So today in order to stave off the insane blocked intersections various mothers, bored senior citizens and a sprinkling of cops are lining the sidewalks in matching sashes displaying flags reminding folks to stop at intersections.  There is the odd cop at the intersection island acting as crossing guard too ( Read more... )

Train wrecks, or any kind of wrecks, literal or figurative can have a creepy factor that we are drawn to watch ( Read more... )

There are ups and downs to teaching at a public school.  One of the downs is the well - down time.  The time you spend at your desk waiting for students to be done exams so you can mark them etc .

There are lots of profitable ways to make use of desk-warming time but I'm too lazy to do so.  I want to study Korean, but I've gotten into such bad ( Read more... )

Well Ansan Festival wet my appetite, I couldn't wait for more!  The Chuncheon Mime Festival promised to be even bigger!  This was the festival the city touted as its big deal, performers from all over the world were on the bill and they looked very exciting.  The website was sadly very very poorly laid out in English.  Maybe in Korean it was better ( Read more... )

I have promised some travel posts - here they are!

It happened sometime in April, a vaguely unhappy cranky feeling.  I looked back on my time in Japan.  I was racing across the country checking off sights on my kiddy map of Japan, eating myself silly and singing myself hoarse.  Now that the excitement of St. Patrick's Day and cherry blossoms had ( Read more... )

I've been doing a lot of ranting either in emails or on the blog so I thought I would post some positive things happening lately.

Today we apparently hit the magic number to start having air conditioning in the class - Hot dog!  But boo that we have hit that number and it's only June.  Still, it rocks that I'm in a classroom with both heating and ( Read more... )

Am I in danger of taking myself too seriously at school?

Is the issue of a quiz contest that could have gone smoother that big of an issue?

Does it really matter if I have a crappy apartment at this stage in my life?

Why am I being so miserly about buying fresh fruit and vegetables?

Why can't I find one of my reward stamps?

How come living in the ( Read more... )

I missed my updates last week as it was pretty hairy at school.  Today classes are cancelled as the students are writing some essays so I have no excuse not to write something.

I slurp my tea waiting from the caffeine to take hold and listen to the thumps and screams that emanate from the hall.  No clue what's going on but I suspect it has ( Read more... )

My students will steal or 'borrow' anything that isn't nailed down in the classroom.  Sigh, including candy and the reward stamps I left in the desk there.
But they strangely enough do not deface the posters I put up.

The third years think they are too cool for school. 
They most definitely are not too cool for school.

Most of my students need serious ( Read more... )

The last few weeks have taught me how one can stay in a country and totally fail to learn the local language - it's surprisingly easy to never study.  >.<;  I know I need to knuckle down and just start studying already, but it's hard to motivate myself.  Then I just end up disgusted with myself and watch TV on my computer or something.  Sigh....

Ah ( Read more... )