Brian's Korean Top 10

I wanted to share some things I've found in the first month of living in Korea that makes this place awesome, or crazy, depending on how you look at it.  In no particular order, here is my Korean Top 10 (I'll do at least one more before I leave, don't worry):

1. Stop lights are more suggestions than law.  Most buses and taxis rarely abide by them when there are no other cars driving through the intersection.

2. The majority of escalators in the subway stations are all motion activated!  They sit motionless if no one is there but once you step on it, it starts to move.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

3.  Speaking of the subway system, you can get ANYWHERE within a 40 mile radius of Seoul by train.  The only bad thing is that it stops running at midnight, but the trains have always been on time with no delays/interruptions so far (hopefully I don't jinx this).

4. One more thing on transportation but taxis here are really cheap.  Most cab rides (of about 10-15 minutes) are about $3-$4.  From Seoul to Suji-gu, which is about 30 miles, for 4 people is about $20-$30.

5. Food is pretty cheap here too.  Kimbap shops are all over and the best inexpensive food I've had.  Usually, we get two entrees (usually soups) with the traditional side dishes and rice for about $10.

6. Hiking here is incredibly popular.  We went out on Saturday and it was as if we went to a Smithsonian museum during the Cherry Blossom Festival.  People were everywhere!

7. The floors in people's homes are heated and have been for hundreds of years!!

8. It's pretty rare for people to have separate showers in their home.  For example, we have a shower head attached to our bathroom sink that we turn on and off with a nob on the faucet.

9. Seoul just made it illegal for girls to wear really short skirts...I'm not sure how they plan to enforce it but we'll see what happens now that the warm weather is right around the corner.

10. In spite of all of the nonsense happening up north, South Koreans go about their business as if nothing is wrong.  Hopefully it's all blows over though and we can enjoy the next 11 months in such a great country.

More to come soon but hopefully you're enjoying the blog!  If you have any suggestions on topics or content, let me know and I'll happily oblige.

More Langcon Pictures

I wasn't sure how to post a picture as a comment to my last post, so here is a picture of the office space at school and of all of the teachers are Langcon.

A Day in the Life at Dayelin Langcon English School

So, I've started my third week of teaching in Korea and I'm still trucking along just fine.  In case you were wondering, a typical day at school goes something like this:

8:45am - This when I usually get to school.  Sometimes a little later but so far, always before 9am.  We have our teacher's meeting at 9:35am every morning and I like to get in a little early so I can get ready for the day.

10:00am - I get to my Kindergarten class a little before 10am as they are finishing up their milk and morning snack (either anchovies, bread or rice cakes).  For the first 10-15 minutes, I have them all sit on the mat for speech time (today's sentence was "today is Tuesday")...fun stuff right?  Sometimes it's like herding cats though but every morning is different.  I also ask each student how they are doing today - with a little laminated sheet that has velcro smiley faces they can choose from.  Most of them either say they are angry because it's funny or happy because they are sweet.  I won't bore you with any more details but we go through the day's work and finish up by 12:30pm when they have lunch in the classroom.

12:30pm - I have an hour for lunch each day and the food is provided by the school.  It is different each day but rotates every week or two.  Since I've been here, I don't think we've had the same meal twice but I'm sure that'll change.  It's good either way so I'm not complaining.  All of the foreign teachers eat in our communal office (I forgot to take a picture today but will post one later).

1:30pm - After lunch I go back downstairs to spend another 30minutes with my kindergarteners for either music, science or PE.  It's usually pretty easy and I'm back upstairs before I know it.

~ I should preface this by saying that the building has two floors with a basement.  The auditorium, jungle gym and theme park are in the basement, Dayelin Kindergarten is on the 1st floor and Langcon Elementary school is on the 2nd floor. ~

2:00pm - With kindergarten over, I have 30minutes to prep/wait for the elementary students to arrive at the school.

2:30pm -.... This depends on the day but right now I have four classes on Monday and Friday, two classes on Tuesday and Thursday and five classes on Wednesdays.  All are English classes, varying levels, except for one match class I teach on Wednesdays.  My oldest kids are 5th/6th graders and the youngest are 8 year olds.  Class size varies from 8-11 students which is great because anymore and I would've gone insane by now.

I'm done by 6:45pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday's and by 5:40pm on Tuesday and Thursday.  Overall, it's not that bad of a schedule.  I have a two hour break between my two classes on Tuesday/Thursday which is nice but each day has it's ups and downs.  Either way, this is merely a means to travel around and to get to know Korea, so it's all worth it.  More to come soon though!

Dayelin Langcon English School

Playtime for my kindergarten class today

Another angle of the classroom during playtime

Living arrangements our first week in Korea

We arrived in Korea before some of the other teachers' contracts had ended so until they moved out, the school put Sarah and I into a temporary small apartment.  For one person, it wouldn't have been that bad, but with two of us, it was a "comfortable" 9 days.

Some of the apartment features include:
Washer (no dryer)
Twin-size bed
Heated floors (common in pretty much every Korean household, dating back thousands of years)
A/C unit
Mini-fridge
One stovetop burner
Some cabinet space
Bathroom (The shower head connected to the sink with a switch to change water to and from the sink and shower)
Small closet
Drying room to hang our washed clothes to dry
TV (equipped with cable)
Small table with 2 chairs
Internet (wireless and hardwire)

I'll post some pictures of our 2 bedroom apartment soon, but needless to say, we are happy to finally be in our permanent home for the year!

Worst...Meal...Ever...

So...imagine that you're walking around on a cold, windy, winter day ready for a hike.  You've grossly underestimated the extremity of the weather and you're still trying to shake off the remnants of the previous night.  You've set off in the general direction of what looked to be the closest mountain, hunger is taking over and you are losing your motivation to the brisk Korean air.  You need something to help warm up...

Since neither Sarah or I have mastered Hangul (the Korean alphabet) or many of the words yet, pictures have been a crucial crutch to help us get around town, especially with our food choices.  We had already walked a couple of miles toward the distant mountain when we and desperately needed a break.  We saw but dismissed several restaurants before spotting an authentic looking place with pictures of some soups in the window.  It was welcoming, warm and very "Korean" looking so we went in, took our shoes off and found a table.

Once seated, a young Korean girl came with some warm tea and two menus, which were merely a 1/4 sheet of paper with about 15 options.  We asked her to explain the food choices on the menu but she was only able to describe the 1st two things in English.  Both were noodles but one was hot and one was cold.  We were starving and running out of daylight for our hike so we opted for her suggestions.

We enjoyed the tea, which was very similar to a cup of water with a bullion cube, but it was warm, satisfying and hit the spot, unlike the entrees that were brought to the table.  All we wanted was something to help warm us up before spending the next couple of hours hiking outside.  What we got was a bowl of buckwheat noodles, soaked in a tub of iced cabbage water and topped with a hard boiled egg and some vegetables...you can see the chunks of ice floating around in the picture below.  Sarah's 'hot' option included a bit of spicy sauce and a few extra vegetables.

It was a pretty funny situation given our expectations.  I'm all for trying new things, but this dish was one of the most difficult things I've ever tried to eat.  Each bite was worse than the one before.  After about 10 minutes of uncontrollable laughter and fishing for something edible, we gave up, paid and left.  Life is full of surprises and hopefully this will be the 1st of many to come in our Korean adventure!

        

       Restaurant Menu

Atop the Mountain

     

Mul-laeng-myon (ice noodles)