Seoul Style!

"Just got paid, Friday night
Party hoppin', feelin' right
Booties shakin', all around
Pump that jam, while I'm gettin' down"

Nysncs "Just Got Paid" song pretty much descibed my first payday, Friday March 25th. We had planned a trip to Seoul the weekend after we got paid. We had bought our tickets in advance for the KTX (bullet train) to leave Saturday and return Sunday night. The Seoul haha) purpose of this trip was to go shopping and party. No sightseeing, no touring, just shopping and going out, for MONICAS BIRTHDAY WEEKEND. Period. Sophia came into town Friday night from Busan. It was her first (but not last) trip to Daegu, we met up with a few friends, had dinner and then went out for a bit. We were orginally planning on not going out, just dinner and getting home early because our KTX tickets where for 7:31 am. We actually ended up hanging out with a few more EPIK teachers, whom we haven't seen for a while which was alot of fun.

The next morning, after sleeping through our alarms. Sophia and I are headed out to the train station, where we were all to meet at 6:45-7 am. On the way to the subway we get multiple calls that people are running late and cabbing to the train station. Atleast we weren't the only ones late. We make the train on time, all 8 of us are headed up to Seoul, we will be there in less than 2 hours. 

We arrive in Seoul and the first thing we want to do is eat and drop our stuff off at the hostel, Kim's Myungdong Hostel. Which was a very nice hostel, centrally located but there was "hill" (I say mountain) we had to walk up to get to it. Down the "hill" was the largest open air market in Korea. We divided and conquered. John has a few friends who are EPIK teachers but in Seoul who arrived in August so we met up with them and went to Myungdong. The fashion street of Seoul. The first store we went in was A-land which is Koreas Urban Outfitters, I bought a pair of green TOMS shoes. We then went to Forever 21 and H&M. Daegu only has boutiques, so going to stores where you can try on the clothes was refreshing. We spend most of the day in Myongdong, we meet up with Monicas Korean friend Ji Hye, eat dinner #1 and then shop some more.  

After more shopping, we head back to the hostel to nap and start pre-gaming. For Monicas birthday festivities. Ji Hye came back with us and then Helen and Janet (Johns friends) met us at the hostel for some "circle of death." This brought be back to my college days. We head out to Hongdae (which is near a universities) area of Seoul, its known for its bars and clubs. We eat Korean barbaque before going out to S club. We actually where in line for another club which is 10,000 won to get in (around $10) but once we got to the bouncer is magically changed to 20,000 won so we left and went to S club which is free for foreigners :)

After leaving S club, we went to a nooribang! It was my first time going to a Nooribang in Korea. I have wanted to go to a nooribang since coming to Korea. A nooribang is Korean karaoke, but instead of singing for strangers you are in an individual room with just your friends. They also have nooribangs with video games and you can play Wii or sing. So we all sang karaoke, about 15 of us(Sophia and Mari went back early from S club). 

We leave the nooribang, eat kebabs and head back to the hostel. to find Sophia with her finger bandaged up. After her and Mari arrived back to the hostel, they where talking to Mr. Kim and something happened and her finger was dislocated to the side (I saw the pictures). Mr. Kim called the ambulance, she went to the hospital and returned back to the hostel, all before we got back. She was fine, we are all glad our insurance works. It cost less than $200 to ride in a ambulance and see a doctor. Hello healthcare!

The next day, the only things planned where a trip to Itaewon, which is where most foreigners live to get some Mexican food and shop in Dongdaemun,which is an indoor clothing market for trendy cheap clothes. After both, we headed back to catch our train which left at 6:15 pm, which was not KTX. It was the slow train so we arrived back in Daegu after 10 pm. Overall, it was a great first trip to Seoul. The next time, I want to sightsee, do tours and actually see the city not the inside of all the stores. I also want to start planning things to do with my parents when (if) they come to Seoul. 

Miss America!

South Korea is 70% mountain range and a very common weekend activity for Koreans is hiking. So, we decided to hike up Mt. Palgongsan and then a hot spring. Our adventure began around 10 am when we missed the Daegu city bus tour (it literally drove off in front of us), we had the option of taking the next bus at 11 20 or the city bus. We chose the latter, city bus it was! Too bad all of Daegu was riding this bus, one hour standing on what seemed like a stick shift bus.

We hiked for about 30 minutes until we reached a buddha statue (photo op/ rest) then a little further up the mountain we reached the first temple, well a cluster of temples (pictured below). After going inside a few temple buildings and taking a few pictures, we continued to work our way up the mountain. Another 30ish minutes go by and we start to see the sky and assume we are at the top.

To the right about 50 yards was another temple or we could hike for another hour or more. We chose the second temple then we would head back down the mountain after. This temple was pretty sweet, it was a lot bigger than the first. There were statues and little buddhas everywhere. We walked around and went into the different buildings, took pictures and took in the scenery. We met a Korean lady who worked at the temple and she told us we were allowed to go get food and just pay a donation. We accepted and all donated a dollar or two (she said that was enough). After eating we had to wash our dishes, squatting using two large bowls of water. It wasn’t so bad but the water was FREEZING!

We made our way back down the mountain, to the bus stop to go to the hot springs. While in line an elderly (at least 70 year old man) came up to me and kept saying, “number 1” “number 1” he then pointed to my friend Mari and said “number 2” then Maggie and said “number 3.” We were rated by an old Korean man.

He walked away to a store then came back bearing gifts of candy. He opened up the pack and gave me a handful of candy (individually wrapped), then Mari and then Maggie. He gave Monica the rest of the bag. He left then came back with more candy for me and called me “miss America.” Haha. We then boarded the bus towards the hot spring.

The hot spring is supposed to be Korea’s largest open air hot spring. We buy our tickets. Well come to find out Korean hot springs are not the same type of hot springs we are accustomed to. The bathing suit and flip flops where not necessary there. A Korean hot spring on the other hand is more of a bath house with a bunch of naked women scrubbing each other (maybe between 40-50); the first room after the locker room is a huge whirl pool with smaller pools around it.

Then showers and sinks on every other wall, as well as steam rooms and saunas. Outside there is a waterfall, a large outdoor whirl pool, grotto/cave thing with a pool inside and a hut. The hut was another sauna. I guess when in Rome minus the scrubbing of each other…It was very intersting, and experience to say the least. 

We all passed out on the bus back to downtown Daegu, went home changed then met up for dinner and some bars…overall it was a pretty adventurous day.


These are my girls! Since there are only two boys in the group, they get stuck with taking a girls shot, everywhere. 

There is Monica (next to me) and on the otherside, Mari, then Maggie and finally Courtney. The boys are John and Andy (not pictured Jeff).

First week in Daegu...

One week down, in Daegu at least. Its been a pretty stress free week of moving in (which did not take too long), meeting my new co teachers and exploring the city (and by city I mean downtown).
 
This is my apartment. The view of the whole apartment is pretty much seen while sitting in the bed. Next to my table is my kitchen area, in front of my bed is the wardrobe and TV and when you walk into the apartment next to the walkway is the bathroom. I have been trying to decorate to make it a little comfortable. I can say it is cozy. So people ended up with bigger or smaller apartments.My friend Monica's apartment has two bedrooms, and some apartments are described as shoe boxes.
 

The English classroom at Igok Elementary School I believe is the nicest classroom in the school. It appears to have the most money put into it. We have a smart board, 4 computers, 4 radios with headset, a stage, library section, teachers room and the hallway leading to the 'English Zone' is covered in pictures from English speaking countries. Jenna (other Native English teacher) and I have two new co teachers (Korean English Teachers).  I am going to be teaching fifth and sixth graders, fifth grade one month then six grade the next and then fifth grade again. Jenna is teaching third and fourth grade in the other English classrooms. We have been at the school since Wednesday, my days had consisted of watching Mad Men and Facebook. Tomorrow I actually start teaching, next week I have 21 classes (40 minutes each). I am a little nervous but this week I am more observing and introducing myself. Wish me luck :)

Heres Daegu:

 The Hello Kitty store downtown, Korean BBQ, My apartment building (I am the bottom window on the right) and some of my new friends on our way to go eat...still more exploring is need!

Since we all live in different parts of the city, what we have decided to do is have a Sunday dinner/lunch in each others neighborhoods. Today we went to Johns, he lives in about 30 minutes by bus outside of the city. We went to our first restaurant in which you take your shoes off at the door and sit on the ground (with cushions). The food was amazing (you can see it pictured above). I think this restaurant had the best kimchi in Korea. Well, so far my favorite kimchi, we asked for about 6 plates of kimchi. I also tried makgeolli for the first time, which is a type of rice wine. They serve it in bowls, it was pretty tasty. I don't think I can describe the taste though.  During lunch we started planning some trips around Korea and other countries in Asia. We are pretty much on the same page with where we want to travel. Maggie has been to Thailand and would love to go back, so we are planning Philippines and Thailand during our summer break. Hong Kong during a five day weekend in May. We met a guy named Jeff who used to live in Hong Kong and he has been here in Korea for 1 year, he renewed his contract to stay another  year. We want to go to Tokyo, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam but waiting until Winter break to go. Tokyo we want to go on a long weekend. Around Korea, we are planning to go on temple stays, hanok villages (traditional Korean village + houses), Seoul, Busan (again! we have to see SOPHIA!!), festivals festivals and festivals. Hiking is also very big in Korea, seeing as 70% of the country is moutains...so next week we are going on a hiking/bus tour of a temple and hot springs. Should be fun.

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill. 

 

EPIK orientation in Busan, South Korea.

After almost an entire week in Busan, South Korea I have:

a. Learned about 4 Korean words. They are as follows, hello, thank you, here and please. Of these 4 simple words, I have only learned one form of the word because in Korea you must talk to your elders, people who are the same age as you or younger than you differently. I think being a foreigner I have a little leeway when it comes to speaking. 안녕하세요, 감사합니다, 여기에, and 제발 will have to do for now. 

b. 5000 won can buy you dinner, 2 bottles of SOJU liquor and soda, oh I forgot to mention that 5000 won is less than five dollars. We went out with 5 people, bought 2 bottles of SOJU, 3 Cokes and some rice meat combo cooked on the table top skillet for 23000 won which is somewhere below 23 dollars....BINGO

c. Cafeteria food is always cafeteria food no matter the type of food....Korean or American.

d. Rice is part of every meal, including breakfast. Breakfast rice does NOT include eggs...it is plain white rice. 

e. Korean chop sticks are metal kinda like real silverware. 

f. Reading Hangeul (Korean Alphabet) is wayyy easier than pronouncing the Korean sounds. I am pretty sure they speak in sounds and not words....need to double check on that fact.  

g. There is NO such thing as separate shower...it is more like a shower head connected to the sink and hung on the wall of the bathroom. (not our dorm bathroom...just an example)

Those are just some simple things I have learned here in Busan. Orientation is 8 days in Pukyong University. We have not really left the campus of 500 English speaking foreigners, so I have not yet experienced real Korea but so far so good. I have met some amazing people from everywhere (well only English speaking countries). We Americans are the majority followed by either the Canadians or Bristish. Then the South Africans (my new favorite accent) and lastly, the Irish, Australians and New Zealanders. We did however venture out into the adjacent surroundings to party at two western bars and eat non cafeteria Korean food, one called Thursdays bar which host beer pong and the other called the ghetto club. It was fun, I think I met my Korean best friend who was very amused by our dancing.I made a new little group, all of whom are going to Daegu also and joking around we called ourselves the ghetto club. We eat together now haha.

Orientation consist of classes from about 9 am to 8:10 pm with breaks for lunch and dinner. I have been learning a lot about how to be an effective teacher, life in Korea, travel in Korea, the Korean school system and a whole bunch of stuff in between. The main concept is that Korea is DYNAMIC! So when things change unexpectedly or your classes are cancelled just to take things with a grain of salt and be flexible. Remember that Korea follows CONFUCIAN principles(not a religion)such as respect thy elder and boss, man over women things like that. RESPECT is the most important thing in Korean and everyone needs to save face. Always accept a drink from an older person or boss, and use two hands to hand and receive items.  They pretty much give you best and worst case scenerios for every situation because everyone has different experiences here. I guess this experience is what I make it right?! 

On Friday, I move to Daegu, met my co teacher and get my new apartment!!!!!  I was stalked out via the Daegu facebook group because this girl named Jenna is going to be at my school also. She came in August and found out that our school is going to have  more than one native English teacher. I looked through her facebook page and saw her apartment which she thinks I will be moving in next door or across the hall. The elementary school is call Igok Elementary which stands for Pear Valley. The pictures are adorable! My new friends are all jealous because we are not suppose to find out where we are placed until tomorrow and I found out last week or weekend. I am excited about my move to Daegu but I am going to miss this little camp like atmosphere of the university. Most the people seem to be going to Daegu also but my roommate Sophia is going to be staying here in Busan. We have already planned to do temple stays and other trips. Busan has a few beaches so I told her I would live here on the weekends in the summer. I am going to miss sharing a room with her. A LOT!!!!!! I am still trying to get her to change or switch with someone. The majority of people had Busan as their first choice.


Well it is time to go to bed, I think this is the latest I have stayed up in a while (American time included) but we have 12 pm curfew here so even when we go out we have to be back in the dorms...

Side note: KristinTeacher is going to be my new name to the students...apparently it is what they call their teachers or I might be called, simply, teacher.

I would say goodbye in Korean but I have yet to learn how....