Hello all -
I was feeling strangely guilty for not posting anything lately to my blog, until I realized that lately I've been pretty good at posting stuff; so don't worry, I patted myself on the back, said "good one, old chap" and decided, well, while I'm at it, I may as well post something....
so the other month, as me and my roommates were sitting in my apartment, the topic of the fabled "mogi" came up. Just as you're probably wondering now, I too asked "what in blazes is a mogi" my two roommates who have been here for over ten months just laughed, and said, ever had a mosquito bite? Well, multiply it by about five times. Being the naive foreigner that I am (on a side note, it still feels strange to be called a foreigner- it seems like it'd be easy to accept living in a city of over 20million people...But it still is strange...I digress) being as naive as I am, I laugh, and proudly boast that mosquito's don't like my blood. Well, I'm proud to say that mosquito's still don't like my blood - mogi's unfortunately have no problem. And these things are vicious. I've got a mogi bite on my chest that I've had for over a week now, and it feels like I've got poison ivy. These little buggers are such a hassle that the city goes as far as to spray pesticides and fumigate all their favourite nesting spots in every single neighbourhood. They just come through on their motorbike, and spray it out the back (yup, the guy in front is perfectly fine - but if you're behind the dude on the bike, look out...The cool thing about this guy is that the whole neighbourhood goes running when they hear him coming. His machine sounds something like a Lancaster bomber - this thing makes a racket..So people hear him coming, and everyone runs, closes their windows, and the whole neighbour clears out...Its kinda funny)
so as of right now, I've been teaching for four months. And almost as if on cue, the caca has hit the fan. This past week has gone miserably slow, and I'm getting all sorts of crap thrown at me, and unfortunately its not of the sweet smelling variety. There's a lot of people who are going to be coming and going in the next few months, and work is going to go from something fun, to something really really aggravating. When I came to my school, there was only three of us, and it was a smooth transition, because there were a lot of people who were willing to help, etc. But when you have upwards of seven new faculty coming in the next month and a half, it makes things really stressful around the workplace. The problem is that the market for hiring new teachers from overseas is becoming really competitive, and so the new teachers being hired are fresh out of school, with no teaching experience other than a bachelor's degree. Oh well, such is life. I'm not the one doing the hiring, so I can't complain; its twice as hard for her.
well, I'm going to finish off this posting with a happy Canada day to you all - I hope this posting finds you in a celebratory mood with the day off- enjoying your three day work weeks and all - you all stink.....Its a tough life when you're not an English teacher in a foreign country.
oh, wait, on second thought. I thought that I'd leave any future postings open to anyone who has any questions about the country. Seeing as how I can't check my own blog for any comments, I'm leaving the option open to anyone who reads this thing to e-mail me at bwildschut@gmail.com with any questions you might want answered about Corea. I'll make sure to give you full credit in the blog for your question (or anonymous if you're too embarrassed) and I'll do my best to answer the question.
I hope all is going well with all of you, and I thank you for your prayers.
God Bless
Bryan