Finally, I have Internet again.

The camp techie, Jang Hui, just fixed my settings so that my computer is accessing the University LAN. Oh joy oh joy oh joy!

Here are some things I wrote during the wait for the Great Net Hookup.

January 3rd

Tonight, the LAN thinks I am connected but nothing is coming down the pipes, so I�m writing a post to be actually posted later.

Camp looks like it will be fine, but there are a couple of barricades which seem to oppose things running smoothly. The first is that some teachers don�t seem to be totally interested in getting with the program. They�re doing things �their own way? which seems to me to translate to not quite doing things full on. And yet, they have other strengths we can call upon when we need them. Ah well, inter-teacher tensions could have been much worse, so I won�t complain about that.

A bigger problem is that one of the admin people�loosely connected with the camp, but who thinks she�s rather important, apparently�didn�t purchase all the supplies on the lists teachers submitted. She�s had the lists for a month, but just didn�t do anything. She�s the same person who was supposed to procure the dormitory keys for teachers and teaching assistants; well, I did that this morning, because one of our TAs, when he called her, was told just to get them from the secutiry guy. Which was what we had to do last time, and which is always a hassle, which was why we asked that it be done ahead of time. The keys thing was easily sorted out, but the lack of paper, crayons, and other basic English camp necessities simply wasn�t. It was a sudden surprise and a big shock to us, and teaching assistants were sent scrambling at the last minute to make sure we have enough materials for tomorrow. I swear I want to yell very nasty things at this stupid, stupid woman. But you see, she�s got what they call guanxi in China; she�s got connections. So she can keep her job and do nothing at all. For the record, those people absolutely suck.

Hanging out with some of the other teachers tonight was therefore a kind of surprising relief. After the communcal bitching and camp news (ie. gossip), it got around to more interesting things, like discussions of CELTA and DELTA courses, recent and fine films like The Quiet American and some Vietnamese film I�m now curious about, and other similarly interesting and soothing conversation. It was like sitting in a nice, warm tub at the sauna, you know?

Well, now I�m going to get some sleep. I swore to myself my bedtime during camp is 12:00 midnight, and I�m going to keep to it, for my health�s sake. So off I trundle to bed.

PS: Dinner tonight was… very meaty. They served several of their biggest hit plates: spaghetti (I didn�t try it, I never eat spaghetti made by a Korean in Korea), pork cutlet (돈가스), and some kind of spicy stewed pork that was in fact quite edible. Too bad they were rationing the rice: the spaghetti was supposed to make up for it, but those refusing pasta were out of luck. Rationing rice. Damn. Right, off to bed, for real now.

January 4th

What drives me up the wall is when some massive administrative f*ckup has happened and it�s very clear whose fault it is, or who shares in the fault, and yet some little boy who seems to think his suit makes him a man tries to tell me to my face that, �It�s nobody�s fault, it�s all of our faults.?
No, you little piece of undigested cud that slipped from the back end of a dilapidated and wholly retarded she-cow, it�s not everyone�s fault, certainly not the fault of the teachers and camp coordinator who had three preparatory meetings and submitted concatenated, concise, clear materials lists—in Korean, no less, with the specific activities they�re required for clearly marked on the sheets!!!—a month ago!

The fact that whoever was supposed to buy the damned things instead sat on the lists for a month and then complained, after giving us bits and pieces of the supplied we requested, that she�s too busy to go shopping everyday during camp—which, by god, is absolutely not what we want either, but she�s too much of an idiot to send her teaching assistants out and get it all done in one day so it�s done for the whole camp, since it wasn�t even done ahead of time—and that she doesn�t know what it�s for… which is clearly marked on the damned sheet, which, have I mentioned, were submitted in Korean. I mean, how bloody stupid does one need to be to reach this woman on her level?

So, little man who says, �It�s all our faults,?I say f*ck off. Go off and show off your suit to someone else. Don�t tell me it�s my goddamned fault. You�re an idiot, and a twerp, and everyone who heard what you said knew it was bullshit, even if we pretended, for politeness?sake, that it wasn�t. We only didn�t tell you that because we�re hoping you do resolve the problems that you claimed you would.

In other news… I�ve been doing the word scrambles for other people who, despite the fact I told them the word scrambles were part of the homework sheets they were supposed to make, somewhere along the way came to thinking that the word scrambles are not part of the homework sheets. So what happened? I ended up doing the first three, and decided it was not my job. I spent enough time in the weeks before camp prepping all the worksheets, and I don�t need also to do the very simple work I�ve asked others to do. I hope it gets done, but it was made clear during the last meeting whose responsibility it would be for what, so at least nobody can blame me if it ends up messed up. And I won�t end up spending another dinner hour preparing someone else�s word puzzles.

Finally, I turn to the the kids in my class. Some of them are a little fussy, or like to reject all of my suggestions simply because they�re coming from me. I was shocked to find not one child in the class wanted to be class president, where, last time around, there were a few kids jockeying for the position. (I can�t blame them on the latter point: I�m half certain I avoided student politics as much as possible for similar reasons, really, only joining the muisic students?council because of some issue I wanted addressed that I knew nobody else would care to address.) There are some really bright kids in the group, as well as some very mischevious ones. I shall have to be a little more strict from time to time, and I asked my teaching assistant to do the same. That will hopefully ward off anything too big in the way of rebellion, and I can focus on the learning and fun in the class. Anyway, it�s only the second day, and only the first day of actual classes, so there�s a lot I don�t know about in terms of these kids, and they still have a ways to go before they really relax around one another. Hopefully tomorrow�s big activity will loosen them up somewhat more.

Still no functioning internet in the dormitory, though I�ve been told it�ll begin working tonight. Dinner was passable, or would have been if I�d arrived earlier: some spicy beef stuff, what seemed like deepfried seaweed, some rice, and a few kinds of kimchis.

I�m a little concerned, as the left wisdom tooth is starting to act up a little. I think I shall try to sleep quite early tonight, if possible. I may have to go to the doctor tomorrow evening, which would be alright but it�s hardly a fun way to spend time off from work. I�ll give the teeth and good brush, hope for the best, and wait and see tomorrow. It may just be the spices from dinner and the dry air and irritability causing my sensitivity, though the congestion in my sinuses and the weird pressurization changes in my ears suggest otherwise.

January 5th, after lunch break.

Lunch was, well, I suppose it was alright. To food is kind of a punishment-styled affair, edible things mixed in with semi-edible. I think I shall buy a few small packets of milk and some cereal… the packets of milk can defrost somewhat while I shower, and be ready for my cereal just in time for me to eat amnd rush to class in the mornings.

Coffee with Patrick is a lifesaver. He has nice, hot coffee every morning, which renders me more like a human. This is something I need in the mornings.

The kids are starting to get that I�m in charge, and that I can and will say no to some of their demands. But they�re also starting to laugh and joke a lot more, too, which is fun for them and for me, as well.

I�m thinking I need to raid my bag of fruit, which is in the fridge over at the teaching building. The diet so far has included vegetables, rice, and meats but not a lot of fruit. Almost none, to be honest, though I�m told the kids?nightly snacks include fruit.

Internet should be working sometime today, which is going to change how it feels to live at the camp dorms. Maybe it�ll hurt my productivity, I don�t know. Last night I was so tired I slept at 8:00pm or so, and then woke at around 10pm again, from the noise of the kids being back in the dormitory. I really wish the heat would be turned on around dinner time, since it�s turned off at 10am and doesn�t come back on till sometime after the kids return at night�around 10pm. Those three hours of sitting around in the dorm are damned cold and awful. I think next trip home I�ll bring one of my woollen blankets from India, which are wonderfully warm and great for when you�re stuck sitting around in a cold place.

But my main objective for downloading would be to get some TV shows and movies I�m after, and to check my email and post little things to my blog. If I do any substantial writing, I want it to be on my manuscript, since I�m so close to finishing that project now. I hit (I think it was) page 175 last night, during the noisy period before and just after lights out, and I�m guessing the book�ll be done on or around page 215 or 225.

Now I have about three minutes to kill before I need to leave for the teaching hall again. It�s nearly time for the trading game to start, and I am meeting Jae Hoon, who is helping me run the thing… ah, busy busy busy.

January 5th, evening:

If you can avoid it, don’t go to the Emergency Ward in a Korean hospital. It’s much more expensive than normal treatment, and you wait a lot longer.

On the positive angle, I’m now on nice antibiotics and painkillers for an infection in my gum, and I got time to sit and quietly read about 40 pages of Graham Greene’s (so far) hilarious novel The Comedians.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *