Of Hikes and Costcos

It's been a welcomingly uneventful week. Monday to Thursday was a whole-lot of ordinary, aside from Thursday night; my second set of Adults, the ones more-advanced ones that I usually teach from 6:30-8:00, wanted to go out for a few drinks instead of having the class in the usual classroom-setting. It was pretty great; instead of the curriculum-controlled discussion subjects, I got to hear the Korean perspective on many issues, including their view on North Korea, Foreigners within Korea, and International Politics.

Friday went by quickly, although I was hit with a lightning-sickness. In the morning, I started seeing blurs, and couldn't see anything further than 5 feet; this fixed itself within an hour, but then came a gigantic headache, followed by stomach-sickness - but about 6 hours later, I felt just as fine as usual. Pretty strange... i'm just hoping it was a one-time thing, i'd hate to have to go see a Korean Neurologist. A few teachers and myself then went to a Shabu-Shabu joint, a very-spicy (and delicious) Korean stew, followed by some light drinking at the Chicken Hof, and finally, a couple of hours of Noraebang.

Saturday was the day-of-rest i'd been waiting for for a few weeks, and it lived up to its bill with my sleeping-in until 12 (ohhh yea). The rest of the day was relaxing, with me doing some laundry, watching a movie, and starting to catch up on Heroes. On Sunday, I went on a hike with two teachers, Ryan and Julia, on a mountain behind GEC. The top of it was a good 45 minutes away, but the trip was well-worth it. I miss doing hiking, and I haven't done any since I stopped doing Scouts two years ago. It felt great to hit up the mountains again.

We decided to head out to the Korean Costco afterwards. Ryan had gotten a membership last week (they run for 35,000 Won here, which is about 35$ Canadian - my plan is to get one when i'm closer to returning home, since it's valid internationally). Costco in Korea utilizes the same basic layout, but since the real-estate in the country is so high, it's built on levels. The first floor is general goods, the second floor is food, and anything from the third floor up is parking.

Costco is the closest i've come yet to finding products that resembled anything from back home. Cheap cheese, US-Sized clothing, it pretty much had it all. I only picked up a few things I needed, but at least I now know where to come for any familiar brands.

The coming week should be another ordinary one, but i'll keep you posted. Take care, and have a good one!

Two Months Later

It's now been two months since i've come to Korea (and since i've been updating a blog regularly - wow!), and I must say, I have absolutely no regrets thus far. It's definitely been a great learning experience, and i've been settling into a pretty good routine.

Monday to Thursday, since I work 11-8, I sleep in a bit. Then, I catch up on my news, attempt to talk to some folks back home, and maybe watch an episode of a show i'm trying to keep up with. I've only really managed to keep up with Boston Legal, Dexter, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, but I think that's just indicative of how little free time I have - which I consider a good thing. After work, i'll usually unwind for half an hour, and three out of those four days, i'll go to the gym with Abigail, one of the Korean teachers. I complain about it a bit, but it's pretty great to have someone to push you (force you) to go. Whenever I tell myself 'ahh, i'm too tired for it tonight', I remind myself 'Well, it's too late now, you said you were going'. Sure, sometimes it makes me hate myself, and sparks an internal conflict, but overall I recognize that it's a big, big positive.

I've been doing a Spinning class once a week, for the past three weeks. Spinning, for those of you who are lucky enough to be unfamiliar with it, is an intense Cycling/Head-Bopping exercise that lasts for an hour, and is set to fast music. I don't sweat all that much usually, but I come out of there with a soaked t-shirt everytime.

Friday, the work hours at 9:30-6:30 - we either have Kindies in the morning (Kindergarden kids who are 'experiencing' an english Academy), or 'Hello-GEC' in the afternoon, a promotional-run in local elementary schools where we play games and do activities in english. For the past couple of weeks, we've had both Kindies and Hello GEC, which leaves us with very little free time to prepare for the coming week; so more often than not, to really get the preparation that you need to get done, you have to stay a little bit past the work hours. That's alright though - I think it's a dose of the real-world jobs, and a sign of things to come.

This weekend is really up in the air, and i'm not sure of what i'll be doing yet, though it'll probably involve venturing into Seoul and exploring a fair bit - after I catch up on my sleep. I'll keep you posted.

On a sidenote, today is October 16th over here, so BONNE FÊTE VÉRONIQUE!

Have a good one!

Nami Island: Done Tripping

As part of a 'team building' exercise, GEC Teachers (along with some public school teachers) used Saturday to go on a retreat to Nami Island, situated east of Seoul - around the center of South Korea. It was yet another early morning for me, making it nearly three weeks since i've been able to sleep in at all. It's starting to take its toll, but i'm not one to turn down a free trip.

We met in front of the dormitory at 8:20am, which didn't seem to agree very well with some of the teachers that only got home at around 3:30am. Now now, have no fears, i'm not *that* irresponsible.. I got home at the very respectable hour of 1:30am, the night before. The bus pulled in, and Kay (our HR Manager) had an Egg McMuffin meal ready for everyone (served with coke). Yummeh. The trip was going to be about three hours, so it was good to get everyone fed.

This had to be one of the coolest buses i'd ever been on, though. I've mentioned Korean Karaoke before, the singing-room 'Noraebongs'. Well, we dubbed this the 'Noraebus'. While singing on a bus isn't really a new concept, having a Karaoke Machine on one was a spin that can only be labelled as awesome.












Nami Island itself was small, but very beautiful. We had to take a ferry to get there, and there was literally a lineup of hundreds of people waiting to get on it. It got its name from General Nami, a Korean General who died, in the 1400s, while he was only 27. The shape of the island is that of a leaf, and it was actually not at all an Island until the construction of the Cheongpyeong Dam on its river.

When we arrived, we had some free time to explore the island. Here's a selection of photos from that:






Randomly throughout the day, a few kids asked us (foreigners) to take pictures with them, with our arms over our head, shaped like an M - which apparently represents a heart. There must've been some type of contest, or scavenger hunt, but it was kind of bizzare. So for the last group of kids that asked me, I pretended like I thought that they wanted me to take a pictures of them. So I did. This is them saying 'no! no!' haha. --->

We then had some team-based activities, such as three-legged races and a relay race. It was alright, but the problem with having a bunch of tired/hungover teachers is that they're (we're) not a very energetic bunch. So the logical step after that, for me, was a well-earned nap time. I didn't doze off for too long, with the sun still shining brightly, but it felt nice to lay there for awhile. The temperature here is getting colder, but still reasonably warm.

Finally, we headed back onto the ferry, and to a nearby Galbi (Korean BBQ) restaurant. Steven, the school director, made sure that everyone had more than enough Chicken (mm), Soju, and Beer to make the bus ride interesting. We had some more Karaoke on the bus, and all and all, it was a pretty awesome day. I managed to get a whopping 11 hours of sleep last night, and i'm still tired as heck, so i'll probably call it an early night tonight as well.

For all the folks back home, have a very happy Thanksgiving, and all the best from Korea.

Pour la famille, je vous aimes beaucoup, je pense à vous, et j'espère que tout va bien. C'est sans-doute plus difficile cette année sans la tradition annuelle avec Grand-Maman, mais elle est certainement avec nous dans nos pensées. Buvez un verre de bière pour moi en son honneure! Prenez bien-soins de vous.

Cheers.

TV Korea is Me.

It's finally Friday, but it's been a pretty exhausting week.
I forgot to mention last week; Ma! I'm on TV!

Thursday of last week, I was asked to do more promotional work for Woongjin (The parent company of GEC). They struck a deal with a district in Seoul to allow them to open an English Library, and in return, Woongjin agreed to help them do some promotion of that district as an 'English-Speaking' hub. Evidently, i'm being showcased as 'The English Face' (shhh, we'll keep the being-french thing quiet). Anyhoo, they had me and Sarah film a commercial for a local restaurant named Shy Bana. They had us walk over to the restaurant, from the opposite direction from which we came, and we did about 6 or 7 shots of us ordering food. We were pretty much cracking up after the 3rd shot, but it doesn't appear anyone had an objection about that.. The waiter asked us if we were professional actors (haha), calling us very 'Good looking'. Wheee.

So for that effort, we were each given a 100$ Gift-Certificate to shop in E-Mart, a general-goods superstore - Wal-Mart style. Since i'd put my pillow in the washing machine two weeks ago, I just haven't slept just as well, so that was the first item on my list. We finally ended up going yesterday, and I picked up alot of good, useful stuff - Bathroom slippers, a Welcome mat, 18 Cans of Cold-Coffee (don't judge me), and some beeeer. It's becoming more homely, day by day!

The work-week was very good, though. The more experience I have, the easier the preparation seems to get (which is good, since I don't have all that much time to prepare). Adult classes have resumed, and so has my-being-paid overtime four days a week (scooore). My 2nd paycheck, though, is still a week away - which is for all of September.

Apparently, it's a fairly common thing in Korea to only be paid once a month. I'm looking forward to finally starting to transfer money back home, though. Anyhoo, I have to cut this entry short, since my lunch period. Have a good one!

Goooo Sens.
and holy crap, Dexter!

Trip to Samcheok 2: Trip Harder

This post chronicles Part 2 of the Trip to Samcheok - For part 1, see below.

After arriving back in Samcheok's core, from Haesindang Park, the five of us made our way over to an Italian restaurant we had spotted during our morning run to Dunkin Donuts. For such a cheese-unfriendly nation, an Italian restaurant was a pretty awesome thing to find. After gulping down our food, like the disgustingly-hungry foreigners that we were, we decided to explore Samcheok a bit more.

We found a bar who's logo was the american flag, called simply 'Western Bar, Rock n' Roll'. Just about every stereotype you could ever see about North America from the last 50 years was there to be found; from the Big-Band statues (pictured), to the 'Enjoy Coca-Cola' sign. Surprisingly enough, no one in this 'Western Bar' spoke any English... so it was obviously not a place for Westerners to come, but rather somewhere that Koreans can go to if they want to 'Get a feel' for the culture. Kind of like we do, with many Asian restaurants.. decorate it with as many artifacts and pictures as possible, to give it that asian 'feel', no matter how un-genuine it actually is.

Anyway, after toying with the idea of going bowling again, we just ended up calling it an early night, so that we could get an early go on Hwanseongul Cave the next morning.

After an obligatory run back to Dunkin Donuts (in the rain), we took a taxi to the local Bus Terminal, and hopped on a bus that headed toward the cave. The trip up there was through a very mountainous area, and took approximately an hour - but it was well worth it. Pictured below is the beautiful view of the mountains in that area (and the less-than-beautiful view of me staring at them).









The reason we got to see so much of that area is that the bus drops you off a full 1.2km away from the cave - all of which is uphill. Way, way uphill. The cave is about 900 meters above sea-level... and although it didn't say at what level we were dropped off, my guess would be at 500-600 meters above sea-level. Now, I don't know if anyone's ever climbed uphill a few hundred meters before, but to do it in a 1.2km stretch means it's steeeeeep. But hey. It was well worth it.

Inside the cave, there's a pre-laid-out path on steel catwalks, and according to Wikipedia, it's about another 1.6km self-guided tour. Most of the pictures didn't turn out too well, since Cameras and Darkness don't typically agree, but it was quite, quite a sight. A formation of this type is a very unique thing to see, and walking through something that took nature many millenia to carve just felt incredibly cool.

We made our way back down, took a bus back to Samcheok, and finally hopped on a bus back to Seoul at 2:25 in the afternoon. We got home without incident, at around 8pm on Sunday.

I was feeling seriously commited to staying at home for the next month, after two full-weekends of going all over the country, but it seems like that won't happen. Kay, the HR Manager, organized a trip for the coming weekend for all of the teachers at GEC, as well as for some teachers working at Public schools, to go to an island-getaway on Saturday.

No worries. I'll rest when i'm dead!

Trip to Samcheok - East South Korea - Part 1

Another weekend, another trip. This weekend, myself and four other teachers ventured to the small town of Samcheok, which is located on the eastern coast. We managed to squeeze quite a bit into one weekend, so in the interest of saving people from trying to read a gigantic brick of text in one shot (and also in the interest of giving me some rest), i'll split up this trip into two blog entries - i'll probably write the followup in the next two days.

In this entry, i'll focus on:
-the trip there
-stuff we did the first night
-our Saturday trip to Haesindang Park (aka Penis Park - seriously - that got your interest didn't it?)

The follow-up entry will include:
-our final night
-the trip to the beautiful Hwanseongul Cave
-the trip back

On with the show!

As I mentioned in the last entry, we had a long weekend, so we departed from the GEC dorm at around 8:20am on Friday. Our first task was to get to the Gangnam general bus station in Seoul, about an hour's bus ride. From there, we purchased our tickets to Samcheok, which were only 22,100 Won each (about 22$). Now, we all knew that Samcheok was on the East coast, but no one was entirely sure how long the bus ride would be - from what we'd been told, it'd be between an hour and a half to four hours. Ohhh, so wrong. The traffic to leave and enter Seoul appears to be permanently ridiculous, so after an hour, we were barely out of town. The second hour goes by. The third. Fourth. Fifth.

I really couldn't complain about the scenery though. Korea is beautiful, and very very mountainous. After each tunnel we passed, myself and Jonny (The token Auzzie we took along for the trip) were just crossing our fingers that we'd see the ocean when we left it. Finally, at quarter past the 5-hour point, we saw it. It couldn't be much further, right? Well, sure it could. It took another half an hour. But ahh. We made it, at around 5pm. Our first order of business was to secure a room at a motel; we found one very near the bus station, fortunately. It was 40$ a night for a very decent room.

We then had dinner at a terrific Galbi (Korean BBQ) place. It definitely had a stranger vibe than Incheon or Seoul, though - I think our ratio of being-stared-at increased quite a bit. Foreigners usually do get a fair bit of attention in Korea, but even moreso when you're in a small town.

Next on the agenda was to find the Samcheok Beach. We squeezed into a cab, and off we went - for a 10 minute ride, it cost about 3$. All forms of transportation are so, so cheap here - it's great. Anywho, it was nice to be able to relax (and drink!) next to the ocean. I can't remember the last time I sat down on a beach - and short of the trip to Busan last week, when i'd last even been to one. After a couple of hours, we took a cab back into town, and found an awesome bowling place, and I have to say... i'm getting to be half-decent at big-ball bowling.

We topped the night off by going to a Chicken Hof, which served great fried-chicken, but had crap for a toilet. I don't know if it was a.. traditional Korean restroom, but the toilet was literally on the floor, which did not make things too appealing for women. Katie, one of the teachers, didn't really know what to do, so in a shining moment of Foreigner brilliance, she peed in the first bowl she saw, not noticing that there was no flusher. In fact, that bowl was just in there being cleaned (Full of water... well, before she 'went' on it). As she put it, 'Some lady's gonna come back in there, and be like ''What the hell?! Someone peed in my goddamn bowl''.'

Ahhh, I guess you had to be there. We went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast the following morning, and then we were off to Penis Park. I want to make it clear that i'm really not being crude when I call it that. I'll try to be as mature as I can be about a park filled with statues of Penises, but if you get offended by the notion of a Penis, or are afraid of them, you should probably stop reading for today.
The story behind Haesindang Park is, in short, that a woman who was due to get married, drowned while collecting Sea Weed. Afterwards, the fishing village thought that because of it, they became cursed. They thought her soul was bitter. So as a 'sacrifice', they carved wooden Phallics and placed them all around the village. Ever since then, the curse was lifted, and so many more were carved, and dozens of those statues were erected around town. (okay okay, bad pun, bad pun). If you want to read the full story, click on the picture below

I won't lie. It wasn't the most mature day i've ever experienced, but it was really fun. Every single Korean just had a giggly-face with whatever they touched (and oh, my, they liked to touch). This old man even took all of our hands and placed it on a statue, and told us to rub it for good luck. By my calculation, the girls got quite a bit of good-luck more than the two guys there. Seriously though, many of them were really cool, and incredibly artistic. There's one shaped after every animal used with the Chinese years (Year of the Rat, Goat, Snake, etc). Some are happy, some are angry. Some have a remarkable amount of detail on them. Evidently, there used to be a 'Penis Festival' that was celebrated there once a year, but it was recently shut down due to protests from Christian groups.

I bought a little ceramic Penis with a smile on it as a souvenir - although i'll probably pass it along to someone back at home when I ship some gifts over for Christmas. Dibs? Anyone?

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Let October Roll

One more day until the weekend starts over here, quite literally. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this Friday is a holiday. Don't ask me why, I haven't the slightest idea.. But nevertheless, myself and a half-dozen teachers are going to use the opportunity to go take a trip to the eastern coast of Korea. I'm not exactly sure which town we're going to yet, but we'll be leaving early in the morning on Friday.

Tomorrow, Thursday, myself and Sarah (the same teacher who'd been invited to Busan last weekend) were asked if we could go and take some promotional pictures in the morning. I'm not exactly sure where, but they promised us a lunch at Outback's Steakhouse afterwards - good enough of a payout for me! Outback's is one of several restaurant-franchises that are fairly common in Korea. You can also easily find TGI Fridays (popular in the States, at least), some McDonalds, and KFCs. But the most popular, by far, is Baskin Robbins - which may very well be the most common franchise in the country (judging on what i've seen - and i've seen over a dozen thus far). I'm not quite sure why they're asking the same two people repeatedly to do promotional work, unless they're trying to establish us as some sort of GEC Mascots. Ahh, and I thought the days of being a mascot were behind me:

(It's not actually me in this picture, but hey, it's the same costume - credits to my friend Stephane for this picture, and for actually spending more time in there than me)

Anywho, this week has been pretty dull otherwise. My adult-classes are on a week-long break, but I was happy to hear that my morning-adults actually called the administration at the end of last week, and asked if I could leave early for lunch on Tuesday so that they could take me out again. For those who like to keep track, it's the third time in a month. They still won't let me pay for anything, so I think the logical thing to do would be to buy them all gifts at some point - or import something from Canada for 'em. They're a pretty great group.

They took me to a very high-class Korean restaurant, named Kyung Bok Kung. How high-class? When you enter, you have no fewer than four people bowing at you - followed by two more when you're down the hall. That's gotta be right up there with the Best-Buy staff applauding anyone who comes in when the store opens. Anyway, the food was excellent. We had some kind of beef/noodles Bulgogi stew, along with a dozen side dishes. Most Korean restaurants are very big on side-dishes.. you're not expected to finish everything. One thing that bothers me, though, is that it takes a looong time for me to remember what any food is called - I have to eat it several times before that happens- so i'm going to make a stronger push to force myself to learn Korean. After seeing the kinds of efforts that those adults put in, what kind of excuse can I really come up with?

Between learning Korean, learning the Guitar, and going to the Gym regularly, I finally feel adequately busy. I never thought that being busy would be one of those things i'd come to like, or even appreciate... but after being so inactive for over three months after graduation, I just felt so damned unproductive and lazy. It feels good to get into a healthy routine. The only thing I regret at this point, about leaving North America, is how badly the financial markets took it. I guess it took a month for the news to really leak, but what followed was the economy taking a historic dive.

Sorry about that. I'll be back.
I promise.