It has been a while

Apologies for my lack of commitment to this blog as of late. Three days after my previous post, I came down with the worst flu I've experienced in several years. Myself, and other expats, often refer to this as the "Ol' Korean Plague". That's probably the best description I can give such an ugly virus. I guess that's what happens when you're surrounded by young children who have yet to learn how to cover their mouths and noses when they cough and sneeze. It's possible that the overall stress of living and working here didn't boost my immune system either.

After two days of suffering from a nasty fever, chills, muscle aches, headaches, swollen tonsils and respiratory congestion, I went to a clinic. At this point, it simply looked as though I had a terrible flu, so the Korean doctor just gave me some Tylenol and mild decongestants. Due to the fact that my school is ridiculously disorganized, I have not been permitted to go to the immigration office yet to receive my Alien Registration Card, which also affects my health insurance. One doctors office visit and 3 day medication regimen cost me approximately 20,000 won ($16usd). One office visit turned into three subsequent ones, however. Though the body aches and fever finally passed, I had developed tonsillitis and a sinus infection. Awesome. I had to go back for antibiotics, and being that Korea hasn't quite picked up on the whole finishing a proper length of treatment beyond feeling better thing, I had to go back again. Thanks to my friend Chris, I was able to pay for all this shit. Eight days of Roximycin, lots of sleep, and Nyquil helped me survive until this last Monday.

Despite some poor decisions last weekend, I was blessed with an amazing Monday. Just when I thought I was ready to pack my bags and get out of here, my students were being little angels. Not only were they listening to me, and behaving, they spoke English the entire day. It was amazing. What I have to learn to accept, however, is that these day come as often as they go. The rest of my week has been complete shit. I'm becoming more and more jaded toward the management staff at my school, and although I didn't think it could be possible, I hate my apartment even more now. They have been incredibly unclear as to what they want from me, and were not honest about my responsibilities when I interviewed. And before I get started on my apartment, I will just simply end this bitch session.

Because I'm incredibly annoyed after work every day, I've been going on walks to let off some steam and wander through my neighborhood. By 8pm, I'm zonked. Ready for bed. Done. I manage to watch an episode of Pan Am in the hopes that it will put me to sleep. The show is awful, but I love the period fashion and style. I've attempted to read for a while after that. Somehow, every night at approximately 9:45pm, it feels as though it is 7am and I need to start my day. It can't be jet lag. It definitely isn't that I'm thrilled to work the next day. I don't know what the cause of this sudden alertness is, but in any case, it leaves me awake until roughly 1am every night. This could be adding to my general unhappiness at work.

On the more positive side of things, I have some fun activities coming up during April. Now that I'm a bit more settled in, I feel like I can explore the city a bit more and commit to some goals I have for myself. After getting paid next weekend, I'm going to start attending yoga classes. I haven't picked a studio just yet, but it will likely be at this nice community center-esque gym in my old neighborhood. The price differs significantly from the Bikram place that I wanted to try, but I need to keep my monthly budget in mind. I'm also planning to set aside some of my evenings to devote to illustration projects. The plan is to have a finished project once per week. I'm also really eager to get out with my camera. I have yet to take a single photo with my Nikon, and I've been here for an entire month. That's just depressing.

Stay posted. Photos to come. Enjoy your weekend.

Fun & Frustration

Last week was my first real week of teaching. I can't say that I love having 5 year old students, who are actually 4. I'll explain later. The thing is, I don't feel as though I'm actually teaching. Instead, this school feels like a glorified day care. My week started with hours of tears. Three of my students missed their moms, and they haven't developed that ability to fight the urge to bawl. I was crying on the inside due to my decision to take on being a preschool/kindergarten teacher, and open myself up to the possibility of living in a shitty apartment. That possibility was fulfilled, by the way.

As the week progressed, however, my students began to actually speak English, and listen to me. It's a little difficult to corral seven small children who don't fully understand the words that I speak, or in my case, yell, to them. Aside from losing my voice throughout the day, having to help pull their pants up after they "pooh-poohed... Ms.Elena, I pooh-poohed," and watching them try to grip a pencil while they try to trace the letters of the alphabet, things began to turn around. One girl that cried three days in a row, and refused to speak to me, was smiling and answering all my questions by Friday. I'm hoping that this will continue to improve, but I still don't know if it will be enough to keep me here.

After visiting with some old friends, I came to realize how much I would rather be in Portland right now. This isn't to say that I didn't have an amazing time with them. I did. We went out for dinner, drinks, and dancing, followed by a drunken stagger to the Itaewon Taco Bell at 2am. How could a sane human being not have a wonderful time with great company and activities like that? Table conversation while we had our dinner, however, made me realize how much I worry about my parents and what could potentially happen while I'm away. Despite the fact that we never actually have control over anything, I still feel like I should be at home, where I can help, if not prevent, in the event of something awful happening again.

When I stumbled out of bed at 9:30am on Saturday morning, still slightly tipsy from the night before, my feelings hadn't changed. I often wonder if I were living in a more appealing apartment if these thoughts would dissipate. It's doubtful, but I guess I will never know. And really, what's the point in dwelling on the impossible? I can't even get my school to follow through with the furnishings included in my contract, so why would they ever provide me with better housing? Anyway, enough with the bitching.

The rest of my weekend was spent cleaning my dirt sack apartment. I worked on it for a little over two hours and it's still not quite where I would like it to be. In order to clear my mind of the shear hatred I have toward this inanimate space, I went on another walking adventure to find a nearby catholic church. Bridget and I had been to this church during my last contract in Seoul, and it dawned on me that I am now within walking distance. It turns out that the third time really is the charm. When I woke up this morning, I got ready as fast as I could, and walked the 20 minute (city block) distance. It was unreasonably cold, so I was happy to pick up the pace.

The mass was really nice, and I met some interesting people. The guy ahead of me, a strange, small Korean man, suggested I join some of them for coffee and doughnuts as I was on my way out. I didn't want to be a dick, so I made an appearance, and had a tasty pastry (though one of the things I gave up for Lent was sweets - smart move, Elena). I talked to an old man, whom they call "the Professor." I laughed in response to the statement, only to find out that he actually was a professor for almost forty years. He was really sweet and talked to me about some of the places that he's visited in the States, both for sightseeing and for lectures/conferences. A couple of people chimed in when they heard I was from Portland, "Oh, that's such a lovely place." I younger guy, closer to my age, approached me and, in broken English, inquired where I was from. He tried to speak to me, but clearly couldn't understand many of my responses. He also gave me his name card and asked if I would call him sometime. When I tried to tell him that I don't have a phone yet, he responded with pure confusion. It makes sense.

Right as our conversation was ending, the odd, Korean man who had invited me entered the room. He led with "Ohhh, I want a doughnut so bad. But, I can't. I am sick. Very sick. Diarrhea! Cha, cha, cha!" Good thing he shook my hand earlier, and was eyeballing/breathing on all of the baked/deep fried goodies. Although I was a little disgusted, I couldn't hold back the laughter. I can never really fight humor, especially when it comes in the form of potty jokes. After briefly speaking to him about Oregon, I met a couple other locals and foreigners. The priest asked me if I spoke Korean, and before I could answer he said, "ah, probably no need for you, never mind." I decided it was time to be on my way.

It isn't much, but as I promised, I have a photo to share. This is a city block (about 20 regular blocks) from where I am living. Not a great photo, as it is from my iPod. I will add more soon!

Kindness

I forgot to mention a few things that occurred since I've been back in Seoul. While grabbing a bite to eat at Coex Mall, I noticed a man in his late 30s repeatedly staring at me. I saw that he was sitting with someone else, but couldn't see who. I was becoming increasingly annoyed with the gazing, but reminded myself that maybe there was just a fascination due to me being the only white female in that particular restaurant. When I got up to leave, I nodded to him and smiled, only to see that he was sitting with a seven or eight year old. A few minutes later, I heard a faint voice saying "excuse-ah me... excuse-ah me."

When I turned around, I saw the same man and his son. The rest went a little something like this:

Man: "Could we borrow some of your time? Can we speak to you in English?"

Me: "Um, sure. Of course."

Man: "My son saw you eating, and he told me that he thinks you are very cute... or beautiful. He said you look very nice, and he thinks you speak English."

Me: "Oh, well thank you. That's very nice. Do you speak English?"

Boy: "Yeah, a little bit," bashfully covering his face

Man: "He just began. He is year one, but seven years old. He likes English very much. Are you traveling?"

Me: "No, I live here. I lived here before, and decided to come back."

Man and Boy: "Uhhh, really? Wow. What do you do?"

Me: "haha, I'm an English teacher."

Man: "Oh! haha, maybe someday you can teach him. Thank you so much for you time. Thank you."

Maybe I shouldn't always assume that Korean men are creepy if they gaze.

Today, while I was attempting to find an E-Mart (basically a Target store), I found myself quite lost. According to the directions I found online, I was to take the orange line to Yangjae, take exit 7, and walk 200 meters. I took exit 7, and was walking for about 15 minutes. I stopped a Canadian couple to ask if they knew where it was. They said it was a good 30-40 minute walk away from where we were standing, and suggested hailing a cab. I thought about it, and then decided to just keep walking. Right when I begin to panic because I knew I was very far from where I started, but there was still no E-Mart in sight, I saw two guys in their early 20s approaching me. They said, "hello," and kept walking. I figured they could help me so I turned around and asked them if I was actually lost or headed in the right direction. In nearly perfect English, they told me to hold on while they looked it up on their phones. While waiting for the directions to pop up, they began to tell me about how they just failed their English oral test. They were laughing, but clearly upset that they had done so poorly. I was also a little surprised based on the fact that they spoke better English than some of my friends from the States. They gave me the directions, and thankfully, I only had another 15 minute walk ahead of me.

So many people, in such a short time frame, have been so helpful and kind. This is such a different experience from my last time here. I feel like I'm being cheesy about everything being so positive. I'm used to feeling so bitter and negative. In any case, I hope these acts of kindness continue. It really makes this transition so much easier.

Week One

After an entire day in transit, I landed at Incheon Airport at 5:30pm on Tuesday, the 28th. My trip was mostly painless, aside from having to wake up at 3:45am on Monday morning. My first flight to LA was fine, I fell asleep for about 30 minutes and listened to music the remaining time. I didn't really get to appreciate my layover time of two hours, as most of it was spent walking from the main terminal of LAX to the International Terminal.

At 10:55am, I boarded a Korean Air Airbus 380. Prior to my trip, I had google image searched for pictures of the A380, only to be presented with photos of plane crashes. I was a little anxious about flying on the Beluga whale vessel, but I was pleasantly surprise. Despite the two Korean men with bad breath and poor manners, my flight was incredibly smooth. Thankfully, I slept for nearly half of the flight, only waking occasionally to use the bathroom, eat meals, and watch the first 30 minutes of several movies (I took a lot of dramamine). I don't particularly like being on a plane for 13 hours, but hopefully my next flight of such distance will be on another 380.

Upon my arrival, I came to realize that my school wasn't the least bit prepared for my arrival or quick to remedy this particular problem. There were a lot of phone calls back and forth via pay phone, before I was able to board a bus to Seoul. Being that I didn't have a working cell on me, or any other way to reach them, the stress was building up. I got off the bus, with all of my luggage, only to find myself standing for about 30 minutes on the bustling streets of the Kangnam district. I flagged a woman down, and asked her if she spoke English. She did, so I told her my dilemma, and she let me use her cell phone. The principal of my school told me that someone was on their way to greet me. I waited and waited. Finally, an admin staff member named Kris met me, and helped me haul all of my shit to my apartment.

Korean apartments are interesting. Sometimes they are amazingly nice, but very rarely do teachers get to actually enjoy a stunning space. I'm going to try to make the most of my little shoebox, but it will likely involve some very trying moments. I will post pictures once I grind through the cleaning process and put up some of my own decorations. For now, you'll have to settle for a written description. Basically, I live in a medium sized, square room. It's not nuts to butts, but it isn't gigantic. Behind some accordion doors is my "kitchen," which consists of a sink, a two burner, gas stove, and some cupboards. To the right is a refrigerator and my small closet. There is a massive, old school Daewoo TV on a shitty, mobile TV stand, and a desk that I'm hoping the school will just get rid of. On the wall near my only window is my twin size bed. The bathroom is behind a door and, by Korean standards, is quite large. In my opinion, it could be double the size and I would be content.

Now, when I first arrived, I was incredibly worried, upset, and unimpressed. I was actually looking at flights leaving the next day, because I was so concerned about what I got myself into. I'm glad that I can look back a few days and laugh at myself for being so irrational. Things have improved 100%. My only current complaint is still in regard to my apartment. The school itself is absolutely amazing, and I'm really looking forward to teaching again.

My first day at the school was a bit intimidating at first, but now I'm mostly at ease. My Korean co-teacher, Ms Jina, is absolutely lovely. She had spent a week or two decorating my classroom prior to my arrival, and it looks great. The students are going to love it. My principal, Ms Carrie, and Vice Principal, along with the rest of the Korean staff members are really interesting and welcoming. This is something I'm not really familiar with as my last school was full of negative admin staff, who would blame teachers every time they made a mistake. So, it's really nice to be surrounded by people that smile, and laugh when they make a mistake, and tell you that it's okay when you do the same.

So, not only am I impressed with the fact that most people at the school seem genuinely happy, but I am also really fascinated by everyone's background and interests. Though I haven't gotten to know many of the other foreign teachers, I can already tell that they are really good people. Everyone is laid back, with a great sense of humor, and a willingness to help each other out. I couldn't have asked for a better school.

I think I'm in for a really good year. My first day of teaching is on Monday, and I'm looking forward to meeting my little 5 year olds. The principal's son is in my class, which I felt a little intimidated by, but it will be fine. Here's to having another good week!