This is the last post from Korea for two weeks. Has everything been sorted out? Who knows. I am boarding a plane at Kimhae tomorrow afternoon (in about 10 hours) and then flying through Inchon to Vancouver to Toronto to Moncton.
As far as jobs go. I was forwarded what looks like my future contract. At this point I can't even force my brain to remember where in Seoul it is. It's somewhere slightly southeast of Changdong though, significantly north of the Han River but not too out of striking distance (I don't think) from places like Heyhwa where I usually frequent. I will also be the only foreign teacher at this school which gives me a chance to influence the study plan. I have no responsibilities for testing or grading, they offer single accomodations, and they are giving me the salary I asked for. I guess they want me as soon as possible though so it sounds like I will be packing up my apartment as soon as I get back off the plane.
I have a feeling that a roommate will be here to greet me when I get back to Changwon. My replacement is already in the works to appear. I knew this was going to be a rush job... even though I STARTED SEARCHING IN SEPTEMBER !!! Sorry... I know I already blogged that a million times but I had to point it out again.
Lesson #1 about Korea is: Everything happens at the last minute and it's you're fault because you're a foreigner and you don't understand Korean culture to the satisfaction of the Koreans who are trying to pass off lax planning and inconsiderate treatment as Korean culture.
I will be checking email over the holidays so drop me a line. Merry Christmas.
Saturday, December 22, 2001
Tuesday, December 18, 2001
An updated photo of me from the 'candidly taken
by students with digital cameras collection'.
I am experiencing an atypical evening. My visitor had to duck out for a couple days, to help out her folks, so I opted to go to 'Bible Study' tonight. It's a Korean tradition that single men and women, who have significant others, never meet in private-- so we went to a bar/restaurant instead. (It's virtually a felony offence for married people with significant others to meet in private). My Jehovah Witness study partner apparently has some hang ups about drinking beer while studying the Bible, but I-- as an oldschool Halifax armchair theologian-- have no such apprehensions.
So I just got home. MNet is showing a special presentation with Hanul and one of the other 14 year old Koreans pop stars together. They just sang the Britney Spears song "Baby, One More Time" and low and behold, in one of those "You are watching, MNet," moments, they ACTUALLY had Britney Spears... who was being taught how to say 안녕하새요 (Anyoung Haseyo -- Hello) and 사랑해 (Sarang-hey -- I love you) in Korean. Cute, but wierd...
So in a heartwarming story-- I want to tell you all about the nice pizza ajashi at Pizza Etang... where I buy my pizza. He actually speaks a little english and makes me a carbon copy of a Pizza Hut pizza for half the price. Tonight, although I called him 40 minutes AFTER he actually closes, and he said it was "late", he still delivered me a fresh, hot pizza in under 20 minutes. I am super surprised to see they have a website but disappointed that my local guy, as wonderful as his service to me is-- doesn't have a page on it. Check for updates though... he is the guy listed near the bottom as 경남도 - 창원시 - 상남동 (Kyungnam-do(province) -- Changwon Si(city) - Sangnam-Dong(district)).
Friday, December 14, 2001
I was in a better mood today. It's not that my recent problems are solved-- I still don't have a new job to go to and as far as we know the replacement for me is still coming early-- however, nobody was playing the "Blame the Foreigner" game today. As far as all parties are concerned, blame actually seems to be resting on the back of the people who caused the problem this time... instead of the poor 외국 who has to clean up after it and plan the next year or more of his life around it.
I even went to a Korean dentist today for a cleaning. It took less than an hour... and she only polished the back of my teeth (?) but I was in an out in under an hour. You don't make appointments here BTW; you just drop in and sit down to wait. Now I am avoiding cleaning my apartment in anticipation of company this weekend. I got rid of most of my mountain of recyclables though, and I did some laundry too-- which needs to be hung up to dry soon. That'll be my excuse to finally get out of my computer chair.
Good night everyone.
Thursday, December 13, 2001
Well... on a side note... the results from my web poll finally have shown a clear winner. I must admit that I was somewhat surprised but in the effort to please my readership... here goes:
Some people asked me, "What were you thinking when you had this photo taken," and I have to admit truthfully, that it was my dearest friends who were on my mind, and the fact that I needed the money. If anyone has some free web space and bandwidth to give up, I have a great business proposal for you...
With much love - Ian XOXO
If you still have your appetite, let me know and I will publish those Korean recipes you asked for too.
I am quite certain that someone at the recruiting office has taken to getting under my skin as a hobby. I had enjoyed almost two hours of virtual peace today. I had just finally picked up my tickets. I haven't collected my compensation for partial airfare from my school yet, but so far I have faith that it will be forthcoming. All seemed to have been sorted out.
So then... we got news from Seoul. I guess the teacher who is replacing me wanted to start earlier than February. The recruiting office said, "No problem!" This is the SAME recruiting office that has had my job application for a transfer since September and due to their ineptitude I am scheduled to be here until February (an extra 3 months). Since they KNOW I am looking for February jobs, you would think that they would know that we can't take in a new teacher until they find me a job to go to.
Basically, my bosses are now putting pressure on me to leave earlier. The problem is that I JUST GOT MY TICKETS TWO HOURS BEFORE THEY SPRUNG THIS ON ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After next week I am not even going to be in Korea to pack or move my things to a new school until January 6th-- notwithstanding I have no school to go to yet February positions are largely yet-to-be-announced. I chose to go home for Christmas on the basis that it would help compensate for the extra three months of contractual waiting torment. Now I have one week to find a position that will let me start January 6th (instead of January 1st)-- and somehow I have to arrange to have my apartment packed up and moved, all while I am on the other side of the planet.
And I can't even access Dave's ESL Cafe tonight.
Tuesday, December 11, 2001
Alright... it's closing in on 7am but I have to update the Blog with something. I was visited on the weekend by my cousin, Andy, from Toronto, and his bride of one year (no longer newlyweds), Myung He. Mostly it was just a chance to get caught up on things, since we average seeing each other about once every five years. There only only three people in our generation who share our surname, so it was strange to see two of us together in Korea at the same time. He will be visiting his in-laws in Seoul until the beginning of February.
Ticket Update: My current flight is schedule to arrive at Moncton on December 23rd. I am waiting on one seat to come available. My travel partner and I will be leaving Kimhae for Osaka, on to Vancouver, the Toronto (with a more than 23 hour stopover and a chance to see my paternal family) and then finally to Moncton in time for Christmas. We are just waiting for one seat from Vancouver to Toronto right now with two weeks to spare for it to come available. The odds look good.
Lastly, if anyone is interested in some light reading, this letter arrived in my inbox today. You could piece two and two together with this story and give yourself a case of the willies. For further information, see the C.I.A. World Factbook.
That's all the news for now. I'm going to bed.
Tuesday, December 04, 2001
A couple of interesting pieces showed up in the Korea Herald today. One notes the introduction of Ballantine's Master's Blended Whisky. It's made from the blending of 45 different Ballantine's malts (isn't that like a third of all the distilleries in the world?-- how could you distinguish ANY taste?). Apparently this is cause for celebration. I am still dismayed that Glenfiddich is the only single malt whisky you can buy here. Anyway, with whisky at close to a hundred bucks a bottle, Korea apparently makes up 8.3% of the world's consumption.
The other thing was this humourous story from one of their journalists.
If you commit 'terror', does that mean you are criminally afraid? What the heck is Ari Fleischer talking about? I guess what he means to say is that if the U.S. can exact a 5 to 1 retaliatory death ratio, so can Israel. I wish people would stop abusing the noun 'terror'. I have a hard enough time teaching my kids proper English without CNN, acting as the spokeswagon of the English speaking world, screwing up the accepted uses of words. The word 'terror' has been adopted into Konglish and is spouted at every opportunity by the kids in and around my school. Today, in a proud display of English, one kid came up to me (who doesn't even attend our school, by the way)... and having obviously practiced it for a while before springing his joke, proclaimed in a heavy accent, "Osama Bin Laden is my father."
Usually they just say 'hello'/'how are you', but I guess this war(?) is affecting lots of people in lots of different ways.
It's the start of another new week. I had Bible study again tonight. This time it was the book of Jonah. Of course we all know abut Jonah because of Melville's 'Moby Dick', but as for the four-chaptered Bible book, there are a few things that beg questions. Please bare with me.
First of course is the casting of lots by the sailors spiriting Jonah away, to determine the divine offender. Basically, it works-- why? The first chapter clearly indicates that the sailors were praying to other gods than YHWH. So did one of these other gods provide the answer to the casting, thereby proving their power (as per the mandate set up by Elijah in our previous lesson)? Or did YHWH change his mind about fortune telling, even after getting Saul to stop seeing psychics in 1st Samuel? My study partner was quick to point out that all such power comes from YHWH but then I had to remind her that this was long after the edict against the Witch of Endor was proclaimed (expressely forbidding it) by which she also clung mercilessly.
Another is the curious lesson that Jonah gets at the end, from God. After sparing the repentent Ninevah from his wrath, God angers Jonah for basically wasting his time with the whale and all. So there is a fun little epilogue, as Jonah is basically saying, "Just kill me. Kill me now!" God makes a bottle-gourd tree to give him shade in the desert. Then he kills the tree with some worm infestation. Jonah feels a bit bad for the poor tree and YHWH says, "You see? It's the same with me and Ninevah. You didn't make the tree but you felt sad when it died." Well... Jonah saw the connection but I DON'T. Is God saying he didn't create Ninevah? I thought he was the creator who created everything? If on the other hand, God wasn't trying to justify his own sympathy for Ninevah but instead was trying to invoke some sympathy from Jonah, this leads me to ask why God used a bottle gourd to symbolize Ninevah. Is this to indicate that Ninevah was created to be some sort of 'vessel'? A competitor to Israel?
Lastly, as an added touch-- since my study partner is a Jehovah's Witness, we have had lots of arguments about what constitutes a soul. Based on some obscure lines in Genesis, they believe that every person is a living soul. That means not just the spirit, but the whole kit and kabootle of physical and corporal existence as well. Well, there are at least three choice quotes in Jonah that refer to the Soul in the terms of a possession or interior component of man, and not his sum existence.
2:5 "The waters compassed me about, even to the soul..." <italics, King James>
2:7 "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord..."
Also, 4:3 is translated differently in the King James and New World Translation editions of the Bible, with the New World translation also making reference here to the Soul-- however I don't have that Bible on me right now so I can't quote from it, sorry.
Surely, I pray, this will take the soul out of our spirited argument.
***BIBLICAL COMMENTARY ENDS HERE***
Sorry, folks. The rest of the evening was spent avoiding a writing assignment by playing Starcraft. The project which I will have to get to soon (since the deadline is, uh, today...) is a brief explanation of Christmas in Korea for the Miramichi Leader. When it comes out I can let you guys know, and if you sign the guestbook for the first time, you can get free online access. Truthfully, I might not get to it tonight. I don't even have access to any Christmassy pictures that I can send electronically-- and I have no scanner or digital camera yet, so getting them within the next 24 hours or so might be tough and I'm not going to try.
Man, this is a long post.
Next, I should mention my online poll again. Please note that you can select multiple entries. So far, there is a three-way tie between me adding more unrelated commentary (like I just did on the book of Jonah), me adding nude cheesecake pictures of myself (but I just mentionned the problems I have acquiring electronic photos and the one guy who lets me use his scanner periodically probably wouldn't let me use it in this case), and lastly adding more Korean recipes (okay you jokers, you know who you are).
One element of the poll which did not get enough attention yet is the inclusion of more Korean educational and linguistic information. Since I mentionned this was going to be a semi regular thing, here is a short Korean lesson to end this post.
The words for this posting are:
시계 - Shee-Gyeh (clock)
동물 - Dong-Mool (animal)
과일 - Gwa-eel (fruit)
시간 - Shee-Gan (time)
팔 - Pal (arm)
다리 - Dar-ee (leg)
팔목 - Pal-Mohk (wrist [literally arm-neck])
복숭아뼈 - Bohk-Soong-Ah-Bbyuh (ankle)
손 - Sohn (hand)
발 - Bal (foot)
원숭이 - Wun-Soong-ee (monkey)
새 - Sae (bird)
종이 - Jong-ee (paper)
상어 - Sang-uh (shark)
Our verbs for the day are:
해야한다 - Hae-Yah-Han-da (must)
듣다 - Deudt-da (listen)
And an appropriate phrase to learn?
나는 공부할 시간이 많이 있어요 - (Naneun) gongbuhal sheegahnee manhee eessuhyo.
Translation: I have much time to study. [or literally-- (I) study time much have.]
Monday, December 03, 2001
This has nothing to do with me or Korea but I just had to throw a link to this heart warming story as reported by Ananova.
Sunday, December 02, 2001
We're closer to a travel date. The tickets have been bought and some financing settled. Right now I am on a waiting list to fly back to Canada and make it there by Christmas Eve. It will be a short trip and the return flight is scheduled to see me arrive back in Korea on about January 4th.
Had another going away party last night for one of our Korean teachers. What was a miraculous turnover of staff, 100% in the last year, is fastly becoming 100% from the last six months. I'm still having trouble leaving though. Things aren't so bad lately and most of the teachers we have now are friendly and enjoy going out, but I am feeling the fatigue of trying to relocate unsuccessfully since September. Now that I have a contract extension I will definitely be here until the end of January. After that, who knows. I am not signing another extension.
