Korean Haircut

I've been needing a haircut for quite a while. I got one right before we left to come over here and with my hair as damaged as it is I feel as if I need a trim more often than people with normal hair. There is a salon like 20 steps from the front door of our building called Hwamiju, or as Al likes to call it, "Haircut Heaven". He's gone twice now to get his hair cut there and considers it to be the best experience of his life. I've been meaning to find out what all the hype is about but, really, I hate getting my hair cut and feel like it's a neccessary evil of life and a waste of $25 that could be better spent on a Mexican dinner...so I've been putting it off.

I finally made it down there yesterday. I go in to a very beautiful salon (yet still very normal looking) and they take my coat and purse and put it in the closet and return with a pretty, green silk rob to wear over my clothes. I'm not exactly sure why because it's just over my sweater; it's not extra comfortable or anything. Then I'm asked if I would like coffee, tea or juice so I choose a green tea. I sit in my now extra layer of clothing and drink my tea while I flip through a Korean fashion magazine. After 30 minutes or so a man comes to take me back to wash my hair. When the seat is leaned back and I put my head down on the sink he puts a warm towel over my face and eyes. I really felt more like I was being attacked with chloroform but I suppose it's meant for more relaxation? Or possibly to simply block water from splashing on my face? Not sure. He very gently washes my hair and then the man who Al claims has magic haircutting fingers comes to take me to his station. He has very good english and keeps a flow of simple conversation going including my favorite, "Your hair is very light yellow". All the while a woman stylist just stands and watches while he cuts and it's slightly creepy so I just ignore her. After he's finished trimming I find the reason for her hovering: blowdrying! Both of them work together with two dryers on my hair until it's dry. She leaves and he puts the normal salon goop in my hair and sends me on my way. All this came to the whopping price of about $13.

Al might think he is the hair God but I really wasn't that impressed. I've had better haircuts. He didn't even fix it for me. The whole experience was interesting, though it kind of stressed me out a bit with the tea and the gentleness of him washing my hair. Part of me just misses an in and out trip, fresh-out-of-beauty-school 22 year old with purple streaks in her hair at Hair Inc. complaining to me about her baby daddy. None of that here. All in all, of course I will keep going back but maybe they'll skip on the robe next time.

Sickness (boring) Outback (exciting)

So I've been horrendously sick for the better part of 9 days now. Two Thursdays ago at school...about mid-afternoon...I felt that slight tickle in my throat that indicates that sometime within the 24-48 hour range I will have a full blown cold. Come Friday morning I couldn't even talk. I go to school anyway and by the middle of my second class they told me to just go home. My body itself didn't feel too bad, I just had no voice so I couldn't teach. I figured it would be just a regular old cold and I'd be back to normal after the weekend, but, alas, that certainly wasn't the case. We had had a party planned at our house for weeks. Sort of a house warming party with some new friends. Just because I wasn't feel too well I wasn't going to cancel on nearly 20 people, plus, I was looking forward to it. So the party went on as planned, though I didn't go out to karaoke with everyone else and just stayed in to rest. My cold ended up turning into what I thought was a respiratory infection but in the end I had a severe sinus infection on top of something respiratory. I was coughing like there was no tomorrow. Three times at school I had coughing fits so bad I had to run to the bathroom and nearly threw up because I couldn't stop. One of those gave me a permaheadache which I have only just today gotten rid of. I can't remember the last time I felt that sick. Come Monday morning I was miserable and to make things worse the kids are on holiday again which means I was back to my morning working hours of 9-2:30. Having to wake up at 7:30 when you are sick is no fun. Plus, Al was working his normal schedule which means he didn't come home until 10. So Al gets home at 10 and then I'd go immediately to sleep. Let's just say it was the longest week of my life.

Finally today is Saturday and I actually got to sleep as long as I pleased. Perhaps that's all my headache needed was some serious sleep because I had decided yesterday that if it wasn't gone today I was going to the doctor. Thank God it was gone today because I did NOT want to go. I feel better today than I have in quite a while so we decided to go to Outback for dinner tonight. There are a few Outbacks and TGI Fridays scattered across the area and I found an Outback that's only two subway stops from here. It's ridiculously expensive but worth the splurge for a good normal restaurant once in a while. So we hopped the train a few stops and once inside and seated I felt just as if I was sitting back in America somewhere. It was a nice change. They gave us completely English menus (!) and I was desperate to order something that I couldn't make at home myself...so no pasta or anything. I'm not a steaky person at all and the ribs are like $32 so I got a chicken tender salad...and they have Ranch dressing on the menu (!!!!!!). Al got a steak...no A1 sauce here but a steak is a steak I suppose. There was even golf playing on the bar TV which made Al's dinner that much more enjoyable. One of the major differences was that the portions are so much...I don't want to say smaller because that makes it sound like a bad thing...I'd rather say they were proper portions. You go to most restaurants in America and order a meal and they bring a plate of food out that could feed three people, but it's meant for you only. (Obesity problem...??) When we first moved to Japan and would eat at restaurants all the portions were so small and I'd think, "how on earth is this going to fill me up?" Come to find out my stomach was perfectly happy at the end of those meals and not over stretched and so full that the food was making its way back up my esophogus. So over here I now expect and much prefer those smaller portions because I didn't leave Outback feeling I was going to barf on the sidewalk. Also, they bring free coffee or tea at the end of your meal, just because. It was a nice surprise.

We finally got some legit internet so we're going to start catching up on shows...which is what we are going to do now. Goodnight!

Contact!

Here is all my contact information over here:

Address for boxes/anything bigger than a card envelope:

Samantha Belt Cormier

Avalon Language School
71-1 2nd Floor Sajik Centre Building
Onchun-Dong, Dongnal-gu
Busan, South Korea
607-120

Address for my apartment mailbox for cards and things:

Samantha Belt Cormier

1907 Ho
Bando Bora Officetel
Onchun-Dong, Dongnae-Gu
Busan, South Korea
607-060

Phone #:

1-304-581-4573 (calm down, you're just calling a Morgantown number)

Skype:

sam.614 (but my webcam is in Japan and God knows when I'll be able to retrieve it)

Settling In

So here I am, 1 month and 3 days into Korea. Although I still don't know if I like it better or worse than Japan, things are becoming more routine. I definitely have a grasp on school, classes and my kids and how they behave and which ones are good speakers and which ones are nice and which ones should be thrown out the third storey window. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are nearly unbearable thanks to only a handful of kids who make the entire day a loss. I have six classes a day (except Wednesday, I have four) and my second and third classes have 18 kids each. That's a far cry from the 5-10 I have in all the others every day. I have no idea why these particular classes are so big but there's nothing I can do. The classes are called DI2 and DI3. My DI3 classes has some really good kids in it but because of all the nasty ones I rearranged their seats last Tuesday. Boy-girl-boy-girl. They hated it and whined and complained and I heard a lot of "Teacher! Change seats! I don't like this one!" as if I was going to give them what they wanted. Since I moved them around, DI3 has been full of rainbows and fluffy butterflies and unicorns compared to what it was. We even get through the lesson with enough time to spare for games, which is remarkable. Now DI2 is another story. I have this class from 10-10:50. The problem with the other class, DI3, was simply that they talked all the time. So I solved that by moving them away from their friends and it's been fine. DI2 is not only a class full of talkers but I have about 6 boys that are so unbelievably horrible I would chuck them into the Arena of The Hunger Games without batting an eye. (Preferably the Quarter Quell Arena where they can be eaten alive by those monkeys.) I know that every school and every teacher has rotten eggs of children and you wonder what on earth goes on with the parenting to make them act that way but I don't have the luxury of calling those parents. I teach at an after school program. It's not real school. Nobody cares. So today I decided to rearrange that class's seats as well. It did no good whatsoever. I'm past the point of even knowing what to do with them. I've moved them around, rewarded the good kids with candy, punished the bad ones by not letting them play games with everybody else...along with screaming myself to a migraine. I just don't know.

I have a system that tends to work in nearly every class. I put three stars on the board at the beginning of each class. If they talk when I'm talking or act up in any way I erase a star. Once they're out of stars, no games. And they LOVE games. This may sound horrible, but using this system I have a way I like to humiliate the kids acting up. Or rather, let the other kids humiliate them for me. Say there are two that refuse to listen to me. I make sure to keep pointing out those two in front of the class and then making sure everyone knows that it's the fault of those two that I'm erasing stars. The other kids in the class flip the eff out at the two bad ones by yelling at them to shut up...it's really all I can do not to laugh because it's great entertainment. The three star/humiliation tactic does not work in my DI2 class. Nothing does. But enough with my bad kid ramble.

I have this one girl, Julie, in a lower level class. The kids in her class are probably 7-8 years old. At the end of every class we always play computer games from an English learning website. The computers in each of the classrooms are hooked up to a giant flatscreen hanging on the wall, it's fantastic. There are about 9 kids in the class and they usually get divided up into boys vs. girls. Julie is SO into the games and so serious about them I want to secretly film her one day, it's absolutely hilarious. If her team gets even 1 point behind she is nearly in tears and freaking out. On Tuesday her team was like 35 points behind or something and it was just more than she could handle.  It was her turn so I was looking around the room for her and she had gathered up her stuff and ran out of class with 10 minutes left. It was all I could do to not die of laughter.

The rest of my classes are going well. The weeks seem to go by very fast. On Febuary 1st I go back to my 1-6:30 schedule which I am stoked about. Usually I'm a get-in-and-get-out kind of person when it comes to work. I would rather go early and get out early but every morning when that alarm goes off at 7:20 I count my days until I can sleep in every single day. So tired of waking up early. (I'm going to die when I actually have a real job)

The weather is horrid. Last Friday was the first day I saw rain in a month. The sun shines every single day but the temperature is in the low 30s because it's so clear every day. And it's windy. So with the wind it feels like it's in the 20s. And I walk 30 minutes to school. Ridiculous. This past week has brought GREAT weather. It's been rainy and hovering around 50. It feels like a heat wave and I'd take rain and 50 over sun and 25 any day.

Hopefully Al and I will be moving into a new apartment this weekend! Our friends Mary and Tyler are leaving and they have a double apartment two floors up. It's pretty awesome. It's probably about the same size as our place in Japan, just a different sort of layout. And hopefully along with that new apartment will come NEW INTERNET. We've been stealing off the neighbors since we've been here and I'm tired of it. All I want to do is skype my friends and call my Nanny! Is that so much to ask? I guess it's difficult to get our school to get anything done. We'll see.

Just have to get through tomorrow and then it's a four day weekend pour moi. We were supposed to go to Japan tomorrow to get our stuff but it's just too expensive to get there. We're going to have to wait, unfortunately. All I want is my duvet and my sweaters and boots! Sigh.

<3

I FOUND IT

In my previous post I wrote how I couldn't find milk tea anywhere. I FOOOOOUUUNND IIIIIITT!!!!!!! I was wanting some coffee out of a machine at the subway station and, of course, most of the cans on display are unrecognizable and in Korean. While deciding on which can I wanted I curiously leaned closer to try and read the other side of one can to see if there was any english on the back. What it said: "Royal Milk Tea". I about had a heart attack from excitement. In Japan I've had some bad milk tea while testing out different brands so I was a little afraid that while I had finally found what I had been wanting for so long it might be a dud. Nope! It was delicious and tasted EXACTLY like my favorite kind in Japan. So, needless to say, I am a happy, happy girl.

Korea vs. Japan Showdown

I'll start out by saying that I've not decided which one I like best. I don't think I've lived here long enough to choose, anyway. I will state that I am constantly comparing the two in a way that makes me feel like Japan is the outright winner, though I think that it's just my frustration coming out from being in a new place. So here are some of my observations and I might add to the list as time goes on.

Kids/school: I've already wrote about how smart my students are but not a day goes by that one of them doesn't surprise me. It's remarkable how much english they know at such a young age. After teaching for nearly two weeks I've found that my worst student in a class of 5 year olds could out-english the smartest one in a class of 13 year olds in Japan. Just yesterday I was teaching a class of 12 year olds when in walks (late) the cutest little boy ever in these green glasses, I think he's probably 7 or so. I thought he was lost but he came in and sat down like he belonged there. I had a blank spot on my roll sheet with no English name so I asked him if that was him and he said yes in his cute little voice. I asked if he had an English name and he said it was Benjamin (I want to squeeze the poop out of him by this point, he's so adorable) and as it turns out he has better english and better pronunciation than anyone in the class. Well alright, welcome to the class Benjamin. Not only are the kids much more conversational than Japanese ones but, just like Benjamin, they actually pronounce things they way they are meant to be pronounced. For example, in both countries I've had at least one child named Jerry. In Korea, he refers to himself as "Jerry" while in Japan the poor kid was "Jelly" leaving me trying not to crack up. My students can say their Rs like it's an actual letter and not just some weird way to shape your tongue and make a sound.

Vending Machines: WHERE ARE THEY!??!?!?!!! I was very much looking forward to coming back to a vending machine every 12 feet on the sidewalk but alas, it seems Japan is alone in this incredible convenience. They exist, sure, but sadly they exist only slightly more than in America it seems. I bought a hot chocolate out of one at the subway station once but that's been the extent of it. In Japan I swear I was putting 100yen into a machine at least three times a day and getting something fantastic in return where as in Korea I have to schlep myself down to the quickie mart. And thinking of quickie mart...

Convenient Stores: Way more abundant than in Japan, though much smaller and less variety. Maybe having a 5x5 room full of Pepsi Nex Zero, bottled hot rice tea and dried fish skin in candy wrappers on every street corner makes up for the lack of vending machines? Nah. Not to me anyway. I like popping a coin in and getting something out in less than 10 seconds. Stopping in a store is too slow and too overwhelming. In the same kind of category as convenient stores is the convenient food.  There are so many street vendors you'd think I was at the Lewis County Fair. No matter what street or alleyway or what have you that I am on there is someone selling something or other from a little cart. Chicken, fish waffles, something on a stick that may or may not be meat, onion pancakes, regular waffles, dumplings...it's all sold from these tiny carts everywhere. There's also always someone who has plopped down on the sidewalk with a blanket and a bunch of oranges attempting to get rid of them. On the weekends little portable "shops" pop up all over the god forsaken place selling anything from vegetables to socks to fake Prada to hunks of metal. It's insanity...but also kind of awesome. (And speaking of fake Prada...and how I mentioned that Korea is not like Canal Street in NYC? Well, I lied. I found Canal Street in a place called Nampo and it's about a mile long.)

Culture: Koreans are much more, for lack of a better word, Americanized than Japanese people. And don't ask why, because I've yet to be able to put my finger on it. For the life of me I can't really pinpoint what makes me feel that way but it's true. And everyone else says the same thing. I'll try to explain it. They are a much, much warmer people than Japanese. Japanese people, especially men, are so...cold. Affection is looked down upon there it seems and I'd freak out when I saw two young people holding hands in public. Koreans are so affectionate and very open with it. It makes me happy because it's such a stark contrast to Japan. Koreans seem to be slightly less, and again for lack of a better, less offending word, brainwashed. They seem to have more open minds. Koreans have great pride in their country (who doesn't?) but their pride doesn't mesh with ignorance like in Japan...well, not as much I should say. With that being said, let's move on to the crazy Korea. So, Koreans run on a different aging schedule than we do. No, you didn't read that wrong. Koreans are actually 1-2 years older than what their birth certificates say they are. They believe (get ready for this) than you are 1 year old the day you are born because they take into account pregnancy (though you're only pregnant for 9 months?). Also, they don't get older on their birthday. (keeping up?) EVERYONE in the country turns one year older January 1st. But they still celebrate their birthday with cake and things. Don't worry, I don't get it either. Moving on.

Discrimination: So, pretty much, I've never felt more discriminated against while being here. Maybe I've taken for granted being...well...caucasion...but I'm not used to being treated like a second class citizen. In Japan foreigners are absolutely worshipped. I think in one of my old posts I wrote about how it was like being a celebrity, getting free stuff everywhere and all that. Not like that here. Foreign teachers are respected in a sense that "hey, you're teaching my kid english, good job" but it doesn't go much further than that. While Koreans are much warmer towards each other, Japanese people are much friendlier and more eager to help the foreigners and not just looking at you like you're in the way. For some reason in Korea casinos are for foreigners ONLY. Koreans aren't even allowed to step foot in them to gamble. Imagine living in Las Vegas but only non-Americans were allowed inside the casino. Weird right? If you caught my status updates last weekend you know that we took a trip there since, you know, we're allowed. They HATE us being in there. (and by us I mean white people) They cater to mostly Japanese and Chinese tourists and they go there and drop TONS of cash. Our friends say they know it's because we're going to go in and put $40 at the roulette table and drink for free all night where as that Chinese guy just put down $1,000 on red. It was a terrible feeling being shooed away from places and looked at like they'd like nothing better than for us to leave. Nothing to do but ignore it, I suppose.

Driving: So, we don't have a car here and THANK THE LORD. I've been to five Asian countries and I feel very secure in saying that the stereotype of them being bad drivers is 100% true. I thought Japanese drivers were bad, HA! The only other place I've seen more chaos on the road is Thailand and that's saying something. The vehicles are swerving in and out and in the middle of the road and honking at everything and doing u-turns in places I'm pretty sure is illegal (like the middle of the road) and coming within inches of pedestrians. The only thing that made Thailand worse was that there were a few thousand more cars and a few hundred thousand more scooters. I'll say one thing, it's chaos but it's organized chaos if I've ever seen it. Being in a taxi here is terrifying but you'll eventually get where you need to go...albeit with sweaty palms and heart racing, but you'll get there.

Food: I think I prefer Japanese food. Korean food is SO spicy I can barely eat any of it. They put red pepper flakes/paste/chunks on absolutely everything. It doesn't matter what it is. The section of the grocery store dedicated to plastic tub after tub of the stuff is comparable to that of the ranch dressing aisle at Super Wal-Mart. I don't like spicy food so it's taken me a bit to figure out what I can and cannot eat. Japanese food is much more bland, I think, but I loved the variety of noodle and rice dishes. I'll have to be here a little longer to figure out more local cuisine that I like. I did find a Japanese restaurant in the Shinsegae that serves very delish tonkatsu ramen (top five favorite foods EVER) so it's nice when I need a fix.

Other Foreigners: This could be perhaps that we lived in a super rural area in Japan but it seems that the other foreigners were much friendlier there. When we were new there never seemed to be a shortage of people who wanted to show us around and help us figure things out. Here, they all kind of just...do their own thing. It's a little disheartening. I don't know if people are just super unfriendly or of it's the West Virginian in me hitting the big city and wondering why no one is nice. In Japan, when we'd see another foreigner on the train or on the street each would give the other a little smile and a head nod as if to say "I know...we're in this together buddy". Here, not even a recognition! It's insane. We've met a few really nice cool people who work with us but they are leaving in a few weeks. I'm genuinely concerned how we're going to make friends. Everyone keep your fingers crossed it turns out well on the friend front.

Milk Tea: Another thing I was greatly looking forward to and there is none. NONE. It's pretty much the best substance ever created. Maybe I'll stockpile some when we go to Japan in a few weeks?


That's all for now...maybe I'll add to the list as the year goes on...

Korea Fashion Scene

I'm not sure how to start talking about this other than to say that it's an enormous disappointment. Now, don't get me wrong, there is SO much luxury in Busan it's ludicrous. Louis Vuitton, Bottega Venetta, Gucci, Prada, Ferregamo, Chanel, Armani, Miu Miu, Tiffany, Dior, (Dior Homme has it's own separate store), Jimmy Choo...and not only are all these in one place there are multiples of them all over the city. There are two Louis Vuittons within a 5 minute walk of one another. For those of you who know me you're probably thinking "...why is that a bad thing?" Along with the abundance of extravagance there is a plethora of counterfeit to go right with it. In Japan this wasn't the case. If a Japanese person was carrying a fake Gucci anything they would be like, shamed or something. Japan is full of luxury and you know that 99.9% of the time it's hands down authentic. I'm not saying Korea is China or even Canal Street in New York City in regards to fakes being sold but it is nearly everywhere I look. I can't walk out the front door of my building without seeing ten Louis Vuittons in all shapes and sizes and half of them aren't real. Without sounding a bit snobbish, I can, in most cases, tell you at first glance whether a Louis is authentic or not. Call it a gift. And a lot of them I see are definitely on the not side. I liked going into secondhand shops in Japan (see Louis Vuitton posts from the past) and knowing that what I was buying was authentic without question. Here, I'm much more wary about things like that and I hate it. One spends $800 on a bag because of the quality and because it will last forever and I think that's something to take pride in, not that you got a knockoff for $50 that's going to fall apart next year. Snooty rant over.

As far as normal shopping goes, it's also a colossal disappointment. Again, there is shopping everywhere I look but everything is so dreadfully expensive. In Japan (comparing again) my absolute favorite store was/is Zara. If you've never heard of it, google it or something, it's absolutely fabulous. On the hierarchy of this type of store it would be something along the lines of Charlotte Russe-Forever 21-H&M-Zara, though with Zara and H&M being incredibly close though Zara might be slightly more expensive. I love all those stores with Zara being my absolute favorite because of what they offer in terms of clothes but Forever 21 is my favorite because of what they offer but the prices are great. Not as great of quality, but being 25 and poor means I need a cute $12 top once in a while. I swear I was at Zara every single weekend in Japan. (Everything changes out once a week I think.) Skirts ran from about $10-$30, basic tops could be as low as $12-$20 while super nice tops were about $30-$40. Jeans and pants run about $40-$50 and dresses, especially summer ones were as low as $25 but could run up to $60 or $70. (there were more expensive things but this was the price range I usually picked from) All I could think about before heading back overe here was that I couldn't wait to get back to Zara to do some shopping, especially since 75% of my clothes are STILL in Japan waiting for me to come get them. I walk into Zara, a huge grin on my face ready to do some damage and I look at the price tag of one of the more basic shirts: W49,000. That's roughly $40. Okay...moving on. Next price tag for a regular old sweater: W69,000. ($65ish) What is going on!??! I start getting a bit frantic running about the place pulling out price tags all over and I don't think I saw one less than W29,000 ($25 or so) and that was for a freaking t-shirt which I certainly don't need right now. I nearly started to cry. Okay...well...maybe we can try Uniqlo (another good store, nothing fancy, a cheaper, lesser variety type of Gap maybe?) It was always super cheap in Japan (I got a good bit of stuff there and never spent over $20 for anything I don't think) so we hunted down the Uniqlo here. I go in hoping to find some deals and again...W39,000 for a sweater? W49,000 for a thicker sweater? I could get that for like $20 in Japan! :::facepalm::: So here I am, sweaterless and with no hopes in sight of doing any major shopping. I'm hoping that with warmer weather and less material for clothing will bring cheaper prices but I'm not so sure. And these stores are considered like, the lesser expensive type shops for clothing. Department stores or other types of shops forget about it, the prices are doubled there. They've also not ever heard of a proper sale. Usually in Zara (at all times, actually) there is a wall full of sale items (Uniqlo too, though you have to dig for the good stuff in bins it seems) but not here. Not a stitch of a sale item. Today we went to the World's Largest Department Store (it has an ice rink and driving range!) called Shinsegae in Centum City and I think 6 of the stores were advertising for these HUGE sales but when we went to the Gap there were giant red banners in all the windows that said "SALE 30%!!" 30%?? Well if 30% is what Koreans consider an awesome sale then I have no hope whatsoever here.

I'm still on my Christmas vacation from school and we've been off exploring. The food court in the Shinsegae had some amazing Tonkatsu Ramen (fav) so I was happy about that. If I ever find some good deals on clothes I'll write about it, but don't hold your breath.

First Week DONE

It's Friday night and I've finished my first week of classes. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. All in all I don't believe it's going to be too difficult a job. It's a lot like what I did in Japan, just with a little more supervision and much more advanced children. And speaking of the children, they're HORRIBLE. And when I mean horrible, imagine 15-20 kids all yelling, throwing things, talking, playing video games...and then you are shouting until you are hoarse for them to stop and listen and they don't even bat an eye. You go over to them and steer them towards their seat and they just get back up again, you yell for them to stop throwing paper across the room and they pause, look at you, and continue to do so. (And all theses kids are conversational, don't think they don't know what I'm saying to them) It always reminds me of that scene in Titanic when Jack and Rose are walking and talking along the boat deck and she says "...It's like I'm standing in the middle of a crowded room screaming at the top of my lungs and no one even looks up." Yeah. It's like that.

My previous counterpart, Cody, told me before coming that she had "a discipline problem". I never imagined the extent of that discipline problem. I have two classes twice a week that are entirely too large. They are more than double that of my regular classes and I have no idea why these two classes have so many students. They are my worst classes mostly in part because there are so many of them not listening as opposed to half as many not listening in a normal sized class. The Korean teachers told me that they know that we are just after school program teachers and not "real" teachers so they don't care and know they can't get in serious trouble for acting that way...then again they also told me that a guy just got fired from there two months ago for not being "strict enough" because he got complaints from parents (the parents can wander the school and watch through the windows of your classes if they want) that he wasn't able to control the kids. Great. On Tuesday after I had those enormous classes and after my mini stroke subsided I decided that I have to figure out a way to get them to chill the eff out. Thursday I spent nearly 20 minutes rearranging where they sit. Get them away from their friends, separate them. I'd say it calmed them down by about 30%. I have a long way to go but if anyone has any suggestions on how to control something like that, by all means, send them my way.

The rest of the classes aren't TOO bad. Once the new semester starts (after the 1st) I'll have fixed everything to make it the way I want instead of Cody's way and hopefully I'll have a better grasp on things and a clear idea on how to handle these monstrous kids. They may be smarter than Japanese kids but definitely have worse behavior.

Al is learning Hangul (The Korean alphabet) so hopefully his knowledge will pass onto me like it did with Japanese. It's very helpful with him having that extra special part in his brain for languages. I've not learned how to say anything in Korean, although I do keep accidentally speaking to them in Japanese. And, to a Westerner, Korean and Japanese people do look very similar so to me it's just another day in Japan...until I speak Japanese, realize that I am, in fact, not in Japan and do a mental facepalm while hoping I didn't greatly offend them.

It's FREEZING here. From everything I read I thought Busan had relatively mild (40s-50s) winters. I don't think it's gotten above 35 and that's pushing it. And I have a 30 minute walk to and from school! It's not pleasant. Oh, it's also quite windy. I'm hoping it's just a severe cold front and that it will warm up (just hit 40! Please!) soon.

So, Kim Jong Il died. Awesome. "Were you in Japan when the big earthquake hit?" "Yep." "Were you in Korea when Kim John Il died?" "Yep..." I'm wondering why I wasn't in Cairo during all the riots. It seems wherever I am there is international news of some kind that could possibly get my family stirred up with anxiety. Hopefully this won't directly affect me and it will result in good news for the Korean people and not a direct order from the US Embassy for all the foreigners to get on outta dodge.

Well tomorrow is Christmas Eve...crazy. Can't believe I'm stuck in cold Korea. I wasn't home for Christmas last year either but at least I was off doing something awesome.

It's getting late and I've had an excruciatingly long week. Good night!

Korea: Day 4 1/2

We've been here nearly five days...crazy, considering I feel like I've been here five months. My first few days were full of fear and stress in anticipation of my first day of classes which made those days seem to stretch into oblivion. Now that my first day is done and I have more of an idea of what to expect hopefully my days will chill out and start feeling like normal ones. As I write this it's 9:46am Tuesday and I'm far more relaxed than I was at 9:46am yesterday. While teaching in Japan it was slightly more than playing bingo and Uno for 45 minutes. We went through a textbook, yes, but mostly those textbooks were well past the English intelligence level of my kids. Parents are shamed if their children have to be held back in the same level for another semester so generally they are moved along to the next level whether they have the ability or not. So eventually I have 12 year old kids with a book expecting them to read, write and understand basic grammar and vocabulary and all the while they can't count to 20. Not in Korea! These kids are insane smart. For instance, my first class yesterday the children are roughly  6-8 years old and their "textbook" is just a Nemo book and Nemo workbook. Very basic english with three sentences a page or so. I read the first few pages and the kids shoot their hands in the air...so I point to one and she just reads the next page on her own, no big deal. I just stared at her for a second, amazed. So I point to another and he does the same thing...so that was a real eye opener for the rest of the day. My two favorite students in Japan were two 12 year old girls who had great English and I could actually have basic conversation with them....that's the level of my 7 year olds here. This may sound boring to you reading this but to me, it's incredible.

So my days are Monday-Friday 1:00-6:35. Not bad. I have to leave my apartment about 12:15 or so and after I get done teaching I write up a daily report and head home. I still get to sleep in but I get home at a reasonable time...I like it. I actually lucked out with my job. Most people who are placed in private schools have extremely long hours (until 10pm mostly) and that's what I had come to accept would be my job. But my recruiter found a position at an after school program in the public schools. Nice.

Everything will become much easier once I learn how to read Korean. Al is already starting to pick up on it very easily and that will be a big help. A lot of things are bi-lingual in Korean in Japanese and I thank the Heavens for it because I can actually read the Japanese part. I find myself looking for things with Japanese on it just so I can have some sense of understanding. Weird concept...being in Korea but getting excited when things are written in Japanese.

We went to karaoke the other night! Not the same as in Japan...this one only had a book to choose from, not a fancy machine, and it wasn't the most up-to-date choices. Did a lot of Kelly Clarkson. The place is directly across the street from our building so I'm sure we'll venture out and hopefully find a better place.

The train system is exactly like Japan so that was easy to navigate...AND everything is in English as well. English menus on the ticket machine. YESSSSSSSS. The train voice does her bit in Korean then miraculously I hear "Next stop - Seomyeon." YESSSSSSSSS. Al went to to beach yesterday while I was at work and said it's amazing. A mix between Honolulu and South Beach from what I gathered.

A lot of choppy random information, I know, but it's late...=)

In the land of Hyundais

After nearly 30 hours of travel we arrived safely in Busan, South Korea. From start to finish the travelling part really wasn't TOO horrible. Everything went as smoothly as travelling for 30 hours can go. The plane wasn't as big as the last time we came over, it was a 3-3-3 configuration and Al and I were the only two in one of the middle sections. As the plane was loading up, the seat next to me was staying empty and I prayed to God no one would sit there so I could lie down and sleep most of the way. I got lucky. The plane was mostly full with only a few empty seats back in the pauper area (economy) and the one beside me was one of them, heaven! I popped a Xanax, Al popped his Advil PM and my last view of America went out of sight.

13 hours and 50 minutes, two meals, Crazy Stupid Love, and a few plastic cups of wine later we landed in Seoul, SK. Because of Al's visa situation I was panicking before going through customs. But they didn't say a word, took my fingerprints and picture, stamped our passports (yay! new one!) and sent us on our way. We hopped a shuttle to the smaller airport, Gimpo, to catch our last flight to Busan. Once finally touching down for the last time, a woman from our recruiting agency picked us up and brought us to our new dorm room apartment. It's incredibly nice but extremely small. We have nothing but a bed and a tv stand (no tv) as furniture and one fork, one spoon, one knife and a plate. Awesome.

We ventured out today to a Target-esque store called Home Plus. It's ama-za-zing. Anything and everything we need is in there, and we need a lot. Got some towels, trash can, a sheet for the bed...the basics. All of our house things are still in Japan and we won't be able to go get them for another week and a half so we had to get emergency things. While walking around town I realized that I didn't feel the need to take pictures of anything. To be honest, it looks just like Japan but with Korean on everything instead of Japanese. Obviously, I'm now in a city whereas before we weren't, but architecturally everything looks the same so maybe the novelty of this part of the world has worn off for me. I'm sure there are some fun new things to be seen and experienced but as of right now nothing looks new and exciting so I'm kinda just like meh. I'm actually more frustrated because now it's another language I don't know and signs I can't read and I keep thinking "ugh, I just wish we were in Japan, this would be so much easier." So if there is a lack of pictures, sorry, I'm having a hard time trying to find something awesome to take pictures of!

The jetlag flying west is really and truly not bad. It only took a week or so to get over it last time (and that's just starting to get tired about 8 and waking up at 7 or 8) and this time I feel like it's even better. Flying east is a completely different story, it took a solid two weeks, if not more, of waking up at 4am every morning to even start getting over it. It's 8:46pm Saturday right now and I am getting pretty drowsy...Al is conked out already. I'm trying to decide if I want to perk up and wake him up to go karaoke...haven't decided.

As you can see, I changed the title of the blog since before it was centered around Japan. But I figure it should be more of a travelling blog. Though, I can't change the name of the actual blog greatwaveoffshikoku...which refers to "Great Wave off Kanagawa"...probably one of the most famous Japanese works of art. So the name of the blog will stay Japanese-centered.

After finishing typing I've decided I'm going to let Al sleep and I'm going to join him...no karaoke for me tonight, too exhausted! All those Taylor Swift songs will have to wait, unfortunately.