I got a call after work from Christina; her, Abby and Kaleigh were hanging out at the Frypan, which by the way, has the best fried chicken I've ever tasted anywhere. So, feeling good after my classes, I walked across the street and hung out for a few minutes. After we left the plan was to grab a few drinks at the Ministop underneath my building. We ran into Karill, and my company changed. Christina and Abby went home to Haeundae via the subway, and Kaleigh went to bed. So Karill and I had a couple drinks at the ministop before proceeding to explore the town. For a Friday night it was rather quiet for being 2300. We tried a Hof, which is supposed to be like a pub, but the one we went into was somewhere inbetween a pub and a dance club, but without all the people; their seats were comfortable though. Then I remembered the place I went on Halloween, called the WA Bar. By sheer force of will I led us across town, and somehow we found the place; about half way there I got lost and just started wandering; when i wander I make random turns with only a basic direction in mind. But we did find it.
They have two large bars whose middles have been transformed to a serve yourself beer cooler. We took a seat, and around us were several Korean guys playing darts. Two of them were old business guys, three of them were younger, around our age; all of them were drunk. This is when things started to get a bit weird. One of the old business guys, the tallish, lanky one came over to Karill and tried to start an English conversation with him. At first I thought the guy was just trying to improve his English, he did say that he had to learn it for his job, but after awhile I got the impression he was trying to hit on Karill and take him back to his place. I quickly became very glad that I had chosen the seat I was in. Then the other old guy came over to me, and I was thinking, goddamnit; he was portly and shitfaced. He asked me, albeit in a very convoluted way, if I wanted to play darts. Playing darts was far superior to being hit on by a creepy old guy.
I played two games, winning them both, and I'm pretty sure I won the guy 20,000 Won because the other team put money on the table, and I was bought a mug of beer. Then, I too had an odd conversation with the creepy old guy that was hitting on Karill, there was awkward touching and he kept asking weird questions. I excused myself to go to the bathroom, thankfully he didn't follow me. When I returned I took a different seat and started talking to the other Koreans. The younger guys were pretty cool, they spoke much better English and even told us about a Western bar called "The Ghetto," they said it was a safe place to go.
I don't have a strong read yet on what kind of touching is considered polite or friendly, but what was going on in that bar seemed to cross even the thickest of lines. Karill is convinced that they were all gay, I honestly have no idea. Karill was also bought a free beer, he said he felt no shame drinking from a tainted glass, and that if being hit on by a couple of old, gay, Korean men led to him getting free drinks, then it almost justified their actions. I would disagree, but we did both earn free drinks from a couple of eccentric Korean men that night. What can't be justified is that the creepy old guy tried to follow us home. He walked with us for about a block, his arm slung over Karill's shoulder and his hand trying to touch me. I was expecting Karill to punch the guy; Karill is not what you would call a large individual, but I was really expecting something to happen. I just kept my distance. Eventually the guy let go, and we crossed the street without him following.
I'm not sure if I would call it a good night, but it was definitely interesting, plus now I have a bunch of material on Karill that should come in handy in the future of ragging on him. Not to mention they all said he looked like Orlando Bloom, which really pissed him off.
Friday, November 13, 2009
A Good Friday
Today were my worst two classes, and I was feeling a bit ornery, not a good combination. We were almost done with the book, and the day was all about speaking, so I decided to enact some revenge. I set the new topic to Paradoxes, and tried to explain through example what a paradox is. Some people understood, others looked at me with empty expressions. Then I presented them with the game theory; which apparently a lot of adults don’t understand. Most of the kids were actually able to understand te idea of which option was best and why it was never reached, or at least feigned it convincingly. I used the prisoner’s dilemma example:
Prisoner B doesn’t talk Prisoner B betrays A
Prisoner A doesn’t talk Six months of jail each A: 10 years
B: No jail
Prisoner A betrays B A: No Jail
B: 10 years Five years of jail each
The point is that when they are not allowed to talk with each other (because the police are questioning them in different rooms, just think of a crime drama where they catch more than one person) the vast majority of the time they won’t both keep quiet. While six months seems like the best offer, it isn’t attainable because it’s either six months or ten years. If A doesn’t talk, but B does, then A gets ten years, versus a possible five years if they both talk. The Nash Equilibrium (if I remember correctly) will have both the prisoners betray each other making it the inevitable outcome. Only one of my students understood that, which was really impressive because I didn’t do a stellar job explaining it.
Now, on to my revenge. You should be able to guess this next step based on what I spent the most time explaining to you, the reader. I set up my own version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, but instead of going to jail it was about who was going to get homework. I also did it in a snide way, where there was only one penalty, so instead of the 6 months → 10 years difference, it was all the same amount of homework. It all came down to who would have HW and who wouldn't:
Group 2 Assigns HW Group 2 Receives HW
Group 1 Assigns HW Both have HW 1: No HW
2: HW
Group 1 Receives HW 1: HW
2: No HW Neither have HW, since none was assigned
Needless to say, I assigned both of the classes homework; no group figured out the best option here was just to Receive the homework since it was the same penalty. It was a glorious day of classes.
Prisoner B doesn’t talk Prisoner B betrays A
Prisoner A doesn’t talk Six months of jail each A: 10 years
B: No jail
Prisoner A betrays B A: No Jail
B: 10 years Five years of jail each
The point is that when they are not allowed to talk with each other (because the police are questioning them in different rooms, just think of a crime drama where they catch more than one person) the vast majority of the time they won’t both keep quiet. While six months seems like the best offer, it isn’t attainable because it’s either six months or ten years. If A doesn’t talk, but B does, then A gets ten years, versus a possible five years if they both talk. The Nash Equilibrium (if I remember correctly) will have both the prisoners betray each other making it the inevitable outcome. Only one of my students understood that, which was really impressive because I didn’t do a stellar job explaining it.
Now, on to my revenge. You should be able to guess this next step based on what I spent the most time explaining to you, the reader. I set up my own version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, but instead of going to jail it was about who was going to get homework. I also did it in a snide way, where there was only one penalty, so instead of the 6 months → 10 years difference, it was all the same amount of homework. It all came down to who would have HW and who wouldn't:
Group 2 Assigns HW Group 2 Receives HW
Group 1 Assigns HW Both have HW 1: No HW
2: HW
Group 1 Receives HW 1: HW
2: No HW Neither have HW, since none was assigned
Needless to say, I assigned both of the classes homework; no group figured out the best option here was just to Receive the homework since it was the same penalty. It was a glorious day of classes.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
11/11
Today is called Pepero day in Korea. It is an underground national holidy, hence not recognized by the government. Pepero is a candy, same thing as Poky in Japan. It is a biscuit stick that has been dipped in chocolate, and is terribly addicting.
The reason that 11/11 is the holiday is because the Pepero candy has the same shape as a 1 or /. 11/11 can be transformed into 5 Pepereo sticks. Thanks to skillfull marketing by Lotte, the maker of Pepero, today has become the official Pepero day. It honestly doesn't make any sense, but some Amerian holidays don't make sense either. Although my love for turkey isn't as great as my love for chocolate.
I bought three boxes to share, but have already eaten two and I am working on the third. Today is comparable to Valentine's Day, such that it is usually couples or friends that give each other Pepero, couples typically exchange whole boxes; apparently I am dating myself.
The reason that 11/11 is the holiday is because the Pepero candy has the same shape as a 1 or /. 11/11 can be transformed into 5 Pepereo sticks. Thanks to skillfull marketing by Lotte, the maker of Pepero, today has become the official Pepero day. It honestly doesn't make any sense, but some Amerian holidays don't make sense either. Although my love for turkey isn't as great as my love for chocolate.
I bought three boxes to share, but have already eaten two and I am working on the third. Today is comparable to Valentine's Day, such that it is usually couples or friends that give each other Pepero, couples typically exchange whole boxes; apparently I am dating myself.
A Day In The Life of Aaron The Hagowan Teacher
In case you were wondering what an average day is like so far, I'll lay it out for you:
I wake up around 1130-1230 depending on how motivated I am to get out of bed, or if the noise from construction outside is unbearable. Sometimes I wake up at 1000, occasionally at 1330.
Next I take a shower, there is a set routine to keep the rest of my room from getting wet, and to make sure my toilet paper remains dry. I have to lay a towel outside the bathroom door, and the towel inside has to cover the toilet paper, just in case.
After the shower it's usually 1200-1300 meaning that I have two to three hours of free time before I have to be at work (1500, 3pm). If I have food to eat for breakfast, this is the time I do so, or if I have errands to run I do them during this period of time as well. I don't move very fast at this time, usually as a result of the night before.
After I eat breakfast, or run my essential errands, I probably only have an hour left before I have to be at work, maybe two hours. This is when I combine dressing with watching American television programs on my computer. Just this morning I discovered a leaked episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which I watched whilst eating several oranges. Usually Friday is my TV day--my favorite shows come out Thursday night in the US.
After watching a couple shows, and getting dressed I head out for work. If I am feeling ambitious I leave a bit earlier and wander around for a short while--this is becoming increasingly rare on the weekdays.
The first two hours of work consists of creating a lesson plan for my classes, which takes a half hour preceded by 1.5 hours of sitting at my computer entertaining myself. Some days I won't do anything until 1800 (6pm). Then I teach classes for a while; it varies from day to day. I will have a break at some point between classes. This is when I get lunch, even though it's around 1700-2000 (5-8pm), it's still lunch and the Family Mart is my destination of choice. I usually go for crackers, chips, or some rice thing.
Work ends at 2200 (10pm) at which point I head off for my apartment which is three minutes away, or I go out with fellow teachers for drinks and smokes, sometimes dinner. Some nights I stay out until 0500, others I'm home by 0200; usually I fall asleep around 0300. Even if I don't go out, I can't go from working to sleeping in just a few hours and most of the time dinner consists of what my next morning breakfast will be.
I reserve the weekends to exploration and rarely spend that much time in my apartment during them. But the weekdays wear me down and my motivation is just enough to get me out of bed and to work on time.
I wake up around 1130-1230 depending on how motivated I am to get out of bed, or if the noise from construction outside is unbearable. Sometimes I wake up at 1000, occasionally at 1330.
Next I take a shower, there is a set routine to keep the rest of my room from getting wet, and to make sure my toilet paper remains dry. I have to lay a towel outside the bathroom door, and the towel inside has to cover the toilet paper, just in case.
After the shower it's usually 1200-1300 meaning that I have two to three hours of free time before I have to be at work (1500, 3pm). If I have food to eat for breakfast, this is the time I do so, or if I have errands to run I do them during this period of time as well. I don't move very fast at this time, usually as a result of the night before.
After I eat breakfast, or run my essential errands, I probably only have an hour left before I have to be at work, maybe two hours. This is when I combine dressing with watching American television programs on my computer. Just this morning I discovered a leaked episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which I watched whilst eating several oranges. Usually Friday is my TV day--my favorite shows come out Thursday night in the US.
After watching a couple shows, and getting dressed I head out for work. If I am feeling ambitious I leave a bit earlier and wander around for a short while--this is becoming increasingly rare on the weekdays.
The first two hours of work consists of creating a lesson plan for my classes, which takes a half hour preceded by 1.5 hours of sitting at my computer entertaining myself. Some days I won't do anything until 1800 (6pm). Then I teach classes for a while; it varies from day to day. I will have a break at some point between classes. This is when I get lunch, even though it's around 1700-2000 (5-8pm), it's still lunch and the Family Mart is my destination of choice. I usually go for crackers, chips, or some rice thing.
Work ends at 2200 (10pm) at which point I head off for my apartment which is three minutes away, or I go out with fellow teachers for drinks and smokes, sometimes dinner. Some nights I stay out until 0500, others I'm home by 0200; usually I fall asleep around 0300. Even if I don't go out, I can't go from working to sleeping in just a few hours and most of the time dinner consists of what my next morning breakfast will be.
I reserve the weekends to exploration and rarely spend that much time in my apartment during them. But the weekdays wear me down and my motivation is just enough to get me out of bed and to work on time.
A Thought
I was just sitting at my work desk, surrounded by Korean faces, when I wondered, "Will it be weird to be back in the states and only see white faces?"
Here whenever I see a white guy, even a black guy or anyone that doesn't look asian, I say "Hey, what's up," and have a mini conversation or at least a moment of recognition. I've also learned that asking what your job in Korea is may as well be a rhetorical question; if you're white it's a 98% chance you're a teacher.
Here whenever I see a white guy, even a black guy or anyone that doesn't look asian, I say "Hey, what's up," and have a mini conversation or at least a moment of recognition. I've also learned that asking what your job in Korea is may as well be a rhetorical question; if you're white it's a 98% chance you're a teacher.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Busan Aquarium
Last Sunday (Nov 8th), I visited the Busan Aquarium during a bonding exercise with my fellow new teachers. There are four of us, two girls, two boys, all went through adventure teaching, while three are from the Seattle--the fourth, a guy, is from Boston. One of the girls from Seattle also went to WWU, which was kind of strange to reminisce about a place so faraway in a land where I didn't think I would meet another Viking Alum; however, she was not the first WWU alumni I met over here.
The aquarium was pretty cool. It was stationed right on the beach, which will have to have it's own dedicated post--It's the most popular beach in Korea and for good reason. Everything but the entrance and ultimate exit was below ground. It reached two levels underground and even had it's own shopping/eating area at the end of the maze of aqua tanks.
The highlights were the Jackass Penguins, the shark tank you walked through and the seal observatory that was reminscent of a crowded, small and humid igloo. The entrance to the seal room was maybe two feet tall and crowned into a half moon shape. After traveling the three feet through the entrance, you entered the main chamber which was a nine foot bubble with air holes on the top; no wonder diseases spread so quickly over here. There was very little room and I was a giant amongst all the children, but it was still cool to watch the seal swim circles around you.
The shark tank was much more accomodating to it's visitors. The walkway could have easily accomodated a mini cooper and still left a lane for pedestrians. The tank also had the largest Grouper I have ever seen, it put some of the grey nurse sharks to shame. A grey nurse shark is a strange looking thing, with pointy jutted teeth that almost stick straight out from their oversized gums. We stayed at the shark tank long enough to watch the feeding frenzy. There were two divers, one feeder and one protector that prodded the sharks if they came in dangerously. It was pretty fun to watch, especially when the storm of fish and rays almost ended with the feeder losing a hand. Thankfully the secondary diver was skilled enough to prevent disaster; although one of the sharks, a small nurse shark (more annoying than dangerous), kept trying to feed on the diver's head.
It was a fun day capped with a lovely stroll along the beachline; mostly it was me exploring and the others following because they didn't know where anything was and thought I was intentionally going somewhere--it's surprsing how often this happens. We saw all of the fishermen/women's stores full of crowded tanks of any kind of sealife your tastebuds desire; nothing gets thrown back.
The day really ended with Karill(?) and I entering into a trivia contest at a Western bar, and winning last place. It was a good day.
The aquarium was pretty cool. It was stationed right on the beach, which will have to have it's own dedicated post--It's the most popular beach in Korea and for good reason. Everything but the entrance and ultimate exit was below ground. It reached two levels underground and even had it's own shopping/eating area at the end of the maze of aqua tanks.
The highlights were the Jackass Penguins, the shark tank you walked through and the seal observatory that was reminscent of a crowded, small and humid igloo. The entrance to the seal room was maybe two feet tall and crowned into a half moon shape. After traveling the three feet through the entrance, you entered the main chamber which was a nine foot bubble with air holes on the top; no wonder diseases spread so quickly over here. There was very little room and I was a giant amongst all the children, but it was still cool to watch the seal swim circles around you.
The shark tank was much more accomodating to it's visitors. The walkway could have easily accomodated a mini cooper and still left a lane for pedestrians. The tank also had the largest Grouper I have ever seen, it put some of the grey nurse sharks to shame. A grey nurse shark is a strange looking thing, with pointy jutted teeth that almost stick straight out from their oversized gums. We stayed at the shark tank long enough to watch the feeding frenzy. There were two divers, one feeder and one protector that prodded the sharks if they came in dangerously. It was pretty fun to watch, especially when the storm of fish and rays almost ended with the feeder losing a hand. Thankfully the secondary diver was skilled enough to prevent disaster; although one of the sharks, a small nurse shark (more annoying than dangerous), kept trying to feed on the diver's head.
It was a fun day capped with a lovely stroll along the beachline; mostly it was me exploring and the others following because they didn't know where anything was and thought I was intentionally going somewhere--it's surprsing how often this happens. We saw all of the fishermen/women's stores full of crowded tanks of any kind of sealife your tastebuds desire; nothing gets thrown back.
The day really ended with Karill(?) and I entering into a trivia contest at a Western bar, and winning last place. It was a good day.
Teaching Thus Far
The first week has come to an end. This job isn't particularly hard but it can be a challenge. Most classes fall into one of two categories: quiet or out of control. The quiet classes are nice because by offering incentives to participate some dialogue will usually progress. They can be challenging though, especially when the only way to create the dialogue is to call on random kids or just teach to those who actually want to be there. Usually there will be a couple that are interested in learning English, but don't want to be singled out. My policy on those students is: too bad. The other kind of class, the out of control ones, are usually led by one or two bastard kids. I haven't yet figured out the trick to managing these kinds of classes, aside from relentlessly picking on the problem kids--which works okay. Both of my terrible classes are at the end of the block, meaning that I have them for their last class of the day and they want nothing more than to just go home.
Some of my classes are fun, most I'm indifferent towards, and only a few are stressful. Mondays and Fridays suck the most, the students are the same for both days and the classes are the student's last class of the day; it also doesn't help that classes are 70 minutes long. Tuesday's and Thursday's classes are only 45 minutes long, if the class sucks I don't have to be there that long. But on M and F I find myself counting down the clock along with the students. I have found an excellent way to deal with the stresses of teaching, smoking.
I've taken up a new hobby, cigarettes.
Some of my classes are fun, most I'm indifferent towards, and only a few are stressful. Mondays and Fridays suck the most, the students are the same for both days and the classes are the student's last class of the day; it also doesn't help that classes are 70 minutes long. Tuesday's and Thursday's classes are only 45 minutes long, if the class sucks I don't have to be there that long. But on M and F I find myself counting down the clock along with the students. I have found an excellent way to deal with the stresses of teaching, smoking.
I've taken up a new hobby, cigarettes.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Monday aka First Real Day
Today I have two 70 minute classes that I am in charge of teaching, same format as last Friday, but this time James isn't here to keep the peace and I don't have a lesson plan.
I spent the time before I had to be at work exchanging currency, replenishing my stock of Won. Then entire time I was trying to calm my nerves that I had about teaching.
Once I got to work, I had just enough time to look through what James had covered last week before one of the Teacher Assistants came in, it was time to get a bank account. Half an hour later, I had a bank account, and only an hour to figure out what I was going to do for class. I was about to adopt a hyper focuses mentality when Ji Hyun, the head teacher handed me a booklet.
"Aaron, we're going to be giving speaking tests today."
"Meaning I don't have to teach any classes?"
She nodded, "Lori will show you what you'll be doing today."
My first day, the thing that I was all nervous about, was spent delivering speaking tests. I called out the kids individually, asked them a couple questions, they responded and I graded them on Pronunciation, Grammar, Fluency, Length of Response, and Accuracy (in answering the question). I just had to wing it since I didn't know any of the kids or how competent they were, so I was subjectively grading kids based on a scale I made up--very effective, but it was a good day. I only had to grade two classes, which didn't take long. Most of the time I spent perusing the internet, getting caught up on all the football I missed out on.
I spent the time before I had to be at work exchanging currency, replenishing my stock of Won. Then entire time I was trying to calm my nerves that I had about teaching.
Once I got to work, I had just enough time to look through what James had covered last week before one of the Teacher Assistants came in, it was time to get a bank account. Half an hour later, I had a bank account, and only an hour to figure out what I was going to do for class. I was about to adopt a hyper focuses mentality when Ji Hyun, the head teacher handed me a booklet.
"Aaron, we're going to be giving speaking tests today."
"Meaning I don't have to teach any classes?"
She nodded, "Lori will show you what you'll be doing today."
My first day, the thing that I was all nervous about, was spent delivering speaking tests. I called out the kids individually, asked them a couple questions, they responded and I graded them on Pronunciation, Grammar, Fluency, Length of Response, and Accuracy (in answering the question). I just had to wing it since I didn't know any of the kids or how competent they were, so I was subjectively grading kids based on a scale I made up--very effective, but it was a good day. I only had to grade two classes, which didn't take long. Most of the time I spent perusing the internet, getting caught up on all the football I missed out on.
Koreans Love Convenience
At the bottom of my building, and nearly every building that I have seen, there is some form of Convenience Store. Some are called Family Marts, others Mini Marts, or 7-11. They are everywhere, and all have very similar things for purchase. They may as well be restaurants because most of my meals come from them. They are often small stores, probably the size of an average living room crammed full with two aisles and a refrigerator wall. They are amazing.
Tap Water
There is a story here in Korea that the tap water is unsafe to drink. Unfortunately, no one told me that when I got here so I’ve been drinking from the tap for the last five days. I’ve heard multiple reasons why the water is unsafe, from lead, arsenic and heavy metals to hepatitis A, estrogen and other prescription drugs. Thankfully it’s all bullshit. The water here is safe to drink from the tap and doesn’t taste any different than safe tap water in the States. However, less than 10% of Koreans actually drink tap water, or so a study claimed. Why? If the water were safe to drink, why wouldn’t Koreans drink it? This is where the myth starts, if Koreans aren’t drinking the tap water, the tap water must not be safe to drink. Who can see the faulty logic?
Here is what I have found from my research. There are two major reasons why Koreans don’t drink tap water, one scientific, and the other social. I’ll start with the scientific reason. In the past ten years, there have been around six chemical spills that have contaminated the groundwater, which then contaminates the tap water. Not a big deal, right? Once the news gets out that the tap water is contaminated, stop drinking it and buy bottled water. Problem: it often takes weeks after the contamination for a report to come out about the leakage. That means that for those weeks (at least 1 or 2) anyone that drank the tap water is at risk and wouldn’t know until the report was released. This was the "in" that marketers needed.
It has become sociable here to drink bottled water. Just like the States, bottled water has become an image thanks to good marketing and a market that isn’t as trusting of the tap water. Brita filters are also extremely common for the same reason, marketing.
Long story short, the water is safe to drink. However, there have been chemical spills in the past and there will probably be spills in the future; it all depends on how safe you feel drinking the water. Don’t be fooled by myths or bad logic, make up your own mind. Since a 2 liter bottle of water only costs 1,300 Won, I intend to switch to bottled water for drinking, but everything else will be out of the tap.
Here is what I have found from my research. There are two major reasons why Koreans don’t drink tap water, one scientific, and the other social. I’ll start with the scientific reason. In the past ten years, there have been around six chemical spills that have contaminated the groundwater, which then contaminates the tap water. Not a big deal, right? Once the news gets out that the tap water is contaminated, stop drinking it and buy bottled water. Problem: it often takes weeks after the contamination for a report to come out about the leakage. That means that for those weeks (at least 1 or 2) anyone that drank the tap water is at risk and wouldn’t know until the report was released. This was the "in" that marketers needed.
It has become sociable here to drink bottled water. Just like the States, bottled water has become an image thanks to good marketing and a market that isn’t as trusting of the tap water. Brita filters are also extremely common for the same reason, marketing.
Long story short, the water is safe to drink. However, there have been chemical spills in the past and there will probably be spills in the future; it all depends on how safe you feel drinking the water. Don’t be fooled by myths or bad logic, make up your own mind. Since a 2 liter bottle of water only costs 1,300 Won, I intend to switch to bottled water for drinking, but everything else will be out of the tap.
Free Time
This post doesn't really fit into the timeline of the other blogs. That is because this one deals with what I do when I have extra free time, which encompasses everyday.
I should get more exercise, and explore the city more, but I feel weird doing that when I have to be somewhere later on. I'm sure I'll get over that after a couple days of exploration, but for now whenever I have free time I watch American television shows. I found a website with all of the Office episodes, and have watched most of the six seasons. I've also started to South Park again, I missed the past three seasons so there are plenty of episodes to catch up on. The other major show I have been watching is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, however, while trying to watch a show yesterday (Thursday, Nov 5) I found out that the site was shut down. I've also been keeping up with Dexter and Californication. I don't just have comfort food, I also have comfort shows. Soccer games are also on the television almost 24/7, so I've been able to feed my soccer fix.
That is about all I do with my free time for right now. Aside from writing these blogs. I am a bit behind on my blogs, today is Nov 6th, and I was writing about last Saturday, the 31st. I'll get caught up eventually. My free time is usually from 1200-1440 and 2210-130 each weekday. I don't have much motivation to wake up before noon or go to bed before one. Based on your time difference, these are the best times to get a hold of me.
I should get more exercise, and explore the city more, but I feel weird doing that when I have to be somewhere later on. I'm sure I'll get over that after a couple days of exploration, but for now whenever I have free time I watch American television shows. I found a website with all of the Office episodes, and have watched most of the six seasons. I've also started to South Park again, I missed the past three seasons so there are plenty of episodes to catch up on. The other major show I have been watching is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, however, while trying to watch a show yesterday (Thursday, Nov 5) I found out that the site was shut down. I've also been keeping up with Dexter and Californication. I don't just have comfort food, I also have comfort shows. Soccer games are also on the television almost 24/7, so I've been able to feed my soccer fix.
That is about all I do with my free time for right now. Aside from writing these blogs. I am a bit behind on my blogs, today is Nov 6th, and I was writing about last Saturday, the 31st. I'll get caught up eventually. My free time is usually from 1200-1440 and 2210-130 each weekday. I don't have much motivation to wake up before noon or go to bed before one. Based on your time difference, these are the best times to get a hold of me.
So.....
I ran out of money. I spent the last of my initial Won at the bar the night before. I still have US dollars but banks aren't open on Sundays, and today just happens to be Sunday. I still have some food; I bought some crackers and cream cheese, and I still have plenty of oatmeal.
Even though I don't have any money doesn't mean I can't go explored. I took a self guided tour of the New Haeundae Town Underground, Jangsan district. When I breached the surface I was completely lost, but I ran into people I met the night before. They were going to see a movie, and would loan me money if I wanted to see it. So I said, "Sure."
We watched the Time Traveler's Wife. Did I mention the majority of the people were chicks. We almost watched Pandorum; there was a mix up about the theatre. TTW was actually a well put together movie, I actually have nothing bad to say about it. Once you can grant the idea that this guy can travel through time naturally, the rest of the story was solid. Normally I can talk shit about any movie, even movies I really like, but this was a solid movie, it did stretch a bit too much for touching moments but it is a chick flick.
Tomorrow is my first day of teaching solo. I'm feeling quite nervous.
Even though I don't have any money doesn't mean I can't go explored. I took a self guided tour of the New Haeundae Town Underground, Jangsan district. When I breached the surface I was completely lost, but I ran into people I met the night before. They were going to see a movie, and would loan me money if I wanted to see it. So I said, "Sure."
We watched the Time Traveler's Wife. Did I mention the majority of the people were chicks. We almost watched Pandorum; there was a mix up about the theatre. TTW was actually a well put together movie, I actually have nothing bad to say about it. Once you can grant the idea that this guy can travel through time naturally, the rest of the story was solid. Normally I can talk shit about any movie, even movies I really like, but this was a solid movie, it did stretch a bit too much for touching moments but it is a chick flick.
Tomorrow is my first day of teaching solo. I'm feeling quite nervous.
Halloween
Halloween is only popular in Busan because of the amount of foreigners. I'm not sure if that is true or not but I saw quite a few people dressed up, the vast majority of which were whiteys.
One of my coworkers had a party at her bachelor apartment, she was expecting 30+ people to show up. Having just gotten off the plane, I didn't have anything to wear and I wasn't going to buy a costume. However, I did bring my Sounders jersey (gotta represent the team, wherever I am), so I dressed up in my soccer gear and went as a soccer player. Her apartment didn't seem big enough to house 30+ people, but somehow it managed to. There was a spiked punch, beer, soju and vodka to drink. Soju is the Korean equivalent of Sake, but in my opinion it is closer to vodka in taste. I'm not sure how much I drank that night but it was a lot, plus I spiked all of my drinks with Soju--even when I was just drinking straight Soju.
Some of the people had really creative costumes. There was a Cereal Killer, a Ghostbuster, MJ came back from the grave for a final performance, Shrek stopped by, even a Kim Chi man made it--don't ask. After the place filled up, we all left to walk several minutes to a Western bar. My group had a cow in it, a very mad cow. He tried to hump several Korean men on the way to the bar, and got a girl to suck his udder; that was a definite highlight of my trip so far.
We took over the bar, started a conga line, danced to music, I broke a bottle of beer and somehow was the only one who didn't flinch or seem to care, and was when I knew that it was time to stop drinking. The rest of the night I hung out with a girl, the Cereal Killer. It didn't lead anywhere, but it was still fun. All in all it was a good Halloween.
One of my coworkers had a party at her bachelor apartment, she was expecting 30+ people to show up. Having just gotten off the plane, I didn't have anything to wear and I wasn't going to buy a costume. However, I did bring my Sounders jersey (gotta represent the team, wherever I am), so I dressed up in my soccer gear and went as a soccer player. Her apartment didn't seem big enough to house 30+ people, but somehow it managed to. There was a spiked punch, beer, soju and vodka to drink. Soju is the Korean equivalent of Sake, but in my opinion it is closer to vodka in taste. I'm not sure how much I drank that night but it was a lot, plus I spiked all of my drinks with Soju--even when I was just drinking straight Soju.
Some of the people had really creative costumes. There was a Cereal Killer, a Ghostbuster, MJ came back from the grave for a final performance, Shrek stopped by, even a Kim Chi man made it--don't ask. After the place filled up, we all left to walk several minutes to a Western bar. My group had a cow in it, a very mad cow. He tried to hump several Korean men on the way to the bar, and got a girl to suck his udder; that was a definite highlight of my trip so far.
We took over the bar, started a conga line, danced to music, I broke a bottle of beer and somehow was the only one who didn't flinch or seem to care, and was when I knew that it was time to stop drinking. The rest of the night I hung out with a girl, the Cereal Killer. It didn't lead anywhere, but it was still fun. All in all it was a good Halloween.
Money
The Korean Won is an interesting thing that I felt warranted it's own post. I've only seen three amounts of bills: 1,000; 5,000; and 10,000. I'm not sure if there are larger bills, but I would think they'd have 50,000 and 100,000 Won bills. Their change comes in 500, 100, 50 and 10 Won sizes. Unlike US greenbacks each bill is a different color. 1,000 is blue/purple; 5,000 is kind of orange/red; and 10,000 is green. The only difference with their change is that the penny is larger than the nickel, but both are smaller than the dime.
The strange thing about the figures on their bills is that they all have beards. So far I have not seen a single Korean man with a beard. More research is required.
I also really like the system they have. In the States, a dollar fifty is 1.50; the equivalent would be 1,500 Won. At first this confused the heck out of me and led to my extravagant tip to the taxi driver. But the more familiar I am with it, the more efficient it seems. When I think about USD, the buck stops at the period and change seems almost pointless to carry on you; I never carried change around the US. In Korea, my idea of their money is that it flows right on through the comma making the change much more significant to carry around. It also deters me from spending large sums of money. I paid 34,900 for a comforter and felt like I was spending a lot of money. However, when I think of the cost as 34.90 it seems like a minor purchase.
I'm aware that all of my reasons for preferring the Korean system are based on personal reasons. As I become better versed in the Korean monetary system I'll post proper arguments in support of or against the use of the ,000 vs .00.
The strange thing about the figures on their bills is that they all have beards. So far I have not seen a single Korean man with a beard. More research is required.
I also really like the system they have. In the States, a dollar fifty is 1.50; the equivalent would be 1,500 Won. At first this confused the heck out of me and led to my extravagant tip to the taxi driver. But the more familiar I am with it, the more efficient it seems. When I think about USD, the buck stops at the period and change seems almost pointless to carry on you; I never carried change around the US. In Korea, my idea of their money is that it flows right on through the comma making the change much more significant to carry around. It also deters me from spending large sums of money. I paid 34,900 for a comforter and felt like I was spending a lot of money. However, when I think of the cost as 34.90 it seems like a minor purchase.
I'm aware that all of my reasons for preferring the Korean system are based on personal reasons. As I become better versed in the Korean monetary system I'll post proper arguments in support of or against the use of the ,000 vs .00.
Culture Shock Is A Bitch
So, it finally happened. The novelty of South Korea has worn off and the reality of my situation is finally sinking in. Can I last one year in this place. So far I've only made it for half a week, and I'm already feeling overwhelmed with everything that is going on. I can't read Korean yet, the letters just aren't sinking in. Words I hear, even when I know what they mean, I can't repeat because as soon as I hear them I forget what they were. It's like the language as a whole goes in one ear and out the other without leaving any breadcrumbs I can follow.
And then there is the food. I'm thankful I brought plenty of granola bars and oatmeal. I went out and bought a pan to boil water so I could eat my oatmeal for breakfast, a comfort that may seem trivial but that is actually far from it. I don't know the names of any of the foods here except Kim Chi and Kim Bop. My policy is that I will eat any food, but it's hard to do so when you don't know how to order anything that isn't in a major chain restaurant. McDonald's is the same everywhere, if only I actually liked McDonald's that might be a compliment; same thing for Burger King. However, they do have instant hamburgers in the Family Marts, which are better than expected.
The edible thing that brings me the most comfort is the beer, wherever you go the beer tastes almost the same. Alcohol is alcohol, no matter how you wrap it up, what kind of bottle it comes out of it or even how strong or weak it is. I found a stout in Korea, and it was surprisingly 1,000 cheaper than any comparable beer of the same size.
I think that once I start working some of this will start to fade away, and I will start to have a settling feeling.
And then there is the food. I'm thankful I brought plenty of granola bars and oatmeal. I went out and bought a pan to boil water so I could eat my oatmeal for breakfast, a comfort that may seem trivial but that is actually far from it. I don't know the names of any of the foods here except Kim Chi and Kim Bop. My policy is that I will eat any food, but it's hard to do so when you don't know how to order anything that isn't in a major chain restaurant. McDonald's is the same everywhere, if only I actually liked McDonald's that might be a compliment; same thing for Burger King. However, they do have instant hamburgers in the Family Marts, which are better than expected.
The edible thing that brings me the most comfort is the beer, wherever you go the beer tastes almost the same. Alcohol is alcohol, no matter how you wrap it up, what kind of bottle it comes out of it or even how strong or weak it is. I found a stout in Korea, and it was surprisingly 1,000 cheaper than any comparable beer of the same size.
I think that once I start working some of this will start to fade away, and I will start to have a settling feeling.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Apartment
My apartment is quite nice. It's in the shape of a hallway and had only two doors, one at the entrance, the other for the bathroom. At the far end is a giant window that gives me a great view of the next building over.
The kitchen is simple, it has a sink, two stove tops, and a washer. Not a dishwasher, but a clothes washer. This is something that confuses me. The next is that there is no clothes dryer. In mother Korea, you don't dry clothes, clothes dry for you. There is also a fridge and freezer. Currently there is more alcohol in my fridge than anything else; and the anything else is only water and soy sauce.
My favorite part of the apartment, which may change to my least favorite since I have talked to people who agreed with me in the beginning but whose opinion changed the longer they had to use it; the bathroom. A better name for it would be the Showerroom. It literally is a room to shower in. There is a toilet, a sink, a tall enough shower, and a giant drain that the sloped floor funnels into. There is a track for a shower curtain, but I'll be damned if I buy a shower curtain before a blanket to sleep under. My first experience proved that you cannot keep anything in the bathroom that shouldn't get wet; every part of the room gets wet, even the wood door is prepared for it with a water resistant stain on the outside of it. Showering is fun. The only downside is trying to use the bathroom before it has dried out, but that's not even that big of a deal. It might be if the room was shared, but I'm the only one here, so I can walk around naked, no problem.
Pictures will be posted soon, and by soon I mean eventually.
The kitchen is simple, it has a sink, two stove tops, and a washer. Not a dishwasher, but a clothes washer. This is something that confuses me. The next is that there is no clothes dryer. In mother Korea, you don't dry clothes, clothes dry for you. There is also a fridge and freezer. Currently there is more alcohol in my fridge than anything else; and the anything else is only water and soy sauce.
My favorite part of the apartment, which may change to my least favorite since I have talked to people who agreed with me in the beginning but whose opinion changed the longer they had to use it; the bathroom. A better name for it would be the Showerroom. It literally is a room to shower in. There is a toilet, a sink, a tall enough shower, and a giant drain that the sloped floor funnels into. There is a track for a shower curtain, but I'll be damned if I buy a shower curtain before a blanket to sleep under. My first experience proved that you cannot keep anything in the bathroom that shouldn't get wet; every part of the room gets wet, even the wood door is prepared for it with a water resistant stain on the outside of it. Showering is fun. The only downside is trying to use the bathroom before it has dried out, but that's not even that big of a deal. It might be if the room was shared, but I'm the only one here, so I can walk around naked, no problem.
Pictures will be posted soon, and by soon I mean eventually.
Friday Night
After work, I went back to my apartment which is maybe a three minute walk away; much better than twenty to thirty minutes. When I came in my apartment had a tv, desk, chair and bed in it. I was told that I would have to talk to someone at Avalon to get cable and internet, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check anyway. I dug my computer out from my backpack (I carried my computer with my whenever I left the motel, it made my backpack much heavier, and made me appreciate the short walk to my new apt), set it up and plugged in the ethernet cable I brought with me into the wall. How many people do you know that would actually bring an ethernet cable with them to a foreign country? It never crossed my mind that this might be a strange thing to do. As you should be able to guess, I found the internet. For some reason, unknown to me, the internet and cable were never turned off in this apartment so right now I am using both for free. Hopefully this goes on for a while.
I didn't spend much time in my room. Everyone was going out to a bar to celebrate the end of James working at Avalon. They met up outside the mini-mart at the bottom of my building. Then we headed off to a Western bar a short taxi away. This is when I learned that a taxi only costs a couple bucks. The whole Won concept with 1,000 = 1.00 was starting to make sense.
I had some Jameson and Jaegermesiter, both of which were delicious. We played darts, and I met new people that knew this group of teachers because they shared a common interest, rock climbing. After the frolicking good time was over, around 1-2 AM, we migrated outside to take multiple taxis back home. As it turned out, there were more people than could fit in two taxis, leaving myself and DJ to wait for a third. Instead we went inside and kept drinking. We had a good conversation about music and then we talked with the owner of the place for a while, he was British and lived next to Roald Dahl when we was a kid. A couple hours later, we left the bar, and just decided to walk. I think it was only a ten minute walk. He worked at the elementary school, and shared some stories about Korea as well as back home in New Orleans.
I got back to the apartment around 4am, and just crashed. However, I didn't have a blanket to sleep under so I just slept on the mattress and used my sheet, which is apparently another strange thing for someone to bring, as a blanket. I woke up several hours later freezing cold.
I didn't spend much time in my room. Everyone was going out to a bar to celebrate the end of James working at Avalon. They met up outside the mini-mart at the bottom of my building. Then we headed off to a Western bar a short taxi away. This is when I learned that a taxi only costs a couple bucks. The whole Won concept with 1,000 = 1.00 was starting to make sense.
I had some Jameson and Jaegermesiter, both of which were delicious. We played darts, and I met new people that knew this group of teachers because they shared a common interest, rock climbing. After the frolicking good time was over, around 1-2 AM, we migrated outside to take multiple taxis back home. As it turned out, there were more people than could fit in two taxis, leaving myself and DJ to wait for a third. Instead we went inside and kept drinking. We had a good conversation about music and then we talked with the owner of the place for a while, he was British and lived next to Roald Dahl when we was a kid. A couple hours later, we left the bar, and just decided to walk. I think it was only a ten minute walk. He worked at the elementary school, and shared some stories about Korea as well as back home in New Orleans.
I got back to the apartment around 4am, and just crashed. However, I didn't have a blanket to sleep under so I just slept on the mattress and used my sheet, which is apparently another strange thing for someone to bring, as a blanket. I woke up several hours later freezing cold.
Day 3, the Last of the Observations
Friday is my last day of observations, and James' last day of work. He teaches two classes today, both are exactly the same but with different students so only one lesson plan is needed. I am going to observe the first class, and teach half of the second class. This is also the day that I was told I would be moving into my apartment, so I packed up all of my things that morning. I ditched the box underneath the bed and redistributed my things into the order they were in before the airport rearrangement.
I also tried to get a bank account today, but the bank closes at 4:30 pm, and we missed it by a few minutes, so I will be taking care of that on Monday.
I sat in on James' first class, took notes and tried to imagine which part of the class I would be better at teaching. The first part was a group outline of dangerous animals. The second was an interview process where I ask the students questions, they answer and I give them money. The whole idea of teaching, after my unsatisfying experience of model teaching, frightened me. Thankfully, during the break between his classes I was given some good news.
My new apartment is much better than the motel. I will devote a whole blog post to it later. Back at school I had to decide which part of class I should take. I decided to do what I always do, I'm not one to test the water, instead I just jump right in. I opted to teach the entire class, all seventy minutes with the fifteen teenage Koreans.
I had no idea what to expect as I entered the classroom. James' opened the class and introduced me as their new teacher and then I took it away. It went really well. Thankfully James was there as a disciplinary measure. He was kind of surprised at how well I handled myself, having only a few suggestions for me; I need to speak louder, patrol the class and be tougher with the discipline. I think that James was also happy that he didn't have to teach his last class. It was a good day.
I also tried to get a bank account today, but the bank closes at 4:30 pm, and we missed it by a few minutes, so I will be taking care of that on Monday.
I sat in on James' first class, took notes and tried to imagine which part of the class I would be better at teaching. The first part was a group outline of dangerous animals. The second was an interview process where I ask the students questions, they answer and I give them money. The whole idea of teaching, after my unsatisfying experience of model teaching, frightened me. Thankfully, during the break between his classes I was given some good news.
My new apartment is much better than the motel. I will devote a whole blog post to it later. Back at school I had to decide which part of class I should take. I decided to do what I always do, I'm not one to test the water, instead I just jump right in. I opted to teach the entire class, all seventy minutes with the fifteen teenage Koreans.
I had no idea what to expect as I entered the classroom. James' opened the class and introduced me as their new teacher and then I took it away. It went really well. Thankfully James was there as a disciplinary measure. He was kind of surprised at how well I handled myself, having only a few suggestions for me; I need to speak louder, patrol the class and be tougher with the discipline. I think that James was also happy that he didn't have to teach his last class. It was a good day.
Day 2
I slept better that night than any previous night; my sleep was not disturbed, I woke up at 700 after five hours of sleep, still buzzed. It was a good start to the day. I left early from my motel; my plan was to go check out the aquarium. However, once I got there I found the place to be overrun by hordes of screaming children. Don’t mistake hordes of screaming children as something that can be ignored or passed by with little consequence. I’ve been at aquariums during field trips before in the States, usually not a big deal; this wasn’t just a class of kids, this was several schools, there were easily several hundred kids running around the beach and inside the aquarium—not my idea of fun.
Today’s walk to Avalon was much more successful, no need to resort to plan C today. Instead I spent that money on a pizza at Pizza Bingo. I’d say I ate there 95% because of the name and 5% because I haven’t eaten pizza in weeks. For 6,000 Won, it was a good deal for a pizza equivalent to a Medium, however I got what I paid for and only wound up eating half; I did however enjoy my Coke. To make up for the lack of pizza consumption I commandeered their loft eating area to catch up on my life events thus far into Korea. There is an interesting thing about restaurants in Korea. In the US they are spread out onto a single floor. In Korea, the space is about the same but they often spread out in a different direction, up. The same is true for their apartment buildings, some of which are taller than buildings in downtown Seattle.
Today, Thursday was filled with more observing. This time I sat in on some of Lori's classes. She has a much different style of teaching than James. James likes to bring things to class, freestyle (even though the freestyle is all planned out) and simply use the book as a crutch. Lori's method involves predominately using the book, often times she is seeing the lesson she is teaching for the first time as she is teaching it. But after watching her classes, she is able to pull it off and you wouldn't be able to tell unless you told you that she didn't know what she would be teaching that day until she started class.
I also had my model teaching today. A model teaching is where I stand in front of my fellow teachers, head teacher and vice director to teach a fifteen minute lesson. I chose brainstorming, and did not feel like I did a good job. Apparently, I did well enough, I was complimented for writing things down on the board, and critiqued for both the organization of the class and how I spoke. I have a tendency to speak fast and use words that are far too advanced. All in all, my impression of their impression of my model teaching was that I did a satisfactory job; I was the only one who was not satisfied with my performance, and I demand satisfaction.
Tomorrow I will be teaching half of James' last class. This should be interesting.
Today’s walk to Avalon was much more successful, no need to resort to plan C today. Instead I spent that money on a pizza at Pizza Bingo. I’d say I ate there 95% because of the name and 5% because I haven’t eaten pizza in weeks. For 6,000 Won, it was a good deal for a pizza equivalent to a Medium, however I got what I paid for and only wound up eating half; I did however enjoy my Coke. To make up for the lack of pizza consumption I commandeered their loft eating area to catch up on my life events thus far into Korea. There is an interesting thing about restaurants in Korea. In the US they are spread out onto a single floor. In Korea, the space is about the same but they often spread out in a different direction, up. The same is true for their apartment buildings, some of which are taller than buildings in downtown Seattle.
Today, Thursday was filled with more observing. This time I sat in on some of Lori's classes. She has a much different style of teaching than James. James likes to bring things to class, freestyle (even though the freestyle is all planned out) and simply use the book as a crutch. Lori's method involves predominately using the book, often times she is seeing the lesson she is teaching for the first time as she is teaching it. But after watching her classes, she is able to pull it off and you wouldn't be able to tell unless you told you that she didn't know what she would be teaching that day until she started class.
I also had my model teaching today. A model teaching is where I stand in front of my fellow teachers, head teacher and vice director to teach a fifteen minute lesson. I chose brainstorming, and did not feel like I did a good job. Apparently, I did well enough, I was complimented for writing things down on the board, and critiqued for both the organization of the class and how I spoke. I have a tendency to speak fast and use words that are far too advanced. All in all, my impression of their impression of my model teaching was that I did a satisfactory job; I was the only one who was not satisfied with my performance, and I demand satisfaction.
Tomorrow I will be teaching half of James' last class. This should be interesting.
Day 1
My work consisted of sitting in on the classes of James, the teacher I’ll be replacing next week. Normally, teachers will train for a couple of weeks and are given time to adjust to the radical changes of the culture. I may not even have an apartment by the time I start. They threw me into the pool headfirst, with only water wings to bring me up to the surface. At least that is what I thought before the observations. The school provides all the materials, and give you books that you have to follow as much as the parent’s would like. While I may be teaching kids, my clients are really their parents, and they want to see little Billy and Sally's English books all filled out. Teaching will not be easy, but at least it will be easier than I was expecting.
The biggest challenge is the actual presentation: my composure on stage, patience, and efficiency in getting through to the kids that would do just about anything to not be there. Once I realized that, I felt much better, for that whole topic is what I majored in. I am not a teacher, I am not even a manager, but at least I took classes on how to be the latter—of course I could be completely wrong, and most likely I am somewhat off, but I am all for comforting thoughts at this point in time. I even ate at Burger King for that feeling of comfort. The meal was not great but Coca Cola has never tasted so good. I was not a fan of Coca Cola until I went to Korea.
That night I went out with my new coworkers and their friends, drinking beer, soju (similar to vodka), and barbecued foods. Afterwards, I walked back to the motel which was almost a straight shot. I just had to walk down a single street for 20 minutes, make a couple of right turns, and I was at the motel. This time I fell right asleep.
The biggest challenge is the actual presentation: my composure on stage, patience, and efficiency in getting through to the kids that would do just about anything to not be there. Once I realized that, I felt much better, for that whole topic is what I majored in. I am not a teacher, I am not even a manager, but at least I took classes on how to be the latter—of course I could be completely wrong, and most likely I am somewhat off, but I am all for comforting thoughts at this point in time. I even ate at Burger King for that feeling of comfort. The meal was not great but Coca Cola has never tasted so good. I was not a fan of Coca Cola until I went to Korea.
That night I went out with my new coworkers and their friends, drinking beer, soju (similar to vodka), and barbecued foods. Afterwards, I walked back to the motel which was almost a straight shot. I just had to walk down a single street for 20 minutes, make a couple of right turns, and I was at the motel. This time I fell right asleep.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Motel and Beyond
The motel wasn’t terrible. It had a toilet, a shower, a bed, a TV and Internet access. What more can you ask for? I slept less I wouldn’t have liked, and much less than I expected based on the lack of sleep during the flights. I set my alarm clock for 1200 noon; I was up at 730. That morning and afternoon were rough, as my email to my mom can attest to:
The flights were good, long but manageable. I didn't sleep much, even after last night I still haven't slept much. I am terrified right now, I have no idea what to expect, I hardly have a place to live. And hearing you talk about the walk, dad, shadow, and the cats caused me to start crying. I know its just one of those things that even though I may regret my decision to come here right now, that opinion will be different throughout the day and hopefully become a positive feeling by the end of it. Right now I'm just struggling to get through the whole living without any of the comforts I've grown accustomed to, and constantly wondering if I'm capable and competent enough to even be able to do this job. I've never taught before, I have no idea what I'm doing; I am full of fear.
Today is the first day of observations, where I sit in on classes taught by a man named James, who I may be replacing--I'm still a little unclear on that, but it doesn't help with the pressure I'm feeling. I just hope James is cool and can give me a lot of advice, he's supposed to be the best. I'm also not teaching Elementary anymore, now I'm teaching the equivalent of middle school. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
So far I haven't experienced any really different foods. Just fried rice on the place to Japan, and a small asian snack tray on the plane to Busan, which had chopsticks, fried chicken bites and two other rice things I didn't eat. I'm staying at the Black & White Motel--I have no idea where it is on a map. My Contact at Avalon whose name I can't remember is trying to find me an apartment asap. He said that it would either be tomorrow or next week, so I may be at this hotel awhile. I really don't want to be at this hotel for that long.
I don't know what else to write, so I'm going to watch some tv for a while--it's a big screen. I don't have to be anywhere until 1700 and I don't need to leave until 1620; that gives me nearly 8 hours before I have to leave (its 840 right now). I miss you guys a lot, more than I can describe. I'll be happy when I can finally say that without tears, but for now I kind of enjoy it--the tears are actually keeping me somewhat grounded and connected to the memories. I will talk to you later.
Love,
Aaron
A couple hours later I talked with my dad on IM , he convinced me that leaving the confines of my holding cell/motel would put my mind to ease and make me feel at least a little bit better. I explored the area outside the motel, two blocks in each direction. Across the street was an Outback and TGI Friday’s. And in every direction you look there are conglomerations of hotels and motels, bars and 7-11s. After rigorous exploration, I realized that they put me in the cheapest motel in the area. It wasn't the Black and White motel, that was next door. My hotel didn't even have it's name translated into English, and I have no idea how to pronounce it. Thankfully I am only a few blocks from Haeundae Beach, the most popular beach in Korea, and the Busan Aquarium is right next door to that. It was a beautiful cloudy day, probably around the high 70s, low 80s with humidity levels bordering on the absurd.
I also gave my first English lesson on this expedition. Right on the beach is the Tourist Information Center, and I needed some maps and directions. I thought that a cab costs 23,000 Won and I would rather walk then pay that much. However, a cab only costs 2,300 Won (~$2); by the end of this trip I would wind up paying 10x the cost of the cab, oops. After I helped her hone the English on her Pamphlets (although I never understood exactly what they were), she traced the path that I could take to get to Avalon Institute, as well as a couple bus stops I could take if I got tired of walking. Despite her attempt at directions I wound up in the middle of nowhere; I skipped plan B(us), and went straight to plan C(ab).
The cabbie didn’t really speak English, and I’m not sure if he understood the address that my “contact” gave me the night before. I did have a map and remembered that there was a Busan Bank on the first floor of the building Avalon is in. I showed him the map, where the gal from the Tourist Info Center had circled the approximate area of my destination, and then I said, “Busan bank.” 23,000 Won later I was there and ready for my first day of work. I didn't find out until later how much of a tip I had left.
From Seattle to Busan
As I entered Korean airspace aboard an American aircraft, I wondered to myself, 'is it wrong to be listening to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries?'
For those of you that haven’t heard, I am now in South Korea. I am here to teach English in the Jangsan area of Busan, Korea. The trip to get here was pleasant enough. Thankfully, my parents were with me until the security checkpoint before the gate at SeaTac.
Online, Northwest Airlines (Delta subsidiary) listed the size and weights for checked baggage. Unfortunately the information they delivered in person varied from that found online. The maximum weight is really 70 lbs, and the maximum weight to avoid any charges is 50 lbs. I strolled in with an 86 lb suitcase, and a 30 lb suitcase. They were not going to let me on the plane. First, there was an issue with my visa; there shouldn't have been an issue. Second, my bag was way too heavy. The obvious answer would be to take sixteen pounds out of one suitcase and put it into the other. Problem, my 30 lb suitcase was so full that I literally had to stand on it to zip it up, nothing else could be added, and if anything could it would just be a trivial gain. My first idea was to just leave my parents with a parting gift of a little over sixteen pounds. Then came plan B; it wasn’t my plan, I was more than happy to ditch some shit. My mom found a large box, big enough to fit the small suitcase. The box was filled than ceremoniously wrapped up with "fragile" tape. Upon inspection at the baggage claim much later, I have reached the conclusion that either baggage handlers cannot read English, or simply don’t care about the word “fragile.”
The first flight was from SeaTac to Tokyo Narita. It was an 11 hour flight starting at 1400 PST and landing at 1600 Tokyo Time; not once did the sun set. Despite the lack of legroom the flight was not too bad. Transformers 2 sucked; Duplicity sucked; Watchmen was still an awesome movie despite being modified for a plane (Dr. Manhattan was a eunuch); Simon Baker dueled a psychic; Michael Scott ruined Jan's Deposition; Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Frank and Sweet Dee became crippled, went on a Jihad, and then welfare. Aside from staring at flickering lights, I napped sparingly, peed once, ate twice, didn’t learn the name of my neighbor and read several chapters about the history of Byzantium. I was very happy to exit that plane.
I peed again at the Tokyo airport; I try to use the restroom at new places, especially places that have a sign letting you know how to give yourself an enema—thankfully I only had to pee. The next flight was only an hour and forty-five minutes and I had an exit row, it was like heaven. The comforting sounds of The Soloist put me to sleep for the majority of the flight. Once I landed in Korea, I had only about 7 hours of sleep starting from the Sunday night before the flight. I slept maybe two hours during the sixteen hours of travel.
Korean Customs (not the cultural kind) is nothing like in the US, or EU. They are a very trusting people, and will take you at your word. If one felt so inclined, smuggling a tiger into Korea could be possible so long as it was unconscious the entire time and not in luggage that roared. This is not something I made up, there was literally a sign at Customs that had a picture of a full-grown tiger head that was circled and crossed out. I’m not sure how often people try this, but apparently it’s often enough to warrant the picture, if I was cognizant I would have taken a picture.
My luggage wasn’t hard to find, I had the single largest suitcase with an unmistakable floral design that had several bright orange tags letting you know that it was heavy, just in case you couldn’t tell from its size; I could have easily smuggled in an unconscious baby tiger, so long as it didn't weigh more than seventy pounds. Next up was the “fragile” box, which also happened to be the largest box on the carousel, and it was definitely not handled with care. There were only two holes in the box, but all of the corners and sides were soft, it was like if cardboard and jelly got together and make a box.
Then came the cab driver. I was told beforehand that he couldn’t speak any English. As I exited the airport with both bags on my tote cart, there were a couple dozen people holding signs with names on them. I should have known beforehand that my guy wouldn’t be one of these people in business formal attire, or even business casual attire. At first I didn’t see him. I kept my eye on the door, figuring he would walk in any minute. Then, a guy in his late fifties with a haggard face, missing teeth, and a greasy dark green jumpsuit walked in, I knew at first sight, that was the guy. He said, “Hello, how are you?” I replied, “Good, how are you?” That was the extent of our conversation, he never responded; I'm pretty sure it's because he had no idea what I had said.
I wasn’t sure how to spell Guido in Korean, until I met Lee See-Woong. He was nice and we didn’t get into any accidents, despite his best efforts. Driving in Korea was not wholly unlike driving in Greece. Lines on the road are only to be followed when there is another car in-between them; same thing with speed limits and turn signals. Hazard lights are used, as are horns; if you want to enter an intersection during a red light, throw on your hazards and make your way. He drove a rickety old minivan that hadn’t had a smooth drive since before Lee sat behind the wheel. The car ride lasted only 45 minutes or so, but during that time had we been driving in the states, he would have lost his license and spent the night in jail and I would have been charged as his accomplice.
He dropped me off at the high-rise office building in which Avalon operates its Elementary and Middle School campuses; they have both the 8th and 9th floors. They drug me through the school introducing me to people, asking questions, shaking hands…all I wanted to do was have a beer and go to sleep. Next I learn that I don’t yet have an apartment, but instead I will be living in a motel for the next few days. Great.
Introduction
I am terrible at remembering to take pictures. Eventually I'll get the hang of it, but for now I'm just to going post the blog when I feel like it and add pictures later.
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