I am not dreaming of a white Christmas

As I promised myself that I would try my hardest not to read the Korea Times as much, today I turned to that second bastion of English language news in Korea: The Korean Hearld.  The article that caught my eye today was one entitled: Death Threat Leveled at ATEK (the association of English teachers in Korea).

I will not provide the necessary historical background for this group as other K-bloggers have already splendidly done so.  I will provide one section of the article for your consideration. This section is an excerpt from an email submitted to the president of the ATEK.

"I have organized the KEK (Kill White in Korea). This group of people is about 200 in anywhere in Korea," the e-mail read. "We will gonna start to kill and hit White (expletives) english spectrum from this Chirstmas. Don't make a fuss in there, just get out."


While, in no way is this particulary scary for me, I hope that the police will do all in their power to find the individual responsible for this and lay the appropriate charges. In the meantime, however; I'd better not pout, and I'd better not complain because 200 soju filled kimchiphiles might, but are probably not, coming to town.

I guess someone isn't dreaming of a white Christmas with every death threat that they write. 
May your days be hate filled and fearful
And may all your Christmas be xenophobic



Cheers
Adam

Interesting Conversation

I am still sitting at my desk doing nothing and I am still largely ignored.  I am not complaining.  I am just bored.  Afterall, one can only smoke so many cigarettes in an eight hour work day, right?

Today, my vice principal called me over to his desk.  This is a rough transcript of the conversation that transpired.

Vice Principal (VP):  The police are asking the questions.
Me: The police are asking questions about what?
VP: The foreigners do the bad things.
Me:  Yes, some do, however; some Koreans do bad things as well.
VP:  They say the foreigners eat the drugs and want the informations.
Me: Well, yes some are involved with drugs. 
VP: Frankly Speaking, do you eat the drug?
Me: No, I don't.  I do like to drink soju and eat kimchi though.
VP:  That is good.  We don't have the problem then.

I guess the media has riled the police up again to suspect the foreign hordes again.  I am upset that my VP thought that I would be aligned with their ilk. 

I read on Daveseslcafe.com that the police are doing random searches and drug test at foreigners apartments.  I am interested to see how this plays out.  I did not read anything about this in both the crappy Korea Times or Korea Hearld rags.  I am sure that the most reviled member of Korea's journalistic community, Mr. Kang, will take no time reporting this turn of events in tomorrow's edition.

Back to my state of ennui then,
Cheers,
Adam

Updates on Silence

Well, as I suspected I would become a lazy sod, or, return to my regular lazy routine.  My last post was on Nov 6. 

Not much new to report since then.  On Nov 11, I completed my second one year contract at my school.  Currently, I am constantly debating with my SO if we should return to Canada for Christmas.  I think that it would be nice for her to experience some traditional Canadian Chrsitmas festivities, but I understand that she is busy and that to Koreans Christmas isn't important at all (outside of an obligatory chapter in a middle school English textbook). 

Much like the changing of the seasons, we have returned to exam time.  A time where I am but a lonely ghost wandering the halls of the school as I have nothing to do.  A time where everyone is too busy and too stressed to say hello, so I sit day after day in silence at my desk.  It is almost an awful reminder of dinners at home when I was a child where everyone would sit in silence for 20 minutes or so while completing their meal.  How I wish it was only for 20 minutes, try doing it for 8 hours then going home to a silent apartment to fill out the remainder of the evening.

During this time, I guess I get a little overly sensitive.  Due to the fact that I must become a two week long solipist, I tend to think too much, and as result become to obsessed with my suscipions about what is going on.  I tend to drink more during this period, as I would like to experience any feeling other than this crushing boredom.  Whether related, or not I said something insensitive to my SO on the weekend which I immediately regretted.  Now, she is quite understandably upset.

I have been thinking about signing up for an online master's course.  Perhaps something intellectually challenging would be of benefit for me.  However, in these exam ghost like periods, I feel completely unwilling to do anything and would much rather wait to engage in new projects during more hospitable times.

Sometimes I think that I am an unecessary nussiance here.  Someone that everyone must put up with at school, but with whom they are really not sure what to do with.  So, most months I get paid a decent salary for just sitting around and doing nothing...

I realize that this short piece seems a bit disjointed.....but I lack the energy and drive to make it more comphrensible or cohesive.  I can't be bothered checking the spelling either.

Anyways, back to wandering the halls ghost like and invisible,
And dream of far away scotches
To 5pm

Adam

Manjuma

It is Friday. Today, I scared a student because she gave me the finger.

I made 3 pumpkin pies, washed the dishes, and walked the dog.

I am the manjuma ko ko ka choo.

That is all.

Monday Malaise

Greetings,

My best intentions of writing this blog regularly are starting to vanish faster than a bottle of soju around an adjoshi.  Last week was pretty uneventful.  I renewed my visa last Wednesday.  I was pleasantly surprised that this occurred without much incident. 

On Friday, everyone at school went out for dinner.  We ate duck and drank soju.  The old repairman at the school wanted to fight.  He drank too much.  He was ultimately brought to his senses by several colleagues.  I drank so much soju that evening that I left the establishment with the wrong pair of shoes.  They aren't even a nice pair of shoes.  They are too big and smell like rotting kimchi.

Saturday was an uneventful Halloween.  I walked in the rain to Home Plus to buy a pumpkin and some wine.  I carved my Jack o Lantern and watched some insipid golf movie.  My girlfriend fell asleep on the couch. 

Sunday involved a game of screen golf.  I need more practice and more exercise.  My arms are quite stiff this morning.

Today is quite cold.  I am bored at work as usual.  The speech contest is underway.  Of course I am not required to take any part in the speech contest.  After all, why should the native English teacher in any way evaluate the performance, or memory, of his students. 

I should never ever read the Korea Times newspaper.  It is full of banal stale articles and both veiled and explicit racist fear mongering.  There is one little weasel at the times, Kang Shin Who, who deserves an economy class ticket to all of Dante's circles of hell.  I just don't understand why anyone would write articles in English then insult the core reading demographic.  According to that little kimchi stain, all foreign teachers are drug using sex offenders.  Sigh*  This is an unfortunate reoccurring motif and weekly one is subjected to this same theme again and again.  It makes one feel a little depressed after a while.

This is all I care to report for now.