Lucky streak in Seoul

I swear, I'm on a lucky streak with this Korea thing. I hoped to get Incheon or Seoul, and got Seoul. I read up on all the crap that other people have to deal with (granted, it's Dave's ESL Cafe, which is infamous for people with negative attitudes) and "what could've been" with the housing situation, and ended up getting a decent non-hotel place. I read about the evil co-teachers that are out there, and ended up with pretty cool co-teachers so far (as far as I can tell). While things could be better (*shakes fist*), it could've been a lot worse as well (like poor Eric with his shoebox).

In this entry, I'll talk mostly about the school. I'll get into the living quarters later.

Basically, my place is near Seoul Station (about a 15-minute walk) and the geographical center of the city, and about a 7-minute walk from the school (which is all boys). I'm their first-ever native English teacher. Something I was wondering was how the students will react to an Asian who is also a native English teacher; even if you're not the type of person to look into race, you have to admit this is an interesting predicament for a country that is largely homogenous (and prides itself in its homogenuity).

The result surprised me. At first, the students weren't sure who this new teacher-looking person was doing in the school. I was invited to observe a regular English class, and was introduced to the students. After that, word spread much quicker than I expected. Suddenly, students were bowing to me in the hallways and stuff. (Stewie: "You will BOW to me." One of my best friends told me on MSN that I'm going to let this bowing go to my head, haha.) A few students actually went up to me just to say "HI!!!" or "Hello!!!" just like what the Caucasian teachers described. I guess race doesn't factor in as much as I expected.

The school facilities are interesting. When they were giving me a tour of the school, I was wondering if I will have my own classroom and what it'd look like. The school looks quite old and is peeling a bit, so I was like, "Hmm. I guess I'm not getting my own classroom."

Boy, was I wrong.

Not only did I get a classroom, but it is the NICEST classroom in the school. I'm not even remotely exaggerating about that. As I said before, the school looks aged and peeling. However, the English room is spanking new and looks like it was renovated lately. It has a smartboard (a touch-screen computer on the board), new tables and chairs, its own library/reading room, a computer with new software, a webcam, and so on. I swear, my jaw dropped majorly when I saw it, because it was such a drastic difference compared to the rest of the school. Even the doors were high and made of glass (while the other rooms' doors are about 5 feet tall and are old sliding doors made of aging aluminum).

The co-teachers are also pretty incredible so far. One of them speaks English pretty well for the most part, one seems okay when teaching but has difficulty in producing speech in an actual conversation, and one is having no difficulty in producing speech but is good for the most part.

I also have to teach other teachers, and from what I can tell, they're not in it because the principal forced them to do it or anything. I may be wrong, but I think it was a voluntary thing and quite a number of teachers signed up. I wish we covered how to teach other teachers during the orientation, because I'm not sure what to do for it.

The dress code for the school is slightly bizarre as well. I was told to wear a neat shirt, dress pants and... slippers. Yes, you read that right. Slippers. Both teachers and students wear slippers in the school. I have to find myself a pair in the right size (since the North American shoe sizes are different and many slippers on sale on the streets are packaged).

Today, I mostly did lesson planning. A lot of time was wasted while I tried to figure out the Korean version of Windows, but it's going smoother now. I still need to pick up the pace for one class' lesson plan tomorrow though. Tomorrow is my first day of teaching. Originally I was told that I won't teach until after the first week, but they changed it on me today. First taste of the Koreans' "last-minute culture," I guess.

That's pretty much my school in a nutshell right now. I'll talk about the living quarters later.

The stages of dawning

Well... the teachers' orientation is over and now I'm at my new place in central Seoul (which I mean in the literal sense -- I'm in the geographical center of the city). After settling in and sitting down to the quiet of an apartment by myself, it finally dawned on me that I'm finally here and this is the real stuff.

Strangely enough, it isn't the first time that it's dawned on me. Nor is it the second time. Or the third. It seems that like grieving, there are always stages. Unlike the stages of grieving, I don't know how to characterize the stages of "dawning," exactly.

The first time that it dawned on me that this is the real thing came when I picked up my E-2 visa from the South Korean consulate in downtown Vancouver. Holding the passport with a newly-minted visa in my hand was my first realization that I was really leaving. I was so used to seeing nothing but US Homeland Security stamps in my passport (from the back-and-forth between Vancouver and California or Washington state) that a big honking visa seemed quite odd.

The second dawning came right before I left. I was all packed and was doing one last checkover to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. I was satisfied. I turned around, and my dog was sitting there in the doorway. I went down to pet him and give him a little hug. He's normally not a nice dog (quite a snooty dog, actually) but at that moment, he looked up at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen from him. He's 15 years old, so that's saying a lot. I broke down right there and then, and just hugged him and had a nice cry/bawl for a few minutes. He normally doesn't let people hug him at all, but he actually let me hug him for the first time in his life; he just let me hug him and cry for a while. I actually still cry a bit thinking about it (like right now as I type this). That was the second time that it dawned on me that I was leaving a lot behind, and probably remains the strongest among my "stages of dawning." It's currently one of the two things (that's NOT from a movie) that can make me cry every time -- the other thing is memories of the Anaheim Ducks' Stanley Cup championship win.

The third time probably came during my stay at a hotel in nearby Incheon, where Seoul's airport is located. Just walking about and seeing everything written in Korean was quite a jolting shift, and the day trip to central Seoul was a further shock. Just seeing that made me realize that I'm in a new world now.

And yesterday was probably the fourth dawning. After seeing people I got to know during orientation get shipped off one by one to their respective schools and apartments, it finally dawned on me that we're all leaving the safe English-speaking confines of the orientation venue and heading out into the non-English speaking world. It was quite a scary feeling but not unprecedented; I guess the orientation reduced some of the scariness but it's impossible for it to remove ALL the scariness.

And now here I am, using a combo of a security-enabled network and my old VPN connection from my alma mater (which is still working) to access the internet, which will be installed later. I'm not sure whether this stage of dawning has ended yet... I guess we'll see. And I'm sure there might be another stage of dawning during my first day of actual teaching.

Tomorrow is my first day at work, although it'll mostly be prep work. If I have time, I'll write an entry about the school and the living quarters.

South Korea Sights: Dongdaemun Gate

I'm going to start a semi-regular segment called South Korea Sights to show off any interesting places I see.



Just one subway station away from the orientation venue is a place called Dongdaemun (동대문 / 東大門). It is basically the old eastern city gate of Seoul for the wall that surrounded the city during the Joseon Dynasty. The original gate was built in 1396; it was renovated in 1453 and rebuilt in 1869.

It is probably one of the key places to see the old and new structures of Seoul side by side. Around Dongdaemun Gate is a bunch of shopping centers, both above and below ground. There is also a market called Dongdaemun Market just around the corner, which I didn't visit.

It's also at a very busy intersection in the Jongno distruct of Seoul so the large traffic volume further contrasts old and new. It is served by Dongdaemun Station of the Seoul subway.

More photos:

Settling in (sort of)...

I'm now out of the hotel and at the training and orientation venue in Jongno-gu in central Seoul. It's nice to finally have a place to settle down (the hotel in Incheon doesn't count). It's also nice to have English spoken around me that doesn't come from a TV, haha.

A lot of other people just arrived and want to check out the area. I've already been here for two days, so I'm one of the few who opted to stay in tonight instead. I think I've seen enough to satisfy me for the time being.

My roommate is a guy from Ireland, who I was coincidentally chatting with at Incheon International Airport prior to boarding the shuttle bus, so we were already acquainted. He previously worked for a hagwon (private tutoring center) in Jeju and this is his first time with the public school system, so he's done this before.

Anyways, I'm finally going to settle down for a while and enjoy the temporary (but more permanent than before) stability in location.

You know you're in South Korea when...

...when there's a channel completely dedicated to gaming.

In Korea

I waited a bit to post this because there's a lot of meat in this one -- no pun intended (you'll see what I mean later).

Well, there went the longest flight I've taken since I was a small kid. My plan to sleep during the flight didn't exactly pan out but the plane got upgraded to one with laptop plugs, so I kept myself entertained, at least. Plus, the guy sitting next to me was a Chinese student who was visiting Vancouver for an engineers' symposium at UBC, so we had quite a lot to discuss (including why Wreck Beach is so famous).

The Shanghai airport's customs system is kind of wacky. It was actually posible to leave the airport during the flight connection. It was 33 degrees Celsius plus humidity. As soon as I stepped out, I either started sweating or everything attached me started to become wet -- one of the two. In any case, I decided that 30 seconds was enough.

Above: Shanghai's Budong Airport's terminal is large and spacious, but doesn't seem to have air conditioning, which made for a stuffy wait. That didn't stop me from conquering the place in the name of the Anaheim Ducks.

Another weird part about that is between being let out and going back in (I needed to clear customs twice -- once for entering the arrivals terminal and once again for getting back into the secured area as a passenger for the second leg of the journey) -- they had me under medical quarantine for a while. Apparently all the people on board our plane with connecting flights had to get our temperatures taken. They kept me longer than the others, but apparently it was due to a thermometer malfunction; it gave me a temperature reading that was so low that I should be dead by now. But it got resolved easily.

The second leg of the journey from Shanghai to Seoul was less interesting. The guy next to me was a Korean who didn't speak much English at all but his son is learning it in school and practiced some phrases with me. In return, the Korean dad helped me with nailing down the pronunciations of certain key Korean phrases like "kamsa hamnida" ("thank you") and "annyeong haseo" ("hello"). Apparently I wasn't that far off, despite learning only through text; the only problems I had involved stressing the correct syllables.

However, the most interesting part of that flight came during the landing process. You know the NASA world map of the earth's lights at night? Notice how North Korea is all dark and South Korea is all bright. Well, since Incheon and Seoul are about an hour's drive away from the border with North Korea, I got to see the difference with my own two eyes that night -- that NASA pic shows the truth. Yikes.

The customs in South Korea is, as someone I know put it so elegantly, a complete joke for a country that's still technically at war (with North Korea, obviously). There were no questions asked, and apparently that is close to the norm. The only difference is that my passport visa explains my purpose in South Korea, while other people need to be asked about that.

I spent an overnighter at Incheon International Airport (which serves Seoul). It wasn't comfortable but not uncomfortable either. It was eerily quiet. And over here, airport security must march down the hallways back and forth, in pairs always next to each other. And their dress is similar to a soldier's (there might be a reason for that), so it felt like a neverending army march while you try to sleep.

Above: Late night at Incheon International Airport. They actually turn off a lot of lights as midnight approaches, and then like this around 3:30am. And then the lights start coming back on again.

Finally checked into the hotel this morning. It was freaking sweltering today... I knew this ahead of time, but I arrived in the middle of a little heat wave. I tried to nap but anything more than one hour proved futile, so I took the subway ride out to Seoul. Coincidentally, when my card made a weird hiccup and I asked the only white person around if they knew what the error meant (since nobody else spoke English), he happened to ask me where I'm from -- and he's from Richmond too! Small world.

Seoul traffic is insane. I thought Richmond was bad, but Richmond drivers are now angelic by comparison. Here, it doesn't matter whether the traffic light is red or green -- if the drivers don't see anyone crossing, they'll just shoot ahead. And this doesn't happen with only one driver, but almost always several at a time. In other words, multiple red light dashers in a row.

There were also more close calls in today's journey than I've seen all year in Richmond. It's amazing that so many of them don't result in accidents, but I happened to see two incidents that DID turn into accidents -- and both were hit-and-run. One of them took off while the other is left staring at the damage and trying to get witnesses (and none of the other drivers were willing to be one). It makes me feel really self-conscious about even going out on the streets. I got off at Yongsan Station (where I met the fellow Richmonder) and made it to Samgakji Station somehow, someway.

It was during that short stretch that I saw all the craziness. That was enough for me... I decided to get the heck out of dodge and get back to the hotel in Incheon, where I showered off all the sweat that came from the humidity (or maybe I was washing off the humidity itself, I don't know) and relaxed in some air conditioning for a bit while sorting photos.

(If you feel like making an offensive "Asians can't drive" joke at this point, I don't blame you. I would.)

It's been pretty humid and hot today... I landed right in a heat wave and lingering summer storm (typical Asian weather pattern in summer). Temps are in the 30s Celsius right now and it's almost 9pm. It's supposed to drop to the low 20s Celsius by the end of the week.

And tonight for dinner, I forgot how much the South Korea won is and how much you can get for it. I did something stupid and ordered 32,000 won of food, which turned out to be enough to feed a whole family. I guess that's a lesson learned -- if it's slightly less than 10,000 won, then it's more than enough. I'm so used to the small servings at home, while here they give you HUGE servings! Lesson learned... next time, spend as little as possible on food because there's a chance that they'll give you more than enough.

The bad thing about everything in terms of keeping touch with the outside world is that my cellphone doesn't work here because it's a GSM phone on prepaid, and the hotel doesn't have wifi (they only offer internet on a shared computer in the lobby). I'm writing this post at the arrivals level of the Incheon airport, where I spent the night about 24 hours ago, because they have free wifi with a very strong signal and also a power outlet nearby. The hotel's only two subway stations away from the airport (one if you don't count the airport's cargo terminal).

I'll be off to the teacher orientation tomorrow. There were some coming in today (for the non-Seoul EPIK teachers) and I had a nice chat with someone who came in from Los Angeles before I left for the hotel. Seems that for their group, they were overloaded to the point where people can't bring more than one suitcase into the dorm rooms; all other luggage was to be locked up. I didn't hear anything about this for my EPIK-Seoul orientation, but we're guaranteed to have a smaller group (since there are only 100 of us, as opposed to the huge biker gang-like group for today's group).

Well, here I go...

My plane leaves in less than 11 hours. It's hard to believe that in less than two days, I will be on my own in a odd mystery land called "Daehan minguk." It's kind of surreal at this point, and scary. I don't even know if it's sunk in yet; it feels like it has but I think there's still a bit more sinking to go.

It won't be a "jump in right away" kind of deal. During my plane ticket preparations, I was preparing to arrive for the EPIK orientation but apparently there's a difference between the EPIK orientation and the EPIK-Seoul orientation (which I'm part of). The latter starts a day later, so I will have a day to kill; during that time, I'll be rooming in a hotel in Incheon, which is the city west of Seoul and home to Seoul's airport.

And even then, I still don't "jump in right away" because I have a layover in Shanghai before arriving in Incheon. I heard that Blogger is blocked over there and that my purchase of a domain name (and use of Photobucket instead of Picasa for my blog pics) successfully circumvented the Great Firewall of China. However, posting is still under Blogger.com so I'll have to find another way around it. Fortunately, my VPL account at my alma mater still seems to be functional. I'll see if I can get around the Firewall that way.

Well. Here goes nothing. And quite frankly, if nothing out of the ordinary happens for the next while (Kim Jong Il not invading would be a huge help), I'd be completely happy. Better than something going horribly wrong...

Suggestive-looking fish in Korea

I'm not sure if eating one of these for dinner would make me look... um... Well, I'll let you decide.

Seen in Busan, South Korea:

Gotta love map inaccuracies

Sometimes it's fine to be a little off with maps. It's inevitable -- most public-use maps out there are approximations. For example, just because a street map shows that a street is a straight line doesn't mean that it really is. (Richmond's No. 3 Road is a great example -- the maps show it as a straight road but the satellite photos show that it's actually quite a crooked line.)

But sometimes the inaccuracies are just so bad that they're laughable. The airline that I'm taking en route to Seoul has one of the worst airline route maps I've seen in recent memory.

Among the errors:

• Beijing is in the middle of Mongolia
• Seoul is in the northern part of North Korea (or even in Russia)
• Frankfurt is just around the corner from Paris
• Hong Kong is next to Vietnam
• Seattle is in the Pacific Ocean

Oh boy. Hopefully their planes' navigational equipment is more accurate.

What have I gotten myself into?

Well. I'm 10 days away from lifting off from the familiar comforts of Vancouver, entering the temporary comforts of Shanghai's airport and starting my year-long trek in the unfamiliar comforts of Seoul.

I received my NOA and, along with it, submitted my visa application on Wednesday. The visa should be ready for me by this coming Thursday. The NOA is pretty much confirmation that you've been hired to work as a foreign English teacher in South Korea and the one document that completes the visa process. This is pretty much the finishing touch on the long and complex monster that is international bureaucracy.

Which brings me to one thought -- what have I gotten myself into?

Above: The flags of Canada and South Korea side by side outside the South Korean consulate on West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver.

Just a few months ago, in February, I was contemplating my life after graduating from university. I was already considering going into teaching (well... tutoring, at least) in some of those after-school learning centers. I mean, why not? It would be a good first job in the "real world" and would give me an idea of whether or not I want to pursue teaching as a profession.

And then the economy spiralled downhill and the jobs dried up.

Maybe that was a bit too over-dramatic, but suddenly a lot of those jobs were snatched up (no surprise) at the same time as everyone stopped hiring and started cutting back everything -- budgets, spending, etc. Canada, which was priding itself in how it has managed to dodge the recession bullet so far, has finally been hit. Man down!

Obviously, I started worrying. And then at the university, there was a career fair-like thing where employers are searching for university graduates or students who want to work starting this summer. Among them was EPIK.

While I had my eye on several other employers, there was a problem with a lot of them. Either I wasn't qualified (such as for jobs in accounting or financial institutions) or the jobs were short-term and temporary (such as summer camp jobs or jobs with NBC for the 2010 Winter Olympics here in Vancouver).

EPIK caught my eye but it wasn't because of something special they did, but it was because it was for a job that I would be at least half-qualified for (as an English major) and also because Korea has fascinated me since high school, especially the fact that it still exists. I've always been intrigued by how Korea has been able to keep existing for so many years because you'd think that with the uneasy truce between North Korea and South Korea, something would've happened by now (especially with Kim Jong Il in the picture) no matter how stupid or reckless it would be for one to attack the other.

As a result, there was a trend in my university career in which I would write at least one research paper about Korea per school year. Somehow, someway, that monster kept butting its ugly head above the surface. The ironic thing is that despite all the research and fascination, I've never been to Korea. I've never even been near Korea. The closest I've been was when I was about 9 years old when we switched flights at Tokyo's Narita Airport en route to and from Hong Kong.

As for the career part, it would give me an idea of whether teaching is something I want to do. If not, then at least I have one year of work experience under my belt and some international experience that I can put on a resume (in case I apply for a position that would require doing business internationally). After doing some research and finding out that the costs of living are much lower than Vancouver's (which actually isn't saying too much) and asking around about how much money can be spent and saved, it also seemed to be a great way to pay off some student loans without worrying about getting laid off admidst this stupid recession.

In addition, EPIK is reimbursing airfare to and from Korea and providing housing, so my only expenses would be utilities, food, transportation and entertainment (which isn't likely going to be a big expense, considering my lifestyle and what I consider "entertainment"). It seemed like a logical first step, and would serve to keep my "travel the world" itch under control for a while.

But now I'm only 10 days from actually taking this first step, and I am scared to death and wondering what I've gotten myself into. I was nervous enough about leaving university and entering the workforce when I assumed I'd be staying here in Vancouver, but now the situation involves a new city, a new country, a new language and a new culture to go along with the new job.

If someone told me back in February that this is what I'd be doing in less than half a year, I would've responded with, "Holy crap."