Korean toilet experience

Lets take things down a notch…

Do you recall me mentioning the one thing I appreciated most about my apartment was my western bathroom? Well let me explain why.

In Korea you will get one of 3 options when it comes to using a toilet.

1: if you’re lucky you will get a Samsung toilet.

2: you will get a western style throne with a twist.

3: you will get a floor toilet.

So lets start with the nicest one. The Samsung toilet. You can treat it pretty much the same as any old western toilet. But, with Samsung, you get a ton of gadgets on the side to play with. When I came across this toilet it was actually during my orientation with EPIK, and my Korean reading back then was so much worse than it is now, I had no idea what I was doing when I decided to play with it, but it turned out ok.

When I sat on the seat it was already heated, and once I’d done my business,  I didn’t know if I’d ever see one of these again, (and I haven’t). So I took advantage of this golden opportunity and just slammed on every button which I thought looked pretty. Without me having to get up, and with terrifying accuracy, the toilet washed and blow dried me. I actually didn’t want to get up. This was without a doubt the most pleasant toilet experience I’ve ever had.

Then there is your western style toilet. These days in Korea, they’re getting rid of majority of the floor toilets, and opting for the “throne”, as we have in the west. However, there are two slight twists. The first twist is that in public bathrooms, in each cubicle, there isn’t always toilet paper, you have about a 50/50 chance of toilet paper actually being in the cubicle. The other half of that 50% is that you’ll get a single large toilet paper dispenser outside all the cubicles. You take a massive roll, and you take it with you into the cubicle. Now you might be thinking, oh that’s not so bad, and sure, you’re right, it’s not so bad. but yeah, you know the pluming system in Korea isn’t designed for taking toilet paper. So beside each toilet you will see one of these babies…

toilet paper basket (not my school)

Oh yes, once you’ve finished you’re business, you’re used toilet paper goes in here. Lovely. This is the option that my school goes for actually, and it is always surprisingly white and clean. But in public toilets, it’s not always so nice, as I’m sure you can imagine.

a "nice" picture of a floor toilet

Now then, time to get to the nitty gritty. Option 3, the floor toilet. I think I’ve only seen one or two of these in the indie bars of hongde in Seoul. Now, whenever you’re in a place that’s a little bit indie, and you can’t see the toilet sign, that’s not a good start. If you ask when the toilets are, and they point to a door which leads outside the building, again, that’s not a good sign. The only time I’ve seen these floor toilets is when they’re in a small building, just next to a bar or café, round the back. In these floor toilets there are cubicles, but they don’t always have doors apparently. I’ve seen one where none of the cubicles had doors…I walked straight back out. I’ve never used one of these, nor do I intend to, but I’m not sure that I know which way to even use them. And they’re usually disgusting! People miss all the time. With these toilets however, again you cannot put toilet paper in the toilet so you will have your basket at the side, but I’ve also never seen toilet paper at all in one of these cubicles,or outside them. So I assume that people would have to bring their own.

I guess this whole, toilet paper issue could be different for girls than boys but still just in case, I always bring a little toilet paper with me when I go out just in case there is an emergency.

a typical bathroom in a Korean apartment

In wonderful contrast, the toilet I have in my apartment is completely western. But also, I should mention typical Korean bathrooms. Normally there is no specific place for you to shower in a Korean bathroom. Normally in apartments, the entire room is a wet-room, and just freely hanging on the wall is a shower head. And when you shower, you just get everything in the room soaking wet. As you can see, the shower head is also attached to the tap, you kinda need to make sure that when brushing your teeth, the tap isn't set to shower, otherwise the water won't be running into the sink. you'll be having a fully clothed shower. 

In my apartment, I actually have a bath that I can shower in…although I can’t have a bath, there was no plug when I moved in and I have no idea where the plug store is in Korea.  >.>  

Korean wedding experience

Ahh the Korean wedding. So I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to a Korean wedding by another member of staff from my school who happened to be getting married. In typical Korean style, notice for the wedding was relatively short in comparison to the west. Wedding invitations were handed out a couple of days before the wedding itself.

On the day of the wedding, there was a rendezvous point in the nearest town where all me and some of the other guests where provided with a free coach up to the wedding hall in Seoul and were given food on the coach to tide us over. When we arrived, there was currently another wedding going on in the ceremony room, so guests gathered in the reception area and put their gifts (money) in envelopes provided at the desk, wrote our names and handed our money back to the desk. Since I’d only known the groom for such a short amount of time I was only expected to give 30,000KRW, the better the guests knew the bride or groom, the more they were expected to give. Up to how much I don’t know.

Since we had another hour after this until we were allowed into the ceremony room, the guests that I was with all decided to eat before the wedding instead of after. So I followed them down to the buffet style eating area, where not just our party was eating, but guests of the previous wedding and the next wedding in line were also eating there. The food was good but I actually appreciated the salad and fruit most! Everything in Korea has such strong flavours all the time, I relished the opportunity to have something that just felt fresh and unaltered in my mouth.

We finished our food barely in time to go to the ceremony room and get our seats (notice how I said we were almost late, but there are still plenty of seats), where staff members dressed like…air hostesses, made sure everything was ship shape and ready to go. While they finished up their last checks, a pianist and two violinists played atmospheric music.

Then the ceremony started. The mothers of each house, were invited up to the podium, a few words were said, and they then bowed to each other, and returned to their seats. Much to my surprise, the principal of our school then made his way to the podium and stood behind the microphone. The groom was then invited to the podium, with music and a round of applause. He then turned to face the audience, barely able to keep his face straight, bless him. The bride was then invited down to the podium, accompanied by what I assumed was her father, and she made her way down, very slowly…partly due to the face that her veil was too long and kept snagging on things but she made it without and accidents.  Both the bride and groom then hold hands and step up on the podium.

The principal then began to speak. There was also no priest in sight, nor anyone that I would naturally assume had the certification to marry two people so I just assumed he was conducting the ceremony. Even more to my surprise…everyone talked through it. No one was interested, or so it seemed. After perhaps 4/5 minutes of talking and being talked over. The couple stepped apart and bowed to each other. They then started to say their vows, when a bunch of camera men came right up in their face and started taking pictures, hovering round then like fruit flies. They were really annoying me so I don’t know how those two felt while trying to say their vows.

Once they were done, there didn’t seem to be any form of ring exchange…also for that matter there was no best man, or brides maids or any of that. Instead, the bride and groom stepped down from the podium, stood in front of the brides side of the audience, gave a deep bow, and then did the same in front of the grooms side. They returned to centre stage and then an incredibly ornate and well decorated cart was wheeled in front of them, on it was a bottle of what looked like Champaign already opened ready to pour, and a small wedding cake. The couple poured each other a large glass of whine, of which the bride took a sip, and the groom downed the whole glass and giggled, to which everyone in the audience replied with sounds of approval. The Champaign was then removed, and the bride and groom were then presented with a ridiculously oversized knife. It was more like a samurai sword than what I’d call a knife, but the two put their hands on the knife and proceeded to cut the cake. Naturally the fruit flies were all over this and made it near enough impossible for me to get a photo.

The bride and groom returned to centre stage, where something was said to the groom and he responded by shouting something into the audience and raising both his arms. This happened twice and the audience cheered and applauded. I was confused…and the bride then cried, and the air hostesses came to ensure she didn’t rub her make up and dab her face. One of the grooms close friends (also a teacher from my school) and what I assume was one of the brides friends, sang a duet together for the bride and groom, and then another person from the groom’s side went on stage to sing another song.

The bride and groom then faced the audience for the last time. Then, as if this whole situation wasn’t confusing enough, the two air hostesses stood on either side of the bride and groom armed with what looked like trumpets with a golden gun on the end to match, they then aimed them over the bride and groom and proceeded to fire confetti over them. The pianist and violinists then proceeded to play and the bride and groom then made their exit.

Normally it’s customary for everyone to take a photo with the bride and groom. First family, then close friends, then friends and colleagues. But we were running behind schedule, the next wedding was due to be in soon and they had to clear up, wheel out another cake, bring in a clean knife, clear up the confetti, etc. so we had to leave. And that’s…a Korean wedding for you…In total it came to around 20/25 minutes.

 Koreans do have honey moons and the couple are there now. For how long I’m not entirely sure but I’d assume a week. Teachers don’t get many paid days off in Korea. Plus I know the bride is pregnant so she shouldn’t be away for too long. Lol.  

White day and ddong chim

So today was a great, yet interesting, and down right bizarre day at school.

Today was actually “White Day”. Let me explain: in Korea, on Valentines day, that is the day of the year that girls buy boys chocolates or other gifts. However, they also have White day exactly a month later. On White day, that is when the boys are to buy the girls gifts. Even though my first experience was of White day was in an elementary school, it didn’t seem like a western valentines day where you give a gift to a special someone. It was pretty much everyone gives something to all their friends or anyone they like. At first I was shocked when my students started giving me candy randomly in the corridor, but after I asked my co-teacher it all made sense. Kind of.

By my first lesson of the day with my 2nd grade class, my back pocket was already bulging with candy that I’d been given. And this is where my day turned rather bizarre. Towards the end of the lesson, we were playing a game which involved students coming up to the board, and as one kid came to the board, he took his turn, and as I turned to the board for a second to clear the board for the start of a new game, I suddenly felt tiny fingers thrust their way into my bum, followed by a chorus of giggles. I had become a victim of ddong chim, literally translated as poop needle….

It's so well known, there's even a statue dedicated to it.

I’d first discovered such a thing in the Japanese anime Naruto, many many years ago. My reaction to it was confusion, feeling awkward, and not really understanding why or what happened, but I brushed it off and moved on. I’d also heard of it in Korea before I arrived, but I didn't think it was at all common place, nor did it even cross my mind that it would happen to me…oh how wrong I was.


I had one of two options. Option 1: laugh, brush it off and tell him to go sit down. Option 2: Scold the kid in front of the class and terrify everyone to the point that they don’t feel like they can have fun with me in the English class anymore. I chose option 1, which naturally worked out for the better. My initial reaction was to remove his hand and look at him with a look of complete shock, but then I said “what are you doing? Go and sit down,” with a bit of a giggle. The kid got half way to his seat and said “candy juseyo” which means “please give me candy”. He’d  seen my overflowing back pocket. Then I made my next big mistake. As I went to bend down to get to his level, again, I felt the bizarre sensation of tiny fingers thrusting into my rear end. Another kid has snuck behind me in my moment of weakness. At this point I felt like I was in Jurassic Park and I’d been caught be two velicoraptors, one on either side of me.

With that I cried “YA!" (Hey!), and the two kids ran back to their seats giggling. I then proceeded to share my candy with the rest of the class who were well behaved and gave those two boys the pleasure of sticking my tongue out at them.

But the loss of candy didn’t bother me, I was reimbursed by other kids in the school. The rest of the day was also pretty hectic, with all this candy flying round the entire school was hyperactive all day. The corridors were also filled with the sound of students campaigning for votes from the other students because today was the day that the students voted for their student representatives. I was exhausted and relieved by the time my last lesson of the day came round. The icing on the cake was that my last lesson was cancelled due the student candidate performances, and the voting for the representatives.

My School is better than Yours :P

So not only was I lucky with my apartment, but it’s blatantly obvious that I’ve been really lucky with the school I have too,

There is a grand total of 200 students, 15 teaching staff and 6 catering staff. So naturally, all the teachers are really close and treat each other like extended family. And I am no exception, from the get go, everyone has been really welcoming, trying to communicate with me as best they can so I don’t feel left out, and have shown as much of an interest in my culture as I have in theirs. There have been plenty of times where I didn’t know how to do things, or I’ve had to ask to check what is or isn’t rude, but not once has anyone made fun of me, or talked down to me. They always reassure me and tell me to keep trying. They’re mostly glad that I am trying in the first place ^^.

See those apartments just beyond the playground...yeah I live there. 

My co-teacher is pretty much the centre of my world right now. She’s such a nice person I couldn’t have asked for a better co-teacher.  She’s not quite fluent in English but she’s the person I go to for anything and everything and she’s incredibly accommodating. We kind of have an older sister younger brother relationship (since I’m the same age as her younger brother), and she insists on taking care of me. When I was sick, she bought me medicine and when classes were over, took me to the beds in the nurses office where I could sleep until my work shift was over. Did I feel like a baby? Yes! But I felt like I was dying so I didn’t care. I just need to wait until payday until I can show her my gratitude.

My vice principal and principal are also lovely. Both speak limited English but want to not only improve their English by talking to me but improve my Korean through me talking to them. So we speak almost every day just about regular stuff. My vice principal after a long conversation actually invited me to her house for food after showing me pictures of her daughter… might have to be careful about that one.

My timetable as well is also really lucky. Of the 21 lessons I do a week, only 3 of them I have to plan for and do alone. All the rest I do with my co-teacher which she does the planning for. And pretty much all my students are cute, giggly and a pleasure to be around. It’s never stressful to teach…yet.

I know that a lot of Epik teachers either don’t have a co-teacher or they have a co-teacher who doesn’t do a great deal, but then in stark contrast I know GETs whose co-teacher won’t let them teach at all because they can’t speak Korean and they’re just used as an expensive tape recorder. I’ve also heard that some teachers are regularly talked town to, and treated as second class citizens because of the language barrier. Again, I feel incredibly lucky where I am!


First week at school....

First day, we had our introduction “ceremony”, I’d just call it an assembly, in which I introduced myself in Korean to the entire school, half of the kids giggled at my accent but I thought it was cute. Though the first two lessons of the day were cancelled due to other ceremonies going on at the time, which left me co-teaching 6th graders who could speak the most English, which was a nice was to be eased into the school environment.

My classroom

My classroom

English corridor

2nd day, I discovered my love of 4th graders. I only have 15 students per 4th grade class and they are such a pleasure to both teach and have fun with. I know I shouldn’t pick favourites but I already have a favourite student who I can have banter with ^^. After school was followed by a welcome dinner for the new staff…new staff being me. At which I got to really talk to all the staff, and I was honestly surprised at how much alcohol people drink in front of their bosses. But perhaps that the dynamic of our school because it’s so small.  This was followed by norebang (karaoke), which I bombed at, and more alcohol and food.

That's right, I have my own office. 

3rd day, Wednesday, I taught my first class alone. I was pretty nervous I will admit. But with this class being first grade, their energy and enthusiasm carried me through and it was a complete pleasure to teach them.. The rest of the day continued as normal until the end of school bell rings and my co-teacher tells me that every Wednesday after school, all the teachers get together in the gym and play volleyball. So considering that I’ve never played volleyball before and I suffer from a fear of getting a ball to the face, naturally I’m rubbish. But our principal is really into it and in keeping with the spirit of our school everyone told me to keep trying, and I will get better. That night me and a fare few staff stayed at the school late to lesson plan and all got take out together in the staff room.

my office

4th day, Thursday, all our lessons were cancelled because all the students had exams…I had to mark them >.>. But again once the day was over, there was another big dinner with school. What this one was for I’m not entirely sure but I enjoyed this one even more than the first. (it was definitely a meal my Grandad would have enjoyed. It was entirely seafood and sushi) There was slightly more alcohol involved but I also used a lot more Korean when talking, and poured a lot more drinks for other people because I was feeling more comfortable using it. Gladly this time it wasn’t followed by norebang.

Again, here I’m pretty sure that I’ve just gotten lucky, because from other Epik teachers, I’ve heard that they were told they had to take everyone out for a meal as a return meal. or worse, they were taken for a big meal and then just expected to pay. Some teachers also have to pay for their school dinners, again I do not, though part of me feels like I should, they’re really good! One thing that is incredibly frustrating about Korea is that no one ever talks about money, or at least no one ever talks about it to me. Perhaps because I’m the youngest, and older people usually pay, but I’ve made it clear to my co-teacher that I don’t understand how money/paying in Korea works, and I’ve asked her to tell me when it’s my turn to pay.

By the time Friday rolled around, I felt completely comfortable teaching my morning class and then going on to co-teach for the rest of the day. And thus concludes my first teaching week in korea. I think it’s pretty safe to say that all is going well.

First day & New Appartment

So Mr Kim, who picked me up from my orientation, spoke great English on our journey from daejeon to Seosan, which helped break up the 2 hour car journey. He took me straight through Seosan off to my school where I could meet my co-teacher straight away since were behind schedule. The fact that I was picked up late put made my first day really fast paced and left little time for proper greetings. When I arrived at my school I was greeted by my co-teacher and the previous Korean English teacher, but initially my co-teacher was really shy to talk to me.

A meal which I had no idea how to eat

Because time was limited I was taken to my apartment, where I unloaded my stuff, the previous Korean English teacher showed me around, everything they’d replaced and bought for me, which I thanked them for, and then we quickly made our way back to the school so I could meet my principal. Again our meeting was short and brief and heavily reliant on the translation of my co-teacher and the previous Korean English teacher. From there we got lunch at a small place opposite the school, which was a meal that I had no idea how to eat and I felt completely like a baby but Mr Kim and the two English teachers were more than happy to help me.

From there I was whisked away into Seosan city centre to open a bank account and apply for my alien registration card. While we were there the other teachers departed and my co-teacher showed me around the transport system and showed me how to get back to my apartment. We both live in the same block so it was completely convenient for her to show me which buses to get and the prices/timetable.

By the time we got back it was around 6pm and I was exhausted. When I got back to my flat I spent the rest of the evening, removing all the crap that the native English teacher had left behind and cleaning. He mustn’t have cleaned the apartment the entire year he lived there but it’s ok now. It still needs another clean tbh.

Kitchen Diner

Living room

Master Bedroom

Bathroom

Spare bedroom

Balcony 

The apartment I live in though I’m more than happy with. It’s an LG apartment which apparently is really expensive, and is actually built for families. The one thing I’m happiest about is the western bathroom. It’s more than I could have asked for and right now it’s my biggest comfort. I wouldn’t give it up for anything!

EpiK Orientation

Epik orientation was fun, a little intense, but a lot of fun.

Unlike most people, who met at the airport, and made their way to the orientation venue via a coach provided by Epik, I made my own way to the orientation venue from Sai’s flat, after clearing that it was ok with my co-ordinator. Our orientation was in Chungnam, Daejeon.

My Shared room

I was the first to arrive and quickly made conversation with the…head leader woman in charge of the whole orientation, who handed me a load of free stuff and then showed me to my room. By the time I’d claimed my bed and unpacked, it didn’t take long for people to start arriving. The rest of the first day was pretty much a write off as people were arriving at all times, up until 23:00, there was nothing other than dinner that could be arranged for those who were arriving in time for it. Naturally though I didn’t sit in my room, exploring and networking was pretty much the only thing to be done.

Orientation campus

orientation campus

The next day people were arranged into their groups, and were each assigned a time to go to the gym for a medical exam. Not the most fun thing in the world I must say. They took out 50,000KWR and each of us joined the conveyer belt of tests. I was fine until it came to having blood taken. I’d never had blood taken before up onto this point and I started to freak out a little. The comforting words of a fellow Epik teacher in front of me in the line did help, but then when I sat down and I realized there was a film crew recording me having my blood taken, I really wasn’t impressed.  We were then all appeased with food straight after and a tour of the campus, followed by our orientation intro ceremony. There was your generic speeches by some important people and some cool traditional performances. There was a gayageum performance, taepyeongmu (Folk Dance) and another performance which I don’t know the name of because on all my photos, there is lighting glare over the name of the performance. >.>

 The rest of our week was filled with lectures on the different aspects of teaching, the history and culture of Korea and Korean lessons, starting at 9am and finishing at 8pm each day. One of the good things about the long days was that not only did we get all the information we needed quickly, but we were with our groups all day and got to form some close relationships.There was also the odd surprise where instead of a lecture we would do taekwon-do or dress up in hanbok.

At the weekend we were treated to a trip to a “traditional Korean village”. The village was set up in the manor of a real Korean village but a large proportion of the village itself was reconstructed to replicate an authentic village. The whole facility was almost like a theme park without the cheesiness and with a lot more respect and order. Initially we were taken to a few performances in the village including an outdoor version of that one performance I don’t know the name of, a man who looked older than both my grandparents doing type-rope-walking, and a really cool martial arts performance which included the use of horses, sword and bows and arrows. 

We then had lunch and were taken on a guided tour of the village by a very talented high school English student, who was adorable.When the tour was over we were guided to a hall where we made traditional masks and learnt how to do a dance to go with them. This was a lot of fun, even if I did feel silly.

The dance which I don't know the name of...

The last few week days of our orientation, we were given time to prepare a lesson plan in groups of 2 or three and  at the end of the orientation we had to do our lesson, which was judged by an external English teacher who already had several years experience as an EFL teacher. Naturally my group got an award for the best lesson plan and delivery ^^. Although, I have yet to open it because the box is really pretty, I don’t want to unwrap it. I know what’s in it though since my co-teacher ripped it open straight away. It’s a really ornate book mark which again, is too pretty to ever be put to use. xD

And thus, our orientation came to an end. All that was left was to have a great last night out in
Daejeon as obnoxious foreigners and then say our goodbyes. The following morning, most of the groups got on their coaches off to their prospective provinces and schools. Since my group was already in their province, we were all picked up by our co-teachers or a representative. Naturally, since I was the first there. I was the last to leave too. My co-teacher didn’t come and pick me up herself, but another teacher who could speak English came to get me. He was lovely and very apologetic for being late. He got lost on his way, but that didn’t bother me.

Last goodbyes

Food at our orientation

During our orientation, I must say though, our co-ordinators were all completely lovely. They were so kind, funny and cute, and a complete pleasure to be around. I think literally the only thing that I had an issue with actually during the orientation was some of the foreigners. A lot of the Americans and South Africans, (who made the majority of the teachers) hadn’t done any research what so ever into Korean before arriving. They did a lot of complaining whether it be about the weather or the food.  A lot hadn’t made any effort to learn any of the language, liked creating unnecessary drama  and even mocked the Korean coordinators for their accents. Such ignorance always makes my blood boil.

In contrast, I didn’t limit myself to making friends with the teachers at the orientation, Through the magic of smart phone apps, and free wifi in Korea, I got talking to a fare few local people, and in the evenings I after classes, most nights I would beet them and go out into Daejeon. It was a great way to get to make some Korean friends, who are willing to meet me whenever I visit Daejeon again.