The Adventure Gets Cuter...Day 6 in Korea

I woke up early on Tuesday morning. This should be no surprise to anyone who has read any of my other posts. I had a couple of cups of stick coffee for breakfast. Still love it.

I stole this from someone else's blog...my coffee cups aren't quite as flowery.

After showering, shaving, and getting dressed, I talked to a couple of people on Skype before heading down to the gas station at 11:10. The car pulled up and I hopped in only to find that Mr. Lee was the only occupant of the vehicle. "Mrs. Yoon is not quite ready he explained," and we drove back towards their apartment complex. On the way there, he made a phone call. When he hung up he looked at me and said "Jake wants more time to play." He said that Jake was constantly begging for more play time. Ah, to be young again...

We arrived at the apartment complex and picked up Mrs. Yoon. I was surprised at the fact that they lived really close to me. (Yes, I'd already been to their complex but it was late, I was tired, and I had no idea of where I was or where I was going) I took comfort in this fact because it meant that I could walk to them if I ever needed to. We then headed towards the school and picked up Jake along the way. He was walking down the sidewalk with another boy. I asked him if that was his little buddy and he said yes. Mr. Lee told me that they were "beh-peuh" which means "best friends" in Korean.

Mrs. Yoon asked me what I'd had for breakfast, but was taken aback when I said that I'd only had stick coffee. "Aren't you hungry?" she asked. I explained to her that my eating schedule was still on American time and that I probably wouldn't be hungry until later in the day. She said she understood the feeling.

I met one of the other teachers, who was very kind and became very excited when she heard that I had a background in theatre. (She also became very excited when I knew the words to the chorus of Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up," which she had playing on her computer) She told me that her daughter was 18 and had studied Shakespeare. I told her that I was very impressed by that, considering the fact that many kids are immediately turned off by Shakespeare and have difficulty with the language. She said that her daughter had no trouble with it, that she loved it, and that we would be great friends. Koreans can be so nice. So far most of them seem to really appreciate the arts.

I found out that I wouldn't be teaching until 3:10, so I had a lot of time to prepare. I spent a lot of this time studying the textbooks that I would be teaching from, especially the ones that I'd had trouble with on the previous day. Once I kind of figured out how they were used and how I could teach from them, I felt much more comfortable. I also spent some of the time figuring out how to hook up my computer (there were no outlets in the wall that my desk was up against). Mr. Lee and Mrs. Yoon came up with a temporary solution for the problem and said that they'd find a more permanent one on the following week. Awesome.

While fishing around in my bag for a pen, I came across a jump drive that I'd used to get all of my old work files from my old school computers. I wondered if this particular jump drive still had all the music that I'd downloaded. As I was plugging it into the computer, Jake came in and exclaimed "Oh! You have USB." I got him to help me figure out how to access it (the computer has Windows XP, but all the files and such are in Korean). Once he got it working he showed me how and as a reward I played some of my music for him. When he heard Jack White, (who he'd never heard of, and whose name Koreans pronounce like "Ja Quite") he told me "I like this music. It is good." Jake's a pretty cool kid.

I was paid a visit by 2 little kids who'd popped in the day before to introduce themselves and to ask me some questions in English. They'd run into the teacher's room the previous day and seen me sitting at my desk and were so startled that they decided to run out of the room before gathering up the courage to come back in and investigate. On this day, they were not so shy. They asked me a lot of questions, including where I was from, what I liked to do, and if I had a girlfriend. They also helped me practice some of my Korean, which still sucked but showed slight signs of improvement. They still didn't understand when I asked if they spoke English. Oh well. I noticed them hugging and hanging all over each other and asked them if they were best friends. "Beh-peuh," Mr. Lee reminded me as he walked by. 

These weren't the only cute little kids that I saw on this day. My first class had four 10 year old students who were nothing short of adorable. One of the girls was very excited and was constantly seeking approval. She was very eager to show me that she'd done all of her homework...but then realized that she'd neglected to do part of it, and immediately yelled "I'm so sorry!"

Other cute things that this kid did:

-She proclaimed "Patrick-Teacher, you are very kind and fun!" When I thanked her in Korean, she exclaimed "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

-While working on an assignment, she looked up and said "Teacher! I finish-ed!" I marked the ones that she missed in pencil and gave it back to her so that she could correct them and she yelled, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh! I am so sorry!" before erasing her mistakes and hastily trying to fix them.

-While reading sentences in English, she gave every sentence 110%, even though they were riddled with errors in pronunciation. I wish I had that level of commitment from all of my students.

-When I gave them 9 pages of homework, she exclaimed "Thank you, Teacher!" before bowing and leaving.

My next class was about 2 years older. They were pretty good and stayed on task for the most part. 

After my classes were over, I was starving so I decided to get some chicken from the street food shop that I'd visited the day before. Luckily, the guy spoke a little English, and on top of that I knew which serving size to point at and how much the cost would be. After I paid, the man said "Annyeonghi-gaseyo!" (which means "Go in peace...it's what you say to someone who is leaving) I wasn't thinking and replied with the same thing (You say "Annyeounghi-gyeseyo" to someone when you're the one leaving and the other person is staying) which didn't make much sense, but I bolted out the door before the man could question my error in speech. I got my reports filled out quickly and submitted them to Sue. This time they were done correctly.

Sue and Jane (one of the Korean teachers who I met on the first day) decided to go out for dinner and invited me. Even though I'd just eaten, I was still hungry and so I decided to accompany them. We went do a different street food shop and each bought something.

Sue got this kind of Korean Sausage.

Still don't know the name of this one.

Jane got Tteokbolkki.

These are little rice rolls in a spicy sauce. Delicious.

I got kimbap. (sometimes spelled gimbap)

It's like sushi...only somehow it's better.

We took our food back to the school and shared it with each other in the teacher's room while we chatted. I found out that Jane majored in Korean Literature, and Sue majored in British Literature in Norwich, England. I also found out that we had the next 5 days off from work for summer vacation. Score!

 After the meal, the girls left and I stayed behind and studied Korean. Mr. Lee got a kick out of the words and phrases that I was learning. At the time I was going over "anieyo" which is how you say something is not something. I held up my soft drink bottle and said "Sul anieyo!" which means "This isn't liquor!" No one thought it was funny. They were right when they taught us that humor often doesn't translate. Oh well...studying Korean, eating good food, talking to pretty ladies...not a bad day at the office.

After work, I rode back to Gwangju-si with Mr. Lee and Jake. We talked about sports, school in America, and different cultures. I found out that Jake was an avid basketball fanatic. His favorite players are Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant (I decided to save the whole rape allegation part of the conversation for a few years later down the road). Jake wants to go to the US to play in the NBA when he is older. Before I came here, I had no idea that Koreans even played basketball.

Jake's Heroes

They dropped me off at the apartment and wished me a good holiday. I went upstairs and enjoyed half of a small bottle of makgoelli while Skyping and chatting with friends. I decided that I would try to do the following things over the break:

1. Hike the mountain behind my apartment complex

2. Ride the bus to Seongnam...and possibly further.

3. Get a phone

4. Possibly get a bank account

5. Study Korean

6. Read

7. Do laundry.

8. Explore downtown Gwangju-si.

At one point in the night I decided to go out for a stroll. It's hard to describe the feeling of joy you can have when you realize that you're living on the other side of the world in a culture that is very different from your own. I felt so lucky to be here in Gwangju-si, walking around and enjoying the cool night air. I found a way to the other side of the highway and stopped by the 7-11. I found out that not only can you buy beer at a 7-11 after midnight, but you can also drink it outside of the 7-11! Beer is also sold in single bottles and cans. I bought a bottle to take home and try on a different night. I stayed up very late that night, but decided to try to hike the mountain the next day, if nothing else.