Honestly, now.

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.

I didn’t go to work today.  Instead, I stayed prone on my bed and it was nice.

I must look rather friendly.  Or at least non-threatening.

I was riding the subway last weekend.  I noticed a little girl (maybe 5 or 6) wearing a bright pink coat.  She was tugging at her mom’s sleeve and looking at me.  Her mom bent down down and the little girl whispered something.  The mom nodded and the little girl came over to me.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hello,” I replied.

She grinned and walked back to her mom.  A moment later, she was back.  The little girl and her mom were getting ready to get off the train.  Holding her mom’s hand, the girl grinned at me again and took my hand.  I blinked.  I looked at the mom, who shrugged and looked away.  I couldn’t help but think what an odd little temporary family we must appear to be.  It lasted a few minutes (until the next stop), then she let go of my hand and got off the train.

Something similar happened to me in the store today.  I was shopping this evening when a boy of about eight walked up to me and took my shopping list.  He wasn’t particularly rude about it; he just took it.  He studied it for a little while, returned it, and then disappeared.  I was perplexed, but continued with browsing.  He was back a few minutes later with a stapler, which was on my list.  He examined my list again and left.  This time he returned with tape.  He got stuck at the pencil sharpener.  He asked me what it was and I showed him.  He disappeared again.  He came back witha  pencil and paper.  He took my list and crouched on the floor, carefully copying the words “pencil sharpener.”  He returned my list, thanked me, and went on his way.  And that was that.

Odd, but kind of nice.

I’ll leave tonight at 6pm.  I’m leaving my phone in Phuket (since I just borrowed it from a friend) so I’ll be hard to get a hold of for the next few days.