Falling for Autumn

Oh where to begin?! I am coming up on the end of my 5th month here in SK, which means I am almost half way through my journey. What a journey it has been! I have met some fantastic and not so fantastic people along the way so far.

I have been branching out on my own, going grocery shopping is no longer scary! I even travel to other cities where they have larger stores that have some of my favorites like cheese and tortillas. YAY! My friends have been showing me places in Seoul to visit where there is much shopping to be had. I don't know if it is a good or bad thing that the women's shoe sizes here are too small for me. Another odd thing, when clothes shopping, people are not allowed to try clothing on in the store....

Autumn is here, thankfully! It seems that in one night the temps have dropped at least 10 degrees and I am once again able to enjoy walking to work and sleeping. I even broke out the jeans again. My students are getting ready for their mid term exams next week, which means I have plenty of time with no classes again.

Yesterday as I was walking downtown from school I had a great fall... rather I decided that the ground needed to be taught a lesson but I lost. If you remember I fell a few months ago too, same thing happened except this time it was in the middle of an intersection with at least 100 of my students watching... yeah a slight bit of embarrassment!

Flash forward to this morning and my friends convinced me that I needed to go to the hospital to have my ankle looked at. Annie called a taxi to come get me and take me to the hospital, there are not general doctor offices here so everyone just goes to the hospital. Walking into the hospital I felt a huge wave of panic flow through me. Dozens of people waiting in lines, signs in Korean that I had no idea how to read, and no one speaking English. I fought back tears as I called Annie for direction on how to proceed.

Taking a number and waiting in line, I was finally called and able to communicate enough that I had fallen and had a "sick" ankle, give out my primary information and was then directed to where I would need to go wait for another 2 1/2 hours to see a Dr. My turn finally came up and again we stumbled through what was wrong, it took about 5 minutes for him to send me to x-ray. I only have a severe sprain, nothing is broken. I just have a half cast and crutches and have been told to keep it on for 2-3 weeks. Spending 5 hours in the hospital in a foreign country where you have no one to rely on is fairly stressful. I can chalk this up to one more experience to make me stronger! :)

I was also given a shot and some meds that the awesome taxi driver was wonderful enough to go get for me and take me all the way to  my house. I am not sure what concerns me more, the fact that I was given these pills and shot with no explanation of what they are or what they do and if there are any side affects or that I don't' really care and am just taking them... The things we do when given the choice of pain or comfort!

This is how I was feeling 2.5 hours at the hospital

 

 

 

 

The end result

A bit of a drink

Greetings! I suppose it's time for another post and as I have been doing quite a bit socially (as in going out dancing and a bit of drinking), I thought it an appropriate time to talk about some of the differences I have noticed here and at home.

Drinking in SK is HUGE. I don't mean just an occasional weekday drink with partying on the weekends. No my friends, here in SK it isn't uncommon to see construction workers guzzling soju (Korean alcohol) while in the midst of their duties. I kid you not, the workers that are building houses around me have a mini fridge outside that they keep stocked with soju. There are always SEVERAL bottles laying around and I see them drinking as early as 7:30 am when I am leaving for school. At first I was taken aback by this, however it seems to be so common that I don't even think twice about it.

Another phenom in SK is public drunkenness/ blacking out. In fact there is an entire blog devoted to the photos of people blacked out. For the curious, you can check it out here: http://blackoutkorea.blogspot.kr/
Most of the time the people that I have seen and are documented being passed out in public are males, but I have seen both men and women in this position. The thing that amazes me is how the Koreans mostly turn a blind eye to those sprawled out on the street/ sidewalk laying in their own filth. No, these are not homeless people either. I have seen businessmen in their suits sprawled out... CRAZY! The fact that people don't offer to help and that their wallets/ personal items remain in tact also boggles my mind.

Just two days ago I was with a friend, waiting on another friend, at the bus terminal. There was an older man so intoxicated that while two people were actually trying to help him get to the bus, he fell down pulling them down on top of him. The 50 or so other people standing around didn't even bat an eye at this. Next thing we know, the bus is starting to pull away while the drunk man is half way under the bus. Luckily they were able to get the driver to stop before running the guy over. Oh, that is a completely different topic that I need to talk about too... the bus and taxi drivers here. Anyway, my friends and I finally got on our bus and got back to Pocheon about 6 hours later only to see that the man was now passed out at the bus stop!

i hear of many teachers who go out with their co-workers on weeknights and get totally bombed. Luckily for me, many of my co teachers live far away and none seem to do that or if they do, I am not invited. Though I prefer to think they are a bit above the continual drinking. I suppose if I had grown up in this culture I may be more used to it, as it is I just do not understand.This isn't something that just happens in the big cities either, as my town is quite a bit smaller and I have heard from friends in even smaller towns that they see the blackouts too. I wonder how the "responsible" drinking campaigns would go over here?

Stay safe and drink responsible my people!

-Cheers! :)

Summer vacation wrap up

Today is Sunday and after having nearly 2 weeks off for summer vacation I will return to work tomorrow. What a crazy time I have had the last couple of weeks, they went something like this...

Monday (2 weeks ago) was my last day of summer English camp. I was supposed to have nearly 17 girls every day for 2 hours. I ended up having at most 10 but usually 4 -6 girls in class where we would listen to American pop music and watch movies in English. My room was so hot that they had little energy (me included) to do much else.

I came home from work pondering what I should do for the next 2 weeks. Most of my other ESL teacher friends had gone off on exotic vacations and I didn't want to just sit around. Tuesday morning I had decided that I would go to Taiwan. Within 24 hours I had booked a ticket and hotel to a country I hadn't ever been to and hadn't really thought of going to before.

Weds am, I set off for the airport (about 2 hours away via car), I had planned on taking the buses as I felt fairly confident that I knew which to take... WRONG! Just when I think I have the public transport system down, the language barrier goes and messes that all up. So, after 2 taxi rides and 1 bus ride I arrived at the airport where I would wait for nearly 4 hours. I had taken into account that the bus would take longer but ended up taking a taxi. While in the airport I got to have one of my first non Korean meals... fajitas! YUM! I also happen to meet another ESL teacher from the States who was headed to Taipei too. Yay! A new friend and someone to hang out with on my spontaneous adventure.

Amanda and I shared a taxi from the airport to our respective hotels. I could not have gotten a nicer hotel. It had a/c, tv, HUGE bathroom and most of all a HUGE comfy bed! I was in heaven!

The trip was full of wonderful food... I got to have an awesome cheese tray with brie, cheddar, Gouda, fruits.... it was divine!  By day Amanda would do her thing, seeing as she had been planning this trip for quite some time, while I would lounge around just enjoying being somewhere new. The people in Taiwan are WONDERFUL! Very helpful and genuinely happy to help a stranger.

We went on a pretty cool night tour of Taipei which included: a Mongolian BBQ dinner, going to a Buddhist Temple, 2 night markets, and Taipei 101 (the 2nd tallest building in the world, the first being in Dubai.). The night markets in Taiwan are AMAZING! So many people, food, clothing, and oddities... reptiles, fruits that I had never heard of nor seen. I am glad I got to experience them one time because that is about all that I could handle.
 
One of my favorite places was the jade market. I am not a huge fan of wearing a lot of jewelery however I did indulge on some pretty cool pieces. The market is huge and vendors have everything from inexpensive simple rings to pendants, earrings, stamps and custom made pieces. Another cool place, Modern Toilet.... you have to see it to believe it. A restaurant where you sit on toilets, and are served out of smaller toilet bowls. We didn't' eat here because we had just eaten at TGI Friday's and didn't realize that it was nearly next door. I did get a couple of pics and souvenirs.

A few things of note: There are scooters everywhere! Also it is a fine not to wear a helmet so everyone has them. China still rules Taiwan so it isn't its own country. There are over 7400 7-11s which means Taiwan has the most per capita in the world.  I also had my first movie theater experience since leaving Oregon. Here in SK and Taiwan they give you assigned seating at the movies. Almost all of the dogs that I saw out for walks had been shaved and their owners left shapes on their sides like hearts or smiley faces. SO FUNNY and of course I didnt' get a pic!

For not having planned this trip it turned out to be quite a good time. Making new friends, exploring a new country, and having wonderful food and drinks. I highly recommend that if given an opportunity one should def make the trip to Taiwan.

One of the stranger things, at least for me, is that I didn't bother to take my good camera and only packed my backpack for the 5 days I spent there. Anyone who knows me, knows that packing for 5 days usually requires at least 2 suitcases and several shoes! haha :)  And as my mother can attest to, I tend to take HUNDREDS of photos, so not taking my camera was a BIG DEAL but I still managed to get some pics on my fabulous phone. :)

Here is a link to the pics that I took.
Taiwan Pics

Good times with new friends

It's been a few weeks since my last post which if you read my blog is about how things go for me. Since then I have managed to get out and have quite a bit of a social life. A couple of weeks ago went out with other EFL teachers from New Zeland, South Africa, and Canada to a bar called USA 99. The drinks in bars here are far more expensive than in the states unless you are having a beer  but with the conversion rate they end up being about the same. Instead of serving pretzels or popcorn, many of the bars serve what look like Fruit Loop balls that are slightly stale yet quite addictive if you like that fake fruit taste. Believe it or not it goes quite well with the beer. After several hours in Songuri drinking we headed back to Pocheon where we did a bit of Noreabang (karaoke).

Saturday the girls and I headed to anther city to go clubbing. After having some yummy pasta and Korean pizza (like American but the crust is more like a tortilla), we headed off to enjoy the nightlife in Uijeongbu. This is a larger city south of my about an hour by bus. There are several Army & Air Force bases close by so this is where the soldier boys come to let loose. As one of the older people out for the night, I had a great time watching these "kids" party. Seriously I am a good 13 years older than the girls I go out with but one wouldn't know by my actions! haha

Here in SK one can walk around with an open container drinking and having a good time. I am not sure that they actually have public drunk laws if they did one would never know. I find it funny that the construction workers at my place have a refrigerator with beer and Soju that they drink throughout the day instead of water. Fun was had by all as we drank, got free drinks and danced the night away... well at least until 12:30 when we had to catch our bus. The bases have curfew here which is at 1 am. So the soldiers have to be back on base or in a private residence. The clubs start to die down around 12:30 because of this.

This past weekend I had plans that just fell through and was quite disappointed. So I ended up in "The Bu" (Uijeongbu) again, this time I was alone and a bit peeved and sad. What did I decide to do? Find the closest bar and drink of course! haha   Well this isn't as easy as one would think especially when one does not read Hangul. I even went to a taxi driver and asked for him to take me to the closest bar, but without an address he wouldn't. <sigh> I eventually just got in a cab wich drove me to a destination unknown. I told him to stop when I thought I was somewhere familiar (it wasn't!). I ended up just walking almost aimlessly until I remembered there was a Dunkin Donuts near the area I had been to before. Thank GOD for my cell phone!

I found a 7-11, where you can sit outside and drink or whatnot. I went in and bought a KGB while noticing a couple of Army guys inside. While I was drinking outside I noticed them playing a Korean game, one of those claw games that you try to get a prize, and they were not winning a thing. We eventually struck up a conversation and they invited me to hang out with them for the night. What a great night! They are my age, married and been here about the same amount of time as I have been. We hit up a couple of bars and eventually I even got McDonald's!

After having talked to them for several hours, I have an even greater appreciation for what our soldiers do and go through. Even as cooks they are required to do what ever other soldier does. These men and women do something that us civilians will never comprehend. I give them much appreciation and many thanks that words can never express. To my new friends... Thank you OC & E! I also have a new hook up for getting from from home! YAY!!!!

Summertime, friends, and spaghetti

Ok, so first off I apologize for being such a bad blogger. I sometimes lead quite a boring life so there isn't much to share, then there are those times that I get crazy busy. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of both.  Summer is in full swing here with temps in the mid to high 80s and many days with humidity over 90%. It is AWESOME! I feel like I am in a living sauna. I am learning to love sweating. haha :)  The girls go on their summer break next week and I will begin summer camp. Here's a short wrap up of the last couple of weeks....

2 weeks ago the girls' all had their final exams, this led me having no classes all week. I did get to go have dinner with my guitar lesson group at a traditional Korean restaurant. Mr. Na, the guitar teacher, drove 3 of us there and we met another teacher. Now, on the way there we passed through "downtown" Pocheon and went into what I would consider a residential neighborhood. This is the building we pulled up to:

I am pretty sure this was run out of someone's house, or at least the living quarters were a part of the restaurant. At any rate, the food was very good and I had an interesting time. The non English speaking teachers really want to practice their English with me. I find it quite like a game of riddles that I am constantly trying to piece together. A combination of hand gestures, body language, and Kranglish (my new word for Korean mixed with English) help us to communicate. The meals here are surprisingly cheap. For the 5 of us, plus one bottle of Makoli (Korean rice wine that is a specialty in Pocheon) and 2 bottles of soda, the cost was around $50 USD. We had traditional kimchi, pickled radish, pickles, and other accoutrements such as marinated mushrooms (also a specialty in Pocheon). The main dish was bibimbap (a combo of rice (hot), veggies, usually an egg, and meat topped with red pepper paste). It is pretty good and easy to order when dining out and you have no idea what anything else is.

Guitar lesson group counter clockwise Lisa Park (one of my English co-teachers, Mr. Na, Ms. Yurina, and I do not know the young male teachers name (I am bad!) Sitting on the floor is traditional in most restaurants here.

Kimchi, pickled radish, green beans, onion, etc..

Green Onion pancake... YUM!

Scramble bean curd I think... at least that is what was communicated to me. It tasted like scrambled eggs. The brownish stuff is tofu soup.

 This same week I also managed a night out with more of the English Teachers of Pocheon group, some of the same people that I have been to karaoke with the week before. This time we ate and then hit up the Family Mart, which is like a Dari Mart or 7-11. It was here that I discovered the goodness of KGB, an alcoholic beverage that is NOT Soju! hahaha It is actually Australian and comes in Vodka lemon or Vodka cranberry flavors. I also tried this black raspberry wine that is tasty. As I got a taxi to take me home, I realized it was the same driver that I have had a few other times and who knows exactly where to take me. I LOVE it!! :)

L to R- Alyssa, May, Kyra, Lilly

My lunch time English Club girls and I had been planning on a swim party at my house last weekend but the weather here is about as cooperative as Oregon's. The heat and humidity have been just gross. The girls don't want to study and I don't really blame them. The rains have started in and I almost canceled the party but it was one of the girls' birthday so they decided to come anyway and play games and eat.

OMG!!! These girls can eat! I made quite a giant batch of spaghetti and it turned out really yummy. Thank you to my mom & dad who sent a care package with some spices! :)  The girls absolutely loved it too! I had also purchased an ice cream cake from Baskin Robins. The girls devoured that after 2 HUGE plate fulls of spaghetti. THEN.... they also brought a cheesecake which they ate at least 3/4 of. I have no idea where they put it! They are such sweet girls. We played a card game called golf which they really enjoyed and stuck around for about 4 1/2 hours. It was really fun.

Alyssa

May

Lilly the birthday girl

Kyra

On a sadder note, there was a death in my family and when my co workers found out about it they were so wonderful. They were all quite concerned. I had many teachers stopping my my room to bring me candies, and drinks. My guitar group ordered pizza for dinner that night. We may not speak the same language however consoling a person no matter the barriers is pretty much the same. I am quite fortunate to have such a wonderful caring group of people to work with and some pretty awesome students!

Let there be rain!

You know that saying, "When it rains, it pours."? Well, we had just that this past weekend. Friday brought yet another day with no students as my girls have all been preparing for their final exams that are taking place all this week. I set out on an adventure Friday evening after work to join other EFL/ESL teachers in my area for dinner and adult beverages (aka beer and soju).

After a lengthy discussion of where we should go, we finally just set out walking about trying to find a place to eat seeing as none of us is that familiar with the places to eat here in Pocheon. One of the teachers is a vegetarian which makes eating here slightly difficult seeing as there is either pork or fish in almost everything. I could only imagine a vegan trying to live up here... Seoul is a different story though as I know they have vegan restaurants and such. Anyway, we did manage to get somewhere to eat, just as it began to rain. **Note to self, ALWAYS no matter what carry my umbrella!**  <sigh> I forgot my umbrella today! lol

We had a nice dinner with a salad bar consisting of almost no salad but items such as corn kernels, pickled radish, kimchi, sweet pickles, lychee (it's a fruit maybe misspelled), some sort of marinated beef, an overly mayonnaised pasta type salad, and I think ice berg lettuce. I had, what seems to be my typical at this point, chicken cutlet which was accompanied by 2 french fries. Very specific! haha   Had my first Korean beer. I never was much of a beer drinker but on these hot humid days it actually tastes pretty good.

Upon finishing dinner we decided to meet another teacher at a coffee shop that serves this yummy dish (don't  know the name) it is like Texas toast with honey inside, sounds odd but oh so good! They also had iced milk which basically looked like a milk shake. While here the rain really started in.

We decided that we needed to drink more and find a noori bar (not sure of the spelling), but basically a karaoke bar. This is when the fun really started because we had NO idea of where to go, it was pouring and not just rain drops but more like rain puddles were falling from the sky. I was SOAKED and I didn't mind it one bit. Actually I felt like I was at home in the Oregon liquid sunshine. Now, the major difference in these places here and the US, is that here anyone can go because there is no age limit. Also the noori bars have several rooms with screens, sound systems, etc for you and your friends. The one we went to cost 20,000 won an hour, roughly $20 hr. They also sell juice and beer, or you can do like we do at home and smuggle in your own beverage just make sure to take the bottles with you when you leave!

What an amazing night! We sang for at least 2 hours, I think they kept giving us free time though because the timer kept hitting 15 minutes and going back to 20. We sang and sang, drank and sang some more. Normally I am not a fan of karaoke because you are up in front of all these people in a bar, but here being so private, makes it so much fun! I will def be doing this again.

When we left it was still pouring. I parted ways with my teaching cohorts to grab a cab, at this point it was just after 2 am. The streets looked like mini rivers. I made it home safely but was still too hyped to go to bed, which led me to being up until 9 am Saturday morning.... Yeah, I am not a kid anymore and can't be doing that! haha

 I was supposed to go clubbing with the other ladies Saturday night in Seoul but my staying up all night kind of put the kibosh on that! When I am 10 years older than the other teachers it shows at times when sleep is most needed! lol  So, that was my weekend and my fantastic night of singing, losing my voice, and finally drinking here in SK! Oh, and that night, we ended up getting 3 inches of rain... welcome to monsoon season!

Good times!

Karaoke bar, Kish singing

Looking for a karaoke bar in the rain

ESL teacher dinner. Me, Lisha, Elliot, Chaitra, Charise, Kishmir

Thierry's (in the glasses and hat) birthday at Baskin Robbins the first time we got together. Then Charise, me, the owner of  the store, Chaitra, Elliot, and Kish.

New Photos

This is of my trip to Everland with the 9th grade girls. it is an amusement park like Disneyland.
Everland

Soyosan, my first trip out of Pocheon with one of my co teacahers.
Soyo Mountain

Herb Island in Pocheon (my city)
Herb Island 20 May 2012

Road trippin'

This past weekend I decided that it was about time I tried going somewhere. I have spent almost every weekend at home on my computer talking with friends or watching movies. Things can be daunting in a foreign country especially when one does not know the language as you can all imagine. After a lot of planning and getting help from my fellow co-teachers who showed me which buses I needed to take, I set off early Saturday morning for the city of Gunsan.

Gunsan is on the west coast near the Yellow Sea. The bus ride there consisted of taking a bus from my town of Pocheon to Seoul which was about a 1 hour ride. Firstly I had to walk to the Pocheon bus terminal which is about a 45 minute walk from my house. I set out at around 5:20 am because the first bus to Seoul was due at 6:20. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to get there. As I was walking down the quite morning streets of Pocheon I decided that the cobblestone sidewalk needed some company, I decided to gracefully fall and give it a hug. My knees were quite thankful for this as was my right foot who suffered a bit of a sprain that has kept the taxis busy taking me to and from school this week.

I successfully got to the East Seoul bus terminal and with the aid of my handwritten notes and the kind help of a couple of men asking if I needed help, was able to get a ticket and onto the bus to Gunsan. This trip was about 3 1/2 hours. We made a couple of pit stops along the way, one of which was at a rest area. The rest areas here are crazy. They have stores, restaurants, food stands.. Dunkin Donuts! Of course I didn't dare get off the bus for fear of being left behind, I don't care that I had to use the restroom and it would be another hour and a half at the least... I.. was.. NOT... getting... off... the ... bus!!! I can see it now, American woman abandon at bus stop, tries walking home and wanders into the DMZ where she is being held by the North Koreans. I am sure that is exactly what my mother is thinking anyway! :)

Rest assured, I arrived at the Gunsan bus station and not the North Korean border. In fact Gunsan is at least 5 hours in the opposite direction so I was safe! It is also located close to a military base.. SCORE! I was able to find a hotel and get a taxi to take me there. I will not let this language barrier stop me! Or will I??? Ok so it may have some affects on what I do, but I am slowly learning to deal with it. It really does help having this cell phone. I can look up hotels, GPS, translate from English to Korean, and check my email. Every once in a while I can even use it to make a phone call! Go figure!!! :)

Seeing as I had decided to injure myself the weekend was spent in a nicely air conditioned room, laying on a moderately comfortable bed watching the only American tv channel I could find which was playing movies. Oh and I got to have room service. I was pretty much in heaven. The shower was one of those rainfall types and a huge bathtub which is not usual here.

The trip home was uneventful, no falling or missing the bus. Overall it was a nice mini vacation. It was good for me to do something on my own and to experience going somewhere not many people even where I live have gone.

I did it!

I have finally gone to the grocery store all on my own! Yes, I know, again this doesn't seem like such a big deal... let me tell you what... IT IS!!! So much of my grocery store experience has become a game of guess what's in the package. I lucked out one night with some spicy raman noodles that had no hint of fish or seaweed in them. I am slowly going out of my comfort zone of pb&j  and grilled cheese. Although I always pick up any jam & pb that is at the store when I go. One never knows when it will not be there.

One of my favorite finds was some Hillshire Farms smoked brats that i paid about $9 for and yes they are worth it!. Now at home I woudln't be quite so thrilled about this, but OMG!!!!!! Not to mention that I have actual Heinz ketchup and mustard! WIN!!! Yeah, it's the little things that have to keep a girl going. So after filling my hand cart with some very much needed items... (I had spent the previous 3 day weekend eating nothing but rice and oranges.) I headed to the check out. All I can say is that bless the checker's heart. What an understanding person she was! I used my debit card for the first time and that of course was no easy feat. After several tries and her trying to show me when to sign, I made it out of the store. Oh another interesting note, they give you the first grocery bag free, after that it is about 56 won, so less 6 cents. Of course I had to repay using my debit card... practice makes perfect right? haha

Then I got to try using the atm for the first time. Things are a bit different with the banking system here. Their ATMs do not have a daily limit of how much you can w/ draw. Instead a person sets the daily limit with the bank on how much can be taken from their account. One must be careful when doing this because if you go shopping for a high priced item you may not be able to get it depending on what you have set up... very odd if ya ask me! Then again.... lol Without any problems I took out the cash that I needed then attempted to get a hold of one of my English teaching friends to call a cab for me. I was unsuccessful in this and began my walk home.

I would say that the walk is about 2.5 -3 miles. Of course it happened to be about 85 that day and humidity around 78%... I melted!!! Having jeans on did not help either! haha   On the way home I passed three older women who were out for a walk. They looked somewhat familiar but I didn't really pay too much attention to them until I stopped to drink some water. They came up to me and tried to help me carry my bags, and gestured that I should call a taxi. I thought that was awful nice but how do I say, "would you please call a taxi for me? I do not speak Korean.". hahaha  I continued walking as did the women, all the way up the hill towards my place, they just laughed at me. I am sure they are thinking, "Crazy American!!!". I know that half the time that is what I am thinking when I look at myself and think.. What the heck am I doing here?!?!

On the work front I am loving my job. It is very different than I was preparing myself for. I am basically here to speak English (for the students to listen to). I have yet to teach a full 5 days of class. Last week on Memorial Day in the US it was Budah's birthday so no school. Then this week Weds was Memorial Day in SK (commemorating the Korean war). Then today (Thursday) there was testing for the 8th graders (2nd years) which is all that I teach on Thursday, so no teaching. I do however have a group of 4 girls who have started coming in during my lunch hour for English conversation. They are really fun and ask if they can come in even on days that they don't technically need to. :)

This weekend I am going to go on a big adventure all by myself so stay tuned! :)  Cheers!

And then...

Continuing from my last post...

Sunday another English teacher at my school (again a Korean teacher who teaches English) Ms. Chow, took me to Herb Island. This isn't actually an Island but instead on top of a mountain. Beautiful area with a huge green house, herbs, lavender, restaurants, a bakery, and Santa land that is there year round. We had a good time walking around, it was quite hot and standing among Christmas trees and listening to Silent Night in 80 degree weather was a it questionable. I bought some yummy herb mint tea, spent far too much money on some bread but enjoyed the day as it was a nice relaxing drive and we even had 15 minute chair massages.

I think the weekend tuckered me out as I began to get sick Monday evening and by Tuesday afternoon I had all the flu symptoms. I missed my first 2 days of work being ill in bed. Oi! I tell ya, there is nothing more fun than laying in an uncomfortable bed being sick for nearly 3 days. To top it off on Weds, I was finally napping when I heard a mans voice. I rolled over only to find a Korean man standing in my apartment! Yeah, had I not been so sick I think I would have freaked out a bit more. He was there to do some repairs, but hadn't told anyone that he was going to be there. A bit unnerving but I just rolled over and fell back asleep.

 Then later that day I had about 5 other people in and out of my place as I was finally getting the internet connection in my house set up. YAY!!! I have internet at home!!! It is sooo nice and fast and I feel like I am connected to the rest of the world again. Thankfully Annie was there talking to the service men. Both Annie and Lisa kept trying to get me to go to the hospital and were quite worried about me. Luckily I had plenty of water and crackers. I tell ya, this has been one of the greatest weight loss plans ever!!! hahaha

Playing catch up...

26 May 2012

I have been meaning to update my blog but things have been crazy. Last weekend was quite busy which led to me being very sick for 3 days last week, missing 2 days of school. I felt awful not going, but definitely could not go. The school was more than understanding and both Annie and my other teaching friend Lisa kept checking in on me wanting me to go to the hospital. All is good, was just a flu or something like it.

Now for the good stuff... last weekend was chock FULL of going places. Saturday Lisa met me in front of the school. She doesn't have a car so we walked to the bus stop and made our way to what is called Soyosan (Soyo Mountain). On our way to the mountain we took 3 different buses and the subway/ train. For the first time I heard English being spoken by native English speakers. I also met another ESL teacher from South Africa on the bus. We went to a town called Dongducheon (DDC according to Lisa) where there is an American Military base. The hike to the up the mountain was very interesting. Along the way we passed many people who had planted themselves along the side of the road with their homegrown veggies for sale. Kind of like our version of a farmer's market. There were also various food stands, one of the more interesting food items being sold were hot larvae. Mmmm yum! That's exactly like I want my larvae... HOT! haha

After our hike on the mountain we went back to DDC, this is the town that Lisa is from and her mother still lives there. First we went to a spaghetti restaurant. I was never so happy to have pasta! It was VERY good too! I had chicken, bacon alfredo. We also had garlic bread, the VERY strange thing they do to garlic bread here is put sugar on it. Soooo wasn't expecting that! In fact the sugar over powers the garlic which was disappointing.  It was nice though to have a meal that I need not question what I was eating! :) After that we went to her mom's apartment where I was given even more food. Apparently they are quite worried by the fact that I do not eat much at school and pretty much eat only pb&j or grilled cheese sandwiches at home. One thing is for sure, I have MANY people looking out for me here!

Tomorrow I will post about the rest of the weekend and some pictures too!

I'm a legal Alien now!

The end of week 3 has finally arrived and yesterday I received my Alien Registration Card (ARC)! WOO HOOO!!!! I can now finally go get a bank account so that I can cash my paychecks, get an ISP so that I can have my very own internet, and get a cell phone! This day could not have come soon enough. So yes, I am a legal Alien now. I rather like being an Alien... as someone on Facebook said, it's fitting seeing how much I loved the show "V" when I was a kid. haha :)

Having the ability to make phone calls will be great, although come to think of it... who am I going to call? While I do have the number for a taxi to take me to a store, I don't exactly speak Korean well enough to give them my address (which I am also very thankful to have finally gotten!). Hmmm... I could always call one of the 2 English speakers at my school to come translate for me I suppose. haha I guess I better get on the whole learning Korean thing. I am thinking that my rate of learning 2 words a day isn't going to cut it! ;)

I finally got to teach classes this week, not just the power point presentation about myself and getting to know each class. Each of the 3 teachers that I work with have very different methods for working with me as well as controlling their classes. The students here are very much like those in the States. There are the quiet ones who sit in the back taking naps and those who are eager to show me how much English they already know. There is a K-Pop (Korean Pop) band called Big Bang that the girls just LOVE, they are the equivalent of New Kids on the Block or N'Sync or any other extremely popular boy band. All I have to do to get the girl's attention is mention Big Bang and they perk right up.

The food at school continues to keep me on my toes. Tons of fish which I at least try. Kimchi and rice daily accompanied by soup and 2 other dishes. One day we had pizza... and I thought it was odd seeing people eat spaghetti with chopsticks... but PIZZA?! haha Then the other day we had spam burgers... first time that I know of having spam.

This weekend one of the other teachers native Korean but one of the English teachers I work with who lives close-ish to me is taking me to her home city via public bus as she doesn't have a car. We are going to a temple and then for Italian food. This should be interesting and fun! I hope to be able to post some pics of the week over the weekend.

Cheers! :D

So much to say..

I have a lot to report on but don't want to keep making these really long posts so a quick re-cap.
Last week: Introduced myself to classes on Mon & Tues, grades 1 & 2 (like 6 & 7) went on a 3 day field trip so I didn't teach any classes Weds- Fri. Friday, I went with the 3rd year students to Everland (http://www.everland.com/MultiLanguage/english/index.html) an amusement park near Seoul. Round trip bus ride on some pretty nice coach buses was about 4 hours, spent about 6 1/2 hours at the park taking pictures, went on a couple of rides but the one I really wanted to go on had an almost 3 hour wait sooo didn't go on it. Weather was quite nice and even managed a small sun burn.

The weekend was pretty quiet with spotty internet access which is why my blogs have also been infrequent. I will post pics of the trip to Everland when I can. This week I had my Thursday classes Monday and vice versa. I finally got my address and my two new friends Amanda and Ellen called a taxi and went with me to the grocery store. What an adventure! Also, wow is fruit expensive! So I stick with my pb&j, "cheese", and eggs as far as cooking at home goes. Yeah not being too adventurous yet with cooking at home. Then the girls rode home in the taxi with me and I made them pb&j sandwiches for the first time.. I believe their reaction was about like mine was to kimchi... Ohhh this is interesting. And we ALL know what interesting implies! hahahaha


Today May 15th is Teacher Appreciation Day which means no classes. Lots of activities that I will update tomorrow! :)

Finally an update...

The pics:  https://picasaweb.google.com/110803946883202819623/May92012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKjo_oyXjcK9zgE&feat=directlink

Link to pics from my birthday & apartment that I thought I put up... https://picasaweb.google.com/110803946883202819623/April302012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOaD8uSxlMKSmwE&feat=directlink

I haven't blogged much this week not because I have been too busy, nor because I haven't had much to say. I just don't want to bore you all too much with mundane details. This week has been going well after my emotional roller coaster of a weekend. As I was telling a friend today, I think it does us good to get a different perspective in life to understand that what you have isn't as bad as you may think. Basically you don't know what you have till it's gone.

This rang true over the weekend when I had no internet connection at all on Sunday. It's not that I can't go walking around and exploring, but ummmm.... NOBODY walks anywhere around here. I don't mean in my city, but in my village everyone has a car, not even bicycles are ridden. However the rest of the city both walking/bicycles are very popular. It is basically like I live in the country. 

I have begun having classes, though this week has not been normal. As mentioned I have about 35 - 40 girls per class and I teach 18 classes plus 4 hours of English Conversation per week. I have A LOT of students! So far in my power point presentation they LOVE Maggie. I guess that there is a type of fish in Korea that is called Maggie, though the spelling is different. They are very excited whenever a photo of her comes up and hope to see her on Skype.

The girls also think that both my mother and I are beautiful and very pretty, and my father is handsome! I think it is so cute when they say this. I have a photo with my cousins in it and MANY of the girls go crazy for my cousin's son. They ask his name (Zane) and how old he is. I had a girl yesterday ask me if she could have his phone number! haha So yes if he wants a Korean girl friend he has quite a fan base here! :)

As more people become comfortable with trying to talk to me I am having more visitors in my room. Yesterday a student brought me a delicious coffee flavored slushy thing that was quite tasty. Then today on my walk home a random construction worker that I have walked by the last 3 days, gave me a canned iced coffee drink. It was totally random and VERY nice. 

We have 3 student teachers in our school for a month. 2 of them have been coming to talk with me to practice their English. Today I had them talking with a friend of mine online. The wonders of the internet! Then I showed them pictures of my friends on facebook, etc. They really enjoyed that. They then asked for me to give them English names. I feel quite honored by this and will be thinking about that... Oh a couple of other cool things I was told that using chopsticks helps keep your brain active and is good for aging and several of the other teachers are quite impressed with my chopstick abilities. Woo hoo! hahaha

Cheers!

No matter what, I'm fine! :D

For those who are link clicking challenged and having an issue getting to my photos I will just put the link here... it should open in a new window. :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/110803946883202819623/May42012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPS8rtqAouCWsgE&feat=directlink

Ahhhh Friday, then end of my first full week here in Pocheon. It's definitely been an interesting week with ups and downs. The most frustrating part has revolved around getting my ARC (alien registration card), without which I cannot purchase a cell phone, get a land line, sign up for internet/tv, or open a bank account. Luckily I have had spotty bits of internet access at home via wireless connection and at school I have been able to chat/Skype/Vent with people so that has been a tremendous help! 

This past week was spent mostly getting to know my surroundings both at school and within my little community. The walk to school isn't quite as difficult as the walk home as it is much warmer during the peak heat of the day at 4:30 and I am walking right towards the sun. We had a nice bit of thunder and lightning storm Thursday with huge amounts of rain. I was really dreading my walk to school this day. Luckily for me I was standing under the covered area where my landlord parks his car talking and playing with "Fuzzy" when my landlord came out. We somehow communicated with one another, he speaks no English and I have about 7 words mastered (non of which were helpful in this case), that he wanted to give me a ride to school and wondered what time I left. What a savior! Not having to walk in a downpour was heaven.

As I prepared yesterday for my first 3 classes Friday I became more used to my room. My schedule has me teaching 22 hours a week and each class is 50 minutes ( which they equate to one hour). The other 15 hours a week I spend as a desk warmer. Basically what it sounds like, sitting at my desk surfing the web, preparing for class, etc. I don't really go to the workshops or meetings as they don't apply to me and are conducted in Korean only. 

Thursday afternoon Annie came racing into my room, no kidding, in an almost panicked rush telling me that we had to leave, she had just gotten my "vet check" ie; medical tests back and I passed. Yippeee! I honestly felt like an animal going through the process as being spoken to I had no idea what they were telling me to do, sit, stand, breath, etc. Again Annie to the rescue! Anyway off to another city about 45 mins away to apply for my ARC card. Pocheon is a large city, probably like Beaverton, and is quite spread out. I live on the outskirts not close to the more developed areas. ARC application paid and applied for, now I just have to wait about 17 business days which puts me around the last week in May before I can get anything.... thus the frustration.

My co-workers have all been very welcoming and friendly as are most of the students. I will be teaching 18 different classes every week, so I only see each class once per week.  I had 3 classes today where I basically spent the whole class period introducing myself and where I come from. Students really like Maggie, they all giggle and love to say her name whenever a photo of her comes up on the screen. I think part of the reason for this is because there is a type of fish here that is called the same thing with a slightly different pronunciation. One of my students' American name is Amy, she was really excited to know that is my name.

The students here are a lot like working in a class at home. There are the shy ones, those who love to get the teachers attention and ask/ answer questions, those who are falling asleep, and those who would rather be anywhere than in class. Huh, think I can relate to most of those! ;)

I had several students as well as a couple of teachers stop by my class to get some extra help with their English. Almost everyone knows "hello", "how are you" and "fine". Not a single person has said anything other than "fine" when I have asked how they are doing. They ask me and I usually say fine too but today I was hot and tired towards the end of the day... but whattya say? I'm fine! (with a smile) :D

A new surprise every day...

 No one can accuse the Koreans (at least those that I have had the pleasure of coming in contact with) of being stingy. Thus far on both trips to the market I have been given something. The first trip was a 3 pack of Kleenex Tissue (the big boxes too!) and a tube (for lack of better word) of bean curd (which I will not likely eat...). Annie, as I have mentioned previously, bought me plenty of groceries and items for my house before I even arrived as well as a house plant and continuously bringing me items from her house. She even made rice cakes for me upon my welcome. These are not the rice cakes us Americans are used to, they are made with (quite obviously) rice and red beans. They are almost rubbery in texture and lack in taste... very bland, but the gesture was so very nice. Not to mention the party she gave me yesterday. Today I was given some "pastries" by one of the other ladies in my office.  

Garlic Biscuit

For those not following me on Facebook, you missed out on a couple of my more fun posts of today. One being lunch we had today. The usual items which come as no surprise: Kimchi (there are oodles of different types), rice, a dish of some sort and a broth/stew with fish of some sort. The biggest laugh (to me anyway) came when I was served spaghetti with red sauce. Really? REAAALLYYY?! Spaghetti?! Wow, yeah ok sure why not. the fact that I bought pasta and Ragu/ Prego yesterday just made it that much funnier to me. Oh right, did I mention that I had to eat it with chopsticks??? Yeah... CHOPSTICKS! And I didn't spill ONE drop! Trust me I am impressed with myself. ;) It was actually pretty tasty though much sweeter than what I am used to and a nice bit of spicy heat. Then there was this odd garlic biscuit thing that tasted as though it had been doused in powdered sugar and garlic... I tossed it. 

Again all of the birthday wishes were wonderful. Thank you to everyone. It really does help knowing that half a world away (quite literally) ya'll are thinking of me. Today was my first walk to and from school. I believe the temp as I was walking home was right around 85f and such a dry heat too.... That is said with as much sarcasm as sweat from every fiber of my being... Never had a better cold shower. I have a feeling that I will be experiencing quite a few of those! haha :)

Don't get me wrong, I am not being negative, just passing along the experiences I am having. Even today I had students coming up to me saying happy birthday. One truly does feel like a celebrity as a Westerner here. As I was walking home, the boys from the school across the road from my school were hanging out and about a dozen surrounded me saying hello, asking where I was from, and trying to use as much English as they could. It really impresses me that these people try so hard to learn about us (again over generalization, just the people I have been in contact with and seems to hold true for many others in my position.)

On a sad note, BAB left my apartment today... I hope he makes it out there. lol :P

Cheers to you my friends and family. I love you all! 

 :D

The entry to the "English Zone"

My Classroom

May 1, 2012 More pics:

Just another birthday, ok maybe not!

What a day! I don't even know where to begin.... I can't even begin to describe the feeling I have right now, somewhat feeling like I am floating/ being in someone else's body, happy/sad/tired/anxious, you name it and that is how I feel about now all except anger that is. I take that back, I am a bit angry, my wireless connection has suddenly gone away and I am quite angry about that. No internet for me is a curse. thankfully I know that I will have it again at work tomorrow where I can update my blog! :) 

So, today is indeed my birthday. I have had a lot of things happen on my birthday aside from the actual birth. There was the layoff from Schwab, going to a bar in Kentucky when I turned 20 (and got in!!), having a kidney stone operation, being broken up with (it's ok though I'm over it now...no really I am! haha), and now starting teaching in a foreign country. WOW! 

Today I got up nice and early, had a pb&j sandwich for breakfast and headed off to school (walking that is). The walk was about 15 minutes almost all of it downhill until the huge steep driveway at the school itself. Tell ya what this gal is gonna get her exercise. The school is HUGE! There are roughly 850 girls in grades 7-9 (ages 13-15 due to the way Koreans count age beginning in the womb you are 1). Annie met me at the bottom of the hill and escorted me to the top, showing me around and introducing me to other staff members as well as my Principal, Mr. Kim., coincidentally the VPs name is Mrs. Kim but they are not married to one another. I share an office with roughly 11 other teachers, most of whom are quite eager to test their English skills on me.

I pretty much just sat at my desk all day, was given a laptop about 4 hours into the day and told to go ahead and surf the internet. WOOT! Annie had me go to a couple of meetings, where I was completely lost but would smile and laugh when others would. I think I am good at faking like I know what is going on. Lunch in the cafeteria with the entire school was not only interesting but very loud. As a teacher one simply does not wait in line like the students, you just push your way through to the beginning. 2 types of kimchi, bean curd & fried kimchi, a stir fried type meat (perhaps pork or beef), a fish stew, rice and milk completed lunch. If I haven't mentioned it before... I think I am gonna lose some weight here, the food selections are... different but I am at least trying them! :D

Oh, roughly 2 periods into the morning a group of about 5 girls came into my office and very cutely giggling told me Happy Birthday. My heart melted! Everywhere I walked in the school students stopped to say hello instead of aenyong heseo (Korean for hello) as well as happy birthday. Annie had sent out an announcement to the entire school telling them it was my birthday. I was made to feel VERY special today from my new friends as well as all the love I received from friends on FB and email. THANK YOU!

At the end of the day Annie called to tell me there was another meeting in the English room (3rd floor of my building). I went up and met the other 4 teachers, she had bought me a cake and birthday hat. SO CUTE!!! I am telling you they have been wonderful and making me feel welcome and at home, it is truly great. My heart melted today many times. 

You would think that would be the end of my day but nooooo.... I got to go to the hospital where I was literally poked, prodded, measured and weighed. Asked multiple questions regarding my health. Funny thing, those little robes they give you to change into... yeah they were NOT made for women who are well... not ballerina size! hahahaha  Soooo I go out of the changing room and the back was open, OMG ppl were racing over to close the back for me. So funny! They are quite modest here, that is for sure.

Still not done, we had to go have my photo taken for my alien registration card. This is quite a process I tell ya.  After that we made a quick stop at the store where I picked up, of all things spaghetti and Prego! HAHAHA Yes, I found about the most Western food I could to make this week. It will be interesting with only 2 pans. I am sure I can get creative though. It was also nice to have a ride home so I didn't have to walk as the temp got up to 31c. 

Finally I finished my 38th birthday off with a meal of scrambled egg and grilled cheese sandwich with rice wine and will have my birthday cake!