Anyone got any news on that mass firing at a uni in Daegu  - from what I heard all the foreign staff that didn’t have masters were let go/not resigned.  Then when the next lot’s contracts (master degree holders) came up, they were told to write a 5000 word ESSAY defending why they should be able to keep their jobs.  They wrote a letter of complaint to the president of the university who then fired all of them!!

Seriously??

2.5 years and we are leaving! * YAY

People in this country have explosive tempers and as you can see from this blog, I do too.  This is not a personality trait that I’d like to foster.

Last night was the deciding factor.  About to get off the train I grabbed my ridicously heavy should bag from the overhead compartment/rack thing and as I slung it with a grunt over my shoulder some old man was walking by and got nudged by it.  I quickly pulled my bag back thinking, shit I hit someone.  He stops, turns and starting yelling, in my face.  I looked around in shock, thinking, there’s no way you are yelling at me for a mistake.  Then everyone turns around to see what the hell is going on, since I can only assume that this prick was swearing at me.  Well, never one to be shy I started to yell back at him.  Then, a man younger than the yelling grandpa and older then me, intervenes and tells something to the old asshole.  The old man stops yelling for about 2 seconds and then starts up again.

So, that’s it.  I have had enough of assholes in this country that are making me stressed out and turning me into that crazed “foreigner” that I don’t want to be.   It’s time to get out of Asia altogether.  When I’m done my masters I’ll have been in Asia for 8 years.  That’s more than enough for me.

Mentally I need to know that there is an end date, something that I can mark off on the calendar.

*although my brain is now working overtime at the thought of this and it could be sooner.

Aren’t you supposed to become more patient as you age?

Apparently not in my case as once again I fly into a rage that the asshole plumber that’s renovating upstairs has decided to turn off the water to the building without prior notice.  So here I sit.  Annoyed at the lack of common courtesy that goes on here (and waiting to see if that water will go on or do I need to go to work stinky  ).

Someone’s at the door.

Nice – fucking plumber guy that barges into the apartment and I thought that it was him but seeing as I’d recognize the crack of his ass prior to his face I wasn’t sure.  SO take that, add in way too many hours watching TV and reading about women getting raped here and I’m on the defensive.  And I don’t think that I can be blamed for feeling threatened when a random man pushes past me into my apartment.

That should be a main piece of advice to new women to this country; NEVER open you door here unless you know exactly who it is as people barge in here without regards to respect or privacy which personally gets me alarmed and concerned when some random man *pushes* his way past me into my apartment.

AND make sure that you change the locks on your door as soon as you move in.  I suggest getting a key pad lock.  An installer guy will help you to pick a code.

Waters on.  Got to run.

4 weeks left in the semester but unfortunately I’m not getting a break from here until February.

Imagine if everyone in the world were educated, how much more advanced we’d be.

You know what that means!  TV!  What are you watching these days?

Modern Family – pretty funny, I generally don’t find sit-coms funny but this made me laugh out loud

Flash forward – it’s ok, not that great

Fringe – good

Defying Gravity – kinda interesting but starting to drag on already

30 Rock – funny

Life – BBC productions

V - but haven’t got around to watching it yet

Any suggestions?

the bathroom leak that supposedly wasn’t that big of a problem. yeah, big fucking problem.  I told my husband that the leak is more noticeable when the upstairs people are using their water in their bathroom.  The fucking repair guy decided that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

This morning I thought that I could smell burning … of something but hoped that it was just from outside.

The pouring water coming from the light fixture in the middle of the bathroom ceiling – a precursor to the inventible collapse of the bathroom ceiling.

I fucking hate this country and their god damn excuses for fucking workman ship.

Now it’s 11 at night.  Do you think that anyone is going to answer their phones.  Fucking awesome.

AND what really fucking kills me is the fact that every time I tell someone here that there is a problem with water damage, I’m dismissed – to which I can only assume is due to me being a foreign female that they assume doesn’t know anything.

http://www.roketship.com/

I generally take a book with me on the subway because I a) can’t stand just sitting there,  b) then I don’t have to playing the staring game with those seated across from me,  c) I get soooo bored sitting on the subway — even though it is only a 9 stop ride, including a transfer.

Anyway~  I was meeting a friend to go purchase some glasses after a night class and didn’t want to carry extra crap and so thought that I could tough it out without the book — plus I’m getting tired from reading so much for my masters that reading for pleasure is loosing its meaning.

So there I am, on the subway, staring at people when one of the subway sellers comes on; this time a super glue guy (first time I’ve seen/payed attention to this).  Being bored, he has my full attention.  He pulls out his wooden board with crap glued to it and begins to tap at it.  Then he pulls out some sort of long rubber cord thing that he pulls on, cuts off a section and shows to the “audience” — mostly me.  He proceeds to put 3 dots of glue on it and “seals it back together”.  After pulling on it a few times to demonstrate the strength he tosses it over the metal railing on the ceiling and hangs off of the rubber band to show the strength of the glue.  I then yelled out “WOW.  HOLY SHIT” which got me plenty of stares and giggles.  Passengers must have thought that I was working with him – like the old tonic-cures-all sellers back in the day.

But the best subway seller I ever saw was in the first few weeks of arriving here.  I was seated on the train and at the opposite end I saw this man yelling and it looked like he had some sort of skin “condition”.  There were blemishes all over his face, neck and arms.  I couldn’t see him clearly due to being at the other end of the train and other people standing around.  He began to get closer and I was worried that if he was some insane dude that he’d end up yelling at me.  As he approached I saw he had something in his hand.  I looked closer I saw that he had some sort of slicer and was slicing cucumber pieces so thinly that he could place them all over his face and arms — which from afar appears to be some sort of nasty skin infection.  HA!

I also have bought one thing from them — that crazy drain hook thing.  It’s a long piece of plastic with little hooks down the sides to pull out hair and other gunk from your sink.  It works well but the gag reflex also works over time at what you’ll pull out of there.

Have you bought anything from the subway sellers?  What’s your favorite item?

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?

Sorry that it’s taken so long for me to scan this.  We have now used this company twice for two different apartments.  I 100% recommend them, hands down, pay the fee and get that shit (pun intended) dealt with.  You have to block every drain hole in the whole apartment – our place needed 4 – kitchen sink, bathroom sink, bathroom drain, and laundry drain.  You can pull them out when you leave and then they will help you install them again in a new place.

You will need someone that speaks Korean to help you with explaining your address and so he can explain what he does.  They will go anywhere in Seoul any day!!  I really can’t say enough good things about this company – honestly, saved my  marriage at times!! haha (but if you only understood the stink that happens in Seoul!!!).