The worst day I have ever had in Korea?

Tuesday, March 29 started like any other. I woke up, watched some news and went to school. There was nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that I was trying something new in my lessons: I was incorporating music. I am more of a visual learner and I tend to teach lessons the same way. I decided to reach out to the students who I had been boring with my classes and start things off with something fun and active: I chose to play I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas. It's a "party anthem" type song that I got pretty tired of quickly, but I wasn't playing it for me. The students seemed to enjoy it. We did a listening activity where students stand and sit depending on the lyric that is sung. Thanks to deft autotuning and clear annunciation the students can hear and comprehend what is being sung. Everything was going great and we did the "American Breakfast" lesson that I had been gushing about to my friends for the past few days.

My most troublesome class are a group of the oldest middle schoolers who are normally too cool to participate in anything. Somehow the magic of Fergie singing compelled them to stand, sit and dance. They were angels. We went through a quick lesson in the book and I finished with a game that they participated in enthusiastically. As I was stamping the record sheet of the winning team, one of the students decided to take my lifeline: They removed my and my coteacher's USB drive from her laptop and took them. I was without a way to bring my lessons, pictures and songs to my classes. Additionally, I was presenting my lesson tonight to the 3 week long after school training that all guest English teachers get to attend that night. So the timing was less than perfect, to say the least.

If this happened in the states I would have taken it in stride and shrugged it off. But before coming here I was regaled of Pat's tales of seat-saving in a restaurant using nothing more than a full wallet or a cell phone while teaching in Japan. I had unrealistically high expectations of my students, and maybe the society as a whole. Perhaps I was still viewing Korea through rose colored glasses. Yes even in this country which is on the brink of near-utopia petty theft by teenage boys is a problem.

I figured out how to get my files to the training center via the interwebs in time for my presentation that evening and as luck would have it, I was the sole presenter. I'll be honest, I was way nervous going into the lesson. I actually woke up around 3am the night before stressed out about what I needed to do. As I walked into the training building, I saw another teacher walking in the hall. He told me that I was the only person presenting that evening so I would be going on first, not second.

Walking into the classroom felt like deciding to cliff dive on the count of three and jumping on two. I didn't give myself a chance to think about it and I immediately went into teacher mode. I got on the PC, told the class trainer to act as my co-teacher and I was off.

I skipped the "lesson" format that I was going to do and instead talked to the "students" (aka the other teachers) about their torturous rides to get there that evening and I said that since they had been so good about coming to training for nearly 3 weeks we were going to play a game. I went from teacher to sarcastic talk show host as we played scattegories and Jeopardy. My 20 minute lesson stretched to 45 minutes as the class got a much deserved break and had some fun.

By that point I was de-stressed about the day. Class was fun and people responded positively. We got out early and I met my friend Dale for a trip to the jimjilbang. He had been to one before, but not this one. As per usual we were the only westerners there. I haven't decided yet if the Koreans are happy that we are embracing their traditions or if they feel like we are encroaching on them.

Either way, Dale enjoyed himself and it was good man time. Dale has an incredibly positive attitude and is way into rock climbing. We discussed plans to check out the surrounding mountains, go climbing and see more of the country as soon as the weather and time permits.

We got street food for dinner and the night's tally for nearly 2 hours of soaking in various hot tubs, cold tubs and sitting in incredibly hot saunas plus dinner and transportation: about $8 each.

So that was my worst day. I got my USB stolen, my head got ripped from the clouds and I was forced to face the reality that sometimes kids take stuff, even in Korea. As far as bad days go, it wasn't too terrible. It ended really well, so maybe I should just call it a bad 3 hours.

Oh, I bought a new USB stick, so everything is good now.

Here are some pictures from around my neighborhood...

I see this little dude walking to taekwondo every day.

This bar is across the street from my apartment.

Here is an old guy taking a rest. Head first.

In my neighborhood

These are the front gates to houses on my street.

Some quick pictures of my hood

I was hoping to wait until spring had sprung and the green came out before I took pictures of where I live. Some of you have been curious about my neighborhood and want to see it now. Here is a fast overview. I will add more detailed pictures in the future that focus on specific things like street food, PC bangs, or other cool things that I don't know exist yet.

3 new apartment buildings that are going up near my home.

This store only sells dried tiger penis. Way tastier than it sounds.

This is a rotisserie chicken place on my street. One major difference: the chickens are 2/3 the size of American chickens.

Typical street in my hood. Notice the mass of telephone, internet and clothes lines strung above the street.

The famous bridge near Daejeon's Expo Park. After missing a cab last night I had the pleasure of walking past it.
This is the "indoor" driving range a few blocks from my house. Golf is mega expensive here and only the rich seem to do it, as evidenced by the luxury cars in the parking lot.

Farm, high rises, mountains: Korea.

I finally got a phone

The past few weeks have been pretty busy. I am finding a routine that I can stick to and it seems to be working. I go to bed too late, wake up groggy, walk to school and sometimes see my students on the way, make it to my shared office, make a pot of coffee, drink said coffee, wake up and by 9:00am I am ready to teach 4 to 5 classes a day. I do this Monday through Thursday and on Friday the only thing that is different is that I go to the sports academy and I need to take a cab to get there.

I try to meet up with friends in the evenings which has been anything from meeting for dinner out, staying in to cook at someone's house or having guests over to play with my new Wii. I am terrible at the Wii, but like most things in life I enjoy it more than I should. I go out and before I know it I have to go home so I can sleep.

Wait...what I am doing going on and on about the banality of my everyday life for? I got a future phone! OK...so I wanted to get a "smartphone". It turns out that the one I wanted (and as it turned out due to my status as an alien with a one year visa the only smartphone I could get) was about $850. So I didn't get that one. I decided to go way cheaper but still go for a totally adequate (aka not the smartest) phone. I got an LG Cyon. This phone is nuts. It has a typical graphical user interface like most touch screens in the US as well as some other fun features. I can send text messages in Korean or English, it has a 3 mega pixel camera, fast internet browsing, and it has HD tv. My phone has an antenna that extends for television, My Favorite Martian-style.

What else have I been doing? Like I said before, I got a Nintendo Wii. My school picked out and was responsible for furnishing my apartment. Before I came to Korea I watched several of the the infamously bad "my Korean apartment" youtube videos. I got an idea of what apartments were like here and on my first day in Daejeon when I was being driven to my new home I already had lots of ideas of what it would look like. When I opened the front door and looked around I was admittedly (and in hindsight, embarrassingly) a little disappointed. We drove past lots of high rise apartment buildings on the way there only to stop at a building in a slightly more run-down neighborhood. It wasn't like the places I had seen in the videos and . It took me a little while to realize what a great place I actually had. My school furnished me with a fantastic Samsung plasma tv and all new Samsung appliances. Only after seeing other teacher's places did I realize what a fantastic place I actually had. It turns out that no one else got a nice TV. I did what I thought was the best thing I could to assuage my guilt: I bought a Wii so people could come over to play video games on my sweet TV.

I was also a little disappointed about my neighborhood the first week I was there. A few regrettable words got thrown around...ghetto, third world, and dangerous were used to describe my neighborhood. After hanging out there for 2 weeks I have come to love where I live. I am surrounded by 2 and 3 story buildings and there are no sidewalks. At first this was a bit off-putting but now I love it. Yes I walk in the street, but so does everyone else. It is an intimate setting. There are restaurants all around my home. I see street-food vendors that say hello to me when I walk past and have taken pity on me for my almost total lack ability to speak in Korean. They seem happy that I love to eat whatever they are selling and I will keep buying what they make.

The more I explore my surroundings the more I absolutely adore it. I would say that my neighborhood is "charming" but unlike two weeks ago I would be saying it without any irony. I think that this is an authentic Korean neighborhood that is much less westernized than other places I have seen in town. Sure I can't get a burger or pizza anywhere near me, but with all the great Korean food around me, who wants American food anyway?

So this is my life so far:

• I live near enough my school in the same lower-middle class neighborhood that my students live in that I walk to school every morning. I feel totally safe at night walking down the street.
• I am near 2 subway stops and I walk to them daily.
• I have an apartment that I am incredibly grateful for and is just big enough to entertain in.
• I am surrounded by amazing restaurants that I am eagerly anticipating exploring over the next year or longer.
• I can see mountains on the edge of town that are begging to be climbed as soon as the weather gets better.
• My classes get easier to teach every day as I fumble my way to becoming a real teacher.
• I have an awesome group of friends who I see all the time and who have helped me out in more ways than I can post here.

I am happy, life is good. Spring is around the corner and I am about to embark on adventures that I haven't even imagined yet. I'll keep you posted but hopefully I will be away from my computer and out enjoying this amazing place.

Oh yeah...and here is a peek at the apartment.

Jesus stopped by, made waffles.

I am finally an alien!

Sure I feel like I am on another world sometimes, but that is not what I mean. I finally received my Alien Registration Card. So now I can join the ranks of South Koreans everywhere and buy a cell phone. Before you deride my decision as sheer frivolity, I want you to think back to a time before cell phones. How did you communicate? How did you meet people out? How did you navigate a new city in a foreign land? How did you video chat? How did you watch Korean dramas in HD in the palm of your hand? (And before you ask me about the land line option, I want you to congratulate you for finding this blog using your computer and mouse-thingy, welcome you to the internet and the 2000's.)

I have the benefit of living in a time where we decided what to do in the pre-cell phone era and had to actually make a plan and stick to it as well as living now when the ubiquity of a mobile device has made solid planning a thing of the past. My friends and I have done quite well without phones, but as teachers here are slowly getting phones, I find myself in need of one, whether I am lost in a land without street signs, if people aren't where they said they'd be or if I need to send a text that I've jumped on an earlier train and will be there 10 before we'd arranged.

I have been without a cell phone since I cancelled my US contract at the end of January. As much as I thought it would be liberating and freeing for me to be without a phone, it has not been. I feel more naked now than I did at the jimjilbang. Being without internet and a cell put me into a state of panic...clearly Korea is not my Walden Pond.

So I have decided on getting a smart phone. In the US I got a regular cell phone, one that could barely take pictures. Here the smart phones are actually smart. The internet on the phones blows the fastest US home internet lines out of the water. I can text in 2 languages and there are more apps than I know what to do with. Here is a dirty little secret: While the US is excited for the latest iteration of the iphone, Korea has a few phones that are better and cheaper and faster. They work on the subway, and in the elevator. They have GPS for me to show cab drivers who don't know where I live. They make toast and shoot lasers. The only thing they don't do is dry your clothes. That is all Korea is lacking: a decent clothes dryer.

Besides being able to get a cell phone, I don't know what benefits I get by being an official Alien Resident of Korea. I will keep you posted...

First week of teaching

I just finished my first week of teaching. OK, I'll be honest. Because of a Korean holiday I didn't have to teach on Monday so my first week was only 4 days long. In my defense, I did teach 18 classes and worked roughly 8am to 4:30pm. I teach middle school and the level of English speaking proficiency varies dramatically. I teach at 2 schools: the first is a school in my neighborhood where I work Monday-Thursday. The second is a sports training academy for Korea's future Olympic hopefuls where I go on Fridays.

The first day of school was a bit of a rush for me. In case I haven't made this clear, I am the lone white guy in my neighborhood. I stick out. People stare. People aren't being rude, they are just curious. Classes are hushed when I walk in. Oh, also there are teenage girls in my classes. They aren't hushed...they are teenage girls. During my introduction to the school I felt like a rock star standing on the stage in front of a screaming audience (it wasn't like Led Zeppelin, I think more like Hanna Montana).

Despite buying new dress shoes before I came to Korea, I have taught all of my classes in Adidas soccer sandals. In Korean schools everyone wears "slippers" and leaves their shoes in darling little shoe lockers by the door. No slipper fits my gargantuan American foot and I squeeze in the largest thing Korea has to offer. Thankfully the other men do the same thing and the suit/soccer sandal combo no longer looks strange to me.

My first classes were brief intros about me, making name tags, hilarious mispronunciations of Korean names by me and some simple English-level assessment game playing. Part of the games included asking about music and I now know the names of several Korean pop bands (k-pop from here on out). A word to the wise: "Big Bang" is the latest hot boy band and "Bang Bang" is a brand of jeans. If you mix these up or even fail to properly annunciate the words you will be ridiculed and lose all credibility in the k-pop arena. Don't mix them up.

This stuff is serious. If you don't believe me, check it out:

Other highlights from my school include:

• Lunches. I ate octopus twice last week at my school lunch. All the teachers eat together the lunch room. Because I don't fumble with my chopsticks I am considered impressive. A big thank you to all the teachers who came here before me for setting the eating bar so low.
• Cleaning. There are no janitors in my school, or at any school. One hour a day the kids clean the school. And they take it seriously. Let that sink in for a minute...middle schoolers cleaning and doing a good job the whole time. It still looks weird to me.
• Fan clubs. In the teachers office I have two couches that face each other near my desk. As we speak there are currently 8 girls sitting on them. I don't know what they want but they have 10 minutes between classes and the couches see lots of attentive visitors during those times. If I turn around they all giggle. I hope they don't have actual English questions because I haven't said a word to any of them all week.
• Teachers dinner. After my first day we all went out for dinner. It was Korean style, where we all sat on the floor at low tables and shared dishes. We drank soju and raspberry wine. My principal thinks I am incredibly qualified to teach at his school because I look like Jewel Low (Jude Law).
• Weddings. I got married last week. Not really. Last week a teacher told me about a wedding that he was going to. It took about 10 minutes of conversation to understand that he wasn't just going to the wedding, he was in the wedding...as the groom. I think he invited me to it. Thankfully we know that the groom spot has been filled so I won't be in for any surprises.
• Oral hygiene. After lunch all the teachers brush their teeth in the teachers office. Together. We are Korea's gleaming white teeth.
• Lessons. It's not all fan clubs and teeth brushing. I do teach here, and my lessons are flexible. I can make a powerpoint based on what I want to teach. There is a framework that I need to follow but I have the freedom to choose what goes into each lesson.
• Technology. My classrooms have insanely fast internet, a/v hookups and plasma TV's. I will repeat that: my classes have plasmas. Big ones. 50" televisions that we turn on sometimes. The kids know how to connect my computer to it and don't seem to think it is special. God bless you, Samsung.

That is a cross section of my week. There was a lot that happened, and a lot of it was a blur. I will continue to post highlights. For now I am happy, optimistic and enthusiastic about the future. I teach with 4 different teachers and they are all great so far. I am still in love with this place and it only gets better...