Motivation

  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

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!

A Day in the Sun

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.

2 for 1

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

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

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!