Korea is going well. The last couple of days have been really nice here – almost all of the snow has melted, and I almost didn’t need a jacket this afternoon.
Today I had my second of two dentist appointments (just for cleaning). The total cost was about the equivalent of fifty dollars. It’s an interesting experience, not being able to follow the simple directions, but somehow it works. We also made friends with the manager, who has invited us to dinner next week. She’s very nice, but it’s still kind of strange – go in for a cleaning, come out with dinner plans.
I’ve been trying to watch as much of the Olympics as I can. However, between my lack of a television (and the language barriers when I am by a television) and the time delay, I haven’t seen much of the games live. Additionally, the Koreans have certain events that they care more about (speed skating and figure skating), so their programming is heavily geared toward those events. While we were at the dentist’s today the whole place stopped to see Kim Yu Na skate.
It’s also interesting seeing their coverage because they highlight their own accomplishments (replaying speed skating victories again and again) while showing the missteps of others (showing Vonn crash). I wish I could actually understand what they are saying when they do all this.
Last weekend was my co-worker’s birthday, so we had a girl’s night out. After dinner, we met some soldiers who were on their night off and we ended up singing at the noraebang (karaoke) with them until early in the morning. It was another one of those experiences you never imagine happening. I have a number of pictures (and videos) of this, but I'll wait to share those.
This weekend I’m off to Seoul to see my friend there, and maybe do a little more sight-seeing. We have Monday off of work, and then it’s the start of a new semester. This marks the sixth month point of my stay here. Hard to believe that I’m halfway done!
This week has been extra difficult though, because one of my co-workers is on vacation. It's only an extra class or two each day, but it makes a difference! A couple of nights this week my classes don't end until 10:30 at night. But there are only two more days left, so that helps.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Busan
Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!
We had both Friday and Monday off of work, so we headed down to the southern coast in search of better weather and maybe a little adventure. At least we got one - it was a lot of fun and we saw a lot, despite the chilly weather (I don't know why we were expecting it to be so much warmer, but we were way off on that count).
We left Chuncheon early Friday morning and arrived in Busan about five hours later. First we went to Beomosa temple, which was only one stop away on the subway.
Between the snow and the holiday/weekday, it was very quiet at the temple, and there were a lot of interesting sculptures and art pieces to see.
After that we were off to the Hurshimchung Spa, which is one of the largest (there is debate about this) spa complexes in Asia. I had a wonderful massage and spent some time in all of the pools. If you don't know about Korean spas, they are definitely a unique experience. They are separated by gender and there are no clothes or swimsuits allowed in bathing areas. You're issued a "uniform" to wear in the common areas, and they have just about everything you can imagine - spas, saunas, massages, sleeping areas, food.
In Korea, you really only make reservations at the higher end hotels. However, the majority of places to stay are smaller and cheaper, and they are known as "Love Motels", most commonly used by young couples who live with their families. Jackie and I decided to save a bit of money and see what these are all about by staying at a different motel each night. For the most part, they were pretty clean and cheap (30,000-35,000 a night, which is about 25-30$). It was definitely a Korean experience.
On day two we went to the beach. Haeundae Beach is one of the most popular destination for Koreans during the summer months, but since we went in the middle of February there was plenty of room for us.
We went on a boat tour of the Haeundae area, past the Gwangalli area (another popular beach) and around some of the Oryuk-do mini-islands just off of the coast.
Saturday was the only day the sun was peeking out of the clouds, so we ended up choosing the right time. After that, we went to the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, which ended up being one of the most amazing parts of the trip.
The Yonggungsa Temple is in the cliffs along the coastline. The views are beautiful, and of course just as we arrived the battery on my camera went out. Here is a small idea of what it was like :
Sunday was the most difficult day we had because just about everything that could go wrong did just that. We started the day by heading the the western part of the city. We wanted to start the day at the Nakdonggang bird sanctuary, and a trip that should have take a few minutes turned into an hour and a half tour of the industrial outskirts of Busan. For being such a large city (with a few million people it's the second largest city in South Korea) we assumed that there would be more foreigners and therefore more people who would know where "touristy" places were or would maybe even speak a bit of English and could help us. There weren't.
Because no one could understand our shaky Korean pronunciation, we missed our bus stop. By the time we finally got to the bird sanctuary, we were cold and tired of waiting around for the other buses. It would have been nice, but we were hoping for so much since it took so long to get there and there weren't even many birds.
Then on the subway on the way back to the central part of the city there was almost a fight in our car. When we got out, we wandered halfway up a mountain trying to find a specific park until we had to give up.
We ended the day at the Jagalchi fish market, which had a lot of vendors even though it was Sunday on a holiday weekend. It's actually probably a good thing we didn't go during a busy time, because the smells (and some of the sights - like the skinned eels that were still alive) were already disturbing.
Overall it was a very interesting experience. Before arriving, I never knew how different all of the cities would be. Now I've got another major one crossed off the list, so hopefully I'll get to go to one of the more historically/culturally important cities next.
We had both Friday and Monday off of work, so we headed down to the southern coast in search of better weather and maybe a little adventure. At least we got one - it was a lot of fun and we saw a lot, despite the chilly weather (I don't know why we were expecting it to be so much warmer, but we were way off on that count).
We left Chuncheon early Friday morning and arrived in Busan about five hours later. First we went to Beomosa temple, which was only one stop away on the subway.
Between the snow and the holiday/weekday, it was very quiet at the temple, and there were a lot of interesting sculptures and art pieces to see.
After that we were off to the Hurshimchung Spa, which is one of the largest (there is debate about this) spa complexes in Asia. I had a wonderful massage and spent some time in all of the pools. If you don't know about Korean spas, they are definitely a unique experience. They are separated by gender and there are no clothes or swimsuits allowed in bathing areas. You're issued a "uniform" to wear in the common areas, and they have just about everything you can imagine - spas, saunas, massages, sleeping areas, food.
In Korea, you really only make reservations at the higher end hotels. However, the majority of places to stay are smaller and cheaper, and they are known as "Love Motels", most commonly used by young couples who live with their families. Jackie and I decided to save a bit of money and see what these are all about by staying at a different motel each night. For the most part, they were pretty clean and cheap (30,000-35,000 a night, which is about 25-30$). It was definitely a Korean experience.
On day two we went to the beach. Haeundae Beach is one of the most popular destination for Koreans during the summer months, but since we went in the middle of February there was plenty of room for us.
We went on a boat tour of the Haeundae area, past the Gwangalli area (another popular beach) and around some of the Oryuk-do mini-islands just off of the coast.
Saturday was the only day the sun was peeking out of the clouds, so we ended up choosing the right time. After that, we went to the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, which ended up being one of the most amazing parts of the trip.
The Yonggungsa Temple is in the cliffs along the coastline. The views are beautiful, and of course just as we arrived the battery on my camera went out. Here is a small idea of what it was like :
Sunday was the most difficult day we had because just about everything that could go wrong did just that. We started the day by heading the the western part of the city. We wanted to start the day at the Nakdonggang bird sanctuary, and a trip that should have take a few minutes turned into an hour and a half tour of the industrial outskirts of Busan. For being such a large city (with a few million people it's the second largest city in South Korea) we assumed that there would be more foreigners and therefore more people who would know where "touristy" places were or would maybe even speak a bit of English and could help us. There weren't.
Because no one could understand our shaky Korean pronunciation, we missed our bus stop. By the time we finally got to the bird sanctuary, we were cold and tired of waiting around for the other buses. It would have been nice, but we were hoping for so much since it took so long to get there and there weren't even many birds.
Then on the subway on the way back to the central part of the city there was almost a fight in our car. When we got out, we wandered halfway up a mountain trying to find a specific park until we had to give up.
We ended the day at the Jagalchi fish market, which had a lot of vendors even though it was Sunday on a holiday weekend. It's actually probably a good thing we didn't go during a busy time, because the smells (and some of the sights - like the skinned eels that were still alive) were already disturbing.
Overall it was a very interesting experience. Before arriving, I never knew how different all of the cities would be. Now I've got another major one crossed off the list, so hopefully I'll get to go to one of the more historically/culturally important cities next.
Monday, February 1, 2010
February 1st, 2010
Intensives are now over! This is one of the best thing to happen since I arrived. It means that I'm almost half way through my time here, and it's really helped me appreciate just how good I have it most of the time (in terms of scheduling and workload). At the same time, it means I have to find some new hobbies to occupy all of the extra time I have now.
Lunar New Year is in just under two weeks. I have both Friday and Monday off, so we're taking a bus for six or seven hours to Busan, the second biggest city in Korea. It's on the southern coast and is a major port city. At the very least, we plan on relaxing and seeing the beach. There are also boat tours of all of the islands just off the coast.
It's funny how everything that was once so amazing and strange has become normal. It feels like I have nothing new to report on, but really, it's just that everything that once seemed so noteworthy is now what I do every day. The people are the same, the city isn't very exciting, the food isn't so crazy (well, this one maybe isn't so true - there are restaurants serving all sorts of things that I'd never touch, like dog, raw chicken, all kinds of octopus/squid/any sea creature you can imagine).
Right now I'm just hoping the warming trend continues and it doesn't snow again. Just above freezing is actually not so bad.
Lunar New Year is in just under two weeks. I have both Friday and Monday off, so we're taking a bus for six or seven hours to Busan, the second biggest city in Korea. It's on the southern coast and is a major port city. At the very least, we plan on relaxing and seeing the beach. There are also boat tours of all of the islands just off the coast.
It's funny how everything that was once so amazing and strange has become normal. It feels like I have nothing new to report on, but really, it's just that everything that once seemed so noteworthy is now what I do every day. The people are the same, the city isn't very exciting, the food isn't so crazy (well, this one maybe isn't so true - there are restaurants serving all sorts of things that I'd never touch, like dog, raw chicken, all kinds of octopus/squid/any sea creature you can imagine).
Right now I'm just hoping the warming trend continues and it doesn't snow again. Just above freezing is actually not so bad.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Taipei and 3/5 through Winter Intensives
It's been a while since I've written anything, as the Intensive Term has been just that - intense. I have two one-hour classes every morning except Fridays. Beside the early mornings (and the havoc the strange schedule has had on my sleeping and normal life), I've actually really been enjoying most of my classes. The first is a listening class, where I have them listen to dialogues and answer questions and then talk to the vocabulary. Then it's my absolute favorite super-advanced class, where we do short readings. It's awesome to be able to talk about interesting history and cultural events with kids that actually understand what I'm saying.
Korea has been incredibly cold - one of the coldest winters in seventy years. And it's even worse early in the morning, walking to and from work so much. The snow is still mostly here as well. Korea is interesting in the way that they don't really clear the sidewalks or most of the roads after it snows. Oh Korea.
New Years in Taipei was very fun. It was in the 60s the whole time. Though it was a bit rainy most of the time there, we still got to see what we wanted to. We went up the 101 and saw temples the first day.
The next day we went up to Beitou and ended up in a hotel/spa for the hot springs. We saw a few memorials, and went to a couple of night markets, including the biggest one of all. It was interesting to try all sorts of food we were only semi-sure about.
The Beitou hot springs
Shilin night market
Tomorrow there's a mandatory meeting for all foreign teachers, so it's another early morning for me. Supposedly it's at least four hours long, and there's nothing interesting included in the lectures.
Next up is Lunar New Year, in mid-February. So far there are plans to go to Busan, which is the second largest city in Korea. It's down on the southern coast and it's a port city. It will still be a bit chilly, but it should be interesting.
I hope everyone is keeping warm!
Korea has been incredibly cold - one of the coldest winters in seventy years. And it's even worse early in the morning, walking to and from work so much. The snow is still mostly here as well. Korea is interesting in the way that they don't really clear the sidewalks or most of the roads after it snows. Oh Korea.
New Years in Taipei was very fun. It was in the 60s the whole time. Though it was a bit rainy most of the time there, we still got to see what we wanted to. We went up the 101 and saw temples the first day.
The next day we went up to Beitou and ended up in a hotel/spa for the hot springs. We saw a few memorials, and went to a couple of night markets, including the biggest one of all. It was interesting to try all sorts of food we were only semi-sure about.
The Beitou hot springs
Shilin night marketTomorrow there's a mandatory meeting for all foreign teachers, so it's another early morning for me. Supposedly it's at least four hours long, and there's nothing interesting included in the lectures.
Next up is Lunar New Year, in mid-February. So far there are plans to go to Busan, which is the second largest city in Korea. It's down on the southern coast and it's a port city. It will still be a bit chilly, but it should be interesting.
I hope everyone is keeping warm!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Last post of 2009!
It's almost the end of the year, but instead of winding down everything here has picked up considerably.
Because the schools are closed for a month-long winter vacation, the extracurricular schools have started five-week intensive classes. This means two extra classes a day for me (excepting Fridays - at least there's that!). It also means the work day begins at 9:30 in the morning. In terms of 'normal jobs' this doesn't sound so bad, but I have to stay at the school until 9:30 at night as well. So basically - that's a lot of work.
We do get a break between morning and afternoon classes, but if you're lucky and have absolutely nothing to prepare (and you're able to get right out of the door), you can only squeeze two hours out of this.
Adding to the situation has been the drastic drop in temperatures that has happened in just the past few weeks. All of a sudden it's gotten quite chilly, so even when there are break times, going outside isn't the first thing you want to do.
Christmas was very low-key this year. Courtney came from Seoul to visit, and because both of us were under the weather and freezing we only got to walk around a bit in the downtown area and go to the Christmas dinner that a bunch of the people here set up. It was a nice dinner, but I wasn't up for doing much so I was in bed before 11 p.m.
Up next - we leave for Taiwan in two days! We're getting excited, because it's been 60-70 degrees there, and it will be a nice escape from intensives. Mostly we're just hoping our flight isn't delayed, because if it is we might not get back to our city in time for our first classes on Monday.
I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and a Happy New Year to all!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Sokcho/Seoraksan and a general update
It's been a while since updating, so here's what's been going on :
- Halloween was very cute, but exhausting. No one got 'Waldo' besides the foreigners.
- The first weekend of November we went to the city of Sokcho, on the eastern coast of our province. It's a small fishing town on the East Sea/Sea of Japan. It was very nice, though there were a couple interesting moments when we were trying to figure out where we were staying for the night. On the second day we were there we went to Seoraksan park, which was very, very pretty. We took the cable car to the top of one of the peaks, and it would have been perfect if it hadn't been sprinkling. I took a ton of pictures, and will upload them soon.
- Last weekend (and last night) were going away parties for one of the guys that we know. It's hard to believe that people are going to start leaving, and new people are coming soon. This is just the first of a potential many....
- In a couple of days I will have been here three months.
- We're planning a possible weekend trip over New Years to Taiwan, since we have that Friday off of work. I'm very excited about this.
- Beside that, it's been mostly work as usual. This coming week is our final full week of the fall semester of classes. Then all of the schedules will change, and it will be interesting to see what new kids/levels I'll get to teach.
Here's a quick sample of my Sokcho/Seoraksan trip :
Playing on the rocks, looking at the pagoda
At the famous Buddha statue in Seoraksan
- Halloween was very cute, but exhausting. No one got 'Waldo' besides the foreigners.
- The first weekend of November we went to the city of Sokcho, on the eastern coast of our province. It's a small fishing town on the East Sea/Sea of Japan. It was very nice, though there were a couple interesting moments when we were trying to figure out where we were staying for the night. On the second day we were there we went to Seoraksan park, which was very, very pretty. We took the cable car to the top of one of the peaks, and it would have been perfect if it hadn't been sprinkling. I took a ton of pictures, and will upload them soon.
- Last weekend (and last night) were going away parties for one of the guys that we know. It's hard to believe that people are going to start leaving, and new people are coming soon. This is just the first of a potential many....
- In a couple of days I will have been here three months.
- We're planning a possible weekend trip over New Years to Taiwan, since we have that Friday off of work. I'm very excited about this.
- Beside that, it's been mostly work as usual. This coming week is our final full week of the fall semester of classes. Then all of the schedules will change, and it will be interesting to see what new kids/levels I'll get to teach.
Here's a quick sample of my Sokcho/Seoraksan trip :
Playing on the rocks, looking at the pagoda
At the famous Buddha statue in Seoraksan
My favorite shot of the mountains at Seoraksan, with a bird flying by, right after the rain stopped
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Pre-Halloween
Not too much is going on here. One of the highlights of this week was that last night for dinner we went to a beef barbecue. Beef is hard to find here, and when you do find it isn't the best quality and it's very expensive. However, a few of our friends found the only 'cheap' beef restaurant and we finally got to try it. It was good enough, but the portions aren't very big and it's still about twelve dollars a person. I'm glad I finally tried it, and it will do in a pinch, but I was still a little disappointed.
Right now we're getting ready for Halloween. We're one of the few schools that are celebrating it - we are having parties instead of normal classes for all of the younger kids/'fun' classes (though a part of the party includes having to take a quiz, so it isn't all fun). While we were in Seoul I got my 'costume' - I'm going to be Waldo (of 'Where's Waldo' fame). I barely have to dress up, and it was the easiest costume I could think of. I just hope the kids know who it is.
And I hope that at least half of the kids show up. The flu has struck the school kids hard over here, and there are kids absent (about half of them) in all of my classes. While it makes it a lot easier and less stressful to teach, it's going to be hard for them to make up all of the classes they're missing.
The other big news is that for the winter semester the other girl and I are probably switching schools. There's a new LangCon opening up in the northern part of the city, and because Jackie and I are 'experienced' they wanted us to help out there. We won't have to move apartments, but it is quite a ways away so we'll have to take the school buses to the school. I'm kind of sad, because I've established a routine here, but on the other hand it will be exciting to meet new people, see a new part of the city, and have the chance to 'start again.' Also, it will be interesting to be the 'experienced' ones in the office, and to help another school start up their program.
I've been taking a ton of pictures (we went to the river and the statue park last weekend to take autumn shots), so as soon as I upload all of my Halloween pictures I'll be sending out links.
I hope everyone has a happy Halloween!
Right now we're getting ready for Halloween. We're one of the few schools that are celebrating it - we are having parties instead of normal classes for all of the younger kids/'fun' classes (though a part of the party includes having to take a quiz, so it isn't all fun). While we were in Seoul I got my 'costume' - I'm going to be Waldo (of 'Where's Waldo' fame). I barely have to dress up, and it was the easiest costume I could think of. I just hope the kids know who it is.
And I hope that at least half of the kids show up. The flu has struck the school kids hard over here, and there are kids absent (about half of them) in all of my classes. While it makes it a lot easier and less stressful to teach, it's going to be hard for them to make up all of the classes they're missing.
The other big news is that for the winter semester the other girl and I are probably switching schools. There's a new LangCon opening up in the northern part of the city, and because Jackie and I are 'experienced' they wanted us to help out there. We won't have to move apartments, but it is quite a ways away so we'll have to take the school buses to the school. I'm kind of sad, because I've established a routine here, but on the other hand it will be exciting to meet new people, see a new part of the city, and have the chance to 'start again.' Also, it will be interesting to be the 'experienced' ones in the office, and to help another school start up their program.
I've been taking a ton of pictures (we went to the river and the statue park last weekend to take autumn shots), so as soon as I upload all of my Halloween pictures I'll be sending out links.
I hope everyone has a happy Halloween!
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