The First Days In Korea - Cont.

Josh:
Hello again! Before I continue onto the second day I just want to take a moment to type out the writing on the wall of my PC room (the place is called "Arcane")

Something that is arcane is secret or mysterious

Welcome place that infinite joy is waiting you. World of Warcraft.

Arcane: Retake fortress that pride expense such as iron tub, and injure mountain range and turbulent gorge between that is covered with perpetual snow.

I'm not quite sure what that last quote is about but I want to be a part of it. Onto day number two!

Day two (Tuesday): I forgot to mention last post that when we arrived I arranged to meet with my co-teacher Ms. Kim on Tuesday. Since this was my first time meeting everyone I suited up and jumped onto the bus. Keep in mind that I have obviously never taken a Korean bus before. Audrey told me (from her co-teacher) to get off at Pyeongtaek Station which is theoretically a "big" stop. Unfortunately, when the stops were being announced over the speakers they were in Korean so I had no idea where I was. I was told it would take about 50 minutes so I just waited and nervously watched the countryside for a "big" stop. Remember our car driver Mr. Kim and how I mentioned his "aggressive" driving? It seems that all Koreans drive this way. Let's just say that lanes, lines and even lights are more like guidelines than actual rules. If you happen to see a red light (which there are very few of mind you) if you feel like it you should stop. Those stories of how crazy the buses drive are true. For example, there was a car stopped at a red light (crazy idea). The bus driver decided he didn't feel like waiting and drove into the turning lane, ran the red light, drove on the side of the road and then proceeded to drive in between the two lanes. He also cut in front of cars, sped around other drivers and drove while opening the bus door to cut down on stop time. While the buses are a little more extreme in this driving style, all Koreans seem to drive like this. It's like a mini roller coaster except that the odds of you crashing are a little higher. Luckily though, all Koreans seem to know when to apply the brakes and I haven't seen any "near" accidents but I have seen situations that could have easily led to them. After about 45 minutes of my fun little ride I was frantically looking for this "big" stop. We pulled up to a stop that seems to be in the middle of a city so I tried to glance out the window when suddenly about 90% of the bus got off so I figured this was my stop. Lucky guess. I stepped out to see walls with giant cut outs of people walking, a giant ring of taxis in the center and a huge building with Pyeongtaek Station written (in English) on the upper left corner. I went to a pay phone, called my teacher and waited in the middle of the ring of taxis. I thought it was rather interesting because there were about 20 taxis in a circular line. The taxi up front was the one where people got into and then the line moved up. The taxi drivers near the end would get out and talk with other drivers or read newspapers. I thought it was a neat idea but it doesn't seem like an efficient way to earn money.

I met up with Ms. Kim (very nice woman) and she drove me over to the school. The whole campus seems college sized to me. There are two giant buildings where the classes are held (each four stories - 2nd floor for 1rst graders, 3rd for 2nd, etc). One was the mechanical wing and the other was the classroom wing. Ms. Kim took me into the classroom building and I stepped into one of the teachers room. I met about five teachers and then I was introduced to the principle. His room was luxurious with nice chairs and about seven men all with suits sitting down and talking. I bowed, shook hands and was introduced to them all. The principle came up to me and shook my hand and gave me his business card (Note: In Korean culture business cards are huge. Every Korean has a business card that they hand out during introductions. When you accept a card you should accept it with both hands, study it excitedly and then put it into a "good" pocket or a card case. You aren't supposed to bend it or put it in a back pocket. Looks like I'll need some business cards in the near future). After the introductions, we left and I went to the actual teacher's room. There were about 15 teachers all sitting down at cubicles including Wu (the current English teacher). I was introduced to the group and a few came up and shook my hand and introduced themselves. It was nice to meet everyone in person. After the brief introduction Wu took me on a tour of the campus. Not only are there two huge buildings for classes, there are two buildings (one under construction) that are dorms for the kids to live at. What I found strange is that I am at a high school. At my school there are three levels (equivalent to Sophomore, Junior and Senior called Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3). Currently, all of Grade 1 lives in the dorms and they are hoping over the next two years to get the other two grades into dorms also. As we walked around we ran into some students walking between classes. Their jaws dropped to the floor and they said, "Ooooh!", "Wow!", "Very tall!", "Very handsome guy!", "I'm ____" (For some reason everything has to be shouted. Audrey's favorite is "TEACHER! TEACHER!") Girls giggled, guys jumped up and down behind me to see if they can be taller than me and some students just stared. I already know I will miss the extreme reactions from students whenever I return to the US. Everything you do here gets "Oooooo!" or "Woooo!" Even if I just say "Hello" in Korean, they act like you just performed a magic trick. I love it. After we finished the tour Wu asked if I wanted to sit in on his class. I was very excited to actually see a class so I agreed and we headed up to the fourth floor (3rd graders, note that I will only be teaching Grade 1. Thank goodness for that because many of the 3rd graders fell asleep within the first 10 minutes of class). The second I walked into the classroom, I was greeted with cheering and "Oooo!" I feel like a celebrity here and I hate to admit it, but I love it (I know this won't last forever so I am enjoying it while I can). What happened next basically happened for all the classes that I went to: Enter, cheers, Wu calms them down, Wu says goodbye to the students, he introduces me, students ask me questions, if there is any time left he teaches. When I first say "Hello, my name is Mr. Shadle" I get a chorus of "Oooh! Deep!" and the students then try to imitate my voice. I say a little bit about myself and then I answer questions. Here are some of my favorite questions and answers (Note: Koreans are very forward and ask questions that some people in the US might find highly offensive. I thought it was funny and went with it. Also note that their English is broken so when it seems like I am typing fragments, this is how they speak):
"How old?" - I am 23 (holding up two fingers, then three fingers) - "Oooo! Very young!"
"Tall? How Tall?" - I am 193 cm - (I'll stop typing the Oo's because I got that for most answers)
"Married?" - Yes I am married. My wife teachers a middle school over in Dogok.
"Baby?" - No, we don't have any kids yet.
"Plans?" - We don't have any plans for kids yet. Many years later.
"Weight?" - I didn't know the conversion so I guessed 90 (whatever measurement they use and yes they do ask this question a lot)
"Hobbies?" - Reading, video games, boxing (I said this because they ask for sports half of the time and the last one I did was boxing so that's the first that came to my head)
"Music?" - I like metal. Or heavy rock and roll (I said Metallica and only one student knew them)
"Know Korean?" - Very little. I can say "hello", "thank you", "man", "woman". Not much.
"Compare height!" - (There were two students who were nearly as tall as me)
"Know Korean pop?" - Only a little. (I mentioned a few bands to many excited reactions)
"Do you love wife?" (Seriously, I was asked this.) - Of course. I love her a lot.
"Are you happy?" - Yes, very.
"Will you armwrestle?" - (Yes I did. They picked the tallest student. He was actually very strong but I wore him down and won but after he gave up and let go I let him beat me)
"Are you rich?" (Also a common question in Korea) - No, not at all.
"Last job?" - A manager at a Pet Store and a Game Store.
"Do you like Korea?" - Yes, I love it so far.
"Like Korean food?" - Yes, so far.
"Kim-chi?" - Even Kim-chi
"Where are you from?" - California, San Francisco (I didn't say Fresno because many of them didn't even know where San Francisco was)
"Do you own a gun?" (Yes they did.) - No, but my wife does in America. (Wu laughed, but I don't think they got the joke.

I know I mentioned that I will miss the extreme reactions of the students but one thing I forgot to mention that I will definitely miss: "You handsome guy!" I can't help but love it. My ego is so inflated here because I literally hear this phrase five times an hour at the minimum. Another thing I will miss is the students bowing to you. I think they are required to bow to teachers. Also, when I am going up the stairs, they move out of my way. If I am on a collision course, I don't move have to move at all while they do. One thing I sort of like is their volume. There is no quiet (as mentioned earlier), only shout. Even if you are two feet away from them, "HI TEACHER!" "HIGH FIVE!" etc. I like it because they seem authentically excited to see you.

After I met a few classes I went to lunch with the other teachers. The student line was huge but I got to bypass it because teachers have their own line and room. I grabbed an assortment of everything I could see just so I could say I tried it all. One of my co-teachers said, "Most Americans don't like this," and he pointed to these thin potato looking things. I still grabbed them and ate it all. I really liked it. I asked him what it was and he said "Fried squid tentacles." Once again, for those of you who know what I eat normally, I am making leaps and bounds with this food thing. I also had a tasty spicy chicken soup. After we finished the teachers said I eat too little (I didn't want to take more than my share but I guess I don't have to worry about that). I continued my tour by going to a few more classes with Wu and Ms. Kim. I met a few of my students and they seem a lot more responsive than the Grade 2-3 students. Wu said I was very lucky because the younger ones are easier. It turns out I teach about 16 classes a week (each lasting 50 minutes). The rest of my time is spent on either office hours or "English teacher meetings". Near the end of the day, Ms. Kim gave me a temporary computer (very nice of her). The plan was to meet up with Audrey and her co-teacher and tour the new house. Ms. Kim and I had already gone and I was blown away by it but I will save that for when I tour with Audrey. I decided I wanted to take pictures so I went outside and started taking pictures of statues of naked women, little boys urinating into a pond (I'll post those soon hopefully) and my buildings. I found it difficult to take pictures because the students kept shouting out the window at me, "Hello teacher! What's your name?" etc. Almost every window had students shouting at me. It was hilarious because as soon as I answered one group of kids, another started shouting at me. One group even ran downstairs to meet me in person. The reason why they were able to shout at me is because it was "cleaning period" where all the students swept, mopped and cleaned the entire school. I think this is a fantastic idea because it holds students accountable for the school's cleanliness and you save money on janitors. Ms. Kim then gave me a tour of the mechanical side of the school. It blew me away. There are students carving giant metal plates into working parts for cars, working on electrics and even a place where students are carving cubic zirconium. I went inside and the teacher gave me a giant perfectly carved cubic zirconium. It's about the size of my thumb he just gave it to me. This was carved by one of my students. Needless to say, I was amazed. I will try to post a picture of it later. After that we met up with Audrey and got a tour of the new house. All I can say is that I am so excited to live there. We (theoretically) move in this Sunday. It has two rooms (almost bigger than our entire house right now), a big kitchen, a big bathroom, a nicely sized living room and a terrace. We have never had that much space in our entire lives nor have we ever had our own apartment. We want to move in now but, alas, we have to wait. After that we said goodbye, Ms. Kim asked if I would come again tomorrow and Audrey's co-teacher gave us a ride to the bus stop. As we rode home I explained my "guidelines, not rules" theory of Korean driving to Audrey and she agreed. We got home, ate a microwave meal and crashed.

One more long post to go (for now). Hope you are all still awake.

Also, if you catch any spelling or grammar issues please tell me and I will fix them. Since I am paying for my Internet time I don't really have much time to proofread right now. Thanks.

-Josh