just another drunk...

the longer i'm here the more i realize that people are essentially the same everywhere. last night i was taking the bus to meet some friends. it was the number eight which never comes when you want/need it to, but last night it did.

as soon as i got on i noticed a man standing right behind the bus driver. it appeared that he was yelling at someone - i assumed it was the lady sitting next to him, since she said something back to him. he was like one of those nutters you see on the bus/metro who are just yelling for no good reason. of course, i had no idea what he was saying, so he could have been making some kind of valid point about something... but then a woman sitting a little further back in the bus piped in and said something that sounded like she was really annoyed... probably a polite way of saying shut up (i know it was shut up cause i know that in korean). then i figured he was just yelling and not at the woman just at everyone.

i could see the bus drivers frustration in the rear view mirror. the man was standing right behind him and was just rambling on and on. a few stops later the bus just pulled over and the bus driver got off the bus. just my luck, i actually get the number 8 - the fast bus - and we're going to stop until the bus driver can calm down and have a smoke or something. he disappeared behind the bus for a couple of minutes. when he came back he had a couple of police officers with him.

he got back on the bus and (i'm guessing here - language barrier) and started telling the guy he had to get off. the cops were talking to him too but he just kept yelling. he started looking around the bus for an ally - the woman in front of me ignored him, then he looked at me, and started rambling in korean... it took him about a minute to realise that he was looking at a foreigner, then he turned back to the cops. they finally coaxed him off the bus and we went on our way.

oddly enough, one of my students was actually sitting behind me and told me that the guy was really drunk. i tried to find out what he had been saying but the kids english wasn't good en ough to translate. it was just another drunk old man making trouble on the bus... i told my student not to be embarrassed - it happens everywhere.

a whirlwind weekend - pt.1 (friday)

it's ten past midnight and i just got home from my whirlwind weekend in Seoul. i hadn't been up there yet, and since i'm on vacation this week, and my friend kim was meeting some friends there this weekend, i hopped on the KTX with her. of course, the first thing i have to do when i get home is upload my pictures and start posting!!! can't keep my away from here for long! so, in that vein, here is part one of my whirlwind weekend... it'll take a few days to post it all, since i'll go step by step and don't want to overwhelm all of my loyal readers...

FRIDAY

it already feels like a hundred years ago... i had to work until 4:30. our train (on the KTX - not sure what it actually stands for, but it's the bullet train... and goes up to 300 kilometers per hour) was at 9:13PM... so we met at Gupo station around 8:30.
i'm lucky that i live pretty close to the high speed train, it only takes me about thirty minutes on the bus and another ten on the subway... if i lived any further west it would take a lot longer and i'd probably have to go all the way into busan...
we were a little early and SO excited... can't you tell? i think we were both a little tired too since we'd been working all day... but we were equipped for the ride with snacks and drinks, and i brought along a deck of cards. the train only takes three hours... did i mention it goes up to 300km per hour? :)
so about five minuted before departure, they let us all crowd onto the platform, of course, they couldn't possibly have an escalator for all the people with luggage, but they did think of putting in a place to wheel your bag up (see above) if you're so lucky as to have wheels on your bag... i had a back pack...
and as always, you have to go up the stairs, just to go back down to the right platform... just had to shoot this as proof... as i still couldn't believe that we were on our way to seoul!

the train arrived promptly at 9:13 and we boarded - car seven...

i've been on a lot of trains in my day... but this was one of the nicer ones... looks a lot like an airplane, but with bigger windows... and more leg room. it wasn't the coolest train i've ever been on, but it was comfortable.

since we travelled at night, i don't have any shots out the window... :( ... next time... it was a good ride, and we arrived in seoul at midnight on friday night. we tried to take the subway, but it was closed, so we took a cab to Kim's Guest House, the place we would call home for the next three days... more on that soon!

well, that's it for now folks, stay tuned for the real deal... it was a wild and crazy weekend... who'd have thought you could DO so much in only three days!!!

miss positive

sorry i haven't updated for a few days... i usually try to write something every day, but i guess i just haven't been inspired and didn't want to bore you all - my loyal readers! thank you for coming back!

this week i have been working at the gimhae middle school winter camp. i have to commute to get to the school, something which i was not looking forward to, but which really hasn't been so bad. it has kind of made me feel normal again. i usually walk to school, which is strange for me, coming from the city, where i usually spent at least 30 minutes in transit to get to work... so taking the bus has been pretty good. i catch the 1-1 across the street from my house and it takes a little over 30 minutes for me to get off just down the street from the school the camp is being held. who'd have thought that i'd ever enjoy commuting.

it's nice because it gives me time in the morning to enjoy my enviro-mug full of coffee, and i can think and look out the window at the world coming to life... there are downsides, like anywhere - people who don't wash (read: stink like rotten cabbage and cooked onions), people who crack their gum (yes at 8 AM - my biggest pet peeve), and people who talk on their mobiles too loudly for the whole ride... but it feels so normal to take a bus in the morning.

the camp itself has been heaven. well, the kids could be a little more enthusiastic, but i'm used to their apathy by now. with classes of only around 14 students, though, the week has flown by. i usually teach classes of 40-45 students - there's the public education system for you! my friends who work at hakwons (private after school schools) teach between five and 12 students in a class (please correct me if i'm wrong... but that's what i think). you can imagine the difference in, not only, the teaching methods, but in the actual learning that the kids do. oh, to have small classes and see a difference in what they learn! but i digress... this week i have seen a difference... i know they learned something from me, however small, i know that they did... which is a nice feeling.

i've heard that i may be transferred to a new school in march (the beginning of the new school year) and i think it would be really good for me. i'm not even opposed to having to take the bus anymore (that tune could change, so don't hold me to it...i've only been doing it a week) but doing this camp has shown me that my school isn't the only one out there, and it certainly isn't anywhere near being the best. hopefully i will end up at a school where the kids appreciate having me, where the school understands that it's useless to send me to every single class and that they should create some kind of special class for smart kids.... i just think that it would be really good to have a fresh start here, without the troubles of getting settled... now that culture shock (in it's most severe form) is abating, i think i could really do something good at a new school.

wow! look at me! miss positive! i'm trying, and i think it's working!

english activity contest.

this weekend was a short one for me - i worked on saturday... something i swear to never do again. a day or two after the call from GIMFL (the boarding school) i got another call from the board of education. "can you work on november fourth? we need someone to judge the english speaking contest," said the lady. "november fourth... november fourth...?? what day of the week is that?" i replied. "it's saturday morning." my immediate reply was "i don't work on saturdays" then she more or less begged me, as if my saying no would jeopardize the entire affair, and there wouldn't be a contest! so i asked how much it paid. $30. how long would it take? 2-3 hours. where was it? Seomyeon elementary school. "well, i guess a couple of hours won't kill me, okay, i'll do it." BIG mistake. i should've said no. no way. or as they say in korea ANIO.

a day and a half before the "english activity contest" i got an official document at my school (from the board of education) outlining the details of who, what, where...etc... as it turned out, the even was taking place in Jangyu... the same city as the boarding school i had been to. as far as i knew transportation was NOT included and since it cost me like 13,000 won there and another 13,000 back the last time i went, well, let's just say i was not interested in paying that myself (the boarding school paid for it). especially if the job was only paying me 30,000 all tolled.

after hours of trying to explain that i wouldn't do it unless they paid for my transportation - they agreed to pay me an extra 15,000 for a taxi home and that jay would drive me there in the morning. this was all right with me... i was just disappointed that this woman had lied to me about the location - telling me it was in gimhae when it wasn't... i'm slowly learning that koreans like to pretend that they have a culture built on mutual respect but they'll do or say anything to a foreigner just to get them to agree. needless to say if this woman ever asks me for anything again i am going to say no. i don't appreciate being lied to.

anyway, the competition itself also lasted longer than the 2-3 hours she told me, i was there from 9 am to 1:30 pm and last time i checked that's four and a half hours - on a saturday!!! argh. i was also told they would provide lunch, and there was nothing... more lies... anyway, there were a bunch of other foreign teachers there, so i saw some of my friends, and actually ended up getting a lift back to gimhae with scott - the other canadian epik teacher here in gimhae. so i didn't have to pay for the taxi after all....

i was judging the grade four students on their spoken english. they would come into the room and sit at a desk about two feet in front of me. there were two korean teachers who were also judging - one on my left and one on my right. the one on the left would start with 'beginner' questions "how are you? what is your name?" then the one on the left would ask 'intermediate' questions, "tell me about your family" and then i would ask the 'advanced' questions, "what do you do after school? tell me about your hobbies, and would you like to travel? where? why?". then the kids would have to choose one of three pictures and talk about it.

we did this with over forty kids. the winner was miles ahead of the rest and actually got 100/100 from the other two teachers. she got the highest grade i gave 93/100. her english was better than any of my middle school students and she's three years younger than them!

anyway, lessons learned - 1. do not work on saturday (unless they're paying too much to say no) 2. don't trust mrs park at the board of education. 3. beware the korean who is too eager to please you.