Playing hooky

Monday night the wife and I started to feel ill, and Tuesday morning i still felt nauseous and had a headache as did my wife. I decided to use one of my 14 sick days and stay home, she chose to go into work, because her co-teacher was going to be gone, and she was the only person who could lead her camp (how responsible of her!).

I called my co-teacher and told her I was not coming in, and pulled the blanket back over my head. I got up a while later, and had tea while playing GTA4.

So I spent the day with the kids, forcing them to help me learn Spanish (so we can go back to Europe to teach next year), but mostly played GTA4 on my xbox.

Today I am back in the classroom, I have a throbbing headache (I bet you thought I was gonna say hard on, you pervs!). I am playing Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs on the Big screen TV, and writing my blog. Soon I will have to start teaching them the pointless conversations they made me write for these "camps".

On Monday the VP complained that my conversations were too advanced for some of the students. I told her that if they were any more simple that they would not be practical. Remember these were her Ideas and topics.

She wanted to know if the kids would be able to use the conversations in real situations. I said yes, but not for 5-10 years in the future, when they would no longer remember them. Then I started rambling about how we need to teach them conversations more applicable to their lives, because little Sujin was not going to be checking into a hotel anytime soon, at least not in English, and if she was checking into a hotel around here it would only be for a couple hours and not days.

These kids do not need to learn how to make plane reservations, or check into a hospital, they will be living at home until they are 30, their parents will take care of everything for them. If they ever leave the country at all, it wont be until after they graduate college, or have a family of their own.

The whole thing is pretty much pointless, but it only lasts 3 hours and then I get to watch Entourage for the rest of the afternoon. So today I will be pointlessly teaching Hojun how to open a checking account in America, and I will do it with a smile on my face.

Dave is the king of douchebagistan, and all the mods are his loyal douchebagistany subjects.

Two down, three to go.

I just finished the second camp session. I have 3 more groups to go over the next two weeks. Then I go on vacation. Unfortunately, my wife has already had her vacation, so I will just be home with the kids while she is at work.

We originally wanted to go to Thailand on our winter break, like so many other teachers have done. These freezing cold temps, snow and ice are not things my wife particularly enjoys or remotely tolerates.

When we first got to Korea it was sunny and warm, and she loved it. She said every day "This is so much better than back home, maybe we should stay for two years, instead of one!" I smiled and nodded, knowing what was around the corner. She also knew, but my wife lives in the present, her thoughts and opinions changing day to day, moment to moment. To my wife, right now she sees the cold, snow and ice as how Korea will be for the rest of our contracts. In her mind she says "I am miserable now, therefore I will be miserable for the rest of the year."

I tend to take the long view. I don't judge things on how they are at the present moment, I judge by how they have been in the past, and may be in the future. I know that spring is around the corner. In two short months the temperatures will rise, the trees will grow leaves and my wife will not be as miserable.

The cold does not bother me as much as my wife. I was born and raised in the north, since I have lived in the lower 48 for the last 14 years and become "Sissyfied" by the mild winters, I enjoy snow, and like having it again. I do not enjoy freezing my balls off, but I realize it is only temporary.

I do not know however, how i will react to the suffocating humidity that summer will bring. I have never lived in such conditions, where I am from I have experienced over 40 days straight of pure rain in the summer, but with temps rarely rising above 60-70 degrees the humidity did not matter. On the north west coast, if it rained more than 3 to 5 times in the summer, it was considered "wet" with the temps hovering around 80-90 degrees. We would experience a few days of high humidity, but generally it was cooler after a rain.

So right now, with my wife absolutely hating Korea, and my nervously awaiting the upcoming summer, we are hedging our bets. We have applied to teach Englishee in Spain next year. Lovely Spain, where last year in Andalusia it snowed for the first time in 50 years, where it rarely rains and maybe two or 3 months out of the year temps drop below 70 degrees. I don't speak a lick of Spanish, but my wife is pretty good, and my kids ( who have been in Spanish immersion schools in the US, and lived in Spain) speak it well enough to attend public school.

Dave is a piece of shit

As you know by now, I was banned from the ESL cafe. I have not applied for a new account, nor do I plan to. I rarely visit the sight anymore, I am trying to boycott it altogether, but like a crack addict I keep going back. I still visit the site, read the posts impotently wanting to comment. I sit bathed in my monitor's warm glow, gently weeping at what was once a beautiful thing.

As I said before, Dave can suck my dick. I am not bitter of course, I just like to hold grudges.

So far my classes have been sucking today, I dont know if it because it is monday or what. My students have no energy or interest in any of the materials today, I dont really blame them, this shit is boring.

I have to teach boring pointless dialogue out of a shitty textbook for every class. I dont have the freedom a lot of other Englishee teachers have, we cant play games, create new materials, or watch videos in any of my classes. We have to get through a certain amount of material every class, no excuses no free time.

This year is almost finished though. We are on the last chapter with two weeks to go. I am going to make sure that next year will not be the same. I have to use the materials in the CD and textbook, but I am going to change it all. I will be creating new power points to replace the shitty CD material.

I had planned on doing this over winter break. Since they canceled my break (no desk warming for me), and actually want me to work (shudder) I am not sure when I will have time to do this. Especially since I dont know how to use power point.

So I probably wont do anything. But it is fun to pretend.

Too much bitching

So it came down from the head office yesterday, I will be going to work for the entire winter break. To many NETs were bragging on ESL cafe (fuck you dave) that they did not have to desk warm, because like me they only had six camps or so, and cool VPs and Principles who would not force them to stay.

So the unlucky ones, who had to desk warm, or teach camps the entire time started bitching to their reps, and their VPs, who then bitched to the provincial office, who then decided to crack down on us lucky few.

I cant wait to see how this plays out though, at my wifes school they had to cancel a couple weeks of her camps because they did not have the budget to send another teacher to school with her! She is going to have to stay home and report on her activities or something.

I hope thats how it goes with me too, then I can say I have be doing something intangible like lesson planning. If not, I guess I will be running around the school, risky business style. Unless they turn off the heat...