Orientation wrap-up: The Beginning of the End

I just finished up a poster making session with a group of other middle school english teachers. This was meant to be a graphical representation of an action plan, a term that was never well enough defined to make it useful requirement. Nevertheless, we devised enough content to fill up a poster, so all should be fine. I'm not so sure that we'll win the prize for best action plan, but I don't really care.

No one really does at this point. Today they bussed us all into Seoul so that we could all do classroom observations. A rather awkward classroom observation since the observers nearly outnumbered the observed, but it was a helpful introduction to the intricacies of co-teaching. Afterwards they took us to the National Museum of Korea, a very large museum which covers the entire history of Korea. This was also our first real sojourn to Seoul.

The problem has been that we hardly feel as though we've been to Korea so far. Aside from the increasingly unappetizing cafeteria kimchee, we've been stuck in a microcosm of western culture isolated as we are at the training center. So today's trip seemed like a sadistic way to tease us about actually getting to Seoul and settling in. Not to mention that very few people seem to be taking this training course very seriously to begin with. On the bus this morning into Seoul there was a vocal minority chatting about how they were still drunk from last night as we were leaving. This attitude, coupled with the fact that the only useful piece of information we've received during the orientation is "it depends on your school," doesn't make for a very enthusiastic group of trainees.

So about the only thing anyone really cares about at this point is getting to Seoul tomorrow and getting their apartment, so that we can begin to settle in and see what this year is really going to be like.

-Richy.

On Korean Food and Our Orientation

So far things have been fairly laid back. We're somewhat isolated, so it doesn't really seem like we're even in Korea. It's more like we're at a convention on Korean culture and education. Though there is a town only fifteen minutes walk down hill, the double prospects of knowing there isn't really anything there to do, and that it's a half an hour hike uphill in sweltering heat keeps us securely placed near our air conditioned room. We've made a few friends, and since we're all stuck here together, going through the same things (adjusting to the climate, time difference, food, etc.), there's a real sense of camaraderie building up quickly.

Yesterday we spent three hours learning traditional Korean music and dance, in what turned out to be a kind of team building exercise. People, including Katie, being called out into the middle of all 190 or so english teachers because they didn't do the dance moves correctly. And a sort of contest where we all had to remember all seven traditional dance moves and in several groups perform them and hope for approval from the instructor. It was fun and interesting. It's actually quite nice that we are getting a rather slow introduction to Korean culture, rather than just being thrown in and seeing if we sink or swim, which is apparently what usually happens for first timers. Our colleague Patrick, who is also an Evergreen graduate, was forced to teach for three hours immediately after he got off the plane last year.

Later they made us watch Mr. Hollands Opus, presumably to inspire us. I almost fell asleep.

Today we start the more intensive orientation, how to write lesson plans etc.

On a final note. We have had kimchee for every meal, actually two or three different kinds of kimchee with every meal. I don't know if it's supposed to do this or not, but it seems to soften the stool quite a bit. Not in a diarrhetic way, but quite a bit more pasty.




--Richy.

First Excursion

So, today is our first real day here in Korea. We were wide awake at 4 am so now that it's 10 am, we feel like we've been up a long time, but lunch still won't be served for two hours.

We ate breakfast with some other NSETs (Native Speaker English Teachers, as our employers refer to us) and decided that we should explore the area today, since we don't have any scheduled activities other than meals until 2 pm.

Breakfast itself was rice, some unidentified and kinda icky leftover rice soup, some tasty and spicy kimchi (two different varieties), some seasoned pork, seaweed soup (miso-like), a light quiche-like egg dish, and dried seasoned seaweed packets. There was also some tea and toast available. It was actually pretty good, leaves you feeling much lighter and prepared for a hot, muggy Korean summer day than the traditional American breakfast fare.

After breakfast our friend Pat (who I happen to know from a class at Evergreen a few years ago) and Kara (from Minneapolis) walked down the steep hill that our training center is perched upon. We knew from the 3+ hour bus ride over last night that there was a small town area at the bottom of the hill so we were hoping to find something interesting or entertaining. It became clear very soon that the day was heating up and that we would end up sweaty and uncomfortable.

Early on, we found a convenience store and the friendly couple who seemed to own the place helped Kara pick out some breakfast items since she arrived for breakfast just as the cafeteria was closing. Kara then left us to go enjoy her breakfast in the comfort of her air conditioning back in her room. Richy, Pat and I moved on.

One of the things that I am amazed about in Korea so far is just the way that any available empty land is being farmed. Even small little lots on street corners are full of pepper plants, squash, taro, beans and lettuce plants. It really makes me hope that our neighborhood in Seoul will have a community garden or something. Vegetables seem to grow like weeds in this climate. Also, right now is obviously pepper harvesting time. Near the little garden plots you can see tarps covered in drying chili peppers. It's really cool to see real agriculture going on in this way: it's sustainable, aesthetically pleasing, and obviously contributes to the comfortable standard of living that the people in this community seem to enjoy.

We looked for an ATM, but it's a Saturday so all the banks are closed. We'll have to wait to get some Korean cash, but fortunately we were able to buy drinks at the convenience store with our visa debit cards.

After we wandered around the town, realizing everything was closed for the weekend (or for the time of day), we trudged back up the hill in the thick, slimy air. Now we're back at the dorm/hotel place with all the NSETs, covered in sweat, enjoying the air conditioning and waiting for something interesting to do.

-Katie

We made it to South Korea

11 hours on a plane plus 3 hours on a bus = 24 hours without sleep.
And even though we were able to stay up long enough to go to bed at a
reasonable local time, we were still both wide awake at 4:00 am, aka
12:00 pm PST. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be mostly over the jet lag.

-Richy.

Almost gone.

I haven't been able to sleep very well, even though I'm tired. Every time I lay my head down to rest I think of another thing we have to do before we go. It's hard to get excited in such a state. Right now, sitting down in my seat on a plane and knowing I have everything here squared away sounds like pure heaven.

And don't cry when I say goodbye to you. If you cry, I'll cry and then I won't get anything done.

-Katie

New Beginnings

A new look for a new beginning. I've redone the site in a korea friendly theme. So I hope it looks good. Depending on how diligent we are, we'll try to keep an up to date journal of our lives teaching in Seoul for everyone who wants to keep track of us. Photos etc. will all be posted here so bookmark this page if you're interested in what we'll be doing.

Thanks,

Richy