So I spent Saturday morning at the hospital. But I'll stop you there and tell you that the story isn't that great. The only reason I went to a hospital was because they offer much better service in English.
It was for my ears. I wish I could say what was wrong, but swimmer's ear, an ear infection and fluid buildup have all been ruled out thanks to a few misdiagnoses (plural folks). It was back with a pulsing vengeance these last few weeks, to the extent that I decided to wake up at 9 on Saturday and take a train to the Korea University Hospital.
This was my second time being in an Asian hospital, the first being the mandatory health check/drug test my company made me do. They definitely have adopted a more assembly line approach to dealing with patients over here. I was bumped around to a whole bunch of doctors with very very specific duties. I had prongs and spouts inserted deep into my head through my ears and nose as foul-tasting liquid coursed through my sinuses. It was pretty lousy but I at least felt like they were doing something. I'm going back next weekend to see if the medicine they gave me took.
That same day I also saw something else I can officially check off my list of "only in Korea" experiences, and dog lovers should probably just skip right over the next paragraph.
So they definitely still eat dog here, however it's a very small market of old people and hillbillys that do it. While wandering a back alley with Gord we came across a dog meat shop that sold live caged pups for eating. What made it visibly different from an extremely cruel pet store was that the pieces of dog available to buy were prominently on display. It was really unsettling and the owners were probably aware of the reputation that eating dog has with anyone not Korean because they were kind of giving us the "yeah, so?" look. So, see disturbing dog meat store: check.
Disturbing paragraph over. That evening Gord and I pulled an all-nighter in Hongdae, my first since being here. Because the trains stop at midnight, unless you want to cab home, it's all night or goodnight. We went all night and didn't get home until sunup. I took a video to capture the experience:
One of the places we patronized that night.
We did Norae-bang (karaoke) at this place called Dollhouse which looked like Little Bo Peep's enchanted castle. They put us in a room with a huge window that looked out onto the street, or rather, the whole street looked in onto us. It was like the red light district in Amsterdam except with drunk singing white people instead of, y'know, whores.
Not pictured: Little Bo Peep
Believe it or not the next day we actually woke up at noon! The day wasn't wasted so we went on a cruise of the Han River on a ridiculous pirate ship.
Arr! All aboard tourists!
Week end. It's Monday night now and I'm hoping to plow through this week just as fast as I've plowed through the other ones. $5 pizza and Clint: For A Few Dollars More!
Charlotte cancelled on our Monday night sushi night because of unscheduled illness so I just bought a $5 pizza and a cable to hook my laptop up to the ipod speakers and watch A Fistful of Dollars.
Also, the yellow dust storm is coming early this year so I bought a mask. Once that settles, it'll be a month of paradise before monsoon season hits. The pictures should be great.
OK I'm sick of writing about old stuff so this post will condense everything that happened up until now into one bite-sized update, easy for digestion.
Weekend number two in Seoul started with a bang. I worked devilishly hard the entire week so I played devilishly hard on Friday night. In fact, I would go as far as to say that night was entirely the work of the devil. Our usual entourage headed out to a mom and pop, shanty restaurant with really cool wallpaper to eat drink and be merry. This was to be my first night drinking soju, a characteristically Korean drink that resembles vodka except it is almost exclusively drunk straight and is horrifyingly abundant. After Charlotte left, it officially became boy's night, with Gord, Dio and I pouring drinks with complete disregard. Boy's night ended up becoming very very blurry and the next morning Gord and I were nursing some of the most wicked hangovers that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. Soju is like the wild mustang of liquors; unpredictable, hard to tame and known to flip you over on your ass at any moment without any warning. Anytime you see a Korean businessman being helped into a cab at 9pm, it is most certanly the work of soju.
The cool restaurant with the cool wallpaper; the scene of the crime.
So anyways, Gord wrote off almost the entire next day, while I braved the sun and the flights of stairs and the crowds and went to Myeongdong with Charlotte. I had a Kraze Burger meal which was oh so delightful. I think I'm going to make a post in the future where I review all of the big hamburger joints in Seoul and comment on each. Stay tuned for that. Gord met up with us later and then him and I saw Watchmen while Charlotte went to do less manly things. On a side note, aside from a few qualms, I thought Watchmen was great!
Sunday we went to the zoo at Seoul Grand Park. Charlotte and I were pretty camera happy the whole time. We waited in the peacock zone for like, half an hour waiting for the peacocks to puff their feathers up so we could take a picture. The park was a good distance outside of Seoul and nestled in between a whole bunch of mountains. There was lots of walking up and down inclines, but the air was refreshingly clean. There were old ladies everywhere selling cups of boiled silkwork larvae as well, a "treat" with such a sickeningly characteristic smell that I cannot begin to describe. Koreans insist it's delicious, but I would be hard-pressed to try one, let alone invest in a whole cupfull of them.
Zoo pics.
When the weekend ended, I sighed at the thought of going back to school for a week, but it wasn't so bad. Really, the job had become almost second nature at that point. Any of the crap the kids would do to me just rolled off my back and was immediately forgotten by the time I punched out. They're so young and not invested in anything at all whatsoever, so I guess I learned something from them.
The week itself is pretty dreary. I hadn't invested in the materials to begin cooking at home so I ate out pretty much every night. There's a fantastic Japanese place near my apartment which serves all the comfort food I learned to love while I was in Tokyo like sushi, tonkatsu and tempura. Sometimes during the week I would meet with Gord and Charlotte briefly for dinner as well. However I should mention that absolutely no one eats alone at a restaurant in Korea, which is kind of frustrating. In Japan I would eat with all the other lonely businessmen at the food stalls, but here, eating alone, I feel like some kind of pariah. I usually pick out a quiet corner and try to sink in unnoticed. Being a foreigner already arouses enough stares anyways.
So yeah, other things I did to end my weekdays included, finally unpacking (yay me), reading my travel guides, listening to quiet music while staring at the wall and finally, heading to the PC rooms to catch up with the rest of the world. The people there came to know me pretty well, and it was less than a dollar and hour to use.
The next weekend eventually came and the three of us decided to spend an awesome Friday night at Home Plus, a 24-hour multi-story department store stopping for wares. It was the complete opposite of the previous Friday night and incredibly welcome. I picked up a toaster oven for about $20 as well as an ironing board and a really retro-future looking alarm clock. Gord and Charlotte got a huge amount of groceries.
Saturday Charlotte fell ill so Gord and I had a boys night and went to an FC Seoul soccer match. We were planning to just go to the World Cup Stadium and walk around, but there just happened to be a game on so we went in. And it's a good thing there was a game, because the stadium itself was kind of boring. The only funny thing they had was a "wedding zone" with chapels, a reception room and photo rooms. The chapels had TVs installed as well, no doubt for watching the game while giving your vows.
Anyways, Gord and I decided to root for FC Seoul because we were sitting in the home team section. They were playing Gangwon FC and it was pretty fun despite the biting cold. FC Seoul lost but I really didn't care because A: I was so cold and B: I really actually didn't care. Oh soccer! You and I have such a long, complicated history.
World Cup Stadium, like you needed a caption.
Gord and I getting into the spirit.
Game action.
Afterwards, Gord got a text message from his friend Min, to meet at Hapjeong station, a few stops up the line. I was expecting a night of dinner and drinks, but I wasn't expecting Min to lead me into a fully loaded practice space and have me drum for his band. Apparently Gord told him about me and how I was a drummer, and apparently he couldn't wait to meet me and see if I was interested in drumming for his band. So I gave it a go, and everyone was impressed, or at least satisfied with my playing. They practice one a week for about an hour, which seemed like a modest proposal, so yeah. I am now part of a Korean five-piece jam band.
After that we headed to Hongdae to cap off the night with galbi and conversations that ranged from deep and compelling to shallow and awkward. Boys night part 2 ended much better than boys night part 1, which I will forever use as the benchmark for how ridiculous a night can get.
Hongdae at night.
The next day I went to Hongdae with Charlotte to meet with two of her friends working for YBM in Daejon, a city south of Seoul. We went to the Bauhouse Dog Café, a place where you can hang out with a whole swarm of dogs while you drink iced tea. I had already seen pictures of this place on Charlotte's Facebook, but it was even more surreal in real life. Dogs of all kinds everywhere, running around, jumping up on tables, and the whole place smelled like pure piss. The bathroom there smelled better than the rest of the café. The dogs were hilarious though. We dined on tacos before bidding the visiting couple adieu.
So many dogs!
You can buy them treats of you like. They don't give you the time of day otherwise.
People can bring their own dogs if they like. This little guy was terrified of all the other dogs.
Eventually he came out and socialized.
This poor pup is too ugly and needs extra love.
Then it was back to the work week. This was the week I discovered wifi on my balcony, so I spent most of my evenings freezing my ass off, huddled on a lawn chair cursing my poor connection. By Friday I had right proper internet though. I also was shocked to find that not only had they installed the internet, but they brought me a TV that I had been bugging them about for a while, with cable! So now I have wacky Korean TV at my fingertips. My apartment is finally coming together and it won't be long before I post a video tour on here. It's still a bit far from an ideal state, but once I get a few things cleaned up and sorted out I'll have one up before you know it.
Also, I finally got a haircut. My hair was getting way way too long and was doing that wispy wave thing that has never been in vogue in any decade, so I went to a little shop near Gord's place. The guy gave me this total Asian do which, by itself looked pretty decent, but after he applied a generous amount of product to it, I looked like the sixth member of Big Bang. Pictures later, maybe.
The next weekend creeped up very quickly. Friday the trio of us went to a chicken and hof. Bars here are called hofs, and always have a neon HOF sign outside. Chicken and hofs are pretty abundant as well and satisfy two indulgences in one, fried chicken and ice cold beer. We ordered a pitcher of beer which looked like a mini cold fusion reactor as well as this delightfully tangy chicken dish.
Afterwards we hung out in front of a convenience store for an hour or so. I should mention however that convenience stores here actually encourage people to hang out in front and, as so, set up tables and chairs for customers to kick back and eat snacks and drink beer on. This particular Friday was also extremely mild (about 17 degrees), so it was perfect for maxing and relaxing. There were tons of college students doing the exact same thing as well so it made for a cheap night out at a bar, minus the actual bar. We had a blind taste test between 6 brands of beer so Gord and I could choose our favourite. Gord chose Hite while my drink of choice ended up being Cass. Great night! There was even an arcade right next to the convenience store!
Saturday, Gord and Charlotte both got sick (probably sick of me, right guys?), so I headed home. I was to meet up with Min for band practice at 6, but afterwards was up in the air. So I called up Myriam, who I knew from back in Ottawa, and we agreed to meet up in Hongdae at around 8. Until then I cleaned my apartment a bit and learned how to use the gas range. I also went to Hongdae early to walk around and take pictures before walking to Hapjeong. Band practice was good. I met the fifth member of the group, and we all learned an entire song start to finish. After that we all met up with Myriam and ate at a very characteristic-looking Korean restaurant. It began to pour at this time as well. I met a lot of her friends and stayed out until 11:30, a risky move, as Hongdae is really far from where I live and the trains stop running at midnight. I caught the last train home as well as the last bus home and both were sardine-can packed. The Saturday night Whopper stops I forecasted in my previous entry were right on the money.
Cool installations in Hongdae
The next day was spend cleaning and hooking up my TV.
AND NOW I'M CAUGHT UP!!!! Which is great because now I can finally blog about my day, the day it happens! Sorry this took so long. Keep reading and subscribe if you haven't already! Also, comments are much appreciated!
I'm still far from being caught up, so I'm going to continue where I left off and dedicate the majority of the next entry to my job.
So when my first weekend in Seoul wrapped up, it was time for me to button my collar, do up my tie and head into my first day of work at ECC Ssangmun. Monday was pretty easy. I went in for 9 and observed a couple of classes before being let off the hook sometime around noon. I got to meet some of my coworkers but didn't really get to know them that much. Of the five guys that worked there, three were leaving and being replaced by girls which meant that myself and two other lads would be the only ones representing Y chromosomes in the whole office of about 25 people.
So if the first day was a breeze, then the second day could only be described as Tsar Bomba. The semester had just changed over and every teacher was scrambling about like a mad mole trying to get their lesson ready for the next day. Problem was, myself and the three other new teachers had no idea what the hell we were supposed to do. Sometimes a schedule would show up on my desk showing me what books certain classes needed, but even then, trying to find said books in the flop house of a library was near impossible. Also, the three guys leaving hadn't actually left yet which meant none of us new teachers had desks, which meant we had to plan and organize our lessons on any surface we could find. And see, this is where I wish I had a picture of the office because if I did, you would clearly see that there were NO SURFACES anywhere. Also, everyone was too busy scuttling about to help any of us out at all. At one point I stopped trying to meticulously arrange a solid lesson plan and just slapped together a crude outline of what resembled a lesson plan for each class and called it a day.
I was seriously questioning what kind of racket I had gotten myself into at that point. I went back to my apartment and nursed the monster of a stress headache which slowly cultivated during the anarchy that was my first real day of work.
Wednesday was showtime. I had seven classes of kids ranging from age 4 to 12. I thought they would sense my apprehension and walk all over me, but it was surprisingly easy to get them to focus and pay attention. Since then I have only been getting better and devising more clever ways to get the kids to bend to my will. Some classes were a sheer joy to teach, while others were outright pandemonium. Here's a brief summary of my monday, wednesday, friday classes:
Neptune: My first class of the day. Kindergarten kids, very little English and tons of blank stares. Washington DC: My next kindie class. Not as many blank stares, but a bit more unhinged. Pluto: Smart class wish one little guy who steals the show constantly. Washington DC: Another DC class who absolutely adores me. One girl gives me sweets before almost every class. Paris: A whip sharp class where I teach geography. Basically my favourite class. Canberra: Hell on earth class. You know how there was always one kid in elementary school who was a complete hellspawn? This is a whole class of them.
My last class ended up being cancelled entirely for the semester because there was only one student in it. Best news ever because it meant that I got to go home early every monday, wednesday and friday. Tuesday and thursday are a bit shorter, but the classes are a bit more trying:
Neptune: Same as above. Washington DC: Likewise. Library: I only do this class on tuesday which means I really could care less about learning the kids' names. It's a pretty lousy class anyways. Paris: Hands down my worst class. While Canberra is loud and disruptive, they are at least smart and speak fantastic English. This class is filled with little reptiles who refuse to work and are light years dumber than my other classes as a result. London: Pretty OK class. Usually when I go in, I'm so angry from my previous class that they all become afraid of me and behave. Mercury: Nice class with one real class clown. Really easy to teach though. Saturn: Boring as spit class because they are the lowest level doing the hardest book. Blank stares abound.
I also do phone teaching monday, wednesday and friday where I have to call the students at home and ask them questions about what they learned. Kind of ridiculous really and at least once a day when I call I get a shrill Korean grandma on the other line sounding like she's trapped inside the phone. Language barriers, ugh.
One fun thing about my job, is that once in a blue moon I get a new student who I become tasked with giving an English name to. The Korean teachers always always always give the kids the most BORING names too, which means that when it's my turn, I try to give them a name that shines! I named one kid Donnell and another one Gary, but a Korean teacher quickly renamed him Kevin. BORING!!! I really really want to name a kid Jamal. Also, there's a kid in the school named Moses and I really want to high five the teacher that named him that.
So I've been working for about three weeks now and I've definitely gotten the hang of teaching. It came pretty quickly and I don't worry about planning a perfect lesson anymore. Most of the time, I grab the textbooks and do the whole lesson right off the dome. Apparantly a lot of the kids love me too because I like to end every class with a game. The kids are starting to grow on me too, and I joke around with them now more than ever. Even the little bastard Canberra class has grown on me a bit.
Around the office things are calmer than ever. The Korean teachers were really scary the first day because they were all stressing out over the new semester, but now they seem a bit friendlier. Also, I finally learned all their names. At first it was tough because they all have really plain Jane names beginning with 'J', (including Jane) and I kept screwing them up. Now things are peanut butter smooth.
OK that's it. I have tons of funny teaching anecdotes but I'll save them for later. No pictures today, sorry...:(
Ok, last time I left off, I had just finished orientation and was just starting my first weekend in Seoul. Also, I should mention that I met up with Gord and Charlotte on Wednesday, not Thursday as I had previously stated. I'm a bit rough on the details about my first days in Korea, as they happened almost 3 weeks ago. I'll do my best though!
Also I should mention that after walking around my apartment holding up my laptop, I found a relatively reliable wifi spot on my balcony. It's in the corner though so don't get any images of me reclining on a lawn chair with my laptop on my stomach. It's more like me huddled in a corner sitting on a tea table with my laptop on a chair underneath a bunch of shelves. Not glamourous. Plus it's still kind of cold here. Anyways.
On Thursday, the second last day of my orientation, Gord and Charlotte came over to check out my place. They agreed that it was decent and even helped me take out a bunch of trash that the previous tennant graciously left behind. Gord convinced me to have Burger King, probably my first western indulgence. I really want to cut back on eating familiar foods here, but the aforementioned Burger King happens to be 24 hours and within 5 minutes from my house. It is well lit and foreboding so Saturday night Whopper stops are likely.
I headed back to Gord and Charlotte's that night to check out their place/crash there. They live near Cheongyangni station, about a 40 minute trainride away which is actually pretty good by Seoul standards. It still took me about an hour and some to get to orientation the next day, but at least I got to shave some time off my commute and get out of my barren apartment. We watched some Korean television too. They have an entire channel dedicated to Starcraft on basic cable. It's like pro sports, with an announcer and everything. When one guy sends in his fleet to attack the other guy's base, the announcer goes nuts, like Alfie was a breakaway or something. The other shows usually consist of hidden camera shenanigans, variety shows and crazy over-emotive Korean dramas which are like soap operas if everyone was constantly menopausal.
Once orientation was over, I called my school awaiting more ridiculous and disappointing instructions, but luckily I was told to enjoy my weekend and come in on Monday. Finally, a chance to relax and unwind. I hadn't even unpacked my suitcase at this point either. So I called up Gordlotte on my landline and agreed to meet up for some dinner and karaoke. Also, they told me Jess was on Skype and I was hoping to talk with her for the first time since landing in Korea, so I headed over as quickly as possible. Unfortunately I got lost in some back alley catacombs for about an hour until I managed to get a hold of ol' Leave-the-phone-off Cameron and got directions. Needless to say, by the time I found my way, Jess was long gone and I was very upset.
For dinner we met up with John, another ECC teacher and Dio, a Korean medical student Gord and Charlotte randomly met at a restaurant a few months back. One thing I noticed about Korean servers is that they really like to mess with your food while you're eating it. Like, not pick it up off your chopstick or anything, but like, cut it up, mix it around and put it in your bowl and stuff. I got a huge heap of mushrooms dumped on my plate at one point which I artfully picked around. I could honestly write an entire blog about how much I hate mushrooms. But anyways...
We hit up the karaoke room afterwards and it was awesome. For some inane reason, they don't allow alcoholic beverages into karaoke rooms in Korea, but Gord knew a place where they turned a blind eye to it, so we bought some beer and soju (a liquor I will explain in detail later), and headed in. It was about $15 to rent a room for 90 minutes, but another perk to this particular location was that if you made enough racket and made the place sound like it was really bangin' they would add time on for you. So with the drinks that was absolutely no problem at all. When we did Jump Around by House of Pain, Gord sang the chorus while I did those scream samples in the background. Dio won the gold medal of the night with his incredibly genuine and heartfelt renditions of Bon Jovi, Radiohead and, uhm, Sisqo. They kept extending our time until 3 in the morning. We still had 40 minutes on the clock when we left.
The next morning, with nary a hangover in sight, the three of us went to Dongdaemun, a landmark neighbourhood with a pretty bustling underground shopping scene. The goal was to get me a pair of glasses, as you have probably seen in the previous post. Gord and Charlotte are pretty familiar with the area, but the few shops I saw barely cracked the surface of what that place boasts, apparantly. The mall we visited was a multi-storey complex with all kinds of young trendy shops set up here and there. Before I talk about getting my glasses, a quick note on shopping in Korea:
There's a rule of thumb that if a price isn't displayed, you're supposed to haggle for it. They usually offer you some ridiculously inflated price at first, and then you're supposed to engage in this ludacrous exchange where you pretend that they are trying to suck your blood right out of you. After you offer them a price which rest just below of half of the price they gave you, they gasp and laugh a bit, usually adding a comment about how top of the line the item you're trying to buy is. They offer you another price, which is usually drastically lower than the first price, and it's anyone's game from there. The real pros have their shopkeeper buds there to gasp with them. I haven't really participated in too many of these, but I did manage to talk a cordless trimmer down by $20. So anyways, back to Dongdaemun...
The goal was to get a pair of glasses. Charlotte and Gord showed me this place they usually went to. It was a kiosk with a bunch of designer frames for sale right next to a bunch of knock-off designer frames. Naturally, I was drawn to the knock-offs, and I picked a distinguished pair of "Tom Fords". I figured it would be a problem not having a prescription, but the guy took me into the booth to do an eye test. I looked at a blurry picture for a couple of seconds and read a few numbers and he immediately had my results. He then opened up case of lenses and assembled a pair of those steam-punky-looking test glasses for me to try on and sure enough, my vision was crystal clear. He told me to come back in 30 minutes, and when I did, my "Tom Fords" were ready, case, cleaning rag and all. The whole thing came out to only $27 Canadian, which I honestly still can't believe. It's $80 for the eye test alone in Canada.
So Dongdaemun was a success. We went to Insadong next which is a tourist street filled with all sorts or traditional Korean items for sale as well as a few art galleries. Didn't really have the time or patience to do any serious digging. Saw a couple of nice galleries and some fat American tourists and that's about it.
Next stop was Hongik University, or Hongdae, the arty district of the city. We didn't have that much time, so we did a bit of wandering and drank in the culture, as well as a few mixed beverages served in plastic bags. For dinner we had Greek food at this small place owned by a guy who worked in Toronto for a bit. He chatted us up and gave us a complimentary glass of wine afterwards. I slept over again that night, just as I would for the next 2 weekends, a move I'm thinking of calling the Double Dupree.
Next day was equally as packed. March 1st was Samil Day in Korea, celebrating a famous Korean independence movement against Japanese occupiers. The place to be was Tapgol Park where said independence movement took place. It was filled with passionate old guys. Generally the rule of thumb here is that if you're a foreigner, one of every ten old dude probably wants to talk to you a whole bunch. Turns out that the old guy we ended up locked in semi-conversation with was none other than the world record holder for most iron consumed. Like, as in he ate watches and stuff. COOL! So we took a picture with him:
We then printed that picture onto mousepads:
The rest of the day was spent at Techno-Mart, a massive electronics store complex that's about 9 or so stories high, with each floor about the size of a Best Buy. It was good, but there were a lot of repeated stores. Everything was haggle-able (?) as well so this was where I got the aforementioned trimmers. While I was there I decided to try new things and bought a pine needle drink which we all agreed tasted like Christmas. After all the walking around, we retired back to our respective apartments to start the busy work week.
And I guess I'll cut it there. I didn't think I would take a whole entry to cover a weekend but the weekends are just packed for me. So much to do and see. Next entry I'll cover my first week of work. To reward you for making it through the whole entry, here are some pictures:
Beginning of the day outside Gord and Charlotte's place, Cheonyangni.
Dongdaemun, the great east gate.
Glasses acquired! Commence nerd stereotype!
An arcade at Insadong. Gord was the bear and I was the wood man. What a great game!
The Greek restaurant in Hongdae. The nice owner is in the background.
Old men line up on Samil Day.
This guy really loved us. He gave Gord and Charlotte a free calendar which was then accidentally left on the Metro.
Souvenirs from Samil Day.
Some South Korean soldiers in the food court at Techno-Mart.
Escalators at Techno-Mart.
View from atop Techno-Mart
Seoul Metro
Some of these were lifted from Charlotte's blog, but DON'T GO THERE unless you want to spoil what happens next!
Ok so, I'm going to forego waiting for internet and go ahead and start this blog. As I write this, I'm at one of the many computer stalls at WolfNFox, a "cyber cafe", near my apartment. There's noisy Korean television playing, computers blaring sword clangs and magic whooshes, a horribly intrusive cellophane layer overtop the keyboard, a timer at the bottom of the screen counting up the money I'm spending and Internet Explorer as the only available browser. So needless to say, any entry I make a month leading up to me getting the internet at home will probably be half-hearted at worst and sub-par at best.
So let's start this thing already.
The company that hired me is called YBM. They are an English Educational Megacorporation operating all over Korea. They hire teachers abroad and sign them to one year contracts to teach kids ranging from ages 3 to 14. Once they find a suitable teacher, they fly them over and put them up in an apartment for a year. After a couple of phone sessions with their human resources director, they deemed me acceptable and non-threatening and sent me a contract. After a bit of three-way conversation between them, myself and the Korean consulate, my visa was arranged and they booked a flight. It was a laughably easy process. The hardest part way saying goodbye to everyone who I knew I wouldn't see in a year.
I also had to say goodbye to Jessica, who, because of some financial and logistical SNAFUs, won't be able to come until May. It will be the longest we will be apart, but I'm certain we will survive just fine. She has some very good things coming to her in the pipeline and I'll make sure to have everything prepared for her when she gets here to make her transition as smooth as possible.
So I left Ottawa at 7am via Air Canada and landed in Vancouver an unknown amount of time later. I really wanted to sleep on the flight so I stayed up the entire night before, took a sleeping pill on takeoff, put Casablanca on the video screen and was out in about 5 seconds. I woke up when we were just landing. This was an awful idea however because if there was any flight I should have slept through, it was the next one.
After 3 hours in Vancouver, I boarded Air Korea for Seoul. Now I've been on huge flights before, but I can hardly say I'm used to them. This one sucked a bit more though because I was in the dead center of the row, flanked by old Korean women. If I had to pee, I literally felt like I was plucking the poor old hens' feathers out when I asked them to move. The meal was bibimbap, which I am already not a fan of, let alone the airplane variety. Also, the movie was Eagle Eye, a movie I can only describe as preposterous.
I landed at Incheon Airport, an hour outside of Seoul, at around 5:30 pm Korean time. After grabbing my belongings I called the phone number listed in my Inspector Gadget instructions the school sent me before I left. They told me to take the "airport limousine", which was actually just a bus, and get off at Ssangmun station (not a typo). The limousine cost 13,000 Korean won which translates to just under $12 Canadian. So now I can officially say I spent 13 grand on a limousine from the airport. Anyways, the limousine ride was almost worse than the flight because it was stop-start all the way into Seoul and then stop-start all the way up to Ssangmun. I was so tired I was almost crazy and I kept hearing the sound of screaming monkeys. The couple behind me was watching a nature show on a portable TV, but I had no idea what the hell it was for the longest time. It sounded like it was coming from the storage compartments below.
When I got to the stop, a Korean guy approached me as I got off the bus and asked if I was Jon. He spoke absolutely no English at all and I was convinced he must have been someone's brother doing them a favour by picking me up. He grabbed my luggage and put me in a cab which took us to my new apartment. It's in one of those super communist looking apartment blocs on the fourth floor. When we got in he pointed out some very obvious things "fridge, toilet, closet", gave me an envelope full of money and more Inspector Gadget instructions. When I asked him about internet, he bowed and took off like a bandit into the night.
So it was about 9:30 pm and I was finally in Seoul and finally in my apartment. Anyone who travels will tell you that the worst part is between getting off the plane and getting to the place where you can set your ass down and sleep after hours of upon hours of shuffling about like a zombie. I took some time to check the place out. It's pretty nice and I'll post pictures once I get it into an ideal state. It's narrow but pretty deep. It has an entrance with a bathroom on the left (with washing machine) and a small kitchen on the left. Next room has a fridge, a wardrobe and a breakfast table with room for more stuff. Next room is the bedroom with a double bed, a couch and a computer desk. There's a TV stand there but no TV, which I'm going to have to pursue. Finally there's a closed balcony which is actually more of a storage/clothes drying room. It's much bigger than my place in Japan and I honestly do not need any more space. Maybe I'll do an apartment post later and show all of the quirks, because there's quite a few. Anyways...
I opened the instructions that the guy left me and they said I needed to be at an 8-hour orientation at 11am the next morning. On the other side of town. A town I had absolutely no idea how to navigate. I was pretty livid about that. The only thing I really did before going to bed was bush my teeth and figure out how to work the alarm clock that was thankfully left behind by the previous tenant. The mattress was rock hard but I fell asleep no problem.
Next morning I got up at 7 to figure out how to take a shower. It was pretty easy, but you know how it's always sort of awkward using an unfamiliar shower, especially an Asian one where the whole bathroom is the shower and it's super low to the ground and the water pressure is weak. Anyways, I head out the door, subway map in hand, to start my first day of orientation. I had no problems with the subway really, other than the fact that it took over an hour and a half to get where I was supposed to be. I had to transfer 3 times, which is downright disgusting for any commuter to have to do. There was a 15 minute walk afterwards as well and I ended up showing up late, along with 90% of the other teachers.
Soooo, orientation had it's pluses and minuses which I will describe here.
+ I got to meet a bunch of new people who were for the most part interesting and insightful. Most of them were Americans, but there was another Canadian and two Brits in a class of about 16. Contrary to what Charlotte warned me, no one was a complete douchebag, much to my delight. - The class was boring as all hell. The orientator(?) did the honest to got best job anyone could, but he really might as well have been talking about sand all day. He had 3 days to explain what easily could have been explained in a day and what could have easily been learned first-hand in an hour. + There was a one and a half hour break every day which allowed everyone to go out to lunch together and mingle. - I always ended each day with a terrible terrible headache, which I eventually figured out was due to my poor eyesight coupled with my high school seat of choice at the back of the class. + We did a presentation at the end of day 3 where we had to pretend we were teaching a class of children. Not only did it provide everyone with direct feedback, but it gave me a chance to realize that everyone else was just as clueless, if not more clueless, on how to do this job. - The commute every day was an hour and a half both ways. 1.5 hours X 2 + 8 hours of class = 11 HOURS OF MY DAY GONE. Also, after a day in a completely new and unfamiliar environment, I was usually so bagged that I went to bed immediately and slept at least 10 hours every night.
I had it pretty good though, because some of the teachers had to come from places like Busan which were 3 hours away and stay in a love hotel. Which really isn't that bad because they all have big screen TVs and jacuzzis, but still. I was glad to have an apartment to crash in.
I forget what day I met Gord and Charlotte. I think it was day 2 of orientation which was a Thursday. Both of them have been in Seoul for over 6 months now and I've known them from back in Ottawa (for those of you who didn't know). They were the ones who recommended the job to me in the first place. Me met at Myeongdong for dinner, which was a appropriate place to get introduced to urban Seoul. It is basically like the Shibuya of Seoul, with youth, pop culture and brand name stores everywhere. Total brain melt after a long day of boring orientation. We ate and hung out briefly before I retreated home because I was dead tired. It was short, but I was to see them quite a few times more in the future, so you will be reading about them quite a bit in this blog.
Anyways, I think I'll end it there. that pretty much sums up my arrival and first 3 days in Seoul. I'll detail my next two weekends as well as the job itself in the future so stay tuned for that. I can't upload my pictures just yet either so I'll steal some from Charlotte's blog for now. Thanks for reading this much, and someone tell my parents about this blog because I have yet to even talk to them!!! YIPES!
Hi! I'm a pretty typical E-2 visa holder in Korea. I've been here on and off since 2009, so I've got a reasonably good lay of the land. I live in Seoul and am constantly in awe of the things happening around me. As such, I've deemed it necessary to convey my silly observations with silly comics. I hope you like them.
If paper is more your thing, you can find these comics in Groove Magazine, available for free at most foreigner hangouts.
Not pictured: Little Bo Peep
Arr! All aboard tourists!
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