Well not much really to say here. This last week wasn't terribly interesting other than I had Wednesday off, started Kumdo and got my new roommate. Kumdo is going ok, but it's hard to get used to the way you need to stand and move. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, but it's hard. You need to keep your feet pretty close together (I'm looking at it from the P.O.V. of a former Tae Kwon Do student) and you move with a sort of sliding step. At any rate, I've learned two of the basic attacks and basic movement so I'm making progress, but compared to the other students in the class (there are two others who attend the 7 A.M. class), I have a loooong way to go.
By new roommate is named Paul, and he's from Scotland, and seems pretty nice. At least he hasn't blew everybody off like the other new teacher......
It's really a shame the weather wasn't good this weekend as I had been planning on going and partaking in some cherry blossom festivals, but it didn't go down so that went down the tube.
At any rate, before I go, I really would appreciate if people left more comments on my blog. Without a counter on it, I really have no idea of how many people come and visit, plus it's a nice way to keep in contact. Don't worry if you try to leave a comment and it doesn't show up right away wither, I have to ok any comments before they go up. Anyhow, I should hit the sack. Later.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Brave Fencer Shad!?!?!
First off, my apologies for posting late, I'll make up for it with a post again on Wednesday. On my way home from work, I pondered what topic I should cover first. It's been a bit wild here. And since I love suspense, I'll get to my posts title a little later....
Last week, one of the Korean teachers quit, which stinks as she did it on the last day of the month, which is when everything for the next month is prepared. Thus, all of her classes are be covered by someone temporary. Not good, really. Fortunately it has only affected one of my classes, which I've been kind of setting my own schedule on what to cover on a given day, not to hard really, just annoying. However, compound that with being down a foreign teacher as well and the schedule gets pretty convoluted. The good news is that they are already training a new Korean teacher, and the new foreign teacher (who will get the bonus prize of rooming with me as my old roommate moved as he had planed since before I moved in) should arrive Wednesday or Thursday. Speaking of Wednesday, I don't have to work. Yes that's right, I have Wednesday off. Why, you may ask? It's election day here, and apparently that means no school, quite nice really. That also got me thinking: If election day in the U.S. was a holiday, would more people turn out and vote? Something tells me no, but it would be interesting. At any rate, that also means I get to deal with campaign posters, people on in lines on the street saying what I would assume to be vote for candidate (insert number here, all the candidates are numbered). I actually met candidate #2 last week. He didn't make a good impression, I can say that much. I was on my way to school, and I hadn't got out of the neighborhood, when low and behold there he was. He must have caught a glimpse of my shoes as I was descending a hill and he had his down, because he started to approach me as if to shake my hand ir something, then he looked up and realized I was a weygook (Korean for foreigner) and quickly moved in a different direction. I'm certainly not voting for him.....
I also had my appointment with the GI doc last week. No real problems, I do however get to go in on the 28th for a blood test to make sure my kidneys and liver are still working, but that's routine. I was even able to get my prescriptions, with no hassle, and they were fairly cheap, only 50,000 won ($50 for those of you who don't know the exchange rate yet).
And know for the topic you've been waiting for, the reason behind my title: I start Kumdo tomorrow. What's Kumdo, you may ask? Kumdo (or Kendo in Japan) is the Korean (and Japanese) art of fencing. Don't really think of it as you would the Olympic sport fencing as the similarities end at wearing protective gear and using fake swords. Kumdo employs a unique style of footwork and strikes with a bamboo sword (unlike fencing which is limited to very linear movement and thrusts). I'm very excited as I've wanted to be able to do this since high school. My classes start at 7 AM and go untill 8 AM, which is really the only class time offered that would work. So I get to get up at 5:50 AM on weekdays so I can get ready and catch the bus, as the dojang (dojo/place of instruction) is a rec center on the other end of town near the city hall. It's pretty nice, the place has a swimming pool, driving range, Korean style bath, racquet's ball courts and of course the Kumdo area. I'll elaborate more on Wednesday, but for now, I'll just post some pictures.
Last week, one of the Korean teachers quit, which stinks as she did it on the last day of the month, which is when everything for the next month is prepared. Thus, all of her classes are be covered by someone temporary. Not good, really. Fortunately it has only affected one of my classes, which I've been kind of setting my own schedule on what to cover on a given day, not to hard really, just annoying. However, compound that with being down a foreign teacher as well and the schedule gets pretty convoluted. The good news is that they are already training a new Korean teacher, and the new foreign teacher (who will get the bonus prize of rooming with me as my old roommate moved as he had planed since before I moved in) should arrive Wednesday or Thursday. Speaking of Wednesday, I don't have to work. Yes that's right, I have Wednesday off. Why, you may ask? It's election day here, and apparently that means no school, quite nice really. That also got me thinking: If election day in the U.S. was a holiday, would more people turn out and vote? Something tells me no, but it would be interesting. At any rate, that also means I get to deal with campaign posters, people on in lines on the street saying what I would assume to be vote for candidate (insert number here, all the candidates are numbered). I actually met candidate #2 last week. He didn't make a good impression, I can say that much. I was on my way to school, and I hadn't got out of the neighborhood, when low and behold there he was. He must have caught a glimpse of my shoes as I was descending a hill and he had his down, because he started to approach me as if to shake my hand ir something, then he looked up and realized I was a weygook (Korean for foreigner) and quickly moved in a different direction. I'm certainly not voting for him.....
I also had my appointment with the GI doc last week. No real problems, I do however get to go in on the 28th for a blood test to make sure my kidneys and liver are still working, but that's routine. I was even able to get my prescriptions, with no hassle, and they were fairly cheap, only 50,000 won ($50 for those of you who don't know the exchange rate yet).
And know for the topic you've been waiting for, the reason behind my title: I start Kumdo tomorrow. What's Kumdo, you may ask? Kumdo (or Kendo in Japan) is the Korean (and Japanese) art of fencing. Don't really think of it as you would the Olympic sport fencing as the similarities end at wearing protective gear and using fake swords. Kumdo employs a unique style of footwork and strikes with a bamboo sword (unlike fencing which is limited to very linear movement and thrusts). I'm very excited as I've wanted to be able to do this since high school. My classes start at 7 AM and go untill 8 AM, which is really the only class time offered that would work. So I get to get up at 5:50 AM on weekdays so I can get ready and catch the bus, as the dojang (dojo/place of instruction) is a rec center on the other end of town near the city hall. It's pretty nice, the place has a swimming pool, driving range, Korean style bath, racquet's ball courts and of course the Kumdo area. I'll elaborate more on Wednesday, but for now, I'll just post some pictures.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Days 28-31 "A trip to the hospital and Easter"
Well, I had a eventful weekend, more or less. On Friday morning I woke up completely sick, I couldn't hear out of my left ear, had a headache, was nauseous, got very little sleep and generally felt like I had a huge sinuous infection. So I went to St. Mary's Hospital (the biggest in the city) where they have English speaking staff. Turns out I was wrong, I had a sinuous AND ear infection. Yeah... so they loaded me up with antibiotics and set me on my way. Thus I slept throughout a good part of Friday and Saturday. Sunday I was feeling well enough to attempt to find the only English speaking church I've heard about so far in the city. So I hopped a cab and went to the gates of Camp Red Cloud, one of the many U.S. bases and sure enough, the church was just across the street, and thus I was able to enjoy a lovely Easter service. Afterwards, the pastor, his family and a few others convinced me to go eat on base with them. We ended up eating at the Commanding General's mess, which was very much like a supper club (well, at least I think so, I've never really been to a supper club before). But the food was good and afterwards I caught the train back to my side of town and spent the rest of the day vegetating.
As for today (Monday) I have successfully made the call and faxed the info to get internet. DSL, here I come!!!! With any luck I'll have it hooked up by Friday, maybe even Thursday.... should also have a bank account tomorrow. I'm still deciding if I want to get a cell phone, the rates they charge foreigners are bad I here, but I'll decide on that after I get paid. I also heard some good news on the martial arts front, as a school willing to teach me Kumdo (the Korean version of Kendo) has been found. That also will be something I start after my first payday.
I'd also like to take a moment to say "hi" to my home church of Lewis Lake back in the States. Hope you all are well.
Anyhow, on to the pictures. The first few will be pictures of my apartment. The rest will be pictures and the video I promised from Seoul. Enjoy!
Note: it seems the video will take some time, maybe later
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Day 23 or "What to do with crazed kindergartners"
Hypothetical situation: You have 11 kids who speak next to no English. Next, they have the attention span of a kid with ADHD and no Ritalin. Then for good measure, just pretend they don't want to listen. Yeah that's how my morning was....
On another note I'm officially a registered alien! That's right! I even have a card to prove it!! Now I am entitled to have a bank acct, medical insurance, a cell phone, the internet, and the list goes on. Hopefully sometime in the next week I'll actually set out to get all that mess taken care of.
In other news, two teachers are scheduled to leave at the end of the month, which in turn means we are scheduled to get two new teachers sometime around Saturday if my calculations are correct. That also means I and the other 3 three teachers who arrived at the same time will no longer be the low people on the ladder!
As for my weekend, I took another trip into Seoul, this time to the districts of Itaewon and Dongdaemon (pronounced Eat-a-won and Dong-day-moon). Itaewon is considered the area where all the foreigners go, consequently, many of the shops and restaurants have English all over the place. Among the restaurants I spotted were Subway, Outback Steakhouse, the Hard Rock Cafe, Quiznos, KFC, Burger King, and Mc Donalds to name a few. While Subway tempted me, I ended up going to Kraze Burger, which is really sort of a gourmet diner. I ended up getting a burger and it was soo big you had to eat it with a knife and fork, I give Kraze burger four and a half fries out of five (mainly because they had sweet pickles, what a travesty). I also visited and English book store with a slightly suggestive title, so I don't think I'll be posting that, but at an rate I couldn't find anything worth getting, which is unfortunate. As for Dongdaemon, it's reall attractions are the stadium (really 2 stadiums next to each other, one for baseball, one for soccer) and 5 malls devoted all to clothing. Clothing is a whole other issue, I'll take some picture of various styles of dress here in a bit, but a lot of it sometimes bewilders me.
On the subject of pictures, I will be uploading some more just as soon as I get the internet in my apartment. Cheers!
On another note I'm officially a registered alien! That's right! I even have a card to prove it!! Now I am entitled to have a bank acct, medical insurance, a cell phone, the internet, and the list goes on. Hopefully sometime in the next week I'll actually set out to get all that mess taken care of.
In other news, two teachers are scheduled to leave at the end of the month, which in turn means we are scheduled to get two new teachers sometime around Saturday if my calculations are correct. That also means I and the other 3 three teachers who arrived at the same time will no longer be the low people on the ladder!
As for my weekend, I took another trip into Seoul, this time to the districts of Itaewon and Dongdaemon (pronounced Eat-a-won and Dong-day-moon). Itaewon is considered the area where all the foreigners go, consequently, many of the shops and restaurants have English all over the place. Among the restaurants I spotted were Subway, Outback Steakhouse, the Hard Rock Cafe, Quiznos, KFC, Burger King, and Mc Donalds to name a few. While Subway tempted me, I ended up going to Kraze Burger, which is really sort of a gourmet diner. I ended up getting a burger and it was soo big you had to eat it with a knife and fork, I give Kraze burger four and a half fries out of five (mainly because they had sweet pickles, what a travesty). I also visited and English book store with a slightly suggestive title, so I don't think I'll be posting that, but at an rate I couldn't find anything worth getting, which is unfortunate. As for Dongdaemon, it's reall attractions are the stadium (really 2 stadiums next to each other, one for baseball, one for soccer) and 5 malls devoted all to clothing. Clothing is a whole other issue, I'll take some picture of various styles of dress here in a bit, but a lot of it sometimes bewilders me.
On the subject of pictures, I will be uploading some more just as soon as I get the internet in my apartment. Cheers!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Day 16....
Well, it's Tuesday afternoon for me (for my readers in the Central Time Zone it's now 11 PM), or more precisely 1 PM. So I survived moving my stuff to my new apartment on Sunday and it is much nicer than my old apartment. My new bedroom is around the same size my last apartment was.... yeah. I'll post pics at a later date.
In other news, I went to Seoul on Saturday. I took the "subway" (it's really a cross between a subway and elevated train in that in actual Seoul proper it's a subway but on the outskirts and here in Uijeongbu it's just an elevated train). It was about a 40 min ride, but the real crazy part is how much it costs. One way it cost a total of 1300 won, or about $1.30. Furthermore, they have this thing called a T-money card. Think of it as a rechargeable gift card that lets you avoid buying tickets for the "subway" or paying cash/change to ride the bus. VERY HANDY. The trip to Seoul had no real set purpose or destination other than I wanted to get a watch to replace the one I brought, since it broke on me.... I managed to find a very nice replacement for 10000 won ($10) from a street vendor. However the most amazing thing I saw that day was a traffic conductor. He was dressed like a 1930's gangster or something. He wore a long gray trench coat with black fur lining the collar and a gray and black fedora. They way he directed traffic was more like a weird hand dance or something. We (I was with another teacher who arrived the same time as I did by the name of Mike) shot a video of it on Mike's camera, I'll try to upload that too.
Yesterday I decided to broaden my horizons and go to a Korean bathhouse, again with Mike. It was crazy, but in a good way. The actual bath area had 4 communal tubs (3 with varying temps of hot water and a near freezing plunge pool) , showers lining the wall, two rows of taps to wash yourself at (you don't do it in the pool) and 3 saunas (ranging from VERY HOT to surface of the Sun). Also in the bath house is a barber, a restaurant, a bar, a gym and a row of massage chairs and machine for you feet, where for a mere 100 won ($1) you may get 10 mins of massage. Entrance itself was only 6000 won ($6). Yeah, really awesome in my opinion, but sorry there won't be any pictures from the bathhouse. (I know some of you will be let down by that).
In other news, I went to Seoul on Saturday. I took the "subway" (it's really a cross between a subway and elevated train in that in actual Seoul proper it's a subway but on the outskirts and here in Uijeongbu it's just an elevated train). It was about a 40 min ride, but the real crazy part is how much it costs. One way it cost a total of 1300 won, or about $1.30. Furthermore, they have this thing called a T-money card. Think of it as a rechargeable gift card that lets you avoid buying tickets for the "subway" or paying cash/change to ride the bus. VERY HANDY. The trip to Seoul had no real set purpose or destination other than I wanted to get a watch to replace the one I brought, since it broke on me.... I managed to find a very nice replacement for 10000 won ($10) from a street vendor. However the most amazing thing I saw that day was a traffic conductor. He was dressed like a 1930's gangster or something. He wore a long gray trench coat with black fur lining the collar and a gray and black fedora. They way he directed traffic was more like a weird hand dance or something. We (I was with another teacher who arrived the same time as I did by the name of Mike) shot a video of it on Mike's camera, I'll try to upload that too.
Yesterday I decided to broaden my horizons and go to a Korean bathhouse, again with Mike. It was crazy, but in a good way. The actual bath area had 4 communal tubs (3 with varying temps of hot water and a near freezing plunge pool) , showers lining the wall, two rows of taps to wash yourself at (you don't do it in the pool) and 3 saunas (ranging from VERY HOT to surface of the Sun). Also in the bath house is a barber, a restaurant, a bar, a gym and a row of massage chairs and machine for you feet, where for a mere 100 won ($1) you may get 10 mins of massage. Entrance itself was only 6000 won ($6). Yeah, really awesome in my opinion, but sorry there won't be any pictures from the bathhouse. (I know some of you will be let down by that).
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Day 9...... The day before kindergarten....
Today, I figured I would be a go getter and go in early and get some planning done and some materials together, but that was a real bad idea. First, It started snowing pretty hard, which meant I had to ride the bus to avoid ending up drenched. Next, I had to get materials and the like organized for my kindergarten class, then I had 4 elementary classes to teach, and not all of them had there books or materials either...... yeah.
On another note Saturday I had beef shabu-shabu style (which basically) means it's cooked in at your table by dipping it into boiling broth. Monday night I went out for Chinese and had what seemed to be some sort of sweet and sour chicken. I haven't ate much today except for a chocolate coronet....
Oh and the picture of the town was taken on foot as walked to school one day.
On another note Saturday I had beef shabu-shabu style (which basically) means it's cooked in at your table by dipping it into boiling broth. Monday night I went out for Chinese and had what seemed to be some sort of sweet and sour chicken. I haven't ate much today except for a chocolate coronet....
Oh and the picture of the town was taken on foot as walked to school one day.
Monday, March 3, 2008
One week down.... AND PICTURES
Ok. So, as promised here are some pictures from my first week. Most should be pretty self explanatory. The first is a picture of the scenery on my way to work. Since I'm on the outskirts right now, my scenery changes quite a bit, but I wanted something to prove my description of Korea a post or two back. The next three pictures are from the kindergarten graduation on Friday. The kids in costumes weren't graduating so they did a little presentation. The last picture is a little hard to read, but I find amusing as it's a decent example of Konglish. Konglish is sort of like Spanglish, Engrish and the sort. You actually see all kinds of poorly phrased signs, this is just one example.
EDIT: For those who can't make out the picture, it reads: "Our slogan is 'Break the impossibility habit.'"
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