Marching through March

March began with a wicked trip to Geumondo/Bokdo. This trip was originally awesome due to the great weather and island vibe, but unfortunately deconstructed into a stressful last day. Being absent at work on the first day, and arguably the busiest day of the semester was not a great way to start a month. But luckily, after that first week, work was relatively easy. The introductions and attempts at organization surprisingly meant less immediate marking. Especially in the form of journals, which become this massive pile on my desk that is refilled as soon as it is emptied.



At the end of the month, it was time for the first round of report cards with my new students. This was mostly great, because it meant they hadn't all read my semi generic comments. Sometimes I regret that my parents won't understand the really quite subtle nature of my criticism; the gentle balance between positive and constructive comments. Most of them start with the students name and some kind of compliment, are followed by skills, areas for improvement, and then general statement of the pleasure I gain from teaching them.

“ Johnny is a smart boy. He shows good effort on his homework, and gets along well with his classmates. Johnny can continue to improve by being more attentive to the lesson, and concentrating more on his class work. I am pleased to be teaching Johnny this spring.”

Multiply that by:

20 First grade students

19 Second grade

23 3rd grade

24 4th grade

You try to come up with semi-original comments for each student, but it eventually just becomes a form letter. There are only so many original things you can say about smart, nice, hardworking Korean girls. They're always told to ask more questions in class, which most of the time I find an inconvenience as it disrupts the flow of my great lecture on science adaptation.



This brings us to the great part of March. I get to teach Science!!!! Sure, it's grade 1-3 science, but it's nice and right out of American elementary school textbooks. So far, we've been talking about plants and animals, living and non living things, and their needs and adaptations. I find it a bit rushed though, as the vocabulary explanations slows down the reading pace, and we can barely get through the text book in class, let alone get into actual discussion and application of what they're reading. If I had more time, I might rearrange my lesson to put in some inquiry based work in class, and just assign the boring reading stuff for homework. Though, I don't find the reading boring. It's way easier for me to be actively engaged in the lesson when the topic is something a vaguely know something about.





At this point, that's what my last five years feels like. A large input of exact scientific knowledge has become a broad understanding of basic scientific theory, with most of the details lost to post exam brain drain.







Anyways, to slightly more interesting Korean stuff. I haven't done too much travelling. I bought new hiking boots and Climbed Mt. Jirisan. I really love hiking, but I have inconsistent feelings about the act of climbing straight up and straight down a mountain. It sure gives you a sense of accomplishment when you reach the summit though, eh?



And, to reflect on that 'eh', I am finding that my time here has made me a proud Canadian. Though I might possibly consider seceding into Cascadia if that became an opportunity. Check out this link! My seattle friends are convinced we'd be in the G20:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_%28independence_movement%29

February in Korea

Notes on the month of February

Quiet work weeks, and weekends spent away. Overall, a pretty nice few weeks. After finishing January with a Ski trip, the next weekend I went with a meetup travel group to YongPyong Ski Resort. YongPyong is a much larger ski resort with a gondola and everything! But still, there was almost no real snow on the ground The mountain it was on would actually count as a mountain, but the ski hill seems like really inefficient use of space. They have these really long runs along ridges, but where a ski resort in Canada would have numerous steep, narrow double black runs off the edge of these ridges. The weather was great and the snow was really well made. They did have a few steep runs, which allowed me to ski fast, so overall it was a fantastic weekend.

Then, the next weekend I went on ANOTHER trip. This trip was also with the meetup group. It’s a really interesting social dynamic. Almost all the people on these trips are foreigners who’ve left everything behind to come and teach in Korea for a year. This results in there being a lot of outgoing people, who, due to their time spend working with children, have a slight tendency to behave like them. Consequently, it’s really fun.

This second trip was to Busan, a southern port city with a beautiful beach, and to Jeju Island. Jeju is one of Korea's most popular tourist attraction, and is advertised as almost a tropical destination. Our main purpose of going to Jeju Island was to hike Mt. Halasan, the highest peak in Korea. There was still snow on the mountain, so we had to have ‘Cramp-ons’ to get any grip on the icy path.

It was cold, but the snow probably made the hike more beautiful, because we were in an isolated winter wonderland. I was hiking by myself for a little while, and at one point I stopped, and just enjoyed the Silence. It’s not often in Korea that you get to stand somewhere and hear no people, no cars, and no k-pop. This trip involved two overnight ferries, and though both ferries had the infrastructure for big parties, they didn’t seem to have the people or budget for them, so I mostly sat around and played cards.



Finally, I made it to the fourth weekend in February and it was quiet. Friday night involved pizza and drinks in Sinchon, the closest neighbourhood of seoul with good nightlife. Saturday night was my grade 5 graduating students special dinner party. It was supposed to be at OUTBACK steak house, but was (in my opinion) downgraded to Bennigans, another foreign food restaurant in my neighbourhood.



That work week was a strange one. It was the end of the semester, so we were finishing our text books and winding down our classes by showing movies and doing the best of the best talent show. Hurray for six year olds who can play the piano pieces that I learned in Grade 9.



I have decided that I don’t like children’s magic shows. Especially when it’s all about the kids awkwardly doing tricks with fancy toys that their parents bought them. There were a couple students with pretty good slight of hand, but they were few and far between. You really can’t compare the kid with a trick paper bag to the kid who practices violin for an hour everyday even though they’re 7 years old. And still, I’m surprised at how evident talent is at that age. You can tell the kids who are playing the notes on the page, versus those who actually feel the music.



The final trip of the month was to Geomundo Island. A friend found this trip on Adventure Korea, a website for a travel company targeted almost entirely towards foreigners living in Korea, knowing that most of the foreigners living in South Korea are teachers interested in sightseeing, experiencing culture, and not spending a lot of money. This trip involved an overnight bus for 6 hours, an early morning ferry, checking into a hotel, having some time to explore the island, and provided meals. Day two on the island was more structured, with a boat tour out to an area called Bokdo and a group hike along the coast to a lighthouse. Overall, island life was really relaxing. Something about the waves on the beach, and the salt in the air just makes everything slow down.

Day three was supposed to be a ferry back to the Korean main land, a trip to a Korean traditional culture folk village and a bus back to Seoul by 9pm. Day three did not happen as planned. Our 10 o’clock ferry back to the mainland was cancelled due to poor weather, and right away, we were informed that our prospects of making it back to Seoul that day was not good. And that was the end of relaxing island life. I, like 95% of the teachers on our trip, was required to be at work on Tuesday. This would be the first day of the new school year, so that means new students, new staff, and a lot of disorganization which I didn’t want to contribute to. Unfortunately, with no ferry, bridge or way of swimming back to shore, we were stuck on the island, and we all had to call in ‘stranded’ to work. And so, my school had to deal with one less teacher, and the weather was pretty poor so I spent my extra vacation day waiting in the rain, and sitting in the only café on the island, wondering if I’d get to work in time for my last class. At 4 pm we found out that the last ferry was cancelled, but we still had our hotel rooms and there was plenty of beer to treat our worries.

Surprisingly, I did arrive back in Ilsan on Tuesday just in time to jump into a classroom and teach one block of grade 3. It seems I’d missed the most stressful day of the school year. But, the world didn’t end and I didn’t get fired, so that’s good news.



And now, we’ve arrived at March. Perhaps I’ll write that post sometime in April!

January!

Blog update: January

So I started writing this blog in January, but then I just never got around to posting it. Apparently being in Korea hasn’t made me any more proactive.



Snow!



I came back from the Philippines to discover that Seoul had had a record snow fall. The city also has no snow removal capabilities. Seriously, their way to deal with the situation was call out thousands of military reserves, policemen, and any government employee to hit the streets with shovels and sometimes, literally hit the streets with pieces of wood. Ajimas, who are the powerful overbearing mothers of Korean society, could also be seen on the streets, sweeping away the ice with their brooms.



The first weekend back I went to this great sports and games bar near my apartment called “In Toos” or something like that. I was pretty happy as I met a girl foreigner who was taking a martial art class in my neighbourhood. I got the instructions and that Monday I went to observe my first MMA class. I am interested in kick boxing, so MMA, or mixed martial arts was the closest I could find. I was hopeful when the sign on the door said Muay Thai, but a bit intimidated by the class, when I walked in. There was a Korean American or two who explained to me about the classes and gym hours, but he took off and I was left in a chair to observe. The class started with about 30 Korean males standing in a big circle. Some were 14, some were older, and they all stood and listened to the teacher, a larger male in his late 20s, who talked in Korean for 10 minutes. Then, they did a quick warm up, stretched, turned up the music and proceeded to do 30 minutes of circuit training. AKA I watched a bunch of Korean men run around shirtless, grunt a lot and throw big weights in the air.



I went back on Wednesday and had my first class on Friday. It started off with group warm up, and then we were training in two groups. I was brought to the striking side, and made to stand right in front of the mirror, right next to the instructor. He would take turns talking to the Koreans for several minutes, then turn to me, push his hand forward through the air and say, “Uh, Jab?” And so I’d comply. Eventually we partnered off and I took turns punching and catching jabs with my bare hands. No gloves or hand wraps here. I luckily was paired with a guy who could count in English, so we jabbed “1,2...1...1,2,1...2..2..” and shadow boxed. Overall, it was a fun class, and I was happy because I got to hit things. And the super intimidating shirtless, grunting, non-English speaking men seemed to be quite nice and friendly.





In January I also went to Itaewon - a neighbourhood in Seoul near the big army base where there are a lot of foreigner services. I got a couple books at the English used book store and some cookie dough at a foreign food market.

The month ended with a ski trip to OakValley ski resort, some three hours south west of Ilsan. This was the smallest ski resort I’ve ever been to, but considered a good size for Korea. There were 4 chairlifts on a mountain probably smaller than baldy. There wasn’t even snow on the ground off the ski runs. Literally, the hills were all brown, and I think the golf course may have even been open. The resort itself was really nice. There were two very large buildings right on the mountain, and I assume these had hundreds of very nice guest rooms. The rest of the resort was a large cafeteria, a star bucks (of course), a grocery store, a few other nice restaurants, and a beautiful indoor swimming pool with massaging water jet chairs of different styles around the edge of the water. Koreans sure know how relax.

Christmas? no. Philippines? YES

Hello world,

So I haven't posted a Korea update in a while, so I'll start with a quick summary of the past few weeks:
-ate more Galbi (Korean BBQ)
-had some Crab
-went to Lotte World, which is like Korean disneyland, but smaller.
-went to work
-watched the grinch stole christmas in class
-cleaned my house on Christmas Day
-put way to much stuff in a backpack that was too big for a 10 day trip
-flew to the Philippines

And perhaps that's where I'll start the real blog?

We arrived in Manila at about 12:30am Philippine time (1:30 am Korea Time) on what was my boxing day. I started my trip with a friend from the other Poly School in Ilsan. As we disboarded the plane, we were struck by the heat and humidity. I was instantly reminded of Ghana.

Now I should say, that a few years ago my family went to Mexico for Christmas. Though it was warm in december, I wouldn't qualify it as hot. It was still, wear a sweater at night kindof temperature.

Here, it's the opposite. Well, not really the opposite. Just Really Hot. All the time.

Anyways, as we took our cab to the hostel, we drove past crowds of people milling about on the streets. Manila is a big city, but unlike Korea, there are a lot of small single family dwellings. However, Like Ghana there are a lot of little stores everywhere, and on this Christmas night/early morning, many people sitting on plastic lawn chairs on the edge of the streets.  At the hostel I checked in, emailed my parents (Christmas morning still in Canada) and went to bed. As we got off the plane I had heard some girls arguing about whether or not to go out after arrival. And in fact, in the Hostel some random guy did wake me up by saying "American Girl, why are you in Bed" but as I explained to him, before he realized I wasn't the girl who he'd hanging out with earlier in the evening, it was now 2 am in Korea and I was tired.

Anyways, I woke up quite early the next moring, and spend some time repacking my backpack. Yep, still had too much stuff. Eventually my friend woke up and we took off to explore Manila for a bit. We had brunch at a Cafe that might have been bohemian in 1979, when it first opened, but was now a bit overpriced and slightly pretentious. After my Eggs Benedict (which I did enjoy) we caught a Cab to a bus station where my friend would get his ticket in the opposite direction as myself. The Cab driver definately ripped us off, but at that point I didn't know what standard was. And it was my fault for not having him run the meter from the start.

We caught a different (and much cheaper) cab back to downtown Manila, and found ourselves at 'Intramurous' and St. Francesco? Fort.  It's a beautiful clash of modern landscaping, with palm trees, green green grass and pretty water fountains; and a 16th century spanish fort. We wandered a bit, looking at some canons, and checked out the Rizal Museum. Rizal was a Philippino hero (in fact, today is actually the philippino national holiday "Rizal Day" who died as a martyr seeking independence for his country. So he was kindof a big deal. At the end of the museum there was a man with a guest book: the catch being the final column of the guest book was titled: Donation. I made my obligatory money drop and continued on my way. I think I`ve figured out the Philippean Peso, but I`m not sure yet. About 43 pesos = 1 USD = 45000 KRW. This is kindof confusing, because everyonce in a while I think in Korean Won and think it`s okay to drop a few hundreds down, but then I remember that 200 pesos = 5 dollars, and my mind just can`t make that adjustment between 700 pesos being 15$, or 700 KRW being 75 cents.

Anyways, after the Fort we walked for a while until I got to a bank, then we kept walking, found the bay (no beach here) got a little lost, found our Hostel and I departed for the bus to my next destination. This turned out to be much more of a journey than I thought it was going to be. PS. Journey was totally a vocabulary word I was teaching my kids this week. But, after a crazy taxi ride through some heavy traffic, a long line up at a crowded bus station, and having some guys get mad at me because I didn`t tip them for letting them move my Bag 3 feet; I was on a bus. The bus, of course, was also stuck in the same traffic my taxi driver had succumbed to, and it seemed to take several hours to leave the city (also like Ghana!). Eventually I got dropped off in Lian, where I got in one of those motorcycle side car things and was taken out to the random beach resort I`d found online.

When I finally arrived I was late and a little stressed out from my journey, however, the resort owners treated me as though we were old friends. The resort has maybe 20 units, and most of the others here are either philippino families, white men with their philippino families, or older british folk who might be friends witht he Owner.

I was offered a choice of rooms, and am happy to report that I`m enjoying the pool, hot tub, and beach.

Well, that was probably too much for now, but I`m sure my parents will appreciate the details.

Food Poisoning

The verdict on my friday morning food poisoning was that it was the oysters we ate at dinner on Wednesday night. (see the silver in the photos in my last post). My 2 other teacher friends who I ate with also suffered the same sick morning/day.

Todays news: I saved an unwanted keyboard from the trash today. It was one broken key, but otherwise works fine. You normally here about people recovering tables, chairs, or couches, but I'm pretty happy with my keyboard.

Weeks 4 and 5!

Week 4 and 5

Another full week of teaching. I have a couple classes full of nice, quiet girls. I also have a couple classes full of boys who are desperately in need of an ADHD diagnosis. This makes my day quite the roller coaster ride. They way classes work is there are 3 or four blocks in a day. Each block is designated to a grade, and depending on how the student does on a test, they are separated into one of 8 classes.  Once placed in a class, the students may level up, but they never level down.  The most advanced students end up in the Magnet program.

American Thanksgiving was the focus of the week. On Thursday, which is apparently the official thanksgiving day, I went out for Indian food to pay tribute to the country that Christopher Columbus thought he had discovered. Friday night we went out for something I though seemed similar to Chinese hot pot. There was a large pot of boiling vegetable broth in the middle of the table, and we were given a giant tray of vegetables and mushrooms to cook, as well as thinly shaved meat.

Saturday morning I went into Seoul for the first time all by myself. I met a few friends, and we explored Namdaemun market, looking for Christmas gifts. Namdaemun is a few large square block crisscrossed by narrow alleys filled with small booths and restaurants. There are several big buildings that seem like multifloor department stores, but also contain small booths. On the second floor of one of these buildings we found the Korean Folk art section. There was also a large house wares section on the 3rd floor, and a nearby fabric section. There were other buildings filled with accessories which you could buy by the giant box, seemingly straight from the manufacturers.  There are other, nicer shopping areas in Seoul, but I think I would head back to Namdaemun if I want to buy fabric or random black market brand name stuff.

 On the weekend I was invited to two Thanksgiving dinners. One was a big event with a lot of the current and past teachers from my Poly school, plus a few other teacher friends. I met a few of the other Canadians who used to teach at my school. The dinner itself was potluck, but I just brought Juice and cups. A few people put much more effort into their cooking, and there wasn’t turkey, but 3 roast chickens proved more affordable and similar enough. The next night I went to another, smaller dinner with a few couples who I’ve met since I’ve been here. For this dinner I brought mashed potatoes, which were barely touched due to the amount of other food there was. Once again, we had chicken, but also a cheese plate, salad, bread, stuffing and stove top, Egyptian carrots, chocolate cake and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Monday mornings are no longer filled with the dread that a 8-5 workweek often provides. Knowing that I can sleep in until 11:45 and still make it to work on time relieves a lot of stress. Mostly I have been using these mornings for visiting a café with free internet, cleaning the apartment, and doing laundry. Or sleeping. And watching Dr. Oz on television.

Tuesday was Korean language class again. Our weekly lesson at Papa Johns Pizza is pretty casual, but I’m learning to read Hangeul!  I don’t know what the words mean yet, but at least I can sound things out. Also, Tuesday I got my official registered Alien Card. I am now legit to live and work in Korea. I also got a multiple entry visa for my passport, so I’m set to come and go from Korea as I desire.

Wednesday night we went out for what was supposed to be Fish and Beer. We ended up eating Sashimi, spicy octopus, and drinking Soju. Note to self: no more Soju on school nights.

Friday I got food poisoning. I used one of my unpaid sick days and called in. The ‘calling in’ part was a bit of a worry for me. For one, I don’t have a phone yet, or internet in my apartment. Second, I was having trouble staying on my feet for more than a minute, and I wouldn’t be able to make it to a pay phone. Luckily, I was able to drag myself to the apartment of another teacher in our building, and they were able to get a hold of someone at the school. My biggest concern with being sick was that I was having trouble keeping down any water, and I knew I was quickly becoming dehydrated. By 3 pm I managed to make it downstairs and got some PowerAde, and after drinking that I started feeling better. In fact, I was thinking about getting ready to head into work for the last few classes. But then I tried standing up, and was still too light-headed to last 2 minutes on my feet. And back to the bed for me.

To end on a happier note, I went back to the Kitty Cafe on Thursday night. Yay, Kittens! OMG so cute. I picked up this one kitten and she fell asleep in my arms. aww...

Week 3: featuring fish who ate my feet...

Woo hoo! Sunday means blog day!




Last Monday to Thursday were fairly uneventful. I drank some more coffee. Worked full time. I had to do report cards for students who I’d only taught once. I went out for Chinese food on Wednesday night. Chinese food here is not the same as in Canada. Seafood here is not the same as in Canada. This has been an important revelation. I think seafood, I think crab, shrimp, oysters, mussels, maybe salmon. Seafood to me is not cuttlefish, squid, or other strange textured things that I don’t recognize. It’s probably the latter that I like the least. Note to self: don’t order seafood dishes. Other note: don’t worry, there will likely still be seafood in dishes that say vegetable or Kimchi.



Friday night I went out with a couple coworkers to see 2012. Tickets here for a nice, good size theatre are 9000 won, or about 8 dollars. The movies themselves are the original English version. The only thing that’s in Korean are the subtitles. This isn’t a problem, except when there are scenes in other languages. Luckily, 2012 only has a few of those, and it’s a dramatic enough movie that it’s easy to figure out what’s going on. The movie is also predictable, but in the most awesome way. In order to predict what will happen, just think of the most ridiculous that could happen and still move the plot forward, then backward, than forward again. As a result, if one can guess what’s going to happen next, the movie is incredibly satisfying. Even if you aren’t adept at guessing formulaic plots, the epic story and amazing graphics make the movie fun and entertaining. The final step to enjoying this movie, however, is to not think about it too much. And hope that you don’t live on the western seaboard.

After the movie we went to a foreigner bar for a beer, which we enjoyed on the slightly cold patio. Just as we were leaving though, I ran into another teacher who was inside drinking with a few friends. I stayed and joined them and we ended up playing Hearts until 2:30 in the morning. I ended up successfully ‘shooting for the moon’ in the last round, and came from behind to win the game. What with my correctly guessing the movie plot, and winning the card game, I went to bed feeling pretty great.



Saturday I had plans to meet with the same card playing friends to go into Seoul. So in the early afternoon we took the 1 hour bus ride to Gangnam, an up and coming area of the city. Gangnam is home of Seoul’s world trade center, lots of money, and our destination: the Co-Ex mall. This giant underground mall is filled with many western and Korean stores, restaurants and a conference hall. I don’t know if it is bigger than West-Ed, but it was definitely shinier. We made our way towards the conference all where there was supposed to be a Makali exhibition, which was part of the much bigger “Food Week” show. Unfortunately, when we got there we saw registration booths and it became apparent that this exhibition had a much more commercial focus than we were expecting. Combine that with the fact that it was already late in the day and they were going to be closing soon, we changed our direction and instead headed towards the Kimchi Museum.



Kimchi is, as I now understand, any fermented vegetable. The ingredients of Kimchi have changed over it’s 1000 years of tradition, but now most Kimchi is seasoned with hot red pepper. Interestingly enough, that red pepper was only added to Kimchi after Columbus had found the new world and peppers were brought back from Mexico.



After the museum, we sat down for some Korean food before heading back to Gangnam proper, in search of our goal of the day: the Dr. Fish Café. This was a very popular café where in addition to coffee, you can pay 2000 won ($1.75) for Fish. After your drinks, you wait your turn to go put your feet in a fish tank. The fish then proceed to eat the dead skin off your feet, leaving your feet and ankles feeling soft, smooth and refreshed. It’s weird at first, and it made me realise that my feet are tickle-ish, at least to fish. After 15 minutes a guy rinses off your feet in a wooden sink, and the next group takes their turn to get their feet eaten.

Next, we went on the search for restaurant which would serve Makali and Panchong, also known as fermented rice wine and vegetable pancakes. It took a few tries, but we finally found a place that served the traditional drink, so we spent a few hours there, eating panchong and drinking makali.



It was still early, so we then went to a western bar that features various international beers. The one Canadian brew that they served was Moosehead Lager. We ended up drinking the Korean Cass beer because it was cheaper.



And finally, the best part of the night: We went to a Noraebong! It cost 20000 won ($18 ish?) for an hour in the private karaoke room. Our group had grown to 8 people, and there were enough singers that is was really fun. We then caught a Cab back to our respective homes, and the night ended.