The Winds of Change have Blown

I’m no longer working at the GnB I used to work at on Thursdays. The recession has affected quite a few academies, I suppose.

If you go back through months of entries, you can see me hinting at various changes of things to come. I figured my services to the GnB in question would be changed at some point.

This means I will be able to spend more time teaching my regular kids at Wins, as well as Mrs. Cho’s other academy, Mecca. That’s something I’ve been pining for for a long time.

That being said, I feel like I am hanging. I didn’t expect to not see the GnB students on Thursdays when I got back here. They were expecting me to come back, and I don’t know how to approach the issue. It seems fitting to send a text massage to the numbers I know and say “goodbye”, but will they know the full-story concerning my absence? Or will they view it as me abandoning them?

I hope the kids who remain there get a good English education, because at this point that’s all that matters.

-Speaking of getting a good English education…

Yesterday, my university student, Natalie, told me her father wanted to send her to study in Canada when she was a young kid. She would have stayed for many years, but her father decided it would be unsafe to have a kid in a foreign country for such a long time.

I agreed with that assessment, saying that it would probably be difficult for the kid to be away from their families for such a long time. I saw no problem with older teens going abroad, but someone younger than 16?

Tonight, I met a girl who had done exactly that. She went to live in Vancouver with her aunt’s family when she was six, all that way to the age of ten. Apparently she really enjoyed her time there. She had been watching the videos I shot while in Canada, and memorised details from them. She was talking to me about the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Rockie Mountains, and other things I couldn’t believe were coming out of a Korean mouth.

I have friends who studied in America and Canada for an extended period of time, but they couldn’t erase the inherent “Korean”ness of their body language, speaking patterns, and other things. This fourteen year old girl (13 in Canada) could have been a Canadian teen. She didn’t have an accent. The vocabulary was standard English, without any incorrect grammar or awkward phrasing.

It was a pretty stunning display, and I couldn’t hold back a few grins. But what was the price for this fluency?

When she arrived in Korea, four years ago, she couldn’t speak a word of Korean, aside from “Hello”. I asked if her parents could speak English, but she said they couldn’t. She had to communicate through body language. I figured that would screw up a kid pretty hard.

Yet, she is now officially bilingual, with Korean her primary language of expression. She was pretty upbeat, funny, and just positive overall. Being in Canada has made her quite a bit more mature compared to her peers, because I couldn’t believe she was the same age as Melanie, Betty et al. Her level of maturity made me constantly think she was at least sixteen years old. My brain kept juggling different trains of thoughts stemming from this young kid.

Even though she’s half my age (nearly), I have a lot to learn from her. My attempts to incorporate myself into Korean society are a whimper of a shadow compared to what she has achieved. I wish she were a student at Wins, rather than Mecca, so the other kids could see her (I think jealously might set in though).

We had a great hour together, freely discussing different topics. I made her laugh so hard a few times, her sides were sore. I apologised to her, as she clutched her sides through peals of laughter.

She definitely seems to be a success story if there ever was one. Even so, I would still be extremely wary of sending such a young child off to a foreign land for four years (and only seeing them once!). Maybe it should be decided on a per-individual basis, but it still seems like one heck of a gamble.

Sometimes gambles do pay off though, if tonight is any indication.

Sea Battles

Oh, yeah. That news story.

The one that remains popular on the BBC and CBC. The one that is leaving EVERYONE IN PANIC!!!!!!

That is, everyone outside of Korea.

I asked my students about the naval skirmish yesterday (I'm always connected to the world news, so I knew of it instantaneously), but they didn't know what I was talking about.

Y'see, we don't really care about it over here. It's funny to see Canadians react about a situation they see as so dire, while they remain in North America. Meanwhile, in Korea, the sky has clearly not fallen, and other things occupy the front pages of the newspapers.

Yeesh. You people like to overreact, eh?

빼빼로 데이/ Remembrance Day

As Canada marks Remembrance Day, Korea had 빼빼로 Day. I’ve mentioned this day (at least) twice in my blog I believe.

First Year.

Second Year.

See? I’ve got all the bases covered here.

For those lacking the basic energy to click on the above links and then suffer through observations several years old, I will tell you what the Korean day is all about.

Wait for it…

Are you ready?

You give bread sticks dipped in chocolate to friends. That’s it.

빼빼로 are tasty little snacks. Apparently they are Japanese in origin, and you may know them as “Pocky” (thank you, Dominique). The Korean versions sound like “pepero”, and they are the third graphic on the wiki page.

They are sticks. Sticks look like 1’s. Give out little 1’s on 11/11.

Get it?

That’s all there is to it, folks.

- I had some Remembrance Day themed activities in class. By “activities”, I mean essays.

I printed off the Wiki page for Remembrance Day in Korean, and they handed it out to two different classes. I wanted to collect their thoughts on the matter.

I didn’t want to indoctrinate anyone in the glories and wartime exploits of a foreign power, as it’s not my place (I’m also not much of a war hound). I told them to write their opinions down, positive (thanks for protecting our freedoms!), negative (war and killing suck!) and indifferent (I don’t care!).

The first class was my first grade middle school students. You’d think they’d complain about writing a short essay about a topic they knew nothing about, but they got right down to it.

Betty wrote about how Canada came into Korea to fight against the North Koreans (probably to cater to my nationality). She gave a brief outline of Armistice Day becoming Remembrance Day, and then stating many people died in the Korean War, which made her sad.

Lightning wrote that it was an important holiday in Canada, used to mark the passing of dead soldiers. He also did a brief outline of the holiday’s history. Then he said he didn’t like the day, because he doesn’t like war and killing.

Melanie started off by saying the Korean version was a bit boring to her, as she really didn’t care. However, she recognised the importance of the day in European countries. Then she gave a run-down of the the major questions (who, what, when, where, why and how).

On Monday, I had asked them if they would go to Canada, if Canada had a war. Dennis said he would, but Betty, Lightning and Melanie said they wouldn’t. I told them I probably wouldn’t either (if I was a non-Canadian).

The last class I had was with Julia (3rd grade middle schooler) and Natalie (university student). I gave them five minutes to quickly write down their thoughts on the info I had provided. Julia wrote:

“I learned about Remembrance Day today. I didn’t know [about it] before. I think this day is important because we need a time thinking of the soldiers who were fighting in the wars. If they hadn’t fought for [our] nation, we don’t know how the world change different [we wouldn’t know how history would have unfolded]. Also, a lot of people wouldn’t be alive. I think Remembrance Day is important and [we] should think of the dead soldiers.”

I asked them if they would go to another country, like Canada, and fight if a war broke out. Julia wryly commented she would follow me into combat, as long as I went first, and acted like a shield for her protection.

- The Film Club idea has sparked interest. Betty and Lightning jumped aboard for the prospect of learning how to make movies. They wanted to know if I had a camcorder, and if I would write the screenplay. I told them to slow down, haha.

We should be able to crank out some 5-10 minute shorts, even with the limited level of technology at our disposal.

- The second round of H1N1 is making its rounds now. Students are getting sick with colds, so their parents are keeping them home just to be safe. The schedule is getting juggled around and everyone is doing their best to adjust.

- Apparently there’s an organisation that releases gems of movie that would otherwise never get the chance to be seen by a bigger audience. These are films, independently made, that have won awards at major film festivals. They’re called Film Movement, and they’ve set up shop on YouTube. They’re allowing parts of their library to be viewed, and I had a sampling last night. The (full-length) movie was called “Marion Bridge”. It was filmed in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia (my old home), and has a real Nova Scotian feeling to it. Outside of that, it is also one heckuva film. It makes me embarrassed to say I had never even heard of it before last night.

I couldn’t believe the actresses aren’t more well-known either, because their performances came off as so effortlessly natural. The film also features Ellen Page (a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia), back when she was 15/16. If you want to see a well-put together drama without your typical Hollywood conventions, then here’s your chance.

Oh Yeah… The Blog

If you had somehow managed to miss it before this, I did arrive in Daegu in one piece.

The flight from Tokyo to Incheon wasn’t too bad. And the customs/baggage claim in Korea presented me with no problems whatsoever (although it never does). It took a while for my bags to make their appearance though, and in the interim, I was receiving text messages from Julia’s mother. She wanted to keep track of my progress to make sure I was okay.

Luck was with me that night, because I just managed to get tickets for the last bus to Daegu. There were only five of us on it, but we slept through most of the drive (four hours). A girl on it wanted to know if I was heading her way so we could split the taxi fare, but my destination was only a few minutes from the terminal in Daegu.

Mrs Cho picked me up and dropped me off at my home. My apartment had been spruced up while I had been absent. New colours, and subtle little enhancements greeted me, and I am pretty pleased with the changes.

I arrived at 3:00 AM Sunday, so I spent most of the day kinda comatose, although I did unpack before heading to sleep. I knew I had to get groceries at some point, but I couldn’t muster up the energy. I decided to have a short nap to rectify that at 12:00.

I woke up five hours later, still quite a bit groggy. I knew I wouldn’t be able to shop by myself, so had to enlist some help. I sent Dennis and Melanie a text message to see if they were available to help their teacher out. Dennis said he could do it.

I waited for him at the bus stop, where he arrived with his mother and younger brother, Caden. Caden wanted to go shopping with me too, but his mother advised against that. Dennis and I then caught the bus to Home Plus, where we caught up with each other. He gave me the low-down on what happened at Wins while I was in Ottawa.

Shopping was a carefully planned and mapped-out venture. I knew exactly what I needed and where to go, so we were finished within forty minutes. I was glad to have my student along for the ride, because I wouldn’t have been able to carry two baskets at once.

I went to bed at 10:00, as I was completely bushed. However, I had to wake up at different intervals to kill six different mosquitoes. I’ll go ballistic tonight if I wake up to any buzzing in my ears…

Today (Monday) marked my return to my classroom. Jet-lag was kicking in at full-force and I wasn’t sure if I could make it through the day. I decided to ignore it and focus on my job.

Yun-jeong’s (my coworker) mother had prepared a platter, over-loaded with Korean dessert delicacies. This wasn’t your ordinary rice cake. This was stuff you reserve for weddings. I was taken aback by the gesture (I have never met her mother), and really didn’t know how to appropriately convey my thanks.

The students were glad to see me, and wanted to tell me what they had done while I was away. Melanie was going to give me a hug, then gave a mock laugh and turned away at the last minute. I gave her a half hug before she ran out of reach.

The jet-lag was manageable until the very end. Then it became difficult to maintain my composure (as well as the ability to stand upright). I was glad I only had six classes to teach, because I do not believe I had it in me to go past 8:30 tonight. It dissipated once I got home and took a shower, so I am okay at the moment.

- I’ve decided to go ahead with my plans to form a skating team and film club. I did a write-up for both and will distribute them in class tomorrow for the students to read and sign up.

It should be interesting if both enterprises get off the ground.

On a Plane

I am writing this on my laptop while on AirCanada flight 001 to Narita (Tokyo), Japan. Why do I have my laptop out, when it is clearly too big for the little table that comes with each chair? Well the in-flight entertainment system is not working. In fact they tried to fix it by delaying our flight for one whole hour.

Yes, we sat in Toronto for an hour while they tried to install a new entertainment system. The crew made that decision since the flight is thirteen hours long, and they thought a flight so long without entertainment would be a very boring flight. Alas, it is still not working even though we’ve been in the air for four hours now. So I guess that extra hour delay in Toronto was for naught.

So what’ve I been doing for four hours (or five hours)? Luckily, I still came prepared! This is the fourth time I have made this particular trip, so I made sure to include back-up entertainment.

At first I watched Slumdog Millionaire on my phone. It was the first time I watched a full-length film on my Haptic Amoled. I thought maybe a two hour film would suck the life out of the battery, but it only subtracted one little bar (after dimming the screen). I must have changed the headphone settings on it, because the audio was fainter than I was expecting. But it entertained me for two hours, so I’m not really complaining about the lack of 5.1 Surround Sound.

Once  that was complete, I took out my iPod, and I am currently listening to my White Stripes collection. I thought maybe I could sleep and listen to some music since I was nodding off during the movie, but I don’t seem to be tired.

What about the rest of the flight? Well, it’s not all that bad, even though the entertainment system is useless. While I was in Ottawa, I switched my window seat to one at the extreme back. I am in the very last row with an aisle seat, with unfettered access to the washrooms. It’s almost perfect, however my chair doesn’t have a power outlet! My laptop’s current power plan gives me five hours of battery life. If I want to, I’m sure I could just borrow the outlet of the guy sitting next to me.

As an added bonus, I seem to be sitting in the Korean section of the plane. Many of the passengers around me (well, the entire row) are Koreans. I haven’t gone full-blown Korean talking yet, just a few choice words (I was offered some candy). I’m sure there will come a point later when they need some translational services, and I can provide them just like I did one month ago.

While I was at Ottawa’s airport, I had to do a full-body, pat-down search for whatever reason. That’s the first time I had to do that at any airport. I wasn’t the only one though, many of my fellow passengers went through with it as well.

In case you haven’t noticed with the backwards timeline narrative I’ve got going, I’m trying to think of things to write about so as to pass more time. I think the flight has completed one third of its distance. I think. Of course, I could be mistaken, since the hour delay and the different timezones are screwing me up. I was originally supposed to land in Japan at 3:00, but I guess that’s been bumped to 4:00.

Now my hands are getting cramped. My laptop may be very light, but it’s pretty wide and log due to the big screen. I have pushed it up against the chair ahead of me, but the leading edge is still touching my gut. I can’t have my arms resting comfortably, or I’d be invading the space of the gentleman next to me. Luckily, I have ultra-flexible wrists, so I’ve contorted myself so I could type in an adequate manner.

What else could I tell you? Well, the meal was pretty good. I had beef with rice which was pretty tasty, since I hadn’t eaten since 6:00 this morning. I decided to have a Molson Canadian, since the other option was a Coors. Pouring beer while the plane bumps around in turbulence was a novel experience.

The plane itself is pretty full. I think there are many groups with me today. Aside from the Korean group, there are a bunch of girls in matching shirts.

That’s it for now. I’ll save this, power down, and publish it when I have internet access (they need to have internet access on these planes already). I may boot up my PSP and play some games. My fellow passengers may mob me though, since I seem to be a self-contained entertainment unit on a plane with a broken entertainment system.

[Okay, now I am in Tokyo after a reallllly long flight. I am glad to be almost in Korea. One flight to Incheon and then one busride to Daegu…almost there….]

[Oh yeah, that flight had some unreal turbulence! Segments of it felt like a rollercoaster, so I’m surprised I didn’t get sick. There were times when we just…dropped…]

[Oh, oh yeah…It was 0 degrees in Ottawa, so I dressed in my winter clothes. It’s currently 22 in Daegu…lovely…]

Oh...Joy...

It's snowing outside. Big, fat flakes of snow are streaking down. They're probably making the roads pretty slick and greasy.

I've had snowless winters since arriving in Daegu, over two years ago. You'd think I'd be happy to see snowflakes once again plummeting downwards, but nope; I'm hoping this doesn't affect air travel tomorrow.

안돼!

ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ

T-Minus Twenty-Two Hours

To be quite honest, today seems like a bonus day of some sort. I have been packed for a long time, I have said my goodbye’s and I have accomplished most of what I set out to do in Canada. If I had to, I could’ve been flying today, but as it stands I guess I get to spend one more day in Canuckistan.

Yesterday marked an important occasion. I finally succeeded in getting my international driver’s permit. It wasn’t all that big of an ordeal actually. I printed off the application, got two passport-sized photos, and went to a CAA office. The lady there spent maybe ten minutes, and then handed me the little booklet, which is the actual license. Now, I can drive in more countries than I will ever visit in a lifetime.

My father’s family had a potluck supper at my grandmother’s last night, and it was my last chance to see everyone for fourteen months.

- I must charge all my electronics so I am ready for tomorrow’s big…uh…adventure.

At least this time I am traveling without a nasty little rash [thanks to whatever bug decided to feast on me] to make sitting for prolonged periods an absolute nightmare. There’s nothing like restless leg syndrome to make you want to shift your weight, but every time you move in your seat you want to scratch the hell out of your leg. Try doing that for over twenty hours. I had poison ivy before, and the itchiness was the exact same. It was a good test for maintaining patience and control though.

Depending on the amount of people on the flight(s), maybe I will make some videos. Document the devolving process of my state of mind as the hours march on. Hopefully the next decade marks the beginning of internet service on flights. The ability to browse the net, chat with friends, etc would work wonders I think.

I was thinking about loading my computer up with some movies and then have a mini-marathon on the plane. I know the 777’s have individual entertainment devices for each seat, but the movies are usually cropped for fullscreen for some reason (the screens are widescreen), and I hate that (yes, I am one of those people).

I always have my PSP with me too (and DS), so maybe I can always entertain myself that way.
Whatever it takes to avoid bloody noses! When I flew to Ottawa this time around, I had some pretty nasty incidents on the flights as well as at the airports. Maybe if I keep my mind active, I can avoid accidentally rubbing my nose (the cabin air is super-dry when I fly international). My friend Dominique suggested I apply Vaseline via q-tip. I think that might work, but I am concerned with it trapping any germs I might breath in (y’know, with all the big H1N1 stuff goin’ on…). On one hand you have Swine flu, and on the other you have massive (and messy) nose bleeds. I think I lose either way, haha.