Pop Quiz, Asshole

Your current boss wants you to return to your job. You've already been accepted to another job, but can only officially be offered it if you get your documents in before all the positions are taken. You weigh your options and they come out even all around. Your main choices are between more time off and more money. What do you do? What do you do?

Haeundae Beach

This far south, this year at least, you can go to the beach as early as May. The water was a bit cold, but there were people in there swimming. I went a couple weekends ago to Haeundae Beach in Busan with Leon, but since we didn't get there until 2:00, there were only a couple more hot hours left in the day. I tried the water when we first got there, but was too lazy to get back up again and go in for a swim.


Here are some pictures from the beach:

The funny thing about Korea is that most people are always dressed up pretty sharply, even at the beach:

Sailboat:

There were some guys jetskiing in the water, including this douchebag, who often would turn around and ride the thing backwards, dangerously close to the shore, where all the people were swimming. He was acting like such a jackass that we thought he was a white guy, but I think we ended up determining that his face gave him away as a Korean. I guess there are Koreans who are as douchey as American showoffs.

Then again, he could have been Korean-American.

Down the beach a bit was this reggae DJ. I was sitting on some steps, so pardon all the crotch/ass shots. Those old guys kind of got in my way for a while.

Counting Down

Well, only 16 days left in Korea. I've been packing. It's amazing how much junk I have. Since I'm coming back in a couple months I'm leaving a bunch of stuff behind in Leon's apartment, so I don't have to try and cram a year's worth of clothing and supplies plus gifts into two bags.

On Tuesday I'm going to the pension office to apply for my lump sum pension refund, woo. The US and Canada have treaties with Korea regarding pension payments, so while I'm pretty sure all the English teachers here pay 4.5% into the pension fund, only Americans and Canadians actually get their money back, plus another 4.5% matched by the employer (suckaaas).

Also Heather is reportedly returning on Tuesday. Her brother says the 20th. I don't know who to believe. She's two months late coming back from the States, and Mingyu has been running the school without her, very poorly. Poor Heather has been getting email after email from her teachers about all the problems that have been occurring in her absence. There's going to be a major shitstorm this week, and to top it all off, the two teachers she was supposed to be hiring to replace me and lighten everyone's load a bit have now turned into one (they were a couple and they broke up, hahahaha). AND she's only back in Korea for a month before another stint in the US. All Leon's and Moriah's hopes of returning to having a competent boss and getting a better job situation have been dashed. I'm so glad I'm leaving after finding all this out.

In other news, I've been accepted to a public school position in Gangwon province, the least populated province in the country. There are like six people there. I chose it because it pays a little more than other areas and it has more vacation time--five weeks allegedly--probably to attract more teachers. It's been kind of a bumpy ride getting here. I switched to a recruitment agency called Footprints because they place in other countries, too, where my first agency doesn't. A girl I met here said they're pretty good, but I've found the service pretty substandard, unfortunately. I don't get the personal attention I used to, just form letters that don't answer my questions, scheduling problems, and not enough information in some cases. Anyway, I passed their interview and the interview with a representative from EPIK (English Program in Korea).

Now I have to get my documents in as soon as possible. The documents for public school are slightly different than with a private academy, and now that I have teaching experience in Korea, that's a couple more items to add to the list. I have to get a photocopy of my college degree notarized and apostilled, a background checked with apostille certificate, proof of teaching experience in Korea, reference letter from my current employer, several copies of my college transcript, application, signed contract, and passport photos to the agency before I can officially be accepted. This could be a problem since doing this by mail through California will take about four months (based on JUST having completed this stupid process to extend my current visa), and I'm not sure if I can get a background check in Maine without being a resident. I can't switch my driver license over until I get there in July, so it looks like it'll be about two months before I can send my documents to be verified. I'm going to call the State of Maine (yes, the whole state) to see if I can do this without being a resident and start the process by mail from here before I go. I hope that works.

If it doesn't, my position could go to someone else who's ready, and I would either be placed in whatever position was still available by the time I'm ready, or I would simply not be accepted to the public school system. In that case, I could still get a job, but it would have to be at another hagwon, and it would delay my departure, most likely. I wouldn't be too concerned about all this happening, except for the loss of all that vacation time and the stress it will have caused me trying to make some unknown deadline for public school, then failing.

So a lot to do in the upcoming weeks. I just hope my summer vacation will still feel like a vacation.

My Second Teachers' Day

Well, another Teacher's Day has come and gone. Last year I was pleasantly surprised with the amount and quality of the presents I got, but this year I was slightly disappointed. I even had a strategy this year: I got all my students little trinkets such as pencils, notepads, stickers, and arts and crafts supplies for Children's Day, conveniently timed ten days before Teachers' Day, in hopes that that would spark the spirit of giving in the students, or at least the parents.

I started getting presents on Tuesday for some reason. So far, I have received a traditional small Korean bag (ideal for carrying makeup in a larger purse), a ceramic candleholder with tea lights an aromatic oils, a pair of bottles of merlot, some "sports socks," a scarf that seems to be silk, some chocolate, some handmade soaps, a bottle of shower gel, a tube of body cream, and a carnation (the traditional gift). Additionally, one of my student parents and some other parents sent over cake, doughnuts, or other snacks for the teachers.

Most of these gifts are really nice, and things I'll actually use, but for some reason they're not as impactful as last year. Originally I thought that the recession affected parents' ability to buy gifts, but upon reviewing my blog from a year ago, I found that about the same amount of students gave me gifts last year. Maybe it's because I got all the gifts in one day last year, or because I wasn't expecting as much that this year seems wanting. But anyway, I'm glad to have gotten what I got, and luckily I won't be weighed down bringing a bunch of extra things home in what will probably be two full bags.

I'm drinking some of the merlot that one student gave me today. I'm not a wine drinker, and I gotta say, THAT SHIT IS GROSS. But I've accumulated five bottles of red wine (I'm now inclined to think that Koreans don't drink white wine) through gifts from today and Lunar New Year, as well as a bottle left by the former occupant of this apartment. I figured I oughta try it out, anyway. I think I'll be giving the rest away.

I'll post a picture Monday or Tuesday of my gifts, since at least one student forgot to bring my gift today (that happened last year, as well).

Update: I didn't get any more gifts today or yesterday, so here are the pics of everything I got. I must say, last year's picture was a lot busier:

Vung Tau Pictures

Here are some pictures Amber took of the Vung Tau area and River Ray resort.

This is my mom and me with my shitty Vietnamese haircut. Asians don't know how to cut Westerners' hair.



Here's the port where we got off the hydrofoil:


Guy on a motorbike:


The grounds at the resort:

The "restaurant" and clubhouse:

Busted boats hanging around:

Every time I've ever sat on a tire swing I've realized what a stupid thing it is to use as a swing.

Possibly extremely disrespectful:

The karaoke room. We never went in:

The beach:

These are the kids of the couple other families that were staying at the resort:

Jesus Excursion

Our second excursion with Din was to Vung Tau to see a Jesus statue and a temple. Here's the statue from afar:

Um, I'm gonna say these are dinosaur eggs, so the architects of this whole shebang must have been from a looser faction of Christianity:

Statues of some little children:

Here's a fountain at the base of the hill that Jesus was on:

Here we are after a couple hundred steps or so:

Here is an example of Korean public affection--only same-sex allowed:

Here's me with like, the apostles or something? And the Lamb of God--not the metal band. There's really a lamb or two in there:

And Amberger:

This is the final stretch before the base of the statue. I can't remember for sure, but I think Din said it was 880 steps from bottom to top:

Maybe you know what important moment this is:

Ah, such angels:

Jesus Christ, that's a big statue:

It was a hundred or two steps to the top, too:

You can go out onto the arms and see the view:

Amber and mom had kind of a hard time with it, since they're afraid of heights, but I was okay. Here are my legs:

Here's the rest of me:

Here's Amber outside the opening to one of the arms. Din neglected to tell us that there was a dress code for this place. Amber's shoulders weren't covered, so she had to hold a towel around them the whole time. Those glasses got her a lot of attention everywhere we went:

Here you can see how narrow the steps are. You have to squeeze yourself against the wall when someone is coming up or down against you:

Here are Ambro and I on an observation platform that's at about the halfway point, which we stopped at one the way down:

Oh, you guys. You can't build ANYTHING without putting a cannon next to it:

Here's another little pond outside the base of the statue:

After the Jesus, we walked back down the steps and I counted something like 892, so I guess I either lost my place somewhere or maybe I counted things as steps that weren't officially steps or something. Then we went to some temple nearby where we put some money in a pot, had some incense lit for us, and were given little pamphlets that we couldn't read.

Nobody calls me chicken.

I'm not sure what the significance is here:

Here's my mom and a big bell:

Here's me playing with the bell:

Afterwards, we went into town for a seafood lunch.

I think we got crab. It was good, but a major hassle, as I recall.

We also learned that the very messy way we had been mixing our delicious iced coffees every morning was totally wrong and we were fools to have done it that way. Din watched me try to just pick up the little straining cup from the top of the glass and dump the unmixed hot coffee and condensed milk into the glass with the ice. Sorry I don't have visual aids. He spazzed out wicked and showed us that the cover of the straining cup can be used as a tray, so we could put the cup down, mix the coffee with the condensed milk, and then pour the mixture into the iced glass. He claimed that not mixing the milk into the hot coffee first would give us a stomachache (the milk probably isn't pasteurized, I guess), but we never had that problem. I was just pissed that we kept staining the white tablecloths everywhere, but for five days no one else had bothered to show us the right way to drink the damn coffee.

Anyway, to add insult to injury (on an unrelated topic), back at the hotel, Din decided he needed more than just a verbal explanation of the cost for that day's trip. So he brings this sheet with a bunch of day trips on it to show us the price. Reading that, we find out that there were at least two other trips, like going to caves to see monkeys or riding a little basket boat on the river, that we would have much preferred over some religious stuff. I'm sill kind of pissed off at the negligence and illogic of what was supposed to be a really great hotel.