The Half Way Marker

It hadn’t really felt much like the holiday season yet this year, but as I’m sitting here at my little coffee shop writing this email with the snow falling in huge, fluffy flakes outside the window, my lovely friend Eva sitting across from me wrapping presents, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire playing over the sound system, and the Christmas tree (albeit artificial--no live Christmas trees to be found in Korea) twinkling, it finally feels like Christmas. I also went to a candlelit carol service at the Seoul Anglican Cathedral last night which added to the festive vibe. It was absolutely beautiful—reminded me of the candlelit service on Christmas Eve in Cresco. Cozy, comforting, and very home-like.

So I wanted to get another post up before I left for Thailand, but I’m now down to less than 48 hours before departure time, I haven’t begun to pack yet, there are seven piles of laundry strewn throughout my apartment mocking me at every turn, and I have five lesson plans I need to turn in tomorrow morning that I have yet to start (imagine that)... all of this is to say that this is going to be a point form, piecemeal post thrown together with notes I’ve been jotting down over the past month.

4 months down...the half-way point of my sojourn and a good time to evaluate. Here’s what I’m loving about Korea:

-Seriously short TV commercial breaks...if any at all. They condense what would be an hour long show back home into 45 mins here and then show commercials for 15 mins straight at the end to finish out the hour. What an ingenious idea! I’m not sure why the advertisers go for it though since obviously everybody changes the channel for those 15 mins.

-Ondol heating. The cosiest thing ever. When I eventually build my dream home, it will have under-floor heating like this. My feet are always toasty. It makes sitting on the floor in the middle of winter a pleasure too.

-No sales tax. Or tipping. Ever. Last week our waitress ran down two flights of stairs to catch us on the street to give us the equivalent of 60 cents we left her at the restaurant.

-$25 monthly cell phone bills. This includes lots of texting and even calls to North America.

-Plenty of English television. Will and Grace, That 70s Show, Grey’s Anatomy, America’s Next Top Model, OPRAH!, and perhaps more CSI and Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sylvester Stallone movies (why??) than one person can handle. They’ve got it all here. No need to ever feel homesick for western entertainment.

-Ice cream waffles and coffee shops abound!

-Super cheap, clean, convenient public transit. Miss the bus? No problem. Another one’s coming in four minutes or less. And the $1.50, hour-long subway ride to central Seoul beats paying 35 bucks in gas for a trip to Winnipeg and back.

-Street meat and street mandu (Korean dumplings filled with spices, noodles, and such)

-You will always be cozy in Korea. Comfort is a high priority for Koreans and they go to great lengths to make sure they are always warm and snug. Examples: 1) Blankets are available for use at many coffee shops. 2) My Korean female colleagues have their own blankets at work and they hang out in the staff room all wrapped up in them (Dad, you thought me wrapped up in a blanket while lifeguarding was funny?). 3) When I went to get my hair done, a blanket was placed over my lap while I was getting my hair washed. 4) Slippers are always worn at home and it’s even acceptable to wear them at work. 5) The seats on the subway are heated. 6) You can find big space-heater-like things randomly on the street, and many stores and restaurants have heater-fans scattered around that rotate and blow heat at you. Love, love, love it.

-Cool contraptions. These clever Koreans think of everything. Think of any small thing that annoys you on a daily basis and Korea has a solution: built-in, chilled drink holders in tables at pubs, call buttons at restaurants, umbrella-baggers (devices found at the entrances of most stores that magically wrap your umbrella in plastic so you don’t have to wield a big, wet, awkward thing while shopping), doors that you can push OR pull to open (WHY aren’t all doors like this back home??), etc.

-5 C/ 40 F days in December when it’s -40 back home


...And then there are the things about Korea I could do without:

-The adult obsession with Hello Kitty, flowers, and Disney Characters. It’s kind of creepy to tell you the truth. Also, padded, 70s-style toilet seats.

-Inexplicably expensive garbage bags and a serious lack of public trash cans.

-Public horking. Loosening your phlegm and spitting it up seems to be perfectly acceptable street conduct. Yummy.

-Wall paper. I haven’t seen a painted wall yet...not one. I miss the color!

-Disorganization/lack of communication in the workplace. I’m perfecting the art of patience.

-The loud, chanting, Korean voice coming from a speaker on the truck that goes slowly up and down the streets of my neighbourhood selling goodness knows what at ungodly hours every Saturday, waking me up way too early.


Some things I miss about home:

-Carpet. The only carpet I’ve seen since I got here was in the elevator at the movie theater and I actually contemplated curling up on the popcorn-kernel-covered, soda-stained mess...THAT’S how much I miss carpet.

-Houses/yards. I can honestly say I haven’t seen even one house since arriving in Korea. I can’t imagine raising a family in an apartment, but everyone here does it.

-Cheese. I’d kill for some fresh parmesan cheese!

-Curling. Sigh.

-Apartments with lots of natural light (my windows are so tiny...and frosted...and barred)

-Ovens and clothes dryers. Rarities in Korean homes.


Low points of the past month:

-Falling down the stairs in the dark at work. Needless to say they now make sure to keep the lights on in the stairwells at night.

-Getting yelled at by cab drivers on two separate occasions.

Occasion number one: When we got in the cab, I thought we were agreeing to a set fare of thirty dollars (the cab driver said a number in Korea that I could have sworn was thirty), but when we got to our destination and the cabbie was unimpressed to say the least with the thirty dollars we handed up, I realized quickly I had mistaken forty for thirty. Yeah, my Korean needs a little work. I’ll admit it was my completely my bad, but nonetheless, I wasn’t going to give the guy any more money. We got out of the cab with the driver still yelling at us. I then realized immediately that I had left one of my mittens in the taxi. Yeah...that mitten was g.o.n.e.

Occasion number two: Long story short, we thought our driver understood where we wanted to go, but clearly he didn’t because he took us somewhere completely different. We had to call a Korean friend to have him explain to the driver where we wanted to go. When we finally got to where we wanted to be, the cabbie wanted double the price we’d agreed to. Erin and I got out of the cab and ran, leaving my poor roommate Liz to deal with super scary mr. cab man who actually got out of the taxi screaming and had it out with Liz on the street, all while Erin and I watched from a distance, safely hidden....some friends, right? Something about the way that guy was twitching told me to run though :P.


Highlights of the past month:

-Figuring out the perfect classroom arrangement that allows me to teach perched on the heater under layers of kids coats that I convince my students to lend me for warmth.

-Coming to the realization: Why pay for my own lunch when I can just snag what my kids don’t eat? It’s gone from, “Eat your chicken” to “Are you sure you’re going to eat that chicken?” I scored five milks, three yogurts, four Christmas oranges, and three bananas from my kids’ unwanted snacks this week. Not a bad haul.

-Getting four packages from home

-Having our bill at Coffee Happy unexpectedly paid by a Korean woman who turned out to be the aunt of one of our students. She recognized my friend as his teacher.

-Stumbling across the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Finale on TV.

-Park, one of the Korean teachers at school, bringing me a bottle of orange juice to help me feel better when I was sick and lost my voice.


A couple interesting things I’ve discovered about Korea:

-Koreans are one year old on the day they are born. They then turn two years old on New Year’s Day. From that point on, they ONLY turn a year older on New Year’s Day. So even though they do celebrate their actual birth days, there is no change of age on that day. This means if a kid is born in Korea on December 31st, he is one year old for a day and then turns two years old a mere one day after he was born. THIS was hard to figure out. My kindergarten kids are called “seven-year-olds”, but they are actually a mixture of five- and six-year-olds. Hmmm.

-You will be hard pressed to find a kitchen appliance in Korea that doesn’t have a glittery pink or red flower pattern traipsing across it. I wondered at first what the unmarried men are supposed to buy to outfit their kitchens, and then my question was answered when I started noticing an abnormal amount of males carrying purses...their girlfriends’, their own...often their girlfriends’ and their own at the same time... so I guess accessorizing with a purse and owning a Pretty Pretty Princess refrigerator doesn’t make you any less of a man in Korea. In actuality, those unmarried men don’t really have to worry about the whole flowered appliance thing anyway because I’ve also learned that like 90% of Koreans live with their parents until they get married.

-Korean women will put on makeup anywhere and everywhere completely unabashedly. Discretely putting lip gloss on during the benediction at church (guilty) is one thing...using your eyelash curler on the subway or taking a picture of yourself with your camera phone on the bus to check out your makeup is taking vanity and girly-girl to a whole new level.


Tomorrow’s my last day of teaching before our winter break. I’m heading to Thailand for 10 days with three friends. We’ll be there from Dec 25th to Jan 3rd. We’re spending four nights in Bangkok, one night in Phuket, and six nights on Railay Beach. Just slightly exited for this trip.

Talk to you in the new year...

Fall in the SK

True to form, I’ve yet again waited way too long to post. Living in Korea has changed me in many respects, but it seems to have done nothing to alter my procrastinating ways. I’m trying, I really am…old habits die hard.

It’s fall in South Korea and a hella busy time here for me. Work has been chaotic lately. For a job that was supposed to be easy-peasy and a minimal time commitment, I feel like it’s ruled my life this past month…



In the middle of October, we had what the school called a “Sports Day”, although the day actually involved zero sports…more games, really. Translation mistake. At any rate, it was quite the production. All the kids’ parents, brothers, sisters, grandmas, grandpas –and goodness knows what other relatives—came and participated. Kind of nerve wracking to be meeting all the parents for the first time and at the SAME time. But between getting to witness the trademark ultra-competiveness of Koreans at its finest (one dad literally pushed another dad over intentionally during a relay race, and had we pinned the students against their parents in a game I have no doubt in my mind that the parents would have gladly whipped their kids’ butts) and watching mother after mother show up to this “sports day” (sounds casual, right?) wearing expensive, cutesy, impractical, brand name outfits, the day ended up providing much hilarity.

Halloween was another interesting experience at school. Halloween isn’t really celebrated here—at least not to the same extent as it is back home…definitely no trick-or-treating—but Koreans are very aware of the holiday, and you can easily find costumes and other Halloween-related stuff at E-Mart or Lotte Mart. However, because at GDA we pride ourselves on being an institute that churns out little Americanized, white-in-every-sense-save-skin-color Korean children (no lie, our pamphlets and other public relations publications all use pictures of WHITE boys and girls even though a real white child has never set foot inside our doors), we had to do Halloween up in a big way. The kiddies came dressed in what seemed like one of three costumes—a Disney princess, Spiderman, or Harry Potter—and went around all hyped up on sugar to the various stations we organized for them. I was in the Monster Dancing room, and if dancing around like a fool and trying to put on a big, excited front for the chil’en all morning wasn’t tiring enough, we then had to take all the students “trick-or-treating” around a few blocks outside…blocks lined with the kids’ parents waiting to give them more candy. Fun, weird, and exhausting all rolled into one.



Sports Day and Halloween behind us, we’re now practicing for the Christmas concert in full force. On top of that, we have the month-end tests to create, administer, and correct, monthly report cards to write, lesson plans to make for next month, and a bunch of other unnecessary work our administration has decided to heap on us to do. The teachers’ stress level reached an all-new high when the school announced the other day that they would no longer be able to pay us on the last day of the month (as they’re contractually obligated to); they said that because the school is struggling financially right now, they need to wait to pay us until after the parents have paid tuition at the end of each month. Feeling like this is one bad sign of things to come, I’m thankful for my kids right now—they’re what’s keeping my sanity…


Yeah, there’s nothing like a shower of hugs every morning from a bunch of adorable, cuddly six year-olds to keep you smiling…and nothing like the good dose of candidness I get from my students on a daily basis—the kind of honesty only socially acceptable when it’s coming from small children—to keep you grounded. I brought my laptop to class the other day to show a Power Point presentation, and the kids insisted I also show them some of my own pictures I have on the computer. They loved seeing all the pics from back home of houses and wide open spaces, but when I got to one of me from a few years ago—apparently a particularly unflattering picture?—Na-Yeon yelled in a shocked voice, “Teacher, that is you?? Teacher, you is very fat there!” (probably true in comparison with the rail-thin Korean women!). And when I came to school with my freshly-dyed hair (I did, by the way end up finding someone who would dye my hair…unfortunately she didn’t speak any English and must have though “natural with subtle highlights” meant “black”—thankfully it has now faded to an acceptable shade of brown), the kids all screamed, ran away from me, and said, “MONSTER HAIR!”…a statement only slightly more discreet than Yu-Rim’s “Teacher, I don’t like your hair style” comment when I wore my hair curly another day. Other things that have made me smile about my kids lately: Hey-Sun starting off her written story about dinosaurs with, “Ones open a time” and Amy randomly bringing me 4 sandwiches one morning and a dozen Dunkin Donuts a few days later… “All for you!” she said. Wow- I guess they really do think North Americans can pack it in!

Even though work does consume my Monday to Fridays, I’ve tried to keep my weekends work-free. We did a cool hike at Bukhansan National Park just outside of Seoul a few weekends ago. Koreans do everything to the extreme—if they’re going to do something, they go all out and do it right. Hiking is no exception. They get all decked-out in expensive, colorful hiking gear and use these weird, ski-pole-like walking sticks. I wanted to laugh at them until I started actually hiking up the mountain, at which point Korean men, women and children of all ages started passing me, not even breaking a sweat while I huffed and puffed and probably complained quite vocally like an obnoxious foreigner…and then the joke was on me. The hike was beautiful though; the leaves were just starting to change, and the view at the top overlooking Seoul was worth the physical pain and the embarrassment of being out-hiked by 70-year-olds.


Last weekend I discovered a dangerous thing—the new, ginormous, three-floor Forever 21 (American clothing store) that just opened in Seoul. To understand my excitement, you need to first realize how difficult it is for foreigners to buy clothes here. For one thing, women’s clothes in Korea tend to come in only one size—extra small. Even if by some miracle I were actually able to fit into something, there would be no way of knowing it because most stores won’t allow you to try the clothes on. We’re still trying to decide if that’s a rule for everyone or if it’s only enforced with foreigners because the stores are afraid we’ll stretch the clothes out with our existent chests and big boo-tays. Given the apparent lack of change rooms though, I think it must be a rule across the board. Very strange. Also, the sales people follow you around like you’re a 13 year-old girl about to steal something. It doesn’t make for the most pleasant shopping experience. Anyway, the clothes are itsy-bitsy, you can’t try them on, you can’t return them, and you feel like you’re under surveillance while shopping. Walking into Forever 21 was like walking into heaven on Earth. Rack after rack after rack of clothes in small, medium, and large…sales people too busy to stalk you…and glorious, glorious change rooms. I hope that trip satisfied my shopping craving for a long time because my pay check can’t handle too many more trips like that.

And I’ve saved the best for last. This weekend…I saw… the man, the legend…Billy Joel himself, live in concert at Olympic Gymnasium in Seoul. It was unreal. He played for two hours straight—no opening act. Sweat was dripping off his face by the end. He has ridiculous piano playing skills, and his voice sounds better live than recorded, if that’s even possible. At one point in the concert security started moving everyone back and away from the stage. Billy literally STOPED playing “In The Middle of the Night” mid-song, said "Wait a minute. What's going on here?" made security let everyone back, and then started the song over again. Yes, I realize I have a bit of an obsession, but I’m almost peeing my pants with excitement just remembering the night. It was just that awesome. You gotta give the man props—he’s like 60 and still throws around mike stands. I have to admit that when he popped his collar during “It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me”, I was a little bit jealous of his 27-year-old wife ;). Not much tops hearing “Piano Man” sung live by Billy Joel himself in a packed arena. So, so, so cool.

As amazing as Billy was, he’s only runner-up for the highlight of my month; getting Kraft Dinner and Babybel cheese from Mom and Dad in the mail takes first place. Low point of the month: stapling my finger…not once, but twice.

The Dancing Quin

Thursday was one of those days that reminds me why I teach. One of my girls came up to me during lunch with a huge smile stretched across her little face and handed me a piece of paper all folded up into a small square. She then whispered in my ear, “No read until after school on 5th floor [the teacher’s lounge]” and trotted back to her seat very pleased, grinning ear to ear. I thought, “Cute,” put the secret paper in my pocket, and forgot about it until 5:30 that night when I was getting ready to leave work. At my desk, I unfolded the paper to find one simple message: “Jamie Teacher you are the Dancing Quin.” I literally burst out laughing. Mama Mia is huge in Korea right now. I first came to realize this a week earlier when a bunch of us teachers were sitting in the office doing lesson plans after school and heard music coming from the gymnasium. We all kind of looked and each other and said, “is that what I think it is??” Yep, 30+ little Korean voices enthusiastically belting out the best of ABBA in their after school music class. They love it. They don’t have a clue what they’re singing about, but they love it. So when after a long week Rachel told me via a secret note that I was in her opinion the “Dancing Quin,” little could have meant more or been more hilarious. Made my week.

Clara's birthday party at school. Bdays are a big deal.

On another note, I’ve taken on an additional afternoon class. I didn’t really have a choice in the matter and wasn’t all too pleased about the idea at first since it means an extra three hours of classes each week plus prep time. As soon as I did the math and realized I’d be getting almost $400 more per pay check thanks to the overtime, any annoyance I had felt over having a new class dumped in my lap quickly faded. The extra cash will definitely come in handy for our Thailand Christmas/New Year’s trip.

Picture from our hike. So many gorgeous wild flowers in South Korea.

Not too much else to report. Went on a great hike this past weekend and then proceeded to stay out all night in Seoul...not sure which of the two was the greater contributor to me not being able to walk the next day (just kidding, Mom and Dad!) :P. It was also a weekend of birthdays and food. Went to The Outback Friday night with all the teachers for my roommate’s birthday, out for breakfast Saturday morning at what was billed as an American-style diner with some of the girls (way too fancy to be a real American diner!), and out for Thai food in Seoul Saturday night for another friend’s birthday. Kirb, Dar, Brennen, and Cody...wish you guys could have been with me at the Thai place- you would have LOVED it! Like the Pad Thai place in Winnipeg x1000. SO yummy! No statue at the door to kiss though :P.

Eating Thai food for Jen's birthday in Iteawon- the "foreigners" neighborhood of Seoul.

My current project is to find a salon that isn’t afraid to die my foreign hair. Not sure why I didn’t just go natural before I left home because now I’m stuck with big roots and a bunch of Asian hairdressers that won’t touch my hair with a 10-foot pole.

I’ll leave you with this: I wiped my first bum today. It’s official- I’m a kindergarten teacher!

Chuseok

Annyeoung Haseyo! Yep, I’ve mastered hello in Korean. We just got through the Chuseok holiday here (like Thanksgiving), and having had four days off work to explore Korea, I have mucho stories to tell.



Friday at school was a blast. All the kids came dressed in their hanboks (traditional Korean dress). Scratch that--the kids BROUGHT their hanboks with them and changed at school (read: a bunch of six-year-old girls running around my classroom in their underwear giggling uncontrollably and squealing the word “PANTIES!” in pitches I thought only dogs could hear, while my sole male student tried desperately to sneak a peek through the cracks in the door from outside the room). The school even rented hanboks for the teachers to wear, so I, too, got to look like a giant rainbow cupcake for a day. We spent all morning and afternoon making yummy Korean deserts and playing Chuseok games. The only bummer was the hot, nasty smell of sweaty bodies in hanboks. We don’t air condition the communal areas in our school, and it’s still like 85 degrees here every day. You can imagine the stink. Think hockey locker room.

All the teachers headed out to Dublin--a cute little Irish pub in downtown Bundang--after work Friday night. It’s an Irish pub, but with the strangest mix of American music. The Koreans are always trying to replicate western style, but usually end up with some odd twist that just makes you say, “what??” I’ll never complain about Bon Jovi though, even if it’s in an Irish pub. Anyway...darts, pool...good times.

Saturday morning, Liz and I packed up the gigantic backpack we borrowed from another teacher (Dad, bringing the roller suitcase instead of the backpack was the wrong choice--you were right!) and headed to the bus station with no set plan...just a few cool-sounding places circled in the guide book and the hope that there would still be some tickets to places outside of the city available. We decided to hit up Deacheon first--a small beach town on the west coast of Korea and a two and a half hour ride from Seoul.

We got to Deacheon without a hitch. As we were walking around town trying to find a place to ditch our backpack, a woman ran up to us eagerly asking, “Hotel? Hotel??” and proceeded to practically drag us to what would be our accommodations for the night. Did

we have a choice? We started to realize at this point....the point where hotel owners were standing in the streets hunting down backpackers...that we had landed upon a sleepy (not to mention creepy) little town. Deacheon holds a huge mud festival in the summer that is apparently just a way-big party and draws masses of people. I guess when we read about this in the guide book we just assumed the town would always be a happening place. Wrong.

We failed to really think about the fact that we were traveling during a major holiday weekend and that most shops/businesses would be closed. The DAY was great; we rented four-wheelers and rode around in the sand, sprawled out on the beach, and enjoyed the awesome views. The EVENING, however, was a different story. Once night-fall hit, it felt like we’d been thrown onto some creepy, deserted carnival movie set with eerily cheery music echoing in empty streets and the odd two or three people playing one of those ball-toss games randomly set up on the side of the road. Trying to find a place to eat was nearly impossible; the only restaurants open were the many seafood places along the beach that had massive tanks across their facades packed with fish--both dead and alive. Not exactly appetizing. Even those restaurants, whose neon signs claimed they were open, had no patrons. Maybe someone just forgot to unplug the signs ten years ago...? So, it was us and the poor thousands of fish teetering on the brink of death. The handful of people who WERE left in town were all down on the beach lighting off fireworks...AT each other. The only thing left to do was buy some coolers at the 7-11 on the corner, sit on the boardwalk watching these revellers, and laugh until we peed about the random, bizarre, and surreal nature of our little ghost town.

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed to the beach for a morning dip. Even though Deacheon didn’t exactly have the night life we would have liked, it definitely had that super peaceful, serene thing going on. We were the only ones on the whole beach at 8:00 am, and it was perfect. Not a bad way to start a day. After a swim, we decided to try to catch another bus to Chungju Lake in central Korea. Eight hours later, we were

hotel-shopping on the streets of Chungju, looking for the cheapest and least “love-motel”-ish hotel we could find. Korea is known for its love-motels. Just to give you a visual, a standard love-motel room usually boasts things like neon-lighting from the ceiling, a round bed, and always plenty-o-condoms on the vanity. High class! Some of the fancier ones even adorned with paintings of voluptuous female silhouettes lining the walls of the stairwells. We did end up finding a very simple, cheap, non-love-motel place to stay. The only problem was that when we got to our room there was no bed; we’d been given an “ondol” room where you’re supposed to sleep on thin mats on the linoleum floor. Back to the front desk to swap our room for one with a bed. I have now memorized the Korean expression for “western style room”: Chimdae bang juseyo...aka, “Gimmi my American bed, yo!” Another teacher told me the “ondol” sleeping actually isn’t that bad, especially in the winter time since the heating here is under the floors. I’ll have to try that one another time.

Sunday night was again spent trying to find something to eat in a town all but shut down for Chuseok. Note to selves: when planning a spontaneous trip, avoid Chuseok! We were feeling pretty crappy about our luck until Monday morning when things took a turn for the strange and wonderful. We decided to get up early and catch a bus to the ferry terminal to take a boat tour of the lake. As we were coming out of our hotel, a taxi driver pulled up and told us he’d take us there instead. Why not? Taxis are dirt cheap in Korea. And it’s a good thing we took this taxi driver up on his offer because he strangely ended up being the highlight of our weekend.


Our ripped-jean-shorts-and-backwards-baseball-cap-wearing cabby cranked some Korean club music and half-danced, half-drove all the way to the terminal. He was seriously raising the roof at one point. His Enlish was pretty much limited to "OK!" (accompanied bya big smile and thumbs up) and “Big Sale!” (referring to his bargain fares), but he still joked around with us and tried to teach us Korean words using non-verbals (e.g. he taught us the word for lingerie by pointing to the lingerie store then motioning across his chest, raising his eyebrows, and making an “ohlala” sound).

When we got to the ferry terminal at 8:00 am, our driver and new friend informed us that the ferries didn’t start running until 11:00 am, but insisted that he buy us coffee while we waited. He also wanted to show us on the great big map posted outside the terminal where all the best site-seeing spots in the area were. He then offered us “Big Sale!”, motioned to his taxi and to various places on the map, and said “One hour, Ten man-won ($10)” How could we say no? Back into the taxi with our buddy. For the next hour he drove us around and stopped to let us walk around and take pictures where ever we wanted. Mid-way through the trip he asked, “Gim-Bap?” and then proceeded to stop and buy us five roles of the yummy Californian-roll type stuff. He even got us each a melon ice cream bar while we waited because the gim-bap order was taking so long!

If I heard this story from someone else, I would definitely say that the taxi driver was a huge creeper, but he totally wasn’t. He was just a genuinely nice dude who was probably really happy to break up the mundane cab-driving routine by hanging out with a couple of

foreigners for the morning. Unless you’ve experienced it, you can’t really understand how cool it is to get to know people who don’t speak English just by pointing, acting things out, laughing at yourself, and giving the other language your best shot. Even though we hardly understood a word coming out of this guy’s mouth and vice-versa, we still probably learned more about Koreans and their culture from him in one hour than we had since we got here. This--getting to talk with local people--has been by far my favorite thing about living overseas so far...for sure the most rewarding and interesting anyway. Ice cream waffles and Christmas-oranges (available every day of the year here) are a close second and third :P.

When we got back to the terminal, Liz and I ended up two-stepping in an empty parking lot to the music playing over the loudspeaker while we killed the rest of the time until our ferry ride on Chungju Lake. We figure that we get stared at no matter what we do simply because we’re foreign, so we might as well have a good time while being started at--embrace our foreignness! The lake area was gorgeous and had some beautiful mountainous scenery, so the ferry ride was worth every penny. In the afternoon we took a bus to a town called Danyang and went to an awesome cave--nothing like I’d ever been to in North America. By 10:oo pm, and after a long haul of a bus ride back to Seoul due to the stop-and-go post-Chuseok traffic on the expressways, we were back home. And that was our weekend. Whew.

I can’t believe I’ve been here a month already. The time is flying. Work’s still going great and the apartment isn’t so bad anymore. Everything finally feels comfortable :). The weather has been fantastic and is supposed to get even better with the fall--lots of blue skies and warm, comfortable temps. I’ve been doing something new almost every day and can’t believe how glad I am that I made the decision to come here--it really is just what I needed. Life will be waiting for me back in North America in eleven months, but for now I’m loving meeting great new people, doing whatever, whenever, and packing every day with things I’d never be doing back home. Liz, Katy, and I are booking tickets to Thailand for Christmas next Monday (pay-day). Life is good!

Getting Settled In

I’ve been putting off writing this post just because so much has happened in the past two weeks that it's hard to get it all down. I’ll try to sum it up the best I can.
Work is going really well so far. It's not at all what I expected. I am teaching at a private Kindergarten/Elementary English school. Because we're living in probably the wealthiest suburb of Seoul, all the families that send their kids to us have beaucoup bucks...not to mention super high expectations for their kids and for the schools. They're paying $1000 per month to send their children to us, so I guess they have a right to expect a considerable amount.

The reception area at my school

I start teaching at 9:40 every morning, Mon-Fri, but we have to be at the school by 8:40 am. I teach math, science, social studies, art...even cooking!...to two different groups of kindergartners (7 per class). It's pretty intense. I'm with the kids from 9:40 am to 2:20 pm without even a one minute break. I got lucky and was assigned to kindergarten classes made up of kids who are in their second year at the school, so they are pretty self-sufficient and smart. Actually, they're brilliant! They understand pretty much every word I say and speak non-stop in English (albeit broken, hilarious English--so cute!). I'm actually feeling kind of guilty because many of the other teachers have the brand new 4-year-olds who poop their pants, spill their food all over themselves and each other, and eat their papers and pencils. One of my friends already had a parent call the school irate that her son had come home with poopy pants and that my friend hadn't noticed it during the day. Another one of my friends sent a letter home to her kids' parents with two spelling mistakes in it. By the next day, three mothers had called the school to complain about it. Talk about pressure... Needless to say I'm now checking, rechecking, and TRIPLE checking all my notes going home with my kids. The parents also get super upset if we don't make their kids eat their rice during lunch. Rice is sacred here. Don’t mess with the rice.

Staff room- full, busy, messy...

Most of the kids have chosen English names (or rather their parents have chosen English names for them) to use just at school. I actually don't even know most of their real names. I do have a couple, though, who choose to go by their Korean names. I also have three students who I would take home with me right now if their parents would let me: Kitty (wears a Hello Kitty ribbon in her hair every day and is decked in pink from head to toe), Clara (predictably and without fail says, 'Teacher, teacher...this is so very, very, very, very, very hard' about 15 times while doing ANY coloring activity...but in a really quiet, accented voice that just makes me want to crack up and give her a big hug), and Na-yeon (does gymnastics stunts off my body and insists on performing her ballet moves for us every day during talk-time). Sooooo adorable and sweet.

My classroom (called "Sydney"--all the rooms have different English-speaking city names) and my kids eating lunch

So most of my day is spent with these 2two groups of kindergartners, but I also teach English classes in the afternoons and evenings to older elementary kids who come to our school after their regular Korean school. On Tues/Thurs, I teach a class from 2:40-3:40 and another from 3:40-4:40 and then I'm done for the day. On M/W/F I have a two hour break after my kindergarten, and then I teach a class from 4:50-5:50 and another from 5:50-6:50. Not being done until 7:00 on a Friday night kind of stinks, but other than that, the hours aren't so bad. We have the Korean version of Thanksgiving (called Chu-Suk) coming up really soon, so next Friday all the kids are coming to school dressed in hanboks (the traditional Korean garb that no one actually wears on a daily basis anymore) and then we'll be playing traditional games, eating traditional food, etc. Should be fun! We have a four-day weekend for the holiday, so my roommate and I are going to leave the city and try to go camping (TRY being the operative word here--we'll see if our super-minimal knowledge of Korean will get us there) in a national park south of Seoul.

My city, Bundang, is very cool. I’m so glad I decided to live in a suburb instead of right in Seoul. There are all sorts of parks, walking paths, hiking trails, etc. There are tons of trees, lots of grass, and small mountains--very unlike the concrete and grey of the big city. There’s a huge park right by my apartment that has a walking path around the outskirts, a lake in the middle, and even bungee-jumping on site. Like I said earlier, Bundang is considered quite a ritzy suburb--like the Beverly Hills of the Seoul area. Everyone drives ridiculously nice cars (equipped with GPS of course) and sends their kids to private schools. You can tell by the presents that the parents give the teachers at our school that the money flows. My roommate got a Dior perfume set from one of her kid’s parents today as a Chu-Suk gift. So jealous.

At The Rainbow Room--a hooka bar in Seoul

The shopping and fashion are super upscale in Bundang too; sadly, I definitely cannot afford the shops in the downtown area. Mom, Gina, Karla, Troy--you gave me crap for packing all of my cute, impractical high heels, but if Seoul isn’t the place to wear super-high, impractical foot-killers, I don’t know what city is. I don’t think women here know what flats or running shoes are. One of my friends went on a rafting trip a few weeks ago and said the women were even wearing their high heels in the rafts. Now that’s commitment. My point: I’m glad I brought my cute shoes. At least I can attempt to fit in.
So, given that I’m living in such a fancy-schmancy area, one would assume I’d also probably be living pretty comfortably. Think again. Apparently my school didn’t get the memo. I think the people in charge of housing at my school must search out Bundang’s most dingy apartments and rent ‘em all for their suckers of teachers. Liz and I moved into our apartment last Saturday, and that was the second time since I got here that I wanted to pack up and go home. The apartment is small...and pretty nasty. To say the least. The wallpaper is all yellowed and perma-dirty, and the whole place is musty and smells like kim-chi (one Korean food you’ll want to pass on if you ever come here to visit!). Oh, and our laundry room has mould. It’s awesome. I think the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of natural light. We only have a few small windows, and they’re frosted. Even better, they’re barred. The one window I do have in my bedroom doesn’t even open to the outside; it opens into our moulding laundry room...so basically it just stays shut. Tight. We’re starting to feel better about the whole situation though. I mean, it IS free housing, and apparently our apartment is a heck of a lot nicer (and bigger) than most of the other teachers’ accomodations. I can’t imagine. We’re also going to go out this weekend and buy some rugs/lamps/plants/ANYTHING to cover the walls. It’ll feel a lot cosier and homier after that. Besides, we aren’t at the apartment that much anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what it’s like when it comes down to it. I need to just suck it up and stop complaining. We’re just spoiled in North America.

Our kitchen. Looks surprisingly nice here...don't be fooled.

Other than teaching and scrubbing my apartment from floor to ceiling, I’ve just been exploring the area and trying to figure things out. The teachers go out to eat quite a bit. I LOVE the barbecue-your-own-food-at-your-table deal. Really fun. And yummy! I’ve also experienced my first check-your-shoes-at-the-door-and-sit-on-the-floor restaurant AND my first squat toilet...the first of the two, very cool, and the latter, not so much. I’ve mastered about three Korean phrases so far and am still trying to get the chop-sticks handling down. It’s an art. As far as the language goes, it’s a LOT harder to get by with just English than I thought it would be; VERY few people here on the streets speak more than a few basic words of it, if that. So in order to make my life a lot easier, I better pick up a little more Korean in a hurry. My students are trying to be my tutors :P.

Eating a french-fry-coated hotdog from a street vendor in Seoul. Delicious.

Grocery shopping here should be strongly considered for Olympic-sport status. No joke. We spent THREE hours just trying to get some basic stuff. This massive supermarket was jam-packed, and everyone just fends for themself. When you spot an opening in the crowd, you better shove your cart in there STAT. From what I’ve read, it’s part of the Korean culture; Koreans don’t feel any obligation to be overly kind or considerate to complete strangers. They treat their acquaintances and friends marvellously, but strangers--not so much. Hence the chaotic madness of shoving and pushing at the supermarket and on the subway. People will even blatantly try to cut you in line at the grocery store if you leave an opening. Hard to wrap your head around as a friendly Canadian :P.

This is in the grocery store, believe it or not. I shudder every time I look at this pic.

All in all, things are going really well. Work is a lot more WORK (and exhausting) than I thought it would be, but it’s also much more fun and rewarding than I expected it to be too...so I guess it’s all good :). I’m loving learning a million new things every day, but miss home like crazy too. I can’t believe I’ve already been here two weeks; the time’s going to fly. There are so many other quirky things about Korea and different experiences I’ve had that I wish I could share with you. I am finally up and running with reliable Internet at my apartment, so I’m going to try to start writing shorter posts more often. That way I won’t get so overwhelmed by the daunting task of summing up two weeks in one post.

First Impressions

Ok, so I'm FINALLY getting some actual time to sit down and write! Sorry it's been a while--I really haven't had reliable Internet access yet. BUT, after switching hotel rooms THREE times now (because either the Internet or air conditioning wasn't working), I'm finally in a room with working everything :). Still won't be able to call home until I either get my cell phone (hopefully soon) or move into my apartment on Saturday when I could then call home with Skype. I don't have a converter or adapter yet either, so no laptop or flat iron (gasp!) for me yet.

So much has happened in the last four days that I don't even know where to start. I guess the beginning's a good place...

Both my flights went just fine. My roller carry-on fit in the over-head bin (just!) and nobody gave me any hassle about it. The only hitch was my entertainment TV not working on the flight from Van. to Seoul...made for a long flight. I also pinched my finger under my 70-pound monster suitcase and still have a nice blood blister to show for it.

The first of many experiences with hilarious translation errors.

I got into Seoul about 3:00 pm on Friday and was met by Mr. Park from GDA--the school I'll be working at. He's super friendly, smiley, and welcoming, but his English is a little rough around the edges, which made for a slightly awkward hour and a half car ride into Bundang (the suburb of Seoul where I'm living and working), made more awkward by the fact that I started nodding off almost immediately. I felt so rude, but could just NOT keep my eyes open. So Mr. Park (who looks about twenty-five--weird to call him 'Mr'), took me to my school first and then to my hotel. Met a few of the teachers at the school, and they asked me to go out with them on Saturday. Very welcoming.
After the quick trip to the school, Mr. Park dropped me off at my hotel. It was only about 8:00 pm, but I was exhausted and pretty much went straight to bed. I woke up at 3:00 am sweating my butt off (and you know how hard it is for me to get hot!). My air conditioner had quit working, and it must have been 30 degrees C in my room--definitely the end of my sleep for the night. After watching about three crappy English movies on TV (the ONLY English on TV), I was pretty much ready to charge a one-way ticket back to Winnipeg on the credit card and fly the coop. But Saturday morning, after a good hysterical cry, I sucked it up, pulled myself together, and went out and explored the area a little bit.

Beautiful, busy Bundang

Saturday ended up being a great day. I met Nate at the Starbucks in my neighborhood in the morning. He showed me around the area, helped me get a T-money card for the subway/bus, and then I got some groceries for my hotel room so I don't have to eat out all week. I loved how grocery shopping was a complete crap shoot. It was a little easier with Nate with me since he's picked up quite a bit of Korea, but I'm pretty sure when I go on my own I'm going to end up with some interesting things. They definitely have all the basics though; I ended up with yogurt, bananas, milk, and Ritz crackers. And Mom, they do have plenty of bread and stuff, so that's comforting.

I came back to the hotel room Saturday afternoon and took a good, long nap. A group of teachers from my school came to pick me up that night ,and we took the subway into Seoul for another teacher's going away party. We first went to a hot-expat-spot called Carne Station--an all-you-can-eat/all-you-can-drink-for-twenty-dollars restaurant. The place was PACKED with expats...a new sight for me considering that in my neighborhood in Bundang, I sat on a park bench people-watching for twenty minutes and didn't see even one other westerner. Alright, so this place was crazy. First of all, you go through a line to fill your plate, and what you're dishing up are slabs and slabs and slabs of raw meat, which you then take back to your table and cook yourself over a little grill in front of you. How awesome is that? As much steak, pork, BACON, etc. as you can handle! Glorious. I even got a little adventurous and tried throwing some crazy-hot Korean sauce on the meat, wrapping the whole lot in lettuce, and eating it like a wrap like the locals do. There were also bucket loads of rice, noodles, fruit, and many, many, MANY other liquidy things I couldn't decipher. I steered clear of the squid and baby octopus...and there was no dog, Gina--sleep easy :).

Samsung Plaza at night- the heart of Bundang

So you've got all this food, and then on top of that, you also have unlimited access to an open bar. You literally go up and pour your own drinks of whatever kind of hard alcohol, beer, or wine you want. How do these people make any money? Our group had a great time, but was super tame in comparison with some of the other obnoxious North American groups frequenting the restaurant. With nasty expats stumbling all over the place, shouting loud obscenities, and taking shots of whiskey straight from the bottle on the streets, it's easy to see why English teachers here aren't exactly embraced by Koreans. It's too bad.
After Carne station, we went to a bar called Money Beach--a fun bar, and crazily decorated, but pretty much an American atmosphere. Most of the clubs in Seoul are open until 5:30 am, and that's when the Subway starts running again (shuts down at 12:30 am). We couldn't make it that long and took cabs home BEFORE sunrise.

Sunday, I went out exploring for a while again in the morning, but went to bed at 4:00 pm and didn't get up until the morning. Much needed sleep. Mr. Park came to pick me up at my hotel Monday morning for my first official day at the school, and that pretty much brings you up to speed. I'll save my experience at the school for the next post since this one's already way too long.

My first real Korean meal. Yep, I'm getting quite adventurous. But I won't lie--there's no way I tried that red stuff in the middle.

The people I've met so far are great. Most of the teachers at the school are from the Toronto area, but there are also a couple from the States, South Africa, and England. There are three other girls who just got here four weeks ago, one of whom--Liz--I'm going to be living with. We're excited about that because it's an actual two-bedroom apartment versus a studio...and I'm going to be much happier not living alone. We'll be moving in on Saturday. I'm actually going to miss the hotel though--not exactly roughin' it with a flat screen TV and jacuzzi tub :).
I've taken a few pics that I'll try to post soon, but it's weird...I feel really touristy and out of place whipping out my camera here since I'm usually like the only white person it sight and for SURE the only person taking pictures. It's different, too, I guess, since I'm living here and not just on vaca.

Thanks to all of you who have sent me messages. Love hearing from you! And I'm sorry if I haven't gotten back to you yet; I will soon :)

Missing you all lots! And come visit- Seoul is awesome :).

More to come soon...

With one week to go...

Exactly one week from now, I'll be flying over the Pacific Ocean, probably half watching an Air Canada in-flight movie, half letting the phrase, "What the hell did I get myself into?" run through my head over and over again. At this point, I don't even know where I'll be living, let alone how on EARTH I'm going to get a bunch of Korean munchkins to speak English. I've always kind of poo-pooed blogs, but I'm going to give this a shot in order to stay in touch with all of you back home and to chronicle my year. Stay tuned...