Chuseok!

HI THERE! I have things worth updating you about. Promise it's interesting. First and foremost, one of my best friends had a baby last weekend in Toronto! Baby and mom are both healthy and beautiful! I was receiving updates from various sources on this event while on vacation. Chuseok is basically the equivalent of our Thanksgiving, and this year we were lucky enough to squeeze a 5 day weekend out of it! 5 days is plenty of time to go on a little trip somewhere! We found an organized trip for not a bad price that a bunch of people we met at our orientation were going on too. We went down to Namhae Island from Saturday until Wednesday. Namhae is technically attached to the mainland via a huge bridge so we bussed all the way there. The first morning we hiked up a mountain to see a temple then went to a beach. Then there was a fire on the beach, because I wandered off looking for firewood like the true hunter-gatherer I am! You can't hang out on a beach at night without a fire amirite? The next day we switched lodgings to move closer to a town where the rest of our activities were planned. Here we went kayaking, but because they ran out of kayaks, 4 of my friends and I piled into a 3 person canoe (recap- there were 5 of us) and we paddled out into the sea. We didn't even tip over! It was a glorious success. The last day of the trip there was an Oktoberfest being held in this German village that was created for Koreans who had lived in Germany to learn the secrets of being efficient or something (that's gotta be pretty close haha). Anyway, Oktoberfest, complete with German beer and sausage and I think schnitzel too! We spent the whole day there and listened to Koreans yodelling and watched them dance to polka. It was probably the best day ever. The next day was Wednesday and time to come home. It was a long and harrowing bus trip...I was in pretty rough shape, particularly after Oktoberfest the day before (as you can imagine). Today I had to go to work, and it was paaaainnfullll. I call it vacation hangover...that first day after you get back from vacation and you're all tired and unimpressed with your regular life. Luckily I only have to go back to work for 2 days before the next big party! This weekend is Global Gathering Korea, which means dancing all weekend to lots of great DJs, including Guetta!!!! Who I swear is crazy famous, but if you don't know who he is don't worry, neither did Mom hehe. I'll likely update you on that one too. I'm pretty proud of how short I've managed to keep this exciting post, so I'm gonna keep it that way. If there are anythings in particular you want me to talk about in the next blog LEMME KNOW!!! I just want to keep you, the reader, satisfied and also entertained.

K BYE!

Guess it's time for a blog update

Yaaaa, I'm writing another blog post. Because I feel like I should, so that you, the reader, maybe my friends and most definitely my family, don't forget about me. And so you can hear my voice in your head while you read this. I will try to keep it organized and as non-rambly as possible.

First: The logistical stuff. I've been teaching for almost a whole week now. My week is being split between two school that are pretty close to each other. Lemme break it down for ya. On Mondays and Tuesday I teach Grades 5 and 6 at Jayang Elementary School. The rest of the week I'm at Daedong Elementary School, where, on Wednesdays I teach grade 5, Thursdays grade 6, and Fridays grade 4. On Thursday I also do a staff conversation class with any interested teachers at Daedong. In Korean public schools they use a system called co-teaching, which means myself and a Korean English teacher are both teaching the class together. I have 3 co-teachers between the 2 schools who all have different teaching styles, different classroom rules, different lessons plans and different expectations from me. Let me make a point of saying they are ALL AWESOME and have gone pretty easy on me my first week. I get to do mostly fun stuff like games, dialogues, high-five giving and saying "what's up dudes?" in the hallways. What else about work...oh oh oh. So, getting a new guest English teacher appears to be a big deal for both schools. At Jayang they put me on the television morning announcement and made me talk and bow and also I think I swore allegiance to the King of South Korea at some point or something...it got a little confusing. At the very least it was probably the most nationalistic thing I have ever/will ever do haha. At Daedong they had a staff meeting to introduce the new teachers, including myself and 3 others. Of the four of us, I was given a rose by the head teacher. Nice. And then, AND THEN, the principal of the school busted out his SAXOPHONE and played two sax solos. That's right, not one, but TWO. I felt like I was in an episode of The Office, and he was Michael Scott, and I was Jim making faces at the camera and trying not to laugh. In other words, I had to put a lot a lot of effort into not laughing at the hilarity of it.

Ok enough about work that stuff's totally boring, I'm sorry. I already told you about how much I love my apartment, but I'll tell you again. It's the best. And close to the subway system, and close to downtown, and close to the best burger place in town. It has also been decided that living in a different neighbourhood than where your school is located can only be a good thing. This way your students don't know a damn thing about your personal life, such as when you leave, when you come home, how often you go to the store to buy booze and what other people are coming into and leaving from your house and at what hours. These are things teachers best keep to themselves. I've been doing some nesting in my little apartment...bought a plant, and a stool, and a jug of wine (the exact same cheapo jug of wine they sell in Canada haha). Now it feels like home.

We went out on the town last Friday night, and it was the first time I had been in the downtown area. Good news: it's pretty great! It's essentially 4 or 5 blocks of small little streets crammed full of restaurants, bars, clubs, street food, karaoke, internet cafes (duh, I'm in Korea), shops and people. We were able to check out a few different places before we realized it was 6am and the sun was starting to come up. Turns out, in Korea, bars just don't close, ever. In Canada there's always that natural 2am last call reminder of what time it is, but when there's no last call it is super easy to lose track of time! So that's some good news.

Ok ok I'm gonna wrap it up real soon. I've been seeking out Korean classes so I can return to my regular loquacious self ASAP and make sure that all the people can hear all of the wonderful things I am thinking about saying. I'm trying to find somewhere to get some exercise...there's a hot yoga studio just down the street from here that I'm considering. Also thinking about buying a bike. Planning on going to a big music festival to see GUETTA among others. Ummmm...I have a 5 day weekend coming up in a few weeks and I'm trying to figure out a little trip somewhere within Korea for that.

Oh a couple more things that I noticed. All the dogs here are tiny. Like miniature. And sometimes dyed pink. And Korean TV has about 30 double/triple/quadruple takes for every hour of programming apprx. They love double takes. And everyone is really impressed at my mad chopstick skillz. Last one: one of my co-teachers sings in a metal cover band. She sings Guns n Roses, AC DC...anything in a higher register that she can scream to really. How cool is that?! OK that's it for real. Thanks for reading to the end, so much for not rambling.

Love,

Mary

I have pictures!

Welcome, friends, to a blog where I post photos. Of my apartment.  Because I lucked out and have internet already! Also a bank account. Things happen fast here.

Okaaaay photos.

This is the view from basically my front door. Straight ahead is the bathroom, to the left is my kitchen, and to the right is THE room.

 Here we see THE room, complete with bed, desk, chair, flat screen tv mounted to the wall, and a wardrobe and shelves out of sight in the corners. The wall paper is really lovely!

And last but not least is my laundry room, which also houses the fridge and pleasant surprise microwave! It's located to the left of the room shown above.

And that concludes our tour! I'm really really happy with it. I had been warned that it might be even smaller and a lot dirtier. It's really cute, really clean, in a FANTASTIC neighbourhood, and best of all there are no gates hahaha.

I also had my first day of teaching today...I think it might end up being a pretty laid back year for me. My co-teachers seem like they might do quite a bit of the leading and I will just supplement with my native speaking skills. We'll see though, there might yet be some lesson planning in my future.

UPDATE

Quick update because I'm pretty sure I've got to go and get on a bus soon.

Thing 1: Orientation is over at last and I've been told that I'm teaching at two different elementary schools that are in the same area. One school gave me a fairly detailed description, saying I would be teaching there wednesday to friday, grades 4-6. The other school provided almost no detail, so all I know is that there are 300 students or something and 20 classes. OK, that was a short one, but I've gotta run, and I likely won't have internet for a couple of weeks.

First Korea Post!!

Hi friends! The blog is back by popular demand (I swear it)! I flew into South Korea last night and am currently staying in a dorm room at what I assume is a university in the city of Daejon. I woke up in Toronto on Sunday morning at 4am, was on a plane around 8am, flew 5 hours to San Francisco and then another almost 12 hours from there to Seoul. From the airport we got on a “shuttle bus” for a 3 hour trip to Daejon. We got here and settled in around midnight on Monday. I didn't see a sunset from Sunday morning to Monday night. For serious. It was like we just skipped right over Sunday night...which I guess is exactly what happened. Anyway, we're here and the jet lag isn't so bad as of right now.

Points of interest thus far: after I had cleared security I walked into a washroom at Pearson and saw a girl that went to university with me drying her hands. We had had a few classes together but I hadn't really heard from her in a couple years, but we remembered each other. Turns out, not only was she flying to South Korea to teach English, she was going to the exact same city as me! My guess is that the chances of that happening are pretty slim right? Anyway, not even on a plane yet and off to a pretty good start. When I got here I met ANOTHER girl who went to UTSC for a couple of years and found out we have some mutual friends too!

UPDATE: I have now been here for a couple of days. I have been REALLY busy. We've got a packed schedule starting at breakfast at 7:30am and ending with Korean lessons that are over at 8:30. For seven days in a row. Friday gives us a nice little break with a field trip into the city (but still takes up the whole damn day). The food is served to us cafeteria style and it has been cracking me up on the regular. They are trying to cook food that is familiar to us, but since they are Koreans who cook for Koreans, the meals are usually lacklustre and a little strange sometimes. Lots of soup for breakfast, lunch AND dinner...creamy, bland, thick stuff that looks suspiciously all alike even though it's got a different name each time. And cabbage! Cabbage in the soups, cabbage in the stir fries, cabbage in the salad, cabbage in the meat (I swear). Also there were hotdogs (or spam) in my lasagna today hahaha. Yesterday for dinner it was rice, fried rice AND spaghetti, which also made me LOL.

What else...had the medical check up today. I will list all of the things that happened. Hearing test, colour blindness test, urine sample, blood sample, height, weight and chest measurements (by chest I mean my rack...so they're going to totally label me as obese lol ), eye test, consultation with doctor (for real), blood pressure and an X-ray which took place in a mobile X-ray bus. The same bus, my temporary roomate pointed out, on which the muffins they were feeding us afterwards were being stored. Thus the title “radiation muffins” was coined today haha.

Ok, this should be an update enough for everyone. I still don't find out what age I am teaching or where I'm living for sure until Sunday I think. I haven't had a chance to explore Daejon at all since the gave us a TEN PM CURFEW because foreigners can't be trusted. Found a bar down the street from the campus last night, but this area doesn't appear to be super trendy or anything. Will give more details when I can though.

Kuh-why-eeeee

This is how you pronounce the name of the island. I, as with most places I have ever been outside of Canada, was pronouncing it totally wrong and had no idea until I arrived. Now we allll know! Alright now, it's only been a couple days but now seems to be a good time for blogging, so let's do it. Yesterday we started into the extra touristy junk, with a little plane ride around the island. It was excellent...it's something like 90% of the island is unreachable by road, and there are parts that you can't even hike to up in the mountains. It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to go all the away around the island, including into the interior for a bit, and back out to sea. Tiny tiny. Found out that this island boasts the "wettest place on earth" where I guess it just rains non stop.


Today we did a kayak/hike tour. I may have misled dad a little about how much effort this trek was going to be, and he was pretty exhausted by the end. Oops haha. In my opinion, it was all totally worth it because we got to see and also swim at the bottom of a picturesque little waterfall. And we got a picture of my standing in it, which is totally the greatest. And of course all the parts other than just that were also super beautiful.

I forgot to mention last time: Reggae is a BIG deal here. They love it, it's played heavily on 2 of the 4 radio stations, and of those 2 one of them ONLY plays it. It makes cruising around pretty badass.

There is a Hawaiian form of Pidgin, which is English mixed with regional language or variations. And they call it Pidgin too. I haven't heard a lot of it, but I have definitely noticed some interesting dialect, like 'tree' instead of 'three' as an example.

Wal-mart sells the cheapest souvenirs. That's just how it is. Although I haven't been in Costco yet haha.

OH! And I found out today that it is totally legal to sit in the bed of a pick up truck if all the seatbelts in the front are being used. That is a law. On an unrelated (or is it?) field, booze is crazy cheap.

That is all for now.

Hawaii Installment

Okay team...it has been a while, but I feel inspired to fill the internet in on this little Hawaii side vacation. Short story: this is the greatest place on Earth. Somehow, Hawaii has been underrated by the tourism industry. Doesn't seem possible right? But seriously, this place is some kind of untapped paradise. Beautiful weather every day, perpetual beaches, friendly and welcoming culture, perfect AND empty beaches, and WHALES!!!! SERIOUSLY! I am glad this island isn't swarming with people, but frankly it is astounding that it isn't. For those of you who don't know, I'm on the island of Kauai, in this little tiny town called Kekaha, a town that according to the guide books, is "rarely visited, even by locals". This place is smaallll town...Bayfield style...but with a school...and so much surfing. So, since I wasn't really planning on blogging at all, but have been noticing little things I want to share with everybody, and probably won't have a chance to upload any photos until I get home, I'm gonna list off some of the more interesting things I have noticed while here! HOORAY!

1. The "surf's up" sign. You know that thing you've seen in surf movies with the thumb and the pinky sticking up?

Ya, this one right here!! This is a big thing. People flash this to each other when they pass on the road, when they see each other on the beach...all the time. Spreads lots of good will and surfer karma I guess.

2. Literally everyone here surfs. Everyone. It's like hockey in Canada. People can surf before they walk. It's pretty cool.

3. Jacked up trucks/jeeps. Jacked up literally...like when the body of the vehicle sits above the tires by at least a foot? Like that...all the rage. And not new trucks...trucks from the 1980s. Vehicles here age waaay differently than in Canada...salt damage occurs on THE TOP of the vehicle rather than on the underside. Weird right? Either way, it means that taking preventing salt damage tends to be a lot easier, and thus vehicles age more gracefully and thus older vehicles can be "cool" and not just totally worn out.

4. The Pacific Ocean is terrifying. Totally scary. Respect. I've heard lots of stories about pro surfers getting HELLA banged up...and these are people who KNOW what they are doing and still manage to get totally mangled by the ocean.

5. Hawaii's main industry is tourism. Until about 10 or 15 years ago it was sugar cane in a few places still, such as this island, but this has been totally shut down and moved to the Philippines where labour is cheaper. On this island there is a great deal of seed corn grown, but that requires minimal manual labour. Our hosts have been telling me that since property values have increased by so much, young Hawaiians are unable to buy their own homes, and up to 4 generations are living within one rather small house (and spending a lot of money on their souped up trucks!) Sooo...economic situation could be better, especially on this island that tends to stay away from the tourist spotlight.

6. ROOSTERS! Actually roosters everywhere. Back in 1992 a hurricane destroyed all the cages that the fighting cocks were kept in. If you know the fist thing about anthropology you know that cock fighting is a pretty big deal in Polynesian culture, thus, a pretty big deal in Hawaii. You might also know that it is highly frowned upon by most Western governments. Thus, in 1992 when this hurricane hit, a bunch of illegal fighting cocks were released into the wild by a hurricane, and there was no legal recourse for going about recapturing them since nobody wanted to take responsibility for a bunch of illegal birds. So now there are just wild roosters all over the place! And not North American variety roosters...fricken South East Asian JUNGLE fowl is what they are called!!! As a person who is afraid of most kinds of birds, they are pretty intimidating. I've been taking photos of them, but at a respectful (fearful) distance, so watch for those to come.

Okay, that it is for now. More to come probably!!! Also lots and lots of photos. Peace and love friends!