Whoa.

I still feel a little rattled from what I saw this morning. I've seen my fair share of drunken brawls in my time and been able to shrug off the violence. Usually one or both guys are asking for it, or too obliterated to realize that they're asking for it. Guys puff up their chests, push each other around, maybe wrestle a little bit and then everything gets broken up. No big deal. Today I was helping my co-teacher edit a title for a technical paper. We settled on "The study of methods to improve middle school vocabulary ability through reading comprehension". As my pen finished writing down the longest title ever put on paper the muffled background of the Korean language that I've learned to ignore reached a whole new volume. I could hear screaming and coughing as my co and I turned to see an extremely angry Korean man at the other end of the cubicle farm being pulled off of someone and dragged into the hall by the gym teacher. From where I sit now I could see the victim's typical Korean bob rise from the floor. At first I thought it was an angry husband raging out on his wife but once I got closer I realized that it was a student. My only guess is that this was her father.

Students are often brought into the office for discipline. They make them stare at the wall for half a day, write sentences thousands of times on graph paper, etc. My detective skills lead me to believe that she was being punished for some trivial classroom disobedience and her father was called. I have no idea what has really gone down due to the language barrier and I don't feel like I have the right to pry. My co-teacher called him a troublemaker. I am not an angry person and I don't like violence but when I saw that this guy was choking out a little girl I was ready to destroy his little Korean existence.
Not cool.

On a lighter note I'm done with classes for the week so I'm thinking I will again try to get ahead on my lessons. There is no class next week either but I'm not sure whether or not they will make me come in. After that it's back to a full load. The next blog should have pictures from my hiking experience.

Teacher Tony

Midterms are AWESOME

This week is midterm week. So far I've taught 2 of my 8 classes and I don't have any for the rest of the week. I'm not quite sure what I will do since I still have to come into school, I'm thinking maybe I'll get ahead on my lessons. This is a good plan but the temptation of the universal hive mind known as the internet might prove to be too much. I have a thirst for random knowledge about everything (just enough to be dangerous and to make completely false bold statements)!!!!

My 3:35 super fans just showed up for their cameo, they like my headphones.

I finally have my Alien Registration Card which means soon I will once again have a phone. It has been over a month since I've been "with phone" and I don't know if I'm ready for the responsibility. It's nice to only carry my wallet, key and a notepad around with me. Also I don't completely trust cell phone radiation. As my physicist ex roommate once told me, there have been no long term studies and it is very probable that there are adverse effects. I'm totally paraphrasing here but I think it sounded something like that.

The kids are swarming around everything with their mops, brooms, convict trash tongs, and garbage sacks. It's getting too hectic. I think today I will go "take a rest" at a Jimjaebang after school.

BTW Moby Dick is awesome. It's a pain to read but once I get into the right old timey English frame of mind it starts to flow. Sharks, whale skulls, mariner speak, all cool stuff. I think I might have been a pirate in a past life. Hahahahaha

Super Busy

One of my main goals for coming over here was to reduce my working hours and chill out a bit. The work is pretty stress free, but for someone who has never taught before it can get a bit whelming (I don't want to say overwhelming, but it is almost like that).?.?.?. I have 3 different grade levels to plan lessons for plus 2 teacher classes (which still haven't happened due to midterms) and now they've asked me to teach another elementary class twice a week. The last class is sweet because they will be paying me 400,000 won per month for the extra classes. This averages out to around $50 per class. On top of all of that I'm taking an online TEFL (teacher of English as a Foreign Language) course. This is actually a pretty helpful course and once I complete it I will get another pay increase.

At times it feels like a lot but at other times my mind starts to gel with the teaching thing. I'm treating this experience as a teaching internship with killer pay and benefits. The best part is that I have ultimate job security. If I left it would be devastating for them. It's really hard to replace FT's here, in fact there's a shortage of us. I keep climbing this steep learning curve and figuring a little more out about teaching day by day. Plus the kids love foreigners. Every morning when I show up to school I can't get halfway across the width of the soccer field before I hear a little "Tony Hi." from 50 yards away. It's like that all day. I can see it annoying some people but I love it.

Oh yeah, that kid that says hi in the morning is actually sweeping off the driveway. They put the rascals to work here. Every one of them has to clean stuff before and after school. It's like the rook work I had to do at the fraternity. Ok, I have an online TESL worksheet to finish.

Stay sweet,

Tony

s e c r e t s . . . . .

I just sat down for lunch with a couple the cute assistants and another teacher. I spoke no Korean and they have about 3 English sentences down between the three of them. I'm pretty sure they were gossiping and telling secrets (they were whispering, shhhhhh). Now I want to secretly learn Korean so I can see what they're saying.

Some of the lingo

AS with every industry, teaching abroad has a subculture of it's own. For instance I can now be called either an Expat (for expatriot) or a FT (for foreign teacher). My co's or co-teachers can also be called NT's or native teachers etc. . . . . Anyhow since we don't know any Korean we tend to visit the expat bars to meet people and mingle. Last weekend met some people who are throwing a beach party on Saturday. This is at my new favorite beach, Seongjeong. The main beaches Haeundae and Gwangalli are nice enough but they're a little commercialized. Seongjeong is a bit further north but it's more natural, wider, longer, has better sand, the bay is even big enough for people to windsurf! Also I guess the surf there is pretty consistent and decent. The day I went it was 6" to 2 feet but I was told it gets better. Anyways I'm excited to meet more people on Saturday, I just hope it doesn't get too crazy. My Co is getting married on Sunday and she wants me to come to the wedding. That should be another interesting experience. She said that in Korea they rent their wedding dresses. Very logical if you ask me.

Ajummas is the name for older ladies here. Due to the country's Confucian history older people feel like they are exempt from anything that we might describe as common courtesy back home. They have the right of way all of the time no matter what. They will walk right through you if you don't watch out. The elderly men are just fine though. Here is an example of some extreme Ajumma behavior:

Wedding

Check out the video around 43 seconds, can you believe it?!?!?!?!?!?! Haha, I can't imagine any American bride taking that. Hair would be flying!!

Pictastic

Here are some more pictures:

This is a typical Korean meal. I had the scalding hot soup and Dave had the scalding hot meat and spice mixture. You mix the meaty saucy stuff in with your rice and dig in. Every meal comes with some sort of appetizer which is the third picture. I say appetizer but really they're more like condiments. There are no spices or sauces on the table. No soy, no salt, no pepper, the only constant are these various "appetizers". Kimchi, the spicy pickled cabbage seen on the left, comes with everything. They eat it at every meal. Even breakfast. It's not good to eat by itself, but if you take a bite before rice it adds some much needed flavor. They also have Kimbap which is like a sushi roll. The difference is that everything inside the roll is cooked or pickled. A typical Kimbap roll will have egg, pickled turnip, and some other stuff that I'm 70% sure is also pickled. The food is decent, but after a while it all ends up tasting the same. They also do bulgogi which is marinated meat that you cook at your table, it's pretty good. I've taken a break from my "vegan" phase to fully experience Korean culture.

I don't know why I brought so many shoes, we wear these slippers everyday inside of the school. I'm disappointed that I brought more dressy shoes and left behind comfortable skate shoes, I never wear the dress shoes. That's the biggest pair of slippers we could find.

Here are some pictures of my school. That's the dirt soccer field in the foreground. The other picture is the gymnasium. My school is on the outskirts of Pusan, in a farming area. The last pic is what a lot of land around the school looks like. Koreans will grow food anywhere. If there is a 2 x 5 lot of dirt next to a sidewalk chances are something is growing there. Most likely green onions, peppers, romaine lettuce, or tomatoes.

VIPS is a buffet style restaurant. It's pretty good but pricey. I put this picture in for the slogan. It's a "Fresh Life Restaurant". I'm not sure if Marketing and Ethics have met each other yet here in Korea. There's a pizza place that focuses it's ads on womens health. There are little Twinkie cakes that claim to be healthy because they have wheat in them. I have no idea where the connection is. I think that turtle is my town's mascot? The glass case is from the subway. If anyone is worried about my safety they shouldn't be, there are full gas masks and suits in these cases in all of the subways.
Last but not least here's a picture of my new "K-pop" haircut. It took a really long time for them to cut. At first I was just chillin, expecting to look like the model in the picture that I chose (hence the pose). By the end I was trying not to look in the mirror. I was starting to look like a mix of Mark Hamil from Star Wars and Florence Henderson from the Brady Bunch. I had to bite my lip to keep from busting into hysterics and getting an ear chopped off on accident. It was really poofy and funny looking. I ended up getting out the door before I let the hilarity of the situation overtake me. It's not horrible if I mess with it for a bit but at the salon I thought I was doomed. I might cut it again into a mini-mullet. All of the Koreans still think I am handsome. I think I could come to school with a massive head wound and they would still call me handsome.
If you don't get the reference check it out here:

Massive Head wound Harry

Seoul for the weekend

We had a late orientation this weekend in Seoul. It was a good time. There were around 40 other foreign teachers there so it was a really good networking opportunity. If someone were to blindfold me and drop me in the center of any city in Korea I would have no idea where I was. Every city looks exactly the same. Seoul was bigger I guess but very similar to Pusan. I guess they have more restaurants, shops etc. The subway is a lot bigger.
This is The Pusan Subway map:
and this is Seoul's:
The weather is getting pretty nice. I'm watching the sunset over the mountains outside of my window now. The 80's Metallica playing from my computer really adds to the experience.

I'm adjusting pretty well. I'm getting used to:

Being stared at constantly.
Children yelling Hi at me no matter how far away they are.
Answering the following questions on at least a bi-weekly basis:
"Where are you from?"
"How old are you?"
"How tall are you?"
"What is your name?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Do you like Kimchi?"
Eating Kimchi with every meal.
Communicating through gestures.
etc. . . . . . .

Time to explore my city a little bit more. I need to find a close Jimjilbang.

Awesome Jae Bong

The Jim Jae Bong was sweet. People go there "for relaxing" as my co-teacher put it. There are a bunch of different rooms all different temperatures. One of the rooms is a pool full of warm rocks that you lay in. This was by far my favorite room. Somehow laying in the rocks was really comfortable. There are massage chairs and machines all over too, although they cost about $1 for 10 minutes. It is $6 to get in and you can stay there as long as they're open. There are people sleeping everywhere. I think this is where Koreans go to cure their hangovers. I went on a Saturday and it was pretty full.

So that was the co-ed part, in the men only bath area it got weird. Running around naked with your buddy and a bunch of Koreans can be a little overwhelming. There are a ton of hot tubs in there although none of them are really that hot. There is one really hot Sauna though. Koreans love to practice their English with foreigners, even if you're naked. I was sitting in a tub and this elderly gent came up and sat uncomfortably close next to me. he started asking where I'm from etc. It was interesting.

So that was last weekend, last night we went to check out the local baseball team: the Lotte Giants. Korean baseball fans are like English soccer fans but gentler. They cheer for everything and there are at least 3 songs about "Lotte" (pronounced like Latte) that the whole crowd knows. Everyone had origami pom- poms made from newspaper. At first I though it was the best baseball game I had ever been to until I realized that we had been there for 1 hour and it was only the 2nd inning. OSU's college team could probably beat these guys. The crowd was fun though. They cheer like crazy for balls and walks!!!!

Time to teach family trees!!!

Tony