Korean Health Clubs

From the archive, March 2007:

Today I joined a health club right next to Sogang's campus. I know I scared the uniformed reception clerk. Her outfit was like that of a hotel reception clerk. No sweats or workout clothes. She didn't speak English, but I could see from the chart pasted on the desk how much a membership for 3 months would be.

She got a man to help explain everything. The most complicated part was their key system. I was given two locker keys. One's electronic and every time I go will open the locker the receptionist tells me. That will change. The other key will open my locker, #67.

The man gave me a tour and had one of the members give me a tour of the ladies' locker room. The club is open from 6am - 11pm, that he managed in English. (He knew more English than he realized.)

Here's the procedure: go to the locker room, taking off your shoes first, and get the correct size ugly cotton T-shirt and shorts. Pink for women; baby blue for men. Change clothes, and get a towel.

The work out machines are like in the US. The treadmill actually has a fan you can turn on when you start perspiring. There's a big driving range for golfers in addition to the workout room and exercise classes.

One thing that was different was that men paid more than women ($30 difference). I'm not sure why. It could be that the men get more weight machines. Probably three times more. The men's machines have black seating; the women pink, of course.

I'm looking forward to de-stressing here on a regular basis.

They keep coming

From Ruined for Life

Dear Professor Kelly!

Hi, Kelly! I'm Alicia. How was your Christmas? and I hope you enjoy new year day. And then I really want to know the reason why I got B plus. (Many friends got A in your class) I think I tried to do my best in English 2 class. So please tell me what I have to do to get A and to improve my English. I hope to meet again in next semester.

Have a happy holidays !

From Alicia
. . . . . . . . . . .
Dear Alicia,

One key to academic success, believe it or not, it to NOT think about grades too much. This is proven through research and my own experience. The times I got a 4.0 average were when I didn't care about grades and just cared about learning, ideas and new skills.

I've explained how I grade before, but I'll do it again. We have a grade curve at Sogang. Each class is limited in the number of A's and B's that can be given. At Sogang 30% can get an A, which is ridiculously high since usually only 10% of our students are excellent anyway.

Smaller classes allow teachers to grade based solely on achievement and common sense. I add up everyone's score and rank the results. For this class 5 A's were allowed. You ranked 8th in the class with an 85%, which is typically a B, not a B+, so I was generous. As I think you know the true value of taking English is to improve your skill and keep working on it. If you do this by reading lots of those Penguin books like About a Boy, keep writing in your journal and also listen to English movies, TV programs or internet radio. You will achieve the skill level you desire. Also, you should take at least one English class at Sogang every semester.

Don't worry so much about your friends' grades. Comparing yourself to others will guarantee unhappiness in life. Stop that habit, it's like poison.

Wishing you a Happy New Year,

Ms. Kelly

I'm saving these responses so I have a bank of formulas to send out each term.

From the Archive

Originally posted on March 16, 2007

Good Grief
Our latest mission is to jazz up the names of our courses. Intermediate Reading is just too boring. (Not to mention that intermediate means between two different levels and we don't have a beginning or advanced reading - that's escaped people's notice.)

I'm playing with Sex (and reading) in the City.

Any other ideas?

My observation that "reading" doesn't bore people who enjoy it was dismissed.

Today a student shed light on this move. She went to a seminar on study skills. The instructor mentioned that when it was called Better Study Techniques, few people came to this free event.

When they changed the name to (the misleading) How to Get an A+, the sessions were packed. Given that there's a strict grading curve and it's impossible for everyone to get an A+, I see a problem. I may be alone.

Ever Had a Job So Bad It Made You Sick?

I did till recently when I quit working at KNUE's teacher training program. Holy Moly. My former blog that was deleted by some malicious moron chronicled the craziness. In October, I suffered from a terrible case of hives. It was all over and I itched incessantly. That prompted the following"

Subject: 30 days
To: "Dr. Lee"
Date: Saturday, 30 October, 2010, 9:12 AM

Dear Dr. Lee,

All week I've had a growing skin condition. I tried to get to the English clinic here at Yonsei but it wasn't open. I'll go on Monday. I do think this problem is work related, caused either by stress or the bedding in the depressingly dismal apartment. If the doctor agrees, then consider this my resignation letter. There's no point in working at a place that makes one sick.

Since I must give 30 days notice, I wanted to write this now to "start the clock." Yet perhaps the doctor will assure me that this won't recur.

Sincerely,

Susan

My first resignation letter.

There's something weird about making yourself a Lord in your email account name.

Drawing the Line

So I've gotten sick of Dr. Lee's remarks in meetings about my appearance. At first it didn't seem like a big deal. "We're so glad to have a beautiful woman on our staff now" was easy to brush off and just attribute it to ignorance, but the remarks have continued. He makes a lot of inappropriate remarks to the trainees and many may think it's funny.

However, this is a country where sexual harassment is rampant and I think part of that is because women brush off the casual remark, which could be complimentary. But that's how they get painted into a corner. I thought it was particularly weird, when our director at KNUE urged some younger trainees to try to be more attractive for one of the trainers. This trainer caused a scandal some time ago when he started a romance with one of his students and then dumped her. She was devastated and there was a big brouhaha when her brother came to school to call the trainer out.

With that in mind, I wrote and sent the following:

Dear Dr. L,

Although you may think you're just being grandfatherly when you comment on my appearance or that of the trainees, in most professional organizations, remarks on women's appearance or any jokes like "This is my love letter to you," are considered extremely unprofessional.

This may just be your humor and style. I do want you to know that remarks of this nature should stop as far as I'm concerned. They're just unprofessional.

I hope that's all I need to say.

Regards,

SK

Next I have to see if he's going to sit in on class today. That's got to stop too. He can come back when he's seen 5 hours of all the other teacher's classes.

From the archive, October 2010.

N.B. He stopped for about 2 days and started up again.

Once

Brilliant! That's the word to describe Once a poignant film about a nameless guy and girl (that's how they're referred to in the credits) who meet by chance in Dublin. He's a vacuum repairman cum busker.  She's immigrated from the Czech Republic and sells flowers and cleans houses. They meet by chance brought together by music, honesty and perception. They develop a relationship that defies easy classification as they both have complicated lives and sensitive hearts.

Neither has much money. His guitar is just pathetic and she has no stylish outfits, but he plays well and she's beautiful. It was quite refreshing to watch two people, in such ordinary clothes and settings,  engage each other, not saying all they want to, developing a unique relationship, that I doubt either will ever forget.

They do write songs together and sing, beautifully. I've ordered the soundtrack.

Originally Posted in Sept. 2010

September 12, 2010

Still NO VISA

Okay, now I'm anxious. I thought for sure the visa would be in today's mail, if not yesterday's. I need the passport and visa to go. I hate the idea of having to change this flight again. I have half a mind to just not go and find a different job as much as I'm tired of all this job hunting and waiting.

I'm especially put off because the department Coordinator refused to come pick me up at the bus station. We've gone back and forth on this request. I've said that I'd really appreciate some help with my bags and finding the way to a new place after being on the road so long. I'll leave my house at 5am if not before to get on a 7am flight to San Francisco followed by an 11 hour flight to Seoul. Then I have to get a 2 hour bus to a town near my small town. That's when I'd like to have a welcome and someone to take the reins.

Nope.

I even offered to pay the Coordinator for her time and the cab. She refused.

I suppose they just don't do this, though every other job I've had does. In China and Japan several people met the new teachers and we didn't have to touch our bags. In Korea the first time two people met me at the airport. It's just nice to see such people and relax about a new endeavor. I really thought this young girl would be happy to make some extra money.

The thought I have is if I don't get this help, does it mean that I won't get other help at KNUE.

Yes, that's exactly what the refusal meant.

From My Brother

A letter from my brother originally posted in March 2006 when he was in Iraq on his second tour.

FOB Loyalty
It has been a pretty busy week. I arrived at my ultimate destination in Iraq - Foward Operating Base Loyalty. They call a lot of the bases FOBs over here. It distinguishes the smaller bases from the very large ones. Camp Victory and Camp Liberty are enormous bases - tens of thousands of troops and contractors, huge construction projects constantly going on, and a lot of vehicle traffic - tanks to Humvees to construction vehicles to pickups and SUVs. I spent the first few days at Camp Liberty, waiting to move onto FOB Loyalty. It was a deja vu experience - I had been at Camp Victory (which is the south part of the same piece of land) in '03-04. On Saturday night, I caught a Blackhawk over to Loyatly which was about a ten minute trip. Loyalty is on the east side of Baghdad - the Shia part of town. It was kind of an interesting flight - not so much the way we got here but what you could see. First, a common complaint over here is that they only get a limited amount of electricity every day - maybe as small as 5 or 6 hours. Well, if that was the case, they seem to get a lot of it that night. Over the city, it was extremely lit up - not so much with street lights because there are not a lot of those, but fluorescent lights atached to houses and interior lights in the houses. In the southern suburbs, a mostly poor rural area, very few lights. It was so bright that you could notice the other thing that stuck out - no vehicle or pedestrian traffic on the streets. Not one car at all in a city of 5.6 million people - they have an absolute vehicle curfew from 9:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. It was very striking.

FOB Loyalty was is on the eastern side of the city - on the east bank of the Tigris River. The Shia live mostly in this part of town. Mostly poor and kept on this side of town away from the richer parts of the western area - the part of town where Saddam lived and part of which is in the GreenZone (now called the International Zone) where the U.S. Embassy is (in the same palace where Paul Bremer was when they had the Coalition Provisional Authority), the other embassies are and the Iraqi government is. FOB Loyalty is a throwback. Most U.S. bases are almost prefabricated - trailers for housing the troops, metal, almost warehouse buildings for DFACs (dining facilities or mess halls) and headquarters and a few harder structures for key installations. When I was at Liberty, I had real trouble finding wmy trailer at night - they are in huge pads (groups) of white metal trailers none any different from any other one except for a number. FOB Loyalty, urban legand has it, is a former headquarters of the mukharabat - Saddam's secret police. Certain things tip you off. First, it has your basic prison architecture - big walls, guard towers and a jail/prison/torture facility in the middle. The headquarters building - or I should say, the previous headquarters building of the last tenant - has your classic caved in look created when struck by Tomahawk cruise missiles and JDAMs (Joint Directed Attack Munitions - radar guided bombs). It was really spooky - completely darkened - not a light to be seen. I was lucky I was met on the helicopter pad by the officer I am replacing - CPT Rich Clifford.

Have spent the last few days with CPT Clifford - introductions to the Brigade Commander, Executive Officer, Operations Officer, etc. Learned about what my job will be and what I need to do to get it done. I received a really good introduction - especially since the rest of the troops had remained behind in Kuwait - they finally arrived today. We took a side trip down to FOB Rustimiyah - a FOB approximately ten miles down the road for a couple of days - part of my detachment will be located down there. Rustimiyah has a few more luxuries but is located not too far from a sewage treatment plant. Since it gets up to 130 degrees in the summer, I am glad I don't have to spend the whole time down there - they call it Rustiflyah for all the flies.

Loyalty is pretty spartan - a gym, a mess hall, military buildings and not much else. Glad I brought what amounts to a duffel bags worth of books. Still would rather be here than Liberty - more important mission and fewer rules - and not
as many Sergeant Majors making up more trivial rules that end up just aggravating people.

Went on a patrol with a company from the 82d Airborne last Saturday - a good introduction to the city. After we left the front gate, the first view was of three very large Christian churches - lots of crosses adorning the steeples and dome - not exactly something I have seen a whole lot of over here. Good to see that we're a relatively - for Baghdad - diverse area. The patrol took us over to Baghdad University to speak with the University President who was willing to talk to us. Not a bad sign.

Got what amounts to the usual laundry list of copmplaints - summed up as what have you done for me lately but at least he was willing to listen to us. Went down to the compound for the Republic of Georgia military in Baghdad to see what they needed in the way in medical supplies. Spent most of the time explaining these guys were from Georgia, a former republic of the Soviet Union and not the state of Georgia. It amounted to a hotel they had in Baghdad and a couple of very large and heavily armed Slavs. Not a group to mess with. Since their government just agreed to send 1400 more troops here, I am all for giving them whatever they want.

After that we headed over to the Green Zone. Went by the embassy - the U.S. government is still headquartered in the Republican Palace where Ambassador Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority were set up. I have heard they are building a new embassy in Baghdad - I guess the State Department must be a pretty optimisitic bunch. Still, they need the space - it is the biggest embassy in the world - 3000 people. If there is a U.S. facility, there must be a PX nearby - with Burger King and Pizza Hut trailer nearby. A change for the mess hall. After that, we headed back to Loyalty - through the Green Zone and past Firdos Square - the place where they tore down Saddam's statue on April 9, 2003. In its place they have put up probably one of the ugliest statues I've ever seen. Like most everything else here, it is starting to crumble.

The streets were pretty full of people and the shops were open. Saturday was the end of Arabe'en, a Shia religious holiday that commemorates the death of the Imam Hussein, the grandson of Mohammed. His death is what started the Sunni-Shia split. Millions of Shia make a pilgrimage to Najaf (100 miles south) and then walk to Karbala - where there is a huge mosque for Ali. The Imam Ali's portrait is to the Iraqi Shia what the Head of Christ portrait is to many Christians. This is the march where you see people bleeding or whipping themselves with chains. They do it as a sign of penance for symbolically not having been there to fight with/die with Ali. Needless to say, there were people everywhere - buses, trucks or even on donkeys. It is a different world.

My Trip to Thailand

Chiang Rai's White Temple

Due Date

Skip this "buddy" picture. Flying home from China, I wanted some light entertainment and got sucked into the sophomoric vortex that is Due Date starring Robert Downey Jr., whom I usually like. The plot is predictable: two opposites get intertwined and must travel cross country together by a certain deadline. Rain Man worked as did Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

Due Date never got off the ground for me. (I couldn't refuse the pun.) Successful, type A businessman Peter, played by Downey, gets tangled up with the obnoxious Ethan Tremlay. There were enough jokes that made me chuckle in the beginning, though they were guilty pleasure laughs rather than "wow, that's witty" laughs, to keep me watching. Besides I had 12 hours to kill and my first choice, Tangled had some technical difficulties.

The film just went downhill and never attempted much of an ascent. Somehow we're expected to believe the ridiculous, like that the Mexican police can cross the border and pursue drivers in the US. Ethan is sort of funny, but could be more so. The film is just so thin on plot and character.

Blast from the Past

Originally posted on Ruined for Life, which Google still won't restore.

I Used to Love Flying
I just got back from Seoul. Long flights are never fun, (perhaps unless you travel first class, but I have no experience with that). Well, it's just getting worse and worse, more and more unpleasant. I can remember and long for the days when we didn't have to take off our shoes at security. At least in Asia, they give you slippers to wear while your shoes are checked. It just seems that the shoe thing is overkill.

This time I called the airlines, United, to make sure I complied with any new baggage regulations. I wound up just taking a contact lens solution and minimal make up to avoid any hassle. I'll get toiletries in the U.S.

Before my flight I wandered around the duty free shops and decided to buy some perfume. The clerk checked my tickets and told me since I was stopping in Tokyo (where the duty free shopping is horrid) she couldn't sell me the perfume. Granted, I can live without this, but it was a hassle, a new hassle to add to the list.

In general the flight attendents are so bossy and expect any passenger with a request to be a passenger with a problem or bad attitude. It would be better if they could wait to get snotty till the passenger has expressed their need. I will say the United staff is better than Northwest's complaining attendents.

The movie choice was horrid. The only decent option was Little Miss Sunshine, which I'd heard great things about and thought I'd watch twice, but it wasn't that great. If Singapore Airlines can offer 60 video options, why can't an American carrier offer say 20? Singapore has classic videos and lots of television options so if there's been a slow period of good film releases Singapore passengers can watch movie classics or current TV.

I've gotten into the habit of ordering a special meal. On the way to Korea I got the kosher meal out of curiousity. I can't recall what they gave me, but it left a strong opinion, "Ultra-bland." I changed the request to low sodium. That wasn't bad. First there was a snack with a banana and 3 finger sandwiches: roast beef, lettuce (yes, a lettuce sandwich nothing else), and asperagus. The meal was couscous, grilled chicken breast, a lettuce salad with lemon juice for dressing, green beans and an almond cookie. The next snack was ramen noodles, which I hate and had hoped to avoid by ordering low sodium.

I got quite unpleasantly sick during the flight, not from the food or turbulance, but more from a reaction to a hard semester in a hostile culture. (My work informed foreign workers that we have to change our insurance and I am not happy with the choices and how this has been handled.) Thus I passed on the final meal and don't know what I would have gotten.

Is it asking too much for travel to become more pleasant?

December 15, 2006

Sadly, flying on American carriers is still an endurance and patience test.

It helps, to bring your own entertainment and order a special meal, e.g. vegetarian, low sodium, what have you.

Found this Email I wrote

Dear Dr. Lee,

I feel I should be honest about the apartment. I find it so hard to live in such a dark, dirty room. I was so surprised, shocked in fact, when I first saw it because the condition of the old, uncomfortable fixtures and furnishes, is so far below what I've had in Japan, Sogang, China or even Indonesia, which is a Third World country. I just was to shocked to speak up, but now as I see that living in it is making me so sad, I feel I need to say something.

Can I move to the student dorms? Is there another place on campus that's any better?

I have attached photos of my teacher housing in China. I can get a colleague to send a picture of the bedroom if you'd like. I can also collect photos of other Korean teachers' on campus housing to see where we stand.

I just think that by offering, simple, yet clean rooms, it makes us feel respected and helps us contribute to the further success of the KNUE program.

I'd like to speak with you on Friday briefly about a solution.

Sincerely,

Susan

Clueless in ROK

To: Prof. B

From: Student X,

Subject : Professor, I have another question.

Thanks for your answering, and I have one more question.^^;

Above all, I have something to tell you. I'm majoring in Mass Communication and Japanese, to be honest, this is the first time to take a lecture from American professor.
Also, I have no experience to write a paper (such as this long-length essay), so I'm unfamiliar with this kind of thing. I'm just writing the paper with following directions for MLA, this is also the first time to use this kind of style. Please forgive me for asking too much and making some mistakes in assignments.

I wonder is it okay to put some pictures related to the text. I heard, in American lecture, it depends on the professor. So, I just want to ask you to put those things in text. Or do I have to fill the paper with all letters?
Thanks for reading! I'll wait for your answer.
Have a nice weekend!



Dear Student X,

I understand your situation. I'd like to point out, though, that the paper assignment has nothing to do with my American citizenship, and that this isn't a very long paper. I realize that these days most students in Mass Communications don't intend to become traditional journalists but rather to go into television or other non-print media, but even there most employees with any sort of responsibility are expected to write memos and similar documents that offer an argument, with a clear beginning laying out the issue; an exposition of several paragraphs presenting out a cogent analysis in a logical, coherent manner; and a conclusion wrapping up the argument with a statement about what it all means. And doing so in about the same number of pages as this paper would probably take to make your point effectively. Frankly, I'm disturbed to hear that other professors don't assign such papers, whether in Korean or in English, because if they aren't, they are failing you -- not in the sense of assigning a non-passing grade, but, more importantly, in not preparing you for life outside of college.

If you are using an MLA handbook for guidance, that's fine. However, I don't require MLA or any particular style. In fact, like most historians, I personally don't usually use MLA formatting, but rather the Chicago Manual of Style, which is better suited to the nature of the evidence required in our analyses. All that I ask is that students use a style consistently, and that the style facilitate the citation of sources for quotations or other materials derived from outside reading. Remember that avoiding plagiarism is crucial! If you are using the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, I'd strongly recommend spending 10 minutes or so reading Chapter 2 on "Plagiarism and Academic Integrity," to make sure that you understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

As to pictures, the purpose of the paper, again, is argument and exposition, and pictures are not in themselves an argument and exposition, but require argument and exposition before their presence makes sense. Is there a Korean equivalent to the famous saying in English that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, in a paper like this, that doesn't mean that a picture could substitute for a thousand words -- it means you'd need a thousand words to explain why you've included it. So yes, by all means, use pictures if you like, especially for illustration, but as a visual bonus, not to take up the number of pages required. (And BTW, there is NO REQUIREMENT that a paper be of a certain length -- the 5-10 pages I referred to in the slides for the Introductory lecture were meant to allude to the fact that it takes a certain amount of space to do any decent analysis, and that for a topic like this, a comparison and contrast of two "things" in American culture, I can't imagine a strong analysis that wouldn't take up at least 5 or more double-spaced pages. In other words; the paper can have as few words as you want, but if there isn't a decent analysis, then there won't be a decent grade).

I hope this helps. Good luck!!

Professor B

Where to Work?

For my money, as an English language teacher, I'd avoid working in Korea since all the governments of English speaking countries receive so many complaints about workplaces that take advantage of their teachers. Maybe there are a few good schools, but you can do the same work and save as much, probably more, money by working in another Asian country.

Here are some of my reasons:

1. Obtaining a visa is now a big hassle. The teacher will have to spend lots of time and money getting documents apostilled, and if you're unlucky like me your future workplace will give you the wrong information so you waste time and money going to the wrong agency in the wrong city in your state.
   
   
2. The won's value is a joke. It's very weak now. Japan's yen is strong as are other currencies.
   
   
3. The cost of living is high. Going out for a simple meal of Korean food costs nearly $15, whereas my meals in Jinan, China cost $1.50.
   
   
4. The art of management is in its infancy in Korea. They just don't know how to lead. Yelling is a favored management style. Some may have read a management book, but they don't understand the concepts or apply them.
   
   
5. The apartments are usually crap. My Korean apartments, in Seoul and the countryside, were tiny. The one at Korea National University of Education in Gangnae was dirty and the furnishings would be rejected by a second hand store. You'd think they'd realize they should clean an apartment for a new teacher or that a college educated person, or any person would want a comfortable chair to sit in. These squalid apartments just show that the management thinks the teachers are sub-human. If you do get a crappy apartment, leave the job immediately. This is a sign. Every aspect of the job will be crappy.
   
   On the other hand, in China, Japan and Indonesia my apartments were furnished humanely with new furnishings and appliances on par with what the typical middle class worker had. Now I grant you we had problems, lots of them with the Indonesian house, but it was as nice or nicer than what our Indonesian colleagues lived in.
   
   
6. Right now there's a lot of xenophobia in the Hermit Kingdom. A friend who's married to a Korean and has biracial children told me that, "It's becoming more and more clear that foreigners are regarded as a necessary evil." An insightful professor from America was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education as saying that Korea's push for globalization is actually driven by nationalism. That sounds ironic, but what it means is that Korea wants to appear international so it can continue to tell itself that Korea is the best.
   
   
7. Unlike in the other countries I've worked in, when I arrived in Korea this last time the orientation for teachers was dreadful. Usually, there's a cordial walking tour of the whole campus, followed by a trip to the bank, grocery store, and post office. Of course, is normally picked up upon arrival. In Gangnae, I had to beg 5 times and offer to pay the secretary myself to get picked up after traveling 12 hours by plane and 2 by bus.
   
   
8. There are few good travel opportunities in Korea and traveling internationally can be expensive. In Japan and China, I never ran out of festivals to see or temples to visit. The cultures were vibrant. Korean culture just didn't do much for me. You can test this out by reading some books on the country. I now have promised myself to only work in countries that have one a Nobel Prize in literature. That's my sign that the country has enough sophistication to interest me. I need more than a steady flow of beer. I like to see and explore. There isn't much worth seeing in Korea.
   

So my advice is to teach elsewhere as it'll be more profitable and interesting. You'll probably be treated better.

When Will They Sacrifice?

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - For Richer and Poorer - Teachers and Wall Street
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

One Tree Hill Voice Over Quotations

I do love the voice over quotations. Here's a blog with several.

Here are a couple:

EPISODE #102 · ARE YOU TRUE?
[ Voiceover Done By: Lucas ]

"E.E. Cummings once wrote; 'To be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.'"


EPISODE #104 · WHERE I END AND YOU BEGIN
[ Voiceover Done By: Lucas ]

"John Steinbeck once wrote; 'It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.'"

EPISODE #223 · THE LEAVERS DANCE
[ Voiceover Done By: Lucas ]

"Tennessee Williams once wrote; 'We all live in a house of fire. No fire department to call. No way out. Just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down… with us trapped, locked in it.'"

One Tree Hill

I have finished watching the first two seasons of One Tree Hill, a drama on the WB that first aired in 200x. My friend Sally cajoled me into watching it. I put it off as I felt satisfied with Gilmore Girls, Everwood, and Glee. But honestly, life in Miho was so boring, I’d run out of books to read and started the series.

The premise is interesting, i.e. Karen’s son Lucas shares a father with the town’s star basketball player. She got pregnant and dumped in high school, but Dan, who a few months later impregnated his next girlfriend and married her. Dan and his wife live in a posh home with their son Nathan, while Karen does okay with Lucas in their small house. She runs a cafe.

When Lucas joins the high school basketball team, which Dan perceives as a threat to his son’s NBA future, the drama ensues. There’s plenty of teen romance and grown up conflicts of every type. I really do like the characters, particularly Peyton, an artistic smart blonde who questions the teen social scene and most of the adults like Whitey, the crusty, wise cracking coach. In the first season I liked Haley, but in season two when she becomes a star after receiving a keyboard and playing a few songs, in addition to other flaky behavior like marrying impulsively and running off even more impulsively, she fell out of favor with me.

I think the plots are over full and often implausible. So many of these kids are on their own and their parents never show up. Really, how out of touch do you have to be to let your teenage son deal with the legal issues of obtaining custody of his baby on his own? Peyton's father is away at sea conveniently almost all the time and only visits town briefly to date Karen. Why aren’t the fighting parents whose bankruptcy turns rich girl Brooke’s life upside down, never on camera? Well, that would cost more.

Despite my complaints of too many plot points the attractive, sometimes cool characters have me coming back for more. What will season three bring?

Wondering

Why do vacation memories fade so fast? I feel like it was ages ago that I was in Nepal or Thailand. It's not quite two weeks. I wonder if going to a different climate, one requiring mittens, scarves and parkas makes a difference.

Really?

You Are Good Eats

You are a bit of a food geek, and you see the kitchen as your laboratory. Food fascinates you, especially food science. You enjoy testing out new recipes and cooking techniques. It's not enough for you to know that something works... you have to know why it works. You are a huge goofball and have a silly sense of humor. You like to play around in the kitchen.

What Cooking Show Are You?

Blogthings: We Have a Quiz for Almost Everything

Shandong Provincial Museum

I Try to Get Italian

You Should Learn French

C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs. You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up...

What Language Should You Learn?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

It's the Year of the Rabbit

Just Last Week

We got snow! Very late in the year for Jinan.

White Temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Pearl Market

Yesterday I went to the Pearl Market in Beijing. It's a lot like the Silk Market, but not as aggressive. I also didn't see any DVDs but that doesn't mean they aren't there. I think it's a better experience than the old Silk Market especially for first time visitors to the city.

One tip aim to pay 30% of the seller's opening price. So if something you want starts at 100 rbm aim for 30 rbm. Whining is okay and pouting too. Walking away usually works like magic. If they do come down to your price, the one you keep repeating ("No 30.") you better buy. Otherwise you're a bad sport.

The higher the floor, the more low key the sales pitch.

Also it's better to go on a weekday. I found that to be true at the Silk Market where I was earlier in the week.

So Disappointing

So what to do on Sunday in Beijing when you’ve seen so many of the sights and you don’t want to deal with crowds? I thought high tea at Raffles Hotel would be perfect.

So after catching up with job hunting and emailing in the morning, I headed to Raffles. After fixing my windblown hair in the powder room I went to the Writers’ Bar. A gracious hostess led me to a table. Once I was seated, she showed me a menu and I told her I wanted high tea. She told me they didn’t offer high tea for one. It was a lot of food and intended for two or three. It costs 268 rmb ($46) plus tax (which brings it up to about $50). She suggested a piece of cake or a sandwich, but that just wasn’t what I had in mind. I know I had tea at Raffles in 2008 so this was new. If my blog was in tact I could show you pictures and link to that story. I recall getting there as tea was just about to end and having to beg, but succeeding.
I wandered a bit and settled on a sandwich at Subway. Just not the same.

I Used to Love Flying

From Ruined for Life

I Used to Love Flying

I just got back from Seoul. Long flights are never fun, (perhaps unless you travel first class, but I have no experience with that). Well, it's just getting worse and worse, more and more unpleasant. I can remember and long for the days when we didn't have to take off our shoes at security. At least in Asia, they give you slippers to wear while your shoes are checked. It just seems that the shoe thing is overkill.

This time I called the airlines, United, to make sure I complied with any new baggage regulations. I wound up just taking a contact lens solution and minimal make up to avoid any hassle. I'll get toiletries in the U.S.

Before my flight I wandered around the duty free shops and decided to buy some perfume. The clerk checked my tickets and told me since I was stopping in Tokyo (where the duty free shopping is horrid) she couldn't sell me the perfume. Granted, I can live without this, but it was a hassle, a new hassle to add to the list.

In general the flight attendents are so bossy and expect any passenger with a request to be a passenger with a problem or bad attitude. It would be better if they could wait to get snotty till the passenger has expressed their need. I will say the United staff is better than Northwest's complaining attendents.

The movie choice was horrid. The only decent option was Little Miss Sunshine, which I'd heard great things about and thought I'd watch twice, but it wasn't that great. If Singapore Airlines can offer 60 video options, why can't an
American carrier offer say 20? Singapore has classic videos and lots of television options so if there's been a slow period of good film releases Singapore passengers can watch movie classics or current TV.

I've gotten into the habit of ordering a special meal. On the way to Korea I got the kosher meal out of curiousity. I can't recall what they gave me, but it left a strong opinion, "Ultra-bland." I changed the request to low sodium. That wasn't bad. First there was a snack with a banana and 3 finger sandwiches: roast beef, lettuce (yes, a lettuce sandwich nothing else), and asperagus. The meal was couscous, grilled chicken breast, a lettuce salad with lemon juice for dressing, green beans and an almond cookie. The next snack was ramen noodles, which I hate and had hoped to avoid by ordering low sodium.

I got quite unpleasantly sick during the flight, not from the food or turbulance, but more from a reaction to a hard semester in a hostile culture. (My work informed foreign workers that we have to change our insurance and I am not happy with the choices and how this has been handled.) Thus I passed on the final meal and don't know what I would have gotten.

Is it asking too much for travel to become more pleasant?

Signs

Signs that Korea National University of Education was going to be the worst employer I've ever had:

1. It took five requests to get someone to agree to meet me at the bus stop. The Coordinator just didn't want to bother. I even offered to pay her or a friend of hers to come get me. Still no luck. In the end they did come.
   
2. I asked them to send me a copy of the text book I'd use and they refused.
   
3. The Coordinator sent me on a wild goose chase twice giving me the wrong information on where to go to get the documents for my visa apostilled
   
4. It's in the middle of no where, Miho. Generally, the farther away from Seoul, the worse the school. Though some do get bad jobs in Seoul.
   
5. The director asked few questions during the interview. He really only asked what I did with Black Sheeps.
   
6. The lowest grade a student can get is an 80%.
   
7. With the creation of websites like Happy Campus, it's so easy for students to plagiarize, so don't teach writing in Korea.
   
8. The pay was lower than I got before. I thought it would be okay since I was in the country and doing teacher training. The prices have gone way up since I left in 2007.
   
9. I ignored my impulse to see photos of the apartment I'd be in. Though pictures aren't enough. One needs to check the water and find out if to get a good shower one needs to go into the students' dorms as I did. In this case pictures would be enough. There wasn't one comfortable chair. There were grease stains on the walls. Most of the lights were burnt out. Though I was allowed to fix it all up.
   

Let the teacher beware.

If you have a college degree, you can do better.

Yes, I could scream

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On My First Days at a Bad Job

Sadly, I don't think I've ever felt this much culture shock or disrespect in my life. Other than meeting one other new teacher, who's very friendly, this has been a bad experience.

I did get my visa on Monday. That morning I had more or less decided not to come, because the school said they wouldn't pay for a change fee from the airlines. Also, I've heard too many lectures on the virtues of not quitting. Please.

The school did say they would pick me up at the bus station. That took 5 requests from me.

When I got to the bus station after 26 hours of travel, no one was there. After about 30 minutes two people showed up: the Coordinator, and new teacher from Australia. The new teacher took my heavier bags and whispered he knew what I was going through and warned against saying what I felt. Good advice and what I normally do as I'm not as assertive as I think I should be. During that 30 minute wait, I toyed with the idea of just going back to the airport.

Anyway, when I got to my apartment I was shocked. It looked like a hovel, furnished with cast off chairs and dilapidated cupboards. It's 80 degrees here and there's no air conditioning. We didn't have any pots, pans, dishes, glasses -- nothing to cook with. Not even a cup. Unlike Jinan, where we always had some food and a clean, spacious apartment, we got the less than the minimum, which considering that I was to work the next day made settling in tough.

The other teacher's place was worse. It was filthy with dust and syrup spilled through the shelving long ago and no one wiped it up. He had to spend 7 hours when he first got here making his place inhabitable. That's after 12+ hours of travel.

There's no phone service even for on campus calls.

I know that educated fully employed Koreans don't live like this, but it's okay for us to. How demeaning.

The rest of the staff consists of 5 people who've been here for years and seem, if their own words are any indication, like a bunch of [deleted] who don't care much about teaching. If you're a sloth you'd love this job.

A lot of them smoke and do that in X's office. On his first day, he went to his desk and it was covered with ash. All the desks in that area were. In fact, under the loose ash, there was gray, ground in cigarette ash. That took a long time to clean. He's probably on the outs with his new peers since he's requested everyone stop smoking in the room where smoking is prohibited anyway.

I'd like to get a different apartment, but I heard the other teachers' apartments are worse, which is hard to believe. There's really nothing off campus that I can see nearby. Besides the school does not provide a housing allowance in lieu of their run down ones.

Tomorrow I'm going to Seoul just to avoid my squalid apartment.

I did teach today and like my students. I have three groups for writing each was split with my two colleagues each absorbing half of mine. They don't seem comfortable collaborating so I inherited two groups who learned different things. So the first few days will be spent clearing up lots of confusion.

Originally written in Sept. 2010

Home Inn

To save some money, I checked out of the Crowne Plaza Jinan and into the Home Inn, a few blocks away. For 189 yuan ($28) a night I've gotten a double bed in a cozy (yes, small) room painted a cheerful yellow. There's a TV, free internet, spic and span bathroom, three pillows and a hot water kettle. So all the basics are here. The room is well lit and conveniently located.

Checking in was a bit of comedy. The staff didn't speak much English, but in the end, I got my room. Perseverance helps.

I'd try this chain again.

Word Find of the Week

Ungapatchka. I ran across this word in Chicago Magazine in a restaurant review this week. It's a Yiddish word meaning ridiculously overdecorated or ornate.

One of my most popular Ruined for Life posts.

Jinan in 2010

Poem of the Week

Gone

by Ronald Wallace

The sorrow one feels after the loss
of a father, a daughter, a wife, is so
intense it takes up residence in 
the soul's house, shares its pain
with a dailiness that can seem un-
bearable as you go through the mundane
acts that keep you human,
the little rituals that keep complete

numbness at bay. God knows
you wish you hadn't had to
take in this unwelcome boarder,
wish you could send him away
and gain back your composure.
And then, the sorrow goes.

"Gone" by Ronald Wallace, from For a Limited Time Only. © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.

Krashen Replies to Gates

The First Step: Protect Children from the Effects of Poverty

Sent to the Washington Post, Feb 28, 2011

To the editor:

Bill Gates proclaims that "other countries have raced ahead" of the US in education, and in order to catch up, our teachers must improve ("How teacher development could revolutionize our schools," Feb. 28). The premise is false: American education has been successful. The problem is poverty.

American students from well-funded schools who come from middle-class families outscore students in nearly all other countries on international tests. Our average scores are not spectacular because the US has the highest percentage of children in poverty of all industrialized countries (over 20%; in contrast, high-scoring Finland has less than 4%). 

All educators are interested in improving teaching quality, but there is no national crisis in teaching quality. Our first step should be to protect children from the damaging effects of poverty: better nutrition (Susan Ohanian suggests the motto "No Child Left Unfed"), excellent health care for all children, and universal access to reading material. The best teaching in the world is useless when students are hungry, sick, and have little or nothing to read.

Stephen Krashen

Some sources:

American students in well-funded schools …

Berliner, D.  The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA: Negativism,

Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the

Educational Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R. (Eds.). PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools.

Amsterdam: Sense Publishers. In press.

Bracey, G.  2009. Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality. Educational Research Service

Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics

achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13. 

Poverty and hunger, health and access to books:

Berliner, D. 2009. Poverty and Potential:  Out-of-School Factors and School Success.  Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential 

Krashen, S. 1997. Bridging inequity with books. Educational Leadership  55(4): 18-22.

Martin, M. 2004.  A strange ignorance: The role of lead poisoning in “failing schools.” http://www.azsba.org/lead.htm.