Okay, okay. Let me start off by saying I'm not crazy about Trudeau, but in traditional Canadian political fashion, I am sort of a little bit kinda not disappointed that the lesser of the two evils won the election. This is the best we can hope for as Canadian voters and this is why I continue to flog the dead horse of Canadian political restructuring. Voter turn-out is expected to be up this year. Why? It's not because there was somebody people really wanted to vote for, it was because there was somebody people really wanted to vote AGAINST! This is sad! Trudeau didn't win, Not Harper won the election.
The other day my sister-in-law said to me that we shouldn't give up. We should keep voting on the off chance that maybe someday we'll get somebody who might do something good for this country. I'm paraphrasing but she is a smart person who failed to see the irony of her own words. This, not laziness, not trying to be cool, THIS is why I and many other Canadians are sick and tired of voting. Even if our candidate wins, he/she is not exactly what we want. We voted for him/her for a few of the promises made and every four years the pattern just repeates itself, THESE are the promises our candidate doesn't keep. If you throw another vote in there fully expecting to be disappointed, THAT is voter apathy. THAT is giving up. If you DON'T vote in hopes that someday the Canadian public will wake up and join you so that the voter turn out is SO low the whole system needs to be scrapped and replaced, THAT to me is not giving up. There's a better chance of that happening than Mr. Trudeau being the saviour of our country. Anybody disagree with that?
Now, I admit that's awfully radical and I understand that as a country we are addicted to the vote and erroneously equate it with democracy so we'd prefer to cling to it and try a softer solution. Believe it or not I still think we could have success by keeping our current system. I too believe that MAYBE someday there just could be a super-candidate in Canadian politics. It's happening now in the States. Bernie Sanders has somehow sneaked through the corruption. But I think there are far more useful things we could be doing than just wasting votes on lame candidates and waiting for our Bernie Sanders.
What do I suggest as an alternative? Like I said, restructuring. We all want representative and transparent government. Honest people who listen to Canadians and do what we want. Or at least the majority of us want. Not the POLITICAL "majority" because that's just another part of our fake democracy. The government of Canada is the political equivalent of the WWE, folks. And the crazy thing is how many Canadians think pro politics is REAL! It's not. They are constantly telling us we are free. False. Just political jargon because they know we WANT to be free. So they figure if they tell us and we believe really hard, voila, we'll be free. Same thing with this overused Snuffleuppagus of a term: democracy. We don't have a democracy unless the majority wins. I have never heard of a government in Canada during which the majority of Canadians got what they wanted. It has never happened. This time? Trudeau will have a majority government but that just means he won more than half the SEATS not more than half the votes of the people. Even with voter turn-out 70%, if he got half the votes of all the voters, which he likely won't, that would still be only 35% of the voters. Not to mention the 30% of Canadians who didn't vote. It's a joke, really! He will probably have the votes of fewer people than DIDN'T even vote in the country in a year when voter turn-out is UP! And he will call it a "majority" government to make us feel like we have the democracy we've always wanted. He'll probably get about 10 million votes. Those who don't vote and those who vote for someone else will probably number 25 million. Not a majority. And when you figure he'll be an extraordinarily good PM if he only lies to us half the time, then some of us will get half of what we want. The rest won't. That's not democracy.
It's ridiculously simple to achieve true democratic majority government although current politicians will tell you it's not. One of the many WWE lies we all believe. Like voting for ideas individually is expensive. Bullshit. We all have computers. Let's vote individually on bill C-51 or a fucking business deal that locks us into a 30 year agreement with China. This wasn't discussed in our fake parliament, nor did people have any say in it. And it will be the cause of many problems in our country in the future. We probably won't know it because we'll be watching Hockey Night in Canada instead of reading about it on the 20th page of the newspaper. But it will. Thanks Harper.
How do the Academy Awards maintain honesty and secrecy so that nobody knows the results of the Oscars in advance? What is it, Price Waterhouse? Hire people from THERE. Who pours the gold at gold mines in our country? Who stacks the money in banks. Who makes every drop at 7-11 and never records a loss in a shift? Hire people like THAT! To do what? To oversee our government officials. Checks and balances. They have NONE right now. NONE! With the recent Harper government as our guide it's pretty simple to see how we are governed. If you screw up, just draft a bill into law that will allow you to cover up your mistake. Examples? Pressuring RCMP on long gun registry. Dual citizens show low support numbers for Conservatives? Draft a law that allows you to call them terrorists and take away their rights to vote. CBC doesn't lie in your favour? Trash it. Scientists are too busy doing science to embrace your views about global warming and environmental protection? De-fund and gag them. Don't think you'll win the next election? CHEAT! With proper checks and balances in Canada, Harper wouldn't have even been eligible to run after his first term. Instead we got nine years of his "leadership." It's been a long time since we've had anyone else as our supposed "leader." For all you people, who should be ashamed of yourselves as Canadians, who voted for this crook AGAIN, read this carefully. Or just sit there in your wrongness being wrong. Both are absolutely inexplicable to me. Particularly to my buddy, Jason who actually said, he actually said this, folks, "At least Stephen Harper hasn't had any scandals during his time in office." I'm paraphrasing again but something like that. There are links to articles that describe all 101 embarrassments to our country. Take your time. Read all this stuff you should have been reading as it happened so you'd be better informed and wouldn't have voted for him today. I don't even consider this a complete list. There are things I know about that don't appear on this list and still many other things we may or may not find out about in the future. These are just things we know about now.
And all you people who post about how you are disgusted about how uninformed people are and have expressed desires to de-friend Facebook friends who are so ignorant that they don't vote for Harper, please READ! Erase half of these, even three quarters of them and I STILL can't for the life of me think of why any reasonable person would waste a perfectly good vote on this man. It boggles the mind even further when you think that THIS is the BEST candidate the entire Conservative party could come up with! This speaks volumes of our whole system of government and why I feel it needs a complete restructuring making it fully representative and transparent.
Here's a pretty thorough summary of how he has damaged our country and actually compromised our international reputation while he was in office.
Now, having read that, let's go back to what I said WAY up there at the top of this post: I am not crazy about the replacement we have voted in either. Justin Trudeau, from the reading I have done, the debate watching, the study, he seems to never say anything. He has a heritage of pro politics so he is probably as good at sounding like he's committing to something but leaving himself openings to go either way, as, say, Randy The Macho Man Savage was at going back and forth from good guy to bad guy in the WWF. He will continue Harper's path of selling our country's resources to China and the U.S. by the looks of things. For crying out loud, Canada! Norway charges something like 73% tax on all the oil extracted from its soil. We can't even make our own refineries? Instead WE build the fucking pipelines so that our oil will be shipped elsewhere to be refined and then sold back to us. We are actually being CHARGED for our oil! Where are the politicians who want to help Canada? There don't seem to be any. There are so many very simple things that could be done but won't be.
Here's one more WWE lie we believe, (and my buddy Jason proudly posted on Facebook), Canada's world ranking as a favourable place to do business is something we should be proud of. No it fucking isn't! We sign a 30 year deal with China that will have them calling a lot of the shots in Canada for our foreseeable future and what did we get? A couple of pandas. We don't charge companies to start up business here. No capital gains tax. No taxes. Harper was working on allowing foreign businesses to flout many other Canadian laws too like minimum wage, immigration, student visas. Not that they don't already pay zero attention to them, (with full governmental support), but he was trying to do the old, "make a law that SAYS you can" move.
We need referees to throw flags on these plays. We don't have them. If we did, and there were some actual penalties for unfair political play, THEN maybe our country's political landscape might be a little more attractive to honest people and a lot LESS attractive to the money-grubbing douchebags we always end up with.
Anyway, as always, I have little hope for our new PM. But, hey, you never know. I have little hope for my country either. Both for the same reason. Because Canadians continue to apathetically accept the endless fakeness and folly that is our broken, antiquated, illogical political system. It has, along with hospitals, schools, sports, media, and other things that should be honest institutions for the betterment of society, become just another corrupt corporation.
Harper's GONE! That gives me a little hope. But not much.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
Fukuoka Visa Run
Every time I do one of these short trips to Japan I wish I had found a really good site that explains everything in detail because I ALWAYS do something wrong. I just did a visa run of sorts to Fukuoka to renew my visitor visa here in Korea. I am planning on doing an actual visa run soon to change my visitor visa to a work visa once I get signed and get all the immigration crud prepped so I used this trip as a recon mission. It paid off. For those of you who know me this will come as no surprise but I had some trouble on this trip. I made a huge mistake that could have proven disastrous on a three-day work visa run: I didn't book a hotel in advance.
It has been a long time since I was in Fukuoka so I wasn't 100% sure ANYthing would be where I had left it, but I was pretty sure I could find my way to the Korean Embassy, the Hard Rock Cafe, the Mcdonalds/Red Cabbage Supermarket and around the corner and across the bridge to the Twin Hotel. I remembered it being very good last time I stayed. It was a small room but the staff spoke English very well and were super helpful! It had a good shower, fridge, lots of TV channels and plenty of good stuff in the vending machines at the hotel. Even though it was about 70 bucks, I figured I'd stay there this trip even if the price had gone up a bit. I just Googled it and the price is still in the 70 dollar range.
Before I got out of the airport, two immigration agents at the airport asked me to fill in the blank in my arrival card that asked for my Fukuoka address. I said I'd stay at a hotel. They asked which one. I couldn't remember the name at the time but told them it was near the Fukuoka Dome. So they said next time I had better make reservations somewhere and kind of giggled. (both girls) I thought that was weird.
What they probably knew, like the rest of Fukuoka, and I didn't, was that the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks had made it to the playoffs in the Japanese Baseball League, were up 2 games to 1 on the Chiba Lotte Marins, AANNDD there was a game that night! One of the things I love about Japan is they are baseball crazy. One of the things I don't love about Fukuoka, NOW, is looking for a hotel without a reservation when the Hawks have a playoff game that night! I walked around for 5-6 hours, checked about 15 hotels, (with no vacancy), and half a dozen places that weren't hotels at all until I finally found one for about 100 bucks. I didn't care by then. I was exhausted! Lesson learned. The only way I seem to learn travel lessons: the hard way.
Anyway, the following is for myself and anyone else who wants to use it in future for the Fukuoka visa run.
Step one: You get off the plane, do the immigration, baggage claim and customs and then you go down to the ground floor of the Fukuoka Airport. The exit will have a 7-11 beside it. First things first, if you made the mistake of not changing your Korean money at the bank or at the Korean airport, (like I did), don't go to the money changer at the exit of the airport. They have the Korean Won exchange rate listed but they don't exchange it. Go to the bank upstairs. They are friendly and helpful and offer a brutal exchange rate. But it's better than nothing. NOOOObody takes Korean money in Fukuoka. I don't know how much you will need but the visa is around 6000 Yen. Hotel, beer, sightseeing, that's up to you.
Go outside and look for the shuttlebus that has something to the effect of "To Subway" on the sign. It'll be in English and quite easy to spot. Load on in! It's frequent and it's FREE! The best thing about the bus is the ultra mellow bus drivers they have hired! You will see what I mean when you hear their P.A. voices. Take the bus to the second stop. The first stop is the cargo depot. Don't worry, the announcements are made TOO often in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean so you will know exactly where to get off to get to the subway. It'll be 10 minutes or so. It would help if you had 300 Yen in change.
Step two: After getting off and going to the right, as the announcement on the bus should have told you, you will see the clearly marked subway entrance. Go to one of the machines and get a ticket to Tojinmachi. It's on the orange line going toward Meinohama. You look at the big map above the machines to see what the fare is. It's 300 Yen. Tojinmachi is the 8th stop from the airport. Since the aiport is the last stop on the orange line, there's only one way to go. So this one is easy. To make it even easier, the machines have a button for English. But it's easy to do without translation. Just press 300, put your money in and you're on your way. Don't worry if you don't have 300 Yen in coin. The machines make change for a 1000. Not sure about a 10,000. Probably not.
You go to the turnstile-ish machines and put your ticket in. It'll come out the other side. Pick it up as you go through. Then you just get on the train. You can't go wrong. It'll take about 10 or 15 minutes to get to Tojinmachi.
Go to the exit at Tojinmachi and put your ticket in the turnstile-ish machine again. This time it WON'T give your ticket back on the other side. Find your way to Exit 1. Lots of stairs but it is clearly marked. When you get out you will see this:
If you look left you will see this 7-11 across the street.
Step 3: Walk straight down the street for a few minutes. You will see a BMW sign. Turn right just past the BMW dealership. There's a building across the street with a triangular entrance. If you want, cross over to that side of the street. The Korean Embassy will be on that side. Walk 7-10 minutes down the street. You will pass a Dominos Pizza, and the Chinese Embassy. The Korean Embassy will be the traditional Korean building waving the Korean flag. You'll probably have to wait for a light to cross.
Across the street opposite the embassy is a dual mall facility you may find useful. Just inside the entrance to mall 1, which doesn't look like much, you will find a handy dandy photo booth just in case you don't have your photo for the visa process. I forget how much it costs. Go through to mall 2, (follow the signs), and you will find a Mcdonalds. You will be hungry. Try the grape shakes! They're awesome!
There is a great supermarket near Mcdonalds in the mall called Red Cabbage. They have all you might need if you are planning to avoid eating out. Plus a spectacular selection of alcohol if you are planning to avoid DRINKING out. Both will save you lots of money. And across from the Red Cabbage is a good drug store.
If you go back out to the street and a little up the road toward the Fukuoka Dome you will find a FANTASTIC Hard Rock Cafe. In case you PLAN to eat and drink out.
Farther down the same road, around the corner and across the bridge, on the opposite side the Dome was on, you will find the Twin Hotel. I recommend it. If you are loathe to spend 70 bucks, there are other options online. Google. The Hakata stop, (second stop from the airport), on the subway has lots of hotels in it. I've heard the Heiwa Dei Hotel 5 just outside Toninmachi exit 2 is good and reasonable too. Just once again, book ahead. You'll thank yourself.
Step 4: As long as you got your application, passport, pics, visa number and money in before 11:30 A.M., I'm told you can pick your visa up between 1:30 and 5 two days later. Not the next day, but the day after. I didn't do that on this trip and I have been told it now takes THREE days to do this so I'm not sure. This is what I've read online. I think this means if you can't get on a SUPER early flight and get to the Korean Consulate by 11:30. One extra day will be expensive so the stress of the early flight is worth it.
Step 5: After picking up your passport with the beautiful, shiny work visa in it, just retrace your steps back to the Tojinmachi subway station and pay 300 to get to the airport stop. If, for some reason, you are leaving from Hakata just go to the big entrance, down 2 levels to get a ticket on the orange line to the airport. Be sure you don't try the ground level subway. It's the wrong one. After buying a ticket for 260 Yen go down another level to the subway. Catch the one on the side that says it goes to the airport. It'll be on the signs in English. It's only two stops. When you get to the airport stop there will be signs to the escalators to the shuttlebus. Get the International one. Again it stops at the cargo terminal first then the international terminal.
The bus drops you off on the first floor of the airport. Go to the 3rd floor to check in.
It has been a long time since I was in Fukuoka so I wasn't 100% sure ANYthing would be where I had left it, but I was pretty sure I could find my way to the Korean Embassy, the Hard Rock Cafe, the Mcdonalds/Red Cabbage Supermarket and around the corner and across the bridge to the Twin Hotel. I remembered it being very good last time I stayed. It was a small room but the staff spoke English very well and were super helpful! It had a good shower, fridge, lots of TV channels and plenty of good stuff in the vending machines at the hotel. Even though it was about 70 bucks, I figured I'd stay there this trip even if the price had gone up a bit. I just Googled it and the price is still in the 70 dollar range.
Before I got out of the airport, two immigration agents at the airport asked me to fill in the blank in my arrival card that asked for my Fukuoka address. I said I'd stay at a hotel. They asked which one. I couldn't remember the name at the time but told them it was near the Fukuoka Dome. So they said next time I had better make reservations somewhere and kind of giggled. (both girls) I thought that was weird.
What they probably knew, like the rest of Fukuoka, and I didn't, was that the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks had made it to the playoffs in the Japanese Baseball League, were up 2 games to 1 on the Chiba Lotte Marins, AANNDD there was a game that night! One of the things I love about Japan is they are baseball crazy. One of the things I don't love about Fukuoka, NOW, is looking for a hotel without a reservation when the Hawks have a playoff game that night! I walked around for 5-6 hours, checked about 15 hotels, (with no vacancy), and half a dozen places that weren't hotels at all until I finally found one for about 100 bucks. I didn't care by then. I was exhausted! Lesson learned. The only way I seem to learn travel lessons: the hard way.
Anyway, the following is for myself and anyone else who wants to use it in future for the Fukuoka visa run.
Step one: You get off the plane, do the immigration, baggage claim and customs and then you go down to the ground floor of the Fukuoka Airport. The exit will have a 7-11 beside it. First things first, if you made the mistake of not changing your Korean money at the bank or at the Korean airport, (like I did), don't go to the money changer at the exit of the airport. They have the Korean Won exchange rate listed but they don't exchange it. Go to the bank upstairs. They are friendly and helpful and offer a brutal exchange rate. But it's better than nothing. NOOOObody takes Korean money in Fukuoka. I don't know how much you will need but the visa is around 6000 Yen. Hotel, beer, sightseeing, that's up to you.
Go outside and look for the shuttlebus that has something to the effect of "To Subway" on the sign. It'll be in English and quite easy to spot. Load on in! It's frequent and it's FREE! The best thing about the bus is the ultra mellow bus drivers they have hired! You will see what I mean when you hear their P.A. voices. Take the bus to the second stop. The first stop is the cargo depot. Don't worry, the announcements are made TOO often in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean so you will know exactly where to get off to get to the subway. It'll be 10 minutes or so. It would help if you had 300 Yen in change.
Step two: After getting off and going to the right, as the announcement on the bus should have told you, you will see the clearly marked subway entrance. Go to one of the machines and get a ticket to Tojinmachi. It's on the orange line going toward Meinohama. You look at the big map above the machines to see what the fare is. It's 300 Yen. Tojinmachi is the 8th stop from the airport. Since the aiport is the last stop on the orange line, there's only one way to go. So this one is easy. To make it even easier, the machines have a button for English. But it's easy to do without translation. Just press 300, put your money in and you're on your way. Don't worry if you don't have 300 Yen in coin. The machines make change for a 1000. Not sure about a 10,000. Probably not.
You go to the turnstile-ish machines and put your ticket in. It'll come out the other side. Pick it up as you go through. Then you just get on the train. You can't go wrong. It'll take about 10 or 15 minutes to get to Tojinmachi.
Go to the exit at Tojinmachi and put your ticket in the turnstile-ish machine again. This time it WON'T give your ticket back on the other side. Find your way to Exit 1. Lots of stairs but it is clearly marked. When you get out you will see this:
If you look left you will see this 7-11 across the street.
Step 3: Walk straight down the street for a few minutes. You will see a BMW sign. Turn right just past the BMW dealership. There's a building across the street with a triangular entrance. If you want, cross over to that side of the street. The Korean Embassy will be on that side. Walk 7-10 minutes down the street. You will pass a Dominos Pizza, and the Chinese Embassy. The Korean Embassy will be the traditional Korean building waving the Korean flag. You'll probably have to wait for a light to cross.
Across the street opposite the embassy is a dual mall facility you may find useful. Just inside the entrance to mall 1, which doesn't look like much, you will find a handy dandy photo booth just in case you don't have your photo for the visa process. I forget how much it costs. Go through to mall 2, (follow the signs), and you will find a Mcdonalds. You will be hungry. Try the grape shakes! They're awesome!
There is a great supermarket near Mcdonalds in the mall called Red Cabbage. They have all you might need if you are planning to avoid eating out. Plus a spectacular selection of alcohol if you are planning to avoid DRINKING out. Both will save you lots of money. And across from the Red Cabbage is a good drug store.
If you go back out to the street and a little up the road toward the Fukuoka Dome you will find a FANTASTIC Hard Rock Cafe. In case you PLAN to eat and drink out.
Farther down the same road, around the corner and across the bridge, on the opposite side the Dome was on, you will find the Twin Hotel. I recommend it. If you are loathe to spend 70 bucks, there are other options online. Google. The Hakata stop, (second stop from the airport), on the subway has lots of hotels in it. I've heard the Heiwa Dei Hotel 5 just outside Toninmachi exit 2 is good and reasonable too. Just once again, book ahead. You'll thank yourself.
Step 4: As long as you got your application, passport, pics, visa number and money in before 11:30 A.M., I'm told you can pick your visa up between 1:30 and 5 two days later. Not the next day, but the day after. I didn't do that on this trip and I have been told it now takes THREE days to do this so I'm not sure. This is what I've read online. I think this means if you can't get on a SUPER early flight and get to the Korean Consulate by 11:30. One extra day will be expensive so the stress of the early flight is worth it.
Step 5: After picking up your passport with the beautiful, shiny work visa in it, just retrace your steps back to the Tojinmachi subway station and pay 300 to get to the airport stop. If, for some reason, you are leaving from Hakata just go to the big entrance, down 2 levels to get a ticket on the orange line to the airport. Be sure you don't try the ground level subway. It's the wrong one. After buying a ticket for 260 Yen go down another level to the subway. Catch the one on the side that says it goes to the airport. It'll be on the signs in English. It's only two stops. When you get to the airport stop there will be signs to the escalators to the shuttlebus. Get the International one. Again it stops at the cargo terminal first then the international terminal.
The bus drops you off on the first floor of the airport. Go to the 3rd floor to check in.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Cats and Crazies
I have related to a lot of characters in the books I've read throughout my English Literature career. J.D. Salinger's John Gedsudski, the Laughing Man is one of them. Much more than Holden Caulfield's upper class dissatisfaction with minor Patrician disingenuosities, I found John Gedsudski's kind-hearted poverty, which lead to his jilting to be more personally relatable. In fact, the Laughing Man's girlfriend's loyalty could have been compromised by the unhappy, but never financially uncomfortable broodings of the young Holden Caulfield had they crossed paths in the same short story I'd wager. (If I had any money to wager)
It is not often one stumbles across a protagonist so long in the tooth as I have become. What do we do that would merit a good story? By my age I should be married with children and comfortably mired in the long-term job that will define my life. These are the prime earning years! Old enough to have become very good at what you do and young enough in body, brain and spirit to do it with vigour. But, lo and behold, I came across a character in an old Hawthorne short story yesterday to whom I could relate. Hawthorne himself, (like Salinger), a well known recluse, and authority on the type of character we are talking about. The aging, or old, dude with some wild eccentricities, (or crazy habits, depending upon how much money he has), sometimes requiring a considerable relaxation, in his behalf, of the common rules of society. Hawthorne wrote that the mind of such a man originates such caprices due to the lack of an engrossing purpose. An engrossing purpose such as a career, a wife, children, a hobby, a goal... He goes on to say that, "if he were mad, it was the consequence, and not the cause, of an aimless and abortive life."
I would hasten to add that if he had shown himself to be mad, (nowadays), it may well be the consequence of readily available mind altering substances coupled with a glut of electronic devices that encourage, nay, demand almost constant reporting of status, thoughts, opinions, inner-most feelings, and after a few beers, T.M.I.'s and overshares aplenty! So NOW one can exhibit awkward comments, advances, gestures, or behaviour while online, thereby creating two disadvantages old Hawthorne hadn't even thought of: 1. The person or people affected by the inappropriate behaviour often have no concept of the prodigious amount of chemical mind altering that has been self administered before said behaviour, and 2. The behaver, having administered entirely too much mind altering substance/substances can not even recollect the inappropriate behaviour!
Here I am a pretty dog gone reclusive person, having lived on my own for the majority of my life, having spent the last 30 years in chaste, barren, spouseless, and some would say purposeless futility, living in the country, with my nearest neighbours able to only communicate in a foreign language I know little of, but in the electronic and internet capital of the world, South Korea! What I guess I'm saying is strap in, there might be a little "eccentricity" to come! Well, not for a while yet. With my financial situation, there will just be insanity. What I'm also saying is, geez, maybe I need some sort of direction. A purpose. Structure in my life. That might encourage normality. Whatever that is.
Well, ask and you shall receive. We had a big barbecue party on Thursday, October 8th here at the camp/school where I now reside. It was awesome! We had burgers, hot dogs, sam gyup sal, and plenty of beer and soju. In fact, too much of all of the above. What I got from the event was the assurance from the principal that even though the end of my visitor visa is fast approaching, I should not worry. They have things figured out. Well, I met his lovely wife and daughter at the barbecue and I know that he has a stellar career as an educator behind him, so I don't think he's crazy or eccentric. I believe things are well in hand. However, today is Sunday the 11th of October. It's one week before my visa expires and I haven't even signed my contract let alone negotiated the visa number, waited two weeks or more for it, travelled to Japan, spent 3 days waiting for the visa, come back, applied for an alien card, or gotten a bank account yet. ALL of these things are necessary before I can really say I am working in Korea again. With all due respect to the principal of my new school, I'm FREAKING OUT!
So I text him and ask when we're going to meet next. He says Wednesday. This leaves us two days to do the 2 weeks or more of visa negotiations since my visitor visa expires on Sunday and immigration offices aren't open on the weekends. I don't think. But I will trust that they know what they are doing. Here's a picture of the talent show we had at the barbecue. It was a lot of fun!
So once I get going on the job, I'll be a man with more direction for sure! But as if Fate weren't quite satisfied, I heard the saddest meowing today outside my apartment here. It's a cold, wet day here and there was a tiny, black kitty on the path behind one of the classrooms crying. He or she didn't have very much energy at all, poor thing. I got to it and gave it some milk mixed with crushed up crackers. I had to lift its head into the milk and it nearly fell over. Then I put some on my finger and put it to the poor little guy's mouth. I could feel his sharp teeth trying to bit my finger. He knew it was food. So I put him back into the dish and he ate some. Then it started to rain so I picked him up and brought him into my house. There he remains. I may live to regret this! But probably not for a while. Here's a picture of the little guy. I'm assuming he's a guy until I find out different.
I better go see how the little guy is doing...
It is not often one stumbles across a protagonist so long in the tooth as I have become. What do we do that would merit a good story? By my age I should be married with children and comfortably mired in the long-term job that will define my life. These are the prime earning years! Old enough to have become very good at what you do and young enough in body, brain and spirit to do it with vigour. But, lo and behold, I came across a character in an old Hawthorne short story yesterday to whom I could relate. Hawthorne himself, (like Salinger), a well known recluse, and authority on the type of character we are talking about. The aging, or old, dude with some wild eccentricities, (or crazy habits, depending upon how much money he has), sometimes requiring a considerable relaxation, in his behalf, of the common rules of society. Hawthorne wrote that the mind of such a man originates such caprices due to the lack of an engrossing purpose. An engrossing purpose such as a career, a wife, children, a hobby, a goal... He goes on to say that, "if he were mad, it was the consequence, and not the cause, of an aimless and abortive life."
I would hasten to add that if he had shown himself to be mad, (nowadays), it may well be the consequence of readily available mind altering substances coupled with a glut of electronic devices that encourage, nay, demand almost constant reporting of status, thoughts, opinions, inner-most feelings, and after a few beers, T.M.I.'s and overshares aplenty! So NOW one can exhibit awkward comments, advances, gestures, or behaviour while online, thereby creating two disadvantages old Hawthorne hadn't even thought of: 1. The person or people affected by the inappropriate behaviour often have no concept of the prodigious amount of chemical mind altering that has been self administered before said behaviour, and 2. The behaver, having administered entirely too much mind altering substance/substances can not even recollect the inappropriate behaviour!
Here I am a pretty dog gone reclusive person, having lived on my own for the majority of my life, having spent the last 30 years in chaste, barren, spouseless, and some would say purposeless futility, living in the country, with my nearest neighbours able to only communicate in a foreign language I know little of, but in the electronic and internet capital of the world, South Korea! What I guess I'm saying is strap in, there might be a little "eccentricity" to come! Well, not for a while yet. With my financial situation, there will just be insanity. What I'm also saying is, geez, maybe I need some sort of direction. A purpose. Structure in my life. That might encourage normality. Whatever that is.
Well, ask and you shall receive. We had a big barbecue party on Thursday, October 8th here at the camp/school where I now reside. It was awesome! We had burgers, hot dogs, sam gyup sal, and plenty of beer and soju. In fact, too much of all of the above. What I got from the event was the assurance from the principal that even though the end of my visitor visa is fast approaching, I should not worry. They have things figured out. Well, I met his lovely wife and daughter at the barbecue and I know that he has a stellar career as an educator behind him, so I don't think he's crazy or eccentric. I believe things are well in hand. However, today is Sunday the 11th of October. It's one week before my visa expires and I haven't even signed my contract let alone negotiated the visa number, waited two weeks or more for it, travelled to Japan, spent 3 days waiting for the visa, come back, applied for an alien card, or gotten a bank account yet. ALL of these things are necessary before I can really say I am working in Korea again. With all due respect to the principal of my new school, I'm FREAKING OUT!
So I text him and ask when we're going to meet next. He says Wednesday. This leaves us two days to do the 2 weeks or more of visa negotiations since my visitor visa expires on Sunday and immigration offices aren't open on the weekends. I don't think. But I will trust that they know what they are doing. Here's a picture of the talent show we had at the barbecue. It was a lot of fun!
So once I get going on the job, I'll be a man with more direction for sure! But as if Fate weren't quite satisfied, I heard the saddest meowing today outside my apartment here. It's a cold, wet day here and there was a tiny, black kitty on the path behind one of the classrooms crying. He or she didn't have very much energy at all, poor thing. I got to it and gave it some milk mixed with crushed up crackers. I had to lift its head into the milk and it nearly fell over. Then I put some on my finger and put it to the poor little guy's mouth. I could feel his sharp teeth trying to bit my finger. He knew it was food. So I put him back into the dish and he ate some. Then it started to rain so I picked him up and brought him into my house. There he remains. I may live to regret this! But probably not for a while. Here's a picture of the little guy. I'm assuming he's a guy until I find out different.
I better go see how the little guy is doing...
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