a few pics...

lost in translation....

the view of seoul (a very small part of it) from my apartment
at the korean barbeque the first night
the very first picture i took in korea
this cute woman was on the plane next to me...she either sat like this or was lying down the whole flight. very good posture for someone her age. although she was a little sneaky, i went to the washroom and when i came back she had taken my pillow and blanket from me

getting to know the city...

Hello all! so ive been here a few days now and still adjusting to all the new things, but its been really good!

yesterday Jacob - who is the head of all the foreign teachers - took the other new teacher and i around the city to the places we would use the most. starting off with the shopping district.  it was huge! good thing i didnt pack too many clothes because i plan on spending some time there.  they have "western" music playing all the time but because the majority of store owners there dont really know our profanities you can walk by stores playing hard core rap music only to find this little old korean woman trying to sell you socks with kittens on them. they also had an abundence of street food there. most of which i  couldnt make out what it actually was but it all smells delicious.  

one thing to note about korean fashion is that couples tend to dress alike here. so in displays they would have a bra and pantie set for a woman....and matching boxers for the man. and most come in this set that you are to wear with your beloved. i dont see that trend coming west anytime soon.  

from the shopping district we went to a place wher eyou can find anything electronic that you may need, as well as many many pirated dvds ranging from disney cartoons to soft core porn.   after that place (already forget the name - they all still sound the same to me) we went to itaewon which is one of the two foreign districts here.  theres a hardrock cafe, many starbucks, burger king amoung many other european, thai and greek food places. i quickly learned in the resturant that we ate at that sometimes they confuse push with pull. and after almost breaking my nose going for a push i always test the door out now.  we had some pad-thai which was good but no bigdoor thai like back home, ill have to see how it compares when i go to thailand and test out the real stuff.

we headed home after that and i had a few hours to rest up before i went out again that night. a few of the teachers and i went back to iteawon for an open mike comedy/music thing. it was full of  foreigners which made me forget yet again that im in korea.  im looking forward to spending more time in that area because there are so many people from all over here doing the same thing i am.  we took a cab home - which is super cheap here, actually all transit is.  taking the bus costs about 70 cents depending on how far you are going, where as in oakville it was 3 bucks!   

today - monday  - everything is pretty much closed because of lunar new year so i just wandered around my area again, got lost a few times but found some amazing places along the way.  there was one playground which was constructed on a hill and just massive which is impressive because of the density of the city.  also found a bakery which is apparantly a chain here "paris baugette" which is the only place with brown bread.  but its super expensive, about 3 bucks for 5 slices of bread!   

a few of the teachers and i are going out for korean food again which i believe may be the barbeque again. this week ill have to get on joining the gym, im feeling a little soft from all the food so far!  

korean culture tidbits...

4.  age here is kinda messed up.  when you are born you are 1.  there is no 2 weeks, or 6 months. youre one year old.  and on new years (jan1st) everyone turns one year older.  so technically your korean age could be 2 years older than your chronological age.  you still celebrate your birthday but you dont actually age.

5.  suicide rates here are super high. on most of the subways they have suicide plates which make it so that unless there is a train there you cant get onto the tracks. there is apparently also a mountain or cliff in busan (a city down south)  that is famous for suicide deaths.  here is it usually because of money or if you have disrespected someone.  again could be depression but they dont recgonize that here. ... i should have brought my thanatology course book here and taught them a thing or two 

6.  every male in korea has to serve inthe military for a minimum of two years.  they have no choice in the matter.

7.  couples.  as i mentioned before couples here tend to dress alike.  they also give each other couple rings after the first 100 days of dating.  some start this trend within the first few dates with things such as matching cell phone charms and later on go on to matching panties and tshirts.

8.  cell phone decorations.  i dont really remember seeing many people over the age of 12 with those things you loop though the hole on your cell phone.  here i have yet to see one person ( other than a foreigner) who has one.  and they arent little. some are these huge stuffed animals.  even the old ladys who are texting on the subway have some sort of trinket on their phone.  

9.  since space is valuable here in the city they have many space saving things for cars.  one is this rotating drive way out side of my school. it makes it so you can back up your car and then it will rotate your car around so you can drive out. they also have this sort of ferris wheel for cars.  a car drives in then it will rotate it around so another one can get on and so on...

getting here and the first few days

the trip here was quite the journey. from toronto i went to washington. the airport was insane!! ive never seen a check in line go as long as the united air one was. (this was because of Obamas inauguration) and the line ups for security afterwards were crazy aswell, i barely had time to grab a snack and water before my flight. from washington i went direct to korea. instead of going west we went north up towards the north pole, and then down again. it was not short. The flight was about 15 hours but one of the nicest airplanes ive ever been on. so much leg room and they were constantly trying to feed me. i was advised not to sleep too much on the plane because i was landing in the evening korean time so i watched tonnes of movies and read the magazines from court.
after landing and going through immigration i got to the luggage carousel and saw this bin with my name on it going around. turns out one of my bags had been left in washington. not the end of the world because its here with me now and made getting around the airport a little easier at the time. carol - the schools director - had a van arranged for me. i felt like a celebrity having my name on a board waiting for me, a little lame but still i enjoyed it.
the ride to the school from the airport was long, mostly due to rush hour traffic. it didnt feel like i was in a different country then, acutally it still hasnt sunk in yet, i felt like i was going through toronto or something. the only werid thing was my driver had a gps/tv in his car and was watching the news for most of the journey.
i got to the school and met the director, and many of the afternoon teachers. from there we went to the apartment building and i passed out for about 13 hours.
the next day, friday, one of the teachers who has been here for a while took the other new teacher to school so that we could get used to the bus's here. its about a 15-20 min bus ride whcih isnt bad at all. i was taken out for chinese after arriving and was given the biggest bowl of beef noodle soup ever. i got through less than a quarter, and it still only cost about 6 bucks!
from there i spent the day at the school shadowing the teachers im most likely going to replace. my school is an SLP school, basically a private english school. kids are here for only 2 classes a day (about 80mins) to practice their english. and the classes are small, i sat in on one with only 2 students and the biggest class had 8 or 9 students in it. its nice working in this kind of school because in some public schools there are usually only 1 or 2 foreign teachers where mine has about 20 or so...and we all live in the same building which makes it feel a little like frosh year.

that night it was one of the teachers birthdays so most of us went out to a korean barbeque resturant. it was a bit different. first you sit on the floor, and take off your shoes. and inthe middle of the table are hot coals and you cook giant slabs of meat on there, cut it up and take what you want. it was delicious although ours may have caught fire towards the end of the meal - shocking i know haha. after dinner we went to another bar within walking distance. i suppose it would be equivalent of a pub here. sit down at a table with friends etc. the only difference is that the table had these doorbell like things that you ring when you are ready to order or need something, and the servers come super fast once they hear that. also smoking is permitted everywhere here and koreans smoke alot! thats going to take some getting used to. that first night the other canadian teachers and i had some soju cocktails - when you order a cocktail here it doesnt come in a little plastic cup with a straw. its a large pitcher and how ever many small shot glass like cups you need. needless to say i got pretty wasted off of the soju. we also go some potatoes with cheese, which were basically mccain crinkle fries with cheese and vegtables, super tasty especially at 230am. from there we cabed it home and called it a night.

the next day the new teacher and i went walking around our part of town for 2 hours of so just trying to familarize ourselves with the area. most of the people you pass on the street just stare at you, and since i still dont know any korean i cant really say anything. i picked up a few things i needed and went to the market for some food. i came at a good time because this weekend is lunar new year here. so i had to work friday then get sat, sun, mon, and tues off which i need because the jet lag is starting to catch up fast. although this also means that most of the teachers have gone away on little trips.

thats it for now...ill add some pictures when i get unpacked and can find my cord.

korean culture tidbits
1. never write a name in red: this is like a death wish on someone or saying that they will die a tragic death in a few days, apparantly kids dont take this one lightly
2. saying someone or something is crazy is also a big no-no. it has something to do with the fact that they have no mental disorders here, or at least they will not diagnose them. so saying someone is crazy is the ultimate diss
3. never pour your own drink. and when someone is pouring your drink you hold it with both hands. something to do with respect.


random obama facts
he was elected as president the day before i moved home from halifax....he was sworn in as president the day before i left for korea.