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.

Making a difference?

I met one of the parents today. She told me her son, who never showed interest in English now says he's enjoying it. I think it has to do with introducing games - UNO. Simple card game that I forced them to say the color and the value each time they had to put the card down - forced him to participate. I got the idea from one of the very young teachers from the teachers' conference in September. He's slower than others and not very good at remembering. I'm happy to hear that he's enjoying English classes. I hope he will continue.

Busy holiday season

I've been busy - shopping, cleaning etc. I was wisked off to Everland with 1000 other Native English teachers in Kyunggi province. It was fun and walked around a lot. Everland is an attemp to recreate Disneyland in Korea with unrecognizable characters, full of clichés.

My school forbade this site so I'm leaving a short note.

Sleepless in Anyang

I've been catching up on sleep since the weekend. Last weekend was the first Introduction Leaders program in Seoul. Landmark Forum leader Poorani came to town and on her week off a month - she decided to cause the transformation of Korea. It's been an awesome weekend. They took off like a rocket with an introduction that was scheduled 2 hours in preparation. They had 6 guests and 3 registered. Koreans seem to have an aversion to freedom. Maybe it's a side effect of many years of uncertainty, threats and unpredictable changes. They try so hard to be perfect and the perfection is just the bare minimum acceptable stage. So finding freedom, self-expression and standing up for oneself are hardly practiced by the citizens. Since I'm the only graduate of the program, I'm supporting the program by supporting Hyunsu. Hyunsu is the lady who took on transforming Korea. A mother of 4 who is beautiful and vibrant. She leads all the introductions, seminars and translates all the programs.

The Landmark Forum gives a glimmer and a break open to a new possibility of being and is truly remarkable how it works.

I'm jealous how it took off in Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. There's a definite intention to have a center in Seoul next year.

On an different subject. I got myself a roll-away piano for Christmas. It's a size of a book and not heavy at all. I downloaded "The first noel" sheet music and realized it's easier to follow my ear than the music sheet. I'm gonna surprise auntie with it.

Recurring dream

I had this dream - which was a continuation from the dream from last Thursday - that the family was finally able to reclaim the things we left at some inn as a hostage. They included furniture, pictures, shoes and mom got some beautiful sweaters back. I got some funky shoes back too. We got there just in time. If we were just a bit late, all of our things would have been auctioned off.

Last time the dream ended when I wondered what were the things we left behind. This may come from the times when my parents were running from debtors and we lived from hotel to hotel but we could not pay so we left everything and ran off at night. So I always wondered when my possession would end.

I felt good about these dreams.

It's snowing!

I heard a loud thunder and lightening, then saw the snow. The principal is going around forbidding everyone not to turn the heat on in the afternoon because - the temperature rises to above zero. So the kids and teachers are all wearing coats in the classroom. I don't know why they don't use the coal heater. I hope at least there will be a long winter vacation.

I had the teacher come to control the class for the 6th graders. They are trying to be cool and troublesome.

My stomach ache yesterday really was quite something. I thought I was going to faint. I am amazed that I feel fine today.

I am studying grammar and realize that I never learnt that stuff!. It turns out that during the time I was being educated, they underplayed the grammar. It probably is due to the fact also, that I went to French high school. Anyways, I'm glad to be learning it -- better late than never.

Having a different cold

I got a flu shot for about 25 bucks. But I guess it's no good for common colds. I think I'm getting a new different kind of cold on top of the one that's going away in andante. I still kinda sound funky. I have this guy who's pretending to be a brit via skype but I can tell that he's from an arab country. His English is awful and he gave me his only son's name. Except that he forgot that he told me one name last week and he gave another one this time. He says he lives in London but in his profile, it says Liverpool. Why does he go through all that hoola-hoop I wonder. So far I was amused by the maskerade. I told him he "sounds" more like an arab guy. I'm beginning to develop an "already always listening" about the arab guys.