My First Week and a Half in Korea

     It has been a busy week and a half to say the least.  I went through "training", took a trip to Daegu, and officially began my new job.  I've met some of the other foreigners in Masan, tried various Korean food dishes, and hiked up a mountain.  I moved into my apartment, spent a couple of nights at the local foreigner hangout called Jazz, and already said my first goodbyes.  Korea seems like it is going to be a busy place.  There is always somewhere to go, someone to hangout with, and I can't forget about work.  I'm sure that in 360 days, I'll look back and wonder where all the time went.
     I spent Thursday and Friday of last week going through orientation.  The School Director, Mr. Jung, came and picked me up at my motel on Thursday.  He took me to Jung Chul F.L.I. (Foreign Language Institute) where I will be teaching for the next year.  He seems like he is going to be professional, which is what I was looking for in a director.  Upon arrival at the school, I met Edward, the teacher whose place I took.  I spent the next few days attached to Edward's hip.  I tried to pick up as much from Edward as I could.  What were the processes we had to follow at school?  What was the lesson structure?  Where did you get food in Masan?  Where did you go to buy stuff for an apartment?  Where was the bus station?  How do you say hi and bye in Korean?  You know, those sorts of things.  I even tried to figure out what to do when I leave.  That is because on Friday I attended Edward's going away lunch..  Here I was sitting at the table watching Edward thank everyone for the year he just spent in Korea.  Someday that will be me, saying goodbye to all these people that I worked with for a year.  I basically spent Thursday through Sunday attached to Edward's hip.  His information was invaluable.  It was great to have a person whose brain I could pick for a few days.
     Edward took me to lunch on Thursday.  We went to a little chicken place that I've been back to twice.  It is quite good.  I don't know what you are thinking when I say a little chicken place, so I'll elaborate.  You get a plate with cut pieces of chicken (it almost looks like fajita chicken meat), a plate with a mix of veggies (carrots, lettuce, cabbage) topped with dressings, a bowl with sauce in it, a cup of rice, a cup of soup, a plate with kimchi, a cup with radishes, and a plate with leaves on it (I'd call it lettuce, but it literally looks likes it has been picked right from a tree).  Then they give you chop sticks and a spoon.  From there you are on your own.  No matter what the flavors of the Korean food, that pretty much sums up the setup.  Soup, kimchi, radish, maybe a salad, then some combination of rice and meat (usually chicken, pork, or seafood).  Unless you go to something like McDonald's or Paris Baguette, that is about what you can expect. The food has actually been quite enjoyable.  Thankfully I can use chopsticks, or I don't know what I'd do.  I guess I'd eat with my hands.  Someday I will do a blog dedicated just to the food selections in Korea.
     Orientation went well.  Edward showed me essentially what would be expected of me.  Basically there 12 Korea teachers that have 7 classes a day.  These classes meet Monday through Friday.  The school takes the three foreign language teachers, and has us essentially substitute during various classes throughout the week.  It is a set schedule, but we are teaching different classes for different Korean teachers everyday.  At the most, we may have two or three of the same classes that we teach twice in one week.  The Korean teachers also create the lesson plans using the material provided by the school.  In addition to the 31 classes a week that I teach, I also have to fill out a grade report once a month and correct diaries that the students turn in each week.  Each student has a diary with a list of topics.  They are responsible for writing on two topics a week.  We then go back and correct the diaries.  There is definitely varying degree of understanding the English Language when it comes to the students at the school.  Some are fairly adept, and others are clearly beginners.  The diaries are neat, but they have the same common mistakes.  They confuse "fun" and "funny", they forget to make words plural, they forget to use tenses, and they begin every other sentence with "but" or "so".  That is essentially the job though.
     My first week of teaching by myself went just fine.  There were a few hiccups, such as when some answer keys were wrong (and I can't tell on my own because it deals with translating Korean), when the computer that the lesson is on didn't work properly, and finishing a lesson or two way before the end of class.  As I teach longer, I'll get better at overcoming each of these issues.  The kids are great.  They range from 6-14 years old.  The young ones are really cute, and the old ones are generally pretty shy.  The kids pet my arms because I have hair on them.  They say, "Teacher, why?"  The are also quite blunt.  They don't hesitate to call an overweight teacher "Fat Teacher" or a teacher without hair "Bald Teacher."  They are kids, so what do you expect.  In the end, I am just one of a number of teachers from around the world that they will encounter who will try and teach them English.  Some will like me and some won't.  All I can do is try to help prepare them for eventual conversations they will have with English speakers, and leave them farther along in that pursuit than they were when I started with them.
     Edward and his girlfriend Maggie were going to Daegu on Saturday to meet some friends before Edward took off for the states.  They invited me along, and I figured it would be a good opportunity to see how the public transportation worked in Korea.  Three days in and I was already leaving Masan.  Daegu was great.  It is definitely more Western than Masan.  What I mean by that is there are far more things you would find in America in Daegu than in Masan.  These include certain restaurants, types of clothing stores, and a bookstore that carries English language books.  They have a restaurant run by Canadians that serves nothing but Western food, Western style dance clubs, and even a Dickie's store.  That last one was kind of odd though.  There is also a place called Billi-Bowl that has merged pool and bowling.  You have a mini bowling lane that is as high as a pool table, and you knock down the pins by shooting a pool ball at them.  It was pretty clever. Someone back home should take that idea and make some money with it.  Daegu was having a festival at the time called "The Daegu Color Festival."  I'm not entirely sure what they were celebrating, maybe colors?  It was pretty neat though because there were all kinds of cultural events taking place.  It mainly involved a lot of singing, dancing, and art.  I ended up going to bed early Saturday night, 12ish.  That is compared to  everyone else's three or four in the morning.  I was still dying from jet lag at that point.  It wasn't until Monday or Tuesday that I finally felt adjusted.  I just kept getting really tired at about two or three in the afternoon.  I think that is because my body felt like it was midnight, which it was back in America.
     We had to rush home from Daegu.  Edward still had his stuff at what was at that point my apartment.  He and Maggie had to get it and catch another bus to Yeosu.  That is a city about three hours west of Masan where Maggie teaches.  He was staying with her until his flight back to America on Wednesday.  I said goodbye as they left the apartment at 7:30.  The last bus to Yeosu left at 8:00.  It was perfect timing.  I spent the rest of the night going to Lotte Mart (Korea's Wall-Mart), getting stuff to clean the apartment, and then trying to get the place organized.  It took a couple hours Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night to get the place looking clean and organized.  It's kind of small, which I'm glad about.  That way I don't have much to keep clean.  The apartment doesn't have a dryer, so I have to use a drying rack for my clothes.  The other thing that is noticeably absent is a shower curtain for the shower.  Apparently the whole bathroom is the shower.  It is a change, but nothing I can't handle.  What the apartment does have is a great view.  It overlooks one of the downtown areas and the Masan Bay.  I'm on the 8th floor up on a hill, so it is actually a really nice view.  All in all, I'm quite happy with the place.
     The rest of the week has been spent just trying to adapt to my new world.  I have tried various restaurants, sometimes on my own and sometimes with other people.  I've had sushi, fried chicken, grilled chicken, pork, fish, kim bab, soup, noodles, and even Mexican food.  Yes, Mexican food is available in Masan.  As it turns out, a local Korean married a lady from Mexico.  They moved to Masan and opened up a restaurant called Mexico.  I went there last night with a couple of guys, and it was quite good.  The flavoring was a little different, but I will definitely go back.  I got lucky as there can't be that many authentic or almost authentic Mexican restaurants in Korea.  I have hung out a couple of times at the local foreigner bar called Jazz.  Masan is a long way from 6th street, but I was expecting that.  Apparently there is a place to go dancing called Arabian Nights, but I haven't ventured there yet.  I am really curious to see it though.  Jazz is just a little dive bar that has no last call.  As it turns out, most bars here don't have a last call.  If people are drinking, they will stay open.  Walking out to a sunrise is not an uncommon occurrence.  I'm not in a hurry to try that though.  Today I did go hiking.  This place, Korea, is full of mountains.  They surround everything.  I am quite fond of that fact as I love the outdoors.  It is still a little hot, but I really wanted to go up the mountain on the backside of the city once a few people told me where the trail was.  After a little bit of aimless wondering, I found what I was looking for and was off.  There were some really nice views looking down over Masan.  The trail wasn't too crowded, but I imagine it will be closer towards the end of this month when it cools down a little.  The trail wasn't too bad, and you can tell it was designed for family hiking.  In fact, throughout much of it, there were large benches that you could lay on and some even had roofs on them.  Either way, it was a nice hike.  I could see when I was up there that there were a lot of different trails on it, so I'm sure it won't be too long before I head back up it.
     So far, so good.  I think that sums up my first week and a half.  I have slowly begun to adjust to life here.  Work, the apartment, food, and the people, everything is starting to become more familiar.  I appreciate the fact that the foreigner community is quite tight knit.  It really helps new people adjust.  In fact, tomorrow I'm off to Changwon with some people to explore, and then I already have my first trip to Seoul planned.  Chuseok is a big three day holiday coming up later this month.  Three other guys and myself are going to use the opportunity to take the six hour bus ride up to Seoul and hangout there for 5 or 6 days.  I can't wait for that.  Seoul should be quite the place to visit.  I will certainly write about the trip.  Korea is just like any other place.  It has its good points and its bad points.  I hope to spend the majority of the next year encountering the good ones.  Here is to the pursuit!

A Long Day of Traveling

     Masan, South Korea.  It turns out it is a long ways away, 28 hours worth of traveling to be exact.  That is how long it took to set my bags down in a motel in Masan after waking up in Houston, TX.  After 7,000 miles of traveling, I was completely exhausted.  I was also starving, so I decided I needed to eat before I went to bed.  I walked out on to the street with no idea what to do.  I saw a restaurant three doors down that had a poster of chicken on the window.  I decided that Kyochon was a winner and walked inside.  The lady at the counter did not speak English, and it was after 11pm.  I tried to ask if she was still open, but when she made no motion to shoo me away I assumed I was okay.  I tried pointing to a picture of a chicken dish on the wall, but she didn't seem to want to make it.  I didn't know what to do, and in walked the delivery driver.  He said, "Spicy, get this one."  I was hungry and could care less at that point, so I went with it.  After about seven minutes and a payment of 11,000 won, I was on the way back to my room.  I sat down to eat fried chicken and what looked like pieces of a pear.  The fried chicken was just that, but the pear turned out to be a radish.  I can't say I expected that, but it wasn't too bad. 

                    

                    As it turns out, radish is served with almost every meal here.  Sometimes it looks like a pear, and sometimes it looks like a pineapple.  However, it never tastes like them.  I have come to realize that "expect the unexpected" applies to many aspects of life in Korea, but especially the food.  I have enjoyed all of my meals to this point, but you can never be quite sure what you are getting.  Instead of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", it is closer to "Can't Ask, Can't Tell".  I can't ask them what I'm ordering, and even if I could they couldn't tell me.  

     Anyways, once I finished eating I set the food outside my door.  Then I went inside and passed out.  Why was I so tired???

     I woke up at 5:45 for a 9:00 flight to San Francisco.  It seemed like it was going to be a trip plagued with problems when the United Customer Service Rep told me that I could only check one bag for my trip on Singapore Airlines from San Francisco to Korea.  He said, "You have to prearrange with the airline if you are going to check more than one bag."  I asked, "Can you call and do that for me right now?"  He spent the next 30 minutes doing just that.  When he came back, he said, "You can check both bags, but because one is overweight you will have to pay three times the overweight fee."  That worked out to $330.  I wasn't thrilled, but I needed the luggage if I was going to be in Korea for a year.  Thankfully, he couldn't figure out how to charge the fee.  He was only able to charge United's $50 fee.  He left it with, "Check with the gate in San Francisco.  If they don't charge you then you should be good."  As it turned out, Singapore Airlines had nothing in their computer to charge me more when I checked in at SFO.  I was good to go and not out $280.  

     The hardest part of the trip though occurred at the Houston Airport when I had to say goodbye to my family.  I think somehow I had been avoiding the fact that I was actually moving around the world for the next year.  Saying goodbye to my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew first, and then my parents about 30 minutes later, everything became crystal clear.  Walking through the security line and waiving goodbye, I couldn't help but wonder if I was out of my mind.  I wouldn't know anything or anybody, and I was leaving behind everyone that was important to me.  This is what I had wanted to do for the last two years though, so I figured you can only regret it if you don't try.  If it turned out to be miserable, I could always catch a plane back.  Besides, I had no job or car anymore, so I would be starting over wherever I went.  
     Once I arrived in San Francisco, it was time for my last meal in the states.  Of course, I picked Mexican.  Chips, salsa, guacamole, and a burrito, it seemed a fitting way to say goodbye to the variety of food in America.  It doesn't hurt that I love Mexican food above all others either.  
     The time had arrived for my 13 hour flight across the Pacific.  The plane was huge.  First class was amazing, and coach wasn't too bad either.  The airlines don't do much for you on normal flights, but it seems that they still take care of passengers flying across the globe.  There  newspapers to choose from as you boarded, a pillow and a blanket waiting for you in your seat, free headphones for the free movies and TV shows, a bag with socks and a toothbrush, and then two full meals to go along with four snacks.  It wasn't the best 13 hours of my life, but it was far from the worst.  I also met two other passengers on the flight who were on their way to teach English in Korea as well.  It seems like the thing to do.  
     Once we landed in Korea, I had to go through immigration and customs before finding the Domestic Terminal in order to check in for one more flight to Busan.  Immigration and customs went smoothly.  Thanks to the fact that it was an international airport, so did everything else.  I got my ticket, went through security, and sat down to watch Korean soap operas (which are huge here) with a bag of chips that could have been any flavor they wanted to be considering I couldn't read the packaging.  The flight was short and sweet.  I did find it funny that on a 40 minute flight they left a note on the seat in front of me asking "What may we serve you since you were resting as we passed by?"  It was sweet of them, but by the time I woke up we were landing.  They had already put everything away.  What a tease!
     27 hours after I woke up, I was done flying.  All that awaited me was grabbing my luggage and finding my transportation to Masan.  A nice taxi driver was waiting for me in the terminal with a sign that read "Bryan Fouqueklt."  I figured that was close enough.  If there was somebody on the flight actually named Bryan Fouqueklt, then I guess I stole his ride.  It was about a 40 minute drive to the motel that the school director was putting me up at in Masan.  Upon arriving, I stood there clueless.  The taxi driver was saying something, but there was no sign that said motel (at least not in English.)  I held up my hands and he began walking up some stairs.  I grabbed my bags and we were off.  He got me to the owner of the hotel who spoke very basic English.  He escorted me to my room, and left me for the night.  That was it!  It was finally done!  28 hours of traveling and I had arrived.