Seoul-bound?

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

2011-06-08T21:45:00.004+09:00

Friday evening, the day before the concert. We were there until 11:30pm doing rehearsal and going over the plan for the big day. Mina took this picture of me when we first went in and saw the venue. You can see the stage in the background, still being constructed.

Some girls that worked for the Visit Korea organization (which is the organization that was sponsoring our dance stuff) wanted to take a picture with us. One of the guys working at the snack bar took it. Also, all of the snack bar girls and the corn dog guy decided they needed to get in on the picture to advertise their products. I'm not sure that was really necessary, since we are not famous and this snack bar is not open to the public anyhow! This was in the area only used by performers and concert staff.
Taking a break during the afternoon, a few hours before the performance.

This must have been during our stage rehearsal, because it seems lighter out and we are standing in a different order. I think I'm just off the camera to the left. I was originally on that side and was going to be dancing FRONT AND CENTER after we rotated between songs 2 and 3, but the event staff didn't think it looked right with me being the only guy in that row and being 8 inches taller than the people around me, so they moved me to the back. ㅠㅠ

Here is our big performance on stage. We are in the middle of our second dance, which translates as "Mirror, Mirror" and its kind of a sexy spin-off of the Snow White fairy tale. The lyrics for this part of the song, when translated to English go "Mirror, Mirror, who is the prettiest girl in the world?" (거울아 거울아, 서상에 누가 제일 예쁘니?). Looking at the picture it seems like nobody was screwing up too bad haha. I think it was pretty successful. But everyone was really tired from all the practice and sleep deprivation. After practice on Friday night nobody got home until after midnight and then we had to be back there at 8am, so i dont think anyone got more than 5 and a half hours of sleep.

We put in about 25 hours of work, and got paid a total of: the t-shirt and jeans that were our uniform, and some cheap promotional items such as a plastic luggage tag and some post it notes with the company name on them that totaled $3 at most. We didn't even get the tickets that they promised us (since we were the first act, we were told that they'd give us tickets so we can watch the rest of the concert).

Considering how it was a FREE VENUE I assumed that wouldn't be a problem... but apparently nobody reserved our seats for us and some other people sat in them. So they just said "sorry, somebody sat in your seats." So we were behind the stage in a skybox where we couldn't see anything at all for the first half of the concert. Then I managed to get my hands on a staff badge and me and some of the other dancers requisitioned some seats on the ground level. I heard there were about 70,000 people in attendance, and it airs on TV this Friday at 11pm.

Dance, dance, dance

2011-05-27T11:04:00.003+09:00

Tomorrow is going to be my biggest debut, to date.

I'm going to be doing the opening dance for what is probably the biggest concert in Korea. 20 of the most popular groups are coming and doing a joint 3 and a half hour concert. During the latter part of our group's opening 1 and a half minute dance (we are all foreigners) the 3 famous celebrity hosts and the groups will join us on stage.

Overall it seems like a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it. Did I mention that its also being broadcast on public television? I already told my friends to watch, so I've gotta do it well. After the dance, we get tickets to go sit and watch the concert. I hope there is some time where I can hang out with the celebrities though! I don't really care about getting a signature, but it would be cool to take a photo with them or to make a friend I can go hang out with sometime haha.

So tonight is the rehearsal where we do a run through of everything at the event site, just to work out any kinks. Tomorrow morning is another rehearsal, then we have to wait around at the stadium for 8 hours before the show actually starts... so I guess I'm stuck there all day from 7am to 10pm. But between the concert on Saturday and hanging out with 세진 on Sunday it should be a good weekend.

I'll do my best to put my performance up on the internet for those of you who don't get Korean TV channels =p

Also, got a new haircut so people would stop saying that I look like Harry Potter

Week 2 at the new job

2011-03-07T22:37:00.003+09:00

In last weeks episode I was still waiting for my pay and on Thursday a cutie named Alisa was giving me kisses. She didn't come to school on Friday...

But today (Monday) is a brand new week. I didn't get a chance to play with my class today. But when Alisa saw me through the window, she started blowing me kisses! How charming!

So, even though work is pretty crazy busy, I was in a good mood all day. Things were going well until the last 10 minutes when Sunny, a 5th-grader, broke into tears at 5:50. I had punished her for 5 minutes earlier for speaking Korean in class. Then when she got a question wrong on the trivial pursuit game she broke into tears. I guess she really wanted to win. The other teachers say she is a crybaby and cries a lot, but I still felt bad for making her cry!

Today I got randomly invited to some birthday party (I didn't realize it was a birthday party, I thought it was just dinner) for an old Italian guy and his Korean wife. His son is one of my students and I just met the guy yesterday. It was good except there were only a few people my age there. Just got home and brought some leftovers to eat for breakfast tomorrow and got to meet a few more people in Ulsan, so I guess you could call it a good day.

Planning on going to dance classes this week and next week my friends Ji-hye and Jo are going to start doing korean-english language exchange with me, so I should be busy.

First Kiss

2011-03-03T19:52:00.004+09:00

It's a new year and been a few months since I posted.
I'm out of Seoul and in a smaller city called Ulsan. It's population is maybe 1/2 of the twin cities, but spread out over much much more area. Also, all of the Hyundai factories and offices are in this town, so it's pretty much Hyundai-ville. There are Hyundai bus routes for employees. There are Hyundai supermarkets, culture centers, and department stores. And I heard if u get married in Ulsan, Hyundai will give you $500 or something.

I've really enjoyed my first 6 days here. The other teachers at my school seem cool, even though they are working overtime a lot to get all of the things ready for the new school year (teaching materials, bus routes, attendance sheets, classroom decorations, student workbooks, the list goes on).

My highlight of the week has been the kindergarten students. Since they are still getting used to going to school instead of being home with mom, we don't have English class with them this week. Instead, I'm just going to my homeroom kindergarten class with Yoon Ga-young teacher and playing with the kids in English for a couple hours. They all kinda just do their own thing but they like it when I play with them. One girl named Linda always sneaks up behind me and gives me hugs.

Anyhow, I got my first kiss today ! It was from an adorable 6-year old named Alisa. She came up to me and whispered in my ear "I love you, Matt teacher" and gave me a kiss on the cheek while I was reading a story with some of the boys. I love you too, Alisa! She was so cute the first day of class... she had a sling on her arm and she started crying because it hurt. But then we sat her down next to me and she stopped crying.

Today was my 2nd day of class with elementary students. Each class is a bit of a different dynamic, because they are different age groups. With the 5th and 6th graders, they think they are too cool to do some things. But the class is only 7 students and they are quiet and listen to me well. My other classes are about 14 students each, so I'm spending half of my classtime just disciplining them this week. On the first day I had to send one student out in the hall because he kept speaking Korean and it was distracting everyone. The class was so much better after he was out of it !

Also, there is one song where they like to change the words (this material is a bit too easy for them. They can already read and know a lot of vocabulary, but their grammar is bad so they need to start from the early levels). So instead of singing "Do you like red? Yes, I do!" they will sing something like "Do you like gold? No, I dont!" and they think its hilarious each time. I took some advice from another teacher today and when they started acting out I'd just stop the song midway. So we didn't finish the red song... but when I came back to it literally 10 minutes later they sang it correctly.

I really like all of the students so far. I can empathize with the bad students because some of these songs are not that fun, especially the 10th or 20th time you sing them. Actually I like their version better. The students that have bad behavior are a product of bad parenting or bad teachers. So it might take a while, but I'll turn them into good students. Its just a bit hard when there are 14 kids in a classroom that is smaller than a master bathroom.

Ulsan is great so far. I like my job and I'm just trying to make more friends. I might go to the dance class tomorrow (k-pop and k-hip hop dance) if I can get off and get there before 7pm. Its about a 40 minute bus ride away and I finish my last class at 6pm.

soft milk

2010-10-28T23:38:00.003+09:00

Shohei, Darae, myself, Hwayeon, Viruck, and Candice at the fireworks festival. The fireworks were nothing to write home about, but it was on the island in the middle of the Seoul river which was cool. And spending time with friends is always fun. It was so crowded that cell phones stopped functioning because of too many signals in one area, so a lot of my friends couldn't meet up with me.

This is at a free concert last weekend in Seoul, hosted by the G20 Summit Committee. There were a ton of big name performers there from Korea and other Asian countries. There were at least 15 performers, each doing 1-3 songs. I was there with Viruck, Candice, and Zou Ying. We went out and had some interesting Japanese food afterwards before calling it a night.

Wouldn't be a Korean Thanksgiving without a night of bowling with Rob & the boys.

Got a math problem? Solve it with some quick-acting "Anti-calculus" toothpaste!

I didn't pass the audition for the play, but Zou Ying did so I'm happy for her. I'm happy for me too. I feel like I don't have enough time and energy to do everything I want to do sometimes, so I can't imagine what it would be like if I had 30+ hours of rehearsal a week on top of everything else. She's a trooper.

I have an interview tomorrow for a part time job teaching 4 hours per week. What I really want to do is find a full time job (or close to full time) teaching at a private school in afternoons/evenings/weekends. Not only would it help my financial situation, but if I have a stable job where I'm not working mornings, I could continue studying Korean beyond this semester (which I really want to do, but I don't have the money/income right now). I've been looking at a couple jobs but haven't found one that fit me, as it would need to be in Seoul and be able to provide a work visa. I am thinking it might be best to just go through a recruiter like I did last time, but I heard its gotten a lot harder in the last two years. I guess being Caucasian and having some experience under my belt helps a bit though.

Next week is the midterm already. I just am getting caught up on homework now (i got behind because i spent alot of time memorizing a speech and planning a halloween party) so I don't really want to think about a midterm. This week is only the 3rd week of class, but when the semester is 9 weeks midterms come fast. My classmates are okay, but I think I enjoyed level 2 and level 3 more. A number of my classmates are hard to connect with because they are a bit older or they live in their own bubble or something, but some of them are cool. Japyeon and Wonbyeo have been playing b-ball with me when we have time and Dusang is just like what I imagined having a little sister would be like. And Dusang and Unseong both speak surprisingly good English. Taking the whole class out for a drink tomorrow night, hopefully will help them loosen up and feel more comfortable.

Yesterday was a field trip to the countryside. We made pear jam, made some traditional rice cookies using flower petals as the designs on top and pan-fried them, picked our own pears off the tree, and dug up some sweet potatoes. We got to take home the potatoes, jam, and pears. I used the time at lunch to teach drinking games to all of my classmates, so we don't need to waste any time explaining the rules tomorrow ^-^

I really enjoy my student life here. Hopefully I can find a job soon.

keeping busy

2010-09-12T20:38:00.002+09:00

I didn't have much time last time so I just posted a picture. Our school took the field trip to the biggest amusement park in Korea, Everland. It rained alot, but it was cool to hang out with my friends from 5 different countries. We were all pretty tired after walking around all day.

We finished the final exams on Thursday. Our school and grades are a bit different that a typical school, in the sense that the goal is not to get an A or to graduate, but rather the goal for every student is just to learn as much as they can and pass the test to advance to the next level. As such, instead of aiming for a 95% to get an A, we just aim for a 70% to advance. Since I know I did all my homework and I did well on my speech during the semester, I wasn't too worried going into the exam. We got our Reading/Listening scores back on Friday, and i got a 79 in both. Haven't got the speaking or writing scores yet, but I know i'll be able to go to level 4. Alot of friends and acquintances are on pins and needles waiting for those last scores. We have classes on Monday and Tuesday next week still, so they won't tell us our final grade until then (they are still calculating attendance and class participation, and telling us our grade now would basically kill any motivation to come in to school next week).

There is a school play next semester, acted out entirely by foreign students. I have an audition tomorrow and will likely get in, but the more I think about it the more it seems like a bad idea. The first reason being that it doesn't really seem like a very interesting play to me. It's a well known korean play that seems like a historical comedy, but the lead role is a woman and the two main roles for guys are not very appealing to me. One is a blind old man that walks around with a cane, and one is an evil man who is always up to no good and cheating on his wife. There is definitely no "hero" role to be had. If I take a more minor role, such as the heroine's husband it might be more appealing, but since we will be practicing full time for 6 weeks, at 36 hours a week (while doing a full course load) I don't really want to spend that much time on it if I'm not going to be a main role. I would like the opportunity to perform, meet new friends, and practice my korean all at the same time, but I'd basically have to sacrifice a lot of things due to time constraints, which includes doing the dance club at school, playing basketball w/ friends, working out at the gym, hanging out (And studying with) friends during the afternoon. Also, it seems like it would be pretty difficult to have a part time job, social life, or a girlfriend during that time, as I have to practice until 6pm every day, even sundays. I'll go to the audition tomorrow, but that doesn't mean i'll take the job.

Also, the month i paid for at my current home ends in 8 days, so i was thinking of moving next week. I looked at one place today that seemed better than my current place. The window is really small, which sucks, and it doesn't have a refridgerator like my current place, but it does have an A/C. Also, at my current place the internet always goes down where the weather is bad, and even though the landlord only has to reset the internet to get it back up, he sometimes doesn't do it for a day or two, even if i ask him to. Still contemplating it. I'm asking some friends if they know any good places. I kinda want to get a change of scenery. Also, this place has rice prepared 24 hours a day. decisions, decisions...

Our graduation ceremony is on Wednesday. I will be doing 2 dances with our dance club. All in all it should only take an hour or two for the ceremony, and then we are officially on vacation. Not sure what i'll do on vacation, but I'll try to keep busy.

깜찍이

2010-08-30T02:00:00.001+09:00

평소 생활

2010-08-21T11:03:00.004+09:00

My Chinese friend Sung Bak, participating in the beauty pageant at our school. Take a second look... did you know its a guy? So is the person in the background.

This is a picture of when I went to Dongdaemun with Junya on Monday. As I get more accustomed to Korean life, I've been taking less and less pictures. Nothing in Korea really surprises me anymore.

The midterm exam went okay. I wanted to get all A's of course, but that's not possible. I don't know of anyone who did that. Overall, the test was much more difficult than the test at level 2. I guess I did better than my other American friends. Even Junya, who always got A's on reading and listening, did a bit worse this time. But the scoring isn't like a typical school. So even if you get a B or C, that's not something to be disappointed about.

We had the school festival and I was in the talent show dancing with some of my friends. It went okay, we got 4th place (since when do they have a 4th place anyhow?) I didn't have any illusions of grandeur and would have been quite fine not winning anything. But I was upset that my friend Zhu Xuan only got 3rd. She performed a traditional chinese dance that she has been learning for more than 10 years. I thought it was really good. The two groups that beat her out were not as good. They each had one person that could dance, but the others couldn't. I think I'll be getting access to the video next week so hopefully i can post it on here.

Other than that, I've decided to go to China during our school break next month (about 4 weeks away). But it might take me a couple weeks to get my Korean ID card (which i need to get the visa) and to get my tourist visa to China. But that gives me time to plan the details of my trip. A lot of my chinese friends in korea are going back to China during the vacation, and the ones that I've told my plan to have invited me to hang out with them in China. The problem is that China is as big as the continental USA and they all live in different cities. Zhu Xuan invited me to her hometown, which as far as I can estimate is about 300 miles south of Beijing. Hao Yue is going back to Beijing, and Fei Ya is going back to her hometown which is about 5 hours from Beijing. I think Min Rui might be going back too, but her hometown is right near Hong Kong, which would be quite far from everywhere else. I don't think Junya wants to go back this semester. Also, Zhangyan invited me to hang out in Shanghai and Suzhou. I don't have time to go everywhere, but I think Beijing and Shanghai are musts, right?

Next weekend our school takes a trip to Everland amusement park... all 600+ students at the Korean Language program going together. It will be cool, especially because we are going on a Friday I think, so it shouldn't be too busy. Also, we can stay later than the allotted time if we want, so long as we get our own transportation back.

Lastly, the finances are shoring up, especially with having just paid for enrollment for my next semester, and setting aside some money for the China trip. After I finish the next semester (mid December) I will need to start working. I'll be looking for a job in Korea or China. I have a couple months to ponder it still, but if I had to decide now, teaching at a Korean kindergarten sounds like a lot of fun.

I wish I could say...

2010-08-08T22:56:00.005+09:00

... no animals were harmed during the taking of the midterm exam, but I'm afraid that might not be the case. See below.

It's midterms Monday and Tuesday this week.
I'm not worried about my Korean ability, but I am a little worried about the role-play speaking test tomorrow. The girl I got paired up with has the strangest accent ever. When she speaks Korean it sounds like she's trying to strangle a cat with her voice. I can't understand half the stuff that comes out of her mouth. My strategy is to try to confuse her by asking complicated questions before she can confuse me. Here's hoping that I do well tomorrow and that there aren't any cats in the immediate vicinity of our school !

the week in retrospect

2010-07-30T16:12:00.002+09:00

This week has been tough because I've been so busy, but its full of highlights.

Dance club activity started on Monday. This semester only 15 students got accepted, so half or more of the students who applied can't do it, which sucks because 2 or 3 friends plus many of the people I met in the club last semester are not able to do it this semester. We are learning the dance for "bad girl good girl" by Miss A (a korean girl group of 4 members). I've been sore all week since doing that on Monday though, I think I kinda got out of shape during the school break. Also, today I played basketball for 2 hours with some various friends and random people. I think playing that 3rd game was a bad idea. My whole body hurts. I have a couple hours of free time to relax, and then i'm going out for dinner and drinks with 8 or 9 people from my class. I'm kinda worried that they're all just gonna speak Chinese though, as that is what generally happens when 2/3rds of them have the same native tongue.

As far as school, I feel like I'm doing good because I got a 100% on Monday's test and I know I did really good on my speech yesterday. It's tough to speak for 5 minutes in Korean and memorize everything. Most of the students couldn't even do that, and if they did, they were so worried about remembering the words that they made other mistakes, like having monotone intonation, mixing up the polite and casual speech forms, etc. Despite the fact that I was going on 3 hours of speech, I think I nailed it. Compared to the other 7 students that have done their speeches so far, I'd say mine was at the top for accuracy, fluency, delivery, and pretty much every other way of measuring it. Also, my sentences were much more complex. Some of the people were just like "and then _ _ _ happened. And then I did _ _ ." They describe it very accurately by using precise words, but as the topic was "My most ______ing experience" I think it doesn't really draw you into the story when they just speak like that. My sentences were like "While I playing computer on the first floor of our home, my twin brother kept hitting me, but regardless of how much I yelled, our parents wouldn't come downstairs." So, I'm not sure exactly what criteria the teacher is measuring it by, but I think I was best both for my Korean ability and for my delivery style. I'm really happy about that, as I enjoy giving speeches and whenever I have a test or project I want to do my best. Junya's speech was good (and funny too) and I could understand everything because I'm very familiar with her accent by now, but I think some of the other people had trouble with her pronunciation. Nonetheless, it by far wasn't the worst pronunciation in our class. We had to grade our classmates presentations, which I despise. I just gave everyone 90 or 100%, regardless of how bad it was. There were a couple speeches where we couldn't ask any questions during the question time, because there was so much we couldn't understand and we didn't want to embarrass ourselves by asking something that was mentioned in the speech.

There is a talent show next week and I passed the audition doing my Korean pop dance, but I don't want to do it by myself so i'll probably just withdraw.

Life is good.

no news is good news

2010-07-25T20:39:00.002+09:00

I'm hoping that my lack of any updates lately would be evidence enough that I've been busy. My motto is
미치도록 공부하고 (study like crazy)
미치도록 일하고 (work like crazy)
미치도록 놀고 (play like crazy)
미치도록 사랑하자 (love like crazy)

It's a good creed to live by, but it doesn't leave me with too much time to wonder about my blog. After getting back from the states, I've been in Korea for 3 weeks. We have had 2 and a half weeks of class, and everyone in my class is pretty cool. Mostly Chinese students, but if I can isolate them by themselves or in small groups I can get them to speak Korean with me. But, like with my Korean friends, when the vast majority speak one language then they really just tend to speak their mother tongue rather than a language that everyone can understand. So during our break time between classes all I can hear is Chinese in our classroom, unless I'm talking to one of the few students who are not Chinese. As such, I seem to be talking to 유카 (Yuka) a lot. Don't misunderstand though, there are a lot of cool Chinese students too. 준아 (Junya) who was in my class last semester is with me once more. And 하정, 유이, and 화걸 (Ha-jeong, Yu-i, and Hwa-geol).

These days I'm hanging out with Min Rui a lot more. We met at the dance activity club last semester, and have a lot of common friends. Her, Yu-i, and Jun-ya have been teaching me Chinese when we have time.

Besides that, what else is there to say? I'm busy preparing my 5 minute Korean speech. The topic is about "Being born as a twin." I thought it was a good topic, because most of the students in my class are only children and don't understand the joys and hardships of having siblings. So I have a few days to memorize it all, as I'm speaking on Wednesday. I volunteered to be first; going first is best because otherwise the anxiety just builds over time. Other than that, the dance club starts up again tomorrow, and I have a one-day part time job at the school that pays $70 for an hour and a half.

I had dinner with some Chinese and Japanese friends that I met by chance at the library. I was trying to be cool and was eating some hot peppers really quickly. I guess that plan kinda backfired, as my face changed to an uncomfortably red color and I had a bit of a stomachache afterwards. I seem to be in the clear now. I can feel my face again.

생일

2010-06-02T10:34:00.003+09:00

My birthday is almost half over, but it hasn't even started yet in the States. It's my second birthday in Korea, and I'm glad that I have the chance to celebrate it with my university friends. Today I'm going to cook some chinese food for lunch with Junya and then tonight should be fun going out for dinner and drinks with my international friends.

We finished our last practice of the Hip Hop Dance Group at school. The performance was supposed to be tomorrow, but suddenly they changed it so that we are performing at the graduation ceremony on June 18th, which sucks because I'll already be back in the States. I guess I can do a solo performance when I get back .

Last week we took a field trip to 남이섬. (Nami Island.) The bus ride was an hour and a half. After getting there, we have to wait for the boat to ferry us across. And then we ate lunch together with our class. By the time that was done, we only had an hour and a half to explore on our own before we had to go back. My favorite part was when I went to the bathroom and there was a class of 20 kindergarten boys in there and they all point at me "외국인!" (Foreigner!). I said "아냐, 내가 한국 사람이야 !" (No, I'm Korean!) and they got into a big argument with me. Some of them were really confused, and ran outside to ask their teacher... who in turn was very confused as well as she had no idea what had transpired in the bathroom.

On the bus ride back, everyone was tired and Junya fell asleep on my shoulder. I forgot my iPod so I just studied korean with my cell phone dictionary.

On the weekend, I stayed close to home and studied Chinese with my Chinese friend, Haoyue. Also, Friday night was the school festival. There were alot of rumors about which famous singers were gonna come. Two of my friends told me that Lee Hyori was coming, so I stayed there until 10:30. But there weren't any good singers. I was glad to see After School perform though. They are a group of 5 girls that I missed out on a chance to see in Gimcheon last year. It's hard to imagine I'll be back stateside in two weeks... I should start buying some souvenirs to bring back.

Staying out of trouble

2010-05-24T17:50:00.003+09:00

Since moving to Seoul, I haven't has as many opportunities (or as much motivation) to take weekend trips to other cities. But, with the 3-day weekend thanks to Buddha's birthday, I got that chance last weekend.

On Thursday afternoon (after classes were finished) I had lunch with my Doumis (helper students that the school paired me with) and then took the bus to 청주 (Cheongju). I met up with Viruck and Candice, and we hit up the town for some barbeque, playstation arcade, karaoke, and beer. Slept the night in 청주, and then in the morning met up with my friend 민애 (Minae) and together with some of her friends (7 of us in total: me, 1 Italian guy, 1 Korean guy, and 4 Korean girls) took a road trip. Our first stop was 전주 (Jeonju). This city is very famous for its "Korean Traditional House Village." Its about 1 sq. mile and all of the buildings look like the traditional korean style. We had 비빔밥 (Bibimbap, rice mixed with various vegetables and a chili pepper sauce) which is the famous food there. It was good, but the only real difference from 비빔밥 made elsewhere is that they added a walnut and a few pieces of jejube. Because of the traditional appearance of this town, sometimes its used to film movies that have a lot of flashbacks or take place in the past. One of my favorite movies, 클래식 (The Classic) was filmed here.

After that, we got back in the car and continued driving south for about 2 and a half hours. We got to the home we rented for two nights (see picture above). It was in an area with alot of hills and forest, and was really beautiful, especially when the mist rose up over the forest. It had a barbeque outside, and inside there was a kitchen, bathroom, and two rooms. Friday night we grilled outside and enjoyed the nice weather.

Saturday it was raining non-stop all day. We went to the nearby mountain, 지리산 (Jiri mountain), which is one of the most famous in Korea. There is a temple not far up, which was cool. And then we hiked 2.5 km along the path which took us quite far up the mountain and to a beautiful waterfall. The constant rain was a bit bothersome, and made for a few slips on the way down. By the time we got down, it was time for a very late lunch and then we went to a tea museum. When the first person brought tea to Korea and gave it to the king, the king ordered that the tea be planted on this mountain. So this mountain is the origin of Korean tea culture, since about 700 CE. By the time we got to town, most of the shops were closed... but we managed to buy some sushi, chicken, and various other things to make a delicious meal. We went back to the house to eat and enjoy a few drinks.

Sunday morning we had a big breakfast of ramen and fried rice. I'm not a big fan of ramen to begin with, and it's not exactly how I like to start my day ㅋㅋ But it was good to get some food in our stomachs before we left. The trip back home took 8 and a half hours (from the time we left that lodge until I got back to my apartment). So, it was a bit difficult because I hate to sit still, but spending time with friends is always fun. Spending two days with the same people non-stop is a good way to make friends. And actually I found out that 병일 (Byeong-il, see picture above, and no... I have no idea what he's doing) graduated from the high school that I taught at last year. Its a big coincidence since that town is so small that nobody in Seoul even knows where it is, and there are about 7 or 8 high schools in that town. So it was fun to talk with him about the school, because we knew some of the same teachers and famous places nearby.

민영 and 민정 (Minyeong and Minjeong) who were in the same car as me for a good portion of the weekend.
보라 (Bora) and Luka. They've been a couple for 6 years, but can't speak each other's languages. They always speak in English and are a really good couple.

anything but static

2010-05-17T20:23:00.003+09:00

Everything in America changed so slow. I've had the petal to the metal ever since I came to Korea. But perhaps that metaphor is a little erroneous, as it implies that I have some control. But everything in Korea changes faster than I can understand it. Really, the best way to live is just to follow your heart and do what feels right. If you have a good heart, and a good head, regardless of the speed that you are going at, regardless of how badly you screw up, it won't be so bad that someday in the future you won't be able to get back on your feet and exclaim "whew, that was fun!" and take the lift back up to the top of the hill. It's hard to imagine that all of these blog entries have been written by the same person, and its safe to say that these journals only scratch the surface of my daily life and daily thoughts in Korea. I think I really have changed alot, and I suppose that will be tested when I travel back to the states next month. What changed -- me, or my environment?

I took the midterm test last week. My listening and reading results were 91% and 95%. They are respectable scores, but fell short of my idealism. I am really proud of my class, as we all did quite well. Lets just say if this were softball, and it was my class against the other level 2 classes, this game would've been called early due to the 10-run rule. I suspected that we were much better at Korean than the other classes, and i'm glad to have this confirmation. Especially Junya, 100 and 99?! I'm proud of you!! But I guess I chose the wrong person to make a bet with. Let's just say breakfast is on me this week. Tomorrow we get the writing and speaking results back. I think I am pretty good at both of those, especially writing, so I'm eagerly awaiting those results.

Today I was informed by my teacher that they want to take a few photos for some school-related purposes. He was pretty vague... which I now know was due to the fact that he really didn't know anything about it. If he were right, it only would have taken a minute. But instead, I spent a good 2 and a half hours there with about 10 other students. The korean classes are 95% asians. So I think it was a little odd that the 3 young, handsome white guys and the 1 black guy among the 200 students all got selected to this group of 11 students. But when they chose the girls, they didn't pick girls that were young or pretty. What are these pictures for, and who are they marketing them to? I knew it was serious stuff when I saw that I had to get my hair and makeup done before we started shooting. They really went a little overboard and made me look like 구중표 but its okay. I think they didn't really have the right makeup tones for white people, but that would be implying that i have some knowledge in the field of cosmetics, which is definitely not true. It was hot and dragged on forever, but I got to be the lead role and I got to spend some time with old and new friends such as 소신.

This weekend is going to be great, as I'm taking a road trip with 민애 and her friends (1 italian and 4 koreans). I don't know much more beyond that. It's a three day weekend thanks to Buddha Day. Looking forward to another great week, one day at a time ^^

삼천 단어

2010-05-10T22:03:00.003+09:00

A picture I took in my new apartment... I haven't changed that much since I came to Korea!

The beautiful cherry blossoms on Well-being Road between the two campuses of our school.

Junya, when we went to the amazing coffee shop near our school.

织女

2010-05-09T11:39:00.002+09:00

Lately it feels like some things, such as school, are moving at light speed while other things are standing still. Some time ago this rate of progress would have irked me, but actually I think that everything in my life is where I want it to be now, so standing still is great, so long as it doesn't become monotonous.

Next week is the Mid-term exam. I haven't had a midterm at this school so i dont know what to expect exactly. But there will be a 2-minute improvised roleplay with a partner, an interview with a teacher, and a written exam. I guess that pretty much covers everything, speaking/listening/writing/reading/pronunciation/vocabulary.

Last weekend, two of my good friends came up to Seoul and we had some fun. Their procrastination and indecisiveness are really bothersome, but once we finally get to doing something its nice. We ended up going to the Buddhist temple together on Saturday and we went to Seoul Forest Park on Sunday. We were six in all, and Me and Junya opted to go rollerblading while the other 4 elected to bike.

Life is good. I'm busy. I'm ready to go back to the States next month to be a best man, spend time with family, and catch up with friends. But.... how will I fare for two weeks without Korean food?

winds of change

2010-04-25T20:11:00.004+09:00

Lately, it seems like everything is changing so quickly. Even my daily life changes so drastically from week to week, day to day, especially since I moved to Seoul. I traveled to Singapore and Malaysia, started a part time job teaching one evening a week, broke up with 세정, and have been hanging out with my friends from around the world.

With 4 hours of class every day, studying, homework, I would be quite busy even if I didn't have a social life. But that would be neglecting to mention all of the new friends I've made. I have Korean friends that I do language exchange with 3 or 4 times a week (I teach them English, and they teach me Korean). And through the buddy system at school I have two Korean buddies that I will be meeting up with weekly starting this week. And for the last week or more, me and Junya have been hanging out every day. Also, I joined a club activity at school and am learning a little hip-hop dance. It's tough, but at least I'm not the worst one. Played ping-pong with some of my Chinese friends. I can learn alot by playing with them, as I still maintain that ping-pong is the national sport of China (If you're curious, the national sport of Korea has to be Starcraft).

Being single again is refreshing, but presents its own unique challenges. Another challenge I've undertaken is learning Chinese. I'm not very good yet. The pronunciation is surprisingly easy, but the writing is hard... I only remember about 20 words from university and learned a few more from Junya. She is a good teacher. I think at first its difficult because I have to remember phrases. In the future, it should become easier, as I will have some vocabulary to work with to form sentences.

I'm busy, but I'm with great friends and I'm happy. See you tomorrow, Junya ^^

천사처럼 이다

2010-02-26T02:57:00.003+09:00

Me and my girlfriend, Sejoung. ^^
We took the picture in Masan. This is out in the wilderness on some mountain. We explored the area and took some photos before going for lunch. If it looks like I'm hungover, unshaven, or didn't shower, well... =)

Seoul-bound

2010-02-22T22:29:00.003+09:00

Over a year ago I made this blog in anticipation of my impending arrival and ensuing adventures in Korea. Finally it has lived up to it's name. I've moved to Seoul. My school contract finishes in 2 or 3 days, but I'm using my vacation days now so I came to Seoul two days ago on Saturday. My friend 세정 (Sejoung) came to 김천 (Gimcheon) with her car to help me. Together we made 김밥 (Kimbap). It's a common korean food, you can find it at restaurants, street food stalls, and convenience stores. The flavor can vary depending on the special ingredient u choose to add. Common varieties are Kimchi, Tuna and mayo, or Cheese. No matter which type you're making, you'll probably be using the 김 seaweed wrap, 밥 rice (mixed with sesame oil and salt), 단무지 pickled radish, 우엉 the root of lettuce that is soaked in some sauce that turns it to a dark brown color, 햄 ham, 게 crab, and 단근 carrot.

Sejoung and I made tuna kimbap, so we also added tuna and a dark green leaf. It tastes so great when its fresh and the rice is still hot!

After that we started the trip to Seoul. It is only about 130 miles and we took the highway the entire way but it still took about 5 hours because of traffic. Korea has alot of traffic, especially on highways and in and near Seoul. We arrived at my new apartment saturday night, but it took me 48 hours to get everything situated. I had pretty much everything i needed... but I had to go to Home Plus with 나윤 (Na-yun) yesterday to get a blanket and pillow. My first 48 hours in Seoul have been great, but I have the feeling that they are much more meaningful to me than to anyone else reading this. To sum it up, I have spent time with friends, set up my new apartment, and explored my school campus and the areas near to my apartment and school. And I already have a few more plans this week. I think Seoul will be great, especially once I start my school and get some private lessons to make money. I like to be busy !

In conclusion, my new room is a bit smaller than my apartment in Gimcheon, and the price is about exactly the same. The Gimcheon apartment was a little bigger in the main room, plus it also had a kitchen, bathroom, and laundry closet. In my new place I share those things with other people on my floor, so its kind of like college dormitory all over again... but I don't mind it (yet). I wish there was more space so that I could invite friends over more often, but other than that I don't need more space for anything. And since I don't have family in Korea, I can feel a little bit of community here. I'm on the 4th floor, so there are only 3 other people sharing the kitchen and bathroom with me, and Korean people usually shower at night so I haven't had any problems with waiting to shower.

I've come to realize in the last year that so long as you have enough money, space, and things to survive, they really are not important. The one thing that is truly important is people.

I guess I'm not quite Buddhist yet. Buddhism says we should detach ourselves from everything in this world (including other people), because everything is only temporary. It seems noble, but it also seems very apathetic.

Happy New Years !

2010-02-14T18:24:00.004+09:00

Happy New Years!! That's right, the lunar new year is a much bigger holiday in Korea than the New Year of the solar calendar. This year, the lunar new year is this weekend. It's a three day holiday from Saturday to Monday (Feb 13 ~ 15 this year). Today is the main day of the holiday, and coincidentally is Valentine's Day also. Of course, Valentine's Day here is quite different than in the USA! It's not quite so romantic. Men don't have to buy anything or make any special plans. This day is just for women to give a gift to her boyfriend/husband/special guy.

I think this must be the most important holiday in Korea. It's called 설날 (Seul-nal). This and Korean Thanksgiving, 추석 (Chu-seok) are both given three days. I guess its hard to imagine because we don't have any 3 day holidays in the USA. The first day is spent preparing the food. The second day you are with family and extended family eating a big meal and just spending time together. I guess the third day is flexible... some people might spend it with family and some people just go about life as usual.

And the special dish that Koreans eat on New Years is 떡국 (Ddeok-gook). 떡 (Ddeok) is the korean word for rice cakes. 국 (gook) means "soup". And thats what it is, a soup made with rice cakes (and other things). This seemed like the perfect time for me to try my hand at cooking Korean food, as this dish is relatively simple and an important dish. So yesterday I bought the ingredients that i didn't have at home and here you can see my photo of all the ingredients that I prepared before I started cooking !!

This photo has pretty much everything I'd be using, except the dumplings which were still in the freezer! I could probably make this in the states too, if I could find the rice cakes at an asian market.

Pretty much everything has made its way into the pot at the point and the rice cakes and dumplings are cooking nicely in the water and broth!

This is the finished product !! Garnished with some lightly cooked egg yolk and crumbled seaweed!

the whole

2010-02-03T23:53:00.003+09:00

where to begin? I haven't had a serious entry in more than a month.... as such, i doubt anyone reads it these days.

This is my last month in Gimcheon. Rural, country, quiet Gimcheon. As such, I've been doing things a little differently. The last two weekends i went down south to Masan, Changwon, and Busan to meet old and new friends. Before I went down there I only knew Viruck and Miji. Now I know Viruck, Miji, Hyunok, Hyuna, Jaegyoung, Changhee, Yuhee, Jingu, Jenny, Hyebin, Sejeong, Sunhwa, Myeongsa, and Mina. Feels like i'm forgetting someone though? I wish I could live there... its almost as good as Seoul! There are two downtowns in Masan, one or two in Changwon, and a few in Busan! All the cities are so close u can get anywhere by bus and there are many cool people.

Jenny is one of the coolest foreigners I've met, and the only one besides me who has more korean friends than foreigner friends. Saturday she wanted me to blind date with one of her friends, so we went to a coffee shop. It didn't really seem like a blind date though, more like just meeting each other. Anyhow, it was kinda boring til we went out for dinner and drinks afterwards. Suddenly it's me, Jenny, and 4 korean girls! They were all good at drinking too! Soju, beer, or some combination thereof. They were all really cool to talk to. Two of them were english teachers, one was a radiologist, and one some sort of office worker.

This weekend I'm going to Seoul. I hope I can hang out with 현민 for a while. But i'll be busy. I'm gonna spend a day (probably saturday) looking at places to stay... most likely one room apartments and maybe a boarding house or a multi-room apartment, if i can find a potential roommate. Saturday night is temple, and I'm planning to meet Sejeong on Sunday. When I travel on the weekends i always book every minute of my time. I hate having nothing to do when i'm not at home. When I went to Japan it was the same way !

Also, I knew I was in a bad neighborhood but i never really knew how bad until recently. My korean is good enough that I can understand the names of places like 꿈의 파크 (Park of Dreams) and 항상좋은그날 (Always a Good Time). Since its my last month here, I was taking a walk down some of the side streets that I've never been down before (really theres not much reason to ever leave the main street). I saw alot of shady places. 다방 is a special word for a coffee house... but at this type of coffee house there are women and other activities involved. Some other shady places that i dont need to mention also, and then the motels and places that are shady but at least they don't pretend to not be shady !!

Fitz

2010-01-11T21:53:00.003+09:00

OK I know its not your fault Fitzgerald and ur an amazing player but...

Why did the referees not call pass interference penalties on you when you pushed Woodson over on TWO DIFFERENT PLAYS? Both plays resulted in a TD by you, as the CB defending you was sprawled out on the ground. Not only that, but they called a "roughing the passer" on one of those plays when the guy got blocked into Kurt Warner. If the lineman pushes you into the QB, its not a penalty, even if your hand touches the QB in the head briefly. How can you call that and furthermore miss penalty on Fitz? In the Ravens/Patriots game the referees didnt waste any time calling that same penalty when the defender was holding his ground and Randy Moss ran him over. This was exactly the same. I guess we got the wrong referees.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T14:53:00.002+09:00

Even though I don't believe in the religious aspect of Christmas, it really has a way of bringing people together and making them feel loved. So I'm taking a moment here to wish anyone who reads this blog a Merry Christmas. Enjoy some time off from work, being with family and friends, reminiscing about this year, and planning the next one.

So, a special thanks to the important people in my life, including but not exclusive to:

Mom, I really admire your enthusiasm and your decisiveness. I've tried to be more like you in those regards.
Dad, you've helped me keep a laid back approach and to see the big picture.
Bob, you've had to put up with me more than anyone. I don't think anyone else could have put up with being so close to me for so many years as well as you have.
Paul, thanks for always going along with what I say or think. It's nice to have someone who has such confidence in me.

민채, I couldn't have survived my first year in Korea without you. I've never felt so close to anyone, and I know I can always depend on you.
Alex, your trust in humanity is really refreshing to me because I certainly don't have it. Even when we don't agree, I think we always find a way to benefit each other.
여주, your understanding and self-motivation has been really encouraging to me. And when you don't understand me, thanks for always assuming the best ^^
Danny, your complete disregard for anyone else is inspiring. It's a great trait that you aren't afraid to be yourself in any situation, and to let people make their own judgements about you.
김수진, 이주현, 정지혜, 배수진, 진희연, 허민, 이인환 and 최혜진, thanks for helping me in times of need at my school. You're all busy with your own work, but always take the time to give me a reassuring smile or to give me a hand.
Joel, I admire how you never get discouraged and always keep fighting, even when you have no idea what lies ahead.
Zach, I dont even know what to say about you. You are the king of not caring. I think your ability to look neither back at the past nor into the future is quite endearing. You have a charming personality.
Viruck, you are so selfless to everyone around you, friend or foe. A great quality to have, especially since most Koreans seem to think Americans are so selfish.
진성, thanks for being my korean mother, even though you're only 3 and a half years older than me. You are the most caring person i've ever met, and always take care of me -- when I need it and when I don't need it.
Yuriko, we just spent less than one year together at university, but in the last 4 years we've always been able to depend on each other, whether in USA, Japan, or Korea. I don't know when I'll see you next, but I'm looking forward to it.

Also, to my grandparents and other extended family, and to Ben, Smokey, 미정, 유진, 지영, Dan, 슬기, Alex, Jozsef, Jill, Julie, Haruna, 석영, 효정, 은선, 유선, Irene, Candice, Sandile, Rob, Erin, 준, 현순, 나윤, Mona, Mandolyn, Haiyan, Mira, Annika, and everyone else in Korea, USA, Japan, China, Canada, Germany, England, New Zealand, Australia, Russia, or another place. I can't honestly say that my life would be the same without your influence.

Happy holiays ^^

반갑습니다 ^^

2009-12-17T10:41:00.000+09:00

제 소개를 드리겠습니다. 제 이름은 매튜 브레신 입니다. 미국 사람 이고 한국 나이는 26살 입니다 (미국에서는 25살 입니다). 김천에 살고 김천고등학교에서 영어 회화 선생님을 하고 있습니다. 저는 학교에서 보통 옷을 편하게 입습니다. 매주 21개의 수업을 가르칩니다. 주일은 너무 바쁩니다. 그래도 주말에 자주 여행을 합니다. 다른 도시에도 친구가 많이 있습니다.

비록 진짜 가족은 아니지만 서울에 한국 엄마와 한국 누나가 있습니다. 저의 진짜 가족은 미국에서 살고 있습니다. 미국에서 어머니, 아버지, 누나, 남자쌍둥이 동생과 남동생이 있습니다. 누나는 플로리다에서 살고 있고 남동생은 로스 앤젤레스에서 살고 있습니다. 현재 제 가족의 나머지는 미네소타에서 살고 있습니다. 저는 미네소타에서 태어났고 21살까지 살았고 플로리다 대학교에 입학 했습니다. 2007년에 제 고향에서 다른 대학교를 졸업했습니다. 대학교 졸업 후에는 은행 사무실에서 회계로 일했습니다. 그리고 올해 2월에 한국에 왔습니다. 앞으로 고려대학생이되기 위해서 알아보고 있습니다.

Iron Chef Gimcheon

2009-12-09T12:54:00.002+09:00

using my friends idea to evaluate the cafeteria food today... you know that if its worthy of a blog post it was either really good or really bad...

so today's secret ingredient.... ONION!

The main dishes...
1. Udon noodle soup, without the Udon noodles (basically onion-flavored water)
2. Half sandwich. There is no meat on the sandwich, just egg, onion, sugar, and ketchup. Hard to taste anything but the sugar...
3. Kimchi mixed with onion. They somehow managed to incorporate onion into the traditional korean dish that we eat daily...
4. Rice mixed with lotus root vegetable and onion

Very low score awarded for taste and plating... however, i'll give them a few points for creative use of today's secret ingredient. I've began to notice that there are less teachers eating in the cafeteria every day...

성탄일 12월 25일

2009-12-04T11:49:00.004+09:00

I'm sure I'm skipping alot of things, but as I don't update as often as I'd like to, lets just skip to whats important...

Yuriko came to Korea last week! Even though she lives in Japan and has been to roughly 20 countries, it was her first time to come to Korea. I think she really enjoyed it. Of course, I didn't find out she was coming to Korea until I got her email "Hey Matt, I arrived in Korea yesterday!" I was working during the week, but I got to see her in Seoul on Friday and Sunday.

On Friday, I went to Namsan Tower with Yuriko, Grace, Kim, Kris, Erin, Jihye, and Jihye's boyfriend. It was cool because Yuriko showed me Tokyo Tower when I was in Japan a few months ago. And its always fun to meet new people. At the tower, there are so many locks locked onto the fence. Couple write love letters on the locks and then they can keep the key or throw it away. It was funny to read them. Its a popular tourist spot, so while there aren't many tourists in Korea you can still see some written in English or Japanese, though the vast majority are in Korean. The messages are pretty simple so I can understand most of them. After that, we took the bus to Myeong-dong. Its one of my favorite areas in Seoul. Its the hub for Japanese and international fashion. There are also many restaurants, shops, and other things. Of course those were all closed. We went to a 김밥 restaurant (cheap korean fast food) and got alot of things to share. After that, Kim, Grace, JiHye, and her boyfriend left. But I went to a bar with Erin, Kris, and Yuriko. We had some somaek (soju + beer) and lots of those complimentary cracker things... about 4 bowls. We had to leave when they closed at about 2:30am. So the next logical progression was 노래방 (singing room). Even though Kris and Yuriko put up some resistance to the notion of singing, they both had a lot of fun once we got there. I forget who suggested that we keep singing after our first hour expired, but it wasn't me. We left sometime between 5 and 5:30. We went to the Jjimjilbang to get a communal sauna and shower before going to sleep.

Waking up at 11am was not fun. Yuriko left the jjimjilbang before I woke up! I had a bit of a hangover but it was bearable. I went to Anguk to meet 호랑이 (tiger)! I was surprised to meet her on the subway! We were both in the same subway car on the way to our meeting place. After we arrived, we spent a long time searching for 칼국수 (i'm not sure why she wanted to eat this). Finally we found a restaurant that serves it. It's a white noodle in a soup... and you can mix peppers and black pepper into the soup for seasoning. It was pretty tasty. After lunch we did alot of window shopping and then got some tea and ice cream. Sadly we both had plans for the evening, so we had to part ways while she went back to 수원 to play with friends and I went to Anam 원불교. At the temple, I met up with Yeoju, Jinsung, Hogyup, and some other people whose names I can't remember. I think Mira was there too (was she the one playing piano?). Our discussion group was small because half of the people were not there. But we had a multilingual philosophy debate over a plate of kimbap and some milk. After that, I slept at the house of one of the group members whose name I can never remember. His father wasn't home this weekend, so it was just the two of us and his sister. I appreciated it that when he phoned his sis to tell her that I'd be sleeping over that he didn't mention I was a foreigner, as people always think that's worth mentioning but I think i'm just a normal person. Besides, it was funny to see her shocked expression when she came in the door. Yuriko calls me at 1am (better late than never) and my phone dies after that.

Sunday morning. I take a quick shower and then we go out to the bakery to get a quick breakfast. I go to the convenience store to charge my phone and buy a Public Transportation stored value card. I get a 10% discount using buses and subway, I can transfer for free, and its really convenient. I just strapped it onto my phone. We played gonggi (a korean game similar to jacks, but better?) killing some time in the morning. Then I was back at the temple because today was the special ceremony for new members. There were about 10... half of them were babies. I had to give a speech as I became a member of the temple. Nobody explained to me what it was that I was supposed to be speaking about. So I just gave a speech full of generic inspiring rhetoric and tried to speak at normal speed or faster, so people wouldn't be able to understand me. Finished it off with 1 word in Korean! Pure Gold! I got a round of applause. We had lunch after that (in the temple) and then I went with Yeoju to her university (kookmin university) to kill some time until my plans with Yuriko. My initial plan was to go ice skating with Seulgi but she was sick!

I met Yuriko at 4pm. While waiting for her friend, I taught her how to play gonggi. I gave her the game and she gave me some Japanese caramels. With her friend Kan, we toured Jungang University then he stayed to meet some friends while Yuriko and I headed north (near Insadong) to meet her friend 재원 (Miss Korea). We had dinner and then did some souviner shopping with Yuriko. We found a shop that had photobooths to take photos and did that quickly... I need to practice my impromptu photo posing. Then we had about an hour so we walked to the station, got my ticket and waited together at the station for 15 minuutes for my train to arrive. After failing to kidnap Yuriko into the train, I resignatedly walked to me seat. I was happy to see Yuriko and Miss Korea outside my window a minute later! We mimed goodbye while taking photos of each other through the window, while I tried to explain in Korean to the girl sitting next to me that she should join in on the photo. The train departed all too soon.

Yuriko is the only friend I've hung out with in 3 countries. Actually, I can't even think of another friend I've hung out with in 2 countries. I need to travel with friends more often.

On the train, I didn't get any sleep because I was talking in Korean to the girl next to me for the entire 3 hours. I got back to my apartment at 2:30, I was so tired! The girl from the train sent me a text message the next day asking me to come drink with her, but as it was already after midnight and she wanted me to take a 30 minute taxi ride, I wisely decided against it, as I had to work the next day.

The students have finals in less than two weeks. I'm looking forward to that day, when I can take a little bit of a rest. I hope to teach them about American Christmas next week!

Happy Holidays to anyone who may read this.

Heartbreaker

2009-11-02T14:38:00.004+09:00

Viruck, me, and Sandile. These are my closest guy friends from orientation.

SeokYoung and myself. When I showed the pictures to my class, the students all said "So beautiful! You make girlfriend, ok?"

Me, Kim, and Will. You can see my entire costume: wig, apple, t-shirt, arm tattooes, wristbands...

My beautiful friends -- Candice, SeulGi, YeoJu, and Kim!

Another successful party under my belt ! I love throwing parties in Korea. It's so much work to organize it and to convince everyone that it will be better than any other plans they have for the weekend, but it's always worth it! After going to 원북교 (Won Buddhist Temple) with 여주 (YeoJu) we went to 홍대 (HongDae) for our Halloween party! Alot of people got there before us. But we met up with Sandile and eventually found everyone. Since nobody lives in that area, it was quite a task. Let's just say morale was low once we all met up (about 20 people) and everyone wanted to do something different (eating food, go to a bar, go to somewhere with no cover, go to an RnB club, etc.) We bumped into YeoJu's friend, SeulGi, at the subway station in HongDae. We changed into our costumes in the bathroom: I was G-dragon (the leader of the boy band Big Bang), YeoJu was a traditional Chinese beauty and Seulgi was a sexy Phantom of the Opera. Next we met up with Sandile, who wasn't wearing anything that could be considered a costume, spare a set of devil's horns.

Everyone else was at one of two places. The vast majority of my friends were in a nearby bar, but SeokYoung was in a 노래방 (singing room) with her friends. Eventually we met the large group at a park and we went to search for a good place to get some alcohol. It was great to see everyone again. I hadn't seen Mando, a slutty 1950s housewife, and Jane, a sexy witch, in months. Kim was looking great in her Zorro costume and I met Young, a pirate in the loosest sense of the word, and Tristan, a better-dressed pirate, again for the first time since Mando's house party in April. There were a few new faces as well. Of course, Viruck and Candice were there too in their ridiculous disco vampire costumes. I met Will for the first time in his cat facepaint, and I feel he is worth mentioning because of all the people I met for the first time, he stayed with us the longest.

We made our way to BricX because there is no cover and I thought it would have alcohol and food to please most people. But nobody ordered food and it wasn't that great, so we left after 10 or 15 minutes and went to a club we passed on the way that had no cover charge for people in costumes (hey, thats us!). Once we got inside, we were a bit disappointed to see that our group of 20 people more than doubled the amount of people in the club (maybe 12 or 15 before we came). But because our group is so cool, we made it fun. SeokYoung came and met up with us there too. She was looking so lovely in her bunny costume (though she needed a tail!). We had some crazy dancing and took some photos. We all got to get some alcohol in us but we had to move on to bigger and better things before an hour had elapsed.

It was 1:00am. If there wasn't anyone in the club now, there would never be. So we went down the street to a place I had been to once before. I think technically i'd say its a bar, but they were playing loud music and felt like dancing. So our group was acting like it was a club haha. The cover was only $5 and it came with a free beer. Also, the mixed drinks were strong and cheap. Everyone really got into it. We were pretty wild. Everyone among us seemed to take off in small groups between 3:30am and 4:30am until it was only me, Kim, YeoJu, and Sandile. But for a while it seemed like just me and Kim, as YeoJu was searching for her phone (why does this always happen?) and Sandile was god knows where (maybe searching for women?). Kim and Sandile both took off at about 5am. After that, it was only me and Yeoju. Even most of the other people in the bar had left by then. So we went outside and I grabbed some cash at the 7 Eleven. We met some interesting people in the street who were curious about my costume. I have to admit the girl in the Storm costume had a really good wig and outfit. But the guy in his TaeKwonDo outfit was really lame haha. After getting some cash, we went to have one more drink at a nearby bar. I guess things ended exactly how they started, with just me and YeoJu in the subway station bathrooms changing our attire. We hopped on the subway after 6am and I got some sleep at 6:45am ^^

Korean field trip

2009-10-10T15:12:00.002+09:00

HS field trips in Korea are so much better than those in the States. I remember our field trips were usually going to a museum, theater, or classic music performance. Of course we did go to Valley Fair once, only to have to take measurements at the theme park and do lots of calculations and hours of homework.

Yesterday, all of the first year students and teachers went to a Ski resort. The students played paintball, had a picnic lunch, and went hiking. The teachers drove ATVs, had a picnic lunch, and took the lift to the top of the mountain to enjoy the view. It was nice because the resort staff kept the students in line so the teachers didn't have to control the students all day. Oh, the bus ride can be difficult though, right? One and a half hours to the resort? Not a problem, the students can watch a movie or TV on the big flat screen on the bus. Of course, my students opted to do karaoke instead so we had 3 hours of karaoke (1 and a half hours each way).

I opted to play paintball with the students rather than hang with the other teachers at the beginning. I was playing with class 1-2. Everyone was very cautious playing the first game. I was the first one eliminated... some bad students in class 1-3 (on the sidelines) provoked one of the students into teamkilling me and shooting me in the back. I stayed away from him in the second game and got 2 or 3 kills. The main problem was that each student only had 20-25 paintballs in their gun. So after getting down to about 5, I just made a suicide run. I got one of the 1-3 students a couple times in the stomach before he just clipped me in the shoulder. It was a good run. The paintball and the ATVs really get the adrenaline going.

The ATV was fun, as we took it across dirt, pavement, grass fields, rocks, loose gravel, mud, etc. The grass fields were great. The grass was about a meter high in most parts, so you couldn't see the lie of the land. Also, it was the only part where I could go as fast as I wanted to (i was usually stuck in a line behind the instructor and other teachers). When we went down the narrow paths, the other teachers tried to avoid any large rocks or puddles of mud. Naturally, I went through every obstacle I came across (i mean, we are in an "All Terrain Vehicle" so I think its more fun take advantage of its unique properties rather than drive it like a car). I was going full speed all day, in paintball, ATVs and whatever else we did. Finally I got a little tired on the bus ride back. The karaoke was too loud to sleep, but I was text messaging friends and studying korean words in my dictionary. Before I knew it, we were back in 김천. We had a dinner together with all the 1st grade teachers, vice principal, and principal before we parted ways.

Intermission

2009-09-22T13:27:00.002+09:00

I'm going to take an intermission from talking about my Japan trip because of some noteworthy developments (hence the title "Intermission." Yea I know its not very creative).

지난주말은 서울에 갔어요. I went to Seoul last weekend. 금요일 밤에 진성 엄마 서울역에서 만났어요. I met JinSung-mother at Seoul Station. 진성 나를 한국 엄마처럼해요. JinSung is like a Korean mother to me. 토요일에 일찍 일어났어서 에버란드 가요. Saturday we woke up early to go to Everland (amusement park). 강원역에서 여주 만났어요. We met YeoJu at Gangwon Station. 진성과 여주는 날 한국에서 두명 가장 친한 친구들이에요. JinSung and YeoJu are my best two best friends in Korea. 진성는 유치원선생님이고 여주는 대학생이에요. JinSung is a kindergarten teacher and YeoJu is a university student.

In the interest of time... lets finish it in English. I went to Everland amusement park with YeoJu and JinSung. We had a picnic lunch and had lots of fun. At about 3pm we met up with Viruck, Candice, and Willie, who are all foreign teachers in Korea. And around 5pm we parted ways. JinSung, YeoJu, and myself went to AnAm Won Buddhist Temple for the weekly service and we had a meal and discussion afterwards. On

On sunday, we slept in late and went to the temple for the lesson for new students. I made some new friends at the temple. One girl was really kind and helped me with a lot of translations. I wish I could remember her name. Afterwards, JinSung, myself, and some of the guys had a quick dinner before I got on the subway to Seoul Station. I got the 8pm train back to Gimcheon and I reclaimed my hoodie that I had forgotten on the train on friday. On the train I was surprised to see my friend Tiana sitting only two seats behind me. I was so engrossed in conversation with her that I didn't see JinSung waving goodbye outside my window... Oops! Sorry JinSung! But I had a wonderful time last weekend and I'm so thankful for friends such as you and YeoJu!

Lastly, ever since summer I've been weighing a few possibilities as to what I should do next year. They all consisted of me staying in Korea, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to teach at my high school for another year, move to an elementary school, or become a student. Also, I wasn't sure where I wanted to teach/study. But my mind is clear now. Next year I really want to be a student in Seoul, studying the Korean language. Possibly at a SKY university (SKY is an acronym for the 3 best universities in Korea). So this week I'm going to look into the process of getting enrolled in that starting in Feb/Mar 2010.

Nippon 3

2009-09-16T14:43:00.002+09:00

Day 3:
I cant really remember much about this day... maybe if I start writing about my day it will spark my memory. I think I had some time in the morning, so I wandered around Asakusa (the area near my hotel. It's a big tourist area because its a traditional area with temples and shrines and other things to see. I headed to Shibuya to meet up with Yuriko and her friend Gabi. We met at the statue of Hachiko, and Yuriko was late (like always). Not just a few minutes late... but late enough that I felt it was worth mentioning. We went to a famous music store in Tokyo called Tower Records. Two months prior, my favorite singer had released her first solo album in 5 or 6 years. I was happy to see they still had a big display of Shiina Ringo items in the store. I was able to pick up her new album and see all the items they had. They had reprints of old magazines with articles on Ringo, and of course lots of newer magazines (June 2009) and even a few books. One book was a biography of Ringo, another was a scrapbook of her life, especially her career. It was really cool but the price was roughly $100. I realized that she is one of the most popular Japanese singers in Japan, even though nobody outside of Japan seems to know about her. It's kind of curious, since her style seems to be one that would lend itself well to international acclaim -- She has alot of English in her songs compared to artists such as Ayumi Hamasaki who is one of the most internationally recognized J-singers. And she is very uniquely persistant, along the same vein as Bjork (but obviously to a lesser degree). Anyhow, I digress. I could have spent all day in that store but Gabi looked bored out of his mind, so I figured it was best if we left. But it was cool to see some of my favorite J-singers albums and magazines. I also saw albums by Utada, Perfume, and other groups/singers.
It was hard to find the backcopies of the June magazines so we search for those a little more in another store, with no luck. At this point the days kind of blend together. We went into a secondhand clothing store that had a lot of kimonos, but maybe that was on day 2. And we went into a famous electronics store... I think that was day 2 also, because i remember Yoshiko being there.
Back to day 3. We were walking and came to a park, where we got some ice cream and rested. Then we decided to go see Tokyo Tower in Southern Tokyo. When we made it there it was already dusk. It was quite expensive to go to the top. So, we just stayed at the bottom and explored the temple near the base of the tower and took photos of the tower. It was pretty cool in the evening because all of the lights come on.
After that we went to an Ainu restaurant. This was one of the most interesting things that I did in Japan, so I don't think I can fully summarize it now. I'll update more later. Cya~

Nippon Ni+

2009-09-15T11:58:00.002+09:00

Day 2: I met up with Yuriko (it was good to see her again!) and her friend Yoshiko. Together we went to the Tokyo Sky Tree (the new Tokyo Tower). It wont be finished until 2012... so its only about 30% built now. Then we went to some other cool spots. We went to Shinokubo (korean district in tokyo) and saw a few Korean fan memorobilia shops. Some Korean actors and singers are quite popular in Japan. And I took them to a Korean restaurant where they could have kimchi 김치 and Naengmyun 냉면 and taught them how to eat Korean style. After that, we headed to Shinjuku. Near the station, on the bridge, were some girls dressed up in cosplay outfits so I took my photo with them. We went into the nearby Meiji temple, but it immediately started raining. We eventually made our way around the shrine though. This is the largest temple in Tokyo and the torii arch is the biggest of its kind in Japan...I think. At the temple, we got our fortunes. I got the Japanese fortune and Yuriko and Yoshiko got theirs in English. I only remember one of them now... something about the mirror of life and how you view yourself and others in the mirror. Another friend of hers met up with us as we left the temple and we wandered around until we eventually found our way to Shibuya. I got to see the statue of Hachiko the dog at the station there, which was cool because I had written a question about it for the English Listening test that my school held a few days ago.

We went to a nice restaurant that was in the basement of a building. The atmosphere was very traditional, yet still classy. I got to try some Japanese shochu (like sake, but stronger... maybe 25% or 30% alcoholic content). I wanted to order the horse sashimi but the waitress said they were all out... but we got a variety of food and it was all quite good. One of the dishes was raw meat (chicken, maybe) with a raw egg on top of it. Then you mix it together and eat it. During the meal there was an earthquake (there would be a few noteworthy earthquakes this week). I couldnt feel it, but everyone else could and we could see the blinds and lamps swaying from the impact of the earthquake.

Nippon Ichi v1.2

2009-08-20T14:40:00.003+09:00

Japan...
perhaps I should just break it down by day?

Day 1:
I awoke at the abysmal stroke of 4:30am. I had to get on the train at 6:20 in the morning. On the train, I met a woman who works in the school office at another high school in Gimcheon. Her name was ... 이지용... I think. It was nice because we have a common friend and some common acquaintances, as we would come to realize. I think when you meet someone in that kind of situation its like a gift that keeps on giving.

I took a shuttle bus to the airport and was able to check-in and go through security in a combined time of about 6 minutes. So I just was sending text messages to all of my friends that I would miss while I was in Japan. And all too soon, I was on the plane going to Japan!

On the plane I met a woman from Peru who is a student at KEIST university in Korea. It was interesting to hear the viewpoint of someone who is a student in Korea, rather than another teaching going through the same program as me.

After landing in Tokyo, I was able to call Yuriko and say hi, and she welcomed me to Japan. Since I wouldn't be meeting her until tomorrow, I decided I'd take the hour-long train towards downtown Tokyo so that I could find my hotel and get acquinted with the surroundings. On the train I was fortunate to meet a Japanese woman who quite helpful. She showed me all of the key places on the subway map and I was surprised to learn that she can speak some Korean. Actually, she is fluent in Chinese, English, and Japanese, and she can speak decent Korean also. When I meet people like that, I always admire them so much. Especially someone who worked so hard to learn the languages. Sometimes people grow up in a country or household that speaks 2 or more languages. But growing up in the United States and Japan, you really have to work hard to put yourself into situations to learn about other languages and cultures.

I explored the area for a couple hours before checking into my capsule hotel. The area is famous for the traditional sights and souvenirs, so it was a good place to see. I found a small shrine to Inari that was really peaceful and surprisingly well-taken care of. Considering how small and hard to find it was, I expected it to be somewhat neglected. I still dont understand why the fox statues were always wearing red bibs though. Maybe because people always make offerings of food to Inari when they pray for a good harvest or business success? Not that the stone statues can eat the food, though. Ironically, there were a number of cats that lived at the shrine. I think Inari (being a fox, and a member of the dog family) would be upset to know that cats were inhabiting his shrine.

My hotel was quite nice... but the staff spoke very bad English (which was surprising, as half or more of the guests were foreigners). Every room (I use the term "room" in the loosest sense of the word) had a TV and alarm clock! But I only got 1 channel on the TV. It was just there in case I wanted to rent adult videos (at an extra charge). But there was a community bathing room that was good. It had shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Also, there was a hot tub (too hot for me), a sauna (too hot for me) and a balcony that you could go on to air dry or enjoy the scenery of Tokyo (its more beautiful if you're naked?).

At the hotel, I met a guy named Alfredo from Chile. As we were both flying solo that night, we decided to team up and explore Tokyo together. All of the best downtown areas were quite far from our hotel, though. First we went to Ueno. We ate some dinner there and saw lots of Pachinko parlors. We tried to go into a bar but they kicked us out because they don't serve foreigners. So, we headed to Ginza and got a couple drinks at a Spanish bar that we found. We saw a movie being filmed in one of the alleys outside of a restaurant/bar. But most things were already closing down, so we headed to Roppongi. It is known as the best place for foreigners. Actually, there were lots of black guys out on the street trying to lure customers into their establishments. These establishments were all quite questionable, however (or sometimes, there was no question about the type of establishment it was... but it certainly wasn't anything we were interested in.) Finally we found a nice place though. It had a unique mix of different foreign ethnicities as well as a number of Japanese people. I met some guys from Mexico and talked to some Japanese people. There were so many Japanese women in kimonos on this day because of the fireworks festival in Tokyo. And the kimono are so beautiful that sometimes I'd just see the dress and think that the woman is gorgeous, but after seeing her face I'd realize it was quite a different story altogether!

There were some crazy signs in the subways sometimes. I mean, this is common sense! DO IT AT THE BEACH!

Sadly, we could only stay for an hour because we wanted to catch the subway back to our hotel before the subway lines stopped at night. We made the mistake of taking a bathroom break before we went on the subway though! We just missed one train and ended up getting on the last train bound for Asakusa. The train didn't finish it's route, though >_< we got kicked off near Ginza as they made everyone leave the subway line. We tried to walk towards Asakusa.... but it was so far. We met four Japanese people who were standing on a bridge. They laughed at us when we told them we would walk to Asakusa. They said it will take us 3 hours or more. After chatting with them for a bit, we walked a little more and then just decided to get a taxi, which is quite expensive in Tokyo. I went to sleep so I could wake up relatively early the next day.

Of course, I had to check out the night view of Tokyo from the rooftop terrace before I went to sleep.

END of day 1.

Nippon Ichi

2009-08-19T22:29:00.003+09:00

Japan was amazing. I had a total of 8 days and 7 nights there. On one hand, it really was too short to see Tokyo, Kyoto, AND Osaka. After leaving each city, I really regretted that I couldn't spend more time there. I bought a number of things there that will help me to remember my journey, but my favorite things are those that were given to me.

I have too much going on now to make a full entry. More to come later.

the sound of lightning (part 3)

2009-08-06T00:03:00.002+09:00

My co-teacher is explaining something in Korean on the first day of the week.

Picture with all of the students on Friday. On the back left side is Eun-Jeong. She is such a smart student. Sometimes she can speak English better than my Korean co-teacher. You may notice in the picture that there is a set of twins, a girl with an eyepatch, and a girl with a cast on her foot (maybe you cant see that part). Sye-Jin, Eun-su, and Eun-Jeong wanted to be near me in the picture ^^ and Gyeong-Mi also.

Sandwiched between my favorite 6th grade students !

It was halloween day in class. You might be seeing some of the props. The boy on the end always answered my questions in Korean, his way of revolting against English camp.

Me with a swarm of students. Twins on my left and right. They always look so apathatic. The shy girls are in the front.

the sound of lightning (part 2)

2009-08-05T21:34:00.003+09:00

Okay, I know teachers aren't supposed to play favorites but that's never the case. These are a couple of my favorite students from my week of teaching elementary school (and coincidentally they are the only two that wanted to have their photo taken)

This is Sye-Jin. Perhaps the smallest student in the class of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. She is a 6th grader this year and quite mischievous.

Sye-Jin on the left and Eun-Su on the right. If the students at A-cheon were to make a Matt Fan Club, I'm pretty sure these two would co-found it. Is that a gun?

Eun-Su doesn't seem to mind that Sye-Jin is always attacking her, so long as the camera is pointed in her direction.

The infamous rebel, Sye-Jin.

There are more pictures that were taken on the A-Cheon school camera so hopefully I can get those soon. I had 4 or 5 favorite students, but they aren't all in the photos. Some of them were really quiet and so I never got to learn their names. And some were always talking to me and asking me questions (sometimes the same question every day).

I really want to teach at A-cheon next year, but I know it wouldn't be the same students. Sye-Jin and Eun-Seung will be in middle school. And there will be 200 students, only 15 of which I know. So maybe its kind of silly to want to work there next year. But teaching these kids for 20 hours, I've really grown attached to them. I've never taught the same students for more than 4 hours in a week before this.

On Saturday I'm going to TOKYO. I hope its half as fun as teaching my elementary students. I'm so glad Yuriko got on my case for me to plan my trip. So far I have a list of things I want to do, and my schedule of when I'll be in which city, and my reservations for the hostel and capsule hotel that I will be staying at. Also, I figured out how to get to Incheon Airport. So, I still need to figure out how to get from Tokyo airport to my hotel (and the downtown area). And I need to figure out how I will travel between cities. And I need to get Japanese Yen (worst case scenario i should be able to do this at the airport). Other than that, I just want to print out some maps and directions so I can find the places that I want to get to.

I'm so excited that I will see Yuriko again. I might be able to visit Megan from my TESL class, as she has vacation the same week that I do. Other than that, Yuriko's friends might keep me company on some days and I'll probably be flying solo in Kyoto and Osaka. I have the phone numbers of both Yuriko and Megan in case anything happens to me in Japan, and they can both speak Japanese so please dont worry about me !

the sound of lightning

2009-08-04T11:21:00.002+09:00

the problem when you don't update often is that it's hard to know where to begin. but after pondering that quandry for a few moments, its quite easy for me to know; I'm not here to catalog every detail of my adventures -- just the important ones.

Last week was interesting because I had to work two jobs. In the summer I am teaching 19 hours per week. That's only 2 less than my normal semester. But in the normal school year I plan two class hours a week and teach them over and over again until I perfect them. In summer, I can only repeat 4 hours of my lessons... so I have to create 15 hours of material to teach. So, you can imagine that I'm actually more busy during summer vacation than I am during the regular school year. Last week was especially interesting because my city's Office of Education forced me to work at 아천초등학교 (A-cheon Elementary School) AND my high school job in the same week. So 9am - 12:30pm was Elementary school (with no downtime ... just 4 straight classes) and then I had to go teach at my high school from 2pm - 6pm. Of course I also had my 4 hours of private lessons (2 on tues, 2 on fri). So, normally i teach 23 hours in the summer and I had to add an extra 20 hours, plus more prep time. It was quite exhausting. Not only because of the hours, but because elementary students demand so much attention and energy.

I'm so glad I got to teach elementary school! I loved it. The students are so energetic and passionate. And of course they are all so cute. My high school students sleep in the 10 minutes between classes. The elementary students play dodgeball, draw pictures of me on the whiteboard, make presents for me, and of course, wrestle me. Especially the girls always want to wrestle. On Friday, I got 8 presents from my girl students (the class size is 20 students). I got 2 letters on cute stationary, handmade soap, a die(what am i supposed to do with 1 die?), and lots of handmade cards that are half in english and half in korean. I gave them my phone number after the last class on friday but then I had to rush to a lunch meeting with the people from the Office of Education. Over the next two hours I must have gotten 30 text messages, 8 phone calls, and a picture message. I couldnt answer most of them because i was in the meeting. One of the girls has been texting me every day and she gets mad if I dont respond immediately. I made a promise to her that I would study korean every day if she studies english every day.

I have to go to lunch now. I hope to post more later (with some pictures too).

home sweet home

2009-07-12T18:02:00.002+09:00

No matter how much fun I have on the weekend, a smile always spreads my lips when I hear the train announcement saying "We will be arriving at Gimcheon station shortly..."

That's why I'm writing on my blog instead of doing the piles of work that I have. Because I am home.

So what have I been doing lately?? Well... (you might want Korean font enabled for this)

한국어로 일기를 써오세요

토요일

여주 씨가 내 한국말 일기를 안쩌요. 그래서 저는 쓰이어요. 오늘은 여주 씨가와 만나 같이 명동역에 왔어요. 당신은 여고귀담5를 봤어요? 여주 씨가 여고귀담5를 안보고싶어해요. 그래서 저는 김수진선생님 하고 같이 김천에서 영화를 봐요. 지금 우리는 술집에서 그루져들를 마셔요. 여주 씨가 너무 예뻐서 항상 같이 보내는 시간이 재미있어요. 오늘 오후에 우리는 포켓볼 쳤어요. 여주 가방은 너부 무거워서 마치벽들을 넣은것같아요. 우리는 남산에 가서 너무 힘들었어요. 그러나 오늘은 새미있었어요. 내일은 일요일에 입니다. 그래서 김천에 다시 가요. 오늘 밤에 찜질방에 가서 푹 잘주서 있을 것같아요.

일요일
저는 오늘 아침 여섯시 삼십분에 갔어요. 오늘은 면도를 못 했어요. 장마라서 요즘 항상 비가 내려요. 일요일 이지원 씨가 시차 안에 처음 만나요. 지원 씨가 이화여자대학교에서 학생예요.

저는 대학민국이 진짜 사랑해요. 지금 숙제가 끝났어요! ^^

Now, in English:
Writing a Korean Diary

Saturday:
Yeo-Ju will not write my Korean diary. So, I am writing it. Today, Yeo-ju came to meet me at Myeong-dong station. Have you seen Girls High School Suicide Club 5? Yeo-ju doesn't want to see it. So, I will see the movie in Gimcheon with the teacher Su-jin Kim. We are drinking Cruisers in a bar now. I always enjoy spending time with Yeo-ju, because she is so beautiful. We played billiards this afternoon. Yeo-ju's purse is so heavy that I suspect she put bricks in it. We went to Nam Mountain so I was very worn out. But today was fun. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I will go back to Gimcheon. Tonight I will stay at a jjimjilbang because it is a good place to sleep.

Sunday:
I went to sleep at 6:30 this morning. I didn't shave today. These days the rain is always falling because it is rainy season. On Sunday I made the acquintance of Ji-wan Lee on the train. Ji-wan is a student at Ewha Women's University.

I really love Korea. I'm done with my homework now! ^^

이번주와 주말...

2009-07-09T00:14:00.002+09:00

I'm glad to be busy lately. I'm trying to teach a private lesson 2x a week. I actually enjoy it. My student is very eager to learn and its easier to see the difference you are making when you have 1 student to focus on, instead of having 33 students in a class, or having 420 students that you teach. I only know two of my students' names! (In my defense, korean names are hard to remember and I don't ever have to use their names for role call or anything). So the private lesson is enjoyable, and its so relaxed because her mother gives me amazing food and always lots of tasty beverages and fruits.

I also have two hours of Korean language class at the hagwon (a private academy). There is only one other student, so I learn alot. Its on the exact opposite side of town (considering that there are about 20 foriegners in Gimcheon, it makes sense that this is the only Korean language class being offered). So I spend as much time and money travelling to the class as I do taking it. And the homework is pretty thorough. I've been writing diary entries that give me good practice.

I've been going to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. I can notice the difference... and thus I'm becoming even more narcissistic. But it's good to feed the ego sometimes, I think.

Tonight was the first meeting for summer camps. I showed up late and didn't have any choice in co-teachers for the camp. One of my Korean friends is doing the camp so I wanted to teach with her. Or maybe one of the beautiful, young women. But I got the only male co-teacher. Just my luck!

Actually, the summer camp thing started out as a real disaster. Someone told me about it so I asked my friend how I can get more information. So she gave my contact info to the Office of Education so that they could contact me. But this isn't America; It's Korea. So instead of contacting me they just signed me up for it, because they didnt have enough volunteers among native teachers and they had no more time to fill the spots. Ok... I guess I can see that logic. The real problem was that they didn't contact me or my school about it at all. So they didn't know that my school already had me scheduled to teach. And nobody likes being told what to do at the last minute when they have to complete shuffle their freshly laid plans. Furthermore, they tried to blame it on a misunderstanding ("Your friend told us you wanted to join, so it was her mistake not ours. So we can't remove you now, even though we just told you about it. It's too late. If you want to get out of it you need to find someone to replace you within the next three hours.... but that'll be pretty impossible because we've already asked every native teacher in the city. By the way, we have an important meeting today at 4:00pm. Oh, you teach class until 5:10pm?? Well, I guess we would have known that had we bothered to contact you at all...") Ok... so that was obviously a paraphrase (and a quite biased one, at that), but you get the idea.

So, in summary, it was handled quite poorly. I don't like being told what to do, and I especially don't like being lied to. I had a chance to broach this topic at todays meeting and they basically said "we need you, but we are sorry that we didn't contact you about this." I didn't find out I was teaching at the camp until they faxed it to my school around 12:00pm.

So, I'm quite excited for the camp, even though it is far from ideal. I've known I was going to do it for all of ten hours now. I've been misled, bullied, and flat out lied to. I have a co-teacher that has a wealth of ideas and experience but it was quite frustrating because his English is so bad that we had to move at about 10% speed. My students have better English (well, maybe 20% of my students). But we have some fun activities planned. The camp is for elementary school! So I'm excited to try that. The kids will be so enthusiastic and energetic. Sometimes my high school boys are so worn out from being over-worked and sleep deprived, or they think they are too cool to do something. And I only need to plan one lesson for the week (each teacher will plan one and share). So I planned 4 hours. Half of it is about Halloween and half is acting and role-playing. And all of the material (a typed up lesson plan, 8 pages of worksheets and info to put into the workbook, stories about Halloween and the Ugly Duckling, video clips, flashcards, 2 powerpoints, and one or two other things I'm forgetting now but I hope I don't forget later (haha).

Also, my co-teacher thinks I should prepare all of the materials because he is too busy to do it. I know he is married and probably has kids, and that he is working on a 70-page paper for an English writing contest, but he works at an elementary school that finishes at 2:30 every day. Whereas I never leave work before 5:20. In fact, he doesn't know anything about my situation at all other than that I finish at 5:20, so I'm not sure why he assumed I can do it all. After finishing the planning today, I went to the gym, came home to do laundry and cook/eat dinner. I didn't finish until close to 12. So, I haven't had time to start at all. Half of the material is due on Friday (at another 4:00 meeting, argh!).

So, for one week this summer I will be teaching 4 hours at the elementary school every day. Then I have a little over an hour to get transportation to my high school and eat lunch before teaching for 3+ more hours. Teaching 5 hours in a day can be draining, so 7 should be interesting! But I'm so excited because I will have a class of 20 students. I will have them for 20 hours in that week, so I can get to know my students well and we can do alot of fun activities that I cant do at high school. Furthermore, it gives me another chance to evolve my teaching skills because I'll have a new co-teacher and I'll get to use lessons made by other teachers. Of course, I'm getting rewarded for my efforts. For the 8 pages of material I will get about $80, I will get $85 for transportation costs, and I get paid $16 extra for every hour I go over the 22 hours of teaching per week on my contract. So, maybe I'll make a few hundred extra dollars that week. That can make for an interesting trip in Japan this summer.... or ONE CRAZY NIGHT IN JAPAN.... hahah

recent transpirings

2009-06-24T10:25:00.003+09:00

I almost feel like I'm reminiscing as I write this, because it seems like some of these events happened so long ago...

Two weekends ago I saw Rob's band play in Daegu. I brought a couple of my Korean friends (one teacher from my school and one from a private academy that students study at after normal school hours). The band was playing in a small bar with seating for about 30 people. I think it was mainly just their friends. I knew about 5 other people there that were friends of Rob's. I didn't care for the vocalists in the band. Rob was good on bass though. I actually ducked out a little early with my two Korean friends and we had some fun.

Last week was my friend 영주's (Young-Ju) so we went drinking. I wanted to sing happy birthday to her in Korean (its alot easier than the English version actually) but none of the other foreigners knew it... i think even the one who has been here for 4 years didn't know it. Its to the same rhythm and translates like this:
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday
Love of 's (Love for you on your birthday)
Happy Birthday

I've been going to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and I feel good. Also I've met some friends there. I learned that one of my friends from my gym knows another Korean friend of mine that teaches at an elementary school near my work. I was surprised to hear that they are friends because one is an oral surgeon and the other is a teacher. But supposedly they've been best friends since elementary school. So last Friday they invited me out with them for dinner, etc.

I didn't leave town last weekend. My friends that are in university are done with it now though. 선옥 (Sun-Ohk) and 사랑 (Sarang [the koeran word for "love"]) are both coming home to Gimcheon this week so I will meet with them soon. Their families live in Gimcheon but they go to university in Daegu. This coming weekend I want to go to the beach in Busan with one of my Korean friends who lives in Busan. And on July 4th weekend I will meet up with a few of my foreigner friends and go to a big city... maybe Daegu.

Yesterday I learned that my vacation will be from July 8th - July 19th (12 days total, 8 of them weekdays). My co-teacher only gets three days off because she has to do a TESOL training course over summer break. I don't know what my schedule will be like during the 3 weeks that I'm teaching. I'm excited to be teaching a class for my fellow teachers, though. I'm not sure how many of my co-workers will sign up for it. At first they were all so excited to have me here and they wanted to learn English but the enthusiasm has died down. I'm not a novelty anymore. But I like the idea of teaching adults. Also, the experience they will get in my class will unlock a lot of vocabulary that they know in the back of their mind but haven't used since their high school English classes.

Yesterday one of the teachers invited me out to dinner with his family. He wanted to introduce me to his daughter, who is going for an English major at university. So I said I would give her private lessons and she will help me with my Korean also. The hardest part about learning a language is listening, so it will help her alot.

I started Korean classes at a private academy on Monday. The class has been ongoing for a couple of months now but I didn't join before because my Korean was alot better than the other foreigners in Gimcheon. I felt I wouldn't have learned anything new. So I just started this week. I am learning some new vocabulary already and its good to have the practice because its hard to motivate myself sometimes to study by myself. There are only two other students. I think we are all at different places with our learning and they are good at speaking while I am good at writing and reading.

Students have exams next week from Wednesday to Saturday. It's the final exam for the semester. This week I made a review for them that is over 70 PowerPoint slides long. I've only done the review for one class so far, and about half of the students were wise enough to take notes. Considering how I got to write almost 20% of the exam questions (and I teach about 25% of their English classes) they should all be taking notes. Anyhow, remembering how I was in high school... I never would've taken notes for the class.

lately

2009-06-12T22:01:00.002+09:00

So, alot has happened in this last week.

First, I started teaching an evening class. All of my students are English teachers from many different schools. The class is held at 김천여자중학교 (Gimcheon Girls Middle School) which is about a 30 minute walk from my apartment. The class is geared towards elementary and middle school teachers... at it starts at 4:30pm and my high school has classes until after 6pm. So, I have to leave school early to go to this, and on Tuesday I missed one of my classes. This was assigned to me by the Province of Education (my employer) so I have to do it.

Anyhow, the class is great and I would gladly teach it for free every week if they let me. Because all of my students (it feels wrong to use that word, since they are teachers) are English teachers, we are able to converse freely. I have 7 students, but one could not attend this week because she was out of town. All of the students are women, and mostly in their 20s... so we get along great. This class has been running for over two months already because they rotate who the foreign teacher is every couple of weeks. I am last in the rotation and then the class is finished (but maybe there will be one over the summer or next semester). They love me and want to take me out to dinner for our last class next Tuesday (using the budget that the Province of Education gave us). I convinced them that not only should we do dinner, but also drinking and a karaoke room. I think we can use the budget for all of it, because someone said there might be a little bit left in the budget and I am the last in the rotation, after all.

The classes are really easy also. The first class we just had free conversation for 2 hours. The second class we had free conversation for 1 hour and then I showed them some Dear Abby articles (after deleting her answer) and we discussed what advice we would give to the person who wrote in. One of my students started giggling inanely out of shock whenever I said something in Korean. Even after the 20th time. They are all really laid back. It made me realize how stressed out everyone at my school is (because its a high school and they have to work soooo many hours). If I want to go out with my friends at the high school they will decline more often than not. But these elementary and middle school teachers leave at 4:30 every day without a care in the world and have lots of time to relax and enjoy themselves.

One of my "students" from that class helped me find a good health club to get signed up at last night. Her name is 옥헤 or 옥희 (pronounced Oak-hae... very similar to "OK"). She always makes me use her English name though. So I bought her dinner of sushi. Korean custom is not to split the bill... but to take turns paying. Since I have lots of money (only supporting myself, and I get a free apartment) I told her I'd pay since its the first time we went out. The taking turns paying gets awkward when you have large groups (8+ people) though, because nobody wants to pay.

Last night and today I made a drawing of my friend 민채 (Min-chae). I probably spent an hour and a half on it.... as I had to draw each line three times before getting it right. I gave it to her today and she really liked it. She liked it so much that she wanted to laminate it. I told her not to because if something goes wrong it is the only copy I have so it can't be replaced. Instead, I suggested we use hair spray on it (to form a protective layer that keeps the charcoal from smearing). She didn't like this idea, so she snuck off to laminate it, unbeknownst to me. And because I wasn't there... I couldn't instruct her in the proper method of using a laminating machine (I did work at Kinko's for 7 months). I'm sure you can predict what happened. The lamination got lots of wrinkles so it doesn't look that great now... I wish I would have taken a picture at least before she did that. I'm not very artistic and thus my portfolio is quite small... so I feel that anytime I make a decent piece of artwork that I should catalogue it.

So today I went to the gym for the first time. I was kinda dragging my feet a little bit after school but I finally cleaned my shoes, bought some training shorts, and managed to find the gym. Its just one big room with about 12 treadmills, 15 machines, 4 bicycles, and some free weights. But its a nice place. For one month it is 55,000 Won... about $43 I think. I get my own locker so I can keep my shoes and clothes there. I know that I'm going to be so sore tomorrow because I havent worked out since I've been to Korea. In my defense, though, I have done ALOT of walking because I dont have a car and I travel alot.

Tomorrow night I am going to Daegu to see my friend Rob play in his band. I wanted my friend 선옥 (Sun-Ohk) to come with because she goes to school in Daegu but she has to take exams on Saturday and Sunday so she can't go to a show that doesnt even start until 11pm. But she will come to Gimcheon after her semester finishes in a week so I should be able to meet up with her then. There should be some people that I know there. I know Erin will be there to support her boyfriend, and other people from our EPIK orientation as well so it should be a grand time. And I can get some shopping done beforehand. Also, Viruck and Candice might swing down this way to enjoy their saturday evening and they are always good company.

That's all, folks?

notes pt3

2009-06-07T20:45:00.003+09:00

So I got my package on Friday (finally!). I had a teacher at school write a really nice note and then I taped it to my neighbor's door. An hour later she calls me and we manage to agree that I will go pick up the package from her at 10:00pm. I was pretty proud of that because we had the conversation in Korean and over the phone (so no body language).

One thing that I learned very quickly is that when you're speaking English you need to speak at 30%-80% speed, depending on whom you're talking to. But Koreans never realize how hard it is for me to understand them when they talk full speed. Anyhow, I was very happy that I was in a situation where I was forced to speak Korean and that I had success.

The contents of the box are also noteworthy. Two boxes of Reese's Puffs cereal! Good timing too because there are only about 4 cereals in Korea and I needed some variety. Definitely can't find Reese's Puffs in Korea. I had some for breakfast on Saturday before I started my weekend trip. Also, two Axe deodorants, American candies that I can share with the office, a frisbee, and one thing that I can't possibly explain.

Busan was terrific this weekend and I wish I could've stayed longer... but life is great.

notes on the birthday (pt 2)

2009-06-05T11:40:00.002+09:00

On June 1st we had a small office party between classes for teachers with June birthdays. It was just me and one other teacher. The school gave me a gift ... 3 pairs of Arnold Palmer socks. There was also rice cakes and candles and they sang happy birthday to me in korean. They wanted me to speak in korean, but they didnt give me any time to think of what to say... so i just said "thank you" and they probably have a bad impression of my ability to speak korean now.

A couple of my classes sang happy birthday to me also, but I wish I had girl students because they would have given me lots of presents. My boys never give me presents, but my friends at girl schools always get gifts.

On June 3rd a package arrived from home... but the mailman made a mistake and delivered it to room 202 instead of 303. I haven't gotten the package yet. They told me that I need to go speak to the resident in 202 to get the package. The problem is that when I knock on his door, he will never open up for me. He shouts to me from his apartment without coming to the door. I assume he says something like "Who is it?" so I reply "저는 이웃입니다" (I am the neighbor). The problem was that he still didnt come to the door. He kept shouting at me in Korean that I could not understand. I tried saying "삼백삼호 이웃" and "저는 미국 살암입니다" and "외국은입니다" (Apartment room 3o3 neighbor, I am from America, I am a foreigner) but still he wouldn't answer the door. Also I told him that I dont know korean, and that I can only speak a little bit. But then he just stopped talking to me and wouldnt answer. I'm going to have to think of a new approach to use today...

공주 syndrome

2009-06-01T12:46:00.003+09:00

Saturday I planned on meeting Sandile, Viruck, Candice, Minchae and Mona in Daegu city to celebrate my birthday weekend. However, Sandile and Candice got sick, and Viruck was taking care of them.... so it was only me and Mona during the day. However, Mona's roommate from college was visiting Korea and later some friends from Youngyang came down so we had a good group together. In the evening, Minchae and her friend Juyoung joined us as well. We all had a good time going shopping, and to restaurants, bars, and clubs. We slept at a jjimjilbang and then did some shopping and lunch before I came back home on Sunday.

I got a birthday present from Minchae but I haven't opened it yet. I'm not sure how many birthday presents I will get this year (i'm not expecting many), so I want to open it on my birthday.

I've been practicing my palm reading. I felt confident enough in my abilities that today I did a lesson on superstition and fortune telling. In the second part of class I got a student volunteer to come up and I read his fortune for the class. I used a PPT to show them the lines I was reading and they all got a riot out of my reading the volunteer's fortune, especially when I said something bad about his future. I'm always in a good mood when my lessons go good. And when I have trouble with lessons I'm always stressed out. Thankfully, I think all of my lessons end up being gold, though sometimes the process of making and tweaking lessons gives me alot of trouble.

If you're curious about the title of this blog post (공주 syndrome) it means "princess syndrome." It's the problem that all korean women have. They think they always deserve to be treated like a princess. It's so common that they have a word just for it.

나도 즐거웠어요. 주말 잘 보내요~

2009-05-23T19:21:00.003+09:00

To preface, some old pictures:
This one was taken on my first trip to Busan. When I saw the statue I could resist wearing the hat... but I'm nervous about what he's planning on doing with that hand...

2nd grade students congratulating me on my soccer goals.

Evaluating the English Speech contest...

Halftime at the soccer game, so I'm drinking some Pocari Sweat. Yes, "sweat"... sounds appetizing, right? It even looks like sweat too.

This week has been lots of fun. Actually, we only had classes for 2 and a half days and then the 2nd half of the week we had a sports tournament, exams, and a field trip. I didn't play in the volleyball tournament on Wednesday, but after the half-day of classes were over I went to watch the matches. Our school got 1st place and went undefeated. Each team had to have one woman player... so I helped 배수진 practice a few times these last couple weeks. She was really happy to score points on a couple of serves and she made a good save on a play that nobody else could reach in the final match. And they had a picnic with lots of food and soju/beer of course.

On Thursday I practiced Korean for an hour and a half with the 주현누나 and then I went to monitor the exam for one class with 민채누나 and she taught me Korean while the students were studying. Those two help me study the most. Ju-hyeon has more free time than the teachers... she is the office secretary. She speaks slowly to me and tries to use simple words. Min-chae also helps me alot. At work I can send instant messages on the computer to practice Korean, or I can speak to them. And sometimes those two will text message me in Korean outside of work.

Thursday night I took a couple of my American friends out for sashimi and then the three of us met up with Min-chae and two of the other korean teachers at the bar. I was upset because my American friends were not considerate to the Korean teachers. Because none of the teachers were English teachers, they have very poor English but my American friends still talk quickly and use difficult words. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves for the most part. The other Americans left after an hour, but I stayed. We went to another bar and then to Noraebong (karaoke room). I only got two hours of sleep on Thursday night...

Friday, I have to wake up early because we are taking the students to Daegu to 우방 Amusement Park. The weather is nice and hot, and all of the students had a great time. As for me, I hung out with Hye-jin, Min-chae, Heo-Min, Hee-yeon, and the new intern whose name I can't remember. Some of the rides were a little rough because I had a soju hangover and only two hours of sleep. But I still fared better than they did. Hye-jin got really sick after we went on the rollercoaster that went upside down. After the amusement park, Hye-jin, Hee-yeon, and myself stay in Daegu instead of going back to Gimcheon with the rest of the teachers and students. We all have our own separate plans, but the two ladies were kind enough to help me find the bus that I need to get on to meet with my friend.

I arrived at 게명대학교 (Kei-myeong University) and my friend met me near the gate. She is a korean girl that I met in Gimcheon. Her family lives in Gimcheon but she goes to school in Daegu. (There are no 4-year universities in Gimcheon. Daegu has good universities.) When I first met her, she was with her father so it was a little awkward because he was interrogating me. Like, in the States when you meet a girls parents for the first time the father might ask "what are your intentions with my daughter?" I think I was getting the Korean equivelant of that when I met her last time in Gimcheon. Questions like "What religion are you?" and "Will you come to church with us tonight?" and "Do you have a girlfriend or wife?" and "How long will you stay in Korea?" I guess those could be considered conversational topics, and although he was quite friendly, he was very serious about those questions. Anyhow, I detract from the story at hand... I meant to say it was nice to meet her without the father there! I got to see her campus, which is very beautiful. She said that it is a popular filming location for TV and Film because its such a scenic campus. I got to meet alot of her college friends. Some of them she called and said "come meet my foreigner friend!!" and some we just stumbled upon.

Today is Saturday. It was Jo Su-Hyeon's wedding today! I was really excited to go because she is always soooo nice to me even though she is deathly afraid of English. She is the music teacher, so her office is in the library, near the music room. Sometimes after eating lunch I will go there and she makes fresh tea for me and gives me snacks. Anyhow, the wedding's basic structure was similar to a Western wedding, but the style and mood were much different. It was much more relaxed and casual. For example, they had a machine in the front that made bubbles and fog. And people could talk during the wedding, or go eat buffet during the wedding. I didn't want to go by myself, so I asked 김수진 (Su-jin Kim, the school nurse) to go with me, and I'm eternally grateful that she did. After we had been there for a few minutes we met alot of other people that I knew, but I never could've gotten there and known what to do without her help. I got to see my co-teacher's sister again, which was nice. Also, I met some of the teachers who worked at my high school last year but are no longer working there. Ms. Lee was so nice and often translated for me and told me what to do. Most of my korean friends don't like translating for me or maybe they are nervous because they never know when I need help and when I don't. I liked her philosophy that I always need help !! haha !! She really understands me =)

and the winner is...

2009-05-15T17:43:00.002+09:00

Today was Teacher's Day, so instead of 7th period classes we had a soccer game Teachers VS Students. Elementary and Middle school teachers did not have to work today... but High School is very serious and we have to work almost every day.

One of my students let me borrow his shoes for the Teachers VS Students game today when I mentioned that I don't have soccer cleats. Even though he said we were the same size, they were a little small so it was hard to use my toes for balance. I fell over twice when chasing balls and it was hard to stop anyone on defense because I couldn't use my toes.

I played forward because I promised my students that I would score two goals. I wanted to play goalie but a teacher with a knee injury had already claimed it, which is quite understandable.

I led our team to a 4-0 lead, but the teachers got tired in the 2nd half and the students almost made a comeback. The final score was 4-3 and I was MVP with two goals. In the post-game party (yes, we had a party for defeating teenagers) the Principal offered me a toast. Anyhow, the game was great because the students all cheered for me when I had a goal or an opportunity and they felt my pain when I fell over on the dirt. They gave me congratulations and high fives after the game. I think some of the teachers in their 30s and 40s had a lot more energy than I did... but it was hard for me because I am sick and was only able to get 2 hours of sleep last night. That's my excuse!

오늘 따뜻해서 나는 행복합니다. (Today the weather is warm, so I am happy)

2009-05-14T12:15:00.002+09:00

been studying some korean at work today... though I should be making lessons instead in all honesty.

There are optional summer camps that the native teachers can do to make extra money (about $400 per week) but my school will not let me do it. Considering that I get paid my normal salary in addition to the extra money, i would've been making about $850 in a week (with no expenses). It's a little harder work than I would be doing if I stayed in town. But they are forcing me to stay, except for my 10 days of vacation. However, I will get to teach English to the other teachers which I think will be great. We never have time during the school day so during summer I will actually be able to teach them for an hour every day. I think it will help alot because they all learned English in High School. It's just that they forgot it and they have no confidence now. Once they hear me speaking and are forced to speak they will have words that they are confident in using.

Next month I will do 4 evening classes for adults. They have good English language skill so I can have fun doing conversations and expressing ideas and opinions. Each class will be two hours long. So it will be a good change of pace, but I don't like the idea of having extra classes to plan. They start the week after my birthday.

Tomorrow we have shortened classes and then after class we will have a soccer game of teachers vs. students. I'm playing in both games, but not sure what position I will play yet. Hopefully, I can play defense of goalie because my stamina isn't what it used to be when I would play midfielder. The games are only 15 or 20 minutes long, though.

내 비말요

2009-05-11T16:54:00.004+09:00

Today has been a horrible day. I am going on zero hours of sleep and got into a big disagreement with the person who matters most to me here.... not necessarily in that order.

But even though today is awful, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I think people are always in a hurry to get through their lives. Humans always tell themselves that tomorrow will be better than today. But I don't ever want to skip a moment. I think I've learned alot about myself and what/who is important to me.

Tomorrow is uncertain, but why should you fear it...? And how can we expect a better tomorrow than that which we create for ourselves?

지금

2009-05-11T07:28:00.002+09:00

Finally I have uploaded the video that Sujin and I made for our special presentation class to the man from the provincial office of education. check out the link below. The cute waitress is Hyejin, and the other actress is Sujin.

I had a great weekend visiting far-away friends... but I have to get ready for work and plan today's lesson. More to come later !

Hey Mr. Big

2009-05-01T00:06:00.004+09:00

I neglected to mention that last weekend I went to Seoul for the second time. I met some new friends, and some people I hadn't seen in two months. The club in Hongdae was great, but my favorite part was just meeting new people, such as I did on Friday on the bus to Incheon and on Saturday before the clubbing. Also, I was able to find a CD shop and get a Regina Spektor CD as a gift for a friend in Gimcheon.

Today, I had a short day of school so I came home and did some Chinese calligraphy for the first time in 4 months. I'm not used to using rice paper... it wrinkles very easily when it gets wet... but I think it is better than the newsprint I was using back home. It turned out pretty good, besides the writing in Chinese.

Tonight I went to a classical/opera concert in Gimcheon. It was free... I think because people will not perform in our city... so the city has to completely pay for the event to get them to perform here. It was actually pretty entertaining, much to my surprise. I liked the Phantom of the Opera song... and there was one song in English from a famous musical. Also, there were three songs in German which I was able to understand a little of. The orchestra was quite good and there was a famous singer who did two songs. It was more than I expected for it being free. I went with 민채, and also with the Health teacher(I can never remember her name) and her 8-year-old daughter, 해은(Hay-une). The daughter was really cute and after the concert we went to a popular cafe/restaurant that I had been to once before. It was easy to entertain 해은... usually just speaking korean or giving her food seemed to work well.

This is where the concert was.

good work!

2009-04-30T09:35:00.004+09:00

I forgot to update to mention that 수진 and myself did great on our presentation to the officer from the Province. Actually it wasn't quite as big as I thought it would be, maybe only 12 people watching the lesson. The officer had a lot of good things to say, but I think he was a bit too idealistic. Obviously with only a 50-minute class you are not going to be able to accomplish everything... so some days will focus more on grammar or sentence formation or vocabulary, and some days will have alot of speaking, or writing, etc. But because he only saw one class, he couldn't see the scope of everything I have done. Nonetheless, he really liked the class... especially the video that we made for the class starring myself, 수진, 혜진, and 5 of the students (with 희옌 working the camera). Because we are the only high school with a native teacher in Gimcheon (of 11 or 12 high schools) I think they really wanted to see my lesson to see whether they should consider the effectiveness of a native teacher at the high school level.

I got into a bit of a disagreement with my best Korean friend last night. Today we had a birthday celebration in the morning and then 민채 is monitoring the mid-term exam for students, so we haven't had a chance to talk. I'm always the the type to forget disagreements overnight, so I hope we can make up today.

Yesterday we started mid-term exams. They will last for a week... but the students work very hard all day studying so we are only having about 4 hours of exams each day and then school ends early. After school yesterday about 30 teachers went out to a restaurant near 직지사 and had a great lunch. Then they had a big field out behind the restaurant where we could play a game that was a cross between volleyball and soccer. Yes, you're confused. Let me explain. It is on a volleyball court... with two differences. Firstly, the net is about 3 feet off the ground. Secondly, its on dirt, not sand. Then you use your feet and/or head instead of your hands. Between each hit, the ball can bounce once legally if it is within the boundaries, and your team can have 3 hits, like in volleyball, before you have to send it across the net. There were many other activities to keep everyone happy... such as playing with puppies, picking herbs, playing a traditional gambling game, drinking beer, and talking in the shade.

I've been slacking on posting picutres... so here are some that I have on my work computer:

The photo that all of the teachers took together. On the top row, the 3rd man is 이종식 and the fourth man is 한상철. Both of them co-teach English classes with me. In the 2nd row from the top, the third teacher is 서태오. He took me and some other teachers out to dinner one night, then showed us his miniature airplanes in action and took us back to his house to meet his wife and have tea/fruit. On the far right of that row, the first woman is Ms. 조 the music teacher. She is getting married in three weeks and I'm excited to go to the wedding. On the end is 조경숙. She is a 2nd grade English teacher and has 1 class with me each week.
Third row from the top: the 3rd teacher is 정학영. He is the head of all of the English teachers and picked me up on my first day. At the end of this row there are six women. So, here they are, in order. (1) The health teacher (2) the chemistry teacher 진은겅 (3) 츼예진, one of my best friends here. She is in Japan right now on vacation... in Osaka (4) 신희옌, the biology teacher. Or is she the Chemistry teacher? I can't think today. She's really nice too and I spend alot of time with her (5) my main co-teacher and good friend 배수진. She always helps me when I have problems learning how to live in Korea and is always thinking of ways to help me (6) my best Korean friend 정민채. She always helps me study Korean and is probably the one person here who never tires of speaking English to me. I think even the English teachers sometimes get tired of trying to speak English to me, but she will speak to me for hours, even though she is not an English teacher and has a hard time expressing herself at times.
On the bottom row, the two men in the middle with light pink ties are the vice principal and principal. The first man on the left is the Japanese teacher. He introduced me to his daughter once and was really happy to see her speaking to me in English. I was impressed that his daughter, who is maybe 13 years old, speaks better English than my high school students. The first among the last three teachers in the row is 김명환. He has taken me out to dinner and is always very nice to me. His english is quite good, especially considering at his age it was not taught much in school. Next is 이인민, who co-teaches 12 classes with me each week and instructs me in tennis. Last is 김태슨, the PE teacher. He is good at every sport and is very friendly. He gave me presents to send home to my family (i'll mail them soon) and he took me out to a great dinner once. (Not featured in this photo is the secretary who plays hackeysack with me).

I didn't mention these three in the last photo because I had this photo. We are enjoying the cherry blossom trees behind my school. First is 허민, a math teacher who is a few yeard older than me. Next is 박주원, he also picked me up on my first day and is a 3rd grade (12th grade) English teacher. He is pretty cool and always wants me to introduce him to women. On the right is the statistics teacher 옌구. We sometimes have lunch together and teach each other words in our languages, even though i forget most of them because I don't write them down.

This is the new teachers on the first day. They've all been named in the above photos, so I won't waste my time doing so again. But we all get along well because we are new teachers who started at the same time. Actually, I remember my first day 혜진 was very nice to me and always helping me know what to do and where to go during the ceremony, even though I had never met her before.

내일

2009-04-21T21:42:00.002+09:00

I stayed in Gimcheon last weekend. All of the teachers besides me have to work on Saturdays. So after school on Saturday I hung out with 민채. When we were taking a walk after dinner we ran into someone who works at our school... actually, it was the vice principal. So we talked to him briefly and then went along... he was waiting for some friends or family on a bench. I hope he doesn't think it was anything romantic because it was just me and 민채 alone. My three or four best friends at the school are women. The two young English teachers are naturally the best at English (because they had to study it for so much longer than the older teachers) and they sit right next to me, so we get along well. So I'm in the clique with them and a couple of the other young women, who speak good English for not being English teachers.

On Sunday night, we had a big meeting amongst native English teachers to introduce everyone that hadn't met yet. I had already met them all, other than Lindsay. But I'm glad that I went because she is pretty cool. We did bowling/drinking (or, for some of us, drinking/bowling), then noraebong (or for some of us, drinking/noraebong), and then we just got rid of any pretenses and went drinking. Of course, the numbers dwindled at each step of the way, but I usually think that small groups are better than big groups anyhow. The guys in my town have their own clique which consists of the sauna/dinner/noraebong (karaoke)/bar routine pretty regularly. It can be fun every once in a while.

Tomorrow I have to present my lesson to an officer of the Province that I work in. As the teachers are employed by the state, myself included, its a pretty big deal. Even the principal is worried. He is making us do the same lesson for the students twice (and pretend like its the first time). He sat in on the first class and critiqued us. I dont mind presenting in front of the officer from the province, or the principal, vice principal, and 20 other teachers from my school and nearby schools... but I don't like our principal's methodology. Now, we not only have to worry about having a good lesson, but we also have to worry about making all of the necessary changes to appease our principal and also to make it seem like we haven't already taught this material to the students. Today, 혜진 and 휘연 did their class presentations... but there were only three people watching and none of them were officers from the Province. Nonetheless, they were getting evaluated from the principal and I was glad to hear that their classes went great today. Tomorrow is dinner to celebrate our impending success!

괜잖아 질까요

2009-04-13T23:47:00.003+09:00

Two Sundays ago I was somewhat bored so I decided to explore Gimcheon on my own. I think I took a bad route cus I mainly went along the highway, which was pretty desolate and never connected to the main part of town. I did eventually find my way to Gimcheon College though, which was interesting. And there were a couple good sights.

My town and school has many cherry blossom trees!

Last weekend I went to Busan. I met a cool korean woman and we stayed up all night on Friday exploring 헤운데 beach and another beach. The Diamond Bridge was really cool at night. I got to eat some mexican food (ITS SO HARD TO FIND IN KOREA) and we explored the 헤운데 area, which is popular among tourists and among Koreans.

On Saturday, I met up with American friends having got no sleep. We went to the aquarium near the beach and had Indian food. Then we went downtown and explored a bit before making our way to 부산 tower. I wanted to meet up with my friend Emmy for dinner, but due to some faulty communications we only got to meet for five minutes before parting ways. On Saturday night I stayed at a 찜질방 for 6,000 Won ($4.50). Pretty good deal considering I got to shower, hot tub, sauna, and sleep for that one price.

The view from Busan Tower. The city stretches far in every direction and on the other side is the bay to the Sea of Japan. On the mountains in the background, many refugees lived during the Korean War. At one point in the war, almost all of Korea had been taken over by the north except for Busan... so it was the best place for refugees.

On Sunday I went exploring on my own in some of the markets in downtown and got to experience shopping for counterfeit products and haggling over prices in Korean. Sometimes I was a little nervous though because I'm not sure about the quality of the products, or if it is sincere when the products say "Made in Korea." I got a few things, but I don't want to say what they are cus I want to send them home to family. I also want to get some of my fellow teachers to help me pick out things to send home. Then my korean friend took me to Shinsegae department store, which is supposed to be the best one in Korea (she may be biased cus she's from Busan). I got a swimsuit, which I desperately needed cus I want to go to some beaches when it gets just a touch warmer. Also, I got some takoyaki, which is my favorite street vender food in Korea. Its a Japanese dish made from cuttlefish, dough, and onions. They fry it in balls on top of the stove like Aeblskiver and then serve it with a hot sauce and mayo on top.

Next week the Principal, Vice Principal, and lots of other teachers and senior teachers will be sitting in on a class that I am teaching with my main (and favorite) co-teacher. She is really nervous and wants to put together the perfect lesson. So at the end of last week we brainstormed a bit and then today we put a lot of work into it over dinner and coffee. I feel really good about it... but she is putting in a lot of extra work and I fear that she is stressing herself out too much over it. But she is a new teacher and will be working at this school for the next 35 years, so she really wants to make a good impression.

Last Thursday, 정민채 was really sick and had to go to the doctor, who told her not to work for a week. So she comes in on Friday anyways, even though she looked like she would rather be dead. She fainted during her class and had to go the hospital. She looked much better at work today, but I am really worried that she is pushing herself too hard. This first month or two of school has been really hard on the young teachers because they are not used to working so hard and they have to create alot more material and work harder than the experienced teachers. I wish she would have stayed home to rest. Today she thanked me for my concern, because she could tell from my text messages that I was really worried about her. To be honest, I'm still a bit worried about her -_-oo

freedoming

2009-04-05T11:17:00.003+09:00

On Friday the tennis club invited me to play with them after school, so I did. I was by far the worst one there. Really there was more eating and drinking of makeli (rice wine) than there was tennis though. Minchae came just to drink with us before she had to go back to the library to monitor the student's study time. After that, I met up with some of the new EPIK teachers in Gimcheon and Gumi. Some of them seem fun and chill, but I think they all had a rough first week because they don't know anyone here and don't know the good spots to hang out. As two of them fell asleep at the bar, we got pretty drunk finishing the last of the alcohol so we all slept on the floor at one of the girls' apartments who lived nearby.

I woke up at 8:30 saturday and had to go back home. I took a shower and got dressed nicely to get to school by 10. The students were doing elections, so each candidate got to speak and then have their supporters do performances. There was singing, rapping, skits, and choreographed dance (my favorite). After that, we did photos of all of the teachers at the school to use for the bulletin board and other promotional materials.

I stayed to hang out with some of the other teachers and then went to Daegu with Hyejin. She was going there to transfer on another train to her hometown and I was going to meet some friends for the weekend. Actually I mainly just wanted to meet Mona, as I hadn't seen her since orientation. So I met up with her and spent most of the day with her. She had alot of shopping to do and it was mostly fun just to follow her around and try the various street food we found. Actually we ate Japanese food for lunch and pizza for dinner... so no korean food. We ran into some people she knew from her town which is 3 hours away from Daegu. And we also ran into the people I had been hanging out with on Friday. I tried calling them after Mona left so that I could hang out with them, but only one of them has a phone so far and he went home before everyone else... so I had no way of meeting up with them. I did some shopping and sightseeing on my own, but my legs were really tired and the shops were all closing, so I took the 50 min train back to my town.

Today I've been taking it easy. While I was writing this, my landlady came in because they needed to fix something with my pipes. She also started a load of laundry for me and hung up my ties on a hangar, among other things. It was pretty funny.

inertia

2009-03-31T15:25:00.002+09:00

i'm really depressed about the new waunomin saensaengnim (foreign English teacher) at the middle school that is attached to my high school. I liked being the only foreigner here. I'm especially perturbed the way they are treating me in relation to him. They got him an apartment RIGHT NEXT TO ME in the same building. Then they sent a copy of my receipt from E-mart to the store and had them pick out an exact copy of everything I got for my apartment. They all expect me to be best friends with him because he's American. I had to chaparone him all night last night and whenever I wasnt making conversation with him his co-teacher looked at me with a disapproving stare. He is a nice guy but seems kind of boring. He was pretty shy and pretty overweight, so I'm not sure how well he will fit in with the koreans. I'm not sure if I should be happy about that or sad. Anyhow, he's a Chinese-American (i was misinformed earlier) so at least i'm the only handsome American.

I found a really funny video that the teachers at my school made last year. It's a parody of the music video of Nobody by Wonder Girls (my favorite k-pop song). Since it was made last year, none of the new teachers this year are in it... but alot of the other teachers are.

You can see it if you go to www.gimcheon.hs.kr. Then on the bottom there are 4 pictures in a row; you should click on the MORE button just above them and to the right. Then scroll down to the 2nd video on the last row. It starts off slow but picks up.

After the song starts around 1:35 there is a scene with 4 guys dancing. The 2nd teacher from the left is Huwon Park, a 3rd grade (12th grade) English teacher. At 2:20 it switches to three women dancing. On the left is Kyongsuk Jo, a 2nd grade English teacher. In the middle is the nurse and on the right is Minchae Jaung, the Korean teacher who sometimes will teach me Korean while I teach her English in private lessons. Around 3:01 is the chemistry teacher Mrs. Jin. All the students love her because they say even though she is really old she looks really young. At 3:09 the man kneeling behind the chair is the vice principal. At 3:15, the woman on the left is Ms. Jo the music teacher. The students really like her because she plays the piano well and gives them candy. I know most of the men too... but its hard to remember their names because there are 40-some male teachers and less than 10 female teachers.

소얼

2009-03-30T17:21:00.006+09:00

Seoul was amazing. I arrived Friday night and met up with Viruck and Sandile, friends who I met at orientation. The three of us grabbed some food and found a Jinjilbang to stay at for the night (a combination of a sauna/hostel/YMCA). It was only 12,000 won each, so about $9 per person. Then we went out to test the nightlife. Sandile and Viruck were both complaining that nobody in their towns speak English, so I assumed they would have learned alot of Korean by now. Actually, they hadn't learned anything since orientation! So Sandile actually tried to mime out action of dancing to some random koreans (who thought he was crazy). He was really embarrassed when I just asked the guy "where are some good nightclubs?" and he answered back in English. I think most people in Seoul speak better English than in our small towns.

Seoul has many many districts. So Friday we went to Club Day in Sinchon. A korean guy we met on the street took us to check it out. For about 14 dollars you get admission to 13 clubs in the area for the entire night and a free drink. Unlike in America, there is no fire code or anything so they really packed everyone in there. We spent most of the night at Noise Basement 2. We got back to the Jinjilbang late and then enjoyed the sauna and hot tubs for a bit. Then I went up to the entertainment area (where a bunch of people were sleeping on the floor and found two koreans that were awake talking. I ended up talking to them for two or three hours. The guy was named Juyoung and the girl was named Yu-something. Yu was really sick cus she drank too much so she couldn't sleep. She is a first year college student who is studying English, and Juyoung is a high school student. He couldnt speak much English, but Yu enjoyed the chance to translate for us. I got to sleep at 9am and woke up at 9:50am Saturday!

I wanted to talk to Yu and Juyoung in the morning but they finally had fallen asleep. I did get a chance to talk to a friend of theirs for an hour or so who had studied in the USA for five years though. She was really chill, but I never got her name. I Enjoyed the sauna/shower combination on Saturday morning and then around noon we went out to explore Jongno. It was a nice part of town and had lots of historical sights. We toured a palace called Changdeokgung (i think). It was a palace during the Joseon dynasty but got burned to the ground a few hundred years ago... some of it has been restored.

After taking the train back to Chungjeoungno, Viruck and Sandile went back to the Jinjilbang to take a nap. When I was by myself, I met a cute korean girl named Kibong who ended up taking me to see Namgan Tower. Its a bit like the space needle, except its on a hill in the middle of the city. You can see the entire city from there. Almost everyone there was couples though. Then we went questing for mexican food (i really wanted to find some while I was in Seoul) but the one place we found had a long wait so we did Indian food instead. The place was owned by an Indian couple who have been in Korea for two years and the food was great. The guy spoke 5 languages and was speaking to me in English.

After that, I went to Itaewon to meet up with my friend Mandolyn who was in Seoul this weekend celebrating her 25th bday. We spent an hour or two drinking in the street in the gay bar district there until everyone showed up and I had a couple of guys try to hit on me. Then we headed to Hungdai via taxi. There were alot of bars and clubs there, but my favorite place was the place that sold liquor in a vinyl bag!

We went to a couple other places there but I didn't like it too much because it was mainly foreigners. Regardless, I was really happy to see Mandolyn again and to meet the friends that she has been hanging out with way up in Wonju! I got back to the jinjilbang around 4am and went to bed after a quick sauna.

Got up Sunday after a good five hours of sleep when my friend Jane called to apologize that she hadn't met up with us the night before. I took a shower/sauna and had breakfast and watched TV while I waited for Viruck and Sandile to get ready. I walked Sandile and Viruck back to the station to help them get their tickets home. Sadly all of the lockers were in use so I had to tote my bag around with me for the rest of the day. I had a nice korean lunch and explored the market area in Insadong. I liked that area because it had alot of energy and was a good mix of cultures. I got back to my apartment in Gimcheon at 1am and got four or five hours of sleep before having to get up for school today! Seoul is huge but I'm glad that I got to explore alot of different districts and atmospheres. I think what most of the foreign teachers here love most is being able to explore new areas, get stories to tell, or expand beyond what they believed to be their capabilities. My favorite part of Korea is meeting Korean people. They are all so warm-hearted and generous. So while it was great to explore Seoul, the most fun I had was meeting Kibong, Juyoung, Yu-, and their friend.... and also meeting back up with my friends Sandile, Viruck, and Mandolyn from orientation.

아이비

2009-03-27T01:10:00.002+09:00

I was talking to the nursing students from Andong yesterday. They really wanted me to come up this weekend but I'm going to Seoul. I'm going to meet a few friends from orientation in Seoul. It should be lots of fun and I can do Andong another weekend. My friend Katie said I can stay with her anytime I want to go to Andong. ^^

The secretary at our school and Huiyen helped me download a ringtone for my phone today. I went to the bank with Sujin to try to get a check card but there are apparantly 2 banks named Nonghyup so I have to go to the other one sometime.

I went to a funeral tonight. It was for the mother of one of the teachers at our school. Many of the teachers from the school went. You are supposed to bring money to help cover funeral and dinner costs. Then you pray for a few minutes and bow to the memorial of her and go eat and drink. It was held at the hospital. Then the teachers took me out drinking afterwards.

The middle school on the same campus as our high school is getting a native teacher on Monday. I guess everyone liked me so much that they decided to get one for the middle school too. But the schools really dont mingle at all except on rare occassions. They expect me to be best friends with the guy just cus we are both foriegners. AND FOR THE LAST TIME, I WILL NOT SHARE AN APARTMENT WITH HIM. YOU WERE TOO CHEAP TO GET ME ANYTHING MORE THAN ONE BEDROOM. Anyhow, he's korean-american I think so I will still be the only one with blonde hair and blue eyes at the school!

circus type thing

2009-03-22T22:24:00.002+09:00

The weekend was amazing! On Friday night I took a bus to Andong to visit my friend Katie that I met at orientation the first week. It took almost 3 hours cus it stopped in every small town along the way so I got there at 9:30. Tiana and Jen were up from Gumi, and Alice joined up with us too (she also works in Andong). We had some good food and then went to the local bar. I struck up a conversation with the koreans next to us and they were really cool. The guys all worked in the police department (though with language barriers i wasnt exactly sure what a couple of them did within the department) and the two girls were both nurses. Two of them are actually engaged to each other and they invited me to their wedding a month from now!

Sadly they left around 12 or 1am, but then I got to meet the girls sitting on the other side of us. All six of them are students at Andong University in their 3rd year of studying to be a nurse. They taught me a cool drinking game and I got a couple of the Americans I was with to join us. Sadly they left around 2am cus some of them had to work at 7:30 in the morning, but we traded phone #'s so I can hang out with them next time I am in Andong. After that we went and did some karaoke until 4am and then I slept on Katie's floor. For some reason her floor was more comfortable than my bed (which, like all korean beds, is as hard as a rock). We got woken up early from a phone call and then chilled for a couple hours before I had to leave.

Saturday around noon I went to Youngju to visit another friend from orientation, Mark. His family picked me up at the train station. His wife lived in New Zealand for 10 years and spoke almost perfect English and their son was playful. I got to have some home-cooked meals and Mark took me out on the town at night. We got to check out some of the local bars/poolhouses/stores/restaurants. We met up with a couple Korean friends of his and the four of us had a couple beers and were playing pocketball(pool) for a while. I helped him clean some virus off of his computer and then cleaned up some free space so it will run faster.

I got to sleep in til 9 on Sunday and then had a nice shower and breakfast before getting on the 10:30 train. I got back to Gimcheon at 12:30 and found a store that sold art supplies. I got a calligraphy set (2 brushes, ink stick, inkstone, ink basin, bottle of ink, bamboo brush case) for 8,800 Won (6 or 7 dollars). The ink alone would have been more expensive than that in the US. Then my friend Kristine cooked me and a few other American teachers a nice Thai and I got to see Nick and Tanji for an hour (they were visiting someone in town) before they had to catch the train back.

hide and seek

2009-03-20T16:47:00.002+09:00

Last night a few teachers took me and the 4 other new teachers to the school out to dinner. Since its a public-private school, teachers are here for life. In public schools, they are rotated every 3 to 5 years (dont ask me why). So its a big deal when my school gets new teachers. After 21 hours of class this week, plus private tutoring and spending lots of time with Korean and American friends, my voice is shot. I lost my voice thursday night and its even worse today... but I'm ready for a great weekend in Andong and Youngju.

One of my 2nd grade (11th grade) students wasn't doing his work today and when I tried to get him to do it, my co-teacher for the class said "its okay. he is on the Tae Kwan Do team. he doesnt speak english so he doesn't have to do it." Tae Kwan Do is the only sport at our school... but I think he should be required to do the work still. I didn't say anything at the time because I didn't want to argue in front of the students.

We are still trying to figure out where to stay in Seoul next weekend and what to do while we are there. I am content to let everyone else plan it because I'm just happy to be reunited with my friends from orientation. Especially Mandolyn and Sandile. I think that it will be impossible to explore Seoul in only 2 days but it will still be a great experience.

hwangsa

2009-03-17T18:01:00.004+09:00

These last few days have been pretty rough because of the 황사 (hwangsa). Its dust in the air that blows over from China. There are alot of bad chemicals in the air that are not healthy to breathe, like silicon and aluminum. So alot of people have felt as if they are ill... but the koreans seem somewhat used to it. I am not used to it though, so the last couple of days have been pretty rough.

I am exchanging language lessons with another teacher at my school who teaches Korean. Monday was our first day of doing it after school and she taught me a few differences between Korean and English grammar and a couple sentences for small talk.

On Friday we had a school dinner for all of the 1st grade (10th grade) teachers. They were impressed that I was able to have more than a few drinks. I was impressed that they knew so many different drinks just to make out of Beer, Soju, and Sprite. After the restaurant we went to Noraebong (karaoke room). It was really fun to hang out with all of the other teachers on the school's dime.

This weekend I am going to Andong to visit my friend Katie on Friday (2 or 3 hours from here) and then I'm going to Youngju (40 minutes from Andong) on Saturday to visit my friend Mark and to meet his family. I'm looking forward to that because my first two weekends in Gimcheon I haven't left town at all. I'm planning on going to Seoul with some friends the week after which should be fantastic also.

I took my camera to school today to take a few pictures of it. You can see the hwangsa in the air in some of them.

This is the school monument. Its a ways inside the gate to our walled campus but it is before all of the buildings. In the back left is the Library building and the back right is the Cafeteria building.

This is the dirt field used for soccer/volleyball/basketball. Theres a baseball field and clay tennis courts in the way back.

On the left is the classroom building. All of the classrooms are in here. On the right is the teachers building. It has our communal offices and various other faculty rooms such as the Nurse's office.

The students were making fun of Hyejin saying she looked like a panda in this outfit. I was kind enough to take a picture.

White Day

2009-03-13T11:31:00.003+09:00

Today we are celebrating White Day at work, because tomorrow is March 14th (but its a Saturday so we are celebrating it today) . The holiday comes one month after Valentines Day. On V-day in Korea, women buy chocolates and presents for men. Then on White Day, men are supposed to buy women gifts that are 2 or 3 times more expensive. So its kind of lopsided, but so is V-day in the States.

I had Bae Sujin, Choi Hyejin, and Shin Huiyen over for dinner last night. I made them french toast... but Korean women eat so much that they made me order a pizza also x_X That is when they told me about White Day. They were very adamant that I get them chocolate for White Day. I'm not sure how they stay so skinny... In the states the expression is "the quickest way to a man's heart is thru his stomach"... but I think in Korea it applies to women instead. If they are hungry they can't think of anything but food. Anyhow, it was lots of fun and they helped me get the television that the landlord had promised me.

I only managed to rescue two pictures because they would delete the picture unless they all thought think they looked the best in it. On the left is Shin Huiyen. She is a biology teacher and used to sit next to me in the office until they reorganized desks by what subject we teach. She understands a bit of English but is too shy to speak it usually. In the middle is my new co-teacher Bae Sujin. She adopted me because my other co-teacher is in the other office and teachers 3rd year students, so I never saw him. She teaches English and has the best English skills of all the teachers at the school. She studied for more than two years so that she could pass the exam and become a teacher. On the right is Choi Hyejin. She is also a new English teacher this year and has helped me alot in the first couple of weeks.

hollywood on my toothpaste

2009-03-11T00:47:00.002+09:00

Funny questions that I get asked in class:

How many girlfriends do you have?
Will you marry me?
What do you think of President Obama? You don't like because he's black?
Which female teacher is the prettiest? (three times per class)
You have korean girlfriend? What about Ms Choi?
Will you sing song?
If Ms. Bae says she loves you will you get married?
Do you have chest hair?
What kind of women you like?
My favorite food is fork.
You're handsome. I love you.

But my favorite is still the one that one of the girls asked my friend Mando... "I cannot write question, you too pretty. I shy of you."

home

2009-03-09T23:21:00.000+09:00

This may not be the life that anyone had planned for me, but I'm happy.

I really haven't taken many pics here, but here are a few of my American friends from our first week in Cheonon City. I dont have pics of anyone else actually, but Mandolyn(left) is super cool and Maria is great for getting people together for crazy adventures. Not sure who that other guy is...

tired tired

2009-03-04T22:21:00.000+09:00

I moved into my apartment on Monday. I have no computer at work and did not have an ethernet cable in the apartment, so I was not able to go online for a few days. I didn't really notice it though because I've been pretty busy.

At school they still dont know what to do with me, but I think I'll get my class schedule tomorrow. It sounds like they want me to do two conversational English classes with the 1st year students (10th grade) every week, which is pretty weird because that means they are neglecting their 2nd and 3rd year students (11th and 12th grades). Someone told me it was because they have to focus on their listening and reading skills (as those are the two that get tested on the national SATs). This means that I will have to prepare twice as many lessons as all of the EPIK teachers because I'm seeing these students twice a week. Also, I am going to be doing an English Club after school once per week and I might be doing some classes to teach English to the other teachers.

Most of the other teachers work from 7:40 until 5:20, but those that teach 3rd year students (12th grade) stay an extra hour because the students study really hard for the national exam. But they are more flexible with me, and I have been doing 8:50 until 5:20. I start teaching on Monday. They told me not to use any textbooks. They want me to make classes that will focus on conversation, because the Korean style of teaching mainly neglects this aspect. Right now the students only feel comfortable with very basic sentences, such as "Hello" and "How are you?" So my goal is to build their confidence so that they can try to create their own sentences. In their classes with the Korean teachers, when they speak the dialog is mainly scripted so they don't really have to think about what they are saying.

Tomorrow I am meeting with the Principal and Vice Principal to discuss my lesson plans for the students. I don't really have much planned as I didn't have a computer at school and I had no internet access at home. The first class will be talking about me mainly and I will let them ask questions, and the second class will be on talking about yourself and asking questions to their classmates. It should be simple enough to pair them up and do an "interview" with the other person. I'm going to try to do as much pair- and groupwork as possible so that they get lots of time to speak.

I moved into my apartment on Monday. I was so tired after shopping for and moving everything that I still dont have it completely set up. Its small, but I like it and it feels cozy. Some of it is confusing though because nothing works the same as it does in the States. For example, the heating unit control is very complicated, because it controls all of the heat in the floor and the water. But to get water hot enough for a shower I need to divert it from all other parts of the apartment. I am trying to wash clothes right now, but the washing machine is much different and all of the buttons are in Korean. I called on of the teachers from school and she tried to walk me through it, but my machine is different from the one she has. So hopefully it will turn out alright.... cross your fingers for me.

I haven't bought any clothes here, but I went shopping for sandals. My feet are not particularly large (size 11) but they didn't have anything that fit me. Last night I treated my co-worker Sujin to dinner for all of her help when I was shopping for furniture and buying everything I need for my apartment (which was alot). She took 5 or 6 hours out of her day to help me. We went to this Korean restaurant where you cook the food in your table. We had Beef, onions, and mushrooms... it was quite tasty. And no matter where you eat, whether it is the school cafeteria (i ate there today) or the fanciest restaurant, they always serve the same side dishes. So I am getting a little sick of kimchi, rice, and pickled radishes.

Today I went out to eat/drink with a few other EPIK teachers from the United States. We also got some shopping done for the basic necessities.

I took some pictures of my apartment after I got all the furniture set up on Monday. If nothing else, maybe it can help Bob get some ideas for asian influences that he can incorporate into his condo.

There are no sheets for beds here. Rather, you get a small pad/sheet(the pink one) and lay it on top of the mattress. Then you get a comforter or two to sleep under. All of the mattresses are really stiff (because its better for your back supposedly) and some Koreans still sleep on the floor. The boxes next to my bed are for clothes (as i dont have a closet or dresser). Some Koreans use a heated blanket under them when they sleep (maybe because they are used to sleeping in the heated floors??)

The view from my bed towards my front door. On the left if my desk and on the right is the heating controls for the floor/water. Off camera to the right is my bathroom. There are no walls on the shower, so everything in the bathroom gets thoroughly drenched when I shower.

A small area to take your shoes off when you enter. There is a closet opposite the door to put your shoes in, as there isnt much space to leave them lying around. It seems like anything with shoelaces is a bad idea, because of how often you have to take your shoes off. The bottled water is Jeju Spring Water. Jeju is a tropical island province... basically their equivelant of Hawai'i.

You can see the "closet" that I have. I'm very proud of it because I assembled it myself without using the instructions. Unlike in the States, the instructions were only in one language, not eight. They pretty much assume that everyone in Korea speaks Korean. The desk is actually quite large, so it also serves as my dining room table and an all purpose storage space. I put a mirror on it too. They really like mirrors here, because they are somewhat obsessed with appearance (and because everything in the bathroom gets demolished when you shower, so its good to have a mirror elsewhere).

Ok, that was a long post... gotta go.

p2

2009-02-28T19:38:00.000+09:00

I'm in Rural Korea. Ghetto, decrepid, decaying, rural Korea. Since all the young people leave town as soon as they can, it really doesnt seem like there is much to do. The area of town I'm in has a lot of areas that look like they are just fronts for illegal prostitution (I KNOW some of them are, because I asked the other teachers). It makes me nervous to go into bars/clubs/noraebong(karaoke)/salons/coffee shops for this reason. Alot of my fellow teachers are fine with it, though. I think that even though it is illegal, there is the sense that it isn't ethically wrong (like my view on speeding in the states).

Since my c0-teacher left town for the weekend, I hung out with two other EPIK teachers in the same town as me today, and I have been trying to keep in touch with my other friends from EPIK also. I made about 15-20 friends during the 8-day orientation that I am going to try to keep in touch with. I spoke to Katie today, and she also is in a small apartment and is working at a rundown school. It made us both feel alot better to know that we were facing the same hardships. Also, I was really glad that Kristine and James took me out on town for a few hours today, as I was in a pretty bad mood this morning.

my town

2009-02-27T19:33:00.001+09:00

So I found out my town yesterday and got here today about 4 hours ago. I am in Gimcheon, which is in Gyeongbuk province. It sounded great when they told me about it yesterday. It is the 3rd largest city in the province. I am teaching at a high school like I requested. Elementary school teachers have to follow pre-set lessons, so I didnt want to do that. I figured High School students would be able to better teach me about Korean culture. Also, they told me that the school was hard to get into and was known for its good academics. So I was pretty stoked yesterday.

Today I was told that it was an all boys school and even the vast majority of the school staff is men. Also, the town is really decrepid. All of the young people move away, so even though it is a big town it is not modern at all and there aren't many people my age. I met my co-teacher, the head of the English department, the Vice Principal, and some other people at the school. Then I had to pick out my apartment in 1 day. All of my choices were pretty abyssmal, so I just picked a studio apartment that was near the school.

Since I wont be getting my apartment until Monday, I am staying at my co-teacher's studio for the weekend. He is at his parent's place in Daegu, about an hour away, so I have the place to myself. I am trying to find one of my EPIK friends in the same area as me to do something this weekend so I'm not so bored, but none of them are being neglected by their co-teachers.

On a positive note, Gimcheon High School has never had a foreign teacher before so the students should be very interested, which will make my job easier. The semester starts on Monday the 2nd, but I wont actually be teaching at all for a week or two. I will only see the students once per week, so I wont even have to prepare a real lesson for the first couple of weeks, because I can just talk about myself and where I am from.

dynamic Korea

2009-02-23T18:40:00.000+09:00

Everything is going great. On Sunday we went to a tourist spot called Korean Folk Village to learn about traditional Korean life and Korean history. I had some mystery "korean sausage soup" with little thingys inside that looked like pup-peronis. In hindsight I think they were animal intestines or something. During the day we have lots of lectures from Korean and foreign speakers. All of the Koreans giving lectures, running the program, or working on campus are friendly beyond all expectations and they are always smiling and having a good time.

Even though we are in a small town for orientation, the night life is really fun too. My favorite place thus far has been Club Sizi. There are tons of restaurant bars around too. They wont serve you alcohol unless you order food also. It's really easy to make friends with Korean people. At one restaurant we went to the guys and girls next to us gave us some pieces of cake and then were doing shots with us. Sometimes we run into people that want to talk to/high five/hug/take pictures with us just because we are foreign. My korean is good enough that I was able to order drinks off of the menu the other night ^^

Gotta go to Korean class, cya!

hay

2009-02-20T10:03:00.000+09:00

Landed in Korea last night and got to the campus of Dankook (단극) University after 26 hours of travel. I feel right at home, because it was snowing when I arrived last night. My roommate for orientation is from South Africa; he was really excited to see snow for the first time.

A few pictures of my dorm and campus... the room is mostly western style but the shower didnt have any doors on it! The campus is really beautiful but I havent had a chance to take any pictures outside if my room. There are alot of signs in English and Chinese.

minor details

2009-02-06T09:54:00.000+09:00

To be serious for a moment... should anyone stumble upon this and be curious... here is my itinerary:

Feb 7th - Feb 17th: Striking the perfect balance between preparing for my trip and relaxing.
Feb 18th, 6am: Leave for Korea
Feb 19th, 6pm (local time): Arrive in Korea at Incheon International Airport
Feb 20th - 28th: Attend orientation at Dankook University in Cheonan City (an hour south of Seoul)

after that it gets a little fuzzy. Stay tuned for some great stories about how I humiliate myself in public via culture or language differences!

still in beta

2009-02-06T09:51:00.000+09:00

If you were a stranger, I'd know how to say goodbye...