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 >.<