It’s been over a week since my last blog, so there is quite a bit to catch up on. It’s hard to know exactly where to start, so I’ll go back to the beginning of last week.
The school week once again found me with nothing to do. Since classes didn’t start until just yesterday, I was faced with another week of having nothing to do. We did have some crazy weather though, two days of snow, two days of sun, one day of warm wind, and one day that a sickeningly humid… crazy. My typical day would look something like this. Show up to work around 8:45am. Check in with my co-teacher, and then go to my classroom in the English Center. At this point I would basically sit around and stare at the computer, check my Facebook continuously, chat with people and just generally wait around until it was time for lunch. At 12:05 I would go back to the teachers’ office, and then go to lunch. Lunch differs daily, but you can always count on having rice, some kind of soup and of course, Kimchi. Always Kimchi. Some lunches are more exciting than others. Some have fish mixed in, others have unknown ingredients, some have tentacles… all are pretty damn good. After lunch I would go back to my office, and wait around until 5 when it was time to go home. There were a couple of days where the after lunch activities varied. On Thursday and Friday for example I had to come help make up new level tests.
Wednesday was the most eventful day of last week. Wednesday found me getting through lunch, and then, at 3 going and playing volleyball with the staff. This is always a fun event. Sadly I will no longer be able to participate as I will be working from 1 to 9, but it was fun while it lasted. After we finished volleyball everyone went to their respective offices and packed up for the day. At 5, when the day was over we all got together and went and had a full staff dinner. The Wednesday before we had had a male staff dinner, this dinner was for the entire staff. It started all 60 or so members of the staff piling into a number of cars and driving to the other side of Namchang, where there was a nice pork BBQ restaurant. We started the event off with introductions of the entire staff. Starting with the first grade teachers, then second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. Then they introduced the administrative staff, and last, but certainly not least, the foreigners. While everyone else was able to just stand up and bow, we had to go to the front of the restaurant (which was completely filled by us), be introduced, bow and then we could go back to our seats. While we were up there Matt was kind enough to remark to me under his breath, ‘this kind of feels like the end scene of Star Wars,’ at which point I had to do everything I could not to start laughing my ass off. Once we were sitting back down it was time to eat.
A note on Korean BBQ: For anyone who has never had the pleasure of having this kind of food let me paint a lovely picture of the surroundings and goings on. The Restaurant will usually contain a number of tables, all low to the ground, with cushions to sit on. In the center of the table will be either a small BBQ type thing in which hot coals are placed, or a burner of some kind. Someone will come and light the burner, or add coals and then bring you a plate of raw meat. In this case pork, but there is a number of varieties. Once you have your meat someone at the table, usually the oldest, will start cooking it on the BBQ. Side dishes are also brought out and things like onions, mushrooms, garlic and kimchi can then be added to the grill along with the meat. Once it has cooked to an appropriate degree, the person doing the cooking will pick up a slab of meat with tongs, and then, using a pair of sheers/scissors, will cut the meat into smaller, more manageable pieces. You then let it cook a bit longer, to your own taste, and then pick it off the grill with your chopsticks. Reaching over people is perfectly normal and acceptable. Once you have your meat there is a number of ways to eat it. Either simply dipping it in sauce, or more commonly, placing it on a leaf of lettuce or some such thing, adding some additional ingredients like sauce, kimchi, onions, garlic or whatever, wrapping it all up together in the lettuce and then eating it. Once the plate of meat has been consumed you finish the meal with rice and soup. It’s amazing. Oh, and did I mention the beer and soju. Those flow freely… very freely.
After around 2 hours the meal was complete and most of the Koreans were intoxicated to some degree. I myself, having partaken in the drinking as well, was feeling pretty content. This could only mean one thing, it was time to go to a Noraebang. A noraebang is a place with rooms you can rent out with your group, in which you sing karaoke style. Copious amounts of alcohol are of course available and everyone is expected to join in with the singing. So here is the situation I found myself in: I am in this small room with 20+ Koreans. Matt and I are the only foreigners. I am having flashbacks of my experience the week before and am not wanting to repeat it. There’s a crazy light show going on, involving lots of colors and a strobe light. The principle and the vice principle are singing a duet. There is a rack of beer on the table. People are pushing me up to the front telling me to dance and sing. This is, by far, one of the weirdest, craziest, most fun experiences I have had. I don’t know how I managed to make it out of there while maintaining some level of sobriety… but I found a way. I also ended up singing a number of songs with Matt, most notably ‘All you need is Love’. This ended with Matt and me holding the microphones, while swaying back and forth with all of the Koreans, arms around each other, at once.
Finally it was time to leave the noraebang after a couple hours. However, Koreans being the hardcore drinkers they are, were not ready to call it a night. At this point I was reasonably buzzed, to slightly drunk. I really didn’t want to get any further than that, but, if you want to be respected by your peers in this country you can’t back down. So, I had to get tricky. We went to restaurant where we ordered eel, beer and soju. The eel was damn tasty, the beer was about what you’d expect, and the soju was as awful as ever. I can handle drinking beer, that’s not a problem. It’s the soju that kills me. It’s nasty stuff, totally sneaks up on you. It’s nowhere near as bad as pisco, mind you, but it’s still pretty rough. Matt kept reassuring me that as long as I could keep with them, keep my cool, and control myself, I’d be in. So I did the best I could to avoid the shots, took only half shots when the time came, and resorted to some other trickery, and in the end I was able to maintain and still feel pretty good by the time it was time to go home. We left at 11, which was imperative because the pizza place closed at 11:30, and if there’s one thing we really needed it was pizza. So we grabbed some pizzas, went back to my place, ate them, and then turned in. Song Ho, my co-teacher, was pretty drunk, so he stayed at my place and slept on a mat on my floor. It was quite the evening, and the next morning came far too soon, but I felt pretty alright all things considered.
Friday was another exciting day. For one thing, I got my alien registration card. This allowed me to set up a bank account… though I still have no money to put in it… oh well, soon enough. It also happened to be Matt’s birthday. So after school I went home, took a shower, changed the clothes, and headed into Ulsan. The night started appropriately enough at a pizza place. From there we moved on to a local bar. We stayed here for some time. There was around 30 people there that night. We got there and had some beers starting at around 8:30. By 11 or so I was really hungry, so I talked Gerard into walking to McDonalds with me. Nothing is better when your drinking than fries and a couple of cheeseburgers. While we were there we talked to a couple of Korean men who were kind enough to inform me that I was handsome. Strange this country. We made our way back to the bar and hung out there until around 12:30 at which point is was, once again, time for a noraebang. This Noraebang experience was a bit different in that it was mostly foreigners there. This didn’t detract from the experience; it just meant I knew more of the songs. Unfortunately this also meant that I sang a lot more. Which was really a pity for everyone else I’m sure. But regardless, I had a really good time. I think we made our way back to Namchang at around 4AM. We were somehow able to cram five people in the taxi, which was great because it meant we barely had to pay anything.
I woke up the next afternoon, around 1:30, feeling really good. I wasn’t expecting to feel good, but I was actually pretty well rested. It was nice. Everyone else was waking up around the same time too. I got on facebook and talked to Cat who asked if I wanted to go grab lunch with her, Clare and Gerard. I was really hungry, and they were getting a seafood soup at a place next to my house, so I was all over that. I met up with them around 2:30 and went into the restaurant where we were treated to a heaping bowl of soup which consisted of homemade rice noodles, clams and shrimp. SOOOO GOOD! And only 5000 won per person. What a fantastic country. After that we went and hung out on the roof of my apartment for an hour or so. It was really fun. There was a St. Patrick’s Day party that night at one of the foreigner bars in Ulsan, so we decided to meet up and go check it out later. I went home and did some laundry, and then met up with Gerard at 9. We grabbed a quick cup of coffee and then went to Ulsan. This was my first foreigner bar experience, and I have to say, I really wasn’t impressed. It all goes back to my theory about hanging out with other Americans when I was in Chile; if I’d wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have gone to another country. So, while it was pretty fun, I was happy to leave at the end of the night. I can easily imagine avoiding places like that in the future. Just really not my scene. It was like looking around the bar and being back in the States, then looking out the window and being in Korea… I found myself looking out the window a lot.
This more or less brings us to the beginning of the week, and therefore the beginning of my real teaching experience. Monday I started on my actual schedule, which means that I got to school at noon, had lunch and then started working. The first day was level testing. Basically all of the students come in at different levels, so we have to give them tests to find out how much they know. My first group was all third graders, and mostly third grade girls. The good thing about third graders is that they don’t have an attitude… the bad thing is that they have waaaaaaay to much energy. Now, evidently I was not supposed to be giving this test alone, as I didn’t speak Korean and they didn’t understand much English. But this is Korea, and what’s supposed to happen is frequently lost in translation. So I found myself in a room with a bunch of Korean third graders who didn’t seem to understand me, and who kept asking me questions in Korean, which I couldn’t answer. This was two hour test also. A two hour test which no one informed how to give them. So I had to make it up as I went. It worked out well enough though. It was pretty crazy, but it was also fun. The test was in two parts, and the second part was an individual interview. There is something somewhat disconcerting when you sit down with a Korean child, ask them what food they like, and they just stare at you, without any comprehension. It’s at that point you realize you may have a problem.
The second group I tested was from 4th, 5th and 6th grade. This time I was fortunate enough to have a Korean teacher with me. So things went way, way smoother. Though I did have some problems with the interview questions. Some students were able to answer me in almost fluent English, on the other hand, one girl couldn’t stop laughing every time I asked her a question. Uncontrollable laughter, which I was informed, stemmed from the fact that she liked me so much. Silly children. By the time we finished it was 8pm, and it was time to go home. I was pretty worn out by this point, but not nearly as worn out as I would be the following day.
Which brings us to the following day, AKA today. Today was the first day I actually taught. Of course, I didn’t know I was actually teaching until I got to school. Yes, Korea operates on a need to know basis, but evidently you don’t need to know until an hour before you are supposed to do something. Awesome. So, since we had just received out books, hadn’t had a chance to look at them at all or anything, I decided it was time for some introduction and Icebreakers. So I put together a quick slide show about myself, made up some questions for the kids and hoped to God that this would take me through a full 50 minutes of class. It didn’t… but thank God for hangman. My first group was intermediate, older students, all in 5th and 6th grade. The lesson went pretty well, but I was left with more free time than I had wanted. I had one girl in the class who I can already tell will be a major pain in the ass. She is in 6th grade and she is anti authority. You say do something and she looks at you and says no. I had to get angry at her once to make her stop doing whatever it was she was up to. The second class was all intermediate 3rd graders… in other words, the most advanced 3rd graders. They were a lot more fun. They were all hyper, and loud and crazy, but fun. This class was almost all little girls. So far I have found out that little Korean girls love me. The bad side of that is that they all want my attention constantly. Which means a lot of screaming and shrieking. I’ve decided to go by Tim in my classes because it is easier than Ryan, so I constantly hear, ‘Tim, Tim, Tim, TIM, TIM, TIM!!!’ in piercing little 3rd grade Korean girl voices. Either that or ‘Teacha’, teacha’, teacha’ TEACHA’, TEACHA’!!!’. They are fun, and very cute, but I am sure that they will slowly drain the life out of me. The third class I taught was all the advanced students. This class was really easy because they all understood me perfectly and answered me perfectly. It was almost too easy. So I will have to up the difficulty in that class. My last class of the night was slightly less advanced, and also very loud. There were also some potential trouble makers in this group too. One boy sitting in the back of the room, with his super cool, long, side sweeping hair, decided he wanted to roll up his question sheet like a cigarette and pretend to smoke. Don’t even know what to do about that. Don’t even know where to start. Oh well.
So, what have I learned in the last couple weeks? Noraebangs are really fun. When the weather is nice Namchang is really cool. Korean food is still awesome. You can never be sure what weather you’ll have. And from my students; I have a beard, I have blue eyes, and I have a small head. Hmmm… Alright then. Well, that’s about it for now. Chao.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
One Week Down
Sometimes you don’t realize the small things in everyday life that you take totally for granted until you don’t have them anymore. Simple things like being able to read the labels on boxes that will inform you whether or not you are buying laundry detergent, dish washer detergent or fabric softener. I ran into this problem just the other day. I finally got my first 300000 won (around $300 US) as a part of my settling money from my school. So I decide that it was time to take care of some essential. First on the list was laundry detergent. So I went to the store that is next to my apartment and found the appropriate aisle… and then realized I can’t read Korean. So I sat and stared for awhile before eventually giving up with the hopes of coming back the next day after consulting the dictionary. Today I went back and was able to figure it out. That’s when I was faced with my second hurtle, trying to decipher the washing machine. Again, not being able to read Korean made for an interesting experience. Thankfully, with the help of the convenient little pictures, and pressing a lot of random buttons, I was able to figure that out too. It’s always the little things that you don’t think about in your normal routine that cause the problems.
So I started school this past week. And by started school I mean I went to school, and then spent the entire time sitting around with nothing to do. As it turns out, the classes I’ll be teaching don’t start until the 15th of March. So for now I have a loooooot of free time. Not that that’s too bad. It has allowed me to take care of some things, like getting a physical, and staring at the wall for hours on end. My first day of school started off interestingly enough. The day started by introducing all the new teachers to the staff. In Korea public school teachers change schools every two years or so. So there were a lot of new teachers at Onyang elementary, myself included. The introduction took the form of all of us walking to the front of the room and then having our names read out loud individually. After each persons’ name was read they would step to the center, bow to the room and then go back and take their seat. Guess whose name was read last… that’s right, me. It was all good though. After that we were introduced to the school via the video broadcast system that we have. So again, each teacher stood in front of the camera individually, had their name read out loud, and then bowed. When that was all done we went back to our respective offices. At this point I didn’t have an office, so I went to the teacher’s office and sat around for awhile. Then the entire staff went to lunch at a local restaurant. I have decided to eat anything and everything that is put in front of me in this country, at least once. So I have been able to eat some pretty cool/delicious food so far. I don’t know what half of it is, but it’s a good time. When we got done with lunch I went over to the Onyang English Center, where I’ll be teaching, and got oriented. It’s a really nice building. I’ve been told it’s only three or so years old. So every room has a 50 inch TV and some other nice technology. The day ended at 5pm and when I was done I went into the city to grab a cup of coffee with Hannah. It was a pretty good first day, though a bit uneventful.
Wednesday came around and found me again staring at the wall for the first half of the day. We had lunch in the cafeteria that day and I was happy to discover more delicious Korean food. After lunch my co-teacher took me to the hospital in Ulsan to get a physical. I had to take care of that before I could get my Alien Registration Card, which I need to be able to get a phone, internet, a bank account and basically everything. It was a pretty quick affair. We went in, filled out some paperwork, they checked my vision, my hearing, took some chest X-rays, checked my teeth, weighed me measured me, took some blood and I was on my way. When we got back to school I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was volleyball day. Every Wednesday all the staff gets together and plays volleyball. I didn’t know this beforehand so I was stuck playing in dress shoes and slacks, but it was still really fun. It was pretty hilarious too. The Koreans take their activities seriously. So each person had on a nice track suit. I hear they get all decked out for day hikes too, so I’m excited for the weather to get better. That night the male staff members had dinner with the new principal. This turned out to be a hell of a good time. We went to this nice restaurant just out of the city. The food was spectacular. Duck with vegetables grilled up right there at the table, and what I was told was ‘mountain pig.’ I don’t really know what make it ‘mountain’ pig, but it was sooooooo good. Where there is food in Korea there is also alcohol, and lots of it. Drinking is a national past time of the Koreans. So we drank, a lot. And in Korea it is impolite to refuse a drink when it is offered to you. So more drinking occurred. After about two hours of this I was feeling pretty damn good. We finished dinner and my co-teacher decided that what we needed to do was drink more. At this point it was Matt, me, my co-teacher, and another Korean teacher. It was only 7pm, and I was feeling only a little drunk, and he was the oldest, which in Korea makes him the boss, so we obliged. This took the form of going to the store and buying two bottles of Soju, two bottles of some horrifically sweet Korean wine, and five bottles of makkeolli. Needless to say we didn’t finish all of this. But that didn’t stop us from drinking a ton of it, all in about 45 minutes. So I was pretty hammered by 8 or 8:30pm. Not good. Song Ho, my co-teacher, was passed out in the bathroom by this point. I made my way upstairs to my apartment after an unfortunate incident involving Matt’s sink, and a revisiting of everything I had eaten in the past four hours. I think this turned out to be a blessing in disguise though, because if I had gone to sleep with all of that in my system I would have been in even worse shape the next day.
7:30am came very quickly that Thursday. I have had a lot of hangovers in my life, but that was one of the worst as far as having to be at work. It was good that I continued to have nothing to do, because I was utterly useless all day long. School passed by long and slow that day. I didn’t quite feel right until about 3pm. And even then I wasn’t 100%. I did however get to have pizza that night, so I was pretty happy about that. I also went down to the local ‘coffee’ shop with Matt, Cat, Clare and Gerard that evening which was really nice. Friday was another fun filled day of doing nothing at school. I did however find out that my classes won’t be starting until the 15th, that I will be teaching 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders, and that I will have no more than 16 kids per class, but probably closer to 11 or 12. After I was done with my nothing I went into the city to have dinner with some people. It was a pleasant sort of evening. Again with the damn good food. Had a couple beers, but nothing crazy, not even enough for a proper buzz really. But it was still a good time. Today was spent hanging out around the apartment, figuring out my laundry situation, and being generally lazy, which is always nice. Also I had more pizza.
I have been here for just over a week now. That really isn’t enough time to judge everything, but so far I feel like I am adjusting to Korea faster than I adjusted to Chile. I think that this is for two reasons. First off, before coming here to Korea I hadn’t spent more than a few months in a single place for awhile. I was already used to moving around, and think that has helped. Second, I think finding and fitting in with the community of foreigners here has helped a lot. It is really nice to have some people around who know what’s going on and who can show you the ropes. Yeah, it’s only been a week, but so far I love it here. I know that that will probably change. Things like this tend to come in waves. One week you’re happy, the next week you’re miserable. But let’s face it, that’s just life in general. That idea doesn’t just apply to living in another country. We all go through different phases like that, even in if you’ve been living in the same town your whole life. So I’m not worried about it. I’m just going to keep on doing what I do, try to keep an open mind, and get the most out of this experience. Chao
So I started school this past week. And by started school I mean I went to school, and then spent the entire time sitting around with nothing to do. As it turns out, the classes I’ll be teaching don’t start until the 15th of March. So for now I have a loooooot of free time. Not that that’s too bad. It has allowed me to take care of some things, like getting a physical, and staring at the wall for hours on end. My first day of school started off interestingly enough. The day started by introducing all the new teachers to the staff. In Korea public school teachers change schools every two years or so. So there were a lot of new teachers at Onyang elementary, myself included. The introduction took the form of all of us walking to the front of the room and then having our names read out loud individually. After each persons’ name was read they would step to the center, bow to the room and then go back and take their seat. Guess whose name was read last… that’s right, me. It was all good though. After that we were introduced to the school via the video broadcast system that we have. So again, each teacher stood in front of the camera individually, had their name read out loud, and then bowed. When that was all done we went back to our respective offices. At this point I didn’t have an office, so I went to the teacher’s office and sat around for awhile. Then the entire staff went to lunch at a local restaurant. I have decided to eat anything and everything that is put in front of me in this country, at least once. So I have been able to eat some pretty cool/delicious food so far. I don’t know what half of it is, but it’s a good time. When we got done with lunch I went over to the Onyang English Center, where I’ll be teaching, and got oriented. It’s a really nice building. I’ve been told it’s only three or so years old. So every room has a 50 inch TV and some other nice technology. The day ended at 5pm and when I was done I went into the city to grab a cup of coffee with Hannah. It was a pretty good first day, though a bit uneventful.
Wednesday came around and found me again staring at the wall for the first half of the day. We had lunch in the cafeteria that day and I was happy to discover more delicious Korean food. After lunch my co-teacher took me to the hospital in Ulsan to get a physical. I had to take care of that before I could get my Alien Registration Card, which I need to be able to get a phone, internet, a bank account and basically everything. It was a pretty quick affair. We went in, filled out some paperwork, they checked my vision, my hearing, took some chest X-rays, checked my teeth, weighed me measured me, took some blood and I was on my way. When we got back to school I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was volleyball day. Every Wednesday all the staff gets together and plays volleyball. I didn’t know this beforehand so I was stuck playing in dress shoes and slacks, but it was still really fun. It was pretty hilarious too. The Koreans take their activities seriously. So each person had on a nice track suit. I hear they get all decked out for day hikes too, so I’m excited for the weather to get better. That night the male staff members had dinner with the new principal. This turned out to be a hell of a good time. We went to this nice restaurant just out of the city. The food was spectacular. Duck with vegetables grilled up right there at the table, and what I was told was ‘mountain pig.’ I don’t really know what make it ‘mountain’ pig, but it was sooooooo good. Where there is food in Korea there is also alcohol, and lots of it. Drinking is a national past time of the Koreans. So we drank, a lot. And in Korea it is impolite to refuse a drink when it is offered to you. So more drinking occurred. After about two hours of this I was feeling pretty damn good. We finished dinner and my co-teacher decided that what we needed to do was drink more. At this point it was Matt, me, my co-teacher, and another Korean teacher. It was only 7pm, and I was feeling only a little drunk, and he was the oldest, which in Korea makes him the boss, so we obliged. This took the form of going to the store and buying two bottles of Soju, two bottles of some horrifically sweet Korean wine, and five bottles of makkeolli. Needless to say we didn’t finish all of this. But that didn’t stop us from drinking a ton of it, all in about 45 minutes. So I was pretty hammered by 8 or 8:30pm. Not good. Song Ho, my co-teacher, was passed out in the bathroom by this point. I made my way upstairs to my apartment after an unfortunate incident involving Matt’s sink, and a revisiting of everything I had eaten in the past four hours. I think this turned out to be a blessing in disguise though, because if I had gone to sleep with all of that in my system I would have been in even worse shape the next day.
7:30am came very quickly that Thursday. I have had a lot of hangovers in my life, but that was one of the worst as far as having to be at work. It was good that I continued to have nothing to do, because I was utterly useless all day long. School passed by long and slow that day. I didn’t quite feel right until about 3pm. And even then I wasn’t 100%. I did however get to have pizza that night, so I was pretty happy about that. I also went down to the local ‘coffee’ shop with Matt, Cat, Clare and Gerard that evening which was really nice. Friday was another fun filled day of doing nothing at school. I did however find out that my classes won’t be starting until the 15th, that I will be teaching 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders, and that I will have no more than 16 kids per class, but probably closer to 11 or 12. After I was done with my nothing I went into the city to have dinner with some people. It was a pleasant sort of evening. Again with the damn good food. Had a couple beers, but nothing crazy, not even enough for a proper buzz really. But it was still a good time. Today was spent hanging out around the apartment, figuring out my laundry situation, and being generally lazy, which is always nice. Also I had more pizza.
I have been here for just over a week now. That really isn’t enough time to judge everything, but so far I feel like I am adjusting to Korea faster than I adjusted to Chile. I think that this is for two reasons. First off, before coming here to Korea I hadn’t spent more than a few months in a single place for awhile. I was already used to moving around, and think that has helped. Second, I think finding and fitting in with the community of foreigners here has helped a lot. It is really nice to have some people around who know what’s going on and who can show you the ropes. Yeah, it’s only been a week, but so far I love it here. I know that that will probably change. Things like this tend to come in waves. One week you’re happy, the next week you’re miserable. But let’s face it, that’s just life in general. That idea doesn’t just apply to living in another country. We all go through different phases like that, even in if you’ve been living in the same town your whole life. So I’m not worried about it. I’m just going to keep on doing what I do, try to keep an open mind, and get the most out of this experience. Chao
Monday, March 1, 2010
First Blog From South Korea
Well, I have now been in South Korea for four days, I can tell you right now that I love it. Damn fine country. Nice, friendly people. Delicious food. But, I will get to that in a bit. First things first, the story of how I got here.
I left Olympia on Feb. 23rd. Like when I went to Chile I caught a shuttle up to the airport. My flight was at 5:30PM so I got picked up at 1:30PM. The ride up was relatively uneventful. I had a chance to talk to a lady from Minnesota about travel and such, so that was nice, helped pass the time. I got up to Seatac around 2:30PM, and checked in. Then I went to my gate and passed through the fastest security line ever. No one was in line, it was nice. I got to my gate and hung out, made some calls and got onto my computer. As it turned out, one of the other teachers, a girl named Avery, was passing through Seatac and taking the same flight as me to LAX. So we met up and started talking. The flight to LA wasn’t terribly eventful. When we got to LA we had a hell of a time finding our next terminal, what with it being in a separate building. But we got there. I made the mistake of forgetting to empty my water bottle before I went through security, and so had to go through the line twice. But we had a long layover so it wasn’t a problem. I knew that another teacher going to Ulsan was one the same flight as Avery and me. A guy named Jeremy. I got the gate but there was no sign of him. So I made some last phone calls, cancelled my cell phone service and waited. Eventually Jeremy showed up. His flight had been late from St. Louis, so he didn’t get there until around 11PM. We talked and hung out until our next flight was ready to leave. This would be a 13 hour flight over the Pacific to Seoul. I had the good fortune to get a window seat so I was able to spend the majority of the flight sleeping. Which was lucky because 13 hours is a long time to just sit and watch the same movies over and over again. I was sitting next to a very strange woman though. When I woke up she started telling me all about her acting days. She was either the most ditzy woman in the world, or she was completely drunk. I couldn’t tell which… maybe a bit of both.
We landed at Incheon airport in Seoul at around 7AM local time. We got our bags and went through customs. Then we exchanged some money, and went and found a nice quiet patch of floor to sit on so we could use the free wifi at the airport. Our next flight left at 1PM from a different airport entirely. So we had time to kill. After using the internet for an hour or so we went and caught a train to Gimpo airport. This was an adventure because we had to haul all of our bags the whole way, no carts. I was pouring sweat by the end. After a thirty minute train ride, and some wandering around, we finally got to Gimpo airport. From there we would take an hour flight to Ulsan. We had some time so we went and got some food. Then we went through security and went to our gate. We had a two hour wait until our flight so we talked and waited. Finally we got on the plane… which got to the runway… which then stopped because of mechanical problems… which allowed enough time to pass for the weather to deteriorate… which cancelled our flight… and all other flights to Ulsan that day. So we were suddenly stuck in Seoul. All the things we had been worried about had gone off without a hitch. This was supposed to be the easy part. A short, one hour flight to Ulsan, then up to others to tell us what to do and where to go. But alas, it was not meant to be.
We got back to the terminal and tried to decide what to do. Fortunately we had been given a number to call in case of a problem like this. So we called Scott Kim, who told us we should try to exchange the tickets for a flight the next day and then get a hotel room. So we exchanged our tickets for the first flight to Ulsan the next day, leaving at 6:50AM. Then one of Scott Kim’s associates came to the airport and helped us find a hotel to stay at. He called the hotel who told him they would be sending a shuttle to pick us up along with all our many bags. Well, that shuttle turned out to be a sedan. We had to cram all of our bags into the car, and then fold ourselves into it as well. It was not the best car ride I have ever experienced. But we got to a hotel and the driver said he would take us back at 5:30AM the next day. We rented two rooms for the night, one for Avery and one for myself and Jeremy. And so it came to pass that my first night in South Korea was spent sharing a bed with another man. Hell of a story though.
We got up the next day went to the airport. And SUCCESS! We made it to Ulsan with almost no difficulty. From there our various co-teachers came and picked us up to take us to our apartments and schools. We made plans to meet up at 10am with the rest of the group of new teachers and then took off. My co-teacher picked me up last. His name was Myeong Song Ho, or just Song Ho. He helped me take my bags to his car, then we left so he could show me my school and apartment before bringing me to where I was supposed to meet everyone for lunch. As we started off I couldn’t help but notice that we were leaving Ulsan behind us… and we just kept going. Next thing I know we are pulling into a small city called Namchang, fifteen minutes south of Ulsan. Didn’t see that one coming. He took me to my school, which is called Onyang Elementary School. He showed me around and introduced me to some people. Then we went to find my apartment. This proved to be rather difficult, and it took us around thirty minutes of driving around to find it. We went up and I dropped by bags off. Then he took me back to the school for a moment before driving back up to Ulsan so I could meet with everyone.
I met up with the group in front of the Hyundai Department Store. This was the second moment I felt discomforted by where I was going to be living. Everyone else was talking about how they lived just a few blocks away, or just on the other side of the city. I, on the other hand, lived completely out of the city, in a different city. A much smaller city, that took 15 minutes to get to by car or taxi, and 40 minutes to get to by bus. “Well,” I thought to myself, “That blows.” But oh well, such is life. When the whole group was there we went to a restaurant and had some amazing Korean food. Korean food is incredible and I am sooooo happy I get to eat so much of it over the next year or two. While we ate, a teacher who had already been here for six months named Kasham gave a presentation on what we could expect about living in Korea. She gave us a great rundown of proper manners and the like. It was very nice. Our group won’t get an orientation until the end of March, which makes no sense, but welcome to Korea. So this was the closest we would get to an orientation. After we ate everyone made plans to meet up that evening… except me, because I had no idea how to get to Ulsan from Namchang. I wasn’t terribly happy about that, but I decided to look at it in the best possible light. Yes, I would be very removed from everyone I knew up to this point, but it would give me the opportunity to delve much deeper into the culture of this country. So I felt a little better about it.
My co-teacher came and picked me up and took me back to my place. Then he took me to the store and helped me by some essentials. Water, garbage basket, chop sticks, cups, ramen and of course, soju. Soju is the drink of Korea. It is basically some kind of rice liquor that tastes like terrible vodka. But who am I to turn down a free drink, especially from an elder in Korea. We went back to my place and had a couple shots of soju, then he walked me around so I would be sure to know where the school was and how to get there. Only a ten to fifteen minute walk from my front door to my school, not too bad at all. He walked me back up to my place, and then I was on my own. I fortunately found out I could steal internet from someone and was able to get online and talk with some people and check in the family for the first time since Incheon the morning before. On a brief side note, my apartment is amazing. I have a kitchen/dining room, a living room, a bedroom and a bathroom. It is definitely not a small studio apartment. I watched some TV on my computer, and I was getting ready to head to bed, even though it was only 8PM when there was a knock on my door. And who should be there but a fellow foreigner.
As it turns out, there is another foreigner living in my building with me. His name is Matt Smith. He also teaches at my school, but he works during the day and I work the after school hours. Anyhow, Matt was kind enough to come up to my apartment, introduce himself, offer to show me around Namchang, and then invite me out for drinks up in Ulsan that night. So I said, hell yes, and we were off. First there was a forty minute bus ride to Ulsan, during which I met another foreigner living in Namchang, a Scottish girl named Cat. We made it into new downtown and then met up with another foreigner named George. Downtown Ulsan is divided into two parts. Old downtown, or Shanae, and new downtown, or Samsan. We spent that first night in Samsan. It was a fun evening, full of beer and soju drinking. We took a taxi back at the end of the night and I got home around 3:30AM, exhausted.
I slept until 12:30 the next afternoon. Then I took a shower and got ready. Around 2 I went down to Matt’s apartment. From there he walked me around Namchang and showed me where everything was. The best thing about Matt so far is that he may love Pizza even more than I do. So I now know all the best places to get pizza in Namchang, thank God. Not that I don’t like Korean food, because I love Korean food, but there is no greater food in the world than pizza. We walked around Namchang for about two hours, then we caught a bus to Shanae so I could see that. We walked around for a bit then walked over to Samsan before catching a bus back to Namchang for dinner with the Namchang crew.
There are currently nine foreigners living in Namchang. I got to hang out with six of them that night. Brian from Tennessee, Andy from New Zealand, Gerard from Ireland, Clare from Maryland, Cat from Scotland, and Matt from Arizona. We all met up at a Korean BBQ place. Korean BBQ is amazing. The bring you a tray full of raw, marinated pork, then you cook it yourself on a small BBQ built into the table you are sitting at. Combine that with about fifteen Korean side dishes and you have one hell of a fine meal. This paired with beer and the occasional shot of Soju made for a great dinner, which led to us going to a local bar, which led to us going to Ulsan and staying out until almost 4AM.
By the time the next morning rolled around I was pretty beat. This was Sunday, and since there was no school Monday because it was a holiday, we had another day to just hang out. It also happened to be the 28th, which means the Namchang Market was up and going. So Matt, Clare, Gerard and I went to the market. Then we went to the store and bought some beer and went and sat on our roof for a couple of hours and just hung out. My very good friend Hannah had gotten back to Ulsan late the night before, so I had plans to meet up with her and some other people for dinner that night at 7PM. So around six Matt and I went and caught a bus into the city. When we got there Matt took off to go and meet some other friends, and I went with everyone to dinner. It was pretty bizarre for one interesting reason, that reason being that of the six people who went out to dinner, four had gone to school at Western. So it was pretty strange to have four people from Bellingham all sitting together for dinner… in Ulsan, South Korea. After dinner we went back to Hannah’s place, had some wine, played some Korean games, hung out and talked for awhile. At some point during the night I was suddenly hit by what had happened down in Chile. It was a very sobering moment. I had been aware of it since the night before… but it didn’t sink in until then. That’s when I really started worrying about my Chilean friends. I went to bed fairly early that night.The next day, being today, was Monday, a holiday, so no work. Hannah came down to Namchang to visit and see my place. So we hung out for a few hours, read some Nietzsche, talked about stuff. It was a good time. After she left I went to the store, then came back and ironed my clothes for work tomorrow and cleaned up a bit around the apartment, and ate some food.
Tomorrow is my first day of school. I don’t really know what to expect. I’m pretty sure that I won’t be teaching tomorrow. I think I am just going in early to introduce myself to the staff and the students. I think there will be a welcoming/beginning of the new year ceremony, and then lunch. I’m not sure when I’ll start teaching yet, but I am very excited to begin. My first days in Korea have gone very well. I started off being somewhat apprehensive about my living situation, what with being so far away from everything, but now I am very happy about it. There is a very nice, very cool community of other foreigners out here. It’s a small city so I won’t be overwhelmed. I can make it into the city in less than an hour, and then retreat to a more quiet area when I’ve had my fill. It’s really a perfect situation for me. I think that it is going to be a great year. Well, that’s all I have for now. I hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll try to keep everyone updated from here on out. Chao.
I left Olympia on Feb. 23rd. Like when I went to Chile I caught a shuttle up to the airport. My flight was at 5:30PM so I got picked up at 1:30PM. The ride up was relatively uneventful. I had a chance to talk to a lady from Minnesota about travel and such, so that was nice, helped pass the time. I got up to Seatac around 2:30PM, and checked in. Then I went to my gate and passed through the fastest security line ever. No one was in line, it was nice. I got to my gate and hung out, made some calls and got onto my computer. As it turned out, one of the other teachers, a girl named Avery, was passing through Seatac and taking the same flight as me to LAX. So we met up and started talking. The flight to LA wasn’t terribly eventful. When we got to LA we had a hell of a time finding our next terminal, what with it being in a separate building. But we got there. I made the mistake of forgetting to empty my water bottle before I went through security, and so had to go through the line twice. But we had a long layover so it wasn’t a problem. I knew that another teacher going to Ulsan was one the same flight as Avery and me. A guy named Jeremy. I got the gate but there was no sign of him. So I made some last phone calls, cancelled my cell phone service and waited. Eventually Jeremy showed up. His flight had been late from St. Louis, so he didn’t get there until around 11PM. We talked and hung out until our next flight was ready to leave. This would be a 13 hour flight over the Pacific to Seoul. I had the good fortune to get a window seat so I was able to spend the majority of the flight sleeping. Which was lucky because 13 hours is a long time to just sit and watch the same movies over and over again. I was sitting next to a very strange woman though. When I woke up she started telling me all about her acting days. She was either the most ditzy woman in the world, or she was completely drunk. I couldn’t tell which… maybe a bit of both.
We landed at Incheon airport in Seoul at around 7AM local time. We got our bags and went through customs. Then we exchanged some money, and went and found a nice quiet patch of floor to sit on so we could use the free wifi at the airport. Our next flight left at 1PM from a different airport entirely. So we had time to kill. After using the internet for an hour or so we went and caught a train to Gimpo airport. This was an adventure because we had to haul all of our bags the whole way, no carts. I was pouring sweat by the end. After a thirty minute train ride, and some wandering around, we finally got to Gimpo airport. From there we would take an hour flight to Ulsan. We had some time so we went and got some food. Then we went through security and went to our gate. We had a two hour wait until our flight so we talked and waited. Finally we got on the plane… which got to the runway… which then stopped because of mechanical problems… which allowed enough time to pass for the weather to deteriorate… which cancelled our flight… and all other flights to Ulsan that day. So we were suddenly stuck in Seoul. All the things we had been worried about had gone off without a hitch. This was supposed to be the easy part. A short, one hour flight to Ulsan, then up to others to tell us what to do and where to go. But alas, it was not meant to be.
We got back to the terminal and tried to decide what to do. Fortunately we had been given a number to call in case of a problem like this. So we called Scott Kim, who told us we should try to exchange the tickets for a flight the next day and then get a hotel room. So we exchanged our tickets for the first flight to Ulsan the next day, leaving at 6:50AM. Then one of Scott Kim’s associates came to the airport and helped us find a hotel to stay at. He called the hotel who told him they would be sending a shuttle to pick us up along with all our many bags. Well, that shuttle turned out to be a sedan. We had to cram all of our bags into the car, and then fold ourselves into it as well. It was not the best car ride I have ever experienced. But we got to a hotel and the driver said he would take us back at 5:30AM the next day. We rented two rooms for the night, one for Avery and one for myself and Jeremy. And so it came to pass that my first night in South Korea was spent sharing a bed with another man. Hell of a story though.
We got up the next day went to the airport. And SUCCESS! We made it to Ulsan with almost no difficulty. From there our various co-teachers came and picked us up to take us to our apartments and schools. We made plans to meet up at 10am with the rest of the group of new teachers and then took off. My co-teacher picked me up last. His name was Myeong Song Ho, or just Song Ho. He helped me take my bags to his car, then we left so he could show me my school and apartment before bringing me to where I was supposed to meet everyone for lunch. As we started off I couldn’t help but notice that we were leaving Ulsan behind us… and we just kept going. Next thing I know we are pulling into a small city called Namchang, fifteen minutes south of Ulsan. Didn’t see that one coming. He took me to my school, which is called Onyang Elementary School. He showed me around and introduced me to some people. Then we went to find my apartment. This proved to be rather difficult, and it took us around thirty minutes of driving around to find it. We went up and I dropped by bags off. Then he took me back to the school for a moment before driving back up to Ulsan so I could meet with everyone.
I met up with the group in front of the Hyundai Department Store. This was the second moment I felt discomforted by where I was going to be living. Everyone else was talking about how they lived just a few blocks away, or just on the other side of the city. I, on the other hand, lived completely out of the city, in a different city. A much smaller city, that took 15 minutes to get to by car or taxi, and 40 minutes to get to by bus. “Well,” I thought to myself, “That blows.” But oh well, such is life. When the whole group was there we went to a restaurant and had some amazing Korean food. Korean food is incredible and I am sooooo happy I get to eat so much of it over the next year or two. While we ate, a teacher who had already been here for six months named Kasham gave a presentation on what we could expect about living in Korea. She gave us a great rundown of proper manners and the like. It was very nice. Our group won’t get an orientation until the end of March, which makes no sense, but welcome to Korea. So this was the closest we would get to an orientation. After we ate everyone made plans to meet up that evening… except me, because I had no idea how to get to Ulsan from Namchang. I wasn’t terribly happy about that, but I decided to look at it in the best possible light. Yes, I would be very removed from everyone I knew up to this point, but it would give me the opportunity to delve much deeper into the culture of this country. So I felt a little better about it.
My co-teacher came and picked me up and took me back to my place. Then he took me to the store and helped me by some essentials. Water, garbage basket, chop sticks, cups, ramen and of course, soju. Soju is the drink of Korea. It is basically some kind of rice liquor that tastes like terrible vodka. But who am I to turn down a free drink, especially from an elder in Korea. We went back to my place and had a couple shots of soju, then he walked me around so I would be sure to know where the school was and how to get there. Only a ten to fifteen minute walk from my front door to my school, not too bad at all. He walked me back up to my place, and then I was on my own. I fortunately found out I could steal internet from someone and was able to get online and talk with some people and check in the family for the first time since Incheon the morning before. On a brief side note, my apartment is amazing. I have a kitchen/dining room, a living room, a bedroom and a bathroom. It is definitely not a small studio apartment. I watched some TV on my computer, and I was getting ready to head to bed, even though it was only 8PM when there was a knock on my door. And who should be there but a fellow foreigner.
As it turns out, there is another foreigner living in my building with me. His name is Matt Smith. He also teaches at my school, but he works during the day and I work the after school hours. Anyhow, Matt was kind enough to come up to my apartment, introduce himself, offer to show me around Namchang, and then invite me out for drinks up in Ulsan that night. So I said, hell yes, and we were off. First there was a forty minute bus ride to Ulsan, during which I met another foreigner living in Namchang, a Scottish girl named Cat. We made it into new downtown and then met up with another foreigner named George. Downtown Ulsan is divided into two parts. Old downtown, or Shanae, and new downtown, or Samsan. We spent that first night in Samsan. It was a fun evening, full of beer and soju drinking. We took a taxi back at the end of the night and I got home around 3:30AM, exhausted.
I slept until 12:30 the next afternoon. Then I took a shower and got ready. Around 2 I went down to Matt’s apartment. From there he walked me around Namchang and showed me where everything was. The best thing about Matt so far is that he may love Pizza even more than I do. So I now know all the best places to get pizza in Namchang, thank God. Not that I don’t like Korean food, because I love Korean food, but there is no greater food in the world than pizza. We walked around Namchang for about two hours, then we caught a bus to Shanae so I could see that. We walked around for a bit then walked over to Samsan before catching a bus back to Namchang for dinner with the Namchang crew.
There are currently nine foreigners living in Namchang. I got to hang out with six of them that night. Brian from Tennessee, Andy from New Zealand, Gerard from Ireland, Clare from Maryland, Cat from Scotland, and Matt from Arizona. We all met up at a Korean BBQ place. Korean BBQ is amazing. The bring you a tray full of raw, marinated pork, then you cook it yourself on a small BBQ built into the table you are sitting at. Combine that with about fifteen Korean side dishes and you have one hell of a fine meal. This paired with beer and the occasional shot of Soju made for a great dinner, which led to us going to a local bar, which led to us going to Ulsan and staying out until almost 4AM.
By the time the next morning rolled around I was pretty beat. This was Sunday, and since there was no school Monday because it was a holiday, we had another day to just hang out. It also happened to be the 28th, which means the Namchang Market was up and going. So Matt, Clare, Gerard and I went to the market. Then we went to the store and bought some beer and went and sat on our roof for a couple of hours and just hung out. My very good friend Hannah had gotten back to Ulsan late the night before, so I had plans to meet up with her and some other people for dinner that night at 7PM. So around six Matt and I went and caught a bus into the city. When we got there Matt took off to go and meet some other friends, and I went with everyone to dinner. It was pretty bizarre for one interesting reason, that reason being that of the six people who went out to dinner, four had gone to school at Western. So it was pretty strange to have four people from Bellingham all sitting together for dinner… in Ulsan, South Korea. After dinner we went back to Hannah’s place, had some wine, played some Korean games, hung out and talked for awhile. At some point during the night I was suddenly hit by what had happened down in Chile. It was a very sobering moment. I had been aware of it since the night before… but it didn’t sink in until then. That’s when I really started worrying about my Chilean friends. I went to bed fairly early that night.The next day, being today, was Monday, a holiday, so no work. Hannah came down to Namchang to visit and see my place. So we hung out for a few hours, read some Nietzsche, talked about stuff. It was a good time. After she left I went to the store, then came back and ironed my clothes for work tomorrow and cleaned up a bit around the apartment, and ate some food.
Tomorrow is my first day of school. I don’t really know what to expect. I’m pretty sure that I won’t be teaching tomorrow. I think I am just going in early to introduce myself to the staff and the students. I think there will be a welcoming/beginning of the new year ceremony, and then lunch. I’m not sure when I’ll start teaching yet, but I am very excited to begin. My first days in Korea have gone very well. I started off being somewhat apprehensive about my living situation, what with being so far away from everything, but now I am very happy about it. There is a very nice, very cool community of other foreigners out here. It’s a small city so I won’t be overwhelmed. I can make it into the city in less than an hour, and then retreat to a more quiet area when I’ve had my fill. It’s really a perfect situation for me. I think that it is going to be a great year. Well, that’s all I have for now. I hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll try to keep everyone updated from here on out. Chao.
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