Seoul Underground

You're in a small underground bar in Insadong, Seoul, South Korea. Throbbing music pulsates so forcefully that it replaces your heartbeat. Hooka smoke fills the air, lit bright blue by the floor lights. And you sip a mixed drink, savoring the taste and the buzz in this lush atmosphere. Lean back and chill with some friends-- it's hard to find a feeling like this one.

Baseball and the DMZ

This past weekend I visited the DMZ-- that is, the demilitarized zone, the two kilometers on either side of the border between North and South Korea. The videos they showed and the signs giving information were talking about how relations were getting better and better between North and South Korea... obviously they were all made before the past few months!!

I wasn't allowed to take pictures of any of the cool stuff, I guess because they're afraid of spies or something? Who knows. But I did get to see the border itself; you could see the South Korean flag flying on one side, and the North Korean flag on the other. (To tell exactly which flags they were you'd have to view it through those coin-operated binoculars, but I could definitely see each of the flagpoles with my naked eye.) Also, North Korea built these villages with very affluent-looking houses right on their side of the border. The idea is to make it seem like conditions in North Korea are good, but they're *very* obviously fake. We also toured these tunnels that the North Koreans dug between North and South Korea, in an attempt to invade Seoul directly. The North Koreans claim that they were mining coal, and even painted (yes, *painted*) the ceiling and walls of the tunnels black. However, it is clearly rock painted black, and not coal, so we are pretty confident it was actually an intended invasion tool.

I probably shouldn't do much more traveling this month, though, as the trip to Seoul and the DMZ pretty much wiped me out. I need to start saving some money!

Last night I ate dinner and watched baseball with Brett and the Korean teachers; it was very fun. The game was Korea versus Japan, and I imagine it must be quite a grudge match-- the Koreans *hate* the Japanese (considering the Japanese occupied them for decades in the early 20th century, can you really blame them?). I explained the rules of baseball to Brett-- did you know there's this big worldwide baseball tournament going on right now, World Cup-style? Because I sure didn't, although apparently America's participating too.

I tried to explain to Koreans how patriotic we get about baseball-- you know, the whole "As American as baseball and apple pie" thing. It was hard to express using very simple language; the closest I got was to say it was like kimchee for Koreans. This isn't quite true, but the Koreans were for some reason *very* impressed with this explanation. Mr. Gim was also impressed (or something) with my cheering for the game. He called me a "passionable" woman. (Okay.)

It was actually a rather boring game-- there was only one run the whole game, and it came right at the beginning. But KOREA WON!!! YAAY!!

So, Koreans and Americans (or people from any English-speaking country as far as I know) answer negative questions differently. Specifically, Koreans answer them logically, while we answer them illogically. So if you say "Don't you want to go to the movies?" and you did, then you would say "Yes," right? But Koreans say "No." Technically Koreans are right-- No, I don't not want to go to the movies. But it makes for a lot of misunderstandings-- if you think how often we ask negative questions, there is a lot of the time that a person is actually answering exactly the opposite of what it sounds like. Last night, this general source of confusion led to the other teachers believing that I have a secret husband. ("You are not married?" "No." *look of shock* "WHAT?!") I fear this may become a running joke.

There's another cultural difference, and this one I just discovered last night: Koreans make a habit of feeding their friends (particularly after they've taken a big gulp of alcohol). Like, Mr. Gim picked up a strawberry, and after I took a sip of beer, fed it to me. Luckily I'd been prepared for this a few minutes earlier when Brett fed Mrs. Song a strawberry. This is a completely friendly thing to them, with no implication of romantic interest or the like.

It's strange that something so intimate in one culture is so commonplace in another, isn't it?

Last weekend was EPIK Orientation. Even though I'd been here a month and a half, they still wanted me to go. It was fun-- got to meet some English teachers from other parts of Gangwon-do Province, and we got to visit Mt. Seorak National Park. The view was breathtaking:

Getting a teaching job abroad

So, in the seven weeks since I've moved to Korea, I've gotten several emails/messages from people asking for advice on how to go about getting a teaching job abroad. The economy's tanking and people are nervous about the state of the world, but the ability to speak English fluently is still a very, VERY valuable skill in the global market.

I'm considering forming a web site or something, to help people get teaching jobs (or any jobs, really) in a foreign country. It seems a bit presumptuous to me, given that I've only done it twice, once for a couple of months (and that was unpaid) and now this one, but... I just seem to enjoy helping people get out here into the rest of the world. I spent a couple hours on the phone with Kat, and I loved thinking of ways to get her to another continent.

I think I know why, too. It occurred to me when Chris said that he could get me a job in Greece and was surprised I hadn't asked him when I was looking into jobs abroad this past fall. And I thought "Oh, wow, I should have done that! I could be in GREECE right now!"

And then I wasn't sure why I thought that. I'm in Korea. That's way more of a different culture, and there's no reason I'd think that a job in Greece was better than a job in Korea. So why am I like "Oh, I should have gone to Greece!"? Because I have such strong wanderlust that, no matter where I am, I'm imagining what it would be like to live somewhere else. Which is not to say that there's no point to my traveling, or that I'd be just as restless in Korea as in Philadelphia. I'm happy to be here. I love the fact that I'm becoming friends with Koreans who have never left South Korea, or the fact that the people who I consider actually from my culture includes Brits, Australians, and South Africans.

That I got to toast to Obama with Brits and Australians!

But I have wanderlust. I'm restless. So now I'm thinking of all the other places I could be visiting, and I want to go there.

So really, even though I'm already living abroad, I want to live vicariously through people who are going to other places.* And I LOVE making plans for travel (even though I know that often I won't follow through and will do something different instead-- that's half the fun, as long as you're seeing new things!). So I get to plan someone else's new life abroad and live vicariously through that. It's great!

I'd love to do that for way more people. Maybe I don't have enough experience to start up a website now, but maybe in a few years. I think I'd really, REALLY enjoy it.




*Which does NOT mean you shouldn't come to Korea, Kat. I would WAY rather have you here than live vicariously through your Germany experience.

So I discovered something interesting on my block: a pizza-parlor-slash-comic-book-store.

For realz. It's totally the same store. Of course, all the books are in Korean, so I can't read them while I wait for the pizza. (I can't call ahead to order 'cause, again, don't speak Korean [yet]. Which is a shame, because there is no such thing as a tip OR a delivery charge here.)

I think this discovery is even more interesting that the boxing gym next door to my apartment that blasts "YMCA" as the manly men inside beat each other to a pulp.

Or you know, actually, maybe it's not.


So, yeah, I'm settling down into Korea OK.

Especially since they took down that sign that was hanging on the wall of the elementary school, that proclaimed "Spare the rod, spoil the child." with a backdrop of a pretty flower-covered field and a blue sky.

Of course, they only took it down because the hanger broke when the water pipe burst on the second story of the English Experience Center, the morning of my first classes ever. We had to have the class in a different building, which considering the fact that our classes were entirely built around the new technology and little mock-kitchens and mock-stores and mock-hospitals in the Experience Center, and thus had to come up with 5 hours of new material off the tops of our heads, is quite substantial.

There were several inches of water. Some teachers were standing on the bottom floor with snow shovels, pushing the water (streaming down the stairs) out the door. All day.

Shockingly, despite the fact that there were tons of COMPUTERS on that floor that had several inches of water on it, nothing was damaged.

Except those picture hangers. They also took down "Eagles don't catch files.", which is a shame.

Also, I recently got a memory card for my camera, and discovered that it takes video with sound. Like, I can fit three and a half hours of video with sound on that thing. It's quite exciting. My dad also figured out how to make the camera in my built-in computer take in sound, too. So mayhap you will soon see some video entries from me?

Hi all!

I have accepted a position teaching English at Bong-Rae Elementary School, a public school in Yeongwol, South Korea. It's in the Gangwon-do province, and the scenery is supposed to be beautiful.

I'm really happy with this decision; I've been talking to an Aussie guy who currently works at the school, Brett, and he really likes it. The town itself is very rural, which actually means there are all kinds of perks associated with the position (most Western English teachers want to go to a city, so there are mad incentives to get them to go to the rural or provincial teaching posts). Personally, I wanted to go somewhere rural, so all the perks are just cool bonuses. I get 200,000 won extra per month (about $150), 35 paid days off instead of 14 (!), and that's not including the national holidays I have off. I also get 15 sick days. The benefits are really good too, pension payments matched by the school district, medical insurance, and so on. Also, I don't have to pay rent; I get my own apartment, which Brett says includes "everything you need, stove, fridge, computer and desk, Internet, TV with western channels..." I do have to pay utilities, but getting about $1400 a month, with utilities and food as my only expense... yowsa!

As far as the town itself goes, it sounds awesome. It's an actual town, with restaurants, a supermarket, shops, doctors, pharmacists, etc, but it's also in the middle of the countryside. The area is known for its great skiing, and Brett says there's great hiking, mountain climbing, rafting, caving (they've got gorgeous limestone caves), and para-gliding.

The elementary school is about to finish building an English Learning Centre, classrooms with fake restaurant and bank, airport etc, to learn situational dialog. Pretty much I'll get to role play a lot with cute Korean elementary schoolers. Sounds good to me!

In order to get my visa I have to get a notarized Criminal Background Check then get an apostille on it. The background check is being a pain in my ass. Apparently there's a three-week backlog of background checks at the state police headquarters. Three weeks! Keep in mind that when I leave is ENTIRELY determined by when I get that background check, apostille, and thus my teacher's visa. Like, if I got my visa tomorrow, I'd be on a plane the day after tomorrow. So this really affects me in a really tangible way.

Luckily, my recruiter says that even though Yeongwol was looking for a teacher sooner than this, he thinks they'll be just fine as long as we do everything we can on our end (ie, as long as it's just the government dragging its feet, not me). His exact words were "The school is looking forward to you arriving, so I guess it’s set in stone." That was definitely a load off of my mind. I was worried that I was annoying them by depriving them of an English teacher for several weeks.

The feeling I get is that, since as I mentioned earlier, rural areas have trouble getting teachers, a teacher reeaally wanting to come to their town to teach at their school is somewhat unusual, and quite welcome. Brett said he didn't even know where in Korea he was teaching until he arrived, so there are probably a fair amount of Western teachers who are fairly reluctantly in the area. So my genuinely wanting to be there, in that particular place, probably does outweigh the fact that my government is making me wait a few weeks. That's just the feeling I get, anyway.

It does sound like a great town and a great place to live, though, doesn't it?

Today's my last day of work, here in Philadelphia. After this I guess I'll be preparing for Korea full-time. My parents are buying me a Korean Rosetta Stone for an early Christmahanukkwanzyuleka present, so I'll spend a lot of the time using that to get at least a basic grasp of Korean.

I figure I'll show up, smile, say "Sorry I'm late, but I really really wanted to come to your town, and look, I even started to learn Korean!" and bat my eyelashes and hopefully they'll like me. And be really nice to the kids and teach them lots of English and make it fun, of course.