Teaching English

Today was my first day at Jungchul Jr. I really enjoyed it, but I am exhausted. I haven't adjusted to the sleep schedule and working until 8 PM. My first class didn't understand most of what I said, but when I asked them to say what I did, they were entirely aware of running, walking, scratching my head, closing my eyes, and pinching my nose. Strange vocabulary choices for kindergarteners. The students were very friendly. Apparently, Americans love to hear how handsome they are. Nearly a third of the students told me how handsome I was. Henry had his students memorize speeches for their introductions to me. The format was always the same: state their name, tell me how good they were to see me, give their name and ask a question. Where are you from? Do you have a girlfriend? Will you marry Anne? Do you have children? What did you do before coming to Korea? Do you speak Korean? Do you like Korea? Do you believe in an afterlife? Wait, what? Do I believe in an afterlife? Is that really something you ask someone on the first day you meet them? I had to ask the teacher what religion the students were before I felt comfortable answering. I just spouted out some oneness theorizing and was generally vague about answering the question. The younger students were eager to learn, but also rambunctious and noisy. The older students, while highly intelligent and bearing strong vocabularies, were not motivated and rather unhappy to still be at school at seven o'clock at night. The Toeic class was definitely the best. The student's understanding of English was fantastic, but the material was a drab as the weather. I felt sorry for them, what with the course of their lives having already been plotted. I've already learned so much about the culture. Independence and questioning are absent, but not frowned upon. Some of the students' personalities shone brilliantly as soon as I walked through the door, even -- if not especially -- the quiet ones.

Yesterday I went to the Lotte Mart, which is much like a four story Walmart. It was quite and ordeal and as we were walking out, I realized I had bought far too much stuff. I walked a block with the box and then Michael walked a block with the box. That was as far as we could go. I ended up having to leave a bag behind a bush and come back for it. Still, I didn't make it out with rice or soy sauce or cleaning materials. I don't have bedsheets or toilet paper or salt. We probably looked really funny sharing the weight of an eighty pound box. On the way back we saw some dog food. Not the kind that you feed to dogs, but the kind the dog feeds to you (with his life). Eight months is the proper amount of time to grow a dog before it is ripe for the eating. That is certainly something I will have to try. I had chewmupbahp during a short lunch break. It was 1000 Won and did well to fill my belly for a couple of hours.

I am just getting used to life here, and I am certain I will like it. However, today was exhausting. My body was awake for nine hours before I had to turn on my mind for class. That is too long of a gap to be realistically charged for teaching. In celebration of Tony's last day of teaching, we all had strawberry wine. It was fantastically sweet and quite tart. Since beer is not a realistic option here, I think I must find a new drink. Strawberry wine is a strong possibility. Sogu is a national drink, but taste like a sugary Skoal vodka.

We ordered Chinese delivery from the restaurant next door to Jungchul and it was fairly tasty. The kimchi was foul however. Not spicy and too crunchy. The delivery was brought in dishes and with silverware. The delivery person will come back and pick up the dirty dishes after you eat and leave your dishes outside your door. Totally unsanitary, but better than the kitchen at work, which has no soap. Even McDonald's delivers, and they leave you with the plates as well.

I am starting to understand customs. I am not really turned off by the notion of eating a dog -- cute as they may be. I think distancing yourself from your food shows great weakness, and the consuming of dogs reflects a realization that meat is flesh and once was living.

First Night In. First Night Out.

As I look out the 40-story counterparts of my hotel-like apartment, I realize I am seeing it in the light of day for the first time. The narrow corridor between the main apartment and outside -- like and enclosed balcony -- is filled with light. The sun is way up, and it's almost noon. My head hurts and it pulsates with every footstep. Last night, after dinner, I was somehow convinced to go into Hongdae.

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I got of the plane and went to the rendezvous point, where I was greeting by a smiling tiny man. He tried with all his might to lift my bag, but eventually he physically suggested we carry it together. I got in the taxi, which looked like a cheap nightclub on the inside. The checkerboard vinyl was peeling off the walls and the leather cushioning on the ceiling might have prevented injury, but so would a seatbelt.

I arrived at my apartment and everyone was outside to greet me, including the director. As we walked through the door, I stepped into the room to take my boots off. I was not supposed to do that and Mr. Kwak was shocked I stepped out of the shoe area. He stayed for a little while, but departed shortly and I was left with my coworkers. After telling me they wear their shoes inside all the time, they asked what I wanted to do, and we resolved to go to the rotisserie duck house and have some beer.

The food was delicious and cooked right in front of you. I tried kimchi for the first time and it was pretty good. Definitely not great, but good and spicy. The duck and onion lettuce wrap was really good. Instead of going back home, we decided to go out and meet Mike in Hongdae, the area around Hongik University where most of the students party. Tony did not tell me that it was a 40 minute bus ride, and we drank a lot of beer. Ben suggested I pee out the back window, but I peed in my mostly empty beer can. Turns out there was more beer in it than I thought, and I quickly filled it and was overflowing on the floor of the bus. Within minutes there was a grid of urine covering the floor. I was pretty nervous as it rolled right by the driver.

We got down to Hongdae and went to The Ho Bar, which was on top of Ho III Bar, which was on top of Ho Ten Bar. We went clubbing at a few places. One of which had bars running throughout solely for the purpose of dancing on the bar. There were people everywhere.

November 2

All throughout October and early November, people have told me how to feel about the probable take over of Congress by Republicans. Presidential historians point out the Eisenhower and Clinton presidencies, suggesting that Republican take over ensures re-election of the president. Republican pundits believe their leaders will overturn heathcare and show this government how to balance the budget. But how naïve do you have to be?

Republicans have never been the party of fiscal responsibility. Truly, it is the party of deluded poor imagining that they are rich. The only tax cut Obama wants to do away with apply to the richest 2% of Americans, yet 51% of Americans are outraged by Obama tax hikes, something he never suggested. When asked how decreasing federal revenue could lead to a balanced budget, Republicans talk about discretionary spending, but never specifically. They often banter about never touching “defense” spending or social security, but even eliminating everything else and reinstating Bush tax cuts leaves us in a deficit.

A recession or depression is the right time to run deficits. Either people spend, businesses spend, or the government spends. Under Bush all three spent carelessly and frivolously. Now those frivolous spenders (John Boehner) want to accuse Obama of frivolous spending in a time when government spending is life-support for the American economy.

The problem is really quite obvious. Americans -- through media outlets, twitter, 30 second commercials, etc. -- have lost their attention span. The attention span is the last victim of the short-term American mentality. Capitalism has brought about greed, selfishness, short-sightedness, and generational tyranny. Those who will get stuck with the bill of federal spending are not voting for Republicans, yet that is what Republicans ran on. It is what they ran on, but it is not what they have or ever will do. Those who voted them in on those principles have been sucking the lifeblood from my generation and my children’s generation. Or -- they voted for economic reasons. Republicans plan on fixing the economy by fixing “small businesses” -- which, by the way, are NOT owned by the richest 2% of Americans. Funny how those two issues Republicans ran on are diametrically opposite to one another.

That isn’t the problem though.

The problem is that we are so stupid that we not only let them get away with it -- we not only let them win -- we voted for them.

Because I watched MSNBC Tuesday night and Jon Stewart compared MSNBC to Fox News, I now know how it feels to be a Republican and watch Fox. The bias approach to media - we say what you think and what you want to hear - was always a shod coming from Fox News. But now, coming from MSNBC, it feels good. It feels right and it feels true. I now see what a faggot-hating, pro-trailer-trash-mama-of-eight, RPG-toting, war-mongering, education-hating, money-grubbing Republican wants in a one-sided “news” report.

Must we choose between left-prejudiced MSNBC, right-prejudiced Fox News, idiotic CNN, or missing-white-child Headline News. Have all networks lost their sense of duty? To call yourself a reporter, start acting like one. Things have changed. Information is freely available to everyone who seeks it -- but it must be sought. Anyone can go out and obtain that knowledge for you, delete the extraneous (along with a few counterarguments), and present facts for exactly what you want to hear. Since 50% of the population are Republicans, some will want their information this way. A larger portion of liberals however seek info themselves, and therefore are dissatisfied with mainstream media outlets. This explains how Fox News is by far the most trusted name is News. “I trust your motive matches mine in projecting these data and obscuring those.