Be Rad in Korea: February 2012

Its now Tuesday night at about 7:30 and I just got home from work. I’ve had 2 full days at BONO Language School and I love it so far. There is so much I have to say about it but there’s no way I’ll remember it all while I’m writing this. I’m not even sure how to begin explaining it. First of all, my school isn’t a public school, nor is it a part of any school system. It’s a private school, or a hagwon as they call it here.

The library at BONO

Typical Classroom

Hagwons here are a dime a dozen. I’ll bet there are tens of hagwons for every square mile here in Daegu. Why? Because Koreans are crazy about their kids’ education. These hagwons are run as businesses for profit. At first, you may be inclined to think negatively about this, but really it makes sense. What parents want is for their kid to be best prepared for their schooling, because how you perform in elementary school affects which high schools you get into, and those affect which universities will accept you, and so on… basically, how you are educated (or not) will ultimately define how successful you will be in EVERY facet of your life.

To Koreans, it’s worth big bucks to send your kids to a place of learning as soon as you can. Most of these hagwons are primarily English schools, and so is BONO, but we also have other classes like Chinese, art, math, sciences, ect… The kids we have from 9am-3pm are aged 5-7ish and aren’t in actual school yet. Then we get a different group of kids (8 year olds) at 3-5. These kids come right from their public schools. Also, you should know that when I say these kids’ ages, this is their Korean age. Yes, it is different. Koreans count the 9 months in the womb as a whole year and say that brand new babies are 1 years old. Then every lunar New Year, everyone changes age by one. So, myself, being born on July 23, 1989 makes me 22 in America until July 23, and then I’ll be 23. In Korea I’m 24 right now, and I’ll stay 24 until about a year from now, which is when the next lunar new year is. The point is, some of these kids are actually only 3, and none of them are older than 6 (the daytime ones). I got lucky and I got a 7-year-old (5/6 American) class, and I love it so far.

For those of you who either know of, or have been with me for the mission trips I’ve been on in North Dakota, it’s a lot like that. It’s also a lot different than that in that the schedule actually gets followed, and the kids behave so much better. Seriously… Sooooo much better, not to hate on my Native American kids though. I still got plenty of love for ND.

Cute kids.

ahhhwwwwww

I learned him good.

I’ve earned plenty of nicknames in my two days so far. In Korea, if someone is senior to you in age or rank, you’ll address him or her with his or her title as well. So my name to them is Brad Teacher. However, giant teacher, and bbang (said like bong) teacher are more popular. Bbang is apparently how you say bread in Korean and its quite hilarious to them that my name is so close to bread. So, Bbang Teacher it is… Every Korean I’ve met so far has had a tough time with it, so I decided last night to start going by Bradley.

Hey, these are real snazzy slippers

yet they're lacking in depth...

Brad Teacher = Giant Teacher

This is what I see when I look in a restroom mirror.

I’m sure as time goes on, I’ll have plenty more to add about teaching, but so far I love it and the kids are great. This week I’m just shadowing the teachers that are on their way out. The nights have been spent learning the ropes of the city and trying to learn as many Australian sayings as I can before Brett has to leave. I’ve learned a lot of good stuff. On another note, I’m pretty sure I’ve already lost weight. The food is great and I’m eating plenty of it, its just that its mostly rice and veggies so there’s not much damage done. The only other thing that’s new is that I have received details on my apartment. The details are that there are no more details until the 29^th, so that’s nice. So, it looks as if I’ve got another week before I can sort myself out (Australian, mate). Until then I’ll be on the floor at my co-teacher Don’s place. Its good we all get along so well already, otherwise this first two weeks would be a lot more difficult. I’ve truly been blessed by being placed at this school and with this specific bunch of people. I’m really looking forward to this next year. Peace and love to all back in the States!

Sunshine. And. Rainbows.

...yet another Korean door comes up short...

good meal with traditional Korean seating on the floor

Soooo good.

Aaron enjoying our delicious meal

*Disclaimer*

This is kind of a long post. Thats because it includes entries from myself over the last few days written at the time I've specified. I just haven't had a way to post to here until now. I had just made a word document and I've been updating it as I've been going. Its been 2 days in Korea now, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly! Well, here it is:

February 16

6:49am

Well, I got to the airport at about 4:45 am with Nick and my mom and Gavin. After saying goodbye to them, I went through all the security stuff and got to my gate and met up with my coworker who’s on the same flight as me. So we spent the rest of the time until the flight talking about our lives up until that point. Oops, time to takeoff…

Me and Mom

7:47am

Ok, I’m back. Its an hour later and we’re finally in the air. Anyways, I met my coworker. Great guy, Its truly a blessing that we’re going to the same school and that we ended up being able to fly together as well.

So I’ve been sitting for about an hour now and my legs are already beginning to cramp up… not a good sign. But after the last few days, I’m sort of looking forward to being able to sit for 24 hours straight. Today is Thursday, so the last few days, Tuesday and Wednesday specifically have been a whirlwind of craziness. I wasn’t quite convinced I would get everything done with all of the goodbyes and the packing, but I managed. Adding to the chaos, last night Nick and I went to Walmart at about midnight for a few last minute items and ended up having to abandon our vehicle there due to some unforeseen mechanical difficulties…

After fetching a ride home, I managed to get a solid 2 hours of sleep on a very solid wood floor before waking up to go to the airport. Did I mention that it is quite difficult to pack everything you’re going to need for a year in two bags? It is. I ended up having to leave a few things behind that I had counted on bringing with and then there’s the matter of all the other junk I’m not taking with me! With the help of some friends, I was able to get it all packed away and dispersed amongst an crowd of friends (thanks to all).

Well, I’m about halfway to Chicago now, so I’m going to try to catch up on some sleep.

3pm (central)

After landing in Chicago, we had to take a shuttle to a different terminal to get to Korean Air, which is our airline to Seoul. Stepping onto the plane felt like stepping across the border into a different country. The way the stewardesses were dressed, the wallpaper (lovely floral patterns), the purple and teal themes, and the oriental music all made it feel very different than our last flight. So the plane we’re on has a 3-3-3 setup, and of course I’m in the middle seat of the middle column. I still haven’t been able to fall asleep yet. The headrest on the seat comes up to the nape of my neck, making it very difficult to sleep! Well… good thing they have super sweet entertainment/tv/video game systems right in front of you! There are even two cameras on the exterior of the plane plane that you can view from your personal screen. One is looking down giving a birds eye view, and the other is a front facing camera, so that’s pretty neat.

We just finished with our first meal of the flight. It was called bebimbop or something… and it was very good. The only thing I didn’t care for was the seaweed soup.

We’re flying over Canada now… we seem to be making an arch over Canada instead of going straight across, I’m sure there’s a good reason for that even if I don’t know what it is…

7:43pm (Central)

Still no sleep…….

And you know those nasty burps you get after taking fish oil pills that make you want to spew everywhere? Yeah, I’m getting that from lunch… no fun.

On the brighter side, only five and a half hours left!!! :D

10:34pm (Central) 1:34pm (wherever I am)

I believe I’m somewhere over Russia right now. I got up and walked to the back of the plane to look out a window and the view is incredible. So much open space! Its quite beautiful with all of the rivers and mountains. I wish I could be down there actually! I have about 2 and half hours left until I arrive in Seoul, so I’m giving up on any notion of sleep. I’ve been awake now for 38 hours now with 2 hours of sleep in there somewhere but I feel quite alright. Its probably just the anticipation of arriving in a foreign country, but whatever.

2:02am CST 5:02 pm KST

Wow… landing in Seoul was a success. After going through immigration and customs, we came through a set of big doors and there was a man with a sign that read our names on it, so we met up with him and he collected W35,000 from us to buy bus tickets to Daegu. He disappeared for a short while and came running back and without any warning he grabs my luggage cart and starts running through the airport yelling that we only have 5 minutes! So we start running after him and eventually we get outside and see a line of busses waiting. He points to a bus and says that we get off and the last stop and good luck. Soooo here we are. On a bus. Going to Daegu. Still. No. sleep.

This is what Korea looks like.

8:23 am CST 11:23 pm KST

Good news! I was able to sleep 2 hours on the way to Daegu. We got dumped off on some random street and waited for our director to pick us up, and then we went to a hotel, where we’ll be staying for about a week until our apartments are ready. Ok, time to sleep!

Saturday Feb 18

Its now the afternoon after I got here. Its about 3:30 pm here. Back at home its just after midnight. If you ever want to know the time difference, I’m 15 hours ahead. So flip am/pm and add three. This morning I woke up at about 9 and spent about an hour in my hotel room relaxing. The hotel is pretty similar to American hotels. Except right when you walk in there’s an entry way to leave your shoes. Apparently you don’t wear shoes inside most buildings in Korea. Even the school where I teach, which means I get to wear slippers all day! YEAH! So after the entry way there’s another door into the actual room, which isn’t tall enough for me.

This was a pose... I've actually hit my head about 4x now though

One of the positives: theres a fridge here with this excellent juice that tastes like sunshine and rainbows. It gets stocked every day apparently and its freeeee! J

So today I went and met Aaron and Don (two other teachers, Aaron from Mpls and Don from Boston area) and we set out to explore downtown. Don got here last Monday so he’s still new to the area. There are a few foreign (not Korean) teachers here that will be leaving at the beginning of March when our contracts start, because that’s when their contracts are due. Unfortunately, they are all out of town this weekend, so us three newbies are left to ourselves for the weekend! So like I said, we headed downtown to check out the sights.

We had no problem getting to where we wanted to go though. It is 100x easier that I thought it would be. We ended up at Seomun Market, which was fantastic. Aaron bought what we called a fish dog, cause it was like a corn dog with fish instead of hot dog. Pretty good stuff.

lots of these around

Some side street with vendors galore

After that we went to the downtown area and walked in circles for a good hour. There’s so many stores and things to look at. We ended up picking a restaurant solely based on the fact that there were pictures and English descriptions of the meals underneath. It was soooo good. We sat down at this table that had a big bowl in the middle of it and the waiter came over and dropped off water, kimchi, and some dish that was kinda like cole slaw but more like cabbage with sauce on it that tasted like big mac sauce. Being that I hadn’t eaten since the plane, it was wonderful. Then we ordered just the first thing on the menu and some Korean beer and soju (a rice liquor) to try. The beer was pretty standard. A lot like the other cheap beers in America. The soju tasted a lot like vodka but didn’t have the harsh edge to it. I’m hoping it grows on me because I really don’t like vodka and apparently soju is very very popular in Korea. The bottle we had at the restaurant is W3,000 which is roughly $3. That same bottle is W1,000 in a grocery store though. So, it is very cheap. Our meal turned out to be amazing and then we started back for the hotel. We made a pit stop at Home Plus (think Walmart) on the way home for some more soju and now its nap time! So far Korea is just as awesome as I expected and a lot easier. It is so easy to get around and the people are so accommodating and friendly. So far I’m really enjoying myself.

Downtown Daegu!

Sunday Feb 19

Today we went on a hike on the south end of Daegu. The path was extremely steep but the views were incredible. Everyone we came across was completely decked out in hiking gear. So far we’ve experienced some pretty funny things ranging from poor English translations to a woman wiping her dog’s butt (seriously). One of the things I noticed right away is that every car has super dark tinted windows. They all drive around looking like gangsters. Also, most cars, at least in our neighborhood, are really new cars, which is different. I still haven’t seen a traffic cop either. I really enjoy life here so far. Everything feels looser. Like, if you want to park on the sidewalk… no problem… just do it. There isn’t some law preventing you from doing everything, but everyone is personally responsible for himself or herself. It’s nice. Well, that’s all I got for now. I’ll update again soon with more interesting/funny observations.