California Girls / Couch Potatoes, Box Cutters and Yellow Submarines

Long overdue update, just a friendly warning it may come off as a little long-winded.  Then again if you ask my grandmother who reads my blog, they all come off that way. To begin with, a merry belated Christmas to those of you that I haven’t wished one too.  Christmas here was nice and uneventful.  Skyping with family back home in states, unwrapping gifts that I got for myself out of necessity and called them Christmas presents, and cooking pancakes, which were quite delightful for brunch.

           There are several things I want to start off by writing about.  The first being one of my lessons the other day with my upper level class.  We were discussing author generalizations, which was intended to roll over into stereotypes as that was our end of class project.  I tried to stoke the fire and ask about Korean stereotypes of Americans and got some, but not the brutal and harsh honesty that Europeans have of Americans.  There was the answer of obesity, couch potato, one student brought up the term “California girls” which in turn took the conversation in a hilarious turn.  Then there was also the response that Americans hold hands and kiss in public.  Not something that we think about on a day to day basis as stereotyping America as a culture, but to a society that doesn’t do that, I guess that could classify us.  I then wasn’t satisfied because I didn’t feel that I had opened the floodgates and there wasn’t enough emotion and input coming from the students.  I asked them about Chinese people.  OMG the response I got were absolutely hilarious.  They told me that they’re all short, with big heads, and too round of heads and small squinty eyes.  I was laughing hysterically on the inside.  I then proceeded to ask about Japanese people and got similarly fueled responses.  This was definitely the input that I was looking for to make the discussion a success.  It got me thinking though and there are stereotypes for Asians, Europeans, Africans and Middle-Easterners in the states.  But, aren’t the majority of stereotypes either directed at Mexicans or Canadians (think How I Met Your Mother)?  In Korea, I suppose that it is the same stance where neighbors fuel more stereotypes than people from a distant land.  It makes me think of a joke that gets retold by my uncles that Charlie used to tell about no matter what town you go to there’s always a town nearby that somehow they’re better than.  He used to say the only exception was Midland-Odessa because that was two shitbox towns that got together and put and airport in the middle. J

           I was also thinking the other day about pencil sharpeners.  In Irving it was pretty common place to not allow students to have the personal pencil sharpeners in class.  Not because they were somehow dangerous or a distraction, they just always seemed to make an absolute mess.  Over here those don’t seem to be a problem.  Everyone has a pencil bag or box and they sell some really cool looking ones.  Inside they keep their pencils, usually at least one of which is mechanical (and I got myself one of the cheaper mechanical ones [basically 60 cents] and it is amazing), a highlighter and everyone carries one of what Americans would refer to as a drafting eraser (the white gum ones that work ten times better than crappy pink rubber).  Also included in each pencil bag that the students have with them everywhere (remember usually 3 different schools a day for some of them) is a box cutter.  What the hell?!?!  My initial reaction aside, it’s very common place.  They actually sell them right between the pencil bags and the highlighters.  You can get a Hello Kitty one or a Disney Cars one even.  Everyone has one to use for pencil sharpening.  WHAT?  WHY?  HUH?  So in an age where in America a student will get suspended for bringing a pocket knife, we have a country that a) doesn’t allow private firearms and b) has their kids walking around in day to day life such as a normality of having a box cutter.  I love that this world hasn’t turned into just one large synonymous state of society.

           I was thinking about this further on my walk to work today.  How many of us would take a second look at someone that has a surgical mask on if they were walking down the street?  Exactly my point!  Here that’s just an accepted thing and they market ones that have paisley or plaid designs and ones that can be washed etc.  Then again I guess the same thing could go for walking in general.  Why are you walking?  To stay healthy.  Oh, so you’re not trying to get anywhere?  No if I wanted to get somewhere I’d drive.  But, over here people haven’t forgotten that we were built with our own modes of transportation.  I’m not thought of as an oddity (except by the people at work) for walking the 30 minute walk to work.  I find it incredibly peaceful and puts me in the right state of mind to do my best at work.

           Last, I will talk about the work pre-new year’s eve party.  It started out as a regular evening, get off at 10, walk home by 10:30.  It had only one difference and that was the branch manager had bought pizza (delicious pizza that I’ve gotten before) from across the street for all the students to have a couple of slices as well as the staff.  Then after I got home I warmed up some leftover spaghetti that I had and was polishing that off and was going to relax and text some people back home when there was a constant knocking on my neighbor’s door.  There’s only two of us on the floor that I’m on, and from the best I can deduce without every meeting them, I think it is a family.  Anyways, the knocking continues until finally I think to myself nobody’s trying to talk to this family at a quarter to midnight.  So I make my way towards the door when the knocker on the other door speaks BYRON.  Oh shit, I think as I hurry to the door recognizing the voice.  You wanna go out.  Absolutely was the only logically response.  Turns out everyone was going out from work and the branch manager was meeting us there.  Also turns out that he’d been given wrong info about which apartment I had been in (from the individual who moved me in mind you) and was coming to ask as I didn’t have a cell phone for him to text (more on cell phone to come in random thoughts section).  We get to a “western style bar” which only means that it is more of an American style bar where you just drink beer, instead of one of their types of bars that are more food with beer on the side establishments.  There we shared stories from the week so far about work, talked shop and also talked about new year’s resolutions for making the school better (more students enrolled, better students enrolled, and high retention rate).  The food that we ordered was amazingly unique and delicious.  There was a form of fruit nachos that had some sort of mayonnaise or sour cream based sauce with no cheese but rather mandarin oranges and pickles.  Mock all you want, but actually really delicious.  At 2 the owner tossed our entire group to the street as he closed down.  Just on a side note Bud Ice was listed as a premium beer at this establishment.  That provided at least 10 minutes of mocking and humor as to someone’s low standards of premium.

           The night however wasn’t over as our boss wanted to go nextdoor to a karaoke bar with small private karaoke rooms for groups.  Lots of beer and food proceeded to flood our table as people went around and sang renditions of favorite songs.  A great group version of the Beatles hit Hey Jude got everyone participating followed by my turn and accepting the man in black’s Ring of Fire.  It was an awesome attempt at a humorous fun remix.  Other song choices that this American classic belted out to were Jamiriqoi’s Feels Just Like it Should, You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi, Yellow Submarine by the Beatles, That’s the Way by KC and the Sunshine Band and Jump Around by House of Pain.  It was a night, or rather early morning filled with laughs and great memories as we took the taxi home to arrive at our apartments at 6:15 to crawl into bed.  Yay for Thursdays at work where my first class isn’t until 7.

***Random Thoughts***

           I love not having a cell phone.  You forget how freeing it can be to disappear sometimes when there’s not a constant way to get a hold of you.  That being said I will be investing in a cell phone soon enough for communicating with work folks and also for meeting Scott and Heana when I travel that way.  I however have resolved that a simple flip phone is what I desire.  No longer do I see the need for endless apps that I use occasionally.  Over here I have developed a beautiful simplicity and that will continue further into my phone usage and habits. (ugh sorry for the grammatical typo in the original post.  It has been corrected.)

           I love pantomiming in order to better communicate.  This really helped me explain a running nose to the pharmacist so I could pick up some meds.  Luckily I also knew yes, no and thank you in Korean so I didn’t come off as an American jerk.

           The Android Monopoly app is awesome.  I think this will make train rides more enjoyable than they already were.  I think it will also further prevent panic attacks on road trips in cramped cars on the way to snowboard and such.

           Last random thought is decorating my room is coming along rather productively.  My boss was in there speaking with a student the other day and asked about some of the reasons for posting some of the posters and I got a “good job” and a smile.  That’s the Korean version of an attaboy I think.  Til next time. We ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!

RIDING A BICYCLE NOT ON MY HEAD, ICE MASSAGES and SWINGING PRACTICE

     Made it back from snowboarding safe and sound.  It actually was quite nice to know that it is like the expression “just like riding a bicycle” and even after some number of years since the Spring Break trip with James where we learned to snowboard it came back rather quickly, almost as soon as I got off the lift the first time.  Which was good because my first experiences snowboarding were rather painful.  James says it’s because I didn’t know how to fall properly.  He claimed to slow down then fall while I in his opinion would go tearing down the hill, lose balance and then proceed into a chaotic summersault which ultimately ended in my head making contact with the hill several times.  It made both of us think back to the rental counter when we were “too cool for helmets”.  Anyways, so as I stated this was like riding a bike, except this time not as much head to hill action which made it more enjoyable.  The rental place that we showed up to in the morning was great, and I don’t know who made their prices, or if they were even right, but he was telling us that we could rent gloves for 5,00 won (5 bucks basically) or we could buy them for an extra 5.  I’m probably going to be going again I thought to myself and so began the trend that most of us bought a pair.  Now the trick lies within remembering them.  Also I'm guessing due to my size and weight, my board was considerably shorter than the other males in the group, which sparked several jokes, most of them instigated by myself.  What made it even better was there was a freaking pink crown and a dove on my board.  Yay! Haha. How'd they know?  Then again they're just random choices determined by size of the board.  Maybe the skulls and fire ones had already gone out for the day.  Then again it was 7:30 in the morning and they had just opened up.  Oh well.

When we arrived at the hill it was pretty crowded at the main two lifts.  Fortunately as we would come down off of a run we would just slide over the next lift.  This would come back to bite us firmly in the ass at the end of the day.  As we got a couple of lifts over, the lines for them got considerably shorter and therefore equaled more runs.  At the top of one run after exiting the lift, there was a cabin of sorts, but there was also a nice size snow drift that had accumulated behind a picture spot.  Looking at it two of us in the group though it looked like a great place to board down as the drop at the bottom didn’t look, and wasn’t very considerable, possibly 4-5 feet at best.  As he was finishing putting his board on, I was already strapped in so ready or not I decided to go first.  Nothing bad happened as it was all unpacked snow and therefore unexpected softspots and right before the edge I went down on my butt and back.  Pretty lame.  I decided that I was definitely going again now that there had been a board down the hill to pack it a little.  On my second attempt it went considerably better and as I built up speed I got the jump, and then Byron awesome skills of coordination set in.  While landing the jump, I lowered the front of my board a little too much which in turn stuck into the ground, and sent my upper body face first into the hill like a Wylie Coyote slingshot gone wrong.  Nothing broken fortunately, and we all had an epic laugh about it afterwards.  That run however was a significantly longer hill and had a weird flat spot in the middle.  Three of us took it upon ourselves to just lay out right there over on the side and enjoy the soothing effects of the snow and ice against our muscles.  It was definitely relaxing.  I think there were actually a couple of snow angels made additionally. 

When we were making our way back to the main lift areas to join up with one other from our group who took a break midtrip to draft his fantasy basketball team (really?), we go out from the lift area and realize that we’re approximately 1/2 a mile to 3/4 of a mile away from where we want to be.  Luckily there was a parking lot attendant that directed us to go up the road a bit and then under a fence and then ride down the hill.  So on our way back we pass batting cages.  We decide that we’re going to have some fun and everyone gets one turn and then the lowest number of balls that went a certain distance had to buy the first round of beers.  It wasn’t even batting practice for me as I only hit 2 out of the probably 15-20 and those two went horribly foul.  I had no problem being the gracious loser of the bet and snagging the first round.  On the way home, in the fun clown car with the six of us in it, we stopped for Vietnamese noodles and they were delicious, and were made even better by closing the night with some gelato. J

***Random Thoughts***

           Taught my test prep classes last night and this is for the TOEFL, which is the test that any foreign student has to take in order to get into an American University (I think that’s right).  Anyways, as I’m showing them skills to breaking down the questions and justify their answers to themselves, I considered my own lack of test taking skills and how I think I’m going to really freshen up on my test taking skills before I get back to the states and take some more teaching certification tests.  Apparently being certified in one subject or discipline, the one you’re applying for, isn’t enough.

           Not biting my nails is going well.  There are little crescents of white slowly appearing.  In February I might actually get to use the fingernail clippers I brought (not in my carryon bag although).

           Got some more decorated in my classroom, and I think it is starting to come together.  There will be pictures that follow later this week.

           I had another interesting trip to Office Depot.  Went to pick up a stamp pad for the grading stamps (super, good job, great progress, etc.) that I brought with me.  They sell Korean wooden stamps (which are awesome looking and I’ll definitely bring one back with me) and so picked one up and pressed it against my hand and motioned for my hand.  The guy looks at me and goes “stamp pads?”  Well, shit, I totally forgot that someone here speaks a little bit of English.  Felt like a little bit of an ass, but took the stamp pad that he handed me, paid for it and left.  Now normal colors when someone is looking for a stamp pad would be red and black maybe even blue.  I get to work, take the stamp pad out of my pocket to discover it is PURPLE.  Really?!?!  Oh well.  The kids do indeed like the stamps, and I don’t think the fact that it’s purple dawns on them at all.  Then again Korean culture might not be a homophobic as American culture.

THE PEEING MAN, THE AWESOMENESS OF OFFICE DEPOT and NOODLE FRANKENSTEIN

Let me begin by explaining the lateness of this post.  I had promised that it would be closely following the walk through of the apartment, and it was typed by then and then technical difficulties set in and prevented me from from posting.  I usually type the post in a word document on my tablet and when I went to save before copying and pasting I lost the entire document.  Should've listened to my old preachings to my students where you're always reminding them to "save often."  Actually I think I'll save right now.

On my way to work the other day (an enoyable thirty minute walk), I saw an abandoned bicycle at one of the crosswalks that I pass.  Bicycles are prevalent here in Suncheon, so much so that you can use your bus pass to also rent a bicycle at certain stations, but even with all the bikes I hadn't seen one yet that wasn't locked up.  As I got closer to the bike I noticed the puffy back of a red jacket off the sidewalk and then lucky me passed just about the time that the golden stream of relief started to flow.  This is a main thoroughfare in Suncheon and takes me back to all the times I've seen people peeing on Williams Drive in Georgetown.  WAIT!  I've never seen people peeing on Williams Drive.  Then again the police force is such a weak presence that minor offenses such as peeing on the street, speeding, reckless endangerment with a motor vehicle and other small oddities slip under the radar.  Compare that to a "similar" small town like Georgetown, where 36 on the 35 of Williams will find you with red and blues in your rear view.  I did see the Suncheon police force flex it's law enforcing prowness when It set up a DWI roadblock on a Tuesday night.  That's a heavy drinking night right?  Saturday and Friday nights have nothing on Tuesday.  They're always telling us on the news back home about "no refusal Tuesdays."  I was headed to get my green card (or Alien Registration Card, ARC as they're commonly referred to here) and my boss was telling me that speedng and red light cameras do most of the traffic enforcement and with the exception of the bimonthly DWI roadblocks, the police force is sometimes unseen.  Then again in a country where the people think it's ridiculous that I had the right to carry a gun back home, maybe not much of a presence is needed.  Then again there is more than one way to skin a cat as Grandpa Davis would say and guns aren't the only thing that kills people back home.  As the bumper sticker goes "guns don't kill people; dad's with pretty daughters do."

So after my ARC trip (don't have my card yet, it's in the mail) I took a long needed trip to Office Depot to pick up some necessities in order to make my classroom more "mine".  I walked in and the first man tells me Hello instead of the typical Korean greeting.  I said Hello back and then told him I was looking for posterboard.  The quizzical look was clear on his face and so I held my hands to signify a big square, then rubbed my fingers together and then separated them for slightly thicker.  He motioned for me to follow him and pulled out a sheet of: posterboard.  God bless pantomiming!  The rest of the store fascinated me as well.  The entire Office Depot store was crammed into an area a little larger than a McDonald's bathroom.  There were shelves sometimes 8 shelves high and the "aisles" as I'll be generous and call them were so skinny that your back rested against the opposite side whilst you perused one side.  I found some other little things to help in the creation of a personality of my classroom.  I got a nice pair of scissors that came complete with a sheath for the blades.  When I embarked on my task of personalizing my classroom I got a little done in between class preps.  Afterall, it really doesn't matter what's on the wall if I'm not ready to teach.  There have been a couple jokes made that I'm trying to show everyone up.  If they think what little I've done (only 7 mind maps are currently posted, relatively tame by most standards and the girls here at work have decorations as well) is a lot then the classrooms of people I know back in Irving or Georgetown ISD's would make them feel damn embarassed.  There is more to come in my classroom and soon I'll take pics.

Noodle dishes such as soups seem to be a national dish here.  Either unofficially or officially they're everywhere and everyone eats them.  In the grocer there is atleast 1 aisle devoted to ramen like dishes, on both sides of the aisles, and sometimes there are two.  There is even a snack that is made from the ramen noodles that the kids in my classes often eat on their break times.  I've started experimenting though with my noodle soups at home.  First it was the marinated tofu that I'd sear and soak in the broth that I've already posted about.  Next it was a sunny side up egg that added a splendid depth.  My final experiment as of to date, was with shredded onions, chives and some brown rice.  Also adds to the flavor of the soup and makes it more than just boiling water with a flavor packet and noodles.  Future things that I've looked at would be the shitake mushrooms that look remarkably delicious at the store.  Bean sprouts, shredded cabbage and nori are all on the list as well for things that I'm definitely going to have to try.  They also sometimes add dumplings to their noodle soups so I will definitely experiment in the future with dumpling making skills.

***Random Thoughts***

Some of the topics that are in the books that we use for this curriculum are deeper than you'd expect middle-school students to dive.  Saturday with some of my higher students, we're we studying the class system of China, and how the Hukou system of China has created an infastructure that promotes the cheap accessible labor that drives the world market.  At some point I'm sure I'll stop being shocked at how smart these kids are.  The project at the end of the class was about the mistreatment of biracial children, and creating a public service announcement to inform about it.  I was brainstorming with the kids when I asked one of the girls if her mother and I shopped at the same restaurant, who'd get treated better.  She said her mom.  I then proceeded to ask why and one girl chimed in that it was because I was a guy and another girl goes "no stupid it's because he's white."  I couldn't help but crack up.  Atleast they'd gotten the point after that conversation.  I was no longer a "white teacher" I was "just a guy". 

 

Bought an airsoft gun the other day.  That's where my priorities are.  Move in, get a cooking implement, then toy gun.  Haha.  It was incredibly cheap too.  Most of the ones I've seen in the state stores start at 15 dollars but this one was only 4 and is great so far.  So much to say about closing the distance between production and sale shelves.  Yogurt cups are my current targets, stacked in a pyramid fashion on my my sweater chair as my sweaters create a perfect backdrop and pellet stop.

THE LONG PROMISED APARTMENT WALKTHROUGH

           The long promised apartment description post.  Some might refer to it as an efficiency apartment, yet I refer to it as my home.  It cuts out all the extra things that sometimes get in the way.  Things that constantly have to be dusted, cleaned, or kept tidy for fear that company might be stopping by.  The beauty of this place is it is so simplistically fantastic that keeping it orderly and leaving it the same way each day before I head off to work is a breeze.

           I’ve got a digital door lock which is great because no keys to keep up with.  It also comes with a video door chime, as there is no peephole.  I’ve only used this once, but I like the concept.  Inside my door there is a small cabinet that is great for my running shoes and running clothes.  I also have started used the top of this for storing my Chuck Taylor’s.  In front of this is a handy place for my boots as the rest of the apartment’s floors are heated wood.  Feels nice a cozy on bare or stocking feet.  I seldom have it on though because it just hasn’t been that cold.  Next is my dining room table / office desk.  This is just a nice spot because I can easily whip around and refill my hot chocolate or water while I’m working.  It also is a nice spot because I tend to overfill my soup bowl for dinner and it’s not a long walk to balance the bowl and keep it from sloshing over.

           The bathroom is once again fantastically simple as there is a toilet and a sink/shower.  This makes trimming my beard or running the head trimmers over my head easy, as at home I’d worry and have to clean up the trimmings that would get sent flying in every which way.  Here in this perfectly designed bathroom I can shave and wash away all the evidence in the process of a shower.  How ideal.

           This is my kitchen/laundry unit.  It’s got enough storage for the foods that I’ve prepped so far and the two-burner stove has proved to be quite plenty.  I haven’t used the washing machine yet, although it does make an awesome powering on noise when you do turn it on.  J

           This is once again a simplistic design of the bed.  It’s nice and comfy and when I do perhaps have the floor heaters on it feels a-mazing.  It is of course fully equipped with my Texas t-shirt quilt.   In the back you can see my closet and dresser drawers.  Next to it is a very uncomfortable chair that I think the previous tenant removed the seat cushions and so I’ve converted it into a sweater storage unit.

           This is my tv stand which offers me additional storage space (space that’s used for clothes and not hoarding).

           This is my refrigerator and do it all room.  Right now it’s storing my empty luggage and a pile of laundry.  My school manager was saying that I could move the refrigerator out of here in order to use the room for something else.  The fridge and the luggage fit perfectly in here so I’m not quite sure what I would use this room for were I to vacate it.  Then there would be the question of what to do with my laundry pile and what to do with the refrigerator whenever I clear out the room.  I like the room the way it is.

Quality Dog Time, Video Apartment Tour, Working Internet, CSI, and a Lost Passport

           Had a fantastic visit with Scott and Heana.  The Alaska Mining Company where we went for breakfast wasn’t that bad.  After all, it is a recreation of American diner comfort food outside of America.  I had the chicken fried steak and eggs and hash browns and it was tasty.  Unfortunately, Scott’s eggs benedict weren’t of the same quality.  It was a crowded place though because it was pictures with Santa for all the families on base and in the area.  So you’ve got all the kids running to get on Santa’s lap, and a UFC fight in the background.  With the time difference it’s the perfect Sunday brunch backdrop.  Afterwards Scott gave me a tour of the base and then we relaxed, got some school work done (all three of us) and had some take out.  Max (Scott’s bulldog) was hilarious because he was pissed when I walked in the door originally, but soon figured out I was going to play with him and that made me a buddy.  We fought over his rope and I tried my hardest to wear him out.  Unfortunately he was hell bent to show me his favorite “trick” and would proceed to make one of the blankets feel really good on the couch. It brought tons of laughs.  Well from me at least.

           Last night I Skyped with mom and dad and took them on a video tour of my apartment.  It took a little longer than you’d expect, but not that long.  Unfortunately it got started late because right before I was going to call them I was putting away my groceries and I totally butterfingered an egg onto the floor and it was fun to clean up.  Got me a good-size soup/wok/skillet thing that was on clearance for 2.50 and I think the reason that it was on sale was it’s a one person size (or at least a one Byron size) and thus wouldn’t be good family meals. I keep saying there will be a post about the apartment with pictures for the blog and there will be.  I just need to make a mental note (and I just made a written one) to transfer my pictures that were on Facebook onto a flashdrive so I can write a proper post on my work computer.  That way I have nice things such as indents and spellcheck.  God bless spellcheck.

           While visiting Heana and Scott I used their laptop and Heana’s Korean know how to set-up my wireless router.  The directions were in Korean, but for the most part I could figure out what it wanted me to do from dealing with routers back in the states.  Needless to say though I was excited that I wasn’t going to have to go to one of the coffee shops around work in order to use the internet.  I plug it in when I got back home and nothing.  I figured it was either a weak signal coming through the wall or there wasn’t any signal as I had been told.  I went to work a little frowny-faced because I thought I had fixed my internet woes.  I come home and I’m looking at my bed, beckoning to me, and I notice that there was another LAN wall jack on the other side of the room.  Plugged into this one and success. 

           CSI, NCIS and those types of shows are really interesting here in Korea.  They’re the same shows, maybe a couple of months behind, but the really funny part of them is the Korean censoring that takes place before they air.  Especially when there is an autopsy scene for example whenever they show the body the entire thing is blurred out.  It makes me laugh because the dialogue concerns what you seen, but the picture is mutilated because of the goriness.  The same goes for episodes where a knife is involved.  Guns are ok.  There can be a shootout with blood and people getting shot to bits and it won't be blurred. I really want to see though when they start showing Sons of Anarchy over here if that is truly the case as there are a few instances that I can think of in particle that would push this Korean sense of cultural protection.  Knives though, get blurred out when someone is held hostage, stabbed, or waving it around like a menacing killer.  Makes me laugh when the suspect is standing behind a victim on an episode of Criminal Minds and all you see is a blur over their neck.  Wonder what that could be?

           Finally, I went through minor drama involving my passport.  The train system here had asked for my passport number when I was reserving a ticket so I thought that it was needed to travel.  I had been keeping it in my back pocket with my wallet (since been changed).  Whenever I arrived home after visiting with Scott and Heana I discovered while unpacking that I didn’t have it with me.  I sent them a message thinking that I had just left it on their dining room table as that had been where it was most of Sunday.  When I arrived at work today however, my boss greeted me with a smile and asked if I had lost my passport.  I responded that it was a possibility, but I wasn’t entirely sure that it was lost.  He told me one of the other teachers had seen on Facebook that it was lost.  Funny I thought to myself, as I hadn’t ever posted that it was lost.  Turns out there’s a “Foreigners in Suncheon” Facebook group and a couple of the teachers I work with are members and saw a bulletin posted by someone who somehow or another found out that the police department was holding my passport for a few days, before sending it to the immigration office.  The funny thing was the way she posted it.  “If anyone knows a Byron Roscoe Davis, his passport..”  I laughed to myself when I read it, because I highly doubt there’s more than one Byron in Suncheon.  Thanks to my fellow teachers who were apart of this group and texted my boss, who drove with me to the police station as I was pretty early to work.  We get there and I give the lady my driver’s license and she looks at me and then speaks to my boss in Korean.  On the way out I was asking him if she was saying that the picture doesn’t look like me anymore.  He informed me that she was saying that I look older, a lot older.  Great!  I would hope I still don’t look like I did while I was a freshman in college. 

*** Random ***

           Printed some signage for my classroom walls that I’ll decorate and hang.  It’s the patterns of paragraphic organization that I’ve been teaching my older kids.  When I look at it, it makes me laugh because it reminds me of the mind maps that we were instructed to post and utilize no matter what in Irving.  I wonder if anyone’s ever been drawn and quartered for not doing so.  A trip to Office Depot will be tomorrow on the way to work.  Hopefully will score two pieces of posterboard for drawing the silhouettes of Texas and South Korea for personal décor, and I still need to make that name card for my unusually unique name that I’m proud of.

Unusual Name, Snow Flakes, Trying Not to Stand out and Doing So in Glorious Fashion, and I Ponder If Cab Driving is a Calling For Me?

My first week of teaching in Korea is officially under my belt.  Any regrets?  None as of yet.  I'm beginning to get used to the hours.  Getting off at 9 or 10 every night takes a little getting used to.  It's like ESE on steroids.  Show up at the same hour, get off 3 and a half hours later, and follow a stricter protocol.  I will say this though that this campus is a little more relaxed in their rigid interpretation of the time structure and understands that I'm taking time to make sure that the students are grasping the concepts that we're asking them to learn when others would be eating dinner.  One of the other teachers responded Friday when I only had a two hour class at 7 instead of a 3 hour one.  My response was I'm sorry that on your early nights you get a night off at 7 and my early night is 9.  God Bless Fridays!  She didn't have much to say after that.  I think most of it was moodiness from being sick, although I don't care what country I'm in, I'm not stupid enough to call a woman moody. 

I had two students in my class Saturday that weren't at the first part of their class Wednesday so I was introducing myself.  With the younger kids there have been some funny interpretations of my name when I pronounce it before I write it out.  Violin is the most common.  These were older kids that I was writing it on the board for and one of them with a smile informs me that it's an unusual and unique name (in Korea, he's definitely got a point).  I told him it was a family name and tried to explain to him what that meant, but we finally resolved that my name is unusual and unique and I'm ok with that.  Most of the time it's "teacher, teacher" anyways so it's a moot point.  The whole conversation made me laugh and reinforced the need for classroom decorations, one of them being a cool sign of my name.

My two girls in one of my upper level classes were excited when they got to class on Thursday and I asked why only to learn that they had seen and felt snowflakes on the way into school.  Really?!?!  It had only been a few hours prior that I had walked to work in rolled up sleeves.  Now there are snow flurries?  This sounded a lot like Texas weather, and sure enough on my walk home there were plenty of snow flurries.  Luckily I had brought a jacket and a sweater.  When riding the train up to visit Scott Saturday night after getting off work (yes I work on Saturdays too, see earlier) there were stations along the grip that were blanketing in a soft sheet of white.

Finally, when preparing for my train trip I knew that I'd want to eat dinner before getting on the train.  I didn't know what the policy was for bringing food on the train (I now know you can) and I wasn't about to be the foreigner that everyone is yelling at on the train because I'm eating where I'm not supposed to. There is a delicious pizza place across from our school and so my plan was to eat a pizza there before taking a cab to the station (more to come on the cab ride later).  The branch manager wanted to have a meeting after work, which was cool because I didn't have to be at the train station til 7:30.  Then he put out the offer for taking everyone to dinner.  I was tempted to try, but finally passed at the chance.  Went and got my pizza and got a cab.  My plan to eat the pizza at the pizza parlor didn't happen because I'd rather be earlier at the train station than arrive as I saw the train pulling away.  I get to the station (which you'll soon find was a miracle within itself) and I pick up my tickets with about twenty minutes.  I then proceed to make an entire pizza disappear (Koreans call it a large, but by American standards it was a halfway size between medium and large).  I notice this elderly Korean woman is watching me.  It's someone eating slices of pizzas with a box in his lap, surely this has happened before.  She then is calling he son over and whispering in his ear and this continues on and on with a great deals of smiles and small laughs sent in my direction.  When it's about time for my train I discard an empty box and this old woman is sitting there with her mouth agape and I throw her a smile.  Glad I could give her a story to share with her grandkids.

Now for the cab story which has gained so much build up. I feel a calling to be a Korean cab driver.  Not really, but this is definitely a job that ranks right up there with Top Gun fighter pilot for adrenaline junkies.  My cab driver to the train station is honking at city buses, makes a movement to sideswipe a delivery scooter and proceeds to run not one but two red lights.  The best part was it wasn't as if he sped up to make the light and it turned red, instead there are about 7-10 cars lined up in each lane waiting for the light to change and he goes into the opposing lane of traffic when he sees a lull in the cross traffic and honks his horn as he goes around everyone and threw the light.  God Bless him!  My guardian angel was working overtime while riding him because the entire time this is going on he's also watching a Korean sitcom on his GPS.  Distracted driver or proficient multi-tasker?

Teaching, Being Flexible and Fingernails

I did in fact come to Korea to teach.  I didn’t come here to help someone find a green card, to get away from American politics, or because I couldn’t hack it in American schools.  That being said I also stumbled across a rather humorous political cartoon when I was brainstorming with one of my classes.  We were discussing political scandals and their job was to represent a political scandal and the damages of them in the form of a political (or editorial) cartoon.  I provided a few examples in a PowerPoint and one of them made these 6^th graders laugh because they even knew that it was true.  You’ll find the cartoon at the following link: http://taylorhumanities.blogspot.com/2011/01/political-cartoon.html

I’ve taught 6 classes so far and my 7^th will be tonight.  I enjoy the students and the topics that we discuss in my older classes are at a level that I think some high schools would want to reach, and here none of my students are passed the eighth grade.  This week the topics ranged from the 1964 Civil Rights Act to Watergate, to even museums returning artwork stolen by Nazi’s to Jewish families.  These aren’t your typical topics that you talk about in a foreign language class.  We skip all the formalities of “Hi, my name is….” And don’t worry about learning the items of the classroom and their names.  The focus is on being able to critically think and effectively communicate in English which is a pretty interesting process.  I think outside of this methodology of teaching English and English thought is the hours that I work.  I teach younger grades (2-5) from 4-7, which isn’t out of the ordinary, the extraordinary part is that my upper level students that are ranging from 4^th-8^th grade attend class from 7-10.  That’s right the kids that are in my class don’t get out of class until 10.  Chances are they’ve problem been in classes such as mine that “enrich” ever since they got out of school.  So that means they get home at ten, have something that resembles dinner and still have to do homework.  Every other Saturday they go to school as well and every Saturday from 3-6 they’ve got class with me.  I just keep reminding myself that it’s a different mindset, a different culture.  Confucius’s first emphasis was education and the role of the teacher and that is definitely a philosophy and way of life that’s been adopted over here.

My younger classes resemble a typical foreign language class to a point, but also have elements of deeper English thought built into them in the hopes that the students will be able to progress and graduate up in order to be in the upper level classes.  In one class we’re talking about endangered animals and the ways that the students come up with in their presentations in order to protect a certain animal is pretty funny.  Ways such as building a panda farm, let people shoot people who shoot gorillas, and giving rhinos steel armor to protect them from hunters.  The last one was an awesome suggestion because of the picture that went along with it.

The kids also get to pick their English names that they want to be called by in class.  Some of them come to us with names that they used during a previous class here or at a previous institution, but some of them just make up names.  I’ve got an Amy, Suzie, Christine, Peter, Dana, Mark, Paul, Matt, etc. I’ve also got a Bumblebee and a Ronald McDonald.  One of the other teachers said he’s seen a Batman, Superman and an Elvis at this campus.  I think that’s super awesome. 

During the break on the first day the two girls that I had in one of my upper level classes (only 2 people period in the class) kept asking me about what Korean foods I’d tried so far.  I told them and they thought it was funny that I’d had so many different types of Korean food, and I explained to them that it would be kind of silly for me to come to Korea to live and expect to live on McDonald’s and “American Food”.  They agreed.  Then again most of the time when I’m in America I’d rather be eating Mexican or Italian food so I guess there’s something to be said about our melting pot of a society. 

During this week there’s been a great deal of students absent due to studying for exams and one of my classes got canceled and my other classes have very low attendance.  When I showed up yesterday to work my head instructor informed me that my upper level class may be canceled and that in that case he’d have me teach his class just for practice.  I was open to the idea, the only issue was that I did not have the books required for the class as I had left mine at home as I had taught the class the day prior.  I borrowed his as only one of his kids showed and only one of mine in the level above showed up, therefore we talked it over with the girl and she was totally willing to combine classes so she wouldn’t be the only one in the class.  Once again I covered the material and was better with my time management the second time around and evidently gained a reputation quickly after last night of being “the loud one” as a couple of the other teachers mentioned it again today before work.  I blame poor construction and thin walls.  They weren’t complaining however, they in fact didn’t even mention the term loud. 

I always thought that there might be a few questions when I arrived at this campus as to the issue of me jumping right into teaching the upper level classes.  I don’t brag about it or talk about, but if I’m asked about it I won’t lie about what classes I’m teaching.  I also don’t hide the fact that I’ve got teaching experience and there’s two pieces of paper on the wall with my name on them (metaphorical wall as my diplomas aren’t here in Korea), but the point is made.  I’m comfortable teaching these topics, I’m confident in my abilities to keep to the structure and to also inject enough enthusiasm into the class that a student will take things from me even at 9 o’clock.  I'm always willing to teach other classes, and I'm just here to teach.  I've experienced plenty of drama in schools for a while and I'd rather this teaching experience in Korea be drama free.  Here's hoping.
That being said, my fellow teachers are awesome.  Super friendly and there's a couple teachers that are Korean-Americans and so it's nice to bounce ways to say things in order to get places or order food off of them so we can do it independently.  I appreciate the close family aspect of our campus. With only 8 teachers including myself, it's hard to go a day without seeing everyone, and I think that greatly adds to the friendliness.  It's nice to make that visual connection every day.

-------------------RANDOM THOUGHTS FALL BELOW-------------------

Kipling backpacks are big with the kids in my classes.  I think of the 30 kids that I’ve seen so far, 12 of them have had Kipling backpacks.  That might not seem like a huge percentage by any stretch of the imagination except for the fact that I don’t think any of my kids in Georgetown had a Kipling bag.  Just an observation, there’s really nothing else behind it.  Likewise in other tidbits of information, it has spread quickly in this school in the 3 days that I’ve been here to call me Steve Jobs as apart from the beard I apparently bear a resemblance to.  It’s kind of funny, but I act like it bothers me.  I’ve got some big ideas on decorating my classroom.  I’m probably going to venture out Saturday morning before my Saturday evening class and look for a shop in which I can score some posterboard.  At the Wal-Mart type store that’s next to school, Home Plus, I did find a world map that’s written in Korean characters that when I’m departing back to the states I’ll probably pick up.  I’ve had shoe problems the last couple of days.  Tuesday I broke the heel on my new “Christmas present” boots L.  Fortunately it was just the rubber part and I think that will be an easy fix for a Korean cobbler and I’ll look for one of those soon.  Then today I wore my Chuck Taylors that are lower than traditional Chucks and they just started wearing the hell out of my heel and I had to result to tucking in the back to not rub me further raw.  Fortunately I’ve got my brown boots, running shoes and a pair of Chucks that make my feet feel like angels, instead of punished demons.  Finally, this colder weather in Korea has made me take a close close look at ceasing biting my nails.  I’ve quit it in the past, so I’m going to definitely adopt some of my past methods in order to beat the beast of a habit once again. 

Korean Word for “FEAST”, Bus Ride to a “Small Town”, and “Exploring”

As you might be able to infer from the title I’ll be covering quite a bit in this blog post.  What I will not be talking about is my new apartment.  That’ll be it’s own blog post as I could ramble, not that I don’t already.

Beginning on Thursday of training last week after the last blog post left off, we had completed training and everyone was riding the subway back to the hotel late after studying up and practicing our mock presentations.  When we were getting off of the subway one of the other guys in training was joking about how he wished he new the Korean translation for feast as he was starving at that was what he was in the mood for.  I suggested just walking in and saying “Viking” haha.  Ideas were bounced around between the group including a beer & chicken place or just getting a bowl of noodles for the hotel room, before one of the group mentioned he new of a good sit down place that was on the street behind the hotel.  We went and our group was too big for downstairs so they took us to the upstairs seating area that was only a couple inches taller than me, so I can only imagine the uncomfortable hunched over strain that some of the taller guys felt.  I can only say that seeing a linebacker sized guy bent over around a bunch of tinier Koreans was too funny.  The menu had plenty of pictures and I pointed to two items that I want and that was the typical fashion everyone getting two items.  The lady however fit the entire 11 person order onto a post-it the size of two thumbprints.  It was funny to watch.  She came back and the entire order was correct and massive.  It truly was a FEAST.  I had a dish that resembled dumplings and a noodle soup that had more of the dumplings inside of it.  The dumplings were delicious by themselves, but the dumplings that had been soaking in the broth of the soup were truly decadent and therefore I replenished my dumpling supply in my soup each time I’d partake of one or share.  And share I did.  Everyone did.  It was true Viking style with each person calling out to others to try something off of their plate.  The Bulgogi gimbap (kimbap) was delicious as well as the various other soups and rices that others had.  I think between everyone sharing and the laughs that we shared at some people’s troubles with chopsticks it was the night relaxing people from the stresses associated with the training and the final mock the next day that was needed.  Everyone that was at that dinner passed their final mock and retained their job.

           Upon passing the final mock there wasn’t a lot of breathing time.  It was grab your shit and hop in the taxi so they can take you to the bus station.  I was riding the taxi with 2 other fellow trainees to the bus station.  When the taxi driver took our money to buy the tickets we made several jokes about how hilarious it would be if he just bolted.  He didn’t however, but how many days worth of laughs would that provide for him and his poker buddies.  When he was giving us his tickets he went into “mother” mode and was looking at us and was like “Toilet?”  I found it kind of funny, but once I was over the initial humor, I was like “Yeah, actually I do kind of have to go.”  Luckily that brought tons of laughs that a Korean guy had to remind to go to the bathroom before a road trip.  A road trip which wasn’t too too bad, lengthwise.  I had a vague idea of what to expect, but it was much shorter.  The bus had a screen that told us it would arrive at 9:10 after leaving at 5:45, which isn’t too bad by any stretch of the imagination.  The other two were bound for a different city so they left on a 5:15 bus, and I rocked out to Aaron Watson and Charlie Robison while waiting for my bus.  When I got on it I initially thought it was free seating until I was approach with a stern looking man who I was obviously in his seat.  Then I thought I had remembered my seat was 18.  Should’ve taken it out because wrong again.  Finally arriving at seat 14 with my messenger bag I was on the aisle next to a Korean cutie.  She was actually in my seat, but screw it I’d had enough seat drama for the day.  When we were departing the station she was constantly tapping my arm and I couldn’t understand why until she was showing me that I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt.  Whoop dee freaking doo.  BUT, she was cute and I didn’t want her to freak out that someone on the bus wasn’t wearing their seat belt.  When the lights went off I was super inclined to just take a nap.  EXCEPT I really couldn’t because I can’t sleep sitting upright and I didn’t want to freak her out when this whitey starts snoring on her shoulder.  So, instead I listened to my tunes, which luckily I had charged my iPod.  When we arrived about halfway there was a rest stop and we took a 15 minute break.  When I got back on the girl was asking which of the recycling bins I had thrown my Coke bottle into and I couldn’t remember, but I do remember having trouble discerning the images as they were relatively unclear and there was a younger kid there that told me the right one.  Once I found out she spoke English this was no longer a boring trip.  We talked non stop the rest of the trip.  Having my tablet out too was a help, because I showed her on maps where I’m from and also drew pictures occasionally to help with concepts.  We covered everything from Koreans building tunnels through mountains for the highways to her idea of fashionistas, haha.  Then she was asking why I was going to Suncheon.  When I told her, she explained that it’s a small town, nothing like Seoul.  I told her I liked that as I came from a small town.  Then she tells me this small town has 200,000 people. WHAT THE HELL?!?!  I quickly had to assure her that wasn’t my idea of a small town.  If that’s her idea of a small town then I wonder what her idea of Georgetown is?  The other big mystery that was revealed was her age.  The entire bus ride I was thinking maybe a college student, possibly college grad.  Instead, she’s talking about living with her parents studying for her test to become a state accountant.  I was like really cool.  Turns out she’s 30, not that there’s a problem with that at all.  Anyways we joked some more and then we got to Suncheon.  Me being the dummy that I am never once asked her for an email or a phone number or anything.  IDIOT.  Possibly could run into someone like this again in Georgetown.  Haha.  A city 4X the size I don’t see it as a possibility.

           When I was driven to my apartment I was given vague directions on how to get back to the school.  I understood that it was about a 3 dollar taxi ride or a 30 minute walk.  The only problem was I didn’t know what to tell the taxi driver in order to arrive at the school, and I knew what direction I wanted to be walking in, but not much more.  So, intelligently I took Sunday after unpacking and moving into my place to test walk to the school.  4 hours later I still hadn’t come across my school, but I had picked up some groceries and ended back up at my hotel (a commendable feat within itself) after a good walk.  My dogs were tired and barking and it felt good to relax to a bowl of noodles.  I found this one delicious brand that I definitely will incorporate frequently into my diet.  It is the most complex broth that I’ve tasted of the noodle bowls that I’ve had, it has little yummy slices of bamboo, chilis and chives included in the soup which enhance the flavor.  I also scored some local soy sauce that definitely makes the soup a little deeper flavor and last night for the first time I marinated some tofu in the soy sauce before building the soup on top of it and it was deliciously deep and rich.  The tofu truly needs a profound broth to build it up and this noodle soup provides it and nourishes me at the same time.

*Til Next Time with the update and walk through of the apartment*