Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Things I love, things I miss

I love:

- that I do not have to have a key to my room.  They have keys, mine looks like a computer junk drive stick but I have a key code system on my door so I only have to key in my pass code to open the door...I will never get locked out again, never have to worry about forgetting my key...fabulous.

- that they are dedicated to recycling here, we separate our food, recyclables and our trash...amazing

- they have maps or all the bus stops, where they go, in English at almost all the bus stops

- they have kept Mc Donalds and fast food away from the little mom and pop places...it is refreshing to see so many little shops and food places, because of this there are so many different places to eat and shop all owned by actual people, who you usually can meet working there

- I love the fruit stands on the streets, its like a farmers market everywhere everyday

- my building has motion lights, so they do not waste electricity


Things I miss:

- garbage cans...they put their trash on the street in bags (that you buy) but sometimes it looks bad and messy

- fast food, I never thought I would say that but sometimes your just hungry now

- tall tables, I have a floor table in my house (until I get a big one) sometimes you just want to sit at a table

- my TV shows...another thing I wish I could say I don't miss but to know that people are watching them and I'm not...well I guess I will just have to catch up when I return

- English book stores, I love reading books, turning pages and all, I will have to find them here for sure

- Ovens...I love to bake what can I say: warm cookies, baked lasagna...

Monday, October 24, 2011

My ride with the police

So last Saturday started out an adventure and ended in the same fashion.  I set out at noon to meet up with some people from the organization I went through to get here to play some kickball.  I had been given what to say to the taxi driver to get to the Children's Park we were playing at.  So I flagged down a taxi and told him where to take me.  The taxi driver either did not understand me or did not know where that was because he would not take me.  I had no clue what he was saying but I did know we were not driving.  OK so no worries I figure out what bus to take and I am on my way.  The problem with the bus is, is that from the route map you look at before you get on, it always seems that your stop will not be far, but while riding on the bus it seems to take forever.  I am so impatient, and its hard but even worse is that I never know if I miss my stop or not because I don't know what my stop looks like and I can't read the signs.  So I sit wondering at every stop if I should get off or not always thinking as its pulling off that maybe I should have gotten off.  So when I finally can't take all the wondering, I get off.  I always get off too soon.  So I look on the bus route map at the stop and figure out I got off too soon.  OK so I figure maybe this is a good time to try the taxi again, I sure am closer.  Again I get in the taxi, tell his where I want to go in Korean and again he tells me something.  Now I can't understand him but by his body language and such i can tell its a repeat of the earlier taxi experience. 

So a walking I go.  I walk, following random things I think are important.  After about three miles I figure its time to try the bus again.  The place I was heading to was near the World Cup Stadium so I get on a bus that stops there, figuring at least I will know where to get off on this time.  All is good.  I get off at the World Cup Stadium and start walking around.  The place is huge.  Well the kickball thing started at 1pm and it is now around 1:45pm so I am running a bit late.  After asking multiple people and walking another 40 min a Korean girl and her family offer to drive me to where they believe I want to go, luckily on the way to walking to their car I find my destination a whopping 2 1/2 hours after I first set off. 

Kickball turned into crazy ultimate Frisbee.  I cant catch and I am a bit out of shape, but I made one good catch, and scored, and really that's all that matters right.  I met a lot of nice people around my age.  Dan, the man in charge of the organization drove me home, thank goodness too cause who knows how long it would have taken for me to get back. 

That night I meet up with some of the people I had met earlier that day.  We went to a German bar and had great beer.  There were a lot of people from all over who spoke English here.  We played darts and of course karaoke.  We sang Bon Jovi "Living on a Prayer".  Fabulous.  After we went to a club called the Mix.  It was interesting to see Korean people in a different light. 

So I left Mix and found a taxi.  I asked him to take me to Bongseon-dong, E-mart.  He shook his head and we were on our way...to the wrong E-mart.  After, we drove around a while, he called someone who spoke English but that did not help, he did not know where Bongseon was and I had no clue how to tell him, nor did I know.  So he took me to the police station and well I don't know what he told the police but they did chuckle a little and then asked me where I lived...they knew where Bongseon-dong was and drove me to my street.  Never would have thought that in my first month in Korea I would have ended up in the back of the police car...lol..

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Fun in the city photos.

Their donuts are healthy.

Their donuts are in the shape of fruit.

It was even filled with banana and strawberries.  Does it get any better than that?

There are streets and streets and streets that look like this, filled with stores and food places everywhere.

Octopus

The lady yelled at me to get away after taking this photo.

Ok so they have fridges only for kimchi, like we have extra freezers, they have extra fridges for kimchi.

This is the best.  This is E Mart and it is 3 stories, its almost like a Super Target.  They have escalators that you bring your cart on to go from floor to floor.  The escalators have grooves on them and so do the shopping cart wheels so they lock, but sometimes that does not always work so hold on to your cart.

My apartment photos

My apartment building.

My kitchen area.  The door next to the TV is my laundry room.

My bed area...I have a great 4th floor view.

My bathroom and yes that is my shower in back.

Doorway storage, amazing shoe rack inside.


Photos of all those I love.

My wonderful and large closet, if only I had more to fill it,

Photos of my flight and bus ride

Leaving America

Reading on the plane.

Somewhere in the sky.

Over China.

Over Korean islands.

At airport in South Korea.

Bus to Gwangju.

Bus stop.

Monday, October 17, 2011

My first day of teaching

So today was my first day of teaching my classes by myself.

It started off kinda rocky of course.  I got pen on my shirt, right in the middle, so typically me.  I walked into the wrong room for the first class.  I did not know how to work the computer and forgot to bring the password.  After my young students got a good laugh out of the silly English teacher, they helped me with the computer and I ran up to get the password to log on.  It went well after that though.  Students in Korea study so hard and go to school a long time, they have long days.  I work 1:30 to 8:30pm.  All of my students go to school during the day and come to the institute after, many in classes till 10:30 at night.  They used to go till 12am but a new law, from what I am told now limits them to no later than 10:30pm.  Still I have to give them credit for that.  Many of my students also go to Japanese or Chinese academys or institutions too.  My fourth graders, which would be the same age as 3rd graders in the USA because in Korea you are 1 years old at birth and turn 2 I think January 1st (the luner new year) on your 1st birthday you are 3 years old already so they start school earlier, anyways my 4th graders can speak and read English wonderfully, better than I can read or speak Spanish after 6 years of it in school.  They are very bright and most are hard working.  Education is very important here and amazingly the students don't complain, they don't know any other way, if only they knew the short length of time kids in the US go to school.  Also the kids here go to school all year with very little breaks, maybe 4 days for winter.  

Overall though my first day was good.  My Korean teachers are a great help and I am lucky to have them.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

First week

Well I finished my first week plus some already, how exciting.

So I went to the hospital with two of my Korean co-workers to get my physical for immigration.  We went to a hospital that was part of a medical school.  It was huge and confusing though I had a lot of help.  It was amazing how fast it was to get everything.  I got chest x-rays, an EKG, blood and urine samples, hearing, sight, and all the basic other testing, weight… in less than an hour, crazy.  In the US that would have taken days.  It was great. (not to mention the blood test results were done in 2 days, again so fast) We then went to eat lunch and I had a BBQ and pineapple hamburger and a salad. 

So for my ID here I needed a photo of course.  In Korea they have all their photos taken at a studio, nice idea right, never a bad photo again.  So at the photo studio I was sitting to get my photo and the photographer told me to smile, so I did, big and happy.  Instantly he through his hands up waving and saying no no no.  I was confused.  My co-worker said I had to have a closed mouth smile, ok so I smiled again with my mouth closed and again the photographer waved he’s hands and said no no no.  I was then told I could only do a very small, slight smile.  So I guess they really didn’t want me to smile then.  To funny, just a little miscommunication.  I got my photo back in about 3-4 days and lets just say there was a little touching up.  I have no freckles anymore. 

Next was the Korean Embassy for the final process of my ID.  Again fast and easy.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Journey Begins

I begin my journey at the O'Hare airport with Lionel and my mom.  We arrive at 9am and eat breakfast before I went.  I board my plane at 11:30 am and we begin take off at noon sharp.  The flight is 14 hours.  After about 6 hours it seems crazy that I will be on the plane for hours to come.  I watched all movies they had available including Something Borrowed, Super 8, Green Lantern, and Mr. Popper's Penguins.  I slept on and off but not more than 30 to 45 min at a time.  I sat next to a Korean couple who were very pleasant, even sharing their soup they brought and had made with me.  There was food non stop, steak, potatoes, veg, shrimp, crab salad, cheese cake, the list goes on and for the first meal you could choose between western and Korean. 
Once the plane landed and I went through costumes’, which was simple and fast, I asked around for the place to buy my bus ticket and tried multiple times to master the Korean pay phone to notify my boss that I had arrived and was about to board the bus.  I slept on the bus for most of the 4 hour journey; there was one stop half way to use the bathroom but not much time for anything else.  I arrived at the bus station in Gwangju and waited for my boss to pick me up. 
 I was also greeted by the teacher I was replacing and a Korean teacher I would be working with.  They took me to a great place to eat and tried Kiamichi for the first time.  It was spicy and I enjoyed it.  The restaurant had a chose of ground tables (which you took your shoes off to sit on pillows on the floor) or western tables and chairs.  Their chop sticks were a bit trickier than at home because they were metal and slippery, though I gave it my all to use them the entire dinner.  We shared a dish and ate right from the same main dish. 
After dinner I was shown my apartment.  It was bigger than I expected and looked almost new.  There is one main room including the bed, TV, kitchen (minus the oven), a laundry room (minus the dryer), a bathroom (minus the shower stall), and a small extra room that was turned into a giant closet.  The teacher I am replacing was very generous and left me washed bed sheets, shampoo, laundry supplies, toilet paper and much more, it seemed like home already.  There were also many items to help me navigate Gwangju.