Angela Pastorello

One Year- Where I've Been

2009-10-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Busan- board walk

Busan- sand castle

Busan- while hiking

Gyeongju (my mom)

Daejon Arboretum

Daejon Technology Park

Gumi

Jeonju

Jeonju Gate

Daegu Park

Some of my friends

2009-10-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

jenny

vicky

melissa

jenny & hannah

julia

Quick Island Get-a-way

2009-04-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Recently we had an overnight staff trip to an island down by the bottom of Korea (Gojae Island). It was a lot of fun. The first night we went outside and had a Korean style BBQ (rib meat on the grill like in an earlier post). That was the first time in Korea I’ve eaten BBQ outside. We ate right off the grill. It was almost like an American BBQ with Korean food. After that we did karaoke in the living room.
The next morning we took a ferry to this other island (Wae-doh) that’s absolutely beautiful. It’s this amazing garden that you walk through and it takes a couple of hours. It’s privately owned and kept up by this one rich guy. It’s open to the public for tours for only $5.
Here’s some pictures

me and my girls (janna and melissa)

Below are pictures from the 2nd island, Wae-doh.
I loved that field of yellow flowers, it was great to take pics in (my coworker Bella)

one of our staff, Vicky- she's teaching me korean!

my coworkers jake, my boss kate, janna, vicky

me and my coworker Janna

I just love these steps (my coworker Melissa)

these are some shots from the ferry

this is the view up high of an earlier part of the tour... it's designed so beautifully

spring is here

You may have lived in Korea too long if...

2009-04-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

On a lazy Sunday afternoon my friends and I came up with this...

Living in Korea... maybe you don't speak the language, or fully understand the culture, but still, you're comfortable here. You may even call it home. It took a while, but now...
You know you've been in Korea too long when...
1. You notice your English has gotten worse, but your hand gestures have gotten better.
2. You don't think it's noteworthy that everything is good for stamina, well being or your skin.
3. You're thankful for the mirrors that are everywhere, and actually use them.
4. You use your floor heating as a clothes dryer and know exactly how many articles of clothing will fit on your floor.
5. In a restaurant you turn down a fork, are shocked to see a knife on the table, but are unfazed by the scissors.
6. You don't notice the appearance of corn in unexpected places.
7. You like the randomness of the things you get for free.
8. Your standard of western food has dropped so low that what was once ok is now wonderful.
9. You aren't surprised by sweet pickles and know it’s a sign you’re eating “foreign food”.
10. You take your shoes off when you walk into your house, and put shoes on to walk into the bathroom.
11. You rarely eat a meal without rice in some form.
12. You don't notice people in couple outfits.
13. You no longer notice you're being followed in stores.
14. You aren't bothered by being stared at.
15. You think it's normal for cars to park on the sidewalk.
16. You're not bothered by not getting what you ordered because the waitress didn't understand you.
17. You go to a restaurant and are impressed if you are given more than one menu for your party of ten.
18. You tune out the fruit vendor trucks, the store opening trucks and everything broadcast from a moving vehicle.
19. You no longer believe in waiting in line.
20. You finally realize polite has a different meaning.
21. You know the questions to ask about the state of the public restroom.
22. You don't expect to get hot water in a public building.
23. You automatically give and receive things with two hands.
24. You accept that waffles are a dessert item and not just for breakfast.
25. You find the genius in the way everything is individually wrapped and packaged.
26. You find the toaster oven has become an integral part of how you cook… and an ingenious way to bake.
27. You can finally discern the alphabet on signs.
28. You are no longer distracted by the loud music playing as you shop.
29. You recognize each store's theme song and know that each store has it's own theme song.
30. You know there is no such thing as copyright.
31. You actually understand the appeal of 'Big Bang' and the 'Wonder Girls'.
32. You know that “Crack” has a completely different meaning here.
33. You know more about the current hot drama than about world events.
34. You eat seaweed at least 5 times a week and don't find it strange.
35. You've seen a vending machine sell both mentos and condoms and think 'useful'.
36. You own and use a pollution or yellow dust mask.
37. You know everything can be made take out, delivered in 15 minutes from the time you call and are surprised when you don't get real plates and flatware.
38. You accept you're going to be considered odd if you're not married or currently dating.
39. You know that “orange” (light brown) is a hair color and straight perms are a way of life.
40. You realize cute is timeless, and everything can be made cuter.
41. You understand that the stationary store is the equivalent to the toy store for Korean kids.
42. You notice when a person doesn't have a cell phone charm and wonder why they don't.
43. Your 5-year-old student has a better cell phone than you and you're not bothered by it.
44. You think it's normal for high school students to go to school until 10 pm.
45. You claim you can't sing, but still break into song at the Noo-rae-bang.
46. You no longer notice the Korean subtitles at the bottom of English TV shows and when you do, you find yourself trying to follow them.
47. You don't expect the check to be automatically brought to you at the end of a meal.
48. You know that chopsticks aren't just for eating with, but are an essential tool with many uses.
49. You no longer notice you're the only foreigner in a place.
50. You speak in “Konglish” (saying some words in Korean and other words in English in one sentence).
51. You think of squid and kimchi for a 4th of july bbq, but hot dogs never occur to u.
52. You use words like "fighting", "cunning" and "fishing" but have now adopted the korean meaning for them.
53. You have adopted korean holidays as your own.
54. You think in a korean accent
55. Your debit card won't swipe anymore

K-pop

2009-03-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

I decided to fill people in on the culture with samples of current popular music. Here’s some that I like. I tried to find them all with subtitles for you, but when watching them I found it distracts from the beat. But either way… enjoy!
extreme

saturday night

it's you

lolipop

sorry sorry

There’s another song called “crazy” by son dam bi, but the video was a little racey for the blog.

My Birthday

2009-02-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of fun on my birthday. Between hanging out with people on the 5th here and all the internet birthday wishes from home (on the 5th in EST), it was like my birthday was two days long with the time difference. In the morning I met up with some friends from church and had coffee. After work that night all of the staff and teachers went out for dinner downtown. They brought a cake that was the best cake I’ve had here. In traditional Korean fasion, after dinner we went to a noorae-bang (karaoke room- it’s a place you go to where your group has their own private room to sing in. They have tons of Korean and American songs.) I teamed up with my coworker Melissa to have a chance at making a pleasant sound, but she had the same idea and so we sounded terrible… but it was a lot of fun. My boss pulled out the Mariah Carey and Beyonce and nailed them. By the end of the night we knew this would have to be a regular event.

The group at dinner

My cake

Dinner

A picture with the boss

Outside of the noorae-bang (karaoke)

Skiing

2009-02-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

I went skiing with my coworkers and a bunch of my friends from church. We had so much fun! We took a train ride down to Busan early in the morning. As we approached the mountains I thought to myself, “they have absolutely no snow on them?” (Apparently it only snows up north in Seoul. Here in Daegu it has only snowed once.) So all the snow on the slope was man-made. Some quick differences are… the chair lift is wider. It fits 6 people so the lines for the lifts are so short. You can also rent a snowsuit.
I’ve only been skiing a few times in my life, but some of you know that I loved it the first day. Usually when I do the first run of the day I need some time to “find my legs” and get used to it again, but this time it was instantaneous. I improved a lot that day and even got so I felt very comfortable on the “black square” which I guess is harder than intermediate, but easier than black diamond.
Here are a few pictures…

What Are Christmas and New Years Like?

2009-01-18T07:46:00.000-08:00

Many people have been asking that. It’s somewhat reverse of the U.S. because on Christmas we spend time with family and New Years is for friends, while in Korea Christmas is for friends and New Years is for family. Christmas marks the first day of winter vacation and is a day to sleep in. Most academies don’t have classes, but mine is one of the few that still do. Christmas is a day to hang out with friends. The kids know a little about Christmas, but not very much. I tried playing a game at the end of class with Christmas words in it and they had no idea what frosty the snowman, ornament, wreath, rudolph or anything like that was.
What did I do? At work we had a secret santa. We came in early that morning and exchanged gifts before class. My boss brought food in and we had some laughs. That night we went downtown to this western restaurant (owned by 2 Canadian guys). They had a turkey dinner with all the sides. The place was packed with westerners from all over and the whole place was filled with people speaking English. That was kinda weird. Even though we didn’t know anyone else there, everyone there sort of felt like one big family. Different tables started talking to each other like it was a cocktail party. They had a Christmas trivia game that everyone played and our table won. The next morning I got to see my family on the webcam… I always love that!
Koreans don’t celebrate the calendar New Years, they celebrate lunar (Chinese) New Years. So the date rolling over to January 1st doesn’t really mean much to them. To make us feel like we still had a holiday my boss planned a New Years Eve party and bought tons of American food from Costco (yes, we have Costco here) and we turned on American tv to watch the ball drop. It was fun hanging out with the staff. They are all so nice. Lunar New Years is coming up in a week and I will finally get a day off. It falls on a Monday, which makes for a nice long weekend. I will be going skiing with people from my church. I can’t wait!
As you know, schools in the U.S. get 2 months off in the summer and their Christmas break is a week long. Here they get 1 month off in January (for snow storms) and 1 month off in the summer (for rainy season). This “vacation” is hardly that for most kids. Their lives during these months are busier than usual. Most kids are sent to 3 academies a day; one right after another. My head instructor calls us a babysitting service… watching the kids while the parents are at work during their vacation. We call this month “winter intensives”. So what this means for me is that I’m teaching extra classes and have lots more preparing to do these days. Luckily I get paid extra for this too. That’s why I’ve been so M.I.A. lately by the way. I’ve gotten used to it now, but at the same time I’m glad it’s almost over.
On a totally different topic, I’m starting to get to know people at church and I am hanging out after church with them. To me that is what makes me feel comfortable somewhere. Today we went to one person’s apartment, made pancakes, played cards, laughed, watched some tv. It was the most comfortable I’ve felt since I’ve been here (outside of hanging out with work people).
And now for my random thoughts on Korea:
I’m so amazed that everyone here knows so much about Obama and Bush (even my students). (Koreans are very pro-Obama by the way.) The day after the election I was with my coworkers and a man on the street asked us if we were from America. When we told him yes, he shook our hands and congratulated us with a huge smile. It got me thinking about how it seems that much of the world knows things about other cultures and countries, but the average American doesn’t really know all that much about other cultures. It saddens me. That’s just my take on it anyway.
I’ve been trying to get used to the “look up culture” as I call it. I’m so used to everything being at eye level or on the first floor. Here it’s all about saving space and so things are built up. When I look at stores walking down the street I tend to just look at the first floor shops and look in the windows, but I’m missing about 1/3 of the world. There’s so many great restaurants, billard places, salons, etc. that are on the 2nd or 3rd floor. They are not as well marked, but when I am more conscious about looking up I see the signs.
Most people don’t have coffee pots here. Most people drink those individual cup instant coffee mix packets. It’s got the powdered cream and sugar already proportioned in it. At work we have a coffee pot. I can’t find cream anywhere (except for powdered cream which I don’t like). So I now drink black coffee with sugar. I’ve gotten used to it. I never thought I could like that.
On a related note… do you know how at Starbucks when people are adding their own cream and sugar they will dump out a little of the coffee in the trash to make room for the cream? If you’re a Starbucks fan, then you know what I mean. I always feel bad for the worker who has to take out the trash because all that liquid makes the trash bag heavy I’m sure. Well, the Starbucks here actually has a drain right there for you to dump in. I just think that’s so smart. Ok, you’re probably not as interested in that as I am, but that’s ok.
I really like the process for paying bills here. All you have to do is bring your bill to an ATM, you put your card in, then you put the bill in. That’s it. Bills have a bar code on them that the ATM reads and automatically deducts it from you account. No stamps, no envelopes, no post office runs. It’s so easy.
My coworker thinks the driving here is crazy. I don’t think so. On the one hand, I have been to some countries where the driving REALLY IS madness and it seems there are no rules to the road. All this is to say that the driving is pretty normal here except that cars drive up and park on the sidewalk all the time. And I don’t mean they just turn from the street and pull right in. I mean they DRIVE on the sidewalk sometimes. It’s weird, but I got the hang of it somehow and it doesn’t faze me so much anymore. What still blows my mind on the other hand is the motorcycles. I don’t think they have any rules at all. It’s mostly delivery boys from restaurants on bikes. One minute they are driving on the streets like cars and the next minute they are dodging people left and right driving all over the sidewalk. They seem to never stop for red lights or people. I can’t complain too much about that though because any place I call to order food, 15 minutes later it arrives piping hot. By the way, I can call all by myself to have food delivered. The first time I did that was a month ago or so. I felt so accomplished and so much more independent. Enjoy the pictures...

teacher picture- secret santa

staff picture- secret santa

christmas dinner

my coworker melissa

new years eve

my coworker janna

Outdoor Market Near My Apartment

2008-12-11T08:07:00.000-08:00

Korea has big shopping places similar to Wal-Mart, Macy's, Circuit City, and grocery stores, ect., but what I love is the little mom and pop places and that's where I buy all my fruit and little treats. Here's a picture of the street. We call it "the market".

Tons of fresh fish

All kinds of ddohk (rice cake)

All kinds of vegetables

All kinds of beans

Most popular street food- ddohk-bok-ee and ohdeng (rice cakes in a spicy red sauce, fish cake on a stick)

Meat on a stick with special sauce drizzled on it and spicy powder

Fried fish shaped cake filled with red bean... so warm and crispy

Good Eating!

2008-12-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of meat places in Korea that have a grill right inside the table. The first picture is a shot of the table with some of the side dishes they give you.

Randomness About Korea

2008-12-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

Here people are really into appearances. That’s why they have such great skin care products and why they have mirrors absolutely everywhere. I mean anytime you’re about to enter or exit somewhere there’s a mirror; like the subway and elevators. And you always see people fixing their hair and shirts. At first I didn’t think much of it, but now I do it too, just because it’s there. Speaking of that, I got a 1-hour facial for less than $10. It was deep cleansing and a mask. I fell asleep, it was great!
Getting around: You know how nowadays we barely give directions. We just give people addresses and expect them to “mapquest it” or however they want to look it up online. We depend on addresses, street names, and definite markers to know where to turn. Here they don’t really have addresses. They do as far as the post office is concerned, but not really. (I heard that buildings might be numbered in the order they are built) So you can’t just look up where something is. And google maps (my best friend) does not work here. I think Koreans just sorta know where stuff is. To give directions you have to guestimate everything. You pick something that will probably be there for a long time, like the Honda dealership or convenient store and say turn left on the tiny street after that. Luckily google earth works here, but since I can’t just look up street names, it’s usage is limited. I’ve already figured out my longitude and latitude to look on google earth and so that way I can at least get to see my area of town better. (If anyone wants my coordinates to see for themselves where I am then please email me)
I really want to take Korean classes and I have found a couple of places that have them, but unfortunately they’re all while I’m at work or way too far away. I decided to label the things in my apartment in korean. I haven’t finished yet, but I figure it’ll be an easy way to pick up another 20 or so words.
So far I haven’t found a ton of things to do. Possibly because I’m on the outskirts of the city. My coworker and I found an indoor rock wall climbing place. It’s only about $5 for the whole day. There’s also a pool hall near work. That’s inexpensive too. It’s not dark and filled with questionable people like you might think. It’s usually filled with teens and well lit.
On TV there’s a few English channels, but they still have Korean commercials. I like that. They have way less commercials here. Or I should say that there’s less commercial breaks, but then in between shows they have a long break. The commercials are pretty much the same style as ours.
There’s this huge 2-story store that’s like Wal-Mart and inside is a food court and one of the places is fast food and they have great French fries. For my coworker and I, it’s like a little piece of home. Sometimes on the way home we’ll stop in just for those fries.
Daegu is famous for pig intestine. So we tried it recently. It’s seasoned and grilled. It looks sort of like calamari, except bigger. It tastes pretty good actually, but it’s chewy. Sorry, I forgot my camera that day.
I found this café that’s so cute inside. I met the girl and she’s so friendly and knows a little English. I had my coffee and prepared for my class there one day. I think it’s going to become “my spot”. I love it.
For Thanksgiving I got to see my family through webcam. It’s was awesome! So if anyone else has a webcam let me know.

Community

2008-12-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

I’ve been trying different churches since I’ve been here. Daegu has a lot of churches, but not many have English services. I haven’t found anything that really strikes me. It’s frustrating. I think I have decided which one I’ll attend though. Along the way, I’ve met a few pretty cool people though. One lives in the same area of town and is an English teacher too (unfortunately we have opposite work schedules). Another girl is from the Philippines. I learned a long time ago that what makes a place home is the community you build for yourself… aka, the people. So that’s what I’ve been anxious to do… have a church home, have additional friends outside of school to hang out with, and have “my spot” like the Green Bean Café that I recently found and enjoy. I keep reminding myself that it’s one of those things that just takes time.

Really What I'm Doing

2008-12-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Now that I’ve been here for a little while I suppose I should clarify what it is I actually do. I work at an after school academy. They are very popular here. There’s some for math or music, etc… so mine is English of course. Many kids go to ours two days a week and to another one the other days. There are some kids who attend ours from 4-7pm and then go straight to another one and don’t get home until around midnight. It’s just the thing kids do here. Oftentimes I feel bad for them sitting in regular school all day and then sitting in academies on top of that. It’s a known fact that academies give more homework than regular school. I’ve heard that this has increased in the last decade and so day schools have been giving less homework these days. I still feel bad for them.
Many of you asked before I left “If you don’t know Korean, how will you teach them English?” I had no idea at the time, but I wasn’t worried about it. The one thing I did know is that you’re supposed to “feed them English”. Now I can clarify. When you were in middle school first learning French or Spanish, did you have a person from France/Spain who knew no English teaching you? No, you had an American who was fluent in the language who spoke mostly in English, but taught you the basics of the language. Then as you progressed, they didn’t want you speaking English in the class, right? And your teacher started using more of the language with you in class. And if you were to go really far with it, you’d enter a class where there’s no English speaking whatsoever, not from you or the teacher. Next you’d work on true fluency.
These kids start English really young in school with their Korean teachers. They learn the basics from them and by the time they are in middle school, many of them are ready for foreign teachers (me). For some of my lower level classes I try to speak a little slower and I simplify my language for all classes, but on the whole they understand me. So what I work on with them is increasing their vocab and refining their grammar. Some of them will write or say “he go to store” and forget about “s” to match with he, and forget “the” because it doesn’t work that way in Korean. Some kids know and so as soon as they say it, they’ll fix it. But I have a couple who really can’t put sentences together for the life of them. Another major thing I teach them is transitions. They have trouble seeing that there’s a relationship between sentences next to each other, so I teach them how words like “However, because, also, after” etc. work and then they have to give me their own examples.
Through this I’ve noticed just how many words have multiple meanings. I really feel bad for the kids because I’m sure it confuses them. I’ve also noticed that girls are better than boys at handwriting (their Korean writing too). That makes me laugh.
I had no idea how difficult it is to write on the board. It’s more difficult than it looks, especially as a lefty. First of all you have to write vertically with no place to rest your arm. You can’t stand right in front or you’ll block the view, so you have to write at a weird angle off to the side. And you’re not supposed to face the board, but continue facing the kids. Plus I’m a lefty which makes the hard, impossible. I definitely don’t have it down.
I have to say that on the whole I’m liking this and I’m glad I did this. I have my moments and I have things I don’t like of course, but thus is life, right? I have a couple of kids that frustrate me and I don’t know what to do with them sometimes. I really don’t like preparing lessons. Sometimes after one of my longer days with my biggest classes, I can feel my throat starting to hurt from having to talk so loud and so long. But I really like it when the kids are eating candy and they offer me some during break. I like it when the shy kids raise their hand to answer. I like it when I can see the wheels turning inside a kid’s head and they get a concept. I like it when they teach me something about Korea.

Additional Website for Pictures and Videos

2008-11-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

I decided to create this as an attempt to not slow down loading the main blog. I'll fill this one up too.
http://angela-pastorello-videos.blogspot.com/

Hiking

2008-11-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

I've become obsessed with the mountains and determined to climb them. That's what I keep telling my students. Luckily my coworkers like hiking too. So today we got up early and walked 25 minutes to the base of the mountain and set foot on one of the many trails. We had so much fun!

(Left) My coworker
(Right) Main gate to the paths... oh so pretty

Pictures- My Area of Daegu

2008-11-05T04:45:00.000-08:00

STREET MY SCHOOL IS ON- multi-lane large road

SAME STREET AT NIGHT (view from my classroom window) In Korea everything lights up at night.

MY STREET -there's tons of tiny streets off the main drag. I find it so strange that these tiny almost 3rd-world looking streets exist just off this main 1st-world looking road. It's like 2 different worlds.

PARK OUTSIDE MY BEDROOM WINDOW

(yes, those are outdoor exercise machines)

Videos

2008-10-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Video Of My Apartment

School Pictures

2008-10-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

my school building

my classroom

a Plus and a Minus

2008-10-27T07:34:00.001-07:00

Plus: I love how you can get food delivered here that you’d never be able to in the US… or if you did, then it would be cold by the time you got it. Every time I order a soup, it comes piping hot (and no, I don’t mean by my standards. It really is hot. So yes, I have to wait for it to cool down.). Tonight I ordered dulsoh-bibimbap (mixed rice and veggies in a stone pot) and I was so surprised to receive it so hot still.
Minus: I did laundry last night. I REALLY miss having a dryer. I have clothes hanging all over the apartment… and they’re still wet. I also had a difficult time trying to decipher all the buttons. I sorta figured it out. When I say “sorta” I mean that I had clean clothes in the end, but I ended up pulling half out them out of the water to wring out. I asked one of the administrative people today at work. I think next time should go smoother.

Downtown Daegu

2008-10-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun going downtown this weekend. It feels much more like a city. On the weekends it’s wall-to-wall people, bright lights at night, and lots of sounds. Many stores play loud music and have their doors open so you can hear it in the street. As you walk only a few paces you hear one song fading out and being drown by the next store’s music. Actually, I kind of like that. It’s common in malls and department stores here for there to be women holding a product or flyer and calling out to passers by. So downtown since the music is so loud, people have microphones and call out.
For some reason all the stores are segregated by their type. What I mean is that there’ll be a whole street that’s just clothing, another street that’s just jewelry, another just for food, another for weddings. It’s interesting, you’d think that it would make things too competitive to stay in business. I found this huge bookstore that’s like a Barnes & Noble… and it even has a Starbucks in it. Yes, that’s right, I got some. I was so happy! That was my first real cup of coffee since I was in the U.S. Here there’s a lot of premade stuff, or dry creamer, or weak coffee, etc.
One thing I heard at some time or another and forgot about until just this weekend… was the store “watchers” as I call them. If you go into a store there sometimes is a person who follows your every move about 3 paces behind you. I mean this very literally because I tested it. I went around weird corners and doubled back around others. I don’t think the mentality is to watch you like a hawk, I think it’s to help you if you need anything. It feels very strange and awkward at first, but you can get used to it. The bakeries are so great! Everything they make is so beautiful. I took a picture of a cake I liked. I was a bit surprised because technically the city of Daegu is pretty big, but the downtown area is so small. I walked through the whole thing and I feel like it know it pretty well in a general sense. I have to spend far more time to get to know the individual shops and where the best place is to get whatever still of course. There’s so many small mom and pop places and then right in the middle of everything is a pretty high-end mall. It’s like a large Bloomingdales. I’ll probably go again next weekend. It looks cool at night so I'll post some night pictures later.

First Week In Daegu

2008-10-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

I don’t feel half a world away. I sorta feel like I just moved to a different state or something. Maybe it’s because of the internet connecting everyone.
So much to tell… ok, #1, training: wow was that exhausting! It was from about 9am-5pm for the whole week. The first two days was giving us info and the rest was all practicing and getting feedback. Everyday our mock’s were longer and harder than the previous day. When we got back we had to spend the whole night preparing for the next day’s mock. We were tested on our grammar skills and on company policies, and stuff. We all were up late every night between the preparing and studying. It was like I was back in college and so that part I hated. I got to meet some interesting people though. One girl was Korean-Canadian who was fluent in Korean and spent the week helping all the other trainees out with ordering food and teaching them things about Korea. Another guy was an independent film director from LA. One person had professional teaching experience, one person had lived in a foreign country before, so we all sorta pooled our experiences together to help each other. It was a good group. At the week’s end most of us went our separate ways to our respective schools. Luckily 3 of us got to go together to Daegu. Once we got to Daegu, my boss took us to our apartments and helped us settle in. Saturday (the next day) we had a lunch meeting where we got to know the school better and how things work there. Sunday I tried to unpack and prepare my lessons to start teaching Monday. My apartment is great. I know that apartments in Asia are quite small and I’ve heard that teachers often don’t get all that great apartments. I really like mine though. It’s a 12 minute walk from school and it’s a new apartment building… or it was just refurbished, not sure which. My coworker from TX is in the apartment next to mine. You don’t need a key for the front door or my apartment door, everything is a number key pad. So I just have to punch in the code. In the bathroom, it’s common to have a sink and a toilet, that’s it. The shower is just the shower head up top (same turn on switch as the sink except with an extra switch to the shower head). The entire floor is meant to get wet and flow into one central drain. My kitchen and bedroom have heated floors. That’s SO nice in the morning when I step out of bed. I’m going to take a little video of my apartment to show you guys. I’ll try to post that up tomorrow. Oh, and right outside my window is a park.
My school is in an area that is being completely redone. They’re tearing down buildings and rebuilding them all nice. So my school building is pretty new. As it turns out, my school (2 floors of the building) is a brand new branch. CDI has tons of branches all over Korea, 3 of them in Daegu. But I was placed in a branch they’re just starting. So it’s an interesting experience. One bad thing is that there’s no other teachers who’ve been there for a wile to show us around. It’s alright though because we’re just exploring the area ourselves.
My boss is a bit like my old roommate, Lonnie. She has the exact same voice, facial features, and laugh. She and I are getting along pretty well, I can tell she likes me. She’s a very fun loving and easy going type of person, but I can sorta sense that if something happens then I wouldn’t want to mess with her… and she knows how to pull the boss attitude out when she needs to. So I can tell I shouldn’t overstep my bounds. She’s been SO accommodating and helpful. She made sure things were all set up for each of us, both in our apartments and classrooms, and if something isn’t then she’ll make sure it’s taken care of right away. Things have been so easy because of that. We had an all staff dinner the other night and part of the table spoke in Korean some of the time or intertwined Korean words in English sentences (konglish). I was in the exact middle of the table and therefore got to bounce between conversations. Most of the Korean jokes I understood and it turns out my boss noticed that I was laughing and thus got them. Later she mentioned that to me and complimented me on understanding things. So now we have an agreement that I will be using more Korean when I talk to her. So my sentences will be mixed. I think she gets a kick out of it. She told me that when the year is up she wants me to be able to speak all in Korean.
Classes started on Monday. I was SO nervous the day before and the day of. Once that first class was over I was fine. The second day and since then I’ve had such a care-free attitude. It’s amazing how comfortable I feel already. I teach 2 different classes and 2 sections of each class. They all meet twice a week and they are all 3 hour classes. I’m glad that I teach multiple sections of the same class because it’s less preparing to do. My “larger” classes have 9 kids in them and I have one class with 2 kids. Most of my kids are around 11-13 years old, but I have one class with 14 and 15 year olds. That one is my most difficult, because teenage boys do NOT talk at all! Although today they talked a little more than last class. My favorite class right now is the class with 2 kids… it’s two 13 year old girls. I think with the small class size I can relate to them better and do more with them… it’s just so much more fun. The curriculum is quite… overbooked, for lack of another word. It is so crammed, but I’m learning that I can have a little freedom with it and feeling out what parts are the most critical and shouldn’t be skipped. Right now I feel like I’m being the most creative I’ve ever been in my life. What I mean by that is… I have a difficult time thinking up examples to explain things. It’s been coming a little easier, and I’ve also thought of creative ways to help the kids learn different concepts. Also, I’ve always been good with grammar… that’s helping so much because I need to teach the kids not just the correct way to write sentences, but it helps more if they know WHY things are the way they are.
I’m in the southwest section of the city so to me it’s not all that city-like, but to my Texan coworker it’s very cityish and seoul (which is like NYC) was overwhelming for her. I haven’t been to downtown Daegu yet and I can’t wait to go. I plan to tomorrow. (Unfortunately when we were in Seoul we barely got to see it because of our training schedule.)
My Korean friends will find this next statement the funniest… I’m realizing just how koreanized I was before coming here because I’ve had no culture shock. Actually everything seems kinda normal to me. I think I only recently stopped believing that I’m in the Korean section of NYC or LA and realized I’m in Korea… but still, no culture shock. Sure there’s lots of differences between here and the US, but I was aware of a lot of them and used to some of them before even coming here. Another thing that caused me to notice myself is my coworkers. I think they are both doing pretty well adjusting (and lucky for them they both like spicy food), but I can tell for them that it IS in fact an adjustment living here. I really like it here and feel quite comfortable already. Unfortunately, I’m not really learning any more Korean yet. I am teaching my coworkers things though, so they can learn to fend for themselves and get on their own 2 feet and feel more at home. I’m sure I’ll start learning things before I even know it. I have gotten a little faster at reading Korean since outside is plastered with signs for everything, so that makes me happy. I’d really like to get a bike to get around easier here. Hopefully I can soon.
Sorry for such a long entry. The point is that I’m adjusting well and I’m really starting to love teaching (whereas at the end of training I had my doubts). Pictures and videos to come soon.

that toilet i promised to show you...

2008-10-22T05:21:00.001-07:00

look on the left side of the toilet

Arrival

2008-10-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

I had fun hanging out with everyone before I left. Some of you I hadn’t seen in so long so it was good to catch up. I noticed that as I hung out with everyone and also on my last day of work it didn’t feel like I was leaving at all. It felt like I’d see everyone the next day… even at my farewell party in philly. I guess the first time I felt it at all was when I said goodbye to my nieces and nephew. The previous day I pointed to MA and the US and then to Korea on a globe so the older 2 could see. Immediately my niece said, “NO La La, I don’t want you to go!” I slept at my sister’s house who lives much closer to the airport to make it easier in the morning with the early flight. I found out that my nephew had forgotten to give me something he had been wanting to give to me when we said goodbye, but he had forgotten. Later I found out that he’d been crying because he didn’t get to give it to me. That made me cry for the first time in this whole leaving process, it totally broke my heart. At the airport my sister came in with me and stayed with me until just before going through security. Just as I entered the line I felt this strange sense come over me. I felt this sudden sense that I was alone. I had at that moment left everything I know. I decided rather than let it overwhelm me I’d just shake it off, and so I have been fine since then. The trip was about 20 hours. On the longer flight I noticed that the woman next to me was reading a Korean Bible and so when she looked finished we talked and she turned out to be so friendly. The young white guy next to her happened to be a teacher in Daegu too. Of course I asked him how he liked it and he said he loved it. So that was reassuring. The woman next to me kind of adopted me in the sense that she helped me navigate through the airport through customs, baggage claim, and made sure I got to the correct bus location. She was so sweet. The company gave me a welcome packet before I left explaining exactly what to do and where to go once I arrive at the airport. Once I took that bus from the airport I had a driver waiting for me to take me to my hotel. Everything was really easy. I was so tired when I got in I just crashed, and Sunday I just relaxed and explored the area a little. In korea they have those toilets that spray water and have a warm fan to dry you and so my hotel room has one. I’ll post a picture. Also, you have to place your room key in a slot near the door while you’re in the room for electricity. I didn’t know this so I fumbled around in the dark trying to turn the lights on and wondered why they weren’t working. Once you leave the room you take the key card with you like normal and so as the door shuts all the lights automatically go off. It’s pretty smart, I bet it saves the hotel money on electricity. Oh and yes mom, my hotel has an iron. The TV has 4 or 5 english channels. I was just hoping for one. I watched “Friends” with Korean subtitles.
It’s funny because I keep seeing particular things and thinking, “wow, that’s SO korean”. What’s funny is that this time I’m actually IN korea, so really I’m seeing things in their original state and not copied into the US. It really hasn’t hit me that I’m here at all… for 2 reasons: 1) I feel like I’m just in the korean section of NYC or LA. It looks similar, and when I’m there I try to use what Korean I know. So it doesn’t really phase me that only Korean is spoken here… I think I’m just used to that from PA. 2) I know that I’ll only be in Seoul for one week during training. So even though I left the US, I don’t feel like I’m here for long. It just feels like I’m on a short trip. Maybe once I get to Daegu it’ll really hit me.
I have a roommate from TX who came in tonight, so yes someone else from the US will be starting the same time as me after all. We talked a little bit, but she is exhausted just as I was last night when I walked in so she’s asleep already. She was jealous of my vacuum sealed bags and wished she’d thought of that because she wished she could’ve take more things she needed… thanks mom!
While I was out today I met a girl who’s a teacher too. She asked me what company I’m with and when she found out, she told me that CDI is one of the most prestigious companies here. That made me feel good because I’d heard that, but it was nice to hear it face to face from someone actually in korea and who had no relation to CDI. She was amazed that the company made all the arrangements for me from the airport and that I was staying in a hotel. Also a lot of companies don’t offer training. My first meal was neng myeon (cold noodle soup). When I arrived last night I was so hungry and also extremely dehydrated. I’ve never felt that dehydrated in my life. Neng myeon seemed like the perfect fit. It was SO refreshing and exactly what I needed (sorry I forgot to take a picture).
Tomorrow morning I start training. Actually tomorrow I just get a tour of the company headquarters and do intro stuff and take a drug test etc. I think Tuesday the real stuff starts.

Craving Italian

2008-09-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

My friends call me the worst Italian ever. I’m half Italian, but I’m not into Italian food and definitely not pasta. I hate that heavy feeling after you eat a whole dish of it. Maybe it’s because I had it so much growing up that I shy away from it now, don’t know. My reason for mentioning it is that I find it strange that lately I’ve had cravings for Italian food. Maybe because I know I won’t have the option in Korea. They DO have American and Italian restaurants there, but they’re pricy. And to be honest I’m skeptical of if the Italian food will be any good. I’m a very hard critique on Italian food (well actually, on food in general). I guess that’s also since I grew up with it. My work sent me to New York City and so one night I trekked to Little Italy for dinner. My chicken parm tasted so authentic and I was so happy. I even asked a little old lady on the street who had the best tiramisu around and she pointed me to Café Palermo a block away. It was amazing. I’ve also decided to have a farewell dinner with my friends at church and planed that at an Italian restaurant. What’s come over me?

Trusting

2008-09-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

There have been times where I’ve wondered if this is really going to pan out or not. There’s so many things I’ve had to take care of or figure out and there’s also so many things that need to happen that are out of my control. The documentation alone was nerve wracking… wondering if I had the right forms and if they’d get in fast enough. Figuring out what to do about my apartment lease and where to put all my stuff for a year… what to do with my car… where they’d place me in Korea… if I’d even get accepted. The list goes on forever. But early on I had a sense that God was leading me in this direction. And thus I had a resolve that if that was true, then He’d make the way for me and make all the details fall into place for me. And so He has. As I’ve been trusting in Him for this, little by little the details are coming together and I’m just watching in amazement. Wooohooo!!!

Packing

2008-09-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

My Criminal Background Check FINALLY came in and I sent it off to Korea. Now that it’s in they can send for my visa and I can book my flight. It takes 2 weeks for the visa to go through and I only have 3 weeks before takeoff so I hope things go smoothly. I booked a flight for Friday October 10th. That means I’ll arrive Saturday night in Korea and have Sunday to relax and then Monday morning I start training. Talk about hitting the ground running! On Sunday I wanna try and hit up that church in Korea that’s the largest church in the world… either Sarang or Yoido, not sure.
At this point my focus is turning toward packing. I’m such a last minute packer… I actually pack better that way. With this I can’t be though. My stuff is going so many different places that I need to be organized about this. Last weekend when I went up to Boston for my sister’s wedding I took a carful of stuff to my mom’s. I was so impressed with how much fit in my tiny little car… I love my little Honda Fit. One of my friends has no room in her house, but she is being gracious enough to let me store my large items there such as my bed, desk and dresser. Another friend of mine offered to take some boxes of mine too. Once again, thanks so much guys! It’s a huge help. I got some tips from some of my Korean friends about what to pack. #1 item… deodorant. It’s difficult to find there since they don’t really need it. I figure I’ll bring a few items like Advil and Nyquil just in case I need it early on and I haven’t learned enough Korean by that time to know which product to buy. I’m not even sure how much I’m bringing with me to Korea. I keep thinking “just my clothes and a couple of other small items”, but then I think about my coats and shoes… I have a lot of shoes. That alone will take up a lot of room. And don’t ask me to choose cuz I love them all and remember where I got each pair like they were my kids or something. Maybe I’ll just have to pay the fee for a second bag. Decisions, decisions.

You know I can't resist putting a map on this

2008-08-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

Korea bound

2008-08-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of a blogger really, but I'm hoping this experience will motivate me to be one. I plan to write as much as I can as a way to tell you all how I'm doing and help to take you with me.
My status as of now? Still working in philly. My last day will be Sept 30 after which I'll spend time with friends and family in both philly and boston. I'll fly out Oct 10 and start training in Seoul. After training I'll head to my final destination in Daegu (pronounced Tay-goo).
Unfinished business: I still have to tell my boss. That's happening tomorrow. I'm in the process of getting my criminal background check (since I'll be working with kids).
Oh yeh, for those of you who would like to know more about why in the world I'm moving to Korea... I will be teaching English as a second language (ESL) to kids over there. I know, I know, you're not surprised... no one is... which actually was very comforting knowing the people who know me best said this sounds exactly like it's suited for me. So since I'm there to teach English, I'll try my hardest not to make spelling errors because that's kind of embarrassing... haha. Feel free to post comments and questions. And if you'd like an email sent to you whenever the blog is updated so you don't have to keep checking, just email me to let me know and I'll put you on a list.