Kimberly's Adventures

I didn’t think it was possible, but after only one week I LOVE MY KIDS!! They are so incredible adorable. They are still slightly frustrating in class, but when we can just play together and I’m not trying to cram English down their throats, they are so sweet and cute and wonderful. Today we got to go on a field trip to a traditional Korean house, which sole purpose is for taking photos in from of it. Today is Chusak, the Korean “Thanksgiving,” so everyone, including the teachers, were dressed up in Hambuls, the traditional Korean formalwear. My kids were sooo cute! I took over 150 picture. I looked like a huge cow wrapped in an American flag and was sweating profusely, but I didn’t care, it was just so much fun! I am so glad that I was here for this day. I’m only home now for lunch break, but the day isn’t over and when I get back to school we will have even more fun activities for the kids.

For the rest of kindergarten time we learned how to make rice cakes, a traditional Korean food that many will eat like bread. Its very simple to make, just add hot water to rice flour, mix, roll into balls, and boil. I mixed the flour and water for my kids and then they rolled the little rice cakes them selves. Once its done boiling you roll it in crumbled up pound cake. They actually came out really good!

Now that the day is over I will be heading to Busan for the weekend!!!

I just completed my first day of class. It was more challenging for the classes I thought would be easier and easier for the classes I thought would be, well more challenging. First off I had a fantastic morning. I woke up at 5, though unfortunately (still a little jet lagged). But I decided to go for a run, and being told where there was a track, I ventured out into the city with high hopes. Unfortunately, the directs were not very good, having anticipated as such I set out for a new destination. There is a man-made lake in the city that has a huge light show at night. I read about it before I moved here and have been curious to find it since I’ve arrived. With some fear of getting lost and being late for my first day of work I set off in the direct I believed the lake to be located. Running on the sidewalk here is actually really great, it’s made out of track material, so a lot less painful on the joints. It was amazing to explore through this part of the city. I feel like it is so big and my neighborhood holds so much that I haven’t really had a chance or a need to leave it. But the this morning I was on a mission. With some luck and a few wrong turn I found myself at the lake. It was beautiful. I went all the way around and coming back on the far side had the most breathtaking view of a mountain ranger lingering in the background reflecting of the lake. I cannot wait to go back at night when the lightshow is on display.

I made it to work on time, but the jet lag was starting to wear in by the time my first class started at 10:00. I have a group of ten kindergarten kids who are absolutely adorable. I was so excited to teach them. However, it’s more like I’m the mean babysitter than their teacher. There is no real structure to the class, so it was extremely challenging to get them all the pay attention to me when I was making up a lesson on the fly. The first 20 minutes is a meet and greet and I correct their homework. Then we learned about sports for 40 minutes, but it only took us about 10 minutes to go through all the flash cards. Then there was story time for the next 40, but the book was maybe 12 pages and only had one short sentence on each page. Then it was lunch time, then another story time, similar to the one before. I just could not think quick enough on my feet to make something up during all that extra time. I’m hoping it will get easier.

The rest of the day I was with different groups of kids every 40 minutes. The next group was a little older and spoke a little bit better English. We described a picture and wrote sentences about it. Oh and how could I forget, I had snack/story time with the kindergarteners before they went home for the day.

A much needed break was next for 20 minutes and then elementary school kids for the remaining three hours. I had 4 more classes all of which went really well. We have work books and a strict curriculum to follow. It was just so much easier to teach for the whole class. By my last class I felt really confident, it was by far my favorite class. They are the oldest group and have the best English. We immediately warmed to each other and openly were joking around. They were so eager to learn and they paid attention and sat in their seats and didn't fight and they were just so great! It defiantly is a long work day, but I think I’m going to really enjoy it.

I am exhausted, but the cooks nephew is going to help me learn Korean and my first lesson is tonight. Also, one of my classes tomorrow has read almost the entire abridged version of Great Expectations and I am “supposed” to that entire thing tonight, so that we’ll see if that happens. Any ways, all in all today was a very good first day!

This is a strange and fascinating city. It's a city built up from the ground. Every building is a mall within itself, every floor has something different; a cafe, clothing store, club, bar, restaurant, anything and everything you can think of. There is so much here, there is just not enough room on the ground floor for everything. This weekend I went out exploring with some of my coworkers. Friday night after work we went out to dinner and had an amazing meal of shabu. There are coals under the table and a pot of boiling water on top of it. You order vegetables and meat and cook it yourself at the table and wrap it in this very thin rice patty. We then went to a few different foreign bars. One of the more popular ones is O’Briens. Here I met people from all over the world, but mostly America, Canada, Ireland, Russia, England, South Africa, etc. It's a great little foreign community here where most people know each other.

By Saturday I was so jet lagged I slept until 4:00 in the afternoon! I had no idea what time it was, where I was, and I was just so confused and lost. I was supposed to have gone on a scavenger hunt with my friend Brittney from work at 2:00, she even came to my room and knocked. I woke up with a fright thinking it was around 2:00 in the morning, not the afternoon, and that she was some man trying to get into my room. I had been staying at a motel for my first two nights, and one of my coworkers had told me a terrifying story the previous night about when she had stayed at that same motel; a man literally unlocked her door and walked in asking her for sex. Living directly in downtown does have a few down sides, one of them being a large prostitute population, many of whom frequented that motel. Fortunately I moved into my cute and cozy apartment later that afternoon.

My apartment is a tiny studio, but oh so cute! I have a teeny, tiny kitchen equipped with a refrigerator, sink, two spot stove, and a washer/dryer. I have a western-style bathroom, with a toilet, sink, and closed off shower stall. The remainder makes up my bedroom/sitting area. I have a twin size bed that feels like sleeping on a ever so slightly padded rock, surprisingly not too uncomfortable (just when laying on my side). I have a super small couch, desk and chair, tv set, small book case, and three small closets. The highlight of my apartment is the balcony, which overlooks my street and gives me a wonderful view of a nearby mountain. However, when I was crawling through the window to go out there yesterday I found a huge cockroach just hanging out in the window sill….gross! Another perk about the place is two other coworkers live here as well, making it really easy to get in touch with them.

Sunday morning, still jet lagged, but woke up at 3:00 in the morning, how nice. So around 6:00 I went and ventured out. I could not believe how gross and dirty the streets were; garbage everywhere! This city is a huge party city, so after a Saturday night you can only image how much liter speckled the streets. But shop owners were out sweeping with ancient looking straw brooms and a street cleaner truck was driving up and down the roads. By the time I was done with my walk, everything had been picked up. It’s almost like controlled chaos here.
One of my new favorite things about the city is the open market which is every 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, and 29th, and one block from my house. Brittney and I ventured over later in the afternoon to discover piles of fresh squid, octopus, eels, shrimps, fish, skinned chickens, nuts, seeds, grains, vegetables, and fruits. We walked around cautiously, not know the langue beyond hello and thank you, and it being so crowded, we felt slightly out of place. We did get to sample many goods, such as Kimchee and various sweets. We bought a lot of veggies and a plant to decorate my apartment.

After, Brittney brought me to E-Mart, the Korean equivalent of Wal-Mart, but so much better! It had four floors! And you could literally find everything you could possible need here. It was odd though, the carts you had to pay for and all the workers were dressed in either traditional Korean gowns or extremely silly uniforms. You also had to pay for every small plastic bag to fill up your groceries with, or you could tape up an old cardboard box for free and use that. The bags cost money because you can use them as trash bags later and trash is free to get rid of; you just bring it out and leave it on the side of the road, making it smell in certain places.

After a long day of exploring and shopping Brittney and I went back home and made a veggie stir fry for dinner, Korean style wrapped it in lettuce leaves. We both went to sleep early, with a long week of work ahead. My first day of school is tomorrow! I am very excited and very nervous because I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

This summer was one of the most stressful and frustrating summers of my life. Trying to get a job and a working visa in South Korea was much more complex and long-winded than I had anticipated. I had job interview, after job interview, after job interview. Almost every week I would have a phone interview with another Korean school, each school sounding worse and worse. Jen and I had many job offers, but something always went wrong, such as the school having an illegal contract, the city was bad, the teacher whom we were going to replace deciding to extend their contract, or my favorite was what happened with the school in Ulsan.

We had decided on a hagwon (private school) in Ulsan, where we would be teaching 5-7 middle school classes every day. The contract was signed by both Jen and myself and the school. Just about a week before we are set to leave I get a call from Amy, my recruiter working for a company called AppleTree. She tells me she has some bad news and some good news. Bad news first, the school in Ulsan is worried our visa paper work will not be done in time and in their hysterical state gave our jobs away to another teacher who’s paperwork was complete. So here I am isolated on Spectacle Island sitting in the dark of the visitors center completely stunned. I gave my two weeks’ notice, I’m leaving work early to leave for Korea, I have no other prospects for the Fall, what the hell am I going to do?

Then came the good news, another school in Changwon is interested in us and is willing to wait for Jen’s paperwork, which is taking longer than expected. Upon hearing the location of this new school, I knew everything would work out; this was the city we had originally wanted to live and work in. I had yet another phone interview, my last as it turned out, later that night. It was the best phone interview I had had all summer. This was the first time I had spoken to a teacher currently working at the school, as opposed to the director of the school, and a native English speaker to boot. This was more of a friendly phone conversation than an interview. Brendan told me all about the school, the kindergarten and elementary school kids (way better than middle school) we would be teaching, the 5 other native English speaking teachers that work there, how the school functions and operates, all the support I would get from various staff members, and most importantly how much he has enjoyed working there. This interview was like a breath of fresh air, the calm after the storm. I was overcome with a huge sigh of relief, up until this moment I had been only excited about living in Korea, now I was more excited about my job.

Despite my skepticism, the day finally came for me to disembark on my journey. After three plane rides, two countries, a total of 24 hours of traveling, and meeting a few friendly Americans along the way, I had finally made it to Korea. I was warmly welcomed by Nicky, one of the school supervisors, and Erica, one of the schools teachers. Driving along the highway, it was hard to distinguish the fact that I was in Korea, in the dark looking so similar to American highways. However, despite the darkness of nighttime, I could make out faint mountains all along the roadside, letting me know that I indeed had landed in Korea.

After 20 short minutes, we arrived in Changwon. It is unlike any city I have ever been to, but exactly what I expected of any major Asian city…NEON! There are bright signs everywhere, every floor of every building is completely covered with yellow, red, orange, green, and every other possible color signs. I cannot even recall if there were street lights, if there are, there defiantly is no need for them here, the streets are glowing.

I was so nervous before my departure, about getting lost in the city, not being able to find my school, a bank, restaurants, or even my apartment once I left, being warned that my apartment would be a 10 to 15 minute walk to my school. Nicky first showed me the school on the way to my apartment, so I would know how to get there. To be more accurate, it’s more like a 10 to 15 second walk, I can literally see my apartment building around the corner while standing outside of the school. And the bank, right next to my apartment, and the restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, mini-marts, bars, everything, are everywhere. If I wanted to, I would not have to leave my street to get to my apartment, get to work, and get everything else I need to survive. I couldn’t ask for a better location.

Changwon seems like it will be a perfect fit and I cannot wait to get out there and start exploring.