2010/2/13

Right now, I'm sitting in a coffee shop a few minutes from my house. It's small and cozy. The coffee is okay, but think it could be a good place to come from time to time. For those who don't know, I have recently moved to a new place in 건대 (Kondae) which is located in Seoul. I have been trying to get my place to look nice and am awaiting the arrival of my couch. Hopefully it will be here by Tuesday. It was suppose to arrive by Thursday, but apparently a little snow stopped that from happening. Other than that, the place is coming together. I like it.

I just found out that I will be transferring to another branch for my kindergarten. It is located in Jamsil which is about 10 minutes away from where I live by subway. The other place took me about an hour and a half to get to work. This means I will get to sleep an extra hour!! That's good news for me. The director I work for now is moving there also. It will be good to continue to work for the same boss. That way, we already know how each other works.

I'm done with Seoul National University. Since I am in the musical, I will not have time to go back until after the musical. I'm also thinking of not going back to SNU, but instead to a school closer. Maybe Kondae. We will see how things work out after the musical.

Speaking of the musical, that is going... well... it's hard. Trying to learn a script that is in a language you don't fully understand is really hard. However, everyone is trying to help and makes it a lot of fun. Friday, we had an interview with tbs efm, a radio station here in Korea. That was fun. Apparently, Tuesday KBS will be coming to document the rehearsal process and take some photos. I guess I should look decent for my TV appearance.

I honestly cannot say how thankful I am. God has truly blessed me with this amazing opportunity. I work with wonderful people and have met so many people. It truly is a great experience. I'm anxious and excited about the performance. I just hope Koreans understand that we are giving our hearts into it, but it will not be perfect. I mean, we are foreigners acting in a language we don't know. But I believe they will understand.

Pray for us. We will all need patience during this time. People can become frustrating during situations like this and we all need to stay cool and calm.

One Year in Korea

Since it is January 1st, I thought I would try and recap the past year. (I will try to keep it short.)

I began my new adventure living in a new country. (Technically, I moved here in November of 2008, but who's counting?)

I met my first friend in Korea, 정길. (Jeonggil) He introduced me to many others.

I participated in my first "big bow" with 정길의 엄마. (Jeonggil's mom.) This is done at New Year's. You stand in front of your elder and bow all the way to the ground. (They usually give you "pocket money."

I went to 거제도(Geoje Island) with 정길, Amy, and my 선생님 배소영(Teacher Bae So-young.) It was a beautiful place. If you ever get a chance, visit.

I worked and met many more friends. (Sorry, not too sure what I did between 거재도 and Japan.)

Well, I guess that brings me to Japan. It was my second country to visit outside of Korea. I would like to go back and experience more of it. My goal is to visit an onsen, but because I have tattoos, most will not let me enter. **Background Info** Korea and Japan both have ideas of people with tattoos being yakuza(Japan) or 깡패, 조폭(kkangpae, jopok, Korea) which are gangsters or mafia. Therefore, in Japan, if you have tattoos, you aren't allowed into their onsen. What is an onsen? It is a natural bathhouse. Because Japan has so much volcanic activity, its springs are naturally heated. These are used in bathhouses. Just something I would like to try one of these days. If you are Japanese and reading this, maybe you can help me!

I got back from Japan and met some more friends. I met these cool kids who are part of an English study group. They are a lot of fun and we have traveled around together. They say they enjoy my cooking, haha.

I got to enjoy my first ever mud festival. I went with a few friends to Korea's annual mud festival and got well, muddy. I had to walk around all day without my glasses which is partly the reason I ended up buying contacts a little bit later. I can't stand not being able to see clearly.

Around September, I had to start deciding what I wanted to do at the end of my contract. I didn't feel, I was done with Korea so I had to figure out what to do. I knew I wanted to really dive into Korean since I had only been studying it here and there with my private teacher. I applied to Seoul National University for their language program. Then, I actually got accepted. A friend introduced me to a kindergarten school that would allow me to work in the mornings and go to school in the afternoon. I guess you could say it worked out perfectly.

I went to move into the dorms, but found them completely disgusting. I don't think I would have been clean even if I showered. Luckily, my friend 정우(Jeong-woo's) family said I could live with them for the semester!!

Now, I am working with Kinder Schule and love "my" children and going to school in the afternoon. I have a midterm next week and will hopefully do well on it. So far, I haven't done too bad. Currently, I am looking for a new place to live and trying to listen to God for where to go to next.

Well, I guess that will be all down memory lane. Hopefully I didn't forget anything too important.

Dancing, Movie, and a Valley

The weekend as I remember it.

After work on Friday, my friend 바우 형 and I met up and decided to head to 강남. Another friend was supposed to meet with us at this point, but was out with his co-workers and said he would meet with us later. We arrived in 강남 and decided to get some food while we waited on our friend, JK. This led to some pretty good conversations all the while having some Korean girls eavesdrop on us the whole time. I still wonder if they understood what we said. At one point, I made direct eye contact with one of them at which point she smiled quite big, so I returned the favor.

Our friend arrived and we headed out. We wanted to go dancing. Now, some people go out to meet girls or whatever, I on the other hand, simply want to goof off and have a good time. We got to one place that pretty much played rap. If you know me, then you know I am not the biggest fan of rap. It was also very crowded... too crowded for me. We decided to leave and go to another place. This place was a bit better. The music was a mixture of Rap, Korean Pop, and some Indie Pop from the States. At one point, I was feeling the groove (so to speak) and had a blast. Afterward, 바우 said my dancing was quite different from the way Koreans dance. Maybe I will start a trend, haha. (I did get a thumbs up and a pat on the back from some guy wearing sunglasses.)

Saturday, I slept in since we were out pretty late the night before. I ate lunch around 1 PM, then met with my friend 은진. I wanted to buy a derby hat but I am apparently too tall or too small for anything in Korea to fit me. The lady selling the hat pulled the hat over my ears and said, "It fits!" This was of course in Korean to which I said, "No, it doesn't. I want it above my ears." (I pulled the hat up demonstrating how I wanted it. She said she could fix that by putting sizing tape on the inside. I said it would still be too big and left.

Afterward, we went to eat my favorite Korean dish, 닭갈비. During this time my friend, 바우 and I were planning on watching Public Enemies. We found a time and a way back home. Most buses stop around 12, but there are a few that will go until 1 or 2 AM. 은진 was acting silly and kept asking to see my text. I told her no and that she was being nosey. (All in good fun.) We met my friend and watched Public Enemies. Maybe I will write a review for it in my next post. Parts were good, some not so much.

Then on Sunday, I went to church in the morning. I met again with 형 so we could go food shopping for our afternoon in a valley. I am not sure the name and will hopefully add it soon. We met with a few other friends, found a nice spot to lay everything out, and began preparing out food. I cooked chicken while my friends cooked pork. Well, they guys cooked and the girls washed the vegetables and pots once we were done with them. We sat next to a few older ladies and an older man who were quite nice. They wanted to trade us an apple for some mushrooms but we had just used the last of our mushrooms for our chicken. They insisted we take the apple anyway. We ate, played Go-Stop and Dutch Blitz. Also, I was able to have another great conversation with 형. We packed everything up and left. On our way out, we stopped at this bridge in the mountain where you could see the city of Seoul. The sun was setting and made the site really beautiful.

This was a great weekend with good friends. Now if I could only stop being lazy and work on my photos.

거제도 Part III (외도)

We woke up around 6 in the morning to a phone call from 사장님 saying we needed to be ready to leave by 7. We all got up and began to get ready for the day. We made sandwiches once again to take with us. Around 7, we walked out our door and met up with my 선생님(teacher). We walked down stairs and packed into a car.

We rode to a harbor where we would take a ferry to our destination. Today, we would be seeing 외도(Oedo Island). This place is a private owned island with many flowers, trees, and statues. Needless to say, it was beautiful. But before we get to 외도, we have to talk about the ferry ride there.

We were all lined up to board a boat. As we boarded, we were each given a tag that is suppose to be able identify us for when we leave the island. All but 정길 got one. They told him children didn't need one. (He eventually got his right before we got to the island.) Anyway, we had our laughs and headed on our way. While we were on the ferry, a man was telling everyone about what we were doing. He also asked people to clap and if you clapped, you were suppose to live a good life. He made jokes the entire ride, none of which I could understand. My friends were laughing, so I take it he was funny. On the way to the island, we came across a rock formation in the middle of the sea. At one point our ferry went into a crack in this "mountain" and then backed out. I must say he was a good driver to get us in and out of there without hitting anything. We circled the rock and headed for 외도.

I am not sure how to really describe this place. All I can say is that it was really beautiful. At one point you get to this look-out cliff and can see the ocean with mountains in the background almost hidden in the fog. The only bad part of this trip was that we only had an hour to walk around the whole island. I do not think an hour is long enough to really experience 외도. We walked through the first part slow, taking our time to try and take it all in. Then, we realized what time it was and sort of rushed through the last part of it.

We boarded the ferry once again and headed for the port. We got off the boat and decided to climb a mountain nearby. I think if we knew how much walking we would have to do, we might have thought twice about it. On the way up 선생님, her friend, and I played 가위 바위 보 (rock, scissors, paper) to see how many steps you could take. The first one at the top, won. Well, I won. As we were walking up, a person told us there was nothing at the top and not worth it. We decided to continue up and got to the first look-out point. We asked if the next one was far and were told that is wasn't. They also said it was much better than where we were. So, we all decided to head up. We got there and it was quite the view. We were surrounded by the sea with mountains out in the distance. I think one of the things I like most about Korea is that almost everywhere you look, you will see mountains in the distance. We rested, took some photos and made our descent.

When we got to the bottom, 정길 and I decided to go climbing on the cliffs. On one side, I saw a man take a starfish out of the water. I am still curious what he wanted to do with the starfish. We climbed around and decided to eat our sandwiches on the side of one of the cliffs. We could feel the ocean breeze as the waves would crash next to the rocks. While we were sitting there, we noticed two girls who we thought were on the bus the day before. We asked them to take a photo of us and then asked if they were on the bus. They were. We saw our friends waiting for us and decided to go. When we got to our friends we told them who the girls were and they insisted we go talk to them more. So, we did. Apparently, the whole thing was quite funny to watch. 정길 thought they were from 서울(Seoul) but turned out to be from 부산(Busan). He was pretty shocked because people from there tend to have a different accent but these girls did not. After a few minutes, we said our goodbyes and left.

We decided to walk to another rock beach. This beach was extremely small. To be honest, I am not sure you could even call it a beach. Well, after walking up hills, we finally made it. We sat down on some rocks and decided to rest. The place was quite peaceful. You could hear the sound of the water rushing up against the rocks. After a little bit of sitting there, we decided to head back to our pension. When we got back, we realized we were pretty exhausted from the day. 정길 and I ended up falling asleep and waking up around 7 or so. We walked downstairs and cooked our dinner. We met up with my 선생님 and began eating. We took a few photos with 사장님 and then headed to our rooms.

The next morning we woke up and got ready to leave. We said our goodbyes to the owner and got into a taxi. We arrived at the bus station and headed back to 분당. This trip was a lot of fun. This experience has made me want to see more of Korea and work harder at learning the language. I look forward to seeing more places and writing about them as I do.