Blowfish.
The inspiration.
23 October 2009
Blisters
I have gotten some crazy blisters since moving to Korea also. Not much to say about it, but here's the best I've had so far. (See also, Day 1 post.)
22 October 2009
H1N1
Okay, this is bad. Maybe they do have a reason to be so scared of H1N1…People are dropping like flies. Jenn had 3 weeks off at the English Camp because of so many cancellations because of the flu. On Monday, Kelly1 had 2 students absent due to high fever. The Okgok public elementary school had 7 students out the other day, and today a teacher there is out. One of my favorite students Julie is out all week with the flu. At the public school, all children have to wear a mask the whole day. Yikes.
Today we got word that Okgok Elementary now has 28 students out sick. Linze doesn’t look good, and Kate has been sick since Saturday. Bad.
Friday, half of our school was out sick. And now I’m sick. Not H1N1, just a bad cold, but I’m really sick and Korean medicine isn’t working. Boo.
Today we got word that Okgok Elementary now has 28 students out sick. Linze doesn’t look good, and Kate has been sick since Saturday. Bad.
Friday, half of our school was out sick. And now I’m sick. Not H1N1, just a bad cold, but I’m really sick and Korean medicine isn’t working. Boo.
19 October 2009
Food Adventures: Sweet Garlic Bread
Garlic bread + sweetness like donut glaze = Korean garlic bread
**I think Korean don’t eat a lot of desserts because EVERYTHING they eat is sweet! Even stuff that should be salty, like chips or garlic bread.
**I think Korean don’t eat a lot of desserts because EVERYTHING they eat is sweet! Even stuff that should be salty, like chips or garlic bread.
18 October 2009
A Word on the Meaning of the Title
In America, I’ve always heard that blowfish is poisonous and that there’s always a chance that you will get the random bad piece and die. (Cue Bill Murray’s blowfish joke in the first (I think) Charlie’s Angels movie.) Truly, blowfish is poisonous, but safe to eat if prepared correctly.
I’ve been looking for a blog title since I decided to go overseas, but could never find the perfect one. I looked up American clichés ask asked friends for ideas, but I found nothing I liked well enough.
Then, at the end of my first week, my directors took all the teachers out for a sushi dinner (they knew that is my favorite). They ordered blowfish. I told them I had never had it before, but would try it. It was delicious. The next day, the blog was born.
The title, “Blowfish tastes great if it doesn’t kill you,” truly sums up my experience in Korea. I think Korea can be great, if it doesn’t kill you. Between learning a new language, new job, new people, and new food, it really can kill you quickly, especially if it’s not what you were told it would be. But if you can live through it, it might be great. I actually think this is true of most of life’s experiences.
I’ve been looking for a blog title since I decided to go overseas, but could never find the perfect one. I looked up American clichés ask asked friends for ideas, but I found nothing I liked well enough.
Then, at the end of my first week, my directors took all the teachers out for a sushi dinner (they knew that is my favorite). They ordered blowfish. I told them I had never had it before, but would try it. It was delicious. The next day, the blog was born.
The title, “Blowfish tastes great if it doesn’t kill you,” truly sums up my experience in Korea. I think Korea can be great, if it doesn’t kill you. Between learning a new language, new job, new people, and new food, it really can kill you quickly, especially if it’s not what you were told it would be. But if you can live through it, it might be great. I actually think this is true of most of life’s experiences.
17 October 2009
Busan Fireworks Festival
On Monday I called Nic to chat and see if she wanted to meet up for food or something this weekend. She said she would love to, but we'd have to find another time, because she was going with this tour group, Eagle Tour, to Busan to see the Fireworks festival. She was told the tour guy, Eric Jeon, frequently did tours for foreigners to various touristy places and events. She gave me the info, and I decided to check it out too.
Eric speaks fairly good English, and we arranged for him to pick me up along with the others. When he arrived, I was delighted to see so many English speakers in the van! Although I've only been here for 10 days, I've heard virtually no English, except what I'm teaching. It was lovely.
On the trip were Jazmin and Jenn (who work at an English village outside of Daegu on the opposite side from me), Jenny and Jay (both Korean, with excellent English), and Nic and I. We set off from Daegu around 2pm, arriving in Busan about 1 1/2 hours later. I was warned it would rain in Daegu that day, but we actually missed it. We drove past a bit, but never got wet.
View along the drive to Busan.
Rest stop.
We arrived close to the beach, and followed the crowd to the main area. We found a good spot, and set up shop. (If you don't stake out a spot early, you don't get one.) By 5 o'clock the beach was full, and the armed guard wouldn't allow any more onto it. (It was crazy...the place looked like martial law was in effect.) We had to try and explain that we had already been there, and had a spot, each time we ventured to the (terribly crowded) bathroom. I was delighted to find western toilets everywhere. Other than at my house, I hadn't seen any since arriving.
The beach, getting ready for the festivities. (Not sure which beach, as Busan has many, but the bridge here is famous.)
The "Smiley Face Building".
We talked about anything and everything over the course of the 4+ hours we sat on the beach waiting for the festivities to begin. I quickly made a connection with Jenn, who is similar to me, but more the "me if I didn't care at all what people thought"~~the wilder version, shall we say. Jay and Jenny are very sweet, and I had fun with them too.
Jenn.
Jay and Jenny.
We each bought some food, and ended up with a shared smorgasboard of junk food.
People near us, and the smiley building.
They had several blimps also, which were mini remoted-controlled things that they kept making crowd-dive over people. Highly amusing.
Dusk, and watching the buildings light up.
Around 8pm, bands started playing. It was truly amazing. It literally went from a classical string orchestra, to traditional music and drums, to K-Pop groups which cheerleading backup dancers, to opera. It was the most eclectic music concert I've ever seen. There were huge screens set up so that everyone could see from various places on the beach. I was highly amused, and quipped to Jazmin that maybe in America we get the two-second lag between what we see and what we hear in Asian dubbed movies because that's how they really talk. We were watching LIVE people singing and speaking, but what we heard was still 2 seconds behind what we saw. :) It was hilarious. I mean, I understand having the soundtrack slightly off in a movie, but LIVE? We have the technology to works these things out, at this point.
Finally, the fireworks came. I have tons and tons of photos, but honestly, once you've seen fireworks, you don't need a bunch of photos to show you what they look like. There were some original things though, like a couple of remote-control birds that were lighted and set off fireworks of their own. That was super cool to see. (But very hard to photograph!)
The fireworks themselves actually lasted nearly 45 minutes, with accompanying music like at home. But I'm so used to seeing the Columbus 4th of July fireworks, that I kept expecting songs like "God Bless America", "God Bless the USA", and Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" to play, which, of course, didn't happen. Instead we got the music from the disparate groups which had performed live. It was quite odd, but lovely.
When the show was over and we had been thanked by the mayor of Busan City, we prepared to leave, along with the 1.5 million other spectators. We thought we'd wait a few minutes to avoid the trampling, and maybe get to put out toes in the bay, but it wasn't to be. We joined the crowd, and headed for the car.
The cops and National Guard closed many important intersections to pedestrians, so a few fights broke out, some too close to us for comfort. I had never truly felt what a sardine would feel in the can until that moment, squished so close to everyone around me, and still some people trying to pass through the stopped crowd. We finally made it to the van, but realized we wouldn't move in it for a while, and instead decided on dinner. It was my first true experience with a Korean dinner spread. It was spectacular.
Jay surveying the spread.
Jenn nonchalantly thinking "I'll have what she's having".
The group: Me, Nic, Jay, Jenny, Eric, and Jenn. Behind the camera: Jazmin.
I never knew until that meal that something could be terribly spicy and clear. I had clear soup broth that I thought was safe, but I was wrong. So spicy!
After dinner, it took us two hours to get out of Busan. Along the way I spotted a Papa John's pizza. I was thrilled! Jenn said there was one in Daegu also, and Nic and I made a plan to find it soon! By the time we made it onto the tollway home, most of us were asleep. A great, exhausted field trip was had by all.
Eagle Tour, Eric Jeon, Daegu, South Korea.
Eric speaks fairly good English, and we arranged for him to pick me up along with the others. When he arrived, I was delighted to see so many English speakers in the van! Although I've only been here for 10 days, I've heard virtually no English, except what I'm teaching. It was lovely.
On the trip were Jazmin and Jenn (who work at an English village outside of Daegu on the opposite side from me), Jenny and Jay (both Korean, with excellent English), and Nic and I. We set off from Daegu around 2pm, arriving in Busan about 1 1/2 hours later. I was warned it would rain in Daegu that day, but we actually missed it. We drove past a bit, but never got wet.
View along the drive to Busan.
Rest stop.
We arrived close to the beach, and followed the crowd to the main area. We found a good spot, and set up shop. (If you don't stake out a spot early, you don't get one.) By 5 o'clock the beach was full, and the armed guard wouldn't allow any more onto it. (It was crazy...the place looked like martial law was in effect.) We had to try and explain that we had already been there, and had a spot, each time we ventured to the (terribly crowded) bathroom. I was delighted to find western toilets everywhere. Other than at my house, I hadn't seen any since arriving.
The beach, getting ready for the festivities. (Not sure which beach, as Busan has many, but the bridge here is famous.)
The "Smiley Face Building".
We talked about anything and everything over the course of the 4+ hours we sat on the beach waiting for the festivities to begin. I quickly made a connection with Jenn, who is similar to me, but more the "me if I didn't care at all what people thought"~~the wilder version, shall we say. Jay and Jenny are very sweet, and I had fun with them too.
Jenn.
Jay and Jenny.
We each bought some food, and ended up with a shared smorgasboard of junk food.
People near us, and the smiley building.
They had several blimps also, which were mini remoted-controlled things that they kept making crowd-dive over people. Highly amusing.
Dusk, and watching the buildings light up.
Around 8pm, bands started playing. It was truly amazing. It literally went from a classical string orchestra, to traditional music and drums, to K-Pop groups which cheerleading backup dancers, to opera. It was the most eclectic music concert I've ever seen. There were huge screens set up so that everyone could see from various places on the beach. I was highly amused, and quipped to Jazmin that maybe in America we get the two-second lag between what we see and what we hear in Asian dubbed movies because that's how they really talk. We were watching LIVE people singing and speaking, but what we heard was still 2 seconds behind what we saw. :) It was hilarious. I mean, I understand having the soundtrack slightly off in a movie, but LIVE? We have the technology to works these things out, at this point.
Finally, the fireworks came. I have tons and tons of photos, but honestly, once you've seen fireworks, you don't need a bunch of photos to show you what they look like. There were some original things though, like a couple of remote-control birds that were lighted and set off fireworks of their own. That was super cool to see. (But very hard to photograph!)
The fireworks themselves actually lasted nearly 45 minutes, with accompanying music like at home. But I'm so used to seeing the Columbus 4th of July fireworks, that I kept expecting songs like "God Bless America", "God Bless the USA", and Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" to play, which, of course, didn't happen. Instead we got the music from the disparate groups which had performed live. It was quite odd, but lovely.
When the show was over and we had been thanked by the mayor of Busan City, we prepared to leave, along with the 1.5 million other spectators. We thought we'd wait a few minutes to avoid the trampling, and maybe get to put out toes in the bay, but it wasn't to be. We joined the crowd, and headed for the car.
The cops and National Guard closed many important intersections to pedestrians, so a few fights broke out, some too close to us for comfort. I had never truly felt what a sardine would feel in the can until that moment, squished so close to everyone around me, and still some people trying to pass through the stopped crowd. We finally made it to the van, but realized we wouldn't move in it for a while, and instead decided on dinner. It was my first true experience with a Korean dinner spread. It was spectacular.
Jay surveying the spread.
Jenn nonchalantly thinking "I'll have what she's having".
The group: Me, Nic, Jay, Jenny, Eric, and Jenn. Behind the camera: Jazmin.
I never knew until that meal that something could be terribly spicy and clear. I had clear soup broth that I thought was safe, but I was wrong. So spicy!
After dinner, it took us two hours to get out of Busan. Along the way I spotted a Papa John's pizza. I was thrilled! Jenn said there was one in Daegu also, and Nic and I made a plan to find it soon! By the time we made it onto the tollway home, most of us were asleep. A great, exhausted field trip was had by all.
Eagle Tour, Eric Jeon, Daegu, South Korea.
11 October 2009
My first trip to Emart, the Target of Korea
On my third full day in Korea (after church), I was taken to Emart to get some things for the house, like dishes and food (I thought this might be important). I was told on our way there that Emart is like the Walmart of Korea. They have everything, and it’s very cheap.
I was amazed as we pulled into the multi-story parking garage which is part of the Emart building. We paid our 100 won deposit for the cart (which is returned when the cart is returned), and made our way up the escalator (for carts and people both). I was awed, as the cart wheels are grooved and metal, which bind to the magnetic escalator belt. We followed the ramp upward toward the first floor of the sales floor.
The view of Gyeongsan out the window from the escalator ramp.
Kitchen accessories were first, which I was thrilled to see, as these are my favorite things to buy. (I don’t know why this is, considering I really hate to cook.) I found many things I needed, but the prices weren’t as cheap as I expected them to be. Everything that sounded good to me was judged too expensive by my boss, who was guiding me through this first experience. I quickly decided that this was not Walmart; it was the Target of Korea. Nice things, but not dirt cheap.
They name many products with English names. I have a comforter named after me.
I chose many things, including what I would later find to be one of the best pillows I’ve ever slept on, and we made our way to the cashiers. We passed the “bargain area,” a madhouse where people dugs through bins for the best deals. It reminded me of the brides at the Barney’s Wedding Gown sales in New York, where you grab any possible match so no one else can take it first. It was highly amusing.
The picture can hardly capture the frenzy of the moment, but I had to try.
I was amazed as we pulled into the multi-story parking garage which is part of the Emart building. We paid our 100 won deposit for the cart (which is returned when the cart is returned), and made our way up the escalator (for carts and people both). I was awed, as the cart wheels are grooved and metal, which bind to the magnetic escalator belt. We followed the ramp upward toward the first floor of the sales floor.
The view of Gyeongsan out the window from the escalator ramp.
Kitchen accessories were first, which I was thrilled to see, as these are my favorite things to buy. (I don’t know why this is, considering I really hate to cook.) I found many things I needed, but the prices weren’t as cheap as I expected them to be. Everything that sounded good to me was judged too expensive by my boss, who was guiding me through this first experience. I quickly decided that this was not Walmart; it was the Target of Korea. Nice things, but not dirt cheap.
They name many products with English names. I have a comforter named after me.
I chose many things, including what I would later find to be one of the best pillows I’ve ever slept on, and we made our way to the cashiers. We passed the “bargain area,” a madhouse where people dugs through bins for the best deals. It reminded me of the brides at the Barney’s Wedding Gown sales in New York, where you grab any possible match so no one else can take it first. It was highly amusing.
The picture can hardly capture the frenzy of the moment, but I had to try.
Church in Korea
When I went out to take Hayes-y out I saw a note on my door that said “Church at 10:30. See you”. Jon asked on Friday if I would go to church with him, and I said sure. (You can stop laughing anytime.) I felt that he was the only person I knew so far, and he was being nice and taking me around all day on Friday, so I would accept his invitation and accompany him to church. I also wanted to meet people; be a “joiner”, for lack of a better term. And I thought you never know where you’re going to meet someone cool.
And they were lovely, really. The service was beautiful, the music was great (many instruments and singers…like a Christ the King flashback), and the people were very nice. It was my first true experience with being unabashedly stared at.
After the service, we went to the restaurant next door with the congregation for lunch and I had delicious soup and rice. Then we went to “youth group”, which I found out really meant “single’s group”, as they are a group that gets together to praise the lord and find a spouse. They had sheet music, and I was quite pleased with myself that I can still sight-read. I couldn’t read the words, but I could hum along with the music. They were very sweet, and said they could try to get English lyrics for the next week for me. They were great, but as most of you are aware, I don’t dig the church thing. I’m not a “god-girl”. Actually, if anything, I’m the “anti-organized-religion” girl.
I was asked to go next to the “single’s mixer”, which is basically a bunch of single god-folks talking about their love of god and watching movies for the afternoon. I met Jon at 10:30am, and at that time it was 3:30pm. I graciously bowed out. I think Jon was disappointed, but I’d had my fill of church for this decade.
I said that I needed to do some shopping, and get organized to start school tomorrow. I had been home for not even one hour when Mrs. Park called and said she was coming to take me to Emart (like Target in the US) for groceries and supplies. So much for resting.
And they were lovely, really. The service was beautiful, the music was great (many instruments and singers…like a Christ the King flashback), and the people were very nice. It was my first true experience with being unabashedly stared at.
After the service, we went to the restaurant next door with the congregation for lunch and I had delicious soup and rice. Then we went to “youth group”, which I found out really meant “single’s group”, as they are a group that gets together to praise the lord and find a spouse. They had sheet music, and I was quite pleased with myself that I can still sight-read. I couldn’t read the words, but I could hum along with the music. They were very sweet, and said they could try to get English lyrics for the next week for me. They were great, but as most of you are aware, I don’t dig the church thing. I’m not a “god-girl”. Actually, if anything, I’m the “anti-organized-religion” girl.
I was asked to go next to the “single’s mixer”, which is basically a bunch of single god-folks talking about their love of god and watching movies for the afternoon. I met Jon at 10:30am, and at that time it was 3:30pm. I graciously bowed out. I think Jon was disappointed, but I’d had my fill of church for this decade.
I said that I needed to do some shopping, and get organized to start school tomorrow. I had been home for not even one hour when Mrs. Park called and said she was coming to take me to Emart (like Target in the US) for groceries and supplies. So much for resting.
Day 1.
Yesterday was quite an experience—a very long day. On Thursday, I arrived in Seoul (Weds night), and didn’t get much sleep on the plane at all. 14 hours is entirely too long to be on a plane on one leg. Korean Air was very roomy- much more so than any of the American airlines, but although I could stretch and walk around, I still had to sit back down and my behind was over that about 5 hrs in. That’s when I woke up and realized that we still had 8 hours to go. Boo. I did get to watch a couple of movies I didn’t get to see in the theater—X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Soloist—so that was cool.
Anyway, I finally arrived at 4pm-ish and went to get Hayes and my luggage. Hayes-y was PISSED. I couldn’t get him to stop barking. I thought customs would send us home, it was that bad. But they let us thru with no problems and I went out of security to find the person with my name card. He wasn’t there. Short version: the dog quarantine office was by a different exit than where I was supposed to come out. A very nice man helped me to call my recruiter and find him. He took me to his brother’s van taxi and shortly we were off.
Although I don’t remember the driver’s name, he was great. He explained many things to me along the way. He pointed out a bridge in Incheon (where the airport is) that is like 5 stories high and was entirely built in 9 days. Yup, that was the look on my face, too. We stopped for food and such, and he explained what everything was. It took about 5 hours to get to Gyeongsan City (my town, pronounced Gee (like Gordon)-yong-sahn). He took me straight to my apartment, where I was met by Mr. Park (director of my schools), Mrs. Park (or Candy, the VP of the schools), and Jon (who has been showing me around, but I haven’t quite figured out his relationship in all this). Mrs. Park brought blankets, a few dishes, a few pieces of silverware, coffee, tissues, and shampoo to get me started. It was a nice gesture. Mr. Park went to the store for bottled water (no drinking from the tap here), milk and bread. They stayed about an hour, then I crashed. They asked me many questions about what I needed, but all I could think about was sleep. I slept most of the way in the taxi, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
So finally to Friday, my first full day here. I woke up at 7am and couldn’t get back to sleep. It was really annoying. Jon came at noon to “show me around town”, as was decided the night before. We walked to my first school (much longer than I thought), and I met the 3 Korean teachers.
Along the walk to my school in Okgok-dong.
Candy came to get us for lunch of Bibimbap. Good, but I think I’ve figured out that I don’t like sesame oil. She drove Jon and I to a bus stop, and we headed to a hospital in Daegu.
On the drive to the bus stop. I have no idea where I was.
It was a very small but nice enough place, but I’m not terribly fond of getting weighed and measured and poked and x-rayed in any country. (Especially when you’re twice the size of the person doing it.) It was humiliating. And of course it was all in Korean. Having Jon talking to everyone about me in Korean was just awful.
Luckily, that didn’t take very long. Jon said we were going to my school. Funny me, but I thought he meant my actual school; my branch—the other one. But alas, it was not. But I didn’t know that for the next 3 hours. We got off the bus and I said, “Wow, is this Gyeongsan?” He said, “No, it’s Daegu.” Okay, so I’m confused. Jon didn’t really know where we were going, but we found it after asking many people. (I get the impression that Jon doesn’t get out of Gyeongsan much.)
We met Ryan, the director, and I was even more confused, because I had met and talked to “The Director” last night, Mr. Park. I thought maybe he isn’t the Director, maybe he’s like a VP or something, and that Mr. Park is the actual director or something. But no, Ryan is the director of the Daegu-area GnB headquarters (where we were). His English is amazingly good. I was thrilled. And then I saw another white, Midwestern girl, and I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, she’s from Michigan.
I said, “Hey! You’re not a native!”
She said, “No, I’m American.”
I said, “Where are you from?”
And she said, “I’m from Michigan.”
And my immediate gut reaction was, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Luckily, she laughed. I asked if she was a Meatchicken fan (U of M), and she looked at the floor. I said, “Oh, you are! That’s okay; we’ll just have to throw down on game day.” I was wearing my OSU t-shirt, so it was kind-of obvious where my allegiance lay. Her name is Nic, shortened from Monica. She’s been here for 3 weeks.
I also met Joe and Emily, who live together. I sat in on Emily’s class. It was easy, although I made the kids a little nervous being there, I think. They were maybe 7 years old, and didn’t understand why I was sitting there in a small chair with them. I probably looked just as nervous, honestly. The class reminded me a lot of 5th grade, except that I’m a lot older now, and could totally take down anybody that treated me like I was treated back then. Let’s just say it was a little unnerving, but overall fine. It made me feel a lot better to see what an actual class was like, and what would be expected of me, more or less.
While at this (Jisan-dong) branch, I got all my questions answered by actual English speakers. They more or less told me what the deal was. That’s when I started to figure out that I was not going to be working at that branch. I was disappointed, but I got phone numbers for all three of the English speakers, so maybe we can hang out at some point.
Ryan and Nic were talking about trying to find a time to go hiking, and asked me if I liked it. I told them I’m terribly out of shape, but I like to hike, and would love to go sometime. Hopefully we can work that out. Nic and I are going to try to get together next week I think. So that’s cool, even if I’m not working there.
We left there and got some gimbap, which is kind-of like a sushi roll that we’re used to in the States. It has some kind of yellow crunchy radish, and some other veggies (I think), rice, and then wrapped in dried seaweed. The first few bites were delicious, but I really don’t like the radish thing.
We got on a bus, and I thought I was gonna die. Literally. The driver was weaving in and out of traffic like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And it wasn’t only this and that he was going faster than any bus I’ve ever seen before, but that he wouldn’t start to slow down until about 20 feet before the stop, when he would slam on the brakes, sending everyone standing on the crowded bus flying forward. I was standing for the first few stops, and I was literally holding onto a different bar with each hand, and I still almost knocked like 8 people over when the bus ground to a halt. Of course, they couldn’t move because the bus was so packed. But as the crowd thinned, I feared I might go flying out the front window. “Well, I made to Korea. Very short stay. Dead within one day. But I made it.”
We got off the bus back in Gyeongsan, and headed for a grocery store to get dog food, on the way to my other school. Close to the store I saw a street food vendor selling steamed crab legs. And I’m not talking about a couple of legs. It was an entire crab body with 8 legs, steamed, for (in US terms) a dollar. It was 1,000 won. So I took a picture, because my mother is a huge crab fan. (Actually, she’s a huge fan of crabs, not a huge crab fan. Or maybe she’s both. ;)
Street food vendors selling CRAB.
(On a side note: On our way to the school, Jon asked me why we say in English “Oh crab!” when something is bad. I had to explain that CRAB is not the same word as CRAP, what CRAP is, and why we use it in this way. It was fairly hilarious.)
The grocery store is your basic, average grocery store. I got some butter and milk, juice and cereal. The juice I thought was orange, but Jon said it was tangerine. I got in anyway, and it’s actually quite awesome. It’s much sweeter than orange, so it satisfies the sweet tooth when no chocolate can be found. The cereal was Kellogg’s Almond Flakes (the only 3 words in English on the box), and it’s absolutely amazing. I took pictures of the packaging, because I’m a huge dork like that. Hey, I thought it was pretty nifty.
Nifty packaging.
Then we went to the Jeongpyeong branch of my school, and I met the other teachers. Mr. and Mrs. Park were there, and another teacher that lives in my apartment building. He’s in his fifties I think, and lives on the floor above me. (Jon, my guide for the day, lives on the top floor. With his parents. He’s older than me, but won’t tell me how old, and he seems more than a little sheltered and awkward in his own skin. I started getting the impression about then that maybe Mr. and Mrs. Park were hoping to hook me up with one of these two. Um, no.)
We finally made it home and said goodnight. I was very tired, and it was very late. Okay, it was like 8:30pm. But Jon met me at noon and we ran around everywhere, and I met a million new people, and ate many new foods, and was poked and prodded, and blood was taken, and I had carried heavy groceries all over, and…I had thought we were sightseeing around my area, so I was totally unprepared for the adventure. I was exhausted. I changed my clothes and went to bed. I didn’t even get the iPod out. I couldn’t even take the dog out. I was asleep by 8:45. I got up at 3am and took the dog out. I went back to bed until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and then just laid around.
At the end of the day, I had a few injuries:
I've never seen ankles this swollen on someone who isn't pregnant...
My lovely blisters. It's actually one connected blister on the entire arch of each foot. Let me tell you how wonderful this feels...
I don’t have a comfortable chair in here, and the bed is as hard as the floor, so reading is difficult. I’ll need to find a solution quickly, or at least find somewhere that has comfy chairs where I can relax and read and such.
Jon wanted to show me around today, but I really just need to read the teaching guides for the books I’ll be using, and sleep and get rid of the jet lag. I just need a day to do nothing.
My door bell has rung several times, but I don’t want to see anybody. I haven’t successfully taken a shower here yet, and I look lovely. You have to turn on the hot water, which was explained to me briefly while I was basically comatose and overwhelmed during the first hour I was in my apartment. So, of course, I don’t remember how to do it. And cold showers are no fun. No one made plans with me, so I’m just staying in here and not answering. I hope it’s nothing important.
Anyway, I finally arrived at 4pm-ish and went to get Hayes and my luggage. Hayes-y was PISSED. I couldn’t get him to stop barking. I thought customs would send us home, it was that bad. But they let us thru with no problems and I went out of security to find the person with my name card. He wasn’t there. Short version: the dog quarantine office was by a different exit than where I was supposed to come out. A very nice man helped me to call my recruiter and find him. He took me to his brother’s van taxi and shortly we were off.
Although I don’t remember the driver’s name, he was great. He explained many things to me along the way. He pointed out a bridge in Incheon (where the airport is) that is like 5 stories high and was entirely built in 9 days. Yup, that was the look on my face, too. We stopped for food and such, and he explained what everything was. It took about 5 hours to get to Gyeongsan City (my town, pronounced Gee (like Gordon)-yong-sahn). He took me straight to my apartment, where I was met by Mr. Park (director of my schools), Mrs. Park (or Candy, the VP of the schools), and Jon (who has been showing me around, but I haven’t quite figured out his relationship in all this). Mrs. Park brought blankets, a few dishes, a few pieces of silverware, coffee, tissues, and shampoo to get me started. It was a nice gesture. Mr. Park went to the store for bottled water (no drinking from the tap here), milk and bread. They stayed about an hour, then I crashed. They asked me many questions about what I needed, but all I could think about was sleep. I slept most of the way in the taxi, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
So finally to Friday, my first full day here. I woke up at 7am and couldn’t get back to sleep. It was really annoying. Jon came at noon to “show me around town”, as was decided the night before. We walked to my first school (much longer than I thought), and I met the 3 Korean teachers.
Along the walk to my school in Okgok-dong.
Candy came to get us for lunch of Bibimbap. Good, but I think I’ve figured out that I don’t like sesame oil. She drove Jon and I to a bus stop, and we headed to a hospital in Daegu.
On the drive to the bus stop. I have no idea where I was.
It was a very small but nice enough place, but I’m not terribly fond of getting weighed and measured and poked and x-rayed in any country. (Especially when you’re twice the size of the person doing it.) It was humiliating. And of course it was all in Korean. Having Jon talking to everyone about me in Korean was just awful.
Luckily, that didn’t take very long. Jon said we were going to my school. Funny me, but I thought he meant my actual school; my branch—the other one. But alas, it was not. But I didn’t know that for the next 3 hours. We got off the bus and I said, “Wow, is this Gyeongsan?” He said, “No, it’s Daegu.” Okay, so I’m confused. Jon didn’t really know where we were going, but we found it after asking many people. (I get the impression that Jon doesn’t get out of Gyeongsan much.)
We met Ryan, the director, and I was even more confused, because I had met and talked to “The Director” last night, Mr. Park. I thought maybe he isn’t the Director, maybe he’s like a VP or something, and that Mr. Park is the actual director or something. But no, Ryan is the director of the Daegu-area GnB headquarters (where we were). His English is amazingly good. I was thrilled. And then I saw another white, Midwestern girl, and I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, she’s from Michigan.
I said, “Hey! You’re not a native!”
She said, “No, I’m American.”
I said, “Where are you from?”
And she said, “I’m from Michigan.”
And my immediate gut reaction was, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Luckily, she laughed. I asked if she was a Meatchicken fan (U of M), and she looked at the floor. I said, “Oh, you are! That’s okay; we’ll just have to throw down on game day.” I was wearing my OSU t-shirt, so it was kind-of obvious where my allegiance lay. Her name is Nic, shortened from Monica. She’s been here for 3 weeks.
I also met Joe and Emily, who live together. I sat in on Emily’s class. It was easy, although I made the kids a little nervous being there, I think. They were maybe 7 years old, and didn’t understand why I was sitting there in a small chair with them. I probably looked just as nervous, honestly. The class reminded me a lot of 5th grade, except that I’m a lot older now, and could totally take down anybody that treated me like I was treated back then.
While at this (Jisan-dong) branch, I got all my questions answered by actual English speakers. They more or less told me what the deal was. That’s when I started to figure out that I was not going to be working at that branch. I was disappointed, but I got phone numbers for all three of the English speakers, so maybe we can hang out at some point.
Ryan and Nic were talking about trying to find a time to go hiking, and asked me if I liked it. I told them I’m terribly out of shape, but I like to hike, and would love to go sometime. Hopefully we can work that out. Nic and I are going to try to get together next week I think. So that’s cool, even if I’m not working there.
We left there and got some gimbap, which is kind-of like a sushi roll that we’re used to in the States. It has some kind of yellow crunchy radish, and some other veggies (I think), rice, and then wrapped in dried seaweed. The first few bites were delicious, but I really don’t like the radish thing.
We got on a bus, and I thought I was gonna die. Literally. The driver was weaving in and out of traffic like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And it wasn’t only this and that he was going faster than any bus I’ve ever seen before, but that he wouldn’t start to slow down until about 20 feet before the stop, when he would slam on the brakes, sending everyone standing on the crowded bus flying forward. I was standing for the first few stops, and I was literally holding onto a different bar with each hand, and I still almost knocked like 8 people over when the bus ground to a halt. Of course, they couldn’t move because the bus was so packed. But as the crowd thinned, I feared I might go flying out the front window. “Well, I made to Korea. Very short stay. Dead within one day. But I made it.”
We got off the bus back in Gyeongsan, and headed for a grocery store to get dog food, on the way to my other school. Close to the store I saw a street food vendor selling steamed crab legs. And I’m not talking about a couple of legs. It was an entire crab body with 8 legs, steamed, for (in US terms) a dollar. It was 1,000 won. So I took a picture, because my mother is a huge crab fan. (Actually, she’s a huge fan of crabs, not a huge crab fan. Or maybe she’s both. ;)
Street food vendors selling CRAB.
(On a side note: On our way to the school, Jon asked me why we say in English “Oh crab!” when something is bad. I had to explain that CRAB is not the same word as CRAP, what CRAP is, and why we use it in this way. It was fairly hilarious.)
The grocery store is your basic, average grocery store. I got some butter and milk, juice and cereal. The juice I thought was orange, but Jon said it was tangerine. I got in anyway, and it’s actually quite awesome. It’s much sweeter than orange, so it satisfies the sweet tooth when no chocolate can be found. The cereal was Kellogg’s Almond Flakes (the only 3 words in English on the box), and it’s absolutely amazing. I took pictures of the packaging, because I’m a huge dork like that. Hey, I thought it was pretty nifty.
Nifty packaging.
Then we went to the Jeongpyeong branch of my school, and I met the other teachers. Mr. and Mrs. Park were there, and another teacher that lives in my apartment building. He’s in his fifties I think, and lives on the floor above me. (Jon, my guide for the day, lives on the top floor. With his parents. He’s older than me, but won’t tell me how old, and he seems more than a little sheltered and awkward in his own skin. I started getting the impression about then that maybe Mr. and Mrs. Park were hoping to hook me up with one of these two. Um, no.)
We finally made it home and said goodnight. I was very tired, and it was very late. Okay, it was like 8:30pm. But Jon met me at noon and we ran around everywhere, and I met a million new people, and ate many new foods, and was poked and prodded, and blood was taken, and I had carried heavy groceries all over, and…I had thought we were sightseeing around my area, so I was totally unprepared for the adventure. I was exhausted. I changed my clothes and went to bed. I didn’t even get the iPod out. I couldn’t even take the dog out. I was asleep by 8:45. I got up at 3am and took the dog out. I went back to bed until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and then just laid around.
At the end of the day, I had a few injuries:
I've never seen ankles this swollen on someone who isn't pregnant...
My lovely blisters. It's actually one connected blister on the entire arch of each foot. Let me tell you how wonderful this feels...
I don’t have a comfortable chair in here, and the bed is as hard as the floor, so reading is difficult. I’ll need to find a solution quickly, or at least find somewhere that has comfy chairs where I can relax and read and such.
Jon wanted to show me around today, but I really just need to read the teaching guides for the books I’ll be using, and sleep and get rid of the jet lag. I just need a day to do nothing.
My door bell has rung several times, but I don’t want to see anybody. I haven’t successfully taken a shower here yet, and I look lovely. You have to turn on the hot water, which was explained to me briefly while I was basically comatose and overwhelmed during the first hour I was in my apartment. So, of course, I don’t remember how to do it. And cold showers are no fun. No one made plans with me, so I’m just staying in here and not answering. I hope it’s nothing important.
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