Dream about friends from Montreal

I had a dream about this particular place I think it's in Montreal. A swimming pool where there is indoor and outdoor. In the summer there's a stream going up the hill and that is where the cool water runs to the outdoor pool. This place only shows up in my dreams. I saw it several times. I saw the faces I miss. Strangely some of them were from my old work place -Tin, Chantz. I also saw some faces from school days. I guess I'm nostalgic. I also saw Gwen dressed up having fun and ignoring me. I felt hurt. So, I'm going to write a note.

The weather is so much cooler now. In fact, it is unbelievable that it was 30 degrees just a few days ago. Aunt made lots of Kimchi yesterday. I'm taking some home.

I'm going to have a week off in October - What a wonderful thing. I'm looking forward to it and mom and I will take a trip to Busan.

So many things happened since July

In July, Mom arrived, I moved to another appartment, received 45 boxes from Canada. 2 Days later, I went on vacation to NY and Montreal. As I came back I found out that the VP who has been giving me hard time is transferring to another school.

I'm still amazed at all the events that's been happening since June. Here are some pictures from the trip. I got very emotional when I went to Montreal. I enjoyed a good shopping spree. I helped a friend re-decorate her place.

Today mom and I went for spicy crab stew dinner in the neibourhood. My neibourhood is fantastic!

http://family.webshots.com/album/565591288fGUzIX

Granny's 97th Birthday party

Grandma told me that none of her friends are coming because she could not get in touch with them - well yeah cos they all died! She's so funny. It was a momentous occasion and I did not see any bickering or complaining the whole day. It was what we call a "racket-free" event. There was no regurgitating events from the past and making anyone wrong. So all in all, it was a success. Mom and I had a week's worth of food packed for us. It's been 32 years since we were all together. It was a happy occasion.

Some pictures:

Birthday gal with her b'day gift - blouse from her daughter - my mom.

The feast prepared by aunts - Big uncle's wife and 3rd uncle's wife.

Granma, aunt, me and mom - we haven't been under the same roof all together for 32 years.

2 cousins and uncle #3 could not resist taking a nap

All seems winding down

Janet the packer extraordinaire and super duper energetic person did a great job in the garage sale. She apparently knocked on neighbour's doors and sold lots of stuff.

I'm so grateful for the friends who cared enough to drop by and say good bye and lugged away stuff.

It's hot and humid and totally noisy from neighbors here building things.

It's really happening

Mom's managed to get rid of most of the big items and the move date is coming close. I find it hard to believe it but in all honesty, this is what we wanted to do for a long time. So it seems God is granting our wish and all is coming together in a very short time.

Just thinking about the move made me lose weight. Here's a picture of granma reading her newspaper early in the morning so she can catch up with what's going on in the world. Notice anything about the paper? Yep - it's upside down.

What Canada means to me

When I left Korea to go to Canada in 1976, I was with my parents. Being able to live and grow up in Canada was one of the biggest blessings of my life. I felt peace, quiet, confident and knew that all would be well no matter what happened. I had a great education, great friends and we lived well although we did not become super rich. We enjoyed trips, restaurents and Montreal is just lovely in the summer. My friends are just miraculous.

So why am I packing that life and coming to Korea?
It seems that I made a decision that one day, I'll come back when we left way back.
I also want to learn and learn to love my native country. Also because this place has so much history - sad a lot of times. This is the place my great grand father loved so much that he spent 40 years of his life fighting for its independence. With all of its beauty and abundance, people here seem super agitated. I heard about 10,000 $ fee to get into a private primary school, if the kid did not get in by winning the ticket when they do the random selection. This is totally crazy. Some parents spent $600 per kid per month just to teach English, never mind the piano lessons, golf lessons, Taekwondo lessons etc....

I am so glad I did not grow up in that kind of madness. I studied just a little bit in High-school and help run the family business every day. When I went to college, that was when I had to stop because the heavier academic demands.

I wish there was a blender somewhere between these two cultures.

Stuffy day

It rained a lot this morning. I was surprised with surprise survey. My co-teacher walked in with the survey to be filled in by students about my performance. It was enerving and indeed many of them find English hard, difficult and uninteresting. I would be too, if I have to be cooped up with 39 other noisy kids.

They want games, games, games. In other words, they don't want to study and learn -- just wanna play. I understand it completely. Is there a place where kids can learn, study and have fun at the same time? This guy calls for more one-to-one attention to all kids. It should be provided by the community - high school kids, college teachers, house-wives and others.
I totally agree. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/233

The supplementary class I run, these kids never ask for attention in the normal classes. They are screaming for my attention in the semi-private class of 6 kids.

More field trip

I'm looking forward to another field trip. This time it may be with the 4th graders but promises to be a nice location - Kanghwa island. It has a story of one of the kings of Chosun dynasty who was having a peaceful life there completely unaware of his destiny. He was used as a political scapegoat and died young. There are full of brutal stories in Korea, as anywhere else probably.

I feel awful about the Chinese earth quake victims and survivers.

Teachers' day

5th graders were leaving for a day trip. The VP went with them and that was great. One of the teachers was on sick leave and took a couple of days off. We're glad he's back. There were many flowers and cakes being delivered all day. I got a small vitamin drink with a label plus a card made by students with slight challenges in learning. They were so cute. Basically it said thanks for teaching us with love, We love you. Sniff. The drink was re-labeled to say it will give me a boost in energy and confidence cos it contained their good will and love. Picture of me posing with the general bouquet and the concoction by the special kids.

Dreamt of catastrophy

I had a catastrophic cream. I felt a gush of humidity like it's going to rain in a hurry and felt eerie. I saw the sky and saw that there were a thin layer of clouds on one side, a strip of empty sky then another thin layer of clouds. Then there was a huge thunderous noise and that strip of empty sky seemed to slide down to the ground and as it reached the earth, it started a huge explosion of red cloud of smoke and it started roll coming very fast towards me. It looked like the dust cloud behind a race car, except it's size of a small mountain. I am with my aunt and mother. I am shouting that we need to open the door and run to one side as fast as possible. In my head, I'm thinking - gosh "We're all dead". Some moments later, I hear the noise subsided and when I went to see what happened the firing cloud stopped about 10 feet away.

Sleepless in Anyang again

I had a dream that I was moving with my mother. We had a very few things. In Canada I never felt poor. However even with all the abundance and low prices of things I feel poor maybe because I don't have the big spacious appartment that I was able to afford in Montreal. Or maybe because everyone seems so uptight, stressed and rude beyond words in ordinary day to day life here.

I love being with some people here but otherwise I wish I don't have to deal with the crowd and the noise. Generally speaking, there seems to be a total lack of consideration for others - even though Koreans are supposed to be the most polite people in the East.

Maybe it's because they (we - it's confusing sometimes) are so forced to be polite next our parents, bosses and teachers, we just completely let loose in other public places - I find myself being rude and I justify myself saying my consideration only calls for more abuses.

Just had a wonderful long conversation with my friend who shared "El Camino" in 2001. She was going through some breakthroughs in her life and it was interesting for me how similar my machinary is. I get into this "Rescue" mode. I am willing to give it up and let it go. It just isn't healthy for anyone - especially myself.

I shared about the mastery course with her and it was so great. In that moment I got it again and learned that I already forgot.

Just finished re-reading the Pilgrimmage by Paulo Cohelho. It reminded me of the adventures we had in Spain and brought me back to the miracles of each of our lives. How easily we forget.

Medical tests

I had a day off because it's the Labor day here. Except, everyone is working. I had the day off because I was going for a physical. There are no classes and all the kids went hiking today with the teachers. It was an amazing operation. EKG took less than 1 minute. Eye, ear exam also each took less than a minute. All in all, it took about 1/2 in total with all the changing and going up and down the stairs. So it was a beautiful day so I went downtown. The bus is already blowing full version of cold air-conditioning air.

I spend sometime at the luxurious department store - somehow I feel right at home and it reminds me of home - well the Montreal home town. It has all the expensive products from around the world. I sprayed myself with some new Chanel perfume. I got a scented candle and had Sushi for lunch. You pick up this traveling dishes and you can tell how much it costs by the color of the dish. It was absolutely delicious. I did missed some company though but my friend from Montreal is in Busan today.

Annoyed but found a resolution

I finally declared that it is impossible for me to be sharing the office with the Principal, Vice-principal and the all the odd ins and outs. I have all the extra noise that I don't want to hear. So I said find me a space or I'll file an official complaint and request for a transfer and I meant it. At first the VP said, there's nothing she could do. I found the Science teacher had an empty desk and he hardly has classes in the afternoon. So I said it would be better if I can move my computer to that classroom and use the "public" computer during my classroom hours. So it seems that's acceptable for her as well.

Korea is a strange place for me and people act very strangely indeed. I am sometimes afraid that I'm becoming one of them. However, I don't have that feeling of being chased anymore here. So I find calmness and strangeness in one. I must be close to some kind of truth. I heard that the guardians of the gates to the truth were confusion and paradox.

I'm re-reading the Pilgrimmage by Paulo Cohelho. It brings me memories from my own walk through the mountains of Spain. I miss the smell, the pain, the joy and surprises still.

Signs of attitute change

Some of my students are starting to show some real good signs of progress. They are shy in the regular class where brilliant, privately educated kids call out answers. But in their smaller supplementary class, they participate actively with strong confident voice.

I see some of them really are concentrating better and started write down words in their notebook, where as before, they would disturb the neibours and cause frawns.

I'm optimistic.

A letter to a friend - edited version

I try to be a creative teacher. So I go from teaching Doctor Seuss to Word power with Greek and Latin roots. So far I manage to have fun so I suspect some of my students are having fun.
I remember the old days when the teacher wasn't having fun I certainly wasn't having fun.

I made the kids pay the equivalent of 10 cents each time they don't greet me or my co-teacher with Good morning/Good afternoon. So even what they say is wrong -- like saying "Good evening", they do greet me more often in English than before. As they say, money talks.
No, I'm not going to be rich from it, so far I haven't collected any money but enjoying the side-effects of the money talk.

I help out at the budding Landmark in Seoul on Mondays and Thursdays. Wednesday and Saturdays I do my ballet class in this very ritzy part of town.

Last weekend, I was out with my Canadian friend who is teaching English in further suburbia. So we did the touristy things. We had dinner at a restaurant on top of a tower on top of a mountain. The view was great and the dinner was spectacular. After that we went to see a movie - it was raining so we picked one that started 5 minutes ago. Turned out to be "Lars and the real girl". It was surprisingly quite good. I really did not expect much at the beginning - given it's about Lars' relationship with this silicon woman named Bianca. Then we went to this 24 hour Sauna to warm up the chills. Their water was from the natural hot springs with sulfur and my skin felt like a baby's bottom when I came out of the shower in the morning.

Just finished a book called "The attack". It's about suicide bombers in Palestine. I never thought I'd understand them but this was a very powerful book and I have a whole new perspective on them. It was hard to put down. I put up my condo for sale in Montreal and I will move mom here. For one thing, the winter is shorter here. And given I get an apartment, I just need to pay the utilities. I uploaded some pics in the facebook. I like it cos it lets me keep track of people in my life and what they're up to.

All in all, I'm doing well I think . I do complain that all the girls here are so skinny and cute I feel old, fat and frumpy. I wear ex-large and sometimes I have to buy men's clothes. I can wait to go to Jackpot in Montreal. MJ will come to visit in April. I'm looking forward to it.

Gee weez, I just wrote a novel. Hope you have a sunshiny day and Happy Easter!

It's been a long time

This site is blocked at work and updating facebook makes me lazy in updating this one. I am selling my place in Canada and moving a lot of stuff to Korea. I just know it's the right thing to do but not very comforting cos I don't feel as though there are people who can help me. But I know that's a lie. Most of my friends are ready and willing to do whatever's needed. Silly me, I thought maybe my unemployed uncle #3 would be willing to help me out for the price of free trip to Canada but he seems at most reluctant. He pisses me off but I was forewarned. My aunt calls the 3 uncles the courageous in front of a meal - but very little else - people.

I want my clothes, shoes pictures. At least it seems that there have been 3 visits for the property already.

Visiting Daegu and Busan

Thanks to a friend, I was able to visit 2 major cities in Korea - Daegu and Busan. Daegu has a population of about 2 million and Busan with the population about 3.6 million people. So Daegu is about the size of Montreal and Busan is the size of Toronto. Seoul is the mega city with 15 million people. So it was so much easier to get around in Daegu. But it lacked a charm of its own. Busan was lovely with beautiful beaches and fabulous seafood. Mom wants to settle in Busan. Busan subway announces in 4 languages - Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese.

I have to say Busan had a real sight, smell, sound and taste of its own.

Dreams

It's funny how someone can show up in a dream and makes you happy just for that. This young man used to occupy my thoughts a long time ago and he shows up in my dreams once in a while. Why do I still dream about him is a complete mystery.

It is the first day of my vacation and there's 10 cm of snow out there. I'm going to look for some travel deals and see what I can get.

Horoscope

This horoscope prediction from the Facebook seemed to fit like a glove today.
Pisces HoroscopeView: Daily Love Karma
Sunnie,You may have an incredibly good financial or investment idea today. You have seen the need to dramatically transform the way you share resources with others. You may find that an insight or intuitive impression leads to a new expert or acquaintance who could help you make more money.

So I made some arrangements to meet an investment advisor and I feel confident. He seems like a reliable pleasant fellow. I'm so lucky in many ways.

The weather has been kinda chilly and feel my stomach is not very cooperative. Today is last day of camp and 2 weeks of vacation is coming up. Yeah.

Hair cut and investment ideas

I got myself a new haircut and a new cell phone. I feel almost like the person I was in Montreal. I've been feeling frumpy and old and with the new ballet class, I just got a boost in self image.

I finally got around to seeing some of my mother's friends. One of them is really concerned about my old age - even more so than my own mother. She's giving me all kinds of ideas about investment.

I am going to find out starting tomorrow what kind of options I have. But I intend to sell the condo in Montreal. I think all will work out for the best.