bluerosefairy

TWENTY THREE DAYS OH MY GOD. I AM GOING HOME IN 23 DAYS. OH MY GOD, I HAVE PACKING AND SHIPPING-STUFF AND VACATIONING IN VIETNAM TO BE PLANNING FOR. OHGOD.

( Mad Men 313 - Shut the Door, Have a Seat )

( Doctor Who - The Waters of Mars )

Augh, with all that male douchebaggery running around, I need to go watch that clip of JJ whacking the UnSub with the shovel a few times to get my blood pressure back down.

*drags self out of the depths of the internets*

Hello, gang. Been slightly-MIA due to extreme lack of computer and various work-related stuff. Starting with the fact that absolutely no one besides my two co-teachers (Jim and Chris) and I knew I was leaving in December. I booked my post-Korea vacation last week (a week in Vietnam! I am SO PSYCHED!) and since my return flight is included in my contract, I wanted to arrange for it to be included in my last paycheck. Imagine my shock - and my director and AD's shock - when I found out that James (the hiring director, who isn't based out of Siji anymore; he's down in Bongduk at another SEI branch) never told anyone that I was only working a four-month contract.

So there was a bit of a kerfluffle, and I've been ass-deep in paperwork, writing down class procedure and contact info and move-out dates and it's kind of hitting me that oh holy god, I'm going home in less than two months. It's a bit terrifying, to be honest, because I've gotten kind of autopilot-y, working and hanging out with the KTs and Jim and Chris and PCbanging on weekends and being really lazy, and it's almost been kind of a year-long vacation. And now I have to go home, which, don't get me wrong, I'm really excited for because I miss my parents and my friends and family. But I have to get a job back home, and an apartment, and it's just going to be weird.

And yes, one of the first things I intend on doing is to eat large quantities of all the food I've been missing (chicken parm sandwiches! real pizza! Chinese food! turkey! french fries!). I'll probably gain back all the weight I've lost in a week. Oh well, totally worth it.

Also - HI to all of the new friends from various new fannish loves. I promise I'm mildly entertaining when I have actual computer access on a regular basis.

Laptop is probably busted for good. Will probably need to buy completely new computer. Anyway, in honor of yesterday's date:

Something Just Broke (from Assassins).

Ignore the assassination-related lyrics, like I do. This song reminds me so much of being 15 and piling into Erin's brother's car, because SEPTA was shut down, all major roads were closed, Broad Street was at a standstill, and we'd been sent home. Sitting in my living room with my parents, Brooke, and Erik Brown, watching the footage they wouldn't show us in school (ooh, Central caught hell for that one). Funnily enough, I remember the one-year anniversary memorial much more clearly. I can remember being in Romoff's Social Science class, and spending half the period watching the footage and the other half debating about Congress and concluding they'd be stupid to authorize the invasion of Iraq (god, talk about hindsight being 20/20).

I hate my computer. I had a huge-ass entry typed up, all laid out in a coherent manner, and then my mousepad freezes up again (that's the latest fun thing my laptop has decided to do to me) and causes my computer to reboot, and I lost the entire damn thing. Let's hope I can recreate it.

( You'll go home, I'll stay here, seasons keep on marching . . . )

So yes, doing better. Further apologies for the drive-by flailage and disappearing. Four months and counting.

Hello, gang. Been incommunicado lately due to real-life craziness that I swear, I will update you all about soon. But I need to get something off my chest.

Everyone screaming and pitching fits over the proposed national health-care system? Chill the fuck out and quit listening to Sarah Palin. The government does not want to take away your healthcare to give it to illegal immigrants, it does not want to form "death panels" to exterminate anyone, and it sure as hell doesn't want to cut Medicaid completely. It is absolutely possible for a government to create a national health care system - and not only that, it is utterly necessary.

There are a known 45.7 million Americans without health care. I'm one of them. When I come back to the U.S., I will have zero health insurance coverage. Is it possible to get individual coverage? Only if I want to take out a loan to pay for it. Fewer and fewer companies are paying for their employees health benefits because insurance rates are sky-high. If I get sick, injured, or god forbid, even just want to get fucking quality birth control without an interrogation, I will be either denied treatment or charged thousands of dollars. With a national healthcare system (called "single-payer"), options can be opened. People could choose their doctor based on other criteria than "will they accept my insurance" (because the answer is nearly always "no").

A single-payer healthcare system is a reality for many countries. It can and will work in America. This website can tell you anything you need to know.

As you were.

MOTHERFUCKING END OF TIME TRAILER

( Cut for spoiler-induced flailing )

IT CAN BE CHRISTMAS NAO PLZ?

Oh, I just adore Korean methods of communication.

Long story short, the school I teach at was scheduled to close at the end of this week (which I didn't find out until LAST week), and today I come in to find out that no, we're not closing because the director's sister-in-law has decided to try her hand running the school. So all the panic I was going through with possible plane tickets/packing for home, and then interviewing at three different schools (NONE of which I'd have to teach kindergarden at) is all useless. We're still going to be open after vacation. I still have five months of kindergarden and grade-schoolers left.

What pisses me off isn't just the horrific lack of communication, it's the complete and utter idiocy of the people I work for. They only opened the school because Ally, the wife, wanted to. Enoch, the actual director, has no experience running a school, and to be fair, he's done a decent job. But he quite clearly does not want to be in this business, and he's only continuing because he doesn't want to disappoint his wife, or Mommy and Daddy, who are paying for all this. He was a week away from closing before, and then this woman named Anne who he and Ally are friends with stepped in. She lasted a week. Now he was ready to close again and suddenly Cleo, his SIL, is going to single-handedly run the school? With just as little experience as he's got?

God, I was just about to sign a new contract with another school to teach conversation and writing to HIGH-SCHOOLERS. No more babysitting. No more whining. No more students who quite clearly do not want to be there and yet we have to bend over backward to please their parents. No more grading recordings and book reports that they half-ass ANYWAY. No more kids who can barely speak Korean, let alone English.

I'd gotten my hopes up SO much. I was excited to teach for the first time in four months. I was doing lesson plans because I wanted to. I was putting together writing projects (blogs! one-act plays! short-story collections!). And I can't use any of those ideas for my current students, because none of them are anywhere near that level and those that are are maybe one or two students out of a class of four more who can't. I have to go back to unit assessments, weekly spelling tests, and did I mention the fucking recordings? (Most. Useless. Teaching Method. EVER.)

And I'll be by myself doing it, too. Brett's got maneuvering room. He's staying in Korea longer than a year. He has a girlfriend with a school of her own. He can afford to break his contract and walk away and say "fuck this noise, I'm going to teach for someone who knows how to run a school". I can't. Everything I've got here is tied into the school I'm at, for a year. And I know I'm dwelling on the negatives, I know I'm bitching about a situation I can do nothing about, but dammit, I wish I had more of a say in what the hell was going on with my life.

Meme snagged from evilgmbethy who is awesome.

( And if someone tries to make me/I will simply run away . . . )

Yes, you're seeing correctly, that IS John Barrowman in drag.

If you'll excuse me, I need to go weep over my utter lack of femininity and bemoan the fact that his legs are a billion times better than mine will ever be.

For more information:
PICTURES:
here and here
NEW INFORMATION:
Here - near constant updates
Here - ONTD_political live post
ON TWITTER:
@StopAhmadi, @IranElection09, @persiankiwi, @NextRevolution, @Change_for_Iran


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This one was totally the "let's remind the audience that Ray's not a total wanker" one. Which I do appreciate.

( Not me, I never lost control . . . )

Went to Seoul on Tuesday. OMG LOVE. If I ever decide to come back to Korea after this year, I'm going to teach in Seoul. It's almost exactly like New York - to the point where I mastered the subway system after five minutes and some translation from Jenna.

To put it in geeky English major terms -

Daegu : Philadelphia :: Seoul : NYC.

I've got two Dreamwidth codes, which are good for a free account. If you want one, let me know.

To steal a phrase from phinnia, ate too many fannish cookies again. And this is the only thing distracting me from massive amounts of lesson plans and grading and teaching, so forgive the lengthy yammerings.

( Just remember that it's all in your head (House) )

( The future is coming on, is coming on . . . (Ashes to Ashes) )

To paraphrase Em - SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW.

( One more mention of 'seven years' and I'm going to start freaking out, people )

Updated my wordpress blog (the List of Things I'm Learning in Korea), if anyone is at all interested in checking it out.

You can find it here.

Ugh. Sleeeeeep. Also, NyQuil, as have caught the Korean Death Flu. Again.

cereta is super-duper awesome and gave me a DW invite, so you can find me at d_generate_girl over on Dreamwidth.

And if you're already on DW, plz to tell me your username so I can add you?

Okay, so it's 2 am and I've just finished downloading and watching the finale of BSG - and do you KNOW how much that breaks my heart, that it's the LAST EVER BSG?

Have some spoiler-ridden flailing and capslock.

( Incoherant Flaily Shrieky Review of OH MY HOLY GOD IT'S OVER )

So, yesdrizella has finally posted her Roundtable Discussion of The Wrestler, and I've been sitting on these ramblings ever since I watched the movie because I wasn't sure if anyone wanted to hear them. I'm keeping the entry open, in case anyone not on my flist wants to read it, but if you're not a fan, you probably will have a big giant WTF face at this.

( If you've ever seen a one-trick pony, then you've seen me. )

*sniff* Now, to watch something less heartbreaky - like oh, I don't know, someone killing small animals.

Fingers crossed that my internet connection stays up (along with my brain, considering I had 2 classes of kindergardeners today, and will have 3 tomorrow) long enough for me to watch the inauguration on CNN.com. Because I really, really want to feel like I'm part of my country's democratic process, and I will be sad if I miss it.

So, to aid in the waiting, I made a mix for the Inauguration:

( It Just Might Work: Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States )

Comment if you're downloading. I just like to know if I need to re-up.

X-posted to lunatunes.