february...

its been about two weeks since i last wrote, ive been super busy and in my down time i like to sleep so i applogize for my lateness.  some things that i experienced in the last little bit were:

ladies night in itaewon:  every thursday night in one of the forgien districts a bunch of bars have ladies night. what that means is you go in drink as much as you want and leave...without spending anything at all. i think between the bus there, drinking all night, chicken on a stick and the cab home i spent about 3 dollars. i love korea

i also went to a brewery, actually its from canada, big rock brewery in alberta.  the beer was more expensive there but much tastier than the cass that ive been drinking.  

the post office: canadian post office workers have a lot to learn.  here they will pack your parcels, bubble wrap and everything, and because this is a culture focused on packing alot into little spaces they really do it best.  they are so nice too, ive made a few visits already sending post cards to all of you....and its super cheap! so expect many

so teaching has been going well, but seeing as im not exactly trained in english or in other areas that im teaching in...there have been a few hiccups.

i had to teach how to talk about the weather.  tomorrow it will be .....in....... today it is ..... in ..... and i had a unlabelled map of europe i was dealing with.  i may have made up most of the countries, and overlapped a few, but they dont really know that - i hope!

english was not my forte back in middle school.  and i seem to have forgotten about some things, or perhaps never learned it.  i have an advanced class that is learning about grammar and tenses etc.  the lesson was on gerunds.  adding a ing onto a adjective or something to make it a noun. i still dont really understand it....and i was prouncing it g-rund.   not a ger-rund as it is supposed to be called. so my bad on that one

i mentioned about the valentines day and white day.  well we went out on valentines day to make some pottery - super fun - and then shopped and grabbed some dinner.  we ended up at a little italian resturant and no joke along one side of the wall sat the girls....and the other the boys. there was about 20 couples lined up in a row.  and all the boys had their pretty chocolates wrapped up with them.  being in a relationship is very important here. and couple centered holidays are taken seiously aswell.  one holiday that goes along with v-day and white day is black day.  this is for the single ladies, and on this day you are supposed to go out and eat black bean noodles because you are alone.  sounds very depressing to me. i suppose they should play beyonces song as they are drowning themselves in noodles

this past weekend jason mraz was in town. he was starting his asian part of his tour and i was begging people around the office if they wanted to come, but the only tickets left were the super expensive ones.  the night before the concert my friend offered me a free ticket from her friend. we get to the concert and we were on the floor! it was amazing, about 10 people back from the stage, for free....jason mraz.....just amazing. if you look on his website he took some pictures from the stage. i can almost show you where my hand was.  

after the concert i met up with some teachers in iteawon for bob marleys birthday  party. it was good times. i stood out a little bit, expecially because i was singing jason mraz songs all night. 

sunday i really wanted to find this art park i read about in a magazine here. so i took the 90 min subway ride.  to the station i thought i had to get to looking for exit 4.  i got there and the station had only exit 1 and 2.  so i was a little lost. but i decided to wander around anyways. found the han river and took in the scenery.

we have about 11 new teachers - 9 foreign that just came in this and last week.  its sad because all the teachers that ive just come to know are leaving but means more new friends at the same time.  4 of which are from western which is pretty sweet.  we talk about the ceeps and weldon...its good times.

one culture tidbit for today is the clothing

they find it shocking when i wear a tank top around the office - apparently its very risky.  but they have no problem wearing super small mini skirts around the office.  very different from back home. 

anyways thats it for now.  i promise not to wait too long again! miss you all

first time teaching

so i am offically an ESL teacher. some may find that hard to believe considering my lack of communication skills at times, but i think im doing a pretty good job so far. Wednesday was my first real day of teaching, on MWF i have 6 classes with kids ranging from age 8 to 15. then on tu/th i have 4 classes (1 hour though).  working at a private school i nice because i have no more than 10 kids in one class, some only have 4.  for each level there are sample lesson plans already made so you are given exactly what you are to teach each day. there are also many worksheets already made up so although the prep takes alot of time its not hard work at all.  the kids here have stamp books that they fill up and get prizes for finishing a page etc, so i work on the basis that everyone starts out at 3 stamps a lesson then take them away for speaking korean, not doing homework or hitting another classmate (which has only happened once so far).  i had one challenge the other day, trying to explain what it means to say eh on the end of a sentence. it was in a reading book and they stopped and asked why there was no question mark if it wasnt a question. I told them it was a Canadian thing and to make fun of us for it haha.

this weekend was relaxing, although on saturday morning i was about to jump in the shower when i heard katie calling for me...i go to her apartment and her kitchen cubboards had fallen compleatly off the wall and she was holding them up.  so we had to maneouver them into the hall way these are not light by any means, and were only put onthe wall with 5 little screws, oh i was also in a towel during this whole thing.  saturday I went shopping with a friend in meyong-dong one of the shopping districts and found many cute things...only made for people with no chest so could not fit into any of them without looking vey unprofessional. so ill have to keep searching for the place that will accomodate my chest.  afterwards i went out to another party district to one place called mikes cabin - it had actual bunk beds in it and then to pooh bar. which looked like winnie the pooh had thrown up over everything.  

sunday was an interesting day. katie - a coworker - was in what we thought was goin to be a fashion show.  when we got to the place it turned out to be some sort of middle school talent show with many acts that went up that did not really know what they were doing.  the hair part was good - what katie was actually there for - but sitting through 2 hours of earwrenching singers was not so fun, there is a video of one on my facebook, check it out.

more korean culture tidbits

valentines and White day, here they have two couple holidays, valentines is the  14th still but it is a day that the girl gives a gift to the guy, then white day comes a little later and the guy gives a gift to the girl.  hallmark makes double here

fourth versus 13th floor, here they are not superstitous about the 13th floor, but th 4th floor. some elevators you may see go 1, 2, 3, f, 5, 6, etc.  not all have this but ive been in a few. im not quitesure why its the 4th floor that gets them. ill have to look that up

i think i may have realized that im actually in korea....sort of

Well, the past week went by super fast.  i had more training at the school wed to friday and im starting to prepare lesson plans etc for my own classes.  still getting the hang of it all but there are so many resources and eveyones willing to help it make the process a heck of a lot easier.  

because i dont funtion properlly when im not working out i joined the gym. sarah - one of my co-workers - came with me and my first korean gym experience started out with a little spin class. actually i shouldnt say little. it was a killer. and the guy who lead it was the most peppy, spandex clad trainer ive ever seen. picture brad pitt as the personal trainer in burn after reading - only asian and wearing much more spandex. at least it made the class a little more enjoyable.  the gym is pretty standard with the exception of a few old school machines. did you ever see those vibrating belts that women used in the 30's or so? well they have them here, and the old ladies love them! it makes no sense, you arent getting any sort of work out if anything a sort of massage but everyday theres someone on them. they also have this rotating bead table. and they start out with their feet on it and slowly cover all body parts. its quite amusing - i have a picture of it, and will post it later. oh the outfits at the gym are quite different as well. they have shits and shorts that you can wear for your workout - orange for the ladies, blue for guys. pretty sure they came from some prison or something. so most people there are dressed alike. i can proudly say i am the only one in the whole gym wearing lululemon!  for those who arent clad in orange or blue they are wearing what looks like came out of heidi montagas music video. tights, leg warmers, and booty shorts, velvet crop tops...all of it at once. its quite the sight.  tonight i went to another class with sarah, it was a step class. now i find step class hard enough in english. in korean its a whole other story. but we survived and got a good workout and a few laughs out of it. the music they play in the gym is from the late 80's and 90's, as well as anything benny benassi - they love him here. 

on friday night a few of us went to hong-dae - the "party zone"  it was a sloppy night. first off i must say that korean streets are slick. i was slipping all over the place in my shoes - and had a few memorable wipeouts inthe middle of the sidewalk. we went to bar boom.  10 bucks all you can drink. nuff said about that place.  after which we went to another bar which was far more crowded than the first. full of club hoppers from all over. quite the party. i like hong-dae.  although in that bar there were people dancing on the tables. well typicaly you do that when you know your bits and pieces are not going to be on display. this one girl had not heard of victorias secret, or at least was putting it all out there....literally.

sat morning was rough. at 830 - keeping in mind i didnt get home till about 5 or 6- i was woken up by craig. i forgot i had to go to the hospital to get checked out for my alien card. it was not fun. starting out with the blood test. now typically im used to going into a private room for something like that. here was like a take out food line up.  wait for your number to be called sit inthe row of 7 other people getting it done at the same time and watch the tube go in a container with about 50 other peoples. i didnt handle this sight too well and had to lie down inthe middle of the waiting room. after i didnt feel like passin gout anymore we had to give our urine samples. easy enough? not here.   the toilet was non-existant, basically a hole in the wall, and not even handles like there were in france. that was also not fun.  from there a quick chest x-ray and youre good to go.  

sat evening i climbed up the mountain near out apartment. now i was wondering how koreans are still so tiny when they eat basically empty carbs all day.  well its because they hike like crazy.  and they take it seriously here. they have the full gear on, huge back pack, poles, shoes, north face jackets - everything. they look like they are about to treck across europe when really its just a little stroll up the mountain for a few hours.  

sunday i spent in iteawon with some teachers and found the foreign food mart - 28 bucks for peanut butter!! and the foreign book store and other little landmarks.  went to the open mike again whcih was better than last week and called it a night.  

its weird that ive only been here over a week, but feels like at least a month.  

korean culture tidbits...

Sars masks - now back in the day when i was taking the 510 spadina streetcar to u of t track i would see many people walking around china town with the sars masks on. and when ever someone got on the street car i would hold my breath in fear of contacting SARS.  here they wear them all the time! at first it freaked me out a bit thinking that so many people here have sars or soemthing. but its the opposite. they wear them for two reasons. the air here can get really cold so it makes it a little easier to breathe and also the pollution is awful so it helps in winter time. they have fancy ones with little animals on them to make them more fashionable.

the double handshake.  to all those goodlife people - patch did not invent this. koreans have been doing this as a sign of respect for ages!  by shaking someones hand and placing the other one somewhere on their forearm you are showing respect.  

man purses - while on the subway i started seeing alot of guys with purses. and i thought that they were simply holding it for their girlfriends or something but they are actualy a fashion statement here. mostly leather handbags. again dont really see this trend coming to the west

the guys all seem gay - to go along with the man purse, most males here seem to be gay or very questionable at least. they walk down the street with their arms around each other, carry purses, dress up for simple tasks like going to the market and dont seem to have that personal bubble that western men have.  but...thats just the way they act here.

delivery. most everywhere here delivers. including mcdonals. its dangerous. you can order a single coffee and this guy will come to the teachers lounge delivering a single coffe..wearing his mcdonalds gear and helmet. i was very amused when i found this out.

no tips - there is also no tipping here. for anything.  so that same guy who delivered that single mcdonalds coffee which costs about a buck, will get nothing.  i like this concept alot

dressing up your dog - most dogs, actually all that ive seen so far have had some sort of clothing on them. although most were simple sweaters or something along those lines some people go overboard. dressing up your dog as tinkerbell, or a princess is very common here. in face in iteawon there are a few stands of people just selling outfits for dogs. its quite sad, i feel bad for those animals

alcoholism - on the streets here there is a lot of puke. i found out that alcoholism here is a major problem. its disrespectful to turn down a drink. so if your boss or someone else offers a drink, you take it. if someone offers 10 soju drinks, you have 10 soju drinks and are most likely going to puke somewhere on the streets of seoul. its quite discusting, but put in perspective most people when they have had too much are taking a cab home or are along the free way - which you dont see. here eveyone walks or takes public transit....so its quite visible. and not pleasant.

my address!  so you can all send me peanut butter  - seriously! 

SLP sungbuk c/o tara koenig

3rd Floor, Heonghwa Brown building, 75 Dongsomoon-dong-4-ga

Sungbuk-gu, Seoul, Korea

136-033

and if not peanut butter little bits of canadian love! miss you all like crazy but wish you were here to experience it all at the same time!! xx