So I've been jotting notes in my blog draft because I didn't have time to write a full post, and now I've got all these random things I wanted to talk about. Therefore I'm going to do this in list form to make things easier.
1. Orange nails
So I get along really well with the two Seokyang kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Lim and Mrs. Chung. Sometimes I forget that we don't ever actually have conversations because neither of them speak any English! I sometimes go visit the kindergarten room after lunch because Mrs. Lim is teaching me how to count and write the numbers in Korean, and I am teaching her how to count and write in English. Mrs. Chung always makes me coffee, which is nice. Anyway, so as a part of our bonding, I thought Mrs. Lim asked if I wanted to cut flowers with her (I deduced this because she pointed to her fingers, the nails and tips of which had been dyed a deep orange color, then pointed at a bush and said, "Flower.") Sure, I'll cut some flowers with you. Don't know where or when, but why not? So this is how I accidentally roped myself into getting my fingernails dyed. Turns out that she didn't mean cut flowers, she meant she had ALREADY cut these flowers and made this paste out of them. Koreans put the paste on their nails, cover them with cellophane and tie the bundles, then leave them on their fingers for anywhere from 4-8 hours. Then you take them off and your fingertips/nails are dyed orange. So she started doing my nails and I was like, Okay - there is absolutely no tactful way to politely say I don't want orange fingertips for months (because did I mention it doesn't come off until your nails grow out?!). So she did my ring and pinky fingers and gave me the rest to take home and do myself. This is how I ended up spending my Wednesday night trying to tie little dye bundles on my fingers. I'll take a picture and post it... I only wore them for like an hour and a half (in the hopes of minimizing the damage), so they're just this pumpkin color.
2. Sickness
So I caught a cough over Chuseok, and all the teachers seem kind of concerned, which is nice. I'm getting much better, and I don't even feel sick, it's just the cough. Mrs. Chung gave me a mason jar of plum juice that says it's good for your health. I guess she made it herself, which was really nice. My Seokseong vice-principal (henceforth referred to merely as VP) gave me a small container of ginseng candy, which he says will make me strong. ("Yes, strong! Next week, volleyball, *pretends to spike a ball*.")
Joo, on the other hand, seems awfully sick. He said there's something wrong with his stomach, and I gave him a bunch of my cough drops because he keeps coughing. If I had Mrs. Chung's plum juice with me I might have given it to him because he looks like he needs it.
3. Swimming
I went swimming with Kevin at the Buyeo girls' middle school on Monday. It's a really nice facility, but I'm not crazy about swimming in 50 meter pools. The highlight of the outing was when I had to get my picture taken because it was my first time at the pool. You have to crouch down to get on eye level with the webcam that takes your picture, and Kevin thought it would be hilarious to jump in with me, so now every time I go swimming a picture of me laughing with my eyes closed and Kevin grinning with the Korean peace signs will pop up. Every. Single. Time. I really wish I had a copy because this picture is hysterical.
4. Native teachers dinner
Tuesday I had the special principal's volleyball like I said. It turned out to just be a team of Seokyang teachers vs. the principals. I was hitting the ball around with some principals and of course the first question was, "How old are you? Husband? Husband?"
As I've said before, because I am tall the Koreans think I am really good at spiking/blocking, which is sadly not true. I can't jump. The whole game all I hear is, "Theresa, more jump-ee! More spike! Block-uh! Spike-uh!" Every time someone on the other team would go to spike my principal would yell, "Block-uh!" So I'd attempt to block. I blocked one, maybe two. The thing is, if I'm going to spike the ball, I need a running start (because of the whole bad at jumping thing), so it's hard to play the net and block and simultaneously be ready to spike.
That evening there was a Buyeo native English teachers dinner, which was good. A Korean buffet.
5. Soccer
Wednesday I had regular volleyball then native teachers' soccer. Kevin is really good so he was coaching us on some drills, and I can actually get the ball off the ground! I still remember being little and hating how every ball I kicked was a grounder. I still have zero ball-handling skills, but the kicking part is looking better. Kevin told me I had a "demon shot" when we were practicing goal kicks.
6. Fashionista, kids' names
I have learned a few more things in Korean, and they're mostly classroom-related. For example, "Eyes up here! Empty hands!" My sixth graders were impressed ("Teacher, very good!")
One of my sixth grade boys walked up to my desk wearing his sweater around his head and proudly told me, "Fashionista!" This particular boy, Elliott, is good friends with Jake, one of my more advanced students. I actually asked Jake how to say "empty hands" in Korean (bin song), and he was like, "Hands - song, empty - bin." So I tapped Elliott's head and asked, "Bin? Bin?" and they didn't get it at first. Then they thought it was hilarious. I went back to my desk and Elliott and Jake conferred, then Elliott came up and said, "Teacher, I am a genius!" So you are.
I'm working hard on learning the kids' names. I know some, but certainly not all. Some I know their English and Korean names (i.e. Elliott is Lim Byeongchan) but some I only know their English names (i.e. Jake). Some I barely recognize as my students! Mr. Kim says I am learning them fast, but it's not fast enough to suit me because it's hard enough to get their attention when I'm actually saying their names.
7. So instead of dealing with the Thursday bus, I met my friend Piro at the taxi stand this morning. He works at Seokseong Middle and takes a cab there, so I thought I'd split it with him as Seokseong Middle and Elementary are reasonably close. So we dropped him off, then the cab driver proceeds to go 100 feet in the distance to Seokyang! I was like, Why don't cab drivers take me to Seokseong!!!!! He kept pointing to Seokyang and saying, Chodunghakgyo (elementary school) and I kept saying, "Aniyo, aniyo (no, no) Seokyang! Seokseong chodunghakgyo, SEOKSEONG." Finally he rolled down the window and asked this guy, then was like oh sorry and took me to Seokseong. He didn't charge me the full amount because of the mix-up, and so I was happy about that. My VP saw us pull up and was curious why I'd taken a taxi since I usually take the bus, so he quizzed the cabbie. Then he turns to me and says, "Ah, Seokseong Middle school teacher, couple?" I was like, "No no, friend, friend!" So now that Piro and I shared a cab, we are a couple I guess. Oh Korea.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Orientation
So today I got a nasty dose of Korean last-minute-ness... a surprise email from the Chungnam Office of Education (CNOE) saying oh hey by the way, you have teachers' orientation this Friday, Oct. 1st-Sunday Oct. 3rd. Please note that your attendance is mandatory. Well, good thing I didn't have any plans- Oh wait, I totally did. Friday is the Seokseong field trip and this weekend the Buyeo Benders are on tour for our soccer game against the women's military team in Seoul. Not me anymore I guess. I suppose the only good thing is I didn't actually have any non-changeable plans, i.e. a flight or something, like real travel plans. But I am seriously irked that I got about three days notice that I'm required to be somewhere for three days, so I guess I'd better pack a bag because I'm going to Asan (wherever that is) to the Korea Institute of Financial Advising for orientation (you know, the thing you usually do when you first get somewhere, not a month after you've already been here).
My principal has "selected" me to play in the special "principal's volleyball" game tomorrow. Apparently 20 principals are coming and we're all playing volleyball? I don't really get it, all I know is none of the other other teachers are playing, just me and the principal I guess. Perhaps it's Show Off Your Foreigner Day? But hey, it gets me out of teaching my sixth grade after school class. Mr. Kim will be taking over because I'm supposed to report to the gym at 3pm.
My principal has "selected" me to play in the special "principal's volleyball" game tomorrow. Apparently 20 principals are coming and we're all playing volleyball? I don't really get it, all I know is none of the other other teachers are playing, just me and the principal I guess. Perhaps it's Show Off Your Foreigner Day? But hey, it gets me out of teaching my sixth grade after school class. Mr. Kim will be taking over because I'm supposed to report to the gym at 3pm.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Chuseok
Chuseok is winding down and it's back to school tomorrow. I enjoyed my holiday very much and am extremely happy to have a phone and Internet, finally! Long story short: last Saturday the Internet guy showed up (at 10am, not between the hours of 2 and 3 like I was expecting) and hooked up my cable and was supposed to hook up my Internet only to find that my laptop monitor is cracked. Great. So I had the number of a Korean computer guy who spoke English, so I called him and then trekked out to Gyeryong, about an hour bus ride away, only to find that it would be about two weeks before the part would come in. Bless this man though... he gave me a spare monitor that I could hook up to my computer in the meantime, which means I'm able to use my computer. I type on the laptop and look at the extra screen. Rudy (the computer guy) also set up a phone for me. Another disaster... I went to Gyeryong Monday after school to pick up the phone. My friend Celina went with me, and she's been here a week less than me so it was a bit of the blind leading the blind in our attempt to get to Gyeryong. We made it successfully, and Rudy (such a nice man!) came and picked us up from the bus stop. He gave me the phone and explained how everything worked, and then we didn't know when the bus back to Buyeo came so he called the Buyeo terminal to ask. They called back and were like, Ah the next bus is in 10 minutes! So we ran out of his office quickly and genius me forgot my phone because Rudy was charging it for me. Great.
So another day, yet ANOTHER trip to Gyeryong. It was worth it though to have a phone. That night Celina, Sega, Blake, Yoman, and I all went out to a noreybang (spelling?), aka a KARAOKE BAR!! It was amazingly fun. The group pays $15 for an hour of karaoke in a private room. They've got tons of songs and two microphones so you can duet if you want. Then we went out for galbi, aka Korean barbeque, and it was delicious. Places in Korea pretty much don't close... we left the bbq place around 4am I think.
It might be the late nights, but I'm getting a cough. We (Celina, Blake, Yoman and me) went to Seoul on Thursday so those three could go bungee jumping. Sadly, it was closed. Seoul is a very cool place. It's got so much Western stuff too... we went to On the Border for dinner, and it was Celina's first Mexican food experience (she's Hong Kong Chinese born in Scotland raised in Newcastle, England where apparently they don't do Mexican food). While in Seoul we stopped at a pharmacy so I could get some cough medicine, and I think it's working.
So another day, yet ANOTHER trip to Gyeryong. It was worth it though to have a phone. That night Celina, Sega, Blake, Yoman, and I all went out to a noreybang (spelling?), aka a KARAOKE BAR!! It was amazingly fun. The group pays $15 for an hour of karaoke in a private room. They've got tons of songs and two microphones so you can duet if you want. Then we went out for galbi, aka Korean barbeque, and it was delicious. Places in Korea pretty much don't close... we left the bbq place around 4am I think.
It might be the late nights, but I'm getting a cough. We (Celina, Blake, Yoman and me) went to Seoul on Thursday so those three could go bungee jumping. Sadly, it was closed. Seoul is a very cool place. It's got so much Western stuff too... we went to On the Border for dinner, and it was Celina's first Mexican food experience (she's Hong Kong Chinese born in Scotland raised in Newcastle, England where apparently they don't do Mexican food). While in Seoul we stopped at a pharmacy so I could get some cough medicine, and I think it's working.
Korea: The Prequel, Part IV
August 29, 2010
I finally finished decorating my apartment today. I even used my vacuum! I took a walk around Buyeo to make sure I could find the bus stop tomorrow, and I decided to keep going to see if I could make it back to where the express bus had dropped me off on Friday. I knew that the grocery store Mr. Kim and I had stopped at was near the express bus, and it had been a fairly large store so I thought it would be good to go to. I was very pleased when I did find it, and even more pleased when I found a frying pan, spoon, chopsticks, dish towels, a glass bowl, and a bath rug. I really can’t tell you how much these little things have improved my quality of life. Try cooking pretty much anything with only an old wok, a fork, and a knife. No bowl, no plate, no spoon, no dishes of any kind. I had dish soap so I could wash things, but I couldn’t dry anything because I didn’t have a towel! So for a late lunch I had some rice, tuna, and a fried egg, and I was very pleased to be able to put it all in my bowl.
So on a side note, I have noticed that Korean people do not sweat like I do. At least they don’t appear to be overly affected by the heat. I was out in shorts and short sleeves on my walk, and I was sweating profusely, but two young guys were out in jeans and t-shirts and didn’t appear to be suffering any ill-effects. I have learned that Koreans don’t really do deodorant because I guess they don’t have BO issues like us poor Americans. Therefore if anyone has a hankering to send me anything, deodorant would be great since apparently I won’t be able to find it here.
I’m really glad I cleaned up my apartment because I had surprise visitors… Mr. Kim and his wife! They stopped by around 5:30 just when I had finished my tuna and rice. It was the nicest thing; they had brought me a transformer, some Kleenex, four small glasses, a large flashlight (“a lantern because the stairs are dark,” Mr. Kim explained) and a Tupperware bowl of kimchi. Mr. Kim also interpreted the note left on my door; turns out it was about recording my gas meter. I was relieved that my place was presentable. I figured Mr. Kim wouldn’t judge me too harshly because when he was here on Friday, all my stuff was still in suitcases, not just jumbled everywhere, but Sunday would be pushing it. I even have all my pictures hanging on the wall behind my bed. The kitchen could have been cleaner, but it was mostly just my fried egg pan sitting out. Can you believe how nice these people are? Like I said, they live in Daejeon, so it’s not like a short jaunt, probably more like an hour to an hour and a half.
I felt bad because all I had to offer them was some water (hey, at least I had ice cubes!), and thanks to them I actually had glasses to use. They inspected my pictures and I showed them my family. I also have the picture of me meeting Obama and Mrs. Kim noticed that one. I tried explaining how he had come to my school’s bike race. I managed to properly greet Mrs. Kim and I told her pangapsseumnida, and she grasped both my hands and said, “Pleased to meet you! I am nurse.” I told her yes, Mr. Kim had told me.
I was happy I remembered to pass them their water glasses with both hands… the culture books I’ve read said never to pass things with your left hand, which I have consistently done here but I don’t think anyone’s noticed. I’m pretty sure Mr. Kim passed me something with his left hand too. Anyway, it’s considered good manners to pass with the right hand, and to indicate respect you should pass and receive things with both hands. It seemed a little silly to grab each glass individually, but I noticed Mr. and Mrs. Kim both took the glasses with both hands and a slight bow, so I think it was a good move. They didn’t stay long, but Mr. Kim said he would come back “later” with his kids. I’m assuming he doesn’t mean “later” as in today; rather at some point later in time. Mrs. Kim is impossibly tiny… I feel like a lumbering giant next to her.
It’s unfortunate that the Kims live so far away; they seem like such friendly people that I’m sure I could visit if I wanted to. I think they’re worried about me, and it feels good to have people nearby who speak the language that are concerned about my welfare, especially if I get sick or something. I asked Mr. Kim where the nearest hospital was in case I get seriously ill or something, and he showed me one near Seokyang but I still don’t know about one in Buyeo.
I’ve been busy setting up my apartment and trying to get my bearings in Buyeo, but it’s been a pretty dull weekend. Luckily, as I was writing this, I got another visitor… Bob, one of the native teachers! Hallelujah! Bob is an older guy who has lived here for three years with his wife. He’s Asian-Australian, but has some kind of Asian accent and not an Australian one. He said that he lives in Dongnam (my apartment complex) and is happy to answer any questions I have. He said that if I need Internet or just want to have a cup of coffee and a chat, I’m welcome to visit him and his wife anytime. He had just come from a soccer game and said that I’m welcome to join their soccer team, and that they have native teacher dinners sometimes, and said that in general he thinks there’s a good group of native teachers here. Bob used to be an accountant in Australia before moving to South Korea to become a teacher. Now that’s a bold move. He said he and his wife love Buyeo because it’s small and charming. Also he confirmed that no, it’s not just my principal, all Koreans are obsessed with volleyball.
I finally finished decorating my apartment today. I even used my vacuum! I took a walk around Buyeo to make sure I could find the bus stop tomorrow, and I decided to keep going to see if I could make it back to where the express bus had dropped me off on Friday. I knew that the grocery store Mr. Kim and I had stopped at was near the express bus, and it had been a fairly large store so I thought it would be good to go to. I was very pleased when I did find it, and even more pleased when I found a frying pan, spoon, chopsticks, dish towels, a glass bowl, and a bath rug. I really can’t tell you how much these little things have improved my quality of life. Try cooking pretty much anything with only an old wok, a fork, and a knife. No bowl, no plate, no spoon, no dishes of any kind. I had dish soap so I could wash things, but I couldn’t dry anything because I didn’t have a towel! So for a late lunch I had some rice, tuna, and a fried egg, and I was very pleased to be able to put it all in my bowl.
So on a side note, I have noticed that Korean people do not sweat like I do. At least they don’t appear to be overly affected by the heat. I was out in shorts and short sleeves on my walk, and I was sweating profusely, but two young guys were out in jeans and t-shirts and didn’t appear to be suffering any ill-effects. I have learned that Koreans don’t really do deodorant because I guess they don’t have BO issues like us poor Americans. Therefore if anyone has a hankering to send me anything, deodorant would be great since apparently I won’t be able to find it here.
I’m really glad I cleaned up my apartment because I had surprise visitors… Mr. Kim and his wife! They stopped by around 5:30 just when I had finished my tuna and rice. It was the nicest thing; they had brought me a transformer, some Kleenex, four small glasses, a large flashlight (“a lantern because the stairs are dark,” Mr. Kim explained) and a Tupperware bowl of kimchi. Mr. Kim also interpreted the note left on my door; turns out it was about recording my gas meter. I was relieved that my place was presentable. I figured Mr. Kim wouldn’t judge me too harshly because when he was here on Friday, all my stuff was still in suitcases, not just jumbled everywhere, but Sunday would be pushing it. I even have all my pictures hanging on the wall behind my bed. The kitchen could have been cleaner, but it was mostly just my fried egg pan sitting out. Can you believe how nice these people are? Like I said, they live in Daejeon, so it’s not like a short jaunt, probably more like an hour to an hour and a half.
I felt bad because all I had to offer them was some water (hey, at least I had ice cubes!), and thanks to them I actually had glasses to use. They inspected my pictures and I showed them my family. I also have the picture of me meeting Obama and Mrs. Kim noticed that one. I tried explaining how he had come to my school’s bike race. I managed to properly greet Mrs. Kim and I told her pangapsseumnida, and she grasped both my hands and said, “Pleased to meet you! I am nurse.” I told her yes, Mr. Kim had told me.
I was happy I remembered to pass them their water glasses with both hands… the culture books I’ve read said never to pass things with your left hand, which I have consistently done here but I don’t think anyone’s noticed. I’m pretty sure Mr. Kim passed me something with his left hand too. Anyway, it’s considered good manners to pass with the right hand, and to indicate respect you should pass and receive things with both hands. It seemed a little silly to grab each glass individually, but I noticed Mr. and Mrs. Kim both took the glasses with both hands and a slight bow, so I think it was a good move. They didn’t stay long, but Mr. Kim said he would come back “later” with his kids. I’m assuming he doesn’t mean “later” as in today; rather at some point later in time. Mrs. Kim is impossibly tiny… I feel like a lumbering giant next to her.
It’s unfortunate that the Kims live so far away; they seem like such friendly people that I’m sure I could visit if I wanted to. I think they’re worried about me, and it feels good to have people nearby who speak the language that are concerned about my welfare, especially if I get sick or something. I asked Mr. Kim where the nearest hospital was in case I get seriously ill or something, and he showed me one near Seokyang but I still don’t know about one in Buyeo.
I’ve been busy setting up my apartment and trying to get my bearings in Buyeo, but it’s been a pretty dull weekend. Luckily, as I was writing this, I got another visitor… Bob, one of the native teachers! Hallelujah! Bob is an older guy who has lived here for three years with his wife. He’s Asian-Australian, but has some kind of Asian accent and not an Australian one. He said that he lives in Dongnam (my apartment complex) and is happy to answer any questions I have. He said that if I need Internet or just want to have a cup of coffee and a chat, I’m welcome to visit him and his wife anytime. He had just come from a soccer game and said that I’m welcome to join their soccer team, and that they have native teacher dinners sometimes, and said that in general he thinks there’s a good group of native teachers here. Bob used to be an accountant in Australia before moving to South Korea to become a teacher. Now that’s a bold move. He said he and his wife love Buyeo because it’s small and charming. Also he confirmed that no, it’s not just my principal, all Koreans are obsessed with volleyball.
Korea: The Prequel, Part III
August 28, 2010
Today, Saturday, was my first day without school, EOEC people, or anyone really to interact with. Predictably, as I write this at 5:30pm, it has been very dull. I put away all my suitcase stuff, which fortunately all fits into the office bureau, and then the suitcases themselves went into my storage closet. I broke out my electric fan which I’m trying to use to cut down on AC. I decided to make a list of things I need for my apartment, which turned out to be pretty extensive. For example, I have a can opener but no spoon; dish scrubber but no soap; and no towels. I have been using my extra pillowcase as a towel. It has been surprisingly effective believe it or not.
I made my Korean ramen for lunch. (I bought it at the store with Mr. Kim, and he started to explain how to make it but I told him not to worry, all college students can make ramen). I have a hot water boiler but no spoon or bowl, so I used (what I assume is) my rice cooker bowl and ate it with a fork. I also made some coffee.
Prior to leaving the apartment, I decided to look up all the words for the things I wanted to buy. My dictionary is helpful, but not as extensive as I need. Korean is hard because it doesn’t use the Roman alphabet; rather, it uses hangul, a character alphabet. Each mark represents a sound, and together the marks form symbolic boxes and you have to kind of sound the word out, just like in Hooked on Phonics back in first grade. Once you sound the word out, you can look it up. All the books I’ve read insist hangul is easy to learn, but I disagree. Maybe I just need to work harder. So for each word I had to copy down both the pictures and the pronunciation. I tried to associate the sounds with the pictures, and I was semi-successful. My problem was that it was like some math problems… it seems easy as you go along with the problem and answers, but as soon as you have to come up with the answers on your own it’s way harder than it seemed.
So while I was working on my grocery list, I heard a bell noise and thought it was my doorbell. Turns out there is an intercom in my apartment and some guy was using it! It really freaked me out especially since I had no idea what he was saying, and I also still don’t know if it was just for me (maybe I was playing music too loudly?) or if it was just a general announcement for all the apartment people. Then when I left, there was a notice taped to my door handle with a phone number, but everyone else had one too so I didn’t freak out. I took it back inside and tried deciphering the characters but either I was just wrong or my dictionary didn’t have it. I’ll take it to school on Monday and ask Mr. Kim.
My excursion into Buyeo was partially successful. I found a grocery store literally across the street from my apartment complex and managed to ask for soap (Mianhamnida, puni? Literally, “Excuse me, soap?” Obviously I’m a very smooth conversationalist.). I mimed washing my hands because I wanted hand soap. I got hand soap (they’re obsessed with bar soap here for some reason), dish soap, face wash, and toilet paper. I took it back up the four flights to my apartment so I didn’t have to carry it around. I was determined to find a larger store so I could buy some utensils and bowls and plates and stuff.
Total failure. Being illiterate is awful. All the stores look the same to me unless I can peek in, and most of them were restaurants or places I couldn’t immediately identify. I did manage to find about five beauty shops and a stationery store where I got some tape to hang up my pictures, but nothing very useful. I really need to learn hangul because if I can at least identify a word, then I can look it up. When you don’t even know what a written word sounds like or how it’s spelled, you’re totally unable to look up a translation. But hey I found a bike store! I even went in but felt sort of awkward… I mostly wanted to see how much they cost, but I couldn’t find a price tag and didn’t know how to ask, so I just left.
An elderly man on his moped said hi to me. I thought that was nice, so I smiled back. I didn’t feel at all creeped out walking around Buyeo like sometimes I did in Paris even though here I stand out much more here. I do feel like people are staring, but I feel very safe. There’s lots of kids just hanging out with their friends, so if they can be out so can I.
One thing I’d like to comment on is the proliferation of pay phones here. In my apartment complex alone I’ve already seen two pay phones, and on my walk in town I saw several more. I’m really happy to see them because I have several people’s phone numbers (Sol, Elly, Kevin, my friend Misa who lives in Daejeon, Mr. Kim, and Seokyang school) but I don’t have a landline or cell phone, so without the pay phones these numbers would be totally useless to me. I feel a lot better knowing that if I get stuck somewhere, there will probably be a pay phone and if I call Sol, he’s my liaison to the school in case something is going wrong. I feel confident in his English too.
My Lonely Planet guide informs me that the Chungnam province where I live is “not the most scintillating of provinces,” which is sad. However, I’m certain that it would probably also label Indiana as “not the most scintillating of states” and I like Indiana just fine. Buyeo is actually the last capital of the Baekje dynasty, which is now 1,300 years old. There’s the Baekje elementary school right by me, and the Buyeo National Museum is almost within sight of my apartment. I need to go there sometime soon, maybe tomorrow if I’m bored. There are a lot of places in Korea I really want to go to after reading my guidebook… I just can’t wait to have Internet at my apartment so I can look up stuff and make plans with people. I also really want a phone.
Today, Saturday, was my first day without school, EOEC people, or anyone really to interact with. Predictably, as I write this at 5:30pm, it has been very dull. I put away all my suitcase stuff, which fortunately all fits into the office bureau, and then the suitcases themselves went into my storage closet. I broke out my electric fan which I’m trying to use to cut down on AC. I decided to make a list of things I need for my apartment, which turned out to be pretty extensive. For example, I have a can opener but no spoon; dish scrubber but no soap; and no towels. I have been using my extra pillowcase as a towel. It has been surprisingly effective believe it or not.
I made my Korean ramen for lunch. (I bought it at the store with Mr. Kim, and he started to explain how to make it but I told him not to worry, all college students can make ramen). I have a hot water boiler but no spoon or bowl, so I used (what I assume is) my rice cooker bowl and ate it with a fork. I also made some coffee.
Prior to leaving the apartment, I decided to look up all the words for the things I wanted to buy. My dictionary is helpful, but not as extensive as I need. Korean is hard because it doesn’t use the Roman alphabet; rather, it uses hangul, a character alphabet. Each mark represents a sound, and together the marks form symbolic boxes and you have to kind of sound the word out, just like in Hooked on Phonics back in first grade. Once you sound the word out, you can look it up. All the books I’ve read insist hangul is easy to learn, but I disagree. Maybe I just need to work harder. So for each word I had to copy down both the pictures and the pronunciation. I tried to associate the sounds with the pictures, and I was semi-successful. My problem was that it was like some math problems… it seems easy as you go along with the problem and answers, but as soon as you have to come up with the answers on your own it’s way harder than it seemed.
So while I was working on my grocery list, I heard a bell noise and thought it was my doorbell. Turns out there is an intercom in my apartment and some guy was using it! It really freaked me out especially since I had no idea what he was saying, and I also still don’t know if it was just for me (maybe I was playing music too loudly?) or if it was just a general announcement for all the apartment people. Then when I left, there was a notice taped to my door handle with a phone number, but everyone else had one too so I didn’t freak out. I took it back inside and tried deciphering the characters but either I was just wrong or my dictionary didn’t have it. I’ll take it to school on Monday and ask Mr. Kim.
My excursion into Buyeo was partially successful. I found a grocery store literally across the street from my apartment complex and managed to ask for soap (Mianhamnida, puni? Literally, “Excuse me, soap?” Obviously I’m a very smooth conversationalist.). I mimed washing my hands because I wanted hand soap. I got hand soap (they’re obsessed with bar soap here for some reason), dish soap, face wash, and toilet paper. I took it back up the four flights to my apartment so I didn’t have to carry it around. I was determined to find a larger store so I could buy some utensils and bowls and plates and stuff.
Total failure. Being illiterate is awful. All the stores look the same to me unless I can peek in, and most of them were restaurants or places I couldn’t immediately identify. I did manage to find about five beauty shops and a stationery store where I got some tape to hang up my pictures, but nothing very useful. I really need to learn hangul because if I can at least identify a word, then I can look it up. When you don’t even know what a written word sounds like or how it’s spelled, you’re totally unable to look up a translation. But hey I found a bike store! I even went in but felt sort of awkward… I mostly wanted to see how much they cost, but I couldn’t find a price tag and didn’t know how to ask, so I just left.
An elderly man on his moped said hi to me. I thought that was nice, so I smiled back. I didn’t feel at all creeped out walking around Buyeo like sometimes I did in Paris even though here I stand out much more here. I do feel like people are staring, but I feel very safe. There’s lots of kids just hanging out with their friends, so if they can be out so can I.
One thing I’d like to comment on is the proliferation of pay phones here. In my apartment complex alone I’ve already seen two pay phones, and on my walk in town I saw several more. I’m really happy to see them because I have several people’s phone numbers (Sol, Elly, Kevin, my friend Misa who lives in Daejeon, Mr. Kim, and Seokyang school) but I don’t have a landline or cell phone, so without the pay phones these numbers would be totally useless to me. I feel a lot better knowing that if I get stuck somewhere, there will probably be a pay phone and if I call Sol, he’s my liaison to the school in case something is going wrong. I feel confident in his English too.
My Lonely Planet guide informs me that the Chungnam province where I live is “not the most scintillating of provinces,” which is sad. However, I’m certain that it would probably also label Indiana as “not the most scintillating of states” and I like Indiana just fine. Buyeo is actually the last capital of the Baekje dynasty, which is now 1,300 years old. There’s the Baekje elementary school right by me, and the Buyeo National Museum is almost within sight of my apartment. I need to go there sometime soon, maybe tomorrow if I’m bored. There are a lot of places in Korea I really want to go to after reading my guidebook… I just can’t wait to have Internet at my apartment so I can look up stuff and make plans with people. I also really want a phone.
Korea: The Prequel, Part II
August 27, 2010
It was my first day at school, and it was a long day. The jet lag makes me extremely tired around 7-8pm, but it makes me wake up at about 4am. I managed to sleep until 6:30am. I was so relieved that someone from Seokyang was going to pick me up… originally, Suri showed me the bus stop to get on and said it would come at 8:10 and I should take it to the school. I was kind of freaking out because Suri “thought” it was the blue bus but wasn’t sure, I didn’t know how to make it stop, I didn’t know where to buy a ticket (though I assumed I could just pay the driver), I didn’t know how to identify my stop, and assuming I could get off at the right stop, I didn’t know how to walk to the school! I told Dhyana about this dilemma, and she said her co-teacher picked her up the first day and I should ask Suri if mine would. So I asked, and Suri told me someone would pick me up at the apartment main office at 8:30am.
So I woke up at 6:30am and realized I had no food. I ate dinner with Suri and the other guy the day before, but all I had was a little thing of peanuts left over from the 7-11 excursion in Incheon. So I ate the peanuts, took a cold shower because the hot water wasn’t working, got dressed, and packed up my things for school. I left my apartment around 7:30am thinking I would look for a grocery store. I found a little market mom-and-pop type store very close to where I was going to be picked up. I found what looked like Honey Bunches of Oats and a big bottle of water and decided to bring them back to my apartment because I still had about 45 minutes. After breakfast (dry cereal with water), I went back to the main office area. At 8:40am a van pulled up and it was some guy I didn’t recognize, but he knew my name so I got in the van and we drove to Seokyang. He directed me to the principal’s office, and the Black Shirt guy was there (later I figured out he must be the vice-principal). So I’m sitting there and these two are chatting in Korean. Before sitting down, I managed to bow and say Annyeoung haseyo? to the principal, and so he asked me, “Do you speak Korean?” and I was like, “No.”
So here’s where it gets interesting. This is the second question the principal, using his very limited English asks me, “Do you like volleyball?” Yes, volleyball. Nothing about teaching, my own education, how is Korea, etc. etc., but volleyball. So I said, yes, I like volleyball. Well, that’s good because the principal informed me each Wednesday I must play teachers’ volleyball with the rest of the faculty. Well, all right then.
So the next step was for me, Mr. Kim, and the principal to drive to Seokseung, the other school where I’ll be teaching. I like the principal there because he attempted to actually greet me and introduce himself. We all sat down in his office and were actually served some delicious iced coffee. My co-teacher at Seokseung is a young guy who is also named Mr. Kim. This is a recurring theme as there are only about five last names in Korea… Kim, Park, Lee, etc. Young Mr. Kim has very good English. He asked what to call me, and the best the Koreans can do with my name is “Ter-ay-za Krech” so I said Theresa was fine, and he told me I can call him Joo. His full name is Kim Cheong-joo, think. Something like that. It was really good to have Joo around because I had written down a list of questions to ask Mr. Kim, such as, “How do I turn on the hot water? How do I work the gas stove? How will I pay my utilities? Can I drink the tap water? What’s my address? How does the bus work?” etc. I would ask Joo, who would translate for Mr. Kim.
The rest of the day I spent at Seokyang. Mr. Kim is also the music teacher, and Mon-Wed is English lessons and Thurs-Fri is music. The room Mr. Kim and I share is really, really nice. I take back my cow poop comment from the other day… the rooms are very nice and cool and don’t smell. They all have sliding doors to keep out humidity and smells. We work in the “Seokyang English Zone” area and all the signs, instructions, etc are in English. I have my own desk and computer on one side of the classroom, and Mr. Kim has the other. I had some instruction manuals for native English teachers that I read while Mr. Kim conducted his music class. I was kind of surprised at the way he ran his classroom. It’s been a while since I’ve been in an elementary school, but I thought they were pretty disruptive… talking to each other, coloring, just not paying attention in general. However, it was mostly a singing class so there wasn’t a lot of attention that needed to be paid, I guess. It got really, really loud. I forgot how little kids think shouting is singing. Mr. Kim seems like a very calm, patient teacher. He never yelled at the kids.
The kids definitely stare at me. When I visited on Thursday as I was leaving, a whole crowd of them hovered at the top of the stairs watching me. I know they’ve seen white people before (there’s pictures of white people in the English Zone), but I have to wonder if I’m one of the first white people they’ve seen in person. Certainly they all love to say hi or hello to me. A group of them crowded my desk before their music lesson started. They might have been fifth grade or so. They wanted to know if I was their new teacher and where I was from. Luckily there was a world map right by my desk, so I stood up and pointed out Chicago on the map. Immediately a chorus of “Chicago! Chicago!” rang out excitedly, and the girl who asked me where I was from said, “Teacher! I want to go to Chicago!” Another girl said something in Korean and the other girl replied, “Yes, she’s tall!”
I get a huge kick out of them bowing to me, and they get a huge kick out of saying hello to me. A bunch of them sidled past my desk shyly and said, “Hello” or “Hi” and then ran away. They may be the cutest children I have ever seen.
For lunch the teachers and students all eat the same food in the cafeteria. Again, I’m pretty sure Korean food has declared war on me. I made the terrible mistake of biting into what may have been a dried green chili... whatever it was it was super spicy. It seems to me all Korean food is either spicy, hot, or spicy and hot. Rice is the only exception.
Lunchtime is about an hour long, but only half of it is spent eating. The kids here actually clean the school during lunchtime! They have vacuums and mops and brooms and clean the classrooms. They must rotate or something because there were kids playing outside too. They have a big sandy area with a playground and a full-size soccer field.
Classes ended at 3:30 or so, but Mr. Kim worked until five. He showed me around the school, and I met all the other teachers. They’re mostly women except the gym teacher, who turned out to be the guy that had picked me up this morning. The special ed teacher actually speaks some English, which is nice. There’s a woman from Uzbekistan (Alice, I think) who married a Korean man and so she lives here. She just moved to Chungnam and is teaching English at Seokyang too. She helps translate for me sometimes. Everyone asks me about volleyball. The special ed teacher said the principal is obsessed with it. Everyone wants to know what position I play, and I told them I’m not good at serving but can receive the ball, and they all want to know if I can “kill” (spike) it. It’s hard to say exactly, but I think I’m about as tall as all the male teachers.
This whole school is really, really nice, especially the kindergarten room. It even has a ball pit! Mrs. Chung is one of the teachers, and she gave us coffee and told me (through Mr. Kim) that I should come to her if I ever want coffee. I think all these teachers speak more English than they let on because after Mr. Kim translated, she added, “Any time.” The other kindergarten teacher told me I am very beautiful. I don’t know if she really thinks so or if this is some form of Korean politeness.
I’ve exhausted my store of Korean phrases, but the repetitive use makes it easier, and the teachers look really pleased and a little surprised when I greet them with a bow and Annyeoung haseyo? And then Pangapsseumnida (pleased to meet you). Also Kamsahamnida (thank you). I think it encourages them to talk to me. Mrs. Chung directed all her questions at me even though I had to look to Mr. Kim each time because I had no idea what she was saying. She’s worried about me living alone here, which I think is nice.
At five Mr.Kim and I walked to the bus because he was going to come with me to my apartment to show me how to use the hot water, stove, etc. Now I know how to take the express bus, but it drops me off pretty far from home and I don’t know how to use the regular bus. This will take time, I think. Honestly, bless Mr. Kim. He tries so hard and is so helpful. When we got off the bus, he took me to an electronics store to try and buy a converter because mine doesn’t work, and we even stopped by the grocery store so I could get some real groceries. He helped me pick out some good stuff because I had no idea what most of these things were. He would also point out the lowest price.
The word we most commonly use is “okay.” I think Mr. Kim thinks “okay” and “yes” are interchangeable. This makes it hard to tell when he’s saying yes and when he’s just saying okay as in he doesn’t understand. For example:
Me: Thank you so much for taking me grocery shopping, Mr. Kim. I really appreciate it.
Mr. Kim: It is not a problem. I do much shopping because my wife does not. (Laughs)
Me: (Laughs) Do you cook, too?
Mr. Kim: Okay.
See what I mean? Is he saying, yes I cook a lot, or is this his way of saying he doesn’t know how to respond? It’s very tricky. We smile and nod a lot.
So Mr. Kim showed me how to work the microwave, hot water, and stove; went out and bought me a new light bulb and installed it in my room; tried to figure out my TV and phone; warned me leaving the AC on during the day is very expensive; knocked on my neighbor’s door to introduce us and ask her when/where garbage is picked up; and wrote down his phone number and the school’s in case I get lost or something on Monday. I felt pretty bad because he didn’t leave until about 8pm, and he lives in Daejeon, which like I said is about an hour and a half away. Plus he told me he takes the bus because his wife uses the car. She’s a nurse. His son called while he was here, and he told me he has a 19 year old daughter, an 18 year old son, and an 11 year old daughter. However, Alice told me earlier that Mr. Kim told her I was 25, so I’m a bit leery of the information he gives me.
It was my first day at school, and it was a long day. The jet lag makes me extremely tired around 7-8pm, but it makes me wake up at about 4am. I managed to sleep until 6:30am. I was so relieved that someone from Seokyang was going to pick me up… originally, Suri showed me the bus stop to get on and said it would come at 8:10 and I should take it to the school. I was kind of freaking out because Suri “thought” it was the blue bus but wasn’t sure, I didn’t know how to make it stop, I didn’t know where to buy a ticket (though I assumed I could just pay the driver), I didn’t know how to identify my stop, and assuming I could get off at the right stop, I didn’t know how to walk to the school! I told Dhyana about this dilemma, and she said her co-teacher picked her up the first day and I should ask Suri if mine would. So I asked, and Suri told me someone would pick me up at the apartment main office at 8:30am.
So I woke up at 6:30am and realized I had no food. I ate dinner with Suri and the other guy the day before, but all I had was a little thing of peanuts left over from the 7-11 excursion in Incheon. So I ate the peanuts, took a cold shower because the hot water wasn’t working, got dressed, and packed up my things for school. I left my apartment around 7:30am thinking I would look for a grocery store. I found a little market mom-and-pop type store very close to where I was going to be picked up. I found what looked like Honey Bunches of Oats and a big bottle of water and decided to bring them back to my apartment because I still had about 45 minutes. After breakfast (dry cereal with water), I went back to the main office area. At 8:40am a van pulled up and it was some guy I didn’t recognize, but he knew my name so I got in the van and we drove to Seokyang. He directed me to the principal’s office, and the Black Shirt guy was there (later I figured out he must be the vice-principal). So I’m sitting there and these two are chatting in Korean. Before sitting down, I managed to bow and say Annyeoung haseyo? to the principal, and so he asked me, “Do you speak Korean?” and I was like, “No.”
So here’s where it gets interesting. This is the second question the principal, using his very limited English asks me, “Do you like volleyball?” Yes, volleyball. Nothing about teaching, my own education, how is Korea, etc. etc., but volleyball. So I said, yes, I like volleyball. Well, that’s good because the principal informed me each Wednesday I must play teachers’ volleyball with the rest of the faculty. Well, all right then.
So the next step was for me, Mr. Kim, and the principal to drive to Seokseung, the other school where I’ll be teaching. I like the principal there because he attempted to actually greet me and introduce himself. We all sat down in his office and were actually served some delicious iced coffee. My co-teacher at Seokseung is a young guy who is also named Mr. Kim. This is a recurring theme as there are only about five last names in Korea… Kim, Park, Lee, etc. Young Mr. Kim has very good English. He asked what to call me, and the best the Koreans can do with my name is “Ter-ay-za Krech” so I said Theresa was fine, and he told me I can call him Joo. His full name is Kim Cheong-joo, think. Something like that. It was really good to have Joo around because I had written down a list of questions to ask Mr. Kim, such as, “How do I turn on the hot water? How do I work the gas stove? How will I pay my utilities? Can I drink the tap water? What’s my address? How does the bus work?” etc. I would ask Joo, who would translate for Mr. Kim.
The rest of the day I spent at Seokyang. Mr. Kim is also the music teacher, and Mon-Wed is English lessons and Thurs-Fri is music. The room Mr. Kim and I share is really, really nice. I take back my cow poop comment from the other day… the rooms are very nice and cool and don’t smell. They all have sliding doors to keep out humidity and smells. We work in the “Seokyang English Zone” area and all the signs, instructions, etc are in English. I have my own desk and computer on one side of the classroom, and Mr. Kim has the other. I had some instruction manuals for native English teachers that I read while Mr. Kim conducted his music class. I was kind of surprised at the way he ran his classroom. It’s been a while since I’ve been in an elementary school, but I thought they were pretty disruptive… talking to each other, coloring, just not paying attention in general. However, it was mostly a singing class so there wasn’t a lot of attention that needed to be paid, I guess. It got really, really loud. I forgot how little kids think shouting is singing. Mr. Kim seems like a very calm, patient teacher. He never yelled at the kids.
The kids definitely stare at me. When I visited on Thursday as I was leaving, a whole crowd of them hovered at the top of the stairs watching me. I know they’ve seen white people before (there’s pictures of white people in the English Zone), but I have to wonder if I’m one of the first white people they’ve seen in person. Certainly they all love to say hi or hello to me. A group of them crowded my desk before their music lesson started. They might have been fifth grade or so. They wanted to know if I was their new teacher and where I was from. Luckily there was a world map right by my desk, so I stood up and pointed out Chicago on the map. Immediately a chorus of “Chicago! Chicago!” rang out excitedly, and the girl who asked me where I was from said, “Teacher! I want to go to Chicago!” Another girl said something in Korean and the other girl replied, “Yes, she’s tall!”
I get a huge kick out of them bowing to me, and they get a huge kick out of saying hello to me. A bunch of them sidled past my desk shyly and said, “Hello” or “Hi” and then ran away. They may be the cutest children I have ever seen.
For lunch the teachers and students all eat the same food in the cafeteria. Again, I’m pretty sure Korean food has declared war on me. I made the terrible mistake of biting into what may have been a dried green chili... whatever it was it was super spicy. It seems to me all Korean food is either spicy, hot, or spicy and hot. Rice is the only exception.
Lunchtime is about an hour long, but only half of it is spent eating. The kids here actually clean the school during lunchtime! They have vacuums and mops and brooms and clean the classrooms. They must rotate or something because there were kids playing outside too. They have a big sandy area with a playground and a full-size soccer field.
Classes ended at 3:30 or so, but Mr. Kim worked until five. He showed me around the school, and I met all the other teachers. They’re mostly women except the gym teacher, who turned out to be the guy that had picked me up this morning. The special ed teacher actually speaks some English, which is nice. There’s a woman from Uzbekistan (Alice, I think) who married a Korean man and so she lives here. She just moved to Chungnam and is teaching English at Seokyang too. She helps translate for me sometimes. Everyone asks me about volleyball. The special ed teacher said the principal is obsessed with it. Everyone wants to know what position I play, and I told them I’m not good at serving but can receive the ball, and they all want to know if I can “kill” (spike) it. It’s hard to say exactly, but I think I’m about as tall as all the male teachers.
This whole school is really, really nice, especially the kindergarten room. It even has a ball pit! Mrs. Chung is one of the teachers, and she gave us coffee and told me (through Mr. Kim) that I should come to her if I ever want coffee. I think all these teachers speak more English than they let on because after Mr. Kim translated, she added, “Any time.” The other kindergarten teacher told me I am very beautiful. I don’t know if she really thinks so or if this is some form of Korean politeness.
I’ve exhausted my store of Korean phrases, but the repetitive use makes it easier, and the teachers look really pleased and a little surprised when I greet them with a bow and Annyeoung haseyo? And then Pangapsseumnida (pleased to meet you). Also Kamsahamnida (thank you). I think it encourages them to talk to me. Mrs. Chung directed all her questions at me even though I had to look to Mr. Kim each time because I had no idea what she was saying. She’s worried about me living alone here, which I think is nice.
At five Mr.Kim and I walked to the bus because he was going to come with me to my apartment to show me how to use the hot water, stove, etc. Now I know how to take the express bus, but it drops me off pretty far from home and I don’t know how to use the regular bus. This will take time, I think. Honestly, bless Mr. Kim. He tries so hard and is so helpful. When we got off the bus, he took me to an electronics store to try and buy a converter because mine doesn’t work, and we even stopped by the grocery store so I could get some real groceries. He helped me pick out some good stuff because I had no idea what most of these things were. He would also point out the lowest price.
The word we most commonly use is “okay.” I think Mr. Kim thinks “okay” and “yes” are interchangeable. This makes it hard to tell when he’s saying yes and when he’s just saying okay as in he doesn’t understand. For example:
Me: Thank you so much for taking me grocery shopping, Mr. Kim. I really appreciate it.
Mr. Kim: It is not a problem. I do much shopping because my wife does not. (Laughs)
Me: (Laughs) Do you cook, too?
Mr. Kim: Okay.
See what I mean? Is he saying, yes I cook a lot, or is this his way of saying he doesn’t know how to respond? It’s very tricky. We smile and nod a lot.
So Mr. Kim showed me how to work the microwave, hot water, and stove; went out and bought me a new light bulb and installed it in my room; tried to figure out my TV and phone; warned me leaving the AC on during the day is very expensive; knocked on my neighbor’s door to introduce us and ask her when/where garbage is picked up; and wrote down his phone number and the school’s in case I get lost or something on Monday. I felt pretty bad because he didn’t leave until about 8pm, and he lives in Daejeon, which like I said is about an hour and a half away. Plus he told me he takes the bus because his wife uses the car. She’s a nurse. His son called while he was here, and he told me he has a 19 year old daughter, an 18 year old son, and an 11 year old daughter. However, Alice told me earlier that Mr. Kim told her I was 25, so I’m a bit leery of the information he gives me.
Korea: The Prequel, Part I
Here are the four installations of my blog from when I first got here and didn't have any Internet. Enjoy, they are quite wordy as I was very bored.
August 26, 2010
Yesterday I arrived in Incheon International Airport at 4pm. I was all mixed up about time differences and everything, and even as we were landing I STILL wasn’t sure what the right day/time was. Fortunately the captain gave the time and day, so I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I had told the agency people the right day and time so that they would be at the airport waiting to meet me. The plane ride went smoothly, even if we did have massive turbulence for quite a large portion of it. I got lucky and ended up with a window seat and only one guy next to me; the other windows were three people, but we were the last row so it was narrower. Luckily we weren’t against a bulkhead, so we could lean our seats back. Initially I thought the guy next to me was airsick because he kept getting up or leaning his head against the seat in front of him as though he was sick, but then I asked to get up to use the bathroom and he told me he had some back pain, so it would take him awhile to stand up. It was good for me because it meant he spent a lot of time out of his seat. I flew Korean Air, which meant the dinner was Korean food. I liked it… The guy next to me either was just nice or noticed me surreptitiously watching him prepare his food because he took it upon himself to explain how to eat the meal. It was fruit, seaweed soup, rice, a mix of cucumbers, beef, bean sprouts with beans attached, and something else that I couldn’t identify. Also, Korean pickles! They were a lot like dill pickles for hamburgers, only not sour. The food was good, but seaweed soup tasted exactly like you might imagine. Ever smell seaweed on the ocean? Yeah, just like that, only minus salt – but in hot water. It was okay, but I only had a few bites. There was a mom with a little Korean baby in front of me, and that kid kept poking his head around the seat and staring at me, so I started making faces at him and he thought that was hilarious. I read in Korean culture books that Koreans absolutely love children, and I believe it. First of all, my seatmate would try and catch the baby’s attention by doing jazz hands or something, and the flight attendants kept bringing baby food and offering to hold him when he was crying. They would even take young children to the bathroom. Maybe other airlines do that and I’ve never noticed. I slept about six out of the 12 and a half hour flight and read a Reader’s Digest then watched two movies – Kick-Ass and Clash of the Titans. For those who’ve never seen this version of Clash of the Titans, don’t. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a more mixed-up film. It’s sort of entertaining, but if you take one single second to think about any part of the movie, be it the acting, the writing, the hair, the makeup, the mythology… none if it makes any sense as a whole. Sam Worthington’s buzz cut amidst everyone else’s long hair, the appearance of djinn in what’s supposed to be Greek mythology, the fact that everyone in the movie seems to just be using their own accent so there’s a strange mix of British, Norwegian or Swedish or something, Australian, maybe American… and also, it’s been awhile since I’ve read the legend of Perseus, but I don’t think that’s the way it went. Also I like how Io has supposedly followed Perseus all his life (for reasons unexplained in the film), but let his whole family die? Way to be a subpar guardian angel. Anyway, back to Korea.
Customs and immigration went well, but when I exited the gate, I couldn’t find my contact, a Mr. Hwang Sol (first name Sol, last name Hwang… that’s how they write names in Korean). If no one showed up after an hour, I was supposed to go to the information desk between gates D and E, so I checked the time and thought it had been about an hour since landing, but only about 10 minutes since I got to the gate. I decided to go look for the information desk, and while en route several taxi drivers approached me. So far I would generalize Koreans as very polite people based on the airport personnel, my seatmate, and finally the taxi drives. For what are typically very pushy people, these taxi drivers were very soft-spoken and polite. Also I changed some money just inside the gate, and the woman was very polite… not grouchy like some airport people can be. I just said I was meeting someone and they backed off. After an unsuccessful trip to the information station, I went back to my gate and found Sol. He had a little sign with my name on it and everything! I was pretty relieved that he spoke such good English. As we were walking through the airport, I asked him if there was any way I could get the Internet so I could contact my parents, and there were little terminals available. I only had one coin and it ran out after 10 minutes, so Sol gave me another one and said it was his treat, which was nice. He was charging his phone, and I guess in Korea you can just drop off your phone battery at stores (like 7-11 types) and pay them to charge it. Pretty cool.
Sol had driven to the airport, and he told me that I would be spending the night in a hotel in Incheon because it was too late to go to Buyeo. We drove over the fifth longest bridge in the world (woo!) from the island where the airport is to Incheon. Sol told me he had lived in New Zealand for four years and had just gotten back a few months ago, so that explained why his English was so good. Turns out NZ is a 13 hour flight from Seoul. Apparently NZ is close to absolutely nowhere. Also, Sol tried to teach me some Korean… didn’t work so well. He evenHe dropped me off a little motel cleverly named “Motel” and said someone would be back at 8am to pick me up. He arranged for a wakeup call and then left.
So there I was, all alone in this motel, and I had no idea where I was. Thank goodness there was a 7-11 within sight from my window because I hadn’t had dinner and wasn’t sure I wanted to venture too far away because I didn’t have a map and didn’t want to get lost. I got some peanuts, a sandwich, and a bottle of water and returned to my hotel room. It was a nice enough room, but no AC! I found this thing I thought was an AC unit, but my window was open and the rest of the place had no air, and I couldn’t figure out how to work it. The bed was ridiculously hard, but I figured this was probably a Korean thing. Their bathrooms are also their showers in that the whole thing is usually just open and there’s no shower door, but mine actually did have a door. Koreans also don’t wear their outside shoes indoors, so I had a pair of slippers to wear in the room and a pair of sandals for the shower. After I ate it was almost eight, so I read a little and went to bed.
Talk about not having a good night’s sleep… it was about 85 and humid in the room, and the traffic noises were so loud I finally shut the window. However, there was some irritating high-pitched beeping noise that went off sporadically, so I finally cracked and put in my earplugs. Then I was paranoid about missing my wakeup call and alarm, so I woke up about every three hours. I actually felt okay the next day though.
Downstairs, a new agency person was waiting for me. She told me her name was Suri, but for the longest time I was calling her So Li. Whoops. Suri definitely did not have Sol’s English skills. We got some breakfast and picked up some Korean guy whose name I never learned, but he spoke about as much English as I do Korean (which is to say roughly two phrases). We drove to Buyeo, about two hours from Incheon. I was pretty excited to FINALLY see where I’d be living! It was about what I expected, which is to say a small, kind of backwater town. We went to the education office and met a man and woman who spoke English and seemed to be in charge of the English teachers. They were nice, but the woman was like, You will fit in okay because you are young… you will have communication problems, but because you are young you will be able to adapt. Then the man introduced me to all the workers there. You know how in movies and such the new kid has to go to the front of the room and the teacher introduces them? Yes, it was exactly like that only I stood there like a mute and waved like an idiot when they applauded me. Yes, I said applauded. I felt very, very awkward. I had learned how to say hello (Annyeoung haseyo) and thank you (Kam sa ham ni da), yet managed to use neither one because I kept choking each time it came time for me to try.
Next we visited one of the two elementary schools where I’ll be teaching. Seokyang is my “main” school. It seemd pretty big, maybe a bit smaller than Frank Hammond, but it was hard to tell. It was a nice enough place, clean with a playground, but not air-conditioned and quite frankly, the one place smelled like cow poop. Hopefully this is partially due to the rain that has been coming down incessantly since my arrival. Suri didn’t do a good job of introducing me to anyone, so all I know is that I sort of met one man (who will henceforth be called Black Shirt on account of his attire), who talked to Suri and the other guy for like ten minutes while I sat there and pretended to pay attention to what was essentially just gibberish to me. Then we went upstairs and met the guy I think is the principal, Mr. Park, and also Mr. Kim, my co-teacher. I only know he’s my co-teacher because he shook my hand and said, “Welcome to our school” in English. Suri was less than helpful in explaining who these people were, and Mr. Kim didn’t really say anything else to me.
Suri and the other guy took me to my apartment (finally!) and I was actually pleasantly surprised. The complex is kind of old and run down, but my apartment itself is much cleaner and bigger than I would have thought. When we got there (fourth floor, no elevator, woo!), one of the guys from the school and some woman were there. The woman greeted me with a small bow and Annyeoung haseyo and I drew a deep breath, bowed, and blurted out Annyeoung haseyo! And she laughed and smiled. I finally said it! I was very excited. The apartment has a bedroom off to the right, and it’s got a bed, TV, phone, couch, two dining room chairs, a balcony (that is an absolute sauna, no way I’m going out there any time soon), a dresser, and bed linens and cover. I was happy to see those. It’s got a small kitchen that has a wok, scissors, a cup, and some other kitchen-y type stuff. There’s a bathroom with no separate shower, though they did provide me a roll of toilet paper, thank goodness. I’ve got an office with a bureau for clothes and a hanging rack. The fridge is also in there. There’s a small back room with what appears to be a washer/dryer, or at least a washer. I’m afraid to use it as all the instructions are in Korean and it doesn’t appear to be very simple. I also can’t use the gas range. I tried but can’t figure it out. I should have asked Suri for help but didn’t think about it. On the plus side, I HAVE AIR-CONDITIONING. This has been the single greatest thing to happen to me since arriving in Korea. I’m sitting on my bedroom couch right below it, basking in the glory of cool air. I asked Suri to show me how to use it but the gas stove thing didn’t occur to me. I did have her help me lock and unlock the door. This was inspired by my inability to lock my front door in Paris. I tried leaving for school and had the worst time figuring it out, then being paranoid that someone was going to break in, etc. etc. This time I was prepared to avert potential disaster. Next time, I’ll know to ask how to turn on the stove. I also forgot to ask if I can drink the tap water. It hadn’t even occurred to me, but I was reading my guidebook and it made the water sound sketchy, so I’m a little concerned. I meant to ask but completely forgot, so I’ll have to ask my co-teacher tomorrow.
Next we went to Daejeon, which is about an hour and a half away and is the fifth largest city in South Korea. I had to get a physical to make sure I’m healthy and don’t have to be deported. We picked up a Canadian girl named Dhyana, and I was exceedingly happy to have someone to talk to. This is her second time in Korea, so she was able to answer a lot of questions I had that Suri couldn’t help me with because she didn’t speak enough English. Dhyana is moving to a small town whose name I can’t remember, but she gave me her email so we can meet up sometime. She said she knows this place in Seoul where all the foreigners shop because we’re all too fat to fit into Korean clothes.
On the way back to Buyeo, Suri asked if I was hungry, which I was because I couldn’t eat anything after breakfast because of the physical. We stopped at a little restaurant, and Suri ordered for everyone. This was it, the moment of truth… real Korean food! She got spicy beef soup for all of us. When the waitress brought it, it was literally bubbling because it was so hot. We also got kimchi and some tan cubes of something flecked with red (which turned out to be radishes). I used stainless steel chopsticks for the first time. Suri got me a fork, but I decided to use the chopsticks because hey, I would have to eventually. I successfully got a cube on the chopsticks and popped it in my mouth. WHAM! Absolute explosion of spiciness directly on my unsuspecting tastebuds. Now I knew Korean food was spicy, but nothing could have prepared me for this. My eyes started watering and my nose started running ,and Suri asked me if I was okay. I moved on to the kimchi, which is pickled cabbage. It has the crunchy consistency of coleslaw, only no mayonnaise. It was good; that is, it was bland enough to eat. Then I moved onto the soup. Ohhhhh the soup. It was perhaps even spicier than the radishes, mainly because temperature-wise it was steaming hot. So, so hot. It was good, but I couldn’t actually finish all of it because it was so hot and spicy it was literally painful to eat. Luckily I had a side dish of plain old rice. My meal went something like this: spoonful of soup, cool down with rice, chopstick-full of kimchi, and repeat. By the end of the meal I was almost crying because my eyes were watering so much and my nose was running like crazy. Korean food – 1, Theresa – 0.
Every time I had a question Suri couldn’t answer, she would call Elly or Sol and hand me the phone. Elly is the woman I’ve been in contact with all summer, and she speaks very good English. At one point I asked her about other foreign teachers living near me, and she gave me one British guy’s number, so I called him on Suri’s phone. He told me he lives in my apartment complex, but is on vacation until Sunday. He sounded very friendly and pleased to hear there’s a “new foreigner” here. He said Korea is fantastic; Buyeo not so much, but he and the other teachers have a good time. He said they’ve even got a soccer league! They’re apparently not very good, but they have fun playing a game and then go get drinks afterwards. I told him I was from Chicago, and he said there were other teachers from there that live here too.
I don’t think I can describe how incredibly relieved I was to know that there are other English-speaking people nearby. Not having a phone, Internet, or roommate makes it quite hard to be in contact with other people. I told Kevin (the British guy) my apartment block and number and he said they’re having a soccer game on Sunday so he will stop by. I can’t wait to meet the other teachers; I think they’ll be very helpful. For example, Kevin already warned me to avoid this one guy. “If you run into a foreigner named Chris, try and avoid him. He’s absolutely mad! But this is young Chris. Old Chris is okay, but watch out for young Chris.” These are the things I need to know!
August 26, 2010
Yesterday I arrived in Incheon International Airport at 4pm. I was all mixed up about time differences and everything, and even as we were landing I STILL wasn’t sure what the right day/time was. Fortunately the captain gave the time and day, so I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I had told the agency people the right day and time so that they would be at the airport waiting to meet me. The plane ride went smoothly, even if we did have massive turbulence for quite a large portion of it. I got lucky and ended up with a window seat and only one guy next to me; the other windows were three people, but we were the last row so it was narrower. Luckily we weren’t against a bulkhead, so we could lean our seats back. Initially I thought the guy next to me was airsick because he kept getting up or leaning his head against the seat in front of him as though he was sick, but then I asked to get up to use the bathroom and he told me he had some back pain, so it would take him awhile to stand up. It was good for me because it meant he spent a lot of time out of his seat. I flew Korean Air, which meant the dinner was Korean food. I liked it… The guy next to me either was just nice or noticed me surreptitiously watching him prepare his food because he took it upon himself to explain how to eat the meal. It was fruit, seaweed soup, rice, a mix of cucumbers, beef, bean sprouts with beans attached, and something else that I couldn’t identify. Also, Korean pickles! They were a lot like dill pickles for hamburgers, only not sour. The food was good, but seaweed soup tasted exactly like you might imagine. Ever smell seaweed on the ocean? Yeah, just like that, only minus salt – but in hot water. It was okay, but I only had a few bites. There was a mom with a little Korean baby in front of me, and that kid kept poking his head around the seat and staring at me, so I started making faces at him and he thought that was hilarious. I read in Korean culture books that Koreans absolutely love children, and I believe it. First of all, my seatmate would try and catch the baby’s attention by doing jazz hands or something, and the flight attendants kept bringing baby food and offering to hold him when he was crying. They would even take young children to the bathroom. Maybe other airlines do that and I’ve never noticed. I slept about six out of the 12 and a half hour flight and read a Reader’s Digest then watched two movies – Kick-Ass and Clash of the Titans. For those who’ve never seen this version of Clash of the Titans, don’t. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a more mixed-up film. It’s sort of entertaining, but if you take one single second to think about any part of the movie, be it the acting, the writing, the hair, the makeup, the mythology… none if it makes any sense as a whole. Sam Worthington’s buzz cut amidst everyone else’s long hair, the appearance of djinn in what’s supposed to be Greek mythology, the fact that everyone in the movie seems to just be using their own accent so there’s a strange mix of British, Norwegian or Swedish or something, Australian, maybe American… and also, it’s been awhile since I’ve read the legend of Perseus, but I don’t think that’s the way it went. Also I like how Io has supposedly followed Perseus all his life (for reasons unexplained in the film), but let his whole family die? Way to be a subpar guardian angel. Anyway, back to Korea.
Customs and immigration went well, but when I exited the gate, I couldn’t find my contact, a Mr. Hwang Sol (first name Sol, last name Hwang… that’s how they write names in Korean). If no one showed up after an hour, I was supposed to go to the information desk between gates D and E, so I checked the time and thought it had been about an hour since landing, but only about 10 minutes since I got to the gate. I decided to go look for the information desk, and while en route several taxi drivers approached me. So far I would generalize Koreans as very polite people based on the airport personnel, my seatmate, and finally the taxi drives. For what are typically very pushy people, these taxi drivers were very soft-spoken and polite. Also I changed some money just inside the gate, and the woman was very polite… not grouchy like some airport people can be. I just said I was meeting someone and they backed off. After an unsuccessful trip to the information station, I went back to my gate and found Sol. He had a little sign with my name on it and everything! I was pretty relieved that he spoke such good English. As we were walking through the airport, I asked him if there was any way I could get the Internet so I could contact my parents, and there were little terminals available. I only had one coin and it ran out after 10 minutes, so Sol gave me another one and said it was his treat, which was nice. He was charging his phone, and I guess in Korea you can just drop off your phone battery at stores (like 7-11 types) and pay them to charge it. Pretty cool.
Sol had driven to the airport, and he told me that I would be spending the night in a hotel in Incheon because it was too late to go to Buyeo. We drove over the fifth longest bridge in the world (woo!) from the island where the airport is to Incheon. Sol told me he had lived in New Zealand for four years and had just gotten back a few months ago, so that explained why his English was so good. Turns out NZ is a 13 hour flight from Seoul. Apparently NZ is close to absolutely nowhere. Also, Sol tried to teach me some Korean… didn’t work so well. He evenHe dropped me off a little motel cleverly named “Motel” and said someone would be back at 8am to pick me up. He arranged for a wakeup call and then left.
So there I was, all alone in this motel, and I had no idea where I was. Thank goodness there was a 7-11 within sight from my window because I hadn’t had dinner and wasn’t sure I wanted to venture too far away because I didn’t have a map and didn’t want to get lost. I got some peanuts, a sandwich, and a bottle of water and returned to my hotel room. It was a nice enough room, but no AC! I found this thing I thought was an AC unit, but my window was open and the rest of the place had no air, and I couldn’t figure out how to work it. The bed was ridiculously hard, but I figured this was probably a Korean thing. Their bathrooms are also their showers in that the whole thing is usually just open and there’s no shower door, but mine actually did have a door. Koreans also don’t wear their outside shoes indoors, so I had a pair of slippers to wear in the room and a pair of sandals for the shower. After I ate it was almost eight, so I read a little and went to bed.
Talk about not having a good night’s sleep… it was about 85 and humid in the room, and the traffic noises were so loud I finally shut the window. However, there was some irritating high-pitched beeping noise that went off sporadically, so I finally cracked and put in my earplugs. Then I was paranoid about missing my wakeup call and alarm, so I woke up about every three hours. I actually felt okay the next day though.
Downstairs, a new agency person was waiting for me. She told me her name was Suri, but for the longest time I was calling her So Li. Whoops. Suri definitely did not have Sol’s English skills. We got some breakfast and picked up some Korean guy whose name I never learned, but he spoke about as much English as I do Korean (which is to say roughly two phrases). We drove to Buyeo, about two hours from Incheon. I was pretty excited to FINALLY see where I’d be living! It was about what I expected, which is to say a small, kind of backwater town. We went to the education office and met a man and woman who spoke English and seemed to be in charge of the English teachers. They were nice, but the woman was like, You will fit in okay because you are young… you will have communication problems, but because you are young you will be able to adapt. Then the man introduced me to all the workers there. You know how in movies and such the new kid has to go to the front of the room and the teacher introduces them? Yes, it was exactly like that only I stood there like a mute and waved like an idiot when they applauded me. Yes, I said applauded. I felt very, very awkward. I had learned how to say hello (Annyeoung haseyo) and thank you (Kam sa ham ni da), yet managed to use neither one because I kept choking each time it came time for me to try.
Next we visited one of the two elementary schools where I’ll be teaching. Seokyang is my “main” school. It seemd pretty big, maybe a bit smaller than Frank Hammond, but it was hard to tell. It was a nice enough place, clean with a playground, but not air-conditioned and quite frankly, the one place smelled like cow poop. Hopefully this is partially due to the rain that has been coming down incessantly since my arrival. Suri didn’t do a good job of introducing me to anyone, so all I know is that I sort of met one man (who will henceforth be called Black Shirt on account of his attire), who talked to Suri and the other guy for like ten minutes while I sat there and pretended to pay attention to what was essentially just gibberish to me. Then we went upstairs and met the guy I think is the principal, Mr. Park, and also Mr. Kim, my co-teacher. I only know he’s my co-teacher because he shook my hand and said, “Welcome to our school” in English. Suri was less than helpful in explaining who these people were, and Mr. Kim didn’t really say anything else to me.
Suri and the other guy took me to my apartment (finally!) and I was actually pleasantly surprised. The complex is kind of old and run down, but my apartment itself is much cleaner and bigger than I would have thought. When we got there (fourth floor, no elevator, woo!), one of the guys from the school and some woman were there. The woman greeted me with a small bow and Annyeoung haseyo and I drew a deep breath, bowed, and blurted out Annyeoung haseyo! And she laughed and smiled. I finally said it! I was very excited. The apartment has a bedroom off to the right, and it’s got a bed, TV, phone, couch, two dining room chairs, a balcony (that is an absolute sauna, no way I’m going out there any time soon), a dresser, and bed linens and cover. I was happy to see those. It’s got a small kitchen that has a wok, scissors, a cup, and some other kitchen-y type stuff. There’s a bathroom with no separate shower, though they did provide me a roll of toilet paper, thank goodness. I’ve got an office with a bureau for clothes and a hanging rack. The fridge is also in there. There’s a small back room with what appears to be a washer/dryer, or at least a washer. I’m afraid to use it as all the instructions are in Korean and it doesn’t appear to be very simple. I also can’t use the gas range. I tried but can’t figure it out. I should have asked Suri for help but didn’t think about it. On the plus side, I HAVE AIR-CONDITIONING. This has been the single greatest thing to happen to me since arriving in Korea. I’m sitting on my bedroom couch right below it, basking in the glory of cool air. I asked Suri to show me how to use it but the gas stove thing didn’t occur to me. I did have her help me lock and unlock the door. This was inspired by my inability to lock my front door in Paris. I tried leaving for school and had the worst time figuring it out, then being paranoid that someone was going to break in, etc. etc. This time I was prepared to avert potential disaster. Next time, I’ll know to ask how to turn on the stove. I also forgot to ask if I can drink the tap water. It hadn’t even occurred to me, but I was reading my guidebook and it made the water sound sketchy, so I’m a little concerned. I meant to ask but completely forgot, so I’ll have to ask my co-teacher tomorrow.
Next we went to Daejeon, which is about an hour and a half away and is the fifth largest city in South Korea. I had to get a physical to make sure I’m healthy and don’t have to be deported. We picked up a Canadian girl named Dhyana, and I was exceedingly happy to have someone to talk to. This is her second time in Korea, so she was able to answer a lot of questions I had that Suri couldn’t help me with because she didn’t speak enough English. Dhyana is moving to a small town whose name I can’t remember, but she gave me her email so we can meet up sometime. She said she knows this place in Seoul where all the foreigners shop because we’re all too fat to fit into Korean clothes.
On the way back to Buyeo, Suri asked if I was hungry, which I was because I couldn’t eat anything after breakfast because of the physical. We stopped at a little restaurant, and Suri ordered for everyone. This was it, the moment of truth… real Korean food! She got spicy beef soup for all of us. When the waitress brought it, it was literally bubbling because it was so hot. We also got kimchi and some tan cubes of something flecked with red (which turned out to be radishes). I used stainless steel chopsticks for the first time. Suri got me a fork, but I decided to use the chopsticks because hey, I would have to eventually. I successfully got a cube on the chopsticks and popped it in my mouth. WHAM! Absolute explosion of spiciness directly on my unsuspecting tastebuds. Now I knew Korean food was spicy, but nothing could have prepared me for this. My eyes started watering and my nose started running ,and Suri asked me if I was okay. I moved on to the kimchi, which is pickled cabbage. It has the crunchy consistency of coleslaw, only no mayonnaise. It was good; that is, it was bland enough to eat. Then I moved onto the soup. Ohhhhh the soup. It was perhaps even spicier than the radishes, mainly because temperature-wise it was steaming hot. So, so hot. It was good, but I couldn’t actually finish all of it because it was so hot and spicy it was literally painful to eat. Luckily I had a side dish of plain old rice. My meal went something like this: spoonful of soup, cool down with rice, chopstick-full of kimchi, and repeat. By the end of the meal I was almost crying because my eyes were watering so much and my nose was running like crazy. Korean food – 1, Theresa – 0.
Every time I had a question Suri couldn’t answer, she would call Elly or Sol and hand me the phone. Elly is the woman I’ve been in contact with all summer, and she speaks very good English. At one point I asked her about other foreign teachers living near me, and she gave me one British guy’s number, so I called him on Suri’s phone. He told me he lives in my apartment complex, but is on vacation until Sunday. He sounded very friendly and pleased to hear there’s a “new foreigner” here. He said Korea is fantastic; Buyeo not so much, but he and the other teachers have a good time. He said they’ve even got a soccer league! They’re apparently not very good, but they have fun playing a game and then go get drinks afterwards. I told him I was from Chicago, and he said there were other teachers from there that live here too.
I don’t think I can describe how incredibly relieved I was to know that there are other English-speaking people nearby. Not having a phone, Internet, or roommate makes it quite hard to be in contact with other people. I told Kevin (the British guy) my apartment block and number and he said they’re having a soccer game on Sunday so he will stop by. I can’t wait to meet the other teachers; I think they’ll be very helpful. For example, Kevin already warned me to avoid this one guy. “If you run into a foreigner named Chris, try and avoid him. He’s absolutely mad! But this is young Chris. Old Chris is okay, but watch out for young Chris.” These are the things I need to know!
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