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.

Albums

I don't think I posted these albums yet....

Dumaguete and Home Stay

Manila Round 2

United Sucks

So it turns out United didn't tell Cathay what happened with our delayed flight so while we did get onto a later Cathay flight to Manila, they canceled our Manila-Hong Kong reservation because they thought we never arrived. I think it was that United passed on our names as people who needed to take the later flight but not the reservation information and, as a result, our reservation was never fulfilled. So Cathay sold our seats... high drama in the Manila airport as 11 annoyed Americans tried to work out space on the flight to Hong Kong.

But Cathay is cool... they put us in ahead of the other standby folk.

I was meaning to post a last Philippines post but slept longer than intended. I'll work on it later and post it when I get the chance.