Weekend and Beyond

I was in Seoul over the last weekend and came across this group of China supporters. They told me the torch relay was going to go by this area, but I had stuff to do and didn't want to wait around for it. I also heard that there was misinformation to confuse protesters, and only a few people actually knew where and when the relay would take place.
Sunday afternoon, my friend Joel picked up his new suit from the tailor's in Itaewon. He looked damn sharp in it. He had a showing of some of his paintings at this Thai restaurant called "Buddha's Belly" which seemed to go well. Vaughan is back in country. I have a video of him telling a story over on the LiveVideo site. While I was in Seoul, I was fitted for a sport coat. Now I have two jackets to wear at work while I'm teaching.
Speaking of work, we found yesterday that our positions as teachers at the university will be determined by student opinion questionnaires they fill out during our courses. They tell us there are only 20 teachers on campus that this affects, however. Most Korean teachers are professors and are not bound by this rule. Our university will not hire foreigners as professors (even with Master's degrees), so we can be fired if the questionnaires show the students don't like us. Korea in general does not like having foreigners working in their country (except in factories), so they don't think anything of these little jabs and taunts they throw our way. Korea has grand hopes of being an international player, a tourist destination, and global leader in business. However, as long as they cling to their xenophobia, they will just be the world's kooky rich uncle who says inappropriate things at the dinner table on Thanksgiving.