Okay, So MAYBE I'm Mentally Disturbed

I got a package!!

Mother, as you can see I've put your Christmas presents to good use! I was trying to think of something I could use that was around the house to decorate the tree, and for whatever reason I thought of the big article about Kim Jong Il that I read in a "Newsweek" that I bought here. And so the "Il(l) Angel" was born. As I've said many times before, I've got a lot of free time after school. I can assure you this is not a political message. Hahahahhahahaha. And if you think this is disturbing, you should see my sketchbooks!

Today all of the elementary school kids (even first grade!) have exams, so I have absolutely no classes, but I'm stuck here anyway, so this is going to be a long entry. Last night as I sat on my heated floor eating dinner (KD) and watching America's Next Top Model, I almost felt like I was at home in Canada. Sigh. Yeah, I'm getting a little homesick. It's just going to be weird not seeing everyone at Christmas.

Hahahahahahahaha. My co-teachers just informed me that in December I'll be teaching two teacher's workshops per week instead of the usual one. When I laughed and asked "When was this decided???" they said I should know about it because "they gave me a document that had all the information". Of course, said document was entirely in Korean!!! The only English on the entire piece of paper is my name, which is less than helpful. Add to this the fact that they give me a lot of documents entirely in Korean; I think my confusion was a little justified. Ahhhh, it's a good thing I'm not in a rotten mood today, or that whole debacle would really irk me. When I asked why there would be two classes per week rather than one, they told me it was to use up excess budget, which means I'll be paid more, so how can I be upset?? There's also the fact that half of those classes will most likely be cancelled for one reason or another, and I will still be paid for them. Korean inter-office politics are so gloriously corrupt.

oh wait, Mr. Yoon, the office elder has left the room and the truth comes out!! He had just decided to go with that particular schedule about ten minutes before they told me. So funny. He also decided that he wanted his granddaughter to sit in on the student classes we teach, and that he would be there to make sure she behaved herself. So Mrs. Kim wanted me to teach her class today because she was afraid of having him in her class ("Stress! It give me stress! Cathy!! Change-ey!!"). My response: Anio!! Anio!! Opsoeyo! (basically no).

On a totally different topic; I have my travel dates (Jan 20- feb 2nd-3rd-4th)!! I have two weeks to go anywhere in the world I desire; I am bound by nothing. So of course I have no idea where I will go. Alex is going to Rome for a couple of weeks; Kristen and Maura are travelling around Vietnam/Thailand/Cambodia for over a month; others are going to Mexico, New Zealand, Australia; but I'm not sure about myself. I've decided that this weekend I'm going to take the KTX to Seoul and go to a random travel agent and say "book me on a warm, exciting tour to anywhere at a decent price". Then I can get my visa's while in Seoul and all will be sorted out.

Things I would like to do while in Teaching Konglish for a year:

1. see at least three other Asian countries (Japan and China would be easy!).
2. go someplace like Thailand and swim with some sharks (I found some packages where I can do this!! Sweet!).
3. lie on a really hot beach by the ocean sipping an exotic beverage (I've already done that, but it was a beach in Korea, so it didn't count).
4. See a "world wonder"- Ankor Watt (sp?) in Cambodia for example.
5. Climb a REALLY tall mountain (or a few).
6. Visit another continent (other than asia and america); perhaps Australia.
7. Learn how to say "hello", "thank you" etc in 10 languages. (Hello, bonjour, annyong haseyo (korean), konicheewa (Japanese), Hola (spanish), Guten Tag! (German).... that's all I can think of at the moment).
8. show some drawings or paintings in a gallery in Gwang-ju.
9. think of some kind of gimmick as catchy as "wherethehellismatt.com" so that people will actually want to read my blog.
10. do some kind of crazy cross-country rainforest trek.
11. make some korean friends. There don't seem to be any Koreans my age in Naju that speak any English. A good-looking guy who lives in my building tried to talk to me in the elevator one morning. But after the "Nice to meet you's" and "how are you's" were exhausted, I could tell that was pretty much all he knew. And my knowlege of Korean is meagre at best.
12. learn more Korean!!!
13. Go to a jimshilbang (sp?). They're these "sauna rooms" that are all over the place. For a small price, maybe W6000, you can swim and relax. But it's a gender segregated area and so everyone walks around naked. My town is so small that EVERYONE there would recognize me. I'm not the nameless foreigner that they see hanging around all naked and westerner-like; I'm Kesi from Naju English Town. I don't want people discussing my big white-girl body. Apparently old ajumma's will blatantly stare, or even go in for a grab as well; which seems a little too scary to me. I think I'll go sometime when I'm in Seoul. When I'm in Seoul, no one stares or bothers to say hello on the street because westerners aren't a big deal.
14. Oh yeah, and become a good teacher.