View From the Top

Last weekend I went hiking for the first time in Korea. I had been wanting to go since I got here, since Korea is well known for their hiking, but life has a way of happening. It was a perfect first hike, though, and hopefully the start of many more. 

My friend and I hiked 계족산 황톳길 (Gyejoksan Mountain Red Clay Trail). We actually hiked the first part of the trail (the red clay part) sans shoes. Hiking barefoot in soft, wet clay is very therapeutic; I highly recommend it. (Bonus, my feet were nice and smooth afterwards!) Once we washed and dried our feet we stopped for snack. Then we decided to climb higher. Up until then, the terrain had been fairly flat, good for us beginners. But then it went up. And up and up. We about doubled our distance and felt fairly accomplished, but then a nice gentleman told us we should keep going - the view was worth it. Now, hiking in Korea is very popular. People of all ages enjoy it, but it seems to be particularly favored by older Koreans. We could not let the many ajummas and ajusshis, kitted out in their best hiking gear, put us to shame. So up we went. This time the climb was even steeper and the breaks even longer. With what little breath we had left we laughed at how out of shape we were. But finally we made it. You can decide for yourself if the view was worth it. 

view from the top

we made it!

remains of an old fortress

A bridge towards the bottom of the mountain.
Look closely and you can see the koi fish.

Grocery Store Adventures

These are just some of the awesome and weird and random things that have delighted me at grocery stores. I shop at two main kinds of grocery stores. The first are the bigger chains, Home Plus or Emart. Both are similar to Costco, but they are usually three or four stories tall. Groceries on one level, clothes/shoes on another, and home goods on another. They also have awesome food courts where you can get delicious meals for good prices, some have salons, pharmacies, and more. It's more than one stop shopping, it's one stop everything.  

The second kind of grocery store is the smaller neighborhood kind. Prices are comparable on most of the products, but the neighborhood grocery stores (usually) don't have any specialty or imported goods. They also don't have clothes, shoes, or food courts.

The International Aisle ^^

Pancakes come pre-made, prepackaged, and filled with jam

Green onions almost half my size. This is fairly standard.

Seafood delights

Piles of seaweed

knock off brand found at HomePlus

food court food

Busy Bee

I've been in Daejeon for a little over a month now and this is only my third post. So much for my plans of writing once a week :) The reason I haven't been posting is because I've been very busy. Busy working, having fun, and exploring, so I'm going to give myself a pass.

Cherry blossoms! Spring is here! 

I work very long hours and it's very difficult. It's also very fun and very rewarding. I hope that I will still be saying the same thing 11 months from now! In the mornings I have my Kindergarten class, five adorable Korean babies, with almost no English. It is amazing how much they've picked up in just a month, although we still have a long way to go. I am thankful everyday for my Korean Teacher (KT) Ms. M. She is amazing with the babies and their moms (I am also SO thankful that I don't speak Korean and therefore don't have to talk to the tiger moms!) and with me. Her English is very good and although, like me, she is new to our school, she has a lot of experience and a great classroom presence. She is the perfect mix of strict and loving and does her job with a lot of style and grace. Try to imagine Audrey Hepburn if she were Asian and about 5 inches taller (that's right, Ms. M is about 6 feet tall). Can you tell how much I love her already?

In the afternoons I teach Reading, Science, Language Arts, and Cultural Studies to second graders. This could actually change in a couple of months because the school regularly shuffles things around to ensure that everyone remains confused about who teaches what to which students. But that's a post for another day. Afternoons are nice because my kids already have a decent amount of English and most do care about learning, but they are rowdy, energetic kids with short attention spans. It's hard to say which is more difficult, my morning or afternoon classes. Both have their own set of challenges, and both are equal parts frustrating and rewarding.

After work and on the weekends I go out with the other foreign teachers at school who I have become good friends with. It's hard to go through what we do together and not become close with. We have burger night every Thursday at one of the foreigner bars, Laser Punk Rock shows (yes that's a real thing, and yes it was every bit as weird and awesome as it sounds), soccer games at Daejeon World Cup Stadium, shopping at underground malls, and nights in where we play board games and cards. I am really enjoying myself here in Daejeon and I hope that the rest of the year continues to be as fun, challenging, and exciting!

My new girlfriends and I at a soccer game

Week One, Done

Sunday marked my first full week in Daejeon and my official move into my apartment. What a week it was! Early Monday morning I met three other new teachers who were also staying at the motel. Just after 9am my boss and the school's general manager arrived to take us to the hospital for our health check. After the health check, which took a little over two hours, we headed to our school for the first time. We were not allowed to eat before going to the hospital, so someone took us out to lunch right away. I do not remember the name of the dish I had, which is too bad because it was delicious and I would like to order it again.

first meal in Korea

That afternoon was a rush of meeting people, classroom observations, and asking lots and lots of questions. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were more of the same. Observations, curriculum overview, and lots of lots of questions. Thursday we also went to the immigration office. I'm not entirely sure what was happening, but my fingerprints were taken and I was told that I would be getting my Alien Registration Card (ARC) in a few weeks. Unfortunately an ARC is needed to get a phone or internet, so I am temporarily without. Luckily there is wifi everywhere and I am making do.

Friday was lots of fun. The other new teachers and I all prepped a mock lesson and "taught" in front of each other, our academic coordinator, and the head foreign teacher. We had lots of fun pretending to be students to make the exercise more "real."

The first week was so jam packed with new people and new information it was a relief when the weekend arrived. Saturday I walked around the Time World and Yongmun areas. It was a sensory overload but so interesting and very enjoyable.

snack time!

Saturday night I met up with a big group of expats and we all went out for dinner and drinks. Korean nightlife is crazy.
Sunday I moved into my apartment. Finally - yay! Again my boss and the school's general manager came to pick me up at the motel and brought me to my new home. They explained how to use the washing machine and the floor heater - very important as everything is in Korean! After they left I spent the rest of the day settling in to my new place. After living out of my suitcases for a week it was such a relief to unpack.

Getting There

A little less than a year ago I was introduced to someone who would help change my life. I didn't know it then, nor did she. We met by chance at a mutual friend's birthday party. We got to talking and she told me about how she had taught English in South Korea. The whole night I thought to myself, "wow this is so cool! How can I do that?" We got in touch after that and she generously answered my many, many questions about living and working in South Korea. I sucked up all the information that I could from her and did lots more research on my own.

Of course I had the typical doubts and questions one would expect from someone considering such a major life change and for awhile the whole process took a back seat to me finishing my degree, road tripping across the US with my best friends, and the archetypal post college move back in with the parents (thanks mom and dad). But a few months ago I really started to turn my dream into a reality. None of the stateside jobs I applied for panned out, and even if they had I wasn't really that excited for any of them. I had always wanted to travel the world. I was young and unattached. Why not go for it?

I enrolled in an online program to get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate from University of Toronto. After I completed the course things started moving quickly. I got in touch with a recruiter, had a few interviews with schools (some of which were shorter than the amount of time it took to actually schedule the interview in the first place. Coordinating two different time zones and two different schedules is difficult!), talked with other foreign teachers, and just like that I had a job. The few weeks that followed were some of the most stressful of my life. Getting all my paperwork sorted out and having to deal with two different governments was very painful, but I'll save those gory details for another post.

On Saturday February 21, plane ticket and passport in hand, I kissed my mom goodbye and boarded the plane. Eleven short hours later I was in South Korea. Luckily I like movies. I watched three while in the air. By the time I landed it was Sunday night. Being in Incheon airport was very surreal. I was more than a little out of it, but somehow managed to make it through immigration, collect my bags, go through customs, exchange money, purchase my bus ticket to Daejeon, and call my boss using a Korean payphone. At this point I'm pretty sure I was running on pure adrenaline, just focusing on the motions and trying not to think about things too much. Another two hours on the "Airport Limousine" (airbus), and I was in Daejeon, my new home for the next year.

bibimbap on the plane

My boss and the school's general manager collected me and my baggage at the bus stop and took me to a motel where I would be living temporarily. As teachers' contracts expire they move out of the school's housing and new teachers, such as myself, move in. However there is sometimes overlap because not all teachers are hired at the same time, hence the need for temporary housing. I'm told this is pretty common, not just at my school, but others as well. My boss explained how to access the wifi (gotta love the 21st century where this is everyones first question) and wished me a good night. He told me to get a good nights rest because I would need to be ready at 9am for my health check! By this time it was close to midnight KST and I was incredibly disoriented from jet lag and changing time zones. I emailed my parents to let them know I arrived safely, took a shower, and fell straight into bed.