Triumphs

Everyday is an adventure here in the land of the morning calm.  Let me share some of my mini triumphs in the last week.

1.  Tonight Chrissy and I went out to dinner and we only had to walk into one restaurant to find vegetarian food, instead of walking out of four.

2.  I have a mentally disabled boy who visits me between every class period.  He doesn't speak English and I don't speak Korean.  The other day we actually had a conversation where we both understood each other.  Lots of pointing and gesturing was involved.

3.  I got paid today (I am now a millionaire!... in Korean won).

4.  One of my co-teachers who I feel is annoyed with me most of the time invited me to go to an amusement park with her and her family this weekend.

5.  There was an actual normal vegetable (steamed broccoli) at lunch today.

6.  I am pretty good at the chopsticks (even with rice).

7.  I've figured out how to stop the incessant staring from Koreans.  I stare back.  They don't like when the tables are turned.

8.  I've found a store that sells books in English and another that sells magazines in English (both within walking distance of my apartment!).  

9.  I am now completely sure of my bus stops both to and from school.  

10.  I can jaywalk without getting hit by cars. 

Gender studies and students in Korea

I think I love my job here.  Today I made fortune tellers with two of my classes.  Yes, those little paper fortune tellers that you made in second grade with colors, numbers, and fortunes on the inside.  It was one of my co-teacher's ideas because it works in with something they're doing with superstitions, colors and numbers.  Plus, it gets the students saying and spelling colors, counting, and creating future tense sentences.  Now one might think, "Really, high school boys?  You made fortune tellers with high school boys?"  In actuality, it's right up their alley.  They get to play with markers, paper, and talk to their friends.  

High school boys here are very different from high school boys in the states.  People don't really believe in homosexuality here so boys are much more touchy-feely here than in the states.  It is common to see my Korean students with their arms around each other, rubbing each others' backs, or grabbing each others' hands.  Also, many of my students have pink sandals, socks, pencil cases, notebooks, and many of them will tell you their favorite color is pink.  At first it was a bit unnerving, because I'm so used to the hyped-up masculinity in the U.S. where two men must sit a seat away from each other and no high school boy would ever be caught dead with his arm around another dude.  Now I find it incredibly refreshing.  My students here seem so much more innocent and unaware of social norms around them.  A couple examples of this phenomenon:

This phenomenon doesn't end in high school.  This is in Bupyeoung, a big city center in Incheon.  This man is trying to get people to go to a big night in Bupyeoung.

I know I showed this picture in an earlier post, but I just had to illustrate again my students' t-shirts at Sports Day.  The back of their shirts had a string bikini tie and a butterfly tattoo on the back.  

A lot of my students were sitting like this boy in the hat during  Sports Day.

New Photos Are Up

Korea

My School

Three Weeks

I have been here three weeks.  In some ways I feel like it's been so much longer but it also feels like I just got here.  Some completely random impressions of my time here thus far:

1.  I love the people I've gotten to know through orientation.  I'm very fortunate to have made some close friends.  And everyone from orientation is a lot of fun to go out with.

2.  Korean people are extremely friendly, hospitable, and nice.  Every teacher at my school tries so hard to make me feel welcome, whether they speak English or not.

3.  No one speaks English here.  It's very odd because many Koreans know English but are too afraid to speak it.  

4.  I love my students.  They are funny, well-behaved, respectful, and so nice.  If only they could speak better English.  (Wait...that's why I'm here...)

5.  People stare.  Kids yell "hi".  Young children look at me strangely because I'm probably the first white person they've seen.  Everyone tells me I'm beautiful.  If you're looking for an ego boost and attention, head to Korea.

6.  I really enjoy soju (it's like vodka but weaker) and it's incredibly cheap here.  Beer is tolerable but weak.

7.  When we go out to bars we have to order anju or basically appetizers.  Fruit is popular to eat while drinking.  I'm learning not to crave fried food.

8.  Groceries are not as cheap as I had thought they would be.  

9.  I really enjoy noraebangs.  Basically you and your friends rent a room and sing karaoke.  They provide you with tambourines and morrocas.

10.  People try to speak Korean to me all the time, even though I think it's quite obvious I don't understand.

11.  I don't miss foods from home as much as I thought I would.  

12.  The U.S. has definitely influenced Korean culture with McDonald's, KFC, Bennigans, TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse, Baskin Robbins, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, 7 Eleven.

13.  I can't believe it's been three weeks since I've talked to my parents.  

14.  I'm not homesick yet, but I'm sure that will come.

Sports Day!

This week was probably the easiest in my teaching career thus far.  We had Monday and Tuesday off for Chuseok.  I taught classes on Wednesday.  On Thursday the students had a testing day and on Friday was sports day so I didn't have to teach.  Sports day is basically a day for the students to compete in athletic events.  As always, I'm the last to know about anything, so I didn't know that I was expected to participate in sports day.  When I arrived at school on Friday Peter asked me if I was ready to play soccer.  I was wearing black pants and a sweater.  Now normally I'm not above embarrassing myself in front of the whole school, I did it many times at Red Wing High School, but I just like a little forewarning so I can dress for the occasion.  Luckily I talked my way out of soccer and only had to do the tug of war and a hackey sack-like game that is native to Korea.  I took a lot of pictures of sports day because I'm going to use them in my lesson tomorrow.  Here are a few of them:

That's one of the home ec. teachers on the left and that is my co-teacher Peter on the right.
One of my students wanted a picture with me.  They're very big on the peace signs in pictures.
Namyi and me.  She is another one of my English co-teachers.
Students cheering on their teammates.
Some of my students.  I love their team t-shirts.
Wrestling, kind of like sumo wrestling without the excessive weight.

Meat eaters abound

South Korea is not so vegetarian-friendly.  I was aware of this coming over here, but I didn't quite realize how vegetarian unfriendly it was.  Last weekend was Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, so I had a four day weekend.  On Sunday (the actual day of Chuseok), my friends Chrissy, Ryan and I attempted to go out to dinner.  A lot of places were closed because of the holiday, but some were starting to open up as it got later.  We walked out of five restaurants because they didn't have any vegetarian dishes.  At the restaurant we did go to, I ended up just eating rice and kimchi (fermented spicy cabbage that is served at every meal).  On Wednesday Ryan and I went out to dinner and we walked out of one restaurant before we gave up and got cheese nachos at an American style bar.  I feel a little bad for people who hang out with me because it's difficult to find food.  

At school I eat lunch in the cafeteria.  All of the teachers think I am on a diet because they don't think I eat enough.  Peter (my co-teacher) keeps telling me I need energy to teach the students.  I've tried explaining to him the rationale behind my vegetarianism, but I guess it doesn't translate.  Overall the food is very good at school (what I do eat), so I'm not ready to start brown-bagging it yet.

There is one ray of hope for me in the Korean cuisine: bimibap.  It is a vegetarian dish made of rice, seaweed, vegetables, egg, and hot sauce.  It is delicious.  But I have to pace myself, because I don't want to be sick of it in a month.  Here's a picture of the gloriousness:

Disturbing animal stories

Unfortunate animal incidents seemed to haunt me this week.  Allow me to illustrate two of them.  One incident is tragic and the other is creepy.

Last Sunday I went for a walk around my neighborhood.  As I was walking, I saw a puppy tied up on a leash.  It looked like someone had tied it up and then gone into a nearby store quickly.  As I walked closer, I realized that the puppy was dead.  It was still on its leash and it looked like it was trying to escape the heat in the shade.  But it obviously didn't escape the heat.  It was one of the more horrific things I've seen in my life.

A lot of restaurants in Korea have fish tanks at their entrances or sitting outside.  On Thursday as I was walking home from school I passed a restaurant with a fish tank outside.  All of a sudden I heard splashing coming from the fish tank.  I looked over and a giant squid was trying to jump out of the water.  All of a sudden it jumped out of the fish tank and landed on the sidewalk by me.  It then started crawling towards me.  I was going to take a picture of it, but giant squids creep me out, so I ran away instead.  

Anna Rickert MN

Welcome to my neighborhood

This is the entrance to my apartment on the right (next to the random baby stroller).  I am on the fourth floor which is unlucky in Korea.  Good for me.  The bottom floor is a restaurant which you can see here.  
Some random signs and lights on the street near my apartment.
Gil Hospital which is less than a block from my apartment.  Makes for a convenient drop off point for taxis, a convenient meeting point, and I guess a convenient emergency point too (hope I don't need it for that).  

Second day at school.

Today I found where the party teachers hang out.  Sadly they don't speak English.  There are two offices for teachers at my school, one on the first floor and one on the second.  My desk is on the first floor, along with two of my Korean English co-teachers and various other teachers.  My vice-principal has her desk in the office also.  The teachers and vice-principal are very nice but most keep to themselves because most don't speak English and they all seem very busy.  

The other Korean English teacher has her office on the second floor.  Today I went into her office and all of the teachers on the second floor gathered around me.  They got me coffee, had me sit down, attempted to speak what little English they knew (I could tell they were trying so hard), told me I had beautiful eyes, and then offered me beer.  Yes, they offered me beer.  One teacher asked, "You like beer?"  I said yes and he ran to the refrigerator and pulled some out.  I told him oh no, not now, thank you.  The Korean English teacher said they are much more laid back because they don't have the vice president (she meant vice principal) in their office.  

Overall the hospitality in this country is amazing.  All of the teachers and staff at my school bend over backwards to make sure that I have everything I need.  The few who speak English attempt to speak to me.  At lunch today one teacher tried to talk to me about seaweed although I had no idea what he was saying and I don't think he did either.  Yesterday another teacher kept bringing grapes over to my desk.  I've been shown how to make coffee in the office at least five times since Friday.  At stores people are patient while I gesture or attempt to speak poor Korean.  It's quite comforting.

I miss these two.

I meant to post these earlier.  Melvin and Nelly helped me pack for South Korea by laying all over my stuff.  As you can tell by the piles of crap around them, packing was kind of a whirlwind.

Nelly
Melvin

Back to School

Today was my first day of teaching.  For those who don't remember, I teach at a tenth grade all boys school.  I pretty much introduced myself, a bit about Minnesota, had them ask questions, etc.  I also had an English conversation club.  Korean students are so shy when it comes to speaking English.  They are very afraid of making mistakes.  This was very apparent in this club situation when I only had eight students.  Also, I apparently teach at a lower level high school where their English is at about kindergarten level.

A couple students told me I was beautiful.  One asked me to marry him.  As I walk through the hall, all the students bow to me.  I had heard that Korean students can be very talkative, but they weren't nearly as bad as I anticipated.  One student said that he liked smoking and then had to come apologize to me later.  My co-teacher keeps a stick-hook thing with her, so yes, corporal punishment is alive and well here.  

One thing I know may get on my nerves after awhile is the fact I have no idea what is going on most of the time.  My vice principal told me at 1:30 that I was going to speak at an assembly for the whole school at 3:00.  Then my co-teacher told me I had to plan an extra lesson tomorrow (I was under the impression that I was teaching the same lesson as I taught today).  I'm basically always the last to know.  

On the plus side, one of my co-teachers speaks English really well and she told me we were going to be friends.  Who am I to argue with someone who demands my friendship.  She seems very nice, helpful and young.  I love Peter my older co-teacher, but it's not like we have much in common.  

Overall a pretty successful day.  

A long overdue update

I'm in Korea and I'm doing well.  We had orientation from Sunday-Thursday.  It was a pretty good time.  I met some cool people, we went out a few times, we got to go on a boat cruise and make pottery, we had free meals, overall I can't complain.  

On Thursday we met our co-teachers who are pretty much our guardian angels/baby-sitters.  My co-teacher is named Peter (that's his English name, he didn't tell me his actual name).  He is fifty years old and has been teaching for 23 years.  He's never co-taught before (I haven't either) so I'm a bit nervous for that.  His English is fairly good.  He lived in Kentucky for two years and claims that my accent is difficult to understand.  Please, my Minnesotan accent is better than a Kentuckian's any day, but I guess he's not used to it.  

My co-teacher is a very fatherly figure.  This evening I was leaving my apartment to go for a walk and he pulled up in his car.  He was worried about me all weekend so he just came by to check that I was alright.  Then he took me out to dinner which was nice.  I don't think he quite knows what to do with me being a vegetarian, so we always have bimibap.  It's an incredibly delicious traditional Korean dish.  Peter also told me I seem like I've lived in Korea for a long time because I'm so calm.  Hopefully that will alleviate some of his fears.  But he is picking me up tomorrow to ride the bus with me to school to make sure I get there safely.  

On Friday I went to school for the day but didn't teach.  I sat at my desk in the teachers' offices while everyone spoke Korean around me.  Between classes, the students walked by yelling "hello" or stopped by to talk to me.  A couple told me I was pretty.  I'm the first native English teacher they've had in the school so I was quite the celebrity on Friday.

Last night I went out to dinner with some other teachers and then we met up with  a lot of the foreign teachers from our orientation group and some other teachers who have been here longer.  We went to an American bar called Rhythm and Booze.  It felt like a standard night in the states.  I drank some jag and played darts.  Not a bad evening.

Today Chrissy (my roommate during orientation) and I went shopping.  I really like the area I'm living in.  I have some (expensive!) department stores, restaurants, movie theaters, bars, etc. near me.  I found two Starbucks that are not far, so I'm happy.  I'm also only ten minutes from a subway station which seems to be the easiest mode of transportation around here.  

Tomorrow I begin teaching my first classes.  I'm incredibly nervous because the vice principal will be observing the classes.  Hopefully it goes alright.  Well, dear reader, that is a very short summary of my life in Korea thus far.  I hope to go into greater detail later on.  

I'm here and I've neglected my blogging duties.

Sorry for the delay in posts.  Here are some pictures I've uploaded to Flickr in the mean time:

Korea Photo Album