Inspiration

A friend and I were talking tonight about inspiration. It started out as the most random comment, but turned into something I can't seem to wrap my head around. 

My friend and I were riding the subway to a soccer game. And on the way he said "you know how you said you hope someone comes along and takes you away from this place?" (Which I kinda said but was joking about an earlier convo with my sis today.) He continues, "Maybe I just need someone who can inspire me?".  I started thinking "Yeah, we all want to be inspired. There's nothing much better than being inspired to start something new in life." And then we started whining about how we didn't inspire one another like, "What, so I don't inspire you?!"

Eventually my friend, being the nice guy he is, came up with something. He told me I inspired him to run. And then he goes "But, I don't run anymore." I was like "Wow. Must of been quite inspirational if you quit!" "Well, you stopped running. So I stopped running." Which then made me think, does inspiration die if the person who inspired you to do something stops doing it? Is it that easy? That easy to drop? Or is inspiration like a fair-weathered friend? It goes away when times get difficult. 

On our walk up to the stadium, I tried to reciprocate the "inspiration" gesture. I, being so amazing with words, said "You've inspired me as well." 

"Really? Name something."

"Hmmm, let me think. Have you inspired me? You have. Hmmm. I can't think of anything. No, no! I'm sure you have ... just .... well, uh, let me think a minute." And all the while I was thinking, this person is incredibly important to me! He encourages me. He's my best friend here. He inspires me. But does he? I can't pinpoint a single thing I've been inspired to do lately, and not just by him, but by anyone!

So it brings me to these thoughts:

Maybe you have to be searching for inspiration to find it?

Do you have to make a change in order to have been inspired? (I say this because my comment to my friend was that he inspires me by how talented he is in surfing/skateboarding/snowboarding. But he then asked me what it's inspired me to do. To which I had to say nothing. I haven't changed anything, yet I feel inspired.)

And lastly, if we base a relationship around someone who inspires us, what happens when that inspiration dies? What happens when the person no longer does things that inspire us? Does that make it retarded to be with someone because they inspire you?

I'm asking you guys. I want to know what you think. And if any of you know of a way to inspire me to figure out what I'm doing with my life, that's pretty much welcomed too.

North Korea, Stop Being a Dick eh?

They are dicks sometimes, those people across the border. 

Mainly their government and it's supporters - the ultimate dicks.

They like to snatch people from China and claim they stumbled across the border. They like to hold them as leverage for their nuclear expansion. 

They like to test missles .... often.

They like to test nuclear missles, at that. 

They like to traffick not only drugs, but also women.

They like using scare tactics for political moves.

They really like pissing off the rest of the world. 

Really, they just seem to hate everyone these days. Thus, they are the definition of being a dick. 

I wish they'd stop it. 

(Mom, I apologize for the foul mouth. I will be looking forward to your email.)

There are days when this life is actually hard.

Such as days like today. Most days, living the life of a teacher in Seoul is pretty chill. I work 4 days a week. The hours I put in on those days are a bit much, especially since 6 of them are standing (yes, I'm not allowed to sit down, as crazy as it seems). But I get three days of relaxing. I can go out in the evenings if I want. I don't have to get up early for anything. So, in all, the standing and stress, generally evens out with the positives of this life. 

However, I've now been going for 6 straight days of work. With new classes. New material. Material I can't get through in the 3 hours allotted. I'm stressed to the bone, 2 hours before classes start, running around, making handouts, making tests, prepping my books, meeting with head instructors, meeting for our subject reviews (which are another 2 hours of my day unpaid). It feels a bit like hell right now. I literally feel myself getting sick! Which, let me tell you, will be tough to go unmonitored. Because of the swine flu crap, we are still being required to give our temperature on a daily basis. But now instead of twice a day, we have to give it only once. And we now do it at our school instead of texting twice a day on the minute. We simply come in, stand in front of a staff member, they wave some weird flashing light, and tell you if your temperature is ok to work. If it's too high, you must go home unpaid!

And they have a new regulation that if you want to take vacation, you can still take your 7 days unpaid. BUT, if you leave the country, you must wait another 9 days to come back to work, in order to make sure you don't have any unknown virus that you caught on holiday. AND, you don't get paid for those 9 days either. It's crazy. This company is crazy. 

I have an interview with Seoul Public Schools tomorrow.

Counting my lucky stars.....

Swine Flu Vacation

Yesterday swine flu vaca ended ... sadly. After a week and a half off, I realized just how much I really needed that break. It was great to get out and bask in the sun, ride a bike, go swimming, lay out, read a book, see a movie or four, watch The Wire, lay around in bed, cook, clean, hang out with friends endlessly ...  a little bit of everything really. It felt quite amazing. And of course some of you are saying "you can do all those things and work. You're just lazy." And my reaction to that ... yeah, I'm totally lazy. 

Some pics:

Looking over the river that runs through Seoul.

Hanging in the park.

Giving Abby a ride on my awesome bike.

This is where I tell Cleo I'm having his baby. (Errr, that's why Cleo looks like he won a week of vacation from CDI? Wrong reaction my friend. Baby's Mama = All your money in my pocket.)

So it was back to the good old grind yesterday. AND, we get a special treat for coming back: We get to work the entire weekend!! Yeah, I was as excited as I sound. It's more money, but it's the reason I get so effin lazy! It's working straight through and onto another week of hell! Ahhh. 

I tell you, I have some good kids from what I've seen so far. But man, there is one class that is going to equal trouble, and some really good blogging. The class has about 10 boys in it, and 5 girls. 7 of these boys were all in a class together last term with my friend Abdel as teacher. And from the look of it, the boys taught the class, not Abby. And from what Abby says, they in fact did teach that class last term.

They were talking back the first day (After I told them I'd be calling parents should they break any of my rules this term.) I had one kid putting his books away mid class going "Class over teacher." I looked at him with evil eyes as all the other kids are like "Cool! Class is over!" My thought "Ummm, no my child. You have made it through 1.5 of 3 hours, and now, I'm gonna make the last half hell ... for you only." Which my hell is heaven I guess compared to most teachers. It's a problem when you're 5'2" and have a weak voice. 

I've decided my punishment this term is standing in class. When they act out ... I will make them stand for 3 hours. And hopefully, they will learn a lesson. If not, at least they will endure my pain.

Did I mention these are elementary kids? Yeah, they're like 8 or something ....