RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Heard a story about the British Harry Potter audiobooks - apparently Steven Fry was a bit condescending to JK Rowling when he first met her (oh you write childrens' books good for you), so later when he had difficulty saying the phrase "he pocketed it", and asked if he could change it for the audiobook, he was rejected. And according to him, the phrase was then used more often in following books.

Note: I'm pretty sure I heard Steven Fry tell this story somewhere, but I can't remember for the life of me where.

I haaaaate when my first graders are late. Gives me false hope that class was cancelled. 

When I came out of a Premiere Friday showing of The Dark Knight, the line was all set up and waiting to be ushered in to the next showing. I come out right next to them and tell my gf, "Wow, that was so weird that the Joker's character was gay." Cue the instant whispering and gasps as my false flag spread through the line like fire through a dry, summer forest. \
I wonder what they thought as they watched.

Another great example of spoiling as movie is the pilot for Kenny Vs. Spenny. It's a competition between two dudes every week and the loser has to do something humiliating. In this case, going up to the line wating for Unbreakable and ruining the twist. Enjoy.

http://youtube.com/qdR7emD8IL4?t=22m11s

... I come out right next to them and tell my gf, "Wow, that was so weird that the Joker's character was gay."

 

If you're waiting for a page to load for what seems like forever and determine that it might be frozen, refresh the page -- it'll finish loading right as you're doing that so that you can sit in fury while it attempts to load a second time.

I'm reading Harry Potter right now, on Half Blood Prince. A student sees me reading it, walks by and smiles and says "Dumbledore dies." He's lucky I've read them before. I hate people who spoil things!

Had a roommate in college who loved spoiling things.  I was watching Avatar (the series) for the first time and was pretty engrossed. 

Roommate:  Do you want to know what happens???
Me:  No, I'm good.
Roommate:  Are you sure???
Me:  Yes... that's why I'm watching it.   
Roommate:  Oh.  Okay. 

...

Roommate:  What happens is--!!!!! 

I cut her off by just up and leaving.  Least favorite roommate, but for a lot of reasons.   

Also, the HP audio books are pretty great!  I've listened to the American version (Jim Dale) of the series and I'm hoping to find access to the British version (Stephen Fry) to compare.

Oh, I've met one or two people like that. I don't understand what makes them tick like that.

I think the worse though, is self-spoilers. I did that to myself for both GoT and Vikings, both times by complete accident and out of nowhere, where I should have been safe.

Also, Avatar is the best! I loved that show. Korra isn't as good, but I still liked it.

I've never listened to them, but I've heard both are quite good in different ways. My friend listened to the Stephen Fry one and said he messed up on voices a couple times.

The lunch ladies played the game, how many carbs dishes can we put in a meal. Huge ball of rice with tiny specs of veggie, check. Ttokbokki, check. Jeon (Korean pancake), check. Hot water with rice in it (soup), check.   

I don't think I have ever seen so many children get seconds  lol!

Exams next week, and I only have one week of classes after that before summer vacation.

Was just informed by a coT that she expects me to cram a lesson from the book for my 3rd graders in that week before summer vacation, a lesson that will not be making it into the following semester. And these are for classes that she is NOT in charge of. When she saw that I was about to argue with her on that, she made the claim that this was upon request of the teacher who IS in charge of those classes.

And I know that's a lie, lmao.

In the end I decided to just SNIP.

But I really don't get how people can lie about things that are easily checked out. And also, why the **** would you try to throw your weight into an area where it not only doesn't belong but for something that is absolutely pointless? **** that noise, these kids are getting a movie or a game.

The lunch ladies played the game, how many carbs dishes can we put in a meal. Huge ball of rice with tiny specs of veggie, check. Ttokbokki, check. Jeon (Korean pancake), check. Hot water with rice in it (soup), check.   

I don't think I have ever seen so many children get seconds  lol!

Sounds like my lunch. A big scoop of rice, tteok in the meat (though the dish has more bones that meat) and tteok in the soup. I don't understand how they don't get sick of the constant rice.

The lunch ladies played the game, how many carbs dishes can we put in a meal. Huge ball of rice with tiny specs of veggie, check. Ttokbokki, check. Jeon (Korean pancake), check. Hot water with rice in it (soup), check.   

I don't think I have ever seen so many children get seconds  lol!

Sounds like my lunch. A big scoop of rice, tteok in the meat (though the dish has more bones that mean) and tteok in the soup. I don't understand how they don't get sick of the constant rice.

That rice soup is called Nurungji (누룽지) soup. Just scorched rice and hot water. You guys have no idea. This was mine a couple of weeks ago
                        1. Nurungji soup
                        2. Pasta noodles with cream sauce
                        3. (sweet) garlic bread
                        4. Ddeokppokki (which was basically all ddeok)
                        5. For the soup, cream of broccoli (I assume the instant of course)
                        6. Kimchi was the only vegetable (that broccoli didn't count)

The lunch ladies played the game, how many carbs dishes can we put in a meal. Huge ball of rice with tiny specs of veggie, check. Ttokbokki, check. Jeon (Korean pancake), check. Hot water with rice in it (soup), check.   

I don't think I have ever seen so many children get seconds  lol!

Sounds like my lunch. A big scoop of rice, tteok in the meat (though the dish has more bones that mean) and tteok in the soup. I don't understand how they don't get sick of the constant rice.

I think it's just cultural, honestly.  I grew up eating rice but in tandem with a good medley of western foods, so I don't feel the need to have rice every day much less with every meal. 

I imagine if you grow up having something every day without much exposure to a variety of other cuisines, then it just becomes habit?  I do feel like the younger generations are developing broader palates here due to the influx of western fast food franchises and availability of foreign food in general.  A goodly number of my students don't even like kimchi, their country's national pride and joy    The same students also don't seem to fancy vegetables in general though  I've seen their lunch trays (at my middle schools where it's primarily self serve).

Sounds like my lunch. A big scoop of rice, tteok in the meat (though the dish has more bones that mean) and tteok in the soup. I don't understand how they don't get sick of the constant rice.

That rice soup is called Nurungji (누룽지) soup. Just scorched rice and hot water.

I think "tteok in the soup" would be ddeok-guk (떡국). Personally, I like rice and ddeok (rice cakes), so I don't mind eating that stuff. But that's just me.

                                                               1/3

They say that writing things down helps with thinking about it and dealing with things, so here I am.....

We all have reasons that we came here, and often we get asked this by Koreans. It's a legitimate query. To know my reason we need to go back to 2012. I work at a movie theatre in Toronto. I've never lived there before and it's exciting. There's a special screening of Apocalypse Now at TIFF and Walter Murch, the editor and inventor of 5.1 sound will be there.

  Who wants to go with me?

  I will go.

It's my Korean co-worker. Shit, I've never really spent time with anyone whose English is their second language. What if it's awkward? What if I can't understand her?

We go. She's nice. We get some drinks afterwards and all is fine! She's really nice and curious and while her English ain't great, it's good. I start to like this woman. I tell her I like her a few weeks later. I get shot down. I don't give up that easy though.

It takes two more attempts, over the course of 4 months,  and I bluntly just tell her to get a coffee with me. She's leaving in 4 months,

  why Kevin?

  Do you want to spend the rest of your life without knowing what it would be like to properly date me? We've practically been dating for the last 6 months anyway, we hang out all the time, and I know you like me, too.

  Okay, let's do it. *kis kiss kiss*

This is the happiest I have ever been. The 4 months prior to her moving back here are the best 4 months of my life. We have a picnic.

  Do you think we have a future?
 
Yes, I will come teach English in Korea. I'l come find you and we can be together and we can move back to Canada one day.

  I love you.

 :police:I love you, too.

She leaves. I see her off at the airport. I cry on a bench in the terminal. The work begins. I go get my TESOL In-Class course. I also go to the beach.

This beach part seems like a weird aside but it'll come around and I'll distill it down. I go with friends. I go piss, there's an iPhone 4S on the toilet paper dispenser (keep in mind, this was a 6 month old phone at this point). Snap, sell this shit. 4 hours later. "Ahhhh, if I lost my phone, I know I'd want to have someone try and give it back to me. (Thanks Dr. Dre)"
I figure out who. "Kevin, red or white?" "Ahh, thanks. Red." I bike to my friends house. I have the wine. I proceed to get completely off my head, and it wasn't just wine (I won't incriminate myself here, but you get it). Bike home, no helmet.

Wake up. The ****? Where am I? Oh shit. I'm in critical care. A vein had burst on the inside of my skull and started filling up my cranial cavity with blood. Puts pressure on the brain.

  Kevin, if you'd been another 5 mins late to the hospital, you'd be functionally retarded, 10 mins? You'd be dead. I just want you to understand the severity.

 

Lucky me I was 3 blocks away from St. Mike's when I crashed, best neurosurgeons in Canada. This was the tail end of June. I could have had my TESOL 4 days after the accident.

Anyway, this delays my TESOL, which delays my life. I'm going to Korea, it'll just take a little longer. I feel like I can get away with a lot of stuff. "I had brain surgery, cut me some slack."

End of November.

  I don't know if I love you anymore. Where are you? Why aren't you coming?

  I'm sorry, baby. I'm coming.

  Get a job before the new year, or I can't do this anymore.

Shit. I pick up my life. I work hard. I get a job on the 26thof December. Flying in on Valentine's day. Hell yeah.
 
To be continued......

                                                                   2/3
Back!

So. I land in Incheon. I'd only ever been to the states at this point, and wow, big friggin deal, a Canadian went to the States, right?

She's there. It's like a movie. We hug.

  I'm sorry.

  Why? 

  It's not going to work.

  What?

 'm sorry.

I got dumped at the airport.

Cue 4 months in a new country, with a job I've never done before and wanting to die every day. Foreign Teacher Boss catches you crying in the bathroom at the bar. It's hell.

But it gets better. It always does. Make some friends a few years later at GIFLE (teacher training) These are my bros.

Cue March of this year (4 years after The Incheon Incident) I look at that little ticker feed at the top right of the FB.

Sam R (my mate) and JHK (my ex) are now friends.

No. 

TEXT:

  You know who that is, right?

  Ya, mate. She's in my friend's group. Some other people, but you don't know them.

Now, I should mention that this is fine with me. I would never dictate who my friends could be friends with. It just came off as a complete surprise.

Cue a month later. I go to Suwon for U-20. Leave the game, ho shit, it's Sam R! Let's grab some beers in Suwon! Same R is with his mates Rich and Jeeho, from his other friend group.

Get some beers. It comes to light that I am, in fact, that Kevin. I'm on the edges of this friend group now.

Rich:  Hold on, you're Kevin? Like, Kevin Kevin?

  Yup.

Rich: Holy shit, I've heard a lot about you.

FA FOOKS SAKE, can this woman not start bleeding back into my life. Christ.

Cue another 3 weeks. (Last weekend) I'm camping on an island with a completely seperate friend group, there's no over lap here. We're getting drunk at the 보건소 (that's a story for another time hahaha). I'm talking to Beth and Gerald and Donald are talking amongst themselves next to me. Donald is a huge onlne dater and he's quite successful. He's a handsome guy.

  (Perfect emoji, jesus) [To Gerald] So this is the most recent one I've been talking to, she's cute as hell.

  (never missing an opportunity to see a cute girl) Hey, who's that?

Look at screen. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

I laugh. I laugh and I laugh just because of the absurdity of this situation.

Gerald: What the hell is so funny?

  You have one guess as to who that is. (He knows the story of why I came here, all my friends do, bit of a legendary story in that regard, the guy who got dumped at the airport)

Gerald: No................. ....

  Yup.

  What the **** are you two talking about?

To be continued.......... .............

                                                                3/3

So, a couple that I know got engaged on Saturday. Sam R is in this group. We head to our second bar and after it's time for the third stop. There's.......... 8 of us?

  Uhhh, mate. JHK is going to be there, sorry man. It's my mates and I should go. I understand if you don't that's totally fine.

  God dammit.

  (woman who is hanging out with all of us for the first time) Why don't you just go? You don't have to talk to her.

  I'm going to say this as diplomatically as I can. Never fukking ask me that question again.

  Oh, okay.

So we split in two. Some go, some come with me. We drink at the CU outside Itawon stn. Two more leave to go with the others. It's me and a guy I've met once and he's ****** hammered.

  Where are they now? (I don't have a phone)

  They're at the Wolfhound. Sam R left apparently for the last train.

  Hmmmmmmm, maybe she's gone too, she never was a big drinker.

We arrive.

  Hey, , go check upstairs and let me know.

I don't know what happened but drunk dingus must have gone upstairs and been a loud fukking mouth, because 2 mins later, guess who comes down the stairs at the Wolfhound

  Hey, Kevin, it's been a long time. It's good to see you.

  Well, one of us can say that.

  How have you been?

  Better

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
  You understand I've avoided you all night? And now you're here and you want to make small talk, right?

  Sorry, take care.

And she left. It drives me insane. The non-chalance. Hey, what's up, friendo? How ya been?

Ugh.

Apparently when my friends arrived with Sam R, she kpt going around to all of them, "How's Kevin? What is he doing? Where is he living? How did you meet?"

Fukking awkward for them, they know this story I'm writing, all of it.

So what the hell do I do now? The two friendship circles with Sam R have been converging closer and closer for months. Do I just suck it up and participate? Do I go home at 9pm when 3차 rolls around? Because I can't rule the roost with the one friend group and tell them, "If you're my friend you won't go out with Sam R. He can go and you have to stay with me." I'm not a fukking psychopath.

Ugh. Such is life. And then today I wake up and I feel like shit, for 2 reasons, and I get a message 10 mins after I piss,

  Hey, Kevin. Do you mind if I phone you?

  Sure. How's Indonesia treating you?

What the f am I doing? hahahahahaa

Exams next week, and I only have one week of classes after that before summer vacation.

Was just informed by a coT that she expects me to cram a lesson from the book for my 3rd graders in that week before summer vacation, a lesson that will not be making it into the following semester. And these are for classes that she is NOT in charge of. When she saw that I was about to argue with her on that, she made the claim that this was upon request of the teacher who IS in charge of those classes.

And I know that's a lie, lmao.

In the end I decided to just SNIP.

But I really don't get how people can lie about things that are easily checked out. And also, why the **** would you try to throw your weight into an area where it not only doesn't belong but for something that is absolutely pointless? **** that noise, these kids are getting a movie or a game.

I'm in the same boat. Hilariously, the chapter is "At the Movies" but come on can we please have a LITTLE fun?

So what the hell do I do now? The two friendship circles with Sam R have been converging closer and closer for months. Do I just suck it up and participate? Do I go home at 9pm when 3차 rolls around? Because I can't rule the roost with the one friend group and tell them, "If you're my friend you won't go out with Sam R. He can go and you have to stay with me." I'm not a fukking psychopath.

I loved the emoticons to show who was talking.
I am so sorry about what happened to you. It's hard enough moving to a new country but doing that just to be with someone and then having them leave you? That makes it way worse. But props to you for sticking it out. You've stayed for 4 years so there must be something about Korea that you like.
Now... I'm going to give you some tough advice.
I know it's difficult seeing her and I know you'd rather do anything else than to talk to her or be around her. But it's been 4 years. I'm not saying you should be friends with her again. I'm not even saying you should talk to her again. I totally get why you wouldn't want to. However, you can't avoid her forever. Especially now that all of your friend groups are coming together. I personally think you should continue going out with your friends and participating even if she is there too. It's going to be hard the first couple of times but I'm sure it will get easier as time goes by. If she tries to get close to you again and you aren't ok with that then let her know. Tell her you're there to be with your friends but that you're not there for her. But like I said. It's been 4 years. Maybe it's time to let yourself heal and move on.

yay humidity! 

Sunday afternoon on the way home I'm driving along. Waiting at a red light, this little old Matiz pulls into the empty left turn lane, turns on their hazards and drives right through the red. Nothing new, no biggie.

Our light turns green and we catch up to them almost immediately because they're really in no rush. Come to another red light. Little old Matiz goes to the empty far right lane, turns on their hazards and casually drives through the red.

The last I saw of them, they were off in the distance driving through the next red light which would be green if they'd waited at the previous red.

Presumably this person just casually drives through reds whenever they drive anywhere. Mind boggling.

yay humidity! 

Right, since last Thursday, it has that walk outside and sweatsville starts, kind of feel.  Cue damp pillows in the early morning.

My school is like a rainforest in the hallways