Home Improvements

As you all may know, a couple months after arriving in Korea, I was taking a shower and I locked my door, just because I wanted to see how the lock worked.  I ended up locking myself in the bathroom for 40 minutes and had to rip the door handle off.  You can read about it in my previous post in December.

So I was at Home Plus with my boss and a new teacher so we could buy some things for the new teacher.  By chance we were walking in the aisle where the door handles were and I saw one that looked exactly like mine. So I picked it up and put it in the cart.  My boss looked at my funny and asked why I needed one.  I told her I got locked in the bathroom and I ripped it off.  I don't know if she understood, but I felt really embarrassed.  She must have known because the landlords were in my apartment a couple of times doing who-knows-what, and I'm sure they communicate.  So my boss was nice enough to buy me a new door handle.

This is what my door looked like for most of the year: it had no door handle and there was a gaping hole you could see out from (or see in from).  So that was embarrassing because everyone who ever came over always asked what happened.  I felt really stupid.

But the striker and plate were really easy to install.  I couldn't figure out how to put the lock in though.  It's this pin that pushed in to lock and pulls out to unlock.  I don't know about you, but I think I'm doing the next person a favor so they don't get locked in.  Hahah.

English Contest in Daejeon

Our students (and teachers) have been working hard and many many overtime hours with two students who will say a speech and two groups preforming a skit.  They will perform in Daejeon, where it was the finals, so-to-say.  They competed in Seoul during our summer vacation and now last weekend was when they performed in front of all the finalists.

One group did a play called 'King Solomon.'  It was a group of four boys and they did pretty well, but their pronunciation wasn't the best.  I could understand them because I knew the lines of the play for the most part.  During the finals days before we left for Daejeon, they added a whole bunch of props and costumes and it seemed like too much for them.  They were bring overloaded and they got jumbled with all the extra things they had to worry about.  That was true for all the groups and speech givers.

The other group was 'The Sound of Music.'  I wrote this script.  It was awesome.  Maybe in June sometime, our boss gave us an assignment for the day and she said that each teacher had to write a script for four characters in 'The Sound of Music.'  We all looked at each other and thought that was the stupidest assignment in the history of stupid assignments.  We also had to include three songs.  Now I can't just sit down for a day and write a script, mostly because I have never done that before.  But also, even in college it would take me a couple different days to write a paper.  C'mon.

Needless to say, we three teachers all turned in a script.  Mine was chosen.  Alright!  I worked really hard on it and I really liked the flow and how everything turned out.  So the kids were rehearsing and memorized their lines within the first couple days.  They are ALL amazing.



Then just like the other skit group, our boss started adding and deleting a whole bunch of things, confusing the kids, making them scream and fight with each other and it got out of control.  She bought a whole bunch of matching costumes and everything.  I must admit, when Daejeon finally came around, they looked pretty cute.

I wrote one speech about the Pyeongchang winter Olympics in 2018 and helped edit a speech about sign language.  Both of those speeches I was really close with too, so I'm glad they were chosen to go to Daejeon.  So the two skits and the two speeches won at Seoul Summer Camp and now they were going to the finals in Daejeon.

Finally, the weekend of Daejeon comes and Arazue and I were chosen to chaperone the trip.  We both felt really bad because we didn't rehearse much with the kids, the other two teachers did.  But I really wanted to go and offered my place to one of the other teachers to go, but they both didn't really seem to care, so I just left it.

So Friday morning we load the bus to make the 5-hour journey to Daejeon.  It was fun to hang out with the kids and see them in their true element.  And these kids probably have the best English in the whole school, so we communicate easily with them.

Arazue and I were so nervous the whole day the were performing.  We couldn't control our bladders and had to pee about every 20 minutes.  Now I think I know what it feels like to be an anxious parent...haha.

We kind of had some idea of how the results would turn out: We thought 'The Sound of Music" would place pretty high, but this other play was super good, so we thought the other team would win.  We also thought the Pyeongchang winter Olympics speech would win, because she had good pronunciation, content and actions within her speech.  But we didn't really know what to expect.

SO, the results were:

The Sound of Music - 2nd place and ₩700,000

Pyeongchang winter Olympics - 2nd place ₩700,000

Sign Language - 1st place ₩1,000,000

Charlie with his parents

King Solomon - not top three

That is pretty exciting.  You should have seen Charlie's face (Sign Language) when he heard that Anna (Pyeongchang Olympics) got second.  Then he thought he didn't place because Anna's speech was so good.  But when they were announcing the winner, they started off by saying the province, then the name.  When Charlie heard the province, he jumped up, but sat down right away because he didn't hear his name.  Then he heard his name and ran up on stage.  It was a very exciting moment!

I Had a Great Bidet

Yes.  A bidet.  When I was in Daejeon, we stayed in these crappy dorms.  But I was alone and it had this special toilet seat on it.  I initially thought it was a seat warmer and thought that that is a great invention.  So when I sat down I noticed a whole bunch of other buttons.  I can read Korean, but I don't know the meanings of the words, if that makes sense.  But pictures are amazing.

So I saw a picture of a woman and a picture of a butt.  So after doing my duty, I pushed the power button.  I was confused because there was a red light, a green light and no light.  So it took me forever to finally turn it on.  I was very nervous.  I wanted to do a test run and stare at the toilet to see what it actually does, but I remember seeing some movie where someone does that and gets sprayed in the face, so I thought I would go balls to the wall and just sit there.

So I pushed the butt button and heard a buzzing noise and I knew it was the sprayer being extended from the under portion of the rim.  Now I know why many people use bidets.  They are life-changing.  It actually worked.  I won't get into more detail than that, but I thought this story must be told.  감사합니다.

Halloween in Sokcho

Well, Halloween was crazy as usual.  And not to sound lame, but I went as a scarecrow.  Not to sound even lamer, but I went as that last year in the States.  Ha, dumb.  But it's an easy costume.  My new friend Arazue had an awesome costume: Waldo from 'Where's Waldo?'  She was randomly in the background of other peoples' pictures.  It was hilarious.

Haha, Arazue in the background!

I really just look like a farmer

The Inje crew

Connor, one of the new guys in town, actually dressed as a Korean school girl.  He was so dedicated, he even died his hair black.  He also borrowed a bra from one girl in town (I won't say her name, but YOU know who you are).  That's hardcore.  He stayed in character all night too.  It was hilarious to watch him.

Connor attempting to seduce the bartender

Smokin'

This is during the K-Pop song 'Put your Hands Up.'
That is Zaaid's hand.

Ashley also had a cool costume.  A chili pepper come to mind.  And he has the best poses.

I'm not going to lie, it was a little boring at first.  But after a few rum and cokes (mmMMMMmmm) it became more fun.  Then they were also having some good deal on Tsingtao, the Chinese beer, which is delicious even though I am not much of a beer fan (especially Korean beer).  So that was a good change.



They had Korean DJs at the bar, which usually at this bar, there is just a computer and you can pick your own music.  I like it better that way because these Koreans were playing some weird music that didn't have a good, steady dance beat.  That's no good in my book.  But after a while I started shouting Korean K-Pop artist and they played some of those songs.  But after a while, it seemed like the DJs had only three songs on the playlist and it was on repeat.  Honestly, we hear four songs about three times a piece.  LAME!

DJs

I sat in beer.

Beer-soaked butt

I also met some Russians.  I think they were Korean.  But the guy stole my hat.  They were awesome dancers.  I asked the guy what his first language and he said 'Russian' in English.  Craziness.

This was the scariest costume I have ever seen.  Seriously, he popped out of nowhere from the crowd and scared the crap out of me.  So I took this picture.  Admit it, you would be scared too.

So 4am rolls around and we decide to head back to the motel.  Arazue and I already had it all figured out, but there were three other guys from our town that had nowhere to go.  We told them to come with us and see if there was a room in our motel.  When we got there, there were no vacancies, so we crammed five people in this tiny motel room.  Three in the bed and two on the floor.  Just the usual, I guess.

That's all.  

Korean Fashion

Koreans have a great sense of fashion.  I am being honest.  They are pretty trendy and in the bigger cities, you rarely see a sloppily dressed Korean.  BUT, even their socks are fashionable!  In Korean culture, usually you remove your shoes before entering a room, whether that be a: restaurant, your apartment or in the school.  So your socks are always exposed.

All my students always make fun of me when I have holes in my socks.  They always point and laugh and say 'hole' in Korean.  I always get embarrassed, but I am too cheap to buy socks.  Apparently socks are very cheap, so that's why there is no reason to have holes in your socks.

Mine and girls' socks

Kids' socks are also very fashionable.  They never have plain, white socks.  They always have some cute little character on them or the socks will have more than five colors.  It's pretty funny.  So one day during cooking class, I brought my camera and wanted to take pictures of all my kids' socks.  The girls were willing, but the boys weren't.  I made them do it anyway or I told them we couldn't go to cooking class and eat food.  So they obliged.

Mine and boys' socks

They also have lots of other little accessories like bear ears or something on top of hoodies and bunny ear on top of their cell phone.  Winter hats for young children are also popular with raccoon, tiger and lion faces.  They are pretty awesome when young kids wear them.

Mina with her hood

Unfortunately, I never bought any Korean clothes.  I am considered fat over here.  I will admit that I have gained some (beer) weight, but I hope I'm not fat.

Summertime In Inje

I know this is old news now, but on October 3, it was a national holiday, so we didn't have school.  It was still about 75 degrees and the mountains were still green, so I thought I should take some pictures of what the summer looks like in Inje.

It's weird to think that these will be some of my last opportunities to take pictures.  It's getting really sad realizing I have such little time left.  So I wanted to remember what my town looked like on a perfect end-of-summer day.

I rode my bike around town and first stopped at the Catholic church in town.  They don't offer any masses in English, and I hate to admit it, but I never even went to church.  But I took pictures of it! (I don't think that counts).

There are a whole bunch of fields in people's yards.  Houses with yards don't have grass like a typical property in the States, but instead they plant a whole bunch of vegetables and rice.  They really like to plant cabbage, because Korea's most popular dish, kimchi, uses fermented cabbage, and cabbage can't grow in the winter, so you need to grow lots in the summer.

I also took this picture down the main street..

...you can see the huge green mountain invading the background.  Inje is surrounded by mountains, so everywhere you looked, you were always staring into a mountain.

And I took pictures of my favorite stores.  These were the ones I went to most frequently.

My favorite restaurant where I can get a substantial meal for $4

EcoMart, where you can buy anything under $3

You can get some crappy, over-priced coffee here

And the bakery and the 24-hour convenient store

And now the summer is coming to an end.  There are only so many other things I can write about, but I will sure share them.

Cold and Flu Shot

Whew boy, was I sick a couple weeks ago.  I had a sore throat that felt like my throat was shredding every time swallowed and my nose was insanely stuffy.  So it's a good thing we have this doctor friend that works in Inje.  All Koreans must do two years of service, usually serving two years in the army after they turn 18.  But some guys can chose to do their service in a different way.  So this guy chose to be a surgeon in a small town.  His English is superb.

So, I hate to bother him about medical stuff, but I really just wanted to ask him what name of drug I should buy from the pharmacy.  But he simply asked me if I was at my apartment and I said yes.  So he stopped by and dropped of some pills for me to take.  He said take them three times a day for three days.  He didn't even tell me what they were...well, he said one was for rhinitis, which I know means stuffy nose.  Instantly, I felt better and with lots of rest and fluids (not beer) I felt better in those three days.

Then I kind of got everyone sick at school, so then everyone wanted to get a flu shot.  But you can't get a flu shot when you get a cold, so the two other teachers and my boss couldn't get one because they were sick.  But I was able to.  Woo hoo!

When we arrived at the hospital, everyone was prescribed cold medicine, but I was able to get the flu shot.  The doctor spoke English and he happened to be the father of one of my very smart students.  He asked me if I was sick and I told him I was last week, but now I felt better.  He asked me if I took any medication and I said yes.  He asked me what I took and I told him I didn't know.  He laughed and didn't really say anything.  He probably thought I just swallow pills for fun.  That's not true.

He listened to my chest and heard that I was in top shape to get the flu shot.  So that was it.  All is good.  The flu shot was a little expensive because we don't have insurance here, but the school still paid for it.  It's about $30.

Awkward Interview

Wow, I just had the most awkward interview in my life.  I thought I was bad at being the interviewee, but I am worse at being the interviewER.  Gross.

My boss called me in early one day and said I had to interview the new teacher.  A new teacher will be coming the first weekend in December, so I was in charge of interviewing her.  Usually another teacher at my school would handle the interviews, but for some reason, my boss had me do it.

I asked the other teacher what she asked in the interview and she just said it's just to check the interviewee's English; to make sure it's clear and understandable.  That sounds easy.  So I called the interviewee and really had no idea what to ask her.  My boss didn't give me any guidelines or anything, so I just asked the interviewee some general questions.  She has already taught in Korea and she had a pre-recorded interview with the recruiter from Minnesota (yeah, the new teacher will be from Minnesota, just the the one that replaced me), so she was already a good candidate in my book.

So when I finish the phone call, my boss asks if she accepted the job.  What the heck!!!??  I didn't know I was supposed to offer her the position!!!  All my boss really told me was to ask questions.  So I said, 'I think so.'  I didn't know what to do.

So now I am frantically trying to contact my recruiter to tell him that my boss really wants this teacher.  I was emailing the interviewee because I had her email address from her resume and I said something like, 'sorry if I wasn't clear before, but I want to offer you a position at Inje English Village..' something along those lines.

Luckily, my recruiter contacted me right away and said all was good.  Then the interviewee emailed me back and said the same thing.  Whew!  I never want to conduct another interview again!

K-Water Field Trips - Chuncheon, South Korea

For three Saturdays, our school took three groups of students to one of the K-Water headquarters. At the headquarters in Chuncheon, there is the 소양강댐 (Soyang Gang Dam) and the soyang River. Our lessons for those weeks were about ecology and the environment, so we had words like: river, lake, mountain, rock, tree, etc. It was a good lesson.

But our director wanted us to teach the kids a song. So I was in charge of finding a song. I found a few that seemed suitable for all the kids' age and English level, but after teaching the song for six weeks, I was sick and tired of singing that song. I will NEVER sing "If All the Little Raindrops" again in my life. I promise that. But we made actions so we could help the kids remember the words and that worked. But after singing it for six weeks, the kids also got sick of singing that song. I don't blame them.

I really didn't mind the K-Water weekends. We would have to work Monday-Saturday, but our boss would give us Sunday and Monday off, so the following week would be a workweek from Tuesday-Friday. Can't really complain about that.

So we would all load the bus between 8:30 and 9 in the morning and take the one-hour trek to Chuncheon. Then most of the day, the kids spoke Korean, so each teacher had a helper (usually a middle school student that spoke decent English so if we gave the kids instructions, the older helper could interpret). That was pretty nifty.

We took the bus to the top of the dam where you could view the picturesque river flowing through the mountains. It was really beautiful up there.

I always tried to gather my group of students so I could take a picture with them, but with kids running around everywhere, it's not the easiest task to accomplish as a teacher.

We would always eat dalkgalbi for lunch because Chuncheon is best known for its delicious dalkgalbi. NOM NOM NOM! K-Water gives a lot of money to our school, so K-Water/the school paid for everyone's lunch. I am very lucky to be working at this school.

After lunch we went to the water museum where most of the signs were yet again in Korean. So I just made stuff up in English so it looked like I knew what I was talking about. Usually I just make a joke and they all laugh, laughter is the best medicine (wow, that was a lame statement!).

There was always some sort of concert happening in the plaza outside the museum, so we would watch that for a while. One time it was a magic show where one of our students was selected to go up and preform with the magician. The kid that was selected was stubborn sometimes, so if he didn't get his way, he would get physical and violent. AND, he is in Tae Kwon Do, so I'm sure he can kick some serious ass. So he attempted to kick the magician, but all was good. I slowly shook my head in the audience. But now I'm laughing about it.

Another time we were there, there were some drummers preforming. Some of our students were yet again selected to get to bang some drumsticks on some big blue barrels. Then I heard the announcer say "영어선생님" and I knew exactly what that meant. She wanted an english teacher to come up too. then all of a sudden the kids started chanting "Andrew Teacher, Andrew Teacher." I was actually nervous.

All was well. It was a lot of fun, although it looks like I had no idea what I was doing. But I rock at music and rock at life, so of course I was good.

Then to get home, we took a boat from Chuncheon to Yanggu, which was maybe half an hour. the buses met us in Yanggu and we drove home the forty minutes to Inje from Yanggu.

We had some pretty fun Saturdays and it really was a fun change of pace from just working the regular workweek. I know the kids liked it too.

Twenty-two Days

Hello Everyone! I want to thank everyone for following my adventure while I have been in Korea. It's hard to believe that my contract ends in twenty-two days. I will try very hard to write one post a day to talk about what happened that day, or about how I'm feeling.

Right now, I can honestly say I have an abundant amount of emotions. I am happy to return home, but sad to leave. I have had a countdown on for a few months now, and now that I see the '22,' I kind of wish that number was higher.

I have to think about what kind of job to get (which I am slowly applying for jobs now). Busy thinking about looking for my own place in the Minneapolis area. Preparing for grad school. It all sounds exciting, daunting, boring, scary, and the list goes on.

This weekend is Halloween and I will go to Sokcho for that. I love the teachers in Sokcho, and most of the teachers from Inje will go too, so it should be a good night. The following weekend (my replacement teacher) and I will chaperone a trip with a handful of students to Daejeon. We leave on Friday and come back Sunday. Friday is a regular working day, but saturday will be overtime, so that's another good chunk of change to get before I return home. The weekend after that I plan on going to the DMZ. Then the week after that is my flight. Woooo, I can't believe it.

So I should have some good stories to share in the next three weeks. See you all soon!

추석 - 서울 ~ Korean Thanksgiving, Seoul

Well, Chuseok came and went very quickly; it was already a month ago.  Chuseok is like American Thanksgiving when it time for the Koreans to do their harvesting.  They also spend time with their families.  This year, Chuseok was from September 11-13.  It fell on a weekend so we got about five days off.  I was originally planning on going to China, but only two weeks after arriving home from my summer vacation and not having enough time to get a visa, I couldn’t make it feasible.

This is a typical intersection - six lanes wide

Then I thought of going to Japan or Taiwan since it was a similar flight distance (Japan – two hours, Taiwan – five hours) but I just decided against it.  I thought I should spend some time in Seoul doing things I haven’t done yet there.

Korean War Museum

The first thing I wanted to do was see the Korean War Museum.  It was so interesting.  They had huge memorials displayed for all the soldiers who lost their lives in the Korean War.  They even had it separated by country AND by state.  It was such a great honor to go there. 

Each black slate had names etched in them

Once I got inside the museum, the first floor was all about wars from a long time ago.  Then the second floor was just for the Korean War, so I spent most of my time up there.  I really wanted to read everything and we watched a few short movies.  My friend Jazmine was with me, so after spending a few hours in there, we decided to leave.

Outside the Museum with Namsan Tower in the background

Outside there were old replicas of war machinery, like tanks, planes and ships.  It was really interesting. 

Then we saw this lady who appeared to be sweeping off some bricks near the water.  She was in heels and we were waiting for her to fall in.  So naturally, I just watched and snuck photos of her..haha.

Crazy Lady

Then we went to Namsan Tower (or Seoul Tower) which is the geographical center of Seoul.  Now I don’t know if it was just foggy ot if it’s actually the pollution, but it always seems to be hazy in Seoul.  But I’m glad I was able to make it up there to see the view.

I also debated about going up at night, but thought that if it was foggy during the day, it would foggy during the night.  I didn’t know what was better, and I thought there might be a chance of rain, so I thought we should go while we could.

Up near the ticket booth, they have an observation deck where people puts locks on it to lock their love for one another there forever.  That was really cool to see and it was way bigger than I thought. 

I spent three days there total and got most of the things done that I wanted to in Seoul.  I still want to go to the DMZ, see the Kimchi Museum and a few other little things, so I may have one more chance the weekend before I fly out.

Also, walking through the streets of Seoul, I ran into a Starbucks.  I never get Starbucks because I am more of a Caribou fan, but I always enjoying seeing the name Starbucks in Korean Characters.  So here ya go!

Chuseok was fun and I’m glad I could escape Inje for a few days.  I can’t wait to come home and celebrate American thanksgiving with my family!  See you all in 35 days!!