Articles tagged with: Canada
012 – Eggs and Ethiopian Coffee for Breakfast
I woke up the next morning more tired than when I went to bed, and set out to see if I could use a sit-down toilet I’d noticed the previous afternoon. I hadn’t seen any water hook-up to the toilet, but I assumed it could be flushed with a bucket of water. I hadn’t seen a bucket either, but I figured all this would become …
011 – The Tall Man and the Fat Man
When I left Alfa at the taxi stand, I started out walking back across Abiot Square towards the Palm. On the north side of the square there was a small tourism office and I stopped to see what they had in the way of maps, but it was closed. When I turned around, I found two men standing there and smiling at me. One was …
008 – The Palm Hotel
The front of the Palm was in fact a lively bar. Behind it was a dingy room with wobbly tables and equally wobbly chairs. They called it a restaurant, but it had none of the trappings of even a greasy spoon. Just outside the rear door to this room was a large trough where customers washed their hands before and after meals. The saddest and …
007 – Heading Into Addis
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city wake up so fast. One second the road was empty. The next it was chaos. The holes in my grand plan quickly became apparent.
I knew of course that I would stand out and attract attention, but I never anticipated the reaction I got. I drew crowds instantly. The shouts and yells and laughter rained down on me …
Korea 015 – My Morning Routine
The days at the Munwha drifted surreally by, the change from one to the next barely noticed in my exhausted state. Getting ready at 5:30 in the morning in cold darkness was always a struggle. The night before, I could have made everything ready, but the call of a cold beer and conversation after my last class at the local hof was always stronger. The …
Korea 014 – My First English Class
After I left the classroom, I found Mr. Kim in an office and asked him what was going on. I had come for an interview and a tour, not to teach. I wasn’t ready to teach. I didn’t want to teach. I didn’t know how to teach. I needed training, an orientation, some guidance.
I don’t know how he did it but somehow Mr. Kim managed …
Korea 001
There are untold numbers of people wandering the world and making their living as English teachers. In its way, teaching ESL is the modern French Foreign Legion attracting all manner of people from the fully qualified professional to the out and out lunatic. They are of every possible and improbable nationality, spreading (some would say oozing) to every corner of the globe and creating an …