Things are going great in Korea but I have gotten many complaints that I have not updated my blog. Too much has happened to tell it all so I will give you titles of stories and if you want to hear about them just ask me. So here I go...
1. Having a stranger buy me a bottle of Crown Royal at the bar
2. Korean strangers taking me to Karaoke
3. Exploring and partying in Seoul until the sun comes up
4. "Save me from this prostitute!"
5. Swine flu... I'm glad I got that one out of the way.
6. Temple stay- one weekend living with Buddhist monks
7. Holy shit Korean girls are clingy
8. My apartment is amazing!
9. The hammer game... I can't believed that it actually worked
10. Dr. Fish... you wont believe this one
There are many more that I can't think about right now but this is the best I can do. I will try to do better with my posts in the future.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
My First Week
This post is going to be a long one. I arrived in Incheon over a week ago. I had a pickup from the airport and I was brought to a hotel which is where i met my new boss. He set me up in a room and told me that I will be moving into my apartment tomorrow and then he left. Coming off of a 15 hour plane ride I wasn't expecting on being left to myself for another day. So I decided to walk around the city. The city of Incheon can be described as time square x10. Everywhere I walked the lights and neon signs were so bright that it seemed as if the sun was still out. As I continued to walk around the city I noticed something about the people I was passing on the streets, they were all noticing me. Almost every person I passed was staring at me and smiling. Some even came up to me and asked me where I was from and also my age. Even though I was alone I wanted to go to a bar and have a drink but I had been awake for over 30 hours and I needed my sleep so I went back to my hotel.
Day 2
I had to wait until 5:30 but I finally was being moved into my apartment. My boss, and principal of the school, picked me up and drove me to the building. In the car I learned that there was another teacher that arrived the same day that I dad and she was moving in as well. I asked my boss if he could introduce me to her after he helped move her in and he said that he would. My apartment is... amazing! It is a large studio apartment that actually has a second floor that is open to the rest of the apartment, kind of like a long and wide balcony. It comes with a bed, tv, kitchen, washing machine, video screen doorbell, heated floors and an enourmous window that takes up an entire wall. Shocked in how nice the apartment was I began to move in, knowing that I would be meeting the other teacher in just a few minutes. My boss then brought me up to the 12th floor to meet my new coworker. When I entered the apartment I was surprised to see that there were actually two girls. I was introduced to Helen, my coworker, and Gerldean, her twin sister who had been living in korea for the past 2 months. I talked to them both and learned that they were from Canada and that they were planning on going out to the bars tonight. At that moment there was a knock from the door, it was another girl about my age, Ferrin. It turned out that she was one of my Coworkers as well and she asked if I had a costume to wear to go out in tonight. I did not so she said she would bring me to E-Mart which is a huge shopping mall here in Incheon. Ferrin showed me around the city and store and explained the differences in the culture compared to the U.S. I also learned that she was from Rochester, NY which is only an hour away from where I live back home. So I bought a costume and we headed out to Seoul for the night, I had only arrived to my apartment 40 minutes earlier. In Seoul we met some of Helen's sister's friends at someones apartment. There were about 10 other westerners that were there and they were all very eager to introduce themselves me. Eventually we headed out to the bar and started drinking at a pace that I can only describe as not healthy. There is too much to tell about that night in Seoul so I will skip ahead a few hours. At one point I got waved over to a table by a group of Korean girls that we excited to talk to an American guy. I had trouble communicating but their English was strong enough that we were able to joke around and laugh. 20 minutes passed and I realized that I didn't know where my coworkers had gone to. I frantically looked around the bar but I couldn't find them. I went outside and could only find 3 people that I met at the party earlier, only friends of friends of my coworkers. I explain my situation to them and they offered to help me find my coworkers. Not having their phone numbers we made a chain of calls to try to track them down. It turned out that our large group hand split off into 4 groups and no one could get a hold of anyone. I also realized that I had no idea how to get home. The subway to Seoul took 45 minutes and I had no idea what subway stop I lived at and even my address or how to get to my building. I was completely lost and terrified. One of the people at the party offered to let me stay at his place until we could figure this out in the morning which is what we had to do.
Days Following
The next day Cam, the persons apartment I had slept at, and I got a hold of Helen and Ferrin and I found out how I was going to get home. Later I found out that Ferrin got mixed up from Helen, my other new coworker, and they both thought that I was with the other. My first whole night in Korea was an interesting one. From then on Ferrin has taken me under her wing. I am very lucky that she is so willing to show me around. She has taught me common words, explained Korean culture, showed me interesting things to do, taken me to get food and offers good conversation. She does not know it yet but we are going to be sidekicks whether she wants to or not, to bad for her.
The next day was my first day of work. I wake up at 7am, 5pm for those of you in New York, and half to meet with my coworkers at 8:10 in our buildings main lobby. We have to take a bus to work and that is an experience in itself. Lets just say that the bus drivers are crazy aggressive and that Americans would pay money for the experience if it were in a theme park. I arrive at the school and I found out that I will receive no training. They give me a list of what to go over for the day and shove me in the class. I improvised a lot, I have 7 kindergartners and 2 Elementary students. They are amazing and entertaining and make the day go by fast.
I just realized that I have been writing for a while and that I am skipping over alot of things, It will be better if I tell the rest later on. I'll talk to everyone soon.
Day 2
I had to wait until 5:30 but I finally was being moved into my apartment. My boss, and principal of the school, picked me up and drove me to the building. In the car I learned that there was another teacher that arrived the same day that I dad and she was moving in as well. I asked my boss if he could introduce me to her after he helped move her in and he said that he would. My apartment is... amazing! It is a large studio apartment that actually has a second floor that is open to the rest of the apartment, kind of like a long and wide balcony. It comes with a bed, tv, kitchen, washing machine, video screen doorbell, heated floors and an enourmous window that takes up an entire wall. Shocked in how nice the apartment was I began to move in, knowing that I would be meeting the other teacher in just a few minutes. My boss then brought me up to the 12th floor to meet my new coworker. When I entered the apartment I was surprised to see that there were actually two girls. I was introduced to Helen, my coworker, and Gerldean, her twin sister who had been living in korea for the past 2 months. I talked to them both and learned that they were from Canada and that they were planning on going out to the bars tonight. At that moment there was a knock from the door, it was another girl about my age, Ferrin. It turned out that she was one of my Coworkers as well and she asked if I had a costume to wear to go out in tonight. I did not so she said she would bring me to E-Mart which is a huge shopping mall here in Incheon. Ferrin showed me around the city and store and explained the differences in the culture compared to the U.S. I also learned that she was from Rochester, NY which is only an hour away from where I live back home. So I bought a costume and we headed out to Seoul for the night, I had only arrived to my apartment 40 minutes earlier. In Seoul we met some of Helen's sister's friends at someones apartment. There were about 10 other westerners that were there and they were all very eager to introduce themselves me. Eventually we headed out to the bar and started drinking at a pace that I can only describe as not healthy. There is too much to tell about that night in Seoul so I will skip ahead a few hours. At one point I got waved over to a table by a group of Korean girls that we excited to talk to an American guy. I had trouble communicating but their English was strong enough that we were able to joke around and laugh. 20 minutes passed and I realized that I didn't know where my coworkers had gone to. I frantically looked around the bar but I couldn't find them. I went outside and could only find 3 people that I met at the party earlier, only friends of friends of my coworkers. I explain my situation to them and they offered to help me find my coworkers. Not having their phone numbers we made a chain of calls to try to track them down. It turned out that our large group hand split off into 4 groups and no one could get a hold of anyone. I also realized that I had no idea how to get home. The subway to Seoul took 45 minutes and I had no idea what subway stop I lived at and even my address or how to get to my building. I was completely lost and terrified. One of the people at the party offered to let me stay at his place until we could figure this out in the morning which is what we had to do.
Days Following
The next day Cam, the persons apartment I had slept at, and I got a hold of Helen and Ferrin and I found out how I was going to get home. Later I found out that Ferrin got mixed up from Helen, my other new coworker, and they both thought that I was with the other. My first whole night in Korea was an interesting one. From then on Ferrin has taken me under her wing. I am very lucky that she is so willing to show me around. She has taught me common words, explained Korean culture, showed me interesting things to do, taken me to get food and offers good conversation. She does not know it yet but we are going to be sidekicks whether she wants to or not, to bad for her.
The next day was my first day of work. I wake up at 7am, 5pm for those of you in New York, and half to meet with my coworkers at 8:10 in our buildings main lobby. We have to take a bus to work and that is an experience in itself. Lets just say that the bus drivers are crazy aggressive and that Americans would pay money for the experience if it were in a theme park. I arrive at the school and I found out that I will receive no training. They give me a list of what to go over for the day and shove me in the class. I improvised a lot, I have 7 kindergartners and 2 Elementary students. They are amazing and entertaining and make the day go by fast.
I just realized that I have been writing for a while and that I am skipping over alot of things, It will be better if I tell the rest later on. I'll talk to everyone soon.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
It's Go Time
My decision to teach in South Korea was a quick one. After college I was hoping to do "Teach for America" in the city, but my friend Adam told me about the TEFL program and my plans changed in a matter of minutes. Teaching in South Korea attracted me most because of reasons that would be inappropriate or arrogant for me to say out loud... deal with it! Next we took a certification class in the city for three weekends, eight hours each day. This might sound like a boring event, but the class as a whole became a close knit of friends and I considered it hanging out as a group over taking an actual class. After we gained our TEFL certificate Adam and I began to realize how real this next step in our lives actually is and now we are waiting for the end of summer so we can save money to bring with us.
Now that you know the events that have led to this trip, I will tell you what this decision has done to/for me so far. I feel like I am in limbo. My years at New Paltz are over and I know that there are many people that I will never see again. I know that many others are experiencing this as well, but it is difficult for me because of my location. Just about all of my friends I've met at school either live on Long Island, the City or just north of the City. Although others may not see some of their distant friends, they still live close enough to be in control of who they can see or not. I live near Buffalo, a little over 500 miles away from my friends. To visit them is a vacation for me and I only have so much energy to keep in contact with people. I know the friends in which I will keep in touch with hopefully through my whole life (Hello Mark, Adam, Nicole and Joanna) and I am greatful for that. I hope to add more names to that list, especially brothers in Kappa Sigma, but I feel it may be dependent on location, and even though I will keep in contact with many or see others on alumni weekends, it will not be as constant as I would like it to be. So where does this leave me now, my close friends from home are moving on, many live in different states or are married. I do have some close friends at home and a group of new ones but it is a difficult situation for me. I don't know how long I will be gone for, it could be a year or maybe two, three or four (I've decided that I will only allow myself to be away for four years because in the end, I am American). So I wonder why I should invest my time with new people. If i'm only going to be here for two more months, I believe, that I need to make sure that I don't become grounded in new friend relationships. This might seem like it is easy to do (having no cares, no obligations and so on) but my attitude in situations is completely different because of this, which sometimes is good but sometimes it is bad. So this is where I am now, in limbo, waiting for my plane to leave the runway and to start looking forward. Even though this might seem like a major problem for me, knowing that I am going to be leaving for South Korea, I could care less and wouldn't switch it for anything! The last thing I would like to say is.... Adam Leiner prefers to sit down when he pees.
Now that you know the events that have led to this trip, I will tell you what this decision has done to/for me so far. I feel like I am in limbo. My years at New Paltz are over and I know that there are many people that I will never see again. I know that many others are experiencing this as well, but it is difficult for me because of my location. Just about all of my friends I've met at school either live on Long Island, the City or just north of the City. Although others may not see some of their distant friends, they still live close enough to be in control of who they can see or not. I live near Buffalo, a little over 500 miles away from my friends. To visit them is a vacation for me and I only have so much energy to keep in contact with people. I know the friends in which I will keep in touch with hopefully through my whole life (Hello Mark, Adam, Nicole and Joanna) and I am greatful for that. I hope to add more names to that list, especially brothers in Kappa Sigma, but I feel it may be dependent on location, and even though I will keep in contact with many or see others on alumni weekends, it will not be as constant as I would like it to be. So where does this leave me now, my close friends from home are moving on, many live in different states or are married. I do have some close friends at home and a group of new ones but it is a difficult situation for me. I don't know how long I will be gone for, it could be a year or maybe two, three or four (I've decided that I will only allow myself to be away for four years because in the end, I am American). So I wonder why I should invest my time with new people. If i'm only going to be here for two more months, I believe, that I need to make sure that I don't become grounded in new friend relationships. This might seem like it is easy to do (having no cares, no obligations and so on) but my attitude in situations is completely different because of this, which sometimes is good but sometimes it is bad. So this is where I am now, in limbo, waiting for my plane to leave the runway and to start looking forward. Even though this might seem like a major problem for me, knowing that I am going to be leaving for South Korea, I could care less and wouldn't switch it for anything! The last thing I would like to say is.... Adam Leiner prefers to sit down when he pees.
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