Improvising Cooking in Korea

We are sick and tired of eating rice. Nathaniel has been surviving on a diet of bibimbub, a dish of white rice mixed with veggies and Korean red chilly paste. He has been doing it for years. It is bibimbub every day for lunch. I have been eating kimpup, which is white rice rolled in a see weed with some veggies in the middle, a Korean knockout of sushi.
We have no oven, but we have done our best to do some normal cooking at home. Here are examples....

entrepreneur's priorities list

1. To Own My Business
2. To Give People Work
3. To Go on Vacation
4. To Live my Life


Numbers and order are irrelevant. Whatever happens first.

Bugging thoughts about business

Some thoughts about running our school business have been bugging me big time for the past couple of weeks. What am I doing? Am I doing it right? Are my thought processes and current activities in tune with my bigger goal?
I keep reminding myself why I started the whole thing. I want an OUT, out of what has been called a rat maze or trap, when you go to work to trade your time for money all your life. The moment you stop doing it, you have to rely on the little savings you have made so far. You are back in the trap. In this scenario, you have to spend too much of your life at work, after that you prioritize your family and give them time, then sneak a bit of time for a hobby, a study, or any other interest. And life is gone.
So how do I get out, how do I spare time for my life out of the endless cycle of work/trade? How do I end up running and owning a business, instead of slaving my ass and being the same employer I have been all my life? True, I do not have bosses, but still cmon, what we are doing now is far from what I want for me and Nathaniel.
I know I have to outsource. I have to give people work, any people: cleaning people, teachers, even my own kid. I need to start trusting people to do work for me. God knows how much I am struggling with this idea. Even thinking about it gives me unbearable strain in my shoulders. No wonder, since most of my life has been and still is about control.( I control the process and the results.) If I want to grow, I will outsource. Need to think what I can outsource. I know Nathaniel and I are the main workers and we do not have need or money to outsource work to others. But from what I believe about life processes the mind needs to be ready to expand and to encourage the leap into a new direction. When I lighten my psycho baggage of being such a control freak, I can grow, and my business can grow with me. By the end of this post, I am actually excited to move on, and see what life will bring my way.

A step at a time

The hard thing for me to do with the business is trusting myself. I get an idea, and I get a feeling, many feelings, some of which scare shit out of me. I have never cultivated "the trust in myself" feelings. I have been very good at shutting myself up out of some stupid reasons which I later can not recall. Stubbornness helps. I am one of the stubbornest people I have met. I am bothered by it as well as my excess selfishness, but I am starting to appreciate both of them. They play very well when I don't seem to bring myself trust me. I would do right things out of stubbornness. It is still different. I sort of get angry because I have to fight the voices telling me to ignore me and would turn into a raging bull or a train with no breaks focused on a goal, crushing obstacles on my way. Most of the time the person obtructing me from reaching this goal in a more peaceful and healthier manner is myself. Do I really have to get mad and work with this rage and anger?

Hugh MacLeod's rules for business

http://gapingvoid.com/books/


1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you sud­denly being “dis­co­ve­red” by some big shot, your plan will pro­bably fail.

5. You are res­pon­si­ble for your own expe­rience.

6. Ever­yone is born crea­tive; ever­yone is given a box of cra­yons in kin­der­gar­ten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Com­pa­nies that squelch crea­ti­vity can no lon­ger com­pete with com­pa­nies that cham­pion crea­ti­vity.

9. Every­body has their own pri­vate Mount Eve­rest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talen­ted some­body is, the less they need the props.

11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds alto­gether.

12. If you accept the pain, it can­not hurt you.

13. Never com­pare your inside with some­body else’s outside.

14. Dying young is ove­rra­ted.

15. The most impor­tant thing a crea­tive per­son can learn pro­fes­sio­nally is where to draw the red line that sepa­ra­tes what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is chan­ging.

17. Merit can be bought. Pas­sion can’t.

18. Avoid the Water­coo­ler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irre­le­vant.

21. Selling out is har­der than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for your­self.

23. Worr­ying about “Com­mer­cial vs. Artis­tic” is a com­plete waste of time.

24. Don’t worry about fin­ding ins­pi­ra­tion. It comes even­tually.

25. You have to find your own sch­tick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get appro­val is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Wha­te­ver choice you make, The Devil gets his due even­tually.

30. The har­dest part of being crea­tive is get­ting used to it.

31. Remain fru­gal.

32. Allow your work to age with you.

33. Being Poor Sucks.

34. Beware of tur­ning hob­bies into jobs.

35. Savor obs­cu­rity while it lasts.

36. Start blog­ging.

37. Mea­ning Sca­les, Peo­ple Don’t.

37. When your dreams become rea­lity, they are no lon­ger your dreams.

Sunday cooking

Remembering warm days

Went for a walk in the rain, cleared lungs

Owner-worker and the drain of it.

We started with the idea that we can build a better school. Therefore we have to do everything by ourselves: teaching, marketing, cleaning, fixing, selling, making programs, managing kids, parents, and ourselves. I have no time for anything. I think of work 24/7. I have no time. I work. And even if I try to spend most of my time doing the work, it seems it will never be completed. We are on the stage of "worker-bee owners". We work; we manage; we have no time; we have no money.
(Correction. Nathaniel has much more time. He actually has all his time coz he doesn't manage anything. I am writing it to be fair.)
I work. I manage. I have no time. I have no money.
All this could be very depressing if I didn't operate in the "think ahead" mode. The vision of which is to go from bee worker owner to the manager worker. That will be like happy, alleluia moment for me. Imagine, I can use other people's time, talent, and skills to leverage my talent, to produce a better service and deliver to more people. At this point I have more time, more money, more leverage. I don't stop there of course.
The third stage of my evolution is to become an entrepreneur. The business operates on it own through workers and managers. I have time, money, freedom. I created great value for my business.

Enterpreneur- one who starts an endeavor as transl. from French

endeavor
Experiment with failure. Failure is feedback from the system and is so much more informative and valuable that success. In those qualities success can not beat failure. But who wants to fail all the time? Not me. Get myinfo and move on, to the success threshold I need. Enjoy it for a while and start failing but in different endeavours getting the needed feedback.

leadership, management ability, and team-building as essential qualities of an entrepreneur.
Do an inventory of my skills and personality traits. What I possess-check. What I lack-check. What I need- need to get.
Asked my husband: was told I lack aggressiveness.
I substitute it with stubbornness and totally independent thinking. I was thinking the other day how I learn. It came to attention that I never asked:" Is it right? Am I doing right or well?" I sort of look at how others do it, break it down, and work on the way to learn the same skill, doing all the checking against the presented sample by myself. Totally independent in my learning and evaluation of the inner and outer realities.
I am hooked on the idea of evolution and improvement. It is the single reason why I live. The core one. Creative destruction, and innovation, betterment, and creating benefits for larger populations. Understanding and skillfully using available information resources, creating a pool of information from diverse, unrelated sources. Connecting the dots.

And money follows to be used as a bigger leverage to attain the main goal. Evolution.

Been there, done that

Religion is an institution which has very little or nothing to do with God. I used to call myself a very religious person. It was in the time when I equated religion with spirituality. I have done main Christian denominations:catholics, protestants, and orthodox Christians, as well as Buddhism. Each of them has it own point of fixation.
Catholics are fixated on Crucifixion. With Jesus they would crucify anyone. They will drill into you the concept of sins as a cornerstone of their religious practice, at the same time selling you illusionary idea of forgiveness. Forgive is to forget. And how can I forget when I am being reminded of my sins and my sinful nature at regular intervals of time? "Have you done you confession, my child?" Also fast like Jesus. As a member of orthodox church I had to fast (all animal products excluded) for 40 days in a row. Take a rest and fast again, and there is one fast after another Staying away from some foods from time to time might make up for a good heath advice. But when you starve yourself and are required to analyse your sinfulness.... It's a bit too overstretched for me now.Been there, done that.
Protestants are fixated on justification. They won't pressure you to pray onto crucifix. They are in the business of cleansing, inner child healing, motivation, and in general brightening up your life for a fee. After all, who talks about money when your very well being is at stake? Protestants to me lack depth and complexity. Honestly, I am not entirely comfortable with the oversimplified version of religion and saving process they offer. Been there. Not my thing.
Buddhists are fixated on the joys of godly likeness. Their purpose is to put and keep themselves in the place of balance and homeostasis. Strip yourself from all the ungodly emotions, be calm and disciplined, strategy of withdrawal. Balance is overrated. Emotions are to be felt, and instincts have always served humans well throughout their history.
Been there, tried, done, move on.

Know thyself knowhow

Know thyself is a subject most discussed in many fields, by numerous authors. The bottom line is knowing thyself is difficult, extremely difficult (sometimes so difficult that it borders with impossible) but imperative, that is not optional, compulsory, you must not and for your own sake should not avoid doing this taxing subject, even though a large proportion of population settles on skipping it all together. In earnest, show me a good number of people being serious about digging their heads and taking courses in this subject matter. People do not bother. We do not like to think. Thinking as a brain activity is excrucinating, takes time and lacks immediate rewards to keep us on it. Whenever we think too much, we remember the experience as painful and try to stay away from it for a period of time at least. Thinking about thyself is like investing my time, energy, taking risks in the search of this lucid something with completely unpredictable results. what is that something? a quality, a feeling,a sense, a connection, a realization, a skill, a what? The authors always promise us colossal awards during and at the end of our course.
I do not need to be convinced how I need to know thyself. I want to start with basics though.
1. Know thyself that when you are young, in your under teens, you are extremely self-centered. If you are lucky and have good people around you, they will teach you how to be less of that egoist because we, as species, depend on each other for survival. at this time you don't care and make mistakes. Don't beat yourself up for them later.
2. Know thyself that when you hit puberty, life starts to suck. You are ruled by emotions. You forget all sort of important stuff all the prominent people in your life instruct you in. You overreact constantly; you make mistakes, don't beat yourself up for them.
3. Know thyself that if you manage to meet right people, get abuse free out of your teens and early twenties, and without serious psycho damage, you can do tons of things for yourself. If you happen to pick up that psyho damage, you might expect to do carry it for good while if not forever, and dealing with it. Do not beat yourself up for it.
My point is that the whole education in the Know Thyself subject can be compacted in "Do not beat yourself up for it" phrase. Remember this, and you will be fine.

I have my reasons to hate the reason

thinking about my own reasoning, it gets my spiritual self in a great deal of trouble, out of which my spiritual, and therefore true self has to get me out. My reason told me to stay in my kindergarten work for 5 years. My reason told me to slave my ass off at the elementary school for another 5 years. My reason told me to stay married to a jerk for 10 years. I have serious claims against my reason which basically hijacked good 10 years of my life. Left at the mercy of reason I would have been a dead me long ago. Thanks goodness I have a spirit which longs for evolution and continuous growth. When my reason violates me for too long, the spirit rebels. Most of the time happy endings happened, even though I had to count big collateral in form of physical and emotional damage. In the past, I was almost proud of what a rational and reasonable person I was. I was not overwhelmed by or controlled by emotions. I listened to my reason. Now I say reason go to hell. I am going to grow all possible emotional and sensitive tentacles I am capable of growing. I am so getting my senses back; the ones I lost and the ones I never had a chance to develop. If the third eye decides to open, I will welcome it.
This is exactly why I am going to gracefully disregard all the recent reason's demands.
1)work for money 2) get more work for money 3) think about what impression you make on others; they might be your customers after all, read "money" 4) try to please every one else because this is the way to get less harmed 5) prepare to spend another 20 years of your life in Korea 6) realistically, who would think about seriously dancing at the age of 34, going 35? 7) do not outshine others, this is the golden rule! 8) always put checks on your behavior and attitude; under no circumstances be your very true self; ah ah never ever worked. 8) remember, you have to wipe other people asses because they screw up and leave you to clean the mess; includes your own daughter 9) people need your help every time and all the time; help, if you can not help, avoid the people. 10) always think about work; always offer practical solutions, do not chill out, what kind of huge waste of time that is!
Go to hell, reason, as I said.

Doing the work you believe in

I had a conversation with a friend today about doing the work you care about and thinking about it first and everything else, meaning money later. For me it is imperative to do the work I believe in with my heart. This is what I am doing now; it doesn't bring me money. But I am happy. My friend says that the love and care do not matter anymore because of where we are.
More than anything I value independence from anyone else and freedom to do my own thing-this is after all is all I want to do-to do my own thing. I have to balance what I want with people I love. I have to balance what I want with the reasonable and controlling me. Right now, all I want is to stop everything and train, and dance, and see where it takes me. i am not giving myself permission to do so. There is this alarm going inside me "no time later, time now, the only time now, i am getting old for this". But instead of getting off my ass and actually starting training, I am sitting for hours in front of computer and watching others dance.

This is how to keep your cool

What makes a great dancer at heart is to be absorbed in your dance, and to have no slightest doubt that you can dance through and around all obstacles. The couple is Franko Formica and Oksana Nikoforova dancing rumba at a championship in Germany.

Swing -Shim Sham, Lindy Hop

Shim Sham is a kind of line dance from SWING family. You can call it shuffle along. It is great for social dancing, and everyone can follow which creates this unified motion of generally very happy looking people. Franky Manning was a very famous, incredibly talented, contagiously inspiring, and very loved Lindy hopper(from swing family again) and shim shammer. Lindy Hop born in 1930s was basically a blended cocktail of popular dances at that time: jazz, tap, breakaway, and Charleston. Think of it as a hybrid of black dance moves (since it originated in black communities in the USA) and white, European partner dance moves. I love the idea of hybrids, mixing, and combining. It is the very core of creativity.
Frankie Manning was a Lindy Hopper, as I mentioned. He innovated and creatively juiced up original Lindy Hop. He wowed public when he performed first air step in 1935. It means he and his partner left the ground while dancing at the same time. In simple terms, they didn't stop the dance to jump,they flew in the air while doing their steps. How cool is that, think about creativity giving you wings to fly.

Dead D

This beautiful young woman killed herself. I am not a fashion interest, but I like to read blogs, I like to find people who have their point of view, their attitude, who are outrageous enough to share, caring at the same time. It takes no guts to share coz you don't give a shit, but to to share and ask for understanding, to care enough to explain and express yourself takes courage and will. I took interest in her thoughts, her way to experience and interpret reality. Daul was a beautiful person.
Read her blog, you will understand. http://iliketoforkmyself.blogspot.com/.

question of unfinished projects, is it lazyness or multitalented nature?

I often have hard times understanding myself. I am literally torn between a good number of equally exciting interests. I am keen on investing myself in all these unrelated and scattered works: dancing and being serious about becoming a salsa semi pro; following and researching all other imaginable and possible forms of dance; business, marketing, management, personal finance & investment, economics; graphic design & web design; interior design; neuroscience, cell research& cancer, magnetism & electricity; quantum physics; curriculum theorising; philosophy; traveling; education, teaching English, psychology- cognitive, behavioural, counseling; statistics and research; languages and culture; barrister art, coffee machines and perfect espressos; parenting; writing & public speaking; playing a musical instrument; evolution & Darwin; religions, spirituality, metaphysics. All of the above fascinates me and demands me to invest a good part of my attention and effort on itself very loudly and clearly. And, do I not try to do my best to spend time on all of my interests. As a result, I have projects and books unfinished, and my soul in flames of fire from intense desire to do all and overwhelming realization that I can not. It is not humanly possible. Sometimes I go into a stooper and slight depression because I know I want to do too much. Other times, I make attempts to balance my interests giving my attention to some of the major ones which I decide to pursue at this point of time.

Magna Gopal - dancing sensation

I love watching her dance because she invites to experience something bigger than dance. With her moves she takes me to the place of pure energies: zen and fluidity. She is ridiculously good. I would be mesmerized watching her and doing these circular rounds with my head and upper body because she drags me into her dance. She is seamless and effortless, she is in bliss. She is in this place of perfect balance.

Anita y Adrian

Salsa

My favorite salsa dancers, Anita y Adrian from Spain.

Zouk

Stalker

I was followed by a Korean stalker today after school. As I finished school and was leaving the school ground, I confronted a man on his motorcycle. Average weight, my height, wore a baseball cap, new balance grey and blue wind breaker, and same color sweat pants. He started talking to me: "welcome. you work here, and teach kids. where is Milak school?" I say: "I am not sure", and keep walking.
"wait. You speak korean. come here, and show me where the milak school is. you need to show me the directions. come closer." He gets off his motorcycle and follows me. As I realize that he is getting too close to me, at the reach of his arm, I start running away. He follows me walking in a fast pace, but not running. I walk quickly to the wider street, thinking he was left behind. He gets on his motorcycle, and catches up with me on the main street, yelling "hey, come here, I asked you about the school. I know where you work."
"If you talk to me again, and keep following me, I will call the police", I yell. The man nods his head and makes a calming gesture with his hand indicating he gets it, and no need for the police. I walk quickly to the subway. As I am about to enter the subway to take a train, I get a phone call from education office. Not wanting to be disturbed by subway noise, I decide not to go in. As I talk on the phone, I see the guy stalking around the subway. I just saw him buying a ticket and circling in distance from me. I realize I need to get rid of him now. I approach him and speak very loudly; "If you do not leave me alone right now, I am calling the police". He makes a step forward. At this point I quickly walk toward the subway guy who is passing by. I tell him this has been fallowing me for the past 30 mins walking here all the way from Milak, and now wanting to get on the subway with me. As I talk to the subway man, the stalker turns back and literally runs away. The subway man and a woman who is with him, smile at me, saying that there was actually nothing to be scared about because the stalker is not coming back. Overal, they dismiss my complain and downplay my distressed call. The time is 4:40. I get on the subway and go home. Interestingly, how Koreans just do not get alert because of such incident. A passeby woman who heard me yelling at the stalker guy came up to me and the subway people and tried to defend the stalker saying that he did not understand what I was saying, the poor man apparently was too confused and had no bad intentions whatsoever. It is just another Korean covering his fellowman's ass.

Maggots

Sally is a fearless and determined little girl. Carving that pumpkin would be hard even for an adult. She did the entire thing by herself. She got a lot of carving rage in her too, screaming : "Die, pumpkin, die", and kept pushing that big knife in the pumpkin's flesh. There was a surprise inside the pumpkin. As soon as the eyes were carved maggots started falling out of them. That was quite a spectacle of truly Halloween proportions. The air got thick with terror because of how cool that was. Nathaniel and I were like wow. Little timid Julie ran away and started crying. Sally grabbed a knife and went on maggot killing spree. Both pumpkins turned out to be nested by zillions of fat yellow maggots. They poured out of the eyes, nose, and mouth of the horror pumpkins. Another cool thing was that the maggots were weird jumping ones. They crawled out of the pumpkin and laid on the newspaper for a while, after that they contracted themselves into tight little balls, and then BUM, this ball stretched like a spring and jumped into the air. So we had dozens of maggots springing into the air. Fantastic Halloween surprise. The girls will remember it for sure.

Halloween with Maggots

Icecaky

After fishing we walk for appr. 12 km. along a wetland park. On the way we meet a man selling icecaky which is a popcicle. Lina gets one for her and takes a picture with the seller.

Fishing with a plastic bottle of COCA COLA

We walk along the mighty Han river, walk until there is nowhere else to walk, sit, take out our primitive fishing tools, put the squid legs on the hooks and fish. We catch some grass and lose one hook.

Happy Nathaniel at the fishing store

I have no idea what he is looking for. His NZ fishing items do not translate in Korean fishing life. The woman in a long dark green old dress with red lipstick smeared all over her teeth is explaining how advanced Koreans in fishing are nowadays, therefore they do not carry the little outdated fish tool we need.

Lina is looking so sad and has a look of a terribly hurt little bird because she is made to translate and help us talk to the woman with the red teeth. I want to leave; the teeth disturb me, judging by the way she is dressed and how she does her hair, it feels that the time stopped in this shop a couple if decades ago. I want to get my camera and take a quick shot of those teeth, but think it is not appropriate.

As we are thinking it is the only fishing shop in the area, we try to get all we need from this lady, so it is taking time. See the contrast between Lina and Nathaniel. She is on the verge of tears because she is being dragged along and made to help us; she is staying in the smelly shop with a ghost like old lady and her son; she feels uneasy. Nathaniel gets a kick out of looking for solutions, as he loves mental puzzles; the more the better. He is excited running around the store, miming, and making the lady read his lips, hands and body. He wants his fish tools of which I know nothing. After a lot of body use, we are told that what we are looking for is a plastic can of coca cola to which we have to attach a string and hook from the lady's store. Apparently Koreans are so advanced with their fishing recreation that they only use brand fishing gear and tool which should cost OVER 100,000 won!

Lina feels better after we leave. As we walk, we find a whole bunch of small fishing shops. In one of the shops we find our outdated tool which costs us 3,000 won for three. The old ghost lady is proved to be full of crap, which we already know. Lina finds a box full of dirt and worms and pokes them with a stick. Nathaniel tells her to leave the animals alone and stop being so cruel.

Open class and feedbacks

Our first open house went well. We got up late last Saturday morning and had to rush to work by 10 a.m. picking up some snacks and drinks for our visitors on the way, both being grumpy like hell. I was feeling sort of disoriented from all the cold medicine I had been taken that week. So with all the mutual pushing, complaining and frequent growling we made it to work and greeted kids and their mothers at 10. There was a small presentation by kids about their projects, and after that two open classes. During the recces we had a small game with mothers and kids for which winners got prizes. The overall feedback after the class was good, so during this week we actually had two more impromptu open classes when mothers just showed up wanting to see us teach. The word about us spread a little. Nathaniel was down after the open house. He felt unappreciated and basically working with people who do not recognize and want the quality we are offering. I know it is true, but it doesn't make me down. It is a reality of being a professional teacher in Korea. Most of the time they do not want what we have to offer. Now I am learning to turn down such customers. I am sick and tired of even listening to what they need, I know it- they want rote learning and endless practice for exam taking. I used to feel helpless because it seems that there are no points of connection between what we have to offer and the market demand. Now I think "oh well, it is not OUR market", they can go ahead and place their demands, and then I go ahead and turn them down, and explain in as simple terms as possible what we are and what we do and how we do it. I am curious to know where all this adventure will take us.

Hala Gorani. What is in the word? What is in the name?

I have no idea if people read my posts. I know that Obaman stopped by. He sent me an email about some of my posts.
I might be on my own all the time though. Which is absolutely fine. I am not doing any connecting and linking. Tastes differ and everyone reads whatever they want to. Most of the time I write to myself, not directing voice to audience.
But now I am writing to people, and I hope some will answer. I have this fascination with this particular name. I think it is the most wonderful name by the way it sounds. When I pronounce it, it takes just a breath in and out; it sort of goes with the natural breathing and the combination of sounds makes me want to say it again and again. Hala Gorani, Hala Gorani, Hala Gorani. I say it and on the days I remember to say it, it even improves my mood. I have been puzzled for a while of why this name has such an effect on me. Why does it attract my attention and I keep remembering to say it. May be it is a person behind the name, of whom I know nothing. But being very inquisitive by nature I would have investigated the person, I am not attracted to the person, but the name.
Here's the proposition for a poll. If any of you has a name that you find soothing, appealing, attractive, fascinating, write a response to this post. Thanks.

Noodles and steamed pork

Lina and I went for a meal on one of the days when she was off school early after her exam. I craved greasy food, so we went to get some buckwheat noodles and steamed pork. The pork comes with sweetened kimchi on the side, chilly peppers, vinegar source, garlic, and some pickled, very salty shrimps. The pork is good, but has way too much fat on it, so I can't eat a lot of it, a couple of pieces do it for me. The other dish is buckwheat noodles served cold. That dish I love. It is impossible to stop eating it until everything in this humongous bowl is finished. Lina and I shared one bowl. The noodles is 5,500, and the pork is 10,000. The restaurant is in Sajik dong, right infront of the Sajik stadium. A few years back it used to be a very small noodle-pork shop where people had to wait in a line outside for a good deal of time. Now, they built a three story building which is always full with customers. I envy businesses like that which make so much money our of something so simple and cheap.

Meet the Couch surfer, what's with the face?!

Ok, ignore the face on the background and give your attention to our couch surfer from Holland, Roos. She has been travelling in Korea for three weeks and will be staying with us for a couple of days. She was cool enough to take the couch in our living room,which is also used as our bedroom. In case you are not familiar wth couch surfing, here's the link http://www.couchsurfing.org. As the name applies, people surf couches in the places they travel. You can find a couch in any place in the world, and you can also offer your couch. It is a great way to meet people.

Bird Hats and Mini mes

The birds are trained, tame enough, and very comfortable being around people, on heads, on hands, shoulders, and fingers. Nathaniel has his little mini him on his head. Apparently, he has birds talks and discussions frequently; he gets a great deal of comfort and support from them whenever he is unfairly attacked by me. I am glad he has such a strong support network. Sometimes I am forced to experience the power ofthe birds hat.

10.10.At10 Open house.

we are having our first open house on October 10th at 10 o'clock. It will be Saturday. The challenge for me is to get Nathaniel help me clean the place and give it a bit decent look. So far every place he visits and stays in turns in a house of chaos and messyness.

Artsy Picture

Priceless butterfly

David Graas created an accessory called "priceless butterfly". There is no price for this item; a customer determines the price, and buys the butterfly after writing the price on the tag. http://www.davidgraas.com/.
It is a cool concept. It s almost like putting a price tag on your own self-worth. From marketing and sales point of view it is a smart idea too. How many people are going to miss out on the opportunity to determine their price and make the buy. Also I wonder if customers get to see the old price tags for comparison. It is priceless anyways.

Korea and Me. The relationships.

I was writing an email to a friend who immigrated to Australia with her Korean husband and kid, and admitted that Korea and I have a very special relationship, the one you might find between a victim and her abuser. No need to explain. Victims when abducted and harassed get very dependent on and even attach to their abuser. Objectively speaking, I suffered all sorts of abuse - physical ( ex. being overworked), emotional (being blamed for my Russian origin non stop), financial ( being underpaid, money being stolen from me by my ex-husband, my recruiters, land lords, employers, "friends") . I lost faith in me and others because of just too much bad stuff and too little good stuff happening to me. I worked and tried harder than I thought was humanly possible. Sometimes I say that with the amount of effort I put in doing something here I would have become a president under Mr. Putin in my own country. But not here. I simply keep losing, I keep taking the abuse in all its forms. Yet, I am still here. I am attached to my violator. I am close, dangerously close to running out of excuses of why I am still here.

It sucks to suck ...or... to suck or to be sucked

I get lots of support from my friends, and I want to thank John too for telling me that I will get through Korean irrationality and unpredictability and will be able to find those few souls not so lost as others so they are able to recognise the light I am shining on their xenophobic heads. Those rare people will be able to trust me enough to give their kids into the hands of foreign educators like me and my husband. I appreciate the support and love my friends give me. I do need it, and it keeps my spirits up. To speak with fervour at times I feel I represent many foreigners who Koreans invite to work in this country but do not recognize them as true and trustworthy professionals, instead after giving them work expect them to behave like mindless sheep with zero creativity and individuality.
These days this support from my friends and my husband and the thoughts of me being heroic sustain me through the trenches of doing business in Korea. So far we have sucked terribly in attracting a single customer. I made a flyer ordered 8,000 copies of it printed and posted in apartments around our school. I have gotten two phone calls which are dead leads (in marketing term it means the people who called will never become potential let alone paying customers) . So after this I am like HM. It really sucks.

To my follower, Bruce.

I was playing with blogger templates and so messed up that lost all my wedgets, which are blog lists and my one precious follower. Bruce, if or when you read this, may I ask you to give me an honor of becoming my follower again. Lots of warm love.

Love the World

After dinner in kimbub nara, there was a big commotion in the kitchen. An old man tried to kill a moth. He repeatedly struck it several times but missed. The cook and the waitress were cheering the man and giving out occasional screams when the moth flew near them. The Ever Curious and Protector of All Alive Nathaniel was telling them not to be scared and not to kill the moth. Finally the moth made its way out of the kitchen torture chamber, sat on a chair where Nathaniel got it. He later let it fly away.

Playing with Kids

Blue Potter

This is what my tele has been showing recently. Blue potter and blue Korean guy from shopping channel- he looks sexy.

Losing is gaining

Today we lost two students. An adult student left. I was expecting her to leave anyways. She was too busy and missed way too many classes. Adults do not last. The 4 team for 600,000 got broken down after a month. The middle school kid can not come because of his bad school schedule. I agreed to keep his sister on the discounted price they had been given for a team of 4. The mother said she couldn't pay full price. I had a very long talk with this mother. Now I am starting to get a bit clearer picture of where we are and how people view us. Some of the conclusions I am coming to: people view us as side kick teachers, not a school to be trusted with their kids English education. What I mean is they think they need to be going to a "real" English institute with "real" English Korean teachers. They can come to us for some speaking practice. One of our students actually goes to two English schools: our school and a private class with a Korean teacher who teaches him "proper" grammar and reading and doesn't speak a word in English. There is a great disillussion among Korean mothers with native only classes. These classes used to be very popular a few years back when schools like Kids Club- English kinder, and CDI-6 hours with a native teacher were opened. Now parents see results of the education offered by such schools. Kids speak OK, know lots of key words, listen OK or good, but they have no idea about grammar, structure, and text comprehension. As a result, these kids after having spent years studying English from foreigners, fall behind their peers when they go to middle school and are made to take written tests. They simply do not do well. What I was getting from this mother is that she is scared, worried, and she does not have enough money to afford to make mistakes with her children education.
Main points of the talk: 1-our tuition fee is too expensive ( I might actually consider going cheaper, I think from 220,000 to 180,000) 2- we do not give enough homework (I disagree, we give enough, but I will start giving some reading outloud homework)3- mothers do not trust foreign teachers because kids get some fluency but loose on accuracy big time. (I will have to explain this point to mothers again. How our kids are getting paractice in both.I will do so during our open class which we are planning to hold in early October.)
Nathaniel was upset and is still feeling very sad about losing. I, on the contrary, am very positive and optimistic. I am psyched to get honest feedback and to know what I am dealing with. I see a way. I see many ways and enormous hope for the future. We are in a new business, wondering in a dark forest. Mothers like this, talks like this, losses like this help create a roadmap for us. Generally, I am pretty happy I started doing something I was designed for.

A week past. Updates.

When I started the school time seemed to creep so slowly. There seemed to be endless problems to solve, and too much stress caused by the unknown. Now I am sort of used to going to my own office, basically anytime I wish, and doing my own things. I stopped worrying about not having any new students, or not getting any phone calls. It doesn't mean I am settling down or giving up or getting clinically depressed. It is a learning curve. I realize students will not come unless I proactively go out and aggressively advertise myself. And even if and when I do so, there are still very slim chances of me getting any real customers. Instead I am focused on building a strong foundation for the business, and I read, read, read, and read everything and anything about management and marketing. I learn to use graphic design programs, create and write brochures, and flyers. I am grateful I have this time and this will to learn the skills I need for the business. So I have been basically working 12-13 hours a day, and not making any money. This is a very alien concept and a way for me to be. To work and not get money. I am much happier than before though. I get this shot for the future,and it is terrific. I know students will come when we are ready.

They are cute and have no fingers

Nathaniel is in love with our budgies. He spends hours talking to them, kissing them, cuddling them, singing to them, playing other birds sing to them, feeding them, observing them. Before we got birds I had no idea that so much time can be spent on these little creatures, so many things can be discovered and noticed about them. Live and learn.

Kids doing drama.

These are kids from our summer camp. They were made to do a scene from Harry Potter 2, the one between Dobby, the house elf and Harry. Cool scene with a ton of possibilities to have fun and try one's creative expressions. Kids sucked at it though, after three weeks of practice, analysing, getting mime and drama classes. They are too tight and inexpressive, so the whole thing looks awkward and non entertaining. Can anybody eve understand what they are mumbling?! Can anyone believe that two talented teachers have been working with them on it?! I can not put it on my Korean blog which I write for the purpose of promotion and advertising unless I risk trying negative advertising with Korean parents, which would be a suicidal feat. The reality of educating Korean kids is that you will have to get into an unequal battle with the society consisting of peers and parents and their educational system. Everything in the opposite party drills into them that they have to give up their individuality, creativity and any need for self-discovery and self-expression. Their ultimate goal is conforming and fulfilling tasks given to them by a higher authority. We know we are fighting unfair battle.

Mosquito killing spray

This mosquito spraying machine comes every morning, on weekdays usually after I am gone to work. On the weekends it comes around 8 a.m. spreading noise, nasty smell and smoke. The whole neighborhood looks as if it were on fire. I wonder if they are ever going to write them off to history because these ancient machines are not effective for the purpose they were designed which is killing mosquitoes.

Coats in 30 degrees above zero

This is a photo of a random guy who is wearing a winter coat in the 30 degrees summer heat.