doctors's visits: not a fan

I have a bump and pinprick of blood on my arm! Leftover from getting blood drawn... apparently I'm not as good at tolerating that as I thought I was. It was the dreaded but mandatory health check in Seoul that five of us new foreign teachers went to this morning before school started. We had to go through multiple stations like a hearing test, eye test (20/20 vision!), chest X-rays, etc. to make sure we were healthy enough to live in the country, I guess. It was pretty intense.

I think the sight of blood isn't a big deal for me, but seeing and feeling a needle being jabbed into my delicate skin doesn't go down so well. Hahaha. I didn’t even know I was going to have to get my blood drawn, and then I saw the needle and said "Oh, you're going to poke that into my..." and JAB! She just thrust it in with no hesitation and NO warning! >:( It was even worse than the peeing in a cup, which I loathed because I found it repulsive to have to carry a cup of pee from the bathroom back to the reception desk... it seemed completely unsanitary. I mean, what if I had tripped?!?

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I could not be happier right now: that spaghetti was sooooo good! I’ve been craving rich, creamy, fattening American food, and this is as close as I’ve gotten to it. I could always go buy fast food, but Western food is more expensive and I’m trying to be frugal until I get my first pay check.

I’m seeing that when you have less, you really do learn to appreciate more, and I only have a couple frivolous decorations, which I love. They are just a three-dollar tea pot with two matching cups and a thick round bamboo plant in a square vase. They look so good together, and they’re sitting on my counter. I’ve been making tea almost every night. :) :) :)

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spaghetti.

I'm sick of spicy ramen and don't think I will ever touch kimchee cabbage ever again. Ahh, what I wouldn't give for some fattening, creamy and cheesy American food right now. I mean, I could go buy some, but I need to be frugal until my frist paycheck, and Western food is always more expensive. As for chopsticks: I'm fed up. I never asked God to teach me patience, and learning the chopsticks has never been a desire of mine. Tonight though I will treat myself to making a giant pot of spaghetti, ahhhh with creamy tomato basil sauce and fresh chives. Bliss!

In other news, I'm learning to read Korean, and am actually starting to pick it up. It's a fun language to read, and will be fun to write, even when I don't know what I'm writing. It's probably pretty funny to watch me try... when I'm riding the subway, I sound out the characters one by one like a five-year-old learning to read for the first time. Some Koreans smile at me, and I've had some jump in and help me sound them out. Let's just say that when I'm back home and want to encode something, I know how I'm gonna do it. Bwahaha.

It's not uncommon to bump into another North American along the street. There are sure a lot here, all teaching English at any of the dozens of campuses in every town.

I'm quite enjoying my desk space at school. It's not like I have my own cubicle, but I still feel like hot stuff with a big personal computer, phone, school supplies and drawer... no one else uses this desk space. All mine!

I still don't have consistent internet at home, but if I perch midway on my stairs I can sometimes steal wi-fi from the my neighbor. Or, I can always sit in the hall of my housing complex, where internet is more reliable.

So, as I said, my converter came in the mail yesterday, and I did a typical Kate thing and had bought the wrong one. When I plugged it in, my hair dryer turned on so low I could barely hear it! Converter wasn't strong enough. Ughh. I think tonight I'm going to shop around comparing converter prices... I need my 110watt items (hair dryer, hair straightener...) to magically turn to 220, so I can either buy the right converter for $54 or buy a Korean hair dryer and straightener if combined I can find them cheaper. We will see. Something's gotta happen soon though... my frizz hair is quite unflattering.

"When two are eating, one could die and the other would never know it." -Korean proverb

Photoshopping passport pics

I am slowly going crazy! Crazy am I slowly going! Slowly am I going crazy 1232321! I may have gotten it wrong, but this used to be a song we sang in girls' camp at Twin Rocks, and that has been running through my head all day! I have been working long hours at this school and finding one frustration after another. I just loathe not getting clear instruction. Today I was handed twelve text books for three classes, and it took the longest time trying to sort out which ones were for which class. Now that I have all that figured out though, I honestly do think things will be better. That is, AFTER the journey to Seoul all of us new teachers have to take early tomorrow morning... it will involve a long trip and lots of cash just for a doctor to declare me healthy, all before school starts.

YEYY!! My plug adapter and converter came in the mail today! I can start using my hair dryer! And will be able to plug in my laptop! And even use a hair straightener! Which means I will actually start taking pictures, now that I can look good!! :)

That reminds me: today I had to have passport pictures taken to apply for my alien residence card (my Korean ID), and the shops spend an hour photoshopping the pics before they will hand them back! (I was amazed at my clear skin upon receiving them!) :) Isn't that funny though...? Does the government not want to know what we truly look like, pimples and all? I am of course speaking for the general public here. Really, a pimpleface could be barely recognizable after the digital facejob they get for passport photos.

Last night Katelyn, Paul and I ate at an authentic kim bop shop. I have already been eating kim bop every day for a while now, because you can get a roll for $1.20. That's what I'm talking about!

typical work frustrations

Yesterday at school was as bad as the day before was good. I was at school for more than ten hours "preparing" for my lessons, which officially begin today. Today I teach three classes, and when the younger kids begin class next week, I will have about five or six classes a day to teach. The problem with yesterday was that I had no clarity. No instruction, no direction, only a pile of syllabi and a room full of text books I had to try to match to the correct syllabi. I asked for help, and the director's assistant picked my books out for me and handed them to me. I finally figured out how to follow the books and I planned the first lesson, with flashcards from clipart to help the kids with the vocab words of the day, and at the end of the day I found out I had the wrong books... the entire day was a gong show and completely unproductive. Today I am going to plow through lesson planning and be ready hours before my first class, which starts at 6:30.

First church service

Sunday. 22. 2010.


Church today was so lovely! Well, the service itself was decent—I just wanted to say lovely—but was ten times better just for being in English. You can imagine my delight to discover there is an English service directly across the street from me. An enormous building there called Global Ministries apparently has thousands of people come to multiple services they hold in several different languages.

And the craziest thing happened!! I met some people from DUNDEE, who it turns out I have a lot of connections with, even though I didn’t actually know them before meeting them here. I met them on the street actually, right before I went up to the church. They looked like lost North Americans, so I said “if you’re looking for the English church service, it’s up here.” They thanked me and I asked where they were from, and they said Oregon! So I said me too! Small town called Newberg. And then they said they are from Dundee!!!! What are the odds?!? Their names are Steve and Paula, and Steve’s sister was my boss at Chehalem Youth and Family Services.

ALSO, they were going to the same church I went to growing up (2nd St!) until just before they moved here!! Isn’t that crazy?! AND their daughter Lindsey married Andrew Moore, whose sister was one of my good friends in high school! I couldn’t believe it. They said I was “in” since I knew Ashley, and they treated me like family. They took me to their house for lunch, and made a wonderful American-style BBQ dinner (hamburgers) and told me I’m welcome there any time. I thought that was really cool.

I told them I was really struggling trying to find places to buy plates and silverware that didn’t have prices through the roof, and they said “Oh we know a great place, like the dollar store! We’ll take you!” And they took me to this obscure place I never would have found on my own, I loaded up with lots of good things and they dropped me back off at my apartment afterwards. They were super helpful in giving me tips on where to go, and soo nice... it seemed like more than a giant coincidence that I would run into them. I’ll probably be seeing them a lot this year. :)

Also, the free gift this church service gave newcomers was a phone card with 888 minutes on it. Yes, 888. This day was such a blessing. My phone card from Costco that I brought with me doesn't work on my cell, and I tested this one and it does work, so I can finally call home whenever I want to!! Too incredible...

Bored!

Terribly, tragically, terrifically bored. I'm at Avalon right now and have been for the last hour and a half with no instruction. So, what can I do but surf the web? In this amount of time I have discovered tumblr though, which looks pretty cool. I'm starving. I could go for a two-dollar sushi roll right now. I'll go get one as soon as I get released.

My Korean phone is really cute. It's like a dark silver color, looks like a mirror though, and when I close it stars twinkle all over. :)

Aaand my apartment is so cute. I haven't really described it yet. It has wood floors, which I LOVE. Great for dancing on! And I have huge windows, from which I can look out and see the busy street far below or a skyscraper full of ads straight in front of me. There's a fancy air conditioning unit mounted on the wall, and I have a remote for that as well as for my light fixture hanging straight above my bed. It's so nice because I can read in bed and night and then bam, flip the lights off by just touching a button. I also have stairs leading up to a loft, but... the loft room is only three feet tall! What does one do with a three-foot-tall room?? I'm just using it as storage now. My kitchen is about 8 square feet in total. Two feet wide and three feet long. So basically, I can take two steps down the aisle, and have just enough room to turn around in and walk back. When I open the refrigerator door it bumps into the stove on the other side. Ahhahahaa. Oh well. Then I have one room, with a bed in it. And a bathroom. Small place but brand new and cute.

Ooh! Just found out today that Jake is coming to visit me in two weeks!! YEYYY!!! :D

Fry. Day.

Just got back from lunch break.  A long roll of sushi, like 10 pieces, for $2.50! Awesome.  It's really a shame though that I'm not loving the food... I see hot dogs so often I feel sick just looking at them now.  I mean seriously, do they need to wrap them in a pastry? Gross!  I finally bought groceries and will have fun cooking them, but I'm afraid all I feel like I can tolerate eating is pasta of some sort and normal bread products, like pastries and PB&J sandwhiches.  (Both of which were like $7 for tiny jars... American imported products.)  A high-carb diet sounds sickening to me though.  I really do like to eat healthily, and that is not happening here so far.  Oh, I've been drinking lots of coffees, too... and I only ever like mine extra sweet, so my diet is definitely not good yet.  Fruit is so expensive! And vegetables I don't recognize, or I can only find Korean-style lettuce in 20 different varieties, and nothing else.  All they eat here is meat meat meat and ramen, Korean-style sushi (not as good) and kimchee... fermented cabbage.  Ohhh I feel sick just talking about this.  Let's move on.

Class today went so well!!! I feel like a real teacher! :)  I taught a really basic-level English class today, using a book about body parts, so I made the class really interactive and taught them Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and played charades acting out their favorite activities.  I demanded more respect today than I got last class by first writing the rules on the board, using stern tones, and actually taking away phones during class.   Seriously, what does a first-grader need a cell phone for anyway?  I also started an incentives plan.  If a student gave an exceptional answer, in a complete sentence, or won at Simon-says or one of the other games we played, they got points.  If they talked out of turn, they lost points, and at the end of class the kid with the most points won the best-imaginable prize, which is obviously candy.  It worked!  Teaching so far is proving to be fun and tiring, and definitely a trial-and-error process.

Population of Bundang: 3.7 million!! In this city alone!! It's outrageous.  I've never even been to such a big city.  I feel like this must be what Vegas looks like... neon signs all over the buildings, which are all incredibly tall skyscrapers, and I live right in the middle of it.  It feels like the city that never sleeps.  I'm on the seventh floor of one building and see nothing but flashing or spinning signs when I look out my window.  It's funny to me that I've finally become a city girl, for a period of time anyway... in Korea.   Everything is within walking distance because not only are there tons of businesses crammed one right after another as I walk along the streets, but many of the floors in these "apartment" buildings are full of businesses too!  Like yesterday, Katelyn, our Korean friend Dan (met him where we all went to school at Trinity) and I  went to the 10th floor or so of some building right across the street to a frozen yogurt place.  It's really nice having a Korean friend who hapens to only lives 10 minutes away.  I never would have thought to go floor-to-floor to discover new places to go.  Get this: the whole place was full of rocking chairs or benches swinging from the ceiling!  The swinging benches were on either side of a table.  It was so cute, and decorated with flowers covering the whole ceiling... why don't we take such creative license back home??  I think artsy people would thrive here.  Like Jamie, you should come live here.  I think you would love it, seriously. 

I've finally figured out where to buy groceries, can take the bus by myself, and am feeling good at my school.  The school I'm teaching at is called Avalon, and they have several different campuses in the same city.  The specific campus where I'm teaching is brand-new, just opening this week, so our entire staff is new--7 English teachers and 7 Korean teachers.  I think there will be about 300 students enrolled by next week when we open to the public.  This week has been some other sort of program they're offering, a book club, which are the classes I've taught so far.  The curriculum will be different by next week.  The school is so cute.  Stark white all around, with brightly-colored trim and doors.  And the numbers and labels are all so cute and cartoony-looking.  I feel like I'm living in a cartoon.  The other day I ate at a Hello Kitty cafe... needless to say, the entire shop was a living cartoon.

I am teacher

I’ve already had my own classroom twice!  But allow me to back up to the beginning.  So. After about 26 of traveling (reaaaally should had someone drive me to Sea-Tac rather than tolerating a seven-hour layover there), I and all my luggage found my driver at the airport who, unfortunately, spoke no English.  It was a long, quiet ride to the apartment.  He led me to my room, let me in and said “8:30, 8:30.”  Since it was already 10 at night, I assumed I would be picked up by 8:30 the next morning.  

 I get a guy the next morning knocking on my door and saying, “I am welcome! Follow me to institution!”  I finally figured out that Welcome is actually his English name.  Definitely snickered at that one.  He showed me how to use the bus, and find the school, 15 minutes away.  Then I met everyone at school (so nice!!) and was told to start preparing for my first lesson.  Ahhhh hahaha.  No training whatsoever.  I was handed an English kids’ book and told to make a worksheet to hand out to the kids and I would be teaching 70-minute class periods the next day.  It was nuts… I’m so tired.

But my apartment is cute!! :)  Excited to decorate!

D-Day (Departure Day, silly)

Aug. 15. 2010.

I’m having a hard time fathoming the length of one year. I’m hoping it flies by, but that I will have made a lot of awesome memories.  I’m really anxious about not getting to see my friends and family for so long.  I hope they’re the same when I come back, and that I will be able to pick up those friendships right where they left off, like I never left.  Ahh… I miss you all already!! Add me on Skype: kate.symank.  It was especially hard when Ally came over last night… it was the first time I felt real anguish about what I’ve decided to do and wondered if it was the right decision.  I just keep thinking a year is so long.  Sleep last night was fitful.  My cat will probably die at some point while I’m gone, he’s so old, and Zoe will probably forget me.

It’s really funny to remember that I am going to South Korea to be an English teacher.  What do I know about teaching?  Ha, not much!  I keep forgetting that minor detail, since the only thing I know going into this deal is that I will be teaching 4-6^th grade kids English from 2-10pm at a school called Avalon. I have no idea how much English the kids already know, I know nothing else about the school.  Brave, or ignorant?  I will be living in an area called Bundang, which is a relatively new city, clean, pretty big and rather posh.  And that is the extent of what I know of the land.  I don’t know what kind of curriculum I will be receiving or how long training will be before I get thrown in as a teacher.  This is so silly… basically, I know nothing at all about what I will be doing. 

I’m sitting in the Sea-Tac airport during my ridiculously long layover of seven hours before my 11-hour flight to Seoul takes off.  I’m sure this first entry will be particularly long because I’m bored out of my mind and I would rather write than sit twiddling my thumbs.  If you have no interest in reading about what I’ve just eaten or who I’ve talked to in the last few hours, stop reading now and I’ll understand.  Four hours left!  I’ve just guzzled down the best iced mocha I’ve ever had—a marble mocha from Seattle’s Best—and now I’m ready to bounce off the walls.  I’ve already napped for an hour on the airport floor, discussed philosophy with the last airline attendant and unpacked and reorganized my carry-on bags. 

So, this is my first-ever actual blog.  Word.  I’m not counting the last entry.   

My biggest personal tangible goal is to write daily, whether in the form of my blog, journal or “book in progress.”  It would be cool to have a book-length’s worth of material after one year specifically about my travels in Asia, memoir-style.    My big chance as an aspiring traveling writer!  I’m also planning on visiting Japan, Thailand, Cambodia and possibly Taiwan at some point during the next year in South Korea.  And quite possibly one trip back to the US, perhaps in the spring.  I only have 10 vacation days during the whole year though, so I’ll have to plan carefully.  Any suggestions?

South Korea is going to be 16 hours ahead of Oregonian time, FYI.  So basically just add four hours to your time and switch the AM and PMs.  If it’s 8pm Monday for you, it will be noon on Tuesday for me; a perfect time to Skype!  Laura, don’t forget we have an ongoing 7pm Wednesday Skype date.  No, you’re right; I’m the one who is more likely to forget.

Hmmhmhmmmmm…. Guess I’m all set.  I have a calling card, purchased a Korean cell phone which should be handed to me as I get off the plane, some new teacher clothes (heehee!), a cool electronic Korean pocket dictionary, new laptop sleeve from my Aunt (hey, it’s okay to get excited about the little things!), etc.  I’m really excited to have an apartment of my own, to decorate and keep clean and cute!  The last English teacher will have just moved out of there, and apparently they aren’t really required to leave the place clean, and it isn’t inspected before they leave, so I could have quite a project on my hands.  On the flip side though, they also could have left a lot of useful things in the apartment that they didn’t want to haul back to North America, i.e. silverware, dishes, bedding, hangers, pots and pans, furniture.  To supplement for whatever I don’t have/find in the apartment, apparently all I have to do is hop in a cab and say “emarta” and I will be taken to the Korean version of Wal-Mart. 

My shoulders are sore already from the staggering weight of an overflowing backpack, and I feel like a tool in my wool coat and winter boots (it’s at least 80 outside) with another sweater tied around my waist and shirts in my coat pockets because I can’t squeeze another dime into my suitcases if my life depended on it!  Expecting a material girl to fit a year’s worth of living into two suitcases and two carry-ons is a joke.  I can’t imagine how I will get everything back to the states, either.  Obviously I’m also planning on buying a good amount of clothes while abroad…Korean girls are just so cute!  Is that racist to say?  Well, whatever, I love Asian styles.

Heck, I didn’t even have room to pack a towel with me.  As soon as I arrive and will be dying to take a shower, I’ll have to towel off with a washcloth.  I suppose I could have left out the Pasta Roni, or my little kid purple pillow, but it’s all about priorities. J  It didn’t take long to realize I just couldn’t squeeze in my espresso maker, to my great chagrin. 

Food is another thing I find myself thinking about.  Food for me= kind of a big deal!  I’d say I have a two-man appetite.  What if I hate it?  I have no idea what kind of food/ingredients I will find and be eating most often.  Sensing a theme here?

To buy:

-An electronics converter

-Frying pan

-Bath stuff: shower curtain, shower product basket, bath mat, towels

-Bedding: foam mattress and comforter

-Hangers

-Teapot

-Groceries

Well, I think I’ll go study my little Korean 101 handbook, and then jog in circles before I’m expected to sit for 11 hours straight.  Thanks for all the well-wishes and prayers, and I’ll be keeping you updated.  Peace!