The Last 2 Weeks in Review -- Rugby, Shopping, and BBQ

Things are starting to change.  The weather is becoming cooler, the leaves are slowly shifting their colors, and I am gradually becoming acclimated to my new life here in South Korea.  I’m pretty comfortable with the public transportation system at this point, which is enabling me to branch out and explore more of this tiny, baffling country.

I’ve been eating out a lot, sampling different kinds of Korean foods.  I’m really drawn to the array of unique, spicy soups and stews available.  I suspect this tendency will only grow with the arrival of colder weather.  I’m trying to avoid doing the cliché tourist thing and describing in hyperbolic detail every dish I’ve tried, though I’m tempted to.  I will say, however, that I got a healthy dose of culture shock when I made my first trip to the grocery store.  First of all, I should’ve brought a patient translator along – the labels were almost all in Hangeul, and there was plenty that I could not identify by just looking.  I spent at least two hours in the store walking around and taking everything in – the unfamiliar vegetables, the unidentifiable items in the seafood section, the squid-flavored potato chips, the dozens and dozens of different kinds of kimchi.  A can of Spam-style canned meat costs more than ground beef?  Really?  Pineapple juice in a big carton? It was a trip.  I’ll probably do most of my shopping at the Lotte Mart by Cheonan/Asan station, but I’ve learned that there’s a genuine Costco in Daejeon where foreigners regularly go for comfort items that are otherwise hard to find.  I plan on doing this soon.  I’m all for embracing differences, but no one’s going to deny me my block cheese, bacon, and good beer.  (And yes I plan on consuming all three at once).

I’ve started making friends in Cheonan – mostly westernized expats like myself.  No honest-to-goodness Korean friends yet, but I’m working on it.  I joined a facebook group called Cheonan Scene that led me to some cool folks.  Also, my friend and co-teacher John Spooner, who I mentioned in my last post, is a DJ who sometimes spins at one of the foreigner bars in town.  I accompanied him one Friday night and was a little too easily persuaded to down shots of tequila by friendly people who wanted me to feel welcome.  People around here, Koreans and foreigners alike, don’t hit the bars until 11 and stay out all night to the wee hours of the morning.  I couldn’t hang though, and had to duck out around 2 a.m.  Where I come from, that’s last call.

Two weekends ago was Chuseok, a major Korean holiday that’s usually described as ‘Korean Thanksgiving.’  It was a five-day weekend, which allowed for some exploring.  I finally got out of my local area and got to see some of Seoul.  My first trip up was with Spooner, and I got a good deal on an acoustic guitar in Yongsan.  When it comes to shopping in Korea, the general rule of thumb is to learn to haggle, or else get ripped off.  This is especially true for foreigners.  When I bought a beard trimmer (which, by the way, was incredibly difficult to find, since it’s really rare for Korean men to wear facial hair), the guy originally asked for 150,000₩, but I was able to talk him down to 60,000 without much persuading.     

Another time, I went up to a popular foreigner district of Seoul called Itaewon accompanied by a group of girls from South Africa.  We went to watch a rugby world cup match between South Africa and Wales.  The pub was packed full, and the Welsh supporters were woefully outnumbered.  You should have heard the walls shake when the South African national anthem was sung.  It was an awesome thing – almost made me wish I could be South African for the night.  And the celebration afterwards when the Springboks squeezed out a win was a blast.  We ate Turkish kebabs and drank beer, hopping from place to place.  At one point we ended up at a cocktail bar called Bungalow that had a sandy floor and rope-swings for seating.  Later, we ended up at a hookah bar with an overt sexual theme (by way of example, the drinks on the menu had nice, wholesome names like ‘wet pussy’).  It was interesting, to say the least.

My most recent adventure took me to a small town in southern Chungnam Province called Nonsan.  I met up with some friends I hadn’t seen since SEPIC orientation.  One of them, Matthew from California, was throwing a barbeque for the girls in his English camp.  The idea was for them to get to talk to other native speakers and to get a sampling of Western culture.  We accordingly grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, while the Korean teachers prepared samgyeupsal (Korean BBQ fare consisting of grilled pork, chili paste, and shredded green onions wrapped in lettuce leaves).  I also brought my guitar and gave some of the girls a lesson in blues music.  I ended up teaching some of them a few chords.  One girl was happily pounding out the bassline for Smoke on the Water by the time it was over.  Reminded me of the AmeriCorps Late Night events I volunteered at for two years in Federal Way.

After the barbeque, the adults went back to Matt’s apartment building for a little rooftop party.  Later in the night, Neo (another South African, and my roommate from orientation) and I impulsively decided to hop a train to Daejeon – Korea’s third largest city, which wasn’t too far away.  On the way to the train station, I left my wallet in the backseat of the taxi.  I managed to avoid freaking out, even though my only access to money was the ATM card in my wallet.  It’s just a good thing I was with a friend.  Neo promptly paid for my train ticket, then spotted me 50,000₩ (around $45) to get me through the night and back home the following morning.  What a guy.  So my night wasn’t ruined.  At the first bar we entered, we immediately ran into a big group of Americans and South Africans from our orientation and proceeded to have a great time.  In another stunning show of generosity, an Alabama girl named Taylor allowed me crash with her and her friend in their motel room….you know, because I had no wallet and all.  Now that's what I call southern hospitality.

So the generosity of others got me through what otherwise might’ve been a harrowing ordeal.  It gave my faith in humanity a boost.  And to top it all off, two days later I discovered that someone had turned in my wallet to the police – with cash, cards, and all still inside.  Now, I had heard that Koreans are honest, but that just blew me away.

So that about covers it.  Now that the weather is cooling off, I’m thinking it’s about time I get away from the hustle n’ bustle and start exploring Korea’s mountains.  Gyeryongsan National Park may be in store for this weekend.  Until next time, my friends, keep it real.

First Impressions

Alright people.  I suppose it’s time for me to actually start writing about my experiences, now that I’ve been here three weeks and haven’t told you anything at all.  As a result, this will probably be a rather lengthy entry.  Grab yourself a drink and get comfortable.

I’m going to start with the day I left orientation, because that really felt like it was my first day in Korea, even though it was actually my seventh.  Orientation ended with a little ceremony where they gave us all certificates and then sent us on our way.  For those teachers who had already been here and teaching for a while, they had to take public transportation back to their schools.  For the newbies like me, we got picked up by our Korean co-teachers.  My co-teacher’s name is Sunny.  I had already met her earlier in the week because she was one of our trainers on the second day of orientation.  I knew that I was being taken straight to the school to meet the staff and have lunch with the principal, so I had spent the morning cleaning myself up, shaving off my week-long beard growth, and donning my suit so as to make a good first impression.  As if being nervous wasn’t enough, I was sweating like a whore a church because it was like 88 degrees with 1000% humidity, and I was wearing a freaking suit. 

Sunny was in a hurry, so I didn’t even get to say an abrupt farewell to the friends I’d made at orientation – fortunately, I was smart enough to write down everyone’s contact information earlier that morning. Sunny took me straight to Chungnam Foreign Language High School, my new place of employment.  (I’m not going to say much about my school right now, because that deserves its own blog entry, which I promise to write soon).  On the short drive to the school, we chatted a little about my reasons for coming to Korea and my teaching background.  At one point, to my utter astonishment, the song “F—K You” by Cee-Lo Green came on the radio (I wasn’t aware that any American music was popular here, especially a song like that.  I mean, I thought Koreans were supposed to be conservative), and Sunny was sort of drumming out the beat with her thumbs on the steering wheel. That put me at ease a little. 

When we arrived at the school, I was given a whirlwind tour and introduced to dozens of people.  In my state of nervous excitement, I could do little more than give each new person a stiff, self-conscious bow and a mumbled “Annyeong haseyo” – one of two Korean phrases I’d picked up at orientation.  Then I met the principal.  After a bow and a handshake, he asked me to sit down across from him, and he began asking me questions.  Even though I already had the job, this sort of felt like an interview.  At first I was intimidated, but that soon passed, because he was very friendly, always smiling, and seemed satisfied with the things I was telling him.  After speaking for a bit about my credentials and experience, we went to lunch.

I had thought lunch was going to be a somewhat informal affair, but I was wrong.  In addition to Sunny and the principal, we were joined by close to a dozen other teachers and administrators, as well as Liz, the American teacher I was replacing.  I’m thankful she was there, because she told me to just follow her lead.  Koreans have many idiosyncratic formalities when it comes to dining, especially when “elders” are present, and I was sure I would make some kind of faux pas.  But with Liz’s help, I made it through alright.  If I did make any mistakes, my companions were too polite to say anything. 

We went to a traditional Korean restaurant.  It was the real deal – shoes off at the door, sitting on the floor, etc.  Traditional Korean dining is a sort of communal experience – there are no individual servings (except for rice).  Instead, all the dishes are placed in the middle of the table and everyone shares.  Korean meals usually consist of some main entre (in this case salted, grilled fish – not nice, neat fillets, but the whole fish – bones, eyeballs, and all) and a great variety of small, colorful side dishes. The side dishes were mostly different types of spicy fermented vegetables, the infamous kimchi among them.  There was also some kind of spicy soup with tofu and seaweed in it.

At the start of the meal, the principal made a little speech in which he thanked Liz for all her hard work at the school and told her how much she’d be missed.  Then, he spoke directly to me, invoking the old “when in Rome…’ adage and applying it to my experience of Korea, encouraging me to keep an open mind and experimental attitude.  In keeping with this spirit, I dove right in to the meal.  It was all very good.  Even the kimchi wasn’t terrible, though I tried it out of politeness and kept my serving small.  After a week of the cafeteria-style food we’d been eating at orientation, I was starting to fear that I was going to have a tough time stomaching Korean food.  But this meal was my first indication, which has since been corroborated, that the food at orientation was just crap, an unfortunate introduction to Korean cuisine that I’m glad to have behind me. 

The fish was especially good, though it was difficult to eat.  If you’re ever curious what it feels like to be handicapped, try de-boning fish with chopsticks, without using both hands.  Oh, and a special note on Korean chopsticks:  they’re made of metal, and a little more slender than chopsticks I’ve used in the past.  This makes them kind of, shall we say, “slippery.”  Even though I’m no stranger to chopsticks, I struggled quite a bit, which was probably also due to nervousness.  I was aware of the others watching me in a clandestine manner;  it was probably my imagination, but I felt like I was being “sized up.”  Finally, the principal took pity on me and offered me some pointers, which didn’t seem to help much.  At one point, another teacher, who hadn’t spoken a word to me during the meal, asked the waitress to bring me a fork.  I wasn’t sure if I should be insulted or not.  I didn’t want to use the fork; I wanted to learn to do it the way Koreans do it.  I mean, “when in Rome,” right?  But I also didn’t want to offend the guy, in case it was meant to be a generous gesture.  So I spent the rest of the meal awkwardly switching back and forth between the fork and the chopsticks. 

After lunch, I was taken to my apartment.  In addition to taking over Liz’s job, I was also taking over her living space.  I don’t think 

My apartment building

there’s much need to describe the apartment, so I’ll keep this brief.  It’s a small one-bedroom on the 15^th (top) floor of a highrise, not far from my school.  It has a bed, a wardrobe, a couch, a TV, a table or two, and not much else.  Korean homes usually don’t have ovens, but Liz had gotten a small convection oven which she passed on to me.  To tell you the truth, Liz made this transition super easy for me by selling me a bunch of her stuff for cheap – kitchenware, bedding (yeah, I’m sleeping on pink sheets and a flowery bedspread…don’t judge me), and the like.  There’s also a large balcony, a washing machine that doesn’t work very well, a rack for drying clothes, and an oscillating fan in lieu of an air conditioner.  The building is in a neighborhood called Hosan-ri, which is technically in Asan, but also pretty close to Cheonan.  It’s a pretty good location.  Cheonan is a decent sized city, with neon lights, street food, department stores, night clubs, foreigner bars, and taxis that nearly run you over.  I’m also pretty close to some major transportation links, including the Asan/Cheonan KTX station (high speed rail), which makes it really easy to get up to Seoul.  I’ve already made the trip 3 times.   

Hosan-ri, seen from the top of my building

That night we went out to dinner – Liz and I, and some of my new co-teachers.  This was when I met John Spooner, a native of New York who’s been living and teaching in Korea for a while now.  He has since become almost like my personal guide to Korea.  He’s helped me figure out which buses to take, how to get a transportation card, where to shop, where to eat, how to say my address to a taxi driver, and he’s been introducing me to lots of people in the area and helping me make friends.  I feel like I’d be lost without his help.

The view from my balcony

I’m going to end this entry here, and save the other adventures for next time.  I’ll also try to add things to this blog more regularly.  Now that I’m settled in and starting to become somewhat acclimated, things should be slowing down a bit, allowing me to dedicate more time to projects such as this.  Take care, all.  I’ll be in touch.

Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Wow, so where to begin?  I’ve been in Korea for nearly two weeks now, and I already feel like I have enough material for multiple blog posts.  My first week was spent in an orientation which, despite being beneficial in certain ways, felt something like what I imagine an oppressive catholic boarding school would be like.  It didn’t have to be that way, but whatever.  That’s behind me now, so I won’t dwell on it.  That experience could be an entry in itself, but I don’t really feel like reliving it.

I guess I should start from the beginning, with the basics.  Who am I?  What am I doing here?  Questions more difficult to answer than you might imagine.  I assume most of the people reading this already know who I am, but I’ll introduce myself anyway.  My name is Kevin, I’m nearly 27 years old, an American, and I have spent the last few years of my life inadvertently (or perhaps subconsciously) avoiding any semblance of stability and continuity that might make my life more “normal.”  I’ve achieved this by moving frequently, changing jobs even more frequently, and allowing my insatiable thirst for adventure and genuine experiences to carry me wherever the winds of fate care to blow me.  I graduated from the University of Dayton in my home state of Ohio in 2008 with bachelor degrees in English and secondary education.  Since then, I’ve worked in public schools in several varying capacities, wearing many different hats.  In 2009, I packed my belongings in my 1998 Buick LeSabre (R.I.P. Ol’ Girl) and drove across the country to western Washington State where I served in AmeriCorps and worked as an overqualified, underpaid paraeducator.  The current economic atmosphere and resulting budget crisis made it all but impossible for me to land a full-time teaching position.  When I found out the job I had coveted all last year would not be mine, I spent a couple days cursing my fate, shaking my fist at the sky, and feeling sorry for myself.  Then I decided that bitterness doesn’t suit me opted to view the situation as a golden opportunity to do something that I’ve been talking about for years:  go teach in a foreign country.

And that brings us to the present moment, more or less.  After a nightmarish summer filled with paperwork and roadblocks, I finally landed at Incheon International Airport on August 24, 2011  (If you ever plan to teach in South Korea, please go easy on yourself and begin the application process at least 4 months before you plan to depart).  So now I’m here, two days of teaching already under my belt, and it still feels a bit surreal.  I’ve landed a dream job in a prestigious foreign language high school, and the school has set me up with a rent-free apartment (a standard perk for English teachers who come here from overseas).  As I type this entry, I’m seated on my 15^th floor balcony enjoying a nice breeze, the vocal stylings of Gillian Welch, a watery Korean beer, and the chirping sound of a cricket hiding somewhere under my washing machine (how it found its way up here is anyone’s guess). 

So, why South Korea?  That’s a great question, and one that I’ve had to answer many times over the past few months.  The simple answer is money.  Koreans are so serious about their children learning English that it has become a requirement in every school, at all levels, and the government is throwing a ton of money into recruiting native speakers to teach in its schools (I’ll leave it to you to weigh merits of this course of action.  Koreans see this as a undeniable necessity in their quest to become a major player in the 21^st century global economy.  There are as many opinions on this matter as there are Starcraft accounts in Seoul, and I don’t feel like exploring them here).  My apartment, as I already mentioned, is rent free.  My roundtrip airfare was covered.  My salary is twice what I made as a paraeducator in Washington.  And getting hired for a teaching job here was surprisingly easy.  So honestly, the opportunity to live cheaply in Asia while actually making enough money to travel and save was a major appeal.  But obviously, there was more influencing my decision than financial benefits.

Korea is a place that most Americans know very little about, myself included.  As I began to tell people my plans to come here, I came up against some startling misconceptions (perhaps that’ll be a topic for a future blog entry).  So in a way, lifting the veil and shining light on the mystery was an exciting notion.  That’s a rather romantic way to put it, I suppose.  Truth be told, I wanted to challenge myself by going to a place that seemed so completely foreign that it would turn my worldview on its head.  That was the idea, anyway.  My previous travels have been to relatively “safe” places – Europe, New Zealand, and the like.  Western cultures.  This time I wanted to go as far in the opposite direction as possible.  Korea seemed appropriate in that regard.  Also, the food here is bizarre and exotic.  The language is confounding.  And there’s pretty mountains everywhere.  That’s a nice bonus. 

So now it’s adventure time.  It feels good to be exploring a new place and culture again.  I’m only just getting started here.

I think that’ll do for an intro to my new blog.  Check back soon for more entries about my experiences teaching, traveling, and whatnot.  I hope to have a lot to share.  Take care all.