The Reason I Am Here

It is time I devote a blog to the hagwan that I am really happy I have become a part of. I have heard many horror stories of other schools, so I truly do feel very lucky to have been placed in one that is clean and has some really great staff and kids. The interior designer inside me also appreciates the decor and color scheme.

The view from the hallway. We are located on the 4th floor.
Color Scheme: green, blue, yellow, red/orange

We have 13 classrooms, each decorated in one of the 4 colors from the color scheme.

Our largest classroom size is about 14 students.

I enjoy teaching in the yellow and green rooms the best. I get sleepy in the blue rooms, and the orange room is too orange. Luckily, I don't have a class in the orange room...knock on wood.

The teacher's room: it looks a little crazy, but it is actually really fun
to talk to all the teachers. As anyone who ever tried to study with me in
college knows, I would rather socialize than work.



My personal work space...luckily I am on the end,
so I have some breathing room.

That is it in a nutshell. I like all the colors and overall it is a great work environment.

Sunae

I am quickly learning my way around my little neighborhood of Sunae and/or Bundang. I see many interesting things on my little travels, and I have come to the conclusion that Sunae must have more playgrounds per capita than any other town in the world. All the playgrounds appear to be in great condition, and each offers different features for different interests. I have only seen one playground that restless teens have detroyed with their many cans of spray paint.

I don't know who did this, but I am glad they like Daft Punk.

One important feature of Sunae is the department store called the Lotte. This is about 4 or 5 stories of shopping greatness. It is also the subway station for my neighborhood. The basement is my gateway to many places.


Something that has been bothering me: the majority of the ads use white models.

Top: Buildings to the Right of the Lotte.
Bottom: Buildings to the Left of the Lotte.

There are many high rise apartment buildings in South Korea. Where Koreans lack any efficiency or rationale in many areas, I have to give them credit that they may have found something with the way they move. Are those pesky stairs and small elevators making your move difficult?


Never fear, the ginormous outdoor furniture elevator is here!

Just pack your boxes, open your window, and shove them out onto the giant platform waiting outside. No hassles, no gimmicks, no staircases, no elevators.


Once your belongings are loaded on the platform, the operator will push the down button, quickly and efficiently delivering your items to the moving truck on the ground below. I think this could be a good lesson for any of us who live in high rise apartments, which, at the moment I cannot think of anyone I know that does.

The Movie-Going Experience

One of my all time favorite things to do in this world is to see movies. I was apprehensive how this pastime and South Korea would work together. Well my friends, I am excited to say that it will work out just fine. I now know where the movie theater is and how the process works, and will hopefully be able to see some good movies while I am here. This is the Korean movie-going experience:

1. In Korea, you arrive early to buy your seats, not to save your seats...to buy them. The seats are all assigned seating, like in a live theater. So when you pay for your ticket, you look at the screen of available seats and pick the ones that will provide you with the most comfortable and enjoyable movie watching experience. No more arriving early, waiting in line, and running into the theater to save seats for you and your friends who are habitually late, with your coats, hats, arms, scarves, and purses.

2. After you have purchased your ticket with an assigned seat printed on it, feel free to have a leisurely dinner, a nice stroll, heck, get your hair did. You have all the time in the world before the movie starts, and seat with your name on it.

3. Once you meander back to the theater, have a seat in the lobby. Enjoy the salty smells of freshly popped popcorn and take in all the people watching greatness that a movie theater lobby can offer. No need to wonder when you will be allowed to enter your theater, there is a screen that will tell you when your theater is ready to be seated.

4. Once you are in the seat you hand picked, sit back and enjoy the 20 minutes worth of strange Korean commericals and jingles and ask yourself "What the hell was that?" after each one. If you're lucky, they may play the same commerical two times in a row, so that you can be just as confused as you were the first time. And when the movie finally starts, rejoice that you can finally understand what is going on, and most of the others around you are forced to read subtitles, while simulataneously trying to watch the action packed movie. It was an incredibly pleasant experience and I cannot wait to do it again.

A Tale of Two Cheaters

After a month and a half of teaching, I have officially caught my first cheater. I felt emotions I never expected to feel when I realized what was happening. It has got to be one of the most blatant attempts at cheating, ever, in the history of cheating. It went a little something like this:

I was giving a science vocab quiz at the beginning of class. Every day, without fail, a group of 4 boys sit in the back of the classroom, 2 in front of the other 2. As I was patrolling the classroom to prevent any attempts at cheating, I noticed something on the back of one of the boys' coats. I came closer to inspect, when I realized that it was the entire science vocabulary packet (yes it was more than one page) taped to the back of this students' coat. This gave the two boys that sit behind him a full view of every answer to the quiz. I am sure I turned bright red as I ripped the packet from the jacket while simultaneously asking "Are you cheating?"...and a little bit louder now..."ARE YOU CHEATING?" I grabbed the tests from them and walked to the front of the room, plotting the students demise. When I got to the front of the classroom I said calmly yet firmly "Jim [not his real name], you are coming with me after class." I proceeded to teach class as if nothing had happened, and I hope that boy sat there ruminating in true fear. I hope he was so scared that he couldn't even read the words on the page of our current novel, Mary Poppins.

Needless to say, I took him to the science teacher and explained what happened. I was so furious, and have not felt that amount of adrenaline in a long time. I was shaking I was so mad. Cheating is so disrespectful and the way in which he cheated shows what he really thinks of me. As for the boy who was taped up, what did he get out of it? Surely he must have known. It could not have been a surprise to him to have a science vocabulary packet ripped from his back. So I ask you, what did he get out of it? Absolutely nothing. He actually had to study for the quiz and know the answers. As for now, I am not sure of the punishment, but I do know the boys are not allowed to sit together again, and they have lost what little trust I had in them. They are going to have to work over time to see if they can get it back. Right now, it is not looking too good for them.

A South Korean Thanksgiving

Riddle me this: What can you make with a small toaster oven, a microwave, and 4 stove top burners?

Answer: An entire Thanksgiving Meal! Substitute the turkey with chicken breasts in a white wine sauce with mixed herbs, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, deviled eggs, and courtesy of Costco, a pumpkin pie!

All thanks to my amazing friend Erin, with ambition and determination and a little bit of luck, we pulled off an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, complete with hand turkey decorations and western tableware.

Those are the hands of our students.

This was the only package we could find
knives in. Only shortly before dinner we
discovered that the knife was about as useful
as a candle with no matches.

Our meal also included a bottle of Sonoma Valley wine my new co-worker Josh brought with him. He was gracious enough to share it with us on this fine occasion.

For dessert, we had the most delicious pumpkin pie. What is good pumpkin pie without a little whip cream? It was almost plenty good when we discovered that the can of ReadyWhip cost 15,000 won which is roughly $15. But then you would be underestimating our ingenuity. Erin purchased a few cartons of whipping cream, to which you add your own sugar, and whip for as long as your forearm holds out. [insert dirty joke here] The result is the same taste, with a somewhat different consistency.

All in all, it was a fabulous evening and a nice reminder of home, with some new friends. One of our Korean teachers, Christine, came over for the celebration. She was a good sport and tried all of our American food. Unless she was lying to us, I believe she enjoyed most of it.

L to R: Erin, Christine, Amanda, Josh

It's Official, I'm an Alien and No Matter How Old I Get I Will Always Love "The Magic School Bus"

On December 1, 2010 I became an alien resident of South Korea. I had to go through an intense fast and rigourous health examination to gain this privelege. Apparently I was the only person that was told not to smile for my picture, and that produced this little gem...

No, I am not angry.
Yes, this is the picture on my alien card.

Now a few classroom stories:

1. The textbooks for a few of my reading classes are those textbooks that we used in elementary school with several short stories and discussion questions. One of the stories we got to read was a script from "The Magic School Bus" tv show. I assigned parts to each of the kids, and we read it like a play. Some of them are actually really good actors. I might start a side business as a child talent agent and work on exploiting the South Korean market. Needless to say, I highly enjoyed reliving an educational cartoon from my past with the new generation. Thank you Ms. Frizzle for always coordinating your dresses with the lesson of the day...I think my favorite ensemble was the outerspace dress. The moral of the story? Disguise education within the confines of a zany cartoon and children might actually learn something from tv.

2. We read a mystery story in another reading class and finished reading with a few moments to spare. I told the students to use the remaining time to write a mystery story of their own. This one was too priceless not to share. It is from a student named Alex, who laughs at the most random things, but failed to understand my joke when I told him that he is easily amused. I guess we have that in common.

"Help, Help
Who has stoled my 100 million dollar said amanda. The CIS team leader Christine [Christine is a Korean teacher] came. And amanda explain about story that she was sleep and the robber come and stoled a bag that has 100 million dollar.
That is all my property!!! she cried.

Don't cried, she [Christine] said. How was the robber's silhouette?

He was tall and bald hair and I think he is a best of best robber, and she [Me] keep crying.

Christine listen and see the CIS homepage and see the best robber. She thinks that Nick [Nick is one of my co-workers and he is tall with a shaved head] and Steve might have done it, but Steve haven't the time, he eat dinner with family. So Nick is the culprit.

Then 3 days ago he do self-surrender. He stole because he is punished by his parents."

3. I bet you had no idea, that The Simpsons is so popular over here, but it is. There are pencil bags and face covers with Lisa's face plastered all over them. One boy drew the entire family on the back of his test. I just found it interesting that when we were discussing The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, the kids couldn't contain themselves and continued to mutter Simpson while they snickered. Felt like I was teaching back in the States.

Lastly, I "stumbled upon" this amazing picture, and I LOVE it.

All I Ever Wanted Was a Washing Machine

I am proud to announce that I am the new owner of a washing machine. I was told to expect someone at around 10:30 this morning, but as with the Comcast man, it is really more of a time range between 10 and 12. Luckily today he showed up at 10, just in time for me to still be in my PJs. As nothing is ever as I think it will be, this experience proved to be no different. I answered the door, to find my landlord standing there, and I could see a washer sitting in the front yard. How it got there, no one knows. My landlord instructed me to "help" while pointing at the washer waiting below. Of course I must help carry my own washer up the stairs, good old South Korea, you're always good for a laugh.

I bent down to lift with my knees, and my only handhold was underneath said washer. Insert horror violin music here. As I got closer to the bottom of the washer, almost in slow motion, I noticed little hairs reminiscent of pubies stuck along the bottom of the washer. It was at this point that I turned my brain off and grabbed the underside of the washer only to discover that it was wet and slightly slick where my fingertips touched. Again, I had to limit my brain activity and just get the job done.

As if by some Universal Decree, things can never just simply go as planned. The washer would not fit through my sliding glass doors onto the porch, so we had to put it down inside my apartment. I took this quick second to question what that brownish guck on my fingers might possibly be. My powerhouse landlord removed the sliding doors and we tried again. This time the porch was not quite wide enough to allow for the washing machine. I was slightly disheartened, but this little mismeasure did not bother my landlord. He proceeded to hack at the wall and remove its contents, which bear a striking resemblance to styrofoam, in order to accommodate my washer. His adorable wife came in to sweep up all the styrofoam bubbles that got everywhere as a result of his hack job. I could also tell that by the sounds she was making that she was not too pleased by her husband's demolition job.

Nonetheless, after about an hour he got all the tubes plugged into the right holes, and gave me a basic tutorial of how my new appliance works. I have no hot water, and I am not allowed to do laundry if it is colder than -5 degrees (not sure if that is C or F) but I am now free to do laundry!



Washing machine...take notice of the missing wall.



We have no dryers, so I am forced to hang dry my clothes.



Hey, North Korea, Thanks A Lot

So as I am sure most of you have heard by now, North Korea has attacked South Korea. Apparently they do so every few months and only manage to do a little damage, or unfortunately kill military men. However, this time they began shooting at a tiny island close to the coast of North Korea. There is a military base on the island, but it is mainly home a to a small fishing community and innocent South Korean Citizens. 2 of these citizens were killed in the attack, which has been called one of the worst bombardments of South Korea's territory since the Korean War in the early '50s.

There is an air of uncertainty in my neck of the woods. Some people say that North Korea won't try anything more, while others think that there could be an all out war. It has been hard for me to decide where to land on this spectrum, I feel obviously better when I speak to people who say that it will blow over, and a sense of dread when my coworker tells me that her mother-in-law says to leave the country right away. In the end it ultimately becomes a waiting game, I have no control over this situation. If worst does come to worst, I can leave. The children that live here do not have that option. Since the attack, impending war has become a popular topic of conversation in the teachers office as well as in the classroom. I was teaching my last class of the day on Tuesday, the day of the attack, and one of my students told me she was afraid about the war. I told her that I was nervous too, but that it would all be ok. She replied that it was not bad for me because I could leave, but she had no where to go. There it is folks, the reason for this blog post.

At the risk of sounding like a condescending ass hole, I must devote some time to this. As an American, I have never had to deal with a war in my own country. These things are fought in other places on other continents, worlds away from me. I was little affected personally by this. Now I am in a country that is potentially on the brink of war, and it is the weirdest feeling. I have lived 25 years and, trust me, I have felt a lot of emotions, but this is one for the record books. I am slightly scared, yet incredibly disgusted that people can do this to one another. It makes me sick to my stomach that throughout the history of the world, people have ruled with fear and have hurt and killed others for their own gain, and worse yet, that people have not learned from this and overcome this barbaric lifestyle. These children that I have had the pleasure of getting to know over the past month, are worried about war, about what may come next. An issue that most of us have never dealt with. Count your blessings as an American, for what it is worth. You can sleep peacefully and your children have not laid awake at night upset about a little three letter word, and the prospect of dying. Let this sink in and please think about it a little.

I don't know what the outcome of this situation will be, but I do think it is more serious than skirmishes in the past. I guess we shall see what the next few days bring. Also, I have been here for exactly one month today...what a way to start my adventure.

Seoul Lantern Festival

My first adventure slash tourist excursion was last weekend when Erin took me to the Seoul Lantern Festival. Here I am, excited on the bus:

Erin and I had received a Starbucks Christmas coffee tumbler and a free Starbucks drink, from one of our students for Pepero Day. On this day (11.11) the students buy Pepero (small chocolate covered sticks) for their teachers in bulk. Unfortunately, I arrived too close to Pepero Day for most of my students to know me well enough to bestow the sacred Pepero upon me. However, one student went above and beyond the call of Pepero Day and gave me the very item I was wishing I had thrown in my suitcase, a coffee tumbler. Because of this, Erin and I had decided to start out our Seoul day trip with a stop at one of the few Starbucks in Korea that has a Starbucks sign written in Korean.


Yes, that somehow says Starbucks.



Top: The ads in Korean. Bottom: Erin and I enjoying our $6.50 drinks,
drinking out of a straw, as is customary here.

On we went to a market in Namdaemun (I am making up that spelling, but it is pronounced Nom-day-moon). It is where I will be buying most of your Christmas presents, and it is jammed packed with so much stuff it is a little sickening. There are also people covering every inch of every free space within sight, so I made a mental note to return on a weekday.

At the equally crowded Lantern Festival, I enjoyed the sights, just not the crowd. Here are a few pictures to show you how pretty it was. Keep in mind these are all made out of paper!

So beautiful and definitely worth the trip into Seoul! Until next time ~Peace and Blessings, Peace and Blessings~

Pack Your Bags and Come With Me on This Power Trip

I am now in my third week of teaching, and I have had some time to get on some of the kids' good sides. I have also had time to make some of the children really dislike me, which in Korean culture generally means that they have to try extra hard to impress me. Korea is a shamed society, but I will explain more in a minute. This brings me to my first story.

1. I teach 3 kinds of classes: reading, listening, and novel study/writing. Reading and listening classes are the two easiest classes to teach and involve the least amount of prep work and grading. Novel/writing classes are a different matter all together. In these classes the students are reading a novel. There is a workbook that corresponds to this novel. The students must answer 10 questions, write a summary, write a paragraph about what they think will happen in the next chapter, define 10 words from the chapter, and use 5 of these words in a sentence. For EACH chapter! On top of that, there are journal books. It is my duty to assign a new journal topic (English level appropriate of course) and the students must write an outline, a first draft, and a second draft. You think that is a lot? The students are also assigned a speech topic every month, which also includes an outline, a first draft, and a second draft. I am exhausted just telling you about it, and I am the one who has to grade all this stuff!

Now, in my advanced novel/writing class, I have a lot of students with 'tude. But none as bad as Lucy H. Lucy H. is in a class all on her own. Part "brown-noser" part "know-it-all," she is a mixture of vanity and narcism with a schotsche of pretentious anxst and loves to hear the sound of her own voice. Yesterday a boy asked a question about a character in the book, and she turned in her seat to haughtily ask him: "Did you even read the book?" Whoa down girlfriend. For our latest journal topic, I gave them the prompt "Would you rather win 1,000,000won today or 5,000,000won in one year?" Little did I know what dire consequences this would have. The following is a note I receieved in the blank section where Lucy H.'s outline was supposed to have been, and her actual journal entry. Do enjoy.

"*Note to teacher: I don't like this topic and it did not make me think or write a lot. Please make sure you think before giving us a topic.*

Though many people prefer more money, I don't care. But last thing I'd like to do is wait. But to get money from someone for no reason is not a good thing unless they are your grandparents. If it's someone that you don't know, it just makes me feel like a foolish freak who doesn't have any money.

I personally won't get any money unless I've won a lottery. So if this thing is about lottery, I would get it right away.

You must notice that I might be dead next year due to a *deases or something. Then that money goes straight back to the lottery company.

But if it were a stranger asking me "Do you want 1,000,000won today, or 5,000,000won in an year?" I'd probably yell at him "Do I look like I don't have any money? I don't need any money from YOU!"

In conclusion, I will never wait and get 1,000,000won or none. I think this is making people be obsessed with money."

This has to be one of the funniest and most infuriating things I have read in a long time. Needless to say I pulled her into the hall at the end of class and gave her the smack down! Later I expressed my concern that her mother could be angry with me for scolding her and call the school to complain. My friend Erin told me that Korea is a shamed society, and that if her mother did call, it would be to apologize profusely for Lucy's behavior. I could get used to this.

2. I have had the challenge of learning over 100 students' English names over the past few weeks, and I think that I know mostly everyone by now. Learning names will always be a challenge for teachers the world over, but I must say that I am presented with the extra task of keeping up with the names these students have chosen. For example, when I tired of the name Amanda, I chose to go by Mandy, a relatively close variation of my given name. When my Korean students tire of their names, they can pick a new one all together, and no one says boo. In one class alone, I had a Grace change to Lou, a Lucy change to Clara, and an Ally change to Amy because "Ally was too boring." So now I am constantly struggling to stay on top of all the names, new and old, that I am asked to remember.

3. In one of my novel/writing classes, we are reading Pippi Longstocking. In the book, one character curls her hair in preparation for Pippi Longstocking's birthday party. I asked the class if their mothers have curling irons and curl their hair...to which they replied no, but lots of boys do. One girls' brother frequently curls his hair. Another has a father with a curled coif. So if I have told any of you that I am not going to be dating a Korean male because they are too effeminate for my taste, this should explain why. I have been observing the male hairstyle trend since that class period and I do think that men spend more time on their hair in this country than women do. Just an interesting observation.

4. In a reading class, we were reading an exerpt of Little House on the Prairie, and one of the men in the story had a moustache. I asked the class if they knew what a moustache was, and it was clearly obvious that they didn't understand the concept when they replied "nose hair." After explaining that moustache hair does not grow out of the nose, but slightly under it, I told the class that in America, many men grow moustaches. One boy asked "Does your dad have a moustache?" and I replied "Yes, yes my father did have a moustache for many years." I would like to take a moment to remember that moustache......
Then the light bulb in my head went off. Not only do Korean men not grow moustaches, they do not grow any facial hair whatsoever. Then I began to miss the bearded mountain men of my former life. I think I am going through mountain man withdrawal. I would love to see some plaid, or boots that aren't Uggs, or even Carhart's for god sake! The men in this country wear the most stylish jeans I think I have ever seen in my life. Eat your heart out Beverly Hills.

My Bachelorette Pad

Some of you have been dying to see my humble abode, so here is it in all its glory. But before we do, I would just like to take a minute to remember the 7 nights I spent sleeping on the floor.

I will play 'The Glad Game' here and say that at least I had something to sleep on.

Now get ready for greatness........drum roll please.....................

My kitchen.

The view out of my window...that is another building.

My dining room/entertainment center.

My BED! That gigantic window actually looks directly into another apartment window. I have noticed that Korean's will put windows anywhere and everywhere, despite the view.

I have this patio thing that looks into all my neighbors windows.

My bathroom...notice there is no shower stall...I have to stand in front of the mirror and use the hand sprayer to bathe myself. That has been interesting.

This is my thermastat. I have to push the green button when I want hot water, and the blue one when I leave. That is about all I know how to do with this thing.

And there ya have it folks, my tiny studio apartment in South Korea. If you noticed, the walls are incredibly bare and I would love any and all types of artwork and pictures sent my way! Peace out girl scouts!

In Over My Head

My first week of teaching went by in a crazy flash. I am not sure I was completely present mentally, maybe I was still in shock and jet lagged with a side of scared out of my mind. I will tell you all I can remember and the stories that I find to be the most note worthy.

For the most part, the kids are really cute and sweet, and I would say that with any culture, they get worse with age. My younger classes have cuter kids but more of a language barrier with some of them, so that is difficult. My older classes probably have the language but the attitude to match it, not to mention the ability to talk shit about me in a different language, right in front of my face. Some notable stories include:

1. Keep in mind that we just had Halloween recently when you read this story. I was taking attendance and this girl in the front, Grace, wouldn't stop laughing. All the kids were talking to each other back and forth about something in Korean. I was trying to get the class under control when a boy says "She think you look like dracula." I gave them a puzzeled look and they all pointed to their teeth. I do have very sharp canine teeth, and this stupid girl in front decided I looked like a vampire. I am sending in my audition tape to the Twilight Series this afternoon...

2. I was on my way to teach my third class ever, and upon entering the classroom I see the kids huddled in a circle around one boy, who is on the floor crying. It goes without saying that I immediately found someone else to deal with this crisis. That would have been a little too much for me on my first day.

3. I was walking around the classroom checking everyone's workbooks to make sure they had done corrections, and I came to this kid who had his notebook out. I looked at the notebook and there was a picture of a mean, monster-like person with an arrow pointing to it that said Amanda. I probably turned bright red, and I pointed at the drawing. He looked down at the drawing, then up at me, and all I could think to say was "that's not very nice." That'll show him...

In America, we name children two given names followed by the surname. In Korea, the surname comes first followed by one given name. For my school, the kids choose English names to go by, and honestly I couldn't be happier because the kids laugh at my pronunciation enough without having to pronounce each child's Korean name. For some reason Lucy, Sally, Emily, and Jessica are the most popular girls names. John, James, Andy, and David round out the boys' most popular names. If there is more than one child in a class with the same name, they become 1s and 2s, for example, Lucy-1 and Lucy-2. I do appreciate creativity, for example one of my favorite boys chose the name Albert (how cute?) or another little girl chose Bennet. Maybe I should start grading on English name originality instead of how good their English skills are.

The Tortoise and the Hare

Korea is the tortoise. I am the hare. After I arrived I was repeatedly told that Korean's are never on time, nor do they ever do things when they say they will. This is fine, I don't mind waiting a few extra minutes for the bus or the answer to an important question...but I do mind when you tell me I will be getting my apartment furntiture on Monday and it doesn't arrive until Wednesday.There is a big difference between sleeping on the floor until Sunday night and sleeping on the floor until Tuesday night. I guess it is something I must become accustomed to seeing as I will be here for a year. All whining aside, I did receive my furniture (pictures to come) and I finally have a bed to rest my weary body upon. For anyone that doesn't know, I highly enjoy the fine art of home decoration and design. I moved everything around to where I like it, and it felt really good to play house after not having a place of my own since July. The movers thought it was perfectly acceptable to put my bed in the kitchen and my refridgerator between my bathroom and my armoire, and with enough HGTV viewing hours to get a pilots license, I knew better.

I feel I must devote some time to the Korean public bus system. It has been interesting getting to know my main mode of transportation for the next year. Were you aware that someone, in their infinite wisdom, thought that making busses manual instead of automatic was a great idea? And worse yet, that Korea would say yes, let's spend billions of Won buying as many of these stick shift busses as we can? Yes Ladies and Gentleman, this has happened, and I must say that I never got car sick before having to ride on these dreadful contraptions. And heaven forbid you get stuck standing on one of them. I was standing the other day and thought I was going to fly out the front window. There are a select few chairs that have yellow seat covers on them. This means that if the bus is full and an old person or pregnant lady get on, and you are sitting in a yellow chair, you must give it up to said old/pregnant person. I fully believe that this has nothing to do with respect or values, and more to do with the fact that old/pregnant people have a higher likelihood of falling over, so the Public Bus President made this a rule for legality purposes.

Good Thing I Only Went 4 Days Without Hearing Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'

While Bundang is incredibly westernized, it still has its own distinct culture. I stole Erin's idea from her blog so I will make lists of interesting things I have learned and observed during my first days here.

1. Korean’s believe that you are already 1 year old when you are born. So that would make me 26 years old. When the New Year rolls around you become one year older, no matter when your birthday is. So as of New Years 2011, I will be 27 years old. I had no idea this whole experience would age me so quickly.
2. Korean’s drive on the right side of the road, but they don’t seem to understand the concept of staying in one lane…which makes me incredibly grateful that I won’t be driving here.
3. Korean’s do celebrate Halloween by dressing up but they don't really go door to door asking strangers for candy. What a concept.
4. My students will call me "teacher" or "Amanda teacher." I kind of miss "Miss Amanda" but that is ok.
5. Korean's use heated floors instead of central heating. I must say that is works really well as every place I go is really warm, except for my school. For whatever reason it is absolutely FREEZING inside!
6. When you enter someone's home you should remove your shoes as a sign of respect. I also learned that a person's home is their sanctuary and a very private and special place. Being invited to a Korean's home is a very rare occurence and is a great honor.
7. My new friend Erin has told me that shopping is a national pasttime here in Korea, and I am quickly learning how true that is. Every store I have been to here has been as busy as U.S. stores are on Christmas Eve. And everyone has shopping bags. Everyone also has really, really nice cars. I have not seen a single rusted out junker in this city.
8. In order to throw my trash away, I must purchase special trash bags, which happen to be bright pink, and I just place it outside my apartment building on the sidewalk. A trash truck comes around and collects the trashbags.
9. Hello is "Anyang haseo" (On-yong Ha-say-o)
10. Thank you is "Kahasamnida" (Kom-som-nee-da)
11. I have tried some traditional foods and I have to say that I have liked most of them. Sorry Dad, I did try Kimchi, but it was in a spicy hot sauce so I didn't enjoy it. Mandu (Mon-doo) are potstickers and you can get them boiled or fried. Bee bim bop is a rice dish. Tangsuyuk (Tong-soo-yook) is fried pork and is by far the best thing I have tried. Jjajang bap (Ja-jong-bop) is rice with a black bean sauce and is sweet, and pretty tasty. I guess I don't understand how Korean's are so skinny because they eat an awful lot of fried food!

I still have so much more to learn, and I am learning slowly, but that is what this experience is all about. I won't be getting paid a full paycheck until December 15th, so for this next month and 15 days I will be living frugally and simply. Hopefully after that I can start to travel and see new places and learn more new things. I get my furniture and hopefully the internet tomorrow as well as begin teaching my first classes. Big Monday for me! I will have 5 classes on MWF and 6 classes on TTh. Wish me luck! Peace out girl scouts.

I Must Have Really Good Luck with Girls Named Erin

Out of all the people I will be working with, I have found and clung to one that stood out the night I met her, Erin. I have never been more grateful to one individual in a shorter amount of time than I have been to her. She took me under her wing and showed me lots of things on my first day in Bundang (pronounced Boon-dong). We went to the bank and exchanged my money, she took me to Daiso the Japanese dollar store (BEST place I have ever been to), Tom N Tom’s for some coffee and showed me how the local bus system works. She is also hilarious and we get along really well, and she is the reason I will be really successful here.

I have continued to explore my surroundings with my new BFF Erin and it is absolutely GORGEOUS here! It is also incredibly westernized and I have access to McDonald’s, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Emart (Korea’s version of Target), Home Plus (Korea’s version of Wal-Mart), and Daison (Korea’s Japanese version of Dollar Tree). I got really lucky to have arrived here during the last of the beautiful fall weather. The city I live in is pretty affluent. I live in an apartment building that is a 5 minute walk up a steep hill from the school I work at. Here are some of the sights I see on a daily basis:



My apartment building. My apartment is directly up a half flight of stairs from the front door.



The building and wilderness across the street from my apartment building.



My street sign.

I will post pictures of my actual apartment after I get furniture in it! Right now there is nothing to see...

I will be teaching at a hogwan (hog-won) which is a private school. That means that the students have school during the day and then their parents send them to my school to learn English in the evening. I will be teaching classes from 4:25 PM to 10:20 PM Monday-Friday!



This is the building where I teach. The blue sign about 5 floors up that says HR is for my school. Most of the buildings here cover their windows with signs.



The Dunkin Donuts across the street from my school. We don't even have these in CO anymore!

That is my little neighborhood in a nutshell. I can take a local bus to the busy part of town or the city bus to go shopping at the big stores, so I will get pictures of those places later.

Back To Sleeping on the Floor

My flight to Korea was really long and uneventful so we will skip that part of my journey. Suffice it to say that I got to drink wine on the plane and I still only slept a total of about 2 and a half hours out of a 13 hour flight…I can’t sleep on airplanes! When all was said and done I was awake for about 24 hours from leaving my house in Colorado to arriving at my school. Yes, the cab driver was instructed to drop me off at my school instead of my new apartment. Of course I would get to meet all of my new co-workers looking like a hot mess and not smelling much better. A Korean boy named Leo met me at the cab and took my hot mess self and my luggage to the 4^th floor of the building, where I got to meet my new boss, Harry. He seems very nice and he doesn’t speak much English. I have also been told that he is very uncomfortable around white women, especially when they cry, which I fully expect to do at some point here in the next few weeks.

Harry sat me down in his office and proceeded to tell me that I have an apartment, but no furniture in the apartment. He said “You come at bad time.” And I thought “You’re the one who bought my ticket.” There are eight foreign teachers, and I am here to replace Steve. When Steve leaves at the end of the month, they are going to move all of his furniture to my place. For now, I have Harry’s son’s twin size futon pad on the floor. And nothing else. No washing machine, no refrigerator, no internet, no BED! At this point I was literally the walking dead so this news didn’t phase me too much. I met all of my new coworkers and they all seem so nice and helpful, which is the only reason I am still sane at this point. That nights’ sleep was the best sleep I have had in a long time.

This Must Be What It Feels Like To Go Sky Diving

Words cannot describe the feeling of sheer terror I felt on Tuesday morning when I left. I have never been more nervous and plane sick in my life and the three hour flight from Denver to San Francisco was the worst flight I have ever been on. The best way to describe the way I was feeling is to compare it to going sky diving. Now, only handful of people have actually been skydiving (Kelly – you go GIRL! (I do suggest you hire a manager now)) but I would consider the two experiences very similar. When you decide you are going to hurl your body from a moving plane thousands of feet in the air, you sound like a fun, adventurous person. You tell everyone that you are going to sky dive on October 26^th. Everyone is super impressed and they have lots of questions about it. They tell you that they could never do such a thing, but that you are amazing for doing so. The day comes and you feel slightly nauseous thinking “what did I get myself into?” Despite any reservations you get into the car to go to the airport. You fill out paperwork, get all suited up and board the plane. You have the entire plane ride to think about what you signed yourself up for and to consider the consequences of your decision. Then the time comes where you have to stand up, walk to the open door, close your eyes and jump.

Ok, now change the sky diving to moving to Korea and the story is exactly how I felt that morning, minus the jump suit and actually jumping from the plane. The jumping in my experience is slightly more metaphorical. I think I can best sum up my feelings by what I said through my tears when I had to say goodbye to my darling Julie (having you gotten that manager yet?): “It has been fun talking about it but I don’t actually want to do this.” In short, I was scared shitless (sorry Mom!) and if I had gotten a dollar for every time I thought “What did I get myself into?” I would be a millionaire.

Homeless and Overwhelmed by Toiletries

As many of you may know, I decided to go on this adventure very close to the end of my lease at my last apartment. My lease ended in June, and I was lucky enough to move my things to Josselyn’s apartment for the month of July. Then I became homeless… not living on the streets as that word connotes, but I had no place to call my own, and worse yet, no bed of my own! So many awesome friends stepped up and offered to let me stay at their place and invade their homes. These past three months have been somewhat of a nomadic period for me. I would like to give a shout out to my peeps who let me stay with them: THANKS Shaunta and Emily; Melissa and Brandan; Marjorie and Brian and Ethan and Claire; and finally Julie and her wonderful parents. Just FYI, if I mention you in my blog you should probably get a manager and publicist because of impending fame.

In packing for this grand adventure, I became very overwhelmed by all the things I wanted to take with me. I knew I needed to bring lots of clothes, as Asian women and I are built incredibly differently, but it is hard to pack a ginormous suitcase and keep it under 50lbs (it topped out at 47 lbs which shows you what an awesome packer I am). I had the most trouble when it came to my toiletries. I always believed I was one of those women who lived simply without the aid of several beauty products. This experience has proven me very wrong. For example, I am addicted to my face wash. I knew I wouldn’t be able to buy it here, so I packed several bottles. I wanted to bring one of every product because I had no idea what would be available here and how quickly I could have gotten it. So I blame only myself for the weight of my bags.