Two months in

Haendae Beach, Busan

The completion of my second month here coincided with the day of my friend's birthday. It also happened to be one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. A weekend filled with good times and good company. After a small celebration at my place we headed for Busan, Korea's second largest city. It's about a 30 minute bus ride from here. From the bus station we took the subway to the university area, where night life is fully active. It was a big contrast from my little city - busy and loud and lots of foreign faces. We eventually ended up at a small club. Not the most attractive or inviting, or even enticing place, I have to admit. But after having walked around aimlessly for a while we decided to just check it out. It was loud and reeked of cigarettes. We had paid a cover so we decided to stay for a bit. A little bit turned into dancing til dawn. When you're surrounded by music and happy people you forget your surroundings. Hours later, tired and thirsty and in need of air, we decided to head out. We took a cab to the beach. We took our shoes off and rested our feet in the cool sand. Then we simply stood there and watched the sunrise. I don't think there's anything that can compare to the cool fresh air of early dawn accompanied by the sound of waves, and a calm that permeates, with what I can only describe as the majesty of a sunrise.

Life in Korea has been good. People are kind. They have a history. They have a culture. They have tradition. And they are kind. Traveling gives you hope in humanity. It makes you come face to face with people. It makes you realize people every where are really the same. And there's nothing sweeter than bonding with someone you can't speak with.

A while ago I went on a mini trip to the country side with some friends. We went to a city called Hadong, the green tea capital of Korea. They have an annual green tea festival there every year. The scenery was breath taking. It was beautiful, mystic. I'm hoping to end up some where like that. Seems like the only natural progression, to go back to nature.

Work has been good. I've definitely identified the trouble students by now. Some need a lot of individual attention. Most are good. Some are great. I still love being around kids all day. It's a whole other atmosphere. It's lighter and more innocent. Still, requires lots of patience and energy some times. Well worth it though.

Hadong, Korea.

The motel where we spent the night

View from our restaurant

Rainy night at the temple, Thousand Lanterns Festival

Settling in

Commercial building and my School, ECC Acadamy 

It’s nice to be back in the world of pencil cases, erasers, knapsacks and colorful notebooks. I forgot how many different shape and colored erasers there can be. And how a pencil can never be sharp enough. I had forgotten about colorful hair clips and pony tails and bows. It’s nice to be back in the world of whispering and giggling about something completely innocent. It’s nice to be back in the world of innocence.

 I’ve finally spent enough time with each class to know their names and personalities. There are a couple classes where it’s clear the students don’t really care, and that they don’t want to be there. I’ve been trying to find ways of making it interesting and relevant to them but it’s hard. The only way is to familiarize myself with Korean pop culture…which is an interesting one. For the most part though I have a lot of fun with my students. In my school (and most English schools) the kids are given English names. I’m not sure of the reason behind it. I was taken aback a few days ago when upon the arrival of a new student in my class, I was told to “name her.” It made me feel so awkward. I asked her whether there was a particular name she liked and she just shyly shook her head. So I asked the class. A bunch of names were shouted and I asked her to choose one, which she eventually did. I feel particularly bad because my name’s pretty hard for them to pronounce and they do it anyway, and here I am naming them some generic English name for my convenience.

Last week was particularly brutal. A weakened immune system from traveling and room after room of couching kids made for an inevitable sickness. Unfortunately there’s no concept of staying home if you’re sick here, so I was forced to go to work barely able to breath, let alone speak and teach. It was hard. I’m glad it’s over. My fridge is now fully packed with fruit. Speaking of which, I finally found some avocados – bad news is that they’re $5 each. I also found lentils, $10 for a little bag enough for maybe two meals. There is no long grained or basmati rice. There are 50 different kinds of rice, just not the ones I need. There is also no whole wheat or multi grain bread. I’ve finally found some rye bread at a local bakery, but they’re generally not big on bread here. I guess my carb intake will be substantially reduced.

I’ve been trying to study some Korean. The most important thing is to learn my numbers. It’s harder than I expected because they have 2 completely different numbering systems. One traditional Korean one and a Chinese influenced one. The difficulty is that they use different ones for different things. Telling the time for example, uses a mixture of the two. This last weekend I studied them a bit before going grocery shopping. When I got to the counter I listened very intently to see if I could make out the number for the price; I didn’t understand a word. I’m not too bummed out though. My students are very encouraging. When ever I say a Korean word they all look up wide eyed and impressed. Then they get excited and want to make me repeat things in Korean. It’s an easy way to waste class time.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. I’ll try to do better next time. 

This is the view from the hallway of my building, 12th floor. 

First days

It's been eight days since I've come here and one week since I started teaching. Jangyou is a suburb of Gimhae, roughly half an hour away from Busan, which is Korea's second largest city. It is a relitively small city surrounded by mountains.  So far the people have been kind and patient, and of course, curious. There are definitely prolonged looks and stares, but thankfully so far they've been followed by smiles.  More often than not if there are children around, they'll come right up to you and say "hello" and practice what little English they have. 
There are old Korean ladies sitting on sidewalks selling anything from fresh fruits and veggies, tofu, kimchi, or sea food. Everything's fresh and cheap. It gives the city character, its own identity and flavour. The street food is cheap and delicious.  I can't help but think how amazing Toronto could be with all its diverse culture if they eased up on all the permits. 

From what I've gathered so far it seems Koreans are hard working, focused, and a motivated people. This is most evident in the life of a typical student. Kids here go to several schools. Their regular school followed by a series of other private schools like English classes, math academies and etc.... During some of my conversation classes I try to get them talking by asking them what they like to do outside of school for fun. In one class the majority of them said sleep, others said Nintendo. They barely have time to play or travel. One of my students said around exam time at some schools it's not uncommon for them to be in school studying til 2am. These aren't university kids pulling all-nighters for exams and papers, these are over worked middle school children. In class they're mostly polite and do their work, but when they don't it's hard to get too mad at them. They really don't have an outlet for their energy so it's understandable if they get a little hyper in class, or on the flip side, if they fall asleep. 

There's a decent size foreigner community of English teachers here. There are local hang outs and regular get togethers.  These are all people who've signed up for an adventure and left their comfort zones so it's not too difficult to find at least some commonalities with them.  I've been lucky so far and have two other great English teachers working at my school. One great thing (among many) about traveling is you get to realize there are cool and interesting people no matter where you go, and you become exposed to new point of views. Next step is to become more familiarized with language and culture....to become a little bit more immersed.