2-20

Anyong!

I am able to type out this update this morning/today because I actually got to bed at a decent hour last night. I had a lot of late nights this week doing nothing in particular and it finally caught up to me. I was beyond exhausted when I crashed at 11:17 last night. Usually I have some kind of mental block that tells me that I cannot go to bed before midnight, but I know that is something I will one day have to push up to about 10 PM at least if I plan on teaching in the US.

It has been a pretty eventful few weeks for me, but in a good way. These past two weeks have been arguably my best in the Republic. There have been some downs to go with the ups, but by and large the ups have a more lasting impression. I'll try to detail as many of those as possible here. I actually wrote a few things down this week so I'd remember them when it came time to type this e-mail up.

I had my first event of being carded over here when buying alcohol. It caught me off guard because I hadn't been carded at all, bar or store, over here. I think most would see a westerner and easily assume we are post-college grads here teaching. At least I haven't met any that have come here to study. On top of that, the drinking age is 19 which I think I clearly look older than. This happened at Lotte-Mart when I was buying my white russian supplies. The lady looked confused about something when scanning the kahlua. I had my wallet out to dig for money and after a minute she looked at my ARC and I guess then decided it was okay to sell me the liquor. I guess the birth date is on the ARC...I see numbers on there but none of them are my birthday though. Lots of Korean with a few numbers that are similar to a driver's license #. Oh well, whatever she saw must have been good enough.

Last Tuesday, I got up early and took the KTX to Daejeon to visit a friend and attend her graduation. While I knew I wouldn't be able to understand a single word of the event, I thought it would be cool to see a graduation over here. This definitely turned out to be one of the weirdest experiences for me over here, though. I met my friend outside the school and walked around with her and a few others for a while. I got many, many wide-eyed looks when walking around. I was the only white person there and it almost seemed like some had never seen one in person. Many girls would walk by and say 'hi' and when I said 'hi' back, they just giggled and ran away talking to their friends. Everyone kept asking Phoebe (my friend) if I was her boyfriend (I'm not) and mostly couldn't take their eyes off me. It definitely was a little uncomfortable but I said if she was okay with it, then I was too. During the ceremony, I just walked towards a corner of the gym to stand and watch. A few girls (I keep mentioning girls, it was an all-girls school) gave me a program that was all in Korean. I tried to look like I fit in as much as possible by looking at it for a while, pretending I could read it. Afterwards, I guess they like to throw flour and eggs at each other. I was dressed for work because I was going to be getting back just in time for parent teacher conferences, so I had to try pretty hard to avoid getting hit with something. I've said before that there are very few times in life where I have been a minority, but that was definitely the most out-of-place moment I've ever felt.

Speaking of parent teacher conferences, I have now done my first set on the teacher side! It wasn't too difficult. I had a list of four students whose parents (moms) were going to be coming by to talk to me via translator so I prepared reports on each student before hand. Only two of them showed up and they were two students that I liked, so it was pretty easy. We sat down in my room and I would talk about my notes for a minute or two, then wait for one of our staff members to translate, then repeat and/or answer any questions the parent had. It was over and done with fairly quickly, probably about 5 minutes for the first student and closer to 10 for the second whose mother had a lot of questions about how to improve her girl's ability.

Sticking on the school theme for a while, I had a meeting with our principal this week to discuss the results of student surveys from class that rated my teaching ability. I was pretty disappointed with my scores, but most of my bad ones were from my worst classes that really just don't care and don't want to be there. I think it's a little unfair, for students that don't care, to just mark me down. The effort is there on my part, but it's hard to have an entertaining class with kids that prefer to just sit there and do nothing for three hours. Things I need to work on are showing more energy/enthusiasm. Most of you know my personality, my emotions are usually pretty laid-back and even...I don't get too up or down in any situation. These kids really react to energy so I need to work on being more visual in that energy. Along those lines, I need to speak louder sometimes, which is more difficult than I anticipated. I will also need to continue to work on the speed of my delivery, especially since I have lower-level classes next term.

Today is the last day of term 1, so I guess that officially puts me here for 1/4 of a year. It has definitely gone better than I thought it would. I am sad to say goodbye to some of my classes as it looks like I probably won't have many repeat classes next term. Some of my students, I believe, will miss me while others, naturally, won't. In any case, after one term, I have a good idea of where I need to improve and get better. I also know things that I do which the kids like, so I will try to continue to do as much of those things as possible. Next term, I still have 27 hours with Wednesday evening off. The big difference, though, is the classes that I'm teaching. As you may or may not recall, I taught mostly 2nd level (memory English) classes this past term. Next term, I only have one Memory Mega (lowest of the three) class and then I have one split Tera class. That's down from one mega, two tera, and a split tera class. I will again teach one bridge listening class on Thursday while now I also will teach back to back bridge reading classes on Tuesday. I think this will mean that I will get many students from my bad listening class again, but this time in reading as most of them leveled up in listening and not reading. I will also now have one English Chip (the lowest level) class and a split EC class. These classes will be a challenge because I will have to work even harder on slowing down my delivery and collapsing my vocabulary.

I've had to go in early each day of this week for more training due to the class structure changes across the board for CDI. 1.5 hour training sessions before work haven't been much fun and frustrating since I just trained in a few of these 3 months ago. I do get a break today, though, as I do not have to go in for the workshop. Today's workshop is high-level reading which I currently do not teach. That said, these past few days have been much easier than usual. For the last day of class, we have a pizza party during the last hour of class where we watch a movie. All of that pizza is on me, so I've spent 75,000 on pizza the past two days and that will go up to about 110,000 after today's classes. I don't mind paying for the good classes, but the classes that sit there and make my life hell for three hours a day don't exactly get me in the mood to be all giving. I've now watched Harry Potter three times and will get to do it again twice today. I'd rather be watching Harry Potter than teaching the third hour of class, though, so I get a break. I brought in some of my own DVDs to show the kids...one of my classes voted to watch Ghostbusters which would have been a lot of fun, before I found out that my computer doesn't have a DVD drive.

Today is the last day at CDI for my co-worker, Steve ("Steve-uh" to many students). Other than Alan, whom I came here with at the same time, Steve has been the teacher I've hung out with the most. It's good that I've met some other friends recently so I'll continue to have groups of people to hang out with. Steve will be returning to Arkansas and his departure of course means many drinks will be had at a local watering hole tonight. I'm predicting another 5-6 AM taxi ride home.

I am looking forward to hanging out with my new friends in the future. They always have questions about life in the US and it's seemingly Korean nature to be very complimentary. It's almost hard not to be vain. The group I hang out with on Wednesday nights (Andrew, Sady, Hyun-A) all seem to think I'm handsome and like to tell me this every time they see me. I also heard "You look smart" for the first time in my life. It's been nice to be here and seemingly be respected and thought well of by everyone. I have no enemies or people who would only look to exploit me. I'm starting to learn a little more Korean though I have much to learn. I'm going to buy a couple of beginner workbooks and have some of them teach me the basics. In return, I teach them American slang. Juice, the bartender at Metro, loves to call his necklace 'bling' now that I've told him that's what his jewelry is. His wife brought in some chocolate covered strawberries one night last weekend and he gave one to me. He also always makes sure to pour a shot or two of bailey's in my guinness. Now that Steve is leaving, I think I'm becoming the new favorite westerner there by the bartenders. I'm learning the Korean words to a song, Superman by Norazo, that they dance to during their 'magic show.'

Let's see...otther things...it was Valentine's Day here this past weekend. In Korea, Valentine's Day means the women get things for the men. That said, the men get women gifts on White Day next month. They have love-related holidays on the 14th of every month in order to help boost the birth rate over here. I received Valentine's from my parents and aunt, which were much appreciated. :D I bought some candy for my kids and staff last week. I didn't do anything special, I just used the day to sit at home and relax. I received four packages on the same day last week and attempted to carry three boxes home after work. Food is heavier than I thought and I had to stop a time or two on the way back to rest. It was a good work out, though. I think I'm going to start going to a fitness club here with Andrew to work out. He prefers swimming, but I want to lift weights and run. It will be nice enough outside to run soon, though it snowed last night and today. I don't have good swimming stamina. I'm still at the weight I was when I came over here so at least I haven't gained any despite not really improving my body much yet.

Another new experience that I had this week was going to pay my bills. I went to my bank and they have a machine which scans the bills. I swipe my account book and it deducts the bills straight from there. I then go to the desk and get receipts for the bills. It's definitely different than the US way of paying bills. I still wire home about half of my pay-check each month to pay bills from back there and build a little savings. I do not even use the remaining half of my paychecks from here so I'll have a decent amount to wire back whenever I decide to return home. I sure hope the exchange rate gets better, though. I lose 300,000 from each paycheck by wiring money home...it's currently around 1400/1 USD. Steve wired money home for the first time yesterday and lost $6,000 USD from his year here. That's a painful pill to swallow.

That just about concludes all I have to say. I'll save a little more for a later update. As I mentioned above, things have gone really well this first term and that has led me to start thinking about staying for longer than a year. I highly doubt I stay more than 2 years, but there's closer to a 50/50 chance that I extend my contract for another year when that time comes. With the money I'm saving and the fun I'm having, it's something to think about. I still miss everyone from back home and I hate having to look around to find Illini games online, but those will still be there when I return. I have a long time before having to make the decision. I'll decide within a month or so after returning from Japan this summer. I have to let them know by the end of August to give them enough time to find a replacement for me. I'm just going to keep it on the back of my mind and see how things go at work for these next two terms and then negotiate what it would take to keep me here for a second year. In the meantime, I'm going to start working harder on learning the language which would make a second year more fun.

P.S. I recorded another video last week in a cafe in yawoori. Alan has started to date the woman who owns the place, which is cool. Nothing special at all in the video, just saying hi! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeW94NFS9Rs

Also, because it took me an hour to type this e-mail, I've become too lazy to spell check. Sorry for the mistakes.

Take care, hope everyone is doing well!

Joe

P.S. I'll leave you with a story that one of my friends from training e-mailed me. It's a story that I couldn't possibly have since I'm a male, so just a different look at an adjustment/funny experience that a westerner had over here.

Who knew that going to the bathroom could be so complicated.

First off, not all bathrooms in Korea have traditional toilets. Many have "squatters." They are sort of like urinals in the floor.... you drop your knickers and squat over the hole in the ground and do your thing. This is not easy when wearing slacks, tights and heels.... imagine the consequences of losing your balance.

Second, many apartments, including my own, dont have a shower stall. There is a flexible metal tube connecting a shower head to your sink. You turn a knob and water is redirected from your sink to the showerhead (which by the way is not high enough to actually act as a shower... it hits me about chest level). There is a drain in the middle of my bathroom floor. When I shower, everything gets wet.... walls, floor, sink, toilet, (toilet paper... if i forget to move it) etc. Since yours truly is often a moron, I regularly forget to turn back the knob. Several times a week, I go to wash my hands and whammo! I blast myself with water from the showerhead. Fun!

Recently, I went to the ladies room in a restaurant. After using the potty, I stood up and looked at the toilet... I wanted to flush, but I didnt know which button (all in Korean) to push. So, I chose the big important looking button. Whammo! This was NOT the flush button. It was the bidet! The toilet started blasting me with water. I jumped to the side, but it continued to spray massive amounts of water at the bathroom door... splattering everything, including me, in that bathroom stall. I frantically pushed other buttons, as water pooled around my feet. Mind you, this was not a gentle stream of water.... it could have been used as a pressure washer. Finally, God stopped laughing and turned off the bidet.

I shared these stories with mom. I told her I needed to learn at least enough Korean to operate a public toilet. She said, "Or, you can start wearing a raincoat." I am still chuckling.