(no subject)
Posting several days worth at once, trying to get up to speed.
Day 5
I taught in the elementary school today, my first time teaching kids. The job, as I'm coming to realize, is less about teaching the kids and more about making sure the parents are satisfied with what their kids tell them about us. I screwed up about three classes in by losing track of time and failing to give the kids some homework before they escaped. Discpiline is metered out by making kids stand up if they misbehave, and further misbehavior is controlled by making them leave their desk and stand with thier hands above their heads for a length of time. that said, some native teachers keep and carry sticks/batons, and I heard that the elementary school boss once hurt his arm from hitting a kid too hard. as much as I look forward to the opportunity to smack some snot nosed children, I doubt I'll make much, if any use of it. The elementary school teachers on the whole are more friendly, though that must be because they all speak and teach english, whereas the middle school covers math and sciences as well. I'll be back in the elementary school tomorrow to teach some older children in remedial classes, I fully expect to have to discipline them more than I did on thursday, as they probably were disruptive in their normal classes, and as a result am in my domain. I realize the day to day goings on can get a little boring so I'll try to restrict these entries to the highlights and little side essays to help elucidate the crazy things that go on around me.
Day 6
The kids were remarkably easy to handle, I was grossly misinformed. One class even reminded me to give them homework before they went home.
Day 8
Went out drinking last night in Itaewon again, I have a feeling this will be a regular occurrence. My Korean-American coworker met us at Geckos again where he was having dinner with the girl he's been seeing. We head to a Metal bar called the Bald Eagle and play a little pool until his lady friend decides it's time for her to leave. The bar was already pretty dead by that point, so at the behest of the coworker from my building, we all moved to a hip-hop club of which I can't remember the name. Iafter paying a 5 dollar cover we all go in and scope it out. Our Korean-American coworker (from here on out, KAC) wants us to meet women, which at this point, only having been here a week I am fairly indifferent to, wanting to get my legs underneath me a little better first. Not digging the hip-hop KAC and I head back to the bald eagle to rock out as the only non-employees in the bar. Within about 30 minutes he gets a text from my other coworker saying that he got a little involved in an altercation between a Jamaican guy and a Korean girl, so we finish our beers and decide to head over there to see if he got a black eye. the whole situation was taken care of by the time we got back, but after a while KAC gets the idea that we should head to "Homo hill" (not making this up, folks.) before I continue I'd better explain a bit. Korea is a bit like Iran, in that it refuses to acknowledge the existence of gay people within its own country. This is one more thing that the U.S. can condemn Iran for due to the antagonistic relationship they have, but with S. Korea, that all becomes cultural relativism. The long and the short of it is that there are gay people in Korea, and many of them congregate on this hill. Most of the bars there are named as such that it is quite obvious what sort of place you're entering. Also, because the existence of homosexuality in Korea is not acknowledged The police rarely venture up the hill. Anyway, we first enter a bar called Queen and surprisingly there are a couple of attractive women there. My coworker from my building (CFB) hits it off with one of them, and, feeling a little uncomfortable from the sheer quantity of the Gay in the building, as well as getting hit on by a gay dude for the first time, KAC and I visit a few of the other bars to see if his lesbian friends are there. (They were.) I also got to meet a rather convincing tranny. More on KAC and trannies later. We head back to Queen and CFB is making out with a hot Korean girl, so we decide to grab a beer. I get hit on some more, despite cordially informing anyone who asked of my hetero status. CFB is dancing on the grinding bench with a hot Korean girl. Eventually they stop dancing and I go over to see if CFB needs a wingman to help with his Hot Korean Girl's (HKG) Hot Friend (HF). Once this happens KAC heads out, apparently satisfied that we have met women. I am sitting with HF, who happens to be extremely drunk, and getting the feeling that the main reason my presence was required was that HKG wanted a shoulder to put HF on so she could continue to dance and make out with CFB. eventually we make it out of the bar,but not before HF gets a fairly lengthy kiss from a bisexual, married, Australian woman. We make it outside and HF, who can barely walk is ready to puke on a pile of garbage bags, while HKG and CFB continue to make out. HF wants to make out a little at this point as well. I was understandably reticent. We eventually get in a taxi with them and head south of the river, where we can take the subway, as it is early enough that they are running again. Also, CFB, knowing a bit about KAC and trannies, spent the night worrying that the girls were also trannies. After a long subway ride we eventually get somewhat close to home, but leave the station via an exit that neither of us know. because of this, we start off walking in the wrong direction and are actually walking the exact wrong direction from where we want to go. We eventually flag a taxi and get back to our building around 7:30 AM. CFB knocks on my door around 2:30 and tells me that he accidentally destroyed the phone number of HKG when he washed his smoke-scented clothes, so he needs to head to the PC room to try to find her on Facebook before he forgets her name.
Day 5
I taught in the elementary school today, my first time teaching kids. The job, as I'm coming to realize, is less about teaching the kids and more about making sure the parents are satisfied with what their kids tell them about us. I screwed up about three classes in by losing track of time and failing to give the kids some homework before they escaped. Discpiline is metered out by making kids stand up if they misbehave, and further misbehavior is controlled by making them leave their desk and stand with thier hands above their heads for a length of time. that said, some native teachers keep and carry sticks/batons, and I heard that the elementary school boss once hurt his arm from hitting a kid too hard. as much as I look forward to the opportunity to smack some snot nosed children, I doubt I'll make much, if any use of it. The elementary school teachers on the whole are more friendly, though that must be because they all speak and teach english, whereas the middle school covers math and sciences as well. I'll be back in the elementary school tomorrow to teach some older children in remedial classes, I fully expect to have to discipline them more than I did on thursday, as they probably were disruptive in their normal classes, and as a result am in my domain. I realize the day to day goings on can get a little boring so I'll try to restrict these entries to the highlights and little side essays to help elucidate the crazy things that go on around me.
Day 6
The kids were remarkably easy to handle, I was grossly misinformed. One class even reminded me to give them homework before they went home.
Day 8
Went out drinking last night in Itaewon again, I have a feeling this will be a regular occurrence. My Korean-American coworker met us at Geckos again where he was having dinner with the girl he's been seeing. We head to a Metal bar called the Bald Eagle and play a little pool until his lady friend decides it's time for her to leave. The bar was already pretty dead by that point, so at the behest of the coworker from my building, we all moved to a hip-hop club of which I can't remember the name. Iafter paying a 5 dollar cover we all go in and scope it out. Our Korean-American coworker (from here on out, KAC) wants us to meet women, which at this point, only having been here a week I am fairly indifferent to, wanting to get my legs underneath me a little better first. Not digging the hip-hop KAC and I head back to the bald eagle to rock out as the only non-employees in the bar. Within about 30 minutes he gets a text from my other coworker saying that he got a little involved in an altercation between a Jamaican guy and a Korean girl, so we finish our beers and decide to head over there to see if he got a black eye. the whole situation was taken care of by the time we got back, but after a while KAC gets the idea that we should head to "Homo hill" (not making this up, folks.) before I continue I'd better explain a bit. Korea is a bit like Iran, in that it refuses to acknowledge the existence of gay people within its own country. This is one more thing that the U.S. can condemn Iran for due to the antagonistic relationship they have, but with S. Korea, that all becomes cultural relativism. The long and the short of it is that there are gay people in Korea, and many of them congregate on this hill. Most of the bars there are named as such that it is quite obvious what sort of place you're entering. Also, because the existence of homosexuality in Korea is not acknowledged The police rarely venture up the hill. Anyway, we first enter a bar called Queen and surprisingly there are a couple of attractive women there. My coworker from my building (CFB) hits it off with one of them, and, feeling a little uncomfortable from the sheer quantity of the Gay in the building, as well as getting hit on by a gay dude for the first time, KAC and I visit a few of the other bars to see if his lesbian friends are there. (They were.) I also got to meet a rather convincing tranny. More on KAC and trannies later. We head back to Queen and CFB is making out with a hot Korean girl, so we decide to grab a beer. I get hit on some more, despite cordially informing anyone who asked of my hetero status. CFB is dancing on the grinding bench with a hot Korean girl. Eventually they stop dancing and I go over to see if CFB needs a wingman to help with his Hot Korean Girl's (HKG) Hot Friend (HF). Once this happens KAC heads out, apparently satisfied that we have met women. I am sitting with HF, who happens to be extremely drunk, and getting the feeling that the main reason my presence was required was that HKG wanted a shoulder to put HF on so she could continue to dance and make out with CFB. eventually we make it out of the bar,but not before HF gets a fairly lengthy kiss from a bisexual, married, Australian woman. We make it outside and HF, who can barely walk is ready to puke on a pile of garbage bags, while HKG and CFB continue to make out. HF wants to make out a little at this point as well. I was understandably reticent. We eventually get in a taxi with them and head south of the river, where we can take the subway, as it is early enough that they are running again. Also, CFB, knowing a bit about KAC and trannies, spent the night worrying that the girls were also trannies. After a long subway ride we eventually get somewhat close to home, but leave the station via an exit that neither of us know. because of this, we start off walking in the wrong direction and are actually walking the exact wrong direction from where we want to go. We eventually flag a taxi and get back to our building around 7:30 AM. CFB knocks on my door around 2:30 and tells me that he accidentally destroyed the phone number of HKG when he washed his smoke-scented clothes, so he needs to head to the PC room to try to find her on Facebook before he forgets her name.