The Blog of Justin Loutsch

I’ve now been back in the US for a week and a day, and it’s been a pretty long week. I spent most of it falling asleep at 7:30 pm and waking up around 5 am, but I seem to be back into the swing of things now. I surprised myself by getting a job interview set up in the middle of the first week back, something I didn’t think would happen til at least mid-March or maybe even April.

I’ve been trying to get my room back in order, pull out some things from the attic, put other things away. I’ve been preparing for my interview for the last 2 hours, and will be going to bed shortly. After the interview there is a job fair downtown, 5 minutes from the interview location actually. Not being one to put all my eggs in one basket, I’ll be going to the job fair directly after just so I have some other options.

Just planned out my route to the interview and the job fair, now it’s time to get to bed. Wish me luck!

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my skillset, and what kind of job I might be best at.

I’ve been applying for a lot of jobs in a few industries, like IT/tech support, German-speaking and international sales positions, and even the Reading Corp (part of Americorps). I’ve applied for these positions in both Syracuse and Minneapolis in hopes of broadening my chances of living where I’d like.

Through all of this I’ve been wondering what exactly is best for me. I feel I have just enough skills to be useful, but perhaps not enough experience to be impressive. I think that’s really not that true, but that feeling surfaces every once in a while as I see jobs which I could do if were not for the lack of experience.

After talking with a coworker, she thinks it would do me well to take the German-speaking sales position and work a computer business idea on the side. I could do pretty well I think in this position, it’s mostly building up a customer base in Germany and Austria. It does not require travel, but will probably involve lots and lots of phone calls and emails in German and in that aspect it is a great use of my skills. The last time I did sales was at Budget Car Rental, which I think involves a different kind of sales with a very different kind of customer than this job, and I would probably be much better at it.

I still feel a bit surprised to be back in the same position I was in last May, that is, having my life wide open once again. It was nice to have some stability and I’m thankful for the experiences I’ve had in that time, but I’m ready to come home and try something new and different.

One thing I’ve learned while in Seoul is that networking is very, very important. From the various meetups I’ve attended I have met some amazing people who have great advice and many contacts of their own. I know that because of them I will be much better off than before I came here, and I am thankful for that.

Andrew Osland, son of Don and Heather (maiden- Roy), and brother of Hallie, Hanna, Rebecca, and Olivia, was recently diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymphatic system . Andy is 8 years old.

Andy has started chemotherapy and will be in the hospital quite extensively over the next 4 – 8 months. As you could imagine, this affects the entire family and many others in a sometimes difficult and sometimes positive way.

I was invited to come to the family benefit, but cannot attend because I am out of the country. Instead, I sent a check for $10 (the cost of a ticket) to the address below, where an account has been set up for the fund:

Osland Family Benefit
c/o Lake Area Bank
PO Box 22
Harris MN 55032

If you can, please consider sending a $10 check of your own to help support this family as Andrew goes through this ordeal. My family has been touched by cancer, as have many of my friends, and I hope that everything turns out well for them. Thanks for reading everyone.

I’m really very happy that I was given my notice almost 2 months ahead of time.  This gives me plenty of time to prepare for whatever is next.  I joined xing.com to connect with a German business woman I met, and my network has just kept growing from there.

I first started networking here simply by going to the weekly German meetup my first month here.  Many of the Germans here are much older than your average English teacher and have great jobs with lots of connections.  While it was not my main intent, it happens very naturally anyway.  They have been a great help with suggestions of places to go and look for work.

After joining Xing, I was sent a message by a contact of one of my contacts about the meetup that they have a few times per year.  I went to the first one 2 weeks ago only to discover the official meetup had been canceled, but returned Thursday night for the real one. I met so many people there.  Many Germans, too.  One guy who works for a hotel/spa said they’re looking for an English teacher and while I wouldn’t take it as a first choice, I would do that if I had to.  I emailed him my resume and he will let me know if there are any open positions.  The only problem this poses is that I would not be able to start working til the end of March.

Then I met another German who I was told just got a job with a relocation company which helps people move all across the world.  I spoke with him and told him I am interested in doing that kind of work, and living and working in Germany as well.  He is going to check with his company and see if there are any open positions and will get back to me.  I first became interested in this industry while talking to a German woman who does her own freelance intercultural training and relocation business.  I didn’t realize at the time that it was freelance, and thought she worked for a company.  I emailed her when I got the news and told her I’d to do what she does.  It turns out I’d have to open up my own business in the US and people move to and from Germany/Austria/Switzerland.  I emailed her back asking for some advice about doing this with so little experience, and she suggested finding some companies to work for first before going out on my own.  I’ve found a few other companies in Seoul that I will be checking out once I get more free time in the mornings to go out and visit them, hand out my resume, and ask for an interview.

I’m very glad that I’ve taken the time to build a network here, for 2 reasons.  The first is that it is such an international city that you can meet people from all over the place.  Second, these people I meet are all established and connected and willing to help out.  Most of my coworkers only go out to get drunk and have fun, and I think that this view is a bit detrimental to their future, as when they get home there’s an “OMG” moment as they wonder what they will do next.  Sure teaching may look great on the resume, but I think that without meeting all kinds of professionals it’s so much more difficult to find people who are able to help you get a job.

I am fortunate also that my family is also looking out for me.  My dad and mom both are looking for things in their areas of the US, and my brother is going to look into jobs at the UN in NYC where a friend of his works.  Meeting Germans here also gives me the chance to find a job that would allow me to live in Germany too, which I find very exciting.

My last option is to go back home.  If I do that, I’m not sure what I would do between March and May, but I’m definitely going to apply at Concordia Language Villages to work at the German camp if I do go back.  I’ve found that, while I find English teaching mostly not fun, I am very passionate about German and helping students learn my favorite language.  This is more of a last resort as the job market in the US for young grads is very dismal and it would be depressing to be constantly on the lookout for jobs that barely exist.

I’d like to begin with some bad news, which is that I was given one month’s notice by my director on January 7th. I have a bit more than a month left, and will be leaving my school the end of February. This is mostly because that’s when the semester ends, and she doesn’t have to have to stress about a new teacher so close to the end. It also helps the kids, who will not have to deal with another new teacher learning the ropes so close to their final tests.

I had a feeling it was coming the night before, since that day I had had 2 more observations, by the head teacher and the director. It just wasn’t working out with some of my kids. I can get through the material but I have a hard time making such stuff fun to learn. The director even told me that, after most of my kids were taught by the head teacher (who does a great job), it’s tough to compare. On top of this, my voice is just too monotone and I’m too laid back to command the classroom without yelling. My humor is also too dry and sarcastic for young children to understand, and I can’t really change that. I’ve learned that if you want to be a fun teacher, you should give out candy. I’ve started to do this just to make the last month and a half a bit nicer. I will be spending the rest of my time trying to get the kids caught up in some subjects so that when the new teacher arrives he/she will not have to stress about being behind from the moment they started. I remember what it was like to start here just 3 and a half months ago and want to make it easier for this new person.

I have to say too that the head teacher has been very supportive of me the entire time I’ve been here. She kept telling the director that I’m not a teacher and she knew what she was getting when they hired me. She also thinks that by the time 6 months rolls around I would’ve been much better than I am today. Now we may never know, but it was very nice to have her on my side this whole time. The director also has a business to run and parents to please, so she not only has to look out for the kids but also make sure the school still makes money. I understand both of these things and am ok with them.

I’m a little disappointed about losing the job, but mostly because the money’s good and the rent’s free. I could apply at other private schools, but I think as long as I continue to teach elementary age students I will continue to have the same problems. I’m looking to get out of English teaching and into a different industry, but that will be my next post.

For now, I have a few things to worry about. I get my last full check February 10th, and then the next check will have quite a bit of money taken out of it. They paid my airfare on the way over and considered it a “loan” that would be repaid within 6 months of working here, but since I will only have been working for 4 months I’ll have to pay back about 1/3 of it (hopefully around $300). Then they take more fees out of the last check to cover extra bills and incidentals once you leave. I don’t know any of the logistics yet, since we get paid on the 10th of every month but I’m done the end of Feb, it’s unclear if I’ll still be able to stay in my apartment until I get the check or if they’ll give me an advance instead. I think it’s more likely I’ll get a cash advance and have to leave the apartment the beginning of March.

It’s a bit of a relief at this point, and I’m excited about other options now that I know there’s an end in site.

So I’ve been purchasing a lot of ebooks lately, but unfortunately the formatting on them is often horrible.  There is however no way to to change the formatting on the books because they are protected by DRM.  Luckily, most epub files use Adobe ADEPT as the standard DRM, and a nice little writeup has been created by the person who cracked it showing how to use the files.

This is not done as a means of piracy, but rather for reasons of fair use.  The first reason is so that the format can be converted, as I’ve read many ebooks that use up half the width of my screen, which is very frustrating.  I’ve found that the best ebook format (for the Sony reader anyway) is HTML, which calibre converts and uploads. This format displays perfectly, but it is also open and so you will never find a ebook in this format for sale.  The second reason has to do with ownership. When you purchase an ebook from Sony, Amazon, or any other company, the DRM ensures that that company remains in control of that ebook.  At any point they can revoke your license to that book.  You do not so much own an ebook with DRM as rent it.  When you remove the DRM you ensure that your copy of the book stays your copy, and is not taken away from your arbitrarily.

Now, in my use of these scripts I’ve noticed a few things myself.  In windows XP, I have not been able to successfully run the python scripts by double clicking them.  Instead, you have to open up a terminal (start>run>cmd and hit enter) and then cd to the directory where the script is located (CD is the “change directory” command). Let’s say for example the scripts are in C:\Downloads, but your terminal opens in C:\Documents and settings\Administrator.  So you would type “cd c:\Downloads” into the terminal and hit enter and it will bring you to that directory.  Now you are in the directory where the scripts are located, but that is not enough. If you type the name of the script and hit enter you only get an error message.  This is where python comes in.  As the instructions on the main site state, you must install python and pycrypto.  Once these are installed you type “python ineptkey.pyw” (the script name), and this tells python to run that script. Once the script is run a box appears which retrieves the key file verifying that you do in fact own the ebook.  Then you run the command “python ineptepub.pyw” which will open a box asking you to locate the key file, the epub file, and specify a title and output location, at which point it will then decrypt the ebook.  Then you will have a perfectly normal epub file sitting in the output directory.

If you would like to get at that and format it, simply change the .epub extension to .zip and open the zip file and extract the contents. the OEPB folder contains all the HTML files, chapter by chapter.  You can open this in any editor and fiddle with it to your hearts content.  Once you add the html file to calibre, it will conver it to a compatible format before uploading it to your device.

I was in Itaewon, the foreign district of Seoul, on Wednesday night at my weekly German get-together. I left at 1:30 in the morning and had to catch a cab home, and while I was standing on the street corner trying to find one I was approached by a hooker asking me if I wanted sex.

Remember I had just spent the last three hours speaking German, where “nee” means “no.”   I was still in German mode.  However, in Korean “nee” means yes.  So I turned to the hooker and said to her “nee” then realized what I said and frantically searched for the Korean word for no.  Once I remembered it I said “aniyo” and got in my cab which thankfully arrived just at that moment.

This is easily the funniest thing that’s happened to me since I’ve been here.

I am having a bad night of missing Cory, and am reading through our conversations when I found this gem, taken from an IM between him and filefly:

Cory: so. someone called in and offered a $100 donation of the hot news anchor chick would cut off and send him a bit of hair.

she did it

but she was talking to him on the phone at first

holding the mic

and this is what i hear

*gasp* “WHAT?!”

“Well, how much are we talking here.”

“Just enough to see it’s cut…”

i lost it on stage
6:32:10
Tim (a)
LMAO

—–

I would have loved to see this moment. If anyone knows if there are MDA telethon archives with that kind of thing, please let me know. I imagine it will look like some hippy in a wheelchair cracking up randomly.

My coworkers and I had all been looking for a dinner to go, but most of them were on Thursday and out of the question due to working til 9. Cooking dinner ourselves was out of the question as none of our apartments have ovens. I came home that night and googled to see what I could find, and it was slim pickings. Most places had a dinner only on Thursday night. Finally I found a place serving Thanksgiving dinner all weekend long. Fortuitously, it also happened to be an Austrian restaurant, which I was very excited about. This is mostly because they served Gluewein (mulled wine) with dinner, which I haven’t had in over a year.

This all seems very ironic, I know. Thanksgiving dinner, in Korea, at an Austrian restaurant. But I have to say they did a wonderful job. The meal came in 3 courses, the first being beet soup with horseradish, and it was delicious. After that the main course came, a mix of turkey (both white and dark meat), mashed potatoes with gravy, mixed vegetables, and stuffing. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream. I am still stuffed from all of this food, but I’m glad I didn’t have the opportunity to overeat by going back for seconds. The total cost was about $50 but it was worth it in my opinion.

To top off the wonderful dinner, I had a great partner for conversation, which really made the night enjoyable. One of my favorite nights in Seoul so far!

Tonight I went to Itaewon to buy a cellphone. Turned out in order to get on a contract I needed something I didn’t bring with me, so I’ll have to go back tomorrow. Afterwards, I went to a little Italian place I’d scoped out on wikimaps. It was very nice to sit in the restaurant and read my book while eating. So relaxing. I also thought I’m glad I don’t speak Korean because I think if I did I would be listening in on conversations and finding it difficult to pay attention. So I read my book for probably an hour and walked around a bit more and then made my way home. I took the subway and while transferring to another train it hit me that the times I enjoy most here are going to a little restaurant or cafe and reading, and being able to get to these places by train. It was at this time that I considered staying another year just due to the lifestyle I am able to lead here. I still have to see how things pan out with school, and I still believe that it can be difficult to be a foreigner here, but so far the inconveniences I’ve experienced have been few and far between.

I think when I finally settle in the US it will have to be in a city with great public transportation. This will definitely not be NYC or LA. Maybe Philadelphia or Toronto. I’ve heard good things. But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself just yet…