Baseball In Korean!! (Samsung Lions vs. The KIA Tigers) Oh My!

When I think of pro baseball, I think of greedy, over-bloated steroid users. I also think of the sleepy Braves games at Turner field were there is more entertainment off the field than on it. Sure, the mega stadium experience that is MLB baseball has it’s drawing points, but the main factor, the game, has been lost to me. I haven't seriously followed baseball in years, which is a shame because baseball is the sport that I first paid attention to as a child. Where I was a big fan and followed my favorites, that was lost over the years as the sport seemed to lose it's way in my eyes.



So you can imagine how odd it was to see a Korean Pro baseball game for the first time. I had was not sure what to expect but I decided to keep an open mind. This isn't the U.S., it's another place and they hold baseball in a different reguard than Americans do. In fact, the Korean National Team was runner up in the World Baseball Classic last year. I was very curious about how Pro baseball here in Korea measured up.



I was invited by the P.E. teacher at my school (one on the right in the picture below) to watch the local team play. The Samsung Lions, from what I’ve read about, are a traditional powerhouse in the K-League (KBO). However, it seems as if things have shifted a bit and they are on a slight slump. Still competitive, but not as dominat as before. Still, I jumped at the chance to do something different. So after school one day, we headed to the stadium.




The very first thing I noticed was that we parked almost right next to the stadium. Back home you would be hard pressed to find a parking spot close to a High School football field let alone a Pro baseball stadium. We walked over and bought tickets (which were dirt cheap) and my friend went to buy food.

Now here’s the kicker. He went across the street to the convince store. He actually bought outside food to the game. This would be blasphemy at any professional sport. You could sneak a rocket launcher into a purse faster than you could sneak in a pack of M&M’s to a Braves game. Yet I noticed people bringing bags of food and even picnic baskets into the stadium. I also noticed a large cluster of ajumas (old women) selling fried chicken outside. They were yelling at anyone walking past and would go so far as to run up and try to pull a person over to their stand. It was hilarious seeing about 7 old ladies run up to random people yelling at one time trying to get them to buy something.

To make things more interesting; I noticed that the choices for food inside and outside the park are NOTHING LIKE THE STATES. Back home, it’s all about “Peanuts and cracker jacks”, Hot Dogs, cokes, chips and everything in between. Here in Korea - Not a hot dog in site. Most people were chowing down on fried chicken or woofing down cups of ramen. The P.E. teacher and I ended up eating dried squid. It's like a really chewy, rubbery dried chicken meat. Not a favorite, but not bad either. The one thing that doesn’t change is that people drink beer during the game. It seems that alcohol is the universal substance of consumption at sporting events.



When we went inside, my friend the P.E. teacher asked me where I wanted to sit. Yep, that’s right. You can pick your seats. We walked around and found a spot between the upper level and the lower one, just to the left of home plate and right on top of the dugout. As the stadium filled up, I noticed people would sit almost anywhere. The spots on behind the last row were wide concrete isles, so people got cardboard and sat on the grown behind the seats and formed another row.



I thought it was great. Very odd to me, but I liked the idea. You get to the park early, you get a good seat. I found this very strange considering that movie theatres here assign seats. I wonder if it’s just for Daegu or is that universal.



The stadium is noticeably smaller than a MLP park. From what I've read, it only seats about 12,000. It is also an older stadium. But it also means there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. You can clearly see the field and I was glad to be able to do that.



Now as the game started, I noticed one glaring thing. This guy in a uniform started stretching on top of the dugout and these girls dressed similar to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders showed up. Confusing? Yep. It turns out that the guy in the uniform is a designated cheerleader in the most literal sense of the word. This guy actually leads the crowd in cheers. He’s got a microphone piped into the sound system and he gets the crowd to root on the players. And this goes on the entire game. Between at bats, there are special cheers and chants much like soccer chants that go on. The girls accompanying him even hold up place cards with the words to the chants. This made things really easy to get into.



As for the girls, well, they are actual cheerleaders. They do dances and cheers to music, they help get the crowd into the game. . . and they are there to look pretty. They remind me of the dancers at an NBA game who do routines during time outs. They even do costume changes.



Overall, I liked this idea. Because the crowd is literally chanting every players name at each at-bat, they are always into the game. The focus is on the players and the game. However, this was done without the belligerent drunkenness that one might see at a college football game back home or other sporting events. There’s no way I would want to take a kid to many pro sports games (especially football) but I would have no issues with one going to a Korean baseball game.



I also liked the feel of being into the game for once. I’m sure it helps the crowd feel like they are more apart of what is going on. I know I felt more into the game than I ever did at a sporting event back home (save for HBCU football games. . . . nothing beats a black college homecoming). I got into the chants and tried my hardest to sing along (they are all in Korean so I tried to read the cards as best I could). I was walking up and down the isle chanting and waving a team towel. I even wound up on the jumbo-tron a few times. (Note to self: Large black man chanting in Korean is easily as entertaining to Koreans as it sounds. )



The only thing I didn’t like about the chants was that they were more about Samsung than the city. Unlike in the states, the pro teams aren’t known by the cities they are based in. They are known by the sponsors. So you wouldn’t say the Daegu Lions. . . you would saythe Samsung Lions because Samsung owns them. It’s on the jerseys and it’s in the chants. I find it so odd considering that in America, the teams are usually big parts of the cities they are in. So much so that teams take on the personalities of their cities (The Pittsburgh Steelers are a great example. You have a blue collar town with a workmen, middle class, rough around the edges mentality identity that the team emulated in their style of play. The Steelers are a tough Defensive with a hard hat style offense.). It just felt odd to say that I was watching a game between the Samsung Lions and the KIA Tigers. Still, it wasn't like they cross-marketed things to death. The stadium isn't named Samsun Stadium and the company logo isn't quite plastered all over the place. Just the team name.



Sadly, the team lost the game. I found out that the KIA Tigers are the league leaders and it was obvious why. Their team must have hit four homeruns before the game was done. Also, the Lions loaded the bases three times and hardly capitalized on it. There were a lot of runners left on base during the game. Still, I had a great time. I even caught one of the little prize bags the cheerleaders shot into the crowd. I ended up with gift certificates to Lotteria (Aka Fake MacDonald’s). I could see myself going to a lot of games especially if I decide to do a third and final year here. It was a fun experience and it made me like baseball again.

One thing I have to say I'm a little on the fence about. . . .





No "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" or Seventh Inning Stretch. I was hoping to hear a Korean version of that song so I was a little dissapointed.

Weekend Warrior Report: Great American (Korean) 4th of July Bash!!!!

It was the 4th of July last week. A big deal in the states. . . nothing here in SoKo. Needless to say, I was missing the BBQ and the fireworks back home. However, it doesn’t take much for the local foreign community to celebrate important holidays. Once again, I was out with my camera taking pictures of my friends. A few of the foreign friendly bars downtown had special events and fun was had by all. Sadly, the monsoon season has hit here and it’s made things tougher if you want to be out and about.

A few friends hanging around the deck @ Club That.

Club That had a live concert going on. Local favorite Sensational Gonzalez was there to perform.

I allow people to take my camera and these kind of pictures are taken. . . believe it or not, i'm not smiling. I can't smile in pictures unless it looks goofy.

It will be a quiet weekend this time around. The vast majority of foreginers are heading out of town to Mudfest. From what I can, people go to some place in the middle of no where, jump in mud pits, hose down, then do random crazy stuff. Strangely not my style so I will be here at home this go round.

Less than a week of school left, then it's off to camps! Whoo hoo!

Destiny is pre-ordained. . . Just like grades

Sparkling Korea hasn’t done this in a while to me, so I guess I was overdue for another headache moment.

For the next three weeks, I’ll be giving individual reading tests to students. I sit in a room and they come in one at a time. Each student will pick from a series of pre-prepared cards and read them to me. I will record and grade each student based on their ability. Simple, right?

Well, here’s the wrinkle in the system. When my co-teacher’s handed me the grading scale to use, they also gave me a set number of grades I could give out per grade. Which means if I have a class of 34 students, then only 5 can be A’s, 6 can be B’s and so on.

Excuse me????

So you mean to tell me that I have a set number of each grade to give out? This means I have worry about the fact that one student might just work their ass of and really do a good job, but because I gave all my “A’s” I have to give them a B? Are we serious?

Somehow they have pre-determined the grades for the students even before they start. How the hell?

I asked about this and while I didn’t get an exact reason, they just explained that I have to use each set of numbers. So I’m forced to be really conservative with my grades. Yesterday I found myself dinging them for every little thing. Plus, I’ve been here a year so I have a fairly good idea of who will do a good job and who won’t. But that doesn’t mean someone won’t harder.

This makes me wonder how many other grades come out like this????

Now it’s been brought to my attention that this isn’t that unusual a practice, even back in the US. To me, the idea of such a practice is insane. What happened to getting the grade you earned?

Pictures of the Week (April 22)

This week's pictures from the wonderful world of Korean weirdness come from my random walking around the city of Daegu. I think it's time for something a little different, so I might want to travel around to get pictures from different places.

First up on the list is this wonderful little shirt I found with a friend when we wandered into a cell phone assessory shop. The girl wearing the shirt seemed to be uneasy about me taking the picture, so I asked her friend to take it for me. We also explained why it was so funny to us silly Americans. I think it was more than fair considering that she was squeezing the chicken and making nosies with it.

There are a lot of keychains and cell phone charms here. This one caught my eye due to the fact that not only is it Spider-Man, but it's Spider-Man holding a bottle of Soju. For those of you who don't know, Soju is the local liquor of choice for many Koreans. The drink is synonoious with the country despite a movement to distance itself from the drink. But how could such a trinket exist? Well, the copyright laws are very fuzzy here. Many things aren't "offical" here so it's not usual to see such things.

Weekend Warrior Report: Racing The Sun

My Friday was boarder line pointless. I didn’t do too much and I only ended up meeting with friends and bar hopping to Commune and That. The night started out with a little bit of promise. That promise eventually fizzled out and gave way to mundane blah-dom.

Saturday I allowed Nick’s girlfriend Susy to talk me into coming to Salsa lessons and observe . I might actually sign up because I like dancing and want to learn how to do it right. Truth be told, I’m a little self-conscious about it. Dancing is one of the few kinks left in my armor. I plan on making Susy teach me some basics before I walk into class (Yes, a pre lesson before an actual lesson! Makes sense. . .) due to my own silly issues about it.

After getting galbi with the usual suspects, I headed off with a few friends to find something to do. Intially there wasn’t much success. That was blah, Old Skool has officially been taken over by the U.S. military, but, it was in Frog where I ended up having the most fun.

Now I hate Club Frog because It’s overcrowded and I always feel like I should have an STD test after going there. Yet it’s my boy’s favorite spot to hit up in town and I ended up hanging with him for a bit. Surprisingly it wasn’t bad; the music was decent and a few people I know were there.

Towards the later end of the night, Jeff the DJ showed up and bought me and some of the guys a few rounds. Me and him kicked it a bit on the balcony and he gave me some intersting info and prespective. At some point during out converstation, he tells me of a random spot to check out and on the spot he decides to take me there. He introduces me to the staff and then talks me up to some people hanging in there. I found this funny, but I took the que and enjoyed myself.

We stayed at the bar until they closed. By this point the sun was beaming down but I somehow ended up at another galbi joint with a few random Koreans while they drank Soju and talked. To wrap up this little adventure, I walked into the house around 8:30-9ish in the morning. After a little net surfing and skype called back home, I hit the sack. Definitely a unique night for me. . . but fun all the same.

Freak Out the Students

Yesterday, one of the kids in class said something to me and for some reason it caused me to respond in Korean. It was simple No (An-Ne-Yo) but a few kids were suprised I even could say that much. I heard a few of them say, "You can speak Korean."

My response?

"Han Guk mal jal moat hey yo." (I can't speak Korean well.)

The whole class went "WWWWOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAHHHH!" Took them a moment to clam down.

It's a small. . . VERY small step. Hell, three months ago I couldn't even say that! Who knows; maybe ONE day I'll be able to speak in full sentences.

To Be (In Korea) or Not to Be (In Korea)

And so the time has come; the question of contract renewals has come up. Signing back on means another year in Korea. Another year away from friends, family and the comfort of Atlanta. No Game nights with the crew, no AWA, no UFC nights with the guys and no football. Also, no time with someone special back home I miss, no goofing with my brother, no trips to find a corner in Boarders and read and no random runs to Café Intermezzo or Real Chow Baby.

It also means, more learning Korean, more Korean children, more being stared at, and more random nights out with the expats here. It means a possible trip to Japan and who knows where else, more learning about another culture, more not knowing what people are saying around me, and more Norebang nights.

I can honestly say I’m not ready to head home yet. I feel that my time here isn’t done. Yeah, I want to see my people, but I will see them. I will get a chance to hang with them again when I go home for the summer, but I think another year is needed. Then I’ll be ready.

I just hope everything with evaluations go ok. I enjoy my school, but there are times would enjoy another school. I would like to teacher more motivated and advanced kids, but that would require moving to another part of the city more than likely. I’ve grown very attached to the kids here at Seonam Middle School. Even some of the bad ones.

But, when it comes to the teachers here, I feel lost as hell. They are nice to me at least. I like the well enough. Basically, most of them are women and it’s tough to get past that barrier here. The cultural divide is too tough. I don’t relate to them very well, nor they to me. I barely know the other English teachers here and there are days were I barely say a word at work other than my English class work. And that bothers me. A lot. Particularly when I hear of some friends who have regular contact with their teachers outside of work. Hell, I even know they were hoping for a girl and got me instead. It’s just the truth of the matter.

So the big question is will I ask to change schools or will they ask to have me changed?

Crash and Burn with Pre-teen Drama 101

A few weeks ago, I learned that I would have afternoon classes this semester. The difference between the afternoon classes and my normal classes is that I’m in the classroom with students by myself and I’m teaching whatever I want. This can be good and bad. I like the idea of the freedom to be in class with no one around, but it also presents the problem of what to do with that freedom.



By chance, a friend of mine who teaches at another school told me that she was using a TV show to teach kids English. Because she wanted to use a safe show, she used the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101.
Initially the idea of such a show did not seem interesting to me. A Pre-teen show about a girl . . complete with light romance themes and bubble gum plotlines. I at least wanted to use something with some more teeth. I toyed with the idea of using a show like the new 90210 or One Three Hill, but the content, plotlines and language would have been a bit questionable. I also thought of using Saved By The Bell but I thought it might be too dated. . . plus I didn't think the DVD set would get here on such short notice (international shipping is pricy!). However, I knew that the audience would be younger middle school age kids and mostly girls (boys usually don’t study languages over here so I didn’t expect many boys in the class). I also knew the show’s content would be (relatively) safe. So I ran the idea by one of my co-teachers and she loved the idea.


I got the scripts my friend used, the videos of the show and I made a study guide with vocabulary words and questions. I figured that the kids who would sign up for the class would be more advanced than most in the school, but I still tried to make
things easy for them. I figured the idea of watching a TV show in English with no Korean subtitles would be a bit much for them. As I went thru and watched the first thru episodes so I would know what the hell I was teaching, I got excited about the idea of doing this lesson instead of the typical book work I usually teach in class.

So this past Monday was the first day to teach this class. I came into class with my packets, my TV episodes and more information about Zoey 101 than a man of 30 should know. As I expected, the class is made up of almost all girls and mostly first years (seventh grade). So, I started class with a very light explanation of the show.

And they barely understand a word I said.

Turns out the students in the class were not as advanced as I thought. They had a very basic understanding of the language, so a lot of instructions were hard for them. It took a few tries, but they got a few of my instructions. As I plotted thru the packet with them, I feared that I would have to scrap everything I worked on.

Instead of simply showing them the show and going over the information in the packet as I had planned, I read over the script of the show with them slowly and had them highlight any words they don’t know. Then I gave them explanations of words and we watched only a scene of the show. I was relieved when I noticed that they understood some of what was going on. It gave me some hope to keep trying for the next class.

I ended up going home and revising the lesson. The next day, I read thru the script in class and gave the students English to Korean dictionaries to look up the words they didn’t know. I even went down a basic explanation of the characters and I noticed that they were finally catching on. I played the scene twice for them; once to let them hear the language, then again after reading slowly thru the lines. During the second run thru, a few students were mouthing the words and mimicking the actors’ lines. After class, two of the older girls told me the class was hard but interesting. The class also kept watching the show even after the bell rang.

My goal is to get the students used to the speed of the show and broaden their English vocabulary. If I can get them thru one episode a week, I’ll be fine as long as they are really learning. However, I’m very happy I didn’t have to junk my who lesson.

Lost Entry: Visit to Korean Mom

(Originally written 4/06/08, this entry was saved and upadated later)


This past weekend I skipped my usual trip to the gym with the rest of fight club group and met my old co-teacher Mrs. Jeong (aka Korean Mom). She has a weekly meeting with a group of her friends and they practice English and she invited me to come along. I figured I would be around a group of older women teachers for the day, but I would deal with it.

I was surprised that the group was very mixed across the board. True, most of them were teachers, but it was made up of both men and women and the ages varied. They all come from different walks of life and from different jobs.The group meets to read over and discuss different new artiles written in English. The articles range from current events to And Landers. I got to join in and they had questions for me on a few things. It was a good peek into the mind set of Koreans, at least a few opinions. There were a few things discussed that kind of made me wiggle a bit, but nothing I couldn’t handle.



I was really interested in seeing them interact because in the whole time I’ve been here, I’ve rarely had a chance to interact with Koreans in a non school setting. Unlike some of my friends, the teachers at my school rarely interact with me outside of school. My social experience with Koreans in general is very limited so I feel like that's part of the cultural experience I miss out on. The biggest problem is of course the language barrier; I don't speak enough Korean and most Koreans don't have a strong enough handle of over the English language. However, this was not the case for the English Disscussion group. The majority of them speak very good English and can express themsleves very clearly. I can only hope to get a 10th of that in Korean one day.



I think what I enjoyed most about the situation is that everyone was comfortable with each other. Everyone was joking, even making fun of each other. It was a lot of laughs, both for them and me. . One of the most interesting conversations was the one about multi-tasking that led to a men vs. women debate. They also talked about dealing with cultural idea of chivalry. While it’s a deteriorating idea in the west, it still does exist. Here in Korea, it’s a new idea. There is still an idea of “women’s” work and men don’t do things like hold doors for women. I could tell the women like the idea, but they were very unused to it.

I tired not to say too much (however, I’m sure I failed once or twice, particularly about the chivalry disscussion). Still, I got to pick their brains a bit and see what types of lives they lived. In the end, I was invited to come back and I’m considering making it a once a month thing to join them. Mrs. Jeong thought it would be fine.

After everything was over and everyone went home, Mrs. Jeong took me to get dinner. Did I mention the she rocks? Then we went shopping – she needed to buy things for home and I needed food for the next two weeks. I was more than thankful for this because I don’t have a car here and because she drove it meant I could buy a bit more than normal. Trust me; lugging boxes of crap on the subway is not fun.

We got to catch up and she told me about her new school and I told her about my time at Seonam. I can see that being at a high school is changing up her life. I could see that she had lost weight (the woman is tiny as it is!) and she told me that she works longer hours and has to do more preparation. However she seems to like her new homeroom. I told her that she was missed at the school and that a few students had asked me if I liked her or her replacement better. I can also tell she missed her son (who is recently started his required military service). She told me a few times how her home life has changed between her son leaving and her new job. She says that she gets up at 3 or 4 in the morning to do house chores before going to work!!! I even got a little insight from her about the personalities of the other English teachers at my school. Most of it I guessed, but it was interesting to see her perspective on it.

One thing that was not lost on me was seeing her home for the first time. This is the first time I’ve been in someone’s house other than another westerner. By American standards, she has a small apartment good for one or maybe two people. Personally, I thought it was beautiful. She said it was plain, but I thought it was very nice. A nice view of the city and the mountains, good space, and even a nice kitchen. I could tell that she worked hard to keep it clean because when all her guests left when the group meeting was over, she immediately started to clean (She would not let me help despite me trying three times.).

Despite it being a rather low-key day, it’s still one of the more memorable. I'm glad I got to see it because I don't know when I will get such an opportunity again.

Uniform Code

So I figured out the oddball issue with uniforms here.

It's not secert that Korea (and many Asian countries) have uniforms for schools. It's just one of those trademark things here.



Well, when I got here, I found out that many of the uniform companies use pop idols to advertize the uniforms. I find this odd because many of the uniforms used in the adds are always over the top compared to the uniforms the school use.






Now you see the uniforms in the ad here. Now take a look at the uniforms my students have:


Nothing quite so colorful. I'll go out on a limb and say that this is more of the normal look of the typical uniform here in Korea. I've seen a few oddball ones here and there, but most of them look pretty standard. So to me, it seemed like a waste of advertising. Especially when I saw the uniform shops near my friend's house.







I can only imagine telling an American student they had to wear something like that everyday. The riots would be intense. Honestly, we already have issues in America with the very idea of wearing a uniform, much less one that looks like it something out of an anime. But still, the whole thing still confused me until recently. Pointless to have pop stars selling your product when it's an pretty much something you HAVE to have. I mean, the school makes you wear them, right?

Well, sort of.

I asked one of my co-teachers about this the other day when the issue of school dress code came up (more on that another time). When I told her that I figured the school picked out the uniforms, she told me I was mistaken. Apperently, the students vote on the uniforms before the school year starts. In fact, she informed that that this year the uniform changed. . . at least the brand did. The same style uniform was used, but the students decided to change the brand they bought from.

NOW the advertizing makes sense.

Which makes things even more interesting that the government recently banned the practice of using idols to sell uniforms. The reason: rising cost of uniforms. Unifroms can run you between 150,000 - 300,000 won per set (That's anywhere from $100-250 bucks USD). Now consider that kids wear these things every day from 5-6 days a week from Late Feb. to The end of the year. That's a LOT of wear and tear.

However, I feel sorry for the school that has to wear the wild hot pink unifroms. . . ugh.

Take Notes In Class

This is how I know I'm taking the idea of teaching more seriously.

I have a few kids who regularly visit my desk in the teacher's office. At some point during the day, a group of several girls will come hover around and start asking random questions. A few of them speak limited english, the rest either try or relay questions and comments thru their friends.

So one day, two of the girls that happen to be best friends start to explain their nicknames to me. One goes by Mouse and the other by the name Spongebob(When I see them together, I call them MouseBob). So after their giggle-filled explantion, they go off to class. Later in the day, I get a pair of notes from them:





Now of course, this is a cute gesture because I know both girls have limited english skills. I happy if any child shows any level of desire to try to use the language. It's technically what I'm here for afterall.

Now, being the teacher, what did I do?

I copied the notes on paper, corrected them, then gave the corrected versions back to the girls. They were actually happy once I gave them back.

However, what bothered me most is that despite the fact that there is a big name tag on my desk, they still got my name wrong.

It doesn't matter, I keep both notes stuck on my desk. Something I have noticed that the kids take pride in.

Communication Is Important. . Even If You Have No Clue As To What's Being Said

I'm taking this as a good sign: I seem to be commuicating with my co-teacher better. I actually sat down and had a conversation with her today. In fact, I think I've talked to her more in the last two days than I in a whole month of last semster. She gave my info about classes. I think it's the fact that I'm coming to her about my lesson plans. I learned from last year to communicate more with her and it seems to help. Things can get lost in translation I think and I got to make sure to stay up to date or I will end up missing something.

Let me say that it pays massively to communicate with the teachers here. If you don't, you miss out on a lot. Like the fact that all the teachers are having a dinner tommrow. Which makes things kind of tough for me because I'm supposed to go to a dinner at Epic tommrow at Ariannas. On one hand, I'm all for bonding opportunities at work, but it's Ariannas. Even my co-teacher said it's a better resturant than the one the school teachers are going to!

I also learned that I will have to teach two first year classes with a Korean teacher in the classroom instead of an English one. THAT is going to be difficult. This means I have to take into account that the kids in the class wont' have anyone to translate if things get difficult. Which means I have make very simple lesson plans. LOTS of visual aids, video clips and simple work for the first year students. It's already going to be tough with them because the first year students tend to be the most scared. The current group already doesn't know me, so it's going be a bit of a challenge. I think it won't be too bad because the one thing about first years is that they tend to be easier to keep under control. Nothing I can't handle. Besides, the teacher might end up being good.

Brand New (School) Day: Remember To Set Your Alarm!!!

I had a lot going on recently: Brian’s in-and-out visit, Andrew coming into town, heading up to Seoul with Kathy, trying to go to Busan at some point.

But the biggest thing is that school started this week.

I tried to mentally prepare myself for going back to school. After two months of little (English camps) to no (sitting in my apartment) work, I had to face up to going in and starting up with attempting to get Korean kids to pay attention in class. No easy task when it has no true standing on their grades. I’ll admit I missed working and having something to do, but I’ve thought about a few things I wanted to do in order to make things easier on me.

However, being nearly two hours late is not the way to start things for the new semester.

That’s right, folks. Yours truly had the most epic of screw ups the first day of school. After thinking that I set the alarm the previous evening, I forgot to actually CLICK the switch on the clock to activate alarm. The ending result: me running into school around 9:45 instead of 8:10 like I had planned.

Thankfully, I had taken a shower the night before so I didn’t have to do that. But I skipped breakfast and rush over to the school. I figured that I would have to deal with odd ass stares when I walk in the office, the regular teachers knowing I was late. While I’ve been here I’ve NEVER been late for school. I didn’t count on that this particular morning the school would have Opening Ceremonies for the new school year. As I walked into the school gates, I could see over 500 students along with all the teachers and staff standing outside the school. EVERYONE could see I was late and I could hear the kids saying my name as I walked by.

At that point, I couldn’t say anything. I just took my bag up to the office, came back down and got in line. Stood there as the principal gave a speech. . . I’m assuming it was aimed mostly at the new students. I have to guess or assume because I had no idea what was said. That’s how these functions and meetings go. I sit there and have no clue as to what’s being said. So I often entertain myself by looking around and observing things. The main thing I noticed this time around is that the opening of the school reminded me of Hogwarts only no cool robes, magic or sorting hat. All the kids were lined up in neat rows and sectioned off by their grade level. The watched as all the old first years and second years became the upperclassmen to a group of scared looking kids in street clothes. All the kids in the middle section were former 6th graders from elementary schools. They didn’t have to wear uniforms at their old schools and now they had to be in an extremely rigid world. This is where they had to get serious about school if they wanted to have a fighting chance in life in this country. Middle school makes or breaks you almost for life here, and the new kids looked appropriately scared. There was a point during the ceremony where the younger kids have to bow to both sets of upperclassmen and in return the upperclassmen nod to them in acceptance. I found the ritual of the whole thing so unique than what’s done back home in the states.

When it was all over, I went to the office. I had to end up hunting down information about my schedule and I finally found out what I needed to start doing for the new school year. Once I met the new English teacher, it really sunk in the Mrs. Jeoung, my old co-teacher, was gone. I had known all along that she wouldn’t be here this semester, but she was such a HUGE part of my life here at my school. I never connected with my other co-teachers like I did her and it’s going to be so evident this time. I have to be way more independent now, and that’s not the biggest thing. I’m going to miss her presence around here. Flat out the woman is a good teacher and students did like her a lot. I don’t need to know Korean to see that. She kept my classes in order and things ran smoothly. I rarely had classes that got bad when she was in them. On a personal note, she was the one person I could talk to on a regular basis and she by far knew the most about me. It may not seem like much, but when you sit in a room full of people everyday and you honestly can’t talk to them because of language issues, you notice when things change. That will be the toughest change to deal with.

Still, I’m looking forward to this. I think the classes will not be as tough to deal with because I have a better idea what to do and how to plan things out. Oh there will be problems. . . . no question. The first thing with the students is that 1/3 of the school population doesn’t know anything about me. The older kids have seen me, they are used to me and at least know who I am. Even if they don’t speak to me that much, they at least aren’t freaked out by my presence. But yesterday when I walked down the 1st year’s hall, the kids all started freaking out as if I had grown horns and started breathing fire. That part will go away, but it’s going to get on my nerves a bit.

But one thing is for sure. I'm going to remember to set my alarm!!!

The Incredible Adventure in Seoul + Andrew in Korean

My friend Brian visited me two weeks ago and I somehow I accidently erased all the pictures. His visit was too short; only four days and he was back on the plane. I was happy to see him and hang out, but it was a long way to go for such a short trip. Still, I'm greatful to have friends willing to come visit me.

Speaking of which, this week my friend Andrew came in from the states to visit me as well. There is a little more excitement because he’s staying about 10 days so we will have time to do more stuff. Drew is also a gamer (like me) and pretty much has a very similar sense of humor.

Because he came in Saturday, I went up to Seoul to meet up with him. Kathy ended up coming up with me and the whole trip morphed into a visit to Seoul Grand Park. Now let me say that Kathy is always informed and prepared when it comes to travel. She manages to come up with details that I never even considered. However, I was grateful to have her around. Because the trip to the Park/Museum/Zoo was her idea, I was just along for the ride. I hadn’t left Daegu sense the second month I was here so I was a bit stir crazy and ready to see Seoul again.

First thing about Seoul I love; there is considerably much less staring. People in Seoul are more accustomed to seeing foreigners. Also, this is the country’s New York City. People don’t have time to gawk because they usually have something to do and somewhere to go. So the ride on the subway line isn’t quite as bad as Daegu. The trip to Seoul Grand Park wasn’t too long. However, it’s longer than most trips in Daegu. You quickly see the difference in the two cities by just riding the subway alone.

We got there and headed to the National Museum of Contemporary Art. To get there, we had to take a transport up the hill. What’s funny about this is how we knew that once we picked a section to sit in, we would clear it of any Koreans. This is just fact; Koreans will go out of their way NOT to sit near foreigners. I have to wonder if it’s so bad back home but I can’t see how it’s much worse than all the black kids sitting at one table in the lunch room during high school and all the white kids at the other. Still, it’s kind of humorous to me. . . . sometimes.

We ended up seeing quite a few interesting pieces. I loved the stuff made during the Korean War and some of the Modern pieces and photography. I’m not as deep into it as Kathy, whose knowledge of art and art history far exceed mine. Still, I like what I like and some of the pieces were amazing to me. I’m sad I couldn’t take pictures of some of them, but I might have to ask Kathy about her list of artist she pulled while we where there.

Desi met up with us after Kathy took some pictures of the area with the sculptures and the three of us headed to the Zoo. I hadn’t visited a Zoo in a while and I forgot that they are usually inhabited by children. Seeing as how Desi is the only one of us not camera shy, she ended up being the subject of more than a few pictures. I took a few pictures of animals, but my point and click isn’t equipped to get good shots of stuff. I left it to Kathy’s mega camera.
We rode the air lift back down to the entrance to the park and the whole time Desi and Kathy made fun of the fact that I was a bit nervous about being up in the air on a cable. I admit, I’m not great with heights but it’s not like I’m hysterical about it. Kind of takes me a second to get my nerves settled. It was about the time we got back on the Subway that I got a call from Andrew saying he arrived at the airport. We got some food while we waited for him to call when he got to the train station. Drew got in and we hoped the train to get back to Daegu. Andrew and I caught up about what was going on back home and his first impressions of Korea (he was surprised at the way the bus drivers narrowly miss hitting damn near everything) and the fact that Korea doesn’t have the same level of politeness (as least by western standards) when it comes to things like standing in line and bumping into people.

We got back to Daegu and it was getting slightly late. Still, we dropped Andrew’s luggage back at my place and we all went off in search for something to eat. I got a call from a friend saying he was downtown with some other people and me, Desi and Andrew met up with them. After grabbing some food, I showed Andrew a few places most of the foreigners hang downtown and introduced him to various people. He slid right into the situation and had a lot of fun. I was happy to finally be out the house after my self-imposed three week exile. For once, I was happy to get a few drinks and it was a good time by all. At some point, we all made it to a Norebang and the epically bad singing began.

Now understand that Norebang for me and Drew is greatness. We typically throw parties back home the enviably involve playing Singstar, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band. Bad singing for entertainment is the normal thing for us because it combines our wiliness to be silly with the love for gaming. In the end, we went wandering until it was time to go home. . . . but not before Andrew pulled down a heater off the wall in a club and sat on it. A HEATER. As if it were a chair. It was at that point that I realized both of us might have more than our share of drinks. However, mission accomplished: I showed my friend a good first night in Korea and I also got to spend a fun day in Seoul. I also got to hang with friends and that’s usually a good thing.


(All The pictures here were taken by my friend Kathy. Wonderful photographer and good person too.)

Random Conversation: American Students vs. Korean Students

Part of a conversation I had with a Korean teacher about differences in middle school students and elementary school students today:




Me – “When the students at my school go to sleep, I yell by their ear and wake them up.”

Korean Teacher – “You should be careful, there has been an issue with students hitting teachers here.”

Me – “That doesn’t worry me.”

Korean Teacher – “Why?”

Me – “In America, students have been known to pull guns and shoot up schools. Hitting is the least of my worries.”





Not to say Korean kids cant' be annoying. . . . . Trust me; kids will always be kids. But at least this country has very strict gun laws. (It also doesn't hurt that I'm bigger than they are but quite a bit.). One of my friends used to be a teacher in one of the rougher districts in Atlanta and she saw more things with younger kids than I would want to admit to. I can only wonder what will happen when the day comes that I go back home and become a certified teacher back home.

Walking Around In Circles

I started my last English camp for the winter break today, and it was pretty straightforward. I didn’t realize how much my last camp spoiled me. The kids at my last camp were much more responsive than this group, but then still aren’t bad. The younger kids are still the more fun ones because they don’t have inhibitions. The older ones are apathetic and humorous even when I want to ring their necks.

Still, the start of this camp did not go well for me. For starters, I was about 15 minutes late due to odd directions I received. Instead of being able to map quest a place and drive there ( Map Quest I miss you!!!!), I had to get directions from the Teachers at the school. So I was giving a tiny map to the school. . . . . . In KOREAN. Now, consider the fact that during the school year, my trip from my school to my apartment is 5 minutes. This English camp’s location is remotely close to the next to the last stop on the Eastern subway line. . . . . roughly 10-12 stops from me. . who lives on the West line. Now the kicker of this whole debacle is that when I got off the train, I suddenly realized two things

A) I didn’t have a copy of the map and had to go by memory.
B) I also forgot the paper with the name of the school written in Korean: no taking a cab for me.

I took what I assumed would be the right path; going the opposite way of the train because that’s what it looked like on the map when I got it. This guess turned out to be totally wrong. As I realized I was going the wrong way (roughly 10 blocks later), I mentally turned the shoddy map around in my head and went. . . “Oh.”

So I trudged back in the opposite direction knowing that if I ran into another train station that I totally went too far. I trotted along, looking up for some sort of landmark. . that was when I realized something. .

The map only had three: the train stations, the mart where the corner was and the school itself.

Let me also give you a little in-site on Korean directions. No one actually uses street names here. Streets are marked with names or some sort of system, I’ve seen the signs. But No one uses them. I haven’t figured out if this is the norm or not; I have this strange feeling that we westerners are considered too dumb to read Korean street signs and thus never given the street directions. Regardless, I ended up going down another wrong street before being called by the teachers at the school.

Did I mention that said forgotten slip of paper with the school name also had the school phone number? FUN!!!

I finally found the right street with the right mart on the corner, but I was dog tired by then. No matter the fact that I have been in this country for about five months now; you can’t match Koreans and walking because they have done it their whole lives. Me and my fat, lazy American self was more than a little tired by the time the one of the teachers found me on the street. I’m sure it was a humorous site to see me walking in the door softly trying to catch my breath.

Korean walking 1, Me 0. . . . curse you, walking around as transportation!!!!


I taught my first lesson shortly after, which wasn’t bad, but wasn’t terribly interesting. . . even to me. I tried with my power points and pictures but it only work so much. I was talking about hobbies: how much can you talk about hobbies when you have a limited understanding of language. It’s fine, doing the Time lesson is always better and more fun for me. . last time the kids like it as well. I’ll have to take some pictures and post them.

Music Overview: Jan. 5, 2009

Just finished picking apart Common's "Universal Mind Control." I'm not as impressed as I would like to be. It's not a bad album. . . I just think it could be better.

Best part of my hip hop listening habits have been my rediscovery of Little Brother. If you are a Hip-Hop fan, PLEASE listen to these guys. They are throw backs, but they are so much fun to listen to.

I also went thru a few days of listening to a lot of Japanese Rock. Mostly it's stuff from Anime but I got to say I love Sambomaster. Talk about a band that's not pretty. The lead singer can belt it out, but he's SO NOT the typical front man for a Rock band. Watching the video for one of my fave songs looks like he's singing and stumbling drunk. God Bless the Japanese.



This sadly made me think about how the lack of unique music here in good ole Korea. Here, everyone listens to the same music, the same songs and it's mostly pre-packaged Pop that imatates mainstream Pop, R&B and Rap back home. Which means almost NO groups write their own music. Doesn't mean there aren't a few. Only ones I seem to find that have some merit is Epik High. For some reason, these guys impress me and from my understanding they have a lot of creative control over their stuff. But it doesn't hurt that they manage to make videos that get banned from TV:




Either way, that's all when it comes to music for now. If you got any reccomendations, please feel free to speak up.

Loc Box

Unlike most weekends, I've locked myself away in my apartment and I've slowly been trying to rid myself of this damned cold that won't seem to go away. After several bottles of orange juice, sitting on laying on the heated floor for two days and a box of Korean Meds (including some bags of stuff the pharmacy gave me that tastes like pure nasty), I'm finally starting to feel better.

It seems several of my friends treked off to Seoul for the weekend. I opted to skip flight club Sat. because I wanted to stay out of the cold air as much as possible.

I haven't had much entertainment other than some random TV and anime I've downloaded to the computer, so it's been pretty boring.


I honestly think I'm going to be very lowkey the rest of this month. I want to see how much money i can keep from spending and possibly hold on to. My goal is to hold onto 75,000-100,000 won (you can go do the exchange rate to see how much it is. . . www.xe.com) before my next check. If i can do that for the next few months, I hope to have some to blow on myself for my birthday.

I hate that I have to send so much damned money home each month. It wouldn't be so bad with exchange rate. . . BUT i can at least look on the bright side and say that it has started to show signs of going back up. I must admit that I'm a bit jealous of my friends who have disposable income and are taking this winter break to go travel. I honestly can't see how some of them afford it. I keep forgetting I'm on average 4-5 years older than most of the people i know here. Many are a year or two removed from college and they haven't done some of the stupid stuff I have done (oh credit cards. . . I hate you. it won't be much longer now until I will nuke you in a firely blaze of hell. . . the joy, oh the joy). Reguardless, I'm having to be extra careful about my spending and I will have to find other ways to entertain myself. I really need to find something constructive to do to keep myself preoccupited.

Either way, it all equals up to no trips to Japan (sigh) in the near future. I promised myself that if I was good for the next few months, I'll reward myself for my birthday at the end of March. It all will depend on just how much I want to reward myself. Japan or PS3 (yes, it's that damn serious to me. I miss my gaming habits damn it!!!)

New Year's Evolution

Instead of writing some long, drawn out post about my New Year's Eve (AND because I was silly and forgot to take my camera), I'm going to let Mike Skinner a.k.a The Streets explain how my night went. Replace all the drug references with liquor and you've got an extremely accurate picture of my New Year's Eve.



Happy New Year Folks

End of an Era. . . Or I'm losing my Korean Mother

The semester is over here in Korea-land. Unlike in the states, the school year starts in the early part of the year (Mid-late February or Early March). This means the 3rd years have graduated and I get winter break (sort of).

This also means that I lose my main Co-teacher Mrs. Jeong.

Due to the rules here, teachers sign 4 year contacts with a school and they must transfer to a different school once their contract is up. Mrs. Jeong has been at the school for four years and that means it’s time for her to go. This means that the woman who has been responsible for me during my time in Daegu will no longer be around.

In the program I work in, every guest teacher is assigned a Korean co-teacher who helps them get situated when they arrive. Mrs. Jeong has helped me adjust to life here in Korea and was responsible for getting me situated. Every bit of paper work, all the little extra details were handled by her. She was the one who took to my apartment, she helped me get my Korean bank account set up and she even took me to get my first haircut here so I could explain to the hairdresser how I wanted it cut ( something she found quite amusing.).

Mrs. Jeong has been very patient and understanding. I try my hardest not to be a burdern because she works VERY hard (Korean teachers have insane workloads.). She has been like a mother to me, always worrying about my health and asking if I have found food that I liked. She’s taken me to the market so I can stock up on goods and the first weekend I was in town and I locked myself out of my house, she made sure there was a key waiting for me. Recently when I was sick with a stomach virus, she fussed over me and took me to the doctor. As per the doctor’s orders, she made sure I ate the right foods and made sure I took my medicine. She also sent a student over to my apartment with lunch while I stayed home for a day. Later that same evening, she called me to ask I needed anything from the store.

But THE best moment had to be when I caught a cold and she bought me a huge jug of orange juice and three boxes of hot chocolate!

She laughs sometimes because I call her my Korean mother but she’s done a more than adequate job in looking after me. While I am fine with the other teachers at my school, she is by far the one I talk to the most. For one thing, my desk is right next to hers AND she’s also the one who knows me the best. There aren’t many English speaking teachers at my school so the language barrier keeps me from interacting much with them. By far Mrs. Jeong knows me the best and understands how to work with me. I get the most help from her when my glasses and offered me the most advice about what to do better with teaching.

I suppose she’s had quite a bit of practice at this taking care of the foreigner thing. She’s had two other teachers before me; one left before the contract was up and the other had some medical issues. I’ve done little things to try to show her that I appreciate her help. She puts it off as just doing her job, but I will be very sad to see her go. She jokes with me that there is a good chance the school will hire a younger teacher who I can bond with but I told her they won’t be able to do the job she did. Which it made it all the more special when I surprised her with the children’s book she had been looking for to give her niece as a present for her newborn baby. She had wanted a some children’s books on CD in order to help the children learn English. . . . I hunted down a copy of “The Giving Tree” for her. I could tell by her reaction that she was surprised and touched. It was the least I could do for all the help she’s given me. I wish her the best of luck at her next school and I plan on staying on contact. (She get’s to go to Spain for vacation . . lucky!) Still, I can’t help but feel a little robbed that I don’t get her for a full year.