Day 17 (again!): Hallyeohaesang National Park - This one's mostly pictures :)

Weekend!!

After a long first week, it was wonderful to do some relaxing and some exploring this weekend! On Saturday, we went for an epic run up and over a mountain. We climbed about 1000 feet up, went back down the other side, and then back up and back down. It was really hard!! But so beautiful. As a reward, we had some shrimp burgers from McDonald's.

Today, we decided to figure out the bus system and explore the southern part of the island a little bit. The whole southern coast of Geoje is a National Park. It reminded me a lot of Acadia, with lots of great rocky cliffs and piney mountains. At our first bus transfer, there was a store with huge aquariums outside full of all different fish, eels, clams, crabs, and even sea urchins. The bus drive was beautiful, but I got a bit carsick on all the twisty mountain roads (Sarah). Pictures really tell this story better than words do.

We live in the green circle; we took the bus down to the peninsula in the orange circle - it took just over an hour.

This "Windy Hill" with a windmill was absolutely crawling with tourists, though it wasn't even close to the coolest place on the peninsula.

Steven in danger of Falling! down the path.

This place was called Sinseondae, and it was on the other side of the peninsula from Windy Hill (about a 3 minute walk). It had these cool purple rocks and way fewer people! (The 3 pictures before and one after this are also from Sinseondae.)

A corn dog - double deep fried and coated in french fries. You can see the layers.

This one and the next 3 are from Ujebong, a 100m mountain on a sub-peninsula of the one we were on all day. It was really steep on both sides--two of these pictures are looking one way, and the other two are looking the other.

The island on the right is Haegumgang. It has really cool rock cliffs and there are sightseeing ferry boats that go right around it. Since this place is only an hour from our apartment, we might come some other time and do the ferry.

Geoje is beautiful, but it is odd as well. There is an abandoned amusement park (where two children died falling out of a duck-themed ride), a POW camp turned theme park, an area of the peninsula *right* next to the crowded touristy area that was completely desolate, with a cracked and abandoned parking lot and amphitheater, goats grazing nearby, and then this sign outside a Buddhist temple: 

Day 17: Week One Reflections

Well, it's been a while since we wrote a post, and there's a good reason for that: our first week of work. It was busy and tiring learning the ins and outs of our new jobs and getting used to our new home and our new workplace and coworkers. Once we get used to everything, I think we'll really like it here. Geoje is absolutely gorgeous (see Facebook for some pictures from our first weekend here), and we already like our boss a lot and we're starting to feel more comfortable at work. We have to be at work from 1-9 Monday to Friday, so we've been running in the mornings and then relaxing at our apartment for a couple hours before work. Work goes really fast, and Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are especially crazy. We both have classes from 2:20 until just after 7 on those days, while Tuesdays and Thursdays we each only have 2 classes and are done teaching by 4:30. Those are our grading/planning days.

Sometimes the lessons portray gender roles that are a bit too traditional for my taste :( 

Planning isn't too hard, the curriculum lays out exactly what we need to cover for each class. Classroom management, on the other hand, is very difficult. The kids are young (7-9) and don't necessarily understand the rules that we lay down in English for them, that or they can pretend they don't understand. They also respect the foreign teachers significantly less than they do the Korean teachers, which makes it very difficult to control them. It was also a full moon on Friday, and Steven was convinced that was the reason that the kids were extra crazy that day. I'm not so sure.....

Thanksgiving was also this week, which brought a couple small bouts of homesickness. A beautiful run, talking to family, and some delicious Korean pizza got us through that though!

Day 8: Moving to Geoje!

Today was a very eventful day. This morning was our last training session, and we had to take a short written test (really short--10 questions that took about 3 minutes. Turns out our hour or so of studying last night was too much...) and do some mock teaching of all three of the levels we've been trained on this week. Our test day ended up being our easiest day of training yet! Everyone in our April training group passed, and then it was off to our respective branches!

Chungdahm had arranged a van to take us to the bus terminal, and from there we took a bus to Geoje. Our van driver was supposed to help us buy our tickets. We were supposed to pay for them and them get reimbursed by our branch. Unfortunately, the bus driver only seemed to have understood part of his instructions (he didn't speak any English so we couldn't talk to him). He told us to wait in the van while he went in to get the tickets. He came back out with them and then he showed us which bus was ours. Then he asked for payment. Since we were under the impression that we were going to be paying for our tickets directly, and therefore would be able to use a card, we didn't have enough cash on us to pay him back. The thing was, we were only about 5,000 won short (about $4.50) for a 34,000 won ticket. We showed him that we had no more cash but he didn't seem to understand. He called someone on the phone and when he hung up he gave us some of our money back. We tried to refuse, but he insisted and we ended up with some money back, but not the amount we gave him. It was very strange, and we don't really know where the money he took went or how he would get the remaining balance. Oh well. We had our tickets and we didn't loose that much money. Fortunately, the rest of the trip went much more smoothly.

It's not everyday that you get to drive across essentially an entire country in just over four hours! That's what we did though! Korea is very mountainous, and it was a beautiful drive! We drove through a few minor cities, but mostly through mountains and countryside. So different than Seoul.

We got to the bus terminal on Geoje Island around 6:30. Our manager came and picked us up. She was incredible. She brought us to the office and showed us around. Next, she brought us to our apartment! Now we've heard horror stories about Korean apartments. They're the size of a closet and covered in mold. We absolutely hit the jackpot, though! Our apartment is brand new with two rooms, both bigger than our previous room in George and Kristin's house. We don't have any furniture yet, but the company is providing us with a bed on Monday.

After showing us our apartment, our manager showed us how to walk to the nearest grocery store. She also pointed out the popular restaurants, bakeries, cafes, etc. On our way home, we got takeout from a kimbap place. Kimbap is like the Korean equivalent of sushi. Sooo good.

Now we have the weekend to relax a bit and explore our neighborhood! Monday we get to actually start teaching kids!! During our training we learned that Chundahm April has 5 levels. We were trained in the middle three levels and told that we wouldn't be teaching the first or last levels as new teachers. Guess what my (Sarah) first class Monday is? First level. HAH. Oh well. The lessons are well structured and pretty much completely laid out for us, so hopefully it won't be a problem. First level is the youngest kids and I'll just be teaching them phonics. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Until next time! Annyeong!

Day 5: Real Life?

Yesterday began our official Chungdahm training, and just like that, our roles switched from "tourist" to "employee," or, for now, "student." We have class from 9:30 to 1:30, which really doesn't sound that bad, but yesterday was so crazy busy, and just plain crazy crazy. First, we were told that we had a medical exam at 2:15 and, therefore, could not eat anything 6-8 hours before. No big deal, right? We'd eat a big breakfast and a late lunch. Turns out, the hotel restaurant had a list of our names and wouldn't let us in for breakfast. The Chungdahm leader told us that we really weren't allowed to eat breakfast. Sad.

The first day of training was very intense and pretty overwhelming -especially on no coffee or breakfast. Just a ton of information crammed into a short period of time. Lots of new people. We were given general information about the program as well as instructions for completing our homework (5-8 hours/night of reading, videos, quizzes, and lesson planning).

After training, it was off to our medical exam! The exam process was incredible. It could not have possibly occurred in the US, Obamacare or no. There were about 60 of us foreigners who showed up at the clinic all at once. It was pristine. Everything sparkling white, no hospital smell, the nurses with perfect, almost glamorous, white and baby-blue uniforms. After changing into the karate-uniform gowns provided by the hospital--blue for males, pink for females (not kidding)--we sat down on rows of white leather couches to wait for our names to be called. We went in assembly line style: height/weight, eye test, hearing test, chest x-ray, EKG, urine sample, dentist check, blood sample, personal consultation. It was the epitome of efficiency. I'm not saying it was fun, just very, very impressive. It was also somewhat entertaining to listen to the Korean nurses trying to pronounce all of the English names. I felt kind of bad for them.

While I was waiting for Steven to finish up his exam, I began talking with another couple from the program. They're from Florida. The guy was like, "You guys are from Michigan? Where?" "Grand Rapids." "Oh yeah? My best friend went to school there for a year. What school did you go to?" "Calvin, your friend?" "No way! She went to Calvin too! Sarah Ledeboer, know her?" Turns out, she's the daughter of the pastor of Steven's parents' church. Crazy Dutch bingo...I'm not even Dutch and I can play now!

After the exam, we went out for pizza with the couple from Florida. The pizza was weird enough that it was definitely not American pizza, but not so weird that it wasn't delicious. Corn and mayo were both present. As were cheese stuffed crusts.

We came back to the hotel and worked on homework until we absolutely crashed. It's good to have work to do again though. I know it's weird, but I've missed studying quite a bit since graduation and really don't mind the work.

Today was a little less crazy. Still tons of work, which is fine, and no medical exam, which is wonderful. We also finally found a grocery store! There are probably 20 restaurants per block, convenient stores on every corner, and, oddly, a TON of golf stores.....but it's taken us four days of walking around to find the grocery store. Steven got overly excited about that.

I think we're starting to get the hang of training, and of being in Seoul, but those things will only last another 3 days, and then it's off to another adjustment period! But for now, we're going to enjoy the temporary feeling of (kinda sorta sometimes) knowing what we're doing.

Day 3: Bukhansan National Park

We decided that today we wanted to do some hiking. It's our last day in Seoul that we don't have training, and we felt the need to take advantage of it. There are quite a few mountains in and around Seoul, and many of them are in Bukhansan National Park, which is actually partially within the city limits of Seoul. It took almost 2 hours by subway/walking to get to the park, but it was worth it.

We didn't really know exactly where we were going, so we just started hiking uphill. A mile or so in, there was a beautiful temple, called Hoeryongsa. The woodwork and painting were amazing.

We kept hiking up and eventually found a nice rocky area with good views to stop and have a snack. We sat down and started eating, and suddenly a cat appeared! We had no idea where it came from, but it was clearly used to begging from hikers. It sat there looking at us, patiently waiting for us to give it some food. Based on its size, it seemed to have been doing quite well for itself. Not surprising, considering Bukhansan gets about 10 million visitors per year (there was a sign proclaiming that it is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most yearly visitors per area of any national park in the world).

Our snack time buddy - all white with bright blue eyes and a black tail.

After our cat-infested break, it was only another kilometer or so to the top of Sapaesan, one of the park's mountains. The views from there were amazing. We could see a lot of other peaks in the park, but we could also see a lot of Seoul, which was kind of cool. Here are some pictures from the top:

On the way back down we made some observations about Korean hikers. First, and most obvious, almost all of them were completely decked out in hiking equipment. Trekking poles, fancy backpacks, nice hiking boots, and, above all, multicolored hiking pants. There were so many people who had the same style hiking pants, with one color at the bottom and top of the pants with a different color in the knee/butt area. If I were to start a Korean business, I would probably manufacture multicolored hiking pants, because there seems to be a huge market for them. Second, the most common demographic seemed to be 50-somethings. In America most people you see hiking tend to be younger, but today most people we saw were at least in their 40s, and many were older. And it was a Sunday, so it's not like young people were in school.

We thought about doing another mountain, since it was only about 11 when we got done with Sapaesan, but we haven't fully recovered from our 30-hour travel day yet so we decided not to overdo it and go back to the hotel and relax a bit in preparation for the start of training tomorrow. I guess it's time to stop being tourists and start working!

Day 2: Deoksugung and Namdaemun

We made it! After close to 30 hours of travel, we finally ended up at the Coatel Hotel in Gangnam, Seoul. And yes, it's the Gangnam in the song. We got in around midnight, local time, and slept a normal amount. Neither of us are feeling too much jet-lag at this point.

Around 9AM we went for a walk around the city. We wandered around trying to read as much as we could of the Korean words on the signs. We discovered a nice little park where we were sharply scolded by an elderly woman for stepping off the path. Oops.

After a coffee stop at a cafe called Holly's, we decided to hop on the subway and go to Namdaemun, a huge open air market that has its origins in the 1400s! The subway system was incredibly simple to navigate. When we arrived at our destination and exited the station, we could tell that there was something going on in the main city plaza. There were hundreds of women in pink vests and hats, a dance squad, loud music, and a very angry/passionate sounding speaker. We had no idea what was going on.

Before going to the market, we decided to make a stop at Deoksugung Palace, one of the four main palaces of Seoul. It is right in the middle of the city, with Seoul Plaza and the city hall directly across the street. Deoksugung was the home of kings of the Joseon dynasty two different times, first in the 1590s and 1600s, and then again in the 1890s and 1900s. Most of the buildings were from the second time Deoksugung was the royal residence. The woodwork and painting of the buildings were amazingly intricate and the architecture was beautiful. Here are some pictures:

The throne

The ceiling in the throne room

This bell was forged in the 1400s!

After Deoksugong, as we made our way down the street toward Namdaemun, we saw another gathering of people, more loud music, and an incredibly passionate sounding speaker. This group, unlike the one closer to the station, seemed to be comprised of more men than women. Our best guess was that they were some sort of political campaign.

Namdaemun was basically an entire neighborhood's worth of area devoted to outdoor (and some indoor) shops selling anything and everything that you might need or want and then some. There were street food vendors and performers. It was loud, crowded, smelly, and so much fun. We bought some nice, healthy deep-fried food from street vendors and ate it as we walked around looking at all the shops. After Namdaemun, we headed back to our hotel. Considering we woke up this morning with absolutely no plans for the day, it ended up being a pretty awesome first day in Korea!

In addition to the alleys on the ground, there were walkways connecting the buildings, all of which were full to the brim with goods as well. This is the view from one of the walkways. You can see one of the historic gates of Seoul in the gap between two of the walkways at the top of the picture.

Day 1: Airports and Airplanes

Sitting in the airport in Tokyo during our layover, I can't help but marvel at the miracle that is human language. We take for granted that we can make arbitrary sounds and have other people understand them. That is, until that doesn't work anymore. There are going to be so many new and amazing things this year, and language will be among them (and not just because we're teaching it). I hope I am able to pick up some Korean this year, but it will definitely be a challenge since we're not allowed to speak Korean in our classroom or even allow our students to speak it.

I guess it might be useful to give some details about what we're doing. I know we've gone into detail with some people but I'm guessing that some people who want to read our blog just know that we're teaching English in Korea for a year, and not much more. So here goes.

We're about to board a flight from Tokyo to Seoul, where we will spend one week in training. Until after that, we won't know exactly what our classes or schedules will look like, but we do have a rough idea now. We'll have this coming weekend to recover from jetlag before diving in to training. Our hotel is in the Gangnam area of Seoul (yes, the one that has a song named after it). Hopefully we'll get to explore the city a bit during the week.

After training is done we'll be getting sent south to Geoje island, which is the second-largest island in Korea after Jeju. The island is connected to Busan, Korea's second-largest city, by a series of bridges and tunnels. It takes about an hour and a half by bus to get from the Busan airport to our island. Geoje is about 150 square miles (about the size of the city of Detroit, or 2/3 the size of Chicago) and has about 250,000 people living in various villages around the coast of the island. It has a big shipbuilding industry and there are a lot of foreigners from around the world who work in the shipyards.

Geoje island in South Korea

As for what we know about our work, we'll both be teaching elementary schoolers. Our hours will be roughly 2-9pm Monday-Wednesday, and those hours include both teaching hours and office/grading hours. It's a cram school, meaning students go to their normal school and then come to our school afterward for extra English learning. The students are divided by English-language ability and are with a Korean teacher for 45 minutes and then with us for 45 minutes.

If you're curious about more details, so are we! This is about the extent of what we know so far, so as we experience it we'll keep everyone updated. Also, Geoje looks to be really beautiful from the pictures we've seen, so hopefully we'll be posting some once we get there!

Day -3

It seems that often in my life, when I daydream long enough about something, it becomes a reality. In high school, I desperately wanted to be an exchange student but never really thought it would really happen. My dreams, though, combined with hard work and a lot of support from my family, led to a year spent as an exchange student to a high school in Kobe, Japan. Once I returned home, I constantly daydreamed that I would go back to Japan. In college, I did. Again, after I came back to the U.S. the second time, I couldn't help daydreaming about going back to Asia, but I didn't want to go alone this time! At this point, Steven and I have been daydreaming about going abroad together for almost 4 years. I can't say I always believed it was actually going to happen. There were so many times that I thought we really were just daydreaming.

But again, daydreams and hard work have combined to create our new reality. In three days we will board a flight from Chicago to Tokyo and then another from Tokyo to Seoul. We'll spend a week in Seoul for our training and then commute to Geoje. Geoje is a small island off the Southeast coast of the Korean peninsula, an hour bus ride from Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. We will be teaching elementary school English in a small "cram school" on the island. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, but we're so excited to start our adventure! We'll record experiences, reflections, cultural blunders, and whatever else we think of, in this blog. Hope you like it!