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.