The Golden Life

I'm currently cooling heals at new English teacher orientation for the Gyeonggi province in a "resort" in Hwasan. The resort is called La Vie d'Or. The Koreans pronounce it "Lavidor." For the longest time I thought Mr. Yoo was saying Labrador, but just in a very very Korean accent.

Now, this "resort" is a pretty swanky place... sort of. There are 4 people per room, which is cruel. The word "resort" is kind of an overstatment. There are facilities here, but they are expensive and/or closed. There is a pool... construction. There is a bar... overpriced. There is a weight room... you have to pay to use it. The hotel is even charging about $8 for another tiny bottle of shampoo... or so the rumor has it. Thank God for the large bottle of Suave that I got at Walmart in Howell!!

The lectures started today. To say that they were long speeches would be an understatement. There were 2 main speakers, the first lady for being a resident of the U.S. and for having a degree in English Linguistics from a university in Phoenix really had a bad accent and not so great grammar. She teaches in an elementary school and her methods are of course not applicable to me at all. The second speaker was very good interms of her speaking, but her content left a little to be desired. If you know anything about ESL then it was redundent. I was falling asleep in the lecture. Everyone else thought she was brilliant. I could have done without her.

Being here at orientation is nice and pissing me off all at the same time. It's nice to speak English is 100 other people, it's nice to meet people from all over the world. It's pissing me off to hear how great their jobs are, how great their co-teachers are, how much their students love them. I'm feeling kinda bitter now. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get over it. I did meet a woman who came here and still doesn't have an apartment. She's been living in a hotel and her luggage is at storage in her school. So, it could be worse.