The Newest Olympic Sport: Puddle Hopping

**I am still catching up on my posts, so neither this blog nor the previous are dated correctly.**


셋 주 (set-joo) (week 3)


          This weekend was football time in Tennessee. I woke up early on my birthday to listen to the first UT game of the season on internet radio. We won 50-0 and my birthday was off to a good start. Later that Sunday, Allie and I took our first trip into Seoul, Itaweon specifically. Suwon has a subway stop, but we hear it's much quicker to take bus 5100 to Gangnam Station, a bus and subway station on the south side of Seoul. From Gangnam, we hopped on the subway to Itaewon, which is one of two foreigner neighborhoods that I know of. It is a tourist trap with lots of shopping and non-Korean restaurants. Yes, they have many American restaurants, but there are Turkish, Afghan, Indian, and many other types of food available. It does not feel like Korea because of all the English signs and diversity among visitors. Many Middle Easterners, South Asians, and Africans wander the streets of Itaewon.
          The shops all seem to be the same: souvenir shops with old Korean ladies wanting to sell their mother-of-pearl mirrors and jewelry boxes for 50,000 won~ 300,000 won. (1000 won~ 1 dollar). The little ladies also highly promote their amethyst necklaces, rings, earrings, cell phone ornaments, and barrettes for the same amount of money. They claim the amethyst comes straight from the mountains of Korea and even have a huge block of raw amethyst (is that the right word?) to prove it. These ladies hassle you to no end offering you "cheap price" or "discount for my special customer". You can bargain your way through Korea, or so I hear. I have yet to be successful.
          Allie and I got lost in Gangnam Station because we took the wrong exit out of the subway station on the way back. The result was frustration, but it was soon made better because, while lost, we ran across a street vendor selling shoes for 5,000 won. JACKPOT. It's a bummer those shoes only lasted a week, but I guess that's how far a 5 dollar pair of shoes will get you. My day was soon ruined because as soon as we stepped off the bus in Yeongtong, my umbrella broke and it was pouring. This was the second or third of many more nights I would be soaked walking home.
           It rains so much here that puddle hopping should be a sport. Umbrellas are all fashionable, as well. Men don't really go all out, but women's umbrellas are frilly, lacey, sequiny, and they all have the curvy handle that you see in the stores in America but never actually see anyone carrying.  They are used during rain and shine because Koreans simply don't wear sunglasses.  Every store has an umbrella stand at the door, rain or shine, because it's bound to start pouring at any moment. However, as much as I hate the rain sometimes, those are the moments where I really feel like I'm in Asia. :-)

My current umbrella isn't frilly, but I got it at the local gas station, it was cheap, and it does the job.  This is me recently in Gyeongju, Korea, which I will tell you about later. :-)

The first 2 weeks...

SO, since I've been here a month and haven't posted but once, I feel obligated to fill you on what has happened since my first weekend in South Korea.  It'll take a few posts (which I've made to appear like I was actually posting a long time ago), but I'll get caught up for ya. :-)

하나 주 (ha-nah-joo) (week One)

          As you know already, I spent my first week in Seoul training at the Chungdahm headquarters. It was easily the most stressful week of my life, but I survived :-) I enjoyed riding the subway everywhere and window shopping. I didn't get to experience much of Seoul because I was so busy during training, but I've been back a few times and will continue to go back to make up for what I missed out on.
          At the end of training, my fellow trainee, Allie from Chicago, and I were shipped off to Suwon. Suwon is about a 35-45 minute car ride south of Seoul. As soon as we arrived in Yeongtong, our little district of Suwon, we were dropped off at our school. We met some of the other instructors and about an hour later, we were taken to our apartments. That was the first time I had been alone since I left the States and, well, I had a moment in my hospital room of an apartment. The apartment was like a box with the following items: bed, desk, small refrigerator, and drawers. For the first minute, I thought: "Wow I'm finally HERE. This is MY place." That quickly changed because all I wanted to do was sleep, so I cried. I hadn't slept in three days and I was somehow supposed to stay awake for 2.5 more hours and go to the Yeongtong Branch's company dinner. Normally, I would've set my phone alarm on vibrate and crashed, but my cell phone was dead and I had no converter. Another option would've been listening to music, but my ipod was dead and I had no converter. My third and final option would be to call people on Skype or check my e-mail, but my laptop had a mere hour left on it and what do you know? I had no converter. I also could not steal a decent wireless signal, but I promptly fixed that problem. I wanted so badly to have contact with the other side of the world that I hung my laptop outside my laundry room window and BAM! Three bars of stolen wireless :-) I kept my laptop in my window sill for the next two weeks and enjoyed a few bars of wireless, some streaming radio, some football games. Internet is a life saver and I will never take advantage again!
          Now that I'm off my internet soapbox, I'll continue with the story. :-) The company dinner that friday evening was an over-the-top welcome to Yeongtong celebration. I was thrown into the Korean lifestyle of barbeque and drinks. There I met most of the other instructors and heard all of their stories. It's interesting to meet people from all over the place. I have found that most Americans I meet are from New York or California, but every now and then there's someone from my beloved South. One teacher, Philip Cho, and I had a fun first conversation. He's from Miami, he loves the gators. I'm from Tennessee, I love the Vols. You know what comes next: I got gator chomped over Korean bbq. Not many people here are from the South, therefore not many people are into college football. For this reason, anytime I meet someone who is remotely interested in it, I get a warm fuzzy feeling and my heart smiles. It is smiling even while getting chomped. :-)
          The next day was really busy. Each term at Chungdahm is 13 weeks and everyone was preparing for their new classes. Allie and I were introduced to the culture of our Yeongtong Branch. There are numerous little details that are different from the other Chungdahm branches. Everything was overwhelming at first but it has gotten much better.

둘 주 (dhool-joo) (week two)

          My first day of teaching was terrible! I had planned as well as I could have, but all that was ruined when another teacher got in a car wreck and I had to take both his class and my class. I was informed of the matter 20 minutes before class started. A first day at any new job is nervewracking, but this absolutely drove me up the wall. I was a full hour behind in my elementary class! My first few days were a little rough because I had underestimated how much English the students would know, therefore I had overprepared. It's kind of hit and miss with these students because some things you think they would never understand need no explanation whatsoever, yet the simplest of things require patience and in depth explanations.
          There is something about "firsts" here, or anywhere new for that matter: My first time being by myself in my apartment, the first time I woke up and no one was there, the first time I walked to school alone, the first time I braved the public transportation system alone. The most prominent "first" was my first trip to Home Plus (Korean version of Walmart, except not as good...) by myself.
          At 9 pm, HomePlus is buzzing with people. There are 50 million people living in Korea and it seems like they are all in HomePlus. For a foreigner, or atleast for me, the scenario is shocking: flat escalators connect the floors so you can push your buggy around. Someone greets you at the entrance to each level and there is someone in almost every aisle ready to offer assistance or to persuade you to buy the more expensive product. Most of the products are in Korean, which makes sense, so you revert back to a child learning out of a picture book. One example is that the chili pepper on the package means it's spiced with chili peppers. Duh. In America, I thought packaging with illustrations and pictures was redundant: just read the label. However, I take full advantage of pictoral learning here. :-) \
          The aisles in the HomePlus are like roads. They are constantly moving and if you don't know exactly what you want, you get run over. In my quest to find peanut butter to cure my homesickness, I got runover alot. At home, I would've been a good Southerner and said "Excuse me. I'm sorry" with a sweet smile. Koreans don't know what any of that means, so it's useless to try. I became increasingly homesick and I left HomePlus with no peanut butter, only a can of pineapple, some good old fashioned orange juice, and some flavorless ramen (flavorless because I couldn't read the package). I walked outside and it was pouring down rain. My 15 minute walk home in flip flops with no umbrella was absolutely wonderful [sarcasm intended]. That was the worst I have felt in my time here and well, the sky was crying, so why couldn't I? Two phone calls and one gut check later, I was all better and have been wonderful since.
          The next morning, I woke up to another "first": My first typhoon. Typhoon Kompasu was rolling through Korea. Seoul got most of the damage, but Suwon got some also. There's nothing like being woken up at 6 am to wind howling through your apartment. All the clothes in my laundry room had been blown off their drying lines and the trees outside were bent half over. Outside my apartment, people were walking to work and were struggling just to stand in the wind. At this point, I had not found a radio station I could understand so I had no idea what was happening. The Weather Channel doesn't exactly cover what's going on in East Asia. On the other hand, I can now say I've been through a hurricane...errr typhoon. ;-)

My first few days in South Korea!

Hey all, I have reached the other side of the world to begin my big girl job as an English instructor for Chungdahm Learning in South Korea.  It's 8:20 pm on monday evening, August 23 and I flew out of Nashville 8 am friday morning, August 20, arriving in Seoul 4:15 pm on saturday.  After a tearful goodbye with my family, I was off!  I had the sweetest plane buddy: a middle-aged Korean man who had just dropped off his daughter at Emory.  I asked him why his daughter would want to come so far for college and he said "You start teaching and you will realize why students go so far for education", so I'm waiting to see if he's right.  He also spoiled me by telling me a little about the company I am working for (he has heard only good things) and teaching me how to eat my Korean plane dinner.  He spoke such good English I thought this would be easy! I left the airport and was sadly mistaken.

A few notes about the plane ride:

• Korean Air flight attendants are the most meticulously dressed women I have seen in my life.  The ladies look exactly like the commercial portrays them.  Not one hair out of place, not one wrinkle in their skirt, and not one love handle to be seen.
• The invention of personal tvs is genius.  A 15 hour flight goes by quickly with Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, 2 American movies, 1 Korean movie, Korean pop music, and best of all: flight maps!  There's something really exciting about flying over Siberia ;-)
• Korean Air is excellent and I highly recommend it.  If nothing else can convince you, the super comfy blanket they provide is like heaven.  HOWEVER, do NOT try to open a window when the plane is dark and a flight attendant is nearby, or a meticulously dressed Korean lady will snap at you.

Upon arriving at the airport, the 4 Chungdahm teachers that had flown on the flight from Atlanta got together, got our tons of luggage, exchanged our currency, and found our Limosine Bus which would take us from Incheon to Seoul.  However, it was quite confusing amid the taxi drivers shouting at us in Korean than "YOU NEED TAKSHI YES? YES?"  They don't take no for an answer! 

The bus ride into Seoul was mind-boggling!  The mountains are magnificent and the vegetation is so, for lack of a better word, Asian.  If it had not been for the Korean road signs, different trees, and villages of high-rises, I could have been in East Tennessee and not known the difference.  Traffic in the city was awful, especially on the stop-and-go-make-you-throw-up bus.  Jet lagged and famished on a jolting bus is probably very similar to a hangover on a jolting bus.  After about 2 hours, we finally reached the City Air Terminal and met up with more Chungdahm teachers to catch call vans to our hotel.  We reached home sweet home, atleast for this week, a little while later.

Sad to say, my fellow teacher Angela from Atlanta and I were so hungry that we ate dinner at the closest place that was readable, meaning not in Korean characters.  That closest place happened to be a TGI Fridays, which would also be the setting for our first real helping of culture shock.  No one came to our table for a good 10 minutes.  I'm pretty sure the waiter whose section we were in did not speak a lick of English and was scared to greet or come over to us.   The hostess gave us English menus, but that's as far as the communication went that night.  I had a baked potato and soup, the serving sizes of which were much smaller than those in the U.S.  This could be a good thing :-)  The whole meal was awkward because our waiter was scared to try to approach us and we had no idea what to say to him.  Amid the awkward smiles and nods, both parties were lost in translation.  On the walk back, we stopped at a corner store for some snacks: overpriced pineapple cookies, honey biscuits, and seaweed rice soup.  Everything so far has been delicious! 

Sunday was the biggest culture shock so far: the local Korean supermarket.  My roommate and fellow teacher, Elaine from Chicago, wanted to stock up on some food.  Thank God for pictures on food products.  Without them, we would have had no clue about half the stuff we bought.  I also tried to buy a set of headphones but couldn't approach a Korean worker to have them get the pair I liked out of the case for me.  Sad day, I went home with no headphones, but picked up a sweet microphone for Skype.  All in all, we spent a good 2 hours in there and filled the buggy up.  Now, we did something that maybe only an American would do: stole the buggy. Well, we returned it an hour later, but I can only imagine what people thought as the 2 American girls with a full shopping cart passed them on the rickety brick sidewalk.  Props to the makers of the cart---it had swivel wheels. 

When we got back to the hotel, I felt very sick and didn't know why.  Well, I pretty much hadn't had any water and the humidity is ridiculous here.  Apparently, between the humidity, jet lag, humidity headache, and lack of a filling meal, I wasn't feeling so hot.  However, a 7 hour nap fixed me right up. 

Sunday night was definately the most fun I have had so far, mainly because I didn't feel completely uncomfortable and confused during the meal.  One of the teachers, Carrie from Philadelphia, has a Korean boyfriend who took us to a cheap local place.  Those are generally the places with absolutely no roman lettering on the signs or menus.  Thank goodness he was with us to translate, because the meal was AMAZING and so cheap!  I fell in love with kimchi cakes, pork with bean paste, and everything else that went along with that meal.

Today (Monday, August 23) was a big day! It was our first day of training.  All of the Chungdahm teachers are staying in Seoul for the week for training and then moving to our respective cities throughout the country at the end of the week.  I passed all the pre-training tests, which was nice because I was very nervous about them.  Today was just an orientation and a medical exam.  We all went to Seoul Medical Center for a checkup consisting of the whole package: height, weight, blood pressure, eyesight, chest xray, blood test, and urine test.

Following the physical, me, Angela from Atlanta, and Angela from St. Louis walked a few blocks to COEX, which is right next to the Seoul World Trade Center.  In COEX, there is a really nice mall, and we all needed a few items.  I purchased an umbrella, watch, Korean dictionary, and headphones.  The Korean version of Claire's was hectic because of employees shouting things about sale items, and one watching my every move.  Maybe he thought I would steal something?  I ended up buying a sweet purse/bag.  Thats another thing: everyone here has a satchel/purse/man purse.  After our visit to the mall, I rode my first Seoul subway.  Seoul has the largest subway system in the world and we all know how I love trains, so you can imagine my excitment.  The stop we got off on had 12 different exits, which was very confusing, but we worked it out.

A few sidenotes to wrap up this post:

• I'm in love with Korean fashion!  Many women are dressed to the nines, and almost everyone has on a different pair of adorable heels or flats.  Many women wear big decorative bows in their hair, short skirts, belted dresses, wonderful shoes.  Walking around the mall is like flipping through the fashion issue of Elle. 
• I have not seen ONE person with sunglasses.  I wonder if they think I'm weird for wearing them.
• I saw (and took a picture of) a Korean globe today.  For those of you who know me, this is big news.
• Traffic and driving is crazy in Seoul.  Buses do U-turns in the middle of these multi-lane-packed-with-cars streets and cars park on the sidewalks since there are no shoulders to pull off.  I'm not sure what the laws are, but parking on the sidewalks is new to me!
• I'll have pictures soon!

I apologize for the length of this post but I had a lot to catch everyone up on!