). Montana's a good guy, but he hasn't proven any help when it comes to Julia.

So, Ian and I spent the day vaguely nauseated and anxious. Our Europe plans may be for naught. I had gotten a little too attached to the idea of having my birthday in Paris and I'm trying really hard not to pity myself (prematurely, I hope). Our tickets to SE Asia are nonrefundable, but if we do get fired on Monday, we'll be calling to see if we can change the end destination on our ticket from Siem Reap.

I can't wait for this ordeal to be over. However, I'd like my effort to be worth something and I'd like to complete our contracts.

Good night.

Korea Fighting!

2010-06-17T23:19:00.001+09:00

Well, Korea put up a fight, but their defense was no match for Argentina's offensive onslaught.

But, Ian and I enjoyed the game, mostly because of our company. We were invited to watch the game over at the Sinback campus with a few of the other Yoon's teachers. Ian got a ride with David, the Korean teacher who took Eun wha's position. I met them after work.

I don't have any pictures because I didn't want to waste time to go home and grab the camera before I went to the Sinback campus. I didn't get off work until 8:40, so I missed most of the first half anyway. At Sinback, they had taken out all the desks in Ian's classroom and spread cardboard on the ground, where we sat in front of the large t.v. They had beer, soda, fried chicken, pork and all sorts of snack food (including red grapes, which I was really excited about). I picked up bibimbap for Ian and I, since there wasn't anything substantial enough for us to call dinner.

It was a really good time, as our coworkers turned out to be very vocal fans.

The last ten minutes or so of the game were pretty terrible, with Korea's defeat already obvious (it was 4:1). I hope we can get together with everyone for the next game, which is on Wednesday. USA plays Slovenia tomorrow. You can only watch it stateside if you have ESPN, which is really too bad. We're pretty behind when it comes to the world's sport.

Good night!

Penny Candy

2010-06-16T21:11:00.000+09:00

I have a sweet tooth. Some studies say that it's genetic, but I have a hard time believing that, since my mom has less of a taste for sugar than anyone I've ever met.

I've tried to eat less refined sugar in my meals (for example, we eat very little bread, especially for Americans), but when it comes to sweet treats, I've had to make allowances. That said, since we've been in Korea I've worked very hard to retrain my palate. I don't crave junk food anymore and I feel completely full and satisfied after a meal without any simple starches. I think some of that has to do with Ian and my nightly "dessert" of some kind. We make (caloric) room for a treat because deprivation simply doesn't work.

My love of candy gives me a nostalgia for an era that is not my own. I wish that I had experienced the time when kids could spend a handful of change and get a big bag full of assorted candy in return. Candy is much more corporate now, and much more expensive.

In Korea, there is still some very cheap, simple candy. You can buy it at any of the one off marts (the big chains just have brand name candy).

Two types of 100 won (dime) candy from the mart next to the Goam campus. The round one is a citrus hard candy and the flat one is a pumpkin chew. The pumpkin chew is (very) lightly dusted with rice flour so that is doesn't stick to the plastic. This gives it a flavor reminiscent of the Japanese Botan Rice Candy that you can buy in the foreign food section of most Safeway stores.

I love that stuff.

Good night!

Same Same

2010-06-15T21:11:00.000+09:00

"Same same" is Konglish for anything that is, for lack of a better term, the same. Students use it for people who look alike, similar things and ideas and anything that matches.

In Korea, it's popular for couples to dress to match each other. So popular, in fact, that stores sell pairs of entire outfits dedicated to the past time. Lingerie shops sell his and her underwear and pajama sets. We saw a lot of it on Jeju-do when we went with Mom. A very large percentage of Korean newlyweds honeymoon on Jeju and the spirit of dressing to match was definitely in the air.

So, when the two boys in my last class today showed up in matching outfits, I had to take their picture.

They're brothers and their mom put them in matching outfits. But, the boys (Mattew and Eric, respectively, and no, that's not a typo) seem to be in on the joke. I said, "Your clothes!" to Mattew and he replied, "Yes, couple. HA HA HA! It's funny!" Indeed it was.

I really like these two boys. There was a very strange little girl in the class named Cathy, but I think she switched to a different class, so it's just the three of us on Tuesday evenings.

I didn't see much of Julia today. She had a meeting with Rahee last night and, since then, she's been gunning for her. Julia is sitting in all of Rahee's classes and generally making her life terrible. She told me that in the meeting Julia told Rahee that classes have been very bad, but she didn't bring her in for a meeting until now because it causes her (Julia) too much stress to deal with her. Talking with Rahee reminds me that I'm very thankful that Julia and I are not fluent in the same language. Rahee is trying to decide whether it's better to stick out her contract and fulfill her responsibility or to preserve her self worth and quit now.

Good night!

Mala Gente

2010-06-14T21:16:00.001+09:00

"Mala gente" is Spanish for "bad people;" but (in Spanish) those words carry a lot more weight than their childish sounding English cousins.

Today's meeting went poorly. So poorly that my memory of it is clouded with anger and difficult to flush out. It was nearly 90 minutes of abuse and condescension. I lost my temper, I didn't yell, but I spoke sternly. Julia laughed. I remember telling her that the students should bear 50% of the responsibility in the classroom. She laughed and set me straight. Toward the end, she realized she wasn't getting the responses she wanted out of me so she started talking to Ian about my inability to catch the many mistakes I make in the classroom. "Why can't you see so many mistake?" she asked me again and again. Then they (Julia + Montana) would pose "questions" like, "Your teaching skill isn't change enough, what do you think?" I tried to explain that it wasn't really a question, but I was met with a simple, "Yes, it is."

Montana didn't have our (my) backs. No one in the country can be trusted to stand up for you. It's every man for himself and, if there's any benefit to it, feel free to throw your neighbor under the bus. Climb upon the backs of your peers if it means success. Korea is a reflection of the worst in any industrialized nation. Japan's business culture may be equally rough, but at least people treat each other with real respect (as opposed to the feigned variety); and Americans may be dog eat dog, but at least it's (usually) kept on a professional level. You don't gain anything by tearing your employees down.

I'm sorry. I try to keep these posts reserved because I don't feel there's a need to complain to a captive audience. But, today's been a very, very bad day.

A face to the name (from 9 months ago):

Good night!

World Cup!

2010-06-13T20:44:00.000+09:00

Korea beat Greece last night 2:0 and the US and England drew at 1:1. I'm not sure how tie breakers work, since I'm pretty new to this whole tournament. Tonight Algeria plays Slovenia and then Serbia plays Ghana. Korea plays Argentina on the 17th, the US plays Slovenia on the 18th and England will go against Algeria on the 19th.

If you're like many Americans (including us!) you might not know much about this sporting event. So, here's a starter kit:

It's officially called the FIFA World Cup and is contested by 32 men's teams, each representing their home nation.

Like the Olympics, it's held every four years, with the intermediary three years devoted to qualifying matches.

Brazil holds the record with 5 wins (there have been 18 tournaments). Italy is the current champion.

It is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world (715.1 million people watched the final game in 2006).

It's in South Africa this year and it will be in Brazil in 2014. South Africa is the first African nation to host the event. The host is chosen by vote of the FIFA Executive Committee. Each association puts in a bid and is then visited to ensure their nation could support the event and meet the requirements.

The trophy is not a permanent award. It is passed on from each champion to the next.

There are two stages in the final tournament, the group stage and the knockout stage. The group stage consists of teams completing in eight groups (four teams each). Each group plays a round-robin tournament and the top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.

From what I can tell (every "expert" has their own opinion), the teams to watch are: England, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina and the Netherlands.

Now you're fully prepped to watch the madness happen. Good night!

Yut

2010-06-13T20:10:00.000+09:00

As we were walking through the markets downtown today, we noticed a makeshift yut board. We never got a picture of us playing over at Chun wha's, so we thought we'd share it with you.

It's black stones vs. white stones. You move on the dots depending on how the sticks land when you throw them. When you overtake the other player's stones, they have to start back at "go." So, there some pretty serious strategy involved because you can choose which of your pieces to move.

Watermelon

2010-06-13T20:00:00.000+09:00

Ian and I have been eating a lot of junk food this weekend, so we thought it would be a good idea to clean out our systems and eat fresh fruit for the rest of the day.

Watermelons come with convenient twine nets here. It makes the walk home from E-Mart much easier.

Outside the Box

2010-06-12T22:28:00.001+09:00

One of Ian and my biggest frustrations with Korean culture is "group think." Unlike in our native society, creativity and individuality are not encouraged here (that's true of most Asian cultures). Our students and most of the adults we interact with have a noticeable lack of critical thinking skills because of this.

I found this sticker album at E-Mart while I was looking for birthday presents for Grant. See all the tan silhouettes? That's where the stickers go, because, you know, you wouldn't want your kid to put them in the 'wrong' places.

The World Cup is on and Korea is currently playing Greece. They are ahead 2:0 and most experts predict Korea's victory. Every time something interesting happens in the game, you can hear the whole neighborhood shout and cheer. It's like the Superbowl, only it's more about the sport. I personally hope Korea does well, as I found my Red Devils shirt today at the Converse store downtown. It doesn't say "Korea Fighting," but it does say "We are Sure to Victory," which is equally awesome. I'll be sure to post a picture of it soon.

Good night!

Casserole

2010-06-11T23:53:00.000+09:00

Ian made this fabulous polenta casserole last night. It was adapted (Asian-ized a bit due to our ingredient selection) from this recipe I found on FoodGawker.

If you're disinclined to follow the link, it's a polenta base with sauteed veggies, marinara sauce and a little cheese on top. Since Korea doesn't have much in the way of decent dairy products, we eat mostly vegan (and incredibly simply) here. So, this casserole was quite rich to our taste buds, but in a good way.

We're getting pretty bored with our food choices, so you're likely to see more interesting dishes here.

Today was an interesting and tiring day. As I've mentioned, I have seven classes in a row (with five minutes between each one) on Fridays. Julia came in and sat in my sixth class. Without warning or explanation, she took over my class (in Korean) for fifteen full minutes. Though it never feels great to have the rug pulled from under you, as long as she's not explicitly debasing me I'm likely to simply sit by. Her phone rang four times during her fifteen minute reign and she answered it each time. I want to find a lake in which to deposit it.

I randomly met two talented English speakers today. The first was a woman at the gym who asked me some simple questions about where I worked and so on. The second was the clerk at Buy the Way when Ian and I were buying our movie snacks (we saw The A-Team tonight). She lived in Australia for a year, but never took a formal class. She held an extremely vernacular conversation with us and even took down my number to find a "Korea Fighting" t-shirt. Julia lived in Australia for four years, took formal classes and can hardly string a sentence together. I believe that's proof that self importance and language study don't mix.

Good night!

비타민 C!

2010-06-10T21:36:00.000+09:00

I haven't felt great all day. I woke up with no energy and I felt pretty weak.

It didn't help that I had Basic B27 to look forward to today. That class makes all the teachers (even the native Korean ones) want to hide in the corner. I saw Danny on Tuesday just after he'd had them and he looked like he wanted to cry.

Rahee had an open class today which means that the parents (mothers, Korean fathers are too busy with man things) come and sit in on the classes. She was so stressed out that she had a nightmare that one of her students committed suicide in class. Yes, Korean mothers are that bad.

One of the mothers brought Rahee a couple boxes of fruit flavored 비타민(Vitamin) C tabs. There were probably 100 tabs in each box, so she gave a couple sheets to each of the teachers. Because I was bored, hungry and not feeling well, I proceeded to eat 24 tabs. I expected to have a rocking stomachache, but I didn't. In fact, I felt quite a bit better. Maybe I'm coming down with something and the 비타민 C was just what I needed, though I probably didn't need it in that dosage.

Vitamin C is a popular "boost" here. They sell it in tabs, drinks, powders (for water), etc. You name it, I bet vitamin C comes in that form here.

Good night!

Stuffed Peppers!

2010-06-09T21:10:00.000+09:00

Tonight is my first time eating a stuffed pepper.

I'm stoked!

Good night!

Meeting, resumed

2010-06-09T21:02:00.000+09:00

I mentioned yesterday that I had a mini meeting with Julia and Montana during one of my breaks yesterday. She was unhappy because I skipped a couple of pages in the book (and my students had forgotten the main point of last week's lesson) and Montana softened the blow by jumping in and playing translator, thus shortening our interaction.

Unfortunately, when Ian and I showed up for our meeting this morning, Julia picked up where she left off. More accurately, when we walked in Julia was watching a video of me teaching the class she had sat in yesterday. She didn't really say anything to us as we sat down and then she ran out of the room to make a phone call (presumably to Montana, so that she didn't have to interact with us too much). No good mornings were exchanged. Instead, I was greeted with instructions to watch the video and find the many mistakes I apparently made and a lecture about my student's inability to recite their addresses during the warm up review. When I reminded her that I had spent an entire 40 minute lesson teaching them how to say their addresses in English, she told me that my students' forgetfulness was due to my lack of "times enough" spent on the subject. She reminded me that my student's studying (including any and all work at home) is my responsibility, not theirs. If they forgot, the problem is with me, not them.

So, by the time Montana got to campus, I was fuming and failing at all attempts to keep myself from arguing. Just before Montana showed up, Julia came back in from one of her many phone calls and asked us if we thought that she caused us too much stress (with a smirk, just in case we mistook it for a sincere concern). Actually, what she said at first was "Do you think I am amazing to you because I push to you so much?" I told her I didn't understand the question.

Montana sat down and Julia spoke to him in Korean for what felt like 10 minutes. Then they left the room together and only Montana returned. He told us what she wanted, which was exactly the same thing that she had him tell me yesterday. Then we chatted about the bizarre world that is Korean culture. Montana told us that after 10+ years abroad, Korea seems crazy; no one has any manners and the whole nation is obsessed with CCTV and other forms of surveillance. At Yoon's, when a student arrives the put their thumb on an electronic pad and it sends a text message to their parents telling them where their child is. Then as they are leaving they put their thumb on the pad again and it tells the parents to expect their child home shortly. While that's a good use of technology in some safety and parenting aspects, for children who are disallowed any free or play time, it's just another way to be held hostage by a culture that no longer believes in childhoods.

Montana is observing Ian tomorrow; hopefully that means I'll see less of Julia.

Motivation

2010-06-08T20:12:00.000+09:00

I was supposed to have my Leaders class at 7:15, but it was cancelled. My last class ended at 6:25 and I was told about the cancellation shortly after that, but I'm obligated to stay on campus until at least 8 o'clock.

Even though I have had all this extra time that I could have used to work on planning our Southeast Asia trip or writing the article that I started (and keep telling myself I will finish), I've done nothing.

It's funny how having a job, which take up a very large percentage of most people's actuality, you dislike can drain the pleasure from other areas in your life. Even though I'm excited to go on vacation and I want to write the article, I can't muster up the motivation to work on either of them. I spend the bulk of my life in Korea dealing with things that I find daunting; so even the smallest amount of effort required outside of work seems unreasonable. Maybe it's a defense mechanism I've built up: creating a comfort zone inside an uneasy environment.

This intermittent self-defeating attitude of mine snowballs until it sits pretty heavy on my shoulders. It's days like these that I feel like I have nothing to post about here.

I got to know Montana a little better today. He has a triple citizenship: Korea, Italy and the US. Actually, he recently gave up his US citizenship for tax reasons in Korea. He lived in Northern California where he owned and ran a vacation spot on Big Bear Lake. The economy hit the travel industry especially hard and his little operation was bought out. So, he looked for work elsewhere and decided to come back to Korea for awhile.

He was present for a mini meeting I had with Julia today in which she got onto me about skipping pages in some of the units. I skipped the pages because they were reading intensive (the students would read a paragraph and answer questions) and in a forty minute "conversation" class I didn't think they were a good use of time. I told her that and, since I was disagreeing with her, she repeated herself over and over again. Julia doesn't understand differences of opinion; to her, you must be misunderstanding her if you're not in line with her point of view. Montana seemed to notice that I was bustling with rage internally, so he came to my rescue, jumped in and acted as a translator so that Julia would back off. It worked and I got to see that Montana isn't afraid of Julia. There was no kowtowing, ass kissing or shyness like we saw with Gene. Montana translated her words to me and told me pretty frankly that I should just comply, but in no way did he even feign an alliance with her. So far, I'm feeling pretty good about him. He's definitely got a spine and this company could use somebody with one.

Good night!

Montana

2010-06-07T22:00:00.000+09:00

Today was an all in all good day. But, things took a a turn for the strange when I met a man named Montana. He came into my classroom, introduced himself as a new employee and asked if he could sit in my class. Of course, I obliged. I found his English nearly incomprehensible, but not for the reasons you'd expect. He is fluent and his vernacular is very American, but he speaks so quickly that his accent (though not very pronounced) obscures everything he says. I didn't even catch his name until I asked him again after work. His name in Korean sounds like "Ian" which apparently means mountain. He worked as a cook for the Italian army for two years, so he took the name Montana to reflect the root of his Korean name.

I noticed that he took notes during my class. When I was finished for the day, he came in and gave me a can of flavored water. He came back a few seconds later to tell me that Julia wanted to say a few things to me. He told me not to take it personally. Our Korean coworkers are constantly telling us not to take things personally. I wonder if this reputation for sensitivity applies to all Americans or just Ian and I specifically. So, he and Julia sat down and gave me some notes regarding the class that Montana reviewed. They mostly dealt with my apparent inability to control my students and garner their respect. That class was in especially psychotic form today, namely Tom who knocked over his desk, fell down and nearly broke his glasses. Tom is difficult to control on a good day, let alone a day like today. All of my students acted as if it were a full moon tonight. They were just silly with energy.

Montana will apparently be moving into a house with Danny soon. He said Ian and I should come over sometime for bbq, his apparent specialty.

It seems Julia has finally replaced Gene with his near antithesis. Where Gene was nervous and careful, Montana is frank and to the point. He seems like a nice guy, but I'm reserving judgment until I get to know him better. Julia must not be too concerned about money if she feels comfortable hiring a new, only somewhat necessary person.

I spent about twenty minutes talking to Rahee after work. She told me that in a meeting between her mother (who is a home teacher for Yoon's) and Julia, her mother asked about Rahee's position at Goam. Julia told her that Rahee would be finishing work at the end of July because she didn't want to work anymore (implying that Rahee has a poor work ethic). In reality, Rahee had told Julia that her flight back to Europe was on August 25th and that she should leave Yoon's about a week prior. Upset, Rahee's mother called her and asked what was going on and why she would say such a thing to her employer, leaving Rahee to explain everything. She was pretty upset about it. Apparently, Julia also recently worked her magic on Stephanie and Sue, turning them against each other. Julia asked Stephanie to work a month longer than she had planned and then turned around and told Sue that she couldn't be put on the payroll because Stephanie had asked for another month's work for more money. Now that the business is fully failing, Julia is completely out of control.

By the time Ian and I leave, we'll have seen nearly two complete staffs at Goam (and Haso has had several changes, as well).

Did you notice the new countdown to the right?

Good night!

Seminar

2010-06-07T15:22:00.002+09:00

On Friday, Sue told us that we were to attend a "foreigner meeting" at 10:30 on Monday (today). I had read on Facebook that it was apparently a "sex ed" class and that only hagwon teachers would be in attendance.

I expected a big meeting hall in city hall with a moderately formal atmosphere and a Korean official of some kind doing the talking.

When we got into the cab and handed the driver the note (in Korean) we were given, he had no idea where to take us. He asked us many questions that we didn't understand and eventually Ian called Julia and had her talk to the driver. He took us to a parking lot surrounded by three buildings. No one else was in the lot and we had no idea which building our meeting was in. There was a man walking into one of the buildings, so we gave him the note hoping he would help us, but he just smiled and bowed. That building turned out to be a gym. The next one was an empty Tae Kwon Do studio. So, we tried the last building and found the meeting and were handed pamphlets. They were already 30 minutes into it. Our hagwon had misinformed us. There were maybe 15 people there and Andrew (a foreign teacher who has been here for about six months) was in the middle of the room doing the speaking. Unfortunately, Ian and I arrived just seconds before Andrew spoke briefly on taking one's job seriously (as in, show up on time). Andrew's far too nice to call us out or even think to, but I apologized after the meeting.

The topic was not sexual education, at least, not really. The first half hour (which we missed, but I read in the pamphlet) seemed to be about cultural and workplace differences and how to deal with them. Basically, foreigners are to kowtow (a word which, by the way, literally means to bow and touch one's forehead to the ground- a bow practiced in Korea under special circumstances and on holidays) to everything their employers ask. Supervisors do not expect to be questioned, so it should not be done unless one's reasons are very strong. The second half of the meeting covered appropriate behavior between foreign teachers and students. Basically, they have parents at home to cuddle them and Korean teachers to discipline them, so do not touch them. It is too easy for children to embellish stories and too difficult for foreigners to defend themselves. No touch is good touch, completely contrary to what Julia has been demanding of us. She has told me on several occasions to touch and cuddle my students so that on the street they may run up to me and hug me. Ian actually told one of the Korean teachers at the meeting about our hagwon's request and she told us we were better off not touching students at all. At the end of the meeting they reminded us not to private tutor.

Andrew later told us that it wasn't until Friday that he was told he'd be speaking at this meeting. And even then, he was told he'd say a few words (in reality, he was handed a pamphlet and told to go for it). Apparently, these meetings will be held twice a year. Luckily, we'll be gone before the next one.

This meeting was just a further reminder of the bum deal we got with our hagwon. Granted, they pay us well and on time, but they treat us pretty terribly. As far as I could tell, all the other teachers came in groups, escorted by at least one Korean teacher. Many of the schools provided transportation and lunch or coffee afterward. Ian and I were left to catch taxis with no information as to where we'd be going (not too mention the start time miscommunication). We left feeling alone and abused, not a good start to a week.

Last I heard, we still have a mandatory meeting with Julia tomorrow, so the good times will keep coming.

We Shall See

2010-06-07T00:19:00.000+09:00

Today was very laid back. Ian and I mostly sat around being languid; it was really hot today.

Ben and Amy came over later and Ian gave a tutorial on preparing tofu. We had a sampler of bbq tofu, pan fried salty tofu and golden fried tofu for dipping with curried cabbage. Amy brought some sweet biscuits and made strawberry shortcake. We drank iced coffee and watched Hot Tub Time Machine, which was a little stupid, but funny nonetheless. It was a laid back evening, perfect for nights that are not much cooler than the days that come before them.

Tomorrow morning we will head out to our sex ed class. Ben's director told him to be there at 10 and we were told 10:30, so we'll see what happens.

Good night!

A Day in the Sun

2010-06-06T13:20:00.002+09:00

Due to our jobs and somewhat Korean lifestyle, Ian and I spend a lot of time indoors. Recently, we've been remedying this by having picnics.

So, yesterday was a blast, even though the temperature hit 91 and the humidity hit a peak of 82% in the middle of the day.

They (Chun wha, Chang su and their son Min su) picked us up a little after 9 and we headed to the Andong Hahoe Folk Village. The coolest thing about the village, which the Wikipedia article doesn't explicitly express, is that people actually live there and they are a part of the heritage preservation.

Andong is home to Korean mask culture. These two masks are from a satirizing a shamanistic exorcist (say that three times fast). There are four traditional masks assigned to that play. The top mask is the aristocrat and the bottom is the bride.

Puppets for sale.

Elizabeth II celebrated her 73rd birthday in Andong in 1999. There is a whole mini-museum dedicated to things like the food they served her and the table at which she sat. She planted a tree while she was there and these are the shovels used in the ceremony.

Rice paddy.

Lily pads.

This man lives in the village. He was very friendly and he was wearing a sweet bolo tie.

Different types of roofs and building materials originally designated standing in the village.

These houses used to be made out of clay soil, but now they use cement.

This is part of one of the noble houses. As far as I could tell, no one lives in these. They are more like museums with a few rooms made into displays. The noble houses are built up on stilts while the commoner homes are ground level.

This house burnt down. There were people touring it, but we didn't go over there.

In the middle of the village, this man painted "family precepts" (or "golden rules" specific to one's family) on rolls made of fabric and parchment. The one here is written in Hanja (Chinese characters).

The small lettering is the date: "Summer of the Tiger..."

Chun wha and Chang su asked us what our "family precept" was. Ian and I then took to discussing how to explain that Westerners don't have the concepts of honor and filial piety that Eastern societies do. We never had to explain, though, because Chun wha chose one for us and had it painted. "Faith, Wish, Love" in Hangul (I believe she chose Hangul and not Hanja because we can read the former). Ian took a video of the whole process, which will be at the end of this post. I am so stoked to have been given such a gift. It will definitely hang on our wall in the states.

Commoners used these swings to try to peer into the houses of the nobility, since they were built higher than their homes.

I'm not sure where this ferry goes.

Lastly, we visited the mask museum. It had masks from all over Asia and other parts of the world.

For lunch, they treated us to 콩국수 (kongguksu), which is a cold noodle soup made from soymilk. It was interesting. I'm not a big fan of Korean soymilk. It's full fat and very rich. But, I was happy to try something new.

On the way home, we stopped in Yongju which is famous for growing gingseng. Chun wha wanted to make drink for us with the ginseng back at their place. It was made by blending fresh ginseng, milk and honey and, though chunky, it was delicious. It felt like eating a power breakfast in a glass.

Then we drove back to Jecheon. We stopped at E-Mart to do some shopping, presumably for dinner. They kept asking us what we wanted (expecting foreigner specific requests like "bread"), but we just told them we would eat whatever they wanted. In the end, she made tons of banchan, rice and doenjang jjigae and lettuce to make wraps. It was fabulous. Nothing beats a homemade Korean meal. I really wish that we could have given that to Mom.

We started with a bunch of delicious, summery fruit.

And, upon Chang su's adamant request, several types of alcohol (beer, soju, whiskey, mokkoli, and later sake). Between the fruit/booze fest and dinner, we played yut. Yut is a traditional game played by throwing four sticks and then calculating your move based on numbers assigned to the possible positions the stick can land in. It is especially popular on New Year's. We played this game once before when we ran into a group of older Korean people having a block party. Here's that post in case you forgot.

I hope to have more adventures with Chun wha and Chang su. They mentioned going to the East Sea, so we will make sure that happens.

I left the video uploading all day (literally) and it still wasn't finished when I checked it tonight. So, it will have to wait.

Sun Tired

2010-06-06T00:10:00.000+09:00

Today was fantastic. We took lots of photos and Ian took a great video which I'm really excited to share. But, I'm completely exhausted from being out in the 90 degree weather, so it'll wait until tomorrow.

Good night!

2 for 1

2010-06-04T21:19:00.000+09:00

Ian and I went to Goam today for our first day of work on the same campus. They have us teaching classes back to back. Here's what Friday's schedule looks like:

2:45- Beginner 2 (Casey)

3:30- Beginner 1 (Casey)/ Beginner 2 (Ian)

4:15- Basic 1 (Casey)/ Beginner 1 (Ian)

5:00- Essential 2 (Casey)/ Basic 1 (Ian)

5:45- Essential 1 (Casey)/ Essential 2 (Ian)

6:30- Essential 3 (Casey)/ Essential 1 (Ian)

7:15- Leaders (Casey)/ Essential 3 (Ian)

Basically, I taught a class and then Ian taught the same class. During the rest of the week, we use the same materials (one class period = one book unit), so today's method required a little stretching and creativity. I taught half of a unit and then Ian reinforced my lesson and closed the unit (essentially, because we're using exactly the same materials) Ian and I share the job of one person on Fridays. They had us rotating classrooms, so the day was more tiring than usual. I also taught seven classes in a row today, which is something I've never done before.

I had told Julia that I didn't have material for the Fluent class at about 2:30, but she didn't bother to give me anything for them until 7:13, literally two minutes before class started. I hope they decide on something concrete for that class because they're good kids (and their English is very good) and they deserve a good shot at practicing it.

Even though Ian and I hardly saw each other, it was nice being together. Each time we saw each other in passing, it was a short mental break from the busy day. The students were very happy to have their playmate back.

At the end of the day, Sue handed Ian a piece of paper with Korean on it and told him there was a foreigners' meeting at City Hall on Monday. Ian asked if it is just Yoon's, and she said that it is for the whole of Jecheon. When Ian told me about this, I remembered something that I had seen on the Facebook page of another foreign teacher here. She had been disappointed because she found out that her summons to City Hall was for a sex education workshop. I showed Ian the post and then later asked Sue to confirm. Yes, all (or nearly) of the foreigners must attend a sex education lesson at City Hall at 10:30 on Monday morning. No, we do not teach sex ed. This lesson is intended for us. Considering sex ed starts in elementary school in the states, I think I'm right in assuming that most of the "students" will be better and more accurately educated in this particular area than the "teachers." It should make for a very good blog post.

We've got to get up bright and early tomorrow morning, as Chun wha will be here at 8 to take us to Andong. By the way, Andong is the folk culture capital of Korea. If you click here, it will take you to the Wikipedia page.

Good night!

Decisions, Decisions

2010-06-03T21:58:00.000+09:00

Tentatively, Ian and I have decided to visit Vietnam before embarking to Cambodia. I tried to get some planning done today, but it proved too much work for my limited time between classes.

So far, that line is about all I know for certain. I don't know much about SE Asia, so I'm starting from scratch. If you have suggestions for the two areas we'll be in (3 days around Ho Chi Minh and 3 days around Siem Reap), please share! I'll be sure to post details as they come into place.

As we were walking up to catch cabs to go to work, Chun wha drove by (she was coming from a meeting or something at Sinback) and picked us up. Ian asked her about the trip to Andong and she said she would pick us up between 8 and 8:30 on Saturday morning. I'm excited for another long day of adventure with them.

Tomorrow will be the first time Ian and I have ever worked on the same campus. I'll tell you all about it.

Good night!

A Fabulous Picnic

2010-06-02T23:45:00.000+09:00

Well, the picnic turned out to be just the four of us; but it was so much fun. We went to Semyung University and the weather was a little on the hot side, but great nonetheless.

I actually remembered to take a picture of the food! We had onigiri, fruit, veggies, banana bread, and some crunchy snacks and sweets.

Ben is like a Coke ad.

The SMU grounds are beautiful. Artificial, but beautiful.

The boys being boys.

I suppose "the girls being girls" would be accurate for this picture.

Pretty irises.

Ian and Ben had a rock skipping competition.

Then they challenged each other to cross the waterfall. Ian tripped and nearly went over.

Luckily, this was the only injury.

Later, they tried to play badminton.

But, it didn't really work out because this kept happening.

Japanese Maple.

Pale!

We spent all day just hanging out, talking and goofing off. We didn't pack, book for our trip or accomplish anything that we thought we might; but, we had such a good time that it didn't matter.

Good night!

June is Busting Out All Over!

2010-06-01T21:15:00.001+09:00

Today is a happy day. The sun woke me at 6:30 because we had forgotten to turn the fan on and our room was boiling hot. So, I cracked the window, turned on the fan and went back to bed. When I awoke again, the weather was still beautiful. We went to the gym and I had a great run. It wasn't spectacular in time (though I did drop a few seconds from last week's), but it felt fantastic. No fatigue, just a relaxing, sweaty run.

It's June 1st. While summer hasn't technically begun, writing "6" for the date makes it feel like it has. Summer is the close of our contract. So, this is the beginning of the end. We just started the last term that we will teach for Yoon's and we have roughly 90 days left.

Tomorrow is Voting Day, so we don't have to go to work. We're planning a picnic with Rahee, Angela, Ben, Amy and maybe Danny, so it should be a really great day. We're also hoping to pack up a couple boxes with our winter clothes and things we don't need to send on the slow boat home. If we're feeling really productive, we might be able to book some of our South East Asia trip.

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day. Good night!

The Blame Game

2010-05-31T22:11:00.000+09:00

Ian and I had a meeting with Julia this morning. She was in great form this morning, laying the full weight of her company's financial problems on us.

As we sat down she brought out a sheet with the enrollment numbers for all three campuses. She told us that, for Haso and Goam, the numbers were down 40 students from the beginning of the year (September). She said that the "students don't want to come" because our classes are "not interesting or beneficial." I talked to a student last week who told me he wasn't coming back next term. When I asked him why, he told me that his mom didn't want him in classes at night, so they were going to find somewhere he could take a class an appropriate level class during the day. It had nothing to with Yoon's itself.

Then she scribbled some math regarding our severance, airfare and remaining three months. She asked us (and not hypothetically) how she should find the money to pay for that.

At one point, while Julia was chiding us for the seven months that we lazily "wasted time" ("Your teaching skill is fine now, but you wasted so much times," then she drew a time line from September to April, in case we didn't understand) Ian swallowed hard and told her that it was difficult to know how she felt about our performance during those months because Gene rarely spoke of it and when he did, he told us we were doing well. Julia said, "But, Mr. Gene said he told you all these things, but you didn't listen. That's why he choose to leave the company. He felt he had no work to do here." While I doubt that Gene actually felt that way, I do believe he may have said it to her, as he proved pretty spineless when it came to Julia.

This went on for nearly an hour. Ian and I twisted uncomfortably in our seats wondering if she was just going to out and fire us. Then her phone rang and she ran (quite literally) out of the room to take the phone call. When she came back, she picked up one of the new books and started going over potential lesson plans with us. We went through two books and then she dismissed us. Just before we went to lunch, Ian tried to tactfully clarify that we were going to finish our contracts with the company. She answered with, "Oh, just continue to do your best." So, my guess is that we will be on our toes until August 31.

I was pretty tired after that meeting, but my classes went well. The first day of a new term is always a little stressful. The books make it easier to keep the students engaged and the time flew by. I didn't have time to finish my lesson plans for tomorrow, but I should have ample time before tomorrow's begin. I'm hoping things settle down enough for me to work on my article.

Good night!

Purple Soup

2010-05-31T21:23:00.000+09:00

Ian made doenjang jjigae tonight for dinner. He put purple sweet potatoes in it and it had a pretty cool effect.

A Productive Seoul Trip

2010-05-30T23:06:00.000+09:00

Ian and I met up with the Seoul Vegetarian club this afternoon for some Mexican food in Itaewon (the foreign influenced neighborhood surrounding the American military base in Seoul). The food wasn't bad, but as usual there was too much sweetness and no depth to the flavor. Koreans also aren't fans of bright spicy flavors (like jalapenos), so it lacked the right spiciness.

The restaurant, Pancho's, created a set menu especially for us that included a side salad (mostly iceberg with guacamole, but I was so stoked for the avocado, I didn't care), Mexican rice, a taco and a bean burrito. You also could have all the chips you could eat, which they warmed before serving. So, while it wasn't great food, it was a nice change of pace.

Ian and I spent all our time out today in Itaewon. We've been looking for a ruck sack for me for our Europe trip. Ian has an imitation Australian ruck sack that's really cool, so I've been looking for one similar. We went into an army surplus store today and found authentic, used ruck sacks from all over the world. We liked the French bag the best, but when I put it on, the metal bracing supports rested right against my spine. I ended up choosing a Korean ruck sack with a sturdy, square frame, but no metal.

I'm very happy with it. Its shape distributes weight really well. We also picked up a couple of inexpensive canvas duffel bags for any day trips we may take. Either they are "Outdoor" brand or they are knock offs, but we didn't really mind either way.

I meant to take more photos today, but we didn't do much other than shop. Our meal at Pancho's did have a couple of interesting moments, including a discussion about the new Arizona Immigration Laws that quickly turned sour when the parties involved realized they had no common ground. I may or may not have been one of the said parties. I also discussed America's problem of corporate greed with a French woman and a Dutch man who work here in Korea, but not as teachers (extremely rare). She is an engineer and he is working on his thesis.

So, a rewarding day indeed, but not much photographic evidence.

Good night!

Throwback

2010-05-30T00:43:00.000+09:00

Ian and I met up with Ben and Amy to see Prince of Persia today. The movie was terrible. No character development, no real conflict to be found anywhere in the plot. The acting was stilted and contrived. Even Jake Gyllenhaal, whom I usually find to be refreshingly honest in his acting, was terrible. I'm of the opinion that Disney may want to lay of the live action films for awhile and focus on conquering the world with Pixar and have it's 2D department follow in it's footsteps.

After the movie we walked back to their apartment because we left our work bags there last night. On our walk over, we encountered some very strange campaigning.

These folks were marching down the street holding candles for their candidate. In America, candlelight vigils are reserved for the deceased or those who are in a grave situation. Obviously, that's not the case here.

We ended up sitting at Ben and Amy's for a couple of hours, watching funny videos online. "Greg Rutter's Definitive List of the 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced on the Internet..." is a good source of entertainment. It reminded me of college. My room mates (and, later, housemates) and I would sit around for hours thinking of things to show each other on the internet. It wasn't the best use of time, but it was a good bonding exercise. Ben, Amy, Ian and I share a love of the SNL Digital Shorts, so we watched several of those.

We've got an early morning ahead of us, since we're off to meet the Veggie Club in Seoul for some Mexican food. It should be a good time.

Good night!

The Vegetarians Do Korean BBQ

2010-05-29T12:02:00.000+09:00

Ian and I met several of the other teachers last night to welcome two new girls who have come to work for GnB. They are taking over Kate and Pete's positions, as they finished their contracts a couple of weeks ago. They seem like nice girls, both from Hawaii. I'm not sure if they are related, but they knew each other before coming to Korea.

The plan was to meet at a BBQ place that the other foreigners refer to as "The Sweet Corn Place" because they serve, boiling hot, sweet corn drowning in butter as one of the banchans. I'm really happy that we went, because Korean BBQ, or galbi, is very popular inside Korea and very famous in other countries. In the states, "Korean food" usually refers to galbi.

There are a couple of ways to have your food at a galbi restaurant. Each table has a hot plate and depending on what you order, the waitress will either take your hot plate away and bring it back with the mostly cooked meat and seasoning on it with a burner underneath and set it back on your table, or the waitress will put a burner underneath the hot plate and bring a selection of raw meats and seafood to put on yourself.

Either way, I can see why it's popular. The food looked very fresh and it's a completely communal experience. There is a wide selection of banchan because galbi is eaten in lettuce wraps. One takes a leaf of lettuce, puts on the galbi and then your choice of banchan and eats the whole thing like a taco.

Ian and I knew that galbi restaurants aren't for vegetarians, so we ate kimbap for dinner before we went. But, vegetarian galbi is something that could be achieved at home. Maybe not in our small kitchen here, but in the states it's something that I look forward to experimenting with.

After dinner everyone went out to "Western Village," a Western bar near the restaurant. Ian and I have only been to a Western bar once, in Busan. In the states, "Western bar" would probably refer to country-western, but here it simply refers to the bar having a "Western" atmosphere and a selection of imported liquor and beer, all at exorbitant prices. It was a fun night, though. I won a game of bingo and subsequently three cheap bottles of Korean beer. We hung out with Ben and Amy most of the night, and when they left, Ian got his geek on with Matt. They thoroughly discussed Star Trek and video games and we didn't get home until 3:30.

From the menu. Can I interest you in a "meron [melon] daquiri" or a "matini?"

The three terrible bottles of beer that I won.

I ordered this out of amusement and it was a mistake. It's a blue kamikaze (spelled "blue kamikage" on the menu). Kamikaze's should not be blue. It was disgusting and I did not drink it.

The staff put on a very unsafe pyrotechnics show which included juggling lighted liquor bottles and spitting fire via a mouthful of Absolut.

It was very kitschy, entertaining and unsafe.

A Wee Visitor

2010-05-28T20:14:00.000+09:00

Julia came in during the last ten minutes of my 5:45 class to tell me that a parent was thinking of enrolling their child at Yoon's, so there would be an "observation" of my next class. I wasn't sure exactly what she meant, but I figured that a parent and child would be in my next class. The idea made me nervous, since it's enrollment on which our employment depends. I didn't know what to expect from my students, since I didn't have classes last Friday. For all I knew, I could teach my heart out and they could stare at me.

But, I was lucky in two ways. Firstly, the parent didn't come into my class. Secondly, the class was great and Jake, the prospective student, fit right in. We worked on the past tense and wrote a story on the board. Then they did an excellent job with their interviewing worksheet (using past tense by asking each other "What did you ____? [get for Children's Day, do on Christmas morning, etc.]). I hope his mother enrolls him. Julia came in after (and subsequently during another class) to ask how he had done. I told him he did a wonderful job and that he was a smart little boy. She seemed surprised and told me that he couldn't read the "letters." I'm not sure what they tested him on before my class, but he reads and writes very well for his age (he's only 8 or 9). Maybe they had the wrong approach.

Life can be pretty tough as a teacher at Yoon's. So, when these little moments of luck happen (like a visiting student being a good presence in a class), I try to hold on to it.

Tonight we are meeting up with some of the other teachers to welcome the two new teachers at Goam. They are replacing Kate and Pete who finished their contracts last week. I invited Daniel along, so maybe we'll actually get to know him better. Fingers crossed!

Elections

2010-05-27T21:53:00.000+09:00

June 2nd is Voting Day and we (like most every worker in Korea) have the day off. City politicians have been out in force for the past two weeks. While it's not completely unlike campaigning in the states, we are in Korea, so everything is done with more kitsch and, well, eccentricity .

All campaign posters feature really stiff portraits of the candidate. Each one has a designated number and color scheme (the color scheme I'm not completely certain about, but it seems like it on the streets). I think they each have a number because Korean names are so similar to each other.

Team 2 (green) preps for it's morning out amongst the public. They work in groups picking up garbage, dancing and waving signs, or just standing at busy corners bowing and saying hello to every person and car that passes. One morning, on our way to the gym, we saw a group that was all women, but for one man with a whistle. Every time a car passed he would blow the whistle and they'd all bow in unison.

Trucks, like this one for candidate number 9, crawl down every street in town. They blare theme songs and political promises.

Candidate number 8 had quite a team out this morning. A woman we know from the gym was with them. She came over and tried to talk to us about it, her volume increasing each time we looked confused and told her we didn't understand. The belief that yelling can break down language barriers is definitely world wide. She ultimately gave up and sent us on our way.

I don't know much about South Korean elections or politics. I tried to find out what type of elections are happening on the 2nd, but I Google didn't have much to offer.

I've been requested to write an article about my experiences here and touching on the North Korea situation, so I've been doing some reading. I'll most likely post some thoughts on that this weekend. If you have any information to share, please do so.

Good night!

(Probably) Not Fired

2010-05-27T18:57:00.000+09:00

Ian and I have been on a probation of sorts this last month. Julia told us that our employment after this month would depend on enrollment. That made us pretty nervous, since we only have a very small amount of control over whether or not kids (or, more realistically, their parents) decide to come to Yoon's next term.

We didn't have a meeting this week. Of course, that made Ian even more nervous. He's a chronic worrier. We have a meeting on Monday, and, since next week begins the new term, we expect Julia to fill us in on her thoughts regarding our performance (and what she thinks it meant for enrollment) this last month.

But, Rahee (the Korean teacher here who lived abroad in Spain and Dublin for awhile and is returning to Europe in August) gave me my schedule for the next term today. Since it's an official Yoon's document apropos the future with Ian and my names on it, I'm assuming we're not fired. The head honchos have decided to keep us for our whole contracts. That's probably smart, since I doubt they can afford to fly someone in right now. I heard the company is officially having financial trouble. I just need them to hold on through August. Then this ship can sink.

My schedule looks pretty close to what it was this term, with one major difference. Ian will be joining me at Goam on Fridays. Has Yoon's finally decided to use it's resources wisely? Of course not. On Fridays, I will teach a class and then, directly after, Ian will teach the same class. As to how our materials will relate to each other (exactly the same, building on the same topic, different topics entirely, etc.), I have no idea. It will be nice to teach at the same campus, even if it is a little ridiculous.

So, that puts Ian at Haso on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Sinback on Tuesdays and Goam on Fridays. Sinback is in walking distance, so the switch won't save us any cab fare. Darn.

Thai Green Curry

2010-05-26T21:49:00.000+09:00

As I wrote earlier, Mom sent us a fabulous package with all sorts of goodies in it. So, we made Thai green curry tonight.

We adapted the recipe from Veggie Belly.

Good night!

(Kind of) Getting to Know You

2010-05-26T19:14:00.001+09:00

I was able to talk to Daniel for a whole 3 minutes earlier today. He came to sit in my class so he could see how a class without and Korean was run. He came for my 3:30 class, but it turned out it was canceled. I didn't know that until the bell rang and I had no students. They had come in a few minutes earlier, but one of the boys walked in, yelled at them and they all left. I walked down the hall and asked Mrs. Choi (the principle) where my students were. It turns out that they had been moved to another class for a different lesson. I don't know why, Daniel speaks a little Korean, and he spoke to Mrs. Choi, but no explanation was offered. I didn't mind having the extra free time, but I wish I hadn't put effort into making that lesson plan.

In our brief discussion earlier, I learned that Daniel has been in Korea for two weeks. He came to Ilsan looking for a job. He found a position here and it turned out that he had family in the area, so he accepted the position and is now staying with family. He said his apartment is about a five minute cab ride away, but he doesn't know the name of the neighborhood, and I didn't recognize the name of his apartment building. I asked him what he thought of Korea and he says he loves it. He's still amazed when he goes out and is surrounded by Koreans. I wonder what that's like for him being a Korean-American.

We may get a chance to talk later, but as I have classes from now until 8 o'clock, I'm not sure. There's always tomorrow.

* * *
Update:

After another millisecond conversation I found out that Daniel will be taking Angela's position (this is her last week) and teaching some TOEFL classes on top of that. So, there will be another foreigner around. Maybe we will invite him out to do something on Saturday to better get to know him. I told Angela that we should all get together before she leaves for Japan (her sister lives there and she is doing a little traveling before going home).

On Sunday, we are meeting the Seoul Vegetarian Club for some Mexican food in Itaewon. It'll be a special set menu with one burrito, one taco, Mexican rice, a side salad, chips, salsa AND guacamole. It will be a feast. I'm completely stoked.

Thanks, Mom!

2010-05-26T12:43:00.000+09:00

We got a fabulous package from Mom this morning. We saw the notice on our door and immediately went downstairs. We caught the postman just as he was about to leave.

She basically restocked our kitchen. We are going to eat so well for the next few months. Thai rice noodles, soba noodles, quinoa spaghetti, Taste for Life healthy eating magazine, two cans of coconut milk, coconut oil, green Thai curry sauce, red Thai curry sauce, Pad Thai sauce, Twizzlers, two dark chocolate bars, organic red lentils and French green lentils and red pepper flakes.

We'll be making a Thai curry dish for dinner, so stay tuned.

Food First: Millet

2010-05-25T21:39:00.000+09:00

I've decided that any time Ian and I use an ingredient for the first time, I'll feature it here and call it "Food First." I wish that I had started this sooner, but blogging has been a learn-as-I-go experiment.

Tonight we are making millet for the first time.

Ian tried toasting it before pressure cooking it, since we're looking for light and fluffy texture; but as we'd rinsed the millet, it simply left a starchy film in the cooker. So, we skipped that and added water, a little vegetable stock and salt.

Light and fluffy, it is not. But, it tastes good. It has just a hint of bitterness that adds an interesting depth. We cooked 1 cup of millet to 1 3/4 cup water/broth mix on high pressure for ten minutes and then turned off the heat, waited for another ten minutes before opening the lid (to let the pressure come down while it still cooks).

Millet with shiitake and tofu in white sauce and a cabbage & spinach salad.

Good night!

New Guy

2010-05-25T19:52:00.000+09:00

We didn't have a meeting yesterday morning. Julia (via a text message from Terry) cancelled it at the last minute. This is our last probationary week, so next Monday we'll find out (again) whether we're still employed.

There is a new foreigner at Yoon's. His name is Daniel. He is Korean-American and he's from the L.A. area. He introduced himself to me and said that he "might" be starting here soon. I'm not sure what he meant by that, but I feel bad for him, as it seems that his job prospects here are as based on Julia's whims as ours are, but he's not getting paid. He's been running from class to class and that, and my classes, has prevented me from talking to him much. I'm not even sure if he lives in Jecheon. I will hunt him down tomorrow for more details.

I think he's relatively new to Korea because when we met he mentioned that it was nice to see a "familiar" face. He seems like a nice guy. He speaks in a kind and gentle tone that will attract Julia's attention and he'll have her on his back about his "lack of zeal" in no time.

I've hardly heard from Julia or Sue in the past couple of days. I think they've been busy with the new kid. Sue did tell me yesterday that a student reported to Julia that my class was boring. I am so ready for a career that doesn't involve putting on a show. My classes are not boring. My students are made to work, but we're moving and changing too often for them to be bored. I've had enough of everything I do being held against Ian's classes. I want to be praised/corrected/trained according to my own skills and potential. Not Ian's. Not the South African teachers from Wonderland that Julia thinks invented the game "telephone." Not the country of Korea's imaginings regarding who Americans are and what they're good for. 98 days and counting.

The Korean Improvision: Chili and Cornbread

2010-05-24T23:32:00.000+09:00

So, the meal is a success. The pressure cooker chili is missing something, but it's definitely passable and it's so nice to have something new and different. The cornbread turned out so much better than we had hoped for. It's certainly not my Mom's, but it works. I've got three hours of lost to watch, so all these images are straight out of the camera (not that they're usually all that edited, anyway).

Ian bought 11 cans of tomato paste. I've read that tomato past is actually terrible for you because of the way it's processed. But, we don't have a food processor, and we get home from work very late, so it's a necessary evil. As for why he bought so many, it's almost never available; it's been months since E-Mart had any.

Chili ingredients: tomato paste, oregano, salt, hot pepper, garlic, cumin, pinto beans, bell pepper, gochu powder, cherry tomatoes and raw peeled chestnuts.

"Puree" the tomatoes.

Chop the peppers, garlic, and chestnuts (pictured), etc.

Toss it in the pot! Don't forget to add water. It takes more water than you'd think.

Cook on low/med heat for an hour or so.

I won't post the cornbread recipe. Trust me, you can make much better quality stuff without the weird improvisations I had to do (I didn't have baking soda or powder, so I subbed some pancake mix for regular flour, for example). I cooked half of them in the toaster oven and the other half I "steam baked" on the stove top. You can see them in the background, they're a little doughy looking, but they're fully cooked. Regardless, they were pretty tasty.

I'm so very full right now.

Good night!

Bribery

2010-05-24T21:38:00.001+09:00

I just bribed my students with stickers to get them to stay a little late after class to finish copying down a story they'd made together (each one contributing a sentence at a time). They worked hard in, so I thought their parents should definitely see something from it. They're working on the difference between the simple past and continuous past tenses. I started them off with the first sentence. Here is what they came up with:

"Today I was walking home when I saw a bear. I punched the bear. The bear died. Then I saw one thousand more bears. I ran away from the bears. But, I was dreaming. I was surprised. But, I woke up and I saw a bear. The bear stepped on me. Then the bear changed into a zombie. I became a zombie, too. I drank church water. But, it was dirty water. I was surprised, so I yelled. Then I became a dirty zombie. Suddenly, I died. But, it was only a surprising dream."

Best line? "Then I became a dirty zombie." I also like that there's a moment where the story seems like it may turn cyclical (8th sentence). It was even better that my students caught that and joked about it. My next Fluent class is working on passive voice (much to my chagrin), so they'll be making a story, as well, which I'll post.

Ian and I are attempting chili and cornbread tonight for dinner. There's a good chance this meal could fail, so I'll only post pictures of the final product. If it works out, I'll post a step by step recipe. After all, we're using a pressure cooker for the chili and a crummy little toaster oven for the cornbread. A recipe like that might come in handy when you're, I don't know, camping or ...being held hostage.

* * *

Here is what the second class wrote (every third sentence is passive because that's what they were studying):

"I was walking home when I saw a bear. I was talking with the bear. The bar was hit by a car. The bear died. I was sad. The car was broken by me. The police came. I ran. The police caught me. My mom was saddened."

It's a lot shorter because we ran out of time and there were only three students. So, both classes killed the poor bear, but at least the second (older) class felt some remorse.

A Different 100 Celebration

2010-05-24T11:49:00.000+09:00

On December 1st last year, I posted for the one hundredth time. It was a pretty big milestone for me, proving to myself that I could keep up with a writing project even when there were no consequences for not accomplishing it. Everybody Jecheon Tonight felt a little more legitimate.

Yesterday marked another occasion revolving around the number one hundred. One hundred days left on our contracts. We're in the final stretch, folks. Sixty-five working days left. Ian doesn't want to book anything for South East Asia until after this month (our month long probation to see if more students are enrolled). But, Sue has told me that more students are signing up, so I am not worried. We're keeping an eye on Thailand, however. Our plans (to spend three days there and then head to Cambodia) may have to change as there has been a lot of violence between the Red Shirt protesters and the military. Parts of Bangkok are still sectioned off and under a state of emergency. But, we'll just play it by ear. Maybe Vietnam then Cambodia, or Laos first.

When our contracts end, we'll spend our thirty days in Europe. Our itinerary ideas keep changing, but I'll be sure to update you when something's official.

A Plethora of Pizza

2010-05-23T22:12:00.000+09:00

The word plethora is most commonly misused to mean "a huge amount of something" instead of "an excess of something above what is wanted or useful." I know I'm guilty of weakly using it to mean the former.

But, in this case, I mean its true definition. Just plain too much. An excess to the point of comedy.

Ben, Amy, Ian and I met at Mr. Pizza for a late lunch. We always order two pizzas because we are vegetarians and they are not. So, Ian and I ordered out usual Korean pizza (potatoes, spicy chili and corn with cheese crust) and the salad bar. The salad bar is my favorite. It's not very good by American standards, but I like it better than the pizza, so it holds my focus. After they take our order and Ian and I are munching on our iceberg mixed salads, the waitress comes over and explains that they've mixed up our order (when we have two pizzas, they always manage to mess it up somehow) and Ben and Amy's pizza ended up with the cheese crust. Amy doesn't like the cheese crust and Ian's tired of our incorrect pizza orders, so he asked them to remake it. We figured they'd toss (or let the staff eat) the backwards pizzas, so we would be waiting a little longer for new ones. No problem. But then, out come our pizzas, the cheese crust on Ben and Amy's and not on ours. The waitress explains that new pizzas will come after we eat these ones. We try to tell her that this is fine and we'll just deal with it. After all, two more pizzas would mean one whole pie for each person. But, she didn't understand us and about twenty minutes later, two more pies come, the crusts correct.

Our table. You can see that both of us still had two pieces left from the original pizzas. So, that's thirty-two slices of pizza that were available to four people. Ian and I put down one pizza. For the record, I had one slice and Ian ate seven. As I mentioned, I'm more a fan of offerings at the salad bar. We sent the second pizza home with Ben, figuring his metabolism could handle it better.

That's a plethora.

Good night!

Student Loans

2010-05-23T12:17:00.000+09:00

In Korea, foreign teachers don't pay rent; it's covered by their employers as part of the deal. We pay our own utilities, phone/internet and medical insurance, but it's all very low. We also pay taxes, but as soon as we leave the country, we are eligible to get that money back.

Many people choose to teach here because of the low cost of living. It was definitely a factor when we made our decision, as we have a lot of student debt.

I made $760 in payments for this month. These are only my loans. Most of Ian's haven't come into repayment yet and the one that has is being generously covered by his parents.

I know we might get a few comments about consolidation and other repayment plans, so I'll clarify our situation. I have both private and federal loans, so many of those options go out the window immediately. I was lucky enough to get all of my loans before the market crash, so the interest rates are good and I don't want to jeopardize that. When we get back to the states, Ian will be going back to school, so we will apply for (and most likely acheive) deferment. We have enough disposable income to make these payments right now, so we figure we might a well.

Fusion Vegan Ravioli

2010-05-22T20:14:00.000+09:00

Ian decided to make ravioli using mandu wrappers tonight. They were pretty good, but the filling's flavor could use a little work. I think the broccoli took over. Spinach might be a better choice for a green veggie.

Ingredients: salt, pepper,basil, oregano, mandu wrappers, sundubu (silken, uncurdled tofu), broccoli, tomatoes, button mushrooms, garlic and onion. Not pictured: prepared red pasta sauce.

Sundubu is most commonly used for a specific type of jjigae (stew).

We don't have a food processor, so Ian uses a grater to get the correct texture.

Then the mortar and pestle. It smelled like pico de gallo at this point, but it didn't taste like it.

Sundubu!

It's texture is somewhat similar to ricotta.

Filling.

Ravioli.

Then boil for about ten minutes.

Serve with a little red sauce of your choosing and green salad.

Good night!

Hair Cuts

2010-05-22T19:45:00.001+09:00

Ian and I got haircuts today at E-Mart.

Before:

Ian's practicing for prison.

After:

Every person working there today asked if I had a perm. Naturally curly hair is very uncommon here. They have no idea how to style it. I love the cut, but they blow dried it down and then tried to curl it with a straightener, so it had a strange shape when they finished. It was the most efficient hair cut I've ever had. Two people blow dried my hair at the same time.

They left the front a little too long, but that's no big deal. Ian looks so much better with short hair.

We found this children's book about President Obama while we were shopping.

A Shelter in Need

2010-05-22T19:13:00.000+09:00

I follow Laurie Cinotto's blog, The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, very closely. She gives a great deal of her self to animals in need through the fostering program at the Tacoma / Pierce County Humane Society. Back in August, she helped a whole bunch of people donate money for new cat facilities there. It's even named after her adult resident cat, Charlene Butterbean (it's called the Charlene Butterbean Quarantine). She's also an artist, a crafter and all around cool lady. I fostered for the PCHS while I was in university (that's how I met my wonderful Ava cat), but I never had the opportunity to meet Laurie.

She's brought a recent tragedy to my attention, and I thought I'd spread the word. The Berkley East Bay Humane Society needs help. They've had an electrical fire that wiped out their entire cat sheltering are and 15 adoptable cats lost their lives. If you're interested in helping out, visit their website for more information.

Buddha

2010-05-22T15:34:00.000+09:00

Ian and I took a walk down to the standing Buddha statue near our apartment this afternoon. We were expecting colorful paper lanterns or prayer plaques, but the scene was much simpler.

The path to Buddha is lined with rice paddies.

Candles and incense.

The Buddha statue is from 1116. It's amazing that he's just out next to some guy's rice field.

We saw this cool black dragon fly.

So, it doesn't look like Buddha had much of a party after all. But, he probably would have preferred it that way.

Doenjang Jjigae

2010-05-21T22:09:00.000+09:00

Happy 2,554th Birthday, Buddha! There are children in the street shooting off fireworks. I'm sure the small Buddha statue looks pretty festive, we'll be sure to run down there and take photos in the morning. Buddha's Birthday (like many holidays in Korea) is a three day festival. I wish I knew how to get to the nearest temple. I'm sure its very alive right now and hearing the fervor out our window makes me wish I had put more thought into this day as a holiday instead of just a day off.

But, we are making doenjang jjigae tonight! Doenjang jjigae is to Korea as chicken soup is to Americans. Comforting, ubiquitous, but ever changing. There isn't just one recipe for this bean paste stew and it easily lends itself to alterations.

We had it on Jeju island when we rolled into our hostel later than expected (we got lost). When we arrived, no one was there; but, the manager (actually, he was just one of a few people that rotated while the real proprietor was away, bad luck on our part) spotted us as we were walking back down the street. He asked if we had eaten and when we told him we hadn't, he insisted that he get us to a restaurant. Most places were closed, but a little jjigae shop was still open, the owners sitting around watching t.v. and later drinking soju. We showed them our vegetarian cards and the hostel manager helped us explain. The cook said she could do that and we were served simple, delicious doenjang jjigae, white rice and plenty of banchan including fried eggs. All for about $12 total.

Ingredients: 3-4 cups vegetable broth (we use powder), 1/4 cup doenjang, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 piece of dried kelp, 1-2 green onions, 1/2 block firm tofu, red pepper (gochu) powder to your tastes and whatever vegetables you like. We went with yellow potato, shiitake mushrooms, zucchini, and cabbage.

Kelp.

Doenjang.

Step one:

Put vegetable stock and doenjang in a stock pot and stir until dissolved. Add kelp and garlic and bring to a boil.

Step two:

Add vegetables (but not the green onions, yet) and tofu and return to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes.

Step three:

Add green onions and red pepper. Boil until bright and fragrant, but don't exceed 15 minutes. Remove kelp and serve very hot with a side of your favorite rice.

Good night!

Big Bubba

2010-05-21T14:01:00.000+09:00

Don't worry, he was on the outside of the screen.

And he really wasn't all that big. But, Ian cowered as he took pictures nonetheless. The big man's not a big fan of the insecta class of life.

A Closer Look at Yellow Sand

2010-05-21T12:22:00.000+09:00

It's been hot. Summer hot. So, our window is usually open all day and night. I dust (almost) everyday to keep the electronic dust down. We're all packed in pretty close here, so there's a lot of it. But, during the "spring" months, there is another, more sinister source of mess. Yellow Sand. It comes right in and, like any unsavory visitor, is difficult to get rid of. We have no vacuum.

This is the surface of our table. Admittedly, I often neglect it, since it's in our "laundry room." But, it did get dusted once our twice this week, so it hasn't had all that long to accumulate sand.

You can see that it actually is yellow/gray in color. As to why it is this color, here is what Wikipedia says about its pollutant content (I left the hyperlinks in for anyone curious):

Sulfur (an acid rain component), soot, ash, carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants including heavy metals (such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, lead, zinc, copper) and other carcinogens, often accompany the dust storms, as well as viruses, bacteria, fungi, pesticides, antibiotics, asbestos, herbicides, plastic ingredients, combustion products as well as hormone mimicking phthalates. Though scientists have known that intercontinental dust plumes can ferry bacteria and viruses, "most people had assumed that the [sun's] ultraviolet light would sterilize these clouds," says microbiologist Dale W. Griffin, also with the USGS in St. Petersburg. "We now find that isn't true."

Gross.