Whoops...

Apparently it has been nearly two months since I have updated this blog. I apologize. Basically, I am really busy and I have been putting this off one day at a time. I guess I’ll start with a quick list of things that have happened. This isn’t all inclusive but it’s a few things that are coming to my mind right now.

· I joined a soccer team

· I went to a Korean church with a coworker that was 100% in Korean. I had to sit on a little pad on the floor for 2 hours and I didn’t understand a single word. They even sang me a welcome song in Korean after the service and then we all at Samgyeopsal – one of my favorite Korean foods.

· I’m beginning to learn Korean. I take a 90-minute class on Saturday mornings that is offered by my church. I also meet at a Language Exchange café twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday for two hours and both teach English and study Korean for free.

· I had an excellent Halloween that involved dressing up in chicken costume (marketed as a one-piece pajama outfit for Koreans) and going out in public with my friends who were dressed up in other various animal costumes.

· I ate spicy chicken feet.

I started playing on a soccer team on the weekends that is in the top recreational league in Korea. The league has eight teams and the bottom two will get relegated to the league below after the season. It’s as competitive as it gets for recreational soccer. Most of the players are ex-college players from the US or they played a lot in England. One of the players on my team used to play for Liverpool when he was a teenager. Anyways, I joined the team in the second half of the season and I scored two goals and had three assists while playing four games. We won all four games by a combined total of 18-4. At the end of the fourth game I hurt my leg though. Something felt wrong in my right calf and it swelled up pretty big right away. It happened on a Sunday and I put off going to the doctor until Friday because I wasn’t sure if it was serious or not. I finally went to the doctor when my ankle, which didn’t hurt at all, started turning purple and swelling up. The doctor told me that I had a partial separation of the two muscles in my calf and there was blood running between them. I was told to not run, not play sports, not ski, and try not to use stairs for four weeks. Week two is finishing up right now and it has not been fun at all. On a side note, I really like how cheap the hospital visits are here. I just walked in and asked to see the doctor and he gave me an ultrasound and two weeks of painkillers and the whole thing cost me about $75. I thought that was a good deal until my students told me that I went to the most expensive hospital in the area and the other ones would have been even cheaper. About 85% of the friends that I have made here so far all went on a skiing/snowboarding trip last weekend and I wasn’t able to go. Right now though, my leg is feeling a lot better. I’ve stopped taking the painkillers I was prescribed because they aren’t necessary anymore and nearly all of the color/swelling is gone from my foot. It really seems like things should be fully healed by the time Christmas, and the next snowboarding trip, comes around.

I’ve also been working pretty hard at attempting to learn Korean. I signed up for a free Korean class that meets on Saturday mornings for 90 minutes at my church. The teacher is excellent and I feel like I have been learning a lot. I can read and write the Korean characters and I’m starting to learn some expressions and vocabulary. I also signed up for a language exchange program that is twice a week during the week. A Korean guy I met started a chain of café’s that are basically a club for Korean people that want to learn English. The Koreans meet multiple times a week and study English papers together in an attempt to become fluent. He also looks for English speaking people who want to learn Korean to come and meet with a Korean partner twice a week to teach them English and to learn Korean. The foreigners, like me, don’t have to pay anything and we get free coffee, tea, waffles, and beer anytime we want to come to the café. Not just when we are learning. The Koreans get the free stuff as well but they pay a very hefty membership fee to signup for the club. I got partnered up with a very nice 34 year-old woman named 임혀운 (Im-hye-oon). She has two daughters that she drops off and school and then she comes to learn English for a few hours and then goes and picks them up. The rest of the people in the café are extremely friendly as well. During the two hours I’m there we usually study for about an hour and then spend the rest of the time chatting with everyone else. They all speak English really well so they always have a few challenging questions about expressions or grammar every time I come in. I found out yesterday that one of the girls there studied six months in Portland a couple years ago and another one studied in Vancouver, BC for six months earlier this year. It was pretty cool to chat with Koreans that were actually familiar with my part of the world.

I’m still enjoying teaching also. This week is the last week of my first term and the term has gone quite well. My classes have progressed from me just following the poorly constructed textbooks they give me, to me picking and choosing the good parts out of the book and then just coming up with other things for them to do. My students really love Jeopardy, so I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played various versions of it over the course of the term. I came to find out that the schedule I walked into when I arrived is the most hours out of anyone in the office and one of the tougher ones I could possibly get. Next term I teach a few less classes and I get off work an hour earlier a couple nights a week as well. That will make a huge difference because I am yet to meet anyone in Korea that works as late as I do every night. Right now I work until 11:25pm every night but next term I will get off work at 10:30pm twice a week. That will make a big difference because I will be able to at least meet up with some friends for a little while a couple times a week.

Right now, I’m beginning to experience a little bit of what winter is like in South Korea. For the past couple weeks the temperature really hasn’t risen about 40 degrees. Most of the time it has been hovering around 35 or so. We’ve gotten some snow here and there but nothing that has stuck yet. It is supposed to start getting even colder here in a week or two. Pretty soon it will start to go into the 20’s and the teens and not really come above freezing level again until February. I’m starting to build up a collection of winter clothes so I think I’m just about prepared. I’m going to buy a nice weatherproof winter coat this weekend though. My Korean friends from the Language Exchange program are going to take me to a market in Seoul where they have a lot of winter clothes at a heavily discounted price. I’m also planning on going to a German market in Seoul this weekend. They are supposed to have authentic German sausage, beer, holiday treats, and some other things as well.

Well, that’s about all I can think of for now. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of things since I haven’t updated this in nearly two months. I really do hope that I stop being lazy and I update this more often. Especially since I can’t go running now I should use my extra free time a little better!

That was a fast month...

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for a month now. Time has been flying by. I’ve been rock climbing, I took a trip to some beautiful islands, I’ve taken a couple trips to Seoul, I’ve attended a few sporting events, I’ve met a ton of people, I’ve got my town completely figured out, and I’ve done about 15 days of teaching.

During my first two weeks here, I kept searching the area around my building for a dumpster to deposit trash. After not seeing one nearby, I realized that I hadn’t seen a single one anywhere near my apartment. I decided to ask a coworker if they knew where I should put my trash and the reply was simple: “Just set it outside.” I liked that plan, so the next morning I set the trash out on my way to work and by the time I got home it was gone. I have no idea who took my trash, but I am quickly beginning to like how the system works.

The trip to the DeokJeok Islands went really well. The islands were beautiful. We had an enjoyable 9v9 impromptu beach soccer game, an awesome trip to the Noraebang, a couple great hikes, a bonfire, and a couple night-swims in the Yellow Sea. Overall, I met a lot of people and had an awesome time. The weather could have been better though. It was pretty cloudy the first couple days and we got poured on for a couple hours the first night. Naturally, the day we left it was very sunny and warm, perfect weather for the beach.

I’m still enjoying trying all the new foods. When I go to eat with others I will always try something new and then write down how to order it. That way I give myself a few more options each time I go out to eat by myself. I’ve had quite a few delicious spicy dishes. I’ve been having my students recommend dishes to me and then I try to order them sometime that week before I have the class again. Some of the students are extremely shy, so getting them to recommend food to me has been one of the few ways to get them talking at times.

I’ve been trying to get back into my running routine as well. It is very difficult to run on the streets around here though for a variety of reasons. First, Koreans are not used to people running around the streets so they aren’t prepared to move out of the way and not take up the whole sidewalk when I’m coming. Second, the stoplights/crosswalks take forever to change. Lastly, the park I found which has some good running paths is a 20-minute jog away. That 20-minute jog typically involves about 4 or 5 minutes of waiting at stoplights. That means I’ll go jogging for a little over an hour and most of the time is spent on the street navigating people and stoplights, instead of at the park. Needless to say, I’ve figured out how to take the bus to the park now so I don’t have to navigate the streets anymore. I also get an incredible amount of funny looks/stares from the Koreans when I go running. I already get enough people staring just when I am walking around, but when I put on my running gear then they all have to take an extra long look.

The Korean sports culture is quite a bit different here as well. During my second weekend I went to a professional baseball game at the stadium here in Incheon. I typically could care less about watching a baseball game on TV, but I generally enjoy watching them in person. The Koreans have embraced the fact that baseball is boring so they have figured out a way to keep all the fans that are at the game entertained. They have about 6 or 7 female cheerleaders dancing and then a male cheerleader that is running all the chants and blowing his whistle constantly. They are on a stage in front of everyone along the first base line and when the home team is up to bat everyone stands up, sings, and dances throughout the whole half of the inning. It is a bit distracting but very entertaining. Last Sunday I went to an American Football game and then a soccer game at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. The American Football game was a small league that seemed to be mostly Americans, Canadians, and Koreans. It was pretty low quality and not very entertaining to watch. It was barely above high school level in my opinion. There were only a hundred fans or so. The soccer game was far more entertaining. They had a group of cheerleaders on a stage that were similar to the ones at the baseball game. The quality of soccer was descent as well. There were probably about 30,000 or so fans there, but that was only half full. It is one of the stadiums that were built for the 2002 World Cup and they played one of the semi-final games there.

Teaching has been going pretty well. I’m midway through my third full week now and I kind of feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it. Getting used to the hours is still very difficult though. My body still doesn’t like going to sleep at 3 or 4am and waking up around 11am. Most of my students are pretty cool though. I teach a total of 27 classes each week and I think there are only 4 or 5 that I have twice in the same week so I really have only had two or three classes with most of my students. My classes vary between 4 to 19 students, which means I probably have around 150 or 175 different students. The main challenge is keeping them entertained though. The books that I’m provided are pretty boring and uninteresting so I usually have to come up with a game or something else to discuss with them. From what I’ve gathered from my other teachers, some of the classes will remain boring no matter what I do. Of the six classes I teach per day, only one or two are not enjoyable so it won’t be too difficult to focus on the other four or five. The other nice thing is that I get a large amount of freedom in the classroom. They want me to get through the book they give me for each class, but they also want me to keep the kids entertained. As long as the books are mostly filled out then they are happy.

There are a couple other interesting things I’ve noticed as well. One thing that I love is how Koreans do karaoke. The call it a Noraebang and it is incredible. Instead of having karaoke as an annoying background noise in a bar that happens once a week or so, they let you rent out a private room for your friends where everyone can go in together and start singing. If you go in with the right group of friends then it is extremely enjoyable.

Another interesting thing is the prevalence of rock, paper, scissors here. Korean’s love to use it to decide things. I use it in the classroom during most classes to decide who goes first for games or presentations and the students love it. I watched a couple play a violent version to kill time on the subway where the loser got either slapped on the wrist or flicked in the head. They definitely drew blood by the end of the ride. Earlier today, I was walking on the street and heard a group of women laughing and screaming in a nearby business. When I walked by, I looked in and saw 5 women sitting around a table playing a 5-way version of the game. I don’t know how it works but they were clearly having a heck of a good time. I swear they would use the game to decide everything if they could.

Well I’m sure that is a long enough blog for now. It’s been a great trip so far and now that I’m mostly settled in I’ll attempt to blog a little more often from here on out.

Links to Photos

Here are the links to the two facebook photo albums I have put up so far:

Climbing Bukhansan and The DeokJeok Islands

Check out the photos for now and hopefully I'll be adding a new blog soon!

Korea is different

So, I guess it’s time to get this blog thing going again. It’s now Monday evening and I’ve been in South Korea for five days. It’s been quite a trip so far. My flight over went really well. I got lucky and had an empty seat next to me on the 12-hour flight from San Francisco to Incheon so I was able to grab a couple hours of sleep. I showed up about as rested as I could be, I converted some cash into the Korean Won, and then went outside the baggage area to look for my name on a sign. I saw a guy with a sign that said, “Sohua David Brooks” and decided that was close enough to my name so I went with him. As soon as I stepped outside and the humidity hit me, I started sweating. On a related note, I didn’t stop sweating until earlier this morning. The cab ride was about 40 minutes long and we went over what is possibly the longest bridge I’ve ever seen. I tried to ask the cab driver how long it was but he couldn’t understand my question. He just kept saying, “Yes, new bridge!” I just looked it up online and it is even longer than I thought. It's over 13 miles long and it was built in October 2009. Check it out!

The cab took me directly to my school and I met a few of the other English teachers and the Korean director of the school (my boss). There are seven English teachers at the school and probably even more Korean teachers. After looking around and meeting everyone, I grabbed my first Korean meal with the head English teacher at the school and then they took me to my apartment. It was about 7pm and the school’s representative, a cool Korean guy name Yee Hoon, told me he would be back at 2:30pm the next day to take me to work.

The apartment is pretty small but it seems to have everything I need. The previous occupant was the teacher that I am replacing and apparently he decided to leave a few things behind. He left me a couple shirts, some pants, a lot of hangers, a huge package of toilet paper, the ugliest and least comfortable comforter I’ve ever seen, a few hats, a drawer full of change, a few random food items, some toiletries, a heavy duty converter that allows me to plug in my American electronics, a dirty floor, and an even dirtier fridge. Overall, most of the things he left behind have proven beneficial.

When I first entered the bathroom I went to turn on the water and quickly turned it off and jumped out of the way when I realized I was turning on the showerhead in the corner of the bathroom above me. I looked down and realized the whole floor was slightly slanted towards a drain in the middle. Since I have the place to myself I actually am pretty excited about it. The kitchen area is also designed very efficiently. In a very small area there is a sink, some kind of stovetop, some cabinets, and a washer machine.

I went out a couple times that first night just to walk around and buy something to eat from a store. I quickly realized that far less people speak English than I was expecting. I had to switch to the point and smile technique of shopping. I’m getting really good, really fast. Luckily, the jet lag didn’t hit me too hard and I was able to stay up until 10pm that night and slept until about 7am. I grabbed some breakfast, walked around some more and at 2:30pm my ride showed up to take me to the school.

I found out I would be doing one day of observing and then I would begin teaching a full load of classes the next day. Since the classes I was going to teach were all in testing that day, I was only able to observe a few younger classes. I learned a little but it really didn’t do a whole lot to help me prepare for the next day. The classrooms are really small and generally there are between 6 and 12 students in each class. I was given a textbook for each class with lesson plans and was told that basically I would be following those the next day when I started. After the day ended I grabbed a few drinks with my coworkers and also met a few other English teachers that live in my town.

The next day it was time to teach. In the first class I taught, I was actually covering for one of my co-workers who is on vacation. After that I had a couple hours to prepare and then I started teaching my classes. My schedule goes like this: I start at 5:50pm and teach until 11:20pm. I have six classes that are 55, 50, 50, 55, 50, and 50 minutes long. I get a 5 minute break between each of them and then the day is over. I teach mostly middle school classes. Their middle-school students are actually a little older than ours so the students are definitely older than I expected.

Overall, the classes went pretty well. The time pretty much just started flying by and then it was over. I was able to spend most of the time in each class just talking with the kids and letting them ask whatever they want about me. Apparently the teacher I replaced told all the kids I was a model and that I was over six-feet tall. I think I convinced each class that the model part is true.

On Saturday I went rock climbing with a group of about 15 other foreigners at Mt. Bukhan near Seoul. It was a ton of fun but it was an extremely long day. I had to meet my co-worker, Mike, at 6am to catch a taxi to the subway where we met the group. Then we took a 1.5 hour subway ride to meet our Korean guides who then drove us by van to the base of the mountain. I think we started hiking by about 10am and we started climbing shortly after noon. It took longer than expected and by the time we got to the top it was nearly pitch black. We still had a 1.5 hour hike downhill left til we were done. The path was really rocky and dangerous. It would have probably been pretty scary in daylight with rested legs but it was extremely frightening in darkness and with super tired legs. Luckily we all made it down safely and had some delicious Korean bbq at a nearby restaurant. After such a long day, that meal was one of the best I've ever had. It involves cooking the pork on a mini-bbq in the middle of the table and then wrapping it in lettuce leaves with this delicious bean paste, garlic, hot peppers, rice, and a couple other things. It's like lettuce wraps at PF Changs except 100 times better. I tried some Kim chi (not good) also. The other foreigners keep telling me the taste will grow on me but I can't imagine that being true. I also had my first taste of Soju. It's not that great but I think I will get used to it real quick.

On Sunday, I met Mike and a few other guys to play some soccer in the pouring rain on a dirt/mud field. It was really fun and a great opportunity to meet even more people. I took it easy that afternoon and then met them all at a local bar to watch the Manchester United vs Liverpool game. I'm happy that I was quickly able to find some other guys that are as into soccer as I am. They already told me the best spots to catch live sports around here.

Anyway, I think I've rambled long enough. It's about 10pm now and I have to be up at 7am tomorrow to go on a three-day trip to the DeokJeok Islands. This week is Chuseok in Korea which is essentially the Korean thanksgiving. We have Monday-Thursday off so we are taking full advantage of it. About 80 other foreigners are going on the trip and it will involve a lot of hiking and exploring around the islands. It should be another awesome opportunity for me to meet a lot more people. I guess the coffee shop I'm at is about to close so I don't have any time to put any pics in here. I'll try to add a few later tonight if I can get some internet at home. I'll post more after I get back.