Feeling the Farking Love

Man, what a day…. I go to the “Nearly a Bizness Skool” for my lab class and the door is locked and the lights are down. Which is weird, because I know I’ve seen a student duck around the corner leading to the door. As I wander back down the hallway the student yells at me to come in, and when I do the class is all gathered by the door and blowing off those champagne-popper fireworks screaming “happy birthday!” And they brought drinks and chocolate cake. Then they light aluminum-based sparklers and start singing “Happy Birthday” to me. The board has “happy birthday” written on it in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Kazakhstani. Plus, they give me gifts of a map of China, and a brief letter that says that I am their favorite instructor and the lab is their favorite class. As a bonus, the enormous clouds of smoke we generate do not trigger the smoke-alarms, although they do pull in another instructor who snaffles a piece of MY cake!

Still….

*sniffle!*

I will completely miss that class. It’s optional, with no grading and no attendance, but these 8 adorable little scholars come twice a week and we navigate the often freakish and incomprehensible waves of national culture(s). This is the class in which I can discuss the Vietnamese War with a Viet dude, Tianamenn Square with the Chinese students (and, trust me, you don’t just bring that shite up to the average Chinese student), and imperialism and the fall of the USSR with the Kazkhstani student. Great kids.

This all makes me late for the (stupid) mandatory meeting on our new computerized grading system. Which is a good thing, though it may not sound like it. I get there, grab the handout and, looking through it, note that it isn’t quite what is being shown on the screen. This observation is further strengthened when, at the end of the presentation, the Director says, “now, don’t expect this to look like what we’ve just showed you! We put this presentation together before we had the system implemented. But when you get into the system it will look like this….” At which point he waves the handout in the air.

And I wonder why we went through the whole stupid presentation. Still, I arrived late, so that’s good.

Get to my Japanese Studies class and they are docile and I have a lovely little quiz to spring on them.. keeps them quire busy for the last half hour of the class.

Then it’s off to the office and eventually my night class. While waiting for the night class I download the audiobook for “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (for the greatest Auditory Skills class there will EVER be!) and grab the last two Rolling Stones albums I haven’t looted. So, really, time well spent.


As to the class? One guy shows up on time. We sit and shoot the shit. A second guy shows up 20 minutes late and says, “Sorry, I have an appointment tonight.” The first guy looks confused, then like a light is going off in his head, and then all shifty, “Oh, I also have an appointment.”

Off they go.

The third Musketeer arrives 10 minutes later and peers suspiciously into the empty room, as though trying to calculate the odds that I have killed and eaten his friends and that he might be next. I say, “everyone left, would you like to come in and learn something?”

He looks at me for three seconds, then, “No.”

Without another word, he spins on one heel, heads to the elevator and disappears.

Bingo! Worst-Class-Evar is cancelled!

Walking home burbling happily and as I pass the bar, Betty (our nickname for the proprietress) comes bubbling out of the door hollering some uninterpretable Korean (I think that might be redundant). All that is clear is that she wants me to come inside the bar. I do, and I see another foreign instructor sitting at the table eating. Turns out that it is Betty’s daughter’s birthday and mom is celebrating at the bar by feeding us free cider and 떡-based delicacies. 떡 is a ferociously glutinized rice concoction which is made, at least partly, by beating the living shit out of an enormous patty of rice-goo. I’m not normally a fan of Ttok (the semi-Anglicization), but this isn’t that bad and at least two of the things (one of which featured raisins) are completely delicious. I sit with my compatriot and talk bad Korean with Betty (who wants to know when the OAF will be around). After I eat my fill, assure Betty that I will return with the OAF, and I leave the bar fed and even jollier.

Later, I will return and, probably, break out of November just a bit early, with a delicious beer.

Well, ok, with a CASS.. but, still, technically a beer.

I believe that even Ice Cube would concur that it was a good day.

It falls up faster..

Despite bouts of rain, the Korean workmen have stayed at it and now have the second floor framing in place...



The inside of the first floor is a rat's warren of support beams. Perhaps because of the rain, no concrete is currently being poured.

"I see Ed People!!"

Holy Cow.. is it the BKF in 20 years? If he gets all depressed?

BTW, for your "edification" (heh! I kill me) - it's actually the son of an ex-Korean president fighting with his sister over mom's business. Very familial..

Random Reflections on the New Job

1) It’s a good thing because it will change things. Like every monkey (think Community College Trustees) I like shiny rocks. I also have the habit of banging them about and dragging them through various mucks. They don’t stay very shiny, very long. BPU2 will be, at least, a shiny new rock.

And I have my new look all picked out!

2) If the translation institute at BPU2 can use me, then I’m in hog-heaven, because this is, of course, the path I’d like to follow for the next few years. The novel I just finished editing featured a heroine who lived in a little cottage on the beach – man would that be a cool thing. The US economy just needs to tank, and I need to get into the editing thing here in the land of the sparkling dawn. Then it is conceivable that in a few years I could do it from the States, with the BKF as translator, and whatever else I could dig up.

3) Seoul – I’m actually ambivalent about this. One of the things I really like about South-Central is that it is not crowded. This has several advantages. It is quieter for one thing and, as my friends know, I am an epic noise-sissy. Long walks are quite possible – no bumping into people and very little looking out for homicidal scooterists. And, let’s face it, I’m a misogynist and Seoul is crammed, nearly overflowing, with nasty people. They’re everywhere! On the positive side, much more culture.. MUUUUUUUUCH more culture. Also, closer to KLTI and the other important players in translation. And this contract will allow me to get an apartment, which could be a very nice thing, if the right one is available (I should say that the lovely Millie – my Korean tutor – has already found two realtors she thinks will work well with waeguk, but won’t necessarily try to place me in Itaewon with all the other waegukdul. So there’s that.)

4) Visitors. HAH! RIGHT!In the highly imaginary event that anyone I know comes to visit me, Seoul is where I want to be to host them. It is not only the heart of Korea, but it is convenient, by train or plane, to everywhere. The tourist ‘thrills’ of South-Central can be achieved in about 1.5 days, and every one of them is solidly second-rate.

5) Sports – Seoul has several basketball teams, at least two (?) baseball teams, a soccer team, volleyball (so that’s a point against), and even something called the KNFL which, after watching for 15 minutes on cable, I would never EVER attend.

6) Money – with only 9 hours of scheduled courses, a bit of overtime and editing should mean that I make at least a bit more money. This is always good (Capitalism 101).

7) White Peoplesess…. – I’m gonna have fewer of them in my daily grind. BPU has White Peoples stuffed everywhere. You can’t open a cupboard or desk-drawer without at least three of them (from at least two different countries) tumbling out and beginning to tell you tales of that “time I was really, really wasted!” They get underfoot, clog toilets (they flush toilet paper, you see), smoke marijuana, and complain about how Koreans drive. This will not be true at BPU2 where, it is my understanding, I will be the only foreigner in the department. I suppose this is a good and bad thing.. I’ll miss my homies, but I should get closer friendships wit Koreans, which is a good thing in terms of language acquisition, cultural knowledge, and drinking soju.

All in all, I must echo the words of the great philosopher Walsh and summarize that “I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do.”

BPU2 and Me..

Are now official.

So it's off to Seoul!


Below is a picture of the lovely quad. I will work somewhere off there to the left. In the background, on the ridge of the hill, you can see Seoul Tower.

The Long Goodbye?

BPU2 has now put decision on my (potential) position off until Wednesday. I can't tell if this is just the traditional Korean way of saying no without actually having to come out and say it, or if it is just administrative dicking about.

Either way it's a pain in the ass, and the director at BPU (the original) needs to know if I am staying or going - a fact he reminds me of in email and every time we see each other in the halls. I suppose that means they want me to stay, but it is still a pain in the ass..

Oh well, if BPU2 puts it off past Friday, it becomes the Korean "no" in any case, as I'll need to commit to BPU or lose whatever pathetic advantages I've accrued in my one year "tenure" here.

Day 4 and 5

Today there was no activity, as it was raining, but things are already reaching towards the sky. In the first picture it may look like there are walls up, but if you look closely at the left side of the photo (up near the top) you'll see that these are actually the metal molds into which the concrete will be poured. Look closely and you'll see about 12 inches of space between two "walls" of metal. Also, some structural bits are up.. rebar surrounded with the metal frames.

Looking at those support bits I can't imagine that the place will be actually be three stories, since the supports only go up one story.. can you offset support columns from floor to floor? Don't supports have to be stacked or columnar?

I have questions!

Anyway, this second photo is from the angle I'll take most shots.. just to show how it grows..

Lebensraum in my brain...

As of 5:15 local time (two minutes ago), the big editing job for BKF is off to the intarwebs and a few days of semi-frantic editing are done. Nothing big for the next week, with the exception of discovering if I am hired by BPU2 or staying one more year at the one, the only, the original BPU.

Maybe it's time to focus on the little things that matter, sunrises, good coffee, sodomy. Just take a break. ;-)

And take pictures of the building going up...

nice..

Day 2+3

On day two our intrepid constructionists poured the slab on top of the "foundation" concrete (which could not possibly have set in that short, and cold, a time.).

They use the Korean construction technique of linked metal plates (that pile in the foreground) which are used to create forms within which the concrete is poured. As the concrete sets it pulls away, slightly, from the metal, and once set the metal can be pulled off of the concrete.

It's a wickedly quick way to build walls and, as I noted yesterday, largely silent.

It is Saturday (토요일) here in the land of the everchanging national slogan, but this did not stop the workers from coming out and doing some sort of work with two-by-fours. I couldn't quite suss out what it was. Unlike a lot of construction around here, the demolition guys were quite careful about the sidewalk, so you don't have to walk in the street to get around this site. That's a sort of bonus in these parts.

I hope, as the YAF optomistically suggested in comments to the last post, that this is going to be a three-story piggie abatoir.

And soju, I'll need some soju. ;-)

Falling Up (From My Bestseller "Great Expectoration: Spit-Takes on Korea")

Korean construction is, well.. unusual by the standards I am used to. It happens incredibly quickly and sometimes looks like all the details haven't been thought out.

Right up the street from my place was a lovely 삼 겹 살 (Sam gyap sal - bbqued piggy) place which had an outdoor garden with graceful trees and a proprietor who played guitar. His wife and he cooked and served and it was one of the OAF and my favorite places.

Consequently, it was doomed.

One day we saw the owners taking things out, the next day the windows were busted out, and the following day the land was scraped to bare earth.

Yesterday the construction began and I am going to take a series of photos (one a day, I hope) to show the thing going up. I stopped and "talked" to one of the construction guys, and while my Korean didn't quite get me to what the building would be, it did get that it would be a three story building.

Yesterday, in temperatures below zero, they poured the "foundation." This is the first picture up there .. it is of two inches of concrete poured directly over bare dirt (that blown up part of the photo shows where the dirt actually pokes through). This morning, with the concrete set (uh, maybe?), they began placing a frame of rebar above the concrete. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in the way of a connective foundation here .. certainly I don't see any footings, or anything that would tie the foundation to the ground. We'll see what happens as they continue along. This may just be a difference in construction technique because Korea is not on the Pacific Rim and thus not subject to much in the way of earthquake threats.

As is the case with all Korean construction, great pains are taken to protect the buildings next door - cloths are hung up on their walls! ;-) I'm not sure I would consider that sufficient.

Finally, because it is butt-cold, the workers keep a small fire going at the edge of the site, to which they occasionally repair to warm up.

As I watched and took photos, the workers began setting up the metal forms that will contain the concrete walls. Korean construction is often much more quiet than construction in the United States because the buildings are made out of concrete and not wood - no hideous hammering at 7:30 each morning.

Tomorrow, I hope to get some pictures of the concrete wall creation.

I'm gonna miss that restaurant.