Awakening from a cultural hibernation.

Hello all!
Hanguk (Korean) Kum (Bear) is the name of this blog.  Hongook Koom.  헌극 금.  So basically I will be talking about all the adorable food I am teaching and all the delicious students I eat.
Scratch that, reverse it.

I am about to finish my third day and the differences in culture are already glaring.  The dress code here is like casual Friday everyday.  I was told during orientation that I was not supposed to have a beard.  In Texas at the school I worked at they told me I was not supposed to grow a beard, so I said "screw that, im gonna rock this beard all over the world."  All I have heard since I got here was how nice it is, and how natural it looks on me.  "You look familiar.  Like we have already known you" is what the principal said to me on the first day.  I was sweating bullets because I forgot to pack a single tie or tie clip (sorry Titus) and thought I was going to catch some "This is how you dress for work in America?" comments, but apparently it has been me overdressing everyday and them saying "Weren't you hot in America?  Aren't you hot now?  Why do you always wear long sleeves?  Did you not pack any t-shirts?  Your pants are so nice!"  I get to choose what time I come in and leave, as long as I am here for eight hours.  I am using something that looks like a smartboard on steroids because it has a wide screen and its own speaker system as well as not needing a projector.  It's basically a giant touch screen computer!  The students work very hard here, and basically can go to school from 8:00 or earlier to 6:00 or later.  School technically ends at 3:15 though, and is followed by a twenty minute cleaning period, when the students, to quote a meme, "Sweep all the things!"

I do not have the internet at my apartment yet, but that is ok, because they have these rooms called PC Bangs (PC rooms) that you go to and pay to use their insanely fast internet (Koreas internet is 3x the speed of Americas) and their large monitors and fast moving desktop computers that are wiped every morning.  I can sit in one of those bangs for about three hours and come out paying 3500 won.  The exchange rate here is about 1K won to a dollar.  You can buy a bottle of water for about 750 won, and a beer for about 1200 won.  A bottle of 자츠 (Soju, which is like rice wine or rice vodka depending on the potency of the bottle you buy) costs about 1700 or 2000 won.  I pay for lunch everyday at the cafeteria which costs 2500 won a meal, meaning im only spending 2.50 a day at school, instead of the 5.00 plus I was spending before.  The waiters and waitresses are not tipped here at the end of the meal, and you always pay at the front of the restaurant.  You also never wait for a waitress or waiter to come to you.  Each table has a little bell, or electronic buzzer that you press, and if it doesn't have one you say "Chogyo!" and they come right to your table.  It is not considered rude to do that.

I wear slippers all day (they are sandals really, but the difference is that they can not have the little toe thongs) because shoes are not allowed in the school.  If you try and cross the street without looking both ways, you will get run over.  I have had a couple of close calls already.  I have walked home after midnight on a weekend through some pretty poor parts of town, and never once have I felt threatened.  I keep looking over my shoulder to make sure someone isn't coming after me, then realizing that people in this country don't have guns or knives and I am twice their size and strength.  It's the American paranoia that keeps me walking fast and nervous, but in my entire time here I have not seen but maybe two cop cars.  People just don't seem that concerned with crime.  The Koreans either completely ignore me or stare at me like I have a giant patch of hair growing on my face... oh wait... now that makes sense.  The ones who do talk to me though are super friendly and willing to try to help you with anything.  If you ever overpay them (which happened to me the first day when I didn't realize I was handing over a 10,000 won bill instead of a 1,000 won bill) they give the money right back to you.  If you come visit me (which I highly suggest you do because its Em-Effing beautiful out here) you should learn how to say, left (wencho) right (orencho) bathroom (hwajangshir) and thank you (kumsamnida) everything else will fall into place.  Also, learning to count in Korean couldn't hurt.

I think the easiest part about this trip is going to be the teaching.  With my five years experience I can pretty much lesson plan in my sleep, contrary to the belief of some, and knowing English as well as I do combined with the interactive textbook we are using in the lower grades, I am not even sure how I could lesson plan.  It would look like "Doing pages 1-3 in the textbook.  Objectives: Learning to say 'I would like a'  Activity: have students repeat phrase and different combinations of products. Use: Have students ask each other for things they would like, and practice ordering food."  Bam, one day right there.  Just that one phrase would take up a period. What will be difficult is the upper level high school classes.  The teachers don't have textbooks and want me to teach their students conversational English, but are not sure what they want me to teach, so I'm going to start off with some geography, and social colour.  Teach them about the major cities, and how to blow it up when they give fist bumps, how to talk back to authority (just kidding Cogswell), maybe move into some American movies, music and television.  We will see where this goes.  It could be very interesting or very stressful depending on how things go, but I only see the same class of students once a week for fifty minutes, so worst case scenario, a lesson bombs and I have to play the dancing bear, then I get a week to figure out what went wrong.  They play "the entertainer" to finish every class period, so when I go home at night, that song echoes in my head all. night. long.

The food.  OH THE FOOD!!!  First off, toast sandwiches.  They have these things called toast sandwiches.  They are like... sandwiches... but made with toast.   SO DELICIOUS.  Take a piece of toast, add the meat of your choice, add some egg and or cheese, and some veggies on top (diced up cabbage and carrots) and some sweet and spicy sauces, wrap in paper, serve to hungry American that voraciously devours them.  They have a strange custom over here of not drinking with their meals.  They don't serve water or juice.  I think it is because traditionally most Korean meals are served with soup.  So everyday when I eat in the cafeteria (which I am told is not very good food) and I eat what tastes to me to be the most delicious food in all of Korea, I am forced to eat massive amounts of sticky rice with no water.  Man does that suck when you really need some water and you have none.  They traditionally drink a cup of water at the end of the meal, so I always get two or three then.  I was told it was impolite to eat rice with chopsticks, and that you were supposed to use a spoon, but everyone here eats rice with chopsticks, so I am following the cultural norm.  Today we had Bibimbop.  Look it up.  Its delicious!  This version was made without egg and without red pepper paste, although the place I am living is famous for its red peppers.  They are all surprised that I can read and write Korean, and that I can use chopsticks so well, and that I like spicy food.  "No, you won't like this, it's too spicy.  Oh, you like it?  You must like very spicy food" is a conversation I have almost daily.

Well there goes "the entertainer" so it's time for me to wrap this up and go home for the day before they say "why are you here after 4:30?"  I am not gonna lie, this place is pretty awesome.  Wonder how long it takes me to get sick of the food and the strangeness of it all?  I guess we will find out.