12-30

Annyong haseyo!

Took me a bit longer to get to this week's update, last week was pretty busy over here. I know you all were busy over the holidays as well, I hope everyone had a great one and had/are currently enjoying a pleasant break!

Not going to lie, while I had a great time this past week, it was tough being away from home last week. Three events that I've looked forward to over the past few years came and went without me in attendance. First was the Braggin' Rights game in St. Louis where the Illini continued their domination over Missouri. Second was of course Christmas and its eve. Lastly was the annual Salem barcrawl with my friends that takes place in the days surrounding Christmas. I spent Christmas day with people I had known for less than a month, actually less than a week instead of with family and friends that I've known for years. I can talk all day about having fun over here, but I still would have preferred to be with you all this past week. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone at this time next year!

It was a very good week at work. My listening classes continue to improve as I get better with the class structure. I'm now having the problem of getting to everything in a timely manor instead of worrying about finishing class too quickly. I have my last training workshop of the term tomorrow, where I will sit down with the head instructor and go over some of my teaching tapes to discuss my strengths and weaknesses. I haven't watched myself teaching on tape yet, so it will be interesting. I'd like to think I already know what will be discussed, but there is a reason for this ongoing training...to fine tune all the aspects of my teaching ability. I joked around a lot with my students this past week, I think a continuing sign that we're getting comfortable around each other. Also, though it was awkward, I couldn't help but laugh when a couple of my students called me handsome and cute on Friday! Last week was the final week for the first books we covered in memory English classes (Hamlet and Journey to the Center of the Earth). This week we started The Day of the Purple Cow and A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's funny to see these kids avoid the topic of love when it was mentioned in the latter...then they tried to get details of my personal life out of me without any success. They like to joke about 'Joe Teacher going to night clubs with girlfriends.'

On Christmas day, I jumped on a train and went to visit a new friend in Suwon. Believe it or not, it was the first time in my life that I had been on a train. I have of course been on the El in Chicago and the metro-link in St. Louis, but never an actual train. It was a bit of an ordeal to get to the train station, get a ticket, and make sure I was on the right train...but now that I've done it once I have confidence that I can do it again. I took the subway system back to Cheonan the next afternoon in time for work. The train took 40 minutes, the subway took an hour. A KTX train, one of the fastest trains in the world, would have taken less than 30 minutes. I'll be getting on that on the 10th of January for my first trip to Seoul for an overnight venture with my co-workers. We're going to the area of Seoul that has the most English-speakers. Plan is to start at a bar that offers all you can eat and drink in three hours for ~$25. I'm definitely going to get my money's worth!

I didn't get the usual Friday evening e-mail out this past week due to having to get up early on Saturday to teach. We did get Christmas day off, but had to make it up Saturday morning. It made the weekend feel really short...I would have preferred to have worked on Christmas day in favor of a two-day weekend, but oh well...it's done now. Saturday night turned into a crazy affair of soju and beer pong at a co-workers apartment. Probably my 'wildest' night over here so far..actually it was by far which speaks volumes for how much has changed for me since my college days. I might just be growing up after all. ...okay, maybe not. :)

I forgot the term for it, but I learned that Koreans are just about shocked that someone (American) actually goes for drinks without eating something with it. Every bar has food and it's available all night. They just cannot comprehend it. Even if you say you don't need/want any, they will get up and buy you food to eat with the drinks. They are definitely light weights in regards to American drinking prowess, but it's just one of those cultural differences that I've learned about.

I woke up at 3 AM this morning to watch/listen to the Bears game as well as the Illini game. That said, I also went to bed at 7:30 PM last night, which is the earliest I have been to bed since...probably when I was in diapers. I would have been better served staying in bed. The Illini won despite playing poorly (Leah had the scores for this morning's game as well as the Mizzou game for 20 CDI points...another girl, Alice, had the score for the Mizzou game for 10) and the Bears choked away a golden opportunity. What a craptacular ending to my football teams' seasons. Both the Illini and da bears didn't accomplish what they should have. I am looking forward to watching the big bowl games coming up. One of my co-workers is a big Southern Cal fan, so I'm going to represent the Big 10 against him with their matchup against Penn State in the Rose Bowl.

While I've certainly had some interesting injuries over the past few years, at least I haven't broken a nose by running into a glass door that I thought was open. I met someone who did that a few weeks ago on Saturday night. Crazy injury stories are fun. I still have a leg up on most though, I believe. I'm half-amazed that I've gone 6 weeks here without anything happening (*knocks on wood*).

Before the games this morning, I ran next door to the Sun Mart to get some sprite and nachos for game viewing. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to purchase them because the guy manning the store was passed out behind the counter. I tried raising my voice nearly to the point of yelling (EXCUSE ME!) to get him to wake up. I tried ringing the bell on the door loudly for a few seconds...all to no avail. I then had the moral dilemma of just walking out with my supplies or going down the street to the other convenient store, which doesn't have sprite. I had to settle for orange fanta instead of sprite. :(

I did some cleaning of the apartment on Sunday. I'm glad for the hardwood floor so I don't have to vacuum...makes it much easier to clean up after my shedding, which apparently I do more of than I thought.

I'm frustrated that I have an important package stuck in customs right now, but at least that isn't as bad as my co-worker J who had his luggage sent to Cairo instead of Seoul on his return flight connection in France (departing from London) this past weekend.

A guy I met Saturday night (also named Joe) is leaving in a month or so and is trying to sell me his scooter. It's a reasonable price and you don't have to have a driver's license to ride it. I've always said that I'd never ride a scooter or motorcycle, but it would be a good way to get around over here and see things that are not within walking distance (like the temples in the mountains). I might have to see if he'll accept half payment next month and a wire transfer for the remainder in February. The chances of me doing that, however, are probably less than 20%.

I'll try to have New Year's resolutions in the next update. Until then, I hope everyone has a safe holiday this week. Be crazy, but be safe!

Have a joeun day!

Joe

Update 6

Annyong haseyo!

Another week has come and flown by here. I finally pushed myself to get to downtown Cheonan-city last weekend and ended up with just about everything I could have hoped for. I picked up a friend that I met during training at the train station and then met a co-worker to take a bus to Yarri (downtown) which took about 20 minutes and cost 1,100. A cab would have cost about 7,000. I wanted to take more pictures of the area, but we were running late to meet others and were rushed to get to our first bar. A guy who has been here for a while was having his last night on the town before moving back home.

The theme of the night was "hand-cuff barcrawl." The basic premise of this was that you were forced to tape yourself to a partner (selected by random drawing) and then you were with that person for the rest of the night. When they got another drink, you had to get another one. When they went to the restroom, you had to go with them, etc. I had never done something like that before and it led to some funny moments as you might imagine. The theme didn't last the entire night, which is probably a good thing. Most gave up after the first two or three bars. I changed partners at each bar, taking my restroom breaks in between new tapings. I also decided to just drink at my own pace after the third bar. The barcrawl started at 10 PM and I got in a cab to head home at 6 AM. Needless to say, it was a long night. It was like a full day of tailgating without a three hour break to go in and watch the game (and sadly of course without cookie shots). You can probably guess how I felt the next morning/afternoon when I woke up.

I hope to go downtown again tonight to get more pictures and have a more relaxed evening out.

Currently, it's Saturday afternoon and I'm at work. We have some extra courses that are offered to students. We go over full novels instead of the abridged versions that we have during the week. Depending on the level, the options are Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, Call of the Wild, and Lord of the Flies. I'm at the Harry Potter/Golden Compass level and have read the Harry Potter series, so it would be fun to teach it. That said, I am lucky enough to be the standby instructor today, meaning I get to go home after an hour if not enough kids show up for more than one class. In the meantime, I get paid time and a half to sit on the computer and e-mail you all! I don't think there were more than a handful of kids in the class that started at 1, so it looks like I'll be safe to go home here in a half hour.

I'm planning to run some errands and possibly get a haircut this afternoon. It's strange to cut my hair before it's even long enough to curl as in college I fell into the habit of cutting my hair short and then letting it grow until it was in my eyes or even longer on some occasions. I think my whole family noticed and hated it as I didn't chop anything off for 2.5 years. I even once went to a family reunion and the only people there that recognized me were my grandmother and one cousin!e I sometimes think about the longer hair when I see some of my kids in class with the long, shaggy hair.

This week had some good and bad elements to it. It was good in that it was probably my best overall week of teaching. I get more comfortable each week realizing what I need to be doing in order to help the kids out. I notice them trusting me more and more and in some cases respecting my authority more and more...not that I'm trying to go on a power-trip or anything because I'm probably the 'easiest' teacher in the building. I mean that because I probably let more slide (in discipline) than other teachers and I probably also give out more CDI points. That girl I mentioned from last week came up to double-check with me before leaving class on Thursday that the Illini had a game coming up soon!

It was also good in that my listening classes went better than usual. This week was practice level up tests so the first two hours of the class were consumed by taking it and then reviewing it. The last hour was really easy in doing two different listening activities which can easily last 30 minutes without much effort. My Par listening class is a bit of a struggle because there are only 3 students in the class now. I think one kid dropped from CDI and the other transferred to another class, leaving me with three. It can be hard to hold their attention because one the girls, Wendy, is just a non-stop giggler. She's one of those people that you hate to raise your voice to because she's just always in a great mood, laughing, smiling, etc...but sometimes I have to when she begins to distract me or the other two students.

This week was also good because I got a lot better in my weakest aspect of the memory classes, which is the topic dicussion review that happens during the week's second class. The first class, the first half hour is taken up by a review test from the previous week's material. The second day, we have an activity where I play an mp3 of a student's mobile-learning summary (they have to call in once a week with a prepared script and talk about a certain topic..like their favorite food) and give a couple of reasons as to why. I play that, the class takes notes, then we review their listening skills/note-taking ability. It sounds simple, but I was having some problems making it last a full 20 minutes. I did a much better job of that this week.

This week was not so good because I've been battling a cold. It started last Friday and undoubtedly got worse with my late night on Saturday. Monday was pretty miserable...talk for 30 seconds, cough for 5-10 seconds, repeat for 3 hours while also blowing my nose every 10 minutes or so. Tuesday I felt a little better, but it was more of the same. By Wednesday, things had started to clear up some and then it got even better on Thursday and more so on Friday. On Friday, I didn't cough at all during classes, but had some in the morning and evening. Still having a runny nose, but not quite as bad. The cough syrup I bought tastes just about like actual syrup...I've had worse, but certainly had better.

I'll conclude this week's update with some Illini notes...

Congrats to the women's volleyball team on their Sweet 16 run in Coach Hardin's final season. They ran into a more experienced, talented California team and went down in straight sets. They exceeded expectations this season because they were so young. Next season, they should be even better as they return all of their young talent while losing only a couple of role-playing seniors and replace them with another good recruiting class next season. They should be amongst the top 10-15 teams in the country next season.

Also, men's basketball returns to action on Saturday against Detroit at the Assembly Hall. All eyes will be on Alex Legion, playing in his first game since his transfer from Kentucky last winter. He was a top 30 recruit a season ago and just didn't fit in well with Kentucky's Coach Gillispie (a former Illinois assistant under Bill Self, for those that don't remember). Legion is known for his scoring and the Illini could use some more firepower. It should free up more looks for guys like Trent Meacham. He'll be brought along slowly to not disrupt the chemistry developed by the team in their 9-1 start. The Illini also added to the future talent in the program by securing a verbal commitment from the top PG in the state for the class of 2011, Tracy Abrams. He's one of the key pieces to what looks like the best class of Illinois talent since 1979 (Isiah Thomas, etc). He'll be one of the top 30-40 players in the country by his senior year of high school.

Finally, the annual Braggin' Rights game against Missouri is next week and it should be a great game. The games are usually very close with a number of upsets over the years and this is the most even the squads have been since the early Quin Snyder years at Mizzou. Illinois has won the last 8 games in the series, equaling their 8-game win-streak from 1983-1990. The Illini have won 19 of the 27 contests between the two schools. This will be the first time I have not been in attendance for the Braggin' Rights game since my first game in 2003. I hope those of you going cheer extra loud and have an extra drink at Houlihans for me!

Hope everyone has a sung tan chuk ha,

Josep

Update 5

Annyong haseyo,

Wow, another week has just flown by over here. This could potentially be the best week here yet. While I got paid on the 5th for one week of work, I didn't actually collect on that until yesterday because the $ was deposited into a co-workers account who then gave me the cash from an ATM. He is heading out of the country for a few weeks, so he just got the chance to get it to me yesterday. I was quite happy to collect that paycheck and it will only be 1/4 of what I'll get on 1-5.

I continue to get more comfortable in front of class, am remembering more students names, etc. It's even more fun when they now come up to me to talk, goof around before class like I saw them do with other instructors in previous weeks. I hate to say I'm developing favorite and not-so-favorite students, but I think that's the nature of the beast. So long as I don't let that show in class, I don't think it's such a bad thing. Even saying that, my least favorite kid from the first week of classes pleasantly surprised me this past week and was a really good student.

I think I mentioned before that I didn't like my intensive listening classes as much as my memory classes, but the listening classes were better this week. I still have a ways to go before I feel very comfortable with them, but I at least saw improvements this week. I came into this week expecting to work the next three Saturdays, including tomorrow, but turns out I won't have to work tomorrow. I will have to work the next two, however. I will at least be a stand-by teacher next Saturday for extra classes and the following Saturday I will be around for the extra classes plus make-up classes for the day we'll get off for America's Christmas. I'd almost rather work on December 25th and have a full weekend off, but it doesn't really matter I suppose. We will possibly get four days in a row off for the Chinese New Year, but the downside to that is two 12-hour days that week to make up for classes missed on the off-days. There is no break in classes or terms here...four 13-week terms year round. I think I'll much enjoy the teaching schedule in America more when I return, giving me summers off to travel and start up a DJ business to keep me busy/bring in extra income.

Went out for a few drinks and pool tonight after work with a few of the co-workers. I'm really not good at pool, wish I had some bags boards over here! It was still fun, though. Tomorrow night will be the first time I really get out and explore the downtown area of the city. I have a friend I met during training coming to visit as well so it should be a really fun weekend.

I love having legal torrent downloading over here. I'm catching up on all the tv shows that I decided I was too busy to watch back in the states. I'm on season 2 of The Office right now and plan to move on to Weeds, The Sopranos, and Entourage after that. Any other recommendations would be welcome!

I got a local cell phone over here this past week. After having a nice, full keypad for texting back home, now I have to get used to the old system of three letters per number again. I have no English instructions with this phone, so it's really just trial and error right now. Luckily, I don't need to use a phone very often.

I realized this week how much I love living by myself. I mean this with absolutely no offense to my past roommates who are reading this e-mail because you know I have love for you all, but this is just awesome. I love being responsible for everything that happens in this place with no potential to shift blame here or there. It's quiet when I want it to be quiet, clean when I want it to be, and just having as much time as I want to myself. I continue to surprise myself with what I can do when I try to do things on my own.

I'm trying to spread the Illini nation even more while being over here. I have the Illini men's basketball schedule up in the room here at school and have a thing with my students after taking attendance and before getting started with the lesson. I remind them that the Illini played the night/morning before and ask if anyone knows the score. If they do, they can write it down and hand it in for a possible 10 CDI point bonus (that they can trade in for small time stuff like candy or save up for bigger stuff like mp3 players and bikes). My best students get about 40-50 CDI points per class for completing their homework and actively participating in class, so 10 points isn't much considering none of the other teachers have anything like this. The kids have now started clapping when I write scores like Illinois 89, Chicago State 50 on the board. It's not important that I mention how terrible Chicago State is. I even have girls who have probably never even seen a basketball writing down the dates of the next game so they can look it up at home. I noticed one young girl, Leah, doing that the other day and it just made me smile. She's a quiet little girl who is very intelligent and always volunteers as much as anyone else in the class. She stayed for a few moments after class on Wednesday to copy down the next few game dates from the schedule. Also, another kid asked me where Michael Jordan played in the NBA tonight...I was happy to offer him details.

I developed into a late nighter this past week. My average bed time was in between 3 and 4 AM, usually rolling out of bed in between 1 and 2 PM. A second shift job is a lot of fun when everyone else I know and would hang out with has the exact same schedule. It also makes for more potential on weekend nights. This weekend, as I mentioned above, will really be my first experience with that though. It's currently 2:50 AM here and I'm just beginning to get tired. That is of course almost noon back in the states. The problem will be getting up at 9 AM on Sunday to get ready for church. All that said, I have been getting up for a short time around 8 AM for all of this past week because there is some really loud construction going on right outside my window. It seems they enjoy doing the loudest, most obnoxious things in between 8 and 10 AM...grr. I may have to have a few inaudible words with them someday. I think it would have been a quieter morning on Thursday had I let them hammer nails or whatever straight into my head.

A funny moment from class earlier this week. After one of our 5 minute breaks, a kid, Mikey, asked if I had been drinking? Not sure if it was the correct response, but the first thing that came into my head was "What, today?" Apparently the only time a Korean face gets red is when they've been drinking. I think I was feeling a little warm because I wore a sweater to work.

I think that's enough for now. I now I'm leaving out a few things, but I can't remember everything off the top of my head. I really need to work on just adding to a draft throughout the week.

Peace, Love, and Annyonghi jumushipsiyo,

PS - Hope everyone in central-northern Illinois is enjoying the snow. ;)

Update 4

Hello all, I hope everyone is experiencing a pleasant beginning to the Holiday season!

I want to begin with some random notes.

I had my first two slices of pizza in weeks on Tuesday night during break time at work. It left a lot to be desired, but it was pizza. One of my co-workers ordered from a place called Pizza Gut. Interesting name to say the least. The only pizza-esque things I'd had before then were these little hot pocket-like things that one can get at the convenient shop nearest my work building. A hot pocket with shrimp in it is 'interesting.'

How common is it in the US for cars to have a TV/DVD set up on the front dash? Maybe it's just me, but I find that scary and a huge distraction. I can somewhat understand taxis having them because they probably spend some time sitting around waiting for a fare, but I've seen it in a lot of vehicles over here. Just another reason why I'd never feel comfortable driving here. Getting a driver's license is much more of an ordeal over here. The total process costs about $3K...it's quite an investment. Getting a driver's license is almost like a statement that says "my family has money." A co-worker of mine has an international driver's license (he said that costs about $60 in the states) so one of these weekends, probably early next year, we're going to rent a car and go exploring the mountains in the area. I can't wait to go hiking, honestly. There are a lot of cars here, especially in the major cities, but public transportation is much bigger here than in the states. The cities are built without sprawl, which is nice. A lot of US cities could take note of this. I hope to be much less dependent on driving wherever I end up living when I return.

Maybe I should give my students less creativity sometimes...at the end of class on, we have a section where the kids basically get to ad-lib words into the blanks in sentences that I give them. It's an activity that is supposed to help them think of vocabulary they already know and use it in a story. In my Wednesday class, I had a few kids talk about their friends and dogs being terrorists and being in Al-Qaeda. I was almost surprised they (ages ~ 10) knew what Al-Qaeda was. It was all in joking of course because they're supposed to have fun with the activity...but really, Al-Qaeda is what they come up with?

I thought I had more random thoughts, but I guess I don't.

I went out for a few beers on Thursday night with a friend I've met over here. I work with his wife and they go to an (English-speaking) church that has holiday functions for foreigners. I got here too late to get involved with the Thanksgiving meal(s), but will have a place to have a Christmas potluck. Since I can't really cook, he's making sure I get on the drinks list. He is coordinating it, so that's why he has that power. I am not sure if I'll start getting up on Sunday morning to go to church or not, but it will be something I consider if for no other reason than to meet other English-speaking people. All of my co-workers have been great, but one of my goals in coming over here was to meet as many people with as many different backgrounds as possible, learn about life all over the world, etc. It seems like a good situation that I should get myself involved with. We talked about how I should use my vacation time since I only get 7 consecutive days throughout the year, instead of traveling back to the US next summer, I may need to strongly consider using that time visit another country over here if I plan on moving back home after the year is up. I have a long time to think about it as I cannot go anywhere for 6 months, but it makes plenty of sense for me to visit places on this side of the world that I would probably otherwise never get the chance to see again. I'll have plenty of time to catch up with everyone back home in the future.

Today is my first payday...I am only getting a check for one week's work, but that check is still bigger than any (week or every other week) check I have ever received. Makes it a lot easier to get through those classes of mine that I really don't care for that much. Will also be getting my airfare reimbursement. Probably my biggest fear upon moving over here was just how I'd make ends meet for the first month before getting my first paycheck, but that burden has been lessened considerably by my signing bonus and now a week's pay. The cost of living here is much cheaper and that's even before considering that rent is covered in my contract. My only real expenses are food. Many people come here to save money, pay off loans, etc and I will be doing much of the same. It is really nice to not have to worry about money for about the first time ever in life.

This week really flew by quickly. On Wednesday, I didn't realize until walking to work that I only had one class to teach that day. Then the next morning, I thought "is it really Thursday already" and then who isn't in a good mood on Friday? Next week won't be quite as fun as it will be the first of three straight weeks where I have 5-hours of class on Saturday. The bright side...OT pay! :D My first big check is going to be awesome.

I went out to play futbol (soccer) on Sunday night with some friends. It was really the first athletic thing I've done outside of just running since I broke my ankle a few summers ago. Realized that I still have no confidence in it when forced to pivot and such. It's weird knowing that something is never going to be as good as it once was. I don't notice it when walking or even running so much anymore, but when you have to pivot and move laterally, you can tell what you no longer have. I hope it gets better because I had a lot of fun and it's a great workout. I was absolutely terrible, especially compared to others on the field which is new to me...I'm usually at least adequate on a field of competition. I need to get some bags boards over here so I can show people what I can dominate in.

This week I discovered a couple of chicken joint here to eat at. Oh how I have missed chicken! I finally had some pizza as I noted above and now I know a couple of places that I can get chicken. The chicken is more expensive that most meals (usually about 14,000 but enough food to last me two meals) but there will never be any substitute for my favorite meat. At least I know I'm not eating dog!

Speaking of dogs, I realized during a skype call to the 'rents earlier today how much I miss those guys. Buddy Bowrowrow, Augie, and Max, I can picture what all of them are doing right now. I think I've seen one dog since I've been here. I'm contemplating getting a rabbit or two that are on display at the lotte-mart, but I'm held back because I'm not sure what I'd do with them upon my departure from here. I'll have to check into what the guidelines are for traveling with them as I do not want to get into a situation where I don't have someone to leave them in care of when I leave.

Speaking of skype...I just got on that this past week finally. It's a free, easy download. My name on there is joseph.deien - feel free to get on there and add me. Free calling from around the globe? Yes, please!

I keep hearing the same question from many people in individual e-mails...."what's it like over there?" I keep responding with I'll tell you more when I have a better sample size. I have plenty of first impressions, but I'm still very new to this area and have many things I've yet to explore/learn. Who knows if I can even come close to describing it all in just one year? I hope to be able to answer that question in a more acceptable way in the future. :)

Now for my thoughts on Illini athletics...so if you don't care about the Illini (why am I friends with you again?), you can skip the rest.

Women's basketball: Wait, does anyone care about this? Coach Law just signed one of the top 3 recruiting classes in the nation in November. They are really going to struggle this season as they lost some players from last year's squad that was seconds away from earning an NCAA bid, but the future is bright. Coach Law knows how to recruit and could still add another consensus top 10 player to the fold in the spring. I wish someone would make them move back to Huff Hall so they could have something that resembled a home court advantage. It really would only help, not hinder the development of the program.

Men's basketball: I've been catching games online when I can find (illegal) feeds. I will be able to see more once I get my debit card over here to order the FI.com subscription. I am pleased with the 6-1 start, though frustrated with how the Clemson game ended. I knew they would get tired but it will always be frustrating to lose a game that could have been won. Alex Legion will join the lineup in a few weeks and hopefully his presence on the court will open up even more offense for Mike Davis, Demetri McCamey and Clank Meachum.

Football: Well, it sucks that there will be no bowl game this season. Turnovers at bad times really killed them. I never knew just how painful that homecoming loss to Minnesota would turn out to be. Intelligent athletic director's at schools like Minnesota and Northwestern have inferior teams ready to be blown out in bowl games while a more talented Illini squad will sit at home. I really, really hope this doesn't damage the recruiting season because any bowl game would have helped the cause. We will again have to wait at least another two years to see if the Illini can put together back to back winnings seasons for the first time in years. There is no excuse for why this team isn't going bowling this year...and the blame is pretty equally divided amongst the coaching staff, players, and athletic director. All played a part in why this team will not be collecting a check from a bowl game later this month. I'm going to be super pissed if I do not have a bowl game to come home to next winter.

Women's volleyball: They open up the NCAA tournament as the #9 overall seed and back to back home matches where they should be favored. Going to the games as an undergrad was always a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they are in Penn State's bracket...and they haven't lost a single set this entire season. I will be interested to follow their roll through the tournament...just to see if anyone can even eek out a 3-1 loss. The Illini almost took a set from them this year...but almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades as they say. Coach Hardin, who is a great guy, is retiring at the end of the season. When I covered the women's team during my time at WPGU, he was nothing but great. I had his cell phone # and he was always willing to talk on or off the record about a lot of things. Nothing but class and I wish him well in the future. That said, future coach Kevin Hambly has unlimited potential. He is an ace recruiter that is responsible for much of the Illini's success on signing day the past few years and should do an even better job as a head coach. It's one thing to really know volleyball (I believe he played at BYU in college), but he has an edge recruiting wise in that he is a handsome young man that I'm sure many teenage girls notice when he walks into their homes on recruiting visits. His wife played at the U of I and is on the staff so I'm pretty sure he'll be content to stay here for a while. He actually has a chance to bring home a national championship someday. Big 10 Volleyball is just about the best competition in the country, if not the best.

I think that just about covers what I needed to vent about in Illini land. I really should start a blog or something.

Hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying the holiday season!

Peace, Love, and maekju,

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

All,

It's mid-afternoon on Thursday here in Cheonan and my meal was three hot dogs with a few sips of coke zero...nothing quite like you guys will be waking up to. I am certainly jealous of all of you that will be digging in to turkey, sweet potatoes, casseroles, and whatever else you have in your respective households. When you think you are too full to take another bite of pumpkin pie, just remember how I'll be eating some dish I cannot pronounce tonight and force another piece down for me!

This is now day 4 of instructing for me. Yesterday was nice because I only had one class, so I was only here from 1 until 7:30. I've been coming in early to check e-mail and the like as I do not yet have internet at home. I did get my computer fixed after blowing it out when I stupidly tried to hook it up into the outlets here without a transformer. Now, I have a Korean power system in it and will need a transformer in the US. That isn't a big deal, though, as I probably will have bought a laptop by that time. I will hopefully have internet at home soon as now the only thing I need is a password of some sort to connect to the local provider. I should get that today if the staff here can find the previous guy's password or gets in touch with him soon. I'd definitely like to have it going by the weekend since I'd rather not go to an internet cafe and pay (though only ~ $1 an hour) to surf the net while being surrounded by a room full of pre-pubescent boys playing video games online with each other. I caught a couple of strange looks there on Sunday.

I have had some ups and downs with my classes so far. I have on really good Tera level (highest level) Memory English class that I have on Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30 and I have a good Mega Level (the lowest level) Memory English class on Monday and Wednesday. I also have a two tera level classes that are not so good, one on Monday/Friday and the other I luckily only have once a week. I'm hoping they will improve as they get more used to me and comfortable at this level. Today I have my first Interactive Listening class at 7:30 (Bridge, the lowest level) and tomorrow will have another (Par, the 2nd level). I wasn't trained quite as well in listening as in memory so I'm glad that I only have two of those classes a week. In the memory level courses, I'm currently teaching Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (mega) and Hamlet by Mr. Shake-a-speare. I have taught first day Hamlet for four of the past five classes so I'm ready to get to second day materials.

My co-workers are going to Seoul this weekend and it's tempting to go, but I think I'm going to wait at least until I have my signing bonus in hand. It's about $25 for a round trip train ticket and I do want to see the city, but I also will not get my first paycheck until the first week of January so I need to make the bonus last. I'm eating a steady diet of hot dogs, noodles/sauce, and what I think is ham sandwiches when I do not eat out. It is pretty cheap to eat out here, however...I almost never spend more than 6,000 (just under $6) on a meal and you get a very generous portion of food and all you can eat kimchi and select other sides. Last night I hate some really spicy meat/rice meal with two bowls of brothy soup, kimchi, radish, squid, and broccoli all for 4,000. Another thing that is different over here that will surely be one of the reasons why I continue to lose weight is there really is no option to have a soda, beer, or anything other than water with your meal. You get a small cup with unlimited refills of water everywhere and that's just fine by me. I will usually drink a glass of soda or maybe a liter of Cass (beer) at home if I feel so inclined.

While I haven't had internet at home, I've been reading a few books. I went through Bleachers by John Grisham in about two days and it wasn't too bad. For any fan of football, it's a nice and easy read. I'm working on Playing for Pizza (also by Grisham) right now and will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. It is also a nice read for a football fan. I am looking forward to getting back into his usual lawyer-related books however. I'm also open to suggestions from anyone now that I seem to be taking up reading as a hobby again after 5 or 6 years away from it.

I'm becoming more familiar with the area as well. I now know how to get into the busier city district, San Yeong-dong where there are more restaurants (kimbop = korean fast food, where I ate last night) and the lotte-mart (basically the Korean Wal-Mart). On Sunday, I got lost coming back from the internet cafe that I found. I was only given the instructions that it was right up the road so I eventually wandered into it, but then forgot how I got there on the way back and had to flag a cab. I believe I mentioned before that CDI gave me a card with my address written in Korean that I can keep in my wallet and hand to a cab-driver. If I do not go to Seoul this weekend, I'll be going to downtown Cheonan-city for my first real night out on the town and may catch the new James Bond movie with a co-worker. We'll see, though.

In the meantime, again, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, peace, and tong-dak

Last Day in Seoul

Hello all,

I'm sending out this e-mail as a quick update since this may be the last time I have an internet connection for a few days, maybe a week, not really sure.

This has certainly been a week packed with things to do. CDI has asked a lot from its trainees. It is no exaggeration to say I have had to eat, sleep, and breathe CDI since Monday morning. Had I known exactly how much work we were going to have this week, I would have attempted to get out more over last weekend to experience the night life, snap photos of Seoul. However, that will have to come some other time.

My schedule for the week was pretty rinse and repeat. Up at 7 AM local time, on the shuttle bus to take us across town to headquarters (probably ~ 5 miles, but it took us a minimum of 40 minutes to make the trip with all the traffic). Our first training class started at 9 AM and would last until noon. There, we'd get a couple hours for lunch; the time not spent eating and taking a break from the work was spent prepping for our afternoon training session. We would then train from 4-7 PM. At 7, we would generally have some sort of meeting to discuss other expectations/shorter training sessions and if we were lucky, we'd be back on the bus across the city by 8 (I didn't get back until 9 tonight). Upon arriving, there would be time for a quick dinner and then straight into homework, which consisted of lesson planning/prepping for the training sessions the next day. I have struggled some with study habits in the past, but I did not have the option to struggle this week. I would work in a constant fashion until about 1 AM before having to settle for not being quite complete but giving in to my minimum requirement of 6 hours sleep (thus having to do more prep on our lunch break). So, as I said above, my entire day has been devoted to CDI and I haven't been able to afford many breaks. I have been very stressed all week, but tried my best to relax and take everything in stride. I promise to catch up on all the individual e-mails/questions when my schedule becomes less hectic. The one bright side is that I have adjusted to the time difference now.

Today was definitely the worst day of all. I passed two of the three tests we had earlier in the week, so I had to study more for the one I "failed" - I missed a passing score of 70% by 1 question! I've always hated grammar. This was also the last night to prepare for our full training evaluations tomorrow. I will stress a little in hoping that I passed the re-test I took this evening. Tomorrow, it's all for real. Structure tests and training evaluations. Assuming all goes well tomorrow, I'll check out of this hotel in the morning and only come back to pick up my luggage at night. After that, I'll be on a train south to Cheonan where I will most likely be in a hotel for a day or two before finding permanent residence. This is why I'm unsure of when I'll have an internet connection again. I may have it at the hotel, I may have to wait until next week sometime at my future apartment. In any case, I will be very happy to have completed the week of training and look forward to really getting settled in to my regular routine.

Again, I wish I had one more night in Seoul to get out and see more of the city life, get better pictures, but fortunately I've met some friends in the training program that are staying in various parts of the city who are willing to entertain me for a weekend. I will get pictures up that I took going to and from work when I get a chance. The city does have some beautiful views, especially when passing over the Han River. A look in either direction shows multiple views of water, big buildings, and mountains. Central Illinois scenery this certainly is not. I still cannot comprehend just how massive Seoul really is. I could never drive here...it's completely different even from big city driving in the States. More on that later.

The food has been interesting here. I have no idea what I ate on Monday night, but it wasn't terrible. I don't know what the name for it is, but Tuesday and Wednesday lunches featured baby octopus and squid, respectively. Today's lunch was dumpling and rice pattie soup (and it's not the dumplings I was used to, but it was delicious). If I were in an American restaurant, I would never order these things, but I assure you they have been very good. Kimchi has also treated me better than anticipated. I did sneak in a quick Burger King dinner last night just to remind myself of what beef tastes like. I've been craving pizza like no one's business the past few days as well. Good thing I dined on Papa Dell's my last day in Champaign!

I'll talk more about the good and bad of my training later on. It's now 1 AM here and this guy needs some beauty rest for my big day tomorrow. I hope everyone is doing well and I want to hear updates on what everyone is up to!

Take care,

Greetings from Seoul!

Hello All,

Just a quick update to let you all know that I have arrived safely. I was ahead of schedule for the entire trip. It has been a very long day as my parents and I left Salem at 2 AM Thursday morning so I could catch a 6 AM flight from St. Louis. Quick flight and connection in Denver and then to San Francisco where I had a three hour layover before getting on the 12 hour flight to Seoul. I thought they would fly straight across the Pacific, but instead the route took us up along the US/Canada coast, past Alaska, and down over NE Asia.

The last leg wasn't as unbearable as I was fearing. I caught a few ~1-2 hour naps along the way, which were needed since I have been up since about 8 AM Wednesday morning and am planning on staying out for a little while tonight. They had about 7 or 8 movies that played continuously and luckily ones that I had not seen. Two small meals and a few snacks also passed the time.

It took three hours to land at ICN and get to my Coatel. I do have a roommate, Zacharia, who is from Oregon but has a fancy accent that amuses me. He knew how to hook up computers on these foreign outlets, which is a good thing because I was clueless otherwise. My recruiter said there are over 50 trainees staying in this Coatel over the weekend so I am looking forward to meeting a few of them. I am already beginning to feel what it's like to be a minority and some English-speaking voices would be welcomed.

That is all for now. This city is massive and pretty at night. I'm going to try and catch a few sights tonight before passing out and then tomorrow hopefully find a place to watch the Illinois/OSU game on Sunday morning (for me). In case you're wondering about the exact time difference, it's 11:13 PM on Friday night right now.

Take care,

I'm baaaaaaaaaack

For real this time...

I have an e-mail list to keep those interested in the loop with my life and times in Korea, but I'll also use this to post shorter entries. We'll see how well I keep this up, but I hope to!

Short and sweet for now, more later.