Cold Monday...

Well we had a nice weekend, well...Yogita and I had a VERY exciting time out together. I feel so bad for my best friend because, I feel he should do the same with his wife. He called me Saturday night....I knew from the get go that he had already drank too much. He likely wanted to meet up with me, and well...lets just say once he gets to that point it is best if he heads home.

Our Saturday was nice, we watched some movies, the boys enjoyed more documentaries. I can not drive my car until I get the battery situation worked out. Basically it needs to be recharged. If I can find some multi purpose device that can also give a car battery a trickle charge, I will buy that, and service my own batteries at home.

You see Car batteries is a weird tech to have in a world with li-ion batteries. I am pretty sure a smaller sized LI- ion battery could jump start a car plenty of times, while using the alternator to give it a low level charge like a USB port on a pc does. It is basically what the alternator does with a lead acid battery. While you drive the car it provides a low level trickle like charge that replaces what the battery used to start to car. The alternator is not a battery charger!! Something that I am learning more and more every day. It provides the electricity to run the car, while allowing the battery to "recover" some of the energy it used to start to the car.

The battery pack I have allows me to start my car 20 times. It recharges at home in 3 hours. So if you treat it like a cell phone battery you would not even need a big heavy lead acid battery. I am sure it is more complicated than that. For example the money it would take to change car designs, electrical systems, and even a proper charging system for a li-ion battery pack. Too many drivers today will not be happy to have to charge yet another device..especially something that starts your car.

So I want another piece of tech that would allow me to maintain my battery at home on a biannual basis, but it would have some other useful function as well... I know something is out there...I just need to find it!

/tata

And another interesting person post....

Talk about cold shoulders being given to you for seemingly no reason at all. The funny thing is if the 2 people I am about mention had just said hello, I would not even be mentioning them on our blog.

Actually this is more of a story of 3 people, a married couple, and  Philipina. The husband's name is Jay which is a nickname. It is really funny when I ask people in Korea why they chose a particular nickname. Some people mention favorite actors, or a former English teacher gave them the name (I am guilty of this as well!). Anyway, when I asked Jay why he chose that name he mentioned that foreigners have a hard time pronuncing his name. I do not remember his name but....it was not difficult to say, nor was it hard on the tongue. 

When I met Jay he first attended a class that was not suitable for his level. He kept interupting other students, and giving feedback! I of course had to keep cutting him off. Eventually I had to tell him directly that he needs to stop, he is making others uncomfortable. His attitude spoke "teacher! very loudly. So when he was asked what he did, and he acted very coyly, saying that it was a "secret" I told him I know exactly what your job is....I just don't know which subject your responsible for.

Anyway, I was annoyed, and after class I told him not to attend, the level was not suitable for him. I reccomended another class. His listened to my advice, and told me he would try out that class the next day. So the next day he comes in with a pretty Philipina on his arm. They looked like a couple, standing very close together, she kept hitting him playfully, and refering to him by his nickname..Jay. It was the way she said it that made all of us in the class blink twice. It was as if my wife was calling me, it was intimate. He even spoke about he dislikes Korean women, and prefers foreign women....note: No one ask him about his preference he just blurted it out. In class they leaned towards each other going over the photo copy of the page we were studying. She woud scold him (in a cute way) if he made a mistake. 

The next mornng he attends my morning class, with the Philipina in tow, and I had a tall lanky woman join my class that day as well. The class was progressing well, and I was about to introduce Jay and the Philipina (who has an American father...), when the tall lanky woman I think her name is Ju, spoke up and mentioned that Jay was her husband. Now the seating order was like this, Jay was sitting VERY close to the Philipina like he was doing yesterday. The flirting was a bit toned down, I thought it had to do with well....it was in the morning, perhaps they were too tired for the hormones to be running wild. However, when the tall lanky woman who I now knew was Jay's wife spoke up, my other students were shocked. 

The funny thing is they didn't seem to notice the shock on our collective faces yep, my jaw was hanging open along with my other students. The Phililpina I forgot her name realized how odd they looked. She then said that she helps Jay with his English since he has great difficulty with the language. HUH?! Jay did have issues, poor vocabulary, I had to often stop him and correct him as I found that his listening comprehension was weak as well. However, he DID NOT need a tutor, or should I say translator. The wife was nodding while this exchange went on. They studied at our ESL school for  month. They were so STRANGE. Yogita and I finally figured out that yes something odd was going on between Jay, and the girl. We found this out due to her profile picture and messages. Her profile picture would have a picture of them both. When something bad happened between she posted this message "I am so sad but I have to let you go". She wanted to meet with us and talk, but we were busy at that time. 

Figured out that she is actually a maid/babysitter who teaches adult and Elementary kids English. We also found out that they wanted to teach adults in same way we did, and they were actually spying on us to learn our techniques. Ju, Jay's wife would ask me odd questions like how would you teach this type of student? Or ask me questions about company classes, test prep classes. I never answered and simply said "it is a secret" with a fake wide smile.

The reason why I am bringing this up because yesterday we saw them at the same resturant. They gave my students, and yogita the cold shoulder. I am sure that they are embarrassed because we know why they were buddy buddy with us. The spies! LOL But in all seriousness who cares?! I know that the Philipina pretends to be American (her father is American) but she has a Philipino passport. I know that she is basically a maid, many Philipinas working in South Korea do suck work. I am not going to judge a person based on what they do for a living. I have no businesses judging anyone!!

If I see them again (At the time I was too preoccupied with my steak), I will go up to them say "Hi Ju" "HI Jay" ask the Philipina what her name is greet her and walk away. In South Korea some foreigners act like saying hello to a another expat will kill them. Odd Balls!!! LOL

/tata 

Met an interesting person yesterday

So it is late Feb. and there is a new student who is trying out my morning class. I can see that he is young in his mid 20's, in fact he is 26. I can also tell that he has a fairly good grasp of English. So I figure maybe he is preparing to enter some company, or going overseas.

I talk with him some more, some intro style questions that ESL teachers use to gauge a students basic range of English. I detect a very natural Australian accent. When I say natural I mean that it is mixed with a Korean accent. So I figure "this guy has studied, worked, or lived in Australia for some time". Well I was right. However, I quickly figured out that his range of English topics is very very limited.

After speaking him some more I figured out why. You see to learn a language in a foreign land you have to really get immersed in it. Make real lasting friendships with people. I found that this young man was working long hours in order to support his education. This is so commendable when you see so many young people leaning on their parents. However, even though it means that actually living life, for example making friends having a real social life, know what is going on in the world around you, is next to impossible. It is still pretty cool what he is doing.

In the future once he as according to his plans, settle and get a job in Australia, his English ability will develop just fine.

I meet so many people who have studied overseas, and I mean Koreans, they lean on their parents, get "tired" of working hard and end up coming back to Korea. The guy I met yesterday....hats off to you!!

/tata

Update!

Well I got the battery pack and I will jump the car tomorrow evening. It is very nifty not too heavy but not exaclty a light wieght unit. Like I mentioned it can charge cell phones, and other devices like laptops. 

I am glad to have this device as today cars get more and more tech heavy, batteries are bound to run out of juice. We have to pay car taxes, that will be taken care of next week..perhaps wednesday or so. Tomorrow I am going to meet my friend hwa-nil and his wife hye-young. We will go for a few drinks and conversation. I will talk to Hwa-Nil about setting up a payment plan for my transmission rebuild project. This is the perfect time to get it done, and company classes will likely start up in April, or May. Heck company classes might start up in March...so I need to get on top of this. 

The boys are doing well, they are not getting into any serious trouble. They do their chores, complete thier assignments, and enjoy their free time. I will take them to see the Superman vs Batman movie in March. On another side note they want a pet....we will go to Emart next week (Saturday) and see what options are there. 

Yogita and I have more free time as  the winter rush of classes is over. So it is nice to slow down somewhat. I will be looking into getting the TESOL certification very soon. 

This was taken backk in 2013 in November. Of course they are both bigger now....

/tata  

Battery jump pack

Well....my battery died again....
When you drive luxury cars (I hate that term) they have multiple computers monitoring different systems in the car. Nowadays I do not drive as much as I used to. This means that my car might sit for 2 or 3 days in a week. We are coming off of a very long holiday, and a nasty snow storm that left my car buried and....not driving for over 2 weeks. The result? Yep a dead battery.

This time I will get this a portable battery pack with super capacitors to help dead batteries. Another cool thing is that it can used as a smartphone charger as well. Actually it can charge all kinds of electrical devices like mp3 players, ipods, tablets ...you get the idea.

For me this gives me peace of mind because my car is important to my work as well.
Not to mention life in a small Korean city..a car is a must when you have a family.

Plus I have a bad track record of leaving my doors half open, or leaving my lights on.....ugh.

Price around 65 bucks?

If you have the same car battery woes....check this out!

/Tata!!

It is a Tuesday Friday!

Yeah so basically it is a two day work week. It is so strange even after 15 years of living and working in South Korea I have still not gotten used to it. I mean after a long holiday, which for us was 5 days, the day after really seems like Monday.

I feel really bad that I did not take Yogita out during the holiday even though she asked me over and over again. Basically, we did go out twice on date, but she really wants to see greenery. She loves nature and every so often I should take her out on a drive. It really helps her deal with stress, and is very up lifting for her. I think this is one of the reasons why she enjoys camping so much.

So here we are making plans to go somewhere, and do something. I have decided that we should have some sort of objective; try a famous restaurant (not to crazy about that idea, Gunsan has some AWESOME resturants!), go to another city and purchase something we need basically shopping far from Gunsan but enjoying the journey, or perhaps visit some national tourist spot...but once you have seen a few...they are all too similar.

I am leaning towards try an interesting restaurant, while getting some hardware upgrades for our pc's that we need. Well cheap pc upgrades, I am going to dump money on hardware, there are certain reasons for this...namely SLI tech, and prices keep falling....so it is better to wait on more expensive upgrades.

So after I post this I will search and see what useful things I can find. Who knows? Perhaps I will find something useful! It looks like it will rain this weekend...so nature viewing might...suck...

/tata

Post holiday musings...

Well what a nice holiday that was! 5 days of relaxing at home. I was able to get the pc for the boys online. Next I will get a wireless card for it....I will disable it when we are not at home. I wish I had my hardware from India, because I have 2 wireless cards there. It is no big deal as they are dirt cheap.

We planned to take a road trip, but..to be frank...I just wanted to relax at home. Yogita understood, and we had a couple of Subway deliveries for her. The boys loved it!! They got a break from their studies watched documentary after documentary, played games, enjoyed their toys....you know..kiddy stuff.

Yogita and I took a lot of time for each other as well. Staying up way too late, talking, reading, playing, watching TV together. It was so nice! We only get this kind of time together twice a year in Korea. Either is a 3 day holiday, 4, or in less common situations a 5 day holiday.

So all in all, I feel great! No crazy traffic to deal with, just relaxing at home. Today, having super fast Internet at a cheap rate is the BEST entertainment money can buy! Oh yeah and not to mention the cheapest!

Korea is not like India where there are so many holidays here and there. So when we get one like this...you gotta enjoy it to the fullest!!

Oh and Chu-sok which is even bigger than the lunar new year will be..... 5 DAYS!!! A very nice 2016 indeed! Of course this year I will NOT waste money like I did in 2014. Heck even last year we went overboard with traveling at bad times, dealing with vacations that SUDDENLY we found out about like a week in advance. Not this time! I want to take my family overseas this year. Our target is Southeast Asia, so planning and saving for that starts....NOW!

/tata