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.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Fireworks festival
This weekend was a good one. I got let off early on Friday so that I could make the buses that I needed to. I took that early time to go home and pack, and then I set off on my eventful trip to Busan. First step was getting a bus from Gamgok to Cheongju. This is where I got stuck last weekend, but would not make the same mistake twice. I got on the right bus as soon as I saw it, and don't you think for a second that I didn't double and triple check that ticket. Well after a couple hours I ended up in Cheongju. First stop was the place that I got off at the first time I went there, and I knew I needed the express terminal. So I waited. I was probably one of ten that finally got off at the terminal, and I knew from previous trips that it was across the street from the express terminal. I got the ticket, and a bite to eat from a Lotteria (not really a decent hamburger, but I was totally craving a hamburger) and soon I was actually on a bus to Busan. I informed my South African mates that I was on the way, and soon enough (read 3 1/2 hours later) I was in Busan. It was kind of anticlimactic considering how much trouble I had last week, but however easy it was on the front end, I paid for it with interest on the back. Quite literally.
Arriving in Busan was simple, and I walked out of the terminal and into a cab "Haeundae Beach" I said. "Beach? Haeundae beach?" the driver asked. "Haeundae Beach" I said quite sure of myself. "Pataka?" he asked. "Yes. Pataka. Beach." I replied, once again thankful I had learned some Korean. He dropped me off by the world aquarium which I book marked as a place to hit on future visits, then walked towards "The Wolfhound." Sound familiar? It should. I visited the one in Itaewon, a neighborhood of Seoul, about two months ago. It was easy to find as Craig gave me good directions, and I was able to look it up on my phone. The directions for foreigner bars over here are very good, with English and Korean directions, pictures, and even videos of people going there. When I walked in they were blaring Irish music and people were packed in there dancing. I immediately remembered why I like living out in the country. So many people who were so loud and so drunk dancing up a storm to songs that were just OK. I had a couple of really delicious beers that I cant get back where I am from, then did a shot of jaeger with the South Africans. We closed our tabs, got out to the street where we ate some deep fried street food, then we hit the road. After a couple of confusing minutes walking around in the middle of nowhere, we met up with the rest of Craigs friends including Lucy, who due to her house being in the middle of nowhere was staying at Craigs like I was. It was some bar whose name I cant remember, but we got in there and had a couple beers. The bartender was a really sassy Korean girl who shouted "Its three thousand!" "Too expensive!" (average price actually) "Then you don't get beer!" (still sassy) "Then you don't get tip" (you don't tip in Korea) "Ok. For you. Special price. Three thousand!" "Deal!" (hand her the money and the tip) She loved me. Kept my beers coming quickly, tried to get me to switch to the house deal that was some name brand liquors for cheap, and danced with me for quite awhile when I gave Craig and Lucy some alone time. I saw the DJ get off stage and I offered to buy him a beer and told him his set was awesome. I may have only half believed that, but I am a firm believer that there is no personal interaction, no matter how small, that won't somehow help or hurt you later on. By that time most of the people in that place had left, and we had only been there about thirty minutes, so it turned into a personal dance party, where it was just me and a couple of bartenders (including the cute sassy one) and a couple of guys dancing. I talked to a Korean guy a little bit, and told him he was a good dancer, because he totally was, and he told me "You service drinks." I knew "service" was the Korean word meaning "Free stuff." So I said "Kumsamnida" as he poured me a shot. We had to leave almost immediately, and walked over to another bar. The Basement, another foreigner bar that was packed with Waygooks and Koreans alike, was where we ended up. A little dancing, and more drinking, and eventually we had had enough. We caught a taxi home and passed out. They totally made fun of me for "Spooning my air matress" while I blew it up on the ground, but if you found something that made you so comfortable night after night, would you have a problem spooning with it? Yeah, I didn't think so. It is waaaay better than having to sleep on a floor, and folds up really nicely.
The next morning I woke up to a massive hangover and the news that the Rangers had lost the world series. Boo to both of those things. I got myself cleaned up and then sat around eating kimbap with Lucy and Craig taking a look on Google earth at our respective hometowns. It was interesting to see the different locations, and the comments about Texas were "It looks... bleak." Which I cant say I disagree with. Over here there are so many mountains and trees, and in the pictures I showed them, everything was just grass and flat. I love Texas dearly, but it's hard to tell someone why, especially when one of the most beautiful parts about it is the blue sky that stretches on for miles uninterrupted. The sunsets and sunrises are a thing that are only dwarfed by the rolling thunderstorms that happen not often enough to give us the rain we need. It's funny, it rains all the time here, but no thunder. In Texas you don't really ever get a storm without thunder. Talking about it is making me homesick, so lets move on. We woke up really late because of the hangovers, and went out into the city to wander around a bit. Hopefully we could find ourselves something last minute to wear for Halloween, but if not, who cares. Spoiler alert, we didn't. Eventually we got the word about some fireworks watching party, and struck out to do it all over again. Taking the subway was quite a task. I swear the Seoul subways during rush hour were not as packed as this. This was people shoulder to shoulder and still more people pushing their way on to a car that was already packed. We were even right next to the door and were like "How the hell are we gonna get out of here? Where will all these people go?" It was interesting. If only I could have gotten a picture of the look on their faces when I said "Syllermida" and they realized I was gonna try and get off. We managed to shuffle around a bit, and I got off in a giant pack of people all going to the fireworks festival. We got some beers for the party then met up with KB (the other South African) and headed towards the party. We ended up on the roof of some apartment called "Amiga Beach" and there was no one up there. We were two hours early. We started drinking beer and soju and just generally causing a ruckus (in a good way) on the top of this roof when who shows up, but my orientation leader Chris. It was awesome to see him. Totally random and totally awesome. We sat around drinking and listening to internet radio being played from smart phones while one kid used his to load up a Russian Roullette program that we used as a drinking game. It was funny making it to the sixth chamber and then giving a speech about what you would miss most in this life, then having to take a giant swig of soju, which is almost as lethal as a bullet let me tell you. Anyways, the party got crapped on pretty quickly when it started to rain, and we decided if we were going to be wet, we were going to be wet closer to the show. We bought umbrellas (mine was pink with little frills on it) for about 4 bucks a piece. When we got to the fireworks show, we went into the only bar that wasn't totally packed. Guess who frequented the bar? Thats right, waygooks.
The bar was nice. I can't for the life of me remember the name, but it had a foreigner bar tender and some other cute ones that spoke almost perfect English. They loved that I tipped them, and that I brought up all the empty glass cups and plates. They were friendly, and when we asked for a food recommendation he said "you have to try the fish and chips, they are getting kind of known around town." I got two double orders of the "2 fish and chips" and the other three dudes who were with me helped me scarf them down. I, at one point, had to order more forks and said "Pokuga" and a girl next to me said something to the extent of "Well that's rude." "What's rude?" "She speaks perfect English." "Oh, I didn't know that." "But you didn't bother to find out?" "I figured speaking her first language would be more polite than speaking her second, she seems to be in quite a bit of a hurry behind the bar, and where I come from no one speaks English, so how bout you mind your own business instead of acting like you belong in this five second interaction." "No it's rude that you just assume..." I didn't hear the rest as I turned my back on her. I really wasn't in the mood to start an argument with a random girl in a bar about whether it was rude to speak Korean to a Korean. She was obviously drunk and just looking to argue. We ate some delicious fish and chips and watched what was probably the most spectacular fireworks show I have ever seen. I can't really describe it, other than saying Huge, Bright, Smoky, Full of lasers and all around Spectacular.
We hung around for awhile after the fireworks show ended and most of the foreigners cleared out. I met a bunch of people from orientation, which makes me glad I had my beard. You would be surprised how many people out of the maybe a thousand at orientation have seen me randomly and said "I was at Jeonju with you, I would recognize that beard anywhere!" Well one of them talked to me in the bar and it was obvious she was having a tough time. She was at a school where the kids were tearing away at her, and for the third or fourth time I was directly thankful for my five years experience. Plenty of times do I think "I am glad this isn't my first job" but not ever more directly than when I am talking to a teacher who is having the first bad day of their career. I had administration to fall back on, and other teachers, and even then at the place where I worked I can't say that I got a whole lot of advice. My mentor was on her way out and left after my first semester. No one taught me how to lesson plan (a problem which haunted me for the next couple of years when one person would require it one way and another person would require it differently) and no one even seemed to care that I was not experienced in classroom management. They all told me I was doing things wrong, but when I asked for help there was slim to none. It was all colleagues that helped me. I had to go to teachers in other departments and ask what the hell I was supposed to do. Emotionally they helped me stay in this business, and I will never forget people like Diego Morillo, Beth Burau (who is awesome beyond belief) Rick Dunn, David Post, Judy Porter, Jen Allen, Bill Storey, Vic Bartolotta and a score of others which are so great in number I can't even name. They all were my mentors, and I owe any successes I have to them, while the failings I will bear as my own. Anyways, it is not what I want to do, sit there and listen to a semi drunk girl dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz talk about her problems as a teacher, but I knew it was something that I should do. She vented and I reassured and before too long she was feeling better. Her confidence seemed to be restored, and she realized that "Yes, if you are left in a classroom by yourself with thirty kids who barely speak the same language as you, it is going to be difficult to get them to follow your directions, especially if they are behaviorally challenged." After that I saw her around the bar and she was in significantly higher spirits. I only hope that she stayed that way for more than just this weekend, as I know the sense of dread returning to an unruly classroom can heap on you. I met some South African from across the bar who was wearing a fake mustache, and complimented me on my real mustache. She came over and talked a bit, and I introduced her to the other South Africans. I met a Zimbab, or girl from Zimbabwe, who looked and spoke like she was mostly English. Forgive my ignorance of world cultures but I am surprised to meet so many white people from Africa. Having never traveled there I only have my interpretation of what the media tells me, and what it tells me is that all Africans are black, except for missionaries or aid workers. Obviously I knew that wasn't correct, but I have no idea how to tell one African accent from another. So I was quite surprised when she was telling me that the markings she was making on my face were more or less based on cultural marking from around where she was from. Pictures forthcoming.
After we made our way out of the bar we decided we needed a cab, but oh crap, there were nine of us. Four in one cab five in the other, with the driver being quite irate that there were so many in his cab. When you have an irate cab driver is a time when it's good to not speak the language, and we tipped him big so I hope that made up for it in his eyes. We ended up back at "The Basement" where we had been the previous night, and there was much dancing and drinking to be done. Somehow a native Korean, Micky, ended up in our group, and man did he love to dance. I did some dancing, but was more interested in the drinking and talking part, so I went up onto the street. I don't know how you can get away with it, but they don't have doormen here, or laws against open containers in public. I would buy a draft Hite, walk up the stairs to the street and stand around on the street with my beer basically talking to everyone that walked by. Perhaps no one minded because it looked like I worked for the place. To everyone that walked by, I would say "Hey, this place is awesome, come dance down in the bottom here!" I even got quite a few people to go in. I saw some awesome costumes and discovered my talent for meeting "Saffers" as Craig and KB call them. It turns out I am a "Saffer magnet". A "Saffer" it turns out is a quite derogatory term for a South African which is apparently based on the German word "Affe" meaning "Ape." Anyway, there were two very good looking South Africans walking by who I stopped and talked to for a whole second until I got a phone call. "Hello? Is this Jeff Wester?" It wasn't KB's voice whose phone the call was coming from, so I hoped for the best. "Yes. Is he ok?" "Yes, but he left his phone in this cab. Where are you?" "Thank God!" I said, then consulted Craig as to our location. "Ok, we will meet you there in thirty minutes." A couple of conversations with random ladies later (including a girl dressed as a pirate who was fascinated with my beard) we got the phone from a cab and Craig gave the guy 10 bucks, which considering what a hassle it must have been, is a fair trade. On the way back another group of Korean girls stopped us for a picture. "Handsome!" they said to me "Yepoyo!" (beautiful) I said to them. We tried talking to them more, but it is very difficult when your command of Korean is even less than a small childs. Standing around outside the bar I met the DJ from the previous night who told me how much it meant to him that I tried to buy him a drink for putting on an awesome set. Apparently the people who ran the place asked him to leave because like I said before, the place pretty much cleared out at a certain time. It wasn't due to music, as people were still dancing and the tempo was still upbeat, it was more just a matter of the time of night. So me and him talked for awhile. Nice guy.
Warning, rant approaching. Craig returned to the club and I wandered down the street towards the big crowd of people. One of the guys in the crowd had a stand that he was selling "Shwarma" from, so I bought some. It was good to have jalapenos again, but the ones over here just aren't spicy enough. While I was eating I ran into a dude who was dressed like the king of hearts and his girlfriend was dressed like the queen, so I stood and talked to them a bit. His beard was almost as epic as mine, but he had obviously never shaved his mustache. We talked for a bit and he was a nice guy. Then something annoying happened. We were standing in a crowd of foreigners and cars were trying to get through and one guy goes for a taxis door and says "you shouldn't be driving here!" to a closed window when the door won't open. Yeah who cares, it's not that big of a deal, but then some lady drives her SUV through and he opens the back door and says "You shouldn't be driving here" to the lady. "What the F was that?" I said not so nicely. "She shouldn't be driving here" he said. "Do you think she understood that? Do you think it is your place to tell her that? Do you think we are at fault for shutting down an entire street intersection or her for peacefully trying to get through?" he had some arguments prepared about how he was just saying what everyone was thinking. "No dude. You are wrong. Not everyone is thinking that, and you are making us all look bad by doing stuff like that? What would you do in the states if some foreigner opened your door and shouted at you in the middle of a festival? Don't be that guy because you make us all look bad, and I don't like having to clean up after your mess. Go home and be drunk, don't represent our country like that." "She didn't know where I'm from." "I'm done with this, don't pull that again or I'll get my buddies over there to finish this argument." (me pointing to the police) If there is one thing I know how to do it is be respectful to those that deserve it, so I then walked over to them and gave them a very respectful "Hello" in Korean and a deep bow from the waist. I said "Thank you" and gestured to the crowd, then walked away. The ranking officer didn't break his hard glare, but all the others smiled and returned my courtesies. I talked to the King of hearts a bit more and then something else annoying happened. A dude who was dressing up as a fetus (by wearing a singlet with a rubber you know what hanging off the front and an umbilical cord attached to some girl) was dancing around in front of a car. It was a taxi that was obviously trying to get through, and there stood this guy just dancing in front of it, obviously taunting it. The king of hearts reached out, grabbed his shoulder and ripped him out of the intersection. "Dude, I know you are dressed like a fetus, don't act like one." Apparently the fetus was very offended by this. He pushed up real close so he was chest to chest with the king, who might I add was a few inches taller than me at about 6'6, while the fetus was about a foot shorter. "Did you not see the taxi driver laughing?" "No. I didn't" the king said. "He didn't care, notice how he didn't honk." "Should he have to honk for you to not dance in front of him?" "We are all having fun, nobody else cared." "I cared" I piped in. He then decides to go chest to chest with me. "Why?" "Because you make us all look like ass-holes. You are an embarrassment." The king of hearts had a few more words with him, and even took his shirt off like he was gonna fight, but the guy for all his talk realized that A) both of us were way bigger than him, and B) there were cops right behind us. I wasn't about to get taken to Korean jail, but I am not against telling a jackass that they are a jackass. ISLT that makes me glad that I'm not in a city. For like the third or fourth time since I have been over here there has been some foreigner acting like a complete jackass that has made us all look bad. I want to chalk it up to ignorance, since they are all usually drunk and about 22, but I have met plenty of drunk responsible 22 year olds. It's just stupid people. They are everywhere, all over the globe and of every nationality. Out here in the countryside if you made a fool of yourself like that you would be blacklisted by the entire community. In a big city like Seoul or Busan you can get away with more stuff, so it doesn't matter right away if you act like a jackass. I seriously hope these people are only here for a year though. I don't like having to bear the responsibility of their actions. Here I am trying to be respectful to police officers and generally not be a burden to the country of Korea, and this guy is erasing all that hard work within thirty seconds to a minute. For every one thing these people do I am required to be polite to 10 or 20 Koreans. That's fine. I like being polite. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling down inside my stomach, but I absolutely hate the fact that I seem to be the first person that is telling the foreigner mosh pitting in Seoul, or the dude opening random car doors in Busan that they are acting like complete tools. Alright, rant over. It's just times like this that I am glad that I live out here in the country around a bunch of people who are, for the most part, very polite. I think being out numbered does that to you.
The rest of the night was uneventful and so was the next day. I left Craigs apartment and went to the place where all the Taxi's gathered. I hopped in one and went to the bus station. I even used my new Korean term "Gosuk Termina" which means express bus terminal. I went up to the window to buy tickets and got one for Cheongju. Like an idiot I didn't check the time right then, but I don't think that would have mattered. I went to the line of buses and what do you know, I met a bunch of people who I knew from around here. Alex who threw the party last weekend, and came to my birthday the week before was there. We shot the shit for awhile and then compared bus tickets to check on the gate. "Hmm, thats funny, yours is blue and yellow, mine is yellow and blue. Hmmm, yours says a seat number. Hmmm, yours says a gate number." The usual. Then I found a problem. Mine said 20:10. "What the hell? 8:10? I'll be right back." This was at 16:30. I got to the counter and said the google translate for "Before." She obviously didn't understand and canceled my ticket and gave me back the money. I asked for another ticket to Cheongju, and this is where it gets frustrating. "Apsoyo" (none) she says. "Cheongju. Cheongju. Hana." "Apsoyo." It was at this time that I realized to my horror that all the buses to Cheongju were sold out, and she had just refunded my ticket and not been able to sell me one. Next line, one to Daejeon which is just south of Cheongju. "Hana, Daejeon." "Apsoyo." I look up at the signs and realize what they are displaying is not only the price, but the time of the next bus. "Holy crap!" I think "There are no more buses for Cheongju, Daejeon, Daegu or Gwangju. My only chance of getting out of here is Dong Seoul." I go up to the counter "Hana Dong Seoul." She turns the screen to me. "I-ship-sa. Midnight." I was honestly hoping before she said midnight that I was just hearing her wrong with the I ship sa thing. I really didn't wanna sit around at a terminal for the next ten hours to catch a bus to a place where I wasn't even going, which would probably put me there at about four, then with another hour bus or so to get back to Gamgok, and that is assuming there was no wait, and that the buses to Gamgok started early. I made a risky decision at that point. Walk out and try a cab to another city where I could buy a bus ticket.
I walked down the stairs and made eye contact with some cabbies. "Daegu" "O Mon" (fifty thousand won) "Crap." I thought, but was resigned to my fate. I paid the price and got driven to Daegu. In Daegu I had him drop me off at the express terminal, but I am assuming from the outcome that everyone else had the same idea. No buses were available to anywhere near where I was going. I knew that I was in for the most expensive cab ride of my life. I once again steeled myself for the coming conversation, walked out the door, and into the eyesight of the predators. As soon as they saw me, they dropped their cigarettes and stepped on them. The slight smirk betrayed the greed that they're helpful body language and tone were hiding. "Odieso?" "Eumseong." "Eumseong?" "Chungbuk. Eumseong." "Chungbuk, Chungbuknam, Eumseong." they said to each other. "Sa ship mon" (forty ten thousand, or four hundred dollars) "Sa ship mon!" I said genuinely surprised. "Aneyo, Aneyo, Aneyo. I bek cheon" (two hundred thousand, but said incorrectly) "Aneyoooo, Chungbuk-do, Eumseong-gun somethinginkoreanwayfasterthanicouldunderstand" "I bek cheon" I insisted. "Sam ship mon. Sam ship mon." (three hundred dollars) This was a definite move in the right direction, but I still didn't want to pay that much for a friggin taxi. "Aneyo. Aneyo. I bek chon" I said sticking to my grammatically misfiring guns. "Aneyo." they said for the final time "Sam ship mon." "Anejo" I said and began to walk away, knowing that I could either try the bargaining again with a taxi down the line or get a deal right here. "Chinchal" (Okay) I heard one of them say "I ship o mon." (250 bucks, or 25-ten thousand won) "Great!" I said and quickly went towards his car and threw my bag in the back. The other cab drivers said some stuff to him and made sure that he understood the price, but I was already in the cab and he took off. It was a long drive. A few hours. But we eventually got to Eumseong. He tried to pull some crap when we got there about only driving me so far then needing to turn on the meter for the rest of it. Had some random Korean guy he stopped on the street try and communicate it with me, but I kept saying "Aneyo, Aneyo. He said 'I Ship O Man' for 'Eumseong.' I ship o man Eumseong!" I think the cab driver realized it was worthless to try and hassle me for more money at that point, so he got back in his car. I gave him a little tip anyways, because the guy did just drive for several hours. He looked at me like I was crazy. I am assuming it was because I refused to pay him extra, but then was willing to tip him. Either way he took the money and drove off. It was a quicker, and way cheaper taxi ride back to Gamgok, as by that point it was eight something and I had no idea where the Eumseong bus terminal was. In fact, it was my first time in Eumseong, and I was ready to just get home. I didn't even eat dinner I was so tired. I just got back home, did a little facebooking, blew up my air mattress again (way less spooning this time) and passed out on my bed trying not to have nightmares about how much I had just spent.
As of now I have hit every major city in Korea for at least a couple minutes. I want to spend more time in Daegu as it looked pretty and ginormous, but I will save that for the future. I have a long time to go. I also have yet to hit Ulsan, but from what I have heard it doesn't have a whole lot to offer. Jeju is pretty much the only place I really really want to go, but as of now it is out of reach. It would take too long to get there and it would take too long to get back. Next weekend the agenda calls for a trip to Gwangju to see all my orientation buddies again. I am very excited for this, as I get an apartment to stay in and will be able to have a bunch of drinking buddies. Hopefully this time I won't get lost in the city (pretty much no way I could now) and I will be able to make it there quicker. I am trying to drag Phillipa along for the ride, but she may be hiking a mountain somewhere East of where I am going. Either way, I have yet to travel anywhere in this country with a companion, and I think that would be something fun to do. Here is your K-pop fix for the week. Hope all of you had a happy Halloween, and stayed safe out there, especially with all the ghouls and ghosts goin' around. :)
Arriving in Busan was simple, and I walked out of the terminal and into a cab "Haeundae Beach" I said. "Beach? Haeundae beach?" the driver asked. "Haeundae Beach" I said quite sure of myself. "Pataka?" he asked. "Yes. Pataka. Beach." I replied, once again thankful I had learned some Korean. He dropped me off by the world aquarium which I book marked as a place to hit on future visits, then walked towards "The Wolfhound." Sound familiar? It should. I visited the one in Itaewon, a neighborhood of Seoul, about two months ago. It was easy to find as Craig gave me good directions, and I was able to look it up on my phone. The directions for foreigner bars over here are very good, with English and Korean directions, pictures, and even videos of people going there. When I walked in they were blaring Irish music and people were packed in there dancing. I immediately remembered why I like living out in the country. So many people who were so loud and so drunk dancing up a storm to songs that were just OK. I had a couple of really delicious beers that I cant get back where I am from, then did a shot of jaeger with the South Africans. We closed our tabs, got out to the street where we ate some deep fried street food, then we hit the road. After a couple of confusing minutes walking around in the middle of nowhere, we met up with the rest of Craigs friends including Lucy, who due to her house being in the middle of nowhere was staying at Craigs like I was. It was some bar whose name I cant remember, but we got in there and had a couple beers. The bartender was a really sassy Korean girl who shouted "Its three thousand!" "Too expensive!" (average price actually) "Then you don't get beer!" (still sassy) "Then you don't get tip" (you don't tip in Korea) "Ok. For you. Special price. Three thousand!" "Deal!" (hand her the money and the tip) She loved me. Kept my beers coming quickly, tried to get me to switch to the house deal that was some name brand liquors for cheap, and danced with me for quite awhile when I gave Craig and Lucy some alone time. I saw the DJ get off stage and I offered to buy him a beer and told him his set was awesome. I may have only half believed that, but I am a firm believer that there is no personal interaction, no matter how small, that won't somehow help or hurt you later on. By that time most of the people in that place had left, and we had only been there about thirty minutes, so it turned into a personal dance party, where it was just me and a couple of bartenders (including the cute sassy one) and a couple of guys dancing. I talked to a Korean guy a little bit, and told him he was a good dancer, because he totally was, and he told me "You service drinks." I knew "service" was the Korean word meaning "Free stuff." So I said "Kumsamnida" as he poured me a shot. We had to leave almost immediately, and walked over to another bar. The Basement, another foreigner bar that was packed with Waygooks and Koreans alike, was where we ended up. A little dancing, and more drinking, and eventually we had had enough. We caught a taxi home and passed out. They totally made fun of me for "Spooning my air matress" while I blew it up on the ground, but if you found something that made you so comfortable night after night, would you have a problem spooning with it? Yeah, I didn't think so. It is waaaay better than having to sleep on a floor, and folds up really nicely.
The next morning I woke up to a massive hangover and the news that the Rangers had lost the world series. Boo to both of those things. I got myself cleaned up and then sat around eating kimbap with Lucy and Craig taking a look on Google earth at our respective hometowns. It was interesting to see the different locations, and the comments about Texas were "It looks... bleak." Which I cant say I disagree with. Over here there are so many mountains and trees, and in the pictures I showed them, everything was just grass and flat. I love Texas dearly, but it's hard to tell someone why, especially when one of the most beautiful parts about it is the blue sky that stretches on for miles uninterrupted. The sunsets and sunrises are a thing that are only dwarfed by the rolling thunderstorms that happen not often enough to give us the rain we need. It's funny, it rains all the time here, but no thunder. In Texas you don't really ever get a storm without thunder. Talking about it is making me homesick, so lets move on. We woke up really late because of the hangovers, and went out into the city to wander around a bit. Hopefully we could find ourselves something last minute to wear for Halloween, but if not, who cares. Spoiler alert, we didn't. Eventually we got the word about some fireworks watching party, and struck out to do it all over again. Taking the subway was quite a task. I swear the Seoul subways during rush hour were not as packed as this. This was people shoulder to shoulder and still more people pushing their way on to a car that was already packed. We were even right next to the door and were like "How the hell are we gonna get out of here? Where will all these people go?" It was interesting. If only I could have gotten a picture of the look on their faces when I said "Syllermida" and they realized I was gonna try and get off. We managed to shuffle around a bit, and I got off in a giant pack of people all going to the fireworks festival. We got some beers for the party then met up with KB (the other South African) and headed towards the party. We ended up on the roof of some apartment called "Amiga Beach" and there was no one up there. We were two hours early. We started drinking beer and soju and just generally causing a ruckus (in a good way) on the top of this roof when who shows up, but my orientation leader Chris. It was awesome to see him. Totally random and totally awesome. We sat around drinking and listening to internet radio being played from smart phones while one kid used his to load up a Russian Roullette program that we used as a drinking game. It was funny making it to the sixth chamber and then giving a speech about what you would miss most in this life, then having to take a giant swig of soju, which is almost as lethal as a bullet let me tell you. Anyways, the party got crapped on pretty quickly when it started to rain, and we decided if we were going to be wet, we were going to be wet closer to the show. We bought umbrellas (mine was pink with little frills on it) for about 4 bucks a piece. When we got to the fireworks show, we went into the only bar that wasn't totally packed. Guess who frequented the bar? Thats right, waygooks.
The bar was nice. I can't for the life of me remember the name, but it had a foreigner bar tender and some other cute ones that spoke almost perfect English. They loved that I tipped them, and that I brought up all the empty glass cups and plates. They were friendly, and when we asked for a food recommendation he said "you have to try the fish and chips, they are getting kind of known around town." I got two double orders of the "2 fish and chips" and the other three dudes who were with me helped me scarf them down. I, at one point, had to order more forks and said "Pokuga" and a girl next to me said something to the extent of "Well that's rude." "What's rude?" "She speaks perfect English." "Oh, I didn't know that." "But you didn't bother to find out?" "I figured speaking her first language would be more polite than speaking her second, she seems to be in quite a bit of a hurry behind the bar, and where I come from no one speaks English, so how bout you mind your own business instead of acting like you belong in this five second interaction." "No it's rude that you just assume..." I didn't hear the rest as I turned my back on her. I really wasn't in the mood to start an argument with a random girl in a bar about whether it was rude to speak Korean to a Korean. She was obviously drunk and just looking to argue. We ate some delicious fish and chips and watched what was probably the most spectacular fireworks show I have ever seen. I can't really describe it, other than saying Huge, Bright, Smoky, Full of lasers and all around Spectacular.
We hung around for awhile after the fireworks show ended and most of the foreigners cleared out. I met a bunch of people from orientation, which makes me glad I had my beard. You would be surprised how many people out of the maybe a thousand at orientation have seen me randomly and said "I was at Jeonju with you, I would recognize that beard anywhere!" Well one of them talked to me in the bar and it was obvious she was having a tough time. She was at a school where the kids were tearing away at her, and for the third or fourth time I was directly thankful for my five years experience. Plenty of times do I think "I am glad this isn't my first job" but not ever more directly than when I am talking to a teacher who is having the first bad day of their career. I had administration to fall back on, and other teachers, and even then at the place where I worked I can't say that I got a whole lot of advice. My mentor was on her way out and left after my first semester. No one taught me how to lesson plan (a problem which haunted me for the next couple of years when one person would require it one way and another person would require it differently) and no one even seemed to care that I was not experienced in classroom management. They all told me I was doing things wrong, but when I asked for help there was slim to none. It was all colleagues that helped me. I had to go to teachers in other departments and ask what the hell I was supposed to do. Emotionally they helped me stay in this business, and I will never forget people like Diego Morillo, Beth Burau (who is awesome beyond belief) Rick Dunn, David Post, Judy Porter, Jen Allen, Bill Storey, Vic Bartolotta and a score of others which are so great in number I can't even name. They all were my mentors, and I owe any successes I have to them, while the failings I will bear as my own. Anyways, it is not what I want to do, sit there and listen to a semi drunk girl dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz talk about her problems as a teacher, but I knew it was something that I should do. She vented and I reassured and before too long she was feeling better. Her confidence seemed to be restored, and she realized that "Yes, if you are left in a classroom by yourself with thirty kids who barely speak the same language as you, it is going to be difficult to get them to follow your directions, especially if they are behaviorally challenged." After that I saw her around the bar and she was in significantly higher spirits. I only hope that she stayed that way for more than just this weekend, as I know the sense of dread returning to an unruly classroom can heap on you. I met some South African from across the bar who was wearing a fake mustache, and complimented me on my real mustache. She came over and talked a bit, and I introduced her to the other South Africans. I met a Zimbab, or girl from Zimbabwe, who looked and spoke like she was mostly English. Forgive my ignorance of world cultures but I am surprised to meet so many white people from Africa. Having never traveled there I only have my interpretation of what the media tells me, and what it tells me is that all Africans are black, except for missionaries or aid workers. Obviously I knew that wasn't correct, but I have no idea how to tell one African accent from another. So I was quite surprised when she was telling me that the markings she was making on my face were more or less based on cultural marking from around where she was from. Pictures forthcoming.
After we made our way out of the bar we decided we needed a cab, but oh crap, there were nine of us. Four in one cab five in the other, with the driver being quite irate that there were so many in his cab. When you have an irate cab driver is a time when it's good to not speak the language, and we tipped him big so I hope that made up for it in his eyes. We ended up back at "The Basement" where we had been the previous night, and there was much dancing and drinking to be done. Somehow a native Korean, Micky, ended up in our group, and man did he love to dance. I did some dancing, but was more interested in the drinking and talking part, so I went up onto the street. I don't know how you can get away with it, but they don't have doormen here, or laws against open containers in public. I would buy a draft Hite, walk up the stairs to the street and stand around on the street with my beer basically talking to everyone that walked by. Perhaps no one minded because it looked like I worked for the place. To everyone that walked by, I would say "Hey, this place is awesome, come dance down in the bottom here!" I even got quite a few people to go in. I saw some awesome costumes and discovered my talent for meeting "Saffers" as Craig and KB call them. It turns out I am a "Saffer magnet". A "Saffer" it turns out is a quite derogatory term for a South African which is apparently based on the German word "Affe" meaning "Ape." Anyway, there were two very good looking South Africans walking by who I stopped and talked to for a whole second until I got a phone call. "Hello? Is this Jeff Wester?" It wasn't KB's voice whose phone the call was coming from, so I hoped for the best. "Yes. Is he ok?" "Yes, but he left his phone in this cab. Where are you?" "Thank God!" I said, then consulted Craig as to our location. "Ok, we will meet you there in thirty minutes." A couple of conversations with random ladies later (including a girl dressed as a pirate who was fascinated with my beard) we got the phone from a cab and Craig gave the guy 10 bucks, which considering what a hassle it must have been, is a fair trade. On the way back another group of Korean girls stopped us for a picture. "Handsome!" they said to me "Yepoyo!" (beautiful) I said to them. We tried talking to them more, but it is very difficult when your command of Korean is even less than a small childs. Standing around outside the bar I met the DJ from the previous night who told me how much it meant to him that I tried to buy him a drink for putting on an awesome set. Apparently the people who ran the place asked him to leave because like I said before, the place pretty much cleared out at a certain time. It wasn't due to music, as people were still dancing and the tempo was still upbeat, it was more just a matter of the time of night. So me and him talked for awhile. Nice guy.
Warning, rant approaching. Craig returned to the club and I wandered down the street towards the big crowd of people. One of the guys in the crowd had a stand that he was selling "Shwarma" from, so I bought some. It was good to have jalapenos again, but the ones over here just aren't spicy enough. While I was eating I ran into a dude who was dressed like the king of hearts and his girlfriend was dressed like the queen, so I stood and talked to them a bit. His beard was almost as epic as mine, but he had obviously never shaved his mustache. We talked for a bit and he was a nice guy. Then something annoying happened. We were standing in a crowd of foreigners and cars were trying to get through and one guy goes for a taxis door and says "you shouldn't be driving here!" to a closed window when the door won't open. Yeah who cares, it's not that big of a deal, but then some lady drives her SUV through and he opens the back door and says "You shouldn't be driving here" to the lady. "What the F was that?" I said not so nicely. "She shouldn't be driving here" he said. "Do you think she understood that? Do you think it is your place to tell her that? Do you think we are at fault for shutting down an entire street intersection or her for peacefully trying to get through?" he had some arguments prepared about how he was just saying what everyone was thinking. "No dude. You are wrong. Not everyone is thinking that, and you are making us all look bad by doing stuff like that? What would you do in the states if some foreigner opened your door and shouted at you in the middle of a festival? Don't be that guy because you make us all look bad, and I don't like having to clean up after your mess. Go home and be drunk, don't represent our country like that." "She didn't know where I'm from." "I'm done with this, don't pull that again or I'll get my buddies over there to finish this argument." (me pointing to the police) If there is one thing I know how to do it is be respectful to those that deserve it, so I then walked over to them and gave them a very respectful "Hello" in Korean and a deep bow from the waist. I said "Thank you" and gestured to the crowd, then walked away. The ranking officer didn't break his hard glare, but all the others smiled and returned my courtesies. I talked to the King of hearts a bit more and then something else annoying happened. A dude who was dressing up as a fetus (by wearing a singlet with a rubber you know what hanging off the front and an umbilical cord attached to some girl) was dancing around in front of a car. It was a taxi that was obviously trying to get through, and there stood this guy just dancing in front of it, obviously taunting it. The king of hearts reached out, grabbed his shoulder and ripped him out of the intersection. "Dude, I know you are dressed like a fetus, don't act like one." Apparently the fetus was very offended by this. He pushed up real close so he was chest to chest with the king, who might I add was a few inches taller than me at about 6'6, while the fetus was about a foot shorter. "Did you not see the taxi driver laughing?" "No. I didn't" the king said. "He didn't care, notice how he didn't honk." "Should he have to honk for you to not dance in front of him?" "We are all having fun, nobody else cared." "I cared" I piped in. He then decides to go chest to chest with me. "Why?" "Because you make us all look like ass-holes. You are an embarrassment." The king of hearts had a few more words with him, and even took his shirt off like he was gonna fight, but the guy for all his talk realized that A) both of us were way bigger than him, and B) there were cops right behind us. I wasn't about to get taken to Korean jail, but I am not against telling a jackass that they are a jackass. ISLT that makes me glad that I'm not in a city. For like the third or fourth time since I have been over here there has been some foreigner acting like a complete jackass that has made us all look bad. I want to chalk it up to ignorance, since they are all usually drunk and about 22, but I have met plenty of drunk responsible 22 year olds. It's just stupid people. They are everywhere, all over the globe and of every nationality. Out here in the countryside if you made a fool of yourself like that you would be blacklisted by the entire community. In a big city like Seoul or Busan you can get away with more stuff, so it doesn't matter right away if you act like a jackass. I seriously hope these people are only here for a year though. I don't like having to bear the responsibility of their actions. Here I am trying to be respectful to police officers and generally not be a burden to the country of Korea, and this guy is erasing all that hard work within thirty seconds to a minute. For every one thing these people do I am required to be polite to 10 or 20 Koreans. That's fine. I like being polite. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling down inside my stomach, but I absolutely hate the fact that I seem to be the first person that is telling the foreigner mosh pitting in Seoul, or the dude opening random car doors in Busan that they are acting like complete tools. Alright, rant over. It's just times like this that I am glad that I live out here in the country around a bunch of people who are, for the most part, very polite. I think being out numbered does that to you.
The rest of the night was uneventful and so was the next day. I left Craigs apartment and went to the place where all the Taxi's gathered. I hopped in one and went to the bus station. I even used my new Korean term "Gosuk Termina" which means express bus terminal. I went up to the window to buy tickets and got one for Cheongju. Like an idiot I didn't check the time right then, but I don't think that would have mattered. I went to the line of buses and what do you know, I met a bunch of people who I knew from around here. Alex who threw the party last weekend, and came to my birthday the week before was there. We shot the shit for awhile and then compared bus tickets to check on the gate. "Hmm, thats funny, yours is blue and yellow, mine is yellow and blue. Hmmm, yours says a seat number. Hmmm, yours says a gate number." The usual. Then I found a problem. Mine said 20:10. "What the hell? 8:10? I'll be right back." This was at 16:30. I got to the counter and said the google translate for "Before." She obviously didn't understand and canceled my ticket and gave me back the money. I asked for another ticket to Cheongju, and this is where it gets frustrating. "Apsoyo" (none) she says. "Cheongju. Cheongju. Hana." "Apsoyo." It was at this time that I realized to my horror that all the buses to Cheongju were sold out, and she had just refunded my ticket and not been able to sell me one. Next line, one to Daejeon which is just south of Cheongju. "Hana, Daejeon." "Apsoyo." I look up at the signs and realize what they are displaying is not only the price, but the time of the next bus. "Holy crap!" I think "There are no more buses for Cheongju, Daejeon, Daegu or Gwangju. My only chance of getting out of here is Dong Seoul." I go up to the counter "Hana Dong Seoul." She turns the screen to me. "I-ship-sa. Midnight." I was honestly hoping before she said midnight that I was just hearing her wrong with the I ship sa thing. I really didn't wanna sit around at a terminal for the next ten hours to catch a bus to a place where I wasn't even going, which would probably put me there at about four, then with another hour bus or so to get back to Gamgok, and that is assuming there was no wait, and that the buses to Gamgok started early. I made a risky decision at that point. Walk out and try a cab to another city where I could buy a bus ticket.
I walked down the stairs and made eye contact with some cabbies. "Daegu" "O Mon" (fifty thousand won) "Crap." I thought, but was resigned to my fate. I paid the price and got driven to Daegu. In Daegu I had him drop me off at the express terminal, but I am assuming from the outcome that everyone else had the same idea. No buses were available to anywhere near where I was going. I knew that I was in for the most expensive cab ride of my life. I once again steeled myself for the coming conversation, walked out the door, and into the eyesight of the predators. As soon as they saw me, they dropped their cigarettes and stepped on them. The slight smirk betrayed the greed that they're helpful body language and tone were hiding. "Odieso?" "Eumseong." "Eumseong?" "Chungbuk. Eumseong." "Chungbuk, Chungbuknam, Eumseong." they said to each other. "Sa ship mon" (forty ten thousand, or four hundred dollars) "Sa ship mon!" I said genuinely surprised. "Aneyo, Aneyo, Aneyo. I bek cheon" (two hundred thousand, but said incorrectly) "Aneyoooo, Chungbuk-do, Eumseong-gun somethinginkoreanwayfasterthanicouldunderstand" "I bek cheon" I insisted. "Sam ship mon. Sam ship mon." (three hundred dollars) This was a definite move in the right direction, but I still didn't want to pay that much for a friggin taxi. "Aneyo. Aneyo. I bek chon" I said sticking to my grammatically misfiring guns. "Aneyo." they said for the final time "Sam ship mon." "Anejo" I said and began to walk away, knowing that I could either try the bargaining again with a taxi down the line or get a deal right here. "Chinchal" (Okay) I heard one of them say "I ship o mon." (250 bucks, or 25-ten thousand won) "Great!" I said and quickly went towards his car and threw my bag in the back. The other cab drivers said some stuff to him and made sure that he understood the price, but I was already in the cab and he took off. It was a long drive. A few hours. But we eventually got to Eumseong. He tried to pull some crap when we got there about only driving me so far then needing to turn on the meter for the rest of it. Had some random Korean guy he stopped on the street try and communicate it with me, but I kept saying "Aneyo, Aneyo. He said 'I Ship O Man' for 'Eumseong.' I ship o man Eumseong!" I think the cab driver realized it was worthless to try and hassle me for more money at that point, so he got back in his car. I gave him a little tip anyways, because the guy did just drive for several hours. He looked at me like I was crazy. I am assuming it was because I refused to pay him extra, but then was willing to tip him. Either way he took the money and drove off. It was a quicker, and way cheaper taxi ride back to Gamgok, as by that point it was eight something and I had no idea where the Eumseong bus terminal was. In fact, it was my first time in Eumseong, and I was ready to just get home. I didn't even eat dinner I was so tired. I just got back home, did a little facebooking, blew up my air mattress again (way less spooning this time) and passed out on my bed trying not to have nightmares about how much I had just spent.
As of now I have hit every major city in Korea for at least a couple minutes. I want to spend more time in Daegu as it looked pretty and ginormous, but I will save that for the future. I have a long time to go. I also have yet to hit Ulsan, but from what I have heard it doesn't have a whole lot to offer. Jeju is pretty much the only place I really really want to go, but as of now it is out of reach. It would take too long to get there and it would take too long to get back. Next weekend the agenda calls for a trip to Gwangju to see all my orientation buddies again. I am very excited for this, as I get an apartment to stay in and will be able to have a bunch of drinking buddies. Hopefully this time I won't get lost in the city (pretty much no way I could now) and I will be able to make it there quicker. I am trying to drag Phillipa along for the ride, but she may be hiking a mountain somewhere East of where I am going. Either way, I have yet to travel anywhere in this country with a companion, and I think that would be something fun to do. Here is your K-pop fix for the week. Hope all of you had a happy Halloween, and stayed safe out there, especially with all the ghouls and ghosts goin' around. :)
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