May in South Korea

May is an interesting month in Korea, filled with a vast array of festivals and intimate family/cultural events. It starts just as the cherry blossoms fall from the April foliage, and by the end the weather is closer to the summers I know back in Boston- temperatures reaching upwards of 80. My teacher at 대리초 (Daeri elementary) tells me the spring time only lasts for about 3 to 4 weeks… and I believe him now. I can’t complain though; as a old soul who once lived in Cambodia, I concur that hot weather suits me better than most others.

Me with my Korean-language class

Just before the month began, I decided that this would be a month for positive self-improvement. This meant making some changes to my life that would benefit me in the long run and also give me some rest from my life on social media. This meant no facebook, no drinking, no smoking, exercise every day and watch my eating habits more closely…. and fix my posture, and hold things farther away from my face, and try to learn Chinese so I can better speak with my girlfriend who lives in China.

Me and Jinpei!

May has filled me with such productive and positive energy! I’ve nearly finished the first section of my Chinese language program… not chapter but section!! This is a bit of a big step for me because all this time I’ve spent off of facebook I’ve been getting surprisingly efficient and engrossed in the Chinese language. Going to Shanghai a few weeks ago also bolstered this love I never knew I had. Perhaps next year I will be finding a new life there. Who knows? Traveler life is far from predictable. I’ve started selling calligraphy or giving it away as gifts too. I figure I can give some good Chinese stuff to westerners, and then give some Korean style calligraphy to Chinese friends I may one day meet. I also have an article getting published in the Dudespaper soon (more on that later, so check back). So many good things in such a short time! Writing this has been the most time I’ve spent at a computer for non-work reasons.

 

My caligraphy. Not good yet but whatever

Jeonju Calligraphy Museum

I visited the Jeonju Calligraphy museum the Friday before Children’s Day to get a better idea of the styling of traditional calligraphy. Three great ones are below (left: bronze-age Chinese. Middle: Korean. Right: traditional Chinese).

 

I digress; for I mentioned before that May is a time of celebration in Korea! Every weekend I am not out traveling, I am missing a festival. The weekend I spent in China made me miss the 다명(Damyeong) bamboo festival, last weekend was Buddha’s birthday; a day bursting with festivals. Because Buddhism is very traditionally celebrated but the country is now predominantly Christian, the temples will offer a free lunch to laymen during the morning, and every other town will initiate its own reason to celebrate something different (like Osu with dogs, Namwon with it’s love story, etc).

I decided to go to the 오수(osu) dog festival with the Chinese family from my Korean language class, although our region is more famous for a festival in 남원(Namwon), which celebrates a story similar to Romeo & Juliet. They even do a traditional Korean wedding that I am sure is unforgettable. Going to Osu had it’s benefits though!  I got to see so many cute dogs, spend time with my friend and her family, practice more Chinese speaking, and get to be an impromptu member of a Chinese cultural parade.

Other celebrations in May include Sports Day which is a randomly chosen day for students to play sports all day… I love it because I don’t need to teach those days 😀 There are many field trips, family day, children’s day, teacher’s day, and parent’s day. It’s a great day to give gratitude to the people you love… (below are my Daeri students on sports day)

 

If you don’t got a loving family living in Korea, this is a perfect time to travel as all these days happen close to one another. This was the time I went to Shanghai to see my girlfriend. My birthday happened to be the following Monday, so it was nice to be cuddled up with someone I love in another country. Probably the first happy holiday I’ve had since I left the States (Family-oriented holidays like Christmas and New Years were incredibly lonely for me, and filled with bad luck aparently).

Did I mention that Shanghai and China in general is very beautiful. The pollution is a bit of a shame, but the streets and everything all over Shanghai were so clean! recycling was very prioritized and rubbish bins everywhere. This was so lovely because in Korea, I get self-conscious about finding someone else’s rubbish pile to toss my own when I am out in the city (people clean these piles every morning though).

Jinpei and I in Shanghai

 

The Shanghai tower was so amazing, with it’s glass floor, and the food was so good, tea shops everywhere. I just can’t get China out of my head, even though Korea is so beautiful and peaceful now too. The people seem to have gotten a bit friendlier as well. Must be the ice melting off of everyone!

The glass floor seriously freaked me out to be honest

Anyway, if you had to ask me, the best time of year to come to Korea is the Month of May. There is always something going on, good weather, and fun to be had. Here are some extra photos of my students celebrating a day off hiking with me, a birthday gift, and celebrations being had so far this month:

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Korean Buddhism and Songsu Mountain

I just realized it’s been about two months since my last post, but that’s ok. You haven’t really missed out on much. Before I start the post, here is an update on life the last two months (you can skip to the *** part just above to the mountain picture if you want to get right into the content) I spent most of January too broke to do anything because of my Cambodia trip, and February in Korea is a mix of extremely boring, cold, and depressing. In that time my girlfriend and I split (mutually, still good friends but I was still sad over it), I got terribly sick, and I learned that I was allergic to amoxicillin by breaking out in hives all over my body. Doctors didn’t really help much with it. I also learned that February’s Seoullal 설날 is the best time to travel out of Korea because everything is closed. I spent that time in bed with hives, no money, and a sore heart. Desk warming after the holiday was also a pain. I gotta say I’ve never felt so desperate for work to start back up again!

March brought some great fortune though! I finally got my bike and got to take it for a long long ride in the countryside (here is a pic below. I will make an individual post about biking in Korea. the long story short on that is thus: Korea is an amazing place for cyclists!!)

The hills and mountains here make it a tough workout though! no joke! I think there was only one major mountain/hill I had to bike up/ down for my 20km ride (short but sweet hour bike ride. It was a little late), but it added 500km ascent to my Strava stats!

We also got some new teachers who are very social and outgoing which is great! The other teachers here all work in the same building so they socialize a little less with us traveling teachers (they are good folk though! Just different schedules and things going on for em). The weather has gotten better, I started talking to a very lovely girl who lives in China (probably my next adventure after Korea!), and all my new schools are so great and supportive! I have to teach at 6 different schools, but they are all amazing. Finally making friends with teaching staff and being taught great techniques for my lessons. I cut down on my drinking and my initial anxiety over Korea is fading. I have cute students in my elementary schools who either beg me to play a mobile Call of Duty-like game called “Special Soldier” (the boys obviously haha) and the girls try to teach me Korean. I feel like my turbulence is ending, though lesson planning kills me a bit (SO many lessons!!). But my teaching skills have improved so much compared to last year!

****All that being said, I’ve been in need of a little spiritual grounding. Because my Korean is so little it’s hard to communicate, I haven’t really been able to go to a temple and my meditation practice seemed to have hit a wall. Luckily a good friend of mine here, 태구 (Taegu), and his family are very close friends with a head monk at a hidden yet famous temple not too far from me in the mountains of Songsu (성수산).

I’ve been practicing Buddhism since I was very young. I started meditation in 1st grade to counter my ADD problems because I hated taking the medicine for it (thanks 90’s internet and Ask Jeeves search! I don’t even know if Ask Jeeves is still a thing lol!). And from there I piecemeal’d a practice together, met many great teachers from all over. Even still; I spent a lot of time in college still trying to figure out what it is all about. Even my time spent in Cambodia, or the hidden temples throughout MA left me with more questions than answers. I got a lot of different pieces of advice and some lessons from those I was fortunate enough to work with, but never a very precise answer to a lot of the mysteries that westerners encounter when really trying to figure out traditional Buddhism and life of the monks.

Going to this temple, named Sangiam 상이암 (literally “Left Ear”), as a friend and guest gave me a chance to explore a temple complex in a way that I’ve never been able to experience before. I got to walk around the meditation hall, was taught proper Korean prostration, saw the guest house (which I can stay at any time! They are so kind here!), the head monk’s private meditation chamber, and an amazing meditation lesson!

A bit of history:

This temple, although small and hidden, was the temple where the wise King Sejong’s grandfather, King Taejo Yi of Jeosan, went to worship. He renamed the temple when he heard of his grandson’s birth. King Sejong is the scholar-king who created Hangul, thus scattered throughout the temple rocks are carvings in the ancient Korean-Chinse language (since the current writing system didn’t exist yet). It is very beautiful:

This stone below is potentially one of the founding monks (스님). The first character , 태구 tells me, means “3” Maybe it was one of three monks?

There is also a small fresh mountain spring here. You see them all over Korea near the mountains. Fresh water from the streams that continuously pour down the mountains are collected in small pools for drinking if you are passing by. At first I didn’t know what they were or what you do with them. The first time I used one was when I was biking up the small mountain near my town. I felt like I was dying by the time I reached it because I am out of shape. I stopped here and saw that there was a small spring of water and some ladles. Without knowing what they were for, I drank anyway! Turns out I was doing it right! This is the one near my town, 임실:

It’s a little plain compared to the One at the temple, which was so calm in its appearance.

The area around the mountain is very rural as is, so it isn’t spoiled by heavy tourism, thus the nature trails are very scenic and beautiful. The sounds of creeks and small animals fill the air. Guests build small stone towers along the way in hopes that their wishes will come true. There is also an abundance of wild life around the mountains as well.

Not long after arriving to the temple itself, I was greeted by 2 cute black goats which were shy at first, but then came back with a small family of maybe 6. I think it was good luck! My Chinese Zodiac sign is the goat (probably why I look better with a beard). I told my previously mentioned Chinese friend about it and she is certain it is a sign of good luck! I do too. I feel like I am finally feeling more contentment with life here after a very rocky winter. Everything is looking up!

I didn’t get photo’s from when they were all together and coming rather close. You could hear them “mie mie-ing” to each other. Last time I went to a temple, it was in Daegu and I was approached by a wild boar. I swear I am the snow white of mountain animals.

The temple complex itself is small but very peaceful and beautiful. It has a larger guesthouse with a library, a smaller one which is only a single room, a dormitory for the monks, a small meditation chamber for the monks, a smaller one for the head monk, and a room for basic cooking, meeting guests, teaching,and living.

The main meditation/prayer room for laypeople is rather beautiful. Because it was empty and I was there with 태구 I got to, for the first time, shamelessly walk around and take pictures. In Cambodia, the US, and other temples I’ve been in, I’ve never been able to get a good look or photos of a room like this. Always too nervous to disturb people’s prayer or to do something that might be disrespectful… which was always a shame because these rooms are absolutely beautiful!!

I spent the evening meditating in this hall under the training of a monk in red robes (with too many names, so me and another monk there just call him “Red Monk”). His teaching was absolutely amazing.  Friendly yet somber, a good teacher. I was able to make a movement with my meditative slump I had found myself in. During the session I had nearly forgotten where I was, yet while still knowing where I was. I felt this human worldly connection with all living things while contemplating the Koan “This pear, it is not a pear. How is that so?” I don’t know if I found that answer but I found myself closer to the people around me. Less of a clutch on the ego; less feeling of separation from people.

This meditative style is different from Theravada which is mainly focused on an empty mind and breathing in and out. The breath and empty mind is the Koan itself. With Korean style Buddhism, it is more related to Zen. You meditate to gain both focus and endurance.

The world is separated into two sections: the outer gates: sight, smell, hearing, taste, feeling. The inner gate and ego is “thought.” To know one you must know the other.

When you meditate you think
“I see this thing (and it makes me feel___”) Who am I that feels like ___ to this sight?”
“I hear this sound (and it makes me feel____”) Who am I that feels____ to this sound?”
same with the rest of the outer gates.

You contemplate each answer the same way. The idea is to question each thing, and each answer until you find “0” (zero) nothing. and understand it in the context of Buddhism. Being a monk means learning the culture and traditions of Buddhism along with finding a way to always ask each of these questions with every action you take so that you are aware of everything you do. When this can be achieved, nothing you do or feel is automatic, but a conscious and controlled mindful action. I spoke with a monk named 데산 스님, who had been studying for 13 years. He is so open and friendly and everything he said was full of joy, beauty, and meaning. The kind of person you can’t feel uncomfortable with because he speaks to you with the style and sincerity of an old friend. Even he considered himself a beginner, as did the Red Monk.

I had a lesson on our worldly connective state and how existence only exists because of condition. I am only here writing this due to specific conditions taking place over thousands of years. Remove even a single Condition and I may not exist. Remove a single condition post birth and I might not be a teacher in Korea. This too tied into the Koan about the pear. This might seem like something you hear from The Butterfly Effect, but when you meditate on it, you see so much more than an interesting movie concept. Before we departed I learned the word “Inchin” (I don’t know the spelling) but the meaning is “the seed is the condition for the tree” It’s a very important word in Buddhism…. but in Korean it is a slang word for bitch too. There is always humor with monks!

Dharma lesson aside, here are some photos of the monk’s meditation chamber, guest house, and paintings inside of the large prayer room. I’ve rarely felt so peaceful and at home. Next chance I have, I will stay a night there and continue my study 🙂

 

There is much more too, but that would make for such a long post!
After we finished I went out for Chinese with 태구 and his mom. She is excited to show me some pottery and calligraphy next time we meet. She is very sweet! I need to learn more Korean so I can properly thank her for her kindness. 🙂

Pray for Starwars

Ok. Don’t know where the source of the featured image I used is, but, Starwars is going full throttle in Korea in the same way it is in the US. It hasn’t been spoiled for me yet (Thank glob!) but until now I spiritually wasn’t ready for it. Thankfully I have a movie theater literally behind my house so I will be able to see it somewhat uninterrupted in the coming days.

Last friday, this kind of stuff in the picture above is what I had to deal with. It was my last day teaching at a school that I was so happy to be finished with (I like some of the staff and love most of the students… but this school was both my main school and my most challenging). The students at all my schools had “last day syndrome” so even though I was playing Miyazaki movies and Adventure time with Korean subs, they were going crazy all over the place.

Thankfully, I already finished one of my schools for the semester, so I had 3 free days to kick it anywhere I wanted. Because I have a habit of being poor but my bank account was looking nicer than usual (a rare but welcome sight), I was ready to go anywhere and spend as little as possible in the place I landed. This time, I decided to go for Daegu, or more specifically for the sake of story progression, Gayasan mountain at the Hein Sa (해인사) temple an hour and a half from the city.

This is the gate to the national park. It’s an hour and a half bus ride from Daegu city but well worth the visit.  From Imsil to Jeonju to Daegu to Hain Sa… and back to Daegu, I think I spent most of that day on the bus. I took a bus at 9:30am from Imsil (임샬) to Daegu ( 대구) which took me about 3 to 4 hours, arriving at 12:30pm or so. I spent an hour getting myself to the Hostel (that I spent one night in)….before navigating the subway back to the same exact bus stop as before via subway.

I wish I could say I stayed the night at the temple… which you can do! It is so peaceful and beautiful (as you will see). The price isn’t as bad as those in the city. Unfortunately I already paid for my accommodations at the guest house. As I write this however, I am in a love-hotel in a part of the city where I think it is safe to say I am the only foreigner lol! The price is right (finally learned to be assertive and barter where I can. Wrestled the price down by 20,000won). It’s very garish though. I like it because I know I can get it cheap enough, the rooms are cozy, and it is near where my girlfriend lives… but it is soooo sleazy! I didn’t bother taking photos of the room. It’s covered in all sorts of butts and things… It’s a very funny environment. Here I am, alone, in a room covered in butts watching the 6 starwars episodes on TV, just enjoying the heat and nice whirlpool tub (hahaha)! It also does not have a 4th floor because the number 4 is bad luck here. Not the only building I’ve seen that didn’t have a 4th floor.

To make up for the lack of sleezy pictures, I’ll show you the instructions for sharks trying to use the toilet and some photos of the Hostel I stayed at the night before. The hostel was very nice and probably the only one (or other one) in Daegu. No other travelers there though! Everyone was from Korea. I think Daegu misses out on some love because it is the 4th largest city, it’s midcountry, and although people say the nightlife is cheaper than Seoul, I dunno if I agree. Don’t get me wrong. It is a huuuuggeee city! However, I think Seoul takes the cake because it is so populated and diverse that it just happens to have more plentiful and cheaper venues as a result of how many people go there and the competition.

 

With that being said, other than seeing my girlfriend again, the temple was probably the most amazing part of the trip. I’m planning to go back very soon.
A brief history of the temple before I get into more photos: Hein Sa is one of the most important Medicine Buddhist temples around. It contains a collection of over 80,000 wood blocks containing the Korean Buddhist cannon: The Tripitaka Koreana (the largest cannon in the world). Unfortunately this temple has constantly been under attack and burned down by invaders. I think it’s been burned down three times. The first time was by the Mongolians who also managed to destroy all the woodblocks (about 700-800 years ago). Then the monks spent another 16 years re-carving the blocks using more advanced techniques of preservation. Then the Japanese burned it down (but the library remained intact), and then it got burned down again by accident (and yet again the woodblocks were kept safe by some miracle). The last attempt was during the Korean war, but a really dedicated fighter pilot who was probably also pretty annoyed at how many times this place kept getting burned to the ground, valiantly shot down all those who tried to destroy it. There are no smoking/fire signs everywhere. I think the guy putting them up was like “I swear on me mums life, if this place burns down ONE MORE TIME!”

This turtle-dragon gravestone was about 1km from the temple itself. Once you get there, there are more. I think the dragon on top is guarding one of the Dragon Balls.

A small retreat of some sort outside of the temple area by 0.5km

This is the first gate leading into the temple complex

A path leading to the second gate. I don’t have a photo of myself but as you can see from my shadow I’m decked out in my cloak and cowboy hat. I stuck out like some kind of wizard. Kids and adults gave me stares looks of awe as I walked around the complex.

A tree with wishes on it.

One of four important bells hiding around the country. In my Seoul Searching post, I showed a photo of the bell in Seoul. I think there are four towers too. Maybe if I ascend all four towers and see all four bells I will gain magic powers.

A cool dragon hiding next to the bell

Beautiful view next to a sign written in ancient Chinese

Decorations like this are all over the rooftops around the temples. The intricacy of some of the paintings and carvings is breathtakingly ornate. You can find something beautiful in almost any direction.

One of many small houses filled with very ornate Buddha Statues. I think head monks sleep in here

Here is one of them. I didn’t get a photo of the large Buddha inside the main hall of warship because it was a more auspicious place. I didn’t want to be disrespectful and take photos of people praying, especially before doing so myself…. on that note, I need to learn how things work here. I am versed in the Theravada tradition and Khmer style of prostration… Here they are Mahayana and they have their own way of prostrating. I probably looked funny doing it the way I knew, so I’ll need to learn more of the customs involved!

This is the gate to where the woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana are stored

And this is a close-up of the inside. It wasn’t open today so I could only observe from a distance. The construction of the building is so advanced and astounding to engineers even today. It has the windows stilted in a specific way for humidity control, with charcoal beneath floorboards opened at very specific lengths. The government tried to make a new room for the woodblocks using the most advanced technology for temperatures and humidity adjustment available (which you know must be nuts because Korea lives in the future)… unfortunately the whole thing was scrapped because the test-blocks started to get mildew and they couldn’t fix it.

These are some pictures I took just outside the “photo area” where you could stand in front of a picture of the wood blocks so it would look like you were actually in the room. I thought the view outside of it was nicer

This tree has an interesting story to it. One of the important Buddhist scholars spent his last days on this hill, playing lute and attracting beautiful birds. He hit the ground with his cane and in its place this tree sprouted. There really is a very mystical energy coming from it. They call it the hill of the Scholar. I felt like I was being wordlessly whispered to as I stood on top of it.

I don’t know what this is, but it’s pretty.

After climbing down the mountain I bought some Reishi Mushrooms… but a wild boar wanted them more than I did! I think I made a friend!

I later left the mountain and crashed for the night at the Hostel. I did look around downtown for a bit but I got kind of bored from being on my lonesome. Found a bus bar though!

There are two more topics I want to touch on before ending this post. One is how awesome the names of places around here are. Because English is sort of a lingua fraca here and not tied to any of the cultural value we put on it, you see total disregard for interpretation of language. This means a lot of stores end in the word “story” like “jazz story, tea story, jacket story” etc. You also get some rather…amazing names too like these below. If I open a business, I want to do it in Korea so I can give it a name of utter nonsense. It’s a lot like how Americans get Chinese/Japanese tattoos without knowing or caring what they mean. You might have “water” inked on you in Chinese, but it’s the same character used in words like “sewer system, bottled water, toilet water, hose, lake, puddle, etc”

I love it though.
The last thing I want to talk about, because I didn’t get much of a chance to in my Seoul Searching post, is the subway systems in Korea.

The subways here are outstanding. I’ve only seen two of them; Seoul’s and Daegu’s. The one in Seoul at first glance will make your head spin but after a minute or two of figuring it out, you see what makes it so great (I use an app to help me with Seoul since it is so massive). Daegu’s is a lot smaller but SO efficient! I’ve taken a taxi which took me an hour to go where the subway took me in 20 minutes. Daegu’s subway system is what Boston’s should be. Everything is nice and clean, bathrooms available, directions laid out. As an enthusiast of hating Boston’s subways, I can say this was very pleasing. I miss absolutely nothing about the cold dingy slow and terrible Boston subway system. One of my first memories of the Boston subway was bringing my friend’s little brother with us there. The smell had him dry-heaving.

One thing that caught my attention is how subway stations act both as modes of transportation and shopping malls. Most of Daegu’s station stops are pretty simple, but the one in the downtown area is literally a sprawl of underground shops and food stores. It’s incredible when you are looking for your gate and you run into this:

FOR SHAME BOSTON! FOR SHAAAMMEEE!
Imagine what could be done if private investors could transform our terrible system into something this beautiful and convenient. Everyone in the city goes down and through here. Why hasn’t this opportunity been taken yet??

Other than that, I will leave you with some photos demonstrating how easy they make the subway to navigate, how cozy it is in there, and how safe it is. Words can’t describe it. The rails run so smoothly that you don’t even need to hold onto anything when it moves. My days of a rail surfer in Boston are over for now it seems. It takes no skill to stand up in these things while they zoom around at redonkadonk speeds.

Stairs going down one of many numbered gates so you know where in the City you are going to:

First the gates are closed, and a screen / intercom tells you when it is coming. The same systems are inside the train too, in English. You always know where you are going.

Train arriving

people get on and off

There are plates in the ground with color-coded arrows going all over so it is hard to get too lost.

 

It was an exciting trip! At the end of the day, I got to cuddle up with my Dahkling (Thai for “monkey butt”.. it sort of sounds like the word “darling” when you say it… Yeaahhh it’s a great pet name 😛 ) and sleep off the day… and then I went to a bar

 

I’ll be going back today! (It took me a few days to finish writing this). but then later I’ll be off for Cambodia so my next post will be more about returning to my home away from home in South East Asia. No podcast this month, but I’ll have a good one coming up this January!

Seoul Searching

Hello all! Man it’s been a long time since I posted! The end of November through mid-December gets awfully busy! Students have exams, my schedule gets pulled everywhere, and I come home most nights wicked tired and ready to go to bed. It’s so nice that things are starting to wind down a little bit. I’m currently in school right now; classes ended early so I have three hours to kill which means it’s time for a belated update!

As I’ve mentioned before, I live in the town of Imsil (임실) which is famous for cheese and being a lonely place for a guy who can’t speak Korean (yet!!) or properly fit in culturally. This means when my friends are all busy, I spend my days unable to communicate with people. I stick out like a sore thumb and folk around here tend to be very shy about speaking to me, which I understand… and there isn’t much to do in my town but sleep and hike the local mountain. I spent two weeks in isolation and I was ready to beat my loneliness in Seoul. As you can see in my above pictures, I had no problems finding Ho’s and Cocaine not long after arriving in the university party district, Hongdae (홍대). The party started well!

After enjoying the rich drinking culture of Makkoli (막걸리) I went to find my hostel, The Lazy Fox. Their slogan is good thinking in my opinion. “Just be lazy” and I was pretty lazy about getting there… at midnight. The poor girl who owns/lives there waited so long for me. I was very very grateful! It’s very cheap too and a five minute walk from Hongdae; nestled into a very quiet area a minute from the subway.  I had a bunk in a cozy men’s dorm room for 18,000 won per night (something like $12-$15 USD with the current exchange rate. They also have women’s dorm and mixed dorm).  I got to know the staff and other travelers very well in the morning over breakfast. I think this is going to be my go-to spot for whenever I visit Seoul in the future :). If you wish to book with them, Their website can be found here!

If the outside doesn’t catch your attention, the cool art inside might. If I had to describe what it felt like staying here, it was a lot like being able to chill at your cool aunt/uncles house, and your other cousins chilling there come from all over. I can be a somewhat shy person but I felt nothing short of friendliness here.

 

Considering how much I had to drink the night before, I woke up surprisingly early with no headache; ready to explore the unknown. I also paid to stay a second night here because although my original plan was to drink until I crashed at a Jimjilbang (찜질방), I had second thoughts about stumbling into a bath house at 5am to get naked and pass out in a pool. Doubt they would let me in, especially if they saw my huge back tattoo (some places won’t let people with tattoos stay. Old minds relate tattoos with being in a gang).

So, a good decision later I was looking at a map. One of the guys (from Canada!) I talked to who I shared a room with suggested I go to the war museum. Museums are a great thing to do when it is early and you have no plans, I thought to myself. And it’s true! I came here with no plans for the daytime; just nighttime shenanigans! I grabbed the subway and got off about a mile away from the museum (next time I am in Seoul I will take photos of the subway for the seoul purpose of making you cats down in Boston hate me for being here). As I walked, using my GPS, I missed the war museum entirely and found myself at the national museum instead.

I gotta tell you; IT IS SO HUGE!!! I looked around found the information center and was like, “Hey, how much for a ticket for the museum?” and the girl there looks at me, confused, and tells me “It’s free.”

“All of it?” I inquire.

“Yeah…”

“Like, all of the museums, the garden…all of it?”

“Duh…”  I’m sure she would say if she were versed in the preferred American nomenclature. But she just said yes. I was there (at the museum, not the info center) for five hours… FIVE HOURS! Didn’t pay a dime. I didn’t even see the whole thing because I was exhausted by the end of it. Like, I barely even got to see inside of the main museum. I spent most of my time nerding out in the Hangul (한글) museum and the large absolutely beautiful garden. See for yourself how big it is; I barely do it justice.

A view of the reflective pool

Me near the gazeebo (a gift from someone to the museum…with the massive pool that has koi fish in it).

Closeup of the traditional style gazeebo

Some of the statues all around the garden. There were many more but I only had enough room for these pictures.



A bell from 1,000 years ago. I forget what it was for but it was a very important artifact (please message me if you know!)


And some nature and natural water and birds around the museum.

I think I spent two hours taking it all in. It isn’t super huge (it is big though) and if you were to speed through it you might see everything in 30 minutes but I like to take things slow and really soak it up. It was much more beautiful than I could give justice to here.

From this point I decided to go to the Hangul Museum because I am a huge nerd when it comes to written language. In fact, Hangul is probably my favorite written language of all time (this has been true even before I knew how easy it was to read and write the language). Once upon a time there was a king who was also a devout scholar/intellectual named King Sejong. Remember that name because he is one hell of a historical figure. Makes me wish we had more politicians like him because my countless studies in US and Asian history all point to one thing: When someone who values both education and being educated comes into power, GOOD THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN! In the US we had founding fathers like George Washington and Ben Franklin take charge and shape things. Once they died and the basis of what became today’s political arena got shaped up, everything slowly went bad. Same is true(ish…things got much better after American-Korean War) for Korea. King Sejong made a large number of grand contributions to his people and the country but he is most famous for Hangul. The general history of most Asian countries goes as follows: China created a writing system so complex that only rich men could afford to do it. They believed that if women tried to learn to write, their heads would probably explode (same was true for men and most people today too…). Peasants couldn’t afford to sit down and learn over 10,000 characters even if they wanted to. Some countries kept it, most reduced it to 2,000 common use characters after WWII. Japan tried to change it but the rich men in power made it even worse than before, even with the reduction to 2,000 after WWII. Korea instead made a new written language based off of tongue/throat placement that everyone could use. I learned the basics in about 2 days, and I mastered all the little rules about pronunciation and sound-change (there are roughly 12 of them) in about a week.

Here is a cool trippy video featuring one of the first books written by Sejong as he formed the language. It is incredible how beautiful and technologically advanced the exhibits here are:

 

Here is a close-up of the book.

Unfortunately due to wars with Japan and China, Hangul was always being made illegal but because of it’s cultural importance it kept resurfacing. Today as a result of efforts to preserve culture, all of Korea (even the north) use it… This was a problem even up until the mid 1900’s as well. The common use of it country wide is, as a result, still finding it’s place. There was an exhibit about the place of Hangul in the digital age that was also really really amazing! Before I go into that though, just realize that the place of poetry and artistic use of the language is still a newer thing. It’s beautiful I think. When I have more of the language and culture down, I can’t wait to write some Hangul poetry 🙂

Here is another video showcasing Hangul as an artistic medium. It is also trippy because Korea really knows how to make everything so impressive!:

 

I love old books! Especially on language! I was in here for an hour and a half just marveling at all the history, books, translations, etc. I would have stayed in longer but it was such a small exhibit and I wanted to see the guest exhibit before it got to be too late.

Here are some of the things I got pictures of. There are more but I figured for most people once you’ve seen an old book in ancient text, you’ve seen em all maybe.

 

The next was the digital exhibit. I have a video of the main room and a few points of interest. They even had my favorite typewriter there… BUT IN HANGUL!. The rest is just a lot of the retro tech we’ve seen back at home but with Korean letters on them. It was super neat to see it all. If requested, I’ll put them up in a seperate post.

My body projected onto the wall in digital form

TYPEWRITER!

 

Finally, I walked around in the main museum for 30 minutes and saw this neat sculpture inside of the MASSIVE main hall. I can’t believe that this and most museums in Korea are free. Our art museum in Boston is very nice but so small in comparison and tickets are upwards of $30! Unless you are smart like me and my poor-friends and stock up on $15-ticket coupons, a day out with a friend can cost you $60 just to go inside the Boston Art museum. I didn’t stay for long sadly because I was so exhausted. I decided to shrug off the physical exhaustion… by walking 2-3 miles to N-Seoul tower…

I won’t write too much about the tower because this post is getting long, but it was great! I don’t know why I went… or went alone since it is a couples spot. You can see the locks in the following pictures. Lovers write something sweet on them and put them up to preserve love forever. No regrets though! I met a nice Korean man and his brother. Both spoke some English and Khmer (which was so surprising!) so we spoke to one another in a mishmash of 3 languages as he followed me all over and got to be my boyfriend for the day I guess lol! He took a lot of photos of me, but I didn’t get any of him. I guess it wasn’t meant to be 😥

Here are some of those locks:

No idea what this was doing here… especially since pot is super illegal in South Korea!

This is how Koreans see us Americans.

Such a pretty view!




Me!

Inside the tower

Outside the tower

 

Long day! I walked maybe 15km in total and I was so beat!
All’s good though! After an hour of RNR, I met my dormmates from France, Canada, Ireland, and we hit the pubs. Think we got back at 5am and watched classic Irish short films until passed out 🙂

Teachin in Korea Episode 2? :Getting Here

Long time no post! Been busy all over the place with teacher-training, yoga, and all sorts of life-stuff. I’ve got tons more content coming your way so don’t worry. For now, here is the belated episode 2 of Teaching in Korea where I talk about actually getting here and a little bit of what to expect. I recorded this far in advance so although it’s not 100% current to the date, all the info is still pretty relevant. I sound like such a robot in the beginning. Been trying out some voice techniques and practicing them in the meantime to sound better. At this point I’ve been in Korea a full month and have my first paycheck! Ahhh it is so nice to not be broke anymore! In the next podcast or post (whichever happens first) I’ll tell you how to avoid getting scammed out of $500.ooo USD ($500,000 Won) at your first Noraebang (Karaoke) experience. For now, I hope you enjoy!

My food-life and the Imsil Cultural Festival

Today’s a lazy Sunday and I don’t know where the day has gone. It’s already 4:00pm here and I’m still in my bathrobe. I wound up staying up a little too late doing nothing when I got home from the city last night and wound up waking up somewhere close to 11am this morning. A new record for me! Usually I wake up between 6 and 9 no matter what, which is a shame. (before I forget. The photo above is my name written in Hangul by a pro calligrapher!)

Currently I am sitting here eating a persimmon that I blended up with ice and brown sugar to make a sort of puree-sorbet thingamajig. It’s really a great and healthy snack:

My friend Ikju who runs the cafe (Amicus) near me with her husband, Kim, showed me how to make this. I feel like when I have a persimmon done right, I really like it. Persimmon makes me think of a tomato that made up its mind and became a fruit that hangs on trees like most other sensible fruits out there (unlike tomatoes which are debated to be one or the other. The confusion is so real that I’ve literally seen cherry tomatoes on cake here). It’s also great because of the many ways you can prepare it! If it is hard you can eat it just like a fruit, but if it gets soft and gelatinous you can do what I did here or skip blending and get a spoon to eat it with like a custard or something.

It is currently persimmon and tangerine season here in Imsil (and perhaps Korea in general). Getting seasonal fruit is the best. In the US where I lived I think we got seasonal apples and pumpkins. The only time I could really tell when a fruit was in season was either when it was cheaper than usual or overly advertised. No matter what, fruit just stayed the same flavor, which was kind of dull. Here it is better! you can get any fruit any time of year but it will be like in the US; dull tasting and expensive. Here it’s great because you will get tons of fruit that burst with flavor at an affordable price. I get happy and sad buying fruit here because it goes bad before I can eat it all and I am always so busy that I forget to take extras with me to give as gifts. I’ll get better I swear!

I mention this first because it is so cool to see these little cultural nuances and also because I’m trying to make my diet healthier. Currently I sort of drink beer and eat kimbap for dinner unless I run into a friend somewhere and go out to eat. For example, I had this “cheese kimbap” last night!

I feel like I am living an in-between state of healthy and not-so-healthy but my portion control has gotten so much better! I don’t drink as much beer as I did back home because it’s expensive and crappy and my busy lifestyle gets in the way (cry). Although I do like Soju, I only really like drinking it with other people. When I drink it alone I don’t feel right. For breakfast I tend to drink a yogurt cup, eat a bowl of cereal, or do something with eggs, toast, and marmalade (or a combo of all that!). Depends on how much time it takes me to look like I am alive in the morning. My dinner is usually kimbap or rice unless I go out with friends. Despite my questionable diet my skin is looking much healthier (somehow) and I’ve lost a little weight! Last night I tried on a belt that previously took some heavy effort to wear. Instead of the usual affair of wishing I was dead, the belt fit on just right and snugly. I WAS SO HAPPY! I think I gained a few lubs (lbs) in the summer because of all my partying and drinking in preparation to depart to Korea, so seeing a drop has me relieved.

Speaking of eating things: I got to go to the Imsil Cultural Festival last week! It wasn’t a huge event, mostly just a small thing at the community center for the students and some teachers to go to. While I was there, I got to meet and have a traditional style Korean lunch with the director of the Imsil English Center. She is a very nice woman and I am happy I got to spend time with her! Here is a picture of that lunch: The hot stoneware made everything so delicious and cozy! From heated floors to heated stone bowls, Korea really knows how to utilize heat in the most comfy of ways.

It was soooo good! Maybe tonight instead of kimbap I will do a bibimbap because that is a delicious rice-dish that cooks itself within a heated stone or clay bowl too. After lunch I walked around the festival some more and saw a guy doing cotton candy (fairy floss?) but it was done in all these crazy designs and made to be super huge! I probably got diabetes from eating it. I asked if he could make me a Mario-mushroom shape and he did.

The festival itself was on a Thursday, which is a day I should have been teaching. My teacher at Jisa Middle, Mr.Han, showed me the students rehearsing on their traditional drums for the festival. I thought it would have been cool to go see them perform and so he started calling everyone up. Before I knew it, I was free to enjoy the day. My co-teachers have been so kind to me here!

The day proceeded with an opening violin and cello performance done by the Imsil Students. It was very well done and beautiful. You could tell they had been practicing for a long time to sound that good. Many students I talk to tell me they play the violin, cello, or piano (even in 3rd grade!). They are very popular instruments here and so refined! Also, Although I didn’t see any at the festival, the ocarina is a very popular instrument here too. I tend to hear my upstairs neighbor playing it, or the kids around school, and even older people hanging around the gazebo. This lead me to believe that perhaps the ocarina was a traditional Korean instrument. This is true and untrue. There is an instrument called the Hun that is a traditional clay Korean take on the ocarina. However, the ones I always see around are the sweet-potato shaped ocarinas. Sweet potatoes are also very popular here too so I thought it made sense. Turns out, according to some people I’ve talked to, the ocarina became popular primarily because of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Yep… That’s the reason. I’m all for it to be honest, I mean everyone in the US wanted to play this instrument when I was a kid but music teachers told us (me actually) to not be an idiot and choose a real instrument like the clarinet. I think I still got clarinet splinters in my face from 3rd grade. Oh but meanwhile it was totally cool for us to play the recorder which is possibly the ugliest sounding instrument thing known to human kind.

After the wonderful opening ceremony which was marked with an explosion of confetti, we were prompted to go outside and look around. They gave me a little stamp book and if I did the cultural excursions at each booth, I’d get some kimbap as a reward. I did a lot of them without getting stamps but they gave me 2 rolls of kimbap anyway (people here always give me too much food, but I appreciate the thought). I was so full after eating one but thankfully I found my friend Autumn and passed it off to her. My hands were so full of things too! I was literally just about to become that guy who keeps a roll of kimbap in his pocket like some sort of pleeb. Granted, all the kids around her started passing her tons of stuff they didn’t want but took a lot of her newly gifted kimbap anyway. I think one of them gave me a tofu soup of some kind.

The excursions were hosted by the different colleges and trade schools around, presenting ideas for the student’s potential future plans (something kids in Korea have to decide very young). There were robotic and mechanical displays from the colleges of science, cheese from the Imsil college of cheese science (cheese is a big deal here in Imsil), video game colleges, the millitary, fire-fighters, beauty schools, culinary schools, cultural preservation clubs, and so on. There were activities like calligraphy, flower arranging, making cute cakes, playing with robots, and testing video games. I got to play with an Occulus Rift for a student-made first person shooter and it was very cool. Below are photos from some of the cultural booths, starting with Autumn making a clay pot:

I had more photos but when I switched phones from my non-working American phone to my new Korean phone I lost a ton of them (Galaxy 6 Edge+ Emerald edition. I’ll have to do a post about Korean “servisu” or service because that is an interesting cultural point that makes life here great. When I signed up for my phone, with help of a Korean friend, they gave me $100 in cash for some reason lol). But these were just some of the things to see here!

After that I sat in and watched the performances. I thought I was only going to see my Jisa middle school students there, but I also met with students from the elementary school, and even Samghye! I got pictures with most of them too!

The performances were very amazing. Some did traditional Korean fan-dances, others did dances to kpop, and some did traditional drum music (like my Jisa middle school). It was very cool to see the ways that students identify with their culture past and present. I also saw some dances done to Taylor Swift and Ke$ha. Very funny and surprising. All of which done very well!

Some of my Jisa Elementary Students before their performance

The Jisa Middle School students doing their traditional 4-drum performance.

And then they did the dance. It was fun to watch 🙂

This fan-dance was done by a different school. It was very well done. I’ve seen professionals do this same traditional dance and these girls did a great job even in comparison.

It was such a fun time!

Well, That’s all I’m gonna write for now. I still have to go out for dinner and finish writing all my lesson plans. So much work but if I finish before it is too late I will hopefully get a good sleep. Night all!

Teaching in Korea Episode 3? : Imsil

This is the second third episode of Teaching in Korea. Episode two got sort of put on the back burner because I am yet to edit it, it is long, it took place a month ago in Boston. It has some good info on it though about getting over here so it will be released after this episode sometime in the future when I have more time to dedicate to editing. Also before I go on; Yes that is a building shaped like a wheel of cheese (I took this photo lol). Also, I said something about learning Chinese characters too close to the word “easy” and also something about the reading of them that wasn’t 100% correct but I didn’t have time to edit it out. Thought I would just mention that here so that those of you who are more savvy in Chinese don’t rip me a new one (though you probably will anyway. By the by, go you for learning Chinese! You might have been born learning it but you still get my huzzah).

Content
This episode is mostly me going super ADD and getting lost on a lot of tangents. I do talk about where I live, some tips on not starving here, a peek into my teacher life, and also some culture.

My Korean Apartment

It’s been a little while since my last post! Seems that I’ve managed to both skip my second podcast for last month and completely get absorbed in life to the point where I haven’t been too nurturing to my blog. Ah well, At least the reasons I’ve been neglectful are valid! This is the start of week 3 in Korea for me (still 4 more weeks to go until I get paid TT_TT) and adjusting has been both fun and interesting! I’m met with both good and bad luck wherever I go it seems. Today I’m going to write about my apartment because:

1.  Many people want to know what kind of living situations they are gonna have if they come to teach here
2. My family, friends, and viewers probably want some assurance that I’m actually living in a house in Korea and not some dude named Joe’s car on the outskirts of Telsa Oklahoma trying to get by on favors, fortune telling, and the color turquoise.
3.  Because if I hit my head, it will be good to have a cheat-sheet so that I know what half the things in here do (which is a learning process).

So to start out, here is an outside view of my apartment:

If you took a day or two to learn Hangul (seriously, only a few days. I learned it in 3) you could read that this says “Sinu” in big ol’ block letters. It’s great for someone like me who gets lost all the time. This apartment-mega-structure is located in the mid-sized rural town of Imsil which is famous for its bibimbap (a veggie-rice dish) and cheese( Imsil has a cheese amusement park on the outskirts! It’s no joke; CHEESE.THEME. PARK. There’s a giant metal cheese-wheel on a mountaintop and it looks absolutely ridiculous amazing. Good history behind it too but I’ll get into that another time). The striking features of the town of Imsil are its nice small-towny vibes and it’s random massive sized apartment complexes that all exist in one section around where I live. Another is being built nearby too. The photo above doesn’t do too much justice for how common, huge, and aesthetically boisterous these complexes are. I took this off the internet because it’s dark outside and I’m too lazy to go out and try to photograph it. After all, it’s what’s on this inside that counts right?

Getting into that, a Korean Apartment is, like everything in this country, a learning curve. Once you master it your life becomes incredibly convenient in comparison to the US but until you do, it can seem like more of a hassle. I should mention before I continue that my apartment is a double. The standard layout of a single apartment in Korea tends to be either a basic studio with appliances or a 1-bedroom kind of thing. My friends who live in the singles here have a twin-sized bed, desk, and tv in a small-ish bedroom, a kitchen/dining area combo, and a bathroom. Their apartments are also $100 cheaper than mine ($350/mo), so when they get their housing allowance ($400), they end up making an extra $50 in their paycheck whereas I end up spending an extra $50 out of pocket (my rent is $450). I didn’t really have a choice in the matter but I’m not complaining. It’s nice to have an actual office so my work and sleep are separate. Makes my sleep 100% better. These photos below should show you how amazing my office is. The following photos are a little dated by about a week and I have more things here now but the idea is the same:

This is where my cable TV and where my little router that couldn’t give me a good signal in any other part of the house but that’s ok because it was free lives. I tend to live in this room most of the time because Korean TV is downright amazing, my internet works in here, and I get all my lessons and such accomplished in here. It’s a very productive zone. I sort of want to move my tv into the living room but I also don’t. I’ll probably end up chromecasting a flat-screen TV in there eventually when I’m not so poor.

Speaking of wanting to not be poor, here is my bathroom:

I say that because although it is sizable, there are two things I want that are missing from it. First is a hardcore shower head so I can get all the great massage settings that will help my apparently shitty back feel better and also so girls will want to stay over more. I had my first back problem happen to me the other day where some muscle went ape and I was stuck writhing on my floor for 20 minutes in terrible pain trying to move. Got to a hospital the next day (it’s behind my house!) and without insurance or proof of being a living human being (I forgot my passport and couldn’t go back home to get it) I got an X-ray, 2 checks by a doctor, and a shot of muscle relaxant in my bum; costing about $25. I know I’m going off on a bit of a tangent but let that sink in: no insurance. no ID. $25. Back home I had a super shitty 1/2 hour check-up at Tufts medical center in Boston, “the best hospital in the USA,” and it was 1/4 as thorough and the insurance bounced so I got a bill for $700. Got everything fixed up money-wise but that’s $700 for a doctor to tell me to pee in a cup, ignore everything I tried to say about my health, and waste time talking how much he loved the company I worked for. He legitimately refused to hear me when I was trying to be like “My eyes don’t line up anymore and I started getting migraines; is this normal?” The machine that sorted my pee out in a matter of 12 seconds did more work than he did. $700! Okay, I promise to keep the rest of this post on-task, but goddamn!

Most bathrooms around here are a shower/bathroom combo. In my photo above you will notice that my toilet paper has a little cover on it. This is to shield it from water because people don’t really use shower curtains here too often (my water doesn’t shoot that far though). If you want a sit-in tub you either have to be very lucky, find your own housing, or just go to a jimjilbang (shower-room) which is literally a cheap but cozy spa where you can get washed, massaged, treated, fed, and even stay the night if you want to for relatively cheap! I haven’t done it yet but I plan on it!

The other thing I want for my bathroom is this cool toilet seat thingy they sell here that’s easy to install and has heater/bidet built into it. It can cost between $200-$300 but might be worth it because you generally can’t flush toilet paper in Korea and a bidet would help my little paper bin smell less nasty (it’s not too bad, I spray it with stuff that kills the odor). When I got extra dough kicking around I may just go for it 🙂 This brings me to my next point: hot water and my house’s heating system. This is one of those learning curve things that seem like a pain but actually become very convenient (especially for your wallet) once you learn it. Here is my thermostat:

Learning how to use a house in Korea is a lot like playing Dwarf fortress with a friendlier UI. That round button on the top-right turns on/off my heating. I like this. It’s not like in the US where your thermostat is always on or set to random things in hopes of keeping your bill down. The black box to the left of it tells you it’s working. When it is not broken a little green light shines on the far-left LED. There are other little LED’s around too that show the progress of the heating. I think if any more of the lights in the black-box go on I have a problem. The little switch below the on/off button has two settings. One is hot water only and the other is floor heating and hot water. Currently I have it set to only heat water, which takes seconds to begin working. I’ll share my heating apparatus directly after so you know the magic behind this. I only ever turn on my heating when I need it. Oh also, most Korean homes don’t have your standard heating units like vents or what have you. Here, your floor gets all heated up so that way the floor is toasty, and heat is rising from the floor-up specifically. Keeping floor heating on can get very expensive though (relative to my other bills here). I only ever tried it once on a very cold day. When I have it on for 2-3 hours, I just shut it off and the house stays nice and warm for a long long time after. Seriously nothing is better than heated floors and a nice cushion. My futon-thing in the office is directly above the part that heats up first so I get hyper cozy when I watch tv.

The round dial lets me control the temperature, and that slider to the right of it has something to do with automatic on/off heating. I’m sure life would get easier if I figured it out but none of the other foreign teachers have fiddled with it and we all just chalk it up to being some sort of Korean witch-craft and best left untouched lest we defile the ancient order to which the very first owner, who knew what he/she was doing, lay forth as the law of the land. It’s like a little piece of the first resident is alive and well here in their heat-preferences which I may not agree with, but happily adapt to.

Not too much to say about this, but this is the little box that makes my house warm. The front panel comes off in case maintenance is needed. Most other foreign teachers here told me about a thing I can do to it if my hot water automagically stops working, but I guess mine has never been messed with so I’m probably ok. Anyway, this little box heats a small reservoir of water inside of it super fast, then heats water as I use it. It is crazy efficient. It is on my balcony, where my laundry-room lives:

People don’t really use dryers here like they do in the US. Instead there is an efficient washing machine, and clothing air-drys. I can see how this is effective in the summer time when warm air helps dry clothing. When I lived in Cambodia I did it the same way, but it was always hot there even in the winter. Here, the winters get pretty cold but are still mild compared to Boston. I asked how people dry their clothes in this season. Most either take the drying rack inside or put their clothes on the heated flooring. This is a perfectly clean way to dry clothing too, especially since shoes never (usually) make it past the front door:

Don’t mind all the bags hanging up around in this picture (you will get a better glance at them in my other photos). Korea recycles in a very different way than we do in the US. Recycling will have it’s own post (because it is a process. If you read it here later, you might avoid carefully sneaking your garbage out at 3:30am in hopes of no one seeing you as you shamefully just toss it on the curb). For now, know that while in the US we have “trash” and “recycling bins” (sometimes a paper bin), Korea has a bin for EVERYTHING. I have a better system down now but these photos are my proto-sorting-system. As for the door-way. The area in front of the door is lower than the floor so that you may take your shoes off before entering. This is very ingrained into Korean culture as I’ve witnessed it. Whenever my co-teachers come to my house, they take off their shoes. If they go out, come back in for a second and need to go past the doorway, they frantically take off their shoes and scramble to get them back on. If they don’t feel like taking their shoes off to deliver a message or something, they will literally cram themselves in that little doorway space (one time it was three of them!) to avoid having to take off their shoes. When I go to school, I take off my shoes, put on some slippers, then run around the school even if I am going to the sports area outside, and only put them back on when I am leaving. The light above the shoe-space is motion-activated on a timer so while my co-teachers are going nuts over their shoes, the thing starts blinking all over the place and it’s pretty funny (don’t tell them I said that though).

Here are two pictures of my bedroom: It’s pretty standard except that I get a queen-sized bed because I live in a double and it’s awesome! Some of you who are cultured to Korea might see this photo below and think I am begging to be an unfortunate victim of fan-death. What can I say? I like to sleep on the edge!

Well, that sums up all the details. I need to go get food and write my lesson plan before I pass out. For now, enjoy the rest of these photos taken of my house!

Week one thus far

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, its been a hectic couple days since I’ve arrived in Seoul and in finally getting a chance to write about everything while getting bitten by mosquitoes in the dorm room lobby. The time is 5:45am here.

When I landed, I was shacked up with another new Epik teacher in a very… cozy (and cute) guesthouse. I couldn’t tell you if it was made for couples or if it was just lovey by accident of chosen english. Very romantic haha

I think I haven’t experienced culture shock yet, but I’ve definitely experienced the novelty of things. I find that everything I run into in Korea in terms of objects and procedures  are either practical or cute. An example of cute would be the highly stylized coffee products of Paris Baguette

And who could forget the no-smokemon?!

But the but the practical side of things can take you by surprise too. I don’t have pictures of it, but my medical exam was very surprising to me. The machinery for testing everything was so fast and advanced it left me in wonder. It reduced my 45 minute doctor visits in the US to a 10 minute (maybe 7) proceedure.

An example I do have pictures of is the way in which you would escape from a high story building in an emergency.

Anyway, there is a lot more to be said, but im still stuck on my cell phone trying to post online. Its also super early and there is still so much more to write about. Being with EPIK at this orientation is very beautiful. I’ve been able to meet people from all across the world who have come here to teach English and it’s a true cultural melting pot. The fact we all get along and are very interested in one another makes it really great here. It’s not something I’m used to in the US. I want to write more about it but I’ve got a long day ahead of me.

Until next time, take care! The podcast might be delayed a bit because of my current circumstances but I promise it will be up soon!

Teaching in Korea Episode 1: Boston

This is the first episode of Teaching in Korea, my podcast documenting my life starting in Boston, then chronicling my adventures teaching in South Korea. This episode is the first ever podcast-like recording I’ve ever made (and it sounds a little amateur compared to some of my other podcast projects now that I’ve got better equipment and some experience). I recorded it around September 20th when I was rushing around to get my visa and my document together for a September 28th flight. Unfortunately this attempt didn’t go through and I wound up waiting until this week (October 5th) to get my visa and soon my plane ticket. Thankfully it seems that I’ll be departing around October 18th or so.

Content

This podcast’s main focus is on me trying to get my life together for a speedy departure. I talk about the infinite stack of papers being sent to-and-fro, I cover a bit about budgeting, and I share a brief experience of what is required to be an English teacher in Korea. It’s a commentary on the process that will include more highlights with the October 25th Episode where I discuss more about the teaching certificates available; namely the CELTA.