Address

In case anyone was wondering, my address is as follows:

4th Floor Ilwoo Bldg., 817-21

Yeoksam-Dong, Gangnam-Gu

Seoul 135-080 Korea

This isn't some sort of attempt to get Christmas cards or anything, but if a card happens to arrive at my workplace on my desk, I won't complain :) Also if anyone is interested in the more "traditional" style of sending mail, the address will be helpful too!

I'm going to Busan (a city in the southern part of the country) for my Christmas break to visit some friends from Goshen.

Merry Christmas!

Gymjilbong

We'll it's been awhile since I last made an update, but I had a recent adventure which I thought would be fun to talk about.

Last weekend I hung out with a couple of girls that I've met since coming to Korea named Willow and Jenny. Jenny is Marvin's sister (if you remember, Marvin was the guy who was recently a teacher, and went to Canada), and she connected me with Willow and our Japanese sensei Momoko. Jenny, Willow, and Momoko are all exchange students at Korea University.

Anyway, I met with Willow, Jenny, and some of their other friends last Friday night. It was fun meeting new people, especially since most of the time I hang out with the same people (not that that's bad, but sometimes it's nice to see other people). It was fun, and we ended up talking until late in the evening, but unfortunately we hung out until after 12:00am, which is when the subway closes. It was at this point that I was faced with a dilemma and had to consider a few options:

Option 1: Stay up all night and wait until 5:30am to catch the earliest subway train

Option 2: Take a taxi and spend roughly $50 getting back home

or

Option 3: Go to a Gymjilbong (a Korean bath house and spa) and kill a few hours sitting in a sauna, some hot tubs, and sleeping in one of the sleeping rooms.

I decided to go with option 3, and found myself going to the gymjilbong at somewhere around 3:00am. It was really interesting doing this, since this was only the second time I had been to a gymjilbong in Korea, and it was the first time I had gone there by myself.

(As a side note a Gymjilbong is a bath house, usually consisting of multiple hot tubs at different temperatures, a small cold pool, showers, and sauna rooms set at different temperatures. In addition, they provide you with clothes that you can wear while walking around, and a locker with a key to keep all of your stuff in)

For the most part it went well, but there was an older guy who kept asking me questions in Korean, and I was so tired that it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying.

After sitting some hot tubs for awhile and taking a shower I decided since there were sleeping rooms I thought I might sleep for awhile. Interestingly enough I had to step over a guy who was passed out on the stairway leading up to the sleeping room.

What I found was that the sleeping room was basically this dark loft with mats on the floor, and because of the warm temperature of the building, it felt much like one of the sauna rooms!

When I walked in, all of the mats were taken, so I just slept on the floor. After about 45 minutes I woke up sweating, and my back was soar from sleeping on the hard wood floor. So I went back into the hot tub room, sat in a tub for awhile, took a shower, and left, and eventually I caught the subway train and headed home at around 5:45am.

To say the least it was an interesting experience, and although there were parts of it that left me sweaty, confused and tired, for only $6, I felt I got my money's worth.

Hyundai Sonata

So my housemate Yoon-Seo informed me of what the word Sonata sounds like in Korean.

As you may know, the word Sonata is a word used to describe a specific type of musical score, but when you break down the words into parts So-Na-Ta, it means something completely different in Korean:

So (소): Cow

Na (나): Only for

Ta (다): To get in

After literally translating it and then forming an intelligible sentence in English, the meaning of Sonata is as follows:

Sonata: Only for cow's to get in

So for those of you who drive a sonata, Congratulations, you are officially a COW! Ha Ha.

The funny thing about it is that Hyundai is a Korean company. I wonder if they realized what the word might mean when speaking it. I also wonder what the advertisements would sound like. Maybe it would something like this:

Introducing the sleek, elegant 2010 Hyundai Sonata. 36 mpg, 0% APR financing, etc.

Hyundai Sonata: Only for cows to get in.

Moo.

Working Overtime!

So my housemate Marvin who was also a teacher at Connexus returned to Canada last weekend. His contract with Connexus was finished, and he is now taking a class in Vancouver on teaching, and wants to eventually come back to Korea. However because he is gone, the rest of the remaining teachers at Connexus have to take over some of his classes.

For myself and Irene (one of the other teachers and the only other Goshen Alumni at Connexus), we are actually working overtime, which means more class hours, but also more money too. The funny thing about it though is that I wouldn't have known that I was working overtime if Jae, my boss, didn't tell me!

So now on Monday and Wednesday I teach 5 classes in one day, and on Tuesday and Thursday I teach 6 classes a day! Fortunately, on Friday this means that I only have one class in the evening, so I can basically take the day off. Woo Hoo!

The classes are split into two types: Intensive English Study (IES), and CELL (Customized Experiential Language Learning). To differentiate between the two, IES is for students who want a more intensive learning experience, so those classes are taught 4 days a week, Monday-Thursday during the day. CELL is for students who are working or going to school during the day, and can only take English classes before or after work, so these classes are offered in the mornings and evenings.

To sum up my schedule, Monday through Thursday are incredibly busy right now for me, while Friday is pretty relaxing. It seems these days Saturday's and Sundays have been taken up by scheduled group activities with the other teachers and staff, which is why I've been busy.

At times with the new increased workload I've felt a little stressed. Of course with any job, there is bound to be some stress. But I don't feel as bad about the stress as I did working at some of my previous jobs, and I think it's because I'm doing something that I enjoy doing, and also because I feel like I'm doing something meaningful. Even though my schedule stays stagnant, every day I do something new, and having a large amount of autonomy in my job allows me to teach things my way.

It's amazing coming to the conclusion that I like my job, because I've had jobs in my past that I didn't like very much, or seemed like for me they didn't go anywhere. I'm just glad that for right now even though I miss people back home, I am in a good place in my life.

Also, if anyone knows anyone who might be interested in teaching in Korea in January, let me know. We're probably going to need a teacher in January.

Konichiwa!

Despite being in Korea, interestingly enough I have been picking up on a few Japanese words as well. My housemate Yoon-Seo (윤서) sometimes in the midst of speaking Korean and English to me, he also adds a few Japanese words as well.

At first it was really confusing, because I don't speak neither Korean nor Japanese, and I couldn't distinguish between the two. But after living with him now for almost 3 months, I've picked up on some of the Japanese.

Furthermore, we met a women named Momoko who is an exchange student at Korea University, and she offered to teach some Japanese classes for free. So while I am trying to learn how to speak Korean, I also decided that since I have been presented with the opportunity to learn Japanese, I thought I'd give it a shot.

I had my first Japanese lesson yesterday, and in terms of speaking it went pretty good. But reading and writing for the time being is really difficult. Some of the letters are shaped similarly to letters in English and the Fidel (Ethiopian Alphabet), but so far I haven't found any specific pattern within Japanese writing. What also makes it difficult is that some letters in Japanese, which look almost the same with maybe a slight difference in the way they are written, often have two very different pronunciations.

I'm not 100% invested in learning Japanese, but since I have the opportunity to learn, I thought I might try it anyway and see how it goes.

Shoes, Shirt, No Pants!

So I had an interesting experience while trying to use the bathroom, and although it's a little embarrassing to talk about, I thought I'd share my experience anyway.

In Korea (as well as other countries that I've been to) sometimes the toilets aren't the typical toilet that you sit on, but rather they are built into the floor. Because of this difference, sometimes it's necessary to squat when using the bathroom. (Unfortunately for women this is always the case in this situation).

A couple of days ago I was at a train station with some of my friends here, and I had to use the bathroom, and decided my need was great enough that I couldn't wait until we took the train to where we were going (the train ride was about an hour and 20 minutes long). So I went to the bathroom and discovered the floor toilets.

Now at first I thought I could do it. I mean, when I was in Ethiopia I faced the same situation and it worked out okay. But not having much practice with squatting while using the toilet recenlty, I was worried about my pants at my ankles, and the unfortunate consequences that would come from not aiming correctly.

So, seeing a hook on the door of the bathroom stall, I decided to hang my pants on the hook, but being worried about getting my feet dirty, I put my shoes back on.

Shirt, Shoes, No Pants! I was ready!

Things worked out okay, but I couldn't help but be amused. I mean, how awkward is it to be in a position where your fully clothed from the waist up, and from the ankle down, but not from the waist to the ankles? It would have felt more natural to just wear only shoes! But I guess I wasn't making a fashion statement. Maybe when someone comes out with a toilet fashion magazine, then I can be worried about the way I look in the bathroom. (Maybe I should create a toilet fashion magazine...)

To say the least, while slightly embarrassing as it may be, it was too funny not to write about. Maybe next time I'll try and keep my pants on!

8 Weeks and Counting...

One of the most interesting things that I noticed upon my arrival to Korea is that it seemed so similar to the US, to the point where I often would forget that I was even in a different country. Part of the reason why is because I have been working in an environment where I speak English most of the time, so I don't have to deal with the language barrier that much. Even when I leave work, I still don't have to use Korean because I don't have to talk to people on the bus or the subway (I wouldn't even talk to people if I was on a subway in the US).

But after being here longer, I'm starting to feel more like I'm in a different country, as I continuously learn about the differences between Korean culture and American culture. In particular I have been noticing that people here are incredibly competitive in terms of work and school. Signs for restaurants and businesses are huge and neon colored all over the place because the competition between people is so great. Even parents push their kids to work hard in school to get the best job that they can possibly get.

We had some visitors from the US come and visit, and one of them asked "Where are all the teenagers?". My response was simply "studying". Apparently getting into any university is really hard, and high schoolers spend the majority of their time either in high school, at a private English language school (called a Hogwon), or studying outside of school. Apparently many high school students usually begin their day waking up at around 7:00 am to get ready for school, and then after going to school, followed by going to a Hogwon, followed by more studying, they usually get back home around 11:00 pm! Yikes!

Anyway, on another note I've reached a point in my trip where I've been feeling a little homesick (which of course is to be expected). But I don't miss being in Goshen or Minneapolis, but rather my friends and family that are still back home. Sometimes is a little hard because I don't know that many people here yet, so when everyone that I know here in Korea is busy, it's hard to keep myself entertained sometimes. Also I realized that writing in a blog, while it's interesting for my friends back in the US to read (yes that means you!), it's a one way street, and I don't usually get any sort of response.

Long story short, I would appreciate knowing what you, my friends, are doing with your time, even if it's the same old routine. I'd be interested in hearing some fun stories. I'll try and keep writing more interesting stories, and maybe try and post some pictures.

Banana Man: 1, Jesse: 0

So most everything that has been new and different to me hasn't really bothered me, except for one thing: the man with the megaphone who walks around selling what I think might be bananas and other assorted fruits and vegetables. Now this wouldn't be a problem, except for that sometimes he goes out to sell at 8:00 in the morning, and is loud enough that he might as well be standing next to my window without a megaphone speaking to me through my window! If I knew enough Korean, I'd probably get my own megaphone and shout to him "Your ruining lives banana man!" Of course the most logical solution would be to just close my window, but that simply just dampens the sound a little.

Banana Man: 1

Jesse: 0

Subway sells Beer!

HAHAHAHA! So I went to Subway yesterday, and I was surprised to find that along with my foot long sub (30 cm.) I had the option of purchasing a mini keg of Heineken to go with it! Wow, what a crazy world!

First Month

Well I've been here for about a month, and I have really been enjoying myself. I just finished my first month of classes at Connexus, and for having only been a teacher for a month, I did pretty well. Each month students have to evaluate all of the teachers, and my evaluation was really good (The only criticism that I received was from one class who wanted me to correct them more, but other than that they liked the class). I still find it kind of funny that I'm a teacher, because a year ago if you asked me if I wanted to be a teacher, I would have surely said no. In fact, it didn't quite sink in that I was a teacher until I finished my first day.

Besides teaching I have had some good experiences, and very few uncomfortable ones. Right now the only thing that I am a little frustrated with is that I can't speak Korean yet, but of course that is to be expected. Scott Lehman, my friend and ceramics buddy from Goshen, is here in Seoul, and we've hung out a couple of times. Surprisingly enough we were chatting online and I found out that his hotel was only one stop away on the subway from where I work, which is crazy considering Seoul is one of the top 5 biggest cities in the world!

I've found that part of the reason why I've been doing so well is because I have found a lot of things that are similar to cities in the US. Seoul is a very modern city, and so a lot of technology is just as good if not better than what you'd find in the US. I also like the food, which is really important when adapting to a new culture.

Korean food typically consists of rice, stew, and side dishes that you share with everyone that you eat with. It might seem different to most Americans, but I grew up eating rice and stew at home, so it wasn't very hard to make the transition. The most common side dish is Kimchi, which is spiced fermented vegetables. Anywhere you go for food it's usually a side dish and Koreans love it. I think it's good, but I don't usually eat a lot of it.

My favorite dish so far is called Sam Gyeop Sal, which basically tastes like pork chops, but you add other things to it. When you go out to a restaurant and order it, the table has a fire pit in the middle of it, and the server brings out hot coals and a grate for the fire pit, and takes slabs of pork that looks like thick pieces of bacon and lays them on the grate to be cooked. After the meat is cooked, you take a piece of lettuce and put the pork in it with onions, garlic, and this spicy bean dip and roll up the lettuce and eat it. It is absolutely phenomenal!

Most of the people that I have met are very nice, especially the students. Most of my students are between the ages of 20 and 30, and so it's easy to relate to them. Their age also makes it easy for me to teach because I don't have to focus on discipline within the classroom. The students are also pretty smart, and work very hard. Just the other day we had our last day of class for the month (classes usually last about a month before we switch and have new classes), and so for the last day I tried to teach one of my classes how to play Settlers. Now Settlers is a game that is pretty complicated, and so it was challenging trying to teach the students how to play the game in English, when some of them still have difficulty speaking and learning the language. But they figured out how to play, and I was surprised that I didn't win considering I was the one teaching the game. Oh Well.

There's the update. I've been pretty busy, so I haven't had much time to write. If there is anything that you are interested in hearing about, please feel free to comment or write me an email.

KAC, Connexus, and Teaching

So I thought I'd write some general info about what I've been doing, and the organization that I work for:

As you know already I am an English teacher, and I work for a company called Connexus. Connexus began in 2005, and is a language institute that encourages learning English through discussion rather than drills on writing and grammar. Because of this my greatest assets have been that I speak English and that I can facilitate dialogue with people (Basically, my ability to talk a lot has been immensely helpful). One student the other day said that he really enjoyed the discussion aspect of Connexus, because many English schools here stress writing and grammar, and do not emphasize discussion as much.

The Korean Anabaptist Center (KAC) is a Mennonite organization that started in 2001, and Connexus was established by the KAC. Both organizations are located in the same office, but KAC works more with religious activities, and Connexus is the English teaching organization.

The founders of KAC and Connexus are Kyong-Jung Lee, and Jai Young Lee. They both run KAC and Connexus, but Kyong-Jung manly handles KAC, and Jai works more with Connexus (Surprisingly enough i played soccer at Goshen College with Kyong-Jung's nephew SaeChan).

I only work 4 days a week, but I spent a lot of time at Connexus during those 4 days. Usually on a typical day I arrive at Connexus at 10:00 a.m. and leave around 10:00 p.m., which sounds like a lot, but not all of those 12 hours are spent working. Every day I teach three classes that are 1 1/2 hours each, and one class that is 50 minutes. The rest of the time I'm at Connexus I spent preparing for class, eating, and browsing the web. Some days I'm busy most of the day, but I also have days where I'm not as busy, and spend some time relaxing and watching youtube videos.

The Roommates

Today I was just thinking about the fact that I live with 3 other guys, and all of us are from a different country. My roommates are from Canada, South Korea, and North Korea, and all of them are pretty cool.

My roommate from Canada is named Marvin, and he is an English teacher like me, so we see each other every day. But he's pretty busy, so we don't actually see each other outside of work. He's a nice guy, and has helped me get adjusted.

Yoon-Seo Park is my roommate from South Korea, who works for the Korean Anabaptist Center, which is tied to Connexus, and the KAC people work in the same office as the Connexus teachers. He's hilarious, and also pretty crazy, so we've got some things in common. He refers to himself as my host father, and often times at lunch he tells me "eat well because there won't be food at home." Because of this so called parent-child relationship to him, he calls me Park Je Shi (or Jesse Park, but in Korea the name Jesse is pronounced "Je Shi").

Songuk is the one from North Korea, and he's a really nice guy, but doesn't talk very much. I also don't see him much, partly because I've been pretty busy with teaching, but he's kind of a mystery. My roommates and I have this running joke that he's a spy for North Korea, but I'm pretty sure that's far from the truth. In fact, he left North Korea a long time ago, and has lived in China and South Korea ever since.

Well that's a little info on my roommates.

Back To The Future! (for the first time)

I made it!!! And I made it just in time for classes!

I was able to get everything together that I needed to submit to the Korean consulate in San Francisco by Wednesday, which was amazing considering what I had to do to get everything together. When I showed up to the Korean consulate on Wednesday with all of my documentation, they told me that I didn't need to be interviewed (they require some people to be interviewed before going to Korea), and that they would have my passport ready by Friday.

So on Friday I picked up my passport at 9:15 a.m., and hopped on a plane to South Korea that afternoon at 2:00, which didn't give me much time to get to the airport, but after what I went through to get the visa to leave, I was determined to make my flight.

The flight was 12 hours, and I didn't sleep for the entire time I was on the plane (I was awake for about 22 hours). Jet lag kicked in upon arrival to Korea, and it didn't help that I went to church on Sunday morning after arriving on Saturday evening. Fortunately church was interesting, but I didn't realize that it would be 4 hours! It wasn't so bad, and there was a potluck afterward, so at least I was well fed.

Unfortunately because I was scheduled to teach on Monday, and because I arrived on Saturday evening, I didn't get much orientation. The first couple of days involved introductory activities that involved simple discussions in English, so even though I wasn't well prepared, it wasn't so bad. Also Connexus ( the language institute that I work for) has a lot of the curriculum already prepared for me, so it's not as bad as it could be. Also the other English teachers from the US and Canada have been really helpful to me in telling me things that I need to know.

So far I have been enjoying being here! I've been thinking about my experience on SST in Ethiopia, and I think that I am much more prepared for an experience like this now than when I went to Ethiopia as a sophomore in college. It's also helpful to be in a place that has a lot of similarities to the US.

Not quite there yet...

So I was supposed to leave for Korea this Wednesday, but the worst thing happened...

I arrived at the Korean consulate in San Francisco with my passport and a visa confirmation number on Monday morning, with the intention of going into the consulate and receiving a stamp on my passport and be on my way. But instead I was given a bunch of forms, and a list of things that I needed to bring to them. When I looked at the list of things that I needed, I found out that half of the things on the list were things that I sent over to South Korea to have my visa processed there!

Ugh! Now most people that know me haven't seen me mad, or at least not as mad as I can get, but at this point I thought I was going to lose it! Especially considering my morning consisted of riding on the bus for 40 minutes to arrive at the Korean Embassy only to find out information that they could have given to me over the phone! On the one hand, maybe I should have asked more questions, but on the other hand I also am frustrated because I wasn't aware of these requirements until 2 days before I was scheduled to leave.

Most of the things on this list were items that I could get on my own, but they wanted me to get a transcript, and a copy of my diploma, which would be challenging considering that I'm not in Goshen, so the transcript has to be mailed to me, and I was asked by the language institute in Korea to send the original diploma to them as part of the visa process!

So I faxed a transcript request to GC, which will be getting to me on wednesday morning, and I made a phone call to someone in Korea asking them to scan and email a copy of my diploma to me so I can print it out. I also canceled my flight, and will have to buy another plane ticket as soon as I can leave. (Fortunately I will be reimbursed for the plane ticket).

I'm supposed to be teaching classes on Monday, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it in time. Unfortunately I also won't be oriented before heading into a classroom, but fortunately, Jesse talk English good!

Wow...hipsters!

So I figured it would be easier to start a blog instead of sending an email every so often to chronicle my times in Korea.

But I haven't actually gotten to Korea yet! I'm in San Francisco visiting my friends Andrew and Raquel, who apparently live in an area called "The Mission". It turns out that a lot of these missionaries are either early to mid twenties hipsters, or hispanic and latina.

Today Andrew, his mom and brother, Raquel and I went to a park down the street from where they live, and it was immensely crowded, but not to the point where it was too uncomfortable to hang out.

It was a nice park, on a nice sunny day, and to my surprise it was fairly cool. Despite being in California where you'd think that it would be warm in the summer, San Francisco is pretty much surrounded by water on all sides, and so the cool air from the Pacific ocean keeps the city fairly cool.

The most amusing part of the day was how many people came by us and offered an assortment of pot brownies and pot truffles as we sat on a blanket in the middle of this park!

I've also found it amusing last night how tasty a hot dog wrapped in bacon was when you top it with onions, mustard, ketchup, and mayo.

Anyway, I'll write more later. Feel free to comment on any posts, or send me an email at jesseaj@gmail.com