Teaching Video Blog

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Another day, another update

Yesterday was my first day of teaching and overall it was a good experience.  I taught 6 classes and it was basically 2 great ones, 3 decent ones, and 1 awful one.   We have a teacher's meeting this afternoon where we get our schedules for April so I'm just hoping I don't get stuck with that class permanently.  It is so strange because you teach such a range of skill levels that you really have to have a different game plan for every class.  In some classes they barely understand what you're saying, in others they could easily read English novels.  Most of the kids are terrified of speaking English to a teacher so they "play dumb" even though when we're doing workbook exercises they just fly through the material.  I hope that in time they become more comfortable with me and we can have more free talking time.  Oh, I should mention I observed Tom's kindergarten class yesterday.  Basically Kindy here is just English babysitting.  We sang songs, colored, and watched Dumbo--not exactly stressful.  Unfortunately for kindy you have to teach 10-2 and then normal classes start at 3 so it is a pretty full day.  Not something I would want to do long term but I could see myself doing it for a month or so to earn some extra scratch.

After classes last night I went out with Tom and Charlie.  It was Tom's last day and my first so we figured that re quired some drinks.  We ate some delicious chicken galbi and then hunkered down in a pretty cool hooka bar near Suwon Station (see pictures below of the neighborhood).  Smoked some hooka, had some beers, and just enjoyed each other's company.  I also had my first experience with Korean girls coming up to practice their English.  The only other people in the place ended up being a group of 20-something Korean girls who came over and struck up a conversation.  Their English skills weren't great but they certainly trump the 3 words I know in Korean so we got by.  We talked about Obama, Eminem, and Korean pop music.  They taught us some new words and helped our pronounciation a bit.  It is so funny that I made fun of Koreans saying "Kebbin" because I'm 99% sure that everything I say in Korean just comes out a jumbled mess and probably sounds worst than Kebbin to their ears.  Also, there are a few students named Kevin at my school so everyone there is able to say my name correctly.  It is somewhat scary that Tom is leaving because he's been not only our guide but he knows enough Korean to order food/give cabs directions/etc and Charlie and I are going to be on our own from here on out.  Our plan is to make friends with a Korean asap.

Last night we also got to see the Red Light District (RLD) in pretty much full swing.  Now prostitution is explicitly illegal in Korea and there are signs everywhere alluding to that fact.  Despite all that, there is about a 3 block radius where there is nothing but pink windows with girls sitting scantly clad in them.  Also, there are at least a dozen "sexy motels" with female pimps named "Madams" out front trying to seduce you in.  Seems so incredibly hypocritical that a place like that would be allowed to exist if prostitution is illegal.  I guess the police just kind of look the other way if it is contained to just this area.  There is also an area in Seoul called "Hooker Hill" which is the same exact setup, only on a hillside.   The girls were "meh", mainly because I know most are probably victims of some form of human trafficking and zero are there under their own free will.  Most were actually Thai or Phillipino instead of Korean.  They tend to leave the foreigners alone but a few did say "Sexy Americans" or something like that when we walked by.  We just avoided eye-contact and walked straight ahead.  I guess I would say it is like Amsterdam but much more pathetic and seedy.

We ended the night by Tom taking us up to the roof of the building.  What an incredible view of the city.  I'll go up again soon and take some pictures but it was the first time I could see Suwon as a whole and get a feel for the lay of the land a bit.  I am getting pretty good at finding my way around and having a sense of direction but seeing Suwon from a rooftop gave me a whole new perspective.

Ok, time to get some food and gear up for another day of teaching.  Only 4 classes today so should be a breeze.  Take it easy, but take it.

More pictures and a forgotten blog

Blogger is being a pain in the ass and it won't let me add more pictures to my last post so I'll just make a new one.  EDIT:  UGH!  Blogger won't let me reorder these pictures so just enjoy.

This one only my parents will understand, but Guy Smiley made it to Korea as well.

Charlie and I in the shopping district across from Suwon Station.

Me being extremely foreign and taking pictures on the street.

Looking at it now this picture really don't do this intersection justice.  I took this on the steps of Suwon Station and there is just so much going on constantly in this country and I often feel tired just being out and about.

Finally, I'll put up my first food picture.   I plan on writing a really good food blog soon.  This was delivered for about $8 and it is mainly steak stir-fry and rice.  The side dishes are a brown broth, kimchee, and some pudding.  The best part is when you're done eating you just put the plates outside your door and the delivery guy comes back by in an hour or so to pick them up.  Talk about service.

When I first conceptulized this blog I wanted the first post to be written pre-Korea with my commitments for the trip.  Basically I wanted to write down some ground rules for my experience.  I forgot so I guess I'll do that now.

1.  Try everything once.  This includes everything from food to traveling.  Basically I just always want to say, "Yes," when someone asks me to do something so I can make the most out of my year.  So far I have done a great job--I've eaten tons of things without knowing what they were and I've only really been in my room when I've been sleeping.  It is so nice that Charlie is new and we've become friends so quickly because he also enjoys exploring and we spend hours just wandering the streets (and getting lost!)  If I ever feel bored I just knock on his door and we go exploring all corners of Suwon (found the Red Light District today.  Not much happening at 2 pm on a Sunday but by the looks of it there will be a few hundred girls in the windows on a Friday night so we're planning on walking through and seeing the "sights" sometime)

2.  Learn the language.  I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this one.  I think I'll amend it to "Learn as much Korean as I can" because the idea of becoming fluent in one year is laughable really.  So far I know about 5 words or phrases and so far they've gotten me around pretty well.  I really just point, nod, use hand gestures, and bow a lot.  It seems to be working.  When I want to buy something I just put hand them more than enough money and let them make change.  This results in me constantly having all these small bills and coins because I just default to using 10,000won bills everytime.

3.  Travel.  Not only do I want to see all of Korea (not a huge task, the entire country is about the size of the state of Indiana) but I want to take advantage of being in Asia.  I plan on seeing Thailand and China for sure but I would like to add Japan, Laos, and the Phillipines as well.  I have a 12 month contract but I get paid for 13 so I'll probably take an extra month on the end to travel around SE Asia a bit.  This one should be easy to follow through with because traveling and seeing the world was my main motivation for coming here.  If anyone is interested in seeing any of these countries please let me know.  I have paid vacation time so if you want to meet up it would be awesome!

4.  Document the experience for myself and be honest with my reflections.  I think an important aspect of a trip like this is self-reflection and personal growth and I would be doing myself a disservice to write a blog that is all smiles and sunshine.  Trust me, Korea has plenty of both but a huge part of this journey will be overcoming obstacles and tackling the unknown.  I'm sure there will be plenty of emo blogs and "Things I hate about Korea" in due time but for now I'll just keep writing and taking pictures.  I really need to step my picture taking game.

5.  Stay in touch with friends and family.  I cannot express how much it has meant to me to hear from so many of you already.  People I haven't talked to since high school (which is almost 6 years ago now, damnit I'm getting old) have written on my facebook wishing me well and that just means the world to me.  My immediate and extended family have all been so incredibly supportive and that is what makes a trip and experience like this possible.  If you like the blog, leave a comment.  You can also contact me via email (kkushion@gmail.com) AIM (InKevinWeTrust) or Skype (kevinkushion). 

One more thing: I'm not going to be proofreading or editing these blogs.  I apologize for any spelling mistakes, typos, or grammar errors.  Just deal with it. :)

Take it easy, but take it.

First weekend

First, I'm sincerely shocked how many people have commented about the blog so far.  Thanks so much for reading and I'll try to keep posting.

I guess I'll start on Friday and work my way up to today.  On Friday I observed some classes taught by my boss, including one class I'll be taking over on Monday.  The kids are ridiculously cute and funny.  They all think I'm some kind of novelty act and basically anything I do or say results in the entire class going into hysterics.  I can already tell that teaching will possibly be one of the best parts of this experience.  The classes are only 50 minutes long and my boss spent at least 20 minutes per class just talking with the students about their days and just having "free talking" time.  He expressed to me that if he had the kids talking for 50 minutes and didn't cover anything out of the book or his lesson plan he would consider it a successful day.  After talking with the other teachers it became apparent that this whole thing is quite laid back and as long as the kids are having fun and talking in English you're doing all that is expected of you.  Tomorrow will be my first day of teaching so I'm sure I'll have tons of stories.

Hmm, what next?  Oh yeah, Friday night I went to a place called NOW Bar with my fellow teachers Tom and Charlie.  Tom is just finishing up his year here in Suwon and Charlie just arrived last week so Tom is trying to show Charlie and I around a bit.  The bar was probably 90% foreigners and it was a riot.  I met people from England, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and then all over the US.  Foreigners bond very quickly here and it felt like the entire bar was your friend.  You could just walk around, make conversation with anyone, and instantly make a friend.  Everyone was especially impressed that I was out on the town after only 24 hours in Suwon but I didn't want to miss a chance to see some of Tom's hotspots before he leaves this week.  We stayed until about 7 a.m. and then Charlie and I got lost on the way home.  We wondered the streets for awhile muttering "Everything looks the God damn same!" before we found an internet cafe and printed out the school's address for a cabbie.  Nothing like getting home at 8:30 a.m. after your first night out.

So I get to bed at 9 and at noon there is a knock on my door.  My boss and his family want to take me to E-Mart (Korean Walmart) to buy whatever we need.  Now I was only marginally hung over but I was dead tired making the whole E-Mart experience an interesting one.  One thing that is frustrating so far is that Korean people just assume you speak the language, even if you don't respond they just keep yammering away and trying to get you to try their samples of food in E-Mart.  I would think the blank stare on my face when they talk to me would give it away that I have no idea what they're sampling or saying.  This language thing is going to be a constant battle.

After E-Mart Charlie and I came back and took long naps.  We then went out to get something to eat, my first such trip without a Korean speaker.  We settled on a place that appeared to sell chicken wings and BBQ chicken.  We were so happy when the menu had pictures, I honestly don't know what we would have done otherwise.  We picked a picture of wings and tried to order that when the waitress (aka the female head of the family who owns the restaurant) kept shaking her head and repeating something in Korean.  She finally waves over the guy who is doing the cooking and he just says "Oh no, very very hot"  Disaster averted.  We switched it up and got some delicious wings while watching the South Korea vs. Iraq soccer game.  After that we just came back and crashed.

I guess I should finish the blog off with some pictures.  NOTE: Click the pictures to see a larger view.

Intersection just down the block from my school/apartment.

Front-side of the school

Side of the school, I live underneath that window on the bottom-left.

My bathroom.  Notice the lack of shower.  In Korea they just have that shower head on the wall and the entire bathroom gets wet.  It sure makes cleaning the bathroom a breeze.

Finally, a shitty picture of the inside of my apartment.  I took this standing in the doorway and what you see is basically what you get.  Out of view to the right is my dressor and my bed.  Nothing fancy but it gets the job done.

Ok, I realize those pictures suck and I will try hard to start taking more pictures in the coming days.  Love you all.  Take it easy, but take it.

First thoughts on Korea

Ok, a lot has happened in the 12 hours or so since I wrote the blog on the plane.  Let me recap:

1.  Someone died on my flight here.  You read that right: they died on the plane.  I was asleep during the whole ordeal but obviously a pretty intense situation nevertheless.  I was impressed how well the flight crew handled the whole ordeal--I assume that is something you train for but never really plan on having happen, especially during a 14 hour trans-Pacific flight.  I was surprised we didn't make an emergency landing or anything but I guess when you're going over the middle of the ocean that isn't really an option anyway.  I tried to not take it as an omen.

2.  The luggage didn't make it.  Hopefully they'll deliver it today.  Singapore Airlines was super helpful with the whole luggage situation so hopefully that trend continues and they'll get it to us asap.

3.  Korean traffic is unbelievable.  The fact that the cars even have turn signals is laughable because I never saw anyone using them.  Why signal when you can just honk and almost hit other people?  The people on scooters and motorcycles are all suicidal as far as I'm concerned.

4.  My apartment/school is very solid.  I actually live in the same building as my school so that makes it pretty convienent.  I start teaching on Monday but I'm going to do some observing today.  My new boss, Edgar, and his family have been very kind and generous so far.  Edgar and I had a great Korean meal last night and he made it a point to introduce me to local shopkeepers and restaurant owners so I won't feel so incredibly foreign all the time.  The meal is almost worth a blog all on its own so I'll be sure to do a Korean food blog soon.  Preview: It is awesome.

5.  Heated floors are incredible.  I can't believe the rest of the world hasn't figured this one out yet but Koreans just run pipes full of heated water under the floor boards and that is how they heat their homes and businesses.  It makes  jumping out of bed to make a quick bathroom run a much more pleasurable experience.  Koreans don't wear shoes indoors so it makes sense that they would want heat under the bare/socked feet.

6.  The Korean language is really hard.   I was trying to say a simple "Thank you" to the waitress and restaurant owner last night that turned into a giant laughing fit.  Basicallly I couldn't pronounce "Thank you" and they couldn't pronounce "Kevin".  In Korea my name becomes "Kebbin" so we all had a really good mutual laugh together even though don't share a language.  It is pretty amazing how much of communication is acutally non-verbal and transcends language barriers.  I basically just bow respectfully and they seem to really appreciate my efforts to be respectful and my attempts to learn their language.  Hopefully that trend continues.

My camera is charging now and I'm going to do some exploring today before classes this afternoon.  I'll post some pictures of my apartment and Suwon later today.  For now I think I'll head back to bed for an hour or so to kill off this jetlag once and for all.

To my friends and family, I love you all so much and hope you're having wonderful days.  Thanks for reading.

Take it easy, but take it.

I'm off

The coast of California just disappeared out of view from seat 50A and the realization that I won't see U.S. soil again for over a year is starting to settle in.  Today has already been such a wild ride of emotions and thanks to Singapore Airlines (more on them later, trust me) I'm able to have my laptop and all my electronic toys plugged in during the flight so I figured this would be an ideal time to start my Korea blog.

I really want this blog to serve as a written account of all of my experiences in Korea, both the good and the bad.  I am sure this year will be full of wonderful highs and devastating lows and I hope to be able to capture and document some of those moments mainly so that I have something to look back and reflect upon, but also so my friends and family in the U.S. have some idea of how I'm doing and what I've been up to.

So far, if I had to describe the experience of becoming an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in one word: stressful.  The process of getting ready to come, finding a school, gathering the documents, getting a visa, packing, uprooting, and moving around the world is a lot more complicated and involved that I originally would have guessed.  Looking back I was incredibly naive to assume it would be any simpler, but God damn it was an involved and busy process.  The flight to Korea so far has been no exception.

So, my good friend Phil was kind enough to drop me off at O'Hare this morning where I waited in the curbside line to check my bags.  Keep in mind I had to pack my entire life for a year into 2 suitcases so needless to say one of my bags was over the 50 lb. weight limit.  No biggie, I'll pay whatever it cost because I don't really see any other option.  Oh no.  The "Skycap" (which is a fancy term for baggage handler) informs me that I can't check in at the curb and I may not be able to check overweight bags at all.  Oh goodie.

So I go inside to wait in another line.  At this point my flight was scheduled to leave in just over an hour and I had about 30 people in front of me who seemingly were not moving.  So I stood there semi-panicing for awhile and finally got up to the counter, bent over and paid the baggage fees, and got my boarding passes.  Ok, stress over right?  Oh no.

I get to the gate and just as I'm about to take a seat I glance up at the board showing all departures.  Out of atleast 100 flights mine is the only one delayed.  Mechanic problems.  Oh goodie.  So, again, I enter into a semi-panic mode knowing I will probably miss my connection in San Fran and thus when my new boss shows up to pick me up in Seoul I won't be there nor will I have any means of contacting him in the meantime to let him know plans have changed.  This is where my story takes its first really good turn and I strike up a conversation with a girl named Ellie who has the same semi-panic face that I've been wearing for the last 10 minutes.  Turns out we're both on the same flight to Seoul and instantly bond over our mutual anxiety.  Enter Ara who is going to Korea with his wife for his 4th year of teaching.  He heard us talking, came over, and let us know that he too was on the flight from San Fran to Seoul.  Ellie and I instantly cling to this man like grim death and begin blindly following him to the customer service desk to try and get us all re-booked together.  I cannot begin to tell you how much relief Ellie and I were feeling knowing that we weren't alone and we had an experienced traveler/teacher basically holding our hands now.  If I had to deal with what happens next alone I certainly would have broken down emotionally and hated everything to do with flying.

Enter Singapore Airlines.  For some ridiculous reason they couldn't "release" our tickets for rebooking so unless we could make it to San Fran. in time for our regularly scheduled flight we would all be stranded in Chicago for at least 24 hours.  United has a non-stop flight to Seoul in 3 hours but that would be too easy, right?  I mean, why wait 3 hours when you can wait an entire day?  The customer service rep sort of loses his cool on the phone with SA and goes and talks to his boss.  They come back, stare at the monitor with grim looks on their faces, and basically say nothing for a few minutes.  At this point I'm pretty much positive I'm not going to Korea today.  Then by some miracle at the very last minute 4 seats on another United flight to San. Fran. opened up.  We literally ran across the terminal with the customer service rep and we were the last four on the plane.  Just when I thought flying could be any more of a pain in my ass we are now on a flight and back on schedule.  Whew.  Our luggage won't get to Seoul until a day late but at this point I could not care less.  I'm on my scheduled flight and I am able to relax.

Ok, the rest of this blog is going to be shameless promotion for Singapore Airlines.  Now I've never flown SA but I have to say this is by far the nicest airline I've ever flow.  First, the flight is about 1/3 full so I have an entire row to myself.  I'm greeted by the absolute most attractive crew of flight attendants imaginable (note to self: check out Singapore) handing out hot towels.   Now if it weren't for the Family Guy episode I don't think I would have known what was expected with the hot towel.  Luckily I learned from Stewie's mistake.  Then I find my seat and I'm wowed again.   I have this mini-computer at my seat that has games and movies and TV shows and if I had an ethernet cable I could actually surf the net.  It has a full QWERTY keyboard and a bunch of new releases.  Let me recap: hot flight attendants, lots of room, super computer at each station, electrical/USB plugs; I feel like I'm in 1st class.

Ok, as I'm typing this they just handed out ANOTHER hot towel and a pair of socks.  Socks.  United couldn't so much as give us peanuts, SA is handing out clothing.  I also just got the menu for lunch and dinner.  I have about 5 options and I'm going to go out on a limb and say the food will be good as well, which is a nice change from the typical, non-edible airline food I've experienced in the past.  Ok, now I'm editing this because they just brought out lunch and it is fantastic.  I'm having a pesto pasta with chicken and garlic bread and it honestly is delicious.  Brave SA, bravo.  In short, if you're going to come visit me (which I hope you do!) you should try and book on Singapore Airlines because this is the bomb.

I'm going to try and write a blog within a few hours of landing in Seoul because I want to document my first impressions so I have something to reflect upon in a year.  If the worst thing that happens today is my flight was cancelled and my luggage is a day late I think I'd be doing pretty damn well.  That's all for now, thanks for reading.

Take it easy, but take it.