Arrival / First Week

Hello everyone in the Western Hemisphere! How does it feel to always be a day behind?

This is one last glimpse of 611 8th avenue.. photo courtesy of Grace.

This is Jack doing his best Asian impression!

I started my travels at 5 am, leaving from my blessed Godmother Aunt Kay-ma's house with a strong cup of jo. The first flight was to Chicago, and then to LA, and finally to Incheon, which is on an island outside of Seoul. The plane ride to Korea was much better than the plane ride to Prague, even though it was 5 hours longer. It was better because I sat in the window seat, and some Japanese kid sat in the aisle seat, and no one was in between us. On the flight I slept, read an entire book, and watched a couple of animated movies. We got served 2 meals. My first meal was Bibimbap, which is a Korean dish. They give you a big bowl filled with various kinds of vegetables, all arranged on the outside of the bowl in their own little sections. In the middle was ground beef (its almost impossible to be a vegetarian here (unless I cook for myself) 1. because I have no idea what I am ordering, and 2 because everything is either meat or fish. They gave me a bowl of rice too, and you mix the rice, vegetables, and beef together and throw in some spicy chile paste. As a side dish they served the famous Kimchi, or pickled cabbage. They also served a bowl of soup, however, when I opened it, it looked like scales of fish. When I read the description it said "dried polluck soup", that was enough to make me want to throw up my Bibimbap. The second meal was pasta, which was decent. 

After the grueling 25 hour travel, I got off the plane, went through immigration and customs, exchanged my dollars for Won (300 dollars gave me around 325,000 Won. By next month, I'll be a cash money millionaire!). I went out of the gate and called my agency in Korea, Dok Hoon. He told me an escort would be waiting for me outside of my gate, so I went back and waited. While I waited, a Korean college student came up to me and asked if I was American. Of course I said yes, and he asked if I would fill out a survey for him. The survey was about 2 movies varying in popularity and asked, based on the percentage of people who have gone and seen the movie, if I would be likely to see them. The survey took all of 5 minutes, but he said to me "Here is little gift for you", which was this ornate little bookmark. v v v

I met my escort who held up a sign saying "Welcome to Korea Mario Signore!" but he didn't speak any English. Luckily, he was also escorting a Canadian girl, although we work at different schools. We drove on a bus for about an hour to a place called Bundang. This is where we dropped off the Canadian girl. Next, I was driven back towards Incheon a half hour to go to the main branch of my school, DYB, in Daichi, Seoul. I met the housing coordinator and he drove me back a half hour to Bundang. I was put (and still am) in temporary housing in Bundang. This Monday, I am moving closer to my school in Daichi. The apartments in Seoul are small, because millions of people live here and there is barely any space. The apartment consists of a stove with 2 burners, a washing machine (although I have no idea how to use it), a fridge and freezer, a desk, and my bed (although it is less a bed, more a mattress on the ground). The bathroom has a toilet, a sink, and a shower, but it is all one room. The shower curtain is in the middle of the bathroom, and when drawn, the sink falls in the shower area. Because there is relatively no space in Seoul, everyone grows trees and plants on the rooftops. 

When I finally got to my apartment, it was 10 oclock at night on Thursday, and I left at 5 am on Wednesday. However, Rene, the Australian guy who interviewed me, came to my apartment and insisted on getting something to eat. Korea is famous for BBQ places, so he took me to one of those. You sit around a table and in the center of it is a charcoal grille. They throw pieces of chicken down, which they cut in front of you with scissors. They also bring out loads of side dishes, like Kimchi, pickled radishes (everything here is pickled), bean sprouts, and lettuce leaves if you want to make a lettuce wrap. Eating out in Korea is very communal, which is why it is impossible to eat out by yourself. When you order something off the menu, it is enough to feed anywhere from 2-4 people. All the food is brought out and served together, not in individual dishes, so you just start chowing down on whatever you want. We also ordered some beer. The culture here is all about drinking, but their best beer is no better than Miller Light. While we were eating, Rene gave me some "culture rules". 

1. You don't eat until the oldest or most respected person at the table starts eating.

2. You never pour yourself a drink. (if you are with Westerners, rules like this don't matter, because we all think its strange to not be able to pour your own drink). The youngest person at the table pours the drinks with everyone else, and since you are the youngest, you pour with 2 hands. After everyone is poured, you put the bottle down and someone else picks it up and pours you your drink, again you receive with 2 hands because you are the youngest.

3. It is not uncommon for someone to feed you, literally.Someone may pick up a lettuce leaf, fill it with chicken, Kimchi, sprouts, anything, wrap it up, and put it in your mouth. This is a sign of respect and you are supposed to eat it no matter what. Also, it is good manners if you return the favor by making a wrap and feeding it to the person who fed you. Why you can't feed yourself, I don't know, but I hope this doesn't happen to me. 

4. You cannot leave the dinner until the oldest person decides to leave, and since Koreans like to go out with their office on Fridays for drinks, you might have to sit there until 1 in the morning and wait for the boss to want to leave, even if you have other plans. 

5. There is no tipping. The people working at bars and food places are paid well enough to not tip.

6. Everyone bows to everyone, which I love! It is fun to walk into a place and bow and say Anyeung Haseyo! And have them do it back.

7. They recycle everything here. EVERYTHING. It is incredible. Almost nothing goes in the waste. Each district has its own colored trash bags, which you throw your non recyclable trash in, although there rarely is any non recyclable trash. Food waste is spared. When you go to take your trash out, you put your food waste in a giant garbage can filled with everyone else's food waste. Every type of plastic is recycled, even wrapping that comes with food. Every type of cardboard, paper, metal, glass, everything. However, when I take it all out, I just throw it in a pile that looks like what I have. I'm sure I'm messing something up though, but everything is written in Korean and I have no idea what its telling me to do. I bought a children's workbook to learn Korean. Right now I can read it, but I don't know what anything means. 

I don't know how to turn the lights on in my bathroom, which was a problem at first but I got used to it. When you sit on the toilet, a burst of hot water is automatically sent through the seat, which scared me at first but it is kinda cool now. This descriptive picture is on the back of the toilet, although I'm not sure that what the girl in the third picture is doing is entirely sanitary. 

I spend most of my time at coffee shops like Tom & Tom's (the Asian Starbucks) sipping latte's and reading. This is where most of my expenses go. There are coffee shops EVERYWHERE. At least 5 on every block. There are 3 Starbucks within a 5 minute walk from my building. I have already read The Alchemist, The Devil in the White City, and am now reading The Lincoln Lawyer. Because I spend so much money on coffee, all I eat are Ramen Noodles (and yes, they are better than the ones we have at home). 

Travelling. I haven't been many places yet because I don't yet have money to spend on things I want. However, I have been to the bookstore a couple of times. The bookstore is a one and a half hour subway ride from Bundang (which only costs like $1.50, the public transportation is really cheap here). It is located in Gwanghwamun, which is the old city center. Sorry I couldn't get a better photo, I didn't want to get run over by a car. I've heard that there are many deaths from automobile accidents. It is said that Korea has the highest rate of accidents. If you can see, at the bottom of the mountain is the old "castle" (for lack of a better word). It is built at the base of these beautiful mountains, and one of these days I plan on touring it. Another tour I want to do is the Demilitarized Zone, which is the land between North and South Korea. It is a popular tour, and on the tour you can "officially" step across the border line into North Korea, although it is in one of South Korea's posts on the border. Someone at work told me that on the CIA's website, you can find directions on how to go to North Korea the "safe" way, knowing that people will always try to go, they decided to give detailed instructions on the right way to go, which involves flying to China and then to North Korea, but not getting your passport stamped for obvious reasons (don't worry mom, I don't plan on going). 

*on a side note, I'm sitting at Tom & Tom's right now and The Little Mermaid's "Kiss the Girl" just came on.

Teaching. That's the whole reason I'm here anyway, right? I officially started observing classes on Friday, the day after I got here. I went to the Bundang branch and watched 4 classes, although they are Elementary students, and where I teach it is all Middle school students. What I found out: our teaching is less teaching, and more "entertaining". The kids go to English school once a week after their regular school. There, they see an Korean teacher who teaches them the basics of English, like reading comprehension, grammar, etc. Our job is to do writing and speaking. By that I mean we are there solely to talk to them in English and get them to talk back, but not really in charge of teaching, grading, any of that. We are basically there so Korean parents can see "oh, there are native teachers in the classroom where my child is learning English". We see the children for 45 minutes out of their 4 hour stay. However, we have around 6 classes a day. There are thousands of kids at each one of these schools. Their studying far exceeds any students in America. However, with all this schooling comes great stress. I'll talk about it later. 

On Saturday, I went to my school in Daichi. There I watched 2 more classes, and then had to start teaching some! I taught 2 classes that day, with the real "native teacher" (that is what we are called) watching me. It went pretty smoothly, although I was nervous. I still don't know exactly what I am doing, but I am told its easy to figure out, and when you find your way you just coast through the lessons. In the middle of one of my classes, one of the male students in the front row started asking me about my height. I said I was 5'11, although I don't know how that translates into the centimeters that they use. He just said "Oohhhhh.. Teacher.. you have nice body". I looked at him and wanted to start laughing, but he was dead serious, so I just had to say "uhh.. thanks?"

On Monday, I officially started my full day, full week teaching. The first day was not great, but it was not terrible. My native and Korean teachers gave me pointers, like "less dead time, be louder and more animated".  By Thursday, I started getting the hang of it. Fridays are my days off. The classes vary though in terms of fun. Some classes are very shy and the kids do not like to talk. They think their English is terrible, and they get intimidated because I am fluent in English, and taller than most people (but I have seen some incredibly tall students, 15 year olds who are inches above me). On the other side, there are some great classes. You walk in and everyone is so excited to see you and they all talk and have fun. I love teaching these kinds of classes because you can joke around with the students, and it makes for a friendly environment. My name allows for a good ice breaker. Every time I introduce myself, everyone screams "Luigi!" I feel like I myself am back in grade school. One of my students drew me this, which is me teaching but with Super Mario's outfit. She was a good artist. 

The people I work with are pretty cool, but most of them are old and married! Ben is 30ish and from London. Justin is 30ish also and is Korean, but is from Canada. Gina is 27ish and from St Louis, but she is leaving next friday. Mark is also 27ish and from somewhere in the US, I forget. But he loves the Red Sox. He also loves this girl band called 2ne1, and is actually going to their concert and standing in the front row, and is super excited. Although its weird back in the States, everyone listens to pop music here. Everyone. That's the only kind of music. I dont know much about Joon and Nancy because they teach high school, but they are both from the States. They are all very nice and helpful, and are planning on taking me out Korean style next week to play darts and pool and drink Soju, which I've heard is disgusting and comparable to watered down vodka. Everyone can't believe I am only 22. They say I look like I am 27 because I have facial hair. Some of my kids even think I am in my 40s!

It is my day off today and I plan on going glasses shopping, if I can find out where to. I am told that they give you free prescriptions, and the frames and lenses total somewhere around $20. The only problem is finding out how to find these places.....