yes, interview is short.

So, i had my interview with EPIK yesterday at the Embassy in Ottawa. we (my room mate... she had to drive since i'm only getting my license next week...) left Montreal at around 11 am and arrived at about 12:30. we had lunch and i headed for the interview.

The embassy was nice, a sort of almost non-descript white buildin with a black fence surrounding it. you have to get "buzzed in" by a woman sitting inside. very embassy-ish, just like in the movies... (this was the first time i've been to ANY embassy) anyway, she showed me to a rather large, sparsely furnished, but nicely decorated room. There were a couple of couches and chairs, but the rest of the room was empty. there was Korean art hanging on the walls.

So, there i was, in my nice new suit, sitting in this room, dying of heat because it was like 40 degrees yesterday. Then the consul came in.

"An-nyeong-ha-se-yo" i said to him. he just wanted to get down to business... so we did.

"how did you hear about EPIK?"
"if you are chosen, when will you leave for Korea?"
"where do you want to go in Korea?"
"what do you know about Korea?"
"do you have any Korean friends?"
"what will you get from going to Korea?"
"do you have any experience teaching?"
"when did you graduate from high school?"
"do i have a phone number to contact you?"
"where do you live now?"
"how did you get here?"

That was pretty much it. not in that order exactly, but you get the idea. i didn't really feel like he was listening (and/or couldn't understand) what i was saying.

anyway, it went as well as a 10 minute interview can. i think the interview is just a formality so you don't arrive in Korea and look nothing like your picture. when i answered that i didn't have any professional teaching experience, he said it doesn't matter. At the end of the interview he made sure that he had a way of contacting me and then told me it would be about 2 weeks before i would hear anything. The decision is actually made by someone in Korea, so i guess he has to send my "interview" to them to review... though he didn't write anything down... anyway, i'm praying now... i certainly don't want to have to go through this whole process again... i wonder if i can get my criminal record check back from them if i don't get the job... anyway, i'm not even going to think like that... it's just a matter of time before they call me and tell me to get ready to leave for Korea... keep your fingers crossed for me!

Seven Day Weekend...

i'm on day FIVE of my 5 day weekend. i was hoping to have a nice relaxing day playing the recently downloaded Rollercoaster Tycoon 3... but about 30 minutes ago, these men showed up to change the windows in my apartment. With absolutely NO NOTICE. i mean, great, fantastic, i get new windows, but i'm moving out in like three weeks anyway... so why not just a) wait until i move out, or b) tell me when you're coming so i can plan to be out.

so, now, my last day of the weekend is going to be spent listening to constant knocking and banging. Not that i haven't been listening to it anyway, since they've been doing all of the other apartments. my landlord's sister actually implied that it was my responsibility to find out when they were coming! HA! my reply to her? "do you even know what the law is? you have to give me at least 48 hours notice before coming in my apartment to do anything." she didn't even know what to say to that...obviously, she didn't know the law.

anyway, seems pretty silly to complain about getting new windows, and i did have a five day weekend!!! hahaha!!! i would rather be going to work every day and making money than going out and spending it when i don't have it... but that choice is made by my boss, who is a cow and is punishing me for having been sick. anyway, whatever, i have an interview next week, and only about 80 days before i can quit my job and never look back! i can't wait!

the call i've been waiting for...

And my first suit…

Well, i got a call from the Embassy of the Republic of South Korea yesterday. i have a job interview on Tuesday in Ottawa at the Embassy with the Consul. i have no idea what to expect or what they will ask me. I’m scared and nervous but so excited that things are finally getting going, re: SK. It feels like i’ve been talking about it for a million years and just waiting and waiting, but i can finally see some results, hopefully i will get the job and not be completely disappointed. i just have to be professional and win them over, which i’m sure i can. (Nervous laughter) Obviously they must have liked something in my application, or i wouldn’t have gotten this far, and i can’t imagine that i would screw up an interview so badly as to negate all of the wonderful experience and skill that i have – which in teaching is nil, but they’ll take care of that for me. (More nervous laughter…hopefully).

Anyway, being my first professional interview i felt that i had to procure myself a suit to wear - you know, make a nice impression, appear professional, etc... So i hiked up to Place Vertu - a mall - to get a new suit.

i decided first to go to Sears - since i have a Sears credit card, and no money. All i wanted was a black suit - a jacket and pants and/or skirt. You wouldn't think that it would be so hard to find, they have about 60 of them in their catalogue and the same on their website. But in the store, they obviously don't carry ALL of the same things, so when i got there, they had two black and a million in other colours - bright green, pink, white, beige, tan, brown, grey, with frills, without frills, with matching skirts or shirts or dresses, lots of choice, but NOT what i was looking for.

So i walked around the entire mall, and STILL didn't find a single SUIT that would do! There were lots of jackets and pants separately, but nothing that goes together. So i headed back to Sears, just to make sure i hadn't missed anything - lo and behold - i did. i found a deep charcoal pant suit for only $109.99. i also got a green top to go under it. i'll have to take the pants to a tailor tomorrow to get them taken up, but the jacket fits nicely and it looks über professional.

So, i have finally bought my first REAL suit. i've been meaning to get one for a few years, but it just never happened. It is my first, but definitely not my last

Be a Bollywood film director!

i found this site through a friends' blog and couldn't resist posting it here too. This is hilarious actually, so check it out!

This is the movie i made. A sequel is already in the works! Let me know if you make one too and post a link in the comments!

see you at the Oscars! :)

The Real Stephen Harper?

i know this is a canwest story... but i read it in the paper yesterday and thought that i would share it with all of you... he is a wily mother f***er... and he's taking our wonderful country right down the tubes...


Angry Albertan returns
The old, prickly Harper is back, and he is showing, his contempt for Parliament and the media

DON MARTIN, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, May 20, 2006

He emerged from the squeaker Commons vote on extending the Afghanistan mission, ignored the speaking podium his staff had set up and waved off questions until he could climb a handful of steps toward his second-floor office.

Having reached the desired altitude for showcasing his superior attitude in vintage Brian Mulroney style, Stephen Harper turned to lord over the assembled media with his message.
Free advice to the prime minister: Until you shape up, being filmed from below creates seriously lousy television optics. That button-straining gut fills the screen and the downward stare adds a chin or two.

No, this isn't another tired rant about Harper holding journalists in disdain, which he does and we'd best get used to it because it's going to get worse. I can't believe Fox News is up here collecting footage for a story on this showdown. It's an inside problem of scant outside interest.

But Harper holding Parliament in contempt is a legitimate public concern - and he does. And it will worsen.

In just three days this week, there have been three examples of Harper's churlish disregard for a democratic institution he repeatedly pretended to value during his stint in official opposition.

We've witnessed the return of the angry Albertan, the bitter and hard-done-by personality his image-enhancers thought they'd licked into likeable submission during the last election campaign.

Signs of the old Harper first flared during his furious reaction to the parliamentary committee that nixed his nomination of retired oilman Gwyn Morgan as the first chairperson of his new Public Appointments Commission. It was a horribly bad and frustrating decision, but angrily killing the commission until he controls Parliament through majority rule is a Grade 3 recess reaction.

Harper then used the back door to effectively kill the federal gun registry without parliamentary approval. It was born on the floor of the House of Commons a billion dollars ago and should die there, too. But Harper chose to pull the plug through an amnesty for low-calibre criminals, pending some unspecified future date when he'll have the inclination to request its euthanasia in the Commons.

The kicker was his offhanded warning Wednesday that this prime minister would refuse to accept a negative verdict from the House of Commons on extending the Afghanistan deployment.

Even if the vote goes against the government, "we will proceed with another year," Harper said. "And if we need further efforts or a further mandate to go ahead into the future, we will do so alone and we will go to the Canadian people to get that mandate."

Now there's parliamentary respect for you - telling MPs their vote simply doesn't matter even as they start a six-hour discussion on what is certain to be a death sentence for dozens of soldiers, a debate that Harper had announced just two days earlier.

And there was something hypocritical about the government's glee at watching the Liberal solidarity fracture over the question. Former free-vote advocate Harper had whipped his caucus into submission, refusing to allow anyone to vote their conscience on the question. That makes it easy to appear united. But the Liberal leader let his MPs vote their conscience, a division that arguably more accurately reflects Canadian opinion on the conflict.

It was a lousy week for parliamentary respect and suggests Harper learned a thing or two from the previous Liberal reign.

As one Conservative MP observed not long ago, "it is the Parliament that's supposed to run the country, not just the largest party and the single leader of that party." The speaker? None other than, drum roll please, official opposition leader Stephen Harper, circa 2004.

"If the Liberals think they can walk in and make Parliament not work because they refuse to co-operate or consult, they're in for a rude awakening. So I would urge them to get over the fact they don't have a majority, which they believe is their God-given right, and get on with making Parliament effective." So who's that talking? Why more two-year-old comments by Harper.

From afar, Harper might look decisive and principled. Up close, he looks increasingly angry, unparliamentary and, if he persists in scrumming on stairs instead of running up them, chunky.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006

An-nyeong-ha-se-yo

that's sort of like "peace be with you" in Korean. It's what you say to greet someone (unless they're calling on the phone - then it's yo-bo-se-yo). I'm learning it on the internet. There are tons of great websites that teach you Korean. It's a little surprising just how many there are. Some, of course, are better than others, but they've all got something. i've been using a bunch of different sites... these are just a few:

An Introduction to Korean
This is a pretty comprehensive site that includes: the alphabet, basic phrases, lots of vocabulary, and grammar. The sound works better than a lot of sites and it's easy to follow and understand. Mini quizzes after each tutorial shows you your progress.

Korean through English
This is an excellent site that has tutuorials to help you write the Korean alphabet, learn pronunciation, and vocabulary - sadly the sound doesn't work on my mac and many of the Korean letters don't show up properly in the tutorials. Still great for learning words though.

Let's Learn Korean!
This site is run by Radio Korea International, again, much of the sound/pronunciation practice doesn't work, and many of the Korean letters don't show up very well, but it's still got some good basic lessons.

Mr. Oh's
This site explains the language and teaches you a lot of useful prases and words. The font doesn't work very well on a bunch of these pages, but it's still usefull reading.


Of course i had to wade through tons of really bad sites before finding even these ones that are decent. Now that i know the alphabet, i'm trying to immporve my vocabulary. i'd really like to do this with some childrens books, but i'm not sure where to get my hands on some. Anyway, i still need to get better at grammar, man, i hate grammar! and it's all backwards in Korean. SUBJECT-OBJECT-VERB (as opposed to subject-verb-object, in English). So, Korean uses particles to tell you which word is which. i can't write any Korean here for th

The Death of the Internet?

i saw this video on Spectraversa.

It's not exactly the most "objective" (a very problematic term, don't get me started...not now anyway) doc i've seen, but it's interesting and most likely completely true. so spread the word.

The Death of the Internet

Moving

I have been living in the same apartment for the past seven years. I have had 14 different roommates, each with their own quirks. Some of them are like family, some will be life-long friends, and others I have never spoken to since the day they moved out; a few I can't even remember their last names. That isn't supposed to be the point of this post, but maybe it should be. This is actually (as you can tell by the title) about the fact that it is the end of an era in just a few weeks. My lease is up July 1, and I’m not staying (as we should all know by my previous post about Korea; still no word from EPIK).

So for the past few weeks, I’ve been waiting to find out where I will be living for my last summer in Montreal. I will be staying with my current roommate (Cherry, yes, like the fruit) and her boyfriend. So, while they've been going crazy looking for an apartment, I’ve been waiting to see where they decided to live. He didn't want to stay in NDG (Notre-Dame de Grace, the neighbourhood we live in now) because this is the same area that he has lived for his entire life. I really like NDG, often referred to as 'No Damn Good', for some reason. This is a brilliant area to live in, especially where I am. I'm a 15-minute bus ride from downtown, or I can take the Metro in no time. Monkland, a street full of cafes, bars, and restaurants is a short walk away, and the rest of NDG (which is huge) is right at my doorstep. I’m close enough to Westmount that I can take advantage of their parks and recreation. This is my neighbourhood, and I really like it. So, I’m pleased to know that we are moving just three blocks away. How convenient. I’m really happy. Of course, I’m leaving for Korea by the end of the summer, so it's only temporary, but it'll be nice to spend my last summer in the 'hood. :)

This Other Eden

I read this book at the suggestion of a friend who is never wrong about books. i wrote this review for a class and it was published in the Concordian - a student newspaper at Concordia - last fall. it's a fantastic book, you should pick it up.



Set in the near future, This Other Eden by Ben Elton, shows readers what the future may look like if the Earth’s global environment continues down its current path. His vision is not a stereotypical view of the future. The air is deadly to breathe, the ozone is completely depleted, and most big cities have switched to operating at night to save the population from being exposed to the sun. Eco-death will soon be a reality and this puts the average human in quite a predicament. Should people put their energy and money into trying to save the planet? Or should they buy a claustrosphere (a self-contained unit designed to support life after eco-death) and ride out the storm?

Mother Earth is an ecological terrorist group based in Europe. They are pitted against the Claustrosphere Corporation, and while they are busy trying to convince people to save the planet, the FBI is interested in finding out who is funding them. A world away in Los Angeles, a narcissistic actor is auditioning for Plastic Tolstoy, sole owner of the world’s largest media conglomerate. The activists versus the corporation and the earth versus humankind are running themes. The story operates on several levels: the story of the eart and how it is being crippled by humanity, the story of Mother Earth, the environmental terrorists who are trying to save the planet, mingled with the story of Plastic Tolstoy, the man behind the claustrosphere. The stories, which are carried by the main characters, weave through each other throughout the book.

Anti-earth-death activists, a Norse God-like figure, a male FBI agent named Judy, a male super-model who never quite gets it, a heart-broken film writer, and an egomaniacal millionaire make up just a few of the main characters. Most of them are likeable, a few detestable but they are all are well rounded and vivid. Together with the narrator (who speaks of the future in a cynical and satirical way) the characters help draw you into the bizarre world that Elton has created, and in the back of your mind, you can’t help but wonder if this really is what the future holds. There are no aliens or far-fetched laser-guns, just humankind destroying the planet that gives them life, and trying to make as much money as possible before they finish the job.

The feeling of reality is part of what makes This Other Eden more than a satire of the world we live in. One can look at this story and see it actually happen to us, whether in the distant future or right around the corner. Elton shows us a satirical view of the potential of human good and evil.

I would put this book in rank with George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. Anyone interested in media, activism and/or who is looking for a great read should check out this book.

Strut your stuff...

I went for a nice walk today down Sherbrooke Street to the Westmount Library and back. It made me think about a column i wrote last semester about sidewalk etiquette. So, here it is:


Montrealers are the worst drivers. It’s hardly a fact, but everyone knows it’s true. There’s no denying that we all see cars running reds, cutting people off, or triple parking downtown. But if you think that almost getting hit by a dozen cars on a Sunday stroll is bad, try taking that stroll down a crowded Montreal sidewalk. Now that I think about it, please don’t because then you’ll probably get in my way, and you never know when you might meet a member of the ‘sidewalk patrol’. No, it isn’t the Quebec Governments’ newest department; it’s a figment of my imagination (and oh, how I wish it were real). And, no, I haven’t lost my mind; I just think that it’s high time that Montrealers acquired at least some sidewalk etiquette.

Bumping into people walking on the sidewalk by accident is normal, isn’t it? It happens all the time, at least to me. But in Montreal, we (should and sometimes have to) take our walking seriously. Nobody is going anywhere slowly when it’s February and it’s minus forty, and if you are, then this article is for you. It should be illegal to just meander down Ste. Catherine Street in downtown Montreal; instead, you should look at the sidewalk as a sort of obstacle course. Which if you are lucky enough to pass, you will hopefully end up in the correct destination.

The first ‘rule’ (or if I were dictator of the world, ‘law’) of sidewalk etiquette is to stay on the right side. Since this works on actual roads (with cars) we need to remember that sidewalks are roads for people. If everybody stayed in the right ‘lane’ then you wouldn’t be constantly trying to get around people who are walking towards you. Of course, passing is allowed, but the maneuver needs to be performed exactly like when it’s done in a car. Make sure there is enough time to pass and check that no one is trying to pass you. This also means that groups of people walking together need to adjust their width accordingly. A group of people taking up the entire sidewalk and forcing you to squeeze by should receive a hefty fine. The government could use the money earned to make the sidewalks bigger, possibly paint lines on them, and to enforce the new ‘laws’.

The second rule is to follow the speed of the flow of traffic. Perhaps money earned from ‘slow tickets’ could pay for signs posting the minimum steps per minute. If people were unable to keep up with the flow of traffic, they would have to stay as far to the right as possible. The outer lane, or ‘street lane’ would be for walking fast, no window-shopping from the left lane at all, (imagine all the money the government could make!) while the inner lane, or ‘store lane’ would be for the slow, window shopping, bag carrying, get in your way sort of people. The middle lane is used for passing and turning.

The third rule is to always indicate in some way before stopping in your tracks, turning around, and bumping into the person walking behind you. How many romance movies have broken this rule? I certainly don’t want to meet some stranger because he smashed into me from not having looked where he was going, or vice versa. It doesn’t mean that we are meant to be together; it means that one of us is a klutz.

And it’ll probably be me.

it's official... almost

This is an email that i received from Concordia:

"CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

General Notice

Date : May 05, 2006

Dear Ms. Mavor,

This is to certify that you have completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts, Specialization Journalism.

The awarding of this degree is subject to the approval of the Faculty Council and University Senate, which bodies will convene on May 23, 2006 for the purpose of reviewing the candidacy of graduating students.

Yours Sincerely,
Jennifer Srey
Arts and Science Service Team
Office of the Registrar"

So, it's almost official...and i know that when the senate approves the list they don't go over every student, they just say yes or no. My actual convocation is on June 12th. My father and step-mother are coming down, as are my room mates parents and sister, she's convocating on the same day, but i'm in the afternoon and she's in the morning, so we'll all have to go to two ceremonies - woo hoo! - really, it's probably going to be really boring. i still can't wait for it though. My grandmother already sent me my graduation gift - a gift certificate to buy myself a Tilley hat. She has had skin cancers on her face for over twenty years and so she wants to make sure that i take care of my skin. i've already had a few bad burns in my life, so i need to be careful. Anyway, it's a great travel companion - the hat, i mean, there's a "secret" pocket to put your money and passport in, who's going to steal the hat right off your head? anyway, i'm going to head over to the Tilley store, here in Montreal, in the next few weeks to pick one out. i'll have it by graduation and get a photo of mysself with it in my gown and send it to my grandmother since she's not able to travel to Montreal. More soon...

TV and Me...

I spent the morning at school burning dvd’s of Concordia Reports…the TV show we spent the past year producing for Advanced Television News. I was on a team of eight Amy, Elyse, Rebecca, Melissa, Bruno, Melissa, Maya, and myself. We had to produce 20 minute long television news shows. One was a theme show (relationships), the rest were news shows with entertainment, news packages, voice overs, editorials, sports, and bumpers. It took a lot of organizational skills to get everyone together and on the same page all the time, but we survived it. Now we're all ready for the real world!!! Anyway, here it is:

Concordia Reports Final Show

Concordia Reports Show 4

They're both just over 20 minutes long... i worked on various aspects of both of them, from shooting, writing, researching, editing, location scouting...etc... i shot the hosts for the final show and also wrote, shot, and edited the Ralph Nader voice over which is the lead story. Anyway, check them out if you have time... it's pretty interesting what we can do with a few video cameras and a couple of computers.

Enjoy the show!