Adventures from around the World

Oh wow am I tired….this whole teaching thing really takes up a lot of your time and energy….you have to be so energetic when dealing with kids….it makes me really feel for the ES teachers in Canada.

Anyhow….to catch-up, I did end up climbing the mountain…if you can even call it a mountain, its about 1500m, so really I guess it is more like a big hill…but they call it a mountain here, so a mountain it will be.  So I climbed the mountain for the first time on Thursday the 30th of August.  Now I mentioned that I was going to hike on the Wednesday, and that was the plan, only it rained, so the plan got pushed back until Thurday.   The hike was really nice, part of the hill is a road, and part (the majority) is trail.  The trail is half steps and half terrain and it takes about 45 minutes to climb to the top.  The only let down is that there is not a very nice view at the top, due to an abundance of really tall, really lush evergreens.  But no bother  it is still very serene.  At the top there is a a weather station and some benches.  On the benches I have taken to reading, which is very nice.

On the friday, I went to school.  Even though it was officially the first day of classes after summer holidays, I did not have to teach.  Instead they sat me at a computer and had me plan my first lesson.  The problem with that was that I had already planned my first lesson at home since I had feared that I would have to teach on the Friday.  So I basically cleaned up any loose ends for the first classes and I checked emails and facebook, etc.  There was a staff meeting where I was introduced.  It was kinda weird because my co-teacher had me write out a bunch of information about myself, which she translated for the principal, who read it at the meeting.  The weird part came afterwards when they asked me to say a few words.  The entire faculty is staring at me and I begin to speak, when I realise that they have no clue as to what I am saying…I could have called them all a bunch of goat smegma and their faces would remain blank.  Oh well, the meeting wasn’t all bad.  One of the teachers at my table asked my co-teacher if I was a teenager….and this is coming from an Asian….let me tell you how super I felt!  The vice-principal let me go home early - around 4 - though he made it very clear that this was an exception and that it would never happen again.   So I went home, changed and climbed the mountain again.

On saturday it was raining (the beginning of a mighty long stretch of rain I should add).  I also woke up with a terrible case of lonliness.  It was not that I was homesick per say.  It was more that I missed human contact.  It is weird being in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language.  There are 300 000 people in Mokpo, and the city is very compact, so there are people everywhere, bumping into you, looking at you, even shouting things at you, but you feel entirely alone.  You are an island….I had not been able to have a full conversation with anyone, and even the kids who said hello, were unable to answer any of my follow-up questions (like how old are you? what grade are you in?).  The other trouble was that I was unable to attend any of the way-gook (foreigner) events for a lack of cash.  Its not that I am short cash, I have funds I just can’t seem to get physical bills.  My credit cards that I was relying on don’t seem to work in the bank machines, they work in the few stores that accept them (like e-mart) but nowhere else. 
Anyway, I ended up spending most of Saturday in my apartment, sulking and watching movies.  Then I watched something, a bonus feature to one of the movies, and it said that true happiness can be discovered by going outside.  Feeling like it was speaking to me directly, I took the advice and I went outside.  There happened to be a break in the rain at this moment, and I decided to climb the mountain, yet again, and read.  Once I reached the top, my heart pounding, legs shaking, brow sweating, it hit me… I was happy, truly happy.  My lonliness had disapeared and everything was wonderful yet again. 
I stayed up on the hill slightly too long and it was getting dark by the time I decended.  Since the trail is through forest, there was a hint of Blair Witch to the whole ordeal.  Nevertheless I was content enough to not let that bother me.  When I reached the street it began to rain.  I put up my umbrella, turned on the ipod and walk towards my home, when I was approach by two females, waygooks also, who started asking me about the music, what I was doing, how long I was going to be in Mokpo, and whether or not I could speak Korean.  Since I was starved for a good conversation, and since I am not completely rude, I answered their questions.  It turned out that they were in fact mormons, out spreading the gospel….there really is no escape, but they were friendly and it was nice to just talk to someone.  On the way home I stopped at E-mart, and bought, along with some other items, the Audrey shirt.

Sunday was rainy….a heavy rain all day, so I stayed at home watching movies, doing laundry, and cleaning the house.  I have watched every movie I brought with me at least once and I am yearning for more.  My mom has promised to send some in my box, which should be here soon….I can’t wait. 

I found out my postal code, so I now know my full address:

Shanda Suggitt
1008 SeongGwang JeonWon Officetel
Mokpo City, Jeollanamdo
South Korea, 530-420

So now you can start sending me stuff!

Also if you want me to send you a letter or present or whatnot please post your address!

Thanks

On Tuesday, I went to the school…yay I didn’t get lost!  The principal was in the teacher’s lounge when I arrived.  He is an older man, but also very nice and he really loved his gift, and said that he would treat it as a special present.  My co-teacher and VP seemed to enjoy their gifts as well.  The principal took me to lunch, with some other teachers.  We ate at this traditional Korean restaurant and sat on the floor, cross legged…this gets very uncomfortable after a while.  The meal was very good, but the food kept coming and they kept telling me to eat, so I was so full by the end of the meal.  Afterwards I was told that I didn’t need to be back at school until Friday.  So I went home and changed into something cooler and then went for a bike ride around the city.  I went down to the water and then circled the mountain in the old part of the city before returning to the new part and to e-mart to pick up some things that I realised that I needed.  One of these things was garbage bags…in Korea you have to buy special bags that are ridiculously expensive to throw away your garbage.  The expense is because the price includes the cost of disposal…very clever.  I looked around the store, at the clothes mostly, and what did I find, but an Audrey Hepburn t-shirt…the image was her as the princess in Roman Holiday, the t-shirt was full of bling (like most clothing here) and it was only $10.  But I did not buy, I told myself that if I lose some more weight by the time my bank account is opened (and my settlement allowance deposited) I will buy the shirt J.  On that note I should mention that I have lost a fair amount of weight during my week here.  After converting the weight on the scale from kg to lbs I realised that I have lost 6 lbs … yay me!
When I was leaving e-mart this child round the age of 7 jumped on to the back of my bike and demanded that I take him for a ride.  I obliged for a little bit but kicked him off before I had to cross the street…it was so odd.  Could you imagine anything like that happening in Canada? 
Too full to eat I just settled in for the night by watching a couple of movies…including Roman Holiday to commemorate the shirt J  In between the movies I did a little yoga and the Audrey’s on a mat that I had bought earlier.  I was sweating buckets, it was literally like a glaze, but I had a good time.
On Wednesday I woke up with the intention of going hiking in the mountains and going for another bike ride.  Unfortunately it rained a crazy rain almost all day so instead I did some work, watched movies and just relaxed.  Tomorrow I have decided that I will hike and bike J
Shanda

Monday arrived. We had until 10am to pack before we had to meet the co-teachers.  I felt like I was a puppy in a pet store, waiting to be picked…it was a little disconcerting when nobody picks you L.  But as it turns out, my co-teacher was a little late so I didn’t get to meet her until the end of the closing ceremony.  It was only for a moment, and all she did was apologise for being late, but I knew instantly that things would be good.  Soo is bright and bubbly.  She laughs a lot, is quite young, and speaks excellent English.  She actually studied in Vancouver for 6 months and then took the train to Toronto, stopping at all the major cities along the way.  After lunch she and my vice-principal, who is also very nice but who speaks very little English, drove me to Mokpo, about an hour and a half from Gwangju.  Soo and I talked the whole time, it was wonderful.  The VP said that I looked smart J.  We arrived at the school, which is huge; there are 1000 students and ~35-40 per class.  The school was built 8 years ago, and though it seems like the facilities are beautiful and up-to-date, I was told that it is an old school.  The only downside is that there is no A/C.  This is actually a large downside, you see I don’t know if I have mentioned the heat, but it is hot and humid (think 30degrees plus 50% humidity = perma-sweat – I am sweating from places I didn’t know could sweat). So that should be fun to work in.  However, the teacher’s lounge IS air conditioned and since I will be spending about half my working week there, I should be alright.  Let me tell you a few things about the school:
I will be teaching grades 3-6, grades 3 and 4 once per week, grades 5 and 6 twice per week.
This amounts to 20 hours per week
I switch between two co-teachers every other week, so I only see the students once or twice every two weeks.
I teach from a CD-rom so my lessons are basically planned for me (score)
School doesn’t start until the 31st so I have a few days to just chill
The other teachers are very nice, there is a mix of young and old, but everyone is friendly
Once I saw the school, we went and applied for my alien registration card (immigration) and I was taken to my apartment…I was told that the principal was busy so I had to wait until Tuesday to meet him. 
I moved into my new apartment and it is fantastic.  It is very small, I will be frank with you there, but it is new clean and just enough space for me.  I have never lived entirely on my own so if it was too big I feared I would have felt very alone.  There was a girl living here before me and she left me a wonderful amount of stuff: an iron, bicycle, hair drier, DVDs, books, a scale, and a plethora of little things that I cannot remember entirely.  The bike is really cool, its pink and white and it is really ghetto.  It also has a basket in front and a carrying rack on the back.  This made my first trip to the e-mart pretty easy…..the e-mart is like walmart, in that it sells everything! But it is actually more of a super market (its where Koreans do most of their shopping) with clothes, toys, electronics, appliances, homewears, cosmetics…..its a pretty crazy place.  Now let me explain grocery shopping to you because it is not exactly like what we have at home.  Now I don’t know if you are like me, but I love sample day in the grocery store.  You get to stroll through the isles and casually eat and drink one or two things along the way…fantastic I would say.  Here it is ALWAYS sample day…but its not one or two items there is nearly one per isle, a few in produce and some in meat.  Now these are not casual tasting….oh no!  The sample people yell and really try and convince you to buy the product….it is really crazy….but once you get over the yelling you realise that you can actually eat an entire meal here…EVERYDAY!!! I mean why buy anything? I ended up spending a couple of hours in e-mart before heading home for the night. Heading home was interesting, I can see e-mart from my apartment and it only took a couple of minutes to bike there….but somehow I managed to get lost on the way back.  I took a slightly different root back to the apartment and I turned too soon, so after wandering into a bunch of apartment buildings that weren’t mine, and circling the block a few times I finally found the place, put away the groceries/things that I had bought, and settled in for a movie before bed.

Here is a layout of my apartment:

I am going to quickly run through the week of orientation for you.  On the Tuesday, August 21, afternoon we went on a field trip to the Baekyang Sa Temple.  It’s a Buddhist temple about an hour outside of Gwangju.  The place was pretty spectacular, the colours were so vibrant and the buildings so ornate.  We were told that it is a rather large temple and it is home to dozens of monks.  From what I could see there were 3 central buildings to be used for prayer and meditation.  The first building, the largest, contained a large gold Buddha and several cards hanging from the ceiling.  The majority of the space was being used to meditate.  The second building also contained a large gold Buddha.  He was surrounded by pyramids of little gold Buddhas.  There was very little room to sit and meditate.  The last building was also focused around a large gold Buddha.  To either side of him were lines of statues of kings.  Beneath these statues were dates….no body seemed to know what these dates signified but I will try and explain them to you.  They went in 5 year increments starting at the beginning of the 20th century (so king one would have 1900-1904, etc), once every kings had a set of dates they started again at the beginning. There was no exact order to the dates (the kings weren’t placed chronologically).  Some of the kings had two rows of numbers, while others only had one.  I found my birth year under a king two to the left of the Buddha.  The most interesting thing about finding my birth year was that the year 1929 was also represented here (1925-1929 and 1980-1984).  We partook in a tea ceremony, not lead by anyone but ourselves so we weren’t exactly sure whether we were doing it right or not…but it was fun nonetheless.  The only problem I had with the temple was that there was no guide.  So we wandered aimlessly on our own for a couple of hours.  I felt like a lot of the symbolism was lost on me, so I guess I either need to read about Buddhism or I need to find someone who knows more about it than I do.
The next day we had a lesson the Korean alphabet, which contains 40 letters, 21 vowels and 19 consonants.  Now this includes all the sounds found in the language, all vowel combinations and any consonants with extra stress.  The whole thing seemed a little overwhelming but with a little practice I am sure that I will be able to read, and write in Korean (now the hard part, actually learning what the things I am reading and writing are J).  After lunch we went to the Gwangju national museum which was a lot of fun.  We had an hour to wander and look at the art and artefacts from the area.  Then we were able to make some traditional artwork.  It was a fancy rubbing.  What you had to do was place a piece of paper over an embossed image.  You wet the paper, patted it dry, and then dabbed ink over the raised areas.  My first one turned out horridly so they insisted that I do another….I was not alone in this btw, others were horrid too J  Afterwards we learned to play some traditional Korean instruments.  I learned to play a janggu, a double sided drum, which other than my arm getting tired was surprisingly easy to play.  While we were here we were being photographed and video taped by various local media….we are like celebrities here it is quite funny.  Afterwards we saw a traditional Korean musical performance. I have to say this was one of the most amazing displays of athleticism and musicianship that I have ever seen, and they can play for up to 12 hours…we only saw 30 minutes!  Here is a clip:

The next day was entirely field trips.  First we went to the Beseong Green Tea Fields.  Essentially these are rolling hills of tea, which is grown on bushes.  It was a beautiful view from the top of the hill, but the highlight was the green tea milkshake we enjoyed later.  Next we ate lunch in this resort by the water.  They tried to serve us whole octopus but I guess the co-ordinator, Mr Yun thought it was a little much for us so they took that away, we mostly ate fish, like every other meal.  We were able to “enjoy” the beach for an hour after lunch.  It would have been enjoyable had there not been tons of gasoline in the water.  There were people swimming/wading in the water (none from our group).  However, imagine this, everyone is fully clothed and they either have a large straw hat on their heads or a parasol in their hands, apparently gasoline=fine, sun=bad! Lol.  After our little Rendezvous on the beach we headed to Naganeupseong, it is this preserved traditional Korean village, kinda like Pioneer Village, only that people actually live here amongst the stuff set up for the tourists.  This was sort-of interesting, but like the Buddhist temple, I think I would have enjoyed the experience that much more had we had a guide.
The next few days will seem particularly boring to you so I will just say that we were in the classroom learning to teach, about Korean culture, and about how to have fun.  The seminars were enjoyable and engaging for the most part and I learned a lot. 
On Friday night everyone went out and got hammered.  We started in a bar called “Miller Time” which is sponsored by the beer Miller.  The whole bar was supposed to feel “North American” so they had English signage and some movie posters on the wall (inc. Breakfast @Tiffany’s).  More importantly they had $10 pitchers.   From there we went to a foreigner bar called “Speak Easy.”  This place has a younger vibe, and carries cocktails, gingerale, and dancing.  The only problem I had with this place was that it is small, hot, has a co-ed bathroom, and the smoking is terrible.  I thought my eyes were on fire the entire night.
My roommate Sarah is living in Gwangju and is commuting to a little town just outside the city.  The great thing about this was that her co-teacher showed up on Saturday, moved her in Sunday, and offered to take her out for a drink on Sunday night.  For moral support she asked me to come along.  I obliged, and had a fantastic time at a restaurant in the university district of Gwangju.  The restaurant was owned by one of the co-teacher’s friends and he hooked us and 5 more of the co-teacher’s up with a private room. We sat, ate, drank, and talked for a couple of hours before her co-teacher took us to the top of a mountain in the city and showed us the view of Gwangju at night….the City is HUGE! The lights continue out to the horizon and they are incredibly mesmerizing.  I was really happy that I went with Sarah because it warmed me up for Monday…the day that I would meet my co-teacher, vice-principal, and principal, an event that can make or break your entire year.  Even with the drinks I was a little more than nervous. 

 

Hello,

I feel really sorry that I have been neglecting this blog, but I have been really busy…and I am sorry but I am going to have to keep this really brief as I am at a P-C bong and I only have 6 mins left.

So for a quick update: orientation is over I had a lot of fun and I met a lot of great people.  I was collected yesterday by my co-teacher and vice-principal and taken to Mokpo and settled into my apartment.  The apartment is small but it is just the right size for me and my few posessions.  Today I met the pricipal and that was great he was really nice and took me out to lunch.  I start school on Friday.

If people want to send me some pictures of them, me, or anything that will remind me of you or a place or moment we spent together that would be great!  You can also send artwork, posters and what not (my apartment is a little bland).

My address:
1008 SeongGwang JeonWon Officetel
Mokpo City, Jeollanamdo
South Korea

There is a postal code but I don’t know what it is I will post it later..

Shanda

So that evening we had a rediculous amout of food for dinner and called it an early night.  Sarah and I both fell asleep around 9 pm.  The problem with this was that we were both awake really early in the morning.  Sarah left around 5:30 and I was laying in my bed from 4:30-7:00 futilely trying to force myself back to sleep.  At 7 I woke up, had a shower and went to breakfast, which was the same as the day before.

After breakfast Sarah and I decided to go to emart (like walmar) to purchase some things that we forgot.  We walked to wrong wa, which was very hard to determine since there are hardly any street signs.  But about a half hour into our walk we realised that we indeed went the wrong way, and since we were sweating from the heat and humidity at 9am, and since no stores were open, we hailed a cab to go back to the hotel.   The cab dropped us across the street from the Prado, and since there were no cars coming we ran across.  Well there were these two police men standing on the side walk and they pointed at us as we ran and yelled “no walk, no walk” but they then smiled, laughed and pointed to the cross walk down the street.  So apparently j-walking is illegal in Korea - lesson learned!

We had sometime to kill before lunch so we went out with Camille and Andrea to purchase some supplies for this afternoon.  We walked a little ways from the hotel to a mini-mart which also happened to be  near a bunch of bars - a ‘modern’ bar, a hof beer, and a sing fun time!  We may head back this way this evening.

Lunch was similar to the other Korean meals we have had.  Let me tell you how much I am enjoying this food….it is utterly amazing, I am even eating the Kimchi and am getting used to the heat.

Anyway after luch we began the orientation session.  We spent the afternoon learning about what documents we need and vacations,  and a little about the korean culture….here are some highlights:

1) I can get up to 3 months vacation (January, February, and end of July-August)
2) I contribute 4.5% to a pension, and because my school also contributes 4.5% I get to claim 9% back at the end, on top of my severance!!!
3) I have to file for a multiple entry visa otherwise if I leave I can’t get back into the country sucks!
4) thanksgiving is a 3 day holiday at the end of september and this year it falls on a monday, tueasday, wednesday (yay 5 day weekend)
5)there are 16 national holidays during the school year
6) Koreans have special ways of accepting, passing, and addressing people that I have to get used to
7)Koreans drink…a lot
8)There will be alcohol in the staff room at school and at all of the staff meetings
9)They think you are really strong and powerful when you don’t get bright red when drinking
10)it is considered rude to pour your own glass so you have to constantly be watching everyone else and fill them up as quickly as possible.  It is often the job of the youngest to fill everyone’s glass (ya this is going to be me!)

i have discovered that I am one of the youngest in the group

They served us a western dinner - it was crap stick to what you know.

After dinner we did a little drinking, i got really tired around 10 so I went to bed … Sarah was asleep already, she had been since 7ish….apparently she woke up at midnight and went out.  She came back around 5:45, which is when I woke up.  

i stayed in bed until 6:30 when I just couldn’t stay  anymore and I got up and had a jog.  It was fantastic…so much cooler and I found this running/walking trail it was great…i felt so refreshed, and I was actually able to stay out for a half hour.  good times

Well thats it! ttyl

Shanda         

I forgot the fork!

Twice actually.  First I forgot to pack one from home then I forgot to take the one that we stole from the restaurant and put into Danielle’s bag.

Never fear, i took a plastic one from the cafeteria in the airport.  And did you know that an airport can be an awfully lonely place when you are by your self :(  As i sat in the airprot i realised that there are very few people who seem to be travelling alone and those that do seem to drink orange juice exclusively.

11:50 - Korean air flight KE8079 departs from pearson int’l on a 13h50m direct flight to Soeul Korea.  In seat 29a, a window seat sits Shanda….cramped and looking at the wing.  Why is it that every time you are in an airplane and have a window seat you are looking over the wing?  The plane was a Boeing 747-400, so there were 10 to a row, a first, business, and economy class, and an upstairs!

Movies on a plane: Shrek 3rd, Blades of Glory, Waitress, In the Land of Women, and half of the Grapes of Wrath and Saturday Night Fever 

The idea that I am going to be half way around the world for many months hits me 2 hours before we land, it feels like an elephant sitting on my chest.

We land, collect the luggage and board buses in Soeul for the trip to Gwangju - 4.5 hours away.  It is 2:40am and it is 27 degrees and humid - we are all screwed!

The bus ride was smooth - I feel like I am in Markham or Yonge and Sheppard (the elephant is leaving)

The people from the agency are very nice…there is a pretty even split between those who have teaching degrees and those who do not, as well as a split between those who are over thirty and those who are not.  But everyone is very friendly, and I have yet to meet someone that I do not like.  

We arrive in Gwangju and check into the Prado hotel (5 flowers) around 7:30 (we made two rest stops on the way). We had a buffet breakfast with a mix  of western and Korean food - it was quite good.  Afterwards we got the keys to the rooms.  I am sharing a room with a girl named Sarah.  She is so nice, we get along incredibly well.  

After our showers we head out to explore the downtown with the co-ordinator Andrea.  The downtown is a labyrinth of  pedestrian streets with shops everywhere.  Much of the shops are westernize.  Ie. Starbucks, KFC, MacDonalds, Bodyshop, etc.  The majority of the shops seem to sell cosmetics, shoes, and cell phones.  this exploration was a lot of fun and I bought some concealler at a store called ‘the face shop’ since I forgot mine at home.

We then headed back to the hotel for lunch. There was a crazy amount of food
1) communal appetizers like kimchi
2) salade
3) soup - gelatanous with shrimp and egg
4) tempura pork
5) weird roll things
6) rice with shrimp
7) miso soup
peach pudding
The food was so incredibly good! but it was very filling.

After lunch Sarah and I went for a walk. Sarah wanted to sleep so I decided to keep myself awake I would go for a jog…bad idea.  I ran for about 18 mins and I felt like i could die 1)it is sunny, 2) it is 32 degrees, and 3) there is 50% humidity.  once that was done I ran up the 7 flights of stairs to our room where I had a nice cool shower.

That is all so far I will write later….toodles for now

Shanda