Salutations, Time and Work

The one thing that has significantly changed since being employed again is time. There isn't ever enough of it. Between work itself and the sleep needed to attend work the following day we [I] find myself with about 7 hours to spare. There's no science to it, it's flexible and it can get wild when that time needed for rest is disturbed for long periods of time... It's always best to keep a healthy sleep schedule. This will be my goal for the month.

It has also affected how I blog. As could be expected, I really enjoyed the time off from working and all the posts that inspired me to delve more into my surroundings to share those experiences with you colorful images. You are all so intertwined into this portal of the multi-web. 

I love it all. Mainly, this post is to thank you all. You are the color on this grey image.

Korea, Work and My Wonderful Mom

Just when things were beginning to look grim and the humor mustered up was about rumors. At the opportune moment I made my jump from out of depression. It was like being on the verge of depression. Twenty days of looking and rejecting positions fineally led me to my previous employer. They were in an extremely difficult situation.

It wouldn't be proper to discuss it here but to give a general outlook. The new guy they hired to replace the guy who left earlier this week... got canned in two days. He turned out to be unacceptable to the school standards.

They needed somebody quick. I happen to be working a sub teaching position at the school for a week. Another co-worker/friend was back in Canada attending a sister's wedding.

It's a short term contract ending in February. Perfect!

The best part of this week. My mom.

When I was at the point of falling into a spiral of depression she called. She said, "things will be okay" (In Korean, because my mommy still speaks to me in Korean). "I will pray for you".

I love my mom.

For your entertainment. Korean music videos

Hard Headed Retaliation

Things that irk you have a way of getting under your skin. Normally, the wise thing to do would be, let it roll off the back like a drop of water on the feathers of a mallard. It would be like stones thrown in the face of the agitator to act as if it really doesn't matter.

No, no, no, I have to buck the system just to show how agitating the situation makes me feel. I can't lay down and let what seems insensitive, in my eyes, go over without response.

At our kindergarten we are lucky enough to have two computers available in the teachers office. This allows us to get our work done without having teachers investing into a computer for work. It would be ideal for each teacher to get a computer/laptop provided by the school. However, the present situation doesn't allow for us to have personal computers for each teacher. This scenario leads to nine teachers sharing two computers.

The teachers in the office are nice and we all try to get along by sharing the time we have on the computers.

As an expat living in Korea we find that the best time to keep in contact with our families and friends back in North America happens to be the time we are in the office. When my office hours are done it's 1:00 A.M. back home in Washington.

When I'm on the computer... Facebook is surely to be opened and interacted with. Not necessarily Facebook itself but my friends and family back in North America and the world.

Now that the background has been laid... let me tell you the story that irks.

The teachers office is on the third floor. On the second floor is a set of two more computers on the front counter. The front counter also happens to have the newest and best operating computer in the building. It doesn't get used often because the owner of the kindergarten likes to sit in front of it using her Netbook. A Netbook is a small personal computer without a disk drive and used for special purposes much like a laptop but much smaller.

I use this super computer downstairs on the second floor as often as I can. It isn't being used by teachers working on school projects and it's fast. Why, the best computer is being used for nothing on the second floor is a question that begs to be answered in the first place. Getting past this complaint... I make use of it. I write any curriculum that needs to be written on it. I write worksheets on it. I make monthly schedules on it. I also do Facebook on it & on some occasions when the time allows a blog post or two.

Earlier in the week the director of the school asked me to not use the computer downstairs for Facebook or any personal use. I didn't like what she was telling me. That day I spent over an hour on Facebook after she asked me to not use the super computer for personal use. Bucking the system.

Today, I had a few minutes to sit down with the director concerning some random topics while the kids looked for books in our make shift library.

The director brought up the issue of the computer again. I gave a spew of reasons for what Facebook is and why it's used. It isn't like the only person using Facebook in our office is me. The biggest complaint being that it looked unprofessional at the front desk. The director then told me that it was the owners wife who sits in front of the computer complained about time being wasted. At least that's the way I interpreted the complaint.

Now, with all the background laid with all the frustration that it may create the complaint of me using the precious super computer for personal use seems superficial. The person complaining is the same person using a Netbook to serf the web and do her personal computer activities.

My reaction today: 4 Gig USB Drive...
I take my USB Drive and get all my files from the super computer. I say buy to the front desk secretary and tell her I won't be able to flirt with her any more. The director walks over to me who was standing near.

"I will never use this computer again."

I then walk upstairs with all my files.

My plan is to use my Macbook from now on. If I can't use the super computer for personal use and the computers in the teachers office are occupied then they can't tell me what to do on my own computer. I can sit on Facebook all day whenever I'm at my desk.

Grey bucking the system.

It's the Weekend

It feels like it has been over a week since I've posted. In reality its only been five days. The post before the 25th was another five days. This accounts for the eerie feeling of being so long since the colors have been updated. All the winners of the "Blog it Forward" campaign have check in and now it's time to go out shopping in the shopping district for something original and culturally unique. A gift that shouts this is Korea, South Korea... the soul of Asia.

The Korean Lunar New Year was great. A few duckets (cash) came my way. Mostly for my skills in playing poker. When the T.V. was on, the act of not paying attention to the game came in handy. People were unable to figure out if my hand was genuine or not. The uncertainty help to win a few more duckets either way... They called if I had the real deal and folded when I was bluffing.

On Monday evening I met up with the fellas and headed to our stomping ground to celebrate the festivities.

Wednesday was back to work which turned out to be a nice three day work week.

This brings us to Friday.

A friend of mine (Canadian Wildcat) picked up a book for me about picking up women. The book has a lot to say about social interactions and how to keep a female interested in the pursuit without getting distracted or uninterested. Mostly the book offers confidence to those who may lack suck confidence when interacting with women. This has nothing in common with me. In most situations I'm calm and easy to get along with. It helps that I've got a natural intuition about reading body language and possibly a sixth sense about interacting in social settings. In the past it was hard to put a finger on what exactly gave me the cues to do what and how. The book gave a little light to how it all looks under the microscope and in some sense will refine my ability to interact with people in social settings.

Tonight I hope to put some of the things that have been enlightening in the book to the test.

With regards to the weekend... I hope that everybody had a wonderful week and that the weekend is just as enjoyable. I'll have a Gin w/Apple Juice to start the night off and I hope you raise your alcoholic beverages up on Friday night with thoughts of grandeur.

Cheers!

Grey's Dilemma Part 1

Today was rehearsal day... again. The first half of rehearsal has gone by fairly well.

On Monday Grey strolled into work like most days. He didn't have his iTouch which is a bummer. How can anybody live without music to keep the rhythm of life on beat. However, He managed to stop by a coffee shop to purchase a grande size Americano.

The issue this week in Grey's world involves his partner teacher. Let's call her Belly. On Monday, she snapped at Grey. She looked unrested from the weekend and possibly was on that period thing.

Grey, being sensitive to the situation attempts to avoid any conversation with Belly. It's not a good idea to upset the cat who's not had her meal. Grey knows though. She hasn't been with a man physically for 30 odd years. The culture is partly to blame. Her mother who Belly lives with might be part of the blame. It could be her isolation from the male population that is partly to blame. Her inexperience with pushing boundaries might be partly to blame.

About a month ago. Gib (another teacher) hosted an open house. He moved from the dungeon to a new apartment further from any subway stop. Further towards the outer edges of Seoul's city limit.

Let's back up even further. Back to June of 2008. That's when Grey moved back to Seoul. He moved into the new apartment that his employer provided. It was a small one room flat. There was literally only room for a small single bed, desk, closet, t.v., small refrigerator and a bathroom.

The bathroom was so small that when you sat up from the toilet seat you'd end up bumping your head against the wall in front of you. The bathroom was so small that you can point the shower head on you while you took a shit. The bathroom was so small that you'd hate going to the bathroom. Did I mention that Grey's bathroom was small?

There was one large window. On the other side of that window was another building. The other building was approximately 4 feet away from the window. The sun never shined into the room. This is why it was given the name the dungeon.

Three months later Grey moved out to another apartment provided by his employer.

About a months ago Gib moved out of the dungeon to the isolated apartment buildings built for the 1988 Paraplegic Olympics in Seoul. This meant that Gib's apartment is made to be wheelchair accessible. It makes for a nice flat. A gigantic restroom. A kitchen separate from the room where the bed is located. All the doors in his flat are wide. Wide enough for wheel chairs to have access to all parts of the flat.

Back to Gib's open house. As I was saying. Gib had an open house a few months back. All the employee's of Orchard Kindergarten (not the real name of the place of employment) were invited to Gib's open house.

There was a good number of folks that showed up. They ate, listened to music, drank wine and chatted away about subjects ranging from the 70's to the modern life of university students.

Half the group left as Belly arrived. She ate and mingled as we drank the remaining wine and moved on to a bottle of gin mixed with different fruit juices.

When 11 o'clock came around Belly had to leave. We convinced her to stay a little longer.

"I have a curfew", Belly said.

To make a short story even shorter... Belly's mother called and Orchard's Kindergarten director had to speak to Belly's mom. To let her know that she would be on her way soon.

The point being that it was her second time ever being late for curfew. Belly has always been in the grips of her mother's hand. Did I mention that she's 30 years old?

This is a little picture of how people live in Korea. Grown adults still live with their parents and are controlled by them in strange ways. (Which reminds me of a cool song by MF DOOM called "strange ways" which has nothing to do with this post all together).

The rest of Monday, Grey avoided any conversation with Belly.

Tuesday became a similar scenario. What was Grey to do?

Wednesday has come and gone. Grey has begun to feel the awkwardness stack up further.

What should Grey do?
a. Continue to avoid Belly
b. Take time to talk to Belly and get any unspoken frustration out of the darkness
c. Be just as rude to Belly as she has been to Grey
d. (Your suggestion)

The President of South Korea

The picture is of the Korean President with soon to be ex-President George W. Bush. The Korean president was elected into office at the end of 2007. It was ridiculous to say the least.

Let me explain. In America we have a simple two major party system. Sure we have our libertarians and Green parties. Nationally, we narrow down our candidates to two major persons. That is far from the case in Korea.

Yi Myung Bak ran against 7 other candidates. There were actually 10 candidates running until days before election.

If you look very carefully in this picture you can see that Yi (Lee) Myung Bak has his eyes open. I promise you. The Korean President's eyes are open.

At the kindergarten the teachers and students have been very busy this month. The reason for this business is due to a big performance the school is presenting to the parents of our students. Each class has a speech or some presentation of art and dance.

The age group that I teach have come together to perform a dance routine to Natalie Cole's, Love Song. It was originally done by her father Nat King Cole. I teach two classes rotating between them with my co-teacher. She teaches one class while I am teaching the other. Through out the day we switch back and forth depending on the day of the week and the schedule.

For one of the classes the students have been practicing speeches. It is a self introductory speech for one of the four Mt. Rushmore Presidents. Anyways... On Friday we had a large rehearsal for the entire Kindergarten. We all gathered up stairs in the activity room (Surprise Room) to perform in front of each other. While one class was getting ready I was looking through some pictures that I made for my students. The pictures were portraits of the Presidents. Each student would hold up the portrait/picture while they spoke. Introducing the president as themselves in first person.

This is the conversation that occurred as I was looking through the pictures.

STUDENT: Teacher, they are so ugly.

GREY: Do you think Yi Myung Bak is handsome?

GIB (another teacher): I tell my students that I'm Yi Myung Bak.

GREY: (laughing) You would need smaller eyes.

GIB: Are you kidding me? If I think I'm Yi Myung Bak, I need to open my eyes

Both are laughing out of control.

GREY: That is a great pun!

It's much funnier if you were there.

Hospital Visit Number 2 & 3

During the winter months of the year I have a recurring problem. This problem involves the excessive perspiration of my feet. The problem is bad to the point that by the end of the day my feet are drenched with perspiration. You can imagine the odor that accompanies this problem.

I've been trying all sorts of antics to remedy the problem. I've applied baby powder to my feet. The logic to this is that the powder would absorb the excess sweat that is created by my beautiful, stinky feet. It works to a degree. However, it doesn't complete the job. The feet still stink. It's like the Peanuts character Pigpen. An odor that is unavoidably recognizable.

On the second day of my hospital visit. I was nervous about my soggy socks and odor. As the first visit but it seemed to be worse. Maybe I didn't go home the night before. This type of thing happens even on work days. Drinking whiskey in Korea is a Marathon of longevity. It's fun too. And when it's time to start heading back home you might find yourself holding some ladies hand. Where you end up at night is discovered the next morning as your stretching out of bed to get ready for work. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the reason though.

It made for an embarrassing moment. Your feet are bare and the Doctor is poking his little needles into you. The entire time that lingering smell manifests itself. I wonder if they have some sort of acupuncture for excessive sweat from the feet?

The Doctor is done with his poking. A stream of different nurses are in and out of the curtain room around my unfortunately small and uncomfortable bed. I feel bad that they have to smell my feet odor. It makes me very, very self conscience.

That night (Thursday) I went out to my regular hole in the wall spot for drinking and socializing. It's quite the spot the "1950's Western Bar". When I first started dropping into the spot back in April of 2007, it was the music that drew me in. I literally lived about 7 minutes away from the place that's elevator time included. Needless to say, it became my favorite spot to sit down and socialize. The people there are the sort that finds solace and comfort in whatever way they know how. Mainly solace and comfort is found in a bottle with this crowd. Sure, there are always exceptions.

When you frequent a place over a period of time you begin to see patterns. These patterns, social or otherwise makes an interesting impact onto our psyche. It allows us to let down our guard. In many respects it allows for contact with the outside world from our own. I made many friends and so it's always nice to visit 1950's Western Bar even when I live an 8 Dollar cab ride away now.

I didn't make it home that Thursday night.

Friday morning, I stretched out of bed washed up and headed to the subway station with my friend who's place I crashed at for the night. She was heading to work as was I.

I'm not completely sure why the hospital insisted that I have three visits or sessions. When I asked about having to come for the third one the receptionist laughed.

In a slightly broken Korean Grammar, "Do I really have to come tomorrow? My ankle doesn't hurt any more. I can walk on it now".

Now the problem was climaxing. I have the same smelly socks on and my feet aren't particularly doing so well. A spot opened up later in the afternoon for me to slip out to the hospital and back before teaching my last class for post kindergarten reading (An after school program for kindergarten graduates... Ha).

I quickly grabbed some baby powder found in the teachers office a few days earlier. Most of the teachers were in class teaching. I powdered up my feet. Boy were they soaked. It's crazy that it's being said here but seriously.

I had two options. Eat free food left over from lunch or go to the hospital and pay $10 to be poked with needles. Lunch was great by the way... meatballs with rice and some fried potatoes with little slices of ham. The choice was obvious, right. That's exactly what I did. Free food.

There was no third visit to the hospital. Maneuvering around is not at all uncomfortable. Things are looking up.

123. Work

123. Work

Repetitive folding of evaluation cards
The end of the day seems so far. Teaching shapes of circles
and squares. Feeling slightly numb, like I really don’t care
Lessons in phonics, the sound of ‘u’. Sun, bun, run, gun,
nut, hut & cut. It’s a dinosaur, those are boats &
these are spaceships. They’re all toys. Sounds bizarre, like the
Flaming Lips. Lunch comes around. Please eat & stop yacking.
My break is lacking, it’s beginning to stack. My back
and neck is cracking like a chiropractors touch to
the spine. What I really need is some ancient wine or
cognac. Don’t have the cash flow to get a hold of that,
at least nothing aged well. In truth, I really can’t tell
unless it’s whiskey or bourbon and I’m writing about
drinking while at work. Back to class, the subject is math.