Friday, February 26, 2010

Korea is Dynamic!

In one of our numerous lectures we were were told, "Korea is dynamic." People have been continually telling us to "go with the flow." We abruptly found out just how dynamic Korea is. After planning on being in the small rural town of Seongju, we were shocked when our co-teachers brought us to west Daegu. They first showed us an unfurnished studio apartment, with no windows, and a Little Mermaid bathtub. Surprisingly, after looking at a few other apartments, we chose that first studio. At this point we were in shock, experiencing fear, and uncertainty. In addition, our co-teachers speak to each other in Korean, and they spoke to the rental agent and apartment owner in Korean, so we had no idea what they were say; however, after saying a little prayer asking God that we would be understanding, trusting, and patient, we received a simple but huge relief. The other two native English teachers, who will be teaching in Seongju as well, came to the rental agency. We will hopefully be living very close to them!

As the long evening in the rental office progressed, we became more and more comforted that our situation would be just fine. By the end of the night, we were both extremely excited. We will be two blocks away from a very beautiful university where we can walk, run, play basketball, etc. There is a river a few blocks west of our apartment, and there is shopping and dinning just out our door. If we want Korean pizza, all we have to do is walk down our stairs to the first floor of our building. For a small town Grand Marais girl, this is a big change. The whole city is covered in flashing neon signs, and people flood the streets, even late at night. It is very different than downtown Minneapolis. Like Seth said, it reminded us of Times Square. Just think what Seoul will be like!

My co-teacher's name is hard for me to pronounce, so she asked me to call her Mrs. Gung. My guesstimate is that she is in her 40's. She lives in South Daegue, has a house, and has two children, a girl who attends Gyeongbuk University, whom is excited to meet me :) and a son who is in high school. I think I will have a good relationship with her. She has been very willing to answer all of our questions. On the ride to Daegu, Seth's co-teacher said, "We are very lucky. You are very handsome and Anna is very beautiful." :) Towards the end of the night, both of them said that they were very happy that we are their native English teachers.

The song "Love Shack" came to mind last night as we arrived at our hotel. It is a very fancy, clean hotel, except it is a "love" hotel :) We have a round bed with mirrors, another queen bed, mood lighting, a vanity with cosmetics, a jacuzzi tub, an enormous TV, a CD player, surround sound, a mini frig, a computer, etc. It reminds us of the movies!

Today we will furnish our apartment!

Surprise!

Well, yesterday was a long, frustrating, exciting, emotional day. Our alarm, which was set for 6:30, didn't work, and I was woken up at 7:30 by the sound of high heels in the hall. 7:30 was the time we were supposed to be in the lobby to load our luggage onto the bus. I jumped out of bed and showered and dressed in 10 minutes, and told Anna to just take her time because I could handle loading our luggage.

Since we were meeting our co-teachers, I was dressed up nice and all of our other clothes were packed away. Then I got down to the lobby... At this point I should tell you that we have 7 bags that way over 300 lbs total. They made us drag the luggage 1.5 blocks, uphill, through the rain, to where the buses were located. The day starts.

The bus ride to Gumi to meet the co-teachers was uneventful. When we got there, however, our co-teachers had driven together in the same 4-door sedan. Fortunately, we were able to fit all of the luggage in w four people by holding bags on our laps for the hour long drive. :)

When we arrived at our destination, we realized we were going to be living in downtown Daegu, about a half hour from Seongju. Daegu is a city of 2 million people, roughly the aread of Minneapolis and St. Paul combined. If you want a good visual of what cities in South Korea look like, think Time Square. In Daegu, it's Time Square with shorter buildings.

The first apartment we looked at was completely unfurnished, with a Kitchen, a living room and a bedroom. The second and third were still inhabited, and not good, so we actually selected the first. We were sitting in the rental agency very frustrated and upset while our co-teachers signed the lease, because we thought w would have to go buy all our own furnishings.

Later, we found out that our co-teachers had already arranged for all the furnishings to be delivered today. Although small, our apartment will actually be very nice, and we will potentially get another $400 allowance for choosing a smaller apartment for the two of us. Our situation is obviously going to be a lot different then we were expecting, but we are in an area that is very close to anything we could need, including trains to other major cities and areas.

I can't pronounce my co-teachers full name, but I call him "Che." He has been teaching in Seongju for 22 years, he has a 9 year old son named One-Young, and he likes to play tennis and smoke. I will be teaching in 2 buildings that contain a total of 4 schools. Both are middle and high school combined, and both are very small (one has only 40 students). This is nice because it is likely that I will not have to move to different classes; instead, the class sizes should be significantly smaller then the national average, and they will all come to my room.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Placement

We just found out where we're located and what levels we'll be teaching at. The town is called Seongju; it is about 30 minutes from Daegu, on the eastern half of the peninsula. The county has approximately 51,000 people, or about 214 per sq. mile. Anna we'll be teaching in a Middle school and a High school, while I will be in a Middle school and 2 High schools (scary!) We're leaving in the morning for Gummi, where we will meet our Co-teachers who are taking us to our apartment!!!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! We really appreciate them. We asked many of you to pray that we would find a Christian support group in Korea; your prayers have already been answered! Two young Korean EPIK staff members lead a worship service Sunday night. About 20 people attended. We had previously built relationships with many of the people. We were very encouraged by the music and discussion we had about Psalm 23. As we were leaving, one of the leaders told us that he had been and would continue to pray for us. We were so humbled! We looked forward to finding a church in the town we will be working in. We also hope to keep in touch with many of the people we have met during the orientation.
We are learning so much from our Korean lecturers and EPIK leaders. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful!

Somethings we have noticed about Korea and some personal opinions . . .

1. There are no shower curtains nor ledges to keep water contained. The floor, walls, sink, toilet, etc. get soaked.
2. Korean dumplings are awesome!
3. Lunch and dinner type meals are served with breakfast (salad, rice, Kimchi, pickles).
4. Instead of using marinara sauce, they use ketchup or something very similar to ketchup on spaghetti and pizza.
5. There are apartment buildings everywhere. We have seen very few houses and no yards.
6. Squatters . . . :(
7. Koreans use a heating system called Ondul (hot water flowing through pipes in the floor). I (Anna) love it! My feet are always warm :)
8. Nearly every third building is a PC Club.
9. Most everything is less expensive than in the U.S. except coffee
10. Education is a high priority for everyone in Korea. Educators are very appreciated :)
Cabbage is very important to the Korean culture because it sustained them when their country suffered from from hunger. There are decorative pots of cabbage everywhere!
This beautiful church is the location where the first Christian martyrs where killed. It was also the first western building in Jeonju.
Traditional Drum Dance















Jeonju Deaesaseupnori - a national competition in which the competitors play traditional folk songs
Sean - One of our very generous, funny, and helpful class leaders.

So. We are in Korea. Today is day 4, and we have been going non-stop since we got here. From the first alarm on Tuesday morning to our arrival at Jeonju University (in the Central Eastern part of the country), our "travel day" was about 26 hours. Day 1 was fairly relaxed, including a campus tour, opening ceremony (with lectures, traditional Korean dances, etc.), and a pretty impressive banquet. Day 2 included an awkward medical exam, meetings and lectures, Korean language class with a zero English speaking teacher, and a Korean movie about a chef in which we fell asleep. Day 3 was 11 hours of class broken up by meals. Today was our day off, on which we took a field trip from 9a- 6p, and viewed demonstrations of Traditional Korean Weddings, dances, and drumming, followed by a worship service :). We have been fed ridiculous amounts of food throughout.