KLB - Laying Low


Laying low until I get my new camera this weekend. Nothing really new to report on anyway. Everything is fine at work for the most part. Bonnie will be there once again to watch me all day tomorrow. It's one of those "birthday party" days, meaning she'll hang around until the last ten minutes of class then give out cake to all the kids and little gifts to whoever's b'day falls this month. Maybe I'll get a box of pencils! Yipee!

Basically I hate this day. I mean, who wants their boss watching them teach? Also, the kids can't focus with boxes of cake sitting there and, with three adults roamining around the room, it's a little much. Then the kids make a mess eating and never finish on time and I lose my between-class breaks. Later I'll probably hear about the next "open-house" which is coming soon, hurray. Another day when the parents will sit in chairs in the back of the room and watch me teach their kids. You know, that is just a bad concept. I get the idea - the parents want to know what's going on, but it's contrived and unnatural, not to mention unnerving. Especially with me being a foreigner. It's so awkward and I can't even have a discussion with them after class. Haha, I just got a great - no, ingenious idea. I'll hand out a bunch of puzzles and sit at my desk and read a magazine that day. Half of the parents will yank their kids and I'll have smaller, more quiet and effective classes.

Like I said, most things are going good these days. I've been going to the health club regularly, something I feel very good about, but I've also been eating more than usual; so my arms and chest are getting bigger - but so is my stomach. Would help if I gave up beer, I guess.

I contacted some people about my book tonight and review is in the works for The Korea Herald and Pusanweb, a famous expat site in, you guessed it, Pusan. It's pretty hard and kind of degrading trying to self promote something you've written. I tried going the pay-route and bought some advertising including "adwords" on Google, the latter being a big oops. From them I got about 200 hits over 4 weeks and a bill for $90. I'm not sure how many of those 200 hits resulted in sales but certainly not enough to cover that kind of outrageous fee, so I cancelled. I guess I'm stuck grovelling for book reviews and whatnot and working on this other book geared for the Korean market. I certainly don't regret the experience of writing IOF, but if I could go back in time I'd write it with Koreans in mind, not foreigners, seeing as there are about a zillion Koreans for every foreigner here. That was kind of a bad idea, I must say. Anyway, we'll see. The new idea is something to focus on and keep positive about anyway...