i have a french press.

so i'm officially a lot cooler than you. sorry.

this is going to be another one of those "my job is fucking awesome" blogs. so tune out if you're sick of my recent bout of optimism.

the owner of my academy decided to pay the ilsan branch a surprise visit yesterday. i've been around dude-man on numerous occasions already, so it should have been no problem, but here he was at my school where i'm the only foreign teacher. so my nerves were a little unstable, compounded by the espresso-like sludge yielded by my wonderful french press earlier in the day. i felt a little shaky.

my boss didn't really observe my class, but he did take the time to ask every single employee what they thought of me in individual private meetings with him. so i was pleased to hear that i had gotten a glowing review. what's also cool was that he didn't tell me i was doing anything wrong. this wasn't just to be polite, i don't think. because in the past he's commented on lots of little things he likes or dislikes (for example, when i was giving a speech a month or so ago, he said he didn't like the way i stood). he has no problem being blunt. so that was pretty cool.

then he took all the teachers out to lunch and forced each of them to talk for 30 seconds about what they liked about me as a teacher and as a human. the general consesus was that i'm great, i don't complain, the students love me and i'm the hardest working foreigner they've ever seen. i think i don't deal well with compliments, never have. i always get embarassed and become overly humble--compliments have even been known to make me cry. or when people do really nice things for me for no apparent reason. i'm so used to ulterior motives that it's shocking when there aren't any. anyhoo, i realized yesterday that accepting compliments doesn't make you an asshole, and you don't always have to downplay your strong points--something i've done for far too long.

went drinking on tuesday night with my friend sunghee. i think it would be an understatement to say that some long overdue craziness ensued. i'll keep my exploits vague at best in this here blog. but i will say that the night involved lots of alcohol and a pink bowtie...