Night Out in Hongdae

Friday night, myself and a half dozen teachers went out to Hongdae (The same Club/Bar district I went to last week in Seoul) for a going-away night of celebration for a teacher who's contract is up. On the way to the first bar, I managed to snap this picture of an awesomely named bar (sadly we didn't go in).

The bar we actually did go into, though, was really... out of this world. After putting your shoes in a bag, you go up some stairs that look like they're from the original Star Wars movie - and where it leads, pictured below, sure looks alot like it, too. Strangely, the main floor is filled with a layer of water. Remember, they make you take off your shoes, so those who happen to get too drunk to walk straight and jump in between the 'islands' can get very, very wet.










The final venue we visited was a Korean Hip Hop Club, for which the only commentary I can really offer up is 'ahhhhhahahahahahahahahahaha!'

The hip-hop culture is one that clearly, clearly does not fit with the Korean one. I mean, the asian guys around me were looking to me for dance cues, and my god.. For those who've seen me dance, you know that for the good of the world, no one should attempt to replicate me.

But hey, that place had me laughing, so I suppose it wasn't a total waste.











As a side note; i've been feeling a bit under the weather for the past few days. Unfortunately, I missed out on visiting a temple in Seoul today because of it. And as such, I likely won't have very much to write about until the new school semester begins on monday.

Hope everyone's doing great.

Teacher, Teacher.

After a week's worth of training, I began teaching at the Global Education Center on Monday.

The GEC is a very recent school, having opened its doors in September 2006. As such, it's a pretty state-of-the-art building; better equipped, even, than some Universities. Every class has a multimedia projector! The GEC also has something over other private schools (hogwons) in the region: Experience Rooms. There are a dozen rooms, all with different themes, which each class gets the chance to visit. The themes range from Science to Drama to Quizzes, with each room being more than adequately decorated. It's basically another way of exposing English to the kids - in other subjects that they're already familiar with.

Now, as far as what I 'do' when i'm teaching.. It varies. I can teach anything from Phonics-leveled kids (Usually 6 or 7 years old, who understand nothing but the pictures you're showing them) to Stars (The highest possible level - fluent enough to converse freely in english). It's nice to have a mixture of both in a day, that way you're not completely starved for a conversation with people who understand what you're saying. The material is silly enough, but that's to be expected when you're teaching kids of that age group.

I'll make sure to post an audio, at some point, of myself singing the smash-hit 'I Have Blue Pants', or the one I sang today, 'I'm a bug, I can't hug'.

As the kids go, from what I read before coming here, I expected a complete different experience than in Canada. And honestly? I just haven't seen the difference so far. Some are well-behaved, some are disruptive beasts. The higher the level of language class, usually, the better-behaved (from what i've seen). Younger kids who don't understand a teacher tend to be a bit more fearless, since they figure that they can't really be disciplined. Joke'll be on them, of course, once I start picking up a bit more of the language, but that's at least a couple of months away.

For the most part, though, just like in Canada: They're good kids. My silliness with kids seems to translate, thankfully, so they pick up on it pretty well. They address me (and most other teachers) as 'Teacher, Teacher!'. So as we were playing hangman today, one kid looks at me as i'm pretending not to know the word and she says 'Teaaaaacher knowwwwwws'.

Yes, Teacher knows.

Korean War Memorial

I ventured back into Seoul, to the Korean War (June 1950-July 1953) Memorial yesterday. It's a beautiful, serene location, placed right next to American and Korean army bases. That whole area of Seoul has a very strange vibe - In most neighbourhoods, you can't walk more than a metre or two without seeing some type of commerce or tent. In this Army controlled region, it's all fenced out, with foot patrols still going down the street.

The memorial is what it is. A tribute to all the fallen soldiers of the dozens of nations that sent troops during the War, including Canada; a cry for the unification of Korea; a reminder of the blood shed by the Korean people. Reading the history behind this war, observing the statues.. this sort of thing gives me chills, along with an enormous sense of respect and admiration for the fallen. The same feeling I had when I was visiting the Canadian War Museum last month.


It's really not that i'm pro-war, not one bit, but for soldiers to have lost their lives by fighting in the name of their country, out of a sense of duty... you have to admire it. You need to respect it. If circumstances were different, this could've been me or someone I know. The real tragedy, really, would be to forget - forget history, because you don't think that wars have any value.

Soldiers give their lives in order to safeguard the populace. The very least they deserve is to be remembered by them.


I started teaching today. I'll make a job-related entry sometime tomorrow.
Stay safe.

Oot and Aboot

Yesterday I began exploring my immediate neighborhood in Incheon, in an attempt to familiarize myself with what's where. Only problem being, of course, that a lot of this stuff is really not obvious. One of the very few signs I understood was on the second floor of this building to the left - Karaoke is universal!

Other than that, I discovered that there are no fewer than 4 grocery stores all in a span of 3 blocks. There are also several stores that, although they smell like fish, what they sell doesn't resemble any fish I know. So i'll probably be staying away from that for now. I really don't wanna be 'that guy' in the street that thinks he's really 'experiencing the culture' while eating cat food.

One thing that was again highlighted yesterday is the fact that driving here is (for lack of a better word) nuts. It's quite commonplace for people to burn through red-lights. It's also common for scooters to pass in-between cars, drive on the sidewalk, and not wear a damn helmet. I've nearly seen 4 of those guys knocked down by a car so far (and it's not even been a week). Another thing that i'd never seen before are 'U-Turn' lanes. Since the traffic volume is fairly high, there are usually fences on the medians, so if the place where you need to go is on the other side of the street you're gonna have to wait until you find your U-Turn lane.

Honking is also very, very common. It doesn't stem from rage, though, as it usually does in North America. It's genuinely used as a means to warn people. And trust me, they NEED to warn each other a lot. But hey, their road system must work, because I haven't seen one accident yet.

Last night I went back to Seoul with another teacher, who took me to Hongdae; an area near Hongik University that's got quite a large youth population, along with many bars and clubs. We found a street vendor selling drinks in a bag, which was so awesome that we had to get one. This is a Tequilla Sunrise in a bag.

Afterwards we went into a bar called 'Ho Bar'. It's just a name, don't read too much into it. There are actually 5 of these bars in Hongdae, all numbered 'Ho Bar 1, Ho Bar 2, (...) Ho Bar 5'. It was fun, but there's still cigarette smoke in these bars which is very very bothersome after more than half an hour. And here I thought the anti-smoking legislation had gone 'round the world! Alcohol in bars, as is to be expected, is a bit more expensive, but still nothing compared to our bars. One beer (depending on the brand) can go from a dollar fifty, to 5 dollars. It also seems to be common to buy a bottle of liquor for everyone at the table to share (although that starts at around 50$).

Today on the menu should be the Korean War Memorial, so stay tuned kids!

Leaked Cover of Vogue

Yesterday, myself and the teacher that arrived at the same time, Ashley, had to go get our pictures taken for our Alien Resident card. We went to a place called E-Mart, which is a 4 or 5-story Wal-Mart equivalent (except for two things): It's much, muuuch cleaner than a regular Wal-Mart, and things are cheaper. I found a frame for all of 2 Dollars, along with an alarm clock for 15$.

Anyway, when they gave us our pictures, they also gave us a CD with the copies on it, along with these beautiful pictures of myself on the cover of Vogue (My dreaaaaam, how did they know?). You don't get this kind of schnaz in a Wal-Mart. Although you can find some more intriguing things.. The animals they sell may be dead, but that's the extent of the work that's been done. If you're buying fish, you're buying a whole fish. Same for a Squid. Or a Crab. The smell in the grocery section is.. unique, to say the least. Maybe it'll grow on me.

Now, the food! The food is quite good, from what i've had so far. Mind you, the most i've had so far is Kimbop (see picture!). From the outside, it looks like a cucumber, but this is the primal state of (the Korean equivalent) Sushi. These two are Cheese Gimbop.. very good, and about 2$. Since one constitutes a meal, you can do the math as to great value.

These particular two, though, were not 2$. They were free. I was having lunch with about 5 other teachers, and there happened to be the mother of two students eating nearby. The students recognized the teachers, and waved - Before they left, she stopped by and told those teachers they she had paid for the meal. Very nice - but we figure it was just those two people`s meals. Nope - It was all 6 of us (and we had ordered things to take out..)

That really speaks to the kindness of Korean people. Gift-giving is a much more common practice than it is in Canada, and although i've only been here 5 days, this isn't the first time that I see it. Not really big gifts (that i've seen anyway), but small gifts as gestures of appreciation - although i'm told that it's expected to reciprocate by buying something as well, such as pastries or flowers. I suppose this is a way of strengthening a friendship with someone.


À la prochaine!

Shower Scene

For all the perverts out there, no, this isn't what you think it is.

Cheonggyecheon Stream - Seoul

Yesterday marked the beginning of my teacher training, as well as my first trip to Seoul.

We headed out from the school and took several different buses, although I probably couldn't remember which ones. Public transportation is very, very efficient here. As I previously said, it operates mainly with computer chips, which can be inserted in all kinds of objects (mine's in a keychain, but they can be cards or any other little trinkets) with which you can simply go to a convenience store to fill up with money electronically. Anyway, I scanned mine away to pay the fare, and, surprise: my fare is cheaper than everybody elses. Instead of the usual 1000 Won, I paid 720. (about 0.72$) Then the following ride, same thing. I have no idea why this happens with only my chip, but who'm I to complain? Should save me a lot of cash - Scooore.

The buses seem to be divided into three classes, based on the route you're taking. The lowest fare (1000 Won) is for common, smaller routes. It's also filled with advertisements on the seats themselves, at the top (Kind of like a pillowhead). There's a second type of bus with a little less advertisement, and a slightly higher fee (1400 W if I remember correctly), which is for longer inner-city routes, and the very long routes (between Cities such as Incheon and Seoul) are 2200 W. They're also extremely comfortable, with no advertisement.

Once we got to Seoul Central station, we took the metro to what I was told was 'Old City'. It's a very, very beautiful section of town. The highlight was Cheonggyecheon stream - a stream over which for many, many years a highway was built over, and hidden from the public, until it was finally restored in 2005 for about $900M. While the Rideau Canal does have its charm, the Cheonggyecheon stream was rebuilt with the purpose of being a highlight of downtown Seoul.

After walking alongside it, we took a walk to a nearby market. I had forgotten my watch back at home, so I bought a new one for 5000 Won (5$!), which is of very decent quality. Most things are much cheaper than in Canada. Meals in particular are very cheap - Gimbop, the Korean equivalent of Sushi, costs 2000W for about 8 or 9 slices. So it's notably cheaper to eat out than to make your own meals.

Anyhoo, the training continues tomorrow. I'll give my full impressions once the training's complete.

'Ciao til then.

Chasing the Sun

I have arrived.

The trip was pretty tiring, although I didn't really have any problems. The longest airport wait I had, really, was between 5am-7am (after having gone through security) while waiting for my flight in Ottawa to Chicago. I can't really complain - all the flights arrived a few minutes early, and although I only technically had an hour in between flight one, I had no problem finding the gate (Although O'Hare Airport really is enormous - it's also really, really cool).

Ottawa to Chicago took about an hour and a half. Then Chicago to San Fran was a little over four hours; finally, San Fran to Incheon was the mother flight, at a whopping 11 and a half hours. The strangest thing about yesterday was the fact that I was seemingly always chasing the sun, so even though it had been almost a full 24 hours since the sun had risen (5:30am-ish in Ottawa), it was still up when I arrived in Incheon (5:30pm-ish). It was a little strange to say the least.

The dorm where i'm staying, as well as my room, are very nice. I'm fully equipped with a TV (which I haven't turned on yet), a desk, a chair, a bed, a fridge, an air conditioner, and a bathroom that includes a shower. The shower is very.. un-north american though. It's attached to the sink, and the drain is next to the toilet - you can check out the pictures. The nice thing about the dorm is that it's literally a 15 second walk from the school, which I had a chance to tour quickly. The classes are about 10-12 kids. You teach the same kids for a period of three months, and then they move on. I'm looking forward to starting.

There are about 14-16 other Foreign teachers living in the same dorm as me. So far i've only met about half of them, but they seem nice. The boxscore appears to point to more Canadians than Americans (Go Team!) although i've yet to find another Sens fan.

Last night when I arrived, one of the other teachers, Brandon, took me to a Thai Restaurant, which was a fun experience. We had to take two buses to get there, so I got to slowly start familiarizing myself with the neighbourhood, and I have to say - whoever decided to call Incheon 'English City' used the term rather loosely. To get by, i'll definitely need at leeeeast some very basic Korean, so thanks again Chantal for the CD-Lessons and book!

One cool thing about the buses, though, is that you can pay by a type of 'Computer Chip' system. And that chip can be in anything - a key chain, a card, whatever. You can scan it again on your way out, and it gives you a little extra credit for the next ride. Man, OC Transpo's wayyy behind.

So today on the Agenda, i have to go do a health-check at the hospital, and then I begin training. The kids are out for the week (it's one of their break-weeks where the school's not in session), so i'll only start actual teaching next week. But for now i'll keep unpacking. Just a reminder that i'm on Skype (account: misteralexp), so whoever feels like talking it up, give me a shout.

No internet 'til tomorrow

Update then.

Pit Stop - Still alive

No one believes in free wi-fi anymore, so I had to buy myself a 24-hour access account in order to connect. I'm in San Francisco, and boarding for the flight to Incheon should begin in about 15 minutes. I'm already tired of planes; but so tired, that I actually slept. Ottawa to Chicago was only an hour an a half, but Chicago to San Fran was 4. Now the next one is going to be the whopper.. 12 or 13. But i'm not a Zombie yet, so cheers.

Hopefully they still remember i'm coming, because if not it'll be an akward (but fun!) time.

Putting tomorrow in context.

For those who don't understand maps, or the basic layout of the earth, it translates into a really, really long trip. I'll try and recap the trip once I arrive (or possibly during, depending on internet access), but I expect to be pretty tired, so please wait a day or two before declaring me dead.