Changes

With a new month also come new changes such as school schedules and a new apartment.

Because another foreign teacher just left, the school has decided not to hire a foreign teacher to take her place but just to divvy up her classes among the current foreign teachers. So instead of just adding a class or two to everyone's schedules they decided to mix all the class up and give us completely new schedules. Aargg! This is has been so frustrating because I was just beginning to get used to my April schedule. I was also developing relationships with my students and almost had their names learned. (I am sooo bad with names it's not even funny.) So now I have some of my old classes, but mostly new classes. This new schedule is all over the place. Some classes meet mon, wed, fri. and some meet tue, thur, but then I have a whole bunch of classes that only meet once a week. It's going to be a lot harder to learn names and develop relationships with kids who are only in my class once a week. I also lost some of my really good classes. So now I am readjusting to new students and new classes. I wonder how often this will happen...hopefully not every month. Although, with our school I wouldn't be surprised if this was a regular thing. Oh the chaos!

So upon coming to Korea I was under the impression that I would be a conversation teacher. Conversation meaning to converse, talk, shoot the breeze in a manner of speaking. But that is definitely not what I am doing. I am a full blown English teacher. I have been teaching grammar, spelling, reading, writing...etc. We work from workbooks, we read out of textbooks and I provide as many animated examples as I can. I have no problem with all this English teaching, it's just not the conversation that I was expecting. And really, I think these kids would benefit more from conversation over grammar and spelling. With my new schedule also came four IVY classes. These are the highest classes that our school offers and for some reason they were give to me. (I am not even a good speller) So it will be interesting for me to figure out what I am going to do in these classes. This is all quite the learning experience. Not only am I learning a job that I never studied for, but I am also learning more English, learning about the Korean education system (which is a joke), and learning about all different ages of children. So far I love being a teacher! It has also been a great confidence builder because in every class I am always the boss and always the star that everyone looks up to. :)

So with the new month also comes our new apartment. Yay! For the last three weeks Heather and I have been living out of our suitcases knowing that we would be moving. Finally the time has come. We are not sure exactly when we will move, but we know it will be this week. Our move is only down one floor of our apartment building, but the new apartment should be a bit better. Supposedly it is slightly larger, it has more furniture, it has a full sized refrigerator that works, the bathroom doesn't smell nasty, it is not facing a noisy construction site, and it's right next door to Shay Teacher's apartment so we will be able to bother him any hour of the day. :) This should be a good change.

Interesting Week

I feel like a lot of stuff has happened this last week. At first we got this bad news about our school, then tons of rumors were flying around, heather and I freaked out, then our Director talked with us and straightened things out and then an old English teacher came back to the school for a visit and I learned a lot from her.

So to re-cap from last week Heather and I thought we might have to leave our school because of illegal pension stuff. Then our Director told us that he would set us up with pension as long as we would stay and work for him. He was extremily nice and cooperative which made us feel better about everything. Then this Friday Ashley (a girl who used to work for our school, then went back home and is now back working for another school), and me and one of the Korean teachers went out for dinner. We got Thai food and talked about the school. It was so great to hear Ashley's perspective on things since she had already worked at the school for a year, and also good to hear Lena's take on things since she's a Korean teacher. After dinner I was feeling better about the whole situation and glad to have had the social stimulation of some other people. So all of that said, we have decided to keep our job and not shop around for other schools.

Friday night Heather stayed home because she was feeling sick. All week we had both been developing a cough and the sniffles. Saturday morning our Director and his wife came to pick us up and take us to the hospital for our medical check-up. In order to get our alien card we needed to pass a medical check-up. By then both Heather and I were feeling a bit sick, so hopefully that doesn't affect anything. The check up consisted of first a blood test (of which we were unaware would happen), then a pee test (of which I could not go, so I had to drink bottle after bottle of water until I could go...talk about embarrassing), then they checked our vision, our hearing and our blood pressure, and x-rayed our chests. It was all very interesting because everything was done in a different room or area, so we were walking from one station to the next. Luckily Ranni, our directors wife was with us to figure everything out for us. Afterwards she took us out for Vietnamese food. Mmmm. :)

After getting home around noon on Saturday, both Heather and I started to feel like crap. We decided that we should spend the rest of our rainy Saturday resting and getting better. By early evening I had developed a fever and was feeling much worse. I took some ibuprofen and that seemed to fix me....Until I work up at about 3:30am with the most horrible shivers and body aches. My temperature had shot up and I was miserable. I woke up early this morning to a temperature of around 102 and just felt completely horrible. I was able to sleep off and on until at 10am our doorbell rang. Heather answered it and it was our landlady. After lots of hand gestures and word guessing Heather came to the conclusion that the landlady wanted us to move out today and into the apartment downstairs. Both of us were feeling sick and had no idea how that was going to happen. So heather went downstairs to see if the English teacher down there had moved out yet, but there was no answer and the door was locked. We decided that we would just wait until Monday to speak with our Director about the whole issue.

After hanging around all morning Heather and I were starting to feel better and my temperature was going down. Shay, and English teacher living downstairs called us up and wanted to know if we wanted to go out with him. He was going to a grocery store about a 10 minute taxi ride away that was known for carrying American, or more western items. So we decided that it was time to leave our germ infested apartment and get some fresh air. After arriving in Jamsil Shay took us to see this underground mall. It was pretty incredible and almost over stimulated me. While still having a fever, seeing all the people, stores, stuff, food and fountains I was completely overwhelmed. After leaving there we went to the 'more western' grocery store, bought our items and then hopped a taxi home. On the way we noticed a procession or sorts and realized that it was the Olympic torch. We jumped out of the taxi and were able to see the processional of the Olympic torch being run through Seoul, Korea. Everyone was decked out in Chinese and Korean flags, drums were playing and excitement for the Olympics was in the air. It's times like these that I realize I am really living in South Korea. My heart is full and I feel alive...despite the lingering fever.

Bad News

Unfortunately I already have bad news. Heather and I just found out that our school is really shady and now we could possibly lose our jobs and get kicked out of the country. In our contract we were told that we would be given health insurance, an alien ID card, and pension. Well so far we have seen none of that. An alien registration card must be obtained within 30 days and we've already been here for two weeks and our school hasn't said anything to us about it. We don't have health insurance yet and apparently another teacher who's been at this school for seven months also doesn't have health insurance. Pension was the last thing on our minds, but now it is definitely the first.

One of girls working at our school is a Canadian Korean and is finishing up her contract. She just received a letter from the Korean government claiming that she, nor the school had paid any pension for the last 12 months. So now they are fining her and potentially kicking her out of the country. The pension office then looked into our school and realized that the school was not paying pension for anyone. This is pretty much tax fraud. So now they are going to audit and investigate our school to see what is going on. In response to this apparently our school has hired a top notch lawyer who is getting rid of all our documents to make it look like we don't officially work for the school. The school claims that they have loop holes to get everyone out of this, but that is just them lying. The Canadian Korean teacher says that for the last year the school has been trying to work these loop holes and they've barely been making it. The director of the school refuses to pay our pension and if he doesn't agree to pay pension on all the the teachers by Friday then our school will go under investigation. The first thing they will do is shut down the school's assets, meaning we won't get paid...and the monthly pay period is supposed to be next week for us. If the investigation shows the school as being guilty we could have a fine to pay, lose our jobs and possibly get kicked out of the country with no re-entry.

As of now everything is up in the air and the school is being dishonest with us. Heather and I have decided that we're going to start looking for a job at another school/hogwon. Then hopefully we can break our contract and work for a better school without going through this whole hassle. This is unless our director decided so sign us up for pension as well as health insurance. We are also hoping to get our alien registration cards by next week...now that we've taken that matter into our own hands. Our lives are about to get very complicated because even if we do find another school to work for we will have to re-do the visa process, probably leave the country temporarily and then come back on a visitors visa until a working visa has been approved. We have no idea what is going to happen...

food, classes, rain...

I am loving the food here! Here meals are meant to be shared with lots of people so they serve you lots of food. Heather and I have been going out to this same place and sharing a meal of bibimbop. The meal is seaweed soup with these random white animal heart looking piece of things (we don't eat those), a side of kimchi, a side of spicy sauce, a side of awesome salty chicken stuff and then the main part is a huge pot of rice with bits of carrot, sprouts, seaweed and other random stuff on it. It only costs us $3 a person and is plenty of food. 

Everyday our school also gets a snack for us around 5:30. It has been fun to see what the daily snack is going to be and even more fun to try it. One day it was black noodles wrapped in pig intestine, another day it was cup of noodles, one day it was tomatoes and bananas, one day it was sushi, one day it was dumplings with kimchi and vegetables inside them, and today we had some sort of green tea cake....very interesting. :) I've also discovered this cool snack. It's a cookie of sorts, but it has 13 different kinds of nuts and grains in it. It is sweet, but at the same time very grainy so it's an odd taste.

Today I taught one of my two kindergarden science classes of the week and it was hell. These kids are so cute, but just completely horrible and naughty. I have about ten of them so it's hard to get all of their attention at once. I will try to help a few kids, but while I'm doing that the other kids will start throwing things and tearing the room apart. My class pretty much consists of an hour of me chasing the kids around the room. Today they decided they were going to eat paper and then spit it at each other. I don't know how many spit balls I got to the face. My problem is that I will get mad at them but then they'll do something funny and I can't help but crack up. So then my evil face has turned into a laugh and they don't take me serious any more. I've got a pretty good evil eye that I give the naughty kids, but then they're just too cute and I can't hold it. I hope either this class improves, or I become a better teacher. :)

The rain has started falling. I guess with spring you always get rain, but here it's a different kind of rain. It's acid rain. Because there is so much pollution in the city the rain is acidic. I didn't think it was a big deal, but now I think it's screwing with my lungs. Being outside in the rain kind of aggravates my lungs and gives me this little cough. ...or maybe it's the yellow dust from China that is causing that...who knows. Speaking of yellow dust, it's yellow dust season and people have started wearing masks. I think it's pretty funny actually. Some women will wear a hat, a mask, long pants, long sleeves and even gloves on their hands. And then here comes the American Ellie walking down the street with a tank top, capris and flip flops on holding my head high and breathing in all the glorious yellow dust. Ahhhh, I love this country!

Kimchi!

Kimchi, the real stuff after what my blog is named. This is fermented cabbage and vegetables with all sorts of hot spices and seasonings to flavor it. It is served with every meal. A lot of my students actually eat kimchi and rice for breakfast. Here in Korea a meal is not a meal without kimchi. It is very spicy, but I try to eat a piece of it once a day to increase my tolerance. In a few months I will love this stuff!

week sum up

Arrg, everytime I go to post a new blog the blogger site opens in full Korean characters and I have to re-figure out how to set it to English. This is frustrating, but I should be used to it by now. Maybe one of these days I will just type my blog in Korean characters instead of English, haha.

This last week was pretty good. It was test week at school so I had to figure out how that was going to work. Our school is very chaotic and unorganized so I think it's kind of a miracle that test week went over well. The majority of my students did really well and cooperated with me. I did have that occasional student though that just refused to do anything. It was frustrating for me to deal with these students, but in the end I was able to get a little out of them. This next week should be a normal week so that will be nice. A few of my classes have just finished their workbooks though, so until next month we will be reviewing. Review is interesting because I have to come up with stuff on my own to do with them. We'll see how creative I get.

On a different note, Heather and I are learning the quirks of our apartment. The other night we woke up to a very loud beeping noise. We were so disoriented that by the time we were up and had put the lights on the beeping stopped and we couldn't figure out what it was. After some investigating we learned that it was the little thing on our wall that sets our heat and hot water. It was flashing E1, which we took as error. The next day we talked to the people at our school and they said that it means we have to drain the water out of our pipes before it will work again. So we found the knob to drain the water in our laundry room, drained a ton of water onto the floor and the thing on the wall started to work again. Now we have hot water, yay! Apparently this is a normal thing though. We were told that we would probably have to do that once a  week!?! Okay, interesting. We have also figured out how to use our washing machine which is a good thing, but it makes some of the strangest noises. I think it has about 10 random noises and beeps that it goes through.

The weather is warming up and the trees have started to turn green. Ahhh spring! Today we decided to take a Sunday outing to a park in the middle of Seoul with a huge tower and a great look out. On the way an old man sat next to me on the subway. After some time he fell asleep. Then he started leaning in my direction. Finally he slumped over and put his head on my shoulder. He seemed to be sleeping quite contently so I decided not to say or do anything. The Korean ladies sitting across from me were having quite the time though. They kept pointing and whispering to each other. I was trying so hard not to laugh, but eventually I just let it all out. The man kept sleeping though despite my laughing and shaking shoulders. The ladies were so bothered by this man sleeping on me that finally one of them got up and shook the man awake. She scolded him in Korean and made him go sit somewhere else. The whole thing was pretty funny.

Food

I was unsure of what to expect in Korean food, but so far I've enjoyed most of it. The first few days being here I survived on a few lasting snacks from the US, but finally Heather and I ventured out to try eating in a restaurant. We also did some grocery shopping. The first grocery store that we went to was huge! I think the fish and meat section took up half of the store. There were people at each meat counter yelling at the customers to buy their meat, fish or seaweed. It was all pretty overwhelming. If we stopped to look at anything we'd get a swarm of venders trying to sell us their stuff. Free samples were also everywhere, but we had no idea what most of the stuff was so we stayed away from those as well. So our first grocery shopping experience went ok. We got a few basic things that we knew like milk, cereal, eggs, cheese and rice.

After buying our groceries we realized that our school serves lunch everyday and then for dinner the teachers would go out to eat, so we don't really cook or eat at home much. Eating out is incredibly cheap and wonderfully delicious though. For under $5 you can buy a huge meal of rice and veggies mixed together with other random stuff in it like seaweed flakes and mushrooms and stuff that I have no idea what it is. Then you also get between three and five side dishes. The staple side dishes are usually soup and kimchi. Then they will give you a few other things and a sauce or two. Dinner for one person will just about fill up the whole table. As far a utensils go they give you a big spoon and chopsticks. From what I've been able to tell you use the spoon for the soup and the big/main dish of rice, then you eat all the side dishes with the chopsticks. It's been fun to get the hang of chopsticks and proper eating etiquette. I'm also beginning to like some of the weird foods now like seaweed soup and kimchi. Kimchi is still too hot for my taste buds but I eat some of it with almost every meal. I think it's only a matter of time before my taste buds adjust.

Shopping for snacks has become a fun thing. We found this little grocery store right up the street from our apartment so we go there to buy snacks, water, milk and cereal. First of all everything is written in Korean characters and second of all they don't have the same types of snacks that I'm used to. So it's been fun to try things like green tea cookies, aero chocolate, Korean chips and all the different types of juice and green tea drinks that they have. Sometimes I'll have no idea what I'm buying but then I'll try it and love it! My most recent snack experiment was a red bag that looked like it maybe had chips in it. When I opened it there were all these little bird seed looking balls in it. I ate one and it tasted like crunchy peanut butter. :) So much fun!

Honeymoon Phase

I think I have got to be in the honeymoon phase of living in Korea right now. Everything is great, I am more than happy, I'm loving exploring, etc. etc. etc. I will be curious to see how long this phase lasts and if it's even just a phase or a new way of life. Traveling and being in other places and cultures is what makes me feel alive. I feel more myself in other places and cultures than I think I ever did in the US. I have always known this, but traveling always reaffirms this for me. I am normally a curious and positive person, but being here I just feel more alive.

Because I live in the city it isn't so different from an American city other than the language and looks of people. There is not so much Korean culture in the city. This is somewhat disappointing, but it also will help me to get out more and seek out that strong culture that I desire. The good thing about Seoul though is that the transition to living here was quite easy because it is like any other city I have been to. And of course there are plenty of things to do and see here that I would never see in another country.

Yesterday (Sunday) Andrew, one of the other English teachers took us out of the city for a hike. It was so easy to get there. We just took our subway line to the end stop, looked for the mountain and started walking towards it. What were city streets became narrow village streets as we started our climb up the mountain. All along the sides of the streets were street vendors and little village style restaurants with wonderful smelling food. We passed a stream at one point with a ledge hanging a few sponges and brushes for people to wash their dishes with. That in particular really reminded me of living in Papua New Guinea. 

The first part of the climb up the mountain was the hardest. It was pretty much straight up. There were plenty of stone stairs that aided us in the climb though. Once at the top we were able to see a lot of Seoul. It was a hazy day, but I can imagine that on a clear day the view would be incredible. From there we continued to hike a loop around the ridges of the nearby mountains. We followed an old wall and at one point came upon a temple. We explored that for a bit and then continued on. The day was perfect, it was about 60 degrees, sunny and cloudy, we could see the fresh greenness of spring and hot pink blossoms, the smell of pine was in the air as we walked on pine needles and in the distance we could hear the deep chiming of a gong. This to me was why I came to Asia. 

After our hike we met another English teacher for dinner. We went to a place somewhat like a Japanese steak house. They brought the meat to our table with tons of side dishes and then we cooked the meat on the center of the table. It was a tasty dinner to complete our wonderful day. :)

Adjusting

So far I have found Korea to be an interesting place. It is very much first world meets third world. For the most part Seoul seems to be first world. There are tall buildings, clean streets, well dressed people and a decent standard of living. People seem well off. But I also run into those third world traits. Such as people vending on the side of the street, one room apartments, squatter toilets and so on. I find it interesting to be in a developing country like Korea. I have lived in a third world country to the extreme and I have also lived in a first world country, but I have never had the chance to experience both at once. It throws me off at times.

Last night my boss wanted to take us English teachers out for a beer after work. It was kind of odd because I have never gone for beer with a boss before. He ordered a few appetizers and a few pitchers of beer. It was great to get to know some of the other teachers and our boss in a more relaxed environment. We talked about Korean society, school, jobs we had before coming to Korea, other places we've lived and experience, and so many other things. It was incredibly refreshing to be sharing conversation and ideas with a Korean, a New Zealander, a Scotsman and a few other North Americans. I feel like last night was just a peek of what is to come as far as friendships with people from all over the world.

Today Heather, me, our Canadian neighbor and our New Zealander friend decided to venture out to Techno Mart. (a place where we could find an outlet adapter and cell phones) We took the subway (which is the nicest subway that I have been in yet) and decided to stop and walk through Olympic Park. Olympic Park is huge and beautiful. The blossoms and little sprigs of green were all over the place, and because of the warming weather everyone else seemed to be enjoying the park too. Even though Seoul is a huge city there are still plenty of beautiful green areas and parks to enjoy. So after walking through Olympic Park we continued our journey to Techno Mart. Upon arriving at Techno Mart I was surprised and shocked! I was thinking Techno Mart was a store, but I was in for a huge surprise. Instead, it was almost a mall of sorts. There were 11 stories of cubicle like shops divided by floor.  Among those 11 stories there was one whole floor of cell phone venders. We stopped there first and bargained for cell phones. Then we went to one of the two camera floors and found our outlet adapters. You could probably find anything in that place and find it for an awesome deal too. After going to Techno Mart I am in shock at the bulk amounts of electronics and stuff that one can buy in Korea.

School

Heather and I were thrown right into the school's teaching schedule. So the last few days have been somewhat hectic and crazy while we've been figuring out what we're doing. I have an afternoon schedule meaning that most of my classes start between 1:10 and 2:40 and go until around 8pm. This is nice because I have the mornings off. I plan on getting into a yoga class to fill part of my mornings. :)

The school's name is Wonderland Songpa and is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. It's located on the 4th and 5th floors of a building in the downtown'ish part of our neighborhood. So far I love it here at the school. The kids are adorable and actually know much better english than I thought they would. I mostly teach 8-12 year olds, but I also have some kindergardeners. (they are so cute, I want to keep them all!) A lot of the classes that I teach are conversational but some involve grammer too. Then I also have a science class and a lego class.

I work with about 10 Korean ladies who are all in about their twenties or early thirties. As for the foreign English teachers there is a Canadian couple, an American guy, an Australian guy, a New Zealand guy and then Heather and me. I think another Australian guy is also lined up to come in a few weeks. They are all very nice and seem to be like fun people. I'm sure they will end up being my best friends.

Last night our friend Tyler who has been teaching in Korea for seven months came to our neighborhood to hang out. We did some exploring with him and drank soju for the first time. We also found a great park in our neighborhood where I plan on spending more time from now on. Our neighborhood is a perfect size. It is large, but has some really nice areas and tons of restaurants. It's been fun to explore it and see what all is near us.

We have a few different plans for the weekend. One of which involves finding a store called Techno Mart where we will hopefully find adapter plugs for our apartment. I think we are also going to check out Olympic Park because it's near our neighborhood.

More later when I'm not trying to quickly type between classes! :)

Arrival in Seoul

After 30 days of planning and visa applying, 2 days of packing, 3 days of waiting in DC, 3 hours of waiting in the airport and a 14.5 hour plane ride I am finally in Seoul, Korea.

The flight went very well. Heather and I left DC at about 2pm and arrived outside of Seoul at about 4:30pm (Korea time) So the whole time difference is about 13 hours, wow! I only slept 1 hour on the plane so by the time we got to Korea I was feeling a bit out of body. From the airport we took a bus into the center of Seoul and met the director of our school there. From there he drove us straight to our apartment and left us for the night.

Our apartment building is about 5 stories high and for the next three weeks we will reside on the second floor in a one room apartment. It is quite cute actually. We each have a bed, there is a little refrigerator, a desk, a tv that doesn't work, a sink and some cabinets, a bathroom and a closet type of place with a washing machine in it. It's kind of like living in a hotel room, but it's home for now. After three weeks we will move down to the first floor where we will have a slightly larger apartment. That apartment is being occupied by some other teachers until the end of their contract.

Last night after boiling a few pots of water Heather and I went to bed around 8pm. We woke up at 7am, unpacked most of our stuff and set out to explore the neighborhood. We found a small grocery store and decided to buy some needed items. After looking at the pictures on different items, trying to read Korean, and trying to make out what they were we bought our things and walked back home. Later this afternoon our director is going to show us around some more.

I am not feeling jet lagged or culture shocked at all right now, but we'll see how I feel in a few days. I am thankful to Heather being here because I think life will be much easier living with a friend who speaks my language. So far all the Korean people I have met though have been very friendly and willing to communicate in one way or another. I have only been here for a day, but I know a great adventure and new life is here waiting for me. :) I am thrilled to be living in Korea!