Well, my first week at work went by really smoothly...I think I'm going to really like teaching. The kids I teach range from 7 to 15 years old. The little ones are really cute. The older one's don't talk much...which is a lot different from Junior High kids in Canada. The way I remember it we were the worst at that age. The kids are grouped into classes based on their ability to speak English. Most of them can speak pretty good English already but of course there are some that I don't think understand at all what I'm saying.
I'm teaching 6 classes on Mon, Wed, Fri (same kids each of these days) and 4 classes on Tue & Thurs. The classes are 40 minutes long and I don't start before two an any day, which is nice, although I try to get there two hours before my fist class. I'm off till Thursday now, because of the Lunar New Year holiday. The lunar New Year (Feb 12th this year) is a big event in Korea. Everyone gets a year older on that day. Koreans are a year old at birth and then count their years based on the Lunar New Year, this means that baby born in December is two years old by February or whenever the Lunar New Year happens to fall that year.
I've managed to get lost a few times, but never for too long. I think I've got my area pretty well down and I've got some of the basic Korean phrases memorized...learning the language has been a slow process, every time I think I've memorized something it doesn't come to mind when I need it. I bought an introductory book on Korean today and I plan to memorize the Alphabet over the next few days. At least then I'll be able to read signs, although I still won't know what they mean. However, I'm told that a lot of words are the same as in English so it should help.
The subway is very easy to get around on but it's painfully slow and I don't get to see much of Seoul when I'm underground...ah well. I found an English map of the bus routes but it looks fairly complicated and Bus signs are only in Korean.
Last night, as well as Saturday last week, I went out with my new Korean friend Soo. Nothing too interesting to report(at least since my mother reads this) The bars here aren't unlike the what I'm used to except that prices vary widely. You can pay anywhere from $2 to almost $8 for a drink. Bottles vary widely too. I bought a "26" of Imported Gin for about $6 and a bottle of Scotch for $7. But every Rum, Rye, or Vodka I've seen has been closer to $25. Surprisingly the beer here is really good. Not as good as home of course but a least better than American beer. This isn't to say (mom) that I'm drinking up a storm here in Korea. In fact, I bought a six-pack the day after I got here and I've still got one sitting in the fridge. The bottles I bought haven't been touched either...I just figured that at those prices I couldn't afford not to buy them.
We(Soo and I) have gone out and shot pool a few times, he plays a lot and is pretty good. I'm a bit better at 8-ball but he taugt me Korean Billiards today and kicked my ass around the table. Korean billiard tables don't have pockets (I'm pretty sure British Billiards is the same). Just a square table and you score points based what happens with each shot...very simple to learn the rules. I got the hang of it quickly and I think I enjoyed it more than "pocket pool" as Koreans call it...I explained to Soo what Canadians refer to as "pocket pool" which he thought was pretty funny.
I went down to Itaewon yesterday morning and then stopped there again today on my way home to buy some International phone cards ($10 US ) for 2 1/2 hours...cheap. It's an interesting area, basically overrun by foreigners. There are open markets everywhere, you can't walk 10 feet without someone trying to sell you something. Some strange old Korean guy was following me around, and the two other teachers I was with, for about 15 minutes yesterday. I noticed him at some point and then everytime I stopped to look at something he would stop and look at the same thing, then when I continued on, he followed about 7 feet behind. I stared him down about 3 or 4 times to deter him thinking he was a pickpocket, but he looked harmless enough. This went on for awhile and then he came up to me and asked me where I was from. I think, it took me awhile to figure out that he was speking bad English. I said Canada, and he nodded and smiled and then wandered into the subway...strange.
Shopping in Korea is a different experience...almost every place except big department & grocery stores, prices are negotiable...no one pays the same. I went to a Techno-mart today to look at electronics. Basically it's laid out like a Future Shop (Best Buy to you Yanks) only over 5 floors. Every counter is run like a small business...so you can go to one counter and negotiate a price and then walk up to another and see if they'll do better. I found a phone identical to my old phone but they wanted like $120 for it while other phones, smaller and brand new, were less than half that....strange. I'm not even sure I want a cell phone but they're handy in Seoul because of the crowds, it's easy to get separated from the people that you're with.
I've also been noticing that most Korean girls hold hands with each other, when they walk around which is a little different from what I'm used to. Contrary to waht I was expecting ther are a lot of taller people here in Korea...none as tall as me of course, but not unlike walking around in North America. Although one of the waiters at the "Rolling Stone" yesterday made a point of calling different staff members over to stand beside me when I was getting up to leave.
Drivers are crazy here and Bus drivers are no exception...I watched the driver of the bus I was on today, get tired of waiting at a Red light so he just ran through it. They miss parked cars by inches and lane hop like crazy...you also have to be quick getting off cause they start taking off as soon as the "think" you're off.
That's all for today...later.
