Bundang FC and Dating

Well it's been awhile since I've written in this blog. In terms of the day to day life, things have become pretty much normal and routine. The greatest variable in my life has been teaching classes one month at a time, and having to learn new names of students every month.

At first it was incredibly difficult to learn about 20 new names a month, but as time has progressed it seems to be much easier to learn students names. In fact, it has now become much easier to learn the names of other westerners, because of the familiarity that comes along with knowing western names.

During the past five months, some of the things that I was missing the most were basically my family, my friends back home, and soccer. Of course, it's difficult to have friends and family come all the way across the world, but recently my cousin Britta and her boyfriend Jeff have come to Korea to teach English, and it has been fun hanging out with them for the past week and a half that they've been here. In regards to playing soccer, I've had very few opportunities to play, but it is something that I have been able to do more recently.

I looked online for soccer leagues in Seoul, and I found a soccer team composed of mostly English guys, with a few Americans, Koreans and Canadians also on the team. The team name is Bundang FC, and our mascot is a monkey :). I've played with the guys a few times now, and in our first game I was voted man of the match, and received a hefty 2000 won for my prize (less than $2). I was of course just really happy to be playing soccer again, and I will be continuing to play with these guys for most of the summer too.

On another note, recently I've gone on a couple of dates with a girl named Ji Won, who I met for the first time on a blind date set up by one of my coworkers. I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen, but she seems pretty nice, and she can speak English well, so most of the time the language barrier isn't a big issue.

It made me think a little bit though about what the possibilities for a foreigner to date a Korean, but especially a black foreigner. I've heard that there are a number of women that are only interested in dating Korean men, and I've heard that sometimes it's due to pressure from the parents of women that they shouldn't date foreigners. It's really interesting and quite different of course from the US where it's not as big of an issue.

However, many of the guys on my soccer team are dating Korean women, and a couple of them are on the marriage path, so it seems like it's not a big issue for at least some people in Korea. In fact, one of the guys that I play with is from Cote D'Ivoire, and he's also dating a Korean girl, so I guess it's reassuring. I think what it comes down to really is that I just have to meet someone who's okay with me for the way I am, and on the plus side Ji Won seems to think that I'm a good guy :).

Anyway, it's been awhile since I've written anything interesting, so I thought I'd write again. Someone should send me a package or something. So far I've only gotten a card from my church. Also, if there are any birthday present requests, I'd be interested in sending some packages from Korea as well. Thanks to those of you who have sent me emails and have kept me updated through Skype and email.

If anyone wants to call me, Skype is the best way to contact me (my Skype name is jesseaj1), and also if you call sometime on Thursday evenings in the US, that's probably when I'm the least busy. Otherwise email is good too.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Banana Man: 1, Jesse: 1

HE'S BACK! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Due to the cold weather brought upon by the winter cold this last November, I think my newest nemesis, the Banana Man, had finally been silenced by the cold, frigid air brought upon by Old Man Winter. But because the weather here has been steadily getting warmer, my nemesis has returned with his truck, his megaphone, and his bananas!

I found this out recently when I was walking from my apartment to the nearest subway station. Sure enough, as I progressed towards the subway, the annoying voice that I had been so happy to no longer hear, had returned once again in full force!

Interestingly enough, I can tell that I've learned some Korean, because he's actually not selling bananas (I guess I just assumed that he was selling bananas), but in fact he's talking about cameras and cell phones. I also found out that he doesn't just sell cameras and cell phones, but he also buys them from people. This information, while being interesting, doesn't do anything to negate the fact that he's still attempting to "ruin lives."

On the positive side, he hasn't been able to bother me while I'm sleeping. So for the time being, his efforts have not had the same effect on me that they did before. I think it's because I'm much more used to living in Korea than I was before.

I think I deserve a point!

Banana Man: 1

Jesse: 1

Reaching the Halfway Point

Well it's been almost 6 months, and I've reached what may or may not be the halfway point in my journey in Korea. So far things have gone well, despite having the occasional bad day, or times when I have trouble with either understanding the language or culture of Korea. But I'm not sure exactly how long I should stay.

When I first decided to come to Korea, I was coming with the intention of staying for a year, and then returning back to the US in August of 2010. Before going I was pretty much set on the idea of going back in a year.

However, I've been having second thoughts about my initial plan to return to the US after a year of teaching, which is due to a number of factors. I'm still having fun, but lately, due to a pretty tiring and busy week, I haven't been having as much fun as I did before. I think part of it is due to the fact that things are pretty much normal for me now, and so the initial honeymoon that I had is now over. But that isn't to say that I'm not enjoying myself. It's just that the thrill of being in a new place is starting to wear off a bit.

I'm now faced with a decision though where at some point in the near future I have to decide on whether I should go home, or whether I should stay.

On the one hand, I'm still enjoying my job and I have fostered many positive relationships while I've been here for the past 6 months. I'm enjoying the food, and I live in a pretty comfortable living situation.

On the other hand, I'm far away from my family and friends, which occasionally means that I have to miss out on some of the occasional gatherings and holiday celebrations. Also, for a country where soccer is such a popular sport, most of the people I meet don't actually play, and I've only played twice since I've been here (I hope this spring I'll find more opportunities to play though).

What is also a large factor to consider is that KAC and Connexus are moving to a new place this August, and the only thing that I know is that we will at least be in Korea. But the issue that I may face is that KAC/Connexus might move to the countryside, which if that's the case, I could see myself getting extremely bored. I like going to the countryside every once and awhile, but I'm not at all interested in moving to the country.

Anyway, it's one of those times in one's life where you have to make a decision about the future. In the end I'll just have to go with what I think is best, but if anyone has any input they want to give me, I'd be happy to read some comments that you might have.

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.