The first Christmas spent away from friends and family has officially passed. Missed all of you over here but it was still a fun time. I have never been away from home for Christmas so this was definitely different. Although it didn't feel like Christmas...well not entirely at least. I did miss some of the traditions from being back home, like the cookies and the baking and the tiramisus and the food and being around the family and seeing friends, but hey, what can you. I made a trip to Boseong to visit a friend Ellen who is from Picton, Ont. Plan was to have a complete Christmas. Suddenly Christmas started to sink in with the smell of cinnamon and baking when I walked into her apartment, ahh it was nice. Within hours of arriving in Boseong we are at a noraebang, which is now coming as absolutely no shock. At first I thought noraebang only happens every once in a while so I was amped to get my fill while in the bigger cities. Nah. Every weekend. I can only think of two weekends so far that I haven't gone. Luckily it's a blast!
Christmas Eve Ellen was planning a party so we prepped for that, then sat down to catch some Frosty the Snowman. It felt like I was back home, such a nice feeling. Then time for the party which was a success. I met one of Ellen's good friend's sister that night. Her and her boyfriend actually lived in Gurye 5 years ago and she actually worked at my school. Good thing is that she said the same things as me about the school and the students. Sometimes I think this is a unique experience to all of us, but really we're all going through the exact same things. It's surprising sometimes. Then on the cusp of Christmas Day it starts snowing. Definitely a great way to bring in Christmas, it wasn't quite white but it was getting there! Once the party dwindled down to a small group of us we naturally went out to noraebang. This time with two Koreans so we got some K-pop in the mix of all our English music. Great way to bring in the holidays. So as much as I missed being around family and friends and easily being able to talk to all of you, the holiday was well spent and I hope it was the same for all of you!
Since my classes have basically given up, this week (well Monday and Tuesday) was filled with Simpsons episodes. Got pretty tired of watching the same two episodes but ah well. Had a bit of a panic attack when they just didn't work in the classroom, but luckily one of the students fixed the problem in no time. Solid Monday with plenty of planning time for the Film Camp. It's definitely shaping up, video camera and supplies in check, should make for a good couple weeks. But now I've found out that I have another 3-week camp to plan for, not sure when that will get made. Probably just fall back on travelling and just show vids and postcards, get them to design a country of their own or something like that. We'll see.
But since Mondays are usually death in a handbag it followed suit this week. Usually they start terribly and end smoothly, this week the opposite. After feeling slightly off for a couple weeks sickness has finally sunk. Then the water in my apartment just decides to stop. So no water and sinuses kicking my ass. Turns out the pipes in my building were frozen. Then I hear about the pipes in schools started freezing. It's only about -5 over here, so it's really not that bad. But honestly the Korean ways of heating buildings is ridiuclous, it's no shock that the pipes freeze so easily. They have a habit of only heating some rooms. In school they only heat classrooms (and only sometimes, I was given only limited access to heat and electricity last week in my classroom) and leave the windows and doors open everywhere else. So even though you're inside you have to wear a coat. My co-teacher asked me to wear my coat while teaching so that my heat could be turned off. And then they complain they're cold all the time...I don't get it. I think that is one thing I will never get. Korea is ace in so many areas, but honestly something like heat...come on. So that is definitely something I miss about being back home. I miss when buildings are fully heated.
Last day of school for the semester. I actually got a slight kick when at the school assembly even the principal had a hard time controlling the grade 2s and had to remove the entire 90+ class from the assembly to go on. At least I'm not alone.
Water is back on in the apartment, came a lot quicker than anybody was expecting. But still sick as a dog. Bed and soup for this guy. Great way to kick off vacation #1. But on the plus, productive day because Cambodia is officially booked. Come on January 2012!
2011년 12월 28일 수요일
2011년 12월 22일 목요일
A Return to Gwangju and the Redeeming Monday From Hell
Well another week went by and some more hit or miss classes. Filled the time with Christmas lessons. One thing for any classroom: Pin the Nose on Rudolph. Students loved it and it's hilarious to watch them try to orient themselves after spinning them around blindfolded. So that was a success. Tried some flip cup in the classroom, but with 30 students it was a fail. Changed that up for some Secret Santa and it went a lot better. Overall, a success. Think I watched Shrek the Halls enough to memorize it. Don't think that's a good thing, but it ate up 20 minutes in the afterschool classes. And last week was the last time I could meet with the Grade 3 classes, just got here but already saying goodbye to my first group of students. And I ended up teaching my first full day of classes completely on my own and it worked out way better than I could have thought. It was a great Friday for sure. For my last day of grade 3 afterschool we talked for about an hour, then a couple of the students took me out for Chinese food. It was awesome. Got to try some Korean style Jajangmyeon and definitely dig it. It was a little awkward being out with the students, I mean it would be weird if a teacher went out with a few students for lunch back home so I was kinda sketched out, but it isn't like that here. Mostly they just want to be able to speak a little bit of English and learn about a different culture so it's nice. I'm going to have one student come and see me over winter vacation so it'll likely be a one on one over lunch. Since high school is so tough here they are constantly trying to find ways to keep up their education, even on their vacations. It's kinda crazy.
The weekend destination was Gwangju. Spent Saturday and Sunday celebrating a birthday. Heard a lot about the restaurant First Nepal in downtown Gwangju and finally got to check it out. Not only is the owner unbelievably friendly, but goes so far out of his way to make you have a good time. Great guy and great place. It was an Indian restaurant and it was absolutely delicious. Been craving it ever since. Plus got some Christmas shopping in and found a place that actually sold Christmas cards. Found a few funny ones so I picked them up. And found a hat and mitt combo that was hilarious. There's a pic on the FB of it. Didn't think anybody would actually wear it, but as soon as we walked out of the place saw someone wearing it, so that put me in my place. Spent the night belting out tunes until late into the night. Did have a dream that I flew back to Canada for the weekend though. Then when I went to leave for Korea again I forgot to take into account the time difference and actually missed a whole day of work and missed a different flight. Then I woke up. Then finished the weekend at a Western-style buffet, and go figure that the buffet actually offered all you can drink wine. Oh Korea. I was stoked for the actually half-decent pizza and pasta so I loaded up on that. And then back to Gurye.
Got into the apartment and it was naturally freezing so threw on my fan which didn't do much, so it was a cold attempt to get to sleep. Then woke up to a clunking sound and realized that my heater broke so the night only got colder. Then my shower sketched out in the morning and would not heat up so that was even more cold. Then, since it's Monday, the Grade 2s were little shits and a half. Clearly it's the end of the semester and they reallllllyyy don't care. Even punishment just brushes them by. Three strike rule so I made them do more squats in the class. Nothing worked. Ended up kicking out my first student. Terrible class, but admittedly it was a terrible plan. Wouldv'e worked for a different class, but not this ADD bunch of students. It was easily the worst Monday I've had since being here.
But everything has its upside. My main co-teacher approached me with a gift. The other week she played photographer in my classes and made a photo album of me teaching in a few of those classes. And she bought a frame for my desk. That was so nice and it definitely perked up my day completely. And as an added bonus, my male co-teacher tells me the Grade 3s have entrance testing to the high schools on Wednesday so classes are cancelled. Then my main co-teacher tells me that there will be no workshop, so no classes on Thursdays and my country school is having a festival so no classes on Friday. Ahhh, so Monday was not lost. And replaced my heater after leaving early from school, works sooooooo much better, and it's quieter than the other one. The day was definitely redeemed. And the week shaped up. Tuesday was a success, then Wednesday busted my way through a mandatory course. I don't think I paid attention during the entire thing (I just planned lessons for my Winter Camp) and found ways to get around actually doing it (like leaving the timer on while running to the bank). Luckily the tests were easy breezy so I passed with flying colours. Now to make my Film Winter Camp finalized. Have the structure and it should be fun, just need to tweek it to make it more beginner-oriented. I'm actually getting excited for that. And looks like Cambodia will be a go after that, and found out that my vacation starts the day after a holiday so I have added time on my vacation...almost a week. So once my winter camp is done, boom, vacation number 2 of the year. Cannnottt wait.
I was excited for next weeks end of semester classes and school trip too. We were planning on going to Yeosu for a day trip to take pictures and see some of the sights, but since the death of Kim Jong Il, all trips are officially cancelled. While no one is panicking or anything, the nation is under a silent watch until North Korea gets settled again. With Kim Jong Il's son taking over, no one really knows what to expect and based on their history, they're a little on edge. I don't really hear too many people talking about it (at least not that I can understand) but from what I get there is a general sense of unease right now since no one knows what to expect. Hopefully nothing comes of it and the nations maintain their state of peace, not just for my safety but for how far the two countries have come since the 50s. We've been getting updates and memos on this situation the last couple days, and while there is not a high level of concern, it's the same message, just be careful.
Well that is that. Off to Boseong to celebrate Christmas. Going to have a classic President's Choice Mac 'n Cheese dinner and watch Frosty while unwrapping stockings. Be like I never left Canada. then two days of class, then vacation. Time is flying by. But it's all bittersweet too since I will be losing my main co-teacher after next week. So we'll see how that goes.
Merry Christmas to all you back home! Hope the weekend is great and it won't be the same without you!
The weekend destination was Gwangju. Spent Saturday and Sunday celebrating a birthday. Heard a lot about the restaurant First Nepal in downtown Gwangju and finally got to check it out. Not only is the owner unbelievably friendly, but goes so far out of his way to make you have a good time. Great guy and great place. It was an Indian restaurant and it was absolutely delicious. Been craving it ever since. Plus got some Christmas shopping in and found a place that actually sold Christmas cards. Found a few funny ones so I picked them up. And found a hat and mitt combo that was hilarious. There's a pic on the FB of it. Didn't think anybody would actually wear it, but as soon as we walked out of the place saw someone wearing it, so that put me in my place. Spent the night belting out tunes until late into the night. Did have a dream that I flew back to Canada for the weekend though. Then when I went to leave for Korea again I forgot to take into account the time difference and actually missed a whole day of work and missed a different flight. Then I woke up. Then finished the weekend at a Western-style buffet, and go figure that the buffet actually offered all you can drink wine. Oh Korea. I was stoked for the actually half-decent pizza and pasta so I loaded up on that. And then back to Gurye.
Got into the apartment and it was naturally freezing so threw on my fan which didn't do much, so it was a cold attempt to get to sleep. Then woke up to a clunking sound and realized that my heater broke so the night only got colder. Then my shower sketched out in the morning and would not heat up so that was even more cold. Then, since it's Monday, the Grade 2s were little shits and a half. Clearly it's the end of the semester and they reallllllyyy don't care. Even punishment just brushes them by. Three strike rule so I made them do more squats in the class. Nothing worked. Ended up kicking out my first student. Terrible class, but admittedly it was a terrible plan. Wouldv'e worked for a different class, but not this ADD bunch of students. It was easily the worst Monday I've had since being here.
But everything has its upside. My main co-teacher approached me with a gift. The other week she played photographer in my classes and made a photo album of me teaching in a few of those classes. And she bought a frame for my desk. That was so nice and it definitely perked up my day completely. And as an added bonus, my male co-teacher tells me the Grade 3s have entrance testing to the high schools on Wednesday so classes are cancelled. Then my main co-teacher tells me that there will be no workshop, so no classes on Thursdays and my country school is having a festival so no classes on Friday. Ahhh, so Monday was not lost. And replaced my heater after leaving early from school, works sooooooo much better, and it's quieter than the other one. The day was definitely redeemed. And the week shaped up. Tuesday was a success, then Wednesday busted my way through a mandatory course. I don't think I paid attention during the entire thing (I just planned lessons for my Winter Camp) and found ways to get around actually doing it (like leaving the timer on while running to the bank). Luckily the tests were easy breezy so I passed with flying colours. Now to make my Film Winter Camp finalized. Have the structure and it should be fun, just need to tweek it to make it more beginner-oriented. I'm actually getting excited for that. And looks like Cambodia will be a go after that, and found out that my vacation starts the day after a holiday so I have added time on my vacation...almost a week. So once my winter camp is done, boom, vacation number 2 of the year. Cannnottt wait.
I was excited for next weeks end of semester classes and school trip too. We were planning on going to Yeosu for a day trip to take pictures and see some of the sights, but since the death of Kim Jong Il, all trips are officially cancelled. While no one is panicking or anything, the nation is under a silent watch until North Korea gets settled again. With Kim Jong Il's son taking over, no one really knows what to expect and based on their history, they're a little on edge. I don't really hear too many people talking about it (at least not that I can understand) but from what I get there is a general sense of unease right now since no one knows what to expect. Hopefully nothing comes of it and the nations maintain their state of peace, not just for my safety but for how far the two countries have come since the 50s. We've been getting updates and memos on this situation the last couple days, and while there is not a high level of concern, it's the same message, just be careful.
Well that is that. Off to Boseong to celebrate Christmas. Going to have a classic President's Choice Mac 'n Cheese dinner and watch Frosty while unwrapping stockings. Be like I never left Canada. then two days of class, then vacation. Time is flying by. But it's all bittersweet too since I will be losing my main co-teacher after next week. So we'll see how that goes.
Merry Christmas to all you back home! Hope the weekend is great and it won't be the same without you!
2011년 12월 11일 일요일
Redemption and Sleepless Nights
It's almost the middle of December...how is time going by this fast? I still feel like I should be settling into this place, but I've been living in Gurye for over a month already. Way too fast. But excited for the new semester, a fresh start right from the beginning will set a nice pace for the rest of the semester, hopefully.
The week got off to a rough start. Actually, so rough I started to lose my voice. Grade 2s will honestly be the death of me. I have never yelled that much in my life, and I actually wish I was exaggerating. These kids will push you to the absolute brink. Should have been fun, we were playing hockey in class, how could it not be fun? Well clearly they don't like it over here. Half of the class just didn't stop talking, so adopted a little punishment of making them do squats while holding a marker straight in front of them as a "penalty" for 2 up to 5 minutes. They did not like that, death stares across the board. They had it coming. So that put a bit of a damper on the week already. Plus it was just one of those days and nights. I ended up sleeping through all 4 of my alarms in the morning and woke to the sound of my co-teacher banging on my window. Felt like an idiot, but it happens. Then the night was just one of those nights where I would have killed for a bit of familiarity.Ah well.
Sports lesson reviews continued and luckily they liked tennis way more than hockey. It became like dodgeball with a tennis ball, so it was fun, plus they were ace with the review. Both the grade 1 and 2 classes had exams so the review was to prep them, hopefully it did. Apparently I used review questions that were actually identical to the exam questions so it should have helped for shiz. Then Wednesday was hit and miss, brought in an idea for a bucket list since they are all moving onto high school and kind of wanted to get them to think about the future. Didn't really work out. Their creative minds aren't exactly heightened over here, so unless it's written in the text book most of them couldn't really answer, but it was still fun. Then met the rest of the foreigners and the school board for a conference and dinner. It was fun, but it was still feeling like one of those weeks so I just wasn't feeling it too much, so I left a little early to catch up on some sleep. I think these weekend excursions are slowly starting to kill my weeks. Luckily for me Thursday brought me no classes, and no teacher workshop except for my co-teacher and I talking for 2 hours about life. That was a solid afternoon/recuperation day to bring me back up a bit.
But, rest doesn't last long as I was quickly off to Suncheon for dinner. Coordinating with the buses can be a bit of a pain in the butt. But I was off to pick up a Christmas tree and meet some people. Fitting, too, since it was the first snow and I had my Christmas tree in hand. So that was just good timing. A solid rest of the night was spent watching Frosty the Snowman and decorating the tree. Definitely a good time, brought me back home for a bit. Then Friday my classes were mostly cancelled, so my morning was free. A much needed call home was made and that helped make up for the crappy beginning of the week. Luckily, too, is that the bucket list idea worked better for my only class. A few tweaks made it a lot better. Then a so-so lesson on hip hop music, wasn't really feeling it too much, mostly because I prepared crap for it. Definitely showed. But they still enjoyed it enough to get by.
A quiet Friday movie night was followed by a random Friday. After some cleaning and tidying around the house a last minute decision to jump out into Gwangyang was made and I guess that's where I was going to spend the night. It's a small city-ish place, way bigger than Gurye and has way more, but still felt very small-townish, but we were staying in the slower part of the city. Basically an invite at 2pm led to a bus at 330 for dinner in Gwangyang by 530 then Suncheon by 11. Random and unexpected but definitely fun. Maybe a little too much fun. Solid though, showed them Koreans how to play some foosball and represent. But in typical Korean fashion we left the bar around 230 to head out of the city, back in around 3-ish, but no sleep til past 5ish, then up again in the morning for some city exploration. First Korean bowling experience. No grip shoes suck, but it was fun, no 5-pin though, which I was looking forward to, but oh well.
May have planned for a quiet weekend at home, but it was anything but. Which also means no rest for the wicked until the new year. Gwangju next weekend, Boseong for Christmas, Seoul for New Years then I guess it's vacation but can't relax on my vacation so I'm hoping to travel some more, it's split in two so hoping to go somewhere for one half, then tour the country for the second part, then in between is a mini-winter camp, and following the second part is a legit winter camp, so time off will be coming...March-ish? Coffee is definitely becoming a huge savior.
Oh! And I think I'm getting the hang of Korean food. I've been trying my luck at different foods here and have been trying to cook with them, and on Friday I made a bibimbap of sorts and I will say it has actually become one of my favourite meals in Korea. Or just sheer luck. We'll see when I jump on that a second time, and test it in front of some Koreans. Ah well, I'll jump that bridge when the time comes. Hopefully this week filled with Christmas lessons will be way easier and way more fun. Rudolph, Shrek, paper snowflakes and brownies, how can it not? Actually, I take that question back.
The week got off to a rough start. Actually, so rough I started to lose my voice. Grade 2s will honestly be the death of me. I have never yelled that much in my life, and I actually wish I was exaggerating. These kids will push you to the absolute brink. Should have been fun, we were playing hockey in class, how could it not be fun? Well clearly they don't like it over here. Half of the class just didn't stop talking, so adopted a little punishment of making them do squats while holding a marker straight in front of them as a "penalty" for 2 up to 5 minutes. They did not like that, death stares across the board. They had it coming. So that put a bit of a damper on the week already. Plus it was just one of those days and nights. I ended up sleeping through all 4 of my alarms in the morning and woke to the sound of my co-teacher banging on my window. Felt like an idiot, but it happens. Then the night was just one of those nights where I would have killed for a bit of familiarity.Ah well.
Sports lesson reviews continued and luckily they liked tennis way more than hockey. It became like dodgeball with a tennis ball, so it was fun, plus they were ace with the review. Both the grade 1 and 2 classes had exams so the review was to prep them, hopefully it did. Apparently I used review questions that were actually identical to the exam questions so it should have helped for shiz. Then Wednesday was hit and miss, brought in an idea for a bucket list since they are all moving onto high school and kind of wanted to get them to think about the future. Didn't really work out. Their creative minds aren't exactly heightened over here, so unless it's written in the text book most of them couldn't really answer, but it was still fun. Then met the rest of the foreigners and the school board for a conference and dinner. It was fun, but it was still feeling like one of those weeks so I just wasn't feeling it too much, so I left a little early to catch up on some sleep. I think these weekend excursions are slowly starting to kill my weeks. Luckily for me Thursday brought me no classes, and no teacher workshop except for my co-teacher and I talking for 2 hours about life. That was a solid afternoon/recuperation day to bring me back up a bit.
But, rest doesn't last long as I was quickly off to Suncheon for dinner. Coordinating with the buses can be a bit of a pain in the butt. But I was off to pick up a Christmas tree and meet some people. Fitting, too, since it was the first snow and I had my Christmas tree in hand. So that was just good timing. A solid rest of the night was spent watching Frosty the Snowman and decorating the tree. Definitely a good time, brought me back home for a bit. Then Friday my classes were mostly cancelled, so my morning was free. A much needed call home was made and that helped make up for the crappy beginning of the week. Luckily, too, is that the bucket list idea worked better for my only class. A few tweaks made it a lot better. Then a so-so lesson on hip hop music, wasn't really feeling it too much, mostly because I prepared crap for it. Definitely showed. But they still enjoyed it enough to get by.
A quiet Friday movie night was followed by a random Friday. After some cleaning and tidying around the house a last minute decision to jump out into Gwangyang was made and I guess that's where I was going to spend the night. It's a small city-ish place, way bigger than Gurye and has way more, but still felt very small-townish, but we were staying in the slower part of the city. Basically an invite at 2pm led to a bus at 330 for dinner in Gwangyang by 530 then Suncheon by 11. Random and unexpected but definitely fun. Maybe a little too much fun. Solid though, showed them Koreans how to play some foosball and represent. But in typical Korean fashion we left the bar around 230 to head out of the city, back in around 3-ish, but no sleep til past 5ish, then up again in the morning for some city exploration. First Korean bowling experience. No grip shoes suck, but it was fun, no 5-pin though, which I was looking forward to, but oh well.
May have planned for a quiet weekend at home, but it was anything but. Which also means no rest for the wicked until the new year. Gwangju next weekend, Boseong for Christmas, Seoul for New Years then I guess it's vacation but can't relax on my vacation so I'm hoping to travel some more, it's split in two so hoping to go somewhere for one half, then tour the country for the second part, then in between is a mini-winter camp, and following the second part is a legit winter camp, so time off will be coming...March-ish? Coffee is definitely becoming a huge savior.
Oh! And I think I'm getting the hang of Korean food. I've been trying my luck at different foods here and have been trying to cook with them, and on Friday I made a bibimbap of sorts and I will say it has actually become one of my favourite meals in Korea. Or just sheer luck. We'll see when I jump on that a second time, and test it in front of some Koreans. Ah well, I'll jump that bridge when the time comes. Hopefully this week filled with Christmas lessons will be way easier and way more fun. Rudolph, Shrek, paper snowflakes and brownies, how can it not? Actually, I take that question back.
2011년 12월 4일 일요일
Let's & Joy Cafe aSoul
Thought I'd start it off with a little Konglish I've found in the last couple days. Lets & Joy is on a bottle of Banana Milk, actually the bottle has a whole blurb in English that is absolutely hilarious. It makes no sense, but that's Konglish for you. Cafe aSoul is a place I found in Suncheon this weekend, got a solid laugh out of it. Great name for a cafe.
The week was all ups and downs. Monday was a writeoff. It might have been the exhaustion from Seoul, but probably a combination of that plus the grade 2 shmucks. Mind you it was also my bad, my lesson was dry and not exciting and I lost their interest almost immediately. Longest day of life saved by my afterschool grade 3s. Solid easy class. Without them I'd be lost.
Thought I was going to have to put on my first teacher workshop. At least that's what I was under the impression of, but instead we went out to lunch. But it was good to talk to the teachers and just meet some new faces. We had this snail soup thing, I can't remember what it was called. Imagine walking onto Wasaga Beach and taking in the smell of the detritus and tasting that smell a little bit. Sounds worse than it actually was, but the spices covered it nicely. Afterwards went to my country school. On Friday we had an open class with the grade 2s. I thought it was supposed to be in front of parents, but it ended up being in front of other teachers and the vice principal and principal. So my nervous level went from nothing to 70%. Plus, when I saw that they were actually grading the class, really got me jumping a little bit. After that it was lunch and at lunch the vice p leans in and says that she wants to speak to me alone in the teacher's room. Definitely worried thinking about what she was going to say about the class. She just wanted to talk haha, it was a while since we were able to have a conversation so she wanted to catch up. So nice. Then everyone congratulated me on a good lesson, so that was definitely a relief. Definitely a good experience though.
Oh, back track to Tuesday. Ran into guy named Tom from orientation in the streets on my way to the bus terminal. First time since being in Gurye that I ran into him. Caught up a little bit, but then guy named Jin who is a foreign teacher came up to us and started talking, first time meeting him. Then ran into a third foreign speaker named James. All did Korean bbq and got to know each other. Go all this time not seeing any foreigners outside of the teacher lunches and in a span of 10 minutes I'm having lunch with two other random foreigners. So nice. Now there's only one guy I haven't met but I'm sure I'll see him around somewhere sometime.
Made the first roadie to Suncheon. Thought it was a lot further than what it actually is and I can make it in a solid half hour, with a bus ticket of $3. Brilliance. It's the closest city to me, plus huge foreigner population and so many people from orientation are in that city so it's great to catch up. Organized a month-in reunion and about fifteen of us were able to get together. It was definitely a blast. They lucked out in the city. All of the apartments in Sidae, the area the foreigners mostly live in, are side by side and the majority of people actually live in the same building so that's nice. Makes it so easy to get together with people.
First night found us in an international bar that just stocked up with international beers, so many. The booths are in the shape of Berry-go-Rounds, so that was pretty sweet. It's also a hookah bar so we all got in on that. Was just a chill intro to the city and get to catch up with people I haven't seen in a month. Called it a night round mid and that was that. Caught an episode of Idiot Abroad, if you haven't heard of that, check it out. Funny show.
Next day hit the streets to explore. Checked out a HomePlus, which is basically like the Korean Sears. Will definitely need to get back there again in a couple days. They have Christmas trees so I'll be grabbing one of those to set up for sure. Plus, dirt cheap things for the house, for the most part. Want to buy an oven. Missing the oven baked goods. Only so much frying and boiling before it all rolls into one. I need a little something something else. Plus jumping into the city means dinner with peeps from the area, so double plus. Luckily the buses run every half so that makes it so easy to jump back into Gurye.
After met up with the other foreigners and hit the streets of Sinae which is the shopping alleyways. It all looked like a mini Gwangju, but it was nice. Need to get back there as well, cheap shops. Found some killer jackets for about 60k. Tried on a few but they were alll wayy too small, need to get into the rest. Plus, dirt cheap shoes. Converse for 28k, so definitely jumped in that. It's about $25, how can I turn that down. Good to know there's some place so close for cheap shopping. Plus, bartering is big, so I can probably knock those prices down a bit.
Night outing in Suncheon. Start the night off with bbq (it's slowly becoming my favourite meal choice, not just the food, but the experience of it all). Then hit the foreigner bar which was chill, but definitely foreinger. Then, naturally follow-up with noraebang. Here's how nice Koreans are: We jump into one noraebang place, but it was all filled up, so one of the guys who worked there ended up walking us to the nearest noraebang and took us exactly where we needed to be. So nice. Next three hours were well spent in there. Out by 1am=food. Kimbap and fried chicken is phenomenal at 1am. By this point it was only about 8 or 9 of us. Only 2 of us wanted to keep going after food so me and this girl Ellen hit the town again. We were both new to the city (both rolled in at the same time on Friday) so we just went back to the foreign bar. Experienced my first last call. It happened at 4am, but I was starting to think it didn't happen in Korea. We still stayed there until 4:30-ish, when the owner basically yelled get out and we slowly made our way out. By the time we rolled up to the apartment we were staying in it was 6-ish, still stayed up for a while. 7am night outings are becoming more frequent than I would have imagined. I think this is the 4th or 5th since being in Korea. It's a totally different night culture out here. By 2am back home all the drunks are stumbling out of the bars and clumsily making their way back home, but here 2am means nothing and hardly anyone is stumbling through the streets. It's great to be in that kind of environment. So refreshing. We lucked out with the place we were staying in. It was our friends Soy and Alex's place, and they just gave us the spare key, which definitely helped for the 7am bedtime. Good weekend for sure.
Now back in Gurye, probably should have spent this time lesson planning as I don't really have anything, but ohhh well. I don't really feel like it. Ps, skype is offishall up and running, so if anyone wants to skype just give a shout over, be good to catch up with all of you!
The week was all ups and downs. Monday was a writeoff. It might have been the exhaustion from Seoul, but probably a combination of that plus the grade 2 shmucks. Mind you it was also my bad, my lesson was dry and not exciting and I lost their interest almost immediately. Longest day of life saved by my afterschool grade 3s. Solid easy class. Without them I'd be lost.
Thought I was going to have to put on my first teacher workshop. At least that's what I was under the impression of, but instead we went out to lunch. But it was good to talk to the teachers and just meet some new faces. We had this snail soup thing, I can't remember what it was called. Imagine walking onto Wasaga Beach and taking in the smell of the detritus and tasting that smell a little bit. Sounds worse than it actually was, but the spices covered it nicely. Afterwards went to my country school. On Friday we had an open class with the grade 2s. I thought it was supposed to be in front of parents, but it ended up being in front of other teachers and the vice principal and principal. So my nervous level went from nothing to 70%. Plus, when I saw that they were actually grading the class, really got me jumping a little bit. After that it was lunch and at lunch the vice p leans in and says that she wants to speak to me alone in the teacher's room. Definitely worried thinking about what she was going to say about the class. She just wanted to talk haha, it was a while since we were able to have a conversation so she wanted to catch up. So nice. Then everyone congratulated me on a good lesson, so that was definitely a relief. Definitely a good experience though.
Oh, back track to Tuesday. Ran into guy named Tom from orientation in the streets on my way to the bus terminal. First time since being in Gurye that I ran into him. Caught up a little bit, but then guy named Jin who is a foreign teacher came up to us and started talking, first time meeting him. Then ran into a third foreign speaker named James. All did Korean bbq and got to know each other. Go all this time not seeing any foreigners outside of the teacher lunches and in a span of 10 minutes I'm having lunch with two other random foreigners. So nice. Now there's only one guy I haven't met but I'm sure I'll see him around somewhere sometime.
Made the first roadie to Suncheon. Thought it was a lot further than what it actually is and I can make it in a solid half hour, with a bus ticket of $3. Brilliance. It's the closest city to me, plus huge foreigner population and so many people from orientation are in that city so it's great to catch up. Organized a month-in reunion and about fifteen of us were able to get together. It was definitely a blast. They lucked out in the city. All of the apartments in Sidae, the area the foreigners mostly live in, are side by side and the majority of people actually live in the same building so that's nice. Makes it so easy to get together with people.
First night found us in an international bar that just stocked up with international beers, so many. The booths are in the shape of Berry-go-Rounds, so that was pretty sweet. It's also a hookah bar so we all got in on that. Was just a chill intro to the city and get to catch up with people I haven't seen in a month. Called it a night round mid and that was that. Caught an episode of Idiot Abroad, if you haven't heard of that, check it out. Funny show.
Next day hit the streets to explore. Checked out a HomePlus, which is basically like the Korean Sears. Will definitely need to get back there again in a couple days. They have Christmas trees so I'll be grabbing one of those to set up for sure. Plus, dirt cheap things for the house, for the most part. Want to buy an oven. Missing the oven baked goods. Only so much frying and boiling before it all rolls into one. I need a little something something else. Plus jumping into the city means dinner with peeps from the area, so double plus. Luckily the buses run every half so that makes it so easy to jump back into Gurye.
After met up with the other foreigners and hit the streets of Sinae which is the shopping alleyways. It all looked like a mini Gwangju, but it was nice. Need to get back there as well, cheap shops. Found some killer jackets for about 60k. Tried on a few but they were alll wayy too small, need to get into the rest. Plus, dirt cheap shoes. Converse for 28k, so definitely jumped in that. It's about $25, how can I turn that down. Good to know there's some place so close for cheap shopping. Plus, bartering is big, so I can probably knock those prices down a bit.
Night outing in Suncheon. Start the night off with bbq (it's slowly becoming my favourite meal choice, not just the food, but the experience of it all). Then hit the foreigner bar which was chill, but definitely foreinger. Then, naturally follow-up with noraebang. Here's how nice Koreans are: We jump into one noraebang place, but it was all filled up, so one of the guys who worked there ended up walking us to the nearest noraebang and took us exactly where we needed to be. So nice. Next three hours were well spent in there. Out by 1am=food. Kimbap and fried chicken is phenomenal at 1am. By this point it was only about 8 or 9 of us. Only 2 of us wanted to keep going after food so me and this girl Ellen hit the town again. We were both new to the city (both rolled in at the same time on Friday) so we just went back to the foreign bar. Experienced my first last call. It happened at 4am, but I was starting to think it didn't happen in Korea. We still stayed there until 4:30-ish, when the owner basically yelled get out and we slowly made our way out. By the time we rolled up to the apartment we were staying in it was 6-ish, still stayed up for a while. 7am night outings are becoming more frequent than I would have imagined. I think this is the 4th or 5th since being in Korea. It's a totally different night culture out here. By 2am back home all the drunks are stumbling out of the bars and clumsily making their way back home, but here 2am means nothing and hardly anyone is stumbling through the streets. It's great to be in that kind of environment. So refreshing. We lucked out with the place we were staying in. It was our friends Soy and Alex's place, and they just gave us the spare key, which definitely helped for the 7am bedtime. Good weekend for sure.
Now back in Gurye, probably should have spent this time lesson planning as I don't really have anything, but ohhh well. I don't really feel like it. Ps, skype is offishall up and running, so if anyone wants to skype just give a shout over, be good to catch up with all of you!
2011년 11월 28일 월요일
Seoul and the Lone Snorer
Well another week come and gone, and it's becoming a trend that they're going by faster and faster. Felt my first bit of homesickness. Well not bit, it actually hit pretty hard. After my weekend Canadian reconnection I started to think about home a lot more, naturally since it was a pretty significant topic. Monday I remember frustrated me more than I would've liked. For starters, it's my day of Grade 2s. They're all little shits. Some of them are fun, but it is impossible to actually teach the kids without making everything a game. I made the mistake of giving candy out my first week, so now they basically demand it, but the cold stare actually works pretty effectively to silence that one. Then I just really started to feel the language barrier. It hit me how much of my independence was gone. I am constantly relying on my co-teachers to help me get through the days. And reasonably so, I mean I know I can't do everything but it frustrates me how much I can't do on my own. It's coming to the point where I'm starting to turn down many offers from people trying to help, I just need to get back up on my own feet again, so to speak.
Then Wednesday came around and I settled into watch Monsters Inc. and for whatever reason it hit me like a ton of bricks the distance that is keeping me from home. Not just the physical distance but the time I'm gone for as well. I started thinking about how much has changed in the last year alone while I was at home and surrounded by all the people I knew and then I started thinking about how much would change when I'm not around. It's a long way away, but I really do feel like I'm going to have more of a shock going back home than I did coming into Korea. That change somewhat bothers me, mostly because I can't control time. I think it was just a week of weakness that got to me. I think culture shock is subtly hitting me more than I know. It definitely makes itself apparent without me even knowing it's there. Oh well, feeling weak, vulnerable and losing your independence is step 3 of the 12-step culture shock recovery I guess. Still won't break my stride though.
It was a rather dull week though. Half of my classes were cut due to Grade 3 exams, which meant no afternoon classes Monday-Tuesday, no morning classes Wednesday, no classes at all Thursday. So a week of deskwarming. But, all my lessons for a longggg time are prepped and good to go, only a few tweeks needed. But, Friday afternoon rolls around and I'm on the 4:15 bus to Seoul. It took 4 hours to get there, which makes sense since I basically hit a bit of rush hour in all three provinces I crossed. The subway was a little overwhelming at first, luckily I had directions on where to go, but there were sooooo many people everywhere. And luckily I changed my iPod into Korean font because at least now I can just type out what I need to say since my Korean accent is horrible and they are so precise on pronunciation since their whole language is built on sound. I just give people my iPod like a mute, it doesn't help my learning Korean very much, well a little bit, but it's a start to get me through tasks.
Made it to Incheon by 9:45-10ish. It took a little longer because I was an idiot and messed up the trains even though I knew where I was supposed to be. Once in Incheon off to the local pub. Had my first burger in over a month. It was satisfying, but since I've been eating lighter foods lately it felt like a bag of bricks in my body. Got to meet Christina's co-workers. She's in a private school and works with about 10 other foreigners, most of which are American. Got back in for the night past 3am and back up and going by 9am. Thanksgiving potluck with her co-workers. It was nice being surrounded by foreigners, but it was actually a little overwhelming too. It was just a little weird not having to struggle through broken English and having to pick out key phrases in conversation to get the gist of what's being said. So it was a little nice for that. C and i left, Shabu Shabu for dinner. I took pictures. It's a meal within a meal within a meal. Starts out as water boiling to cook beef for spring rolls, but all the beef juice becomes a broth for soup and noodles and the excess soup and noodles becomes the base for a risotto-style dish with egg. Wild. Plus side dishes on top of that. Wild.
Off to Seoul. There was only one confusing bit that we encountered on the subway, but that was my dumb logic. Looking back I don't know how I thought I was right. Anyways, we made it. Mission: Hongdae. It's basically the downtown core for bars and the night life. Passed a noraebang, was hoping to end the night in there, but that didn't happen. It will though, sometime. First stop a place called Gogos. Cheap drinks. Like $1.50 rum and cokes cheap. Ran into a guy named Max from the orientation who I was supposed to meet that night anyway. We had all planned to meet at Club Ellui. I made the executive decision to ditch though since it was 30,000W which is about $28 for cover. Apparently Max ditched too. So it was good to catch up. The streets of Hongdae were wildly covered with people. And they all push, not to be rude, but it's just how it is here. Everyone bumps into one another, but it's not considered rude to not say I'm sorry like back home. Finally got a hold of our friend Tony from Nip and we met some foreigners in Hongdae Square which is a spot outdoors where people can buy headphones for 3,000W and the DJ (at a club I'm guessing) is played through the headphones, so you can just rock out in your own world. Not for me, but it seems neat. Met up with about 10 Canadians, half of them from Nip. It was wicked fun. Tried a drink called makgeolli which is like the Korean sake, but way better and not as distastrous. Plus, a litre bottle is about 3,000W (we got it for less than 2,000W). Off to Zen III (apparently a ton of the bars are just named after each other). All the Canadians left, they were actually all super drunk so that was expected. So C and I went with this guy Steffanos we met. We didn't know anyone so the two of us left and wandered. Off to Shamrock n Roll. Neat little Irish pub across from Gogos. By this time it was about 4am. We had to stay up to catch the 6:00am Subway which had stopped earlier so all-nighter for us. We were crashing. Brilliant idea by C: get BBQ. At 4am back home most things are right shut down, and even those that aren't have dwindled. Here, 4am means nothing. Everything is open, all the bars are still rockin, venders are still cooking street meet, and the streets are just wildly packed. So we found a BBQ place that was still going near Hongdae Square. So cheap. Two meals plus drinks for less than 19,000W. Brilliant. By the time we were out, 5:30am and time for the subway.
We were definitely on a mission. Anything that we had messed up the first time around with the subway system was not even an issue. We b-lined for every subway change we had to make. Between Seoul and Incheon there are 4 or 5 changeovers. Luckily between the edge of Incheon and where C's apt was it was a 25 minute gap, so this guy definitely fell asleep as soon as my ass hit the seat. I was apparently snoring up a storm but I really couldn't care less. We were both dead to the world. Miraculously we woke up seconds before our stop and got off. It's all a fuzz from that train on, I was so tired and just wanting sleep that my mind was still working but just waiting for bed. Was about 7am by the time we rolled in.
Naturally no sleep, we were up by 11am, and it was definitely a broken sleep. But we gear up to go out and explore the city. Ended up splurging on a suit jacket where I was actually told "Have a good one" but the cashier. Will admit, my mind was blown. Saw some more of Incheon, but we had to make it back. It was Thanksgiving dinner part 2. We meet C's co-workers in the subway and make our way. It was a trek and a half to find the place. Actually, it was 1.5hrs of wandering and they still hadn't found it. I had to ditch to make it back into Seoul so I wandered through Incheon for the first time on my own. Luckily it isn't too bad to navigate. The subway and changeovers were a sinch. So easy this time. Made it to Seoul in no time and with plenty of time to spare so more exploring. Saw the Seoul Arts Centre and it's actually really cool. It's all open, with a bar/restaurant/cafe thing in the middle that reminded me of the Collosseum. It's all brand spankin new but it's nice. Plus they had a music centre and they do jazz in the parks and eveyrthing there so I'm sure once it's all going it's even nicer. After all that, back to Gurye for the 10:00pm bus. Luckily rolled into town by 12:45am. Way less time coming back. Luckily. Freezing and tired but finally find a taxi and off to my apt. Again, couldn't sleep, so awake for a little while longer until past 3, then up again by 7. Could've used an extra day for sure. Ah well. Back to the little shit grade 2s. Rough day, no doubts. Saved by a Pixar lesson.
Apparently this was all rambles.
Then Wednesday came around and I settled into watch Monsters Inc. and for whatever reason it hit me like a ton of bricks the distance that is keeping me from home. Not just the physical distance but the time I'm gone for as well. I started thinking about how much has changed in the last year alone while I was at home and surrounded by all the people I knew and then I started thinking about how much would change when I'm not around. It's a long way away, but I really do feel like I'm going to have more of a shock going back home than I did coming into Korea. That change somewhat bothers me, mostly because I can't control time. I think it was just a week of weakness that got to me. I think culture shock is subtly hitting me more than I know. It definitely makes itself apparent without me even knowing it's there. Oh well, feeling weak, vulnerable and losing your independence is step 3 of the 12-step culture shock recovery I guess. Still won't break my stride though.
It was a rather dull week though. Half of my classes were cut due to Grade 3 exams, which meant no afternoon classes Monday-Tuesday, no morning classes Wednesday, no classes at all Thursday. So a week of deskwarming. But, all my lessons for a longggg time are prepped and good to go, only a few tweeks needed. But, Friday afternoon rolls around and I'm on the 4:15 bus to Seoul. It took 4 hours to get there, which makes sense since I basically hit a bit of rush hour in all three provinces I crossed. The subway was a little overwhelming at first, luckily I had directions on where to go, but there were sooooo many people everywhere. And luckily I changed my iPod into Korean font because at least now I can just type out what I need to say since my Korean accent is horrible and they are so precise on pronunciation since their whole language is built on sound. I just give people my iPod like a mute, it doesn't help my learning Korean very much, well a little bit, but it's a start to get me through tasks.
Made it to Incheon by 9:45-10ish. It took a little longer because I was an idiot and messed up the trains even though I knew where I was supposed to be. Once in Incheon off to the local pub. Had my first burger in over a month. It was satisfying, but since I've been eating lighter foods lately it felt like a bag of bricks in my body. Got to meet Christina's co-workers. She's in a private school and works with about 10 other foreigners, most of which are American. Got back in for the night past 3am and back up and going by 9am. Thanksgiving potluck with her co-workers. It was nice being surrounded by foreigners, but it was actually a little overwhelming too. It was just a little weird not having to struggle through broken English and having to pick out key phrases in conversation to get the gist of what's being said. So it was a little nice for that. C and i left, Shabu Shabu for dinner. I took pictures. It's a meal within a meal within a meal. Starts out as water boiling to cook beef for spring rolls, but all the beef juice becomes a broth for soup and noodles and the excess soup and noodles becomes the base for a risotto-style dish with egg. Wild. Plus side dishes on top of that. Wild.
Off to Seoul. There was only one confusing bit that we encountered on the subway, but that was my dumb logic. Looking back I don't know how I thought I was right. Anyways, we made it. Mission: Hongdae. It's basically the downtown core for bars and the night life. Passed a noraebang, was hoping to end the night in there, but that didn't happen. It will though, sometime. First stop a place called Gogos. Cheap drinks. Like $1.50 rum and cokes cheap. Ran into a guy named Max from the orientation who I was supposed to meet that night anyway. We had all planned to meet at Club Ellui. I made the executive decision to ditch though since it was 30,000W which is about $28 for cover. Apparently Max ditched too. So it was good to catch up. The streets of Hongdae were wildly covered with people. And they all push, not to be rude, but it's just how it is here. Everyone bumps into one another, but it's not considered rude to not say I'm sorry like back home. Finally got a hold of our friend Tony from Nip and we met some foreigners in Hongdae Square which is a spot outdoors where people can buy headphones for 3,000W and the DJ (at a club I'm guessing) is played through the headphones, so you can just rock out in your own world. Not for me, but it seems neat. Met up with about 10 Canadians, half of them from Nip. It was wicked fun. Tried a drink called makgeolli which is like the Korean sake, but way better and not as distastrous. Plus, a litre bottle is about 3,000W (we got it for less than 2,000W). Off to Zen III (apparently a ton of the bars are just named after each other). All the Canadians left, they were actually all super drunk so that was expected. So C and I went with this guy Steffanos we met. We didn't know anyone so the two of us left and wandered. Off to Shamrock n Roll. Neat little Irish pub across from Gogos. By this time it was about 4am. We had to stay up to catch the 6:00am Subway which had stopped earlier so all-nighter for us. We were crashing. Brilliant idea by C: get BBQ. At 4am back home most things are right shut down, and even those that aren't have dwindled. Here, 4am means nothing. Everything is open, all the bars are still rockin, venders are still cooking street meet, and the streets are just wildly packed. So we found a BBQ place that was still going near Hongdae Square. So cheap. Two meals plus drinks for less than 19,000W. Brilliant. By the time we were out, 5:30am and time for the subway.
We were definitely on a mission. Anything that we had messed up the first time around with the subway system was not even an issue. We b-lined for every subway change we had to make. Between Seoul and Incheon there are 4 or 5 changeovers. Luckily between the edge of Incheon and where C's apt was it was a 25 minute gap, so this guy definitely fell asleep as soon as my ass hit the seat. I was apparently snoring up a storm but I really couldn't care less. We were both dead to the world. Miraculously we woke up seconds before our stop and got off. It's all a fuzz from that train on, I was so tired and just wanting sleep that my mind was still working but just waiting for bed. Was about 7am by the time we rolled in.
Naturally no sleep, we were up by 11am, and it was definitely a broken sleep. But we gear up to go out and explore the city. Ended up splurging on a suit jacket where I was actually told "Have a good one" but the cashier. Will admit, my mind was blown. Saw some more of Incheon, but we had to make it back. It was Thanksgiving dinner part 2. We meet C's co-workers in the subway and make our way. It was a trek and a half to find the place. Actually, it was 1.5hrs of wandering and they still hadn't found it. I had to ditch to make it back into Seoul so I wandered through Incheon for the first time on my own. Luckily it isn't too bad to navigate. The subway and changeovers were a sinch. So easy this time. Made it to Seoul in no time and with plenty of time to spare so more exploring. Saw the Seoul Arts Centre and it's actually really cool. It's all open, with a bar/restaurant/cafe thing in the middle that reminded me of the Collosseum. It's all brand spankin new but it's nice. Plus they had a music centre and they do jazz in the parks and eveyrthing there so I'm sure once it's all going it's even nicer. After all that, back to Gurye for the 10:00pm bus. Luckily rolled into town by 12:45am. Way less time coming back. Luckily. Freezing and tired but finally find a taxi and off to my apt. Again, couldn't sleep, so awake for a little while longer until past 3, then up again by 7. Could've used an extra day for sure. Ah well. Back to the little shit grade 2s. Rough day, no doubts. Saved by a Pixar lesson.
Apparently this was all rambles.
2011년 11월 20일 일요일
First Visitor!
Well, third week is officially done and tomorrow I enter into the 4th one. I forgot the main reason for my last post. We had a Civil Defense Training Drill last week. My co-teacher, a student and I went to my apartment to hook up a new computer and get a couple things figured out. We got back to the school and I hear an announcement (clearly I have no idea what it actually is) but then sirens start going off and everybody is leaving the school. We're all waiting outside on the field, I still have no idea what's going on but the kids all get grouped together by their classes and the sirens are still going off and there is a long announcement coming over the speakers. Apparently on the 15th of every month towns will literally shut down for this civil defense training drill that attempts to create a scenario in case North Korea ever actually invades again. It's crazy how on the brink of war everything still is here. Technically they are still at war, but it's like a temporary (hopefully permanent) ceasefire. I'm hoping that sometime soon a group of us can go on a demilitarized zone tour. If we get a group big enough we can actually get a legit tour. For that luckily we (as foreigners) can actually visit the zone. If a Korean were to visit they'd have to actually apply for it and do a bunch of paperwork and go through other formalities. So it will be intense to actually see that.
Had my first visitor to the apartment. Christina from North Bay who lives in Seoul was able to come down for a weekend visit. Plan was to check out the Hwaeomsa Temple up in Mt. Jirisan. It was phenomenal. It's so surreal to be up in the mountain, every is just so picturesque it doesn't seem like it should be real. Plus it was a phenomenal experience just to walk through the temple itself. There were a bunch of gift shops though, so that kind of took away from it a little bit, but it was still amazing. The statues were pretty intense, but the temple was filled with big and small Buddhas. There are also monks that live there. We ended up taking a path that no one else was taking that crossed a stream and was just a rock path basically which went up a hill. Just before going up we actually passed a pair of monks which just added to the surrealistic feel of the place. Will definitely be going back up that way in the future when I want to hike up to the Nogodan plateau. Wish we could have done that one, but it was getting a little late and that's a solid 10.5km trek uphill, so that'll be for another day. I'm hoping to get out there to see the "Sea of Clouds", looks phenomenal in the pictures I've seen so I definitely need to hit that up. Plus, this might be a bigger undertaking than I'm making it out to be, but Jirisan is supposed to have the best view of the sunrise in all of Korea. Hopefully one day in the late spring/early summer I make this trek. It's a solid 2+hour hike up the mountain which means a super early morning, plus finding a way to actually get out there. At 4am nothing really runs in this town soooo....might have to get something figured out.
Anyways...actually got the chance to explore Gurye. Have to admit, there's more here than I was thinking. Last weekend didn't give me a huge impression on what was actually available. Turns out there are a dozen or more coffee shops that are actually way nicer than they should be. Plus there's a Korean BBQ joint next to the bus terminal that is super cheap and wicked good. And we actually found some decent pub-like places that are chill. I love that for every order of drinks they treat you like gold with snacks and munchies. No matter what, you're always given a platter of food. Plus there are more billiard rooms than I thought. There are at least 3 in this town that I know of. And there's a place right by my school that actually makes decent tasting pizza. Garlic sauce sucks, but the hot sauce makes up for it. It was an adventure getting back to the apartment though. We got in a taxi, but the taxi driver had no idea where I actually lived. Luckily I've learned some landmarks and was able to guide him like a connect the dot, and he understood "Keep going" so that definitely helped. Taxis are ridiculously dirt cheap too. Cost us less than $2 to get into town today. So cheap. They go up at night, but even last night it was only $5 and we actually went further so really, that is nothing considering how much we would have had to pay back home.
So that was fun. It was nice to actually have a conversation with someone without having to slow everything down and make every sentence incredibly simple. I think I exhausted my voice though. But it was great to see a little piece of home again and talk about familiar things. So great weekend for sure. Next weekend adventure=Seoul. That'll be a bit of a different scenery considering the population of this province is only 20% of the population of Seoul. Definitely going to be an overload, but it will be fun. It'll be a good change to actually get into the city again. Plus, thanksgiving dinner. How can I turn that one down?
Oh! Actually got to teach a lesson on country music to my little country school. I put together a sloppy lesson last minute, but surprisingly the kids actually really liked country music. I showed them a video of a kid playing the banjo and they just loved it. Followed that with a barn dance and Cotton Eye Joe. Gotta admit, it absolutely blew my mind when half of the kids just starting tapping their hands and feet to the beat of different instruments, and perfectly in tune with the actual song. Wish I actually could have captured it, it was just amazing to see them get right into the music. Then what was just the topping on the cake, came this question: "Can you put on some Taylor Swift?" Mind officially blown. Especially that they actually like her music. So now it's going to be a weekly thing to do these music lessons with at least this school. I don't know how it'll work with my main school, they're way more into sports and these kids are way more into music so I'll probably just skip that one. They requested rock for this week, so how can I turn that one down?
Well, week two of teaching was another success luckily. So far so good, no problems arising just yet. I'm expecting something to just hit the fan though, things are going a little too smoothly, so I'm just trying to keep myself prepared for anything of that sort. Hopefully nothing comes up, but something's bound to occur. Ah well, just gotta keep enjoying everything for how it is.
Still no webcam or anything, so contact is still nil. Webcam is on the way though, couldn't find any in the town that were worth how much they actually cost, but one is being shipped to me and found it for $5 so can't complain about that one. Hope everything's going alright back home! Been seeing some pics of snow already suckas. Coldest we've got is a little wind, and I like it like that.
Had my first visitor to the apartment. Christina from North Bay who lives in Seoul was able to come down for a weekend visit. Plan was to check out the Hwaeomsa Temple up in Mt. Jirisan. It was phenomenal. It's so surreal to be up in the mountain, every is just so picturesque it doesn't seem like it should be real. Plus it was a phenomenal experience just to walk through the temple itself. There were a bunch of gift shops though, so that kind of took away from it a little bit, but it was still amazing. The statues were pretty intense, but the temple was filled with big and small Buddhas. There are also monks that live there. We ended up taking a path that no one else was taking that crossed a stream and was just a rock path basically which went up a hill. Just before going up we actually passed a pair of monks which just added to the surrealistic feel of the place. Will definitely be going back up that way in the future when I want to hike up to the Nogodan plateau. Wish we could have done that one, but it was getting a little late and that's a solid 10.5km trek uphill, so that'll be for another day. I'm hoping to get out there to see the "Sea of Clouds", looks phenomenal in the pictures I've seen so I definitely need to hit that up. Plus, this might be a bigger undertaking than I'm making it out to be, but Jirisan is supposed to have the best view of the sunrise in all of Korea. Hopefully one day in the late spring/early summer I make this trek. It's a solid 2+hour hike up the mountain which means a super early morning, plus finding a way to actually get out there. At 4am nothing really runs in this town soooo....might have to get something figured out.
Anyways...actually got the chance to explore Gurye. Have to admit, there's more here than I was thinking. Last weekend didn't give me a huge impression on what was actually available. Turns out there are a dozen or more coffee shops that are actually way nicer than they should be. Plus there's a Korean BBQ joint next to the bus terminal that is super cheap and wicked good. And we actually found some decent pub-like places that are chill. I love that for every order of drinks they treat you like gold with snacks and munchies. No matter what, you're always given a platter of food. Plus there are more billiard rooms than I thought. There are at least 3 in this town that I know of. And there's a place right by my school that actually makes decent tasting pizza. Garlic sauce sucks, but the hot sauce makes up for it. It was an adventure getting back to the apartment though. We got in a taxi, but the taxi driver had no idea where I actually lived. Luckily I've learned some landmarks and was able to guide him like a connect the dot, and he understood "Keep going" so that definitely helped. Taxis are ridiculously dirt cheap too. Cost us less than $2 to get into town today. So cheap. They go up at night, but even last night it was only $5 and we actually went further so really, that is nothing considering how much we would have had to pay back home.
So that was fun. It was nice to actually have a conversation with someone without having to slow everything down and make every sentence incredibly simple. I think I exhausted my voice though. But it was great to see a little piece of home again and talk about familiar things. So great weekend for sure. Next weekend adventure=Seoul. That'll be a bit of a different scenery considering the population of this province is only 20% of the population of Seoul. Definitely going to be an overload, but it will be fun. It'll be a good change to actually get into the city again. Plus, thanksgiving dinner. How can I turn that one down?
Oh! Actually got to teach a lesson on country music to my little country school. I put together a sloppy lesson last minute, but surprisingly the kids actually really liked country music. I showed them a video of a kid playing the banjo and they just loved it. Followed that with a barn dance and Cotton Eye Joe. Gotta admit, it absolutely blew my mind when half of the kids just starting tapping their hands and feet to the beat of different instruments, and perfectly in tune with the actual song. Wish I actually could have captured it, it was just amazing to see them get right into the music. Then what was just the topping on the cake, came this question: "Can you put on some Taylor Swift?" Mind officially blown. Especially that they actually like her music. So now it's going to be a weekly thing to do these music lessons with at least this school. I don't know how it'll work with my main school, they're way more into sports and these kids are way more into music so I'll probably just skip that one. They requested rock for this week, so how can I turn that one down?
Well, week two of teaching was another success luckily. So far so good, no problems arising just yet. I'm expecting something to just hit the fan though, things are going a little too smoothly, so I'm just trying to keep myself prepared for anything of that sort. Hopefully nothing comes up, but something's bound to occur. Ah well, just gotta keep enjoying everything for how it is.
Still no webcam or anything, so contact is still nil. Webcam is on the way though, couldn't find any in the town that were worth how much they actually cost, but one is being shipped to me and found it for $5 so can't complain about that one. Hope everything's going alright back home! Been seeing some pics of snow already suckas. Coldest we've got is a little wind, and I like it like that.
2011년 11월 15일 화요일
Third week already...craziness
So I guess I'm already into (and almost half done) my third week. This is already flying by, I can't believe it. I mean I knew it was going to go fast but shite. Anyways, week is going well so far. Grade 2's are by far the biggest pain in my ass. It's nothing but yelling and no matter how much you try to bring them down, when you get 30 Korean kids against one English teacher who really isn't all that much older, it doesn't work. But it all works out in the end, the lessons have been going well and I've been getting nothing but compliments from each of my co-teachers so it's definitely making this transition easier than I was expecting.
On Monday and Tuesday I've got an after school lesson from 3:30-5 with Grade 3s. Thought I'd share the result with all of you. I played the "Last Letter Game" except I made the game using sentences. So each kid had to write a sentence, and the next kid had to write the next sentence using the last letter of the previous sentence, and they had to work together to make a story. Here's what they came up with (I wrote the first line):
The ship sets sail. Little American red nose monkey was there. Egg was eaten by American red nose monkey. "Yes, it was delicious." Sailors like little American red nose monkey. "Your nose is so bright." The monkey said, "Thanks." Suddenly the ship was broken by iceberg. "Great!" the sailors said. "Don't worry, be happy." "You can have some egg, doctor." "Really? Oh, I love it and my friend, blue nose monkey, likes it too. "Oh, where is he?" "Eagle's nest." The American red nose monkey traveled to Eagle's nest to see blue nose monkey. "Yeah, I know him. Once we loved each other."
Not entirely sure why, but I almost died laughing when they were writing this. These kids are hilarious. Plus, they actually wanted to try Apples to Apples. Couldn't say no, plus...it has some new words they can learn....so it's totally valid.
Well that's about it, been a boring night, plus the cold is starting to set in (by the way when I say the cold, I mean it's time to put on a spring jacket) so I guess Winter is on the way. Ah well. Good thing they set me up with a massive television and were able to hook my comp into it (I was going to buy the cable, but they just gave it to me) plus a new comp to use which is good because I'm basically just waiting for this one to crap out.
Hope everything is going well in good old Canada. I bring up pictures from back home almost every class. The kids love it, plus helps with the homesickness a bit to use things from back there. Missing you all over here, it's been a blast, but it's not the same.
On Monday and Tuesday I've got an after school lesson from 3:30-5 with Grade 3s. Thought I'd share the result with all of you. I played the "Last Letter Game" except I made the game using sentences. So each kid had to write a sentence, and the next kid had to write the next sentence using the last letter of the previous sentence, and they had to work together to make a story. Here's what they came up with (I wrote the first line):
The ship sets sail. Little American red nose monkey was there. Egg was eaten by American red nose monkey. "Yes, it was delicious." Sailors like little American red nose monkey. "Your nose is so bright." The monkey said, "Thanks." Suddenly the ship was broken by iceberg. "Great!" the sailors said. "Don't worry, be happy." "You can have some egg, doctor." "Really? Oh, I love it and my friend, blue nose monkey, likes it too. "Oh, where is he?" "Eagle's nest." The American red nose monkey traveled to Eagle's nest to see blue nose monkey. "Yeah, I know him. Once we loved each other."
Not entirely sure why, but I almost died laughing when they were writing this. These kids are hilarious. Plus, they actually wanted to try Apples to Apples. Couldn't say no, plus...it has some new words they can learn....so it's totally valid.
Well that's about it, been a boring night, plus the cold is starting to set in (by the way when I say the cold, I mean it's time to put on a spring jacket) so I guess Winter is on the way. Ah well. Good thing they set me up with a massive television and were able to hook my comp into it (I was going to buy the cable, but they just gave it to me) plus a new comp to use which is good because I'm basically just waiting for this one to crap out.
Hope everything is going well in good old Canada. I bring up pictures from back home almost every class. The kids love it, plus helps with the homesickness a bit to use things from back there. Missing you all over here, it's been a blast, but it's not the same.
2011년 11월 12일 토요일
Passing Away the Saturday Night
First weekend in Gurye. Ran into a group of foreigners today, first bunch I've seen since I got into this town. They were only camping for the weekend. Did meet a couple who speak English though. Slowly but surely I'll run into them English-speaking folk who actually live in Gurye. Over half of the faculty that work at both my schools live in Gwangju so it looks like I'm alone for the weekends until I meet some locals who I can actually have a conversation with. Did manage to get some hiking in though, some nice trails up the hills behind my house. Only 160m but still gives a wicked panoramic view of the city. Beautiful.
Got to experience my first day in the second school. Every Friday I'll be in a little country school called Tong Jeun, it's in a subsection of Gurye called Toji. The school is basically polar opposites to Gurye All Boys MS. The school still has all three grades of middle school, but grade one is about 14-15 students, same with grade 2, grade 3 has 8 kids. So small. Basically the whole student population of that school is one of my classes in Gurye MS. I fell in love with this school the second I got to the front door of the building, looked around and realized that it sat on a hill and you get a clear view of rolling mountains, and since it was a bit foggy I got to see the fog roll over the tops of the mountains. It was a phenomenal way to spend the morning. My co-teacher's name is Annie. Found out later that she's nearly 50, but she looks like she could be my age. When she told me that I almost crapped my pants. Guess it helps that she doesn't have to stress out about the students, who are so unbelievably well-behaved and incredibly fun. I really like Gurye MS and the kids in there, but these kids are incredibly fun and easy to teach. They've got nothing but questions and understand a lot of what I'm saying. I think it's the smaller class sizes that actually do it. It's hard to manage 30+ kids and keep them all entertained.
I get to teach each grade in the morning on Fridays and then after lunch there is an afterschool class that is basically open to anything I want to do as long as it gets them using English. We just played hangman. So it's basically game time. Since there is only one class per grade, I'm guessing that they get a lot of time outside of class. What really made me fall in love with the school was how arts based it was. I get my own English room on the second floor and the next class is a piano room, filled with keyboards where 4 or 5 five the students learn to play. Next to that is another music room where they play everything else I think. Then there is another band room on the first floor. Every kid plays an instrument, so when the afternoon hits on Fridays and there are no classes but it's technically still school, they all practice. The school was filled with music. I actually heard someone play Frosty the Snowman on the flute. And the piano teacher offered to give me some advanced lessons when I come in and I'm not teaching. Phenomenal. I don't think I stopped smiling the entire day, hopefully it keeps up through the year. Plus, the principal and vice principal are super nice. Not that at Gurye MS aren't, but here they can speak English, so I was able to have a solid half hour discussion with the vice principal and was able to have an early morning coffee with the principal.
And, small world, I actually get to teach a Canadian in this school. His parents were born in Korea, moved to Canada where he was raised until he was 7 then moved back to Korea. He lived in Ottawa and speaks English very well. He's in grade 2 only because he's lacking in the necessary Korean skills. And a plus in this school is that the grade 3s are incredibly smart. There are a couple that aren't quite up to the level they should be, but that's expected. The rest barely need me. But that makes it a little easier because I can use better examples I'm thinking, plus it'll help to not have to bring things down several levels. And they want to hear some Blue Rodeo next Friday, so that will basically be my "lesson" for Friday afternoon, Blue Rodeo and probably some more hangman.
Basically all my worries about teaching are slowly going out the window. I'm sure once I get some actual lessons down I will be more confident, but even my co-teachers have told me that it looks like I've been doing this for a while, so that's definitely encouraging. Well, either way, one week down, fifty-one to go!
Got to experience my first day in the second school. Every Friday I'll be in a little country school called Tong Jeun, it's in a subsection of Gurye called Toji. The school is basically polar opposites to Gurye All Boys MS. The school still has all three grades of middle school, but grade one is about 14-15 students, same with grade 2, grade 3 has 8 kids. So small. Basically the whole student population of that school is one of my classes in Gurye MS. I fell in love with this school the second I got to the front door of the building, looked around and realized that it sat on a hill and you get a clear view of rolling mountains, and since it was a bit foggy I got to see the fog roll over the tops of the mountains. It was a phenomenal way to spend the morning. My co-teacher's name is Annie. Found out later that she's nearly 50, but she looks like she could be my age. When she told me that I almost crapped my pants. Guess it helps that she doesn't have to stress out about the students, who are so unbelievably well-behaved and incredibly fun. I really like Gurye MS and the kids in there, but these kids are incredibly fun and easy to teach. They've got nothing but questions and understand a lot of what I'm saying. I think it's the smaller class sizes that actually do it. It's hard to manage 30+ kids and keep them all entertained.
I get to teach each grade in the morning on Fridays and then after lunch there is an afterschool class that is basically open to anything I want to do as long as it gets them using English. We just played hangman. So it's basically game time. Since there is only one class per grade, I'm guessing that they get a lot of time outside of class. What really made me fall in love with the school was how arts based it was. I get my own English room on the second floor and the next class is a piano room, filled with keyboards where 4 or 5 five the students learn to play. Next to that is another music room where they play everything else I think. Then there is another band room on the first floor. Every kid plays an instrument, so when the afternoon hits on Fridays and there are no classes but it's technically still school, they all practice. The school was filled with music. I actually heard someone play Frosty the Snowman on the flute. And the piano teacher offered to give me some advanced lessons when I come in and I'm not teaching. Phenomenal. I don't think I stopped smiling the entire day, hopefully it keeps up through the year. Plus, the principal and vice principal are super nice. Not that at Gurye MS aren't, but here they can speak English, so I was able to have a solid half hour discussion with the vice principal and was able to have an early morning coffee with the principal.
And, small world, I actually get to teach a Canadian in this school. His parents were born in Korea, moved to Canada where he was raised until he was 7 then moved back to Korea. He lived in Ottawa and speaks English very well. He's in grade 2 only because he's lacking in the necessary Korean skills. And a plus in this school is that the grade 3s are incredibly smart. There are a couple that aren't quite up to the level they should be, but that's expected. The rest barely need me. But that makes it a little easier because I can use better examples I'm thinking, plus it'll help to not have to bring things down several levels. And they want to hear some Blue Rodeo next Friday, so that will basically be my "lesson" for Friday afternoon, Blue Rodeo and probably some more hangman.
Basically all my worries about teaching are slowly going out the window. I'm sure once I get some actual lessons down I will be more confident, but even my co-teachers have told me that it looks like I've been doing this for a while, so that's definitely encouraging. Well, either way, one week down, fifty-one to go!
2011년 11월 10일 목요일
Oh Hey There Gurye
Guess this post is coming a lot quicker than I thought it was going to. I was told by a friend in Seoul that it took almost a month to get everything sorted out with phones and Internet but it was all settled by early yesterday afternoon.
Orientation came to a close Monday morning. We met our co-teachers after finishing all our packing. I have two co-teachers. One main one at Gurye Middle School, which is all boys, and one in Tong-Jeun Middle School, which is co-ed. I work with Mrs. Son at the all boys middle school. I only met her on Monday because she'll be my main contact. Well, at least until February. School faculty in Korea are mandated to change schools at least once every four years. She's been at this school for four years and her contract is up as of the end of this semester, so I'll have a new one in the next semester, but who knows who that will be.
She's awesome. Super friendly, unbelievably helpful. She goes completely out of her way just to be helpful. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I didn't have her here. She helped me get my Alien Registration Card, and helped, well it was actually her that set up my bank account on Monday, and she even deposited W10, 000 into the bank account for good luck. She lives in Gwangju, which is where I was doing my orientation, but drives to Gurye (about 1-1.5 hour drive) every day with her little posse of Middle School faculty. So we drove to Gurye and she showed me my apartment and then took me out to dinner at the most "Western" restaurant in town. It's only "Western" because it's on the highway and on the way to the town's biggest tourist destination. There is no English and nothing on the menu is Western. But that's good, so we got some kimbap, which is basically wild vegetables and rice and kimchi, plus everything else Koreans seem to find necessary to have with every meal. It's really crazy how much they eat.
After that, back to my apartment to get settled in. For the most part it was good to go. I have one bedroom which is big enough for a twin bed and dresser, a kitchen filled with everything I could need, a bathroom, a living room (which I've basically made my life in) that has a masssivve LCD TV, futon, desk, two dressers, and I've got a laundry room all to myself. No dryer, but washer and a hanging drying rack. I live better here than I did in a townhouse in North Bay. Plus, they're actually providing me with a new computer for the year. And the guy before me left a ton of books to read, so I've made it a mission to read all the Harry Potters and possibly all the Lord of the Rings, but we'll see about LOR. He also left a ton of movies and supplies for teaching, so I'm basically set for the year. The light in the living room didn't work, so when I got back to the appt I was basically in darkness trying to unpack. I would've left it but I was teaching my first class at 9am the next day and still needed to come up with an introductory lesson plan. It was about 8:00pm when we got in from dinner so it was a little bit of a rush. It finally hit me that I'm in Korea though. The bubble of Shin Yang Park Hotel, all us Westerners and the fact that the coordinators were setting up everything definitely left my mind when it was just me in the middle of a dark room unpacking and coming up with a lesson plan to teach to three classes of thirty grade one (of middle school, so grade 6ish) Native Korean speakers. Homesickness definitely set in quick. So I pulled out some pieces of home and threw on the Taylor Swift. The only thing that would've made it more depressing would have been if I had six cats around me. Then bed, slept on the creaky futon. In the morning all I wanted was a warm shower and I could not figure out the shower system at all. So that was gone.
Luckily there is another English teacher named Mr. Her (not foreigner, but Korean English teacher) living in the apartment building behind me so he picked me up in the morning. We're about ten feet away from each other and we work beside each other in the office so it's super convenient. My building only has about ten apartments, and his does two I'm thinking. They're really really small. So he drove me up to the school and I met the principal and vice p, super nervous. First impressions are the biggest things so I needed to make it ace. So far so good. They laughed at my attempts to speak Korean. Still incredibly limited, but it's getting better. I can say goodbye, hello, please, thanks you, have a good weekend, see you later, nice to meet you. Just basics, but from what I've heard from some foreigners who've been here longer that's way more than they learned. So I guess I'm on my way. I work in front of the vice principal, but they both seem like super nice people. The principal doesn't speak any English so convo is almost out the window but I still pay my respects to him completely. The vice speaks a little bit. There are only about ten teaching faculty. Really small school. There are about 300 kids, ten classes. So 30 a piece.
First class went really well. Little nervous, didn't have a handle on my presentation of a slideshow I made of things from home. Plus, I only had a few pictures to show that I managed to save from a longgg time ago. So it was a little shaky but still went well. 45 minutes goes by faster than you'd think. Second class....that was a bit of a dud, the kids were too hyperactive and I didn't really have all that much engaging stuff. But now I know for next week. Third class of the day went well. Then we called it quits to get my appt up to snuff, fix the light. And turns out it wasnt me who couldn't figure out the water system, the entire tap was broken. So that got fixed. Plus managed to order a phone (for free) from Mokpo and get my Internet almost set up. The phone and Internet hookup came Wednesday. It took me so long to do the paperwork for Internet though. They run off the Alien Registration Card that I got, and my name is Minicucci Michael Joseph (Korean names always go surname then givens, but no one really goes by their given names, it's mostly surname) but course I spell it Michael Joseph Minicucci so I went through a ton of paperwork incorrectly by doing it the western way. I must have spelled my name at least thirty times, plus signed it every time. Frustrating, but it got done.
Got the chance to explore the area a bit, but it gets dark super quick here. Well, same as Canada, by six sun is already long gone. So I just got to walk through the fields of rice a bit plus along the river that is beside my appt. I've got pics of the surrounding mountains. It's a really nice place and I definitely can't wait to get up into the mountains. I wanted to hike up there ,but the river really cuts everything up and I couldn't really find where there was a cut across point. Oh well.
The next day's teaching was a bit hit or miss. I taught Mr. Her's class in the morning, disastrous. It definitely depends on the teaching style. Mrs. Son uses a drum stick to poke the kids if they're being ridiculous. It definitely works. He didn't seem to really use any form of discipline so his kids were ridiculous. No participation, no anything really. They just got loud fast and could not come down. But then Mrs. Son's kids in the afternoon, two classes, and honestly they were my favourite of the week so far. I was doing grade three's all day, and they were phenomenal. They still talked and needed a bit of guidance, but they were active in all the right ways and listened and did the activities I prepared. It was great. Plus, found out these kids love Italian Soccer. I mean LOVE it. So we talked about that for a while, plus PCbangs, and norebangs and other things. It was a ton of fun to go through those classes. Plus, Mrs. Her looked really satisfied, so I was really happy it went well.
I was also given the option to teach an afterschool program on Wednesday's from 3:30-5:00. Either that or play volleyball. But, I get paid an extra W60, 000 which is about $60, just to do it. It's a class of 14 kids, so half the size. And it's not really a "lesson" but a chance to get involved with the language so it's basically game central. We played scrabble and guess who, it was a ton of fun. So I think I'm going to jump on that every week. The kids are smart and want to be there, so that makes it worth it.
Thursdays=no classes for this guy, so that's a plus. Just a teacher workshop. I host the workshop and all we really do is talk at a cafe about some issues to brush up on their English. Gotta find a topic for next week, it was cancelled today. Apparently it gets cancelled often since teachers are coming from all over the town.
Well long post, but I figured it would be with the move and teaching classes. I feel like I've taught a lot. I've talked to others from the orientation and they've all been saying two-three classes so far, but I've done at least seven that I can remember. Oh well, way more experience, and it's a lot more fun than I was expecting. Hopefully next week goes just as well!
Miss all of you, its hitting me more and more every day everyone's not just a car ride away. Oh, I don't have wireless like I was expecting. Everything is wired here, but it's all cabled. So I was hoping I could jump on the good ole iPod everyone convinced me to buy and skype from that vid chat, but that's a no go. So I'm going to have to order a webcam and mic. I should have picked one up in Gwangju, saw some pretty cheap ones when I was there, but I figured it would all be wireless. Oh well. Won't be able to Skype for a while, so hope everyone's doing well.
Orientation came to a close Monday morning. We met our co-teachers after finishing all our packing. I have two co-teachers. One main one at Gurye Middle School, which is all boys, and one in Tong-Jeun Middle School, which is co-ed. I work with Mrs. Son at the all boys middle school. I only met her on Monday because she'll be my main contact. Well, at least until February. School faculty in Korea are mandated to change schools at least once every four years. She's been at this school for four years and her contract is up as of the end of this semester, so I'll have a new one in the next semester, but who knows who that will be.
She's awesome. Super friendly, unbelievably helpful. She goes completely out of her way just to be helpful. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I didn't have her here. She helped me get my Alien Registration Card, and helped, well it was actually her that set up my bank account on Monday, and she even deposited W10, 000 into the bank account for good luck. She lives in Gwangju, which is where I was doing my orientation, but drives to Gurye (about 1-1.5 hour drive) every day with her little posse of Middle School faculty. So we drove to Gurye and she showed me my apartment and then took me out to dinner at the most "Western" restaurant in town. It's only "Western" because it's on the highway and on the way to the town's biggest tourist destination. There is no English and nothing on the menu is Western. But that's good, so we got some kimbap, which is basically wild vegetables and rice and kimchi, plus everything else Koreans seem to find necessary to have with every meal. It's really crazy how much they eat.
After that, back to my apartment to get settled in. For the most part it was good to go. I have one bedroom which is big enough for a twin bed and dresser, a kitchen filled with everything I could need, a bathroom, a living room (which I've basically made my life in) that has a masssivve LCD TV, futon, desk, two dressers, and I've got a laundry room all to myself. No dryer, but washer and a hanging drying rack. I live better here than I did in a townhouse in North Bay. Plus, they're actually providing me with a new computer for the year. And the guy before me left a ton of books to read, so I've made it a mission to read all the Harry Potters and possibly all the Lord of the Rings, but we'll see about LOR. He also left a ton of movies and supplies for teaching, so I'm basically set for the year. The light in the living room didn't work, so when I got back to the appt I was basically in darkness trying to unpack. I would've left it but I was teaching my first class at 9am the next day and still needed to come up with an introductory lesson plan. It was about 8:00pm when we got in from dinner so it was a little bit of a rush. It finally hit me that I'm in Korea though. The bubble of Shin Yang Park Hotel, all us Westerners and the fact that the coordinators were setting up everything definitely left my mind when it was just me in the middle of a dark room unpacking and coming up with a lesson plan to teach to three classes of thirty grade one (of middle school, so grade 6ish) Native Korean speakers. Homesickness definitely set in quick. So I pulled out some pieces of home and threw on the Taylor Swift. The only thing that would've made it more depressing would have been if I had six cats around me. Then bed, slept on the creaky futon. In the morning all I wanted was a warm shower and I could not figure out the shower system at all. So that was gone.
Luckily there is another English teacher named Mr. Her (not foreigner, but Korean English teacher) living in the apartment building behind me so he picked me up in the morning. We're about ten feet away from each other and we work beside each other in the office so it's super convenient. My building only has about ten apartments, and his does two I'm thinking. They're really really small. So he drove me up to the school and I met the principal and vice p, super nervous. First impressions are the biggest things so I needed to make it ace. So far so good. They laughed at my attempts to speak Korean. Still incredibly limited, but it's getting better. I can say goodbye, hello, please, thanks you, have a good weekend, see you later, nice to meet you. Just basics, but from what I've heard from some foreigners who've been here longer that's way more than they learned. So I guess I'm on my way. I work in front of the vice principal, but they both seem like super nice people. The principal doesn't speak any English so convo is almost out the window but I still pay my respects to him completely. The vice speaks a little bit. There are only about ten teaching faculty. Really small school. There are about 300 kids, ten classes. So 30 a piece.
First class went really well. Little nervous, didn't have a handle on my presentation of a slideshow I made of things from home. Plus, I only had a few pictures to show that I managed to save from a longgg time ago. So it was a little shaky but still went well. 45 minutes goes by faster than you'd think. Second class....that was a bit of a dud, the kids were too hyperactive and I didn't really have all that much engaging stuff. But now I know for next week. Third class of the day went well. Then we called it quits to get my appt up to snuff, fix the light. And turns out it wasnt me who couldn't figure out the water system, the entire tap was broken. So that got fixed. Plus managed to order a phone (for free) from Mokpo and get my Internet almost set up. The phone and Internet hookup came Wednesday. It took me so long to do the paperwork for Internet though. They run off the Alien Registration Card that I got, and my name is Minicucci Michael Joseph (Korean names always go surname then givens, but no one really goes by their given names, it's mostly surname) but course I spell it Michael Joseph Minicucci so I went through a ton of paperwork incorrectly by doing it the western way. I must have spelled my name at least thirty times, plus signed it every time. Frustrating, but it got done.
Got the chance to explore the area a bit, but it gets dark super quick here. Well, same as Canada, by six sun is already long gone. So I just got to walk through the fields of rice a bit plus along the river that is beside my appt. I've got pics of the surrounding mountains. It's a really nice place and I definitely can't wait to get up into the mountains. I wanted to hike up there ,but the river really cuts everything up and I couldn't really find where there was a cut across point. Oh well.
The next day's teaching was a bit hit or miss. I taught Mr. Her's class in the morning, disastrous. It definitely depends on the teaching style. Mrs. Son uses a drum stick to poke the kids if they're being ridiculous. It definitely works. He didn't seem to really use any form of discipline so his kids were ridiculous. No participation, no anything really. They just got loud fast and could not come down. But then Mrs. Son's kids in the afternoon, two classes, and honestly they were my favourite of the week so far. I was doing grade three's all day, and they were phenomenal. They still talked and needed a bit of guidance, but they were active in all the right ways and listened and did the activities I prepared. It was great. Plus, found out these kids love Italian Soccer. I mean LOVE it. So we talked about that for a while, plus PCbangs, and norebangs and other things. It was a ton of fun to go through those classes. Plus, Mrs. Her looked really satisfied, so I was really happy it went well.
I was also given the option to teach an afterschool program on Wednesday's from 3:30-5:00. Either that or play volleyball. But, I get paid an extra W60, 000 which is about $60, just to do it. It's a class of 14 kids, so half the size. And it's not really a "lesson" but a chance to get involved with the language so it's basically game central. We played scrabble and guess who, it was a ton of fun. So I think I'm going to jump on that every week. The kids are smart and want to be there, so that makes it worth it.
Thursdays=no classes for this guy, so that's a plus. Just a teacher workshop. I host the workshop and all we really do is talk at a cafe about some issues to brush up on their English. Gotta find a topic for next week, it was cancelled today. Apparently it gets cancelled often since teachers are coming from all over the town.
Well long post, but I figured it would be with the move and teaching classes. I feel like I've taught a lot. I've talked to others from the orientation and they've all been saying two-three classes so far, but I've done at least seven that I can remember. Oh well, way more experience, and it's a lot more fun than I was expecting. Hopefully next week goes just as well!
Miss all of you, its hitting me more and more every day everyone's not just a car ride away. Oh, I don't have wireless like I was expecting. Everything is wired here, but it's all cabled. So I was hoping I could jump on the good ole iPod everyone convinced me to buy and skype from that vid chat, but that's a no go. So I'm going to have to order a webcam and mic. I should have picked one up in Gwangju, saw some pretty cheap ones when I was there, but I figured it would all be wireless. Oh well. Won't be able to Skype for a while, so hope everyone's doing well.
2011년 11월 6일 일요일
Last Night in Gwangju
Final night in Gwangju and heading down to Gurye in the afternoon. Might be the last post for a while as I settle in and get things going. Spent the last couple of nights around the downtown core, given a tour around the city by a friend of ours. The bus terminal in this city is wild, it is like a massive airport and has arcades, theatres, restaurants, concerts. This is a bus terminal. I thought it was pretty phenomenal that they made it into a massive hub. The tour helped out although I won't be back in the city for a while. We found our way into an electronic-ish store that is basically like a giant bargain shop, they even had grand pianos which was awesome so I busted out some Taylor Swift, naturally. Rest of the night was mellow, hotel and bed. Exhausted from the last couple of nights, plus orientation was starting to get to me. I can't believe how much these Koreans feed us, I have definitely gained weight this week alone, it's terrible. I'm not alone either, there's so much food being thrown around it's ridiculous. So for the fam, if you're worried about me not eating, boom, I'm eating more than ever apparently.
That was Friday. We had our final orientation presentations on Sat, and prepared a couple lesson plans. Seems pretty fun and relatively easy, so that makes me excited for the classroom. The first week will basically be me just introducing myself and getting to know the kids, so I'm pretty excited to see all of the classrooms. Little worried about possibly being in an all boys school some days, those kids are schmucks. They also apparently like to hit. Might get a wiffle bat and let them go nuts during an activity or something. Maybe play some whack a mole. I'll also be teaching adults which I'm actually excited for as well, it's basically a conversational lesson that gets me talking with all the other teachers.
Started learning/practicing customs around here too. Never realised this before, but Koreans will only pass something with their right hand or both hands to be at the utmost respectful. The left hand needs to actually be somewhere on the right arm. Halfway up is usually where people hold it, but if you don't put your left hand on your right arm, you may as well be insulting someone's entire lineage and country. Kind of interesting. Trying to get into the swing of things with that one. I still pass things with my left hand though, which is bad. That is basically as bad as not putting the left hand on the right. Started noticing all these little things with people in the streets and at vendors and stores now. Plus need to brush up on my bows. Been bowing to people when I see them to get used to it.
Saturday night is basically our last night in Gwangju as Sunday (today) will be exploring the province, packing and getting everything ready for the move. The coordinators threw together a little going away party. After a little celebrating it was time to hit the town. So much different on a Saturday night than during the week, the streets are absolutely mad packed. So many people. We started the night off in Soul Train, think I mentioned that place in the last post. Western bar for foreigners but it's super chill to be there. Then it was time to hit the clubs. Bubble Bar was packed so off to Mixx, small place but it was alright, crammed up really easily. After some more bar hopping a group of us thought it would be a great idea for some noraebang. Naturally. The bars and clubs are "open until 4am" but that basically means nothing. They stay open. Noraebang is open way later. It was 4am when we hit up noraebang and there were still tonnnsss of people out in the street. Koreans love their night life. Sang up a storm, brought in some Taylor Swift again, naturally. Started watching the sun start to rise a bit through the noraebang window. By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 530 which was a little iffy because we were heading out to tour the province for 850. We were wide awake at 630 and the sun was up and super foggy outside but our hotel is on a hiking system, and since we were all wide awake, found it a brilliant idea to go hiking before breakfast. It was nice, actually really nice, but by the time 850 rolled around and we were going to get on the bus, starting to crash. Finally got some sleep on the 45 min bus ride to the Boseung Green Tea Fields. I've got pics but I'll have to post them later. Super nice over there, and the fields are just rolling hills of green tea plants. Climbed to the top of that one for the second hike of the morning. It goes really high up, but the view was spectacular. The mountains just disappeared into the fog but you could see the rolling green tea bushes on either side and it was phenomenal. It was really cloudy and foggy so the pictures don't do it justice, but still unbelievable to see.
From there we had lunch just outside of Boseung, it was mostly mountain vegetables. Oh, probably should throw this in here but don't want anyone to worry, had my first brush with a chestnut at dinner on Saturday night. It was stuffed into the chicken they served us in soup.That sketched me out and I was pretty worried that something was going to happen and I could feel my throat getting scratchy and soar but luckily it passed in about fifteen minutes. Anyways, need to be more careful over here. Especially when I get out into the country. So we had lunch and checked out the Suncheon Ecological Park which is basically a wetland with tons of reed beds and another mountain to climb so we made that trek up there. Third one of the day. Phenomenal views of the marshland landscape and the mountains in the background. Pics of this as well later. Back down and on the way to the hotel. Stopped for dinner tried Bamboo Wine which I actually enjoyed. It's pretty sweet but I thought it was pretty light as well. They bottle it in bamboo shoots which was pretty cool.
Missing everyone, probably won't be on for a while yet as I settle into Gurye. A guy in my orientation group knows the teacher I'm replacing who still hasn't gotten back to me, but at least he's said nothing but good things, gives me something else to look forward too. Should be a good move! Hopefully my co-teacher isn't a horror as I've heard some can be. Oh well, I'll deal either way. Hopefully my school has a volleyball team too. Apparently Wednesdays are only half days in every Korean school, at least in this province, so teachers usually take the time to jump onto a volleyball court. Should be fun if they've got that, hear it's a great way to get on my principal's good side since the principal is basically the most powerful person in the education system.
That was Friday. We had our final orientation presentations on Sat, and prepared a couple lesson plans. Seems pretty fun and relatively easy, so that makes me excited for the classroom. The first week will basically be me just introducing myself and getting to know the kids, so I'm pretty excited to see all of the classrooms. Little worried about possibly being in an all boys school some days, those kids are schmucks. They also apparently like to hit. Might get a wiffle bat and let them go nuts during an activity or something. Maybe play some whack a mole. I'll also be teaching adults which I'm actually excited for as well, it's basically a conversational lesson that gets me talking with all the other teachers.
Started learning/practicing customs around here too. Never realised this before, but Koreans will only pass something with their right hand or both hands to be at the utmost respectful. The left hand needs to actually be somewhere on the right arm. Halfway up is usually where people hold it, but if you don't put your left hand on your right arm, you may as well be insulting someone's entire lineage and country. Kind of interesting. Trying to get into the swing of things with that one. I still pass things with my left hand though, which is bad. That is basically as bad as not putting the left hand on the right. Started noticing all these little things with people in the streets and at vendors and stores now. Plus need to brush up on my bows. Been bowing to people when I see them to get used to it.
Saturday night is basically our last night in Gwangju as Sunday (today) will be exploring the province, packing and getting everything ready for the move. The coordinators threw together a little going away party. After a little celebrating it was time to hit the town. So much different on a Saturday night than during the week, the streets are absolutely mad packed. So many people. We started the night off in Soul Train, think I mentioned that place in the last post. Western bar for foreigners but it's super chill to be there. Then it was time to hit the clubs. Bubble Bar was packed so off to Mixx, small place but it was alright, crammed up really easily. After some more bar hopping a group of us thought it would be a great idea for some noraebang. Naturally. The bars and clubs are "open until 4am" but that basically means nothing. They stay open. Noraebang is open way later. It was 4am when we hit up noraebang and there were still tonnnsss of people out in the street. Koreans love their night life. Sang up a storm, brought in some Taylor Swift again, naturally. Started watching the sun start to rise a bit through the noraebang window. By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 530 which was a little iffy because we were heading out to tour the province for 850. We were wide awake at 630 and the sun was up and super foggy outside but our hotel is on a hiking system, and since we were all wide awake, found it a brilliant idea to go hiking before breakfast. It was nice, actually really nice, but by the time 850 rolled around and we were going to get on the bus, starting to crash. Finally got some sleep on the 45 min bus ride to the Boseung Green Tea Fields. I've got pics but I'll have to post them later. Super nice over there, and the fields are just rolling hills of green tea plants. Climbed to the top of that one for the second hike of the morning. It goes really high up, but the view was spectacular. The mountains just disappeared into the fog but you could see the rolling green tea bushes on either side and it was phenomenal. It was really cloudy and foggy so the pictures don't do it justice, but still unbelievable to see.
From there we had lunch just outside of Boseung, it was mostly mountain vegetables. Oh, probably should throw this in here but don't want anyone to worry, had my first brush with a chestnut at dinner on Saturday night. It was stuffed into the chicken they served us in soup.That sketched me out and I was pretty worried that something was going to happen and I could feel my throat getting scratchy and soar but luckily it passed in about fifteen minutes. Anyways, need to be more careful over here. Especially when I get out into the country. So we had lunch and checked out the Suncheon Ecological Park which is basically a wetland with tons of reed beds and another mountain to climb so we made that trek up there. Third one of the day. Phenomenal views of the marshland landscape and the mountains in the background. Pics of this as well later. Back down and on the way to the hotel. Stopped for dinner tried Bamboo Wine which I actually enjoyed. It's pretty sweet but I thought it was pretty light as well. They bottle it in bamboo shoots which was pretty cool.
Missing everyone, probably won't be on for a while yet as I settle into Gurye. A guy in my orientation group knows the teacher I'm replacing who still hasn't gotten back to me, but at least he's said nothing but good things, gives me something else to look forward too. Should be a good move! Hopefully my co-teacher isn't a horror as I've heard some can be. Oh well, I'll deal either way. Hopefully my school has a volleyball team too. Apparently Wednesdays are only half days in every Korean school, at least in this province, so teachers usually take the time to jump onto a volleyball court. Should be fun if they've got that, hear it's a great way to get on my principal's good side since the principal is basically the most powerful person in the education system.
2011년 11월 4일 금요일
Orientation is almost over, one more legit day of training and then travelling and meeting our co-teachers. This week has flown. I am getting way more excited about the job over here. A good word to describe us is edutainers, we don't really give legit lessons or "teach" the kids, our job is just to provide the an outlet for the kids to talk in English. I thought that I would have to create my own lessons more frequently and in more detail, but basically the lesson plans that I will come up with are game centred that will allow the kids to practice the skills and vocab that they have learned in their actual English class. I was under the impression that I would be giving the English lessons in the class, but our class is more supplementary to the actual English class which is taught by a Korean. It sounds a lot more awesome since we'll basically just be talking with the kids and having them talk to us while we correct their grammar and give them real world tips to consider. I can actually give a lesson on slang terms that they can use in everyday speech rather than focus directly on the grammar of it all. The grammar is all for the English class, I'll be all about practicality, so that will definitely help make the class more interesting. It definitely depends on the schools though. I lucked out.. I know in the hagwon (private schools) they work directly with the kids in a more structured setting, but that's all the intense training that parents usually send after already going through their proper schooling.
So definitely excited to start next week. It'll be a good, fun first week that will get me into the position.
Surprisingly jet lag has been way easier on me than I thought it would have been. I have become mostly on their clock and it feels like just a regular day. I've heard some people say that it took them weeks and a couple people were saying a couple months as well, so I'm definitley glad that it hasn't hit me. It did on Tuesday though, but that's because I barely slept my first night here and then went out drinking on Monday night. Was in bed around 9:30pm and just right out for the count. Fell asleep with a book in my hand and everything. Glad I got that out of my system.
One thing I am actually surprised by is the amount that Koreans drink. I knew they drank a lot, but we actually had a lesson in our orientation on how to properly drink with Koreans. You know when they put it into an orientation for teachers that it can be a slippery slope at some point. This guy from Toronto was saying that he has had to puke during one of their teacher dinners because the Koreans drank so much soju and mekju.
Went out again on Wednesday. Bunch of us wanted to get out on the town so we checked out the bars. It was a chill night starting in the Western American (WA) Bar meant for ex-pats. It was definitely geared towards tourists but it was an alright place. Pretty cheap too, but expensive for Korean standards apparently. I didn't mind throwing in seven bucks for an endless amount of drinks. I checked out my first Korea club...well kind of. I can't remember what it was called, but it was like Avalanche at the mountain. Really super small, but it was fun. Koreans are hilarious too. All they wanted to do was dance with us and joined into everything. I didn't realise how much they loved Westerners over here. They've been stopping us in the streets to talk to us. So super friendly. Late night snack we picked up Toast. I was thinking it was literally just toast so at first I wasn't that excited. Until I watched them make it. Buttered up and fried bread with an egg and veggie mixture, topped with pickles, meat, sauce and a couple other things. I need to try that again, it tasted like a mcdouble.
Korean bbq on Thursday. So good. Apparently they did it differently than usual with smoked meat and little pork. But the whole experience of it all was brilliant. Everything is so communal. There are only ever single dishes on the table and everybody just digs in. Got my first taste of soju as well. I was kind of fearing it, but it actually doesn't taste bad, and it goes down super smooth, which is likely to get dangerous. Actually it really is dangerous. The bottles which are just like beer bottles are less than a dollar at 20% each and the taste is like a super diluted vodka so there's no burn. They mix it with mekju (beer) which I thought would've been absolutely disgusting but it's so tasteless that you can't even notice the difference. Another dangerous aspect of it. Great thing about this whole orientation is that the coordinators actually come out with you to all these events. They've been out to the bars and everything with us and usually stay until very late. Definitely helps when you want to know how to do things and where to go.
Then we went to a noribang afterwards which was absolutely brilliant. Basically it's just authentic Korean karaoke. Each group gets their own room depending on the size. We got one of the biggest rooms in the place and it fit over twenty of us.The whole thing came to just over W220, 000, which is just shy of $220, and we got the room for about three-ish hours, plus and endless amount of drinks. We probably consumed more than two 2-4s of beer and at least ten bottles of soju and they brought food there as well. So cheap when you look at the per-person cost. Definitely worth it. I was going to jump up and do some Taylor Swift, but I held back. Brought in some Jessie's Girl though, so fun. Then off to a place called Soul Train. Apparently this place was brought to fame because it has one pool table. Guess they're rare in Korea. Played pool with some Koreans and won, boo-ya. Definitely a good night. Topped it all off with a trip to the club from Wednesday night. The only downside to all of this is coming in at around 3am. That part makes the day rough. Oh well.
Out to the market centre tonight, should be fun just to walk around and take it easy. I miss all of you already! Just come for a visit to Korea. It'll be worth it!
So definitely excited to start next week. It'll be a good, fun first week that will get me into the position.
Surprisingly jet lag has been way easier on me than I thought it would have been. I have become mostly on their clock and it feels like just a regular day. I've heard some people say that it took them weeks and a couple people were saying a couple months as well, so I'm definitley glad that it hasn't hit me. It did on Tuesday though, but that's because I barely slept my first night here and then went out drinking on Monday night. Was in bed around 9:30pm and just right out for the count. Fell asleep with a book in my hand and everything. Glad I got that out of my system.
One thing I am actually surprised by is the amount that Koreans drink. I knew they drank a lot, but we actually had a lesson in our orientation on how to properly drink with Koreans. You know when they put it into an orientation for teachers that it can be a slippery slope at some point. This guy from Toronto was saying that he has had to puke during one of their teacher dinners because the Koreans drank so much soju and mekju.
Went out again on Wednesday. Bunch of us wanted to get out on the town so we checked out the bars. It was a chill night starting in the Western American (WA) Bar meant for ex-pats. It was definitely geared towards tourists but it was an alright place. Pretty cheap too, but expensive for Korean standards apparently. I didn't mind throwing in seven bucks for an endless amount of drinks. I checked out my first Korea club...well kind of. I can't remember what it was called, but it was like Avalanche at the mountain. Really super small, but it was fun. Koreans are hilarious too. All they wanted to do was dance with us and joined into everything. I didn't realise how much they loved Westerners over here. They've been stopping us in the streets to talk to us. So super friendly. Late night snack we picked up Toast. I was thinking it was literally just toast so at first I wasn't that excited. Until I watched them make it. Buttered up and fried bread with an egg and veggie mixture, topped with pickles, meat, sauce and a couple other things. I need to try that again, it tasted like a mcdouble.
Korean bbq on Thursday. So good. Apparently they did it differently than usual with smoked meat and little pork. But the whole experience of it all was brilliant. Everything is so communal. There are only ever single dishes on the table and everybody just digs in. Got my first taste of soju as well. I was kind of fearing it, but it actually doesn't taste bad, and it goes down super smooth, which is likely to get dangerous. Actually it really is dangerous. The bottles which are just like beer bottles are less than a dollar at 20% each and the taste is like a super diluted vodka so there's no burn. They mix it with mekju (beer) which I thought would've been absolutely disgusting but it's so tasteless that you can't even notice the difference. Another dangerous aspect of it. Great thing about this whole orientation is that the coordinators actually come out with you to all these events. They've been out to the bars and everything with us and usually stay until very late. Definitely helps when you want to know how to do things and where to go.
Then we went to a noribang afterwards which was absolutely brilliant. Basically it's just authentic Korean karaoke. Each group gets their own room depending on the size. We got one of the biggest rooms in the place and it fit over twenty of us.The whole thing came to just over W220, 000, which is just shy of $220, and we got the room for about three-ish hours, plus and endless amount of drinks. We probably consumed more than two 2-4s of beer and at least ten bottles of soju and they brought food there as well. So cheap when you look at the per-person cost. Definitely worth it. I was going to jump up and do some Taylor Swift, but I held back. Brought in some Jessie's Girl though, so fun. Then off to a place called Soul Train. Apparently this place was brought to fame because it has one pool table. Guess they're rare in Korea. Played pool with some Koreans and won, boo-ya. Definitely a good night. Topped it all off with a trip to the club from Wednesday night. The only downside to all of this is coming in at around 3am. That part makes the day rough. Oh well.
Out to the market centre tonight, should be fun just to walk around and take it easy. I miss all of you already! Just come for a visit to Korea. It'll be worth it!
2011년 11월 1일 화요일
Days 1-3
I was going to do a pre-departure first entry to kick things off, but left this until the very last minute and I was scrambling more than I would have liked. The night before the flight one of my luggages ripped open, and naturally had to repack, plus my bags ended up being too heavy. Plus I ended up leaving a lot until the very last day, not enough time. Sleep for 4am, awake by 6:30am Saturday. It was a rough morning.
Met the group of Canadians heading out of Toronto. They seem like a chill bunch so we all got to know each other a little bit before the flight. We had to meet at Pearson for 9:30am with the coordinator, so we had a lot of time on our hands. Our flight left at 11:50am. Korean Air is actually really nice, free drinks, decent meals, they gave us blankets, slippers, pillows, basically anything you could want on a flight. For Economy Class, it was pretty awesome. Plus empty seat next to me. Downside was the 14 hour flight and being unable to sleep. Caught 6 films, got some shuteye during Kung Fu Panda 2.
Arrived in Korea for 2:30pm on Sunday, by this time awake for about 17 hours with a slight shuteye. Layover in Gimpo Airport, so the group trekked from Incheon to Gimpo. Really easy to get around places here, and super cheap. Only cost about $7 for the transfer even though the airports were pretty far apart. Second flight for Gwang-ju was at 8:30pm. By this time nobody could sleep although I think it was hitting all of us. We met some Americans and more Canadians in the Gimpo Airport that are part of the program. The whole group seems really chill and friendly. It is crazy weird in Korea though how many couples and families will literally dress the exact same. Same hat, pants, shirt, shoes, even matching cardigans. In the airport alone we caught at least a dozen couples and families.
Short flight down to Gwang-ju. Met the Jeollanam-do coordinator and he matched us with our roommates and all that jazz. Naturally sleep was gone so stayed up for a while longer. By the time I slept it was about 34 hours with an hour nap on the plane. Then my internal alarm clock went on for 3-4am. Up again for 7ish for breaky as it was our first day of orientation. It was rough to get through, not as bad as I was thinking though. After all the intros and dinner and all that we toured through Gwang-ju city centre. It is crazy how wild the drivers are though. I don't really understand the driving system, lights are red but nobody is really stopping. Cars go in and out and will run you over if you get in their way. I would not want to drive in this country. The city centre reminded me a lot of Prague or even the Ottawa Market, everything seemed to be squared off and filled with only alleyways to get around. The dangerous part of that though is that they are still considered roads even though they act as sidewalks so cars and scooters are zooming in and out of the alleys with little warning. And I thought people were going to be celebrating halloween over here, but apparently the internet lies and they don't celebrate halloween. We did catch a couple girls giving free halloween hugs though. We also were shown a place called the Underground Grocer which basically brings in foods from outside of South Korea. This guy will order almost anything you could want. It's actually pretty awesome because he will order cheeses and it's suppperrrr cheap to get it sent out. The postal system in Korea is dirt cheap. To send a package of 50lbs back to Canada it's at most $20.So that'll make things easier. It's kind of funny how people will stare at you though. I read about being the outsider, and it makes sense, but people were literally snickering and taking pictures of us as we walked through the centre. Oh well. I try to speak some Korean as much as I can, but starting off with Anyeung aseyo has kind of led a lot of the Korean people I've encountered to think you can speak it. But they are super nice and most of them do speak English, and even if they don't they try super hard to get their English across. These are just quick observations, guess we'll see how they change over time. Our coordinators took us to an ex-pat bar called German Club. It actually reminded me a lot of the Beacon. It was pretty fun. Karaoke and bar-brewed beer. Good way to spend the first legit night in Korea. Downside was opting to go back to the hotel at 3am for another 7:30am wakeup call.Out of the past 5 days I probably have only an accumulation of one solid night of sleep.
We learned about lesson plans and all that today, good thing is they basically gave us an endless amount of resources and even activities and lesson plans to already go off which will make it super easy to come up with some stuff, at least to start things off until I get into the swing of things. From the sounds of the classes and the whole process, it actually sounds like a ton of fun. You can do anything with these kids and apparently love every little bit of things that aren't Korean, so I'm going to try and bring some Canadian activities into the mix. Maybe around Christmas I'll get them to make cookies, ice them with English words and make that into an activity or something. We'll see. It all depends on the school and the co-teacher and how things are run. As long as I get on their good side it should be okay. I'm going to try and butter up to the Vice and Principal. In the Winter Semester it's possible that I might have to do something called desk warming, where I'll literally just be in my school 'working' but classes will be out so 'working' will be sitting at my desk surfing the web and reading. Apparently if you get on the good side of the V.P. and P they might just say don't bother coming into the school at all. It is required by the contract and working obligations, but they can make a swing.Also learned my name in Korean, far too long to spell, it sounds the same, except Michael is Mi-ch-ae-hel, so it's a little drawn out.
Long first post, but I don't know how long I'll have Internet for so I'm going to try and get some things in this week while I have the hotel. I don't know what will be in the school when I get there, and I've heard Internet can take a while to set up. So we'll see how that goes. Apparently there is another guy going to my town as well, I was under the impression that I was the only one. Older guy, seems nice, been doing this for several years so he kind of knows Korea, so it might be good to have someone familiar around. So many people are here from teacher's college though, or have done this before, so they have so much experience to bring to the table. I feel kind of lost though, when we talk about lesson plans and all that jazz I have no experience to draw on and they're pulling a million things out of their ass from their classrooms. It's great though, I will definitely be stealing multiple ideas from people.
Met the group of Canadians heading out of Toronto. They seem like a chill bunch so we all got to know each other a little bit before the flight. We had to meet at Pearson for 9:30am with the coordinator, so we had a lot of time on our hands. Our flight left at 11:50am. Korean Air is actually really nice, free drinks, decent meals, they gave us blankets, slippers, pillows, basically anything you could want on a flight. For Economy Class, it was pretty awesome. Plus empty seat next to me. Downside was the 14 hour flight and being unable to sleep. Caught 6 films, got some shuteye during Kung Fu Panda 2.
Arrived in Korea for 2:30pm on Sunday, by this time awake for about 17 hours with a slight shuteye. Layover in Gimpo Airport, so the group trekked from Incheon to Gimpo. Really easy to get around places here, and super cheap. Only cost about $7 for the transfer even though the airports were pretty far apart. Second flight for Gwang-ju was at 8:30pm. By this time nobody could sleep although I think it was hitting all of us. We met some Americans and more Canadians in the Gimpo Airport that are part of the program. The whole group seems really chill and friendly. It is crazy weird in Korea though how many couples and families will literally dress the exact same. Same hat, pants, shirt, shoes, even matching cardigans. In the airport alone we caught at least a dozen couples and families.
Short flight down to Gwang-ju. Met the Jeollanam-do coordinator and he matched us with our roommates and all that jazz. Naturally sleep was gone so stayed up for a while longer. By the time I slept it was about 34 hours with an hour nap on the plane. Then my internal alarm clock went on for 3-4am. Up again for 7ish for breaky as it was our first day of orientation. It was rough to get through, not as bad as I was thinking though. After all the intros and dinner and all that we toured through Gwang-ju city centre. It is crazy how wild the drivers are though. I don't really understand the driving system, lights are red but nobody is really stopping. Cars go in and out and will run you over if you get in their way. I would not want to drive in this country. The city centre reminded me a lot of Prague or even the Ottawa Market, everything seemed to be squared off and filled with only alleyways to get around. The dangerous part of that though is that they are still considered roads even though they act as sidewalks so cars and scooters are zooming in and out of the alleys with little warning. And I thought people were going to be celebrating halloween over here, but apparently the internet lies and they don't celebrate halloween. We did catch a couple girls giving free halloween hugs though. We also were shown a place called the Underground Grocer which basically brings in foods from outside of South Korea. This guy will order almost anything you could want. It's actually pretty awesome because he will order cheeses and it's suppperrrr cheap to get it sent out. The postal system in Korea is dirt cheap. To send a package of 50lbs back to Canada it's at most $20.So that'll make things easier. It's kind of funny how people will stare at you though. I read about being the outsider, and it makes sense, but people were literally snickering and taking pictures of us as we walked through the centre. Oh well. I try to speak some Korean as much as I can, but starting off with Anyeung aseyo has kind of led a lot of the Korean people I've encountered to think you can speak it. But they are super nice and most of them do speak English, and even if they don't they try super hard to get their English across. These are just quick observations, guess we'll see how they change over time. Our coordinators took us to an ex-pat bar called German Club. It actually reminded me a lot of the Beacon. It was pretty fun. Karaoke and bar-brewed beer. Good way to spend the first legit night in Korea. Downside was opting to go back to the hotel at 3am for another 7:30am wakeup call.Out of the past 5 days I probably have only an accumulation of one solid night of sleep.
We learned about lesson plans and all that today, good thing is they basically gave us an endless amount of resources and even activities and lesson plans to already go off which will make it super easy to come up with some stuff, at least to start things off until I get into the swing of things. From the sounds of the classes and the whole process, it actually sounds like a ton of fun. You can do anything with these kids and apparently love every little bit of things that aren't Korean, so I'm going to try and bring some Canadian activities into the mix. Maybe around Christmas I'll get them to make cookies, ice them with English words and make that into an activity or something. We'll see. It all depends on the school and the co-teacher and how things are run. As long as I get on their good side it should be okay. I'm going to try and butter up to the Vice and Principal. In the Winter Semester it's possible that I might have to do something called desk warming, where I'll literally just be in my school 'working' but classes will be out so 'working' will be sitting at my desk surfing the web and reading. Apparently if you get on the good side of the V.P. and P they might just say don't bother coming into the school at all. It is required by the contract and working obligations, but they can make a swing.Also learned my name in Korean, far too long to spell, it sounds the same, except Michael is Mi-ch-ae-hel, so it's a little drawn out.
Long first post, but I don't know how long I'll have Internet for so I'm going to try and get some things in this week while I have the hotel. I don't know what will be in the school when I get there, and I've heard Internet can take a while to set up. So we'll see how that goes. Apparently there is another guy going to my town as well, I was under the impression that I was the only one. Older guy, seems nice, been doing this for several years so he kind of knows Korea, so it might be good to have someone familiar around. So many people are here from teacher's college though, or have done this before, so they have so much experience to bring to the table. I feel kind of lost though, when we talk about lesson plans and all that jazz I have no experience to draw on and they're pulling a million things out of their ass from their classrooms. It's great though, I will definitely be stealing multiple ideas from people.
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