In nay yo!!! (Food)

In light of the holiday season, I think it's appropriate to dedicate this blog to the glorious world of food!

Interestingly (and conveniently), much of what has happened in the last couple of weeks centers around meals. Koreans, as I may have mentioned, place HUGE importance on what they eat and how they eat it. For instance, school lunches always include a mini lesson for me, the token western girl, and Mrs. Jeong has taken it upon herself to teach these lessons. Each day she will tell me the Korean names for the food items on my plate, while also showing me exactly how to eat it.

The first major school lunch lesson came with a dish called bulgogi and I certainly needed the guidance. For bulgogi, there is basically a spread of vegetables, meats, sauces, and lettuce. I (perhaps stupidly) thought that each dish was its own separate thing and that Koreans simply munch on giant lettuce leaves as their salad. I was therefore happy to learn from Mrs. Jeong that everything fits together as a very tasty Korean lettuce wrap of sorts.

Unfortunately, at times Mrs. Jeong will over-do the "how to eat" lesson as she likes to show me when and how I should be using my chopsticks and spoon. A small side note is that Koreans will often have the chopsticks (called chok ka rak) operating in one hand and and a spoon in the other . When I first witnessed this, it struck me as an interesting sort

of east meets west dichotomy!

I have not yet picked this up however, so when Mrs. Jeong sees me putting my chopsticks down and then picking up my spoon, I'm sure she thinks it is incredibly inefficient. I wish I could say "Lay off woman"... but I can't, so I just have to politely tell her that I like eating slow.

That Thursday (Nov. 19th) after my bulgogi experience at school, I met with about 10 other English teachers like myself for some Korean BBQ called "Gogi-gui." Once our crowd was seated, the servers began to bustle around the table bringing the various banchan, or side-dishes, lighting the gas grills in the middle of the tables and distributing bottles of Soju, a hugely popular liquor here made from potatoes. Then came the plates of raw hanau (beef) and pig. With the meet also comes a variety of vegetable platters of lettuce, garlic, and leaks as well as chili and bean-paste sauces. The idea of Gogi-gui restaurants is that the patrons serve themselves. It turns into a great group activity where one person cuts the meet with scissors, one flips the meet on the grill with tongs, and

another serves. Then the gas is turned low as everyone concentrates on the task at hand: making the bulgogi. I felt immensely proud that I had already experienced the dish and could confidently create my lettuce wrap.

At this point Kayla had been my only read friend in Korea so it was nice to meet other people who came to teach through Footprints. Julia is one such girl who also happens to be a Korean American. Thus, without Mrs. Jeong present, Julia became the educator at this meal where she

taught the table how best to arrange the meat and what each side dish was. We all had many questions for her like "Hey Julia, what's in this salad?" to which she would respond "It's not salad, it's squid" "Oh, I see." "So... is this squid as well?" "Nope, that's radish." And so on, and so forth. She was incredibly helpful with the ordering. I think that the patrons and servers alike were very grateful to have Julia there!

After dinner, Kayla and I invited Julia

to come exploring on Saturday in Haeundae with us where we had made plans to see the Busan Modern Art Museum and the Donghae Yonggung-Sa Buddhist Temple.

On Saturday morning we met at the Lotte Department Store (the stop I take for

my school) where we set off to find breakfast at one of the MANY street vendors

(called Pojangmachas which literally means "covered wagon"). Our friend Seamus decided to join us for some deep fried vegetables and fish. I only had one item

because a. fried food rarely tempts me in the morning and b. I had already had my very balanced breakfast of cereal and yogurt at home. The other three, however loved their breakfasts, which had th

e extra perk of being incredibly cheap: for 4 items, the total was a whopping 1000W (roughly $1) After they had reached their deep-fried food quota for the morning, us girls hopped on the subway for Haeundae where once out of the station, got onto a city bus for another 20 minute ride to the temple.

At the temple, we were of course met with another line of Pojangmachas and by this time, I felt ready for some solid street food. I found a vendor selling fish shaped pastries which I had seen on my way to school and had always intrigued me. I of course had to ask my little

Korean Pocket Dictionary (Julia) what it was. She informed me that they are called

Bungeoppang and are basically a pastry filled with a red bean paste. I decided it sounded harmless and was something I could invest 500W on. The picture at the start of this blog is actually of me stuffing my face with one of Bungeoppangs. "Delicious!"

Once we finally made it past the hoards of vendors, the temple was an awesome experience. It sits up against sea-side cliffs

and is backed by pine trees. I have limited

experience with Buddhism so once again I appreciated having Julia there. She demonstrated the proper way pray and explained the the significance of the hundreds of prayers written on tags around the temple and candle lights on the walls. Before leaving I walked down to the water for my first encounter with Korea's Pacific Ocean!

Getting back on the bus, we headed for Haeundae proper where we met two other teachers named Andrew, a hilarious Brit from Gloucester and Tori, another wonderfully

witty character from Florida! We all decided more food was in order so we made our way to a random restaurant where we ordered (or rather, Julia ordered) piles of noodles, meats, Kim Chi, (a fermented vegetable which is consumed in mass quantities by the Koreans), and a bean-paste soup called toen-jang-tchi-gao. Everything was very good in my book, but Julia informed

us it was only sub-par. Ha! I'm glad that I don't quite have a discerning taste for Korean food, I probably wouldn't enjoy my school lunches as much!

After our meal, we rolled ourselves to the Busan Museum of Modern art... Not the most impressive museum I've visited but we

did stay long enough for them to finally kick us out (due to closing hours) which is something I've certainly never done.

The five of us had such a blast on Saturday that we decided to meet on Sunday for a hike near my apartment. I had already done some exploring in the hills and found a pretty sweet trail that I wanted to go further on. Outfitted with water and our cameras, we set out promptly at 11 am though I think within the first 10 minutes, Kayla and Julia were seriously wondering if it was a wise choice to follow me. The only trail I've found from my apartment for the main trail, is pretty steep and hugs a large concrete drainage ditch. At one point, there is a make shift rope to grab onto so not to fall. Once we were concrete free, the trail opens up and becomes very safe and manageable (even for the city girls not used to hiking). It is probably an hour hike to the top, but we did it in two (another two to the bottom) as there were many rest stops and photo breaks. Not to mention the periodic side-steps off trail to let MANY Koreans pass going the opposite direction. It was beautiful but unfortunately, also packed.

After stopping at the top for a great 360 degree view of Busan we headed down. Because it had taken so long, I was so famished! Not more than 10 minutes into our descent, we passed a group of adults sitting on a blanket eating a picnic. Perhaps they heard my stomach because they invited us over for rice cakes, persimmons (one of the most popular fruits here which they call Kam) and Gamju, a milky, sweet, rice wine.

They spoke absolutely NO English but it was great as there were lots of hand gestures and laughing! This picture is of the greetings (of sorts) and Andrew and I being the first to accept the Gamju.

The Thursday after the hike, Tori invited us all over to her friend Dave's house for

an attempt at a western style Thanksgiving. It was quite the crowd: two Americans who were dating Korean girls, one Canadian who had already celebrated his Thanksgiving back in October, a Brit who had never celebrated Thanksgiving before, and four American girls who were very excited for the holiday! I promised to bring sweet potatoes with

marshmallows as my contribution.

I think that even with of our limited resources, the final product for our feast certainly resembled a Thanksgiving meal! There was stuffing, Cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, my sweet potatoes (which I mashed with a stove top espresso maker), and rolls. Unfortunately, this country is already too jam packed with people so there isn't any room for poultry as large as a turkey, but we were able to cook two whole chickens in a very large toaster oven... in my opinion, Thanksgiving was a success!

After Dinner, Tori, Andrew, Kayla, Julia and I found a Nori-bang room

. This was certainly a new concept for me but basically Nori-bang is a private room that a group can go to and sing karaoke! Visiting a Nori-bang is an experience in and of itself. The whole building is set up like a hotel with a series of hallways and rooms. Our room was very nice with a couch wrapping around the perimeter, two large TVs, a gigantic sound system and a large tabl

e in the center. An attendant came to take our order after we were situated. It is mandatory at many Nori-bangs to order food. We were all still very full from dinner and decided the fruit plate was probably harmless. Instead we got a massive tray overflowing with fruit. We had a great time but of course, I lost my voice and paid for my Nori-banging for the rest of the weekend and following week.

On Friday, I was invited to a sort of staff dinner for the school. As usual, I was told

very little and only bothered to ask where we were going once I found myself crammed into a micro bus with the other teachers. Apparently it was a special occasion because the grandmother of one of our students hosted the event. The boy was recently accepted into a very good High School and she was thanking us by treating this expensive meal. Our dinner was at the Jun-gan-ay a Korean Beef Restaurant in an area called Tchurma (not sure on the spelling with this one). The meal was incredible or as they say in Korea, the food was mashisoyu (delicious)! The restaurant consisted of a cluster of buildings and the room we dined looked almost like a native American Long House. Immediately after being seated, attendants started bustling around us bringing sides, drinks and cast-irons filled with glowing hot coals for the grills. Coals, although more labor intensive as they have to be replaced throughout the meal, are the more traditional way to grill meat.

My lesson on food continued as there were many items I hadn't a clue what they were or how to eat them. It all felt like a bit of sensory overload as the sights, smells, tastes, and textures came at me like a freight train. Some of the food items I tried are as follows: Hoba (pumpkin), Kan (liver) Umshi Hanou (Korean beef roast), pul-kogi (a marinated Korean BBQ), many seaweed salads, bean-paste soups, unidentified vegetables and plum wine throughout.

I felt very lucky to be apart of the experience! Plus, I think all the teachers had a good time watching me be the silly American getting excited about, well, everything!

After Thanksgiving and Nore-bang, Tori, Julia, Kayla, Andrew and I decided that we made a pretty good team so that Saturday we made plans to visit the UN Cemetary in Busan. (Unfortunately Julia works some weekends so she couldn't make it.) The cemetery was interesting though I don't really have much to say about it.

Then we all headed to the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts for a performance of... yes indeed, Korean Traditional Performing Arts! It was a really amazing experience! During the whole month of November, the center honored different music and dances in Korea. We were able to see the last performance of their November series which consisted of 6 different numbers. One of my favorites was a fantastic drum dance called a 'Jangguchum' where 20 or so women play various rhythmic pattern on a janggu (an hour-glass shaped drum about 3ft. long), held at the waist level by a sash slung over her shoulder while she dances. Another favorite was a traditional Folk Dance called 'Miryang Baekjungnori' which originates from the farmhands as a

ritual for the "Farming God." It is incredibly high-energy and is again performed by women. I also found the singing to be very interesting. Korean voices really fascinate me as even in day to day speech, they seem to take advantage of the many octaves and pitches available. One woman soloist sang an incredible number where her voice went from sounding almost like a deep African chant and then would suddenly jump to a sweet falsetto (and anything in between).

After the performance, we headed back to my apartment to relax with some green tea and M&Ms (they were a little pricey, but SO worth it!) After our chill session, we headed back to Lotte where I was determined to find the restaurant 1500 Kuksu! Some of you may remember that this is the place Mrs. Kim tried to take me but got confused. Amazingly I was able to find the little alleyway and the restaurant. We knew we were at the right place because it was positively jam packed with Koreans.

The picture above is of me attempting to order our meals (we were missing Julia a lot at this point)! After realizing that my pocket dictionary was USELESS, I resorted to charades. This unfortunately proved to be equally pointless but luckily, a patron in the restaurant saw my struggle and came to help. Speaking of useless, the other three were doing nothing at this point but laughing and taking pictures. I think that they thoroughly enjoyed the show! The noodles indeed lived up to their reputation and our entire meal came to 6000 W ($6).

To work off our meal we went to a famous dance club and danced with locals and westerners alike. Good fun was had by all! The locals especially love Kayla for some reason. One girl in particular wouldn't leave her alone all night. It was pretty comical for us but I think Kayla got a little tired of it!

The following Tuesday another Mrs. Kim at the school (first name Mi-sook, not Sun-ye, the ditz) invited me to her home for dinner with her family, which I very excitedly accepted! Of course, in my unreasonably romantic brain I pictured a traditional dinner with a traditional Korean family, in a very traditional Korean home...

When school let out at 4:30 we loaded into her car for the E-Mart where she had to pick up a few food items before going to her house. As we rolled down the isles she put noodles, sea weed, rice cakes, frozen mandoo (Korean dumplings), beef and a half gallon of milk into her car. "Oh, this is going to be a great meal, I thought!" I told her that I would love to help her in the kitchen for dinner (to be helpful of course but also selfishly, to learn how to prepare Korean food). She brushed it off saying it wouldn't be necessary. I insisted and she let the matter drop.

Once at her home, (an apartment like mine but much larger and with an amazing view of the city), I met her husband Soe, Chang-ki, and her daughter Seo, Seong-hee. The Koreans will put the family name first separated by a comma, then their given name, usually two names divided by a dash. Interestingly, I learned from Mi-sook that when a woman marries, she will keep her family name and the children will take their father's name.

Mi-sook announced that her 15 year-old son Seung-oh was still at academy but would be home at 6:30 or so. I asked what academy was and she explained that it is private schooling (at schools called Hogwans) where Korean students will go for English and Math. This makes for a long and intense day. Some students choose to do both meaning that they won't be home until close to 10pm at night... and they can be as young as 10 years-old when they do this!

There is not doubt that Koreans work hard which is a respectable trait to be sure, but Mi-sook even laments that there is so much study involved. "I wish Seong-oh wouldn't study so much," she exclaimed, "but he wants to!" The system is set up so the only guaranteed education in Korea is through 8th grade. After that, students are expected to test into high school and then they have two choices: go to a trade high school of sorts, or a high school bound for university (obviously the more prestigious of the two).

The subject switched gears and we began talking about a recent trip they went on to Europe. Seong-he ran to get a photo album of their travels. I realized that I was actually looking at a report Seong-ho wrote for school. It again reiterated the fact that these students work so incredibly hard! It was filled with 30 or so pages written about his families vacation (the kind of writing I didn't do until High School and he was in 7th grade when he wrote it!)

Mi-sook came into the living room and announced that she would order pizza from Pizza Hut. "What?!" I though. "Oh, sounds good," I said. She asked me if I wanted beef, chicken or shrimp pizza. "Hmm, chicken sounds great, but I love everything," I told her. "We will order the shrimp pizza," she announced. And that was that.

By this time Mi-sook's son Seong-ho was home along with her sister and niece who wanted to see me. After Mr. Delivery man dropped off the shrimp pizza, pepsi, and fried chicken, Mi-sook turned to me and asked "Is Pizza Hut American?" Ha! Sometimes it's pretty hard not to laugh out loud!

I comforted myself with the fact that I certainly couldn't order shrimp pizza from the Pizza Hut in Utah (I don't think), so at least that was somewhat of a Korean, cultural experience. While I ate, Seong-hee and her cousin began snapping photo after photo of me with their camera phones. It went something like this: Click, then giggle, giggle, giggle; Click, giggle, giggle, giggle and so on. This went on for about 5 minutes before Mi-sook got tired of it and stopped the charade. I thought it was funny, I'm sure their entire school has seen many very attractive photos of me eating my meal by now!

Mi-sook announced that she would drive myself and her sister and niece back home. Seong-hee decided she wanted to come so myself and the two little girls sat in the back while the two ladies sat in the front. Because they're young, the girls don't speak all that much English but we made do. In the car the girls started to get excited, "Teacher, teacher," they shouted, "what is your blood type?" This may seem like a totally random question but I was actually prepared for it. I had heard that Koreans believe, like the Japanese, that blood type effects a person's personality and like with astrology, certain blood types are more compatible than others. "A positive," I said. "OOhhhhhh!" "Good, good!" I guess they are type O and the two bloods get along nicely! "Well that's good I guess!" I then asked what sort of character type A has.

They thought for a moment then said "Shy and with a little brain!" Hmmmm. Interesting. Out of curiosity I asked what Type O's character is. They responded "Angry and stubborn!" Ha! At least the descriptions seem pretty negative all around!

Once at my apartment's steps, I thanked Mi-sook for dinner and her sister chimed in saying that she hopes I come to her home and eat with them sometime soon. "Of course!" I said.

Though it was just Pizza Hut and fried chicken, I really learned so much more about Korea and it felt great to laugh and share stories with their family!

This basically takes me to the present. I had quite the day yesterday with Tori, Andrew, Julia, and Kayla at a fish market, but it will have to wait. My experiences with food certainly seem to be the nucleus of my experiences here in Korea thus far!

My fellow teachers

It's only been 8 days since my last blog update and of course, I feel like so much has happened!

Honoring my Dad's request, I'm going to try to paint a picture of the new people in my world. Today marked my 5th official day of teaching and even through the language barrier, I'm really getting a sense of the personalities of the other teachers.

Lets begin with Mrs. Kim, the stoic looking teacher standing to the left of our token male teacher Mr Be. She is such a sweet woman who has been enormously helpful over the last week in getting me settled. Perhaps what makes us get along so well is that she is a bit of a ditz like me... though I have to say, I think she would probably trump me in a “Who's a bigger ditz” competition! Top three ditzy moments from this week: #1 Driving me home for the fourth time and forgetting where I live getting us COMPLETELY lost (mind you she grew up in Busan)! #2Turning onto a one way street going the wrong way (totally terrifying!) which is consistant with her other driving habit of stopping in the middle of intersections with a half dozen cars honking at her. Finally, #3 Running over an old woman's foot with her shopping cart and not noticing (though this may just be a Korean thing, Mad, what do you think?). Ha! She is great though, again, she remains the teacher who I go to most often and have the easiest time talking with! I think we're are going to have a good time planning the English Camp together.

Let me now take a moment to talk about the English camp. On Thursday I finally got some more details about what exactly I'm expected to do for this 10 day camp. Turns out there will be three 45 min. classes every day. So, that would be 30 lessons to plan! Mrs. Jeong, the woman seated next to me in the photo is the head of the English department (though ironically speaks the lest amount of English) and is therefore calling the shots for the camp. I assumed she would be involved in the lesson planning...“Its ok, I give you lessons,” she stated firmly. “Few!” I thought... Wait, no, not quite. What I got instead were 28 or so sentences that she scratched down on a piece of construction paper sounding something like this:

1. You had better go to bed.

2. I want to have two hot dogs.

3. Hey, what is the problem!

Apparently she expects us to make lessons from these sentences somehow...

This brings me to Mrs. Jeong as a person. I would say that she is in her 50s or so and I recently learned from Mrs. Lee that when Mrs. Jeong was in school, it was believed that eating an English dictionary would help their English ability. Can you imagine eating an entire dictionary! Alas, it didn't seem to help her much...

Apart her lack of English skills, I probably struggle the most in her classes because her students are absolutely insane! She has the hardest time keeping a handle on her class

though she talks the loudest and sternest of all the teachers. She'll repeatedly yell “Eep, eep!” (which literally means mouth) while she swings her wooden stick in the face of any boy closest to her. The boy, in turn, tries to grab the stick from her which of course, only makes her more angry. Once she's quieted them enough, she'll then turn to me with a huge smile and a sweep of her hand indicating that I should proceed. This sherade will happen a dozen or so times during the 45 min. class. There are moments when I either have to A. not stare with a gaping mouth or B. Not bust out laughing!

Then there's Mrs. Lee, the woman flashing the peace sign. Her classes are the polar opposite of Mrs. Jeong. Her students are attentive and well disciplined. At times I feel like I must be in a completely different school. Though she does use corporal punishment (she's the teacher who will pinch their ears) its rare that she needs to. She commands respect at all times and for the most part, she gets it. She is incredibly animated and has great carisma. She told me that every class she tries to improve herself. She also gave me the sage advise that “to be a teacher takes a healthy body and mind,” which I believe to be entirely true. My one qualm with Mrs. Lee is that she smiles little so there are times when I seriously wonder if she likes me.

My favorite is Mrs. Lo, the woman in the glasses. She is so incredibly sweet! She covers her mouth when she giggles (and she giggles often) and wears a little microphone head-set when teaching. She does not use corporal punishment, opting for “bribes” instead.

Alas, Mrs. Lo is moving to the United States with her husband next month. I told her that she can practice her English with me as much as she likes. Giggling, she told me that she's not worried about her English but about driving. I assured her that if she can drive in Korea, she can certainly handle driving in the U.S. I can honestly say that my most frightening experiences in a car to date have all happened within the last five days. I'm not just talking about Mrs. Kim either. What's interesting to me is that from what I've observed, Koreans are very literal with everything. For instance, I've stood at many crosswalks that say don't walk and even if the street is baren of cars, no one will walk. Therefore, their poor driving makes me believe that there are simply very few driving laws to adhere to. If there were laws, I'm convinced they would be followed.

Finally, there's Mr. Beh. Unfortunately I know very little about Mr. Be. We've only had two class together and he speaks very little. Hopefully I'll get a better sense of him over the course of the year (though like Mrs. Jeong, Mr. Beh speaks little English).

Lunch is eaten at the school with the other teachers and administration members so I am slowly getting to know the rest of the school's population. I'm sure as the year progresses, there will be more stories to come.

***

One requirement at the school is a mandatory health exam. Thus, last Wed. after school was spent in the waiting room. It was an experience for sure! For instance, it is common practice for people to roll around their IV drip bags (not sure the technical name for this). So, I would see people in street clothes, people in hospital gowns, people in wheal chairs, and women with children in backpacks all cruising around the hospital saline bag in tow. Then there was the urine sample. Basically they gave me a dixie cup to pee in which I was asked to put on a tray in

the middle of the waiting room (again, in a coverless cup)!

This is not to say that a Korean hospital is a backward place by any means. Everything is run incredibly efficiently and most people wear face masks which I think is fantastic!

One purely different thing that a Korean physical includes that one doesn't get in the US is a full chest x-ray. I was instructed that I needed to pick up my results on Sat. which would detail my very thorough physical. Saturday rolls around and I go to the hospital expecting a quick in-and-out errand. Instead I'm told that I need to get retested because there's somethings wrong with my lungs. I'm led into the office of my doctor (who speaks VERY little English.) He pulls up my chest x-ray and points to a dark area. I of course have no idea what I'm looking at and he has no way to really explain it but indicates that it's not good. I'm then told that I need to get another x-ray and pee in another dixie cup and then come back on Monday for the follow-up results. At this point I'll admit that I'm getting somewhat upset. A side note to this story is that I'm

currently reading Canaries on the Rim by Chip Ward about all of the down-winders in Utah who are experiencing serious health issues from the Nuclear testing that was done in our deserts. (Health issues like lung cancer I might add!) I sherade to the nurse that I HAVE to speak to someone in the hospital who speaks English and can explain all of the things the doctor couldn't. Finally after much waiting, a very sweet Korean woman found me very worked up! She explained that it wasn't anything serious, but simply that this area in my chest was “inflamed”. I'm happy to report that I picked up the new results today and apparently everything is fine. Who knows, maybe they just wanted an extra 20,000 Won from me.

After my visit to the hospital, I hopped on the Subway en route to an area of Busan called Haeundae. I had made plans to meet another girl from Footprints named Kayla who arrived in Busan 5 days ago. The plan was see the sights of Haeundae for a couple of hours before meeting 10 other Footprint teachers at 5pm. I had arranged for all of us to meet at a bar called Crossroads about 30 minutes away from Haeundae near the Pusan National University (PNU).

Kayla and I had a lovely time swapping stories of our first week over coffee and then hopped on a bus to visit a sea-side temple. Having never lived in a city and therefore, having never really dealt with public transportation, it's hard for me to remember that anything taking say ten minutes in a car, takes about four times as long in a bus. We therefore quickly realized that there wasn't enough time to see the temple and meet the others at 5. We turned around, hopped back on the subway and once in PNUs neighborhood decided it would

be best to just catch a cab to the bar. Here's a major issue to taking cabs: My little guide book has everything written in English so when I tell the driver that I need to go to, lets say the Good Samsun Hospital, what I really need to say is the Samsun Pyong Won (meaning hospital). At any given time, I usually have my South Korea guidebook in one hand and my Korean dictionary in another for this very reason. But even if I say the name of a well known spot in Busan like the Lotte Department Store which can simply be called Lotte, my accent often makes it hard for the drivers to understand me. I usually have to resort to writing it down for them. So, this particular cab driver had no idea where Crossroads was and I didn't have the Korean translation which I'm sure wouldn't of helped anyway. Basically he ended up driving us here, there and everywhere asking anyone he could on the street for directions. Once we finally found it, a solid 45 minutes after Kayla and I were supposed to be there, we discovered that Crossroads was under construction anyway. Ha! This is the last time I try to plan something solely using the internet as my guide. Miraculously, we were able to find four other Footprint teachers and even met three more teachers at the bar so it ended up being a fun night.

Unfortunately, mass transportation shuts down at 11:30, so Kayla and I ended up taking a cab to her house and I spent the night on her couch.

That is basically it so far. It was nice meeting people who can be potential travel companions. Two of the guys are planning a trip to Japan for a skiing adventure so I'm hoping to tag along for that. Besides big vacations, I plan on seeing something of interest every weekend. This country has so much to offer, a year isn't nearly long enough to see it all!

The first 5 days...

Annyong haseyo everyone! I’ve been in Korea for 5 days now and oh lordy, it’s been quite a shock. Let me start from the beginning. Here is my abridged story thus far:

After 23 hours of travel I arrived on Friday the 6th at the Gimhae Airport in Busan City, Korea. Waiting for me with a name sign in hand was Mrs. Lee, a fellow teacher at my school, and her husband. At this point I still had no idea where my school was or even what age group I would be teaching so I had many questions for Mrs. Lee. Initially I asked how old the students were which she misunderstood as me asking my own age. “25!” she said. I laughed and told her I was actually 24. “In Korea you are 25!”… she said eplaining that they give each child born one year to start. Duly noted!

Once that was settled I again asked about the school. I found out that I’m at the Jeon Po-dong Middle School for lower income boys! Ha! I have a feeling that this is going to be quite the year! Mrs. Lee assured me that the students were great, “just loud” she said. “They are very excited to meet you, they want to know what color you are and what your age is! You are so young but you look strong and healthy.” Glad she approves!

Mr. and Mrs. Lee dropped me off at the Angel Hotel as my apartment wasn’t quite ready. At 10:30 the next morning she took me to the school which is in the heart of down-town Busan. I was taken on a tour of the school where I met the administration staff, other teachers and the Principal. Using Mrs. Lee as the translator, the Principal exclaimed that I had to learn one Korean word a day so I could talk to him. He was too old he explained, so it was impossible for him to learn English.

After the tour, an admin staff member named Mr. Kim took me to my apartment. He spoke little English but we made small talk in the car. It went something like this:
Mr. Kim: What is your family name?
Alison: Lewis
Mr. Kim: Do you like noodles?
Alison: I do like noodles.
Mr. Kim: Do you like pudding?
Alison: [trying not to laugh] Why yes, I do like pudding.
Once we arrived at my apartment, he took me on a grand tour. I was expecting a 10 ft by 10ft cubicle so I was very impressed to find a spacious and clean apartment. I think from what I’ve read, I really lucked out!

Later that day, a fellow teacher named Mrs. Kim arrived to help me get settled. There’s no relation to the before mentioned Mr. Kim, Kim just happens to be the most common last name in Korea. I’ve since met 4 other Kims in the last two days alone.
She decided that the first order of business is to acquaint myself with the bus route to school. She had a car so it was just as new to her. After Mrs. Kim asked a good number of people, she finally determined that we needed to be on bus #17. After getting on Bus #17 going the wrong direction, we both determined which side of the street to stand on to catch the right one.

The stop closest to the school is at the Lotte Department Store, a massive structure with an equally massive underground series of stores all surrounding the cities subway line. This makes for a labarynth of passage-ways all surfacing at different parts of the city. With Mrs. Lee again asking and re-asking directions we were able to emerge a mere 6 blocks from the school. For our return trip, Mrs. Lee decided that we should take a different route. She proceeded to lead me down a congested alley-way. She suddenly turned to me and asked me if I like noodles (sounding familiar?) “Yes I do!” I told her and she led me down and even smaller and more congested walk-way with little Korean women squatting over massive baskets of unknown food. We turned into a restaurant and she ordered our meals. She then explained that we were in a VERY famous restaurant called 1501 Kuksu with VERY famous noodles. After we began eating I noticed the building across from us had the sign 1501 Kuksu over their door. When I mentioned this to Mrs. Kim she turned, paused, and then asked the woman serving us if both buildings were the same restaurant. The woman shook her head no. Apparently I’ll have to eat my very famous Korean noodles another day.

We finally made it back to my apartment and I invited Mrs. Kim up for some blueberry tea. She therefore gets the title of my first official house guest! After our tea, we went to the Family mart for some essentials. I was pretty out of it so I basically let her make the decisions for me.

The next morning I awoke promptly at 4:30 am, unpacked and at 10 decided I needed to test the bus out on my own. Everything went smoothly so once I was back at my home I decided to find some concrete free nature. Luckily I’m nestled in the foothills so I discovered a hiking trail a mere 10 minutes from my front door. Because its fall, the trees are on fire with color which made for a very beautiful hike! It was a good end to my Sunday. Monday was to be my first day of class.

Monday morning I arrived at the school to find out that I not only needed my lesson plan (which I was told I needed) but also a work sheet for the students (which I had not been told I needed). I madly whipped one out in time for the principal to call me over. He pulled me in front of a rolling camera where I introduced myself to the school. I used my one of two Korean words that I know (Annyong haseo) and I think everyone was very impressed. “The other English teacher didn’t know any Korean!” Mrs. Kim exclaimed, so hey, at least I’ve got that going for me.

After my chaotic morning, I still had four 45 min. classes to teach. I allowed the students to ask me questions about myself. The most common question: “Do you have a boyfriend?” Ah yes, nothing like teaching middle school boys, it’s the same everywhere!

The basic set-up in the school is that I will be co-teaching with four other Korea English teachers. Each teacher has a very different and unique style. All of the teachers however, use corporal punishment. Some pinch the students' ears, others cary around a wooden stick to threaten the boys with and others just smack their heads. Never seeing punishment like this in a classroom up close and personal, its been very interesting.

At the end each day the students are required to clean the school (can you even imagine this in the United States?!) The school remains relatively clean because in typical Asian form, all people trade their shoes for slippers once they enter a building which keeps the traffic areas relatively clean. On a side note, I've been incredibly impressed by the cleanliness of Koreans. Everything from a sanitizer spritzer for the toilet seat to plastic baggies at restaurants for wet umbrellas to keep things dry. The city itself is mainly free of litter and though areas may be shabby looking, they're scrubbed.

After class, Mrs. Kim (who seems to be my personal tour guide/translator) took me to the hospital for a health exam and then back to the store for some more essentials (a much needed adaptor for my computer and cooooffffeeeee!) The school has been super generous in helping me get settled. Basically they gave Mrs. Kim a credit card which she was instructed to use for anything I might need! I keep expecting some catch but none has come so far.

Basically this bring me to today, my second day of teaching. It went smoothly enough though it feels looong. My job is to create one lesson plan a week (very easy!) but I still have to be at school for eight hours every day even though I'm only teaching half of that time. This means there is much time in front of the computer which I'm not exactly good at.

The students Christmas vacation is coming up and Mrs. Kim and I will be in charge of the English Camp. I had a grand vision of games on the soccer field shouting the english names for various fruits and vegetables but Mrs. Kim just informed me that its basically just an extension of class. Boo!

My general impression of my school, fellow teachers and Korea as a whole is very positive. I am really enjoying this adventure and am happy to be doing it alone! I'm sure in a couple of weeks I'll be crying for some native English speakers but at the moment I'm enjoying Mrs. Kim and the other teachers though there are constantly miscommunications between us!

I do miss all of you back home and already can't wait for visitors (i.e. Mom, Jos, Rachel, Em, and maybe Jer!) Thats about it, more to come soon!