I love to read.  I will read almost anything if I have enough free time.  However, like television but to a lesser extent, it is certainly possible that books can provide too much escapism.   It always bothers me when someone will exclusively read one genre (after all, there are so many interesting books out there).  But for whatever reason, romance novels annoy the heck out of me.   While doing some shelving at work, I had some time to think about it.

First, the titles.  Highlander.  Desire.  Dangerous. Seduce. Master.  Lady.  There’s a long list of words that have been used to death, resurrected, and then used to death all over again.

Second, similar to Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the heroine starts out with pluck and spunk and ends up being subdued.  Unlike Shakespeare, we live in an era where finding love and marriage does not mean somehow becoming a lesser.  Now, for entertainment purposes, that’s fine.  However, if you are exposed to an “ideal” of something for an extended period of time, your own ideal will start to shift.  Especially if that ideal is seductively attractive in one way or another.

Third, there’s this magical idea that love can conquer all that is stupidly pervasive in this country.  So many people of both genders somehow have this idea that if you just love the person hard enough, that everything will be okay.  I love you. I mean it.  Poof. Everything is fantastic.  I use the word “magical” because of the power people seem to think those words contain.  However, there’s a plethora of reasons people say those words.  Here are a few translations of “I love you” that I’ve come across:

I like you a whole lot.

You are mine. I own you.

You should let me do whatever I want.

There. Now all of our problems are solved.

Don’t break up with me.

You should change.

Cynical?  Probably.  Honest? Definitely.  Love isn’t always enough.  Sometimes, the people that you love are very, very bad for you to be around for one reason or another.

Fourth, I do not like the fact that people are expected to be in couples.  Granted, it’s not as bad here as other places that I’ve been.  But I still come across people that seem to think that I’m somehow sad because I’m single.  There are days that I would like someone to snuggle up with on the couch.  But I am happy with my life the vast majority of the time.  (I even have an appreciation for my problems.)   Yes, you do need other people to make you happy (to quote About A Boy).  However, there is no hard and fast rule stating that one of those people has to be a significant other.  I have kickass friends and some pretty swell coworkers.

Fifth, most aren’t all that well written.

So that’s my rant of the day.  It should be stated that a significant portion of my annoyance with this genre comes from the fact that shelving it is an utter pain.  We get too many in the first place and there’s no room on the shelf.  You can easily spend ten minutes shifting things around just to make room for one book.  After a few hours of this, I’m ready to drag the cart into the alley and have a nice bonfire.  One of these days I might just bring marshmallows to work.

One of my sisters told me that she had a friend staying in Heidelberg.  After some chit chat on facebook, Melissa and I decided to meet up for a day was wandering around the castle.  I was a little bit worried about finding each other at the train station, but it turned out not to be a problem.

We went to the Heidelberg Castle, which overwhelmed me. Sean told me that after seeing Heidelberg, he just didn’t really want to see anymore castles after that.  I have to agree.  Even after meandering for a spell, the jaw-drop factor didn’t really dissipate.  (The rest of the pictures can be seen at the link at the bottom of the page.)   And it kept getting better.  Turns out that concerts are held there and even (I’m excited about this) Nosferatu.

*Nosferatu is one of my favorite films.  It is a rip off of Dracula, with a few minor differences.  A live orchestra provides the music for the movie,

After touring the castle, Melissa and I went for lunch and beers.  Heidelberg is a nice place just to walk around.  There are dozens of interesting shops, almost as many places to grab a bite, and street performers.  After discovering that we both had a love of hookah,  Melissa and I found a cafe where we could enjoy hookah, beers, and the music of the nearby band.   We got to do some people-watching and talk with some other Americans who sat next to us (they were military kids who did NOT was to leave Europe)

Later, we purchased some pastries and went down to the river.  I cannot imagine a more relaxing place.  I made a mental note to return and rent a kayak.

Then I hopped on the train back to Ramstein.  In Korea, I’d picked up the habit of falling asleep on the subway.  However, falling asleep on the high speed train is not a good idea.  I missed my stop (woke up just after we were pulling away from my stop) and ended up a stone’s throw from the French border.  All that would have been okay, except for the fact that I’d left my passport on the dresser.  As I got on the train going the right direction, I noticed that the police were coming by checking everyone’s passports.  Funny enough, I didn’t really worried about getting hassled by the German police (who do NOT have the reputation of warm and fuzzy kittens), but rather the phone call that I’d have to make to Sean.  I imagined hanging out with friends years down the road and the story getting brought up again and again and again.  Fortunately, the train served, causing one police officer to fall into the seat across from me.  He got up laughing, his buddy teased him.  And while they were bantering, they completely overlooked me.   I peeked over the seat after they had passed.  Everyone’s passport had been checked, save for mine.

After that, I just wanted off the train.  Instead of waiting for the train to take me to Ramstein, I decided to get  on one that would take me to the next town over and walk it from there.  There are bike paths between the towns and the walk was pretty.  Overall, still an awesome day.

Heidelberg, Germany

Wow. I need to post more often.

Okay. So weekend before last, Sean and I went to see Neuschwanstein Castle.  It was built in the 1800s by a brat of a king who didn’t seem to have much common sense.  (You can read more about it here.)  While the castle was certainly interesting, I appreciated the scenery much more.  We also spent a day wandering around in Munich.  There, we came across a great band playing on the street.  The violin player was such a showman that he mesmerized anyone walking by.  If you get a chance and enjoy good music, check out their website.

Then Sean had a last minute business trip to Cyprus and I decided to tag along.  We stayed on the Greek side of the island the entire time.  It was horribly hot there, but beautiful.  We stayed on the south part of the island.  We got a chance to visit some ruins as well as a few days to just vegetate on the beach.    Anyways, I did a fairly good job of putting captions on the photos.  Here they are.  Enjoy!

From Ramstein to Munich to Cyprus

Sean and I are in Munich.  Hurrah!  Street musicians, great food, and awesome beer!  Tomorrow, we’re off to see Neuschwanstein castle.

We were lucky enough to find a place to stay near the train station.  Hotel Monaco is a pretty good place to stay.  The rooms are neat and clean.  The room that I’m staying in doesn’t have it’s own bathroom but rather shares one with two other rooms.  Which is fine, because that made it cheaper (which I am all about-given the fantastically terrible won/euro exchange rate).  But the best part about staying here is the people behind the desk.  Helpful, friendly, and speaking English.  Again with the hurray!

So yeah, there’s my plug for the hotel.    Cheers!

Wow.  Ummmmmmm………….the action was alright.

That’s about the nicest thing I have to say about the newest Transformers movie.  And concerning the rest of my opinion, where do I start?

How about some plot failures?  Can anyone explain to me why it only took the shard to revive a Deceptacon but Optimus Prime needed the matrix?

Sean and I argued about my next point.  He claims that the script was written by machines.  I think it sounds a whole lot more like a bunch of whiny middle school students.  For those of you who didn’t see the movie, here’s an example.

Female Lead: How do you feel about me?

Male Lead: I adore you.

Female Lead: *pouts because he didn’t used the “L-word”

Male Lead: You say it first.

Female Lead: No, YOU say it first.

Male Lead: I’m dead!

Female Lead:  Wait! I love you!

Male Lead: Aha! I’ve resurrected!

Female Lead: Oh! I did say it first!

Me: gags.

This is the sort of drivel that I have never been able to tolerate.  The movie played on EVER SINGLE SACCHARINE cliche and over-done movie line.  Sadly, they didn’t even pick the good ones.  Tacky. Tacky. Tacky.

Speaking of tacky, the first Transformers movie kinda annoyed me by how it fawned over “the President” (pretty obviously Bush) and the military.  Whatever.  In this movie, the world is in immediate danger because of Obama.  That’s right. They named names.  Yeeesh.  The rest of the movie pretty clearly depicts the President as an idiot and a jackass.  The military, however, doesn’t seem to behave like the military at all.  Soldiers clearly disobeyed direct orders, took orders from civilians, and never noticed that their communications system was compromised.  However, the movie does make a nice showcasing of the military’s more expensive toys and how the expensive toys save the world.  Sounds like someone would like more funding.

And while I get that the military would rather not share it’s toys with people wanting to criticize them, this came off way, way too strong.  Think tacky-granny-perfume strong.  Yes, movie makers, I understand that you have strong feelings concerning politics.  However, I came to see an action movie.  Sadly, I could not enjoy your action movie because I was choking on all the other crap you shoved down my throat.

I’m going to bed.

I am not the best blogger.  While I like to write, I have the attention span of a six-year-old.  I’m very attentive for about a week and then I’m distracted with something else.  So here’s the update.

I think I’m done with Korea.  I won’t say that I know.  I won’t even pretend to know.  One of the things that I’ve discovered about myself is that I’m rather fickle when it comes to plans.  Or rather, I’m fickle until I’ve decided that I REALLY want something.  And everything that I’ve really, really wanted, I’ve done.  Namely, travel the world and be financially independent.  Check and check.  I’m the first to admit that I my life is far from perfect.  And sometimes I get horribly jealous of my friends and acquaintances.  Yes, I would like a family.  But I’m love the family I have and I couldn’t ask for better friends (scattered about the world as they may be).  I’m well aware that my job has a notable lack of income (outside of Korea) and a lack of prestige.  On the flipside, there’s a portability that I relish and that suits my fickle ways.  And I really, really enjoy hearing from former students, both uni and elementary.  Through this odd ride, I have been lucky to learn a whole lot about the world and myself.

(Side note:In my experience, heath care in parts of the world that have socialized medicine is AWESOME.  In the past three years, the most I have EVER waited to see a doctor was about 20 minutes and I was a walk-in.  And the care I received was far more kind, personable, and detailed than most places in the States.  So if you think that socialized medicine is evil, I highly suggest talking to someone who has actually experienced it.  I, for one, am a huge fan.)

I digress.  My plans from here on out are……flexible.  I’m considering jobs in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.  Those are just the places where I’m actively looking.  If I run across something interesting in some other part of the world, I’ll consider it.  The only plan that I have set in stone is that I want to see my family in August.  But until then, I’ll be relaxing in Europe.  After a year and a half of six-day work weeks, I plan on doing some considerable R&R.   Something interesting though, I think that working on one year contracts may have ruined me for a “regular job.”  I enjoy taking a month or so off between contracts.  And speaking of contracts, I’d better start looking into that.  I’d like to have a job lined out in the next month or so.

Oh yeah, pictures will be coming soon.  I have a ton from when I brought my camera to school and a few that I have taken here.  I’ll get them up this week.  Peace.

It’s amazing how much stuff a person can amass in just a few years.  What is even more surprising to me is how attached I can get to all this junk.  In that way, I think moving is kinda good for me.  It certainly has limited the amount of shoes I have purchased. 

I fly out of Seoul, very possibly for the last time, in just 38 days.  While walking to the bus stop, I realized that I’m going to miss a few things about Korea.  I’m going to miss the insane bravery of the delivery guys on scooters.  They weave in and out of traffic at fantastic speeds, shoot around corners, and work in all kinds of weather. 

Thirty-eight days.  Huh.

Oh yeah, I made a wonderful shepard’s pie last night.  I didn’t take as long as I thought it would and it turned out to be really tasty.  This is good because I’ll be eating it for a week.

As much as I like Korea, I need to get out of here. Granted, I don’t know where I’ll end up. It’s funny for me to find myself in a situation where I don’t know in what country I’ll be living in a few months. But here’s what I do know. In 41 days, I’ll fly to Germany to see a friend from high school. After that, I’m not sure. I’d kinda like to get a job not in Asia. Working here is alright and traveling is awesome, but I seriously miss western culture, food, and the opportunity to blend in. I can do a lot of things in Korea, but blend in is not one of them. Right now, it’s way too early in the morning and I’d love to crawl back into bed. However, I have to get to class in about ten minutes and do my best imitation of perky and chipper. What are my plans? A nap in the near future and Germany in 41 days. After that, I haven’t a clue.

I finally (finally!) finished what should be my very last intensive in Korea. Ever. Period.  For those of you who don’t know, intensives are a time when I hand over all of my free time to my job for about four weeks.  I essentially lived at work. And it’s finally over.  Downside, they changed the class schedule around and I won’t have some of my very favorite students anymore.  Upside, some of my new classes are hilarious.

I’m supposed to start with a Korean tutor this week.  We’ll see how that goes.  Basically, I’m trying to keep myself as busy as possible so that I don’t have time to count down the days until I leave Korea.  Granted, I’ve had an amazing time here.  However, for those of us with a penchant for large green spaces, Korea slowly erodes your soul.  I need trees and lots of ‘em.  Korea is my soda.  Good in small doses but if injested daily it can lead to all sorts of heath problems.  Yeah, four months left.

After that, the plan is to visit qkslvrwolf in Germany and possibly meet up with other friends as well.  Then back to Kansas.  I’m planning on staying with the folks (partly just to hang out with them and partly to save money) and going back to school.  I’ve already been accepted so at least that’s taken care of.  But then again, I can be awfully flakey when it comes to plans.  It’s difficult to settle back down when I get emails of job offers in Thailand, Poland, and Quatar.  I should really just start blocking them; they are far too tempting.

Alright, I’m off to finish cleaning my house. (I had a birthday party last weekend.  Very fun. However, my sink is so small that I have to do all the dishes in shifts.)  Peace.

I woke up late.  I burned my breakfast.  I had to cab to school so I wouldn’t be late.  I forgot to make copies of the assignment.  I realized that I forgot to have the students check their homework yesterday.  I had an awesome day and I’m not even being sarcastic. Really.

First, I’m amazed at the difference the CELTA has made in my teaching.  I was told that I was a good teacher before.  However, I couldn’t really believe it.  There’s a HUGE difference between a good teacher and one that is merely likeable.  I always figured that I leaned towards the latter.  Turns out that a little training goes a long ways.  Not only in the way I teach, but I’m certainly a lot more satisfied with my job.  I’m happiest with my employment situation when I can walk out of the school and know that not only did the students learn something, but they enjoyed the lesson as well (at least a part of it).  I’m well aware that the material that I’m teaching is a little beyond their level.  Actually, for some of them, it’s far beyond their level.  But still, today all of my students could tell me and (to certain degrees) demonstrate what personification is.  Not only that, but we had fun with it as well.

It’s also a good day because it’s my friend’s birthday.  I made brownies last night and I enjoyed it.  (It also doesn’t hurt that my apartment now smells like brownies.)  Cooking and baking are a few of my very favorite things to do, but only when doing it for other people.

I have a bunch of little resolutions for this year but they all can be neatly packaged into once sentence: this year I resolve to be happy.  Corny? Definitely.  Trite? Certainly not.  There are some things in this world that I desperately want and I’m not going to stop wanting or pursuing them.  However, over the past  two years or so my priorities have taken a painful shift.  I say “painful” because it’s been (at times) excruciating.  I’m not being over-dramatic or indulging in hyperbole.  It was what it was and now it’s over and I’m not particularly sorry for any of it.  A lot has changed, I’m just trying to keep up.  But I’ve meandered off the topic….

Yeah, I’m happy.  I had a good day today.  Here’s my top five things for today (in no particular order) that I’m thankful for:

friends that I can cook for

a student named Jane, who is excitable and obnoxious but tries so hard to be good in my class

my toaster over

my refrigerator magnets (the ones of my nephews)

Jessie, my amazing and forgiving partner teacher. i’ve got a ways to go before i’m up to her level at work, but at least i have something to aim for.