Greeting from Korea! Lance and I have been in Korea for about 5 days now and so much has happened! We crossed the international dateline when we flew in and in doing so "went back to the future." We've eaten food that is more than a little weird (but delicious), we've met some incredible people and we've started the orientation process for teaching. It's been a wild ride. I can't believe it was a week ago that we were still sitting in suburbia, Florida.
Leaving on an Jet Plane
A word of warning: if you can help it, for heaven sake, do not fly with United. It was a huge baggage hassle. We had to pay about $340 to get all our bags here because United charged for a second bag for each of us and then $200 for a third bag. United was responsible for our 2.5 hours flight from Tampa, Florida into Chicago. Asiana, who flew us 14 hours to Seoul, lets passengers have a second bag for free. Even though Asiana and United are partners, we had to pay to get our second bag to us and their customer service was awful.
Enough being a negative Nancy! My Mom drove us to Tampa the night before we were supposed to leave (thanks mom!) and we stayed in a hotel. We had some pretty tasty Thai food at a restaurant near our hotel. It was very tasty. We didn't sleep the night before we left because we were both so nervous. My mom drove us to the airport at 3 a.m. where we met up with Lance's parents. Everyone gave us such a beautiful send off. We may stay in Asia for a long while, but we'll always know where home is.
The United flight was uneventful, other than the general cattle drive feeling you get when you're processed with the TSA. The flight was cramped, but not bad for only 2.5 hours. In chicago we had more luggage problems because we lost the receipt from United which proved we paid for our extra bags. This was largely because the TSA makes you empty your pockets and generally undress (they had to pat down my neck because my scarf was too thick...) and United never mentioned that we'd have to keep our receipt. This meant that we had to move around the Chicago airport like chickens with our heads cut off trying to prove that we'd paid for the bags. Don't fly United.
The rest of the flight was through Asiana. It was amazing. Lance and I had three seats to ourselves in the middle of the aisle. The seats were spacious and each had a TV screen on the backs of the seats. It had games to play, plenty of movies and a real-time map which tracked our flight (which went over the North Pole). I got caught up on movies and between the two of us we watched: Wreck it Ralph, Pitch Perfect, The Dark Knight Rises, The Lorax and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. We were kept well entertained. The flight attendants were beyond incredible and were constantly bringing around water and juice. We were given slippers, headphones, blankets and pillows. We got hot towels before each of our two free meals and our free snack too. Alcohol was free and when I made a special request for tomato juice, every time they came around with a tray water and juice there was always a cup of tomato juice for me. We we're given two meals. The first one Lance and I had bibimbap, which a delicious Korean dish that includes a mix of veggies, rice and thinly sliced meat. Being the adventurous eater I am, I mixed all the toppings that came with the bibimbap into one bowl and chowed down. Lance finished before I did and we looked at me and held up a little bowl full of white translucent little crispies that I had dumped into the bibimbap and said "you like the little fish?" I looked down, in horror, to see that the little salty crispy things I had assumed to be some sort of grain snack were actually tiny whole dried fish; head eyes and all staring up at me. I was enjoying my bibimbap up till then. Needless to say, I didn't try the Octopus for my second meal and just stuck with the chicken instead.
School Rules
We arrived at the school at around 8 pm in Seoul. We were met with a bit of a shock, when we were brought into an apartment with 6 other people. To our relief, we found out that this is a temporary housing situation that only lasts until orientation is over, which will be until March 2nd. We live in the 'boys' apartment with 6 other guys and everyone is super super nice. The girls live above us and theirs another very nice married couple in an apartment down the way. We live just up the sidewalk from the school.
Lance and I have our own bedroom, though it has three twin sized beds so we had to push two of them together. They aren't the same size though, so it makes cuddling very difficult. The heating goes through the floor and our apartment is kept nice and toasty, which is nice since it is literally colder than I've ever been outside. Snow just sits on the ground in dirty little piles next to buildings and on the sides of the road. We don't drink the water, but we have a filter system which is kinda like a suped up water cooler. It dispenses both chilled water and water hot enough to brew some tea or make a bowl of ramyeon. The beds are rock hard, but the comforters on our beds are nice and warm and fluffy. The water we use to take showers can't manage to stay hot and switches back and forth from luke warm to ice cold, occasionally reaching scalding hot. Our apartment generally has a 1970's bachelor pad feel, with orange sofas and groovy wallpaper in the living room.
SDA was established in South Korea in 1969. They have many schools throughout South Korea as well hospitals. They're a well established organization, and though I've heard some horror stories about smaller Hagwons (after-school programs designed to teach specific subjects, such as English) SDA is certain to treat us very well. If you're looking to teach in South Korea I certainly recommend looking them up.
SDA is a Seventh Day Adventist school. The last group of teachers they hired in December was the first time the school brought on non-church members. Lance and I consider ourselves to be secular people, and we had some concerns about working for a religious school. We were assured that we would have nothing to do with the religious side of the school. I'm here to tell you that while SDA is a great school and everyone has been very nice, there is certainly a pressure to teach religion in the classroom. We are required to read a bible verse every class and explain any English words the class might not understand. It only takes 5 minutes of class time, but it's still a bit awkward for me. We're supposed to pray with our class after the 'word of life,' but I've spoken with the administrators and they are very understanding of my objections to praying. If you aren't religious you can certainly teach at SDA, but if you are openly opposed to all religious teaching SDA probably isn't for you.
SDA is giving us quite a bit of hands-on intensive training and guidance. We have a set of books and manuals to guide us and a whole support system of teachers and administrators. Everything we've learned has been so incredibly helpful. However, we are not being paid for our training period, which lasts until we're placed until March 2nd, which skewed our financial plan a bit. Our recruiter told us we wouldn't be paid, but he also told us training lasted about 2 days. Though they aren't paying us, we are living rent and utility free in guest housing and we're fed three meals a day, except on Saturday night (which is their day of worship) and even then they give us 5,000 ($5 USD) won for meals. Their meals are very good and very healthy and all vegetarian (Because a large portion of SDA followers are). So far the only meat Lance and I have had here has been in the form of street food.
On the Subway
Korean public transport is so good it's embarrassing, especially if you come from my little corner of the United States where (Gainesville aside, and even then they're not that great) buses as slow, unorganized and everything is extremely far apart. I wouldn't dream of being able to walk to work in most parts of Florida, especially my J-ville. I've had a series of jobs in Jacksonville, the closets took about 20 minutes to get too and the furthest took me 2 hours plus both ways. I'm so happy to be in a country where I don't spend a significant amount of my day behind the wheel of a car.
The Korean subway is super cheap and super clean. Like mega clean. I've been on it once so far and it wasn't even crowded. That's another thing, I expected Asia to be jammed packed with people and while, yes, it is a large city, I have yet to feel claustrophobicly close to anyone. The subway and the high speed rails and the buses are all connected to a transit card. I can jump the subway, then jump on the bus and never pay an extra fee for stopping. I simply press my card (or my card inside of my wallet) to the pay kiosk when I enter and exit. I can get literally anywhere with the public transport system in Korea. I can take a high speed railroad to the country side and then pick up a bus. I only wish our transportation system was as efficient back home.
Adventures and Street Food!
The first night we went out, the second night we were here, we took the subway down to this amazing river called Cheonggyecheon. It's a beautiful little creek with fountains that had frozen over and were backlit. All along the river was filled with tiny art exhibits and one section under a bridge was full of pictures depicting the same river in the 1950s and 60s. The river was full of shanty towns and poverty. The amount South Korea has grown in a little over 50 years is simply incredible. They are an incredibly resilient people and they're proud of it. They should be.
When we surfaced from by the river, we arrived in the seat of government of Seoul. The US embassy was near by along with a lot of tall and important looking government buildings. In the center of the square sat a great statue of a warrior. We learned his name was
Yi Sun Shin. He was a famous and well renounced Admiral, respected by both the Koreans and the Japanese, for a famous battle in which he won a battle against 333 ships with only 13 ships. His statue was enormous and beautiful and the history was so interesting.
We stopped for street food several times along the way in our journey. Street food in South Korea is delicious and pretty familiar since just about everything is fried. I had a corn dog (for $1!) some meat on a stick and best of all (and my new favorite food!) fish cakes. Fish cakes have nothing in common with fish except they're shaped the same. They're sweet pancakes filled with sweet red bean paste. They are super yummy and warm and I think I might have to take a break from reading this to go get some! They cost $1 for 7. On Friday night we simply bought a whole rotisserie chicken out of the back of a street vendors truck (he had the rotisserie on the back of his truck, literally) and ate it with our hands. we covered it in honey mustards and ate it with pickled radish. It was one of the best meals we've had since we've been here and it cost $5.
Snow
Did I mention that it's freezing here? Coming from the Sunshine State, I have never felt so cold in my entire life. Bitter, searing cold. So cold my fingers hurt to bend and my thighs (through my jeans!) turn about as red as a tomato. It can be beautiful though. It snowed one night we were here and in the morning we awoke to this:
Korean Hippies
Last night was nothing short of incredible. Brendan, our new friend who is doing a second round in Korea and who is marrying his Korean fiance soon, took us out to some of his old haunts and to meet some other foreign teachers from all over the place. We met probably the coolest group of people I've ever met. The "blue moons crew" is a group of Korean guys who have farms and own this smoky little underground bar just outside of Seoul. They are, for lack of better words, Korean hippies. The small place has cozy tables and large comfortable sofas, a stage with an assortment of instruments in the front and a mixture of classic rock and 1970s folk country Korean music playing over the sound system. The bar was smokey and there was a stack of jim bean bottles three deep and probably 30 long against the wall behind the bar.
When we came in we were handed a thin white slice of something that tasted a lot like jerky. It was delicious, it also turned out to be squid. We were introduced to the bar owners, included among them was "Pilipino John Lennon" and "Genghis Khan." They were all so friendly and warm and we spoke a mixture of Korean and English to understand each other. There was a lot of body language involved. We drank Korean beer and Soju (a liquor made out of rice) and makkoli ( a creamy carbonated rice wine which has more probiotics in it than yogurt). We talk and drank and ate strange things and played a little guitar. It was a night beyond memory.
We moved on to a little bar, a little less cool but no less fun, just down the road to meet some of Brendan's friends who were leaving the country soon. It was a foreigner bar and it had more white people in it than I'd seen together in Korea as of yet. A mix of indie and classic rock played over the speakers and an old 70's movie played on the wall. The place was decorated with christmas decorations and felt like it felt out of a vintage christmas card. We drank some more beer and played darts until I was so sleepy I just had to go home.
Lance and I hailed a cab and Lance used his little Korean to try and navigate us home. We took the bus to the bars so we really had no idea where we were. Neither did the cabby. We ended up going past the olympic park and into Samyook University. We have an emergency card the school gave us with the address of the school on it, and we gave it to the cabby and turned us around and dropped us off on a corner. We paid about twice the cab fare we would have otherwise. We were lost. It was dark and absolute freezing. We walked for a little while in the wrong direction and hailed another cabby who pointed us in the right direction. We slept like rocks.
Some pictures taken By Brendan Shae
