Second Weekend.

My second weekend in Ulsan was pretty uneventful. I don't think I have fully adjusted yet. I have been staying up super late (5am, 6am) so I have been sleeping in a bit. Saturday Kelly had to work at Prolangs to help some of the elementary students prepare for their exams. I slept in pretty late, made myself breakfast and had a pretty lazy day. Did some laundry though so the day wasn't a total waste. Sunday we had intentions to go hiking a little further away from home, but with my staying up and not able to fall asleep, I slept in until almost 4 in the afternoon. Needless to say, we didn't go hiking and did not do too much Sunday either. I felt pretty bad, but Kelly said that we can go next weekend. I do have an entire year here and should not worry too much about wasting one weekend :).

My job is going pretty well. I am starting to get a hang of  it and have a lot of names down pat too. My schedule this week has been a little skewed with the exam prep and one class has only one student! Naturally I am getting to know her very well haha. I have also been trying to work on my Korean too. Its slow but I can say that I know more today than I did yesterday so that is good, right?

After being here for just over two weeks, I was beginning to think I was the only foreigner because I hadn't seen anyone else around in my area. I decided to post a comment in a group I have joined on facebook called "Ulsan Online". I literally just wrote "Anyone in Namchang?" Immediately I had a couple people answering me and removing my doubt that there were any foreigners here. They all seem very nice and we are going out for dinner on Thursday. I am a little nervous as I always am when meeting new people, but I will have to get over that haha. I am sure they are all really nice people. Many of them are from the States.

Today I decided to dress up for work as it was nice and sunny outside. This was a mistake hahaha. Today was the coldest day yet since I arrived. I wore a black dress with a cardigan over top with stockings of course. By my last class I was so cold my nail beds started to turn blue hahaha. Figures I would do something like that. I remember many a time wearing sandals/flip flops to school on days where it rained. I should really get into the habit of checking the weather in the morning.

Tonight Kelly made us a delicious meal of water dumplings (steamed) and broad noodles in this quite tasty dark beef sauce. And of course we has kimchi and white radish (kkakdugi) on the side. Maybe tonight I will go to sleep early and that way I can get up early and head to the post office to mail off some letters I have written :)

Missing home! But, loving Korea!

Em's First Weekend

Friday:
Friday night we went out for my welcome dinner. All the teachers from Prolangs and Jenny's kids came  and we went to a pork place where we grilled our own pork and garlic and had many side dishes including kimchi, seaweed (fresh), spicy bean sprouts, tofu, onions, and an array of sauces. This dish is called samgyupsal. It all was quite tasty. During the dinner it was a little strange because Mr.Crow was talking for about twenty minutes straight in Korean and no one was saying anything and everyone had a very serious look on their face. I had no idea what was going on and then Kelly, my roommate started to cry. It was a little awkward and strange but then Jenny explained things in English to me. The school has had a couple students quit because Kelly is too strict. This made her upset, and the way Crow was talking probably didn't help. He was also saying that Eric, the other teacher was too lax but now started to get more strict like Kelly. And then there's me who comes from Canada and discipline is completely different. If a student doesn't do their homework I haven't done anything because A) I am not sure what I should do and B) I have always been surrounded with the mentality that if a student doesn't do their homework it is only going to hurt them. I guess I will have to change my view/ways a little while I am here. He also said that our teamwork isn't the greatest and I agree. The only problem with that is that I wasn't given any real training or chance to get to know how it all worked. I am told things that I am supposed to do as we go along and I make a mistake. I am sure in time I will begin to get the hang of things and understand that I have to tell the homeroom teacher when a student misbehaves or anything else of importance happens. Anyways, after the bad was said, the good came along and apparently I am doing really well and the students really enjoy my classes. This is good news :). After dinner, we went to a Karaoke Room! This was lots of fun and made the evening feel a little lighter. They had English songs too which was nice. I sang Somebody to Love (of course), Everybody Dance Now, and we all sang Gangnam Style together hahaha. Well I sang the Hey, and Sexy Lady part hahaha. Crow got pretty drunk but he was quite funny. He said that he wants to have a good relationship with me over the next year. Its a little strange in Korea how people say what's on their minds and there is no filter. People are also brutally honest. This is good, I am just not used to it.  By the time Kelly and I got home and went to sleep it was around 2:30am and I was wiped.

Saturday:
I finally slept in!! I didn't wake up until 11am today. Maybe I am finally conditioned to the time change.   Kelly and I went for a walk up the mountain behind our apartment. It was so beautiful and unfortunately I forgot my camera at home today, but next time I will be sure to take tons of pictures. The scenery is wonderful as there are lots of trees that are still changing colour and there are two lakes and some streams along the way. The air smells so fresh and it is quite relaxing. There are workout stations along the path, which I had been told about but seeing them in person was cool too. The mountain gets quite steep and I actually had to stop because I was short of breath and getting a little dizzy. This was probably because well I don't climb mountains at home, and being high up affected me. Kelly was really worried because my face was quite red but we started to descend and then she took me on a tour of Namchang which is the area of Ulsan we live in. She showed me where the post office is and a bunch of other places including where she gets her hair cut, popular food places, and other supermarkets that are a little bigger than our local Top*Mart. Walking around in higher traffic areas was a little different than my quick walk from home to work. I got quite a few stares as well because of my skin colour. I actually never really gave much thought to how white I am until I came to Korea. The kids mention it daily, along with how large my hands are. After my tour of the city we came home and cleaned the apartment. Afterwards we ordered hamburgers and fries that came via delivery. This was quite different from home but still pretty cool. We paid about $6 for a burger, fries, and a coke. I know this meal was quite Westernized but Kelly likes hamburgers too. The fries came with a seasoning that you can put on them which is a creamy onion seasoning that makes the fries taste like sour cream and onion chips. The burger was quite good and came with breaded deep fried cheese. Jenny told me that I was going to lose some weight while I am here but so far I don't know how that will happen with things being deep fried, there being a to die for bakery right outside my place, and the kids bringing me chocolates and goodies every day haha. The rest of the evening we spent watching Korean Dramas, the EMA's (European Music Awards), and just hung out.

Sunday:
Slept in again! Success! :) After a couple hours of lazing around and eating some breakfast, we showered and headed for the bus stop on our way to Samsan which is downtown Ulsan. It takes about 40 minutes on the bus to get there. Before getting on the bus, Kelly took me to a store to buy my bus card. Its really cool actually. Its really hard to explain what it is so I've added a picture of it. So I just go into this shop and add money whenever I want and when I get on the bus i just flash the card and money gets taken off. It is quite high tech compared to Kitchener's bus system. Oh and to take the bus its only 1,500 won which is $1.37. That's less than half the cost of being at home. The bus has comfier seats too. The bus
ride to Samsan was quite nice and their was quite a bit of scenery to look at. Once we arrived it was clear that downtown is quite different than Namchang. There are very tall buildings and at night so many flashing neon lights. It was a good day. We started with a general tour from Kelly, and then we popped into the Lotte Department Store. We went into a cheap clothing store which I would pair it with H&M. I bought a couple sleep dresses. Yes, ladies and gentleman I have found clothing my size here. They are a little on the tighter side, but they are quite comfy. One is thermal wear too so its fleece lined. Then Kelly showed me where the Lotte movie theatre was. Right now they are playing Skyfall and Breaking Dawn and some Korean movies. It costs about 8,000 won to see a movie which is still pretty much half the cost of seeing a movie back home. After this we went into this really cool bookstore that reminded me of Chapters, except all the books were in Korean of course. They had a huge stationery section though and I picked out some paper/envelope packages to write home :). I also got a cool box set so that I can move my cosmetics out of its carry case and make my room feel a little more at home. After this we walked around a little more and then went to this Outlet place that has 12 floors. Craaaazy. They had a lot of nice things and the one floor was kitchen and bed supplies which had this great christmas section and display. I bought a spice rack and come glass containers so that I could transfer the spices and teas and hot chocolate mix I bought at Bulk Barn from their quite unattractive plastic bags. After the Outlet Mall, we walked around the area a bit more and I took some pictures. We decided that we were going to have dinner there and found this Indian restaurant that Kelly really liked. It was called Namaskar. We shared a salad, a plate of rice, lamb curry, and some naan bread. One of my favourite things about Korea so far is the whole sharing of food. its great because you can try everything and have as little or as much of you want of something. The lamb curry was my favourite, which was a shock considering I am not normally a lamb person. After dinner we came home and now I am just chilling out getting everything set for the week. Overall it was a really great first weekend. I'll end this post with a couple more photos that  I took while in Samsan :)

First Week in Ulsan

Hello family and friends, and strangers who may come across this,

I haven't been here quite a week yet, but I wanted to update before I forgot some things :)

My week has been pretty boring for the most part. Well not boring to me but maybe to some of you. It has pretty much been work and sleep all week, but that is normal. I think I am finally beginning to become adjusted to the time change. I was waking up incredibly early at the beginning of the week and not being able to fall back asleep which wasn't fun. Hopefully that is a thing of the past for me now.

Working at Prolangs is a lot of fun. The kids are really great and incredibly cute. My favourite English word they say is "delicious" just the way they say is makes my heart melt. I am beginning to talk at a slower pace than usual, and I have noticed that I say words differently to emphasize the enunciation. I enjoy all of my co-workers and they are quite pleasant and nice. Eric is particularly nice to me and speaks great English. He has hooked me up with a foreign teachers group in the area, and hopefully I can meet up with them at their next meeting. He said to me that the director doesn't want her foreign teachers to meet lots of other expats, which I found odd, but it may be because of the reputation of heavy drinking. I really don't see me having time for that during the week with working until about 9 and by the time I get home, unwind and have some dinner its time for bed. Probably a good thing :)

My roommate Kelly and I had a good conversation today about each other's lives. It was nice. We haven't really had time to do so yet. She told me how old she is and I was stunned! She looks about 15 years younger than she actually is. Her family is from Seoul but she likes it here in Namchang (Ulsan) because its quieter. This weekend we are going to go for a hike in the mountains behind our apartment and maybe head to Downtown Ulsan. It takes about an hour to get to downtown by bus. All the kids say we live in the "country". All in all it looks like it will be a fun weekend and it has been a really good first week. Tomorrow night we are all going out for a welcome dinner which should be fun! next week I plan to start seriously working on learning Korean. It will make life a lot easier!

First Day of Teaching

Hello All,

As I am writing this I am incredibly tired as my sleeping habits have not fully conformed yet.
Today was my first day of teaching and it went very well!

It was a little crazy as there was no real training or orientation. I was released to go and do my thang. I was given an idea to what my predecessor, Lisa had done with the kids in the last week but there was not much detail. There are 4 teachers at the school in total. Me, my roommate Kelly, the director Jenny, and another Korean teacher named Eric. Everyone is so nice and welcoming. It is a little difficult as they all communicate to each other in Korean because it is easier, but hopefully my Korean starts to improve from all of the exposure. The kids are absolutely great. Their ages range from about 8-15. Some of the classes are called Free Talk where we basically just talk about whatever topic is on our minds or we want to discuss. There is also a debate class where we debate on a specific topic. Other classes are focused on listening and writing and speaking. Speaking is definitely the key and most important part.

There are 7 classes that we teach per day and we all teach the same classes but on different days so all students get to learn from all of the teachers. I gave out pencils today and the students LOVED it hahaha it was funny how no one would volunteer answers to me but as soon as I had the pencils out everyone was game.

I did a lot of answering questions and playing various games with the classes today to give them a break and to help myself not be overwhelmed. I find the curriculum and teachings to be pretty relaxed and I am able to be pretty independent. This will be good in the future but a little intimidating right now.

My roommate bought me a welcome tea mug which was really sweet :)

The kids wanted to play this crazy game in one class called "Zombie" where one child is blindfolded and the lights are turned out. The "zombie" is spun and has to try to touch the other kids, meanwhile these kids are standing on desks and yelling at the zombie. It was all really crazy and finally I had to put an end to it lol.  Played some more sensible games like hangman and pictionary that were a little more resemblant to somewhat learning English hahaha

Until next time...toodles!

Arrival!

Emma’s Note: I started writing this post on Friday November 9^th, but it was posted days later when I had internet connection :)

Stage One: Arriving at my Gate (Friday Nov 9, 6am Toronto)

As I am writing this I have been up for about 23 hours. My body is starting to hate me a little bit, but it’ll get over it. They run things at Pearson Airport a little differently than I remember… We found out where I was to go and get my bags weighed and tagged and from there I was directed to another lineup for customs where I had to say goodbye to my parents and brother quite quickly (too quickly actually). Saying goodbye was a little easier than I was expecting but that might be because of how fast everything all happened.

Saying goodbye to my family also meant that I now had to somehow manage two suitcases plus my carry-on luggage and my knapsack. This wasn’t too bad once I figured it out but the line for customs was huge as always and I was wearing full winter getup. I was so hot but taking things off meant messing up my system haha. I felt like everyone was looking at me strangely because I had the most luggage. The officer I had at customs was very serious but nice enough. I tried to get him to smile but that didn’t happen.

After customs I was directed finally to ditch my checked baggage. This was quite relieving. Then going through security was strange all over again. Everything had to be removed. Well not EVERYTHING but more than I was expecting. Shoes, jacket, belt, computer out of my knapsack and even out of its sleeve. And that brings me here to my gate. I feel as though I am about to crash but that might be a good thing for this flight. Until the next stage…

Stage Two: San Fanscisco! (Friday, Nov 9, 10am (actually 1pm to me))

The first flight from Toronto to San Fran went well. I was so tired that I don’t remember taking off and must have already been asleep haha. Two hours later I woke up and was in and out for most of the rest of the flight. Arriving at San Fran was cool. Seeing the land from the air was pretty neat. The airport at SF was also really nice and well designed.

The plane to Seoul was hella packed! I was hoping to get a little more leg room, but that was not the case, I think I had less leg room for this flight than I did for my other flight. Which made things a little uncomfortable. However, one of the seats next to me was vacant which made it a little better. Again during this flight I was in and out of sleep for a few hours at a time.

 The entertainment on the plane was an interesting mix. There were a few television shows such as The Office, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, and a few movies. The first was Ice Age, the second was an interesting movie with Ted from How I Met Your Mother in it, and they also played The Amazing Spiderman. I would have liked to watch some of these but I don’t know that I made it through one movie without passing out haha. I was very grateful to have the neck pillow my parents purchased for me.

The flight seemed to last forever but finally we arrived at Seoul (Incheon).

Stage Three: Arrival in Korea (Saturday Nov 10, 4:30pm (2:30 am to me))

My first thought of Korea as I am walking off the plane into the airport is that if I didn’t know it and didn’t see hangul everywhere, I wouldn’t know I was in Korea. Actually at this point I still hadn’t processed that I had just travelled across the world. Going through customs was pretty basic and getting my luggage was pretty simple. The first different experience I had was that before I could walk off and take my luggage with me, an officer with a golden Labrador came up to me and the dog sniffed all my luggage before I was free to go.

Once I had all my belongings on me and was travelling through the airport to find the train to Seoul Station I realized that I packed too much! Lugging everything around was kind of a nightmare and I actually woke up with a bruise on my left arm from it and my arms are a little sore too haha. The next time I make a trip like this I will not be packing half as much as I did this time. Live and learn I guess! Finding my way to the train and purchasing a ticket was easy enough. The train ride lasted about an hour and while on the train I received a number of glances at my luggage and at me which I am thinking I will have to get used to. I also had two men stare and try to talk to me in Korean which was interesting haha because I am pretty sure both were a little tipsy.

Arriving at Seoul Station was easy enough, but trying to get up to the main level to meet my director, Jenny was challenging. The elevators don’t go up all the way, but to the highest basement level where you have to pass through another gate and find some escalators or another elevator. Well trying to get through the gate was not happening when I flashed my ticket, so I put it in this feeder that I thought would make it work and it turns out no dice. Then I spotted these machines where I think I was supposed to put my ticket in and get an exchange ticket. Without my original ticket anymore I couldn’t do this which got me a little worried because I was now stuck in the basement levels. After a little bit of fretting and calming myself down I waited and made eye contact with a man about my age and asked if he knew English. He knew a little and I was trying to explain what happened when another man came who knew more English and got the gate opened for me thank goodness! I knew that I had to get to exit 1 to meet Jenny, but getting there I still had no idea. I asked a woman at an information desk and she was able to tell me which floor to go to. Finally I found where I should be and parked myself. At this point it was about 6:30pm in Seoul. Jenny was a little late which was making me nervous because I had no idea what she looked like, but finally she found me and with her she had her very adorable 6 year old daughter. We found a seat and waited for the KTX (train) that would take us to Ulsan.

Jenny is very nice and her English is very good. One of the first things she said to me was that with eating Korean food I will be able to loose some extra weight. This was pretty much the nicest way for her to say that I need to lose weight. To us it seems weird but I have heard some other interesting and horrific stories about comments on weight so this was quite pleasant. As soon as we sat for a few minutes her daughter started to warm up to me and sat on my lap. It was pretty cute.

The KTX was like riding any other train and took about 2 hours to get to Ulsan. Jenny’s daughter picked out a snack and drink for me and we had this sweet flavoured milk and dried fish which was interesting but very good. Once we arrived in Ulsan, we were met by Jenny’s husband who we call Mr. Crow and her son who is about 11. Both of Jenny’s kids names I am having a very hard time pronouncing and remembering but hopefully I can get a hold of them soon. Before we were able to come to my apartment Jenny said that Mr. Crow’s aunt had passed away and he had been there with family all day but Jenny and her daughter who were in Seoul all day wanted to pay their respects so we went there first. I was a little worried about going there and if it would seem disrespectful to his family but it was fine. I mostly sat on the floor at a table with some family along with Jenny. Everyone was very nice but seemed timid to approach me. Jenny said that this is quite common. Jenny played interpreter with me and a few other women so we were able to have a nice conversation. After this Jenny wanted to take me with her family out to eat because she thought I would sleep better with a full tummy. At this point it was well after midnight and I was very surprised how restaurants were open so late and Jenny told me that they are open 24hours. The food at the restaurant was very good. I think it’s a variation of Korean Barbeque. I also had pork stew with rice which was quite tasty. Baked kimchi was also quite good. After this we went to my apartment.

The apartment is rather larger than I was expecting. The kitchen is very big and has everything I might need in it. The living room is quite large as well with couches and a television. The bathroom is about the size of the one I shared at home with my brother and there is a bathtub! This I was not expecting but it was a nice surprise. My room is actually quite roomy with tons of storage space. Once Jenny and her family showed me how to work a few things they left me to sleep and just before I unpacked and put things away. By the time I went to bed it was almost 3am here which would make it 1 in the afternoon at home. I was wiped. I woke up at 9 this morning, but might go back to sleep.

All in all I made it! And think that I am going to really enjoy it here. I will try to keep everyone updated on my adventures as best I can.

I have posted some pictures of the apartment here: https://plus.google.com/photos/108080094162280120728/albums/5809556091207795281

One Week to Go!

One more week until I fly out! I am starting to get quite excited and just thought I would share with everyone where exactly I will be located in the country.

Where you see the Red 'A' marker is where I will be  for the next year. This weekend is full of family and friend get togethers that I am very excited for. It will be great to see everyone before I head off! Also, tomorrow is my last day of work at Central! I am very pleased that the day has finally come! It is definitely time to move on.