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Time is flying by! I have been in Busan for almost 2 weeks! I left for Korea 3 weeks ago! It’s hard to put into words all of my
experiences during this time. I realized
today that there haven’t been places with really bad smells like I had in Hong
Kong though. I remember when I first
went to the school in Hong Kong and on the third floor was a traditional
Chinese medicine shop and the smell was awful.
I did adjust to it and by the time my parents came to visit in my second
year I wasn’t even aware of the smell until they pointed it out. I haven’t really had that experience
here. There are some foods that I don’t
like the smell of but I just keep walking and get past those. I don’t really like Korean food yet. I eat Korean food at lunch each day for
school. I eat a lot of rice because that
is the main part of the meal that I will eat.
Each day we have rice, soup and 4 side dishes. I don’t like kimchi. I tried it 3 times and almost got sick the
third time so I’ve stopped trying. The
other foods have been okay. I’m not big
on spicy foods and there are many Korean foods that are spicy but I think it’s
a different kind of spicy than Thai or Indian food. I will keep trying foods though. So far Wednesdays have been the good food day
at school because it’s been bimimbop (spelling?) types food. I like that.
It’s rice with bits of cooked meat and vegetables with a chili
sauce.
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School is going pretty well. I definitely have time for planning at
school. The days sometimes get long but
this week will be very different. My
first 3 days all I did was plan for 8 hours each day. My second week I had classes in the
mornings. Monday and Friday I teach 4
40-minute classes and finish at lunchtime.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I teach 3 40-minute lessons and finish
by lunchtime. Thursdays I finish teaching
at 11:20! This week I will start my
afterschool class. I will teach from
2:00-2:40 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I also teach from 9:30-11:40 on Saturday mornings. This past Saturday was great! The focus was on making ice cream. We were able to make ice cream together and
then did a lot of activities to learn about flavors of ice cream and how to
order ice cream. The students were great
and I had a lot of fun teaching the lessons.
I hope I have a similar experience when I teach class lessons and
afterschool lessons this week. So far
I’ve only taught Saturday and an introduction lesson to all of my classes. Oh and I teach Korean 4th, 5th,
and 6th grades. Elementary
school starts with 1st grade and the students are Korean age 8,
which equals 7 years, maybe 6 years old in Western years. English education starts with third grade but
I don’t have lessons with 3rd graders. I do have some third graders in my
afterschool class though.
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Korean age is different. When children are born in Korea they are
considered to be age 1. Then my
understanding is that at New Year’s every ones turns a year older. Therefore if you are born in January 2 you
are 1 when you are born and turn 2 on January 1st of the next
year. But if you are born in Dec. 31 you
are 1 on Dec. 31 and turn 2 on January 1st. That’s my understanding. But mostly you just add 1 to your age to
figure out your Korean age.
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My first week in Korean ended with the first
school dinner as well. There was a
teacher retiring at my school so we had a school dinner. These faculty wide dinners are evidently very
popular in Korea. We were told in
orientation that they could happen as regularly as once a month, sometimes less
and sometimes more. We were in this area
where they also host 1 year old birthday parties for children (but I think this
is like our 1 year old birthdays – maybe its translates to first birthday but
I’m not sure). But these parties are
elaborate! I saw one set up and was
shocked. I mean I think many people have
quite big parties for the first birthday of their child in America. The room I saw was set up for about 50 people
with full place settings, chandeliers, eloquent looking decorations and a
large, multi-tiered cake. The parents
and child were in traditional dress and many of the children came were also in
traditional dress. The place was set up
with a buffet for all of the groups that were there. It was huge.
The dinner was great. Western as
well as Asian foods were served with many deserts. There was a type of fruit that evidently is
quite expensive in Korea but is found in Cambodia a lot – mangosteen. I tried it.
It was okay but I think I would have liked it better if it wasn’t
frozen. However, all the people from the
school ate many since it is so rare. The
meal was excellent. Prior to the meal
was the ceremony. They had a video of
teachers talking, a speech by the principal and presentations of flowers,
money, and a plaque. The principal
played 2 songs on the saxophone that all the other teachers don’t like but I
wasn’t phased by it. A group of teachers
sang and they finished with toasts. All
seemed to be going well even though I had no clue what was being said. All of a sudden my head teacher told me that
when they call my name I need to go to the front. Evidently all new teachers were being called
to the front of the room. While standing
at the front I realized that each new teacher was giving a toast! I had no clue what to do or say. When it came my turn I was told to say hello
and things. I was so lost. I think I said hello 4 times – twice in
English and twice in Korean and then I said Cheers!!! I was so lost. They laughed and we moved onto the meal. I survived but since then I’ve had a strong
desire to learn Korean so I know what in the world is being said around me and
can adequately respond!
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My first weekend was pretty uneventful. I rested a lot and explored the area around
my apartment. I also cleaned my
apartment more. It’s a little bit at a
time. I have most of it cleaned now,
except my extra room but I’m still debating what I want to do with that. I also have to clean the freezer out still.
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My first week of teaching went well. The fifth grade students were mostly well
behaved but some classes were quite talkative.
They asked an adequate amount of questions. The fourth grade asked tons of
questions! They especially wanted to
know about my home and Campbell (Vincent’s dog). Mr. J didn’t make the powerpoint because I
didn’t have a picture of him. Oops! Sixth grade was super quite but they each had
to introduce themselves to me and 2 of their hobbies. Their English is very good. It will be good to work with them. The last class of 4th grade was so
loud! I thought I would go crazy. I couldn’t even speak above them. Evidently they are always pretty loud. I have to remember that I am like a special
activity to them. They don’t behave as
well in specials as they do with their homeroom teacher and many times they are
translating to other students what is being said but wow! I don’t know that I can handle it always
being that loud. It seemed louder than
even the cafeteria! So we will see how
this Friday goes J
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I’m doing a terrible job of taking
pictures. I also am not sure where I put
my camera at the moment but I will try to do better and get more pictures up on
the blog.
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This past Saturday after teaching I ventured to
Nampo to visit a market to look for indoor shoes. I found something but I think it will be a
temporary fix because it was hard to find shoes in my size (I have a big foot
in Korea!) so I just bought the first shoes I found that could work. I also didn’t negotiate for a cheaper
price. I was exhausted, it was raining,
and I had walked around a lot looking for shoes. I just wanted shoes and to go home. But I will probably go back to that market to
look for a nice blanket for my bed. I
also had McDonald’s while in Nampo. It’s
the first American restaurant I have eaten at since I have arrived in Korea
expect for a bagel from Dunkin Donuts the morning I arrived in Korea. It was the easiest way to get something to
eat that I knew I would like when I was out.
It’s funny to me though because I never order McNuggets when I am in
America but when I am in Asia I always order nuggets. I order nuggets because I don’t know how to
order a plan hamburger in Korean and there is no pictures I can point to ask
for a plain hamburger J It’s just part of living in a country that is
not my home country and not speaking the language. One day… that’s my hope. I want to speak Korean eventually.
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Last Wednesday I spent the evening in Seomyeon
with other new EPIK teachers. It was
nice. We ate at Lotte Department Store
but didn’t realize they close at 8 and we were trying to get food at 7:50 but
the good news is that it was all discounted prices. The chicken quesadilla I had was spicy but
good. It was good to spend time with
native English speakers! And to my
surprise I was the youngest in the group!
At orientation, most of the people I spent time with were several years
younger than me. These people were
mostly in class 5 at orientation and I was in class 4 so I didn’t really spend
a lot of time with them.
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This Sunday I ventured to church! I found this church before I left
America. The website looked great and I
knew I would try it as soon as I arrived.
I wanted to go last Sunday but didn’t have directions for it. This week I planned ahead and left the
webpage open on my touch so I could pull the directions up without wifi. All was great for the last 2 days and then
today I went to look at it and it pulled up a Olleh registration page. I was so frustrated because I was already
halfway there. I read the registration
page and realized it was a prepaid card that I could get without my ARC number
(what I need to get internet at my apartment).
So I stopped at what I thought was the right exist off the subway, found
a convenient store, and bought the prepaid card. Came back to the subway station to use the
wifi there and found FREE wifi! But I
used the free wifi to pull up the directions.
I was at the correct subway stop so I quickly went out found a taxi and
showed him the directions on the page that were written in Korean before I lost
the page again! Success! I made it to the church and I was even 5
minutes early!
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The church was great! Very welcoming! Many people spoke to me and introduced
themselves. I met someone else who has
only been in Busan 2 weeks which is nice to not feel like the only one who has
absolutely no clue where in Busan I live or how to explain it to others (I mean
I know where I live but I don’t really know how to communicate where I
live). Church was great! The pastor used to live in Augusta, GA and
once stayed in Blue Ridge and hated it!
But it’s because his whole family ended up sick while they were
there. After church most people go to
dinner. The church pays for you if you
are a first time guest so I was able have a free lunch today! They went to a chicken place. We had 3 types of chicken ordered. All we had for the meal was chicken and to me
it was fantastic! It was also super
cheap! Each person only paid 4
dollars! The church pays for the new
visitors so those that were there did not have to cover our costs. It was great!
Then I went with them to Gwangalli beach! The beach is beautiful. There were people there but not that
many. It was so nice to be able to see
the beach after being here for almost 2 weeks.
It was a good day. Then I cam
home and took a nap!
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Overall I’m doing well. I’m starting to feel settled but I am very
tired each day. It’s definitely stimulus
overload each day. There are moments of
homesickness, mostly at night. But I
watch some ER or a movie on TV (I have a few channels that play English movies
and TV shows, but mostly movies). I saw
the Blindside the other day and had the Princess Diaries playing earlier
tonight. I also saw the end of 21 when I
got home today. My next big steps are to
figure out how to cook healthy meals on a 2-range stovetop that I like and that
I can find the ingredients for. I think
there will need to be a Costco run coming up soon. The E-traders is alright but I hear Costco is
great!
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Oh and Chuseok is coming up soon. It’s Korean Thanksgiving and I don’t have
school on Wed., Thurs., and Fri.! I have
some friends that are thinking about going to Seoul but I found out today that
there is a retreat through the church.
It’s only $30 for the 3-day trip.
I would still have Saturday and Sunday to relax and I would be able to
build some community with the people at the church. I’m definitely leaning in that direction and
will make a decision soon. Not traveling
far definitely sounds like a good idea at this point. I have time to see Seoul and to travel to other
places around here. I want to see a lot
of things but I’m not in a rush to do it all.
I didn’t travel much in Hong Kong my first year either. I like to feel settled and know what is
around here first.
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