Frisbee and the like

A couple of weeks ago, I joined an Ultimate Frisbee league. We practice every Saturday, rain or shine. We are preparing for an international tournament that is coming here at the end of April. We have 3 teams from the island that will be competing. We are just out to have fun. Last Saturday it was raining, and we had the largest turnout so far. By the end of the 2 hour practice, I was covered in mud. I was wearing street shoes and was sliding all over the place. When I play sports, I get into it. Plus I am not the most agile person, so I fall a lot. I ended up injuring myself almost at the beginning of practice though. I slid and pulled my groin. I kept on playing until it hurt too much. My team was tired by that point and most of us left. I now have cleats. I am hoping that they help. I missed practice yesterday. There was an extra one, due to the rain. I just couldn't walk well.

The only thing I did yesterday was lay in bed, cook and watch movies. I did have to run Emart to get something to cook. The 5 minute walk took heaps longer. I was walking so slow. On top of the pulled groin muscle, I have a bruised hip. There was an 80's themed party on Saturday as well. At the end of the night, I went back to the bar with Anne-Marie. She forgot her phone and we went back to pick it up. It was still raining. It rained all weekend. Anyway I was coming down the stairs in my wet shoes on wet marble stairs and slid. Hitting my hip on the edge of the stairs. So now I have an nice softball sized bruise on my hip, as well as a bruised elbow, knee, and a skinned ankle.


In other news, Korea has been over taken. There are people dancing in the street, they are bowing to passing cars and big tv's on back of trucks are everywhere. People are walking around with sashes, with numbers on them. There is probably other things on them as well, I just can't read them. At first I had no idea what was going on. Then I found out that next Wednesday, I have the day off of work. It is election time. So the candidates have their posses out doing crazy shit. Could you imagine Obama and Clinton having people dancing in the streets.

First week of Teaching

Well I just finished my first week of teaching. For the most part it has been rather enjoyable. Some classes were better than others. The school I work at on Tuesday and Thursday is quite a bit bigger than my Wednesday Thursday school. The class sizes are around 25 students per class on Tuesdays and Fridays. The class sizes are from 7-14 students in my other school. It is so much easier to teach in small groups.

Today I had a hell class. I moved several kids around the class. The homeroom teacher had no control over them. They just did not listen to her. She was a quiet one though. When I have class with her again on Tuesday, I will attempt to remedy the situation before class. This Wed, Fri, school has an English Language classroom. She lets them sit where ever they like. That shit just isn't going to play. They don't listen and just talk to each other. So Tuesday they will be moved into a seating arrangement where I can control them.

I would have to say that my favorite classes are my younger groups. I teach a mixed class of kindergarten and first graders. They are so cute and so much fun. It is a high energy class and thus I am constantly having to do run around trying to get these kids to speak or do the songs that I am teaching. I taught them head shoulders knees and toes. Then I followed that up with a drawing segment of the class. I needed to check their understanding. So we drew monsters. I told them what to draw and how many. Most of the kids understood.

So this is what I gathered from my one week of teaching. There aren't English Language teachers. The homeroom teacher is in charge of teaching everything. Sort of like it was like, when I was in elementary school. I think they should have teachers, who just teach English though. Both of my counterparts, speak really really well. One has done a fair amount of travel and the other hasn't been out of the country. Both are attractive. It is fun to teach with them. Just hard to concentrate. My mind kind of wonders. Some of my teachers can hardly speak any English. Some can speak fairly well.

Koreans are of a different breed. In my smaller school, I have a teacher, who is rather young. Really friendly and all, but when I went into her classroom, I just laughed. She got up and she had a smile on her face. I could see why she was so happy. There was a buzzing sound coming from her chair, and 2 glowing knobs. I just can't see someone doing that while at work. On that note, I'm outie

Work

Well I finally figured out where I will be working for the next three weeks. Both my co-teachers called my yesterday. I was wondering if they were going to get in contact with me at all. I was supposed to meet them last week, and they never showed. Then they were supposed to call me on the weekend. Yeah that didn't happen. At 4:30 yesterday they both called. I am working at 2 schools. I don't know my schedule. All I know is that I am working at one of the schools on Wednesday and Thursday. That much one of my co-teachers informed me of. That and that her mother is going to pick me up to drop me off at the bus stop. I could walk. I would prefer to walk. That is just going to be a whole lot of awkward.
Today I was picked up at 7:30. I haven't been up at 7:30 since I have been here. That was rough. Especially rough given the fact that my main center had a party yesterday. Lots of free food and drinks. You can't say no to that. That and Koreans forcing you to drink. So first day of work and I am hungover. Not fun times, kids. Good thing I can whip up a class with little or no warning. I didnt' have time to lesson plan. I wasn't even sure I would be teaching today. I found that out when I got to work. Introductory lesson here I come. I will have to talk about myself for 45 minutes several different times today. That and getting to know my students. Students that i will only have for 3 weeks. Maybe once a week.
Well I have finished with work for the day. My first class was cancelled. The 3rd grade teacher had a tickle in his/her throat and didn't come in. My second class went swimmingly. The teacher used the time for me to talk about myself. It took up most of the time. I didn't know I was so interesting.
The third class was a bit off. The teacher didn't know how to use me and I ended up taking over his class. He wasn't a very good speaker and thus it hurt his English language classes. The kids just didn't listen to him and they were doodling and talking with eachother instead of paying attention. So I stepped in and layed the smack down. There was no introductions in that class. I didn't even get his name until the end of class. I forgot it already. I really need to start writing these things down.
My last class of the day was fun. The teacher, who also didn't introduce himself, gave me the book and said "this is what you are teaching" I've never seen the book. I've seen him in the halls once or twice today. It would have been nice to have had some time to prepare. But I am a god and did quite well on the fly. I got all the kids moving and interested.
Other than that, pretty good day overall. I have retained my rockstar status. Kids coming up to me and sniffing me, pettting my beard and looking at my ear piercing. They like to talk to me and I have no idea what they are saying. Let the good times roll.

Mongols

Before work I was out walking about. In reality I had to go to the bank and get a new bank book. I haven't even used it yet and I already destroyed it. I put it through the wash machine. This happened after I washed my passport. I really need to start checking my pockets before I wash. My passport is a little beat up as well. The cover is starting to pull off the picture page. I need to take a picture of it and ask the Embassy if I need to get a new one.
But anyway I was walking down to the bus stop after going to the bank. And I see for guys who are not Korean. Plus the fact that they were wearing track suits with the Mongolian flag on it, kinda gave it away. So I yelled at them and shocked them with my mad Mongol skills. They are in town for the Asia Games. They are wrestlers. One of them was from Sukhbaatar, that is the area where I used to live. It made my day. I could finally communicate with someone. They needed to go and my bus was coming so, it was a short conversation. But fantastic to talk to them

Random things

Ok. Here we go. 2 weekends ago, I went to see Jeju United play down in Sogwipo I doubt if I spelt that even remotely close. It was a fun experience. There was a bus that picked us up on my part of the island and we had a full bus. It was free. The tickets were free. I love free. The bus arrived at the stadium and we went and got some beers and sat down to watch the match. Wasn't much of a game. Both teams were a little lacking in the skills department. During halftime another EPIK worker and myself went on a quest to find a scarf or a jersey. Walking around and asking where we can buy one, yeah, they don't sell them at the stadium. Well that didn't deter me. I saw people with them. I wanted one. So I was walking around and I saw this VIP area. I want over and start talking to the guard. Where can I get a scarf. I see a guy with one. "Like that one!" They are not for sale. He looks around, gives me the shoosh. How many do you need? 3. He goes and gets them. I ask him how much, nothing!!! I rock! Persistence and charm, what can I say!



Last weekend was St. Patty's day celebrations. There was an open mike night at a bar called Led Zeppelin. It was good. Way too many whitie in there. Smaller venue, and there were probably 75 foreigners in there. Pain in the ass trying to get a beer. They ran out of mug, and it took something like 15 minutes just to get to the bar. It seemed like the whole bar needed to shift when people moved. I really don't like bars that crowded. From there, moved on to a bar called Angel Sin. Yeah, I know, they have interesting names for bars here. Took me a minute to realize that I have been in this place before. I went there my first night on the island. I have pictures, but not with me. I'll post them later.

Alright weekends are caught up with. Yesterday, my boss came in right before we were about to leave and told us that we would be working in Sogwipo, for the next month. Today, I guess we are meeting with the co-teachers. I'm not even sure they know about this yet. All I know about it is that there are 3 schools. One of us will be working at 2 the other at 1, and it will be 4 days a week. Mondays I will stay in town, and Tuesday-Friday we will travel. They might have been told this morning. The thing I am not too keen on is travel. It is on the bottom of the island. I live on the top. There is a mountain in between. When I travel to my permanent placement it is coastline driving and rather flat. I was asking about being reimbursed for bus fare or gas and they kind of gave me the run around. I will have to talk with the co-teachers about it. Otherwise, work travel is going to seriously cut into my budget. I will write more about this new teaching situation when I find it out.

Quick note. It takes 1 hour 15 minutes for me to walk back to my place from where I am working now.

I am also buying a bike. I was planning on buying a scooter, but as my travel is great and I will need something a bit bigger. I got a call last night, that knows a guy who is leaving next week. He is selling his 125 cc bike for about $400. It is cheaper than I would by a scooter for, so there you go.

Cell Phone

Who could have thought that getting a cell phone could be so much work. It took me the better part of 2 days just to get one. I started of at KT, Korean Telecom. I was there for probably 3 hours. The lady who was helping me spoke little English and tried and tried to help me. We finally got on the same page and she hooked me up with a cell phone, or so I thought. She was setting up a plan and asked me for my credit card. They want a safety net against foreigners running up large bills and leaving the country. So I happily give her one. Thinking alright, three hours here and I am almost done. She looks at it questioningly, talks to a co-worker, makes some more phone calls, asks me where it is from, makes some more calls, and then says "Do you have a Korean credit card?" No I don't have a Korean credit card. Why would I have a Korean credit card? They won't give a foreigner a credit card. Oh I'm sorry, we can't give you a phone. WHAT?!?!?! 3 hours of sitting here and now you are telling me that you can't give me a phone. You could hook up my cable and my internet, NOW YOU CAN"T GIVE ME A PHONE!

Nothing I could do. Stressed out and pissed off I head back to work. My boss, who is in charge of finances of all the EPIK teachers, looks at me questioningly. "Did you get a phone?" No I didn't get a phone. Oh they won't give phones to foreigners. You told me to go there. I went there. Wasted 3 hours there. You've dealt with this situation before. God DAMN you. Oh but you might be able to get a prepaid phone. Not through them though. Why didn't you tell me this before? I scream in my head. So I she gives me a sticky note saying prepaid in Korean, that's it and sends me on my way.

So after work I head out to one of the many many many cell phone shops. They have no idea what I am talking about. Show them the note, Most of them shrug and say something to me in Korean. I have no idea what they are talking about, and it is painfully obvious that they have no idea what I am asking for. Several shops later, I find a guy who speaks bad English. Save the day! He tries to sell me a phone for $600. I ask if he's got anything cheaper. The cheapest phone? Yes oh here, It's a lime green Razr for $450.

So I head out on my way. Checking out more and more stores seeing if they have used phones or something a bit cheaper. I find one. The girl speaks no Englishee. Through my phrase book and persistence, we are able to communicate. I she shows me a phone for around $90. A bit beat up but workable. Yes. I think. I will have a phone tonight. Oh was I dreaming. She calls her friend. She speaks English. Wow. So now I am able to figure it out. I get a phone here and I have to go to the central office to get it hooked up. But they close at 6. It is 7. Good thing I work at 1 the next day. So I go to SK telecom and 45 min later the next day I finally have a phone. I have a phone that works. I have prepaid service. Ah!!

Fishlips

The movie, the legendary movie Fishlips. Made by several of my friends. Funny funny stuff

New School

So on Friday I went and saw my new school. We spent a couple of hours there. The school is really really nice. There is a bunch of things there that I will have to get used to using. My experience teaching in Mongolia didn't prepare me well for all the technology in the classroom. I have a dvd player with an overhead projector. I have a computer with a pen that allows me to write on it and project it on the wall. I have a microphone, which I hope that I never have to use. My classes are going to be small. At least that is what they are telling me, about 16 students per class


It is sort of stressful opening up a new school. My director is under a lot of pressure to make it work. It really isn't a school. It is more of an after school program. The classes are free for the students. It is only for spoken English. The way it appears to work over here, is the Korean teachers teach grammar and we get them speaking. Which can be a challenge. There was a study done and the biggest reason why Koreans do not speak English is that there are other Koreans around. They are afraid of screwing up in front of other Koreans.

We do have aids to help. There are simulation labs to help with real world applications. There is a restaurant, shop, doctors office, airport, and bank in the lab. Some of the English is wrong. It is an easy fix, but when they put that much money into a new facility, they should've gotten it right. The prices are wrong on the menu in the restaurant. Most of the prices are $1.7, or $5.5. I told my director that is not the way we write prices. Ours has 2 decimal places. I think he understood.

My Apartment

Video of my apartment. It isn't that large. I'm on the 13th floor and I have quite the view. You'll see it if you watch the video.

Out with the Director

Last night Arielle and myself went out to dinner with my director Mr. Kim. We ended up going to a Japanese Resturant. We had sushi. Not really sushi, but tons of raw fish. I miss cooked food. He ordered so much food for the 3 of us. They filled up our table with various different types of raw fish, and we scarfed it down. Most of it wasn't too bad. Some was a bit chewy for my taste. When we made a sizeable dent in that batch, they come back into the room with this boat. Probably 3ft long and a foot wide and place it on the table. It was more raw fish. They gave us some lettuce leaves to wrap it up in and thus we started eating again. Eating and drinking Soju.

So after getting well stuffed and relaxing for a little bit, thinking the meal is finished, more comes out. This time a bowl of soup. The soup was followed by frozed raw crap. Ah me belly is full. I don't think I can eat another bite. Take down a couple more shots of Soju with Mr. Kim and Arielle. Thinking it is time to move on and finish up, when yeah, you guessed it, more food. I'm a big guy. I like to eat. But come on. This is getting rediculous. They brought out cooked food this time, Shrimp fried in Tempura batter, as well as fried cucumber and potato. Oh yeah and all the other raw fish we couldn't eat, now came out and it was also fried. I was so full after that. Good thing that was the end of the food.

We followed up the resturant, by going to a bar called Beer Life. There we ordered beer. Yummy yummy beer. We had a pitcher of beer. It came in this little mini keg type thing. Kept the beer nice an chilly. Good good stuff. And of course more food was needed because we were drinking. So we ordered dried squid. Not too bad actually. This stuff actually tasted good. I think because of where we are and the freshness of it. It is caught right off the coast here. Looking out across the city, it is usually possible to see squid drying on clothes lines.

Drinking and eating go hand in hand here. Korean men like to drink, but they only seem to do it when there is something to eat. Even at bars, they get some kind of snack. The snack is usually dried squid and a chili sauce.

First fuck up

Well yesterday I had my first fuck up at work. It was only my third day and the only day I had anything going on. It was actually a busy day. So Tuesday I was cooking dinner when Brian stopped by my place and told me to stop cooking. We were going to go out and meet a bunch of people for dinner, drinks and bowling. We went to a buffet. The buffet's here are a bit different from that back home. You go and pick your meat, and fixings and go back to your table and fry it up. We ended picking pork, beef, a marinated beef, shrimp and octopus. Tasty little buggers, them octopi. The cooler was behind us so the beer and Soju were free flowing.

You are not allowed to drink in bowling alleys or pool hall here. Which I find a bit odd. Bowling and drinking go hand in hand. I don't think I've seen too many bowlers with out the required beer belly. I think it helps with the spin. So anyway, I was on fire. I bowled my first turkey. A turkey is 3 strikes in a row. Yay me!!! So that was my best game. I think I bowled a 149. From there it was down hill. I bowled 2 more games. I finished over 100 in both of those games. So I did rather well. I am thinking of joining the PBA. I would rock it with my palm the ball style.

After bowling we went to a bar by the bowling alley to say good bye to some girl that I met once before. We stayed there for I little bit and then the group decided to break up and head to our respective homes. I jumped in a cab with 3 others who were traveling to ShinJeju. That is the part of town I live in, I guess. Well we were feeling good and thus we decided to stop off at a bar close to home for a night cap. Basically the plan was to have a shot and a beer and go home. Yeah, that didn't happen. We ended up talking to some of the locals and making friends with the owner. So they were feeding us drinks. I think I had a couple of whiskys and 3 tequila shots. After a while we made our way home and I promptly went to sleep.

Before I went to sleep though, I thought it would be a good idea to set my alarm. Which, in my inebriated state wasn't the best idea. So instead of setting my alarm, I turned it off. I woke up at 11, to my door bell ringing and I throw on some pants and check the camera. Yeah I don't have a peep hole, I have a camera. But whose face do I see, my school director's. I open the door and tell him to give me 5 minutes and I'll be ready. He just sorta laughed and said to hurry up.

We were going to Hallim that day to check out the Western Foreign Language Center, which is on the west side of the island. I get rush and get to the car that is waiting outside my building and get in. It is at this point I realise that I am still a wee bit drunk. So hangover averted. Hey you gotta look for the positives in everything, right.

Well the hour long drive allowed me to sober up and keep it cool. Good thingI was in the back seat. Though I would guess that I reeked of bar and had alcohol draining out of my pores. I was a bloody mess. That will not happen again. At least not for a long long time. If I could have only have woken up, I could have showered and sobered up with a nice cold shower.

I was able to get done most of what I needed to get done. I went back to the hospital and got my drug test results. I am clean. Wooo Hooo! I am able to get my alien registration card. I pick it up next week. When I get that I can get my cell phone and join the masses. I wasn't able to get my internet and cable set up. They were supposed to do that yesterday as well, but we stayed in Hallim longer than we were supposed to. Some big wig was coming there and my director wanted to have a chance incounter. So I had to reschedule internet for Friday.

Work

I think I may have alluded to this in a previous post but I will fill in more information about my work and what I will be doing once I actually start work. I think I just wrote about how far I will be traveling for work.

I'm working for Jeju Foriegn Language Institute, Eastern Section. I guess I am lucky. I will not be working with a co-teacher. I will have my own classes. That is what they are telling me. There is one other foriegner working there. She is also American. We might rotate classes so the students get a variety of classes. We will be getting the cream of the crop. The institutes are for the best students who want to learn English.

The foriegners' job is basically to get them speaking. There are a lot of aids to get them speaking we will be running kids through a simulation area as well as classes. The simulation area is a small mall type area with a resturant, post office, clothing store, airport, and the like. Basically a place to practice real world application of English. This area we are going to have to write scripts for, but the students should be running this section themselves. At least in theory.

From what I can tell I will have longer hours than most of the EPIK (English Program in Korea) teachers. But will have a lot more time off. I have ever Monday class free. It is a prep day.

I'll be teaching the gambit of levels. From high to low. But from what they tell me and from what others have told me, they are all highly motivated students. I am really excited to start teaching again. I'll let you know how it goes once I start teaching again. For the first couple of months, I will be observing the other teachers here at the central center to see what they do and how they do it. Which I like. I like having more ideas for classes.

Food

This was written while I was in orientation and I am now able to post it.

Food here is fantastic. That is once you get away from the food that they were serving us at the hotel. The food there was horrible. It is what I imagine prison food to taste like. Mass produced and flavorless.

So for the most part my dinners have been away from the hotel. I have been going out to dinner with 2 Kiwi's and 2 Ausie's. Dinners are a communal thing here. I guess it is really hard to go into a Korean resturant and get served if you are by yourself. They just don't understand the lone dinner thing. Last night we went and had some spicy chicken dish. It consised of chicken, potatoes, cabbage, speghetti, some rice noodle and sauce. Brilliant. So so good. We killed off 2 wok platters of it. It's cooked right in front of you. Most of the food is cooked in front of you. With tons and tons of side dishes. I've eaten this BBQ dish here a couple of times. Well not exactly BBQ, more like bacon cooked over a fire that you wrap in lettuce with some other fixin's

First few days in Jeju

Ok. I am now home. My home is small to say the least. This place is a bit smaller than my Mongolian Ger. It is new and I am the first one living in it. So I had to peel plastic off of everything. I guess it was built 2 years ago, but has not had anyone living in it. So it was a bit dirty. There was still plaster dust everywhere. I'll post a video of it once I get internet.

Apparently I can't get internet or a cell phone or cable until I get my alien registration card. So today for most of the morning I was at the hospital getting my drug test done. That was a pain. I was being being shuffled from one place to the next. This is the first year that the drug test is being done so nobody knew what to do. So after about 3 hours and several stops later I was given a dixi cup and showed the bathroom. I was told to fill it up half way and bring it back. I could have put someone elses pee in the cup and they would not have known. Who knows maybe I did do that.

Ok I will give a run down of everything I have done so far. Not to say that I have done much. Friday we arrived in Jeju. I found out that I will be living in Jeju-si or Jeju City. The city is divided up into two areas. The western area, where I live is mostly banks and government buildings. Not the best area for a night life or anything really. The eastern area is more shopping, resturants, bars, basically more of city life. This is the area I would prefer to live in.

It takes me 20 min to get to work from where I live. That is by cab. Today is my first day and I have nothing to do. From the sound of it, I won't have much to do for the next month and a half. I will be working at the Foriegn Language Institute, Eastern section. So I will be travelling to the eastern side of the island for work. On this map I live in Haga-ri and I will be working in Sehwa-ri. So it is a commute. I guess it takes over an hour to get there. I'll have to buy a scooter. I am trying to get them to move me to the eastern side of the city, to make the commute that much shorter.

So anyway, my first couple of days on the island have been alright. The first night I was in town I met a guy in my building. He helped me set everything up, heat, door code and some shopping. He showed me around the area, the local marts and the like. Later that night we went into town and went to the bar area. We met up with one of his friends and went out to eat. The first meal I had on the island was raw fish. Sushi and various other types of raw fish. Most of it wasn't that bad. Some chewier than others. I would have to say I enjoyed it. From there we went out and shot some pool. Wow I sucked. I haven't played that bad in a while. I guess that happenes after a couple bottles of Soju. Soju is the local Korean alcohol. It tastes like watered down vodka. Played pool for a bit and then went to another bar to meet some other people and ended up going to another bar that was a dart bar. Played some darts and sucked ass. Horrible. I gave up on playing, that is how bad I was doing.

Came home to my apartment around 5:30 in the morning to find it absolutely freezing. So I went to bed. Woke up in the morning, or afternoon, about 4ish and it was still cold. Fiddled around for a while and then decided to take a shower, yeah no hot water. I went and talked to Brian, the guy in my building, to see if he could figure it out. So after fiddling around for a little while, went to see the manager and the told me my gas was off. So went up and turned it on and low and behold I had hot water. Took and shower, went to Pizza hut and I started feeling ill so didn't do anything. Sunday I woke up feeling like crap. I had a feaver and spent the day in bed. I tried to get up and explore the area. I walked for about a mile, till I had to turn back. I felt like I was going to pass out. So that night was spent napping and watching movies.

Today, Monday, was spent at the hospital and then Areil, a girl I work with, who also had to go to the hospital, went and got some food. We went to a Japanese resturant and had some sushi. It seems like I will be eating a lot of raw fish. It is the mainstay of the Jeju diet from what I am told.