new puppy and moving

hello! well since last post we got a new puppy!!! jens found him at his school!

here's the story he posted on facebook:
Expats in Korea have an itinerant habit of taking in stray animals, at which I always laughed in my Rabelaisian way. But yesterday I pulled into my school parking lot to find some first-graders tormenting (with love) a shaggy Maltese pup. I liberated the poor guy and realized, once I picked him up, that I could not put him down - not that I would not, or should not, but that it was simply not an option. I called Randi to okay it, and we had another member of the family!
He was in bad shape, with long streaky tear stains and muddy belly and sooty greyish fur on his back and snout - road pollution, like snow on the side of a highway. His hair was comically ragged - someone, a child or possibly retarded adult, had long ago tried to cut his hair with scissors, but given up partway through. There were bald patches and half-hacked patches; he looked like a mop run over with a lawn mower.
I took him to the vet. I didn't have a dog box with me for the scooter, so I tucked him into my jacket and zipped him up, with his shaggy head poking through my collar. The Koreans looked at me, shall we say, "with interest". But he rode calmly all the way to the vet, fortunately not urinating on my nice red-striped shirt.
I played with him in front of the vet's office while waiting for the vet to show up. He sniffed around the parking lot with lively interest and stuck his tiny head all the way in a drainpipe to lap up a little bit of water. The pitifulness of this TRANSFIXED me, and I ruminated thus: "Poor guy..."
The vet arrived and I deposited the pup with orders to groom and examine him. Randi and I toyed with names all day; initially I favored "Perestroika", but she suggested "Hobak," which is Korean both "pumpkin", but is also slang for "ugly girl". But it didn't quite roll off the tongue, so we went with "Jjang", which is Korean for "very good" or "awesome," and is fun to say.
After work, I returned to the vet's, and he told me that Jjang has a mostly clean bill of health, except for an inflammation of the anus. Wow! But a shot of antibiotics ought to clear that up. He weighs only about two kilograms, it turns out, after the shaving. I took him home, and he met Sadie. They warmed up to each other quickly and were soon chasing each other up and down the apartment.
Jjang slept in Sadie's old bed next to our bed - he won't get to sleep ON the bed until he's pad-trained. Still working on that. When I came home from work today, he went berserk and tried to climb up my leg. He's attached! So is Randi. Not I. I am immune to human sentiment.

so yeah, things are going pretty well so far! sadie and jjang play all the time! jjang is much tinier than sadie but he holds his own! he's 4 lbs. and she's 10 or 11. we're in the process of pad-training him. he pees on the pads about half the time and on the floor half the time :o( it's been quite a while since we've had to pad train a puppy so it's hard getting back in the swing of it and realizing we need to be veerrry patient! i'm hoping he learns faster than sadie did! it took her about a month or two to totally stop peeing on the floor.

now if all i was having to deal with was pad training a puppy it wouldn't be so bad but since we're also in the process of getting ready to move and start at new schools we've got some added stress. tonight i've been trying to clean the apt. up because my co-t is coming to inspect it tomorrow. i guess to make sure all the stuff is in here that needs to be in here. and it's been quite a hassle since i've already had to clean up pee twice and settle some fights over bones, etc. lol

i just hope it looks decent enough for her tomorrow and that we can get it all spic and span before we move (for the new people).

the movers are also coming by tomorrow to give us a quote on how much it'll cost to move the stuff we need to move. we're taking a few pieces of furniture with us that we bought ourselves like the dresser and bookshelves along with all our small junk. i think they might be dropping off the baskets that we'll be putting all our stuff in too (they don't use boxes here. they use these big plastic baskets.) i was surprised they'd be dropping them off so soon cuz last time we moved they didn't give us the baskets until 1-2 days before we had to move. so i'm glad we'll have longer to pack this time.

it's getting so close!! jens and i went to immigration today and extended our visas and alien registration cards for another year. that's expensive! 80,000won per person for a multiple entry visa. that's a little less than $80 these days. and the multi- entry is so that we can visit other countries and come back. everything went pretty smoothly so that good! :o)

i'll be getting a raise this year which is nice :o) jens doesn't get one because he's already at the highest level (well there's one more level but you have to live here like 5 years or have a masters in educ. or something to get there). and almost all the english teachers in jeollanamdo will be getting another raise in the next couple of months because the exchange rate is so bad right now. so that's really nice! we're really hating the exchange rate right now. we don't even wanna send money home because we'll "lose" so much. for example before the economic crisis if we sent 1 million won home it'd be about $1000. but now if we send 1 million won home it's only $755!!! we're hoping it'll get better.

anyway, we've got a busy weekend lined up! sat. we're celebrating little eoghan's first birthday in the afternoon and then that night the fighting mokpo all-stars (band jens is in) will be performing at alex and katrina's going away party at p club (that's the couple we're replacing). then on sunday there's a picnic on yudal mountain which i'm really looking forward too. i hope it's warm. it had been pretty warm for a few days there but today it was a little chilly because it rained over night.

then next week is my last week! i can't believe it! i don't even have to work the entire week actually. wed. is my last day and i might get out early because jens scheduled the movers to come then. we're off thursday! (yaaay!) so we'll get to unpack and settle in. then friday is our first day at our new schools. but i duno if we'll have to go in for the full day and actually teach or what. all the brand new teachers will just be getting into mokpo that day. so i doubt we'll have to teach. i wanna get my room set up with all the things i bought in the states when we visited. i got some big continent posters, abc cursive chart, a couple other posters, etc.

then that sat. we'll meet our replacements, show them around town and then there'll probably be a welcome dinner for all the newbies that night.

i think jens and i will have a housewarming party on sat. may 2nd which will be fun. i'm still super excited about having a bigger place :o) you'll definitely be seeing some pictures once i get time to load them.

speaking of pictures. i'm gonna go add pics of jjang to facebook right now! have a great week! live*love*laugh!

Almost time to move!!!!

It's April! Yay! I feel like writing a colorful blog today! :o) It's actually beginning to look a lot like Spring here in Mokpo, South Korea! The Cherry Blossoms are blooming :o) I LOVE them! It's still pretty cold though so I'm hoping it'll warm up soon!

But now that it's April I feel like I can begin my countdown to the time we move and start our NEW jobs!!! We've got about 2.5 weeks! Woohoo!

Now, first of all I wanna get some venting out of the way. So here goes:

I was a bit frustrated this past week because I called in sick on Monday (everyone has a cold right now) and on Tuesday my co-t actually gave me crap for it. She said I shouldn't ever call in on a Monday because I should have time to rest on Sat. and Sun. which I can understand to a certain extent but you can't help what day you get sick! I felt the worst on Monday so I called in. In Korea they don't have the concept of - if you're sick, STAY HOME! They think you should always come to work no matter what. I've never had a co-t that has ever taken even ONE sick day! So you can imagine the conflict between the Korean teachers and the foreign teachers here when it comes to sick days. Foreigners see it as- I get FIFTEEN sick days in my contract so I'm allowed 15 days. Period. No questions asked. Yet as soon as a foreigner takes ONE day their school freaks out! The first time I took a sick day my principal had my co-t come to my house to check on me! (Which would be so inappropriate in the U.S. - an invasion of privacy). It was like he thought- omg, if she called in she must be dying! Better check on her! either that or - I don't believe she's sick, better go see.

What frustrated me so much this time was that it's the beginning of the school year. I'd only be working at this school for 2 months of this school year. I've got like 10-12 sick days left to use. This school has been working with me for 2 years. They know that I take sicks days eeeeevery so often. And I'm about to leave forever and never work for them again. Yet STILL when I take ONE sick day they have to scold me over it and act all put out. The thing is I know I didn't put out my co-t by not being there Monday. I know for a fact that she has no problem teaching by herself. I know this because she practically takes over my portion of the teaching every time I try to teach. It's obvious she'd be happier if I just wasn't there. But because she had to tell the principal that I wasn't coming to school and because of the way Korean culture is she felt she had to say something.

In my opinion it just created unneccesary awkwardness and tension between us. Because she scolded me it made me angry and frustrated and made me not want to interact with her for most of the week. I felt like it was a bad time to pick a battle ya know? I've got 2.5 weeks left! What's the point in trying to change my "sick day" behavior now? It's like just wait 2.5 weeks and you'll be rid of me! lol

What I think needs to happen though is this- Korean teachers need to be better informed of what foreigners are like, what their culture is like and how they're going to think about certain things. For example- sick days. Korean teachers should be told that in most English speaking countries- when you're sick, you call in, no questions asked (within reason of course! if you call in like 3 days in a row someone might need to say something. or if you call in like once a week for 3 weeks or something that's definitely grounds for a talking to but you get what i mean). KTs should just be aware that FTs have a right to take 15 days a year within reason. They shouldn't say something to us the first time we ever take a sick day. Or if we only take one like once every 3 months or something they shouldn't scold us. No FT I've ever known has ever taken all of their 15 days. It's not like we're abusing the privelage of having the days. Most people take one just eeeevery once in a while- like you might back home. And I think Korean teachers (and principals, etc.) just need to accept that. There are things we FTs have to accept about Korean culture and I just believe this is one thing KTs should back down from. It's not that big of a deal and esp. in elem. school it doesn't mean that the classes won't get taught- there's always a co-t there to fill in, no problem.

Ok I'm off my soapbox now :o)

Anyway! I'm hoping my new school (the high school) won't be as uptight about sick days. I've already asked my "predecessor" about it and apparently he's never had much of a problem. His co-t doesn't act put out, she doesn't call him later in the day or show up at his apt. to check on him and doesn't scold him the next day at school. So that sounds nice :o) This whole sick day ordeal at my school has been the bain of my existence for TWO YEARS! I have always gotten flack for it every single time I've taken a sick day so it'll be really nice not to have that problem anymore :o)

Of course I do realize I will have other, different problems at my new school lol Mainly, the main co-t. I don't have to teach with her but she's sort of my "guide" in and out of school in Korea. I go to her for help with immigration issues, apt. issues, getting a cell phone, and anything related to "life in Korea" and my "predecessor" calls her "the retard" lol ...for good reason! She apparently has no clue how to interact with people (asks inappropriate questions and is super awkward), gets confused about the simplest of things (even in her everyday life in Korea...not due to translation problems), and many other things. So I'm not really looking forward to dealing with her. But! it sounds like there will be several other English teachers that are really cool and helpful. So that'll be good :o)

I'll be teaching 1st and 2nd grade high school (which is 10th and 11th grade in the U.S. - I know it's really weird how they do it here) and I'll have 8 classes of each grade so 16 classes a week I believe...plus one extra class and one teachers class. Something like that. Doesn't sound bad at all.

I'll have my own classroom with my very own attached office! Plus I'll have another desk up in some teachers staff room which I'll have to go to every once in a while. So all in all I'll have like 3 desks in the school which is pretty cool. I'm most excited about having my own classroom though. Like really my OWN! I don't even have to share it with a co-t like I do now at the elem. school. So I can really and truly do whatever I want!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I'm ecstatic about that!!! I can decorate it how I want, I can make my own rules and punishment system and ACTUALLY implement it! And I can teach whatever I want, however I want (to a certain extent of course- I'm sure if I just showed movies every day that wouldn't fly lol). But I'll have total autonomy- I can't even believe it! I've been dealing with co-ts at my current school for so long I can hardly imagine what it'll be like to actually have some say in what goes on in my classroom! Yipee!!! When I leave the elem. school I'm really gonna have to resist the urge to say SO LONG SUCKA'S!!! lol

Now I know I will be replaced by another person and I don't want it to sound like that person is going to have a horrible time at my school- they most likely will have a fine time if not a great time! Why? Because it'll be their first year. I think the first year is the easiest in a lot of ways because you're brand new, you don't know much about the country and how it works and why it is the way it is. So when weird things happen at school you kinda just blow it off. You chock it up to cultural differences and don't worry about it that much. It's when you've finished a year here and go through a second that things start to get a little difficult because now you know a lot about the country and you see why certain things are the way they are. You see the things you believe to be faults and how they could fix them, yet they don't fix them so it's frustrating, ya know? I know that sounds really ethnocentric but it's true. You can't help but project your own values and culture on Korea when you're here long enough. That's just how it is.

So yeah, I'm sure the new girl will be just fine at the elem. school. It's a pretty good gig overall. The schedule is good. It doesn't look like they're going to force extra classes on her. There's an English classroom which makes so many things so much easier. The co-t speaks really good English so there's not as much chance for things to get lost in translation (there's just the chance of cultural differences getting in the way). There are a lot of things about the school and the job that are positive. I've just worked there two years and need to move on to something different. I need a change.

Anywhoooo- tonight is the 1950s style welcome to Mokpo/birthday party for our contact person at the JOE (Jeollanamdo Office of Educ.) The entire office is moving to Muan so she'll be living in Mokpo now (they're next to each other). The Fighting Mokpo All-Stars will be performing! It's Jens, Alex B., Nick K. and another guy I've never met. They've been practicing 50s tunes all week and it's been pretty fun to listen to :o) I grew up listening to that stuff with my parents on 98.7 KLUV! lol Made me kinda homesick.

I'm gonna try to find a pink scarf to wear in my hair today. I think Katrina is gonna go downtown with me. I also wanna see if there are any affordable, business-style clothes down there. I feel my wardrobe is a bit too relaxed compared to what Korean teachers wear most of the time. I just wanna get a couple items to spruce things up a bit...if there's anything affordable. Last time I looked I could only find tops for like 100,000won! Koreans spend way too much on clothes!

Then tomorrow is little Eoghan's b-day. He'll be 1 year old! It's crazy to think it's already been over a year since Crystal and I threw Amanda her baby shower! That was the first baby shower I had ever helped host and now I'm about to co-host a 3rd one! Abby's pregnant and Shanna and I are planning her baby shower for end of June/early July. I'm so excited! I love party planning in general. Wish I could do it back home but I dunno how to get into it...plus it prob. doesn't pay much...

Pretty soon here we're gonna have to go over to the new apt. and figure out what all we wanna keep/switch out, etc. We're gonna switch out some of the stuff that we bought ourselves. Like we wanna keep our coffee pot, dishes, some utensils, etc. So we'll take ours over there and bring theirs over here. We won't be taking anything that's meant to stay in this apt. though. Stuff that belongs to the school.

I'm SO excited about having a 3 bedroom apt. though!!! I just can't wait!! It's gonna be so nice. I was pretty content with our apt. this year but it's just really exciting to finally be living in one of the big apts.! We'll actually have space to walk all the way around our bed! and we'll have a table that can seat SIX people! and we'll have a REAL desk! (not a converted vanity table on stilts lol) and we'll have a looooong balcony and tons of storage! and a BIG sink! and TWO wardrobes! oh AND a closet!!! omg the list just goes on and on! not to brag or anything :o) I'm just getting excited to finally have all these creature comforts :o) some people are lucky enough to get a big apt. their first year. It's just a matter of what job you happen to get. So it just so happened we were stuck with a tiny apt. our first year and for our 2nd year we convinced our schools to move us but we still ended up with a less than ideal-sized apt. It was definitely better than the first so that's why I've been fairly content with it. But it's just awesome to finally get one of the biggest apts. out of all the foreigner apts. in Mokpo. Now I'll have no problem when it comes to having big parties! I can invite everyone! Yay!

So that's what's going on in my world- finishing up the elem. school job. About to move to a big apt. and start working at the high school. Going to birthday parties. Cuddling with the puppy :o) (she's doing just fine by the way). Enjoying the coming of Spring! Anticipating warm weather! And that's about it for now :o)

I may not update again til after we move. Not sure yet, we'll see. Until then I hope you all have a wonderful April! :oD