Korea Semana Tres

Annyong Amigos!

First off, here are a few photos from my last couple of weeks.

Pretty rad fortress I stumbled upon.

Drink in a bag in Daegu's GOGO Party GOGO Vinyl

Traditional drummers doing their thing. Check out those hats! Pretty jazzy huh?

View from my apartment of the surrounding village.

Sorry for not posting to this blog more regularly. I don't have internet setup at my apartment yet as I have not received my Alien Registration Card, which is required for things such as internet and a cell phone. As such, internet is spotty and my blogs tend to crash before I get it posted, so I tried to get a lot in this one since the internet I'm using is working pretty great at the moment.

Anyways, I've had a busy couple of weeks teaching my many many many new students. I'm teaching at three middle schools around my county. I'm based at one near my apartment for the first three days of the week and the other two Thursdays and Fridays. You may be asking yourself, "How does one teach english to a bunch of koreans when they don't speak english and you don't speak korean?" Well, this is what I'm trying to figure out too. It's actually been pretty easy and a whole lot of fun. My first week of school I spent hanging out at school for the most part and put some lesson plans together without having to actually teach a class. This week was the first week I got to teach my classes and it was great fun. I've been surprised by the level of english some of my students have. Some students are practically fluent and others barely know the english alphabet. But such is the case when you teach in the countryside.

What's great is I teach basically the same lesson for all of my 18 classes, so you get pretty good quick at knowing what works and what doesn't. I talked a lot about where I'm from, my family (some great pics of Kristen and Sarah, Mom and Dad, and Grandma), and what I like to do for fun. They really enjoyed seeing pictures of Santa Barbara, said Sarah, Kristen, and Mom were very beautiful (sorry Dad no comments on your beauty, but I did teach them DEEEEEAN), snowboarding, surfing, and of course Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers. Then I asked them about their names (some awesome names), families, and what they like to do for fun. I've played Simon Says now 18 times with students aged 14 to 16 and they love it! Needless to say, I'm enjoying my new line of work.

Next week I will begin a course I will be leading for the rest of the year about American culture and conversational english for the teachers around my county. Should be lots of fun. I'm going to be sure to include the finer points of St. Patrick's Day in my first lesson as it will be the day before the 17th. If you've got any ideas of how in the world to explain the US please let me know, I'm all ears. Otherwise, the Koreans of Yeong-deok County will have my screwed up world view.

Working in a small town has been an interesting experience to say the least. Sometimes here I feel like a Beatle and sometimes I feel like a goldfish in a fish bowl. Everybody here greets me with a very happy hello and sometimes the conversation goes a bit further. Odd at times to be stared at, grabbed to see if you are real, and constantly watched to see how I do the smallest everyday things. For instance, lunch time at school involves me walking to the cafeteria with whatever teachers are around being jammed to the front of the line with a metal tray, served an extraordinary lunch by school lunch standards, but then being watched how I try to tackle the latest item on the menu. To be modest, they are impressed by my chopstick skills and ability to put down the spiciest kimchi.

The language has proven challenging but I'm beginning to make some small steps. With the help of a couple of other westerners around I'm beginning to grasp the alphabet. A teacher at my Thursday school is very interested in learning english and we spend an hour a day talking to each other in english and korean to help each other. Of course, soju and mekju are the best lubricants for conversations for koreans as well as myself to start speaking korean to each other. Definitely pointing and throwing out some grunts has worked too.

Outside of school life I haven't had much of a problem keeping myself entertained. Last weekend I went to Daegu with a bunch of other westerners (Canada, England, South Africa) from the surrounding area. Daegu is the third largest city in Korea at about 2.5 million people. It felt really good to be back in a big city. Lots of places there to explore. Great food (including a McDonalds stop which never tasted better after 3 weeks of rice). I ran into lots of other westerners I met at my orientation doing the same things that weekend. I even got danced to Pitbull (Calle Ocho ya Mason Street!) in a bar called GOGO Party, GOGO Vinyl where drinks are served to you in plastic bags. I sang in a noraebang again which is always too much fun to me! Stayed out until closing at 6 AM. Daegu was my kind of scene!

This coming weekend, if all goes according to plan, I will be traveling about 2.5 hours south by bus to Busan to meet up with westerners from my orientation for a pub crawl. A bus in Busan has been rented to take us to the city's hot spots. Should be fun if I can make it down there in time. After I get my first paycheck next week, I'm going to plan a trip to Fukuoka, Japan for April. Fukuoka is a 2.5 hour ferry from Busan. Taking a boat from Korea to Japan sounds too cool to pass up!

That's it for now. Hope everyone back home and around the world reading this ramble is doing well.

Hasta luego,

John