Long time

So it's been kind of a while since I updated this blog, whoops. Nothing too exciting has happened really. I've been spending a lot of weekends at home just kind of relaxing. Last weekend I went to Yeoju to see my friend's band play, which was fun. This weekend there's a Van Gogh show in Seoul I might go to. I should do some more planning for my winter camp though.

So my winter vacation is from December 29th to February 11th. It was going to be from January 5th to the 11th, but some things worked out and I can teach my winter camp during the week of the 17th, when a bunch of the kids will be at English institutes elsewhere. I'm looking forward to seeing some more of the country in the first couple weeks, then I'll be doing some international travel afterwards.

I'm looking at going to the Philippines with some people toward the end of January, which will be fun. We've got a nice hotel for pretty cheap, and just found a cheap flight. We'll be there two weekends, so I think we'll have plenty of time to do some fun stuff. The fellow who has family in the Philippines has been doing most of the planning, but I hope to get a travel guide soon so I can pick out some spots that would be good for me.

Then I'll meet up with a friend from the US in Japan early in February. I might end up going a little early so I can tour the country a bit and get the most out of the two week rail pass I'll have to buy(for about $400). I need to study up on my kanji though, so it will be a little easier to get around. But I'm excited about the trip, I've wanted to go to Japan for so long it's hard to believe I'm only months away. Even if it turns out to be a horrible place, I'm sure I'll still be happy to be there.

So I'm thinking about those plans a lot, more than I should be. I still have to prepare for two more weeks of lectures and the winter camp. But I've gotten a little better about lesson planning, and teaching has been a lot less stressful lately. I've kind of relaxed my noise restrictions a bit, and let the students who talk in the back talk as much as they want. I just make sure they're quiet enough that the ones with desire to learn can still hear me. Even this can get out of control in some of my 2nd grade classes, but for the most part it's been pretty good. I just have to remember that I'm an assistant teacher and don't really have that much authority over them anyway. Also if I waste too much class time trying to get the groups of noisy people in line, the students who want to learn are going to suffer.

The picture is of construction on the subway line that's going to have a stop right outside my apartment. Unfortunately it wont be done until 2010, so even though I have to endure the noise at 3am on Sunday mornings I wont be able to reap the benefits. But it's kind of a pretty picture isn't it? I was hoping to catch it when the sun was a little less bright but in the same position, sometimes it's a really nice red. But this worked out I think.

Sunday Update

It's been a while since I've updated. I was having some trouble getting blogger to accept my photos for some reason. I hadn't done much the past couple weekends anyway, but this weekend was pretty good.

Friday - I had a good Korean lesson after work. My tutor says she learns enough English teaching me Korean that we'll be able to spend most of the time on Korean, meaning I get 4 hours of Korean instead of 2. After that I came back to Suwon, did a little Noraebanging(Karaoke room) for a friend's birthday.

Saturday - I meant to go see my student's festival, but I slept in. I went to the music store in Seoul again with a friend. We each got a acoustic guitars, then went to Cheongnam stream and jammed for a bit. I might go back next weekend, and maybe Yongsan too.

Sunday - I got to meet my co-teachers family, which was interesting. Her sister lives with her now, who was friendly and speaks a lot of English. Her two sons, who both speak Japanese, and I talked with the eldest one(about 19) about anime and computers a bit. I think he tried to sell me his laptop... But I may have misinterpreted that. Then we went hiking on a "small" mountain. It was a good hike, very pretty with the leaves all changing color. There were a couple spots coming down that I slipped cause of the leaves, but nothing serious. Then we had some salmon at her apartment and I came back.

Hopefully I'll get to go hiking again before it gets too cold, I need to bring my camera along sometime to take some pictures. Tomorrow we're heading to the coast in the afternoon for a place that specializes in what I think is rock bass(she called it rock fish), so that should be a good meal. I still have some more lesson planning to do tonight, so I should get to work.

Second Hongdae visit

After learning a little from our mistakes of the previous weekend, which involved standing around for hours, we(the Madison group) were able to do a little more exploring Friday night in Hongdae. Once everybody got the subway station went to eat, split off and went to some bars, then met up at another bar. I think that's probably the best course of action, to split up into smaller groups, it's hard to get 13 people to all do the same thing. Plus it's a lot less conspicuous.

We slept at the bath house, which was more like what I expected it to be like before I got here than what people seemed to say it was like. It was nice to take a shower and get a couple hours of rest, before heading around Hongdae for more shopping Saturday.

We were able to find a nice music shop in Jongpo(very close to Hongdae). It was a lot like Yongsan, with about 50 music shops all competing. I found a good accoustic/electric bass for $300(originally $455) with a little haggling, but I probably could have done better with a little more effort. It's a good bass though, I don't think I could have gotten it in the US for any cheaper. I was able to bust it out and play randomly when we were stopped a couple times shopping, which was fun and didn't seem to bother anybody.

I took the subway back around 5, got back around 7:30, and slept from 10:30pm-10:00am. A good weekend overall I think.

Overall the weekend turned out well. Friday I got my new cell phone activated. There was a Racing Model audition, so my friend Namu and I watched that for a little bit, then got something to eat. There was this awesome dessert drink that came in a little bowl, it was some kind of sweet rice thing. Then we went to a place that called itself a 'Family Beer Restaurant'. We drank and at some 'cajun' style chicken, that was really just fried chicken with a kind of mustard sauce on it.

Saturday I waited for the cable guy, who never showed up. Then I was going to go to this thing at the YMCA that offers Korean lessons to foreigners, but it turned out that would cost money. So my friend Namu said I should just come up with questions and he can spend some time with me weekly to specifically practice Korean. Around 2 I finally got on a bus to Suwon station so I could head up to Seoul on the subway for the Ssamzie Sound Festival. I met up with a friend from the Madison group, but he had to leave pretty quickly, then I met with one of my roommates from the workshop. It was really cool, lots of good bands, and especially some good heavy metal I wasn't expecting. But my cell phone died, and I got split off from my group so I headed back to Suwon a little early.

Today I went to a music shop I'd been meaning to check out for a bass guitar. They had three, they all felt pretty crappy and they didn't have any bass amplifiers for me to try them out on. I'll have to search more in downtown Suwon, or maybe even up in Seoul. Hopefully I'll get in touch with Jay, one of Rob's friends I met here on the first day, and he can help me out. He's a music major and plays the upright bass. I looked around the 'HiMart' for some computer stuff, but everything was overpriced. But I found some cheap yogurt drinks at the Lottemart, so that was pretty exciting.

Time to prepare my lecture for the week, I have no idea what I'm doing... But I know I want them all to pick out English names, then I'll do something to take pictures so I can try and remember them all.

Everybody spits

So here's a little something maybe you didn't know about Korea. Everybody spits. Absolutely everybody. While waiting at the crosswalk while I came home from school I was witness to 3 acts of spitting that struck me as unusual. First an elderly woman(60-80) standing next to me worked up a real phlegmy one and just spit right there at the crosswalk. Then there was a group of school girls at the other side of the crosswalk, and one just very casually pulled her hair back and spit to the side of her. Then a taxi cab driver that was turning left lead out his window and spit, without even really slowing down. Everybody spits.
Then it seemed like some sort of school girl gang war was going to break out. Because everyone where's uniforms it's easy to tell who is from different school. The girls with the grey button-up vests and white shirts were yelling and giving the finger to the girls with grey sweater-vests and blue shirts(my school), who then proceeded to spit more threateningly and give the finger and yell at the white shirts. When the crossing signal was given I really thought there was going to be some sort of Braveheart charge, but they just yelled louder and continued walking. Which is fortunate for my school, as the white shirts had reinforcements waiting on the other side.

Okay, I'll try to sum up the week I spent at the Labrador in a paragraph. First, La'Viedor(Labrador) is a resort that hosts the Gepik training program for new teachers. The presentations were pretty boring, I ended up learning more about how to teach just from talking to the other people at the resort. Most of the Q&A sessions were crappy, because people just complained about their own situations and how the ideas they were given didn't help. But my roommates were pretty cool, one of them spoke really good Korean and every time he did it gave me more motivation to study it on my own. Overall it was pretty uneventful, but a nice break from teaching.

Friday my friend Namu came over, a guy I met through my predecessor Rob. He brought some traditional Korean wine and we ordered some food. I'll have to come up with some words or phrases I want him to teach me, his English is really good and he seems open to teaching me some Korean.

Saturday we went to Seoul, which was pretty exciting. We stopped by a massive electronics building in Yongsan. It's 7 stories I think, with 20-30 shops on each level. It's like some kind of electronic village. I got a new cell phone, some CDs and a movie. Then we went into downtown Seoul, which was pretty quiet because of the holiday. Stopping by the folk village(a place with historical reenactments of traditional Korean life) we were able to see a traditional Korean wedding, with a big group of French tourists.

Ｏｖｅｒａｌｌ　ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ａ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｆｉｒｓｔ　ｔｉｍｅ　ｉｎ　ａ　ｂｉｇ　ｃｉｔｙ，　Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ｔｏｎｅｄ　ｄｏｗｎ　ａ　ｂｉｔ　ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｈｏｌｉｄａｙ．

Fixing things

Today I managed to fix a few things around my apartment.

1. I got the M key on my laptop working again, by simply taking of a panel and putting it back on again... I still don't really know what the problem was but it seems to be fine for now.

2. I took the faceplate off my PSP and cleaned the buttons, the down arrow was sticking a bit.

3. I managed to put a drawer that goes under my bed back together, with nails and a pliers because I forgot to buy a hammer, again.

Tonight I might go to a Jazz Festival, but since I don't really know how to get there and can't get a hold of anybody I'll probably end up going tomorrow. Should be fun either way though.

The Lottemart

So my major adventures for this week have been to the Lottemart. On Tuesday I simply explored the place, trying to figure out where most things were and failing to find the things that I went there for. Today I made a little more effort, and accepted the fact that I'm going to look lost, as I often do in Walmarts of the US. I found athletic pants, an ironing board, and suitable replacement keyboard. my keyboard's m key decided it was going to act all possessed, so now I have to copy and paste an m whenever I want to use it. Fortunately, Bob was able to send me a program that deactivated it, so that my typing doesn't turn out like mmmmmmmmthismmmmmm.

The ironing board I found to be a bit disturbing. If you can't read it, the caption says "Playing at the beach is one of the best enjoyment of the summer. However, they are destined never to swim." I'm still not sure if I should be amused or depressed. But, it was the cheapest one there, and they didn't seem to have any that stood on legs, so I got it. I forgot to get tools(a screwdriver to take out my broken laptop keyboard and scissors to open the package of my new one) so I'll wait until tomorrow for that project.

On my way to the Lottemart I got some kimbop, a tasty little 'snack' that I made into a meal by ordering 3 of them. They're like sticks of california rolls, about 10 slices per roll. Pretty filling, and I'm going to say nutritionally balanced. Then I bought some banana milk at the Family mart and had my dinner on the corner of a busy intersection. I probably looked kind of funny, but it was the only place I could find a table and chairs to use.

I also failed to find cold medicine, so I'll have to ask my co-teacher about a place close by I can might be able to get that. The family mart probably has something. I have a little nyquil Rob left, and this spray that has helped my sore throat, but I could use something to keep my nose from running during the day.

Another kind of boring entry. maybe this weekend I'll do something exciting.

First Week

I have about 800 students, in about 21 classes that I see once a week. They threw me into teaching right away, but I think by the end of the week I had a pretty good handle on it. I'll only have to prepare one lesson a week, but I'll do a little more to cater to their knowledge level for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades. Everyone enjoys saying hello to me in the hallway, and many seem to enjoy saying my full name (Shaun Martin). I think because it's 3 syllables like most Korean names.

I had a pretty good bus experience on Wednesday, even though it took about 2 hours each way when I was expecting 45 minutes. The bus drivers are much more social with their passengers here, and if there was ever somebody in the front seat they always seemed to enjoy a good conversation.

I tried to buy a comic book on Thursday, which didn't work. I went down to a shop that said it had 'Movies, DVDs, and Comics'. Turns out it was probably a library of some kind... Since in my attempt to buy the comic I was told to leave. My first experience with an unfriendly Korean! And she didn't even yell at me.

I haven't gotten any mass E-mails from the TTGs that went to Seoul, so hopefully they had a good time. Otherwise they're still lost somewhere, in which case maybe I'll find them when I go up there in a few weeks.

Today I tried a little harder to figure out where I am. That little green pin is my best guess so far. The yellow pins are just landmarks on maps I've found online, that I unfortunately can't print out yet. Hopefully there will be a printer at school, assuming I find the school tomorrow. I found quite a few shops to remember, though finding them again may be difficult.

Trying to find a map was fun. I tried to ask a girl at the bus stop(which has a map on it) which direction was north, but since I failed to learn the Korean word for both North and Direction, she had no idea what I was talking about. She told me which bus went to Suwon City Hall though(95-1), which I be useful later. I went to the 7-11 and bought some paper(because all my notes so far have been on the one sheet of white scratch paper I have) and asked them where to find a map. The girl there spoke good English and directed me to a store that sells paper, cheaper and in more varieties. There were no maps to be had there, though. So I continued North(which I thought was West) until I got to a busy enough intersection that I thought it best to turn around before I got lost. I stopped by a book store that had a map of the world in the back of it, but no city maps. The owner was very apologetic though, and showed me where another bookstore was. There we no maps at this other bookstore either, but some manga I may buy later. Defeated, I returned home to try and figure out where I was on the map I have here based on the bus stops.

On my way home I met a very friendly and somewhat drunk Mr. Kim. He stopped and talked to me about America and England for a bit, then convinced me to go have a drink with him. I had to respectfully decline his offer to pay for a taxi to innercity Suwon, though I think he understood I was still trying to figure out where I was. So we found a nice Japanese style restaurant and he bought me dinner and some drinks. He taught me a little more about how to eat Korean food, as some of it is very puzzling with all the tiny dishes. I failed to learn the name of the meal, though I was able to determine it was in fact pork and not dog. Though I remained suspicious of him throughout, he turned out to be a very friendly person and hope to return the favor when I know a little more about the city. Unfortunately there are probably 500,000 Mr. Kims in the city, so finding him again is unlikely.

So I returned home and took a nap, and now it is too late to call Choonok to get directions to school. I will call her early in the morning, I'm sure it wont be a problem. I'm preparing a powerpoint about myself, which I will give to the students tomorrow and throughout the week. I plan to meet up with another TTG(the group from Madison) tomorrow after work. Though the phone number she gave me is 10 digits and my phone says my number is 11. With any luck one of them will work.

A foreign land

I wo
I'm here, in Suwon, South Korea. It's a bigger city than i thought it would be, the way it's set up is a lot like New York city. There's tons of little shops, mostly restaurants and 7-11 style things. I just bought a few essentials at a place called 'Buy the Way' printed clearly in English. I did the intelligent thing and planned ahead, writing down the things I would need in English and Korean as found in my phrasebook. This helped me find bread, which appeared to be popularly sold without crust, as it seemed at the store. I didn't see any loaves of bread so I got some little breakfast bread things to make some ham sandwiches. Once I figure out where the real grocery store is I'll get some more substantial food.

Not sure what I'm up to for the rest of this weekend, probably just getting things organized in the apartment and walking around town a bit. I'll need to make some maps, since I can't seem to find any.

First Post

I leave for Chicago tomorrow, next stop Seoul. I can almost taste the kimchi.