5 Weeks In.

This week I got paid!! Feels good to have some cash again. Since I don't have a bank account, I was paid in cash. I felt like a drug dealer with so many W10,000 bills in a paper bag.

I've been looking into registering for a beginner's Korean course. I think this will help me meet some people and make some friends in Seoul. The "free" courses are either full or non-existent this coming term. I found a 10 week course at Sookmyung Women's University for W450,000. I think I might register for it. It's only 3 days per week, M/W/F from 7-9pm. Realistically, I'll probably end up skipping out a couple Fridays.

Today was surprisingly sunny with blue skies. Still very cold though; 39 degrees. I decided to go check out the Namdaemun Market.

"Namdaemun market is one of the oldest continually running markets in South Korea, and it is the largest retail market in Seoul. The streets in which the market is located were built in a time when cars were not prevalent, so the market itself is not accessible by car. The main method of transportation to and from the market is either by motorcycle or on the backs of pedlars. It occupies many city blocks, which are blocked off from most car traffic due to the prevalence of parking congestion in the area. The market can be accessed by subway or bus.

Much of the market is outside, but there are also many stores which line the streets. Many retailers buy their items, particularly clothing, at wholesale prices at Namdaemun, to resell in their own stores in other cities. Namdaemun is a popular tourist attraction, but most of the customers are Korean." - Wikipedia.

I spent quite a few hours walking around checking out everything in the market. The streets were jammed packed with people taking a stroll on a Sunday afternoon. There were plenty of street food vendors as well. Those are always my favorite. I bought some almonds and some dried fruit. I noticed that a lot of the stores that line the street actually sell legit items, but a most of the stuff out on the streets is fake! A man yelled at me when I took this picture of a jacket he was selling at his shop. All his jackets were branded The North Col, a really bad version of The North Face.

The market leads to a high end shopping mall with expensive designer names like gucci, dior, luis vuitton, and all those. The mall has valet parking and you seen tons of fancy cars right outside. I did not bother going in at all. Instead I kept on trying to find deals out in the street market. At one shop they were selling designer jeans for W85,000. Buying clothes doesn't really intrigue me.

I decided to find some interesting market food. I am a true fan of Andre Zimmern and his show, Bizarre Foods. For the most part, I think that I would try a lot of the things he eats on his show. I'm definitely not saying that I'd like the stuff, I'd just simply try it. Throughout the market I kept on seeing a lot of stands that were selling silkworm larvae. It looked like they were simply boiled in some sort of salted water. People [especially kids] were buying it like crazy. I was a bit hesitant to try it, seeing as it did not look tasty whatsoever and this would make for my first meal of the day. I tried asking the lady if I could just have a sample but she responded with, "Two thousand." I had no choice but to pay in order to satisfy my curiosity. I still tried to tell her I only wanted a small amount that way I wouldn't feel too bad if I didn't like it and I had to throw it away. Sure enough, she gave me a cup 3/4 full. I've seen Andrew Zimmern eat larvae like it's nothing. The lady was watching me as I tried it. I did not want to offend her, so I politely smiled, said thank you, and walked away looking for a trash can. I think the best way to describe the taste is perhaps taking a bite of wet and dirty cardboard. Maybe Andrew Zimmern gets paid more if he says he likes certain stuff. This was not one of my favorites. I enjoyed the live termites in Belize a lot more. Even the frog legs and alligator meat in Miami tastes way better than this crap. But I respect everyone's palate. And I truly respect Andrew. I will think twice before I try and take his job.

After being disappointed by the larvae, I was on a mission to find some good tasting street food. As I was walking around, I decided to sit in a little stand where a lady was cooking up a storm. She had everything from chicken to pork to seafood. I felt like this was going to be a good spot. I ordered a fried pancake type thing with veggies and meat, two chicken skewers, and one kimbap [Korean style sushi roll]. The lady was nice enough to even give me some muscle soup [but she could have charged me for it too]. The pancake was served with pickled onions and peppers in a sauce. It was somewhat salty and spicy. Reminded me of encurtido from Honduras. The chicken skewer had a sweet and spicy taste to it. It was a nice sunny day, so I decided to order a beer too. I asked for the small one, and of course she gave me the bigger one. I was not gonna try and fight it. LOL! The food was delicious. I ate everything! I even felt a little buzzed for about 25 minutes after eating.

As I continued my walking tour. I saw a sign for City Hall and so I started heading in that direction. The weather was still good, so there was no reason to head home just yet. I came upon a nice plaza where I actually saw green grass for once. I didn't think this was City Hall because the building was not the same one I saw on a picture online. I walked and walked all around the area trying to find the actual City Hall. I got lost plenty of times, but for some reason I didn't care. It was too nice of a day to care about being lost... I knew sooner or later I'd see a familiar skyscraper or maybe even a subway station. I really enjoyed my time just strolling around listening to my mp3 player. After about a couple hours of just walking around trying to find City Hall, I ended back up at the main plaza. There was a huge church group out there singing and giving out free coffee and tea. I was approached by someone who gave me a free Easter egg [couldn't tell if it was already hard boiled or not]. The group seemed really nice... made me think about maybe finding a church out here. I know my gma would be hella proud if I did.

I continued walking around the area and came upon a the Deoksugung Palace. It was only W1,000 to enter so I paid with no hesitation. It is a bit crazy to see such a different type of structure in the middle of a metropolitan city. The architecture is completely different than that of the surrounding buildings and it's evident that it was built many centuries ago. The palace is enclosed by a stone wall. Inside the palace premises also lies the National Museum of Art.

"Deoksugung, also known as Gyeongun-gung, Deoksugung Palace, or Deoksu Palace, is a walled compound of palaces that was inhabited by various Korean royalties until the Japanese occupation of Korea around the turn of the 20th century. The buildings are of varying construction, including some of natural sugi, painted wood, and stucco. Some buildings were built in Western style. In addition to the traditional palace buildings, there are also an art museum, forested gardens, and a statue of King Sejong the Great at Deoksugung. The palace is located near the City Hall Station. Deoksugung, like the other "Five Grand Palaces" in Seoul, was intentionally heavily destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Currently, only one third of the structures that were standing before the occupation, remains." - Wikipedia.

As I was trying to find my way back to the subway I saw some posters for an upcoming concert that caught my attention. Julio Iglesias... yeah, I know he's not as cool as Enrique Iglesias. But his music is still pretty dope! I might just have to go to that show. Maybe I can make some Spanish speaking friends out there. I still can't believe Julio is coming to Korea jajajaja <--- Spanish laugh in his honor! I also saw a huge sculpture that I swear I've seen in Seattle near the Seattle Art Museum. So I did some research on it [wikipedia] and found out that the sculpture is named Hammering Man. It was designed by Jonathan Borofsky and the same sculpture has been installed in Seoul, New York, and Frankfurt.

The rest of my walking tour around the City Hall vicinity included a huge temperature drop and an increased amount of wind blowing. My fingers felt like they were going to fall off. I got distracted by some other plaza which had a huge statue of a king. Took some picture of it. Then I was unable to find my way back for a while. I walked for about 35 minutes, then I decided I should head back. Finally I found the same subway station that I initially came out of when I got there 5 hours earlier. My dogs were killing me!

We'll see what the next week brings...

Week 4

Last week [week 4], I did a few exciting things.

On Wednesday, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day at my school. I had no clue what this day really was about... in the states all I knew to do was to dress in green and go to the bars! Little did I know St. Patrick's Day has to do with religion. It was our "theme day" where we don't have regular classes. The school has one theme day per month for the students. Every teacher has to do some activity all day long. We had face painting, cooking class, arts and crafts, some other crap... and I was told do to songs and games. It was pretty hard finding St. Patrick's Day songs for kids. I found two songs; "I'm a Little Leprechaun" (in the tune to I'm a Little Teapot) and "If You're Wearing Green Today" (in the tune to If You're Happy and You Know It). I had to do this for 6 periods straight... I hated it. I would rather teach material from the book.

On Thursday I was able to leave my work early [4pm] so I could go to the Seoul Immigration Office to apply for my alien registration card. I have not been able to get my own cellphone or a bank account because I still don't have my ARC. I went the furthest west I had ever been on the Green line then had to transfer to another line. I got pretty damn confused. I was told that coming out of the subway station, I should just walk straight ahead. Well, that was not the case because I took the wrong exit. When I got out of the station, I could only go either left or right. I stood there for about 5 minutes trying to decide which way I should go. I was a bit annoyed. I tried using the cellphone to call the office. I wasn't getting anyone who spoke English. Finally, I walked to the main corner of a street and waited until I saw a lady that looked nice. She helped me a lot. She called the office (using her own phone hehehe) and got some directions for me. The immigration office was pretty full. By the time they called my number it was 6:02pm. Sure enough, I didn't have all the documents I needed in order to get my ARC. They called my work to have them fax a paper over. Most of the immigration office employees had left by that time. We waited for about 20 minutes, then they gave up. They told me to just leave all my docs with them. I did not wan to have to come back again. The next morning I found out Bits does not have a fax machine and so they went to a store to try and fax the document but they got the wrong fax number. They couldn't call me back because I had not given them my cellphone number [on purpose, btw.]

On Saturday morning I woke up craving Mexican food. I decided to go out to Itaewon to find some good food. I walked around exploring the area for about 4 hours. It was very chill to just walk around listening to my mp3 player. I found many Persian, Indian, African, and European restaurants and marts.

The first Mexican restaurant I found was called Los Amigos. It was described as a Tex-Mex restaurant. It didn't really convince me of it's authenticity so I continued my quest. I came upon a second place called Taco Amigo. The menu looked pretty good. and prices were actually not bad. But it only has about 6 tables and they were all taken. The owner saw me looking at the menu outside and came out and talked to me about the place. He said they cater to the Mexican Embassy events in Seoul. And said their tamales are very popular. I asked for horchata and he said it's W3,500 [about $3]. I will definitely give it a try some other time.

Walking down the main strip in Itaewon, I saw a place called Pancho's. I was starving and so this was going to be the place where I would satisfy my craving for Mexican food. The restaurant was completely empty. It was a nice spot. On the 2nd or 3rd floor of a building overlooking the main strip. The decor was just like any other Mexican restaurant back in WA. I had a good feeling about this place. They were even playing some Selena... hella tight! It must have been a CD because they played 'Amor Prohibido,' 'El Chico Del Apartamento 512,' and 'Como La Flor.' Oh man I was loving this place. I ordered chicken fajitas and was excited to chomp on some grub! Ok, firs disappointment... chips/salsa not complimentary. Ok, no big deal. I still got them so I could enjoy them with my $6 Corona. I could hear the $15 fajitas sizzling their way over to my table... YUMM?? So maybe they weren't exactly delicious. But what did piss me off, rice and beans NOT included!! WTF!! Ok, I was not going to let that ruin my day either... $2 for a side. I guess what I was mostly missing were my beans... why the hell do they serve them cold?? Oh man... truly disappointing right there. Oh, and the rice was bland.

I am very embarrassed to say that even though the price was much steeper than that of Azteca and the quality was way worse, I enjoyed every bite of that meal. It was definitely what I was craving.

Sunday was a very nice day. The sky was actually blue for a change. I decided to be a tourist for the day and went to the Yuk Sam [63] Building.



"At 249 meters (817 ft) high, it was the world's tallest building outside North America and Asia's tallest building when it completed construction in 1985, ready for the 1988 Summer Olympics. 63 refers to the building's 63 official stories, of which 60 are above ground level and 3 are basement floors. The lower floors house a large shopping area with approximately 90 stores, an Imax Theater, and an aquarium. A convention center and banquet hall are also housed within the building. The observation deck (known as 63 Golden Tower) on the top floor is a popular place to go to see a good view of Seoul. Special observation elevators are also available; they are equipped with windows to enable their passengers to view the city as they ride up to (or down from) the observation deck." - Wikipedia

This place was very incredible. It was $12 to go up to the observation deck. It gave me an visual as to how immense Seoul is. It is way bigger than what I imagined. The view was spectacular and I would definitely go again.



Looking North at Nam San Tower


Looking East at the Han River


Looking South [this is where I live]


Looking West


Descending the Yuk Sam Building

3 Week Anniversary

Disclaimer: In college I always hated having to write papers. A simple 2 page paper would result in an all-nighter. With that in mind, please don't expect me to write novels for my posts.

So today marks my 3 week milestone in Seoul. For the most part, I have enjoyed my time here thus far. I've learned how to ride the subway, am mastering the art of using chopsticks, and I think I have found soft spot for kids.

Here is a quick recap of my first 3 weeks:

Week 1:

The 11.5 hour flight was not so fun. I sat in between two middle aged Korean men. The only time I spoke was when I asked the flight attendant for cranberry juice and later on when I told her I'd have the traditional Korean meal, bibimbap. I felt like I should get a head start on Korean cuisine. I did not know how to prepare my meal, so I acted like I wasn't in a hurry to eat as I waited for the two Korean men to prepare their meals first. This is when I realized I do not like seaweed soup. It seems like it's just boiled water and seaweed from the Seattle waterfront. Not tasty at all. During my flight I watched 3 movies. One of which is a Korean movie called Haeundae. It is really good. kind of the whole Day After Tomorrow genre.

I arrived Seoul at about 7pm local time [17 hours ahead of Seattle]. Some dude named Mr. Kim was waiting for me at the airport holding a sign with my name... I thought that was pretty cool. My first impressions of Korea were, damn... it's a lot more developed than I imagined. The highway was nicer than I-5. Once we started driving into Seoul, I couldn't help it but to be in complete awe as we drove past enormous buildings with hundreds of neon lights.

When we got to my apartment building, I noticed it was very modern looking. Joel, the other foreign teacher from my school was there to greet me. He showed me up to my apartment. That's when I became disappointed. It was a lot smaller than I expected. It was also very dirty. We just dropped off my luggage and then went for a walk around the area. He wanted to show me around. I was more than exhausted but I thought it would be a good idea to get to know the area. By this time, I had been up for about 24hrs. Joel and I walked as he showed me our closest subway station, market/grocery store, inexpensive restaurants, etc. All I wanted to do was pass out. Joel then dropped me off at my place and told me that he'd wait for me the next morning for work. I was in shock. No time to settle down, adjust to the jet lag, or even unpack. I took of the sheets from the bed and put them in a trash bag. I had my snuggie and the blanket I stole from the plane. I was miserable.

In the morning I met with Joel to head out to the school. It's only about a 10 to 15 minute walk to work, so that was a definite plus. I was introduced to a lot of the staff and the students were asking me for my name and why I was there. The school is small, only two floors in a 6 story building. There are about 40 students total. The oldest students are 6 year old kindergartners and the youngest are 3. It felt like the day went by really slow. I was more tired and sleepy than anything else. After work I knocked out. I had no Korean money so I was not able to buy any food for dinner, luckily we are given lunch at the school.

That Wednesday I found out that I would be one of the two emcees for the graduation ceremony that coming Friday. This is when I started learning that the foreign teachers are kept out of the loop on what's going on until the last minute. I had to go buy black dress shoes [$60 for hella crap shoes] and an iron [$50, I could have gotten the same one at Fred Meyer for $15].

During the whole week I had simply just been observing classes and then every now and then they'd make me "teach" a class. There was no type of orientation or training provided. I was just told to walk into a certain class and teach whatever. Easy enough.... I just tried getting to know the students. The graduation ceremony that Friday was pretty over the top... the school rented the auditorium at the Gwanak-gu Cultural and Events Center. It looked like a place where they have the opera at. Not gonna lie, I did get a bit nervous for a second... but all those damn presentations in business school did get me prepared for something like this! The ceremony was like a real, high school style graduation ceremony. I read out the names of about 15-20 students and they made me read every damn certificate, "This honor is bestowed upon [name] for general excellence and academic achievement given this 26th day of February, 2010 Bits Language School." After giving out their Kindergarten diplomas and other special awards, the students had performances. Each class had 2 performances and then there were a couple with all the students. The ceremony lasted 2.5 hours. I was damn tired. That weekend I just wanted to get my apartment all cleaned up so then I could actually unpack. On Friday night I took a sleeping pill and didn't wake up until about 4pm the next day.

Week 2:

When I showed up to work on Monday, I found out that the Head Teacher of 6 years [Hannah] had quit that previous Friday. She was very intimidating and the students were scared of her. Another teacher had quit that Friday too. This was not looking too good. I found out that Hannah did not get a pay raise and her paycheck was 3 weeks late. By Tuesday they had hired a new teacher, Sarah. She seemed cool... for someone that never speaks. By Thursday, no one knew what had happened to Sarah. She stop showing up to work.

This week I got to have my own classroom. Every classroom is named after a tree [Oak, Birch, Pine, Spruce, Willow, Juniper, and Empress]. I got Empress, the 6 year old students, as my main class. However, this pre-kindergarten/kindergarten works very much like a US high school where the kids switch to a different teacher each period. The students in Empress class are pretty smart. I can hold simple conversations with them in English so it's not bad at all. After hundreds of changes, I finally got a schedule given to me:

Mondays - Show and Tell [my choice!]
Tuesdays - Pronunciation Clinic [just follow a book]
Wednesdays - P.E.
Thursdays - Thinking Time [board games and puzzles]
Fridays - Pronunciation Clinic

This is a pretty sweet schedule. But for all I know, it will be different next week. One thing I know wont be changing are my two after school classes.

M-F: Phonics from 230-3pm, all I do is follow the lessons on the book.
M/W/F: Reading from 340-425, we just read a story from their book and answer the questions.

What I don't like is that I still have to stay at the school after my classes are done. It's supposed to be my lesson planning time. But it really is just my time to check my email and my catch up on facebook.

During lunch time, each teacher has to serve all his students. It's not bad at all. I tell them to get their trays out... then I go grab whatever we have for lunch, serve them, make them pray, then we eat. I am usually starving by lunch time! Lunch generally consists of rice, soup, some main dish, and side dishes such as kimchi and pickled radishes. The soup is almost always a seafood based broth. We rarely have chicken.. and when we do I try and give the students a lot of rice and soup so I can get more chicken! I tend to always make them eat a lot of the stuff I don't like that way I can have what I do like hahahaa.

When Friday came around I got excited because I was going to go visit Sam. He lives over in Samcheok, a city in the east coast of the country. I took the subway to the bus terminal, got lost, and then finally found the ticket booth. The ride was 3.5 hours, and pretty boring. I arrived Samcheok at exactly midnight. Neither Sam nor I had cell phones, and I was hoping that he would actually show up in time.

This fool arrived drunk and with an Asian glow. I could tell he was having a good night thus far. We went back to the place he was chillin' at with his friends. He is in a government ran program doing the same thing I am. The cool part bout Sam's program is that their is a lot of them and they had an orientation together so everyone got to bond and make friends. Something that I didn't get to do.

As soon as I sat down I felt great hospitality and I could tell his crew was legit. They all were hella trying to make me drink and "catch up" to their level. So I did. This was my first time actually getting drunk in Korea. Apparently we stopped at around 6am. I don't remember at all, but like we say back home, "I died." Woke up the next day at 5pm. I was feeling not so good but it's all part of a good night! Thanks to the pictures, I was able to see the events of the night.

Sam's city reminds me a lot of Bellingham. It's pretty chill and spread out. Not crazy and intense like Seoul. His apartment is a mansion compared to mine. He's got two rooms, a big kitchen, western style bathroom, and a living room. I'm pretty sure my who apartment is the size of his room.

On Sunday, I went to church with Sam. I swear he told me it was going to be in English. Oh man, I didn't understand anything! There was a lady sitting behind us who kept on asking Sam about me. She said that I should go and eat the bread and wine. I didn't feel right... not because it was a church, but because all the Hanguks were just staring at me. After the service was over, a lot of girls came up to me to say, "Hello?" and asked me where I was from... then they'd run off and giggle. They were all middle schoolers LOL.

The bus ride back to Seoul was even more boring because this time I didn't have my ipod. It died along with me on Friday night =/

Week 3:

This week's highlights include still having the same schedule at work. Everything is easy, so I don't want it to change at all. Oh, I also had to go to the International Clinic to get a medical exam. The nurse spoke English, but I was having a hard time understanding her. She told me to leave my urine sample on the box... I wasn't quite sure what that meant. I had left it on top of the urinal I used. When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw a guy who had just placed his urine sample on tray next to the door. I bet I looked like a fucken creeper when I ran into the bathroom and grabbed a urine sample that was sitting on a urinal.

A few days later I went back to the clinic to pick up my results. "All Clear" Oh man, when I read that, I felt relieved and then realized that I would be staying in Korea for at least one year. I walked out with a damn smirk. Now it was time to apply for my Alien Registration Card!

This weekend was my first time out in Itaewon. It's one of the prime areas for nightlife. Lot's of foreigners hang out here. I went with Amanda and a few of her friends. The club scene was pretty cool. It was all up to date music with what's playing in the states. We went out at 10pm and started off at a chill bar. After that we moved over to Kings Club. By this time I'm pretty sure I was dead. After the club we went to a "norebang," a Korean karaoke room. When you're pretty tips, you feel like you're the best singer out there.

I caught the subway home at around 7:30 or 8:00am. I was pretty tired and still drunk. There were a ton of people riding the subway early in the morning. It seemed strange being drunk on the subway and having all those people stare at me. I somehow stumbled home, managed to talk to a few friends from WA online, then passed out.

Great night!