My second week here, I had to undergo a medical exam at the local hospital. This exam was the closest thing I've ever experienced to being abducted by aliens and experimented on.
First, I was transported against my will to a highly advanced medical facility; everything there was bright and sterile, and nobody looked even remotely like me. These beings seemed harmless enough, all going about their business as if I weren't even there.
Next came the tests, a barrage of medical probing the likes of which I have never experienced in my entire life: blood pressure, heart rate, height/weight, vision test, hearing test, blood sample, urine sample, chest scan, electrocardiogram, breathing test, question period. After I had been sufficiently violated, I was picked up and dropped straight back into the mix. A strange thing, being intensively tested in a foreign hospital.
- - -
After being sick for almost a month, I went to a local clinic to see what the deal was. It was pretty standard--waiting room, doctor, prescription, return visit, (my boss translated). However, on my second visit, I had to get a shot “here” as my boss said, pointing to her backside. “Oh” this would be a new one, I thought. It sure was. I was led into a room by a young Korean nurse and instructed to lay down on a bed behind a curtain and pull my pants down, I did. Next, a little prick, and, (whoa!) the nurse was giving me a spanking—slap, slapslap, slapslapslapslapslapslap. This was entirely unexpected...but not entirely unwelcome. I wasn't sure if this was normal, but I didn't really care, I figured this type of thing probably cost 100,000 won in Seoul, and I just got it for free. I felt better already.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Nov.29th - Korean Lesson
I had some people over Saturday night in order to pre-drink before a dance party down the street (it was sextacular) During this time, a Korean friend (part-time teacher and full-time babe) took it upon herself to write me a number of useful Korean phrases. They were too good to keep to myself, so I post them here, for all to enjoy. Use them wisely.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Oct 27-Nov 23 - Fast Forward
[I've decided to skip through the next three weeks in order to catch this blog up to the present, the past is past and I'm living in the future now.]
My first week of teaching was a trip, I had zero experience coming into this and it definitely showed my first day. It didn't help that I was given virtually no advice (at first) but was instead thrown into a classroom and observed the entire time by one of my Korean co-workers. But, after some much appreciated tips and personal adaptation, I improved rapidly. Now, three weeks in, I almost know what I'm doing.
Halloween was a crazy day. First, there was the school Halloween party, which was in itself pretty hilarious--dozens of costumed kids running around drunk on the idea that they'd be getting heaps of candy because...does it matter?
Halloween night was excellent. About forty foreigners (and a few locals) gathered at a bar called the Blue Agave and ripped it up. Everyone consumed an appalling amount of alcohol and was rendered totally senseless. A ripe nasty boozefest. Some great costumes. I was a zombie DJ.
[special note: bars have no last call in Korea, so leaving around 5am is "standard" and 2am is "early"]
Food - I've been to some great restaurants in the past few weeks: Indian, Chinese, Japanese and, of course, all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ (usually pork). It generally costs about 10 000won ($10) to eat somewhere nice, though cheaper is not unheard of. My main problem with food here is that I cannot find the ingredients I need to cook anything decent at home, nor can I go to most restaurants alone and order something myself, so, unless I go out with friends, I'm usually left hungry. Thankfully, my school provides free lunches, and they are okay.
Friday nights are the big party nights in Korea, while Saturdays are a mere echo--everyone's a bit hungover and tired from the previous nights romp, so Saturday night usually winds down around 2 or 3, if it gets started at all. Sundays are big activity days (or so I've heard, I've been too hungover to take advantage of Sundays potential thus far).
Friday November 14th was a pretty magical night. A crew of 15 people met down at Iho Beach for a bonfire in the sand under a full moon. With the squid fishing season coming to a close, there was a thin string of boats visible in the distance, their ring of bright lights (used to draw the creatures into their nets) encircling the entire island. There were walks on the beach, drunken expeditions to find firewood, and a (failed) attempt to break into a lighthouse. It was hard to believe that it was November.
School snippets:
I work for a hogwan (private school) teaching kindergarten in the morning and elementary in the afternoon. I'm one of two foreign teachers, (the other, also Canadian) and it is pretty laid back. We are free to wear pretty much whatever we want and introduce just about any game or activity to the class, as long as we get the assigned work done on time. This usually means about 2 pages of work, covering basic reading, listening and comprehension of English.
The students abilities vary greatly, from beginner to brilliant. One of the most interesting younger students is a boy who will sit and draw in his book the entire time and appear not to be paying attention at all, but when I ask him to do the work, he is able to complete it flawlessly in a matter of seconds, then he goes right back to drawing.
One of the kindergartners favorite games is to climb onto furniture and then leap off onto me. "Poo" is also a big hit.
It's not all fun and games though; one of the harshest realities I've ever witnessed is seeing a six year old girl breakdown because her parent's divorced and she "doesn't have a mom anymore."
On a brighter note, one of my "prodigy" students asked me on Friday, "there's History, but why no Herstory?" Wow!
I found a piece of paper folded up and stuffed in my back pocket the other day--I didn't put it there. When I opened it up I found it was a note from one of my students with a drawing of a smiling face that read, "NO sad. Happy time!"
On that note, I think I'll cut this post off right here and add random bits as they come to me. Until next time.
My first week of teaching was a trip, I had zero experience coming into this and it definitely showed my first day. It didn't help that I was given virtually no advice (at first) but was instead thrown into a classroom and observed the entire time by one of my Korean co-workers. But, after some much appreciated tips and personal adaptation, I improved rapidly. Now, three weeks in, I almost know what I'm doing.
Halloween was a crazy day. First, there was the school Halloween party, which was in itself pretty hilarious--dozens of costumed kids running around drunk on the idea that they'd be getting heaps of candy because...does it matter?
Halloween night was excellent. About forty foreigners (and a few locals) gathered at a bar called the Blue Agave and ripped it up. Everyone consumed an appalling amount of alcohol and was rendered totally senseless. A ripe nasty boozefest. Some great costumes. I was a zombie DJ.
[special note: bars have no last call in Korea, so leaving around 5am is "standard" and 2am is "early"]
Food - I've been to some great restaurants in the past few weeks: Indian, Chinese, Japanese and, of course, all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ (usually pork). It generally costs about 10 000won ($10) to eat somewhere nice, though cheaper is not unheard of. My main problem with food here is that I cannot find the ingredients I need to cook anything decent at home, nor can I go to most restaurants alone and order something myself, so, unless I go out with friends, I'm usually left hungry. Thankfully, my school provides free lunches, and they are okay.
Friday nights are the big party nights in Korea, while Saturdays are a mere echo--everyone's a bit hungover and tired from the previous nights romp, so Saturday night usually winds down around 2 or 3, if it gets started at all. Sundays are big activity days (or so I've heard, I've been too hungover to take advantage of Sundays potential thus far).
Friday November 14th was a pretty magical night. A crew of 15 people met down at Iho Beach for a bonfire in the sand under a full moon. With the squid fishing season coming to a close, there was a thin string of boats visible in the distance, their ring of bright lights (used to draw the creatures into their nets) encircling the entire island. There were walks on the beach, drunken expeditions to find firewood, and a (failed) attempt to break into a lighthouse. It was hard to believe that it was November.
School snippets:
I work for a hogwan (private school) teaching kindergarten in the morning and elementary in the afternoon. I'm one of two foreign teachers, (the other, also Canadian) and it is pretty laid back. We are free to wear pretty much whatever we want and introduce just about any game or activity to the class, as long as we get the assigned work done on time. This usually means about 2 pages of work, covering basic reading, listening and comprehension of English.
The students abilities vary greatly, from beginner to brilliant. One of the most interesting younger students is a boy who will sit and draw in his book the entire time and appear not to be paying attention at all, but when I ask him to do the work, he is able to complete it flawlessly in a matter of seconds, then he goes right back to drawing.
One of the kindergartners favorite games is to climb onto furniture and then leap off onto me. "Poo" is also a big hit.
It's not all fun and games though; one of the harshest realities I've ever witnessed is seeing a six year old girl breakdown because her parent's divorced and she "doesn't have a mom anymore."
On a brighter note, one of my "prodigy" students asked me on Friday, "there's History, but why no Herstory?" Wow!
I found a piece of paper folded up and stuffed in my back pocket the other day--I didn't put it there. When I opened it up I found it was a note from one of my students with a drawing of a smiling face that read, "NO sad. Happy time!"
On that note, I think I'll cut this post off right here and add random bits as they come to me. Until next time.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Oct 25-26th - Introduction to Jeju
Thankfully there was someone waiting for me at Jeju airport when I landed--my new employers. They assured me that they would take me to my new apartment, right after a brief tour of the school. I'm not sure what they thought I would absorb in my current state, but we went anyway. 2nd floor, books, room with a dinosaur-theme. Cool. Can I go to sleep now?
Fortunately my apartment was a 2 minute drive away, unfortunately the previous teacher had left it in a semi-disastrous state after leaving earlier that day (fired, actually, for scaring the children, among other things). So, the 3 of us spent about half an hour cleaning the place before I deemed it livable.
[Part of me felt a very strong urge at this point to go out into the night and embrace Jeju for all it could offer, (it was Saturday night after all, wasn't this what I traveled 30 hours for?) but the physical side of me told that urge to fuck off and I went to bed.]
The next day I went for a walk around the neighborhood, which triggered a bit of a freak-out for me as it finally sunk in that I was actually in Korea--everything was strange, nothing made sense, words and language as I knew it had been totally vaporized. I was an alien in a new world, and the future was fucking weird.
This feeling soon passed.
That afternoon, a fellow teacher and Canadian (Paul, a total chiller from B.C.) came by my place & took me to meet some people, first to lunch, with Russ (think a kinder, gentler version of Dr.Gonzo with about half the debauchery), and then to play soccer, with assorted foreigners. We never got a chance to play actual soccer, (first due to a game taking place on the field, and second due to a large group of Koreans holding hands in a giant circle), but played the best game of tennis-soccer and mini-soccer that that edge of the field is ever likely to witness--and we were only scolded by one drunk Korean man doing it.
All in all, a fine first day. Teaching would begin tomorrow.
Fortunately my apartment was a 2 minute drive away, unfortunately the previous teacher had left it in a semi-disastrous state after leaving earlier that day (fired, actually, for scaring the children, among other things). So, the 3 of us spent about half an hour cleaning the place before I deemed it livable.
[Part of me felt a very strong urge at this point to go out into the night and embrace Jeju for all it could offer, (it was Saturday night after all, wasn't this what I traveled 30 hours for?) but the physical side of me told that urge to fuck off and I went to bed.]
The next day I went for a walk around the neighborhood, which triggered a bit of a freak-out for me as it finally sunk in that I was actually in Korea--everything was strange, nothing made sense, words and language as I knew it had been totally vaporized. I was an alien in a new world, and the future was fucking weird.
This feeling soon passed.
That afternoon, a fellow teacher and Canadian (Paul, a total chiller from B.C.) came by my place & took me to meet some people, first to lunch, with Russ (think a kinder, gentler version of Dr.Gonzo with about half the debauchery), and then to play soccer, with assorted foreigners. We never got a chance to play actual soccer, (first due to a game taking place on the field, and second due to a large group of Koreans holding hands in a giant circle), but played the best game of tennis-soccer and mini-soccer that that edge of the field is ever likely to witness--and we were only scolded by one drunk Korean man doing it.
All in all, a fine first day. Teaching would begin tomorrow.
Day 1 - Oct 24/5th - Getting There
Woke up at 5:30am in order to catch my 9am flight, my first ever. 24hr flight was extended to 25hrs after they found a problem with the landing gear. A 1hr delay was laughable in the face of such an epic flight, (is that the best you can do Air Canada?) especially since it meant switching to a plane that could actually land.
25 hour flight.
Highlights: takeoff from Pearson, The Hip over Canada, The Rockies, approaching Vancouver (lush green islands like seaweed serpents), super-friendly flight staff, finally getting to see "The Fugitive"(great!), complimentary hot noodles before landing in Seoul.
Hiccups: nagging headache, sore knee, intense turbulence, no sleep, numb ass.
Landed in Seoul around 7pm Saturday night, got my baggage, and was swiftly swindled by a Korean taxi driver who charged me 110,000 won to drive me to another airport. I knew I was getting screwed at the time, but this was an utter fistfuck--for that much won, I could have toured the entire island of Jeju.
Ah well, live and learn.
10pm Saturday: Saw the lights of Jeju approaching through bleary eyes...vaguely wondering if anyone would be there to meet me once I landed.
25 hour flight.
Highlights: takeoff from Pearson, The Hip over Canada, The Rockies, approaching Vancouver (lush green islands like seaweed serpents), super-friendly flight staff, finally getting to see "The Fugitive"(great!), complimentary hot noodles before landing in Seoul.
Hiccups: nagging headache, sore knee, intense turbulence, no sleep, numb ass.
Landed in Seoul around 7pm Saturday night, got my baggage, and was swiftly swindled by a Korean taxi driver who charged me 110,000 won to drive me to another airport. I knew I was getting screwed at the time, but this was an utter fistfuck--for that much won, I could have toured the entire island of Jeju.
Ah well, live and learn.
10pm Saturday: Saw the lights of Jeju approaching through bleary eyes...vaguely wondering if anyone would be there to meet me once I landed.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
a brief note on blog
Yes, I'm starting a blog 18 days after I landed in Jeju and writing it from the beginning. It's my blog, I can do that.
No, I did not take the photo backdrop that serves as a title for this blog--it's not even Korea. I can do that too.
Enjoy!
No, I did not take the photo backdrop that serves as a title for this blog--it's not even Korea. I can do that too.
Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
