Another crazy weekend

Sorry I haven't written in awhile. This past weekend was very exhausting, but also incredibly fun. After Korean class, some of the class and most of the teachers took a bus to Mt. Palgong just outside Daegu. We visited a Buddhist temple called Doughwa-sa with many complexes and a huge statue of a Buddha. It was very pretty especially with the fall colours and surrounding mountains. I tried to bow like the Buddhists do in front of the statue, but your butt and your head are supposed to touch the ground at the same time. My body doesn't let me do that, especially in low-rise jeans. We had a picnic under the pillars of the big temple and took a tour of the different buildings. It was a good day of learning history and getting to know the people in my class.

Big Buddha Statue

Gorgeous fall colour of the Mt. Palgong area

Me in front of a Buddhist temple.

Saturday night, I met up with some friends from class downtown. One of the girls has a Korean boyfriend, named Jason, and his friend owns a bar in another part of town. Apparently, Jason's friends were at the bar and excited to meet a bunch of foreign girls. It was really fun, although communicating was very difficult at times. We picked out English names for them, but they didn't really take to them. After lots of interesting food, like kim chi pizza with octopus and way too much soju (kind of Korean whiskey sold for about 2 dollars a bottle), we went to join the downtown scene. I made friends with this guy named Cyrus from LA. He's the first Filipino I've met in Korea. It was an instant bond. It was a very long, but very fun night.

Early Sunday morning, I had to get up and go hiking with my friend Walita and her friends. I was still feeling off from the previous night, but I knew it would be a great time. Very slowly, I dragged my haggard-looking self to Walita's side of town. We met up with 4 other girls. There were 3 Canadians, 2 Irish and 1 American in our little group. The hike was really fun. We separated into the 2 groups. I was in the straggler group, partly because my chest gets tight with the asthma and because I was still a little tired from the night before. Koreans love their hiking. The hill was packed with families and groups of old ladies just hiking along. All in all, it was a terrific time and definitely worth getting up for.

Walita from Toronto and Sabina from Ireland, my new hiking buddies.

After hiking, I had a shower, a 30 minute nap, and had to head downtown for a book club meeting at a restaurant called Italy and Italy. I didn't reach my goal of reading half the book, but other people were worse off than me. We had some good Italian food and chatted about books and life. They were a nice bunch of people. Some of the girls even invited me to a Christmas dinner they were planning. I was dead tired by the end of the meeting at ended up crashing at 10pm when I got home.

In other news, it's my first full week teaching all of Gwen's schedule. I teach between 6 to 8 classes a day. It's been going okay so far. We had a little incident last week with my little kids when little Danny punched little Stacy in the stomach when she wouldn't let him cut in line. Most of the kids are nice though and relatively well-behaved.

Halloween Party!!!

On Wednesday, we had a Halloween party for all the kids at the Oedae academy. I dressed up as a witch again. The kids seemed to like it. Some of the girls said "Oh, teacher cute". We had tons of games and food. I ended up eating way too much junk food, but I was grateful to get my hands on some pizza and fried chicken. It was a nice change from the healthy food I've been eating. The kids really enjoyed the day. Some came in costume but the vast majority didn't. I don't really blame them. It's hard to find a Halloween costume in a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween. Scream masks seemed to be a crowd favourite. Anyway, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Suzy playing pass the lifesaver

Judy looking for gum under a bunch of whip cream

The wiggle worm race!

Henney's zombie impression

Sam-Sam

Lately I've noticed that the Korean teachers have been calling each other "sam" or something close to that. It has been tripping me out, because I hear my naming being called and other teachers are answering. Today, I talked to one of the Korean teachers, Jinny, about it and she explained that "sam" is shortened version of teacher, which is really "sonsengneem." Since the children call me "Samantha-Teacher", it can be shortened to "Sam-Sam." This came up in one of the classes today and all the kids found it really funny. I hope it doesn't catch on though. I don't think anyone will take me seriously if they refer to me as Sam-Sam.

In other news, Gwen bought me a coffee table today, which will make eating in front of the TV a lot easier. After a couple nights of sleeping on my new comfy sofa, I've moved back to my hard Korean mattress. The light from the street is too bright and my neighbours, who are loud in the morning, seem louder from the living room. Today in Taekwondo, I was completely exhausted and not in the mood to do anything, but I did my poomsae half decently for once. (A poomsae is a series of steps, kicks, blocks, and punches. It's a bit like a choreographed dance). Afterwards, Sa Beom Nim mentioned we'd be getting our next belt soon. I'm super excited. My last piece of news is that the pomegranate tree outside my window was finally harvested and my neighbours gave me some tasty pomegranates. They are orange and small compared to the ones in Canada, but still delicious. Since moving here, I've found Koreans to be incredibly generous people. I love it, especially when their generosity involves yummy food.

Here's a photo of me, just for fun: It's by the Sincheon River in downtown Daegu.

A new feeling

This past Sunday, Diana and I went to Gyeongju, which is east of Daegu. The bus there only costs about $4. I'm loving how cheap travelling is in this country. The city is known for its temples, mountains, and resorts, but Diana and I went to the World Culture Expo that's held there every 3 years. We were both pretty tired so just meandered around the entire day. The highlights were the sculpture park, the dance performances, and for me, the entire section dedicated to anime characters. I thought it was cute, but Diana referred to it as her hell. She preferred the puppet exhibit, which I think would be my hell.

Taekwondo has been good this week. On Monday, Sa Beom Nim showed us a video of the Korean Tigers, who an amazing taekwondo group. They are definitely better than I will ever be. On Tuesday, Diana and I were practicing our sparring moves and accidentally ended up punching each other in the ribs on different occasions. Of course we were like "Oh my god, I'm sorry!" and just laughed it off. I can feel myself getting a lot more toned, especially my legs where there's more muscle and less flab. It makes me happy.

I've enjoyed teaching this week. Today I taught 2 new classes of older kids with Gwen's help. When I walked into the first class, a girl (I think her name is Julia) kept saying "feeling, new feeling". I gave Gwen a confused look and she explained that Julia was saying that I bring a new feeling to the class. I hope it's a good feeling. They were a good class, but the second class is a little clueless and not enthusiastic at all. I think they're going to be one of my tougher classes to teach. Both classes went well for my first time. I find it hard when I'm first starting out with a new class because I don't have a feeling of where they are in terms of ability. It gets easier though, so I just have to keep working hard. On the way home from school tonight, some man , who we've never met, came up to Diana and I on a bike and started talking to us in English (not a rare occurrence). He talked to us and started asking questions, then out of the blue said "You are Samantha." Even though, Diana and I are the only foreigners in our neighbourhood, it's really weird when complete strangers know your name. To spin it in a positive light, we just think of ourselves as the neighbourhood rock stars.

A sofa at last!!

Yesterday, my apartment starting coming together. I got my red sofa (Finally!! Hooray for not having to watch TV on the floor) and a new washing machine, so I don't have to do my laundry at Gwen's apartment. The old washing machine was dirty in unreachable places and would cover my clothes with weird stuff after every wash. My sofa is a futon and it's a lot more comfortable than my bed. For anyone who doesn't know, sleeping on a Korean bed is like sleeping on a wooden board.

Taekwondo has been going well. I think I'm improving. Although, I have issues kicking with my left foot. It doesn't have the power or the coordination of my right foot, and I just end up getting frustrated. Hopefully in a couple weeks, I can improve enough to get my yellow belt. Today, taekwondo was cancelled (that's why I have time to write). It's been rescheduled for Saturday afternoon and that evening Sa Beom Nim, his wife, Diana and I are going out for dinner. He's such a nice, funny guy, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Teaching this week has been good. I've been getting better at learning the kids' names and their personalities. There's Henney who does a weird squatting dance in the homework line; Donny, the little know it all; Rick, who got fed up and punched Donny in the mouth; Matt who hates Henney with a passion; and boy-crazy Aileen who pretends to be ditzy to impress the boys. And that's only half of one class! Aside from their social issues, they are a really smart class and I enjoy teaching them. Next week, I'll have a lot more classes to teach. I'm crossing my fingers that it all goes well and the kids don't drive me completely crazy.

My first full week in Korea

So I've finished my first week here. Honestly, I feel like I've been here for a month already. I'm completely over the jet lag and am sleeping regular hours now. It has been a very eventful week to say the least.

Earlier this week (I can't remember what day), there was a domestic disturbance at my house. I awoke to this woman yelling loudly right outside my door and there was a man's voice that sounded like he was trying to calm her down. This commotion lasted for quite awhile. It sounded like she was breaking things and trying to hit the guy. I, of course, was completely freaked out and when it sounded like it wasn't going to stop, I called Gwen and she sent over Simon (Samson's brother who lives one street over) to come rescue me. (Don't worry!! I wasn't in any actual danger. There were many doors and deadbolts between me and the crazy lady.) Simon called the police and came over, but by then the crazy lady was gone. She was so loud that Diana heard her down the street at her apartment. The next day, Gwen told me that Simon found out that the crazy lady was drunk and in love with the son of the old lady who lives above me. Even though the son doesn't live there and crazy lady has a husband, she comes over drunk and looks for the love of her life. We think the man's voice belonged to the son's brother. We had a really good laugh over it. The next night, the old lady who lives above me brought me 2 enormous pears, probably to make up for the previous night. A younger lady, who lives next to me, also came over and gave me some fabric softener. It seems like a really weird gift, but Gwen explained that things that are bubbly or flammable (like toilet paper) symbolize becoming richer and are common housewarming gifts. Since that night, the crazy lady hasn't returned.

The rest of the week was more normal. I started Taekwondo and teaching at the Oedae Language Institute. I'm now teaching 3 classes. Two of them are 3 times a week and the other is twice a week. My workload right now is very small because the Korean teachers are prepping the middle school kids for their tests. Once the tests are over, my workload will increase exponentially. I could be teaching more classes, but Gwen is nice and she's teaching her "crazy class" until she leaves for America. The crazy class consists of a mixture of clueless kids and rowdy kids. They are definitely going to be a challenge. Overall, the kids are cute and funny, but sometimes rowdy. I think Diana has the rowdiest classes. You can hear them yelling "DIE, DIE, DIE!!!" down the hall when they are trying to kill the guy in the hangman game. When I'm not teaching, I make flashcards for the vocabulary the children have to learn. I've become a flashcard-making machine. I'm always cutting, colouring, or laminating something. I love mindless work like that.

Tonight Samson spoiled all the teachers and bought us coffee, crackers, and gimbap (kind of like a sushi roll). He's such a nice guy. Last night, he and Gwen took me out to a Korean BBQ place. It was so delicious. I think you just order the meat and soup and they cover the table with sidedishes, like salad and kimchi. There was a ridiculous amount of food on the table, especially for me since I'm used to eating only one gimbap roll for dinner. One gimbap roll is only 1000 won, so just over a dollar CDN and very filling. Gotta love cheap, good food.