We discovered a new fruit!

Saturday, December 15^th, 2012 – Sunday, December 16^th, 2012

This weekend was all about Settling Aimee into her apartment and picking up a few things of my own along the way.  We went to various stores and markets around her apartment and my apartment to collect the items she needed.  First we went to a dollar store chain that has almost all of the household supplies one desires!  It is called Daiso and she was able to buy her all of her dishes, hangers, a pan, and other necessary household items.  Next we tackled her neighbourhood and found her food at a couple of markets near her house. The next day we went to a larger grocery store near my apartment and that is where she got her drying rack, towel, pot, more food, etc.  We also went to Nampo that night so she could buy a few more things at another Daiso location and see the Christmas lights! 

One of the items she bought, she thought she was purchasing tomatoes.  It turned out to be a sweet fruit and seemed to us to have the texture of an apple, the flavour of an orange and apple mixed together and the look of a tomato.  We still have not discovered what the mysterious fruit is called.

We found it they are alled Permissions

It was a busy weekend running around trying to get everything but we accomplished our goals and now Aimee has everything she needs so she can settle into her new home!

Copy and paste the link

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/27018010916/shopping-for-fruit-in-korea

Aimee Arrives!

Monday, December 9^th, 2012 – Friday, December 14^th, 2012

I was on to my third week in Korea.  I had my own two weeks to settle and then I had this week to look forward to my friend Aimee arriving so I could help her settle!  My workweek was good; I had a combination of mostly good classes but some that were a little bit harder to manage.  On Tuesday I was a bit frustrated to find out my classes at the second school were still unorganized the kids in my classes were still changing around.  I think all of the kids were a little bit extra tired too that day, all of their final exams from the week before were probably catching up with them.  The rest of the week was fine!

Wednesday, Aimee and I met up for the first time!  The school I work at Monday’s and Wednesday’s is on the same street as her school!  She lives a few metro stops in the other direction from the school and she lives only one block from the beach!  We are about a 35-minute commute by metro away from each other.

The first thing we did together was walk to the Kyungsung University area to explore.  Seeing this University, nightlife area in the day, it seemed so much smaller and easier to navigate.  We wanted to find somewhere to eat lunch.  Everything seemed closed so we decided to ask the next foreigners we saw where to eat.  Once we stopped some foreigners, we asked them where to have lunch.  They recommended a pasta and pizza restaurant and showed us how to get there.  It turned out one of them was from Argentina, and the other one from Brazil!  The Brazilian was a Portuguese professor and the Argentine was a taekwondo instructor.  

After lunch, we went back to Aimee’s apartment so she could meet with her foreign co-teacher.  Her co-teacher, Clinton, helped Aimee buy a metro pass and let us explore the beach for a couple of minutes before we walked the two subway stops back to where we work.  It was nice that we were both working at the same location and going to the same place. 

That night, we met at Kyungsung again to have dinner with Casey and her friend Amanda at a Mexican restaurant and then we went to Open Mike at a bar called ol’55.  I ran into Scott there!  We stayed to watch a few people sing.  Aimee was starting to feel the jet leg so we left early and took the metro home.  At the Open Mike, there were probably the most foreigners I have seen since I have been here.  It was one of the places Scott took me to my first weekend and I recognized some of his friends in the crowd. 

Thursday morning, I had to meet Clara, my director outside my apartment at 10:30am to go to immigration.  She drove me there; we filled out the form and waited for our number to be called.  I think we got lucky because we didn’t have to wait in line for a long time.  After I patiently waited again while she discussed something with the immigration officer, I found out that yes, I did have to go back to the hospital once again to get a drug test.  The good thing was they still started my immigration process by accepting my form, taking my fingerprints etc. 

Friday, my co-teacher Amy and I returned to the hospital.  I had to get a urine and blood test done again!  We also had to wait this time and Amy missed her first class.  It was a bit of a waste of time for both Amy and I because the hospital warned us we would need to come back.  I am also not a big fan of getting my blood taken. 

Aimee wanted to try Korean BBQ, so we went out for dinner Friday night.  We went to Kyungsung University area to find a Korean BBQ place.  We found one and with a little help from a Korean man who could speak English we ordered some pork and rice.  He let us try a bit of his Soju too.  After dinner we were on our way home when we ran into some of Aimee’s Korean co-workers.  We were invited to have a drink with them so we accepted the invitation.  We tried Korean rice wine.  We also learned a few Soju games from one of Aimee’s foreign co-teachers.  Soju is a liquor made from rice that tastes a bit like vodka.  It is just under 20% alcohol normally and is drunk mostly with meals. Alcohol is a big part of Korean culture and from seeing Aimee’s co-teachers I got a sense of that.  It is great having the opportunity to spend some time with Korean’s to get a better idea of their culture.  I am grateful I have already had many opportunities since I have been here!

Aimee's first Korean BBQ!

Soju and Rice Wine

Copy and Paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/37678792696/remember-that-time-we-took-the-bus-anywhere-in

If you teach a man to fish...

Saturday, December 8^th, 2012 – Sunday, December 9^th, 2012

Since I loved visiting the Christmas lights so much and getting into the holiday spirit, and Casey was yet to see them; I returned to Nampo for a second time on Saturday with her.  I was also really craving the same spicy, cheesy, chicken, rice meal I had with Scott and Terri the weekend before.  I can see why the chicken chain DACK GAL BI is one of Scott’s favourites and will probably become one of mine too! 

Casey and I met around 3pm and took the metro to Nampo together.  We explored many of the same places from the weekend before but this time I walked along the Jagalchi fish markets.  There were thousands and thousands of fish in one place.  The air smelled of the sea and it would be seafood paradise for some people.  For me it was just fascinating seeing so many fish and squid, octopus, seaweed, sardines, whale etc. in one place.  I was curious how they could sell so much of the same thing while still keeping it fresh.  Casey was explaining that Americans were cracking down on the fishing of whales (they sometimes even eat dolphin) in Korea but since these foods are such a part of Korean culture, they decreased their own fishing and just started importing more from Japan. 

Almost anything you need you can find in one of these markets in Nampo.  They even have little candy stores with imported chocolate from America.  The price of a chocolate bar in the market would be around 800 Won which is about 75 cents Canadian.  It is cheaper to get a chocolate here in Korea from home than it is to get it at home.  Since everything is a little bit cheaper and there are so many things you can buy, this is the reason foreigners accumulate so much while living here and need to send it back home.

We had a really fun time exploring the cute stationary stores, candy stores, sock stores, jewelry and makeup stores.  She also encouraged me to have the same sweet rice cake treat I tried the weekend before with Scott and Terri so we both bought one.  This time it had sunflower seeds along with other things inside.  The line up to get one was chaotic because apparently they came from a popular vendor but we both didn’t like them as much with the seeds. 

We ate dinner; it was just as good as I remembered!  We enjoyed the view of the lights at night, had fun taking pictures of our ourselves, some adorable Korean kids and even helping a few couples get their picture taken with the lights.  There was a cute little chorus with Korean children singing and dancing to Korean Christmas music on stage.  Overall, we had a really nice day!

On Sunday, I met with Elaine and Claire from Ireland in another large metro station.  This one was a transfer station so there was again, shopping underground.  There were small boutiques that had their own little store.  A little bit more upper class than the underground markets in Nampo.  It was also attached to another huge department store.  I am really starting to notice how much shopping there is in Korea. 

We met at the Krispy Kreme in this location for coffee and doughnuts.  I tried the glazed doughnut with icing on top.  Again wasn’t the same as my memories of Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the US.  It was really nice catching up with them again.  

Copy and paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/27948725080/when-people-back-home-asked-me-if-i-was-moving-to

Adapting is the name of the game

Monday, December 3^rd, 2012 – Friday, December 7^th, 2012

I was now on to my second week of teaching.  I wasn’t as nervous for this week because I had met most of the students at the schools by now and I had a better idea of what to expect.  This week was a little bit easier with the kids too.  A lot of them were studying for final exams so the classes were smaller than usual, making it easier to manage.  They were also starting to get used of me so they were a little bit better behaved.  I still tried to be strict and discipline when necessary, which I find, for me, is the hardest part of teaching. 

Treat one of the kids gave to us teachers one day.  I looks like two pancakes with a sweet red bean paste in the middle.

My first school, Mondays and Wednesdays, I had the same classes in the same order.   Most of the kids have their own books they can write in, attendance is taken, and they have a set page to continue working from.  Although I still do not have all of the books to follow along with myself, there is at least some kind of organization and structure making things easier. 

At my school Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, all of my classes were changed this week.  Some of the kids, who were studying the level 2 book last week, were studying the level 4 book this week.  Most of the kids have already finished the books they are learning from.  They don’t own their own copy so they can’t write in the book.  Everything seems unorganized and it makes it more difficult for me.  Especially if they are re-learning things so they are less likely to pay attention or be engaged.   The Korean co-teachers might know what is going on, but I am just left to fend for myself. 

Although the classes at my second school are totally unorganized, I still enjoy the social aspect of going to that workplace.  They are also technically my main school because they are the school that is sponsoring my visa.  They wanted to organize a welcome to Korea dinner for me.  We went out on Thursday night as a group.  There are five of us teachers in total and all but one came.  I especially appreciated that the manager of the school has a car so we didn’t have to take a bus or subway to the restaurant.  They knew I was interested in the beach so we went to a restaurant that had a view of the beach and bridge.   It was called a family restaurant but it was really nice and fancy inside.  I was getting used of the $7 feasts at all of the other restaurants I had been to so when I saw there was not much on the menu less than $20 I was a little bit surprised.  I also only had $45 to last me until I got paid the next week.  We were given one menu to share and instead of each individually ordering an entrée, we ordered three dishes for the entire table.  There were five of us there including Amy’s boyfriend.  We shared one pasta dish, one salad and small pizza along with beer for the table.  In North America, sharing three meals at a fancy restaurant would be extremely unusual.  Especially when in North America, people are more conscious of sharing germs and double dipping is considered rude.  In Korea, sharing a meal is very ordinary and chopsticks are constantly being double dipped.  We had some really good conversations about Korea and Canada and they were more conscious about speaking English most of the time and not going on too many tangents in Korean.  Since we split the meals, the bill came to $15 each for plenty of food and drinks each! 

In the bathroom at this restaurant, they had a high-tech toilet.  It had a remote control on the side with various buttons.  The instructions were all in Korean.  I tried pressing the buttons but none of them did anything.  I felt rude leaving the toilet un-flushed but I don’t know how to work Korean high-tech toilets.  I asked what the buttons meant to Amy back at the table and she explained they could heat the seats, can turn the toilet into a baday for cleaning and so on.  I am glad I didn’t accidently use the baday button wrong and spray myself in the face!

The next morning, my co-teacher Amy, met me at the bus stop so I could have my hospital examination.  This is something foreigners need to do as part of their immigration process.  It is the schools responsibility to help the foreigner with this process.  I was the one who had to mention it to them though or else I am not sure if they would have even remembered.  To get my Alien Registration Card (ARC card) this is one of the steps.  Without my ARC Card, I cannot open a bank account or do other important things.  We took a cab to the hospital and signed in.  The school did not want to pay for a drug test but the hospital was trying to explain I would need one and I would have a problem at immigration if I didn’t get one.  I was just observing the conversation in Korean and didn’t have any say in the matter.  First I was asked a series of questions about my health.  Then I had my blood taken, did a urine test and finally had an upper body x-ray done.  That was the first time I have had an x-ray done and I have no idea what they need that for. 

While this was happening, Amy and I couldn’t help but realized it was heavily snowing outside.  It rarely snows in Busan and Amy was really excited about it!  It was very pretty!  

Copy and paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/35182525150/when-were-out-at-a-teachers-dinner-and-my-co-teachers

All around the world is Christmas

Saturday, December 1^st, 2012 – Sunday, December 2^nd, 2012

I stayed in most of Saturday and then met up with Casey and her friends to experience more of the nightlife.  We went to a bar called Thursday’s party first.  This place had a lot of games such as foosball, beer pong and darts.  I played a couple rounds of darts.  The merchant marines were in town so they were interested in talking to us.  I learned a bit about their lifestyle, which includes being at sea half the year and getting the rest of the year off.  After there, we went to Blue Monkey, the foreign dance bar.  We danced for a while before calling it a night. 

The next day, I had plans to meet up with Scott and his girlfriend Terri.  We met at Centum City metro stop.  That is where the biggest department store in the world is.  They took me on a brief tour of the mall including the skating rink, book store, outside of the wax museum, the specialty foods area, the designer area, the main corridor with the Christmas tree and the view of all the floors.  You could spend a lot of time exploring this mall; I will need to go back there one day.

We took the metro to another area to eat lunch.  We ate at a traditional restaurant where we sat on the ground on a pillow around a table.  We were given a broth and it was placed on the heater at our table.  We were given a tray with vegetables and a tray with thinly carved beef all rolled and placed perfectly on the plate. Kimchi was also brought to our table like at every Korean restaurant along with a Korean salad.  We added the veggies to the broth to cook.  Then we added the meat to cook.  We poured this soup into our bowls and ate it with chopsticks.  In the soup they had the strangest mushrooms with long tentacle looking strands hanging from it.  There was also tofu, and lettuce and processed fish in the soup.  We added some vegetable dumpling things into the broth to cook and then eat.  After we finished those we added fresh noodles to the rest of the broth and ate that.  Finally, with the remainder of the broth, rice was added and mixed in to make almost a thicker rice stew which was really good.  It had the flavour of all of the other things that had already been added to the broth.  For dessert we had a sweet rice drink. 

After lunch, we took the metro to our next destination, Nampo, which was on the other side of the city.  In the subway station, they had little clothing stores everywhere.  The clothes were inexpensive.   Outside of the metro, there were markets all around the area selling mostly food and clothes but also some other little things like toys, alcohol, stationary, candies etc. There is also a fish market in the area.  All of these markets were in tight alleys and you had to squeeze your way through the crowd.  There was also an arcade with markets underneath.  You could spend a lot of time exploring the streets and streets of markets and easily get lost.

We thought these were hilarious

On our way out, Scott and Terri told me I should try one of the treats being sold on the street. It was fried dough made from rice with sugar and possibly other things melted inside.  We all shared one.   It was really good and I told Scott it tasted a bit like a Beavertail.  Scott’s reaction was, haha what do you mean a Beavertail?  I was shocked to find out he, a fellow Canadian, had never heard of a Beavertail!

We decided to have a coffee break and walked to another big mall in the area and enjoyed a Krispy Cream coffee and doughnut.  Mine was called a toblerone doughnut because it had a couple pieces of the chocolate bar on top.  The rest of the doughnut was not fresh and had red jelly inside so I didn’t really care for it.  Terri and Scott had the original glazed doughnut, which were constantly being freshly made and you can watch them go through the machine, the kind I will opt for next time!  We had good conversations while enjoying the coffee. 

After our break, Scott suggested we eat at one of his favourite restaurants for dinner.  We strolled through the streets on our way to the restaurant.  The area outside of this mall was the first touristy I had seen so far in Busan.  Wide enough space where people can actually walk with tourist stores along the sides and the Christmas lights set up everywhere.  On our way to the restaurant we passed more of the market as it started to get dark. 

At the restaurant, we again cooked our food in front of us, this time it was a giant frying pan at our table.  We ordered chicken as our main meat.  First they sautéed the chicken in a red sauce with onions and vegetables and butter; Next they added a huge portion of rice, a ton of red spice and seaweed.  They mix all of that together in the pan and let it cook.  Scott ordered extra cheese so they added that at the end and let it melt under the rice in the middle of the pan.  We then all scooped our portion in to our bowls to enjoy!  It was surprisingly really good!  I did find it a bit spicy, my lips were burning and my nose was running but it was worth it!  The dessert that came with this meal was a little cup of hot cocoa.

Terri made sure we didn't get any on our clothes!

On our way out, to digest our food, we walked around a bit more.  We walked through the main touristy area, now that it was dark, all of the Christmas lights were shinning.  It was amazing!  They had such nice decorations and so many lights.  It was a warm night and the view was picturesque. 

Amazing lights!

Lazy Garfield

The great knock-off Swiffer's Terri and I both bought, I love mine!

That concluded my awesome day!  We walked underground for a while to catch the metro back to our places and prepare for the next week ahead of us!

I heart Costco!

Wednesday, November 28^th – Friday, November 30^th

The next three school days involved much of the same thing, introductions, going over the rules and winging my classes.  The older students are definitely more of a challenge.  I worked Wednesday at my first school.  I had three new classes with younger kids so they were good.  I had the same four classes with the older kids.  This time they were using a book and not writing essays so the class was a bit more structured and they were a bit better behaved.  Thursday and Friday I was at my second school.  I had two more classes with around 20 students and those are definitely going to be the classes I dread the most.  Something cool I got to do was name some of my students who did not already have an English name.  I gave them five options and let them pick one.  One of my students is named Ed!

I continued to get to know my Korean co-workers.  They offered me some more Korean food to try.  I tried Korean pizza that was stuffed with a whole bunch of random things including seafood I think.  I tried pumpkin and rice soup, dominos pizza that had garlic, green pepper, mushrooms, four cheeses and a red barbeque type sauce (I liked the last item but the rest of them I was not a huge fan of).   They were also a little interested in me and asked me questions which as what do you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I asked them what they eat for breakfast and their answer was rice!

Friday morning, I met with Casey and one of her co-workers and we went to Costco!  As I was walking in, it felt like home!  It has a very similar look to it, almost the exact same to ours in Canada.  They also had a lot of the same brands like Kirkland.  I was able to buy a huge bag of individually wrapped frozen chicken breasts, a huge bag of almonds, granola bars, a block of sharp cheddar cheese, tuna, balsamic vinegar and I was tempted to buy more but my cash was running low.  We had a pizza lunch at the Costco food court and then took a taxi back.  The driver dropped me off on the other side of the eight lane road so I had to lug all of my stuff up the stairs to a bridge that allows you to cross the street and then the rest of the way to my apartment.  All of the stuff I bought will last a long time, which makes me really happy!

 Gwangan Bridge

Friday night, I met my new Irish friends at a metro stop to go for dinner.  We went to an Italian place and I had my usual italian favourite (chicken alfredo).  It was actually really good, it had a lot of flavour and the price was reasonable.  After we walked to a foreign bar that was along the beach and I saw the beach and bridge for the first time!  The bridge was lit up with colours and it was very beautiful!  I am very excited to explore that area more.  One of the girls who was with us is South African and it was interesting hearing about a bit about her culture.  Claire’s boyfriend was with us too who coincidentally turned out to be one of the foreign teachers I emailed during my job search.  I talked to another South African who came to the bar with his other friends.  He has been here for around three years now so he was excited for me because I was just starting my experience and he had a lot of encouraging words for me.

Copy and paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/31373166161/going-to-costco-in-korea

Two schools = Two first days

Tuesday, November 27^th, 2012

Today was my second official day of teaching, and my first day of teaching at my second school.  My co-teacher, Amy, met me at the metro around 2:00pm.  Although the school is close to a metro stop, she wanted to show me how to get there by bus.  The bus stop was about a 15 minute walk from my apartment.  We caught the bus and it was probably a 10-15 minute drive away.  The bus stops are very spread out so it was only 3 stops in total.  The school was then another 5-minute walk from the bus stop. 

My first class was supposed to start at 2:30 but we didn’t make it until 2:40.  My students were waiting for me and I was thrown right into it.  For my classes at this school, they had a copy of all the books for me.  the students themselves did not have a copy and they all borrowed one from the school.  My full day schedule was 6, 50-minute classes with no breaks in between.  At this school, my classroom looks more like a traditional classroom where I stand at the front and write on the board while the kids sit at their desks.  The first 5 classes of the day used level 1 and 2 books.  They were all lower level kids and their ages ranged from 8 – 12 years old.  My second class of the day had 20 students!  My co-teacher Amy sat in the back of that class just in case the kids were loud.  The way I managed the discipline with my classes at this school was move the chatty kids around so that they were sitting beside a quiet student.  It worked like a charm.  

At the beginning of my second last class of the day, Amy asked if I was hungry.  I said yes, a bit, so she invited me to leave my class to read on their own and eat with her and the other co-teachers.  They offered me spring rolls and this weird long white fish thing in a liquid they ate out of a paper cup.  I tried a bite of the fish and ate a few spring rolls.  The co-teachers at this school so far seemed a lot more easy going and social.   I didn’t want to keep the kids waiting for too long so I returned to my class and the kids were actually quiet and looking at their books when I returned!

The last class of the day had only two students.  They were advanced students who had a totally separate book and they are meant to study with me three times a week.  That class was a relief because these two girls were so easy to manage and picked everything really quickly!

Two of my co-teachers bused back with me at the end of the day, around 7:30.   I wasn’t as tired at the end of my second day and wasn’t as hungry because of my little snack.  It was still good to be done my first days at the two schools and have a better idea of what to expect for rest of the week!

Cool house across from my apartment.

Copy and paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/37239745570/when-my-low-level-students-really-dont-understand

My first day teaching

Monday, November 26^th, 2012

The big day came at last, my first day of teaching.  I met my Korean co-teacher at the metro at 1:30pm.  We took the metro together to the school.  The school turned out to be in a location I was interested in all along, Namcheon.  It is also where my friend, Aimee, who will be coming to Korea in a couple of weeks, is meant to be living!  I was happy about that news. 

I was brought to my classroom and told to wait for my schedule.  After around 15 minutes of waiting with no instruction on what to do, the co-teacher finally came into my classroom.  The schedule was written in Korean.  The times were easy to understand but the rest of it meant nothing to me.  She kind of explained the level of the class and the number of students in each class.  She did not explain the material or much else.  I was basically left winging all of my classes. 

My first class was with the younger children.  They had their own books.  I had to follow along with their books and read what was going on upside-down.  This class was the best class of the day.  They were eager to learn, understood what was going on and willing to participate.  After that class I was thinking, this isn’t so bad.  The next couple of classes were pretty good too.  For one of the classes I had two boys stand up at the back because they were hitting each other.  The classes were only 40 minutes so they went pretty quick.

The last four classes of the day were essay classes.  The kids would write a short 100-word essay, and I corrected their work.  These classes were not so well behaved.  The kids would be socializing with each other in Korean and not listening very well.  I tried to quiet them down but then they would become noisy a few seconds later.  My only advice from the other foreign teachers was to be strict. I made the conscious decision to increase my strictness for when I taught them again if they were acting this way.  I was told you need to be strict at the beginning or else they will take advantage of you.  The Korean co-teacher told me she scolds them when they are being bad and she sometimes even hits them with a ruler.  Even though they were a bit bold and loud, I still played a game (hangman) with most of the classes since it was the first day and we had extra time at the end.

By the end of the day, I finished at 8:30, I was so hungry it hurt and I was so exhausted I just wanted to shower and crawl into bed. 

Paper cups they drink purified water out of

Change of plans.  I was on the metro and two Korean’s started talking to me.  They were students, a girl who was 24, named Bianca and a boy who was 22, named Henry.  They needed to find a foreigner for a school assignment.  They asked if I could help them.  Even though I was tired and hungry, I told them I would help.  We exited the metro at my stop and went to the coffee shop. We ordered a bit to eat and drink.   I ordered a cream cheese pretzel, thinking that would be a safe thing to order.  It was bizarre tasting, almost sweet.  They had to do an interview with a foreigner and videotape it. I didn’t know what I was signing up for!  The interview was about what I thought of Korean guys.  They asked me questions such as:  do you like Korean guys?  Would you marry a Korean guy?  What do you think the difference is between relationships between guys and girls in your country and Korean relationships? They also asked if I knew who Psy was and she had me stand up so she could teach me the pony dance to his song, Gangnam style, in the middle of the coffee shop!  They were both really nice and funny and it was an interesting experience.  The girl gave me her number and said if I ever need anything to give her a call.  She also said I looked like Barbie haha.

It was 10pm when I got home and I forced myself to eat a little more, showered and climbed right into bed.

Copy and paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/35544641100/what-i-thought-korean-students-would-be-like

The joys of receiving luggage

Sunday, November 25^th, 2012

Today I was finally supposed to receive my luggage!  It was supposed to arrive between 10-11am.  I called the airport again because at this point I found out what my cell phone number was so they could contact me.  When I called the airport over Skype they said they would be delivering it and the driver knew how to get to my apartment.  They said they would be there in 20 minutes.  I waited outside for the driver to arrive. 30 minutes later, no luggage.  I called them again and said it had not arrived yet.  Next thing I knew, Scott was calling, the driver contacted him and his girlfriend who speaks Korean was trying to explain my address to the driver.  My intercom rang while I was both on Skype with the airport and on the phone with Scott.  I told everyone, it was here!  The driver who had my luggage carried both of my 50lb bags up the two flights of stairs in one trip.  He carried my giant suitcase over his shoulder; it was impressive. 

One of my President's Choice White Kraft Dinner boxes did explode :(

I showered and changed out of my clothes into fresh new ones, the most amazing feeling!  I also unpacked everything and found an appropriate place for all of my things.  Everything was starting to get on the right track!  My apartment came equipped with a decent amount of storage space for my things considering the size of the place. 

My closet

Thank you for the cards and Kobo!

At 3pm I met Elaine and her friends, Karen and Claire from Ireland.  We went to the coffee shop near my apartment.  They were really lovely girls and were more than happy to offer me advice and be there if I needed anything.  We made dinner plans for the end of the week.  Their main advice for teaching was to be strict!  It was great meeting more foreigners and also a relief to find out they had some of the same concerns about the food, job, etc. before coming.  They still were a bit hesitant on the food. Even with the odd criticism said about Korea in the conversation, they have all really enjoyed living in Busan!

Copy and paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/30558158352/trying-to-describe-my-apartment-while-skyping-with

Day one, need food!

Saturday, November 24^th, 2012

I woke up at 6am, which was a bit earlier than I anticipated.  With the time difference I was able to Skype a couple of friends back home.  I continued my cleaning, reviewed my books and starting writing this blog as I was anxiously waiting for all of my stuff to be delivered.  Although I had very little to eat at the apartment, I was still a little bit nervous for my first grocery trip and I did not want to miss the opportunity to collect my bags.   I finally realized I had the phone number to call baggage claim and called the number over Skype.  The woman told me they had been calling and calling the numbers I gave them.  Those numbers were again my recruiters, who were not answering their phones.  She said the bags could be delivered in the evening around 9pm.  I was meeting a family friend at 5pm so I gave them his number to contact. 

I went for a walk in the afternoon to explore my area.  They have little fruit and vegetable vendors on the side of the street to buy produce.  They also had little market stands on some streets.  The cars are pretty reckless here and some people ride their motorbikes on the busy sidewalk almost running into people.  It is actually a little bit scary crossing the road because they don’t give pedestrians the right of way.  There was not too much to see around my house but it was still interesting.  The giant fish they were selling on the side of the road were not appetizing to me.  I returned back to rest a bit before my meeting.  I did have a shower using the “hose” in the middle of the bathroom they call a shower.  It was not the best shower in the world, and having to air dry is never fun but it was definitely necessary, especially if my bags were not coming until the night.  My family friend called me before our meeting saying the airport had called and they were now not going to deliver my bags until the next morning.  Ugg, I was destined to another day with no clean clothes. 

My shower and yes the entire bathroom does get wet.  I have shoes to wear in the bathroom when the floor is wet.

Cleaned Kitchen!  That is a washing machine in my kitchen if you were wondering.

My lovely view

Scott meet with me at the metro and the first thing we did was find the closest grocery store!  The store was pretty big and similar to a typical western grocery store layout.  Man was it full!  There were Korean families running around everywhere, it was hard to navigate the chart.  They also had samples out in most sections.  I was able to buy pretty everything I would normally buy.  I didn’t buy much produce though because Scott told me it is better to get those from the markets.  The produce was super expensive at the grocery store too, around 10 dollars for a giant Korean pear or for 5 apples.  I found everything a bit expensive but that was probably because I bought mostly western food.   We taxied back to my apartment with the load and it was only around $2.50 for the cab.

After unloading the groceries, we took the metro back to the University area I was in the night before to have dinner.  We went to a Chinese restaurant and had chicken skewers.  Scott also brought me to some foreign bars where he knew some of the owners and I tried Korea beer for the first time.  It wasn’t as bad as people were describing it.  I met some of his co-teachers at the University he works for and some of his other friends who have all been in Korea for a while.  We even went to a birthday party in a private venue for a little while.  It was really interesting meeting all of these people who have worked and lived here for so long.  There was a very laid back atmosphere in the bars we went to and the last one had live music.  I took the last metro home but really enjoyed my night!

Copy and paste the link:

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/32236124161/first-time-i-walked-in-to-my-bathroom-and-realized

The Flight

Goodbye party food!

Thanks Mom!

Wednesday, November 21^st, 2012

I thought I would try to write a blog so I can update everyone on my adventure to Korea!  This might not be the absolute best time to begin my blog considering I am in the middle of the extremely frustrating first leg of my journey that so far includes two flights, and two more to go.  My first flight to Chicago was delayed in Ottawa because of fog in Chicago.  After I arrived in Chicago, I found out my connecting flight to Seoul had in fact departed on time and there were limited other options.  .   At first I was re-routed from Chicago, to LA, to China, to Busan.  Once I arrived in Chicago I found out I needed a visa to enter China. I was re-routed again from Chicago, to LA, to Seoul and then after changing airports in Seoul, I would take a domestic flight to Busan.

Let me start at the beginning, I woke up at 5:15 am in Ottawa and had a fairly large breakfast to prepare myself for a long day of traveling.  My flight to Chicago and my flight to LAX offered no food.  I ate some crackers and a couple of chocolates and finally sat down to eat again at 10pm Ottawa time in LA.  I ordered a quesadilla at a Mexican fast food restaurant in the airport.  I arrived at LAX so much earlier than my actual flight; the airline hadn’t opened the check-in counter yet.  I figured I would try Mexican since I would be going to Asia and it would be nice to try something I might not be able to eat for a while.  I didn’t have that many options for food and I wasn’t in the mood to eat Asian food before going to Asia.   My quesadilla was not quite what imagined and while I forced myself to eat most of it because I hadn’t eaten all day, I struggled to finish it.   I was just grateful I had access to free WIFI for a little while and I was able to connect to my recruiters in Busan to tell them not to pick me up when they initially intended too and also inform a foreign friend that I would not be in Busan on time for our first meeting.  Meeting another foreigner was something I was really looking forward to when I first arrived and it was disappointing to know I was going to miss that meeting.  At that point, I was not sure if I would have enough time to visit my school on Friday before my first teaching day on Monday.   Either way, this was all out of my control and I had to roll with the punches. This was the reason I choose to start this blog in the middle of traveling and try to make good use of my extra time! I was hoping for good luck on the remaining 20 hours of traveling ahead of me!

To be continued…

Friday, November 23^rd, 2012

I waited until the check-in counter was open for my flight to Seoul and once it was, I went to go and wait in line.  At the check-in counter, the airline attendant told me I didn’t actually have a seat on this flight because it was full and I was going to be put on the stand-by list.  I was again struck by another obstacle.  She told me to walk back to the original terminal I can came from and talk to United Airlines about re-routing me to another flight. I walked back 7 terminals and talked to a United representative.  This girl was at least sympathetic and took her time looking into all other options.  She told me they should have confirmed I had a seat on the Seoul flight before sending me to LA.  After she called many people and did everything she could, it was concluded if I missed that flight, I would need to stay overnight in LA and take another flight in the morning to Seoul.  I would also need to wait another night on top of that to catch my flight to Busan.  I would have left Ottawa on a Wednesday morning, and arrived in Korea on SATURDAY!  I went back to wait for my stand-by flight and by some miracle, I managed to get a seat on the sold out flight to Seoul that night!  One of the airline attendances also pointed out a Korean Pop Star who was on the same flight!

My flight was comfortable.  They had a footrest like they do on greyhound buses, which I found made a drastic difference.  They had a little menu for the meals and I choose the western option.   They also had slippers for your feet, which were really comfy!  At the end of the flight, the TV screen showed a how – to video for giving yourself a massage to help heal certain types of body pain.  At the airport, I went through immigration and then to baggage claim to wait for my luggage.  The next obstacle I had to face was that I had made the flight but my bags did not.  I filled in the missing bags report and then went outside to find the shuttle bus to take from the international airport in Seoul to the domestic airport in Seoul.  At least I didn’t have to handle my luggage. 

At the domestic airport I changed my flight to the next earliest flight to Busan.  I had to talk to several people to use the phone to call my recruiter and let them know when I would be arriving.  The recruiters were sleeping in which was the reason I was having a hard time getting a hold of them.  I tried calling 4 separate numbers the first time with no success and then after a second attempt of calling, someone finally answered.   I caught my flight to Busan, arrived there safely and then called my recruiter again to get the update on when they would be picking me up.  They instructed me to take a taxi and one of them would meet me at my apartment.  I did what they instructed and was brought to my apartment.  The recruiter, Christine, met me wearing 5-inch heels while I was still wearing my clothes from Wednesday morning and had no luggage to change.  By this time it was Friday around noon in Korea.  She let me into my apartment and gave me the brief tour and instructions on how the heating and washer worked.   To me this was all a blur.

Sardines left in my apartment

Christine told me my director would be picking me up in an hour to take to me see the schools I would be working at.  I was pretty zonked at this point and a little bit worried about my first impression still wearing my flight attire.  The director came with another co-teacher because she could not speak English very well.  The co-teacher was the one I had the interview with over the phone.  I was driven to the school and met the other co-workers who all seemed really nice.  I saw some of the kids at the school who were excited to see me.  The director gave me a used cell phone and we added a bit of credit to it.  We also bought a metro card and put some credit on that.  I asked for some books to review over the weekend.  Other than that, I was given no further instructions on how to prepare for my first class the following week.  We then drove to the second school I would be working at on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I again was shown my classroom and this time she let me see the class schedule.  I asked for the books to review and then was on my way.  Nothing else, no other information, just here is your classroom and good luck.  They told me they would meet me at the metro to show me how to get to the schools the following week.

Back at the apartment I began cleaning a bit.  It wasn’t left in a horrible state but it did need a good cleaning.  I found some random things the old owners left behind.  They left a bag of dried up sardines.  They also left a couple of umbrellas, some toiletries, a bit of food, prunes in the sink, a printer, a pink heart pillow, you get my drift.  I was happy to find some of the useful devices at least!

To my relief, I was still able to connect with the foreign girl I was supposed to meet in the morning and she invited me to eat with her and some of her friends.  She introduced me to Korean BBQ.  We ordered pork in a marinade and grilled it at the table.  The traditional Korea sides were given to us at the table; I am still not familiar with all of the names.  One of the sides was plain garlic cloves.  She also ordered us rice and eggs.  The meat was actually really delicious and something I would get used of.   After the meal we went to a foreign bar to have a drink. I left around 10:30pm from the bar.  I was walked to the metro, which I would have never found on my own and then took the metro back to my apartment to get much-deserved good nights sleep!

Korean BBQ

A bit of humour, copy and paste the link:


http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/35247369940/what-teaching-my-very-first-class-felt-like