Language Class Hiking

I should supplement that last negative post about what cool stuff I did this weekend. I'm taking a Korean Language class at the local community college and the entire department went out on a hike up Halla Mountain. This was now my 3rd time up the mountain, so it seems like I'm becoming a pro! It was a great hike and quite a production. We had name tags and everything. We met at the college, took a tour bus to the mountain, and they gave us all a little kimbap for lunch along with some water. I don't have any copies of the picture we took with the whole group but here's some pictures that I took.

On the top of those cliffs is the crater. This trail doesn't go all the way to the top. It goes in between those two low hills (oreums) and finishes at a nice little Ramen Shack!

Ryan and I posing with our Korean Language Teacher



Some of the Language Students Posing at the marker at the top. Many of the students in the class are Chinese students studying Korean for a year.



This is Ryan and I's hero. I don't know his name, but this guy is probably the best korean speaker in our class. He always knows the answers! One day we'll speak as well as him!



I brought a little treat to the top. Soju! (Korean Liquor) The last couple of times we hiked up, we noticed that everyone seemed to be drinking some, so I thought it might be fun to bring some. It turned out to be a good idea. Although it didn't make quite so much of a hit on the students as it did on the teachers! The teachers loved it. I also learned that everytime you offered them a shot, they made you take one too. Needless to say I felt a little buzzed at the top. The second bottle was given to me by some random people in a group next to us. (another example of people giving!)



This is our friend that helped us get signed up for the class. She's super nice and speaks English really well.

Sweet Work Schedule Ruined

I've been a bit busy this past week so I've been a little slow on getting the blog updated. My big news is that my sweet work schedule with afternoons off is no longer happening. I picked up another class that adds another 6 teaching hours a week, which puts me at my contract max. This means now, I'm working 4 full days a week and 2 half days which is not so nice. Oh well. Hopefully it won't last too long, but we'll see. Working 6 days a week is not really too much fun.

Top of the Mountain and Random Acts of Kindness

So here's a picture of me a the top of the mountain. Everyone was getting their picture taken with this dead tree, so I thought I'd go for it too. I think it says something along the lines of this being the top of Halla mountain.

Ryan and I were commenting on the way down from the summit about how extremely friendly some Koreans can be. For example, at the summit, one person from the seminary group just came over and gave me a candy bar. He said "Dan, a present for you, bye," then walked away. I just thought it was amazing that this one guy who I only talked with for about 5 minutes would just come out of the blue and give us a little gift then leave. I don't think I've ever seen a complete stranger do anything like that. The thing is that similar things like that happen all the time. People will fish in their pockets for anything they can give you. Ryan even had someone invite him to his house once and gave him a box of oranges when he left. Just completely random, unprovoked acts of kindness.

Hiking Halla Mountain

Ryan, Brad, and I went out for a bit of a walk today up Mt. Hallasan, this time we took a trail that goes up the east side of the mountain that reaches the summit. The views from the top were specacular. You could see into the crater, but the lake was dry. There was also a great panorama view of the island. There was no trail around the crater, but you could still see Seogwipo City to the south, Jeju City to the north, and ocean everywhere in between.

It was a fantastic hike even though I realized that I've been getting quite out of shape. It was 19Km round trip or about 12 miles. The hike is quite popular since Halla Mountain is the largest mountain in Korea and a "Must Do" for many Koreans. We met some great people along the way. Ryan and I were practicing our Korean on each other and on strangers. All the people were a joy to talk to. We met some people from all over. We even met a fellow from Japan, who surprised me when after I told him I was from Indianapolis by saying, "The Colts! Very good team!" We also spent quite a lot of time chatting with a very nice group of guys from a Seminary in Incheon.

Settling into a Routine and Learning the Language

Well, I have to say that I feel I've finally settled into a routine. Its a pretty nice feeling actually. I fear though that I'm running out of things to write about in the blog since many days are pretty much the same and probably not very interesting. I want to keep the blog interesting and fun for my family and friends who are reading. I think I've now reached the stage of living Korea where many things are no longer new and exciting. I feel that this is a good thing but it certainly doesn't make interesting reading for someone else. To be honest though, I'm starting to like the routine that I've been getting into.

I feel like my next big challenge, now that I'm comfortable with my job, is to learn to speak Korean. One of my primary reasons for coming here was to learn about the culture and I can't do this unless I learn the language. My biggest reason lately is that I feel like I'm starting to get more involved in the climbing club, but I can't communicate with them. They are all fantastic people and I really want to get to know them and speak with them, but I can't and it's very, very, very frustrating. So far, I've given learning Korean a half-hearted effort, learning a little bit here and there, like 90% of all the other foreigners here, but now I'm determined to break the norm and to put all of my free time and effort into it. I've been studying hard for the past couple weeks and it feels like its already coming along. Learning the language in general has been very frustrating for me primarily since my memory is so bad. I just can't remember any of the words! It's starting to come along, though slowly. Korean is tough at first since you have to learn a completly different type of alphabet, but at least there is an alphabet! The Chinese just use thousands of individual characters! I think the other tough thing is that the sounds are just completely different than English. The picture above is pretty much my view of most of my time, that computer program, my two books and my ever growing stack of flash cards. It's a slow process and I hope the reward is worth the time.

North Korea

Since the neighbors to the north decided to test out their first nuclear device, I thought I might give a little bit of my perspective on the situation. To be honest, the whole North Korean thing never really bothered me before. I just figured that they've just been doing their thing for the past 50 years or so and it would just continue that way while I'm here. I never really thought they would do something absolutely crazy like test a nuclear bomb and then threaten to use it! The other day when I heard about the test was the first time the whole North Korean situatation began to scare me a little. I wish I could tell you what the general feeling is here among the Koreans, but I still can't really communicate, read newspapers, etc. I get most of my news from American websites and the English version of the Korean newspaper, Chosun Ilbo (http://english.chosun.com) Also, the only people I've hung out with this week are the people from work. However, I think the general feeling here is to wait and see what the UN/USA reaction is. I just hope that nobody does anything rash. I'm really liking it here and I don't want a war to start.

Chuseok

Chuseok is Koran's "Thanksgiving Day" Here's the definition from the Wikipedia...

Chuseok, also sometimes spelt 'Chusok', is a major traditional holiday in Korea,
celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the year. It is a feast and
is also called Harvest Day, Harvest Moon Festival, or Hankawi (한가위,中秋节)(from
"han" = "great" and "kawi" = "middle", i.e. "a great day in the middle of the
autumn").

Honestly, I don't really know much about it except that it's
one of the two biggest holidays in Korea and nearly everything shuts down that
day.

My only real complaint about my job is that I don't get ANY
national holidays off. This really sucks when everyone else in the entire
country gets all week off. We did end up getting the actual Chuseok day off, but
we had to make up the classes on Sunday. So we took the Friday off and all went
as a happy working family down to the southern part of the island for a
mini-vacation. I am the only one who can drive a stick, so I drove everyone in
the bus to the Jungmun area, which is the fancy resorty area on the island.
First though we stopped at this place that you can see in the top picture. It is
an island that during the exceptionally low tides, you can walk to. Apparently
it was one of the only 9 islands in Korea that you can do this. I have to say
that it actually was pretty cool. Ryan and I had fun turning over rocks and
finding cool sea life. Michelle even found an Octopus! Afterwards we went to the
Jungmun beach and played in the waves. The waves were huge and Ryan and I had
just the best time getting completely pounded by them as people surfed on past!
Michelle treated us to an expensive, fancy buffet at the Jeju Grand Hotel in
Shin Jeju for the evening meal. It turned out to be a wonderful holiday.

More Rock Climbing

Went out on Tuesday for a bit more rock climbing with the club. We went down to the southern part of the Island and climbed on one of the oreums called Dansan. It was a beautiful day and a great day to ride on the bike down there. The route we climbed was two pitches. We climbed the first pitch once, which was really quite easy as you can tell by the photo, had lunch, and then did the first and second pitch. All of this before I had to work that evening! The views from the top were incredible, you could see the sea and the big mountain, "Sanbangsan" in the background.

Today was Chuesok, Korea's Thanksgiving Day. I'll write more about it tomorrow.

Mt. Halla

I finally got out to climb "The Mountain." You see, Jeju-do is a pretty small island that is dominated in the center by a mountain, Hallasan, or Halla Mountain. I don't mean to confuse you by saying climb, because I didn't rock climb up it. "Climbing" is the Korean way of saying "Hiking."

I hiked with the rock climbing club. Yes, I've come to find out that not only am I a member of the climbing gym, but it's also a sort of club that does things together. We went out as a group and hiked up Halla Mountain this weekend. There are 4 trails or "courses" on the mountain. The two on the East Side lead to the top. We took one of the easier ones up the West Side to the "Three Oreums." What is an 'oreum' you might ask? Well, in the volcanic island of Jeju-do, these oreums are like mini-mountains or hills formed by some sort of volcanic "bubbling". I think there's about 300 of them scattered about the island. The ones we went to are the three highest.

It turned out to be a fantastic day with beautiful weather. It was very clear all day. I only put this picture up because it looked cool with that one cloud running across the ridge line. That was about the only cloud we saw all day. The people in the picture are about half of the group from the climbing club we hiked with.

This is Ryan, my 'co-teacher' who's in the same boat as I am. Ryan, also a midwesterner, comes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He arrived in Korea only a week earlier than I did. Korea however, is not his first international destination. He spent nearly two years in Tanzinia in the Peace Corps teaching Chemistry to local kids there. He's had some great experiences and some great stories. We've been having a good time hanging out together learning about Korea and Koreans through a bit of trial and error these past couple of months.

Brad Teacher

Here's another installment of the people in my work life here in Korea which pretty much seems like most of my life right now.

This is Brad. He's from Los Angeles originally but has been in Korea now for 5 years teaching English. He's our Head Instructor, so he's the guy that Ryan and I go to when we have some teaching questions. He'll help us out and give us pointers periodically. We have CCTV cameras in our classrooms so all of our classes are monitored. It sounds a little creepy at first, but you kinda forget about it. Anyway Brad gets to take a look at that video and give some teaching tips.

Brad is about my age, has been married for 3 years and has a 6 month old baby. Their baby is about the cutest thing ever and I don't think I've ever heard it cry...ever. We've been out to eat with her at least 3 times so far and not a peep!

Climbing!

I finally got some route climbing in this weekend! I went to Musucheon this afternoon, with an American, Jon and his Korean girlfriend Jin. Jon's a great guy, he works at the same hagwon as Darren and Sam. He's even got some Indiana connections too. He's from Kansas, but he went to college in Goshen, IN.

The climbing was great, it was in a mostly dry river bed so the climbs weren't tall, I think the longest was maybe 50 ft. There's a good mix of easy and difficult lines there too, anywhere from 5.8 to a 5.13 project. The weather was beautiful this weekend too, 70's and clear. Can't ask for much better!

Jin took all the pictures today on my camera. The picture above is of a couple of local guys working on the tough climbs.

About the Job

I've recieved a few emails from friends asking me how's work, so I'll give a little explanation on what I'm doing here in Jeju-do.

I work for a privately owned, though part of a franchise, private language school, called a hagwon, or academy. The hagwon is relatively small, though after talking to a few people, it seems to be kind of a standard size. There are two other teachers, Brad and Ryan, two front desk girls, Jinni and Eun Ju, and Michelle, the boss.

The classes I teach are 3 hours long with two 5 minute breaks. Classes are either from 4-7pm or 7-10pm. Right now I'm teaching 24 hrs a week which is pretty nice, but that may change to 30 soon. Prepping doesn't take long, I'll bet the total time I spend outside of class nowadays working on class materials is about 30mins per class. My classes right now have a minimum of 10 students and a max of 15. I have one Elementary class (4th-6th grades) and 3 Middle School classes (7th-9th grades).

Basically the main theory behind Korean language education is immersion with a native speaker. These kids have me for 3 hours a day, twice a week. In class, we only speak English, 100% of the time. All of the kids already speak English relatively well, they can read simple books and understand me fairly well. The class is structured down to the minute for the entire 3 hours and is centered around Reading Comprehension. We do a little vocabulary and listening with a CD, then spend the next hour reading a chapter in a book. At the end, for every class they have to memorize a paragraph.

The job is going pretty well so far. I'm enjoying it. There are many frustrating parts about it, but overall, I think I'll make it through a year here just fine.

Typhoon is a bust...

After all that excitement about the typhoon, all it meant was a ton of rain. How boring. No winds so strong you can't walk, no tornados at at sea, no crazy thunderstorms, just rain, lots of it, for 5 straight days. I have to say it was all good in the end because it sure makes you appreciate the sun. Today was the clearest, sunniest day since I've been here. It was so nice, there weren't even any clouds around the mountain. I guess all that rain wasn't so bad after all.

Edit: I feel bad after posting this and being all excited about the typhoon, when I found out that it hit Japan fairly hard, killed 9 people and injured nearly 300. I just hope there's no more major typhoons coming in the near future now! I could do without rain and disaster!

Typhoon Coming!

I'm pretty excited that I'm going to experience my first ever typhoon this weekend. Typhoon Shanshan is going to sneak by between here and Japan. It won't "land" here, but we'll still be in the range of greater than 55mph winds. So far all it really seems to mean is a lot more rain. It's already rained for the past 4 days and I'm starting to get tired of sitting in my room. I guess it's a good thing it's coming on a weekend so I won't have to walk to work in the middle of it!

Michelle, the Boss

This is Michelle on the left talking with a parent. She's the Boss, Principal, and owner of the school, or hagwon. If you had any questions before, the school is a privately owned language institute, owned by Michelle. It is a franchise of the parent company CDI. I taught on day one of our school's opening, a month and a half ago now.

Michelle is from Seoul originally, and went to college at the University of Utah. She spent 3 1/2 years there and got not one but TWO bachelors degrees! One in Biology and one in Linguistics. She has lived on Jeju-do for 4 years teaching English before deciding to start her own business. Her English itself is impeccable. She is a fantastic woman, always willing to help anyone out, loves kids, and works very hard. I feel very fortunate to be in Korea with such a great boss.

Red Bean Desserts

I mentioned before about a crazy red bean popsicle that I had. Well, I went to a restaurant and the lady gave me a free dessert. I was excited to get it and well, I guess I've finally succumbed to the fact that I should now consider beans a dessert item. This one was actually really good. It was crushed ice, kinda like a snow cone with pineapple, gumdrops, and the beans on it. I have to say that I enjoyed my awesome cheap meal AND the red bean dessert.

Another Weekend at the Beach

The weather feels like it has been cooling down fast here even though the temperature has only dropped a couple of degrees. It changed from shorts all day and all night to sweatshirt weather. I think it has to do with the amount of humidity in the air as much as the temperature. It just doesn't feel as humid.

To take advantage of the nice weather, all of us from the school went out to the beach again. Michelle, the boss can't drive a stick shift, so she recruited me since I got my international drivers license before I came here. I didn't think that thing would come in handy at all, but I guess it was worth it. We had a grand old time at the beach, the waves were pretty big and now that the summer is over, the crowds have left. Its really nice actually, but they don't clean up so there's quite a lot of trash laying around. I forgot my camera so this picture is from when I went to the same beach a couple of days ago.

Cheonwangsa Buddist Temple

There's quite a few Buddist Temples around the island so here's one that I just happened to stop by. As I've been riding around the island, I stop periodically and I've been enjoying stopping at the temples. They're usually on very well kept grounds and the people are extrememly friendly. I love looking at the architecture and art. They always smell like very nice incense too. I really liked the setting of this one, in the mountains with the rock pillars all around. I'm still never sure if i can take pictures of the people inside. I don't speak Korean well enough to ask so I haven't tried to push my luck yet.

Beach Bum

The last couple of days have had some excellent weather, so I've been taking advantage of getting used to driving the motorcycle by going to the beach! I only work in the evenings which allows me to spend all day doing other things. Lately I've been spending most of my time riding my bike on the back roads, playing guitar, going to the climbing gym, and trying to learn Korean. Again, I'll say that I'm having a difficult time learning Korean, mostly because I don't have much of a chance to practice it except when I go to the grocery store or a restaurant. I think the climbing will help me a lot since that'll be the time when I actually get to hang out with Koreans.

Perfect Weather / Small Island

The weather has finally changed from "ridiculously hot and humid" to "perfect" in the course of just one day. I woke up this morning and it was pouring rain, then it cleared. Just as the rain was clearing, you could see further out the horizon than I ever have before. Ryan claims he saw the mainland, I couldn't see it, but I definitely could see some islands pretty close to it. After the rain cleared, it turned into the most beautiful, mid 70's day ever. I took the bike for a cruise down the coast, took some pictures, and ate some good food. On my way to work I thought I'd take a couple of pictures to illustrate the point that I'm learning how small this island really is. I've learned after living here for over a month that from nearly everywhere, you can see either the ocean or Mt. Hallasan (the volcano in the middle of the island). Here's my point in pictures:

Walking South down the road towards the building I work in (you can see the CDI banner on the right), you can see the mountain. Believe it or not, the top of the mountain is the center of the island.

Now, turn around 180 degrees to face North and you can see the ocean! Pretty sweet, eh? Isn't Jeju Beautiful?

Motorcycle!!!

I just found my new favorite thing in the whole world last week and that's my new transportation. Armed with my health insurance, I got this 125cc Hyosung motorcycle for 500,000 won (about $500) and I'm the happiest guy on Jeju-do! Jessie, the girl who sold it to me, taught me how to ride it and I loved it instantly. She took me out on some back roads of the island, towards the mountain then back. It feels like you just have so much freedom. Part of that feeling is that I finally do have freedom now to travel around the island without taking buses or taxis. It's a very groovy time! I can't wait to explore every little nook and cranny of this place.

A motorcycle is kind of a must here in Korea, they're everywhere! Scooters especially, but there's a lot of motorcycles too. I'm so much more excited about having this than a car. The roads are so small and parking is so difficult. Koreans I swear are the craziest drivers, by far, that I've ever seen. Brad even says they're even crazier on Jeju-do than in Seoul. They're also masters at parallel parking. I don't know how they do it, but the small spaces they fit into is amazing. Anyway though, the scooters and motorcycles really flourish well here. They kind of fly by their own rules and slip in between the cracks. I'll just say that I'm going to have a great time with this bike!

Finally Bouldering!

I finally got some climbing in this weekend! Woohoo!! Last weekend I found the local climbing gym, Movezone, and was able to meet a lot of the people who climb there. This weekend, a couple of kiwi blokes took me out bouldering in a riverbed just outside of town. This place is pretty sweet really, and seems like it has a fair amount of potential for problems. The climbing we did was inside a natural bridge/cave. The picture is pretty crappy, but if you look really close, there's some Chinese letters etched in that boulder behind Darren. I can't remember the name of this place, but apparently some fellows stayed here during the Japanese occupation and left all sorts of writing all over the cave. They wrote in Chinese, since Hangul was not officially adopted and standardized until after WWII.

New Favorite Drinking Hole

On the way back home from work on Saturday, Brad the head instructor wanted to go out for a beer. I said "Let's go to the Family Mart at the base of my apartment." As a result of this evening, I have to say that I've found my new favorite place to have a beer or two and that is right in front of the convenience stores. You can just walk in and get a beer from the fridge, the girl will give you a few dixie cups, maybe crack open the beer with a bottle opener, and you can just sit there in front of the store with their lawn chairs! It's awesome! The beers are 1/4 the cost of the bars and you're right close to home! You can do this at any convenience store, 7-11, whatever. Amen to no open container laws!

Classroom Teacher

I haven't posted any pictures of the classroom, so here's the first of many more to come. I'll try and get some pictures of the students and the staff that I work with. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to get pictures. For some reason, everyone is scared of the camera. They HATE it! I really have to go for the candid shots in order to get anything worthwhile which is difficult to do during class.

This picture is kind of a crappy picture, but it gives you the overall idea of a standard class of mine. These kids are middle school aged and have already taken English lessons for 5 to 7 years, but their skills are still fairly rudimentary.

My Humble Abode

Forgive me if this post doesn't quite work yet. I'm experimenting with putting pictures in through the html feature.

Through these pictures, I hope to take you through a fun little tour of my small apartment. I guess it's actually called an officetel, but I'm not sure. At first glance at the pictures, it might seem a wee bit....small, but I'm just happy to have anything bigger than the 9' x 12' shared rooms in the Buckhorn at Alta.

Welcome to my house. Marchenhouse Room 807. It's funny first of all that it's spelled Marchenhouse, even though it's pronounced marianhouse. Who Knows? Take off your shoes and stay awhile. If you don't know anything about Koreans, I'll tell you one thing, they absolutely flip out when you don't take your shoes off. Even in your own place. Once, a maintenence guy helped me carry some stuff up and he freaked out. Michelle's mom freaked out. Everyone goes nuts on you, so basically, even though I don't care much, you should still take off your shoes.

Welcome to my living room/bedroom/clothesline....room. Notice the wonderful view of the "small" city of Jeju. Plenty of high rise apartments back there. You can't tell in this picture, but you can actually see the ocean from my apartment. It's probably 5km away as the bird flies. From Ryan's penthouse apartment on the 15th floor, you can see the airport and watch the planes take off and land. Also take note of the pink pillow. You should see the matching pink blanket. Wow!

I forgot to take a picture of the den, so we'll move on to the kitchen/laundry room. No, that is not an oven, that is my washer. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make my clothes come out soft and not feel like canvas, PLEASE let me know. I've got some fabric softener (i think), but it only works a little. My little stovetop espresso maker is a lifesaver out here. I've been making a killer iced coffee lately! I feel pretty fortunate to have a full sized refrigerator. It seems a lot of people I talk to have only a mini fridge. Bummer for them...




Wow, these two pictures next to each other almost make my bathroom look big! Hey, where's the shower? Do you see it? It's the whole bathroom! Hah! How clever!

Well thank you for coming on this tour of my modest mansion on Jeju. I can't wait to show you what I'm getting tomorrow!

Picture for Mama

This was a pretty random picture. I was just walking down the street in downtown Ku-Jeju (Old Jeju) and saw these flower boxes. I thought they were pretty slick looking. I think my mom would like them.

I'm excited for the weekend. We just got our schedule for the next term (13 weeks) and I have to work on Saturdays, which initially sounds bad, but 4 out of the 6 days a week I work only from 7-10pm. That means 5 out of 7 days a week, I have the entire day to play. Those other two days are from 4-10pm, which isn't so bad either. To put it simply, I'm very happy with my job. I'll be scheduled for 24 hrs a week for which I get paid. Prepping only takes about an hour a day right now, and I get faster at it by the week. The kids are great and getting more comfortable and less shy and when pay-day comes it'll be fantastic.

So the goal this weekend and next week is to find the local climbing gym and get a membership.

Red Bean Flavored Popsicle

I just bought a bunch of popsicles from the supermarket. One of them happened to be red bean flavored. It was really gross. So that reminds me that oftentimes when I go to a restaurant, or buy something at the supermarket, it's pretty much a crap shoot on what I get. It could be really really good like it is most of the time, but sometimes you don't get what you expected and it can be really gross.

I bought a new pair of glasses today too. $40 for the whole thing, lenses and frames. They're pretty slick if you ask me. The weird thing is that you don't need a prescription to get them, they give you a quick test right there. Hopefully they don't give me headaches!

Galbi (Korean Barbecued Ribs)

Here's a little rib action for you, Korean style. This is what a typical barbecue place is kinda like around here. We're lucky sitting here in a booth rather than the floor like you do at a lot of Korean restaurants. At the center of the table is the ribs. They give them to you completly rare and you pretty much cook them yourself right there. Then they procede to give you 10,000 million side dishes all filled with some crazy stuff. There were side dishes ranging from the standard kimchi, radishes, and cabbage with thousand island to crazy weird things like mini raw crabs that you suck out of the shell. Whenever you finish one side dish, the waitress brings more. So there's a constant flow of stuff going around. In addition to the ribs, you also cook some garlic cloves and onions on the grill. Now to eat the ribs, you first grab one of those leaves in the metal dish. There were a couple of different ones, and I'll stress the fact that they are LEAVES. They kind of reminded me of the shape, texture, and taste of a fuzzy basswood leaf. Or maybe a big leaf aster...you know, the kind you use when you run out of TP. So you grab a leaf in your hand, use your chopsticks to grab a piece of rib, dip it, put it on the leaf, grab an onion, garlic, maybe throw something from a sidedish into the mix, wrap it up and shove it in your mouth, repeat. To be honest, the whole process is a lot of work. There's always something to do, make your leaf wrap, eat a side dish, turn the ribs. Plus the whole thing is hot. Not only spicy, but combine the charcoal grill with the summer heat and you've got a sweaty mess. After all that though, I love it. It's really really good. I just can't imagine washing all those little dishes!

The characters in the photo are our 'bus/van' driver and the two secretary/computer gurus.

Voltage Regulator

I've been kind of hurting for new pictures to post. I haven't been able to use my camera because I thought my voltage converter didn't work to charge my batteries. Well, it does work and I'm now able to take more pictures. I'll try and get some pictures of work and my apartment up soon.

For now, I guess you're stuck with this picture of an....ox?

Lazy Sunday

It was a pretty lazy sunday today, we were going to go to the beach and waterfalls at Seogwipo, the city on the south side of the island, but Ryan had a bit of a medical emergency. He's doing okay, but he's had a little bit of bathroom trouble.

I've spent the day finding out about some indoor climbing places around town and it's looking promising. There's a public outdoor artificial wall in the sports center area, and a private indoor bouldering gym. Unfortunately the boudering gym has the same hours as my working hours so that won't work out. I'd still like to check it out and maybe meet some climbers.

Month one, check!

I successfully finished week three of teaching. It's hard to believe that I've been in Korea for nearly a month now. Its going very well so far. I feel like I'm finally starting to get settled in now and into a good teaching routine. After this week we start a new 'term' for school and will be done with the summer classes. This will mean only evening classes, so I'll work 4:00 - 10:00. We'll see what the actual schedule turns out to be.

Ryan and I went out to look for a bar last night and found a bar where some foreigners were hanging out. It was good to be able to meet and talk with other teachers. So far, our only way of finding things out about the island is from Michelle, who is a local. It's good to get a different perspective on things. They know things like where a good bike shop is, good climbing gyms, and just other places in general. A couple of them are in a band, so we'll go out again tonight and see them play.

Frisbee in a foreign land

During work and throughout the day I keep thinking of things to write about, but when I sit at the computer nothing comes to mind. The picture is from when we went to the beach and played some frisbee. Lots of little things surprise me about the way the Koreans act. A lot of the time, I think especially since I'm on this Island and not in Seoul, a lot of people are surprised to see Americans, or just white people in general. Korea is a very homogeneous country, there aren't any minorities, except maybe Japanese and a few Chinese, still, it's all Asian. I get a good feeling from the people though, like they're glad to see me. It's pretty cute when a little kid comes up to you and says "hello" and runs away. I bring this up because the picture above was taken while Ryan and I were playing a little frisbee. It seemed like most of the Koreans had never seen a frisbee before! I don't believe it, I thought that there are some Ultimate Frisbee clubs around here, and also that there are some disc golf courses. I must be wrong. Or maybe it hasn't caught on to the masses yet. I still think it's funny too when somebody pulls you to the side, asks you where you're from and asks to take a picture with you. I should've said to that guy, "It should be me who wants my picture with you! You're the one riding your bicycle around this whole island for your vacation!" Anyway, I'm curious to find out what other forigners think. Ryan and I are going to try to find the 'foreigner's bar' this weekend.

Learning Korean

The picture is another one from the band festival last weekend. The kids came up and played a couple of numbers with the band. It was pretty cute.

Ryan and I spent the weekend going to the free Korean Language class at the bookstore here. It's pretty nice to be able to do a class where we can learn and ask questions rather than just reading off the book. My trouble right now though is that Ryan is so much further ahead than me that it's starting to frustrate me. Learning the language is a lot slower process than I imagined, and it's taking a LOT of work. I'm trying to postpone trying to do things like climbing and whatnot and spend time studying. You can check out one of the online classes I'm trying to take down at the blogroll on the left side of the screen. It's pretty tough!

Jeju Summer Band Festival

So now I'm settled in back home in Jeju. I've got my internet connection set up at home and will finally be able to post some pictures.

Last night I went to go check out the International Band Festival over at the Seaside Concert Hall and was treated to a fantastic show. Starting out, the Georg Solti Brass Ensemble from Hungary played. They were very good and played some obscure stuff but ended with some sweet jazz numbers. Afterwards, the Incheon Wind Ensemble played in combination with the Seogwipo Municipal band. They played some fantastic songs including some of my favorites, including the Overture to Candide and the 1812 Overture. They also played a couple of Korean pieces with a vocalist. Unfortunately, they killed the mood by playing the 'Titanic' song with a cheesy sax soloist. It was a great show overall though and I was glad I went. The picture above is from last weekend when I went and saw the Halla Wind Ensemble play at the same place.

Back from Japan

I'm back in Jeju from Japan, officially legal in Korea with my visa for a year to teach English. The whole trip to Japan really wasn't bad, but not great either. Honestly, it was mostly a lot of sitting around waiting and flying. The flying was tough because when I flew it was either early in the morning or late at night, usually back to back. I'm not good at figuring out what to do in a city so that was tough, especially walking around in the 90 degree heat. After I got my visa from the embassy, I had a whole day to burn so I spent the time at the beach trying to learn a little Korean. It was pretty much too hot to do too much walking around, so I didn't do much but I did manage to learn something.

Staying in the capsule hotel was the best part. The saunas and tubs were pretty sweet. It was kinda like a modern version of the roman baths. There were a 7 or 8 hot tubs, all different temperatures, not chlorinated, and not smelly like normal hot tubs. There were two saunas, one cooler and one hotter. Afterwards, you took a shower sitting on a bucket, pretty crazy. Its hard to explain, but just imagine taking a shower sitting on a bucket and you've got it. I have to say that overall I liked the experience. The picture above is of the cool robe that you and everyone else has to wear when you stay there.

At Fukuoka on the Visa Run

I cannot find the apostraphe key on this Japanese keyboard. I was having enough troubles because the enter key is further over, now this. Oh, there it is, above the 7 key. Hah!

I made it to Japan alright and I also made it to the Korean Embassy to drop off my passport for visa processing. I'll go there tomorrow to pick it up, then back to Seoul. I was pretty excited to do see some cool stuff here in Japan, but so far it's the same as Korea except for 3 things. It's hotter, everything is written in Japanese instead of Korean, and they drive on the other side of the road. Nothing too exciting. Mostly I think I'll just hang out at the hotel....Oh! that's exciting! I can't wait until I get a picture of my 'capsule hotel' up. This is pretty much one of the craziest things ever. First of all, you take your shoes off in the main lobby and put them in a locker. Then, I decided for the single room capsule. This room is like the size of a closet, with this thing that looks like a refrigerator laying on it's side, which is your bed. I chose this over the single large room with many rows of chambers that you can sleep in. It'll make more sense with the pictures. So there's supposed to be a sweet sauna at the top floor, so I think I'll go check that out now.

(edit) Here's a pic of my room at the capsule hotel. Pretty much a closet with a refrigerator turned on it's side for a bed. It was pretty sweet actually. Just make sure you have earplugs so you don't hear the next guy snoring. I chose the single room, but I could've chosen the regular capsule variety. Take a look at the hotel's website here at http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~cabinas/sub1.html. The top pic is the room that I had, but check out the rows and rows of capsules. Crazy!!!! Here's a pic of the sweet saunas.

Visa Run to Japan

I get my internet connection at home tomorrow for real, so hopefully after I get back from Japan I'll post some pictures. I can't write much right now, I've gotta prep for classes.

I'm headed for Japan for my visa run since you can't get a teaching visa while inside the country. It seems pretty strange for me, especially since I've already started teaching. Maybe you could consider me an illegal alien. It should be a whirlwind trip, I fly to Seoul tonight, stay overnight, go to Fukuoka, Japan tomorrow, give them my visa, pick it up the next day, fly to Seoul, then fly back to Jeju. The only scary part is that I still don't have a flight back to Jeju!!! Hopefully Michelle will get that sorted out! Anyway, I've gotta prep for the Michelle and Ryan who will be covering my classes while I'm away. Later!

First weekend!

Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have an internet connection in my apartment, so I'll be able to post pictures and do this from home instead of at work.

Saturday was Michelle, the branch manager's birthday. Everyone from work, the three computer gurus/secretarys, Daebu the bus driver, Ryan, myself, and Michelle all went to Kwakji beach. The beach was pretty nice, not too far from the city. It had a nice little kiddy pool area that was spring fed with fresh water, then you could climb over some rocks to get to the main water. The rocks were volcanic, so they really hurt to step on. Jinny, one of the secretaries, asked me if I like to tan, and I told her no, thinking that she was asking if I like to lay out and tan. Well, Ryan and I get into the water and I realized what she meant. 95% of the people in the water had long sleeve shirts on! I just then figured out that opposite Americans, Koreans hate to get tan. They like their skin to be white. Apparently, skin whitening cosmetics are big business. Anyway, other than being practically the only people in the water without shirts on, it was great. It's been a couple of years since I've been swimming in the ocean and it was very nice. The sand was great and the water was warm.

After the beach, Michelle took us to a barbecued ribs joint. It was yet another wonderful experience in Korean eating. The seven of us sat at a round table with a grill in the middle. Then they serve you all your standard crazy side dishes (seemingly hundreds of little plates), give you a couple of slabs of raw ribs, and you cook them yourselves right then and there. It was interesting to eat because you pick them off the grill when they're done cooking, set them on a piece of lettuce or some other leafy things, put some sauce on them, add a couple veggies, wrap the leaf up, and shove it all in your mouth. It seemed like they just kept coming with more and more food, replentishing the side dishes. One of the side dishes was raw crabs that you just sucked out of the shell. It was a really good meal, you felt like you were putting a lot of effort into eating it too.

I'll talk about Sunday night's time at the Band Festival a little later.

(edit) Here's a pic from the beach with most of the people I work with. On the left is Ryan, my only co-teacher so far. He's a great guy, fun to work and hang out with. He spent 2 years in Tanzania in the Peace Corps. He's from Milwawkee, Wisconsin. Next, doing apparently the thing about every girl does in every picture, the 'V for Victory' is Jinny, our main secretary, administrator, computer guru. Next is Michelle, the Branch Manager, or "Principal" if you prefer, she's the boss. Last is "Daebu." He's the bus driver. He takes the kids to and from the school. I'm not sure what else he does, but "Daebu" means "Godfather" in Korean. He wanted to be called that I guess. I can't wait 'till I learn some more Korean so I can actually talk to him.

First week of teaching almost over!

I'm almost done with my first week of teaching. It's going pretty well so far, I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy my time teaching here. The work is really intense and tough right now since I have to spend so much time prepping for every class. It takes me about an hour and a half to prep for a 3 hour class right now, and I have two 3 hour classes, 5 days a week. Theoretically I should get better at prepping as I get more comfortable with the classes and more experience, but man...it takes a while right now. Also, since the students are on summer break from their regular school, 2 of my 10 classes are summer intensive classes. Hopefully....cross your fingers....after the summer, I'll only have 8 classes a week. Speaking of work overload, I just realized in the nearly 2 weeks I've been here, I haven't had a day off yet!!! I can't wait for Sunday!

Exciting news, next week I have to go to Japan to get my visa, so I can officially get paid. It'll just be a quick overnight trip, so I'll have to miss a couple of classes, but thankfully Ryan and Michelle will help cover them. I also have to do a make-up class on Saturday...Bleh. After the make-up class though, Michelle is going to take us to the beach! Woohoo!

(edit) Above is a pretty crappy picture of the city I live in, Jeju City (or in Korean, Jeju-si) It's divided into two parts, an old town and a new town. I live in the new town, known as "Shin-Jeju."

Arrived at Jeju and started teaching the next day!

I arrived at Jeju Island on Saturday night, July 30th and had to come straight to work for some more training on Sunday! Michelle, the Branch Manager picked me up from the airport that night, and brought me to my apartment. It's a nice studio apartment on the 8th floor. I've got a great view of the ocean!

So a little background before I go further. When I arrived on Jeju, I just now learned that the school I'm working at opens for its very first day of class ever on Monday, August 1st! AAAHH!!!!! That's less than two days! Not only that, the head instructor is having visa problems and can't get here. So the teachers at the school are myself, Ryan (another new teacher to Korea) and Michelle who will be filling in for a couple of classes until Brad, the Head Instructor can make it. That's it. So, to make a long story short, life is a little hectic right now.

Like I said, we started classes on Monday, so as of this writing, I've had three days of classes. So far, teaching has been a combination of ups and downs. I'm not used to teaching in a classroom, so that takes a little adjustment on my part. I'm happy that I don't get nervous like I was in training. My bigger classes consist of kids who are middle school age and unlike middle schoolers back home, these kids don't say a word. It's like I'm talking to a brick wall! I really try to stop lecturing and involve the class, but they just seem to sit there. I've only had each class once now, so I think a lot of it could be attributed to the first day jitters/shyness. Hopefully...

I haven't really had much time to do much exploring on my own. I've spent all my time prepping for classes. The only things I've done is to go out and get some housewares for the apartment. Michelle took us out to the E-mart, which is like Wal-Mart. She helped me buy and truck home some bigger stuff. She also took us on a great tour of the grocery store. The grocery stores are cool here because there's 10 times as many people giving free samples out. She told us about all the foods and what they were. We were also there with her parents who are super awesome. They are really helping her out a lot getting the school up and running.

(edit) The picture above is of this building I pass by on the 10 minute walk to work. The second day I was here, someone decided to paint this entire massive building...PINK. Hah! It's now known as "the pink building." The building is actually a supermarket and department store which is a pretty handy thing to have as a 3 minute walk from your apartment!

Leaving for Jeju-do!!!

I finished training today and passed! I signed my contract and I'm ready to work! Woohoo!!! I could start as early as Monday, but I still need to go to Japan on my visa run. I tentatively have a ticket scheduled for Monday, but it could be changed.

I'm just chillin' in the hotel room until the taxi picks me up to take me to the airport to fly to Jeju tonight. It's been really funny to see people's reaction when I tell them I'm going to Jeju. They seem to be caught off guard, their eyes get really big, and they usually say something like, "Jeju! Wow! You'll love it there.....I'm not sure if I could live there, it might get kind of boring. But you'll love it!" I really don't know what to expect there, but I think I'll enjoy it. I mean really, I'm not used to living in a big city anyway, and everyone that has this reaction is from a big city. Maybe I should tell them that I'll be fine, it can't possibly be as boring as Indiana. And Indiana's not so bad! Hah!

Seolleung and Online Korean Classes

After training today I went to the park across the street from the hotel and it turned out to be a royal burial ground! It was pretty cool, there were tombs from around the 15th century. Seolleung is the tomb of King Seongjong who began his rule in 1469, but he only lived to be 37 or so. I'm guessing about this sentence since I couldn't read the Korean descpitions, but the building is some sort of ceremonial building and the actual tomb is on top of the mound behind it. It was raining so there were tarps over the tombs...bummer. It was still neat to see these super old things in the middle of the city even though I was soaked by the end of the walk.

I've heard that it is difficult to get a Korean Language class in Jeju so I've taken matters into my own hands and started to train online. It is HARD!!! It really shows how much I hate online classes and online education in general. I need a teacher to answer my questions now, not later! I suppose the class is as well set up as an online class can get though and I'm giving it a shot. It's also got a great section on the background and history of Korea. I've put the link in the Blogroll on your left side, but you can also check it out here at: Korean Studies at Sogang

I Promise Not To Talk About Food In Every Post

I promise not to put up too many pictures of food. I know it could be like when the campers tell their trip stories....."we woke up and we had oatmeal for breakfast, we did a big portage and had sausage, cheese, and hard-tack for lunch it was good, we got to Lac La Croix and had trail pizzas for dinner it was really good...etc...etc...etc." You have to understand though, that since I'm new to this country, food is one of the things that excites me a lot. One of the things that makes it really exciting is that most of the time I have no clue at all what I'm getting. The other thing that gets me excited is that Korean food is really cheap, and in a restaurant it comes to you faster than at McDonalds. The biggest thing about the roll in the picture is that I picked it up for lunch at the corner convenience store, and it only cost about $1.00!!! That thing is huge and dense! True, that's not exactly high quality meat in it, but who cares! It filled me up and was better than yet another ham sandwich. I'll bet that roll would cost at least $5.00 at Kroger. Don't confuse it with Japanese sushi though, it's got cooked meat in it, which I guess would lower the price a bit. Anyway, I was happy at lunch today.


Training was good. I feel like my practicing last night and this morning paid off for the test this afternoon. Tomorrow and the next day I learn how to teach a different type of class. I personally am really liking the program my company, CDI, teaches. The curriculum is spelled out for you to the smallest detail. For a relatively inexperienced teacher like myself, it will really help guide me. We'll see how it goes when I actually start teaching. Speaking of, I've got a flight to Jeju booked for Saturday Evening!!!

Hotel Cape Town (aka "Is that bed just a fitted sheet over a slab of concrete?")

The photo above is the hotel that I'm staying at. It's the Hotel Cape Town in the Gangnam district of Seoul.

The training today was pretty intense. The trainer, Julie, was pretty full on. I guess I could say that she kinda kicked me in the butt and made me realize that this is gonna be a 'real' job. There's no room for slacking when you're in the classroom. It's a good thing though, this is just what I need to get out of the lazy liftie mindset. At the end of the training we had the grammar test; I was really scared of it, but apparently I passed! Woohoo! I was so nervous taking it. My hands were shaking and it was funny that the first thing that came to my head was that I wished I could have a beer to slow them down! It was like I was trying to ask the girl I've had a crush on out for a date! I guess it's just been a long time since I've taken a timed test that mattered that much.

This afternoon, I tried out the subway. I went from here, Gangnam, to the City Hall. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it really wasn't too bad. My only trouble was that when I put my ticket in to leave, it wouldn't let me! I didn't know what to do! I had the agent guy help me the first time it happened, but I didn't figure it out because it happened again on the way back! That time I just snuck out. Anyway, maybe I'll just have to have someone else show me.

I Made it to Korea!!!

Well, I finally made it to South Korea! There'll be no photos this week, the hotel I'm staying at has a computer, but I can't hook up my camera to it. Maybe I'll add some in later.

The flight over here was extremely boring. I spent a total of about 20 hours travelling time. The flight itself wasn't too bad but I had a tough time sleeping. I just couldn't get comfortable I guess. I got to watch a couple of movies. One was a pretty good South Korean film called "Over the Border." It's about North Korean who crossed into South Korea but had to leave his fiancee behind. I guess I mostly liked it because the main character was a horn player.

I'll be in Seoul this week for training before I move to Jeju Island next week. Its kinda weird because I'm pretty much the only one in training, so I'm kinda stuck to figuring this city out by myself. This is pretty tough for me since I'm not used to being in a big city in the first place, and I can't talk to anyone or read many signs. Well anyway, the first thing I figured out is that Korea does not use daylight savings time like my clock on my Ipod thought, so I woke up an hour earlier than I expected. Another thing is that there are a lot of Dunkin' Donuts places around here and they're really posh. So I spent a couple hours reading a book in the one at the building before training. Just so you know, Dunkin' Donuts is every bit as good here as it is back home too. (in your best Homer voice, say 'Mmmmmm....donuts.....') The actual training was fine, it was mostly a reminder about grammar and such. Things like, past participles, infinitives, clauses, gerunds, and all those other things you never remembered from Mr. McCarthy's 8th grade middle school class.

So I'm staying in this hotel room about a block away from the training building. At first, it kinda seemed like one of those seedy hotels like Tom Hanks first goes into in the movie 'Big.' Its really not too bad though. Its kinda small, but I don't need much space by myself. I have a hard time trying to figure out the light switches and remote controls for the A/C and TV because they're written in Korean, but other than that, it's fine. There's an alcove at the entrance to the room where you're supposed to take your shoes off. People kinda freak out when you don't take your shoes off. Oh, and I swear that the bed is just a fitted sheet over a slab of concrete! It's pretty ridiculously hard, I think my thermarest is 10 times softer than this bed. I hope the bed in my apartment isn't like this!