Where It Stands

The people from Jeju sent me a contract so the job is basically mine for the taking, although I'm hesitating because I'm waiting to hear back from about 12-15 places here in Seoul. Also, the Jeju people inexplicably dropped their pay rate from 2,000,000won down to 1,900,000won between when they originally offered me the job and when they sent me the contract, which is poorly worded in English and which also seems to include a taxation rate (5%) which is higher than what other Koreans have told me Korea's national tax rate is (3.5%) so I'm having a little bit of a strange vibe from that outfit, but if it really comes down to it (and I know, it is), I'll take it.

I'll write more when I know more...

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Today in my 3rd class, 1B16A1, a bizarre thing happened, spurred on in small part by me. A class of ten 10/11 year old kids of varying degrees of English proficiency, our classwork was interrupted suddenly when a student, Mary, raised her hand to go to the restroom (hua jang shil) because she had just pulled a loose tooth out of her jaw. I quickly gave her permission and, almost jokingly asked if anyone else had any loose teeth they would like to remove during our session. Several students reached into their mouths to poke and prod at teeth that they thought might be contenders and James, a little hellion who just transferred to the class from a lower class about a week ago, said that he thought he could get one of his teeth out. We encouraged him and were appropriately surprised when two of our ten number had new gaps in their grills. James bled a little more than Mary and I had to run to the office to get a roll of toilet paper to prevent a mess in class.

We got back to the lesson after some congratulations and laughter. I said that if a third person pulled a tooth this period, we would probably set some sort of record before we got on with it, although probably half of the remaining children followed the lesson jerking at their teeth. Next, Kevin yanked a tooth out of his mouth and we all cheered and clapped euphorically; this time, I was prepared and gave Kevin some toilet paper quickly. It was turning into a absolutely bizarre classroom environment, like a room full of gambling addicts all scratching lottery tickets or a bingo game at a retirement home; you just didn't know who was going to strike gold next! Angela, a brilliant but quiet student, was hard at work on a premolar in her lower jaw on the left side and Carrie was trying to widen an existing gap on her upper jaw, pulling at a tooth whose immediate neighbor had already been missing for a few weeks. Joey was working on one, too, but when I asked him if he thought it would come out during class, he said he doubted it was that far along. I joked that for today, I should no longer be considered an English Teacher, but rather a Dentist/Orthodontist, and that my pay should be changed accordingly. Angela and another student promised me that we would extract their teeth on Friday if we couldn't get them today. Remarkably, in spite of their most painful efforts, we had no more teeth on desks for the remainder of class.



...but the teeth pulling was far from over for my students! Two periods later in between classes, long after I had been dealing with different kids, Carrie approached me with a tooth in her outstretched hand. She had been persistant and now there was an enormous gap in her smile on the left side! I was completely bowled over and after more congratulations and laughter, the bell rang and I moved no to my next class, 3054A2, a group of 4 surly middle-school boys who usually hate me and Stephanie, one of the Canadian teachers. Naturally, I was still reeling from the fact that up to this point, 4 out of 10 students in my earlier class had now removed their teeth, 3 of them at my request. I told the middle-schoolers as much and said that if any of them had any teeth to pull, we could probably set a Guinness Book World Record. Since these guys were older, however, I expected them to be out of the 2nd teething phase.

My expectation proved incorrect: Chris, the most vicious, spiteful, sarcastic kid of the bunch called me over and showed me a tooth on his upper right side that he said he thought he could turn 180 degrees if he worked on it a little bit. While the other boys prepared their debate, Chris worked painstakingly at that tooth. This was not one of the quick, easy, and relatively painless ordeals that elementary kids had performed earlier; when we were near Chris, we would hear bone grinding against bone. The blood came from his mouth before the tooth was even free. He turned it 180 degrees and it didn't come free. Then he turned it a full 360 degrees and something was still holding on. I ran down a hallway to get a second roll of toilet paper from the office because we had quite literally finished the last one off in the earlier class. Finally, Chris pulled the tooth free and was still able to finish his part of the debate.

All in all, 5 students lost teeth today. In the middle-school class, I asked Francisco if Koreans knew of/believed in the Tooth Fairy. Someone else chimed in that he knew of her, but Francisco said that when you lose a tooth in Korea, your parents take the tooth and throw it randomly somewhere in your house and hope that a bird catches it and flies away with it to grant your wish. Some of the other kids earlier had said that their parents would give them 500 Won (50 cents) per tooth, but I guess Francisco had to settle for a wish. I'm hoping that the teeth really are lucky and that they somehow transform into job-search luck for me, as I still haven't heard back from the Jeju people.

Anyways, that's what happened at work today. Until next time...

Late Than Never...

Friends, family, and assorted followers of the travels of Jonathan Fowler:*, **

I am starting a blog now, as I have threatened to do numerous times, to keep you all informed about what is going on in Korea and how my extended working vacation progresses. I am about 3 months overdue to start this, but I have some of my earlier observations written down on paper so maybe I can edit and transfer them here to their new electronic home for your enjoyment. Soon, I hope to add some pictures I have been taking with my Korean cell-phone, but unfortunately you have to be a Korean citizen to transfer photos from you cell-phone to a website for retrieval, so until I get a USB cable hooked up to the work computer manually, I won't have those.

Disappointingly, there are a lot of things here in Korea that you have to be a Korean citizen to enjoy. Some video games that are available online through a website require a Korean citizenship number to play. There is one thrilling first-person shooter called Sudden Attack that I tried unsuccessfully to start an account multiple times for before I realized this, with the help of apologetic Korean friends. Fortunately, one of them felt pity on me being denied access to such a great game and gave me his own username and password. For most of the past two months, I've been ruining all of his scores and records in the process of learning what is truly a fun and engaging game, but I don't feel as guilty as perhaps I should due to the jingoistic policy that necessitated my action!

On the career front, my situation has hit a regrettable stumbling block, as well. After zero training within the first month-and-a-half of working at EG Language Academy, and after several complaints from parents saying that I don't know how to read a class sylabus or get the noisy troublemaking kids to shut up for five minutes in a couple of my classes, EG has elected to terminate my employment, effective the 10th of November. This gave me about a month to find other work in Korea, or face the unpleasant possibility of my little working vacation ending prematurely (in which case, I would probably just change gears and continue it across the Sea, in Japan!) I have applied to four or five other places in different, more exciting locales of Seoul. One of them replied to me yesterday saying that while the position I was applying for in Gangnam (a neighborhood, translated as "South of the River") had already been filled, they had numerous other positions all around Korea. The first position I examined caught my eye in a big way: It was located on the Korean semi-tropical isle of Jeju. Drawing comparisons to Hawaii for it's climate, volcanic formation, and beauty, Jeju attracts Korean and Japanese tourists in a very steady stream and if I am hired to work there, I will be working in Jeju City on the north-central coast, very near to the beaches (which is not an unpleasant prospect as the temperature of Seoul drops to the single digits some days!) Needless to say, I applied to them and they are excited to hear from me and look forward to doing a telephone interview in the next couple of days. They want the position filled by early November, which corresponds well to my timeframe, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. For pictures and more information on Jeju Island, look no further than here:
http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/Cheju

If I leave Seoul, there are many things that I will miss. I've gotten quite accustomed to subway system here and whenever there is a line transfer, a few notes from a Vivaldi song play quite dramatically. I missed those when I went to Japan and took their older, more boring subway, which lacked the song. I will miss the PC bangs (rooms) that I frequent to send out the occassional e-mail, waste time on Facebook, or ruin a trusting Korean's high score at Sudden Attack. I will miss the prospect of eventually seeing an enormous metropolis blanketed with snow when winter eventually sets in. I will miss a few of the friends I have made here, including my coworkers Jeff, William, Brad, Stephanie, Dr. Lim, Hyung-suk, and Yoon-suk; the middle-aged Christian Pastor/English teacher, Mr. Park, who is never too busy or sanctimonious for a lively evening of Korean barbeque with Soju and Korean beer; the nice woman who works at the PC bang "TNT Zone" who brings me a sweet latte for free every time I visit when she is working, even if it is 11:00pm at night and I really need to get some sleep. I'll miss trips to the major international zone in Seoul, Itaewon, I don't care how many people deride it as trashy! I'll miss the local stores Homever ("Sweet Home Forever" is their motto!), Save Zone, and Lotte Mart; there may be branches where I'm going, but I have no way of knowing yet. I'll miss many more things and have more things to say and show you all soon, but right now the work day is done and I need to go get some supper.

Welcome to my blog! I hope you all are well; wish me luck in the job department!



* A note for my friends: You may have seen me do a keg-stand while my pants were on fire at a party one time before making out with three girls, but please keep your posts family friendly on this blog!

** Conversely, a note for my family: You knew me before I met my friends; they don't need to hear unsavory or unflattering factoids from my childhood like my phobia of being kidnapped by strangers when mom got into line at the bank, for example!