Riding Down Seoul City: Orientation, now with Pictures!

I finally managed to get my pictures from orientation! I went to Yongsan's famous electronic's market, thinking I had to buy a new camera, but they had chargers on sale too, so I was able to get one & now I can take pictures & videos to my heart's delight!

The Dorms

Where we lived...
Where we worked...
They took us to see "Nanta!" which is like STOMP/Blast but the Korean version

Hanbok!

This little girl was the cutest thing ever. I wanted to put her in my pocket ^_^

Some of the Class 2 girls eating pho w/ Totos, our instructor (red rimmed glasses), whose wedding we'll be attending this coming fall :)
Last day, we got our contracts, our bank card, & our instructor each gave us postcards w/personal messages on them, which was part of the reason why I was bawling like crazy T_T

Random Seoul pictures...


First taste of korean street food. yummy!
& a vid:

Riding down Seoul City 3: First Week

Let me preface this post by saying that I'm exhausted. After teaching a full day's worth of classes & organizing activities & preparing for tomorrow's classes, I walked 25ish minutes in the bitter cold back to my apartment, where I spent the next oh, 1.5 hours getting trolled by G-market when all I wanted to do is order a table for my apartment so I'm not eating, sleeping & doing work all on my bed, and watching Mnet Music Countdown for Big Bang's comeback ^^. I forget that in Korea, at least Seoul, websites are optimized for internet explorer...which means things plain just wont work on my mac. saddness. oh but after being trolled & being ecstatic because my boys won again this week, I spent the next 2 hours riding subways, getting lost, and finding my way again...all for an iron, hair dryer, silverware organizers, and some aloe vera...juice?

The reason why I mentioned all of that is because if this post doesnt make sense, that's why.

So yeah, my school. This week was my first actual week of teaching classes. I teach 20 classes per week. I have 4 level one classes (sophomores) twice a week, and 4 level two classes (juniors) thrice a week. But then I also am in charge of this random english time during lunch, when the english classroom (my room) is open & I'm supposed to come up with some activities for the students. This means besides the 5-6(!!!) lessons I teach a week, I have to come up with engaging things for students to do during that lunch time thing...but only like 5 students ever show up at one time. It's a whole lot of effort for only a small result. But whatever, its fine. At the moment I'm trying to find "high school musical" so I can play that tomorrow for 30 mins (I've designated fridays as a movie day, but I can't decide if I want to include subtitles, and if so, should they be in korean or in english...).

I teach with 3 other teachers, 2 for level two & the other for level one. I like teaching for level one because my co-teacher lets me have free reign, I get to decide the activites, I lead the class, its essentially my class. In the other classes, I play a less active roll, I'm there to do activities and to explain vocab...and I walk around the classroom to make sure students are on task, and when I'm not doing that, I'm reading "Catcher in the Rye" in the back of the room, the book shoved in my textbook to make it seem like I'm just following along in the grammar lesson, which is taught in korean.

The students seem nice, and sweet and none of my classes are more than 27 students. I only found out this week that the high school is a private high school, with a fairly decent reputation to uphold, so it's rather stern with the students without crushing them, which makes for students who are fairly well behaved. Plus, they aren't 10 years old so their attention can be held longer.

I have to say, I was reeeeally nervous when I found out that I got an all girl's high school. I, by nature, don't get a long very well with people. And girls, even less so. I didn't get along with high school girls when I WAS ONE. And, let's be honest, high school girls can be vicious bitches.

So you see why I was nervous.

But for now at least, they seem very shy. I dont think it's just because they are afraid to speak in front of a native speaker because my korean co-teachers tell me that they have a hard time getting students to talk. The korean school system stresses reading and writing and even listening...but not speaking or conversation, which is why they bring in foreigners like me. These girls are smart. Some of them go to private academies after school to take extra english lessons, but even not, these girls are smart. They just don't have the confidence to speak because they don't practice enough. I find this to be more true, surprisingly, of my level twos. Because I set the precedent from day one with my level ones that they MUST speak & that I WILL randomly call on them... I can get them to give me answers. With my level twos, even if I randomly pick on someone, they will just shut down on me.

This is just a first impression, but it seems to me that my level twos are like this because they are used to it. I'm not saying that this is bad, but my co-teachers teach grammar and even if they ask a question to the class, they almost immediately answer it. So the students dont try to answer because they know that even if they dont respond, and answer will still be provided. And I've had this happen to me a few times--oh I should mention that my students are intermediate & advanced level students--some teachers have said that I shouldn't expect too much from the students. I suppose they were trying to prepare me, as a native english speaker, not to think that these students were on the level of the western counterparts, but I do want to push these girls. I don't want to make it impossible for them, but I definitely dont want to "dumb things down" for them either. These girls are smart. They ought to be able to speak english as well as they can write it and read it.

Oh, and they were all thoroughly impressed with my knowledge of KPOP! I tried to keep my Big Bang bias a secret, just so I could find out what groups they liked without them saying Big Bang just to kiss up to me, but when one girl said, "My favorite actor is TOP and my favorite singer is TOP," I couldn't help my reaction. The girl won me over LOL. What else, oh EVERY single class asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said no...and my level ones, bless them, were like "WHY TEACHER???" Well shoot. If you know Big Bang, send them my way please, and then teacher will have 5 boyfriends. ^_______^

Aside from all that, the other teachers are great. I got introduced about 1000000000 times & had to speak both english & korea, which I'm sure was lulzy. Last night all the english teachers went out for galbi and it was delish! Did I mention that I'm eating pork again? When I'm getting free (or almost free) meals, I'll eat whatever deliciousness you throw at me. Also, it's just easier for me to eat the pig rather than try to ask if the dish has pork in it, or if I can get something else.

On the agenda this weekend: meet ups with other EPIK teachers, maybe visit the YG building & a visit to se7en's restaurant, and definitely want to get on top of a mountain already! Oh, and maybe lesson plan -____- I love that everyone has these really detailed lesson plans, but I've taken after my college professor, Pollard, and I write my lesson plans as scribbles on scrap pieces of paper & napkins...because that's how you do it at university! lol

Riding down Seoul City 2: Settling In

I didn't actually find out about my placement (what school & what grades) until tuesday, after our presentations. I got a girl's High School. I would be teaching grades 1 & 2 (sophmore & juniors in the western system)--intermediate/advanced class.

On wednesday, while everyone else went on some buses to get dropped off (I guess?) to their schools, the high school teachers stayed at the dorms to get picked up from their co-teachers. There were two ladies who came and got me, and since I wanted to make a good impression, I greeted them in korean--like really basic stuff. But they both looked at each other with big eyes, then started talking to me in korean, which at that point I had to point out that a greeting was the best I could do in korean haha. They complimented my accent & kept asking where I was from. We talked about kdramas^^

We piled in ALL of my stuff, which turned out to be much more than what I had arrived with, because in the 10 days I had been there, I accumulated more & I felt bad because they had to help me move it all. They drove me to my apartment, which wasnt terribly far from the orientation site, and they gave me the option of whether I wanted to go to the high school to meet the vice principal since we were going to pass by the school anyway. apparently, the vice principal was really excited to meet me. so I thought, why not?

We approached the school. I had looked it up online & had seen some pictures of it, and I have to say its a really nice looking school. The buildings are pretty new & theres a middle school attached to the high school.

I had heard & read & understood about the hierarchy that exists in korean culture, but its one thing to know about it & one thing to see it happen in front of you/to slightly be in it. The vice principal is this middle aged man who looks stern & intimidating, but when he smiles, his eyes wrinkle in just the right way that lets you know he's a nice guy too.

We entered the principal's office (the principal wasn't at school that day), and sat down in the seating area where someone came and brought us coffee. In the midst of trying to speak very simple english sentences to my VP, I was also trying to remember all the things about proper etiquette that we had been briefed about. When it was all over, I breathed a sigh of relief. I'm sure I probably made some missteps in that meeting, but I was so happy to have that out of the way.

I was really nervous about how people would see me, what they expected of me, and how to meet those expectations, and while I don't think I'm quite in the clear yet, at least they have now my face to go with my name, english teacher.

Then, my coteachers brought me to my apartment. I didn't have any expectations of my apartment, mostly because I know that the cost of an apartment in seoul is crazy expensive, and that most of them are tiny little closets. I also knew that there was verrry little chance that it could be worse than the apartment I was living at in Philadelphia, and if I lived there, I could live in whatever the school had got for me.

Turns out I'm in this really nice building, on the 11th floor of a 21 floor high rise, and on a clear day, from my window you can see the mountain in the near distance! Its a studio, sort of small, but big enough for me, and I have nothing to complain about. The apartment was a bit dirty, because its considered good luck to move into a dirty apartment. My co-teachers were so sweet, they stayed and helped me clean, and THEN took me out to get a few groceries & to get some sheets for my bed. They were very, very kind & really helpful.

Afterwards I met up with Chrissy, who gave me her phone and a bunch of other stuff for my apartment (the previous english teacher had my apartment & left me lots too, so I have more silverware and chopsticks than I know what to do with!) & I'm really grateful to her. She helped me out so much! We went to eat meat, it was yummy. I'm sad she had to go--my one friend in seoul!

The next day, my first day, I was told that I wouldn't be teaching classes until the follow monday, to help me settle in. This also meant I had like nothing to do. The internet on my computer wasn't even working so I literally sat there reading from the textbooks for like 5 hours. haha. However, I got to go early because I needed to get back to immigration so I could apply for my Alien Registration card.

Immigration is such a pain, lemme just say. The first day I went, I didn't have the right paper work, so I got turned away--get your school's business registration number! Luckily, I wasn't the only one, since a bunch of other EPIK teachers got turned away also, so we just decided to go out and eat haha. One of the girl's had her co-teacher with her, so she brought us to a traditional korean restaurant. If you know kpop, she looked like taeyeon from SNSD. She was really nice & fun & I'm finding that a lot of younger co-teachers are the same age as me. same age friends! Also, it was great seeing familiar faces again.

Because I got rejected the first day, I had to go to immigration the next day, Friday, which was crap because EVERYONE and their mothers was there on that day too. I couldn't even get a number, they stopped giving them out early in the day. But I was determined to wait it out, so I stuck it out in the overly crowded waiting area. Luckily for me, I found another EPIK teacher from orientation, and she had an EXTRA number, which she gave me. Instead of waiting 3 hours, I waited 1.5 hours, and got my paperwork in, yay!

On the whole, I really enjoy the community of teachers, both "native/foreign" and Korean. Everyone has been great and just really lovely. Everyone comes from different places and has different backgrounds and experience, but most of us are new to seoul and everything korean, so we all go through the same struggle.

I've found it comforting that in my most nervous of circumstances, I think about how I'm not alone, and that the other EPIK teachers are going through the same awkwardness that I am going through, and that alone is calming. Because if they can get through it, I can too.

where I am:


I'm not too far from the city center, its a 25-30 min walk to my school, but like a 10 walk to the closest subway station. I'm not complaining though, because I made friends with the downstairs security/doorman, Mr. Kim, who was boasting to my co-teachers about his english ability. He likes to practice his english with me, and I in turn, get someone to take care of my ish! its great. I hope we can be great friends^^

Riding down Seoul City 1: Orientation

Orientation:

When I arrived in Seoul I went straight into a 9 day orientation given by EPIK/SMOE which went by in a blur. There was roughly 180 english teachers at orientation, and you can imagine the chaos that it was getting everyone settled in. We had orientation at this institute, which had dorms where we lived 2 people/room, and a separate building for our classes (I took pictures, but unfortunately my batter ran out and I have no idea where the charger is/if I remembered to pack it). My room mate was a girl from south africa, who was awesome. I surprisingly wasn't jet lagged, which was great. I got to the dorms around 7ish at night. I had kept myself up the night before I flew out, and somewhere in the middle of 16 hours of travel time, I adjusted. It was great.

Basically the reason why I didn't get a chance to blog until now is that we had this crazy packed schedule. We had classes everyday that focused on everything for how to manage your classroom and lesson planning, to how to deal with culture shock and proper eating etiquette. At the end of orientation, we were to give 15 minute presentations (mock demonstrations of a lesson plan we devised ourselves)...which meant we had to work on that AFTER all of our lessons. Sometimes I didn't get to go to sleep until 2 am only to be up again at 6 am to get ready. It was kind of what I imagined college would have been like if I had dormed. All these girls sharing a shower room, a bathroom, a laundry room, and a common area, plus a cafeteria upstairs with a set eating schedule.

The orientation schedule:



All 180 of us were divided into 4 different classes, I was placed into class 2 (woot woot!), and we had 1 instructor, who went by Totos, plus her assistant, Rachel. These two girls were AMAZING. Totos, who is only a year older than me, teaches at an elementary school & was the sweetest thing ever. She always seemed like she was flustered and/or running everywhere, but she worked so, so very hard for our class, and she was so kind & always giving out compliments. She was the best, hands down. AND!!! She's getting MARRIED! AND!!! She invited our whole class to her wedding!! YUP! In the fall I'm going to a Korean wedding!!! ^___^ Rachel, Totos' assistant, is a college student here in Seoul and she was fun & hip & clumsy. During our last class, after Totos' invited us to her wedding, our class presented both Totos & Rachel with gifts of appreciation (all of us put in some money & signed a card)...and both of them started to cry, and you know me... I was glad I was sitting in the back because I was embarrassing.

But honestly, I can't say enough good things about Totos & Rachel. All of us, including them, were nervous about meeting one another, but they really made all of the teachers feel really welcomed. I had always heard wonderful things about Korean hospitality, but I experienced it first hand because of them, and I remain forever grateful.




Some other things about orientation:

1) We were supposed to go on a field trip to a traditional folk village on sunday, but the bad weather changed up the schedule on us since the village was rained out. I was a bit disappointed, since I had really wanted to go! We did, however, still go to the "NANTA" show, which is like blast/stomp but with a food/kitchen theme.

2) That day, I was also supposed to go BIG BANG's BIG SHOW (the last day too! I got tickets and everything!) but I couldn't make it. I still haven't gotten over the disappointment.

3) Also that day, we had a presentation of some Korean culture things, and one of them was traditional hanbok, korean clothing. I got to wear my very first hanbok! It was GORGEOUS & I'm really sorry I can't show pictures of it. Also, they are SO SO comfortable. If I could, I would wear hanbok everyday!


(clearly, not me, but just to give you an idea)

4) The girls in my class were/are awesome. We managed to go shopping during one of the days, & that was fun to get out and do something (I bought shoes!). Also, we went out one night, to a bar & then a club (which was soo interesting!)... and then to a Jimjilbang (찜질방), a 24 sauna/spa place. We stayed there "overnight" because our dorms had a curfew of midnight, and opened again at 5 am. Basically, its like this big room where people (boys & girls) can relax on mats in a heated room. There's also other smaller rooms that offer different treatments & temperatures.

5) It was funny trying to weed out the kpoppers LOL. My first encounter was a girl directly across the hall from me. Our doors were open & I could here her playing some kpop. Turns out shes a big SM stan (she said Big Bang was "Alright" but that she didn't really know their songs -___- not judging you, but like, totally am). BUT! Turns out my partner for the presentation is a YG stan like me! We're planning on doing all the YG things together!! ^^ Also, as I mentioned earlier, we had classes, and our lecturers for these classes are present/past EPIK teachers, who all said the same thing...that we need to get familiar with kpop. AND they used BIG BANG references whenever kpop was mentioned! I believe one lecturer said "You need to know who G-Dragon is" lol. But it wasn't even just the EPIK teachers! Even the korean instructors were pimping out Big Bang whenever they could. In our Korean classes, we were shown kpop videos, which were GTOP's "High, High," SNSD's "Gee," & HYUN BIN's "That Man"---but my korean teacher would play BIG BANG before class, so we would hear it as we walked in.

It was interesting to see the reactions of other foreigners to Big Bang & Kpop in general. I laughed when someone said "Did they just spell out GHETTO?" when we were listening to GTOP's "High High." I think the EPIK teachers were exposed the most to Big Bang, which pleased me greatly. ^^ Also, in the club, Big Bang & 2ne1 were the only "kpop"groups that were played--it was mostly underground khiphop & western music, which was another interesting point.

Anyway, the last day of orientation was this past wednesday, and I was a mess. I was bawling, which I thought was weird since when I left for korea, I feel like I didn't cry that much (I mean, as opposed to when I left for Philadelphia). I think it was a delayed reaction or something, because I was uncontrollable on wednesday. I think it had to do with the fact that I knew I was really going to be on my own from then on. During orientation, it almost didn't feel like I was in korea, because I was surrounded by english speakers, and was taking classes taught in english. It was only when we left the dorms or when we would go to the cafeteria to eat korean meals, that I sort of remembered that I was in seoul. Oh, and by the way, korean cafeteria food pwns american cafeteria food always and forever. yum yum yum.

Anyway, since this is getting a bit long, I'll end it here & continue the rest a bit later on.

annyeong!

just a really quick update.

1) I'm alive.

2) I'm in Seoul!

3) It's freaking cold here. its the kind of cold that makes you breathless in a moment and seeps into your bones and settles in there.

4) The other teachers seems nice, and we all have this excitement. and I'm trying hard not to make judgments. This is really hard--I can feel ALL of my anti-social tendencies working against me. However, I've just been won over by all the people putting this orientation together for us. They've been really nice/wonderful.

5) Right now we are doing a 9 day orientation and will be staying at this university + dorms. I realized I've never, ever dormed before. I'm supposed to have a roommate, but they're not here or something. So I basically have the whole room to myself. The room consists of: two twin beds--no sheets, but like covers and stuff, two desks, a table, two chairs, a phone (lol), a closet thing, oh and the best part, HOUSE SLIPPERS haha. I love it already.

6) When we arrived they gave us all like gift bags which included water and some food (custard buns, ftw!! clementines, my go to travel snack! yummmyyy), an EPIK sweatshirt, alarm clock that I can't seem to work, an adapter, a EPIK towel, a map, some guidebooks/workbooks for our seminars.

7) I've heard the internet connections in korea were the fastest in the world...so why is the connection at the dorms so sketch?

8) the 16 hour travel time to get here was BRUTAL. AND I didn't get a window seat or aisle seat in any of my flights. also, why do guys seem to think the armrest is automatically theirs? You already have the armrest...quit elbowing me.

9) no, I have yet to speak a word of korean. I'm super super shy about it (facepalm).

Stay classy, San Diego

1:34am.

I'm currently drinking tea out of my favorite mug, which I can't bring with me, in my own bed, in the area I grew up in, in the city I call home.

My room looks so clean. But I imagine that its because it's rather empty. I have packed away my life in 2 suitcases and a carry on. For some reason, it took me longer than I anticipated to get everything packed away, considering how much practice I've had over the last few months.

Oh, but how amazing are space bags? honestly, I dont know how I survived without them.

I'll admit this here and now: I am scared shitless.

All in all, I'm trying hard not to freak out. Yesterday was my big "going away" thing which sort of went by in a blur, and sometimes comes back to me in embarrassing facepalm moments. But the thing that I remember the most, when I was with the people who are so dear to me, was: how did I get so lucky? I was humbled and felt undeserving, and yet so so very grateful.

As always, I went to the beach today to say goodbye. I like to go because it gives me a memory--its the way I like to remember san diego. sand, sun, sea. And that feeling you get, when you stand on its shore and come face to face with something to amazingly awesome and mighty. You feel so small, and that can be a comfort in itself. That whatever plagues you, whatever weighs you down and constricts your chest, is not so great a thing when something like an ocean is before you. It's a reminder that nothing is as bad as it seems...and it too will pass.

Plus, the view of the sun setting over the pacific is not one I'll likely see sometime soon.

and being at the beach in the middle of winter, while it looks like this feels so distinctively southern californian/san diegan. especially now that I have to trade this in for snow/cold/9th circle of hell.





I know that all this anxiety I'm feeling is normal and that I just need to GET on the plane already so that it can go away. I hate long, drawn out things...which is exactly that this is. I'd prefer to have everything done in one fell swoop--I rip bandaids off instead of peeling them off. But for now, I have to deal with this sickening feeling in my chest for another few hours until I pass the security gate at the airport.

Until we meet again, stay classy san diego.

a note on language

Isn't it strange how here in america, we expect everyone to speak english. and when americans visit other countries, we continue to force everybody to speak english. I suppose that is the preogative of being a superpower/having english be the new international language of choice (sorry frenchies), but it is rather... gauche (see what I did there? lol).

In the states, people get so butthurt about how things are in english AND spanish, saying that "this is america! you should learn english!" & we expect foreigners to learn the language in order to communicate. we are, consistently, unwelcoming when we stumble across someone who can't communicate with us in the language of our choosing.

and when americans go abroad they still get butthurt when no one can understand them because they can't speak french or spanish or korean or whatever. they continue to force english on everybody, instead of learning the language of the that country.

we continue to be hypocrites.

I know when I go to korea, if I myself am not forcing english on everyone I meet, I'll be ever so grateful to the person or people who are patient with me as I stumble across my language problems. I'll be thankful for the english signs everywhere. I will feel an affinity to those who pity my struggles and speak to me in english.