79. My life in general...

You may have noticed that I have a 'statcounter' on this page, and I check it pretty regularly because I'm curious to see where y'all are coming from and how you find me. Do you know what the most common search criteria that leads people here is? You would think it would be something about being gay, or Christian... or perhaps confused... but no. Once, many many months ago I mentioned Tricia Helfer, and even linked to a picture of her... and people looking for her seem to wander to this blog a lot for some reason.

More recently a lot of people have been coming here via a link from a site I will not link to because when I went there I was greeted by... um... let's call them adult themed photographs of a homoerotic nature. I scrolled down (while covering the screen with one hand... I'm not a prude or anything, but the gentlemen were naked and I was kind of in shock) and discovered that this guy was linking to me, it wasn't just that random blogger thing where people jump from one blog to another. I do want to go back there and leave him a comment because I'm curious about who he is and why he's interested in my blog. But I think I need to wait and get over the shock of it all.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share those two interesting tidbits from my life.

While I'm on it I suppose I'll give a little update about my life in general, not just the Christian gay stuff.

I had a wonderful time in the Philippines again, for those who were curious. I did manage to meet up with the girl I met there before, and without going into too much detail, we managed to work something out so she doesn't have to go back to working at the bar... as a matter of fact, she'll be going back to school in the new year, so it's all very exciting.

My job? Well... I recently wrote someone a letter where I used the phrase "I love my work, I hate my job." I'm kind of tired of dealing with my boss and some of the inane crap that goes down at my particular school. I know that there are horror stories coming out of Korea about really bad English academies -- you know, not getting paid on time, getting ripped off, bosses demanding extra hours from you and not paying for them... I even know of one person who went back to his job on a Monday to discover that his school had completely shut down and his visa revoked. He couldn't locate anyone from his school and was given 24 hours to get out of his apartment. So in light of those stories, I know I lucked out... but I'm still tired of it. I'm tired of knowing that my opinions about my students and how they should be taught have no value because I don't happen to have external genitalia. I'm tired of not being given any notice about changes in my schedule (it's not uncommon for me to sit down for one of my very few and precious breaks and be told something like "Oh... new class upstairs. 7 students. You are teaching them.") I'm tired of seeing things like what happened on Friday, when a coworker sent a child down to the office because he was misbehaving, and one of the Korean staff gave him a piece of cake and let him play in the game room! How's that for discipline? Basically, I'm tired of not feeling valued or respected. I love what I do, and I think I do it fairly well (and if you corner my boss and ask him, he will agree with you, but you literally have to back him into a corner to get any positive feedback... unless you are a man, and then you only ever get positive feedback!).

I'm not at a high point when it comes to my work. I will be sad to leave my students when I'm done here, that is true, but I will also be very ready to leave. Of course, being who I am, I am already seriously thinking about my next big adventure... teaching in Taiwan I think. I've done a fair bit of research and I think that is my next move.

In other news, I may have lined up a personal trainer for the phenomenal price of $15/hour! My massage therapist (how posh am I!) was... well, massaging me today and noticed that I have lost a significant amount of weight since my last session (about 6 or 7 weeks ago);which, incidentally, meant that she could do things to my body that she couldn't last time... meaning that this massage was more painful! Good pain, but pain nonetheless. She was quite encouraging and mentioned that she's also a pilates instructor, and would be willing to give me some help for that ridiculously low price! As much as I hate to talk about weight and stuff, I'm kind of excited about this... I feel kind of hopeful actually. That's kind of a first for me when it comes to body stuff. As an aside, I'm fairly certain that she's a lesbian. That in no way is contributing to my excitement, as a)I'm not absolutely certain, and b)if she is a lesbian, she has a girlfriend and people in couples are kind of off of my radar as far as my attraction is concerned. The whole reason I think she's gay is because I get my massages at her apartment, which is a 2 bedroom... but one of the bedrooms is set up as her massage studio, and the other is shared by her and the girl she refers to as her 'friend'. I've seen into the bedroom and there's just the one mat on the floor, so... I'm kind of sure.

I'm trying to think if there is anything else to tell about my life... there isn't much else, really. I told you about the lesbians in my last post... other than that (which, by the way, is not a huge part of my life. They meet in Seoul, and going into Seoul is a big deal... takes a lot of time and money and I don't do it that often) my life revolves around my work. And as my work isn't making me all that happy right now, you can sort of guess at my general mood. I spend a lot of time reminding myself how much I love my students. And I do, I really do.

Anyway, just some random tidbits. Because I think you care.