The trouble with reading addictions is,

 It makes it that much harder to keep up-to-date. If only I had good news! Well I guess I DO, but it's overshadowed by the fact that Korea just took potatoes from me. We had really & surprisingly clean air for like 2 months, but when the Gobi's gonna blow, ain't nothing that can be done about it. Don't worry though: the Asian saving-face bs means that I was informed by my ENT doctor that they said on the news 2 days ago that China started their heat up, which is coal & oil, hence we got fine dust here in Korea. COOL STORY BRO, but then Korea's heat is likewise coal, & I'd be guessing SOME places are turning on the heat here too, though I've no experience with places that wealthy, b/c my school sure hasn't. But honestly, it's been ok to not have it on so far. I'll be singing a different tune in November though.

I skipped my workout b/c even with my air purifier at the 2nd highest level since yesterday, I still woke up with a stuffy/runny nose. Put it up to turbo, but research says exercising when the air quality is bad is more harmful than NOT exercising, though I wonder how that jibes with the recent news that not exercising is MORE harmful than smoking & heart disease. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/19/health/study-not-exercising-worse-than-smoking/index.html

What else? Well, we all know that I hate change, & I'm guessing that's why I think the new native teacher, Garret, who I think is a fucking tool. Total Koreaboo b/c with a face & blobby build like that, his only chance for a girlfriend are the can't-tell-the-difference-especially-if-you've-got-money Asian girls. He was in Korea before, but went back to Ireland to get his CELTA, which is a more challenging version of my TEFL cert. I don't know if he's also certified as a teacher, but his first time with one of my favorite classes, he ran out of time. I was like, "HOW is that possible, we finished with listening in 20-30 minutes?" B/c best educational practices in the West are to break up writing, reading, etc, so the kids don't get bored. Great, except Korea doesn't CARE about best practices, they want things done their way, the kids are used to it, & confusion reigns when you change that. He is taking Korean classes, which b/c I'm already a lost cause for being open-minded & respecting this place, makes me roll my eyes all the harder at him. He practices his Korean with the kids, tries to get conversation going in English when that's not a thing at lunch, then practices his listening skills/mentioning some idiotic drivel that he loves about Korea. What I REALLY don't get is he is ALWAYS taking work home with him, like grading papers. Today, 1.5 hours before we had to be at work, I was on the bus to see my doctor. HE was on the bus to go to a cafe to grade papers. GRADE WHAT PAPERS?? When I had a writing class it was easily gotten through in prep time. Seriously-- I'll get maybe 15 journals where the kids don't write more than 12-15 sentences about Halloween. Correcting grammar/spelling, commenting on them takes like 20 minutes maybe. Even with my writing class, it was never more than 50 sentences, & you don't see these kids every day. I love doing this & give a shit & really DO want to make a difference & actually teach these kids English, but this still IS NOT A REAL JOB, we're not real teachers writing lessons plans for each class, trying to come up with activities & assignments, that has already been done for us. We have 2-12 kids/class. IT'S NOT A REAL TEACHING JOB DUDE, HOW do you need to take work home with you??

It could just be my usual prejudice against ugly people, mixed with my opinion that someone who really loves it here, especially over Western Europe, is broken so I must break him down with my hatred of this place to build him back up, b/c loving this shit show is not a personality quirk that can be fixed. The whole person must be destroyed & built up again from scratch.

LORD am I a horrible human being!