Quirky Korea

I thought we would share some of Korea's quirkiness we've grown to love in our short time here.

First, although we are teaching English, it seems it does not always reach the right person. Grammar/ spelling mistakes are fairly common like "esopresso" on a coffee shop sign and "sprinkle to pizza..." as seen on the parmesan cheese bottle. But regardless of the grammar, seeing English is always a breath of fresh air!!

Another cute Korean quirk are the melodies you hear everywhere. Whether it's the school bell, rice maker, elevator, washing machine, or even the subway, where there are "buzzes" in the states, there are quaint melodies in Korea. Here is one such melody that tells us when our clothes are done click here ----> Clean Clothes Melody

On another note, Koreans are extremely serious about exercise. Not only do they have weight machines and badminton courts everywhere outside, they also look the part. Regardless if they are walking along a bike path or hiking on a mountain trail, they look as if they're ready to tackle Mt. Everest. Quick dry long sleeve shirts, hiking pants, and vests are musts as well as visors, gloves, fairly large backpacks, and trekking poles. Face masks are often seen as well. Really. We felt INCREDIBLY underdressed in our shorts and t-shirts while hiking. There are also outdoor gear and outfitter stores everywhere yet they MUCH more expensive than in the US because of the demand here. You can see Aaron's undercover camera shot above--notice the masks in the background. Swine flu? Mosquitoes? Dirt? Air pollution? Bad kimchi breath? I guess we need to investigate exactly what they're trying to protect themselves from...

Just as all countries and cultures have quirks, when we get a glimpse of Korea's quirky side, all we want to do is smile.

-Callie

Pig Skin, Octupus, and Sea Urchin--OH MY!

We finally have internet at our new apartment and are able to give an update. The past 10 days have been full of new experiences, realizations, raw octopus, and pig skin to say the least.

EPIK Orientation

Our orientation experience left us anxiously anticipating our own classrooms. We had 4 days of lectures on lesson-planning, teaching strategies, culture, classroom management, and Korean tourism. The presenters exceeded our expectations and really prepared us for our adventure ahead. Orientation came to a close with lesson plan presentations and a farewell dinner complete with more Korean dances, drumming, and an EPIK teacher talent show.

Similarly, our field trip to Keumsan Buddhist Temple and Hanok Cultural Village left us hungry for more cultural experiences. The temple was set up on Moak Mountain, about a 20 minute hike through pine trees and over streams. It held many buildings with statues of Buddhas including a gigantic gold Buddha that was probably 3 stories tall. When you are standing on the side of a mountain and all you can hear are birds and the rustling of the leaves it becomes clear why it was chosen as a spiritual place. At the Hanok Village we made our own Korean fans and ate the famous Jeonju bibimbap—a Korean dish consisting of rice, chili paste, vegetables, and beef all mixed together. It really was delicious and one of my favorite dishes so far here in Korea.

Off to Busan

On Friday we headed to Busan to meet our co-teachers and move into our new home. We arrived at an elementary school where we would meet our co-teachers for the year. Essentially, these are the teachers that we teach with and who our “mom’s” for the year so it’s an important relationship. We feel quite lucky as both of our teachers are incredibly kind, welcoming, and motherly.

It turned out that the saying “Korea is Dynamic” reigned true for Aaron and me. We were not placed on the island as told before. Instead, we are living in Hwamyeong, a northern “neighborhood” of Busan. Busan and the surrounding area is more beautiful than I ever imagined. The apartment that belongs to my school overlooks a beautiful river as well as the mountains. It’s a front row seat to a beautiful sunset.

School

Aaron and I are actually in very different teaching environments. I am in Doechonli Middle School and teach 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grade (like 7, 8, 9^th grade in the US). I also teach a conversation class, a teacher’s workshop class, and am going to teach a Newspaper Club! One of my favorite moments from the first week was when I asked students to write three things they knew about the United States. Among the best were: crazy cow disease, NAFTA (I know! Wow!) and Bread Pit.

Aaron is in a vocational/industrial high school and his students are very low level English speakers. It is challenging but he is extremely optimistic and is doing a fantastic job at capitalizing on his creativity. On his first day he was given a pair of sandals which were made at his school. He will later receive a pair of running shoes. I must ad that in order to fit into Korean culture, he also purchased his first pink shirt...I was so proud.

Schools here are extremely different from those in the US in a few main ways:

1. You change your shoes upon entering the building as floors are very important in Korean culture.

2. The students clean the school! After the bell rings, students mop, sweep, and scrub the school top to bottom. It truly makes a lot of sense as then they are more prone to treat it with respect! Ingenious I think!

3. Corporal punishment is prevalent in the classes. I had students who came in late to class and the teacher slapped their cheeks!

4. Teachers go to the students’ classes. My office is in a large room with all of the other teachers. Our desks are right next to each other and the vice-principal is in the middle overseeing all of the teachers. A little different than having the privacy of your own classroom!

Adventures

Our first weekend here we took the subway downtown and spent Saturday exploring Busan. Our apartment is about a 30 minute subway ride from the actual city of Busan (we are not on the island we had thought we would be on). We basically got on the subway and just took it to a random spot. It was a lot of fun! We managed to find the UN Cemetery which honors all those who died in the Korean War from the UN. It looked very similar to the Vietnam Memorial actually. Then, we were on a mission to find the ocean and FINALLY found it. It's a beautiful rocky coast, and we found a park where we could hike.

This past week/weekend we managed to cook some friends a Korean style dinner, eat pig’s skin (as a result of simply blindly pointing at the menu—I had one bite and stuck to the spicy lettuce), go to Jagalchi Fish Market and eat live sea urchin and octopus(they took it out of the tank, chopped it’s tentacles up, and they were still squiggling and sucking while going down your throat!!), come upon a gorgeous park that allowed us to overlook the city, and go to the International Museum of Musical Instruments (I took pictures for you Jake!). All of these adventures were shared with amazing new friends who we feel SO lucky to have met! Tomorrow it is off to see the Lotte Giants for a good ‘ole game of professional baseball (and maybe a Korean hotdog?).

For those of you who didn’t stop reading, you’re champs! ;) We will write more frequently now that we have internet so these won’t be so long.

Love to all!

*Click here to check out our online picture album.

-Callie