Teeth brushing

My fellow native English teachers keyed me in on this phenomenon early on, but I didn't really notice it at first.  But once my eyes were opened I couldn't avoid it. Koreans brush their teeth all the time!

Everyone, students and teachers, brushes their teeth after lunch, but on Wednesday I even caught my co-teacher brushing his teeth at 3 p.m.  Maybe he just forgot to after lunch?

It's not that it's a bad habit; it's not at all.  But it's inescapable.  Thursday a student asked me a question, and when I finally figured out that she was asking for toothpaste, suddenly I had a heard of students following me into my office to feed at the trough of free toothpaste.  It was crazy!

But the really weird moment involving teeth brushing came later that day.  I was in the shower at the gym and this guy came in, you guessed it, brushing his teeth.  Crazy!

A pick me up

By the end of the day my cold and the lack of success of my lesson caught up to me.  I just wanted to get out of the school.

I could have easily went home and crawled into bed for the rest of the night, but I knew getting a workout in would make me feel better.  It definitely did.

But what boosted my spirits more than anything was the little boy heading to tae kwon do class that said hi to me, asked me my name (in Korean of course) and was very excited to talk to me.  I was able to practice my Korean, telling him my name and following that up by telling him in English.  He was adorable and so eager to learn and to teach me his name.  I couldn't wipe the grin off my face all the way home.

My first real Korean hiking experience

After my interesting Friday night, I was very much looking forward to Saturday's hike with many of my fellow teachers.  The weather was fantastic, and it definitely lived up to all my expectations.

So after meeting at Geumjeong Station, we made our two-plus hour trek south to Youngbongsan.  It wasn't an incredibly tall peak, but it was quite steep.

I hiked most of the way with a couple teachers that I just officially met.  One is a Korean teacher and the other a social studies teacher.  That may have been the best part about the day.  I have been wanting to get to know more of the teachers, and Saturday gave me a great chance to do just that.

Once we reached the peak, we walked down to a bit to a shaded area and had a nice picnic.  I was even given some extremely processed Swiss and American cheese.  I've eaten some strange things here, but that may have been one of the worst.  But it was a gift, so I swallowed it down, reluctantly.

My friend and fellow teacher Kwong Min finally made it to the top with sleeping daughter in tow!

Then we started making our way back down the mountain for more food and makgeolli, which is Korean rice wine.  Then we boarded the bus and started our way home.  I made a good impression on many of the teachers by making an effort to meet them and try their food and drink.

After we made it back to Geumjeong I went to dinner with one of my hiking partners and two other teachers.  It was a delicious mountain of steaming, spicy seafood and bean sprouts.

Then it was time to go home.  I knew how to get back, but I followed my hiking buddy since he lives in the same apartment complex as me.  But all of the sudden I see we are in Suwon.  We went the wrong way on the subway!  So we get off the train and instead of turning around, he is adamant about taking a taxi.  Fine with me.

We finally made it back, and not surprisingly he refused to let me pay.  I tried to pay for the bus, food, drinks, the taxi ride, and nobody let me.  Another great day in Korea!

A Friday surprise

Friday was just chock full of surprises.

Coming out of school, I was planning on going home to change, run to the store and go meet a friend, but that all changed when I came out of the building and saw a baseball game going on.  I went over to say hello to some of my students and watch.  Well, next thing you know, they want me to play.  So, I quickly change my shoes and step up to the plate dress pants and all.

I had a blast, and it was a great way to get to know some of my students better.  Most of them have a long way to go baseball-wise, but they had fun.  And for those of you wondering, of course my team won.  I'm not trying to brag or anything, but someone I know may have had a couple triples, a double and a single.  On the single, probably actually an error, I collided with the first baseman, who got in the base path on an errant throw, and went flying through the air, tumbling to the ground in my khakis!

After the baseball game a few of us moved on to basketball.  Between squats at the gym on Wednesday and baseball, my legs were gone, but it was still fun to play again.  But dribbling on dirt/gravel is a challenge, and my teammates didn't quite understand didn't play any defense. 

After the game concluded I went home, showered and headed to the store to pick up some much needed groceries.  On the way back I overheard someone talking on the phone in ENGLISH!  Somewhat shocked, I went over to say hello and found out this guy, Justin, lives directly two floors below me.  And his friend, Bonnie, lives right across the street.  Strangely in two months I've never run into either of them.

To make a long story short, he invited me to dinner, and considering I hadn't eaten a proper meal I thought why not.  It turns out he was meeting up some others, some of whom I had already met!  What an interesting way to start the weekend!

Suwon with Juwon

A few weeks back I was on my way home on the train from a long night in Yeoju when the girl next to me reluctantly started talking to me in English.  She was very nervous to talk to me, but she wants to improve her English and probably thought what better opportunity than this blonde-haired dude who almost certainly speaks English.

Her English is pretty good already (she's a university student studying biomedical engineering, aka way over my head), but she wants to improve before a trip to New Zealand next year.  So I gave her my email and told her she can send me questions, just correspond and/or we can meet up and talk.  Plus, she can help me with my rudimentary Korean.

So late afternoon Saturday I headed off to Suwon to check out the Hwaseong Fortress with her as my guide.  Built in the 18th century, Hwaseong was build by King Jeongjo of the Josean Dynasty to honor his father Prince Sado who was murdered by being locked inside a rice chest by his father the king.

My rice chest experience sans the rice, thankfully.

After checking out the fortress and patrolling the grounds, we headed off to dinner.  She gave me the option of choosing where to go, but I deferred to her expertise with Korean food.  We ended up at a small restaurant eating gamjatang, which is one of her favorites and her mother's specialty.

Juwon

Side dishes: radish kimchi, soup with some sort of pressed fish and blood sausage (sundae) and salty pork.

Gamjatang - potatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers and pork bones in a spicy broth.

It was a good day.  I made it home by 9:30 or so, went to bed early and woke feeling quite refreshed on Sunday.  I was tempted to watch the Badger game live, but I held off because quite a few GEPIK people were going to watch the game on tape delay at Sam Ryan's in Itaewon.  I made it just in time to see David Gilreath house the kickoff and start what was a fantastic victory over the nation's top team.  What a day!  It would have been a great night in Madison that I'm sure of!

School is school, right?

I've been meaning to blog about the differences between American schools and Korean schools for some time, but I wanted to give myself some time to soak things in before I made broad generalizations.

So here's the list:
- instead of bells between classes a little chime plays
- everyone (teachers, other staff, students) wears slippers in school
- teachers will sometimes sleep at their desk during free periods (or in some schools in the teachers lounge)
- many students and teachers are at school until late into the night: a majority of students stay after to school sometimes until almost 10 p.m. studying, and many of those that don't stay instead head off to private schools for the evening.  Education is emphasized, at least through time commitment, much more here.
- my smallest class has over 30 students, my largest is over 40 (that's very common)
- the students "clean" the school every afternoon (let's just say things aren't sparkling!)
- physical discipline is still practice, even if discouraged by the government (slaps, hits with a short stick, push ups, etc are handed out as punishment daily)

Well, that's far from a comprehensive list, but it gives you a little glimpse into the South Korean education system.

Street fights, surprise charitable donations and ice cream...

That title was catchy wasn't it!  You'll have to wait for the good stuff.  We'll get to it later.

I fell to the allure of the nap Sunday morning, deciding sleep was more important than heading out to explore at the moment.  But after a very refreshing nap I saw the sun blazing and knew this wasn't a day I could afford to waste just hanging around home, especially with winter knocking on the door.

I got a late start, as I didn't leave until 1 p.m., but I decided to set off to Seoul with Insa-dong as my goal. Insa-dong is an area of Seoul famous as the art galleries, antique shops, souvenir joints, tea houses and traditional restaurants.  Between walking the street, checking out a bell tower and a Buddhist temple, I figured there was plenty for me to squeeze in an afternoon, especially since it would take me at least 90 minutes to get there on the subway.

My first stop was the Bosingak Bell Pavilion.  It dates back to the Joseon period (it was build around 1400).  Supposedly, it tolls everyday at noon except during December, but my laziness prevented me from finding out firsthand.

Across the street from the pavilion is a distinct member of Seoul's skyline, the Jongno Tower.  I've been told the Top Cloud Bar & Grill Cafe has great food and an even better view.  It's on the list.

Then it was off to my first "real" Buddhist temple in Korea.  This one, Jogyesa, is the head temple of Korea's largest Buddhist sect.  It was definitely worth the stop.  It was tucked right in the heart of the city.  I observed an ongoing chant led by a monk and slowly started to hear the chanting of all the people.  It was hard to hear at first, but when I really listened I could hear the slow buzz.  That was pretty cool.  And I met a U.S. embassy employee whose daughter is a freshman at UW (he was wearing a UW shirt).

Money, water and other gifts are appreciated.

After the temple it was on to Insa-dong, the reason I set out on this adventure in the first place.  Insa-dong is basically a street with all the goodies I described above.  At the head of the street, I stopped to check out some water features and take everything in for a moment.

As I stowed my camera and was about to head down the street I was stopped a monk/huckster, maybe both.  My guard was let down because he's a monk right, so I didn't think anything of it when he presented me with this Buddha metal print and wanted me to sign my name in his little book.  Only then did I realize what he was really after was my wallet.  As I reluctantly dug for my wallet, he put some beads around my wrist.  I gave him 10,000 won, thinking that was pretty generous, but he insisted on 30,000 and when I balked, 20,000, but I stuck with my offer and made my way, lesson learned.

My gifts from my charitable contribution.

My little learning experience with the monk behind me, I finally made it to Insa-dong.  Expecting to take in all the street is reported to offer, what do I run into first but an Irish heritage celebration.  This is Korea, right?

Shortly after resuming my way down the street I got stopped by a quartet of high school students who wondered if they could interview me.  Flying solo and without anywhere to be, I said what the heck.  Two cameras and a couple of sets of batteries later the interview was done and I was back on my way.

Insa-dong was pretty cool, and I'll definitely go back again when I have some more time and a better grasp on Korean.  I decided to walk through Myeong-dong on the way home and almost witnessed my first street fight, as a guy about my age was not about to back down from a senior citizen who had a beef with him.  But sorry to disappoint many of you, but nothing really materialized (sorry for the headline tease).

I snagged some ice cream (more frozen yogurt-ish really) at a familiar place in Myeong-dong and then set off for the subway stop.  The trip was capped by the sight of a brilliant orange moon in a pink sky over the river.  And tomorrow's Monday.

I'm still here...

I know I've been slacking a little on the whole blogging thing.  Part of it is laziness, but part of it too is that many things here have become the new normal.  I'm starting to actually LIVE here, not be a tourist who is amazed by everything that's so different from home.

But there are a few things I've neglected to blog about that I probably should.  So here goes nothing.

The past week my school was conducting midterms, so for me that meant no classes.  But don't go thinking I just sat around and surfed the web all day, every day for a week.  I mean, I did do my share of that, but I spent most of the week hammering out a plan for what I'm going to teach the rest of the semester and formulating details on some of those lessons, especially the lesson for the coming week!

But midterm week also meant no school lunch (the cafeteria is closed because the students only have exams in the morning and then they have the afternoon to study, or at least that's how the thinking goes).  This also meant that I had a chance to broaden my Korean cuisine experience a bit.  Tuesday, my office mates and I (my co-teacher, my head teacher and the other teacher in our office) went to a seafood restaurant where we cooked noodles, shellfish, shrimp and other delectables in a pot of boiling broth right in front of us.  It was delicious.  If you like seafood Korea can satisfy your itch; that's for sure.

We went back to the office for a bit, when all of the sudden it was time to go.  I was warned in advance that the teachers were going hiking Tuesday afternoon, but I was never told a time.  The warning was nice, so that I could bring different shoes and clothes to chance into, but the sudden notice that we had to leave left me no time to chance.  So I had my first hiking experience in dress pants!

It was a pretty decent hike (about 3K, I think), with a long set of steep stairs at the very end.  The view was nothing spectacular, but it was a new view of my city.  We snapped some group pictures at the top and began the descent.  Once back on level ground we hurried off to dinner to meet up with the teachers already at the bottom.  We found our seats (well, floor mats) and dug in to our spicy, chopped octopus.  And when I say spicy, I mean spicy.  This stuff had a kick.  But it was pretty good, and the texture of the tentacles wasn't as bad as I thought they'd be.

The meal itself wasn't the memorable part of the night though.  That would come when a non-English teacher who I try to talk baseball with came over and sat next to me.  Apparently he had starting drinking with lunch, but I didn't notice when he first sat down as I was too focused on trying to communicate with him.  He wanted to drink some soju with me, so not wanting to be rude I obliged.

And here's one of the things about Korean culture that I don't think I'll ever fully adjust to.  He put one arm around my shoulder and the other on my thigh, make that upper thigh.  He wasn't hitting on me; he's got a wife and a young daughter.  That's just normal interaction between Korean men, so I really didn't think anything of it, especially because I knew about the custom ahead of time.  But part of you still feels a little weird.  You'll see it with women too.  Female friends, and sometimes male friends, will hold hands in public.  It's even more common than couples holding hands, although that seems to be changing with the younger generation.  So if you ever visit Korea, don't just assume you've found the Asian San Francisco, it's just a culture difference!