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. 

Dakgalbi

So far my favorite Korean meal is Dakgalbi which was actually the first meal I had here with meat in it.

Basically the meal goes like this...

 While you’re waiting for your food to arrive, they bring out this a kind of cold pickled radish soup, which had an odd but not unpleasant taste. But it actually seems really common to get something like this while you’re waiting for your food, but the taste has definitely grown on me. With it as well you quite often get what looks like coslaw but is actually just shredded cabbage with a kind of kiwi fruit sauce on it.  And as you can see as well, they brought out the kimchi early. You pretty much get kimchi with every meal. I’m really glad that I got used to the taste before I came out here. It takes a while for the taste to grow on you, but now i love it ^^.

It's also really common for you to get so many side dishes at a meal that you could just eat the side dishes and be full, without ever touching the main dish.

Then they heat up the pan in the middle of your table, and once it’s hot they bring down the ingredients. To let it cook in front of you.

Note: never touch the food while it is cooking, they come round and make sure the food is cooking and is turned properly themselves. If you start messing with the food before it’s ready they get mad. Lol.

Then once it’s almost done they came with the noodles, a little water and some more gochujang and mix it all up. Then once it comes back up to temperature you’re good to go.

But that’s not all, once you’re done, and there’s the few bits left which would otherwise go to waist, they bring out more. They bring white rice and…other things and mix it all up, using all the left over parts from the first part of the meal to give flavour to the rice. Then once it’s all well mixed, they bring in cheese as well and mix that in, and flatten it all out so the cheese makes everything stick together. Then once that’s done, you’re good to go for part two.

This meal was more than enough for the 3 of us eating and it was so good! And so cheap for what you get as well.

One thing that I will add though, which I found out at later meals, is that Koreans eat really fast. It’s not really got the social attachment that it has in the west. They eat, often without speaking, and then just leave. So when you order food, and you sit there talking for a couple of minutes before you get stuck in, the staff assume you don’t know how to eat it, and will start trying to help you eat it. Whenever I eat out as well, we’re usually ¾ times longer eating than any Korean customer.  

Some pictures.

Here's just a few pictures of Jeonju, where I visited with Sai, before starting my EPIK orientation.

Traditional Korean Tea house

Vegetarianism in Korea.

As my loving friends and family all know, I’m one of those really annoying people who make dinning a pain in the back-side with my vegetarianism. And have been for the past… almost 5 years O.o. Before I came to Korea I knew that being vegetarian was going to be hard from the get go, especially since that would mean that I wouldn’t be able to eat the vast majority of regular Korean food. But I figured some how it would sort itself out. Upon arriving in Korea, boy did I realise how wrong I was.

If you ask for a meal without meat, well first you’ll get a funny look and then maybe they’ll ask why, but still that doesn’t mean that you’ll get a meal that’s free from meat even if they agree to do it for you. If there’s no meat actually visible, chances are it’s still meaty (hidden meat evilness). The chances are it was still prepared with meat in some way. A dish without meat is still likely to be prepared in either a beef broth or in like a prawn brine or something to that effect.  Dokbokki, for example, is vegetarian in itself, but when it’s being prepared, it’s boiled with fishcakes for flavour. Sure you could just pick out the fish cakes but then you’re still eating all the fish juice. You may as well eat the fish right? Depending on how disciplined you are, as a vegetarian this either is or isn’t acceptable. Coming from my uni days where I was so strict I had my own fridge, plates, and cutlery to prevent cross contamination, this is a far cry! D;

Now there are a couple of places in Korea…mainly in Seoul, like “Loving Hut“, that do do vegetarian and vegan food, but I don’t live in Seoul. =/

So, I gave it plenty of thought before I came to Korea, if I found it to be this difficult and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to have to give up being vegetarian. *sigh* I'm sure the family will cheer >.>

First day in Korea

So my first free days before my orientation with Sai were great! I’m so glad I came before my orientation to get a feel for things in Korea before getting into work.

Straight after we met at the airport we went to drop our stuff off at the motel which Sai and Tori booked us into and then from there we pretty much got changed, and went for food. My first Korean meal, it was so good, so many weird and new flavours. I’ll come back to food in a separate blog.

From eating, Sai and Tori proceeded to show me around Hongde, which is the kinda clubbing/inde scene in Seoul where you’ll find a lot of foreigners too. I’m expecting we’ll spend a fair amount of our weekends here. To be honest it was all too much to take in at once. There was too much sensory stimulus. Even the buskers in Korea are so much better than anything you would see in Manchester. You actually want to stop and listen to them. I did take a video of one band playing but it may or may not make its way into a video on here.

By this point it was completely dark and since the clubs were starting to open, the girls took me more into their social life. They’ve gotten friendly with some staff in a particular club, and they’re now considered “guests”, so they get free entry and drinks, which by extension, I get too. J. We met up with a couple of their Korean friends (who speak fantastic English) in one club and then proceeded to the next.

The best and most enjoyable thing about Korean clubs has got to be how friendly people. Pretty much as soon as we got on the dance floor a bunch of guys invited us all to dance with them. I assumed they were friends of Sais and had seen me on Facebook, but nope, complete strangers, and they were such good fun. The rest of the night in the club proceeded to be the same. And also, people in Korea can actually dance. And people are keen to dance and have fun too. There’s not the pressure like there is in England to look good in what you’re doing. People just have a good time, I didn’t see anyone there too drunk or trying to start a fight.

Around 2am we left and went to “Norebang” which is the Korean equivalent of karaoke, while one of Sai’s friends from Australiajoined us, and then from there we proceeded to the first club we went to for free drinks and more dancing. Needless to say the atmosphere was pretty much the same only cosier with the added friendliness of the staff and manager. Some random Korean guys joined us for pretty much the rest of the night there too for dancing and drinking. And well…lets just say that the bar staff  put on a very nice show too, including stripping, fire breathing and pouring alcohol over themselves and onto the crowd. They even interacted with the crowd too, which you just don’t get in England! We stayed until around 6am when the club closed and by this point our group had grown to I don’t know how many, but from there we went to a café for breakfast.

We must have been there for around an hour and a half before the staff needed to clean, where we thought that would be a good time to call it a night and headed back to our hostel. And thus concludes my first day/night(mostly night) in Korea.

Most noticeably I have to say, is in fact how safe it is here and how care free people are in comparison to the west, when it comes to personal safety. People leave their phones and wallets, handbags and all sorts on tables in cafes while they go to the bathroom, or even leave the building all together and it’s just still there when they get back. People seem too nice, or rather, they’re too busy minding their own business to even consider stealing your stuff and it’s made me feel like I’m unnecessarily paranoid about everything.