superfly's Journal

7:07pm: A couple of recent pieces of wisdom from John:

A penny spent is a penny earned.

If you watch NCAA football long enough, the NFL is like the Real World/Road Rules challenge, where all your old favorites come back to compete in a less interesting context.

7:49pm: So I got a call from the dir. of graduate studies at Louisville, and they're going to give me at least full funding, so I'll probably go there. This is one of the two schools I wanted to go to, and it is a much better drive than the other one, so I'm happy.

6:40pm: holy crap on a cracker, I am tired of reading essays. 88 drafts (which require about 20 minutes each cause I write a lot of comments) in 3 1/2 days. And like 70 of those were about whether or not we should make it a law for people to be fluent english before they're allowed to gain citizenship. aaaaaaah!

7:02pm: Job update: I got to quit the test prep job because I got another class to teach. So now I teach four classes. I was applauded in three of those four classes for memorizing names so quickly--I was proud.
Inspired by Meredith's recounting of her trip, I think I may do a similar account of our trip to Hong Kong.


Pre-arrival.
We rode on a very very tiny plane from Lexington to Detroit, and we sat right next to the wing, so my head was really vibrated when we got there. First class is super swanky. I wish I could have a recliner that was like the first class seats. Actually, really just the top level seats are super swanky, which is where we were on the way there. The lower floor seats are nice, but not anywhere near as good as the top floor. However, if you are on the top floor, you get less exit doors in case of emergency. Watched Failure to Launch and Firewall while we flew. Ate a lot of food. The meals are three courses in first class, by the way. The flight attendants made us close all the windows, though, so people could sleep, which I thought was crap. They give you a complementary eye-mask. Now why in the hell do you NEED a complementary (complimentary?) eye-mask if they force everyone to close their windows? The moral of the story is that I didn't get to see Alaska from the plane like John did last trip. Then, I spilled pop all over our carry-on bag, and I was too embarrased to ask for napkins. The pop also went in John's tennis shoes. Then, shortly afterwards, at breakfast, I spilled my orange juice all over my plate. Fortunately, most of it went into my fruit bowl, and actually made the cantaloupe taste better to me. You also get linen napkins in first class, so I was reluctant to use the napkin to sop up the orange juice because it was so fancy I didn't want to get it all dirty.
We arrived in Narita. People from John's work later observed that you can tell the difference in cultures from the airport. At Narita, they ask you if you would mind scanning your drink. In Detroit, they "treat you like you just ran over their dog", often stabbing at you with their little handheld metal detectors to make you go back through the scanner. However, in both Japan and the U.S., the number of security employees who looked to be under 18 was extremely disturbing (at least 5 out of 10).
Got on the plane to Hong Kong. We watched Glory Road, although John slept through most of it. Oddly, when flying over China, there were these random bright white lights in a straight line for what must have been 100 miles. I have no idea what they were.
Arrival
At the airport, we had a debate about how best to get to the hotel. I had researched this, but still things turned into confusion. We got on the Airport Express, a subway that is mostly not underground. This took us over to Hong Kong Island (about 16 miles). I had a list of how to get to the hotel from various MTR stops (MTR is their subway, which other than the Airport Express is in fact underground. Oddly, there are no bathrooms in MTR stations, though some of the corridors have got to be a mile long). We got our first hint of Hong Kong's 7-11 obsession in the MTR station, as we saw one when we boarded and one when we disembarked. We got off at Wan Chai, which was a longer walk, but, looking at the map, seemed more direct. In retrospect, this was probably wise. But carrying our incredibly heavy suitcases in the heat, which I've already detailed, did not seem like such a good idea at the time.
We found the hotel, though, without getting lost (impressive, considering what came later). But we were on the left side of the road, the hotel on the right. In Hong Kong, you can't cross most roads. There are fences that keep pedestrians off. This is wise, as Hong Kong drivers seem to think that if they're only touching the other car's bumper, rather than actively scraping it, they aren't quite close enough. According to a book I bought there, people are taught not to turn on their turn signals because if they do, then the driver next to them will know what they're planning and move to block them.

Anyhow, we spent several minutes discussing how to get across the street. There was a sign that said subway, and we figured, well, maybe the subway has another entrance on the other side. Turns out, subways are not subway trains, but subterrainean walkways for pedestrians.

The hotel overlooked a cemetary, we knew from travelocity, but John and I thought that would be neat. However, due to the bitchy folks on travelocity, the hotel had frosted the window, leaving us with only a dime sized hole through which to look at the view. The beds were about the same softness as a slab of wood, and everytime we opened the fridge, the cable would go out. (This makes it sound like the hotel was bad, but the service was in fact the best I have ever experienced in a hotel. Chinese ideas of comfort are just different, I think. I guess so are their ideas of appropriate cable connections.) We went to sleep.

Day 1
The beginning of Day 1 was kind of poo. At about 10 a.m., I was thinking this trip was not a very good idea. But never fear, things start looking up later in the day.

Thanks to a fortunate version of jet lag, neither of us could sleep past 7:00, so we were up early. We didn't want to repeat the unpleasantness of the previous night, so we decided to walk to the nearer, more confusing MTR station, and to use a different subway to do so. Unfortunately, we turned a bit too soon, and ended up walking in the opposite direction for about a half an hour. We were so far south we walked off the map, so we had a bit of confusion getting back on track. However, it being quite early, the heat was not as horrifically oppressive as most other times. We did eventually find the MTR station that would be our home-away-from-hotel for the next few days: Causeway Bay. Our entrance to the station sat three sublevels below an 11-story mall called Times Square. I guess that actually makes the mall 13 stories, as the two sub levels both had stores too. Every imaginable upscale American clothing store was there. Stores I remember in particular are Lane Bryant, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor--you get the idea. There was only one Radio-Shack sort of store though (thankfully for me).

We headed over to Sheung Wan, the westernmost MTR station, to see the Man Mo temple. In the guidebook pictures, the Man Mo temple looks very big and impressive. It also, on the guidebook map, looks like a very easy hike from the MTR station to the temple. Neither is true. The Man Mo temple is only about 4 blocks from the station, but it is four nearly vertical blocks upward. See the stair picture from the previous post? Imagine FOUR BLOCKS of those, just going up with very little flat space at all. The only mildly entertaining thing about climbing these stairs in the Hong Kong heat was learning that you could be prosecuted for not cleaning up your dog's poo. John didn't take a picture of the sign. (Hong Kong people are super paranoid about crap, especially bird crap, yet they have no problem with hanging raw meat out everywhere. In the heat. If one is dangerous, so is the other. Go figure) Anyhow, when we eventually got to the temple, it was so unimpressive that we assumed we had the wrong place, and walked an additional block of stairs trying to find it. When we realized our mistake and went in, the temple was in fact far smaller than the living/dining area of my apartment. It also didn't really seem like a temple, but a tourist trap. We left pretty speedily and walked down a block to Cat Street, which, according to our guidebook, was the place to go for cheesy knickknacks. There were maybe 10 vendors set up, and none of them really had any good cheese. Another disappointment. We made our first 7/11 pit stop. Luckily at this point we happened upon the Central elevator, and took it back down to the MTR.

A word about the central elevator. Not even Hong Kong residents like to climb those damn stairs, so some genius (I mean that without sarcasm) came up with the idea to build a reversible escalator up the hill. Its 800 meters long. In the morning, it goes downhill, taking people from home to work; then they reverse it in the afternoon so people can ride home. Its brilliant.

Grumpy and hot, we decide we'd like to spend more time in the nice cool MTR instead of up on the street, so we decide to go over to Tsim Sha Tsui, the main area of Kowloon. It was like being in a completely different city--where Hong Kong was vertical and confusing and unpleasantly closed in, Kowloon is open, with clear road signs and directonal arrows. Because the buildings aren't all SO tall and so close together, there's also this crazy phenomenon called wind that helps keep people cool. We should have stayed in Kowloon. We took a little stroll through the shopping district, where John went into a tailor's shop to hear the sales pitch. We didn't buy anything (other than another 7/11 beverage), but we picked out a store where we later bought John's grandma's purse. We decided to go to the Hong Kong history museum. There were about 50 2nd grade kids there ahead of us, so we missed most of the prehistoric period, but the rest of the museum was interactive, impressive, and informative. They had a sampan replica that was a lot like the boat exhibits in the Union Terminal museum, and lots of interesting exhibits on the different ethnic groups that make up Hong Kong society. A bit too much on salt harvesting, maybe--there's only so much you can say about a process that is not much more than evaporation--but one of my favorite places. The exhibits that focused on the Japanese occupation during WWII were especially good; lots of uniforms and paybooks and flags.
We were hungry by this point--it was about 2--so we headed over to Singapore, a restaurant that specialized in Singaporian (surprise) and Malaysian food. John got satay, which was very good, and I wanted the "signature chicken rice" the guidebook suggested, but I ended up with some sort of noodle soup. I'm not sure what went wrong there. Still, the noodle soup was very good also. A waitress who spoke English well came over and asked about our trip, and gave us some suggestions on where to shop and what to see.

Hong Kong bill-paying is somewhat different-they've eliminated, wisely, the useless waiting period between the time the waiter give you your check and the time he takes your money. Tipping is included on the bill at restaurants, so you aren't supposed to tip the waitress.

We decided to go back on the Star Ferry. I think it was the first time John had been on a non-steamboat. It was a pleasant 5 minute journey. Although John says Hong Kong water is very polluted, it looks pretty clean and pleasant. The harbor was very busy, including a small fishing boat making a seemingly suicidal dash in front of our ferry.

The ferry terminal is right next to the MTR, so we hopped on and went back to the hotel for a nap. We ended up watching a discovery channel show that we don't have in the U.S. instead. They detail crazy stories of survival. We watched, at this time, one about a guy named Larry. Larry was an idiot who didn't know anything about kayaking, but he told his buddy he did. The buddy, who we'll call Buddy, planned a trip to some island near Seattle that they would kayak out to, but Larry showed up late, so they didn't leave until almost dark. They ended up crashing on the wrong island and all their gear got wet. The next morning, they decide they'll probably die of hypothermia (it was late fall by the way) if they stay, so they'll paddle back to the mainland. Buddy gives Larry the only dry suit. They start kayaking, but Larry is a slow ass. He can't make it before the tide goes out, and they're going to be swept out to sea. So Buddy decides he can probably kayak all the way to shore, get help, and come back for Larry in the time it would take Larry to be swept out to sea. Anyhow, somehow Larry decides not to stay in the kayak, and ends up floating around out there all night, being carried out to the ocean. But then he manages to get onto an island, then swim to another island and they find him. It doesn't sound interesting, after writing about it, but really it was.

Then we decided to go to Temple Street night market, back in Kowloon. We take the MTR over. Temple Street was everything Cat Street was supposed to be and more. It was like an upscale Mt. Sterling court day--I was in heaven. We bought a Lego soviet tank, Allison's shirt, and spotted out some Mao coasters for John's dad (we ended up getting a Mao teapot instead). I think that night we just took the MTR back to the hotel, instead of the ferry, because we were very tired. On the way, we began our mission to take pictures of all the 7/11s we saw. In the 1 1/2 blocks between Temple St. and the nearest MTR entrance, we passed two of them.

12:22pm: Ok, so I need your help. Please comment!

I have a job at a certain test prep company, where they teach you the tricks to score well on standardized tests (and by tricks I don't mean concepts that will help you in the future necessarily, although some will, but tricks specifically designed to get around the design of the test). I have a moral problem with working for this company, but I want to keep the job. I can't do the job right, though, because every time I start to prep for it, I get really pissed about the injustice of it all. I need you to tell me how I'm looking at this moral issue in the wrong light.

Here's the problem. In my career as a teacher, I've taught approx. 80 students, either in freshman comp or UK 101. Of those, do you know how many have been something other than well-to-do, white, suburban students? FOUR!!!! That's 5%! And we're talking about one of the poorest states in the nation here (we're like 48th right?) Of those 80 students, only 1 has come from a place east of Maysville or Mt. Sterling.

Now, the MINIMUM price of a class at the company I'm working for is almost $600 dollars. They offer private tutoring starting at about $1000. So, in other words, this company is designed to get well-to-do kids who either have no test taking skills or just aren't that smart and get them scores that will get them into better schools or, worse, better scholarships--scholarships that would be better given to people who actually need them to go to school. Because lets face it, if you can plop down that kind of money for test prep, you don't need a big scholarship. I feel that by working at this place I'm furthering a system that is profoundly unjust. I mean, Kentucky schools are some of the worst in the nation (49th I think), and my school district is BELOW KENTUCKY'S AVERAGE in all but 2 of 30 tested categories. What chance does a sort of smart kid from my high school have against some rich kid from Louisville or Covington to begin with, let alone after that kid has been taught all these ways to circumvent a test designed to give an even chance to everyone? Do these kids really need any other hands up when the system is already overwhelmingly weighted in their favor?

10:17am: Edit to the previous entry for those of you who haven't heard me talk about Hong Kong in person. It was so hot and humid that it makes the current 95 degree temperatures in Kentucky seem positively comfy, even after I've been back for almost a month. It was very, very hot. Other than the heat it was a very lovely place.

9:43am: By popular demand, I am posting something. I have two jobs. I am a full time instructor at UK (3 classes) and will be a teacher at Kaplan, where they teach you how to take tests. I have to retake the ACT, which is a little scary; I've set the bar too high for myself, that being the only test that I scored higher than all my friends on. I will make a lot of money over the next four months. I finally have a copy of the journal I am published in, although my byline says I'm from the University of Minnesota. I sent another paper off to be published. Anyhow, this is not interesting because I don't really do much these days, being unemployed. Here is the schedule of an average Wednesday:

7:00: Wake up, feed cats, make John lunch, feed cats his yogurt.
7:50: Go back to bed
9:00 Wake up, rewatch General Hospital if I did not pay attention the day before. Do dishes, laundry, clean.
10:00 Clean random piles of stuff
11:00 Go to the pool
12:00 Play a video game, these days NCAA Football
2:00 Start playing Battlefield
3:00 Watch General Hospital while playing Battlefield. Its extremely good these days, you should watch it. Good enough for me to go back on my vow that I would never watch the show again if they brought Robin Scorpio back.
5:00 John gets home. Debate about what to eat
6:00 Normally, we would go to the softball game, but now softball is over as of last week, so I don't know what will go in this spot. Even though John's team was in last place in the league, they made it to the championship game. It was fun times.
9:00 Get home from softball (if we're lucky). Watch So you think you can dance. Rewind and watch most of it again.
10:00 Random activities, usually watching 24.
12:00 Go to bed.

Sometimes I spice this up by going to the store or post office. I also make some attempts to play with the cats, but they're usually pretty grumpy in the afternoon, and they're too full to play in the morning.

Hong Kong Pictures (from the first two days we were there. Never got around to posting the rest). http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasticoracle/?find=johnnecamp%40yahoo.com

If there's a picture, and you don't understand why we would have taken it, look for the hidden 7/11. There are literally 7/11s on every block in Hong Kong. I once saw two of them on the same floor of a shopping mall-type area. The plan was to take pictures of all the 7/11s we saw, but if we had, we wouldn't have had time to see anything else.

Also, the picture of the steps is representative of the endless number of steps in Hong Kong. They have things they call streets that are just 7 or 8 blocks of steps that look just like that picture.

I would say in retrospect, don't go to Hong Kong in the summer. I now understand why its a bad idea to fight a land war in Asia. But it is a nice place to see.

7:39pm: I almost posted something, but then i didnt. I go back to work soon.

6:45pm: I may be behind in my interneting and everyone already knows about this, but this is hilarious
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jac3he/GiveUpQuiz/hitlercoulterquiz.html

12:08am: So, as you can see from the comments below, I've been out of commission for awhile. First, I had to do my exam on the 14th. That went well, so I have a master's now. Then I was doing teaching stuff and writing a paper that I refused to think about until after my exam. It was about postmodernism, which I don't understand at all. Then I got into a big fight with the graduate school/college of A&S because master's students in A&S are the only students in the university not allowed to walk across the stage during graduation. Many belligerent phone calls were made. Now, I search for a job and a house. If you know about a job, please tell me. Those of you I have neglected, I will be better, I promise. This is the first time in my memory that I don't have student-ish things to do. All I do at present is watch a lot of 24 and other assorted tv. Oh, and I can read French now, which is the most tangible result of my time in grad school.

12:02am: i haven't been this depressed about basketball since 1997.

5:15pm: sooooooooooooo tired of school. looking forward to my year of non-scholarlyness. also changing my focus to comp/rhet instead of straight literature. I'm at the stage of despair at which i can see no point in dedicating myself to it...is the state of the world improved by tracing themes between stories about wwi? I think not. And, as everyone but me seems to despise teaching freshman comp, i have no doubt about being able to find employment. I think its the best job in the academy--give them to me before they get old and jaded, when they actually have original things to say. Among my exceptional skills: can memorize the names of at least 44 students in 1 class meeting.

11:26pm: my favorite lost episode ever.

4:12pm: Help me!
I need to show my students a movie about consumerism and the movie i had planned on isnt going to work. I need this by 10 tonight. Please suggest movies.

11:37pm: so its been awhile.

if you don't watch grey's anatomy, you should

I will soon have a picture for you John Rowe. Its of me and John at the wedding, but your head is sticking up in the corner of it. Its funnier than it sounds.

I made John a King of All Cosmos and Prince cakes.

Also, Meredith posted a list on her journal, but since I'm afraid all the people on her journal will beat me up if I respond there, I will say I think Bill Gates should be on the list. John votes for Steve Wozniak.

7:50pm: my mom was hanging curtains standing on a nightstand and she fell off backward and landed on her incapacitated nordic track and broke her shoulderblade so now she might not be able to wear her mother of the bride dress. this makes the khakis or black pants debate seem tame.

7:44pm: actually, i take that back. while i was listening to the radio for kelly clarkson the other day, I heard this song about a mom stuck in 1985--they talked about motley crue being classic rock. i like that song--i might even dig it had i heard it more than once.

also running through my head at hte moment is a line from arrested development "THAT'LL teach you not to yell!" with the one armed guy.

you know, i watched two random episodes of the first season when it was first on and didn't like it at all. it was the one where the three brothers get in the fist fight and then the one where Tobias re-forms the band, and Gob's wife joins in. But i saw the second season and liked it, so we got the first season. I somehow randomly managed to stumble on the only two not so good episodes of this show. even now, having seen the whole thing, they aren't up to par. very strange.

7:12pm: so i have been tagged by allison to " Pick 11 songs you are currently digging, they don't have to have words, and post them."

This is a problem, and it is allison's fault. She said Laguna Beach was a good show. So I decided to watch a rerun one day. And this rerun had that Kelly Clarkson song Since You've Been Gone (I will not condone her ridiculous grammar) in it.

This was three weeks ago and the song is TATTOOOED ON MY BRAIN. It will not leave. I have listened to mahna mahna in an effort to get rid of this song--i am truly desperate. I flip through radio channels hoping to hear it so that it can go away. I find myself humming it at random moments. I am disturbed.

So I dig no songs.

I did not, though, hate laguna beach. its not so bad. its no o.c. or so you think you can dance, but its not terrible.

In other news, I teach my first class on Thursday. Hopefully I will not hum the song in class.

8:26am: orientations are poo.

10:29pm: John: "There comes a time in a man's life when wearing leopard-print is sad and creepy"

11:09am: i dont want to go back to school.



this is the saddest thing i have ever posted, but if you have a tub that you are responsible for cleaning, you must try Astonish cleaner for tubs. This is the most effective cleaner i have ever used and may be the best new discovery i have made all summer (which indicates both the greatness of the cleaner and the boringness of my summer). Also, it is environmentally friendly.

11:50pm: i <3 basketball

3:58pm: the people who live above me are without a doubt the DUMBEST FUCKERS on the face of the earth. They have flooded fully half of my apartment once, and have now started a minor flood in the vicinity of my hot water heater.

2:37pm: I am going to be published!!!! and for all the poopheads who think this is easy or no big deal, it IS. it is not particularly easy to get published at least in a well-respected journal. hooray!

9:10am: Live bluegrass banjo player at the wedding. can't decide. thoughts?