Funny Thing About Koreans

Unfortunately, I'm terrible with bringing out my camera in Seoul. I intend to get better at it but for now most of you will have to be content with Gloria's pics. As an Chinese-American in Seoul, I have the ability to blend in while making observations about the general Korean population. More on this point later.

When I first took the Seoul subway I noticed a lot of mirrors in the stations. I didn't know why they had mirrors in every station. Yes, it's nice to see yourself in a full length mirror but in America its not all that important. Earlier this week, I found out that in Seoul mirrors in the subway is an absolute necessity for the native population. I was walking home from work in my shabby clothes when I passed by the mirror in my station. I always look to see how many people at a given time happens to be staring at their reflection. This time, I found a line of people waiting to get a glimpse of themselves in the mirror. I honestly wished I had me camera so I could show just how many people were waiting for the mirror. It was the funniest sight I've ever seen and really a true representation of how important looks are to Korean culture.

Beondegi

I've had a lot of strange foods and I consider myself to be pretty much open minded when I try new foods. Being Chinese, I've had dog, crocodile, turtle, chicken feet, assorted gizzards, tripe, intestines, blood and Spanish sweetbread. Typically, weird foods are not so weird to me.

Meet beondegi-better known as silkworms. The Koreans eat silkworms with beer. It's kinda like the equivalent to beer nuts in Korea. They offer it in bars and sell it canned in marts. Its a pretty normal thing to eat beondegi here.

I had the opportunity to see it up close about a week ago. I went out with Gloria and a few of the other SMOE teachers to Sinchon. We were served these funny looking creatures and while I've heard of them before I didn't think I'd run into them so soon. The smell was kinda mud/dirt-like. They were sitting in a liquid but looked crunchy.

Drew the brave wayguk was the first to try the silkworms and after much convincing Gloria and I each had one. The consistency was chewy in the middle. The outside not at crunchy as I initially thought. The flavor-definitely memorable. It literally tasted wet dirt with something more unpleasant. I took two bites before I decided I needed to wash it down with a full cup of water. Here's where the night gets interesting.

In the video, is Drew and Joe. Drew agrees to eat 10 if Joe eats 1. Check out the video for the outcome.

Hwang Sa

It's March and March marks the official beginning of Hwang Sa season. Hwang Sa or yellow dust is quite literally yellow dust that comes from China and covers Korea and Japan. The dust itself is made of not so nice particles. Most people wear masks to protect themselves from the dust.

In a way it's quite funny. I ask my kids everyday about the weather as a routine. Lately, they've been telling me about the yellow dust in their broken English. I've heard, Hwang sa, yellow dust, china dust, sand etc. The list continues but they really seem to enjoy saying it. At first, I thought it was funny but now it's not so. I've told them I'm Chinese so it feels like their telling me that I'm somehow responible for the dust that covers their country yearly.

First Week of School

I taught my first class on Tuesday. In fact, I taught 6 classes in a row. It was easier than I thought. I created a power point about myself and my family back at home. The kids went wild for the power point. My classroom is an absurdly colored room with little role playing areas. There's an airport, a mini stage, 4 fake rooms for role playing. We really only use the first half of the room which is actually a classroom.

It's interesting because the classroom looks like it's for elementary school students and I am in an elementary school but my students are in 5th and 6th grade. Most of them don't really make use of the role playing area. Although when I met my kids I was surprised at how small they all were. I was also surprised at how noisy Korean kids could be.

My students were really curious about me. I didn't think they would be considering I'm Asian looking, but I guess it's because I'm from the US and I'm something new to them. I had a girl push another girl trying to get her to talk to me. The other kids seemed convinced that I speak Korean.

First Weekend Out of the Compound

My first weekend outside of the Hyundai Institute was quite lonely. I was quite possible the most unlucky person in Seoul that weekend. When I found out about my apt I was thrilled about being in Gangnam and didn't realize why my co-teacher said I'd be moving in a month...then I saw the apartment. I didn't want to say there at all. It was dirty and still is a bit dirty, it's smaller than any apartment I've ever seen in Manhattan and the kitchen was on the 3rd floor. The kitchen consisted of a hot plate and a huge rice cooker that's always full of rice (?) I don't know if that's a good thing.

My co-teacher and I went out to pick out stuff for my new apt. She tried to get me everything I needed for my new apartment that I didn't have yet. I honestly thought she was out of her mind. She wanted to get me utensils, pots, pans, etc. She didn't quite understand that I had nowhere to put any of that stuff and I wasn't gonna unpack for a month just to re-pack and move. It took her a while but eventually she realized it would be best if I went shopping later.

Normally, the first night your co-teacher takes you out to dinner. It wasn't the case with me which was fine, until she left and I didn't know what to do with myself. I literally went from living with 160 other foreigners to no one.

I decided to go for a walk and explore b/c I was not spending anytime at my place. I went to the convenience store to pick up a phone card. As I reached into my pocket I felt a bag full of water. I had a water bottle that wasn't closed properly. It spilled in my bag and got all over my wallet, passport, and bag. It was pretty funny to say from the convenience store clerk's point of view. He probably was wondering about the way guk that just poured a cup of water out of her bag and thinking that she was crazy but he took pity on me and gave me some tissues. I went back to my place and had to dry everything on the heated floor so there was literally $150 dollars on the floor and no room for me to move. I was pretty upset and there wasn't anything to do until late so I took a nap.

I met up with a bunch of SMOE people later that night and opted to stay over Gloria's (my roommate at Hyundai) massive 3 bedroom apt in Seoul. We had a really nice time and on Sunday, I finally decided I needed to return to my hole and shower before heading to meet up with Sarah and Chris. I left Gloria's place with about 2 hours to spare but somehow managed to get lost in Gangnam.

I didn't recognize anything around me and I didn't have anyone's information. The only thing I remembered about my station was that there was a Missha (cosmetics store) by my exit. I asked the station attendant who spoke minimal English about the Missha and he didn't know what Missha was but he went out of his way to help me. He took me to the station office and went onto the Missha website. There was another attendent there and they were trying to commuincate with me in Korean. It was really adorable. They called the comestic company and everything. I finally made it home with their help!

My home away from home...

So I finally met my co-teacher today. She was very nice. Her English was not the best but it was passable. Just one problem. My school didn't know I was matched with them until 3 days ago. So they couldn't find me housing. I currently live in the most expensive place in Seoul- Gangnam, which is awesome. The downside is that I live in a shithole officetel/hostel for a month before moving into my new place. SO, not only will I have to live out of my 2 suitcases for another month but the officetel is sketchy. It's tiny, smells a bit and the room is very spartan. I have no kitchen and the bathroom is a joke. There's room for a toliet and a mini sink. Here's the best part. There's no real shower. It's a showerhead on the wall of the bathroom.

Thoughts on SMOE

It's been officially a week since I've been in Korea and I have to say I am not impressed with SMOE more specifically Jon Pak. When I arrived I knew very little about the SMOE program. I did read from the discussion boards that they were unprofessional and there were problems with the program before, however, I thought that since we were a new group things might be a little different and there might be changes from one semester to another. HA! Silly me, why who anyone ever try and improve on a program.

160 teachers were kept in the Hyundai Learning Center right outside of Seoul for a week. We had each had two roommates and married couples were not allowed to room together. The men were kept on one side of the hall and the women on the other, sort of. There was no alcohol allowed and grown adults were not allowed to leave the compound.

Our days were spent in the "lecture hall" begining from 9am and ending at 9pm usually with 1-2 hours of break time. While majority of the lectures were quite helpful, one in particular stood out as unnecessary and far too long. It was a 2 1/2 hour lecture telling all the foreign teachers how innapproiate they will become and ways to avoid it. We should volunteer more of our time and expect nothing in return. We are not allowed to touch the students but "patting is fine." We were also made to feel guilt for the problems that came up with the past foreign teachers.

My problem with SMOE lies with one person: Jon Pak. There are certain aspects of Jon's job which really sucks and I do feel bad for him. However, there are a few things that would make his life a lot easier if only he would do it.

1) Tell the foreign teachers where there schools are located.
2) Show on a map where the school is.
3) Translate the school name into English.

At the airport

I arrived in Seoul around 5am. I had to wait until 8-9 for my recruiter to come pick me up. I decided to round up people like sheep and start meeting people. I needed to do something at the airport or else my jet lag would kick in.

To me it seemed so unreal that I was actually in Seoul waiting for my recruiter to pick me up and take me to the orientation center. It's a really strange feeling. Part of me feels like everything just clicked together and part of me feels like I'm stopping my real life. Going to Seoul seemed like such an obvious answer to what to do with my life but at the same time there's a little voice in the back of my mind that's telling me that I'm crazy. I mean how many people travel halfway around the world to teach English without a day's experience. Most people usually stay at home where it's safe. Me, I basically just said screw it I'm moving to another country. There were so many thoughts going through my mind and the feeling is so strange its indescribable but here I am now and I feel alive.