The Weekend: Part 2

Josh:

Just so everyone knows: I finally got a phone! Not only that, but on Thursday we will have the internet at the house. I'm finally growing up! (Note: Audrey will get her phone on Friday when she gets her ARC [Alien Registration Card - which, by the way, literally is green]. It seems if you are a foreigner you can't get family plans. That's alright though considering my phone is free and it only costs $15 a month [give or take a few bucks due to extra minutes]. I bet you want a phone in Korea now don't you?)

I forgot to mention on Friday after the wine bar we also went to a "serve yourself" beer place. They have a bunch of refrigerators with beer in it and prices in front of each drink. When you leave, one of the workers counts your bottles and you pay according to that. I thought it was pretty neat. I mention this bar because when we were talking we saw a guy hitting on a Korean girl really awkwardly. It becomes even funnier when you put in the comment Mike said: "Anyone here seen Tropic Thunder? ("Yes") Okay, doesn't he look like Simple Jack?" We all looked and had to hold in our fits of laughter and giggles because he looked exactly like Ben Stiller's character "Simple Jack" (For those of you who haven't seen the movie, Google the name and just see what we saw. In the movie Ben Stiller plays an actor whose most famous role was a mentally handicapped character name Simple Jack. Now you can see why this guy's appearance was so fantastic). Not only were we laughing at this guy hitting on this girl but he also had the most desirous look on his face. You can tell he didn't just want to be friends and probably could have burned a hole in her with his look. If you can imagine Simple Jack giving gaga eyes to some Korean girl at a bar coupled with the fact that you are surrounded by people who were semi-drunk and like to giggle, you can get an idea of the joy we experienced that night. This is also important for later when I post videos of the weekend because we saw a pigeon who was missing feathers and we reference him as the "Simple Jack" of pigeons. Needless to say, we have lots of fun when we go out together.

And now back to the weekend.

After our little journey of jumping between subway lines, we finally reached Yeouido. We stepped out into the light and were surrounded by giant buildings. Of course, we didn't really research where the festival was going on other than the general area so we really had no idea where to go. We bought some little street doughnuts (super good) and wandered around a little bit until we saw balloons in the distance. That direction then made the most sense so we headed towards the commotion and saw a fairly sizable crowd. Luckily, thanks to San Francisco (once again), I have become used to crowds bigger than what we saw so I didn't really have a problem. We crossed the street and walked onto a giant open blacktop (with people rollerblading, skate boarding, etc). We saw there was a park to our right so we headed in that direction hoping to see some more trees. Meg and Mike decided to get some "refreshments" at a store (Note: It is legal to drink on the streets in Korea so you can walk around drunk and holding a bottle of beer all you want) while Audrey and I rested (our feet were killing us). As we started to explore the park Mike saw something in the trash that caught his eye. He pulled it out (with us laughing at him) and it turned out to be a mat. He excitedly said he was going to keep it, threw it over his shoulder, nicknamed it "Matt" and we continued on with a new treasure.

After exploring the park a little we ran into a lake with some giant Koi and a beautiful duck (nicknamed "The Maserati of Ducks"). We stopped for a minute, took videos and pictures, moved onto a giant statue (don't know of who) and a nice little building which Audrey and Meg climbed into.

As we wound our way through the park we noticed several people having photo sessions (One had a newly wed couple while another had a guy dancing with a low cut shirt. You know, the normal stuff). I guess that's the time to take pictures in the park. After we got out of the park we noticed a street vendor selling something that I had heard about before I even got to Korea. I don't remember their name but I believe they are silkworm pupae. Despite several warnings from Meg and Audrey, I couldn't help myself and Mike was up to the challenge. We tried it (Mike wanted to up the stakes by trying two in one bite so we skewered two right off the bat). Yes, I ate bugs here in Korea. No, they aren't really that good. They don't taste terrible but they do sort of pop in your mouth when you bite them (a little strange). Enjoy!







Meg had already tried them apparently and she hated them. When you first eat them, it isn't too bad. It's a very mild taste but later on the bitter goo just stays there in your mouth. We decided to just keep it at two and bought more street doughnuts to get the taste out of our mouths.

So as we left the park there was a small grassy area where people were having picnics, flying kites and just relaxing. We liked the idea of finally sitting down so we found a spot and (thanks to the mat that Mike found) we took a seat. Mike and Meg ran into a store and got a bottle of Soju and a 1.5 liter of beer. We all just sat, talked and drank. I think we all had a blast just talking and hanging out with each other. Audrey and I seem to really connect with these people so I am very grateful we were able to meet them. After a few hours (maybe just an hour, I'm not sure) we decided to just find a Mexican restaurant in Seoul and head home. We never really officially saw the festival (luckily for us it turns out they canceled the main celebration due to the ship sinking [more on that later]) but we figured we had seen enough blossoms to satisfy us and we had walked far enough. So we got up (at this point Josh was riding the Soju train first class, baby), stumbled a little and headed back to the subway. When we got to the blacktop, a skateboard mutant (called an S-board) caught our eye and we decided to give it a shot. Mike rented from the lady and we gave it our best shot with no prior instruction nor any idea what to do. I had seen some friends of mine use it a long time ago so all I knew was that your needed to rotate your hips back and forth (aka thrust in my inebriated mind). We both kept flying off the board (I smacked my head on the ground [according to Audrey, I don't remember hitting my head but I remember falling flat on my back multiple times - I guess that's not a good sign?] while Mike only ate it once but he hit his head hard [we were all a little worried]). After about 10-20 minutes Mike was skating like a pro. He somehow managed to get the hang of it that quickly. All of us were blown away. I eventually got it after about 40 minutes but I never mastered it as well as Mike did. We met a few other people (we had one Korean guy try it out; he would help try to keep us balanced and would roller blade in circles around us) and a young kid who had his own S-Board and could ride it masterfully. He let us try his board out and gave us pointers. After we talked with him and rode a little longer we eventually decided to leave and continue on our hunt for Mexican food. Here is a video of us when we first got the board (As I mentioned before, I was riding the Soju train. I'm pretty proud of myself for eventually getting it when I was that gone):



So after many cuts and bruises we continued on. We headed back to the subway and tried to figure out where to go from there. Luckily Mike had been to the Mexican place before so we had general directions on where to go. After a quick subway ride and trying multiple exits we finally found the Holy Grail of food. We walked in and ordered (we were all starving by this time). There was another random foreigner there and we invited him to join our table. He turned out to be a really cool guy and we talked and learned about his traveling history. When the food finally arrived my mind was blown. I took the first bite and I felt like there was a party in my mouth and everyone was invited. I scarfed down the first burrito and immediately ordered a second one. After the first place being so disappointing, I was so ecstatic that I finally got to have good Mexican food. I really could go on and on about how tasty this place was. I'll finish by saying that if Zeus ever wanted a burrito, this is where he would go (Zeus happened to be the first guy that came into my head for some reason. Odd?). We stayed there for about an hour just talking (and laughing at the group of cackling middle aged white women that came in). We decided to hit one last bar and got to talk a little longer with our new friend. After another hour or so we finally decided it was about time to head home. We backtracked, got onto the subway and started the long journey home. After getting some advice about what route to take we parted ways with Mike (he was heading to a friend's house to watch a sports game). One stop later the train stopped moving and everyone got off. We were all really confused because we were still about seven stops away from home. We waited at the platform for a little bit until a worker signaled to us that there would be no more trains. We were stranded in a random city far away from our homes. Worried about what we would do, we headed inside the station and started talking about whether or not we should get a hotel room. Luckily a taxi driver came up to us and started speaking Korean and we heard the word, "Pyeongtaek". We said that was where we wanted to go and he took us to a young Korean girl and they started talking. Apparently she wanted to go to Pyeongtaek also so we were going to share a taxi to make the ride back cheaper. Unfortunately there was an older lady there who also needed to go to Pyeongtaek. That made the group six and the taxi could only hold five. According to what Meg could slightly understand, the old lady said she didn't want to ride with foreigners and just wanted to ride with the young girl. After about ten minutes of them arguing in Korean the young girl left and the taxi driver confirmed we wanted to go to Pyeongtaek. We said yes and ended up riding with the racist older lady. The ride was fairly long and there was more than one occasion where I thought we were going to die. Obviously we made it home safely though. When we got out the taxi driver charged us the whole fare for some reason. We protested a little but not speaking the language and being dead tired made us just concede and we ended up paying for the grouchy old lady's taxi ride. We paid, got out and they drove off. We were a little angry that we had to deal with that but there really isn't much we could do about it. After a very long day we said goodbye to Meg, grabbed a taxi of our own and headed home.

Needless to say, it was a very eventful day. We walked around Korea for about fourteen hours. Even though we were all tired (and Audrey unfortunately hurt her knee), I think we all had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to going on more trips with this little group we created.

I'll try to post more later today but I hope you enjoyed this very long post.

Awesome Weekend

Josh:

Onward we go! Prepare yourself for a long post.

On Friday (4/16/10) we headed to Suwon to get the card process started for Audrey and on the way (when asking if we were on the right train) we randomly met a Korean lady who spoke perfect English. She apparently lived in America for several years and was married to a guy from the military. It seems they had just moved to Pyeongtaek also so we talked with her for most of the ride over to Suwon. She was super nice and even offered to be Costco buddies with us (score!). She said that we should call her if we ever need any help for whatever reason. It seems everyone here is so friendly and willing to help. I love it.

We had made plans to meet up with other teachers in Pyeongtaek at a wine bar right across from Pyeongtaek station. Since we got out of school a little earlier than the time scheduled we headed over there to grab some food (very good pasta with pieces of toast as a side [interesting]). When the time was right we headed over there and saw Mike sitting with everyone else there. We met some really cool people such as another just married couple (super nice), a cool guy from South Africa and another nice girl who has been here for four years (I think). Shortly after we started talking Zack showed up with two others. One was another English teacher and the other was her co-teacher. Both turned out to be really fun and it ended up that we really connected with the English teacher (Her name is Meg. Saturday we would find that we really enjoy her company and now Audrey and I hang out with her several times a week usually along with Zack and Mike. It's good to have another girl in the group, especially one that Audrey seems to connect so well with). After having some beer and wine we decided to head out and hit a Karaoke room (Nore Bang in Korean)

We had a lot of fun singing Karaoke. I sang some Tenacious D and Lonely Island while Audrey sang some Barbie girl. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and we even saw the masters of karaoke give it a go a couple of times (Karen and Charles - the couple).
Left is me (obviously). To my upper left is Zack, my immediate left is Mike, to the right of Zack is Charles followed by Karen (the couple) and to Audrey's right is Meg. It was a pretty cool group I must say.
(Note: You can find some of these pictures of Facebook or the photo site I created. As I said, when I get the internet at the house I will be able to upload a lot more images.)

All in all, a very good night. We decided to invite the others that we met to go to Yeouido Flower Festival but Meg was the only one who could go (not a problem though considering how much fun we had with her and the guys).

Saturday (4/17/10):
We had been planning on going to the flower festival for some time so I was pretty excited to see the cherry blossoms and everything in full bloom. After a few weeks of city life one does tend to miss nature. We were going to meet up with a couple of girls from the Teach ESL Korea dinner so we got up early and met up with Zack, Mike and Meg in front of Pyeongtaek station. Audrey decided to be cute and made PB&J sandwiches for everyone (they were all pretty jazzed about that). We purchased our tickets to Seoul and headed over. The train was pretty crowded (as we expected due to several warnings of crowded streets and subways from my co-teachers) but it wasn't Street Fair in San Francisco bad so I was okay with it (thank you San Francisco for that training). We chatted in the snack car for most of the ride (Note: There are arcade machines and Nore bangs in the snack car! How cool is that?) and within an hour we reached Seoul. After a little bit of figuring out which direction we should go (thank you to Mike's iPod) we got on the train and headed to a college where we were supposed to meet the other two girls. When we got there we were greeted with some trees in full blossom. I couldn't help but snap a few pictures.














After wandering around campus for a little bit we learned that the two other girls we were meeting were unable to join us due to different circumstances. We decided to continue our exploration of the campus and wandered around a little longer. The campus was pretty big and even had giant elephants and a statue of Buddha (I think) in front of the main building. As we wound our way around the back there were some stairs leading into a mountain type trail. We figured it wouldn't hurt to explore a little longer so we walked up and went along a little trail lined with trees. This led to a nice walking path that we followed all the way until another intersection where we could go towards a mountain type place or continue the walking path. We chose to go towards the mountain path and walked up and saw a sign saying "Seoul Tower 1.5 Kilometers". We thought, "Oh that's not too far. Let's go check it out." Turns out that the 1.5 kilometers (roughly a mile or so) was on a 45 degree slope uphill. Audrey, needless to say, was not quite happy with all the stairs and climbing. I guess that Koreans like to go hiking a lot but despite this training we saw quite a few of them on the side paths resting. After powering our way up the hill we reached a flat place (finally) with a little work out area (who knows why) and another sign saying "Seoul Tower - 1.1 Kilometers". Just for reference, we had seen signs along the path saying "Seoul Tower - .5 Kilometers" after we had been hiking for some time. For some reason they failed to mention that extra 1.1 kilometers we would have to hike after we finished the 1.5 kilometers. So our accidental hike continued uphill (we took some pictures every now and then. Here is just a sample:
A few of the many stairs we had to climb <--












<-- I don't know why the stairs did that. A cool wall we found with some nice trees and flowers ------->



Audrey climbing a tree and looking all awesome ------->

I forgot to mention that one part of the hill was so steep they put a type of carpet down so your shoes can grip it easier when you are climbing. As we continued our climb we managed to get to a restaurant and snack shop. We dashed into the snack shop, grabbed some drinks and then decided to eat at the restaurant. We were all pretty hungry (Audrey and I only had half of a PB&J sandwich) and the place turned out to be pretty good. I ordered two plates of delicious pot stickers (I was really hungry) and when everyone seemed to be fat and happy we left to continue to Seoul Tower. After we had lunch we unfortunately had to part ways with Zack because he had a wedding to go to. We said our farewells and continued in different directions (credit to him for making it all the way up to the top because he had a broken foot and was wearing a cast). We also saw buses driving up the road and Audrey exclaimed, "We could have taken a bus!?" Clearly we are superior to them because we climbed our way to the top. Mike also had fun being a "nice foreigner" by offering to take a picture of every group that had a camera and discovering one of his new favorite foods: fish ice cream. (Audrey and Meg enjoyed a more traditional snack)














We were greeted by a huge circle being blocked off because it seems they were doing a martial arts demonstration (we didn't see it but we saw some people warming up). We wandered up to the side and saw the place where people put "love locks" on the railing. They put their name and place a lock on the rail as a symbol of their eternal love (crowd goes "aww" here).














After enjoying the locks we wandered down and found the entrance to Seoul Tower. The tickets were super cheap and we got in line to ride the elevator. As we rode to the top our ears (at least mine did) started to get very uncomfortable because of the change in pressure. After a few seconds we reached the top and got a wonderful view of the city of Seoul. The windows had sites all over the world and how far away it was. We took pictures of our favorites and got to enjoy the giant sprawling city that is Seoul. It was lots of fun and I'm glad we managed to survive the hike.














After we finished sight seeing we headed back down (I also got a little Gundam from a quarter machine). On the way out we ran into mascots and we couldn't help but take pictures. I took
a picture of the girls and I wanted to get one of the guys. Right before we went up Mike said, "I'm going to grab his cohones (or some term like that, I don't remember)" and I said, "What?" The ending picture made it quite clear what he meant. As I said before: Representing America, baby!

<-- Aren't they cute?











So are we, right? Right? ---->

The trek back was significantly easier considering 99% of it was downhill. On the way back we decided to start playing a new game based off of a game/story that Mike told us about. In Korea it seems to be very fashionable (for some reason) for couples to match clothing. Not only will they match clothing but you will also find matching lingerie (rrrrrwaarrr). On our way down we found about five different couples with matching clothes (or more appropriately matching clothes but with different color shirts) so Mike came up with a very appropriate name for the game: Player 1 and Player 2. When one sees a couple wearing matching clothing (or the same clothing but slightly different colors) one calls out Player 1, Player 2 and gets to punch a nearby person (similar to slug bug). You would be surprised how many times we saw this just coming down the hill (we see it a lot in the city too). I thought the game was hilarious and super appropriately titled. Another game he wants to play is called "Street Meat" where you have to stop at every street vendor and buy something (no matter how weird it is or how full you are). We decided to not play this game (yet). Here is an example of Player 1/Player 2:




I had Audrey pose so they wouldn't think I was taking a picture of them. You might have to click on it to get a better view. Isn't it fantastic? Almost beautiful in a way.






So after we managed to hike down and backtrack we found our way back to the subway. After a few minutes of confusion deciding what route to take we finally hopped onto the subway and headed towards the place we initially left to go to.

Eyes getting tired yet? I'll post this part of the trip and continue on another post for the second half. Hope you are enjoying yourself. Get some coffee (or if you're cool, an energy drink).

Side note: I finally got paid (4/27/10)! Time for a celebration!

Also, sorry about the wonky format. I'll try to fix it when I get time. Just follow the arrows to see what text belongs to what picture. It looked a lot better in the box where I was posting, trust me.

I have my Alien Registration Card!

Josh:

Finally! The magical card is now in my possession and now we will be able to get all the modern day conveniences such as the internet, cell phone and the crazy thing called money. Upon returning from Suwon I immediately went to the bank, created an account and came back to my school. If I am lucky I will get paid today, if not, tomorrow. Either way it will be nice to have some cash. Of course when I went to create an account none of the tellers spoke English. Imagine the joys of trying to create a bank account without speaking the language nor having any kind of translator or phrase book. It's sort of frustrating but also fun in a really strange way. Trying to communicate with someone solely by gesturing or using really small English words is an adventure. How do you gesture bank account? Only I know. Only I.

A few things I forgot to add about the past couple of days:
We found a really awesome PC room where they give you free soda and they frequently have a puppy that they let people play with. Needless to say Audrey and I solely go to that place when we need the internet.
We also found a Citibank near our house and we learned we can pull out money from our American account there with no fee (except for my bank's fee of course). One might call it a "pretty sweet deal", right? However, when we first tried to use it we accidentally tried to pull out $700 (Oops). The machine was kind of confusing in our defense (but only kind of so it's not much of a defense).

On Wednesday (4/14/10 I believe) it was an easy day because all of my students went on a field trip; all my classes were canceled but I still had to show up to the office (which was fine because the school has internet). One of the other English co-teachers asked me if I could teach two of her classes for her so I said, "Sure!" I was able to teach 3rd graders for the first time and it was pretty fun. The classes are literally twice the size of my classes so the students were a little bit harder to control but it still went smoothly because most of them seemed to like me. The first class I stumbled a little because I didn't really properly prepare a lesson plan because I figured it would mostly be a Q&A session (turns out it wasn't). After ad-libbing the first class I knew what I needed to do for the second and I think that they all had fun. It turns out that my 1rst graders are willing to say more because they are used to me making every student speak while the 3rd graders were shy and didn't want to speak individually (I told my 1rst graders that and they were quite happy with themselves). After teaching both classes the other teacher came up to me and said that they like me better than her and that they wanted to take more classes with me. It was very flattering and I'm glad that both the co-teacher and students had fun.

Another thing I learned today was that my school is doing something brand new this year. They are going to send 30 kids somewhere (for free I believe) based on their mid term test scores and my recommendation. According to Ms. Kim they are going to select 20 1rst graders and 10 2nd and 3rd graders and send them somewhere (most likely Philippines) based on grades and an interview with me. It's a bit of pressure on me because I would love to send all my kids on an adventure but I have to choose just twenty. If they actually do go through with this idea it would be a wonderful opportunity for the students to be able to leave the country for free just because they did well in school. Imagine if a high school in America did something like that. It's kind of crazy but I'm really excited for my students to be able to take a mini vacation.

On Thursday (4/15/10) we met up with Zack and Mike again and had Pizza Hut (yes indeed) with them. Pizza Hut is right across from Pyeongtaek station and only about ten minutes walking distance from our house. Something very interesting about the pizza places here is that they all seem to be sit down restaurants. I'm talking the full shebang with a waitress taking our orders, her bringing us drinks and everyone getting their food at the same time. I know you technically can "sit down" in a Pizza Hut in America but it is nothing like what it is in Korea. They even have a salad bar if you want! We must have stayed in that booth for 2-4 hours just talking. We all had a fantastic conversation about anything and everything. It's really exciting that Audrey and I are making some good friends over in Korea within the first few weeks. It makes it a little easier to not have to worry too much about rebuilding a social circle.

With some luck my social circle will be coming to me (excellent). By the way, everyone we know and love should come teach English in Korea. If you talk to me (especially after I get a few drinks in me) I will chat your ear off for about an hour and try to convince you to come. Yes, it really is that good of deal.

Since I am sort of on the subject of coming to Korea I want to share my schedule right now for everyone to see. According to the GEPIK contract (GEPIK is the government organization for which we work - basically the public school system in Gyeonggi-do) I am only allowed to work 22-24 hours of teaching in one week. The rest of that time is office hours. Now hopefully I won't jinx myself by talking about how great my schedule is (because I want it to stay this way so knock wood) but my schedule is amazing. I only teach my eight classes of first graders twice a week. Each class lasts about 50 minutes so I teach slightly less than 16 hours a week with my students. There is a little more added because I have two hours of meeting with English co-teachers and also one hour of teaching English to other teachers in the school. My total week consists of (roughly) 19 hours of teaching while the rest is just me sitting in my office planning lesson plans, blogging or surfing the web. My hours are from 9AM until 5PM with an hour lunch at 12PM-1PM. Think about an American school and their teaching hours. Usually teachers only get one period to "prep" and then they also have a half hour to an hour lunch. They also go from about 6AM (sometimes) to 3PM and sometimes go further in either direction. So that is roughly seven hours of teaching a day which totals to 35 hours a week. Compared to my low 19 that is a lot, right? Of course, Audrey (and some other teachers) teach a few more hours than I do (but not terribly so). I happen to have gotten incredibly lucky and I am super thankful that I was placed into such a position. The reason why I post that online is because I want those who read this blog to look at that and maybe consider teaching English in Korea. It's fun and all you technically have to teach is something you have been practicing your entire life. All you need is a four year college degree. If you have any questions about the process or what to start getting ready if you actually are interested, shoot me a message and I will happily fill you in.

My next two days will be very long considering we did a lot Friday through Sunday so I will post those on a new day.

More!

Josh:

Continue!

After our little Osan adventure we decided it would be best to continue cleaning the still messy house. I decided I would try out the trash bag system so I went out to find where to buy them. I don't remember how I ended up at this street vendor but it seems it was fate. We have found one of the greatest street vendors in the world. Imagine an entire egg (fully cooked) inside a perfectly cooked cornbread muffin. Not only is it an awesome combination by itself but the guy manages to put salt inside the egg at the right place so when you take a bite of the egg you get the perfect amount of salt and then you get the cornbread taste. He gives you three big muffins for only two dollars. Where else in the world would you ever get something this awesome for only two dollars? No where, that's where! Be sure to visit Korea if you want a small taste of heaven.

Aside from the delicious egg muffin things I also brought home some giant trash bags so we can finally clean up the house. In Korea they have a system where you buy trash bags from local stores (one for regular waste and one for food), you organize your trash and then you throw it away at specified locations. You are also required to recycle aluminum, plastic, etc. A lot of work to throw away trash isn't it? Life would be so much easier if they just had dumpsters or trash cans like America and people can just throw things in and let it be. So after I went through the entire house I managed to fill two giant trash bags and one small one for food. Going off of very confusing directions from the land lady I carried the giant load down the road that she pointed to. I eventually found a street corner that had other trash bags on it so I put them down and headed home. Once again I had this feeling that somehow I did it wrong so I made sure I wasn't followed or spotted and rushed home. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I'm always worried about Koreans yelling at me because I don't know their trash system. If they would fix it so it would be easier maybe I wouldn't have to worry so much about this whole "Where to throw away your garbage" thing. You hear that, Korea? Cater to me!

After doing a deep cleaning of the house we finally managed to make the house start to look like a place where someone would want to live. We assembled the desk and started to set everything up. Our house has finally started to come together (sort of).

The following Monday it was another school day. I really do enjoy teaching. Maybe one post I'll go into details about what/how I teach, but not this time. Audrey got to go to the medical clinic today because she started feeling better. I headed over to Suwon to the department of immigration in an attempt to get my registration card (I got my medical results back - healthy!). I'll start with Audrey really quick. Ms. Kim was nice enough to take Audrey over to the same hospital and help her through like she helped me. The funny thing was the doctors gave her more exams that I had to go through. They checked her teeth (she claims she got a splinter in her tongue because of their tongue depressor) and checked other things that I didn't have to worry about. For some reason they only check half of the patients fully because there was another teacher who had as many tests as Audrey while there was another that had the few that I had. The problem came about when Audrey had to go upstairs to get her blood drawn. I knew that she wasn't looking forward to it so I tried to calm her down saying that I didn't even feel it so it'll be okay. I warned Ms. Kim that she has low iron so she has had trouble getting blood drawn in the past. I don't think she understood fully until they finally took Audrey's blood. Apparently she said she felt every second of it (and it lasted a million years to her) and afterwords when she was leaving she started to get dizzy and had to sit down. Ms. Kim was really worried but after a few moments she got to the car and they went back to my school. Audrey might be able to fill in more details than I can as she was the person who was there.

As for Suwon, I did my last class and walked as fast as possible to the train station (the place closes at 6PM and it was already 2PM). I managed to hop onto a train, grabbed a taxi and made it there by about 3:20PM. Unfortunately that was where the "easy" ended. Since it was just me I had no idea where to go or what to do. I waited in front of an information desk for about five minutes while the guy talked on the phone. Luckily another white guy with his co-teacher came and walked past him so I sneakily followed them. They went into the wrong room and I asked an attendant and she pointed me in the right direction. I went into a small room and started filling out the form. With the help of another attendant I managed to fill out most of it (I was missing some information because I didn't know I needed it but luckily I was able to retrieve it off of a computer nearby). At one point I gave up and asked the other white guy and his co-teacher what I needed to do and how to get a number. She was nice enough to help me fill out the form, show me how to buy a stamp (proof of payment) and grabbed me a number. I talked with him a little and thanked both of them for their help. When my number was finally called I got to the front and with a little confusion I learned that I had to wait 15 days until I would get my card. Keep in mind this card allows me to get a bank account, internet and phones (later I would learn I also wouldn't be able to get paid without a bank account). I headed home with the grim news that we would have to survive another 15 days without any modern conveniences or extra money.

On my way back I figured Audrey would have some trouble with the blood drawing so I went by that street vendor I mentioned earlier and got her some egg muffins. She came home about 10 minutes after I got back and was quite happy to have some tasty food.

Not much happened for the rest of the day as we spent time relaxing and organizing our thoughts.

On Tuesday I got to meet with the principle and it was a very good meeting. He basically requested that I teach practical English and that his students were good at writing but not speaking; this happened to be exactly what I have been telling every other teacher here and what I based my lesson plans on. It was nice to know that I was teaching the right thing. I also saw another few kids get hit today but, as I mentioned before, it was perfectly fine. The teacher just seemed to be going through the motions of it and didn't really seem like he wanted to actually do it. The intensity was nothing compared to before so I didn't even do a double take when I saw this and just kept going with my day. The kids even came up to the teacher after and seemed to be friendly. I have seen this happen multiple times where a student gets hit lightly, shrugs it off and continues talking with the teacher (it seems they knew they did something wrong).

While I am on the thought of physical punishment I want to talk about something rather interesting here. In Korea it is okay for teachers to touch their students in familiar ways (unlike in the States where it is forbidden to even stop another kid from punching another kid by holding his arms). I believe this allows teachers to not only be more effective (let's say what I mentioned last sentence happened in Korea) but also to be closer to their students. Many teachers will playfully punch or shove their students (lightly of course) if they say something snarky (much like one would to his or her friends). I have only seen the female teachers do this but it kind of makes me happy that everyone is able to function not just as teacher and student but also as a friend on a small level. Something utterly hilarious to me is I have even seen some female teachers smack some male students on the butt playfully. I almost burst out laughing when I first saw this because it was utterly ridiculous to see. It seems that most things here are so much more innocent that they ever could be in the United States. If a teacher smacks a kid on the butt it usually means something sexual and that is obviously a big no-no. But here it is just another gesture that one does like holding someone's hand or tapping them on the shoulder to get out of their way. It is innocent and playful. I also find older women doing things like that super funny because you just don't normally see that very often (if you are reading this David I am thinking of that one story you told me with the winking). Of course I am not endorsing this kind of behavior going to the States but I am happy that I am in a place where I can stop a kid from hurting another kid (if the above situation ever arises).

A few other awesome things happened today: I got three packages full of goodies, I learned that we only owe Verizon $20 instead of $230 and we are now done with them and I learned that my students love seeing old pictures of me. I showed them a picture of me with long hair from college and they didn't believe it was me. Some students asked why I cut it, others said I look better with short hair. My favorite quote is one kid called me a "pashionista"-aka-"fashionista" (there is no 'f' sound in Korean) which meant I was very fashionable. I guess this is a real term in Korea because Audrey's kids called her this way before one of mine mentioned it to me. Another funny moment today was when I had all my kids say the daily tongue twister out loud. When I got to one student he said, "Start?" so I said, "Start." and he excitedly said, "Okay!" It was really funny. I hope that my future students in America can put a smile on my face as easily as these kids can.

The second post of the day is done. Soon enough, soon enough.

Must...catch...up...

Josh:

Only one more day until I get my Alien Registration Card! That means we will be humans again! Example:



Not exactly but close enough. One can only imagine finally getting paid, having phones and (of course) easy access to the internet.

Now to catch up (hopefully):

One thing I am very appreciative of having is the fact that all of our co-teachers are super concerned for our happiness. As soon as we got to this country all of them (Mr. Chu, Ms. Kim, Mr. Hong) said if we ever needed anything that we should call them. They also check up on us every few days asking if everything is okay; if something does go wrong, they try their best to fix it. We are very lucky to have co-teachers who want to make sure we are comfortable. I know this can make or break some teachers because half of the complaints about teaching English in Korea come from problems with co-teachers (being lazy, not caring, being rude, etc). One might say we are both quite lucky.

On Thursday (4/9/10) we decided to meet up with Zack (guy we met on the street randomly) to get some grub. We eventually decided to try to get some Indian food again and we headed to the place where we got glared at the first time (makes sense right?). This time there was a young Asian girl behind the counter who welcomed us in and took us to a seat. She spoke English pretty well and she turned out to be a really nice and cutesy person. We came back later and talked to her for a little while and ended up connecting fairly well with her. The food was fantastic and the naan was ridiculously huge so we had a very hearty meal. The owner of the store came in and it turns out that he had met Zack on the street and had invited him to his restaurant. We got to meet him and he was a very nice guy and he even gave us a free dessert. After dinner, Audrey still had some food left over so we decided it would be a good idea to take some home for later. We asked the owner if he had some kind of container we could use and he told the girl to put it in a little bag so we could take it. It turns out that she took him literally and put it in a tiny plastic bag. She came downstairs with it and handed us this bag with a tiny bit of food (it kind of looked like a plastic bag of vomit). The look on his face was priceless. We thought it was quite amusing so we said thank you and headed out. We have successfully found some amazing Indian food in Korea and it is only about five minutes from our house. Score one for Josh.

Side note: Not to sound like I'm bragging or anything but something that I absolutely love is how often I hear how much my co-teachers love me. Some of the things I have heard that just make me smile are "The students are excited to learn English because of how you teach," 0r "I like you. You like the food here so that makes me happy." As I said, I'm not trying to boast but it's so nice to hear my co-teachers say things like that. I also frequently get asked how long I am going to stay in Korea. I tell them I'm not sure because it's still to early to tell and they always say I should stay a couple of extra years. This could just be part of them trying to make me feel comfortable or it could be them authentically happy with me as a teacher. Either way, it still makes me feel good to hear it every now and then. Considering this is going to be my career in the future, it's good to hear that I am pretty good at it.

When we got out of school on Friday (4/10/10) we decided it would be a good idea to start cleaning the house. My co-teachers had told our landlady about the mold problem and they worked it out with her that she was going to replace the wallpaper on Saturday. They requested that I take down the old and moldy wall paper so it's easier for her to put the new parts up; so Audrey and I started cleaning. We decided we would try to get the house in a somewhat acceptable condition before she came. It didn't really pan out that well but at least we made some progress (keyword: some).

On Saturday (4/11/10) our landlady showed up with her husband to replace our old moldy wallpaper. We had already scraped off most of it (Not fun, by the way. Apparently it's super hard to get off wallpaper with a box cutter). We weren't sure whether she was going to replace the entire house or just those spots so we didn't strip down all the wallpaper (good move). It turns out it would only be those few spots. It's kind of funny because there are squares in our house of really white wallpaper while the rest of it is slightly discolored (it's not too bad of an eyesore but you can see a distinct color difference). We decided to give her and her husband a pear because of all the work they did (it took several hours) and she ushered us down into her house and gave us a huge container of kimchee (I'm talking more than we will ever eat). We thanked her profusely and headed back up. By this time we were starving so we scarfed down some ramen and rice. About an hour after we ate we heard an unexpected knock.

We opened it and it turned out to be Mr. Chu (AKA Ryan, Audrey's co-teacher). He was going to take us hiking but the weather wasn't good enough so he was nice enough to take us to Osan air base instead. One might also be able to call this place "America Town". As we walked through there were Americans everywhere. It's very funny to see the distinct difference in the dress and mannerisms of the English teachers and the military people. The English teachers tend to wear more formal things (keywords: tend to) while the others have shirts and skirts that don't leave much to the imagination and pants where the belt is worn around the knees.

Side note: With that in mind, on the drive over we heard a commercial that had two girls talking about another girl saying, "What is she wearing? I don't want her to represent America. I'm going to tell my chief," and then had a man saying, "Please dress appropriately outside." I thought that was utterly fantastic. There are commercials like that all the time apparently (with crappy voice acting and all). One that I loved had a guy saying, "Be careful! We should cross at a crosswalk and be sure to look both ways!" with another guy saying, "No way! I'm just going to cross here!" and then the sound of a car crashing and the last voice saying, "Don't be like him. There is a lot of traffic in Korea. Make sure to look both ways and to always use a crosswalk." I can't wait to get a radio so I can listen to these fantastic commercials.

To return to what I was getting at about the base area, it was awesome other than the people. There were shops all around (fast food, restaurants, street vendors selling ripped DVDs, suit shops, etc). I can definitely get used to coming back to this place. While we were walking we decided to grab dinner (Ryan was nice enough to offer to buy). We looked around for a little bit and my eye spotted something familiar. They were alluring colors with familiar shapes forming words that made me want to cry. After seeing this I shouted excitedly, "Mexican food!" Audrey said, "Where?!" I pointed out the glorious sign and we went inside. It was beautiful. We sat down, they gave us chips and we ordered burritos. It was really fun because Ryan hadn't really been to Mexican food that much in his life so we had to help him decided on what to get. When the food finally arrived we had to explain how to eat it. It was very refreshing because we saw a person get to experience the joy of Mexican food right in front of us. We showed his him to wrap the tortilla and what to mix with what. My favorite quote from him was, "This is very agreeable to me." It's so much fun to share food with someone who hasn't had it before. Audrey got a chicken burrito (very good) while I got a burrito with beef. Unfortunately the waitress didn't know the difference between ground beef and strips so when I asked if they had ground beef she said yes just hearing the word beef. So when my burrito came it was filled almost solely with beef. The strips would have been okay if they put more than just a sliver of beans and rice but the burrito almost consisted entirely of beef. Normally this would be good for anybody else because they are being generous with the meat (usually the part they are stingy with) but for a guy who really only likes ground beef, beans and rice it was a huge disappointment. I ate a decent amount (a little heartbroken), got a doggy bag for Audrey's burrito and Ryan took us home.

When we got home we cleaned a little bit more. I forgot to mention that I got my picture taken for my ID card. I ordered the "ID package" from a local photo place. It was only $13 and I got about 13 pictures of different sizes. I mention this because they not only included the photos in the package but gave me a plastic guitar key chain with my photo in the center. I thought this was hilarious so I gave it to Audrey and she put it on her keys. The awesome part is that I am not smiling because this is an ID picture so Audrey has a plastic guitar key chain with a picture of me looking serious with flowers around my head. I love Korea. (Audrey got the same package so I have a little key chain of her also)

Just to be "merciful" I will post this one and continue writing on another. It also works out because it doesn't seem as intimidating when you scan through deciding if you are going to read it or not. Who wants to read really long posts? Hmmmmm. Tricksy.

A post for comments!

Josh:

Hello everyone! For some reason it wasn't allowing me to comment on my own blog so I changed the settings so now I am allowed to (finally). I figured since my comments would be fairly long by themselves it would be easier for me just to make a quick blog post instead.

Everyone - Thank you guys for the wonderful comments, messages and love. I truly appreciate it.

Katie - Ah, that makes sense, says I. That seems a little pointless to wait four months and the other part is really lame. Another side note for you, there was a time here when Audrey was "Katie dancing" and we thought of you. Also, I'm listening to "Stand Out" right now. I love that movie.

Wu - No picture. As for the trash, yeah they brought everything over. I guess when Ms. Kim said bring it all over they took her literally and even brought the trash. We got your duck eggs man!

Overall note on second to last post: I have received multiple messages requesting I don't do anything next time I see physical punishment of that caliber. Of course I understand I am a guest in the country and I don't assume a moral superiority to them at all. I try to stay as worthy of staying in the country as much as possible. I have seen other kids get hit (of course) and it was nothing like this last one; I assure you, it was full of rage and malice. These other ones where the kids got hit I simply shrugged and moved on because it was done as punishment, not as a vent session. So, no, I would not directly do anything (and of course hurt his "face") but I would ask if that man is how they want their school the be represented to the outside (not only the country but the world too). I don't know if anybody remembers but there was a big news story about how a teacher in Korea gave bruises on a girl's arm. I assure you that these kids had more than bruises (most likely cuts) and it wasn't on their arm but on their backs and shoulders. Since this hasn't happened again I haven't been placed in a situation where my ideas of human safety and my respect of a culture haven't been in conflict and I sincerely hope I won't ever have to walk that fine line. I truly appreciate the concern because these messages are coming from a place of genuine interest for me because you don't want me to get kicked out of the country because I opened my mouth about something that I'm not used to. Thank you to everyone who has sent me messages or gave me advice. I do request that you please trust my judgement as an intelligent and articulate adult that what I saw was indeed out of line (even to Koreans) and if/when I speak about this issue it will be done with utmost sensitivity and care.

The last post: Dude, of course I wouldn't do it. The idea of it just tickles me pink. It seems like VCDs are the way to go then. They were less than four dollars! That's awesome. As for video games, since we haven't gotten paid yet I have tried to avoid video game stores like the plague because I know I will find some crazy game that is only available in Korea and I will want it. I don't have any game systems here except for my PSP which the folks back home were nice enough to ship to me. I'll shoot you an email and picture if I find any "rare" games that you might like. Also, I looked up red panda on Google and they awesome!

Thanks again, everybody! We love to receive comments so please keep them coming. Feel free to ask for clarifications (I tend to write a lot so I don't know if that would be necessary) or just to say "Hi" because it helps let us know there at people back at home watching for us.

No more day by day?

Josh:

I think today I will start with two of my favorite quotes I have heard so far:

Imagine a very high status London accent saying this (referring to how Korean's eat):
"They eat like peasants!"
I still laugh to myself because this is fantastic on so many levels.

"Korea - the country that logic forgot."
Perfect for many reasons because it seems like Korea is, in many ways a "weird stereotype" (to quote yet another teacher here) of America. Things here are close to how they are in America but off in some way. It's not like these things are particularly hard to fix. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can come up and say, "Uh hey, it works better this way." and everything would work more efficiently. But no, that would be too simple, wouldn't it?

I think now is the right time for me to stop listing day by day. I might list a day when a lot happened but I'll just start listing general events or thoughts that I experience.

I feel kind of bad for having this thought (key words: kind of), but I can't help but giggle like a little school girl. I'm really tempted to teach the kids certain phrases mean different things. I would teach them something that sounds like it might be correct but in America it means something entirely inappropriate (I have an example but I think it is a little too inappropriate to type out). Later on in life they might use that phrase I taught them and have an American do a double take when they say it. By the time they actually got to use it I would be long gone and all I would do is laugh sadistically to myself at the thought of that actually happening. It's not like they would track me down and say, "You told me this phrase meant this! I accidentally offended my boss because of you!" It would be like an investment where I would never see the return but I could imagine the riches I would have.

On Wed. 4/8/10 we went to Lotte Mart for the first time. Lotte Mart is one of the big grocery/home/electronic stores in Korea. It has pretty much everything you could ever need. It's like five different American stores all smashed up into one. The shopping experience was cool because we explored the floors and found some amazing things. The second (ground) floor has a food court and an area for clothes and other similar things. The third floor is where the party begins. This is the "home improvement" section. When you first enter you are greeted with a nice DVD section mixed with an animal store! It's like they thought, "Yeah, small animals and DVDs are basically the same category, right?" We found a little "VCD" (Video-CD) section that had Porco Rosso, Spirited Away, Howl's, Grave of the Fireflies and other Ghibli films. We got really excited because we left all our videos in the States (they were sent to us shortly after though, thanks a bunch again). We weren't sure what VCD was so we bought Howl's to test out what it was (We guessed correctly. It turns out to be a somewhat low quality video that is only playable on the computer. There is no menu so there are only Korean subtitles with Japanese dialogue but we mainly wanted the music so it works out well). There was a nice DVD section with another smaller section for music but unquestionably the best part was the animal section. They had all sorts of critters such as birds, bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, lizards, turtles and (drum roll please) chipmunks and hedgehogs! Audrey fell in love with the chipmunks because they kept being ridiculously cute. I'm sure she would have swooned over the hedgehogs but they were asleep in a hedgehog pile (still very cute though). I will post some videos of them playing later. We spent a good 10-20 minutes just watching the animals. I love being in a place that doesn't have pointless "exotic" animal laws. After pulling ourselves away from cute we wandered around and found this floor also had microwaves, fridges, washers, computers, HD TVs, bedding, dishes, bathroom objects, trash cans and the like, laundry things, wall paper, other electronics, bikes, guitars and pianos. It's like they couldn't decide what they wanted to sell and just threw a bunch of things onto one floor. The fourth floor (we would find out later) had a dog and cat pet store, cell phones, a spa/nail place, another PC vendor and a place with food. The higher floors are all for the parking garage. Finally, the first floor is a full grocery store with a small "dollar store" in the corner. I think we need stores like this in America. Why drive to five different stores when I can get everything I would ever need in life at one store?

I leave you with this:


Isn't it amazing how one little letter can change so much? I love Konglish.