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