I arrived in Korea on February 18, 2010 and as of 5:50 am on May 28 I have been here for 100 days. In the U.S. the only thing we seem to measure in terms of 100 days is the progress of a newly elected President. In Korea, there is a celebration when a baby reaches 100 days old. In a way, I felt like a helpless infant when I arrived. Thankfully I know a few words now, can feed myself and am able to get around on my own.
I was shocked to think that it had been 100 days already, so I tried to think about what 100 days meant. I broke it down into smaller parts. 3 months, 11 days 2400 hours 144,000 minutes 8,640,000 seconds
But that wasn't very meaningful.
Instead, I looked at it this way:
I have about 600 different students.
I have run approximately 150 miles (exactly 30km in two races).
I know about 100 words and/or phrases in Korean
I have taken almost 70 round trip subway rides.
I started teaching 22 classes per week and I am up to 24
I have been to the jimjilbang (찜질방) 17 times.
I share my office with 8 other teachers and consider one of them a close friend.
I have 5 co-teachers for my English classes.
I have 3 friends that I've climbed with.
I have been to 2 braai's with my 3rd coming tomorrow
I have 2 friends that I run with.
I take Korean lessons 2 times per week.
I have been to one Korean wedding.
I now own 0 cars and have never been more satisfied.
For my 100 day anniversary here I brought some treats in for all the other teachers. I kept it as a surprise and I don't think that they were expecting anything. It was a fun week of field trips and picnics so treats on Thursday was another appreciated surprise.
When I arrived in Korea the weather was unusually cold. It has been a slow thaw and summer has set in with a vengeance. My group of friends here are as big of fans of summer as I am. They are always doing something fun and active.
The time here has gone so fast, I can't believe next week is already June.
This week has been strange for me. On Monday I sat at my desk for most of the day and taught one class. The youngest 2 grades were on a field trip so I didn't have anything to do. This being Korea, I was expected to be at school, keeping my seat warm. Today the 3rd grade middle-schoolers went on a field trip and I got to accompany them. They told me we were going to a park. What they meant was that we were going to an amusement park.
What struck me as the most unusual right away was not the rides or crazy food, but seeing all the students together in street clothes instead of uniforms. Everyone was decked out in normal, teenage fashions...except for the "bad" clique. These are the girls that wear the black North Face jackets in school in the winter and today they were all wearing clubbing clothes that a twenty-something would wear. It was cringe-worthy. At least the 4" heels they were wearing ensured that they'd be tall enough for all the rides.
As I walked into the park countless people apologized to me for the small size of the park. They told me that it wasn't anywhere as a large as Disney World and thought I might be disappointed. It was kind of them, but I assured them that the park was awesome and this was way better than being trapped indoors all day.
The first part of the morning was spent with the other teachers drinking coffee in a restaurant at the park. The students had zero supervision. (While we're on subject of student responsibility, all the students arrived at the appointed time on their own. There was no arranged bus for them. They got there, we took attendance and then they were free to have fun. They all behaved and that was that. What a contrast to the US...). A little before noon the principal showed up and all the teachers got a little more quiet and a little more reserved. Not me, though. Our principal seems to like me so I just joked around with him and asked him to come on some rides with me. When he agreed the other teachers looked shocked and then my friend Woon-gi joined us.
The 3 of us got on "Viking Ship" which was actually a pirate ship that acted as a pendulum, swinging back and forth until you hit that zero-gravity moment where your food thinks about escaping when you hit each apex. (They are ubiquitous at amusement parks and I'm sure you know exactly what they are. As soon as I get a copy of the picture I will post it.) There were several students on the ride as well that we were facing and Woon-gi, the principal and I took turns screaming like a girl at each swing.
I was pretty energized after the ride and the principal needed to go so I found some straggling students and rounded them up for the bumper cars. We did that for a bit, and I got called back to the restaurant. The PTA had made us lunch so we ate a huge, delicious meal of sushi, kimbap, several types of kimchi, and other food that I was trying for the first time and was delicious. I don't know how the Koreans handle it, but rides+sushi didn't sit well with me. It ended up being fine, but there were a few moments after lunch where I was nervous I'd chunder all over my students.
As soon as I stepped outside of the restaurant, I was dragged by students to the "Flume Ride" where they were in need of a gullible stooge to sit in the seat in the front of the log. I excitedly agreed and we were off. I was soaked at the end and met up with Woon-gi who'd also been wrangled into the first seat position where he'd been thoroughly drenched.
We were then dragged to the Space Explorer ride. This is a roller coaster in total blackness. It was fun and insane. The screaming was deafening. The strobe lights made me queasy. It was awesome. Before I knew it, we were done.
By the time the ride was over we were dried off and a ride called "The Blizzard" caught our eye. It was a maniacal rotating pendulum that traveled on a 200 degree path, stopping just beyond horizontal at each terminus. The sushi in my belly was a perfect excuse to keep me off of the ride, despite 5 students actively dragging me onto the ride with all of their might. Woon-gi wasn't so fortunate. His safety bar was locked into place and he was trapped for the duration of the ride before he knew what'd hit him.
I got some amazing video of the students on the ride and it was great to watch. I am totally satisfied that I didn't go on the ride. Woon-gi looked a little worn out when he wobbled off the ride. Students sprinted past him to get back in line to go again.
Before I knew it, the day was over. The students were all accounted for and there were no mishaps. It was a fun day. It was easy. I got to have fun with the students and they got to see me cut loose. This is something that doesn't happen in the US, and that's too bad. Every chance I get to interact with my students I am going to take it. Without knowing it, most of them spoke English to me all day long. It was perfect.
The soccer team getting whiplash together. Solidarity.
This is the Blizzard. The picture does not to the ride justice. It is insane.
Here is the video that I shot. Due to Korean format video, I had to do some wizardry to get it to work and in the process I lost the sound. Instead, feel free to play this (right click and open in a new tab) audio while you watch.
Friday, May 21 was Buddha's birthday. In Korea, we got the day off. I tried to pack as much into the weekend as I could.
Thursday night I went to the climbing wall with Dale, Jono and Kyle. Dale is a seasoned 5.12+ climber, Jono was climbing for his second time and Kyle was coming for his first. The wall is an awesome outdoor gym that is free to all and even provides ropes and harnesses to beginners who don't have any. The wall is lead-only, so the beginners have an experienced climber with them to start. Everyone climbed hard and we finished the night with some bouldering followed by a dyno session. I am looking forward to climbing with these guys more in the future...they are going to be good.
Jono flying.
Dale finishing.
After climbing Dale, Jono and I went to our "secret" pizza place for a pizza and unlimited beer. Post-climbing beer is always the tastiest.
Friday was no school so I had my Korean lesson during the day. My students also had off, so naturally they ended up at the same coffee shop as me. As soon as they saw me with my tutor, we were greeted with the inevitable choruses of "Teacher, girlfriend?" It was strange being a student in front of my students, letting them witness me making mistakes.
Students and Korean tutor.
After Korean class we went to see Robin Hood. As good as Ridley Scott has been , he botched this one. I would wait for it on DVD. It was better than Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves but that isn't saying much as most movies tend to be.
After the movie, we met up with Kyle and Megan to go to the braai that the South Africans were putting together. Jono and Claire live in a gorgeous rooftop apartment with access to the entire roof with a view of Daejeon. They had the braai on the roof where we were able to lazily lay out in the sun. A braai is similar to a barbecue in the US, but a little different. First, the SA's were way more excited. We had lots of different cuts of meat and we basically just spent the remainder of the day drinking, grilling and eating. There was no set meal time, it was a constant feast. We continued eating until the meat and dessert was gone. We left stuffed, just in time to catch the last subway home.
Like all South Africans, Jono turns into a total party animal at night.
The night ended with much pageantry and Dev proudly wearing his new South African flag, his hat, and nothing else. Kyle looks on, shocked, scared.
On Saturday I got ready to go to Chuncheon. I went to the downtown area to get a haircut and as I approached the main street, I was rerouted to another sidewalk. There was an action scene being filmed for a Korean movie.
I eventually negotiated a path to downtown and got my haircut. At the salon, they showed me pictures from a book of celebrities for me to find a hair style that I liked. Good thinking, since the language barrier was bound to be problem. The bigger problem: the book of celebs was populated solely by Koreans. As cool as the hair styles were, they weren't for me. Lucky in the back there were 2 American actors. I pointed to Jake Gyllenhaal and hoped for the best. The stylist cut my hair as she saw fit, and it was more Korean than what was in the picture. It didn't matter. It was a haircut on par with what I'd get in the states and it was a fraction of the price. Plus tipping is actively discouraged. I will go back, and I will be armed not with pictures, but the Korean equivalent of "I trust your judgement" or "Do what you think is best". (That's what I am doing anyways, right? I suppose its best to accept that from the start.) Upon arriving at school today many people noticed and all seemed to approve.
Post-haircut I went to the bus station, got a ticket and got on the bus for Chuncheon. about 3 hours later, I rolled into a city larger than I was expecting. Joe and Ashley met me at the terminal and we got provisions for the next morning. Armed with our breakfast feast we went to an Italian restaurant across the street where we proceeded to stuff ourselves with pre-race carbs a la The Office.
Thoroughly stuffed, Joe and Ashley walked me to their friend Jo's cavernous apartment where I would be staying while she was in Busan for the weekend. Cavernous isn't the most accurate description. It is larger than that. It is new, on the 7th floor, has an amazing view and is monstrous. Soon after arriving, I unpacked my bag, read for a bit and got some sleep.
As an American living in America, you might think "Oh, that is a nice view" but as a Westerner living here, your thoughts are likely closer to that of a jealous, murderous rage variety...especially after seeing this:
This is a big apartment in Korea. (Cue feelings of jealous murderous rage)
Sunday morning: race day. I woke up to overcast skies and a slight drizzle. I was looking forward to some rain during the race as I knew that at least it would keep things cool. Joe and Ashley have a friend, Paul, who was running with his wife Gretchen and they graciously offered to drive us to the race. We met a second Joe from England and Justin from the US. The foreigners hung out together, huddled under a tent, trying to stay dry. Apparently we were a spectacle worthy of media attention and a reporter interviewed us. We got our picture taken and I think we'll be in the paper.
The race started at 10am and we were off. I knew we'd be in for some hills, but what I encountered was shocking. The course basically goes up a mountain and back down. Once we were near the top we hung out there for a bit with some hilly sections and then we rocketed down steep, slick, muddy 4x4 tracks. It was awesome. In the US there tend to be many recreational runners at a half marathon. Here, there were almost none. These guys were fast. When I finished I was tired but elated. It was an amazing trail run and I want to do it again. My time was texted to my phone and I finished with a respectable time, especially considering the course. This was Joe Riley's first run like this and he did awesome. The best part is that he was happy at the end and wasn't cursing running as he finished. It was a hard course.
This is the elevation map. It looks like a mountain because it is. Stretch this over a scale of 20km and it is still hard. Good times, though.
So we hung out in Chuncheon for the afternoon and Joe and I made our way to the bus station. The last bus to Daejeon (home) was sold out. Ruh roh. Plan B: take a bus to Seoul, take subway across the city, go to KTX station, rush to get a seat on the KTX and go to Daejeon station, take subway then walk remaining 15 minutes home.
Luckily Joe has been in this situation before and he knew what to do. We made it to Seoul, took the subway, made it to the KTX station...and the bullet train was sold out--but only for the next 1.5 hours. For a train that leaves every 15 minutes and travels at nearly the speed of light that is a long wait. We did get our tickets for the next available departing train and we breathed easy. Since we had time to kill we stashed our bags in a locker. Since I was with a Brit, we got a pint (well 4 really, but who's counting?).
I made it back to my house at 11pm. It was a long day. It was a long weekend. It was great.
Last weekend I went to Seoul for the first time. Among my peers, I was one of the last to go. I had other obligations that kept popping up that prevented me from going. Also, I don't have a girlfriend who needs to go to Seoul to shop for the latest fashions. I made plans to meet up with my friend, Edward, the friend who took me to the jimjilbang (찜질방) for the first time.
Travel between Daejeon and Seoul is easy. Korea has a KTX train that glides smoothly at speeds approaching 300 km/hr which are casually displayed on monitors all over each car. The ride itself takes a little over 50 minutes. I took the train with my friends Joe and Kirsten and since we booked tickets ahead of time we got our seats in the same row.
We arrived in Seoul and despite the swarming confusion of the rail station we easily made it to the subway line and I met up with Edward a few stops later. Edward and I set off for Hongdae for dinner and to check out the clubs. We were planning on being thrifty so we stowed our bags in a subway locker and went to dinner. We got a chicken dish that I was familiar with but the name escapes me...it was the hottest thing I have eaten in Korea so far and was delicious. After dinner we walked around a bit and made our way to some clubs. The area starts picking up around midnight and the streets were packed with people and something I hadn't seen for months: 외국인 aka foreigners. It felt weird being among other westerners in Korea. We went to some hip hop clubs and there were middle-class Koreans dressed like gangsters from the US...done unironically (or at least an approximation of what they perceived US gangsters looked like). Nothing against hip hop, its a fine music to listen to and I enjoy it, but at a club its slow and not my style for dancing. You get sweaty dancing to it, but only because you are crammed next to loads of overweight westerners. It sort of seemed like a lot of people were shuffling around, waiting for something cool to happen. In all fairness, the club was pretty cool looking and had an amazing sound system. The lights and fog machine were pretty high quality too. One other observation about Korean dance clubs: DJs will play the same songs throughout the night and sets don't get updated too often. It seems that people would prefer familiarity to something new and fresh.
Edward and I stayed for a bit and found a cab. Thankfully Edward is a Korean speaker and got us a cab. We continued our night of thrift and made our way to another jimjilbang (찜질방). This was reportedly the largest one in Seoul and boasted 5 floors of relaxation and cleansing. Seoul, like any major city, tends to leave you with a film of big-city grime. Taking a shower, scrubbing down then sitting in an array of different hot tubs in the wee hours of the night was the perfect solution. Next we got some fruit smoothies and headed to the crushed-salt floor hot room. It was about 120F and totally dry. A sign on the wall explained the anti-bacterial properties of the salt and any pathogens I may have picked up during the course of the night were surely destroyed here. We moved to the oxygen room and went to sleep. The next morning I hung out on the massage chairs and watched Korean dramas with about 20 other bleary-eyed Koreans.
Edward and I left to meet up with my South African friend Devon, who was arriving from Daejeon that day. We took the subway to yongsan, Korea's electronics mecca. I had a list of things that I needed and ended up walking away with the most cumbersome to carry: a cooling base for my laptop.
Edward had to meet another friend, so Devon and I made our way to the hotel he had booked for about $38. We met up with a group of friends from Daejeon and elsewhere who were also staying in our hotel. We checking in, opened the door...and unfortunately it was pretty romantic. We had booked a room at All In a "Love Motel". Like other Asian countries with high-density living and family structures that see children living with parents until they marry, a niche market has emerged for small motel rooms equipped for secret rendezvous. I suppose they also help to facilitate affairs, since secrecy seems to be pretty emphasized there. It's pretty cute that people still think that these sorts of things don't happen, especially given the ubiquity of the Love Motels everywhere.
So back to the unintentional lovebirds: Dan and Devon. Our room came with a smallish full sized bed, matching his and his robes and a multitude of grooming products. Despite its diminutive size, it was well equipped and better than other hotels I have stayed at in the US. The best feature: a 42" plasma TV crammed in as an afterthought.
We changed, met up with friends and went to dinner. There was a rotisserie chicken place around the corner from All In and we went there with about 10 friends. We devoured 4 chickens and 3x3000cc pitchers of beer. I suppose in the US I would be shocked to see a nearly a gallon of beer at our table, but here it is efficient and makes sense. The only thing keeping more beer from being served at one time is the strength limitation of the waitress.
As soon as dinner was over, Dev and I split from from the group and were back to hongdae with our friends Kyle and Megan who were staying in the room next to ours. Getting to where we needed to go via subway was effortless and fast. We got back to hongdae, walked around for a bit and decided to go to some nice bars before plunging into the pulsating depths of the electronic music clubs. We chose several rooftop establishments where the cost of beer apparently subsidized the cost of the view.
I got the inside scoop on where the hot new club was and we searched for a bit before finding it. We made friends with the uber-hip people in line and they were excited to hang with us in the club. It didn't surprise me, since Kyle and Megan have a breezy SoCal affect about them and Devon is a chill Saffa. Having friends in line was nice since they helped to argue the case for letting our SoCal friends in because they were in violation of the dress code. Apparently telling the bouncer that your friends are pro-surfers does very little to change their opinions. In the end, Megan and Kyle were denied entry despite our best efforts and we went to find shoes. We found about 30 shoe stores open for business and all of them sold only women's shoes. We asked employees if we could purchase their shoes off their feet for Kyle, but it was no use. We wouldn't be going to the club that night.
We lumbered to a nearby chicken and beer place only to find our friends from Daejeon, half of them sandal-clad. We had some beer, got sick of the massive group and took a cab back to our hotel's neighborhood. We found a small place and had a few beers there. We were back at the love motel by 3:00.
The blinds were so efficient that at 10am it was almost completely black in the room. We had no concept of time until we opened the window and peered outside. It was a gorgeous day and we got to the subway so we could see Itaewan, the cesspool of westerners. I immediately saw the things from back home that I didn't miss. The fast food chains. The XXL clothing stores. The seas of white folks taking over the sidewalks. It wasn't all bad. I don't mean to sound like some jaded, cynical gen-Xer. We did go to a Mexican restaurant that served surprisingly passable burritos. We also went to the famous "What the Book?" store for some english paperbacks. I got the newest Palahniuk novel and a book about understanding Korea and Korean culture.
That was basically it. I didn't have enough energy (nor the slightest desire) to go to the lantern festival that evening. I went to the KTX with Kyle and Megan and we got some of the last seats on the next train. It took about 50 minutes to travel from Seoul and another 25 of subway travel to get me home again.
When I walked from the subway stop to my house I felt like I had returned from a strange place. I felt like Daejeon was comfortable and familiar. It was green and there was a mountainous skyline. I wasn't bombarded by a cacophony of blaring sound. I was back home.
Saturday, May 15 is teachers day in Korea. This is the blackboard I saw when I started 1st period English class on Friday.
Some holidays in Korea are totally different from the holidays in the US, while some are similar. Korea has Children's day, for example where kids get presents from their parents. In the US, a huge anthropomorphic rabbit gives painted eggs to kids to celebrate the resurrection of a mediocre carpenter who died over 2000 years ago. What a bunch of wacky Koreans, right?
So it turns out that Children's day is for kids of elementary school age. We get the day off from school and people around town hang out and picnic. I didn't know that this was a "little kid" holiday until I got back to school and talked to students. When I told them that we had nothing similar in the US they were shocked. I was pretty excited to be here for a new holiday and walked around most of that day with a joyful grin on my face. I was at the store and saw some of my not-so little students and bought them an ice cream each...and also paid of all of the meat they were about to barbecue while wishing them a happy children's day they entire time. Maybe I was trying to make up for all the children's days that I had missed in the past. No matter what the kids had a good day, regardless of the fact that they were too old to officially have fun that day.
The following Saturday was Parent's day. It comes as no surprise to me that in Korea they do away with the inefficient separation of Mothers and Father's day and instead combine them into one streamlined super day. In fact, Children's Day is on Wednesday and Parent's Day is 3 days later just so Korean's can maximize and focus their love into one concentrated multi-day blitz. This leaves them able to remain detached and emotionally distant the rest of the year. I tried explaining the fact that we have 2 distinct holidays for our parents in the US and you could almost see them connecting the dots in their heads...America wastes time and emotional energy with 2 holidays...emotionally draining...they have no bullet train...barely usable cell phones...slow internet. So when they were done laughing at me and the US, they told me about Teachers Day.
I told them that every day was Teachers Day at my house and it was clear that their English comprehension was right where it needed to be: sitting lazily directly under the hilarity of my one-liners. Apparently for teachers day, students give carnations to teachers. I immediately pictured students presenting me with carnations and within an instant being covered with them pinned to my clothing, walking around looking like a floral zombie.
At the sports school, I was greeted with an awesome blackboard when I entered the classroom. It didn't matter that the lesson had failed and that the kids were pretty bad. It was a great display.
I was lucky enough to have a three days off this week. My friend Woon-ki took me to meet his brother and we went together to a pottery exhibition in Woon-ki's home town, Yeoju.
Woon-ki's brother is a potter and makes Korea's smallest pottery. I didn't realize until I moved here that Korea is famous for pottery. Ironically, Korean's refer to fired clay pots as "China" despite the fact that Korea has historically had the best potters and pottery (a fact that I learned here from what were likely biased sources).
These are samples of dry, powdered clay. They varied in quality ranging from floury and fine to granular and coarse. None of them tasted good at all.
This is Fuji Tomoki, one of 2 Japanese potters in attendance at the festival. His son made his pants for him. He made tea for us. We all spoke English together.
