The good the bad and the ugly

Hi guys! Looks like i left you hangin for over a month now :/ yeah... my bad. Anyways I have two reasons for that.

1. I have been really busy. Life here is getting to be pretty routine and normal now but it still takes me a really long time to do anything. Partly because I am a little shy. But it's about time I got over that huh? I think most the people here are much more afraid of me than I am of them. Funny this just made me remember that one of my goals when coming here was to get over being shy. ah well.. everything takes time.

2. It is getting harder to blog because I am not always O.O anymore. Things here are becoming more routine so when I see a crazy big street filled with thousands of people and 10 floors of different shops and restaurants in every direction I am no longer staring at it for 5 minutes so my brain can comprehend it. I am getting used to living here. I think that is a good thing though ^_^

So I actually have a lot I could talk about right now. I normally just let my thoughts flow without any structure into this blog, so lets see what comes out.

First I wanted to make sure everyone had the real story on how I am doing and feeling about Korea.

I love it here! I really really really love it here. I want to stay here for a long time, I think. BUT that being said there are definitely days where I am extremely frustrated. Christmas was the first time I seriously considered packing up my bags and heading home. I get annoyed when people go some place and they just brag about how awesome it is all the time non-stop because you know that cant really be true. As with any place there are great things and there are difficult things.

A difficult thing would be work, or more specifically my boss. He is a decent sort of guy but simply he is only concerned with himself and his business. So he gives me 1 day warning before my vacations and then extends them in the middle of the vacation. Also I beg for him to give me less hours because my kids are little energy suckers that bleed me dry but of course the next day he just slaps down a new schedule with more hours on it. . <

Other than that, there is just the culture shock value to everything. It can make life very exhausting sometimes. I want to do something simple like get a gift for a friend or get a haircut or deposit a little bit of money in an account but... Well all those things are full day tasks and I often put them off because they are soooo difficult and embarrassing.

You tired of hearing me complaining yet? Yeah I am tired of it too. I made a decision the other day that I am completely done complaining. Especially to my Korean friends. They do such a good job taking care of me and helping me out when they have no benefit from doing so.
(oh no more complaining coming!)
That is another thing that annoys me! My friends here are so great but I might as well be a helpless child because I dont know how to do anything. For example I have these 2 friends from church that I talked about earlier in the blog who I have been looking to buy gifts for but its been over a month and I am still empty handed :( I have gone to the shopping stores looking for them many times but they are a little paticular about the clothes they wear and most other things I dont understand. >.<

puff... well I am done complaining! It doesnt do anybody any good, including myself. I used to complain every saturday about having to work but enough of that. Sorry I just wanted to show you that traveling and/or living ones dream doesnt mean there wont be very difficult things along the way.

I am just trying to give you a real picture of what it is like over here. All that being said I still love Korea and I have no regrets in coming here. I have learned more than I ever thought possible here and I am making friends. Everyone here is soooo nice to me even though I can't really speak their language. They all just accept me and include me. Infact they do more than that, they go out of their way to help me. (well especially my church friends, they are the best).

You could probably tell I wrote this right after finishing work. ^_^

Yeah well I must say, I had a wonderful Christmas (after the whole [insert swear words here please] boss thing finished and I met all my friends at church after a 2 hour bus ride through snow). And I look forward to having a great new years too!

Oh and by the way in Korea i am turning 24 years old on January 1st! (their age system is pretty neat) So I cant wait to tell my brother I caught up to him. yeah quite difficult to understand. well hit me up on skype or Facebook. I promise I will throw a few more posts up soon. I have to write about Myeong Dong and Christmas and other fun things! I will post a new one soon I promise!

Peace 안녕

I <3 Korea + my Korean Students

Hi guys! I know it has been forever since I blogged and I am sorry. I have literally been going from one thing to the next all the time and any spare time I find I devote to studying Korean. But this is important too, so I can remember everything later and let you guys know I am still doing well.


First I think I should say a little something about my students.

Most of them I really like and maybe I like them too much because sometimes I need to be a discipline figure but I have a really hard time doing that :( So often I just let my students do whatever they feel like doing instead of studying. As you can plainly see here:


Yes that picture on the board is of me ^_- They often like to draw me and call me funny things. I think that is how kids show their love ^_^

I figure even if we arent studying out of the book as long as we are talking and interacting their English is improving so I am happy.

Anyways that is one of my 13 classes and they are about the average age that I teach. (maybe 3rd grade in the US) They are really funny. I often have my cell phone taken by them and they all enter their phone numbers in it so I can call them and they can call me even though that will probably never happen but it is regarded as a Korean sign of friendship. Friendship is taken pretty seriously here. You don't have many friends and it is very very rude to talk to people you dont know so my students are fun.

These students:


Are really into getting my cell phone and going through all my messages to see if I have a girlfriend or just to learn about my life. They are a lot of fun and I really enjoy them.
I showed them pictures from back in San Diego but many of them were on the beach so I didn't have a shirt on or something and they were like "OMG teacher were girls you cant show us this!!"
It gave me a laugh, I didnt realize that was a big deal here in Korea until then.
Korean culture is very odd to me sometimes.

Some of my older students are trouble makers and enjoy throwing muffins and the like out the window of our building on the 3rd floor to hit people down below and are always hitting each other (in a not too voilent way). Or my favorite was when they decided to test if the fire extinguisher worked on my 3rd day of work :/ Yeah that was fun.

Anyway I wish i could explain most things about this culture but EVERYTHING is sooo completely different that I really couldn't but I will explain a few things, or try to anyway.

One of the first things Korean's ask when they meet is, "how old are you?" and then they want you to guess how old they are (at least in my case). Now really, this is quite difficult... I really really have a hard time with Korean age so I guess so far off that people dont take me seriously. Honestly, guessing korean age is near impossible. So of course when I meet a lady I always go for the undercut of 3 years or so then I find out I actually guessed 10 years or more off the mark so it didnt matter anyway.

Another question that Korean's always ask is, "do you have a girlfriend?" I always blush when asked this and I am never quite sure how to respond. This is one of the first questions they ask when meeting you. Unless I misunderstand my own culture, you dont ask this question unless your interested in the person. I mean, I dont have a girlfriend but if I just say "no" or "앖어요" it looks a little pathetic especially since I still blush at the O.O effect of the question.

Some other funny things are that Koreans have no problem informing you about their weight gain or loss or telling you that you should loose some weight. They mean it in a nice way to show concern about you but I have heard people tell others they are looking a little fat this week.

So koreans drink. yes alcohol. And yes they drink a lot. Not all koreans of course but culturally it is very important. If you ever walk by a restaurant you will see *Every* table has at lest 2-5 green glass bottles on it, which is soju. I am a fan of soju but it is quite strong and the Koreans often drink way more than their fill. So it is very common to see men in very expensive business suits or just anybody asleep on the sidewalk or planters or just all over the place at aroun 11 pm.
Also there are very formal drinking guidelines here. If i was to tell you about them all I would be typing for a very very long time but the basics are you never pour your own drink and you always use 2 hands when doing anything with people you are showing respect to. And then when you drink you look away from the most respected person and have one hand over your heart. I think it is quite cool.

Also an awesome part of Korean culture is that the oldest person with the most prestige always pays ^_^ Sometimes I really like being 22 because Koreans my age are still in the university or military service. So I rarely pay.


One of my favorite things about Korean culture is music and movies. Korean movies are really really great. They are very real life and very stubtle, well most of the time then something along the way is a little rediculous but anyways I love them. They are soooooooo funny. Humor here is much different and I really appreciate the humor. If you care to watch any here is a link i use and one of my main reasons I watch is to help me learn the korean language. There are english subtitles though so dont be afraid. I would recommend the top one on the next page... very very funny.

http://www.mysoju.com/browse/korean-movie/popular/

Okay next up is Korean music. Apparently because my hair is white many many Koreans call me G Dragon. He is probably the most popular pop idol in Korea and everyone knows and loves him except some of the older generation. So I think it is a compliment when they call me G dragon. Here is a video of him (I actually really like this video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOXEVd-Z7NE

I saw Girls Generation in concert on Korean thanksgiving which was pretty fun. So here is a video of them. This is the main song they performed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb5GxZEZvt8

Next up I will just link some other popular bands because I am running out of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlTqQjOJ7jk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwq-XdPfpeA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MgAxMO1KD0&feature=channel

Well that is all the time i have ^_^

Of course there are many more things I would like to tell you about. I went to Costco in Korea which was very interesting (and different of course). I also have vacation this coming week and I think I am going to Busan which is the other side of Korea. Also as with most things around here I just dont know where to start. One night I was at a restaraunt with Korean friends who dont speak English and I was really liking this drink that tasted a lot like horchata, so it was a little nostolgic and I was drinking bowls of it. But then of course later I figured out that 막걸리 was actually a quite potent traditional korean wine (kinda like japanese sakae). Well, that was a culture mistake ; _ ; Anyways my Korean is getting better but it still sucks but I wont give up.

I am sure there are many spelling and grammer error's, sorry. Time for me to hurry to work so no time :/

안녕 peace!

Do you like seafood?

Why yes, yes I do like sea food.

So that was how my conversation went with some of my Korean friends. So next they asked me, 'Do you like shrimp?'
'no i dont like it... I love it'

So they decided to put that to the test, although they were completely unaware that they were doing so.

So after work I met up with them at a local subway station. My close friends 수미 (sue-mi) and 홈 시 (mr hom) decided on sea food and went out to eat. Sea food is cool right?

So as we are walking into the restaraunt 수미 and I stopped to admire the huge water tanks out front. One of them is full of octupus, another full of live crab and another full of live squids. Then there was another full of some sort of creature that had like 8ish tiny legs and a big head, and a long tail swimming around. After asking 수미 what they were I learned that those were shrimp.

I thought, 'oh! cool they like to display that their food is fresh, right?'

So we sit down and order the shrimp and our first dish comes out. Some yummy Brown Seaweed Soup. And dont bother asking what it looks like, it looks exactly like it sounds. It is a bowl of brown seaweed.

As sarcastic as I am being about it; it actually was pretty decent. I ate most of the bowl.

So now for the main course!

I see one of the waiters finish preparing a large skillet with salt and some sauce and a heavy glass lid. THEN!!!! He walked over to the shimp tank with a big net and scooped a whole load of shrimp into the skillet! THEN he walked over to our table and set down the skillet on a fire he lit in the middle of our table!!

Yeah! the shrimp were still all moving and their antenee were going crazy! (But that isn't all)

So i think my jaw was on the table ever since they brought the brown seaweed soup but this was waaay beyond that.

So the shimp are just chillin' in the pan being cooked alive for a minute or 2 but then I guess it started getting hot and that is where the heavy glass lid came in handy!

The little dudes were jumping so hard and smashing into the glass lid and trying to fight their way out. My poor little friends never had a chance. It was amazing to watch, for like 5 minutes they were jumping around and fighting each other!

My korean friends fully caught on that this was my first time ever seeing anything like this and they were having a really good laugh. They were talking about how I felt bad for the shrimp (which i kinda did because we were cooking them ALIVE. But whatev, their little black eyes boiled out and they curled up after about 10 mintues. After thinking about it... It is kinda convenient that they were alive.. I mean, we never had to stir the meat, it was self stirred food. ^_-

Oh believe me, I am not done yet!

So next we all put on some thick cloth gloves (common in Korea) so our hands wouldn't get dirty or the shrimp wouldnt burn us.
Then Mr. Hom grabs a pair of siccors and starts picking up the shrimp and giving them a nice lil decapitation and throwing the body into a bowl and the heads back in the pan.

(Phew! we dont have to eat the heads!)

By this time I was sucking down the soju figuring maybe it could be a stomach disinfectant or something ^_^ i think it worked, but i havent gone #2 yet so I will let you know.

So then we use our nice protection gloves and rip the shells off the shrimp and pop the shrimp right on in!

OMG OMG OMG THEY WERE SOOOO TASTEY! 진짜 아주 나무 맛있어요

best shrimp I have ever had... I tell no lies.

I'm not done...

So we finished the waaay too tastey shimpies.. Well the bodies at least and then we started digging into the heads!

Yeah, at first I was stunned and as wide eyed as could be as my korean friends started eating them.

speechless...

Then they offered me some.. so speech came, "More Soju Please!" (translation of course)

Yeah so with the heads, I would rip off the shell (I.E. the freaking exoskeletin skull) which had the boiled eyes sticking out the front and the antenee and then I would squeeze it a little to see if there were brains in there. Why, yes i think there were : /

Yeah I was poppin those suckers right on in my mouth. They were OK. Still tasted good but I think next time I will stick to the body.

No.. I am not done.

So then Mr. Hom... ... ... (hold on, still recovering from the shock) just grabs up a head, boiled eyes, exoskull, antenee and all and pops that sucker in his mouth!

ME: "WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!?!?!?!?!?!?!" (korean for what / why / wow)
Hom: "Your turn, good for you, makes you a man, good for stamina" (translation)

So after staring at the boiled out eyes for a hell of a long time, I did it.

yeah, i did it.

wait one more time.

i did it.

I ate that.

So that was not so tastey.. a little on the crunchy side. The antenee were the worst part.

Okay I am done for now.

After that the rest of the night was pretty chill, good old singing and hanging out with lots more food (though not quite so ... .. unique food)

But actually I am NOT DONE!

Next time we go out we are going to get some yummy pig skin. I cant wait ~~~~~~ O.O



Off topic and a bit more serious:

Okay well, I have a lot more to talk about but i never have the time to do it. Lots of work and lots of other things. Life is good here, infact I really really love it here. I have my regrets about missing important things in San Diego but I am living a dream I have had for a long long time. So I love you guys and miss you soo much. Please understand that I had to come here and do this; I have had more experiences here than I ever thought possible.

Back to the fun stuff:

So I would love to post about my students dome rocking some poor university student with a muffin from the 3rd floor window, or any of the things my students do all the time that leave me very wide eyed O.O , or my church family, or my constant study of Korean, or my many korean friends that I try to communicate with, or just the amount of crazy experiences here, or even my foreigner friends who are all very interesting people but time is a big issue here.

as Koreans say: 빨리 빨리 hurry hurry

Thanksgiving! (추석)

Korean thanksgiving was great! It is based off the lunar calandar though so it changes which day of the year it falls on. Unfortunately this year it fell on saturday so I only got 2 days off work, but enough complaining! It was wonderful! The picture above in inside a great concert / TV broadcasting hall where the President of Korea sat 10 rows infront of me then read poems on stage and many Korean famous music groups performed. But before that I want to talk about some other very fun things that happened first!

So first my good friend Calvin (궝선) and I went to the far east side of Seoul to go to a traditional Korean festival. Calvin is in the same shape as I am with family, his family is in Japan and so we were some of the few people in Korea who weren't with their families. But that is OK! We had fun anyhow, first it took around 3 hours of travel because of subways and buses and the like but when we got there it was a rather quiet peaceful park with only like 50 cents admission fee so I couldn't complain.

We went over to the festival area and there were loads of Koreans wearing Hanbok's and playing the Korean traditional games (which i sucked big time at). First there was the making of Duc which is basically rice pounded by a big hammer until it becomes more like a paste and it has seasoning put on the inside then after it is rolled into a ball. But we practiced making some Duc!

Starts like this:


Ends like this:


I dont think I actually ate that one for fear of germs but I eat Duc all the time and it's not bad. Then we got to see some old school Korean cultural music and I even got a picture with one of the guys. Calvin is the best buddy to have around because he hooks me up with great pictures all the time. They were interesting but it got a little dull after a while and I think it was even more dull for poor Calvin because he didnt see anything that new or special. I was wide eyed the whole time because I had never seen anything like this place.

First off the Kids in hanboks are the cutest thing I have ever seen.


Then there were all these fun games where people were using rope whips to keep tops spinning on the ground and rolling metal rings around with a little metal racking stick. Hmm hard to describe... But anyways the kids and the Korean middle aged men in suits sucked, then the old 아자씨 (Korean old man) comes up and shows everyone up. It was pretty funny. But anyway I got to see many super unique things that I am at a loss to describe.

One last thing i will try to describe because it was pretty sweet. So the festival music guys with the drums had this thing on their head that would whip around all over the place the whole time. It looked really cool, like it was always floating and that is the of my ability to describe it sorry...


So then after that and another hour in the Subway Calvin and I had some wonderful soup and met up with another of our best buddies 이정아 (Jeong-ah Lee) and she was super awesome! She got us tickets to see this wonderful TV special on thanksgiving for free and the president of Korea was there! yeah crazy right!

Well first we had some time to burn so 정아 (Jeong-ah) brought some thanks giving food that her family made and it was very very tastey! So we hung out in 요이도 (Yo-ei-do) park which is like The Park in Korea. Comparable to Central Park in New York and it is very close to where the Korean congress meets. Anways I can't communicate with 정아 that great but she is a really awesome person. Almost every Korean I have met has suprised me with how nice they are.


So the concert finally started and the security was huge because the president was there sitting in the middle over everyone and many other important dignitaries from America and other nations were also present. But other than the dignitaries who were old dudes I was the only foreigner there and as much as i try not to I kinda stand out. So I was getting odd looks all the time but I am pretty used to the by now but I cant kick the habit of checking my fly sometimes when people are staring at me.

The show was wonderful and it was about being generous and giving to others. So a good thanksgiving message. Some of the artists had birth defects or problems but it was about helping them and each other and encouraging people to do so. So the president read some poems about giving and helping. It was a good thanksgiving message.

This show was broadcast on Korea's biggest TV channel the KBS (Korean Broadcast station) and it was very well done. And yes 소녀시대 or Girls Generation was there but they didnt do "Gee" because apparently that song is pretty old in Korea so they did their newer songs which were pretty well done and I am pretty sure they were actually singing, i dont think it was lip syncing. Either was it was great and they are really fine! Calvin was yelling for one of the girls named Jessica the whole time, and it was pretty funny.

We weren't allowed to take pictures during it but Calvin was brave enough to snap one off at the end. My white hair was already drawing enough attention so I didnt but his photo is at the top of the post. It has 소녀시대 on the left in the blue outfits.

It made for a great thanksgiving and the next day was sunday so I went to church and that day was just as wonderful. Even though it was a Korean holiday it did make me wish to be with my family but the church members were really great. We hung out together all day and played games and even though I can't communicate well with most people they are really accepting of me.

We played 윷놀이 or the Korean game with the sticks that is very traditional and fun. And they really tried to include me in the other games as much as they could. I feel bad because things didnt work exactly as expected with the other games when they try to include me but well we all had a good time.

Then after spending the whole day with everyone who just about welcomes me as a family member everyone (except Calvin and I) brought loads of thanksgiving food and we shared it all. It was a really great time but I will admit it was a bit difficult being away from home during thanksgiving; even if it is the Korean thanksgiving.

Link to my other pictures: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdrobison100%2FkgTWyI%3Ffeat%3Ddirectlink&h=10f599a075b1d6903f35d44351a0781f

Well as normal I dont have much time which means I dont have time to proof read this so, sorry for my many errors. I am an OK English teacher I swear!

안녕 annyeong peace

What i would give for a boring day!

Okay so life here is soooo busy. This is one of the first times I have been able to sit still lately because I am normally running around and doing different things all the time. Which is great right because I am not bored at all but all the fun and all the stress of work and other things are making me tired. Anyway I think I have easier times coming. Testing at my school is mostly over and we have Korean Thanksgiving soon so I get a few days off of work.

So I am starting to loose confidence in this blog because I am so bad at posting and even when I do post I feel like I cant communicate much.. if anything. The reasons for the bad communication is that I don't understand half of what I see over here myself, its just amazing or extrodinarely different. But hey, I think I will keep it going and just write what I can when I can.

Anyways hiking in Korea is a huge deal. Simply put the hiking here is the best and can you guess the age group that hikes the most? Nope! All the middle aged and older people are the ones who hike in Korea. Yeah how crazy is that? These aren't just normal hiking paths either, there is lots of scrambling and climbing. They are really hard and steep. Apparently the older generations for the most part don't watch much tv and they go on these unbelievably challenging hikes often.

I was truely amazed to see all the Korean middle aged and old people doing these really difficult hikes but there were also a few amusing things. If Koreans go hiking they have the gear. When I say the gear I mean they are decked out in the best hiking shoes, hiking pants, hiking shirts, hiking goggles, hiking sticks, hiking backpacks and more with all the best brand names and a full load on their backs. I am talking like REI top brand quality here. And not just a few people, every single person is in the best gear available.

Oh and when they get to the top of a mountain (yes I mean mountain, not like the little hills or little iron 'mountain' we have in poway) they throw down a picnic cloth and sit and have a picnic for an hour or so. And they dont just have a picnic, they have a huge Korean meal for their picnic. It is pretty amazing. And of course a huge korean meal always includes a green glass bottle or two of their favorite drink, soju.

Here is the picture album i made: http://picasaweb.google.com/drobison100/HikingKorea?feat=directlink

eeeeh I didnt mean to spend much time talking about the hike.. oh well.

Anyways what I really wanted to talk more about is my awesome Korean friends. I have made a lot of really great Korean friends through church and seeing them is always the highlight of my week. I am glad to have Christian influences again in my life and people I relate to really well.

They are the best and I am learing loads of Korean. I am finally able to start using it too because I know enough to ask where things are or just to make very very basic conversation. At church I have a good friend who is teaching me Korean and I teach her English. But the awesome thing is this weekend is Korean Thanksgiving so I have some time off work and we are going to go to a concert with one of the most famous music groups in Korea! Yeah and the president might be there! And it is a TV broadcast too! Yeah how awesome right? Well the group is called Girl's Generation but wait dont think I'm gay, the men here love them just as much as the girls do. Infact my elementry school students love them and so do older people. Music in Korea is much much much different than in the US. Middle school kids are normally into pop music and like the same music as their parents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7mPqycQ0tQ&hl=ko



And then after that on Sunday it is the day of Thanksgiving (Chuesok) one of the pastors at the church is going to have me over to his house or maybe ther church or whatever for a thanksgiving meal! I can't wait. Maybe there will be a bunch of Koreans wearing the traditional clothes called hanbok's. Who knows? well I should probably blog about those after the fact.

Ok c ya, 안녕히 계세요

Church n' Friends!

I am soooo bad at blogging! Sorry about that. I thought since I now have internet I would get better but... hardly.

The main reason I suck at blogging lately is because I do non-stop studying! Yeah I totally planned on getting out of college and not studying much if ever again. But now I am studying because I actually want to! I really want to learn how to speak Korean but my skills are so basic still that the only thing I can do is look in books until I can get a handle of basic sayings. The progress is really really slow and sometimes rather disappointing because learning Korean is super hard but at least now I have really good motivation which I am about to tell you about.

So I have been looking for a church in Korea for quite some time and I thought finding a church here would be easy because there are so many people here that go to church and there are a pretty decent amount of churches here. I was very wrong. Finding a church is not easy at all because based on a Korean friend advice, many of the churches here are closer to cults and since I cant speak Korean I can't really tell the difference. And more than that, I cant read anything to find out when the service times are or where to go / what to do. It is all really confusing and really hard. Also another thing is, you never know if a church here would be accepting of a foreigner.

So now that you understand the struggle you should also understand how awesome it was when my friend Calvin who you can see in the last blog post invited me to go to his traditional Korean church with him. This was a huge undertaking for him because everything is in Korean at the church and he took it on himself to translate everything for me so I felt comfortable. He is really involved in the church so we went to all the services and he translated for them all and for most of the time inbetween. So he basically translated for me for over 5 hours. Yeah the guy is amazing.

The music was really good. Of course it was all in Korean but every other song I could recognize and I knew the English words to. For the Korean songs I can read Hanguel but I read too slow to follow along so I am really trying to study that this week. There was a few Korean songs that were beautiful and they really made want to speak Korean so I could sing too. Fortunately I had Calvin with me to tell me the meaning of the song. I would just hum along.

The people of the church were so accepting of me! I totally didnt expect people to be hospitable to a foreigner who cant speak their language and is invading their church. But everyone took the time to say hello to which I tried to say hello in Korean back and give them respect. Everyone gave me their names which I remember about 1% of because Korean names are still very new sounds to me; it is always very very hard to remember sounds youre not used to. Infact I must admit out of the 50+ people I met I only remember Calvin's Korean name and one other persons :( Yeah, I need to work on that. But everyone was really friendly and they wanted to speak with me if they could or speak through Calvin.



So to welcome me to the church they had me come up front at the end of the young adult service and they gave me a gift. It was a nice little bound booklet so I can write down any Korean I want to learn. They had me come to the front of the service and stand infront of everyone and they all prayed for blessing for me. It was sweet.

So at the end we had a small groups Bible study which Calvin also translated for me so I was able to stay very involved. It was really nice and it was based of the Purpose Driven Life. The people in the group were very kind and helpful. Infact I even met someone my age in the group! The first 22 year old I have met in Korea. I really really really really wish I could speak their langauge because I want to speak with them directly.




We are 22!!!!



I pray in time God will help me make that happen.

After church we went out for some really tastey food that the area is famous for and no, I have no clue of what the food's name is. Anyways check it out! Calvin took this picture secretly while I was eating.

Seoul!!!!

Okay I am back to posting! Sorry for the long delay, I was really sick for a while so I would just come to work and do my best to survive the day then go home and sleep until work the next day. Thank God that is over with.

But anyway I went to Seoul and it is such an amazing city. Really I only saw one small part of it but I think it is like the time square part of new york. So it was really fun.

I met a Korean friend there that I was hooked up with through another friend in the states and he was super cool. He showed me around and helped me when I took the wrong exit from the subway.

Oh! quick funny prestory. On my way to Seoul after work I hopped on the subway but I left at like 7pm so the subway starts closing down cars after rush hour. Everything is in Korean so I have no clue that my subway car is getting closed down before I get to my destination and then some Korean dude came up and grabbed my knee and said "last stop." So fortunately, once again super nice Korean people saved me again.

So back to Seoul. The main station was super confusing so i went out the wrong subway exit but Calvin (my new Korean buddy) was resourceful and he found me. First off, Seoul is HUGE, like HUMONGEOUS! Yeah everywhere I look the buildings are 15+ stories high for as far as I can see. There are thousands of people on the streets and hundreds of vendors everywhere on the streets. And plenty of 위극인 (foreigners like me) too. There is a good chance I totally did that word wrong, but since I am really trying to learn Korean I like when i get the chance to use it.

Anyway we went to eat this really really good Military Soup i think it was called. Because after the Korean War the people were too poor and didnt have much to eat so the US military had ham and sausages which they gave to the Koreans and the Koreans combined that with their own food. So it is a soup with a very spicy red broth and many different vegtables and ham and sausage. Sooooo very tastey. And of course we had the side dishes too which is some very spicy kimchi (김치) and some japanese fish like things and more. Sooo good! Every Korean food that I have tasted I have really enjoyed so far.

Then we went to a really famous stream in Seoul called Cheonggye (I think). It is a stream that runs through a very well known part of the city. It is basically like a long narrow park that lots of people go to hang out in. During the day families are hopping across the rocks in the stream to the other side and at night couples and friends are sitting next to the stream just hanging out. It is very peaceful and everything is artificial so once again it's very clean and comfortable.

Also there are loads of bridges that go over the stream since it is like a story down from ground level, hmm hard to describe. But yeah you look down on the whole mini-park/stream place from the sidewalk on the street above and you go down a story of stairs to get there.
But back to the bridges. The bridges represent history and on the walls all the way from the start of the stream for probably miles are these very well done asian art style murals in tile that show lots of Korean history and culture. They have lots of the Chinese writing that the Koreans used to use then a explanation in Hangul and then much to my suprise there was en explanation in English too. Calvin and I read them for a while until we got bored at looking at soo many because it goes on for a long time.

So on one of the bridges there is this awesome lights and music show! Yeah all for free and it was pretty cool and high tech. So there are these really powerful mist machines then a lazer light thing that really plays tricks on the eyes as it reflects off the really thick mist. I am sorry my explanation sucks but it looked pretty cool. Calvin and I were just lucky enough to be there when it happened because the signs said we came at the wrong time.

Okay, then we went and cruized around the city a little bit more until we got to another big open plaza area with fountains and a giant statue of one of Koreas really famous generals that fought off the japanese. He invented the turtle boat and fought the Japanese very succesfully until he died in battle... and I cant remember his name : / sorry. Anyways that was awesome and there was a lot about Korean history there which was interesting.

So to wrap up the night we saw where the embassy was and a giant gate! like a freaking huge gate which apparently hosts the Korean national building which is "The Blue House."


Oh and one of my favorite things is there is some new program in Seoul for a transportation system or who knows what? (definately not me) but the mascot for the program is a 'Haechi' which is probably spelt like this: 해치 or 핯이. I think the first one. Anyways you know those asian gargoyle like things that stand infront of their gates and houses, yeah that is a haechi. Anyways check out the picture of one made out of plant.




Well in the end I got home from Seoul and it was a load of fun. Getting home consists of me getting on a bus that goes within 10 minutes walk of my house but I have no clue what stop to get off at so I tell the bus driver where I need to get off and hope he remembers to tell me when that is. It has worked out 2 times now and I still dont have the hang of it, everything in Korea looks to foreign for me, so to identify one place over another from a bus window is near impossible.

Anyways I am really trying to learn Korean and really failing very hard becuase I can't think of any good way to do it. I tried buying a book for it and I have been trying to make Korean friends but time is an issue for me and them. But I am not terribly worried, I will figure it out eventually. I am open to ideas.

안녕히 나ㅅ세요

Ninja show! oh i mean baseball game

So this was a pretty awesome experience. Normally I am not a huge baseball fan but this game was actually really fun and exciting.

This is how it happened. I went to a foreigners bar and met the first person I saw there and he happen to be from San Clemente and he went to APU. He also just so happen to be friends with one of my close friends. Small world huh?

He said that in a couple days he was going to a baseball game with someone and he invited me to join. It happen to be on my 1 day off so i said of course. (yes i do work saturdays :( but not that saturday for Korean memorial day)

So we meet at the subway station and hop on. This was my first experience on a subway and it was pretty cool. I just swipped my hello kitty card at the entrace rails and walked on. The biggest problem was we had to stand the whole way because there were soooo many people.

Some things I should point out:
First off I was extreamely confused and didnt know where we were going since this was my first subway experience but I was very concerned with being able to retrace my steps because I didnt know the guys I was with that well. It became very confusing very fast because we had to do over 5 subway transfers and the subway stations are hard to tell apart but I think I had a decent grasp on it.
Secondly this was just funny, some guy on the subway was selling things and moving up and down the subway car to car. I cant even believe that is allowed, but he was selling arm warmers or something.

Anyway we find our way to the game which was no small task because all 3 of us were pretty new here. And the ticket only costs like 9$ super awesome price right? And the seating was great, first come first serve. Let the true fans get the good seats.

And then the best part of all; 2$ beers. So before the game while we were sitting in our awesome seats for an hour we had a couple rounds and feeling pretty good.

Then BOOM OMG NINJAS! First they walked out on the field and set some things up and I was super excited then they left and I was bummed ;(



But dont worry a awesome funny mascot came out and I had no clue what he was saying but it was a lot of fun and we would just yell along with the people. Check out this mascot it was pretty awesome and very funny.

So finally, a car starts driving on the field and a bunch of ninjas dressed in black start leaning out the windows with toy guys and weapons. Honestly, i have no clue what that was about since it just made a circuit of the field and drove off it, maybe it had something to do with the narration.

Shortly after, a helicopter flys over and hovers above the outfield and four ropes get thrown down from it. Then these crazy ninjas in black just start jumping face first towards the ground down the ropes! yeah! and they were going really fast too. Not just like inching down, almost like they were hardly using the ropes and the helicopter was way up there! Like 12 ninjas jumped out of the small helicopter too. It was great. So then they get down on the field with more of then and get into lines and start doing forms and yelling and putting on quite a show but the best part came next.

They starting breaking out into a huge kung fu fighting (to be technical it was Taek won do). But they were going pretty hardcore. Obviously it was staged but it looked cool. Then they started breaking stuff. Some tiny Korean chick broke through like 20 pieces of roofing tile with her elbow (ouch!).

The best though was when they started fighting again and someguy came up behind the master or head guy and *Shattered* a long wooden board on his head. Yeah *shattered* into 5+ pieces. Full swing too.

Then the same guy jumped over three people and broke a board that another guy was holding on his stomache with the top of his head. (BA BA BA BA BA) So yeah he probably isn't overly smart but he wins the most awesome ninja award.


OOoookay back to the baseball game.

The stadium is reallly really small compared to USA stadiums. No seating whee you could catch homeruns and there was only like 10 rows back out in the sides of the outfields. But the game was completely filled up with thousands of people still. It might have been minor league, like I can tell.

So one side of the stadium was cheering for the bears and then my side of the stadium was cheering for the Seoul Heroes. almost everyone in the stadium had thunder sticks and was using them 90% of the game.

So of course I did the foreigners things and kept drinking cheep beer after beer so I was cheering super loud the whole time too. Well at least until the 6th inning when I started to feel uber sick. Then I went and stood near a trash can and cheered. But fortunately I get to keep my reputation of never having thrown up due to alcohol.

The game was close and kept going back and forth which increased the excitement. Sometimes we were in the lead and sometimes them. There was an american player on our team so when came up to bat we went wild. And there was a really fat player on their team (dont see to many fat people in korea) who we called a fatty fat fat fatty and he hit a home run against us multiple times :(

Despite my being especially tipsy and boarderline sick it was a wonderful game and the guys I went with were very nice people who looked out for me. I know it is horrible manners to get drunk when you first meet people but we just said I was doing things the Korean way. And they drank waaay more than I did, I just suck at drinking.

The game was extra exciting because it went into extra innings where we inevitably lost :(

On our way back home we couldnt find the subway so I had to ask some people, which consisted of me looking clueless and saying subway?! they pointed us in the right direction and we made it.

I would say that makes for a pretty good night!

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!

Yeah I have pictures, click the link!

http://picasaweb.google.com/drobison100/DustinSMostExcellentAdventure?authkey=Gv1sRgCPiMnunxyK_1hAE&feat=directlink

So today I tried going to a coffee shop with wireless for the first time, lots of fun and a little expensive but I was able to talk to my family for over and hour on skype and upload some of my pictures! it was great. Tell me how that picasa website works for everyone, I can put them on facebook but it is a lot harder for me. Especially seeing how facebook automatically switches to Korean while I am here.

Anyways, sorry for giving you a brochure blog post last time, I was a little rushed but dont worry the next one will be cool.

I have to tell you about a lot of things:

The Baseball game (W/ NINJAS)

Riding the subway

Going to Ittae won

My students (sooo fun)

Meeting other expats in bars

Poolhall

Crazy french and english

Attempting to meet koreans

Singing with a Korean Music teacher

Ilsans great malls and all their amazing shops that we dont have in the USA (if i ever earn enough cash i might try starting some of them in California)

The bars, Korean culture is partly defined by the drinking (Irish of the east)

Meeting a crazy frenchman, very nice guy.

Learning Korean

So it seems to me everyone is most interested in hearing about the female expat I met here and maybe went on a date or two with. But I dont know if I am going to blog about that, I will let you know when I decide. It depends on how things go this week, it would be really unfair to her if I write about it. So be patient, because if it doesn't go anywhere then I will probably write about it. It definately has been an experience.

A good author pleases his readers but maybe I just like to build the suspense, although i must say i do have a good story or two. So just wait a little ^^

Sadly most things I cant communicate because I don't even know how to explain what is happening here myself, all I can say is that living in a completely different culture has been very interesting and difficult but I love it.

Yeah so I have a lot of writing to do which I will try and do on Sunday (tomorrow). For now it's Saturday and I have to hurry and get dressed for work.

I need a 'I <3 ILSAN' shirt

Hi everyone,

Sorry I am such a bad blogger! Blogging is suprisingly hard when you don't have internet. So its another sleepy Thursday today because here I am at work with not too much to do until 3:30 when my classes start. Today I had a little more to do because it is Testing time next week so I am trying to figure out the best way to make all the kids cry. No I really hope they dont cry, I would probably start crying if one of my sweet little kids started crying. Could you imagine that? Ya anyways to the topic at hand.

So I have about 30 minutes max to write this and a crap load to say because Ilsan is my favorite city ever right now and I want to tell you all about it.

Lets start with Lake Park. It is soooooooooooo beautiful that it really really makes me wish I had a girlfriend to take to it. As it is, I just go and walk around it or sit down on some nice green grass under trees full of noisy mannys. So basically it is a lake about 2 - 3 times the size of lake poway which is surrounded by really beautiful walking paths (many of them not just 1). There is one that goes real close to the water and over these big beautiful asian arcitecture bridges. Then another that is a little further back from the water and it goes around the whole entire lake. Then there is a bike or scooter whatever one that I haven't done yet because I haven't rented a bike yet.

Here is more about Lake Park:

But Lake park has no fishing or boats (kinda a bummer but it keeps the place beautiful) and a huge stone plaza which overlooks the center of the lake and is where you can always find Korean teen agers and many couples hanging out more so during the night.
Then there is a little zoo with some funny looking birds and the only bird I know is an ostrige which really enjoys sticking its head in the ground.
There is a rose garden which, 'no I am not gay' but I will say it is very pleasant.
One of my favorites is that there is a old style asian castle home and it is awesome, I really really wish i could upload pictures at work because I have good ones.
After that there is a few buddhist asian small temple like structures that you can always see people sitting and relaxing in. The arcitecture is done with very intricate designs and paints.
There is loads of free exercise equipment everywhere which is commonly used and of pretty decent quality.
There is a waterfall side of the lake that is beautiful.
There are pieces of modern artwork, like sculptures positioned around the 3 walkways and they are very interesting.
Then there are basketball courts and some other sporting things.
There are many play structures for kids.
There is a great beautiful hill on one side that is all natual like rain forest like trees and growth that you can hike up and it has like trials area where you can do things like walk across pointed concrete with your bare feet.
The lake has area's with lots of lilly pads and other water plants which are really pretty especially at dusk.
There are docks with people feeding the ducks.

The best parts of Lake Park for sure are these:
During the day you can see hundreds of familys camped out under the trees on the grass all around the whole lake so it isn't crowded AND you can see lots of families riding bikes around the lake. Normally the bikes are the tandem ones with the 2 seats on one bike or have different wheel sizes or just really small wheels or random things (and normally flat tires) but it is just too funny to see and it looks like loads of fun.

Also! in the evenings people are getting exercise much more so than the days and it isn't wierd for some 70+ year old asian woman to be powerwalking hardcore in full exercise equip and they always overtake me even when I am trying to get a work out.

The best part of all is the Music fountain.
This i have over 30 pictures of. At one end of Lake Park there is a gigantic fountain that does shows on the weekend for free with lights and fire and music. It is super awesome and possibly extreamely romantic. I actually did end up there with an expat girl but that story will have to wait. Anyways there are literaly thousands of people that come to see it evey night and it is totaly free in a huge stone plaza in to lake park. I can't even describe the scene at the music fountain or lake park because it is sooo amazing.

Also the people here are really nice. One night, as is often do, I went to lake park and was hanging out by the music fountain reading and watching the hundred of people riding in circles around the fountain or playing badmitton. I was alone and watching all the families play together and a kid from a nearby family came up and had a very basic conversation with me. We both wanted to say more but the langauge barrier was too great. So a few minutes later he came up and offered me a can coffee that he bought from one of the vending machines and then ran back to his family. Canned coffee here is pretty good. Later he came up and offered me a badmitton raquet and I played badmitton with him and his family. Koreans dont play with nets or points, its just hit the birdie back and forth as long as you can. I was enjoying myself. Finally I figured out what was going on; the family just thought I looked lonely by myself so they were nice enough to include me.

This really amazed me and I have had other similar things happen with very nice Koreans. I really love this country and these people. I haven't met many Korean's around my age but I know lots of expats around my age so I mostly hang out with them but I would love to meet some Koreans my age too. Mostly I have become good friends with children and old men. The old guys here are really really nice which i didnt expect at all.

Sorry I wrote so fast and sloppy, I wrote all this in under 30 mins and I skipped like 90% of what i wanted to say. OH and lake park is 100% artificial but it is super nice.

OMG im in Korea

Hi everyone,
I can't upload photo's yet because I am at work. So that leaves me with writing a brief summary of some of the things that have happened here.

I am Dustin Robison and this is the longest day of my life. (enjoy the 24 reference) No not really the longest day of my life just a rather stressful day.

First off the plane flight from San Diego to San Fransico: zzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Secondly the 3 hour layover and 12 hour flight from San Fransico to Incheon, Korea: First I had to find my flight and get my boarding pass which was.. interesting. I had some really good exercise running around the airport but I did eventually find everything and it worked out but I may have been at risk of a heart attack. Anyway that first part only took about 45 minutes but then everything worked out great, infact I was very bored for the rest of the lay over while i waited.

Now the 12 hour flight was with Singapore airlines! i.e. voted the nicest airlines in the world. Lucky me, I had a whole row of 3 seats on one side of the plane all to myself! And not only that but there was this awesome little TV infront of me that I could watch really awesome movies on. Inluding the new Star Treck!! I'm not a treckie by the way but that movie rocks. Not only that it had all these fun games on it AND a learn a langauge program so I worked on my Korean for a few hours.

Ya pretty sweet right!? NO! it was only pretty sweet for the first couple hours then I was wicked bored : / Then I decided I am going to Korea right? so of course i want the tea the very nice flight assistant was offering me. Umm... might have been a very bad idea instead of sleeping like this -_- i was much more awake like this O_O the whole time.

But whatever, i survived it but it was very long and boring because I couldnt bring myself to do much of anything i was so bored. Some middle aged Korean woman really impressed me because she played Bejeweled 2 for 9 of the 12 hours of the flight. I attempted to be as cool but I was bored after an hour of sucking big time compared to her.

One other cool thing is that there was a screen that showed our flight trajectory and we went north along alaska and then almost to the north pole and then back south along russia, then south past the east coast of Japan before turning north west to fly across japan to korea.

So when we finally landed it was a little scary because right as we exited the plane there were a bunch of dudes in hazmat suits that were scanning everyone with some machines and their masks said "QUARANTINE" on them. But their machines made a few beeps on me and they waved me through.

So as normal I was rather lost on where to go but I decided just to follow everyone else because they 'must' know where they are going. So the airport was totally different than a USA airport because in order to get to the baggage claim you have to take a subway and go through all these processing booths after walking for over a mile. So while it was scary not knowing where i was going or what I was doing it didnt compare to the next part.

So I finally got my baggage, and made a quick phone call to my mom I decided to walk out into the common area of the airport where people actually are other than the people I got off the plane with. There were crap loads of people holding signs and yelling names and the place was madness. I knew I had to find a bus to my town of ilsan and make a phone call to my korean contact but in all that madness with all that luggage I must have looked pretty hopeless.

Fortunately people in Korea are really nice. Some random dude grabbed my hand and showed me over to the pay phones but of course I didn't have any korean money to use the phone so he took out his own telephone and called my korean contact for me. He was very nice, i wish i had got his name and phone number but I was a little baffled.

Next I had to find the right bus. There were literally hundreds of buses and an amazing amount of people. But i found a bus ticket station and said my city and I got my ticket with some korean money a friends parent gave me before I left. Finding the right bus was very difficult, there are many Koreans who's job is to load peoples luggage onto their bus that stand in the street where the buses park and I would run around between them saying "Ilsan, Kintex!?!?! Ilsan, Kintex!?!?!" Yeah i was literally doing that. But hey, it kept me from getting on the wrong bus and then the next challenge came along.

What stop to get off at? Yeah so my korean contact just said get off when you see the big KINTEX sign (Kintex is some sort of international convention center). So after 40 minutes of riding the bust I see the sign but I see no bus stop. I look around a little bit and very nervously wait. We pass the kintex : / oh but then we take a right at the next stoplight so we are going along the side of it. I cant let that happen again right? So i wander up to the front of the bus (getting every odd stare imaginable) and say to the bus driver "Kintex?" He said something i couldnt understand and waved his arm around a little. I just decided to sit back down defeated and to think about what I should do.

HAHA we turned right and the KINTEX building was adjacent to me with a bus stop! ^_^

So now I had to find my director whom I have never seen before and talked to once before on the telephone because he was picking me up from the bus stop and taking me to my apartment. I was very very very nervous about this one because there could always be, "what if he doesnt show?" like where would I go then and what would i do? I cant figure out how to do anything in this country or read anything.

But i was lucky because as i was getting off the bus my director Mr. Cho said, "dustin?" So that worked out great. He drove me through this HUGE amazing city (I didnt see a building under 10 stories for miles) and showed me into my apartment.

It was on the 6th story of some building with a korean name (now I know it was Bobo county) and I was showed into my tiny little apartment. This was kinda a bummer because it was really really dirty and had just disgusting amounts of hair and dust all over the place.

Anyway it was okay, he handed me the keys for the place and then invited me out for a beer. I had been awake for 20+ hours (not counting the hour of sleep on the first airplane) but of course I was going to say yes to the only person I kinda know in Korea.

So we went to a fusion place and it was very tastey. Had some big Korean lite beers and I met another foreign teacher named Matt. Matt works at the same place as me and lives two floors above me. I will tell you more about him later but he has been really great and he is from orange county.

So Mr. Cho went home after a hour or so at the fusion resaraunt and Matt and I went out for some more beers at a foreigners bar. I met a lot of other very friendly foreigners who were delighted to see some 'new blood.' They filled my sleepy head with loads of advice from working in Korea for years which I can't honestly say I remember any of because I was soooo tired. Finally I told them I was about to collapse on the table and matt took me back to my apartment so I could get some much needed sleep.

We walked through the streets back to the apartment between skyscrapers and surrounded by Koreans but it didnt hit me until I laid down in bed and looked out my window.

Oh my god, I am in korea.


p.s. the reason I wrote so much is because my boss asked me to be at work at 10 am but I dont have a class to teach until 3:30 pm : / Well at least I am glad i wrote this because now I wont forget it.

Here I go!

The time has come and I am off! I am waking up in less than 7 hours for 14 hours of traveling! Yeah talk about leg cramps. Anyways, I really wanted to thank my family and friends for all their input and help everyone has given me. I might have chickened out if it wasn't for all of you so I want to thank you guys so much. I am sure this will be a great learning experience and now is the best time in my life to pursue this opportunity, although there are many things around home that I wish I was around for. Most importantly I will be an uncle soon and there are other family and friends things that I wish I could be around for. But, I am off to Korea by my own choosing because I am fulfilling a dream and it is where I need to be right now.

But once again, I am so thankful for you all and even for the people who I didn't get a chance to see before I left I hope we can all keep in touch.

And sorry my writing is horrible tonight, it is getting a little late and well I sure you could understand how nervous I am despite my continued attempts not to be.

What to bring?

This is it, this is where I will put as many of my most valuable life possessions to depend on for the next year or possibly many more years in Korea. I have one carry on then one pretty large suitcase which is very very little space, so I may go buy another suitcase from a thrift store but that would make things more difficult. Also to be noted, these beautiful suitcases were generous gifts from my parents for my graduation.

So I really could use your help in deciding what to bring, if you just want to leave your idea's in the comments section at the bottom of the post that would work best, or if you prefer you can facebook or email me too.

Here is what i plan on brining:

• 1 business suit and 3 pairs of business professional attire.
• A fine supply of my own underwear
• Towel
• 1 Winter Jacket which I am in the process of buying
• As many of my normal casual clothes as I can fit
• My awesome Camera!
• My laptop computer (I probably will have to buy 220v to 120v converter in Korea)
• A good supply of Korean money
• Ipod nano full of 2 gigs of my favorite music
• Loads and loads of photo's of my family and whoever elses I can get a hold of to show off in Korea and keep the culture shock at bay
  
• 6 new deodorants, and shaving supplies (why couldn't we all be more like Koreans with little BO and little facial hair)
  
• All my important documents (it would suck to forget my passport... someone better call and remind me!)
• Books... this one is hard. I have many I want to bring but space is limited. I need suggestions! there is a long plane flight involved so right now i am thinking of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy because it will keep me in good humor.
• I may bring a movie or 2, probably some epic gory movie like Saving Private Ryan or 300.
  

Well those are all my idea's for now. I will start making a list of your ideas when I get them. I will be daily checking my blog to update the post with your suggestions.

Some Great suggestions!

• water bottle and snacks on the plane! great idea, thanks amber.
  
• Hmm yeah the audio books are great ideas too! I think I want to bring as many clothes as I can still in Korea just to have some more attachment to home but I will have to fit in a few extra books too.
• Extra battery and and memory card for my camera is a great idea, I almost filled my regular 1 gig card up in a week vacation so I will have to bring my 4 gig card. Thanks again amber!
• Great advice about waiting to convert my money until i get in Korea Daniel!
• I have this sweet little book given to me by a friend with a bunch of pictures to point at to communicate but I will also grab a Korean - English dictionary. Thanks Daniel and Jonny
• hmm ninja stars and computers good ideas, yes, yes. Unfortunately I will have to find those when I get there.
• Yeah I dont know how current most my information is but I hear there is deoderant and shaving supplies but they are very expensive, I will have to look into that. The coat idea sounds great too! Thanks Anne-marie.
• Very nice suprise Andy it had me laughing for 5 whole minutes
  

Anticipation!

Yes, that must be what this feeling is: anticipation. After months of work and a long waiting period I think everything is almost ready, including me.

A month or so ago I asked my recruiter a question something like this, "I am sure when I arrive in Korea I will have millions of questions and very few resources to answer those millions of questions, any ideas?" She told me one of the best things to do is to is buy some books and then recommended some. I read Culture Shock: Korea 2009 and not only do I think it will be very helpful but I also found it very interesting and and a good read. Honestly, when I read the books I thought my own attitude toward things resembles Korean culture in many ways. I'm not in Korea yet so I cant verify these as the truth yet but this book seems like a very legitimate source.

Here are some things I liked or found interesting:

• Korean's are very shy and normally wont speak to anybody they haven't been introduced to by a mutual friend. Funny example from the book: If you are standing on a bus or train and feel someone pulling on one of your bags, it isn't because they want to steal it, it is because they are offering to hold it for you without words.
• Introductions are very important. Normally consisting of a little bowing, handshaking and exchanging of name cards so you can see each other respective social rank or status.
• Social status and Rank are also important. In the USA we respect people with Ph.d level of education by calling them dr. instead of mr. In Korea anybody of somewhat respectable rank is addressed by their title. For example my schools director should be called Director then his name and I have to show great respect by doing things like when I am handing him anything I should use both hands.
  
• Confucianism played a large role in Korea. Education is held in the highest regards and so are teachers. A foreign teacher like myself has to earn that respect before it is given but I do like how education is given the highest priority in Korean society. I am not sure how I feel about the way confucian society treats women but thankfully Christianity is helping that.
  
• When Koreans eat they generally don't talk much at all. When eating together it is time to enjoy the food to the fullest. I find that I do this on accident often or just feel awkward when trying to balance between eating and talking.
• Drinking in Korea is very important between men whether it be for a business deal or getting to know someone. The book suggested that Koreans feel they can truly get to know someone after they dropped some liquor down the hatch. I don't know if it is really the only way to get to know someone but it sounds reasonable to me. The funniest thing is that Koreans sing when they are having big drinking party's and everybody takes a turn... ah well with a few drinks down it will be fun, I have a few good songs up my sleeve.
  

I am sure I will feel culture shock to a great degree but I believe with this book making me aware of it I should be able to handle. The cure is simple but difficult: keeping of good humor, accepting things the way they are, never giving up and never secluding myself. I am sure there will be many bummers along the way but I find most of life is about what you focus on. I am going to focus on all the awesome and amazing things that happen and are going to happen.

The loooong process

Becoming an English teacher in Korea isn't just a phone call away... Infact I would say it's closer to 150 emails away. Despite my whining I think I got through it pretty clean and without much difficulty. But the point remains, it is a very long process and it takes a lot of time but I am sure it will be worth it. If you want to hear about it keep reading, otherwise I am sure you could find more interesting posts.

I started seriously thinking about teaching in Korea November 2008 and my first goal was to find out if it is a good decision. Over the next few months I was finding many different people who I met through friends of friends or just very distantly knew them that also had formerly taught English in Korea and I asked them for any advice they could give and if they found it to be a good experience. Everyone I met said it was a life changing, wonderful experience and of course there are many hardships along the way and bummers but overall the advice was to take the opportunity if I can.

Next i started researching how to go about it. I was told all sorts of different methods from former English teachers and I tried to look into them all but in the end I decided I needed a recruiter because there are so many required documents and things that I really needed someone to show me the way. After a month of more of research I found one recruiter website that stood out above the rest because it was very personable and seemed very positive.

http://www.teacheslkorea.com/

Originally I planned on using multiple recruiters but the recruiter I spoke with on the phone named Michelle Laarissa was very kind and seemed to understand my position very clearly so I just went with her company.

Then things started to get rolling, I sent of resume's and photo's and started working on getting my Criminal Background Check. Korean Hagwons don't like to hire too much in advance so I had to wait until Mid April for my first interview. It was very interesting because even though the Koreans are speaking English it is still rather difficult to understand (although I must say, I am very impressed with any Korean who can learn our langauge). I did my interview with the schools director and it was difficult because I had to use the smallest words I could to convey complex idea's. The director was very nice and this was my favorite question:
Director: "What do parents think of you come Korea?" (she had to ask this a few different ways for me to understand)
Dustin: "Oh! (i finally understood), they.. are .. very.. sad.. to.. see.. me.. leave.. but.. happy.. I.. found.. something.. I.. like."

They wanted to hire me in the end and sent a contract but I didn't end up accepting that job because I couldn't speak to another foreign English teacher to learn more about the Hagwon.

A few months later I recieved another job interview which I almost totally blew because it was set for the 21st of may at noon korea time. I did a little research and found the time difference to be 8 hours so I prepared for the phone call on the evening of May 21st right? NOPE; WRONG! There is this thing called the international Date line that puts Korea a day earlier than us. OOps! Oh well it all worked out. I was at a friends house helping him move then I decided to stop of in his bedroom and have a job interview on the phone. I was a little baffled at first but I pulled it together and got the job teaching Elementary/Middle school kids in Ilsan, Korea (little North west of Seoul).

Anyways the hard part is the E-2 Visa for English teachers. Lots of documents and forms are required with an interview at the Korean Consulate. I am soooooo thankful to my recruiters because without them I would be totally lost in this process.

The biggest bummer came in May when I learned of a new Korean Law that requires all E-2 Visa applicants to send their college diploma to the Korean Immigration Office, whereas before a letter from the school and transcripts could suffice. If not for this new law I would have been in Korea by early June. This works out though, I decided I would live at my parents place and enjoy life as much as possible while waiting for my diploma. This is the first summer I haven't worked since I was 15 years old (i may have found some work then too) so it is a very nice little leasurily spell before I enter a completely foreign place.

I hope to get my diploma this week and send it to Korea so i can finalize my E-2 Visa and hopefully get to Korea on or before August 5th. I didn't even try to express all the stress and emotions that goes along with finding the right job and more because they are impossible to express unless you have felt them yourself. The best way to put it is... Tiring. The emotions and stress are very tiring. I am not a very emotional person and I am normally very relaxed but I will say that this was very, very draining.

Despite all that I am still excited beyond measure to get on that plane to Korea. Forgive the long post >.<

Why Korea?

So I get this question a lot. Why go to Korea?

I don't want to be rude so I withhold myself from saying, "Why not Korea?" I take no offense to people asking me the question, I just believe in taking great opportunity's whenever they come, especially when they coincide with personal interests.

But the real reasons in order of most important first:

1. Occupation defines a person to a point. I wanted my occupation to be about what I care about most, teaching and helping children.
2. I want to be continually learning and expanding my my mind. What better way to do that than live in a foreign culture and country. I believe this is an essential part of the college experience which I had to neglect because of my Information Systems B.S. but I am pleased to be pursuing it now.
3. Opportunity's come and go. If I don't take this opportunity now it may pass me by.
4. It has always been a dream of mine to go live in Japan, Korea, or China or even some other parts of Asia.
5. My heart is in Korea. I feel like the high schooler getting ready to go to college again, the unique feeling of knowing its time to move on and experience new things. (since this is my 2nd time around feeling that way I can see how much I love San Diego and my family/friends here)
6. The Job. Teaching ESL in Korea is pretty decent money and a great opportunity to learn the Korean Language. I often get asked if I am leaving because of the economy and sorry to boast but the answer is no, not at all. I was offered a job with a good company on the condition that I stayed but the 5 reasons above this one made me turn it down.

I feel that there is so much knowledge and wisdom that I do not yet have and I feel living in another culture for a year or more will really "open my eyes." I hope those things are good enough answers for you all. I believe everyone must pursue their beliefs and the things they care about most in life and as of now for me, that is to move to Korea.

First Post!

Hi Everyone, welcome to my blog. I just created it and I look forward to updating everyone back home on my adventure. Oh and the title, I didn't steal that from anything >.< anyways I am going to put everything I can on here that I feel and perceive pre and post departure to Ilsan, South Korea. I should be leaving early August if everything goes as planned. Thanks for reading!