Losing It

I have a black jacket made out of a material quite similar to that of a garbage bag. Yeah, it looks as cool as it sounds. The material is slippery and the jacket pockets have no zippers. Despite this, I just love putting things in those pockets. On Sunday I decided to put my camera in my jacket pocket and then fall asleep on the bus home from the Jamsil Home Plus. When I got home I decided I'd upload my booze cruise photos and write a blog post, but guess what? My camera had disappeared. I briefly looked for it, but I knew what happened. I'd obviously learned nothing from losing my wallet in Taiwan.

After a bit of searching online I found a lost and found line for the Seoul City bus system. It's (02) 415-4101 and they only speak Korean so if you lose some shiz, get a Korean friend to call for you. My assistant teacher/all-around-awesome-person, Mindy called on my behalf and guess what? Someone had actually found and turned in my camera. I am so lucky! Mindy told them I was coming, wrote me a letter in Korean explaining why I was there just in case my charades skills didn't work and wrote down all the directions for me.

The lost and found center is at a bus terminal right outside Namtaeryeong station. And now I can take more pictures like this to share with the world:

It's a good news day for all of us!

Traffic Jams And Booze Cruises

On Saturday afternoon we decided to make a quick stop at Costco to pick up some coffee before going to meet everyone for our much-anticipated *booze cruise*. Please note, there is no such thing as a "quick stop" at Costco. At least not in Seoul. We're lucky enough to live about a 10 minute bus ride from Costco but that's not taking into account the lame traffic jam that forms on the street leading up to Coscto parking lot every weekend. There must have been 50 cars lined up the street just waiting to park, so our bus sat in traffic while we sat and worried about the time. We eventually got off the bus and walked the rest of the way, got our stupid Kirkland brand tin of coffee and raced home to drop off our coffee and go. We arrived home at exactly the same time we were supposed to have arrived at Shanda's. Screw you, Costco!!

At 5:00 we left our place and we decided to take a taxi to the boat... we figured a taxi would be the only way we would get there before the boat left at 6:00. But guess what happened? We got stuck in traffic. 40 minutes into our taxi drive we had only driven as far as we could have walked in about 25 minutes. Tears were setting in and we were sure that we were going to miss the boat, until Shanda texted us to let us know the boat opened at 6:00 but didn't leave until 7:00. All said, it took over an hour for us to go 10km in that taxi. Good thing we're in Korea where such a taxi drive costs less than $15.

After almost stumbling onto some tour boat full of ajummas we finally met up with our peeps and got on our special boat. Mom, you would have loved it. The main floor looked like a 1950's prom complete with some def oldies songs being pumped in. The booze cruise was all-you-can-drink and there was a variety of microbrew beers to choose from and the lines were pretty quick. All of this free liquid resulted in long lines at the bathroom, people peeing into the Han River and into the sink too. All of these adventures in urination are fine when you're on a boat in Asia.

Three bands played, one of them I remember seeing the last time we lived in Korea, though I'm pretty sure the last time we saw them they played while being dressed up as scientists.

There were nice views along the water as we went along.

Good times!

Of course, someone had to bring a hula hoop. The next day I got an e-mail from the event organizers thanking me for attending and wondering "if anybody knows who the hula hoop girl
was please let us know because we want to offer her free tickets to our next event".

We got on a shuttle bus headed to the Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon and Pip and Shanda led the bus in a round of "There Was A Great Big Moose" and "You say Jesse, I say James... Jesse JAMES, Jesse JAMES". I think they made a lot of new friends. All I have to say is that the bus took was really damn slow and I'm sorry for what I did to the floor.

After our complimentary shot at the Rocky Mountain and some street kebabs, Mel and I decided to head home. We are *thisclose* to getting our first paycheques so we had to leave while we could still take public transportation back home instead of a pricier taxi. We cut it pretty close, so close in fact, that although we got our first train out of Itaewon, when we tried to transfer to the next train we were given a big X by the arms of a subway worker. We missed the train and had to take a taxi anyway. Above is a shot of the driver going 91 in an 80 zone, but I wish I had taken the picture when he was going 91 in the 60 zone. But really, after our experience with traffic that day, it was just nice to be in a car that wasn't going slower than I can walk.

Here's to booze cruises and Jesse James!

Kimchi Museum

On Saturday Mel and I visited the Kimchi Field Museum, which is conveniently located in the COEX Mall near Samseung Station. This is certainly the most interesting museum I've visited since the Museum Of Drinking Water in Taipei. Don't know what kimchi is? Well then, you've never smelled a Korean bathroom. It's spicy pickled cabbage, but as we learned at the museum there are many amazing varieties of kimchi to eat and enjoy.

Kimchi ferments in giant brown barrels for several months before it's ready to be eaten. Where else can you see these miracle barrels but in the Kimchi Museum? Or on the street outside of every apartment building on my block.

A series of models showed us how kimchi is made, step by step. My favorite part is her bloody looking hands. That's not blood, though... it's delicious red pepper paste!

Early kimchi-related scriptures from the 12th century.

Photo op!

There is a section about the health benefits of kimchi at the museum. This sign claims that kimchi prevents intestinal cancer, and I've recently read claims that kimchi cures H1N1 and is the reason the rate of HIV is so low in Korea. Surrrrre. And I bet that the Koreans' diet of eating the world's most pickled and over-spiced food 3 times a day has absolutely no relation to the fact that stomach cancer is the #2 killer in Korea. Just sayin'.

There was a huge kimchi library where I read a book about cordon bleu kimchi. The recipes looked... offensive.

There was a tasting room where (according to the sign) you could taste kimchi for up to 30 minutes. I don't do kimchi, but Mel tried one of each type. She likes kimchi, but as you can tell from the picture, this stuff had issues.

There was a kimchi fridge to look through. Guess what was inside? If you said kimchi, congratulations, you just earned a sticker for your sticker board.

Finally, there was a guest book where you could leave your thoughts about kimchi. One person very rudely wrote "I hate kimchi", though most of the other entries were along the lines of "at first I didn't like kimchi, but now I can kind of stomach it". We didn't write anything... save it for the blog, right?

If you like rooting through fridges and posing with mannequins, I highly recommend a visit to the Kimchi Field Museum. One of the nice employees there gave us a great guidebook to the museums of Seoul (there's a lot!) so expect a post about the Chicken Art Museum sooner rather than later! Peace!

Seoul In Sepia

The first yellow dust storm of the year arrived in Seoul yesterday afternoon and lasted for a few hours. The sand blows in from China a few times every spring and causes the sky to turn hazy, yellow and... kind of cool.

Melodie's New School

So I've finally got around to posting about my new school. It's a regular public middle school (notice the lack of Jesuses as compared to my last school) located in a very nice part of Seoul. Considering the neighbourhood, I assumed that the school would be more on the modern/posh side, but actually, it isn't. The school itself is very much like the one I taught at in Taiwan- a big C shape with a field in the middle. On my first day of school, I introduced myself and met my liaison teacher. I was informed that in 20 minutes I was expected to teach four consecutive classes. One would think you would be taken on a tour, shown the facilities and curriculum, meet the staff..etc. But, well, this is Korea and from previous experience I've learned to always be prepared. I had already made an introductory lesson so my ass was covered.

At first, I was a little underwhelmed at the classrooms which were fully equipped with broken computers and a whiteboard with strange paint markers. I kept hearing rumors about a "special" English room that would be available the next week but I didn't get my hopes up. However, when I showed up to work on Monday of the next week, I was completely
shocked. The school had built a "special" English classroom (my office desk, above).


I couldn't believe what I saw. It is simply a dream room. There is a brand new Smartboard, DVD stereo system, whiteboard, computer, big desks for the kids, computers at the back of the room and even special blinds depicting famous Western places. Probably one of the best parts is that it's my classroom to use so the students come to me. I don't have to lug everything around to the next room.

Apart from that, my workday is 8:20-4:20pm and I teach 24 classes a week. I plan one lesson per week and then I teach it 24 times! The schedule, though early for me, is working out really well. I like having a solid routine leaving and getting home at the same time as Shawn.

For the most part, the students seem good, especially the grade 7s who still seem really little in comparison to the older ones. I have huge classes with, on average, 38 students per class. In total, I have over 900 students! I think learning names might go out the window.

But I have to say, so far so good!

Home Sweet Box

I can't believe it's already been a month since we were first shown to our new apartment by our whiskey-drenched housing co-coordinator. I expected it to be approximately the size of a large box and my expectations were basically met. It's small but it's hella free and we love the location. Even though the place is about a third of the size of our place in Taiwan it's way more comfortable because:

a)everything isn't made out of wicker and
b)there's indoor heating

Please, let me take you on a grand tour. This is the living room. It's also the bedroom, the office, and the kitchen. It saves me from walking to different rooms, so I see this as a big advantage.

Thirsty? The fridge is never more than a few steps away. And the spacious area to the right of the bed offers plenty of room for an air mattress for visitors (HINT HINT). There's even a laundry room (which is only slightly larger than the washer itself) which is currently doubling as a den. The coffee maker and TV are already in there and I plan to stick a laz-e-boy in there as well... and maybe a dart board. Oh yeah, it's gonna be a sweet year.

Great Names In Business

We love SIGNS in Korea.

Bottoms up!

You can always trust the BS Bank!! What a reliable name. Why don't you sign up for a BS loan while you're there?

That's a pretty kinky position.

More Than Flower... there are flowers.

He's Pub.

The sign alone is probably enough to make this the most popular restaurant in Seoul.

Located right next door to Foxy Pie and Erotic Muffin.

Ho Bar is so classic. There's like 7 of them all on the same 2 or 3 streets and I've been to most of them :P

What time is it? It's Beer O' Clock! (Our watches are usually set to this time)

Sounds like a blast.

For Mel's cousin, Etta.

Last Week

Our computer has been continuing its' slow crawl towards the grave this past week by finally frying its last USB port. I can't update my ipod or (more importantly!!) load pictures onto my laptop anymore, which is why I haven't posted much in the last week. This morning I found that if I hold the camera's USB plug at a 45 degree angle it will occasionally connect, so I was able to get some photos loaded but... we really need a new computer!

ANYWAY!

Last week was our first full week of teaching and it wasn't too brutal. Neither of us are morning people so it's going to take some time to adjust to our new schedule, but it is really nice for us both be home before 5:00 every day. Plus, my students are so damn cute. I've never taught little little kids before but they just want to hold your hand and color and stuff. Check out the kid in the picture above. Even my icy heart thinks he's adorable. His big toothless smile is the perfect compliment to my coffee in the morning.

My kids are first-year students, so their English level is pretty low, but they are learning really fast and the stuff they come up with can be pretty funny. We had a birthday party for one of the students on Friday (her mother, father and the maid showed up... these kids are set) and another teacher also named Sean came into the room for a minute. One of my kids, Max, asked him his name and how old he was and after Sean told him, Max said "oh, my Shawn is 28". I'm his Shawn LOL!

Melodie's job is going well too. At first her classrooms were the same third-world style rooms that we used to have at Heng Yee, but she had been promised that a new English classroom would be ready for her soon. Standards were admittedly low but when she walked into her classroom on Monday she was shocked to see a projector, DVD player, computer and a smart board (!) for her to use. There's no giant slide, but it still sounds great.

On Tuesday, our BFF Shanda visited us in Gangnam for supper at a galbi place and fruity sojus and fried chicken at Garten Beer. Garten Beer has these great tables that have refrigerated cup holders that keep your drink nice and icy. We used to go to the one in Suwon all the time and I was happy to see that it's a chain store.

It was a great night until some white bullshit started falling from the sky. This was supposed to be MY YEAR WITHOUT SNOW so screw you, Korea for messing stuff up. Mel was all "just enjoy it, it's probably the only time we'll get to see snow all year" but I was pretty close to throwing a tantrum.

On Friday night after work we went out for galbi with the staff at my school. After the meal we went to a bar across the road where we were joined by a couple of Korean guys that had followed us there from the galbi place. One of the guys (who decided that the best place to find a reputable English tutor for his 6-year old was at a bar) told us that his friend had just gotten a big bonus that day and suddenly two big bottles of Canadian Club and two pitchers of beer arrive at our table. Minutes later I look over and this P.Diddy of Gangnam is hunched over sick with his head in his lap. He remained like that for the rest of the evening, so I don't think he had too much fun that night. Thanks for the drinks, though :P

On Saturday around 11am someone rang our doorbell, but since nobody in this country even knows where we live we just ignored it until the third or fourth ring when we went downstairs to check it out. Mel's ARC arrived, only 4 days after she applied for it! Without an ARC you can't set up phone, internet, cable or any services that make life livable, so getting this card was awesome.

We immediately went out in search of cell phones. We thought the best thing to do would be to buy a phone and then choose a calling plan, like you would at home, but when we were quoted nearly 700,000 won ($700/CAN) for 2 phones we went with plan B. A guy at work had given me a map to a used phone place in Itaewon and, man, I am so glad that we went there. The guy who worked at the place was a super nice man who spoke fluent English and let us play with all of his phones before choosing one each. Mel chose a blingy, girly phone and I went with a really thin one I could just throw in my pocket. We're on pay as you go plans and all together the two phones, charger, extra battery and 2 months worth of time were $240. Not too bad. We could have gone with even cheaper phones but we went with the ones we liked. Plus, we got to choose our own phone numbers so we both chose our parents old phone numbers (2623 and 9283) as our new numbers.

After we got our phones we went for Thai food at Thai Garden (it was o-k-a-y, nowhere near as good as the Taiwanese places we'd loved) and then we went to Roofers to see Shanda perform in A Night At Shakespeare. The place was packed, the wine was good, and Shanda was bloody so it was a good night.

Also on Saturday, it finally happened: I tried to order something in Chinese. In Korea. I know the languages sound nothing alike, but I spent so long studying Chinese that I keep mixing it up with my Korean. So at Beard Papa I pointed to the cream puff I wanted and said "ee-ga" ("one" in Chinese). Shocked at what I'd just done, my face turned red and I exclaimed "hana!" ("one" in Korean). In perfect, unaccented English the cashier looks at me and asks, "you want one? what kind of filling do you want?"

In related news, we're looking into taking some Korean classes. They can't start soon enough.

Combo #2

We went to see "Alice In Wonderland 3D" last weekend and ordered the world's most amazing combo, the "2 big beers and a popcorn combo", as our snack. We didn't even feel like drinking, but the option of having beer at a movie theater was just too cool to pass up.

Side note: In Korea you always have the choice of salty or sweet popcorn at the theater, and despite saying "ANIO SWEET" and making a big X with my arms when I ordered the food, we were still served sweet popcorn with our combo. In case the bag was "mixed", Mel picked through the top layer of sweet stuff to see if there was any salty popcorn in the bag too. Basically she ate some of the popcorn, licked her fingers and touched as many of the kernels as possible. The cashier must have noticed our sour faces while he was pouring our beer because he offered to give us salty popcorn instead. We said yes, of course, and he took the sweet popcorn that Mel had been finger-banging for several minutes, threw it back in with the rest of the sweet popcorn that would be served to other people, and off we went with the bag of popcorn we wanted (of which we got to eat about 1/5th of the bag because Mel spilled it all over the floor of the theater. And we'd worked so hard for it too!)

Note to local readers: don't order the sweet popcorn at Gangnam CGV. It's been pre-touched.

New School: The Honeymoon Phase

This week has been "prep week" at my new job. I don't meet my students until tomorrow, but I'm probably working 5x harder than I will be when I actually do start teaching because I've been trying to get the classroom ready. I've never had to do this before (or ever really had my own classroom before), and it's a lot of work. I'm lucky to have 2 co-teachers helping who are hard workers too.

The first thing that shocked me about this school was that I was given a schedule for the whole year. There it was: my vacation (9 days in the summer and 9 over Christmas), public holidays and special events listed out for me. These days were a closely guarded secret at my previous schools and this way makes it much easier to plan ahead!

Also I can't get over all the SUPPLIES we have! Usually in schools the paper is hidden and you have to beg for a new white-board eraser, but every teacher was given 4 big packages of white paper to start with, dozens of packs of colored pencils, sketch books, glue, scissors and any craft supplies you can think of. There's also computers and projectors in every class which helps to mix the lessons up a bit. The books are all shiny and new and the kids are all being given red leather knapsacks and new uniforms.

My schedule is bitchin'! I have a co-teacher who handles 40% of the class load so, for example, on Mondays I teach my kids for exactly one half-hour. Not every day is that awesome, of course, but I never teach more than 2 1/2 hours day, so I'm really hoping to get most of my lesson planning done at the school instead of at home. Every teacher I've met keeps telling me what a great place it is to work and many of them are on their 3rd or 4th contract... this is so rare in ESL, so I have high hopes.

The most notably awesome thing about my school is that there is a giant slide connecting the first floor to the basement.

This is my classroom. I'm teaching the "panda" class and I will have twelve 7 year-olds.

We even have a panda clock :P

One thing about the school day is that we have to eat lunch with the kids. My Taiwanese BFF Kris nicknamed me "Picky mouth", so you can probably assume how excited I am to be force fed a Korean school lunch every day. Luckily the school gives us the menu a whole month in advance and there are several fridges and microwaves, so if we want to bring our own meals we can. They also have a daily ham and cheese-uh option which I will probably be taking advantage of quite a bit. And there's a McDonalds in the same building. I see a lot of Big Macs in my future.

Even the toilets are baby-sized! The one on the left is for teachers only.

Wish me luck with my kids tomorrow. I only have them for an hour and we have a busy lesson of coloring planned. Go pandas!