18.2.10

yeah, i know, i'm an asshole.

this post has been a long time coming.

in accordance with one of my 2010 resolutions, here is a post what it is like at bandi kindergarten in suwon.

i want to share with you a sliver of what it was like to work at my school with the infamous tammy teacher.
of course, tammy is now long gone, but i'm dying to post some of this info.
when i first arrived, tammy had already been teaching at bandi for 8-ish months.
i had the 'opportunity' to work with her for 4-ish months.

i don't remember if i've mentioned any of this before and i'm going to be lazy and not search.
but tammy was a 52-ish year old, south african, former drama teacher.
granted, she was apparently a fairly effective teacher; she had a number of years of experience teaching.
but i'm not sure if this made up for her overly motherly feelings towards some of the kids.
and it certainly did not make up for her sheer general and cultural ignorance.
as well as her self-centrism
and her B.O.
and her far-from-perfect english.

tammy may have been a good teacher, but she was an awful co-worker.
i think.
i'm not really sure how bad they get because this is my first real job.
kim was a hell of a lot cooler than tammy.

i deviate.

ladies and gentlemen of the jury, i would like to present to you two pieces of evidence.

exhibit A is a note tammy left our boss, lisa.
her errors are not highlighted; please take a moment to locate them yourself.
i am no william strunk, jr. or e.b. white, but i think her mistakes are quite evident.

exhibit A:


ladies and gentlemen, i would like to present to you exhibit B.
this piece of evidence is a simple tally started by a fellow teacher at bandi, kim.
kim had worked with tammy for 11 months.
kim started this tally 4 weeks before tammy was due to leave.
note the short span of time and the incredible tallies some of the qualifications receive.
bear in mind that kim was not with tammy at all times, so this is a tally of only kim's experience.
though kim was tuned into tammy and could easily spot vintage tammy mannerisms and acting, there very well could have been many a time a tally was missed.

exhibit B (1) and B (2):



(you might have to copy the images and view them in a program in order to better read everything.)

no further questions, your honor.

jo

11.2.10

seoul international marathon training update #5

bad news.
and worse news.

okay. the bad news first.
well, i haven't been training consistently in the last 3 weeks.
not so great considering the looming full marathon coming up in about 5 weeks.

yikes, dude. ok. well, hit me with the worse news.
well, remember when i mentioned that full marathon?
i have a half-marathon next week.

this should make for a very interesting, if not at least slightly painful, situation.

i guess we will only see what happens.
you live and you learn.
(insert another arbitrary conventional wisdom here).

unfortunately, any last minute tune-ups will be quite limited as well, due to a lunar new year's trip to shanghai to meet some friends.
details to come in the next post, probably post-voyage.

on the upside, for only $30, in the race packet (which was sent in the mail to me, rather than me having to pick it up (how sweet is that!)) i received a running tank-top, running shorts and running pants.
of course, along with the largest bib number i've seen in my life.
quite a diminuitive feeling.

anyway. it's past my bedtime.
and i felt the blogging itch since i haven't scratched in a couple weeks.

solid update about my school coming soon ^^

lots of love,

jo