About the pics:Rice wine with cider - you drink this from a bowl. I almost wanted to reach for a spoon thinking it was a cold soup. They usually use spoons for soup here.Noraebang (karaoke room) fully equipped with disco ball and surround-sound along with a bar host right outside the door. Our sad attempt at karaoke.The worse you are, the better your score. We did, however, get a few scores in the 50s, so you can imagine how amazing those sounded.Beth and Chase doing a duet perhaps.Last night, Beth took me out with her friends from last year. We went to a restaurant in Wolbae (one subway stop over from SangIn, where I live) where the group of friends frequents - I would say they are definitely friends with the owner now. They continued serving us endless kettles of rice wine mixed with cider. It was a bit of a strange taste at first, but I fared alright. I'm not a big drinker as is so it was a bit more challenging with this beverage. We had a couple spicy dishes (of course): veggies with rice cakes that have a similar consistency to a penne noodle, but solid all the way through, and a soup with tofu, tuna and kimchi. I wasn't crazy about either, but it was alright. I'm still most fond of Korean BBQ of chicken (dak) or beef (sogogi) with veggies and rice. After hours of socializing and having drinks at the restaurant, the group stumbled next door to a noraebang - private karaoke room. Korea is absolutely full of these places. I have no idea how much it costs, but it must have been very cheap. They also just add on more time to the machine timers when it runs out and apparently don't charge extra. There's a disco ball, big "u-shaped" seating, two microphones and surround sound, and you can get alcohol there as well. Some Korean guys that we met at the restaurant joined us for a few songs. We have similar places in the states, but this was a totally different level. It was definitely a fun and interesting night. We must have spent two hours there, and let me tell you - these places don't fill up until 3am or so. It's not exactly a place where you start your night... I'm sure I'll spend some future nights in one of these again.
About the pics:Heart-shaped, build-your-own pizza from Italy, Italy.Anthony the Brit at Wednesday Open Mic night at Commune.Beth and 2 of our co-workers.Anthony and Laura hanging on the monkey bars.Korean high school-er audience of the jam session at the park.It's been kind of a slow week, but nice nonetheless! Earlier in the week, the rainy season was making itself known, but now it seems to have temporarily dwindled off - the heat is still here though!Two friends from our school played an open-mic night at a bar called Commune. The other acts were pretty dreadful, but my friends were quite good, honestly. Wednesday appeared to be a pretty slow night for the downtown scene, and at about 2am we headed back to a Sang-In area park where the boys continued to play guitars, ukulele and harmonica and sing classic covers. Shortly after, a group of high school Korean boys showed up and grabbed themselves some seats within viewing and listening distance. They made sure to give a loud enough applause for us to hear after songs that they were fans of. I couldn't help but go up to them and snap a photo. They loved it.
About the pics:The underground subway mall had an interactive information booth that can take and email pictures. I sent that one to Danna.Teengirl Fantasy - opening band on Thursday.Handsome Furs.Handsome Furs with Beth and me.Charlie and Pat "aka" Chaz playing beer pong at Thursday Party.So I have officially finished teaching my first full week of classes. Not bad at all. I have a few kids that might be comparable to the "problem child" but I will find ways to handle them. So far, I'm really enjoying myself here.The Handsome Furs show on Thursday night was incredible. The first live music show I have been to outside of the States - there were definitely a lot of westerners, but there was still a different vibe that is unlike any in the US. The band's energy was feeding onto the crowd and the crowd's energy was bouncing right back, and everyone was having an amazing time. After the show, the band hung around taking shots with all of us and chatting with everyone. I had a long conversation with the lead singer about a show of his I saw in San Diego, and that led to him telling me about the 2 bands he's in and how he met his wife and their plans for the next year or so. It was a great time!This weekend was my first real weekend out in Daegu - last weekend we were out with the school and the other night I stayed in. I also stayed in on Friday night... I needed a day off after the Thursday night show - you'd think that work at 4pm the next day is enough recovery time... it's not.Last night, I went out downtown with some friends and made many new friends. We went to the usual spots that all the "foreigners" frequent - The Holy Grill (American food, foozball tables, Nintendo Wii, American Sports on TV, good music, Canadian owned), Thursday Party (Korean bar catered to foreigners, beer pong games, darts, some dancing, and often times, a lot of army guys), Who's Bob (a dingy, dive bar that everyone ends up at after all of the other spots - usually around 2am or later). It was a fun night, I definitely met a TON of people and got back home around 4am or something. Apparently it's not an unusual occurrence to leave the bars when the subways are up and running again - they stop running at 11:30pm every night and I think they start back up around 6 or 7am. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the funny things - you can buy: a zip-loc bag of alcohol with any mixed drink for about $2.50. They shake it up and stick a straw in it and wait for you to taste-test it - you can instruct them to add more alcohol to your taste, no limit. Also, at the end of the night there were some little food carts serving 4 inch in diameter pizza rounds in a dixie cup - those were about $1.The weekend goes by so quickly! I'm slowly gathering things for my apartment to make it feel more homey. I'll get there.Back to classes tomorrow!
About the pics:My feet in a pool of mini fish eating away at my dead skin.Losing at a drinking game - sinking the shot glass in a cup of beer.
Fully clothed Koreans on the beach in Busan.Korean BBQ and Kimchi - I can't remember what it's called in Korean.
So I've been here just over a week now, and it's been really great so far. The school I am working for is a private school, and famously known for being among the best private school chains you could work at here - for both the Korean teachers and the foreign teachers. Pretty much every foreigner (the English teachers are from all over - USA, England, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, etc.) that works there was in Korea for at least one year before working for our school, and they never fail to remind me how lucky I am to be at this school my first year.We have a group of Korean guys that are our "reinforcement team." Generally, they help us with anything we need, get us set up with cell phones, and internet, fix problems at the apartments, and generally anything that we may need. My first weekend here, the school took us on a day trip to the beach in Pohang - it's about 2 hours away by charter bus. It was pretty nice, but the beach was all rocks and the water was freezing! Much like Eilat, minus the crystal clear water and awesome coral reef. Then, we were spoiled at the Hyandai Hotel with a very nice buffet with unlimited drinks included. After that, we came back to our city, Daegu, and the school continued picking up the tab at a bar. It was a lot of fun and a great way to meet many of the teachers at our other branches. The next day, I went with some friends to another beach in Busan - the 2nd largest city in Korea. The beach there was nice, full of people, and the water was great! Also, the Koreans are terrified of the sun and even though it's easily 95 to 105 degrees here, they are fully covered from head to toe, even while they are in the water!I started teaching my first classes on Monday, and it went pretty smoothly. Our school is very structured and there is really no prep work required. We just have to take up a 50 minute class period with minimal information, so it's sometimes a bit tricky to take up all the time. They want us to repeat everything and have the students repeat everything several times - repetition is the thing here, but I start sounding ridiculous in my head while repeating things so many times. My students are all pretty good - I have one class that is painfully quiet, and I have one class that is pretty non-compliant, but besides that, they are all really good.I just moved into my permanent apartment on Monday and it's not bad at all. Nothing fancy, but could definitely be worse! I'm not complaining! I have a small kitchen with a stove top, fridge, microwave and very mini toaster oven. They also gave me a table and 2 chairs, so that's good! There's a sliding door that separates the kitchen from my room/living room, so I don't have to waste the AC cooling down the kitchen. My bathroom is fine also, not too small - the shower head is attached to the sink, so i turn the sink on and loosen the knob and it switches to the shower. The apartment is a studio, but it's a fairly good size - they also provided a TV, and washing machine but gotta hang to dry.The weather here is pretty awful - it's insanely hot these days, always upper 80s to 90s, but feels like 90s to 100s with this humidity! It's also the rainy season and the last day it's been very rainy, and doesn't look like it's going to stop for a few more days. Add 90 degrees to humidity and rain - it's not fun! It will be nice in September, and then freezing cold by November - so weather is definitely not one of the positives.Besides that, everything is great! The city is amazing, there is so much to do here. The public transportation system is awesome, I've made many new friends, been staying very busy and having a lot of fun. The food is not bad at all either. My friends have mostly been here for at least a year, so they are pretty good at ordering food and making sure I'm getting beef and not pork. Everything is very spicy, but I can handle it well most of the time. I've been having a lot of Korean BBQ - the beef, of course. Many restaurants only have pork bbq, so sometimes that's a challenge. They also have "American" restaurants that are pretty much Italian food, pastas, pizzas and the occasional burger. I had some Italian style food at a place in downtown Daegu called "about" - it was pretty delicious! I hear they have good burgers around here too, but the one I had in Busan was quite awful. You know how much I love burgers! I also went to an Indian restaurant nearby and it was great, but again VERY spicy!!! I haven't seen any dogs or anything around, but I have been told from many people that they have them around here and there. One person I met tried it - blachhhhhh!!!Oh, and tomorrow I am going to the Handsome Furs show in downtown Daegu at a place called Club GUESS. I'm super excited to have some good music coming through Daegu! Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade is the lead singer - it's going to be a great show. From what I've seen of past shows, it looks like we'll be getting a good show about once a month, I'd say. 8)
The man in the speedo is Mr. Moon - he is the owner of Moon Kkang, the chain of private schools I work for - he pays my bills. The other picture is a bunch of Moon Kkang teachers watching a swimming race between some teachers and Mr. Moon.
I probably should have started this blog last week, but since I didn't, here's the first email update I sent out to my family:
Hi Everyone,
I made it to Daegu. The flights weren't too bad, although the Tylenol PM didn't knock me out as hard as I was hoping. I watched one movie and tried to sleep the rest of the time. The food was okay - lunch was something called Bibimbap - I am still not really sure what it was. I think it was ground beef and some veggies, but the "mushrooms" in mine were as hard as clam shells so I didn't really touch those. Then you scoop a bunch of rice over all of it and add some Korean chili paste - which tasted like Israeli s'chug and was pretty good actually. There was some seaweed soup that I didn't eat and some melon on the side also. Dinner was more American - pasta with steamed carrots and zucchini in a cream sauce - not delicious but definitely edible. Also had cabbage salad with no dressing or anything, this must be kimchi (but I thought that was pickled), and a carrot cake - so I faired pretty well with that meal.
One of the foreign managers picked me up in Daegu, bought me some bread, jelly, frosted flakes, milk, OJ (which I'm not supposed to drink because of my stomach) and water, and dropped me off at my temporary apartment. I'll be at this place until Monday while the person who's moving out of the other apartment is still there. Then I'll be in my permanent apartment that is close to my school branch and next to my friend, Charlie from SDSU. There is really nothing in this apartment, so good thing I brought a towel! There wasn't even any toilet paper and I had nothing of the sort either. I heard some Americans in the hallway of the apartment and rushed out and told them I just got here and would be here this week and was left me with no toilet paper - they gave me a roll. They work for Moon Kkang also, but a different branch - one that's close to these apartments, but I have no idea where I am.
In a few more hours, someone from MK is going to pick me up from the apartment and take me to the main branch where I will start some training and observation today. I'm writing this at the apartment so when I get to the school, where there's Internet, I can just send it out. I am supposed to have training at various different branches with different teachers today, tomorrow and Thursday, and I guess Friday I start my own classes. Saturday, MK is taking the teachers to Pohang to the beach for the day. I don't know how the weather is there, but Daegu is unbearably hot, humid, and now it's the rainy season. This apartment, and my new one also, has a small AC unit in the bedroom, but the one here hasn't been that amazing, I'll probably have to buy a fan. I feel so stuck without any connection to the outside world. I have no phone and no internet and no way of communicating with anyone. I just have to sit in this apartment until someone gets me.
I switched my USD's to Korean Won - I have about 575,000 Won, so I'll be a millionaire in no time. Anyway, I'll be in touch when I can.
