I'm an alien. I'm a legal alien.

This news is about a week old now, but I am now finally an official Korean alien! The immigration office has finished processing my paperwork, and here is my new ID:

This ID gives me my equivalent of a Social Security number, so I'm now able to conduct business here. The hospital has also finished processing my health insurance, so now I can be as dangerous and reckless as I want! :)





I also have opened up my Korean bank account:
I'm using Worri Bank, which seems easy to use (and convenient -as they have branches everywhere, including in our office building). Our manager Eddie helped me out on the first visit, and hopefully I can manage from here.

One cool thing I've seen is scanners next to the ATM machines in the bank. Apparently, you just scan your utility bills, and the bank pays the companies electronically. Takes e-billing a step further!


Here's a few pictures of my gym that I told you about. It's called New Wind:



Here's the main area with plenty of new, modern machines, free weights, and cardio equipment.




And here's the stretching area. Behind that standing sign are 3 'shake machines'. I've looked them up, and they've been on the market several years now, including in the States. They are essentially a large vibrating platform that you stand on, and manufacturers try to market them as a way to tone muscle in shorter time and with less sweating than the traditional way. The jury's still out, but of course nothing is better than old-fashioned sweat. Although, they do seem to be more scientific-based than the older vibrating belt machines. Here's an article:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1531693,00.html

I haven't found a website for New Wind, but it's a chain here (like many gyms back in the States). It's interesting - they seem to love foreigners, as evidenced by many of the workout posters (mostly all pictures of caucasian people), and they give us a sizeable discount when joining (I believe it was 20%). But the majority of the staff and other patrons also don't seem to know much English. Another funny sidenote is New Wind's motto written on all signs: 'New Wind Total Fitness Center: The Best Your Partner'. Although I've found that as a general trend, most Koreans can communicate in English better than they give themselves credit. Guess they're just afraid of butchering the language, much like how us foreigners feel about speaking Korean I guess!


The gym has what we would call a sauna room. It's a dry heat room usually at 86-88 deg C. They refer to this as a 'jim jil bong' room. I haven't been, but apparently their steam rooms (what are truly refered to as 'saunas') are quite common, and are everywhere. The sauna/jim jil bong facilities have many rooms of varying temperatures and steam contents (and I've heard some even have other aromatic additives in the air).


Another thing that I've found different about the gym is the public showers in the locker room. None of the men wear flip flops! I thought this was a little strange, as I've always been warned to be very cautious of foot health in public shower areas. I looked this up too and found that athlete's foot is easily prevented by a healthy immune system, and another thing - that fermented foods are a great source of immuno-boosting compounds. I'm sure you know how kimchi is made, and how much of the stuff Koreans eat. Nevertheless, I still wear shoes in the shower, even if I may look like the crazy foreigner.


For more news on the food front, I've had several more new dishes since we last talked. One is a soup called 'shabu shabu', and is pretty good. Although, the soup is mainly broth and vegetables, so it doesn't quite satisfy my protien cravings. But I'm sure it's healthy. My second time having shabu shabu, we went to a buffet which was excellent. And it had chicken and pork dishes, so I left that time full. I went to a 'pan-fried food' restaurant and had an oyster pancake that was very good. I went here with my new Korean friend, Revan. He also introduced me to a Korean rice wine drink called 'makgelry', which is quite good and is drunk from a small bowl - very interesting. And another new food was a pork stew, called 'kam-je-tong'. The pork is actually spine meat, so removing the meat from the bone/vertebrae is a little challenging, but well worth the effort.


I'll be sure to update you again soon & hope you're doing well. Take care,


Matt

One month down, 11 to go..

Hi again. This past Wednesday marked my one month anniversary in my new homecountry! At times, it feels like it's been forever since I got here, but there's also so many things that I've yet to do and see. I've learned countless things and have had so many new experiences. But I have plenty more to look forward to..

So here's my apartment building from the doorstep: On the corner there is a restaurant that I haven't visited yet, so that's another item on the to-do list..

This is a city marker for Yongin in the nearby park:

And here's the E-Mart complex that I've talked so much about:

And a window sign at a local chicken restaurant (see previous post to read about my chicken foot experience). This picture gives you a clue into what part of the chicken they actually serve here. Unfortunately, our chicken foot restaurant didn't have a warning picture like this:

Here's a picture of the back window of a car in my neighborhood. I've actually seen several of this same advertisement for the car customizers. This is a great example of how things are presented in English in Korea. Count the translation errors, and check out the way it's written compared to how a native speaker would write this: (Oh, and another note on this picture, notice the mirror. A lot of the larger cars here have these 'back mirrors', and it's a pretty ingenious idea considering how often they have to back into parking spaces here due to limited space)

Last week, I mentioned a ginseng set of tea and candies that I received from a student. You may be familiar with herbs - before leaving my dad had mentioned Korean ginseng several times. Supposedly, it's pretty effective at increasing overall health and immunity. And it comes at a price, even here in the country where it's from. I visited a local ginseng store this week, where they sell ginseng in 100+ forms. A set like the one I got is rather pricey - so I hope it works! I also found out from the kid that gave it to me, his mother is a dentist. And I'm sure dad also works - so I'm sure the family is well to do..

I haven't mentioned this before: There's an aging system they use here that is different than ours back home, and they call it 'Korean age'. A person when born is already a year old, so what we would consider our first birthday, they turn 2. Furthermore, your age advances at the start of the Julian calendar year to the age that you will turn that year. So for example, my birthday is in July, but on Jan 1, I turn a year older. So in the US, now I would be considered 28 until July when I become 29, I am already 30 here in Korea! And before my year is over here, I will turn 31. So guess I got 1.5 years older when I came to Korea, but luckily will also get just as much younger when I come home!

My most eventful day last week was definitely Thursday, and I'll tell you about a few of the events. The day was for the most part a normal Thursday, until my last class period. It's only a class of 3 kids, but they are a handful! (At that rebellious-don't-wanna-listen-to-authority age). I've struggled with behavior problems from them during these few weeks, and have talked to their former teacher, whose advice was essentially that 'it takes time to build a rapport with this group of kids' and also tells me that it was her least favorite bunch of kids to teach. Well I had already tried several approaches with them during past classes, and nothing has seemed to work. So finally on Thurs, during a particular episode of bad-behavior, I had the head Korean teacher, Susan, pay a visit to the three of them. Susan is a great supervisor, and is extremely nice and cordial with us teachers. But heaven help you if you're on the receiving end of one of her Korean tirades! So after yelling for 5+ minutes, I come back to the class where Susan has the 3 kids apologize to me for their behavior. And for the remainder of class, they were quite the angels! I sort of felt like I used Susan as an immediate crutch, but also definitely think they needed to get smacked in line. We'll see if this better behavior is sustainable..

I came home that evening obiously a little out of sorts. I turned on the TV to a Korean channel, and found a travel program. The show was run by a Korean woman who travels all over the globe in search of interesting places. Guess where she was during this episode? I turned on the show as she was riding the gondola car up Stone Mountain, Georgia! What a strange coincidence to see my hometown on TV from so far away, huh? She went on to visit the Martin Luther King Center and other attractions around Atlanta, and then went on to other states and areas of the Southeast US. The show and her narration were of course in Korean, but she did also conduct several interviews in English. She was a pretty good musician too - she carried a guitar around, and several times sang/played American folk songs. She sang Ray Charles' 'Georgia on My Mind' while on Tybee Island, GA and later played 'Country Roads' while in the Smoky Mtns. In all, I only saw about 25 minutes of the show, but it was a nice reminder of home.

I then went to the gym that night to try out another group exercise class. It was called 'ABT', and I still have no idea what it stands for. The class consisted of about 20 members, and I counted as the second man, and the one and only non-Korean. It was quite the experience and I'm glad I tried it out, but doubt I'll be attending the class again. Another good thing that came out of the evening at the gym was meeting a nice Korean man named Patrick who studied in Toronto. He was very personable and fluent in English, which is not very common to find here. Most people can speak some English, but there are definitely varying degrees of fluency. I could speak very comfortably with Patrick. It turns out he is a minister here, and not sure if I'll ever attend his church, but he should be a good contact nonetheless. I have even run into him again on Sunday in E-Mart. The gym has been a great place to build my network - another good friend I've made is a trainer named Revan. He's from Korea, never been to the US or Canada, but his English is also very good. He's my age, and we've gone out for dinner and drinks a few times.

Speaking of Sunday night, when I ran into Patrick, I was on my way to see the movie Avatar. I did already see this in Atlanta before leaving (and saw it in 3-D, which is very cool). The theater is also in the E-Mart building, and has 8 screens. All the movies are in English, and have Korean subtitles. I've a feeling that I'll see quite a few movies here.

I've found a new food addiction. I was already hooked on several Korean dishes, especially one being the barbeque (called Galbi). It is so good and cheap too! I went to several Korean BBQ restaurants in Atlanta, and was lucky to leave a meal with a bill under $20 a head. The galbi restaurants here all charge 8,000 won or less (less than $8)! So I've happened on these waffles that they sell (also in, of course, the E-Mart building). They're just plain waffles, but covered in cream and honey. My theory is that they also put some drug in the batter. These are huge waffles, and cost 1,000 won (about $.85).

So that's all for now, but I'll be in touch! We have another 3-day weekend coming up too, so I hope to have some good stories for you.

Take care!

Matt

Week 3

Hi again and Happy New Year!


It feels like I've finally fallen into a rhythm here with the job. It's definitely been easier this week, which has let me enjoy things a bit more. And on an even better note - this weekend was a 3 day break! Offices are closed on Monday for Lunar New Year. This is apparently a pretty big holiday here, as most Koreans go home to visit family, and everyone has been exchanging gifts. I got a very nice Korean wine set from the boss, Mr. Yoon, and another 2 very good gifts from students. It was much more common for us teachers to get gifts from the younger students (you were kinda SOL if you only teach the older kids!). The 2 I got were from my younger class - 9 year olds. Here's a picture of the gifts (set of ginseng tea and candies, the wine set, and a couple of really good cake loaves):

















A group of teachers hold a weekly discussion meeting where we get together to talk about all kinds of interesting topics (culture, politics, business, etc). We had our last meeting on Wed night. It meets at 9:30, so to kill some time after work and before the meeting, a coworker, Stephanie, and I went to grab some food. Stephanie is quite good with Korean - can read it well and talks a good bit with Koreans. Well, we found the 'chicken' section on the menu and found a picture that looked good. It looked spicy, like maybe buffalo wings, and was topped with cheese. Sounds good, right? So the dish comes and my reaction was that it looked pretty good, but the meat didn't look like chicken. I said to Stephanie, 'looks like squid'. So we go about eating, and the flavor was very good, but the meat was a little crunchy. So several minutes go by, and we've eaten about half of the dish, when Stephanie remembers that Koreans eat some parts of chicken that we may consider unappetizing - such as appendages, like feet. Quite suddenly, we were full. After we paid and were leaving, Stephanie rereads the menu to check on our dinner. Sure enough, there was the Korean word for 'foot'. Well, at least now I can cross 'eat chicken feet' from my bucket list.


Here's several pictures of my neighborhood and apartment, which isn't huge, but is very adequate for my needs:
























































When home, I usually keep the thermostat at 24C (approx 75F), which is very cozy. The heating is done through a process called ondol floors - which is heating the floor, and thereby warming the air in the entire room. Very efficient, and very nice to have warm toes too.







And here's the bathroom. It's a common Korean design that the shower is not separated from the sink and toilet, so as you can guess, everything gets soaked when the shower head is turned on!











If you were wondering, it's still frigid cold most days here. It did warm up for a day or two, but was snowing several days later in the week, and into the weekend. The heat in my apartment is very good though. I turn it down during the days when I'm gone, but usually the temperature only falls 2 or 3 degrees. The heat systems here are very nice - they heat the floors, and the warm air fills the room. We also take off shoes inside, so the floors are extra nice. The insulation isn't great, but doesn't need to be since the floors are very good at retaining their heat.



I've discovered a new reason to love the E-Mart. They have a food court outside of the lower floor, and the food is very good and inexpensive. There are 6 vendors in the court, and it did take a little effort to figure out how to order. You place your order at a register near the entrance of the court, and of course none of the writing is English. But luckily, several meals on the menu have numbers beside them (and they all have pictures), so I was able to find something and type the number in my phone and show that to the cashier. Then you get a ticket with a number on it, and wait for a place to cook the food, and your number flashes up on a screen. Kind of like a huge deli.


As for nightlife: I ventured outside of our town, Dongbaek, for my first 'long-distance' night on the town. Friday night went to a nearby town, Bundang, with 2 coworkers. Bundang is about a 50 minute trip from Dongbaek - you take a bus, then transfer to a subway. But since there were 3 of us, we just shared a taxi, and got there in about 15 minutes! They have a big shopping plaza there, and tons of restaurants and bars. We went to an English pub that had some great nachos, and was definitely the first time I've been the whitest person in a place like that.. We later ended up at a dance club advertised as a 'clubby bar', and was exactly how I had imagined an Asian dance club. Wall to wall people, bone-jarring rythmic music, and lights and lasers galore. Oh, and was of course filled with smoke, like most places here. It was really cool. I was also hoping to make a second visit to the local norebang room, but it was closed this weekend. Norebang is awesome - karaoke in private rooms. This one has very nice rooms, like your own personal luxury box seats. There was a fun place in Atlanta like this on, appropriately, Buford Highway.



Also this weekend, I did some exploring and picture-taking around Yongin, but I'll save those pictures for the next post. I'll also try to take in my camera one day to school this week to take pictures of some of my students.


Until later - take care..


Matt

Week 2

Aneyo-haseo ('hello' in Korean, a more accurate translation would be 'well doing?')


Well my first full week as an official English teacher is over. I'm teaching 13 classes throughout the week & it wasn't easy the first few days, but they say the first week is the toughest - now it should get easier now that I'm familiar with the material and all the students.


I lost my voice on the first day! I went to the doctor in our building between classes, and it was quite an experience. He diagnosed it as just a common cold (certainly due to new weather & conditions, being around kids, and stress never helps either). It was very interesting to see Korean medical care firsthand - say what you want about socialized medicine, but this was very efficient, effective, and also very inexpensive. The doctor cleaned me out and gave me some medication for the week. Not exactly sure what everything was (I've been taking 14 pills a day), but it definitely worked well, and I'm feeling much better now. So also on Monday, a co-teacher had a burst appendix! I was there at the hospital as she got rolled into surgery. She ended up staying there 6 nights. Her medical care was quick & cheap. The stay was only about $16 US per night! And the procedure was probably 1/10th of what it would cost back home..

Taken last week, here some other of my favorite pictures from Seoul:

Palaces:

















Seoul Tower:









Street vendors and restaurants:

And here's a picture of my first authentic Korean meal on my first day here:

You see many street performances over here. It's very interesting to see how modern most things are - architecture, new development, etc. But also, all throughout the streets and public areas, they have performances that highlight Korean tradition (drummers, military ceremonies, etc). Here's one of them, which appeared to be some sort of changing of the guard:

I also saw my first Korean cultural performance last weekend. Yeah, I work with more than a dozen women, so we saw a ballet - Cinderella. One of the other foreign teachers, Stephanie, had gotten the tickets for a group of us. It was at the Seoul Art Center, which is about a 45 minute busride from where I am in Yongin. The ballet was very interesting & was similar to our version, but wasn't the American Cinderella (there were several differences in plot, characters, etc). And of course, the supertitle translation was pretty amusing sometimes. You would have to see it to understand, but trust me, it was funny. One good example was the storyline about one foreign land when the prince was travelling to look for Cinderella. The land was inhabited by 'pleasure superintendents' (not exactly sure what this meant, but it sounds dirty!).


The tap water here tastes horrible - everyone drinks bottled water. They advise against drinking the water, for fear of contamination. But I know several people that do drink it, and they've been fine. The tap water I have drank, I boiled it first, but the taste is still very there. I've found that tea somewhat hides it, but still not entirely. So I've stocked up on water from the local grocery store (E-Mart), and it is very inexpensive - less than 3,000 won (about $2 US) for a six pack of 2 liter bottles.


I've fallen in love with E-Mart. As a matter of fact, I have seen several E-Marts in metro Atlanta, and it must be the same company, because these stores are also Korean. Or maybe it's another company started in the US by Korean immigrants who wanted to keep some familiarity from home.. So E-Mart is awesome - it's like a Super Wal-Mart or Super Target, just much better. This one is just across the street from my apartment, and is in a 10 story building. E-Mart occupies 2 of the floors, and has anything you could ever want or need - full grocery store, electronics dept, home furnishings, clothing, media.. When shopping, I can usually get by with 'hello' (see above), and 'Cahm Sahm Ni Da', which is thank you.

I finally joined the local gym on Sunday. It's in the same building as E-Mart, and is a really nice facility with lots of new equipment. They even give a really nice discount to us foreigners! The gym manager speaks English, but he's the only one I've met so far. They offer many exercise classes everyday during the week - yoga, aerobics, abs, spinning, etc. Eddie, our school manager, also mentioned that he has a bicycle at school that he doesn't use. I'm looking forward to start biking again once it warms up in the next few months. It should also be a great way to explore the local area.

So in these few entries, I've given you a really brief overview of my experiences here. I have a few more ideas for future posts, but let me know if you'd like to hear more about something, or maybe something I haven't talked about.



Hope you enjoyed it and talk to you soon!



Anyongi-kseo (Goodbye, or 'Go in Peace')



Matt

End of Week 1

Well my first full week is over here in Korea & it went very well. I spent the week mostly observing other teachers to get a feel for it, and started doing practical teachings Thursday and Friday. Also on Friday, I had to fill in for a Korean teacher who was out for the day, and took two of her classes. It gave me an appreciation for doing this for 7-8 hours day after day! I hope that I can make it for a year!

I'm really glad I came a few days early. It was great to get partially aquainted with Korea, get over jet lag, see Seoul, meet new friends, etc. I first stayed over in Incheon near the airport (the Incheon Int'l Airport) for 2 nights. Here's 2 pictures of the place where I stayed in Incheon. Then I stayed in northern Seoul for 3 nights, at a Guest House near the Anguk substation. This is said to be one of the best places in Seoul for a first-time visitor. Anguk station is just next to several historical palaces. Here's also a picture of a palace nearby.

My school is a hagwon, which is a private English academy, where the students come in addition to their usual public school. There are many companies and branches throughout the country that support this demand. And there is quite the need for English teachers here in Korea. Our company is the Sogang Learning Program Institute, part of Sogang University. SLP has been operating here in Korea for several years now. Our location is in the province of Gyeonggi, city of Yongin, and the area of Dongbaek. We're about an hour busride south of Seoul. Our school is referred to as 'Dongbaek SLP'. The school is really nice & is very well managed and supported. Any mail for me should be sent to my name and the school's address, which is:

SLP Yongin Dongbaek

Wooham Bldg 7FL 2505-3

Dongbaek-dong, Kiheung-ku

Yongin, Gyeonggi-Do

South Korea 446-911

- This is not a solicitation to send things, because I really have no idea how $$ it would be to send mail here..

The director (principal) of our school is Mr. Yoon, who has been a great boss. The manager of the school is another great guy named Eddie. I found out this week that Eddie (Yoon) is the nephew of director Yoon.. Eddie picked me up in Seoul on Monday morning. Here's a picture from the pickup:

As for our school's demographics, there are 3 men here: Eddie, Mr. Yoon, and now myself! I've never been in quite a female-centered workplace. Everyone seemed excited to know that a male teacher was coming, since apparently they haven't had one in quite a while.

Here I am on the first day in the lobby of SLP:


I'll have a pretty nice schedule - teaching the elementary and middle school ages in the afternoon/evening shift from 1-8.

Before coming over here, I was warned about the Korean winters - and rightfully so! The winds come directly down from Siberia & are fierce! Seoul was definitely colder than Yongin though, so it's a bit better here. But it's also still rarely above 10C.. I have no desire to go outside when it's dark here & gets below 0 degrees!

I've really liked the Korean food. But I've also yet to find any food that I don't like, so that may not be saying much. Their barbeque (Galbi) is great, and they always have lots of really good veggies and extra sides with everything (and yes, which always includes some form of kimchi!). During my time here I've also had some really good Italian food, and even some Indian this past weekend.

It hasn't been all fun & games though - certain aspects of living in a foreign country have been a bit daunting. Not speaking the local language is of course a huge problem sometimes. Luckily, my phone has a Korean/English dictionary function that comes in rather handy at times. The first week I was here I didn't have a cell phone, which showed me how much I rely on one of those! My new number is: 010-5062-7672, and the country code for Korea is +82. I wouldn't say any of the culture shock has prevented me from doing or attempting to do anything though - I've just had mild confidence issues I guess you'd say. The little bit of Korean I have learned, I feel too timid at times to use it for fear of mis-pronouncing things. I've also had to build up some considerable courage before going into new places when by myself (mainly restaurants).. :P They say these things are just a normal part of the process.

I've been in several areas of Seoul now & it's huge! I've walked the streets, visited palaces and museums, and seen a bit of the nightlife. I've gotten pretty comfortable with the subway system. It's still difficult when I don't know exactly where I'm going, and still can't read Hangul either.. The overall transit system with the subways, trains, and buses is excellent. Here are a few pics from the streets of Seoul:

I had one really cool encounter while on the streets of Seoul, which was a nice welcoming experience. I was just walking around taking pictures, and was standing on a busy street corner. A large group of kids walked by & all said 'hello' and 'how are you' (in English), I replied, and they kept walking. They came back over & wanted to do a little interview - they were a high school class & wanted to ask me some questions. One girl was the spokesperson, while several of the other kids were taking pictures of me & recording videos. It was a little intimidating at first, but quite the experience to feel like a pseudo-celebrity :)

Before leaving GA, I found some good souvenirs to bring for people at the school. Stuff like Georgia pecans, Georgia Aquarium bookmarks & pencils, and a UGA Bulldog beanie. I also found some trinkets for American holidays (not really knowing what they do/don't celebrate - it turns out they do celebrate upcoming Valentine's Day). I brought stuff for St. Patty's Day, Mardi Gras, Easter bunnies, and some American flags & decorations for July.

That's all for now & I'll keep you updated.

Take care!

Matt

Second Day in a New Land

- Originally posted via Facebook on 1/21/2010

Hello from the Land of the Morning Calm!

Well the sun has set on my second day here, and things have gone well so far. And I only expect things to improve.. :)

I got here yesterday at 530PM, after leaving from Atlanta at 530AM (on the previous day!). So it was looong, to say the least. I haven't traveled internationally much, but have taken a few transatlantic flights. Flying across the Pacific from the eastern US is a totally different ballgame! So on the 15+ hour leg from California to here, I got stuck with a window seat in a row of 3 (obviously it was a bit cramped). Although they did serve excellent food on the plane, and much better than I expected. We had some great Korean bibimbap, probably even better than the same type meal I had today for lunch!

I spoke to my new boss last night after getting settled. My apartment won't be ready for me until Monday, so I'll be staying in a hotel for another week or so until then. These first two nights have been in a place near the airport, and is run by a friendly man named Kwon. He speaks English pretty well, and has been a big help for me while I get acquainted. Tomorrow I'll be moving to a different place in Seoul, and staying there for another portion of my 'homeless phase'. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with a few friends here before our first work meeting on Mon morning. It may also take that long to get over this jet lag - it's an odd feeling as I write this at 9 o'clock at night, and feel both exhausted and wide awake at the same time. Kind of recalls those 0400 mornings in college while writing papers.. Although this could also be partly due to the espresso I drank to keep from falling asleep :)

I watched my first authentic Korean TV last night. They do have several English channels, but one can only watch 'Two and a Half Men' so many times, and I'm pretty sure I already reached my limit years ago (and actually only saw it a couple times). So I passed on the Fox channel and the Australian channel, and flipped to some sort of game show network. No idea what they were saying or what it was about, but it did give a sense of amusement/belonging/confusion to my first night in a new country.

Not much else yet to update. I'm planning to post these notes periodically, which should get more interesting as I get better material, and also have a place to actually use my computer to upload some pictures.

Until then,