Good Town, Good School, Good Golly

First of all, it always takes so long in between blogs, that’s due to a cross between my being lazy and not thinking anything is blog-worthy… ok, most of it is the lazy thing. Anyway, I’ve only written one sentence so far and already I’m off topic. Last week I started teaching at my new school. I had enough of city life and needed to move out of Busan and into a slower, quieter town, still not too far from the old stompin’ grounds. I also needed to move to a job where I could see myself in a more long-term and fulfilling position. I started teaching at a foreign language high school, and in doing so, I started feeling like a real teacher; making curriculum, grading papers and being independent in the classroom.

GIMFL (Gimhae Foreign Language High School) is a boarding school where the students live there and have scheduled events straight from 6:15am for morning exercises all the way through 11:00 pm, many choosing to study after that time in their rooms. Most of their scheduled study times are independent study. It’s INTENSE! Actually one student said to me, “It’s strange, this is Gimhae Foreign Language High School, but most of the classes are self  study.” So, all of the students in the school have to major in either Chinese, Japanese or English in the school, and no matter what their major is, they have to take another language along with Korean, of course. All students have to study English even if they’re not English majors. This means by the time they finish the school, they will be pretty much fluent in 3 languages. It’s amazing to see students come in, address an English teacher for a question or something, then go over to the Chinese teacher’s desk chat with one of the Chinese teachers, or see the Japanese teacher in the hall and start chatting with him. It blows my mind sometimes. I passed one student in the hallway and he said hi to me and I asked how he was and he said he was good but a little nervous. I asked why, and he said he had to give a speech. I asked him, “In what language?” It stopped me in my tracks that I even had to ask that because, even though this one happened to be in Korean, he could possibly need to give a speech in one of 3 languages. It really makes me feel like a lazy piece of crap, especially since after I get done writing this, I’m probably pretty close to going to bed.

The kids here are study animals, one of my initial introduction questions was what their dreams are. Forget firefighters, astronauts, or professional baseball players, they want to be diplomats and international lawyers. For example, after my writing class today, two girls came up to me and asked if they could write extra essays for practice and e mail them to me and if I would check them. No, not for extra credit, just for practice! Of course, the semester just started, so that could quite possibly fizzle out soon, but just the initiative. It’s not even like they’re a bunch of nerdy sticks in the mud either, they have good senses of humor and for the short time they have for relaxing times after meals, many of them will be playing soccer in the soccer fields and things like that. I even had my first student sleeping in my class today, awww how sweet. Funny enough, he spent a couple of years in England and he has a cross between a British and Korean accent. It’s pretty cool actually.

It’s so nice to be able to just speak to students in the classroom and have them speak their minds to me or write it in their journals. It’s a HUGE change from teaching phonics and “How’s-the-weather-today?” I can joke with the students using language and they can joke with me. The job, however, is 1,000x harder and more involved, but it’s 1,000x more fulfilling as well, so I’d say it’s an even trade… so far. Let’s see how I feel 2 months down the road when my work has been packed to the gills and I’ve lost even more hair trying to get everything done. I’m really proud of these guys and I think it’s going to be a good year.

Man’s Best… Lunch

So, this past weekend Rich, a friend of mine since high school, came to Korea; not to visit me, but he actually had business here. What a strange turn of events to have a long time friend, who I haven’t seen in years, be assiged to a business trip in Korea. Anyway, we hung out last weekend and it was really good to see him. He was working in Seoul, so it was strange that I couldn’t show him around because as far as Seoul goes, I am about as familiar with that city as I am with… well, I can’t really think of anything funny to put there that’s not completely over the line, but the point is I’m not familiar with Seoul at all. The only thing I could do to find certain places was to ask people where they were (so, knowing the language was helpful).

One of the places that I found for us to go was the good ol’ dog soup restaurant (보신탕). I figured he would be up for eating dog, so I threw the idea at him and he was all for it. The issue now was finding a place for that. If it was Busan there would be no problem. I know of plenty of places near my home where we could get this, but being in Seoul, I had no idea. So, I looked it up on the internet and found a place near where we were. We jumped in the subway toward the part of the city where this restaurant was and got out, then we decided to take a taxi to the place since we had no idea where it actually was. When we got in, I asked the cabby to take us to the dog restaurant near where we were. He thought I made a mistake with the word and asked me if I had meant a chicken soup place, but I assured him I meant what I meant. Yup, us 2 whiteys wasted us some dog soup. He had no idea where one of those restaurants was, but fortunately I had my smart phone on me and looked at the internet site I found the restaurant on and showed him the address. He punched it in the navigation and off we went. He was asking me on the way why we wanted to go there, and if I liked dog soup and questions like that. (I had eaten this twice before in my stay here.) We finally found the place down an alley off the main street.

We walked in the place and the woman heard the door open and gave their standard welcoming greeting as people walk in and saw that it was two foreigners walking in and was stopped in her tracks. She must have been thinking we didn’t know what we were doing and we just chose a place to eat. I asked if they were open and she said yes, and then I ordered two. haha I could tell she was still a little confused, albeit very friendly, so I asked her if this was the first time she’d had foreigners come in, and she said yeah.

Our food came, and we took pictures and things, and then asked her to come and take our picture with Rich’s iPhone. At first, she was confused of how to take pictures with it and afraid to try (maybe she was still thrown off that some whiteys were voluntarily coming into her dog restaurant), but then she took it and started taking pictures. She was pressing the picture many time and was giggling and said, “Oh, this is fun.” She was a sweet old gal. Watching old people use technology is something that’s always funny. I just hope I don’t get that way, although I most certainly will with how quickly technology is progressing… Actually, I guess I already am that way with some things, (“How do you play this X-Box thing? {old man voice}”

Anyway, what was I talking about before I was so rudely interrupted with my trailing thought?…. Oh, yeah, the dog soup arrived. So, we ate it, and it was pretty spicy (as are most things here). I’ve described dog meat as very similar to beef, but leaner and more tender. It was kind of a tender roast beef in a soup, and my friend said the same thing. I really enjoy it, and I think it’s a good source of protein. The Koreans say it’s good for stamina… I guess I could go run a marathon or something;)…

Anyway, I’m sure most people who are reading this are saying something like, “Ewww that is so weird. Why would you eat dog? Where do they get them, just pick up stray dogs from the street? That’s gross.” Well, they have dog farms, dummy. Same as they have pig, chicken, cow, lamb or any other kinds of farms people have for meat they eat. I wonder why people think “Ewww” when you mention a dog farm, but they’ll chomp down on a juicy steak or eat a chicken sandwich, or even wear their leather jackets or shoes. Yeah, there is the thing that in many places in the world, including Korea, they have dogs for pets. But, some people have chickens for pets (my mom for instance). Now, it should be said that most Koreans I’ve met don’t and have never eaten dog soup and share the same thought as many reading this. In fact, my one friend texted me when I told her where I was, “that’s why you are a barbarian.” haha It’s funny that people are THAT opinionated about the kind of meat they eat. However, I would understand my vegetarian friends having these thoughts a little more since they don’t eat any animal. However, to me, meat is meat and I like to try anything that people in all different parts of the world eat as food. I’d love to try kangaroo, alligator, snake meat or anything like that. I know this kind of thing isn’t for everyone, and I can understand how people think it’s weird to eat dog, but I would hope that they understand that I think it’s weird that they think it’s weird. My mind is, if it’s food, I’m down to try it.

P.S. It should bear mentioning that if anybody came here to visit, and they weren’t a fan of the idea of eating dog, I could take them to a place and not tell them what they are eating until after. I’m not saying I would do that… but I’m not saying I wouldn’t.

Plane trip from hell

I just went home for about a 2 week visit topped off with a few days in Vegas before coming back to Korea. I had a great time at home seeing friends and family, and of course, Vegas was fun as well. Beautiful weather, and plenty to see and do. The problems came on my last day at the airport trying to come back to Korea. When I re-signed a new contract with my school, them and I forgot to renew my visa at that time, so when I left Korea, customs took my alien registration card because it would have expired while I was in the US and it wouldn’t have been valid when I came back. They told me it shouldn’t be a problem because I would just have to come into Korea with a tourist visa, then my school would just have to apply for a new work visa. Ok, no problem.

Now comes the day I was supposed to leave Vegas to come back to Korea. As most people who know me know, I usually do things somewhat last minute whether I want to or not, however, I arrived at the airport at about 7:00 for a 9:00 flight, which I is plenty of time to not have to rush and just relax at my gate waiting for my plane… so I thought. Apparently Delta airlines had different plans. I did my electronic check-in at the airport and went to drop my bags off and the lady who was supposed to give me my boarding pass asked how long I will be staying there. Instinctively, I said I live there. She asked where my residency card is, and I told her what the customs agent told me when I left Korea that I would just come with a tourist visa. She then went and asked a few people about this situation, seemingly having no idea what to do, and came back and said that I need a return ticket back to the States for within 3 months from now. I informed her that I don’t have one because I’m not coming back, and she told me she can’t let me on the plane… What?!

I asked her what I could do, and what people do who take month long trips where they go through different countries and don’t necessarily have a return ticket yet. She didn’t know and just said that I needed a return ticket. She asked me if I had a copy or anything of my residency card and I said no, then I asked her if I could call someone and have them fax it to her, and she said that wouldn’t work because it’s expired… again, what?! We went around and around, my stress level getting higher and higher as time was getting closer to the deadline where I had to check in by. I was in Vegas (which I could think of worse places to be stuck, but would be expensive to stay there), I was supposed to be in Korea the next day, start working the following day, and above that, thanks to the debit card Pusan Bank gave me, I couldn’t use it in America. I might as well have been trying to get money out of the ATM with a playing card, thanks for that Pusan Bank.

She eventually told me that the only thing I could do would be to order a 1-way fully refundable plane ticket from Korea to the US and then cancel it when I get to Korea. Well, I asked her how much that would be and it was between $3,000-$4,000. And I gave her my card and of course, she said she couldn’t take that card. You would think that an airport of all places would honor cards from all over the world, whether they were endorsed by Visa or Mastercard or what have you… they didn’t. So, I was racking my brain trying to figure out how I was going to get on that plane. It was now approaching 7:45 am and I had to be fully checked in by 8:15. I asked if I could use her phone and she said no, so I use my cell phone which was internationally roaming and I finally called my mom and explained the situation quickly and asked her if she had a credit card with at least a $4,000 limit so I could buy a fully refundable ticket, she said she did… YAY!… but not with her, it was in her car which was about 10 minutes away… D’OH! We hang up, she goes to get it and time is approaching the deadline. Finally, I call my mom and she gives me her credit card number, MOM TO THE RESCUE! I write down all her information and quickly give it to the lady at the counter and ask her to book me a ticket, but she says, “I can’t book you a ticket here.”… AHHHH~!!! She gave me a card for Delta and I had to call and book a fully refundable ticket. I get off the phone and hand the lady the confirmation number of the flight and she processed it and checked me in at about 8:14. WHEW. It was straight out of a movie. I run to the gate and get on my plane with a sigh of relief and a few more hairs gone. It seems that whether I try to be on time for things, they never work out that way for me. Good thing I’m not easily stressed and used to being slow and/or late with things. Experience in those areas go a long way!

When I finally arrived in Korea, nobody so much as asked me one question about a return flight to America, my visa or anything. They simply stamped my passport and sent me through. Thanks again Delta. It was now about 11 pm local time and I was waiting for my luggage that would not turn up… Seriously? After all this, I can’t even get my luggage smoothly?… I go to the luggage claim and told them and my luggage arrived at my house 2 days later. And, I’m not making any accusations, but I had some CK One lotion in my bag when I left, and I don’t have it now… I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying.

One more part to this, was the calling Delta for a refund (I keep using their name as a warning to avoid them), and I called their 800 number and there was a problem, so I had to call their regular land line number and finally got through. I asked the lady to cancel said flight and waited a bit and she said, “Ok, it’s cancelled.” So, just to make sure, I said, “So, the full amount will be on the card?”… and she said… make sure you’re sitting down for this… she said, “Oh, you want a refund?”… WHAT?! No, I think Delta Airlines could use that 3 grand a little more than I (or my mother) could, so they can just keep it. OF COURSE I WANT A REFUND. (I didn’t say that, but I was sure thinking it.) After all that, I’m back at home, back at my school and back in the swing of things. I didn’t let that put a damper on my great visit home with family and friends, or Las Vegas’ beautiful, sunny, spring-like February weather.  I had a great visit with loved ones and am so grateful for people in my life. I have great friends and family, and I don’t take that for granted for sure. That was something though. Again, I’d like to thank Delta Airlines and Pusan Bank for working together in giving me this completely stressful, unnecessary adventure that if I never relive again, it’ll be too soon.

Santa Claus 2009

Merry Christmas! Today, I played Santa Claus for the fourth year in a row, although this was the first year at the elementary school. Two Santa Clauses payed our kindergarten students a visit today. Me and one of the sixth grade teachers. It was a lot of fun, this year maybe more than past years since these were not actually my students. The past years, I played Santa for our own students at our private English Kindergarten, so most of the kids knew who I was right away, and the kids who didn’t know were soon informed with the rumblings of, “Jesse Teacher!” throughout the room. Anyway, it was fun seeing the kids’ faces light up when we came into the room. We laughed with our pillow-filled bellies shaking like a bowl full of jelly and we went in front of the room… By the way, if you’re wondering they handled why there were 2 Santas in the room, they said there are many Santas actually to help each other. Different, but just as effective.

Anyway, when we went in front of the class, they opened up by singing some Christmas carols in Korean (of course). They sang, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, ‘Rudolph the Red-nose Reindeer’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ all accompanied with hand motions and such while we were in front improving dances to the songs. I always find it interesting, whether holiday songs or church songs, to hear familiar songs sung in a different language. It brings to reality that even though we have our cultural differences, we really not all that different after all.

Well, we went from the singing time, which was super cute to a talent show of sorts performed by some of the 6 year old students. First up, was a group of 4 students doing a cute little dance Korean kids do where while wiggling their knees back and forth, they give a clap then slowly move a hand over their head, kind of like they’re Fonzie going to comb his hair until he realizes it’s already perfect, then clap again and do that with the other hand and so on. That was awesome and I didn’t have to give a fake Santa Claus laugh because I was laughing for real, I just needed to tweak it a bit. Next was a couple boys who did some tumbling, which just consisted of them doing a cartwheel… Awesome! Then, the one boy landed on a little girl right in front of me and caused her to start crying a bit, I knelt down to see if she was ok, but I was big scary foreign Santa Clause, so needless to say that didn’t make matters any better. Then we had a question and answer time for Jolly Ol’ St. Nick. Most of the questions were fielded by my Korean Santa Claus partner. The questions included things like, “How old are you?” “Why do you have that big beard?” “How do you fly?” “How old is Rudolph?” “Where is Rudolph?” “Can I see Rudolph?” “How many Rudolphs are there?” Things like that. I’d say Rudolph was the star of the show actually… until…

Next, came the gift giving. The kindergarten teachers had the students’ mothers bring in presents for Santa to give them, so we reached into our magic bags, called the students up one by one and gave them their gift. They gave a bow, said a Korean thank you, then gave us a big hug. They were really sweet children. Then, we said our good-byes and the students saw us off. As we were walking out, one little girl ran up to me and told me, “Be careful for the swine flu.” Hahaha, that made me laugh, it was adorable. Another successful Christmas by Santa Claus. It was a fun time.

That was my last day of work before winter vacation starts. We left the room, and went out of sight, so Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

trip to philippines day 1

Over summer vacation, I took a few day trip to the Philippines with a Korean friend of mine. That’s something that is really cool about living here, you can take a couple-hour plane ride and be in a southeast asian country. If I wasn’t so darn lazy about writing these things, this blog might be a little better detailed, but I did write some things down and take pictures where we were, so I’ll use those to jog the ol’ memory.

We arrived at the Manila airport about 10:30 on Thursday night, and met together with our tour group and tour guide, both a Korean and a Philippino guide and a Philippino bus driver, and we proceeded to our hotel and finally arrived there around midnight. We stayed in a nice hotel, but just outside the hotel, you could really see some of the poverty as we were driving down the city roads. This was our first night in the Philippines, so we couldn’t just go to bed so we investigated about a casino in the area and called a cab to take us there super cheap. We got to the casino and I immediately noticed the lack of organization that there is in the Korean or American casinos. After walking around a bit and figuring out what the Philippine money calculated to in USD or even Korean won, I reluctantly sat down at a blackjack table which was to say the least a real cluster-flub of confusion. People were betting on whoever’s hand they wanted to and just threw money anywhere they wanted on the table. I guess it all seemed to work out alright, although I’d wondered what would happen if they disagreed with somebody’s decision on their play, but then again, that wasn’t my problem. I started playing and hit kind of a hot streak and played for about an hour or so, I was still trying to figure out exactly what the denominations meant, but I calculated it out and was up like 150 or 200 bucks, which was double what I bought in for. That was enough for me, so I went to look for my Korean buddy, Min. He was at the roulette table, we left and he was slightly up as well, and we headed back to the hotel since we had to get up before 7 to get breakfast and start our travels… A good first night I’d say.

We woke up earlier than we should have had to wake up on a vacation in the Philippines and got breakfast, then loaded onto the bus for our festivities. I didn’t realize before hand that we would spend a good solid chunk of our days in a bus, in which I found you’d have to not look at what was going on in front of the bus or you’d definitely have a heart attack. We pretty much played a 3 hour game of chicken with everyone else on the roads… good thing we were bigger than most of the vehicles on the road. During the 3 hour bus ride, I was “listening” to a Korean tour guide telling us about the areas that we would be visiting and a brief history of the Philippines. (That’s as best as I gathered what he was probably talking about since it was all in Korean, and he constantly talked without stopping and even if he was speaking in English I would have stopped listening. In fact, for all I know, he could have switched to English because I was just telling myself stories within my own mind. Not that he was a bad story-teller, I just don’t have the attention span I would need for something like that.) Anyway, moving on… The scenery outside the side windows was beautiful, driving on the open roads. The scenery in the Philippines is so divers, and yet so close together, we literally went from places that looked like slums, to tropical looking roads, to country looking fields and farmers that you’d see if you were to watch a movie where they would drive down one of those roads. But, the country areas were absolutely beautiful and really looked different from anyplace I’d ever been before. Many times, I’ve found that highways are highways, whether in Korea, PA, or wherever, but there it really looked different. We, thankfully arrived at our destination and ate lunch over a wonderful view of a great lake and mountains. One thing that was disappointing, on Korean tours, they go places and have Korean food made for them, so I didn’t really have a chance to try Philippino food, that sucked, but everything else was nice. After lunch, I got to feed a small banana to a small spider monkey they had as pets, then we headed on a boat and went across the lake. We arrived where a group of horses were waiting for us, so we got on horses and were guided on our way up the mountains. Again, it was beautiful scenery and an awesome experience horseback riding up a mountain in the Philippines. We arrived at the top of the mountain overlooking a grand view of a volcano lake, it was breathtaking really. It was sunny, hot and humid but looking over that lake was like something you’d see in a Bob Ross painting with plenty of happy little trees and bushes. We stayed up there and took pictures and did all the ‘touristy’ things, then headed back down. (Sorry, there aren’t many more exciting details to write.)

We drove another death defying ride for about an hour or so and headed to dinner (more Korean food), then went to a nice show called The Amazing Philippine Show. A more appropriate name would have been, The Pretty Funny and Entertaining Philippine Show That Is Pretty Cool and Worth Seeing, but that might have been too long to put on a sign and just doesn’t have the same punch. It was a show of lip singing and dance routines, and dancing comedy skits with some really attractive women… Well, they looked like they were really attractive women with wonderful dance moves, but came to my attention that there were exactly zero percent women in the show. I felt a little dirty after the show, but that’s not to take away from it being entertaining. Afterwards, the cast member stood outside in the lobby and stood around to take pictures, which I hadn’t realized before that they take pictures for tips, so when I had pictures taken with some of them, they asked for a tip (don’t let your mind go crazy there, they were just normal pictures).

After that, our group tour was finished for the night and we got back to the hotel in the evening around 10 or so, it was a long day but my buddy and I managed to make another trip to the casino that night. Don’t worry now, it wasn’t the same casino, we searched out a different casino, and believe it or not, I didn’t gamble at all this night, I just played the role of spectator and supporter. We left shortly after that and we went exploring the town a little bit. Overall, this trip looked like it was going to be worth it, because our first day’s activities were definitely fun and interesting. I was curious as to what we were going to do the following days, and how much I could understand what was going on, and whether we were going to actually eat any Philippino food. I’ll try not to be so lazy with updating these things and actually write about days 2 and 3 sometime soon enough that I can remember things about it.

trip with the teachers 7/09

Last Monday, on  the last day of the sememster, we went on a trip with the teachers on a tour bus to an area about 3 hours away called Namsan as kind of a celebration. It was a long but fun day, the homeroom teachers had 2 classes in the morning and we left after that. I sat next to a kindergarten teacher who was quite embarrassed when the seat next to me was the only seat open and people cheered and made a big deal as she sat down because she had next to no English speaking ability. Although, I’m sure she could speak a little, but she was too shy to try. – Korean women for the most part are really shy and reserved. And the Korean polite thing to do if they are complimented on something is to say ‘Oh, no.’ I find it kind of annoying actually when I have a conversation about anything with a Korean and then maybe I will order another water from our waitres then the Korean person I’m with will say something like, “Wow, you speak Korean well.” (I mean, if I can’t do that by now, I should probably be kicked out of here and not allowed to go back home because I’m not fit to do anything.) Then I will tell them they speak English well during or after our conversation and they will say, “No, no. I can’t.”… That’s frustrating, but just cultural things. Anyway, I digress.- I think I set her at ease a little when I asked her a few questions in Korean and then she asked me some and it wasn’t just awkward silence.

We arrived at the first restaurant and celebrated finishing the semester and one of our teachers, a kind, funny lady was retiring. Koreans love to drink, so there were people starting to drink at our lunch restaurant. One of the teachers especially loves to drink, whenever we go out altogether he tells me, “Jesse, are you going out with us?” I say yes. He says, “We’re going to drink… a lot!” and when he says a lot his face lights up with a smile like a kid about to go on a roller coaster. He’s a really funny guy anyway, but when he drinks it’s amplified, so it’s actually funny to go with him, but I usually have to find ways to not drink as much. Usually he’s moving around to different tables of the teachers being a social butterfly. One time, a few weeks ago, we were out at a company dinner and he said to me, again that we’re going to drink a lot. As the night went on, he drank and I didn’t, but one time he went by me to go to the bathroom and saw me and said it looked like I was drunk. He said, “I think you’re a little drunk.” I haven’t been drinking at all but I thought it would be a good out so I kept him thinking that.(Good idea Jesse.) We left there and went on to the mountain that we were going to hike up. Moonjae, the funny drinking teacher, told me when we go to the mountain, don’t hike up the mountain and stay down and drink with some of the teachers, he said with his arm around my shoulder, “This is Korea, there are maaaany mountains.” I told him there are many drinking places too. There was a short pause and he said, “… ah yes. Smart.” Then about 3 minutes later he said, “But!… There is only one Moonjae!” hahaha. I said we’ll see.

The mountain that we went to was called Geumsan. A little Korean lesson, ‘Geum’ = gold, ‘san’ = mountain. So, this was gold mountain. One thing with their history, many of the mountains have good stories with their different kings throughout history. This one was called gold mountain because their first king during the Joseon Dynasty was walking up the mountain and saw that it looked like there was gold on the mountain, so that’s what he named it. We arrived and there were a group of teachers, including my co-teacher, going toward the shuttle bus to go up the mountain and another group (I knew was the drinking group) went off to the right side to the shops. I went in the middle of the group to go to the shuttle. Korea has really beautiful scenery to drive through and to hike up mountains, and is full of beautiful temples on many of the mountains. So, we hiked up the mountain, and I learned about the Joseon Dynasty and the naming of the mountain. There were about 15 of us hiking up the mountain, including my co-teacher and a 4th grade teacher that I call my Korean teacher. She doesn’t speak English at all to me, and she speaks Korean slowly and clearly for me to understand and teaches me things I don’t know in our conversation. I work with a bunch of nice people. When we got to the top we couldn’t see very much because it was a cloudy and foggy day and looked like it was going to rain all day, so that sucked, but it was nice anyhow. When we got back down, Moonjae teacher saw me and said, “Jesse! Where were you, I was looking for you.” again with his arm around my shoulder. I said, “Where were you. I was looking for you too.” He said, “Ah, yes… I didn’t go… You should have stayed here, we played games.” I said, “Oh yeah? Who won?” He looked like he was really thinking hard and said, “I forget.” No doubt they drank a lot.

Then we went to a couple other places, a small museum, a little village and dinner on the way home. We arrived back at the school about 9:00 and one of the teachers drove me near my home so I wouldn’t have to travel an hour on the subway and bus.  All in all, that was a fun day, and nice to see Namsan. It was a place that I’ve never been yet, so that was nice.

My first day

I’m starting to blog as kind of a journal of my experiences here. I had wished I’d been recording my experiences since I came to Korea because there have been some noteworthy things that I’ve seen and experienced, along with teaching at the kindergarten I taught at for 2 1/2 years. Some of my stories are going to be old, especially at first, and some may even be boring. I’ll try my best to not make them boring. Most will obviously involve my experiences in Korea, but there will be some that do not too. Heck, I don’t even know who is going to read these things, maybe it’s for my eyes only, which is fine too.

Maybe, I’ll start with my first memory of Korea after getting off the plane, on the evening of August 26, 2006. The airport that is near Busan is a small airport that you can walk from one end to the opposite wall in maybe just under 2 minutes. So, I come out of the gate and see a row of Korean people with signs of people’s names who they are looking for so they can pick them up. Low and behold, I see my name written on a piece of paper with a somewhat older Korean couple smiling. I said “Hello, I’m Jesse”, and they said “Yeah, hi. Come.” and the Korean gentlemen grabbed my suitcase and started racing outside to their car. (I’ve come to find out that Koreans for the most part do things in fast forward, which is pretty much opposite from my usual slow motion pace for things.) I was discombobulated a bit from the long flight, but I made my effort to keep up. This couple, despite their lack of English ability, would be my new bosses, Mrs. Kim and Mr. Oh, and they turned out to be really great to know and work for. A really nice couple and really fair employers. He quickly put my bags into his trunk and I got in the back of their Lexus. I was in a totally strange land, where I didn’t understand anything except people walked really fast, and when they talked they always seemed to be yelling. I couldn’t read any signs and I didn’t even know where I was going or how far the drive would be. There were a few words shared in the car on the ride home, but mostly I just kept silent in amazment that I was actually in Korea. We came near the school and Mrs. Kim pointed and said that this was the school. The only signs I could see were in Korean so I told her that I can’t read Korean, she pointed up and said, “No, English Brighton sign.” I had to bend farther down in the car to look higher and there was the sign; Brighton Junior English School. They informed me that the school was on the 5-7th floors and I would live on the 9th floor. I arrived up there and met my two English speaking co-workers, Peter and Dylan, who I am still friends with. Peter also had a little rat dog up there named Michin, which was the first Korean word I learned while actually in Korea, I learned basic words like, ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ but this was the first new word being in Korea. “Michin” is Korean for crazy, because he said his dog is crazy. My door was locked and we didn’t have a key for it, so on my first night in Korea, I thought I was going to be locked out of my own room. They brought the building manager up (which I felt bad about since it was like 9 or 9:30 at night) and they figured out a way to get me in. I moved my stuff in, Peter and Dylan went out for the night since it was Saturday night, and I unpacked my things in my new home for a year half way around the world; a one room studio apartment with a bathroom, a tv, and a fridge. I then went to the corner store to get something to eat and got some custard pies and ramyeon noodles,  I layed my new Korean money (won) out on my table and took pictures of it, sat down on the bed and watched the Simpsons on my computer until the battery died on me, since I didn’t have a power adapter yet.

That was my first night arriving in Korea. Sometimes I smell something that smelled like my room that first night, or see the custard pie in a store and it reminds me of my first night here. People always say they remember their firsts; dates, kisses, ‘you know what’s', and apparently nights in Korea. Fortunately, I had a whole weekend before I had to work, so that was good.

I don’t really know how “blogs” work, but I hope this was a good first one and hopefully I’ll keep up with it.