Flu!

So, no pictures this time. I haven't been up to much. Normally, I would be speaking about how my first two days of teaching went. This, however, is not a normal time! Remember way back when, about 2 weeks ago, I was in training? Well, right after my group left, another group came. This group had a slightly unwanted comrade with them - a little bugger we like to call swine flu. Yipes. So about an hour before my first class is going to start, my head instructor comes in, informing us of the problem, and how seven people are quarantined in Seoul. Well, shortly after that, the branch owner tells us that all our schools are closed for the next 10 days! We now are getting our temperature taken two times a day as a precaution (although I don't know what sort of precaution this is) and are technically not supposed to leave. We all are though.

But here is the real kicker! Unbeknownst to most of the western world, there are 50+ people in quarantine! 30+ Americans. There is a guy who is keeping a pretty detailed blog about it all, you can read about it here. It is pretty interesting, all the things they have to go through and what its like. Its a really fascinating blog and I suggest you take a peak at it if you have the time.

In other news, I went to costco, got an air mattress, maybe gonna get a toaster oven or microwave tomorrow, and am going to either Suwon or Mok Dong or Seoul or meeting some friends here in the next couple of days, which is exciting. 

Anyways, until I have more interesting stuff to babble about, goodbye!

Norebong! Nore Bong? Nori Bong???

Woo! Okay! The weekend is over. It was fun, and relaxing, and boring, and stressful! We'll talk about Friday first. I am replacing a guy here named Andy. Great guy, from what I could gather from him over a week of knowing him. He was really helpful showing me around town and doing a good job of making sure I was at least semi-settled. He also gave me his old tv and table when he left. What a treat! Anyways, thats him below, at the Norebong. I still don't even know if its really bang or bong or what. But basically, its a room you get and go to town on some karaoke and some serious alcohol. We had tons of singalongs which was really great. I believe this photo is taken at Andy's request for the final song...a rendition of Hey Jude that is only fitting for a goodbye to a group of good friends. 

Here is me acting a fool, singing something. I dunno what it was. I know at one point we sang some Weezer. Other than that, I can't quite remember them all. Thats Andy and Erik with me.

I guess we're friends! That girl in the middle is from Philly...sigh...we don't seem to see eye to eye on much, as far as sports goes. Its okay though. While at first I managed to insult her enough to make her go to the other side of a rather large bar, we sort of made up a little later...I think. The details are fuzzy, but I think we agreed to disagree, and maybe to not talk about sports ever again. I guess thats fair.

This is the crew walking around. I mostly just posted it because i liked the signs on the left and the trees in the center / right. I think its a neat contrast. /artsy photo babble.

Finally, this is us all at Hudson. I have a bad time with names, considering how many I have come in contact to recently, but I do know that Gregg is in the middle, Andy is behind, I'm on the right, and I sadly forget the other 3. I'll get my act together at some point, I promise.

So thats that! I think I would like to pause for a minute and talk about the serious amounts of game machines on the streets. I have yet to take a picture of them for some strange reason. But they have some awesome stuff in them! I have only played one or two and have yet to win, but I am about to start taking them to town! They have things like mp3 players in them, too. No child's play, here. They also have lots of little asian cute trinket machines, and I'll probably hit those up when it comes time to send home some gifts. 

So I did my lesson plans today, also. Tomorrow is my first day teaching, and I'm both apprehensive and excited about it. I think if kids in the US were taught the way these kids are, we would be in far better shape with things. But I guess that discussion is a little above my pay grade. I'm excited to get this first week overwith. I think once thats done, I'll be much more in my zone. I feel like this is far less of a job than anything else though. It seems like its going to just be a blast most of the time. And I'm loving the hours.

Oh! I like to keep you people in the blogosphere abreast of my latest victories and failures, as well! Victory = I figured out how to work the washing machine! It had to be done, and desperate times call for desperate measures. So what did I do? Well...to be honest, I randomly came across the manual in a drawer, and I read the heck out of it! I figured it out and its all good. So don't worry, I'll be walking around in clean clothes!

On the failure side of things, I haven't been able to go see star trek, regardless of effort and intent :( But eventually I'll get there, I hope! And also, I got on the wrong bus to Seoul, which also means its not going to Seoul, and wound up somewhere after about 45 minutes that I had no clue about. I'm going to get things straightened out and get there this weekend, I hope. I wish this city (Gimpo) had more to do. There aren't really any sites or much of anything at all. Oh well.

Does anybody want any letters or anything? I have a decent amount of free time on my hand, and I don't mind writing, if you don't mind giving me your address! You can email it to me if you want or leave it in a comment or something.

okay okay, enough is enough, I am going to try to put on a movie and chill out with a coke and some pizza flavored chips ftw. Bye bye!

Moonbats and Acrobats.

So! I got to play some darts! With the luxury of not having to teach on Wednesdays, a few of us went out to drink (and drink, and drink) on Tuesday night. I was out with Eric, a dude from Colorado, Andy, who I am replacing and who is from Chicago, and a guy from Utah, I think, whose name, thanks to my remarkable ability to suck at remembering names, I have forgotten. Anyways, I feel like I should have uploaded this image as a slightly larger one, considering I don't think you can see the glory of me having locked up all but the final bullseye. I'm the blue, if that helps. Its electronic darts here, but not as awful as you might think. The bar is called the Hudson. I can get down with a bar with darts and a name like that.

Also! Just across the street from my apartment is a sushi place. Well, kimbop place. Which is like rice with tuna and several other things that I'm not entirely sure about but either way, its like Korean waffle house. Why? Because it is 24 hours a day! So after the bar at around 430am we hit it up for a tasty treat. But that brings me to my next point - 

- Oh yeah, thats right! That is the sandwich shop below me. They call it a "toast" which is sorta neat. Thats a ham toast. You can get lots of toasts! Ham, roast beef, bacon, crab, egg, cheese. Just to name a few. It comes with slaw, which everything here seems to come with or have on it or something of that nature. But in the words of my main man B-Bunny, "thats not all, folks!" 

Yup! Look at that! Waffle taco! Well, its dessert, but its great! You can choose between chocolate, strawberry, banana, vanilla, and maybe one or two others, but the point is that they are dan ger ous! For basically 3 dollars I got all of that you see there. And yes, Jeny, that is your plate and yes, you can get extra pickles on the sandwich!

In other news, my room! It is coming along slowly but surely. Very slowly and rather unsurely, on second thought. I have a lot I want, and maybe a little I need, and maybe nothing from either of those categories coming any time soon. My main goal now that I got my curtains is a toaster oven. I found one for around 25 bucks but they said they were sold out! Damn the man, I just can't escape irresistible prices and the lack of product due to said prices! I also want a rug and some storage, maybe a chair or two, but I suspect I can live without those until I get paid or can weasel my way into swiping some from the side of the road. Either way, I'm contented now with my snazzy green table and decent bedding. I would like a new pillow, but I'll live for the time being without.

I suppose I would also be remiss if I didn't mention school at all. I start on Monday, but I've been sitting in on quite a few classes this week and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Today we had a party in one of my classes and played a bunch of games. They are quite intrigued by a new western face, and as such decided to call on me for every part of every game we played. "Nick Teacher!" I enjoy it though. They were very kind in sharing all their snacks with me, and I returned the favor by helping out with word guessing games when they weren't quite sure of whatever it was they were trying to figure out. Its quite fascinating seeing the gears turning in their heads.

I also got my material for one of my classes next week. It is Blackbeard the Pirate and Other Assorted Stories. I think thatll be quite exciting! A nice way to break in the start of teaching. 

Anyways, I think I might be heading in to Seoul this weekend for a bit of fun with some of the other instructors from training, so that will be nice. Until next time!

Small victories

Okay! So Bren once wrote about small victories in Japan. Boy oh boy was he right. Today I managed to get my address, and promptly wrote it down in about 15 different places so as not to lose it. We'll get to the address info in a few. First things first!

Class! I sat in on my first class today. It seems like it will be a real great time teaching these kids. They are all really fun and absolutely hilarious and I think its going to be just great. Just one thing: we were discussing what evil meant, and Miles asked the kids who an evil person in the world might be. They named a bunch of Korean evilites, but then to my surprise one yelled out "Obama!"

"Obama?" Miles asks, "why Obama?"

"Because he is an American President! And he is black!"

Boy....I didn't see that atom bomb dropping. I guess they are a little far behind on race relations hahah. Regardless of any lynching they may want to partake in, I really enjoyed getting to know them for the 3 hours I was there. One kid, in particular, was fantastic. From the getgo he was just asking me a million questions. Then I asked him what his name was. Stimpack-Marine. Or Stimpack for short. Or S.M. for very short. In the words of my little cleaning robot friend from Wall-E.."whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!"This kid picked his name from Starcraft. Fantastic lol. He was my favorite out of the bunch. His neighbor, Ken, was not far behind. I love their names hahah.

So okay! On to my small victories! I was able to get into a cab and say "Home Plus" to get me to, well, you guessed it! Home Plus! Think of it as a grocery store mixed with a target mixed with an Ikea. Fantastic! It has all the supplies I will need, I do believe. I think I might even be going back tomorrow. I managed to get a duvet cover and bedside table and lamp and curtains (praise allah I needed those curtains so badly) and an iron! All of it on sale, even! Mom would be so proud. So here is a picture of my bed and table. I am slowly but surely getting things together. I have been eying some small cabinets I think I will get, and I think I need a thing to hang my clothes on to dry, as well as maybe one or two other things. I get my signing bonus tomorrow so I might have a bit of fun with it :)

And now! I have tried to explain what my bathroom is like, so I figured it would just be easy enough to take a picture of it. It is NOT as bad as you might think, although it isn't anything to write home about (isn't that what I'm doing now??) Oh well. The only super huge problem with it is spraying the water all over anything and everything that is in the bathroom. Which is usually at least 1 article of clothing, along with my towel, which I try to shield with the door, and any toiletries kept on the sink. Whatever. I like it wet.

p.s. I swear, sometime soon I'll get over the whole "post two pictures at the end and consider it a night" situation. I'm trying to do better!

2! Gimpo!

Well! It has been quite a week, my friends. I am FINALLY settled in to my new place here in Gimpo, just west of Seoul. I am basically 30 min away from Seoul and Incheon, which is a pretty nice location I think. By American standards, my apartment is mostly a dump. However! I tend to like it. Its cozy. Or, let me rephrase that. It will BE cozy once I manage to get some furniture, clean up a bit, and find a comforter for my bed that isn't pink frilly flowers. Or just a new bed. Mine is hard as a rock :(

Anyways, Its been a while since I have updated. And for good reason! The first 2 nights in Seoul were a complete whirlwind. Since my last update was sunday morning last week, I believe I have quite a bit to tell you all! First off: our friend Jeff took us out on Sunday to show us a bit of the ropes. We had Korean BBQ which is fantastic. I mean seriously...you sit there, grill meat, eat strange things out of strange bowls, and it is all delicious. He wound up taking us to a "sexy bar" which, well. Its interesting. We started walking downstairs, underground, and the lower you got, the seedier it seemed to be. We stopped at around the 3rd level below, sat down, and started drinking. Now - a sexy bar is this: the girls walk around in bikinis and they sit at your table and talk with you while you drink and eat and make a fool out of yourself. It was pretty fun. Oh, except for the part where Jeff bought mike and I a bottle of Grey Goose. Feeling obligated due to kindness and politeness, we drank the entire thing. The two of us. Keep in mind in the morning was our first day of training. Which, I might add, brings us tooo.......

TRAINING!

Well. What can I say about training. Maybe that it was seriously, no doubt, the hardest week maybe I have ever experienced. I mean just think, you are in a new country, want to go out have fun, etc. Instead, you get a crash course in how to teach English as a second language, go to classes from 930-445 with a 45 minute break, and oh! Also! If you fail, you get sent home! So I guess you can say this was the end of our fun for the week. Well not really. I had lots of fun. I made a ton of really great friends there, and I hope to keep in touch with the majority of them throughout our stay in Korea. We are all GENERAllY within an hour of each other, so its not too bad. Anyways. I am teaching 2 separate classes: Reading and writing, and listening and speaking. I really enjoy listening and speaking. Reading and writing, not so much. It is a pretty strict curriculum, but I am pleased to say I only work M W TH F and have Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday off. How nice!

So also, I live in Gimpo. It seems to be a pretty nice place. I took an hour or two wandering around, getting a little lost, investigating, and forcing myself to not take the easy route of KFC or McDonalds when I had no clue of what to eat here. Don't worry! I'm surviving fine!

I met a girl here and she took me out to a bar which was nice, we had a few, or quite a bit more than a few, drinks and then headed back to our places. It is strange being "the white person" here. If you see another one, it is always a bit exciting, hoping you might get to chat with them. It is definitely a big change. So here I sit now, having had some good food and a few beers, with another sitting next to me, and thinking about maybe going out to try to find another bar where people might be sitting at that I can talk to. Anyways, I will leave you with a few pictures of my time so far!

This is our BBQ cooking. That arm and shirt you can see is Luke. He was born in Korea but lived in the states for a long time, and his gf, Soo, was here training with us. He is about to had to Vietnam (i think) on a mission trip. Really nice dude. We hit up the arcade at one point!

This is the aftermath of about 14 of us going out to Korean BBQ. It is so delicious. They bring you nonstop sides of egg something-or-another, pickled veggies, kimchee, and other things I don't know about. You then dip the meat in sauce, or roll it up in a leaf of lettuce and make a spring roll type thing. It is amazing!

Numero Uno

So, here I sit at 34000 feet, blistering through the Northwestern Territories at a brisk 535 mph. It is -57°F up here in midair, and likely as miserable down on the miles of icy tundra I can see out my slightly cracked window. While aptly pampered by my Businesselite multi-function seat, my butt is becoming slightly numb and I need something to keep my mind off the fact that I am still not even half way to my final destination. I intend to jot down my thoughts thus far, then wait till I finally reach my hotel to finish a little bit more and hopefully get this online sometime, somehow.
Around 30 minutes into my flight I was treated to a piping hot dish of mixed nuts and a bevy of beverages that would rival any bar back home. I had already downed a mimosa or two, and I opted to keep it simple with an ice cold Coke to wash down my tasty snack. Around this time, I was also provided a hot towel for a little personal spa treatment, lasting all of 30 seconds, as the towel seemed to instantly become cold and worthless. No worries though, I don’t much care for that yuppie garbage anyways.

The service is like nothing I have ever really experienced before. I was offered a selection of entrees, starters, and desserts. To start, I had a cucumber miso soup, pulled crab, and an Asian salad. I picked and prodded at my 4 pieces of oversized Romaine leaves, generously slathering them in the most wonderful sweet and sour Asian dressing they provided. The pulled crab was delicious. The soup was…less than desirable. Although not bad, I’m just not in love with eating green goop. My main dish was Korean beef with spicy sauce (not my first choice, but they ran out of the other beef dish) and I might advise any future world travelers out there to steer clear of spicy beef and sauce while trapped upon an airplane. I think you get the gist. Anyways! I enjoyed a glass or three of red wine and quite a large ice cream sundae for dessert.

So now I sit here, determined to eventually get out my packet of study materials and get to work, but as my little touch-screen info device tells me that we still have 8 ½ hours until arrival, I am more tempted to put on another movie before really cracking down. It seems to be a generally decided naptime on the entire plane, as everybody have pulled down their windows and seem to be fast asleep, for the most part. So maybe I’ll wait to study when it is a bit more decent to turn on some lights. So! I will be back in some 9 or 10 hours from now to finish up!


And okay! I am in my hotel now. Its about 930am on Sunday morning over here. I've got a roommate for the week, a chummy bloke from outside of Sandhurst in England. We hit the streets last night, noted the local hooters, chilis, on the boarder, and starbucks all over the place. And it is SO strange how many Dunkin Donuts there are here. Like every other block. I guess these crazy Koreans love their donuts. 

Anyways, we went out and got some drinks last night. Note to future travelers to Korea: Do NOT leave your money on the table when you want to pay. Take it to the front desk. They don't seem to really like that here. But I digress. We had a really tasty beer called Wabar, brewed locally. After our little exploration I came back to the hotel for a 2 hour nap. I was awoken around 11pm by my roommate, who had stayed out drinking in the hotel bar, and I went downstairs with him for more drinks.

We met this amazing Canadian named Jeff who is around 40, and an Asia travel extraordinaire. We had quite a bit of drinks (I had whiskey, at that!) and finally got back in around 230am. Our bartender, Sun Jin, was so silly. She could speak a bit of English, but got awfully shy when we offered her a drink too. 

Also! This is our toilet! It is pretty crazy. It has all sorts of settings for massage, wash, clean, dry, heat, cool, etc. I have yet to be brave enough to test it out, but maybe sometime when I get a little privacy I'll give it a shot.

Also, this is a picture from outside my window of the bar across the street. Just for your knowledge. 

Anyways, I am going to have many more pictures later to post, but for now, this is what I have. I'm still a bit out of it, so I am certain there is a lot more I would like to say and will later. <3nick