I’ve been trying to be positive about living here (as in SK) and so have been trying to notice and appreciate things about living here that I wouldn’t have in, say, Canada.  And you know what, sometimes I do smile and think that it’s great and convenient and relatively easy and that I could stay here longer.

Then little things will creep in and shake up the bubble that I tried to create.

Hubby gleefully expressed that they would have the whole week after Christmas off, to which I didn’t respond.  He also said that most likely they’d go home early on Christmas eve because they’d have had their drunk fest year end party the night before.

“Aren’t you happy?”

“I just don’t believe that it’ll happen.”

“It’s already been approved.  We have the whole week off.”

“Right ….”

“What?  Why are you so pessimistic about this happening?”

“Seriously?  With the amount of times that they’ve done this?  You must be joking.  Let me put it this way – they only way that I believe that you’ll have the week off is when you’re sleeping in on Monday morning.”

That was on the weekend.  Lo and behold, it’s Christmas eve and he won’t be home until after 11.  And they have to work on Monday.

Yes, I should be… we’ve got up to 20 people coming over for Christmas dinner… silly girl, whywhywhy did you think this was a good idea when you know that your husband can’t be around to help you?  Well, it has helped to light a fire under both our butts to get furniture ordered (no, I don’t want to talk about how slow we are on that front – nor do I want to talk about how most of it is coming the week after Christmas).

Right.  So I played the patience game with the butchers at Costco and … I lost.  The only way to get what you want is to keep smiling and wait them out.  Freaking out doesn’t help.  But for some reason there’s the mentality that “the shop owner ALWAYS knows best” and if you suggest something you’re scoffed at.  Well, I’ve had enough with not getting what I want so I’ll just stand here and stare at you … FINE!  I can’t handle it anymore.  You win.  Ok.  Perhaps I should explain.  I’m cooking a roast for dinner but the only ones they had were those 80,000 won ones that are 20lbs and WAY too big for my measly oven.  I only really wanted half of it and wanted them to cut it for me.  Lots of waiting and asking and smiling and waiting later I ended up with the whole 20lbs but cut into 5 pieces – still a lot of freaking meat.  I’ll cook 2 or 3 of the hunks when the numbers are finalized.

I kind of just feel like curling up and watching a cheesy movie … need to make bruschetta and a dessert tonight … dips, sliced veggies, and cleaning all tomorrow.  Lovely friends are bringing a pork dish and various side dishes.  I have a feeling we’ll have way too much food and be eating leftovers for weeks (fingers crossed on roast beef sandwiches!!)

I went to the dollar store again – I kind of tried to sneak in because I’ve had hubby return 2 things within the span of a day because they were the wrong size and I was worried I’d get the stank eye.  I was creeping along the aisles searching for a meat thermometer and string (to tie the roast together) and needed to ask for help.

(AND how is it that many of the things made in these countries (that I’ve lived in in Asia) make all this cheap crap but export it to Canada, to never have it here again?).

Meat thermometer – no go.

String?  Well, first they offered some baby fine thread which I tried to emphasize would go up in smoke in the oven.  Then they pulled out some metal, Christmassy looking stuff which I shook my head at.  Finally, bless them for trying so hard, pulled out shoe laces — um… to wrap around roast …  no thank you, but thank you for trying to help!

Never fear guests that read this, no shoes laces will be used on the beef.

But I may need to break into the chips and dip tonight to encourage me on …

Tis the season of Christmas parties and talk of holidays.  If you work at a university and aren’t teaching during your break, you could have up to 10 weeks of paid vacation coming to you.  So naturally the talk at said parties is about up coming plans for the break.

Now, for some reason, I’ve befriended numerous divers, which is great, but I don’t dive.  And the really painful part is that the new ones don’t remember that I don’t dive so end up asking me (when I mention about our trip to Malaysia) about where we are going and specifically mention sites that have great diving.

Then there are the new-to-me folks that ask me why I don’t dive.  I generally say that I can’t handle the pressure on my ears – which is true.  But there is another, more pertinent reason why I don’t and to quote Axl Rose:

I discovered I scream the same way whether I’m about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.

And!  I jump at nature shows when something comes flying up on the screen.  SO I can only imagine that in real life I’d end up swatting some endangered fish and smash into fragile, 1000 year old coral in my attempts to get away from a slug.

So, no.  I don’t dive.

I do sit on lovely beaches.  I do drink wine and eat really expensive food and appreciate my surroundings. I am, generally, a good conversationalist.  But can we please change the topic to something that I don’t need to emphasis due to embarrassment over.  (Secretly I blame my parents for not desensitizing me to ANYTHING as a child.  No scary movies.  Hands over eyes during sex scenes in movies.  No violent shows – minus war movies — because they’re authentic???).

Anyway.  We’re going to Malaysia for our honeymoon!  How exciting.

1)  It takes me at least 1 hour to get anywhere in Seoul

2)  There are some lonely expats out there that really need an ear to listen to them

3)  I really like my new neighborhood

4)  I don’t really know where I live (ie turned too soon in very slow traffic, at night, from the other direction and was super lost in the winding hills but the driver was so nice and when I hopped out at the market he was a bit concerned that I actually knew where I lived from there.  Shout out to you, super nice man)

5)  Blows me away how the combination of music, ambient noise, paint colors, organization of a room, drinks and snacks can make you feel as though you’re in NA.

6)  Great conversation.  I’ve missed it.  New topics about things that I know nothing about.

7)  Cold weather.  It really debilitates me.

 Sunshine!

9)  Although the new sofa is comfortable to sit on, to read, watch a movie etc not so good for sleeping

10)  I make damn good banana bread ^^

Very quick commentary on this:  Are native speakers part of English here? Your thoughts on the 2009 GETA International Conference.

Let’s look at it from a business perspective.

NSET’s are the lowest level of employee due to high turnover and yet have the highest expense rate.

If you’ve already invested X amount into said individual but your rate of return is expected to be low, you have little to no incentive to invest further capital into it.  IE:  why put resources into training someone that will not be with a company for the long term and in fact will turn and leave to work for a different company/country.

If you want to improve yourself you have to take the initiative.  Find some classes.  Get some books.  Join organizations, both here and abroad.

It’s a hard lesson to learn that an organization will go on without you, that you aren’t irreplaceable.

If you were working at a large corporation back home you may question why you aren’t getting further training but when someone reminds you of the initial investment that was already put into you (by means of a flight ticket, housing, salary etc) you have very little ground to stand on.

It isn’t their responsibility to invest in YOUR future.  Take control over your career goals and find the education that you need to supplement your path because chances are that you don’t plan on spending the rest of your teaching career there anyway.

Unlike corporations back home, schools aren’t there to make a profit but DO have to answer to many different groups with a vested interest in the outcomes of the current education system.  Which translates into: yes, a corporation may be willing to pay for your education assuming that they get something (like your life a 5 year contract from you) but there is a trade off.  So, no, a public school system has no responsibility to further your teaching experience and education.

There is a point to raise the issue, but the complaining isn’t helpful.  Offer some positive, insightful commentary that can foster positive growth that both parties benefit from and then you’ll have an audience.

I decided it would be a really great idea to have a few friends come over on Saturday night for dinner and wine … which turned into 5 bottles and countless cigarettes which has now turned into a cold.  Good job!

My brain and hearing are the first to go, prior to any extreme sniffles or coughing fits.

When I asked my beginning level engineering students “What are some activities you would suggest for tourists to do in Seoul?” I thought I heard “Visit an Asian’s house.”  what??? oh, ancient house.  got it.

……………………..

I also found out that the Dragon Hill Lodge will provide catering services to individuals off base (you have to pick it up at one of the gates).  ”Check out our Party Platter “to-go” Menu. Let the Dragon Hill Lodge Deli cater.”  We may do this for the Thursday evening party at our place so that I don’t need to well, …. so I don’t need to do anything.  HA.  So far I love getting married again to the same man in this country.

…………………..

The end of term is nearing and rather than trying to fight with excel as I am wont to do each term, I decided to try an online grade keeping program.  I like this one called Engrade so far.  Have you used any of these before?  This one’s free and super simple to use.

…………………..

Already falling behind in my masters.  Well, not too dramatically yet, but further than I would like to be based on the timeline I set myself but seeing as I’m not working this vacation (10 weeks paid vacation ^^) I really hope that I can get it written, edited and submitted prior to all the wedding and guests things beginning.  (I just noticed that is one terribly long, poorly written, run-on sentence … huh, editing may take longer than planned for the first assignment due…. hahaha).

…………………

Headache………. I killed two more mosquitoes two nights ago.  That means they’ve been munching on me for 8 months ……..

………………….

That’s it.  Back to reading about Research Methods in Applied Linguistics

Knock on the door at 9 this evening, answer it and it’s a delivery guy.  My first thought was “aww, hubby’s feeling guilty about leaving on a business trip for 2 weeks and got me flowers … wait, what the hell, that’s a huge freaking basket .. is that a cake … what’s in the bag … a bottle of wine … what the hell?”.  The delivery guy asked me twice if it was the correct house, as in “why are you so shocked to be getting this?”

I then sent hubby a text asking “Does this mean that you aren’t coming home?”

I then saw the card.

It was from his boss to me.  Apologizing for “always taking your husband from you”  BUT ” we will need more of him in the future and he will need to go on more business trips in the future”

Umm, so, ….what? So you gave me a bottle of wine and a cake to gorge myself on, alone … for two weeks … and then more alone time….

It is a REALLY nice gesture and VERY surprising but if all that he has done before, all the time, energy, … I don’t know.  How much more do you want out of him?

For some reason I’ve been getting way more hits than usual and I feel I need to tell you new to “We’ve Got Seoul” folk that this blog has nothing to do with you.  I couldn’t care less if you read it, what you think about it, and what you think about me via it.  This is used for me to vent.  This is so that when I meet others in the real, non-internet world, that I don’t snap and a verbal string of bitching occurs. AND you know what!!  I’m allowed to.  That’s right.  I am allowed to complain about things when I want to.  It doesn’t mean that you need to read it – I’m certainly not making you read it.

If you want fluff there are a hell of a lot blogs out there that will give you mundane crap to placate you through your week.  Don’t look to me for that.

Yup, we’re going to crash a wedding tomorrow.  It’s amazing how you can crash weddings here and no one bats an eye.  I’m not up on my urban slang enough to know if this truly counts as crashing but it’s as close as I want it to be.  We’ve basically settled on having our wedding ceremony at his alma mater and so the wedding hall has said that we can come watch someone else’s wedding and then eat the food there.  I’m sure it won’t be too distracting to see the white girl in the back of the room taking notes. HA

A mixed list of impressions from the conference:

1) Registration was a nightmare as per usual.  The sheer untidiness of the “Problem” desk was a problem in and of its self.  The computers were down again when I was in there (similar to 2 years ago I was told) and the initial perception was not one of professionalism; in fact I would say that I was quite embarrassed to be a member of KOTESOL regarding this level of amateurism regarding conference registration.

2)  I’m not sure if they had overflow rooms last year or not but those were great.  The down side being that there were no handouts available in those rooms so made them undesirable to be in.

3)  The tech teams seemed far more proficient this year — ie in problem rooms in a flash and got things up and running in a jiffy!  Well done tech team!

4)  There needs to be a suggestion box.

5)  At the KOTESOL table where you can get your certificate of attendance there needs to be a guru that knows all and can find out all.

6)  The booklet with the presenters in it needs some touch ups:

a) on the cover it says “17th Annual” but the binding says “16th Annual”.

b) contact information of all the presenters needs to be with each presenter – crazy to have to chase after presenters to ask for email addresses.

c)  a list of the publishers tables should be in the book.

7)  The 5 sessions on “Research” were an interesting and well needed addition and I would like to see more presentations of that sort at future conferences.

The “Conversation About Teacher Training” should have been much longer as there were some great ideas flowing.

9)  It would be great to hear more about the specific future of ES/FL in Korea regarding hogwons, public schools, universities etc.  (I realize that is much more difficult than it sounds but, hey, we can talk about it right?).

10)  Plenary speakers should be required to provide us with new and geographically relevant material; Ellis’ slides were from 2007, Thornbury (Featured Speaker) was stressing about “the benefits of memorizing vocabulary” which is not an issue here, although it could be in Spain (?).

I wasn’t very impressed with the other featured speakers as they were a little too focused on the “love of thy student” and not focused enough on theory or anything tangible or useful.

I was very pleased with Scott Miles from Daegu Haany University – very useful material as well having an enjoyable presentation style.  I hope that he will be back next year.

That’s it.  I most likely will go back next year as I DO like to hear what’s going on in Korea and I do think that KOTESOL will improve.  And although I work at a university I have to echo the thoughts of one member of the audience that mentioned about the lack of support regarding hogwon teachers.  KOTESOL needs to increase advertising to get these people in and to get more Koreans into the conference (in fairness I don’t know what the breakdown of attendees was regarding Korean:International).

Did you go?  What did you think?