Summer Camp Finishy

My current view:

Well. It is official. It. is. finished.

Summer English camp at 포천초등학교, that is.

I just finished cleaning up my classroom, took out the trash. Another couple of hours in the A/C before it’s officially the weekend!

What’s on the agenda? Laying low this weekend. Half day of work Monday before a few days off. Hope to catch up with some of my former WA girls in Seoul during the week. And Friday: en route to Bangkok, Thailand.

How did I get here? When I met Alexis, one of my first Pocheon friends, we’d sometimes imagine how we’d feel at this point. A year seemed so long. And honestly now that It (i.e. The End) is almost here, where did it all go?

Exactly ten months ago today I experienced arguably the longest day of my life, a trip to the other side of the world, the beginning of an… experience (to say the least). I was thrown into the proverbial pool and had a decision to make. Again and again and again. Sink? Swim?

Life hasn’t gone swimmingly every second this side of the international dateline, but I can say I’ve managed to stay afloat in more ways than one, I’ve made some cool friends (“My Korea Friends”, I call them: a hodgepodge, a mini-melting pot of characters and personalities and people in similar pairs of shoes), and I’ve done super cool and crazy things I never imagined I’d have the chance to do. Make kimchi, eat ricecake, drink makgeoli, then dance around a huge field in the middle of the city with a few hundred random strangers? Check. Fall around a big inflatable pool filled with mud and about twenty other mud-covered individuals? Check. Ring in the New Year on a frozen beach while letting my hopes and dreams for 2011 float into the sunrise? Check. Learn to really love sleeping on the floor? Check check check.

What awaits? A little less than a month of travel (including a visit with Tubtim, one of my former students who is Thai). And a little more than a month of teaching. October 1: contract finishy. Can’t even think about it. It is so exciting and scary and sad. The saddest part is that I have these adorable children (well, adorable when they are not running through my office screaming at the top of their lungs playing hide-and-seek with each other and closing my internet browser windows… and even then, they are pretty cute) that I’ll likely never. see. again. But our lives go on. Yes.

I’ve learned to take risks (not as in engaging in wreckless behaviors but going farther outside of my comfort zone than I was previously… um, comfortable doing); I’ve tried things I wasn’t so sure would interest me (and had a blast). Honestly, if the job opportunities (teaching English) that exist in Korea were available all over the world, I don’t believe I would have come to Asia. But coming here was an opportunity that happened. I went with it, and I’m happy I did.

After a visit to the post office this week, I’ve begun thinking about those special people whose paths I’ve crossed who most likely will never know what a great help they have been to me. I call them My Buffers. As in, those who have protected me from shock, helped me out in otherwise difficult situations, have made life easier.

One of these in particular is a security guard at the post office in Pocheon. When I step inside, she always comes right over. Some people in town will brush me off or practically refuse to do business with me when I attempt to communicate with them with my VERY limited Korean, some English, and mostly hand gestures. Most will meet me halfway. But she goes above and beyond, always managing to figure out what I need, gives me things like bubble wrap and tape that I’d have to pay like $2.99 or more for at home, and makes the effort to communicate in English (without ever apologizing sorry sorry sorry that her English is so very very bad).

There are so many kind souls around this place that I’m thankful to and for… Kim Yuna, the 3rd/4th grade English teacher at my school who does everything for me that most co-teachers do for NETs, has been the go-between between myself and the administration/others at my school. She’s also the one I had at times early on become the most frustrated with since she is always delivering messages (messages both good and… well, sometimes unfavorable). Park Eunseon, who, despite her limited English, pregnancy, and responsibilities to her newborn and family, has seen to it that I am doing well and has taken excellent care of me from the beginning. Last year’s 6-5 class substitute teacher who is one of the cutest older Korean gentleman I’ve met and has always seemed concerned that I am doing well here. Our encounters are usually limited to: “Eat a lot.” and “Yes, it’s delicious.” But he’s done more and cared more for me in our limited interactions than most others in our workplace have since I’ve been here.

And countless others.

This has been the ride of a lifetime. It’s not over yet, though!

And who knows where I’ll be another year from now? (No, seriously. If you do know, give me a clue.)

Until next time, enjoy some photos from summer camp (and a photo or two of a man wearing gold shoes at the local bowling alley).

I ♥ Seoul!

I had the BEST weekend! I LOVE Seoul!

Let me rewind a bit, though. The reason it took me awhile to be able to blog initially (and get that apartment video up) was because, well, my first 48 hours or so on the continent of Asia were quite possibly the hardest days of my life.

As I was dropped off at my apartment two Wednesdays ago after my first Korean-style meal only hours after touching down, despite my aching back from having hauled my worldly possessions what seemed a world away… a heap of *stuff* on my spare bedroom floor stared back at me. And it said to me: “Why even bother putting us away? You’ll be home in a few days. Why the heck would you come to a place to which you’d never traveled before, in which you don’t speak the language, where you have ABSOLUTELY no friends, no family, and to do a job you’ve not done for a day in your life?! You’ll never make it. It’s TOO HARD.” After a few days of getting my bearings, getting lots of sleep (and finally at the right times), meeting some other foreigners in town, and also simply allowing myself to feel what I felt, no matter how much it hurt, I realized HEY! I have a year-long contract here. I have a year to explore Asia. I only have about 49 weekends left now. Asia will always be here, but when will I ever be so close to all of this, not a $1200-$1500 plane ticket away. Take advantage of the opportunities at hand!

In the past thirteen or so days, many of the unknowns (the source of most of my anxiety just before leaving Chicago and upon my arrival here) have become known. I made a well-educated decision when I accepted a job here, but that doesn’t change the fact that I accepted a job in a completely foreign place that is much more challenging for me to adjust to than the Latin American countries I have experienced

I’m glad I was strong enough to stick it through those few hard days (not that I would have known how to call a taxi to the airport, anyway), and I’m looking forward to more life on this side of the international date line.

I have heard that culture shock often hits at 3 months and 6 months (and on birthdays and holidays). I know it comes in waves, and so I recognize I will have my ups and downs. But I really wanted to touch on this because despite my considering myself a “seasoned traveler”, it hit me and oh did it hit me hard. I’m of the school of though that the most uncomfortable situations are the ones that really change you and challenge you to grow and to become who you were meant to be. It sounds so nice, all of that growing and becoming… and being challenged, doesn’t it? Until it happens to you.

Anyway, since my last post, what has happened? Yes, I did find the Catholic Church in Pocheon. I walked for about an hour and fifteen minutes, found it shortly after the 11:00am Mass began, then decided that I wasn’t sure about shoes (do people take off their shoes at the door, bring inside shoes, walk barefoot…?? I mean it’s common here to take off your shoes when entering a home, and the church is God’s house…). So I got pretty anxious about the situation, didn’t want to risk looking like an even crazier foreigner than I already do, and walked back home and googled that information, went about my day and got back to church for 7:00pm Mass. For the record, no they do not take off their shoes in church. It is a very small church, and it is actually just across the street from my school. I walked all over town, lost myself about 5 times, only to end up about a 6-7 minute walk from my apartment. Mass, of course, was in Korean. I obviously didn’t understand the Korean, but I understand the Mass since it is the same no matter where you go and the Eucharist is always the same Body of Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in any nation in any language. During the Sign of Peace, rather than shaking hands, people turn to their neighbors and bow. Generally there was a ton of bowing while the congregation responded during the Mass. It’s something I wasn’t used to at first, but I feel like it helped me to focus on the solemnity of the Mass. There were about 40 or 50 people in church and I would say all but about three women wore beautiful long white veils. Once I learn to read hangul  (Korean writing system) quickly enough, I will be able to sing along at church since they have hymnals, so I guess that’s another incentive to pick up the pace with learning Korean. I can sound out words (for example, reading signs as I go by in the bus), but it usually happens super slowly and by the time I sound out two syllables the sign I was looking at is no longer in front of me.

As for work, I spent most of last week observing. I have 7 fifth grade classes and 8 sixth grade classes. I teach them only one time a week. And then a class called the Dream Class for kids whose parents signed them up for extra English classes twice a week. So basically I only have to plan 3 lessons a week. 5th graders have their other lesson each week (I said they meet twice a week, right?) with my co-teacher, and the 6th graders have their other lesson with their homeroom teachers. Since I was observing 7 and 8 of the same class last week, by the end of the week, I was ready to get to work planning my own lessons and to be doing something instead of sitting in the back watching!

I decided to venture down to Seoul for the weekend to get to know the city. I had no idea what I was in store for. I had contacted Amy from couchsurfing last weekend. She is a teacher (like me!!) also and lives in Seoul with her Mexican husband who is studying at a university here. We planned on getting together Saturday, but as I had plans on Sunday as well, she and Ayax agreed to host me Saturday night. We spent much of the day on the subway (Seoul has an impressive subway system!), and later in the evening we went to a fireworks festival near the Han River. Amy was the contact for an event posted on couchsurfing, and so we met up with a handful or so of other CSers. I met Jesus (who is stationed about 3 hours south of Seoul) and his wife Rosa, who have met Amy and Ayax before and came to Seoul for a long weekend. We all had a late lunch of Chinese food (Korean Chinese food is different than American Chinese or um, Chinese Chinese, but good.) and since we all speak Spanish, well, we spoke in Spanish the whole time (except for a little Korean to order food). The fireworks show was cool— there were people lining the bridge that crosses the river as well as a huge crowd in a nearby park. Jack, a Korean couchsurfer (who speaks really good English!) joined us and attempted to teach me a little Korean while we all watched the fireworks. I was especially interested in sentence structure and verb conjugationg (SOOO easy! Only past, present and future, just 3 tenses!) I think I forgot most of it by now though. 😦 We got some snacks and drinks and hung out after the fireworks. Then, we had some Dak Galbi (Korean barbecue chicken… however referring to this dish simply as barbecue chicken does it absolutely no justice) which is hands down my favorite food so far!!! (Well, besides HoDduk but that’s more like dessert/snack and besides bibimbap.). Jesus, Rosa, and I ordered the normal Dak Galbi which was pretty spicy. The other three members of our party had the spicier version at their table which was pretty evident by the sweat popping out of their facial pores and running down their faces.

Jesus and Rosa surfed Amy and Ayax’s apartment floor as well— it was quite a full house. In the morning, I was off to look for the Spanish Mass I had found online at an International Catholic Church. It took me a little bit longer than I anticipated to get there on the subway (I had to transfer lines twice) and it was farther from the station than I thought, but I eventually found the Church. A small community of around 40 or so people from all different Spanish-speaking places… a lot of university students… including several Korean people too. I met someone from Santa Ana, El Salvador, the city where I spent a week in October and another week in August. What a small world!

After Mass, I hopped back on the subway, stopped to work on my computer for a bit at a Coldstone Creamery/Tous les Jours Bakery where I picked up some wifi (Yes, there is Coldstone here. And Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robbins, 7Eleven. Sadly there is no Dunkin Donuts in my town, but I’ve seen one as close as about 45 minutes away from me.), then made my way over to see Jayoung! Jayoung is a friend of mine from high school that I have not seen in over 10 years!! She made me a delicious dinner and we chatted. I looked at her engagement photos and stayed as long as I could. Around 8:30 or so I got back on the subway for the trek up to Pocheon. My town is about 2 hours north of Seoul. That’s if you take the subway (1 hour) and then a bus (1 hour). It costs about $2. There is a direct bus, but that costs around $5 or $6 each way, and I figure if I’m going to be spending a lot of time in Seoul, I might as well take the longer way and bring a good book. And the subway/bus system here uses a card that you pay with called T-Money. T-Money is so awesome. Not only do they have the regular cards that you just reload (you have your card “scanned”— really you just place it over a magnetic sensor— once when you get on the bus or into the subway and once when you get off and it deducts the correct fare depending on how far you went), they have those ornament looking things for your cell phone or key chain that has the magnetic chip in it that you use just like a T-Money card, placing it over the sensor and it deducts the money. So awesome!  (I’m sorry I sound like a total dork, but I think it’s so cool!)

I was nervous today about teaching as it was my first time in front of classes all day. But the website http://www.waygook.org saved me (waygook is Korean for foreigner and it’s a website for English teachers in Korea) with a ton of ideas for supplementing the curriculum (most elementary public school teachers in Gyeonggi-do province use the same book, so other teachers post ideas and lesson plans and activities they used— it’s a great resource!) and jazzing up today’s lesson. The kids in class had fun.

After work, I went to E-Mart (it’s about a 15-20 minute bus ride south). E-Mart is great. I had been doing my shopping up until now at a very small local supermarket. I am not familiar with most of the vegetables and the selection is pretty slim although it’s not like I’d starve. It’s just a little hard shopping when you can’t read most labels. Anyway, I was so overwhelmed by all the choices available to me at E-Mart. I had planned on going to E-Mart and then to Home Plus as I wanted to buy a blackout curtain for my bedroom to stop the streetlight from pouring in at night and making my body think it’s time to get ready for the day when it’s only 2am. I got to E-Mart and was absolutely overwhelmed, in a good way, (and found the shade that I ended up buying which is like 6 or 7 feet long, kind of awkward to take to Home Plus and lug around on the bus) so I’m saving Home Plus for another day. I picked up a few items I can’t seem to find closer to home such as: a lavendar candle, the ginornous window shade which covers my entire bedroom window/sliding door, peanut butter, banana milk, a BIG bottle of Dove conditioner, and some folders. I need to make a list before I go back again (I’m not cooking too much here at home as I get a big lunch everyday at school, and I have yet to really *miss* familiar American foods).

Next weekend, I am going to see a kitty on my way back up from Seoul and may very well have a new addition (in the form of a feline companion) to my household by next week.

Stay tuned for more. I apologize for the extremely long post— perhaps I shouldn’t wait so much time between writing!

I hope you’re doing well! Besos y abrazos!

first post from Korea!/¡primer blog desde Corea!

Good morning (or in most of your cases, good evening), everyone!

Today is day number five in Korea. How quickly time flies, yet at the same time it feels as though I’ve been here longer. This post is extremely long, but there’s so much to say.

Tuesday 9.28/Wednesday 9.29

The flight here was fine. I flew United to San Francisco with a short 2 hour layover and onto Seoul. I was a bit worried about 12 hours on a plane (last time I did that was over 10 years ago) but it was actually more comfortable and pleasant than recent 4-5 hour flights I’d been on. I had a bit of extra legroom due to my Economy Plus upgrade (definitely worth the $97!) which was nice. I was worried we wouldn’t be fed enough since airlines these days seem to skimp on food but from what I recall there were three meals (one was a ramen noodle-y type of snack and cookies), several beverages and a flight attendant passing through the cabin every hour on the hour with water. Due to my not having slept at all before leaving Chicago, I slept the whole way to SFO and spent a good several hours drifting in and out of consciousness on the way to Seoul.

When I got to the airport, got through customs, got my bags (I have NEVER packed this heavy in my life and never want to ever again, unless I have to move halfway across the world or something like that).

There was a man outside the arrivals area holding a sign with my name on it, so I figured that was my ride. My taxi driver spoke no English, so that was fun. I managed to remember the Korean word for thank you, kamsamnida. Oh and I said the name of the town to be sure he knew where he was taking me. I got into the taxi, and he handed me a cell phone. On it was Erin, one of the recruiters who has been working with me for several months now. She let me know that the taxi driver would take me to Pocheon where I would meet someone from my school at 5:00pm.

At Pocheon Elementary School, I met Kim Yuna and Park Eunseon (last names come first here). Yuna speaks great English and is one of the Korean English teachers. Although she is not officially my co-teacher, she has been the most helpful person to me since I have been here, helping me to get set up here in town and answering a lot of my questions.

An ARC or Alien Registration Card is important here. In addition to my work visa, I need an ARC. And it is not easy to get. A health check is required (blood/urine tests, chest xray, blood pressure, heart rate, etc.) in order to get the ARC which you need in order to open a bank account, get a cell phone, and pretty much exist as a foreigner in Korean society. And the office I need to go to to obtain the aforementioned document is located in another town an hour away by bus. Luckily I already had internet set up at my apartment— if not I would have had to wait until I can be an officially registered alien. Right now I’m stuck somewhere in personhood limbo.

Wednesday after I arrived, Yuna and Eunseon took me to the supermarket to get a few basic food items and toilet paper. Dinner at a Korean style restaurant was great, although I was exhausted from traveling and my back was aching from carrying half of my cargo through the airports. The dish I chose had sausage in it which was more like hot dogs. I’m not a humongous meat eater (although not a legit vegetarian), but here in Korea although I will probably not buy or prepare my own meat, I decided I’ll eat meat when offered by others, eating lunch everyday at school (it’s difficult to find a truly vegetarian Korean dish… almost everything seems to have bits of meat in it), or out at restaurants.

I attempted to unpack and made a dent, but I was so exhausted, I hit the hay around 9pm (that’s 7am Chicago time).

Thursday 9.30

I was up by about 4:00am looking around my apartment, making mental notes of things I needed to buy/do, and scrubbing down the kitchen. The apartment I am living in is the apartment that the native English teacher at my school before me (and the one before her, and probably the one before that person also) lived. That said, I have pretty much everything I need: pots/pans, dishes, electric kettle, rice cooker, microwave, coffee maker. Everything. But since the place had been lived in before I wanted to give it a good once over to freshen things up. 🙂

I met Yuna at school at 11:30am where we had lunch (the teachers at the school pay about 50,000 won, about $44 US, a month for lunch) which is definitely a hearty meal if you’re into Korean food: soup, rice, kimchi, fruit or vegetable, a couple other side dishes.

We tried to take care of my bank account and get a cell phone after lunch but discovered that I definitely DO need the ARC card (Yuna and Eunseon thought that perhaps we could do it with my passport, but no go.) I was so tired, Yuna dropped me off at home and I slept from 3:30-7:30pm. Several times I opened my eyes and wanted to get out of bed so that I could sleep more at night, but my body was physically unable to move. Talk about jet lag. Finally I got up a few minutes before my door buzzer rang. Startled, I asked who it was. The internet guy. Luckily the word in Korean for internet is “intonet” so I figured out he wasn’t stranger danger and let him in. He set up my internet, so I no longer have to bum a shoddy connection from a neighbor with unsecured wireless which only works on the corner of my kitchen counter.

Friday 10.1

My first day teaching. I’ll be teaching 20 forty minute classes a week which includes a class for teachers on Wednesdays and the Dream Class which meets four times a week (from what I understand it’s for students who want to take extra English classes). As far as regular classes go, I’m teaching only 5th and 6th grade. In 5th grade, I have a Korean co-teacher . In 6th grade, I co-teach with the homeroom teachers. Out of the three classes I was supposed to have Friday, only one met due to practices for Sports Day which is coming up this Thursday. The students were rehearsing some sort of performance in the school yard which includes a synchronized dance and waving flags. Karina and I saw something like this in Guatemala, I guess this craze is sweeping the planet?

After lunch, Yuna and Eunseon took me to get some tiny photos taken and then to the hospital for my health check (one step closer to the ARC!). Blood and urine tests (woohoo!), chest x-ray, vital signs taken… once the results come back that I’m drug/disease free, I can take them to the immigration office in Yangju and get the ARC.

Although I only teach 3-5 classes a day, I must be at school from 8:30-4:30 (unless I have permission not to be), so I went back to school for about an hour after the hospital, until 4:30, and worked on some lessons. I still need to get a feel for all the classes I’ll be working with and where they are at. Every class in a given grade uses the same book along with CD-ROMs we use on the smart board (and all the 5th and 6th graders, respectively, in Gyeonggi Province use the same book), so I don’t have any curriculum to plan (and it’s super easy to find helpful ideas and activities from other teachers online).

Saturday 10.2

Friday I made a new friend in town who is also teaching English. We had coffee Saturday morning and he showed me a few of the ropes. I spent the rest of Saturday catching up on my to-do list and picking up a some essentials for the apartment.

I hope to take a video or pics of the place soon so you can see where I live. It is great! Bigger than I expected! Living/dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms (the one I don’t sleep in is my wardrobe and storage), bathroom. Last night I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 9:00, and I woke up around 5:30am today. Hopefully by tonight I will be able to stay up until 10:00pm to get my sleep schedule on track.

It’s funny the things I am learning to resort to in order to communicate or find what it is I need. I can’t rely on any language skills (aside from thank you, yes, and garbage bag). So I’ve been looking up the words I need to know before I go out to run an errand. I take this notebook with me everywhere I go. When I ask for help though, what happens next is that the person asks me a litany of questions in Korean, none of which I understand. I’m slowing learning hangeul, the Korean writing system, which shouldn’t take long since it’s all phonetic (it’s possible to learn it in 4 hours, but for someone who can’t sit down and study it for four hours at a time, I should know it in about a week or two), so soon I should be able to sound out anything I see written down (then comes figuring out the meanings of the words).

Sunday 10.3

Today I’m on the search for a Catholic church in town. I’m having trouble finding the correct information on the internet. So I am going to ask around and head in the general vicinity of where google maps told me it might be (I read somewhere that the church is on a hill overlooking downtown). Mass times are 7, 9, 11, and 7pm, so I have the next, um, 10 hours to find it.

Thanks for reading! Sorry it took so long to post. It took me a few days to feel a little more settled here and ready to blog. I hope to post an apartment video/photos soon, maybe later today (or tomorrow, for those of you in other time zones).

Bendiciones!

(Next time remind me I need to tell you about the garbage bag fiasco.)