Moving, Oido, Fukouka, & SongWoon Elementary

I moved out of my Uijeongbu ECC apartment Sunday May 2nd and into Nashly’s old room in Katelyn’s apartment until May 5th. On May 5th I moved out of Nashly’s room and into Katelyn’s living room to accommodate the new South African teacher at ECC. On May 8th I moved to Oido via a very small bongo car provided for me by my recruiter. I was met in Oido by my co-teacher/supervisor, who helped me move my suitcases into my new apartment, find the grocery store, and show me the school.

That afternoon I walked around my neighborhood only to find many Nori Bahngs, PC Bahngs, Galbee restaurants, a pharmacy, a local fruit/vegetable/junk-food market, and many other things. I also took bus 30-2 that stops two streets down from my home to see where it would take me. Unfortunately, you can’t really get anywhere without riding a taxi, bus, or the subway. Nevertheless, I felt as though I had the newbie-in-Korea excitement all over again. A fresh start is exactly what I need! Now, if only I can get rid of my recruiters...hmmm.....

My new Officetel apartment is amazing!! I am on the seventh floor with a huge floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall window, so no more freezing cold nights like in Dong-Ma-Call!! If anything, it might be slightly toasty. My bathroom is huge and has plenty of storage. I have a built in wardrobe, refrigerator, and under-the-stairs storage. Unfortunately, the built-in refrigerator (which is awesome!) doesn’t work, so I have a stand alone one (it is full size though J). I have a window-length bench with storage underneath. Across from my bench, window, and refrigerator is my gas stove, washing machine (underneath my stove), counter, cabinets, and sink. The floor is a plastic-like wooden something or another, which is much better than having wallpapered floors like in the other apartments I’ve been in here. To get an idea, for those of you that have been in my parent’s home, the downstairs is about the size of their office. If you head up some pretty steep and skinny wooden stairs, you will reach a small, carpeted nook where I have blankets down to sleep on. Well, I say “small,” but really I think it is plenty large for company to come visit as well (hint, hint; wink, wink).

My trip to Japan couldn’t have been better. And, regardless of the short time it took to make the puddle jump from South Korea to Japan, Asiana Air still fed us a full meal to and from. I got off the airport, went through customs, headed towards bus 1 that would take me from the international airport to the domestic one, and met this amazing girl named Amanda, who was in Fukouka for the same reason, along the way. Lucky for her, her school booked her flight and hotel, so she was set. I however did not have a place to stay, and Japanese hostels, or at least those in Fukouka, were quite expensive. So, after dropping off our passports at the Korean embassy, we both headed towards her hotel, hoping they had a extra room. Well, the hotel Amanda was staying at was 6,600Y per night, which wasn’t happening. So the hotel staff brought the price down to 5,500Y, which was still too much. However, when I asked them how much it would cost to room with Amanda, they told me 1200Y, which was GREAT!! It was a pretty nice hotel for ~$12/night. We both went our separate ways for the evening, so I just walked around rainy Fukouka to explore the restaurants and shops. Wouldn’t you believe that, while they might not have a Seven-Eleven convenience store in Florida, they have them all over Korea and Japan...how goofy!! I had dinner at a shop down stairs in the subway station. Of course, I couldn’t read or speak hardly any Japanese, so thank goodness for the plastic food that is displayed outside of Asian restaurants. I motioned for the server to follow me, and took her outside and pointed to the food I wanted. I don’t know if it was traditionally Japanese, but it was some cheesy rice with alfredo sauce, ham, potato, and mushroom. I also got salad, bread, and ice cream with the meal. Well, after being completely stuffed, I walked over to Starbucks to buy a Macadamia Nut cookie (again with the pointing to displays). I only know Hello and Thank you in Japanese, which was only slightly useful.

The next morning, Amanda and I went downstairs to eat her free breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and headed outside for some more exploration. We picked up our visas at about 2pm and headed the shop of this 40-something year old ex-pat Coach Surfer who has only lived in the US and Japan, and has no plan on moving anywhere else. He is originally from the south, so he made us cornbread and sweet tea while we were visiting. Afterwards, he took us to the airport (for a nominal fee of 5,000Y each), which was great! I should definitely look into this whole Coach Surfin’ thing...it sounds like such a great website and way to connect with (or sleep on the coach of) foreigners around the world.

I am the first, and only, foreigner (Way-gook) to teach at Song Woon Elementary school. The first day I arrived, you would have thought I was a movie star. Either that, or I had spears coming out of my forehead, orange snot coming out of my nose, and a large purple eyeball on my left ear. My best guess would be that most of these kids have never seen anyone except Koreans. Their reactions are priceless!! America truly has a diverse culture for sure! It is almost hard for me to imagine otherwise. Some children are scared to come up to me, but I am sure they will warm up. Others just scream and giggle in excitement and run to tell their other friends to come and see me.

The school is huge with five floors and 2,000 students. The English classroom is on the fifth floor, so that is where I stay for most of the day. There are four forty-minute classes a day, with the other four for lunchtime and planning. All of the students come to me, rather than me jumping classrooms. Lunch is prepared by the kitchen staff, and then brought to the classrooms and served by students. Every Wednesday is special lunch, so we had chicken and rice soup and spaghetti, which I definitely got seconds on. Today’s menu was rice, noodle, kimchee, and some type of spicy, oily soup. I would rather have a wide variety of food groups than the starch-loaded diet of noodles, rice, and breads that they have in Korea. I prefer the complex carbohydrates found in barley, sweet potatoes, and whole grain breads, simple carbohydrates in fruits, yogurt, and some vegetables, and protein in eggs, beans, and tofu, along with the wide range of nutrients in these foods, over a diet rich in rice, noodle, and bread.

The lessons I’ve seen so far are taught by using a CD-R program along with a widescreen TV to encourage participation in and repetition of what is being taught. Then there is an activity to help the students practice using the phrase (such as “How may I help you?”) used in that lesson. There are four sections in each lesson. One section is taught per class period, so each of the ten six grade classes I teach could be on a different section of a different lesson. I will begin teaching on Wednesday May 19th, so I will prepare lesson plans for sections one and four of lesson five this weekend that my co-teacher (who has yet to tell me his name even though I’ve asked him) and I will talk about next week.

Every morning the sixth grade teachers get together to have a good time, eat sweet breads and drink coffee. They might also give an announcement, which my co-teacher will translate for me. Lunch is also a time for the sixth grade teachers relax and enjoy each other’s company in the lounge. I think that is a great opportunity for me to practice listening to and speaking Korean. I was pretty proud of introducing myself to everyone in Korean this morning, so I can only improve, right?!

It is great to be in a place where I can feel happy and self-sufficient. I can’t believe ECC and how they made me feel stupid, worthless, and incapable. Shame on them. I knew was good in Korea, and I was, and still am, determined to find it. It is often easy to confuse individual conflict with culture conflict. And while Korea has a huge culture problem with anyone that doesn’t fall into it’s homogenous mold, I believe ECC’s problem was also individual discrimination and prejudice. And with regards to Christianity, I haven’t seen much of it. I don’t mind the drinking, smoking, and cursing, but I can’t seem to find any foreigners that don’t do it. I don’t know of a foreign church to go to either, but I going to try and find one in Ansan, which has a university, and therefore probably foreigners, and therefore, probably a church with an English service.

All of the Korean teachers have been extremely nice to me. They want to welcome and take care of me. There are even some teachers, and other adults, that have never seen a foreigner before, and are shocked the first time they meet me. When I came out of the bathroom this morning (which by the way, are all squatters), this lady coming in almost jumped out of her skin when she saw me. She asked my name and where I was from, but then told me she didn’t know any more English. It was cute.