The Great Voting Debate

Elections are coming up back in Australia, so I thought I might get a bit "political"...

  As most of my friends and family know, I am not an overly politically minded person. I like to stay up to date with what is going in both at home and overseas, but I am certainly no expert on politics. I did however recently sign up to receive full access to the Herald Sun online, which is a tabloid newspaper for those who don't know. I have taken to reading the news in the afternoon when classes are finished to keep up with what is going on, both in Australia and abroad. 

  I decided to sign up after I heard the news a few weeks ago that Julia Gillard had been replaced as Prime Minister by Kevin Rudd. I found out via Facebook, which is its own little political opinion hot-pot. In my head I was like, wtf sort of person am I to hear about this sort of news via FB? I need to be better informed ("better", so I subscribe to a tabloid? hahaha).

  Now, I can only talk about my own personal feelings and opinions, so don't anyone hate me or anything... But years ago, when Mr. Rudd was first elected, I will be honest and say that I was one of his voters. I agreed mainly with his Environmental Policy at the time, and as such he got my vote. Plus, the "Kevin 07" campaign was brilliant - he tapped into the young Australian voters and connected with them on a different level. After the election my interest died off, as it generally does, because although technically everything that happens in parliament affects me, it wasn't really. So I didn't pay attention to the "signs". The next thing I hear Julia Gillard has pulled the rug out from under the poor bastard and now we have the first woman Prime Minister and everyone is going gaga. I was pissed off, I didn't vote for her! I voted for the party though, so I spose them's the breaks. 

  I did NOT vote for her in the next election. I hate women who need to tell people they are women. OBVIOUSLY she is a girl, and I felt like she used that as a political strategy. She cannot relate to many Australian women, she works a very different job to most people and has no kids. She was lucky enough to attend a university and all of that. So how can she say she understands what the average Australian women wants? Piss off. So yeah, I was glad the Mr. Rudd came back and is now the Prime. 

BUT

  In saying all of this, it seems that neither party is answering the hard questions this time around, and neither party leader seems to be an appropriate choice for our Country. This is all based on other peoples opinions I read in the paper. I haven't even read the party policies... And I don't plan on it. I don't even live in Australia at the moment, and I have better things to do with my time than read policy matters (in the afternoons I need to blog, and play cookie-run on my smartphone). So where does this leave me? Who do I vote for? I don't even WANT to vote. 

  I read a blog this afternoon by Wendy Touhy who writes for the Herald Sun, about people "trashing" their votes by donkey voting and things like that. She says that it is an abuse of our rights and a spoilt brat thing to do... I agree on a certain level I suppose. Many women had to work damn hard for us to get the right to vote, and in some countries people aren't allowed to vote full stop. I am currently living in a country where they never take their ability and opportunity to vote for granted, and I can see how some people may feel that by casting a "donkey" vote we are throwing the opportunity in the faces of all those that have fought for this right. 

BUT

  Keep in mind it is ILLEGAL not to register to vote in Australia. If you do not vote in an election, then you get a fine. Which makes me wonder, how is this democratic if you HAVE to vote?? This to me just means that disgruntled voters will ultimately cast an invalid vote and may as well have not taken time out of their Saturday. So what are my thoughts on this? I think that our voting system is totally flawed and wastes a lot of time. If the only people who voted where the people who wanted to vote, then I really feel we would have a better elected government. Right now, Independent and fringe votes go to certain parties anyway, so we are still not even having our votes go to where we want them to go. 

  I do not fully understand the voting process in America, but it seems that they vote because the WANT to, not because they have to. I think Australia should adopt this system. This year, I don't want to vote... I am not there for the election and I have no idea how to vote by proxy (it is probably really easy, I am just lazy) and as a result of this when I get home I will have to pay a fine. If I was home, I would choose to vote, and I would be taking more of an interest. 

  I have no idea who I would vote for. Tony Abbott seems like a complete idiot, but the public doesn't seem impressed with Rudd either. So who knows what will happen on election day. I will check Facebook to find out. 

xoxoxo

A Wild Sheep Chase - Review

  That's right, readers... I go on an amazing holiday with amazing people, and all I want to do is talk about the latest book I have read. What can I say? I have strange priorities...

Book Review

A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami

  I was stuck at the airport for hours in Tokyo, because I am a fantastic friend and opted to join the girls on their early morning airport pilgrimage rather than sleep a few hours extra and meet them in Korea. This meant I had time to kill in Narita Airport, so I alternated between snacking and eating for the most part. I was woken up by a crying child and figured there must be a better way to spend my time and I went wandering around and found some super well-stocked book shops. They had a great mix of Japanese and English books, so I stood in the English section for a good 30 minutes deciding what book I wanted to read. I was really happy to see plenty of Japanese books with English translations, so I picked up some that had the 'ol tag line of "best seller" on them. Many of them were by some guy named Murakami, so I grabbed one of his and flipped to the back to see what the deal was. To be honest, they all seemed a little, well, weird. Some borderline supernatural, some murder mysteries, some action, and some romance (are sex and romance the same thing?? I seriously doubt it, but I think you get my point). I ended up settling on a book called "A Wild Sheep Chase", which was apparently about a guy who goes looking for a lost magic sheep with his girlfriend who has ears that give her ESP. Ok, like I said, it was strange pickings. 

  Can I just say, it was the best thing I have read since "American Gods".

  The narrator is a recently divorced guy who, through strange circumstances, ends up being blackmailed into hunting for a lost sheep that was photographed by a friend. This sheep is kinda magic - it possesses people and they end up doing great things. I see now that the sheep must be a metaphor for something, but I am still thinking about this book and puzzling over what it could be. 

  Anyway the guy goes off with his new girlfriend on the hunt for the sheep, and ends up meeting people from his past on the way. I think the Narrator himself is a pretty messed up dude, and in a way going on this little sheep hunt is a way of him sorting through his own life. I wont give away the ending, but it certainly didn't end the way I thought it would, which I quite like in a book. I used to read a whole lot, so endings to stories tend to become rather predictable... This one ended badly but well fitting for the story. Some might actually say it was a happy ending of sorts. Have a read and tell me what you think I spose. 

  The book is writing in the first person, a style I am not accustomed to but fitted this story well. He ducks into the past at times, but tells these things as if he is talking to you real time. The author is descriptive without going into retarded detail, and keeps things on point. Certain parts of the story seemed a little irrelevant to me, but it all went towards character development so I guess it all worked out. So if you are reading, stick with the seemingly off bits. 

  Having just been in Japan and seeing certain sites mentioned, it was nice to put a real image to the places. The story is mainly set in areas in Northern Japan, and even if you have never been there (which I haven't) you can certainly get a feel about what its like. 

  I liked the main character. I felt like he was totally relatable, because everyone at some point knows what it feels like to simply feel, well, there. Just being present without actually being present. Utterly mediocre and static. He needed something to put him back into motion and remind him to live. I don't know what happens to him after the book, but in my head I have made up a great scenario for him, where things turn out well. Unfortunately I don't think that they would have... I think he may have gone the way of "Rat".

  An interesting side the the actual writing is that no one is named. Some people have nicknames, but not one person is actually named. I thought this was quite clever... 

  So anyway I really think you should read it. It was a good book, but kinda makes you think. Like I said earlier, I am still undecided about what the sheep actually represents. I googled it, and some people have said personal ambition, some religion/faith, some depression, some drugs. I honestly don't know. 

Side note on my holiday/vacation

  Yes, I went to Japan for 8 days and then back to Korea where I spent a drunken week in Busan with 2 of my Aussie friends. Nay is still here in Korea, so after she leaves and I have a bit more time, I will let everyone know what we got up to (G-rated version) and how the whole thing was. I also took some adorable videos of my kids for Summer Camp so I will get them up too. 

  I can already tell this next 6 months is gonna fly by... I signed my new contract yesterday with Songshin, so I am locked for another year in this mad place. I mean mad in the literal sense, not this whole "mad"/"cool"/"awesome" sense. Its crazy here, I am going to come home and need to be locked away in an asylum for another 12 months. I'll be mid-30's before I am fit for Australian society again. 

  So yeah I will update next week or something. No promises, because I break them all the time. 

xoxoxo

And that was camp

Vacation is so close I can taste it...

  I have come to the conclusion I am one of the worst ESL teachers going around. Half of it is my fault the other half I blame my co teacher, but I just have no idea how to effectivly plan a lesson. especially a 3 hour lesson. And that is what camp is basically, from 9 - 12 the kids come in and are supposed to do English activities and learn something. My take on it is to do as many crafts and fun things as possible. They are getting English simply by listening to me and following instructions so its not a complete loss. Needless to say that they aren't doing much new learning. 

  The word of the week was most definitely "slime, which we did on Thursday and was asked to repeat today. It killed some time so I was like hell, why not? So we made more slime and play doh. They say "no Teacher we don't like to do this" and instead of me saying stfu kids you WILL do this, I am all like "oh, ok. What do you wanna do?"

"SLIME"

Whatever. They don't wanna be here any more than I do. The schools offer the English Camps for free over the school holidays as a way to get the kids out of their parents hair. I read on a fb group page that some people hate  the whole catchphrase of "paid babysitting" for what we do at camp, but unfortunately for me it is pretty accurate. I don't give a shit what the parents think, if they hated me that much they would find a way to get me out of the school. And if that tragedy did happen I have back up schools. 

  It seemed to me that they enjoyed most of the activities. The fave for them was the "egg parachute" followed by "slime". I got videos of them doing the egg drop but only play doh and not slime. It got messy and I didn't want my camera getting grubby. 

  Another highlight for me personally was watching the kids put every condiment on their egg and cucumber sandwiches. Again, I have videos of this - I am planning on putting it together later tonight or tomorrow and popping it on youtube. 

Pastels and candy

Eating popcorn and watching Flubber

KiMin and his play-doh face

  There are some things that I would change for the camp, but mostly I liked the craft and I will do it again next year, depending on the students. Other things I would change include not getting shit-faced on a Tuesday night and then having Wednesday as egg sandwich day (it made me wanna vomit), preparing stuff in the afternoons rather than freaking out in the morning (keeping in mind I have a good 4 hours in the afternoon to prepare - instead I snooze and watch tv shows), and also have more back up ideas. In my defence, I was told by my co that the camp would be 2 hours in the morning, but the kids all stayed until 12 every day. So my plans were never going to be good enough. 

  I am glad its over, because now it's time for vacation. And you all know what that means - Japan.

Japan

  I am soooo excited to see Jess and Nay, they are flying all the way from Australia to meet up in Japan for 8 days in the Land of the Rising Sun. I will put my Korean-induced prejudice aside and make the most of the time. Things I am most excited to see are mainly in Kyoto I think (I really wanna see this bamboo forest Amy recommended to me!) and I am super keen to try the food. But the big draw card is my friends. Honestly, they could have said "Hey Bon, lets sit in your room all week and play xbox" and I would have been down for it. I am really looking forward to some girly time with people from home. 

  I love all my friends here, and we have the best time and the best gossip sessions etc, BUT there is something about having a yarn with someone from your own country, especially when you know its gonna be 2 of your oldest friends. Us 3 girls have been planning on this trip to Jap since we were about 16, and I can't believe here we are, more than 10 years later, actually doing it. How many other people out there can say that they have done this??? I am also really looking forward to introducing them to Korea and the crazy people and culture. 

  I am heading off with basically no money, which has turned into the story of my life since coming to this place. Korea has robbed me of my ability to save and budget, 2 things that I had trained myself to do really well at home. Now I live from pay to pay, and freak out in between. I have a constant counter on my phone which counts down to every pay day. So I am going to be doing this trip on the cheap which I didn't want to do but I am sure it is possible. Or I will do my usual and borrow money. There is a great bank here called Megan, who is an amazing friend who doesn't charge interest :)

  I am also getting sich which is typical for me. My throat is killing me and my head has been pounding since yesterday afternoon. I think I just need more sleep but there is too much to do. Painkillers to the rescue and we are good. It will NOT stop me from enjoying this time!

Somebody wants to be packed in the suitcase!

In other news...

  My sister is in Europe with her bf. I am so jelly, I think the place I most want to visit on that side of the world is Italy (where she is now). It sounds amazing and I am obsessed with food. So massive diet and save up and then go. Maybe one day I can get married and have my honeymoon there :)

  Its coming up to goodbye time for some of my favourite people here. I hate thinking about it, but such is life I guess. I know we will stay in contact because everybody likes free accommodation all over the world!

  I don't think I have anything else right now... My head os pounding and I really want to go home and snooze. I won't though, I will go home and try and colour more of my hair. I am trying to get it pink but it keeps going orange. FAIL. 

xoxoxoxo

Camp Again

I realise that I do most of my blogging during camp time, but it's because there is not all that much else to do.

I wish I was more on top of blogging and keeping everyone up to date, because I have done so much lately but it feels weird to go back in time and write about it. So here is what I did today -

Summer Camp

  I am super lucky this year to have only 5 days of camp, from 9-12 and its with the grade 3 and 4's. I had a grand total of 9 kids sign up and yesterday 8 came and today 7. Numbers are dropping but its cool I don't mind. 

  Yesterday's big activity was making cute paper craft puppet things, which we then used to do small skits. The girls had their introduce themselves, the boys decided their puppets were all ninjas. Whatever.

  Then today we had a fun day throwing eggs out of a window... They were supposed to be parachutes but none of them really worked. Kids didn't care much because they were allowed to throw something from the 3rd floor. Thats all they needed for entertainment.

Tomorrow I am planning on making sandwiches and thats about it, and then Thurs will be good because I am making Flubber and we can watch the movie. So tomorrow's plan will be trying to download subtitles. So annoying.

And then next week the fun really starts. Japan. With Jess and Nay, who I haven't seen since I went through to the International Departures Terminal in Melbourne nearly 1 year ago. I cannot believe how fast this time has gone... And here I am planning on staying another year. WTF who does that??? Oh, nearly everyone. This next year though, I am setting myself some goals. And I think they are all achievable.

Goals for 2013-2014 in Korea

1. Learn WAY more Korean.

  I cannot believe how slack I have been with this. I used to go to Korean class twice a week. What happened to that motivation? I want to find it again for sure. When the classes start up again I will join. Problem is, I don't even know what level I am. I know I am not a beginner any more but I don't know if I am intermediate either. I know such random phrases, like "i'm busy" or "I have a crush on you" or "can you charge my phone"... Practical things. But I still need a lot of help with sentence structure and all that.

2. Try and get my credit card debt down.

  This one is tougher than you think it would be. If I want to save money (which is number 3) then I cannot pay this off. I am now fully aware of this and it hurts but its my own fault for spending so much money. 

3. Save more money.

  I need to make sure that I have a stash at the end of the year to get the dog back to Australia. And so that I have something to live off when I go home. 

4. Actually go home at the end of my next contract.

  My family will be devastated of I stay another year on top of these 2. I need to think of them as well. It is just so easy and fun to stay here, I am already dreading going home and the second year hasn't even started yet!

And the standard I WILL LOSE 10 KILOS. That one is always there.

Plans for the rest of this year???

  Yes, I have a few. Apart from Japan and Busan, I will go to Malaysia with mum over Chuseok, and then I will be back in Aus for Christmas and New Year. 

  In there somewhere is Halloween, which I want to make a complete mess of. I already have my outfit picked out, and I am very much looking forward to the night.

  I am also trying to get my hair pink but so far its not working. Watch this space.

  Another important one for me personally is getting my YouTube channel more updated. I had so many projects planned for last year and didn't do any of them so thats going to be a big driver for this year. Time to get creative!

xoxoxo

Kids say the darnedest things...

Conversations and observations

  Taking into consideration language/age/experience barriers, you would think that the conversations I have with many of my students would be, well, stupid. And for the most part they kinda are... At the same time though they crack me up, whether it be what they are saying or what they are trying to say. I love how the kids often want to include me in their conversations and tell me about what they are doing. Often they just wander over and tell me their stories in Korean, knowing I might only understand a tiny portion of what they are going on about (in my head I am like "ok, I think he is talking about his mum...").

  I have a perfect example from today. 

"Teacher, this boy is fat"

  One of my grade 5 girls is reasonably high level (by comparison to all the others) and sits next to this little boy who is a little chubby. They help each other out with their work, and get along pretty well. I walked up and was standing off to the side of the boy when I saw him rubbing is tummy. I asked him if he was sick.

"No, Bonnie. Not sick. Hungry."

I giggled and told him he should have had breakfast... At this point his neighbor chimed in.

"Bonnie, he had breakfast. He had 2 breakfast... He is a pig and he is very fat." 

I told her she shouldn't call him fat, and that he is still getting taller. She shook her head sadly and looked at the boy and gave him the most pitying look I have seen a child give another.

"Bonnie, he will always be fat, even if he is tall. His face is fat, and he loves food too much. His weight is 57, and my mother is weight 45... He is much much fatter and still hungry." 

The boy is watching her, trying to piece what she is saying. She writes something on his book (the weight of him and her mum) and then he nods and starts agreeing with her. He tells me that yes, he is fat, and he loves food. He looked so sad as he was saying it... He grabbed hold of his tummy and started shaking it. He stopped, both the kids looked at each other and the boy started pissing himself laughing, all the while saying "Nooooo so fat!"

It was the funniest conversation I have had in a while. The 3 of us were giggling like crazy, trying to be quiet during class. 

HE DID IT

I have never know a bigger group of "dobbers" in my life. These kids rat on each other relentlessly, and then just get over it. 

2 boys were up the back with their books propped up. I wandered over to see and lo, they were playing with their phones. So obvious. I just told them to put them away and left it... They put their phones in their pencil cases and that was it. But they left their books up... I don't know what they were doing but it wasn't phones. The next thing you know one of the girls from the front of the room has her hand up and is telling Co that they are playing with phones. He naturally goes ballistic and kicks them out of the class and takes their phones. 

Whenever there is some giggling or screwing around in class Co will stop teaching and demand to know who the culprits are. In Australia, all the students would be dead silent. They would rather die a painful death than give their class mates away. Not so here. All fingers are pointed (literally) and names are called out until the students responsible for the disruption are standing up and shamed out of the classroom. Its totally bizarre. 

Compliments???

I know I have mentioned some compliments I have received in the past, but this week they have been cuter than usual...

"Teacher, your hair is like a doll"

"Bonnie I like your nail colours"

"You are wearing nice blouse"

"No lense? Good colour!"

In Other news...

  I am blown away by what is happening in Australia at the moment. I don't wanna get all political on everyone, but Kevin Rudd is the PM again??? What the hell happened? I know Julia wasn't popular, but Labour Party please - YOU GOT RID OF HIM LAST TIME. And all of this just happens...

  To be honest, the Kevin 07 campaign sold me. I voted for the guy - I DID NOT vote for Gillard. So I was pretty mad when they ditched Rudd as the leader of the Labour Party and the counrty. I did not vote for Labour in the next election, mainly because the party proved they could not be trusted. They strike me as a bunch of back stabbing morons that do not follow through with party promises. Anyway now it seems yet again the Labour Government are playing with Australian voters. It's stupid. Sooooo not gonna vote this time. Fine me is you want...

  Some democracy - its illegal NOT TO VOTE in Australia. Ugh.

  Tickets are purchased for my flight to Japan in August!!! I am meeting Jess and Nay (Melbourne friends) in Osaka and we are touring around from there. I am super excited waaaahajdkfofknsabdflkjocaidhnfav...

  I will be flying with Asiana Air I think (shout out to Heejin for booking my ticket) so I will do a write up on them at some point... And I am planning on taking my camera AND camcorder to get some nice memories of Japan. So I am on a super tight budget here now preparing for the trip. 

  I had to say more goodbyes this week - Big goodbye to Heather and Michelle. Heather is from the UK and Michelle from Ireland... They are great people and amazing friends. 

Heather stayed at mine before she jetted off (she is headed to Australia the lucky bitch) and I love her so much... I feel like I have known her my whole life not just a year. So I spent the morning crying about that... This is the hardest part of doing this teaching abroad thing... You leave friends from home, come here, make new friends, then they leave you! I don't want to even think about what I will be like when I leave.

I am in the process of signing a new contract to stay here at the school in Korea for another year. I love this place too much, I can't leave yet.

Anyway, extra class time! Better go educate some kids.

xoxoxox