A lot foreigners like to poke fun at all of the ridiculous English slogans in Korea such as "Sparkling Korea" and "Beautiful Korea, Wonderful Immigration," which is what the sign at the Busan immigration office reads. But truthfully, Busan really is a dynamic city. So many people have been asking me what its like, so I thought I would write about it this week.
I am so happy that I chose to come here over anywhere else. Korea is a strange yet exciting country, and the people are so much nicer than I expected. A lot of foreigners get caught up over Koreans being pushy on the subway or cutting in line, but if you can just realize that its their culture and to them its not rude, then you can really enjoy yourself here. Busan is a city on the south eastern coast of Korea, only 5 hours from Seoul and a 3 hour ferry ride to Japan. It has five great beaches, and is surrounded by large, lush mountains. From my apartment, which is in the Pusan National University neighborhood (the coolest place to live in the city!), I can walk to a cable car and go hiking to a temple in the mountains, or hop on a subway and I'm on the beach in 30 minutes. There is so much to do here; walk the Teajonde Cliffs, take a ferry to any of the near by islands, hit the beach (after August its empty because Koreans believe its too cold!), go to an amusement park, hike to a temple, swim with sharks at the Busan Aquarium (yea right!), check out the movies at the Pusan International Film Festival, go to one of the many museums, or take a train/bus to any of the near by towns for a quick getaway. Of course, the nightlife is pretty good too. There are a number of different neighborhoods with live music, clubs, and bars and you can find plenty of places to meet up with foreigners or mingle with young Koreans.
It's so easy to live here, too. A lot of people have been asking me if its difficult not knowing the language and is it expensive, things like that. It's not difficult at all. Although everything is written in Korean and everyone speaks Korean, the country still uses a lot English and everything is very westernized. All public transportation has English, so its never hard to get around. The only time it has been frustrating is in taxis because the drivers don't recognize our way of pronunciating words. If I say I want to go to Gwanalli beach, they only understand if I say "gwanAllI BEAchY" as if I'm trying to sound Korean. There have been a few times I've been taken to the complete opposite side of town due to miscommunication. Another thing is that although Koreans don't speak English or are too embarrassed to do so, they understand a lot. And if they don't, simple miming always does the trick! It's dirt cheap here too. A 10 minute cab will run you $3-4 and a 30 minute cab will be about $11 or $12. You can easily buy trendy clothes for under $20 (most shirts go for $5) and a big mug of beer is usually $3. As teachers, we don't get paid nearly as much as we would back home, but most of us can still send back at least $400 a month after traveling and spending all the money we need here.
So that's all I can think to say about Busan right now. It's a great, cheap city and I highly recommend anyone to come check it out. In other news, I have a three day weekend on Friday and some girlfriends and I are going to Gyeongju, a historic city about an hour away. It was the capital city of Korea during the Shilla Dynasty and is packed with temples, shrines, tombs and other cool ancient asian stuff. Definitely looking forward to it. Also, I FINALLY got internet in my apartment today! So exciting! I put all of my pictures up on picasa, so check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/lcurrie711 ...enjoy!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Korean schools, oriental medicine and more...
Hmmm, what to say this week??? I can't think of a specific topic for today, so I'll just talk about a few of the things that happened in my week. Overall, my job is going very well and I'm definitely in a routine. I'm still a little stressed about creating lessons for my second school (where I teach on my own) because they always tell me to do one thing and then change it in the middle of class! I think it's just something I have to get used to about Korea...they don't usually stick to any sort of schedule or plan!
So, earlier in the week I was feeling pretty sick. I could barely sleep for three nights and my stomach was not doing well. I'm pretty sure it was some spicy bibimbap I ate or just all of the chilli flakes that are in kimchi, but regardless, it was not good! I told my co-teacher at my first school because she is really into oriental medicine and seems to have a cure for everything. For instance, when I get bug bites, she puts tiny little bandages with aluminum points in them to make the bites stop itching. It works! So I told her about my lack of sleep and stomach problems. She explained how the two are related and she also suggested I turn my head around to face south when I sleep, "to be better in tune with the magnetism of the earth." So, I thought she would just give me some friendly advice, maybe stick a bandaid on me, but instead she told me to follow her to the nurses office. When we got there she laid me down, and asked if I'd ever had accupuncture before! I said no, and she proceeded to take out her accupunture kit! Now, I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy if I let her do it, but I completely trust this woman and I know she has done it on many people ( and yes, the needles were new and sterile!) So, she did accupunture on my hands, in the pressure points for the stomach and liver. I probably had 50 needs in my hands! And then she told me to just lay there in the bed, where any student could have walked in and seen! It was a little uncomfortable, but I stayed for twenty minutes and then she tooked them out and we went to class. Three days later I am feeling better, but I'm not sure that the accupuncture did anything. The foreigners here have a little saying that sums up that experience..."welcome to Korea!"
Well other than that, my first school had sports day which is the same as American field day, only a lot crazier. Not only do they do something like 30 different races, they also perform traditional korean dances and music for the entire day. It's quite a sight. I was only there for the rehearsal day (another full day off from school to practice for the actual thing), but it was still great to be there. I'll post some pictures soon!
This should be another great weekend. There is a block party right down the street from my apartment where all of the bars will have live music and free food. It's only$15 for 6 drinks and a pass for the whole night. I'm really looking forward to meeting a bunch of foreigners AND koreans. Should be a blast! On Sunday, we are hiking up to the oldest temple in the city called Beomsa Temple. It's over 1,000 years old. Looking forward to it. Next weekend is another holiday, so I'll be traveling somewhere, not sure yet! I'll keep you posted :)
So, earlier in the week I was feeling pretty sick. I could barely sleep for three nights and my stomach was not doing well. I'm pretty sure it was some spicy bibimbap I ate or just all of the chilli flakes that are in kimchi, but regardless, it was not good! I told my co-teacher at my first school because she is really into oriental medicine and seems to have a cure for everything. For instance, when I get bug bites, she puts tiny little bandages with aluminum points in them to make the bites stop itching. It works! So I told her about my lack of sleep and stomach problems. She explained how the two are related and she also suggested I turn my head around to face south when I sleep, "to be better in tune with the magnetism of the earth." So, I thought she would just give me some friendly advice, maybe stick a bandaid on me, but instead she told me to follow her to the nurses office. When we got there she laid me down, and asked if I'd ever had accupuncture before! I said no, and she proceeded to take out her accupunture kit! Now, I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy if I let her do it, but I completely trust this woman and I know she has done it on many people ( and yes, the needles were new and sterile!) So, she did accupunture on my hands, in the pressure points for the stomach and liver. I probably had 50 needs in my hands! And then she told me to just lay there in the bed, where any student could have walked in and seen! It was a little uncomfortable, but I stayed for twenty minutes and then she tooked them out and we went to class. Three days later I am feeling better, but I'm not sure that the accupuncture did anything. The foreigners here have a little saying that sums up that experience..."welcome to Korea!"
Well other than that, my first school had sports day which is the same as American field day, only a lot crazier. Not only do they do something like 30 different races, they also perform traditional korean dances and music for the entire day. It's quite a sight. I was only there for the rehearsal day (another full day off from school to practice for the actual thing), but it was still great to be there. I'll post some pictures soon!
This should be another great weekend. There is a block party right down the street from my apartment where all of the bars will have live music and free food. It's only$15 for 6 drinks and a pass for the whole night. I'm really looking forward to meeting a bunch of foreigners AND koreans. Should be a blast! On Sunday, we are hiking up to the oldest temple in the city called Beomsa Temple. It's over 1,000 years old. Looking forward to it. Next weekend is another holiday, so I'll be traveling somewhere, not sure yet! I'll keep you posted :)
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Happy Chuseok
Last weekend was Chuseok, the Korean thanksgiving, so public schools had five days off. Since we all just arrived three weeks ago, there wasn't enough time to plan major trips (plus traffic getting out of Busan was horrendous), so most of us stayed here and explored the city. There is sooo much to see here, I feel like it will take months to cover it all.
Friday was our first day off and most of us just slept in and then headed to the beach to relax after a long week of school and a night of partying on Thursday. Haeundae beach is so beautiful, I never thought I would find something like that here in Korea. The water is warm and clear and the beach is so clean. Lucky for us, Koreans believe that after August 15th they should not go to the beach, so it is practically empty in the end of August and September. In fact, it is against the law to swim after August 15th because it is supposedly dangerous. I think they think that the water is too cold and they could have a heart attack. In reality, its warm and beautiful and all of the foreigners go swimming anyway. No one stops us...they just stare at us like we are crazy.
On Saturday, Daryl and I went to the Changyu waterfalls, which are about a 30 minute bus ride out of the city. After getting lost for a good two hours we finally found our way to the town of Changyu and caught a taxi up to the falls to meet up with a bunch of Daryl's "footie lads." The waterfalls were freezing cold, but beautiful so we took a dip anyway. Unfortunately, the water comes from a dam at the top of the mountain which is opened in the morning and closed around noon, so by the time we got there at 3:30, there wasn't much water flowing anymore. Non the less, it was a great day of swimming, bbq-ing and relaxing. When we were about to leave, I asked the guys how we get back to the bus terminal and they said "Oh, you have to hitchhike." I laughed. They said, "No seriously, and you have to get right in the middle of the road or no one will stop for you." Obviously, I was thrilled, and decided I rather walk. Luckily, as soon as we came out of the falls we found a little restaurant and asked a woman there to call us a taxi. So all ended well, and I successfully avoided hitchhiking for the first and hopefully last time.
On Sunday, a bunch of us went to the top of Guemjungsun Mountain to the old fortress. We hiked for about two hours and saw some stunning views of the city of Busan. There are boulders at all of the peaks, so we climbed up to take pictures. My favorite part was stumbling upon a little pagoda (an old little temple like structure) and climbing onto the boulders around it. It was really amazing. The best part is that we probably only covered one-fifth of the fortress, so we'll be going back many more times to explore. On Monday and Tuesday, we shopped, went to restaurants and relaxed back at Haeundae beach. I took a walk through the cliffs on the side of the beach, and up to a cute little light house. The views of the islands were incredible. It's hard to go somewhere in Busan and not find beautiful scenery!
My mini vacation was great, and now its back to school. I'm really getting into a nice routine and lesson planning is becoming much easier. I love my apartment, and finally have all of my furniture! After 8 days of sleeping and eating on the floor, it felt great to feel like I now have a home. Anyway, I'm at school so I can't post any pictures, but I will as soon as I can! Bye for now!
Friday was our first day off and most of us just slept in and then headed to the beach to relax after a long week of school and a night of partying on Thursday. Haeundae beach is so beautiful, I never thought I would find something like that here in Korea. The water is warm and clear and the beach is so clean. Lucky for us, Koreans believe that after August 15th they should not go to the beach, so it is practically empty in the end of August and September. In fact, it is against the law to swim after August 15th because it is supposedly dangerous. I think they think that the water is too cold and they could have a heart attack. In reality, its warm and beautiful and all of the foreigners go swimming anyway. No one stops us...they just stare at us like we are crazy.
On Saturday, Daryl and I went to the Changyu waterfalls, which are about a 30 minute bus ride out of the city. After getting lost for a good two hours we finally found our way to the town of Changyu and caught a taxi up to the falls to meet up with a bunch of Daryl's "footie lads." The waterfalls were freezing cold, but beautiful so we took a dip anyway. Unfortunately, the water comes from a dam at the top of the mountain which is opened in the morning and closed around noon, so by the time we got there at 3:30, there wasn't much water flowing anymore. Non the less, it was a great day of swimming, bbq-ing and relaxing. When we were about to leave, I asked the guys how we get back to the bus terminal and they said "Oh, you have to hitchhike." I laughed. They said, "No seriously, and you have to get right in the middle of the road or no one will stop for you." Obviously, I was thrilled, and decided I rather walk. Luckily, as soon as we came out of the falls we found a little restaurant and asked a woman there to call us a taxi. So all ended well, and I successfully avoided hitchhiking for the first and hopefully last time.
On Sunday, a bunch of us went to the top of Guemjungsun Mountain to the old fortress. We hiked for about two hours and saw some stunning views of the city of Busan. There are boulders at all of the peaks, so we climbed up to take pictures. My favorite part was stumbling upon a little pagoda (an old little temple like structure) and climbing onto the boulders around it. It was really amazing. The best part is that we probably only covered one-fifth of the fortress, so we'll be going back many more times to explore. On Monday and Tuesday, we shopped, went to restaurants and relaxed back at Haeundae beach. I took a walk through the cliffs on the side of the beach, and up to a cute little light house. The views of the islands were incredible. It's hard to go somewhere in Busan and not find beautiful scenery!
My mini vacation was great, and now its back to school. I'm really getting into a nice routine and lesson planning is becoming much easier. I love my apartment, and finally have all of my furniture! After 8 days of sleeping and eating on the floor, it felt great to feel like I now have a home. Anyway, I'm at school so I can't post any pictures, but I will as soon as I can! Bye for now!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Hello, Teacher Laura...
So I have been teaching for a week now, and although it is very challenging at times, I am loving it. I teach at two schools- Gumjung Elementary Monday-Wednesday and Gumsung Elementary on Thursday and Friday. The first school is very big and right in the city, so the students are very smart, but also pretty crazy. I teach mostly sixth grade with my co-teacher whose name is Basa. She is such a great person and a wonderful teacher, so it is nice to teach with her for the first three days of the week to prepare myself for teaching alone. The second school is up in the mountains, so to get there I have to take the subway and then hop on a bus, which takes me up a steep, winding road to the top of the mountain into a rural farming town. The school is small with just 10 teachers and 100 students and I am the first English teacher they have ever had. So, its nice that I am able to co-teach at the first school before I go to the other school to do the lessons on my own.
I am finding it very challenging to make lesson plans that properly suit each grade level. I find the higher grade levels are the easiest because they follow a curriculum and the students can all read and write in English at least at a basic level. First, third and fourth grade on the other hand are difficult! Last week, I prepared my first lesson for 3rd grade on the family, only to find out that they already knew all of the vocabulary about family, but the games I had planned to play were too difficult! Now I think I am going to structure classes around one topic such as food and one questions, such as "What's your favorite?"and then make sure to have plenty of extra games and songs up my sleeve in case anything goes wrong.
Other than some minor lesson planning struggles, I really do enjoy teaching. Not only is it fun, but it is so rewarding when you see the light turn on in a students head. They all like me very much and seem genuinely excited to attend my class (I hope I can keep the interest up!). For now, I am definitely a celebrity. This week, I signed my signature for many students, had my picture taken with camera phones by all of the 5th grade girls, and even had a little girl ask me if she could have some of my hair! What do I say to that?? Sure? She ended up finding some stuck to the back of my shirt, so she was very happy.
When I'm not teaching, I have been thoroughly enjoying the city of Busan. I moved into my apartment last Thursday and I love it! It's so nice and has plenty of space (which not all of the EPIK teachers can say). I have a door seperating my bedroom and kitchen, which is a pretty big deal, and I have two tiny little porches. I think my favorite part though are the rice paper window shades, they're so asian! Last weekend, we went out to a few different bars and hung out at gwangalli beach one night, just drinking, chatting and getting bit by misquitos. On Sunday, I went to Haeundae Beach which is the most popular of the 5 beaches in Busan. It was definitely better than I expected. The water was clear blue and warm...hopefully we'll be on the beach and swimming well into October!
Well, I still don't have internet in my apartment, but as soon as I do, I'll post more pictures of school, Busan and my apartment. It's Chuseok this weekend which is the Korean Thanksgiving, so teachers have 5 days off. So far my plans include a day trip to a beautiful water fall with Daryl and some of his football lads, a day trip to the Kings tombs in Gwangju, a rooftop beerbq, and beaching it as much as possible...life is so hard!
I am finding it very challenging to make lesson plans that properly suit each grade level. I find the higher grade levels are the easiest because they follow a curriculum and the students can all read and write in English at least at a basic level. First, third and fourth grade on the other hand are difficult! Last week, I prepared my first lesson for 3rd grade on the family, only to find out that they already knew all of the vocabulary about family, but the games I had planned to play were too difficult! Now I think I am going to structure classes around one topic such as food and one questions, such as "What's your favorite?"and then make sure to have plenty of extra games and songs up my sleeve in case anything goes wrong.
Other than some minor lesson planning struggles, I really do enjoy teaching. Not only is it fun, but it is so rewarding when you see the light turn on in a students head. They all like me very much and seem genuinely excited to attend my class (I hope I can keep the interest up!). For now, I am definitely a celebrity. This week, I signed my signature for many students, had my picture taken with camera phones by all of the 5th grade girls, and even had a little girl ask me if she could have some of my hair! What do I say to that?? Sure? She ended up finding some stuck to the back of my shirt, so she was very happy.
When I'm not teaching, I have been thoroughly enjoying the city of Busan. I moved into my apartment last Thursday and I love it! It's so nice and has plenty of space (which not all of the EPIK teachers can say). I have a door seperating my bedroom and kitchen, which is a pretty big deal, and I have two tiny little porches. I think my favorite part though are the rice paper window shades, they're so asian! Last weekend, we went out to a few different bars and hung out at gwangalli beach one night, just drinking, chatting and getting bit by misquitos. On Sunday, I went to Haeundae Beach which is the most popular of the 5 beaches in Busan. It was definitely better than I expected. The water was clear blue and warm...hopefully we'll be on the beach and swimming well into October!
Well, I still don't have internet in my apartment, but as soon as I do, I'll post more pictures of school, Busan and my apartment. It's Chuseok this weekend which is the Korean Thanksgiving, so teachers have 5 days off. So far my plans include a day trip to a beautiful water fall with Daryl and some of his football lads, a day trip to the Kings tombs in Gwangju, a rooftop beerbq, and beaching it as much as possible...life is so hard!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Busan or Bust!
We made it through 8 days of orientation and were so anxious on Friday to finally get down to Busan. After loading our luggage into a truck and receiving our training certificates, we got on the bus and made the six hour drive across the entire country of Korea. I have to say, I was very impressed with EPIK during the orientation week- they kept us well fed, gave us great accomodations, and gave us a lot of useful information about teaching and what to expect in the year ahead. The only downside was that they treated it a little too much like camp and tried to make activities at night so we couldn't go out...of course that didn't work.
Anyway, we finally arrived in Busan on Friday evening to the Busan Department of Education. I was excited and nervous, but my one and only fear was that my apartment wouldn't be ready and I would have to go live with my Korean co-teacher. Sure enough, when I met my co-teacher, she said "You come to live with me for few days!" She later explained that she wanted me to choose my own place so that I would be happy, which I greatly appreciate, BUT 5 days later and I'm still living with her! She has a really nice big place and I have my own room, but I'm ready to have my own place like all of my friends here. Its in my contract that I receive an apartment, and we haven't even looked at any yet! She is sooo nice though, and is responsible for everything having to do with me, so I know if I complain, she'll get in trouble and I don't want that. So, I'm waiting it out a little longer. I've learned quickly that patience and being positive are the keys to having a good time in Korea.
On a brighter note, I started teaching today at Gumseung Elementary and it was amazing! I had four sixth grade classes and they all went so well. I started by introducing myself and having the kids find Connecticut on a map of the world, and then find all of the other places that I've traveled. I then put pictures of my friends and family on a projector screen and had them asking me questions. They were so enthusiastic! Then we did an exercise about vacation, which is the first unit I'm teaching. Also, my school administration seem to really like me. Everyone calls me "beautiful Laura" (they love the "western" look) and they seem very supportive. Yesterday, I had to go on the morning broadcast and say hi to the whole school, that was hilarious.
I have another elementary school which I'll be going to on Thursdays and Fridays. It is up the mountain in a rural village, so it should be a really interesting and hopefully rewarding experience.
OK, I'm off, I have pictures of my first weekend in Busan, which I will put up as soon as I can! It's difficult not having wireless yet. Miss you all!
Anyway, we finally arrived in Busan on Friday evening to the Busan Department of Education. I was excited and nervous, but my one and only fear was that my apartment wouldn't be ready and I would have to go live with my Korean co-teacher. Sure enough, when I met my co-teacher, she said "You come to live with me for few days!" She later explained that she wanted me to choose my own place so that I would be happy, which I greatly appreciate, BUT 5 days later and I'm still living with her! She has a really nice big place and I have my own room, but I'm ready to have my own place like all of my friends here. Its in my contract that I receive an apartment, and we haven't even looked at any yet! She is sooo nice though, and is responsible for everything having to do with me, so I know if I complain, she'll get in trouble and I don't want that. So, I'm waiting it out a little longer. I've learned quickly that patience and being positive are the keys to having a good time in Korea.
On a brighter note, I started teaching today at Gumseung Elementary and it was amazing! I had four sixth grade classes and they all went so well. I started by introducing myself and having the kids find Connecticut on a map of the world, and then find all of the other places that I've traveled. I then put pictures of my friends and family on a projector screen and had them asking me questions. They were so enthusiastic! Then we did an exercise about vacation, which is the first unit I'm teaching. Also, my school administration seem to really like me. Everyone calls me "beautiful Laura" (they love the "western" look) and they seem very supportive. Yesterday, I had to go on the morning broadcast and say hi to the whole school, that was hilarious.
I have another elementary school which I'll be going to on Thursdays and Fridays. It is up the mountain in a rural village, so it should be a really interesting and hopefully rewarding experience.
OK, I'm off, I have pictures of my first weekend in Busan, which I will put up as soon as I can! It's difficult not having wireless yet. Miss you all!
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