Not from me, but from one of my students, an elementary schooler in 3rd or 4th grade. Hopefully I'm not violating any copyright or confidentiality laws by posting this....
"Mr Mike is old. He is my Eiglsh teacher. He is tells funny jokes. He is small (스마일) We are like Mike Teacher But He is sometimes boring ㅋㅋ"
What she wrote in Korean there indicates that she wanted to say "smile" but didn't know how to say it. Also, the two little doodads at the end mean laughing.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
A Fine Evening
I had a nice little night out tonight, fairly wholesome and rather lacking in madness, but that's alright, since it's Sunday night, after all. George and I are about go to on vacation (to TOKYO!), after which George will have a month off between contracts, so we had a little get-together with some of our favorite students/friends.
First stop was a restaurant called "Gang-book (region name) PhD Duck," where we had some nice roast duck meat, veggies, raspberry wine, and bibimbap (see pictures). Next we went to a pool hall, where we played a best-of-7 8-ball match, which my team unfortunately lost 3-4, mostly because George is insanely good and I'm slightly terrible. I did have two terribly kickass shots, one of which George happened to record, but getting him to fork it over so I can boast to the world may take a bit of work. Anyhow, after pool, we went out for a few more drinks - plum wine and bamboo-tube wine - and some snacks before heading home. Do have a look.
Regarding Tokyo, we'll be working a normal day (until 10PM) tomorrow, then around 1:30 or 2:00 AM we'll head down to the bus station, sleep through a 5-hour bus ride to the big international airport, then take a 9:15 flight to Narita. We'll have from noonish on Tuesday until Sunday afternoon to galavant around, and then next Monday, it'll be back to work as usual. I don't have any special plans for Tokyo and I've sort of been avoiding planning, because when you go with a plan, you feel a little too much pressure. The one thing I'm really set on doing is taking one of the days to go to Mt. Fuji. Other than that, I'm sure we'll go to some sushi shops, some hyper-malls, some clubs, some temples, some palaces. whatever. I'm sure it'll all work out fine, as long as I don't totally bug out over the insane price levels.
In other news, we got two new coworkers (two old ones left), and they're both pretty awesome, though in different ways, so the atmosphere at work is pretty fun. Nowadays the kids have vacation from school and are using their free time to come get taught twice a day instead of once. So I'm working 11:30AM-1:30PM and then again 3:30-10:00. The schedule's a little rough, but the kids are a little better when they haven't been to school for 8 hours before coming to see us, and I mostly like them anyway. This workaholic madness will end in the middle of August, after which I will have about 3.5 more months of the easy life, during which I will have to plan and save up for my Southeast Asia escapade.
Anyhow, look forward to some Japan pics. I'm all excited about my new camera (8 megapixel, 4x digital zoom, large screen, massive memory card, and many other features I'm too lazy to figure out, hurrah) and its ability to store photos in different folders according to the date. Check back in 7-10 days.
First stop was a restaurant called "Gang-book (region name) PhD Duck," where we had some nice roast duck meat, veggies, raspberry wine, and bibimbap (see pictures). Next we went to a pool hall, where we played a best-of-7 8-ball match, which my team unfortunately lost 3-4, mostly because George is insanely good and I'm slightly terrible. I did have two terribly kickass shots, one of which George happened to record, but getting him to fork it over so I can boast to the world may take a bit of work. Anyhow, after pool, we went out for a few more drinks - plum wine and bamboo-tube wine - and some snacks before heading home. Do have a look.
Regarding Tokyo, we'll be working a normal day (until 10PM) tomorrow, then around 1:30 or 2:00 AM we'll head down to the bus station, sleep through a 5-hour bus ride to the big international airport, then take a 9:15 flight to Narita. We'll have from noonish on Tuesday until Sunday afternoon to galavant around, and then next Monday, it'll be back to work as usual. I don't have any special plans for Tokyo and I've sort of been avoiding planning, because when you go with a plan, you feel a little too much pressure. The one thing I'm really set on doing is taking one of the days to go to Mt. Fuji. Other than that, I'm sure we'll go to some sushi shops, some hyper-malls, some clubs, some temples, some palaces. whatever. I'm sure it'll all work out fine, as long as I don't totally bug out over the insane price levels.
In other news, we got two new coworkers (two old ones left), and they're both pretty awesome, though in different ways, so the atmosphere at work is pretty fun. Nowadays the kids have vacation from school and are using their free time to come get taught twice a day instead of once. So I'm working 11:30AM-1:30PM and then again 3:30-10:00. The schedule's a little rough, but the kids are a little better when they haven't been to school for 8 hours before coming to see us, and I mostly like them anyway. This workaholic madness will end in the middle of August, after which I will have about 3.5 more months of the easy life, during which I will have to plan and save up for my Southeast Asia escapade.
Anyhow, look forward to some Japan pics. I'm all excited about my new camera (8 megapixel, 4x digital zoom, large screen, massive memory card, and many other features I'm too lazy to figure out, hurrah) and its ability to store photos in different folders according to the date. Check back in 7-10 days.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Taxi Poem
This is not a poem about a taxi, as the title may suggest, but rather a quick rendering of a laminated Korean poem hung on the seat of a taxi I was in the other day. Mostly I was just happy that I could read it (though in retrospect, it is rather simplistic), but I also found it to be a little more accessible than other Korean poetry, which from what I've seen is comparable to Japanese haikus in terms of descriptions of nature and (for me) emotional impotence. Enjoy.
There was an empty bowl.
Some child came and
put water into the bowl.
So it became a water-bowl.
But then some other child came and
put garbage into he bowl.
The bowl instantly became a garbage can instead.
One day, some child took out the garbage and
planted a beautiful flower in the bowl.
The bowl became a beautiful flowerpot.
That's how it is.
Depending on what is put in, the name of the bowl changes.
Think about it quietly.
What do we need to put in our hearts?
I think the comments section on this one should be dedicated to answering that last question. I sense some good joke potential...
There was an empty bowl.
Some child came and
put water into the bowl.
So it became a water-bowl.
But then some other child came and
put garbage into he bowl.
The bowl instantly became a garbage can instead.
One day, some child took out the garbage and
planted a beautiful flower in the bowl.
The bowl became a beautiful flowerpot.
That's how it is.
Depending on what is put in, the name of the bowl changes.
Think about it quietly.
What do we need to put in our hearts?
I think the comments section on this one should be dedicated to answering that last question. I sense some good joke potential...
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
다시 어려지는 것
I had a bit of a heart-to-heart with THE CHAIRMAN last night at the gym after a disappointing squash performance. We decided that going to bed at 4AM and waking up at 12:30 was no good, and that 남자들이 규칙적으로 살아야 해! (Men need to live by rules/in an orderly fashion). I won't bother you with the details, but you should know that I woke up at the entirely reasonable hour of 10:30 and have been incredibly productive since then. Hurrah. I'll have to buy him an ice cream tonight. Soy milk for me, though.
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