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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Videos