"It's their fault...

...If they didn't want us to break anything they shouldn't have given us footballs."

That was spoken by Kevin, one of three Canadians in town visiting my friends Jake and Maren. He had just accidentally thrown the promotional soccer ball that the bar was giving out into a glass pitcher of beer that tipped over and cracked on the table. This happened midway through my comment of "Oh, this isn't going to end well..."

We were told that we'd have to buy the broken pitcher and were all shocked to learn that they are $50 a piece. They were nice enough pitchers, with the name of the bar on them, a heavy silver handle and a cool freshness stopper but they certainly weren't worth fifty bucks. We talked the waiter down to $40 and a free order of nachos. We laughed about it for the rest of the night which ended around 3 after a trip to a karaoke room.

This incident doesn't top last weeks drunken bar-b-que that ended with a trip to the emergency room (A sliced foot and 8 stitches later and Casey's fine...). These are both prelude to our 8-hour bus ride today to Sorak-san, Korea's most popular national park. We're spending the weekend there and it looks like its going to rain the whole time so we'll see what exactly we get up to. Hopefully we'll return with no one injured or anything of value broken.

Kimchi!

Since I got here I have been rather unimpressed with Kimchi, a spicy, pickled cabbage and Korea's prized national dish. Like national dishes around the world, it is heralded as a cure-all. Here, it is believed that Kimchi can cure everything from aging to hangovers to SARS (yeah...). In my limited experience, it hasn't cured shit, and is actually likely to cause heartburn.

While reading the LA Times today, though, I found this story. Supposedly researchers have created a special Kimchi for Korean astronauts that will prevent them from getting constipated while in space. Also: "At the Kimchi Research Institute in Busan, hairless mice fed kimchi were reported to develop fewer wrinkles." Not only was I shocked to discover that Kimchi prevents wrinkles but that there is a Kimchi Research Institute right here in Busan! How I have lived here for 4 months and not visited this monument to science?

New day

I wanted to say thanks to my friends who wrote, concerned that the job situation here was turning sour. It's nearing the 6 month mark, which is when culture shock/boredom starts to make my eyes wander to new countries but the I'm happy to report that things have gotten a lot better in the last two weeks and I'm not planning on going anywhere.

With the "new" teacher leaving after only a day of work, we were left severely short staffed and all of us were given new schedules. I was given the schedule I asked for in the first place, 10 - 6 working with the kindergarten kids. So far I love it. Working with those kids can hardly even be called work. We sing and color and play the whole time. And it's balanced by my afternoon classes with the elementary school kids, where I do actual teaching. The best part: all but one of my high school classes were canceled or given to other teachers. I teach at least 8 classes, sometimes 9 or 10, a day and I have three classes a week that are overtime so I'm earning a bit of extra cash.

Our director has also made a few concessions. She signed a contract addendum that we wanted, clarifiying how much we pay for utilities and finalizing our end dates. It was nothing major but it was nice to be given what we asked for. Also, we've been accomodated on a few tweaks we wanted made to our schedules and classes. In the coolest move though, the director gave us June 4th off. June 5th is a national holliday so that means we get a 4 day weekend. Adam, Michelle and I are planning a trip to Thailand and I think Sarah is going to come along as well. Flights a super cheap and we think we can get away with under $500 for the entire weekend. It's nice to see that overtime money go somewhere cool.

Ok, I gotta run. It's that first beautiful day we've had all week and we're having a BBQ at our "rival" school across the street, followed by a baseball game (the Giants are on a 17 game losing streak...) and then a trip to the college area to drink some more. Talk to you later.

Kyongju (May 5 - 7)

Everyone had May 5th off for Buddah's birthday so some friends and I decided to stay in Kyongju, one of Korea's oldest cities. We stayed in an amazing hostel that had traditional Korean rooms and a huge courtyard. We spent a good deal of time hanging out there, singing songs and eating smores around the campfire. During the day we wandered around the city, toured a temple and a grotto high up in the hills surrounding the city. It was a great trip. Pics:

To celebrate the big guys b-day, the temple was covered in lanterns. Thousands of them. It was really amazing to see.

More lanterns and a big group of people listening to a concert in the courtyard.

Adam, Jake and I attempting to sing.

Betty, a teacher from the school across the street, right after she fell off her bench and nearly into the pond behind her.

Marin's t-shirt, though not true, speaks for itself.

Kids Day (May 4th)

A few weeks ago was Kids Day, a celebration just for kids here in Korea. All schools were canceled and we had a party on the roof of our building to celebrate. Pics:

This was a strange game where the kids hit piggy banks down towards us, rounded the chairs and raced back all the way back to the start. Fun if you're a kid I guess...

I didn't trust all those kids with golf clubs...

When the teachers were asked to participate, Joe decided to handicap me...

...we still won.

The kids played with bubbles

and played games.

I entertained them by acting like a jackass.

and lifting them up by their ears, of course. (Though it looks like Eddie here is is terrible pain, he's not. He's grabbing my forearms and that's how I'm lifting him

To Ailey

Don't forget: I have pictures of you drunk, making an ass out of yourself too...

Get off my back. As the last post detailed: I am fucking busy and I am going to be a hell of a lot busier the next month or two. I'm sorry that I'm making it hard for you to live vicariously through me. Why don't you quit bitching and get to Japan already so you can do your own cool Asian stuff?? I'll be in Seoul this weekend, probably touring the DMZ. And you know what? I'm not going to tell you anything about it. Ha.

How do you say "we're fucked" in Korean??

Joey and Suzy, two of the best foreign teachers this school has probably every seen, had their last day of work here at LCI Kids Club on Wednesday. Tired of broken promises from the management and daily schedules that just kept getting longer, they gave their two month notice in March. While we are all going to miss them (as they begin a whirlwind trip around Asia) we all feel a little jealous that their fight is over. They don't have to deal with the problems left here at the school, which, though perhaps small, are starting to add up.

Last week, I asked my supervisor and the director of the school to be moved from the exhausting night shift with the practically mute and disrespectful high school kids to the morning schedule with the kindergarteners. I had been given the late shift because the other four teachers were couples and the school didn't want to separate them. I understood this and accepted it. I hated being away from the other coworkers though, as I was constantly missing out on after work dinners and socializing. With Joe and Suzy leaving though, and a single teacher moving in to replace them, I thought it was a great time to ask to be moved.

I presented a great case. The school makes most of their money from the kindergarten and I already know most of the kids and have a good rapport with them. My older students could easily be taught by Korean teachers. And, after all, I did them a favor (at my own expense) in taking the late schedule and I felt I deserved some consideration. My director was dismissive at best. I talked to my supervisor and she attempted to explain the directors position. She wants to make sure their are existing teachers here for the kinder graduation in February and is concerned that my leaving in January (and Adam and Michelle's) would be disruptive and could cause students to leave the school. I assured them we all would do our best to make the transition as smooth as possible. My director refused.

I was pissed. I didn't want to continue my shitty schedule, isolated from my other coworkers and I was furious that no consideration was being given to me after I had done them a favor. Now, I fully realize that the director is boss and that her word is final, but this is one many examples of her unwillingness to cooperate and her refusal to have any dialog with her teachers about what is happening at this school. I was insulted and I threatened to quit. I posted my resume online immediately and three days later I've been offered 6 jobs.

After I threatened to leave, my director acquiesced and now I teach mornings Tuesdays and Thursdays. Certainly not ideal, but I lost my three worst classes in the process and my threat to leave was not wholehearted (though I made it sound like it was). Also I didn't want to cause a big stir right before the new teacher arrived.

She arrived Tuesday. Canadian, older woman and seemingly real nice. No previous teaching experience. She had one day of observation (7 classes) on Wednesday and was told she was starting a full schedule Thursday. That was today and from what I've heard it's been pretty rough. Even with a year or so of unprofessional teaching, my entire FIRST MONTH was horrible. And I had help, mostly from Joe and Suzy. The new teacher said if the first day didn't go well she was going to leave. And after just talking to her, she's decided to head home.

I don't blame her in the least. The school refused to pay for her airfare here, since she was traveling in Thailand right before she got here and she hasn't even been given a contract yet! It's another example poor management here. Our director turned down two couples who were interested in working here because of their nationalities (Aussies and Brits) and we were left with a single teacher with no previous experience. Our director has left us in the lurch and now all the current teachers are going to have to pay for it. Hopefully this will teach her a lesson about how to treat her staff better but I doubt it.