on a brief email exchange

I emailed the Daejeon International Community Center (DICC if I ever mention this organization again) about a Korean cooking class that begins in March. I asked about signing up, and this was the guy's reply. Highlighting is mine.

Dear Megan,

Yes you can sing up the class haha

We will notify it in Febuary with program. Sing up then.

Have a wonderful day ~~

haha? Spelling errors aside (though I could sing up the class with my excitement at possibly learning how to properly cook Korean food), the "haha" paired with the large font that the email was written in is- I wouldn't say funny really... And weird isn't fitting either. My head voice read a slow and deep Ha... Ha... Ha. Maybe like Xerxes from 300. Who by the way was played by Laura Linney's love interest in Love Actually! 

you probably shouldn't move here

Because this isn't going to fit on twitter...


Last week was my final Christmas in Korea, and I have to say honestly, I'm glad for it and I can't wait for next year! Working on Christmas Eve is rough. It's sad. It makes me sad. And the lack of Christmas commercials on TV makes me sad, though yesterday I saw a Coca Cola holiday ad. I'm suspicious that my co-teacher for whatever reason is harboring negative feelings towards me. He was never great with keeping me informed on his own, and then about a month ago it seemed like he just absolutely quit bothering to let me know anything. It's the things he's choosing not to tell me which makes me paranoid. During finals, teachers at this school usually get to leave early for a couple of the test days. I got permission to go to the bank to replace a debit card I lost... 7 months ago. This semester, he didn't mention anything about early outs, but he peaced out just about every day. So Friday he slipped out after lunch, and I sat alone in the English zone for the rest of the afternoon. Come 4:45 when I decide to "rebel" by sneaking out 15 minutes early, I see that the entire teachers' office and administration office has already cleared out. Okay.


Christmas Eve. My teacher walks out of the classroom at 2 without saying goodbye. Sometimes he does, sometimes he runs out, whatever. But it was Christmas! I mean, seriously? Last year I worked until 5. Alone in the English zone on the third floor with no one stopping by means I feel I can take risks and slip out a little early sometimes. Come 2:30, and I saw more teachers leave, at which point I figured Ef this, I have things I need to do, and I left, went to the gate behind the school and jumped over it. There used to be a key... but it's gone, and it's annoying to walk a massive loop to get to Homeplus when Homeplus is 30 seconds away when you go through the gate. So I usually jump over it when I want to go there after work. 


Besides, all my other friends got to leave after or before lunch. No way I was going to stay if no one even knew I was there. It'd be different if I had work. Or responsibilities. But I'm being told to sit at a computer and rot.


Now for winter vacation. School vacation. It's a joke. At least compared to what winter vacation means for American schools. There are English camps which my friends are all working at- they're teaching half days for 2 weeks or more- depending on what their schools decide they want them to do. My school doesn't do English camp, but this year they are doing winter school for a few students. My co-teacher tells me I have to be at work 9-5 all through break except my 2 weeks of personal vacation. It's weird and it pissed me off because last year they thought making me stay was stupid, so I could stay home. So I'm suspicious that my co-teacher just decided to make me work all winter or maybe it was the  new principal trying to follow the rules. This is not unusual for the foreign teachers here. It's bullshit. It's a way to control us, and keep us reigned in. The contract? They added a clause this year basically saying that schools can make foreigners do whatever they want and we have no say. The contract makes foreigners the schools' bitches. I've done the 9-5 thing all this week... well 9-4:30... because as soon as I see a teacher peace out, I'm gone. My co-teacher has been MIA, my emails are being rejected for whatever reason, and my text has gone unanswered... which I should probably text again. 


I will brawl if I have to waste 40 hours a week for 2 months while the other teachers at this school stay home. So I grew some balls and wrote out a note in Korean- an awesome one if I might say so- and went to the VP to talk with her... but of course I was too nervous to say anything correctly in Korean anyway so I had to just hand her the note. 


I was asking if I could leave at 1 every day instead of staying all day. My reason: the computer at school is in Korean and it's hard to get crap done. Which is true. And the Korean security system destroyed my last computer, so hell no I'm not getting my new Asus anywhere near the school's internet.


She said okay. And then it seemed like she was wondering where my co-teacher was. And she showed my note to the head co-teacher who looked at my note and kind of giggled. But. I have official permission to leave early all winter, which is way better than a full day. I will take this and be content.


I still think my co-teacher is a douche lord. To borrow from Klhoe Kardashian. God oh god, I hope he moves to a new school in March.


I know in the end the whole thing isn't a big deal, and I'm not the only person who has to put up with it, but the requirement that foreigners have to desk warm all day during vacations is just dumb. There isn't a valid reason to keep us here. 


In the meantime, I'm going to China in something like 3 weeks! It's snowed 4 times since Sunday, so it's like once all the roads are clear the next morning there's new snow to melt and freeze. ㅠㅠ
Malaysia IS happening in February, and tonight I'm meeting some friends and our Korean teacher for Korean rice wine (kinda weird) and noraebang (the crazy karaoke rooms)! 

in decline

Here's a small example of my co-teacher undermining anything that I do in the classroom. 


I'm working with a student on the TOEIC test that he'll be taking next month. His vocabulary is low, but he'd probably be considered fluent in English. We have TOEFL vocabulary books printed in braille. I gave him one and told him to look at it during free time for some extra exposure to new words. I figured, either way, this will not hurt his brain. My co-teacher talked to him after class and took the book back. And this is after I checked with him that it's okay to give the kid the book. He didn't tell me why he decided not to let the student hang on to the book, either. Something or any reason would've been nice, because it now comes off as some passive BS.


I mean. Seriously. 


My position in this school is pretty clearly a joke. I like my co-teacher well enough, but I'm seriously hoping that since he's been here at least 2, I think 3 years that he'll leave, and I'll get someone who wants me to do more work. I am dying for work, because right now my MAT is just rotting here. I'm rotting. 

phone talk

Usually when my phone rings with a number I don't have saved in my phone book, I ignore the call because I don't want to try and explain to a Korean that they have the wrong number. It's weird, sometimes they just keep talking even when I'm talking in another language. But today, I took the call, figured out this person was at my apartment for some reason, and I successfully told her where I was and what I was doing. Then she said something else and hung up. 


But. I got a message through. Go me.

Welcome back, me.

Japan happened almost a month ago, birthday season is fast approaching, and I enjoy Twitter. 


Japan. Like Jack from LOST, I have to go back. At least, I really want to should my bank account allow it. Priorities, though: China. Gawd, am I excited for China. 


And fall officially made it's appearance, like 2 weeks ago, but it's amazing. I'm not a sweat monster anymore, the weather is outstanding, it's breezy, and I'm all in this uncomfortably cozy state of nostalgia that is stirred by the wind. 


I'm taking a Korean class now. It's going to be good for me. 


I need to start cooking again. I also need to locate my apartment key.

change: imminent

12 hours after arriving back in Dajeon, I'm back at work (dies). Things are happening. 
1. John's moving into a new apartment today. 
2. The principal at my school was informed this week that he's being moved to an elementary school. 
3. The above means faculty dinner tonight.
4. My school had a new English Zone built (it's awesome).
5. The above means I'm being moved into the English Zone permanently. 
6. The above means I will no longer see many teachers on a daily basis. 
7. I think that my co-teacher is taking my current desk in the teacher's office. Ulterior motives, anyone? jk
Not sure how I feel about being alone in a classroom from now on, but then that may not even be the case. 
If jet lag works similarly to being at home and when I first arrived here last year, here's hoping I'm awake until 7pm. It's weird thinking that yesterday, whenever that really was, I was nearly 7,000 miles away. 
Also, today marks the start of a second year abroad. Wow!

then came a baby boy with long eyelashes

Woo Chang-choon. Say that one three times fast.

puppy LOVE!

Most everyone I know in Korea already knows that I'm most looking forward to terrorizing my terror puppy. In two days I get to go home to this! (it's a video, if it doesn't load in Buzz.)

racism!

OMG, I can't believe this really happened.
Here's a story about little Tino.

1. Tino is a new classmate and is making friends with Dick, Jane, and 2 ghosts from Asian horror movies. Oh, and a bird is making a nest in Tino's hair.

2. Tino appears wise, as he remains silent and only offers a coy smile for his friends racist and  questions. 

3. Dick, being possessed by the horror movie ghost feels proud for being charitable.

4. And then you find out that Tino wasn't wise, he just sucks at Korean. 

5. And this one is gold.

I hope there's a story about a Korean meeting a hairy westerner! (speaking of this, John met some of my co-teachers, and I finally witnessed the arm hair petting that my friends have talked about)

turn the brain off

Good news, everyone! I have just discovered that my co-teacher agrees that these 100 stories I was supposed to record are magnificent crap, which means I don't have to deal with them any more! 


Yeah, I'll just celebrate in my head. 


I'm still trying to pound through transcribing audio stories, and came across this small bit. 

Don't fix the centipede, you need to friggin' RAID it!  

Of course, thanks to this:

Centipedes have been forever ruined for me. And now I've just ruined this entire post for myself.