One Month and Counting

Believe it or not, I've actually just about made it a month here in Korea. To be honest, it feels like it's been so much longer. That's probably because of everything I've experienced and have had to learn over the last month. It really has been like re-learning how to live. Adapting your old habits and way of life to a completely different society and culture is definitely not easy. When we went through orientation, they described going through these changes and differences as "negotiating." Technically, I'm just ending the "honeymoon" phase, which they told us would last about a month. This is where everything is new and exciting and still kind of feels like a vacation. I don't know, I definitely feel like I've done some "negotiating" already. That's a good thing though, because I'm feeling like I'm starting to find a groove here. I've been in Busan for about two and a half weeks and I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on the public transportation, which is important. I'm still feeling my way around food shopping and entertainment, but I think those things will develop with time. I guess in a nut shell, living in Korea has been "so far, so good." I've got 11 more months to figure it out completely, so I'm not worried.

The TV situation is definitely unique. Because I only have a few dedicated English channels, I find myself watching shows I probably would have never even given a second thought. Shows like How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and House have been nice additions to my television database, but things like Are You Hot? really shouldn't be on TV period, let alone being shown in Korea. Though I do enjoy seeing how dejected some of these contestants get when they are deemed "not hot." Some of those people need to be taken down a few notches. One thing I enjoy is the randomness of the movies that are shown on TV here. You never know what movie you'll find on any given station, so it leaves me watching movies that I have totally forgotten about, but enjoyed when I first saw it. Other times I'm left watching movies that I would have just never otherwise invested the time in.

Last Friday at school, we didn't have any English classes, because of school elections. Now, I still don't know exactly what all the elections were for, even after asking numerous times, but I do know that at least two presidents and vice presidents were chosen. Whether one was for sixth grade and fifth grade, or for the whole school, I have no idea. It was a pretty cool process. All the students were brought to the auditorium where one of the teachers discussed the importance of the electoral process and how to choose candidates. They even showed a cartoon video of two candidates and discussed with the children who might be the better person to vote for. After this, all the students vying for the open positions went up on stage and gave little speeches. The students then cast their vote via electronic voting machines brought in by an outside vendor. The results were tallied on the spot and the winners were announced. I was totally impressed by the obvious investment the school put into this little event. I mean seriously, electronic voting machines? We didn't even have elections like this when I was in elementary school, let alone electronic voting machines. Though, now that I think about it, those type of voting machines probably weren't around when I was in elementary school anyway. Nevertheless, it was still cool. You'll also notice a funny incident in the video below, where two kids were playing, and a big kid fell on top of a little kid who immediately started crying. It took me longer than it probably should have to stop filming and see if he was okay. You'll hear my realization in the video right at the end. It's pretty funny. And, you'll be happy to know the kid was fine and actually stopped crying when I walked over and asked him if he was okay.

On Saturday, Brent and I ventured to Haeundae, arguably the most famous section of Busan because of the beaches. The most famous beach on the Korean peninsula is Haeundae Beach, which we were both a little underwhelmed with. I think we were both ready to be blown away after everything we'd heard and when we got there, it was just kind of "eh." Maybe it's because it was built up so much, or because we come from an area with some pretty nice beaches, or both. The views were definitely nice, but the beach itself was so small. We walked from one end to the other in probably about 20 minutes. We're thinking that maybe during the summer, it will be a bit more attractive. This beach does hold the record, however, for most parasols on a beach at one time. Guinness really does reach sometimes I think, though the aerial pictures of this do look pretty cool. Anyway, it was obvious from the moment we got off the subway that Haeundae was a foreigner hotspot. We saw so many different people who "looked like us" as we walked around. While there, we decided to take in the Haeundae Aquarium, which was pretty cool. It wasn't very big, I think taking us only about an hour and a half to get through. We all the standard aquarium sea creatures I would say.

After we did the aquarium, we decided to go to this specific cinema area of Haeundae, which appeared to be walking distance on the map we had. We set out from the beach on what became quite the trek and ended with us in a taxi back to the main area of Haeundae. We walked so far only to find that we passed where were trying to go. We hopped into a cab and pointed on the map to where we wanted to go, and knew there was a problem when the cab driver had no idea where it was. I've never been in a situation where a cab driver doesn't know where you want to go. I mean that's their freaking job! It's not like there was a communication problem either, because we showed him on the map! He even pulled up alongside another taxi and asked the driver if he knew how to get there, and he didn't either! At that point, Brent and I were fairly positive we probably didn't want to go somewhere that nobody knew how to get to. By pure coincidence, after we had already asked our taxi driver to take us back to the main area, he saw a sign for the place we wanted to go. We all had a laugh and Brent and I jumped out to arrive at the destination we had been seeking for probably a good hour or two at that point. All I know is we set out walking in the daylight and arrived at nighttime. So of course, we walk into this cinema place and it's nothing like what we expected. We were out of there after 10 minutes and into another taxi headed back to the main area. We had some Burger King, saw Friday the 13th and called it a day in Haeundae.

Sunday, we went to see the local pro soccer team play. They play at Asiad Main Stadium, which is only three subway stops from my place, so that was nice. It's actually located in a huge sports complex, which also includes a baseball stadium, a small arena for the local basketball team and various other little sporting venues. The stadium itself is quite large, but as we found out, probably too big for the local soccer team. Attendance for the game was surprisingly low. I had always heard that soccer was the second biggest sport here, but it appears to be a pretty distant second to baseball. It's strange, because you see a lot of Koreans walking around with Manchester United gear. When I told my co-teacher about the game, she said that Koreans love soccer, but really only the national team. They apparently are not that into the professional league. I can definitely understand after watching the game, because the level of soccer here in my opinion isn't very good. Yes, I would even say the lowly MLS has a higher caliber of play than the K-League. Anyway, they actually have bleachers assembled closer to the field for all the spectators, which made for a nice viewing of the game. We all had a good time. Brent and I had met up with Ashley and a couple other EPIK teachers to watch it, and then we all went to eat after at a Korean restaurant near the stadium. There I had some sort of cheese-stuffed pork dish, called donkuss. Now that's a Korean dish I can get on board with.

Yesterday as I was getting ready for school, Brent called me and said that his co-teacher had called him and warned him that there was going to be "Yellow Dust" in the air that day. Basically, Yellow Dust is some sort of air pollution from China that gets blown down here, so you'll see Koreans walking around with those medical masks over their mouths and nose to prevent from breathing it in. Now, neither Brent nor I had ever experienced Yellow Dust before so neither of us knew exactly how we were going to handle it. Turns out, Yellow Dust seems like nothing more than smog, it just sounds more menacing. Again, because I didn't know what to expect and I couldn't really tell from looking out my window, I grabbed a towel and took it with me to put over my face outside so I wouldn't breathe it in. When I got outside, I noticed that no one was really wearing masks, meaning they must not be too worried about it. I quickly felt like an idiot with this towel over my face and put it away in my bag. I honestly couldn't tell a difference as far as breathing or smell was concerned, and I wasn't outside that much, so I didn't worry too much about it. I just don't like how they call it Yellow Dust. It sounds like this evil mist that China sends down to wreak havoc in Korea every once in a while or something. Maybe this is why Roy hates the Chinese so much? Too much Yellow Dust.

Yesterday at school, I presented the students with a list of English names and told them to let me know their choice by next week. The funny thing is that before one of the classes was even finished, one of the boys chose the name Roy. You can imagine how hilarious that was for me, being as that was the first name chosen. It must be a Korean thing. Congratulations Roy Choi. Anyway, some of the students already have English names and some are pretty funny. One kid told me his name is Mo. A girl said her name is Zia. Another kid said his name is Western. When I asked one of the classes, this boy stood up and said his name was "Wun." I said, "Juan? That's not English." He said, "No, Wun." So I walked over to him and he wrote his name on a paper, and sure enough, he wrote "One." Okay, One it is then. Tom, Daniel, Mary and Sally appear to be the popular names amongst the children who already have them. It will be interesting to see what names they pick. Like I said before, I'll be sure to update you if your name is chosen by any of the students.

After school, Brent and I took our co-teachers to dinner as a thank you for everything they've done for us. We went to this place called VIPS, which easily is the best restaurant I've been to since coming here. It's famous for steaks, and the one that I had was awesome. They also had a Souplantation-like salad bar that had everything from pasta to salad to tacos to dessert. Granted the tacos didn't exactly taste like the tacos I'm used to, but they were still good. VIPS is definitely going to be happening more often.

Below are some photos of my experiences over the last few days and a short video with highlights of the election at school, the Haeundae Aquarium, the soccer game and a funny little lesson in class that featured a claymation version of The Little Mermaid. Enjoy!