Vacation

It seems it's been a while since I've posted. I suppose catching up would help explain why. 

Back in July, we got a 5-day summer vacation. Andrew and I decided on Beijing as our destination. Before we even left, it was stressful. We were working with a company which had relations with our academy in order to secure visas to enter China. (We'd already come to terms with the fact Americans had to pay $190 while Canadians had to pay $50.) They were also going to help us with flights and hotels. Yet, as so often happens here in Korea, plans changed at the last moment and we were forced to plan it ourselves with a week left. 

The good: Being able to see the Forbidden Palace, tobogganing down the side of the Great Wall, eating Peking duck, walking around the hutongs, seeing the Temple of Heaven, meeting some great people. 

The bad: The sold-out bus to Incheon airport in the back with the heat of the engine and a vomiting child in the seat next to us, the 5-hour wait before even checking in, the 100 degree heat, 100% humidity, and extreme smog; the scammers constantly hounding us to take their tours of the Great Wall, the salespeople at stores grabbing you with their sweating hands in order to get you to stay and buy something, and the inability to get a cab without being scammed out of your money. 

When we returned, everything went wrong. Out of the foreign teachers, 3 didn't return in time for their classes. Furthermore, after a couple days of dealing with the aftermath, one of those teachers ran away in the middle of the night. Because of this, the other foreign teachers took on a bigger classload during the Intensive session, when we already had too many. We were also put under watch and scrutiny and made to feel like unloyal, immature children. Since then, I haven't felt like writing. 

I became very discouraged with this experience, and tired, and disappointed in people. That's not to say that good hasn't happened, but overall, I didn't feel like keeping up with this. 

That changed with this vacation. It's currently Chuseok, Korea's most important holiday which is the equivalent of Thanksgiving. We were given a 6-day break. Instead of planning another trip, we decided to stay in Korea to relax and de-stress. 

We kicked off Friday night with drinks and a norebang (a karaoke room) with great people until 7 AM. After relaxing on Saturday, we took an early bus to Busan and headed to Haeundae. We ate amazing Mexican at FN Tacos, found a love motel* to stay in, and went back to FN Tacos again before heading the to beach and the Busan Aquarium. After that, we went back to take a nap, then set out to find Senora's, another Mexican restaurant in the area. It's a tiny little place with only 5 stools to sit in, and only room for about 7 people in all. The walls and ceiling are covered in post-it notes from people who have visited.  If you're ever at Senora's, look for the sticky note with the Busan otter. They had some of the freshest burritos I've ever had, but it didn't compare to FN Tacos. After filling up on more Mexican, we got some coffee and sat on the beach. The rest of the vacation could have been a disaster and I still would have called that the best vacation ever. 

In the morning, we got up and went to get lunch at FN Tacos again. Then we navigated the metro to head to Bujeon market to look at THE place for musicians shopping in Korea. On our way back to Haeundae, we stopped at the Museum of Modern Art to see Busan's Biennale, and it was relaxing and fun. To round off the day, we gorged ourselves at Outback and spent the rest of the night feeling guilty. 

Before leaving on Tuesday morning, we tried FN Tacos once again, but the chef wasn't ready to start cooking, and we didn't want to wait. We'd already been there 3 times in 2 days :) We then went to the bus terminal and had to wait 3 hours for our bus because it was the day for traveling in Korea. We ate some bibimbap and relaxed at a coffee shop in the air conditioning. Despite everyone's warnings against traveling during this time, we ran into no troubles and were back in Gwangju before we thought we'd be. 

Now I'm spending a relaxing day with TV, wondering if First Nepal is open today. I never thought a vacation could flip everything back around. Now I look forward to the next one :)

*A final word on love motels: Korea pretends to be a conservative culture, and I get hateful looks from the old women and men if I even wear a tank top, yet love motels abound wherever you go. If anyone finds out I live with my boyfriend unmarried, it's frowned upon. Yet those love motels...You can tell them from their interesting exteriors and the flashing neon lights. And if you're ever unsure if you just checked into one, you'll be sure if you're handed a pack of condoms. The rooms are fun, but if you turn on the "fun" lighting, you'll immediately feel like you're in a bad porn movie even if you're watching Toy Story 3 in flannel PJ's. You even get a porn channel with horribly awkward scenes of Asian love. They're cheap, interesting, but infuriating because Koreans won't relinquish their traditional ideals about relationships even when the neons are reflecting on their faces. 

Yeosu and Odongdo

Oh, the neverending opportunities for day-trips is one of the best thing about living here. This Sunday we were off to Yeosu after an already great start to the weekend.

Yeosu is on the very southern coast of ol' SoKo, and it's pocked with islands. From the Gwangju bus terminal, it's a 9,400 won ticket and takes about an hour and 40 minutes, though the signs at the terminal tell you it's two hours. After a nice bus nap, we hit up the Yeosu terminal for some drinks, and get an extra bottle of water thrown in for free. (This will become more pertinent, promise!)

We were heading for Odongdo, which is one of the islands of Yeosu connected to the mainland by a bridge. We were going to take a taxi, but the signs were easy to follow and we decided to walk. About a kilometer in, we see another sign that says Odongdo is 4 km away. We tried to calculate how long it would take to walk, and figured we'd do it. Despite the horrible overcast sky and the humidity, it was actually a nice day.

As we were getting closer, we saw signs for the 2012 Yeosu Expo, which is advertised all over the city on everything from high-rise apartment buildings to the pedestrian bridges.

They've constructed a really nice exhibition hall showing everyone what the plans are for the expo. Yeosu has this goal to create a sustainable marine environment by 2050, complete with underwater aquarium tubes and floating patches of different marine environments. It looks pretty bad ass, and I figure I can come back when I'm 60 to see it fully completed. 

I had to take a picture with their adorb mascots, and then we trekked on down to Odongdo. 

The forecast had said there was a chance of rain and we were holding out hope that we'd missed it so far. After all, we finally made it to the island.

And then as we crossed the bridge, the downpour began. By the time we got on the island, my shoes were filled with water and Andrew's pants were soaked. Luckily, we just bought little travel umbrellas and got to use them!

The island was gorgeous, and we walked through the forest taking pictures of all the frogs hopping across the path. We ventured down to the Cave of Dragon, where we met a nice guy whom we exchanged photo-taking responsibilities with.

There's also a footpath on the island that was famous enough to make it into our guidebook. You're supposed to walk on it barefoot, and it alternates between small, pointy stones, big rocks, triangle stones, and wood blocks. It's supposed to help your pressure points or something, but I did it with only one foot and was in terrible pain. Ouch!

We got some snacks, caught a taxi where the driver asked us questions about our lives and then gave us Brazilian coffee candy, and journeyed on to find lunch. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant, which wasn't the best in the world, but it certainly was filling. There were also two men in there that I think were from either Greece or Russia.

When we got back to Gwangju, we picked up another bottle of water, and got another free bottle. I don't know if the associates thought we were poor or something because we were paying with change and thought we couldn't afford two, but two times in one day??? Very curious. 

Now it's back to another tiring week at work!

Chincha? Really?

Fascinating, despicable, and heartbreaking.

You can spare 15 minutes for this video.

A Look Inside North Korea

Damyang

Finally. After two weeks of wanting to go but first being deterred by poor weather and then me getting sick, we made it to Damyang.

The town is famous for bamboo, and a huge tourist destination is its bamboo forest.

It's only 13 miles north of Gwangju, but the bus ride takes about 40 minutes. They've finally turned on the air conditioning on most public transportation now, so it felt good to sit under a cold breeze. 

We walked through the forest, ate some street food, and hung out with the pandas. 

However, the best part of the entire day was the cab ride home from the bus terminal. The cab driver and his car reeked of body odor, he ran people off the road and flew through red lights screeching his horn, and blared this song and two others by the same music group. Priceless. 

Korean Medicine

After two weeks of a nasty cough and terribly runny nose, my face erupted into intense pain Thursday morning. After a quick check on WebMD, I diagnosed myself as having a sinus infection. When I woke up Friday morning in even more pain, I decided to go to the doctor.

Two of my friends had been sick when I arrived, and so told me to go to the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor they went to. They told me he spoke English and gave me the directions. I followed the directions they gave me, and did end up at a doctor, but it was a pediatrician. And SHE spoke at intermediate level English.

Anyway, after the nurses tried for a good 5 minutes to figure out what my first, middle, and last name were from my registration card, I went to see the doctor. Once I was out, I paid, went downstairs to the pharmacy, got a prescription for 3 days, paid for my meds, and left. All said and done, it took 30 minutes for about $25 for the visit and the medication. If I turn in my receipts, I will get reimbursed for most of it. I love Korea.

Childhood

In class, one of my brightest students grabbed my hand and was admiring my painted nails. She then said "My mother says painting your nails is..." and she said the rest in Korean, which made them all laugh. When I asked her to explain, the gist that I got was that her mother doesn't think a child should waste their time with trifling activities. If they have the time to paint their nails, they should spend it studying.

This girl is only 11, and though I find it somewhat sad that she has spent her 11 little years working really hard studying, it's sure paid off for her.

In Korea, the kids have adult-level pressures on them to constantly learn and succeed. In America, I don't think children have nearly enough. Maybe both countries should find a happy medium.

Tequilaz

It's been three months since my last burrito and margarita. So when I found out a Mexican Cantina opened in Gwangju in February, I rallied the troops to go find this holy grail.

It's about a 10,000 won cab ride away from us. If you live in Gwangju, tell the cab driver "Chundehumoon" and he'll know what you mean. Take a right at the Dunkin' Donuts and it's in the second alley to the right.

The food wasn't bad, nor were the margaritas.

However, when you want to make Mexican food in Korea, you do the best with what you got. Thus, the food had a homemade taste to it. I got a strawberry and a cherry margarita throughout the night, and neither tasted like it's flavor. But they were pretty smooth and filled the void in my Korean life. 

Speaking of Korean life, this is drawn on the wall of the Speakeasy, the foreigner's bar downtown. I thought you might enjoy it :-)

Teacher's Day

Teacher's Day in Korea is this Saturday. Yesterday, I was going through a marathon of classes covering for another foreign teacher's vacation. I had 8 classes all in a row with barely a break, so at the end of the 7th, as I'm about to crash or leap out of a window, one of my students brings me a letter:

It reads: 

Dear Cayce Teacher

Hello, I'm Judy. After some days, it is 'Teacher's Day.' I am thank you for teaching me. My Listening and presentation developed by you. And, I got 'Level up!' I think one of the reason that I can level up, it's listening! I wrote little of key words, and I got a good score of listening. Thanks for teaching me. <3

And, you know, I got a compete of Speaking. You fixed my writing and make my pronounciation better. And Heojung teacher said to me, "Good pronounce.' I was very happy!

I hope GI teacher is you. Because your class is very fun and you are very good teacher. With you, the class will be fun. 

Cayce, Thank you for teaching me. Have a nice day!

2010.5.13

Hoping to be your favorite student, 

Judy*

I <3 AVALON! I <3 AVALON! I <3 AVALON!

I love being a teacher sometimes :)

Korean Birthday

My birthday was a week ago now, and it was the best birthday ever!

My friends, co-workers, and students were extremely thoughtful and caring. One little girl, whom I posted a picture of previously, gave me a gift bag with pens, sticky notes, and a pretty little card. I also got numerous "Happy Birthday" signs from my kids and friends.

The Monday before my birthday, my school threw a party for me, Cicero (a foreign teacher with the same birthday) and Ran, whose birthday was that day. It was by far the most interesting and DIY cake I have ever received. It was a stack of moonpies on the box, with unwrapped moonpies on top stuck with candles. Then, a cup of yogurt was dumped on top and we blew out the candles and devoured the moonpies.

So thank you to everyone who made my day so excellent :)

Adorable little devils

Some days you wake up and everything goes wrong, and yesterday was definitely one of those days.

As I'm walking to work, lost in my own head and begrudging the day, the elementary school next to Avalon was letting out. While I was crossing the pedestrian bridge, one of my youngest and earliest level students, Wendy, (and the most adorable human being in the world-- if you know of good ways to smuggle a child into your pocket, I would love to know) came running up to me with her arms outstretched. She held my hand and looked up at me with her little white glasses and when I asked her how she was, she said "I'm happy," and I knew in that moment that even though teaching children wasn't the real reason I wanted to come here, they are the reason I want to stay here.

Teaching kids of a different language can be really stressful sometimes, but it can be so rewarding. It's not often that you see proof that you are making a difference in one of their lives, but when you do get that proof, it's an incredible feeling.

I have two intermediate level classes of elementary kids. One is amazing, but with a boy named Mike who will never speak or participate and will shut down if I approach him or speak to him. In the other one, it's full of boys and it's mostly like herding cattle in class. There was one girl, Alice, who sat in the front and never spoke and looked on the verge of tears all class. The homeroom teacher of these classes decided to move Alice into Mike's class to give her a chance. So when she opened up with a smiling, happy face, I wanted to hug her. The same day, Mike also opened up and played a game with us, and I wanted to hug him, too. When I told the homeroom teacher, I got really emotional and had to turn away so I wouldn't cry.

So in conclusion, if you're having a bad day, chances are that teaching an adorable little Korean child will make your heart shine a little brighter.

Our Apartment

Since I haven't really blogged about our apartment(s), I suppose it's time.

As many of you know, we lived in a wonderful apartment back home with our friends right across the hall and downstairs. Thus, moving into a tiny apartment with no one else in the same building was somewhat difficult. However, I'm trying my best to make it feel like home here.

We have two apartments, but because it's so obnoxious to go down the hall with the loud keypads announcing our every movement to the neighbors, we have only stayed in one of them. It's basically one room with some sliding doors marking off the kitchen and a door to the bathroom. So it's basically like living in the bedroom.

The kitchen is maybe 7x4 feet. It has a washer that sings and washes clothes like nobody's business. There is also a small refrigerator and freezer coming up to my shoulders. On the other side is the two-burner stove, a sink, and absolutely no counter space. There is one cabinet above the sink and two below.



Then there's the bathroom. It's probably 4x3 feet. The size is manageable, but the shower is not. Most of the time, there is no water pressure and it comes out in a trickle. The temperature oscillates from really hot to really cold. There are usually 3 intervals during my shower when the water goes ice for a full minute. It happens so often that I know when to expect them: when I wash my face, when I shampoo my hair, and when I try to rinse out conditioner. The other apartment has a huge bathroom and a wonderful shower, but the size of the bedroom area is a bit smaller, and we already have Internet coming into this one anyway.



The main living area is taken over by our double bed with ugly lavender bedding. In it, there is a low table with the TV on it, my mirror, and the "closet." The Closet is some poles with curtains on them. The only good thing about it is that you can change the size of it to fit your needs.





Here is the entry area with the Langcon characters taking over the shoe cabinet. There is also a mirror we found in the alley behind our apartment which makes the place feel bigger than it is.



It's not easy fitting two people into an apartment this small, but it's starting to feel more and more like home. More plants should do the trick! :-D

Cheap Eyes!

After an unfortunate and hilarious accident Wednesday night, I was out of my only pair of glasses. Because eyeglasses and contacts are worn by nearly everyone here, it is relatively cheap. And even if it's not cheap, it's super easy. Back home, I had to pay for an eye exam, frames, and lenses, and then pick up my glasses a week later.

At the 20,000 Shop today, I got two pairs of glasses within 20 minutes after picking them out.

I chose two frames and communicated with the doctor, who knew only a tiny bit of English, that I wanted the frames with new lenses. So I gave him my broken pair, and they got my prescription from that. The lenses were 15,000 a pair (about $14) and one of my frames was 20,000, the other only 5,000!

While Andrew and I waited, they gave us super sweet, super delicious iced tea.

20 minutes later, I had two pairs of glasses for about $50. That beats my one $150 pair from back home.

Suncheon Bay

After the weather decided to be kind enough on a Saturday, Andrew and I took a trip to Suncheon Bay. We'd heard about the reed fields and how beautiful they were, so we decided it would be a relaxing adventure after a couple really long days.

We got to the bus station at around 10:30, and buses to Suncheon leave every 15-20 minutes, so it didn't really matter what time we got there. Within minutes we were on the bus and on our way. The ride was only about 1 hour and 20 minutes. However, that's an hour and twenty minutes to the bus terminal. It was only about 50 minutes to where we got off.

For some reason, the buses occasionally stop at local bus stations and drop people off. We almost got off once in Gwangju on our way back from Gwangyang, but decided to stay on, figuring it had to go to the U-Square terminal we know. Since we were in Suncheon, an unfamiliar city, when the bus stopped, we got off with nearly 1/3 of the bus. We were afraid of going all the way to Yeosu, which is another 40 minutes away. After a few minutes, we realized we weren't anywhere near the actual bus terminal. Since I'd read somewhere that Suncheon has a decent bus terminal with no decent food, I knew it existed. And we weren't there.

So we began to walk in the direction of other buses like the one we came on. If we followed in that direction, we would eventually get there, right? Also, I really take for granted the amount of English around Gwangju. The most important bus lines have English translations, and a lot of people on the street will stop you and say "Hi, nice to meet you." Suncheon didn't have that. About 15 minutes later, we passed by a man in a sash who looked like he was running for a political office. When he said "Hello" I jumped on the opportunity to ask him if he spoke English and where the bus terminal was. In no more than one minute of him greeting us with a gigantic smile and upbeat attitude, we were in his smiling wife's car on our way to the terminal. She spoke little English, only enough to ask us where we were going. We thanked her gratuitously and checked out a gigantic tourist map on the outside of the bus terminal. We were directly north of the bay area.

Once we decided against taking another chance of getting lost on the local buses, we took a cab. And I'm so glad we did. Our cab driver was an insanely happy, ex-manager of a hagwon 20 years previous. He offered to tell us about Suncheon as we went. His English was much better than a lot of my students. He put on a Beatles CD and told us all we needed to know as we drove. When he dropped us off right in front of the Eco-museum, he gave us his card and told us we could call him if we needed a ride home between 1:30 and 2:30.




As soon as we started walking into the entrance, another man came running up behind us and dragged us over to a tiny little shop across the street. He gave us tea and rice cakes, all in the hopes that we would buy some tea or little souvenirs from the store. We didn't really like the tea and the products he was selling was something you would buy at Lake Michigan, so we told him we would come back later. (We never did...)

The bay area was gorgeous, just like we'd heard. We walked along the wooden paths throughout the swamps, looking at little, muddy crabs scuttle into their holes.



We then walked up the mountain nearby. It was a beautiful, windy day. We took a rest at the observation platform, then made our way back down. This woman took a moment to take it all in when she reached the top.



Also, I'm still trying to find a good website to host our pictures rather than Facebook and Flickr. Stay tuned.

Diaries

Every week, the elementary school kids have to write diaries about a topic they are given. They can be pretty torturous. However, I found a gem yesterday. For your reading pleasure, I give you "Department Store":

I think department store is hell.

Because department store is too crowded for me to stay there.

I tell that sale is devil's temptation.

My mother fell into temptation for sale.

Deparmet store is like woman's paradise.

But For children is hell.

Children is feel that tired to follow their mother.

Mother's shopping is didn't end.

Weekends in Korea

Last weekend:

After getting paid, Andrew and I decided to go shopping for all the clothes and accessories and guitars we didn't bring to Korea with us. I got lots of clothes, and Andrew got a guitar which he's currently rocking. After shopping, we crossed the downtown river to the Land of Tiny Pets.



There is a street lined with pet stores, and each one looks pretty much the same. There are little glass cubicles lining the front windows with puppies galore. Many were sleeping, some were playing, but all were adorable. The stores themselves inside look like living rooms of homes, where puppies just go wherever they want. The employees inside all looked bored, either sitting on couches or chairs. We didn't go in, since Korean retailers have a propensity to surround you and hawk-eye you until you leave or buy something. There were also cats in big elaborate cages, but they were not next to the windows.

This weekend:

We kicked of Saturday with our academy's Sports Day. All four schools, Kumho Avalon (my school), Langcon English (Andrew's school), Bongsundong Avalon, and Reading Star, competed to win fabulous prizes.

(Unfortunately, there are no pictures, since we just figured out our camera is dual voltage and so the batteries just got charged.)

The day started off by us being shuttled on luscious tour buses which ajummas (old women) use for karaoke, complete with multi colored lights in the mirrored ceiling and a microphone that stretches throughout the bus. We were taken to a train village about 45 minutes away from where we live. It was a gorgeously sunny, but slightly chilly day. There were trains everywhere in the village, and pretty landscaping, and interesting statues. We were taken to an open area, and when we all lined up in our teams, a dancing display of fountain brilliance came out of the ground accompanied by some uplifting music. About 10 minutes later, we were moved to an adjacent open area because apparently, the music wasn't going to stop for another 30 minutes and no one could hear anything. Priceless.

Some highlights of the day:
Andrew and I and six other unlucky souls were made to drink vinegar to win points for our team. (No one felt quite so good in their stomachs after that).
Women's soccer proved that no one had any idea of what was going on save for maybe 2 people.
Andrew was one of only three out of about 50 people to kick a shoe into a bucket in a backpack on his back.
We were given a great Korean barbecue (which is only barbecued meat, without sauce).

By the end of the day, we were exhausted and passed out at around 10 pm.

Yesterday, we cleaned the apartment, did laundry, and went on a long hike to find Angel-in-Us iced tea. After we enjoyed our deliciously sweet tea, we took a walk around Pugnam reservoir.



It was such a beautiful day out. We then caught a bus to go to U-Square (the bus terminal and shopping area) on a mission to find me a new iShuffle or iPod, since I forgot the dock to my shuffle back in the states. We didn't get one, but I did get myself some fancy new shoes. We then explored E-Mart, eating all the samples in the food area. Yum! As it was at Target back home, we left with more than we intended to, so we got a fancy E-Mart tote to carry it all in.



We dropped our stuff of and checked the Internet for an English menu of a chain restaurant nearby: http://maryeats.com/2006/11/16/kimbap-nara-menu/

Finding this extremely useful, we went to try something new, and I found my new favorite food: DUMPLINGS! Mmmm... gogi mandu is what it is, and it's served with soy sauce, which makes everything taste delicious.

In conclusion, we had a great couple of weekends, and hopefully in 5 more days, we'll have another!

9/11

I have never felt as old as I did today.

In one of my more advanced classes, we were reading an article about face-recognition technology being put into airports and public places to stop crimes before they happen. The beginning of the article mentioned the terrorists who hijacked the planes on September 11, 2001, and if that technology would have done anything to stop them. Just off-hand I asked if they knew what happened on 9/11, not thinking for a minute I would get so many blank looks.

I spent the next 15 minutes explaining to them what happened on that day. I told them about how I was in my Freshman high school taking a biology test when I watched the second plane hit the towers.



I realized that when this happened, they were only 3 years old. I had one ask me why they would even know about it if it happened in America. They were completely unaware of the shockwaves it sent across the globe.

Blossom Festival

The Gwangyang blossom festival takes place in the Maehwa village every March. The village has the largest concentration of apricot trees in South Korea, and the village is very proud of this reputation, so they hold a festival when the trees start blossoming. The festival originally began to bring in revenue to the village, and now it’s a huge tourist attraction. People come from all over Korea to see the trees.

Knowing all this, Andrew and I decided to take our first journey out of Gwangju to see the blossoms. We went to the Gwangju bus terminal and got a ticket straight to the Maehwa village. We had to wait about an hour for a bus, and almost got on the wrong one, but we made it. It took the bus about half an hour to work it’s way into the village because there were so many people there.

I thought it would be a little festival in someone’s apricot orchard, but that’s not what it was like at all. The streets were lined with vendors pretty much selling the exact same foods and products. There were stages set up for music and performances. We saw a drum circle, a string quartet, Korean rock music, a man singing with 10 guys in chef uniforms behind him, and an over-acting pseudo male stripper.



We hiked up the streets on the sides of the mountains and up numerous paths throughout the village where the blossom trees were. Unfortunately, because it’s been unusually cold this Spring, a lot of the trees had just started to bud. There were a several that were in full blossom, but not as many as I had hoped. That being said, no one seemed to care much about the lack of blossoming trees. The Koreans scoped out the fullest ones for the photo ops, and the festival was still packed.




There was a building set up to buy little trees and plants, pictures, and other goodies. I wanted a plant, but I tend to kill them all so I passed. I went near a table eyeing some artwork that I considered buying, and two or three Korean women took my arm and pulled me over to an area where children were playing with a canvas. They were all smiling and laughing and pointing to the steps showing me how to draw a flower with a big brush. It was a beautiful flower, if I do say so myself, and they all clapped and smiled when I completed it.

So we had been there for a couple of hours, and though we had apricot ice cream, we were starving. We went near one of the many festival tents where we saw a large pig roasting on a spit. Two of the women came over and pointed and said “barbecue” so we agreed to have some. It was absolutely fantastic. Beyond fantastic. Happy with our purchase, we go to pay, and end up paying an OBSCENE amount of money for a plate of pork and some spices. 31,000 won. 31,000 won for one plate of food. That’s about $26. Now that it’s written, we never want to think about that again.

When we got back, after being helped by multiple Koreans, one whom we’d heard speaking English to her son fluently, we went downtown to meet some friends. We went to their favorite restaurant, First Nepal, and had absolutely incredible Indian food. Beyond incredible. Then we went out to some foreigner bars and had a great time.

Today, we’re focusing on being lazy and doing laundry. We should be set up for actual Internet tomorrow and posts will become more frequent, with more picures.

Written a week from today's posting.

THREEDAYWEEKEND!
THREEDAYWEEKEND!
THREEDAYWEEKEND!

We still don’t have Internet or a cell phone, but we just our alien registration cards so those should come soon. We’re still living in the temporary apartment, but should move this Thursday. It’s getting a little chaotic living in a 20x10 foot room with three suitcases we can’t unpack, but we make due. All the junk food we are buying helps! (I’m currently eating a Cheeto that shares nothing in common with the American Cheeto besides the name, btw. Oh how badly I want a bright orange Cheeto now that I can’t have one.)

Without boring you with details of our week, let me just outline a few things:

On Tuesday we were taken to downtown Gwangju to the sprawling Chosan University Hospital for a battery of tests for our alien registration cards. Hearing test, eye test, dental check-up, chest x-ray, urine test, and last but not least, the blood test. From which I almost passed out. The two Korean guys who work at the front desks of two of our schools looked so worried. I felt so embarrassed.

I started teaching on Thursday for Katherine, who I am replacing. The new semester starts Tuesday. I teach a lot of elementary classes and two middle school classes. The kids are pretty awesome. Some are little brats, but most of them are so adorable. And funny. While discussing why they might become wax figures in Madame Tussaud’s museum, one little girl said she will solve World War 3. “Oh really? How will you do that?” I ask. “I kill everyone” she says and proceeds to giggle her head off. Another boy becomes a wax figure for becoming leader of the world. And stealing all the money of the world. It’s difficult not to laugh at some of the things they say.

We also figured out that when we’re hungry, we can’t go that wrong with just pointing at something on the menu and eating whatever comes out. Just standing around and observing what everyone else does helps us figure out what to do, too.

And speaking of food, there is a pizza place on the corner near our schools (which are directly across the street from one another) called Nanta pizza that is just fantastic. If the rain doesn’t get any worse we’ve got to get some tonight. If I could get garlic dipping sauce with it, I would say it’s as delicious as Papa John’s.

It’s now Saturday. Monday is a holiday that the Koreans aren’t even really sure of. Something that has to do with something that happened in the 50’s when Japan invaded. Or so we were told. Moral of the story, the kids don’t have school and we don’t have work.

Today we took a journey to E-Mart in Sangmu, which is just another district in Gwangju. E-Mart is a 4 story department store which stands out due to it’s gigantic orange sign with a Greek-looking ‘E’ on it. Right across the highway was a hiking path up a little mountain with a three-story pagoda thing on it. It was a very beautiful view at the top. The whole city of Gwangju is surrounded by mountains. Not Everest-sized by any means, but still lends a great vista.



We also visited a memorial to the May 18th Student Uprising that occurred in 1999, I believe. It was pretty impressive, if you take away the 4 or 5 teens dressed up as Japanese Anime characters posing for pictures within the tall metal poles.

The city is MUCH bigger than I thought it was. We haven’t even scratched the surface. Katherine left me a tourist map of the city and there are many cultural places to visit in just this one city. I can’t wait until we’re more settled so we can begin traveling more.


Next weekend:

Andrew and I went out bowling Friday night with some other ex-pats from the neighborhood. One of them was telling us about a place downtown called The Underground Grocer (as in the London underground, we discovered!). It's a store run by a Canadian who came here 15 years ago to teach. Now he has a Korean wife and daughter. There are a lot of American products that are super expensive, about $19 for a big box of Cheerios, but they have stuff to make tacos! And speaking of tacos, he just opened up a restaurant next door with a small menu of comfort food for all the foreign teachers from the UK, US, and Canada in the area. There are tacos, chicken and dumplings, a burrito, and some other things on the menu for now. It was a soft open, so he asked us to make some suggestions on his Facebook page. Right across the back alley is a restaurant just opened by a Chinese guy with real Chinese food, not Korean-Chinese, which we have heard is terrible. So now we know where to get what we need to be able to survive those hard times. The tacos were really good, but at about $3 a taco, we won't be eating there every weekend.

PC Rooms

I have a post all ready to go on the laptop back at the apartment about the previous week which I will post as soon as I can, but I'm currently at a PC Room down the street. They're gaming rooms that you will find all over the place. Computer games are huge over here, (Starcraft even has it's own channel dedicated to it, like an ESPN kinda thing) so we asked to use a computer for Internet instead. The guy at the counter spoke enough English to get what we were wanting, but put us at the back of the room at the very last computers with big monster monitors and cigarette burns on the tables. The other 54 computers have nice new flat screen monitors. I know those babies must be connected to the Internet too. :-I.

Today is the very first day that I have been on the verge of selling all my possesions for some tacos and guacamole. I have 365 days to go. How will I make it without? Maybe I will start up my own taco stand in Korea and be famous for bringing them their new favorite food...

Fade in.
We see Cayce sitting in bed, a bed with lavender frills and embroidered lavender flower blossoms upon a lavender quilt and lavender frill pillows.
Gwangju, South Korea. The time: 9:33 PM. The date: February 19, 2010.

It took 23 hours to get here. We flew Asiana Airlines from Chicago to Seoul, which was a 13 hour flight. I slept most of the time, minus dinner (delish), and a snack (tomato, carrot, lettuce sandwich), Surrogates (very underwhelming), and breakfast (omelet fest 5000). I surely don’t feel like I slept all that time, but I don’t remember doing anything else. I won’t bore you with all the travel details because nothing of any real interest occurred, but I will say that every Korean we have met so far has been extremely helpful and kind.

We got picked up by the airport by a fellow whose name so much resembled the man we interviewed with and had been in contact with up until this point, that we didn’t understand why this man could speak very little English when it had been flawless up until that point. Turns out it was someone different. He took us to our apartment, which is barely larger than our previous bedroom. The bed’s pieces were laying on the floor and the mattress was up against the wall and we didn’t have even a moment to look at the other 3 feet of the apartment before we were whisked away to the Avalon Kumho campus. We met two Korean teachers whose English was pretty limited. One of them (whose name we still can’t figure out) and the man who picked us up from the airport took us to lunch at some unnamed restaurant near our place. We sat in a little room with its own door on the floor on little pillows. The floors were heated and it felt great.

There was a lot of awkward silence and a lot of the two Koreans amusingly watch me and Andrew try to use chopsticks with grace. We had some kind of soup thing made of a ton of veggies and a meat which I originally thought was dog. I’d heard it from so many people as a sort of joke that maybe when I heard “duck” pronounced with an accent the idea of eating a puppy leaked into my subconscious. So the entire time I’m eating I’m try to mentally force the idea out of my head that I was eating Shiloh. After lunch, Andrew and I were left alone in the van and after I turned to him and said “I can’t believe the first thing they fed us was dog” he informed me I had misheard. Glad that’s off my conscience.

We then went to Bongsundong campus, which is the larger one where we thought we would be at and met the teachers at Reading Star and Avalon. They were all really nice and welcoming and all seemed to be having a good time. We met Sue, the director of Reading Town with whom we had previously interviewed, and Joey, who we had been corresponding with. Joey took us around and sat with us for about an hour and answered all our questions.

We were then taken back to our apartment where someone came over and installed the bed and the “closet,” which is really some poles with curtains over them. But I like the way it looks. He then took us to LotteMart where we bought some essentials and some food. Unfortunately, since we don’t live with any other teachers in our building, there’s nothing to be passed down to us. Oh well. A $2 gold pot with a plastic handle can do wonders, I’m sure.

(Interlude)

I'm currently getting a wireless signal from our small, cold bathroom. So I'm taking advantage of the Internet while we have it!

It's now Sunday evening. Andrew and I spent the weekend exploring this part of the neighborhood. Since no one knows where we live, we were on our own but passed one of the teachers we'd met the night before walking down the street. So they're around here somewhere. I think I've watched more TV in the last two days than I have the whole year previous. There is such a random mixture of English movies and shows on Korean cable . I went from watching the re-make of The Parent Trap with Lindsey Lohan to watching a marathon of Without a Trace.

It's not as foreign here as I would have thought. I feel safe here, I feel comfortable. I'm only nervous when it comes to trying to order food without knowing what I'm getting or how to order. But isn't that the fun of living in a new culture?

We met a lot of the teachers at both campuses in Gwangju. Tomorrow one of the staff is taking us to the hospital to get tests in order to get our alien registration cards. After those come, we should be able to get cell phones and Internet and finally be able to communicate. I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

Our love to everyone back home!

Kimchi!

To see just what we've gotten ourselves into, we took a trip to Asia Mart yesterday on a mission for kimchi, one of the foods Korea is most known for. Basically, kimchi is pickled vegetables. I stumbled upon a fun fact while Googling 'kimchi': It's so popular that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute developed space kimchi for all those homesick astronauts out there. The most popular vegetable to use is cabbage, and that's the kind we got.



We had to search everywhere in Asia Mart because we had no idea where to find it. Finally, I saw an older man and woman getting into the refrigerators by the fish counter and pulling out a large jar of what I thought looked like kimchi. As I stood behind them and waited, the old man turns and looks at me and says, "Kimchi! You want kimchi!?" in an excited/ surprised voice. Jackpot!

When we opened it, we tentatively smelled it to decide whether or not to proceed. It's a subtle peppery smell which is not completely foreign. I'm still not sure what to think of it. The spices are good, but the veggie taste is what gets me. I guess if cabbage is not slathered in mayo or coated in butter, I don't much care for it. However, I think it's a taste I can get used to. There are many other veggies used in kimchi, too. Perhaps I would prefer cucumber kimchi!

We also got a little juice box from Korea which was banana flavored soy milk. It was good!

Anyway, only 10 days left before we board the plane!

Things fall together

We got our flight itinerary! We are leaving on Wednesday the 17th at 8:00 that evening from the Indianapolis airport. From there, we go to Chicago and then straight to Seoul! From Incheon airport in Seoul we then have to get to the Gimpo airport to fly straight to Gwangju. I'm very happy about this, since our recruiter originally told us we would probably take a bus from Seoul to Gwangju, a 4-hour journey. Now it will only take 50 minutes on a plane. We will then arrive on Friday the 19th at about 11 AM.

We are also currently talking about living arrangements, and it looks like we will have two studio apartments next to each other in a building with the other teachers. My understanding is that if we were adamant about sharing a room, they would have to find us a bigger one in another area. I think being around the other teachers would be much more helpful to get acquainted with the new culture. Though we currently live together and having the living situation change will take some getting used to, I think it will all work out just fine once we adapt.

This is going to be such an experience. I'm getting more excited everyday!

New Pet Peeve

Andrew and I got our visas! But that's not the point of this post! I wanted to share one of my developing pet peeves with you today.

It seems that when someone finds out I'm about to go to South Korea to teach English, the reactions I get are not "Oh wow, that's such an incredible opportunity! I wish you the best of luck!" It's more like: "Oh...really? Well...good luck with the food and alphabet" or "Is that the good one or the bad one?" or "Wow, that's scary. Aren't you nervous?" or a very odd "Well I'll think about (pray for) you while you're there".

If we were going someone in Europe, you know the reactions would be far different. Americans seem to be afraid that North Korea is going to come storming the border at any moment or drop a nuclear bomb on the lower part of the peninsula. And as far as I have learned, the South does not live in fear of the North.

It just seems like an unfair stereotype to me. I'm very excited about this, and it dampens my spirits when people make it out to be another Iraq. If SOK was so unsafe, it would not be the top TESOL destination, would it?

The Visa

This past Wednesday, Andrew and I drove up to Chicago (a 3-4 hour drive from where we live) in order to interview at the Korean Consulate for our visas. Our journey was uneventful and long, but thankfully we JUST missed a major winter storm that hit that night.

I'm still not exactly sure what the interview is for, since one has already acquired a job, signed a contract, and paid for the visa. I don't know what someone could possibly do to screw up the interview and get denied a visa into Korea.

Anyway, we met some people in the lobby waiting for their interviews. One girl was going to be teaching in the same city with another school. Another girl was Asian and laughed about how difficult it had been for her to get a position teaching English in Korea because she wasn't white. She was also completely baffled about how Andrew and I and another guy in the lobby had gotten jobs without being completely TESOL certified. We told her it was because we graduated with the great old English degree. They were all nice besides the quiet anti-social one sitting next to me, and I hope my coteachers in Korea will be the same.

We are currently waiting on our visas to arrive (with our passports, plz). And we have been told the school wants us to arrive in Korea on the 19th of February. So I finally let my landlord know our last day will be the 17th, and he's only making us pay two weeks rent :)

I'm excitedly counting down the days until I get to quit my job at the bookstore. My last day is the 29th, the same day as our going away party, and I hope that goes well. Andrew and I are slowly going through our books deciding which ones to store for a year and which to sell. Goodbye my beloved books.

I'm getting more and more nervous as the time approaches. I hope this experience will be as amazing as I'm hoping.