Halloween

What a day! After attending my two-hour beginning Korean class at Kanwon University at 8:00 am, followed by lunch with two of my classmates from Canada, I arrrived at school at 1:00 pm. The next congested hours consisted of face painting, balloons, teaching the students about trick-or-treating and then rewarding them with candy, frequently spooking the current batch of kids with my dreadful vampire attire, entertaining the masses, and controlling the chaos. To quote a coworker, "Not a bad way to spend an afternoon."

The icing on the day was the arrival of the two new teachers from Canada after a month of waiting. They're a young husband/wife team and they seem eager and friendly. I expect I'll finally get a new teaching schedule by Monday with the long-awaited reduction in hours.

A bit more than four months left in my contract. Could the time be flying any faster?

Halloween Eve at the hagwon

Acting as the planner, purchaser, and organizer of Halloween celebrations at school at the behest of the school director, I've run myself ragged the past two days. I was lucky to find a party/costume store in town and with a budget of about $100, I managed to buy ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, witches, banners, paper, and a Dracula costume (rented). Most classes spent time creating jack-o-lanterns from the black and orange paper I bought and I recruited my evening advanced students to build a gigantic orange and black paper chain to help decorate the hagwon.

When was the last time I had this much fun?

Reagan the seer

"The Democrats may remember their lines, but how quickly they forget the lessons of the past. I have witnessed five major wars in my lifetime, and I know how swiftly storm clouds can gather on a peaceful horizon. The next time a Saddam Hussein takes over Kuwait, or North Korea brandishes a nuclear weapon, will we be ready to respond? In the end, it all comes down to leadership, and that is what this country is looking for now." --Ronald Reagan (1994)

The "b" word

I wanted to determine if the "b" word, admittedly a strong and usually offensive word, was an appropriate epithet for a certain trying coworker.

Let's see. The dictionary says a "b" word is a malicious, spiteful, and domineering woman. Sounds good. Let's dig deeper.

Malice: a desire to see another suffer that may be fixed and unreasonable or nor more than a passing mischievous impulse.
Spiteful: filled with petty ill will or hatred with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart.
Domineering: exercising arbitrary or overbearing control.

Perfect! Too bad I can't use it without being accused of joining the aforementioned coworker in the gutter.

I'll admit it's unbalanced there isn't a corresponding word to describe men. The closest you get is the "b" word for men but the definition for this word is tame by comparison: an offensive or disagreeable person.

The days run long

It's going on two months now that I've been teaching 28 hours a week when the terms of my contract state I shouldn't work more than 25 hours a week and the other teachers are working an average of about 23 hours. It hasn't bothered me until the past few weeks when I've been sick and the burden of preparing for the classes and summoning the energy to teach a quality class has taken its toll.

My enthusiasm wanes, the days are long, and the two new teachers we expected to arrive from Canada and ease the teaching load fail to arrive week after week. I need a break.

The efforts of feeble minds

A bizarre conversation with a coworker tonight stumbled onto the noble topic of profanity, specifically the "f" word. In typical academic fashion, he dismissed people who are offended by vulgar words by explaining how "vulgar" or "vulgate" originally referred to the common man and his therefore "innocent" common language. Horse-hockey.

One might then conclude this coworker, whose language itself is frequently peppered with offensive language, is not himself offended by any kind of profanity. Right? Wrong. He was quick to list the many reasons why he finds the "b" word inappropriate, not the least of which is the disrespect it shows for women. Of course his objections to this word are valid but I found it both laughable and aggravating that he would arbitrarily brush off some words while declaring others taboo. Perhaps my frustration is better directed at myself for my failure to voice my objections to the profanity that surrounds me.

Coincidentally, I had several minutes previously researched the "b" word in the dictionary as I believed it was the perfect word to describe another coworker. (As I write this I'd hoped to include the definition I found but it appears I've left it at school. Check back later for a more complete blog entry.)

Spencer W. Kimball said it best: "Profanity is the effort of a feeble mind to express itself forcibly."

The first and easiest promised change: a new look to the 'shylock in' blog. I'll tweak it along the way. How do you like it?

Like a young man no longer eligible to join the Vienna Boys Choir, blog changes are impending. Excited? (Fake it, if not.)

What to expect? How about a new look to the blog, a daily photo gallery, a book report chamber, political commentary, and the long awaited, globally discussed China diaries. No timeline promised but if you'd like to hold your breath, you may start . . . . . . . . . wait . . . . . . . . NOW!

It's going on almost four months now since I ditched the TV/VCR. It remains one of the better decisions I've made in recent history.

That said, I ache for The Simpsons.

Yoon and me, taken on my recent idyllic day-trip to Seorak Mountain. (Click to view a larger image, if you dare.)

Korea's national flower. Enchanting, isn't it? (Click to view a larger image.)

My favorite recent download: Say the Time. An alluring male or female voice periodically announces the time and an appealing digital clock replaces the standard Windows horologe in the system tray. It's free for a 30-day trial and a snap to download and install.

Just upgraded to Blogger Pro! Why aren't you blogging yet?

I finally succumbed to rest this afternoon as I was lulled to sleep by the soothing strains of the recent LDS General Conference. It was welcome and peaceful.

As I began to awake, the Sunday afternoon session was drawing to a close. It concluded with the choir singing that beautiful song . This group had been introduced as a family choir from the Hunter, Salt Lake City region. I was in a dream-like state, aware only of the music and overcome with the spirit. The song seemed to last forever. It had a near-healing effect upon my soul. As I fully awoke and realized the music was real, I marveled at the inspiration of those who orchestrated this amateur choir.

A nice little head cold has knocked me flat. How I much prefer being healthy! Unfortunately, though my body lacks energy, my mind won't stop racing down the list of things I'd rather be doing other than resting in silence: newspapers and books to read, online audio programs to digest, school lessons to prepare, housecleaning to trudge through, Korean cooking to practice, and on goes the list.

So, as the junior member of my body parliament, my mortal shell doesn't carry the necessary clout to override the threat of a brain filibuster and so the rest that might help me recover faster must wait until the next emergency session of its corporeal congress.

Just got off the phone with Mom! We talked for 45 minutes with Dad joining in the last few minutes. This is the first time they've managed to call me and I couldn't be happier. (Well, if Mr "ex-" (hint-hint) president Clinton gets a hangnail tomorrow, that might make me a LITTLE happier. While I'm dreaming, how about TWO hangnails and a big canker sore?)

Pictures of the missionaries and church in Chunchon have been posted for you to view and in consideration of the family and friends of said missionaries. Click 'missionary.photos' in the upper-left hand corner. Happy viewing!

GoGo 2 Students

I am loved. Jealous?

Happy girl

At the end of our day at Seoraksan, I captured a shot of a darling little girl. She smiled even bigger when I took my camera out. What a charmer, as most Korean children are.

Daytrip to Seoraksan

Me, Yoon, and Curtis, braving the cold autumn wind on our daytrip to beautiful Seorakson National Park, near the northeast coast, on Thursday.

Mouth-watering Samgeopsol

Yoon and Curtis feasting on tasty Samgeopsol in Yongyong.

Ajuma!

After class one early Friday afternoon, enjoying the first days of Korea's beautiful fall weather.

Saturday, September 21, was Chuseok, Korea's thanksgiving harvest celebration. An invitation to join a family for the day had been postponed until Sunday so, with no other plans, I headed out, hoping my new favorite lunch spot, Subway, would be open.

On the way I sat down on a vacant bus bunch to send a text message - "Chuseok chun pahl nay say oh" - to a friend, in Hanguel, on my hand phone. A middle-age Korean man soon sat on the bus bench next to me, curious to see what I was doing. His breath smelled of alcohol, his hands where those of a laborer, and the fact that we spoke no more than a handful of words of the others' language didn't stop him from holding a lengthy, one-sided, thirty minute discussion with me. At one point, he took my hand and appeared to read my palm. He was rather animated and surprised as he pointed to this and that and told me who knows what.

I'm sure we made quite the spectacle, sitting in the shade near a busy intersection, to the Koreans driving by, dressed in their hanboks in apparent observance of the holiday. I tried to focus on his words and accent thinking, "How often, even living in the country, do I get the chance to immerse myself in pure Korean?"

Several times he appeared frustrated and almost angry that I couldn't understand him. In the end, though, he appeared to be beckoning me to follow him, to his home for Chuseok I imagine. I declined as I was very hungry by now so he walked away in mild disgust. I laughed, marveling at the unique adventure of it all, and walked away happy.

Subway was closed so I had to settle for Burger King as most everything else was closed.