Poop Mountain

So I've been in Gangneung four days now, (today is day 5), and it's been pretty busy for me. I've been getting situated, finding all the stuff I need and, as I always do, walking around the neighbourhood and getting to know the town I live in. While walking the streets locating strategic locations like chicken hofs, kamja tang restaurants, supermarkets, 24-hr convenience stores, gyms, burger joints, rotisserie chicken trucks, foreign food stores, Mcdonaldses, stationary stores, pubs, E-Mart/Homepluses, big size clothing stores, computer repair shops, dalk kalbi joints, English bookstores, the library, and so on and so forth, I noticed something else I had hoped, but not expected, to find: A walking/exercise trail. YAY!!!

Loyal BTS followers will remember the days before BTS was even a thing and I lived in Gwangju and taught at Seokang University. Back then I posted pics and descriptions of my beloved walking/exercise trail behind the school. I was all OVER that thing! Well, I'm gonna be all over THIS one too! It's just past the Lotte Super, about a 5-minute warm-up walk away from my door. And it's got all of the trail exercise equipment I like. I even think, from pretty solid evidence, I know the name of the little mountain the trail is on. Believe it or not it's called Dong San. That'd translate almost exactly into "poop mountain." Here is just one of a few buildings on or around Dong San that lead me to this supposition.

Aside from the name, it's going to be a great way to exercise and relieve any stress I might encounter. It's got all the usual Korean exercise machines. You know the air walking machines. No idea why they would have them on a GROUND walking trail. Why change the scenery while you walk when you can look at the same exact thing the entire time? Don't get that. They also have the stair climbing machines right beside actual stairs. But whatever...I just won't use those machines. Or the hula hoops or the round circly machines. I've never really figured out how to use them. You know the ones I'm talking about? Here's a pic:

What is a guy supposed to do? Turn those wheels? And then what happens? You get better at drawing big circles? And notice right behind it is the ubiquitous massage machine. I didn't find any of them on the Poop Mt. trail. I never used them either. What they have are benches where I can do push-ups and sit-ups, bars for pull-ups and shoulder presses, bench press stations where I do curls, and those disks you stand on to do oblique twists. And plenty of fresh, piney air to breath while walking the trail and climbing the stairs and hills.

Just look at those gnarly, red Jack Pines! And the nice bed of needles to add to the cushion effect of whatever footwear you use. And the smell! Mmmmm!

One other really nice bonus of Poop Mt. hiking trail is the views. It's not a very high mountain but still on one side you get a view of the ocean:

And on the other, a view of the mountains. The mountains are a bit farther away and my phone cam lens isn't professional quality so you can't see the layers of mountains that there were in this pic. But imagine three more layers to this scene all shadowy and mysterious. It's a nice view.

As for the list above, I haven't yet found all the things on it. I actually observed Anne for her entire 6-hours of teaching on Thursday. That'll soon be me. I was pretty hungry afterwards so I think I'll be bringing snacks every day I work. I went to the Dog House bar after work with Anne. I met a few of the other expats in town here. We played darts and talked. Really nice folks. Anne paid! What an excellent early Christmas present!

The kids I met were pretty good I have to say. And the classes went off without a hitch. Anne is a very good teacher and she keeps the kids on task. I will take some pointers from what I saw her doing for sure! Thanks Anne.

But that was just Thursday. Close to a dozen kids in every class and all doing different lessons. I've crunched the numbers and it's going to be about four times the lesson planning than I did at my last job here in Korea. Quadrouple! Also there won't be 5 months off a year. AND, they're kids, not adults.

Why, you might ask, have I done this to myself? The answer is simple: I have given up trying to find the best of both worlds, search high and low though I have, in the Korean ESL job market. Nowadays even moreso than when I began my career back in '97, there appears to be no such thing as a job at the university level with those fantastic hours I mentioned that also comes with a relationship of mutual respect with management. It's a snuffleuppagus as far as I'm concerned. And because I've had jobs with amazing schedules, lots of vacation and adults and I was miserable because I was working for assholes, and I've had jobs with heavy workloads, little vacation and teaching kids and I was treated well, I think I prefer the latter. The only reason I left any of those jobs was to try to get the same respect from owners/management from a school with more vacation and a shorter work-week. I hereby give up! I'm not going to even apply to these ads that promise wonderful working conditions then break the contracts a month in. That is now what I EXPECT from other jobs.

I have to satisfy myself with the idea that this is as good as it gets here. And although 6 hours a day seems like a piece of cake to a lot of people who might read this, that also comes with lesson prep. For a good teacher that'll be at least a few more hours. So I'll be a-workin'! But I find I'm a-happy when I'm a-workin'. So I think this is going to be a good new experience for me.

I am off to Fukuoka December 21st to obtain my official work visa, (FINE-skal-ly!!!), and will return to Korea on Christmas Eve. I'll go directly to the Spiwak/Peet residence to have a late-night nog with their whole family including Omma and Pap, and then spend Christmas day with them all. I may even spend the weekend. But starting the 28th I've got massive curriculum planning to do! Then in early January I'll get down to some serious teaching and money earning. Possibly by the end of winter I will have dug myself out of the massive financial hole I will name Indonesian Wall Street.

But who knows? With my nose to the grindstone working, and hiking at Poop Mountain a few times a week, maybe, just maybe come summer I'll have my beach body back again!

This is as close to a New Year's resolution as I come.

P.S. Today I found Homeplus, Macdonalds, the movie theatre, (where I could see Star Wars), a liquor store with slightly overpriced but hard to find alcoholic supplies, and a store called Bestco. It's a bit like Costco only smaller. But most things are sold in large quantities. I can get a can of spaghetti sauce that has about 30,000 won worth of sauce in it for 8,000! Big spices too. Homeplus was a bit of a let-down. It really doesn't have much that E-Mart doesn't. And E-Mart is closer. The things you find out when you wander around...

I'll Be Home For Christmas

What a lovely spring we're having! This winter. Seriously, plus 10?!?!? I understand the same sort of weather conditions are being enjoyed by Canadians right now. And the newly welcomed Syrians too.

Ha ha ha. But seriously, way to go, Trudeau Part Deux! There will be people complaining about how Canadian tax payers can afford to support the refugees when we can't support our own poor, which is true, we really SHOULD do more for the poor in Canada, but you will find it'll be mostly the wealthy, money-grubbing, tax break receiving, former Harper supporters who never gave a shit about the poor anyway and are just saying it to whine about his replacement who just might make them pay taxes this year and might use them for something worthwhile. Ahhh but it's so nice when Canadian political cartoons inspire laughter in me instead of thoughts of assassination!

It was only couple of days ago that I was going out with Skadi and Lona to poop-walk them in shorts and a shirt. Those are the Spiwak/Peet dogs. The Mike and Heather, (Spiwak/Peet respectively), residence is where I've been for a long while now. Freeloading off my good friends. I say that but, really, I feel that living with these guys comes with chores. And doing some of those chores has helped out and possibly lowered the Stressmas stress around here. But it has also gotten me into the Christmas spirit more efficiently than I would have if I'd been on my own. After all, the way we celebrate Christmas nowadays, it's about the kiddies, isn't it? And, they have kiddies! I'm enjoying the decorations and the Elf on the Shelf and the music and movies and food! I really am!

But staying amongst a family again has also made me accutely aware of how different my life would have been if I had had children. And although I say every year to friends and family members that I envy them at this time of year, I probably shouldn't. Here's an example:

It's brother Mark, Sister-in-law Sherry-Lynn and their clan. I'm sure there will be some great moments in their Christmas season this year that they will talk of with friends and family while celebrating the yuletide together, but I know what happens between all those Christmas party worthy yarns. I know the searching for decorations, the setting up of said decorations making sure those youngsters who want to take part can take part just enough to get the satisfaction of contribution without messing it up for everyone else. I also know how the older ones are the opposite and need to be prodded to get off the X-Box and decorate the friggin' tree or make the red and green chain or put the fucking lotion in the basket!!!

I have witnessed the struggle of balancing all the company and school Christmas concerts, parties, functions and get-togethers that popular families with kids get invited to. "Who will resent us LEAST if we don't show up?" The kids can have Christmas candy and sweets, but not too much. "But INSERT NAME has already had three, why can't I?" We should watch some Christmas movies as a family. I want 'Christmas Vacation.'" "I want '"A Christmas Story.'" "We've already seen that." "Yeah but INSERT NAME has watched 'Polar Express' 3 times!" "I wanna watch 'Krampus.'" "That's not a Christmas movie!" "It is so!" "I don't wanna watch any movies." "Okay then, no Star Wars for you." "I wanna watch THAT movie!" And so on and so forth...

And there are things that people just wouldn't even think of. Like laundry. Mike and Heather let me do my laundry while I'm staying with them. And it's great because they have something very rare here in Korea: a DRYER! So I feel like I am doing the family a little favour by folding the stuff in the dryer and transfering the washing machine clothes to the dryer before I start my stuff. Today, unless there is a circus performer or an elf living here that I don't know about, the clothes in the dryer I folded were Iryna's. She's the 8-year-old. HOLY MOLY! "Is this one shirt or two shirts stuck together?" "Is this a skirt or stockings or both stuck together?" "How do you fold spaghetti straps?" "A dress. A one-piece dress. I'm just gonna do the fitted sheet fold for this..." "Is this DOLL clothing?" "ONE electric, sparkly, hot pink sock. How do you LOSE the other one?" "How many pairs of yoga pants does a girl need in life?" "Okay lace trim in or out?" I swear I had to Google a couple of items!

I have told Heather and Mike that I appreciate them for letting me stay with them until I get back on my feet. They are wonderful human beings and I hope I can repay them someday. I have also told them that I appreciate it even moreso because every day spent at their house reminded me that even though Christmas IS for the kiddies, and it's nice to see them all excited at this time of year, I'm so glad I ended up childless and single!

That said, I have completed the transfer to Gangneung. Gangneung, (formerly Kang Neung), is known as Pine City here in Korea. The aptly named, full of pine trees, city will host a lot of the winter olympic events in 2018. I hear there are 3 hockey arenas being built as I write this. I went for a drive around my neighbourhood with my boss yesterday and he showed me some of the construction. There are also some really nice walks amongst the pines. It's very close to both mountains and ocean. It has probably about 250,000 people. A far cry from the hustle and bustle of Seoul! It's got Gyeungpo Lake and beach and some awesome seafood. Even awesome for a guy like me, who isn't especially fond of seafood. The weather here is warmer in winter, (with more snow), than Seoul, and cooler in summer. I may never need an air conditioner! There will only be two months in the summer, July and August, that will get really hot. But even then the average temperature will only get to around 24. I can deal with that I think.

I moved into my new place yesterday, (Dec. 14th). It's provided by Mac's Hagwon where I'll be working. I was enjoying coffee with the landlord and lady yesterday and they asked if I like Korean coffee. I said I liked Max coffee, Max beer and Mac's Hagwon. Nobody really got the joke. I guess because the coffee is actually Maxim and the school is actually Mac. But I got the beer right! So anyhoo, yesterday was spent unpacking and arranging all my stuff in the place. I stocked the fridge and bought most of the things I need to be comfy. I think I'm going to like the place. Here are some pics:

This will be where the magic happens. I will most likely be spending the rest of December going to Japan on a visa run, getting my alien registration card, going to the hospital for the necessary blood tests and the like. Just getting all settled and legal here. But the other time, except maybe Christmas with Heather and Mike, will be spent prepping for my new classes. Here is where I'll make my curriculums. And, starting Boxing Day, I'll also watch the World Jr. Hockey Championships of course.

Here's the entrance where I hang my hats and E-Mart bag. Most of the provisions I bought yesterday were from E-Mart. We have a big one here. Thank goodness!

Here's the desk again and that sliding door goes to my laundry area. I have a new washing machine, but, alas, no dryer any more. Back to the old rack drying. I don't mind my clothes a little crusty. It builds character. There is also a boiler room in the laundry hall which is big enough to store lots of stuff. And a nice, big window with a good view of the hood. I'm on the second floor so can see pretty far. Can almost see the hagwon from here.

And here's my GIANT new bed. I don't have the right sized bedding for it but I went to E-Mart and bought the soft, blue blanket. It was pretty comfy last night. The wallpaper... meh.

And this is the kitchen area. So if you imagine all that in a panoramic view, you get the gist of my new place. LOTS of space! I like it. Only problem I've had so far was the yappy dogs around here but at least that wasn't the case at night.

Now to get the visa, ARC and lesson planning done... And I dare say I can do it all quickly and efficiently because I am unmarried and childless. I may have dodged a life-bullet there.

Love is Brave

A person's job is a significant part of their identity. If I trace my employment history back... oh let's say... forever, my identity seems to be a hard worker who does a good job for scumbags who see no distinction between kindness and foolishness. A common result of a corporate society. Back when I lived in Dundas I was taken advantage of by Bob Bott who gave me a chocolate milk and 2 bucks to do half of the largest Hamilton Spectator paper route there was at that time. Over 200 papers. He used me on Saturdays and I think Wednesdays when the papers were huge. It was back-breaking work and I was doing it for almost nothing. Bob, however, was making 20 times what I was! That kind of mentality is encouraged from the time we wear shorts and T-shirts and deliver papers right on up to business suits and day trading. Or whatever. No distinction is made between amoral selfishness and business savvy. Another common result of our corporate society.

I have worked for people who were busted for committing crimes three times here in Korea. And that's not counting the wife of the boss I worked for who took out a hit on one of his relatives. EVERY contract I have signed, except ONE, was broken. I have been requestd or required to break laws by the majority of my employers over here. But I just keep on trying. Because to get a good job, you have to trust someone. You have to take a chance on a company. You have no choice.

Like many other examples, jobs and personal relationships have this in common. You can't really find a good girlfriend or boyfriend or mate or whatever and not trust them.

And it's the same with love. Many say the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. It's pretty much impossible to carefully fall in love. But as we see these days, there is a need for some love to be shown for our fellow human beings that is just as fearless. It's pretty tough these days to find anything good or worthwhile that doesn't involve at least a little risk. This, unfortunately, is a message that is being overwhelmed by the fearmongers.

As I type this I hear a moment of silence at the Vancouver Canucks/ Winnipeg Jets game. It's for the victims of the France attacks. With delicious irony, the Kenyan Boy's Choir then sang the national anthem of Canada.

It's ironic because the reaction to the France attacks was huge and the reaction to the even more hideous Kenyan school attacks in April hardly registered. There seems to be a specific pinpointing of fear being orchestrated worldwide. It's not really clear to me what the exact reason for it is, but I have no doubt in the end it comes down to lust for money and power.

It's our own responsibility to view the recent Paris attacks, Kenyan attacks, the Syrian refugees and situations such as these objectively and without falling victim to sensationalistic brainwashing. But this is not an easy thing to do.

So should we listen to Allen West who says America shouldn't allow thousands of refugees into the country until they can take care of the thousands of neglected war vets? He IS a war vet himself. In Iraq he was involved in the beating and mock execution of a Muslim prisoner and released from service, but... you can conclude from that what you will.

ORRRRrrr... Maybe we should listen to Jim Wright, another war vet, when he sees pics like these:

and says,

I've seen literally hundreds of variations on this theme today.

Obama cares more about Muslim refugees than he does about homeless veterans.

The next person who says this to me? I'm likely to punch right in the fucking mouth and KEEP punching until I pound the hypocrisy out them.

Honestly, I can't think ANY other way to get through to these assholes. Threats and violence are the only thing they understand. Reason, logic, actual history, religion, NOTHING works. They've walked around the homeless and the destitute and the hungry and the poor and the sick their entire lives. They bitch and complain and whine ENDLESSLY about how terrible they have it, in fact they never shut the fuck up about how miserable they have it - and they walk around the homeless every single day without a second thought. Hell, it's not enough for them to ignore the destitute, these very same assholes pass laws prohibiting YOU from helping the homeless and they bulldoze homeless encampments and cut funding for shelters at EVERY opportunity.

They didn't give a shit about homeless veterans before Obama, they don't now, and they NEVER will.

That picture? That one of the dead Syrian child washed up on a beach? The one I asked you to stop posting? I asked you to stop posting it because it does NOTHING. They don't care. These people are the same ones whose ancestors looked at dead African American children and dead Native American children and shrugged. Nits make lice, they said, one less to grow up into my enemy. Get 'em while they're young. These are the same people, the very same people, who turn back sick starving abused children at our Southern border every single day. Who stood outside a bus full of refugee children in Southern California shouting fuck you, go home and die, pendejos. If pictures of dead children had ANY power to sway these selfish sons of bitches, we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place.

And now? Now it's homeless veterans. Wah wah wah and oh my eyes are full of tears for their sad condition. What has Obama, OBAMA, done about homeless veterans? Wah wah wah. We should take care of our own first.

Take care of our own first?

Really? Take care of our own first? I'm hip.

WHAT THE FUCK IS STOPPING YOU?

You want to do something about homeless vets? Your heart bleeds red, white, and blue for their plight? Then DO something about it, or shut the fuck up.

If these people actually gave even the smallest shit about veterans, they'd actually DO something instead of creating memes to attack whichever political party or politician they currently despise.

I'll say here what I said in reply to somebody on another thread complaining about Michelle Obama's effort to find housing for Veterans:

US Veterans have suffered the effects of war and American indifference since the Revolution. The First Lady, Michelle Obama, made veteran care and especially military families her priority since the day she moved into the White House. She's done more for veterans than all the worthless yellow magnets stuck on the back of SUVs across America and more than the majority of our worthless Congress combined and has quietly, every day for the last seven years. This woman has been a tireless advocate for military families, but she gets no credit for it and you for sure won't hear Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck mention it between calling her a "gorilla" and a "mooch."

Yes, it sure would great to see America actually do something for homeless vets - or ALL the homeless Americans those vets fought for, for that matter. But this is nothing new. This didn't happen or start on Obama's watch and it won't end with the next president whoever that may be. This isn't the President, this is US. We Americans. We've been walking around veterans on the street for two centuries. And you'll note despite all the teary-eyed patriotic rhetoric from the chest beating war mongers in Congress, they STILL haven't passed a Veterans Jobs bill and they blocked VA funding, again. Veterans are nothing more than a way to score points for both sides and Congress should be ashamed - but they don't even have the decency to do that much, nor do we have the courage and wherewithal to elect those who do.

Obama is hardly the first to welcome refugees to America. We are a nation of refugees and immigrants fleeing war, oppression, poverty, hunger, and terror and we ALWAYS have been.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

From Irish and Dutch immigrants fleeing the Potato Famine to Europeans and Chinese fleeing the Nazis and Imperial Japan, to Cambodians fleeing the killing fields, to Vietnamese, to Somalia, and Kurds, and Cubans, and Russians, and Latinos from every country in South and Central America, Presidents both liberal and conservative have welcomed refugees and immigrants to our shores - as people like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and even Barack Obama should be able to tell you.

This nonsense? This idiotic meme? The dimwitted, booger eating, soundbite partisan mentality like that in the picture above? That, that right there, is a far, far, far greater threat to the future of this country than any refugee.

Should we believe the stat pulled out of somebody's ass like this:

OOORRRRrrrrr...



0.003%! I reckon we have a better chance of eating feces today than meeting up with a Muslim extremist, much less getting killed or terrorized by them!



It's all pretty confusing to me. And I don't claim to have the spirit of Ghandi or Jesus, but we could probably use some advice from those guys right about now, eh? Wonder what they have to say about things like this. If only there was a library or a website or some huge stash of information with about, I dunno, like a google helpful posts and stories and webpages and pics and stuff like that I could somehow tap into....






All right! Thank you, Google! I might be a bit late with this. I have seen quite a few people getting angry about fellow Facebookers posting warnings about accepting refugees. I can't help thinking about the Japanese internment camps during WWII. You know what? I have been to Japan and I've seen the powerfully implanted nationalism even modern Japan provides for its citizens. I bet it was even stronger back in the day. So, yes, there would likely have been some loyal to their Emperor. Don't forget, they didn't even consider Hirohito a human being. He was a god! Like North Koreans feel about THEIR leader. But who among us can get away with saying those internment camps were a good idea? I actually wrote a paper on them in grade school and got a zero for taking the wrong side of the story.

Surely, no matter how you vet them, there will be a person or two among the refugees who might have radical tendencies. But it comes down to a question of morality. How many people do you think are worth showing love to for every possible terrorist? Put another way, how many terrorists would Jesus abide? Or Ghandi? Put still another way, the way I, (and my 8-year-old mentality understand it best), are you scared of eating a little crap? I think people who claim to follow philisophical or religious ideals of peace and love have to consider this a chance to live up to those ideals. Sure there is danger, but it's pretty tough these days to find anything good or worthwhile that doesn't involve at least a little risk.

I have nothing to back this up, but I think it's possible that if we DON'T stop being afraid and start showing more love to our fellow man, it can only make a bad situation worse. Terrorism is called that because fear makes it stronger. Let's knock it off, okay?

Lincoln International School Shames Honest Abe

So I don't know if I've ever written it on here before or not, but the place I had my hopes pinned on, the international school where I was finally going to live my dream of teaching high school English instead of ESL, its name is Lincoln International School. I guess now I should say, "was." YUP! My luck remains perfectly intact! This morning I received news that the major investor, (to parenthetically state the unparenthetical, a CHINESE guy), was sentenced to 3 years in prison. So the place is going to shut down completely at the end of the month.

Which leaves me with a criminal record check, pristinely unused and 5.5 months old. They're only good for 6 months here. Right. I have two weeks to find a job. The whole time I was waiting here in Icheon, living on campus, BEGGING these knuckleheads to give me a contract and get my E-2 visa started, I was noticing jobs that were okay, but nothing that would have been nearly as lucrative, enjoyable, healthy, and in all other ways GOOD for me. So I didn't put out resumes really even though Lincoln International High School took its sweet time in getting organized. I was told repeatedly, "Don't worry. Don't worry."

The incredible truth is that I've been hearing that now for almost two years! First from Wall Street. "Don't worry, we'll have your business visa changed to a work visa soon." Then when they got their visa privileges taken away, I heard it from Matthew at English Today on a bi-weekly basis. "Don't worry, I'll get you your work visa soon." Then when I gave up because it became obvious Matthew wasn't really putting much effort into it, I signed with Wall Street again after their visa privileges got reinstated. For SEVEN MONTHS John there was saying to me, "Don't worry, the work visa will be another week or so." Four months in Indonesia and then I had to move to Korea where he continued promising the work visa for another 3 months. By the time Wall Street actually acquired a work visa for me and invited me back to work, I had found this job at Linconln International High School. It was July. And immediately John, (a new John), started saying things like, "Don't worry, you'll have a contract soon." You see I needed a contract to negotiate my work visa. Time went by and I was taking hours here and there where I could find them, but mostly living off the generosity of friends while waiting and desperately pleading with anyone who would listen to me to PLEASE get me a damn work visa! This is what lead to everyone saying, "Don't worry. Don't worry."

And I realize worrying doesn't help. But I think if I HAD worried a bit more and/or taken the advice of all my friends here who were telling me to just get out while I can, I wouldn't be this deep in the hole. I may have been able to find alternate employment. I might actually HAVE a work visa and a job by now! But I was hoping for this, a much better job than anything I had had or seen before or since.

Now I have to take the first thing that comes along. The same situation I was in when Wall Street gave me the boot. About a month to find a job. So I put out 20 resumes today at jobs like teaching kindergarten 8 hours a day, Monday to Saturday, 5 days of vacation for 2.1 million Won plus housing allowance. That's about the worst deal you can come by here in Korea. But I gotta take anything I can get right now. I've been sliding deeper and deeper into debt waiting for the impossible, an honest school owner in Korea. Even worse, I was waiting for an honest CHINESE school owner in Korea! I didn't know I was waiting for his sentencing to be passed. Sentencing for what, I am not sure, but it's gotta be business fraud of some kind. Believe it or not this is not even the first time the school I work for has had its ownder thrown in the clink! Back when I worked for Pagoda, the owner, Mr. Go, a devout Christian who was constantly pressuring students and teachers to do what Jesus would do, got busted doing something Jesus would never do. It was tax evasion. Mr. Go was not "rendering unto Caesar that which was Caesar's." I think he was in prison for a couple of years.

Then the wife of Mr. Go, who I always called Mrs. Go, herself a devout Christian always pressuring students and teachers at Pagoda to do what Jesus does, hired a hit man to kill one of Mr. Go's relatives. I'm not making this up!

Why oh WHY can't these people just do business properly and legally? There is ALWAYS some scheme involved and every single place I've worked I have had to do the old act. "I see what you're doing. It's not nearly as clever as you think it is. But I'll be a nice guy, or a stupid guy, knowing full well you see no distinction between the two, and fake like I don't know exactly what you are up to and think you are a scumbag for doing it." Those forced smiles and clammy handshakes upon signing contracts full of obvious holes. I can only stand it because in most cases, the deal is still a good one even after the requisite ass raping. And it is required to quell the insecurities of the employer, make him feel superior and make him feel like a good businessman. Because, after all, if you just get what you earn, you're not doing business right. You have to cheat! Get as much as you can without actually earning it. THAT'S business. Right? Well, no! To me that's just cheating and these assholes who do it DESERVE to be put in jail.

So they go there for 2 or 3 years while the entire staffs of their abandoned schools are the ones suffering. Not to mention the students and the parents of the students.

If I had been hired in September, when I was told I'd be hired, I could have done a camp or two and made this school some money. And made mySELF some money! Then I wouldn't be broke and jobless like I am now. AGAIN! And maybe this place would have enough money to give the workers more than the wages they have earned. I'm only getting paid for the hours I've worked and because they were not on the books, but I was substituting for another teacher, they're free to pay me whatever the hell they want. One of the other reasons they took forever to come up with a contract, no doubt.

I don't give a shit if someone from Korean Immigration reads this either. It's not like I'm TRYING to work illegally! When I first got here I applied for and was interviewed for several camp positions. I had to turn down or be turned down for 3 of them because I could not get the proper work visa. One of them actually suggested I work WITHOUT the visa and I said no. Another camp that wanted me was cancelled due to the MERS scare. Yeah, that's the kind of roll I'M on!

I've been here so long that I did something that I've never heard of anyone doing before: I renewed my 6-month visitor visa. You should have seen the immigration worker at the airport! She gave me the weirdest look! NOOOObody stays in Korea for that long! I mean there are a few sites worth seeing and some spectacular food, but six months will cover it all. Heck 3 months would do you. So she grilled me about what I was doing in Korea and of course I couldn't tell her I was working or looking for work so I just said I was visiting friends. Then she made me give names of friends and she looked them up on her screen. SHe was positive I was working illegally. So now I KNOW if I had actually received a contract from Lincoln International School, the second I went into immigration they would not only know I was working, they'd know WHERE I was working and they'd have paid the school a little visit. I'd have been deported and the school would've been fined. Or shut down. But I guess we've been spared all that unpleasantness.

That's me. Always looking on the bright side. The thing is I wasn't actually working. The actual new course was supposed to start today. I was suposed to have a textbook and a new course. Of course I wasn't expecting much notice but I was in the classroom at 8:20 this morning, with students, with an ESL lesson prepared just in case, not knowing what the hell was going on when I was called and told to go to the principal's office. I thought I'd be told that I was going to take John's classes. He's the guy who interviewed me way back in July. He lives in Seoul and travels over an hour both ways to teach his classes everyday. He doesn't like doing it and I was getting hours just filling in for him when he couldn't or wouldn't come to work. Yeah. I LIVE on campus. They convinced me to move to the school even after I told them I'd only do it if I got a contract. They assured me I'd get a contract and, of course, told me not to worry. I moved in over a month ago and, alas, still no contract. And I guess there'll never be one because despite what Jesus, or Honest Abe Lincoln would do if one of them owned an international high school, it's enough to admire them without any attempts at emulation.

I received no payment for the time I spent basically "on call" or "on retainer" here. None. When I went to Japan to renew my visitor's visa the school bought the ticket. They said it was their responsibility and they'd pay the penalty. But guess who paid hotel and food. If they'd signed me when they told me they were going to, I never would have had to GO to Japan. I guess they feel that living on campus and getting free cafeteria food was payment enough. It actually kept me here in the middle of nowhere so I couldn't take any short-term under the table work in Seoul, and I was handy for filling in around here. Exactly what they wanted. In fact I had to move everything myself AND clean up my own place!

So let's crunch the numbers. I think I've been living on about a million Won a month. That's about a thou. My salary here was going to be 3 million a month when I started working. So I have spent about 3 million of my own money and forfeited 6 million in salary. That's 9 million I am in the hole because of these bastards. And who knows how long I'll be finding another job? I am seriously thinking of just looking around campus here for the most valuable things I can find and taking them to a pawn shop. Two problems with that strategy: 1. I have no way of transporting the stuff out of here let alone doing it sneakily, and 2. Korea doesn't have pawn shops. I know I'm taking all the books I can find.

REVENGE!!!

Aaahhh hooo hooo hooo sniff sniff.

Not Harper Wins!!!

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.

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.

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...