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.
Monday, September 29, 2008
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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