Blind Faith in Foreigners

I usually only post about exciting things I have experienced, but I had an interesting week and wanted to share some thoughts.

My director recently hired a new teacher at our school. She is Korean and fresh out of university. She started on Monday. My director was aware that she had no teaching experience, but decided to take on the task of becoming her mentor and spending time teaching her the ropes. This week she sat in on all of our classes to observe the ways of the school and how each teacher runs her class. It's weird being watched like that, but I got over it quickly. As the week progressed, she was given a few classes a day to prepare a lesson for and run the class herself with the director watching and helping out where necessary. We have a new schedule and the director took herself off the schedule completely. I was a little surprised, but I knew that she has wanted to cut back so she can focus on the running of the school more.

But, this is not fully the case. She is going to spend a month with our new teacher to watch her teach and help her out. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great and I am happy that she is putting the care into her new investment. But it makes me think. I arrived and was given a brief rundown of the runnings of the school and then just thrown to the wolves. No training. No observing. No being observed. I learned a lot being immersed like this, but it's really interesting to see the difference in proceedings when hiring a foreign teacher opposed to a Korean teacher.

I had a measly 20 hours of experience when I arrived, and a simple 100-hour training course. But that, with the fact that I speak English fluently seemed to be enough.

This isn't a rant or anything, just an observation. I wonder if it's the same at other private academies. My dad said that my director just knew I was going to be awesome at my job so I should take it as a compliment. Maybe he's right. Maybe he's my personal cheerleader. But more likely, there is just this intrinsic blind faith put in foreigners who come to this country to teach. It's kind of shocking and a little scary.

Rock, Paper, Scissors...Sword?!

This is just a cute little story about what happened today.

I was sitting at the bus stop waiting for my bus to go downtown, when three boys all under the age of 10 came up and said hello. It was cute. Then they challenged me to a game of rock, paper, scissors which was all very fun, but then they started introducing the one finger move which apparently means sword and beats everything. We played this for about 3 minutes until my bus came and we said our goodbyes.

This was just a brief moment of fun but it really brightened my day. Something that probably would never happen back home. I'm starting to really cherish moments like these.

Daewangam Park

If you read my blog, you know that I've got about 4 months left before I am heading back to Canada. With the end drawing near, I have created a "Korea Bucket List" and some of the items are places here in Ulsan. There really is so much to see even in your own city, that it's hard to see everything. There is this park, called Daewangam that I have heard is really nice. I can now confirm, it is really nice!

It's way out in Dong-gu, the eastern part of Ulsan, and it takes me almost 2 hours to get there via bus from Namchang. I got off the bus at Ilsan Beach, and met my friend. As you walk along the beach, you can see all kinds of restaurants, coffee shops, and arcades. Now that it is in the middle of summer, there are quite a few families hanging out at the beach, swimming or lounging. As you walk to the end of the beach, there is a big set of stairs heading up into a forested area that is known as Daewangam Park. There are a number of trails you can walk around and see. My friend and I chose the A course on our way to the lighthouse, and the famous bridge, and the B course back since we were getting hungry and wanted the easiest route back to the beach.

The rocks along the water and the trail, are really unique and have a reddish tinge to them. It was a super beautiful area and a nice walk. It was really humid when we went, but being surrounded by trees helps to keep cool.

Once you reach the bridge that connects some large rocks together, it gets a little more crowded with people, but the wind there is fantastic. You feel rewarded for enduring the humid trail by a nice constant cool wind. Hearing the waves on the rocks is also nice and soothing.

The most exciting thing I saw there was a couple of cats hanging out on the rocks and playing around. It was a cute sight and they seemed so out of place.

Overall this is a great site to see in Ulsan, and I would highly recommend it.

Korea: Baseball Done Right

Sajik Stadium

I finally made it to my first Korean baseball game. I must say, it was a riot. I have never seen anything like it. One of my co-workers helped me get tickets online and we paid around $12 for field level seats. I couldn't believe it.  After being at the game, I would recommend sitting higher up, as your vision is a little obstructed, but it was still a really good time. We sat behind first base, and that seemed to be quite the section to be sitting.

One of the three mascots (seagulls)

The game started kind of slow, not too much action and Busan was down 5-0 against Incheon. However, once Busan started their comeback, the fans started to go wild. When they scored a run, you'd have thought they just won the championship. It was really great to see fans get that excited about their team. Each player has their own theme song and every time they go up to bat, or make a move to benefit the team, the crowd goes crazy and chants their song. Busan's team has a foreign player, who appeared to be Spanish and they seemed to really love him haha.

The game turned out to be really exciting as the two teams ended up with a tie of 7-7 in the 9th inning. Busan ended up winning the game 8-7 in the bottom of the 9th due to an overthrow by the pitcher, also known as a wild pitch. The fans literally went wild and were so excited. It was a truly great experience to have in Korea, and I think MLB fans back home have a thing or two to learn about cheering their teams on!

the "Eye Fight"

An egg carton headband,
because why not?

One of our hilarious seat mates 

The most interesting thing that I found was that you can bring absolutely anything you want into the stadium, food or drink wise. People bring boxes of stuff. The most popular items seem to be fried chicken, pizza, dried squid, beer, and soju. I think the increase of alcohol consumption as the game went on had something to do with the increase of cheers as the game went on. There were a group of guys sitting next to my friend and I, and they were really entertaining.  They knew all the songs and cheers to sing and sang and danced for most of the game. When Busan tied the game, we received hugs of excitement. There are even cheerleaders at the games, and people make pompoms out of newspapers. They also have something called an "Eye Fight" where a fan from each team have an eye contest and the first person to blink, loses and the winner gets a prize. It seemed really strange to us foreigners but was quite hilarious.

At the beginning of the last inning, the ushers hand out orange plastic bags meant to collect your trash, but before they do that, the fans blow up the bags and tie them to the tops of their heads. When you look around all you see is a sea of orange. Like I said, this was a truly entertaining experience and I am glad I made it to a game!

The Scenic Subway Line

The first weekend in June turned out to be a long one, which is always nice. It was the Korean Memorial Day. My roommate asked me if I wanted to go on a trip to the Gyeongchun Subway Line. I wasn't really sure what it was, to be honest, but I researched it and found out that it covered the city of Chuncheon in Gangwondo Province and was supposed to be really nice.

We started our journey by taking the KTX from Ulsan to Seoul Station, and from there got onto the subway and transferred a few times until we were on the Gyeongchun Line. It wasn't a short trip. It took two and a half hours on the KTX and another two hours on the subway. Finally we made it and got off at Gapyeong station. From here, we were going to head to Nami Island. The only problem with this area is that the transportation around, apart from the subway, is not ideal. There are hardly any taxis around and the city tour bus is small and only comes around once an hour. There were a lot of people waiting around for the bus, so we naturally didn't get onto the first bus that came, while waiting for the next one, we noticed the cycle rickshaws and decided our time was more important and took one of those to the Nami ferry port. I had never been in a rickshaw before so it was fun.

Before heading to Nami Island, the area is famous for a meal called "dalk-galbi" which is chicken and vegetables like carrots, green onions, and cabbage cooked in this sweet yet spicy sauce. I had never had it before, but it was really tasty. Instead of taking the ferry to and from Nami island, we opted to pay a little more (38,000 won) and took the zip-line route to the island. This was so much fun, but a little on the short side. Nonetheless, exciting. Nami island is well known as shooting locations for some Korean dramas and is a nice change from the busy cities. Its really cute for couples. I have heard that the island is really beautiful in the winter with a little snow, and in the fall when the leaves start to change. It was really enjoyable to wander on the island and be with nature.

After returning from Nami, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I really like the westernized Chinese food we have back home, but I must say that I really enjoy the way Korea does Chinese food too. Its different but quite delicious. After dinner we made our way back to the subway station to head to our pension for the night. The pensions in Chuncheon were really nice. I mean they're pretty basic, floor sleeping, with sink and an element for cooking, but the owners pick you up from the closest subway station and will drop you off in the morning as well. It makes life really easy, especially if you are arriving in the dark.

Day two started with a beautiful garden called "Jade Garden" You could tell it was really well kept and they had all kinds of flowers and greenery around. It was rather large, and before we knew it, we had spent hours exploring. Our second stop for the day was at "Pettit France". This was a really cool place that had a Parisian feel and was centred around the book, The Little Prince. The whole village was like a big museum with colourful buildings and sculptures and French accents all around. Our pension for the second night was similar to the first, but it had a swimming pool. After two days of travelling and exploring, it was really nice to go for a leisurely swim. We also opted to buy some meat and side dishes, and had our own Korean BBQ outside. As I write this I am constantly reminded of my limited time left here and how much I am going to miss Korean cuisine. I'll have to cook it back home for my friends and family.

Our last day was a shorter one, since we had to be back at Seoul Station for our train back to Ulsan. We had pre-booked the "Rail Bike" and it was my favourite thing we did that weekend. We started at one subway stop and as a large group, rode these carts along the train tracks that were powered by our pedaling. The ride took just short of two hours but you really got to enjoy the scenery and bike through tunnels. There was even a "Party Tunnel" where they flashed disco lights and played PSY music (Gangnam Style and Gentleman). It was a lot of fun.

After the Rail Bike, we went to a small but very nice temple on top of a hill.  We also had lunch there basically on a rock in the middle of a stream. After this, we quickly made our way to the subway station to head back to Seoul. However, we realized that by the time we reached the station, by subway, it would be a couple minutes before 5 (our train would leave at 5) and the probability of us getting to the train on time would be doubtful. However, my roommate thought we could do it, so once we got to the station, we ran like crazy people all through the station and indeed missed the train. We lucked out though and the man at the ticket booth was able to get us on the next train and we only lost a little portion of our money. We ended up being booked on the movie car and got to see the movie Transcendence while riding home. It sure made time go by quickly.

It was an interesting and fun weekend. Yet again, another trip I probably wouldn't have made without my roommate, so I feel really blessed.