It's A Wonderful Afterlife

"When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and movies. I grew up believing this dream."
- Elvis Presley -

I had told my students that pronunciation was a vital part in speaking English. There seems to be a huge problem with Asian natives saying the letter "L". My students were now staring at me as I began my class. "We're going to practice saying words with the letter L in it," I began as my sleepy students blinked at me.

"Repeat with me, okay?" I said.

"OK," said the half dead masses.

"Repeat: Whole."

"Whore."

I rubbed my forehead. "Nope. Let's try again. WHOLE."

"WHORE," my students recited.

"Students, this is why I said pronunciation is so important. If you say I want that whore pie, Americans might think you're being passive aggressive with said pie. People will think you have anger issues," I explained.


Speaking of my students, this is their finals week, meaning my time in Korea is just about over. I'll be on American soil in due time ordering a huge bucket of KFC chicken (extra crispy) and a huge thing of gravy. It will be a reunion like no other. I'll be glad to see my family as well.

I love test weeks, because the students take their tests from 9 AM to 12 PM and are free to go home afterwards. Unfortunately, I'm contractually obligated to stay in my office regardless if there are actual classes to teach or not. It's not a big deal, because I spend my time drinking mango juice, leaving obscene comments on Facebook, and watching People's Court on Youtube. I've become an old person.

Anyway, I went for a stroll around the university behind my high school and took some shots of the foliage. It reminded me of how beautiful Korea really is and how much I actually want to stay living here. I'm still not 100% sure if I'll return in March.

In any case, with my free time I finally got to take some pictures of my brand new classroom. I'm not impressed with the name. I suggested using "The Language Lounge" to set for a relaxing atmosphere, or "The English Playhouse", which actually might give the wrong impression to a bunch of hormonal teenage boys.
I do have a big problem with my new room. The students have to take off their shoes, which allows the evil culminating in their shoes to be liberated into the atmosphere, essentially making me gag. Some of their feet stink REALLY BAD. This coming from a guy who used to cut dead people open.

Please note the green can of air spray on my cabinet. This helps fight the raunchy stink that haunt my classroom. I always get a kick when the following class comes in and they all complain "Sun seng nim, nemseh nahntah!" Teacher, it stinks! They've obviously never smelled the necrosis off a diabetic foot. Wusses!

December has come and with it the joy of Christmas. Kind of. In Korea, Christmas is more a commercial holiday than a spiritual one. I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit at all. I really could use the Christmas ghosts of the past, present, and back-to-the-future to really rev up that seasonal joy. Unfortunately, marijuana's illegal here.

Oh, I also had to go see a doctor for some suspected food poisoning. I'm telling you, there's something very right about the Korean medical system. It took about two minutes from filling out my registration information to seeing the doctor. Then, the actual check up with the doctor was about twenty minutes of medical gobbledygook. I was prescribed a butt load of medicine and I was out the door. Check out my medication below:
Total cost? Doctor's visit: 3,000 Korean won. That's about $2.50! My medication cost: 5,000 Korean won. That's roughly $4.30! For a total cost of under ten bucks. You suckers are getting ripped off.

Hope all is well for everyone back home. I'll update again soon.