Journal 3 – We are Korea’s own little Petting Zoo

Hello everyone. I trust you are doing well. I know it’s been a while since my last journal. I’ll be honest, this might be more frequent as this experience isn’t the same as it was when I was in Japan. I’m not saying I’m not enjoying myself because I definitely am. I think the Asian “Aw” novelty has kind of warn off. People have asked me, how this experience compares to life in Japan and it’s actually taken a while for me to answer that question. There are so many similarities as well as so many differences. The scenery is very similar. There’s the same small and narrow streets, the flashy lights, the huge crowd of people, and of course the foreign words that I’m unable to read. The inside of restaurants and bars in Korea don’t have that narrow claustrophobic look that Japan has. They tend to be much bigger. I’ve noticed there are so many street vendors in Korea selling fruits, vegetables, certain snack foods as well as clothes. All for cheap prices but bargaining isn’t frowned upon. The food is very good in both places, however completely different. Korea’s food is much spicier, but very good. It’s not uncommon for me to go to a restaurant and have a great meal for under $5. I’d be lucky to get a sandwich for $5 in Japan.

Now, as for alcohol … beer sucks in Korea. I haven’t come across one type that I’ve enjoyed. We have a patio where all the foreigners like to hang out (when it’s nice out). It’s actually outside a corner store, which are pretty much everywhere. Often when I want a beer, I avoid the Korean beer and, no joke, grab the Japanese types they have. It’s either that or Budweiser. The most popular alcoholic preference in Korea is soju, the local firewater and is equivalent to vodka. It’s often drunk straight and it’s an acquired taste in which I have not yet acquired. I’ve already come across a little incident that involved soju and a fight with a gravel road. The night started off wonderful. It was our staff party where we went to a traditional Korean barbeque. The restaurant provides you with the raw meet and you cook it yourself on a grill in the middle of the table. There was lots of food, beer and of course soju. Well, after a few rounds … oh and by the way I’m not making any excuses, but it’s customary to drink here. People who don’t drink in Korea are often considered untrustworthy. Alcohol allows you to say what you feel. If you don’t want to drink, it means you’re holding something back … actually by the end of my night, holding things back was literally not an issue (haha). Anyway, moving on … which is what we did. We moved on to a noraebang (karaoke room) where more alcohol was provided including cheap whiskey and you guessed it, soju. I have to admit, the instigator was actually our director who ironically didn’t drink as much that night. So, naturally I got to my “point” and I decided to go outside to get some air. Well, the earth was certainly moving very fast for this boy and this resulted in a hard fall to the ground. A few scrapes and bruises later, I decided to go home. I actually tried to sneak away, but that didn’t work. Fortunately that ended up being in my favor as my director paid my cab ride home. Actually the whole night was on them. So soju is not really on my list of preferences. It’s an every-once-in-a-while thing.

Let’s talk about the people. They’re definitely friendly and kind, not as reserved or shy as Japanese. However, the men tend to be a little more aggressive and I’m getting the impression some are a little jealous of us foreigners. I don’t get that same warm, fuzzy feeling from some of them that I do from Japanese people. Don’t get me wrong; I have come across a lot of people, men and women, who have been very friendly. I do feel the cab drivers are more of the aggressive kind, which I guess they need to be … you would understand after seeing Koreans drive. It is very common for Koreans to stop, stare and have little conversations while pointing and laughing. I’m certain a lot of those little conversations are dares to each other to come up and say “hello” to us. When it comes to their English, they are definitely very shy. The kids, like Japanese kids, have that same touchy-feely affection … they seem to be enthralled with our hair: head and arms. As I mentioned in the title, we do seem to be Korea’s little petting zoo. I think I told you about the guy I met in Seoul who took me around and bought me dinner just so he could practice his English. There was actually another person who I met while I was hiking with some friends. This guy also wants to practice his English (which I’m hoping will financially be beneficial for me) … He’s offered to help me out with anything I need while I’m here. I’m thinking I might take advantage of this. It’ll be nice hanging out with a local.

Just to finalize everything, I’m realizing that because the Asian novelty has warn off, my first month here has been a little rough because I felt that nothing has really impressed me, but I am starting to realize now that I’m settling in that there are lots of other things that I’ll be looking forward to including the fall colors, cherry blossom season, not to forget the different festivals that occur throughout the year. There will be lots of differences compared to Japan. So, I’m going to close here considering I’m at a coffee shop now (just to get out of the apartment) and my battery is starting to die, guess I’ve been here longer than I thought. Anyway, I hope you’re all doing well and I’d love to hear from you sometime. Just to let you know, I’m most likely going to post these journals on another blog, but I’ll let you know when it’s complete. For now just look at this link.

Take care everyone.

Journal 2 - You Want Massagie

I left for Seoul Monday morning to start my training. The training was pretty intense to say the least. I won't get into a lot of details, but basically I had to learn a whole new teaching method in one week. I'll be honest, I didn't agree with some of their methods. It basically contradicted with what I learned when I was getting certified as an ESL teacher. But, I went through it, listened to what they had to say and did what I was told. I pretty much spent the whole week learning about two different classes. I was with 8 other people, mostly from the US. Most of them had never taught before. I was suppose to stay until the following Saturday and then head back down to Cheung Ju, but because a teacher was leaving for vacation, I had to cut the training short and head back Friday afternoon to teach a 3 hour class. So, basically I was training from 9 am until 3, had to hoof it to the bus station, grab the next bus back to teach a 7:30 class. Then I had to leave the next morning at 6 am to go back for the Saturday training until 11:30, hoof it back again to catch the next bus to start teaching again for 6 hours starting at 2:30. You can imagine how tired I was by the end of it. Oh yeah, to add insult to injury, apparently the CDI policy is to finish the training, so now I need to go back to Seoul again next week to finish. You're probably wondering why they could't find someone else right? Well, I'm pretty much asking the same exact thing ... Still waiting for that answer. I am going to be honest, I was actually ready to up and leave. But, I managed to survive the weekend as well as my first week.

Now, because I was training as well as working on preparations in the evenings, I didn't get a chance to do a lot of site seeing in Seoul. I did however, decide to take one evening off and went to an area called Itaewon. Itaewon basically consists of foreign bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. It wasn't really the first place I wanted to go, but I promised a guy I worked with that I would take a gift for someone who owns a Canadian bar in that area. So, I figured why not head down and kill two birds with one stone. As I was heading along the main street from the subway, I was trying to figure out where to go. This area seems to be the "Red Light District" area ... or at least that's what it seemed. I found out later that it's a good thing I didn't wander into the narrower roads as that's where all the more "private" clubs exist. Funny story ... while I was walking, this rather large woman comes up to me and goes, "Hey ... you want massagie?" I go, "Huh?" ... "You want massagie?... we go have good time". I said, "It's funny you ask, because I have this knot in my neck, any recommendations?" She said, "Well, there's lots of thing you could do ... hot and cold packs, regular massage's, etc. ... here's my card" .... OK, yeah that's not what happened. After she said "We have good time", I politely turned around and walked away. My first week and I get propositioned by a hooker ... and a rather large one to boot ... lovely. Anyway, it didn't take long to find this bar. I stayed for a few hours, had some Grasshopper and Chicken Wings, chatted up with a guy from BC. He gave me some suggestions for places to visit next time I come up, so that was cool.

One thing I noticed here that's different to Japan is, the people approach you more. I was trying to find a shopping district when this guy comes up and asks if I needed any help. I asked him where I could find the shopping area and originally he was going to just point me in the direction, but he ended up coming with me and showing me around. He wanted to practice his English so he asked if it was OK and as payment, he bought me dinner. I thought what a great way to learn about a place then with a local. Anyway, it ended up being a good night and now if I ever go up to Seoul I'll have someone to contact and show me around.

So, as you can imagine my first two weeks have definitely been quite busy. This is actually my first weekend where I actually had two days off. It's been nice. I've gone to an internet cafe twice already which is where I am now. Luckily the cafe's are cheap here, but I need to get internet set up at home. I can see it being another long process, but hopefully I'll get it set-up soon. Anyway, I'm going to sign off here and sent out for you guys to read.

Sorry, it took so long, but now you probably understand why. Hope all is well and I'll chat with you guys again.

Journal 1 - The joys of Sleep

OK ... So, I'm sure this might be a shock to some of you and not for others. But, yes I'm off again! I'm back in Asia teaching in Korea now. The city I live in is called Cheung Ju which is about an hour and a half south of Seoul. It's a fairly decent size city, maybe about 600 000 people or so. What am I doing? Well, I'm working for a company called CDI where I'm teaching kids around ages of 10 to 14. The kids are pretty advanced speakers and they're learning a lot of reading, listening, writing and speaking. The courses are quite intense for them, but it's suppose to prepare them for the TOEFL test which allows them to get into English universities. Yes, they're starting very young. Koreans are quite serious about their English learning which is why there are so many teaching jobs.

Anyway, so I've been here for about 2 weeks now and it's been quite the long intense two weeks. From the day I got off the plane I've been pretty much going non-stop working. Apparently, I picked the wrong time to go to Korea. I guess the busiest time for students to go to school is during the summer. I mean why be a normal child and go to the beach or swimming pool everyday or even travel with your family ... oh no, let's leave one academic institution and move on to another for a month. But I digress.

So, anyway back to what I've been doing. I arrived in Korea on Friday, July 13th ... yes, I know a risky thing to do. It was around 6:30 pm and I was pretty tired. The flight was long, had trouble sleeping, pretty much watched movies ... I mean it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I went out the night before I left drinking. Oh yeah, and the fact that my butt was sore with a huge bruise had nothing to do with the fact that I was riding the mechanical bull that same night. Gotta love Stampede in Calgary. If you want to see the bull ride, apparently it's on Facebook. So, I arrived at Seoul Incheon airport and I needed to grab a bus down to Cheung Ju. I was impressed to see how easy it was. By the way, the best way to get around in Korea isn't taking a train like in Japan, but taking buses. I grabbed my ticket and headed for the bus stop. I was going to take the 7:00 bus down and I only had about ten minutes to get to the stop. So, I pretty much hoofed it through the airport, dodged all the taxi drivers who were looking for a fare and made it to the stop. I showed my ticket to the bus driver and he pointed to the door ... I looked at him in a rather puzzled way, and pointed to my luggage basically trying to ask where can I put them. He looked a little flustered because he was stuffing other suitcases in before that. So, he took one look at my luggage, said something in Korean, which I don't think translated into "No problem I'll take care of it" and moved into the bus. I was a little confused because he closed the door. I tried to get his attention showing him the best "Puss-In-Boots" pathetic eyes .. you know the one's I'm talking about .. from Shrek? But, he didn't look at me and drove off. For a moment I had that naive thought that maybe he was going to turn around and come back for me ... after all I am Joe. Yeah, no such luck ... So, I guess I wasn't taking the 7:00 bus. Anyway, I went and changed my ticket for the 7:30 and got on that bus no problem.

The ride from the airport took about two and a half hours. I was greeted by my director's husband and their teenage daughter. They drove me to the school I'm working at and then took me to my apartment. My apartment is literally a two minute walk from the school which is very nice. I felt kind of bad for their daughter because she was so anxious to talk to me in English, but I was so tired that my answers pretty much was limited to one word answers.

Anyway, back to the apartment ... I live in a one bedroom bachelor, roughly the same size as my apartment in Japan. I have the necessities: kitchen with a fridge and two burner stove, microwave, all utensils, plates, bowls, pots,etc. I have a TV and DVD player. I am happy to say that my bed does not consist of a two inch futon on the floor. I actually have a real queen size bed ... the mattress is pretty hard mind you, but it does the trick. I also have a washer, but no dryer. Oh and the bathroom consists of a toilet, sink and the whole room is a shower ... no bath tub. And I must say it is the loveliest shade of fuscia I've ever seen. After dropping off my luggage, I ended up meeting some of the teachers I'm working with as well as some other teachers who live in the area. In fact, I'm pretty much living in an area that consists of mostly foreigners. All the teachers seem pretty cool and are very helpful which is nice. Just around the corner from the apartment is a convenience store with a huge patio. Since it's summer time, people pretty much go there and sit outside and drink. You can buy beer at the convenience stores in Korea. So, I stayed for a drink, but not for long ... I needed sleep very badly.

The rest of the weekend I pretty much spent exploring and getting to know the city. It's nice to see that everything is within walking distance and if it's not I can just grab a cab and get anywhere for under $10, sometimes under $5. There's even a huge walking/biking path that goes along the river in the city. This will definitely be ideal for running once it cools down a bit that is ... it's pretty humid here. But, all in all I think it's going to be a pretty good city to live in.

I stayed in Cheung Ju until Monday morning where I had to leave for Seoul again to start my training which is a whole new Journal.