The weather today has been amazing: sunny, in the low to mid sixties, and a slight breeze blowing in. The weather is changing here in Korea. Summer is giving way to fall, a season which actually exists here but remains a mystery to Michigan.
Things are going well at school, and this past Thursday marked our first payday. Unfortunately, the U.S. markets are still busy falling all over themselves, so the exchange rate at the moment sucks. At the moment that is not a huge problem for me, but if the rate has not improved by the end of October, I am going to take some hits in transferring money back to the U.S.
This past Wednesday I found a really amazing place called Club THAT. It's a jazz club that used to be a love motel, but it has been cleaned up and now has 4 levels of entertainment. All this weekend the club is hosting a large Art exhibition for local amateur artists, many of them foreigners, to display their works. Since I have really taken an interest in photography over the past couple years, I am really excited to have found this, and I plan on having a picture or two displayed at the next exhibit, which will likely be in 4-6 months.
This weekend is going to be very busy. Tonight I am heading out with a large group of friends to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet at a popular hotel. After that we are all heading over to Club THAT for the main night of the Art Exhibition, which will include a live band and some other activities. Tomorrow is going to include dinner and a movie with a co-worker, as well as scouring the department stores for some costumes for the dance that her and I we are performing at the festival. If you didn't already know, I was talked into doing a dance with 4 other teachers at a school festival that is coming up this week. We have been practicing for about a month. Apparently I am going to receive a CD with a video of the performance on it, so I will look into uploading it online for you all to watch whenever I get a chance.
Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to my boy Javon Ringer. The number two rusher in the nation looks to go for 3 straight games of 200+ yards rushing as Michigan State takes on Indiana this weekend. GO GREEN
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A Typical Day
It just occurred to me that I really haven't given anyone a good description of a typical day for me. My day usually starts at 7am, which is when I wake up. I jump in the shower, iron my clothes (I have to do this every day since I have no dryer, everything is air-dried) and maybe make something to eat. This usually isn't necessary since I get fed by one of the other teachers almost every day. Today was peanuts and some dak (pressed rice dumplings).
I arrive to school around 8:15am, and first period starts at 9:10am. I teach anywhere from 2-4 classes per day, along with after-school classes for 1.5-2 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For the past week, and continuing for the next couple of weeks, I also meet with some of the other teachers to practice a dance that we are going to perform for the students at an upcoming school festival. This is not a traditional dance, but a modern pop dance to a very popular song by a group called the Wonder Girls (sort of like a Korean Spice Girls).
This means I am at the school until about 6pm everyday, even though I am only obligated to be there until 4:30. I enjoy the extra things that keep me busy. Around 6:30-ish I get home and change, then make dinner. On Wednesdays there is a large group of other foreign teachers that go out for dinner in the downtown area. We go to a place called The Holy Grill (awesome name, I know) that has great Mexican food and burgers. After dinner, which is usually around 7:30, we head over to a nearby foreigner bar, where we have a few drinks and listen to some live music, since it's open mic night every Wednesday.
I have only been to this once, and only plan on going once or twice per month since I will end up dropping at least $30 each time, but it's a nice way to meet up with people I don't see often and have some good western food.
On the nights I don't go out I usually work on my laptop, catch up on news, update my fantasy football teams, or just watch a movie or some episodes of Family Guy that I downloaded. Sometimes I might browse the tube but I only have like 3 English channels, so I rarely watch TV. But I have to be honest, I have yet to feel bored while here, my days keep me pretty busy.
The weather here is great, in my opinion. Daegu is the hottest city in Korea, since it sits in between a bunch of mountains which essentially form a bowl around the city, and heat and humidity all sit like a cloud on it. But at night, when the sun goes down, it is REALLY nice. The temperature is around 70 degrees and the humidity is a lot less. I only have to walk for 5 minutes to reach a park with a great view of the mountains and lake to the south of the city (pictures of which are in my album, look for the dark brown bridge.) Every store I could want is within walking distance, and there are tons of street vendors that sell bulk vegetables and snacks for dirt cheap. A 1-dollar bag of bean sprouts will last me at least a month, and a 2-dollar bag of mushrooms will last me a couple of weeks. I bought a bag of 6 HUGE onions for 2 dollars, and a 2-week supply of green onions for 1 dollar. I just hope there are indoor markets where I can get this stuff during winter.
I hope that gives you some idea of how I spend my days. If you have other questions, just post a comment or email me. And don't forget, look at pics if you haven't already. The link is in my last blog post.
I arrive to school around 8:15am, and first period starts at 9:10am. I teach anywhere from 2-4 classes per day, along with after-school classes for 1.5-2 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For the past week, and continuing for the next couple of weeks, I also meet with some of the other teachers to practice a dance that we are going to perform for the students at an upcoming school festival. This is not a traditional dance, but a modern pop dance to a very popular song by a group called the Wonder Girls (sort of like a Korean Spice Girls).
This means I am at the school until about 6pm everyday, even though I am only obligated to be there until 4:30. I enjoy the extra things that keep me busy. Around 6:30-ish I get home and change, then make dinner. On Wednesdays there is a large group of other foreign teachers that go out for dinner in the downtown area. We go to a place called The Holy Grill (awesome name, I know) that has great Mexican food and burgers. After dinner, which is usually around 7:30, we head over to a nearby foreigner bar, where we have a few drinks and listen to some live music, since it's open mic night every Wednesday.
I have only been to this once, and only plan on going once or twice per month since I will end up dropping at least $30 each time, but it's a nice way to meet up with people I don't see often and have some good western food.
On the nights I don't go out I usually work on my laptop, catch up on news, update my fantasy football teams, or just watch a movie or some episodes of Family Guy that I downloaded. Sometimes I might browse the tube but I only have like 3 English channels, so I rarely watch TV. But I have to be honest, I have yet to feel bored while here, my days keep me pretty busy.
The weather here is great, in my opinion. Daegu is the hottest city in Korea, since it sits in between a bunch of mountains which essentially form a bowl around the city, and heat and humidity all sit like a cloud on it. But at night, when the sun goes down, it is REALLY nice. The temperature is around 70 degrees and the humidity is a lot less. I only have to walk for 5 minutes to reach a park with a great view of the mountains and lake to the south of the city (pictures of which are in my album, look for the dark brown bridge.) Every store I could want is within walking distance, and there are tons of street vendors that sell bulk vegetables and snacks for dirt cheap. A 1-dollar bag of bean sprouts will last me at least a month, and a 2-dollar bag of mushrooms will last me a couple of weeks. I bought a bag of 6 HUGE onions for 2 dollars, and a 2-week supply of green onions for 1 dollar. I just hope there are indoor markets where I can get this stuff during winter.
I hope that gives you some idea of how I spend my days. If you have other questions, just post a comment or email me. And don't forget, look at pics if you haven't already. The link is in my last blog post.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Pictures!
Pictures are up, you can access them by copying this URL into the address bar:
http://s390.photobucket.com/albums/oo343/Ncalverley2/
From there you can do all kinds of neat things like turn them into a slideshow and such. There are 120 pictures, and they are presented in backwards order for some reason. So the most recent pictures (I think the first is a large building with a hole in it) are from our trip to Gyeongju, then pictures of the traditional Korean village in Seoul, then pictures of Seoul itself.
http://s390.photobucket.com/albums/oo343/Ncalverley2/
From there you can do all kinds of neat things like turn them into a slideshow and such. There are 120 pictures, and they are presented in backwards order for some reason. So the most recent pictures (I think the first is a large building with a hole in it) are from our trip to Gyeongju, then pictures of the traditional Korean village in Seoul, then pictures of Seoul itself.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Gyeongju
So Gyeongju was really great. It's a fairly small city, only a couple hundred thousand people, and the downtown area is actually kind of dirty, but the surrounding areas were really nice. We stayed in a famous youth hostel in the downtown area, run by a man named Mr. Kwon. He actually spoke very good English, and was really nice. The hostel had a lot of visitors from all over the world, and each night we spent outside on the roof drinking soju and beer, passing around an acoustic guitar and singing songs, and just talking with everyone. One night we went to a karaoke bar for a couple of hours and then went back to the roof.
On Saturday we went to a very famous temple located on the side of a mountain, and then over to a place called Millennium Park where we did some riding on ATVs through a gorge in a valley surrounded by mountains. Later that night there was supposed to be a concert at a nearby Lake resort area, but it was apparently canceled for Chusok, which was unfortunate.
On Sunday (Chusok day), we went to the coast to hit the beach. The water was nice but there was pollution all along most of the beach, a really disgusting amount of it too. It was really unfortunate because there were a lot of really neat rock formations that you could climb and look out into the ocean, but even most of those had some really nasty stuff on and around them. There were many fishermen casting their lines into the water from on the rocks, but we didn't see anybody catch anything. My friend Laura and I did some body surfing for awhile, so at least we got to do that.
After the beach we went to visit a hotel that had a Spa and Sauna room built around some natural hot springs. This was really great, because the Koreans refer to these as Bath Houses, and it's a really refreshing way to get very clean and exfoliate and... all that crazy spa stuff. The facility was VERY clean and well maintained. The only kicker was that in Korea, you go into these places completely nude. They are obviously segregated by gender, but it still really takes some time to get used to walking around what is essentially a huge bath tub completely naked with 50-100 other people. It wasn't just one pool though, there were maybe 10 different pools that were at different temperatures and had different jets and waterfalls and such designed to massage different areas of the body. There were also saunas and an outdoor hot tub. And after getting out, there was a fancy changing area where you could put in hair gel and body lotion and cologne and such. And to top it all off, all this unlimited amount of spa time came at a cost of a mere seven dollars.
We left Monday around noon after picking up gifts (Gyeongju Barley Bread) for our co-workers, which is also Korean tradition. We got to and from Gyeongju via the train, a ticket for which costs around seven dollars one way. The trip from Gyeongju was uneventful, but on the train ride TO Gyeongju, the Korean man I sat next to spoke pretty good English and invited me (for no other reason than that I was an interesting foreigner) to the beverage car to have a few beers with him and his friend that he was traveling with.
And after a long day of traveling with a huge load of luggage and gifts, I am finally home. I dropped off all my rolls of film to be developed and will be picking them up tomorrow: 120 pictures to be developed and put on CD for a cost of $28. In America it would cost around twice that much. I love this country =)
On Saturday we went to a very famous temple located on the side of a mountain, and then over to a place called Millennium Park where we did some riding on ATVs through a gorge in a valley surrounded by mountains. Later that night there was supposed to be a concert at a nearby Lake resort area, but it was apparently canceled for Chusok, which was unfortunate.
On Sunday (Chusok day), we went to the coast to hit the beach. The water was nice but there was pollution all along most of the beach, a really disgusting amount of it too. It was really unfortunate because there were a lot of really neat rock formations that you could climb and look out into the ocean, but even most of those had some really nasty stuff on and around them. There were many fishermen casting their lines into the water from on the rocks, but we didn't see anybody catch anything. My friend Laura and I did some body surfing for awhile, so at least we got to do that.
After the beach we went to visit a hotel that had a Spa and Sauna room built around some natural hot springs. This was really great, because the Koreans refer to these as Bath Houses, and it's a really refreshing way to get very clean and exfoliate and... all that crazy spa stuff. The facility was VERY clean and well maintained. The only kicker was that in Korea, you go into these places completely nude. They are obviously segregated by gender, but it still really takes some time to get used to walking around what is essentially a huge bath tub completely naked with 50-100 other people. It wasn't just one pool though, there were maybe 10 different pools that were at different temperatures and had different jets and waterfalls and such designed to massage different areas of the body. There were also saunas and an outdoor hot tub. And after getting out, there was a fancy changing area where you could put in hair gel and body lotion and cologne and such. And to top it all off, all this unlimited amount of spa time came at a cost of a mere seven dollars.
We left Monday around noon after picking up gifts (Gyeongju Barley Bread) for our co-workers, which is also Korean tradition. We got to and from Gyeongju via the train, a ticket for which costs around seven dollars one way. The trip from Gyeongju was uneventful, but on the train ride TO Gyeongju, the Korean man I sat next to spoke pretty good English and invited me (for no other reason than that I was an interesting foreigner) to the beverage car to have a few beers with him and his friend that he was traveling with.
And after a long day of traveling with a huge load of luggage and gifts, I am finally home. I dropped off all my rolls of film to be developed and will be picking them up tomorrow: 120 pictures to be developed and put on CD for a cost of $28. In America it would cost around twice that much. I love this country =)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Chusok
This weekend is Chusok, which is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving. This is good for us foreigners because it means we get a nice long 4-day weekend, so myself and a few other people are heading to Gyeongju, a city about an hour or so east of Daegu. It's a very historical city, filled with temples and such, and apparently it is one of the most visited places in Korea for tourism. I'm bringing my camera, so whenever I get around to developing photos (maybe after the first paycheck, maybe sooner, I dunno) I will have them up.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
A Difficult Day
I think today was probably my hardest day so far, but not because of bad students or a demanding schedule. Today, as we all know, is September 10th (despite what blogspot says), and for the past 12 days or so I have been doing the same lesson over and over for each class that has not yet met me. Frankly, it has become extremely boring, and since this is a short week, I decided to change things up.
So when I came in this morning, I spent all of second period creating a power-point presentation about September 11th. As a trained historian, I am supposed to review the past objectively and without emotion. But I was not able to do so; I was revisiting events that I had long tried to put out of my mind. But the really strange thing was that the whole time I was putting together the presentation, the Music teacher who sits at the desk behind me, and doesn't speak a word of English, was singing the whole time, getting it ready for her next class. It was a somber, beautiful song. It was almost surreal the way our two activities coincided so perfectly.
I only have two classes today, and the first one is a class that my coteacher calls the worst she has ever had in six years of teaching. I was already reluctant to get up in front of a group of kids and talk about a subject as emotional as September 11th, and downright horrified at the prospect of doing it in front of this particular group. But as the hour wound down, and it came time to decide between talking about 9/11 and showing a short clip from a Disney movie, I decided to go with 9/11.
I made it through the presentation, but I have to admit that I did struggle at times to remain the steadfast teacher they all expected. And I'm sure they noticed it too. But for those ten minutes, their eyes remained fixed, their ears perked, their minds open and their mouths closed. For those ten minutes, they stopped caring about what the latest text message on their cell phone said, stopped trying to swat their friends across the back of the head... And I swear, they stopped all of the usual nonsense so that they could share in doing what all Americans do on this day of days: they remembered.
And so I learned something today. I learned that some events are more powerful than language barriers and maturity levels, able to tame even the most recalcitrant of children. And that no matter how hard they may be to talk about, we must always find the courage to do so.
So when I came in this morning, I spent all of second period creating a power-point presentation about September 11th. As a trained historian, I am supposed to review the past objectively and without emotion. But I was not able to do so; I was revisiting events that I had long tried to put out of my mind. But the really strange thing was that the whole time I was putting together the presentation, the Music teacher who sits at the desk behind me, and doesn't speak a word of English, was singing the whole time, getting it ready for her next class. It was a somber, beautiful song. It was almost surreal the way our two activities coincided so perfectly.
I only have two classes today, and the first one is a class that my coteacher calls the worst she has ever had in six years of teaching. I was already reluctant to get up in front of a group of kids and talk about a subject as emotional as September 11th, and downright horrified at the prospect of doing it in front of this particular group. But as the hour wound down, and it came time to decide between talking about 9/11 and showing a short clip from a Disney movie, I decided to go with 9/11.
I made it through the presentation, but I have to admit that I did struggle at times to remain the steadfast teacher they all expected. And I'm sure they noticed it too. But for those ten minutes, their eyes remained fixed, their ears perked, their minds open and their mouths closed. For those ten minutes, they stopped caring about what the latest text message on their cell phone said, stopped trying to swat their friends across the back of the head... And I swear, they stopped all of the usual nonsense so that they could share in doing what all Americans do on this day of days: they remembered.
And so I learned something today. I learned that some events are more powerful than language barriers and maturity levels, able to tame even the most recalcitrant of children. And that no matter how hard they may be to talk about, we must always find the courage to do so.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The First Week
Well my first week teaching is nearly finished, and I have to say that overall I really have enjoyed it. Before writing about it more I think I should give a little info about the details of my classes.
I teach all 3 grades: 7th, 8th and 9th. In each class I have roughly 40-45 students. Classes last for 45 minutes, and I have each class once every two weeks. In other words, I will see one group of students for 45 minutes, and the next time I will see them is 2 weeks later. In two weeks time, I will have taught about every student in the school (around 700-800 students I think). The best way to describe my role is to say that I am a supplementary tool used for putting a face and a voice behind their actual English lessons. I actually teach the kids very little, it's my job just to get them to talk more.
That being said, I am very comfortable with that. All of my fellow teachers at the school have much harder jobs than I do but they only make a little bit more than me, which makes me feel really bad for them. Sometimes I will see a teacher sleeping at their desk during their off periods. It's not because they are lazy or bad workers, but because they have so much responsibility even after school ends.
The kids for the most part are really great. Some of my 7th grade classes have really been giving me a hard time, but not all, and some of them are really motivated, which filters down into the rest of them. I love my 9th graders, they are very well behaved and have a pretty solid grasp of English already. Coming up some time next month is a school festival. Every public school takes part in these, and sound like a lot of fun. It's basically a day of games and being outside and just having a good time. As a present for the students, 5 of us teachers (including me) are going to be doing the dance to a hit song by a female Korean pop group. The dance is VERY complicated and about 3.5 minutes long, so it will not be easy, but we're keeping it a big secret from the students. They should love it.
I am easily one of the most popular people in the school. I have students come visit me in my office all the time asking me how they can get better at English. A few days ago one came in to ask me to play some basketball with him and his friends, and we had our game yesterday. They are actually pretty good, I was impressed. Next Friday is a Korean holiday so there is no school, and I had a few students from one of the classes I was supposed to have that day come and ask me if they could see me some time before then to make up the class. Of course I said yes.
On Wednesday I went out with a bunch of other foreigners. We took over a Mexican restaurant owned by a few Canadians and after that we went to a bar frequented mostly by foreigners. Tonight we are going out again for a night on the town. The plan is to stay out at least until the Subway starts up again (it is closed every day from 11:30 PM to 5:30 AM). Apparently I am in for a long night.
Next weekend is a 4 day weekend for the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, so I am in the process of making plans to visit some temples in the countryside with some friends from Orientation.
I teach all 3 grades: 7th, 8th and 9th. In each class I have roughly 40-45 students. Classes last for 45 minutes, and I have each class once every two weeks. In other words, I will see one group of students for 45 minutes, and the next time I will see them is 2 weeks later. In two weeks time, I will have taught about every student in the school (around 700-800 students I think). The best way to describe my role is to say that I am a supplementary tool used for putting a face and a voice behind their actual English lessons. I actually teach the kids very little, it's my job just to get them to talk more.
That being said, I am very comfortable with that. All of my fellow teachers at the school have much harder jobs than I do but they only make a little bit more than me, which makes me feel really bad for them. Sometimes I will see a teacher sleeping at their desk during their off periods. It's not because they are lazy or bad workers, but because they have so much responsibility even after school ends.
The kids for the most part are really great. Some of my 7th grade classes have really been giving me a hard time, but not all, and some of them are really motivated, which filters down into the rest of them. I love my 9th graders, they are very well behaved and have a pretty solid grasp of English already. Coming up some time next month is a school festival. Every public school takes part in these, and sound like a lot of fun. It's basically a day of games and being outside and just having a good time. As a present for the students, 5 of us teachers (including me) are going to be doing the dance to a hit song by a female Korean pop group. The dance is VERY complicated and about 3.5 minutes long, so it will not be easy, but we're keeping it a big secret from the students. They should love it.
I am easily one of the most popular people in the school. I have students come visit me in my office all the time asking me how they can get better at English. A few days ago one came in to ask me to play some basketball with him and his friends, and we had our game yesterday. They are actually pretty good, I was impressed. Next Friday is a Korean holiday so there is no school, and I had a few students from one of the classes I was supposed to have that day come and ask me if they could see me some time before then to make up the class. Of course I said yes.
On Wednesday I went out with a bunch of other foreigners. We took over a Mexican restaurant owned by a few Canadians and after that we went to a bar frequented mostly by foreigners. Tonight we are going out again for a night on the town. The plan is to stay out at least until the Subway starts up again (it is closed every day from 11:30 PM to 5:30 AM). Apparently I am in for a long night.
Next weekend is a 4 day weekend for the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, so I am in the process of making plans to visit some temples in the countryside with some friends from Orientation.
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