So I have been slacking on writing here lately. The good news is that I have been getting out more and meeting more people. One of Dan's coworkers, Nick, has a habit of saying "get involved". I have started to take that on as a personal challenge. I've never been the most socially active person, and I think it is important for me to change that.
Work has been slow lately. We haven't had much excitement, and apparently this is the longest stretch of the year without a holiday or some sort of vacation. That is until Christmas rolls around.
On Friday we had school pictures. I was told about them previously, but they were mentioned as "graduation pictures" for the 7 year olds. Well, on Thursday they told me "don't forget to wear a suit tomorrow". Luckily my suit was clean and not too wrinkled. All of the teachers and some of the students commented on how handsome I looked in a suit. It was kind of nice, but as soon as the pictures were over I went home and changed.
This weekend I went out on Friday with Dan and Nick and toured the inner city line. We went to a lot of different places. I also finally ate some chicken kebabs from a street vendor. They were delicious.
On Saturday we went to the COEX Mall. It's a huge underground mall that is like a maze. It was cool to see all the different stores. They even have a 7-11 in the mall. I ate some good pizza at some restaurant there. It was also cool to go into some of the electronics stores and see some of the cool technology. I found some tiny laptops that were only like $350 dollars. After walking around for a few hours we went and saw Tropic Thunder at the movie theater in the mall. It was hilarious. If you haven't seen it, please do. It's worth it to see Tom Cruise as a bald, fat man with anger issues.
Afterwards we headed to Sinchon to go to a bar that Dan had heard about. It was a decent place that played some good music and had a good mix of Koreans and foreigners. After that we hiked to Hongdae to meet up with a girl I had met last week at the climbing club's dinner. I ended up going out to Burger King with her and her friend afterwards and then catching the early morning subway home.
Next week I am going climbing. I will bring my camcorder to get some video, and I will post any pictures taken by the other people that go. I am also supposed to meet up with a girl who is a friend of one of my friends back in the states. She apparently works for a PR company. It sounds pretty interesting.
I am also not looking forward to dressing up as Santa at school. I guess they told the parents that I was going to be Santa, and the parents saw it in their best interest to inform their children that I would be Santa. So now all the kids already know this, and some of the younger ones are apparently worried about how Santa is going to send his suit to me so I can be Santa, or how I will know what they want for Christmas. Crazy.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
I met some people
So the climbing group that I signed up for online had a dinner for the members. Of course, not everyone showed up. I met some interesting people and had an all around good time. It was nice to converse in english, and also to share stories about our schools.
After the dinner we went to a noraebang. It's a place where you can rent a room to sing karaoke. We sang everything from 'Sweet Caroline' to 'Under The Sea' (from The Little Mermaid). It was my first experience with one of Korea's favorite pastimes.
From there, we went to the club district in Hongdae to check out a fundraiser/block party for World AIDS Day. For 10000 won we got into 5 different bars/clubs, and also got a free necklace and pin made by little kids in Africa. It was pretty fun.
Anyways, here are some pictures from the night.
After the dinner we went to a noraebang. It's a place where you can rent a room to sing karaoke. We sang everything from 'Sweet Caroline' to 'Under The Sea' (from The Little Mermaid). It was my first experience with one of Korea's favorite pastimes.
From there, we went to the club district in Hongdae to check out a fundraiser/block party for World AIDS Day. For 10000 won we got into 5 different bars/clubs, and also got a free necklace and pin made by little kids in Africa. It was pretty fun.
Anyways, here are some pictures from the night.
Monday, December 1, 2008
More Pictures
Here are some pictures I yanked off the school's website. Enjoy!
5 year olds on Halloween
Passing out candy to John
Passing out candy to the 6 year olds
Me torturing a little kid on my first day of work.
Kids torturing me on my first day of work.
"Why don't you say something to the kids?" As if they could understand.
Making applesauce with the 7 year olds.
More applesauce.
Even more applesauce.
PAY ATTENTION!
Pretending to work for the camera.
Hot for teacher.
5 year olds on Halloween
Passing out candy to John
Passing out candy to the 6 year olds
Me torturing a little kid on my first day of work.
Kids torturing me on my first day of work.
"Why don't you say something to the kids?" As if they could understand.
Making applesauce with the 7 year olds.
More applesauce.
Even more applesauce.
PAY ATTENTION!
Pretending to work for the camera.
Hot for teacher.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Subways and Garbage
Today I decided to ride into Itaewon to walk around a bit. On one of the forums about expat living in Korea I had heard about a store that has a lot of foreign goods. It's run by a little old Korean lady who buys stuff in bulk from Costco, and other things from soldiers. It's a little hole in the wall store with no signs. It was interesting to see all of the stuff from home, but most of it was ridiculously expensive. I think I may buy a Costco membership so I can buy some of the stuff I eat regularly in bulk.
Apparently it was "little kids should talk to Kevin on the subway" day. It has happened before, but it seemed like the parents of these kids were trying to get them to practice their English with me. One of the kids was an adorable little boy with curly hair. Another one was a girl with her whole family. Most of the questions were simple and I felt bad for some of the kids because they seemed really nervous. I made sure to be nice and tell them they were doing well so that their parents wouldn't disown them.
While I was walking around in Itaewon two girls were carrying around a huge teddy bear. I spotted them walking my way and started smiling because they looked ridiculous. They came up to me and asked if I would hold the bear so they could take a picture of me with it. I put the bear up on my shoulders and smiled for the camera. They never told me what it was for, but it was so funny I had to do it.
Garbage collection here is different than back home. I still haven't figured out if it is collected every day or if there are certain days you are supposed to put it out. I do know that you are only supposed to put it out from 9 to 11 pm. You also have to buy special garbage bags from the grocery store, otherwise you can get fined. These aren't normal garbage bags. They are basically the plastic bags you would get at a grocery store to carry your stuff home with. They come in different sizes and you have to be sure to get the right one for your neighborhood. I have been living off of the ones that the owner of my school gave me when I moved in. I am running low, so I looked for them at the store. I couldn't find them. Luckily I saw a lady buy them today. You have to ask for them at the checkout counter. They come in 10, 20, 50, and 100 liter sizes.
All of the teachers at my school have been commenting about the weight I have lost since I have gotten here. They are all worried I am not eating or that I am sick. I am just now starting to notice the lost weight, but I guess it is more than I thought. It's just a guess, but I think it is because of the food choices available to me. My neighborhood doesn't have any fast food places within walking distance. If I want bread, I can't get it at the supermarket. I have to go to a bakery. They have a really good whole grain bread with tons of different grains. I have to cook almost everything fresh since I don't know what most of the prepackaged foods are. It also helps that I have to walk to most places.
I'm going to try and find some postcards to send home. If you would like to get some mail from Korea then send me your address. I have a couple people's addresses since they have sent me mail here.
Apparently it was "little kids should talk to Kevin on the subway" day. It has happened before, but it seemed like the parents of these kids were trying to get them to practice their English with me. One of the kids was an adorable little boy with curly hair. Another one was a girl with her whole family. Most of the questions were simple and I felt bad for some of the kids because they seemed really nervous. I made sure to be nice and tell them they were doing well so that their parents wouldn't disown them.
While I was walking around in Itaewon two girls were carrying around a huge teddy bear. I spotted them walking my way and started smiling because they looked ridiculous. They came up to me and asked if I would hold the bear so they could take a picture of me with it. I put the bear up on my shoulders and smiled for the camera. They never told me what it was for, but it was so funny I had to do it.
Garbage collection here is different than back home. I still haven't figured out if it is collected every day or if there are certain days you are supposed to put it out. I do know that you are only supposed to put it out from 9 to 11 pm. You also have to buy special garbage bags from the grocery store, otherwise you can get fined. These aren't normal garbage bags. They are basically the plastic bags you would get at a grocery store to carry your stuff home with. They come in different sizes and you have to be sure to get the right one for your neighborhood. I have been living off of the ones that the owner of my school gave me when I moved in. I am running low, so I looked for them at the store. I couldn't find them. Luckily I saw a lady buy them today. You have to ask for them at the checkout counter. They come in 10, 20, 50, and 100 liter sizes.
All of the teachers at my school have been commenting about the weight I have lost since I have gotten here. They are all worried I am not eating or that I am sick. I am just now starting to notice the lost weight, but I guess it is more than I thought. It's just a guess, but I think it is because of the food choices available to me. My neighborhood doesn't have any fast food places within walking distance. If I want bread, I can't get it at the supermarket. I have to go to a bakery. They have a really good whole grain bread with tons of different grains. I have to cook almost everything fresh since I don't know what most of the prepackaged foods are. It also helps that I have to walk to most places.
I'm going to try and find some postcards to send home. If you would like to get some mail from Korea then send me your address. I have a couple people's addresses since they have sent me mail here.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Slow goings
Life is starting to get somewhat monotonous here in Korea. I'm fairly acclimated at work now, but every now and then something stirs things up. The other week one of the teachers up and quit. She just didn't show up for work. I guess she wanted to take a leave of absence to go with her husband on some business trip. The owner wouldn't let her.
We had a recruiting event the other night at school. The next semester starts in February and we are trying to get new kids to sign up. Apparently we are losing more kids than the owner had hoped. Some are going to elementary school, which is understandable. Most of the students that are leaving are because their parents cannot afford to pay the tuition. The recruiting night was interesting. Less than half of the people that were supposed to come showed up. I also found out that there are other branches of our school, as one of the other owners showed up. She came to give support, which basically meant giving the presentation because our owner gets the mumbles and shakes when she is talking to a big group.
I found out last week that I will be dressing up as Santa for the kids. The sad thing is that it wont be the first time I have dressed up as Santa. I guess the old owner's father used to do it. Apparently his vision wasn't so good, so he messed up a lot of the kid's names when passing out gifts. The good thing for me is that I know most of the kids names, with the exception of most of our four year olds. I never use their names in class so I only know the names of the ones I have in after school classes.
I have realized that whenever I do make it back to America I will miss the public transportation system here. I love being able to hop on the subway or take a nice, clean cab anywhere in the city. I haven't used the bus system yet, mainly because I don't know the routes. I also like that some of the subways have random underground mini shopping malls.
I went out last night with Dan to a foreigner bar. It was nice to go out and socialize with people who speak English. They played really good music and you could request anything you wanted to hear. I met some interesting people and got to see a new part of Seoul I hadn't been to.
Today I had to go shopping for groceries. I bought some hot dogs and I am interested to see if they taste weird. One thing I have noticed is that the vegetable choice here is fairly limited. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Korea doesn't import much produce, with the exception of some fruits.
2. It's winter
3. Some vegetables just aren't used here
I really would like some green beans, sweet peas, and carrots. I have been eating canned corn to supply me with some vegetables. As far as fruit goes, I have been eating bananas, oranges, apples, and persimmons. Every now and then I see strawberries, but they look way too shiny and perfect.
A cool thing about markets over here is that they charge you for plastic bags. It's good for the environment and leaves you with less trash. I use the big fabric bag I got at the flea market last month for carrying my groceries.
I have a two week vacation coming up after Christmas. Dan and I are looking into some ski resorts to stay at. We saw a poster for one in the subway that has an indoor water park. I just want to go skiing so that I can say that I have done it at least once. Other than that I have no idea what I am going to do. I'll probably just try and do all the touristy stuff, and maybe do a temple stay at one of the many Buddhist temples.
I hope I have provided enough reading material to satiate your cravings. I know I haven't posted here much lately, but there isn't as much new or interesting stuff right now.
We had a recruiting event the other night at school. The next semester starts in February and we are trying to get new kids to sign up. Apparently we are losing more kids than the owner had hoped. Some are going to elementary school, which is understandable. Most of the students that are leaving are because their parents cannot afford to pay the tuition. The recruiting night was interesting. Less than half of the people that were supposed to come showed up. I also found out that there are other branches of our school, as one of the other owners showed up. She came to give support, which basically meant giving the presentation because our owner gets the mumbles and shakes when she is talking to a big group.
I found out last week that I will be dressing up as Santa for the kids. The sad thing is that it wont be the first time I have dressed up as Santa. I guess the old owner's father used to do it. Apparently his vision wasn't so good, so he messed up a lot of the kid's names when passing out gifts. The good thing for me is that I know most of the kids names, with the exception of most of our four year olds. I never use their names in class so I only know the names of the ones I have in after school classes.
I have realized that whenever I do make it back to America I will miss the public transportation system here. I love being able to hop on the subway or take a nice, clean cab anywhere in the city. I haven't used the bus system yet, mainly because I don't know the routes. I also like that some of the subways have random underground mini shopping malls.
I went out last night with Dan to a foreigner bar. It was nice to go out and socialize with people who speak English. They played really good music and you could request anything you wanted to hear. I met some interesting people and got to see a new part of Seoul I hadn't been to.
Today I had to go shopping for groceries. I bought some hot dogs and I am interested to see if they taste weird. One thing I have noticed is that the vegetable choice here is fairly limited. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Korea doesn't import much produce, with the exception of some fruits.
2. It's winter
3. Some vegetables just aren't used here
I really would like some green beans, sweet peas, and carrots. I have been eating canned corn to supply me with some vegetables. As far as fruit goes, I have been eating bananas, oranges, apples, and persimmons. Every now and then I see strawberries, but they look way too shiny and perfect.
A cool thing about markets over here is that they charge you for plastic bags. It's good for the environment and leaves you with less trash. I use the big fabric bag I got at the flea market last month for carrying my groceries.
I have a two week vacation coming up after Christmas. Dan and I are looking into some ski resorts to stay at. We saw a poster for one in the subway that has an indoor water park. I just want to go skiing so that I can say that I have done it at least once. Other than that I have no idea what I am going to do. I'll probably just try and do all the touristy stuff, and maybe do a temple stay at one of the many Buddhist temples.
I hope I have provided enough reading material to satiate your cravings. I know I haven't posted here much lately, but there isn't as much new or interesting stuff right now.
Friday, November 14, 2008
The farm
Earlier this semester the kids went to a farm and planted cabbage and some gigantic Korean radishes. Today we went to go and pick them. Here are some videos of the fun day at the farm.
Monday, November 10, 2008
I got paid
I got paid today. I would say I got my first paycheck, but they actually just wired the money to my account at the end of the day. The cool thing is that over here it doesn't take forever to clear the banks. As soon as they sent the money I was able to withdraw it.
I did find out that for the first two months they are withholding 200,000 won. Apparently this is to cover them in the event that I run away. I get the money back at the end of my contract, in addition to one month's pay. It was offset this time by the fact that I had overtime from doing the parent's day.
Now that I have some money I will be able to venture out and visit other places. Hopefully I can get some cool video to post here.
I did find out that for the first two months they are withholding 200,000 won. Apparently this is to cover them in the event that I run away. I get the money back at the end of my contract, in addition to one month's pay. It was offset this time by the fact that I had overtime from doing the parent's day.
Now that I have some money I will be able to venture out and visit other places. Hopefully I can get some cool video to post here.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
John McCain
This is the John McCain I know and love, and it saddens me that he will not be the next President of the United States of America.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
More Pictures
This is one of my 7 year old classes.
This is one of the 4 year olds in a bunny costume. I don't ever have to use their names in class, so I don't know hers.
This is Julie. She's Sean's sister. She had two swans painted on her face, because that's what one of the teachers was doing since Halloween is this week.
On another note, I had fried squid at work the other day. It was pretty good, although it was kind of chewy. Today we had some sort of sausage baked into a sweet bread roll. It wasn't that great, but it was edible.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Pictures
Here are some pictures from school:
Sean
Mike
Me and Mel
JaeHyun
From left: Chris, Andy, JaeHyun
Sean
Mike
Me and Mel
JaeHyun
From left: Chris, Andy, JaeHyun
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Birthday Weekend
Today is my birthday. In case you didn't know.
On Friday I went out with Dan. We went to the same place as last week. We ended up hanging out with the owner and her friend. I had ice cream at the bar, because some Korean guy went out and bought a grocery bag full of different ice cream bars. Nothing else was too exciting except for the fact that we ate some food at 5 in the morning at some tent on the side of the road. I ended up taking a cab back to my place. It was a long night.
Other than that, it has been a rather uneventful weekend. I did find a shirt I want to buy on a website. Here's the link
If any of you ever plan on sending me something bigger than an envelope, you should send it to my school address. I was talking with Chris, the Korean teacher who speaks English, and she said that if I wasn't at home when something is delivered I would risk having it sent back. The school's address is:
Kevin O'Connor
c/o KRABEL
2/F JaeJung Building
2-5 Garak-dong, Songpa-Gu
Seoul, Korea
138-160
Telephone 82-2-424-4243
On Friday I went out with Dan. We went to the same place as last week. We ended up hanging out with the owner and her friend. I had ice cream at the bar, because some Korean guy went out and bought a grocery bag full of different ice cream bars. Nothing else was too exciting except for the fact that we ate some food at 5 in the morning at some tent on the side of the road. I ended up taking a cab back to my place. It was a long night.
Other than that, it has been a rather uneventful weekend. I did find a shirt I want to buy on a website. Here's the link
If any of you ever plan on sending me something bigger than an envelope, you should send it to my school address. I was talking with Chris, the Korean teacher who speaks English, and she said that if I wasn't at home when something is delivered I would risk having it sent back. The school's address is:
Kevin O'Connor
c/o KRABEL
2/F JaeJung Building
2-5 Garak-dong, Songpa-Gu
Seoul, Korea
138-160
Telephone 82-2-424-4243
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
My new phone
Here's a picture:
It has two cameras, one for stills and one for video. I can use the video one to make video calls. I can also get a few channels of TV for free.
It has two cameras, one for stills and one for video. I can use the video one to make video calls. I can also get a few channels of TV for free.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Cell Phone
The Korean teacher that speaks English went with me today to sign up for a cell phone. I got a slider phone that I can watch tv on. I got the minimum contract for around $12 a month. I don't plan on making a lot of calls, but even if I go over it's not too expensive. I got a year contract, because it averages out to less than a pre-paid phone. I couldn't take it home today because I have to have a bank account set up for the payments. I will be going tomorrow morning to get my bank account established.
I also paid to get a phone number set up for Skype. If you want, you can call me at 941-312-7379. I can only answer if I am at my computer, but I have voicemail set up so you can leave me a message.
Today I found out that we are having a teacher's dinner on Thursday. I get to go out with a large group of women, most of whom I will not be able to speak with. Apparently the owner is going to bring the bottle of wine I brought for us to drink. Woo-hoo.
I also paid to get a phone number set up for Skype. If you want, you can call me at 941-312-7379. I can only answer if I am at my computer, but I have voicemail set up so you can leave me a message.
Today I found out that we are having a teacher's dinner on Thursday. I get to go out with a large group of women, most of whom I will not be able to speak with. Apparently the owner is going to bring the bottle of wine I brought for us to drink. Woo-hoo.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Folex
I'd like to apologize for not writing much lately, but I have been trying to get out more. This week at school I had to teach my first cooking class. I made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for the kids. I think they were kind of hesitant to eat them because I don't think they eat many sandwiches over here, let alone ones with ham and cheese. A lot of the kids would say "ham no" when I was putting the sandwiches together. Once they tried them they wanted more.
At work on Friday we had the monthly birthday party. The school throws a party for all the kids who had a birthday during the month. For lunch we had some sort of chicken nuggets, sushi, apples, bananas, cake, and pizza. The pizza was weird. I think it was from Papa Johns. Koreans put some weird stuff on pizza. This one had bacon, onions, olives, some sort of mystery meat, and potato wedges. If you want to see some weird pizza go to this website: Pizza Etang
On Friday I went out with Dan in his neighborhood. He says his area is known as the "ghetto of Seoul". Unlike my neighborhood, his is very busy. The subway ride there was insane. If you have ever seen packed Asian subways on tv, double the amount of people and that's what I had to deal with. We went to some place and met up with some Korean guys he knows. They were pretty cool guys. One of the Korean bartender girls kept telling me I was cute. Afterwards we went to a Korean barbecue and had some pork. I ate more kimchi this time around. I also had some weird dried minnows. You pull off the head and then dip them in some sort of sauce.
On Saturday I went with Dan to the casino. We played blackjack and I was up 100,000 won before losing my winnings. I left when I was at the amount I started with, so I didn't lose any money. If I knew how to play I would probably have actually won a decent amount of money. I left at like 11:45 and was able to make it halfway to my place before the subways shut down. I took my first cab and the guy dropped me off way too far from my place. I had to walk for like half an hour before I made it home.
Today I went to Namdaemun Market to look for a watch and a wallet. One of the teachers gave me a nice watch, but it is a ladies watch and it is kind of tight on me. I bought a nice fake Rolex at the market. It's a Submariner and it looks very real. The movement of the hands is right, and the markings are all correct. I couldn't find a wallet, mainly because I can't tell the difference between the men's and women's styles of designer wallets.
I am going to try and go to a festival next weekend, or maybe one of the nights this week. October is apparently the month for festivals. I was going to go to a food festival today, but upon reading the website, it was actually more of an expo for food companies and buyers. There is a small business expo some time this month, and an environmental expo this week.
At work on Friday we had the monthly birthday party. The school throws a party for all the kids who had a birthday during the month. For lunch we had some sort of chicken nuggets, sushi, apples, bananas, cake, and pizza. The pizza was weird. I think it was from Papa Johns. Koreans put some weird stuff on pizza. This one had bacon, onions, olives, some sort of mystery meat, and potato wedges. If you want to see some weird pizza go to this website: Pizza Etang
On Friday I went out with Dan in his neighborhood. He says his area is known as the "ghetto of Seoul". Unlike my neighborhood, his is very busy. The subway ride there was insane. If you have ever seen packed Asian subways on tv, double the amount of people and that's what I had to deal with. We went to some place and met up with some Korean guys he knows. They were pretty cool guys. One of the Korean bartender girls kept telling me I was cute. Afterwards we went to a Korean barbecue and had some pork. I ate more kimchi this time around. I also had some weird dried minnows. You pull off the head and then dip them in some sort of sauce.
On Saturday I went with Dan to the casino. We played blackjack and I was up 100,000 won before losing my winnings. I left when I was at the amount I started with, so I didn't lose any money. If I knew how to play I would probably have actually won a decent amount of money. I left at like 11:45 and was able to make it halfway to my place before the subways shut down. I took my first cab and the guy dropped me off way too far from my place. I had to walk for like half an hour before I made it home.
Today I went to Namdaemun Market to look for a watch and a wallet. One of the teachers gave me a nice watch, but it is a ladies watch and it is kind of tight on me. I bought a nice fake Rolex at the market. It's a Submariner and it looks very real. The movement of the hands is right, and the markings are all correct. I couldn't find a wallet, mainly because I can't tell the difference between the men's and women's styles of designer wallets.
I am going to try and go to a festival next weekend, or maybe one of the nights this week. October is apparently the month for festivals. I was going to go to a food festival today, but upon reading the website, it was actually more of an expo for food companies and buyers. There is a small business expo some time this month, and an environmental expo this week.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Flea Market
So I went to the flea market at the World Cup Stadium. From what I saw on the website I thought it was going to be inside the stadium. I held strong in this belief even when I made this video:
Unfortunately, the event was held outside. There were a lot of booths from companies promoting things. Some water company handed out some free bottles of water, which was nice because even though it was cool outside, everyone was standing in the bright sun. There were a bunch of charity and non-profit organizations spreading their propaganda, like the Free Trade Black Tea group and some "help kids in some country you never heard of" people. I am not trying to be mean about their causes, but the only reason people were stopping at their tables was to pick up free stuff. I did find one group that was of use to me. It's a group that has volunteers who you can call to help translate for you. They are the ones who wrote down my name in Korean. They also gave me a big black fabric bag to carry stuff in. Some magazine publisher was there giving away back issues of magazines, like Newsweek and Forbes. I grabbed some, even though they were in Korean. The Newsweek one has John McCain and Sarah Palin on the cover. Another group was one of the gas/diesel/lpg companies that was advertising some mp3 player. I don't know why they were advertising it, but I didn't ask questions because 1. I don't know Korean, and 2. They had cute girls passing out little packages with bandaids. Here is a video of their booth:
Anyways, I walked around and the place was so crowded that you had to puch people out of the way to actually see the things that people were selling. I didn't buy anything because I didn't see anything interesting, plus I didn't want to go through the hassle of pushing and shoving everyone in my path. On the plus side, I did get close enough to get a video of someone in a Spongebob costume. I have no idea why they had Spongebob at the flea market. Here's the video:
And that was my day.
Unfortunately, the event was held outside. There were a lot of booths from companies promoting things. Some water company handed out some free bottles of water, which was nice because even though it was cool outside, everyone was standing in the bright sun. There were a bunch of charity and non-profit organizations spreading their propaganda, like the Free Trade Black Tea group and some "help kids in some country you never heard of" people. I am not trying to be mean about their causes, but the only reason people were stopping at their tables was to pick up free stuff. I did find one group that was of use to me. It's a group that has volunteers who you can call to help translate for you. They are the ones who wrote down my name in Korean. They also gave me a big black fabric bag to carry stuff in. Some magazine publisher was there giving away back issues of magazines, like Newsweek and Forbes. I grabbed some, even though they were in Korean. The Newsweek one has John McCain and Sarah Palin on the cover. Another group was one of the gas/diesel/lpg companies that was advertising some mp3 player. I don't know why they were advertising it, but I didn't ask questions because 1. I don't know Korean, and 2. They had cute girls passing out little packages with bandaids. Here is a video of their booth:
Anyways, I walked around and the place was so crowded that you had to puch people out of the way to actually see the things that people were selling. I didn't buy anything because I didn't see anything interesting, plus I didn't want to go through the hassle of pushing and shoving everyone in my path. On the plus side, I did get close enough to get a video of someone in a Spongebob costume. I have no idea why they had Spongebob at the flea market. Here's the video:
And that was my day.
케 빈
케 빈 is apparently how you would spell my name in Korean. At least that is what some guy told me at the giant flea market today. There was a booth for some free translation service and they gave me a card that had my name spelled out in Korean. The translation would be something like k'e-bin. The e is a combination vowel (ŏi) to make the e sound. That is why all my coworkers call me Kebeen.
I'll post more about the flea market later.
I'll post more about the flea market later.
My goal for tomorrow
I want to go to this
It's the WeAJa charity flea market, and it is held in the World Cup Stadium. It's a good way to get to see the stadium and maybe find something cool to buy.
It's the WeAJa charity flea market, and it is held in the World Cup Stadium. It's a good way to get to see the stadium and maybe find something cool to buy.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Mother's Day
Today was Mother's Day at my school. This basically meant that I had to show up on a Saturday to go hang out with the mothers of the children at the school. We were bussed out to some park outside of Seoul at 9 AM. It was actually more of a garden. The place was located on the Han River, and it was in the mountains. Being the strapping young man I am, it was my job to carry the heavy stuff to our reserved area. It was also my job to sit there and look like an idiot all day long. I watched the kids make tie dye hankerchiefs using some type of local clay as a dye. Then we went and played with bubbles in a field. After that we went into a building that had bugs and fish. Exciting.
After these fun events, we went back to our site and had lunch. Apparently the other teachers were under the impression I would not eat Korean food, yet they still ordered me a box lunch from wherever they got the lunch. Just in case, they also bought me some sandwich from Paris Baguette (a bakery that has chains all over Korea). The Korean food was some type of beef cooked with garlic and onions, with some kimchi (pickled cabbage that is flavored with chili powder), some type of chili flavored onions, and rice. The sandwich was loaded up with all sorts of vegetables and mustard. I went with the Korean food. The beef was tasty, and I only ate a little of the kimchi. I ate all of the rice. To eat I had to use chopsticks. The good thing was that they weren't the slippery metal ones. The bad thing was is that I am still not that great with them. For dessert we had sliced up pears. We also had tons of weird cookies that the kids gave to us.
After lunch we went on a tour of the garden. They had some spots set up along the river with benches and other stuff that where moms (and some dads that came along) kept taking pictures of their kids. We then went into the greenhouses. This was pretty cool because they had some herb garden where we picked the leaves and crushed them in our hands to smell them. I found one that smelled like lemons. One of the greenhouses had palm trees and citrus trees. I told some of the parents about how I lived on a palm tree farm before I moved over. I'm not sure that they understood what I meant. There was another room with all sorts of cactii (plural of cactus for those wondering).
When we were done with our tour, we went back to our site. I guess some DJ guy set up his stuff there and he played some music while he was telling the kids to play some games with their parents. It was funny watching the parents play, because when I see adults with their children on the street they are all serious and stern. A lot of the moms aren't much older than I am, and there were definitely some hotties.
I had the opportunity to talk to some of the parents during the day. Most of them just asked where I was from and how long I had been in Korea. One set of parents apparently lived in New York and Michigan for a while and their son was born in the states. The dad works for CitiGroup in Korea and he speaks very fluent English. Another one of the moms was always chatting me up and it seemed like she was following me around. Her son is one of my favorite students. She was very pretty, so I didn't mind.
In between everything, the kids kept grabbing my arms because they all think it is cool to have me lift them up like I am doing a bicep curl. One of the girls swings up her legs and hangs upside down. Some of the parents took pictures of this, so if I can get one sent to me I will post it here.
It's been a long day and I still haven't eaten dinner yet. I might go check if the rotisserie chicken guy is on the corner tonight.
After these fun events, we went back to our site and had lunch. Apparently the other teachers were under the impression I would not eat Korean food, yet they still ordered me a box lunch from wherever they got the lunch. Just in case, they also bought me some sandwich from Paris Baguette (a bakery that has chains all over Korea). The Korean food was some type of beef cooked with garlic and onions, with some kimchi (pickled cabbage that is flavored with chili powder), some type of chili flavored onions, and rice. The sandwich was loaded up with all sorts of vegetables and mustard. I went with the Korean food. The beef was tasty, and I only ate a little of the kimchi. I ate all of the rice. To eat I had to use chopsticks. The good thing was that they weren't the slippery metal ones. The bad thing was is that I am still not that great with them. For dessert we had sliced up pears. We also had tons of weird cookies that the kids gave to us.
After lunch we went on a tour of the garden. They had some spots set up along the river with benches and other stuff that where moms (and some dads that came along) kept taking pictures of their kids. We then went into the greenhouses. This was pretty cool because they had some herb garden where we picked the leaves and crushed them in our hands to smell them. I found one that smelled like lemons. One of the greenhouses had palm trees and citrus trees. I told some of the parents about how I lived on a palm tree farm before I moved over. I'm not sure that they understood what I meant. There was another room with all sorts of cactii (plural of cactus for those wondering).
When we were done with our tour, we went back to our site. I guess some DJ guy set up his stuff there and he played some music while he was telling the kids to play some games with their parents. It was funny watching the parents play, because when I see adults with their children on the street they are all serious and stern. A lot of the moms aren't much older than I am, and there were definitely some hotties.
I had the opportunity to talk to some of the parents during the day. Most of them just asked where I was from and how long I had been in Korea. One set of parents apparently lived in New York and Michigan for a while and their son was born in the states. The dad works for CitiGroup in Korea and he speaks very fluent English. Another one of the moms was always chatting me up and it seemed like she was following me around. Her son is one of my favorite students. She was very pretty, so I didn't mind.
In between everything, the kids kept grabbing my arms because they all think it is cool to have me lift them up like I am doing a bicep curl. One of the girls swings up her legs and hangs upside down. Some of the parents took pictures of this, so if I can get one sent to me I will post it here.
It's been a long day and I still haven't eaten dinner yet. I might go check if the rotisserie chicken guy is on the corner tonight.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Rotisserie Chicken
There is a little old man who parks his truck on one of the street corners near my place and opens up the back to reveal a chicken rotisserie. At least I think it is chicken. It smells delicious whenever I walk by. However, the only times I see him there are when I am either carrying something, or when I have already eaten dinner. It is my goal to catch him on a night where I can actually purchase and enjoy a chicken cooked in the back of a truck.
Monday, October 6, 2008
All's quiet on the Eastern Front
It's been fairly slow lately. This past weekend was a three day weekend because of some Korean holiday. I didn't do much other than shop for groceries. I did find a place by me that has chicken, which is good because none of the normal markets in my neighborhood ever have chicken. I joined a new website for foreigners in Korea. I got some info about gyms in my area, as well as some places to go to hang out. Apparently there are two gyms at the intersection where my school is located. One is like $1200/year to join, but is absolutely amazing. The other one is supposedly kind of dumpy, but a lot cheaper. I'll probably end up joining the cheaper one, but maybe I'll switch to the other one once I get some money saved up.
The owner of my school has asked if I would sign on for another semester. Apparently I was hired in the second semester (of two semesters), and they would like for me to be there for a full school year. The owner has offered to fly me home in between two of the semesters. I would probably go home after this semester, mainly because I would like to go to Thailand in the summer next year. If I signed on for another semester, I wouldn't be back in the states until 2010. That might not be such a bad thing. I've read that most economists are predicting that is when the economy will actually start to turn around at a decent rate. The weird thing is that now that I am over here I have been keeping up with the news in the US more often.
I guess my health check came back ok, so I should be getting my Alien Registration Card soon (think green card in the US). That will allow me to open up a bank account. I think it also makes registers me for the health insurance.
I went rock climbing last week at a giant rock wall. It's located near the Ttukseom Resort stop on Line 7. The wall is in a public park located on the Han River, a river that splits Seoul from East to West. The park was beautiful and the wall was awesome. One thing that wasn't awesome was my climbing ability. I haven't climbed a rock wall successfully since high school. It mainly has to do with the fact that I have a hard time pulling up my body weight on the little nubs you grab to climb up the wall. Hopefully that will change in the coming months.
I'm going to try and make some videos this week. Here are some of the ideas I have, and some that have been recommended:
-The walk from my apartment to my school
-A tour of my school
-Random shots of the teachers and kids
-Some shots of the main road by my apartment
-Random girls on the street that I can get to marry my brother
-A cool looking park I found near my place
-Olympic Park
-A subway ride
If you have any ideas for any additional videos, or have a request of something specific you want to see then let me know.
The owner of my school has asked if I would sign on for another semester. Apparently I was hired in the second semester (of two semesters), and they would like for me to be there for a full school year. The owner has offered to fly me home in between two of the semesters. I would probably go home after this semester, mainly because I would like to go to Thailand in the summer next year. If I signed on for another semester, I wouldn't be back in the states until 2010. That might not be such a bad thing. I've read that most economists are predicting that is when the economy will actually start to turn around at a decent rate. The weird thing is that now that I am over here I have been keeping up with the news in the US more often.
I guess my health check came back ok, so I should be getting my Alien Registration Card soon (think green card in the US). That will allow me to open up a bank account. I think it also makes registers me for the health insurance.
I went rock climbing last week at a giant rock wall. It's located near the Ttukseom Resort stop on Line 7. The wall is in a public park located on the Han River, a river that splits Seoul from East to West. The park was beautiful and the wall was awesome. One thing that wasn't awesome was my climbing ability. I haven't climbed a rock wall successfully since high school. It mainly has to do with the fact that I have a hard time pulling up my body weight on the little nubs you grab to climb up the wall. Hopefully that will change in the coming months.
I'm going to try and make some videos this week. Here are some of the ideas I have, and some that have been recommended:
-The walk from my apartment to my school
-A tour of my school
-Random shots of the teachers and kids
-Some shots of the main road by my apartment
-Random girls on the street that I can get to marry my brother
-A cool looking park I found near my place
-Olympic Park
-A subway ride
If you have any ideas for any additional videos, or have a request of something specific you want to see then let me know.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Fan Death and more
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I teach two Korean boys English in the afternoon. They are both elementary school age, and can speak and understand English fairly well. I had heard that most Koreans believe that sleeping with a fan on can kill you, so I decided to ask them what they knew. Apparently when you sleep with a fan on, you will get too cold and die. When I told them that I sleep with a fan on they told me I am very lucky not to be dead. I have researched the "Fan Death" legend and I guess that it is very common in Korea. Most people believe that you will die. My research also points out that it most likely started out as a reason to explain unexplainable or unhonorable deaths, such as an alcohol or drug overdose.
Every month I have to teach a gym class and a cooking class and I am looking for ideas for each. the cooking must be simple, and the gym class must teach a skill or accomplish some sort of goal. This month, the Korean English teacher planned the gym class for me. She called it "Hand Operation Partnership Activity". When I heard that it sounded like they were going to repair tendons in each other's hands. Really what it meant was a motor skills activity where the kids were partnered up together. They tied knots with cloth on their legs, and then they partnered up and tied their legs together and had a three-legged race. If you have any ideas on what I can do I would appreciate your input.
I am probably going to join a hiking and rock climbing group that is lead by my recruiter. He has a website at www.climbinginkorea.com. I figure it would be a good way to meet some people that speak English.
Last night I went to a casino near the COEX Mall with Daniel. I lost money at the blackjack tables, but I won most of it back at roulette. I have my birthday, my family's birthdays, and St. Patrick's day to thank for that. Luck o' the Irish. I also had some Korean barbecue. Basically you grill your own meat at the table, and then wrap it in a lettuce leaf and eat it. It was pretty good. The side dishes weren't my favorite. There was a coleslaw salad that was pretty gross, some other salad that tasted like sesame oil that wasn't too bad, some butternut squash that was okay, and some spicy crab that I wouldn't eat because I hate crab. And then there was Kimchi. Kimchi is pickled cabbage, seasoned with red chili pepper and some other seasonings. I thought it was going to be gross, but it wasn't too bad. It's not my favorite, but it is edibile. In Korea you eat with metal chopsticks, so everything slips out when you try to pick it up. I am already horrible with wood chopsticks, so this was even worse. Afterwards we walked around the neighborhood and I saw a Buddhist Temple that was pretty cool.
My air conditioner's remote control broke, which seemed pretty devastating at the time. Then I decided to pull open the AC unit, where I found a tiny little switch to turn it on manually. I have no idea what the temperature is now, since there is no display on the unit. On the remote there is an LCD panel that tells you the temperature in Celsius. I am happy that one of the things I remember from school is the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit (Celsius temperature multiplied by 9/5 plus 32).
At the market near my apartment I found some Korean beef jerkey, which was fairly cheap considering the cost of beef. It tastes pretty good, too. Other than that, there's not much else to report on.
Every month I have to teach a gym class and a cooking class and I am looking for ideas for each. the cooking must be simple, and the gym class must teach a skill or accomplish some sort of goal. This month, the Korean English teacher planned the gym class for me. She called it "Hand Operation Partnership Activity". When I heard that it sounded like they were going to repair tendons in each other's hands. Really what it meant was a motor skills activity where the kids were partnered up together. They tied knots with cloth on their legs, and then they partnered up and tied their legs together and had a three-legged race. If you have any ideas on what I can do I would appreciate your input.
I am probably going to join a hiking and rock climbing group that is lead by my recruiter. He has a website at www.climbinginkorea.com. I figure it would be a good way to meet some people that speak English.
Last night I went to a casino near the COEX Mall with Daniel. I lost money at the blackjack tables, but I won most of it back at roulette. I have my birthday, my family's birthdays, and St. Patrick's day to thank for that. Luck o' the Irish. I also had some Korean barbecue. Basically you grill your own meat at the table, and then wrap it in a lettuce leaf and eat it. It was pretty good. The side dishes weren't my favorite. There was a coleslaw salad that was pretty gross, some other salad that tasted like sesame oil that wasn't too bad, some butternut squash that was okay, and some spicy crab that I wouldn't eat because I hate crab. And then there was Kimchi. Kimchi is pickled cabbage, seasoned with red chili pepper and some other seasonings. I thought it was going to be gross, but it wasn't too bad. It's not my favorite, but it is edibile. In Korea you eat with metal chopsticks, so everything slips out when you try to pick it up. I am already horrible with wood chopsticks, so this was even worse. Afterwards we walked around the neighborhood and I saw a Buddhist Temple that was pretty cool.
My air conditioner's remote control broke, which seemed pretty devastating at the time. Then I decided to pull open the AC unit, where I found a tiny little switch to turn it on manually. I have no idea what the temperature is now, since there is no display on the unit. On the remote there is an LCD panel that tells you the temperature in Celsius. I am happy that one of the things I remember from school is the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit (Celsius temperature multiplied by 9/5 plus 32).
At the market near my apartment I found some Korean beef jerkey, which was fairly cheap considering the cost of beef. It tastes pretty good, too. Other than that, there's not much else to report on.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
K1 GP 2008 Final 16
During the week I had seen signs around Seoul talking about some sort of boxing event going on. I finally looked it up and found out that it was kickboxing, and apparently it was part of some tournament held by K1. It's called the Grand Prix, and I guess they hold each round in a different city. This round was for the final 16 fighters, and it was held at the Olympic Stadium.
On my way home from E-Mart, I saw some British people on the subway and they were about to head in the wrong direction to get to the Olympic Park. I asked why they were going, and they said for the K1 tournament. I would have gone with them had I not been carrying a huge grocery bag and an ironing board. I got back to my place and dropped the stuff off so I could hop back on the subway to the park.
The fight cost 22,000 won (approx. $20) for an upper level ticket. the funny part was that I was only about ten feet behind the next level, where ticket prices jumped to about 55,000 won. I sat next to an interesting Korean who only spoke fight-related English words. Behind me were some New Zealanders who were on vacation. My seat was towards the middle of the stadium, where I got a great view of the ring and the stage. They had some pretty cool entrances for the fighters.
It was a fun night, but now I am tired and my voice is starting to go out. I just hope I feel better by monday.
P.S. Here is the website for the fight http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/top869.htm
On my way home from E-Mart, I saw some British people on the subway and they were about to head in the wrong direction to get to the Olympic Park. I asked why they were going, and they said for the K1 tournament. I would have gone with them had I not been carrying a huge grocery bag and an ironing board. I got back to my place and dropped the stuff off so I could hop back on the subway to the park.
The fight cost 22,000 won (approx. $20) for an upper level ticket. the funny part was that I was only about ten feet behind the next level, where ticket prices jumped to about 55,000 won. I sat next to an interesting Korean who only spoke fight-related English words. Behind me were some New Zealanders who were on vacation. My seat was towards the middle of the stadium, where I got a great view of the ring and the stage. They had some pretty cool entrances for the fighters.
It was a fun night, but now I am tired and my voice is starting to go out. I just hope I feel better by monday.
P.S. Here is the website for the fight http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/top869.htm
Friday, September 26, 2008
Health Check
I had my health check today. The school owner called the place a hospital, but I am pretty sure it was just a doctor's office, because it was way too small to be a hospital. I had to pee in a cup for the drug test, and then I had to have blood drawn. The drug test took like 5 minutes and a nurse came in with the results, negative of course.
After this, I had to have an x-ray of my chest. it was weird because I had to put my chin on some chin rest, and then pull my arms back like chicken wings and breath in. I probably looked retarded. I also had to do a vision test, which came back normal for both eyes. At the end they also measured my chest, which was exactly 48 inches. I only know this because the side of the tape that I could see was in inches.
The process of driving to the doctor, the health check, and driving back took around 2 hours. The driving provided some interesting and awkward conversation. Apparently, the owner's son (who I teach English to in the after school program) loves the band Queen and Freddie Mercury. I wanted to ask her if she knew that Freddie Mercury was gay, because being gay is definitely looked down upon over here. We also drove by an outdoor market that looked pretty cool, but I have no idea how to get there.
Other than that, I did almost nothing at work today. The lesson plans for next week are already made, so all I did was read them over. The owner's son was supposed to come but he missed his bus. So I just drew up a list of things I wanted to try and do or buy this weekend.
After this, I had to have an x-ray of my chest. it was weird because I had to put my chin on some chin rest, and then pull my arms back like chicken wings and breath in. I probably looked retarded. I also had to do a vision test, which came back normal for both eyes. At the end they also measured my chest, which was exactly 48 inches. I only know this because the side of the tape that I could see was in inches.
The process of driving to the doctor, the health check, and driving back took around 2 hours. The driving provided some interesting and awkward conversation. Apparently, the owner's son (who I teach English to in the after school program) loves the band Queen and Freddie Mercury. I wanted to ask her if she knew that Freddie Mercury was gay, because being gay is definitely looked down upon over here. We also drove by an outdoor market that looked pretty cool, but I have no idea how to get there.
Other than that, I did almost nothing at work today. The lesson plans for next week are already made, so all I did was read them over. The owner's son was supposed to come but he missed his bus. So I just drew up a list of things I wanted to try and do or buy this weekend.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Internet and more
I found out today that I should be getting internet on October 1st. That means I can use Skype without it cutting me off or echoing because of my bad connection. It also means that I can start posting videos to youtube and on this blog.
Why October 1st? Good question. Apparently I was hired by the current owner who is a very strange lady who seems to not care at all about what happens in the school. The native Korean teacher that speaks English calls her "the chubby lady" when in reality she is no bigger than your average American. (I wonder what they call me?) Anyways, she sold the school during this past month and the new owner takes over on the first. The internet has to be put under the owner's name or they will price gouge the heck out of me because I am a foreigner. She said she wont do it until she is the owner. Whatever.
On a cool side note, I had tater tots and orange juice at school today. I guess there is a snack time every day and one of the Korean girls brought me the snack in my back room/office area while I was doing a lesson plan. I kind of hide in their while doing lesson planning because I don't have my own classroom. I just go to each classroom at a designated time and teach. Anyways, the point is that I had tater tots and orange juice and it was delicious.
Today I got to teach Mike (the new owner's son) and YuJin, a boy who has been taking after school lessons there for a year. Mike understands English, and can read well, but he has a hard time speaking (mostly because he is nervous). YuJin used to live in Laos, where he learned to speak very well, but he has a harder time reading and writing. They work very well together, and I think that they will end up helping each other out with their respective difficulties.
I also met Julie, my other after school student. All of the teachers had predicted that she wouldn't want to be taught by me because they thought I would scare her. They also said she barely speaks. I got her talking and laughing during our time and she said she wants me to teach her because she thinks it will be fun. Simply put, I am the man.
On my way home from work, I saw something weird. The building that is 4 feet away from mine had a basket on the side at about chest height. It was made out of mesh and had a wire frame. The weird part was that there were fish in it. I'm pretty sure the person was drying them, but the thing is that it rained today. I'm not sure that's how it works.
This post is coming out as a stream of conciousness mainly because I keep thinking of things I want to say and I don't want to move all the text around so it reads better. Like right now I just remembered that the new owner is giving me her old office furniture (I think a couch and two chairs) so I can use them in my porch. She apparently was an interior designer and is redesigning a lot of the school, which includes her office. I guess when she has her new furniture delivered, she is going to have the movers take the old furniture to my apartment.
Alright, I think I covered everything for now. I'm going to try and find some food.
Why October 1st? Good question. Apparently I was hired by the current owner who is a very strange lady who seems to not care at all about what happens in the school. The native Korean teacher that speaks English calls her "the chubby lady" when in reality she is no bigger than your average American. (I wonder what they call me?) Anyways, she sold the school during this past month and the new owner takes over on the first. The internet has to be put under the owner's name or they will price gouge the heck out of me because I am a foreigner. She said she wont do it until she is the owner. Whatever.
On a cool side note, I had tater tots and orange juice at school today. I guess there is a snack time every day and one of the Korean girls brought me the snack in my back room/office area while I was doing a lesson plan. I kind of hide in their while doing lesson planning because I don't have my own classroom. I just go to each classroom at a designated time and teach. Anyways, the point is that I had tater tots and orange juice and it was delicious.
Today I got to teach Mike (the new owner's son) and YuJin, a boy who has been taking after school lessons there for a year. Mike understands English, and can read well, but he has a hard time speaking (mostly because he is nervous). YuJin used to live in Laos, where he learned to speak very well, but he has a harder time reading and writing. They work very well together, and I think that they will end up helping each other out with their respective difficulties.
I also met Julie, my other after school student. All of the teachers had predicted that she wouldn't want to be taught by me because they thought I would scare her. They also said she barely speaks. I got her talking and laughing during our time and she said she wants me to teach her because she thinks it will be fun. Simply put, I am the man.
On my way home from work, I saw something weird. The building that is 4 feet away from mine had a basket on the side at about chest height. It was made out of mesh and had a wire frame. The weird part was that there were fish in it. I'm pretty sure the person was drying them, but the thing is that it rained today. I'm not sure that's how it works.
This post is coming out as a stream of conciousness mainly because I keep thinking of things I want to say and I don't want to move all the text around so it reads better. Like right now I just remembered that the new owner is giving me her old office furniture (I think a couch and two chairs) so I can use them in my porch. She apparently was an interior designer and is redesigning a lot of the school, which includes her office. I guess when she has her new furniture delivered, she is going to have the movers take the old furniture to my apartment.
Alright, I think I covered everything for now. I'm going to try and find some food.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
First day of school
So I know it's the day after, but I keep falling asleep really early. I went to the school at 10, and my first class wasn't until 10:20. I had a group of seven year olds. The seven year olds are split into two groups for English class by skill level. I had the lower skill level kids yesterday. They weren't a bad class, but they were very loud and energetic.
The next class was the four year olds. Keep in mind that these are Korean ages, so they can be one or two years younger than their Korean age. So these kids would be 2-3 pretty much anywhere else in the world. As soon as I walked in the room some little girl started freaking out crying. I read them a book and talked about loud and quiet noises. Then we sang "If you're happy and you know it". The kids liked the song more than the book.
After that I had the five year olds. The five year olds were by far the most respectful and quiet class. We worked out of their school book and talked about the five senses. After the five year old class I had a 30 minute break.
Once I was finished with my break I had a class of six year olds. The lesson that was assigned was supposed to take up an hour, but we finished in like 35 minutes. We ended up talking for the rest of the class. The kids kept talking about the animal names they had learned in English. The funniest thing was they kept talking about a "camera" as an animal. It took me a while to figure out that they were trying to say chameleon.
Now I had another break, except this one was like two hours long. I went home and ate my spaghetti ramen noodles and drank some Pocari Sweat, which is like an Asian Gatorade. I was contemplating taking a nap, but I had to be back to meet a little boy that I was going to be tutoring in english in the afterschool program. The director of the school also decided she wants to have me teach her son. The schedule hasn't been decided yet, but I will be teaching them both probably starting later this week.
At the end of the day I have to keep a log of all of the classes. I only have to write like a sentence or two about each class, so it only took me like 5 minutes. Today, I have an afterschool class where I will be reading a story to some seven year olds. Other than that, I might go to the Hyundai department store or E-Mart tonight to pick up some stuff.
The next class was the four year olds. Keep in mind that these are Korean ages, so they can be one or two years younger than their Korean age. So these kids would be 2-3 pretty much anywhere else in the world. As soon as I walked in the room some little girl started freaking out crying. I read them a book and talked about loud and quiet noises. Then we sang "If you're happy and you know it". The kids liked the song more than the book.
After that I had the five year olds. The five year olds were by far the most respectful and quiet class. We worked out of their school book and talked about the five senses. After the five year old class I had a 30 minute break.
Once I was finished with my break I had a class of six year olds. The lesson that was assigned was supposed to take up an hour, but we finished in like 35 minutes. We ended up talking for the rest of the class. The kids kept talking about the animal names they had learned in English. The funniest thing was they kept talking about a "camera" as an animal. It took me a while to figure out that they were trying to say chameleon.
Now I had another break, except this one was like two hours long. I went home and ate my spaghetti ramen noodles and drank some Pocari Sweat, which is like an Asian Gatorade. I was contemplating taking a nap, but I had to be back to meet a little boy that I was going to be tutoring in english in the afterschool program. The director of the school also decided she wants to have me teach her son. The schedule hasn't been decided yet, but I will be teaching them both probably starting later this week.
At the end of the day I have to keep a log of all of the classes. I only have to write like a sentence or two about each class, so it only took me like 5 minutes. Today, I have an afterschool class where I will be reading a story to some seven year olds. Other than that, I might go to the Hyundai department store or E-Mart tonight to pick up some stuff.
Monday, September 22, 2008
You don't know ramen...
until you try "Italian Type Spaghetti Ramen". It comes with some dried corn, dried tomatoes, and some macaroni noodles in one packet, some sauce that tastes like a mix between ketchup and barbecue sauce, and some dry seasoning to put on top that I guess is supposed to be like parmesan. My guess is the mystery dried stuff is pure MSG.
Amazingly, it wasn't half bad. The ramen noodles over here are way better than in the states. The variety is pretty crazy too. Well, I'm going to go back to work, because I am on my two hour long lunch break. I'll post about my first day later.
Amazingly, it wasn't half bad. The ramen noodles over here are way better than in the states. The variety is pretty crazy too. Well, I'm going to go back to work, because I am on my two hour long lunch break. I'll post about my first day later.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Baseball
I was doing some research on the Korean Baseball league and I found out that the Rays have a Korean pitcher on the roster. His name is Jae Kuk Ryu, and he is currently on the disabled list. He is most famous for something he did in spring training a few years back: he threw a baseball at an osprey that was perched on the stadium lights and he hit the bird. The osprey died 6 days later and he was fined because ospreys are a protected species in Florida.
Where I live
In case you can't read it, The red X is the building where my school is, and the yellow X is where I live.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Arrival
I went and visited the school yesterday. It is like one block from my apartment. We went to a park outside of Seoul with the kids and played games, so the kids could become familiar with me. the kids are actually ages 2-6. The school is a pre-school that teaches through playing games and doing other fun stuff. I found out that once a month we have a "gym" day where we go somewhere and play sports, like a park or a pool. I also have to do a cooking class for the kids once a month, but it is nothing serious because they are really young. The owner took me out to lunch at Bennigan's. Afterwards I went home and took a nap and then I walked around my neighborhood for a while. I walked for about an hour down one road and it just kept going with restaurants and shops and neon signs everywhere.
When I got here, the owner of the school brought some food for me, like bread, eggs, cereal, and some milk. I went out yesterday and got some water (like less than a dollar for a 2 liter bottle ), some gatorade, some water, and some ramen noodles (until I figure out what I want to try to eat). My place is a small studio apartment. I will make a video for all of you once I get everything put away. My internet here is slow because I am stealing it from someone else and the signal is bad.
Today I woke up at like 7 and walked down by the Olympic Park. Back in 1988, Seoul hosted the Olympics. I guess the Korean Tennis Open is this week and it seems like a big event, so I might try to go tomorrow to watch some matches if the weather is nice. By the way, the weather is gross out now. I decided to go look for a power converter at some place I saw on a map. I had to take the subway, which was an interesting adventure in itself, but when I got off the place was nowhere to to be found. I decided that I would walk around this area of town for a while and I found a tourist map on a sign and found a place called "Hi mart". Luckily they had a converter there for a heck of a lot cheaper than any place in America.
Here's the fun part that I haven't mentioned yet: it started pouring rain after I got off the subway to find the original store. I ended up ducking into a little market and picked up a nice umbrella with a wood handle for like 5000 won (about 5 bucks).
So now I am charging my laptop. It is still pouring outside, so I probably wont go outside again until I want dinner.
When I got here, the owner of the school brought some food for me, like bread, eggs, cereal, and some milk. I went out yesterday and got some water (like less than a dollar for a 2 liter bottle ), some gatorade, some water, and some ramen noodles (until I figure out what I want to try to eat). My place is a small studio apartment. I will make a video for all of you once I get everything put away. My internet here is slow because I am stealing it from someone else and the signal is bad.
Today I woke up at like 7 and walked down by the Olympic Park. Back in 1988, Seoul hosted the Olympics. I guess the Korean Tennis Open is this week and it seems like a big event, so I might try to go tomorrow to watch some matches if the weather is nice. By the way, the weather is gross out now. I decided to go look for a power converter at some place I saw on a map. I had to take the subway, which was an interesting adventure in itself, but when I got off the place was nowhere to to be found. I decided that I would walk around this area of town for a while and I found a tourist map on a sign and found a place called "Hi mart". Luckily they had a converter there for a heck of a lot cheaper than any place in America.
Here's the fun part that I haven't mentioned yet: it started pouring rain after I got off the subway to find the original store. I ended up ducking into a little market and picked up a nice umbrella with a wood handle for like 5000 won (about 5 bucks).
So now I am charging my laptop. It is still pouring outside, so I probably wont go outside again until I want dinner.
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