Seoul Saturday-Sunday

Seoul was fun as I will count this weekend trip as my first time since it was the first time I 1.Drank and 2. passed out in the nations capital. Also this trip was enlightining. I'm not gonna pull any punches we were at a place called Hooker Hill when we started the drinking as one of us is formerly a member of the Army who was stationed in Seoul for 6 years I believe. This was the place for them to go. It was quite crowded at the top at less hookery places but the middle section of the hill(note: this really is a hill and it sucks to go up or down) there was a proposterous number of prostitutes standing infront of their "Bars" where I wonder aloud now at work, "could you even get a drink at one of those places?"

It akso made me question English education in this country as one girl approached the oldest gentleman in our group took his arm and tried to coax him into some shady room in this dark ally of a street. I didn't hear her but I assume she could speak enough English to get her point across which probably puts her in the top 30% if only because she is willing to even speak it. It seems hard to get Koreans to fess up to knowing English cause they are afraid of making a mistake and looking dumb. Little do they realize that people like me come from across the planet in an attempt to teach them and in the process we look tremendously foolish for basically the whole time. I think I've seen 4 non prostitute, non English teacher Koreans speaking or at least trying to speak English. My main Pizza guy, probably mid to late 30's, the head teacher at my school, a very very nice woman in her late 50's had a very nice conversation with her even though she swears her English is terrible, it's not. My Vice Principal, he also speaks very well but we haven't spoken a lot since my first week. And the last one is the funniest but this man in Seoul we met while standing outside of a hotel trying to find a room he came up asked us where we were from was making jokes and singing songs all in English then he tried to help us find a room by talking to a couple of hotels we called he was probably also mid to late 50's like the VP. I guess the point of this is that many Koreans know functional English or at least the polite words but are like frozen solid against usuing them. Which is differnt from me cause I only know polite words, hello, goodby, here and there. So yeah

Anyway I don't have any pictures of anything of my own from Seoul cause we got cameras at the end of the trip instead of the beginning because we are idiots. So far I've just taken some pictures from here in Okcheon and I will post them soon so that everyone can see how awesome of a place this is.

Edit: I think that I'm gonig to buy pizzas for my schools because I should probably do something for them before they start to think I'm an inconsiderate jerk. Oh Kay off to teach the first class of the day!

Week's over.

Oh hello there and thanks for stopping by. Please have a seat as I have amazing news.

Ready??




I GOT MY FIRST PAYCHECK TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was on time and delivered as promised. TOnight I don't celebrate because tomorrow morning bright and early I get onto a train to Seoul to meet some friends from Orientation and we gonna party!!!! I think. This trip has no mission statement unlike the trip that produced the photo of my on the side of the blog. Although I guess the first order of busisness is to find and buy the greatest digital camera of all time because I need pictures. For this and for myself. I went to my second school and the kids were a absolute dream just the way to end the week. Their level is probably a step or so behind Samyang but the kids are absolute angels. I love 'em. Next week is Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving. The actual day is Saturday but they give us Friday off as well, which is nice because I don't have to work Thursday either cause it's Founders day at Jukhyang. What better way to celebrate the founding of school then by not showing up to the wretched place at all. I love Korea!!!!!

Toughest Day Yet

Today was bad and hopefully it's over. I woke up and it was raining, not bad just enough to have to use an umbrella. So I get to school early so that I can print and laminate some stuff for class and that goes well enough. I have to go buy the sheets after school cause I didn't know that you needed them and thought the machine just did it. It feels hard to explain now I'm a little tired, anyway, the first class was interesting cause it was the first time with the new lesson plan and things are never as they appear in teaching. I mean I had an idea but trying to do it is always so eye opening. It wasn't as expected but the Co-teacher was ever present. She continued to suggest changes and I continued to tweak the lesson on my on then she left and came back. She really lets me have the class when I'm teaching here, sometimes to the point of frustration. If you know me then you know I don't speak Korean. I can say 'hello', 'goodbye', 'here', 'there' and 'thank you'. Basically most of the kids probably only get half of what I'm saying, well it would be half if they would listen. This is where the troubles begin today.

After lunch I only have 2 classes. They were real bastards today. Thus I had to be a bastard right back at them. They were loud, I was louder, they continued to screw around, I made them stand up. Keep dicking around and the next person hast to stand in a corner. This just kept escalating until I had 2 kids outside of the room. At another point I had 3 girls standing in the corners. One time I had the back row stand up and put their hands on their heads and read stuff from the board. Eventually on of the entire classes had to stand up and I lectured them about shutting their faces while I talk. Other than that I'm ready to go home, think of a better way to get through tomorrow and come out swinging. These children will not get the better of me!!!!

Weapons Grade Cute

Today was an important day. I finally went to Daejeon and applied for my Alien Registration Card(ARC), once I get this I will be able to get internet and tv in my home and leave the country. Not that I'm in any particular hurry to leave Korea, quite the contrary. I'm loving every moment in Okcheon, my adopted hometown of 55,000 souls. I love the look on little kids faces when they see me. It's either sheer joy or sheer terror. Then I say "Hi" and they either run away or respond in kind. Also since I went into town today I got off of work early. I was walking down the street with groceries and some high school kids actually said "Hi" as opposed to just staring or avoiding eye contact. In this town of 55,000 there are about 8 government contracted teachers here, who knows how many privates and who cares really. Anyway there are 8 of us who stick out like thumbs, 3 of us stick out like sore thumbs thanks to being black. I wouldn't want to be anyplace else on the face of the earth right now, I'm learning something about myself and everything around me everyday. The kids are tough but the job is rewarding.

I'm planning on going to Seoul for the first time with some people I met at orientation. Right now we have the 26th set as the date but it's still tentative to me cause we are supposed to get out first paycheck on the 25th. Normal Korean teachers here get paid the 17th so hopefully the worse case scenario for me is they accidentally pay me a week in advance then just say sit on it cause it too much work to take it back and then give it back one week later. So I may meet some people
on the train or in Seoul either way it'll be fun

I cannot stress this enough, most of the children here have been uncontrollably cute. Everyone of my 6th & 5th graders are are older then my oldest niece and she has nothing on them in cuteness right now(sorry Maddie). They are secret walking cute factories, producing weapons grade cute and then testing it on the undesirables in the northern provinces of Iraq while the United States silently nods because this is a fight against extremist. They are that cute.

Week 2

Back at work just finished giving my own lessons. It went meh. It'll be interesting to see how the kids test on this stuff which I won't really know of until they tell me something went horribly, horribly wrong and they all failed. Or not. Anyway it's kind of a rainy day and just an overall crappy way to start the week especially after such a great weekenf. Did I mention that I'm now an Hanwha Eagles fan 4 life. Gonna have to make road trips to other cities during the rest of this season and the start of next years season. I feel good about them man, they've sucked so long they gotta be due right?

Take me out to the Ball game

Went to a Hanwha Eagles game last night and if anyone comes to visit, we might have to go to one too. I had the time of my life. The tickets were free, the retired a guys number and oh yeah the home team managed to pull it all of in the bottom of the 9th. Let me fill you in on some details, the Eagles, ok they suck most of the time. I went in to the game knowing this. The KBO(Korean Baseball Organization) is an 8 team league and the Eagles are bringin' up the rears at a fat 32 games behind first and 9.5 games behind 7th. They are bad. But last night was a clash of the titans as the 6th place Seoul Heroes were in town. Fahd and I two of the new comers bought 10000 won shirts that just happened to have like the best players numbers on them so we were pumped. His guy had his own song that would play and the crowd would sing every time he came up to bat, it was pretty badass. My guy was the Babe Ruth of the team, not so much on the talent end more in the gut. Anyway we walk in and are handed towels that say "Ace 23" and we're like "that's cool" cause free stuff is where it's at.

There was a big "35" in center field and an equal sized white sheet covering up the number 23 next to it so it was pretty obvious what we were going to see. So the game starts and it's boring as hell. I'm kinda wondering how there in last place cause for the first 3 innings there is one combined hit and like 4 walks. Then the 4th inning rolls in and the Eagles pitcher losses his shit. Base hit, walk, walk, GRAND SLAM. Did not expect to see that. 2 batters later, 2 run home run. Where the hell am I? I thought they played small ball over here, but these guys are up 6 in the blink of an eye. They get out of it and I'm thinking "thank God that's over" but it's not. They give up 3 more in the top of the 5th all while remaining hit less themselves and down a staggering 9-0.

Then it happened, slap single to right, single to left Lee Bum-ho # 7 the best player on the team comes up and crushes one to the vendors area in left center field. There were like no manufactured runs here. I think maybe 2 guys feigned bunting but never put bat to ball. In the mean time they Eagles had scored like 4 more runs and all of a sudden it was 9-7 and they had a chance. Well not for a while anyway.

After the 6th inning everything stopped and we had the retirement ceremony for Ace 23 the man who led the Eagles to their only KBO Championship in 1999, they showed video and Jeong Min-Chul. He looked pretty impressive in the video and he was not so old probably close to or tipping 40 he started his career in '92. There was a long draw out ceremony and then he gave a speech and like 25 minutes later the team ran out tossed him in the air a couple of times and then put him in a BMW for a lap around the field and then the game restarted. They might as well have skipped to the 9th cause that's basically what ended up happening, there would be a chance and a strike out or ground out.

The 9th worked perfectly though we had the top of the order up. The first guy grounded weakly to second but he's the lead off man so he can fly, he beat a bad throw and made it to second base during the ensuing chaos, the second man up struck out or some ting and them it was Lee Bum-ho's time to shine, a single to left field and he did his part it was a one run game with the tying run at the plate my guy the big boy, Kim Tae-Kyun # 52. He walked which was cool but they had already put in a pinch runner for Bum-ho and so the big boy was gonna run for himself. Or jog the guy after him comes up and crushes the first pitch over the left center field wall. Pandemonium I'd never been so happy in my life. In the words of Homer, "This makes up for everything that's ever gone wrong in my life – or ever will!" pure joy. I couldn't sleep for a while after I got home from the excitement... or maybe it was the mountain dew

Daejeon... or Taejeon, if you please

So a few days ago I did something stupid that I don't plan on doing alot of while I'm here. I went out drinking on a worknight and not with co-workers just with the awesome people we've met in Okcheon, other teachers. So we went to the city of Daejeon, pronounced Taejeon, for dinner at, wait for it, T.G.I. Fridays. America never tasted so good and a TGI Fridays wait staff probably never looked as good either. Anywho they took us to the main area like shit goes down at this place and even on a Thursday night it was lit up just not full of people. Went to a bar called Sponge and sat and had some drinks talked about living there and what to do. I think I'm going to lie low until I atleast get my settlement allowance or the entrance allowance which may not come until my regular pay day on the 25th which may also not come right on time because it'll be my first payday and the kinks will still have to be worked out. But when I do get either my settlement, entrance, or regular paycheck I'll probably see if anyone wants to head to Seoul, I got stuff I need to buy, like a camera for picture for you people so I can stop with the terrible descriptions of things and I can just say look pictures, leave me alone!!

School is Awesome

I don't mean to shit on everyone else's EPIK experience but so far I have to say that I'm the luckiest kid in Korea right now. When they told me I was teaching in Elementary school I was a little apprehensive but I paid for the plane ticket and new the rules of the game.

When I finally got to school everyone was nice, the kids while they stared didn't lose their shit and jump me. I got some handshakes some short English conversations and many "hello's" in Korean. The teachers have been really nice, even though I'm only going to teach 6th graders at this school, I've had a chance to talk to the 3rd & 4th grade English teacher and the 5th grade English teacher, I'm going to do some after school classes with her so I'll get to see them.

On the first day after school was done and most everyone was gone or leaving I was standing on the stairs on the breezeway between the buildings and an older lady stopped and we talked for probably 10 minutes, she kept trying to tell me her English is no good but I was like "well we're having a pretty substantial conversation so you must know something". She's a 2nd grade teacher so I probably won't get to teach her kids or see her again until teacher meetings on Tuesdays.

Speaking of meetings this Tuesday, I have to introduce myself and give a short speech, which my co-teacher asked my to write so she could translate it to those who don't speak English. Then on Monday off to teach the first class of 6th graders. While I was sitting doing my eternal nothing yesterday a girl came in and stood between my co-teacher and I(we sit next to each other turned towards the center) she said something to my co-teacher and then turns to me and hands me a piece of paper all folded up. It was a note "To Teacher" I asked if she was in 6th grade, cause she's kinda small, but I should have known from how good her handwriting was and also how well put together the note was, grammatically speaking. Then I got to the end of the actual note, which was like 4-6 questions and a statement and saw that she had just written "love" over and over again. I think they may need to be taught how exactly the word works but that's for another day and I can do that with "Handsome" and "Beautiful", cause every foreigner apparently gets called those depending on the sex of the teacher they're talking to, so they use the partially correctly.

Off to the Okcheon street vendors to buy stuff!!

Day 1

Here I am sitting in the main teachers/staff room here at beautiful Samyang Elementary school. This is apparently the largest Elementary school and probably school in general in Okcheon. Korean schools breakdown in a very similar way as American schools, 6 years of Elementary, 3 years of middle school and 3 years of High school, also and this is as an aside and a preemptive strike, the keyboard here at my school feels like the keys are about 3/4 scale of a regular American keyboard so for a while as long as I post from school there will probably be some errors. I just can't be this perfect when I may have a class to go to. Also I'm lucky in that I have a dedicated English teacher. She's dedicated in everysense of the word but I mean in two cases here. 1)She only teaches English and only to the 6th graders, so 11 classes worth. We heard all about people who get teachers who are homeroom teachers and they have to be jacks of all trades. It's like elementary in America where the teacher you have teaches all the core classes then there is still a seperate music teacher and an art class. 2) is she's really good at what she does so shes super prepared.

We also have our own English village which I didn't think we would get. Just becaue I figured that not everyone could be winners but so far I've heard of more people getting "villages" then not. All they are is dedicated rooms to and for English, it's hard to explain but what it does mean is the kids come to us not the other way around. It means the world to teachers who have been here and started with no english room.

The staff at the school has been nice. It's a pitty I can't remember any of their names. I'm just terrible like that. If we didn't have nametags on all the time at orientation I would have known the names of like 2 people. So I'll have to make a seating chart of the office that I'm in so that I don't go around mumbling and pretending to say these poor folks names. Also nametags should be mandatory for everyone in the world at all times. Just go ahead and tatoo it to everyones faces. Good day though