Josh:
I decided to take a break from updating day by day to give you a quick glimpse into my morning. Here is the conversation I have with my shower every morning.
Josh: Hey shower. What's up?
Shower: Oh nothin.
J: Let's do this. (turns on shower to the highest level of hot)
S: WAIT, WAIT! Did you remember to turn on the hot water?
J: Yes, I did it like five or ten minutes ago.
(Two minutes of freezing cold water)
S: Oh! I see it now. Okay, good to go. So you wanted the hottest water right?
(Water becomes scalding)
J: OW! No, no. (Turns down a few inches)
S: Oh okay! So you wanted freezing water? (Water turns freezing)
J: NO! (turns water up a tiny bit)
S: Oh okay, gotcha. So a little less hot but still unbearably hot right? (hot water again)
J: Aaah...no, close. (turns nozzle down 1 cm - just the tiniest movement)
S: Got it. 40 degrees cooler. Done.
J: NO! (turns up nozzle up smaller than 1 cm - even tinier movement)
S: Ooooh! So hot right? (once again hot water)
J: *sigh*
(Five minutes pass playing the same game of barely adjusting the nozzle, finally gets to perfect temperature)
S: Wait! Looks like someone in the block wants to wash his hands. Oh wait, they asked for warm water. Hold on, let me make sure they get the hot water. (water turns freezing)
J: ....
S: Wait, he needs more water. Let me turn the water down to just a tiny drizzle.
J: Sweet.
(Water warms up slightly so Josh moves his face right next to the shower head in an attempt to wash his face with the weak stream of water)
S: Oh he's done. FULL POWER! (Water turns on full blast)
J: AAAH! That's my face!
S: Oh crap, really? Well if you wanted a weaker stream here you go. (Water turns back to weak stream)
J: No, no, please go back to a better stream.
S: Oh gotcha (water stream gets slightly stronger)
J: God, I hate you.
(Continues shower following similar pattern)
S: Oh man, you've been here for like, 10 minutes so I'm going to lower the temperature a little and make the water stream really weak. Cool?
J: I wish you weren't inanimate so I could kill you when you sleep.
S: Sorry, I didn't hear you. It sounded something like you want freezing cold water. Done!
Welcome to my morning.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
In a futile attempt to catch up
Josh:
Hello once more. I shall start off with my thoughts on the models here. It seems like most of the American models here are the ones who couldn't make it in the States. For example, there is the picture of a guy and a girl hugging (both shirtless). This picture is on almost every single bus so we know that it is a fairly big ad. From far away the woman looks normal (very skinny and seems attractive) and the guy looks like the main actor from Smallville (with giant arms and all). Up close, however, their flaws become very apparent. Now I don't want to be hypercritical but I am just comparing these models to the models in America. The woman looks like she is past her prime and (to quote Audrey) the man is what we lovingly refer to as "horse face". I'll post the pictures up sometime soon. It's funny to me because some models are the same as in America but other models seem slightly off in some way. This comes from the differences in what is considered attractive (of course). In my opinion they only see the characiture of what should be an attractive man or woman. In my classes I have my students describe pictures to me (tall, short, skinny, etc) and one of them is of this guy that is completely ripped but his arms look fake and weird. When I post the picture all my students say, "Ooooo! That's me!" and other like responses. Most girls that I know would look at him and say, "He's not attractive, his arms look weird." I don't really know where I am going with this but for some reason it just struck me as strange. Let's see if we can get some more done shall we?
Sat: 4/4/10
The first weekend arrived! Audrey was quite happy for some time to relax. Unfortunately (for the relaxing part) we had already agreed to meet with our recruiters (Teach ESL Korea) and have dinner with them. They pitched it as a free dinner for all teachers from Teach ESL Korea so before we even got to Korea we agreed to go because it would be nice to network and, of course, get a free meal. So after we woke up and relaxed just a little bit we decided to hit the train and head over to Seoul. We took the bus (note we are still in Dogok) to Pyeongtaek Station (50 minutes) and went inside to the station. It's basically a shopping mall with a train on the side. It's really neat to go in and see Baskin Robins, a Macys type store, automatic ticket machines and an information booth. It's a lot bigger than that description makes it sound. Just picture a small shopping mall and you will get the general feel of the station (in my opinion). Not knowing what to do we went to the information/ticket booth and talked to a lady who knew enough English to tell us what platform and when we would leave (Note: This is a 50 minute train ride and it only cost us $4.50 each! Their transportation system is really efficient.) So we went to the platform and hopped onto the train that we thought it would be (it's intimidating because you don't speak the language but it's actually really easy once you get past that).
Since it was a Saturday there were quite a lot of military people going to Seoul for the weekend. During the first half we got to talk to a couple from the base for a little bit. It was nice to speak in English to another couple. After 20 minutes of chit-chat we sat down for the second half of our journey. There was a little girl across from us and Audrey thought she was cute so she kept waving at her. She seemed to be very amused by us so every now and then we would look over and make faces. It's really fun to be an anomaly and have small kids just blatantly stare at you. We ended up giving her and her mother a cookie and we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It went by fairly quickly and soon enough we were in Seoul. The fun began.
We had absolutely no idea where to go except for the area where we are supposed to meet the Teach ESL group. We wandered around looking for the subway for a little bit and after asking almost four different people (language barrier again) I started to get really frustrated. I was about to say that we should go home when a couple came over and helped us buy tickets. We still didn't know what to do but they said to get onto a train and we can switch from there (there are about 8-10 different lines and all of them go to different places and not all of them are accessible from where we entered, including the one that we needed). So we hopped onto line one and luckily there was an illuminated map on the wall which showed us where we were going. It was in the wrong direction so we got off at the next stop and decided to wait for the next train. The next one that came specifically said the name of the stop we were trying to get to but of course it managed to go in the opposite direction for some reason. Needless to say my frustration grew. Luckily there was another stop that connected to line two about five stops in later. We ended up riding it backwards, got onto the line we needed and eventually got to the stop that we needed to be at. Now that we know how the subway works it will be much easier next time but man oh man was that difficult with no translator and both of us having absolutely no idea what we were doing.
So after we escaped that maze of death we emerged onto the street and with only a few glances I could tell that the city of Seoul was completely different from Pyeongtaek. In my opinion, Pyeongtaek is a big city but compared to Seoul it is a rural area (that's what Koreans consider it to be). There were people everywhere with more neon signs all over than my eyes could handle. I really am excited to be able to explore this city and all it has to offer. Unfortunately we were on a time limit so we followed the very rough instructions to the bar where everyone was meeting (Beer O'clock - awesome right?). After some backtracking we managed to find it and when we stepped in we were greeting with the sight of 10-15 foreigners who all said "Hello" when we came in. It was so weird to me because I hadn't seen more than three foreigners for the entire week and here was 15 of them all sitting in one spot. We sat down and started talking to a very nice Canadian couple. We ordered some drinks and more and more people came flooding in. We met some very nice people (a few of which Audrey talks to almost every day) and as more and more sat next to us, we kept talking and meeting more people. Even though it was super frustrating to get there, I don't regret going at all. After about 40 people came into the bar we all got up and marched through the streets to get to the restaurant. It must have been a strange sight to see about 40 foreigners all marching in a line through Seoul (I did notice a few strange glances). We managed to make it to the restaurant and it was the best food I had had in Korea at that point. It was a barbecue where they put giant strips of pork in front of you and you cook it as dark as you want. We met the people who hosted the dinner and it was just a blast. I tried Soju for the first time and I honestly got really drunk from it. The group I was sitting with kept pouring more drinks for me and they kept making toasts so I figured I would join and of course I had to chase it with beer. It was really fun but by the end of the night I was a little more than gone. We took some pictures (turns out I'm just outside of them, lame) and we went our separate ways. We walked to the subway with the two girls who Audrey talks the most to, said goodbye and caught the next train to Pyeongtaek. It was about 11:00PM at this point. Little did we know we would have even more fun with the bus.
Turns out that the bus stops running at 10:40PM. We were waiting at the stop and didn't see any buses for a long time so I went into the McDonalds nearby and she said that the bus we need stopped running about 30 minutes ago. Once again, super frustrating. Since we didn't have our house in Pyeongtaek yet we had to get back to Dogok somehow. We debated about taking a taxi and luckily a man came over to us and offered to help with broken English. He talked to a taxi for us and we got a quote of $15 for the ride (not bad at all for a place that's half an hour away by car) so we thanked him and jumped into the car. Luckily the taxi driver was smart and pulled over and asked us how to get there. Turns out the guy who was helping us misheard us and told him to go another city (we still have bad pronunciation I guess). Luckily Audrey's co-teacher gave us lots of maps (including one of Pyeongtaek and Dogok) so we pulled that out and pointed where we needed to go. Turns out it would cost us about $30 (still not bad for how long it takes) so he started the car and took us over. We didn't have enough cash on us so when we got there we both said wait here (Audrey waited with him) and I ran into the house, grabbed the cash and ran back (I was pretty winded). It turns out Audrey said he rescued us from being stuck in Pyeongtaek and gave him a cookie and he got shy and ended up giving us two energy drinks. He mimed out falling asleep, drinking one and waking up. They were called Bacchus (Orpheus, remember?). So we took them, said thank you and gave him a tip (he tried to refuse but we forced him to take it -Note: In Korea you don't give tips out at all. Not in restaurants or to taxis. It's actually really nice in my opinion). We got home and crashed after our long night.
More to come...
Hello once more. I shall start off with my thoughts on the models here. It seems like most of the American models here are the ones who couldn't make it in the States. For example, there is the picture of a guy and a girl hugging (both shirtless). This picture is on almost every single bus so we know that it is a fairly big ad. From far away the woman looks normal (very skinny and seems attractive) and the guy looks like the main actor from Smallville (with giant arms and all). Up close, however, their flaws become very apparent. Now I don't want to be hypercritical but I am just comparing these models to the models in America. The woman looks like she is past her prime and (to quote Audrey) the man is what we lovingly refer to as "horse face". I'll post the pictures up sometime soon. It's funny to me because some models are the same as in America but other models seem slightly off in some way. This comes from the differences in what is considered attractive (of course). In my opinion they only see the characiture of what should be an attractive man or woman. In my classes I have my students describe pictures to me (tall, short, skinny, etc) and one of them is of this guy that is completely ripped but his arms look fake and weird. When I post the picture all my students say, "Ooooo! That's me!" and other like responses. Most girls that I know would look at him and say, "He's not attractive, his arms look weird." I don't really know where I am going with this but for some reason it just struck me as strange. Let's see if we can get some more done shall we?
Sat: 4/4/10
The first weekend arrived! Audrey was quite happy for some time to relax. Unfortunately (for the relaxing part) we had already agreed to meet with our recruiters (Teach ESL Korea) and have dinner with them. They pitched it as a free dinner for all teachers from Teach ESL Korea so before we even got to Korea we agreed to go because it would be nice to network and, of course, get a free meal. So after we woke up and relaxed just a little bit we decided to hit the train and head over to Seoul. We took the bus (note we are still in Dogok) to Pyeongtaek Station (50 minutes) and went inside to the station. It's basically a shopping mall with a train on the side. It's really neat to go in and see Baskin Robins, a Macys type store, automatic ticket machines and an information booth. It's a lot bigger than that description makes it sound. Just picture a small shopping mall and you will get the general feel of the station (in my opinion). Not knowing what to do we went to the information/ticket booth and talked to a lady who knew enough English to tell us what platform and when we would leave (Note: This is a 50 minute train ride and it only cost us $4.50 each! Their transportation system is really efficient.) So we went to the platform and hopped onto the train that we thought it would be (it's intimidating because you don't speak the language but it's actually really easy once you get past that).
Since it was a Saturday there were quite a lot of military people going to Seoul for the weekend. During the first half we got to talk to a couple from the base for a little bit. It was nice to speak in English to another couple. After 20 minutes of chit-chat we sat down for the second half of our journey. There was a little girl across from us and Audrey thought she was cute so she kept waving at her. She seemed to be very amused by us so every now and then we would look over and make faces. It's really fun to be an anomaly and have small kids just blatantly stare at you. We ended up giving her and her mother a cookie and we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It went by fairly quickly and soon enough we were in Seoul. The fun began.
We had absolutely no idea where to go except for the area where we are supposed to meet the Teach ESL group. We wandered around looking for the subway for a little bit and after asking almost four different people (language barrier again) I started to get really frustrated. I was about to say that we should go home when a couple came over and helped us buy tickets. We still didn't know what to do but they said to get onto a train and we can switch from there (there are about 8-10 different lines and all of them go to different places and not all of them are accessible from where we entered, including the one that we needed). So we hopped onto line one and luckily there was an illuminated map on the wall which showed us where we were going. It was in the wrong direction so we got off at the next stop and decided to wait for the next train. The next one that came specifically said the name of the stop we were trying to get to but of course it managed to go in the opposite direction for some reason. Needless to say my frustration grew. Luckily there was another stop that connected to line two about five stops in later. We ended up riding it backwards, got onto the line we needed and eventually got to the stop that we needed to be at. Now that we know how the subway works it will be much easier next time but man oh man was that difficult with no translator and both of us having absolutely no idea what we were doing.
So after we escaped that maze of death we emerged onto the street and with only a few glances I could tell that the city of Seoul was completely different from Pyeongtaek. In my opinion, Pyeongtaek is a big city but compared to Seoul it is a rural area (that's what Koreans consider it to be). There were people everywhere with more neon signs all over than my eyes could handle. I really am excited to be able to explore this city and all it has to offer. Unfortunately we were on a time limit so we followed the very rough instructions to the bar where everyone was meeting (Beer O'clock - awesome right?). After some backtracking we managed to find it and when we stepped in we were greeting with the sight of 10-15 foreigners who all said "Hello" when we came in. It was so weird to me because I hadn't seen more than three foreigners for the entire week and here was 15 of them all sitting in one spot. We sat down and started talking to a very nice Canadian couple. We ordered some drinks and more and more people came flooding in. We met some very nice people (a few of which Audrey talks to almost every day) and as more and more sat next to us, we kept talking and meeting more people. Even though it was super frustrating to get there, I don't regret going at all. After about 40 people came into the bar we all got up and marched through the streets to get to the restaurant. It must have been a strange sight to see about 40 foreigners all marching in a line through Seoul (I did notice a few strange glances). We managed to make it to the restaurant and it was the best food I had had in Korea at that point. It was a barbecue where they put giant strips of pork in front of you and you cook it as dark as you want. We met the people who hosted the dinner and it was just a blast. I tried Soju for the first time and I honestly got really drunk from it. The group I was sitting with kept pouring more drinks for me and they kept making toasts so I figured I would join and of course I had to chase it with beer. It was really fun but by the end of the night I was a little more than gone. We took some pictures (turns out I'm just outside of them, lame) and we went our separate ways. We walked to the subway with the two girls who Audrey talks the most to, said goodbye and caught the next train to Pyeongtaek. It was about 11:00PM at this point. Little did we know we would have even more fun with the bus.
Turns out that the bus stops running at 10:40PM. We were waiting at the stop and didn't see any buses for a long time so I went into the McDonalds nearby and she said that the bus we need stopped running about 30 minutes ago. Once again, super frustrating. Since we didn't have our house in Pyeongtaek yet we had to get back to Dogok somehow. We debated about taking a taxi and luckily a man came over to us and offered to help with broken English. He talked to a taxi for us and we got a quote of $15 for the ride (not bad at all for a place that's half an hour away by car) so we thanked him and jumped into the car. Luckily the taxi driver was smart and pulled over and asked us how to get there. Turns out the guy who was helping us misheard us and told him to go another city (we still have bad pronunciation I guess). Luckily Audrey's co-teacher gave us lots of maps (including one of Pyeongtaek and Dogok) so we pulled that out and pointed where we needed to go. Turns out it would cost us about $30 (still not bad for how long it takes) so he started the car and took us over. We didn't have enough cash on us so when we got there we both said wait here (Audrey waited with him) and I ran into the house, grabbed the cash and ran back (I was pretty winded). It turns out Audrey said he rescued us from being stuck in Pyeongtaek and gave him a cookie and he got shy and ended up giving us two energy drinks. He mimed out falling asleep, drinking one and waking up. They were called Bacchus (Orpheus, remember?). So we took them, said thank you and gave him a tip (he tried to refuse but we forced him to take it -Note: In Korea you don't give tips out at all. Not in restaurants or to taxis. It's actually really nice in my opinion). We got home and crashed after our long night.
More to come...
Monday, April 12, 2010
After that short commercial break...
Josh:
Hello again! Sorry for that short break. Unfortunately we still don't have internet so while I can sign onto a few things at work, I am unable to blog because it takes so long. But hopefully I can update a few days right now (I am in another PC room) and more will come shortly after. Anyway, I feel that owe it to the audience to begin this post with some more Konglish. I don't have as many gems as I did last time but I have one to whet your appetite for the moment. Imagine this on one of those plastic drawer type cabinets for holding clothes (this also has cutesy cartoon characters all over it):
Snowsweety
Always the kids gives a love and joy!
They gives a dream always.
I personally always enjoy getting a love and joy.
Forward!
Day 5: Friday 4/3/10
So as many of you already know, I spent a good portion of the day blogging. However, unbeknownst to you who read the blog, there was more to my day. So after I left the PC room I finally decided to give those crane machines a try while I was waiting for Audrey. After trying them for just a day I already know they will be the death of me. You will most likely find my corpse frozen and clinging to a machine trying to get that stupid cute rabbit thing that I have absolutely no use for. I made myself limit how many times I played because we haven't even gotten paid yet but I can see that becoming a very real scenario for me. There is an evil genius to these machines; you easily can grab onto whatever toy or thing you are trying to get and you see the crane lifting it triumphantly and one of two things happens: when it reaches the top it shakes and the toy drops or it starts to pull it toward the drop bin and it hits the side of the bin and it falls. Super frustrating right? I am always so close to winning whatever it is but it always falls just before I get it. Not only is it a devil machine but it also has really strange and cool prizes. Many have cute stuffed animals or weird cutesy keychains but just as many have really strange objects laying about. These objects only make it that more addicting! Here are some of the things I have seen in crane machines: standard cute animals attached to giant lighters (I'm assuming for weight but lighters? Really?), mario/luigi/spiderman/superman glass hangers (they have suction cups on their hands so they can hang on glass and of course they all have a backpack with a giant lighter in it), watches, belts, wallets, wallet and belt combo packs, American five dollar bills (most of these objects have strange brick weights surrounded by a cage so I'll just stop mentioning they have them), a big bottle of brandy, gold painted statues, "love handcuffs" (rrrwarrrr), two bottles (standard beer size) of booze with carved penis toppers (imagine winning this), "fast pass" cards (lets you get over bridges without paying a toll), nudey playing cards (at least I assume that's what they are), Mp3 players, plane tickets to jeju (famous island tourist place in Korea) and of course lighters shaped like bullets. How can a mere human resist trying to win these prizes? One last thing about these satan spawns/gift from the gods: many of these machines start talking to you as you walk by. Now I want you to imagine the most whiney, high pitched voice calling out to you. What makes it even worse is what she is saying. I only heard/understand "Oppa! (Korean words)" In Korean, Oppa means "older brother" and it is what young girls refer to either slightly older males or sometimes (playfully) their boyfriends. Now if you can imagine that the standard clientele is a bunch of older (mid 50s) men who are most likely somewhat perverted you can only guess what she is saying. Here is my guess. "Oppa! Come play with me!" I'll leave that lovely thought in your head. To quote Yahtzee, "I love (the crane games) like an alcoholic loves alcohol."
I mostly walked around taking pictures of the city as this would most likely be my last time in Dogok (Audrey's city) because we would be moving to our new house near my school this weekend. I saw some interesting sights and hopefully I can post pictures very soon (hopefully). I met up with Audrey after her work and we saw her students playing a strange game where they had string in a square and the game was to walk by and step on it without tripping. I don't really know how to describe it other than it was interesting. We were quite hungry so we decided to go to a pizza place. Never again will I think that ordering pizza without cheese gets me weird looks in America. We went to this small pizza place owned by a man and woman. We sat down and ordered a pizza without cheese and this just blew the woman's mind. The man took our order, she saw it, we heard loud Korean and she came over to us and confirmed that we didn't want cheese. We confirmed and she went back to the kitchen talking to herself (loudly) in Korean while shaking her head. We occasionally heard the word "cheese" thrown in there so Audrey and I just laughed and apologized to her. She brought it to us and it was quite good. She still seemed amazed that it didn't have cheese even as we were eating it. We thanked them and left fat and happy.
One thing that I didn't mention earlier when I was wandering was that I found this amazing cute puppy in one of the alleys. I figured Audrey would want to see him so I remembered where he was and decided to show her. I saw he was a little dirty but I didn't think too much of it and I brought Audrey over to him (I have pictures of him). I had nicknamed him Professor Kimchee (with a PhD in Cute [oh yes, I made that joke]) Bad move. This has been one of the most depressing moments for me in Korea. This dog was very sick to say the least. He was dirty and he almost lept for joy at the idea of us giving him attention. As we got closer we saw that he backed away from our hands as we reached to pet him (meaning he got beat) and when we did pet him, he peed on the ground slightly out of excitement (or some kind of problem). He then proceeded to hack up this gooey white thick substance. We backed off and he coughed again and out that strange liquid came. When Audrey felt him she saw that he was nothing but fur and skin. He was clearly emaciated and very sick. We didn't really know what to do. I regret taking Audrey over to see him because we both left very unhappy. What could we do? I wanted to take him into our home but what good would that do? We don't have any money and that dog needs medical attention and we are in an apartment. We left feeling quite unhappy. I honestly hate the dog situation here. I have a feeling that situations like that are quite common here and I have seen stray dogs at our new house wandering looking for food. I absolutely hate it.
Onto something a little more happy. After we left that area, we went back home and we finally decided to explore the town at night. As I said before, night Korea is a lot of fun. We wandered a few feet and ran into some kind of carnival game building. Audrey played the game where you had a rifle with a scope and you were supposed to shoot a small plastic cap at these stuffed gorrillas. Needless to say, Audrey was great at it and she got several prizes. I then decided to try my hand at throwing darts at balloons. I almost hit all of them and the lady allowed us to upgrade our prizes to this little heart pillow. It was a lot of fun and maybe when we have plenty of money to blow, we will come back and just play little carnival type games all night. We then wandered a little bit more and went to a coffee place with a Korean girl working the counter. She spoke nearly perfect English so we got to talk to her for a little bit. It turns out she spent a few years in Canada and learned English while she was there. It was nice to be able to speak to a stranger (especially a food service worker) in English. After we wondered the streets a little more (it was freezing), I tried a few more crane machines (almost won! I was robbed of my prize because a special door opens up if the prize falls after your turn is up to prevent people shaking the machines) and we decided to go back home. On the way back we passed a guy standing in front of a store. He shouted at us and we looked over. He ran over to us, gave us a flier and ran back to the entrance of his store. We decided to try it out and we went inside. Apparantly grilled toast is a huge thing here. We picked the "burger" one for both of us. He put egg, a burger patty, some kind of coleslaw, ketchup, barbeque sauce and other things. He would ask us before he put anything in and if we said no he would make a dissapointed noise and we would end up changing our minds (it seems that if you order something without some ingredient they almost take it personally such as the pizza lady). We paid, took a bite in front of him, said it was delicious and went back to our apartment. It turns out that it was actually quite delicious and we ate until we were full and decided to finally crash. Our first and last night out in Dogok was quite eventful and fun.
It looks like our time is up. Hopefully soon I will update more days. I will eventually stop updating day by day but since this is full of our firsts I decided it would be best to document it day by day. I leave you with this thought:
There are some cookies that we found in the store called "Mother's finger." Anybody else find that a bit strange?
Hello again! Sorry for that short break. Unfortunately we still don't have internet so while I can sign onto a few things at work, I am unable to blog because it takes so long. But hopefully I can update a few days right now (I am in another PC room) and more will come shortly after. Anyway, I feel that owe it to the audience to begin this post with some more Konglish. I don't have as many gems as I did last time but I have one to whet your appetite for the moment. Imagine this on one of those plastic drawer type cabinets for holding clothes (this also has cutesy cartoon characters all over it):
Snowsweety
Always the kids gives a love and joy!
They gives a dream always.
I personally always enjoy getting a love and joy.
Forward!
Day 5: Friday 4/3/10
So as many of you already know, I spent a good portion of the day blogging. However, unbeknownst to you who read the blog, there was more to my day. So after I left the PC room I finally decided to give those crane machines a try while I was waiting for Audrey. After trying them for just a day I already know they will be the death of me. You will most likely find my corpse frozen and clinging to a machine trying to get that stupid cute rabbit thing that I have absolutely no use for. I made myself limit how many times I played because we haven't even gotten paid yet but I can see that becoming a very real scenario for me. There is an evil genius to these machines; you easily can grab onto whatever toy or thing you are trying to get and you see the crane lifting it triumphantly and one of two things happens: when it reaches the top it shakes and the toy drops or it starts to pull it toward the drop bin and it hits the side of the bin and it falls. Super frustrating right? I am always so close to winning whatever it is but it always falls just before I get it. Not only is it a devil machine but it also has really strange and cool prizes. Many have cute stuffed animals or weird cutesy keychains but just as many have really strange objects laying about. These objects only make it that more addicting! Here are some of the things I have seen in crane machines: standard cute animals attached to giant lighters (I'm assuming for weight but lighters? Really?), mario/luigi/spiderman/superman glass hangers (they have suction cups on their hands so they can hang on glass and of course they all have a backpack with a giant lighter in it), watches, belts, wallets, wallet and belt combo packs, American five dollar bills (most of these objects have strange brick weights surrounded by a cage so I'll just stop mentioning they have them), a big bottle of brandy, gold painted statues, "love handcuffs" (rrrwarrrr), two bottles (standard beer size) of booze with carved penis toppers (imagine winning this), "fast pass" cards (lets you get over bridges without paying a toll), nudey playing cards (at least I assume that's what they are), Mp3 players, plane tickets to jeju (famous island tourist place in Korea) and of course lighters shaped like bullets. How can a mere human resist trying to win these prizes? One last thing about these satan spawns/gift from the gods: many of these machines start talking to you as you walk by. Now I want you to imagine the most whiney, high pitched voice calling out to you. What makes it even worse is what she is saying. I only heard/understand "Oppa! (Korean words)" In Korean, Oppa means "older brother" and it is what young girls refer to either slightly older males or sometimes (playfully) their boyfriends. Now if you can imagine that the standard clientele is a bunch of older (mid 50s) men who are most likely somewhat perverted you can only guess what she is saying. Here is my guess. "Oppa! Come play with me!" I'll leave that lovely thought in your head. To quote Yahtzee, "I love (the crane games) like an alcoholic loves alcohol."
I mostly walked around taking pictures of the city as this would most likely be my last time in Dogok (Audrey's city) because we would be moving to our new house near my school this weekend. I saw some interesting sights and hopefully I can post pictures very soon (hopefully). I met up with Audrey after her work and we saw her students playing a strange game where they had string in a square and the game was to walk by and step on it without tripping. I don't really know how to describe it other than it was interesting. We were quite hungry so we decided to go to a pizza place. Never again will I think that ordering pizza without cheese gets me weird looks in America. We went to this small pizza place owned by a man and woman. We sat down and ordered a pizza without cheese and this just blew the woman's mind. The man took our order, she saw it, we heard loud Korean and she came over to us and confirmed that we didn't want cheese. We confirmed and she went back to the kitchen talking to herself (loudly) in Korean while shaking her head. We occasionally heard the word "cheese" thrown in there so Audrey and I just laughed and apologized to her. She brought it to us and it was quite good. She still seemed amazed that it didn't have cheese even as we were eating it. We thanked them and left fat and happy.
One thing that I didn't mention earlier when I was wandering was that I found this amazing cute puppy in one of the alleys. I figured Audrey would want to see him so I remembered where he was and decided to show her. I saw he was a little dirty but I didn't think too much of it and I brought Audrey over to him (I have pictures of him). I had nicknamed him Professor Kimchee (with a PhD in Cute [oh yes, I made that joke]) Bad move. This has been one of the most depressing moments for me in Korea. This dog was very sick to say the least. He was dirty and he almost lept for joy at the idea of us giving him attention. As we got closer we saw that he backed away from our hands as we reached to pet him (meaning he got beat) and when we did pet him, he peed on the ground slightly out of excitement (or some kind of problem). He then proceeded to hack up this gooey white thick substance. We backed off and he coughed again and out that strange liquid came. When Audrey felt him she saw that he was nothing but fur and skin. He was clearly emaciated and very sick. We didn't really know what to do. I regret taking Audrey over to see him because we both left very unhappy. What could we do? I wanted to take him into our home but what good would that do? We don't have any money and that dog needs medical attention and we are in an apartment. We left feeling quite unhappy. I honestly hate the dog situation here. I have a feeling that situations like that are quite common here and I have seen stray dogs at our new house wandering looking for food. I absolutely hate it.
Onto something a little more happy. After we left that area, we went back home and we finally decided to explore the town at night. As I said before, night Korea is a lot of fun. We wandered a few feet and ran into some kind of carnival game building. Audrey played the game where you had a rifle with a scope and you were supposed to shoot a small plastic cap at these stuffed gorrillas. Needless to say, Audrey was great at it and she got several prizes. I then decided to try my hand at throwing darts at balloons. I almost hit all of them and the lady allowed us to upgrade our prizes to this little heart pillow. It was a lot of fun and maybe when we have plenty of money to blow, we will come back and just play little carnival type games all night. We then wandered a little bit more and went to a coffee place with a Korean girl working the counter. She spoke nearly perfect English so we got to talk to her for a little bit. It turns out she spent a few years in Canada and learned English while she was there. It was nice to be able to speak to a stranger (especially a food service worker) in English. After we wondered the streets a little more (it was freezing), I tried a few more crane machines (almost won! I was robbed of my prize because a special door opens up if the prize falls after your turn is up to prevent people shaking the machines) and we decided to go back home. On the way back we passed a guy standing in front of a store. He shouted at us and we looked over. He ran over to us, gave us a flier and ran back to the entrance of his store. We decided to try it out and we went inside. Apparantly grilled toast is a huge thing here. We picked the "burger" one for both of us. He put egg, a burger patty, some kind of coleslaw, ketchup, barbeque sauce and other things. He would ask us before he put anything in and if we said no he would make a dissapointed noise and we would end up changing our minds (it seems that if you order something without some ingredient they almost take it personally such as the pizza lady). We paid, took a bite in front of him, said it was delicious and went back to our apartment. It turns out that it was actually quite delicious and we ate until we were full and decided to finally crash. Our first and last night out in Dogok was quite eventful and fun.
It looks like our time is up. Hopefully soon I will update more days. I will eventually stop updating day by day but since this is full of our firsts I decided it would be best to document it day by day. I leave you with this thought:
There are some cookies that we found in the store called "Mother's finger." Anybody else find that a bit strange?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Hello! Audrey here!
This is MY first post... I've been so lazy (teaching and moving and being sick) lately so I figured I would take a minute (or hour, with the way my students visit me) to drop a line.
First, the explanation for the side note on Josh's previous entries.
Airplane security is strict these days, right? Noooooooope. Before we flew, Josh and I read all about how strict airplane security is, with restrictions galore and many hoops to jump through just to get through the gate.
We went to some lengths to make sure the checking-in process would go smoothly, putting all of our liquid-it-could-be-explosive-but-we-don't-care-as-long-as-it's-in-a-3 oz.-container items in their 3 oz containers, and putting said containers in the proper-sized Ziplock baggie. We weighed and balanced, carefully chose our outfits for the best comfort and professionalism (except for my huuuuge boots which were a pain to take on and off, which they made me do) and made sure that there wasn't anything else that could hold us up.
The morning of our flight we met with some friends at a Starbucks by our old house in Daly City. I had brought along my former roomate's key to return it to her but with all the last goodbyes I forgot to give it to her. Later, safe in the knowledge that I had, in fact, returned it to her, we were sitting on the plane just about to take off when I looked in my backpack and there that key was--connected to its keychain, the little can of Mace.
Suffice to say, I almost wet myself. Josh and I decided to give it to one of the attendants nearby and apologize profusely. Steeling myself for a "You're going to have to come with me, 34B" I did like a salmon and swam upstream against all of the other passengers who were very intent on getting to their seats behind me. Eventually I got to the attendant and he was surprisingly cool about it; he just took my seat number and said, "I'll give it to the head attendant," and sent me back to my seat.
Crisis averted.
You know, that backpack went through the scanner thingy.. and the Mace was in an outside pocket that isn't hard to peek through. But those boots? You betcha!
Secure?
This is MY first post... I've been so lazy (teaching and moving and being sick) lately so I figured I would take a minute (or hour, with the way my students visit me) to drop a line.
First, the explanation for the side note on Josh's previous entries.
Airplane security is strict these days, right? Noooooooope. Before we flew, Josh and I read all about how strict airplane security is, with restrictions galore and many hoops to jump through just to get through the gate.
We went to some lengths to make sure the checking-in process would go smoothly, putting all of our liquid-it-could-be-explosive-but-we-don't-care-as-long-as-it's-in-a-3 oz.-container items in their 3 oz containers, and putting said containers in the proper-sized Ziplock baggie. We weighed and balanced, carefully chose our outfits for the best comfort and professionalism (except for my huuuuge boots which were a pain to take on and off, which they made me do) and made sure that there wasn't anything else that could hold us up.
The morning of our flight we met with some friends at a Starbucks by our old house in Daly City. I had brought along my former roomate's key to return it to her but with all the last goodbyes I forgot to give it to her. Later, safe in the knowledge that I had, in fact, returned it to her, we were sitting on the plane just about to take off when I looked in my backpack and there that key was--connected to its keychain, the little can of Mace.
Suffice to say, I almost wet myself. Josh and I decided to give it to one of the attendants nearby and apologize profusely. Steeling myself for a "You're going to have to come with me, 34B" I did like a salmon and swam upstream against all of the other passengers who were very intent on getting to their seats behind me. Eventually I got to the attendant and he was surprisingly cool about it; he just took my seat number and said, "I'll give it to the head attendant," and sent me back to my seat.
Crisis averted.
You know, that backpack went through the scanner thingy.. and the Mace was in an outside pocket that isn't hard to peek through. But those boots? You betcha!
Secure?
Friday, April 2, 2010
The Fourth Day
Josh:
Finally we reach an end to the long posts with day number four.
Day four (Thursday): Not much happened today. I stayed at home, cleaned a little, discovered that PC rooms are not only open at night, blogged a little, did laundry without a dryer for the first time and picked up Audrey.
With that out of the way, another interesting thing about Korea is the garbage situation. They don't have public trashcans nor do they have building trash cans. As far as I understand, you are supposed to buy specific trash bags and set them on the street at certain times to be picked up. Since we don't understand Korean it is almost impossible for us to do this so I found some baskets on the street that seemed to be for garbage of different types, sorted out what we had, looked around and dumped it all in and then proceeded to run home. I wasn't sure if what I was doing was wrong because these were, after all, trash bag type objects on the side of the road with signs on how to sort out the garbage. I can only guess it is for restaurants or something but I figured I would be safe and make the drop quickly.
Another rant is about the love of individual packaging in Korea. Anything you buy, whether they be cookies or crackers, comes individually wrapped for the most part. Does everyone know the standard size saltine cracker bag? I purchased three different boxes of that size with crackers in them hoping to get a nice snack at home. When I opened them at my house I found that all of them either had two or three small bags of crackers. While I do love the convenience of individual wrapping for work purposes, if they just stuffed the box like us Americans then they could fit so many more crackers in each box. I can't help but feel ripped off to some degree. However, I can't really complain as those boxes cost me $.50.
Finally, one other interesting thing happened to me today. I was walking out in the morning to find a PC room and I saw another foreigner walking! I took a double take and he smiled and said, "Hi," to which I replied, "Hello," and we both walked off smiling. It's amazing how a tiny little interaction and a knowing smile between the two of us could make me feel so happy.
With that, I leave everyone so I can get some food and blood flowing through my legs.
Note that I am now on my fifth day. If anything interesting other than typing for hours happens today, I will be sure to update.
-Josh
Finally we reach an end to the long posts with day number four.
Day four (Thursday): Not much happened today. I stayed at home, cleaned a little, discovered that PC rooms are not only open at night, blogged a little, did laundry without a dryer for the first time and picked up Audrey.
With that out of the way, another interesting thing about Korea is the garbage situation. They don't have public trashcans nor do they have building trash cans. As far as I understand, you are supposed to buy specific trash bags and set them on the street at certain times to be picked up. Since we don't understand Korean it is almost impossible for us to do this so I found some baskets on the street that seemed to be for garbage of different types, sorted out what we had, looked around and dumped it all in and then proceeded to run home. I wasn't sure if what I was doing was wrong because these were, after all, trash bag type objects on the side of the road with signs on how to sort out the garbage. I can only guess it is for restaurants or something but I figured I would be safe and make the drop quickly.
Another rant is about the love of individual packaging in Korea. Anything you buy, whether they be cookies or crackers, comes individually wrapped for the most part. Does everyone know the standard size saltine cracker bag? I purchased three different boxes of that size with crackers in them hoping to get a nice snack at home. When I opened them at my house I found that all of them either had two or three small bags of crackers. While I do love the convenience of individual wrapping for work purposes, if they just stuffed the box like us Americans then they could fit so many more crackers in each box. I can't help but feel ripped off to some degree. However, I can't really complain as those boxes cost me $.50.
Finally, one other interesting thing happened to me today. I was walking out in the morning to find a PC room and I saw another foreigner walking! I took a double take and he smiled and said, "Hi," to which I replied, "Hello," and we both walked off smiling. It's amazing how a tiny little interaction and a knowing smile between the two of us could make me feel so happy.
With that, I leave everyone so I can get some food and blood flowing through my legs.
Note that I am now on my fifth day. If anything interesting other than typing for hours happens today, I will be sure to update.
-Josh
The Third Day
Josh:
I have been in this PC room for about two hours now and the girl behind me keeps listening to the same song while singing loudly. Normally this would be okay because I am listening to metal on youtube but one of my headphones is dead so I keep hearing the same song again and again out of my left ear. Let's keep this moving, shall we?
Day Three (Wednesday): Today we woke up to the lovely sound of rain. We got up (luckily on time because I forgot to set the alarm) and headed our separate ways. I got onto the same bus as yesterday thinking it would be easier because I knew what the stop looked like but unfortunately the rain had caused the windows to completely fog over so I was riding blind once more. I decided to just relax and hopefully I would see the stop in time. About half way there the bus became rather full and an older woman stepped onto the bus. I was near the back and she started to head towards my area so I got up and gestured toward the seat. She smiled widely and said "Thank you" in Korean and sat down. I was sitting in a window seat so I had to step over the young Korean boy who was sitting to my right. Shortly after, he got off and I sat down next to the older lady. She started speaking to me in Korean and I said, "Sorry, I only speak English." She said, "Oooh," and we continued our ride in silence. I kept noticing her looking at me out of the corner of my eye so I just smiled and looked forward. I kept trying to look out the door that opened when people got off because I couldn't see a thing. I looked over and she said, "Pyeongtaek station?" I nodded and she nodded with a glance that said, "Don't worry, I got you." In a few minutes a young business man stepped onto the bus and headed toward us. I got up and gestured towards my seat for him and he vehemently shook his head "No" multiple times, smiled and said "Thank you" in English. I sat back down and the two of them started talking. He was to my right and she was to my left. It turns out that between the two of them they knew enough English to communicate with me. I felt a tug on my arm and she said, "Long? Year? Month?" I replied, "Oh, only three days." (I held up three fingers) which I received a "Aah." She then said something that sounded like, "Job?" I said I teach English, once again nods, and she said, "Busan?" (a major city in Korea) "No, Pyeongtaek Mechanical and Technical High School." She nodded and smiled happily. I turned to the man and he said, "Name?" "Joshua, what's yours?" He pointed to himself and said his name. I said nice to meet you and everyone nodded and smiled. It became silent again and I noticed him reach into his briefcase and pull a card out and put it in his jacket. A couple of minutes pass and I feel another tug and the older woman says, "Stop here." I said "Thank you." (in Korean) and got up, bowed to her and got off the bus. The business man got off with me and he pulled out his business card and handed it to me and said, "Me." I bowed and said thank you again and we parted ways. I really can't describe how happy this experience made me. It was amazing how even though we had such a language barrier, we were able to communicate and in some way, make each other's day. I highly recommend having some sort of experience like this in your life. This simple bond to another human is one of the most refreshing experiences I have ever had.
One of my co-teachers picked me up from the station and I began my second day at school. I only went to one class (to more "ooo"s) and decided to work on my lesson plan for the rest of the day (I don't have access to the Internet at my house). Lunch came around and I had a small piece of fish (wasn't as big of a fan of this as I was the others) and a small piece of a giant french fry sized radish (once again, not a huge fan) along with rice soup (good). As I sat in my cubicle creating a lesson plan, students would come into the teacher's room between class periods. This would be a big no-no in the US but I found myself to be rather fond of this idea. I had many students come up and introduce themselves and giggle as they left. One girl came up and tried to say my name. I had her break it down by saying, "Jah. (she repeated) Sh. U. ah. Good, now put them together." She tried her best and then left. Within two minutes she came back in and had mastered how to say my name. She said she was practicing outside. I told her to continue to practice and you will learn English in no time. Another student came right next to me and hunched over, "I feel sick."
"Do you want some water?"
"No."
"Is there a school nurse?"
"No."
"I hope you feel better."
"I am scared teacher."
"Why?"
"Because my English no good."
"Not at all! You're English sounds fine to me. You can talk to me so that is better than most. Keep it up." I love this kind of interaction and I look forward to students coming up to me after school. Hopefully some of them will be able to teach me some Korean too. Around 4:30PM Audrey came over (my co-teachers wanted to have a dinner with everyone so they invited Audrey also). We were supposed to leave at 5:00 so I showed Audrey around the school. Many of my students said, "Oh! This wife?", "So pretty!" as I gave her a mini tour. My favorite experience was when we were sitting in the teacher's room and students came in to get keys and literally stopped, dropped the keys and stared at Audrey. They then said, "Oh! So pretty!" and started speaking excitedly in Korean. The other teachers in the room thought this was hilarious and started jokingly shouting at the students while Audrey turned bright red. It was hilarious.
Around five we went to a traditional Korean restaurant where everyone sits on cushions and eachs at a long table. I shortly learned that my legs were not happy with that decision and I had to keep adjusting every few minutes. I ended up trying raw fish for the first time (took me about two minutes to chew, not exactly a fan), a small piece of angler fish (look it up, it's ugly) and had other various side dishes. Overall I had a great time. The two female co-teachers kept laughing at my lack of metal chopstick skills and everyone loved talking to Audrey. We said good-bye (they were nice enough to buy us dinner) and my co-teacher drove us to a big store with Wu where we could buy normal sized towels (finally!). Wu took us back to the station on a bus while giving us some helpful advice about the city and we finally went home and got some sleep.
An interesting side note: In my short time here I have noticed a distinct difference between the day life and night life. During the day time (especially morning) there are hardly any people on the streets and the town honestly looks a little boring. At night, however, there are neon lights everywhere and people crowd the streets trying to get to various bars or markets. The difference is like, well, night and day (I'm so funny).
-Josh
I have been in this PC room for about two hours now and the girl behind me keeps listening to the same song while singing loudly. Normally this would be okay because I am listening to metal on youtube but one of my headphones is dead so I keep hearing the same song again and again out of my left ear. Let's keep this moving, shall we?
Day Three (Wednesday): Today we woke up to the lovely sound of rain. We got up (luckily on time because I forgot to set the alarm) and headed our separate ways. I got onto the same bus as yesterday thinking it would be easier because I knew what the stop looked like but unfortunately the rain had caused the windows to completely fog over so I was riding blind once more. I decided to just relax and hopefully I would see the stop in time. About half way there the bus became rather full and an older woman stepped onto the bus. I was near the back and she started to head towards my area so I got up and gestured toward the seat. She smiled widely and said "Thank you" in Korean and sat down. I was sitting in a window seat so I had to step over the young Korean boy who was sitting to my right. Shortly after, he got off and I sat down next to the older lady. She started speaking to me in Korean and I said, "Sorry, I only speak English." She said, "Oooh," and we continued our ride in silence. I kept noticing her looking at me out of the corner of my eye so I just smiled and looked forward. I kept trying to look out the door that opened when people got off because I couldn't see a thing. I looked over and she said, "Pyeongtaek station?" I nodded and she nodded with a glance that said, "Don't worry, I got you." In a few minutes a young business man stepped onto the bus and headed toward us. I got up and gestured towards my seat for him and he vehemently shook his head "No" multiple times, smiled and said "Thank you" in English. I sat back down and the two of them started talking. He was to my right and she was to my left. It turns out that between the two of them they knew enough English to communicate with me. I felt a tug on my arm and she said, "Long? Year? Month?" I replied, "Oh, only three days." (I held up three fingers) which I received a "Aah." She then said something that sounded like, "Job?" I said I teach English, once again nods, and she said, "Busan?" (a major city in Korea) "No, Pyeongtaek Mechanical and Technical High School." She nodded and smiled happily. I turned to the man and he said, "Name?" "Joshua, what's yours?" He pointed to himself and said his name. I said nice to meet you and everyone nodded and smiled. It became silent again and I noticed him reach into his briefcase and pull a card out and put it in his jacket. A couple of minutes pass and I feel another tug and the older woman says, "Stop here." I said "Thank you." (in Korean) and got up, bowed to her and got off the bus. The business man got off with me and he pulled out his business card and handed it to me and said, "Me." I bowed and said thank you again and we parted ways. I really can't describe how happy this experience made me. It was amazing how even though we had such a language barrier, we were able to communicate and in some way, make each other's day. I highly recommend having some sort of experience like this in your life. This simple bond to another human is one of the most refreshing experiences I have ever had.
One of my co-teachers picked me up from the station and I began my second day at school. I only went to one class (to more "ooo"s) and decided to work on my lesson plan for the rest of the day (I don't have access to the Internet at my house). Lunch came around and I had a small piece of fish (wasn't as big of a fan of this as I was the others) and a small piece of a giant french fry sized radish (once again, not a huge fan) along with rice soup (good). As I sat in my cubicle creating a lesson plan, students would come into the teacher's room between class periods. This would be a big no-no in the US but I found myself to be rather fond of this idea. I had many students come up and introduce themselves and giggle as they left. One girl came up and tried to say my name. I had her break it down by saying, "Jah. (she repeated) Sh. U. ah. Good, now put them together." She tried her best and then left. Within two minutes she came back in and had mastered how to say my name. She said she was practicing outside. I told her to continue to practice and you will learn English in no time. Another student came right next to me and hunched over, "I feel sick."
"Do you want some water?"
"No."
"Is there a school nurse?"
"No."
"I hope you feel better."
"I am scared teacher."
"Why?"
"Because my English no good."
"Not at all! You're English sounds fine to me. You can talk to me so that is better than most. Keep it up." I love this kind of interaction and I look forward to students coming up to me after school. Hopefully some of them will be able to teach me some Korean too. Around 4:30PM Audrey came over (my co-teachers wanted to have a dinner with everyone so they invited Audrey also). We were supposed to leave at 5:00 so I showed Audrey around the school. Many of my students said, "Oh! This wife?", "So pretty!" as I gave her a mini tour. My favorite experience was when we were sitting in the teacher's room and students came in to get keys and literally stopped, dropped the keys and stared at Audrey. They then said, "Oh! So pretty!" and started speaking excitedly in Korean. The other teachers in the room thought this was hilarious and started jokingly shouting at the students while Audrey turned bright red. It was hilarious.
Around five we went to a traditional Korean restaurant where everyone sits on cushions and eachs at a long table. I shortly learned that my legs were not happy with that decision and I had to keep adjusting every few minutes. I ended up trying raw fish for the first time (took me about two minutes to chew, not exactly a fan), a small piece of angler fish (look it up, it's ugly) and had other various side dishes. Overall I had a great time. The two female co-teachers kept laughing at my lack of metal chopstick skills and everyone loved talking to Audrey. We said good-bye (they were nice enough to buy us dinner) and my co-teacher drove us to a big store with Wu where we could buy normal sized towels (finally!). Wu took us back to the station on a bus while giving us some helpful advice about the city and we finally went home and got some sleep.
An interesting side note: In my short time here I have noticed a distinct difference between the day life and night life. During the day time (especially morning) there are hardly any people on the streets and the town honestly looks a little boring. At night, however, there are neon lights everywhere and people crowd the streets trying to get to various bars or markets. The difference is like, well, night and day (I'm so funny).
-Josh
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
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
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