3 Days Until Vacation

From the mysterious Orient comes yet another tale of intrigue along with new photos from our reveling, rambling writer-- who may or may not be all about alliteration. We last learned of his attempts to break free from the monotony of his indentured servitude here on the Korean peninsula with this entry being no exception. He may also be inclined to tell you some tales of teaching. Fortunately, you have acquired enough free time to read what the author deems is important or interesting enough to write down in hopes that you read his meager attempt to describe his daily life to you, his loyal readers.

So as the title references, Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok, is this weekend and I have Thursday through Monday off and couldn't be more excited. All tickets for buses and trains are presumably booked but there is talk of standing room only trains or possible space in Noraebang rooms (Karaoke) on board the trains where we could ride. "We" is still up in the air considering everyone is still sorting out their plans and since none of us speak Korean all that well we have to rely on our Korean friends or Korean partner teachers to help us book things. More details to come next Sunday.

One of my lessons on "multiculturalism" was on Chuseok which forced me to learn about it and compare it to American Thanksgiving. I found that it is very similar to Thanksgiving but with different foods and people here visit the graves of their ancestors. Half of one of my preschool classes all jumped out of their chairs and began doing this (Buddhist?) bowing ritual that is common on Chuseok, not shy at all.

I love teaching the classes on multiculturalism but this month is transportation; I'm not as stoked at all on the subject. I teach anywhere between 6 and 10 classes a day. The hardest ones are the beginners that are in the afternoon who we don't get to see everyday like the pre-schoolers. I'm pretty sure one kid "Brian" either doesn't care or just has no idea what I'm saying, he just copies off the other kids.

When I punish a kid by sending them to the corner or out in the hall, invariably they will throw their hands in the air which causes them great displeasure. They also screw around a whole lot less when their hands are in the air, big plus. Another teacher found out that I sent a kid out to the hall for speaking in Korean after I had just chastized the whole class for the very same thing and it turns out he had turned to his friend to say, "The teacher is really funny!" One, I didn't know that. Two, I have a strict zero tolerance policy on Korean. I can even now say "No Korean!" in Korean which is really fun to do.

In my favorite pre-school class, "Samuel" asked me what a target was, since the word was in their Phonics book, and I indulged him, drawing a target on the board. Si-Jun who has lived the US then began talking to me about how he knows what a "Target" is and how you can buy snacks and hot dogs there and other things. I was confused for a moment but he was definitely talking about a Target store he must have gone to while living in the US.

Fun fact: If you ask a Korean student to draw "Korea" they will usually draw the whole peninsula with no border. If you ask for South Korea they usually draw the whole peninsula but with a border and then label the southern half. The geographer in me loves this. Also, all the world maps here have Korea in the center and the Americas are on the right side of the map and Europe on the left. They also don't say "Sea of Japan" but rather the "Eastern Sea," I love seeing stuff like that. Also, don't speak too positively about Japan, they are still pretty pissed off about the whole violent occupation that the Japanese Empire did to Korea and Northern China before and during WWII.

My coworker Rosie and I decided to go hiking this weekend. We attempted to navigate our way around Bukhansan mountain located relatively close to my apartment here in Seoul (and is worth Googling for better photos than I have provided). Once we got there we became lost in a sea of Koreans decked out in the best hiking gear that money can buy. I'm fairly certain that none of them were going to be camping but they had huge, brand new backpacking backpacks that couldn't have held all that much for their small day hikes around the mountain with 4000 like minded countrymen and a handful of foreigners lost in the confusion of an REI catalog on steroids.  At the base of the mountain are roughly 100 restaurants and hiking stores all catering to the throngs of weekend warriors battling the mountains who had the unfortunate destiny of being located so close to such a capitalist metropolis-- though litter was not an issue surprisingly. I do want to go back however and see if I can't make it higher up on the mountain since we became a lost in a maze of trails and encountering stunning Buddhist temples everyone once in a while dotting the mountain along with the occasional pop machine. Please see the link for photos of some of the chaos that we encountered.

Saturday night I made my way to an area near Korea University and what I found was a really cool, happening place where I think I will be going back to since it isn't as busy and Hyewa or Hongdae or that Mos Eisley of neighborhoods, Itaewon.

The rest of this weekend was easier spent with a small excursion to Hyewa and dinner with my coworkers, Gabi and Rosie, at a restaurant here in Seongbuk that we like. We then went to the top of a gynourmous building near my school that you may recognize in the photos. I'm not scared of heights...

That's all for this week folks, keep checking the blog and leave me some comments. I always love reading them.

Anyang!

*Editor's note: They are kindergarten, not preschool sorry for the confusion (Rosie...)

4 Weeks in?

*** Link to photos on the right à ***

When our agile and ardent adventurer isn’t defending the English language against a formidable army of child warriors, hell bent on throwing articles where they don’t belong and assuredly refusing to put them in places that would guarantee fluency, he also goes out and sees the metropolis that surrounds him; but he mainly, a white board marker his only weapon, attempts to thwart calls of “Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!”

This week went by more or less uneventfully—which was OK by me. I got sick. I got better. I am getting better at breaking out the Purell every time one of those germ covered hands touches any part of my person.  We did have a kid pull the fire alarm this week—which sounded like an air raid siren and almost influencing me to lose control of certain bodily functions. My kids, the smartest in the school, just started giggling and asking, “Fire?!, Fire?!” no help to me at all. Upon walking out in the hall I find the rest of the foreign teachers on the floor equally confused but maybe less scared since they likely watch less science fiction than I might.

Friday is my long day and I have two classes who were sent by an angry, vengeful god who I have indeed offended to test my patience and my will. However, to paraphrase Star Trek, every moment of pleasure is balanced by an equal moment of pain, giving my Friday nights all the more reason to head out and find that pleasure with my teacher buddies having already experienced those moments of pain.

Itaewon was my Friday night destination to celebrate Chilean Independence Day. I found empanadas, Paraguayan not Chilean, but delicious as always.  Itaewon can’t be adequately described to the reader, despite said reader’s impeccable taste in blogs, the reader would just have to experience certain things here for themselves to really know what I’m talking about. I might give it another go in a future entry. It’s to foreigners what a Chinatown is to Chinese anywhere else in the world. It is the foreigner district located next to the military base, harboring massive amounts of foreigners, GIs in particular. One bonus was that I met some nice dudes from a Peruvian flute band ordering kebas in line with me.

Saturday night was my friend Gabi’s birthday and we spent the night in Hongdae and Hyewa with a visit to one of the nicest noraebangs in the area; leather couches, big screen tv, AC, not bad.

 Today I spent the day cleaning my studio and then went back to the Hyewa area with my friend Rosie stopping for galbi, the tastiest of tasties: Korean short ribs. Cooked in front of you and cut into small pieces, wrap them in lettuce and cover them in hot sauce. We have a winner. I need to learn more Korean however, asking for pork short ribs was an embarrassing and funny experience for both Rosie and me and two of the cooks and an English speaking college student on a date with his girlfriend… After devouring the ribs, now residing pleasantly in our stomachs, we headed to a place called O’Sulloc which has traditional Korean green tea from the island of Jeju. I’ve wanted to try the green tea for a while and I wasn’t disappointed.

The author wishes to respectfully acknowledge that this entry was really, really long and you have a job and should have been working. So go back to doing that and know that the author has every intention of writing more edible sizes of text. Adios.

80 Cents to Make Danny Happy

As much as the humble raconteur of this poorly edited blog loved being unemployed, opening his eyes when he had had enough sleep, having no schedule, calling no man mister and working only 4 hours a week timing 3 year olds run the 100 meter dash, and drinking growlers of local brew on any night he chose, he think that he might have made a good decision flying far west to the Far East. The author's friend here in Korea, Rosie, thinks he might like talking about himself in the third person. Danny would like to conjecture that she's full of it. 

So I do enjoy working, I really do. The hours can be long and the kids can get tiresome but classes are 40 minutes and soon they are over and I hope they have learned something and that they will someday choose to respect me and my ability to rock the English language in ways they only wish they could. Some of my kindergarten kids will be fluent soon. I suppose you could argue that they already are but they make a mistake every once in a while... I am so jealous of their abilities to speak so confidently in English. I never have to remind them not to speak in Korean-- just to zip it for speaking too much in English. They even bicker in English. At times I might forget that they are Korean and not little American children.

Apart from work I have been having plenty of fun-- in some cases maybe too much fun. Careful with the local water, Soju, it can be tricky and still there in the morning. The last two nights I have been to two different noraebangs (noraybongs) which is the Korean version of karaoke. You are entreated to a private room so that no one but your singing companions can hear you sing butchered versions of Nirvana or Snoop Dogg. Very fun and a lot less embarrassing than the karaoke I have done in the past.

I have been eating so well here. I wish I had a camera (coming soon) to document the what can only be described as ambrosia that you can purchase for between 80 cents to $10. I have eaten seafood lasagna with shrimp and squid, tempura shrimp, tempura squid, tempura octopus, tempura hard boiled eggs, spicy spaghetti with squid, fish on sticks-- not to be confused with fish sticks, curries, kimchi, and 13 other things that I can't tell you what they were but they were not in anyway not delicious. I have yet to go to a restaurant where they have fish tanks out in front filled with live crabs, lobsters, small squids, fish, bottom feeders, eels, sea cucumbers, snails or their younger sibling the street cart with fish tanks filled with the smaller but still very much live sea creatures. I love this country.

A note on kimchi: kimchi is fermented vegetables that have been lathered in hot sauce and left for different amounts of time in clay pots, the most common of which being the cabbage variety. I eat all my vegetables here. I would have eaten all of my vegetables in the States if they were spicy and lip-smackingly crazy good. I don't know why no one in the US ever introduced me to the wonders of kimchi before. If you knew about it and didn't tell me then we can't be friends anymore. Shame on you. I had to eat lunch with "D class" all week and the kids kept complaining how spicy their kimchi was-- but ate up every bite of it. Kids eating their vegetables... 10 points for Korea.

Apart from eating delicious food I am slowly picking up some Korean but I can now say bathroom and have used it several times! I need to learn numbers next; I think I have most of the alphabet under control except for the 10 different yuh/yah/yeh/yoh/yyuhh sounds masquerading themselves as useful and distinct letters.

I think there was something else I had wanted to add but I think this was sufficient information and hopefully still entertaining. Please comment! More comments will get me to post more and I'm pretty sure that you don't have to register with anything to do it, so just leave your comments and I will be very happy to read them.

And yes, I yell at my kids in Spanish to get their attention. Nothing easier.

Adios and please get that health care thing passed! I am sick of hearing about it on the news podcasts I watch and would really appreciate healthcare when I get back if I can't get a decent job right away. So call or write those representives and senators and utilize that democracy thing us Americans are always so quick to defend but reluctant to practice!

3-1 Korea!

We last saw our antagonistic protagonist on his way to see the South Korea, Australia game at the megalithic World Cup Stadium here in Seoul. 20 subway steps and 1 subway transfer and I found one of my college friends Abby waiting for me at the humbling exit from the underground-- which was shaped like a huge amphitheater and was filled with soccer fans all scrambling the 75 feet of steps or the few escalators up to the top where the vastness of the stadium awaited. Abby called David, my other college friend, who had been looking for me because I guess he didn't expect me to be able to follow 40,000 people in the right direction of a 60,000 person stadium... maybe I did something really stupid where he doesn't expect much of me?

I guess this is a good point to add that David chipped his front tooth, now fixed, on some metal chopsticks while eating. Okay, I think we're even now.

So as we made our way towards the stadium David and Abby, who had been riding bikes around the Han River and this area, pointed out the free beer samples. The line was long so we headed to the stadium where they took the caps of our bottles but not the actual bottles. Which was weird because when I ordered beers at the game they gave me entire cans of beer, so it wasn't trying to avoid fans using the bottles as projectiles I'm sure-- and yes, I know how to say beer in Korean, its one of the few words I can say. Though I still have no idea what the word for bathroom is-- one might think the learning of the first word would lead to the learning of the other...

--Pause, right now a truck is driving around my neighborhood with a megaphone advertising fresh fruit, thought you should know---

Once inside David, his newly minted smile, and Abby informed me that our tickets had only been W10,000 or about $8.50 and they were right behind the Korean goal. It was amazing to be in a sea of red (team nickname is the Red Devils-- shown by all the gear with angry looking devils and cute devil horns on all the women) and we were even covered by the largest South Korean flag ever during the national anthem.

The match was won by Korea of course, much to the dismay of the sizable number of Australia fans in attendance-- inflatable kangaroos not discounted. We were ecstatic, but mostly because we made it to the subway before the majority of the fans did. We made our way to their town of Anyang, which we're not sure if it means "hello," and hung out for a while downtown, avoiding wandering groups of wegugin (foreigners), in this case dumb Americans and Canadians, before I crashed on their couch which is 5 times more comfortable than my bed.

Apart from soccer this week has been relatively uneventful, apart from a "motivational" email from my boss directed at all of the foreign teachers. I like teaching more and more which is good. Two of my brighter 9 year olds got in a fight on the floor of my classroom as I was walking in yesterday. I directed them to the nearest Korean teacher and they got chewed out by no less than three Korean teachers in what I can only describe as something that I NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER want to happen to me. Even the mild mannered, unassuming man who picked me up from the bus got nastier than I think I could have ever been to them.

Other things of interest, because all of this other stuff was really, really boring, is that if you look on any map or any temple there will be a swastika or 10 to let you know its a temple. I had learned that it was a Buddhist thing a while ago but you have to see it to believe it. Yesterday I was trying to teach the word "to pray" and I giddily drew a cross next to a swastika and my kids didn't bat an eyelash but instead understood exactly what I wanted them to! Ha! I don't know about ya'll but that was fun for me.

At this time I say Anyang gi ha seo. I should head to work and prep for my day.

Adios

2 Days into Teaching

Anyang ha seo!

Wow, so much has happened since the last time we joined our handsome, young adventurer and his tales of the mysterious orient. Humility is huge here, hence I have to vent it all on here, lucky you.

So this weekend I went out with many of my new coworkers, both American, but1 Irish fellow, and Korean. I will tell you this, Koreans and foreigners in Korea like to have fun. I haven't been out as late as I was on Friday since New Years in Chile earlier this year but I didn't head out until much later in the night. Going out here in Seoul can be summed up pretty simply: the beer is cheap but it is worse than PBR and the street kebabs are fantastic. Wrapped in flour tortillas, the kebabs will be my drug of choice since they're roughly a taco... especially since they are wrapped in tortillas.

My ex college coworker David and his girlfriend Abby came up to visit this weekend. So far he's convinced both she and me to come to this strange and motor bike filled world with its $3.50 kebabs. I really, really like the kebabs if you haven't noticed. Back to David and Abby, they spent the weekend in Seoul, they live just to the south of here, and we hung out with some of my coworkers\, wandered around the streets of my neighborhood for a while finding an awe inspiring temple that was deaf to the city inside its walls, we saw some of the women's university, and we ate the most amazing curry at this Nepalese place, filled unsurprisingly with Seoul's Nepalese population, that my friend Nick Verbon, who taught here, had recommended. It was a great weekend but led into a busy, busy week.

Tuesday I began teaching! I had prepped a lot Monday and that had really paid off. My kids for the most part are all very bright and some of them were even born in the US so they know as much English as they should for a kid their age; on the other hand I have some kids who are brand new to English learning and their very first experience is with yours truly. I might teach them Spanish on alternating days and see if anyone notices. Anyone dare me to do it?

 I was also able to move into my new place! Its not bad, no oven or dishwasher but it has a laundry/dryer and internet already set up. The bed is hard as a rock but more like a sandstone and the motel bed was then more of a granite or diamond in hardness. All in all the place is big enough for me and has air conditioning so I'm fine. The oddest thing is the shower. The bathroom is the shower. Maybe its something you have to experience but the shower head basically just comes out of the wall and there are no walls. This might be hard to explain but its just odd and leave the whole closet of a bathroom wet when done. The motel was much the same way but it was a much bigger bathroom.

Bathrooms aside, today was my second day teaching and apart from a minor emergency in which I had photocopied the wrong test, which we didn't have time for anyway, everything went pretty well, also if you don't include me not knowing how to use the projector for one class.

There are a hundred other things I could tell you I suppose but Danny is tired and Danny is jealous of how close his comforter and sheets are. With luck, I will have my resident alien card soon and be fully legit here in Korea and have a cellphone and bank account and everything.

And before I forget, I think David, Abby and I are going to see South Korea versus Australia in soccer at the World Cup Stadium this weekend. Pretty cool, right?

Chao