I'm sitting in the teachers' room at my school next to a propane heater. Its been very cold here lately and I don't think the building has very good insulation, hence the cold in the teachers room. About 2 weeks ago, this huge heater arrived and we all hover around it as if we were around a fire. But I noticed a funny smell within a few days, a funny smell that was similar to gas. Well today, I finally said something about it being really dangerous to burn propane in an enclosed space because people die. Some of the other teachers looked at me with disbelief. I don't think anyone knew that. Then someone told the head teacher. Her response was, "Oh I know, but just open the door or something." Uhhh, ok. The door goes to another indoor space though. And do you care that there are 100 children in the school right now? I guess not. I'm laughing on the inside at the situation just to see what will happen. I mean we all know how to trun off the heater. But will we actually get a replacement? One that doesn't kill?

On another note, the foreign teacher situation is drastically changing in Korea. When I arrived, it was possible to get a job without a visa. A person has to pick up their visa from a foreign country, any country. So a school would often send that person to Japan when their visa was ready, for a "visa run". Since the pedophile was arrested in Thailand, and among other things, the rules have changed. Before an applicant even applies for a visa, they are subject to a criminal record check, a drug test and an interview with the Korean consulate in the country of origin. Then they have to wait and get their visa from the consulate. Its not a bad thing if you are just at home waiting for a job. But if you came here on your own and then found a job, you'd have to fly all the way back home to get the visa and then fly back again. Its a big deterent to coming here and then finding a job. And all the other requirements one needs to go through will probably decrease the number of applicants and subsequent foreign teachers in Korea. I'm not sure about Japan, China or Taiwan and how they are doing things, but it will be more of a hassle for people wanting to work here.