Korea, Kimchi and K-Pop

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-08T12:13:00.006+09:00

*** UPDATE: I have just found out that the food discussed in this blog is actaully not alive. It's in fact, a Japanese dish called "okonomiyaki". The wriggling parts are actually just cheese or whatever that is still melting. There is squid, but it's dead. I am extremely disappointed. ***

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So just recently found this video on my camera from a week ago.

The copious amounts of soju has erased this video from my mind, but not from my camera.

So alas, I present thee, "Poor Squid, You Are Still Alive, But I Shall Eat You Anyway."

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And the following pictures, proving that yes, I ingested it.

This photo is titled -- "fear o' wriggling squid."

This photo I shall title -- "맛있었어요"

This Is Not An Interesting Blog Post

2010-06-04T10:22:00.002+09:00

Pardon me for the lack of interesting updates.

Writer's block.

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It's feeling a lot like summer finally. Highs in the 70s and 80s, "abundant sunshine" (as quoted from weather.com), and the ability to wear flip-flops.

My biggest problem in Korea, however, is finding suitable clothing for this season. Another "average-sized American girl" here, Tina, finally discovered clothing in our size... at Home Plus, Korea's version of Wal-Mart. While I have not checked this out, it does give me hope. She was even able to find a swimsuit there. Hopefully I am able to find clothes that aren't "ajumma-style" = tacky, horrible prints and buttons and designs.
Finding clothes here would save me a lot of money. I recently purchased $300 of clothing online from Express, and then it cost another $100 to ship it. Not happy. But at least I know it fits.

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Another haunting problem for me...... mosquitoes. I know I have briefly blogged about this before, but the problem still plagues me. And seemingly, ONLY me. No one else complains about ridiculous mosquito bites. I have them all over my face and arms. Yes, I have bug spray. Yes, I have screens on my windows. I just don't get it. WHY ME?!?!?!!? I have acquired a lifetime supply of cortisone cream and benadryl in anticipation of the inevitable feast that occurs on a weekly basis.

I've also taken to researching mosquito-borne illnesses. These include:
West Nile Virus Japanese Encephalitis Dengue Fever Malaria Yellow Fever
I don't know exactly what I'm vaccinated for, but I think the only one I actually have a chance of contracting is Japanese Encephalitis. So I shall go to get vaccinated. Just in case. The chances are low, but with the number and frequency of my mosquito attacks, I'm getting paranoid.

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Election Day is finally over here in Korea. The dancing ajummas and megaphone speeches are finished. The cities have returned to a semi-peaceful state.

I have also figured out my trash, including the correct trash bags for Suseong-gu, and the correct stickers for my compost bucket.

Next point of order? Getting mosquito netting, mosquito repellent with DEET, and mosquito repellent plug-ins.

Why the Korean Educational System Sucks Sometimes

2010-05-31T10:07:00.003+09:00

All apologies for not updating in over a week.
The past week has been unusually busy...
- Wednesday night, ToastMasters' meeting where I gave a 4-6 minute speech, followed by an amazing dinner and drinks until midnite
- Thursday night, dinner date with Jensine, Yujung, and Richard that lasted until midnite as well.
- Friday night, dinner party with the English department, followed by an accidental nap-turned-full night's sleep.
- Saturday, all-day Farm Tour for free, sponsored by the DMOE and Daegu Office of Tourism
- Saturday night, rooftop party at Anna's, followed by Sugar Joe's and noraebang in the Kyungpook University district.
- Sunday, mini-golfing and Suseong Land with the crew, followed by an excellent meal at Gorilla Burger.

So as you can see, this does not leave much time for blogging.
But alas, here I am, with a killer lesson planned this week, no lessons to plan for next week (speaking exams), and ready to blog.

...about what, I'm not too sure.... Call it acclimation, but nothing in the past week seems hugely blog-worthy....

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This will be a truncated post about my feelings towards the Korean educational system. For some of you, especially my teacher friends, this will be interesting. For others.... not so much.

I would never want to be reincarnated as a Korean child. They have it so tough, especially academically. The bright side, however, is that they don't know this. Most Korean children go to school from 9am - 10pm. every. single. day. even saturdays. They attend regular school of course, from 9am-4pm, but then head to private academies, called hagwons, for more studying.

Hagwons are private schools, that specialize in English education. Parents pay for this education of course, sometimes extremely large amounts. Korea recently passed a law saying that hagwons cannot be open after 10pm. That's right... they had to put a LIMIT on schooling hours. And yet this law is still broken.

Education here is the of the utmost priority. A Korean's life hangs mostly on grades and exam scores.
Middle school exams and grades get you into high school. Most of high school is spent on exam preparation --- imagine spending all of high school (3 years here) preparing for the ACT/SAT. That's what these kids do! Get a certain score, get placed in a prestigious college. The name of your university (not your major, GPA or activities), will define the rest of your life. Get into a great university? Your life is pretty much set.

This has all led to an extreme, polarized focus on points, grades, and exam scores. There is no regard for the process, creativity, thinking-outside-the-box, or personal development.

After talking to many other native teachers here in Korea, the part we have the biggest problem with is the lack of creativity. I could spend weeks preparing the most entertaining, creative lesson plan and it will bomb completely.
"Create-a-Band!" Amanda-Teacher shouts with glee.
"........................" replies the Korean schoolchildren.
"Build-A-Restaurant!" cries Amanda-Teacher.
"................................." retorts the Korean schoolchildren.
"Make your own sentence using the vocabulary!" says Amanda-Teacher.
"....................................................................." says the Korean schoolchildren.

BUT......
"Repeat after me and memorize this paragraph," instructs Amanda-Teacher, dully.
"Lepeet aptuh me und maymolije dis palaglap!!!!!" shouts the Korean schoolchildren with excitement.

The more boring my lessons, the more focused and productive my students are. Worksheets, word searches, and reading and Korean schoolchildren are great. The more bored I am teaching, the more excited they are. I think the students are so used to school being boring and structured, that if class is fun and crazy, they think they are not learning anything. Oh, if you only knew little children.

This is my biggest problem by far. I am told to instruct English conversation classes, to make class fun and exciting. You cannot hold conversation classes by solely giving them dialogues to memorize, grammar to learn, and vocabulary to repeat endlessly.
To illustrate this point of frustration, I urge you to watch the following stand-up comedy by Eddie Izzard.

Korean schoolchildren do not know how to think creatively. Let alone think creatively in another language. Their entire English education has been memorization and point-focused. Kids will not do anything unless their grade is in jeopardy or there is a prize to be won (i.e. CANDY).

It is so tolling on native teachers. And I have spent so much money on candy dammit.

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So now I'm off my soapbox. I just really needed to get that off my chest.

4 People to Avoid In Busan

2010-05-23T16:57:00.004+09:00

Friday at 2am, me and Jensine decided to make the 1-hour journey to Busan for a day trip on Friday.

Got on the wrong train, but no probs, just had to stand the whole time. Arrived to meet the boys, ventured to the beach, soaked our feet in the ocean and generally had the most perfect day. Around 7pm, me and Jensine even decided to stay the night and party with the boys.

All-in-all the trip was amazing... even if it was mostly random and spontaneous.

So without further ado, I will introduce you to 4 people you should avoid at all costs in Busan. Or not. Either way Busan is pretty interesting.

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#1 - Douchebag at the beach.
(Scene: As we were sitting on Haeundae Beach (the most popular beach in South Korea), James busted out his wonderful iPod speakers and we debated over what music was appropriate to play the at beach. Since it was the first beach trip of the season, we went with the cliche Jack Johnson.)

[Enter Douchebag.] "Whoever the f*ck is playing Jack Johnson better turn that sh*t off before I stab someone!"

[Enter Amanda.] "Uh, dude, we're right behind you."

A few words were exchanged debating the quality and appropriateness of Jack Johnson on the beach. I could care less about Jack Johnson, but it was the principle of the matter. Don't be a douchebag. I didn't see him bring his own speakers.

(Chilling on Haeundae Beach)

#2 -- Crazy Ajosshi at the beach
(Scene: Once again, innocently enjoying our music and beer on Haeundae Beach.)

[Enter adjosshi (a middle-aged Korean man).]
Grunting and pointing at our beer jug.

[Enter Amanda.]
"아 니 오, 아 니 오...가서!" ("No, No...Go away.")

[Ajosshi exits.]

Ajosshi goes to Douchebag's group of friends and asks them. Feeling hospitable, they give their jug of beer to the man for a drink. He then proceeds to pour the entire full jug of beer into his mouth, face, and down his body. Hands the jug back to the group and walks away.

#3 - Gold Medal Crazy Ajumma
NOTE: While we've met a lot of crazy ajummas, this one takes the cake, hence Gold Medal Crazy Ajumma.
(Scene: 5 Waygooks (me and my friends), searching the streets of Haeundae for cheap overnight accommodation. Princess James, one of the Waygookss, has ruled out a jjimjilbang. We scour every motel and love motel we can find.)

[Enter Waygooks] "Anyang haseyo, ahl mah-ay-yo il bang? Chil myung?" (Which roughly translates to "hello, how much for one room. Seven people?")

[Enter Crazy Ajumma] Lots of grunting and overall unpleasantness. "한 방? 우만 완. 두 방? 십만 완." (Which roughly translates to: "one room? 50,000 won. two rooms? 100,000.")
She continues to eat her ramen on the floor and refuses to get up or put forth any effort into anything.

50,000 won for one room. The room roughly twice the size of a walk-in closet. 100,000 for two rooms. Of course we are getting screwed. However, its Buddha's Birthday weekend and a fashion show is in town. These are the only rooms we can find.

[Crazy Ajumma] "Take it or leave it, you stupid foreigners." (In Korean, of course, but we got the gist).

More grunting and absolute unpleasantness continues as we try to confirm the number of rooms and floor pads. She keys she gives us resemble gas-station-bathroom keys. We have survived the meanest old crazy ajumma any of us have ever experienced.

(The room we paid roughly $45 for)

#4 - Suicidal 7-11 Man
(Scene: After a night of darts, drinks and dancing at a bar and Busan nightclub, we are seated outside a 7-11 enjoying some after-club drinks).

[Enter Suicidal Man]
Sitting with Korean women at adjacent table, a seemingly normal Korean conversation is going on between the group.

With quick movements, Suicidal Man has grabbed a glass soju bottle and is banging it furiously on the ground. After a few bangs, the glass finally shatters everywhere.

[Enter my group of friends]
As we watched, the girls were frozen, but with relatively calm faces as the man continued to talk to them. I noted as he pointed the shattered bottle to his jugular, then his subclavian and brachial arteries. Either he was giving them an anatomy lesson, or telling them that he could use the bottle to easily injure/kill himself or the girls.

Either way, the girls got away after a minute or two. We chased the girls down to ask if they knew him. They had no idea who he was, but insisted that he was crazy.

We returned to the 7-11 where he sat alone at a table. I watched as he poured out an entire gatorade bottle on the floor, and then filled it back up with another bottle of soju.

He then approached our group. With staggering and slurred English, he told us to leave, to go away. So away we did.

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So overall, it was an extremely.... interesting trip. I had a great time in Busan despite these events....... even maybe because of these events.

Chickens = Korean women

2010-05-18T14:02:00.004+09:00

Back home, my parents own a small acreage-turn-farm. After leaving for college and subsequently, Europe and Asia, my parents started to collect animals. Most notably, chickens. A phone call to 1-800-ChickensPlease and next thing you know, egg crates of chicken eggs had arrived, had hatched, and were born. Whenever I visit home, I love going out to the coop to collect the eggs. Every once in a while though, I run into Mrs. Hen, who squawks and shrieks every time I come near her damn nest. She then runs about the coop, squawking and flapping on to any other chicken that will listen and commiserate with her.

I bring this up because a group of Korean women gossiping remind me of Mrs. Hen.

I’m sitting in the teacher’s office of the largest public middle school in Daegu, Korea. I don’t understand or speak Korean. All I hear is “cluck-cluck-squawk-chirp-cluck-squawk-AMANDA-cluck-squawk.” Similar to a prairie dog, my head involuntarily peeks up from my desk when I hear my name. They look. They laugh. Then go about their clucking. No move is made to aid my understanding. No one assures me that they aren’t talking about my thighs which are larger than most Korean women’s waists.

And so I go back to my faceboo—ahem… I mean, lesson planning… Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a note stuck in my pencil holder.

Hello Amanda Teacher. Hi my name is Woo Ji-Myung. I’m not good at English well. But I can write this small card. My English skill is bad, so maybe you are disappointmented. Anyway, Good Bye!
From Ji-Myungi.

I look back up as I hear my name again amidst the clucking. And in this moment, it doesn’t bother me.

A Tale of Survival

2010-05-17T13:22:00.006+09:00

I did it... I tempted fate and survived.

That's right, I slept with a fan on.

Not only did I sleep with a fan on the whole night (no timer), but I also closed every door and window to my room.

And I have lived to tell the tale.

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Now most of you are probably thinking, "what the hell are you talking about?" So let me fill you in. In a previous post I had mentioned the Korean phenomenon of "fan death." Koreans believe that if you shut all doors and windows and sleep with a fan on, you will die.

No I am not kidding.

Korean medical doctors believe it. Fans come with timers and warning stickers. The news channels report stories of "death by fan."

(gaze upon the Fan Death Warning Labels!)

How does sleeping with a fan on "kill you?" Let me count the ways...
- The fan lowers your body temperature and causes hypothermia.
- The fan blows the air past your face so fast that you cannot breathe it in.
- The fan chops up the oxygen molecules, leaving no oxygen to be inhaled.
- The fan uses up all the oxygen in the room, leaving high levels of carbon dioxide.
- The fan directly on the body deprives "skin-breathing," leading to suffocation.

(Check out Fan Death Wikipedia to read about how these ideas are debunked.)

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Regardless to say, today has been an interesting day. I might as well be a walking ghost.
My co-teachers cannot believe that I survived. They keep trying to make justifications as to why I am not dead.
"The fan must not have been close enough to your body." "You must have accidentally left a door or window open." "Your room must be too spacious." "The fan wasn't on high enough."
However, my allergies did act up severely over the weekend, so my favorite justification was, "Well, you didn't die, but you are not feeling well today. It is because of the fan."

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I am not making fun of my friends/colleagues. OK so I kinda am. But to the rest of the world, fan death in ludicrous. It is only believed in Korea and is permeated through Korean media. My colleagues are smart people. They are extremely talented and smart -- all hold Masters Degrees. Some are mothers and fathers. And they believe in fan death.

I'm not sure what it says about Korean society..... are they a gullible people? Is the media at fault? All I know is that it's a touchy subject. When I first arrived here and brought up the idea that it wasn't true, my teachers giggled uncomfortably and tried to persuade me of its veracity.

I have only found 2 true Koreans who do not believe it. My co-teacher Young-Eun is now on the fence about it all. Slowly... ever so slowly, though, I am breaking them down.

2 Ways To Save Money In Korea

2010-05-12T08:54:00.004+09:00

There are 2 unconventional ways to save money in Korea.

1. Be fat.
- OK, maybe not even fat. Just be bigger than your average Korean. I'm sitting with half my paycheck left and it's mainly because I cannot buy clothes or shoes.
- If you know me, you know I am a bigger girl. I will not say that I'm obese, but I know that I am definitely overweight. (This is not fishing for compliments -- merely stating a fact -- so you can forego the "oh amanda you're not fat" comments).
- Koreans are tiny. Which I chalk up to the fact that they don't have ovens. How does not having an oven equate to skinny people? South Korea is 75% mountains, meaning no usable land for wheat fields. Ergo, no flour. Ergo, no need for ovens. Ergo, not eating bread/cake/cookies which means not eating the obscene amount of carbs that Americans eat.
- Koreans do eat carbs, but they come in the form of rice. When one cannot make a wheat field, one makes a rice patty. Rice is eaten with every meal -- breakfast, lunch and dinner. Desserts are made with rice because of the lack of flour/lack of ovens. Every Korean home has a rice-cooker which they probably use more than any appliance in their house.
- Shoes also run small. The largest women shoe size in most shoes is 250 which = USA Size 9. Now I don't know about you, but I know quite a handful of normal girls with feet bigger than a size 9. We are forced to buy unisex shoes (which thankfully are very popular here, like Vans and Converses), which run in male sizes up to 290.

2. Eat out.
- What kind of bizarre universe is this? Well it's Korea, where get a lavish, full Korean meal costs you less than 5,000 won (less than $4.50). In fact some restaurants call themselves "3000" restaurants, where most meals are only 3,000 won.
- Traditional Korean meals include meat that you grill yourself, a variety of side dishes, or 반찬, maybe some rice, and "service" which is something free, usually some soup, noodles or tea.
- It is always cheaper to eat with others and split the tab. Koreans do not do "split checks," so be prepared with cash on hand.
- Want some booze? A bottle of soju will only set you back another 2,000 won.
- For a nice Korean dinner with plenty of booze split between 3 people, expect to spend anywhere from 5,000 - 10,000 won ( or $4.50 - $9).
- It is actually more expensive to cook at home. Not only are you using your gas for the stove, but let me give you a rundown of expected costs for easy things to make at home.
Grilled cheese sandwich?
Bread = 2,000
Cheese = anywhere from 3-7,000 for the cheese.
Butter = 2- 3,000.
TOTAL = 7,000 - 12,000 won
Spaghetti?
Package of pasta = 3,000 - 5,000
Can of cheap spaghetti sauce = 4-7,000.
TOTAL = 7,000 - 12,000 won
Omelet?
Carton of eggs = 2-3,000.
Cheese = 3,000 minimum
Green peppers = 3 small ones for 1,500
Ham = local supermarket varieties are more a mixture of SPAM and paté, so I advise heading to an E*Mart or HomePlus and spend 2,000 for about 6 sandwich slices.
Garlic = luckily is very cheap here, but expect stronger garlic than normal. Maybe 1,000 won.
Onions = also very cheap. I suggest heading to an outdoor seller. Maybe 1,000 won.
TOTAL = 10,000 - 12,000 (depending on ingredients)

And those are the cheap things. Forget chicken, ribs, hamburgers and steaks. They will easily cost you more than necessary.
Needs an oven? FORGET IT! YOU DO NOT HAVE AN OVEN!
Microwaveable things? FORGET IT! YOU PROBABLY DON'T HAVE A MICROWAVE!
Need toast? FORGET IT! YOU PROBABLY DON'T HAVE A TOASTER!

Of course, you can buy microwaves and toasters. But then you remember that you're only here for a year. You will either have to sell or give away these things when you leave. You also have no space for them in your shoebox apartment.

Conclusion:
Do not cook at home. Eat out. But do not get fat because Korea has no clothes or shoes to fit you. Either way, you're saving money.

Making Up with Korea: Part Four & Five

2010-05-10T14:10:00.003+09:00

Ah so it's been a busy week/weekend, hence the lack of updates.

So without further ado....

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Korea's Make-Up Sex/Peace Offering #4 was Children's Day.
That's right. A national holiday to celebrate children. And celebrate they do.

Everyone was off work this beautiful Wednesday, and we saw no option other than to bask in the innocence and fun times of childhood.

So we found ourselves at Duryu Park, Daegu's largest park located across the street from Duryu Tower/Woobang Tower Land. The weather was absolutely beautiful and provided plenty of sunshine.

The Korean park experience was amazing. People ride around on bicycles carrying food and drinks. They will take your orders, ride back to the cafe, and bring back your food. You don't have to move a muscle.

Buy some chicken? Get a free padded picnic mat that you get to keep. Could also be used as a makeshift rain shelter or temporary homeless housing.

(Busy day at Duryu Park!)

The park staff go around giving trash bags... and everyone uses them. Everyone is pretty eco-friendly here, so almost all groups cleaned up after themselves.

(Singing songs and even taking requests from the Koreans next to us!)

After all of our beer bottles, plastic cups and pizza boxes were disposed of in an orderly fashion, we headed for the soccer field - ... ahem... I mean the "football pitch." The boys have gotten into a weekly tradition of renting a pitch each Wednesday night and playin some footie. Since it was located across the street from Duryu Park, the whole lot of us skipped over. There were enough of us to split into 4 teams = 3 footie teams and 1 cheerleader team.

(Football pitch with Duryu Tower in the background!)

I elected myself as cheerleader captain, and led the teams-in-waiting in cheers. Gavin scored a goal? "When i say Gav! You say In! Gav! In! Gav! In!" Not having team names seriously depleted the numbers of cheers in my arsenal. However, since most of these people either weren't cheerleaders or never had cheerleaders (! I know right?!) I don't think anyone was disappointed.

(Allison, Ashley and Brittney cheering on the boys!)

And as if it weren't perfect enough, suddenly fireworks exploded in the sky behind Duryu Tower. The chill of the night, the lights of the pitch, the chants of my friends, and the cracking of fireworks.

After an amazingly perfect evening of footie playing/watching, drinking beer, and cheering on our boys, a group of us headed to the subway.

Then our stomach's took over and led us to a Korean meat chain-restaurant. Various platters into the meal, we realized some of us were eating fried chicken feet. You'd think they would be crunchy, but they were so chewy and tendon-y (is that even a word?), that it took us a minute to realize what the hell we were eating.

(Adam with our fried chicken feet!)

Nonetheless, two pitchers of beer plus the rest of our non-chicken-feet meat made us ready for a night of sleep.

As we stepped outside, it was sprinkling. I've realized that I love it when it rains during the summer. The hot air, the cool rain, the distinctive smell -- something about it is very sensual to me.

Another thing I love about Korea -- NO TORNADOES!!!!! No constant tornado sirens in the spring, no tornado drills, no hiding in the basement or bathtub. A spring/summer rain means exactly that. Rain. I don't think I've even heard thunder since I've been here.

But I digress...... either way, Korea's 4th peace offering of Children's Day was exactly the break most of us needed.

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And now to move on to Korea Make-Up Sex/Peace Offering #5.

#5 would be the Seoul World DJ Festival. From 2pm Saturday to 7am Sunday morning, the festival took place a Nanji Park on the Han River in Seoul. Couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather!

Me, Adam, Brittney, Kyle, Anna, Emily and Emerson hopped on the KTX for Seoul with great excitement. After making our way to the park (FINALLY!), it didn't take us long to jump into the festivities.

Step #1: Face paint.
Step #2: Beer.
Step #3: Dance.
Step #4: Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for the next 12 hours.

And that's how it went.

And there were no drugs. At any similar American festival, the air is rank with marijuana and littered with illegal drug use. There was no such thing here (at least not that we saw). I will give it up to Koreans... they know how to have fun with just alcohol and adrenaline.
At points where I wanted to give up and crawl into a ball on the ground, someone would approach me with this contagious energy.

There were 3 different stages, dozens of beer tents, Jägermeister tents, and food bars. Various retailers were there promoting their products, but most everyone was just there for the dancing. The DJs were an eclectic mix of Korean and international artists. While most were your run-of-the-mill dance/techno/electro-rock, there were some pretty interesting (bizarre?) performances as well.

When the last DJ quit at 7am, despite our calls for encore, it was time to head home.
At this point we were mostly sober and extremely tired, which meant we were absolutely delirious. Getting back was actually quite easy -- thanks to a reluctant but helpful taxi driver. McDonalds/Lotteria breakfast in our stomachs, we got back on the KTX for Daegu.

After quick, sleepy-eyed goodbyes, we were off in taxis to our respective abodes for some much-needed sleep.

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So in conclusion, after a brief depressed phase, Korea has more than made up for its problems. There are still everyday things which are bizarre, frustrating and just plain ridiculous, but for the time being, Korea's all right =)

*** Some photos courtesy of Dyren J. Billups-Adams and Adam McCue.

Making Up with Korea: Part Three

2010-05-06T12:07:00.003+09:00

So I have now decided that this 3-part blog will turn into a 4-part blog. Korea just keeps handing out these peace offerings and making me happy.

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Sunday was 찜질방 (Jjimjilbang) day. Jjimjilbang are basically public bathhouses/saunas. And yes, you are naked. And yes, it is separated by gender.

Met up with Gina, Anika, Bethany and Grace and we headed off to Paradise, located just south of Suseong Lake. Take bus #410-1 south towards Apsan, and get off at Suseong Tourist Hotel stop next to the lake. Behind the Angels-In-Us Coffee shop, look for a big black building with the 찜질방 symbol (the camp fire!)

Expecting a front desk with a receptionist, we walk in and are surprised that there is none. Just ticket machines. All in Korean. Thankfully another young woman was behind us and helped us. She spoke pretty decent English and would serve as our jjimjilbang guide the rest of the day!

For 7,000 won ($6.26), we had full access to the showers, spas, saunas, and common room.

Step 1: Prep. Get towels and pajamas from the receptionist in the girls room. Get locker key.

Step 2: Get naked. Side-by-side we stood at our lockers and stripped. Considering our various ethnic backgrounds (Anglo, Italian, African-American and Korean), we looked like a NuvaRing commercial.

Step 3: Shower. Now this is where we were ill-prepared. You are supposed to bring your own shower stuff. Luckily, they had cheap shampoos/conditioners/soaps/scrubbers to buy at the front desk. We entered a huge showering room where dozens of naked Korean women sat or stood, scrubbing away. I mean REALLY scrubbing. So when in Korea, do as the Koreans do. Scrubbed and washed until I was red. It was also the first time in Daegu that I've had wonderful water pressure and various temps. Usually my shower at home has so-so water pressure and 2 temps -- warm or freezing. No hot.

Step 4: Soak. After the shower, it was off to the hot tub. Freakin hot, but wonderful. The water was high enough that it covered the nakedness if u were still uncomfortable. By this point, we no longer cared. After soaking in the hot tub, we jumped over the railing into the ice pool. No ice, but ice-cold water. This is where I was glad I am a girl. Can't imagine the shrinkage goin on over at the boys' side.

Step 5: Bake. With the advice from our Korean tour guide, next was the sauna. But really, it was an oven. 158ºF (70º C). We couldn't tell if we were still wet from the pool or if it was sweat. It hurt to breathe. I kept a towel over my head the whole time just to try and maintain some sort of enjoyment. Would have been able to stand it a little longer had it been possible to get a tan. I don't like being hot if I'm not gonna get a tan. So needless to say, I made a quick escape after 5 minutes.

Step 6: Cool. After the baking, the ice room was next. Literally, icicles on the walls, and cool cool air that was much welcomed after the previous barbecue.

Step 7: Enjoy. The rest of the jjimjilbang includes a large common room (both genders, so be sure to wear your pajamas!), other various saunas, TVs and masseuses. I got a 30-minute full body massage for only 25,000 won ($22). Full asian-style massage, where the tiny little asian lady climbed on top of me, walking up and down my legs and butt; kneading my muscles with her knees; spanking and pounding my butt and back. Also in the jjimjilbang was a cafe area where you could grab some traditional Korean food and relax.

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So while it is usually pretty awkward for foreigners, it is a large part of Korean culture. It is very natural to see naked women scrubbing each other or washing each others hair. Nudity has no sexual connection here in a jjimjilbang -- it is men and women in their most natural form just getting clean.
I had had previous experience with this type of thing in a Turkish hammam in Istanbul, but I was surprised at the number of patrons at the jjimjilbang. The shower room was packed, dozens of Korean girls tangled on the floor of the TV room, some even asleep.

It was such a nice relaxing day with the girls that we have vowed to do it at least every month! And with such a cheap price, there's no reason why we can't do it.

After about 4 hours, we decided to call it an evening! Who knew relaxing could be so exhausting!!!!

Making Up with Korea: Part Two

2010-05-03T21:11:00.002+09:00

This is part 2 of a 3-part blog detailing my make-up sex with Korea (we had a fight last week).

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So as previously blogged, I had an unfortunate incident with my corneas, leading me to an ER visit and subsequent ophthalmologist visits. I really like my ophthalmologist -- he is a very nice 아저씨 (ajeossi, "middle aged man"), who speaks fluent English.

On my second check-up at Plaza Eye Clinic, I was greeted by the uber-super friendly nursing staff. I'm probably their only current foreigner client, so I am treated with the utmost respect and honor. From the time I walk in, they greet me with excitement and smiles, calling me "Amanda-Seme" (the shortened honorific for Amanda-Seong Sang Nim a.k.a. Amanda Teacher).

I am automatically brought to the front of the waiting line, where I am seen by the doctor before all the other Koreans.

I am also handed a scroll tied with beautiful ribbon from one of the enthusiastic nurses.

Privately as I wait, I untie the scroll.

"I have seen something else under the sun,
The race is not to the swift,
or the battle to the strong,
Nor does food come to the wise,
or wealth to the brilliant,
or favor to the learned,
but time and chance happen to them all."
Ecclesiastes 9:11

Hi ~~ Amanda!!!!
I had nice to met you last Tuesday in Plaza Eye Center. My name is Ji-Young Kim. I'm nurse! You are probably surprised to receive this letter from a complete stranger. and I'm sorry ^^;;
I'm just... want to make a friendship with you! Would you like make friendship with me? Waiting for your reply or text msesage. Mobile phone number 010-****-6742.
What a beautiful first day MAY! Have a nice weekend and take care of your eyes!
bye bye :)
from hope your friend,
Ji-Young

I could not help but smile at her enthusiasm and well.... her balls. Many of us have come across this in Korea -- Koreans who are soooo forthcoming and exited to be our friends. Making friends with foreigners is extremely desirable, especially for those that want to practice their English. After only brief encounters, perfect strangers will insist that we are "best friends."

While it is flattering, it is also a little awkward/uncomfortable. I do not know the first thing about this girl, but for the sake of being nice, I give her my phone number. As we walk out of the eye clinic, she innocently enough asks me when I have time to hang out. I honestly didn't have time that weekend, but I told her I was possibly free next weekend.
Then she dropped the bomb. "Do you want to go to church-ee?"
..........

Of course in America, asking such a question flat-out would be imposing, even maybe offensive. There is no such stigma here.

Koreans seem to be SUPER-excited about religion, likes it's the trendy thing to do. In all honesty, I'm not quite sure about how their freedom to practice religion was affected by the Japanese. BUT, man they LOOOVE church. They seem to treat church as the hottest and latest social trend, and you don't want to run the risk of offending them.
Many a fellow colleague has been dragged to church by their co-teachers and administration. You just cannot say no.

As I mentioned in my last post, Koreans are pretty much split down the middle between Christianity and Buddhism. The most popular denomination of Christianity is Catholic.

"What kind of church? Catholic?" I ask her tentatively. "No, not Ka-tow-leek, Kuh-ree-shu-tun."

I tell her that I'm unsure of my schedule but agree to attend if I am available. I have no desire to attend church for religious or worship reasons -- I am going to take this as just another cultural experience. Of course the service is completely in Korean, so I'm not quite sure what worship experience I would take away from it anyway. But I figure it's something I might as well suck up and do in the name of cultural experience.

Minus the whole church-ee imposition, the Korean innocence of building friendships with complete strangers is an endearing quality. She was almost as nervous as a guy asking a girl out on a date. On this bright, sunny, friendship-making day I couldn't help but notice the bounce in my step as I walked home.

Making Up with Korea: Part One

2010-05-02T19:14:00.003+09:00

OK so my last post was depressing. I think there were a couple days there where I was depressed. It's a natural, normal thing to go thru as an expat living in a new country. The "honeymoon phase" lasted a little shorter than expected, but I refuse to be a miserable person here.

Since I really haven't written about my daily life in a while, I will be writing a blog in 3 parts.

I'm calling it "Making Up With Korea" because Korea has offered various types of "make-up sex" which has led me to better spirits.

Korea surprises me. In both good and bad ways. Every single day there is a new adventure, a new cultural nuance, a new way to see things. It's fascinating -- and I think it will be what keeps me from being miserable.... I always gotta be on my toes.

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Friday was an all-day teacher in-service for all the March 2010 EPIKers and our Korean co-teachers. A few seminars and lectures, a pretty great lunch, and a Q&A session with our coordinator. This was really the first we have all been back together since orientation. It was great seeing everyone again. I know for a fact that we are lucky we got such a great group of people. March 2010 EPIK-Daegu is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

The next 9 hours saw almost non-stop drinking and celebration. It was manic. It was messy. It was memorable. I had so much fun.

Saturday night was also fun. Since Daegu Weather has decided to take its antidepressants, we were blessed with its good graces all weekend. Sunshine, 70-80º, hell today it was almost HOT. So of course downtown Daegu was packed wall-to-wall.

Saturday evening started with a dinner-adventure to Taco-holic, a Mexican restaurant. Now, I totally went into this restaurant knowing that it was going to suck. There is something about Mexican food that makes it impossible to replicate overseas. Many have tried, and most have failed.

So with those expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Mexican food there. Of course it was simple -- tacos, burritos, chimichangas, enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos and taco pizza. Instead of chips and salsa, they gave us fried wonton chips with a sweet-n-sour duck sauce. It was good, just not chips and salsa. The margaritas were also something to be noted. It was a damn decent margarita. And all reasonably priced.
Plate-sized chicken quesadillas + margarita = 13,000 won (roughly $12). Not too shabby.

Most notable to me, however, was the brilliancy of its loyalty program.

Loyalty programs are very common here in Daegu, most of us already have a number of various punch/reward cards, from bars to coffee shops to shoe stores.

Taco-holic has no such thing. They have a dart board. If you hit a space, you get something free the next time you come in.
Point. Aim. Shoot. Free beer.
Hell yes I am going back to Taco-holic. Why wouldn't you go back if you were getting something free?
While you may think they are losing a lot of money, they aren't. They are getting serious repeat business. It's well worth the cost of a beer or enchilada. Just brilliant.

So the search for decent Mexican food was successful. And I would go back even without the free beer.

Confession....

2010-04-28T15:02:00.005+09:00

My dearest apologies for suckin at blogging the past couple weeks.

The past couple weeks have definitely been busier than normal. In between class projects & presentations, being sick, and having my corneas tore, I haven't had much time or energy to blog about anything interesting.

I was reading fellow EPIKer Christine's Blog, most notably THIS article and THIS one , I had to sit back and put everything into perspective.

When you read her blog, it might sound like:
a) living in Korea is miserable
b) Korea hates foreigners
c) everything is difficult.

While the first two are a little exaggerated, the third one is becoming obviously clear.

Call me a chronic optimist, but I was pretty happy, still excited about living in Korea. I like to think I'm the type of person who can generally be happy in any situation -- which is why I usually leave decision-making up to others. But anyway, while my "honeymoon period" is definitely over, the past 2 months have been fun.

And then I read her blog. And it was absolutely clear that I've been living in denial. I think my "happy-go-lucky-i-love-korea" attitude was a survival mechanism. Or maybe a pride issue.

None of us want to admit that coming to Korea was a mistake. Cause it was not. It is by far and large the best decision I've ever made in my life. But for me, its hard to admit that life here is far more difficult than I planned.

I've traveled a lot. And a lot of it by myself. I've lived in various locations all over the world, albeit all in Western and Central Europe. So it is humbling for me to admit that the culture shock here has been immense.

Of course the culture shock is nothing compared to those experienced by my friends who have moved to Indonesia (Corydon) or (geezus Nathan) Oman to teach English. There are a million other places that could have worse culture shock. Hell, moving back to America will probably be a HUGE culture shock for me.

But for the time being, Korea is proving to be a little more humbling than I expected.

Humbling, and lonely. I am never alone, except for in the evenings at my apartment. I always have people to hang with on the weekends. I have many Korean friends at work, people I consider dear friends. I am never alone. But I am lonely.

I offer the fact that this is the first time I have ever lived solely alone. While I do enjoy it immensely, it often makes me feel isolated. I have no roomies or neighbors that I can just knock on the door and say "hey let's order a pizza." I kid you not, the pizza man laughed at me the other week when he delivered the large pizza to an apartment of one. Laughed. I then stuffed my face with pizza and cried.
OK I didn't cry. But I did stuff my face with pizza. In fact, I think there's still some in the fridge. Because who can eat a whole pizza by themselves? Not me.

I tried to curb my loneliness by purchasing a 5-foot body pillow at CostCo. It has definitely helped me sleep better, but dammit, a pillow does not hug back.

Then, as Christine wrote about so nicely in her blog, there is the need to just have a normal conversation. Don't get me wrong -- my coteachers have amazing English. Young-Eun and Hye-Jin are practically fluent. But I still have to talk at a slower pace. I still have to use simplified language. I still have to over-enunciate things that I would normally just mumble to my Anglophone friends. Monday through Friday, this is the only conversation I have. By the time Wednesday or Thursday rolls around, I am dying to just mumble of bunch of American curse words and colloquialisms.

Ahhh, then the weekend comes. It is my chance to get together with other EPIKers and speak. Most of the time we talk about school, students, teaching, Korea, life in general. We talk. I've never had so many intelligent conversations in my life. Finally, a bunch of people who are like me and are all having the same troubles as me.

So yes, while it may seem like most of my blog is about the weekend adventures or drinking, that's because it is the highlight of my week. While you may be dying to hear stories about my students or teachers, to be quite frank, I don't want to talk about it because you cannot possibly understand.
To be an English teacher in Korea is unlike any teaching job in the world. Much like American Village, it is an indescribable world, which can only sound completely ludicrous and asinine to outsiders. But I love it.

I don't want anyone reading this blog to think that I don't love it here. I love my life here. I love the opportunities it has afforded me, and I love the community (both Korean and expat) that I have become a member of.

But it is exhausting. And it is not easy. Not for one second.

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- Stoplights are optional in Korea. Of course, it is in your best interests to stop and wait due to the risk of oncoming traffic. However it seems scooters, motorcycles and taxis take the stoplights as mere 'suggestions.'

- Sidewalks are also roads and parking lots. It is dangerous to walk down the sidewalk with iPod in ear because you cannot hear traffic approaching behind you on the sidewalk.

- I am still amazed by the inconvenience of NO LEFT TURNS. Every few blocks you might find a left turn somewhere. But most part, U-Turn, U-Turn, U-Turn.

- Every day I get free stuff on my desk -- juices, yogurts, cookies, etc. Most of the time they are from other coworkers or parents that have sent goodies to all the teachers. However, I am noticing that more and more, little old ladies or men are coming to the office to promote/sell their products. Two ladies come with sample-sized juices at least once a week. A man came yesterday selling packages of socks. I bought this amazing stamp from a man selling.... welll.... stamps. What will be next?

- The students do not know "jeopardy" but they absolutely love the game.

- My May calendar looks schizophrenic, with various days off for mid-terms, Children's Day (National holiday), Athletics Day, and Buddha's Birthday. In a country that is pretty much split 50/50 between Christianity and Buddhism, they equally acknowledge both religions main holidays (Jesus' bday and Buddha's bday). Of course Jesus' bday is better cause we get a long winter break, but I'll take a 3-day weekend in the name of Buddha.

That's all for now.

yet another Korean medical experience...

2010-04-25T16:15:00.004+09:00

So no, I am no longer sick.

Well, Saturday I was pretty hungover from Friday night. Friday night went to see Make The Girl Dance, 2 amazing French DJs. Had the time of my life -- but paid for it deeply on Saturday.

After falling asleep in my contacts Saturday night, I awoke in the wee hours of the morning. After realizing my contacts were still in, I took them out.

What occurred was nothing short of the worst pain ever felt by anyone.

I'm sure having a baby is horrible pain, but is probably the worst pain your eye can ever experience.

I tore part of my cornea off. Literally, peeled away part of my cornea. This was painful. However, I managed to get back to sleep thinking it would be better in the morning. It was not.

It had gotten worse, and the bright happy sunshine turned into the stabbing needles of death and misery.

I sat for 2 hours in my apartment just sobbing -- #1 because of your eye's initial reaction to tear up - to clean away debris and such. #2 because it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life.

After a sobbing phone call to Hye-Jin, it was off to the ER. After waiting a couple hours at the top-ranked hospital in Daegu, I got to see the opthamologist. Well worth the wait since the first thing he did was give me anesthesia eye drops. Within seconds, the pain was gone. Hallelujah! He then proceeded to poke my eyes and shine horribly bright lights into them for 15 minutes. He spoke a little English, so I caught his diagnosis... "Corneal abrasions." If I would have let this go another day or so, he said they would have turned into cornea ulcers. Which sounds terrifying.
After remarking at just how bad my vision was to begin with, he loaded me up on pills, pain killers and various eye drops. I must see an eye doctor for the next 2 days. Then I might be able to wear my contacts again.

ER trip + ophthalmology specialist who actually really cared + tons of medications = just under $60.

Well worth it, as now I have blurry vision, but at least I'm not crying.

My next Korean project? To look into LASIK. I have wearing contacts for 13 years and I am sick of it. Plus, it is cheaper here in Korea and they have a higher standard of care.

Today made me realize that Korean healthcare is lightyears ahead of American healthcare -- and with a fraction of the cost.

Surviving and Thriving in the world o' K-Pop

2010-04-21T20:24:00.005+09:00

I swore it wouldn't happen to me. Really, I did. I even thought about naming my blog after my apathy towards it.

But here I am, just over 2 months in, and I have fallen prey to the greatest predator of all.

K-Pop.

It just sounds so bright and cheery as it pops off your lips, I don't know how you can not like it.

Now before I ruin any and all credibility I once had, hear me out.

It's almost like that really cute guy in high school that everyone likes, so you like him too. And yes, he's very attractive, and you wouldn't mind rubbing your hands all over his washboard abs, but you wouldn't necessarily want to hold a conversation with him. He's nice and all, but more for just staring at. That is K-Pop to me. Pretty people with pretty choreography and pretty damn catchy tunes.
I told myself I would avoid it at all costs. But that's impossible here in Korea. Every other store (which is usually a cell phone store) blasts K-Pop round the clock. The cosmetic places play it. The supermarkets play it. The bars play it. I'm sure Buddha himself would have that damn "Oh!" song stuck in his head too.

I've also found it's a great way to connect with my students. Students bored? Bring Girls Generation or Big Bang or Wonder Girls into the conversation. Hell, just say any of those words or a combination thereof. Ears will perk, eyes will shift, and smiles will form. I guess its probably cause I'm a foreigner they are surprised I even know the names. Let alone that I know some of the songs and can do some of the dance moves... but that's for another class kids....
So besides it being saturated in everyday Korean life, it's also damn catchy. You cannot help but to sing along. Or dance. They are all so poppy and fun and dancy. Is dancy/dancey a word? Spellcheck is telling me it's not, but I don't believe them.

Another way to explain my affinity for K-Pop..... K-Pop is the Chick Flick of the music industry. There is absolutely no substance. The same formulaic plot, the same formulaic script, the same characters, yadda yadda. However, sometimes you want that. Sometimes it's been a hard day and your brain can't wrap around some psychological thriller or Tarantino film. Sometimes it's nice to sit back and just be entertained.
And entertain they do. Now while I would not argue for their singing talent, some of these people are born entertainers. Check out this video, and tell me this kid's dancing does not remind you of another Michael Jackson -- hip thrusts and everything.

So does he even sing in this "performance?" I don't know. I can't tell. But I don't care. Cause I'm entertained.

And that is why I can finally admit to myself and others, that I like K-Pop.

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And now for the viewing portion -- pictures of the more famous K-Pop groups.

Girls Generation (SNSD)

2PM
2AM (Yes there is a 2PM and 2AM lol)

Big Bang
Wonder Girls

shot in the butt and you're to blame.....

2010-04-20T20:09:00.002+09:00

Oh Dr. Kwon. How you trick me into thinking you actually care....

I walk into his office and he says, in perfect English...

"So, what brings you here today?"

Pleasantly surprised, I tell him. I use basic English and even hand gestures to tell him I have a fever, sore throat, my body hurts everywhere.

Blank, he looks at my co-teacher. All she has to say is one word -- "Mom-zai" (or whatever).

Much nodding. Then a 2-second glance down my throat. "Ahhh," he says with wise understanding. He then ushers me into a side room.

I never see him again.

The next scene is straight out of a movie... cute little nurse flicks her syringe and gestures for me to drop trow. (Trou? Trow? i don't even know how to spell it.) After giving my @$$ a good couple spanks, the syringe goes right into my bum. Before I even know it's entered, she's done. I am then ushered out the exit where I pay 4,000 won (roughly $3).

However long it took you to read this blog, is about how long the whole visit lasted.

What was in the shot? you might ask. I have no idea.
Young-Eun, what's in the shot they gave me? I asked my ever-faithful co-teacher.
For 30 years, a doctor's visit has always ended with a shot in the rump, but Young-Eun still has no idea what's in it.

My first thought? A placebo effect. Surely. I mean, this is Korea. I have found the Koreans guilty of brainwa-- ahem... teaching certain things...... such as fan death, and not one Korean can validate any truth to it. *** See note at bottom

My thoughts of placebos were drained when I visited the pharmacist and he gave me 5 different pills to take for the next 3 days. What do these pills do? I don't know. All I know is that one of them is for my throat and will give me cotton-mouth.

So my conclusions.... the shot in the butt must just be a vitamin-shot or immune-boosting shot. I really can't imagine what else it would be.

Second conclusions -- 24 hours later and I feel amazing. Not 100% as my sore throat doesn't care what medicine I throw at it, but definitely better.

*** Fan death.... I have found to be a strange, almost touchy subject. When viewed by foreigners, it is always seen as ludicrous and completely asinine. However, it is not a superstition. It is a medical, factual belief in Korea. You think it would make them question the belief since it is only believed in Korea, but.... it doesn't. I have tried to find a level-headed Korean that would at least admit that the scientific proof is lacking, but no dice. I shall therefore stifle my giggles for the next 10 months or so.

The Darkness Overcomes

2010-04-19T12:19:00.003+09:00

Sorry for the lack of updates..... Saturday was a busy day and Sunday....

well Sunday, I have succumbed to the darkness. The Koreans call it "Man-sai," or something to that nature. I call it the "flu."

Of course Koreans think the flu is directly caused from too much work and stress overload. I think I just need to wash my hands more.

Saturday night, I was absolutely fine. Out until 3am, had a couple drinks (nothing more than a couple beers), great conversation, and headed home.
Woke up 11am on Sunday and had a sore throat. "ohhh its just from being in smokey bars," I told myself.
I always tell myself that. oh its just a scratchy throat. Oh it will go away.
As the hours wore on, so did my pain and delirium.
Every muscle and bone and joint in my body ached.
I felt like someone was trying to snap me in half at my waist.
My neck felt like it was holding up a 30-lb weight, also known as my head.

I cried. I cried like a baby. For many reasons....

#1: I was out of water. Now of course I could have boiled water. Or gone down the street to buy some. But when you feel like you're dying, those are the last 2 things you want to do.
#2: I did not pack ibuprofen. I packed NyQuil, DayQuil, diarrhea medicine, cold medicine, but not a single ibuprofen. Oh how my body ached for some ibuprofen.
#3: I also had no easy food to eat. All food I had included some sort of preparation or energy of some type.
#4: I wanted my mommy. I think it's a universal need when you are sick. I think at some point amongst my sobs, I actually said out loud, "I want my mommy!" I realize that I am not a 4-year old anymore, but whatever. Don't judge me.

After deciding I was not in the mood to leave my apartment, boil water, or prepare food, I settled for a chocolate bar, grape juice, and peanut butter. Yes peanut butter. With a spoon.

I also found the Portuguese medicine they gave me in Portugal for the swine flu. This horse pill is a flu @$$-kicker. Within an hour of taking this "Anti-grippe" medicine, my body aches were considerably lessened and I was actually able to fall asleep.

Once the Portuguese horse pills wore off though....... 5am found me curled in bed crying again. Too late to take more NyQuil because I have to wake up in 2 hours. However, too early to take DayQuil because I could potentially get more sleep.

Off to hospital this afternoon to try out my spanking new Korean health insurance. I sure hope I can afford the $3 they charge for office visits....... some things are just better in Korea =)

camera, culture, and 모기

2010-04-15T13:41:00.005+09:00

I did it! I finally purchased a camera. Even went to a guy who ships internationally...... except to Republic of Korea... "for security reasons" hahaha. So go ahead, ship it to my parents! THEY aren't afraid to send stuff to Korea! Ka-POW!

I got a Canon PowerShot SX210, with 14.1 megapixels, and a 14x zoom, low-light capabilities and a million other features. You can see a picture HERE . Of course, knowing me, I got it in black! Although it was tempting to get the purple.....

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There is this hilarious expat living in Korea that does these hilarious cartoons! His website is called ROKetship (R.O.K. standing for Republic of Korea). I laugh out loud every time I read his cartoons! And they are so freakily accurate! Similar to the crowd-pleasing Korea, F&*! Yeah video , it pretty much sums up many of the cultural nuances we experience every day here in Korea. My favorites?

To Korean children, being first is everything. You give them a worksheet and give them 10 minutes to do it. Not a race. But 3 minutes in, one kid is going to be done and well proudly yell, "TEACH-UH PINISHEE!" (with a 'p' cause they cannot pronounce 'f'. and with an '-ee' because 'sh' does not exist in korean without a vowel to define it, hence the '-ee' sound.)
I always smile at this child and say, "okay, now you can wait," but really I want to tell them, "this is not a race, I don't care how fast you finish. now shutup."

For us teachers, remembering students' names is damn near impossible. Why? There are only about 100 different family names that Koreans can have. (Which is actually the first name you speak -- like Purnell Amanda.) And as the above cartoon illustrates, all the names sound the same. Only 3 syllables. Ever. Every name. Kim Su-Jung. Kim Su-Young. Kim Sun-Jung. Kim Hyun-Jung. etc etc etc etc etc

So even though I can read the alphabet pretty well, I have to admit it does still seem like a foreign alien code. Lines and dashes and boxes and such -- each symbol is a letter and each group of letters is a syllable. Anyone can learn to read Hangeul pretty quickly, it's then figuring out what the hell it means.This illustrates the point I was making in a previous post about the lunatic taxi drivers. I've never seen someone multi-task so borderline successfully.Haha most of us experience this every day. A truck with come thru the neighborhood with sirens and squawking megaphones... you start to think North Korea is taking over. But it's not.... it's just a sale on beef or strawberries or toilet paper or something.

I suggest you head over to ROKetship and check out his other cartoons and merchandise. Too. Damn. Funny.

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Speaking of funny, did you know the most Korean men put platforms or cushions inside their shoes to make them taller? Being tall is a desired trait in Korea. Unfortunately, Koreans lack the vertical growth skills Americans seem to have. So most boys, hell even men, will put these big thick soles in their shoes to give them an extra 1/2- or 1-inch or so.

Do not think this shoe-stuffing trend is only for the men.. ohhh no. Women here were high-heels. All the time. To work, to dinner, to the supermarket.... Girls wear hoodies and sweatpants with high heels. When I asked Young-Eun why this was, she again told me how height is such a valued trait. Everyone wants to be taller, guy or girl.

Speaking of desirable traits, curly hair is also towards the top of the list. As you can imagine, most Koreans have black, stick-straight hair. It's a completely homogeneous culture and I still have a hard time telling my students apart. Mainly because they all have the same hair. Korean schoolgirls are not allowed to color their hair, wear makeup, and all pretty much have the same cut (above-the-shoulder bob). Perms are growing in popularity for adult women here, so any curly hair you DO see on a Korean is from a perm.
Tuesday, feeling particularly lazy, I went to school with my hair curly for the first time. It was as if I was a mystical creature. Everyone thought I had gotten a perm. I had to explain over and over again that my curls are natural and I have just been straightening it. It seemed hard for them to wrap their minds around. Why would I want straight hair?!!
I explained to Young-Eun that even in America, people with straight hair always want curly hair. And vice-versa. Therefore, everyone in Korea wants curly hair cause they all have straight hair.

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I was also privy to the first mosquito, 모기, sighting in Daegu 2010. No seriously. Even the doctors and pharmacists thought I was lying. But I saw the damn thing, heard it buzzing in my apartment, and now I am feeling the wrath of her bites. Yes that's right. Only female mosquitoes bite humans/animals for blood. And it's not for feasting... the blood helps supply and grow her babies. So I almost feel empathy for the poor female mommy mosquito, until I remember that she sucked blood out 12 different places on my body in one night.... the majority of these places on my face.

So while I look like an acne-riddled 14-year old, I am shelling over big bucks (ok like $2) for anti-itch cream (in a handy dandy roll-on) and another arm-and-a-leg (okay $3) for Benadryl.

I curse thee 모기.... you shall encounter my wrath sooner or later...

Meet the Family

2010-04-10T19:06:00.004+09:00

Still no camera, but finally got some pics of my favorite ladies!

(Big Sister Young-Eun and Mommy Hye-Jin)
(me and Young-Eun -- my lifeline in Korea. I could not survive without her!)

(not even one of my co-teachers, but she has taken me in!)

(from the bottom of Woobang Tower, overlooking Daegu)

(It's cherry blossom season -- these trees are everywhere! It makes Daegu so beautiful!)
(overlooking Woobang Tower Land and the cherry blossoms!)

On Friday, school paid for me and other teachers to go to Wooband Land for the day with the 1st and 3rd graders (7th and 9th graders). 15 other schools were also there on a field trip, so the park was crowded to say the least. However, free ticket, free meal, and a day off school so we can't complain!

My 2nd graders (8th graders) were on a field trip to Seoul Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so I spent most of the days just hangin out in the office, running errands, and uhhh sleeping. That's right, in the "resting room" by school has conveniently made.

Monday is also a school holiday (the Founding Day of our school), so I have a very long weekend.

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Last night, finally found the place of my dreams here in Daegu. It's a little-known hookah bar called Field of Flowers in downtown Daegu. Went for some sub-par Indian food for Gina's birthday, and decided to finally check out this hookah bar I had stumbled across online. When I mean stumbled, I mean stumbled. I was looking for something else, found this bar on ONE website and that's it. Can't find anything more about it. Hell, we didn't even know if it still existed but away we went.

What we found was nothing short of a whole other world in Daegu. Hell, even in America I would be amazed at this place. Completely pitch black except for extremely low lighting and bazillions of candles. The scent of incense was a nice change from the sewer stench that we've grown accustomed to in downtown. Pillows and blankets everywhere. Little curtained alcoves for intimate dates. Wine bottles everywhere. And hookahs everywhere. I have found my heaven. The place is so warm and inviting and comfortable. After taking off our shoes, we were shown to a private table hidden behind curtains. Bottle service and different flavored hookahs in a plush, but not pretentious, environment. For about 20 people, numerous drinks, 4 bottles of Shiraz and 5 hookahs later, our bill was 294,000 won. Not too shabby for a few hours of complete bliss, intelligent conversation, great wine, and tasty hookah.

(downstairs -- their wine collection)

(me and Gina the birthday girl)
(Gina trying the watermelon hookah)

(Soooooo many hookahs, for only 10,000 won a piece!)

I guess that's all for now. Heading to Gyeongju tomorrow with the crew to really see the cherry blossoms and all the incredible sights Gyeongju has to offer!

Things I Learned About My School...

2010-04-08T09:03:00.003+09:00

Things I Learned About My School This Week:

In the music room, they have an entire large cabinet full of acoustic guitars that are never played. It took me 20 minutes to tune just one because it was soooooo off. But at least I can get in some guitar practice during my free periods.

Each year (semester?) the school gets to chose 2 days of vacation. They just have 2 free days they can play with, and the principal can decide when they want to use them.

The vice-principal went with the 2nd graders to Seoul. You would not believe how many teachers use this as an excuse to be late to work... cause they won't get caught!

On the 2nd floor, we have a "resting room." It's a room with comfy beds just for the teachers to "take a rest" during the day.

Guess where I'm heading right now...?

Stares, white knuckles, and Meet The Locals....

2010-04-06T08:56:00.007+09:00

So the weekend was a rather uneventful one.

Friday night, I had a great time with my co-workers drinking for free! It was nice to really get to be friends with Koreans. After a while, I kinda forgot that I didn't look like them.

It's interesting because I still get stared at a lot. Sometimes though, I forget that I don't look like everyone else. I forget that I am a small minority. And I guess I'm getting used to the stares.

The best stares I get are from the children.... especially those around the age of 4 or 5 because they have no problem pointing and staring and yelling "Waygook!" ("foreigner!") It's so cute having young children staring at me with wonderment on the subway or in the street. Did I mention that Korean children are the cutest children in the world!?!?!? They are like little grown people! Sometimes I wish I was a kindy teacher!!!!

Speaking of children, here is another picture of kids cleaning my office. I am still so amazed and even humbled by the idea that kids clean the school.

I've also taken a liking (temporary?) to cleaning. My apartment is spic-and-span. The past few days I've gone completely OCD with arranging things and cleaning. It's refreshing. Except for last nite, when I lit my candle in the evening as I always do... and then forgot about it. Good thing it was in a safe place and in a canister, so it just burnt itself out.

This same night I also left my heat on high, and woke up to an 80º apartment. Can't wait for that electric bill.....

-------------------------------------

I have been thinking about going to get my tan on... then realized it is impossible in Korea. Stores here sell skin-bleaching products, everyone is plastered in sunscreen/hats/visors, and there is not a tanning salon in sight. The Koreans value light skin -- goes back to the ancient days, where if you were tan, it was because you were poor and had to work outside. Guess I'll just fit right in with my lily-white ass.

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I finally took the subway to Home Plus -- one of Korea's answers to a Super Walmart. 3 different floors, offering different things. First trip was mainly to the homewares floor to buy a floor mat and new comforter for guests. Second trip was only to the first floor -- or as I like to call it, "The Supermarket of Death."

Supermarket of Death is its name because Korean people do NOT know how to maneuver in large groups in small places. People wander aimlessly with no care in the world as to who needs to get by them, who they are in the way of, and will continue to walk in the same path even if they see you are walking towards them.

.. And don't get me started on the shopping carts. While the shopping carts are smaller than normal American shopping carts, it doesn't matter. With the "Korean maneuvering handicap," they might as well be Humvees.

I feel this directly correlates to the notion that Koreans cannot drive. OK I take that back. Taxi drivers and bus drivers can drive..... like freaking lunatics! I have been absolutely knuckle-white in fear while in taxis. Cutting people off is standard maneuvering, and honking your horn replaces defensive driving. If one had enough drinks in them, you could surely get sick just from the swerving of taxis/buses.
But really, I have had many opportunities to be in cars with Korean drivers. In the first month since I've been here, we have almost hit 2 pedestrians on 2 separate occasions. And by almost, I mean literally the pedestrians put their hands on the car as if that was going to stop it. Terrifying I tell you. I'll stick to the subway as much as possible.

-----------------------------------

Now for some photos.... take a tour of my local area....

The view down my street (Chorok 1-Gil). My apt complex on the right side.

The local prosthetic shop, of course.

The local dog (or mong-mongie, as they say in Korean). This doggie is pretty squat, but pretty lovable. Just hangs out outside his owner's shop.

The local PVC shop. Makes me think of you, Dad!

The local junkyard (recycling area?). At least they spruced it up recently by adding these flowery wall panels on the outside to disguise it being a junkyard.

The local chair-chained-to-a-pole. Cause why not?

So this week I only have classes on Monday and Tuesday. Wed-Fri, I have no classes cause 8th graders are on a field trip to Seoul. However Friday I get to accompany the 7th and 9th graders to the amusement park here in Daegu, all expenses paid. So I am excited. Even better news? Monday is a School Founding Day, so we have no school! Easy week so you should probably expect a lot of blogging.

hello strangers!!!!!!!!

2010-04-02T13:31:00.006+09:00

wow.... almost 300 visitors in 3 days! I am honored that so many people have stopped by my blog! I'm sure a lot of you are friends and family.... but to those strangers out there, thank you for reading!!!

Tonight will be the true tests of my ability..... going out drinking with some of my fellow teachers (all Korean). As I've said before, Koreans know how to drink! (and noraebang....) So it will be interesting to see if I can keep up!

I am going with the teachers that I did the 2pm "Heartbeat" dance with.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR PERFORMANCE VIDEO
The school had given us money for rehearsal snacks/food/drinks, and we have some left over. What better way to spend it than a night o' food and soju?

And some pictures...
Here are the eraser-chalk-dust-vacuums I mentioned in my previous post....

Anika at Costco getting some onions.... from a machine. Crank it and it pours out diced onions for free.

Couple more pics from Apsan Mountain....

I love how Koreans love instant coffee. I have yet to see any sort of coffee brewer. Just little packages of instant coffee already with sugar and cream in them. Korean crack.

Between all the tea and coffee, it's no surprise that Koreans work so much. They are freakin wired 24/7....

thats all for now -- should be an different weekend with Anika out of town (she's in Seoul for the weekend) but I'm sure I'll survive :)

Oh how I love thee...

2010-04-01T08:24:00.004+09:00

Whew! My school sure is taking advantage of the fact that they have a Native English Teacher. Not that I blame them.... in fact I am proud that they think I am so valuable.

But on the other hand, I have a life outside of school --- a fact they don't seem to realize. I was told yesterday that instead of my contracted 22 teaching hours, I will be teaching 26. So Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, I have an extra 2-hour after-school conversation class. On Wednesdays, I teach the teachers. On 1st and 3rd Fridays, I have English Newspaper Club, and on the 2nd and 4th Fridays I have an advanced language development class. This is in addition to my 18 other classes.

Yesterday I was a little overwhelmed. Already in a bad mood when I woke up, the day just progressively got worse and worse. Now I'm feeling better -- I realized that for the conversation classes (which only last 2 weeks) I can actually do every lesson plan I did at American Village. So that's a relief. The advanced language class -- I'm pretty excited about actually, I think I'm going to focus on the 4 main skills -- reading, writing, speaking and listening. So each class will focus on one of these skills. So I might throw in some lesson plans I used during my CELTA. *sigh of relief* not as bad as I thought....

Went to CostCo the other night.... opened up a CostCo membership. This was an interesting process as me and Anika decided to be "spouses" to get one card. We also had to write our names in Korean.... I know how to write my first name, but the last name proved a little more difficult. So my name in Korean (Amanda Purnell) is......

아만다 펄녈

Crazy right? Looks like some sort of alien code. The Korean alphabet is actually extremely logical and easy. Each symbol represents a sound, and symbols grouped together represent a syllable. soooo....
ㅏ = uh
만 = muhn
다 = duh

So yes in Korea, everyone calls me Uh-muhn-duh-teach-uh. (Amanda-Teacher). "Teacher" is added to the end of my name as a sign of respect. At school, I call Young-Eun, "Young-Eun-Teacher" or "영은 - 선생님" (Young-eun seon-sang-nim - 'teacher' in Korean).
The Korean language is really fascinating to me, and I'm surprised at how quickly I am picking it up.
My favorite phrase?
맛이 있어요 (ma-shi-suh-yo) = "Delicious"
OR

잡수세요 (jop-su-say-yo) = "enjoy your meal" (to elders)

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A few other things I have noticed about Korea/Koreans.....

Kids I see every day will stop me in the hallway and say, "hello teach-uh, nice to meet you." They don't realize that "nice to meet you" is only the first time you meet someone. Guess I gotta teach that to them.

Koreans are extremely hard workers. Korea just passed a law stating that civil servant employees are REQUIRED to take 16 vacation days per year. REQUIRED BY LAW. Because otherwise, they would never take vacations.

Korea is extremely efficient.... oh let me count the ways....

- motion-censored esclators that still amaze me in their simplicity.

This Escalator is Temporarily Stairs from alisdair on Vimeo.

- all cell phones in Korea, no matter who makes them, have the same cell phone charger. I just keep thinking about my drawer of old cell phone chargers back home and marvel at just how GENUIS the idea is....

- nothing new to overseas, but in Korea you do not get charged for incoming calls or texts. Why would you pay for someone to ring your doorbell? You didn't ask for it, why should you have to pay for it?

- When I went to Seoul, I came back on a Sunday night. The entire sidewalk of an entire city block was tore up. But instead of closing the sidewalk, they laid out blankets for people to walk on. But Tuesday morning, the sidewalk was completely finished. Not concrete, but individually placed cobblestones. What would take the USA a month took Korea not even 48 hours.

- Found this out on Tuesday....... for the metros and buses, you have a card that you put money on and then you beep it at the turnstiles and it debits your card. Rode in a taxi the other day that had the same thing. So instead of paying cash or credit, you could just swipe your metro card and it would be deducted!

Daegu Transit Cards

- When you put a cigarette out in an ashtray, it takes a couple seconds/minutes for you to squish it all the way out. Otherwise it will keep burning and smoke will billow for who knows how long. Korea's brilliant idea? Put wet napkins in the bottom of ashtrays!!!!! Immediately extinguishes cigarettes and keeps cherries from continuing to burn. Added bonus? Easy cleaning! Just take out the napkin!

- Sick and tired of waiting for a server to come over and get you a new drink? Korea has the problem solved. Similar to an airplane, in almost every bar/restaurant, each table has a "call" button. Press this, a light comes on in the back, and the server is at your side faster than you can say "dyogeeyo" ("excuse me!").

- banging erasers? Not in Korea! Each classroom has an eraser-sucker-vacuum thing. Just hold the eraser on top, and it sucks all the chalk dust out of it!

- Daiso. This is similar to an American Dollar Store but 10x better. These stores have almost everything you could possibly need! And I've never seen anything more expensive than 3,000 won (about $2.50). I have gotten all my household items here, school supplies, everything from dishes and silverware to pencil holders to paper to a toilet brush and hangers. Beats out the crappy American dollar stores by a mile! I am able to go home and not feel like I need to take a shower....

Oh Daiso, how I love thee....

Sorry there are no pictures this blog.... I am still shopping for cameras. I can't decide if I just want a point-and-shoot canon for like $100-$200 or if I want to get a good camera for about $500. At this point, I think I might just get a crappy one to tide me over until my next paycheck. Paycheck #2 = good camera. Good, if not, great.

embarrassment

2010-03-31T11:37:00.002+09:00

So Mr. Im, my funny lil P.E. teacher sent out a faculty-wide memo yesterday..... detailing a conversation between me and him about 일진's (Il-Jin, another young P.E. teacher) 6-pack.......

HOW EMBARRASSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Especially since that conversation never even happened. Nope. Never discussed 일진 or his 6-pack with Mr. Im.

haha you are sooooo funny Mr. Im! Now 일진 won't look me in the eye.... lol

Mountain Goats and Popsicles

2010-03-29T10:12:00.005+09:00

So this weekend was amazing! It was probably the best weekend I've had in Korea so far!

Friday night we obviously found ourselves at the bars. Big ole group of us, wandering from bar to bar. The night included:

playing our own limbo game

the worst (best?) sing-a-longs ever

and even salsa dancing!

It was a great night had by all, especially the 2 birthday boys -- John-John and Kyle!

Saturday was spent divided.... the boys went to play soccer all day, and the girls.... we went shopping of course! Now that we have all been paid, we can freely spend our millions of won! I was still recovering from Friday night however, so I headed home early and stayed in for the night.

On Sunday, we reached new peaks. No really. We hiked all the way up to the summit of Apsan Mountain. This was no ambling, meandering mountain hiking. We were hardcore!!!! Our initial intentions were just to explore, not really reach the top. Next thing you know, we are so close to the top that we might as well just finish it! It had some of the most amazing views of Daegu and surrounding areas. Daegu is completely settled in a basin -- surrounded by mountains on every side of the city! Kinda lost count after we had hiked 8km uphill (over 5 miles!) It took us 5 hours to go up the mountain and then we came back down on the cable car. I honestly thought I was going to die. At one point, I'm pretty sure I had an asthma attack or maybe it was a panic attack, I don't know. But after a few minutes of rest, we finally reached the peak! It was definitely the most intense exercise I had had in a while -- I'm sure I will be sore tomorrow! But it was worth it! It was a great bonding experience for our group of friends!

(Map of the mountain)

(Me, Adam, JohnJohn, Emily, Emerson, Anika, Nihm and Grace)

(found this cool Buddhist temple --- Anika lighting incense)(Me and the man himself, Buddha)

(This is where I'm in a lot of pain!)

(Finally made it to the top!)

(so many mountains!)

(Me and JohnJohn looking out over Daegu)

After hiking was an amazing traditional Korean meal.... followed by a pitstop to Baskin Robbins! We deserved it!!!

2010-03-25T12:59:00.003+09:00

New things worthy of noting....

Korean people must have stomach problems from hell with all the spicy food they eat! Korean food gives me the worst indigestion. I take acid reflux medicine every day and it doesn't even last me 24 hours!

Streets are interesting here..... there are no left-turns (or they are very rare). So U-Turns are the norm here. Can't turn left onto your street? Go to the next stoplight down and pop a U-turn across the 4 lane traffic. That's just what you do here.

You know how Koreans are heavy drinkers? Their most brilliant concoction is So-Maek. Soju (liquor) + Maek-ju (beer). that's right, get a pitcher or pint of beer, and pour some (or a lot) of Soju (tastes like vodka) into it. Can't taste the vodka and it gets you drunk twice as fast! This is usually what Korean men start the night off with! Then they start to forget the beer.....

Koreans do not drink during lunch. Nothing. I don't know how they do it, even with the spicy food, there is not a water in sight. OK I retract that statement -- every day they have a pot of rice water. It's basically tea made from pouring hot water onto rice. Yeah. Not too flavorful. I bring my own water bottle to lunch every day.

Toothbrushing. I don't know if I've talked about this before or not. But I finally added a mug to my desk equipped with toothbrush and toothpaste. I finally feel like I belong.

Speaking of belonging, I felt super cool the other night. Left my house, walked into the cigarette mart. They gave me my Marlboro Lights and I paid the exact amount without saying anything more than Anyanhaseyo and Gamsamneeda. Then proceeded to walk to the metro with my MP3 in ear (like every other Korean), used my metro card to just 'beep' on thru the turnstiles, then flipped out my Korean cell phone (fully-equipped with phone dangly charm) to answer a text. Totally getting used to life here.

Korean schoolchildren, girls especially, love glasses. Most of the girls in my classes wear these big, black, thick-framed glasses. Glasses are so cool that I would bet about 75% of the glasses have plastic, non-prescription lenses. Yes thats right. Koreans wear glasses to look cool. What a 180º from American schoolchildren!

Just found out that instead of my 22 contracted teaching hours, I will be teaching 24. But for 3 of those hours, I am getting paid an extra 25,000 won per class. So that's an extra 75,000 per week! 3 are conversation classes for low/middle/high students, 1 is for teachers, and 1 is for English Newspaper Club. So my week just became a little more stressful, but at least it keeps me busy and makes me some extra money!

That's all for now.....

Update....

2010-03-24T11:01:00.002+09:00

So this weekend was great -- went out Friday night, went out Saturday night and danced my butt off, Sunday was a great day of laying around the apartment.

Since I got internet at my apartment, I don't mind staying home. I am able to catch up on all the shows and movies I have missed. And the beautiful thing? My internet has no bandwidth cap!!! So I can stream 15 shows a day, download songs, and watch a movie, and my internet will not slow down. Much better than America!!!! So now I have caught up on Grey's Anatomy, LOST, Kitchen Nightmares, Trauma, and Bones! I have also watched the Matt Damon flick "The Green Zone," and really enjoyed the Academy-Award Winning "Hurt Locker." Oh and Leonardo DiCaprio's "Shutter Island" was a great thriller!

Finally finished my introductory restaurant lesson. I had to teach the EXACT same lesson 19 times! By class 12, I was just plain tired. I'm sure my co-teachers were tired too.... of hearing the same stupid jokes. Once I find a good way to teach something, or a good way to make the kids laugh, I will do it over and over again. Some of my co-teachers have 4 or 5 classes with me, so I'm sure they get sick of the same spiel and jokes.

My "lesson" week starts on Wednesday for me. This is because Wednesday was the actual first day that I taught. So Wednesday is always a weird day for me because I'm introducing a new lesson for the first time. This week is easy though.... I am just presenting the restaurant project and they are working in brainstorming groups. The kids seem to really enjoy the project! I show them YouTube videos to inspire their creativity! Here are the 4 videos I show them....

Crocodile Restaurant

Monkey Restaurant

So hopefully the project continues to be a success. I have to check out the English budget and see if I can't snag 135 poster boards for my classes. That's right... I have almost 600 students working in groups of 4 or 5! And that's JUST 8th grade!!!!!

So for the next couple weeks, no lesson planning.... so I'll probably be blogging a lot lol

That's all for now!

Korea summed up in a video....

2010-03-22T16:23:00.006+09:00

WARNING: Not suitable for children. Also not suitable for anyone who has a strong opposition to the word "F___." Not safe for work. Please make sure you have headphones on or are watching this in the privacy of your own home. (PS: This is not my video.)

My new favorite store...

2010-03-21T14:57:00.003+09:00

Well as far as updates go, not much is new. Finally got internet
at my apartment! Also I got a cell phone yesterday!!!! I am paying $20 a month for service, 600 texts, ringback, text alert for missed calls when my phone is off, weather updates, internet access (but not data) and I got a free phone!!!! My phone is adorable -- its an LG Sky and its pretty and pink! It also has amazing graphics and capabilities! LG knows their stuff!

So after HyeJin and her husband took me cell phone shopping, we had to go shopping for cell phone accessories = cell phone charms. While not popular in the USA, cell phone charms are like the air we breathe in Korea. Plentiful. There are accessory stores dedicated almost solely to cell phone charms. Most are 1,000-2,000 won, but they can go much higher. A cute pink Chanel one was 13,000 won. I ended up settling with a purple and pink bow.
While at one of these accessory stores, we stumbled upon the greatest collection of Konglish T-shirts I have yet to see.
You see, in Korea, English is sexy. English is cool. So T-shirts abound with English on them. More often than not, however, things are misspelled, the topics are ummmmmm random, and the grammar is downright atrocious.
I have two examples:

(random, I know. And soooo politically incorrect)
(HyeJin asked me "what does this mean?" I looked at her with excited, laughing eyes and told her "this means absolutely nothing. i love it."

I now understand the Koreans desperate need for native English teachers. We could have spellcheck jobs galore.

Stress with a silver lining...

2010-03-17T13:22:00.006+09:00

So this whole weekend/week I have been sick. No bueno.

I would like to chalk it up to the stress of everything..... as follows....

Teaching 22 classes per week, each in a different classroom. Yes today I started teaching my first class. 5 minutes into it, I realized I was in the wrong classroom.
Having to use squat toilets - which I don't think I will EVER get used to, although I am getting better. Me pee at least goes in the hole now lol
Taking out my trash -while it sounds easy, it is a whole can of worms here in Korea. You separate paper, glass, plastic, aluminum, and food/crap. Found out today that food/crap goes in a special container that is under my sink (i wondered what the hell this red bucket thing was for...!??) and then is placed out on the street. A little man on a scooter comes by and dumps the bucket into a large trash can on the back of his scooter and then scooters away to the next doorstop. Everything else gets placed in separate bags along the street. If things are not separated, you will get fined. So today was the first day to take out my trash in the 3 weeks I've been here. Yes I finally got the courage once I saw scooter man with the bucket. Answered a lot of questions...
Grocery shopping - for cheese especially... as they have 3 types: cheddar, parmesean/mozzarella, and another unidentified white cheese. I have found that cheddar cheese slices with a lil bit of parmesean and some milk makes a pretty good macaroni-n-cheese sauce. I also bought a bunch of Ramen noodles.... but I can't read the directions on the back of the package and it is definitely more complicated than USA ramen noodles.
oh lesson planning for 22 classes per week - 19 of my 22 classes have the same lesson, but tailored to different levels. One is English newspaper class, one is teaching the teachers, and another is teaching some students and their parents. Yeah I don't know where to start with that last one....
Rehearsing and performing our boy band dance at the teacher's party - The Korean work ethic is one to admired.... they work, work, work. And eat in between. After hours of rehearsing the 2pm "heartbeat" dance, we performed it at the teacher's party. To a standing ovation. I am still getting compliments about how great of a dancer I was and how much everyone enjoyed it. We also had lots of free beer, so I'm sure that helped.

Salsa dancing with my Vice Principal at the teacher's party - Yes after the beer had been flowing, the restaurant provided us with 2 Filipino girls who had laptops and a sound system. They were basically bad wedding singers. Sang both Korean and English music. One salsa song prompted my drunk VP to get up and dance and I was chosen as his dance partner.
Receiving a shot of whiskey from my Principal at the teacher's party - Sounds easy? But with all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds Korean drinking, especially around bosses and elders, it is not an easy task for a foreigner. It required extremely low bowing and accepting of the shot glass with both hands. Hold the shot glass with both hands while you are bowed and he pours the whiskey. Raise up and bow again to say "gamsamneeda" (thank you!). Then you must turn away from him, hold a hand up so he can't see you drink, and you take the shot. You then return the shot glass to him with both hands and bow again, saying again, "gamsamneeda." Yeah.... a lot of work for a shot. Oh and everyone took the shot out of the same shot glass. Everyone wears masks around town to stop germs but everyone shares a shot glass........... hm
Noraebang with Principal/VP/Adminstrators/Other Teachers - Yes of course after the party, we all headed to a local noraebang (karaoke place), where we had the biggest room to ourselves and, surprise, more beer. A combination of really corny K-Pop and really bad singing skills led me to a taxi home. Mind you, this is on a Monday night. We all have to teach the next morning. Troopers I tell you. These Koreans know how to drink.
Gas Lady - As I am the only foreigner in my area, I don't usually get rings on my doorbell. I have gotten 3 in the past 3 weeks. One from Young-Eun when she came to pick me up. And 2 more from Gas Lady. Gas Lady always scares me because you never know when she's going to show up. Eating breakfast - ding-dong - GAS LADY! Going to sleep - ding-dong - GAS LADY! No rhyme or reason, but Gas Lady will show up...... to check my gas. She carries this metal detector looking thing and runs it all around my stove and the gas switch. She then helps herself thru my apartment to my gas furnace/heater thingy, runs her machine around that, and then makes me sign this machine (like the fedex guys do). I am assuming my gas isn't leaking because she always smiles and never runs away like the place will blow up. I guess it is Korean law for Gas Lady to check my gas once a month for gas leakage. I have been here 3 weeks and have been checked twice. Why? I don't know, but at least I'm safe.
Gift Giving - I get at least one gift every day. Cookies, yogurt, breads, fruits, milk, chocolate, pens, SOMETHING. Every day. Not for any reason other than it is Korean culture. Sometimes it is a gift just for me. Sometimes it is gifts for everyone. I always share my gifts, but I haven't brought in my own gifts yet. Why? Because I am broke. One more week until payday and then I am spoiling my office silly. And spoiling my coteachers even sillier. Especially Mee-Hyun and Young-Eun and Hye-Jin. They help me out so much with everything. They are literally my life lines. I couldn't imagine this year without them.
Back Pain - I have thrown out my back again. Took me 3 weeks to admit it to Young-Eun. And its only cause it disturbs my sleep so much. Every time I change positions at night, I wake up in excruciating pain. So today, Young-Eun has found me a chiropractor for only 35,000 won (like $30). I will go at 5pm today after school.
Heating - Don't get me wrong... I LOVE the undul heating system. My wood floors are always nice and toasty. It's also a great clothes dryer -- laundry day comes and my apartment floor is just covered with my clothes. It's also perfect for heating towels before a shower. Oh and keeping your feet warm. However, this is what's NOT good about it. You have to turn off the heat to your house and turn on your water heater to take a shower. Of course, I inevitably ALWAYS forget this part. So I'm standing butt-naked in my bathroom wondering why the damned shower isn't getting hot! Then it dawns on me and there's some naked marathon racing thru my apartment to turn on the hot water. Also, I cannot do laundry and have heated floors at the same time. So laundry day is a cold day. I am in my knickers cause I am washing all my clothes practically and there is no heat in the floors. Even if I'm washing with cold water. Grrrrrr frustrating. Also, the hot water in my shower stays good and hot for about..... 1 minute. And then its to warmish-coolish water. And it stays there for the duration of my shower. So I never really get that HOT, steaming shower that I long desire for. Disappointing.
Creepy Man - Ahhh yes the creepy man. No not the creepy man from Seoul. This is a new creepy man. I do not know who he is, what his name is, where he lives, or even really what he looks like. He is the creepy man that poked his head thru my window at 3am when I got home from noraebanging.
I've come to some conclusions:
#1. He was not trying to break in. All my lights were on and you'd have to be stupid to break in when all the lights are on at 3am.
#2. He really wasn't trying to break in because all the windows in my apartment have iron bars on them. It is literally impossible to break into my windows unless you have a steel cutter or something james bond-ish.
#3. He stuck his head in and looked around. When he saw me, he looked just as surprised as I did. After I screamed at him, saying "ahneeyo, ahneeyo, anyangee-kahsayo" (no no, goodbye!), he quietly ducked out of the window. He even shut the window for me. So I don't think this was a premeditated peeping-tom.
Mom, Dad, don't worry. I'm pretty sure it was an accident,... well I don't know what it was. But I haven't seen him since. All my windows are checked nightly to make sure they are locked. As of Saturday, I will have a cell phone and people to call. So no fear. But it did stress me out a bit.

So yes, I am stressed a bit. But I am also loving life. The teacher's party was honestly one of the best nights of my life. Anika even came to join me for the free food, drinks and noraebanging! I am so blessed to have such fun and hospitable coworkers! And man do they know how to party!!!!!! I had a great time bonding with my other coworkers and staff. Even if it was on a Monday night (whose idea was that??!?!)

Finally got my Alien Registration Card, so soon to follow is internet (at home), cable (not stolen), cell phone (no more Epik 1 group stalking) and medical insurance (no more worries!). I am officially a legal resident of Korea!!!!!

That's all for now folks. Everyone says they read my blog, but please leave me a comment or something! Thanks!

orientation on the news

2010-03-17T11:51:00.001+09:00

Here is a link to a Korean newscast which featured a lengthy segment on EPIK Orientation. You can see how I spent my first 9 days here. I also make a cameo appearance right at the end of the segment. BIG CLOSE UP!!!!!
Click on the link. Mind you, it will work only in Internet Explorer. (Don't ask... Koreans have a love affair with Internet Explorer). You may need to add a plug-in or add-on. Fast forward to 21:40 and there starts the bit about EPIK.

Enjoy!!!!

VIDEO LINK HERE

Things Worthy of Note

2010-03-15T13:35:00.005+09:00

Noteworthy:

Koreans brush their teeth after lunch at school. Even the teachers. They all have separate toothbrushes/toothpastes they bring to use at school.

Koreans do not wear sunglasses. These are reserved for "famous people or really stylish people" (so says Young-Eun).

Chiropractic care is somewhat controversial in Korea. It is illegal for independent chiropractors to practice. From what I've read, if you are a doctor who took some seminar classes in chiropractic, you can legally practice. However, someone from America who went to a chiropractic college cannot legally practice in Korea.
"The chiropractic situation in Korea is complicated by about 50,000 pseudo chiropractors who learned “therapy by hands” from the Japanese since 1970. These non-degreed practitioners are under the name of Sports Massage, Energy Therapy, adjusting the spine, and/or about 900 Oriental Medical Doctors (O.M.D.). The OMD’s learned some chiropractic technique through several Seminars from 15 DCs in the beginning Korean Chiropractic Association. The OMDs use the equipment and technique of chiropractic, but term it as “Chuna Technique.” While Chiropractors have no practice act, MDs, OMDs, Physical therapist, and medical personnel can use chiropractic legally under existing law in Korea. OMDs have received an authoritative interpretation for using chiropractic equipment and “Chuna Technique” (only for them) in Korea from the Ministry of Health & Welfare. About 600 MDs, who have learned chiropractic from seminars, use chiropractic under the name of “restitution medical.” Also Physical therapist use chiropractic technique by the name of “therapy by hand.” Currently in Korea, there are about 60 DCs who graduated from chiropractic school in the USA or Australia, including 12 persons who graduated from the new Hanseo University School of Chiropractic (associated with RMIT of Australia), but these DCs’ practices are considered to be illegal under existing Korean law."
Yeah weird. I kept trying to search for English chiropractors in Daegu but to no avail.

Other things worthy of note....

Boys love playing M.A.S.H. just as much as the girls do.

I've been sick all weekend, so a bottle of DayQuil has a semi-permanent place on my desk. When Korean's ask me what it is, I tell them it is my "magic juice." I think they are jealous.

I have finally mastered the art of telling a taxi driver where I live, including directions like "left," "right," "straight ahead" and "stop."

I wanted to quit smoking while I was in Korea. I still do. However, my efforts have been thwarted by the ungodly cheap pricetag. 2,500₩ for Marlboro Lights. That is $2.20 per pack of imported cigarettes.
To give you perspective:
Korea: 2,500₩ = $2.25
France: €5, 20 = $7.16
Czech Rep: 86Kč = $4.64
New York City: $8.85
Kansas City: $5 +
So as you can see, import cigarettes are half the price of the cheapest cigarettes I have ever bought in my life. However, I am trying to not let that encourage me to smoke. I still plan on quitting while I am here.

I have found my first Korean crush. OK so he's half-Korean, half-American.... I am just normally not attracted to Asian guys, but this one takes the cake....
Feast your eyes upon Korean-American actor Daniel Henney....

*sigh*

Right up my alley....

2010-03-11T16:38:00.004+09:00

So the whole first week, the PE teachers were talking about me performing at the New Teacher's Party. I kinda brushed it off with a laugh, thinking they were half-way joking.

No. They are serious.

Me and 5 other teachers have been chosen to perform at the New Teacher's Party. The school is renting out a hotel banquet room and providing food and drinks. And we are going to perform.

After tossing around various ideas, from Beyonce to Wonder Girls, we finally settled on one of the most famous K-Pop bands --- They are called 2PM. And the song is called "Heartbeat."

K-pop is this weird hybrid of English and Korean.... Konglish if you will. Everything will be in Korean but the chorus. Or maybe some lines here and there in the verses. Really random. No real reason.

So we are performing this boy-band dance.... and of course we are going to exaggerate the dance. We have costumes and everything. We practice every day after school. I am the "head choreographer" because of my dance background.

So for your viewing pleasure, here is a live 2PM performing "Heartbeat" live.

some multimedia for yall....

2010-03-09T08:57:00.005+09:00

Video Tour of my Apartment

Me and Anika enjoying a Cass!!!

Korean Fruit Loops!!!!!

Crazy first week!

2010-03-08T10:31:00.006+09:00

So my first week of teaching was great! I am the only native English teacher in my school, so it is an interesting dynamic. I don't have to care about teachers meetings or anything because I cannot understand a word. Most of the day, i just tune everything out and go along in my English daze.

I teach 19 classes of kids each week. Most classes have betwen 30-40 students. I have a couple low level classes with just 20 or less. But for the most part, my classes are very large! I also teach them all the same lesson. So I literally plan one lesson for the whole week and just tailor it to the level. The kids are already divided into high (Apollo), middle (Jupiter), and low (Mercury) levels. This makes planning and teaching much easier!!!!

It's a big daunting every time I walk down the hallway. Kids are giggling and laughing at me. Pointing at me and saying "HELLO!" The minute I say "hello" back to them, they giggle and run off. It's a little flattering I guess -- kind of a boost to the ole self-esteem having everyone know your name, want to talk to you... I have kids that make laps around the teachers room just to watch me lol Kids will poke their head thru the door just to see me and say "hello." Definitely instant celebrity status.

Thursday was my birthday. I went for my medical check (for immigration) -- thinking it would cost around 30-60,000 won. It ended up costing 110,000 won which is just about $100. Definitely put a dent in my finances, but it is mandatory. The medical check included blood work for HIV/Hepatitis/etc, urinalysis for all the drugs that I do (lol), chest x-ray (for tuberculosis?), and today (Monday) I have a followup visit with the doctor.
The Korean hospital was interesting. I never had to wait for anything which was nice. They have an international center with English speaking staff that helped me every step of the way. There are long lines for the cashier.... yes like a grocery store. You pay before you receive treatment, not after.

After a guilty trip to Burger King with Young-Eun we returned to school. The vice-principal had given Mee-hyun (my other co-teacher) 20,000 won to throw a birthday party for me! All the teachers were so surprised at his kindness! Birthdays are not big here in Korea, so it was definitely a treat! They got me a cake, all sorts of fruits and cookies and sodas. They had candles and sang me "Saengil Chukha Hamnida" (Happy Birthday in Korean). I almost teared up during the party just at all their kindness. They really went out of their way to make it a special day for me. It's hard being in a strange city on your birthday with no family -- they made me feel at home.

Thursday night, Young-Eun picked me, Anika and Emily (other EPIK teachers in Daegu and my 2 closest friends) up and took us to her boyfriend's restaurant. We had an amazing dinner (and it wasn't Korean food!!!!!!! yay!!!!!) and a pitcher of beer. Then Anika came over to my apartment to hang out and have some girl time. Because it was a Thursday night, we turned in early.

Friday was Anika's birthday, and therefore, Friday night we had an Amanda/Anika Birthday Bash at BilliBow!!!! Almost 40-50 people showed up!!!! We really had a great time with the whole EPIK Daegu crew! One of the best birthday parties I have ever had!!!! Thank you to everyone who made it and helped celebrate!

Me and my Dirty Brit Team -- David, James, Me and Adam

Guess I'm the only one with my game face on!!!!
Discussing BilliBow strategies

Me and Anika go head-to-head

Despite our efforts, we were defeated.

Saturday, I woke up and headed to Seoul for the night to party with Matt and Craig. They are teaching English at a private school. I traveled on the KTX, which is the highspeed bullet train. It goes over 300 km/h!!!!! (Over 190 mph!!!!) It is also one of the smoothest rides I have ever been on! The stewardess was kind to me, and gave me a first class coupon for free wifi internet so I could get ahold of Matt and Craig to let them know when I would be coming.

Met up with Matt in Seoul and walked thru Itaewon which is the foreigner part of Seoul -- not just American. Its basically the melting pot/immigrant part of Seoul with tons of different cuisines and shops!

Headed to Matt's apt where we chilled for a couple hours and I grabbed a power nap. That night, we headed out to Hongdae to party with Matt, Craig, Kristina, Marianne, and Thomas. After getting lost countless times, me, Craig and Kristina decided to stop at a bar called GoGos, which had more Westerners in it than Koreans. Everything was in English. It could have been any bar back home -- the same kinds of people, the same drinks, etc. BUT they had some STELLAR music -- the 2nd floor was an alternative indie rock kinda bar (think 96.5 the buzz) and we really enjoyed the music!
We also briefly went to another club called Jane's Groove to meet up with Matt, Marianne and Thomas. Got my dance on for a while and headed back to GoGos. We ended up staying at GoGos until they closed at 5:30am!!!! I was so tired I was falling asleep on my barstool!!!!!!

After an eventful taxi ride home, where we got completely ripped off, I crashed on Craig's couch. Woke up around 2pm the next day, had lunch and I was off on another KTX back to Daegu!!!!

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Other things to note....

- I have yet to see a blind person. But believe you me, Korea is ready for them. As you walk along the sidewalk, the street, the metro, anything, there are strips of yellow that have raised patterns all over them. They are for the blind -- so they can feel how to walk in a straight line. Different patterns are for walking and stopping. It's a brilliant idea really.

- Toilets. Toilets here are about 50/50 when it comes to Western and what I refer to as "squatters." These "squatters" are similar to the Turkish toilets I featured in my European blog. My school only has squatters. However, a surprising number of public toilets are electronic. First of all, they are heated. Secondly, on the side of them is a control panel that looks like it could be used to control a space ship. The only option I have figured out is the bidet option. As you can imagine, I found this out the hard way = water to the face. I believe this is also a "warm tornado" option.... maybe to dry your butt? I dunno. But I am a HUGE fan of the heated toilet seats. =)

A squatter toilet
Spaceship toilet

- "Massage parlors." These can easily be mistaken for barber shops as they have the blue/red/white stripey-swirley thingy outside of them. But please note, if it has 2 stripey swirley thingies, it is NOT a barber shop. It is a barbershop/massage parlor with a "happy ending" if you catch my drift.

- I have not seen corporal punishment yet, but I have seen the sticks. I have seen about 4 or 5 different teachers carrying around sticks. These range from skinny rods to drum sticks. Yes actual sticks drummers use on their drums lol. For the most part, I have not had any discipline problems in my classes. Sometimes I think the sticks are used more as a warning than as a form of punishment.

- Seoul Station. Homeless lady asks me for a cigarette. feeling nice, i give her one. She wants another one. After her persistence, I gave her a 2nd cigarette. She then snatches my full can of coke out of my hand and runs off. Crazy homeless woman 3. Amanda 0.

- Had a creepy Korean man follow me around the metro in Seoul. He started talking to me in English and innocently enough, so I carried a conversation. He then got on the metro with me, proceeded to stand incredibly close, asking me on dates with him, asking me to drink with him, telling me that I was "his style of girl." He then leaned in close to "look at my blue eyes" and tried to kiss me. I lied and got off on the next station, ran a couple cars down, and got back on. Definitely creepy.

- There is also an adult PC-bang down the street from my apartment. Yes a pornographic internet cafe. I stay away from there.

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That's about it for now! I wish I had pictures to up but as you may remember, my camera is kaput. Once I get my paycheck, that is the first thing I am going to buy!

Korean television....

2010-03-03T14:32:00.002+09:00

So I am lucky enough to have a huge TV (probably 25-inch) and free cable. Well it's free.... for me. I guess I am stealing it from my neighbor. Some stations don't have the best reception, but for the most part, I have free amazing cable.

What's even more amazing is the number of English language tv shows and movies that are on Korean TV regularly. It's also funny to see what Korean programming has chosen.... and its interesting that the following tv shows are what Koreans know about Americans/English-speakers:
- Canada's Next Top Model
- Scrubs
- Numb3rs
- My Name Is Earl
- Two and a Half Men
- Bones
- The Closer
- Gossip Girl
- America's Funniest Videos
- NY Prep

I have also watched a number of movies....
Double Jeopardy
War of the Worlds
Devil Wears Prada
The Holiday
Die Hard
and a couple others that I never caught the name of.

Now mind you, they are all subtitled in Korean, but are the original English versions. Also, they don't bleep out bad words. I've heard many an F-bomb being dropped.

All in all, I'm not completely cut off from the American TV world. Sitcoms have definitely found their place here in Korea. And I think I'm finding my place too....

Few observations...

2010-03-02T12:16:00.004+09:00

Just noting a few things....

Korean schools do not necessarily employ a janitor for daily cleaning duties. Groundskeeper, yes. Janitor, no.

So what do they do to keep the school clean? Cleaning is part of the curriculum!

Every day for 20 minutes, the students clean the school. Sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, organizing, etc. It is done with the thought that it's as valuable a lesson as English or math or science. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Also, girls here wear the most corny, garish socks. Mom, you might actually fit in here lol. Every sock is a different color, with stripes, Hello Kitty, or a variety of farm and jungle animals. And these girls are 13 & 14-years old. I notice these because the students must wear slippers in school. I have to wear slippers too -- only to be worn at school.

They look like this but in a million different colors. It's basically the Korean version of the French's obsession with Converses.

Yeah I remember wearing those back in middle school at volleyball tournaments or something. I think everyone had an Adidas pair right? Anyways, that's expected footwear indoors here at school.

first 24 hours in Daegu

2010-02-27T12:25:00.003+09:00

Final day of orientation....

I ate octopus. Like a whole octopus. They were about the size of a chicken nugget, but they had the head, eyes, tentacles, everything. I also ate a snail. Not like escargot. Raw snail, out of the shell. Like they just found it outside and killed it.

Also got to watch some amazing traditional Korean dance and music performances! Almost brought me to tears watching these beautiful young girls dancing with such dedication!

So here begins the real adventure in Daegu...

Finally got final contracts Friday morning. I am going to be a middle-school teacher at Daegu-Dong Middle School, right outside the Daegu center.

We went to meet our co-teachers -- it was like a big airport lobby with signs with our names on them. I didn't see mine. My district director (from here on out, known as my POE) was confused as to why my teachers weren't there. Then low and behold, out come 2 Korean women frantically waving my sign!!!! lol They had gone to the bathroom!

So there was my intro to Young-eun and Mee-Han, two of my 5 co-teachers. Young-eun is my main co-teacher -- that means she was responsible for finding my apartment, helping me with immigration, etc etc etc. Basically she is my mentor. She is only 29 (I'm guessing 28 in USA age).

While I'm on the subject, Koreans have a different age system. If you are born on December 31st, you are already 1-years old. They count the time in the womb as a year. On January 1st, however, everyone celebrates their birthday. So some born on December 31st would be 2 years old on january 1st. Yeah, it's strange, but that's how they do it.

Young-eun and Mee-Han took me to my apartment. They said it was very difficult to find a one-bedroom apartment around my school, so I was worried about what it would be like. As we pulled up to the building, I immediately fell in love. It is a small complex, not the big skyscrapers like most apartment buildings here. I am Apt #105. As we walked in, I was just amazed. It was soooo much bigger than I was expecting!!!! I have a seperate space for my bedroom which is unusual for "studio" apartments. The main room consists of a range, sink, cupboards, rice cooker, refrigerator/freezer, tv stand with a HUGE tv, and a table with 2 chairs. Open the Asian-style sliding doors, and you enter my room. It is a single bed, but bigger than an American single. Off the bedroom, there are two doors -- one is the bathroom (with a normal toilet and everything) and the other door is the laundry room equipped with an LG washer and a drying rack.

Oh, and everything is pink. Literally. The wallpaper is pink in the living room and bedroom. The bathroom is a pink explosion -- the tile, the sink, the toilet, even the toilet seat cover is pink/purple.

Young-Eun: "Do you like the blankets on your bed?"
Me: "Yes of course, I like pink and purple flowers!"
Young-Eun: "OK good, cause me and Mee-han spent an hour trying to pick out blankets for you and we liked that one the best!"

They both really went out of their way to welcome me. They picked me up in a very nice car.... Mee-han told me later that it is a very expensive Korean car and Young-eun borrowed it from her mother just for me! lol

Then they took me to my school. It's HUGE! They said there are about 500 students per grade.... so about 1500 students and 75 teachers! We went in to the teacher's room, where I have my own desk and computer and printer. I also got to meet the executive director of the school. She had learned "hello" and "welcome" before I came, just so she could speak to me. I met a couple other teachers as well.... it was like being a celebrity!!!! They had practiced their English and were sooo amazed at the Korean I knew! They commented that I had made a very good impression -- they were so worried they were going to get someone without personality!

Young-eun and Mee-han were so happy that I was very normal and funny. All they knew about me was that I was a girl, so they were extremely worried that I was going to be a horrible teacher! All night, they kept breathing sighs of relief like "ohhhh she's so great, she will make great teacher!" and "ohh she is so pretty and funny!" and "Ohhh we were so worried, but we are not anymore!"

After meeting the teachers, we decided to go for dinner. We found this Korean seafood buffet restaurant with one of the biggest buffets I had ever seen! I grabbed lots of sushi, and Young-Eun and Mee-Han kept bringing me plates and bowls of foods to try! When I was full, they looked at me and said, "No, you go back up and get more food! more food! eat! eat!" I ate until I could eat no longer! Mee-Han then paid for our dinners...which was not cheap. I think the buffet was almost 20,000 won (which is almost $20!).

They then took me to experience my first Korean supermarket. I bought a bowl, couple cups, spoon, chopsticks, bread, peanut butter, bananas, milk, Fruit Loops (which they laughed at since it's a kiddie cereal --- but it was the only box I recognized!) and water (The government says the water is safe to drink, but no one does it. Everyone buys bottled water).

Oh, and toilet paper. Very important.

I get along with both of them very well. We were chatting like we were old friends all night! They are already trying to set me up with the single male teachers at school, including the 24-year old gym teacher lol I guess we will see!!!!

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First night's sleep in my new bed...... ahhhhhhhh so refreshing!

Woke up to take a shower. This is where it gets interesting.

My shower is located above my sink. Literally, there is a switch to change it from sink to shower. So you take a shower and it gets everywhere. My whole bathroom is wet. Sink, toilet, mirror, walls, etc. There is just a drain in the floor for it all to drain -- no curtain, no wall, nothing.

Also interesting to note about Korean apartments....
Koreans use a floor heating system called "undul." Hot water pipes are under the ground. Makes sense since heat rises right? They also use the same system for hot water.

You can not have both at the same time.

So to take a shower, I have to turn off the heat in the house. To turn on the heat in the house, I cannot have hot water.

This equalled a lot of me running naked thru my apartment to turn on the hot water, running back to the bathroom, running back out to the living room to adjust the temp, running back to the bathroom to see if its warm enough, and so forth and so forth. Finally found the right temp and it really was a great shower.

Then it was time to find an internet cafe. You need your alien registration card to get internet set up here. I was hoping to find a wireless signal to steal (much like the cable TV I am currently stealing from my neighbor... shhhhhhh!), but no luck. And it's saturday so most internet cafes were closed.

(Note: Internet cafes will from here on out be referred to as "PC-bangs" -- thats the Korean word.)

Finally did some walking and found an open PC-bang. Which wasn't hard considering there are PC bangs on like every corner. Every person here is playing Call of Chaos or World of Warcraft or something similar. All I'm hearing right now is guns firing and grenades exploding. lol The man was surprised that all i wanted was the internet. You can also smoke in here which is strange to me.

Tonight, it is off to Who's Bob? It is an expat bar in Daegu that is hosting a 10,000 won ($10), all-you-can-drink Beer Olympics. I am going with many of my Daegu friends I met at orientation. I don't plan on drinking much, just really there to socialize!

Bad note: My camera is broke. So it will be a while before I get pictures/videos up. I'm pretty sad about this, but it was about time to get a new camera!

OK so this might be the longest post in history, but I want to say hi to everyone! I'm having a great time, thanks for all the well-wishes and support!!!!!! Leave me comments!!!

Almost done!

2010-02-25T13:09:00.002+09:00

Halfway through our last day of lectures here at EPIK orientation. Most of the lectures have been great and entertaining (with a couple exceptions....) and has really just been a CELTA refresher.

Korean class........... well, by the end of the day when it's time for Korean class, my brain is fried. Korean class then takes the brain a step further into mush. Absolute mush.
Highlight of Korean class.... the following video:

This crap is crazy popular here. No joke. I hate to admit it, it's catchy. Really catchy.

----------------------------

Tomorrow we pack our things and head on a bus to Daegu. My co-teacher will pick me up and take me to my apartment and get me all settled in! My apartment comes furnished but I'm sure it will take me a bit to get real settled with internet/phone/tv, etc.

So tomorrow starts my adventure in the wonderful city of Daegu/Taegu!!!!!!! woop woop!!!!

Wow first 24 hours

2010-02-23T13:15:00.002+09:00

Hey everyone! Thanks for being interested enough to read my blog lol

My first 24 hours have seemed like 4 days already!!!!!

I arrived at Seoul-Incheon Airport at about 6pm on Sunday evening. I had instructions on where to go/how to do it. Bought a bus ticket, exchanged about $700 (which gave me this HUGE stack of bills -- I feel like a rapper in a music video!), and hopped on the bus. Hour and a half later, got off at my stop. I'm not technically in Seoul. I'm in Seongnam-Si, Gyeonggi-do, which is a large city in the outskirt province.

Took a taxi to the address I had..... he literally dropped me off in front of Eulgi University. That's it. I had no idea of where to go, but I ended up finding some other EPIK teachers who helped me with my luggage and took me to the dormitories.

And there started my EPIK Orientation experience!

I first met Polly, who is my mentor of sorts during orientation. She is Korean, Polly is her Americanized name. She is such a sweet girl and she has been so helpful. She has really made me feel welcome and has given me personal attention so I don't feel like just another teacher. There are almost 400 of us here at Eulgi. There is a whole other orientation going on at another university!!!

Polly had me do all the paperwork I had missed, gave me some intro information, and my introduction packet. EPIK gave us a free bath towel, alarm clock, outlet adapter, sticky notes, an awesome pen, and booklets with all the info we will need for orientation.

Up to my dorm room, I met my roomie Nai (pronounced "nye"). She is an Asian-American (not Korean tho) from Sacramento. We have had a lot of fun together -- definitely a good roomie. We are going to make a rap video with our stacks of cash lol

The first night I was so tired and pissed. Half of my luggage had been lost on the flight over, so I was stuck with only one suitcase. It's contents? Sweatshirts and tank tops, couple pairs of shoes, underwear, and my winter coat. No shower stuff. Thankfully I had my makeup in my carry on. So needless to say, I was a little put off, so I crashed and went to sleep.

Bed here is hard. Its a very firm mattress and they give us a very small pillow. But really you are so tired here that it doesn't matter.

-----------------------------------

7am -- Wake up for my first day of orientation (which is like the 3rd for everyone else)

Breakfast is interesting. The buffet offers:
Salad (yes like iceberg lettuce)
White rice
Spam
Gross scrambled eggs
and Cornflakes

So a little mix of breakfast and.... lunch? I don't quite know how I feel about breakfast here yet.

Then it was off to lectures.
Lecture 1 -- Teaching Listening
Lecture 2 -- Speaking and Listening Strategies

Then lunch -- korean meatballs, soy sauce and rice cakes, and of course, salad, rice and kimchi. Actually pretty decent although I was burping up the meatballs the rest of the day.

Then Lecture 3 -- English Curriculum in Secondary Schools
Lecture 4 -- Ways to Effective Co-Teaching

Then dinner -- salad, rice, kimchi, fried chicken, beef & potato stew. Not bad but not great.

Then it's off to Korean class from 7-8pm! EPIK provides us with free Korean survival lessons. Polly is my teacher -- during our first meeting, she placed me in intermediate Korean. I know about 3/4 of the alphabet and all the common phrases and numbers, so that puts me in intermediate I guess... ?! Class was interesting -- learned about numbers (Koreans have 2 different number systems depending on what you're counting!) and reviewed how to introduce ourselves.

After Korean class, we are free until curfew (which is 1230am). Me and Nai and a few of our friends went to DoDo Pizza across the street to grab a large cheese pizza. Only cost 10,000 won, which is like $9. So not too shabby. This led to an impromptu pizza party in me and Nai's dormroom.

Since we were all pretty tired, we hit the sack around 11pm. Many others go out drinking or to norebangs, but it's been a crazy couple days and I need my sleep.

So that brings us to today.
Breakfast.
Lecture -- Making Your English More Comprehensible
Lecture -- Education & Technology
Lunch -- Tofu, bulgogi, and some sort of cheesy korean pasta which was delicious.

My luggage arrived this morning to the EPIK office -- thank god! I also set up my bank account today with KEB -- many English services, including online banking and English checkbooks. And they are located all over the place, so pretty convenient.

Two more lectures this afternoon and Korean class -- and then the plan is to go to a norebang. That's the Korean word for Karaoke Room. It's a little different here.... you don't just karaoke at a bar in front of everyone. You and your friends rent a room where you have your own personal karaoke station and props and costumes.

_______________________________________________________________

Met a lot of interesting people here...... everyone is a native speaker, so most are British, American, Aussies, Kiwis, Irish or South Africans.
Our orientation is divided into Classes. Class 1 and part of Class 2 are all going to Daegu (so I am in Class 1). Then our classes are divided up -- I am Class 1A -- and so I have a core group of teachers who are in every lecture with me. These are usually the people I eat with and hang out with.

So sorry this blog was pretty boring. Just getting you introduced to my life here at EPIK orientation. They are looooong busy days, but a steady caffeine diet and some interesting people keep you going.

That's all for now! Leave me some comments if you feel so inclined!

IT'S OFFICIAL

2010-02-20T02:20:00.003+09:00

Received my visa by UPS today --- so it is actually legitimately official.... I leave for South Korea tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

My plane leaves at 9:05am to San Francisco, where I then have an hour layover and then I'm on my way to Seoul! I'll be arriving in Seoul at 6:40pm on Sunday (Korean time). So it will be like 3:40am Sunday in Kansas City. Yep 15-hour time difference!

Well that's the update for now -- gotta finish packing and cleaning!!!

totally just venting..... beware

2010-02-19T10:47:00.002+09:00

The amount of stress I have had to deal with in the past 2 weeks is ridiculous.

I have had to spend hundreds of dollars because of the mistakes of others.

My NOA got lost in the mail.... 5 days before I was supposed to leave for Korea. After having a new one overnighted to me, had to fly up to Chicago to drop it off at the Consulate. They completed the visa today, and were supposed to overnight it to me. Gave them a prepaid UPS overnight airmail envelope and everything.

It's 8pm and it's not tracking on ups.com. So I don't know if it even got sent today.

I have just had to deal with so much bullshit with this process. Literally, every single thing that could have gone wrong, has gone wrong. At this point, I don't even know who to blame anymore.... my recruiter, my travel agent, FedEx, EPIK, UPS, the Korean Consulate...... literally every single one of the aforementioned has screwed something up royally in this process. I have done anything and everything they have told me... and everyone is so inept or lazy, that things don't get done. Wouldn't be such a big deal, but obviously there are a lot of time-sensitive documents, deadlines, plane tickets, and lots of money involved in all aspects of this job and move.

Yes, EPIK gives me around $1200 to cover my flight costs.
Well my flight was $769.
Plus the $300 penalty for cancelling my first flight.
Plus the $120 for the flight to Chicago. (I had a $250 gift cert and still had to pay $120)
Plus the $20 in taxis to and from the Consulate since it's nowhere near metro stops.
Plus the $50 overnight airmail envelope.

So needless to say, that $1200 allowance is absolutely gone.

And none of that includes the money to process my visa, to get criminal record checks, to apostille documents, not to mention the $200 or so just to ship documents overseas to apply for the job.

So at this point, just getting the job and getting over there has cost me almost $2000.

I guess it's small price to pay for the amount of money I'll be making over there and the experience I'll get.

But right now, it's hurting my mental health more than anything...

16 days and counting...

2010-02-02T11:05:00.002+09:00

Wow.... 16 days. I have officially booked my flight and depart February 17th to start what is probably going to be the biggest adventure of my life.

Spent a super-duper weekend with Matthew in Chicago -- I was his moral support while he was interviewed for his Korean visa. My first visit to Chicago EVER..... I had an absolute blasty-blast! Much love to my cuz Olivia for letting us crash at her place!!!! Totally monopolized her living room for 3 nights, but spent most of our time out-n-about the city. Sight-seeing and eating. And eating. Popped Matthew's Korean food cherry (so to speak) and took him and Olivia to eat Korean food around Lincoln Square. Matthew could not get enough of it -- we practically had to drag him out! lol Then I took them both to Indian the following night -- both gave rave reviews.

So now that I'm back to reality, it's finally starting to sink in. Only 16 days. And I have A LOT to do. Lots to do, lots to buy, lots to pack.

It's also finally starting to sink in that it's gonna be for a year (or more). All my past overseas adventures have had return dates or at least estimates. This adventure is TBA. My contract in Korea is only for a year, but who knows where the next year will take me.

More than anything, I will miss my parents. You're probably thinking... whoa amanda. I know. But especially over the past 2 years, I have gotten very close to my parents. They have provided me with so much love and support -- I can never repay them. So while my dad is probably more worried that I'll be taken prisoner of war, my mom is gonna go thru empty nest syndrome all over again.

I'm also sad that I will be missing the season of LOST -- I'll be behind everyone watching the final season. ok so that's not really important.

I will also miss getting to see baby Bella grow up the next year. I am going to come back and she will be 1.5 years old!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh she will have grown soooooo much!

But the next year (or so) will be an amazing adventure! If only I could master this Korean language!!!! I guess there's time....

That's the update for now....

- Amanda

T-minus 37 days....

2010-01-10T05:55:00.003+09:00

So here I begin to blog my newest adventure. Korea.

No, not North Korea. South Korea. You know, the country that is more politically and economically stable. The one we are friends with. Since making this decision, I have found everything from encouragement to people questioning my mental state.

Most people have a million questions when I tell them my plans. Similar to when I left for France, but multiply by 10.

So to answer all your burning questions......

"What are you going to do there?"
I have taken a one-year teaching contract with EPIK. Similar to the JET program in Japan, Korea's Ministry of Education has vowed to put at least one native English speaker in each public school. I will be one of them, legal E-2 visa in hand.

"When do you leave?"
February 15th I will fly out of KCI. Have not booked the ticket yet, as I go through a travel agency connected with my recruiter.

"How much are they paying you?/What does your contract include?"

Free housing provided by the EPIK Program (utilities not included)
Entrance Allowance of 1.3 mil won to purchase a one-way ticket (roughly $1200 USD)
Exit Allowance of 1.3 mil won or a renewal Bonus of 2.0 mil won for resigning (another $1200 USD)
10 days of ESL training in Seoul (with free accomodation)
Settlement allowance of 300,000 won (This is a “signing bonus” which you receive when you arrive in Korea. This will help you settle in and buy various things you will want as you move into your new apartment!) (roughly $266 USD)
Paid vacation for 21 working days plus 13-15 National Holidays
Medical insurance and pension, 50% of which is covered by the EPIK Program (My 50% equals about $15 per month.)

In addition, I receive a monthly salary based upon my location in Korea and my qualifications. Because I have a CELTA certification, I am Level 2 pay. That's about $1900 each month.

When you figure it....
$1900 per month
-$50 for utilities
- $15 for insurance
.............. The rest goes towards food/drinks/fun/travel.

And because the cost of living is so low, I should be able to send home at least $1000 a month to pay off student loans. Which means..... drumroll please.... I will have my portion of my student loans paid off in ONE YEAR!!!!!!!

"Where will you be living?"
In a fully-furnished studio apartment provided for me by the school/government. These are usually very small, but at least have a Western toilet and Western bed. (Most Koreans sleep on the floor.)
I do not know the city/location of my apartment yet. I have preferenced Daegu, which is the 4th biggest city in South Korea. I chose Daegu because of its size and weather -- it's said to have a more temperate climate. South Korea is very mountainous..... think like Colorado. Cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers. But then add in the fact that its a peninsula -- water surrounding it on 3 sides. Plenty of ocean available for beach weekends!!!!!
I will not know my exact location until I arrive for orientation in Seoul. I know. It's kinda scary. I told EPIK I was willing to go anywhere, but would rather be in a large metropolitan.

"Why not Seoul?"
The EPIK program does not serve the Seoul area -- they serve all the outerlyingg metros and provinces. The GEPIK program serves the Seoul area. I chose to do EPIK because I wanted to have more of a true Korean experience. Seoul tends to be like any other world metropolitan -- they even have TGIFridays and Outback Steakhouses. Part of the pleasure of real traveling is getting to enjoy life the way the locals do it. The best thing about South Korea is its small size. Within 1.5 hours, I can get from Daegu to Seoul for only $30 by Korean bullet train.

"How do you teach English without knowing their language?" (<-- Most popular question!)

Take a minute and think back to high school. Did you take foreign language?

It's part of the challenge of being an ESL teacher. This is why I got my ESL certification -- to learn how to do exactly just that. To teach a student how to communicate in a language you don't know. Much the same, a Korean could teach me Korean. There is no better way to learn than by immersion.... or necessity. It's amazing how much one can learn when faced with the necessity of survival. Even with no lessons, the mind will learn if it needs to to survive. I have a feeling this is how I will learn Korean haha

Back to high school. Remember taking Spanish in high school? Yeah. How much do you remember? It's about the same. Korean children are required to take English in school. However, it's usually only one hour per week unless the parents sign their kids up for private English lessons at hagwons (private English schools). I have preferenced high school-aged kids.... so hopefully they should have at least a basic understanding -- "yes" and "no" at least!!!!

"Do you know Korean?"
No. Not at all. I am beginning to study the language. Learning the alphabet is step #1. It is a very logical alphabet. Also, there is a lot of Konglish -- mixture of Korean and English. So if you can figure out the alphabet and read it, many times it will spell out the sounds of English words.
At this point, I have memorized about half the alphabet, have learned how to say "Thank you," "Please," "How much?" "I would like," and "Hello."

"Do you know anyone over there?"
There are a couple people that are currently over there that I am acquaintances with. I have also recently made friends with two other guys going over there at the same time, Craig and Matt. They will be in Seoul -- giving me a great excuse to visit Seoul a couple times a month! Mutual friends from down at MSU introduced us through facebook -- we are already making plans!!!!!!!!!!! TRIPOD OF TERROR!!!!!!!!! lol

I will be the only foreign teacher in my school. However, I am hoping that there will be many other foreign teachers in the area -- in public schools and hagwons. There is also a large US military population over there, so plenty of Americans to mingle with!

"But.... why?"
Why not? I love to travel. I love new foods. I love languages. I've realized I love to teach. This job combines everything.
Personally, I am only 23. I have no kids. No boyfriend. No serious job. There is no reason why I shouldn't do this. In one year (and remember, it's only a year!) I will have an amazing experience, meet amazing people, and pay off my student loans.
Yes, I had a meltdown a week ago. Basically the fear of putting off my life for another year. But it's not putting off my life. It's living my life.
Yes the life of a traveler is often times a lonely one. But I am never alone. I have the constant support of my friends, family, and other expats.

So that's the low-down on my next adventure. I hope to maintain a frequent blog about my experience, so I hope you keep reading. =)