Bungee Jump # 1: Fail

After what seemed like forever, my friend Christina and I arrived at Yuldong Park to bungee jump 45 meters off a tower situated over a lake. It was a beautiful day, we were feeling good.

And then disaster struck.

This side of the Pacific: Haeundae Beach, Busan

Having been born and raised in Southern California, there are no words to describe how much I needed/wanted to see the ocean. And just how much it meant for me to do just that, in Busan, at its most famous beach: Haeundae.

A few friends and I made the 2.5 hour trip (KTX fast train) & the 5 hour trip back (slow train) over this past weekend, which was Children's Day/Buddha's Birthday.



,It's amazing how similar, and yet, how different it was to be back at the beach for the first time in over two months. I've definitely taken it for granted that I could visit the beach anytime I wanted back when I was in San Diego.

And I was definitely glad to be there, not in august, when the crowds hadn't yet come, when the weather hadn't gotten too blistering hot, and there was nothing but ocean water and sand before me.

Munchies: The Library at Shilla Hotel for Afternoon Tea

I know I said that I would update about Busan, and I will, but I ventured out with some friends for Afternoon Tea, and it just needs to be written about.

It was a taste of England, right in the heart of Seoul.

For those who know me, and know me well, it comes as no surprise that I make it a point to take about tea. More specifically, I make it a point to go to Afternoon or High Tea. What may come as a surprise is that it's taken me almost two and a half months to finally go out for tea here in Seoul.

Part of the reason for this delay is that, and this should come as no surprise, Seoul/South Korea isn't exactly keen on English tea service. Tea houses are aplenty, but they are decidedly Eastern in service, presentation, selection, and ceremony. And for good reason too.

So what is a girl to do when craving for a nice, dark, cup of tea, a flaky scone, and some clotted cream?

Even trying to find a tucked away English tea house was difficult to find--most places that had a so-called Afternoon Tea Service actually only had tea available with a variety of dessert. You can get that in any cafe, in any city, and for a lot cheaper than they were promoting. A random assortment of tea, served with with whatever bakery's signature cake? No thank you. That is not what I want.

I found that hotels are your best bet for a decent English Tea Service. No buffets, no dessert platters masking as a tea tray, no teabags.

Today, I opted for the Shilla Hotel's Afternoon Tea Service held in their Library.

Before we get into the tea service proper, a word on the Shilla Hotel. It is gorgeous. The staff was friendly and spoke English, which was nice, and the structure itself is a mixture of modern design and Korean traditional architecture.

The lobby has a stunning chandelier display made of crystals what was simply breathtaking.

Shilla's Library is dark wood and lots of light, which is nothing less than handsome.



Like many places in Korea there is a smoking and non-smoking section. We opted for the non-smoking.

The Menu:

A decent menu that includes all the favorites, and two unusual teas for variety: Pearl Jasmine and Wedding Imperial.

There are three kinds of service you may order: traditional, champagne, and the champagne Piper Heidsieck.

I opted for the traditional tea served with the Wedding Imperial. Mostly because I can find Earl Grey and English Breakfast anywhere, and wanted to try something different in this tasting.

This was exactly the cup of tea that I needed. Fragrant, acidic, scents of caramel and delicious sweetness. A splash of milk and I was in heaven.

Tea, poured into your cup, served table side.

Yes. On the left, my friends, is clotted cream. I could die.

The Assortment:

The Standouts:

Pieces of Roquefort between croissant-like bread, touched with a dab of real, honest to goodness, honey.

Raisin scone. Not dense as a rock like the Starbucks kind. Buttery. Moist. And yes, that golden sheen is due to egg wash <3

Macaroon. There was another macaroon on the top tier of the stand (purple), but this one was larger, and, I suppose the best way to describe it would be to say that it was an artisan macaroon. It was malformed but well-crafted as only handmade baked goods can be.

The Disappointments:

I don't know exactly what this little cake was supposed to be--the best I can figure is that, taste wise, it resembled the sponge cake often found in sticky toffee pudding, the different here being, of course, no toffee sauce. There was nothing exceptional about the cake, and it would have been fine, if it didn't taste like it had sat in a refrigerator for an extended period of time.

Super duper dense chocolate cake. There was dark chocolate in the center. Maybe I was expecting too much, but this fell rather flat for me--and I love myself some chocolate. The texture and everything was fine, but much like the other sponge cake, it tasted like refrigerator. And not even the strong taste of dark chocolate could change that.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the tea service at the Shilla hotel. Someone asked me if how it compared to any other tea services that I had been to, both in the US and in England, and for the most part it was pretty comparable. There was nothing, on the whole, that I thought was seriously lacking and I would definitely come back again.

The Library at the Shilla Hotel, Seoul
202 Jangchung-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea 100-856

Directions:
-subway line 3. Dongguk University Station (Dongdaeipgu), exit 5

How to get a job with EPIK

I got this email asking about how to get a job teaching in South Korea, and I thought I'd share it for anyone who was looking to do the same.

hi, i'm from singapore. Read your blog and would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind. I'm really interested in teaching in Korea. My i ask how did you get your job in Korea? Is there a need for me to be fluent in the korea language?

First, if you want, you can back track through my blog to read more detaied posts on how I got here. Check out the "pre-korea" labels on the right side.

Second, as an addendum to the information above, you can also see my old blog, which had some other things about EPIK interviews at the like: Mirth_Korea

Third, I should mention that there are many ways to land a job teaching English in Korea. You need to decide first, whether you want to teach PUBLIC school or PRIVATE school--in general terms. This matters because if you teach in Public school, you'll need to apply with EPIK/GEPIK (English Program in Korea--the gov't based organization that places and supports all native english teachers in S. Korea). This is a long and often arduous process with a lot of red tape and paperwork.

On the other hand, you can take the Private school route--and by private school, I mean Hagwon/English Academy. That is not to say that all private schools are hagwons, or that EPIK only places in public school, because I am an EPIK teacher currently teaching at a private school, but in general terms, we say EPIK=Public and Hagwon=Private.

Hagwons are easier to find work at, requiring maybe a fraction of what you would need to provide for EPIK. I'm not exactly sure what the process is like for obtaining a job at a hagwon--if you can do it from abroad or if you need to come here first to do it--but visas for South Korea are only good for 90 days (tourist visa). Hagwons are academies, that is, students attend their regular school, and THEN go to Hagwons for extra lessons. They play for these lessons at hagwons--that is to say, Hagwons are businesses.

There are a lot of differences between Hagwons and Public school. Both will usually put you up and pay for your apartment, but the hours you work and the amount you teach differ with each system. Furthermore, vacation/sick days often seem to be the biggest issue. By contract, EPIK teachers get 21 days of vacation leave, usually scheduled during school holidays, but we can take sick days if needed. For some reason, it seems that at Hagwons you vacation days are scheduled for you, and its harder to take sick leave.

Also, another issue is job stability at hagwons. Because they are businesses, your job depends upon how many students are attending the hagwon. If there are no students, you lose you job, you visa gets revoked, and all sorts of messy business occurs.

In any case, like I said earlier, there are several ways in which you can apply with the EPIK program. The most common ways are:
-directly, through EPIK website
-indirectly, through a recruiter.

I should mention that no, there is no reqirement for knowing Korean language in order to be successfully hired as a Guest English Teacher (GET)/ Native English Teacher (NET) in Korea. Any Korean language you know will be a benefit for your everyday convenience, but it is not required at all for placement.

All you need is university degree. If you are TEFL certified that can bump you up on the pay scale. The university degree doesn't matter what subject it is from, but if you did english or english education, you may be eligible to teach in Seoul or get a pay increase. If you've got a master's degree you can opt to teach at university--not with EPIK though.

You can peep the payscale & degree requirements here:


Other things you will need:
- University transcripts
- Letters of Recomendation
- Copies of your degrees
- Criminal Record Check
- passport photos

Some Tips:
- Get your application in early--EPIK is already accepting appliations for the Summer 2011 intake of teachers!!!! Deadline is June 1st!
- This means doing everything ASAP
- Make copies of everything
- Keep in contact with your recruiter, if you are using one, so you're always in the loop
- Ask questions if you don't understand something, better safe than sorry.
Hope that helps. Any other questions feel free to ask!

unwrapping: YG box :)

I spent the weekend in Busan (will post more about this later) but when I came home there was a package waiting for me. Finally, my YGE shop order came in!

little black box~~VIP is the name of Big Bang's fanclub

First item: the BB "paper" photo frame in black. It's not really paper as it is foam.

Picture options for the frame. 12 in all.

And the one I chose. This photo frame is going to come with me to work to sit on my desk. So while my coworkers have pictures of their families up in their offices/desk...I will have my TOP :)

Item number 2 came in that nice cylinder.

It's official~~ my Big Bang light stick!! Can't wait to use it :)

You are What you Eat (With)

When I first got to Korea, there was very little that actually surprised me, despite how amazing and different Korea is from the West.

However, the biggest surprise and shock came in the most unlikely of places: chopsticks.

I am not stranger to a pair of chopsticks. While I'm not the most adept person in picking up and handling smallish objects with a pair of sticks, I think I can hold my own. I don't know about you, but the kind of chopsticks I've always been accustomed to, exposed to, and used, back in the US--in chinese, japanese, vietnamese restaurants and the like--looked something like this:



The dramatically tapered end, and the other the heavier, slightly rounded boxier end. This is what chopsticks were to me. So when I got to Korea, and sat down for that first meal, I was surprised to see this:


The slight tapering of one end, the ornate decoration on the other. The general flat and slender design of the stick. This was one of the most surprising things for me to encounter when I first got to Korea.

The first time I used these chopsticks, it was as if I had never before used a pair of chopsticks in my life. It was embarrassing. I felt like a child, with how much food I kept dropping or how much ended up neither on my plate nor in my mouth, but either on the table or on my clothing. I couldn't use them in quite the same when as I had the other kind, because of how slender they were and how they fit in my fingers. In general, I just think you have less surface area. Less area in which you can maneuver, and less surface area in which you can use to pick up food.

I had expected to encounter different things when coming to Korea, but this--this, seemed to come out of nowhere! Did not ever expect to stumble over my chopsticks :)

Teaching adventures 2: Linda & Kazakhstan

A few weeks ago a student approached me during "cleaning time"--the 30 minutes designated at the end of the day where students clean up the school, and each student is assigned a particular task--to ask for some help. Her english name was Linda.

She wasn't actually a student of mine, but rather she's the student who mops underneath my desk. Linda comes by to talk with me while she waits for another student to finish sweeping around my desk--and we talk about all sorts of things.

But on that particular friday, she told me that she was applying to an international camp for environmental engineering--but that there would be an english interview for it. Linda, is a second year. She's not my student. That means she's not at an intermediate/advanced level. She was terribly worried about her interview, and to be honest, I was a bit worried too. Because it's one thing to be able to talk about you age, and where you come from, and what your favorite food is in english... it's a completely different thing altogether to have to talk about environmental issues and what you think about them in a language that is not your own.

Since Linda isn't actually my student, I decided to set aside some time after school to work with her specifically. There was no other way since she has classes each period and there's no way I'd take away her lunch. After school it must be. But that also meant that I would be working with her gratis. Her interview was saturday afternoon and I even went in on saturday to prep her for it. Teachers were surprised to see me there, wondering why I was showing up on a saturday since my contract states that I get the weekends for myself--I should mention that korean teachers work every other saturday.

I didn't mind working off the clock with her, I was happy to do it. She was such a trooper--she worked so hard. Each day coming in just that much better than yesterday. I worried that I wasn't actually doing much to help her, that the questions we'd work on were too simple, too vague. I worried that she would be so nervous that she wouldn't be able to remember anything we'd practiced, so I also gave her some advice and breathing methods.

I didn't see her for a while afterwards, and I was in suspense as we both wondered if she was accepted or not. Linda told me that she was incredibly nervous, and that she didn't speak as well as we had prepared. It was to be expected, but I hoped her nervousness would be overlooked given the situation.

Then, in the middle of the week, one of the teachers comes to my desk to tell me a student is looking to speak with me. The teacher's room was on lock down, since teachers were making up the mid-term exams & no students at all were allowed inside. So I head out, and there Linda is, completely happy.

She made it in. She's going to an international camp for environmental studies...in kazakhstan! Apparently, S.Korea and Kazakhstan have this crazy environmental program and my student gets to go there and have this amazing experience.

Linda was so happy, and I was equally thrilled, as if I was the one going. She thanked me profusely, saying something along the lines of, me speaking with her improved her english and that she thought she got in because of my help.

While I didn't think she got into the camp because of my help, I accepted that thanks for her improved english. Because the point of us talking wasn't so that I could feed her prepared answers. We all know how that can turn out:



But the point was just to get her thinking about the topic...in english.

After we parted, I excused myself to the ladies room where I promptly cried. I mean you always wonder how effective you are as a teacher...especially in this sort of situation. You wonder if you're just the fun teacher. You wonder if you are actually helping to improve students' english skills.

And then something like this happens.

And its humbling and jarring, and beautiful. It was the very first time I felt like I was making a difference in a student's life since coming here.

So, Linda, thank you.