Cathay Pacific Rules!

Cathay Pacific has a customer for life. Mr. Please-become-my-x showed up at 3ish with *reasons not excuses* why he couldn't leave yesterday. Basically, it boiled down to him not recognizing my request for a separation.

Dude, you cannot force me to stay married to you.

So, I took him to the airport today and changed his ticket. His nonrefundable, "don't-even-ask-to-make-changes-because-you-can't" ticket was changed to the same flight today without so much as a batted eyelash, much less a fee. How is that for customer service? Cathay Pacific is the best airline EVER!!!

I saw him off at the security gate and made sure he did not have enough money to get too drunk before his flight. So now I just have to wait until he should arrive in Perth and I can call his mother and see if he actually left. I'm half (or more than half) expecting him to show up at the door, because he "changed his mind" at the gate.

You know, for a Southerner, I have never really gotten guns or, more precisely, the need for private citizens to own them, seeing as the US is not really under threat of invasion (unless those sneaky Canadians are up to something). Now, I get it though.

My school has kindly offered to get me a new apartment just so he can't find me. It just makes me mad that a) I have to go through the hassle of moving, and b) I have to give up this apartment. I really like where I live. I've got a great apartment and it's in a great location. Why should I be punished? As far as I'm concerned, the last few years of marriage have been punishment enough.

Okay, I think that's just about enough venting for one day. Thanks for your support over the past few days or so.

On a completely different topic, I may have gotten my knitting mojo back. I don't feel like taking a photo, so you can't see it, but while whiling away my precious weekend time at the airport today, I knit half a foot of an Esther sock. I recast on with 2mm needles with some teal wool-blend yarn. It's ever so much nicer than the pink. And I own somewhere in the neighborhood of 87 teal shirts. So, they will get some wear. This is a beautiful pattern, but it is so slow! One pattern repeat (24 rows, no rest rows) took me about 2 hours.

Take a hint, you useless SOB

Well, D-Day has come and gone. As you may have guessed from the title, he did not get on the plane. I got home from work to find an empty apartment (yay!). My excitement lasted exactly 2.3 seconds, until I turned on the lights and saw his bag, passport, and ticket. The only thing he took was the money I gave him.

It was only about $100, so I am guessing he will show up some time tomorrow with a "reason" why he couldn't go.

So, my question is, at what point is the line crossed from "premeditated" to "justifiable"? I have bought him two plane tickets and (last time) given him thousands of dollars to leave me alone. What more will it take?

I don't think calling the police would help, and I'm not sure he's out of status. However, at this point, I think my only option will be to call immigration, regardless of whether or not I will incur the fine as a result.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Teacher, Today a Lobster Will Die

My students come out with some pretty amusing things, usually unintentional ("Teacher, I'm hard."), but the title statement was one student's way of letting me know it was his grandfather's birthday. I wish you could hear the glee in his voice.


Once again, it has been very long since I've posted. I haven't been getting much knitting done, at least not knitting that didn't later get ripped.


Since I haven't posted in so long, I've got a few photos. Here is one of the cherry blossoms in front of the Iksan Jewelry Center.

Here is another that I've been trying to get for a while. I have walked past it on various occasions while lost (and therefore, unable to go back with a camera). Finally, I walked past it while armed with my camera. It's a Starbucks, if you can't see the name.

This is a little blurry, because I took it while riding in a bus. How is that for fast thinking? Okay, we weren't going that fast, because it was Sunday afternoon in downtown Seoul.


Heeheehee.

Last time I posted, I mentioned a uni job I was interested in. After much soul-searching, I decided that this really ought to be my last year in Korea. So, although I like the sound of Jennifer professor more than Jennifer teacher, taking a job with that university would be more of a commitment to staying here, since it would be used to get a better uni job.

What I did not mention last time, is that once again, I will soon be free. Again. Hopefully for good. I bought my husband another plane ticket, this one without a return, so he can't "change his mind". So, now I just have to count the hours until Friday night.

I'm moderately stressed that the flight boards right before I finish work, so I can't put him on the shuttle bus to the airport. My other fear is that the school he walked out on canceled his visa (as I would have done, if he worked for me) and he will be out of status. The charge is about $100 per day and that was two months (or so) ago. I'm not sure when he really quit, because he stayed in hotels until he ran out of money.


I only found out what was going on when he injured himself and I got stuck with the emergency room bill, because Korea doesn't recognize separations. So, if he is out of status, will they detain him and stick us (IE ME) with a bill for his overstay? Even if I don't get charged the fine, he won't know until he goes through immigration, the last step before boarding the plane. If it takes them too long to decide what to do with him, he could miss the plane.


I just have to get through the next 44 hours.

Anne Frank the Musical?

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted. I've been busy basking in the freedom of not having Korean classes. I read two entire books yesterday and neither one was for school. I've also read about six books for school in the last two weeks.

As for the title of the post, that refers to a poster I saw today in Seoul, "Musical Anne Frank", which caused my two companions to burst into song, cheerfully announcing the presence of Nazis at the door and arrival at a camp. But really, what else would a musical about Anne Frank be like? Dirges and sad dancing? How does one dance sadly? Hmmmm... If anyone can shed light on this cultural phenomenon, please, I'm dying to know.

I haven't had anything on the needles in a few weeks, since I was knocked out of Sock Madness until I cast on a pair of Esther socks (scroll way down) in a pinkish-purple color. I knit one pattern repeat and then realized it is way too wide. Since I was able to get my hands on two pairs of 2.25s last time I went to the nice yarn shop, I'll recast on. Probably tomorrow, since I got car sick on the bus today and am still feeling kind of yuck. And yet, here I am posting. Do you feel loved?

The Esther pattern is a 24 row repeat, working every row (ie no knit around rows), but it is very pretty. There is a picot cuff, but my picot cuffs always end up weird-looking, so my pair will probably have a non-picot cuff. I'm thinking a scalloped cuff. Hmmm.... Here is a hat using the pattern, which I may try to recreate. Would matching hat, socks, and mittens be too much? ;-) Who am I kidding, all of my gloves are singletons, doomed to forever wait to be mated.

I've got some photos of the ongoing road construction, but I haven't loaded them onto the computer and don't feel like doing it now. Apparently, the trees were sacrificed so that there can be a new "express" highway running between the two existing highways.

I need some positive thoughts sent my way this week. I'm applying for a university position this week. I haven't finished my master's and it's been a year since I last took a course towards its completion, so I need all the help I can get. ;-) It's a fair sized pay decrease, but 18 hours instead of my current 30 and 8 weeks vacation instead of my current 2 (one of which is unpaid). There's no housing, though, so I will have to face the prospect of finding housing in Seoul, which is like getting housing in New York, only Koreans like a very large deposit. I know three of the instructors there, though, so I think I would like working there.

So there we are, up to date on my life.

Hello, World, It's Good to be Back (or I'm Too Old For This S*&%)

I can' t believe I haven't posted in over two weeks. I finished Korean classes, though, and the KOTESOL conference was Saturday, so I am back in the world of people who have something called free time.

I was elected 1st Vice-President of Seoul Chapter at the conference, so that was nice. I was running unopposed, though, so not really an unexpected event. :-)

I got my Korean progress report and it was all as expected. I know a lot of vocabulary, but have difficulty speaking in long, detailed exchanges. Also, it takes me "a while" to incorporate new grammar into my speaking and writing, although I can understand them when I see/ hear them. Yeah, I could have written that myself. But, the last two months have been worthwhile in that I have regained ground that I had lost by not ever speaking Korean.

At this point, all of you who don't live here are probably wondering how that can be the case since I LIVE IN KOREA, but in fact it is quite simple. Everyone in Korea wants to learn English. All day long, I speak English at school. At night I read or watch TV in English. Wherever I go there are people who want to practice their conversation skills.

So, as soon as I catch my breath, I'll start posting again, with pictures. I have done any knitting since I was knocked out of Sock Madness, but I'll be casting on something in the next few days, I'm sure.

Speaking of, thank you to everyone for their kind words about the Mad Cow pattern, despite the omission of gauge (note to self: do not write patterns while on vacation at Disney World.) If you would like to make a pair yourself, I've linked the pattern.