The Ambassador

  Jochiwon, Korea Rep.
Saturday, December 22, 2007

· Jochiwon, South Korea
· GMT +8:00 hours

Headaches

01 Room with a view

Today we continued, and completed, working through the logistics of assigning teachers to camps and classes within them camps. You see, there isn't just one camp happening here, nor is there only one location... nope, that would be way too easy and certainly wouldn't require two of us to work it all out. During the 4 weeks of teaching work (work that begins December 31st) there will be 10 camps in total. 10. We have a pool of 46 teachers and have to assign them, based on their contract length, teaching preferences and experience, to classes within those camps, making sure all classes in all camps are sufficiently staffed. Most, but not all, of the camps are running concurrently and there is always some detail that is overlooked, a detail that, just when you think you have it all sorted out, throws the proverbial spanner in the works. Oh, and we also have to assign two teachers per dorm-room, working out of a pool of rooms we have at our disposal. Trying to judge if Tom would be a better suited roommate for either Dick or Harry based on their ages, nationality, experience etc was bad enough, but getting requests from teachers to, for example, room alone due to a snoring problem made things a tad more interesting.

Day 131 Observations (Saturday, December 22nd 2007)

· God bless snooze
We hate our alarm clock once again.
Yep, after a 3 week hiatus our $10 Wal-Mart alarm clock is once again doing what it likes doing, and we hate - waking us up. I guess that means our days have a purpose once again but still, we hate hearing that piercing 'beep beep' noise that rouses us from our slumber in the morning, a noise that is killed, albeit only temporarily, by the oft-used snooze button. Our systems had, not surprisingly, adjusted well over the last 3 weeks to the 10-12 hours of Hello Kitty-monitored sleep we got each night, a 10-12 hours that, if we're lucky, has now been slashed to 7-8 hours. But don't fret folks.... we assure you all that we'll get through this latest crisis.

· Coming soon to a screen near you
This is the big break we were looking for!
We were told toady we have to 'star' in a CK video showing people around the CK facilities here in Korea University. The video will be posted on the CK website for the students who are coming to camp to view. Sort of an on-line 'this-is-where-your-parents-are-paying-to-send-you-for-a-mon th-so-you-can-pretend-to-learn-English' video, one we will front. Should be interesting. I'm going to go out on a limb here but I have a hunch Meg will be getting the majority of the screen time. We'll be sure to paste the URL (link) for the video here once it's posted to the CK website... assuming it certified for general viewing by the advisory board (Meg & I).

· We're gonna make it
We will make it through the weekend.
Yep, the cafeteria was open today. So much for the line that it wouldn't be open until Monday. It was, emm, Korean food. But that was okay as we got our first taste of the much-hyped Korea University cafeteria food, and we have to say we were impressed. We're still eating various 'things' (that's about as descriptive as I feel like being right now) off white trays (just like in all our other camps) but the quality of the 'things', even for a university cafeteria, does seem high. So, with regular meals once again the chances of loosing more weight are slim, which is good. However, as it is Korean food the chances of gaining weight are even slimmer. Maybe the westernised breakfast they will start dishing up once the teachers arrive in a week will help. Maybe. Maybe not.

· Get a haircut
We're still getting messages from our adoring public.
No more complements mind you, just a pretty blunt message that I should get a haircut. Umm. I tend to agree with ya Sis. Maybe I'll treat myself to a 'Christmas haircut'. They are all the rage, didn't you know?... the 00's equivalent of the 80's & 90's 'Christmas jumper'.

· The Ambassador
It's me against the rest when camp starts.
Sifting through the details of all 46 teacher has shown us that once they all arrive next week we're gonna be, as is always the case in CK, surrounded by lots of Canadians and Australians, with a few Yanks, South Africans and Brits thrown in for good measure. No Irish, of course, and not even a Scott! What that means is I'll be the lone ambassador for the Emerald Isle (fear not oh Motherland, you'll be sold well). I am grateful that there isn't any of my old CK cronies amongst those 46 teachers, as any one of them would no doubt wait for the perfect opportunity to get me to recite, in front of everyone

"thirty-three and a third"

Ahhh yeah, never fails to get a laugh.