So there is a holiday here much similar to our Thanksgiving called Chuseok. I get Sunday, September 19, to Thursday the 23 off from work. My other co-workers are going to Thailand, China, or Japan. I am still determined to be saving money for Jeff's Trip to Europe: The Sequel, but also feel like I may be left out of the holiday fun. I will get one week off in another 3-6 months to do some traveling and I feel like I can do a bit more once my contract is up next June (Thailand is sounding pretty awesome via cousin Bill).
My thoughts now are either go to Busan to hang out with Amber for the week before she heads back to Washington next month, or go to Busan then take a boat to Japan with Ethan and Mandy. Decisions decisions.
I will be writing more of food and maybe do some interviews with my students in the next post.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Well it has been far too long since my last blog so here are the highlights:
I got my TV!! A nice 42 inch plasma, and we've already broken it in with a couple good nights of New Super Mario Bros on the Wii and some fantastic programming (we put together the old ABC TGIF Line-up, Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Saved by the Bell, etc).
So last month Jonathan, Anne, and I went to a deserted island on the Yellow Sea: Sa Seong Bong Do through a group of fellow expats and adventurous Koreans.
After a long day at work we jumped on the subway and head to Incheon to stay at a jimjilbong for the night. What's a jimjilbong right? its a Korean sauna/bathhouse. A good place to spend the night for around $6. The one in Incheon was good, not too crowded at all as John and I went au naturel in the guy's area where they have many different kinds of hot-tubs whirlpools jets and saunas. We got there at about 2 AM and left at around 7 where we more people who were going to the island. We took a crazy bus ride to the ferry in Incheon and took a crowded ferry ride to Seong Bong Do, where we got on a smaller boat (25 people max) and headed to a smaller island.
I was very tired but managed to set up a tent with my tent-mates (two Koreans whom I was able to pronounce their names by the end of the weekend but have since forgot) Then went on a walk down the very empty beach. I swam in the Ocean for a bit and played around with the sea creatures that the tide brought in and made it back to the tents for a nap. However my two new room-mates were already there and I didn't want to wake them by walking all over them so I took a quick nap on the beach.....
An unknown amount of time later I woke up and realized that I'm a pasty white kid and should have applied sunscreen.
That night we made a campfire and had a great time cooking food that people caught and brought and telling stories. People from all over the world were there. Teachers, students, locals and just travelers. It is the people that i meet that make me love traveling so much! This is key.
So the next morning I woke up feeling quite burned and sandy and spent the rest of the day, still tired so i sat in the yellow sea for about an hour just bobbing around trying to stay chilled.
Well that's all for now, I will write about my first week of the new quarter sometime soon.
I got my TV!! A nice 42 inch plasma, and we've already broken it in with a couple good nights of New Super Mario Bros on the Wii and some fantastic programming (we put together the old ABC TGIF Line-up, Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Saved by the Bell, etc).
After a long day at work we jumped on the subway and head to Incheon to stay at a jimjilbong for the night. What's a jimjilbong right? its a Korean sauna/bathhouse. A good place to spend the night for around $6. The one in Incheon was good, not too crowded at all as John and I went au naturel in the guy's area where they have many different kinds of hot-tubs whirlpools jets and saunas. We got there at about 2 AM and left at around 7 where we more people who were going to the island. We took a crazy bus ride to the ferry in Incheon and took a crowded ferry ride to Seong Bong Do, where we got on a smaller boat (25 people max) and headed to a smaller island.
I was very tired but managed to set up a tent with my tent-mates (two Koreans whom I was able to pronounce their names by the end of the weekend but have since forgot) Then went on a walk down the very empty beach. I swam in the Ocean for a bit and played around with the sea creatures that the tide brought in and made it back to the tents for a nap. However my two new room-mates were already there and I didn't want to wake them by walking all over them so I took a quick nap on the beach.....
An unknown amount of time later I woke up and realized that I'm a pasty white kid and should have applied sunscreen. That night we made a campfire and had a great time cooking food that people caught and brought and telling stories. People from all over the world were there. Teachers, students, locals and just travelers. It is the people that i meet that make me love traveling so much! This is key.
So the next morning I woke up feeling quite burned and sandy and spent the rest of the day, still tired so i sat in the yellow sea for about an hour just bobbing around trying to stay chilled.
So after that adventure I have kept it fairly low-key on the weekends. Biking around with John to Ansan Station, the international area or Ansan where they have really good Indian and other non-Korean-Foreign food, and a fun place to bike to.
The other weekend we went to another jimjilbong and got to spend more time just relaxing and chilling in the co-ed part of the complex with John, Anne, Ethan (a fellow co-worker who is Korean-American and is fluent in both English and Korean, he is also my after work food buddy, he stopped asking me if I want to get food after work and now just comes to my classroom and asks where I want to go) and Ethan's girlfriend Mandy. It was very good and relaxing.
Well that's all for now, I will write about my first week of the new quarter sometime soon.
Friday, July 23, 2010
July thus far...
for all the pictures of July look at my Picasa site.
So as always, I've been meaning to write for a while not but haven't gotten all of my thoughts in one place yet. So I will break it down.
First off is Konglish
Konglish is Korean and English spliced together (think Spanglish but for Korea). And in Korea they do not ever end words in soft sounds.
-So the favorite place to shop here: Home Plus, becomes the four syllable "Home-ah Plush-ah"
And if a student wants to tell me they want to go outside: "Teacher-ah. I want-ah –to go-ah out-side-ah."
At which to I respond. "Oh'ah Yeah'ah?! You-ah Do-ah?" Then they all giggle and the student must repeat is one more time with proper pronunciation.
I have this one student named Hong which speaks his own crazy version of English, Korean and Honglish, so now there is a new rule; No Konglish and No Honglish.
Another interesting quirk of Korean culture is writing names in red on the board. Apparently when you write someones name on the board it means that they died. Well as part of my lesson last week I started to show the 4th graders how to write in cursive and I was writing my name and they all screamed at once "TEACHER, NO!!!"
The weather...
It is a little too hot for my taste, and much more humid that the Pacific Northwest. The school has good AC as does my apartment, which I usually leave running throughout the night. So the humidity usually keeps me indoors during most daylight hours. And now monsoon season is upon us. Lots of rain, thunder and lightning.
After Class gets out at 10 PM my fellow workers and I usually go to eat at a restaurant by our school or to a local pizza place. The pizza place is fun because the guy knows us (although he does not speak any English) and we never seem to get what we order (we just look at the pictures on a takeout menu and then hold up how many pizzas we want on our fingers then "Pojang" means "to go" if we are going to take it back to John and Anne's to Play Wii or watch a movie on their 42 inch plasma.
Buying a bike and tv. Haggling
So here haggling is an art form. As for me, who can only order 3 different things off of the menu, the art of negotiation is lost. The other teachers at my school, 2 of which are Korean-American who speak Korean very well, and another two who are restaurant Koreans who can order food and haggle a bit say "oh yeah, just go to this place and tell them blah blah blah." To which i respond with a dumbfounded look...... "that's OK, i will just wait until a Korean takes me." The next few purchases I want to make are
1.) A Nice big flatscreen TV (at least as big as John's, I mean, honestly).
2.) A Bike
3.) a guitar
There are of course the usual places with which you cannot haggle. Like the aforementioned Home-Plus. Think of it as a Wal-Mart of Korea, but without the stigma. I pack of Ramen will still cost 1,900 Won no matter how much you try to say otherwise. But, i am ok with this fact. it is still dirt cheap. however as i go to check out the teller asks me a question, to which i have only a hope that she asks "do you want a plastic bag?"
I have become Pavlovianly trained that if I nod my head I will get the plastic bag and she will continue to ring the rest of my food up.
As for travel to Seoul.I have been a couple times but its kind of a pain in the heat and humidity especially if it rains to get around. I went on a River Cruise in Seoul for the Fourth of July which was really fun. It was nice to be able to eavesdrop on a conversation and understand what they were saying! It was about 200 Americans and Canadians on a barge boat for 4 hours drinking beer and listening to America themed cover songs. That night we went out to a casino. Funny thing about the casinos here. Only foreigners are allowed to gamble. It is kind of weird you either have to be white or if you look Asian you have to show them your foreigner Visa or Alien Registration Card. Someone asked me why and i told them i thought it was because that gambling can be a bit of a generative addiction, and then i asked them when the last time they saw a native american in a casino?
Lack of ranch dressing and dill pickles.
Well, most of you who read my blog know my few true food passions. And they are that anything can be saved with the right amount of Ranch dressing (a lot) and that dill pickles count as enough food groups to serve as a full meal. Unfortunately, Koreans think that sweet pickles (the arch-nemisis of Dill) serve as topping for everything from burgers to pizza (yes, with every pizza you order you get a side of sweet pickles). I miss dill pickles and ranch.
Last weekend I did go with a group of white people (plus Hlee our Asian teacher from North Carolina (it's funny because all the Koreans look to her when we want to order food thinking she might be able to speak Korean)), we went to Ansan Station. two metro stops away from where we live (but the taxi was quicker) to get some good foreign food. I was also able to see a Korean food here known as dog. yep. Lassie. (Picture on the picasa site)
Ansan station is known for is foreign population from all over Asia as well as a considerable Turkish population. We went to a Kebab shop where the worker spoke no Korean and a very limited amount of English. It was nice to speak to someone who was just as lost as I am in this country.
Anyway, I don't want to jinx it but I have been getting some pretty good compliments from my boss lately. He tells me the kids say they really enjoy me and they call me a "kind teacher". I enjoy teaching a lot and I cannot say enough good things about the kids here. I still am enjoying Korea very much and have very very little bad things to say about it. And the bad things i have to say about it are the same type of bad things I would say about working at a job in America.
So as always, I've been meaning to write for a while not but haven't gotten all of my thoughts in one place yet. So I will break it down.
My students
They make my classes. They are so intelligent, so funny and creative and they all work too damn hard! Most of them are always tired and go straight from school to hagwon to hagwon (hagwon is a private academy that they go to to learn anything from cooking, tae kwon doe, english, science, piano, etc.). Some of the sixth graders I teach here blow the sixth graders back at Sprague out of the water. Their comprehension and understanding of the English language is simply amazing. I remember teaching the sixth grade class in Lamont about impromptu speeches and most of the boys especially couldn't come up with something that didn't include saying 'fart' a bunch of times.
First off is Konglish
Konglish is Korean and English spliced together (think Spanglish but for Korea). And in Korea they do not ever end words in soft sounds.
-So the favorite place to shop here: Home Plus, becomes the four syllable "Home-ah Plush-ah"
And if a student wants to tell me they want to go outside: "Teacher-ah. I want-ah –to go-ah out-side-ah."
At which to I respond. "Oh'ah Yeah'ah?! You-ah Do-ah?" Then they all giggle and the student must repeat is one more time with proper pronunciation.
I have this one student named Hong which speaks his own crazy version of English, Korean and Honglish, so now there is a new rule; No Konglish and No Honglish.
Another interesting quirk of Korean culture is writing names in red on the board. Apparently when you write someones name on the board it means that they died. Well as part of my lesson last week I started to show the 4th graders how to write in cursive and I was writing my name and they all screamed at once "TEACHER, NO!!!"
The weather...
It is a little too hot for my taste, and much more humid that the Pacific Northwest. The school has good AC as does my apartment, which I usually leave running throughout the night. So the humidity usually keeps me indoors during most daylight hours. And now monsoon season is upon us. Lots of rain, thunder and lightning.
After Class gets out at 10 PM my fellow workers and I usually go to eat at a restaurant by our school or to a local pizza place. The pizza place is fun because the guy knows us (although he does not speak any English) and we never seem to get what we order (we just look at the pictures on a takeout menu and then hold up how many pizzas we want on our fingers then "Pojang" means "to go" if we are going to take it back to John and Anne's to Play Wii or watch a movie on their 42 inch plasma.
Buying a bike and tv. Haggling
So here haggling is an art form. As for me, who can only order 3 different things off of the menu, the art of negotiation is lost. The other teachers at my school, 2 of which are Korean-American who speak Korean very well, and another two who are restaurant Koreans who can order food and haggle a bit say "oh yeah, just go to this place and tell them blah blah blah." To which i respond with a dumbfounded look...... "that's OK, i will just wait until a Korean takes me." The next few purchases I want to make are
1.) A Nice big flatscreen TV (at least as big as John's, I mean, honestly).
2.) A Bike
3.) a guitar
There are of course the usual places with which you cannot haggle. Like the aforementioned Home-Plus. Think of it as a Wal-Mart of Korea, but without the stigma. I pack of Ramen will still cost 1,900 Won no matter how much you try to say otherwise. But, i am ok with this fact. it is still dirt cheap. however as i go to check out the teller asks me a question, to which i have only a hope that she asks "do you want a plastic bag?"
I have become Pavlovianly trained that if I nod my head I will get the plastic bag and she will continue to ring the rest of my food up.
As for travel to Seoul.I have been a couple times but its kind of a pain in the heat and humidity especially if it rains to get around. I went on a River Cruise in Seoul for the Fourth of July which was really fun. It was nice to be able to eavesdrop on a conversation and understand what they were saying! It was about 200 Americans and Canadians on a barge boat for 4 hours drinking beer and listening to America themed cover songs. That night we went out to a casino. Funny thing about the casinos here. Only foreigners are allowed to gamble. It is kind of weird you either have to be white or if you look Asian you have to show them your foreigner Visa or Alien Registration Card. Someone asked me why and i told them i thought it was because that gambling can be a bit of a generative addiction, and then i asked them when the last time they saw a native american in a casino?
Lack of ranch dressing and dill pickles.
Well, most of you who read my blog know my few true food passions. And they are that anything can be saved with the right amount of Ranch dressing (a lot) and that dill pickles count as enough food groups to serve as a full meal. Unfortunately, Koreans think that sweet pickles (the arch-nemisis of Dill) serve as topping for everything from burgers to pizza (yes, with every pizza you order you get a side of sweet pickles). I miss dill pickles and ranch.
Last weekend I did go with a group of white people (plus Hlee our Asian teacher from North Carolina (it's funny because all the Koreans look to her when we want to order food thinking she might be able to speak Korean)), we went to Ansan Station. two metro stops away from where we live (but the taxi was quicker) to get some good foreign food. I was also able to see a Korean food here known as dog. yep. Lassie. (Picture on the picasa site)
Ansan station is known for is foreign population from all over Asia as well as a considerable Turkish population. We went to a Kebab shop where the worker spoke no Korean and a very limited amount of English. It was nice to speak to someone who was just as lost as I am in this country.
Anyway, I don't want to jinx it but I have been getting some pretty good compliments from my boss lately. He tells me the kids say they really enjoy me and they call me a "kind teacher". I enjoy teaching a lot and I cannot say enough good things about the kids here. I still am enjoying Korea very much and have very very little bad things to say about it. And the bad things i have to say about it are the same type of bad things I would say about working at a job in America.
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