What is that in your mouth?

Sometimes after work, I get the munchies. I'm lucky that it happens here because South Korea has street food everywhere you look. So sometimes I go to a vendor across the street from the school to buy a bite to eat. I have a favorite, and it costs me 500 won (which is about 45 cents Canadian).

Basically, most of the deep fried stuff you see from street food vendors need to be re-fried when you want it. So you pick one, give it to the vendor and he/she will deep fry it for you and put either sweet sauce or hot sauce on top after it's re-fried. My favorite snack has sweet sauce.

Since it's across from the school after classes have ended, some students have inevitably spotted me buying a snack once in a while. A few of them were amazed. "Teacher, do you know what's in that?" (quotes have been edited for grammar and clarity ;) )

I shrugged. "I don't know. But it's yummy, and that's all that matters."

The students then informed me that it was sticky rice mixed with pig's blood and cow lungs and intestines, all deep fried and put on a stick.

I shrugged again. "Oh well."

The students gaped at me. "I just told you what it's made of. Aren't you afraid?"

I looked at the students for the longest time. "Well... no."

"Why?"

I paused. "Well, first of all, I'm Chinese..."

I'm wired again

It sounds so weird, but I was without internet for about 4 days.

Yes. No internet. In South Korea. Holy crappola! Arrest that man -- he has no internet in the most wired country in the world!

But now I'm back with my new (non-free) internet connection, which gives me speeds of about 20 MB per second for about $17 per month. Well, technically it's $30 but they have a weird rebate system over here. Instead of rebating money, they give you money when you sign a contract with them. Once you factor that in and subtract that from the actual monthly fee, it's closer to $17 per month. Bless you, South Korea!

I also got a wifi router so that I can finally use my iPod Touch at home again, and also for use when/if someone (like family members) visit. That way, they won't have to share my computer to get online and have to dig through all my crap just to launch Firefox. But the damned wifi router's instructions and setup program are in Korean. Like, 99% is in Korean, except for random abbreviations like "ADSL" and stuff. So I'd like to password-protect my wifi but can't figure it out because, well, I don't understand Korean besides basic place names and "hello" and "thank you."

In a weird twist, my old internet connection got cut on the same night that I finally got a phone number. It was like sacrificing one form of communication for another. The best thing about South Korean cellphone service compared to Canadian service is that incoming calls are free. That suits me perfectly, because I tend to have a lot more incoming calls that outgoing calls. The only bad part is that my cellphone gets really hot when I use it for more than 15 minutes. Hopefully I won't have a big burn on my face after talking for a long time.

When the new internet was installed, the installation guy had to come into the apartment and poke his head out the window to check for something. I never had reason to do so, so I had no idea what it looked like outside. So after he went back to his truck to get something, I did the same thing... and apparently the network wire that connects into my apartment through a drilled hole near the windowsill leads directly to a power line. I was like, "Holy shit." I mean, it's not unusual to see a huge mess/tangle of wires above the side streets of Seoul, but now I realize that a huge fraction of those lines leads directly into apartments through windows and stuff. This city would be so screwed if it was in an earthquake zone, because the wires would come tumbling down together and the whole city would be electrocuted. Man.

Work is going a lot smoother now... I'm starting to figure out what works and what doesn't, and the students are getting more accustomed to me. At first they were a bit terrified. They still are terrified but at least they feel more comfortable with me now. There's a funny story with that, involving street food and the students, which I'll post later this week.

Oh, and I've fallen in love with Ellie Nash again. More on that later.

It's been one month

Well, it's been exactly one month since I landed here in South Korea. In some ways, the month flew by quite quickly, but in other ways, it seemed like a slow crawl.

It feels like a long time since I stepped off the plane at Incheon International Airport, but it's been only about four weeks. In those four weeks, I've spent time in orientation and training, moved from a hotel to the orientation venue to an apartment, went through the motions of worrying about whether I will get a shoebox or a love motel or a proper apartment, figured out how much things cost around here, and so on. It felt like a Jack Bauer day in 24.

There are some aspects of the culture that I'm getting used to, but there are still some days when the smallest tendencies annoy me. For example, a lot of people here seem to have no sense of direction. Yesterday, I was standing at the edge of an aisle at the supermarket. Nobody was around me except for a woman pushing a shopping cart. She is looking right in my direction and rams the cart into me. Then she looked all confused and surprised, as if to say, "Holy crap, where did YOU come from? I never saw you coming." I was looking at her, like, "Dude... I've been standing here for well over a minute. I'm wearing a bright orange shirt. How can you not see me?" But anyways...

My internet at the apartment has finally been cut off (as I was using a rather, ahem, free way of surfing the web until now, using a combination of VPN and a password-protected connection), so I'll be offline from home for a while. But I should be back up in a few days.

I also have a cell phone (finally). Those who want the number can send me a message and I'll give it to you. (If you are phoning from North America, you must pay for long distance charges, obviously.)

But there are good aspects too. My school has been spoiling me for the most part, and treating me like a king. I've heard some nightmare stories from Dave's ESL. I'm aware that negativity reigns supreme there, but I wanted to be cautious. My experience has been almost the opposite of every negative thing posted there. Case in point: Instead of trying to eek their way out of my contract's terms (as some schools try to do), my school actually looked over the contract a week in and realized that they neglected to provide me with some of the apartment furnishings mentioned in it. So with that, I got a microwave and TV for my place. As Borat would say: "Very niiiice."

And finally, the KFC here in Seoul tastes a lot better than the KFC in Canada, despite being around the same price. KFC in Canada sucks.

SMOE's teacher hiring chaos

A lot of native English teachers are already aware of the 100 people that were told by SMOE that they no longer had a job with them -- AFTER they signed the contract, AFTER they got their visas, and 24 HOURS before their (non-refundable) flight to Seoul.

Well, from the same author as that blog link comes the best editorial about the issue I've read so far; it appeared in the Korea Herald today. It's quite a good read, and hits the nail on the head. It really does make me feel lucky that I wasn't one of the 100 who lost their jobs at the last minute (although since I was officially with EPIK and not SMOE, it was possible that they could've just placed me elsewhere in the country if this actually happened to me).

But I really do feel for the 100 who did get dropped. I was actually already in contact with someone on the same boat as me (recruited by EPIK and transferred to SMOE) and we were talking about how we were finally going to meet each other in person -- and then SMOE informed him that they weren't hiring him after all.

Luckily, he wasn't one of the poor guys who were told 24 hours before the flight (he was told about a week before, I think), but the way it all unraveled is pretty scary. Because of that, I did not relax when I got my NOA. Nor did I relax when I stepped foot at Incheon International Airport. Nor did I relax when I was waiting for the shuttle bus to orientation. I relaxed a little at the orientation venue, but not completely. I didn't completely relax until I finally had some alone time in my new apartment (mostly due to the Dongdaemun Stadium co-op worries).

Welcome to Korea. Come for the job, stay for the mind games. Hopefully this is a one-time thing, but prepare yourself in case it isn't.

You'd think Hyundai would've learned...

When I left the Vancouver area, a new subway line called the Canada Line was opening on the same day; it connects my hometown of Richmond to downtown Vancouver and Vancouver International Airport.

The trains are made by Hyundai Rotem, the EXACT SAME company that makes subway trains here in Seoul (and also in Incheon). One issue that the subway trains have here is the amount of heat generated by the machinery under the train's floor. Because of this, the air conditioning on board many Seoul subway trains can prove quite futile (unless the train isn't crowded).

It turns out that despite the response I got from one of the Canada Line open house events, this problem wasn't rectified; I've been told by friends back home that the air conditioning on the Canada Line trains is equally futile, and it looks like it's because of the exact same reason as the Seoul trains.

I'm slightly surprised that they didn't fix this problem. The Seoul trains weren't built yesterday, so they would've known about this issue already. There was plenty of time, even before the Canada Line started construction, to look into this problem. Instead, we now have a bunch of trains with the same drawback as their older model counterparts. It doesn't seem quite progressive, does it?

South Korea Sights: Yongsan Electronics Market

South Korea has a reputation for being a tech geek's paradise. The Yongsan Electronics Market is a pretty good metaphor for that. The name suggests something small, but the YEM is nothing small at all. It consists of several large malls where they sell almost nothing but electronics -- camera gear, video games, computers, TVs, etc.



What makes it cooler is that a large portion of the storeowners there also speak English, so it's great for tourists as well. Some prices are a bit higher than elsewhere, but there are also incredible bargains here and there, such as desktop computers for $200.

There are also some stands on the streets that sell pirated DVDs, so if you're not worried about legality, there's a possibility there.

For people like me, it's like dying and going to heaven, only to find out that heaven is in central Seoul and accessible from Yongsan Station on the subway.

South Korea is not full of Nazis

One of the most common symbols you'll see in parts of Seoul:

Meeting your other half

I met my other half a few days ago. By "other half," I mean my counterpart at the high school that adjoins my middle school. My middle school's building is actually attached to the high school -- I'm the native English teacher for the middle school and the high school has its own native English teacher as well.

I knew it was a possibility that we would bump into each other at one point, but it was interesting that he sought me out specifically. I was busy planning my Alien Registration Card (the foreigners' ID card here in South Korea) stuff with one of my co-teachers when he came in.

He's a fellow Canadian, and a fellow western Canadian (from Saskatoon) to boot. Take that, Ontario. My guess is that the high school principal told him about me, because that morning, I had to arrive an hour early for a formal introduction to the adjoining high school's faculty. (The Koreans seem to be big on formally introducing people like that. They'll ask you to attend a meeting, and will ask you to go to the front and take a bow in front of the whole faculty.)

Coincidentally, I recognized him. A few days prior, as I was walking home, I saw a very lost-looking Caucasian guy at the corner of the street near the elementary school. I'm quite positive I was him, especially when he said something along the lines of, "Yeah, I'm usually the Westerner who's always looking lost."

I actually feel that this is a pretty lucky situation. Even if we don't see each other often outside of lunchtime, it can really give a great psychological boost to know that there's another "one of me" literally in the next door building. It's like the effect of me living only 4 subway stops from Itaewon, the international district in Seoul -- with Itaewon, I know if I'm craving some international flair or a taste of home (ie. Canadian brands), it's only a short ride away. It's a comforting feeling. (My other comfort is listening to my favorite radio station back in Vancouver, via the internet.)

This Would Never Happen in Canada: motorcycles

Along with South Korea Sights, I will also start a semi-regular feature called This Would Never Happen in Canada. The title was inspired by the catchphrase, "This would never happen in Japan" from a message board I frequent.

The segment will be very short and will talk about... well, I think the title is self-explanatory.

---

This would never happen in Canada: motorcycles regularly using sidewalks.

Here in Seoul, sidewalks are for pedestrians and motorcycles. Sometimes the sidewalks are wide enough for this to happen, but sometimes not. Once, I was on a sidewalk in Yongsan less than a meter wide, and a scooter decided to squeeze by me. This is not only normal, but expected. It's never a bad idea to be overly paranoid while navigating the sidewalks of Seoul. Sidewalks also double as motorcycle parking lots sometimes.

Similarly, motorcycles often use pedestrian crosswalks. It is not unusual to be standing there waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green, and looking next to you and seeing a motorcycle rider doing the same thing.

Motorcycles are also used as delivery trucks. We do this in Canada for stuff like pizza deliveries, I know. But here, they do it for anything from pizza to huge rolls of carpet. It's amazing how big a load they can add to a motorcycle without losing balance. And some of these guys drive the motorcycle with only one hand on the handlebars and often without helmets!

Seeing the traffic in Seoul (and its side streets), it's often understandable why a motorcycle would look like a wiser choice. I'm now trying to imagine how UBC would look if students used motorcycles instead of regular bikes to get from class to class...

Living quarters

When housing is provided for you, you can't really complain -- especially if you're in a major city in Asia, where housing can be notoriously cramped. While there are situations where there would be cause to complain about housing, generally it's a good perk to have your rent paid for you.

With that said, I was not only pleasantly surprised that I didn't end up at the infamous Dongdaemun Stadium housing co-op, but also surprised that my place actually has wiggle room (if you don't think about the washroom). It's located near where Jung-gu, Yongsan-gu and Mapo-gu meet up, and close to the international district of Itaewon (a major meeting place for us teachers who got to know each other during orientation).



As you can see, there's a bit of room. Since this video was made, a new desk and chair were moved in (and I got the internet working). While the desk is rather large, there's still enough wiggle room. While it isn't exactly a penthouse, it's not a shoebox either.

The washroom is a bit amusing though:

Above: My cramped washroom.

The commute from my place to work is about a 7-minute stroll:



But this can be effectively cut down to 5-6 minutes if you take a shortcut (as I discovered by following some students the other day). This shortcut has a gentler slope and fewer cars, and features this fantastic view of the city:

Above: The view of Seoul and Namsan (with its famous Seoul Tower overlooking the city) from my new shortcut to work.

I wonder how that view would look like in snow.

I can also get this view from the cafeteria of the school I work at. It's nothing like the view from my apartment. My two windows open up to reveal the neighbor's roof or attic windows.

One of the cons about this apartment is that it has a slight ant problem. It's nowhere as bad as the problem my sister had at her place in California, but it's noticeable. Another issue is that the rooms aren't very noiseproof; if I play my radio too loud, you can hear it in the hallway. Likewise, I can usually hear whenever returns to their apartment because the doors in this building have very noisy locks.

Internet also requires a Megapass account but due to some holes in their authentication system (ie. you can use MSN Messenger and Vuze without a password), I managed to get around it using my still-active VPN account from my old university back home. So basically, I'm using high-speed internet for free. As another plus, because I'm using a Canadian-based VPN, websites are reading me as visiting from Canada instead of South Korea; this can be useful because I wouldn't have to repeatedly change some sites' default language from Korean to English. (Sites like Google, YouTube, Blogger, and Hotmail use your IP addresses to determine the default language.) Good times.