I haven't written much lately, since nothing has really been happening.

Last weekend I finally got my first haircut since I've been here. It's nice to have short(ish) hair again. I found the one salon in Chuncheon with an English-speaking owner. It was nice to have someone who understood what I wanted, and who was able to chat.

It was amazing how inexpensive it is here. Even though I still have just under five months left, it's starting to hit home how little time that is. And it's starting to sink in exactly how good of a gig it is to be here. For example, the whole haircut thing was only 10,000 won (less than $10) for everything. The incredibly cheap water bills (less than $5 a month).

Not too bad.

Nothing else is really exciting here. I'm working extra this week as one of the teachers is taking his vacation. '

I'm just trying to get through the week, and then Dad is going to arrive on Thursday, April 8 so I'll go to Seoul to meet him. I'm tentatively planning that weekend to get us to the DMZ (North Korean border), and to a baseball game (Seoul has a team called the LG Twins, so we'll see a "Twins" game in Korea).

Just have to make it to the weekend and I'll be home free...

March 11, 2010

The semester is under way and so far it has been going pretty well. I have class after class with no break every day except Fridays, so the days go by very fast.

The kids have been very up and down - there are a few kids who are wild and loud, and some really great new kids, who are on or even above level. One girl is my new favorite. Her name is Ruby and she's adorable and very smart. I need to take pictures of my new classes.

This week we were finally approached about extending our contracts in August. I had decided before I even got here that it was one year and I would leave (and I still am going to), but if I had to stay here I don't think it would be so terrible. It's going to be a bit difficult to explain to the owner, especially since he's been trying to spend more time with us as the apparent downturn in attendance (a minor 'crisis' at a lot of the schools) is turning around.

Not much else has been going on. I've been doing a lot of research and planning for my post-Korea travels. It's shaping up to be a pretty big thing, but it's nice having something to look forward to (and keep saving money for).

Halfway done!

The weekend in Seoul was a nice getaway. We spent Saturday at the Coex mall and aquarium. On Sunday we went up to the N'Seoul Tower, even though it was a bit cloudy.

(Locks people leave symbolizing enduring love)

The five lights that indicated the state of the city (safe/under attack)

We also tried to visit the old east and west gates to the city. The west gate (Namdaemun) was supposed to be the nice one, but it was burned down by a fire a while ago and has yet to be rebuilt. Dongdaemun (the east gate) is a bit smaller, but still intact.


We also walked around down by the Cheonggye Stream, which was nice (though it would be nicer if it were green).


This week is the first week of the spring term. New classes and lots of stress, and on top that I've got a cold. Luckily tomorrow is Friday and I just have to make it through and I have the weekend to recuperate.

All I know is that I'm more than halfway through my contract! It's all downhill from here!

Olympics, Dentists, and Singing with Soldiers

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.

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.

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.

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!