Santacon

Yesterday was my friend Becky's birthday, and she decided that for her birthday she wanted to participate in something called Santacon. If you have never heard of Santacon, it is a wonderful gathering of many people around the world who dress up in Santa or Santa-related costumes and go out on a bar crawl of whatever city they choose to participate in. These cons are held around the world by local organizers, and they are a great way to meet some really awesome people and have a good time, especially in a country where Christmas isn't necessarily the traditional holiday that it is in the US. Our Santacon spanned three bars and a nightclub and included over 200 Santas, most of whom I do not know the names of. Banana Santa was pretty awesome, as were Bad Santa and Black Santa, Backwards Santa, Birthday Santa, Chocolate Santa, Waldo Santa, and Leprechaun Santa.

Imagine, if you will, a group of about 200 white people all wearing the same outfit marching around a city like Seoul, singing Christmas carols and handing out candy to the amused and sometimes frightened Korean people around them. We sang, we danced, and (I'm sorry to have to admit) we drank quite a bit. Many of the Koreans even stopped us to take pictures. I got to meet a lot of great people, mostly fellow teachers, who are here for a myriad of reasons and have a million different stories to share about life in Korea. I wish I had more photos, but here is the link to the ones I do have. I will definitely be participating in Santacon for the rest of the years that I am in Korea.

If you would like to participate in or organize one, here is the website for the information.

My first month.

So I finally finally finally had time to finish uploading all the pictures from the past couple of weeks. I've done some really fun things, including going to a sauna, making kimchi, going to my second Korean wedding, and having a wonderful Thanksgiving with some of the other American teachers over here. I've been busy too, between teaching at my main school during the week and tutoring on the weekend for a private school. I haven't had a day off in weeks.

I'm still missing some pictures too, including the Korean engagement party that preceded and was responsible for my attendance at the second wedding. I'm still waiting for someone to email those pictures to me, but when they do I will definitely be making a post about that night. It was quite a night.

As of tomorrow, I will have been in Korea for one month. It has been a very interesting, very wonderful month, and I am very much looking forward to the next twelve-plus months that I hope will follow. I do miss some things from life in the states, chief among them real coffee, but I think I am adjusting well. I've made some good friends at the school where I am working, and they are all more than helpful when it comes to both class and getting along in Korean. One of them even came over and helped me put sticky notes on my washing machine so I can read what the buttons are. I enjoy both my elementary and middle school kids and the high school kids I teach on the weekends. I'm also really really looking forward to my school's Christmas Special that we are putting on this week for all the parents. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures, maybe even a video if I can. I just wish I didn't have to sing in front of all my students and their parents....

Hopefully it will not be so long between this and my next post. I may be moving again towards the end of December, so if I fall off the face of the Earth again, you'll know why. If you are interested in sending Christmas/birthday gifts, just let me know. I already have a wish list going.... ^_^

Little ramblings

Just another shining example of my propensity to get distracted with other things and forget to throw up all the stories and pictures I've amassed over the past two weeks. Part of this is really not my fault. For the rest, you have my most sincere apologies. Unfortunately, this does not mean that I will be sitting up tonight to rectify this situation. I just wanted to make sure that no one was under the illusion that I had forgotten about you, or that I was just not bothering to record some of the awesome/strange/amusing things that are happening in my life. Perhaps tomorrow, after I finish preparing for the speaking tests I have to administer this week, I will have some time to put up pictures and a nice little post to go with it.

The headline on my google desktop is informing me that recent graduates are finding it difficult to repay their loans. No kidding? Really?! Personally I think they should just forgive all student loans from the past five years, but I'm not foolish enough to think that it would actually happen. In my dreams though....

Oh Mickey....

Today I had a group of Korean children spontaneously break into the song "Oh Mickey." I then spent the remaining 20 minutes of class teaching them to clap appropriately. Lesson well spent.

Korean wedding (with photos!)

On Saturday I attended my first Korean wedding. I would like to state first and foremost that I don't know if what follows is an account of a traditional Korean wedding. In fact, I am inclined to believe that what I experienced was quite different from the traditional wedding, but given that it was still my first Korean ceremony, I figured I would share it anyway.

11:58am--Niki, Darren and I arrive at the Wedding Hall. I am surprised to see a love hotel across the street and an abortion clinic ad in the entrance way of the hall. Niki assures me that this is all normal for the type of wedding we are going to. I also find out that wedding halls like this one typically marry between 1-3 couples an hour.

12:01pm--Ceremony starts. I am amazed to find out that the bride is actually 5 months pregnant. She looks pretty good.

12:10pm--Ceremony ends. Guests file out of wedding hall to begin taking wedding photos.

12:35pm--Photographer finally calls for the friend picture. I am dragged forward despite the fact that I have never met the bride or groom. I am one of two white people in the picture. I feel awkward.

12:39pm--All the guests are directed two floors up for the after-wedding buffet. The bride and groom and immediate family disappear. I am told that this is because there is a special ceremony that is performed with the family. After the bride and groom change into traditional Korean dress, the groom's parents throw chestnuts and pine nuts at the bride and she tries to catch them with her skirt. The number of nuts she is able to catch is supposed to represent the number of children that she will have. I find this amusing, since she had better at least catch one. I also wonder to myself if the groom traditionally stands in front of the bride trying to keep the nuts out.

12:41pm--I find out that Korean buffet has a hundred different dishes that you are supposed to eat from. One of these is a table of long noddles with broth and little fixings. It is traditionally eaten at weddings to wish the bride and groom a long and happy marriage.

1:15pm--Bride and groom enter the wedding hall and begin greeting all the guests. They are surprised to see me, but since I can't speak Korean they smile and offer to take a picture with me.

1:16pm--After greeting the bride and groom, most of the people begin to leave. Apparently this is the end of the wedding.

1;17pm--The bride and groom finish their rounds of the hall, then disappear. I am told that we have about ten minutes to finish eating and then leave, otherwise the next couple that reserved the hall won't be able to get in on time.

1:21pm--We leave the wedding hall. I think to myself that this is the most anti-climactic wedding I have ever been to.



As always, here is the link to the full version of the photos, along with everything from my first week in the city of Seoul. There is still some stuff missing but as I have yet to move into my permanent apartment, I think I can be forgiven for being so terrible.

Teacher!

So far, Seoul has proved to be much easier to get around in than that little island across the sea. Much more English on the street signs and subway platforms, many more people who have a decent grasp of English and can help you out if you get lost. So far, I've managed not to get lost, but I believe that is because of all those months spent trying to decipher the Tokyo subway/train system. It truly does make every other subway system in the world seem ridiculously simple.

I began teaching yesterday. Six classes, all elementary and middle school kids, though my few classes of middle school kids will soon end and then it will be just me and the younger ones. For now my schedule is kind of mixed--I have between five and seven classes each day Monday through Friday between 230pm-900pm. My kids range from 6 years old to 15 years old, and their English level varies. I can already tell that this experience will break me of the desire to ever have a Korean child. Of course, since it's still my first week, most of what I'm doing is introducing myself and then jumping around in front of them to keep them entertained for 40 minutes. Not exactly rocket science. And some of it does make me feel pretty good about myself. Many of the kids told me I was very pretty, and one class had a three minute discussion on all the ways I was better than the last teacher they had. A couple kids even gave me cookies and gum. From what I understand after speaking to other teachers, this is normal. Kids like to give presents to their favorite teachers. So what it comes down to so far is that my job is to babysit, talk to them in English, and keep them awake for 40 minutes so they can go home and tell their parents about the nice American teacher. Yay!

Of course, this isn't the entirety of my time in Korea. I also started tutoring at a prep school on the weekends. This is by far the more difficult of my jobs. Tuesday I had to teach the US Constitution to an AP US History student, and from Sunday I'm going to be teaching SAT prep to another couple high school age students. There is a lot more preparation required of me. I don't know about you guys, but it's been a few years since I had to take the SAT, and they changed the format to include the writing section the year after I tested. The English comprehension of these kids is greater, but I have to be able to explain why the right answer is the right answer and have it make sense to someone whose native language is not English. It can be challenging. Sometimes I can't even justify it to myself. This is where we get to the importance of projecting confidence. Little kids can smell your fear. Older kids feed off your uncertainty. Preparing makes it easier to pretend that you know what you're talking about.

I have another day of class ahead of me, and then this weekend I may be attending a Korean wedding. Thankfully the cold spell snapped, so I can survive with just my autumn jacket for at least another week before the cold returns and I continue freezing to death. Hopefully sometime in there you'll here something about an apartment and me not being homeless anymore. We'll just have to see...

Why hello, Korea

And so begins another edition of gaijin no nikki. Except I'm technically not gaijin anymore. I'm woeguk samram.

There are several obvious disadvantages to moving to a country where you don't speak a word of the language. Communication can be hard to come by, especially in Asia where the language is so different from anything you're used to. The simplest things can be difficult--like getting a domestic phone card from a convenience store, trying to find a payphone that accepts said phone card, and eventually navigating yourself an hour away from where you were told to go when you got off the plane (did that sound too much like whining?). You have to shop by pictures for the first couple weeks until you learn what that round shape on each of the yogurt containers is (it could be an orange, a tangerine, or a peach, but you have no idea which. You have to get used to the occasional stares of passersby (though this does depend on where you go; some places are used to having lots of foreigners around). And unless you have a handy local around who does speak both English and Korean, you might end up getting in a taxi that you shouldn't and end up several miles from where you want to be with a hole in your pocket from where the driver took all your cash just because he could (hasn't happened to me yet, but apparently it is common).

All that being said, Korea is pretty easy on the foreigners, as Asian countries go. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help you out if you get lost or need to figure out how to use that damn calling card. In most places, there are also lots of woeguk samram who are willing to lend a hand to their comrades. And the general quality of the English spoken by Koreans is good. Most will understand basic words and phrases if you are in a pinch and need help. There is also a myriad of familiar businesses and services that cater to foreign clientele. McDonald's, Starbucks, and Burger King are common in a lot of the modern Asian nations, but I was surprised to find out that there is a Costco in Seoul, and that my American Costco card works fine here. The crown jewel of these, of course, is the illustrious Taco Bell, situated on the American Army bases inside the commissary. If there is anyone who knows anyone who is stationed in Korea and would like to invite some friendly but hungry woeguk samram on a lunch date, please let me know. You will be compensated for your trouble.

On a personal note, I am currently staying at the house of another teacher in Seoul, rather than in Bundang in an apartment provided by the school. Due to unforeseen difficulties with the apartment, I have been temporarily relocated here while they try to find me somewhere else to live. I am not worried about this. You should not be either. It simply means that until further notice, I'm going to be stealing internet from someone downstairs and that I will be unable to use large amounts of internet connectivity until I moved to my permanent location. I will, however, try to update a little more frequently, while all this is still new and exciting. I did sit down with the intention of writing about my first couple of days, but, on second thought, they were pretty boring and involved a lot of me dragging around heavy luggage and spacing out while trying not to fall asleep on a stranger's couch. I'm still a little sleep deprived, but now it's more of my own doing and less of the dramatic change in location relative to the international date line. Wii Fit is a terrible, wonderful use of my time.

I'll leave you with a short list of things that surprised/delighted/scared me in these first 48 hours. Enjoy, gentle readers.

1. McDonald's is delivered by ninjas on crappy little motor bikes. I have seen their mad ninja skills as they weave through crowded sidewalks at fast speeds. It is amazing.
2. Koreans drive on the same side of the road as we do. Who knew?!
3. Winter sets in overnight. Literally. When I arrived Sunday it was 50 degrees. The next day at the same time, it was 20.
4. You can take a tour of North Korea for a couple hundred dollars. I think this is what I am getting myself for Christmas, provided that having a North Korean stamp in my passport doesn't get me detained at immigration later. And even if it does, I will still strongly consider it.
5. It is relatively easy to take animals from Korea to the United States. It is relatively impossible to take animals from the United States to Korea. The opposite goes for small children.