There are some horrible books for some of my classes. One of them is what is called a think along book. We read stories in classes and the kids stop to answer questions in the middle of the story. The only problem is most of these questions are "What are you thinking about now?" It's the worst possible question. It's so pointless and vague that I can never tell the kids they have a wrong answer. A lot of times they'll just write "school" in the box. It doesn't matter what the story is about, they'll write "I'm hungry" or "I want to go home." Although today I did get one answer that was sort of related to a story in the book. The story was about a mother baking cookies and the question asked "What do you picture the mother wearing?" and one boy wrote "Only panties." I swear to God. The book we use for the top level class isn't much better. The entire thing is about planes and flying. Yeah, I now know a ton about how planes use their rudders and yokes and how there's something called an elevator in a plane, but I still hate my life every time I teach that class.

It's official: the new foreign teacher is John Mark Karr. Sure, he's a bit older but he's the creepiest old guy I've ever met. My opinion of him has fallen constantly everyday since he's been here. Tonight he solidified that I need shower feeling I get when I'm around him. I went out to dinner with him and David after work and he started talking about how he thought our waitress was really hot. Nevermind the fact that she wasn't, but she couldn't of been older than 20 and this guy is 55. He kept staring at her and smiling and I was ready to hide under the table. It got worse. He started comparing Korean and Japanese girls. "I think the Korean middle school girls look much better in their skirts." Yeah, so he'll probably be in a Korean prison by the end of the month. The guy also complains non stop about everything. He said a few times tonight that he was just waiting around to die. All I know is I won't be eating dinner again with John Mark Karr II anytime soon.

It's kind of ridiculous how nationalistic Koreans are. I'm sure it stems from the Japanese raping their country for years, but still, they have a very warped sense of what Korea is. I told Semi, one of the Korean teachers at my school, that I was going to China next week for vacation. I'd best describe her reaction as shocked. Shocked that I wasn't going on vacation somewhere in magical Korea. I tried to explain to her that I had wanted to go to Jeju Island, but that it would be too cold to go in December. She did not accept that answer. Sometimes I really think that all of Korea should take a national vacation to another country, you know, just to see what else is out there. I think they'd be amazed.

I forgot to mention Bender and I got a haircut last weekend. Although it had the potential to be a disaster, my students haven't yelled "ugly teacher" much this week, and that means it's good enough for my standards. I showed the lady there a bunch of photos of myself and then she just started cutting. It really wasn't all that exciting.

One reason I love George Bush: his amazing tenure has destroyed the value of the U.S. Dollar. And every time the dollar falls, my teaching salary goes up. Mmm mmm Bush.

Photo- Top- A shot of Myeong Dong and below, the The Season's Greetings 2007 sign around the block from the first one that pisses me off to no end.