Christmas in Seoul

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

The people in charge at LIKE know how to work the holidays. They pushed our 3-day holiday back a few weeks to coincide with Christmas to make sure we didn't get too many days off this month. Anyways, 4 of us, Shelly, Roy, Curtis and I headed to Seoul on the 23rd and we got back in Daegu around midnight on the 25th. It got off to a comical start while walking to the train station when Roy had severe back spasms, and Shelly accidentally booted Curtis in the ankle. We had to take a 10 minute breather on the side of the road. We took the KTX train, first class because the regular seats were sold out for hours. It took about 1 hour and 50 minutes and cost about 65$. The first night we stayed in an area of Seoul that was a University neighborhood. We found a hotel down some back alley that cost 70$ for two rooms. We then went our for bulgogi (barbecued beef), and we told the old lady serving us that she was beautiful in Korean. She gave us a free coke! It was a Sunday night so not too much was happening but we talked to a bunch of students that pointed us in the direction of some good places to hangout. Overall it was pretty much just a relaxing night.

The next day we struck out on a few things. First we went to an art gallery that Shelly wanted to check out (she is an art major). It is closed every Monday. Then we went downtown to city hall where there was ice skating, but it was sold out. Then we went to check out a palace, but the front gates were being restored. We did find a side entrance however, so not all was lost. When we went to go further into the palace it was too late for any more admissions so we could only look from a far. We had a late lunch at a Korean restaurant that was airing figure skating from some past Olympics. We had bibimbab. Its basically rice, veggies, meat if you want, and a sunny side egg thrown on top. Downtown there was a cool light display, a few performances and a lot of Korean people! It was insane, but also interesting because Roy and I could see for miles over top of all of them. Roy wore a donkey hat, and I wore a Santa hat the whole weekend to spread some Holiday cheer. People got a kick out of us, as if being tall and white wasn't enough already. It helped everyone keep track of everyone, so that was one practical aspect of it.

We then went to another part of Seoul known for shopping, restaurants, bars, and lots of foreigners. Its also close to a famous place called Hooker Hill. We didn't go near it, but we definitely saw many Hookers. If you saw some gorgeous Russian girl, you knew she wasn't a tourist. Also, there is a large population of Koreans in Seoul and surrounding area that speak Russia. After all, Russia isn't too far away. It was definitely strange seeing Koreans speaking Russian to each other. We had to find another hotel because our other hotel was doubling its rates for Christmas Eve - as were many that we looked into. We found a reasonable one and headed back out for dinner. Oh, we also bumped into some people twice in two days, in totally different parts of Seoul, odds are like 1 in 10 000 000 (population of Seoul). Also, we saw a lot of foreigners just walking the street, and it was a weird feeling not standing out as much as we usually do. We had a nice Thai dinner, and then Roy and Shelly called it a night. Of course Curtis and I had to check out a few other places. We went to a foreigner bar called Geckos, and it was just like a Irish pub from back home. We had no longer sat down when a foreigner came up to us, and asked us if we wanted to join him and three Korean girls. He asked him "is this a joke?". It wasn't a joke, and we spent the rest of the night talking to him and these three girls. He turned out to be kinda weird and annoying, and it came out the girls had given him an ultimatum to find two tall English teachers or get lost.

The next day we went back to the museum, it was open, and disappointing to even Shelly. After lunch we all went to Emart - a Kmart like store and did a secret Santa. We drew names and had 45minutes to spend 10$ on someone. Half the gifts given were useful, the rest maybe not so much. We tried to go skating again, but that was just as hopeless as before. We eventually made it to the bus depot to head home. We decided to take a bus because no one was any hurry to go home, and we could save some money since we spent a little extra getting to Seoul. The bus ride home cost 15$ and took almost 4 hours. Not the most comfortable thing, but we mostly slept anyway. We got back to Daegu close to midnight and went to bed after having a long long shower. I forgot to mention, the hotels didn't have hot water so we didn't shower the whole trip. No one smelled, but Roy did ask me once if my hair was wet. After that comment, my Santa hat never came off again.

Other things: Seoul is massive so we didn't see hardly any of it. More modern and interesting than Daegu for sure! No one we talked to knew where Daegu was and we are the 3rd largest city in Korea. People mostly know Daegu as a stop on the way from Seoul to Busan.
I bumped into a foreigner in Daegu that recognized me from the fund raiser we went to a while back. I got interviewed when I was there and apparently my interview got aired on Korean T.V., and whatever I said was dubbed over in Korean! I haven't seen it myself, but I'm sure it's hilarious.

Cool Building

Palace entrance, the whole complex is huge, but we couldn't see it all. It's 600 years old.
A taste of the donkey hat.

What a play on words.
A dance performance and Happy Birthday Jesus sign.
This insane subway scene is near where all the lights and attractions were. At one point walking down the street the river of people was about 20 people wide and taking up two lanes of traffic, and going for as far as I could see.

Main attraction.

I got this ginger ale in Geckos. Thats actually the same can but I took two pictures and stitched them together.

We were on the third floor, and this I guess was supposed to save us in an emergency.

Update

Its more than time for an update, it will mostly be about a lot of little things. My new school is working out great! I really like it a lot. For instance, one day I had to repeatedly tell my one class to be quiet, and the manager could hear that, and walked in and yelled at all the kids for me. I was so surprised and happy! At the other school, I would have to hunt for someone as a last resort, and usually they wouldn't do anything about it. These past two days we just played Christmas games and did other fun activities. This sounds less stressful, but not really. Especially when they double up my first class and I now have 20 students to try and control.

Last weekend we went to Ulsan, a city of about 1 000 000 on the East coast to visit a friend of Drews. It was mostly an uneventful night - highlights were that I won a toilet paper holder in a Christmas draw, and Curtis lost his 300$ jacket. However, we just received word yesterday that it has been recovered! Woohoo! Too bad we probably have to go back to Ulsan to get it :( We did also get to watch our first NHL hockey game while being here in Korea at Drews friends house - it was fed live over the internet.

I think three new teachers arrived this past week; Clifford (our new neighbor), Courtney (upstairs) , and Andy a guy who lives far from us near another school. Courtney is really nice, and I'm sure other people are too.

This week we had a session on how to teach English, with particular emphasis on a couple of different books we use. All the LIKE teachers had to attend. It was a bit funny because most of us had been teaching for several months, but none the less, there were some interesting ideas put forth. Ms. Kim had organized a huge Christmas feast for all of us too. It may have even been for Thanksgiving because she was too busy to do it then, and she said she usually does it. She has some connections with the army base in Daegu, and I think they were the cooks. There was Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas, pie, and some other goodies. Also, we all got free bags of Tangerines from their farm on Jeju Island...most southerly point in Korea. A few coincidences from the get together as well. Andy went to the same University as Courtney, and he is also good friends with my cousin Drew apparently. Small world.

My blog got forwarded onto my friend Chris Earley who was my roomate in Bolivia. (Hi Chris!) Turns out his adopted daughter is from Korea, and born in Daegu! Don't have too much to say about that, just thought it was interesting!

The funniest moment, and perhaps scariest too, occurred when Drew was over at our place; I wasn't home and Curt was in the other room. Drew is a smoker and always opens the windows at our place to have a smoke. He was straddling my window (on the second floor), when somehow he fell out the window! A very confused Curtis answered his door a couple minutes later to see Drew laughing / crying on the floor, with no shoes or socks on. He literally didn't have a scratch on him, a true Christmas miracle.He fell out of the window above the fan, next to the corner, maybe 10-12 feet above the ground.

Also this week, I got an aquarium up and running.. we found the tank in the garbage but its perfectly good. We find a lot of artwork in the garbage too. Apparently I have some Korean script that says "Do what you study" and then the name of some elementary school that a Korean friend of ours went to. Back to the aquarium- I stocked it with an albino Oscar, a type of predatory fish that we hoped to feed the cockroaches too. Currently he is looking very sad and wont eat anything, not even fish food. Hopefully he perks up or is going to be my food.Christmas is coming, and we are probably headed to Seoul for a few days. It should be pretty cool, we haven't been yet, and it will make this Christmas more special than it otherwise would be. MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone, wish I could be back home with all of you (well kind of).

More hiking / School

This past week started with me teaching at another school as I mentioned in my last post. The first three days it was like a dream...anyone who teaches at a school like that has it easy! Thursday it was back to reality and I has back at Samduk teaching at "the circus" as a few of us call it. My first day back I made a kid cry, not the first time its happened, I think it might be number three. One highlight was that Roy, another teacher Sandy, and I got to record the audio for a new book they published. They make all their own books that we teach, they have like 30 now I would say roughly. Anyways, this one was called My English C (A and B preceding this one). I starred as Tom, grandfather, Insu, and some other Korean name that I can't remember. We basically read dialog, some short stories, and I did the word review. It took about two hours and afterwards we got treated to pizza, sushi, and some other snacks. Dr. Kim ran the recording device and at times and was quick to quell any fun we had during the session. For instance, we thought it was pretty funny how he kept calling me Sam, but we couldn't laugh for too long because he would start delegating roles right away. By the way, I don't know if I have explained how famous he is in Korea. He use to have a T.V. show where he played his guitar, sang songs, and taught a whole generation of Koreans English, or at least those that followed his program. Thursday of this week I think I leave Samduk more or less for good to teach at Chimsan, I have heard good things about that school so it should be fun.

Also this week, we celebrated the first day of Hanukkah with our Jewish friend Shelly. She cooked up some traditional food, which is basically anything fried. Potato pancakes and fried chicken were the highlights. We then watched the movie "Batteries not Included"..and older Spielberg movie that maybe some of you have seen.

Today Curtis and I, our Korean friend Claire, and her boyfriend Max went hiking. Actually first they took us to a museum basically dedicated to metal cookware. It was somewhat interesting learning how they use to make it by hand, and how the technology has changed over time.. but its about as interesting as cookware can be. After that we checked out a few temples, actually a complex of temples with the main one being called Donghwasa Temple. In one of the temples we went in and bowed and made our wishes and listened to a Monk sing/hum a kind of traditional monk song/prayer if you can imagine it in your mind. At most temples there is usually just a recording. Claire said we were extremely lucky to experience that because she knows people that have tried and can never find the real thing. Also near the temple is the world's largest standing Buddha. It is 33 metres tall and 16.5 metres in circumference - it was pretty impressive. After all this spiritual and intellectual exercise it was time for the real hiking. We went to Gatbawi, that other Buddha where I have already been, so I didn't post more pictures of that. She took us up a route that was a lot shorter than the one I took before, but it was still exhausting. On the way down, we took a different route, quite by accident and ended up on a road that was not the road where we parked. While walking, a car pulled up in front of us, and after a short Korean conversation we all got into this very plush luxury car. The guy figured we came down the wrong path, and we reminded him of his son in the army, and daughter in Spain, so he offered us a ride! It was soo nice of him, and totally unexpected and not asked for. But, its a good thing he stopped because we would have had to walk miles!

17 metre high stone pagoda, and a 33 meter tall Buddha.

Very ornate decoration on all the temples, as usual. These guys were guarding the entrance to one temple area. They are about 4 metres tall.

Interestingly Claire's brother runs a English speaking school and hes looking for some part time help. Its illegal for us to work for anyone else, so I'm cautious to post anything on a public site such as this...but if I were to get deported you could guess why. We did have a chat with him, to just to see whats what... and he said if we ever wanted to transfer schools, he could arrange it, and we would just have to spend a few days in Japan. We don't want to transfer at all, but it was nice talking to him. He gave us a good insight into what is possible for us to achieve in Korea. For instance, other than just SAT prep courses he could offer an economics class to Curt, and Biology, Chemisty, Physics, and Calculus to me. He also said that even with just a 4-year degree, because we are white skinned we have better opportunities. The hierarchy of discrimination works sort of like- I'm better than Koreans, and they are in turn better than dark skinned people. Its sad, but true. A previous biology teacher of his, with no masters or anything special, is now a professor at a small college in Daegu, making twice as much money and doing less work. Basically he impressed upon us that yeah we can make money and travel while we are here, but we can achieve more if we wanted to. A side note to making a lot of money for a university or college is that now you jump up a tax bracket and so you don't actually make that much money compared to people with "normal teaching positions" that make a little extra money on the side. Also, he said if we were to take a job with him, and someone asked him about us -"He doesn't know us." And that works the other way too of course. A kind of way of protecting each other I guess.

P.S. On the drive up the mountain I saw the most massive bird I have ever seen in the air, actually I was quite shocked. It was bigger than any Eagle I have ever seen, and I had no idea what it was until I looked in my book. I didn't get a great look at it, but I can only assume it was a Cinereous Vulture with a wingspan between 2.5 and 3 metres, and I would lean towards 3 metres for this one.

Another Update

Nothing that exciting to report I'm afraid, working as usual - and no new pictures. My teaching schedule is changing quite a bit over the next few months. This week I teach at a school called Seobu for Mon - Wed, Samduk (my normal school) for thursday and Friday, and then Manchon on Sunday. Seobu is just to cover while a teacher goes home and another replaces him. The guy going home is without a doubt the most annoying person I have met in Daegu, and ranks highly on my all time list. Anyways, in a week or two I think I'm going to yet another school, the school that is supposed to be my permanent school for the rest of the year. Except, in January I think I'm teaching at Manchon school with Curtis. Confused yet? The interesting thing about the January teaching is that Curtis, Shelly, and I were offered to teach from 8:30 in the morning until around 2:30. That would be monday to friday, mostly doing book studies with older students, and we would get two days off each weekend. Its a special thing they do because January is a winter break for some students... I think... I'm sure I will correct myself when January roles around.

This week started out quite strangely. A friend was visiting from out of town and when she went to leave, it was discovered that the train she was planning on taking home did not exist, and she was stranded in Daegu. This subsequently led to her staying in my bed, and me and Curtis sharing his bed. It was pretty much the worst sleep ever. Between two full grown men trying to sleep in a Korean sized bed, the noisy dump trucks, alarms going off at various times so that she could catch an early train, and my snoring, it was not a good morning. Then we went and bought groceries , and my cell phone fell out in the cab. This led to a game of phone tag whereby the cabby miraculously called a Korean friend of ours who was able to get Curtis's number off my phone, and call Curtis, to tell me, that I lost my phone. I then met the cabby and had to pay a 10$ ransom to get my phone back. It was more than worth it, and obviously a pain in the ass to the cab driver. Also adding to the confusion was that this week we were supposed to have our Korean lesson today, but we both totally forgot, and our teacher called my phone looking for me, and ended up talking to the cab driver. I was pretty exhausted by the time I went to work today.

I made it work after about a 6$ cab ride, quite far away actually, and walked into the school, talked to a secretary and started teaching before talking to any sort of manager or other teacher... thats just the way things seem to run at LIKE schools. But, it is a bran new school, awesome facilities, and the kids were angels. Its like night and day compared to Samduk, and even better than Manchon. I taught 8 straight classes, and it wasn't that bad. I never had to yell at anyone. After work, the head guy Heeman Kim took me out for noodles and bulgogi (barbecued beef) at a famous outdoor eating place. I had actually already been there before, but its really good, really cheap, and we scarfed it down before heading back here. His family lives above the two floors of foreign dorms, although I think I have only seen him and his wife coming and going once since I've been here.

I got a Christmas package from my family this week. I promised not to open anything until Christmas but I did open my gift that I new was Coffee. I'm going to share some Tim Hortons with the Korean teachers and secretaries at Samduk. I know the weather back home is getting pretty cold and snowy. I cant complain here, Sunday it rained for only the second time since I've been here.