Sick as a dog!

The past couple weeks, I have been sick! And for those of you who know me really well, you know that I rarely ever get sick.  So of course, karma being what it is, I ended up RIDICULOUSY sick!  It started off with what seemed like a sore throat, and then it turned into sore throat + crazy coughing + a mad fever all the time.  So I dealt with this for a few days, until I finally gave in a little bit to my co-teachers constant telling me to go see the doctor, by making a visit to our school nurse.  She took my temperature and told me that I didn’t have a fever, but I’m telling you, it really felt like I did – my forehead and cheeks felt like they had been on fire all week!  Anyway, she gave me some medicine to take – some pills and a little bottle of some liquid medicine – which I of course had no idea what it was or what it was for.  All I had to go off of was my co-teacher telling me that this is what all Koreans take when they get a cold.  Ok, step of blind faith – I tried this medicine.  Amazingly it’s not like our medicine, and doesn’t have a bad taste at all.  In fact, it was actually kind of nice – it tasted smooth and had a hint of spice like cinnamon or cloves, I don’t know, I couldn’t really put my finger on it.  I was really hoping that this medicine would make me feel better because it was a long weekend here in Korea for Buddha’s Birthday, and I had all kinds of things that I wanted to do!  Unfortunately for me, I ended spending most of my time that weekend in bed because I felt so bad!  Every day it felt like I might be getting a little bit better, so I would think to myself, “Excellent! I can go out tomorrow!” But yeah, that didn’t happen.  Which of course irritated me even more because it was warm and sunny outside, and you all know how I feel about being inside on those kind of days!

Then it was back to school on Monday for my grade six class – my first class teaching with my new co-teacher.  That day went pretty well, with only some coughing getting in the way.  The next day, however, was a completely different story!  Tuesday morning, I woke up and I had no voice!! You can probably imagine how I felt – how was I going to teach without a voice?! (*ahem* thanks to certain people for cursing me about that…I still had my tongue, but no voice!) So what happened was, I ended up wandering around the classroom, keeping order, miming, and playing the game with the kids who had no partner.  So it was still actually fun, because normally I wouldn’t get to actually play with them… Wednesday I lucked out with my lack of voice because the students were all writing their midterms and I wouldn’t have had any classes to teach anyway.  Thursday my voice came back!! Just in time to play with my grade 6’s again!  And I did indeed – making them sing and dance for me…muahahaha!  However, even though I got my voice back, I am still far from 100% because after the return of my voice, I ended up not being able to hear out of one ear. Lovely.  The best way I can describe it is like having an earplug permanently stuck in one ear or like when you go on a plane and the pressure messes with your ears, only it won’t pop back to normal.  Irritating.  Anyway, so after this happened, I finally broke down and decided that I should in fact go see a doctor.  So, my co-teacher found out about the nearest hospital for me (because in Korea when you go see a doctor, you go to the hospital not a doctor’s office) and phoned them to let them know I was coming.  Also, apparently this hospital is only open until 5pm (weird!) so I had to take the afternoon off of work to go there.  But first, I had to go discuss a lesson plan with a co-teacher, who told me when were done that it was good I’m going to the doctor, and that I looked really tired and should get some rest.  How nice.  Too bad I HATE being told I look tired!! (It’s a pet peeve, what can I say?)

So I left school, and went in search for a taxi to take me to a hospital.  Oddly enough, the streets were really quiet that afternoon, and it was crazy hot (not that that’s relevant, but I just thought I’d throw it in there).  So I headed down towards LotteMart (a big department/grocery store) where I know there are ALWAYS multiple taxis lined up, and sure enough, there were.

Once I got to the hospital, everything went super fast.  I stood in line to get myself checked into their system, then they had a guide take me to my doctor, who by the way, wasn’t just a regular doctor, he was a ‘ears, nose and throat specialist’. So he sits me in a chair, reads the Korean that my co-teacher wrote about my problem, and then asks me which ear I can’t hear out of.  So I tell him, and he takes a look.  Next thing I know, he’s got this tool thing and is blowing air or something into my nose.  Umm….so sudden! I was really surprised about it – there was no warning – he just did it!  I get the feeling that he was trying to see if he could get it to pop, but I don’t really know. Next, he asked a few questions in mostly Korean, with a few words of English and started explaining things in Korean.  Too bad, my level of Korean isn’t that good.  So I just stare at him blankly.  In the end, he just gave me a piece of paper, which I took back to the front desk with the guide, who had very kindly stayed to wait for me.  At the front desk, I paid my 7800 won for the visit and then was told to go to the pharmacy which was down the street, but of course I had no idea what a Korean pharmacy even looks like, so my guide very nicely took me there too!  Once I got there, I was given 3 different kinds of medicine which I have to take twice a day for the next week. And they’re all individually packaged with one of each medicine in a little vacuum sealed package, so I don’t have to read any instructions or anything like that, which is wonderful!  And this only cost me 4200 won.  So a trip to see the doctor plus getting medicine cost me about $12 and took less than 20 minutes.  Pretty sure it wouldn’t have been that fast or cheap back home! The only thing is, once again, I have no idea what I’m taking or what I’m taking it for.  I have been getting the feeling that you need a lot of blind faith that things won’t kill you when you’re in Korea.  Just like the food.  Lots of times, no idea what I’m putting into my mouth.  Sometimes I think it’s better if I don’t ask though. ;)  So hopefully this medicine will fix up my hearing, and then I can be back on my merry way.

A night out with Korean teachers

As you may or may not know, it is very common in Korean culture for people who work together to go out for a meal together every so often.  Earlier this week I experienced my first one.  It was with 12ish teachers (including myself), and we went for samgyupsal (Korean BBQ pork). This particular meal out had two purposes.  First, it was a kind of goodbye thing for one of my co-teachers whose last day was this Thursday, and second it was to welcome the new teacher who will be replacing her.  So here, I suppose I could point out that they never did anything to welcome me, although I have heard from others who were in my orientation that their schools did. Oh well, anyway...
So, attending this dinner was me, my three co-teachers, my new co-teacher, the master teacher, the two PE teachers, the music teacher, my grade three co-teacher's husband (who is also a teacher at our school), their daughter and another teacher who I've seen around, but I don't know what he teaches yet.  Out of all of these people the only people who can fluently speak English (more or less) are me (of course), my main co-teacher, and the master teacher, and it seems like my new co-teacher can speak a bit better English than the old one (although it may have been the alcohol - guess I'll find out on Monday!).  So right there, that automatically sets it up to be slightly awkward for me with everyone sitting around talking in Korean and shooting sympathetic looks my way.  Not to mention the fact that once we started eating, I get scrutinized about what I'm eating and drinking ( or what I'm not, but I'll get to that later).  So those were the more awkward parts of the evening.  Now onto the more amusing parts which I believed I promised to elaborate on:

Ok, so I don't know if you know this about Korea or not, but they have a very big drinking culture here.  And what they drink is mostly beer and soju.  This night was no exception to that rule!  Copious amounts of alcohol were consumed, although I think most of it was by the men not the women.  Ah, but I'm getting slightly ahead of myself - I should mention that some of the teachers apparently told my co-teacher that they wanted to talk to me, but they probably wouldn't until they got drunk because they're too shy to speak English under normal circumstances.  Well they did indeed talk to me...Read on...
 
Who should I start with first?  Hmmm.....how about the older PE teacher (who is probably in his 50's)? So this particular teacher didn't speak any English at all, he basically talked to me through my co-teacher.  I learned all kinds of things about him - he didn't get married until his 40s and his wife is an English teacher and so he used to see a lot of foreigners who worked with her so "even though though he doesn't ever say anything to me, he is 'worried' for me living on my own, especially being in a foreign country."  Kind of him to be so concerned.  Oh, and he likes golf.  A lot. I heard about it at least 20 times.


For this next part (which was by far the most amusing), I think it would be better to explain using quotes, so here goes:

One teacher: "Amanda, you are beautiful!" Another teacher: "He's a liar!" *Me (thinking)...umm...so what are you trying to say...?* My co-teacher: "It was a joke, a joke Amanda."  First teacher: "Sorry Amanda! You beautiful!"

"Amanda, why aren't you drinking beer? You want soju? Drink beer!" (MULTIPLE times!)

"No thank you? No thank you?! Why?? Why?"

"AMANDA!!" *grins and gives me a thumbs up* "You gorgeous!!"

"Amanda...Help yourself!" (for this one I need to explain that this particular teacher always says this to me while we're eating lunch, and thinks it's hilarious)

"Amanda... I'm drunk!" (huh, I'm sure I never would've guessed that on my own :P)

"Amanda, blond hair, *thumbs up* very original!" Master teacher: "What do you mean original?" First teacher: "Cute! Beautiful!"

At one point one teacher was getting very loud and excited, so the music teacher tells him that he's making me uncomfortable, not really but if it helps...  He sits down, looks at me and goes, "Amanda! CALM DOWN!!" lol...it wasn't me that needed to calm down!

My new co-teacher tried having a conversation with me (not that I could really hear him over all the noise of the other teachers) and at one point tells me that he is not only an English teacher, but also a music teacher, so he wants to "teach me all about Korean music".  Fair enough.  Then the other teachers hear him talking in English, and it's "Ooohh!! English! good!"

"Amanda, hobbies? (I say something like hiking...)  Hiking? Oh!! You come hiking with us! (two of the younger teachers) Call? Call? Call?" (This also happened 3 or 4 times)

"Hey! You! *long pause*  Amanda!" (the teacher who said this must've said it at least 20 times that night every time he wanted to get my attention, and it got to the point where I was nearly killing myself with amusement every time he said it, because he was so intense about it and it happened every time I looked away or started talking with another teacher).  And it was also 99% of the time followed by "Korean culture!!" You drink beer!!" or just "Beer!!" or "Soju!"

"Amanda, we *gestures to all teachers* family, ok?"

"I'm 32!  I'm 8 years older than you, so you call me 'oppa'! I'm your brother!"

"Amanda! Oppa, Oppa! Say!" or "Amanda, oppa - call? call?"

When we were starting to get ready to leave, my co-teachers were discussing that one of them would take me home, when the younger PE teacher shouts out, "NO!!!! Amanda, you no go! Come drink cocktails!"  All of the female teachers look at him, and he gets this puppy dog expression, and says like a little kid who has been bad, "Sorry. Sorry Amanda!"


Oh and if I wasn't used to being called Amanda by this point, I definitely am now after that night. I think pretty much everything sentence said to me that night had 'Amanda' somewhere in it.
And since we were there for a good 3 or 4 hours, and they were drunk by the first hour, I'll leave it up to your imagination about how many times I got to hear my name and all of the other amusing things I got to hear....

Initial impressions about my school

Life at school…what can I tell you – it can be chaotic, awkward and confusing at times, but overall, I’m definitely enjoying it.  The students themselves are lots of fun, even if they don’t know a lot of English.  But that’s why I’m here right? To help them out with that. I guess I could give a bit of background here – Jeollanamdo (the province where I’m living) – is considered one of the poorer provinces in Korea, so the English level of the students here is apparently lower than in other provinces (especially compared to students living in or around Seoul).  All of the students here love to say ‘hello’ to me – and I must end up saying hello or hi at least 100 times every day.

So, about my classes: I’m teaching grades 3-6, and there are four grade 3 classes, four grade 4 classes, four grade 5 classes and five grade 6 classes, plus I have to do a teacher workshop every Friday afternoon.  With about 25-30 students in every class, (the exception being the teacher workshop, where I will have 3 teachers for sure every time and maybe another teacher or two drop in occasionally), I have a LOT of students! This school uses a textbook set and they want to really stick to it quite closely and not substitute many other activities, but then at the same time they tell me that they want me to make materials and change the activities up sometimes.  So they want things exactly the same, but changed.  That doesn’t make my life slightly frustrating at all.

 

The first time in each of my classes, when the students walked in, you could literally see their eyes get bigger. A lot of them would just sit down and ‘sneak’ looks at me or hide behind their books and giggle (especially the younger ones). Depending on the class, they might have started asking me questions before the class even started.  One of my grade 4 classes basically surrounded me and started rapid fire questions with at least five of them talking at the same time. It was fun though. The most common questions from all the students are: What’s your name? Where are you from? How old are you? and Do you have a boyfriend? Although some of them get a bit more creative with their questions. For example, the other day one little guy asks me if I have a phone, then asks what my phone number is, and when I just laughed awkwardly, he just kept on trucking and told me his phone number.  Oh children!

 

 

At my school we have a special classroom for English, where I teach 4 of the 5 workdays. (The other day I teach in a classroom on the 3^rd floor because the teacher I work with for the grade 3’s is pregnant and it’s more convenient for her not to come down to the first floor for class.) My main classroom was just built/renovated last year, so it is nice and new as well as being quite large. The windows in the classroom face out onto a little courtyard where there is a vegetable garden where they grow some things that they use for the food in the lunches.  Apparently they’re even growing some watermelons in there! I’m excited to see those grow! Here’s a video of what my classroom looks like, and since some of you (*cough* Dana) were worried that my tongue was cut out, I give you a little bit of narration! http://youtu.be/S50j3sxFJ5U
I'm sorry I have to give a link - whenever I try to put in a video on this blog it always says there's an error, so clearly I'm doing something wrong ^_^;


 

My office, which I share with my main co-teacher, is attached to the classroom.  It is also new; my only issue with it is that it is insanely cold in it!  I’m sure that will be wonderful later in the summer, but right now I’m freezing! Pictures of my office:

 

So all of the colorful things along the wall are English materials that the school provided - I haven't had a chance to use any yet though.
Of the two cubicles you can see, mine is the one on the left --> check out the nice chair I get! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the 'view' from my desk. The open door goes

into the English classroom, and the other doors go into the hallway.  One thing about Korean buildings, REALLY thin walls. If I'm not teaching and one of my co-teachers is, I can hear everything going on in the classroom. And I can hear everything in the hallway too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and since I was talking about lunches earlier – lunch is provided for EVERYONE by the school. (Although I think I read in my contract that they deduct a bit for this every month, but it was a minimal amount – something like $20-30 – couldn’t make my own lunch for that cheap!) Anyway, my co-teachers have told me that this school’s lunches are really good and much better than at some other schools.  So I lucked out on the lunch school ;)  The kids all eat together in one section of the cafeteria and the teachers eat in another section that is connected to it but slightly off a bit.  The teachers also have their own place where we get our food.  The setup is kind of buffet style.  You grab a tray (which has a large section for your rice, a round section to put your bowl, and 3 smaller sections to put the rest of your food), a bowl, chopsticks and a spoon and then get your food.  There is always rice and kimchi (of course), and everyday there is some kind of soup, and then they usually have some kind of meat, some vegetables, and then dessert is usually fruit, but sometimes they also have cupcakes or doughnuts or mini drinkable yogurts.  So far lunches have indeed been quite good.  It is kind of weird though that they don’t really have anything to drink with their meals. If you want something to drink – you usually get it after you’re done eating, and here what you do is you go grab a tiny little metal cup, and then you get some ‘water’ which is really some kind of tea. (Since this is Korea, it’s probably barley tea, but I’m not entirely sure.) It’s good if you’re thirsty, but some days, I really wish I could just have a nice cold glass of water.

 

Also, apparently volleyball is a huge thing among the teachers at all schools in Korea.  At my school, the first thing the other teachers wanted to know about me was if I played volleyball.  Alas, I had to disappoint them. ;) Once a week the teachers get together and play volleyball in the gym after classes are done, (but before work is done) and if you aren’t playing, you’re still expected to be there to watch, cheer or help keep score. I’ve also heard that at some point there will be a competition between some (or possibly all) schools.

Culture Clash, 'Expressions' and Being Beautiful

Ok, so first of all, I already knew before I came here that Asians and Westerners have different ideas on appearances. And this little comic kind of sums that up nicely:

Yes, so while I might not go quite that far with my shirts – there are a couple that I have that wouldn’t be an issue back home, but here they would be.  So best idea – the higher the neckline, the better in Korean opinion.  And you need to wear long-sleeves – all the time.  I think my 3/4 length sweaters might even be pushing it, but I can’t help it! If I wear a long-sleeved shirt, I want to push up the sleeves!  Well, actually all I really want to do is wear my t-shirts without a sweater type thing over them – it can get kind of hot here you know! Hopefully, when it’s closer to summer than spring, other teachers will wear t-shirts so that I can too.  Oh, and if your neckline is wider at the top – and they can see your bra straps – ladies, according to my co-teacher, this is okay around women, but not around men, because they imagine all kinds of things. Her words. So now everytime I get ready for school, I have to take a good look in the mirror and think to myself, “if I was a Korean, would this be appropriate or not?”

Things my co-teachers say can be quite interesting at times. Like at one point they were telling me that I needed to be careful because I have blond hair, and Korean men fantasize about that, which led into a conversation about stalkers and which bus/train station prostitutes hang out at.  Not really sure how we got to prostitutes at bus stations, but there you are.

Next, I have definitely gotten quite possibly the most comments on my appearance in Korea than in my life.  Most of the time I hear things like “Oh, Amanda teacher, very beautiful,” or “Amanda, pretty/beautiful,” and I’ve gotten comments on my eyes, like “Oh! Blue!”  And more recently, today I got told that I have long legs, which are very nice, and that I have a nice S-line (which is apparently an attractive body shape in Korea). So what I’m saying is, if you ever decide that you want to hear (generally) good things about your appearance, Korea may be the place for you.

I’ve noticed that Koreans also tend to comment a lot on your expressions.  Like at lunch recently, I was told that my expressions have gotten much better than when I first arrived.  Apparently when I first came, my expressions were ‘dark, like I was nervous’.  Hate to tell you, but I WAS nervous!  Who wouldn’t be going into a completely different culture and job than what you’re used to, not to mention, not really understanding most of what they’re saying?!  But now, according to them, my expressions have gotten much better, because I have ‘let more light into them’ and must have ‘decided something in my mind’.  Right, so I’ll take that as a good thing....

Life in the first couple weeks

Ok, so first of all, bear with me because I don't really know how this blogging thing really works and all that jazz. But, I'll start from the beginning:


So, first of all there was leaving home in the middle of April, which was a super crazy day that involved trying to get at least one of my pieces of luggage down to a non-overweight weight.  So not fun!  That was followed by what was one of the LONGEST trips of my life!  With 1.5 hours from Calgary to Vancouver, 2 hours of waiting in Vancouver, then a 12 hour flight to Seoul, a 30 minute bus ride to a different airport (which thank goodness there was a large group of us together, because it was kind of confusing finding out where to go to catch that bus and then which bus it was), that was followed by a ridiculously long wait at the Gimpo airport, where the group of us ended up playing Cards Against Humanity.  Don't ask.  It's a very unusual game.  As a side note, it would have been faster to take the bus from Incheon to Gwanju than it was to fly there.  But I think the logic there was that all of our baggage wouldn't fit on the bus.  The flight from Gimpo to Gwanju ended up being delayed a little bit, but it was only an hour long and was the most relaxing flight ever!! They played classical music the whole way, the plane was nice and warm, and it just had a relaxing vibe.  Oh, and if you're ever in Korea, or on a Korean plane, try the plum juice - it's delicious and refreshing!!  Right, so after that flight we all piled onto yet another bus that was headed towards our hotel.  Add another half hour to the travel time.  By the time we got to the hotel and got to our rooms it was 10:30 at night and I had been travelling for about 22 hours in total, so yes, it was a long day.  Unfortunately for us, orientation started first thing the next morning.

Orientation was very informative and at times fun; my only issue with it was that it really would have been nice to get a day or at least one morning to ourselves, but it was 10 days of go-go-go. The hotel we stayed at was quite nice, and they fed us really well.  If you were hungry, it was definitely your own fault.
One night near the beginning of orientation we went to a baseball game.  It was very cold that night and the game was ridiculously long - I stayed for 3 hours, but it apparently took 6 hours before it was done. Crazy!!  Here's some proof that I was there:

On our field trip day, we went to a temple in Hwasun, which I really enjoyed, even though it was raining.  Pictures can be found here, for those of you without facebook.


Gwanju itself had some nice aspects as well - went for a hike and some walks, here are some pictures from Gwanju:


So now onto talking about the last day of orientation/travel day to the new city!
This was another crazy day.  We basically had part of the morning to eat and get packed up, then it was down to get lined up to meet our teachers.  After meeting our co-teachers, everyone had to head up to their rooms, get their luggage and haul it down into the teachers' cars.  CHAOS at the elevators!!  That done, we wolfed down our lunches and headed off to our cities.  For me, it was about 1.5-2 hour drive to Yeosu.  First stop was the school where I met the principal, vice-principal, master teacher and a number of other people.  My co-teacher and I had tea with the principal, which was awkward because he doesn't speak English and I don't really speak enough Korean (especially not comfortable with it with the principal!!) so it was a lot of smiling and nodding.  As a side note, I don't think I've met a single Korean yet who can properly or easily pronounce my last name.  Who would've guessed?  Anyway, after the school visit, we went to my apartment to check it out, get the keys, and figure out what I needed to buy, then it was off to the immigration office so that I could apply for my Alien Card, followed by setting up a bank account, buying a phone, and getting some groceries/supplies for my apartment.  By the time I got back to my place it was nearly 8pm, and I still needed to eat, and at the very least unpack the essentials for the night.  Then it was go out and make sure I knew how to get to my school for the next morning.  Finding the school was easy enough, although I definitely got slightly lost on the way back home.  In my defence, it was dark and I was tired.  Then there was a small issue in not realizing certain things about how to unlock electronic locks to get into my building.  Not to worry though, I figured it out after about 10 minutes of frustration.  Crazy day may have been an understatement. 

And in case anyone is wondering this is what my apartment looks like.

And this is the view that I have.


More on life at school in Korea later!