End of Month 1

It hasn't really been a month in Korea but my first round of classes have finished.

Some things I haven't mentioned before... because I'm absentminded.

My normal day-to-day expenses are usually pretty low... if I wanted to really kick it into saving mode I can spend about ₩2,000 a day during the week to cover my transportation costs and eating lunch and dinner at the office instead of a restaurant.  Right now Google is telling me that's about $1.81.

The area my hagwon (학원, the school/academy/place where theoretically learning occurs) is Gangnam (alternatively romanized as Kangnam, 강남) and includes some major financial buildings and a swanky shopping area makes me feel hugely underdressed.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before but yeah... jeans and a t-shirt don't really fit in with suits.  When it warms up I'll start wearing shorts and all will be well.

Seoul is huge.  Well... with approximately 24.5 million people (thanks Wikipedia) to think Seoul would be small would be pretty silly of me.  On Sunday I went to Hongdae (홍대, romanized as Hongik University on subway maps) via car and came back to Seongnam (성남, where I happen to live) took something in the neighborhood of 1.5 hours.  Though, my wonderful iPod application, Jihachul, estimates the trip at about an hour... I don't think it calculates waiting time for transfers well.  But yeah... Seoul is big.

Anyway... I haven't posted many pictures.  I should start posting more pictures in the nearish future... hopefully, now that I have a way to take pictures of things I see in my daily life without having to carry my camera.  For special outings I'll probably stick to the camera because of the high quality pictures.

I've learned so much about English grammar from this job.  Last night two of my roommates and I discussed the use of "would," "have," and "would have."  Crazy stuff.  I've been learning more here than when I was supposed to be learning this stuff.

And with that... good night.

Thanks Immigration

Today I went to the immigration office about an hour away from my school to apply for my alien ID card and was almost turned away.  Luckily, I had left the paperwork from my adoption at the office so they were able to fax some of the documents needed to prove my naturalization and name change.  Despite this, they still require that I complete some additional paperwork officially renouncing my Korean citizenship... which I don't think I have... but yeah... it's kinda bizarre.

Hopefully my ID arrives in the 10 days or so the internet tells me it will take to process so I can open a bank account and get a cellphone... I'm kinda debating what kind of phone I want, a smart or normal phone.  We shall see.  What is complicating it is that I want to get an iPod which has some redundant capabilities with smart phones.

Let's see... what else... the T-Money card we use to pay for public transportation is extraordinarily useful.  Besides the shops in the subways (lotion stores, clothing, convenience stores, shoes, music, food, etc.) there are some other institutions that accept it, notably: cabs and McDonald's.

I'm sleepy... this time because I was only able to sleep for about 2 hours last night.  I'm surprised I haven't passed out yet.  I would say I'm about to go to sleep but I have no idea.

P.S. I was invited to someone's birthday tomorrow... I guess it's kinda far away so I'm not 100% on whether I'll go.  Maybe I'll just stop by to say hello.

Midnight Steamed Pork... well... 12:30am.

So yeah... I have some awesome/strange/bizarre/amazing roommates.  We just destroyed a plate of steamed pork that a couple of them decided we needed.  Tasty stuff.  Oh and it seems the romanization of its Korean name is Bossam (보쌈), steam pork wrapped in lettuce or sesame leaves (thanks Wikipedia).

A couple extra notes before I tend to my teeth and go to sleep.  Next week I start my Korean lessons... I haven't met my teacher yet but I've already been assigned some homework, I'll have to memorize Hangul.

Hangul is organized pretty logically... each character (for example: 댱, and no I don't know if that says anything so if it's offensive, my bad) is actually a cluster of characters, in this case three (ㄷ ㅑ and ㅇ).  The pronunciation is left to right and then top to bottom.  Each cluster forms a single syllable, so words in Hangul make it pretty obvious how many syllables are in the word.  And I discovered how to type in Hangul on my Mac so I'm pretty happy about that.

So what else has happened... my health check has come back.  I'm normal in the various things they tested.  I told my Korean coworker who translated it for me that it was the first time in awhile anyone has called me normal.

Night.

Have some confidence. Now with original photos (no promises on the originality of the original photos).

No this isn't alcohol. It's a vitamin/energy drink with a fantastic name.  There was another drink I had over the weekend that is probably a bit more well known among travelers to Asia for its bizarre and rather nasty name...

Pocari Sweat isn't nearly as bad as its name implies.  Think Gatorade/Powerade and you have Pocari Sweat.

Meanwhile...

Bundaegi (번데기) is hugely vile.  I will eat the evil that is Durian before I eat this stuff again.  It's silkworm pupae... and just... nasty.  It certainly doesn't help that pieces will get stuck in crevices of your mouth and pop loose to unleash the flavor again once you think it's all gone.

Since we're on the subject of food.  Chinese-Korean fusion food is pretty popular here... and tastes better than in the US.  I've also had the opportunity for some more traditional Korean meals (both in content and style).

This was much tastier than Bundaegi... considering how much I despise Bundaegi you could say I enjoyed this meal about ∞ times more.  This was about half of what was on the table.  And yes we were sitting on the floor... and yes my legs did fall asleep.

An interesting note about meals in Korea.  You'll usually only be given a spoon and a pair of chopsticks (metal ones... I've been told Korea is the only place that widely uses metal chopsticks).  Though my experience from my first night in Korea would imply that at least some places keep forks around for the foreigners for whom metal chopsticks may be difficult.

Most food in Korea, and presumably much of east Asia, is prepared in way where knives are unnecessary.  On the occasion that you need to cut some food in Korea... they'll give you a pair of scissors.  It actually seems to be easier than using a knife, at least in most cases.

So I also went to a preseason baseball game between the SK Wyverns (Incheon, red) and the Doosan Bears (Seoul, white).  For those who missed one of my past posts, the names of Korean baseball teams feature sponsors rather than geographical locations.  In this case, both SK and Doosan are big conglomerates that do a bit of pretty much everything.  Anyway, the home team (Doosan Bears) lost 5-1 and generally just didn't play very well.

At a couple points, where it looked like Doosan might put something together (I was sitting on the Doosan side, you can see the SK fans on the far side in the picture) it would get surprisingly loud for a preseason game with a 1/3 full stadium.

There was a St. Patrick's Day festival in Insadong (an area of Seoul with some traditional goods/restaurants, one pictured above, popular with foreigners) on Saturday.  I think every non-Korean in the country went there.  It's so strange to see that many obvious non-Koreans.

It proved to just be pretty obnoxious.  A bunch of people partaking in "traditional" methods of celebrating St. Patty's Day.  So yeah... I ended up walking into the one half block of negative American stereotypes in the whole of Seoul... outside Itaewon at least... I almost don't want to go there.

So now for some random notes that I don't think I've already mentioned.  My name, Jared, is kinda awkward for Koreans to say because Korean words end with vowels.  What seems to be the common, more comfortable, Korean pronunciation of my name is something to the effect of Jehraadu (three syllables).  My attempt to transliterate it isn't really making me happy because the "raa" part sounds more like a halfway between a "R" and "L" sound that I don't know how to write.

I don't think KFC uses the original recipe here.  A couple of the guys grabbed KFC at the baseball game and there was some red spices in the chicken (think kimchi spices).  Though I don't know if that's their default chicken or something else.  Chicken is very popular here... chicken and pork.  One of the phrases I learned relatively early on (thanks to my roommates) was "han maree" (again, I don't trust my transliteration skills), "one bird"... for ordering chicken.

It's almost bedtime so good night people.

Edit:  I forgot about Bill Cosby!

St. Patty's Day

So St. Patty's Day was kind of boring.  Well... it was a Thursday... a night where my last class ends at 9:45pm.  So not much was done other than hanging out a little with my Korean roommates who, for obvious reasons, don't really observe St. Patrick's Day traditions.

Supposedly the Irish Embassy is putting on a St. Patrick's event this weekend so we'll see.

Later.

About the pictures and some random things I haven't mentioned.

So yeah there's been a distinct lack of pictures.  Sorry about that.  I'll try to carry my camera around a bit more than I have and hopefully I'll be posting some pictures of the neighborhood I live in, the one I work in, and the apartment... maybe the office.  Last weekend I had the opportunity to make use of it on my bike ride but I didn't have it on me... thought I was just going to see a movie with the roomie.

Anyway... earlier today I asked one of my classes why Koreans might think I look younger than I am... apparently a contributing factor is the length of my hair.  Korean students (primary and secondary) will have short hair like mine.  Most young adult Korean males have longer hair than me... Bieber length-ish... I think I'll start a new unit of hair measurement... the Bieber.  Maybe I should grow my hair out some?  If I do... that will be such a huge break from tradition.  Now I'm imagining my Dad shouting "Tradition!" in an allusion to Fiddler on the Roof....  But yeah... I don't remember the last time I wore my hair longer than a couple inches unless I was just putting off a haircut.  This will require some thought.

I'm also a few days into my plan to totally corrupt the Korean language.  I'm in the habit of saying "천만에요" (chun man e yo, you're welcome) in response to my Korean coworkers saying anything in Korean I don't understand... which is everything.  This of course leads to many bizarre conversations.  Maybe you should try to respond to comments with "you're welcome" and see what kind of response you receive.

Speaking of corruption... I introduced my roommate to Justin Bieber tonight.

This weekend I believe there's a plan for a bunch of us to get together and go to a free preseason baseball game.  No idea who is playing but it sounds like a lot of teams incorporate sponsors into their names (SK Wyverns, Samsung Lions, Kia Tigers, etc.).  Maybe I can be a hipster and complain about them selling out?

I need to wake up early so later.

Midnight Fried Chicken

Not the chicken consumed tonight.

One of the roomies decided to lobby for fried chicken paid for by the communal house fund.  So we had fried chicken at midnight.

Yesterday (Sunday night) some of us went to this cool all-you-can-eat shellfish place.  It was about 14,000 won (about $14) for oysters, clams, crab, scallops, shrimp, and some other shellfish I couldn't name.  It was good... kinda expensive... but tasty.  I don't think something like that would happen in the US... at least not served like that.  We cooked it ourselves on a hibachi-ish grill at the table.  I haven't started throwing up yet so I think I'm safe.

I guess I haven't posted anything terribly relevant to my teaching.  I'll be teaching 5 classes this month.  The planning for each class isn't that bad.  We have a syllabus... Korean TV is distracting and weird... anyway... that outlines the content requirements and we're given a fair amount of freedom when it comes to specifics so it's not terribly difficult to make it work.  As far as planning is concerned I still have a bit of trouble gauging time usage... I tend to either plan too many things or too few but I guess that comes with experience.

Bit of a language warning here... so... Riley don't watch this... or else I'll be a bad uncle.


I bring this up because earlier today I had a class listen to a The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dylan.  It was interesting... I underestimated the difficulty they would have with it but oh well... live and learn.  One of my students suggested I use an artist they're more familiar with... like Jason Mraz... I'm not sure how I feel like knowing my culture and language being represented by Mraz... at least it isn't Bieber.  Speaking of Bieber... I don't think I've met, face to face, a Canadian until this job... in South Korea... crazy right?


The ages of my students range from someone who I think is in college to a few who are in the 40s-50s range, the largest class is all of three people and my smallest is a one-on-one.  So far the biggest challenge is engaging with students, not so much teaching them vocabulary or grammar.

Some interesting culture notes... Koreans don't really people watch on the subway, they are either doing something with some piece of technology (tablets, iPods, phones, etc.) or just staring at nothing in particular.  I know this because I people watch.  Young Korean men might also carry purses... I guess that's something where the gender divide is pretty irrelevant... which is strange considering how Korea isn't the most progressive of countries when it comes to gender roles.  Manpurses aside, I've noticed young Koreans are very fashionable... think of me at my best dressed... now think of someone even better dressed being a seomwhat regular sight.  I was talking to my roomie/fellow teacher about it and apparently Korean men enjoy a looser dress standard in social settings.  That is to say, you're more likely to find a really casually dressed Korean man than a similarly dressed Korean woman.  Yesterday, the same day as my seafood trip, I went out wearing a blue t-shirt, GMU hoodie (I've been representing the GMU a lot lately), black running pants, and flip flops and nobody seemed to care.  Though I guess wearing flipflops was kind of weird.  I haven't seen a young Korean woman dressed in anything nearly as bizarre or casual as that.  The closest examples still seem to have fairly apparently time put into their appearance.  I suspect this mostly affects the younger generations because I get the feeling older Koreans don't care what anyone thinks.

Anyway, it's 1:00 am... time to sleep.

So it's been a few days....

So I haven't updated in a couple days.  Teaching continues.

Last night (Friday night for me) I saw what Gangnam looked like at night... kinda crazy.  Tons of people, full restaurants and everything.  And the occasional white guy walking down the street drinking.

Oh and my attempt at completing the required Korean medical check failed miserably as, this month, the office that handled it at Seoul Medical Center moved to another location.  All this means is that I'm 1800 won poorer and will need to make another trip next Friday when I have time.

Today was an aborted trip to the movies; replaced by talking with friends at a coffee shop, a ride on a rented bike (3000 won) along a river.  It was kinda cold out but the hoodie, shorts and flip flops combination held up through it.  That ride was followed by a group dinner with the coworkers at the apartment.  As it turns out, one of my roommates is a pretty solid cook.

Yeah this isn't my best writing ever.

In other news there was an earthquake off the coast of Japan that spawned a tsunami.  I imagine you've heard something about it.  The images we're getting on the news are pretty terrible and I believe it does without saying that I my best wishes extend to Japan.

I haven't noticed any tremor in Seoul and haven't heard of anything happening in Korea related to the earthquake or tsunami.  A wave map I saw would seem to indicate that the southern part of Korea might have experienced some waves but I haven't heard of any hitting.  Earlier, KBS (Korean Broadcasting System... maybe Service) played a story that seemed to be a piece that, to sum it up, was an explanation of what might have happened if the quake was on the west coast of Japan.

Anyway, later.

First Class!

About 10 and a half hours ago I had my first class!  The promise of small class sizes really held true... the largest class I'll have this month is a class of three.  It was just an introduction so it wasn't anything intense.  Though I found that I should have included another activity... only have two people meant I burned through the three I had planned pretty fast.  I also met one of the classes I'll be taking over next week, a writing class.

I've noticed that because my technical knowledge of English isn't particularly outstanding there's more than a few occasions where I know there's an error but can't seem to express why... I'm told they understand because it's true for them and Korean.

Speaking of Korean, I've had my first introduction to Hangul and it seems pretty easy once I get the sounds down.  My first attempt to pronounce a Korean word (tree, I think the romanization is something like namoo) ended up being dead on.

Sorry for the lack of pictures... been pretty busy.  Last night I came home at around 10:30pm and tonight it was around 9:20pm so right now my days are pretty long.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have some more pictures... my schedule includes a tour of the area the school is located.  It's just off a business/financial district among a bunch of bars and restaurants... next door to a place called the Jelly Hotel... they call it a love hotel and I don't think that's entirely a joke.

Anyway... I'm kinda tired... I need to stay up to finish dealing with my laundry but I don't feel like typing anymore.  Later.

P.S. Canadians are surprisingly normal.

Day 2

It's the end of day 2 and I think I might actually be experiencing jetlag... it's kinda new to me.  It's not so much being tired as it is the combination of the effect of bad fish on the plane and some body aches that are messing me up.  At both lunch and dinner I felt pretty queasy.

In other less self-pity related news I finished the plan for my first class tomorrow, the introduction class.  Normally Monday would have been the first day but my arrival didn't really time well with that possibility.  It's just a simple introduction with icebreaker style activities so nothing too intense.  I guess my orientation is a bit rushed because of the timing so it's been moving faster for me than it has for other teachers.

I found out in Korea I'm considered 24.  Koreans start counting age at conception and the Lunar New Year increases your age.  Meaning, at birth you're a year old and each time the Lunar New Year rolls around you're bumped up one.

Anyway, I want sleep.  I hope I feel better in the morning.

So I'm here.

I'm in Seoul now... as indicated by the picture... because I narrate the obvious.

So the flight was long but it's hard to get around that when you're flying to the other side of the planet.  Contrary to what I believed would happen and consistent with my short history of international travel I didn't sleep much on the plane.  I'm estimating about 6 hours of sleep between Saturday morning until now.  But I did watch:  The Social Network, Tangled, Easy A (I regret watching this), Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: Time Travel, and another movie or two my mind isn't recalling.  One weird thing I noticed was that the movies were preceded by a short Korean Air commercial (in case you forgot what airline you're on?) that featured quite a bit of Japanese art... which is odd.

When I arrived at the Incheon airport I was pretty happy just looking out the windows and when I eventually made it through immigration and customs I was picked up by Yoon-seo.  Korean drivers are kind of crazy... I probably won't bother with an international driver's license... and I'll have to be careful on the sidewalks too, scooters can be found driving on them.

We went from the airport to the office where about 3 consecutive elevator loads led to handshakes (two hands and a short bow to show respect) and when I eventually reached the office I went out to dinner at a Chinese-Korean fusion place across the street.  The waitress felt sorry for me and gave me a fork... which I didn't use out of pride.  Then a pair of wooden chopsticks, which I reluctantly used to replace the smooth more formal chopsticks.  Defeat by noodle.

Anyway, everyone's cool.  I guess there was some excitement about seeing a new face around.

On the way to the apartment we stopped by a grocery store where I bought this cereal.  It just looked like the most amusing... though the weird turtle-ish thing was pretty competitive.  It's a little blurry but I'm too tired to walk to the kitchen to retake the picture.  The digs are kind of spartan but sufficient.  And I need sleep.  Tomorrow I work on preparing and Wednesday I am unleashed to teach English.

It's alive!

So the blog is once again alive.

Right now it's 2:00am, earlier today (or yesterday I guess) my passport arrived in the mail complete with the desired visa. When I turned to the visa there was this note attached, as seen in the picture to your left. Some might have already seen me comment on this on my Facebook. So apparently I need to be sure I'm not forced into military service by filling out some paperwork when I get there.

In other news, a couple days ago I found out international video calls on Skype were free... and it would seem I was the only one who didn't know. With that in mind, and making what I believe to be a safe assumption that my apartment (3 other guys live there now) will have wifi, I might be able to pull off Skype tours of what will soon to be my abode.

I've been thinking about what purpose this blog will serve. Is there something specific I want it to address in the context of my experience in South Korea? Perhaps my own exploration of my heritage and personal history, examining my attempt(s) to grasp Korean culture as an outsider, my time as a conversational English teacher, or just whatever I happen to feel like writing about. I suspect it will end up more like the latter with healthy doses of me just rambling.

But on the subject of my personal history.... Awhile back, after I originally accepted this position. I asked my father to mail me whatever documents he had on my adoption which he prompted obliged. I waited until tonight to actually read it and discovered, with the help of Google, that the adoption agency and orphanage I was placed in at the ripe old age of 10 days still exists at the same address in Seoul. So that is probably a place I will end up visiting. The documents, while they do not include the names of my biological parents, do name case workers and foster parents. I don't really know whether that's something I want to explore. Not necessarily for any negative reason... just that the same set of documents seem to indicate I was transported to the US in July of 1988 making me about a month and change.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be in DC for the night and on Sunday I'm off to Seoul... and hopefully not military service.