Seoul Searching Saturday/ Sunday

This weekend was another amazing weekend in South Korea. Friday I went out with some of the teachers from school and met some of the people who used to work there. It was a blast. We had good food and good times! We were in Iksan Friday night and I went to a couple of new places and met a couple of new people which is always fun. And Saturday we went to Seoul to pick up Scott from the airport.

The weekend was really a weekend of firsts for me as I have never ridden on a train, a sub and I have never stayed in a Korean hotel. We got an early start Saturday morning and got on the KTX train to Seoul. Once we arrived, we were all starving and I wanted Mexican food so bad I could cry so we went to Iteawon which has a lot of foreigners and a lot of variety in restaurants. Mark knew of one Mexican restaurant that he thought was ok and we went there. The food was ok, not at all like Mexican food at home, but it made my belly happy.

Mark and Jason were not satisfied with the meal and decided it was time for Indian food! We went to and Indian food restaurant, I wasn't hungry so I just enjoyed a glass of red wine and laughed at them as they tore up the buffet. To food was pretty tasty there, I wish I had had that instead of the overly expensive and not all all like Mexican food, meal that I had.

Next we went to the Dongdeamum and the Yongsan Electronics markets. At Dongdeamum I was able to find a super cute purse, the experience was a little crazy. There were people all over the place and tons of foreigners! I was in reverse culture shock seeing all kinds of white people walking around! Dongdeamum was full of clothes and purses and I really liked this one coach purse and the guy asked for 90,000 won! That's like, $80! No flipping way! It was a HORRIBLE knock off he went down to 60,000 but I just thought I might find something I liked more for cheaper and I did!

The Yongsan market was just what you would imagine, rows and rows of electrical equipment and ipods and all that jazz. I really like technology all of a sudden so it was fun to look but I am for sure not in the market to buy anything right now.

Scott arrived on time, but sick :( I guess he had developed a little bit of a cold shortly before leaving and it was made worse by the pressure changes and all that couped up and unable to sleep time. He was pretty out of it so we just headed straight for a hotel. We stay in Insadong, an artys fartys district in Seoul. I wish now that I would have taken pictures of our cheap, but laughable hotel room. I was tiny and the bed was like the floor, but with springs gouging your ribs. It wasn't too bad, but Scott was sick and snoring up a storm and I had a little insomnia so I used my itouch to get on the Internet until it died.

Sunday morning Scott was up with the sun and ready to get out of that god forsaken bed so we all got around and went walking/ busing/ subwaying all around Seoul and the Markets. It was a lot of fun, but with each of us sleep deprived, it wasn't as exciting as it should have been. We'll have to all go back when we feel like normal human beings.

We took the KTX back and I'm finally home! I have Scott heavily medicated so he's snoring it up again and hopefully I can get a little sleep before tomorrow and another week of work.

UPDATE - My Magic Time kids were really good for me on Friday and we had a ton of fun playing a game and they are getting the words so so good! I am very proud of my little munchkins. Til tomorrow when I'm blogging about hurling them out windows again!

Times are good! Thanks for the comments, you're not all jerks anymore! Just some of you ;)

Magic Time = Tragic Time

Spring has finally sprung and the weather in Iksan is awesome! Temperatures have reached mid-70's the past couple of days which feels amazing. I was wearing a heavy coat and sweater and still feeling cold only a few short days ago.

With the weather improving comes the YELLOW DUST! Yellow dust is just what it sounds like... dust that comes from China's Gobi Desert and falls on South Korea. The dust only last about two weeks, but everyone wears face masks and tries not to breathe it as his heavily polluted and contains toxins! WOO HOO! Exciting!

Despite the scary yellow dust, it still feels great to be outside and in the warmth of the sun. There is a lot of humidity here and I'm told I haven't even seen the beginning of the humidity. The heat is also making the smells that I have encountered here worse. Jason and Mark asked me what I thought about the smell of Korea. I said, it's definitely different! Sometimes stinky. To which Mark had to ask, Does it sometimes smell like raw sewage? YES! That's because it is raw sewage! I can't imagine that smell magnified by heat... ew.

The warm weather is also having effects on my Magic Time students (the 8 year olds). God love them... because I cannot. They have been SO bad the past two days that I have reduced to screaming at them. In just one short class, about 45 minutes, I had to take away three stacks of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, one drink and a ball. Yes, a ball. One of the kids decided he would take a ball out of his bag and pelt another kid in the head with a ball!!! What the french toast was that kid thinking! I took the ball and made him sit in the corner... yes the corner. What I really wanted to do was push him out the window.

Today they were not listening to me and I was reviewing what we had covered over the past two classes. They were talking to each other and blatantly ignoring my requests and dirty looks. So I did it, I screaming "LISTEN!!!!!!!!!!!" They jumped back and their shocked little faces knew I had reached my breaking point! The rest of the class ran smoothly, but they are on punishment mode so tomorrow they will just write sentences over and over and when they ignore me they will be sent to the office. Which will scare them as Korean adults are VERY rough on the kids.

After class I went back to the English Teacher office and looked at Brandon, one of the teachers, and said, "Magic time feels like a physical beating!" Jason said, "That's why we call it Tragic Time."

Pray for me and pray that I have patience and that I have the strength to discipline the cute little dudes. I know they are good kids and want to please me, but I just have to beat it out of them! ha!

Bertha

Today Kim and I decided it was high time we ditch the dudes and go shopping GIRL DATE :) This sounds like no big deal...but seriously, all we hang out with are guys. Kim is getting her masters so she is really busy with that and so I am left with only male friends. Which is awesome, but I need a little girl time now and again.

Iksan has plenty of cute boutique shops. They house the cutest clothes in Korean womens fashion and I LOVE IT! I'm talking leggins and skirts and cute vintage style dresses! Very chic! However, there is one thing I forgot... I am not built like a Korean woman.

Korean women, in my opinion, are some of the most beautiful women in the world. They are slender and tall. If I had to choose I size I would say 00-4 in pants and extra small to at the most medium. If you have ever glimpsed at me you know I don't fit into either of these categories.

I was glimpsed at by the women working there who catered to Kim (a tiny girl) the entire time and ignored the hell out of me unless we were in a shoe store... great for the ego. Maybe Scott will work out with me when he gets here and I can fit into some of these super cute clothes!

I did manage to find one super cute skirt! I think I will be wearing all skirts this summer because of the intense heat and humidity. I can't imagine walking to school in jeans!

Kara needs to come shopping in Korea! The styles are so her and the sizes are perfect and the prices are OH SO NICE!

Livin la vida loca

My brain hurts from teaching. My free talking class picks my brain constantly about definitions of words and usage. Which is great! But for two hours a night!? COME ON!

No, it's actually very cool. I am still enjoying teaching into week three. Last night I was dying for be bem bab so I made Jason go to a restaurant with me! I am always starving after Free talking because my day begins at 3:30pm and ends at 9:40pm. When I got home, I decided it was time for a Simply Sleep party! For those of you who don't know the magic that is Simply Sleep, you're missing out. It's Tylenol PM minus the Tylenol. SO amazing. The thing that was missing was my dearest Kate. We always used to have simply sleep parties in our living room on the couches.

I'm starving now so I am going to try to get something to eat... You jerks should leave some comments! I don't know if anyone is even reading this junk for a blog!

Love for Women

Yesterday I went with Jason and Mark to Home Plus to return some items. Home Plus is to Iksan what Wal-Mart is to North America...Only Home Plus is WAY better.

Let me explain, Home plus is something like five stories tall and each story is a little department houses one or two wal-mart esque departments. So you grab your shopping cart and you take these ramps that look like escalators but without the steps, your cart grab the ramp and takes you both up. It's very strange. However, they have everything you could ever want and it's priced ok.

After our Home Plus adventure, we decided to go to Mr. Pizza for lunch. Mr. Pizza's slogan is Love for Women. Why? Yeah, that's exactly what I asked. The answer I received is much like the answer you will receive...Why not? Mr. Pizza was really, really good and after we left I picked Jason's brain until he finally gave me a theory about the marketing and slogan behind Mr. Pizza. He thinks that the slogan has to do with women because Korean men almost always eat only traditional Korean food unless they are out with women or family who urge them do eat something other than traditional Korean food. Jason made the point that you will not see a group of grown men eating at Mr. Pizza without a woman or their family. Because I have no reason to argue with him and no real knowledge or Korean culture...I'll take that answer.

Post face-stuffing, Jason and I went and walked around Iksan and went to the "Central Park". There were photo exhibits and a lot of little kids riding bikes, people playing soccer, people just walking around and some people were even riding the tandem bicycles you can rent there. We did a quick looksy and then ducked into a little coffee shop just along the park. I tried Date tea. It was yummy yummy! A little sweet, but well worth it! Then we went to meet Mark at Bean and Bean, another coffee shop. I had the most beautiful caramel macchiato ever!! They put designs on everything here!

Later, I met up with a friend I met a couple of weekends ago and we went bowling...yes, there is bowling in Korea. My dad thought it was funny :) I kicked his ass at bowling and then we went for dinner and he told me about some highlight and cool people in Iksan. And I told him about Oklahoma and he told me about how he thought my accent should be stronger.

Today it was back to the grind of teaching. I love it, but I'm finding it really challenging. Everyday they ask me something, I know the answer, but I just have to think about it for a second. Like when to use "a" and "the".
i.e. She's wearing "the" skirt.
She's wearing "a" skirt.

To them, there is no real difference. Try explaining that one right off hand. So I asked Jason and Mark and they schooled me on article usage...thanks guys!

People always say, you learn something new everyday... in my case, I learn something new about every 10 minutes.

Oddities in Korea:
- Most public restrooms only have bar soap...ewy
- The floor cleaner they use smells like gasoline. Issac says it is, they just burn away the dirt.
- Today a siren went off to indicate a drill for war with North Korea...NO ONE and I mean NO ONE responded.
- Koreans pronounce F's as P's... Four = Pour

Teacher-ific

I have one day left in this work week and so far I am loving teaching. It's such a challenging and ever changing job. Everyone I work with loves to offer up advise and are great with helping me and god knows I need it! :)


SO here's my schedule:
3:30pm Magic Time (8 year-olds) They know no English so we're starting from the ground up!

4:30 pm English Time (11 year-olds) They are awesome! They have a great foundation to work with and take learning English as fun and exciting! They constantly surprise me with what they already know!

5:30 World Link 2A (adults) These people are pre-intermediate. They have a great base, but need to work on a lot of pronunciation skills and vocabulary, tenses ect.

6:30 World Link Intro A (adults) I only have 5 people in this class so you would think it would be easier... but they have very little English skills and it's rough for me.

7:40 - 9:40pm Free Talking @ the dorms - These are college kids (most of them older than me) It's at the dorms so it's a little more relaxed but they are super advanced. What I am working on with them is speeding everything up and working on pronunciation and expanding vocabulary. Lucky me... I get to edit there papers once a week also :)ha!

So even though I start at 3:30pm, it's still a pretty crazy full day! Not to mention I usually go in about an hour or so early to do a little bit of prep work. And editing those essays...oh man.

My two favorite classes are Free Talking and English Time! Free Talking because they are easy for me to communicate with and I like being able to teach them, not to mention there are cute boys in the class who have offered to teach me Korean ;)

Since I forgot to pack my Chi hair straightener, I was forced to buy a pretty nice, but inexpensive hair straightener here. The straightener just isn't like the Chi, so I wear my hair curly then straight and back and forth and then I put it in a bun or pony tail. So one day I walk into my English Time class and say Hello! to which all my kids say Hello! and then Kayla, this cute girl with a raspy voice says, "Erica! Your hair is very random!" ... Thank Kayla... got it.

I didn't think that a sudden change in hairstyle was that big of a deal but then I realize... it's a pretty big deal! On Monday, I wore my hair straight to class and on Tuesday I wore it curly. When I walked into my Free Talking class, all of my students went "OooooOOOh!" and a couple of claps (funny boys). One of the girls asked me how much it cost to perm my hair... I said, oh no... this is just what it's like! Rough times for my hair!

I have been exploring more and more food here in addition to everything else that's new. Tonight I had Sushi, which is not new to me but the octopus was! MMM! It was a piece of octopus tentacle on top of a rice ball with a little wasabi and I actually liked it! I have had Korean food, Chinese food, Italian food and of course McDonald's. I was just feeling it yesterday... I don't know what the deal was. They have bulgogi burgers here though... so no worries, it's still Korean through and through!

I miss being able to go get food alone. I can't go to a restaurant here alone because I can't read the menu and even if I knew what I wanted and that they had it, chances are I wouldn't remember well enough to ask for it and then I wouldn't know how much to pay and then the lack communication would just make us all angry! But I do a little grocery shopping for when I can't find a lunch or dinner date.

Today I had my physical and the hospital here was really, really efficient. We saw the nurse, got all the usuals out of the way, went down the hall, had our blood drawn and urine samples taken and then went upstairs and got our MRI's. It was amazingly fast. Getting all of that done in one day back at the states would have been at the very minimum a 3-4 hour ordeal. We just walked to the correct counter with all the paper work and they took us back! No big deal! It was however, my first encounter with a squat toilet! And of all time when I'm trying to give a urine sample... STUPID!

Just in case you were wondering who the "we" is in my previous paragraph, We = me and Robert. Robert has taught in South Korea before so this is his second venture. He graduated from Duke with an Accounting degree. He's super bright and talented and is the only one who forces me to practice my Korean!

Time for a few things I find odd and different:
- The girls all brush their teeth at school on breaks
- All the girls dress super duper cute all the times, leggins are a hit here!
- Everything and I mean EVERYTHING is fish flavored.
- People will break their necks staring at you because you are foreign
- Seafood restaurants keep the fish in tanks in front of the restaurant...I guess that's supposed to be appealing?

Anyway, I hope you all are well. Let me know if you have any questions or topic you think would be interesting!

Kickin it in Iksan

Today is Friday! I have officially survived the work week in Iksan!

Everyone has been asking how I like it here and what is different and if I feel like I'm in a totally new world. SO I thought I would wait until I had some valid perspective, then blog. But I think even being here just this week has not been enough time to truly see the differences. People here are quick to tell you the differences between Koreans and westerners, but I'm still deciding.

Do I like it here?
YES! My apartment is amazing! One thing I think is super cool about my apartment is that the floors are heated. They look like wood but are a plastic material and they are heated by a boiler system that is common to south Korea. My apartment literally looks like a floor model from IKEA but so much better, because it's mine!!! :) Also, I have two shower heads, one with a handle and one of those waterfall shower heads, NICE! There are no dryers here, but I have washing machine and a little room for drying clothes. Mark gave me a bed so I have a bed that is SO hard, buuut my back feels amazing when I wake up so I think my squishy bed at home may have been hurting me more than helping. I have plenty of closet space and my door has a code, not a key. The door to get into the building also has a code, double protection! There are also only 15 apartments in the entire building, with about half of them occupied by teachers from my school, so I feel really safe here.

How is teaching?
Teaching is AMAZING. Everyone says for about the first six months that you're just trying to get you footing and decide which style of teaching works best for you. I've been working on that and so far I love it. The school I work at is super laid back, the administration is supportive and helpful and the other teachers have been absolute life savers!

What ages do I teach?
This week we began the semester teaching just the children, as college students are still on break and going through orientations this week. I have a classes of eight and eleven year olds that I have been working with this week. The classes are 45 minutes long and the kids are so so so so so cute! As for the adults, I will have one intro level class, two intermediate classes and one, two hour class of advanced students at the dormitories.

What have I had to do for my job so far?
Monday, I was thrown into the mix immediately! I arrived late Sunday night and Monday morning I was at school at 9:45. I walked in and began doing interviews. At this school they have the English teachers interview students to gauge their level and place them in the correct class level. Yeah so I was good at that! I was jet lagged and tired and could barely understand English myself! BUT I managed to do the interviews and make it through the day. I've had to write the syllabi's for all my classes, do interviews of the dormitory students and teach.

Last night me and two other teachers when to the dorm for student orientation. I was interviewing the students and didn't really think about it that I was going to be teaching them! I have the highly coveted "Free Talking" class. Basically students will be given a topic and will need to discuss the topic using correct grammar and vocabulary. I will also be helping them with their writing using sample of work from a class they have in the mornings. I had an awesome time doing the interviews at the dorms and the students seemed to really like me too! When I was introduced at the orientation I got a really loud cheer! It made me feel good, but I think it was mostly because I spent at least five minutes with each student and had them talk mostly about themselves. I tried to be encouraging and give them good feedback, I guess it worked!

I had one student stop me after orientation and he was upset that I put him at an intermediate level (which he was!). I tried to pawn it off on that he may have just been too shy or nervous during the interview, but that I put him in what I thought was the correct level. I told him if the classes are not challenging enough for him after one week he can go to the office and request a change, but I know he's not at an advanced level!

What's the food like?
Well here in Iksan we have a few foreign food restaurants, so I have been able to eat at those a couple of night since I've been here. Also, kimchi is growing on me. It's really good actually. Most the Korean food is really spicy or it's fish flavored, or it's both!

What is different here?
This is something that will be an on going discovery. So far, a couple of differences I have noticed have been that they don't heat the hallways, only the rooms.
-All the water, even at restaurants comes from water coolers and at restaurants you are served warm or luke warm water with no ice.
-You have to watch where you are going when walking, cars have the right-of-way, not pedestrians.
-The streets are grimy and people hack luggies and spit all the time!
-Everyone leaves their shoes at the door when entering someones home or some restaurants.
-Instant coffee is a big hit! I actually am loving it! There is a vending machine at school where I can get a little can of coffee for about 45 cents and it comes down the shoot and gets hot instantly! Coolest and most delicious thing ever!!!

I think that is enough for now, but I will be posting some more pictures and hopefully I will have some good stories from over the weekend!!

It's only 7, 786 miles...

I left Oklahoma Saturday morning at 6:30am and arrived in Incheon, South Korea at 6:00pm on Sunday. It sounds crazy but South Korea is nine hours ahead of Oklahoma. But seriously, it was 20 hours of travel.

Leaving my family and friends at the airport was super hard but I knew everything would be ok once I was here in my new home, Iksan, South Korea.

THE FLIGHT

From OKC to Houston I had to figure out how to take three bags without paying for them so I "gate checked" a smaller suitcase. This meant that I had to pick it up once I arrived in San Fransisco since I would be switching airlines. The flight was fine and although Shelly, my aunt Kacky and my mom all had a stay up all night party, I didn't fall asleep.

At the Houston airport I only had 10 minutes before I had to board the next flight whose gate was directly across from the one I had arrived. Under the advice of a flight attendant on my previous flight, I grabbed some chips and pop tarts in case I got hungry.

From Houston to San Fransisco is a four hour flight that is NO FUN! The guy next to me was drinking Chardonnay and eating a subway sandwich (mind you this is only about 9:00am). He kept licking each finger and then licking his sandwich and taking a bite. SICK. But that's not even the worst part, after finishing he kept burping over and over! SO sick! The guy to the left of me was from Buenos Aires coming back to his new home in San Fran. He was talking to me in Spanglish which I thought was cool.

On the flight I started looking at my itinerary and saw that I only had 45 minutes to get off my plane, collect my gate checked bag from baggage claim, find the Singapore Airlines ticket counter, recheck my bag, get my boarding pass, go through security and find my terminal in international flights. Let's be real... I was running through the airport like I just realized that I had forgotten Mcally Culkin at home.

Praying the whole time, I went to the carousel that was supposed to have my bags...it hadn't started so I decided to go to the Information counter upstairs and see where the Singapore airlines counter was. The man told me to get on the light rail, the blue one, get off on gate G4 (the international terminal), and it would be there. Easy enough? NOOOO

I waited and waited on my bag and then when I got it I mad dashed it to the light rail, from there I got off as planned and could not, could not I repeat COULD NOT find the Singapore Airlines counter. I found this sign that had all the airlines but I couldn't see Singapore anywhere. I stepped up the United Airlines counter and interrupted two talking employees and asked where the counter is, to which they so kindly and generously replied, "There's the the list of all the airlines!". Normally I would have wasted time trying to read that horrible excuse for a key, but today I didn't have time to deal with their outstanding customer service and generally chipper demeanor. So I said, "I didn't see it on there could you point it out to me." one of the ladies sighed exaggeratedly and said, "Well let's just look!". So we did and she said aisle 4. "Oooook...where is aisle 4?". "Well let's think, this is aisle ONE, so aisle FOUR is going to be three more aisle that way." Remind me never to ever ever fly United...

When I found the Singapore airlines counter I asked to check the bag to which the guy was shocked and told me it would be $100. Fine I will pay I said, then I waited about 15 minutes for them to print out my boarding pass. It was 12:05, my plane leaves at 12:35...I pointed this out and he said, "No big deal, they've only started boarding.". Yeah I know douche! That's why you need to hurry it up!

So I finally get my boarding pass, now I'm going through security with my 60lb carry on that has officially left a bruise on my right shoulder and made my arms and back feel like I have been working out. They had to put it through the Xray three times...THREE! Then it was fine.

I followed the signs to gate 101. Which led me to a little counter with a lady selling magazines. "Excuse me ma'am, ma'am, ma'am! Excuse me! Where is gate 101?" Downstairs... great.
I made it just in time as they were loading the last 10 people. I was gross and sweaty and felt bad for everyone around me.

The flight was ok... I watched three movies and attempted with no avail to sleep. And I know there is this big Twilight craze... but I don't get it. It was a pretty terrible movie I thought... anyway.
They served two meals and about 5billion snacks on the flight. The drinks were just shots of water so I was dying of thirst.

Meal 1: Fish and roasted potatoes and a greek salad with shrimp. The salad was really, really good. But the fish left something to be desired. Dessert was awesome, an ice cream sandwich! MMM

Meal 2: Some sort of pasta with marinara and mushrooms and ham. Lets be real...this was TERRIBLE it was dried out and the mushrooms tasted weird and the salad that came with it was boring and only had French dressing. Hershey chocolate bar for dessert :)

While serving a meal to the lady next to me, the pretty little flight attendant definitely drooled on my hand. It was hard to notice at first because it was warm and then when it started cooling off, I realized EWWW.

INCHEON!

Going through customs took no time at all and I met a little Korean lady who gave me her number and said if I were in Seoul to call her and she would be my personal tour guide. And I also met a guy who was going to be teaching English in Seoul. And another girl who was coming back from vacation in Thailand to teach in S. Korea.

I met Mark, my friend who works at Wonkwang, and he gave me a phone to call my mom. We then got on a bus and were off to Iksan. Three hour bus ride!!!!!!!!!!!! AH! I was so sleepy my eyes couldn't blink without wanting to go to sleep. But I endured and we came to the Iksan IC (inner change) where we were met by Dr. Yu, the director of the language department. Dr. Yu drove us to our apartments, which are amazingly nice and look like they came straight out off an IKEA showroom! The floors look like wood but are more plastic-y feeling and they are heated. Mark gave me his bed so I have been sleeping on that.

My apartment is nice and I feel really safe here. There is a code to get into the building and then a code for my door...no keys! Which is great!

That's enough boring you for now, I will write about teaching next time :)