classroom justice

so i've never taught children in canada, only adults.. but i've noticed something about my kids here and am wondering if it's the same all over.. i'm half-assuming it is.. my boys, especially my elementary school level boys are OBSESSED will killing, murdering, stabbing, shooting and generally harming everything and everyone.. to their credit they have never done any of these things in my class (phew) but every single conversation we make together involves this topic.. i hear sentences like, "i like killing better than computer games" and "yesterday ji hoon went crazy and killed sung pyo" .. they find this hilarious.. it's almost becomming as tiresome as the conversations made about destroying japan.. i guess this is just a phase most boys go through, but the girls in the class, along with me just usually sigh.. evolutionarily are these boys developing into becomming little hunters or does it have something to do with the hours upon hours they spend playing sudden attack?

one thing i'm loving about teaching here is the power that 'rock, scissors, paper' has.. seriously, it will solve ANY classroom disagreement and no child, no matter the age will debate it.. who will do a presentation today? who wins the game after the tie? do the girls or the boys go first? are two students about to rip eachother's throats open over the same conversation paper? a quick match of rock, scissors, paper and the issue is over..

so i'm about to head to the ktx to get on another train to seoul.. i get to see bb lucky town tonight.. none of you know who that is, but for those of you who used to enjoy the punk with me in canada they have a touch of NUFAN..

9 weeks until canada? ahem

ar te tar tar part. 2

another st. paddy's day in korea came and went. i went to seoul to meet up with mike and to do the things we normally do. this time, we went to some irish, st. patrick's day mini festival/parade. it was pretty alright. samples of baileys and guiness, face painting, lots of green, korean traditional drumming (er?). i ran into some other people that i knew which was also nice.
missed the first punk show due to some distractions, but found a good greek place. the owner basically fell inlove with mike, but only because he was from PEI and has a thing for anne of green gables. the owner has the thing, i'm not sure about mike.
we did make it to the midnight show which had a me first cover band and a pretty good screamo band.
sunday i actually woke up feeling fairly refreshed so we met some of mike's friends for thai and then tried to go see 300. i hit the tired wall at that point and since we couldn't get in until a later show we just bought it on dvd and fell asleep watching it at home. i JUST got back from the train station. i work in a couple of hours and am pretty tired. i was sat within a group of american soldiers and once again am almost brought to tears thanking 'insert higher being of choice here' for my ipod. one guy actually started singing a song to the tune of 'so you like pina coladas, and getting stuck in the rain' (or whatever the lyrics are) but he changed the words to 'all you korean people are so stupid, and don't have a clue of what i'm sayin'. GAH. strange because mike and i had just had a conversation about not being able to associate with soldiers here.
shots from the parade. i'm pretty sure some of these people are 'poser irish'.

i think the lady who apinted my face thought i was irish. that doesn't make me a poser.


because i like to have my picture taken with giant shrimp and also giant glasses of guiness.

i have news

and it's good!
so i had a meeting with my manager today about the possibility of me moving to seoul and it went great. basically it's all a go. my record is perfect and i'm experienced and apparantly don't suck so they're willing to do it for me. we just need to work out the logistics of how it will go down. so because korean immigration is weird, they can't just transfer me. what has to happen is that they would buy me out of my current contract (which ends in september). so, i'll get a pro-rated severence and value for an airline ticket. i'll get 10 months of it, instead of a full year. i'm ok with that. then i head to bundang. if they pay for my visa run to japan i will have to pay for my moving costs. apparantly that's around 150. i can handle that too. OR there is the possibility, and it is slight, that i could come home for a break and do my visa thing at home.
i think hours end earlier than at my current location (start a little earlier too) and i'm pumped about that. what i'm also really excited about is that they teach all levels at my school, low to the genius level. remember in september when i worked at the genius school? remember how happy i was? i was actually pumped to go into work.
also, the area is very nice. it's just outside of seoul, but has a lot of good restaurants, good shopping and is (most importantly) on the subway line into the centre of the city. i havn't actually BEEN to bundang yet but this is what i hear.
since i'll be starting a new contract i'll get to choose between a couple of options. first is a raise and keeping the same vacation time i have now. the second is to keep my same salary and to get 3 weeks paid, 2 weeks unpaid vacay. i'm leaning towards option number 2. 5 weeks of vacation is nice, and rare in korea for those of us working at hagwons. plus it gives me options to go home, travel around here, or go on that trip to malta and italy with mom. (see how i factor you into my plans! don't give me a hard time anymore!)
so, hopefully early next week i can let you know more exact details. i'm just pumped and wanted to get it all down. i'm excited to get the change i really, really need.

dealing with disappointment

so i had a big weekend planned. saturday i was going to meet mel for lunch. go out for dinner for someone's birthday and then meet some friends for a party. after the party we were going to hit up a bar i havn't been to in a long, long time. afterwards i was going to stay at my friend's place for a sleep over, wake up, have brunch and watch movies. sounds perfect doesn't it?

so on saturday morning i woke up feeling terrible. my stomache was hurting and i had a bit of a headache. lunch was cancelled. i went to dinner, but the food didn't taste as good as it could have. i went home. no party for me. no bar for me. no sleepover either. most disappointingly, there was no brunch.

so i got up today, read a little. watched the first cd of 'the last emperor', and had a nap. woke up at 5. tried to eat some cereal. napped again. chatted. went for a walk. wrote gramps a letter, and now i'm going to bed to read again. i'm taking comfort in reading my favourite book again. mists of avalon. i think i'm on the 8th read.

i have 3 work meetings this week, and then on the weekend am going to seoul. no listings for any punk but i have my fingers crossed.

5 days to seoul!

slowly going crazy.. switch

so last night i went and hung out at a friend's house, played some mario kart, watched a movie.. went and visited mel.. all was well, i came home.. went to the bathroom and then looked in my bedroom.. i could have sworn there was someone laying down in my bed! my heart literally started pounding as i crept up and poked at the lump in my bed, which turned out to be my body pillow.. seriously, i'm going nuts.. how would someone get into my locked apartment, and entry controlled building? if they did manage to get into my place why would they just go to sleep?

just thought you should know that i think living alone is starting to get to me..

THOUGH i'd like to add that i'm sure stranger things have happened here beyond a random person sneaking into someone's house for a nap.. i'm just sayin..

i broke his heart.

that's right. what did ms./miss/mrs (i don't know her title anymore) spears say? ooops i did it again. i left him, it's over. i'm a quitter. i walked into taekwondo today and said that i didn't want to do it anymore. i said i wanted to enjoy some other form of excercise and i'm pretty sure my trainer was holding back tears. "but, but, your belt test. green belt!", he said. i didn't have the heart to tell him i was always faking my excitement over the belts. really i was only in it for the excercise and when mel bailed on it, all that was left was me practicing form for an hour. luckily i got a partial refund, but in order to get it my trainer had to call the master who i'm pretty sure yelled at him. all i could understand from the conversation was, "jenny", "foreigner", and "i'm sorry" being said over and over. perhaps he's not so sad at losing me then. anyways, i was concerned that i wouldn't get any refund because ben is an ass. that's right, i said it. if you're reading this ben, you're an ass! here's why:

on tuesday i went to taek, thinking that mel was gonna show up, but she didn't. she texted though, and i thought we would go the next day together. taek alone basically blew. i paid for it though thinking that we were going to go all month. i talk to mel and she says she's not into it, the weather is too nice, yadda yadda. i get up on wednesday to go to the bank, and intend to go to taek to quit and get a refund. at the bank however, i recieve a text from mel saying she's on her way to taek. woo hoo, i think. so i go to taek, and triumphantly tell the trainer she is on her way. but mel doesn't show. mel doesn't answer her phone. i'm steaming through another crappy solo taek class. punch, punch, kick, kick. i don't even break a sweat. after taek i get a text from ben's phone saying, 'ha ha, sucka, come meet me out front'. SO apparantly, ben had secretly stolen mel's phone and thought he was so hilarious he would play a trick on me. i'm pissed because well, it sucked to be there alone (i understand why it's funny), but mostly because i thought i wouldn't be able to get my refund now. so i go out, mel is there too and begging forgiveness. ben is laughing his ass off, while i yell at him incoherently about losing me 80,000won. i restrained myself from kicking him in the nuts, because all i can think about is that 80,000won is a roundtrip ticket to seoul.

anyways, ben's nuts are safe. lucky for him, because all that solo kicking training could have meant trouble for him and his junk.

anyways, i need a new hobby.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!

so i forgot about one of the greatest parts of the weekend..

RIGHT before i was about to board my train to seoul, the ipod i was borrowing sort of died.. so i had to go 2 hours sans la musique.. so, on a whim we went out and got me a brand spankin new baby.. 30G video ipod.. i NEVER make big purchases but i'm pretty pumped about this one.. she's black.. yes i know it's a she because i assume she will have the fiestiness that only a woman could possess..

in other fantastically wonderful news.. i just got some word that i may get to move to seoul in july.. seriously, i spend enough time there as it is.. it will save me train tickets.. though i do see myself heading back to daegu frequently to see friends.. meh.. the grass is always.. well.. there's no grass here, but you get the drift..

nice-uh!

i just had the most fantastic of fantastic weekends!
i headed off to seoul (yes, again). mikey met me at the train station and we went to the COEX aquarium.. i saw a 2 headed turtle! the aquarium was good, way better than the 63 building aquarium, maybe better than busan, though it has a special place in my heart.. we went and had some thai food then rushed over to the punk.. now i know i say this everytime but it was SO GOOD .. especially good.. i actually made it to the midnight show this time as well.. the weirdest part of the weekend was that while i was at skunk hell, i look over and see toben alexander! i went to highschool and university with this guy.. it has just solidified my belief that no matter what, even if you wanted to, you can't escape kincardine.. screw 6 degrees of kevin bacon, 6 degrees of the khole would be way easier..
i spent all sunday sleeping, eating and watching movies.. headed on the ktx this morning and am now just relaxing before going to work..
i don't know what could have made it a better weekend :)

today rocked

alright so today is korean independence movement day.. not independence day.. i think today was the day that koreans finally started to stop taking shit from the japanese.. anyways, it means we get a day off.. since it's a thursday we couldn't really go anywhere so me and some friends decided to do some stuff around town.. first we went around suseong lake (i've posted many pics of this before).. we headed to suseong land, which is just a permanent fair or carnival.. here were shots things, rode rides, killed at the batting cages.. etc etc.. everything we did drew a crowd.. apparantly everything is more exciting when you're watching white people do it.. so after leaving we were walking by the lake and came across this ajoshi (older korean man) drunk off his tree on soju just dancin.. so some of my friends started dancing with him, which he loved.. what i found hilarious was that there was this teenage breakdancer trying to steal the spotlight with his actually skillful moves but it never worked and he was getting so pissed.. as ben said, 'there's a difference between talent and entertainment'.. we grew quite the crowd of koreans.. afterwards we bought him a much uneeded beer and gave him one of our prizes from the carnival.. (we have tons of videos of this and jay promises to edit something to music.. if this happens i'll post)
after all this we went bowling.. ok, i havn't bowled since my days at western and i wasn't very good then, and i'm still not so good now.. but it was fun.. i did my happy dance everytime i got a strike or a spare..
we eventually went to fish and grill for a bite to eat, we were all famished after all that action.. it's 9 pm and i'm ready for bed.. i'm meeting a friend for lunch downtown at 1:3o tomorrow and then it's the weekend after a few hours of work! PLUS i get to go to seoul this weekend to see some punk and some good people.. woo hoo.. basically things are going pretty good..