Adventures in Odd Places to Stick Your Head...

This is a picuture of Catticus' latest favourite spot. When I'm working (or playing) at the computer, she'll leap up ontop of the CPU (?), turn her back on me, and stick her head down between the wall and the back of the computer. She'll stay that way for up to an hour. I can't tell if she's looking at something or sleeping. Whenever I try to peek, she turns her head and meows at me. Occasionally, she'll sit up and lick the pictures of my niece and nephew, then stick her noggin back down the crevice. Do you think I should start looking for a cat psychologist?

Adventures in biking...

Since spring has (sort of) arrived, I've been riding my bike to and from classes. It's nice to be out on the road with the wind in my face. It's not nice to be wearing sticky lip gloss and winding up with a swarm of little flies stuck to my lips when I get to the bottom of the hill.

Adventures in (ahem!) Spring...

After a few days of warm breezes, warm sun, and warm yellow dust I was convinced that Spring was making its way across the Korean peninsula.

Today, a gentle rain shower greeted me at 7:35 a.m. as I headed out the door. I took a large umbrella, but didn't throw on a jacket over my business suit. I figured I would be warm enough. I spent the next three hours staring out the window of my classroom wishing my classes a "Merry Christmas!" as impossibly huge snowflakes filled the air. Unbelievable. I think I might postpone the scavenger hunt I was going to do with my classes next week.

On a brighter note, today was my first day back at pottery class since last semester. It was nice to get my hands dirty again.

Adventures in Acupuncture Part II...

So here's the scoop. A friend of mine here is going to an acupuncturist on a regular basis to relieve some pains she's having. I went with her earlier this week, mostly because I was curious. I had a little crick in my neck and thought I'd see what could be done about it. (Since then I've learned that you can also get 'diet acupuncture' which might be worth a shot!) Anyway, the doctor speaks as much English as I do Korean, but I managed to tell him what the trouble was. He recomended hot packs and massages (what a nice treatment plan!) then led me into the treatment room.

My friend's procedure was already underway as I positioned myself face-down on a vacant treatment cot. The doctor then stuck me with pins; I didn't feel them go in at all. It was entirely painless. Then they put a nice heat lamp on me; similar to the ones they use to keep chicken burgers warm at fast food restaurants. After about 20 minutes, the nurse took the pins out and pulled over an octopusesque contraption with little suction cups all over it. She stuck the cups to my shoulders and I twitched and spasmed merrily for several minutes. Finally, the doctor came back and pinched and tweaked and karate chopped all the sore spots. That was the end of my acupuncture adventure. I'm going back tomorrow to see if he can do something about the pain in my feet (stupid work shoes).

Adventures in Acupuncture...

Part I:

I went for my very first acupuncture treatment! I'd tell you more, but it's bedtime. More details will follow in Part II.

Adventures in Dreams Coming True...

2 Years ago, at the beginning of the semester, I had a dream that my class started in 5 minutes; however, I was in a gas station in Saskatchewan and was a little frantic that I might be late.

1 1/2 years ago, at the beginning of the semester, I had a dream that my class started in 5 minutes; however, the Art building had been remodelled to resemble the catacombs. I couldn't find my class in the warren of wet stone walls lit with torches.

Last semester I had a dream that I showed up on time for my class, but was expected to teach Phys. Ed. (right.)

This morning at 11:40 as I was preparing to head to my 12:00 class I got a phone call from my boss...my 12:00 class actually starts at 11:00. Oops. It turned out to be a scheduling error (my schedule said 12:00, the student schedule said 11:00). Nonetheless, after 2 years of dreaming about it, I finally missed a class.

And so the semester begins.

Adventures in 3000 readers...

I just noticed that the next person to visit my Blog will be my 3000th visitor. Congratulations to you!!! Leave me a comment and tell me who you are ~ maybe I'll send you a postcard to commemorate the occassion. (Yes, I know I have way too many m's and c's and s's in the 3 words before my bracketed aside began. Even though recognizing my poor spelling in no way justifies it.)

Adventures in the demise of a Vacation...

Yup, tomorrow the intrepid and courageous teachers of DaeguDae start another semester. Last night we had our staff orientation dinner (fabulous buffet) and everyone got caught up on everyone else's vacations. Today Mike Peacock came to visit and we hung out downtown. After he left, I treated myself to a great manicure (with little white flowers painted on the ring-finger nails.) Then, to top off the evening, a group of us gathered around for Jen's Bacardi Rum Cake and Bahama Mama's ~ directly from Nassau iteself. We also looked at her pictures from the Bahamas and Karin and Angelika's pictures of Cambodia and Vietnam. Everything looked so warm and tropical and sunny. Now, I'm wondering why on earth I'm in Korea. It snowed here this morning. Anyway, we all bid adieu to our vacations and are gearing up to start classes tomorrow morning. I can't believe I've been at this job for 2 years already.

So, farewell Winter Vacation, and hello Spring Semester.

Adventures in Stupid Dreams...

Last night, I had a lovely sleep. When I woke up (yes, again at 7:30 even though it's Saturday) I remember thinking to myself "Hey, that was a great dream. I should write that down." Instead of opening my eyes and grabbing for a pencil, I instead chose to wrestle my blankets back from the cats and go back to sleep for an hour.

When I woke up again, I could only remember parts of my dream, and boy oh boy are they really NOT worth writing down. You know me though, I'm going to write 'em anyway!

Part 1: I accidentally flushed someone else's clothes down the toilet. The clothes were sitting on the toilet (not in it) and I had to pee, so I flushed the toilet first and WHOOOSH!! the toilet just sucked the pile of clothes right down. Next thing I know, I'm trying to explain via limited Korean and complicated Charades just exactly what happened. Go ahead - you try it! I dare you. Try to explain to someone that you flushed their clothes down the toilet BY ACCIDENT, but the only words you can say are 'water' and 'bathroom' and every time you try and say 'clothes', the word 'flower' comes out. HA! It's not so easy now, is it???

Part 2: Someone played a practical joke on our office, and turned all our office furniture into chocolate. The computers, phones and everything still worked but were made of yummy cocoa. I was getting frustrated because the person I shared an office with kept eating the phone cord and the computer keys. Why s/he couldn't eat something like the potted plants or the pencils I don't know. They had to go straight for the stuff I was trying to use.

See - it wasn't nearly as exciting as it had seemed to me earlier this morning.

Notice: I've added a link on the sidebar to The Mealey Blog. Please use it if you want to keep up-to-date on those Marvelous Mealeys!

Adventures in Octopi...

Well, after 3 years in Korea, I've finally done it.

Justin and I went out for dinner with one of our classes - for octopus. Some of the dishes were tasty and harmless. We had a tofu & kimchi dish, a seafood and noodle soup, and a rice,vegetable,spicy sauce and octopus stir-fry. Then, there was the 'Fear Factor' dish I thought I would be too squeamish to try: live octopus. They put the plate down on the table and all the little tentacles were still squirming. I watched as the students tried to pry the pieces off the plate, while the little tentacle suckers were clinging to the plate. By the time I worked up the nerve to try a piece, I was able to get a tiny little piece that had stopped wriggling. It was dead, but raw. I dipped it in some sesame oil and munched away. All I could taste was the sesame oil, so it was actually pretty good! Next time I'm invited to an Octopus restaurant, I won't be so hesitant to accept. It was actually a really tasty meal.

Adventures in Internal Monologues...

Me: Unggghhg. What time is it?

Also Me: It's 7:30 a.m.

Me: Unggghhg. .... What day is it?

Also Me: It's Saturday.

Me: So why am I awake?

Also Me: I'd guess it's either a result of the sun streaming in your window, or a cat breathing in your face.

Me: Mmmmm, the bed's still cozy. Let's roll over and go back to sleep.

Also Me: Too late. You've let this dialogue continue for too long, and now I'm awake. Let's get up and scrub the bathroom!!!

Me: Who ARE you?? This is not some crazy 'clean-the-bathroom-at-the-break-of-day' holiday. It's Saturday you addle-brained nincompoop.

Also Me: Haven't years of experience taught you that name calling isn't going to work? All you've managed to do is irritate yourself and now you're awake too. Let's go make some baklava.

Me: No. I don't care what you say. I'm rolling over, snuggling under the blankets and staying in bed whether I'm sleeping or not!

Also Me: You can't. Now you have to pee too.

Me: Cheater.

Adventures in Busses...

Since today was Graduation Day here at the university, I only had 2 students show up for my afternoon class. We opted to go to the coffee shop for the 2nd hour of class, which created a nice, casual atmosphere. Both students had spent some time in Canada, and we began talking about a variety of culture shock issues between Canada and Korea.

While a journey on (or near) a Korean bus has often caused me a great deal of stress, I never imagined that a Canadian bus could do the same. Busses here travel well above the speed limit, resulting in a rather precarious balancing act as it careens around a corner. Furthermore, upon aproaching a string of cars waiting at a stop light, the bus will 'jump the queue' and cut infront of the first car in line ~ usually well into the intersection. These are the two major complaints I have against Korean busses.

It came as a shock to me then, when one of my students said he hated Canadian busses! He hated that if the speed limit was 60 km/h, the bus never exceeded 60 km/h. He also hated that a bus would actually stop at the indicated stop line at an intersection! He said that it was frustrating, because the bus was so slow and pokey, he felt like he wouldn't get to his destination on time! Wow. It had really, truly never occured to me that a quiet, orderly, safe, methodical transportation system could possibly prove to be frustrating for someone from a different culture. It made me realize that when it comes to Korean transportation, I've fallen into that horrible traveller's trap of thinking "Oh, they only do it the way they do because they don't know any better." Gotta love Cultural Diversity!

Adventures in Functional Grammar...

Yup, my books have arrived and I've embarked on another semester of Linguistics. Today's highlight (and I mean that literally, I've attacked it with a flourescent yellow wand and adorned it with a gargantuan "?") declares:

Dependent clauses of the second type are the kinds of messages that are full clause projections from projecting processes realised by verbal groups that express saying, thinking, reporting, believing and so on. ~Using Functional Grammar. Butt, Fahey, et al. p.167

I can tell you what verbal group I'm thinking about reporting right now, and it's certainly not fit for Moms or Sailors to read!

Perhaps I should have chosen to study Children's Literature, Plant Destroying, or Pudding Making. Those things I think I could do well. It's going to take me a full semester to de-code the above quote, much less apply it to the looming assignments.

However, the activities I've tried in the textbook so far have been fun. I'm just worried that they're fun the same way Calculus was fun until I realized that there really was a right answer, and I couldn't just choose the numbers that were pretty or felt right. Time (and my professor) will tell.

Enjoy your day, I'm heading back to the books.

Adventures in Odd Couples...

My morning class is quite energetic, gregarious and not the least bit shy about discussing any topic. Today, while discussing fears and phobias, we watched a few clips from a recent Fear Factor episode. The conversation then wandered onto the topic of a recently married Thai couple; The Queen of Scorpions married the King of Centepides. The Queen spent 32 days incased in a box with 3,400 scorpions, while the King spent 28 days snuggled up to 1,000 centipedes. The Queen's wedding dress was adorned with a number of live scorpions. And here I've been thinking that the Fear Factor contestants are nuts for spending 2 or 3 minutes with the l'il critters.

Adventures in ellipses.

I realize I haven't posted in quite a while...oopsie daisy. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I was home for the holidays, and enjoyed every day in Ottawa. Sadly the canal wasn't frozen, so there wasn't any skating ~ but we did get some tobogganing in.

Last night, I finished reading a collection of ghost stories by M.R.James, written sometime prior to 1931. In his epilogue, he expounded on ideas for ghost stories he had had, but had never materialized. His second last paragraph contained this digression maligning the elipsis - "It may not be alone ... (Dots are believed by many writers of our day to be a good substitute for effective writing. They are certainly an easy one. Let us have a few more ...)."

As much as I like using ellipses (although not as much as I like saying 'ellipsis') he does have a point. Imagine a literary world inwhich the ellipsis runs rampant. One would be left with only a title, and perhaps a few verbs to help the narrative along.

Hmmm, perhaps by now you've guessed that I'm back at work, since the only thing I've found to write about today is punctuation. My apologies.

Adventures in Mid-December

First of all, I should say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! I can't remember how many years she's been around, but I know it's more than me and less than Grandma. She was born somewhere in between.

Second of all, I should mention what I've been doing lately. Mostly, I've been marking final exams and projects. As usual, the monotony has been broken by a few smile-producing responses, none of which I can remember at the moment since I just woke up. Maybe once this cup of coffee starts to work it's magic, I'll remember that in response to the questions "Is your best friend the smartest person in the world?" most of my students answered "Yes, s/he is". One of my loyal, but oh-so-honest students wrote "No, she isn't. but she's a very nice person."

Finally, I've been counting the days until I head home for Christmas. Only 3 days and 2 nights until I have to make sure my seat back and chair table are in their fully upright and locked position in preparation for take-off. WooHoo!

Adventures in American Justice

I suppose I could have called this entry 'Adventures in Capital Punishment', but that just didn't seem right.

This afternoon, I caught Larry King Live as he covered the impending execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Half an hour later, I caught The Green Mile. Together, they got me thinking about capital punishment, justice, retribution and restorative justice. I'm not going to go into a great long diatribe at the moment, as I'm reluctant to just blurt out my 'top-o-the-head' opinions when it comes to important things. (I've got no problem blurting out opinions about non-dairy whipped topping, sport sock/dress pants combinations or the west-coast penchant for socks with sandals, but the death penalty is an entirely different matter).

I will however mention that I was greatly pleased to see Mike Farrell speaking on Larry King as chairman of Death Penalty Focus. You may remember him as B.J. Hunnicut on M*A*S*H. He was articulate, passionate and polite. I was impressed, and was glad to hear him say:

"And it seems to me that when this society begins to realize the damages being done us by the damage we do others, only then, perhaps, will we begin to realize that we can reach out to be representative of the values that we hold dear."

It seems to me that vengance, revenge, and a refusal to forgive cause as much damage to those seeking vengance as to those at whom the anger is directed. (I'm sorry, if I weren't so sleepy, I'm sure I could have made that sentence readable.)

Before I paddle myself into waters I'm not ready to swim in, let me just plug in the link to the Centre for Restorative Justice at Simon Fraser University. It's worth the read if you're interested in such things. http://www.sfu.ca/crj/about.html

I have a head cold. Wednesday was the sore throat, Thursday was the hoarse voice, Friday was the headache, today is the runny nose and sneezing. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Adventures in Christmas trees

Although my Dad will be mortified ("You don't decorate for Christmas before December!"), a group of festivity-minded folk helped me decorate my aparment last Friday night. Now my little tree is up and glittering (and occasionally assaulted by my cat), cutsie little snowmen and angels grin from shelves and walls, and Frank Sinatra & Bing Crosby croon holiday medlies in the evenings... and I traipse about in the afternoons with no jacket. Methinks the weather matcheth not the season. Only 24 more sleeps 'til I fly home for the holidays ~ and hopefully some snow. But not when my plane is trying to land. Or take off. Or when I'm driving. Or if I have to shovel it. If I could have my way, we would have light little fluffy flurries from now until December 24th, at which point, once we're all snuggled together at home, there would be a massive blizzard that would coat the world with white until January 2nd, at which point everything would melt away and spring would arrive. If I ever build a climate-controlled bio-dome, that'll be the weather forcast for the holiday seaon. I hope you're enjoying the weather, and the Advent season wherever you may be.

Adventures in Nuclear Waste

Earlier this month, South Korea chose the historic city of Kyoungju to provide a home for a proposed nuclear waste dumpsite. While there are many things that worry me about this dumpsite, two things stick out in my mind.

1) My university students don't seem to care. I asked one of my classes what they thought about it. One student said she was happy that the dumpsite will be built in Kyoungju, because she is from another town that was in the running. My other 8 students all said they didn't really care one way or the other. Hmmmm.

2) Commerce-Industry-Energy Minister, Lee Hee-beom, said "By minimizing preparing procedures, the government will finish the building before the end of 2008." Why on earth would you minimize preparation procedures while building a nuclear dumpsite!?!? On the bright side, I don't really believe that it will be completed by 2008. The subway in Daejeon was supposed to be up and running for the World Cup (2002) and I still have to take the bus when I'm there. Even so, call me paranoid, but I really don't think that one should be skimping on preparation when it comes to building a nuclear facility. Again I say, "Hmmmm...."

Perhaps it's time to consider moving back to the other side of the globe.