An Asiatic Vacation Part One

February 2, 2010 at 1:02 am (Uncategorized)
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I’m back from vacation and I finally have the time, energy, and motivation to write about it!

This vacation I went to Thailand (Koh Samui and Bangkok) and Hong Kong. I had 9 days off of work and I used them to their fullest. Immediately before leaving, the weather in Incheon was freezing and windy and I was beginning to find it intolerable. Needing to wear leggings underneath my jeans for the walk to work only stays novel for so long. I was beginning to feel tired, get a cold, and just so unmotivated and lethargic. Then, Friday, January 15th rolled around and my travel buddy, Miranda, came to my apartment after work. Miranda lives in Inje, a small, rural town about three hours by bus from Incheon. The International Airport is about 30 minutes from my apartment, so she slept over that night and the next day in the afternoon we headed off to the airport.

Koh Samui

After being on planes/in airports for 24 hours, with layovers in Hong Kong and Bangkok, we arrived in Koh Samui, Thailand. Koh Samui is an island in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Thailand. It’s among the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It’s located in the tropics and the beaches on this tropical island are amazing. There are beaches, jungles, and mountains throughout the island. There’s also a law on the island that no building can be taller than the palm trees; I think the tallest building I saw was 3 or 4 stories, though I could be mistaken. I like that law; there are no high rise hotels littering the view of the beach and giving the island an extremely commercial feel. Apparently this is not a law on some of the neighboring islands, and Brittany’s dad said that it gives those islands a more commercial feel.

One of the first things Miranda and I noticed in the airports in Bangkok and Koh Samui, and just throughout our entire stay in Thailand, is the number of white, often European, older men with much younger, beautiful Thai women. It’s a bit creepy how common this is and is probably largely the result of the fact that many of these beautiful Thai women often come from very poor backgrounds and these men who may marry them, or just briefly provide for them, are willing to take care of them.

We arrived there on Sunday evening and Miranda’s friend from Minnesota, Brittany, and Brittany’s mom picked us up at the Samui airport. Brittany’s parents built a house on Koh Samui a few years ago and as of a year and a half ago, have lived there full time and right now Brittany is living with them. On the drive from the airport, we got to see part of the island, especially on the last leg of the drive. Brittany’s parents live on a mountain and the drive up to it was great as much of that mountain has been left relatively pristine (there are a few houses and a golf course). We arrived and their house was gorgeous and where we were staying for the first night. Brittany’s parents have a beautiful house and are very friendly and welcoming, but because they live on top of a mountain, the only way for us to get into town would be by private car, not even taxis will come up the mountain. So we decided that Brittany, Miranda, and I would stay in a hotel on the beach, where there are several clubs, bars, and restaurants. Fortunately, Brittany’s dad’s friend owned the hotel and we were able to stay there at a very low rate.

That first night, though, we stayed at Brittany’s parents’ house and after dinner, Brittany’s mom drove the three of us down the mountain and we went to a bar, I believe called the Lava Bar or Lava Club or something like that. It’s a low key, open air bar about a minute walk from the beach. There, we sat on a couch and met two of Brittany’s friends, Ben and Michael. All of us wound up talking and drinking for several hours and at one point Brittany’s dad stopped by. We drove back and got home at some point between 2 and 3 in the morning; there were still a good number of people at the bar energetically talking. So far out of all of the countries I’ve been to, America is the only one where it’s completely atypical for people to stay out extremely late. In Brazil a few times I’ve stayed out until 5 or 6 AM a few times, when I go out to Seoul I normally stay out that late, and it’s definitely the case in Koh Samui.

The next morning we all woke up late and then got ready to go out. That day was Brittany’s 21st birthday and her parents had organized a party for her at a club on the island. We spent the afternoon and evening getting ready for it and left the house around 6 or so. First we dropped off our luggage at the hotel we would be staying at and it was pretty awesome. It was right on the beach, the layout was beautiful and pretty chill, and the room was nice.

After dropping off our luggage at the Seascape Hotel, we headed off to Nikki Beach, the club where Brittany’s party was being held. During the night, we met several friends of Brittany and her parents. Everyone was very interesting, friendly, and charismatic and many of them had been living on Koh Samui for awhile, many running businesses on the island. During the party we enjoyed white wine sangrias and several pretty amazing appetizers. It was weird to have so much Western food at my immediate disposal.

Nikki Beach is a completely open air club right on the beach and the view is beautiful. A few times during the party Miranda, Brittany, and I walked down to the beach and we noticed that there was a floating dock near the club. The waves pushed it up and down as it floated and we decided that the best possible idea was to run up it, while the waves were pushing beneath it. After almost falling a few times, we returned to the party where Brittany’s parents each gave quite lovely speeches on behalf of their daughter’s 21st birthday and right as Brittany’s dad said that he loved her, the fireworks he ordered went off in the distance. The timing on that one was pretty spectacular.

After everyone finished their sangrias and finger food, Miranda, Brittany, and I and a few of Brittany’s family’s friends headed over to a few clubs on the island. We went to a few bars and dance clubs, had a great time, and stayed out until around 3 or 4, after being thoroughly exhausted. We went back to the hotel. Miranda and I went out to the beach the hotel was in and stood and walked around in the water and decided that the best possible idea was to sit towards the shore and let the waves crash on us. The beach was well lit, but completely empty and the sky was incredibly clear. I never realize that I can’t see the stars in Incheon until I leave the city and go to either the Korean country side or to a beautiful tropical island that doesn’t have any high rises. It was a beautiful night and we sat on the shore for about a half hour before going in.

The next morning we woke up late, then spent a good portion of the rest of the day sitting on the beach, walking up and down it, and swimming with the goggles that Brittany brought along with her. After that, we showered and got dinner. I ordered Thai noodles, which was a pretty common trend during my time in Thailand, and they were delicious. After dinner we saw Avatar and at around 1AM we went back to the hotel and pretty much just went to sleep.

The next morning (Wednesday) we woke up, got breakfast at a place down the street from the hotel, and took a taxi over to a rum distillery on the island that’s run by a Thai woman and her French husband. We spent about a little under an hour there; we got to see sugar cane being crushed and to eat sugar cane, and we got to try some of the (delicious) rum that was made there.

Afterwards, we took the taxi over to a nearby butterfly garden, where we met up with Brittany’s friends Michael and Rosie. We spent about an hour wandering around. The garden is on a mountain and throughout it there were several viewing points, a few where we could see the ocean and beaches.

From there, the five of us went over to the waterfalls nearby and walked around the area. In order to get to one of the waterfalls, we had to walk on across rocks in a stream. Fortunately, Rosie was as clumsy as I am and was just as nervous about falling, so we had a nice time together carefully manipulating our way across the rocks. We were passed by children and tourists in their 50s who were completely comfortable going across the wet rocks. It was a bit embarassing/hilarious. When we finally got to the waterfall, Miranda and Brittany had been swimming in the area that it fell into for awhile and I took off my sandals and jewelry and jumped in. Fortunately, I’m not as afraid of swimming and water as I am of walking on wet rocks. The basin was about 9 or 10 feet deep and we had fun swimming around in and diving in it. Afterwards, we walked back and went over to Rosie’s apartment where she loaned Miranda, Brittany, and I dry clothing as she lived very close to the waterfalls and the three of us lived a far distance.

All of us then went over and got dinner at a nearby restaurant. Thai food is amazing, I spent my whole week in Thailand eating vegetable pad Thai. We walked over to a DVD bootlegger (there are MANY in Thailand) and we each bought a few DVDs and then Michael and Rosie went back to their apartments.

We got back to the hotel and while Brittany worked on her online course, Miranda and I did some shopping in the area and I picked up a few things for my co-teachers back in Korea. We went to a bar and I was so excited when I saw that they had caipirinhas on their menu. Caipirinhas are a Brazilian drink that I’ve only been able to find in Brazil involving sugar cane rum (cachaça) limes, sugar, and ice. After finishing our drinks, we headed back to the hotel and chilled out a bit before bed.

The next morning (Thursday) we woke up and spent the day on the beach. I had borrowed one of Brittany’s books, The Alchemist, before leaving her house on Sunday and I finished it. The three of us got coconuts from beach vendors. I love coconut milk and eating a fresh coconut. We swam around a bit, attempted to construct the Pyramids of Giza out of sand. After leaving the beach we got dinner then played cards at an outside bar before heading over to a Cabaret Show. Cabaret shows in Thailand are essentially drag shows featuring drag queens and post-op women. It was pretty entertaining and some of the women have had amazing work done.

The next day (Friday) Brittany’s mom took us over to the Jungle Club. It’s a place where you can get lunch, dinner, and drinks and it’s literally in the jungle. Getting there involves a long drive up a steep mountain and it’s probably at least preferable to have 4-wheel drive. The view from the club is beautiful and you can see a good portion of the island from it. We sat there, ate a bit, played cards and then went with Brittany’s dad back to their house and got ready to go out. We went over to a rooftop party that Brittany’s parents’ friends were hosting and met up with a few of their friends who had family visiting from Ireland. We all talked for awhile and they were pretty interesting and had traveled a bit. The woman from Ireland said that she had spent awhile with her husband in New Zealand and told me that if I ever go, to spend at least a month there.

After leaving the party we went over to an Irish pub that another friend of theirs ran and got to see a pretty good live show. We walked over to the Lava Club and stayed there talking for a few hours before returning home.

The next day, Saturday, was my last day in Koh Samui. I was set to leave on Sunday at 6:00AM. So after waking up we went to the beach for my last time then got ready to go out to the nearby clubs that we had gone to the second night for Brittany’s birthday. After dinner we took a nap until around 10PM when we headed out. I dropped my luggage off at the front desk and we stayed out, going to a few local clubs and then winding up at a bar near the beach around 2AM and stayed there for a bit. We played cards, the woman working there gave us jenga to play with and a few other games. At 4AM we walked back along the beach so that I could get back to the hotel at 4:30 for my car to the airport. The walk was beautiful as the beach was once again almost completely empty and it was great to see the stars and breathe the fresh air.

Bangkok

I got there in time for my car and then I got to the airport a little before 5, checked in and I slept on the plane. The ride was only an hour and as I’d gotten no sleep the night before, I fell asleep at the Bangkok baggage claim and fortunately a woman was nice enough to wake me about 20 minutes into the baggage being on the carousel.

From Sunday morning until I got back to my apartment on Thursday evening, I was traveling alone. Miranda’s vacation was much longer than mine, so she stayed in Koh Samui with Brittany. I had a wonderful time with Brittany and Miranda and missed them when I left, but it was nice to get out on my own. Traveling alone has it’s benefits and drawbacks. When you’re alone you can do exactly what you want to do and generally a lot quicker, however at the same time there’s no one to share your experiences with and in general I think you just feel safer if you have another person with you. I wasn’t unsafe at any point in my trip, but there is a certain feeling of security that comes from traveling with another person.

After getting my baggage and brushing my hair, I took a taxi to my hostel in Bangkok. During the ride I got to see the city and it’s incredibly different from Koh Samui. Koh Samui is a small, tropical island whose economy is almost entirely based on tourism, while Bangkok is an incredibly busy city with a long history and lots of culture.

After arriving in the hostel, I checked in, but I had to wait until the maid would be done with my room at around noon. I wound up talking with these two German girls who had just arrived in Thailand from Germany, who were also waiting for their room to be ready. One of the girls was also a teacher and asked me about my job in Korea. After meeting them, my room was ready. I got in, showered, and took a nap.

Then, I got lunch and walked around the area. I was very close to Khao Sad Road, a place that my friend Lauren who had gone a few weeks earlier referred to as “backpacker haven.” There were lots of people selling t-shirts, jewelry, and food,  primarily to tourists. I walked around a bit, ran into a few friends from my orientation, then I walked over to a Buddhist temple in the area. It was absolutely beautiful and it was cool to see so many people worshipping there. I got back to my hostel, got dinner from a street vendor selling vegetable pad thai and went back to the hostel. At the front desk there was a tourist agency and I asked them if there were any shows I could go to. They said that there was a cabaret show going on later that evening at a nearby hotel and I could take a taxi there for pretty cheap. I purchased a ticket and got ready to go to what turned out to be an absolutely amazing show. As with the show in Koh Samui, all of the dancers were men, drag queens, or post-op women and along with being pretty spectacular dancers, they put on a great show. They featured music from different time periods, from America, Europe, Latin America, Japan, Thailand, and a pop song and a traditional song from Korea. Some dances were funny and some were dark and they were all intended to mess with your conception of gender. I loved it.

After that I went to sleep then the next morning I woke up to explore more of Bangkok. I made arrangements with the front desk to go on a canal tour a friend of mine had recommended, then I got breakfast and walked over in the direction of the Grand Palace. On the way there, a Thai man with great English approached me, told me he worked in tourism and asked me where I was going. I told him and he told me that it was closed in the morning for a Buddhist holiday. I wasn’t sure if I trusted that, so I kept on walking. At one point, I thought I had made a wrong turn so I turned around. Another man who I think was working on a construction site approached me. He also spoke great English and asked where I was going. I told him and he also told me that it was closed in the morning for a Buddhist holiday. He continued telling me that because of this holiday, the Tuk Tuk drivers received free gas vouchers and that I could get driven to a few sites around the area for 10 baht (33 baht = 1 US dollar). Tuk Tuk drivers drive these vehicles that are essentially motorized chariots and this man speaking with me happened to be friends with a nearby tuk tuk driver.

I later found out that both men were probably lying to me about the Grand Palace being closed as that’s a common practice in that area, but nonetheless, I’m really happy with my decision to go with the tuk tuk driver. I spent the next 3 hours talking with my driver as he drove me to a few various sites. He was 17 years old, his parents lived in Cheng Mai, North of Bangkok, and he had moved to Bangkok with his older sister a few years before. His sister was 20 and had gotten married and pregnant around age 18, which he told me was common in Thailand. He told me he was in his last year of high school and that he only went for 2 hours a day because that’s how long public school went and he couldn’t afford to go longer. He told me a bit about how he was really poor and that Thailand is stratified along the lines of class, as his wealthier peers are often not friends with him because he is a tuk tuk driver. He also told me that he wanted to work in the tourism industry and that he would particularly like to be a steward on a plane, but he said he doubted that that would ever happen because he can’t afford any of the training for it.

During my time with him, he took me to a Buddhist temple, called the standing Buddha and in Thai is called Luang Pho To and it was a huge golden Buddha temple that is 32 meters tall and 11 meters wide. It’s quite impressive and it’s in an open temple with several other statues, though none as intimidating and awe inspiring as Luang Pho To.

Afterwards, my driver took me over to a Buddhist monastary that was about 5 stories high (I could walk through the first three) and was huge. There was a lot of art of the wall, the architecture was beautiful and the halls and the roof had some amazing sculptures. My driver walked me over to the nearby Emerald Buddha, which is another beautiful Buddhist shrine.

Part of the reason why I was able to get a very cheap tuk tuk drive was because if the driver took me over to a Thai fashion expo and to another expo and that I just had to stay for about 10 minutes at each and pretend that I might buy something. I didn’t at either, but the driver got a free gas card at both and I wound up getting a free trip as all I had were 20 baht bills, he couldn’t break it, and he wouldn’t accept the 20 bahts. I really hope that the gas cards more than made up for that.

At about 1PM I returned to my hostel and I was picked up to go on a canal tour. I was by far the youngest person in my tour group, but I’m okay with that. We arrived at the pier and got on a boat and went through several of the canals on Bangkok. Many poor people live along the canals and in the tour we learned about the history of the canals, how they were traditionally used, as well as how they are used today. Today they are used for swimming, washing, and bathing and I doubt that they are sanitary for any of that, but I doubt that the people living there have much of an option. We were told that the government is now in the process of putting walls on the houses on the canals, as during the rainy season they get flooded. We saw a lot of the wild life and several temples and a few churches built along the canal. It was a very interesting trip and I’m very happy I got to go.

I got back to the hostel around 5 or so and while asking me how my tour was, the woman working at the tourism booth commented on the fact that I looked tired. That night I got dinner and walked around the area a bit more, seeing a night work out class in the park, what was probably an old fort and walked through a nearby park and then went back to the hostel to sleep as I had to wake up at 4AM the next morning to catch my 8AM flight. At 5 the next morning I took a taxi to the airport to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong around 10AM or so and I was able to take an airport shuttle over to my hotel. While the building I was staying in was technically a hotel, I was staying on a floor that had dormitories, so it was much cheaper and a similar experience to staying in a hostel.

On the shuttle ride over I wound up talking with this woman who was in her 50s or 60s. The ride was about 45 minutes and in that time she told me that her son had been an English teacher in Thailand years ago and since then he had not lived stateside. He married a Thai woman and got into the IT industry and now he lives in the UAE. She was able to travel to wherever he has lived and usually uses those trips to travel to other places as well. She was coming back from visiting him, and then made a 5 week stop in Cambodia to volunteer at an English school, and now was going to spend 3 days in Hong Kong before leaving. She also told me about the Hong Kong cultural center that was across from where we were staying (she was staying in the hotel part of the building.)

We arrived there and parted ways, but after I put my stuff away in the room, I walked around. I was staying about a 5 minute walk from the harbor, which is so impressive with a great view, and then I headed over to the cultural center. There was a showing of the 2010 graduating class from a nearby art school and I’m really happy and fortunate that I got to see it. There were 15+ very talented, yet very diverse, painters featured and it was cool to see modern Hong Kong/Chinese art for free and a lot of it was quite fantastic. Right next door was the Hong Kong Museum of Art which cost the equivalent of about $2.00 to enter. I spent 2 hours going through the three floors of the building. The first floor had Chinese art that dated back as far as the 13th century and it was on scrolls. I spent time looking at each piece and they were just awe-inspiring (I’m using a lot of strong adjectives in this blog). The next floor were several ceramics and statues, some of these dating back to the 200s. The top floor was modern Chinese art and it was cool, because it was in the same style as the scrolls from the first floor, but it was clearly influenced by outside styles as well. After being there until the museum closed, I walked across the street to grab another jacket as, while Hong Kong is much warmer than Korea, it is decidedly colder than Thailand and the whole time I was there, fluctuated between 50 and 60 degrees fahrenheit.

I headed over to a Chinese restaurant that the concierge recommended. I wound up going there two more times and each time it was cool being the only Westerner. The food in Hong Kong was pretty good and had several vegetarian options. I had to eat that meal quickly as shortly after there would be a light show on the harbor. The harbor in Hong Kong has the world’s largest permanent light show and lights are shown from all sides of the harbor. I took the ferry across the harbor and back again and I got to see a lot of the show.

On my way back to the hotel, I walked around a bit, I think I saw a photo shoot going on, and then went back. I told the concierge that I was only going to be in Hong Kong for 1 whole day, and asked him what he recommended doing. He then gave me a pamphlet with several descriptions of sites on it, as well as a map, and told me to look through it and to pick out a few places and then he’d help me figure out how to get to those places. After doing that, I went back to my hotel room, which that night I had to myself, and mapped out the next day.

I’m such a geek; I spent a good portion of the next day going to temples and museums and I had a really good time doing that. The first thing I did was go to Man Mo Temple. I purchased a Hong Kong metro card, known as an Octopus Card, and took the subway over to Hong Kong Island. In the station I met a British man who said I looked lost and told me that he’d show me how to get to the temple. He had backpacked for several years and told me that he had lived in Hong Kong for 19 years because he had met a woman here and just stayed. On the way, he told me about his travels through India, the Philippines, Cambodia (during the part of the Vietnam War that spilled over into Cambodia), and throughout Asia and then showed me how to get to the temple.

Much of Hong Kong is on a steep hill, so in order to deal with this, they have built a huge, outdoor public escalator that people can take up. I took the escalator up and got off about a 10 minute walk from the temple. I missed it the first time around because from the outside it doesn’t appear to be very big. I went inside and there’s so much to see. Many many people were there worshipping, holding and shaking incense in front of the various statues. The sculptures, designs, and art work was amazing and vaguely reminded me of a very old and traditional Catholic Church, that’s the closest thing I could compare it to.

After Man Mo, I hopped back on the escalator and took it up to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum. The museum is basically the story of China’s fight to be a republic in the early 20th century at the end of the Qing Dynasty, through one of the movement’s leaders, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. The museum showed several artifacts, articles, and official documents on the fight and they all tell the life story of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen as well as about the revolution that never quite worked.

From there I walked down to the subway station and took it to Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, a temple which according to my tourist pamphlet is a Buddhist, Taoist,and Confucianist temple. There are several temples on the premises, along with a huge, beautiful garden and pond. I was there for a little over an hour, and like in Man Mo, many people had come there to worship.

Afterwards, I got back on the subway to take it to my stop and get off at the Hong Kong Museum of History. I started talking to this old man from Hong Kong on the subway. He had lived in Hong Kong for most of his life, but had lived on mainland China in Shanghai for 12 years where he owns a factory that makes parts for airplanes. We spoke for awhile and he insisted on showing me exactly how to get to the museum as he felt that the Hong Kong government didn’t make the way clear for foreigners. He showed me how to get there and we spoke along the way, then when I got there I found out that on Wednesdays the museum was free.

I spent about 4 hours going through the museum’s 4 parts: the ancient geologic history of Hong Kong, the prehistory of Hong Kong and China as a whole, the ancient history up until the end of the Qing Dynasty, and finally modern history and Hong Kong folk culture. Every part was interesting and in a different way told about how Hong Kong was formed, physically, socially, and culturally. The exhibits were amazing and impressive in the museum and at the end I saw a movie on Hong Kong culture. While waiting for it to start, I wound up talking to another British man (it’s almost as though they’re reinvading China via tourism) who had stopped in Hong Kong on a layover to Australia. We spoke for a bit and I brought up that I was amazed how cheap all of the museums I had been to were so far because they are highly subsidized by the government, and he suggested that that was probably because the government wants to establish a Chinese identity separate from imperialism. This is likely at least partially true.

Afterwards I ate Lo Mein for dinner and it was relatively close to the type in America, just much lower in sodium, and then I headed back to the hotel for a bit to look over a few things. I arrived there a little before 7 and in the 11 hours I had been gone, a college class that was spending a month of winter break in China to study Chinese business culture had checked in and I now had 3 roommates. They were around age 20 and they were all very nice and friendly and asked my advice on a few things. They were in the last few days of their trip and after leaving Hong Kong would be back to Washington state.

A little while later they left for dinner and a little before 8 I headed to the harbor to see the light show again. I rode the ferry and it is just such a great show. I’m really happy I got to see it twice. Towards the end of the light show I went over to an area with several benches and I wound up talking to yet another travler. He was from Germany and he was a computer science professor on sabbatical. He was also well traveled and we talked a bit about his job and where we’ve both been to. He had just come from visiting Washington, DC and he told me that if I ever visit Europe, I need to be there for at least a month or so.

It was getting late and chilly, so I parted ways with the German computer scientist and back to my hotel.

The next morning I woke up at 7:45AM. One of the main attractions of Hong Kong is known as The Peak. for relatively cheap, you can take a tram up to a mountain in Hong Kong that is supposed to have a spectacular view. Unfortunately, most people who I’ve met who have gone to Hong Kong either couldn’t do it, or did it and couldn’t see anything, because it was so cloudy. I woke up early with the hope of being able to go to the Peak because the rest of the time I was in Hong Kong it was cloudy, but unfortunately my last day, Thursday, was no exception. I guess it worked out, because I’d planned on getting a breakfast-to-go from 7-11 (there are many in Hong Kong, as well as Pizza Huts and MacDonalds), but because I wasn’t going to the Peak, I went back to the restaurant Hing Fat for breakfast. It was very crowded there and I guess it’s not out of the ordinary to seat two people together in a booth, even if they’re not there together. I was seated with a 30 year old woman whose English name was Ann. We talked all through breakfast and she told me a bit about her life in Hong Kong, that she works as an accountant for people from India so she has to use English, and that she has family who live in the United States. She recommended that I order Congee, a rice porridge that is also served in Korea, and a little before I finished she had to go to work. I gave her my e-mail and she told me that she would e-mail me the recipe for Congee and that I should e-mail her if I ever come back to Hong Kong.

After breakfast I walked over to Kowloon Park, a large park in Hong Kong. It turned out that the park had an aviary with flamingos and a few other awesome birds. There were several older people practicing Tai Chi in the park, which was really cool to watch, and a few people there to work out. The view was pretty cool and I was able to walk across a foot bridge over the highway to another side of the harbor that I hadn’t seen.

Around 11 I got back to my hotel, checked out and took the shuttle over to the airport. What was cool was the shuttle went to the nearby airport subway station. At this subway station, I could check in my bags and get my boarding ticket, and then take the subway over to the airport.

My plane left around 2:30 and it was so strange to hear Korean again. While I by no means know it, I can pick out a few words. During my trip I started to miss Korea a bit, and even though it’s really cold here and once again I have to wear tights underneath my jeans to tolerate the walk to work, I’m happy to be back.

Sorry that this is so long and detailed; I think this is more for myself than anyone else, for when I’m looking back on my trip. If anyone actually made it through this, kudos and thanks for reading!

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A Korean Kristmas

December 28, 2009 at 10:52 pm (Uncategorized)
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Every year since I was young, Christmas carols, Christmas advertisements, and Christmas decorations have inundated my senses starting in early October.  Every year, the Christmas specials have started earlier and earlier, to the point where “Christmas in July” overlaps with the Christmas pregaming that starts right when people start buying their Halloween costumes. Last year the national news channels spoke of the glory of buying Christmas presents to revitalize the economy. Later in the hour the same channels had news pieces on how in the quest for this glory, multiple people were trampled to death on Black Friday when the Walmart opened. This Christmas was quite different. People spend November running around, trying to buy presents and there’s always the pressure of buying everyone gifts that you can afford, getting them on time and then wrapping them. Every Christmas for several years I’ve woken up at home, opened up presents with my family, had pancakes, then gone over to the Zeminas for lunch for a few hours.

The department stores had Christmas decorations in Korea; but these decorations usually included several snowflakes and maybe some reindeer and Santas. I didn’t hear many Christmas carols or watch any Christmas movies, outside of The Muppet Christmas Carol. I did buy presents for my parents and for the handful of friends I spent Christmas with, but really I didn’t think much about Christmas until a week or two before. Usually that’s not an option.

Christmas is celebrated here, but there is no massive Christmas industry like there is in the United States that puts up billboards that say: “Only 246 Shopping Days Until X-Mas!” Less than half of all Koreans are Christian, but like it is in the United States, Christmas is very secularized and is celebrated by nonChristians. However, children in Korea don’t get 300,000,000 gifts and around 5th or 6th grade, the number of presents that they receive greatly diminishes.

About a month or two before Christmas my friend from orientation asked me what I was doing for Christmas. She is teaching English in a small town in Korea and wanted to go to Seoul for Christmas. I told her I’d go with her. Over time, she found four more people to join us in Seoul. We made plans to meet up on Christmas Eve and leave Seoul the day after Christmas.

At around 5:00PM on Christmas Eve, four of us met up in Itaewon, a district in Seoul that is popular among foreigners and is where a US military base is located. We walked down the road to where a cheap motel was and the four of us shared a room that wasn’t much bigger than the king sized bed that was in it. After dropping our stuff off there, we went to a Korean basketball game. The team I randomly chose to root for did win. It apparently was not the home team, so I did get a few dirty looks from the people in front of me whenever I cheered. Afterwards we got drinks at a bar in Itaewon, which was interesting. We met several drunk servicemen out on the town. When I’ve been out in Seoul, I usually go to Hongdae, another district that has several foreign bars and restaurants. The difference between Itaewon and Hongdae is that GIs are not welcome in any bar or club in Hongdae due to past events (what those events are, are unspecified.) Servicepeople sometimes go to Hongdae and as long as they don’t start any fights or have anything on that reflects that they’re in the military, they’re fine. But usually, there are very few if any service people in Hongdae. There definitely is a difference between Itaewon and Hongdae because of that. Most service people didn’t choose to be in Korea, they were stationed here. Some like it and some don’t, and that in itself makes a difference as most other foreigners in Korea, either teachers, white collar workers, or tourists, have chosen to come to Korea. Also, there are far more men in these bars than women. Some of the GIs I met on Christmas Eve were really cool and down to earth, others were loud, outspoken, and very very drunk.

We left the bar in Itaewon around 2:30AM (early for a night in Seoul) and returned to the hotel room and slept for the night in extremely cramped quarters, but we were all exhausted and we all slept well nonetheless.

The next day we all woke up around 10:00AM on Christmas morning and left the motel room by 11:30 after everyone had showered and packed. We ate lunch at a delicious Dubaian restaurant and had a traditional Arabic Christmas lunch. Afterwards we checked in at the hotel we were staying at that night and met up with one more of Miranda’s friends. We walked around Seoul a bit, but it was freezing, so then we went to a huge, overcrowded mall, walked around for a bit, and found a place for dinner. We were considering going ice skating, but it started raining and we decided it wasn’t a good idea. We wound up stopping in a bookstore, and I talked with one of Miranda’s friends, Samantha, for over an hour about books and what we studied in college (history and anthropology.) Overall, it was a nice afternoon.

We ate at a Mexican Restaurant, met up with another one of Miranda’s friends, went back to the hotel and planned on going out, and we tried going out. We wound up trying multiple bars in the area, but our hotel was in a professional district as most people who stay there are in Seoul for business or with their families, and there aren’t very many places that cater to young foreigners. Also, it was Christmas night and the bars we did find were completely empty. So we wound up going back to the hotel room, playing card games and talking until we passed out one-by-one.

The day after Christmas we all parted ways, three of Miranda’s friends taking the bus immediately back home and Miranda, Samantha and I staying in Seoul so Miranda could pick up some supplies for her winter camp classes. We grabbed coffee from a small shop in Itaewon that was on the second floor of a building and sat by the window, talking and drinking coffee for a few hours, just enjoying relaxing. Once the coffee was all drunk, Miranda took the bus home and Samantha went back with me. The next day she was going to India and I live only 30 minutes from the International Airport, so she stayed over at my apartment and the next morning caught a bus to take her to the airport and she is now in India, enjoying the warm weather.

I’m a bit jealous of Samantha, but in about 2 1/2 weeks, I’ll be in Thailand with Miranda on the beach.

This Christmas and Christmas season was incredibly different from any other one I’ve had, but it was so much nice. It was relatively low-key, I met four really cool people, and had fun with Miranda. I’d say it was a pretty great Christmas.

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Decontextualizing

December 23, 2009 at 9:30 pm (Uncategorized)

A friend of mine commented that teaching English in South Korea is like college, but everyone has money. That’s probably one of the most appropriate descriptions I’ve ever heard, I’d only add that virtually no one has homework, tests, or any work outside of the classes he or she teaches, unless he or she is taking a Korean language class.

Being a foreign teacher in South Korea is often living without context. Most foreign teachers are relatively disconnected from their lives back home. I have not heard anything about Angelina Jolie or John & Kate since I’ve been in Korea. I’ve also barely heard about Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, the healthcare bill, the wars, the Republicans, the Democrats, etc. Yes, because of the Internet I do have access to a lot of this information and sometimes I will hear or read about it online. However in America, there would be this constant white noise surrounding me, screaming about Angelina, Barack, healthcare, Afghanistan, the Nobel Prize, immigration, and every other subject.

At the same time, I have limited access to Korean culture due to language and cultural barriers. I’ll hear about Korean pop stars from my co-workers and students, and their music is usually constantly playing in public places, but I don’t know too much about it and I can usually just tune it out. I don’t know much about Korean politics either.

This lack of a cultural context isn’t just true for me, but for most foreign teachers. There’s a separate culture of foreign teachers. Foreigners tend to seek each other out, especially in cities where there aren’t very many, and become friends relatively quickly, and this forms a separate culture. We’re all across the world from our friends, families, and our lives, we’re all from Western (or Westernized) cultures, we’re generally all in our twenties, we’re all college graduates, we all have a disposible income, we’re mostly all single (but those who are married usually don’t have kids), and we are all in Korea for only a limited amount of time (except for the rare case where a foreigner marries a Korean, learns Korean, and stays for quite some time.)

We’re living without a strong context in the midst of a culture and society with a 5,000 year history.

I’m still muddling over this idea of living with a very limited cultural context. I will say that for the time being it’s very refreshing to be away from the white noise.

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Falling Fourth Graders and Middle Fingers

December 15, 2009 at 10:27 pm (Uncategorized)
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Fourth graders are kind of awesome. Right now my students are in that all-too-brief stage where they are picking up on cultural nuances, but they’re not yet “too cool” to be energetic and funny in class. When I started teaching about 2-3 months ago, the 5th graders were over eager to answer all of my questions, now they’re entering the “too cool” stage and the 4th graders are taking their place. The fourth graders are now begging to be called on to present an English dialogue or to answer a question.

Today they had to watch a skit, practice the dialogue and then perform it in pairs. The skit reminded me of a Loony Toons skit that was probably originally from the 1960s, but I remember watching it when I was little in the early 1990s. Porky Pig was a hardworking farmer and some slack jawed, banjo playing dog was a neighboring farmer. Porky Pig worked all Spring and Summer to have food for the Winter while his slack jawed neighbor played the banjo and enjoyed the warm weather. During the Winter, the banjo player knocked on the door of the very well-supplied Porky asking for food. He obliged and the general moral of the story is love your neighbor, even if he’s an idiot. The skit we watched today was similar, except Porky Pig was replaced with an ant, his neighbor with a grasshopper and the banjo with a violin.

After the kids saw the skit, answered questions about it and practiced saying the lines, they had to rehearse it and present it to the class. In the first part of the skit, the ant falls to the ground under the weight of the grape that he’s carrying and in the second part, the grasshopper falls out of hunger. When the kids performed it, more than half of them fell to the ground. And by fell, I mean fell flat on their faces, basically doing a belly flop onto the floor. It was pretty awesome. They got creative with their falls and sometimes the kid playing the grasshopper would do a long, antagonized fall while moaning in pain or sometimes it was a quick, yet still dramatic, fall. The kid playing the ant would sometimes pretend to be holding a giant, boulder sized grape on his or her back and other times, he or she would act as though he or she tripped. Some kids even made props (fake tears that the grasshopper would put under his eyes while begging for food.) Almost every kid in the three classes I’ve worked with so far begged to be selected to present and were thrilled when they were finally called on.

At the same time these over anxious, eager-to-please masters of physical comedy are not completely innocent or naive to modern culture. I think that recently in Korea there was some famous comedy skit involving the middle finger as all week I’ve caught kids giving the middle finger and had to tell them that they can’t do that. One of the lines in the ant and grasshopper skit is “This is for you,” and is spoken by the ant when he gives the starving grasshopper some food. One of the last times the skit was presented today, the boy playing the ant (with his back turned away from Sophy, my coteacher) gave the kid playing grasshopper the middle finger while saying that line. I told him that he couldn’t do that… after I’d already laughed. Honestly, I was impressed. He didn’t just randomly give the kid the finger, but he did it at the context-appropriate part in a skit written in his second language.

I never lead any of the 4th grade classes, my co-teacher, Sophy does and I help out; I lead the 5th and 6th grade classes once a week. I think this is largely because the 4th graders need more to be translated into Korean than the older students. Because of this, the 4th graders do see me as their teacher, but not as much of a serious authoritative figure as Sophy. It doesn’t help that I’m much younger than Sophy and that I started working here more than halfway into their school year. This can cause minor problems, but generally it jst amuses me. They think that they can get away with more with me than with Sophy, so I get to see more, like an 8 year old giving another 8 year old the middle finger.

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English Teachers and Chocolate Bribes

December 1, 2009 at 2:04 am (Uncategorized)
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Things have been going well in Korea. This past weekend a friend of mine, who is also a teacher here from America had a slumber party at her apartment. There were a total of nine of us and we went out to dinner and then back to her apartment for snacks, drinks and watching Twilight, a movie that I don’t think I actually planned on watching ever, but it was alright. It just was nice to be surrounded by so many amazing people and be able to spend so much time with them.

I’ve met so many great people here. Generally speaking, the people who become teachers in Korea are people who are curious about other cultures, like adventure and being forced out of their comfort zones, and are really interesting people. I have friends from all over the English-speaking world and it’s so interesting to be with them in a country in which we’re all complete foreigners. Inevitably my friends and I compare Korea to our homse of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Dublin, New Zealand, York England, Florida, Atlanta, Nova Scotia, Seattle, New Foundland, Ontario, British Columbia, Indiana, New Hampshire, Australia, etc. All of our comparisons are at least a little different and it’s interesting to see how it all plays out. It’s nice to be here with people who understand that Korea isn’t better or worse than anyone’s home country, it’s just different. Of course at times people feel disenchanted or homesick, but I’m really happy with the number of people I’ve met who want to experience Korea and have made a great effort to come here and do so.

My classes are going well and so far, 5 students have been able to name all 4 Beatles – I’m impressed.  I have four classes tomorrow and five on Thursday, then I’m done for the week. On Friday I’ll still have to come into work, but I won’t have classes because all day the students will be taking a test. This week, and next week I believe, are testing weeks in South Korea and this test is the last standardized test before the semester ends. Testing in Korea is much more serious than testing in the United States. I was talking with my co-teacher, Sophy, about it and I asked her what she thinks of the testing in Korea. Her opinion is that it is a very bad system and that everything becomes about not only passing the test, but having a good rank. All of the students in a school are ranked by their test scores and their rank is made public. The student’s score isn’t what is important, but rather his or her rank. Fortunately, elementary school students aren’t ranked, but they will be starting in middle school.

Only a very small number of my 6th graders want to go to middle school because of the amount of testing and stress they’ll endure. In highschool many students are in school, whether public school or a private after school program from 7am until 11pm. This is largely because of the premium put on testing as the students are studying for their college entrance exam that they’ll take at the end of senior year.

Along with not looking forward to middle school, a lot of my 6th graders are “too cool” to participate. So, I’ve decided to start bribing them. Sophy bought me three large bags of tiny chocolate candies and whenever a student “volunteered” I’d give them a piece of chocolate. Only twice have I have volunteers in the 6th grade to answer questions or read something aloud; usually I have to call on students. These ridiculously cheap, mediocre quality, tiny pieces of chocolate have really made my classes a lot better and now some students are competing over who gets to answer my questions. It’s still mainly the more talkative students, but I figure after a few weeks, maybe more will get more confidence. That, or someone will get sick from a chocolate allergy. One or the other.

Between work and social-ness, things are going pretty well. I have another two and a half hours before I can leave work and meet up with my friend Jin for dinner. I’ve finished all of my lesson plans for the week, so I’ll probably just sit at my desk, listening to music and the Korean student behind me getting who’s getting tutored, practicing the phrases, “How was your vacation?,” and “sounds good.”

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Yesterday and Today

November 26, 2009 at 2:49 am (Uncategorized)
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Last Friday I finished my last class of the week. Every week I have the 4th and 5th graders Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the 6th graders on Thursdays and Fridays, so at 1:40 I was done with my last 6th grade class on Friday. The lesson I used was so boring, my co-teacher and myself got bored teaching it. I didn’t realize how much better behaved the kids were than American children until then; the last time I was in the 6th grade classroom was when I was 11, hence I don’t have a very good memory of the experience. But I do remember that if my class had been subjected to a lesson that boring, there would’ve been a rebellion ending with trips to the principal’s office, detentions and probably at least a little blood shed. My students just quietly put up with it.

I didn’t make the lesson plan completely. I have to use a lesson book provided for me by the school and while I can make alterations to each lesson, I still need to teach the same material and I do need to use certain parts of each lesson in the class. While this makes my job a lot easier, it also makes the classes more boring. Last week for the 6th graders they had to listen to, repeat and perform a dialogue that was essentially a botched up scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. These dialogues which are featured in every lesson for every grade I teach are often botched versions of classic American, Korean and European tales. Tom Sawyer has now been ruined for me. Last week’s lesson involved multiple dialogues which involved the students repeating after me, acting like little parrots. I hated it, my co-teacher hated it and my students hated it, while quietly following my commands.

So after that I decided to make the lessons more bearable for everyone involved. I altered my 5th grade lesson for this week to include the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles. They learned the word yesterday last week and they’re going over the past tense. Some students enjoyed it, others did not. After we listened to the song and read the lyrics back to them, I asked them the songs name and they easily responded. Then I asked them, “who wrote the song?” I had written the song’s name and author on the lyric sheet I’d passed out to them and it was funny hearing them trying to sound out “McCartney.” After that I decided to have more fun and tell them that if anyone can name all four Beatles by next week, they’ll get a prize. I doubt that many will be able to do this. My students aren’t dumb at all, they’re quite smart, but firstly, most of them don’t care and many others will forget. Those who will care enough to try have to be able to find the names, without speaking or understanding much English and then be able to pronounce them.

I’m justifying this assignment by telling myself that all four Beatles had names that are very common in most English-speaking countries (I went to high school with at least 5 Ringos) and their last names are both common and relatively easy to pronounce. I just made a powerpoint called “Meet the Beatles,” with a slide for each Beatle with the name written above. I’m going to try to use more English-speaking music and authentic materials in my classes, which is relatively difficult. My students know the present tense (I run), the past tense (I ran) and the present continuous (I am running.) However, most songs and other media written by native English speakers will not be limited to those tenses. I was worried when I made my “Yesterday” lesson when I saw the phrase, “I’m not have the man I used to be.” Not just because of the expression “not half the man” which was fun explaining to my co-teacher, but because of the “used to be” part.

Overall the lesson went well. I couldn’t use all of the materials I’d prepared because I had to shorten it so the students could take an English test. I graded the tests and I was so unbelievably depressed. While there were some perfect scores and some good grades, so many students failed. My co-teacher told me that it’s because of not doing homework, which I’m inclined to believe because of the nature of the test; they were given a word in the present tense and had to put it into the past tense. This is generally something that is best learned through practice and drilling. Some classes did much better than others and many of the students who did well do come in for extra help, but it was depressing to see the number of students who failed and how many received zeros. It’s partially because some students care and some don’t, partially because some are just naturally better than others and partially because some students go to after school English courses and some don’t. There is such a disparatey in levels in all of my classes, it’s ridiculous. There are several 4th graders who are far better at English than some 6th graders. It’s hard to taech to the different levels and to not have the advnced kids be bored and to not have the kids who are far behind get lost, and get even further behind. It’s hard to tell if I’m succeeding at all at this, but I hope I am.

Today I finished my classes and tomorrow I have four 6th grade classes. My two 6th grade classes today went really well. I didn’t incorporate any Beatles or any other pop music, but I made a few powerpoints and we played a few games. The kids were far more involved and engaged than last week and weren’t nearly as bored, and I wasn’t nearly as bored either.

I’m getting a better feel of this whole teaching business and I’m really enjoying it so far. I doubt I could do it forever, but for now it’s a good gig and I’m enjoying it, the students seem to be enjoying it (even if a good portion of them did fail the test.)

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Colder Horizons

November 18, 2009 at 12:29 am (Uncategorized)
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Today, on my walk to work it was 32 degrees, but with the wind chill factor, it was 24. This is warmer than yesterday. Yesterday when I was walking home, my feet were so cold I thought they might freeze to the ground. No bueno. No bueno at all. At this moment I’m wearing nylon stockings, knee high socks, regular socks and shoes and a tank top, two sweaters and when I was outside I had on a winter coat, a scarf and gloves. With these new measures in place, I did not feel as though I was going to die from hypothermia on my way to work.

It’s not just that the walk is cold, but that the school itself is cold. My office is warm, but the windows stay opened in the hallways, or at least they were the last I checked. I asked why and my co-teacher told me “for the fresh air.” I’d rather be warm and stuffy, personally. I had to leave my office for a few minutes in the afternoon on Monday (when I dumbly was just wearing pants and a long sleeved shirt) and I had to run back to my office to grab my coat; it was just too cold.

Fortunately, the heat and hot water in my apartment, and in Korea in general, is amazing. I have heated floors and my apartment stays warm. I don’t have to wait very long for my shower water to get hot, either. I’ve heard that the AC here is equally good during the summer time, I’m excited for this.

I remember when I left Brazil it was technically “winter.” Winter in Florianopolis means that you can’t wear flip flops or go to the beach for a few months and maybe you’ll have to wear a sweater. I tried to explain to the Brazilians that you can’t call it winter until you’re scraping ice and 6 inches of snow off of your car. Here in Korea however, winter is undoubtedly winter.

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String-Free Existence

November 11, 2009 at 10:37 pm (Uncategorized)
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So this week, finally, I’m back to teaching. It had been a week and a half since I had taught the 5th graders and about 2 weeks since I had seen the 6th graders. Many of the students are still wearing SARS masks and yesterday with the 4th graders, I saw several of these masks on the floor. The students will take them off, play with them, drop them on the floor and then forget about them. Once the students remember, they’ll put the mask back on their face. This seems rather counter productive to the purpose of the mask. The day before when I was with the 5th graders, one of my students,who is the poster child for ADHD,took his mask off, wrapped his pen in it and then proceeded to “play” stab another student with it. I felt that I had to remove the mask-clab pen from his hand and the only word that can describe my feelings about holding this germ-infested mask in my hand is “icky.” ADHD kid then proceeded to take the mask and pen back after I put them on the side table and put the mask back on. I really feel that the masks are unnecessary and are probably only helping to spread disease more than preventing disease among the fourth and fifth graders. Also, when I’m teaching English I need the students to speak and it’s hard to hear them, or to tell who’s speaking or who is not, when they’re all wearing those stupid masks.

So far this week my classes have been going really well and I’ve been really enjoying them. While the 6th graders are far less likely to participate and have just entered that “too cool” mode, I think they’re my favorite grade. The behavioral problems that I have with the younger grades, such as fighting in the classroom, running around the classroom, etc, are nonexistant in the 6th grade. I had one 6th grade class today and I’ll have 5 tomorrow.

The hardest part about this grade is working on the lessons. My co-teacher for the 4th & 5th grades, Sophy, has great English and we can communicate really easily and quickly. My co-teacher for the 6th grade does not have good English (this person is an English teacher) and communicating is very difficult. Also, I’ve mimicked my teaching methods after Sophy, and they are very very different from the 6th grade teacher’s. Sophy is younger and uses more interactive methods to teach, making the class slightly more student-centered. The 6th grade teacher’s classes are more teacher-centered; this teacher talks more than the students and the students adopt a more passive role. Also, I feel as though this teacher can be too strict: maintaining order in a classroom is undoubtedly important, but punishing students over something petty or stupid is a waste of everyone’s time and just makes the kids less willing to learn.

Despite this, I feel as though I’m becoming a better teacher and developing my own teaching style. I’m getting more confident and comfortable with the students and with my lessons.

Outside of school things are going well, too. I spent most of last weekend in my own neighborhood for once. On Friday night I was still feeling sick and I met my friend for dinner and went back home around 5. The next night, I met up with a few other girls from my neighborhood for dinner, made a lot of new friends, and then went out for drinks. Or, more correctly, I watched them drink because at that point I was still on medication. That night we made plans to meet up the next day and go shopping in Seoul. We met at 1pm and took the subway into Seoul, to Myeong Dong. There are several Western stores there (Forever 21) and lots of vendors. I picked up some clothing, jackets and a purse. After that, we went to see The Time Traveler’s Wife. I was happy when I heard all three of the girls I went with sobbing towards the end, because my face was pretty tear stained and I would’ve been embarassed if we got out of the movie theaters and I was the only one with red, puffy eyes. It’s a good movie, but they drag out the sad scenes.

Before shopping we got Vietnamese food at a restaurant there and it was absolutely delicious. When I come back to the US it will be weird eating non-Asian food and not having chopsticks readily available. While I couldn’t use chopsticks at all when I got off of the plane a month and a half ago, I’m now pretty awesome at them and prefer to use them. I eat a lot less when I’m using chopsticks and slower. When I get back, I’ll have to get a few pairs and only make chopstick-friendly food.

Today after work I’m meeting my friend Jin for dinner. Afterwards, Casey, my friend in Seoul, is visiting me! She has been in Seoul studying abroad since July and I saw her my second weekend in Korea. She’s always a good time, so I’m excited to see her.

It’s about 11:20 here, and I don’t have any more classes. Yesterday I prepared most of my lessons for next week, so until I find out which 6th grade lesson I have to prepare for, I have nothing I have to do, but I have to stay at my job until 4:40. I don’t have anything I have to (or really can) do. That’s weird. For the past four years I was in college. I usually took challenging courses and I did well in all of them, so I was always working hard. For four years I always had a paper over my head or something I had to get done before the end of the semester. Now, I don’t have anything I have to do after I leave work. I’m working full-time (40 hours a week) but I spent more time every week in classes or doing school work throughout most of college. Comparatively speaking, this is so easy. I’m challenged when I’m in my classes or preparing lessons, but then after I finish that, I have guilt-free free time. It’s very weird and I’m just beginning to comprehend that and enjoy that. And for that reason, I recommend that any of my friends who have their bachelor’s degrees and no strong commitments do what I’m doing for a year. I’m having such a great time and I get to actually fully enjoy it, without being bogged down with a ridiculous amount of work. And the things I do have to do, I can do at a more relaxed pace and the finished product is usually better than it would be if I were overburdened or over-busy. I really like my lesson plans and I really like the person I am when I’m teaching.

I don’t have any strings attaching me to anything. I will one day, but at the moment I’m revelling in my string-free existence.

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Late Nights, Caffeine and Sickness

November 6, 2009 at 1:57 am (Uncategorized)

The last time I updated was when I found out that my school was being closed for H1N1 and it’s really been quite an interesting week since then.

I was originally going to go on a trip to Jiri Sans National Park last weekend. Jiri Sans is a mountain in the South of South Korea and is considered one of the most sacred places in South Korea; there are several Buddhist temples and shrines throughout the mountain. The trip there was being organized by the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS). RAS has several branches throughout Europe and Asia for people interested in Asian culture and studies. It began in England in the 19th century and it no doubt went hand in hand with the then-present  colonization and subjugation of parts of Asia. Anyways, today the society organizes tours and lectures and they have a branch in Korea based out of Seoul. So, last Saturday morning I was supposed to meet up with them at 8am in Seoul and go on a 1 night, 2 day tour of Jiri Sans. Two days before the trip, however, I received a phone call saying that it would be canceled and that I would get my money back. My co-teachers speculated that it was canceled because this weekend was too cold to go hiking. It’s too bad, but the RAS has several trips throughout the year and a lot of them involve hiking, so I’m sure I’ll go with them somewhere in the near future.

The night I found out that it was canceled, I had plans to meet up with a Korean girl, Jin, for dinner. We met through facebook, had e-mailed back and forth and made plans for dinner. Jin lives in Incheon now, but she used to live in Seoul and prefers going out there. We met at a subway station in Incheon and then together took the train to Seoul (it’s less than 1 hour away.) On the way there, we chatted and got to know each other. She’s an English major, so her English is extremely good, and she’s just generally a pleasant and smart person to talk with. We arrived at Seoul and got Padjeon (Korean pancake) for dinner. Aftewards, we walked around Seoul for awhile and stopped at a small, underground bar for a little while before returning home. While we were out, she told me that her and her friends (both Koreans and Westerners) were planning to go out on Halloween, Saturday, and asked if I would like to come. My trip to Jiri Sans got canceled, so I told her that I would.

The next day at school I once again did nothing productive, as there was nothing productive to do. I read a little bit, went on facebook, etc. That night I met up with a bunch of Western and Korean teachers to carve pumpkins. I didn’t bring a pumpkin as I a) wasn’t sure where to get one and b) haven’t carved a pumpkin in years. I arrived at the apartment, among the first to get there, and enjoyed some Korean food that one of the guests brought. Later on as more pumpkin-bearing people came, we carved a few pumpkins. I shared a pumpkin with a Korean teacher. She had never carved a pumpkin before and I don’t think even knew exactly what pumpkin carving entailed before Friday night, however her half came out significantly better than mine.

I didn’t know all of the Western teachers who were there, including one of the hosts, Mary. After talking with Mary and her friend, Jamie, they invited me to go with them and three of there friends to China for winter break. As long as my vacation schedule meshes up with theirs, I’m going to China! I’m definitely excited about this.

After pumpkin carving I went out with a friend of mine to a bar in the area and met a few people. Generally the Westerners in Incheon are friendly. This is at least partially because we’re such a minority that if you don’t like everyone, at the very least you should get along with everyone else. So I met a few people and got home pretty late.

I spent Saturday sleeping in because I knew I would be out really late that night. Jin and I had plans to go to Seoul and the trains from Seoul to Incheon stop at around midnight and don’t start up again until after 6am. In order to save on cab fair, our plan was to just wait it out until 6am. I met up with her at a station in Seoul and even though I had 3 transfers, I only got slightly lost once, but I was quickly able to correct my mistake. We met up, got dinner from a street vendor – tapokee , a type of rice cake cooked in red pepper sauce, and deep friend sweet potatoes – and then went to the club that her friends were at. On the walk there, I ran into 2 of my friends from Incheon who later that night wound up being at the same club. The club had Korean bands who were covering Western rock music and often dressed like the bands they were imitating; this was particularly amusing in the case of the Queen cover band. The club was packed with Westerners and Koreans dressed up in some pretty inventive Halloween costumes. There was a recently murdered Cinderella, a Michael Meyers on stilts and someone who was going for the Korean pop star look, but really looked like Robert Smith. At the club I ran into a few of my foreign friends and the next day on facebook I saw that a few others had posted pictures from that same club.

After we got tired, Jin and I went to a nearby coffee shop. It was a really cozy place where each booth was in its own room pretty much, like rooms on a train. It was private, cozy, lavishly decorated and charged way too much for crappy coffee. But I suppose what you’re really paying for is the atmosphere. We left the coffee place at about 5:30 and went to the train station. Jin and I only had to wait 15 or 20 minutes for our train and the ride back to Incheon was maybe 40 minutes. We parted ways at that station and got on our separate subways to our different areas in Incheon. On mine, I almost fell asleep. I was tempted to set the alarm on my phone so I could fall asleep, even though the subway ride was only 20 minutes and at that point I’d been on it for over 10. I got off of the subway and got out of the train station just in time to catch the bus to my neighborhood, avoiding a 20 minute walk in the cold. I got back to my apartment at 7:30am and fell asleep immediately after changing and lying down.

I woke up at around 2pm and met a friend for dinner that night. I got home at around 11 or so and went to bed a little after. The next day I was able to wake up for work, but by the end of work I was dragging a lot. I’d spent the last week staying out late, running on caffeine. Whenever my body felt tired, instead of stopping or resting, I just got an espresso. Apparently, this is not good for your immune system. By Monday afternoon I was starting to feel sick and Tuesday I went in to work, but after being forced to see the nurse and getting my temperature checked, I was sent home. I had a sore throat, a cough and a mild fever. These are some of the symptoms of the swine flu. The next day I called out sick and then I found out that because I’m a teacher, I had to get tested for the swine flu because I had these symptoms.

My friend Casey was sick when she first got to Korea and had to get tested for it, so I knew what the test involved and did not want it. I’m fine with needles. I’m not fine with an extra long cotton swab being put so far up my nose it touches my brain. The nurse at the hospital did this to both of my nostrils and told me that the results for the simple test would be in within two hours. My co-teacher Sophie had brought me there with her two children, both of which had been previously sick with swine flu, and while waiting for the results we ate lunch at her house. Sophie has 3 children; 2 daughters and 1 son. The son was staying at his grandparents house because both of his sisters had swine flu. The girls are about 13 and 5 and the five-year-old is possibly one of the cutest children I’ve ever seen. She’s energetic, bold, wonderfully narcissistic and knows how to play up the cuteness. Part of me wants to steal this child.

After lunch we went back to the hospital to find out that no, I don’t have the swine flu, just a chest and head cold. The doctor prescribed some medicine for me as well as a decongestant which was ridiculously cheap at the pharmacy. I paid less than $3.00 for it and the swine flu test was $20.00. I really hate to think about what it is in America.

Sophy then dropped me off at home and I changed back into pajamas and crashed. I was told by Sophy that I probably shouldn’t go to work until Monday and at this point it was Wednesday. Thursday I spent the day going in and out of consciousness, taking several extended naps, and today I slept in pretty late. The medicine is helping along with the rest and I should be better soon. Yesterday I made some garlic, honey and lemon tea which helps to relieve congestion.

Overall being sick hasn’t been all that bad, largely because of all the help my Korean co-teachers have given me. I did have to reschedule my trip to Busan, a city in the South of Korea that I was going to go to this weekend, but I’ll get there eventually.

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H1N1 Has Taken Jong Ang

October 28, 2009 at 12:15 am (Uncategorized)
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My school, Jong Ang Elementary School is closed for the next week because 7 students have swine flu. My co-teacher said that the flu is becoming a disaster and that the school has never closed for a reason not holiday-related before.

I still have to come into school, as do all of the other teachers, but the students won’t be here. So it will be a week of sitting at my desk on facebook, messenger or reading a book, or at my co-teacher’s desk watching American movies with Korean subtitles. Last week, we watched the Princess Diaries 1 & 2. I think that this week it’ll be Star Wars and the 1980s version of Fame. I’ll also be spending countless hours helping my fellow teachers with their English. I had my other co-teacher tell the teachers at lunch that if anyone wants to practice English, my services are available. I might as well make an effort to be sociable if I’m locked in my office with the other English teachers all week.

There is the possibility that because of this outbreak I won’t be able to leave the country over winter break. If I can leave however, I definitely am. I have 2 weeks of vacation during this break, and I plan to spend it abroad if possible. I’m thinking I might go to The Philippines or somewhere in Central Asia. I’m going to start looking for a traveling buddy soon and I’ll figure plans out from there. Wish me luck!

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