Apartment Photos
As promised, here are some photos of the apartment. There’s an entire room I don’t show, because it’s currently empty (except for recycling). As soon as we find a use for it, I’ll take a picture.
Enjoy!
Teaching in Korea — a Typical Day
This is a typical day of teaching in Korea:
- 8:20am: Arrive at school.
- 8:30-9:55am: Free time. First period is 9:00-9:45, but I only teach that on Tuesdays. Usually I’m preparing a lesson in the mornings (printing worksheets, etc).
- 9:55-10:40am: Second period. Teach second grade (8th grade in US) for 45 minutes.
- 10:50-11:35am: Third period. Teach first grade (7th) for 45 minutes.
- 11:35am-1:35pm: Free time. Work on lesson plans, write blog posts, eat lunch, etc.
- 1:35-2:20pm: Fifth period. Teach first grade for 45 minutes.
- 2:20-3:45pm: Free time. The internet is a good time-waster.
- 3:45-4:30pm: Seventh period. Teach “English Club”. Today we’re watching an episode of the Simpsons, because I can’t think of a better lesson plan.
- 4:40-5:25pm: Eighth period. Teach the “Teacher’s Class”. This is a conversation class with 7 or 8 Korean teachers. I find this quite stressful, but I only do it on Thursdays.
I’ll be home and drinking a beer by 5:40pm. Actually, this is one of my longer/busier days; most days I’m actually home by 4:40. Unfortunately, Korean beer is officially The Worst Beer in the World®. I’m working on a brewing operation, but it will take time.
A word about drug testing
I was just told by my co-teacher that today was exam training, so I don’t have to teach. A decent time to relate a recent experience that Erin and I had.
Our contract here required us to take a drug test, specifically a urine-sample based test. We were driven to the hospital last Wednesday, pissed in cups, and had blood drawn for HIV/AIDS. We weren’t concerned about passing either test.
Last Friday, a nurse came to school to get another urine sample from us. There was some problem with the previous test, but we were told not to worry. Maybe it was too diluted, I don’t know. We gave them another sample and didn’t think twice about it.
On Monday, our co-teacher pulled us aside and told us that we had failed the drug test, specifically the heroin/methadone test. She was shocked, and believed us when we said it must be a false positive.
Erin and I have both been taking a few different over-the-counter and prescription drugs. I’ve been using pepto-bismal for stomach problems, ibuprofen and acetaminophen for headaches, and diphenhydramine (benadryl, Sominex) for trouble sleeping. Erin has also been taking Sominex occasionally, and both of us had taken it Thursday night (before giving the second sample) We knew of another EPIK teacher that also failed his drug test after taking Tylenol PM (also diphenhydramine).
I decided it was time for some research. After an hour of searching medical journals, I had a few articles that mentioned false positives on the EMIT immunoassay test from diphenhydramine. I printed them out, showed them to our co-teacher, and arranged to take another test.
Our test is tomorrow (Friday) morning. I last took Sominex on Sunday night, so I should be in the clear. But needless to say, this entire escapade has been embarrassing. So here is some advice for anyone taking a drug test for employment:
- Do your homework! Find out what type of test they will be using, and study potential cross-reacting compounds (substances that could cause false-positives)
- Find out the next step after a positive test. For federal jobs in the US, the law mandates that positive EMIT tests be followed by a gas chromatography test, to rule out false-positives. This is obviously not the case in Korea, and could have caused serious problems for us. Insist on follow-up testing, if possible.
- Prepare your personal information. Make a list of everything you’ve taken in the past month. This should include prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications and any vitamins or supplements. Google-search for potential cross-reacting compounds. Bring the medications and prescriptions to the test with you. Print and bring any information relating to false-positives.
- Consider speaking to an attorney. I don’t have one and can’t afford one, so this was out of the question. Thankfully, our employer is willing to work with us. This won’t be the case everywhere, and a false-positive can cause serious professional and financial damage. It never hurts to know the law.
I didn’t have a strong opinion about workplace drug testing before this, but that has changed. I grant that it is necessary in certain situations, but policy needs to be crafted carefully. The real problem is that accurate tests like gas chromatography are expensive. Businesses are much more likely to spend a few dollars on something like EMIT than a couple hundred on a GC test. More likely than not, it will be on YOU to protect yourself.
A final note, watch for faulty information. A Google-search on these topics turns up thousands of shady pages written by stoners looking to pass a test. Most of the info is either hopeful or paranoid. Look for scholarly sources.
I’ll let you know how the next test turns out.
General Updates
So I’ve done very little writing on here lately, and lots has happened. There have been plenty of important events in international relations in the past month, from the collapse of the Doha round to the Russian intervention in Georgia. My (few) readers can expect more posts on topics like these in the future.
In personal news, my girlfriend and I are getting ready to move to Korea for a year. We’ve signed a contract with EPIK, and will be teaching English in Korean public schools for the next year. Expect updates and photos about this adventure.
I’m looking forward to a sweet Korean internet connection; the last few weeks at home (and on dial-up) have been frustrating. I think we’ll be pretty grateful for the internet over there. Given that we don’t speak a word of Korean, and we’ll likely be in a small town somewhere in Gangwon-do, I expect we’ll be spending lots of time with our computers. I’ll be using it as an opportunity to make this blog a higher priority. I miss writing, and even this informal BS is enjoyable.
Check back soon for more info, and if you’re privileged enough to have my Skype info, please give me a call now and then.
Flowchart master
The title of this post refers to me. That’s right, I am the flowchart master.
Maybe I’ll back up a bit. I’ve mentioned that I’m developing a training program for new tech support consultants at my new job. Last week (my first week on the job), I made flowcharts. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? A number of people said that new consultants were struggling with some of the troubleshooting required by the job. It often requires following a process through several steps, and some issues can be a bit confusing. Here’s an example:
A user calls in because they have no network connection. First you have to verify that they have a working network adapter on the computer. Then (hopefully) you can check the IP address. If they get a 192.x.x.x IP, they either have a static IP set, or they’re connected to a router, or some asshat on the network hooked up his router wrong and it’s causing a rogue DHCP server. If they get a 35.15.x.x, they haven’t registered with MSU’s DHCP server yet. It can be confusing to keep track of all this, especially over the phone.
So in week one, I made a few flowcharts in M$ Visio for these types of issues. Pretty boring.
The job is starting to shape up, though. Today I made a couple sample screencasts — videos of the computer screen in action, with me narrating. I think these will be the easiest way to train new hires on some of our software. We use a handful of tools to look up user info, modem status, etc,; timesheets and work schedules are done through web apps as well. My screencasts should get the newbies up and running more quickly.
I think I’ll have a lot of latitude with this training program. It seems like I’ll be making a lot of decisions (or at least contributing), and hopefully I’ll get to actually finish this project. Sorry for the long post, but I figure my many readers deserve to know what I’m doing, right?
