You have failed and now you must Daegu!

Sunday, September 21, 2008















This is not a costume. This is what happens when someone moves to Japan and stays there for more than 5 years.















Su-jin enjoying the smoking tent. I want to set one of these up on the roof at my apartment.














Another shot of the hotel. You could say I dug the look of this building. The English ability of the staff(country) wasn't nearly as good as the architecture. Pity.















Su-jin on the ferry with her ticket in hand. Bon Voyage!














Su-jin at the temple. Again, this place was gorgeous.















From the retirement party for our principal and one of our teachers. Dull. Dull. Dull.














My principal before having a blood alcohol level of 1.















"How much longer is this? I'm drawing up divorce papers as soon as we get home."














A park at a Buddhist shrine near Fukuoka. It was really pretty















Our hotel in Fukuoka. Zwirb would love this place. I kept waiting for a replicant to burst through our wall.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I asked a month ago if we would get Friday off for Chuseok(Korean Thanksgiving). I was told, "no," and booked my trip to Fukuoka accordingly. I was told today that I have Friday off. I'm resisting the urge to strangle everyone in the office.

Why will they have a 20 minute discussion with me about an assembly for the students, but are unable to inform me of a simple schedule? Why? If anything else goes wrong today, I'm setting myself on fire and hurling myself out the window.

I'm going to start skipping work. I'll just say I thought it was a holiday.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

We had another party last night and, man, things got out of hand.

I was told early Friday morning that we were having a party for the new Principal that night. I didn't have other plans(Su-jin was tutoring), so I agreed to go. We started at a Korean BBQ restaurant. First, the teachers I was sitting with wanted to keep eating. We must have had 15 orders of pork. Then, the alcohol came out. The two new principals went to every table and drank with as many of the other teachers as they could. By the end, the new Principal was sitting next to me and rubbing my leg. When I say rubbing my leg, I mean from inner thigh to knee. Talk about your awkward party. Thankfully, I was pretty buzzed so it took a while to even notice he was doing it.

Then, we hit the singing room. Some of the older teachers can fucking wail. I did a duet on a Korean rock tune with one of my coteachers. The room we were in was absolutely stifling. I thought my balls would melt.

After about an hour in the room, it was time to head home, BUT the vice principal and the, erm, maintenence guy wanted more drinking. As far as I can tell, the only job the maintenence guy has is to go out drinking with the principal. Both of these guys were little kids when the war broke out. I don't know why I mentioned that, but it was in my head the whole time we were talking. I think its because it sounds like the maintenence guy learned English from GI's in the '50's and 60's. He new a couple Elvis tunes. Either way, this 2nd round of boozing was the one that did me in. We agreed on one bottle and then we'd go home. I didn't know they meant one bottle for each of us. I went home and downed a gallon of water and gatorade to avoid a headache.

This week was actually a little rocky. The 6th grade English teacher is having trouble at home. She bought a new house during the summer and is still working on the legal and design aspects of the house. Either way, her mind hasn't been on her work and I'm starting to worry.

Also, I walked out of a class for the first time ever. They switched the students in my child care class and didn't tell me. During the previous week, I was working on making simple sentences with these kids. Now, I have to start all over again with the alphabet. Thrilling. Apparently, some of the kids thought that my appearance was the funniest thing ever. Fine. Some chose to call me names. Not so fine. I can tolerate an awful lot from the students, but not addressing me with the proper title is not something I'm going to put up with...EVER. A few of the students were holdovers from the previous class(making this even harder, the students' English level is now all over the place). So, I asked, in Korean, "What did you study last week?" Roars of laughter, even from the teacher. What the fuck?!? It was shortly after that I walked out. Kids being rude is one thing, but the lazy pig of a babysitter that they have running that freak show is another. I discussed the situation with the 6th grade teacher. Let's just say, I went back into class the next day and it was a more controlled atmosphere, but I am still waiting for an apology. I will continue to wait.

Also, I found this. These two jokers founded a website for the English speaking community. Great. But this was their press release. Then they followed that with this. The forums on that site are fucking priceless. I've spent a lot more time than I should have at their forums. Personally speaking, I find this shit absolutely hysterical. It's like scriptbuddy for expats in Korea. Apparently they are looking to sell the domain name. The price? Only $2 million. I think its time for Zwirbco to make an acquisition.