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January 10th, 2008
07:38 am - scared of LJ
I've been away for so long, haven't read any updates. I'm scared to even look. And I'm not letting myself look until I catch up on homework.
Quick update.
Spent the first night in TX without electricity or water. It was 25 outside. Built a fire in the fireplace and barely slept that night. IT. WAS. VERY. COLD. And I come from Chicago (but we have heat in Chicago). It was like sleeping in a cave. And kinda romantic but I wouldn't repeat the experience.
Got internet in our house yesterday. Got a couch and loveseat delivered today (besides the tv and air mattress that's the only furniture in our house). Bought a car today - 01 Jeep Cherokee. I was getting cranky about Brian taking my car everyday. We wanted a pickup but TX is apparently pickup country, everyone wants one so the dealers mark them up even more than normal.
Went out in Austin last weekend. Austin earns an A+
Still looking for a job. Took a "basic skills test" to apply for jobs as an aide in an elementary school. They give the test like 2x a month. There were 30 people taking the test this time. Lots of competition but I like to think that I'm one of the more qualified people...who knows. I'll get my test results on Monday (I think I got 2 wrong, one possibly with long division, momentarily forgot how to and another involving quotation marks...I was never good at those). After Monday they'll start calling people for interviews.
I have a ton of school work to catch up on. Motivation is lacking. Hopefully being back in a real classroom will get some of that motivation back.
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December 7th, 2007
08:23 pm - AMERICA FUCK YEAH!
I am back. Left Korea on Wednesday at 12:30pm. Arrived in Chicago at 11:20am. YES.
When I arrived, Chicago was covered in snow and it had just begun to snow again. BEAUTIFUL. Giotto made it here too.
Home is awesome. We're leaving tomorrow for TEXAS.
Will update later.
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November 20th, 2007
09:23 am - Writer's Strike
First, I would like to say that I believe that the writers are striking for a just cause. If the TV corporations are getting more money for internet sales, then the writers are definitely entitled to some of those profits.
Second, the strike could very well be over and I wouldn't even know it. I get all my info from watching Access Hollywood on Korean TV, who knows how old that is.
But, I would like to make some observations. This is probably the largest strike from the highest paid employees, ever. They look really nice striking in their matching red tshirts and signs. I was pretty disappointed, however, in what was written on the signs. I would have expected something a little more original and clever from these writers. Maybe that was part of the strike.
I was very amused by Jesse Jackson's speech when he very forcefully said, "Keep hope alive!" - FYI Jesse, these aren't coal miners.
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November 15th, 2007
10:47 am - updates and news
It's not totally official yet...but it looks like we'll be leaving Korea THREE WEEKS from TODAY!!
Long story short, Brian has to go to Hood in December otherwise he won't be flying while he's there. Sooooo we got our DEROS date changed, now we're leaving on the 5th or 6th!!
So now things are going to happen really quickly, Brian has to get his orders so we can get the packers scheduled, plane tickets, Giotto's vet appt etc. It's going to be crazy. But also, now that we're leaving so soon, I'm starting to think about the stuff that I'm really going to miss about Korea. I know I complain about Korea a lot, but I don't really talk about the good stuff on here. A lot of the stuff I don't like about Korea isn't really Korea stuff....it's the US Army in Korea. Like only being able to have one car. You wouldn't believe how big of a difference that makes. Or the lack of jobs (I mean if you think it's hard to find a job around say Ft Stewart...think about Korea!!)
I've come to the conclusion that if we had decided to stay for another year, I would have been happier. It took me so long to find my place here, once I did, it's like....now we're leaving. If we stayed for another year I would have been able to get a more consistent job (working at the school or CYS), we would have had another car (apparently it got approved...but yeah don't need it anymore, thanks a lot) and I could have done more to make this place my home. But moving a lot and not really being able to place roots somewhere is going to be my reality for the next 5 years. We're already looking at 6 months at Hood, 15 months in Chicago, about 12 months in Alabama....then hopefully 3 years somewhere (but really that will be split up by deployments anyway). So I guess I learned a lesson here. Either be ready to really get involved quickly, or be content with not finding "my place" right away. It'll be much easier while I'm home in Chicago.
I think I'll have some culture shock when we move to Hood. Not so much when I go home for Christmas, that'll just be normal. The only real army life I've known has been in Korea. The community here is SO SMALL. Everyone HAS to do things on post. Everyone gets involved, very few people have full time jobs. It's going to be a shock to go somewhere that's so much bigger with so many more options. I can't count on the fact that everyone I know, knows everyone else that I know.
Now there are a lot more things I want to do before we leave. We already have a DMZ trip planned for the end of November (yeah....haven't been there yet!) then there's a WHOLE bunch of stuff I want to buy, a bar, pictures, pottery...lots of pottery, lamps. Just tons of stuff! We have to go eat at the Thai restaurant again (bc we have a free meal). We have to stock up on movies. Dark chocolate. Too bad we won't be able to get in one last trip, but I've been to Japan, China and Australia. That's pretty good for 11 months.
Brian wants to go to Seoul and go to the casinos. I'm not a huge fan. A bunch of our friends go there 1-2 times a month. I don't really like gambling, it's just not entertaining for me. But he won't go without me, so I guess I'm going. I need to go to Korean BBQ again, the only place around us is super expensive...so I've only been once, what a crime!! There's a sushi restaurant in Seoul that has a chain in Chicago, so I have to go there. I really want to go hiking because there are some really beautiful mountains around here. Plus, Giotto will love it.
I'll miss some of the insane Korean TV shows that I desperatly wish had English subtitles. I really wish I had some good girl friends here to go shopping with. I hate shopping for clothes alone outside my comfort zone (I can go to jcrew and gap alone, but other than that...not so much). There are really cheap clothes here but I don't want to go into the shops alone! Brian is not a help here. He'll stand there with me but hate every second of it, so that's not a help at all.
I really want to have a party at our place before they come and take all our stuff, just so all our friends can come and have a good time. Brian wants to have a party the weekend before we leave at a bar so everyone can get shitfaced together. I'm fine with that....but I know that some people won't come because they don't drink/are uncomfortable with that type of situation (or have lil babies). So they wouldn't come. Hmmmmm maybe we can combine? Have dinner at our place then all go out? I don't know if Brian will be down with that because it's kinda complicated and I feel like we actually might get stuck at our house and won't actually go out (we need to get rid of our alcohol anyway). I'll talk with him about it later.
hmmmmmm well that's it for now but I'll probably have more Korean thoughts before I actually leave.
OH one thing that was really bad timing. So I haven't taken a grad class since September because the system got screwed up and I had to wait for my fingerprints to be cleared (to make sure I'm not a child molester). Well I just got word that I can start another class...NOW. Wellllllll this is like worst timing ever. I'm moving in 3 weeks, then I'll be trying to figure out stuff at Hood for a week (possibly with no internet) then Christmas and New Years, spending time with family and then moving to Hood for real and getting settled there (so that's like 7 weeks of craziness...the class is 8 weeks long). Sooooo yeah, worst timing ever, but I feel like I should just do it and not complain.
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November 8th, 2007
09:46 am - Milk
If you have ever lived with me (which none of you have) you know just how much milk I drink. It's out of control, I drink so much milk. I was raised drinking tons of milk, my grandma had osteoperosis really bad and my mom always drilled into my brain that I had to drink milk to keep my bones healthy. I think that my body doesn't really absorb calcium in the right way because despite the amount of milk I dirnk, my nails are still not strong.
In Korea, our groceries are rationed. We're only allowed to spend so much at the commissary every month (but it's like $550 which we don't even get close to). Every time you buy groceries, you hand them your ration card where they keep track of all the items you buy. There are some items that are restricted (you can only buy so many a month) but also if you are buying a ton of one item, you'll be investigated because they suspect that you might be selling those items to Koreans off post (aka black marketing).
Brian always jokes/is half serious that we'll get investigated for the amount of milk we buy. He's been trying to figure out a way to prove how much milk I drink. Also, we buy "his and hers" milk. I drink skim and he drinks 2%.
Well....my milk drinking days are over for the time being. The milk here is ultra pasturized and has ridiculous expiration dates. For example, the milk in our fridge expires DECEMBER 13, and we've had that for a couple weeks.
I should say that the milk "claims" to expire on that date. One too many times I have poured a large glass of millk with the expiration date about 3 weeks in the future only to discover upon first gulp that...nope....it's expired NOW. It makes me so mad and also is super super super gross!! I've gone to the commissary to complain to them. One time I bought 5 half gallons of milk only to find out that they were ALL expired. The people at the commissary said that I probably didn't refridgerate them properly. Ummmmm ok, I bought them, took them home and put them in the fridge immediatly. Maybe THEY didn't refrigerate them properly. I'm really anal about keeping my milk cold. I'll pour a glass and put it immediatly back in the fridge, whereas Brian will keep a half gallon on the table during dinner so he can keep on refilling his glass.
I went thru an entire week where I paranoidly made Brian taste my milk before I would drink it because I just couldn't take the chance that I would get expired milk again. I don't care what the expiration date says! Those can't be trusted! Finally Brian refused to taste test for me anymore. So that's it. No more milk for Katie. Not until she can go back to the states where she knows the milk is not going to be gross.
I bought some viactiv carmel calcium chews to keep my bones strong. I don't even miss milk because whenever I think about drinking it I imagine the chunkiness.....
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October 31st, 2007
01:45 pm - funny stories from teaching
Last week in my Korean class, I brought in a story about a 7th grade class. The story has 4 parts, after each part there are comprehension questions and essay questions. Here's the basic outline of the first part of the story:
Trevor and Justin are best friends. Lisa is a new girl at the school and she likes Trevor. Trevor doesn't like her and wants her to leave him alone. Justin says that Lisa is nice and pretty and Trevor should give her a chance. Trevor says he's going to be mean to Lisa until she leaves him alone.
One of the questions was, "what do you think will happen next?" A seemingly innocent question. Some answers I was expecting, "Trevor will be mean to Lisa and make her cry", "Justin will say he likes Lisa and ask her out", "Lisa will write Trevor a love note (there was something in there about love notes)".
What I got was NOT what I was expecting. I knew something was going on when I heard girls spelling outloud for their friends words like, A-G-O-N-Y, E-N-V-Y, J-E-A-L-O-U-S-Y. Then I started to read some of their answers:
"Lisa propose to Trevor. Trevor said, no you are ugly and strange. Lisa is agony. She love Trevor so much. Lisa talk to her father. Next day Trevor knows Lisa is from rich family. Trevor accept propose. Justin sad and suicide."
"Trevor and Justin go to Everland (amusement park). Lisa go to Everland with friends. Lisa sees Trevor and make kissy face. She is sexy clothes. Trevor propose to Lisa. Then Lisa has baby. Justin loves Lisa and hates Trevor. Trevor has many girlfriends. Lisa depressed. She goes to waste baby clinic and wastes baby."
"Justin propose Lisa. Trevor is very angry but Lisa is ugly. Justin and Lisa are very happy and marry. Trevor is jealousy. Trevor suicide."
"Lisa propose Trevor. Trevor rejects proposal. Lisa is very sad. Lisa propose to many boys. All boys reject proposal. Trevor said Lisa is ugly and nasty and likes girls. Justin loves Lisa. Justin propose Lisa. Trevor said Justin like boys. Justin kill Trevor with car. Justin and Lisa marry and take Trevor's rich."
WOW. Ummmmmm not what I was expecting. So I decided to discontinue this series. I think the girls would have been surprised when in the next episode, Lisa tries to give Trevor a love note and Trevor kicks dirt on her dress, then Lisa is sad and Trevor apologizes (but not before someone tells on him!). Yeaaaaahhhhhhhh.
ps. I explained the word "propose" to them, that's why all of them used it, haha.
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October 25th, 2007
08:23 am - THE FAM IS HERE!!!!!
Well technically the fam has been in Korea since Sunday but they've been up in Seoul doing tours through the USO so I haven't seen them yet. BUT today I'm going to go pick them up and bring them back to my house!!!!!
Mi mum is so funny, she's been calling me everynight from their hotel, giving me updates on what they did that day. The first day she was like, "yeah, traffic here is crazy! they drive on the sidewalk! I was nervous about crossing the street but then I just started following old Korean ladies. They just put their hand up and walk across the street." I was like...Mom...don't follow them!! They get hit all the time!! They especially get hit by Americans because they don't know that when someone puts their hand up, and steps out into the street, that person is just going to keep walking, even if you're coming at them going 50 mph!
Really, I wish people here could see and understand the traffic in Korea. It's insane. Brian saw a family on the shoulder of a highway (which is about 3/4 land wide) with their car stopped HAVING A PICNIC. They had 2 small children. They just set up a blanket and were eating. Maybe I'll try to make a video and put it on YouTube or something because really, it's crazy.
Back to the fam. So I have to drive to Seoul alone today to get them because Brian's flying. I'm pretty nervous. I'm still not 100% confident driving stick (I'd say about 80% confident) I'm pretty confident that I won't get lost. I've never driven there but I've been to Seoul numerous times. However, if I do get lost (or miss a turn or exit) that will probably be the death of me. If all goes according to plan, I should be back in my safe apartment by 5pm tonight. Then I have to decide where we're going to eat tonight. There's a kimbop restaurant (korean sushi, doesn't really have raw fish though), a Korean bbq where you sit on the floor (love that place but my parents are old, I don't know if they could sit on the floor for an entire meal) or a thai restaurant.
They'll only be here Thurs night - Sun morning. Then they're going to Japan for a couple days. I'm kinda sad that they aren't staying with us longer. But...there really isn't much to do here, especially since they'll have already spent 4 days touring around Korea already. So I guess 2 days is enough time to see them and for them to not get bored.
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October 22nd, 2007
01:06 pm
I've been observing at the elementary school on post for the past week. In order to get certified I need 100 hours of classroom observation. I have until next August to do that...but if I get a job in Texas, it's going to be hard to get away in order to observe, so it's good that I'm knocking out as many hours as I can now. I have 13 hours already and I'm spening at least 3 hours a day, every day at the elementary school.
Ever since I started taking grad school classes I've doubted how good of a teacher I'm going to be. Being a teacher is easy, but being a good teacher is hard. I think it's a combination of 2 things: motivation and talent. I hope that I have both. Right now I definitely have the motivation, but I've encountered a lot of things in my life where I had tons of motivation beforehand but then once it got to actually DOING...the motivation ran out. For example, I was super motivated to be a freshman RA. I had all these plans for my hall, how to decorate, different activities, etc. Then I got sophomores, not only sophomores, but sophomores living on the freshman campus. So they were angry sophomores. No one wanted to do any of my fun activities or be involved at all. There went my motivation.
So I'm kinda doubting how good of a teacher I'm going to be. What if I'm all excited to be a teacher and then get a bad class? Is my motivation going to get thrown out the window? Another example, the English class I'm teaching now, there's an A class and B class. A class is very outgoing, they are enthusiastic about English and really try. B class just wants to sit around and talk. They are so disrespectful, they don't do work and don't care when I yell at them. I have no idea what went wrong with them, but I hate teaching that class. The hour just drags. I wish I could figure out what I did wrong in the beginning so I could learn from it...but I have no idea. I treated them the same as the A class. Maybe it's justa different combination of personalities. If I got a class like the B class...I feel like my motivation would be gone.
Sometimes all the work teachers have to do just exhausts me by thinking about it. All the teachers on post are super organized. They have binders and binders of lesson plans and worksheets. I guess once you get started it's easy to maintain that level or organization, but it's exhausting to think about setting up an entire room, lesson plans etc.
I think that something that will help with my organization is that I'm not going to be a teacher forever. It's something I've always wanted to do, but I might only do it while Brian's in the army (only 5 more years at the end of November, wooooo). Then it's off to Art History, yay! So I won't get burnt out by thinking about doing this for the rest of my life (but if I want to, it is a possibility).
Maybe it's good that I'm doubting myself like this, it's more realistic and I won't get as overwhelmed and bombarded by things as I become a real teacher. Plus...I'm not really sure what student teaching will be like...hopefully that will help me a lot!!
So I'm done with the ramblings for right now. I will say, the military elementary school on post is different from any other elementary school I've been in. It's interesting and I'm really glad that I'm observing there. More on that later I guess.
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October 11th, 2007
10:02 am
Soooo....I'm back in Korea.....
I'm only here for 2.5 more months. I hate this time period, when you've still got a decent amount of time in one place but you're pretty much ready to move on. It's like limbo. I feel like I'm fairly familiar with this limbo, I was there in Dec 05, waiting to move home for my last semester of college. I was sooo done with college, I just wanted to start working and get into the real world (hah but I lived with my parents during this time, whatever). Then in summer 06, waiting to get married. Then in Oct 06, waiting to hear where we were going. Then pretty much Nov-Jan 06/07 was waiting to move to Korea. It's been almost a year and I'm back in limbo again.
I'm involved in a whole bunch of things on post, but I'm really lacking motivation right now. It just seems like I'm finally getting into stuff, I just reached the point where I don't feel like I'm a newcomer anymore and now I'm getting ready to leave.
On top of that another one of my classes cancelled yesterday. I was working 12 hours a week, which was pretty good, considering that I'm also going to school and doing a ton of volunteer stuff. The big class I teach at the middle school is still going on, but I'll work there for 3 weeks (it's 4 hours/week) and then have like 6 weeks off. I have a break from them now, other than that I'm only working ONE hour a week. It's insane. I went from 8 classes, to one. They all cancelled either during the summer or at the beginning of the school year (with the exception of the one that just cancelled).
I just don't get it. I think I'm a good teacher. I try hard, I'm learning a lot and I really care about what I'm doing. A lot of army wives teacher English, it's pretty much the only job you can really have out here. A lot of them don't care about what they're doing. I'm making an effort. I'm taking education classes and applying what I learn there to what I'm doing with my students. At first I wasn't very good, I got by, but now I really feel like I know what I'm doing and that I'm doing a good job. So...I don't understand why all my classes are cancelling on me.
My one thought is that they don't think I'm dedicated. I took 2 weeks off in July (to go home) and then I just took 2 more weeks off to go to Australia. That's 4 weeks off in 3-4 months. That is a lot of time, but part of that was the summer, some of my students were going on vacation anyway. And one of the weeks I just took off, I wouldn't have had class anyway because there was a Korean holiday. That's the one thing I can think of. All of them said that their schedules changed and they couldn't have class anymore. Possibly true but...at the same time....EVERYONE'S schedules changed and no one wanted to see if I was available at another time?!
Plus, the other thing that bothered me about it was that none of them told me they were cancelling until I showed up for class. Then the mom would meet me at the door, signal for me to hold on a second, talk on the phone for awhile and then hand the phone to me. My "boss lady" would be on the phone and told me they didn't want class anymore. It's like....I just wasted 20 minutes driving here for this?! Sylvia, my "boss lady" (not really my boss but sets up my classes for me) has my phone number and calls me if a student is sick or something. I don't know, maybe it's part of their culture and I don't understand....like they want to tell me in person that I'm fired.
So anyway right now I'm just working 1 hour a week (til next week when my school job starts again but then I'll only be working 5 hours/week). I just feel like this entire thing has been a battle from the beginning. Is it really worth it? I only have 2.5 months left, should I try to get more classes? I can work with Sylvia to book a couple more per week. I won't have them for very long. It's nice to have the extra money, but it won't be enough to make a big difference. It's not like I need more stuff to do, with school, volunteering and classroom observations coming up (I have to observe for 100 hours), I'm busy enough.
Ugh this is stupid. I'm excited to move to Texas and be able to get a real job. I like working, especially if I'm able to be an aide again.
So some Korean complaints. They're doing a ton of construction in our apartment complex. This wouldn't be a big problem, except the new buildings they're building are dangerously close to the road. The complex is a big circle with another big circle to get into the complex. These buildings make every turn a blind turn!!! There are a lot of kids in the complex, there really isn't anywhere to play except in the street. There is a lot of traffic in the complex (everyone goes really slow) but it's just so dangerous!! There are tons of blind turns in Korea, it's just like it isn't a problem.
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October 10th, 2007
08:29 am - Honeymoon!!
Well I'm back from my honeymoon in Australia.....it was awesome!! We stayed in Palm Cove which is north of Cairns, it was a paradise!! I'll just give a quick overview for those who care to read:
The first day we got in at 6am. It's actually just a one hour difference from Korea, but it's a 9-10 hour flight (we had a layover in Tokyo). We slept for about 5 hours then lay around the rest of the day.
The second day we went on a tour of the rainforest. We had both really wanted to do some serious hiking/camping but the camping was too hard to plan. The tour was great, it took us to a bunch of different sites, some beautiful waterfalls, a Spanish castle in the middle of the rainforest, a giant fig tree, etc.
The Spanish castle was amazing. In the 20s a Spanish immigrant came over to Australia and found a piece of land that he fell in love with. In order to earn money to buy it, he started buying run down sugar cane fields, fixing them up and then selling for a huge profit. Once he got enough money he went back to Spain, got married and brought his wife back to Australia. This guy really was a dreamer. He was originally a baker but decided that he was going to build this huge estate for his wife/future family. On the property is a goegrous waterfall with a pool at the bottom. He started by mixing his own cement at the pool and then built stairs up to the top of the waterfall. With his bare hands! At the top he built his house and also a castle. The castle had a kitchen and grand ballroom (it's mostly detroyed now from various tropical storms). He bought one of the first movie projectors and would charge a penny for people to come watch movies on friday night in the grand ballroom.
I mean really, I could go on and on about this place, it was just amazing. And this guy built it all himself!! I just can't do it justice, here's the website: www.paronellapark.com.au
It was interesting because Japanese people from all over come to see it too. I guess there was a really popular movie filmed there. They'll have busloads of Japanese people that come and the entire tour is just about the movie made there!
The third day we went sea kayaking. One thing I love about Australia is tea. Every tour we went on served us morning and afternoon tea in addition to lunch/dinner (whatever time it was). We paddled out to an island and had morning tea on the beach there. The small island is actually a private island that a lot of celebs visit, but all Australian beaches (to the high tide line) are public. We had a couple harder paddles out to some good snorkeling places. Then we visited a sand bar. Our guide said that from the shore it would look like we were walking on water. We were really far out but in some places, there were almost little beaches in the middle of the ocean!
The next day we went scuba diving. Brian is a certified diver but hadn't dove since he got certified, so he dove with me and the rest of the intro divers. Palm Cove is just off the Great Barrier Reef. It was gorgeous!! Imagine everything you see on the National Geographic Channel, that's basically what it was like. The colors were amazing, there were so many fish! I even saw a giant clam! I didn't see any turtles or sharks, which was too bad (possible TMI but I had just finished my period, Brian said that was good because he didn't want me attracting any sharks...haha). It was a great experience, but I was exhausted afterwards. I feel like scuba diving-wise I'm spoiled now. I would like to get certified but I doubt I'll be in many places where it would be worth it to dive, and I'm not sure if anywhere will be able to compare to the Great Barrier Reef!
The next day we went bungee jumping. The place was gorgeous, it is run by the guy who pretty much invented bungee jumping (AJ Hackett). It was a huge structure built in the middle of the rainforest, at the bottom was a pond with a waterfall running into it. I was super nervous, Brian and I were doing a tandum jump, he had done a couple before that day (he did 4 in all....I just did the one). Once we got all tied up and we were heading out on the platform I started to panic. I mean...it was really high, 164 feet (16 stories)....and you're only tied by your ankles. I mean, you really feel like there's nothing that will stop you from dying, you aren't all harnessed up...you only have something around your feet (which will also stop you from running away). To jump, you have to walk out onto this little plank, so there's really nothing around you. On 3 sides there is just DOWN. This thing is built on the side of a mountain, so behind you is mountain but in front of you, the mountain is sloping downwards, so there's really nothing. The view is beautiful, you can see other mountains and the ocean. You're way high above the trees so you can see everything.
We got a DVD of all our jumps. It took some convincing to actually get me to jump (which is painful to watch on the DVD bc it took me a long time). The actual jump itself I don't remember (I think I blocked it out) but the fall and bungee were awesome. I let out a pretty impressive scream (which the DVD didn't capture, I should get my money back!) which was then silenced by hitting the water, hahaha. I'm glad I did it but not something I'd ever do again!
The rest of the time we pretty much hung out. We had one free day in Palm Cove and then flew to Brisbane, which is south. It was still really warm but Brisbane is kinda like Orlando. They call it Brisvegas or Brisneyland. We had already spent too much money in Palm Cove, so we just hung out in our hotel room pretty much the entire time, we were there for 2ish days.
Flying home we had another layover in Tokyo, we tried to remember to take a picture but didn't. We got into Korea at 11pm, we only had 2 hours til curfew and we couldn't make it home in that time, so we had to book it to the nearest army base and get a hotel room for the night (and got totally ripped off by our cab driver....nice welcome back to Korea). Then this morning we caught the bus back home.
It's good to be back and I really missed Giotto....I wish I could take her and go back!
I'll put up some pictures soon. Our camera died on the rainforest walk, so we had to buy some disposables, also I have an underwater camera (but it uses film) so I'm going to see about getting those put on a CD so I can put them online. I'll let everyone know when I do!
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September 18th, 2007
12:51 pm - Yes yes yes!!!
Got an email from my advisor today....I am exempt from the stupid English class I'm in, in addition to 2 Algebra classes I had to take!! Today I dropped that English class, yay!!
Thank god UOP came to their senses. Yeah, if I took upper level English courses and Calc in college....then I must have the skills to pass an Intro to English course and Algebra courses.
I was kinda looking forward to Algebra because I want to take the GRE at some point...but I don't even really know what kind of math the GRE has on it. I already bought the $190 Algebra textbook, maybe I'll see if I can sell it to someone else at Humphreys.
ALSO this means that I don't have to do homework while on my honeymoon!!!!!!!!!!
We're leaving for Australia on Monday for 2 weeks. I'm so excited!! And our first anniversary is on Sunday!!!!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/happy_sp.gif) happy
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August 26th, 2007
07:11 am - Reply to All
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I just got one of those mass emails things from someone (perhaps some of you were also on the list) and I typed this response to the person who sent it.
Then I hit "Reply to All" and then I hit "Send"
TERRIBLE.
Not that I said anything super personal but I just feel stupid and gross. Can we go like 3 minutes back in time? I promise I'll only hit "Reply" this time.
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August 23rd, 2007
12:28 pm - 10 year plan update/moving/life update
My praxis crisis has been dodged. Instead of waiting til the end of November to take the praxis, I've been told I only have to take 3 gen ed classes to prove my "basic knowledge". That is 1 English class and 2 Math classes. Apparently undergrad credits can also count...but I was "too advanced" in undergrad. They're looking for Algebra and I took Calc. They're also looking for intro to English I apparently I started with something higher. So that's mildly annoying.
BUT that also means that I can't continue with classes right away because I have to wait to finish up these classes. SO that also means that I probably won't be able to student teach during this school year.
On one hand, this is stressful. The plan was, student teach at Hood from Feb-May. Then move back to Chicago after Brian deploys and get a job as a teacher.
On the other hand I'm a bit relieved. Student teaching is a lot of work. Do I really want to do something that's so important for my career and is such a big time committment while moving to a new place, preparing for my husband to deploy and moving again soon after he deploys? - well that's a hard question to answer. I do want to get started on student teaching. It would give me something to do. At the same time I'm going to be super stressed and emotional right before Brian leaves. I don't want that to impact my performance. BUT knowing that now I don't really have a choice, that I'll most likely have to do student teaching from Sept-Nov 08, makes it so I don't have to choose.
But now....what will I do at Hood while I'm there? I'll be there end of Jan thru May-ish (until Brian deploys). Maybe I'll look into subbing. I never really liked the idea of subbing. I know that it takes me awhile to get comfortable in a new environment and subbing isn't the best way to do it. Also, I know how kids act towards subs. I don't want to deal with that. People in my classes LOVE subbing. I really love working with kids. I'm finally getting involved with the Girl Scouts here but I only have 4 months left. I'll only have about 4 months at Hood. I feel like that's really not a lot of time. I hate starting soemthing and not really following through with it. And I DON'T want to just hang out. I've done that basically for a year here (I am involved in a lot of things but none take very much time and I don't have a car, whine whine whine). I don't really want to get a job as an aide either because I won't be there very long.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I don't know. Anyone have any suggestions?! I doesn't really help that I don't know the area at all.
Another snag in the plan. When we moved to Korea we sold Brian's car and kept my car (at my parents house). Now that we're moving back, Brian won't have a car. We don't want to buy one because it will be used for 5 months and then sit for 15 while Brian is gone. I don't really know of any other options? Leasing? I'm not really sure how that works. Ideally we'd be able to work something out at Hood because we're already driving my car from Chicago to TX. I'd rather not drive 2 cars that whole way.
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August 4th, 2007
02:58 pm - FORT HOOD
Just found out last night that we're moving to Ft. Hood, Texas in December!
The branch manager also changed our DEROS from Jan 2 to Dec 21, so we'll be home for Christmas.
While it would have been nice if we had gotten a choice, Ft Hood works out really well. It fits in well with my 10 year plan =)
In December we'll go home and take all the extra leave that Brian has, so we'll be home for 2-3 weeks. Then we'll move out to Ft Hood. I'll start student teaching as soon as I can. Brian will deploy in May/June. I'll stay at Hood either til he deploys or til I finish student teaching. Then I'll move back to Chicago. Take the summer to freak out and feel sorry for myself/look for an apartment and a job. Then in August hopefully I'll have both an apartment and a job. I'll work in Chicago during the 08-09 school year then move back to Hood that summer at some point and Brian should be home!!
I haven't thought too much beyond that point. Brian will be in 4th ID. They're supposed to go to Bliss after they get back from deployment but Brian's going to try to go to CCC right after his deployment (he'll be a CPT by then, weird!). But who knows if the Army will cooperate with that.
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July 10th, 2007
04:15 pm - interior design
When we move back to the states....Brian and I need an interior designer. I love looking at Pottery Barn catalogues and things like that. But for some reason I can't figure out how to translate that to my own house. We have a lot of random stuff that we've gotten as presents that just don't really go together. I need to figure out how to make these things work together. Plus...after living in Korea we're going to have a lot of Asian themed items.
Also, clutter. It isn't that bad because we just don't have that much stuff but I know it will get worse once we move back to the states (we have severe weight restrictions for moving back). We just don't have anywhere to put a lot of our stuff. Again, part of that problem is that we don't want to buy things to put stuff in....bc that will put us farther over our weight limit. We have little furniture...definitely nothing for storage.
Our house looks like a college kids dorm room expanded into a huge apartment.
Someone needs to help me make our house look like a real cozy home!!!
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July 2nd, 2007
01:50 pm - booyah
I ran a 5k yesterday and didn't die.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/awake_sp.gif) pleased
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July 1st, 2007
12:37 pm - What we do in Korea for fun
We drive an hour to eat at Bennigans, that's what we do for fun.
I haven't been to a Bennigans in a real long time (not even in the states). But it was so funny being there. First, the hostess's name tag said her name was "King Kong". None of them really spoke any English. One of my friend's put our name down as "Godzilla" hahah. Then we were told it would be a 45 minute wait for a table. But I guess the manager came along, saw us there and sat us right away.
As we were waiting for our food, people kept on coming up to get pictures with us. I think that's why we got seated right away. Like back home when we say "let's get Chinese tonight" all the people in the restaurant were getting "American food" tonight. We added to the ambiance. Some kid was having her first birthday there. So some random person has a picture of me holding their child under a big sign that says "Bennigans".
But let me tell you, the salad bar was AWESOME. They had salad, chicken fingers, calamari, crab salad (delicious!), drinks, beer and ice cream. I didn't eat any of my entree, just brought that home for lunch today! It was expensive but totally worth it!
Today for fun, there was supposed to be a concert in the water park on post (Cross Fade is playing, they sing the song "Cold"...they play it on the radio here a lot and there's only one radio station in English so that's all I hear) but monsoon season is starting so it looks like it's going to rain. And it's cool outside, not ideal pool weather.
Current Mood: happy
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June 28th, 2007
09:21 am - new pictures
New pictures are up!
http://community.webshots.com/user/BrianLutz5
Jebu Island is new. There are some new pictures in "Puppy" mostly of Tyler's new puppy, Yoboseyo, who I nanny for. He's only 3 pounds so Giotto looks huge. And there are more pictures in "Korean Misc" also.
Enjoy!
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June 27th, 2007
06:48 pm - I seem to be very angry recently II
I talked to someone from my last class who was also on my Learning Team. She got 100% on her Team Critique Paper (I got 75%). Her comments said, "good job working as a team".
That makes me feel a little bit better. I didn't think our paper deserved a 75%. At the same time, it hurts a little more. Apparently my part was worthless enough to get 75%. I was "team leader" for the paper. So I compiled everyone else's work, wrote the intro, conclusion and attached a copy of my lesson plan (still not sure why). Everyone's parts were due on Friday, I told them that I would write the intro and conclusion after I got everyone else's portions. It doesn't make sense to write an intro and conclusion if you don't know what everyone else wrote.
So now I'm not going to complain about that grade. I guess I deserved it. But it would be nice to know WHY. And "Teamwork is important to UOP" does NOT count.
It totally sucks because if I had gotten ONE more point on that paper or on my lesson plan I would have gotten an A in the class and been on track with my 4.0
I am going to email my academic advisor about complaining about this professor again. Nothing about grades, just lack of comments.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/angry_sp.gif) angry
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June 26th, 2007
11:26 am - I seem to be very angry recently
I finally got my grade for my last class.
Let me tell you about my theory on grading. In my opinion, I think that if a teacher requires you to write a rough draft of a paper and gives you comments...if you correct all of those comments, you should get an A.
On my rough draft of my Lesson Plan I got a 3/4 - 75%. NOT GREAT. Comments: "Needs more detail". So I put in more detail, I put in a ton more detail. We were also required to do Peer Reviews, mine got reviewed by 3 other people. I discussed my LP with them and made some more corrections. Well I got a 25/30 - that's an 83%
ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME?!?!!?!? Oh and the comments on my LP...there weren't any. Nothing.
We also wrote a team paper, I thought it was really good! We got 75% on that too. Comments? "Team work is an important part of UOP"
WHAT THE FUCK
I ended up with an 89.4% in the class - B+
well that ruins my 4.0 GPA. I'm really counting on getting a 4.0 because UOP reputation isn't the best. If I had gotten .1 better I might have gotten an A. RIDICULOUS
Seriously, I am so pissed. I was already going to write to the University about this professor. As one of my classmates put it, "when I'm a teacher I will never make my students feel like this professor made me feel". She just didn't answer questions about anything. I think that part of the reason we got such a poor grade on our team paper was because my lesson plan was attached to it. She wanted a lesson plan attached to the paper for no apparent reason. Everyone asked what kind of lesson plan we needed, if it needed to relate to the paper, what format it should be in, etc. NOTHING. So I just attached mine (got it oked by the group).
I think I'm going to write to the professor personally about this one. I think I should receive SOME kind of feedback for my work, especially for something as important as a lesson plan!!!!
WORST. EVER. I'm very angry.
Current Mood: pissed off
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