Be amazed people.
That's right - I'm doing my second blog post in as many days. I'm really letting my hair down. Well, I guess I can only figuratively do that now, since I recently buzzed all of my hair off..all by myself. I don't really know why. It was kind of spur of the moment. But now that it's short, I'm enjoying it - less maintenance, less annoying, easier. Although, it is quite cooler on my dome nowadays. And definitely not as stunning. But there are always trade-offs. The other good news about it is that it showed me that I'm not balding - here's to hoping that never starts!
I've really enjoyed my job as a teacher so far. Colleagues are great, the two front desk folks, Kevin and Claire (Jasper thought Matilda was too "old" of a name, she it's since been changed to Claire) are very nice and helpful, and the kids, on the whole, are adorable and hard working.
When I started out, my teaching schedule was a little confusing. I had missed the week of training that Jaime and Miranda did, so I wasn't clued into just how our school worked. I kind of had to learn on the fly.
We teach kids that range in age from the 1st to 4th grade - so they're either just starting English or have had a year or two already. The class levels are broken up into two sections: the Base Camp Group (for beginners) and the Columbus Group (for the slightly more advanced kids). The Base Camp Group has three levels, which are, in ascending order, Atlas, Compass, and Telescope. I have three different Telescope classes. The Columbus Group is broken up into (again, in ascending order) the Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, Navigation, and Discovery Groups (I think think the "sail boat/discovering America" theme is clever). I have three Nina classes, one Pinta, one Navigation, and one Discovery. I can basically converse normally with my Navigation and Discovery classes - the students are very intelligent and quite advanced.
How many times certain classes come to our school also varies. We have 5 day classes, 3 day classes (MWF), and 2 day classes (TT). All in all, I end of having five classes a day - starting at 2:30 and ending at 8:40. I have to be at school at 1 for preparation, lesson planning, meetings, and any grading that needs to be done. We are required to stay until 9 PM, but those last 20 minutes only really allow me to clean up and get organized for the next day.
So you can see how, at first, I was a little discombobulated. It took about a week to get into the flow of things, and now it's a piece of cake. What's great is that the weeks absolutely fly by because it's quite the fast paced working environment and the kids make it very fun.
Let me tell you - the way to win a Korean student's heart is to play rock, paper, scissors with them. I think I'm simply known as "Look! There's the teacher that always plays rock, paper, scissors! Let's go see if we can beat him."
That reminds me of another perk of the job: In Korea, students don't call their teacher "Ms. So and So" or "Mr. So and So." Rather, they call all the teachers "Teacher." If they like you or can remember your name, you'll get the "Teacher (insert your name here)." I get a lot of the "Teacher Russell!" Very cute. When walking through the halls, you basically hear one of three things (or a big jumble of all three): "Teacher!" or "Kai Bai Bo!" (rock, paper, scissors in Korean) or simply an ear piercing array of incessant screaming as the students run and play.
Remember to check out my Flickr Photostream to see some photos of my school.
I also plan on getting more photos of some of my students (maybe I'll secretly pick my favorite ones or just take class shots) and some shots of my now almost hairless head.
Hope you liked the reading.
Ciao!
-r
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Hi folks!
I hope you are all doing well. I certainly am.
It's been quite some time since my last post and I'm sure that you are all simply dying to read something, anything about my goings on in Soko.
So let's get started. But please bear with me, as I am about to try to recall some stuff from several weeks ago. Luckily, there are a lot of photos that can do most of the talking.
I went to Seoul a while back (some of you may remember my Facebook status, "Going on the Seoul Train") with a few co-workers and friends. In all, the official group ended up being Jaime (one of my better friends here in Soko; we work together; live in the same building), Sarah (a teacher at Avalon, the main branch of my school and fellow Washingtonian!), Lucy (a teacher at Avalon as well), and Jasper (a native Korean, co-worker, and an overall fun guy).
We left fairly early, riding on the KTX - Korea's equivalent to Europe's high speed ICE trains. Thirty minutes later, we were there. Not bad. We dropped Lucy off at her hotel so she could get some shut-eye. Lucy is a self-proclaimed insomniac and hadn't slept much the night before. Meanwhile, the other two girls and I went and did some exploring of the Itaewan district in Seoul.
A few initial observations of Seoul: 1. Humongous. There are 24.5 million people in Seoul and is the 8th largest city in the entire world. Hot damn. I think it goes without saying that I'll be making many a trip up to Seoul just so I can properly experience everything it has to offer. 2. Fun. There are tons of things to do, rangning from touring and checking out historical sites to the great night life. 3. Kind of expensive. Korea, more or less, is a damn cheap place. You can make a little go a long way. But Seoul is a little more expensive than what I've grown accustomed to here. Even so, it's not that bad when comparing it to Berlin, Amsterdam, Seattle, NYC, or any other place like that.
The bulk of our day was spent at the Gyeongbokgung Palace (which means "Palace Greatly Blessed by the Heavens"). It is a royal palace and was first constructed in 1394. It is the main (and largest) of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty. If you don't know about the Joseon Dynasty, look it up. Pretty impressive. Anyways, the Palace was destroyed by the Japanese early on in the 19th Century and is still being rebuilt. Amazingly, only 40% of it has been rebuilt! Nonetheless, this place was awe-inspriring. I can't even begin to imagine what it'll look like when fully restored.
The highlight of the Palace tour was definitely the traditional Korean tea ceremony at the end. Our guide brought us to the last building on the tour, where we got to sit down and listen to traditional Korean music played on some radical traditional Korean instruments. After the music, we were taught the official "tea bow" (I don't know what one calls it, so we'll just call it that. What you basically need to know is that it's a lot more intricate than your simple everyday bow). The host then had all the men in the room stand up and, after watching all of us bow, chose the 4 best dudes to come to the front and have a "bow-off." I was one of the guys. So we all did the bow and were rated based upon how loud the cheer from the crowd was. I, being the attention to detail guy that I am (joking), was rewarded with the loudest cheer and was sent to the back room for further "preparation." One thing must be noted - the two girls I was with, Jaime and Sarah, are most likely the reason for my winning. They were loud.
So, I am in the back room and, right when I appear, a few Korean ladys start dressing me in some real old school, traditional Korean clothing for the ceremony that was about to take place. After a couple of minutes, once I and the winner of the female's division were dressed, we were presented to the (rather large) group. Amidst loud cheering and jeering, my Russian companion performed our bows (men and women have different bows in these ceremony) flawlessly - and then the ceremony began. My friend and I got to sit in the front of the room while the rest of the show played out. We also were presented with the tea first, me being the only sucker in the entire room drinking my tea out of a bowl. I would later conclude (most likely erroneously) that it was because I was the king. That's right, me, Russell, a king for a day. Ha!
Afterward, we slowly made our way back to meet up with a well-rested Lucy. On the way, we cam across a wicked fountain that seemed to be quite the central hub for people to hang out. It was also a hot day, so there was a plethora of wild children running around and having the time of their lives.
The evening was fairly typical for a night of partying in Korea - hopping to one place to another, staying out until the sun comes up, and lots of fun being had. Jaime and I opted out of paying for a hotel, hostel, or anything else. Instead, we thought it would be better (and much cheaper) to simply party through the night with Jasper and a few friends of his that we met up with and then take the train home in the morning, once they started running again. Long story short, Jaime and I walked into the door of our building at around 7 in the morning - completely dead and partied out. But we had a great time with our friends in Seoul.
Now you're probably thinking to yourself, "Where are these bloody photos that he was talking about??!" It's a completely rational thought, and I understand.
I decided against uploading photos onto my blog this time around. It took too long and I couldn't share the whol collection with you. Instead, I thought it would be way cooler (and easier for moi) to quickly upload all the photos on Flickr and give you the link. So here you go:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30716372@N05/
You can go ahead and bookmark this page. Hell, make it your homepage. I'm going to be putting all of the photos that I deem appropriate here, so check back regularly. You'll also notice I have some photos of my wonderful school there as well. A post on that place will come eventually. Enjoy!!
Damn, long post. I'll spare you. Hope you liked the reading. To everyone back home - I miss you! I think about you all a lot and often wonder how you are doing. Expect random Skype calls here and there. Much love to you all!
Cheers.
-r
I hope you are all doing well. I certainly am.
It's been quite some time since my last post and I'm sure that you are all simply dying to read something, anything about my goings on in Soko.
So let's get started. But please bear with me, as I am about to try to recall some stuff from several weeks ago. Luckily, there are a lot of photos that can do most of the talking.
I went to Seoul a while back (some of you may remember my Facebook status, "Going on the Seoul Train") with a few co-workers and friends. In all, the official group ended up being Jaime (one of my better friends here in Soko; we work together; live in the same building), Sarah (a teacher at Avalon, the main branch of my school and fellow Washingtonian!), Lucy (a teacher at Avalon as well), and Jasper (a native Korean, co-worker, and an overall fun guy).
We left fairly early, riding on the KTX - Korea's equivalent to Europe's high speed ICE trains. Thirty minutes later, we were there. Not bad. We dropped Lucy off at her hotel so she could get some shut-eye. Lucy is a self-proclaimed insomniac and hadn't slept much the night before. Meanwhile, the other two girls and I went and did some exploring of the Itaewan district in Seoul.
A few initial observations of Seoul: 1. Humongous. There are 24.5 million people in Seoul and is the 8th largest city in the entire world. Hot damn. I think it goes without saying that I'll be making many a trip up to Seoul just so I can properly experience everything it has to offer. 2. Fun. There are tons of things to do, rangning from touring and checking out historical sites to the great night life. 3. Kind of expensive. Korea, more or less, is a damn cheap place. You can make a little go a long way. But Seoul is a little more expensive than what I've grown accustomed to here. Even so, it's not that bad when comparing it to Berlin, Amsterdam, Seattle, NYC, or any other place like that.
The bulk of our day was spent at the Gyeongbokgung Palace (which means "Palace Greatly Blessed by the Heavens"). It is a royal palace and was first constructed in 1394. It is the main (and largest) of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty. If you don't know about the Joseon Dynasty, look it up. Pretty impressive. Anyways, the Palace was destroyed by the Japanese early on in the 19th Century and is still being rebuilt. Amazingly, only 40% of it has been rebuilt! Nonetheless, this place was awe-inspriring. I can't even begin to imagine what it'll look like when fully restored.
The highlight of the Palace tour was definitely the traditional Korean tea ceremony at the end. Our guide brought us to the last building on the tour, where we got to sit down and listen to traditional Korean music played on some radical traditional Korean instruments. After the music, we were taught the official "tea bow" (I don't know what one calls it, so we'll just call it that. What you basically need to know is that it's a lot more intricate than your simple everyday bow). The host then had all the men in the room stand up and, after watching all of us bow, chose the 4 best dudes to come to the front and have a "bow-off." I was one of the guys. So we all did the bow and were rated based upon how loud the cheer from the crowd was. I, being the attention to detail guy that I am (joking), was rewarded with the loudest cheer and was sent to the back room for further "preparation." One thing must be noted - the two girls I was with, Jaime and Sarah, are most likely the reason for my winning. They were loud.
So, I am in the back room and, right when I appear, a few Korean ladys start dressing me in some real old school, traditional Korean clothing for the ceremony that was about to take place. After a couple of minutes, once I and the winner of the female's division were dressed, we were presented to the (rather large) group. Amidst loud cheering and jeering, my Russian companion performed our bows (men and women have different bows in these ceremony) flawlessly - and then the ceremony began. My friend and I got to sit in the front of the room while the rest of the show played out. We also were presented with the tea first, me being the only sucker in the entire room drinking my tea out of a bowl. I would later conclude (most likely erroneously) that it was because I was the king. That's right, me, Russell, a king for a day. Ha!
Afterward, we slowly made our way back to meet up with a well-rested Lucy. On the way, we cam across a wicked fountain that seemed to be quite the central hub for people to hang out. It was also a hot day, so there was a plethora of wild children running around and having the time of their lives.
The evening was fairly typical for a night of partying in Korea - hopping to one place to another, staying out until the sun comes up, and lots of fun being had. Jaime and I opted out of paying for a hotel, hostel, or anything else. Instead, we thought it would be better (and much cheaper) to simply party through the night with Jasper and a few friends of his that we met up with and then take the train home in the morning, once they started running again. Long story short, Jaime and I walked into the door of our building at around 7 in the morning - completely dead and partied out. But we had a great time with our friends in Seoul.
Now you're probably thinking to yourself, "Where are these bloody photos that he was talking about??!" It's a completely rational thought, and I understand.
I decided against uploading photos onto my blog this time around. It took too long and I couldn't share the whol collection with you. Instead, I thought it would be way cooler (and easier for moi) to quickly upload all the photos on Flickr and give you the link. So here you go:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30716372@N05/
You can go ahead and bookmark this page. Hell, make it your homepage. I'm going to be putting all of the photos that I deem appropriate here, so check back regularly. You'll also notice I have some photos of my wonderful school there as well. A post on that place will come eventually. Enjoy!!
Damn, long post. I'll spare you. Hope you liked the reading. To everyone back home - I miss you! I think about you all a lot and often wonder how you are doing. Expect random Skype calls here and there. Much love to you all!
Cheers.
-r
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The Beginning
Welcome back!
I've been living over here on the other side of the big pond for exactly 9 days now - so I'd say a post is long overdue. And judging by some comments I've heard (mainly my pops and sister), you think so too.
I arrived at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea, "soko," Last Friday at 4:30 in the morning, Korea Time. After going through a gauntlet of tests and formalities - a swine flu quarantine test (I passed), immigration, and customs - I lugged my weary body over to the baggage claim area and found that both of my bags had safely arrived. If you remember, this wasn't the case when I arrived in Germany about a year ago. Things were looking up.
After that, I had to buy a bus ticket to Cheonan, the place I will be calling home for the next 12 months, and figure out a way to call my boss, Jason, and let him know my arrival time - so he could pick me up and bring me to my sweet single apartment. Now, I didn't have a working cell and the payphones were understandably difficult to decipher. Imagine me standing there, in the middle of a humongous, bustling airport, at 6:30 in the morning, with all of my belongings for the year sitting around me in two large packs - and with no clue how to make a phone call. After some quick "field research," I learned that I could rent a cell phone for a reasonable price, make a call, and return it right then and there. If I remember correctly, it ended up costing me 70 American cents. Not bad - this will continue to be a theme in Soko - stuff is CHEAP here.
I made it onto the correct bus in time and settled into my seat, getting comfortable for another 2 hours of being in transit. I was enjoying the scenery when, all of a sudden, I found myself waking up in an idling bus - I was so tired that I apparently fell immediately into a stone-cold slumber. I was supposed to meet Jason at a Coffee Bean (a coffee shop my sister couldn't stop talking about before I left. I guess lots of "stars" go to the ones situated in areas where "stars" live, L.A. maybe?). While grabbing my bags from underneath the bus, a dude taps me on the shoulder and asks if I was Russell; it was Jason and he decided it'd be easier to just walk the 50 meters from the coffee bean and meet me at the bus stop. Nice.
A short stop by the school I teach at to pick up my cell phone (which is nicer than any I've ever had in my life up until this point) was the only thing that separated my from my apartment and some much needed sleep.
I walked into my apartment to find this: An already made-up bed, a washer (no dryer), fridge, stove, various necessary kitchen utensils, television, places to store and hang my clothing, iron/ironing board, and sweet wooden floors. All I could think was one thing: RADICAL!
I then proceeded to throw my stuff in the corner and pass out on my bed for several hours, for the television, gas, and internet dudes would be coming by to hook everything up at 4:00 PM.
That evening, I went out to dinner with 3 of my 4 eventual colleagues: Jasper (one of the two native Korean teachers), Jaime (from Philadelphia), and Miranda (a Canadian). It was a good time and, I'm happy to say, I think we are all going to get along very well this year. They are all very nice, respectful, and fun-to-be-around individuals. My 4th colleague is a guy name Julius, who is the other native. He is a well-traveled and very polite/courteous person. Each brings something different to the table, so to speak, so we enjoy our time together.
So, all told, I think I had quite the successful journey to Cheonan, South Korea. No lost wallets, no lost baggage, no wrong turns, and no missed buses. It's been only 9 days and I've already fallen in love with the area, culture, and food (all 3 topics will make for good post material later).
Okay. This post was just a little "Costco taste test". In the following couple of days, I'm going to be throwing up posts about my incredibly awesome school (that will include pictures, hopefully a few of my adorable students) and my first trip to Seoul (which was amazing).
Thanks for reading.
-Russell
p.s. - Everyone back home: Miss you!! Much Love.
I've been living over here on the other side of the big pond for exactly 9 days now - so I'd say a post is long overdue. And judging by some comments I've heard (mainly my pops and sister), you think so too.
I arrived at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea, "soko," Last Friday at 4:30 in the morning, Korea Time. After going through a gauntlet of tests and formalities - a swine flu quarantine test (I passed), immigration, and customs - I lugged my weary body over to the baggage claim area and found that both of my bags had safely arrived. If you remember, this wasn't the case when I arrived in Germany about a year ago. Things were looking up.
After that, I had to buy a bus ticket to Cheonan, the place I will be calling home for the next 12 months, and figure out a way to call my boss, Jason, and let him know my arrival time - so he could pick me up and bring me to my sweet single apartment. Now, I didn't have a working cell and the payphones were understandably difficult to decipher. Imagine me standing there, in the middle of a humongous, bustling airport, at 6:30 in the morning, with all of my belongings for the year sitting around me in two large packs - and with no clue how to make a phone call. After some quick "field research," I learned that I could rent a cell phone for a reasonable price, make a call, and return it right then and there. If I remember correctly, it ended up costing me 70 American cents. Not bad - this will continue to be a theme in Soko - stuff is CHEAP here.
I made it onto the correct bus in time and settled into my seat, getting comfortable for another 2 hours of being in transit. I was enjoying the scenery when, all of a sudden, I found myself waking up in an idling bus - I was so tired that I apparently fell immediately into a stone-cold slumber. I was supposed to meet Jason at a Coffee Bean (a coffee shop my sister couldn't stop talking about before I left. I guess lots of "stars" go to the ones situated in areas where "stars" live, L.A. maybe?). While grabbing my bags from underneath the bus, a dude taps me on the shoulder and asks if I was Russell; it was Jason and he decided it'd be easier to just walk the 50 meters from the coffee bean and meet me at the bus stop. Nice.
A short stop by the school I teach at to pick up my cell phone (which is nicer than any I've ever had in my life up until this point) was the only thing that separated my from my apartment and some much needed sleep.
I walked into my apartment to find this: An already made-up bed, a washer (no dryer), fridge, stove, various necessary kitchen utensils, television, places to store and hang my clothing, iron/ironing board, and sweet wooden floors. All I could think was one thing: RADICAL!
I then proceeded to throw my stuff in the corner and pass out on my bed for several hours, for the television, gas, and internet dudes would be coming by to hook everything up at 4:00 PM.
That evening, I went out to dinner with 3 of my 4 eventual colleagues: Jasper (one of the two native Korean teachers), Jaime (from Philadelphia), and Miranda (a Canadian). It was a good time and, I'm happy to say, I think we are all going to get along very well this year. They are all very nice, respectful, and fun-to-be-around individuals. My 4th colleague is a guy name Julius, who is the other native. He is a well-traveled and very polite/courteous person. Each brings something different to the table, so to speak, so we enjoy our time together.
So, all told, I think I had quite the successful journey to Cheonan, South Korea. No lost wallets, no lost baggage, no wrong turns, and no missed buses. It's been only 9 days and I've already fallen in love with the area, culture, and food (all 3 topics will make for good post material later).
Okay. This post was just a little "Costco taste test". In the following couple of days, I'm going to be throwing up posts about my incredibly awesome school (that will include pictures, hopefully a few of my adorable students) and my first trip to Seoul (which was amazing).
Thanks for reading.
-Russell
p.s. - Everyone back home: Miss you!! Much Love.
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