Teaching in the South

Unlike the first two posts I made, this post feels more like an essay, rather than the free flowing information I'm used to. The reason for this is because I found out that some people actually enjoy these posts and now I feel like I have to keep it to up to some sort of high standards, rather than my usual ill ramblings. But anyways, here it goes.

I am completely settled in Korea. I now have all the basic necessities such as heated water, a fridge, a cell phone, and a completely sweet shower system that has the ability to turn the bathroom into a water free-for-all. To be honest, my bathroom is rather ridiculous and consists of a drain in the middle of the floor and a shower head sitting right next to the toilet. While this makes cleaning of the area just a twirl away, I have experienced one too many wet sock days after forgetting to put on the usual slippers that Koreans have residing next to their bathroom door. Also along these lines, I have noticed that Koreans really just love fucking slippers. Slippers are used literally everywhere! There's a pair for the house, a pair just for the bathroom, and even my co-workers wear a separate pair of slippers for in the classroom! Me on the other hand? I get praised for having the "remarkable" ability of wearing my dress shoes for the entire class period. I guess my feet are stone cold iron killers.


Since I am completely settled in Korea, I have since started my actual contract and teaching schedule. While here is where I would like to place complaints on being over worked and some sort of terrible regime, I cannot. The reason? I have it really fucking easy in terms of work inside a hag won. Everyone I have met usually works from 2 to 9:30. I on the other hand work 2 to usually 7:30, two days lasting until 8:30. Even more remarkable, I don't actually have class until 4, so in reality I have mainly 4 classes a day. Ahh, living the life :)

The kids in the classroom are remarkable well behaved for their ages, and are a pleasure to work with. I am constantly amazed at my own enjoyment in this field, and at times look forward to completing lessons involving the teaching of colors and shapes. The kids refer to me as teacher and will constantly place two hands out when receiving worksheets, this gesture is a symbol of respect towards one's elder or superior. Also, the classes are rather small, which helps one get individual time working with each student.

I must say I am enjoying my time as a teacher, and I also enjoyed the experience of completing a visa run due to my employment in the field. This visa run was to Fukuoka, Japan and was a really cool experience. I have always been one for going to Japan, so to do so while living in Korea is a killer bar story at least. While Koreans and the Japanese constantly stress differences in culture, I was unable to experience many of these differences due to my language inability, but I must say that if you come from one country that you can't read shit, and goto another country where you still can't read shit, they seem very similar. The things I did note are that the Japanese youth are a lot louder and appear to be much happier during the day. This could be due to the fact that Hagwons (after school learning academies) are not as popular in Japan. Also, there are a lot of bikes and the American dollar is shit to the Japanese Yen. Another difference is that their spas consist of naked time for separate sexes. Okay wait, never mind, Korean's spas consist of naked time equally. While I have made myself appear as not the biggest exhibitionist in the past, I did partake in naked time while on the island. The spa was enjoyable and relaxing, but my major regret is that anyone visiting me or that I personally know will not be able to experience the delights with me. I am sorry, but while I am slightly uncomfortable with naked strangers, naked friends are even more on my "not gonna happen" list. Besides naked spas I saw a really cool robot exhibit and a history museum (I got to see the golden seal, one of many national treasures of Japan!). Regretfully I only stayed on the island for two days so I did not get to travel across Japan. (Luckily my stay was for two days, because the day later a typhoon hit Japan!)

As this note is getting rather long, I shall end it with my Japan trip. Other quick notes to be made later may include my distaste of the Korean bar and restaurant scene, the swine flu paranoia, the awesome fireworks festival I'm going to next week, and the unique group of English speakers I have met in the area.

Updated last Tuesday · Comment · Like

Blending In

After constant displays of charisma and desperation, I have finally begun to settle down in the Korean peninsula.

Seoul was a great city, with a lot to offer and even more to offer in terms of chance meetings. As mentioned previously, I have met a lot of interesting people during my stay in Korea. Everyone with a different life experience and knowledge set. One of the most intriguing characters I’ve met was due to a chance occurrence on the subway. Me and my brother looking like half-breed Latinos attracted the attention of a Spaniard and his Korean friend. These two were extremely interesting people, and the Korean man was a freelance poet. He gave us all books and took us to his apartment. Such Korean knowledge of the populace being:

-Koreans work hard. Not just hard, but VERY hard.
-Korean children attend at least one to several after school programs in order to gain an advantage later in life.
-Korean men rarely get time to spend with their spouse, as they are always working or drinking.
-Weddings and children are the pinnacle of the Korean family structure.

(Keep in mind all these are an individual person’s opinion.)

Anyways, this Korean poet has been all across the world and was rather an inspiration of doing things outside of the societal norm.

A couple drinking experiences later I also learned that Soju was not a drink for the light-hearted.

Following a week of high stress and job hunting I was actually able to find not one, but two jobs! One being located in Seoul, the other in the Masan city region (way down by Busan). Naturally I was excited by this, and was ready to accept the Seoul position. Unknowling to me, I was going to be tempted otherwise. I agreed to visit Masan to see the school, as it was the school that was going to be paying for my trip to Masan. I was intent on visiting Busan, so I figured a couple hours in Masan, and the rest of the weekend in Busan would be a great experience.

After meeting the school, seeing the kids (in which I hope to pretend I have no heart here), and being completely woo’ed by the friendliness of the school staff I agreed to take the Masan position instead. While this was a shock to me, I figured that I should go somewhere where I enjoy my work, since I am going to be busy doing that everyday. Also a shock to me, after having the choice between two schools, I was motivated enough to do research concerning the two. What I found? Nothing on Masan, but the other school in Seoul had ENDLESS amounts of horror stories and tales of teacher abuse. Glad I dodged that bullet

Busan is probably my favorite city of South Korea. It is the second largest city and has 4 beaches. Everything is more simpliefied, and instead of 30 different bar districts, it only has 4. Also similiarily, instead of 3000+ markets and clothing districts, it may have just 50. There is a spa house that is on my next weekends travel agenda.

The hostel at Busan was a lot better than the one in Seoul, as it was owned and operated by a formal backpacker. He was very nice and always willing to help. I also met a person from Manchester, England and we went out drinking. Meeting fellow travelers is the best!

Hey everyone,

Some of you have heard, and some of you have not, but things in Korea are pretty crazy!

Upon landing in Korea our working group was whisked off to our hotels and separated into groups of 5 to prevent any sort of swine flu outbreak. After that we were told not to talk to the different groups and stay out of the public eye. Breaking that rule was my first priority. I explored the whole area and even hiked one of Seoul’s mountains. After two or three days of relaxing our training for our job ensued.

The job training was really intense. The whole time we were wearing face masks in the office and we had to use hand sanitizer like it was a an oxygen source. The trainers also intended to “break us” by creating an intense course outline we had to abide by and create. This training went on for five days and afterwards people were shipped off to their jobs. Except me! Well, me and a couple others from different groups. We were informed the job wasn’t available anymore and had been filled, and after all that hard work too! So they gave me a list of sites and said that I could mail all my material to them if I needed anything from the states.

After being tossed around I had to retire to a hostel. The hostel itself was really gross and I was forced to enjoy a nice comfortable stay on a bed filled with bedbugs (didn’t know it at the time). The mattress was so uncomfortable I had to reside on alcohol to really get the rest I deserved (my excuse at least!). The plus side to the hostel was that I switched beds, and met a lot of interesting people! I’ve met people from Czech, Russia, Brazil, and Germany! Everyone had lots of stories and I learned so much.

So lately I have had a lot of time to explore. I hiked another mountain (the highest one) and it was really challenging. There was even some ropes to pull yourself up and cliff edges you had to walk along! Lotta fun. Besides that, I’ve also visited the foreign district and a lot of party/bar areas, and a palace or two. Seoul is really cool and I can’t wait to explore everything. I haven’t done any intense tourist events such as the DMZ or the aquarium until I know I’ll have a steady income flowing.

Lately I’ve had a bunch of job interviews, with just about each one of them wanting to hire me. I have a couple more this week, but I only can get the job once I get all the papers I used to get my visa the first time. I have my mother collecting the documentation and sending it to me. After that I can do another “visa run” and accept any of these jobs. The visa run would be a trip to japan that they pay for! So for the next few days I have been clean shaven (I shaved with a blade, so there ain’t any stubble!), wearing a suit and tie, and walking around with my “briefcase”. This trip is fun