The Inevitably Long, First Post

Well I finally made good on my promise. This is going to be the blog where I record everything and anything (worth posting, of course) that has happened to my on my voyage to the land of the Asians. I`m sorry it took so long for me to get my act together; but, as you all know, I`m a lazy, lazy person. So, without further adieu: the first post!

The flight over here wasn`t as bad as it could have been. I mean, there were tearful goodbyes at the airport; I was tired and surly, which didn`t make the experience any better for me seeing as how it seemed to come all too quickly in one single moment. Words were said, bags were hefted and hauled onto a cart, and I left my family and girlfriend at the customs gate. From there it was a relatively painful trip through customs and onto the first leg of my journey.

I was cramped. No real surprise there, but it was still an annoying start to my trip. I didn't sleep, I was in a packed plane and I was tired as hell. Once we landed in San Fransisco, I grabbed my stuff, exited and proceeded to find my gate. I found it, along with a pretty awesome Mexican restaurant in the airport (where I ordered some shrimp tacos which slayed) and then waited to get on my next plane. Once we boarded, I found that this plane was infinitely more spacious than the last. To begin with: it wasn't completely full, so I had free reign to change seats into a middle section that only had one guy for five seats. I was more comfortable on that plane than the first one, which was a good thing seeing as I was going to be on it for about 14 hours; I still didn't sleep, but I was still comfortable.

After landing, I was met by a nice man holding a sign. It was kinda awesome to see a dude waiting for you with a sign, you feel like some sort of weird movie star, until you realize that there are a hundred similar signs, and I am immediately thrown back in to a world where anyone and everyone teaches English abroad. Me and my associate waited for another new teacher to arrive, who I was informed was named Jennifer (hereafter known as Jenn). After we picked her up, we were loaded into a van and then swept off to our apartments.

It took about an hour to get from the Incheon airport to where our apartments are in Seoul, but we made it to the area, where I was informed that my apartment wouldn't be ready until tomorrow, so I would have to stay in a love motel. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with these, they are places where young men and women come to bump uglies. You pay for them by the hour, and they have curtains over the parking area so no one on the outside (like a business partner or a suspecting wife) will see your car (or if they happen to spot it, it's ok because you can also get fake licence plates to put over your real ones). So my first night in Korea was spent in a motel where people go to fuck. Splendid.

The next day I was met by Junghee, who is one of the councillors at my school and helped me a bit at the end of my hiring time before I flew off. We walked to Jenn's apartment, picked her up and then moved my stuff in to my apartment. However, this apartment is not my apartment, and my apartment will be free when one of the former teachers moves out of it. This is absolutely aggravating because it means that there is no point inn unpacking and I need to live out of my suitcases for about a week. Once we unload my shit in my temporary apartment we head on off to the school and once we arrived, we were introduced to all the other teachers:

- Riley is a dude from New York who came to Korea 2 years ago. He worked at a couple of other schools before coming to Youngdo.
- Michelle is from Flint, Michigan and was a high school teacher before coming to Korea. She is extremely crazy but shares my love for the Norebang (karaoke) and is a blast to get drunk with.
- Rosa is from New York as well, but has family located in Korea. She has a boyfriend who gave her a "horsefish" and likes LCD Soundsystem (more on that later).
- Kelly is from Brampton and we share many stories about Toronto and it's surrounding areas.
- David is from Ireland and is practically as hilarious as Ross. He likes rock music and I hope he'll be my in to all the good live music happening in Seoul.
- Jennifer (not to be confused with Jenn) is also from Canada, but I forget where. She's been at Youngdo the longest and is a vegetarian. She's also really chill and lives with her boyfriend.
- Peculia is another girl at the school, but I unfortunately forget where she's from. She seems more mature than the rest of us hooligans, but laughs a lot at Michelle's not-funny comments, which in turn makes everyone else laugh. Great success!

After meeting everyone, Jenn and I were thrown into orientation where we got the gist of Youngdo.

In Korea, and throughout the majority of Asia, kids are run ragged with school. In Korea they go to their regular school from 7-3 and then go to academies after. However, because of the school system, kids in Korea take one test which determines which school they are placed in (Seoul National, Korea, And Yansi being the best three). So they go to regular school and sleep through it, and then learn everything they need to learn at academy's, which they attend from 3-10 each night. YES Youngdo holds classes from 4-10 each day, but teachers have to be there 2 hours before that in order to do prep. On Monday/Wednesday/Friday we have class from 4-6, 6-8 and 8-10; on Tuesday/Thursday there is class from 4-7 and 7-10. So kids come to us during those times to learn English and to try not to die under the weight of school and homework they have.

So Jenn and I have 2 days of orientation, which fall on Thursday and Friday and then the weekend comes. I basically stayed inside on the weekend because I had no way of contacting people and didn't know the area. I did venture out a few times to try and find my bearings, and managed to explore the Lotte. Lotte is a big department store not unlike walmart, but infinitely more high class: they sell everything there, and you can get everything. It's really quite magical.

After the weekend finished, Jenn and I had one more day of orientation and then we were thrown into classes on Tuesday. My classes were scary at first and I had no fucking clue what was expected of me. On Monday/Wednesday/Friday I teach Science and Social Studies to Grade (read: English Level) 1, Reading and English to Grade 4 and Reading and English to Grade 3. Then on Tuesdays/Thursdays I teach Science and Social Studies to Grade 2 and Social Studies and English to Grade 5. The kids are sorted by English level first and then by actual grade, but they're all mostly around the same age. Over the past few weeks I have discovered that I like my Grade 5 and Grade 4 classes the best (because they can actually talk really well) followed by my Grade 2 and Grade 1 classes (fun, but harder to communicate at times) and lastly, my Grade 3 class (they are in the 7th grade and are too cool for school, so it's teeth-pullingly hard to get them to talk in English). As the first teaching week wore on, I got more and more into the swing of things, and then the weekend came again.

The first week I taught was kind of a blessing because I didn't teach on Monday (orientation) and on the Friday of the week it was a holiday called Chusuk (spelt horrible wrong), which is like Korean Thanksgiving. So on Thursday night I went out with Michelle, Rosa and Riley and got good and shit faced. We stayed out until 7 in the morning and met up with these interesting guys named Cheng and Ook; we drank in a park and drink many different kinds of soju (like vodka, but half the alcohol content). On Friday, we slept in and the went down to CoEX (where I picked up a awesome pea coat the weekend after), which is a huge mall and somewhat of a tourist attraction. I forget what I did on Saturday and Sunday, but I know it was a rad time...I think we drank some more, but that could all be a horrible blur.

Then, on Wednesday I finally got to move in to my new apartment, which reeks of smoke from the previous teacher. There are ash marks on the ground and it's a small bachelor, but it's mine and I finally got to unpack.

Since then I have just been teaching on the weekdays, gaining more teaching prowess everyday, and then partying hard on the weekend. One random thing is that I went to see LCD Soundsystem this past Friday at a club called Mass. Now, everyone knows how I feel about clubs, but I didn't know what the state of live music was like in Korea, so I decided to snap up every opportunity I will have to see some live music. Now, it was a $30 cover to get into the club, and I thought that the drinks would be decently priced so that I could get good and smashed. Turns out the mixed bar rail drinks were $8 and if I wanted a long island iced tea or other such concoctions it would cost me $12. Well, regardless of this, I got good and drunk and danced the night away listening to LCD Soundsystem remix a bunch of 70's and 80's stuff.

Well, this post is getting a little long, but here are some random differences that I've noticed about Korea so far:
- They are insane drivers: you ALWAYS look both ways before crossing the street, and don't even think of crossing an intersection while the don't walk sign is on: a car could pull up at any moment and hit you. Also, it's not like they just swerve in and out of traffic and pull into tight spots but they'll go speeding down an alleyway and only slow down when they're right behind you. Also, they park on the sidewalks and you'll repeatedly see cars driving along the sidewalk trying to rejoin traffic. As for the mopeds, that's another danger completely.
- You can smoke anywhere: in bars, in clubs, in restaurants (maybe mot in department stores); anywhere.
- You can buy alcohol at any convenience store or grocery store. What's more, you can drink anywhere, so you just walk around drinking and hanging out.
- Saying a guy is handsome is the biggest compliment you could give him (it's like saying he has a huge wang or something). So if you ever want to flatter someone from Korea, tell them they're handsome.
- People LOVE English, so much so that they'll give you drinks and hug you if you have conversations with them; especially on a Friday or Saturday night. However, though they love it, there are copious spelling mistakes on everything. It's awesome.
- The beds are the most uncomfortable beds ever: really hard and often tiny.
- There are no ovens just gas hot plates and toaster ovens (you could buy a small conversation oven, but it's not worth it for the amount of time I'll be here).
- There are no dryers: you hang your clothes to dry.
- There aren't a lot of shower stalls, but instead just a faucet and shower head sticking out of your bathroom wall with a drain on the floor.

I think that's it. I'll hopefully write in this one a lot more, and once I get paid for the first time I'm going to invest in a camera so I can show you all the magic of Korea.