Korea's got Seoul!

Marching through March

2010-04-08T05:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-12-27T02:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-05T03:21:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

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.

Week 2: Coffee!

2009-11-15T04:03:00.000-08:00

I have officially survived another week in Korea. Not that survival was unexpected.

Monday morning I got up early and went to the café with free wireless which I am currently favouring. Apparently they are starting to recognize me, because they gave me a free sweet potato with my coffee. For anyone who wishes to chat, I am officially on Skype. The time change is tough to calculate if you’re tired, but I’ve managed to find a few times to go online when I have a chance at talking to someone from home.

Work on Monday afternoon revealed some new information. First, I found out what my teaching assignment was going to be for the next few weeks. I had heard rumours, but knew nothing for sure until that day. Turns out one of our teachers was granted a couple weeks off to go home and visit and ailing family member. They had kept this on the down low due to the fact that those weeks occur over Thanksgiving, a holiday that most of the American’s would have loved to have been home for. The plan then became for me to spend some more time observing this teacher and his classes, and do one day of co-teaching before I took over completely. It didn’t quite pan out that way, due to the following.

During our prep time on Monday, our Academic coordinator came into our staff room and gave us some really unfortunate news. One of our students had passed away due to the H1N1 virus, and the case had attracted some media attention. The media didn’t know that the child attended our Hokwan, but the parents of other students probably would. The first concern for the school was, of course, the school’s reputation. Despite the situation perhaps not being handled in the best way (not that I know what the best way to handle this situation is) the school did extend some compassion towards one of the child’s teachers. That compassion took the form of giving the teacher a couple days off, with me filling in for their classes. My first real subbing job! This quickly extended to a second real subbing job, as the next day another teacher called in sick. Luckily, none of our teachers seemed to have caught the H1N1, but this is still flu season.

Monday night I decided not to cook, and found myself wandering down LaFesta, eyes open for a dinner place where I could sit by myself and perhaps steal some internet. I ended up running into a fellow teacher couple from my school and joining them at a café with live music. Korean’s love cover songs, and the live music is always similar to the American original song, but different enough that it can take a few seconds to recognize.

Tuesday morning I tried Yoga at a studio which a few other teachers go to. It was very relaxing. So relaxing, in fact, that I felt unmotivated to do anything until arriving at work for my first day of real teaching. I ended up at a Café / Bakery called “Paris Baguette” where I grabbed an Americano and some mocha cream bread to go. The Mocha Cream part of the bread is actually a filling , spread between each slice. Yum, tasty calories!

I was a little bit nervous about my first class, but the absent teacher had left clear instructions for me, and unlike high school chemistry, the content of the lesson was very straight forward. The youngest children, who I taught in the first class, are very cute. The older children that I taught later in the evening are well rehearsed in what to do at a Hokwan, Despite their studious repuation, the children are still children, and are very playful. In the class I taught with the highest level students, they quite enjoy hide and seek. They are so adept at it that I honestly didn’t know where half of the class was. This was funny the first day, but later on it just became a time waster.

Wednesday was Pipero Day! In Canada, Nov 11 is remembrance day, in the states, it’s veterans day. Here in Korea, 11/11 is a consumer holiday in which you buy long thin pastry’s that resemble the number one and give them to people. I bought some to give to my students, and many students gifted me likewise. On the plus side, I didn’t need to buy any other snacks for the rest of the week.

Snacking is very necessary for our class schedule. After two hours of prep, we teach for 6 hours straight. We only have 5 minutes to move from class to class. This means no time for a meal, no time even to run to the washroom. If I’m hungry I grab an orange and a cookie in the few minutes that I have. Most teachers avoid needing a meal during class time by going for a large lunch at around 1:30. There are several Korean restaurants around the school, and lots of convenience stores.

On Friday I gave up my subbing schedule and took over the USA destined teacher’s classroom for what should be two weeks. The classes were quite average, with a couple interesting behaviour students mixed in.

I’m already noticing my language degrading. Simple words, like articles, are beginning to vanish from my vocabulary. It’s difficult trying to simplify your language so that the students fully understand, without losing the essential sentence form.

On Friday night, myself and a group of teachers went out for Korean BBQ again. This time we had pork. It was delicious. After a long dinner ( I feel like we were the only table left in the restaurant when we finally departed), some of us headed over to another western Bar, called West Island. Once again, I was surprised to see foreigners! But once again, this was an ex-pat bar, so that’s what I should have expected.

Saturday Morning I went for coffee to a place called “Coffee and Cat”. It is a so called ‘Kitty Café’, where you order a drink, sanitize your hands, and proceed into room filled with chairs, tables, cat toys and at least 15 Cats. Some are just kittens, some are older, but they are all adorable. I think they might keep them hopped up on cat nip, because most are very playful, but every once in a while a cat will curl up next to you and fall asleep. It was a strange place. I tried to do my Korean language homework, but every time I opened my book a cat would jump onto it.

Saturday afternoon I made plans with a fellow teacher, Danielle, to head into Seoul. Because I don’t have a cellphone or internet in my apartment, finalizing plans was difficult, but we ended up on the train into Seoul by 3:00, and easily met up with a few of Danielle’s friends. Danielle’s friends were accompanied by a visiting father, so we were headed for a tourist district to check out some authentic Korean arts and crafts. This would have been a very nice afternoon, if it wasn’t for the cold and wind. I, due to my rushed departure, was not properly dressed, and found myself darting from store to store to hide under heat lamps. The group of us found a Korean restaurant and settled down for an early dinner. We had some really good beef bulgolgi, and braced ourselves for the frigid outdoors once again. After a bit more looking around, we got back on the subway and went off in the same direction but with separate intentions. Danielle and I went off to meet another one of her friends, and we found a warm café to huddle in. In this one I had hot chocolate and a cheesecake with a blueberry topping.

With it too cold to really explore the area, we all met up at a jazz club, very appropriately named live jazz club. A Korean jazz quartet was playing to a crowd of around 100?. The saxophonist was very into the music, and swayed, danced, and even sang along to the rest of the members in his quartet. At the end of the night he gestured to our table of foreigners ( we were sitting right in front of the stage) and asked us where we were from. My table responded “American, and Canada” pointing to me. The Saxophonists was apparently more interested in Canada, and asked where from. I tried saying BC, but he didn’t understand so I just said “Vancouver” and he nodded, saying “Ah!”. He then just said “Quebec?” and Ontario?” I nodded. He said “Long time yesterday.” Meaning, I think, that he had once been to Canada and visited those places. Some Californians in the back then called attention to themselves and announced that it was someone in their groups’ birthday. He talked a little bit more, then the set was over and our group left the club, looking to find somewhere less expensive for one more drink. We found a place called “Bier Hall”, shared a pitcher and took the train back to our individual sides of the city.

Sunday I slept in and then went for a hike up a hill that is located in the center of our city. At the top was a beautiful rectangular Pagoda, and an area where you could have a gym style workout outdoors with weightlifting equipment and a city view. Even though I came down the hill a different path, I found my way back to my apartment, stopping for some McDonalds and coffee/internet.

And that’s enough for now.

Korean Weekend

2009-11-08T17:18:00.000-08:00

It seems I’ve written another very long post. Here’s the basic summary: went back to the school, had Korean barbeque and Soju, went on a trip to Incheon china town and had dinner in a castle in Seoul.

Friday was another observation day at the school. Before class started I went out for lunch with Anna, Scott, and Joseph for traditional Korean food. We sat on pillows around a low table which was covered with more and more dishes, from Kimchi to fried zucchini. There were some individual dishes, but most were shared. Everything is eaten with chopsticks, of course, and on Friday I seemed to struggle. Sometimes I can use them proficiently, but sometimes it takes me 5 tries to pick up one thing, which is a little bit embarrassing. On the plus side, apparently I don’t have a Canadian accent, so I suppose that’s a good thing.

The classes were similar to the day before. Today I shadowed one Kindergarden class, and OMG the kids were SO cute. This was a special class, so the students all knew English fairly well, for being four years old. But the kids were just so cute. One of them asked me why I had spots. Apparently the moles on my arms are different for them. I told them it was so I could connect the dots and draw pictures. It’s going to be a great self esteem boost to be able to make these children laugh so easily.

Friday night I went out for Korean Barbeque with a few people from my Poly school, and a few people from Poly School’s other campus in Ilsan. In Korean barbeque there is a large pot with hot coals in the middle of the table, and you grill meat over top of them. A number of other side dishes are passed around, and with dinner we drank Soju. Soju is a Korean drink, kind of like watered down vodka. Apparently it’s known for causing bad drunks and bad hangovers. I drank mine with a lot of water and rice, so my one shot wasn’t too bad. It was great to meet the other foreigners. They were all american, but I have met a couple other canadians.

After dinner we went to a bar in LaFesta nearby. The first thing different was that smoking is allowed in bars and restaurants here, as opposed to Edmonton, where I got used to smoke free bars. Second, the washrooms are outside the bar, and you have to grab toilet paper from by the door. Third, the drinking culture is quite active here. People get drunk, and it’s not uncommon to see koreans and foreigners alike, stumbling around the street, moving from bar to bar. The first bar we went to was known for cheap tequila, so the table ordered a bottle and did shots until the bottle was empty. At that point, we moved to the next bar which had a dance floor and played american dance music. This bar was especially popular for foreigners, and the only Korean I talked to was a young Korean man who told me that he was a model and an actor. Apparently, there is a major movie studio nearby, so there is a chance he was telling the truth. One of the things I liked best about these Korean bars is that there are Lockers right outside, only 1000 won (equiv 1 dollar). It was nice to be able to lock away my purse and jacket without the worry about lines at the coat check.

Saturday morning I met Scott (at teacher at my school) and his girlfriend Courtney (who is chinese but from malaysia) and we began the day long trek to Incheon. Incheon is the 4th largest city in Korea, and where the major intl. airport is closest to. Driving from Ilsan to Incheon is only about 30 minutes, but we took the train, which we accurately predicted to be considerably longer. It took several transfers to get to the line that we desired, and once we got on it, we thought we were on our way. Unfortunately, we were on our way to the wrong destination. Turns out the line forks to two destinations, and we traveled about 30 minutes out of the city in the wrong direction before we realised this. We tried to simply get off and switch directions, but the train heading into the city was way too full and way too hot. We then decided to cough up the extra cash, hopefully save some time and just taxi out to Incheon. It was easy enough to find a taxi, but the driver forgot where we were going and started to take us to the airport instead. This equalled about a 45 minute detour, across an incredibly long bridge - at least 12 km. By the time we arrived in Incheon, our 2 hour journey had become a 4 hour trip.

Eventually we arrived in Chinatown. As we walked through the sculpted concrete gate, the predominately red streets winded up the hill in front of us. Our first goal was to find an authentic chinese restaurant. There were a few, but most of them seemed quite expensive. Eventually we found an old mom and pop style chinese place where Scott’s girlfriend ordered a small meal for us in Chinese. The place didn’t seem very clean, but the pork we had was excellent. It was marinated in a garlic vinegar sauce that had great flavour, but not too much spice, which I was thankful for. The spicy food here is good, but I just can’t eat a large quantity of it, or enough to make me full.

Turns out the china town was actually very small, and we couldn’t even find a Chinese grocer. However, the chinatown did back onto Jayu park, which was a well maintained green space on top of a hill. We went for a walk, and while in the structure at the very top of the hill, it started to rain, very heavily. We waited a few minutes for the storm to stop, and made a run for it. We didn’t waste much time heading back down the hill, all the way to the train station which would take us back to Seoul.

Instead of heading straight back to our suburb, we stopped at an area in Seoul called Hongdae, near Hongik University. This area is filled with a ton of restaurants, shops and cafes; and was very busy on a Saturday night. I’m regretting packing any clothing or shoes, as there is so much here that I want to buy. We wandered several blocks before settling down somewhere for dinner. The place we eventually chose was called Castle Praha, and had 3 levels. We accidentally ended up on the top level, which was the wine bar and dining room. It was very nice and classy, and the crab and lobster cream pasta we had was very good. However, the portions were smaller than we expected, and it was quite pricey. Only upon exit did we discover that the basement was the pub, which actually served the beef goulash that originally drew us into the restaurant. I definitely plan to go back to Hongdae and do some serious shopping, and I may go back to that restaurant if I am in desire of some good european food. Apparently it is especially difficult to actually find any good western food. Scott said that he had not yet had any success in finding simple spaghetti and bolognase sauce.

Before heading back, we went to a large café on the top floor of a design museum. I could tell this was a very hip café, and featured western food that also appeared good. Café’s here are not hard to come by, and so far, the coffee seems good. Back in Ilsan there are multiple starbucks within walking distance from my apartment.

We just barely caught the bus back to Ilsan, and though it was warm and seemed to have a lot of sudden jerks, we arrived safely back in our suburb home.

Sunday has consisted of sleeping in, taking out money from an international ATM as I don’t have my own korean bank account yet, buying groceries and doing laundry.

Teaching in Korea days 3 and 4

2009-11-05T16:33:00.001-08:00

Korea cont.

I’m still jetlagged, but every day I’m sleeping in a little bit longer, and feeling a little bit less tired throughout the day. Wednesday morning I met my school liason outside my apartment and she took me for my health check at the local hospital. The check is a bit like a scavenger hunt. First, you have to park and find your way to the first reception. You give them your forms, and then they think about things for a few minutes, notice the coffee in your hands and inform you then that you were supposed to be fasting for the past 12 hours. Hoping that my small breakfast won’t affect my blood sugar too much, we then go back upstairs, around a few corners, straight to the front of the line, get another form, then go back downstairs, go to a new room, change to a robe, get an X-ray done in 10 seconds, put top back on, find your way back to the first room, pee in a cup, get your blood taken, your height, weight, blood pressure and vision measured. Alright, that sounds a little simpler when I type it, but imagine all signs being in an alphabet you can’t read, and the translating always seeming to be way shorter than the actual conversation.

Anyways, I survived that, and went with my liason back to the school where I’m going to work. The school is on the 2nd through 5th floors of a building about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. At first I was concerned, because all the teachers I seemed to meet where Korean - Americans… aka, they could talk korean with eachother, read the bus signs and even drive! But, I met some other nice foreigners and they invited me to a free Korean lesson the next day at a papa john’s pizza place right across from our school. Then my liason drove me back to my apartment, and I finished reading the last Harry Potter book, again.

For dinner I wandered my way back down to La Festa, found a street vendor selling hot dogs, and a nice café with free internet. Unfortnately, It was 3am in Alberta, so event though I was online and felt like chatting, there was no one at home to talk to. Eventually I wandered back to place, and had another early night.

Today (Thursday) has been a little more interesting. I woke up early, but lounged around all morning until it was time to walk to my Korean lesson. There, along with 3 other teachers, I learned basic korean vowels and consonants. We even have our own workbooks, (all free!) where I’ve been practicing writing. Next week we’ll learn how to combine consonants and vowels and begin to make syllables! I feel as though my choir training of pronouncing strange vowels and enunciating letters with spit will be helpful.

That afternoon I observed my first 6 hours of classes. I’m proud to announce I got 5 out of 5 on my first grade 1 spelling test. The school uses a special curriculum guided by American materials. Honestly, the courses pretty much teach themselves. What we seem to be there for is to present the topic to the class, assign the work, check the homework and try to find a way to relate the language to the children’s lives. This can seem especially difficult when trying to teach Korean children about American States and state holidays. In a lot of ways though, this is the education that parents want, and we will prepare the kids to go to school in America. Even the classrooms all have names of Ivy league colleges. I’m excited to wear my Cornell sweatshirt into the staffroom of the same name.

Overall, I’m looking forward to starting to teach. The content is going to be so much easier than the high school level science I’m trained to teach, which will leave me lots of room to experiment with teaching method and medium. The only thing that really intimidates me is the teaching schedule. There are 8 blocks a day, and roughly 2 blocs per grade level. Each day of the week is slightly different, and we’re assigned different pages to read, assign, and mark. I’m still confused by the schedule, but I’m happy that’s the least of my worries.

After classes, a group walked back together. We all live pretty near each other, so it was a nice chance to debrief on the day. I’m feeling glad about my choice to work at a Hokwan with other foreigners, and I’m finally feeling excited to be here.

Day's 1 and 2

2009-11-04T02:31:00.000-08:00

Hello All!

In summary of the following text: I arrived, I'm alive, and I miss you all!

I arrived in Korea last night after a 17 hour trip. The actual flight to Korea was 11 hours long, and I was awake every minute of it. The strangest thing about the flight was that it was bright and sunny outside the whole trip, yet I left Canada on a Sunday and arrived on a Monday. As the plane arrived in Seoul, I was lucky to have a window seat and saw the giant, sprawling city from above. The main difference between a North American city and a Korean city appears to be in the housing. Whereas flying in to Calgary I would look down and see endless cul-de-sacs of perfect houses with white picket fenses, flying into Seoul, the landscape was filled with similar amount of sprawl, but entirely of high-rises, condos and apartment buildings. Between theses city neighbourhoods were large hills, covered entirely with dense green forest.

The large plane arrived at Incheon International Airport on time, and deboarded all 300 passengers into the international terminal. We then all hurried to the lower level, where a train departed every five minutes to take us to the main terminal, for immigration, customs and baggage claim. After successfully doing all three, I walked through sliding glass doors and saw a large crowd of people holding signs with names written on in them. I looked around, easily found the sign with my name on it, and met my contact. She helped me steer my heavy luggage cart to her vehicle (a very nice Kia) and drove me to my new apartment. The airport is on an Island, connected by a massive bridge to the Greater city of seoul. Using a GPS system that talked and made game show like sounds as we approached and successfully passed a Speed Camera, my contact navigated us to the suberb of seoul where I would be living. The city is called Goyang, and I’m either living in Jeongbalsandong or Ilsandong. I honestly haven’t figured that out yet.

The streets are all filled with bright neon lights and signs. We drove by La Festa, which is a large shopping/entertainment area very near my new place, and my contact informed me that various celebrities live in the large buildings that reached into the now (finally) night sky above. My new place is in an older version of these buildings, and is essentially a studio apartment but called an “officetal” or something like that. Three other teachers from my school live in the building, and one of them was kind enough to meet me in the parkade and help carry my luggage. The apartment supplied for me was previously used by another teacher at my school, and he left me some basic supplies, including a few dishes, a pot, a toaster oven, some random stuffed animals in the corner and a laundry basket. The Officetal itself contains a queen sized bed, a tv, a few low cabinets and some large built in shelving units. There is also a kitchenette with a 2 burner Gas stove, a fridge and freezer, and a washing machine. The washroom is fully tiled, with western style toilet and sink, but the shower is partitioned off with a glass door that sits about an inch off the ground. This explains why you step down into the washroom, as the whole floor is covered with water after you shower.

After dropping off my luggage, my contact took me back downstairs and pointed out where the nearest convenient stores and grocery stores are located, and showed me where she will pick me up on Wednesday morning to begin orientation. She then headed back to the school, and I went upstairs to the other teacher’s place to briefly use the internet. They had a larger apartment and a Dog, and let me use their internet to email home. By this point I was exhausted, and even though it was only 8pm in Korea, I went back to my place and fell asleep.

This morning I woke up early, watched the sun rise and found that someone had dropped off my new sheet/blanket set during the night. Today is my rest day, So I’ve spent it cleaning and unpacking. I wandered down the street and found a grocery store, but I can’t read Korean yet so I was indecisive on buying stuff. I ended up walking away with some oranges, eggs, bread and a box of cereal, but no milk. There are a ton of stores, bars and restaurants very close to my apartment, but as I don’t really know my address, I was unwilling to venture too far from home.

For lunch I ended up having the noodles I didn’t eat on the airplane. Later on in the evening the other teacher, Josh, took me for a walk to show me the area. Turns out La Festa is just two blocks away from my apartment, and has many stores, 2 movie theatres and several western restaurants and fast food chains. La Festa is essentially an outdoor mall. The street has no vehicle traffic, so it’s just a giant cobblestone walkway. The are at least two stories of shops and restaurants on each side for the entire 6+ block length. Josh also took me to the “Home plus” department store which is located near the other end of La Festa. He helped me find a transformer and pointed out different areas of the store before he took off to his Korean class. I walked back to the apartment on my own, and felt quite safe. At around 9 the stores seemed to be closing, but there were still a lot of people walking around, and the whole street is incredibly well lit. Different restaurants and bars were projecting ‘K-pop’ music out onto the street. The music is upbeat and very synthesized, but quite fun.

I ended up having KFC for dinner, and felt guilty for not immersing myself in Korean culture. However, I’m not confident enough yet to walk into a restaurant whose name I can’t read, and to order something off the menu by pointing at a picture of something I don’t recognise, so KFC felt like my only option. I don’t have internet in my apartment, but I am getting some television channels. There is one channel called AFN Korea, and I believe it stands for American Forces Network. The channel is entirely aimed at Americans serving abroad, and has few ads: mostly public service announcements about army events, safety and wellness. Besides news, the network caries American shows including soap operas, talk shows, game shows, and a random selection of prime time TV. The Jet lag hasn't been so bad, but I definately ended up in bed relatively early.

So no real adventures yet, but I'd love to hear back from people if they get a chance. I haven't met too many people yet so it would be nice to hear from home.