Monday, my day off…. ahhhhhhhhh!

TAKING ON ’THE MAN’:  The dorm got roll-down garage doors as a protest against the city zoning laws saying we couldn’t turn our parking lot into a outside Rec room.  Okay, so it isn’t a protest, but I’d like to think it is.  The city zoning law says that each building has to have allotted space reserved for parking and would not allow us to build a wall to keep cars out.

A LITTLE NORTHERN EXPOSURE, EH:  I got ahold of this DVD Season 1 of this Canadian comedy TV show called, Corner Gas.  Its about this town, Dog River, and its located 40 klicks from nowhere, Saskatchewan.  Its pretty darn funny!  The show revolves around Brent Leroy, owner of the city gas station.  His dad is an old crank who hates change.  The town restaraunt is taken over by a city girl who moves out and tries to improve and change the town.  The police force consist of 2 officers (sheriff and deputy: think two Barney Fifes) along with several other colorful characters.  If you can get ahold of this, I recommend it.

HAVE YOU TAKEN YOUR MEDITATION?:  “Whenever the Christian idea of meditation is taken seriously, there are those who assume it is synonymous with the concept of meditation centered in Eastern religions.  In reality, the two ideas stand worlds apart.  Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind….detachment is not enough; we must go on to attachment.  The detachment from the confusion all around us is in order to have a richer attachment to God.”  [excerpt from Celebration of Discipline]  Foster writes about simple Christian life, I have to admit that meditation is not something I’ve practiced often.  Its interesting to learn the difference between meditation of other faiths and that which the Bible teaches.  This requires further looking into…

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Will

ON THE PLUS SIDE:  After church had a glorious time taking our students out to eat at Home Plus.  It was good to get out and spend time with some of the students that I’ve gotten to know and see some interesting products..

Yes, I know, eating McD’s but it was time well spent with these guys.

‘Shake n decorate Barbie’?  Hmmm..  I shook the box, but nothing happened.

What can I say, its a blast to walk through a store on the look-out for products with weird English translation.

GOING DOWN FOR THE 3 COUNT:  Drew, Cordell and I are looking into going to Seoul this Saturday night for WWE’s RAW.  I’ll be the first to confess that I’m not a huge huge fan of wrestling anymore but I did recognize some of the names: Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, and a couple others… it will be an interesting experience.

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Will

The answer is, “What is 529?”

WHEN NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED:  So here I am feelin’ pretty good about going back to the gym again and I had resisted the temptation of McD’s (I can feel the fat just shrinking), so to celebrate my victorious first day I go out to Starbucks with my journal to do some thinking, and what better way to jumpstart the brain cells than with a nice cup of expensive joe.  I ordered the Vanilla chocolate mocha latte and it was goooood!  The tragedy was that Drew informed me later that a cup of vanilla chocolate mocha latte is equivalent to a Big Mac.  At that moment of sheer disbelief, the world just stopped and I swear I heard a window crash but it was only my pride.  I’m going to lose so bad, its as if the fates are against me, how did I offend them?  What penance must I pay to set things straight? *sigh*  I need a hug.

Tonight I get to hang with the Springer dorm guys, my old stompin’ grounds.  I haven’t been over there in awhile so that’ll be good to bother some of those guys again. 

THE UNANSWERABLE QUESTION FOR THE DAY:  How many steps did I take in walking from the dorm to the High School?  Any takers? [hint: its about a 5-7 minute walk] Answer is tomorrow.

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Will 

Monday is the new day off… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

THE SPIRIT IS WILLING BUT…: I’ve started going up to the gym again today and paid my fee.  My fat was protesting very strongly as I worked out for about 45 mins.  I cannot believe how out of shape I am.  My good friend back in the States, Trent, and I are having a “who can lose the most weight” competition… for once I’m glad we don’t have a Chik-Fil-A around here and Dunkin’ Donuts is far away enough that the amount of calories I’d burned walking to and from would negate the glaze; now all that stands between me and total victory is McD’s that’s right outside the school (must.. look… away!  Must resist… the urge!)

DASHING YOUR STUDENT’S HOPES CAN BE FUN… AND EDUCATIONAL:  Let me tell you about Brian, he’s a student in my study hall, and everyday he asks me if he can go to McD’s durinng our study hall and I tell him that its not allowed but I will only let him go if and only if he can answer ”The Unanswerable Question for the Day”.  “The Unanswerable Question for the Day” is specifically designed in that he’ll never get it right.  Now before you think I’m a cruel, sick and twisted individual, just to let you know that deep down I actually am rooting for him to miraculously guess the right answer.  Everyday is a different question so he comes in every day hoping for a lucky break.  Previous unanswerable questions have been: Who was the late 70s/early 80s TV actress  my sister was named after?  What exactly did I eat for lunch (I thought he’d get it because I ate in the school cafeteria as he did)?  What am I allergic to?  You get the idea.  As for today’s question, alas poor Brian didn’t know what vehicle my Dad picked me up at the airport when I flew back to the States over Christmas.  [For those who want to know, it was a Ford F-250 truck (now go treat yourselves out to McD's)]. 

Hope everyone’s Monday was as good as mine.

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Will

Sorry everyone, I did not get to see National Treasure  last night, I instead went over to watch The Blue Comedy Tour Rides Again over with Ted and Tiece (which I do not recommend… there were was too many dirty jokes, but Ted eventually quieted down  just kidding).  The movie was not really clean, two of the comedians were pretty crass.  The first one was better.

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:  You have not lived in a different country until you have been frustrated, shocked or totally appalled by the difference in your own culture versus the culture of the country you are residing.  What I am trying to say here is that when a person doesn’t understand or cannot figure out why something happens, frustration is the output for lack of knowledge input.  Let me show you what I mean:

Drew, Ryan and I had just arrived back at the dorm from a splendid after-church lunch hosted by Ted and Tiece.  Lo and behold we found this at our dorm:

Here’s our dorm and suddenly its filled with cars with people who do not live in our building.  Daejon has a zoning law that says every apartment building must have a certain allotted space for car parking which means we can’t wall it up and use it for rec space despite the only people living in our building are high school students and the RAs.   So everyone parks their car at our dorm.  Leaving us to find another place to park the van instead of our own dorm.

Yeah parking is a huge problem… as you can see the guy who parks his car in front of the 2nd car from the left *cough*serves him right*cough*.  Drew and I are pretty steamed about this while Ryan is still trying to get his bearings.  Anywho, we’ve got to find some type of chain or something we can use to lock up the parking lot for the guys to use (we have a ping-pong table outside… which the guys would like to use but cars park right up against it) and discourage people from parking in our building.

IN CONCLUSION:  I know that the people were not malicious in their intent to park in our dorm… they were probably in the neighborhood and went “Oh look, a parking space, get it.”  So I am not angry with the Koreans… its just interesting to learn how they see things.  I want to know and because of that lack of understanding is the reason I am frustrated.

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Will

Its Friday, all but 2 of the guys have been sent home but for some reason, instead of kickin’ back and relaxing my thoughts drift back Stateside… having alot of homesickness brought on by my uncle’s recent stroke.  Its not too serious but the chances of having a 2nd one are very high.  I’m really close the big guy and with John passing away in December… I don’t know but its tough.  Anyway, there’s nothing I can really do about it from here but try to occupy my time and do something to pass the time like… twiddling my thumbs… hey!  This is fun.. oops  hehe, messed up, here I’ll try agai…  doh!  Oh well, enough of that.

Tomorrow I’m going to try and go see National Treasure, I haven’t heard anything about it, anyone?

Next week is finals for the guys, so that means everyone will be stressed *sigh*, to the English-teaching weygooks, how fare your exams?

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Will

Friday is here… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Check back later

THE INVASION CONTINUES:  I came across this photo… good times.  Last Friday I took the new student teachers downtown to explore their new home for the next few months and while I let them scamper off to look around I stepped out of the cold and into the new and nicely-warm Starbucks™ where I found two of my fellow TCIS teachers enjoying a cup of expensive joe.

Connie (left), Lupita (2nd from left), their friend, and myself enjoying each other’s company outside the school. 

STUFF TOTALLY UNRELATED:  I’ve moved my trip to China to Spring break rather than Lunar..  Everyone said it would be a zoo, or moreso, in Beijing during Lunar plus its currently pretty darn cold here so it will be even colder there.  By Springtime it’ll be nicer, Lord willing.

FRIDAY IS ALMOST HERE:  Yay!

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Will 

PHYSICS QUESTION:  Time to bum those TI-86s off your students for this one…  What do you get when you add an unprecedented amount of Force to a plastic patato?  Click here for the answer (courtesy of Richard Parker).  Sad isn’t it?

IN OTHER NEWS:  Last Friday, the newest staff addition to the C&J dorm, the illustrious Mr. Ryan Cordell.  Glad he’s here to help otherwise Drew and I would probably sink.

Last night I finished the 2nd season of The West Wing and now I PATIENTLY wait for Drew to finish up the 3rd season so that I can bum it off him… excellent.

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Will