A Brief Holiday Greeting

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas ended up feeling like Christmas despite being away from so many friends and my usual family gathering in Iowa. I think this was mostly due to our special Christmas events at school. On Monday and Tuesday before Christmas we had short classes to make time for crafts and games for each group of students. We made ornaments out of pipe cleaners and beads, wrote wishlists, and played school-wide BINGO.

There seems to be some general confusion in Korea as to how to play BINGO, mostly because BINGO in Korea refers to what we know as tic-tac-toe. When we played (actual) BINGO for Christmas, every class got a giant BINGO board and the director read words over the PA system. Instead of drawing words from a hat, he just read a BINGO board straight out, so in some of my classes, we got instant BINGO. Just not fun. And he read "free space," which was just adorable. Not to mention his (mis)pronunciations of some of the words made me want to hug him.

These are actually my three most impossible girls. Don't let looks fool you.

A surprising number of students demanded a Christmas present from me, which I was not expecting. One girl named Bini actually got really worked up and threw a mini fit when I told her I didn't have a present for her. I was also joking with Sophia and Julie that I would buy them whatever they wanted for Christmas. I told them a smart phone and tablet would be no problem. Then they got really offended when I told them I was just kidding. I figured that was pretty obviously a joke, but I should know by now that a lot of my jokes are lost on my students.

I did get two huge tins of Christmas butter cookies from two of my students. They also wrote me cards, and I loved Daniels so much...

"Dear medlin.E
Hello this is Daniel in Nina
class. I like to study english
in your class. I envy you
because tall and thin. Thank you
for teaching me.
I want wisH you a merry
Cristmas.
from Daniel"

I can always rely on my students to give me the best compliments and also the worst comments. "Teacher, why do you always wear the same shoes?" "Teacher ugly" (just a common greeting) "Teacher dirty" (the two most commonly used words by elementary school students)

Besides my massive excess of butter cookies, I also received random offerings of snacks and candy. Everyday, my students hand me little candies or shrimp crispy things, or whatever they happen to be eating. But on Christmas I think they felt a little more giving. Poor Dylan I'm pretty sure just handed over his snack for the day (a granola bar) when he saw that other students were giving me things.

My drama queens doing some serious model poses. I was uncomfortable.

 

 

 

 

Sassy Sophia and Emily abusing Emily

Showing off their pipe cleaner bracelets

I am Dylan. Hear me roar.

We also had a gift exchange with all of the teachers and staff. The director got pretty territorial over some gifts, so as with all disputes in Korea, we settled it with rock scissor paper (gawi bawi bo).

Gawi Bawi Bo!

메리 크리스마스 (meli keuliseumaseu)!

On Christmas Day, we had a dinner party potluck at Emily's apartment. Adam and Calum picked up rotisserie chickens at Costco, which were amazing! I made eggnog which I was extremely proud of. It was so much better than store bought. Pat on back. And Emily made everyone stockings with a Christmas poem and candy. She is the greatest! So Christmas was spent with good people, amazing food, and card games. Happy Birthday, Jesus.

The day after Christmas we started winter intensives (I teach two more classes a day, so seven total) and work 10-11 hour days. This is because students are on winter vacation so their parents enroll them in more academy classes. So much for the month-long vacation I am used to at home.

Settlers of Catan and Cats

My first week of teaching is over!

I have a new-found respect for all of the teachers I had growing up. American kids give their teachers such a hard time, but Korean students are way more respectful. I think they are also super intimidated by my height; they just stare at me when I walk by in the halls and mutter, "teachaaaah...so tall." Also, my students only understand 10% of what I say, so I can get away with a lot more here. I can make little jokes in class that only I can understand. It's kind of fun.

The only negative is that Big Brother is always watching. Every classroom has CCTV cameras, so the director of my campus or Avalon headquarters can listen/watch my classes at any time. Apparently headquarters was watching all campuses the first week and they told our head teacher that our campus needs to work on classroom management. I have also been told that the Avalon CEO has a massive projector screen in his office so that he can be constantly watching different campuses. It is really intimidating not knowing when someone might be listening to everything I am saying. Not that I am trying to brainwash my students, but I am not used to being monitored like this.

Friday night all of the foreign teachers from my school went to a 말 티 방 Multi-bang (pronounced bahng) in Chenho. In Korea, living with one's parents is common even in adulthood. That's where this "bang" culture comes in. The word "bang" (방) means "room," and in Korea that usually equates to privacy. There are many different types of entertainment and activity bangs.

1. Jjimjilbang (찜 질 방) is a Korean spa or public bathhouse. For about 10,000 won (less than $10) you'll get a change of clothes, towels, showers, and access to saunas and hot tubs, and even a room with a sleeping mat where you can take a nap or spend the night (these are popular places to go after a night of drinking if you can't make it home). You can also pay a little extra for a massage. Most also have communal snack bars, wide-screen TVs, exercise rooms, ice rooms, PC bang, and noraebang. Most jjimjilbangs are open 24 hours and are a popular weekend getaway for Korean families.
2. PCbang is an Internet cafe. Korea has a huge gaming culture, and some of the world's best gamers start out in PCbangs. You can also go for the cheap Internet access if you don't mind the game sound effects and rowdy kids. 
3. DVDbang is a DVD room or essentially a home theater with surround sound, a huge projection screen, comfy couch/bed, and tons of DVDs to choose from. They sometimes have a reputation for being cheap options for young people that can't afford hotel (or love motel) rooms.
4. Noraebang (노 래 방) is a karaoke room. Noraebangs are the most well known of all the bangs and can be found on every block in Seoul. These are, of course, private karaoke rooms where you can sing the latest K-pop songs and drink.
5. Manhwabang (만 화 방) is a comic room where kids can read all the comics their hearts desire. 
6. Gamebang (게 임 방) is where you can get together with friends and play board games and cards. There are usually free snacks and you can buy drinks.
7. Peulseubang (플 스 방) is a Playstation room.
8. Multibang (멀 티 방) is the godfather of all bangs. You can watch movies, play video games (Wii/Playstation), sing karaoke, watch TV, play computer games, surf the Internet, play board games, etc. 

The Multibang we went to on Friday night was inside of an arcade. The cost for everyone was 28,000 won for two hours, and we brought our own fried chicken and beer. Just a side note, the fried chicken here is phenomenal, way better than any fried chicken I have had in the States. There are tons and tons of restaurants that only sell "Chicken and Beer!" and every place prepares it a little differently.

We enjoyed a game of Catan with Avengers playing in the background.

Afterwards we went to a glow bar with unlimited drinks for 15,000 won. We didn't drink a lot because all of the drinks were super sweet. Korea repeatedly fools me by sweetening foods I expect to be savory (like sandwiches and crackers) and leaving sugar out of desserts (the cake is not sweet at all and I once ate a very bizarre nut-covered donut).

Saturday we went to Myeongdong (large shopping district in Seoul) in search of the only known store with size 10 shoes: Payless. After searching for a long time, we learned that it had recently closed. Emily and our friend Bethany ended up buying Toms from the men's shelf of a Korean shoe store.

Kitty catnip craze

We decided to relax in a cafe, and ended up choosing a cat cafe. Korea has cat cafes and dog cafes where animals can be watched and played with. The concept is both genius and totally bizarre. It is basically supervised indoor pet rental for people who don't have enough space or time to own a pet. We paid an 8,000 won "cover" that included a free coffee. The rules: be careful with the blue collar cats, no flash photography, and no picking up the cats. At one point, a girl that worked there sprinkled catnip on the rugs and all of the cats swarmed and went crazy.

I thought it would smell bad and have cat hair everywhere, but they keep it really clean. They also provide lint rollers and bags for your jackets if you want to protect them from cat hair.

Lots of grumpy smushed-face cats

They also have toys and towers for the cats to climb.

This cat preferred to snuggle with Emily's computer

All the cats loved this Korean couple

Hello friend or should I say 안 녕 하 세 요

This fluffernutter liked my scarf

Later that night, I went to Itaewon (neighborhood surrounding the US military base full of expats and all things Western) for an art Meetup group. It was at Jankura Artspace, and I thought the event was sketching a live model, but it ended up being a special event. There was wine tasting, comedy, poetry readings, music, and free sketching. So basically we sketched the performers "in motion" as they were performing. It cost 15,000 won and I used their materials for sketching. It was an interesting night, but a nice chance to interact with other foreigners and make some art.

Now it's Sunday and time to decompress before another busy week.

No longer living in a love motel!

I have been in Seoul exactly 18 days and I am alive! Sick...but alive.

I had to drop $60 on a humidifier today (after some punk sold me a useless one on craigslist) because it is so dry here! I'm pretty sure that is why I am sick and it is near impossible to teach a class of squirming elementary school students with a hoarse voice.

Let me catch you up on several events since I arrived:

For my first two weeks here, my school paid for me to stay at Motel Prince, as I mentioned earlier. What I did not mention was that this is a love motel. Guests can literally pay by the hour and you can guess exactly what they are used for: teenage meetups, secret rendez-vous, and marital affairs. The place was pretty packed on the weekends and we learned not to make eye contact as people rushed out of the elevator with their heads down, not wanting to be recognized. It really wasn't as dramatic as I am describing, most of the time Emily and I had the floor to ourselves.

I have since moved into my own studio apartment near the National Police Hospital subway stop in Garak-dong (dong = neighborhood) Songpa-gu (gu = district) of Seoul. I took over the apartment from the foreign teacher at my school that I am replacing. Our school pays for our apartments, which is really nice. I do still have to pay building fees, electricity, and internet though.

Classic washing machine under the stove

Since I took over my apartment from another teacher, almost everything I needed was already there. Avalon (the company I work for) also delivered a huge box of supplies with bedding, cleaning supplies, kitchen items, bath towels, etc.

I am teaching at Langcon (the elementary-only branch of Avalon) Songpa campus. I had training at another campus about an hour away by subway with all other new teachers. This was a surprisingly well organized and informative service. We were trained by the Avalon HR department and got to meet other teachers that were just starting at different campuses. Training was in the morning for several hours for about four days. After training, we (me and Emily, the other new teacher at my school) would head back to Songpa (our campus) and shadow teachers during their classes. In training, we learned the Avalon and Langcon curricula,  had a crash course in Hangul (the Korean alphabet), and presented a lesson for "mock teaching" on the final day.

Emily and I both arrived on the same day, both stayed at the Prince, and are both the new teachers at our campus. It has been extremely useful being able to do everything with another new person: going to training, getting our bank accounts and alien registration, trying to find places to eat...

There are five foreign teachers and five Korean teachers at my school. There is also a Korean director who reports to headquarters and oversees everything at the campus. In Korean business hierarchy, he is God. There are two things you should know about working in Korea.

1. First, hierarchy is extremely important in business. Korean social structure is based on respecting your elders, which is so deeply embedded in the culture that the most difficult part of learning Korean is sorting through the honorifics. For example, it would be extremely disrespectful to bring something up to the boss that you should bring up to your manager, who would then report to the boss. Everything makes its way slowly up or down the chain of command, no matter how inefficient.
2. Second, schools are run like businesses - for profit. I work at a hagwon, which is a private academy that specializes in teaching English. Parents pay a lot of money to send their children to different hagwons after the regular school day is over. Because college admissions are so competitive, students are basically preparing to enter university from the time they are in kindergarten. A hagwon is basically like a really expensive YMCA or Boys and Girls Club. Because the market is so competitive, the director is under a lot of pressure to keep up enrollment. This means pleasing parents at all costs. This may mean placing a student who barely knows English phonics in a class discussing the science of perception because the mother doesn't want her child in a low level class.

These are just a couple of things that contribute to the work dynamic in Korea. I should probably say that even though I am presenting a lot of these differences in a negative light, I can see the value in the Korean system and respect the way they do business. It is just so very different from the collaborative, open workplaces I am used to.  

I can say a lot more about this topic, but this is becoming a very boring post, so I will save that for later. Here are some pictures of some of the things I have been up to recently...

Namsan Tower with Andy - the highest point in Seoul

View from the mountain

Myeong-dong: the busiest shopping district in Seoul

Emily, Bekah, and I at Rock Bar in Hongdae

Just a great hotel advertisement woo

Eating pumpkin pie with chopsticks on Thanksgiving at work

New desk and double chins

"suffering much"...this is so Korea

Totally normal names for candy bars: Crunky and Ghana

This was Thanksgiving night actually, so we classed it up a little after Burger King for lunch. We splurged on an imported wine (any wine here is super expensive, like $15 for two buck Chuck quality). We also tried Korean wine, or as I like to describe it, grape Jolly Ranchers dissolved in port.

Kayla eating bulgogi udon that we always order in for lunch

KOREAN FOOD IS AMAZING!!!!

Chamchi jumokbap - rice ball filled with tuna rolled in seaweed

My go-to meal: dolsot bibimbap (Korean rice "salad" in hot stone bowl)

Jjinmandu (dumplings - one of my favorite Korean foods), dolsot bibimbap, dubu kimchi (tofu and kimchi), some udon soup, and a ton of sides

All Korean food comes with side dishes. This always includes kimchi and usually includes several others like dried anchovies, pickled radish, onion soup, Korean spinach, fishcakes, mung bean sprouts, and rice. Also, Koreans use metal chopsticks and long metal spoons for soups.

 Bed time! More later!