Chuseok

As I posted earlier, after only being here for three weeks I already had a week vacation coming.  It was weird to think about, but I wasn't about to complain.

Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving, was the recent for the vacay.  It's one of the most important holidays in Korea.  Traditionally it's a holiday for families to get together and remember and honor their ancestors.  For foreigners, it's a reason to get anywhere from three to nine days off.  With the actual holiday falling on a Wednesday this year we were all lucky enough to be on the latter end of that scale.  I did have to work Monday, but the rest of the week was mine.  And I took full advantage.

First stop was a Monday night gathering with some of the Ansan crew, plus two.  We hit an Indian restaurant in the immigrant section of Ansan.  It was awesome.  I will definitely go back there often.  Then it was out on the town in Ansan.

After a quiet Tuesday, it was off to Seoul Wednesday (Chuseok) for a ceremony at Gyeongbuk Palace.  Not only was there an interesting changing of the guard ceremony, but there was traditional dancing, arts and crafts, games and all sorts of fun stuff.  Plus of course the palace itself.

The head guard and I.

Then we gallivanted off to another palace, but after finding out we had to have a tour for the gardens, which would involve quite a wait, we didn't hang around much.  Instead, some of us headed to Myeongdong to do a little shopping/exploring.  My favorite part was checking out the street vendors.

After a long day in Seoul I was happy to be back home to crash into bed.  The plan was to go hiking the next day, but at the last minute some friends decided to try to go to this island.  It sounded like a good plan to me, so off I went.

To say the journey there was interesting would be an understatement.  Most of us left at about 9 a.m.  Pat, Ali and I finally rendezvoused in Ansan after some confusion and we set on our way to Muui-do.  Luckily we caught an express subway after our transfer and camped out on the steps waiting for our other two compatriots.  After a short while Emily arrived, and then Sam called to announce his presence.  We searched for a while to find him, got lost in the underground shopping mall in the process, before finally tracking him down.

Hungry, we scarfed down some Lotteria (Korean ripoff of McDonald's) and started looking for our bus.  We wandered around for a while, asking for help, before a helpful Korean couple told us to follow them since they were headed to the same place.  I don't think I can ever say it enough - some Koreans are so incredibly helpful.  Two buses and two ferries later we had reached Muui-do.  But the journey wasn't over, as we had to get to the other side of the island and Hanagae Beach.  Again, we were searching for a bus.  We started walking down the road, asking people, to no avail, where we could catch the bus.  Finally we saw the bus and hitched a ride.

Tired from our seven hour trek that probably should have only taken three hours at the max, we were just happy to get to our destination, and ecstatic that huts were still available for just 60,000 won for two nights (less than $60 for five people).  Not that the accommodations were sparkling by any means, but what more do you need on the beach than a roof over your head for the night.  You could also camp for free, but our in floor heat turned out to be a great resource.  It was a little tight with five people, but we made do.

Our little hut

After getting settled we sat on the beach for a while, went for a dip and checked out the sunset before dinner.

Dinner, fresh seafood, was awesome.  You just can't beat food that fresh.  After dinner we sat around the campfire on the beach, listened to people play guitar and met most of the other foreigners on vacation as we all enjoyed our soju and beer.

I'm an early riser by genetic (whoops, sorry for the Caroline's Spine reference; it's just too easy), but I am an early riser.  I don't know why, but when the sun comes up it's just time for me to be up.  So I was the first in our group to really get to know our Canadian friend Andrew.   From Vancouver, Andrew is a 31-year-old recovered drug addict who was polishing off a bottle of soju soon after he awoke.  I don't think he went long without a drink in hand the whole time we were there.  But I guess he's either drinking or he's not.  I guess last week was a drinking week.

Day two, it was time to check out the crazy tide.  When it goes out, it goes out.  It's hard to imagine, but I think I walked about a mile out when the night before I was well over my head just 20 yards or less from shore.  Late in the day, Emily and I hiked to the top of the small mountain and surveyed the 360 degree view of the island.

Dinner night two was excellent again.  We opted for the galbi this time, which was a most excellent choice.  Then everyone again migrated to the fire.  But this night things would go down a bit different.  After finishing up with most of their fireworks, a Korean family came over to see what we were up to and show off some sparklers.  One of the older men spoke pretty good English and sat down to talk to us and we shared drinks with each other.  It turns out he spent four years in the Chicago area and his children went to the same middle school as many of Emily's close childhood friends in her hometown.  People always say it's a small world.  Wow.

Muui-do was definitely a great way to cap off the Chuseok week.

Game day in Siheung!

As hard as it may be to believe, I missed watching the first two Badger games of the year.  I probably could have found a way to watch both, but it wasn't convenient and I was still trying to find my bearings here.

But after getting home before midnight Saturday night here, I decided I wasn't going to miss Wisconsin's first big test of the 2010 campaign.  So I set my alarm for 4:15 a.m. - yep a.m. - and no that's not a misprint.

After clearing the sleep from my eyes I set about looking for a link to a stream of the game.  I was a bit concerned because I didn't find one before bed, but at last I tracked one down.  Excited, I clicked on it and was pumped to see it work, only to find it was the Minnesota game!

I scurried to another website that had a lot of different games, refreshed the page and voila there were a couple of streaming options, and the first one worked.  It was sort of surreal to be watching the game under complete cover of darkness as I knew friends back home were enjoying a nice late afternoon kick.

I got a bad feeling in my gut as Wisconsin was unable to capitalize off a nice opening drive, and the feeling turned worse as Arizona State marched right down the field.  Fortunately, they too came away with nothing as their senior kicker missed a chip shot.

Wisconsin again left points on the board as a potential touchdown drive stalled and the Badgers had to settle for a field goal.  Then the trend of terrible special teams performances reared its ugly head again for UW as Arizona State housed the kick off to seize their first lead.

The rest of the half wasn't pretty for the Badgers, but they looked to head into the locker room with a 13-10 lead after a nifty, long scoring march capped by a great pass and catch from Scott Tolzien to Lance Kendricks.  Unfortunately, with seconds remaining in the half, Wisconsin still had to had to kick off (this after the aforementioned kickoff return for a score and a punt return that was called back on a penalty).  And Arizona State almost made Wisconsin pay by almost scoring on a return again.  Luckily for Wisconsin redshirt freshman Dez Southward got a hand on the Sun Devils' return man and Shelton Johnson knocked him at about the half-yard line to preserve the team's slim lead.

I quickly fashioned up a scrambled egg breakfast at half, again feeling strange to be eating breakfast during a 2:30 CT game.

In the second half, Arizona State tied it up, but Wisconsin started to assert itself as John Clay got things going on the ground, capping a long drive with a 19-yard scamper to put Wisconsin back in the lead.  But as well as the Badgers moved the ball at times throughout the game, they couldn't put the nail in the Sun Devils' coffin.  Arizona State took advantage.  After stuffing Clay on a third-and-three attempt, Wisconsin was forced to give the ball back up with just under eight minutes to play.  The Sun Devils promptly put together quite possibly their best drive of the day, marching 77 yards in 3:34 for the apparent tying score.  But on the extra-point attempt Jay Valai knifed under a blocker, leaped over a leg and blocked the would-be tying point after.  And thanks to a key personal foul on Arizona State, some nice runs by Clay and the Tolzien-Kendricks connection, Wisconsin was able to run out the clock and sneak away with a 20-19 victory.

Relieved with victory I went back to bed for a nap!  But I woke just two hours later with the itch to watch some more football, so I saddled back up to the computer and watched Auburn pull out an overtime win, Michigan State shock Notre Dame with a fake field goal for a touchdown in overtime and see Iowa climb out of a self-induced crater of a whole, only to lose to Arizona in the desert in the end. Overall, I didn't do much today, but it was a good day. 

A New Type of Soccer Experience

Yesterday I traveled to Suwon to meet up with some UW friends Jenn, Gustie and Angie.  We got in for free because I guess it was just a free day for foreigners.  Walking around looking lost before the game, a stadium employee tracked us down and got us tickets and directed us in pretty good English.  Koreans can be so hospitable.

The stadium was one used in the 2002 World Cup that Korea co-hosted with Japan, so it was huge and pretty cool.  The game was different from sporting events in America in many different ways.  First, fans are allowed to bring in food and drinks.  The stadium security was incredibly lax.

Also, the fans did a lot more singing than cheering.  It was more reminiscent of a college sporting event than a professional one.  And the weird thing is the home fans didn't really react negatively when the other team scored; they just quieted a bit.  Strange.

Cheerleaders

The equivalent of a student section.  They had drums, flags, banners, flares and a hose.

Unfortunately for the home fans, the visitors, Gyeongnam, came away with a 2-0 victory thanks to a pair of late second-half goals in quick succession.

Despite not getting to enjoy the surely interesting celebration of the home fans, it was a fun experience.  Although the most interesting moment of the night surely was trying to get back to the subway station after the game. 

After easily getting to game in a taxi, we had a bit of a trouble flagging down a cab after the game.  Finally a cab pulls over for us, and the four of us pile in, only to have the cabbie yell at us in a mix of Korean and broken English to get out for reasons unknown.  It may have been something to do with the color of light displayed on his cab (maybe he was picking up a fare that called), or it may be because I got in the back left door.  As ridiculous as that sounds, he seemed to focus must of his anger in my direction.

But eventually a Korean man and his son snagged a cab for us (again, the hospitality), and we made it back to Suwon Station unharmed albeit confused.

Break time already?

In some sense it seems like I just arrived here in Korea, and because I only see my students at most once a week we haven't had many different lessons yet.

However, it's already time for vacation. I have class on Monday and then we have the rest of the week off for Chuseok (think Korean Thanksgiving).  More on that later.  After returning from the six days off, I have two days of class and then it's off to GEPIK orientation for new teachers.  And following that I may have class on that next Monday before midterm exams preempt my teaching for the rest of the week.

So after tomorrow (Friday), I will have either two or three days of classes before Oct. 11.  It's hard to imagine.

Happy Birthday Korean Style

I didn't really know what to expect as I prepared to turn 27 in this far, far away land, but other than missing friends and family, I had an outstanding birthday.

After my first period class, some of my students came and escorted me toward the cafeteria where they had assembled a mound of Korean treats, including two with lit candles. They preceded to sing happy birthday and cheer like mad. It was pretty cute.

My birthday haul!

Then the English teachers had cake for me.

My awesome cake.

Cake with chopsticks!

Fellow teachers.

After school I trekked to Ansan to meet up with some friends for dinner at a sushi restaurant. My experience with Japanese food, sushi especially, is very limited. But it couldn't have been better.  I can't wait to go back.

Tempura and side dishes

More appetizers

My volcano roll - so delicious

All in all, it was a good day!

The amazing power of refusing to say no

Before the last several years I wasn't much the adventurous type (in fact I was hesitant to study abroad in college and probably wouldn't have done what I'm doing now fresh out of college).

And my adventurous side never really stemmed into the realm of food.  But over the last couple of years I've started to branch out and try many new things.  A lot of the credit goes to my wonderful girlfriend who has prodded me at times to push beyond my self imposed limitations.

But coming to Korea I told myself that I couldn't say no to any food on the first offer, and so far I've stuck to that (and no, I haven't eaten dog yet).  Surprisingly, there hasn't been anything I've eaten yet that has totally disgusted me. Of course I like some things better than others, but overall the food is quite good.

Last night I stayed at school for dinner (it's free, why not?) and had some type of corn and crab with vegetables in a creamy sauce.  Back home it would have been something that I would have rejected on sight, but I tried it, and it was excellent. So if I take nothing else from this adventure I will have at least learned to give exotic or different foods a chance.

Almost connected...

One of the biggest challenges about being in Korea is being so unconnected with everyone back home. At least I have email and chat, but I haven't really talked to anyone on the phone.

But that period looks to have an end in sight as I got a bank account yesterday, which allowed me to get a cell phone (010-9183-1651).  And it sounds like I will have internet tomorrow, which will be a fantastic birthday present.

Manna from Heaven aka my ARC

Those of us here is Korean have been patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for one thing since we arrived - our ARC (alien registration card).

Before coming to Korea I assumed it would take a week or so to get up and running with a phone and internet. Boy, was I wrong!  Upon arrival we found out that for most of us, we wouldn't be able to get internet at home or a phone until we got our ARC.

I was lucky enough to go to the immigration office shortly after I arrived, but it would take up to 10 days for my information to be process and sent.

So when yesterday (Friday here) came I was hoping for a package in the mail. And to my great delight it came about midday!  Hopefully Monday I can knock out the big three - bank account, cell phone and home internet.

Language Learning

Some of you may know this about me.  I'm always very gung ho about trying to learn new languages, but I never really get anywhere.  So far the list includes Spanish, Italian and Mandarin (which incredibly difficult).

I can't really speak a lick of any of them, maybe with the exception of Spanish because I had a few years of it in middle and high school and it's so prevalent back home.

So starting Korean classes on Thursday was a chance at a new beginning.  I learned to read hangeul (the Korean alphabet) before I came, but I was still rusty and didn't really know any words. Luckily my Mandarin experience paid off a little bit because some of the sounds made in Chinese language are replicated in Korean. That may not sound like a big deal, but when they are sounds our Western mouths seemingly refuse to make it's a big thing.

Since I missed the first class on Monday, the review was new for me. However, much of it was pretty basic, but I did learn a few learn words that are useful, such as "I don't know" and "I know."

All in all, most of my first class didn't advance my knowledge of Korean, but it exposed me to the language more, which is a good thing, I suppose. Soon maybe I'll be able to speak in sentences, and, gasp, maybe understand questions!

Catching up...

I haven't blogged for a few days, so I'll try to fill everybody in on my last few days.

Over the weekend about 15-20 of the GEPIK teachers from UW met up in Hongdae, a region of Seoul, and stayed for the weekend at a hostel.  A good time was had by all, too much of one for some, as we explored a little slice of Seoul.

Needless to say after not getting much sleep over the weekend, I struggled to get back into the school routine.  However, it was pretty painless as I still had introductions with my Monday and Tuesday classes.

Wednesday though brought with it something new - my first real lesson. It went pretty well as I taught the students about frequency adverbs - having them talk about how often people do different things.  We'll see how it goes the rest of the week with some of my less talkative classes.

Being an English teacher in Korea requires, strike that, no, it demands flexibility.  Friday I didn't have a class because my head teacher was demonstrating lessons to teachers from other schools.  No problem, except that he failed to inform me in advance.  Tuesday, a misunderstanding had my ready for my last class, only to find out it was canceled due to a Korean speaking contest.  And today, the teacher tried to explain something to me about how the school was set to get a bunch of money for next year and bureaucrats were here to watch class.  So I thought what she asked me was to let her teach the class, but she never showed up.  So I just went on with class as normal, not really knowing what's going on.  In Korea, you have to be ready for anything.

Last night also was a good night because I met maybe my only fluent, native English speaking neighbor.  We went out to eat samgyeopsal, a Korean grilled pork belly dish.  He also showed me how to get to E-Mart (think Korean Super Wal-Mart) on the bus.  Mostly it was just nice to hang out and get to know another English speaker in what sometimes can be a very isolated world.

My apartment

This is the view off my enclosed balcony.  The more I've talked with fellow teachers the more happy I am with my apartment.  It's plenty big for one person, I have an actual shower, not a hose off the wall, and I'm only a 10 minute walk from school and five minute walk from the subway.

The kitchen.

My wonderful metal door.

Good vs Evil

Tired from my first day of school, I was looking forward to a nice relaxing night of reading followed by an early bed time.  I expected it to be hot in my apartment, but when I opened the door I was in for a big surprise as a heat way hit me.

I didn't necessarily think much of it because it is the hot and sticky season here, but after taking off my shoes I stepped onto the wooden floor and quickly found out why it was line a sauna in my place.  You see Korean floors are heated through very hot water pumped under a wooden floor called an ondol floor.

In my haste after showering and breakfast I remembered to turn off the hot water, only to decide to quickly do the dishes.  Well, needless to say I forgot to turn off the hot water!

So the rest of the night was a battle of good versus evil as the air conditioner got its first use in its battle to cool the apartment down.  I slept without blankets, and finally about the middle of the night I had to reach for a blanket.  But the floor still wasn't completely cool when I finally got up at 5:30.

The heat didn't really stop me from sleeping though as I was really tired, however the typhoon sure did.  If you haven't heard, a typhoon hit the Seoul area last night and this morning, bringing heavy winds and lots of rain.  My windows chattered all night long, leaving me quite tired this morning.

The typhoon also left behind and interesting walk to work, as I was forced to duck, dodge, dip and dive under trees on the way.  Some students and teachers didn't make it to school on time because the subway was knocked offline by the storm too.

My first day of school

Surprisingly I wasn't that nervous for my first day of school on Wednesday.  For whatever reason, I just wasn't.  Not sure what to expect, sure, but nervous, not really.

The day began with a teachers' meeting where a new faculty member was announced, a maternity sub was announced and I was announced.  We each got up and said a few words.  I don't think I flubbed anything too badly.

Later I had my first class.  Luckily it was with Ji Young, my co-teacher.  I introduced myself with a short powerpoint about me, my family, where I'm from, etc.  And then I opened it up for questions.  This was the part we were warned about.  Koreans don't consider the same things off limits to ask as Americans.

But I was prepared.  And I'm not easily offended, so I couldn't think of many questions I would be hesitant to answer.  So of course they asked, right away and especially because it was a class of all girls, if I have a girlfriend.  They were disappointed that I did, but they quickly forgot that when they found out my younger brother Charlie doesn't!  That was probably the highlight of day one.

All in all though I had a good day to break in since Wednesdays I only have to student classes.  In the future I will have a class for non-English teachers in the morning and club activities (newspaper and English) in the afternoon.