I have been here for nearly a week at this point. It's now Monday morning, and I'm gearing up for the school day. Lately I've been going to bed "early" (say around 9pm), so that I can be up early (around 4:30-5ish), and it's been great. We'll see how well that persists as I get more involved with other things, but for now, at least, I'm going to try my best to maintain that schedule. Thus if you want to connect with me online (through gmail or the like), if you're online early in the morning or early in the evening, you should be able to catch me. So far video chatting with some people has been great. Anyway … my first weekend in Gwangju! What a riot.
Right around this time we're having a large turnover in teachers at my schools. 4 of the 8 English teachers are leaving, and at least 1 of the Korean teachers is leaving as well. Just last night 2 of the new English teachers arrived, and I could only laugh to myself because Don asked me if I would show them around a bit. I gladly would have, even if the best I can do is walk down streets and say, "This looks like a restaurant" or "This looks like a pharmacy", but as it turned out, I had already fallen asleep by the time they arrived.
So Friday night we went out to celebrate the going away of Brian and Sunny, one of the Korean teachers. At the time, I didn't realize that it was her last day, so it will be a little sad to go in today and not see her around. But such is the fate of rotating staff … especially right after a hire. That evening we went to T.G.I. Friday's to commence the eating and drinking and carousing. I ended up eating too much food, but it was good. On a side note, my appetite has diminished quite a bit since being here. I think it's just from eating a little less across the board, which probably is a good thing considering how much I like to eat in general.
We went there and had drinks and just mingled for a little while. Those who attended were: Brian, Dianne (Korean teacher who shares some classes with me), Darrell and Brooke (Australian couple who've been around for a couple years now), Lisa and Louis (South African couple who are leaving this week), Sunny, and Jackie (another Korean teacher). It was very nice to just sit and chat and wind down after the stressful, busy nature of the week's classes.
As we finished up the dinner, Darrell wanted to go downtown to meet up with another of his friends, and I ended up joining him for the rest of the evening. Now, speaking of a trip full of firsts, we took a taxi to the next stop, and that was my very first time ever riding in a taxi. Since then I've used a few others (even one all by myself; again, I'm becoming such a big boy!), and it's interesting. Because of our location and the cost of things, each ride ends up being around $5 (in Won, of course, since the US currency isn't used here). So we took the taxi and went to a couple bars downtown.
The first bar is called the Speakeasy, and it's a foreigner bar. This will hold true to what I say about the hiking we did on Saturday as well, but there is something interesting about the connection of one foreigner to another here. Because most of us (that's my speculation, but I think it holds true in this area) are here to teach English, that's precisely what we have in common -- we all speak English. Except for those who've spent some time in another country or an area where they understand nothing that's said by anyone else (and all others don't understand what they are saying either), I doubt that you can fully understand why this connection point is so pressing here. I know I didn't really get it until arriving, and I've only been here for about a week. It's so weird to walk down a street and think, "Huh. I can't understand anything -- passing conversations, street signs, music, nothing." And then all of sudden you're in a place where you understand everything again. It is strange. I think that before arriving I held a small bias against those people who spend a lot of time around other foreigners. Is the point of coming to another country the cross cultural engagement aspect and being fully immersed in the culture and people and language? But now that perspective has been completely flipped over; I understand why one would latch onto other foreigners, and I think that's a really good thing.
So, we went to this first bar, and as I'm not much of a bar guy, I bought a beer and just kind of stood around, watched some darts and mingled a bit with Darrell and one of the bar tenders, whom Darrell knew. I really had no desire to meet new people that night because there was already so much going through my mind. After an hour or so, we then went practically next door to another bar, the German Bar. This bar was hilarious and fun and funny all at the same time. The bar was nearly empty by the time we arrived, and we went there simply because Darrell's friend, Sean, had gone there right after leaving the Speakeasy. By the time we arrived, Sean and few others were singing karaoke and drunken lovely time. Haha. It was quite the sight. After the first song or two, most of Sean companions departed, which left me, Darrell, Sean and Yundo (Sean's girlfriend) still at the karaoke area. I did take pictures of this place, and you should make sure to check them out. The whole bar had wood panelling everywhere, and it simply looked completely out of place in this part of the city. There was even, for who knows what reason, a little Christmas display behind the main door. Maybe some forgot to put away all the decorations? Or maybe they just celebrate the season all year long in the German Bar? Who knows.
And karaoke, wow. Karaoke is something else in Gwangju. I will save the bulk of that discussion for another message, but for now know this: this specific karaoke machine would show the most arbitrary (possibly even random) scenes behind the lyrics. I took some pictures of the TV screen just to capture a few of the ridiculous things we saw. Haha. That only made the whole experience all the better. For one song we might be looking up at the Eiffel, and in the next moment, we might be on a beach … just looking at the backs of people. It was weird. And hilarious. And this bar also had a nearly full drum set as well as guitar sitting there, so while Sean and I sang away, Darrell ended up fooling around with the live instruments adding so much more flavor to the songs. It was great. Also, it was during this jam session that I decided Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" is my new favorite karaoke song. I pretty much rocked the socks off that song, and it's totally within my strongest vocal range. It was nearly perfect. Although I will admit, I never realized how many times they repeat "la la lie, la la lie la lie la lie, la la lie, la la lie lie la la lie, la la la la lie, etc. etc." Believe me. It's repeated a lot. And you should probably go listen to the song right now just to verify. After the German Bar, we headed back home, 'cause we needed some rest for our next day.
On Saturday I went with Darrell and Sean and a group of other foreigners on a mountain hike. Now, truth be told, if I had known how long the hike would last I might have reconsidered … or, at the very least, I would have packed a little differently. We hiked up the 3rd tallest mountain in Korea, Mt. Mudeung. The whole hike took about 5 hours, and although we didn't technically reach the summit (because there's a military base up there, and we probably would have been killed up approaching), we reached the 1100 meters mark at the top of the public portion. It was such a gorgeous day for the hike; we arrived and starting walking in the late morning, and we had a nice cloud cover for the bulk of the day, and although that did obscure our view from the top (it looked like we were basically just hanging out up in the clouds when looking down), it did keep the sun and heat away. Here's another topic better saved for another day, but one interesting thing that I saw on Saturday more than before was the general Korean aversion to the sun. There were a bunch of people hiking the mountain (although not as many as in the Fall and Spring, apparently, when the weather's even nicer), and practically everyone looked like a professional hiker -- the gear was astonishing, and the vast majority were covered from head to toe during the hike. Mind you, I would have loved to do this with flip flops, biking shorts and no shirt, but that would be unheard of for the typical Korean. Their's is probably the better way to approach the sun, but I don't think I've been won over by that part of the culture … yet.
The mountain itself was beautiful. Again, you can see some pictures, but they won't do it justice. We walked next to a few streams; there was a blending of deciduous and coniferous trees; in some spots it was pretty open, while in others, there was simply a little tunnel through which we passed, like we were in a jungle or something. There were even some sweet rock formations toward the top. Oh, it was so gorgeous. I hope to go back and hike that mountain a few more times in the coming weeks because it is very close, and it's a pretty simple way to get out, get active and do it with little cost involved. Next time I will prepare much better, though, and bring a lot of water. After hiking we headed home to clean up, and then we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant and had shabu shabu, which blew my taste buds away. If you've never had that before, I encourage you to go find a Japanese place that serves it and have some. Basically, you given a a pot over a flame in the middle of the table where you cook everything as you eat it. In the pot is seasoned broth, and then you cook greens and mushrooms and meat. The meat (we had beef) is cut very, very thinly, and it cooks very quickly when the broth is at a rapid boil. Eventually, after you've gone through a couple servings of the former, you throw in some noodles to cook, eat those and end the meal with some wicked fried rice. Whew. What a meal. And the whole thing cost about $10. So good. The rest of Saturday was pretty uneventful, and that brings us to …
Sunday and my move into my apartment! I know that some of you have been waiting for this part for a while. I had even received a question more recently asking how long I would be staying in the motel, but I am no longer there. I think that my apartment is a pretty good size, and since this is my first time ever living by myself somewhere, it definitely seems like more than enough space. I don't really have a good place to host other people (the kitchen table is rather small, and I have only one chair for it), but otherwise I've very pleased with everything here. I don't have a key to my apartment; there is a keypad lock outside the door that I use to enter and exit, and each time, like the electronics at the Tomato, it makes a cool little beeping noise when I lock or unlock a door. Once inside, I have my kitchen/largest room. In the kitchen I have all the basic things -- gas stove top, sink, counter, drying rack, fridge, washing machine -- wait, what? Clothes washing machine? Yes. Haha. My washing machine is nestled into my kitchen right between a couple other cabinets, and my clothes drying rack is located in another room. Woo hoo!
To the left of the entryway is my bathroom. Here are a couple things to know that are common for Korean apartments: 1. the whole can be the "bathtub." In my bathroom, nearly everything is tiled, and I have a hose with a sprayer head that attaches to my sink, such that when I switch over the sink from a normal dispensing of water to the shower head, I'm able to use it to shower. And then I just stand in the bathroom to clean myself. I actually really like this. This morning, for example, (for better or for worse) I started cooking my some rice, went and showered, and returned in time see the rice be ready. Now, I know that it's unsafe to cook something and leave the kitchen (who knows what could happen, right?), but to avoid this sticky predicament, I simply left the bathroom door open … so that I could watch the stove and shower simultaneously. Oh, this efficiency, how wonderful! haha. 2. (This applies to the whole apartment) Hot water doesn't automatically come through a faucet. The first night I was here, I tried to shower, and much to my dismay, even though I waited for the water to warm up a generous amount of time, I ended up "showering" in cold water (I use quotations simply because I ended up cleaning only the necessary spots … so it wasn't really a full shower … since I'm sure most of my back never felt the chill touch). It wasn't until just yesterday when I was talking with some of my other teachers that I realized I have to actually turn on the hot water to use it anywhere else. As it turns out, there's a panel on my kitchen wall that allows me to turn on the gas heat -- both for hot water and for my apartment's general heating in the winter. When I discovered this, I thought "Hmph. That's pretty clever." And I do still think that to be the case. It saves one the unnecessary use of gas to heat water when the water probably doesn't need to be heated.
Beyond the bathroom I have my office area, which is consumed almost entirely by a massive desk. This desk is like a CEO quality desk. HUGE. And I'm lovin' it (cue McDonald's jingle). Can you guess what else my office area houses? If so, you are the best guesser in the world, and you should make that your profession because in this room (where I'm currently sitting) I have: a) a sweet leather chair, b) my clothes drying rack, c) a cooling (normal) fan, d) a heating fan, e) a wicked framed deer painting/mural that takes up most of one wall and … f) a church pew. Haha. Oh, it's so great. Apparently Brian found the church pew thrown out somewhere, thought it was hilarious and brought it home. I, too, think it's hilarious, and I'm very glad to have inherited it. Awesome. I'm thinking about starting my own house church … any takers?
And then we come to the bedroom. Oh, yeah. In this room I will probably spend more time than any other single place in all of Korea. Is that weird to think about? Nope. [note: I've gotten into the habit of saying "yep" and "nope" for the last year or so now (thanks old housemates … specifically Sarah ;), and now I find that that's one of the hardest things to break; I need to teach kids "yes" and "no" not the other words. whew. I've noticed some other habits like this that I have to master so that I don't end up instilling these children with some idiosyncratic quirks … but I'll save my own quirks for another conversation] Here's another culture point that I've encountered: Korean beds tend to be very, very firm. I've been thinking that it might give me just about the same "restful" sleep to use my desk as a bed instead of the mattress. This will take some getting used to, although Matt (he and his wife Kristen are two other teachers, and they're the ones with whom I attended Calvin) gave me a little insider's trick. He and Kristen have put some extra blankets under their sheet, so that the bed has a slightly softer feel. This should be happening in the very near future … otherwise my back will continue to ache a bit upon each waking.
So that's my place! It's a little dull and drab right now, but it is mine nonetheless, and I like it. Also, I literally just found out my mailing address, which is:
#403, 1185-4, PungamOdong, Seo-gu, Gwangju, South Korea 502-778. So, if any of you wants to send me things, I will gladly accept any letters, games, beef jerky, combos, sweet tarts, various spices/seasonings, kids books in English, a power strip, you know, little things like that (ha. Those specific food items were given to me by Alexis and Stefan, and they were great; apparently Korean equivalents don't exist and/or aren't very good). I still need to figure out how to mail something from here, but I figure I'll get to that soon enough. I do also have a cell phone now, and my number is 010-8672-4562. If anyone were to call from the States, I believe it would be something like this: 011 (exit number from the States or Canada) - 82 (South Korean country code) - 010-8672-4562. I think that would work. Obviously I haven't tried it, but that's ok. Another note, if any of you were wanting to reach me, I'm in class each day (in your time) from 8:30pm until 6:30am, so that's definitely the time to avoid.
Alright. I think that's about it for now. I did receive a fair number of questions; thanks for these. It reinforces that at least some of you are trudging through the miry muck I send you each time and trying to look for more insights. Most of the questions concerned the school and students and things of that nature, so next time, look forward to: why my kids are even at my school, more deliciously funny kids stories, and Ben teacher the Giant crushing kids' wills to be unruly.
Much love to you all.
pfn,
bg
ps- if you want to join me for some of the hike shots, visit:
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ps- if you want to take a picture tour of my apartment, visit:
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