Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is a short, sweet and special post before I continue with our regularly scheduled programming. I had my birthday a couple days ago and wanted to share it with everyone. It was a wonderful week that was full of surprises! A couple I knew were coming and a couple that caught me completely off guard. It all started on Sunday, the day we usually go to Gaeksa.

The plan was to find a bookstore that, through the awesomeness of Facebook, we'd heard sold English books. The directions were exceptionally vague but we figured to give it a shot. As wee went out on our search we ended up stopping in a small Sony store to see if he could narrow the location down for us. For once it worked! The Korean acted like a nice American and instead of just nodding and waving uselessly he proceeded to draw us a map. In the process of following the map we ran across a instrument store (very common in Korea) which we went into.

Since we'd gotten here we'd been looking for a cheap keyboard to learn to play piano on but had had no luck. Still we kept trying every chance we got. This time we looked and Catherine also asked about the guitars. They were also outside our range, the guys were rude and we hadn't even intended to look for anything so we left. Two doors down we found another shop and we went in. The man was much nicer as we tried to find out if the W110,000 guitar was the cheapest in the store. We tried using Google translate, miming but all he did was drop the price to W100,000. We continued to try and figure out if it was the cheapest guitar in the shop, considering the store layout and price progression we thought it was,  and in the process the guy lowered the price down to W90,000. It was sold.

I have begun the slow, painful, process of learning the guitar. So far I can play five chords but I rarely remember their names and can't switch between them with any speed. I am also able to play the intro to 'Day Tripper'. Not bad for a couple of days at it!

That night Catherine had a surprise for me. She'd heard about this restaurant known to have the best steak in town. So she figured we'd have my birthday dinner a little early because it was our best oppertunity. We got there, not sure if they would let us in as we didn't look very fancy with a guitar on my back, and were told to wait for a table. We got a menu and started browsing. First thing to note is that the meals were quite expensive, not outrageous, just expensive. Since it was my birthday I got the Filet and Lobster while Catherine got a Rib eye. We ordered as soon as we sat down. The waiter explained, once we got an English speaking one, that my meal included two salad bars pointing to a buffet looking area.

We got up and walked over there where they had a normal looking salad bar, make-your-own fajatas bar, pizza area, dessert plates, all sorts of things. At first we were cautious and only grabbed from the salad area but then Catherine asked a nice lady nearby if our 'salad bar' included everything. Indeed it did! We dove in with reckless abandon, the steak could be wrapped up and brought home, endless western food could not! There was some awesome corn chowder soup, actual salad (harder to find than you would think), and more. It was great!

My steak came out on this weird hot plate. Since the waiter couldn't really explain it but didn't want me to cut into the steak (as compared to Catherine who he forced to cut her steak so he was sure it was the proper color) we figured I was to cook it at the table. The lobster was great, not fishy tasting at all (ahem, Catherine) :-) It was a great night out with my lady though I think next time we'll stick to just the buffet and turn it into a multi hour affair.

I love licking the cake bowl!

Most important part of German chocolate cake!

 On Monday, the day before my birthday , Catherine allowed me to open a single gift. It was a super comfy pair of underwear. The rest would have to wait until the next morning. The rest of the night was to be filled with the most sentimental part of my birthday: baking a German chocolate cake. For the uninformed, I have always gotten a German chocolate cake for my birthday. Even when I was at school I would either buy or bake myself one. The problem in Korea is they don't believe in cakes....so Catherine, being the wonderful girl she is, had her mother send the ingredients from America. On that note, thanks again Mrs. Given! We figured out how to use our microwave/convection oven to bake the cake one layer at a time as we only had one pan and the even couldn't have fit another even of we did. The icing would also wait for the morning.

Corned beef hash for the win!

The next morning Catherine served me breakfast in bed. What a surprise! The even better part oof the surprise is that it included corned beef hash! I love corned beef hash and no, they don't have it in Korea.....just another thing to add to the list. It was delicious and I washed it down with a fresh brewed cup of coffee :-) Then I was allowed to open my gifts, except for a very thin card shaped one that she set aside for later. I received a couple books, one testing my knowledge of American history and another that I had almost bought at the bookstore in Seoul. Apparently my darling had nabbed them during my indecision :-) I received another pair of underwear, a couple bars of Toblerone, and a nice card from the Given family. That left two gifts that Catherine had kept to the side for last. Catherine handed me the smaller of the two and I ripped into it to find a cell phone case....for I phone I didn't have. Understanding the clue I immediately demanded the other box. I hastily opened the wrapping to find a brand new Galaxy S2 LTE!

Yes, they sell wrapping paper that looks like newspaper.

My awesome new phone!

I'd been complaining about the tiny, out of date slow, and very irritating phones the school provided to us since we arrived. Catherine, knowing how much it meant to me, had been lobbying our bosses for some time to get a newer phone. Apparently she only found out/received the phone the day before my birthday. It was an amazing gift! The best part being that it was free :-)  The school bought the phone and I just pay the bill. I spent the rest of the morning playing with my phone and icing, with the awesome coconut pecan icing, my cake.

We went to work and my plan, since I had my 'good' classes that day, was to make it an easy day if possible for my students. The plan went off without a hitch....even got better because one the Korean teachers was absent/sick for three classes. This led me to have movie day with both classes for 3 periods. Talk about an easy day :-). My next class is my speaking only class and we had a built in topic, birthdays. One of my fellow teachers, Tamna, surprised me by giving me a nice box of 6 small bottles of local berry wine. It's quite nice though more to Hillary's tastes than mine :-) Since I rarely have a last class on Tuesday's I was looking forward to my everyday class.

My card from my Darlin :-)

 They talk enough English that we could easily avoid the book but still have a good lesson. We talked until about 15 minutes were left in class and then counter teacher brought in a box. The students were immediately excited and started speaking in Korean to counter-teacher. They started opening the box and sorting supplies. Turns out the cake, as that was what was in the box, comes with candles and matches.....the candle part wasn't unusual but I never thought it would include matches! My students arranged the cake, turned off the lights and sang a half-hearted "Happy Birthday". Of course, that might have been because I led the class with a rousing rendition of the song earlier :-). The cake was delicious and I saved enough for Catherine to have a piece. I shared it with her during our next period as neither of us had class. It was during this period that she got out a stack of cards she'd had her students make as an English project: how to make a birthday card! Most were cute, some great, and others not so much but the thought was amazing! My darlin spoils me too much!

My school cake! Yum!

The Three Amigos aka the bane of my existence.
From left to right in phonetic spelling: Song-Doe, G-Don, and Neh-Mar

 I'll have you know that while the cake at school was awesome I ate such less of it than I usually would. That's because I had my special treat to look forward too! All the way home I kept thinking about the chocolaty goodness waiting for me. We had invited our fellow teachers, Liz and Tamna, to come eat some cake but Tamna already had plans unfortunately. We went upstairs got out the cake, I got too excited and started cutting a piece so Catherine yelled at me....sorry again darlin. She placed and lit the candles, Liz graciously recorded our rendition of "Happy Birthday", and I blew them out with a wish. Then I got busy cutting the cake. The sooner it was cut the sooner I could eat my slice! It was absolutely fantastic, best cake I've ever had! That might be because I know my cake fix will be filled at intervals few and far between but no matter. It made my birthday. Sure it was a great day but the cake was the coup de gras!

Turns out there was still one present left though, that little card shaped item Catherine had put aside earlier. I ripped into it to find an index card from my darlin saying I now had a year's subscription to the digital New York Times! I haven't been reading the news mucsh here because of lack of time and ability. So my lady thought it would be Alice complement to my new smartphone to give me full access to the daily news. Have I told you she's an awesome girl? Cause she is!

Plans never survive contact with the enemy...

I've realized that the further away from the events I write, the worse my memory becomes at recalling them. As a result I will try my hardest to catch-up to the month I'm behind so the new stories are more accurate. It shames me to realize just how far behind I've gotten at writing.....

My first real day of work was nerve-racking. I had no clue about my students, how they would behave, how I would handle them, how I would fill each 50 minute block. As I discussed Catherine's plans for her students I realized that she had a full-fledged plan for the day and so I shamelessly stole it. Maybe stole is too strong a word, I told her it was a great idea and that I was going to do the same.

The plan was simple and I was getting ready to dive in when our director, Mr. Kim, came in and told me I wouldn't have my first class. Instead, they would have some computer training to allow me more time to prepare. It didn't help. The plan was simple but my implementation was horrible. I think part of it may have had to do with my lack of compensation for the low level of my early students. The first class I ever had was, to this day, my worst. I have found over time that they are always a rambunctious group and speak relatively little English. They are in the lowest level of books we use and only halfway thru.

My plan was to introduce myself, have the students guess where I was from, my age, and ask any questions they could think of. Then I would pass around blank pieces of paper for them to write their names, ages, and favorite sport/activity. They guessed where I was from far quicker than I anticipated....turns out America is always the first guess for new teachers. Age didn't take long either and they didn't have enough English vocabulary to ask any questions more complicated than that. Something I thought would take 20 minutes or more was over in 5......I was in some serious trouble.

I kept to the plan hoping that I could use more time with the names and sports than I originally expected. It did but not in the way I wanted. First, they had never turned a blank sheet of paper into a triangle. Something I thought would be simple became a chore as I had to walk around and help them all as the rest of the class yelled TEACHER, TEACHER, TEACHER! Then came the name issue, most couldn't spell it in English. Again I had to walk around and show each student their name long enough to copy it. As you may have already guessed, the other students were all yelling TEACHER and coming up to me to find their name quickly.

Catherine introduced a term, which is very important in this job, to me during her summer at Sea Base. To 'establish dominance' is exceedingly important in this profession. I will readily admit to lacking it over the first class from the start and doing it afterwards has been a chore but I think I'm finally making progress. To regain control over this wayward class I copped out: I went to the book. It was never part of the plan, in fact it was anti-plan. My first day with each class was supposed to be an easy day for them. No work and all play, something they don't usually get and therefore a treat of sorts. But I had  no ideas on how to fill the half hour I had left and I needed to get control of the class. I don't regret the decision but I think the class got screwed out of a free day because I was unprepared.

After this first class we have our 1p minute break and I met Catherine by the water cooler (never thought I'd ever participate in a water cooler conversation) to trade our war stories before heading back to the front. My next class was a more advanced beginner class. They are better behaved but still have a few bad apples. Once again my plan didn't last long enough and I still couldn't think of a better way to use up my time. For the second class in a row I copped out and used the book. At this point I knew I needed to completely rethink my plan of attack.

My third class of the day is at a pretty advanced level....especially compared to my earlier experiences! This helped in two important ways. First, they actually had substantive questions (meaning more complicated than how old are you) to ask. Second, I changed up my introduction to the class. Once again I hijacked a great idea from Catherine by drawing a map of the US on the board. First I had them guess the country (easy) but I drew it out by having them come up to the board one by one and mark where they thought I was from in the US. This not only killed time but also seemed entertaining to the students. I also made it a slight geography lesson as I narrated what region/city they were marking. After they figured out where I was from I allowed questions which ate up a little time before moving on to the nametag phase. With the older kids this involved less yelling as they all knew how to write their names in English. Then I went back to the board, with my already drawn map of the US and started describing the size and scope of the country. Explaining that Seoul to Jeonju is roughly the distance between my home and  Disney, that there is a lake the size of Jeonju in Florida (still not sure if that's an exaggeration but I think it's close), and drawing my recent road trip while asking them how long it took by car. This was my masterpiece.

I followed this basic outline for every new class I met. It was a resounding success and I never even had to think about the book again. Sure it required slight tweaks depending on how the class was reacting or how much the class engaged (some classes never engage...I have one that never, and I mean never, talks to me) but the outline was sound. Of course some of the classes have troublemakers but I was firm from the start and have kept them reasonably under control since.

Now a quick note about our schedule. I have a block schedule in which every other day I meet with my first three classes. On my first teaching day my early classes were the youngest and lowest level of all my students. It is also my shit day, I use this language because we have picked up an affectionate term for our students from our fellow teachers: little shits. My alternate early classes are slightly better behaved.....well two out of three anyway. My fourth class alternates on Mon/Wed and Tue/Thurs with a different class on Friday. My fifth and seventh classes are once a week classes of older students who have no real book, we're just supposed to discuss a topic....easier than it sounds! My sixth class I have everyday and we have a love/hate relationship but they're ok.

I used my established plan with my new classes on my second day. It was a reasonable success once again. One thing I can recall vividly though is one of my "Let's talk about it" classes (the discussion class) that just hates talking. After trying to pry things out of them for twenty minutes I gave up and I became a history professor. I literally gave them a lesson on US revolutionary history for a half hour....I've done this twice with two separate classes.

I have since settled into a routine and am no longer apprehensive about going to work and teaching in general. It's not a bad job. It has its good days and bad but the kids are alright even if they are little shits. At least I can remember and pronounce half their names now! We even get a little reprieve ever three Fridays. That's our "movie day" where for the first class all the students (and teachers) go upstairs to watch a "movie". What actually happens is you play clips ranging from 1 to 5 minutes from a selected movie with English subtitles at the bottom. At the end of every clip you pull up a selected passage from the clip and have the students repeat the words (in small chunks) after you. In some ways it's worse than actual class!

Now that I’ve given you an idea of how things work I'm going to try and catch up on some of the strange and exciting things that have happened. The next few posts will have to do with our recent adventures. Our first trips to Gaeksa (downtown)and Bukdae (the university area), our health evaluation, trip to the Boryeong Mud Festival, and vacation to Seoul. I hope to get another post up by the weekend!

We have arrived....now what?

I don’t remember much about our first day in Korea. It was all such a blur. Everything new and different and foreign. I do remember going on a little adventure out of our apartment in search of internet. Walking out of our apartment we took a left down our street, which looks more like a back ally than an actual road. After a short walk we arrived at the main street in our area and took another left. Liz had told us there was a McDonalds around and we went looking for breakfast there.

Walking down the street and peering into every store we passed we were amazed by the simple things you take for granted at home. Next time you walk down a street imagine you can’t read the signs, the food is unrecognizable, and the ambient conversation is a foreign tongue that sounds more like white noise than speech. That was our first day.

One thing I noticed pretty quick was a lack of stop signs. They have none. Seriously….none. If the road isn’t 4 lanes traffic runs on autopilot. Sure they have stoplights but only on major roads and they are strange because only one side goes at a time. Driving here seems to be a free-for-all….you always, always put your seatbelt on before giving directions to the taxi driver. I can’t stress this enough. The taxi driver you get is kinda like playing Russian Roulette…they may be a sane cautious driver or a crazy lunatic you never know till they start driving.

After a relatively short walk we spotted the McDonalds. It was a sight for sore eyes and I don’t even like McDonalds that much! We walked in to the newly built restaurant, it opened a couple weeks before we arrived and just for us I’m sure, and proceeded to stare at the menu. We were in luck! Yes the signage was mostly in Hangul (written Korean) but it also had the English names! Plus, who can’t recognize a Big Mac on sight? Now the fun part, figuring out how to order breakfast.

We walked up to the nice lady with a smile and proceeded to order two #1’s. When I say order, I mean mime. We do a lot of miming these days….thinking of becoming a professional when I get back home. This wasn’t terribly difficult but ordering our drink was. We wanted water….the lady just looked down and around hopelessly as we tried to explain that we didn’t want Coke, we wanted water. IN America this is an easy, cheap, and normal thing to ask. In Korea water is a luxury it seems. The lady walked over and brought her manager back. We then went through trying to explain what we wanted to him….eventually he just nodded, did something on the screen and left. We paid and went to sit down.

After we sat down I pulled out Catherine’s computer to try and get on the internet. We’d heard wifi was ubiquitous here so I didn’t think it would be hard. It wasn’t at first, there were plenty of unsecured networks around with plenty of signal so I tried to get on one. Nope…it connected but when I went to see the internet it sent me to some login site in Hangul. It did have a nice English button though so I used that. Turns out I would need to purchase a temporary day access to the internet, ok no problem. We really wanted to contact our folks so it would be worth it. Lo and behold…..our browser (safari) wasn’t supported. Nor was Chrome. I have come to find that Koreans almost exclusively use Internet Explorer….for such an advanced country they sure do live in the browser dark ages….

By now our food was ready and I went to go get it. It looked pretty normal at first: A wrapped Big Mac and a carton of fries. Then it got strange with both a cup of Coke and a bottle of water! Turns out that you can’t just get a cup of free water, you pay for a bottle and you still get the coke. How weird is that?! We shrugged it off as just a Korean thing to keep in mind for the future and started to eat. The fries and burger tasted exactly how you expect them too. But the burger does come with a hard paper circle thing around it, still don’t know why.

Next we went looking for wifi we could actually use.  I suggested we go to a PC room. Easier said than done! Finding them wasn’t hard per se as the sign for them always include the letters PC. The problem was knowing where inside the building they were. Eventually we found one that had 3f next to the sign so we went to the 3^rd floor and walked in. The place very dark, lit almost entirely by the computer monitors inside, and filled with 4 rows of 10 computers each with hunched over Koreans at each one. A group of 3 boys had entered just before us, spoke a little Korean to the boy behind the counter then turned to leave. Just as they did so one of the boys, who had just taken a sip from a carton of some sorts, spit it all on the floor. Then they left with no apology nor were they yelled at. I guess this is a common thing….

We walked up to the counter to ask about wifi or using the internet and the boy just looked at his feet. We tried talking again but all he would do is look at his feet, to the right where a coworker stood, and back at his feet again. His coworker came over, looked at us, looked around, and looked back at us without a word. Apparently our kind weren’t welcome there….or they were just full up. That’s my guess anyway.

We called our fellow teacher Liz who told us to try the coffee shops as they usually have wifi. We walked over to one, ordered coffee, sat down, and got on the internet. Success at last! We were able to talk to our folks and let them know how things were going and that we would try again tomorrow. Quick note about that: we did try the next day but it turns out Korea doesn’t open very early….most coffee shops open between 9 and 10am!

Later that night we went out for dinner with Liz and a couple of her friends Marsha, who we’d already met, and Ginny a nice British girl. We went to a nearby restaurant and got to know each other. We heard many stories about their adventures in Korea as we ate dinner. Dinner which we cooked. In many Korean restaurants there is a coal stove in the table and you are brought the raw meat to cook for yourselves. Also, you are brought a bunch of side dishes that come with every meal. Side dishes are a big thing here. I’d made myself a promise that I would be adventurous in Korea and not shy away from the local customs or food. The first night put that to the test.

One of the side dishes was presented to us by Ginny. She offered them to Catherine but wouldn’t say what they were. Catherine declined so Ginny offered them to me. I graciously accepted and ate one. It had an unusual taste, not bad, but not good either. Ginny then let me in on the secret: they were silkworm larva! A good thing to say I’ve tried? Sure, but I wouldn’t eat them again. We had a great dinner and then a leisurely walk home to end the night. We needed rest as tomorrow was the first day of work.

The first day of school. It doesn't change even when you're an adult....same nervous butterflies in your stomach, same worries running around in your head, and the same result: it's never what you think it will be. We met our fellow teacher Liz in the hallway and followed her on the walk to school. We'd never seen the building, met our boss, or seen our expected environment. It was going to be an interesting day!

To start we dressed in our best summer clothes. We'd been told that. The expected uniform was very casual but we wanted to make a good first Impression with our boss and students. You never get to second chance at a first impression! When Liz met us she made a quick comment about our dress and then let us know how the plan would go for the day. Instead of the teaching that we expected to be thrown into we would e watching her classes all day. Huge sigh of relief for us....at least that would give us a frame of reference for our actual first da!

When we arrived we were introduced to our boss Mr. Kim, his wife Mrs. Kim, and Mrs. Park (who we believe is Mrs. Kim's sister and more commonly referred to as Counter-teacher). They are very nice and speak English to varying degrees from Mr. Kim who is understandable to Counter-teacher who understands more than she speaks. We were shown our classrooms for the next year and told that we would het our schedules later in the day. We each inspected our rooms, inspected each other’s rooms, and then joined Liz in hers to start the day.

Without fail we made an impact on the students. One student who came in late even had a mini heart attack once he noticed us at the back! It was quite fun To watch! That was about the only exciting thing to happen though. For the first class or two it's very interesting and you're taking notes trying to absorb everything you can knowing that the next day you will be in front of your own class. By the third one the dull routine has set in and boredom takes over. Luckily there is a ten-minute break after the first two classes and Liz was kind enough to provide us each with a stick of instant coffee she, and now we, keep handy in our classrooms. I think that without Catherine's company and that coffee I would've fallen asleep!

During each class Liz would pass along little bits of wisdom to us. It's intriguing how this is done: you simply wait until the students are working and speak fast enough (native speed) that they can't understand except maybe one word in a sentence. The students know you are speaking but can't figure out what about. This comes in handy during breaks as well and is also refreshing....we spend a lot of time speaking in slow deliberate tones. Not ape speak (me Tarzan, you Jane) but slowly pronouncing every word in every sentence. Try speaking at quarter speed for 7 hours....it isn't easy or comfortable.

Soon enough it was time for our dinner break so we went upstairs to eat. The family runs two academies, one for English and one for math, on two separate floors. The 'teacher's lounge' is on the top floor (the English school is on the 2nd and math is on the 3rd) in an unused classroom. As is typical of Korean meals, side dishes are always provided and kimchi is always one of the side dishes. In addition there is always cooked white rice provided and a soup of the day. The soup always varies and is not always very edible. I like shrimp as much as anyone but when it still has the head attached it certainly gives me pause!

When it was time to return to class Mr. Kim took is aside and handed us our schedules. We would each have seven 50-minute classes a day starting at 3pm and finishing at 9:50pm. We were to arrive at 2:30pm everyday to prepare for the days classes. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be having dinner together except on Fridays :-( Catherine would have hers the hour before mine which I have at the same time as Liz. On Friday's though, Catherine has a free period during my dinner so we can eat together! We each got a mix of young and old students that aged during the evening. Catherine got the luck of the draw though.....all three of the boss's daughters! I don't know if I could’ve handled it but she is doing wonderfully!

We went back into class and observed the last two of the day. It wasn't long until it was time to go home and rest for tomorrow. We took a nice leisurely walk home and discussed our plans, observations, and apprehensions. The real first day was right around the corner...