Beijing Update

Well, less than 3 weeks 'til my adventure to China! I am getting super excited!!! However, there have been a few issues that arose recently.

Street Dumplings

This week has gone by so fast! I love it! I managed to get to bed by around 12:30 last night after talking to Michael for a while. I naturally woke up around 6:30, thinking I should be getting up. It was wonderful to realized that I had another hour and a half to sleep. I knocked out again, and woke up to my alarm.

My first thought was "What did Apple announce last night?!" So I got on my iPad and start typing "apple news..." and nothing popped up. That's strange. Normally this stuff gets a lot of press, and is a huge search topic. I searched and found on MacRumors about the announcement. All in all, I was not too impressed. Of course, it looks cool. But, what I was hoping for was a game changer. Something revolutionary! Like the iPhone 4 was when it was released. This is cool, but in my opinion, the 4S is a better deal... Good thing I won't have to make a decision on getting a phone for another year. Maybe even the iPhone 5.5 will be out ;)

Moving on... I made pancakes for breakfast. Last night I got a measuring cup (the big 4-cup size) and a measuring spoon. I was actually able to measure out my mix and water, and pour from the measuring cup. My pancakes came out golden brown and were as good as, if not better than, IHOP.  (Maybe this isn't true, but in Korea, they are the best.)

I watched Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol all morning and got to work right at 1pm. It was a rainy day today, so I sported my yellow wellies (of course!). Classes were good. I decided on which is my favorite. It's my 3SAP kids. They are only on T/Th unfortunately. I absolutely love them. I think all my good classes are T/Th actually. But these kids are the best. They all participate, there isn't a single one that ignores me when I say to do something, or to stop doing something. While some are brighter than others, they all participate and seem eager to learn. These are the kids that were singing with me on Tuesday. Today we were talking about dancing (actually, I was filling time that I had accidentally left open on the lesson plan) and the different types of dancing (I chose this because their unit is actually about a dance performance). And... I can't believe I did this, but... I did Gangnam Style.

If these kids did not love me before, I'm pretty sure they do now. If you don't know Gangnam Style, you might want to learn, quick. It's a song by a South Korean pop star named Psy who is taking the world, and the US, by storm. Almost all my friends back home are obsessed with this song/music video. The dance is hilarious, and the tune is catchy. So... watch and just picture me as the main guy with the glasses, but in a school classroom, accompanied by giggling Korean children rather than electro-beats. (While you are watching, check out the females' attire - they wear the shortest skirts/shorts, but barely show their chest. Also, the bus scene - the old lady with the visor, I can't go a day without seeing an ajumma like her!)

Well, that was a fun class. :) Otherwise, my day was fairly normal. On the way home, I decided to go out on a culinary branch and try these dumplings. I pass the cart that sells them everyday, on the street in the neighborhood I walk through. They have 3-4 varieties, and Erin Teacher told me they have some kind of meat, BBQ pork she thought, in them. I decided that my severe lack of meat/protein demanded I try them. So, I stopped tonight. I got 4 large dumplings for 2,000W, a pretty good price. They were warm in the bag on my way home and i couldn't wait to try them.

Being the careful eater that I am (there are negative connotations with "picky"), I pulled one apart before I bit into it. The dough outside didn't taste like much, but the juice from whatever meat it was, was kind of sweet. I inspected the "meat" further and decided it wasn't pork. It had the consistency of overcooked beans (kind of mushy), but I couldn't tell what it actually was. Then it hit me... It looked like bug larvae. I couldn't even swallow a bite once my mind got on that idea. I ate the dough around it and put the rest in my Food Waste bag in the freezer. Bummer.... but at least I tried, kinda.

The contents of my dumpling.

In other news, tomorrow is FRIDAY! And this Friday, I have plans. Yes, I'm actually going out, at night, with other people, and socializing! I am so excited! I would hold off to disclose my plans until they have actually happened, but I won't be posting a blog until Saturday afternoon or night, so I might as well.

Tab and I decided we need to go out together, since I haven't been out once since getting to Korea. We decided to go to dinner and get drinks, then party it up in Hongdae (the university area). I get out at 8, and she doesn't get out until 9:30, so we will meet somewhere around 10pm. (I might just take my things to her apartment early since I will be staying the night). Today at work, Michelle was feeling down. I invited her out tomorrow, to take her mind off things. She excitedly said yes! So, she will be joining the festivities. She will come over to my apartment after work, and we will get ready together.

When we decided this, she asked if there was anything I needed. I looked at her a little confused. She explained that in Korean culture, if you go to someone's home, you must bring a gift to thank them for their hospitality. I told her to just bring a bottle of wine she likes :) I can't wait to hang out with both of my favorites in Korea at the same time, and also get my party-on!!! It will certainly make up for my boring Saturday last weekend.

I think that about sums up my Thursday. Sorry I will be skipping tomorrow's blog, but I think it will be worth it for the adventure that will come of it. :) Goodbye until Saturday...

**UPDATE: Erin Teacher and I decided that the dumpling must have been 'red bean paste', a Korean thing that they love that no Westerner really understands... **

Actually Teaching...

I would say that today was my first actually day on the job. Yesterday, I was alone in the classroom, but most of the classes were tests. Today, I actually had to teach!

I got to school about an hour early, because I was quite nervous about being prepared for all my classes. It was nice to be there early because it was actually quiet and not chaotic. I got some work done, mostly grading. I felt like there was probably much more I should have been doing but I couldn't even think of what to do! Eventually, the other afternoon teachers arrived and Erin Teacher helped me go through each class and make sure I was prepared.

They say experience is the best teacher and it is so true. The first class, I was a mess. I couldn't find any of the materials on the computer to show on the screen and the kids were crazy. I had a Korean teacher in the class with me watching ("making sure the kids behave and I can find my way" aka freaking me out!). She was helpful, I must admit. The kids are scared of her. Thats a plus!

My second class got a little better. Most of the classes were starting new Units so there was not as much work to do as there will be later in the month. So, most of the classes I got finished with everything I needed to. It felt weird to be the one making decisions. Of course, there are things I need to do, but then there are situations where I can make the call. If we don't finish a page for homework, I can assign it for homework. AND THEY HAVE TO DO IT! Whaaaat!!

Third class was also new curriculum, but my partner Korean teacher made sure we had the correct books. I swear, these kids have so many books. It makes my head spin! This class, I handed out 3 textbook workbooks, 1 story book, 1 bound spiral workbook, and 2 CDs. Are you serious?! How can I keep this stuff straight?!?!?

2SAP class was the worst, I think. We had to catch up from yesterday with the quiz, and the girls were so talkative (per normal.) It was Sarah's last day so we all took a photo. Apparently, she will be back in a month, though. She's probably the cutest kid I have, I will miss her. We finished the quiz, went over a few questions from the exam that many of them missed, and started book club. The girls also go to the Library on Fridays, so I had to squeeze that in at the end. I ended up assigning some extra homework for book club. I felt bad, but hey, they pay for me to give them work.

The last 2 classes are my 1 hour classes. By then, I was absolutely exhausted, but I was getting the hang of things. In many classes, the content is different, but we do very similar exercises on the same day.

Right before I began my classes, I had a moment. I was getting so overwhelmed with absolutely everything and couldn't keep things straight. I literally had to take 10 minutes and talk myself down. I prayed and had to remember that I am here for a reason! Everyone who does this work feels the way I feel at some point. And everyone gets the hang of things! And, as Erin Teacher pointed out, at least our mistakes don't kill people. Reassuring! ;)

After classes, I was POOPED! I sat down and had a piece of cake (it was one of the Korean teachers' last day so we had a little celebration. I just ate some cake.) We walked home, and Brian Teacher helped me get my suitcases (pre-packed from this morning!) and take them to my NEW APARTMENT!

Maggie Teacher was finishing cleaning and she gave me the how-things-work tour. I learned about getting hot water, working the AC, the stove, and the lights. Once she left, my first task was to get my WiFi set up. The apartments have ethernet cables, but no routers. Luckily, I planned ahead and brought an Apple Airport Express!

This little bad boy allows you to set up a WiFi network anywhere you go with accessible LAN or WAN ethernet. I got it all set up; the name is "You Shall Not Pass!" - can anyone guess the reference? ;)

Once that was set up, I got some pizza from the little place around the block and talked with Michael a little. Pretty soon it was time to go meet up with Tab...

I think I will end this post here, and resume my evening on the next edition....

Sunday Adventure Part II

After my last blog, I met up with Tab. She is a girl that is from my hometown of Perryton, Texas. We didn't really know each other when I lived there, since I was so young and we were not in the same grade. But, a mutual friend put us in touch before we left for Korea. She has been here a few more weeks than me. Tonight we got to meet for the first time! Well, first time we can both remember.

We met at Hongik University subway station. She was familiar with the area, so I met her there. We wanted to get dinner, but since neither of us knew where to go, we just wandered around for like an hour. We went in one restaurant, sat down, but never got any service! So we left. We saw a Hello Kitty! cafe on one side street. Tab insisted we take photos.

Hello Kitty Cafe

Another store we saw was Frisbee. I had read about it on a blog, it's an Apple Authorized Reseller. It's the best place in Seoul to buy Apple Products. It tries to look like an Apple Store, and in my humble opinion, has better accessoies! Haha!

"Apple" store!

See how it looks so much like our store?

Finally, we went to a place that served "Spanish Spicy Chicken" - when we went in, the cute little girl working explained the process to us: order first, then sit and meal is delivered. She also took us through the entire menu. I suspect she wanted to practice her English descriptions of the meals. She was really good though! I ended up getting Spanish Chicken Dinner aka some chicken on the bone grilled with spicy sauce, potatoes and some other kind of side. It was quite nice! Tab got Chicken Paella. We sat and ate and talked for a while.

When we were finished, we decided to walk around the Hongdae area. It was so much more "happenin'" than my part of town! It's next to a university, so I think that contributes to the trendiness. I also liked that many more of the shops had English signs or at least translations. Not all! But more than in my area.

We stopped at a cupcake place and each got a cupcake. It was more like a muffin as far as consistency, and the frosting was extremely light, not thick/creamy. We decided that it was probably healthier.

Vanilla Cupcake had such cute decorations and we loved the world map!

Choco Marshmallow and Choco Chip.

After the cupcakes, we wandered the streets some more. There were music performances and people trying to give us pamphlets, etc. It was so busy! Tab told me at night, when the party scene cranks up, it's insane and there is trash covering the ground and drunk people passed out everywhere.

All the lights! Hongdae area.

We kept seeing stores that said DVD on them, and were curious what they were. We went in one and found out it was where you could rent movies and then watch them in private rooms. It was so sketchy at first, but turned out to be fairly innocent. I mean, I'm sure some dirty things happen behind closed doors, but the movies were normal movies! and the guy working asked us if we wanted to use one of the rooms. So, who knows! It felt like we were going to do a drug deal, though, the way we had to go up stairs and in dark hallways to get to the store. 

We also accidentally found a karaoke room! These are wildly popular in Korea. When you're out with your friends, the cool thing to do when drunk is go to a private karaoke room and get crazy. (Apparently, I had the cool Korean thing going on on my birthday this year! We did the same thing, but in Houston!) We decided to save that adventure for another night.

While we didn't do karaoke, we did do something equally, if not more, Korean! We went in a "digital sticker" shop. It's basically like photo booths but you dress up and can choose backgrounds etc. It was hilarious and the shop keeper helped us the whole way. We chose wigs and accessories then got in the booth. He showed us how to choose "backgrounds" which showed up in the preview when our photos were snapped. After our little photo shoot, we got to edit the pictures. A few things were green screened, so we fixed those and other minor details. Then, we got prints and the man cut them into individuals. It was hilariously fun and super Korean. As we were leaving, 2 Korean girls came in to do it. Apparently it is popular! 

After we finished wandering the streets of Hongdae and getting up to a bit of mischief, we called it a night and headed back to our respective sides of town. I really wish Tab and I lived closer to each other. She is so fun and I KNOW we are going to be great friends! I wish we lived closer and could hang out more especially because she has a small school and doesn't have a great network of teachers like I do. But, I definitely will be bringing her to dinners and over to the apartment, so she will meet everyone. I can't wait for next weekend when she comes over! She will help me move into my apartment on Saturday. :)

Tomorrow is work, so I am going to bed early! 

Emmigrating Part II

Thursday, August 23 - 10:45PM in Seoul (brain too tired to calculate any other timezone...)

Well, I arrived!! My flight landed at approx. 5:20pm, which was 3:20am in Houston. The flight was long, but also kind of short. I only watched the one movie, and attempted to nap (only succeeded once or twice, very short amounts of time). I ate next to nothing; I don’t trust airplane food, and this was particularly questionable. I drank 2 cokes which ended up being a problem... later they handed out sandwiches which I believe were Ham&Cheese, but smelled like they had mayo, so I didn’t eat that either. The last meal (they fed us alot, huh?) was “lunch” and I had chicken with rice. The chicken was less than appetizing, but I ate the whole portion of rice... with another Coke. 

By that time we were like 2.5 hours from Seoul, and the lights in the cabin were back up. I gave up on sleeping. We passed over Japan, and I think I saw Mt Fuji! I could be wrong, but it was by far the biggest in the vicinity that the map said we were near to the volcano. Anyway, you can see some photos I excitedly snapped. 

First sight of Japan

I think this was Mt. Fuji

When we got over Korea, we were so high and the clouds so thick I couldn’t see anything. Finally we lowered enough so I could see. I saw the bay area that is to the west of Seoul & Incheon. 

As you can see, Korea is not as pretty as the Japanese waters!

When we exited the plane, I headed straight for the bathroom (there was ALWAYS a line on the plane!) After that was Immigration, which had zero line for us foreign passport holders! They were so nice and gave me a stamp, even though I already had a visa (or maybe that’s protocol, I have no idea). 

Then to baggage claim! As soon as I got to the carousel, I saw my bag that I gate checked, so ran that down. I got a cart and then almost immediately saw my small suitcase (the original carry-on). Then I waited for my big suitcase, the REALLY bright floral hardshell that no one in their right minds could mistake for their own. And I waited... some more, and finally the carousel stopped going around. 

I asked a guy that I was pulling off unclaimed luggage, and he pointed me in the direction of “Lost/Found” - I filled out a report, giving my Director’s name and phone number. I think it’s pretty funny that this happened since while sitting in SFO waiting on the flight, I read all these great things about Incheon Airport - one of them being their excellent baggage handling stats. It claimed that the likelihood of getting your luggage lost in Incheon was 0.0001%, and you had a greater chance of getting struck by lightening. And yet... no bag. I was surprisingly not mad or frustrated or distraut. 

I headed to customs, claimed nothing, and got some money changed. I headed out of the doors, and immediately saw my name on a sign. The guy looked right at me and nodded his head like “yes, I can totally tell this is you, American girl!” Then he explained to me, in Korean, that there is another girl we were waiting on, and to follow him (No, I did not understand a word he said, but managed somehow to figure it out). We walked down the terminal a few gates, then he taped her sign on the pole, and told me to wait, that he would be back in 1 hr. This “conversation” took a lot longer than I am describing because as I said, it was conducted exclusively in Korean (and some Sign Language). 

I waited for 45 minutes, until approx. 7pm. The girl, Jamie, finally came out the gate and saw her name. I explained to her that the guy would be back very soon, and mentioned my lost bag. I said it was funny because the bag is so OBVIOUS; she asked what it looked like and I explained to her. Her eyes lit up and she says “I’m pretty sure I just saw that bag on my baggage carousel!” Ahhhh! Her flight was also from San Francisco, only on Singapore Airlines. 

I trekked down to Asiana Customer Service, but they only understood “lost bag” and wanted my ticket stubs, which I had already given when filing my report. She didn’t understand that I wanted her to call back to the baggage claim guys and just have them check the other carousel. Oh well, they assured me they would call tomorrow, so I’ll just have to wait until then. 

Jamie and I found our cab driver, who took our bags out to his van. We had a long ride into Seoul; probably an hour and fifteen. Tons of traffic - by the time we got into Seoul it was around 8pm, and it looked like rush hour! When we finally got to our destination, he carried our bags in and we got our motel rooms. Sean, the other new hire, was also there. He took us to go meet Kellie, the girl who is leaving in a week and training us / helping us transition. She took us to dinner around the corner from the motel at a traditional Korean  BBQ place. 

At this point, I had a “moment”. And by that I mean, Jamie and Kellie are talking about work and food and where’s the closest this-and-that and I’m sitting there wanting to throw up at the thought of spending a whole year here. It didn’t hit me on the plane, or saying goodbye to mom, but sitting in that restaurant I wanted to cry. Kellie just thought I looked tired (I”m sure I did!) but it took everything in me not to cry. Somehow I managed. I was starving but I could only manage to eat 1 slice of BBQ - it had SO MUCH fat on it! The kimchi for the table was RIGHT in front of me, and while I didn’t mind the smell so much, the look and thought of eating it made the feeling of “what did I get myself into” even worse. 

About 10 minutes later, 3 other teachers walked in to join us. This did nothing to appease my fears. They were all chatty BFF-ish and I felt more alone and overwhelmed than ever. Kellie mentioned that Jamie would be taking over her classroom of Kindergartners in the morning, but Sean and I would be working with the slightly older kids, anywhere from 7-13, in the afternoon. When she told me that it was Sean, me, and another guy and girl that were not at the table, I felt better. I’m not sure why... everyone was so nice. But sitting there made me feel out of place, and knowing that there were only 4 of us to work afternoons together made it better. 

After that I tried something on the table to eat, a rice paper wonton wrapper thing, and while it was certainly not a meal, it was something and I was trying. I do have work tomorrow, but I won’t have to go in until 1pm, which is my usual start time. So, while I had my first moment of regret and fear, I overcame it, talked myself down, and did not have a mental breakdown in the middle of a family restaurant in Seoul. 

After dinner, Kellie showed us the local 7-Eleven only 2 minutes from our motel and our future apartments (which are next door to each other). We came back to our rooms, and I got a shower. I think that shower has been my favorite part of the day. Haha! Now I have gotten my iPad charging, my sound machine working with the converter, and have determined that I am a genius for bringing my airport express, since Kellie mentioned that you must hardwire ethernet into your computer in the apartments (no wifi available) - so, I’ll just create my own! I love being an Apple nerd ;) 

My alarm is set for 8am, so I have time to get a shower and look decent, find food, and maybe get some wifi to post this :)