Manchon is the school where Curtis works. I usually only work at Manchon school on saturdays, doing some sort of proof reading, or making up questions to a news report, or some other sort of "boring" job. This week, because of a teacher leaving, I actually taught classes Monday and today, Tuesday. Teaching at Manchon is an absolute dream compared to teaching at my school in Samduk. I relate it to him teaching at a school for the gifted, and me teaching at an inner city school!
There are a few differences. Mainly, to discipline a kid at his school you only need to walk 20 feet down the hall and there are 3 people that could deal with it. Thus, all the kids are well behaved and do their work. At my school I would have to walk them down a couple flights of stairs, and then hunt down someone to punish them. This would chew up 10 minutes at least of a 45 minute class..not good. Therefore my kids behave as bad as possible before making me have to waste 10 minutes of class - and then, I cant always find someone to punish them. Also, because his kids get their work done, there are lots of worksheets for them to do too, resources that are non existent at my school. Because the kids there do their work, they are a lot better at English than my kids and this adds to the cycle of being well behaved and doing their work. Even though Curtis leaves for work 1/2 hour earlier than me, and doesn't get home until sometimes an 1 hour later than me...I consider it worth it for sure. These past two days were awesome. Back to reality tomorrow though!
Today the manager's wife of Manchon school gave me and Curtis a private Korean lesson at a starbucks. It was really fun, we are learning the alphabet and basic sounds. Its really interesting and challenging for sure. Any phrase we want to learn too she translates for us. We bought some language books a few days ago that came highly recommended, but she said a lot of the phrases were really formal, so shes helping us learn more friendly conversational phrases. Some of the sounds are really similar and sometimes she will tell us that one of us has it, and the other one doesn't. We just like at each other like "sounds the same to us". When we asked her how much we owed her at the end, she was kinda shocked, and said we owed her nothing. We offered to tutor her son, but she refused, and said she would ask us questions about the John Grisham book she was reading if she needed some help. A fair trade for sure! We will meet her once a week for the rest of the year I think. It feels like I'm back in school again, I think we have homework! - Memorize the alphabet and sounds. One peculiar thing she said was that she wanted to keep the lessons a secret. We aren't sure why, maybe because she doesn't want teachers flocking to her for free lessons.. but could you imagine if somehow we were breaking the law and got deported for learning Korean! I will find out the real story next week I think.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
"Jim-Jill-Bong"
Actually spelt jjimjilbang, it is a Korean spa where you spend the night. All you pay is 10$ a person and this is what happens. They give you a pair of soft shorts and a shirt, and a key to two lockers that you wear on your wrist.You put your shoes in a locker by the front desk..collateral in case you charge something to your key. You then go into the male or female spa depending on what you are and get completely NAKED and put everything into another locker. Then you find yourself surrounded by many many other naked people. There are about 5 different giant hot-tub like pools. Very shallow and hot..anywhere from 35-43 degrees C. One had some nice jets. But, before you can get in, you have to take a good shower and scrub yourself down..that way everyone is clean right. So you can soak in the various pools, and also go into the saunas...one was ridiculously hot, Curt and I could only stand a few minutes in that one. This part of the day was very relaxing..our aching muscles and bones appreciated the warm soaking. Afterwards you take another shower and go put on your soft shorts and shirt. In the spa area you could shave, get a massage..brush your teeth, basically do whatever you do in your own bathroom.
Then you go to the common area where there are men and women. In this area there are 5 saunas I think - and they have different themes. One was salt i think, one was super hot 104 degrees C, one was an ice room - there was frost on the walls, one had the floor covered in rocks, and the gem one had the walls covered with agate and amethyst. There was also a restaurant where we ate cheaply. We got two massaged, one from a chair that did a great job on our calves, and another bed type one that basically jiggled us like crazy. The massages you charge to your key, and they are like 1$ each. We also paid for some internet use. You could sleep anywhere you wanted to, on the floor, on a thin bamboo mat. Not comfortable at all, but apparently good for your back? What about the rest of your body..thats what I wondered. We slept in a "dark room" because it was easier to sleep there. The pillows were tiny hard cushions. Anyways, for 10$, you get complete use of the spa, the gym if you wanted, and a place to sleep for night..so thats pretty darn good. The next morning we took our keys back, paid whatever we had charged to them and took a bus home, just in time to go to work today, pretty stiff, sore, and tired.
Then you go to the common area where there are men and women. In this area there are 5 saunas I think - and they have different themes. One was salt i think, one was super hot 104 degrees C, one was an ice room - there was frost on the walls, one had the floor covered in rocks, and the gem one had the walls covered with agate and amethyst. There was also a restaurant where we ate cheaply. We got two massaged, one from a chair that did a great job on our calves, and another bed type one that basically jiggled us like crazy. The massages you charge to your key, and they are like 1$ each. We also paid for some internet use. You could sleep anywhere you wanted to, on the floor, on a thin bamboo mat. Not comfortable at all, but apparently good for your back? What about the rest of your body..thats what I wondered. We slept in a "dark room" because it was easier to sleep there. The pillows were tiny hard cushions. Anyways, for 10$, you get complete use of the spa, the gym if you wanted, and a place to sleep for night..so thats pretty darn good. The next morning we took our keys back, paid whatever we had charged to them and took a bus home, just in time to go to work today, pretty stiff, sore, and tired.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Trip to Seoraksan National Park
Even though this past weekend was a one-day weekend, Curtis, his coworker Shelly, and I made the most of it with a trip to Seoraksan National Park. It is known for its mountains, and especially its fall colours- now is the peak tourist season. After work on Friday at 5:30 we raced to the bus depot and barely caught our bus. After a 4 hour bus ride north we cabbed to a little hotel area at the base of the mountains. The first hotel the cabby took us to was interesting. Nobody was there to help us but a friendly foreigner came out to talk to us. He told us NOT to stay there, and that there were fleas! He showed us bites on his arms, and we were out of there! We found a quaint little hotel nearby and got a room for 40$ split 3 ways. No beds, but comfy mats. The pillows were so hard that we decided to call them soft bricks so that we would feel better about them (glass half full right?) The next day we hiked for about 4-5 hours in the park and took a popular trail up to a famous rock outcrop/mountain and climbed to the top.
One cool feature on the way up is a famous rock that one person can rock back and forth, but dozens of people would not be able to push off its resting place. Several colourful temples on the way up..and metal stairs..millions of them going up the last part. It was steep, and not for someone afraid of heights. At the top, it was sooo windy too..like i thought people were going to get flung off the top. And when you combine my height, with railings made for Koreans, I never felt safe during the entire accent! On the way back down, our legs were so wobbly and shaking with every step because they were so tired! Its not easy climbing mountains all day!
We then bussed it to neighbouring area in the park, where we continued to kill our legs with hours of hiking, but the terrain was less strenuous and equally beautiful. The water there is famous as being mineral water and is good for your body. Some koreans made us drink from this puddle and the water had a distinct taste. It tasted carbonated..which i guess makes sense because many minerals have carbonate in them. In all, we hiked for about 8-9 hours up and down mountains and hills, and were exhausted! But the scenery and fall colours were awesome. That night we stayed in a Korean sauna called a jjimjilbang - pronounced "jim-jill-bong". That is such a unique experience, I'm going to have to talk about it in a separate post.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Pictures- home, school, city
So whats new... I got my immigration card, i opened a bank account, my tonsillitis is apparently gone, i wanted to strangle some kids today, and had to say goodbye to a friend returning back to England. I imagine there is going to be a lot of that this year! Anyway, here are some pictures for your enjoyment.. most are self explanatory.
How I found Curt when I came home one night, he is passed out in my bed with the phone wrapped around him.
This building is the teachers dorm (restaurant in bottom). My room is the bottom left window.
Entrance to my school in Samduk-dong. The building itself is just plain red brick..nothing special.
How I found Curt when I came home one night, he is passed out in my bed with the phone wrapped around him.
This building is the teachers dorm (restaurant in bottom). My room is the bottom left window.
Entrance to my school in Samduk-dong. The building itself is just plain red brick..nothing special.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
This Weekend
On Saturday, a supposed day off for me, I had to go to a PTA meeting/ kids performance thing. The speeches and plays we had been working on for the past couple of weeks the kids had to do on stage in front of lots of people. It went really well..but it was also kind of boring..i think it was like 4 hours long. Some of the plays were really funny..and especially listening to the kids say certain words. Wolves! Wolves! becomes Olves! Olves! We also had to go on stage afterwards and bow with the kids that we worked with..except Mrs. Kim had us bowing with whomever, so I bowed with one group of kids I don't think I ever worked with. It didn't really matter, I think we were there just for show. And then once up there, she springs it on us that we have to introduce ourselves. Basically your name, university, and country of origin..but a little more warning would have been nice.
Last night we went to a microbrewery/ restaurant called hotel ariana. You had to be there by 5:00ish and needed a reservation. Somehow we had one, or we new some people... I'm not exactly sure how we got in. But anyways, it was all you can eat and drink for like 17$ until 9:00. And the food was amazing! Way better than the mandarin, not even close. So we basically ate and drank for 4 hours and definately got our money's worth. There were probably like 200 people there, koreans and foreigners.. I think we made about 25 new friends. And the atmosphere was really cool, and there was a rock band that played some great songs - in English.
We went to Dalseong Park today, a greenspace in the middle of the city not too far from our house, that also is partly a zoo, and has some monuments and educational buildings. The Park itself was really beautiful, nice trees and the most grass I've seen since I've been here. The living conditions for the animals I thought were pretty pathetic, and I would imagine the zoo would be shut down if it was in Canada. There were jaguars in small pens, maybe three times their body length, a pretty sad looking elephant and bear, and some crazy monkeys that were being monkeys. And you forget about the don't feed the animal signs we are used to. People were feeding the monkeys and the bear whatever snacks they were munching on.
After the zoo/park we just started wondering around like we usually do and we found a huge market..the biggest one yet. I think it's the biggest one in Daegu actually. Street after street of clothes, shoes, fruit, veggies, fish, spices, restaurants, and parts of it were in a building..so its not just street vendors. We didn't buy anything but we definitely will start getting some of our fresh food from there.
Its interesting talking with all the other teachers. It is well understand among all of us that our own English is becoming terrible! We talk in broken sentences, use small words, basically talking like Koreans speaking English. This language is called Konglish. Some times you hear people say "Im not a student, talk to me normally!" You may see these posts deteriorate over time...if not already.
Last night we went to a microbrewery/ restaurant called hotel ariana. You had to be there by 5:00ish and needed a reservation. Somehow we had one, or we new some people... I'm not exactly sure how we got in. But anyways, it was all you can eat and drink for like 17$ until 9:00. And the food was amazing! Way better than the mandarin, not even close. So we basically ate and drank for 4 hours and definately got our money's worth. There were probably like 200 people there, koreans and foreigners.. I think we made about 25 new friends. And the atmosphere was really cool, and there was a rock band that played some great songs - in English.
We went to Dalseong Park today, a greenspace in the middle of the city not too far from our house, that also is partly a zoo, and has some monuments and educational buildings. The Park itself was really beautiful, nice trees and the most grass I've seen since I've been here. The living conditions for the animals I thought were pretty pathetic, and I would imagine the zoo would be shut down if it was in Canada. There were jaguars in small pens, maybe three times their body length, a pretty sad looking elephant and bear, and some crazy monkeys that were being monkeys. And you forget about the don't feed the animal signs we are used to. People were feeding the monkeys and the bear whatever snacks they were munching on.
After the zoo/park we just started wondering around like we usually do and we found a huge market..the biggest one yet. I think it's the biggest one in Daegu actually. Street after street of clothes, shoes, fruit, veggies, fish, spices, restaurants, and parts of it were in a building..so its not just street vendors. We didn't buy anything but we definitely will start getting some of our fresh food from there.
Its interesting talking with all the other teachers. It is well understand among all of us that our own English is becoming terrible! We talk in broken sentences, use small words, basically talking like Koreans speaking English. This language is called Konglish. Some times you hear people say "Im not a student, talk to me normally!" You may see these posts deteriorate over time...if not already.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Trip to the Arboretum
So today we went to the arboretum - for some reason we had the day off. It was at the end of the one subway line, meaning we had to figure out how to use the subway! A kind Korean person realized we couldn't read Korean and helped us out...kind of embarrassing since it's like the easiest subway to use and navigate. We are now masters at it. The arboretum was really cool! It's built between some mountains on an old landfill site. There was a greenhouse full of cactus, a bonzai garden full of amazing bonzais - some looked ancient, bamboo gardens, rock garden, hibiscus garden, etc etc. And the place was swarming with kids on school trips. And for one day, Curtis and I felt like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (I am ofcourse Brad). They all are like "Hello, whats your name? where are you from? You are very handsome (boys and girls included)...we shook hands with boys and made girls blush as we waded through a sea of kids..at one point we were literally surrounded by about 250 kids I'd say, maybe a few more. And I think our picture was taken more times today than any other time in my life. I also took a video of a smaller riot that we caused later since I was better prepared. It was pretty hilarious..but it would definitely get old if you went through that all the time... once in a while I can handle :) But it was a really great place, and we definitely are going back there at some point, maybe once in all the seasons.
When I got back I tried to upload all the pics off my camera since our trip began and my computer freaked out and erased them all!! It's not as bad as it sounds, we hadn't really taken any pics that are irreplaceable, although I did clean my room especially for a photo shoot of it, and I'm not looking forward to doing that again. We basically only lost pics from the airport, and trust me, you are not missing anything. I'll have to take some pics of the arboretum next time. Amazingly 7 pics survived, so i have a couple.
This is random.. but religion wise, much of the country is Christian. Buddhism and Confusionism are the other two big ones. I wouldn't have guessed that Christianity is as popular as it is.
Adam
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Update#2 Schooling (written Oct 8)
I thought it was time for another update! I'm mainly going to fill you in on the teaching situation.
We teach 6 days a week, and then once a month have a two day weekend. And I guess any holidays..but so far we have had to work on all the holidays, even when most other schools are closed. My hours are basically 3:45 until 9:00, although sometimes I work later or get off earlier. The kids that we teach spend 5 days a week in a normal public school.. say from 9:00- 3:30 or something like that. Then after that they come to our schools, English academies you could say, for 2 or 3 days a week. The other days they go to a science academy, or do some sort of sport like martial arts, or music perhaps. As I understand it, most kids go to 2 or 3 specialized academies a week. THey are in school all day, all week. I think they get Sundays off. So, when we get these kids, they have been in school all day already and are pretty wound up. They have so much energy, they are bouncing off the walls.. kids being kids you could say. My classes range from 6 to 12 kids, depending on how many people show up, and teaching is basically repeat after me.. read this story, answer questions etc etc. Some of classes are fun, the kids are respectful and try hard, pay attention and so on.. But I would say that most of the time the kids are very loud and hard to control. A class larger than 12 would be out of the question. For one they speak Korean to each other, so you have no idea what they are saying.. and probably have no idea what we are saying half the time. We can yell at them to be quiet but that gets old. I take things away from them, move some kids into the hall etc.. but I would say there is very little support at my school for disciplining the kids. There is one guy, Mr.Shin, who I have been told by other teachers to get if I want to send a message. Robert, this 30 something year old guy from Alabama, my neighbour, and one of my favourite people, gets him all the time into his class rooms. He said he made one of his classes hold their book bags over their heads for ten minutes.. an army style punishment. So now, he just threatens the kids with Mr.Shin's name and the class shuts up. So I resorted to this one day, but he wasn't around..so Mrs. Kim came to my class instead and didn't really do too much..it was quite a let down. But some classes are fine, and fun to teach, so its not all doom and gloom. And I do some one-on-one stuff, and thats especially fun because the kids are intelligent and looking for help. Sometimes I sit in the basement in this quiet room and read stories or speeches into a recording device for hours on end..and thats really boring, but sometimes its a welcome break.
We know a few teachers that are seeking out new jobs in Korea because they are not happy at our schools. One guy already found another contract, and our new friend Roy is currently seeking one. The first guy I guess was under the impression he would be teaching adults, so I cant relate to him. Roy teaches at my school and all the reasons he his leaving for, I can definitely relate too, but I guess I haven't quite reached the stage of wanting to find another job! He has only been here a couple weeks longer than me..so we will have to see what kind of an email I send in two weeks. I think his issues are that there seems to be a lack of support for us, it can be a bit unorganized at times, and its not enjoyable working at our school. And we all have stuck it out at tough jobs, but this is a year out of our life, and when we talk to other teachers that have good classes, great help, 5 day work weeks, holidays off...its a tempting alternative. BUT, I haven't reached that bitter stage..so im staying put. Enough about school.
This past week I have been sick with Tonsillitis. I noticed it early, so I was never deathly ill, just uncomfortable. I talked to Mrs. Kim about it and she told me she would get me some medicine. Her sister is a doctor, and her other sister is a pharmacist, so she has the connections. She gave me a bunch of blue, yellow, and white pills, and i take 4 twice a day. I thought it was kind of funny the concoction of pills, but it seems to be working a bit now. Oh, and some of you remember my horror stories about my wisdom teeth getting removed, except for a little piece that he forgot about. Well I think I can feel another small piece of tooth working its way to the surface. It's not that bad though, and doesn't warrant a trip to the dentist ..yet.
That's it for now.. and I'll try and get some pics on the web soon.. although I actually haven't taken that many yet.
Adam
We teach 6 days a week, and then once a month have a two day weekend. And I guess any holidays..but so far we have had to work on all the holidays, even when most other schools are closed. My hours are basically 3:45 until 9:00, although sometimes I work later or get off earlier. The kids that we teach spend 5 days a week in a normal public school.. say from 9:00- 3:30 or something like that. Then after that they come to our schools, English academies you could say, for 2 or 3 days a week. The other days they go to a science academy, or do some sort of sport like martial arts, or music perhaps. As I understand it, most kids go to 2 or 3 specialized academies a week. THey are in school all day, all week. I think they get Sundays off. So, when we get these kids, they have been in school all day already and are pretty wound up. They have so much energy, they are bouncing off the walls.. kids being kids you could say. My classes range from 6 to 12 kids, depending on how many people show up, and teaching is basically repeat after me.. read this story, answer questions etc etc. Some of classes are fun, the kids are respectful and try hard, pay attention and so on.. But I would say that most of the time the kids are very loud and hard to control. A class larger than 12 would be out of the question. For one they speak Korean to each other, so you have no idea what they are saying.. and probably have no idea what we are saying half the time. We can yell at them to be quiet but that gets old. I take things away from them, move some kids into the hall etc.. but I would say there is very little support at my school for disciplining the kids. There is one guy, Mr.Shin, who I have been told by other teachers to get if I want to send a message. Robert, this 30 something year old guy from Alabama, my neighbour, and one of my favourite people, gets him all the time into his class rooms. He said he made one of his classes hold their book bags over their heads for ten minutes.. an army style punishment. So now, he just threatens the kids with Mr.Shin's name and the class shuts up. So I resorted to this one day, but he wasn't around..so Mrs. Kim came to my class instead and didn't really do too much..it was quite a let down. But some classes are fine, and fun to teach, so its not all doom and gloom. And I do some one-on-one stuff, and thats especially fun because the kids are intelligent and looking for help. Sometimes I sit in the basement in this quiet room and read stories or speeches into a recording device for hours on end..and thats really boring, but sometimes its a welcome break.
We know a few teachers that are seeking out new jobs in Korea because they are not happy at our schools. One guy already found another contract, and our new friend Roy is currently seeking one. The first guy I guess was under the impression he would be teaching adults, so I cant relate to him. Roy teaches at my school and all the reasons he his leaving for, I can definitely relate too, but I guess I haven't quite reached the stage of wanting to find another job! He has only been here a couple weeks longer than me..so we will have to see what kind of an email I send in two weeks. I think his issues are that there seems to be a lack of support for us, it can be a bit unorganized at times, and its not enjoyable working at our school. And we all have stuck it out at tough jobs, but this is a year out of our life, and when we talk to other teachers that have good classes, great help, 5 day work weeks, holidays off...its a tempting alternative. BUT, I haven't reached that bitter stage..so im staying put. Enough about school.
This past week I have been sick with Tonsillitis. I noticed it early, so I was never deathly ill, just uncomfortable. I talked to Mrs. Kim about it and she told me she would get me some medicine. Her sister is a doctor, and her other sister is a pharmacist, so she has the connections. She gave me a bunch of blue, yellow, and white pills, and i take 4 twice a day. I thought it was kind of funny the concoction of pills, but it seems to be working a bit now. Oh, and some of you remember my horror stories about my wisdom teeth getting removed, except for a little piece that he forgot about. Well I think I can feel another small piece of tooth working its way to the surface. It's not that bad though, and doesn't warrant a trip to the dentist ..yet.
That's it for now.. and I'll try and get some pics on the web soon.. although I actually haven't taken that many yet.
Adam
Greetings from Korea (written Sept 26)
Finally, some time to write an email! We don't have internet in our place yet, but we finally got some spare time at this school to write an email! Sorry, its a long one.
So.. the flight was about 13 hours long..I slept for most of it. I requested the emergency exit seat, what a great idea that was..I couldn't touch the seat in front of us with my feet even if I tried! It was like flying first class. Curtis tried some of his Korean on a flight attendent-it was funny because she replied after a short delay "I'm Chinese". I guess all asians do look alike. We then landed at Incheon airport at about 2:30 in the morning, and had 5 hours to kill waiting for our bus. This was mind-numbing. It was the most boring place in the world.. nothing to do.. we road our luggage carts down ramps and watched soccer with Korean commentary. Then, we had language barrier problems trying to get our bus tickets and missed our bus! We had to wait another 40 minutes after the lady found the tickets which were in front of her the whole time. The bus was fine.. except it was about a 5 hour drive to Daegu.. and ofcourse we got a flat tire, and its not the fastest thing changing a bus tire. After the flat, the bus driver was driving like we were in a race, using all the lanes, passing other cars with ease..it was a bit exciting. We eventually made it to Daegu, met our bosses, and saw our residence.
Our rooms are sooo small, its laughable. I cant wait to post some pics on the internet for people to see. Maybe 12 feet long, 6 feet wide...a bathroom measuring 4 feet by 3.5 feet. The shower comes off of the sink, and I hang it off the door when I shower. Neither one of us can figure out how to keep the toilet paper dry without not keeping it in there. The stove is a one burner camping stove with a fuel canisters. One nice feature is that there is an adjoining door between our rooms, so we can move between our rooms easily. The front door to our building is always open, and I guess a homeless person has been sleeping somewhere in our building, so we are told to keep our doors locked.
Our bosses are really nice, taking good care of us.. bought us some food, lunch, cab fare, feed us almost every time we see them. They are 60ish, and the old man imparts wisdom on us all the time. Right now we are at one of their schools that one of their sons run. He is really nice and has gotten us dinner the past 2 nights we have been here. Maybe that's because we were here from 4:30 to 10:30 and 11:30 both nights! They put us right to work, reading essays...I taught one class with 2 kids in it the one day. Soon we are going to get into a schedule and have actual classes, likely at different schools. I can see mine from my window. ALso, I am teaching english...maybe some science around Christmas.
Did I mention the Jet-lag? Rediculous! Exact opposite sleep pattern if you think about it. We have been up at 2:00 am going crazy in our rooms, and falling asleep at 3:00 in the afternoon. But now we are back on track. Food is interesting when we figure out how to order it! I drank some water I thought was tea, but it was for some rice or something. I also ate something really hot and was in severe pain..but it was also quite humourous because we didn't know how to ask for water! I was scrounging for grains of rice to dull the pain. We have eaten many mystery meats so far, some shark, and Lotus root. Lots of seafood everywhere.. the open market has alot of interesting sea creatures. In one grocery store there was a tank with live King crabs in it. Fruits and veggies are expensive! Im going to get scurvy..
Korea is really beautiful, we saw much of it on the bus ride. Hilly / Mountainous terrain is very scenic. Our city has good parts and bad..not a stunning skyline or anything though. I would say that very few people know english, every day is a new experience. We tried to watch an english movie (rush hour 3)..and ended up watching a 2 hour Korean movie.. also painful.
In summary, we are having lots of fun! Ok thats it for now.. sorry about the length. ttyl
Adam
So.. the flight was about 13 hours long..I slept for most of it. I requested the emergency exit seat, what a great idea that was..I couldn't touch the seat in front of us with my feet even if I tried! It was like flying first class. Curtis tried some of his Korean on a flight attendent-it was funny because she replied after a short delay "I'm Chinese". I guess all asians do look alike. We then landed at Incheon airport at about 2:30 in the morning, and had 5 hours to kill waiting for our bus. This was mind-numbing. It was the most boring place in the world.. nothing to do.. we road our luggage carts down ramps and watched soccer with Korean commentary. Then, we had language barrier problems trying to get our bus tickets and missed our bus! We had to wait another 40 minutes after the lady found the tickets which were in front of her the whole time. The bus was fine.. except it was about a 5 hour drive to Daegu.. and ofcourse we got a flat tire, and its not the fastest thing changing a bus tire. After the flat, the bus driver was driving like we were in a race, using all the lanes, passing other cars with ease..it was a bit exciting. We eventually made it to Daegu, met our bosses, and saw our residence.
Our rooms are sooo small, its laughable. I cant wait to post some pics on the internet for people to see. Maybe 12 feet long, 6 feet wide...a bathroom measuring 4 feet by 3.5 feet. The shower comes off of the sink, and I hang it off the door when I shower. Neither one of us can figure out how to keep the toilet paper dry without not keeping it in there. The stove is a one burner camping stove with a fuel canisters. One nice feature is that there is an adjoining door between our rooms, so we can move between our rooms easily. The front door to our building is always open, and I guess a homeless person has been sleeping somewhere in our building, so we are told to keep our doors locked.
Our bosses are really nice, taking good care of us.. bought us some food, lunch, cab fare, feed us almost every time we see them. They are 60ish, and the old man imparts wisdom on us all the time. Right now we are at one of their schools that one of their sons run. He is really nice and has gotten us dinner the past 2 nights we have been here. Maybe that's because we were here from 4:30 to 10:30 and 11:30 both nights! They put us right to work, reading essays...I taught one class with 2 kids in it the one day. Soon we are going to get into a schedule and have actual classes, likely at different schools. I can see mine from my window. ALso, I am teaching english...maybe some science around Christmas.
Did I mention the Jet-lag? Rediculous! Exact opposite sleep pattern if you think about it. We have been up at 2:00 am going crazy in our rooms, and falling asleep at 3:00 in the afternoon. But now we are back on track. Food is interesting when we figure out how to order it! I drank some water I thought was tea, but it was for some rice or something. I also ate something really hot and was in severe pain..but it was also quite humourous because we didn't know how to ask for water! I was scrounging for grains of rice to dull the pain. We have eaten many mystery meats so far, some shark, and Lotus root. Lots of seafood everywhere.. the open market has alot of interesting sea creatures. In one grocery store there was a tank with live King crabs in it. Fruits and veggies are expensive! Im going to get scurvy..
Korea is really beautiful, we saw much of it on the bus ride. Hilly / Mountainous terrain is very scenic. Our city has good parts and bad..not a stunning skyline or anything though. I would say that very few people know english, every day is a new experience. We tried to watch an english movie (rush hour 3)..and ended up watching a 2 hour Korean movie.. also painful.
In summary, we are having lots of fun! Ok thats it for now.. sorry about the length. ttyl
Adam
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