23 June 2009

The one where I sigh

Waiting for lunch at the school cafeteria.

Well, school is over as far as teaching goes. Now we're inputting grades and sitting on our hands waiting for students to complain about their grades, then we will be free to travel. There is a lot of bureaucracy when it comes to foreign teachers going to their home countries on vacation. I still haven't gone to the office to get my paperwork that will let me leave Korea and have my job when I get back. Maybe today.

Going to Seoul sometime this week to try to find a laptop case for my HP. It's a big laptop, and nobody around here sells them that big. Well, it isn't THAT big, but it still isn't a regular size, and it doesn't take long to learn in Korea that you can only buy regular and usual stuff in Korean stores. They don't even have stores for the unusual outside Seoul!

My cat sitter didn't show up again. Sigh.

08 June 2009

The one where I avoided the dentist again

There you see in my shopping trolley, about $200 worth of stuff. Some underwear, some chicken brats, buns, Splenda, peanut butter, and a block of cheese. The underwear was the most expensive, but Costco is the only place I can get underwear that fits me. Korean stores only sell underwear for small people.
A second tooth broke last Friday, but I've been avoiding the dentist since then, because 1) it's embarrassing that two teeth break nearly back to back, and 2) the last dental work hurt like hell, and I want to avoid going through that again for as long as possible. I suppose Wednesday is a good day to go.
I compiled my final exam today. In the morning, I'll photocopy the two versions then set up for the interview exams I have to do this week and next. Why two versions of the exam? Because the students sit side by side; there is no room to separate them. So if they copy, they'll definitely get the wrong answer. It's better to guess than to copy in this case.
Tonight I teach in Second Life. The theme is Crime and Punishment. After the lesson, I'm taking them to a virtual prison to see a courtroom (the prison lock-up part is only open to role-players, not visitors). Then we're going to a CSI sim.

05 June 2009

The one where I started shutting down

I deleted all my videos from YouTube last night.  I'll eventually shut the site down.  It only causes problems, and the videos aren't very interesting anyway.   I'll be shutting down Facebook fairly soon, too.  I've got over a hundred FB "requests" (those irritating applications) that I can't keep up with.  What I hear about "friends" is generic and impersonal, not what I had hoped at all.  People I tried so hard to locate and stay in touch with really don't want to stay in touch after all.  The lost contact was deliberate, it seems.  My blog on iWeb I'm going to phase out as well with fewer and fewer posts there.  Nobody reads it anyway, and paying a hundred bucks a year for a Mac account isn't really worth it when Google is free.  It's just one of those times, a time to pull it in and regroup my resources and try to build up a charge again.

03 June 2009

The one where I humped a day

I'm trying out the feature where I can just send an email to my Blogger site and it posts automatically.

Today has been a dreary, overcast day, but the nice thing is I only teach one class then I can goof off during my office hours.  The cats told me I have to get some more kitty litter or else not to bother coming home.  I'll get the litter after work.  My rent is overdue, so have to pay that after work as well.  And another bill came.  That's about all for now.  I'm actually only writing this to see how well sending an email works with Blogger!

02 June 2009

The one where I get a lucky break

I got this call yesterday, and at first, I thought it was Kate calling from over in Gyeongsan.  After a minute of generic conversation about my search for a cat sitter while I'm away in the States, it dawned on me that I was talking with Kathleen!  Medium-sized story made short, she's volunteered to check on my cats while I'm away.  Wahoo!

This week is review in preparation for next week's exams.  The exams will take two weeks for all my classes except the Friday class.  Today's classes will be good, because they get into the lessons I prepare.  The rest of my classes need a lot of guiding and gentle pulling to get them to even acknowledge I'm in the room! LOL

Last night at Cypris Chat in Second Life, I think the lesson I had went well.  There were a lot of people!  They kept coming, and it was hard to keep up with who was there.  Eh, live a little, learn a lot.