Fake It 'til You Make It

Finishing up my third week in Korea feels like a solid dent in my time here. It's kind of scary that I've already almost been here a month. It doesn't feel that way. I'm still just constantly bumbling around, but every now and then there is that day where I feel on top of the world and it propels me just a little bit further.

A present from Jack

There were a few days I went to work and was like "I have no idea what the fuck I am doing." I have no idea how to teach kids who know so little of our language that I have to use all kinds of circumlocution to explain rudimentary American concepts we take for granted. Example: I had to give a lesson on The Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving to a class one day. Now mind you, I work at four different campuses, which means I don't even get the luxury of creating a lesson plan. Sometimes thats a blessing (no work to do to prepare for classes) and sometimes thats a curse (walking into every class I teach with only about an hour of prep time for 6-7 classes a day...not an hour each...an hour for all classes). This was one of those accursed times.

Some of the vocabulary for the lesson were phrases like "religious freedom" and the topical content was obviously about Pilgrims and Indians and leaving England and such. Now, to put this in context, these kids come from a rather homogenous society. There is religious diversity to be sure, but it certainly isn't the huge issue it is in America. So to teach a unit on religious oppression and colonization to bunch of 10 year olds with a beginner grasp on the English language was an almost impossible task. I basically had to call in one of the Korean teachers to interpret for me. The closest the kids got to Thansgiving was "a big dinner" and I was over the moon in ecstasy that they at least got that.

Students actually learning! Yay!

So yeah. There are those "I have no right to be teaching these kids anything" days. But then there are also those "fuck yeah, I am so awesome at this!" days. I definitely had one of those days at my Shinchon campus this week when Jack, my favorite student ever ran into the teacher's office and gave me an ice cream cone and ran off and I was like "Awwhhhhh!" He is absolutely the most adorable kid ever. His class is a 1-on-1 class and so we do lots of random fun stuff to kill time because his English is already phenomenal even though he's only like 9 (7 in America) and we fly through the text book. He taught me the Korean version of rock, paper, scissors and I taught him how to make snowflakes and masks.

Then I was grading papers for random students and I stumbled upon a batch of papers about me and they were adorable to read. They were from an all girl class I teach at Shinchon and they didn't have a lesson plan so I decided just to get them interested by teaching them about what all teenage girls are interested - music. So I taught them about American music genres and they taught me about Korean genres (significantly fewer Korean genres), and then I read their papers and it was like "oh my god! They remember what I taught them!" It was a really good day.

Korea has mochi. I think I'll be okay.

But you never know with this job. It's so heavily based off how your students are feeling that day. Some days they come in eager to learn and laugh and want to have fun. Other days they don't want to do anything and it's like pulling teeth. This is good and bad because it means I never know what to expect and can't just expect "Oh no! I have to go to my least favorite campus to day!" Some days my least favorite campus becomes my favoirte and vice-versa. Some days I know what I'm doing, other days I panic and have no idea. This is definitely a job where you have to be extremely adaptable and can't take anything too personally.

This sort of "I have no idea, I want to go home"/"This life is amazing and I am king!" dichotomy ends up playing out the same when I'm off the clock as well. Last weekend I felt so lost and confused and alone, but this weekend I actually felt like I was living in Korea. Like this was my home now. I got up Saturday morning, cleaned my apartment, did my laundry, went and refilled my MyB tron-looking thing so I can ride the bus, went to KS mart and picked up some bread, eggs, jelly, and crab snacks, went to Daego and bought some bowls, plates, silverware and a bathmat, and even had time to stroll through Dogye market and properly ask for some mochi in Korean ("Dduk, ju se yo?).

This is what you get for sixty cents an hour.

I was planning on just relaxing at home and reading all night or something, but then Caitlin texts me and asks me if I want to go to a PC bang, which is...kind of the Korean equivalent of a LAN party place? Idk..never did LAN parties, but I'm assuming it's similar. We went and she showed me how to play Starcraft for the first time. Dude, I know Eric Elzy is going to be disappointed, but I suck at Starcraft. I may try and go on my own and play through the campaign when no one is busy so Caitlin doesn't have to be so ashamed of me anymore. lol. It's super cheap...like 700 Won an hour, which is like sixty cents. And they've got nice reclining chairs, good sound systems with headphones (if you want to use headphones...I didn't. you can still use the speakers without them.), fast gaming PCs, large monitors, and snacks! Caitlin got me a soda drink called Milkis which is like a milkshake soda and it is absolutely delicious.

Beer by the gallon  =3

After playing for two hours, we paid our buck-fifty and went to meet up with Casey (someone Caitlin works with) and grab dinner. We ended up going downtown to Sangnam and I immediately got this feeling like "okay...this is what Korea is supposed to feel like." Cute Korean girls walking everywhere, drunk guys stumbling through the streets attempting to speak English to us, lights and sounds and music everywhere. It was awesome. Someone was handing out flyers for DJ Shannel at Club Eden and I recognized her from being an act at Ultra or something this year? So I made a mental note to check her out. We went to this restaurant on the top floor where we bought a gallon of beer and a seafood stew of some sorts. Made me miss gumbo, but was pretty delicious in it's own right. Everything in Korea is just so damn spicy.

I do enjoy how centralized eating is in Korea.

After killing that, we went to the only American bar I had yet to go to: O'Briens. It was pretty cool. Bunch of guy playing pool and it felt authentically Irish-American, minus the asian bartenders. Casey ended up being really cool and we did a carbomb together (forcing Caitlin to try one as well) and I was feeling more at home by the minute. We talked about everything from lives back home to God and the Universe (or maybe the "universe"...I'll let Casey explain that one). I definitely finally had that feeling of fitting in. I know it'll probably be fleeting and next week is just as likely to be rough as it is to be easy, but these moments definitely make being here worth it.

We finally left the bar and rode a taxi back to Caitlin's apartment where Casey swiped me into a bike (Changwon has a thing where you can pay 20 bucks a year and borrow a bike from any location in the city to ride to any other location. It's pretty awesome) and I said my farewells and took off. Riding through Changwon at 3am on a bike definitely felt good and it was a pretty solid end to a feel-good weekend. We'll see what next weekend holds...

Looking Toward The Future

Before I left for Korea, some summer evenings, Alexis and I would grab a random recipe from Publix and prepare a delicious meal for my family simply following the recipe step by step and making more missteps than anything.

But, one time in particular, I remember a recipe called for us to blanch some broccoli, which neither of us had ever heard of, even less knew how to do. After some brief googling, we figured it out and the broccoli turned out delicious.

Blanching is a cooking process wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (shocked) to halt the cooking process.

This memory comes to mind, because I sort of feel like that broccoli right now. It sounds weird, but its the best way to describe moving to Korea. In America, I would have simmered and probably come out limp and soggy broccoli, but moving to Korea was a blanching process. I was plunged into an ice bath and was cooked immediately, brightening my color and solidifying my flavor.

I now have some sort of perspective on the world and know what I have to do. I don't know exactly what I want to do, but I need to start moving forward. Korea was that sudden moment of "Hey! You aren't a kid any more!"

I'm going to start studying for my GRE's and reapply to the JET Program. I want to be in Japan next year while Alexis is going to school at TUJ. Hopefully, after experiencing teaching a year in Korea I'll be more prepared for my interview (although I'm not sure how I'll get to it if I'm in Korea...).

Will I want to come back to Korea after that? I don't know. Maybe. It's certainly far too early to tell. I'm learning Korean anyway, because I really love the language. I really love the people too, but there's plenty of things I think I'll always miss about America. I already miss bath tubs, steaks, fast food, America pizza, and hot tubs.

Korea has plenty of things that beat out America, to be sure, but I'm starting to realize that it doesn't really matter where I go in the world. There's no magical place that can make you happy. It's the people that you surround yourself with that make you happy. I feel like a baby for being so homesick already, but family life was never the most stable...and now that it's sort of solidifying, it's hard to finally leave. I miss golfing with my family and going on boat trips or just hanging out in the back yard and talking. I never got to go deep sea fishing in America, and I definitely miss those stupid little things I forgot to take advantage of. I'm going to make sure to take advantage of every opportunity in Korea so I don't feel the same regret when I leave here.

I definitely needed to leave, but I don't really want to drift anymore. The guy I took over for has been moving from foreign school to foreign school for 8 years and has yet to call anywhere home. I find that kind of sad. I thought I was that kind of person for the longest time, but now I'm realizing I was just scared of finality. I still am. Moving into my apartment was the slowest process ever. I'm still honestly not 100% done with unpacking. Every time I get more settled in, it just feels that much more definitive. But at the same time, not being able to call anything or anyone home is more terrifying. Especially right now, I feel like a leaf in the middle of a pond.

I'm not trying to brood, but I'm definitely understanding that I want to put down roots at some point. Everyone says Korea is a great place to save up money, and that's true, but that's also because you don't put money into anything. I thought I hated Cocoa Beach, but now that I'm here....the grass is always greener right?

Definitely at an emotional low today, but it's positive as well because I'm setting goals. I'm getting a taste of a little bit of everything here, lifestyle-wise. In the end, this will be a great experience for me and I can walk away knowing a lot more about who I am and what I really want out of life.

First Trip to LotteMart for Groceries

The most difficult thing about working in a private academy (and there aren't many difficult things...) is that I get out of work after 8, wait potentially 40 minutes for the bus (the 751 intentionally avoids me), and don't get home and put all my stuff away until around 9-9:30pm. Either I just want to relax or everything is closing, but regardless of the situation I often find myself living off of 7-11's ramen stash every night. Probably not the best solution.

So since today was Saturday, I decided to try grocery shopping for the first time. I already knew there was a LotteMart underneath City 7, about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. Easy. I head to LotteMart with my umbrella in hand since it's raining pretty steadily, but the trip wasn't too bad. This LotteMart iss not as big as the one between Dogye and Shinchon, but it's still pretty big. It's Korea's WalMart, essentially.

I head to the toy section first because one of the things I definitely needed was some easy adaptable game for my kids to play so I could get them to lighten up about speaking English in the classroom. I tried it with Uno the other day on some of my older kids and it works really well. Unfortunately Uno was like 15 bucks? And every other game was very specific or had rules in Korean that I couldn't possibly comprehend. Board games didn't see to be the answer. There was Jenga, which gave me pause when I thought about all the potential in terms of sentence construction games and such (can only remove the type of word needed to finish a sentence), but I really need to develop that game more first in my head before I drop the money of something I really may not use. I settled on a deck of cards in plastic case (always gotta think about the rain during monsoon season in Korea) that were only about $2. Kind of simple, but that's good. It means a malleable product for a multitude of games like blackjack, go fish, indian poker...whatever. I grabbed that and moved on.


I meditated briefly on a rice cooker, which would probably be good in the long run, but I decided it was probably a little early for that. Now, I'm glad I decided against it (more on that later). I head over to the groceries and almost want to burst into tears once I see the price of fruit. Fruit in Korea is astronomically expensive. A bunch of grapes cost anywhere from $7-$10. Vegetables were a little confusing too, because I didn't know if that was the price per pound or what, but fruit was what really killed me because that was like 90% of my diet back in America. Needless to say, I freaked out when I saw the canned fruit aisle and canned fruit only cost about $1.50 (a can of peaches) to $3 (a can of mangos). I bought like 6 big cans of fruit.

Korea has Nutella, I think we'll be okay.

I also found peanut butter and jelly, which are a little more expensive than in America, but not by much. Bread was a killer because it only comes in tiny little half-loafs at about $3 a pop, but it was a necessity. I have to stick to what I know for now, until I can learn to cook something or get more acquainted with Korean products. It seemed dumb to buy a bunch of stuff I had no idea what it was or if I would like it. Sticking to the basics for now.

Anyone who knows me also knows Orange Juice is just about the only thing I drink besides beer. The OJ I bought at the big LotteMart last time was kind of gross, but better than nothing. This time, I found OJ 50% a half-gallon. I decided, what the hell, and bought two. Luckily for me, this turned out to be some DAMN good orange juice. Like Sunny D with out that nasty sugary taste. Also grabbed some milk and a giant box of Frosted Flakes. Some girl had a booth set up with little samples of Frosted Flakes to try and wanted me to try some but I was like "please girl, I know what Frosted Flakes taste like" (But I didn't actually say that). She was super excited when I bought a box of her Frosted Flakes. I did try a sample of the milk however, because I wasn't sure if it was milk or yogurt. Koreans are huge fans of the drinkable yogurt concept and a bunch of milk cartons were actually filled with yogurt. Yogurt is relatively cheap in Korea, or the same price as America. I grabbed some of that (to keep getting my fruit fix).

Those cartons are yogurt, not milk.

Now, to explain what makes this shopping trip obviously more complicated than it needed to be, you should know that, to get a shopping cart, you must deposit 100 Won in a little slot. I did not have 100 Won. I thought about taking an unattended cart, but I already stand out enough here without being labeled a cart bandit. Instead, I opted for one of those little green Publix-style "I only need milk, bread, and eggs" arm baskets. By this time in my shopping adventure, I have fully loaded down this little green basket to the point at which the whole thing is bowing in from the weight of all my canned fruit, jelly, peanut butter, yogurt, milk, and juices and I have to carry it with both hands. I decide that's as much as I'm getting today and head to the register.

After checking out and purchasing a few plastic bags (which are not free in Korea), I realize I am required to bag my own groceries -_-; I probably should have gotten a summer job at Publix, becaue it would have been really useful now. I had only purchased two bags (fairly deep though) and the next person had begun ringing up their items so I had to keep reshuffling my items to get them to fit properly. The damn giant box of frosted flakes had really screwed me over.

Heading out with an extremely heavy bag in each arm, I realized there was no way I could make that walk back home, and I definitely needed a bus. Problem was, I couldn't find a bus stop. I walked maybe 4 blocks in the pouring rain (arms full, so no umbrella) until I got to a bus stop. I only had two goals at this point: 1) Make it home safely and 2) Don't let my bread get squished. If my bread had gotten squished, that would have ruined my whole damn day. I was a little impatient waiting for the 213 bus (which was the one I was comfortable with writing) and jumped on the 501 (which I knew went in the same general direction). Lucky for me, the 501 is my boy! It stops maybe a 2 blocks from my apartment, which is way better than the 213.

I am soon learning that, in Korea, you don't build up a shopping list and wait for shit to run out before you go shopping. You make little micro-trips. At least, if you don't have a car. There is also the problem of plastic bags that I always run into: do I save them to reuse for shopping? Or do I use them for trash? It's always a choice I'm so torn between and Korea makes me hoard plastic bags like a packrat. I'll probably have to make another trip out today for basic household supplies like dish soap and something akin to Oxyclean, but for that I'll just go to the KSMart near my apt (more like Publix - slightly more expensive but built for convenience).

Now that daily life is starting to get under control, I'm think I'm finally ready to see the kinds of things Changwon has to offer me! I know there's a gun range near my house and a golf academy as well. I'll keep you posted on what I find out about those...

Hope you're enjoying sleeping, America!

The First Weekend - Changwonderlust (Part 2 - Sunday)

Sunday wasn't such a big deal. Just taking it easy after zero sleep and endless walking through Seoul. It took me so long to write this, because Sunday easily became Monday and I started working again.
Sunday evening, however, was fairly interesting. An American friend I have made (he works at a nearby campus) agreed that we should hoof it around Changwon and learn the city, not just the bus routes.

We make it our goal to find the large central shopping hub of Changwon - City 7.
City 7 is a mall of sorts but it's entirely made out of slightly overlapping circles and the ones that don't overlap, you walk across a short boardwalk to. It's kind of confusing to explain, but it's a pretty cool layout. Basically, imagine how most mall food courts are set up (in a giant circle) and imagine all the stores and every floor being laid out like that.

I was a little dismayed at how pricey everything was there. Lots of high end Korean clothing retailers selling suits at 40%...but they were originally 350,000 Won so...not a great bargain. I either need to find a cheaper outlet, or come to terms with the fact that I'll never get to own a korean summer wardrobe =[. I seriously wanted one too. Whatever Koreans make their clothes out of is awesome. Super light material that allows them to wear three piece suits without breaking a swear. It's like linen, but it doesn't wrinkle as easily. Clark Kent doesn't even own a suit that light and durable.

I was also a little saddened that sushi in the mall is relatively the same price as American sushi. Guess for cheap sushi I'll need to keep shopping at LotteMart. Patrick and I found a place for dinner in the mall that looked pretty good. I honestly have no idea what we ordered. We picked what was recommended "Best." The easiest way to describe it is like spicy chicken frid rice but served on a giant hotplate. We ordered some 소주 to help wash down the heat, but the food was actually really good. Only cost us about 5,000 Won apiece.

Speaking of "apiece" the only thing about Korea that legitimately bothers me is this "Korean style" of payment I keep running into. Especially when it's two post-college kids running around and one of has to pay for both of us. We haven't even gotten our first paychecks yet! Especially if you want a big night out on the town with your friends, one of you has to pay for everyone to go out to the club or dinner or whatever! That makes having friends in Korea a very expensive prospect. I mean, theoretically I think it's a cute idea, but in practice it makes things financially painful if you're Mr. Life-Of-The-Party.

So after dinner, I decide to show Patrick the bars where the Westerners hang out. Only problem is, I don't know exactly where the bars are. But I'm confident we'll find them, because I remember the general area. We take off and head down the road, passing the Changwon Sports Complex, which is an awesome area where they put all the sports stadiums in one massive area and also have a kids playground. I can't imagine why no one skateboards in Korea. Especially with stairs like this:

Or maybe these stairs are the reason there are no more skaters in Korea...

We make our way to the bars but I cannot remember where the bar was. I just remember going into a gray tunnel with a wooden door at the end. But I do remember a giant night club we find our way to called New Castle (like the beer) with a giant light up marquee that's impossible to miss. We decide to head inside and learn it is out-fucking-ragously expensive. 40,000 Won for 2 people which apparently bought us like 3 beers and a giant basket of fruit (which was delicious, but I would have preferred more alcohol). And hostesses kept bringing us snacks and pestering us for tips which was really annoying after we just dropped 40 bucks on three beers. Stop bringing me popcorn and bring me a flask. Then you get a tip. It was kind of lame though. We soon realized that Sunday doesn't seem to be the night people go out. There were maybe 9 other people there beside us.

Despite that, I have to hand it to the club...the place ran a show like we were in Vegas. We first noticed the DJ was shirtless, then two dudes in man-thongs come on stage and we look at each other like "fuck...this is the wrong kind of night club" especially since we look around and notice like 95% of the hosts were dudes. But then an extremely attractive Korean girl comes on stage in the same non-existent attire and we relaxed a little. After that act ended, a giant light-up DJ station rose out of the ground and a new DJ came out and played a set. Then, the whole stage flipped up to reveal new wall to wall lighting and a six man K-pop band rose out of the ground. It was just ridiculous. With all the hosts around, I was scared to take pictures, but I was definitely expecting white tigers and acrobats to come out next. Koreans really go all out on their aesthetics. I would have appreciated more with a bit more alcohol...but it definitely made us interested to come back on a prime night. So we took a cab home after a bit and promised to come back this weekend on a prime night.

The First Weekend - Seoulsearching (Part 1: Friday-Saturday)

Peeking in on classwork.

Finished my first week of teaching at a Hagwon on Friday. These kids are so damn cute. I actually had to kick one kid out for being insanely uncooperative, but everything after that was smooth sailing. They are generally eager learners and I'm loving my job more every day. My co-teachers invited me out for drinks after work to celebrate my first full week in Korea. I told them I would go, but I would have to meet up with them later. I had promised a random Korean man dinner and I wasn't about to bail on that drunken promise. We had agreed to meet at 9:00pm in front of 7-11. I even emailed him earlier to remind him (I don't know how much he was able to read since it was all in English). So, I show up at 7-11 a few minutes early and I wait...and I wait...and I wait..until past 9:30pm. It was beginning to look like I was the only one of us who had remembered this drunken conversation. I wait another 10 minutes before giving up and heading to meet up with my co-teachers.

We grabbed drinks and dinner at a local bar/restaurant? It's kind of hard to tell the difference sometimes in Korea because you can buy alcohol at most restaurants, and eating is a big deal in Korea so food is always a given. Whenever you buy alcohol, they typically bring out a tray full of snacks to eat with it at minimum. Honestly, the main thing that unnerves me about Korea is how everything is paid "Korean style." Splitting checks is not only unheard of, it's probably impossible for Korean cash registers. It simply just isn't done, so I felt bad that I was basically riding around on someone else's dime all night, but I suppose one weekend will be my turn and my wallet will be the one crying then.

So we had dinner and drinks at this bar/restaurant for a few hours. Many chicken dishes came and went (Koreans LOVE chicken, if I haven't mentioned that yet.) and it was all 맛있어요 (delicious). We also had what I would consider the Korean version of a sake bomb...ish. It's 맥주 (beer) mixed with 소주 (soju [a bit like sake]) and my co-teacher called it 폭탄주(pok-tan-ju), which is pretty much just the Korean word for a boilermaker. It's really delicious because of how sweet and floral the soju is (not to mention the added alcohol content).

After dinner, we headed off to a karaoke bar. I learned very quickly that Koreans have NO idea what the word karaoke means, despite the fact that it's practically their cultural pastime. They call it 노래방 (no-rae-bang) which roughly translates to the same thing. It was pretty cool. I still was floating on my co-teachers dime, but I didn't really know what else to do, so I kept drinking. We then went to a second karaoke bar (why, I cannot remember...I was pretty drunk.) and I sang a few songs, all of which my co-teachers were quick to praise and claim I had a wonderful voice. I'm pretty sure they just don't know what American songs are supposed to sound like... lol. I took some pictures at dinner, but I feel like it would be rude to post pictures of people without their permission? So I'll leave them off.

We are practically dragged out of the "song bar" at 6am and I felt terrible for keeping the staff up all night so I bowed quickly with an apologetic "미안합니다" (mi-an-ham-ni-da), to which my co-teachers drunkenly yelled "no!" at me, so I don't know if I said it wrong, or I'm not supposed to apologize to waitstaff, or I'm just not supposed to apologize for partying hard? lol. Not sure.

I had promised my friend Lais that I would meet her in Seoul tomorrow and I quickly realized tomorrow had already come. The train system is still alien to me and I was too uncomfortable to try that journey while intoxicated, so I asked my co-teachers when the first bus left for Seoul and they said seven. Realizing that was only an hour away, I called a cab, took it to the bus terminal, and purchased a ticket for the 7:30am bus to Seoul. I was hoping I could just sleep on the ~4hr (people say 5-5:30 but both ways to Seoul were 4 hours each so...lucky bus?) bus ride there, but I still needed to stay awake for the next hour in the terminal. I couldn't even ask someone to wake me up if I fell asleep, because no one spoke English -_-; So I powered though and crashed as soon as I boarded the bus.

Some points of Seoul are just sheer cliffs.

Waking up in Seoul, I let Lais know I had arrived and she told me she would be there in an hour (I had estimated my bus arriving at 1 and it arrived at 11:30) so I tried sleeping some more in the terminal, but with little success. Still, by the time Lais called me again, I was pretty alert and we started trying to locate each other using Korean signs, directions, and landmarks we couldn't understand. The problem was, we soon discovered, that the train station was not even remotely in the same area as the express bus station. I attempted to take a taxi to "Seoul Station" and was promptly told "no" by the cab driver and forced out of the cab. I will apparently learn that Seoul is nothing like Changwon and some Koreans there aren't all too fond of foreigners.

Don't let this picture fool you,
it gets ridiculously steep on the hike up to Seoul Tower.

Lais took the subway to me, but we still probably wasted a good hour just trying to find each other. Apparently she had walked into the wrong building and it took forever to realize we weren't even in the same building. Luckily, we found each other and didn't waste any time grabbing a subway train to a tourist section of Seoul with plans to go to Seoul Tower. We walked around a bit to grab lunch, and I soon got this vibe that I didn't like Seoul as much as Changwon. There was certainly much more to do, but there was also this strong foreigner presence that kind of trampled the cultural ambiance of Korea. Everyone was military, military families, or teachers from America and the U.K., and no one really had any intention of trying to fit into Korea. Quite the contrary, they all seemed to be forcing Korea to fit them. Walking down the street, I felt more like I was in a New York City street market than in a foreign country.

Benches at Seoul Tower force you to like the people you sit with.

We ate at a Subway (because nearly every restaurant was American), and this English lady had the most complicated order for a 6-inch sub ever. I swear the employee was looking for his protractor to get some of her specifications right. I made the comment to Lais about how expensive subway is here (6 bucks for a 6-inch sub that's mostly bread) and the lady turns and tells me "I know, isn't everything?" My jaw dropped and I swear I thought about hitting her. Everything is expensive because you demand culinary consistency in a foreign country. I've been eating for maybe a 3-8 dollars A DAY in Korea just by eating Korean food. So we sit down and then I have to listen to her daughter (or whatever) drone on about how cultured she is because she taught in China for awhile before teaching here, even though she's eating at Subway with a bunch of Americans right now in Korea and I suddenly start understanding why that cab driver wanted me the hell out of his cab. I don't like these people either. "Cultured" apparently now means taking your culture wherever you go and remaining wholly ignorant of the beautiful culture permeating the air around you.

Trees covered in "Locks of Love"

Luckily, we soon leave and grab a bus to Seoul Tower which....I can barely find the words to explain. I want to just leave it at "Awesome." Basically, the bus stops 3/4ths of the way up the mountain at a 7-11 type convenience store (where we ran in to get some drinks and ice cream) and you have to walk the rest of the way on foot. This doesn't seem to be a big deal except for the fact that the road slopes up at at least a 40 degree incline (That's a low estimate because I don't want to be hyperbolic....it felt like walking up a wall) and girls were walking up in 4 inch heels! Korean girls are really committed to looking good always. We get to the top and (ironically) there is a mariachi band playing in the square -_-; We take some pictures with the tower and the surrounding area, but what really catches our eyes are trees and fences 100% covered in what seem to be gym locker locks.

People lock everything from phone cases to toys
covered in messages to loved ones

We get closer and find out that is exactly what they are. Seoul Tower has a superstition associated with is that if you write a message to your loved ones and lock it to the area around the tower, you'll have eternal love and happiness (I guess because it's at such a high point...like a beacon? Not really sure how it got started). Lais and I cannot resist taking part in this cultural phenomenon, so we get our own lock and write secret messages to our loved ones. We thought about locking it to a tree, but the trees were so covered in locks, we would never find ours again. Then we tried the fence, but our lock chain wasn't big enough. We finally decided to lock our "Locks of Love"to a giant heart statue erected on the terrace that was impossible to miss. The whole terrace area was cute, with benches built so you slide toward the middle and have to sit extremely close to whoever you are sitting with =3

We picked the perfect spot to put our notes.

We then rode to the top of the tower and committed more acts of cultural love graffiti wherever possible (like everyone else at Seoul Tower), and the view from the top was breathe-taking. It's not even something worth describing, you just have to go. I was not a fan, however, of the digital floor panels that pretended to fall away when you stepped them. Children were obsessed with them, however.

Realizing I didn't bring anything with me to stay overnight anywhere, Lais took me to the bus station and I boarded the last train to Changwon going out the same way I came in - sleeping.

View from the top.

Working In Changwon - The First Few Days

So, my second day on the job ended up being me teaching entirely by myself at Dogye GnB, which I was extremely nervous and unprepared for, but it ended up going phenomenally. The first class was learning nature vocabulary and the second class was learning professions and where each profession worked in the city, so I taught both classes how to play Four Corners, but made it revolve around their vocabulary. The first group was in a garden (the classroom) and each corner was where a certain kind of flower grew in the garden. The second group was in a city and each corner was a building and they would choose a profession and run to that "building". One person stood in the middle with their eyes closed, counted down, and then guessed a corner. The kids went absolutely bananas over this game.

I'm well aware that some of the sentences on the left are fragments. I had to erase some of the board to draw the "city".

The other classes were a little more straightforward. Some were quieter, some had better English, some had worse. Overall, it was really fun. After school, one of the teachers I was replacing (Kimyn) showed up and took me down the main drag of Dogye to show me where all the important things were: dry cleaners, FamilyMart, bus stop, etc. In FamilyMart, an older man came up to me very enthusiastically and just began talking to me and asking me where I was from. He gave me his business card and I told him I'd contact him for help with my Korean and any other advice I needed on Changwon. I'm quickly learning EVERYONE in Korea has business cards. I probably should have brought my IFC ones even though they're outdated.

After we loaded some cash onto my MyB bus device (coolest thing ever), we left FamilyMart and headed over to Red Fox, a bar/restaurant (everywhere in Korea sells food), to get a few drinks and so she could help me figure out a map and bus routes and such for the two other campuses I'll be working at. After that, we parted ways and I headed home only to bump into a semi-drunk Korean who says "maek-ju?"(beer) and tips back his hand to mime drinking. I said "ne" (yes) thinking he was asking me if I had been drinking. He asks where I'm from and where I'm walking to and we walk and we talk for a minute as best we can with his very limited English and my nonexistent Korean before he ushers me into the 7-11 we are in front of. We walk back to the beer section and he asks me what beer I like. I don't know any of the brands in the case except for Heineken, so I grab it and he promptly takes it from me and pays for both our beers. I bow and saw "kansamnida" and he seems pretty pleased by my attempts at Korean, although it's clear he wants to practice his English.

We sit at a table outside 7-11 and try to communicate as best we can while knocking back our beers in the dead of night. I learned he is a soldier in the South Korean army and all that he wants is peace between North and South Korea. We bond a bit over this obviously mutual goal (who doesn't want North Korea to chill it's hostility?) and then we go back into 7-11 for more beer. I try to pay, but he won't let me. So beer and pringles in hand, we march off to my apartment two blocks away. I show him my apartment and we sit down in front of the TV and go back to our agonizingly poor attempts at communication, but it was still very cool. We finish our beers, talk a bit longer, but it's late and soon I walk him out. We agree to meet up again and settle on meeting at 7-11 on Friday at 9:00pm for dinner. After I shut the door, I reflected on how that's probably the single coolest thing that has ever happened to me. Really difficult to describe.

So obviously, after that I crash and wake up with a splitting headache. Luckily I have plenty of time before work to let it wear off, or so I thought. I had forgotten my director was picking me up at 11 to go to the doctors, until I hear a knock on my door. I quickly throw some close on and TA-DAH! She came with a internet technician to install wifi in my apartment. Happiest day ever, because now I can use Viber to call my parents over WiFi in my apartment. She then whisks me off to the hospital (pyongwon) which the most efficient system for a check-up in the world. I may as well have been on a conveyor belt. They drew blood, took x-rays, gave me an eye exam, did a urine text, checked my heart rate and blood pressure, etc. all in under probably 15 minutes if I'm overestimating. And this hospital is super cool to boot. It's a giant labyrinth that, among other things, also holds a dentists office and a gift shop...

Everything checked out and I was driven to the Dogye campus to meet up with Kimyn again so she could show me how to ride the bus to the Daewon campus. Buses are super efficient here, and cheap as well. You pay a dollar to get on the bus (normal by swiping your MyB or a phone app) and can rid eit anywhere down the line. You can even get off and swipe your MyB again on your way out to get an hour reprieve, meaning I can get off, go shopping, and as long as get on another bus within the hour, I don't have to pay again. Pretty nifty.

Daewon campus was alright. I really like the kids there, but I only go one day a week and instead of having a whole 50 minute class to myself, I have to do 15 minute segments in each of the three teachers classes sometimes. It's kind of exhausting and makes it hard to get any real content, in my opinion, but I don't call the shots. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to remember so many students at so many campuses. I hope they don't get offended when I surely forget.

The director of Daewon campus also happened to be the director the Shinchon campus where I work on Thursdays, so he offered to drive me there my first day so I didn't have to try the bus. It was the 4th of July in Korea, so expats were all raging at a bar called BK's in the part of Changwon where all the foreign bars were. Kimyn took me there and I was super excited to meet the other Americans in Changwon. I was not impressed. I showed up around 11 and some people were already drunk like college freshman making total idiots out of themselves. Some girl was redefining sloppy drunk and was pissing me off because she kept hanging on me and falling all oer the place, and I realized I much prefer Koreans in Korea to Americans or Korea. don't get me wrong, some of them were super cool and I exchanged information with a few, but like 80% of the people at that bar made me never want to go there again.

The next day I rode out to Daewon and Director Kim drove me to Shinchon and showed me around. He's such a nice man, but has this very anxious nature about him that makes me nervous because he can't seem to relax or slow down. Shinchon was a very laidback atmosphere since it was my first day. I just had conversations with all the classes, but learned that one class doesn't have a book for speaking so I have to create a curriculum for just this one class -_-; I'll work on that at some point I suppose. Then my last class was a bunch of 16 year old guys who offered me some of a pizza they ordered in class and we just talked about travelling and sports and stuff. It was cool. They asked me which was better, Korean pizza or American pizza. Hands down, nothing beats American pizza. When I get back to Florida, I'm eating pizza hut for a straight month.

This weekend I'm *hopefully* going to Seoul with my friend Lais who is going to show me around. Should be a lot of fun. I look forward to posting about that.

First Day At The Hagwon

I started sleeping somewhat normally today. Jetlag seems to be wearing off. I woke up around 9am, worked out and then killed some time while I waited for school to start. I really wasn't sure what to expect. I accidentally left my contact cases in America, so this is my MacGyver invention to replace it for the time being.

12:30pm rolled around and I headed out to find some food before I had to report in for my first day of lessons. I strolled into a promising looking restaurant and I immediately realize that there is no picture menu. There are pictures in one place and words in another and I have no way to figure out what is what. Luckily they weren't too busy and the owner took the time to help me out. I just pointed at a picture in the row and said "Can I have that?" and he counts over "One, Two, Three?" (Third picture over?),  I tell him no, fourth picture and he says "Udon!" so I repeat "Udon. One." and take my seat.

He brings over my udon and it is a bowl of noodle soup with some pickled vegetables on the side. I grab my chopsticks and start grabbing for the udon out of the bowl only to nearly sear my tongue from the heat of the soup. The owner comes over and tells me I'm eating it wrong. He gestures for me to put the noodles in a side bowl and mix it with the pickled vegetables so I do, embarrassed. The udon isn't bad. It's really thick and starchy...kind of like spaghetti but more filling and kind of squishy. It is extremely difficult to eat udon with chopsticks! It was sliding all over the place and when I slurped it the noodles smacked me in the face. I tried finishing it all, but it was extremely filling. I asked to pay and it ended up being 3000 Won for the whole meal (A little under $3). I'm going to eat there more often.

I leave with a bow and a "Kamsamnida!" and resume my walk to the school. I'm still extremely early so I walk past the school and further down the street to see what's on the other side. They have a Dunkin Donuts, a Baskin Robbins and even a Korean Hooters!

I saw a bunch of children in school uniforms walking around, so I took that as my cue to start heading back.

Korean Hooters

I arrive at the school still early and meet with the other teachers as well as an American teach from California named Kimyn. She helped prep me for the lesson and lead the first few activities so I could get the hang of it. Around the third class, I was leading it by myself and it was quite a bit of fun. The difficult part is that I don't really get any knowledge of the course material in advance since I'm not the primary teacher and I have to make up games and exercises on the fly. For one class, we were learning about directions and hunting for treasure so we ended up running around the whole campus and causing a ruckus. They're very lax about that kind of stuff and it was fun for everyone. It's kind of nice that I get to be the "good cop" and my job is primarily just to make learning English fun.

We played this one game that was like team based tic-tac-toe but you had to spell the word correctly to get on the board. Girls v. Boys. The hardest part is that some of the children are shy and not confident int their ability so they don't speak up in class as much. Other kids take over. The middle classes (9-13) were the easiest to work with while the 8 year olds and 16 year olds were sometimes challenging because they were most self-conscious about their language skills.

Modified language tic-tac-toe

Every student has their own English name that they choose and some are really adorable. One kid's name is Adonis and I asked him "Do you know Adonis is...God of Beauty?" (tried to simplify it as much as possible) and he said "Yes! I know!" haha.

In-between classes, I stopped at a water cooler and two girls were whispering by it. As I get my water, one girl says "Teacher?" to which I reply "yes?" and she gets all flustered, saying "You are....no...no...nevermind." I'm curious now, so I say "No, tell me! I am what?" and she said "very tall!"  and then runs off embarrassed.

I go grab lunch witht he other teachers which turns out to be a home-cooked meal by my co-teacher Rachel and it is sooooooooooooo delicious! I also learn the word for delicious: Ma-Shi-Se-Yo! [but written like 맛았어요 (mas-iss-e-yo)]. Korean food is so filling! I feel bad getting full so fast when they make so much food. I want to eat it all to show how much I like it!

The teachers all talk at lunch about a girl Kelly who told one of the teachers she thought I was "Very handsome" and suddenly I am reminded of the little girl by the water cooler. I describe this girl to my co-teachers and they confirm it is her. So that's what she originally wanted to tell me. Haha.

Kelly is in my next class and when the students all ask me questions about myself she asks "do you have a girlfriend?" It was adorable. Girls named Kelly apparently have a thing for me because in my high school class, a girl named Kelly asked me the same question and then giggled and said "you are very handsome." I suppose it's good that I wore glasses today because everyone freaked out when they found out I had blue eyes. lol

I think tomorrow may be harder than today, because today was mostly just introductions. I need to start building a library of education games to whip out because I'm significantly lacking in the "fun AND educational" side of class for some of these lessons.

Kimyn shows me around town after classes and I now know where the grocery store is [I bought a bottle of soju (liquor) for 1000 Won...less than a dollar], the dry cleaners, and a big shopping area called City 7 right by my house. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but for now I'm really exhausted.

잘자!

The Sky Is Clearing Up...Metaphorically

It's only metaphorically clearing up. It's still really really gray and dismal here, and unbearably hot. But something about the weather and constantly walking everywhere makes it okay for me to be sweaty all the time. It's more like a glistening than sweating anyway.

Today started off terribly as I went to take a shower and realized I had absolutely no idea how to operate my hot water heater.

Does this make sense to you?

So what started off as a simple shower and shave turned into a two hour long process of trying to translate the knobs, and even then it only made partial sense. What does one do in such situations? Cry like a baby and call in an army of helpful Korean-speaking friends! I don't think I've tapped my resource of friends so heavily as I am now in Korea. It's kind of nice knowing I have all these people here to help and support me when I need it. I never really got that feeling in America the same way.

Friends are phenomenal things to have. Elaine sending me this picture was the best gift ever.

Once I got hot water going I KNEW it was going to be my day. A nice hot shower cleared my head right up and I decided to try and find my way to the campus I have to work at tomorrow. But I didn't really have a map or anything. Luckily Min had put the addresses into my phone and I took them and put them in Google Maps, found the route, screen shotted it and ported it back to my phone to use as a static map. Great idea, huh? I thought so. This should be a piece of cake. Off we go!

A little too easy? Yeah, probably, because (As i mentioned) it's like London overcast right now and I can't tell which was is North. I figure I have a 50/50 shot, so I strategize it all out in my head and start walking.

You could never get me to drive here...

Of course, with my luck, I end up walking SW instead of NE and end up totally on the wrong side of town, so far off my printed map that when I stop at a convenience store to ask for directions, the man has difficulty helping me since he can't show me our location. He finally communicates that I need to head back down the road, so I do that and stumble upon a bus stop with a map. I compare that map against mine to figure out where I am and where i need to go, and I realize it's laid out on a grid system. After that it was pretty easy. I thought I was close at one point and couldn't find it so I cheated and found a free WiFi spot to use google maps. I had gotten within a few blocks so...good for me.

A cool looking church I pass on the way.

I show up at the school and obviously no-one is there, but I'm proud I made it anyway. I walk back home, snagging more free WiFi and using Viber to call my parents while I have the chance.

I make it home and jump online to see if Pat was done with Church and had emailed me back.

This is where I live. It looks a lot nicer on the outside than it does on the inside. lol

Indeed he was, but while I was checking his email my voltage converter literally burst into flames and released a huge could of smoke in protest. Cheap little thing. Damn Wal-Mart. Luckily, Pat's email asked if I wanted to go shopping with him at E-Mart which I now COULDN'T turn down or I would be tech-less forever T_T. So he asked me to meet him at the GnB campus I just came from in 10 minutes, so I hustle back out of the the apartment and down to the campus.

Of course I took a moment to stop and enjoy the mosaic that was set into the side of a long wall on the way...

Sushi/Sashimi a la carte

I jump in the car with him and two Korean acquaintances of his that he introduces me to, and we head off to E-Mart. We actually end up going to LotteMart, which is right next door, but both are like 7 stories tall. RAther unnecessary, but awesome. They have ramp escalator/people mover type things so you can take your cart from level to level. This place had EVERYTHING including the new adapters I needed (sadly, no voltage converter, so no 3DS for awhile). We found out that beef is rather expensive...about 10-14 dollars for 100g (not a whole lot) and so is shampoo and deodorant (astronomical prices). Sushi/sashimi, however, you can get pre-packaged or a la carte for fifty cents a piece. We grabbed a bunch of crazy looking ones like something from the squid family, something that looked like a fish made out of sour candy, and a bunch of stuff we couldn't recognize (except shrimp, salmon, and tuna). My whole meal cost me about 3 dollars.

I have no idea what the bright green one is, but I liked it.

Oh, and did I mention they have a mascot too?

Only in Korea....and probably Japan

It was quite the trip. I need to get Kakao working so I can easily contact my Korean acquaintances. They dont use Viber. For whatever reason Kakao banned me as soon as I signed up? I emailed them and still haven't heard back. It's strange and super inconvenient. Oh well, on an ending note: Some food for thought.

Rather reasonably priced too, if you can stomach it.