Christmas break

It is now Christmas break. Today is the first day. I am planning to do a few things during this time. Here is a list. I plan to: finish setting up the new server for school; organize the computer lab wiring; stretch daily (I am doing a stretching routine to help my arm and leg flexibility.); install some hard drives at home and at school; set up the hard drives for backup purposes; learn more about Windows administration; try to pick up some Linux skills; play a few games; talk to family; and get some rest.

Interesting history test answers

Today, my 8th graders took a history test. The time period is that of George Washington's and John Adams's presidencies. I received a couple of interesting answers.

Question: What influences did John Marshall have on the Supreme Court?
A: He made the Supreme Court members enjoy each other.

Q: What famous ship was built during the naval buildup that Congress began during the 'quasi-war' (caused by the XYZ Affair) with France?
A: U.S.S. Arizona(?) (U.S.S. something. . .)

The 2nd annual required "training" meeting

The meeting wasn't as poorly organized as last year. The lady in charge was the same as last year. She must have learned something from last year's failure. However, the execution fell through. One of the speakers, a Congressman, was late coming from a previous engagement. So, the lady in charge switched everything around while we waited (that was a good thing to do). But then they brought up this music group - which was only musical in the weakest sense of the word. The first thing the lead guy did was cuss out their drummer for not showing up. I'm talking about stuff that makes my ears hurt. Frankly, any performer who wants to be taken seriously doesn't cuss people out in front of the audience. Of course, since swearing in public is so common now-a-days, many of the people there weren't offended. But quite a few were, especially the Christians. Anyway, this 'music' group 'performed' about four rock songs - extremely poorly.

The first song they did, I recognized - though I don't know the name. The vocalist sang more off-key than on. To make up for their lack of quality, they played very loudly. You could actually feel the sound waves hitting your body. This made my wife, who is rather sensitive to such things, begin to feel sick to her stomach. It gave me a headache almost immediately - even though I was covering my ears. The teachers from our school, as well as quite a few other people, went out to the lobby. I already have hearing loss from some of my past jobs, I don't want to make it worse.

After that group came a traditional Korean group. They were wearing traditional costumes and they played traditional Korean instruments - two or three pieces I guess. Korean music isn't organized the way Western music is. They were interesting. The only problem with them was their volume. They played so loudly, we went back out to the lobby. They really did not need microphones, but insisted on being miked anyway.

One of the stage crew guys moved the mike away from the "bell/chime" performer. She immediately moved it back. Her instrument wasn't really either a bell or a chime. It looked sort of like a small Chinese gong, but she held it in her hand. It was metal, shaped kind of like a round pie pan without the flat edge, and the performer hits what would be the bottom of the outside, if it were a pie pan, with a drumstick-type object. The sound it makes is somewhere between a bell and a chime. When the performer hit it hard, you could hear it outside the (brick and concrete block) building. Inside the auditorium it was quite deafening.

So, those of us who went out to the lobby talked. I met a guy who came in July of this year. We commented to each other about the planning and execution of the meeting. Then we talked about differences between Korea and the US. It was interesting to find out that he had noticed many of the same differences between the educational systems of the two countries that my wife and I have noticed. Also, Mr. and Mrs. Fitch had a chance to talk to one of the dignitaries about the poor quality of the 'seminar' content. Hopefully, that man will take what they said and help make the meeting more actually useful next year.

The first speech was almost the exact same as last year - though a different guy read it. Yes, all the speeches were read. Most of the presenters did not speak enough English to go beyond their scripts. Apparently the writer of the second presentation wasn't there, so another guy came up and read the outline; condensing something that could have been useful into something nearly as dense as a singularity. It's a wonder we got out alive. Anyway, his English was pretty good. He was actually able to make a few comments off the cuff. They were comments which you've heard - too many times - if you've ever taken an education class in the U.S. So, those (few) of us with a real education background already know the things he said.

When the Congressman finally got there, he didn't read his speech. Instead he apologized for being late and basically said "Please be good teachers." Then he left. He shook a few hands on the way out. On the other hand, we didn't really miss his speech, it's also printed in the booklet they gave us.

Wait! There was one useful thing. A young lady got up and read the Korean laws about foreign workers. The only real problem with that is, if you don't know most of those things when you come, you could easily get in trouble. In Korea, that usually means fining you and your employer a lot of money, and denying your VISA next time you try to come to Korea. Here in Korea, they do believe in punishing adults and companies for wrongs committed.
The problem is many don't believe in punishing their angelic children for doing wrong. If one of our students breaks the rules, often their parents say, "Punish him hard!" But then there are no consequences at home. Now, some of our parents are exceptions to this. A few of them grew up in Christian homes and know the Bible. Most Christians here are only nominal though.

On the up side, my wife had about a week and a half of daily grading to do. She finished. Apparently Mr. Fitch gave three tests on Friday. He finished grading them, too. Before you think them horrible people, they got most of it done while waiting for the meeting to start. On the other hand, during the meeting, I saw a guy in the back of the auditorium playing a game on his PSP. Several people were reading books and a couple of people had on headphones.

After the meeting, most of the teachers went to a shopping center. My wife and I had not been there previously. We bought a few things for the teacher Christmas party.

Snow thoughts

What season is it anyway?

Yesterday was autumn - sunny and about 65°F. Today has become winter. This morning was dark, cold, and rainy. Now it's almost 9pm and snow is falling. It is wet and melt-y, but snow none-the-less.

I am always filled with awe while watching snow fall. It is a simple thing, yet somehow deeper than words can easily express; arousing peaceful feelings and a sense of tranquility. A peaceful moment in a busy life.

For me, watching the snow fall brings back memories of the snow covered landscapes of my childhood.

Cupboards at school

One of my wife's students told her today that he left his homework in "his cupboard." My wife asked "Where?" The student replied, "The box where we put our stuff. It has a blue door. The cupboard!"

A Frog that can blog

I recently heard about a Frog Lady that blogs. http://canafrogblog.blogspot.com/

Strange News: Jelly sparks toxic waste alert

From BBC, an interesting story about jelly gone bad.

Spirit Week

This week is Spirit week for our school. Monday was Career Day. Today was Sports Day. I will add pictures later.

Thanksgiving in October

October 9th is Canadian Thanksgiving. Two of the teachers at our school are Canadian and invited the rest of us to eat with them.
Everyone brought a little food, so there was plenty for all. We even took some home with us. The meal was similar to American Thanksgiving. However, we cannot get turkey here, so we had chicken instead. We also had southern-style green beans (with ham), mashed potatoes with gravy, dinner rolls. For dessert we enjoyed chocolate pie and Nanaimo bars. Delicious!
After dinner, the Canadians sang their national anthem for us. I've never heard it sung before - only played. They sang a fine duet.

Thank you, ladies, for the meal.

N. Korea nuclear test

We heard about the test from family members in the U. S. Everything here seems calm. We are on the US Embassy's alert list. We also have friends in the military here who would doubtless call if something happened.

My wife and I have already talked about what we would do if the alert came to get ready to leave. Don't worry. God is in charge.

First blog

I am setting up a blog in order to help my friends and family who keep asking me questions about this sort of thing.