The Day in Pictures

We ate dinner at a restaurant that serves Samgyeopsal. This is a popular Korean dish which consists of thin slices of pork belly meat (similar to uncured bacon). It is flavored with garlic, salt and sesame oil and cooked on a grill at your table. A slice of the cooked meat is placed inside a leaf of lettuce along with some gochujang (red pepper paste) and eaten by hand. Ours was also served with slices of raw garlic and a spring onion salad. Here is our table before we cooked the meat:

and more of our table...

The city at night......


We found these photo-op magazing cover boards and they told me to make my best "model face"...

Some cool people:

Me and a big rose

Me and Joanne...

We went to an authentic Korean Tea Room in Insadong (the cultural district) this afternoon. I had a cup of cold quince tea. A quince fruit is a sour, hard-fleshed Asian fruit resembling a small yellow apple. The tea is made by pouring boiling water over a syrup formed by cut up pieces of quince fruit and sugar. It comes warm and cold. Mine was cold and the taste was both tart and sweet. The cup of tea cost a little more than $6. Here is our table:

The inside of the tea room:

Isaac, trying to decide what to order...

He is Korean and but he has lived in the US, Thailand, and Australia

Sarah and Me at the tea room - Sarah is a Korean American and she is studying abroad in Seoul

Ryan and Sarah at the Tea Room....Ryan teaches English here

A random cow in the street...

The crowded streets of Insadong

Cool shot - behind me are the skyscrapers, in front of me are the mountains and a pretty temple.

Cool building!...

Strange vehicle which gets around by the driver pedaling...

The pretty city....

JoAnne and me in front of the pretty bridge...

Pretty waterfall downtown...

The girls under the bridge...

Me...

More pretty city...

Another cool building:

This I love! You can buy so many different kinds of foods from street vendors. Here is a woman selling roasted chestnuts. She stands there all day and shells them and you buy them warm with the shells already off! MMMMMmmmmmm!

Sarah and Me with a strangely cute, marshmallow thing....

Walkin' along....

Another cool building!...

Trying to decide what to do...Hmm....

ANOTHER cool building!...

Elevator Picture...

Dave eating a weird bean he bought from a street vendor:

Here they are up close. They taste....funny. The vendor said you should only eat about 10 at a time or they could be bad for you. Hmm...

Vendors making food. Here they skewer slices of raw potatoes and then fry them in hot oil. Like a home made potato chip!

The group posing for a picture.

Some live jazz in Myong-Dong...

More street vendors...

Some of the store fronts in the city are so unique. Like this one:

And this one...

A street in Myong-dong...

Ok so one of the MANY weird foods in Korea: Pasta Cones. No kidding, this restaurant serves various types of Italian, pasta concoctions in ice cream cones. Below is one of their signs:

It was a great day!

Born

True story to illustrate the frustrations of the language barrier:

Me: Ok class. Do you know what "born" means? As in "a baby is born in a hospital?"
Class: No....what is "born"?
Me: Well, you know what "birthday" means right?
Class: Yes!
Me: Well your birthday is when you were BORN. Understand?
Class: So, "birthday" and "born" are same?
Me: Well, no, not exactly, your birthday is the DAY when you were born. It's WHEN you were born.
Class: So born is year of birthday?
Me: What? No! Ok... being born is the first day you are alive
Class: What is "alive"?
Me: Um...the first day of your life. the day your life started.
Class: What is "life"?
Me: OK. The day your mother had you...She went to the hospital and she had you. When she had you, you were born.
Class: Had me?
Me: Ok, never mind.... How about this: I was BORN on September 4th! that is the day I was born. My birthday is the day I was born. Do you understand what born means?
Class: so born means birthday?
Me: No! Born is what happens ON your First birthday. "born" is when a baby comes.
Class: Comes from where?
Me: what?
Class: A baby comes from where?
Me: Ok, class is over.



Born (bôrn) - a past participle of bear, meaning "brought into life by birth"

Seoul Tower

I HAVE PLANS THIS WEEKEND!!!!!

I got an email today from one of my new friends from church, Jae (Korean-American) and he said that a few of them are hanging out this Saturday and they want me to come! They want to take me to Seoul Tower which is awesome! After that, he wasnt sure what we would do but probably eat out or something. One of the girls going is JoAnne and she is also Korean-American and is here for her second year teaching English. Both JoAnne and Jae are from church, are my age, live by themselves in apts, and teach English. People I have things in common with! Hurray!

I can't wait until Saturday!

Where I'm going this weekend!

Drinks

Here are some of the different drinks I've encountered here thus far...

I've already told you about Chilsung Cider which basically tastes pretty close to Sprite or 7up.

I've tried many of the iced teas they sell in convenient stores here and they taste nothing like in the US, mainly because they are usually unsweetened and are very bitter. I did find one that was sweetened this weekend but it had the strangest flavor. I can pin point exactly what it tasted like though: water flavored with shredded wheat.

They also have these rice milk drinks here that are sweetened - they are quite good. They kind of taste like the milk in your cereal after the cereal is gone.

Coke here tastes the same (yay!) which is a relief because in many countries Coke tastes different based on the tastes of the culture.

Coffee is extremely popular here! There are coffee houses everywhere. I saw many Starbucks in Seoul as well as many other non-US places. There is actually a French coffee house/bakery a few blocks away from my apt. And of course there is a Dunkin Donuts here as well. As far as drinking coffee at a party or church or work, instant coffee comes in these little, individually wrapped tube-like packages. And the cream and sugar is already added (powdered cream of course) - I tried it and its actually a good flavor if you like cream & sugar in your coffee, which I do. Also, those coffee/tea vending machines where you can get hot drinks are all over in malls, subways stations, big stores, etc.

One of my favorite drinks I've tried so far is pomegranate juice! It comes in a little glass bottle and its really good - tastes kind of like cranberry/apple juice. I did a little research and learned that pomegranate juice is especially popular in the Middle East. It has tremendous nutritional benefits as well: One 8.45 oz glass of pomegranate juice provides approximately 50% of an adult's recommended daily allowance of vitamins A, C, and E. Pomegranate juice also provides 100% of an adult's recommended daily allowance of folic acid and potassium. Also, some studies have indicated that pomegranate juice can clear your arteries, and reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol (taken from Wikipedia - where else??).

I have not yet tried any alcoholic drinks here. It's not as big a deal here that I'm 21 since the legal drinking age is 20. But, interestingly enough, they sell beers in every convenience store right next to coke, iced tea, and milk. There are several US brands of beer in the convenience store in my building including including Heineken. There are also little bottles of vodka and other drinks. Soju (made of rice) is the big drink here and I have not tried it yet but I hear its effects are downright evil so I'm not real anxious to go there just yet. It will have to be the right time with the right group of people.

Korean Beers which you can buy at any convenient store

Korean Cuties :)

Here are some of the kids I teach:

These are the boys who make class...interesting :)

And here they are saying hi to YOU - America....

Sunday Dinner

Tonight I ate out with my new friends from church. We had a dumpling soup, called Manduguk Jeongsik.

First, they brough burners out to our tables and put shallow pots of boiling water on them. Then they came over and dropped raw vegetables (cabbage, carrots, green onions, shallots etc) and cold, thick noodles into the water. They also put a few clams in for flavor. Next came some very thin, raw beef which cooked incredibly fast in the water. Finally into the pot went the mandu which are dumplings filled with ground meat, tofu, veggies, and spices. This was all served with kimchi of course.

Now time for my confession. I tried the kimchi at this restaurant and....well....I liked it. A lot. Apparently there are over 250 different kinds of kimchi. So I guess I dont hate all kimchi. Also I found another food that I like: Kkakdugi! This common side dish, in addition to having two k's at the beginning of its name (!), consists of cubed white radishes in kimchi brine. And mmmmm is it good.

The soup was eaten absolutely boiling hot by the way. Apparently one does not wait for soup to cool in Korea.

Korea-isms

Here are a few observations about life here....

Gadgets

Good grief, everyone, men and women, old and young, has these incredible, high-tech, all-in-one, mp3 playing, tv watching, movie downloading, internet surfing, instant messaging, picture taking phones that seem to twist every which way and do just about anything. Most have tiny antennas that go up too and you can use them in the subway. They are also, of course, impossibly tiny. In any subway car, virtually everyone is watching something, texting or listening to music on their phone. I thought this was the case in the US but home is nothing compared to this. The other hugely popular thing here is the Nintendo DS. This little hand-held video game system is so popular - and its not just teenage guys who have them, its children and adults, both men and women.

Subway Stations
You can buy virtually anything in a subway station here - shoes, jeans, socks, belts, knock-off designer handbags, pajamas and yes...underwear. You can even buy pirated DVD's for 4/$10. You can actually get really good deals, it seems. I bought a nice sweater coat thing today from a subway station vendor for about $10.

Sizes

So...Korean women seem to all be about the same size...SMALL. Other than pants, most tops I've seen here don't have sizes on them at all, its just a one-size-fits-all deal and the funny thing is that actually works here because most of the women are just...small! Lucky for me, I'm currently small too.

Motorcycles

Motorcycles (the cool, small ones not the huge Harley things) are really popular here. They are also allowed free-roam of virtually everywhere they could possible go, including sidewalks which they seem to prefer. It's actually quite dangerous to be a pedestrian in Korea. Cars are always cutting corners, running red lights, etc. You dont want to be the first or last person to cross at a crosswalk.
Staring

It seems like this goes through the head of every one I walk by, sit near, or am anywhere in sight of.....

"Huh. She's not Korean. I think I'll stare at her for a long time. I wonder what she's doing here. She looks really out of place. Hmm. I think I'll stare some more. Hmmm.....Oh she sees me staring. Oh well, I don't care. Everyone in this [insert location of your choice in Korea] looks the same except for her. So I'll keep staring."

I'm exaggerating a bit, of course, but its true, people stare at me all the time because I stick out like a sore thumb. I try to just smile kindly at people and sometimes they smile back. One old man on the subway mistook my smile as an invitation to strike up a conversation. So he started talking to me in Korean. I told him I did not speak Korean but this did not seem to matter to him. He talked to me the whole way to my stop and I just smiled since I didn't understand a word.

I think I actually fit in from the back. But from the front, no way. So I tried wearing sunglasses but somehow they still knew I wasn't Korean. So I tried staring back. That did not work either. The worst is when people stare and point and whisper to each other in Korean.

The population is so much more homogeneous here than in the states. Well, actually Grove City was ridiculously homogeneous but I fit in there. Now I know how the 5 non-Caucasian students at my school felt!
Same-sex hand-holding
This is by far my favorite Korea-ism so far. Here, it is completely normal for friends to hold hands or be otherwise physically affectionate to one another (walking arm-in-arm, arm around the shoulder, etc). This is true of both girls and guys. I have seen more same-sex hand holding and then opposite sex hand-holding. Here, there is a wonderful, paranoia-free emphasis on friendship love and the expression thereof. You'll see guys with their arms around each other, girls holding hands as they walk together, and even old men and women expressing public displays of affection with friends.

This is actually quite refreshing! It makes the US look incredibly homophobic. Honestly if you saw two women happily holding hands in the mall, what would you think? But that's not the case here. It's completely acceptable and it is not construed as anything more than a healthy expression of brotherly love!

Random pictures of Cheolsan I took this week:

weekday in Cheolsan

Weekend in Cheolsan :)

Can you believe I live here?

:)

Sunday

Sorry I have not written in a bit...I have been kind of depressed lately, to be honest. Friday night I went out in Cheolsan and there was so much going on in the city, so many people out about, all kinds of vendors selling things, and concerts going on. There were so many people around and yet as I walked through the crowds, I was so aware of my loneliness. Not having buddies to do things with, not being able to read the signs or talk to people, and not knowing my way around. All of a sudden I felt so isolated and depressed. I didn't want to be negative on here so I just didn't blog :) I started thinking, "what have I done? how did I get here? was this a huge mistake?"

To make matters worse, I have been getting sick to my stomach every day. It must be the food and the fact that my body is just not used to it.

Well I went to church today in Seoul and it was wonderful and refreshing. It is a very young church, and small, about 50 people. Its an English speaking church with a lot of young people. There were only 5 or so people that were not Korean but everyone spoke English and some of the Korean young people were raised in America and are just here in Korea teaching like me. I made some really nice friends and have plans to hang out with them this weekend!

Also, the pastor went to seminary at Gordon Conwell and I found out we have a mutual acquaintance. He also knew of both Grove City and Mt. Laurel!

Anyway, it was a really encouraging day and I feel so much better. I know there are going to be difficult times and times of doubt while I am here but God is watching over me and He always provides.

Friday night, Fireworks, & my First week in Korea

It's officially the weekend in Cheolsan! The city is loud and lively and there is a huge concert going on at the outdoor venue across the street. It is an English-speaking band and they are playing all kinds of songs, both oldies and contemporary. They were playing The Rolling Stones earlier and Janice Joplin...:) I'm the perfect distance away. Far enough that its not deafening but close enough that it's like having my own personal concert. I opened my window because it's gorgeous out and it's actually kind of nice to unwind to some good music as a warm breeze floats through my apartment. I really like being in the city and walking everywhere and having everything so close. I even like all the lights and the noise. Maybe its because I like being in the middle of the action and being surrounded by people.

Work today was good, it is getting better and better as I grow more accustomed to the procedures and schedules. I am starting to learn the kids' names too which helps a lot. I can hardly believe I arrived in Korea one week ago today! It sure sped by...

My big victory of the day was coming up with an effective strategy for keeping order in my classes. The school already gives the students "sticker sheets" which are just sheets of paper with room for 50 stickers. Stickers are to be given for good behavior (no more than 3 per student per class). Once a students fills up a sticker sheet they get to trade it in for a prize. You can get a bigger prize if you wait and turn in two sticker sheets, and an even bigger prize with three sticker sheets.

Today I thought of a good way to use the sticker sheets since I have really been having trouble with classroom control, particularly with students talking in class (In Korean, no less! At this point, I would not even mind if they talked in class as long as it was in English!). Also I have trouble with the boys keeping all four chair legs on the ground. Seriously what is it about boys? Every time I turn around they are all rocking their chairs precariously on only two legs.

So what I decided to do was to write each students name on the side of the board at the beginning of each class. I then explained to the students that throughout class they would receive a tick mark next to their name each time they did something good like answer a question correctly, raise their hand and wait quietly to be called on, etc. I also told them that three tick marks would get them a sticker (3 marks = 1 sticker, 6 marks = 2 stickers, etc. etc.)

Then on the other side of the board I wrote penalties. Talking in Korean = minus two tick marks. Not sitting properly in one's chair also = minus two tick marks. I also told the students they would receive one warning from me before I took the tick marks away. Finally, I told them that 5 minutes before class was over I would distribute stickers based on what was on the board at that point for each student.

I decided on this method because, first of all, the students can see their name on the board and how many marks they have. This kept them motivated because they loved doing the math and competing with each other to have the most stickers at the end. Furthermore, it is flexible - students can lose ticks but earn them back and vice versa rather than just rewarding for good or just punishing for bad.

It was funny - not only did the students become conscientious about their own behavior, they started policing one another and informing me when someone else was out of line. I felt bad though at one point. One of the boys was really having a hard time breaking the habit of rocking on the two back legs of his chair. After he did it again after I warned him I took two points away and went back to teaching after gently reprimanding him. A moment later I noticed he was just staring at his book so I went over and knelt by his seat to see what the problem was. A few tears had spilled over onto his cheeks and you could tell he was terribly embarrassed! I felt so horrible but I knew I was right to give him consequences for not following the rules. So I patted him on the back and reassured him that if he tried, he could certainly earn those points back. His chair did not budge the rest of class. I was so proud of him and I told him so at the end of class!

With the 2 oldest classes I tried a variation since I don't really have trouble with their behavior. With the older kids, they pretty much just stare at me and don't like to talk at all. So to get them to talk I divided the class into two teams and put half of their names on one side of the board and the other half on the other side. Each time someone got an answer correct or said something well in English, that person's team got a mark. At the end of the class, each person on the winning team got 3 stickers and each person on the losing team got 1 sticker (well actually with the older kids they just want me to initial their sheets instead of putting a sticker on them because 6th graders are, of course, WAY to cool for stickers). They LOVED competing against each other and they became enthusiastic about talking in English and answering my questions.

Well.....it might not work forever but it works for now and that's all that matters for the time being.

So one of my students was kind enough to say to me today, "Teacha! You have long nose! Nose very big!". As he said this he motioned with his hands, indicating a huge, invisible nose in the air. He was laughing and seemed to think this was absolutely hilarious. I did not find it so humorous. Soon after, another student, Duck-Myu (yes his name is, in fact, Duck), said to me, "Teacha! You face is very small!" I was not sure how to take that statement at first but compared to the previously expressed opinion of my face it sure seemed like it could be taken a compliment so I thanked him.

Ahhh I am absolutely head-over-heels in love with my Mon/Wed/Fri 3:30 class. They are level one, and they are 1st and 2nd graders. This morning as I was walking up the stairs to work when one of the boys in that class saw me and shouted, "HI TEACHA!!" then he ran off shouting, "TEACHA HERE!!!" Seconds later the entire class was swarming around me saying, "teacha! teacha!". I felt like a celebrity :) That class is also very good when it comes to learning and we really had a good time today. Plus the kids are just unbearably adorable. Sometimes a student will say "Teacha! Teacha!" with all the urgency of a life-threatening emergency. But when I say, "yes?" their face breaks out into a huge grin and they simply say, "Hi!" They certainly love attention.

You know, teaching these kids is really stretching me. Communicating is something I typically feel very comfortable with and some might say that the English language and I have a sort of inextricable bond (hehe). However, I am not used to talking to children for 7 hours of the day. That in and of itself is a difficult adjustment, even when the kids speak English. But I have gone from college social theory classes where authors compete to see who can come up the longest words....to a job as a social worker where I was constantly writing reports, evaluations and assessments....to teaching in Korea where I find myself talking in the shortest, simplest possible phrases tho children who barely understand English. It's quite an adjustment but I love a good challenge!

I am going to bring my camera to school next week and take pictures of some of the kids I teach.
Ok so right after I typed that last sentence I was startled by what sounded like gunshots but turned out to be a HUGE fireworks display from the concert! I am so high up and so close that the fireworks were right next to my building and I was eye level with them! I have never been so close to fireworks in my life! It was so fun to see and it made my night :)

Of English Class and Omurice

It is a glorious day here in Gwangmyeong City. The sky is clear and sunny and it is 70 degrees outside. I learned yesterday that I actually live in Cheolsan which is a neighborhood within Gwangmyeong. I also learned that my city can be spelled either Gwangmyeong or Kwangmyong. G's and K's are interchangable in Korean so the pronunciation is the same. I have seen it both ways here.

Speaking of pronunciation, here are some difficulties my students have when it comes to English:

-they put a shwa (the "uh" sound) at the end of words ending in "s" - so they say "yes-uh, close-uh, class-uh, etc."

-they cannot make the "th" sound - it comes out as "d" so "this" becomes "dis"

-they pronounce "f" as "p" or something like that. Yesterday we were playing hangman at the end of class and they were shouting "eppuh! eppuh!" and I had no clue what they were talking about until one of the students came up and drew and "F" for me on the board.

-they pronounce v's as b's, since there is no v sound in Korean (i.e. "biolin")

-Zs are pronounced j, since there is no z sound in Korean. (you should have heard my one class when we learned the occupation "zoo keeper" it came out "jew keeper." So I asked them to listen and I said "zzzzzuh....zzzzuh.... zoo keeper." But they just though this was hilarious and starting laughing at me. So I started laughing too :)

Its funny...if I say things in English in a Korean accent, students understand me better. For example, yesterday I asked a question about the internet and I got blank stares (wow. there is nothing like saying something and having it followed by complete silence as an entire class full of middle schoolers stares at you like you are a complete idiot). So I tried saying it with a Korean accent (eentuhnet) and they got it! At least something works :)

About the English teachers are my school: First of all, there are 5 foreign teachers. Me, Amy, James, Glen, and Dan. There is also a girl named Hannah but even though she came from America she is Korean, speaks Korean, and is married to a Korean. So she doesnt quite fit in with the other foreigners. You already know about Amy and James. Glen seems nice, he looks like he is in his late 20's, early 30's and he is from Canada. I got to sit in on some of his classes and he is a very good teacher. Dan is very nice as well, and he is British. We crossed paths walking around Cheolsan yesterday and he asked if I would "fancy some lunch". I did, in fact, fancy some lunch, so we tried this place that served omurice which is a Korean attempt at an omelette (Omu + Rice). It is basically a tightly packed blob of rice that is coated and cooked in egg and served with different sauces, meats, etc. The one I tried was delicious! It was served in some kind of a tangy brown sauce. Dan seems nice; he is my age, in his second year of teaching here and he has a Korean girlfriend.

On a seperate note...as much as I am enjoying it here, apparently my tummy is not. I have become violently ill several times throughout the morning. There is definitely nothing like throwing up 8,000 miles from home with no one to hold your hair back. Sometimes you just need your mom... :(

I would not eat it in a box I would not eat it with a fox...

I tried Kimchi today....

It had a horribe texture, was way to spicy, and left a fishy aftertaste in my mouth.

I did NOT like it.

Kimchi is an essential part of any Korean meal. The spice most closely associated with modern kimchi is red pepper powder but it is also seasoned with garlic and seafood. Korea boasts more than two hundred types of kimchi, all rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins created by the lactic acid fermentation of cabbage, radish, and other vegetables and seafood. Nutrients or not, I am thus far NOT a fan of the kimchi. There is still time though...Hey at least I tried it! I have made a vow with myself that I will try everything at least once. Yes, even the dried squid:

By the way, squid is low in Saturated Fat and Sodium. It is also a good source of Niacin and Zinc, and a very good source of Protein, Riboflavin, Vitamin B12, Phosphorus and Copper. And come on it LOOKS delicious. Especially all dried up and squished in a bag like that. You can't tell me that does not appeal to you. I, for one, can not wait to get my hands on some!

Gimbap

I have found the first Korean food that I like!!! Gimbap! Gimbap is similar to Japanese Futomaki style sushi rolls. Unlike Japanese sushi, Korean Gimbap generally does not contain raw fish and is prepared with sauteed beef, sausage, ham, fish cake or crab. Unlike Japanese sushi, Gimbap is not served with wasabi soy sauce or sushi ginger.

This was my dinner tonight:

You can buy it at any convenience store for only 1,000 won ($1)

LooIt looks just like sushi doesnt it? This roll has egg, radish, cucumber, tuna, and some kind of spicy sauce on it. One roll is plenty for me for dinner and I just eat each piece with my hands.

Bongeunsa Temple

My favorite part of the day was visiting The Bongeunsa Temple. It stands across from the Seoul Convention Center and is surrounded by high rise buildings, busy streets, and subway stations. It was strange to me that this peaceful, serene place of worship and prayer was right in the middle of a modern, busy metropolitan area. Once you entered the temple, however, you forgot you were in Seoul. Somehow, despite its location, it provides a quiet, zen-like atmosphere away from horn-blaring and neon lights.

Some background: The Bongeunsa Temple is a major center for the Seon (Zen) sect of Buddhism, which focuses on meditation. The temple was built in 794! It was rebuilt in 1498. I am not used to seeing things that are SO OLD! It has been rebuilt and restored many times over the centuries. During the Korean War, most of Bongeun-sa's buildings were badly damaged. Today, with its grand historical background and its unlikely location in urban Seoul, Bongeunsa is a holy place for worship and practice for about 200,000 lay Buddhists.

Here is a map of the entire temple (remember all of this is in the middle of the city!):

I know you cant read that but its in Korean anyway - it just gives you an idea of how many buildings there are. As I walked around snapping pictures like a good little American tourist, people of all ages and walks of life came to worship and pray. They lit candles, chanted along with the monk, meditated, and bowed to Buddha. The chanting of the monk was mesmerizing. You can hear it at the video I posted down below.

Enjoy....it is absolutely GORGEOUS:

People praying in one of the smaller temples

You can see someone bowing down in this small temple. There are candles, flowers, & incense.

Little Buddhas....they go on and on - and more candles, flowers, and incense

One of the only non-Buddhists at the temple. People stared at her because she stood out like a sore thumb

I liked how this picture shows the contrast between an ancient place of worship nestled in the middle of the ultra-modern city

Another temple!

Giant Buddha. Bongeunsa Temple is home to this 70 foot stone statue of Buddha - it is the largest statue of Buddha in Korea. It took 10 years to build! Its quite breathtaking. The brown stone slab behind me is where people come to kneel before it.

Enjoy this short video clip - sorry I'm not too great with the camera (there is sound):

Amy & James

Here are my first friends here, Amy and James, they are WONDERFUL and they have been showing me around and introducing me to the area. They are engaged and getting married in July. James is from New Zealand and has a terrific accent (he has friends who worked on Lord of the Rings and he went to the set and saw Orlando Bloom!). Amy is from Miami and has a master's in Marine Biology. They are such nice people.

COEX Mall

I am so thankful for this blog! I am just bursting with Korea-love but it is currently 4:44am on the East Coast so no one is awake...thankfully I can write my heart out on here and describe my amazing day! Since today was very overcast and the view from Seoul Tower would not have been very good, Amy, James, and I headed off to COEX Mall in Seoul. This is a HUGE, VAST, underground mall - the largest shopping center in Seoul. It is definitely the largest mall I have ever been to. (PS Anyone who was subjected to Abeka Grammar & Composition can relate to this: I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out how NOT to end the last sentence of this paragraph with a preposition. I had to let it go because sometimes not ending sentences with a preposition, however grammatically correct, just sounds odd [ex. It is definitely the largest mall to which I have ever been...)


It is not just a typical, big mall though. COEX is extremely high-tech. For example there are flat screens everywhere with all kinds of advertisements. There are games projected down from the ceiling that you play by stepping on the ground.




There is a HUGE bookstore that actually had a fairly large selection of English books. I had to take this picture of Korean children sitting in the bookstore reading because it encouraged me after my depressing commentary earlier on online gaming (see previous post). Hurray for reading!



There were so many different places to eat ranging from McDonalds to Japanese to Korean to Italian to Chinese to Starbucks to American. We actually ate at an Italian restaurant. It was a somewhat bizarre experience....being in Korea - having GOOD (it was very good) Italian food cooked by and served by Koreans who barely spoke English. Little Side Note: You never tip in Korea. And there is no sales tax. Its kind of nice actually - you always pay exactly the price listed, no doing math in your head. For me, anytime I don't have to do math is a happy time.

So the mall was a blast, it was so much fun to walk through stores and see so many things I have never seen before. I realized that in America I get so used to the same stores and chains that I end up seeing the same brands and items over and over again. While this is also true in Korea, as a foreigner, EVERYTHING is new and it is so much fun to take it all in. I wanted to buy everything, particularly things for my neices and nephews but as this was my first time and everything was so new, I decided not to buy anything on this trip but to wait until I can be a more scrupulous consumer. I have a hunch that in the year to come a great deal of my hard-earned won will be spent at the vast, amazing, shoppers-dream-come-drue COEX Mall.

A Major Social Problem?

Now that my little apartment has tv, internet, and phone service set up, I no longer am forced to frequent "PC Bangs" - the internet "cafe's" that are literally on every corner. I cannot tell you what a relief this is. Even though I have decribed these rooms as "internet cafes", the word cafe is far too generous. But let's back up for a minute....

First of all, online gaming is HUGE here in Korea - not only with adolescents and teachers but with adults too, even middle aged business men. According to a BBC News report a couple years ago, more than 15 million people, or 30% of the population, were registered for online gaming in South Korea. MSNBC says the numbers are up to 17 million now. The country also hosts the annual World Cyber Games which further underlines the point that here, online gaming really is a sport. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm

An MNBC article put it this way "Online gaming is to South Korea what reality TV is to the United States." Also the gaming here is not like gaming in the US. The article goes on to say that "consoles [Xbox, Playstation, etc.], so popular in the United States and Japan, have barely made the radar in South Korea. There, online gaming is it." The games most often played here are online, interactive, role-playing games. Such games have no end and allow multiple players to come together via the Internet. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17175353/

An estimated 70% of the population has access to the internet, and there are reportedly more than 28,000 PC Bangs in South Korea - all of which are open 24 hours a day.


If you Google (I love how Google is now a verb) the whole South Korea online gaming idea, you'll find there have been several computer-game related deaths over the past several years. For example, in 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man died of exhaustion in a PC Bang after playing computer games non-stop for 49 hours. And back in 2002 a Korean man collapsed and died in a PC Bang after playing computer games for 86 hours non-stop without food or sleep.

From personal experience, PC Bangs are awful. I hear there are some really nice ones in some places but the two I went to were characterized by the sounds of electronic swords and guns which combined with the stench of cigarette smoke to fill a dimly-lit, windowless room.

In summary
1. Online gaming is a major social phenomenon (problem?) here in South Korea
2. I am glad to have my own internet access in my clean, fresh-smelling, smoke-free, sun-light filled apartment.

Tuesday

I am so very tired. Still a bit jet lagged...

So today I only had four classes to teach but they were longer. All 4 of my classes were great though. In on of them there were 4 girls and 1 boy and the girls were whispering in Korean and I reprimanded them and reminded them we dont speak Korean in class. The one girl raised her hand, "teacher?? question!" "Yes?" "You eyelash... they real?" "Yes..." There was a collective awe-filled gasp and they began whispering excitedly again. "No Korean!" I scolded. The girl said shyly, "they are very pretty". I thanked her and turned to the board to laughed to myself. Aahhh that made my day.

I have been drinking something called Chilsung Cider which tastes kind of like Sprite and looks like this:

Here, the word "cider" means a sweetened, carbonated drink.

By the way did you hear the news?....South Korea's President Roh met with North Korea's Kim Jong-Il today in North Korea. This is only the second Summit between them since The Korean War. President Roh and his wife actually walked across the DMZ. Talk about brave. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7023079.stm

Ok well I'm sorry I am too tired tired to write more now, but here are some pictures. I have more, I'll post them tomorrow. Oh and tomorrow I am going to Seoul to do some sightseeing because it's a holiday!

Japan from the plane

Japan again

Views from my apartment:

Other things that happened today (for teaching, see farther down)

1. First of all I learned that Korean age is different from Western. Koreans ALL count themselves one year older on January 1, not their actual birthdays. When a baby is born in Korea, it is automatically one year old. The next January 1, the baby is two years old. Thus, Koreans are usually between one and two years younger than the age they call themselves.

2. I got my money changed and discovered that my city is a happenin' place! The main drag boasts....drumroll please.......a Dunkin Donuts, Baskin' Robbins, Burger King, McDonals, and Pizza Hut! They are all more expensive than in the states but I wont eat them every day....just when I need a good, Western "fix" :)

3. McDonalds is not exactly the same here. A co-worker went to McD's today for lunch and asked if I wanted anything and since I hadnt figured out what to eat for lunch (well dinner actually) I said yes, a chicken sandwich and a coke. Well a chicken sandwhich turned out to be very spicy chicken in a very very thick pita. It was yummy but not what I had expected. The fries and coke were just like back home though :)

4. My school set up my cable tv today. I get about 6 channels that show US shows/movies with korean subtitles so I can watch those. Yay! My isolation is dwindling...now if I could just get phone and internet....

5. Wednesday is a Korean national holiday - no class!

6. Best part of the day "One of my 5 year old students as she was running out the door said, "Bye teacha! You class is very funny!" :)

My first day as "Teacha"

Wow 8 forty-minute classes in one day is ALOT. Especially since I only get one 1/2 hour break and the rest of the day its back to back classroom time with no time to catch my breath. So basically I go to school one hour before my first class and spend that hour writing out all the lesson plans for the day. It gets confusing because each class is actually 80 minutes, divided evenly between a korean teacher and a foreign teacher. Sometimes I teach the first 40 minutes of a class and sometimes the second 40 min, which is how I end up with all those back to back classes. I teach all different age groups and levels. I'm sorry if you dont want a detailed review of all my classes but some people do so here it is:

Class 1 - VERY beginner level, VERY rambunctious, 10 students, 1st and 2nd grade, did NOT want to stay in their seats. At this point I had no clue where to start. We were supposed to review parts of the body but they had so much energy so I did what any common sense native English speaker would do: I taught them "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and it worked, they loved it and 40 minutes was gone in a flash. I didnt even realize it was time to stop until 3 girls started shouting at me and pointing at the clock, "Teacha! Teacha! Look! You finish!"

Class 2 & 3 - Grades 2-3 Still fairly beginner, but able to talk in complete sentences ("I have two cars at my house"). Learned about animals, numbers, and basic prepositions (there are two lions in the cage, etc.) They all hate talking in complete sentences so I had to make them but they know how. Some real trouble makers in these classes and the kids wont sit still or listen. I never raised my voice but by the end of Class 3 it was clear I would not have a voice by the end of the day.

Class 4 - A bit higher level, grades 3-4, able to sit still in class, they were better behaved so I could do more in class. For example we learned about school subjects and they had to say what subjects they had that day so I wrote all the subjects on the board and had them take turns coming up to the board and circling which subjects they had that day. I remember how much I wanted to write on the board when I was at school and it was the same with these kids, they could not wait to come up. At the end of that class I played hangman on the board with the new vocab and they loved that.

Class 5 - Grades 4-5, much higher level, they are much better at reading and writing English. wrote a paragraph about myself on the board and they read it outloud and laughed. I got laughed at a lot by the kids but it was fun. We listened to a story on tape and then they answered questions about it, we did vocab from the story and I had them write a 3-4 sentence summary about it. Only 3 kids in that class, compared to 9 or 10 in the first 4 classes.

Class 6 - Grade 3-4 again, but more advanced level than Class 4. They are at the end of their book so this month we review the entire book and prepare for a test to see if they can move up to the next class level. We reviewed tenses (What did you you do yesterday? Is August before or after September) - this class was wonderful and well-behaved. 9 kids. The girls especially are so eager to please and eager to help me. They argued over who would erase the board for me when class was over.

Class 7 - Grade 5-6, VERY advanced, stuff I was doing in Mrs. Fletchers Grammer class at Bellmawr. Only 2 kids in this class and one was absent so it was just me and one boy (11). His English was excellent and his grammer/sentence structure/vocab knowledge was amazing. I was impressed. We played a game called Yut-Nori (a traditional Korean game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutnori) but we played a version where instead of tossing sticks he had to answer questions on cards. It was fun and good review.

Class 8 - Grade 5-6 not advanced as Class 7. There were 5 kids in this class, this class is focused on reading comprehension and vocab so we read a story about how coffee was discovered and and take a quiz (kind of like on standardized tests when you have to read a passage and then answer questions aboutit). They got a kick out of reading the paragraph about myself I wrote on the board.

In summary....

The kids call me "Teacha!" Its kindof endearing, I could definitely get used to it...

When I took roll and called their names they laughed so hard each time I called one out. I really truly tried to read them exactly as they looked. Jyung Soon, Min Jyin, Jae Tyang.... But apparently I botched them all and that made them giggle so much.

It was so cute how they would repeat things I said that sounded funny to then. Like in one class when a boy answered correctly I said "Way to go!" and he repeated it and they all started laughing. Then in another class when I didnt know what to do I said "Oh my, oh my!" and they all repeated that and thought it was the funniest thing.

My first day of teaching was EXHAUSTING and the first few classes especially were rough. If anyone has tips on classroom management for young children PLEASE pass them on. My school recommends that I have misbehaving children stand in the corner or hold their books above their heads for 5-10 minutes but I would love other suggestions as those sound so....Little House on the Prairie. I guess if it comes down to it I will have to use them though....

Overall, with my first day behind me I feel a lot better. Its a LOT of work and its very exhausting. My voice is hoarse and my feet hurt from standing all day but I really enjoy the teaching and the kids are so much fun overall. Its so neat to be the teacher! Its fun to reward them when they are good and fun to find techniques that "work". Hopefully tomorrow will be even better!