Oh, hai. This week I took special care in paying attention to the people and the culture that I'm surrounded by. Using my observations and the (admittedly small amount of) online research I've done, I'll attempt to describe some cultural differences that I've seen but have hitherto been unable to put into words.
The week began with a journey to Itaewon, known as "Western Town" due to what I can only hope is a cheeky acknowledgement of the many Chinatowns in Western nations. I liked the way Visit Korea described it:
It was certainly multicultural, and also heckin' busy. On the train to Itaewon, there was a large group of deaf people and they were so friendly. Their faces were remarkably animated as they talked with one another, and they smiled warmly when they noticed us curiously watching them. One kind man even invited us to sit next to him. I asked them how to say "happy" and they responded with huge smiles when I attempted it. In Itaewon, I met up with Troy, Trevor, Brandi, Erika, Cameron, Bryan, and Leah and we went out for food at an African-themed restaurant run by a bearded man from South Africa. An episode of Planet Earth was playing on the television, and it was an episode that I recognized. It's an intense scene. I narrated what was happening between the two giraffes, since we couldn't hear it, and everyone "oo-ed" and "aah-ed" and they were the epitome of a good audience. There was also a chess board, so Troy and I played a match. Afterwards, while we were lined up to pay, the owner was standing nearby so I turned to him and said, "I like that you have chess here." He looked at me with incredulity and said, "You like that I have chest hair?!" which I responded to with a bunch of, "Oh no. No, no. Chess. Here," and I pointed at the chess board to correct him. But the damage was done. I ended up supremely flustered and was mocked mercilessly by my companions all evening. We ended the night at a noraebang (Korean karaoke room) and sang some Western tunes. Later that week, Troy and I hiked halfway up Suraksan to a beautiful Buddhist garden and temple. We were the only two there and it was indescribably calm and tranquil. There was a white elephant statue, a large statue of Buddha, numerous rooms filled with art and seemingly-ancient ritualistic items, and a painting of a monk peeing (pictures below). Troy did the only proper, respectful thing and washed his hands in the monk's pee. It was a unique feeling to be on a mountainside, surrounded by ancient palaces or temples, knowing that ultramodern infrastructure was only a short hike away. Seoul is a city of stunning juxtapositions. It's a mixture of majestic historic sites and dazzling big-city sights. Then Chuseok was over and everyone went back to work. The printer was broken on the first day back and everyone had a huge amount of printing to do - at least three times the normal amount. So we all had to use the printer in another room, which was much slower and tended to jam periodically. It was probably hilarious to watch, honestly. The ridiculous printer party of slightly exasperated English teachers. But, as a saving grace, two girls approached me at the start of one of my Telescope classes and gifted me with handwritten letters (pictures below). I think they must have gotten together and written them simultaneously because their content is fairly similar. It was absolutely adorable. So cute. So sweet. One of the students asked me what my favourite flower was, so I decided I would write a reply to both of them. I have pen pals now! I hope they write me another reply soon. I truly appreciate the students who try to understand me/the material and also try to be understood/express themselves in a positive way. Well, I appreciate anyone of any age who does those things. Alright, time for some more exposition of the titular topic -- Korean culture. I have two things to talk about this week: beliefs/trust and personal space. Beliefs and Trust There's something intangible that connects all Koreans - an implicit, unspoken bond of trust that goes so deeply that I'm not really sure how to describe it. Perhaps it's due to their belief in Confucian principles like Benevolence and Propriety, where one should be concerned with the welfare of others and act according to a certain set of rules, respectively. They know that if they leave their motorbike unattended on the street, no one is going to steal it. They walk around busy subway stations with their wallets in their hands, and laptops and backpacks sit unguarded in cafes. It's an enormous, complex cultural machine and trust is the lubricant between the gears. Then expats arrive and have to figure out their place in it all. I would say that Koreans do like foreigners, but they generally don't trust us to the same degree that they do each other. We make them a little bit uneasy because we were raised in a different country with a different set of morals and rules. On that note, I feel very safe walking down the streets of Seoul. Almost everyone here strives to be wholesome, to succeed at work, and to be liked by their peers. A sense of community and collectivism pervades everything. Personal Space In crowded places, there's a lot of jostling, but it's never angry or emotionally charged. People are simply moving efficiently to where they need to get to. So the "personal bubble" is essentially nonexistent over here when you're out in public. The amount of space between everything from people to buildings to the mountains and the city is very small. It's all packed neatly together like a perfectly-planned game of Tetris. Interestingly, their facial expressions and body language also do not take up a lot of space. They're very stoic and rarely show emotion in public. The children, however, will not hesitate to show you exactly how they're feeling, haha. They run and laugh and are boisterous and their facial expressions are unaffected and honest. Which is also why it is so incredibly touching and meaningful to me when a student offers a small treat from their backpack. You really know how they feel when they give you a little morsel of food. Oh, and here's an interesting excerpt that I found on Commisceo Global's website: The Concept of Kibun
Kibun and nunchi are things I'm going to think about a lot while I'm here. And probably long after I've left, too. As always, thank you so much for reading! I'll talk to you again soon. :)
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Yes, it happened. I was infected by the kids. I was the original zombie this week. To those of you at the office who are now ill, I sincerely apologize. It may have been me who inadvertently passed on the virus. The days described below have the dramatic backdrop of me continually having to surreptitiously wipe my runny nose, since it's fairly taboo to blow your nose in public here. But I'll spoil the ending so you don't worry: I survive the sickness. :)
Trivia Time: The human body normally produces 1 to 1.5 litres of mucous a day, but a healthy person just swallows almost all of it without even noticing. If you get a cold, however, your nasal passages can become inflamed and congested, so you have to blow it out your nose instead. On Sunday (September 16), I was experiencing moderately severe cold symptoms and producing prodigious volumes of mucous (pictures below - just kidding). I asked my selfless, caring, heroic co-worker Courtney to take me to a doctor, and she took me to see an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist) on Monday before work started. There I received the diagnoses of a sinus infection and bronchitis and a prescription for amoxicillin and some decongestant. When we arrived at work, I overheard Chris say, "I'm like the Hulk, but with stress instead of anger" (sorry for eavesdropping). He seemed to be foreshadowing my day - it was the most tiring day of teaching so far. But I slept extremely well that night. On Tuesday, Brandi and I had a serendipitous encounter at the Nowon-Gu Office where we were both getting our Alien Registration Card (ARC) certificates. Not the cards themselves, but a very official-looking piece of paper with the number on it, which is proof that we can work here legally. It also enables us to sign up for a phone plan and internet. Good for Grapes' album Man on the Page kept my ears company on the walk to the office and back. As I left the building, there was a flower tunnel that had beautiful purple and pink flowers growing in the shade it created (pictures below). Flower Trivia Time: Korea's national flower is Hibiscus syriacus. Guys, the number of places to buy food here is remarkable. There are, of course, many fancy and expensive restaurants, but most of them are just ma and pa shops. Every day I pass countless hole-in-the-wall restaurants selling soup and noodles for next to nothing, and they're probably barely scraping out enough money to make a living. There are always trucks parked by the sidewalk with their cargo beds full of vegetables or fried food, and some have their wares out on the sidewalk as well. There are lots of street food vendors with small, permanent booths selling deep-fried food, and other people simply sitting on the sidewalk with small plastic bags of vegetables laid out in front of them. It's like the entire city is a farmer's market all the time. Okay, two quick food stories. First, there's this thing called kimbap, which is a bundle of vegetables and meat wrapped in rice and seaweed (kind of like a sushi roll), and I ate it almost every day this week. Second, after work one day, my generous, kindhearted co-worker Chris bought some bean-paste-filled, fish-shaped waffle desserts and shared them with all of us. I might be buying them every night on my way home now... That might be enough about food for now. Oh, here's a story that's not about food. One rainy day, at the bus stop by my apartment, there were four middle school-aged Korean boys waiting for the bus. One of them had an umbrella, and one had glasses, and they both spoke English to me. The transcript below is adorable and almost verbatim because I wrote it down immediately afterwards: Umbrella: [Enthusiastically] Hi! Me: Hi! Umbrella: Where are you from? Me: Canada. See? [Turns around and shows him the Canada sticker on the back of her backpack] Glasses: You're so cool. Me: You're so cool. Glasses: [Grins] Thank you. Umbrella: You are a very pretty girl. Me: Thank you. You are a very handsome boy. [The group giggles and begins to cross the street] Umbrella: Bye! Me: Bye! Have a good day! Kids are ridiculous. I think I'm finally starting to settle in. More than when I first arrived, anyway. To be completely honest, it was a little difficult to go out in public alone once I moved into the apartment. I'd become accustomed to traveling in a large group everywhere, and it was jarring to suddenly have no one else around. My worry was that no matter where I went, I was inconveniencing someone because I couldn't speak Korean. But thanks to some good talks with great people this week, my uneasiness has abated somewhat. There are plenty of expats living in Korea, I'm learning the language, and the people here are generally welcoming and friendly and don't feel annoyed by my presence. It's a slow process, but it's getting easier every day. Even More Trivia Time: A student in one of my classes has trichotillomania. It's a "mental disorder that involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp". Poor little guy has a bald spot on the back of his head. On Friday, I started watching The Dragon Prince, which is an animated show co-written by Aaron Ehasz, who was the head writer for Avatar: The Last Airbender. If you liked ATLA, I recommend checking it out. It's adorable. Friday was the last day of work before Chuseok (pronounced chew-sock, it's Korean thanksgiving), so Susan, the director, arranged a huge gift-giving gambling game. Almost everybody got gifts (pictures below). The high-energy kids, pop quizzes, and shortened lesson times made for an incredibly hectic day before the holidays. Courtney, again being the heroine that I don't deserve in my life, lent me her acoustic guitar. I'm very excited to play songs and build up calluses again. That night, one of the Korean teachers named Mia joined Ashley and me for our walk home since they were both flying to Japan that night for Chuseok. As more proof of Korean kindness, Mia bought us deep fried crab legs wrapped in a leaf and they were delicious. Then the weekend arrived. I was starting to feel healthier again, so on Saturday I hiked up Ansan with Anis, Troy, and Ruan. It was stunningly beautiful (pictures below). The view was surreal - we were atop a mountain, yet surrounded by a massive city. We saw trail cats, rock climbers, ate granola bars and mixed nuts, and tried not to get bitten by the huge, green, venomous banana spiders (Nephila clavata, also called the golden orb weaver) that were everywhere. Their webs were actually yellow in colour and did look golden when in direct sunlight. We saw some cute doggos at the top of the mountain (pictures below) and managed to stay alive the entire time. On Sunday (September 23), Troy and I "hiked" up Namsan to N-Seoul Tower. The hike was actually just a strenuous walk up a paved walking lane. It was less picturesque and more touristy than Ansan, but the view at the top was wonderful nevertheless. And because it was touristy, the top was bustling with people from all over the world and there were restaurants selling much-needed snacks and drinks. On the way back to the train station, we saw a street that had flags from all over the world hanging above it (picture below). It was a crowded, delicious-smelling night market. My first Korean night market. We ate watermelon slices and honey-filled Korean pancakes and goggled at everything like tourists. Then it was time for bed. Thanks for reading and being patient with my neglectful posting habits. I'll be posting the next one early next week. See you then. :) Hey again pals and gals. I'd like to sincerely thank you for reading these. Yes, you. It's strange knowing that people are occasionally reading what I write, even if it's so long-winded that you only skim it, or even if it's as tame as your fluffy pet chinchilla. But every week is different! Maybe next week will be the one with exotic, brightly-feathered pets and high-speed car chases.
Okay, haha. Maybe I shouldn't be writing so late at night. Let's start by talking about the kids. They are, after all, the primary reason why I'm here. I teach four Telescope (beginner level) classes on MWF. The first two classes are great - they're eager to answer, they like when I'm silly and energetic, and they get their work done. The other two, and my two Telescope classes on TR, are more challenging. I think there are two reasons for this. First, the classes are larger and there's a wide range of skill levels. This invariably means that some kids finish before the lesson is over, while some won't write unless you're looking over their shoulder and encouraging them directly. Second, each of these classes contains at least one troublemaker. On the walk home from work one night, my co-workers and I were speculating about why the "bad" kids we have in our classes are, well, bad. We came to the conclusion that, while there are certainly children that just like to terrorize authority figures or their peers, oftentimes, and maybe even more so in Korea, it's not the kid's fault. There's a lot going on in their lives that we don't see. Korea's economy has exploded in recent years due in part to the establishment of an intense work culture. Koreans are pressured to work extremely hard and for ridiculously long hours. At our hagwon, the foreign teachers leave at 9:30pm and half-apologetically wave goodbye to the Korean teachers who are still stuck at their desks. This drive to succeed also leads to parents pushing their children to excel in school and enrolling them in numerous hagwons for various after-school activities. Wikipedia says that a hagwon is a "for-profit private institute, academy, or cram school prevalent in South Korea". Avalon is an English hagwon, but there are others for music, art, sports, and martial arts. The kids come to our school late at night, after they've already had a full day of school in Korean, and many of them go to another hagwon immediately after ours. So when a boy is very rambunctious in class, or a young girl falls asleep on her desk (which actually happened in my class), we try to correct them gently and patiently first. And, thankfully, if real discipline is needed, it is usually done by the Korean teachers since they can properly get the kids to think about their actions in their native tongue. I do try to make English class feel like a bit of a fun reprieve from their otherwise strictly structured lives. Ser cute: In my third Telescope class, a girl hugged me on her way out and said, "I like you" and my heart promptly melted. It was the same girl that commented on my earrings! Also, another, older girl from GB recognized the time turner necklace this week. I wonder if J.K. Rowling knows that her books are bringing people together all over the world. As for the actual work side of work, I'm finally getting comfortable with the paperwork and daily/weekly schedule. Although there are many tasks to be done, I don't incessantly nag my co-workers with questions anymore. I even administered some quizzes and graded workbooks and book reports. Things are going more smoothly now, which is a huge relief. At first, it felt like someone had given me a sailboat and asked me to sail it when I'd never been on one. Now, at least, I know which part floats and which part catches the wind. On Wednesday, I had to wake up early to go to the Immigration Office for an Alien Registration Card (ARC). The process took a very long time, but hey, I'll be a real alien soon. I listened to The Real Group's album The Real Album because I'm starting to miss singing jazz. Oh, and I bought some green tea Kit Kats, which I highly recommend! You can probably find them at an Asian supermarket like T&T. Or maybe a specialty candy store. I've started walking to work! For cardio and culture. On Thursday, there were men in military uniforms walking down the street. They were carrying large, semi-automatic rifles. I have to consciously remind myself that Korea is a country at war because if it does cause civilians stress, they never show it. In the daytime, everyone is busy bustling to work; in the evenings, they drink soju and eat food and laugh together on the neon-lit streets. I do wish that I felt more like I belonged. I'm going to start earnestly researching language exchange places next week - maybe I'll make a Korean friend? For the walk to work, the music this week was Hey Ocean's jazzy, upbeat album It's Easier to Be Somebody Else, Protest the Hero's raw and savage album Scurrilous, and Sufjan Stevens' inimitable album Chicago. At work, it's mostly gentle or instrumental tunes so I can focus. This week was Half Moon Run's album Sun Leads Me On, the album Ghost by Devin Townsend, and Ratatat's LP4. PM me your tunes: On that note (no pun intended), please share your favourite music with me! What do you listen to? What should I listen to? On Friday, I went to KEB Hana bank to withdraw money. I hadn't done it before, so I tried to copy what I'd seen Brandi do the other day. A kind Korean man who worked there came over to help me fill out the paperwork. As I was waiting with my papers in hand, I noticed that he had a revolver on his hip. Two gun sightings in one week! I've seen and fired guns before, but it was startling to see one hanging out on someone's hip someone in the middle of a busy bank. Hm, no, that's not only why it was strange. I think it's because he wasn't wearing a police uniform of any kind; he was dressed (rather smartly) in a purple dress shirt, black pants, and a light blue sash that said KEB Hana on it. His superhero name would be The Business Soldier. The Dapper but Deadly Doorman. Revolving-Door-Watching Revolver Dude. At work that day, the kids were delightful. Probably because it was Friday, actually. After work, Courtney, Chris, Ashley, and I went for drinks at Metropolis, which is the "foreigner bar" in Nowon, although we only saw two other expats there and about a dozen Koreans. Then we went to karaoke for a short while and ended the night at Courtney's apartment. Everything was so close together that we were able to walk everywhere in an entirely reasonable amount of time. We met Courtney's adorable cat! A fluffy black cat named Ink. Courtney had a book about Franz Kafka sitting out on her coffee table, which set us all to talking about books we've read and loved. Then Ashley and I walked home together. Saturday! I'm beginning to relish the freedom and tranquility that the weekends afford. Sadly, I woke up quite sick on Saturday morning. The kids had infected me. If the zombie apocalypse were to begin in Seoul, I think I'd pretty much be done for because of the huge number of people and because everything is in close proximity to everything else. Maybe the Canadian government would send people in to extract me. I'd have to fight my way through the apartment building with nothing but a dull chef's knife and origami shuriken and make it to the rooftop to be airlifted out via helicopter. Anyway, on Saturday I took the subway to Dongdaemun station and walked alone along a beautiful little brook, heading for Anguk station. I was going to meet up with Emily, Justus, and Anne from the new-hires group to visit Gyeongbukgong palace. The walk was serene and relaxing. I saw Korean families and couples outside enjoying the sunshine and the weekend. I rested briefly to drink water, eat a snack, and listen to the burbling water. I decided to cross the stream using a little rock bridge because it looked like fun to hop across and to see what walking on the other side of the stream felt like. Two young Korean women were on the stones ahead of me. One of them reached the other side, then turned around and extended her hand to help her friend make the last hop over - and then she reached out for me, too! I took her hand and smiled and thanked her in Korean. I kept my cool outwardly, but I was seriously giddy on the inside. It's the tiny things that make you feel like you're welcomed and accepted. Once I left the serenity of the stream's path, I was greeted by the city's sensory onslaught of sights, sounds, and smells. The buildings were packed together as tightly and efficiently as possible. I may have mentioned this before, but a predominant cultural difference I've noticed is how much space people and objects take up in Korea. Koreans take up very, very little space, probably because their country is so tiny. In Edmonton, there were lots of large parking lots or open fields throughout the city, where nothing was really being done with the land. There's nowhere in Seoul that just has nothing - there's something everywhere. Every square foot of space is used up to sell food, drinks, clothing, or entertainment. The city is constantly a busy hive of activity, no matter where you go or what time it is. I met up with the others in a Starbucks, and after a quick snack, we headed off to Gyeongbokgung palace. My first Korean palace was definitely a memorable experience. There were people in Hanboks (traditional Korean outfits), the buildings were captivating and colourfully painted, and we were free to wander among them as we wished. The pictures below will give you a better idea of the palace than my words can. We ate McDonald's for dinner afterwards and it was so much better than Canadian McDonald's. On the way home, The Staves' album Dead and Born and Grown kept me company. As I lay down for bed, I realized that I was well and truly exhausted... Maybe more than I should have been, considering that the physical exertion, although lengthy, was not particularly strenuous. I had walked around on flat sidewalks all day. On top of the tiredness, I had started sneezing and coughing on the train ride home. Oh, dear. Was I infected by the zombie virus? Tune in next week to see if I am indeed the OZ. And again, thank you for reading. =] Hi everybody, prepare yourselves because this week is rather tame. Like... a purebred poodle? In this enthralling installment, I began to learn the ins and outs of my new job, spent time with new co-workers, tried to keep in touch with people back home, and re-developed some semblance of a routine.
The inaugural breakfast was two eggs that I'd found in the fridge, cooked over-hard. Tiffani had left a bit of food, so before I went out for groceries, I took inventory of all the foodstuffs. I had a moderately tight budget until payday (September 10th), but still wanted to cook food and not go out for every meal, like I had done for the last two weeks. If you've never done that before, I don't recommend it. I think I had forgotten what a raw vegetable looked like. After looking up the route on Kakao Maps, I learned that the closest EMart was a huge distance away - four whole minutes of walking. I ended up going there twice - one trip for house things, one for food. My first dinner was curry stir fry with rice, with enough leftovers to have dinner every night. I also splurged a little and bought soju and a chocolate bar called Ghana. It is super duper tasty. Then it was the first day of teaching my own classes! I was nervous for the first class, but shook off the nerves after it went reasonably well. The Korean kids are fairly similar to what I've seen of Canadian kids. Everyone knows they need to get their work done, and some work hard and some don't. Although Korean kids might be a little sweeter because they presented me with tiny treasures on the first day. I received a blue rose sticker (which I wore on my face all day), a candy that said "No Stress" (picture below), and a panda sticker for my name tag. The paperwork afterwards was honestly more daunting than the actual teaching because there is so much to learn. At the end of the day, Ashley, Chris, and I walked back to our apartments together down the warm, neon-lit streets. It was wonderful to talk about my first day experiences with my co-workers and I felt honored to have been invited along for the walk. The kids at Avalon either come on Monday/Wednesday/Friday (MWF) or Tuesday/Thursday (TR), so on Tuesday I had an entirely new batch of kids. It was my second first day! Do you remember from last week's post how I observed the apparent dichotomy of classes - they're either erudite or rambunctious? Well, all of my TR classes are well-behaved and engaged and I love them all. Over the next few days, I established a little routine and settled in to my apartment. I apologize if it's not very exciting to read about, but to be honest, if I had had to keep up the breakneck pace of the previous fortnight, my sanity would have sprinted away from me. I savoured the mornings and filled them with calm productivity: breakfast, blogging, laundry, yoga, and maybe a phone call to Canada. Korea was beginning to feel like an new kind of home, finally. Oh! There's a karaoke place right outside my apartment, and on Thursday morning I awoke to the dulcet tones of people belting out some Korean pop song at the top of their lungs. I just couldn't believe people could do that at, like, 9:00 am on a work day. I also took magnets home from work that day (which Tiffani had left behind) to hang things up at home since the magnets don't stick to the whiteboards at school. Sadly, they don't stick to my fridge either. I'd have to find something else to hang my pictures up with... The exhaustion began to set in on Friday as the last three weeks of constantly adjusting to new experiences were catching up to me. At work, I have four Telescope classes on MWF and two on TR. Telescope students are between the ages of 8 and 11, so they require you to be high-energy and engaging the entire time. If you aren't speaking in an emphatic and exciting way, you quickly lose their attention and lose control of the classroom. On the other hand, I am starting to feel like I have a rhythm of how to prepare for classes. Once I have a better foundation of the timing of a lesson, I should be able to implement games at the end of class. For the paperwork aspect of the job, there are a million small things to remember every day, and we have long check lists of what to do before and after we teach a lesson. It's a lot of information in a very short amount of time, and often I'm problem-solving as things come up. If any of my co-workers are reading this, thank you so much for putting up with my incessant questions every day. Kids Being Cute: On Friday, I wore Harry Potter earrings and a time turner necklace (thank you, Pete, if you're reading this!) and all the little girls loved the necklace. One girl asked where my earrings were from and when I said Harry Potter, her eyes lit up and she said, "I love Harry Potter!" It was a really nice moment. Oh! And I bet you're all dying to know what I found to hang my pictures up with. That particular conflict/struggle was a major plot point in the story this week. It took all my ingenuity and resourcefulness, but I did manage to hunt down a roll of tape. :) Troy came in from Busan to visit for the weekend! We all met up at Brandi's apartment in Nowon and relaxed for a while before heading out for dinner. We ate at a moderately fancy soup restaurant. The condiments here are amazing, by the way. There's kimchi everywhere, of course, but there were also tasty little peanuts, beans, and fish cakes served with this meal. We walked around the streets for a long while, immersing ourselves in the smells and sights, and after we adventured what we deemed an appropriate amount, we went back to Brandi's apartment to play card games and nibble on chocolate bars. It was so relaxing and pleasant to be goofy and unwind after an exhausting first week of teaching. On Sunday, Troy, Trevor, Brandi, and I met up at Olympic Park and went for a very long walk. It was such a beautiful, sunny summer day. We saw a giant statue of a thumb (picture below), saw some flowers effloresce, saw some insects be interesting, saw some fish flollop around. Funny enough, no one wanted to eat out again. We went to the grocery store to buy ingredients to cook and while we were there, we saw this marvelous rice-cake-shooting machine. The rice things were delicately sweet, puffed up, and a pinkish colour. Trevor said we could take a few and eat them while we walked around the store. They were so tasty that I bought a bag of them (picture below)! We cooked at Trevor's apartment, which was huge and had a balcony. Trevor and Brandi made dinner for us older folks while we played Mario Kart, sang songs ,and read a poetry book that we found on Trevor's bookshelf. We ended the night with an ice cream excursion (our first ice cream since arriving!), then parted ways. Thanks for reading! Please let me know if there's something you're just dying to know more about, whether it be foodie things, cultural differences/observations, or tourist attractions. I'll see you all next week. =] Hello again! From now on, I shall endeavour to make this feel more like a weekly, introspective blog about a different way of life instead of a fast-paced, shot-by-shot action novel. I ran out of time writing this today (Wednesday in Seoul), so I'll post pictures tomorrow!
The week began with my first day of work at Avalon's Juggye Campus. As I left the hotel, I bought a boba tea to celebrate, and it was much tastier than its Edmonton counterpart. They soak the tapioca balls in honey so they're sweet and delicately chewy... If you were waffling on coming to Korea, let this be the tipping point. It is worth it for the boba tea. Our destination was Nowon station, and the area around it was bustling and lined with shops and neon lights like a mini-Gangnam (pictures below). The new head teacher, Patrick, had offered to meet us at the station and ride the bus with us for our first day. The school itself was on the fourth floor of a business building. The campus had only a small area to work with, but made excellent use of it. It's remarkable how much Koreans have been able to accomplish with such little space and in such a short time. It feels like everyone is driven to succeed, and everyone strives to anticipate what will happen next in order to create the best future possible. If you've done some research on South Korea, you'll know that the country has experienced some extreme changes (click for a link to a photo they showed us in training) in the last several decades: the population doubled from 1960 to 2017; the world-famous Seoul subway system was implemented (there's WiFi inside the subway trains and the seats are heated in the winter); and there's been huge economic growth as it's gone from one of the poorest countries in the '60s to one of the world's fastest-growing economies now. They also had to deal with the Korean War that still isn't technically over. To quote Anthony Bourdain, "The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, but in many ways, it never ended. The country is split in half and in a constant state of alert. 120 miles to the north, a crazy dictator with an enormous standing army, a bad haircut, and a nuclear arsenal". Korea has a fascinating, albeit tumultuous, history. I finally met the other foreign teachers (FTs) and Korean Teachers (KTs) that I'll be working with, and they seem like kind, welcoming people. I'm truly excited to get to work with them. It certainly didn't hurt that on the first day, one FT brought toffee for everyone (her name is also Ashley) and the director brought a chocolate cake with brownies and nuts on it for someone's birthday. Then I was given my schedule for the week: shadowing the other teachers Monday to Wednesday, co-teaching and mock teaching Thursday, then really teaching and more mock teaching on Friday. For those who don't know, mock teaching means teaching a lesson in front of your coworkers so they can give you feedback. While shadowing, I learned some classroom management tips and game ideas that work well for the students at this campus. They really like rock, paper, scissors and throwing a "sticky ball" (a ball covered in suction cups) at the white board for points. We went for a walk during our dinner break and noticed that there are mountains all around us! I'm very excited to go hiking up them. Dinner was spicy rice cake tteokbokki (pronounced dock-bow-key, it's hugely popular with the kids), then we headed back for training with the old head teacher, Albert, who was leaving on Friday. He kept it short and we were able to go home early, which was much appreciated since our train ride home was an hour and a half long. I can't wait to live closer to the campus and have my own space to decorate and live in. On the second day of work, I had to fight through a veritable tsunami to get there. My shoes were soaked through when I arrived. The school had set out a little umbrella bag dispenser where you could get a plastic bag for your umbrella so it wouldn't leak all over the floor. It probably would've worked wonderfully had I not accidentally poked a hole in my bag without noticing, causing my umbrella to leak all over the floor anyway. Other than the rain, Tuesday and Wednesday went very much like Monday - shadowing all day and training after the dinner break. The way we teach is interesting, however, because we have to move from room to room and carry all our stuff around in baskets kind of like DiscoverE. Although I feel comfortable with my teaching style and ability to deliver the material thanks to Trollhaugen and DiscoverE, watching the classes made me nervous about what my students will be like. It seems like there's a dichotomy of classes: they're either well-behaved and engaged or they don't pay attention and are rambunctious and disruptive. I guess we'll see what my students are like next week! Also, I think I found the place where I'll be eating dinner if I don't bring my own. There's a janky-looking restaurant downstairs where you can buy this thing called a doshirak (literally translated means "lunchbox"), and it's a little styrofoam box full of tasty and authentic Korean food (picture below). My transit experiences on Wednesday and Thursday were strange enough to merit mentioning: I saw an elderly woman eating corn on the cob, an elderly man riding an electric wheelchair down the middle of the road, and saw/heard a very noisy cat in a carrier on the subway. Between the two days, I managed to listen to the whole Hamilton soundtrack and was rewarded with an existential crisis during the final number. Thankfully, it passed, although I can't claim to have any more idea of what my "story" is or will be. To cheer myself up, I listened to The Dear Hunter's album Migrant and half of Devin Townsend's album Transcendence. On Thursday morning, I had a hair appointment! It was one of the most fun haircut experiences of my life. I received a banana while I was waiting. Then Jeong Min, an older, amiable woman with kind eyes and limited English, actually cut my hair while two younger women assisted her by washing and blow-drying it beforehand. It was just so overwhelmingly positive, and thanks to Jeong Min's translations, all three of us chatted together about sakura (cherry blossom) trees, Jeong Min's travel experiences all over the world, and popular Korean music artists. After that, I hunted down a Starbucks in which to write last week's blog. The coffee was stimulating and the music (Before the Storm soundtrack) helped me focus. As I finished the blog, I noticed that I felt kind of strange... Turns out the coffee here is much stronger than it is in Canada. I was mildly concerned that my heart might burst out of my chest as I arrived at work. At work, I had an hour to prep and calm down, then co-taught two classes - one Telescope lesson, where the kids are young and are learning basic vocabulary, and one Glide Beginner (GB), where the kids are quite a bit older. Tomorrow I'll be teaching the same levels on my own. Then we mock taught in front of the other FTs. I think it was meant to be a confidence booster because it was very relaxed, and the other FTs were pretending to be badly-behaved students. I tried to be stoic and imperturbable despite their shenanigans. On the train ride home, I listened to the second half of Transcendence and it was wonderful. The song "Offer Your Light" was affirming and hopeful, and "From the Heart" made me want to tell everyone how much I love and appreciate them. You ought to listen to these songs, but maybe just look up the lyrics if you don't like metal. Then it was Friday and I taught Telescope and GB almost entirely by myself. They went surprisingly well. Since I was fairly comfortable teaching, my attention was actually focused elsewhere; I noticed that the atmosphere in the office was distinctively bittersweet. I was arriving just as Albert and Tiffani were leaving, and it was clear that they were loved by everyone. I was taking Tiffani's apartment, and she went to surprising lengths to make me feel cared for. She left a Snorlax calendar and stamper for my desk and said she'd leave a bunch of Pokémon plushies at her apartment for me. There was a heartfelt goodbye/welcome meeting in the auditorium where I made a fool of myself by starting my introduction with, "I have tiny feet..." Then there was an immensely huge, unnecessarily dramatic pause as I realize I should have just said my name and an interesting fact about myself. I finished with, "... and I think we have some big shoes to fill." We went out for Korean barbecue after work and everyone kept asking me how small my feet actually were, my shoe size, and a few said that when I paused they actually looked down at my feet. I don't care what anyone tells you, public speaking is much harder than teaching. Then came the food! Tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce! I hadn't had vegetables in so long. Albert gave me his blessing to be called Alberta in the school (I think it was because I had worn my deathly hallows earrings), although I don't think it's going to stick. The amount that I learned from him about teaching and being a decent person in that short time span is actually unbelievable. I caught the very last train of the night at midnight and listened to the song "Something Human" by Muse. The connections that I've made so far have been remarkably intense despite being fleeting. Or maybe it's because they're fleeting. Maybe it's because we all know that there's a time limit on this experience; everyone has been so vulnerable and empathetic and desirous of living. The sweet red cherry on top of this ice cream cake of human goodness is that at one of the stations, the train operator closed the doors, saw a small throng of people running to catch the train, then waited and opened the doors back up for them. Also, I think it's important for you to know that about halfway through the train ride, while I was writing this on my phone and pouring my heart out, I had to pee so badly. I literally sprinted off the train at Jangji station into one of the public washrooms. Hahahaha. Ah. Bodies don't care about little emotional epiphanies. The day ended with a few people from the hotel sitting outside the 7-Eleven having drinks together one last time. We just talked about small things, like which classes people were teaching and how their week had been. Some people made plans for the weekend together. You might think that this interaction is too small to mention, but, for me, it was a calming ending to a turbulent day. Then it was Saturday! I checked out of the hotel and an exuberant, hilarious taxi driver took me to Nowon Station. We communicated in extremely short sentences about the weather, the English language, Korean, Japanese, and sad people waiting in a long line of heavy traffic. He asked if I was a comedian and I said, no, I'm an English teacher, but they're the same, which he laughed at. He taught me how to count to ten in Hangul and I practiced by saying all the numbers on the license plates. He asked me if he was the best driver and I laughed and said yes, of course, and I'm the best teacher. I got to listen to a call from his family... as the call came in, I noticed that their name in his phone was surrounded by little hearts. It was a good taxi ride. I spent a few hours in Cameron's apartment with him and Brandi, waiting for the cleaners to finish up with my place. He was the epitome of a good host, giving us bottles of water, soft things to sit on, and refrigerated chocolate peanut butter squares. My coworker, Ashley, and her boyfriend Daniel were kind enough to meet me at Nowon station and help me get to and get into my apartment. Inside was a welcoming committee of Pokémon (picture below). Then it was time for bed. Thank you for reading! À la prochaine, mes amis! PostScript Fun fact: I hadn't bought a pillow or blanket, so on Saturday night I rolled up my ladybug onesie and used that as a pillow, then put on a sweater and used my towel as a blanket. Let this be a reminder to always have your towel with you. Spoiler alert, I buy a pillow and blanket next week. |
AuthorAshley is a Canadian teaching English in South Korea. Although between the Korean, swing dancing, and general life skills, she's probably learning more than she's teaching. Archives
June 2019
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