so far, so good

It's difficult to judge a two year experience based on the first week; however, it's always encouraging when things get off to a good start. I've had my first week of classes (although I certainly haven't finished my first week of coursework), and so far I really enjoy all of my classes - much more than I had expected to - and I am feeling very glad I made the choice to begin earning my MA in TESOL. 

I'm currently enrolled in three classes, which for the sake of maintaining the vague sense of anonymity I've got going here, I'll refer to as G, A, and R. (If you can't guess what those stand for, email me or something and I'll clue you in.) Before taking a look at any of the course materials, I had expected to find G and A useful but dull, and I expected R to be incredibly boring. I'm quite pleased to report that in contrast to my expectations, I am finding most things pretty interesting. 

I can't judge A too well at this point, as the textbook is still on back-order (booo, campus bookstore; I'd have ordered from Amazon if I'd known it was going to take this long!), and as it's a wholly online course limited mainly to online interactions revolving around the course materials, we're getting off to a slow start. That being said, I like the online interface, and have been getting to know my classmates and professor online, and at the very least it seems like a good group.

G seems like it is going to be a great class. While the topic sounded dull, as soon as I opened up the textbook, I was able to get sucked in - I found myself staying up until 2am reading one of the textbooks for this class for fun. In addition to really awesome textbooks, our professor (who just so happens to be the author of said awesome textbooks) is a great lecturer who incorporates techniques that EFL/ESL/ESOL teachers can use in their classrooms into his lectures (or at least into his first lecture). I'm getting ideas on how to change how I work my lessons already!

I was really worried about R. I didn't think it was going to be difficult, just unbearably boring. The textbook put me right to sleep the first time I opened it, which I didn't think was an auspicious start. Luckily the professor is a really good lecturer. Additionally, we have a series of projects throughout the semester which should all focus on one topic... and we get to choose our own topic (as long as it pertains to TESOL). I'm focusing on Native Speaking English Teachers in South Korea - something I know a good deal about from personal experience. 

While working on the aforementioned series of projects, I discovered that there is NO scholarly literature available in the TESOL field on Native Speaking English Teachers in Rural Kyrgyzstan. Haha. No really, I looked. This is giving me ideas for the paper I'm going to write when I come home at the end of next summer... which (assuming all works as planned) I'll be spending in Kyrgyzstan, teaching English in a rural village.

My classmates are a really interesting bunch - some are actually from places in the former Soviet Union, South America, the Middle East, East Asia, etc., while many of the others have taught abroad in interesting locations. I've had some great conversations with people about their overseas teaching experiences (and mine!), and I've gotten to practice my Russian and even speak a little Kyrgyz. These things make me very happy.

Mostly a good day. Not all, but mostly.

Today was mostly a good day. If I hadn't realized at about 9pm that I'd neglected to check the mail, I'd have gone to bed feeling content, instead pacing around my house ranting crankily.

I had a really nice lunch with T, a friend of mine from undergrad (who already has his PhD and is teaching - albeit in a different department from mine at the university I'll be attending as of Monday). I hadn't actually spoken to him (other than facebook) since graduation in 2001 (god, we're old), so it was really nice to catch up.

Now, do you recall my obsession with the Daewoo Matiz / Chevy Spark? Well, it is finally going on sale here in the US and I so very much want one. I'm a tad hindered by the fact that my income is teeny-tiny, so I shan't be buying one any time soon. That being said... the Chevy dealer down the road from my house is having a drawing to give away a free, lime green Chevy Spark. I totally went down to the dealer after lunch this afternoon and registered. The free car is probably an automatic, but if I were to get a free car, I wouldn't quibble. Here's hoping I win!

And here's hoping all that tacky shite comes off the poor thing.
After registering to win the car, I drove over to Winter Park to check out the Lacomka Bakery and Deli - a Russian deli, grocery, and restaurant. I was specifically on a quest for chechil (чечил), but unfortunately they don't carry it :( They did, however, have suluguni (сулугуни), a delicious Georgian cheese, so I came away happy, even if they didn't have what I wanted. I'll need to go in sometime when I haven't just eaten lunch to check out their restaurant.
Now... remember back in June when Mama Cat thought Mochi was attacking her, and accidentally sliced open my face as a result, requiring me to get four stitches? Just four. Only four. Yeah. Well in July I got a bill for $650. I thought $160/stitch was a tad steep, but my mom paid the bill for me... Then tonight I went out to check the mail and discovered a bill for $1177!! You know, in addition to the previous $650. We're now up to $450/stitch which is completely ridiculous. Not to mention something I can't exactly afford to pay. Despite my part time jobs, that amounts to a good tenth of my annual salary. What the hell?

part time jobs, and more dog park adventures

I normally don't write much about my jobs, but here's a little bit about what I've got going on nowadays income-wise:

I'm helping out the school in Daegu where I taught in 2006-2007 and again in 2010-2011, by conducting Skype interviews with several of the candidates. This is the first time I've ever participated in the interviewing portion of the hiring process from the point of view of an interviewer. I've certainly been interviewed before, and I've helped previous employers review resumes and applications in order to decide who to interview, but this is my first time doing the interviewing. Some of the candidates have fallen in the good-to-great category; others have fallen in the I'm-not-surprised-you're-unemployed category. Ways to fall into the latter category include:

Exhibit A: Responding to a request for a resume and cover letter with a smartass reply about how you're tired of submitting cover letters and not getting hired, and so therefore you're sending only a resume.

Exhibit B: Not being online at the scheduled time of your Skype interview, then showing up online thirty minutes late with the excuse of "I don't know what happened. I've been online all this time." No, buddy, you hadn't been. 

Still, I've been impressed with most of the people I've interviewed, which means the school will most likely get a pretty kickass teacher to replace the one who will be leaving this fall.

Additionally, I've got two jobs through the university where I'll be studying (classes begin next week). The first job is an assistantship, which I'll hold all year. It's part time, twenty hours a week. At this point I know very little about what I'm doing - although I do know that I won't be teaching.

The other job is super-super-part-time, just a few hours each semester. However, as it pays $30/hr, I figure that's a productive way to spend a few hours every now and then! I'm helping to rate the spoken English communication levels of potential TAs from non-English-speaking countries. (While all the potential foreign TAs have passed the TOEFL, that doesn't mean they're great at speaking English. I've taught a lot of students who are great at reading/writing/listening/test taking in English, but who can barely communicate orally. The goal is to prevent those folks from getting placed in charge of an English-language lecture or lab  section.)  It's a lot more challenging than I expected, and I can't exactly say that I'm enjoying it, but it doesn't take too much of my time, and it will help to pay the bills.

Other than that, I've pretty much just been spending my time lounging around the house and taking Mochi to the dog park. My poor boy is nowhere near as socialized as he should be, either with humans or with other dogs. He gets sooooo excited when we arrive at the dog park, but once we get inside, he totally goes all shy on me. You know the typical dog-wants-to-play stance? (If not, here are some examples from Google image search: here, here, and here.) Well, when a dog approaches Mochi and goes through the whole do-you-wanna-play routine... Mochi just stands there looking worried. Eventually, the dog will give up and go play with someone else. When a dog run towards Mochi in an I-wanna-play manner, Mochi cringes. When a dog sniffs Mochi, often he just stands there looking worried, although sometimes he'll return the sniff. When a dog humps him, he just cringes, but otherwise doesn't move. If he didn't get so excited every time the car pulls into the dog park, I'd stop taking him, because it stresses me out to watch him look so uncomfortable. I'm hoping he'll get better at relating to other dogs, but I guess we'll have to see.

OMG - He's sniffing me! I'll just stand still until he leaves.
Pommie here is in love with Mochi. He's a regular at the park (very outgoing, super-friendly, always jumps in my lap), but he has totally fallen for Mo and wants nothing more out of life than to be able to hump him like mad. Mochi is sooo not into this. Luckily, Pommie's owner is pretty good about keeping him under control.
This dog... is NOT Mochi! She sure looks a lot like him though, doesn't she? Her name is Angel. She was also super shy around both humans and other dogs, so I wasn't able to get a good photo. Still, her owner and I were pretty amazed by how similarly they were built and colored.

a birthday party, a headache, and taking the slow road

This past Wednesday was my mom's birthday. She planned to celebrate at her boyfriend's house in Live Oak, FL this past Friday, so I decided to drive up and join in. I brought Mochi with me, and left poor Charlie at home. (Apparently Charlie spent the entire 24 hours that we were gone loudly voicing her displeasure at being left behind. I need to harness-train her and start bringing her along on these adventures!)

Mochi and I in Live Oak
F gives mom a birthday cake

He also got her a metal detector, which is something she has wanted for ages.
Here she discovers a rusty nail.
Mochi, who always relishes being able to race around off the leash had a great time, and totally wore himself out.
Unfortunately, I had started getting a headache on the way up, and had somehow neglected to pack any excedrin. Unfortunately, it developed into one of the worst headaches I've had in a while. F had baby aspirin and Tylenol PM, and that was it. I took three baby aspirin, but they did nothing. I eventually gave in and took two Tylenol PM, which totally knocked me out. Yeah, I drove three hours and ended up being pretty lame company. C'est la vie.
The drive from Orlando to Live Oak took three hours. It also cost me about $10 in tolls to get out of O-town. There's also the fact that driving on the interstate is boring. I've been up and down that stretch of I-75 so many times in my life that there isn't anything remotely new to be seen. And hell, even if it were my first time driving that route, there wouldn't be much of interest to be found. I had just finished John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley the day before I left on this short road trip, and I kept thinking of his comment, "When we get these thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing." So very true. 
For the trip back, I decided to set my GPS to avoid not only toll roads, but also interstates. The estimated travel time was four hours (as opposed to three) but after I stopped for breakfast (I had a biscuit, Mochi got a Hardee's sausage), various scenic spots, and a state park, the trip ended up taking six hours. And yet it was MUCH more enjoyable than the drive up. From here on out, unless I have a very limited amount of time, I'm avoiding the interstates.
Old gas station on County Road 49 between Live Oak and Fort White
Fantastic old overgrown sign, somewhere between High Springs and Archer
Just north of Leesburg, I spotted signs for the Lake Griffin State Park, and decided to pop in. Unfortunately, the park was a tad disappointing. It was a nice park, for what it had, but it was very small. Also, unless you had brought or rented a boat, there was no access to Lake Griffin itself. (There was a stagnant body of water, accurately named the Dead River which could connect boaters to the lake; those of us on foot were out of luck.) There was a very short nature trail, which could hardly be termed a 'hiking' trail, that brought us to the Mammoth Oak - allegedly the fifth largest living oak tree in the state of Florida.
Mammoth Oak
This brought me to another Steinbeck moment. There's a section in Travels with Charley in which Steinbeck introduces his dog (Charley) to a California redwood. Steinbeck expects that the tree is totally going to blow Charley's mind. After all, Charley has been peeing on trees all across North America at this point, and the redwood will most certainly dwarf anything in his canine experience. Charley, to Steinbeck's surprise, was not at all interested in the redwood. Likewise, Mochi was not at all interested in the Mammoth Oak. Encouragements of "C'mon, buddy, pee on the tree!" yielded nothing.
With Mochi, in front of the Mammoth Oak
Pretty flowers of some sort
We walked around the campground, where we spotted this lovely Charlie-type kitty, who most unfortunately wanted nothing at all to do with us. She skeedaddled into the brush the instant after I shot this.
Having exhausted the few options offered by the Lake Griffin State Park, and feeling a tad cheated by the lack of lake, Mochi and I got back on the road. Just a few minutes south of the State Park, we stumbled upon a public boat ramp, with a nice view of the lake. And no entrance fee. Sigh.
Lake Griffin
Lake Griffin
By this point, little shortlegs here was getting pretty tired, so I made this our last stop of the day.

Bird-watching with Mochi

Haha. Bird-watching with Mochi.

Mochi loves birds. He doesn't want to eat them, he just wants to run up to to them with glee and say hello. Not surprisingly, we have yet to meet a bird that doesn't misinterpret this action.

I took Mochi to the Little Econ Greenway this morning after our trip to the dog park. He really enjoyed walking down by (and splashing in) the water, as well as attempting to greet the local bird population. Luckily for them, pets must be leashed at the Greenway. Unluckily for me, photographing anything while holding an eager dog on a leash is a bit of a challenge. There were some great potential bird shots that didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked due to either Mochi tugging on me or the fact that I didn't want to get close enough for him to scare the birds. Still, it was a good morning.

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but check out the turtle balancing on his belly with his legs up in the air!
And for those of you looking for some Charlie action, here she is playing fetch, while Mochi looks on.

Area Parks: Pets / No Pets

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a dog park (Downey Dog Park) not far from where I live. This is actually quite wonderful, as this is the only place where Mochi can run around off the leash - and he loves running around off the leash. Unfortunately, this past it just so happened that every time I took him to the dog park, a torrential Florida thunderstorm would whip up out of nowhere and leave us completely drenched. This was the first day that did not happen. I also hadn't brought my camera (not wanting to risk getting it soaked), so while I did snap a couple of quick pics, they were with my 1.5 megapixel crap phone. Still, Mochi had a great time. There was only one other dog there, a lab mix female puppy. She was a lot bigger than him, but they still had a lot of fun playing together. Mochi was exhausted when he got home.

Left: dog park, Right: Mochi
The Downey Dog Park is part of the Downey Park, a park that surrounds about three quarters of Lake Downey in the Union Park area of Orlando. The entrance to the dog park is off of Hwy 50 (East Colonial), whereas the entrance for humans is around the corner on Flowers Ave. The dog park is completely fenced in - and fenced off from the rest of the park. Sadly, even leashed pets are not allowed inside Downey Park proper. I love to walk around and take photographs of things - if you read this blog, you're aware of this. I also love to take Mochi with me. (I'd take Charlie, but I'm not sure she'd appreciate it, much less cooperate.) To me, it is horrible that there are parks that do not allow pets. I can understand requiring pets to be leashed/vaccinated/healthy, and requiring owners to pick up after them, but banning them? While I'm thrilled to live so close to the Downey Dog Park, I find it quite disappointing that the large lakeside picnicking and sports park is entirely off limits to Mochi and other canines. That being said, Downey Park is quite pleasant. It encompasses roughly three quarters of the lake, and has numerous picnic tables under shade trees, playgrounds, baseball fields and volley ball courts, as well as a 'splash pad' (allegedly a place to play under various fountains, although it was closed when I stopped by on Saturday - a time you'd think it would be open). Sadly, there is no swimming at the lake, despite the remnants of what was obviously once a pleasant swimming beach.
Lake Downey at Downey Park
In the same general area of Orlando is the Little Econ Greenway, a park that runs along several miles of the Econlockhatchee River. This park is pet friendly - as long as your dog (or, I suppose, cooperative cat) is leashed. It offers several miles of paved trail for walking, biking, jogging, etc. along the river, as well as places for various sports and picnicking. I haven't taken Mochi there yet, but I certainly intend to. I took a short walk along part of the Little Econ Greenway this afternoon, but boy was it hot out. Unfortunately, the paved trail is not very shady (at least not the part where I walked).

Econlockhatchee River

The rolling zoo comes to O-town

Charlie, Mochi, and I have been in Orlando since last Wednesday, although I have only just gotten my internet turned on. It is incredibly fast - near Korean speed. I haven't had internet in my house since leaving Korea. While I was in Georgia, I used my mom's internet connection which was, shall we say, really freakin' slow. I've been a little giggly over the absurdly wonderful high speed connection I now have. Anyway, the beasts and I arrived at our new home last Wednesday afternoon, and I have since been unpacking as well as purchasing and assembling furniture. I think I've bought everything I need/want, although it will take a while before the place starts looking more homey. Still, it's coming along nicely. My roommate will be arriving either tomorrow or Wednesday, which should help make the place seem more lived in as opposed to a cavernous place with sparse furnishings. Of course, poor Charlie is going to be terrified by living with a stranger, but I suspect she'll learn to deal. Or she can just hide in my room, which is pretty much what she does anyway.

Mochi on the way to Orlando
Charlie didn't enjoy the trip down quite as much as Mochi did.
My living room (couch and tv stand donated by my father)
Dining room - ok, so that's a WalMart card table and chairs set, but it was the cheapest thing that I could both find and fit into my tiny car.
The kitchen is quite nice. A pity I'm a shit cook.
Charlie loves getting up here.
My bedroom is coming along nicely. Unfortunately the futon mattress and frame shipped separately, so my mattress is on the floor waiting for the frame. Also, I ordered the cheapest WalMart futon I could find ($99 plus free shipping) which seemed like a great deal until I tried to sleep on it. Really not very comfortable at all. Sigh.
My bathroom
The neighbors have three cats that go outside. This one is named Toby. He likes to sit outside and chat with Charlie.
Charlie and her new boyfriend :-)
There is a dog park a block and a half from my house! Mochi really enjoys it, although I swear the local weather gods wait until I'm there and on the far side of the park to unleash a torrential downpour. Mochi and I have been completely drenched there twice now.

Mochi also met this behemoth, which unfortunately was obsessed with licking Mochi's crotch. At first it was kind of funny, but after the first 15 or so minutes, it was freaking Mochi out (not to mention disturbing me). I'm new to the whole dog park scene. When the dog's owner is watching and doing nothing, at what point is it acceptable to yell at either him or his dog? In the end, I just picked Mochi up and carried him to a different part of the park.