AND a whole lot of other Jeollanamdo-ers are coming too! Tonight is 'newbie night' but also 'reunion night' for those of us who trained in Gwangju, and apparently it's also 'farewell night' to foreigners I've never met. There's only one foreigner bar in town (Elvis's of course) so I guess we'll all be there! Friends from Mokpo, Wando (that's Suze), Gwangyang, and Yeosu are all coming.
Hopefully Suze we'll be here within the next 20 minutes, and then hopefully she's up for going on a walk (a VERY long one) to the Duck-e boats! (peddle-boats). Something about peddling up and down a Korean river in a Duck-e boat completely appeals to me.
It's been pretty lax for me since my Yeosu trip. Thursday night Dean, Mandy, and I drove to Gwangyang to have dinner with Kerry and Nicki, Vietnemese style. Then LAST night I called Ali around supper time and BEGGED her to have ANYTHING not Korean with me!! I love Korean food but it is KOREAN.
In Canada the food is so diverse and influenced by so many countries. But here the food involves rice, kimchi*, spice, meat, tofu or bean sprout soup, and millions of side dishes of veggies. Maybe you bbq your meat at the table, or maybe it comes pre-cooked, maybe you mix stuff in with rice, or maybe you wrap it in lettuce leaves, but it is all basically the same formula. After living with variety for so long it's hard to eat the same thing for lunch and supper every day. (and Korean people even eat spicy kimchi and rice for breakfast!)
Anyway Ali was SO with me! So we went to the grocery store and made the best meal we could with the random food we came across. We ran into Mike, so he came too for random food. We also tried to get an ice cream bar each. They were sitting in the freezer individually packaged. But when we took them to the checkout, the cashier made a big X with her arms (this means NO, making a circle over your head with your arms means YES) then she flashed 9 fingers at us. And mimed a box. What? I didn't see any boxes. And if you need to buy 9 (random number) at a time, why aren't they packaged like that? So..no ice cream for us!
*Kimchi is the national dish of Korea and they eat it at EVERY meal. It's cabbage that's been fermented with various vegetables and probably oyster juice, plus something that makes it spicy. It's served cold. So to re-iterate, Kimchi is cold, spicy, fermented cabbage, that tastes fishy .Korean people can be VERY offended if you say you don't like Kimchi, as they equate Kimchi with Korean culture (I've never made this mistake, I've just heard). They believe Kimchi is very very good for health. The person who created the Jeollanamdo Language Program casually mentioned that the reason Korea never got SARS is because they all eat Kimchi.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
En route to Joellabelle and Tan-Tan in Yeosu!
Now I am in the PC Bang drinking what I thought was pineapple juice, but is actually pineapple pop. It's kind of gross. But maybe it will grow on me. I never thought I would enjoy corn water...
Anyway, Monday morning I woke up bright and early to a clean apartment and not much to do. (I might add, I arrived in Suncheon Friday, and it took 3 INTENSE days of cleaning to de-contaminate my apartment. The teacher who was here before me cleaned NOTHING her ENTIRE year here, and left all of her stuff as it lay! So before I could UN-pack MY suitcase, I had to DE-pack the closets and all the drawers, it was so ANNOYING!! Winnie was with me when I walked into my apartment for the first time, and first she thought someone still lived there, and then when I assured her it was the right apartment, she asked me if I felt like crying. She said SHE would cry if she were me haha).
So back to Monday, I called Joelle and asked her if she'd be up for a sleepover Tuesday night. She said yes, so I went downtown to try and find the bus terminal and work out when the buses departed for Yeosu the following day.
I was barely ten steps out of Shidae (my apartment complex) when I ran into Dean. Dean did a presentation at our orientation in Gwangju because he and his wife have lived in Korea for five+ years. He assured me that buses run to Yeosu every 15 minutes, so I didn't have to go to the bus station. We went for tea instead.
A note on the weather: While we were out for tea, I was completely DRIPPING with sweat, the way I always am here. Dean asked me if I'd like to sit inside the slightly breezy tea shop, or outside, directly in the 32C BLAZING sunshine with 90% humidity. I was like 'is this a real question?' And HE said, 'ah, this is cool to me, I forgot you weren't here in June/July'.
Apparently, in June/July (which is monsoon season, so it rains almost everyday) temperatures hover around 38-39 centigrade, with 100% humidity due to the near constant rain AND school is in session right into August AND while many schools have air-conditioners, they usually don't turn them on!!!
I'm trying not to dread something that is ten months away, but I'm SO hot all the time NOW!! I thought I could deal with humidity since I'm from Halifax, but I DIDN'T KNOW it could BE like this!!! I wish I could put everyone in a box with the kind of temperatures I'm dealing with now, and then tell them it's worse! Far worse!! Two whole months of the year! I'm scared.
But anyway...Tuesday I got up and took a taxi to the 'bus-e station'. I get to this street with one lonely bus parked outside a store. I looked at my taxi driver questioningly, and she yelled at me for a few seconds, until I decided to chance the sketchy looking bus terminal. (It really doesn't help to raise your voice at someone who doesn't know your language. I can tell you this from first-hand experience).
So I walk up to a man in a uniform who is lazily smoking on the sidewalk. I say 'yeosu?'. He flashes 3 then 5 fingers at me, so I hand him 3500 won (about $4 CAD). He saunters over to this high-tech scary machine, feeds my money in and then hands me a ticket. I suppose this is a do-it-yourself ticket machine but HAHAHA like I could figure it out. Then he sort of meanders around, takes a few more puffs of his cigarette, and then picks up my bag and BOLTS onto the ONE bus there. For a second I just stared after him (nothing in his demeanor had indicated ANY kind of rush up to this point). Then I unfroze and ran onto the bus myself.
Suffice to say, I got to Joelle and Tanya's apartment safely, quickly, and cheaply, yet I was SO confused the entire trip!
(I've now been here for two months, and everytime I've asked the taxi drivers to take me to the bus-e station, I've been driven to the bus station, I've never seen that side of the road again!)
Anyway, Monday morning I woke up bright and early to a clean apartment and not much to do. (I might add, I arrived in Suncheon Friday, and it took 3 INTENSE days of cleaning to de-contaminate my apartment. The teacher who was here before me cleaned NOTHING her ENTIRE year here, and left all of her stuff as it lay! So before I could UN-pack MY suitcase, I had to DE-pack the closets and all the drawers, it was so ANNOYING!! Winnie was with me when I walked into my apartment for the first time, and first she thought someone still lived there, and then when I assured her it was the right apartment, she asked me if I felt like crying. She said SHE would cry if she were me haha).
So back to Monday, I called Joelle and asked her if she'd be up for a sleepover Tuesday night. She said yes, so I went downtown to try and find the bus terminal and work out when the buses departed for Yeosu the following day.
I was barely ten steps out of Shidae (my apartment complex) when I ran into Dean. Dean did a presentation at our orientation in Gwangju because he and his wife have lived in Korea for five+ years. He assured me that buses run to Yeosu every 15 minutes, so I didn't have to go to the bus station. We went for tea instead.
A note on the weather: While we were out for tea, I was completely DRIPPING with sweat, the way I always am here. Dean asked me if I'd like to sit inside the slightly breezy tea shop, or outside, directly in the 32C BLAZING sunshine with 90% humidity. I was like 'is this a real question?' And HE said, 'ah, this is cool to me, I forgot you weren't here in June/July'.
Apparently, in June/July (which is monsoon season, so it rains almost everyday) temperatures hover around 38-39 centigrade, with 100% humidity due to the near constant rain AND school is in session right into August AND while many schools have air-conditioners, they usually don't turn them on!!!
I'm trying not to dread something that is ten months away, but I'm SO hot all the time NOW!! I thought I could deal with humidity since I'm from Halifax, but I DIDN'T KNOW it could BE like this!!! I wish I could put everyone in a box with the kind of temperatures I'm dealing with now, and then tell them it's worse! Far worse!! Two whole months of the year! I'm scared.
But anyway...Tuesday I got up and took a taxi to the 'bus-e station'. I get to this street with one lonely bus parked outside a store. I looked at my taxi driver questioningly, and she yelled at me for a few seconds, until I decided to chance the sketchy looking bus terminal. (It really doesn't help to raise your voice at someone who doesn't know your language. I can tell you this from first-hand experience).
So I walk up to a man in a uniform who is lazily smoking on the sidewalk. I say 'yeosu?'. He flashes 3 then 5 fingers at me, so I hand him 3500 won (about $4 CAD). He saunters over to this high-tech scary machine, feeds my money in and then hands me a ticket. I suppose this is a do-it-yourself ticket machine but HAHAHA like I could figure it out. Then he sort of meanders around, takes a few more puffs of his cigarette, and then picks up my bag and BOLTS onto the ONE bus there. For a second I just stared after him (nothing in his demeanor had indicated ANY kind of rush up to this point). Then I unfroze and ran onto the bus myself.
Suffice to say, I got to Joelle and Tanya's apartment safely, quickly, and cheaply, yet I was SO confused the entire trip!
(I've now been here for two months, and everytime I've asked the taxi drivers to take me to the bus-e station, I've been driven to the bus station, I've never seen that side of the road again!)
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Sent to the Principal's Office
I arrived in Suncheon Friday afternoon after spending a week doing orientation in Gwangju (it's about an hour's drive away).
My principal came to pick me up, along with my co-teacher Winnie (after Winnie the Pooh, who, Winnie informed me, is Canadian like me).
In South Korea they follow the Confucian heirarchy system, which basically means I am the dirt on the bottom of your shoe as an unmarried, relatively young woman (although I AM 24 or 25 here, I haven't quite worked out how they count age, but in any case I'm older then my actual 23 years!)
And the PRINCIPAL is KING OF THE SCHOOL. We were told this repeatedly by foreigners and Koreans. On the first day of school I have to bring him a present (I'm going with whisky, apparently it goes over well) and my vice-principal a slightly smaller present (smaller bottle of whisky).
So I have to give this man STATUS which means low bows, receiving anything he gives me with two hands (even if he's just passing me a piece of paper or something, it's hard to ingrain in my western mind, especially when it happends quickly!) and when pouring him alcohol I have to have my left hand on my right arm (which is standard when pouring alcohol for ANYBODY, but for him my left hand should be around my elbow, instead of by my wrist because it's closer to my heart).
He is super important and I have to make sure he knows I know that. AND he doesn't speak ONE word of English. So I have to reley on Winnie to translate. Her English is very good, but not perfect. I was trying to tell my principal (his name is yum bae kim, but I have to call him principal, kyo cham song sang nim) that my luggage was VERY heavy. So I was acting like I was carring heavy luggage.
Apparently I'm not very good at charades.
Winnie and Mr. Kim chat for a bit, then she turns to me and says 'yes, he is a little bit fat, but you probably shouldn't have told him that'.
WHAT!!?
Haha, great first impression Jennifer! I made Winnie tell him I was talking about luggage butI was REALLY embarrassed for the rest of the day! (I also had a talk with Winnie about perhaps checking with me before translating things that might be potentially volatile).
After the hour long car ride to Gwangju (during which I was asked to explain multi-culturism in Canada, yikes) we went directly to the school, before I even went to my apartment. I sat in the vice-principal's room for an hour and a half. The vice-principal and some other teachers watched the olympics in Koreans and chatted about me (I heard Jen-ni-pur a lot) but no one actually talked TO me, so I was very confused as to why we were waiting there. I still have no idea. One positive aspect of the visit was that I received my textbooks. Although they are largely written in Korean and I have to use the pictures to guess what I am meant to be teaching. Thank Goodness I have this week off!!
My principal came to pick me up, along with my co-teacher Winnie (after Winnie the Pooh, who, Winnie informed me, is Canadian like me).
In South Korea they follow the Confucian heirarchy system, which basically means I am the dirt on the bottom of your shoe as an unmarried, relatively young woman (although I AM 24 or 25 here, I haven't quite worked out how they count age, but in any case I'm older then my actual 23 years!)
And the PRINCIPAL is KING OF THE SCHOOL. We were told this repeatedly by foreigners and Koreans. On the first day of school I have to bring him a present (I'm going with whisky, apparently it goes over well) and my vice-principal a slightly smaller present (smaller bottle of whisky).
So I have to give this man STATUS which means low bows, receiving anything he gives me with two hands (even if he's just passing me a piece of paper or something, it's hard to ingrain in my western mind, especially when it happends quickly!) and when pouring him alcohol I have to have my left hand on my right arm (which is standard when pouring alcohol for ANYBODY, but for him my left hand should be around my elbow, instead of by my wrist because it's closer to my heart).
He is super important and I have to make sure he knows I know that. AND he doesn't speak ONE word of English. So I have to reley on Winnie to translate. Her English is very good, but not perfect. I was trying to tell my principal (his name is yum bae kim, but I have to call him principal, kyo cham song sang nim) that my luggage was VERY heavy. So I was acting like I was carring heavy luggage.
Apparently I'm not very good at charades.
Winnie and Mr. Kim chat for a bit, then she turns to me and says 'yes, he is a little bit fat, but you probably shouldn't have told him that'.
WHAT!!?
Haha, great first impression Jennifer! I made Winnie tell him I was talking about luggage butI was REALLY embarrassed for the rest of the day! (I also had a talk with Winnie about perhaps checking with me before translating things that might be potentially volatile).
After the hour long car ride to Gwangju (during which I was asked to explain multi-culturism in Canada, yikes) we went directly to the school, before I even went to my apartment. I sat in the vice-principal's room for an hour and a half. The vice-principal and some other teachers watched the olympics in Koreans and chatted about me (I heard Jen-ni-pur a lot) but no one actually talked TO me, so I was very confused as to why we were waiting there. I still have no idea. One positive aspect of the visit was that I received my textbooks. Although they are largely written in Korean and I have to use the pictures to guess what I am meant to be teaching. Thank Goodness I have this week off!!
Super long first entry! Read at your own risk!
Well, after many promises to family and friends back home I am FINALLY writing a blog.
I decided back in Canada not to get a computer because I was worried I'd spend too much time in my apartment if I had one. So right now I am sitting in a pc bang (bang=room) drinking sunkist 'muskat' that has real grapes in the can!
I've been in South Korea for a week and a half now and it's completely impossible to summerize my time here so far. When EVERYTHING in your life is totally different it's hard to write it all down in one entry!
The weirdest things for me in South Korea so far are:
-Being sort of a semi-celebrity. I've HEARD about this, but it's hard to imagine when we don't have an equivalent in Canada. In South Korea, if you are not Korean you can NEVER be anonymous. I suppose this makes sense as Korea has the highest concentration of one race in one country. Little kids will stare, tug at their parents hands to get them to look at you, run after you yelling 'big feet! big feet!' (well this has happened to me...I'm not sure about anyone else though:) say 'hello' in English OVER and OVER again, and (most annoyingly, or adorably depending on the kid) try to speak English (this usually consists of them making lalaalalaellel sounds at you). Men our age will come up to you and tell you you're beautiful/handsome depending on your gender. It's not meant as a come on, it's just something they do. One of my friends had a Korean male serenade her with 'You are so Beautiful...to me'.
-The driving!!! Again this is something I'd HEARD about, but thought it MUST be an exaggeration. Nope. I was very. very. wrong. Korea has the second highest mortality rate due to traffic accidents in the world. I am surprised they are not first, and while I don't know which country is, I hope I never go there! For example, during my training week in Gwangju we took a cab that BARRELED down the left side of the street (they drive on the right here) pull up in FRONT of cars stopped at a red light, and proceed through the red light. Red lights are considered optional by many many drivers, yet they will NOT turn left on a GREEN light unless they have the protective arrow, no matter what! And if you're a pedestrian?? Just understand that crosswalks are meaningless, and even the sidewalk is unsafe as people driving scooters often ride on the sidewalk.
* I seriously recommend anyone who wants to teach in the province of jeollanamdo consider going through Canadian Connection. It's the only place I've heard of that offers an orientation, which is very helpful for meeting people (foreigners mostly) througout the province
I decided back in Canada not to get a computer because I was worried I'd spend too much time in my apartment if I had one. So right now I am sitting in a pc bang (bang=room) drinking sunkist 'muskat' that has real grapes in the can!
I've been in South Korea for a week and a half now and it's completely impossible to summerize my time here so far. When EVERYTHING in your life is totally different it's hard to write it all down in one entry!
The weirdest things for me in South Korea so far are:
-Being sort of a semi-celebrity. I've HEARD about this, but it's hard to imagine when we don't have an equivalent in Canada. In South Korea, if you are not Korean you can NEVER be anonymous. I suppose this makes sense as Korea has the highest concentration of one race in one country. Little kids will stare, tug at their parents hands to get them to look at you, run after you yelling 'big feet! big feet!' (well this has happened to me...I'm not sure about anyone else though:) say 'hello' in English OVER and OVER again, and (most annoyingly, or adorably depending on the kid) try to speak English (this usually consists of them making lalaalalaellel sounds at you). Men our age will come up to you and tell you you're beautiful/handsome depending on your gender. It's not meant as a come on, it's just something they do. One of my friends had a Korean male serenade her with 'You are so Beautiful...to me'.
-The driving!!! Again this is something I'd HEARD about, but thought it MUST be an exaggeration. Nope. I was very. very. wrong. Korea has the second highest mortality rate due to traffic accidents in the world. I am surprised they are not first, and while I don't know which country is, I hope I never go there! For example, during my training week in Gwangju we took a cab that BARRELED down the left side of the street (they drive on the right here) pull up in FRONT of cars stopped at a red light, and proceed through the red light. Red lights are considered optional by many many drivers, yet they will NOT turn left on a GREEN light unless they have the protective arrow, no matter what! And if you're a pedestrian?? Just understand that crosswalks are meaningless, and even the sidewalk is unsafe as people driving scooters often ride on the sidewalk.
* I seriously recommend anyone who wants to teach in the province of jeollanamdo consider going through Canadian Connection. It's the only place I've heard of that offers an orientation, which is very helpful for meeting people (foreigners mostly) througout the province
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