안녕히계세요

This is going to be my final post on this blog.

The title means goodbye, but there are two kinds of goodbyes here. One that you say to the person leaving, and one you say when you’re leaving. I, of course, used the latter one up there, and I can’t believe it.

I am flying out of here on Thursday to San Francisco, then onto Toronto. Just two more days. I’ve been slightly busy, applying for my pension return, packing, seeing friends and getting a pedicure via little fish. As the time to go has drawn nearer I’ve found myself being sadder than I thought I would be.

On Sunday I said goodbye to my favourite co-teacher, Sophie, and we both found ourselves crying in the coffee shop, exchanging letters and photos. Today I stopped in at my school to officially say goodbye to one of the VPs. He doesn’t speak English, but one of the other teachers in the office at the time did, and she translated his heartfelt words to me. I found myself choking up trying to respond to him. “What’s going on?” I wondered to myself. For many, many days here I counted down until it was time for me to leave. I just wanted this year to be over with, even though I enjoyed myself almost all of the time. I always felt like I was missing out on something at home, instead of realizing what I was gaining by being here. When my co-teachers asked me if I was happy to be leaving, I’d say it was bittersweet, but didn’t really mean it. Now, I’m happy to say I do.

My experience this past year was one that I will always look back on fondly. Sure, I might gloss over some of the less wonderful memories (crying at school, constant rain/humidity, living in a very high density city, not understanding anything ever), but my overall feeling is a happy one. I was so lucky to meet some amazing people and do something that I didn’t know if I could handle. I can honestly see myself returning here at some point. Maybe not for my honeymoon, as my principal suggested, but certainly one day. It would be so nice to reconnect with my co-teachers and see where this country will be at that time. In only 60ish years (post Korean War), Korea has surpassed other countries in so many ways. Who knows what it will be like in a decade?

So, when I get on the plane on Thursday and say goodbye to this place, I don’t think I’ll be as overjoyed as I thought I would be. And that’s just fine with me.

Thank you for reading this blog and supporting me!

Here’s a last bit of K-pop for you.

seoul subway song.

Some guy made a video about the Seoul Subway. Since I have extolled its virtues NUMEROUS times on my blog, I thought I’d put his video up for everyone to see. The repeated music sample in the song is the tune that’s played to announce a transfer station on the majority of lines.

Flooding and leaking.

I’m sure most people who follow the news are aware of the crazy flooding that happened in Seoul last week. If you aren’t, here’s a recap:

 

Sadang Station isn’t really close to me.

That’s me on the far right and Sadang is the green one on the left. That area is lower than where I live, so got a lot of flooding as you saw in the video.

My life was mostly unchanged with the torrential downpour. We got over 400 mm of rain in just two days, by the way. I still went to school and taught students, although less of them came. Some people’s classes were temporarily cancelled, but I was not one of them. The only change was of course the leaking in my apartment. My bathroom had been leaking steadily for awhile. I had asked my landlords to fix it and they had attempted to, but really just put a hose that seemed to drain the liquid from the ceiling to the floor drain. A mushroom grew out of the hole. It has since died and a new one was begun to grow in the second hose that was put in place to combat the leaking in the rest of my apartment.

On Tuesday night I began to notice dripping noises on my ceiling. Since I live on the third of six floors, I don’t usually get to hear the sound of rain on the roof. At first I thought, “Well that’s pleasant!” and continued readying Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. Then I realized that I shouldn’t be hearing that sound at all and began to wonder when the leaking would begin. It started off as little drips coming down the wall, but then the wallpapered ceiling began to swell with water. I moved my bed out of the way as much as possible (My bed, kitchen, “office” etc. are all in one room) and stared nervously at the ceiling. Then I put a pot under to collect the drips. I had to empty the pot twice in the night and the noise was driving me insane. I barely slept that night because I just didn’t know if the ceiling was going to collapse on me or if I was going to be showered sometime while I was sleeping.

The next day my landlords came to fix it, but told me that I should move out temporarily for 2-3 days. This would be my third apartment in the same building this year. When I got home from work I went to my damp apartment and packed up some essentials for the next couple of days and settled into another apartment. I showered, took a nap and attempted to steal internet. Then I went for dinner at my friends’ apartment and when I got home around 10 pm there was an email saying that the apartment was fixed and I could move back in. I contemplated sleeping in this new apartment but realized I really didn’t want to do that at all. So I PACKED up all my stuff and moved back home. There is now a trap door in the ceiling (similar to the one in the bathroom) and some nice mould growing around. It seems to have stopped spreading. I realize this is unhealthy but it’s not black at least, and I’m only here for another 2.5 weeks.

There has been no leaking since, but I doubt I’m out of the woods yet. Here’s the weather forecast:

Kill me!

Sigh. Coincidentally my air conditioner just dripped onto my arm. It never ends.

As the end of my time approaches, my friends and I have decided to do all the things we haven’t yet done this year. Here’s what I’m interested in:
-Lotte World again (an amusement park right near me)
-Dr. Fish (pedicure where little fish bite off your dead skin)
-The National Museum of Korea
-Banpo Bridge (has a light show at night in the waterfalls off the bridge)
-Caribbean Bay (a large and expensive water park)
-Shopping for more clothes (necessary)
-Eat as much Korean and other food as possible
-Wander more around Hongdae (artsy university area)
-Wolmi Island in Incheon (apparently it has a nice waterfront area)

Hopefully I should be able to accomplish all of that in the next 17 days! That time is sure to go very quickly and will be taken up as well by packing, cleaning, selling stuff and looking into things I want to do in San Francisco.

Sheesh! I now am thinking maybe I don’t have as much time as I thought. Strange.

Well wishings and the end of another school year.

I can’t believe it’s actually happened, but today was my last day teaching at my elementary school. Starting next week I have 3 weeks of summer camp (half days of work) followed by just under 2 weeks of fake vacation then I’m off to sunny San Francisco and then hopefully sunny Toronto.

I can remember so clearly walking to my first days of work here filled with dread. I was pretty miserable at first. It was always raining (pretty much like it is now) so I was always wet. I felt alone and unsure of myself. I really was regretting my decision to come here. Almost 11 months later I have to say I’m proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished. No, the work wasn’t really that hard (most of the time),  but the experience itself was demanding, as any English teacher here will tell you. I’m proud to say I taught 30 crazy grade threes alone, and calmed down the worst of the grade 5 and 6 classes without the help of my co-teacher. Proud that I created lesson plans and materials (mostly) from scratch. I’m proud that I finished out a year of teaching, even though sometimes I really wanted to pack it all in and go home. Coming here I knew that I’d be working every day, teaching, and I kept thinking about how this was affecting me and how I felt. I didn’t really think about the students I was teaching. How were they affected by me and my teaching, if at all?

As the school year drew to a close, my students seemed unaware or completely unfazed by the fact that I was going to be leaving them forever. My ego and I were both irritated by this. “I taught these kids every day! Some of them for a year, some of them for just 6 months, but come on! Don’t I matter?” I appealed to them in class. “Today is our LAST LESSON. FOREVER. I’m LEAVING! FOR. CANADA.” The advanced students understood. Some made sad or shocked faces. They really didn’t understand why I was leaving, or if I was really leaving at all. Maybe I was just going on vacation. The Korean school system goes from March-July and then August-February. I came and am leaving in the middle of the school year.

I tried to put this into perspective for myself. They’re just kids. Would I really care if some strange foreign person came and then left again if I was only 10 years old? Probably not. But wouldn’t I care a little?

I’m happy to say that yes, they really DO care that I am leaving! Although it is pretty much up to my co-teachers to tell the students I’m going and for them to decide what to do about that, I got some touching cards and letters from many kids. My grade 5 co-teacher got all of our classes to write me messages that the students had prepared in advance. My grade 6 co-teacher had every student write me page long letters. Sure, these are forced letters, but I’d like to think that the majority of the sentiment is real. I even had some students, who weren’t forced to do anything by someone else, give me gifts and come to visit me in my office.

Some of these messages are amusing, heartfelt or a bit strange. So, without further ado, here’s some  excerpts from  the best of them. Also, I’d like to point out that my students met Jacob two times. TWO. And he was mentioned in about 10 letters.

“Erika, now sinking to the US. Thank you. I heard you died in Canada Did. Happily ever after.” -Jeon Seunggi

(I actually received more than one of these sorts of messages. I assume something is off with the internet translating.)

“Teacher. How much is the airplane ticket? What time do you go to the airport?”- Kim Sun-he

“Sir, I hear you’re leaving back to Canada…Also, you left is really not disturbed. Sage is the world wish you had no. And it was good.” – Sim Hee-Ra

“I’m so sad that you’re going back to Canada…I hope you marry with Jcob…And your boyfriend Jcob is look so handsome. I’m proud that I’m your student.” -Cheon Ho-Bae

(This request for me to marry “Jcob” (whoever that is) was common.)

“You have a perfect English accent.”-Yuna

“I think you are very good teacher, because you’re very kind and pretty ^_^”- Jung Min Lee

“I will never forget you. Love ya!” -Ikjun Chang (this was written in cursive!)

“If I go to Canada I want to go to your house.” -Tony

“You go back  Canada. Am Why go to Canada? You stay here!!” -Minho-Lee

“My name is Joo-Harry. Also, my nickname is “Harry Potter!” -Harry

“Keep our love forever.” -Yu-bin

“I like baseball.” -Tang Woon

“I can’t stop thinking about the funny games we played.” -Paul

“Hello Erika. My name is Erika (in Korean it says Oh Song Jin). Do you know me? I am superman! Ha ha ha. Fighting!” – Oh Song Jin

“I want to meet you next time in your house. I want to see your husband and children (baby).” -So- Yeon

“Teacher is very kind pretty. ^^ teacher have boyfriend.”- Bek Gyu-Hyun

“Don’t lose your happy smile.” -Yu-Gin

“You are going to Canada? Don’t do that please.” -Won Ho-hyun

“I saw you boyfriend…he is very veryx100 handsome!”- Joo Hee

“Big eye, short hair, tall.” -Han Byul

“Teacher. I’m sad. But I think you! I think your face. We go camping. Are you ok? You can do it! I love you.” -Ji-yu

“I think you have smile power that is make people happy.” -Ye Eun

“I liked your teaching style.”

“I have shared good memories with  you and your boyfriend. (wow~!! 🙂 -Hwey-Seung

“When I came back from Russia I was desperate to find an English teacher, because I could forget some words, but with your help, I managed to remember nearly all.” Lee Kang-Han

“Ammm..first, you’re very kind. Your go to the Canada? Oh, I cry. Second, you’re funny.” -Hyun Jun Kim

“I saw you in the subway. Is he your boyfriend?” -Da Yon

“Sorry I dont have some (?) gift. But my letter is very expensive letter. Hahahahahahha.”- Hee Jin

One student actually wrote me his own booklet of letters, so he gets a lot of excerpts. He lived in Dubai for awhile, so has very advanced English.

“You’re like the best teacher of all…Maybe you can teach a lot of poors in Africa or Canada. I will have you in my heart. Of course, you will sometimes forget us, and sometime you will remember us. I wish you love us the best more than the Canada kids. If you can’t be a teacher, don’t give up. You can find work even if you can’t be a teacher. As I know Canada is very cold. I very high percent (%) the you will get a cold. So wear thick clothes and warm gloves. And there is my friend called Emily. She’s a girl. She is very kind. Well, every girls is kind…If Canada is cold, go to Dubai and it will be very hot, like you will be melted…Maybe now you will be my first best teacher. I had the best memories in Dubai.” -Sung Hun

The letters from my students were so lovely and kind. I’m so lucky to have them and I told them I’d keep them forever so I guess I’d better do that.

That’s all for now! Enjoy.

잘했다!

Last week I did my open class. This means that I had to prepare a lesson to showcase to the principal, vice principals and a team of other teachers who would mark me.

Most teachers spend a LOT of time preparing for this because this is how they show themselves to the rest of the teachers. They often prepare really special lessons, which are nothing like their normal ones.

For my open class I decided to do one basically like my normal lessons but with a tiny bit more effort. I had to write up a detailed lesson plan (4 pages) to hand in before my lesson.

The lesson went quite well. My co-teacher discussed with them in advance what we would be doing, so they knew what to expect. Grade 6s can be difficult, but they were angels in that class and participated enthusiastically for every activity.

Two weeks passed and we finally had a meeting about the results of our classes. I sat through a 45 minute meeting all in Korean, as usual not knowing what was going on or why I had to be there. My co-teacher slipped me a note mid-way through which said “Strong and weak points of less. Brief discussion.” All the teachers had to give a brief expanation of their lesson. I thought, do I really have to do this? Only about 6-7 people here will actually understand. However, the lesson ended and none of the English teachers spoke.

After the meeting, two of my co-teachers came up to me and said “You must be very happy!” I was, as usual, confused. They said that apparently I was the only teacher that the principal had complimented and that he was very impressed because I had gotten all the grade 6s motivated to participate in my lesson. As well, I wrote the most detailed (read: longest) lesson plan. That would explain the clapping and general looking in my direction during the meeting that I ignored. My co-teachers told me that he said I was a ROLE MODEL for them. This made me really embarrassed because I have been teaching for only 10 months and this is, of course, their career.

So, 잘했다 to me! That means good job. Although this makes zero difference to me since I am resigning and leaving in 8 (EIGHT!) weeks, it’s nice to know I was doing a good job here overall.

See you soon!

sweating it out.

It’s too early to turn the air conditioning on, said the principal. Today is only the first day of summer. Well, we’ve had 30 degree Celsius plus temperatures for the past 1.5 weeks. So.  I’m not sure June knows it’s too early. The students are barely capable of answering a question and I feel even worse standing there sweating in front of them all.

Luckily yesterday it was decided that after 10 am we’re allowed to turn the a/c on in our classrooms. I can just see the power going out from the sudden surge of every classroom turning it on.

Our office won’t be a cause of that however, because our air conditioner is broken. Our office is one of the warmest rooms in the school due to the 5 computers in a small space and lack of a cool breeze. I’m not used to this predicament! I have always had air conditioning at home and in my apartment I put it on as well. I have one window there, so there is no cross breeze to speak of. Basically the heat makes me feel pretty miserable. Headaches and the like. I even am drinking my 2 L of water every day at work. Doesn’t seem to matter. I don’t deal well with heat.

Basically I am biding my time here. The inevitable happened on Sunday and Jacob flew back to Canada. I’m not sure if it felt worse for me to come back here in February or if it was worse when he left, but it was pretty bad. It’s been two days now and I’m getting back into my routine. It’s a bit hard to go home after work to an empty apartment. And to make my own food and my own breakfast (!) and do the laundry :). He was a lovely roommate.

At this point I’m just looking towards the near future. The last day of school is July 15th. Less than 4 weeks away. Then after that it’s time for summer camp; just three weeks of working until noon. About 12 days after that (hopefully of some time off) I will be flying to San Francisco for 4 days before heading home. I’m so done with this life. I’ve been here for 10 months. I’ve had the experience I came for and then some. I’m bored with my job.  I’m tired and miss everyone back home. On the plus side the rainy season should be starting tomorrow. Not.

This post is what 30 degrees indoors will do to you.

a little satisfaction.

A very important factor in job satisfaction is feeling like your job is worthwhile. Most of the time I feel like my job is pretty useless because the students don’t seem to be improving in the public school system. Sure, they improve in the private English academies that are so prevalent here, but not in my classroom.

Then the odd thing happens that makes you think that maybe their little brains are absorbing something after all.

Exhibit 1:

Today, an adorable, but English challenged, baseball player came up to me to talk. Usually baseball players are absolved from learning English because they have practice every day after school, so it’s accepted that they are too busy to study. My feelings on this attitude are irrelevant (but can probably be assumed). Anyhow! Today this adorable little boy came up to me and in perfect English said “TEACHER! My grandmother is in Canada.” I was actually shocked because usually it’s a major struggle just to get him to say a single word. My co-teacher asked him something and it was clarified that his grandmother lives in Canada. Nonetheless, I was amazed.

Exhibit 2:

In one of my grade 5 classes there is a student who tries to sleep all the time. Apparently his mother isn’t in his life and his father works all the time. His older brother takes care of him. In my class, his eyes are drooping constantly and he seems like he’s going to keel over any second. He’s just so disinterested in the class. We found out that he doesn’t even know the alphabet, despite having been learning English since grade 3. My co-teacher has asked him to stay in our class for the 10 minutes after each lesson and today he said the alphabet from A-M. I know it doesn’t sound like much but we were both really proud of him. I think my co-teacher looked like she was going to cry. The best part was really his face, because he looked so enthusiastic and proud for the first time all year.

Exhibit 3:

This is just amusing. One of my tiny, scrawny grade 5 boys with glasses and missing teeth was singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” word for word today. He is a low level student. Who knows?

Although I still find I have little job satisfaction, it’s the odd things like that which make me days go by a little faster.

 

our one hour flight to “hawaii.”

Two weeks ago Jacob and I flew to Jeju Island. It’s an island in the south of South Korea. It’s called Korea’s “Hawaii.” This is because Jeju has a massive volcano on it and craters everywhere and volcanic rock up the ying yang. The water is also (supposedly) bright blue. Unfortunately the weekend we went it was cloudy and a bit rainy so we were slightly bummed. Jeju typically has warmer and sunnier weather than the rest of Korea. So.

Anyway, we flew out on Saturday afternoon with Jeju Air. The flight was really short; only 55 minutes. The cabin crew was great and there was a big game of rock, paper, scissors that Jacob attempted to participate in. They also wandered around with costumes to try on so you could take photos of yourselves wearing wigs (?). Not sure why. We wanted to, but were too late.

Jacob imitating the Jeju Air logo. Wonderful.

When we arrived in Jeju City we took an hour long bus to Seogwipo which is in the south of the island. We stayed at the Jeju Hiking Inn, which was cheap. You get what you pay for, with the exception of the owner who was really helpful and gave us maps and directions.

That night we headed off to the Cheonjiyeon waterfall which was close to our hotel. There were people there, but not as many as you would expect.The water looked like it could have been really blue but we went at night. I would recommend going in the day, even though there will be hordes.

Me at the waterfall.

The next morning we struggled to find breakfast somewhere. This is usually my biggest concern. Where can I eat breakfast? Luckily, two of our friends from Seoul were also in Jeju for the weekend, and they had a car! Note to self and everyone else, rent a car in Jeju. They drove us to a hotel for breakfast. It would have taken us at least 40 minutes to get there otherwise, on some bus. Also, I forgot my camera for the entire day.

I forget the order of things that we did, but I’m pretty sure I recall WHAT we did.

First we headed off to Jungmun beach, known as one of the prettiest on the island. I’m sure it would have been, but it was overcast. So. Not really. Here is what it should have looked like:

From We Travel World

Anyway. It didn’t. However, the upside was we got sworn at by some haenyo. What are haenyo you ask? Lovely ladies of the sea! Haeyno are women (up to age 60) who free dive up to 20 metres deep for seafood. They wear wetsuits now, but we imagine that they used to wear loin cloths.

From the blog "The Best Time of the Day"

Haenyo can hold their breaths for up to 2 minutes and have to fight off sharks and things in order to pull up sea creatures from the depths. They are salty dogs, let me tell you. When we wandered around to look at their wares, one woman told us (not too politely!) to get away if we weren’t going to buy anything. There’s no window shopping with haenyos.

There used to be something like 300,000 (or 30,000?) haenyo, but now there are under 3,000 in Jeju. I guess they realized there were better ways to get fish. Being a haenyo offers the women some kind of independence as they are the ones who are bringing home the clams (heh).  More power to them!

Once we ran away from the haenyos we went to the Seogwipo submarine trip! It was pretty expensive (50,000 won a person) to go down in a submarine, but it was cool overall. Plus as foreigners, we got to skip to the front of the line for unknown reasons. We took a boat over to the submarine. Here’s a photo from the internet of what that looked like:

From http://jersuji.tistory.com.

Then we climbed on in and began the 45 minute submarine ride. It went 40 metres deep (only 2 times more than the haenyo do free diving, mind). We went by fish and a ship wreck and coral. They even had some guy in a scuba suit come out and feed the fish shrimp so they’d swarm around the submarine. Here’s what the submarine looked like under the water.

From http://www.visitkorea.or.kr .

It was an exciting experience overall, despite being overpriced. Not many people can say they’ve been in a submarine!

After that I think we were on the road for awhile searching for this place that makes a big hamburger. Our friend read about it in Lonely Planet and so we, of course, were eager to try it. It was over on the east coast, so it was over 40 minutes away. The hamburger was not a hamburger. Really just a sandwich, but a large one. The patty was made with black pork (which Jeju is famous for) and was topped with apples, lettuce and a variety of vegetables. It was really quite delicious (not a hamburger, though) but not enough for us! There were 6 pieces for 4 of us and we wished we had bought two. Luckily for you, the internet actually has a photo of it.

From some strange blog called Me Ilamo Jorge.

Later we went to the Manjanggul lava tubes, the longest lava tubes in the wooooooorld! I don’t have any photos, so you’ll have to deal with internet finds.

From Wikipedia

That’s a pretty realistic photo. It was minimally lit, damp, lava-y and COLD! Definitely under 10 degrees Celsius in there. Sheesh! But anyway, pretty massive and long and all that. So quite interesting to see.

After that we went to a hedge maze, which I’ve never been in. Anyone who knows me know my keen directional sense, which was genetically passed down to me from my mother. *cough*. No. Nonetheless, Jacob and I managed to find our way out of the maze before our two friends! It was probably magic, or luck, or my sense of direction. The maze was run by this weird man who had lived in Korea for 40 years but was from the States originally. Anyone who chooses to live here for 40 years from elsewhere is weird in my mind. But anyway, he offered us a free kitten. We were tempted but said no.

The drive home was strange. There were no cars on the road. We were alone. Coming from Seoul, where I shove people out of the way on the regular, this was a shock to us. We even stopped to watch the sunset and frighten some grazing cows. That would never happen in Seoul. Also the air smelled GOOD. It was fragrant with the smell of flowers. Lovely.

I believe at that point we headed back to Seogwipo. We ate dinner at a place recommended by the owner of our hostel. It was only 7,000 won ($5.50ish) a person, and had 15 side dishes, a whole fish for 2 people, some pork and who knows what else. Great meal for cheap! After that we tumbled into our beds because we had a tiring day.

The next day was Jacob’s birthday, so on our breakfast search we stopped at a cafe that reminded us of a Muskoka cottage. It was quite relaxing and the sun was even out!

Jacob overlooking the harbour in Seogwipo.

We got hot.

Then we decided it was time to head over to the biggest crater on the island, Sangumburi on Sunrise Peak.

Here’s what the internet says it looks like:

From http://wowmedikoreatour.com

So, we were excited. We took a long bus from Seogwipo there (about 1.5 hours) and were greeted with this:

Just a bit foggy.

We could barely see down the street. Undaunted, we headed to the crater. This is what we encountered there:

As clear a day as any!

Picture perfect. Still, we were raring to go and began our hike up the mountain. The massive amount of fog and cloud actually ended up being quite beautiful and I’m sure the mist did wonders for my skin (as my mother would optimistically say).

Above the fog.

It looks like we’re in Borneo or Ireland or something.

Eventually we got to the top of the crater and this was our view:

Not quite as clear as the internet photos, but beautiful nonetheless.

After that we decided to go to Udo Island, which was near the crater. At first we hesitated because it was cloudy but we went for it, and I’m so glad we did. We took a taxi to the harbour ( I have no idea how to get there otherwise) and it took about 15 minutes to get over to the island. When we got to Udo we rented an ATV. It was 30,000 won for 2 hours, so we thought that was a good deal. You could get around Udo in an hour apparently without stopping.

Driving an ATV for the first time!

Driving the ATV was super fun and safe! Look at those hot helmets. The island definitely would have been more beautiful if it was sunny (sigh) but we saw some sights anyway.

Jeju's famous horses.

One of the lighthouses. The black stuff is all volcanic rock.

Sandy beaches with the contrasting black volcanic rock.

A black sand beach.

Us at the black sand beach.

Then we headed on the ferry back to Jeju Island and took the bus back to Seogwipo.

Since it was still Jacob’s birthday we went for dinner at a pajeon (green onion pancake) restaurant and drank makgeolli (rice wine). That is the perfect meal for a rainy day, according to Koreans, so we did well. Then, he wouldn’t let me buy him a cake, so he blew out his candles on this nasty blue ice cream cup from a convenience store.

A birthday for the books.

The next day we woke up pretty early because our flight was at 2:15 and we still wanted to go to Loveland in Jeju City (just over 1.5 hours away by bus). We hopped on the airport bus and stored our luggage at the Jeju City airport when we got there. We grabbed a cab and directed him to 러브 랜드 (Lobuh Landuh). Love Land is a sex themed park. Very strange for a conservative country like Korea, and I’ve heard no trip to Jeju is complete without it. So, how could we resist? The majority of photos we took were definitely NSFW (not safe for work), but I’ll upload the tame ones.

A baby turning a crank which makes the metal couple do the deed.

A tame photo of me kissing a golden man.

 

This could be art, but we know it's just sleaze.

Anyway, it was a very entertaining and strange place. If it’s representative of the sexual attitudes in Korea then I’m quite afraid. You’ll just have to visit yourself to see what I mean.

All in all it was a lovely weekend. The weather did not dampen our spirits for a second and we definitely made the most of our time. We probably could have stayed longer and should have rented a car, but there’s always next time.

Disregard the “12 Rules for Expat Life in Korea”

On May 25, some guy (Kyle Burton) posted an article on cnngo.com. The article can be found here. The article is about twelve things expats should do when living in Korea. The article was reblogged and posted on Facebook and probably tweeted (but not by me). I hope everyone was only sending it around because it was incredibly stupid.

Here are some highlights.

1. Learn to drink like a fish

Your work contract might say 9-5 but you forgot to read the fine print. Birthday parties, staff dinners and other work functions will keep you going late into the night. Just remember that in the South Korean workplace, an invitation is an obligation.

Some of this is true. An invitation is an obligation but that’s not all you should take away. At my school dinners people drink casually. Some of the men get drunk. It’s awkward.  Barely any of the female teachers do.  Some foreign teachers get drunk too, so they say.  But really. You’re at work.

Furthermore, this gives the impression that all Koreans just get drunk all the time. The drinking culture here is strong, but this gives the wrong impression.

Next up…

2. Try not to get ‘celebrified’

Just because you get cat calls on the street from students who are surprised to see a foreigner does not mean you are famous. There might be a certain novelty to being a visible minority here, but try not to let it get to your head.

No one thinks they’re a celebrity here. Sometimes we joke about getting a discount or getting something free because we’re foreigners but more often and not being a celebrity here is the last thing on your mind. You are more like a zoo animal. People stare at you and talk about you like you’re not there. They assume you can’t understand (or don’t think it matters) but the first word we learn after annyong haseyo is “waygookin” (foreigner). So when I’m the only foreigner on the subway and the couple next to me is dropping “waygookin” every 2 words, I’m pretty sure they’re talking about me.

5. Put the gay away

 Korea has its own “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, and although gay rights have come a long way in the last 10 years, there remains a strong prejudice in this uber-conservative society. So, if you are one of the many queer expats in South Korea, keep your homo on the hill.

Wonderful advice! You’ve probably been out of the closet for awhile, but you should probably get back in. No. Rude. Maybe it’s not the wisest thing in the world to come out to your students,  but that’s at everyone’s own discretion. This suggestion is pretty offensive and just unnecessary. Korean culture is extremely touchy. If two women or two men were touching each other affectionately, I doubt anyone would bat an eye. Yes, some people are homophobes here. There are homophobes in lots of places. Sometimes I think this place needs to be shaken up, anyway.

6. Buy good face cream

 I’m not sure if it’s the pollution, the stress, or the water, but living in Korea will age you, and your pimples and wrinkles will battle it out to see who can destroy your face the quickest. No wonder there’s a cosmetic surgery shop on every corner.

This is on the top 10 list? Ridiculous. I have nothing else to say. Except that the cosmetics here are fantastic.

This article was on a CNN affiliated website. It’s ridiculous. Sure, it’s supposed to be funny, but it’s mostly just dumb and not actually helpful. If someone wrote this on a blog then no one would care, but this is a CNN journalist. Emabarrassing.

K-blogger Roboseyo wrote his alternative top 12, and I think it’s pretty good.

Here are the ones I like.

1. Get online.

He recommends checking out the NUMEROUS amazing websites that have tonnes of information for you. I like Korea4Expats and 10Magazine.

2. Learn Korean.

Definitely! As I am only here for a year (2.5 months to go!) I learned the basics. How to read and write, basic communication. And it has helped me massively! Simply learning to read and write will help you out a lot. Do it!

3. Get out of the city.

I haven’t done this as much as I’d have liked to, but leaving Seoul is wonderful. I’m heading to Jeju Island this weekend and can’t wait!

4. Learn to use the transportation infrastructure.

Yes! I’ve extolled the virtues of the subway before, but the buses, oh the buses. They can be great if you want to go somewhere that’s not directly on the subway line. But watch out, they sometimes can take a lot longer due to traffic, so budget time wisely!

You can read his full list here.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

 

 

 

 

 

Just some quick thoughts.

Today I wore a scarf to school. I suppose it looks a bit ‘tribal’ and has fringe.

Two unrelated incidents:
“You look like a cowboy, teacher.” -student

“Howw?!” – me

“The scarf! It is like cowboy.”

Next…

“You look like Indian, teacher.” -student

“I’m sure you mean like a Native American.”

“Yes.”

….

I am the only person in the office of 5 people who ever goes to the bathroom at school.  How is this, you ask? Well, no one drinks anything except for instant coffee. But they still don’t pee. I have no answers. I pee about 3-4 times a day. I know they think I have a problem.

Also, I might have strep throat.

But the real good news is I am flying out of here on August 18th to San Francisco for three days! There I will stay with my cousin Lisa and her family and my Aunt Diane will be coming to visit. I have never been to northern California and I am extremely excited. I will be home to Toronto on August 21st at 7:00 am (sorry parents)! Only 82 days.