Fitting In

Beginning my 3rd month in Korea, it's actually interesting to see how far I've come. It's honestly probably farther than I ever thought I could come on my own. I started off as a "baby back bitch" who couldn't figure out how to turn on the washing machine and was afraid to leave my house because I thought I would get lost and end up wandering the streets of Korea forever.

Tonight I went out for Korean BBQ with my director and co-teachers as a sort of "going away party" for Boram, and got to bust out a little of the Korean I had learned. Earlier today I pseudo-ordered gimbap on my own as well. If I keep going at this pace, I hope to be able to hold a minor conversation within the 4 month mark. We'll see how that goes.

At some point my director just started feeding my soju,
then after I got a little tipsy reminded me
 to keep my Korean language in "polite" form.

It honestly feels like Final Fantasy X/X-2, when you had to learn the Al Bhed language. Like...at first it's all absolute gibberish..but it's more like a phrasal cipher. I keep unlocking little bits and learning more and more. It's really cool. Certainly more fun than the 3 years of Spanish I took and didn't retain a word of.

It's really a wonderful language and culture. It's really redefined the concept of gratitude for me. Gratitude isn't something you owe to someone after they do something for you, but rather something that you pay forward. You aren't thankful for what people have done for you, you're just grateful for those people. I really miss Boram at work already, after only working with her for two months, so I can't imagine how it'll feel when I have to say goodbye to everyone in ten months, potentially. 

We had the manager help us set it up
thanks to Catherine's skilled Korean.

Same with Casey and Caitlin. They'll be gone at the end of the month, and I'm not sure what that'll mean for me. Luckily, Casey has graciously been connecting me to the rest of his social network in Korea, and there are really some solidly cool people here. This weekend we went screen golfing with a Canadian couple, David and Catherine, who really made me see Korea as a long term prospect. Just listening to Catherine talk to the proprietor in fluent Korean after only a year here was an awe-inspiring insight. There's really no way to explain how cool it is to speak a foreign language on foreign soil. It's humbling and inspiring simultaneously. Their enthusiasm for the language and culture here also drove me to study harder.

Screen golf was a lot of fun, but nothing like real golf at all. I was terrible at it. The feel is totally different, and I didn't really get the hang of it until the end of the game. They were also pretty serious about it there. I would like to open a noraebang/screen golf course, because that seems like it would be a complete blast.

Casey ended up being pretty damn good.

We were mostly dicking around...

Meeting people in Korea is also pretty strange. It's very ephemeral. It feels like we're all chilling at this eternal rest stop. Some people get off the train and join the circle as other say their farewells and board the train for God knows where. Some people have grown tired of even greeting their new company since they'll most likely be gone soon enough anyway. Everything feels very spectral...very transitory...like we're all just sort of floating between dimensions. But that's not a bad thing. It's just not...America. haha. It's more about enjoying the journey than fortifying the castle, so to speak.

I finally feel like I'm fitting in. I have Korean friends, Western friends, and sort of can fumble my way through basic Korean. A few things are still on the agenda:

1) I found a comic book (manga) store, and thought it would be a great way to learn the language because of all the pictures. However, it turns out it's a manga LIBRARY, which I really have no idea how to negotiate my way around yet, so that'll have to wait a bit.

2) I opened a bank account yesterday and will hopefully a bike pass and Korean cell phone will follow.

Doesn't look like anything special, just a bank.
The ATM is what looks super awesome. Need a picture...

Seriously, Korea is the future. They use their phones for everything from bank transactions to bike rentals to online shopping to vending machines. Unfortunately, that future sucks for foreigners. lol.

They also have ATMs that let you deposit money AND checks so...yeah...we're a bit behind the times.

It's strange. Before coming here, I honestly thought my life was extremely limited in terms of what I could do professionally...but today it suddenly dawned on me...I can practically spin a globe, stop it with my finger, and any landmass I'm touching, I could go teach there. I basically have a free ticket to explore the world. I'm not sure what's next. I love Korea, but maybe I'll go spend a year in Brazil to be close to my brother, or go to Japan to be closer to Alexis, or Peru...just because! The world is full ov possibilities!

There's like a million flavors of this stuff.

I've gotten really lazy about blogging and I should spart posting useful stuff I'm learning for newbies. I'll probably post my "MTVKorea Cribs" blog/ "Survival Kit" blog soon...and I've set a goal for myself to document every single kind of triangular gimbap they sell and rate it (there is a LOT). I'll post that some day too.

This weekend should be a pretty awesome adventure. More fitting in and expanding of the social circle. I'll let you know how it goes! Good morning America! I'm off to bed!

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...

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!