MontanaRon

An English teacher's blog about his travels and his digital art.

Month: May 2006

P.S.–About Yanggu

May 29, 2006 /

The Yanggu position fell through because, in typical Korean fashion (for at least some institutions, but not all), the director at the school didn’t really care about qualifications–to him, it’s all about age. He told my friend Barry that he was looking for a young person for the position. Ok, no problem, but what about qualifications? Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how many years experience you have, what kind of degree you’ve earned, how you are rated by your former employer, or how professional or committed you are. No, to him and others around Korea, none of whom I would dignify as professionals, it’s only about your youthfulness and other PHYSICAL attributes, qualifications be damned. If you’re over 40, if you’re not white, if you’re fat, or if you’re not good-looking enough, you are probably screwed. You could have a degree in Dance or Mathematics from an accredited university, but as long as you are blue-eyed and blonde-haired and thin with movie-star looks you would qualify to teach at his institution. What a shame. And this is in one of the most rural areas in all of Korea, like he’s gonna find ANYONE to work there, especially anyone that might be interested in something other than watching cows grow fat. To say that I’m p-o’ed is to say the least; I really wanted to work in Gangwando. Well, it’s his loss, not mine. Thanks anyway to my friend Barry who tried to get me a position there. Thanks, Barry, but it’s not worth it, at least not for jerks like your boss (and others like him). (Sorry, I’m really becoming more and more incensed about the age ceiling in Korea and elsewhere. It just doesn’t make any sense.)

Also, I got a phone call from a Buddhist university in Gyeongju a few nights ago. Unfortunately, the search committee called me at midnight, Meknes time. I had no forewarning of the call. My phone started ringing; it’s usually a wrong number from someone in Meknes. It kept ringing, so I staggered out of bed and answered it. The fellow on the other end of the line asked me if I was ready for my interview. What???!!! No one had notified me of an interview. What are you talking about? Anyway, I groggily muddled my way through it and I think I did ok. The folks at the other end of the line were sympathetic (even though they did not notify me that they would be interviewing me) and told me that I did well considering the time and that nobody had contacted me. They said they would be sending me their decision sometime this week. I would love nothing more than to work at a Buddhist university; however, they don’t furnish housing, they don’t offer severance pay, and they don’t offer airfare reimbursement, among other things. The fact that they phoned me at midnight also tells me that there is a certain amount of disorganization. I’ll most certainly turn them down if they offer me a contract. Again, though, I’d love to immerse myself in a Buddhist environment.

Come, Summer

May 29, 2006 /

It’s Memorial Day weekend in the ‘States–memories of the start of a long, beautiful summer. So, what better activity than to sit in the bleacher seats of a baseball stadium, sip on a cold drink, eat a few hot dogs and watch the game? Well, that was my plan–watching the Yankees-Tigers game on MLB.com. However, the power went off in my apartment building for about an hour-and-a-half. According to Brahim, the building superintendant, there was an “explosion” in the basement of the building. Ominous-sounding, to say the least. Whatever it was, the power was eventually restored and I got to see the Yanks whip up on Detroit 4-0. Sweet. The Tigers are/were in 1st place in their division, but . . . let’s cue Detroit’s descent from first place in 5 . . 4 . . 3 . . 2 . .

(That’s for my traitorous brother, Randy, a former Yankee fan who listened to one too many evil voices in his head.)

It looks like I’ll probably be signing on with Woosong University in Daejeon, S. Korea. I heard back from Andong today, but they want me to go through the same procedure that any other new hire would have to go through. I just don’t have time to do that, since they won’t even be posting for the position until the end of this week or the beginning of the next. I signed an offer letter (a letter of intent, more or less) with Woosong and emailed it back to them this evening. After they receive the letter, they will send me a contract to sign. What dissuaded me from pursuing other offers were a couple of emails to people who had worked at Woosong or who are working there now. One fellow is a former colleague from Andong and the other is a graduate of the University of Montana. Nice. Both said that Woosong is an ok place to work. There are better places, I’m sure, but their endorsements are good enough for me.

Congratulations to Tuve Floden, former Peace Corps colleague, on his successful Masters completion. That’s all for now. Someday I’ll post more comments about and photos of Laos, but since I am heading there about the 5th of July, those comments might not be forthcoming until then. More later.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

May 23, 2006 /

Sheesh, I have a lot of applications out. But, so far I’m looking at 1) getting my old job back at Andong National University, 2) getting a contract at Woosong University Language Institute, or 3) working at a high school in Yanggu , a very small, rural town quite near (15-18 miles?) the DMZ separating North and South Korea.

I did a phone interview with Woosong University this morning and I’m confident I’ll be offered a position there, hopefully by the beginning of next week. I’ll have to read the contract before I accept, but it looks ok. Whether or not I’ll take the position depends on other factors.

One of those factors is the Yanggu position. A former colleague at Andong Univ., Barry Heinrich, from Australia, has been serving as liaison for a job at a boys’ high school in Yanggu. I’m hoping to hear from the school soon–it’s in a rural area in Gangwon Province, one of the least densely populated areas in Korea, extremely beautiful, and, of course, bordering the DMZ. It sounds almost like a Peace Corps job. Although it’s not a university position, it seems like it’s something I might want to do. Because they are so isolated, relatively speaking (for Korea), they are willing to pay well and give some other good benefits, so I’m told, in order to attract a native English-speaking teacher. I certainly wouldn’t mind working there, but, again, I have to see the contract first.

I do have many other apps in the pipeline, many of them for highly-coveted, well-paying, prestigious positions. Hopefully, I’ll hear from some of them before I have to make a decision about the other jobs I mentioned above.

It’s settled–I fly out of Casablanca for Bangkok on June 30th, come hell or high water. From there I’ll go to Laos for a week or a week and a half, then back into Thailand for most of the remainder of the trip. On or about August 15th I’ll go to Korea, to whichever job I have. If, for some strange reason, I don’t have a job there yet, I’ll still go to Seoul and camp out on their doorstep until they give me a job. 😎

In an attempt not to have to ship box(es) to Korea, an expensive proposition, I’ve also, in addition to sending out all the job apps, been scanning many of my personal copies of books (teaching and photography titles, mainly) onto the hard drive of my laptop. Very time-consuming. I’ll give the hardcopies to whoever I can find who can make good use of them, probably some of my students. More later.

Patience

May 18, 2006 /

Sorry I haven’t posted in quite a while, but I’ve been extremely busy sending out job applications, doing the work I’m supposed to be doing here, and getting things organized for packing for when I depart Morocco at the end of June. Please be patient and I will post more later.

Luang Prabang

May 9, 2006 /

On to Luang Prabang (LP), a UNESCO World Heritage site, as I’ve posted before. I must say, though, that I was a bit “underwhelmed” by the city. It’s culturally very interesting, but there was a pall of smoke that hung over the area all the time we were there due to the slash and burn system used by Laotian farmers around the vicinity. The Lonely Planet Guide to Laos warns that March-May is a bad time of year to visit because of all the smoke hanging over LP, and it’s no exaggeration, though the murky atmosphere makes for some beautiful sunsets.

The city is surrounded by mountains, many of which are the sites of numerous temples. The city itself is loaded with historic Buddhist sites dating back hundreds of years. We stayed right across the street from the Mekong River in a room with a balcony. It was pleasant sitting out at night, though LP seems to completely shut down around 10 p.m.

The guesthouse has its own restaurant across the street, where we ate breakfast, but our favorite haunt was the row of food vendors stretching along one of the main streets. We usually ended up buying a broiled chicken or a large Mekong fish from one vendor and then heading down to another who had a kind of Lao buffet. The very substantial fish cost about $1.60, the chicken somewhat less, and the buffet was 50 cents–all in all a great bargain, and delicious, too.

Here Nai picks out a fish (they’re actually larger than they look).

Food_1

Good food, but it’s not all you can eat–50 cents a pop, not bad!

Buffet

Of course, it’s not ALL about food. How about a balloon?

Balloons

Ok, it’s starting to get late here, so I’ll close for now and do some more of LP later.

Back to Andong

May 8, 2006 /

Yes, my former boss at Andong Univ. in Korea offered to rehire me and I told him, yes, I’d like to come back. Lots of reasons for that–Andong is a nice, rural area of Korea (even though the population is 200,000, it is considered “out in the sticks”; the pay is decent even though the hours can get rather long; I still have some former colleagues working there; I know what I’m getting into; and many of the jobs offered in Korea require a ton of paperwork, stuff that is just too difficult to do from here. Some of the items they want include sealed transcripts from the U of M, notarized diplomas (which can only be done from the Korean embassy in Rabat), medical reports (I’d have to go to Rabat to try to find a doctor to do this), a criminal record check from Montana (can’t do it online), face-to-face interview, either in person or with a webcam, and other assorted procedures. These would be difficult enough to do in Korea and the U.S., but trying to do them all from Morocco by the deadlines that the various employers set makes the process almost impossible to complete on time. I assume that Andong won’t require a whole lot of me, especially things like an interview, diplomas, etc. We’ll see–I’m waiting to hear back from the administration since I emailed them a few days ago accepting their offer to rehire me.

Anyway, it looks like I have a job nailed down early enough so that I don’t have to go through the trauma of settling everything at the last minute like I did when I left Andong last August. That is, indeed, a big relief since it gives me time to pack, to ship boxes (if necessary) and to handle all the little details involved in moving half way across the world . . . again. This time, I plan to stay in Korea for 6 or 7 years, hopefully saving enough money to retire in Thailand, eventually. A lofty and seemingly very difficult goal, but one that I will really strive to achieve. (Sorry, U.S.A, but, for me, the Land of Smiles has much more going for it) 😉

Yes, I’m still planning to make a rather late posting about the rest of my trip to Laos last month, with photos. In the meantime, I have posted a few shots in the gallery and I’ve highlighted a link to those on the right hand side of this page. I really have too many photos in the gallery, and it looks like it’s getting hard to find the various sections; hence, the link to the most recent ones. Enjoy. More later.

May Day March

May 1, 2006 /

It’s obvious to me now–the march in Meknes, about which I wrote in the previous post, was related to May Day, the traditional Workers’ Day of May 1, except, of course, in the U.S., which celebrates Labor Day. Thus, workers around the world, from Indonesia to Cuba, celebrated and protested today in mostly peaceful marches.

Strike!

May 1, 2006 /

At least I think it was a strike. There was a BIG march today in Meknes, right in front of my apartment–people chanting, carrying banners, and escorted by police, with all vehicle traffic closed off. The apartment concierge told me that it was a strike of government offices, schools, etc. nation-wide, though I couldn’t understand the reason. I’ll have to check the newspapers to see what was going on. It was very peaceful, if noisy. Here’s one photo of it.

March_1

Now, look carefully at this second photo. Notice the yellow arrow in the middle on the extreme right hand side? What’s it pointing at? Yes, a Yankee logo on a baseball cap! Though it’s not an official-looking Yankee hat, it does have the MLB logo on it also. Again, another Yankee hat, and I didn’t see any other baseball team represented on any hat. Truly, the World’s Baseball Team!

March_2

So, what will I be doing tonight? Since my students, who were probably out there marching today, are out on practicum for two weeks, I’m going to stay up to watch the first game of the Red Sox-Yankee series. It doesn’t get started until 7:05 p.m. Eastern Time, which means 11:05 p.m. in Morocco at MLB.com. I’ll be interested to see the reaction Johnny Damon gets from his old team’s fans.

I’ve been busy today sending out applications for jobs in Korea. I sent out 4, with more to come as the month goes by. Most of the major universities will post their job needs on Dave’s ESL Cafe beginning the middle of May on toward the end of the month and into June. I should be able to find something, and the ones I applied to today look pretty good. More later (including the Luang Prabang photos).

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