Seoul Livin

There has been a lot going on since my last post. On Friday, there was a party for the Seoul EPIK teachers in Gangnam (yep, like Oppa Gangnam style!) which was great because I got to see some of my friends that have been scattered across the vastness that is the city of Seoul. I'm hoping once we all have cell phones that communication will be easier and we will get to see each other more often. It's incredibly difficult to make plans when you can't contact someone via phone, text or facebook because you don't have any of those things. We can't even write letters because the addresses are so weird here they'd probably never get there!!!

Saturday, I ventured out on my own for a bit. I wanted to head to the Kyobo bookstore, which is just a giant bookstore in Seoul, because I wanted to get some Korean language textbooks. I'm tired of not understanding anything that's going on, and I sometimes feel awkward or like I'm a burden to my coteachers, who have to coddle me and explain everything. And I mean Every. Single. Thing.  Learning Korean is going to be hard, but any new phrase I utter, no matter how terrible, tends to get cheers and applause. If that's not encouragement, I don't know what is!

Back to Saturday. I successfully navigated to the bookstore, and I wanted to check out the area. So I walk outside to find that I'm actually in a really famous location. I clearly wasn't paying attention when mapping my route (someone told me which stop to get off and I just looked on a subway map), so I had no idea that this was also where some famous, often-featured-in-k-drama landmarks were:

Admiral Yi Sun Shin- a navy commander
famous for his victories against Japan
during the Imjin War

At the battle of Myeongnyang, he was outnumbered
333 ships to 13. And he still won

Yi Sun Shin was well known and praised for his conduct,
even by the Japanese

I also ran into the statue of King Sejong, which is in the same plaza

more on him later

Having wandered around for a bit, I met up with another EPIKer, Janelle, to go to a cat cafe. We just couldn't resist!

how to tell if there is a cat cafe nearby?
There's probably a guy in one of these
advertising it

ugh. so cute it hurts

I went and hung out at a regular cafe later in the evening to mooch of wifi and catch up on some TV and emails that I hadn't gotten around to. Ironically, my school blocks gmail at work, but facebook isn't blocked. So if you want to contact me, FB is the way to go apparently (though most of the time I'm at school you guys are all asleep!)


Anywho, Sunday, I spent the day with Sarah and my roommate from orientation, Lauren. We met for a late lunch and then wandered around Hongdae, where there are many awesome things to be found, such as a Hello Kitty cafe, cat cafes, dog cafes, a Taco Bell, H&M, numerous inexpensive shops, lots of street food, and KEBABS. Yes, I had my first kebab in a year and a half and it was glorious. I really need to avoid this area until payday or I am going to be in trouble.

After wandering, shopping and chatting over coffee, we headed to the same plaza I had stumbled upon Saturday. We checked out the statues and then got on a bus for a night tour of Seoul's bridges. There are 23 bridges, and each has something that it represents. Unfortunately, the tour was more of a scenic drive rather than informative, but it was still cool to see Seoul at night. I had a major emotional "I can't believe I am here what is my life omg omg OMG" moment on the bus, and thankfully I had Sarah and Lauren to share it with. Sometimes I can't believe I'm doing what I'm doing.

11st Monday
Lovely Baby
Not sure what's going on here...

Waffle with whipped cream and
Tiramisu ice cream AKA HEAVEN

Sarah's Tiramisu had hearts on it.
D'aaaaw

his fountain lights up at night and children
frolic in it during the summer. It's awesome

getting our night tour on

we plan to do many more touristy things together,
especially after that first paycheck!

this is like the best picture I got. Night pics are hard
on a moving bus. I'll have to walk the river
sometime to take better pictures, but believe me, it was pretty!

I did manage to get some cool pics of the evening

I just love this- Admiral Yi Sun Shin from the Josen
Dynasty watching over the city that has exploded around
him. 

^Photos like this are truly representative of Seoul being a mix of ancient tradition and history surrounded by modernity. It's quite amazing to see, and if you ever get the chance to come to Korea, I think you should definitely make it a priority. I am already very impressed with the city and am having a great time!


Don't forget to check out my previous post about Kpop. There's much more than Gangnam Style out there!!!

I love Kpop and you should too

So, I'm sitting here deskwarming since I have all of Wednesday and 90% of Thursday planned and ready to go.

I can't post pics on my blog when I'm at school, so I can't do a regular update, but I made a discovery today- if you put a kpop song on in class, your class will pay attention. So I decided that every so often (or whenever I feel like it, really), I am going to post kpop songs that I like. Feel free to have a listen, they're often a.) really catchy and b.) really entertaining. Or disturbing. Or both.



On today's menu:



This is G-Dragon, a popular artist who is also well known for being a part of the super popular group, Big Bang. More from them another day. This song is from his solo album, Heartbreaker and I LOVE IT.

Also, to be clear, G-Dragon's name is Kwon Ji Yong, and Yong in Chinese means dragon. So his name isn't just some random name he picked, it actually makes sense, which is pretty cool.






B1A4- Baby Goodnight. Tons of kpop songs use English as their titles or as parts of the refrain. Sometimes they turn out well. Sometimes the English is o.O but I can only imagine what any Korean would sound like in English songs.

Anyway, I LOVE this video because the song is awesome and the vid is adorable. B1A4 is super popular, especially with my 6th graders. I was informed that their name comes from the fact that 1 of their members has a B blood type and the other 4 are A. So yeah, blood type. It's a big deal here.









Yeah, G-dragon again. He's stuck in my head a lot lately, mostly cause his songs/videos are really trippy but I like them. And I like the songs as well. Coup d'etat is from his new album of the same name, and though G got a lot of flack for this video (if you watch, you may see the part that got him in trouble), I really like this song.


G-Dragon is also gaining popularity worldwide, having just performed with Missy Elliot. Maybe we will see more Kpop idols in the mainstream American media soon (they have started touring in some major cities, and with PSY's Gangnam style sparking an interest, perhaps kpop will soon be in your home as well).





Exo has a hip hop dubstep thing going on, and I haven't listened to them enough to decide how much I like them, but my 6th graders are OBSESSED with Exo. To the point where if I need to shut them up I tell them we might watch an Exo video if they behave. Then they behave.


But, those pants. Why?????






Shinee is also really popular with my students. I used this song during a pass the ball game (where when the music stops whoever has the ball has to answer the question or conjugate a verb, etc) and the students were jamming out in their seats.




Super Junior isn't as popular with my students cause they're an older group, but they are just fantastic and awesome. Charismatic, energetic, hilarious, with excellent dance skills and choreo, they're always proving that they're in for the long haul and they've still got it after all these years.


Hopefully I'll have time to write a big post about my weekend and monday (which was SUPER CRAZY EMBARRASSING AND FUN) later tonight when I go sit in a coffee shop for a few hours. I hope you have enjoyed this first glimpse (for many of you) into the vast world of kpop. I've only just scratched the surface myself, but I am digging it so far!

Enjoy!

Using $5 wifi to post this

So I was bored last night and thought I would make a video talking about my experiences in Korea so far, especially since yesterday was my first day teaching for the whole day! I even wrote the lesson plan myself!!! SCARY!!!

I also thought you'd obviously want to hear the sound of my voice, which you can't do if you're, you know, reading.








Not sure if I'll keep up the videos, might make one or two when I have lots of observations to report. Once I have wifi it might be easier (or I'll forget about youtube videos and just watch a bunch of tv. Who knows).

In a week I will have my alien registration card and be able to do everything like set up a bank account, get internet in my apartment and get an actual cell phone plan!!! Then I won't have to spend $5 to get a coffee so that I can sit here and use the wifi!


Anywho, we had a coteaching workshop today, which meant I got to skip school today (though I was a bit sad, I had some good lessons planned for this week!) The education office took us on a field trip! We went to Namsan Tower and a the Hanock village we saw with EPIK (but we did some different stuff so it was cool!)

Sorry I find the Namsan Tower bear ADORABLE
even when he's sad!

Love locks!

Left: Tina
Right: both say "Happiness"

Back to teaching tomorrow, with a busy weekend planned! There's a party for EPIK teachers Friday, and Sarah, Lauren (my roomie from orientation) and I have plans to see some touristy things sunday and take a night bus tour of the city! And my co teachers have been telling me they want to take me out for Korean BBQ next week! I'm so excited! Can't wait!

Les Mis in Korean

Seeing Les Mis in Korean was both very difficult and very easy at the same time. Getting to the theater wasn’t hard, as most places in Seoul have really good directions from public transport. So I headed to the theater a bit early to get my ticket, since buying it online hadn’t worked.  But once I got there, I was seized with panic. I didn’t know how to buy a ticket! I got up to the box office, but I couldn’t read the signs, so I didn’t know where to go. So I did my standard wait-and-see-what-a-Korean-does, and to my delight, somebody walked up to buy a ticket. So I followed after them and pointed to the section I wanted (there’s a lot of pointing here because my vocab is so limited. I don’t know how to say ticket…) the girl rang up my ticket and gave me a free poster! Then I had to turn around and ask where to go, so I pointed to the ticket and said “Ohdee?” because knowing the question words really comes in handy. So once the doors opened, I sat down, eventually surrounded by Koreans.

But once the show started, it didn’t matter. This was the easy part. I know the score to Les Mis almost as well as I know Phantom, so I wasn’t lost, story wise. Korean actually works pretty well with Les Mis, since a lot of it is quite staccato, so only one or two songs felt like they were rushed or had too many syllables.  Like In My Life.Cosette’s part was pretty rushed, and they kept saying Co-jet instead, which is odd, because Korean does have an s sound. Maybe they were saying Coshette but it sounded like a J to me. Anywho, despite the fact that I don’t speak Korean, I really enjoyed the show.  The cast was phenomenal, and I thought there were really good little touches to make it better. For example, when Valjean is almost getting robbed by Thenardier right after Marius and Cosette run into each other, some of the thug guys were trying to go for Cosette, but Marius got in and protected her. I like that better than the standard “we run into each other and see each other for a second but are in love” thing. At least he was kind of chivalrous here. Even tho he’s still an oblivious dummy . And the Javert BLEW ME AWAY with Stars. I loved it so much that I decided halfway through  act 1 that I wanted the CD.

So at intermission I go out and ask about the cd. Which means I pointed to it and said- Hangoogul? Which means Korean. The girl shook her head and I pointed and said “Young-uh” which is English and she said yes so I said nevermind. She was probably really confused because obviously I speak English not Korean.  But I KNOW the English version and have it already. I WANTED KOREAN. But alas, there was no CD of this amazing cast.

So I sit back down and enjoy the second act, trying once again to hide my tears (Come to Me always gets me in Act I- and I enjoyed how this Fantine and Eponine actually sang like they were dying and running out of time. I get that it’s fake, but I always like a little gasping and weakening to show they’re dying. Especially Eponine, who just got shot but can BELT? Yeah ok) . It was kind of awkward cause Koreans aren’t as familiar with musicals as Westerners are, so there was always an awkward “Should we applaud, should we not?” after every song. The applause definitely wasn’t as loud as in America or London until curtain call, and there was no standing ovation from the whole audience, but most people waved at the cast while they were on stage. So I don’t know if that’s how they show appreciation. I was excited to catch phrases I knew, like in A Little Fall of Rain, I caught ghinchan-a, which means it’s ok or I’m ok, which is what they were saying instead of “Don’t you fret” (also that’s probably not how you Romanize it, but I’m really bad at that so whatever. I just write what it vaguely sounds like to me…). It was very exciting to catch even a couple of words.

Afterwards, I went to Sarah’s and we had dinner and returned to her wifi filled apartment to hang out, watch TV and blog and Skype friends. I used the time to research on Tumblr. Some saint uploaded the whole recording of a show they saw, so of course I downloaded it and I am happily listening to On My Own in Korean right now. Bliss.

Bottom line, I didn’t understand all of it, but it was an exciting adventure, and the emotional impact was still there, even without getting all the words. It’s pretty cool when a show can do that. So now I sit with baited breath, hoping that Phantom of the Opera will make a glorious return (in Korean) to Seoul very soon!

Apartment video

Ok so I made this video on my first day in my apartment in Korea, sorry it's a bit shaky, but you can see what my apartment in Korea looks like!!! It's pretty much one bedroom but I have lots of space and I don't have a roommate this year, which is really weird for me!


I might more pictures once I get everything all set up, but I'm still shopping around for things to make it more homey.


Enjoy!!

Update!

So it's been a bit of whirlwind of meeting students and incredulous looks. The most common questions I got were my age and was I married! I also got some blood type questions thrown in (it's a personality indicator here) and questions about my appearance, like why my face is so small or my nose so tall!

Nothing makes you feel more like a celebrity than walking through a building and having people shout your name and run up to you just to say hi. But it's also quite isolating and you are consciously aware that you stick out like a sore thumb. Elementary students will adore you and you will get looks of wonderment from them. But the Ajummas (old ladies) on the street will stare you down, sometimes a bit menacingly, and it does feel awkward. It's also awkward when you're waiting at a bus stop and people start taking pictures of you while you're just standing there. Yeah, that happened. 

I was excited this weekend because I went out and ordered something for myself. Granted, it was at Taco Bell. And granted, really all I did was hold up three fingers and say what I think is 3 in korean and pointed to the ground to mean for here. But hey I got my food. But even Taco Bell is a plethora of new experiences. I couldn't figure out how to get into the building, first of all, so I had to wait until someone else went in while I fake texted on the side. Turns out it was an automatic door. Then I couldn't figure out what to do with my garbage, because the garbage can had three separate doors with different words on them, none of which I can interpret. SO again, I waited awkwardly till someone else did it to copy them. It sounds silly, but when you're alone and surrounded by people and words you can't understand, you become quite the observer. 

Another thing I have learned is that you should not come to Korea unless you are prepared to ride a bus with you and 200 of your closest friends jammed in like sardines, because that happens annoyingly often. It is something I will just have to learn to live with. 

So far it's been a pretty great experience. My students gasp in excitement when I can say things like "twin" or "father" in Korean (sorry dad, they thought you were my grandpa and that ted was my uncle...) They applaud furiously when I can say a simple sentence. My co teachers are patient with me and my helplessness when trying to order things online that only have Korean descriptions, despite being and English site. I even got to go to a teachers dinner with all of the teachers, and the principal poured me soju! Major breakthrough guys. 

Here are some pictures of my adventures in the first week of school

It's not weird to discuss bodily functions in Korea.
And so, these statues are pretty normal to them. 

This world cup stadium has been
transformed into a mall! Great use of space

Gotta change my shoes at work!

I went without hot water for 3 days until
I figured out this panel turned it on

one of the Korean subject teachers left
this note for me. Isn't that sweet?

Korean kindness is a big thing guys. Lots of them will go inconveniently out of their way to help you out if you really need it. Like my coteacher did some hardcore negotiating to get my immigration papers through when the office screwed up. She complained vehemently to someone on the Chinese immigration side and got her to push my papers through! Can't wait till my alien regisrtation is all set so I can get a bank account, internet and an actual phone contract!

CUTE DOGS AAAH

Caved and got Taco Bell

IT WAS DELICIOUS

Plus side, I live about 10 minutes away from Hongdae, a bustling hangout spot. Complete with Taco Bell and H&M, so my american basics are set

My $5 macchiato I bought so I could
use the wifi

I was adventurous yesterday and went and saw Les Mis in Korean. It was AWESOME. I'll probably rant post about it later because I like to geek out about theater, and this was my first foreign language production of a broadway show (I've seen operas in other languages, but they're subtitled and expected to be in another language, this was all Korean, no English!)

I even got a free poster!

Then Sarah and I hung out and went out to a Korean restaurant where we discussed how Koreans don't usually converse much at dinner (while we were yapping away). I'm mooching off of her wifi right now, but it's also nice to hang out with a friend and decompress about the week, since living on my own is a bit odd and sometimes lonely. I do know there are americans in and near my building, mostly because I heard classic ballads like "My Heart Will Go On" blaring friday night. I think we are all gonna get together for dinner to get to know each other better. It will be nice to have more people I can get advice and tips from!

First few days!

Hey all!!!


I'm updating this blog from my desk at school!!! Unfortunately, I don't have wifi in my apartment, and I won't be able to get it until I get my Alien Registration Card, for which I have an appointment tomorrow. The card takes at least 2 weeks to process, probably more now that there's an influx of applications, so don't expect tons of updates for about 3-4 weeks, till I can get SUPER FAST wifi in my apartment.

The good thing about Korea is there is lots of free public wifi, and I have an internet connection at school. Sadly, I won't be able to post pictures or videos for a while, unless I visit a cafe with wifi or a friend who has it in their house, so you'll probably get a big pic post in a couple of weeks.

So far so good, as far as school goes. Most of the teachers are impressed that I can say anything at all in Korean, even if it's words like "Where, how, why, what?" or family member names like 엄마 (oh-mah, mother) or Oppa which is brother (but can also be used for older guys in general or boyfriends- at kpop concerts, most girls scream OPPA for their idols... so yeah). Honestly, I think everyone is amazed I can say more than Hello! I still feel like I'm a fish out of water (because everyone still stares at me, from the time I leave my apartment till the time I get home), but I hope after a month or two everything will feel routine.

This week, I have been introducing myself to just about everyone in the school. I even had to go on the televised morning announcements to introduce myself today!!! Scary!!! Thus far, I've just shown them a simple powerpoint about myself. They laugh when I show them pictures of me when I was young, and they also always guess that my dad is my harabuji, which means grandfather. So I tell them "no!!! Abuji!!!" which is like, No!! That's my dad!!! Thus far, I think they like me. They like to run up to me in the halls and say "Christina Teacher, HELLO!!!" and then they hug me and run away. Or they shout "Christina teacher, pretty!!!"  Koreans are really flattering when they meet foreigners, I guess. I'm trying not to let it go to my head haha!!!


I have a lot of free time at school this week, since I'm just introducing myself. I usually have a block of 3 or 4 lessons in the morning, lunch, then one or two more lessons. These end around 1 or 1:30, and I  will be teaching 22 lessons a week. I basically have 22 individual classes, ranging from 3rd graders to 6th graders. But I'm contracted to work 40 hours, which means sitting here until 4:30 every day, just bopping around on teh interwebz. I actually start teaching next week, so my 3 coteachers (yup, 3 co teachers!!!) and I will start working on things. My lesson for the 4th graders next week is days of the week, and the 5th graders are learning "I want to..." so I have to start thinking about that. Thankfully, I only have to plan 4 lessons and repeat them about 5 times each.

In the meantime, especially once I have internet, I plan on studying more Korean so that I can kind of understand what the heck the students are yelling, or what my co teachers are saying to them.

My apartment is actually really nice, but I need to fix a few things, like the fact that I have no curtains and no hot water. Wamp. I'm kind of roughing it in the heat, though I do have an air conditioner. It's right above my bed and it drips, plus I'm trying not to have a sky high electric bill, so I've only used it to cool the apartment a bit before bed or if I'm dying. Hopefully the weather and CRAZY humidity will be transitioning out soon, so I can start walking to school. I don't mind the bus, but it's a bit awkward when I can feel everyone staring at the waygook. That's one thing that's hard about living in Korea- I will NEVER fit in as a local. In Italy, I could sometimes pass for a European. No chance here. It will take some getting used to, but I want to do my best to represent Westerners here in Korea.


Until next post!