Lotte World

After my adventurous haircut on Friday, I was ready for another adventure by Saturday. This time, the adventure took place in Seoul at Lotte World, which bills itself as the largest indoor theme park in the world.

Now, I've never spent a lot of time at indoor theme parks, so I really don't have much to go by. What I can tell you, though, is that this place was huge. It really reminded me of Disney World in a lot of ways. In fact, I think some of the rides are complete Disney rip-offs.

Let me take a break in my pontification to give you a perfect example. One of their main rides was called the Adventures of Sinbad. Fortunately for us, the ride was themed to the adventures of Sinbad the sailor, not Sinbad the comedian. I don't think I could handle a 15 minute boat ride that revolved around us hearing the comedy of Sinbad.

The ride was strikingly similar to Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyworld. The boats were the same, the robots and scenes were very similar, there was even some sort of pirate song, althoug it was in Korean so I didn't really understand it.

Besides Pirates of the Caribbean, there was also this jeep ride that reminded me a lot of the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland in California.

Even though the park featured many blatant rip-offs and copyright infringements, it was very detailed, which you don't see in Korea.

In more short time here, I've noticed that many things in Korea seem very half-assed. Its as if they start something and lose interest, so they quickly finish it up and move on. Fortunately this place was very well thought out and had some really detailed areas.

All in all, I had one of the best Saturdays in Korea so far.

JW

A Korean Haircut...

My last hair cut was on my birthday, March 25, about four days before I left for Korea. Needless to say, I've been due for another one for quite some time. My hair had gotten a little shaggy over the past few weeks, but it hadn't been bothering me enough to get it cut. Also, I've heard (and have seen) many horror stories of Korean haircuts gone wrong, so I've been very reluctant to give it a shot.

Well, I guess you can only put things off for so long. When I got up this morning, I took a look in the mirror and knew that today I HAD to get my hair cut. I just had to bite the bullet and suck it up, and that's exactly what I did.

Things are a bit different than back home as, but it appears that there are two kinds of places. There are what we would consider normal shops (Hair Cuttery type places), which seem to be mainly for women and barber shops, where all men go. Now, normally I am not really a barber shop guy, but I think it might be socially awkward if I went into one of the normal hair places (the ones for women). I already knew of a barber shop from previous explorations of my neighborhood, so after school and a visit to the gym I was ready for my hair-raising adventure (I know that joke doesn't fit, I just wanted to use a viable hair related pun).

I received my first clue that this would not be your usual haircut as soon as I walked into the door. The lady was very nice, but pointed to six old crooked water-stained pictures on the wall that were numbered and asked me to choose one. I ended up choosing the number 4, which I thought would be a good look for me.

As I went to sit down, the women motioned me to the back for a shampoo. To my surprise, there were no chairs just a big Costco bottle of shampoo and a shower head. I'm beginning to realize that the motto here is if you can do it yourself then do it yourself. I did end up giving myself a very nice shampoo, though. I even threw in a scalp massage for free.

After my professional shampooing the woman proceeded to man-handle the sides and back of head. I think that Koreans really dislike hair on the side of the head. She would have just shaved me bald if I had fallen asleep in the chair.

To be fair, though, the haircut was only 6,000 Korean Won (about $4.90), so you really can't complain too much. It really isn't even awful, Its just a lot different than what I'm used to.

After the woman finished, I was directed to go back and wash my own hair again. I was then shown a large table with razors, trimmers, lotions and gels so that I could style my hair and groom myself the way I saw fit. I do think that part was pretty cool. I like being able to style my own hair after a cut. I just wish she had left more of it on my head to style.

Oh well, I'm just glad I got my hair cut, even though I do look like an army recruit. And to answer your question, no I will not put a picture up of my new haircut. Give me a couple weeks, and maybe I'll think about it.

JW

How are you spending your free time?

I think I've said before that Korea is a very different place. You can give them as many McDonalds, Popeye's and 7Elevens as you want, but it will always remain a extremely confusing and exotic land. I really learned that lesson yesterday when I had a very odd conversation with one of my co-teachers.

Before I begin my rant, though, let me give you some background information. I have a contract which I've signed that spells out clearly how many lessons a week I can teach and how many hours a day I'm supposed to work. Even though I have this signed contract, I do volunteer a few extra hours a week to do various random things, like a weekly TV show for my school and a bi-weekly English club. I really don't mind doing these things, but they do take up a lot of my extra time.

Yesterday, one of my co-teachers, a Korean English teacher, asked me if I had time after school to discuss the TV show. I had already set aside much of my time the previous couple of days to discuss the show, so I felt fine with telling her the truth. I had plans to meet up with some friends that afternoon, but I also agreed to discuss the show with her the following period.

After our discussion of the TV show, my co-teacher tells me, in the very formal and unnatural English that all Asian people seem to acquire, that she does not mind that I have plans after school, but many of the older co-teacher do not like that I have plans and do things after school. I was told that Korean teachers are always very busy, so it is offensive if I go to dinner, or a soccer game or do anything that appears as if I am not working hard. Remember, we're talking about the time after my contracted hours and not even including all the extra hours I give to them.

This was obviously very off-putting for me. I do understand a little bit of what she was telling me, though. Korean teachers work 13 hour days. They all have very long hours and, on the surface they all appear to be busy. The thing I've noticed though, is even though the are scheduled for 13 hours, I never see any of them actually working hard. Most of them have far fewer classes than I do. I think they just have to keep up the illusion of being busy.

Anyway, after being "chewed out" by my co-teacher for my extra-curricular activities, I basically told her, in a very polite way, that in my country, we mind our own business. As long as we get our work done, which I do more quickly than most other teachers, no one really cares what you do with your time off work. My philosophy is, until I get paid for the time I'm not working, I can do whatever I want.

JW

Interesting Developments

In preparation to leave for Korea, I did a lot of background research. All of my reading assured me that Korea was a highly developed country, which in many ways it is. For me though, I find it interesting to compare Korea head to head with the USA. When doing this, it is obvious that we Americans focus our thoughts and energy on very different things then the Koreans.

I find that technologically speaking, Korea is light years ahead of us. Not only are they leading the way in new technologies, such as cell phones and killer-fast Internet, but they also have placed great focus on making many things energy efficient. One of my favorite examples are the escalators that are ubiquitous throughout the country.

In the US all escalators operate continuously. In Korea, though, the escalator only start running when you approach them, when everyone is off they stop until someone activates the motion sensor again. A very simple thing, but one that can potentially save a lot of money in operating costs and energy savings.

Another amazing thing that I find fairly common in Korea are the motion censor lights. When I walk into my apartment, the motion sensor light in the entry way turns on, which is very useful for walking into a dark apartment. When you flip on a light in the apartment the motion censor light turns off. When you turn the lights off, the motion sensor light comes on, so it isn't dark when you leave. Again, a very simple thing to do technologically. Also, It just makes a lot of sense.

What gets me though, is that Koreans can use technology and harness it so well, which Americans have always had a problem with, but they also have some of the most poorly designed infrastructure I've ever seen. Roads are clogged, buildings are pretty poorly built, the skies are smoggy and many things are just not well planned out. It really boggles the mind sometimes.

So, Although I find Korea lacking in many areas, you could never say the technological competence is one of them. Also, it probably isn't really fair to compare because your placing a tiny country with a huge population and need for many buildings very quickly up against one of the richest countries in the world that has lots of space for higher quality development. Plus, I've heard that Korea receives a lot of building materials from China, which I've heard are not really the greatest.

JW

My First Long Weekend

So...I've not been very good at updating my blog, but I've promised myself that I will push myself harder to work on it. The last few weeks have been extremely eventful, and so much has happened that it is extremely hard to try and recollect it all right now. For that reason, I want to focus on my most recent set of adventures, which occurred this past weekend.

Before I get into that, though, I want to briefly describe the group of friends I have made here. They are Graham, Ricardo, Chloe, Gurshawn, Ricardo, Keith and Bronwyn. I'm the only American in the group, but I think that's why it is so refreshing to spend time with them. I also like hearing their thoughts and opinions on current events in the US. Its amazing, but sometimes I think they know more about US history and politics than I do. They are all very interesting, fun and funny. Its always nice to be around people that can help make your day a little bit better.

Anyway, back to my story. Sunday May 3rd was Buddha's Birthday and May 5th was Children's Day in Korea, so I had a total of five days off. In the week or so leading up to the long weekend, a bunch of us discussed a variety of possible events, trips and activities, however we all really delayed making firm plans. After dragging our feet, we miraculously got our act together and ended up purchasing train tickets at the last minute to a town called Danyang.


Danyang is a fairly small resort town about three hours south east of Seoul. It is surrounded by mountains and reminds me a lot of Gatlinburg in Tennessee. The town has a fairly large river running through it and is well know for its caves, which are open for tours by the public. There is also a very large temple nearby in a town called Guinsea.

Our train to Danyang was at 8:00 on Saturday, but we also had to take the Subway from Incheon just to get to the train station, so we ended up leaving about 6:00am.



The train ride was fairly uneventful, however we did end up having a couple of 8:00am beers. Usually I don't imbibe that early, but when in Korea... There were actually quite a few people on our train drinking (all Koreans on their way to go hiking).

Once in Danyang we found a very affordable and fairly clean motel right on the river. We spent the rest of our Saturday touring one of the local caves. The cave was actually quite cool and the tour was very different then any cave tour you would go on in the US. There was no guide and the pathway included some steep stairways, some very low passages and a lot of holding your breath and turning sideways to get through some tight passages.

After the caves, we went to a spa/water park called Aqua World. Spas in Korea are everywhere. They are much like a spa you would think of back home. They include hot tubs, saunas, showers, etc. The only difference is you are required to be naked in order to participate in any of these activities (There are separate men's and women's facilities, though). To make thing more awkward though, Koreans flaunt their nakedness, so you will see many people hanging out, watching TV, chatting on their cell phones and even reading the paper, all in the buff. In our case, this was a family spa, so there were also many naked little boys running around. Needless to say, we did not end up staying there too long. For a nation that's seems obsessed with staying healthy, I just didn't see how any of that was sanitary.

The following day we visited the temple at Guinsea. The temple was a thirty minute bus ride from Danyang and it was an exciting one to say the least. I think all Korean bus drivers are trained to drive their buses like they are Honda Civics. Luckily, the harrowing bus ride was more than worth it.

The temple sits on top of a very large hill, so it is a hike, but undoubtedly worth it. It was an indescribably beautiful place and I can certainly see why temples are so widely visited throughout the country. We were also lucky enough to get served a free Buddhist lunch, which was very simple but quite good. The rice was actually some of the best I've had in Korea.

All in all, it was a very good long weekend. It was also my first chance to travel in Korea and I think we picked a great destination for our first trip. I'm dreading going back to school just a little bit, but I think its just because I've been gone for so long. Tomorrow its back to the daily grind, but at least I have 11 more months of teaching, travel and fun ahead of me.

JW

My first week as a teacher

Well, I made it through my first week of school. I really like my students and I enjoy teaching. I do have a lot of classes, 23 a week each with about 35 to 37 students. I've been very strict with all of my classes, but they still seem to really like me.

In all of my classes this week, I spent the majority of the lesson telling them who I was and where I was from. I also told them a few things I really liked and a few things I didn't like. I then gave them paper and colored pencils and had them all write about four things they liked and why and four things they didn't like and why. I think the lesson went pretty well, but my younger students (7th graders) seemed to enjoy it the most.

This coming week I'm going to start the actual teaching. I'm required to teach out of the text book, which will be a little difficult because the text book is very dry and not written that well. I do have some good ideas for a few games, so I'm going to try them and see how they work.

I'm also supposed to go on a three-day long field trip next week. I'm really not clear on where we are going or what we are doing or even what my duties will be, since I don't speak Korean. I just know I will be riding on a big bus and I think there is a mountain involved.

The past few days I've been fighting a pretty bad cold. I think I went through the worst of it last night, so hopefully I'm slowly getting better. The teachers in my school were nice enough to get me some medicine, so I've been taking it as they prescribed. Again, like everything in Korea, I can't read the bottles, so I have know idea what the medicine is for, so I just have to trust the people that gave it to me.

Anyway, I am filling slightly better. I was supposed to go out this evening to downtown Incheon. There is a reunion of sorts with the other foreign teachers that came last week along with a bunch of teachers that are already here. I think its pretty important to try and meet these people, so even though I'm still a little suck, I'm toying with the idea of still going.

JW

Lots of Stuff

So, this is my first update since getting into Korea. I’ve been here almost a week now, but have just not had the time or energy for an update. In order to get caught up, I’ll divide this update into a few separate topics. Enjoy.

Also, my plan was to load this update with picutres of my apartment, but my camera has just started acting really strange, so the pictures will have to wait until I get the camera situation under control.

The Flight and Arriving in Korea

I left for the airport on Monday (3/30) at 10:00am for a 1:30pm flight to Korea. Before I left home I was a little worried about the weight of my backs. I was shuffling my stuff around until the last moment, but at the airport the bags made it through with no problems. I don’t even think the ticketing woman even looked at how much they weighed.

The security line was pretty fast and after a short wait in the gate, I was on the plane and head to Seoul. I lucked out in seat assignment, as there was nobody in the middle seat next to me. The service was also very good and even though it was a long flight, almost 14 hours, it was very bearable.

For me, the most interesting part of my flight was the first meal service. The flight attendants were offering choice between a Western meal and the Korean meal. I was feeling adventurous (and slightly light headed from my free plane beer), so I chose the Korean meal (I’ve got to get used to it anyway). I actually really enjoyed it, even for an airplane meal. The only thing I really did not like was the seaweed soup that was served with it. It was a little funky for me, especially for a gigantic cup of soup.

My slight soup issue aside, I had a pretty good flight and we were soon landing in Korea. The Seoul (Incheon) airport is very well laid out and I was amazed how quick immigration was. On the plane I was preparing myself to explain the whole purpose of my visit through some broken Korean phrases and some loud and slow English, but I was waived right on through.

After immigration and customs and walked out into the main arrivals level of the airport to meet the coordinator of the group I was employed through. I was immediately confronted by a barrage of cameras, lights, microphones and Korean soldiers. I was a little freaked and didn’t really know what was going on, but later found out that the media was waiting for Korea’s World Champion figure skater to return from a competition in LA.

I pretty quickly met up with the group coordinator and another teacher who arrived on a flight just after mine. We were then taken by van to the hotel where we would spend the next few days in teacher orientation.

Orientation Time

My arrival time in Korea was at 5:00pm on March 31, 13 hours ahead of EST. Our orientation was scheduled to start at 8:00am the next day. I knew before I left that this would be the case, so I planned to stay awake on the plane and just try sleep when I got in.

Although the idea was good, my body wanted no part of it. I was exhausted and went to bed at about 10:00pm, but still managed to only get 3 hours of sleep. Even though I was tired, my body kept telling me it was the middle of the day. I finally compromised with myself and wound up laying in bed listening to my iPod for about 6 hours. I couldn’t sleep at all during that time.

The actual orientation sessions were, overall, extremely informative and well planned and put together. On the first day we had a basic introduction and heard lectures from a variety of officials from Incheon, the city I’m living and teaching in.

On the second day we were separated into elementary/secondary teacher groups and given lectures on how to teach/co-teach a class. These were very helpful and made me both more relaxed and more nervous about teaching.

On the third day we were taken on what can only be described as a crazy tour of the city. Our first stop was to a Korean cultural center where we all dressed in traditional Korean clothes and played traditional Korean games. We then watched a really cool demonstration of a very traditional form of Taekwondo. After that we were taken to several office buildings, the highlight of which was the lobby of Incheon city hall where we got to look at giant models of future buildings and see items that are the pride of Korea, such as a right out of the factory luxury Kia.

The cherry on top of the Incheon city tour sundae, though, was the Booze cruise we were taken on in the afternoon. Personally, I have no idea why you would take a group of teachers who are being trained on a booze cruise, but they did, and it ended up being pretty fun. Most of the passengers were older Koreans and they all REALLY loved to dance. Not just any kind of dance, but loud, bass thoumping, wall shaking, techno dance. I actually made it onto the dance floor a few times, but the elderly Korean women wore me out. Everytime I would trie to leave to take a break, they would pull me back in the circle.

I was also given a very odd snack by one group of Koreans. I’m still not sure what it is, but I think it can be best described as ball of yeast that is slightly sweet. Whatever it was, it was the most awful chewing thing I’ve eaten for a while.

I should also take the time to discuss the floor toilets. I mention them now, because they were on the ship, but they can also be found everywhere throughout Korea. They are basically exactly what I’ve said they are. Toilets in the floor (the look like urinals mounted on the floor) that you squat over. For me, it is not a very pleasant way to go, but I guess it gets the job done.

On Saturday, the final day of our orientation, we finally met our co-teachers. For those that don’t know, a co-teacher is a person assigned to you that not only teaches with you, but helps you do things such as register with the immigration office, get a bank account and cell phone, join a gym, etc. Basically the stuff that you would be unable to do yourself.

My co-teacher, Lauren (her English name), is very nice and I think we will work together well. After meeting her, she drove me to my apartment, which is about an hour away from where the orientation was being held. After showing me the important things I need to know in the apartment, like reading/understanding the washing machine, she took me to my school and showed me my office and English classroom.

My apartment and neighborhood

After Lauren left, I quickly dove into exploring my apartment and my neighborhood. I’ve include a few pictures of the inside of my apartment. Although it is a studio, it feels pretty big.

There is a wall to wall window, so that helps. I also have some really nice wooden floors, which I’m guessing is common here. I have no oven, but I do have a nice cook top and lots of cabinets. I also have a couch, washer, big bed and a TV. The only kind of weird part is the bathroom. The shower are is kind of divided from the rest of the room, but not really. Basically there is a drain in the floor so you just close the bathroom door and get ready and shower all at the same time. This morning I did notice a rod that could be used to put a curtain on, but it would be really narrow, so I decided there was not really a point in closing off the shower.

The actual building is pretty interesting too. One of the most interesting things, I find, is that the mail is put into slots, but not into private locking boxes. If someone wanted to take your mail the easily could, but I guess that doesn’t happen too much around here. There are also several businesses on the first two floors of my building. There are two pizza restaurants and a takeout restaurant on the first floor. On the second floor, there is a hair salon, a restaurant and an Internet café, which could be convenient. I haven’t had to use it so far, though, because I’ve been able to connect to the Internet from my apartment.

I’m living in a place called Yeongjong Airport Town. It is a relatively new town that was built around the time the airport opened in 2001. The town center is fairly small, but is packed with a ton of stuff. Because I can’t read Korean, I couldn’t tell you what the different businesses are, but there are a lot of them. I’ve also found an interesting store near my house called Lotte. It is a lot like a Super Wal-Mart and it is only a couple of blocks away. I’ve found almost everything I’ve needed there, but I think they may be a little expensive. There is also a train station a few blocks from my apartment, so it will be pretty easy to get to other friends in Incheon and to get to Seoul.

So, that should get you caught up. I start work at Gong Hang middle school tomorrow and I’m being thrown into the fire with five classes and I have to introduce myself at a staff meeting. I’m just hoping everything goes well, but I have no reason to think it won’t.

Well, congratulations if you’ve made it this far. I’ll try to update you on my first day of school soon.

JW