Sick days in Korea

In my 9 months in Korea I have had to take 2 sick days from school.  both of these times i have been reminded of the cultural difference between the US and Korea.  As the video above shows, Korean students and teachers (and i assume most people in the workforce) do not take sick days unless they have to go to the hospital.  

The first time i took a sick day i had a bad cold and decided to take one of the sick days i knew were in my contract.  So i called my mentor teacher that morning and informed her that I wouldn't be able to go to school.  That evening She called me and asked me if i had gone to the hospital and how i had communicated.  I had not thought my cold serious enough to go to the hospital so i hadn't gone and i told that to my teacher.  I had just gotten some medicine from another TaLK teacher who lived across the hall.  Even so, the next day all my teachers asked me if i was ok and i was given uncountable cups of tea, as well as my mentor teacher taking me to the nurse and taking my temperature and giving me vitamin C tablets.

The more recent time (this past week) my throat had been bothering me for a few days and when i woke up on Wednesday and i could hardly talk. i decided to take another sick day.  at 3 one of my students called me (it was during the class that i would have been teaching), and asked me where i was if i was ok and "where i was sick".  

In all my time at my school, only one teacher, besides me, has taken 1 sick day and she went to the hospital for stomach problems(?), but even she was back at school the next day though she clearly hadn't fully recovered.  other than that there have only been three instances where teachers have not been at school for non-school related reasons.  Both my mentor teacher and the preschool teacher had family members pass away this year, so both of them missed a few days (2 in both cases i think), and the 5th grade teacher  just had a baby so she is on maternity leave until December.

It is pretty much the same story for my students.  I have had a few kids be in the hospital, but i have also had many instances of my kids being, or at least seeming, to be sick in class.  in Korean culture it is better to go to school sick so not to fall behind in their studies.  I'm not saying this is good or bad, it is just how it is.  Must stay diligent.

Luckily, my immune system hasn't suffered too much for this, and in fact it may have become more resilient because of it :)

Weekend in Daegu/Busan

i meant to post this on Monday.  whoops.  i guess i have been busy and not updating like i said i would.  oh well.  better late than never.   Thankfully I have Sophia (another TaLK Scholar) to remind me to update.

Last Saturday I went to Daegu to meet a friend and go to and English club.  Basically it is a place where native Koreans who want to practice English can speak with foreigners about various topics.  afterwards we all went to dinner and talked more and just had a good time.


After dinner I, and my friends Hamid and Cathleen, took the KTX (the fast train line) to Busan.

Busan is the second largest city in Korea, and it is really famous for Haeundae Beach.  There, like Seoul, many people speak English.  Anyway we got in at around midnight  then went to noraebang (karaoke) for about an hour then wandered around downtown for a bit and ate some street food before retiring to the jjimjilbang we decided to stay at.

I don't think i have blogged about it yet [and i will do so more comprehensively later (probably)], but a jjimjilbang is a public bathhouse.  they are open 24 hours and you can stay there for 12 hours so many people sleep there since it is much cheaper than getting a hotel/motel room.

The next day we wandered around Busan then went to the Busan International Film Festival, which is the largest film festival in Korea.  I also found out that the second largest one is in Jeonju (the city I live in).

The movie we watched was called The Rambler Rides Again.  It is a Japanese movie, and the title probably sounds better in Japanese.  the entire movie had both English and Korean subtitles.  It was pretty much a western movie.  It had a cowboy, a saloon, a coal mine, and even Indians.  I very much enjoyed the movie. 

but yeah i had a lot of fun.  it was kind of an awesome weekend.  i want to do more things like that while i am here in Korea~

Revamped! + Why I chose to stay

Well the blog kind of ended up failing last six months.  and by that i mean i didn't post anything for 4 months.  but that will change.  i hope.  i will try to post either once every week or two.

My original contract was from February until July 31.  however, by May, i was having such a great time with my kids and friends that i was thinking of extending.  by the time applications were due i was still undecided, so giving myself a bit more time, i submitted my application just in case.  At the end of June, i got my acceptance, but i was still not sure whether i wanted to stay or go back home.  In July, i was perusing a bookstore in Seoul when i came across The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. 

I first read this book in freshman year of high school. It is still one of my favorite books.  I ended up buying the book in Seoul and on the bus back to Jeonju i began reading it.  When i was reading the preface, it convinced me to stay.  maybe it was just my subconscious finding meaning where there was none.  idk.  but yeah.  that convinced me. 

In an unrelated note, I bought the book on a Thursday, and that weekend following was the best weekend i have had in Korea so far :)

but yeah, hopefully i will be more consistent with this blog from now on~

The Bet

Today, I am starting a two month long bet with two of my friends, who are also teachers in the TaLK program, Jane and Richard.  Well actually, the bet is actually consists of two parts.

THE RULES:

When the bet starts:

You must take a full body shot of yourself

Part 1

For one month:

Jane and Reuben cannot consume alcohol (with one exception) and Richard cannot consume chocolate or coffee (with one exception).

Part 2

In two months, all members of the bet must take another full body shot of themselves without a shirt.  It will then be decided (by another third party [or since there are three people in the bet is it fourth party?]) who has improved physically the most, middle, and least.

PENALTIES:

If anyone breaks Part 1 of the bet, he/she must treat the other two to a day in Seoul.  This includes bus tickets, hotel, dinner, etc.

Whoever has improved the least physically at the two month mark must, in Hongdae (a college drinking area in Seoul), perform a dance routine on the street.

THE ONE EXCEPTION

In order to not be disrespectful, Jane and Reuben are allowed to consume alcohol at hweshik (faculty dinners) and Richard is allowed to take chocolate/coffee, when his teachers are unrelenting in giving it to him.

Richard doesn’t have the alcohol part in Part 1 because he already doesn’t drink.  On a similar note, I already do not eat chocolate or drink coffee, so in reality, Jane is getting the best deal since she can still consume coffee and/or chocolate.  Even though the penalty for Part 1 is steep (I would much rather lose Part 2), there is a chance that no one will lose if we all make if to the 1 month mark.

The bet originated, because I wanted to stop drinking for a bit while I worked on getting in shape.  I had told Jane about it, and she said she would do it too.  We had another friend in on it too, but she ended up backing out, so Jane said we should find someone else.  That’s where Richard came in, though since he doesn’t drink we had to change the rules a little.  At this point, it became a bet, and Richard came up with Part 2.

Jane wants to lose weight, and Richard wants to lose weight and gain muscle.  I’m not sure I can afford to lose that much weight, so I guess I am trying to gain muscle.  I don’t really want to be muscular, but being toned wouldn’t be so bad I guess.

Motivation might be an issue though....

Changes in Korea

It is to be expected that, while in Korea, things about me will change, both because I am in Korea and the culture is affecting me, and because I am a person and like everyone else I change over time.  At the three month mark, these are the ones that I could think of:

I love socks.  Since you take your shoes off in many place (including school) in Korea, socks are a big deal.  Socks are sold everywhere, and they range from boring regular socks to super cute socks.  I have bought many socks in Korea.  I think my favorites would either be my MBLAQ socks (five pairs of socks that each have a cartoon version of one of the members of a popular boyband here) or my penguin socks (socks that have a picture of a penguin)

Guys holding hands no longer surprises me.  It is just Korea.  I’ve never had a problem with guys holding hands, but I never realized how little I saw it until I came to Korea.  But in Korea, it has no homosexual connotation.  Holding hands is just a way to show friendship.

I am shocked whenever I hear English (from someone that I do not know).  Pretty self explanatory, everyone speaks Korean here, so to hear another foreigner speak English always make me do a double take.  I will have to readjust to understanding everyone when I go back to the States.

I have gained an affinity for Coke.  The soda kind anyway.  Back home I didn’t really drink dark sodas.  At all.  But since then it’s changed.  I’m still not really sure why.  Maybe cuz there are really only 2 sodas available everywhere, Coke and Cider (like sprite) and I want variety every once in a while.

I like buying CDs.  Though it would be more cost efficient to just download the songs illegally, I have come to a point where, if it’s an artist that I like, I don’t have a problem spending $10 to support them and make their number go up.  Though one extra CD sale won’t really make a difference, I feel like I should do my part (like voting)

Let’s go out generally translates to drinking.  We do other stuff too like bowling, playing pool, karaoke, etc., but at some point in the night we will drink if we are hanging out.  that is just the way Korean culture is.  Drinking is a large part of the lifestyle here.  A Korean recently told me that most important decisions in the business world are made over dinner and soju.  In the US, if you do business you need to golf.  In Korea, if you do business you need to drink.  But that doesn’t mean we always drink a lot.  Many times we will only have one drink.  But nearly inevitably we will drink at some point during the night

I now have a (ESL) teacher voice.  Since my students wouldn’t understand me if I talk at full speed, I have developed my teacher voice.  I speak quite slow, use simpler words than my usual diction, and change the beat of usual speaking so that they understand more fully.  I also use this voice when I talk to locals.  The problem is when I accidentally turn it on when talking to friends ^.^

I don’t hesitate to buy stuff for people younger than me.  In Korean culture, it is the responsibility of the older person in a friendship, even if they are only acquaintances, to care for the younger person as an older brother or sister.   So if I feel that this relationship actually exists between a friend and myself, and that person is younger than me, I will pay for stuff of that person.  Nothing big, but maybe a drink when we go out, or coffee, or dinner or something.

There are also some things that haven’t changed.

I still don’t like Chocolate or coffee.  Which is weird, cuz those two things are really big in Korea, for both kids and adults, so many times my kids will give me chocolate, or my teachers will ask me if I want coffee after lunch (everyday), and I always have to say no.

I am still not comfortable in a car without a seatbelt.  In Korea, the law says that only the two people in the front seat must wear a seatbelt.  So normally, people in the backseat do not.  However, I still always put my seatbelt on just as a safety measure.  Not that I don’t trust the driver, it just makes me feel more comfortable.

I don’t smack my lips when I eat.  That’s acceptable in Korea.  But I can’t stand it.  I guess my parents have rubbed off on me.

I am pretty sure I old my brother I would upload this almost 2 months ago

It's a taekwondo performance I saw at opening ceremony.  He's doing Taekwondo now so I thought he might like it.  This group is called the K-Tigers.  I don't know how good the quality is since I took it with my camera camera and not my video camera though...

So basically my life was boring for 2 weeks, and then it was so interesting that I had no time

But I finally have some free time (or I am making some) to blog to catch myself up.  Last you heard form me I was leaving Jochiwon for our Provincial Orientation.  Basically we all went the to the main city of the Province we were assigned to, mine was Jeonbuk, and we had a second, shorter orientation.  so the main city on Jeonbuk is Jeonju, where I actually am living, but I'll get more into my living situation later.  Provincial orientation was not nearly as much fun as Jochiwon orientation.  There were not supplementary activities to keep us occupied at night.  But it was also shorter (only about a week) and we got to meet many 5th Generation, and even a couple 4th Talk Scholars, so it was nice to talk to people who had been teaching for at least six months already.

Following this I finally moved into my apartment.  I live in Jeonju, but my school is in a small town of Kamgok (감곡) so every weekday I have to take a 45 minute bus ride to my school.  but it is ok, because since my classes start at 1:30, I still get to sleep in.  So I wake up, get ready, walk to the bus station, buy a ticket and catch the 11:35 bus.

That is the bed, blankets, trashcan, ironing board, rice cooker, desk and coat rack I was provided.  and my suitcases in the middle.

There's my kitchen and fridge.  and a window.

Well that was my flat when i moved in.  as you can see It's not awesome, but I like it.  I got really lucky and there are four other Talk Scholars (three 6th and one 5th gen) live in my building, so I never get lonely.  From the pictures above, not a lot has changed, except that i put my desk together.  The biggest problem is that i don't have a place to hang my clothes.  Other scholars had some pipe thing in their room to hang their clothes, but my school didn't provide it, so whenever I wore clothes, nice clothes especially, I had to wake up early and iron them.  I also don't have a dryer, but I have a clothes rack, and I actually like letting my clothes air-dry :)

So unlike many other teachers, I did not have to go into school the first week, so I had a couple days to chill out and get used to my apartment/city.  as it happened, Richard, a friend from HS that is also a TaLK scholar,  also had the first week off.  He has an uncle who lives in Seoul, and his uncle had procured him a phone, but Richard had not had a chance to pick it up, so he asked me if I wanted to go to Seoul with him.  It wasn't like I was doing anything better so of course I said yes.

Richard had told me that we would stay in a hotel (paid for by his uncle) and we would meet some of his family.  he also told me that his uncle owned a couple restaurants so we would go to dinner with him.  So I guess he is doing well with his restaurants, because the hotel he got for us was super nice.

So that was our hotel.  After we met up with him, we went to dinner (well what i thought was dinner).  It was a really nice buffet, so Richard and I decided to eat a lot.  Well we actually decided to see who could eat more.  Though I am thin, I can eat a lot.  This is my eating schedule.  little to no breakfast.  normal sized lunch.  I can eat dinner forever if I have to.  or so I thought.

This was my first or four or five plates.

Dessert.  or course i didn't eat it (chocolate) but I thought it was pretty.

another dessert.  Yummy!

At dinner, there was me, Richard, his uncle, and a mutual friend of his uncle and his parents.  Anyway, leaving, Richard and I were pretty good on food.  and we had also tied for number of plates.  We thought that was the end of eating.  Apparently not.  after this we went to a sake bar and ate ramen.  Richard and I were both in shock that we were eating more.  it didn't help that we were also getting lots of different kinds anju and I had to try them all.  Anju is food you get at bars.  but yeah I'll talk about that soon.  But alas!  The face stuffing was not done yet.  after this we went, via Richard's uncle's personal driver, to the actual restaurant he owns.   He owns a Korean meat place.  I don't quite know how to explain it, so I will show you a couple pictures.

You start out with raw meat and you put it on the grill that is at each table

and it ends up like this .  you cut it up and you can eat it up.  

There was so much food this night.  I felt like I would be full for days.  but I was hungry again the next day.

On a side note that I know will be applicable to a future blog post, drinking alcohol is a big part of Korean culture.  When Koreans go out to dinner, they drink alcohol.  when Koreans hang out with friends, they drink alcohol.  drinking has much less of a social stigma than the US, and the US  doesn't really have one either.  Anyway, this night I didn't feel like drinking much, but it is Korean custom to also never leave someone with an empty glass, so i knew as soon as I finished I would be poured more, so I had to take small sips all night long, or just put the glass to my lips when a toast was proposed (which was often).  but yeah.  This post is already too long so i'll save the rest of what's happened for the next post

Richard's uncle (the master peer-pressurer) and my nearly empty glass.

A good end to orientation in Jochiwon

Well it had to hapen sometime and a couple days ago my time in Jochiwon came to an end.  Though I will miss a lot of people and some I, unfortunately, may not see for the duration of my stay in Korea, I was happy to be moving on to my next adventure That is POE (Provincial Office of Education) orientation.

but we had a good ending for TaLK orientation.  The talent show was Tuesday afternoon, and it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of good performances.  There was singing, dancing, guitar playing, and even an ukulele.  Our performance went fairly well.  I think all of us were pleased.

Afterwards, the 10 of us went out to eat and we met everyone else downtown.  The next morning was sad as everyone knew we would soon be splitting up, but we had a nice closing ceremony followed by a large lunch for all of us.  

Looking back, there was not a lot of stuff that I didn't like about orientation.  it was well run, fun, great staff, etc.  I thought it was a good first step into Korea.  But i found out that I can only make friends with asian people.  or maybe that just happened by coincidence.  but in my clique, I was the only non-asian.  well good thing i am in a country full of Asians

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you remember form my last post, my friends and I decided to be in the End of Orientation Talent Show.  We decided to have a three part show.  girls' dance + guys' dance + together dance.  We actually just pulled it all together just about an hour and a half ago.  I am quite pleased right now.  believe me there were points where I was worried.  but i don't really want to get into that lol.  we are good now.

Saturday we went on a required trip form Jochiwon to Seoul to go see a Nanta performance and then tour building 63.  We weren't allowed to take pictures during Nanta, so all i have is a picture of the sign outside.

Basically Nanta was Stomp, but better.  They used kitchen tools in creative ways to make music.  BUt while Stomp is just rhythm and sound, Nanta had a story along with it, and they got audience interaction

by calling up people to the stage at various points.  It was one of the best things I have done in Korea so far.  I would definitely see it again.  all sixth generation TaLK scholars went, so we filled up the theater.  I found it funny that during the show, instead of saying actual words (in Korean, obviously), they just made noises and nonsense words.  This meant it was up to each audience member to interpret.  this also meant that the body language each actor/actress conveyed had to be clear and exaggerated.  good show :)

After the show we were released to go eat around Myeongdong, which is one of the shopping districts of Seoul.  We weren't given enough time to shop, but this girl was very interesting to see, and i saw her several times in different places as we walked around looking for a place to eat and then coming back.

While I had seen people with "Free Hug" signs in the US, I had never seen someone dress up for the part with a costume and face paint.  it was fun to see, and I definitely took her up on her offer of a free hug.

Building 63 was a little disappointing however.  When it was built, it was the tallest building in Korea.  Now it is more of a kids museum.  it has an aquarium, art gallery, wax museum and then the actual trip to the top to see the view, not to mention several stores and boutiques, since koreans love to shop.  after a while I just walked around outside and got some street food.  but while in Building 63, I got gifts for my little brother and sister, though I need to figure out how to send them home.

Other than the stuff above, all I did over the weekend was practice.  Girls were finishing up Nobody, while the guys were perfecting Digital Bounce, and then we started the Tango.  The Tango was my dance to teach and so I spent countless hours (well maybe not that long.  maybe) learning the moves and each solo and then teaching everyone else.  but now I know the guy and girl part, so i can teach pretty much anyone.

 

Valentine's Day, Kpop Dancing, and Cheonan

Monday (February 14th, obviously) was Valentine's Day.  In Korea, on this day, it is not the guys', but the girls' responsibility to give chocolate.  in one month, on March 14, also known as white day, the boys return the favor and give girls non-chocolate candy.  I cannot remember if it is supposed to be white, but i guess I have 3 weeks to figure it out.  also there is black day, on April 14, where boys who didn't get any chocolate are supposed to eat jajamyeon, which is black bean paste with noodles(?).  it tastes really good.  I had it when we went to Chinatown at the beginning of orientation, but yeah.

Anyway, some of the girls we were in Seoul with got a bunch of us guys chocolate gift bags for Valentine's, so that was a nice gesture, though even now, over a week later, it is still sitting unopened and uneaten on my desk.  But i think that I still have the repay the gesture and get them something on white day.

also on Monday night I went to kpop dancing lessons.  the song was shy boy by Secret (a girl song), and i wasn't very good at it.  I need to up y cuteness factor.  more poffins (it's a pokemon reference, if you didn't get it lol)  The instructor only spoke korean, but she kept telling us to be cute.  The tuesday night song was I'll be Back by 2PM (guy song) and though i was initially worried since I wasn't able to do the running thing before, but by the end I had it pretty well down.

at this point, our group decided that we would do a dance for talent show.  We talked about it being no pressure and just to have fun, but i'm sure I will get more into that in a post or two.  We have five girls and five guys.  our setlist is now girls doing Nobody (by Wondergirls), guys doing Digital Bounce (by Se7en) and then all of us doing the Nobody Tango that 2PM and Wondergirls did a couple years back.  The dance isn't very technical, just a bunch of tricks.

On friday we were split into teams and we either went to Cheonan or Daejon.  My team, the G6 (Group Six) Tigers were sent to Cheonan.  Here we had to do several things that we might have to do later, like buy a train ticket, find the market, use the bus, etc.  The market was full of seafood of all varieties.  everything from shrimp to flounder to sea cucumbers to turtles.  The turtles were still alive and I would rather not think about eating them.  I can eat a lot of food and by no means am I a vegetarian, but I don't know that I could eat a turtle, but we shall see what happens in the next six months.

I am also getting more addicted to street food.  basically any city will have stands along the street selling food.  This is a big part of Korean culture and the food is really good and cheap.  my favorite so far is odeng, but i also like dok bogi a lot too

Recreational Seoul

Saturday (not yesterday but a week ago) We had our mandatory medical checkup by the government.    this included getting blood drawn, x-ray, sight and hearing tests.  basically the works.  Afterwards my friends and I decided to (well we had decided several days prior) go to Seoul and stay the night in a jimjilbang.

A jimjilbang is a public bathhouse.  it is very popular in korea, from what I hear.  It is for both sexes, though the bathing areas themselves are separated.  So basically you enter, pay, go find yourself a locker, and change into the outfit they give you.  nothing fancy; just shorts and a shirt.  Now you can go to the communal area where both girls and guys are, and you can socialize, buy food, go into a sauna, etc.  back in the mens' locker room, there is another way towards the baths themselves.  before entering, you will go to your locker and strip off your given outfit.  you can either store them in your locker or drop them off in a designated basket for dirty clothes.  Within the bathing area, there are different pools of varying temperatures.  There are also showers and more saunas.  I didn't have time to explore the whole thing so I'm sure there is more I don't know about.

So from Jochiwon (where orientation is held), we took a train to Seoul.  It was about an hour and a half to get there, but we just went to the food cart/cabin/whatever-it-is-called (where there was a lot of empty space) and sat down.  There were a couple arcade games and even several noraebangs (karaoke rooms) on the train, so that was an interesting sight to see.

In Seoul, we immediately went to go eat.  I had pork blood stew.  It was alright.  not bad, but not something I would order on a regular basis.  here is a picture of it:

After that we went to a Hondae, which is the college area of Seoul (also fairly inexpensive) and walked around for a bit.  in the course of the night  we went to a bar, a noraebang that surprisingly fit all 30 of us, a nightclub that wasn't full until we came, and then out to eat again.  by this time we were splitting off into various groups, so dinner was only about 15 people, which is a lot easier to get a table for.  Finally we headed to the jimjilbang.  It was late, and had been a long day, so I promptly passed out.

In the morning, we woke up and got washed up, though I felt rushed and thus did not get the full relaxing experience of the bathhouse.  a bunch of people decided to go back to Jochiwon sunday morning, and others met family, so the group that I walked around with on Sunday was only about 12 people.  We walked around Hondae for a bit, then took the Metro (Subway/tube) to Itaewon to shop.  Itaewon is supposedly the place for foreigners, because they sell larger sizes that you can't find anywhere else in Seoul.  People in Korea tend to be on the shorter side and thin, much like myself, so I don't think I will have trouble finding clothes.  but yeah, we did that and then, since I don't think anyone slept enough, we went back to the train station and came home.  

It was a good weekend.  I was a little disappointed with the club we went to, just because it seemed the same as an american club, and I had heard previously that Korean clubs were awesome.  but a good weekend.  I wouldn't take it back :)

TaeKwonDo, Powerpoint, and The Lion Sleeps tonight

Friday was the second day of lectures, so I met up with group six and went through only five classes (but one was two hours so it was the same amount of time.  lectures were:

Ice breakers/warm-up exercises
Education technology
Classroom Management
TaeKwonDo
Teaching English through Drama

The two that stood out were TaeKwonDo (obviously because we were kicking and punching throughout the lecture period) and Education technology.  In Tae Kwon Do we learned the proper form for punching, as well as three different kicks.  reminded me of my brother since he is taking TaeKwonDo.  As for Education Tech.,  It was mainly about Powerpoint, but what was wrong with it, but also how to make such presentations really good. In short I now have the tools to give a killer presentation.

FOr the optional events at night, I picked the Korean folk songs.  I guess they mean that loosely, as the song was The Lion Sleeps Tonight.  I mainly went because one of the KGCs (Korean Group Coordinator) is my friend.  but that made it easier for me.  They didn't have a baritone part so I had to sing tenor, which was a mistake.  but yeah, one of the instructors name was E-Dragon (it's funny if you know Korean music).

Good News + First Day of Lectures

Well first I have good news.  I got an SD card reader that I plug directly into my computer via USB, so very soon I will have pictures on my blog.  yay!  I bought it from Lotte Mart (which I will go into later, but basically it's awesome).  So it'll prolly be one of the next couple posts where I recap everything I have talked about in the blog with photos.

I was really close to being caught up, but then I got lazy on Saturday, so I am now five days behind again.  So here we go!!!!

Thursday was the first day of lectures.  During orientation, we hear several lectures a day.  The lectures are 1-2 hours each and every hour we get a 20 minute break.  so basically I am taking classes from 9 until 5:40.  but it's not so bad.  some of the lectures are really interesting.  Day 1 of lectures consisted of the following:

TaLK life
Understanding Korea
Korean History & Society
Traditional Korean Painting
Explore Korea: How to Survive
Korean Paper Craft

The TaLK life lecture was given by a 3rd generation TaLK scholar (I am 6th gen), so she has been teaching for a year and a half.  basically, she was one of the best teachers I have seen, and that intimidates me lol because I don't think that I can be that good.  but I suppose it is something to strive for right?

The other lectures were pretty normal, I learned more about Korean Society and such.  I was quite terrible at the Korean painting, so I will NOT be showing you that.  I will gladly show you the final product of my Korean Paper Crafts lecture.  Granted, all we really did was cut the eyes and then glue a bunch of stuff on, but it looks decent and that's all that really matters in the end.  All the guys in the class made males and the girls females, and they both wore hanboks, which is a traditional formal outfit for Koreans.  So here is mine.  I haven't named him yet, though I'm not sure if I will.

isn't he cute?

South Korea's got Seoul

Yay for overused puns!

I am going to make this very brief, because this day is best expressed through pictures and videos (both of which I have on my camera).  Wednesday was the first official day of orientation, and to start things off, we went to Seoul for opening ceremonies after meeting our respective groups for the first time.  This was my first time off to the capital, so, needless to say, I was quite excited.  And this excitement was not misplaced.  Even the small part of Seoul that we saw and walked around was amazing.  I can't wait to go back, and in fact tomorrow, I will be :)

Opening ceremonies began with several speakers from the Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) and the National Institute of (word I can't remember) Education Development (NIIED) an speeches/videos from previous generations of TaLK Scholars.  Then came the showcase of several groups the government had brought to opening ceremonies. First was the Rainbow Choir, a multinational choir of children that performs at various important political events.  They seemed quite talented, and I was impressed by the young singers.  Next came Stone Jazz, which was a musical group made up of a jazz trio and two traditional Korean instruments.  Thinking I would not like the performance, I did not record it.  But i was pleasantly surprised how they two very different forms of music harmonized.

Then came the final, and most showy, performance.  It was a Tae Kwon Do performance by a group known as the K Tigers.  I'm not sure what the K stands for, but for me, it stands for kick-ass, because that's what this performance was.  I can't wait to post the video that i recorded, though it is nearly 10 minutes.  I wished I had brought my Flip cam, as I was stuck recording with my regular camera, which is lower quality when it comes to video.

Following opening ceremonies, we split into assigned teams of 7-8 within our groups and went on a scavenger hunt throughout one district of Seoul.  We saw things such as a statue of King Sejong the Great, the inventor of Hangeul/Hangul (the Korean alphabet), traditional Korean treats, and Starbucks.  If nothing else, that trip showed me that there is much more to see in Seoul than can be seen in several days, so I have a feeling I will be visiting Seoul more than a couple times while I am here.

Ok maybe this post wasn't as brief as I thought it would be...

We look into Korea's past and future (and Chinatown)

On Tuesday, our optional activity was to take a trip to Incheon to visit Chinatown, the Korean War museum, and then tour a building dedicated to the plans for Korea's new International City in Incheon, New Songdo.  I'm not sure why we went to Chinatown while in Korea, but we ate there and it was good (not that any of the food I have had here is bad lol), so i'm not complaining.

Upon arriving at the Korean War museum we first looked at the Incheon Landing Memorial (see pictures to come).before going inside, we were told we had 10 minutes to just chill out before actually going into the museum.  On a whim, several of us decided to climb a large hill with what looked like a boat at the top, though it felt like a mountain as we ran up.  The view was awesome, so we weren't complaining going down, though we were a couple minutes late to the film.  It was about the war as a whole and the countries involved.  I did not know much about the Korean War before - only what I had learned in US History - so the film was quite enlightening.  The TaLKees then took a tour of the museum itself.  Afterwards we had a little free time until the second TaLK tour was finishing up, so I went to a street vendor and got some Odeng.  It is kind of like fish on a stick, but better than it sounds.  I had had Odeng once before, when UT's KUSA chapter had sold it the week before I came to Korea.  Naturally, the one I had here was better (Sorry KUSA!).

Leaving the museum, we went to see the plans for the new city within Incheon, which will actually have three parts.  Around this area, probably because the construction has already begun on the new city, the buildings look really futuristic.  The scale model of the new cities are filled with buildings like these, and everything is supposed to be done by 2020 in various stages, ending with the opening of a new theme park, Robot Land.  If everything goes according to plan, then the city will truly be a sight to see.

While here, we watched both a 4D and 5D movie.  for the 4D movie, I was sitting in the front row, so it hurt my eyes a bit, but it was still interesting.  I'm not quite sure what the fourth dimension was but the three dimensions that i know seemed pretty sweet.  The 5D movie was similar, but we were in a circular room and the screen was all along the walls, even on the back of the doors.  Here we took a 'Like a G6' picture, which is currently my profile picture.  By this time I knew That I was in the sixth of six groups for the duration of orientation, so for me, everything was 'like a G6'.  As it happens, only two people in this picture are actually in Group 6.  but those are only details right?

A picture I managed to get a from a friend.  Yay first picture!

It's kind of difficult to describe this without pictures, but I will try

I will probably have a post later, hopefully within the next couple days, with all the pictures of the things I will talk about.  Until then, the written word will have to do.

As i said before I got to Korea Sunday afternoon.  I had left Saturday morning from Houston, but i also went 15 hours into the future, so the trip actually took about 18 hours.  I got to my dorm room and I met my roommate for orientation, Yong(seok).  He was actually on my flight from Chicago to Incheon airport, but we had only met briefly.  Though initially wary, as I am of most people, I soon, well almost immediately found out that he is really cool and extremely funny.  He is Korean, and he speaks, so that is helpful as we go around campus or through the town, or in restaurants.

Monday morning was one of the optional activities we were given the opportunity to go on before orientation officially began on Wednesday.  It was to a Korean folk village, and they would transport us, feed us a bulgogi lunch, etc, etc.  I wasn't going to go because I wasn't ready at the time that I thought they were leaving, but then Yong came and said I should still go.  And so, along with him, I rushed down to where the bus was waiting.

It took probably about 1.5 hours to get there, but on the way I met more people.  The folk village was fun, and there was a sort-of amusement park with a few animals and rides and a mini-arcade.  I played the Korean version of Dance Dance Revolution, but, as with DDR, I was not very good.

The village itself was very interesting.  they had houses in various styles, houses with heated floors, and even a Korean stockade and prison.  in the jail itself you were allowed to go in one of the cells.  the door for entering and exiting the was quite small, so when leaving, there was a sign above the door that said, 'Head Carefulness'.  i lol'd.

That night a bunch of people, including myself went to go tour around the town to see what was there, and that was fun.  got to meet even more people, though even now I struggle to remember everyone's names, besides the ones I interact with on a regular basis.  I guess I still have two weeks to master them all

Struggling to remember everything that has happened so far

I guess the point of the blog is both so that people can know what I am doing while abroad, and also so that I write down what happens, so that I will remember everything.  This post is five days late, as I did not create this blog until 20 minutes ago, so for the next few days I will be playing catch up.  Sorry if my posts for now are a little concise.

Saturday morning.  got up early to go to the airport.  met Richard in front of the gate.  Flew to chicago.  fairly uneventful flight.  We did meet two other TaLK scholars sitting the row in front of us, so it was relieving to find friends so early on.

I found it very interesting, and baffling, how empty the flight was.  Houston had cancelled the previous morning's flights to Chicago, so i expected half a million people trying to get on any available flight for the next couple days.  Just the opposite, our flight was not even half full.  I don't think i have ever been on a plane that empty.

The best part of that flight was that two seats away from me, I was in the aisle, no one in the middle seat, and she by the window, was a lady that only spoke spanish.  Of course, the steward who was going around didn't speak spanish, so I translated between the two.  I will be the first to admit that my spanish is limited to say the least, but i was proud to have the skills to ask her menial things such as what she wanted to drink.

layover in Chicago.  Met more TaLKees.

Korean Air is probably the best airline i have ever flown on.  all of the stewardess were not only extremely kind, but also bilingual at least, and some even spoke languages such as Arabic and Thai.  The food was also really good.  All things considered, and even though i was in a middle seat, I was impressed and enjoyed my flight.  Many movies and TV shows were censored a lot.  i still got the meaning of the movie and such, but i am not sure if it was cuz of the movies i watched (Easy A, The Social Network, and the Tudors) or the airline itself.

I got to Incheon airport in one piece (always a good sign) met up with a couple other flights of TaLK people, and then came to Korea University's Sejong Campus.  I am not actually in Seoul, but we take frequent trips there during free time and even as part of orientation.

//end

Well i brought the wrong cord for my camera.

So until I find one here (which should hopefully be soon), my blog will be relatively photo-less. hopefully this period will not be long, so yeah.  bear with me.

Well this is an awkward first post.  I'm not entirely sure what i am supposed to say.  Hi. I'm reuben.

ok that's enough

end