Oh and by the way, I did get meself a shiny new camera, they didn't have the one I wanted but gave me an awesome deal on the next one up, oh yeah.
Nikon D70(n.b. this is not my photo, i stole it)
Saturday 31 March 2007
So Bright and Shiny
I have just added a photo section (look on the right hand side) currently I have two albums, neither of which really have any photos in them, I have two photos that were on my computer and a couple of the practice shots I've been taking.
Oh and by the way, I did get meself a shiny new camera, they didn't have the one I wanted but gave me an awesome deal on the next one up, oh yeah.
Nikon D70(n.b. this is not my photo, i stole it)
Oh and by the way, I did get meself a shiny new camera, they didn't have the one I wanted but gave me an awesome deal on the next one up, oh yeah.
Nikon D70(n.b. this is not my photo, i stole it)
Actual Update
Hey guys its been like over a week since I've actually posted anything substantial on this so I thought I'd post some actual information.
So in no particular order here is what I've been up to for the last week.
Last Sunday we went out to Insildong(sp?) for a wander, there's like a street/marketty thingy, apparently its got some awesome pottery and stuff, so wandered round, they had an awesoem stall, a guy was selling (possible faux) antiques and he had 3 sets of hookblade, think Kabal out of MK, type things, man if i was able to get some of those out, they looked cool.
After about an hour, we got disturbed by my first Korean protest, urprisingly enough over the Free Trade Agreement thing. So many people just walking, in case you didnt know Seoul (particularly the uni students) has some retty intense protests quite often, sometimes even developing into rioting.
We watched them for a while, until Dan just suddenly was like Ok guys, I think we should leave and quickly. Turns out he spotted a couple of anti-USA plaques in the midst, and just in case, we kinda just slipped away.(Nothing was going to happen but it's better to be safe)
The rest of my week was pretty much just work, I watched a weird movie, Pan's Labyrinth, it was good, you guys should give it a go sometime. And I also finally watched The Godfather properly for the first time.
Work was pretty standard, it was pretty heavy though, this week was report cards, so we had to work through all our breaks. Grrr
We got a new teacher on Friday, David, a Liverpudlian, he taught here last year and he's back for 6 months, seems like an awesome guy, got drunk with him last night, good old fridays. Galbi and Beer, and a couple of LIT's ahh the life.
Along with the new teacher came a complete new schedule, and I'm back to 6:30/6:45 finishes woot, and I don't have any low level afternoon classes anymore, which has its pros and cons, but generally its good to be able to talk to the students.
Well it's now 1pm on a Saturday, and I've done nothing all day, this post has taken like 2hours to write. In a couple of hours I'm off to buy a spanking new camera, a digital SLR, I'm looking at the Nikon 350D, possibly the Canon D50, the general 700k won, about NZ$1,000. Oh yeah, a fancy new toy.
Along with this I'll start posting some photos, might give this Picasa a go, I wonder how well it integrates, so far I've been a little underwhelmed with the extent that Google has intertwined their applications, considering I use pretty much all of them now, it's a little annoying.
Well anyway thats all for now
Bye All.
So in no particular order here is what I've been up to for the last week.
Last Sunday we went out to Insildong(sp?) for a wander, there's like a street/marketty thingy, apparently its got some awesome pottery and stuff, so wandered round, they had an awesoem stall, a guy was selling (possible faux) antiques and he had 3 sets of hookblade, think Kabal out of MK, type things, man if i was able to get some of those out, they looked cool.
After about an hour, we got disturbed by my first Korean protest, urprisingly enough over the Free Trade Agreement thing. So many people just walking, in case you didnt know Seoul (particularly the uni students) has some retty intense protests quite often, sometimes even developing into rioting.
We watched them for a while, until Dan just suddenly was like Ok guys, I think we should leave and quickly. Turns out he spotted a couple of anti-USA plaques in the midst, and just in case, we kinda just slipped away.(Nothing was going to happen but it's better to be safe)
The rest of my week was pretty much just work, I watched a weird movie, Pan's Labyrinth, it was good, you guys should give it a go sometime. And I also finally watched The Godfather properly for the first time.
Work was pretty standard, it was pretty heavy though, this week was report cards, so we had to work through all our breaks. Grrr
We got a new teacher on Friday, David, a Liverpudlian, he taught here last year and he's back for 6 months, seems like an awesome guy, got drunk with him last night, good old fridays. Galbi and Beer, and a couple of LIT's ahh the life.
Along with the new teacher came a complete new schedule, and I'm back to 6:30/6:45 finishes woot, and I don't have any low level afternoon classes anymore, which has its pros and cons, but generally its good to be able to talk to the students.
Well it's now 1pm on a Saturday, and I've done nothing all day, this post has taken like 2hours to write. In a couple of hours I'm off to buy a spanking new camera, a digital SLR, I'm looking at the Nikon 350D, possibly the Canon D50, the general 700k won, about NZ$1,000. Oh yeah, a fancy new toy.
Along with this I'll start posting some photos, might give this Picasa a go, I wonder how well it integrates, so far I've been a little underwhelmed with the extent that Google has intertwined their applications, considering I use pretty much all of them now, it's a little annoying.
Well anyway thats all for now
Bye All.
Friday 30 March 2007
They Finally Did It
I always said that if Christianity came up with solid proof, I'd revert back
And it looks like they've done it using .....
...Hmm I wonder if anybody notices, if you do please,
You guessed it,
.. message me don't tell anyone else, I might start
Peanut Butter putting more interesting details in like this
*Insert Sarcasm Here*
And it looks like they've done it using .....
...Hmm I wonder if anybody notices, if you do please,
You guessed it,
.. message me don't tell anyone else, I might start
Peanut Butter putting more interesting details in like this
*Insert Sarcasm Here*
Tuesday 27 March 2007
Good Night
Hey guys, just about to go to bed
I'm still going great here, just posted another poll, I don't actually know what I'd choose, you may notice I have incorporated the carryover champions, I know it's a little early for semi-finals, but I'm just seeing how it goes.
As of now I have 999 page views I wonder who's gonna be lucky 1000
And no more Google views, a good thing really, the whole world doesn't need to know my life.
Night All
Update: For all you n00bz, page views are not the same thing as hits, it counts every page that people look at, rather than just counting each visit.
And congratulations Hamish on being visitor #666
I'm still going great here, just posted another poll, I don't actually know what I'd choose, you may notice I have incorporated the carryover champions, I know it's a little early for semi-finals, but I'm just seeing how it goes.
As of now I have 999 page views I wonder who's gonna be lucky 1000
And no more Google views, a good thing really, the whole world doesn't need to know my life.
Night All
Update: For all you n00bz, page views are not the same thing as hits, it counts every page that people look at, rather than just counting each visit.
And congratulations Hamish on being visitor #666
Sunday 25 March 2007
Today is Sunday
Woot, I managed a day without my computer, was not really worth it though, I meant to buy speakers the day before but the shop didnt have any that I wanted so my day without a computer was a day without music, it was still good, spent an hour and a half cleaning, watched some ice hockey on the tremendous heap of propaganda that is the Armed Forces Network, and read the book Absurdistan in one go (just over 6 hours 350 odd pages) it was pretty good, nothing special but it won prizes and stuff, who knows.
I'm trying to think of another poll but I'm drawing a complete blank, so it's coming, eventually
Oh and I've realised I've gotta catch up with some of you properly, so I'll try and send some emails this week, if you don't get an email, you're either in Chch and I have constant contact with you or I'm still getting round to it so be patient.
I'm gonna buy a new camera next weekend so I'll start posting photos a lot more often after that, maybe even try and work out Flickr, who knows.
I'm trying to think of another poll but I'm drawing a complete blank, so it's coming, eventually
Oh and I've realised I've gotta catch up with some of you properly, so I'll try and send some emails this week, if you don't get an email, you're either in Chch and I have constant contact with you or I'm still getting round to it so be patient.
I'm gonna buy a new camera next weekend so I'll start posting photos a lot more often after that, maybe even try and work out Flickr, who knows.
Friday 23 March 2007
International Shutdown Day
Tomorrow is International Shutdown Day, no using computers for 24 hours, I'm in, I'm a big fan of anythig that resembles a cult, (hence the smoothness of my pc-mac transition) so no updates.
So I thought I'd finsih my work week now with a casual post in a semi-druken state.
At this point I have come to the realisation nothing happened today, it was a good week end, the kids were reasonable, I had at least one kid crying in most of my classes today, I forgive Jina cos her Grandad died last week, and she missed her Mom, but Charl Hee Lee is just a fucking pussy.
As for non-kindergarten kids crying, grow some freaking balls.
Oh man I saw a delivery guy for Pizza Cat pizza twenty minutes ago, awesome
So I thought I'd finsih my work week now with a casual post in a semi-druken state.
At this point I have come to the realisation nothing happened today, it was a good week end, the kids were reasonable, I had at least one kid crying in most of my classes today, I forgive Jina cos her Grandad died last week, and she missed her Mom, but Charl Hee Lee is just a fucking pussy.
As for non-kindergarten kids crying, grow some freaking balls.
Oh man I saw a delivery guy for Pizza Cat pizza twenty minutes ago, awesome
Insert title here
Hey Guys, its been a few days without posting now, thought I'd catch up.
Firstly, yesterday was one of the best days I've had at Boston Campus ,and I can pretty accurately pinpoint why. If you've been reading recently, you will have heard of my monster child Jade, well yesterday morning just before lunch my Korean co-teacher comes in and starts gathering up his books, and I sure as hell go ad help her, we may not be able to converse particularly well, but I liked where this was going.
So anyway his mother has pulled him out, I think the fact that he's spent most of the last few days in solitary and yesterday he hit one of the other kids did it.
I will clarify that Boston Campus under no circumstance will kick someone out, soit was the mothers choice.
Subsequently it was my Korean teachers duty to try and talk her out of it, but I very much doubt her heart was in it.
After he left I saw her physically change, she'd been looking strung out but it just lifted and she looked like she might enjo her job again.
It was heaven, the rest of the class is by no means perfect, there are still two troublemakers, but at least they feel bad when i tell them off.
The final piece of yesterday was my super-late class (early-teens), who would not stop talking, do not do their homework, and were impossible to control.
I walk in and they actually quieten down and look at me, and they'd done their hw
This was evident in Vocabulary test I gave them, on Tuesday i gave them six of the ten words they were supposed to study for homework, 2 ppl got one right and the rest none, out of 12.
yesterday they got 4,5,6 right.
Ahhh kids that listen.
Other random crap:
I was really impressed last night walking along, I saw a patrol of 5/6 cops walking along the street (I haven't seen a cop further than 15m from a police station the whole time i've been here), ahh normal cop behaviour, then they all turn into a restaurant.
Hmmm maybe not.
Korea is super-anti drugs, particularly marijuana.
If you ever go to the hospital for anything, they take a blood sample and among the normal tests, they do a drug test on it. If they find anything, you're charged with possession.
That's right folks, marijuana in your system is possession, so you may have been in Amsterdam 3 weeks ago, and if you come to Korea, you're in possession of drugs.
And I'll leave you with a comment from Janet yesterday:
Whilst telling me that a few of the kids in one of my classes were complaining
(I took over from a teacher who alot of his students described as their best teacher ever, he lectured, not my style, but Koreans love it)
Anyway, i was saying that two weeks into the term I had just learnt their names, ( I have probavly 60 odd kids, a large portion of whom i dont knwo their names, I'm taking it one class at a time)
Janet: But I thought all white people were really good at remembering names
Postscript: This post has been brought to you, in a particularly hungover state so please excuse any blatant discontinuities or lack of content.
Firstly, yesterday was one of the best days I've had at Boston Campus ,and I can pretty accurately pinpoint why. If you've been reading recently, you will have heard of my monster child Jade, well yesterday morning just before lunch my Korean co-teacher comes in and starts gathering up his books, and I sure as hell go ad help her, we may not be able to converse particularly well, but I liked where this was going.
So anyway his mother has pulled him out, I think the fact that he's spent most of the last few days in solitary and yesterday he hit one of the other kids did it.
I will clarify that Boston Campus under no circumstance will kick someone out, soit was the mothers choice.
Subsequently it was my Korean teachers duty to try and talk her out of it, but I very much doubt her heart was in it.
After he left I saw her physically change, she'd been looking strung out but it just lifted and she looked like she might enjo her job again.
It was heaven, the rest of the class is by no means perfect, there are still two troublemakers, but at least they feel bad when i tell them off.
The final piece of yesterday was my super-late class (early-teens), who would not stop talking, do not do their homework, and were impossible to control.
I walk in and they actually quieten down and look at me, and they'd done their hw
This was evident in Vocabulary test I gave them, on Tuesday i gave them six of the ten words they were supposed to study for homework, 2 ppl got one right and the rest none, out of 12.
yesterday they got 4,5,6 right.
Ahhh kids that listen.
Other random crap:
I was really impressed last night walking along, I saw a patrol of 5/6 cops walking along the street (I haven't seen a cop further than 15m from a police station the whole time i've been here), ahh normal cop behaviour, then they all turn into a restaurant.
Hmmm maybe not.
Korea is super-anti drugs, particularly marijuana.
If you ever go to the hospital for anything, they take a blood sample and among the normal tests, they do a drug test on it. If they find anything, you're charged with possession.
That's right folks, marijuana in your system is possession, so you may have been in Amsterdam 3 weeks ago, and if you come to Korea, you're in possession of drugs.
And I'll leave you with a comment from Janet yesterday:
Whilst telling me that a few of the kids in one of my classes were complaining
(I took over from a teacher who alot of his students described as their best teacher ever, he lectured, not my style, but Koreans love it)
Anyway, i was saying that two weeks into the term I had just learnt their names, ( I have probavly 60 odd kids, a large portion of whom i dont knwo their names, I'm taking it one class at a time)
Janet: But I thought all white people were really good at remembering names
Postscript: This post has been brought to you, in a particularly hungover state so please excuse any blatant discontinuities or lack of content.
Monday 19 March 2007
New Poll
| Leonardo: |
 (31%) |
| Michelangelo: |
| (46%) |
| Donatello: |
| (8%) |
| Raphael: |
| (8%) |
| I don't really know much about famous artists: |
| (8%) |
And the winner is: Michelangelo, I guess carving a 17ft naked man is appealing to a wide range of people.
Sunday 18 March 2007
Hotdogs
http://break.com/watch/250676/Hotdogs_for_Homophobes/
Ok I saw this and it made me think of Scott,
So someone make sure Scotty sees it
You'll understand at about 1:18
Ok I saw this and it made me think of Scott,
So someone make sure Scotty sees it
You'll understand at about 1:18
Saturday 17 March 2007
Happy St. Patricks Day
Firstly Scotty, they are in fact artists, just because they may or may not be Ninja Turtles does not in any way detract from their place in our hearts for their great contributions to our cultural heritage.
Wow a whole day without posting, weird
I have no single interesting tidbit of information.
Just a couple of half interesting things
Firstly my boss took my kindergarten class yesterday for one period (after turning up 10min late)
She came up to me at lunchtime and told me my kids are monsters, she could not control them they ran riot and not just one but all of them apart from one or two
Well it's good to know it's not just me, but she's the one I'm supposed to send them to when they're really bad
Also yesterday Iheard possibly the most inappropraite thing a boss can say to an employee. And this is saying alot cos Janet can be quite inappropriate, can you say sexual harassment.
Anyway, during break in the staffroom she was talking to Oona, and she was like wanna hear something funny
Anyway she told her that one of Oona's three year old kids was kinda psychic (took a while to say this) and that she has left Boston Campus because when they looked at Oona they could see that she was possessed by demons, she had evil worms and demons in her belly.
..
.
...
Umm yip, so a kid had left and the parent said they'd come back if there was another teacher but Oona was possessed.
.
.
Yeah so that was weird
I had other things to say but I've forgotten them now, o well.
Got very drunkeded last night, o yeah
Tip of the day: Don't try and flush paper towels, it's just not smart.
(You don't wanna know the story)
Nigga Out
Wow a whole day without posting, weird
I have no single interesting tidbit of information.
Just a couple of half interesting things
Firstly my boss took my kindergarten class yesterday for one period (after turning up 10min late)
She came up to me at lunchtime and told me my kids are monsters, she could not control them they ran riot and not just one but all of them apart from one or two
Well it's good to know it's not just me, but she's the one I'm supposed to send them to when they're really bad
Also yesterday Iheard possibly the most inappropraite thing a boss can say to an employee. And this is saying alot cos Janet can be quite inappropriate, can you say sexual harassment.
Anyway, during break in the staffroom she was talking to Oona, and she was like wanna hear something funny
Anyway she told her that one of Oona's three year old kids was kinda psychic (took a while to say this) and that she has left Boston Campus because when they looked at Oona they could see that she was possessed by demons, she had evil worms and demons in her belly.
..
.
...
Umm yip, so a kid had left and the parent said they'd come back if there was another teacher but Oona was possessed.
.
.
Yeah so that was weird
I had other things to say but I've forgotten them now, o well.
Got very drunkeded last night, o yeah
Tip of the day: Don't try and flush paper towels, it's just not smart.
(You don't wanna know the story)
Nigga Out
Wednesday 14 March 2007
Referrals
So I was having a look through the referrals (the sites that people are on before mine on which they click the link to mine)
Most are blank, so I guess thats bookmarks, there are quite a few from iamaelephant
But I have a couple of google referrals.
Actually they were mostly image searches coming up with my bad taste picture but the search topics are the best part:
From google.co.uk: 14yo girl
google.com Free korean p
preteen ass
And even google.de (germany) sadly just with "bad taste"
Goddamn perverts
EDIT: And now another one: grab girl
Weird
Most are blank, so I guess thats bookmarks, there are quite a few from iamaelephant
But I have a couple of google referrals.
Actually they were mostly image searches coming up with my bad taste picture but the search topics are the best part:
From google.co.uk: 14yo girl
google.com Free korean p
preteen ass
And even google.de (germany) sadly just with "bad taste"
Goddamn perverts
EDIT: And now another one: grab girl
Weird
Tuesday 13 March 2007
Yay for me!
I got some awesome news today. During our unpaid lunch meeting (awesome).
One of my Kindergarten kids parents complained last night, awesome, turns out both that i had made him stand outside the classroom with his hands above his head (apparently she saw him practicing being punished this way. Now that is awesome) Interesting, cos i hadn't actually punished him today (even though he's my second worst kid) and the one kid i did punish didn't have to hold his arms up (this was what was wrong).
Luckily, for the first time in the history of Boston Campus, the boss believed the teacher rather than a 4 year old child (seriously)
That and apparently I'm a boring teacher, Worse apparently this is that mom, ya know the one that has all teh parents phone numbers and likes to exaggerate every small thing from their small child.
Anyway, by now maybe you're thinking, but he said it was awesome news.
Was he being sarcastic, No, Brad doesn't use sarcasm. Was he using artistic license..ish.
The answer is no and no, i haven't finished yet.
At this point Janet managed to disclose what I'm actually supposed to be doing with the children.
As they are small children who have no prior education, play games with them, don't follow the curriculum written specifically for you (ummm)
So after two weeks of trying my hardest to work with these ridiculous books and try to make learning remotely fun whilst following the curriculum.
I've actually realised that we use most of the same text books as the top kindergarten class who speak conversation level English.
Oh no, no just play games, take them to the gym, give them coloring work, read them stories, still do some work but nowhere near as much.
Oh yeah.
So i took them to the gym for my last two classes, Oona brought her Guppies too (she hadn't been fully informed either) who are generally a year younger but worse at english, and Voila, mayhem, and the kids loved it, i think, I'll hafta wait a couple of days to see what my next complaint is about.
N.b. Gym refers to the large room in the basement, with piles of random safety mats and big mat-like blocks of various shapes and a couple of Fisher Price climbing frames. It's great.
So yeah, less book work more play time, as it golly well should be for 4 year old kids. And as far as i can see more enjoyable mornings.
Now to find a way to cut down the inredible amount of essays I hafta rewrite, hmm i could always teach them to write reasonable English, nah they just don't care enough
And another thing, i thought it was generally accepted to avoid the issue of the businesses money problems in front of the employees, even more so in Korea.
hmmm i guess Janet isn't a well trained professional.
One of my Kindergarten kids parents complained last night, awesome, turns out both that i had made him stand outside the classroom with his hands above his head (apparently she saw him practicing being punished this way. Now that is awesome) Interesting, cos i hadn't actually punished him today (even though he's my second worst kid) and the one kid i did punish didn't have to hold his arms up (this was what was wrong).
Luckily, for the first time in the history of Boston Campus, the boss believed the teacher rather than a 4 year old child (seriously)
That and apparently I'm a boring teacher, Worse apparently this is that mom, ya know the one that has all teh parents phone numbers and likes to exaggerate every small thing from their small child.
Anyway, by now maybe you're thinking, but he said it was awesome news.
Was he being sarcastic, No, Brad doesn't use sarcasm. Was he using artistic license..ish.
The answer is no and no, i haven't finished yet.
At this point Janet managed to disclose what I'm actually supposed to be doing with the children.
As they are small children who have no prior education, play games with them, don't follow the curriculum written specifically for you (ummm)
So after two weeks of trying my hardest to work with these ridiculous books and try to make learning remotely fun whilst following the curriculum.
I've actually realised that we use most of the same text books as the top kindergarten class who speak conversation level English.
Oh no, no just play games, take them to the gym, give them coloring work, read them stories, still do some work but nowhere near as much.
Oh yeah.
So i took them to the gym for my last two classes, Oona brought her Guppies too (she hadn't been fully informed either) who are generally a year younger but worse at english, and Voila, mayhem, and the kids loved it, i think, I'll hafta wait a couple of days to see what my next complaint is about.
N.b. Gym refers to the large room in the basement, with piles of random safety mats and big mat-like blocks of various shapes and a couple of Fisher Price climbing frames. It's great.
So yeah, less book work more play time, as it golly well should be for 4 year old kids. And as far as i can see more enjoyable mornings.
Now to find a way to cut down the inredible amount of essays I hafta rewrite, hmm i could always teach them to write reasonable English, nah they just don't care enough
And another thing, i thought it was generally accepted to avoid the issue of the businesses money problems in front of the employees, even more so in Korea.
hmmm i guess Janet isn't a well trained professional.
Monday 12 March 2007
Coke Zero is a farce!
So I know this is incredibly behind the times, but i tried coke zero for the first time today.
Utter disappointment, both the advertising and my so-called friends have told me that 'it tastes the same as normal coke' bollocks. Now I'm a big fan of using low-fat alternatives if they taste the same but bad Coke. Bad
And that's all I have to say about that
Utter disappointment, both the advertising and my so-called friends have told me that 'it tastes the same as normal coke' bollocks. Now I'm a big fan of using low-fat alternatives if they taste the same but bad Coke. Bad
And that's all I have to say about that
Sunday 11 March 2007
Aiiiiiiiii
So who wants to hear about my weekend.
Thats pretty sad really my life's not that interesting.
Well you asked.
Firstly, I finally have my own Korean wireless internet oh yeah, superfast internet all over my room wire free. Still no bed sheets tho, I've got my priorities sorted.
I've had a pretty standard weekend, got quite drunk a couple of times, spent all Saturday nite and sunday morning telling people its kiwiFRUIT, gah.
I got another Korean guy's phone number yesterday, Yay for me.
This one was under completely different circumstances, not nearly as drunken, however coincidentally at a subway station.
Anyway, I'm walking outta Tecnomart on the way to catch a subway home, and a guy coes u to me, says hi, and then asks me if i have a couple of minutes to hear about god (intentional lower case g), I'm like christ, but i tell him i have to catch the train quickly to get home (in case i missed the last train in 6 hours), so he offers me some reading material, here i stop and tell him there is no point as I have no intention of reading it.
Done.
No, by now we're on an escalator together, hmm, he seems like a reasonable guy, kinda sad that he's gotten caught up in the 'bad crowd'. No reason not to be friendly, i found out he learnt english whilst living in NZ, in fact he'd lived in Tauranga at one point, but mainly in Henderson.
So he gave me his number.
He seemed reasonable to bad about his habit. I aint gonna call, kinda sad cos he's the closest thing to a NZer i've met here.
Oh yeah, I probbly havnet mentioned that, myeh, so there's no Nzers around..
The only other eeven remotely newsworthy tidbit is the loss of a small bit of my hair, part of my eyebrow and most of the eyelashes on one eye in a tragic flaming cocktail-related incident. Umm yeah.
Thats pretty sad really my life's not that interesting.
Well you asked.
Firstly, I finally have my own Korean wireless internet oh yeah, superfast internet all over my room wire free. Still no bed sheets tho, I've got my priorities sorted.
I've had a pretty standard weekend, got quite drunk a couple of times, spent all Saturday nite and sunday morning telling people its kiwiFRUIT, gah.
I got another Korean guy's phone number yesterday, Yay for me.
This one was under completely different circumstances, not nearly as drunken, however coincidentally at a subway station.
Anyway, I'm walking outta Tecnomart on the way to catch a subway home, and a guy coes u to me, says hi, and then asks me if i have a couple of minutes to hear about god (intentional lower case g), I'm like christ, but i tell him i have to catch the train quickly to get home (in case i missed the last train in 6 hours), so he offers me some reading material, here i stop and tell him there is no point as I have no intention of reading it.
Done.
No, by now we're on an escalator together, hmm, he seems like a reasonable guy, kinda sad that he's gotten caught up in the 'bad crowd'. No reason not to be friendly, i found out he learnt english whilst living in NZ, in fact he'd lived in Tauranga at one point, but mainly in Henderson.
So he gave me his number.
He seemed reasonable to bad about his habit. I aint gonna call, kinda sad cos he's the closest thing to a NZer i've met here.
Oh yeah, I probbly havnet mentioned that, myeh, so there's no Nzers around..
The only other eeven remotely newsworthy tidbit is the loss of a small bit of my hair, part of my eyebrow and most of the eyelashes on one eye in a tragic flaming cocktail-related incident. Umm yeah.
Wednesday 7 March 2007
My first Korean Penis and my first Korean business card
Luckily not from the same person, but both from guys.
I'll start with saying I joined a gym today (hopefully that explains the penis) hafta say from my huge sample size of one, Koreans have smaller penii.(And I'm supposed to be teaching
English.)
The business card came shortly after, on the subway back, the guy next to me asks me where I'm from (keep in mind no-one talks to strangers in Korean subways-ever, people barely talk to their friends it), I say NZ, he turns away hesitates, then turns back and tells that the girls across the train, his friends think my hair colour is nice (Oh yeah what a compliment) they all start giggling, myeh it gives m something to do so i had a bit of a chat with him, turns out they work in the same district as me, but as it's 8.40 turns out one of the girls is leaving so they were partying,(this conversation was amidst a constant giggling from the two girls across from us)
Twas hilarious, he pulls out his phone showing me a picture of him and his girlfriend (good) and asks which one of the three people across from us (the 2 girls and a guy) look most like her, I'm stumped, I'm gettting better at distinguishing Korean faces in fact I'm prety good at it, but not that good, by then it was my stop, he asks if i have a business card, of course i don't so he gives me his, and the girls almost fall off their seats in laughter. (sidenote for better context, they were mid-twenties)
I've had a craving for a smoothie all day so i got home, plugged my laptop in, yay my internet finally works, and headed out, its so freaking cold, snow is actually settling today (oh yeah it's kinda snowed a couple times but it never stays, but it's staying there now ish) The weather right now is hell, Dan described March in Seoul as God's attempt at showing non-drinkers what a hangover feels like.
Anyway over an hour later, two one-stop metro rides, and about 125,000 won later i make it home. With a blender, a good knife, a bottle of Kahlua, a garlic crusher, a couple of bowls and assorted groceries.
Mmm alcoholic smoothie, mmmm, so my dinner was a cream cheese bagel(sub-par cream cheese, buying philadelphia next time) and two pint glasses of Kahlua, banana, yoghurt and peach smoothie. So good.
Oh and I have a new phone, as none of you have rung me, or have any intention of ringing me, so mum and dad my phone works now, even so you don't need to ring me anyway, ahh Skype.
And since no-one in Korea reads this blog I have just given a completely useless piece of information woot woot
Now work out this, keep in mind, my spelling is probably wrong but you can always try babelfish
한나맥주 주세유
I'll start with saying I joined a gym today (hopefully that explains the penis) hafta say from my huge sample size of one, Koreans have smaller penii.(And I'm supposed to be teaching
English.)
The business card came shortly after, on the subway back, the guy next to me asks me where I'm from (keep in mind no-one talks to strangers in Korean subways-ever, people barely talk to their friends it), I say NZ, he turns away hesitates, then turns back and tells that the girls across the train, his friends think my hair colour is nice (Oh yeah what a compliment) they all start giggling, myeh it gives m something to do so i had a bit of a chat with him, turns out they work in the same district as me, but as it's 8.40 turns out one of the girls is leaving so they were partying,(this conversation was amidst a constant giggling from the two girls across from us)
Twas hilarious, he pulls out his phone showing me a picture of him and his girlfriend (good) and asks which one of the three people across from us (the 2 girls and a guy) look most like her, I'm stumped, I'm gettting better at distinguishing Korean faces in fact I'm prety good at it, but not that good, by then it was my stop, he asks if i have a business card, of course i don't so he gives me his, and the girls almost fall off their seats in laughter. (sidenote for better context, they were mid-twenties)
I've had a craving for a smoothie all day so i got home, plugged my laptop in, yay my internet finally works, and headed out, its so freaking cold, snow is actually settling today (oh yeah it's kinda snowed a couple times but it never stays, but it's staying there now ish) The weather right now is hell, Dan described March in Seoul as God's attempt at showing non-drinkers what a hangover feels like.
Anyway over an hour later, two one-stop metro rides, and about 125,000 won later i make it home. With a blender, a good knife, a bottle of Kahlua, a garlic crusher, a couple of bowls and assorted groceries.
Mmm alcoholic smoothie, mmmm, so my dinner was a cream cheese bagel(sub-par cream cheese, buying philadelphia next time) and two pint glasses of Kahlua, banana, yoghurt and peach smoothie. So good.
But now my 3 days of not doing dishes or generally cleaning up has caught up with me, ...tomorrow, I've just been so buggered after work every day
And now a bad photo of the standard soju ad, in case you haven't got a taste for koreans, this girl is super-hot, that girl nextdoor thing is everything here.
Just look at her she's just saying to you "Drink soju, and I'll ride you like a bull"
Uh yeah sex sells, particularly in Korea,
Ahem, you wouldn't think that a major percentage of my readers are family would you, well by the sounds of it my grandparents don't read so it's all right
And now a bad photo of the standard soju ad, in case you haven't got a taste for koreans, this girl is super-hot, that girl nextdoor thing is everything here.
Just look at her she's just saying to you "Drink soju, and I'll ride you like a bull"
Uh yeah sex sells, particularly in Korea,
Ahem, you wouldn't think that a major percentage of my readers are family would you, well by the sounds of it my grandparents don't read so it's all right
Oh and I have a new phone, as none of you have rung me, or have any intention of ringing me, so mum and dad my phone works now, even so you don't need to ring me anyway, ahh Skype.
And since no-one in Korea reads this blog I have just given a completely useless piece of information woot woot
Now work out this, keep in mind, my spelling is probably wrong but you can always try babelfish
한나맥주 주세유
250 Visits
Woop, woop, 250+ visits, i thought i might give you some stats
This is starting from 15 March
Total Visits 256
Average Per Day 15
Average Visit Length 2:54
Total page views 418
Average Per Day 24
Average Per Visit 1.5
And now to make things easier, random graphs
Visits per day
Visits by country-
So unnecessary but yeah, not all english woot
I'm sorry but who the fuck is using IE, the shame.
So now through the power of cheap pie graphs you now know much more about the visitors to my site than you could possibly wnat to know.
And following the same vein, I am closing the ninja/pirates poll,
In summary ninja's had a strong lead until someone pointed out that semantically the second option also chose ninja's so I'm giving 100% ninjas
I'm gonna post another poll, however this one is with is with another site hopefully it doesn't have the ridiculous amount of ads.
This is starting from 15 March
Total Visits 256
Average Per Day 15
Average Visit Length 2:54
Total page views 418
Average Per Day 24
Average Per Visit 1.5
And now to make things easier, random graphs
Visits per day
Visits by country-
So unnecessary but yeah, not all english woot
I'm sorry but who the fuck is using IE, the shame.
So now through the power of cheap pie graphs you now know much more about the visitors to my site than you could possibly wnat to know.
And following the same vein, I am closing the ninja/pirates poll,
In summary ninja's had a strong lead until someone pointed out that semantically the second option also chose ninja's so I'm giving 100% ninjas
I'm gonna post another poll, however this one is with is with another site hopefully it doesn't have the ridiculous amount of ads.
I'm an addict
Oh k i think I may use this blog too much this is my tenth post for the first 7 days of March, that's just plain unnecessary, but i have decided due to my vast psychology background, that's its psychologically healthy and a great way to vent my frustration without hurting or annoying anyone.
Right now I'm on break and my morning (one period, 45min) with the kindy kids has been ace, firstly Steve (nee Atticus)'s parents decided they liked Atticus better, I wonder whether it was their detest of the name Steve, the fact that the kid liked Atticus better, or maybe they researched the name and found out that he's named after a famous character out of one of the Western world's most influential books.
And subsequently, though i hesitate to mention it as i might jinx it, I'm pretty sure he's behaving better.
In fact, my entire class is better, in one day they seem to be so much warmer to me, so much friendlier, and seem to have learnt a few english phrases that i didn't teach them.
And they're understanding what I'm saying better, I actually am beginning to like these kids, Jade is still a handful but if the rest of the class is good i reckon i can handle him.
So from the one class i've had today Ive decided i actually quite like my kids, lets hope it sticks. I'm pretty much putting down all the improvements to us getting used to each other so i hope it wasn't a fluke.
People say hello in France, Bonjour
People say hello in Italy, Buon Giorno
Right now I'm on break and my morning (one period, 45min) with the kindy kids has been ace, firstly Steve (nee Atticus)'s parents decided they liked Atticus better, I wonder whether it was their detest of the name Steve, the fact that the kid liked Atticus better, or maybe they researched the name and found out that he's named after a famous character out of one of the Western world's most influential books.
And subsequently, though i hesitate to mention it as i might jinx it, I'm pretty sure he's behaving better.
In fact, my entire class is better, in one day they seem to be so much warmer to me, so much friendlier, and seem to have learnt a few english phrases that i didn't teach them.
And they're understanding what I'm saying better, I actually am beginning to like these kids, Jade is still a handful but if the rest of the class is good i reckon i can handle him.
So from the one class i've had today Ive decided i actually quite like my kids, lets hope it sticks. I'm pretty much putting down all the improvements to us getting used to each other so i hope it wasn't a fluke.
People say hello in France, Bonjour
People say hello in Italy, Buon Giorno
Tuesday 6 March 2007
They cancelled Studio 60
Actually it's just on hiatus, but I'm gutted, i really enjoyed that show, it was good to see one of the Friends doing something, I guess the general American public are idiots (hmmm, what a eye-opener).
Warning, incredibly long rant ahead no substance, don't bother reading unless in cases of extreme boredom
Apart from the day my day has been pretty hellish, firstly Atticus' parents didn't like his name so I named him Steve out of spite, now he's a horrible kid. And Tane's parents changed it to Jade, which while hilarious for a guy (i tried to explain) is annoying as well. And after one day of class with him I actually want to tie him to the chair and gag him, particular to tying his arms down. This kid is a freaking monster who doesn't realise it, no i'm not talking to you, I"m yelling at you at the top of my voice, I know you don't kknwo English, but you must know no or at least understand by the volume and tone of my voice, gahhh, I actually picked him by his shirt collar and dragged him back across the room at one point, the fourth such attempt to get him to sit, when he moved again story time was over and they all went back to the classroom. He sits right next to me and grabs my stuff, and i actually found another kids crayons in his bag after half an hour of searching.
My kids just plain don't speak the same language as me, i know more korean than they know English and thats nt saying much. By the end of Kindergarten I was actually broken, hmmm i don't know how I'm gonna handle them, some of them are just dumbasses nd i don't handle idiocy well, i knwo they're only 4 but seriously. I think it's more frustrating because there's a handful of awesome kids, out of my 11, 3 are awesome, 4 are pretty good, 2 aren't great, but the last two are just plain disruptive.
So yeah a full 10-2.55 morning with them was painful, and at the end i was seriously pondering just walking away for a while, but that was partly because of the schedule i'd just been handed.
Ah the schedule, Janet pulled me aside at lunchtime (actually 3 teachers separately) and asked if I would mind working til 7.40 tues thurs, i could come late tues thurs and she'd cut me back to a 6 finish mon wed fri. I say yes i do mind i really dont wanna work til 7.40, i really, really don't wanna do it, ohk umm well its your choice but your gonna do it anyway (umm doubletake), ho-k
So i get the schedule, and not only am i working 6.45-7.40tu/th (which is annouing cos i finished at 5.15 otherwise and could have had an arvo off (this is the main reason i handled the first draft cos it was pretty intense), so no early home, but she didn't cut back MWF or let me start late tues thurs, hmm.
I walked into her office and tell her this plain unacceptable, completely unreasonable, she's liek yeah i know, you have the worst schedule i knwo that, i would give it to Johnny but i can't(you're fucking kidding me, I'm Johnny's mate for christ sake) but yeah someone has to have the worst schedule (no they freaking don't if you did your job properly we'd all have reasonable schedules)
So after about 5min she admitted i was being forcefully raped but wasn't gonna do anything, and her respect and admiration made it worthwhile. So i left fucking fuming.
Luckily she came up to the staffroom a coupla minutes later and gave me 45min off tu th morning, hell it's better than nothing, so does she go do the same to the other two teachers working late, no, one of them gets it but Oona don't get no free mornings. Hmmm, so complaining gets everything here, good to know.
Turns out the late class are the most unrespectful kids ever, yay.
Well no listen to teacher, teacher no teach, you no learn, fuckers
Plus: New children's quote, I think I'll be able to update it reasonably regularly
Word of the day: Fictionary
Warning, incredibly long rant ahead no substance, don't bother reading unless in cases of extreme boredom
Apart from the day my day has been pretty hellish, firstly Atticus' parents didn't like his name so I named him Steve out of spite, now he's a horrible kid. And Tane's parents changed it to Jade, which while hilarious for a guy (i tried to explain) is annoying as well. And after one day of class with him I actually want to tie him to the chair and gag him, particular to tying his arms down. This kid is a freaking monster who doesn't realise it, no i'm not talking to you, I"m yelling at you at the top of my voice, I know you don't kknwo English, but you must know no or at least understand by the volume and tone of my voice, gahhh, I actually picked him by his shirt collar and dragged him back across the room at one point, the fourth such attempt to get him to sit, when he moved again story time was over and they all went back to the classroom. He sits right next to me and grabs my stuff, and i actually found another kids crayons in his bag after half an hour of searching.
My kids just plain don't speak the same language as me, i know more korean than they know English and thats nt saying much. By the end of Kindergarten I was actually broken, hmmm i don't know how I'm gonna handle them, some of them are just dumbasses nd i don't handle idiocy well, i knwo they're only 4 but seriously. I think it's more frustrating because there's a handful of awesome kids, out of my 11, 3 are awesome, 4 are pretty good, 2 aren't great, but the last two are just plain disruptive.
So yeah a full 10-2.55 morning with them was painful, and at the end i was seriously pondering just walking away for a while, but that was partly because of the schedule i'd just been handed.
Interlude
Build your very own Domo-kunAh the schedule, Janet pulled me aside at lunchtime (actually 3 teachers separately) and asked if I would mind working til 7.40 tues thurs, i could come late tues thurs and she'd cut me back to a 6 finish mon wed fri. I say yes i do mind i really dont wanna work til 7.40, i really, really don't wanna do it, ohk umm well its your choice but your gonna do it anyway (umm doubletake), ho-k
So i get the schedule, and not only am i working 6.45-7.40tu/th (which is annouing cos i finished at 5.15 otherwise and could have had an arvo off (this is the main reason i handled the first draft cos it was pretty intense), so no early home, but she didn't cut back MWF or let me start late tues thurs, hmm.
I walked into her office and tell her this plain unacceptable, completely unreasonable, she's liek yeah i know, you have the worst schedule i knwo that, i would give it to Johnny but i can't(you're fucking kidding me, I'm Johnny's mate for christ sake) but yeah someone has to have the worst schedule (no they freaking don't if you did your job properly we'd all have reasonable schedules)
So after about 5min she admitted i was being forcefully raped but wasn't gonna do anything, and her respect and admiration made it worthwhile. So i left fucking fuming.
Luckily she came up to the staffroom a coupla minutes later and gave me 45min off tu th morning, hell it's better than nothing, so does she go do the same to the other two teachers working late, no, one of them gets it but Oona don't get no free mornings. Hmmm, so complaining gets everything here, good to know.
Turns out the late class are the most unrespectful kids ever, yay.
Well no listen to teacher, teacher no teach, you no learn, fuckers
Plus: New children's quote, I think I'll be able to update it reasonably regularly
Word of the day: Fictionary
Monday 5 March 2007
My Pimp Stack
Oh Yeah, look at my pimp stack, got my month’s salary and I ain’t got no bank account yet so … pimp stack. That’s a NZ $2 coin next to it for size, sadly the bottom mill is tied so it isn’t as high as it could be, all up that’s 1.75million yeah.
Had a great 10-6.45 day at work today, I think that’s gonna be kinda standard for a while, Christ. Met my kindergarteners, yip they don’t know a word of English, actually most of them could say hello, so I can shape into my own image mwahaha, that and I can name whatever I want, sadly I wasn’t even remotely ready, so the names are not as fun as I could have hoped. So out of my 11, David had decided his name, so I got to name 10, I’ve got an Atticus, a Roger, a Rufus, Ann and somehow a Tane, oh yeah, Maori names. Sadly my pick for Gertrude (wearing all pink and in pigtails) didn’t like the idea, in fact she didn’t like any f the fifty odd names I threw at her, eventually when he parents came in, they decided her name is Jina, cos that’s so much better. Also, my pick for Monteith decided he didn’t like that name either, I can’t remember what he did end up with, but Monteith would have been better, apparently I can get new students at any time, so the next boy and girl are gonna love being Gertrude and Monteith. Didn’t teach them today sadly, it’s going to be an interesting class.
The feud between Janet and Johnny erupted a little today when she told him to get a brain, and as he left he muttered Shut up, then they had their sitdown and she gave him a month, awesome. She actually pulled me aside after work and tried to ask me about it, and after quite a few ‘I really don’t wanna be a part if this’s she gave up WTF. Considering she started one conversation with, you seem to be a good teacher despite being cold (after inquiring, this was towards her, I didn’t think I was cold to the children would have been bad to hear otherwise), and telling me I’m teaching the best class, and she didn’t want to have made a mistake (man this woman has tact), this is a compliment apparently.
For my last class of the day, where I have 13/14yo, I had a girl who didn’t have an English name, I was stumped, I can’t give her a stupid name cause she’s not stupid, and I can’t give her a friend or family name or hot name cos she looked a little like a female Oddjob (she wasn’t horrible, it’s just what I saw in her) with little kids you don’t know if they’re attractive or not, well to a degree, but with 13/14 yo they’re developed the majority of their form.
I got to the end of the class and I told her I’ll have one by Wednesday, stumped.
And I'm sorry but now that I have nothing but good english speakers and non-english speakers i ain't gonna have childrens quotes that often, so I'll leave you with my quote of the day and the slogan on the icecream i bought today.
Me: (completely disorganised, trying to work out what I'm supposed to be doing)
Kid: 'Random question'?
Me: Don't worry, I'm awesome
Class: Genuine Laughter
Oh yeah, I'm a role model
And the icecream:
Together is made from real milk so you can feel soft and rich taste
EDIT: Also I have my address now so if you want it just gimme a buzz, i don't really wanna post it on here, Cheers
Sunday 4 March 2007
Magirangers
I have found the coolest show ever, Magirangers, after a bit of searching I found out it's a Japanese 'Super Sentai' cartoon.
Anyway I just saw the last 15min of an episode, it's on at 10 o'clock at night.
It's pretty much a twist on Power rangers I turned on just as the good guys were about to fight the bad guys, so they go to morph, by pulling out a cellphone (gold and their specific colour) dial a 4 digit number and then staple a piece of card,um yeah but no they can't morph because the bad guy has stolen their powers and is keeping them in a random thing that is pretty much a double-sided bat and ball thingee, with the overly unnecessary sound effects, he also has the hot girl hostage. So they ring their HQ which consists of a secretary that looks like a leek in a plant pot. Then they separately get attacked by things out of abe's odyssey, and they all of have differtent ways of beating the hordes, the first does a flying leap and throws one into the others, the next one cheesily throws a pile of throwing stars one by one, the third one throws a bunch ninja tacks on the ground and the last just uses his sword, and of course whenever they hit the bad guys, there's huge sparks and they fall over, so the first wave is defeated but now they're in pairs and one pair has a giant frog to deal with(actually just a frog enlarged) and hthe other two get a pair of evil twin sister witches(hmmm original) and they're fucked. But then the captive girl realises that the bat/ball thing has their powers so, with her feet tied jumps twenty metres across the room knocks it out of his hand and catches it in her teeth, then another good guy flys in the window on a giant floating kite and kicks his ass.They all get their powers back, morph, and they all have powers, one can grow al muscly, one has giant fists and a couple of the others have weapons of some sort then they morph together by making a human tower and all is defeated, then a cat god randomly appears and sends the bad guy into a huge explosion of sparks.
Now this is what all these kids are obsessed with, i could create better special effects, and probably better costumes too, i guess the cheese is half the fun.
Greatest show ever, and the random phrases in English make it all the better
Saturday 3 March 2007
My humble abode
It's a trifector (inside joke)
Ohk where to start I actually have a few things I'm gonna share so bear with me.
Actually three completely different things, really should be three posts hmmm, myeh if you don't like one feel free to skip it.
Firstly, I have started an eternal quest to find a NZ beer in this country, not to buy of course, our exported beer is shit, just to make a point. I'm yet to see one anywhere yet, it really hit me last night when we were at this bar that ws proud of it's international selection of drinks.
They had a NZ selection and i was stoked, three NZ drinks mde it in. Now for the audience participation, what do you think our three best drinks.
Wow good guess, you're right, it is actually Vodka Mudshakes, Vodka Cruisers and KGB,s....
Yeah... actually i need to explain, i never actually realised KGB's were a NZ thing until i came here and ne of the girls ran off to get a couple of 'my favourite drink's from the dairy, came back with a handful of grapefruit KGB's, ok, so as things do we eventually posed ohk so where these things from, yeah we have them at home. "Product of New Zealand" Oh christ i'm so ashamed, these things are fucking huge here, the bar we were at last night decorated there upper walls with empty bottles, 2/3 of which were KGB, well look at that we contribute 2 things to Asia, kiwifruit and KGB's. Oh the humanity.
Now yesterday was the first day of the new school year, luckily there was no kindergarten so we didn't start work til 3, however it was still a rush to get ready in time. The whole thing was chaos, we had a meeting full of empty new ideas to make us a bigger and better school
Then we had to get our textbooks allready, easier said then done when its a full room of books and even still half of them werent there yet, that and the fact that it was almost impossible to get the list of books you needed for each class, oh so much chaos.
It all worked out though, 3 o'clock arrived and time to start teaching, wait a sec we're three teachers short, one quit on friday after 2days work, Johnny had gone to the doctor and not come back, a new teacher wasn't quite here yet and Birgitta was still in Aussie, hmmm. I have no idea what ended p happening, i think there was a couple of teachers teacing more than one class, no one got a break and im sure at least one class went unsupervised for at least an hour.
Despite the craziness, I hafta say, i fucking lucked in (is that even really a saying), I have awesome classes 2 hours of KG1-A everyday (these are the kids who just started school but have been at Boston for a couple of years and speak good english, the top class for their age, and good kids, these were the kids i covered for at the start of the week so we already have a bit of a rapport, then MWF i have a K- 2.2A for another 2 hours, this is the top class for the next year up, also good kids, eager to learn and can understand my jokes. And then MWF after that i have 6-6.45 of teaching the TOEFL class, 13/14yo kids, speak very average english, this is a prep course for their exams, give them ass loads of homework, there's 8 girls/ one boy,and the boys the only one that answers any of my questions, I'm sure i'll get them into it eventually.
Now Tu/Th i have the KG1A class then a 4.1 class that i've never met, but i'm pretty sure its the super-advanced class, the main textbook is a book of interesting conversation topics, gotta be good. And, Tu/Th i'm finished at 5:15, whether i'm allowed to leave, i dunno yet, can't see why not.
So I think i actually got the best afternoon deal i could have, our teaching boss Janet does like me luckily, so it paid off.
My morning classes, however, hmm, i really don't know, I'm teaching Winnies D, 4-5yo who've never really learnt english before so i they don't speak much i assume, really dunno how low their level will be, but i get to shape them and hopefully most of them don't have english names so i'll get to name them as well. Fuck Yeah, I'm tryin to get a bi list of possible interesting names, cos i've met too many James' and Chris'.
So far i have definites of: Atticus, Gertrude, Rufus, Monteith
Possibles: Alfalfa, Bo
I need some suggestions, remember first names only
And by Monday, man i hope they don't have names
My last thing is a bit horrible, Johnny, one of the teachers turned up yesterday, sick as a dog, after the meeting, Janet told him to go see a doctor, get some drugs, a coupla hours later he turns back up to call in 10,o00 that i owe him to buy some drugs, he grabs the money and heads
By the end of the day Janet's decided she's firing him for not turning up, ok he didn't go see her when he came back and didn't tell her, but for christ's sake. She really has had it in for him the whole time he's been here. But this is ridiculous
The one golden rule of ESL teaching, especially at our place is they may yell at you constantly but they'll never fire you, we are seriously understaffed as it is.
So she's gonna give him a month and then he has to leave, the month will cover the time to replace him, now if i was him and general consensus agrees, I'd ditch on payday, which is this Monday, leaving us in the lurch, hmmm.
I really hope she's cooled down and realised we need him, he's not a bad teacher, he's an awesome guy, it's really quite unnecessary
Actually three completely different things, really should be three posts hmmm, myeh if you don't like one feel free to skip it.
Firstly, I have started an eternal quest to find a NZ beer in this country, not to buy of course, our exported beer is shit, just to make a point. I'm yet to see one anywhere yet, it really hit me last night when we were at this bar that ws proud of it's international selection of drinks.
They had a NZ selection and i was stoked, three NZ drinks mde it in. Now for the audience participation, what do you think our three best drinks.
Wow good guess, you're right, it is actually Vodka Mudshakes, Vodka Cruisers and KGB,s....
Yeah... actually i need to explain, i never actually realised KGB's were a NZ thing until i came here and ne of the girls ran off to get a couple of 'my favourite drink's from the dairy, came back with a handful of grapefruit KGB's, ok, so as things do we eventually posed ohk so where these things from, yeah we have them at home. "Product of New Zealand" Oh christ i'm so ashamed, these things are fucking huge here, the bar we were at last night decorated there upper walls with empty bottles, 2/3 of which were KGB, well look at that we contribute 2 things to Asia, kiwifruit and KGB's. Oh the humanity.
Now yesterday was the first day of the new school year, luckily there was no kindergarten so we didn't start work til 3, however it was still a rush to get ready in time. The whole thing was chaos, we had a meeting full of empty new ideas to make us a bigger and better school
Then we had to get our textbooks allready, easier said then done when its a full room of books and even still half of them werent there yet, that and the fact that it was almost impossible to get the list of books you needed for each class, oh so much chaos.
It all worked out though, 3 o'clock arrived and time to start teaching, wait a sec we're three teachers short, one quit on friday after 2days work, Johnny had gone to the doctor and not come back, a new teacher wasn't quite here yet and Birgitta was still in Aussie, hmmm. I have no idea what ended p happening, i think there was a couple of teachers teacing more than one class, no one got a break and im sure at least one class went unsupervised for at least an hour.
Despite the craziness, I hafta say, i fucking lucked in (is that even really a saying), I have awesome classes 2 hours of KG1-A everyday (these are the kids who just started school but have been at Boston for a couple of years and speak good english, the top class for their age, and good kids, these were the kids i covered for at the start of the week so we already have a bit of a rapport, then MWF i have a K- 2.2A for another 2 hours, this is the top class for the next year up, also good kids, eager to learn and can understand my jokes. And then MWF after that i have 6-6.45 of teaching the TOEFL class, 13/14yo kids, speak very average english, this is a prep course for their exams, give them ass loads of homework, there's 8 girls/ one boy,and the boys the only one that answers any of my questions, I'm sure i'll get them into it eventually.
Now Tu/Th i have the KG1A class then a 4.1 class that i've never met, but i'm pretty sure its the super-advanced class, the main textbook is a book of interesting conversation topics, gotta be good. And, Tu/Th i'm finished at 5:15, whether i'm allowed to leave, i dunno yet, can't see why not.
So I think i actually got the best afternoon deal i could have, our teaching boss Janet does like me luckily, so it paid off.
My morning classes, however, hmm, i really don't know, I'm teaching Winnies D, 4-5yo who've never really learnt english before so i they don't speak much i assume, really dunno how low their level will be, but i get to shape them and hopefully most of them don't have english names so i'll get to name them as well. Fuck Yeah, I'm tryin to get a bi list of possible interesting names, cos i've met too many James' and Chris'.
So far i have definites of: Atticus, Gertrude, Rufus, Monteith
Possibles: Alfalfa, Bo
I need some suggestions, remember first names only
And by Monday, man i hope they don't have names
My last thing is a bit horrible, Johnny, one of the teachers turned up yesterday, sick as a dog, after the meeting, Janet told him to go see a doctor, get some drugs, a coupla hours later he turns back up to call in 10,o00 that i owe him to buy some drugs, he grabs the money and heads
By the end of the day Janet's decided she's firing him for not turning up, ok he didn't go see her when he came back and didn't tell her, but for christ's sake. She really has had it in for him the whole time he's been here. But this is ridiculous
The one golden rule of ESL teaching, especially at our place is they may yell at you constantly but they'll never fire you, we are seriously understaffed as it is.
So she's gonna give him a month and then he has to leave, the month will cover the time to replace him, now if i was him and general consensus agrees, I'd ditch on payday, which is this Monday, leaving us in the lurch, hmmm.
I really hope she's cooled down and realised we need him, he's not a bad teacher, he's an awesome guy, it's really quite unnecessary
Thursday 1 March 2007
Too much free time
Oh K so I had way too much free time today,
i managed to do one hell of a shop this arvo, managed to kit out my apartment pretty well, most of it's in gawdy pastel colours it's awesome.
And I've also spent way too much playing with this site, learning some basic html, and don't really have much to show for it
However now my contact list is semi-interactive, and for random entertainmet I've put up a poll, everyone needs to vote, the first one is quite controversial, can't wait to see who wins
Brad
i managed to do one hell of a shop this arvo, managed to kit out my apartment pretty well, most of it's in gawdy pastel colours it's awesome.
And I've also spent way too much playing with this site, learning some basic html, and don't really have much to show for it
However now my contact list is semi-interactive, and for random entertainmet I've put up a poll, everyone needs to vote, the first one is quite controversial, can't wait to see who wins
Brad
Pinch and a Punch... aka Home Sweet Home
Happy March everybody, unless your reading this on teh oter side of the date line, then you got a couple more hours :)
Well today's another public holiday, and I have no idea what this one's for, seriously no freaking idea, all i know is i got a day off woop
Well I moved into my own place last night apartment 1318, its a great place, missing a couple of essentials but it should hopefully be kitted out mostly by the end of the weekend, though i am a bit gutted i don't have a couch or even a sofa, but i do have a double bed, so i can't really complain. TO give ou an idea its probably about the size of the lounge and kitchen of my flat last year.ish
Will eventually post some photos, too lazy right now.
Applied for my alien card yesterday, so in 2 weeks i'll be a legal alien, but it also means until i have no form of ID, awesome
It was a hell of a trip actually, me and johnny went off together, hungover as a mofo, had a big work sponsored night on Tuesday cos 4 of the staff are leaving, we got our boss so drunk she just collapsed. It was awesome.
We had to got to the other side of Seoul and when we got there they told us we needed some document frm the hagwon, grrr, it only addded a couple of hours to the trip. While we were waiting we found(after several tries) a restaurant, it was a traditional style one, it was cool, but no-one spoke a word of english, so we ordered two of the top thing on the menu 주아동 Chua-tong.
We're still unsure on what it actual was, but it was an awesome traditional soup, looked filthy but tasted good and came with some good side dishes
The new school year starts on Friday, I get my very own classes including a kindergarten class i'll have 4 hours a day for the next year, i better not luck out
Well I'm gonna go out and wander down towards Cheonho, buy some stuff for my place, hopefully stores are open
Hoowah
Well today's another public holiday, and I have no idea what this one's for, seriously no freaking idea, all i know is i got a day off woop
Well I moved into my own place last night apartment 1318, its a great place, missing a couple of essentials but it should hopefully be kitted out mostly by the end of the weekend, though i am a bit gutted i don't have a couch or even a sofa, but i do have a double bed, so i can't really complain. TO give ou an idea its probably about the size of the lounge and kitchen of my flat last year.ish
Will eventually post some photos, too lazy right now.
Applied for my alien card yesterday, so in 2 weeks i'll be a legal alien, but it also means until i have no form of ID, awesome
It was a hell of a trip actually, me and johnny went off together, hungover as a mofo, had a big work sponsored night on Tuesday cos 4 of the staff are leaving, we got our boss so drunk she just collapsed. It was awesome.
We had to got to the other side of Seoul and when we got there they told us we needed some document frm the hagwon, grrr, it only addded a couple of hours to the trip. While we were waiting we found(after several tries) a restaurant, it was a traditional style one, it was cool, but no-one spoke a word of english, so we ordered two of the top thing on the menu 주아동 Chua-tong.
We're still unsure on what it actual was, but it was an awesome traditional soup, looked filthy but tasted good and came with some good side dishes
The new school year starts on Friday, I get my very own classes including a kindergarten class i'll have 4 hours a day for the next year, i better not luck out
Well I'm gonna go out and wander down towards Cheonho, buy some stuff for my place, hopefully stores are open
Hoowah
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