Continuing Cheonan

I didn't spend much time at "home" (for obvious reasons) since I taught during the day and did some sightseeing with Mi-Suk during the afternoon and weekend. This was my first introduction to a Korean Buddhist Temple. While very pretty, I am comfortable saying that if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Unfortunately, I will have seen at least ten others in the future since every Korean city wants you to see one of their numerous "famous" temples. This one, however, was particularly cool because it was my first and it has one of the largest sitting Buddhas in the world.

I also saw the Independence Museum which documents much of Korea's Japanese occupation. It is an interesting place to visit.

Another first for me was visiting a Korean traditional village. Much like the temples, if you've seen one traditional Korean village, you've seen them all. I will have also seen at least ten more during my time in Korea. They are quaint places that are wonderful for walking around, taking photos, and doing some personal reflecting. It was also my first time trying sikhye, a sweet rice drink that is typically served chilled (the older lady who served me took a liking to me ;).

During my week in Cheonan I had a series of great lunches (being with a local always helps), though I only photo documented one (I guess this one is only great if you like fish):

Through the Couchsurfing community, I met up with other English teachers living around Cheonan. One teacher took pity on me and my lodging and offered her place to surf for the weekend (the whole point of couchsurfing, I suppose). Consequently, another first in Cheonan, my first couchsurfing experience! My hostess was wonderful and even cooked up a West Indian dinner for Mi-Suk and I. With my last teaching job (for now) coming to an end, my backpacking of Korea was about to begin.

Cheonan Love . . . Motel!

Sunday morning I was off to my next job teaching English at Sangmyung University in Cheonan, South Korea. My former boss and friend, Mi-Suk, was the one that put me in touch with this job, and yet again she was going to be my supervisor. My role was to substitute for another teacher who had to do a last minute visa run to Japan. There was a small chance that his paperwork would not be ready and that I would be expected to teach for the whole semester. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, though!

Initially, I was to stay at the other teacher's flat for the whole week, but due to a communication gap and a pit stop by him to his apartment, I only crashed there one night. The place was nice, quaint, and above a noodle shop, though I didn't snap any pictures of the interior (I thought I'd have a whole week to). This was also my first introduction to the keypad entrance of residences. You don't need a key to enter, just enter the code on the keypad and voila, you are in your unit!

Once I discovered the schedule of this job, I quickly began to think to myself how I could certainly get used to this. First class was either 10 or 11 depending on the day, lunch at noon, and the last class ended at 5. Sometimes, no students would show up and no class had to be taught. Friday was just one class. However, I really enjoyed teaching the classes when students came. Since these were optional classes, the only students that showed up were the ones that were motivated to learn.

My new lodging had a much better location in downtown Cheonan, but was, um, a bit seedier to say the least. It was a "love motel" (very common in Korea, ask me about them sometime) complete with mood lighting.

Goodbye Olympic Parktel and the Best Job I'll Probably Ever Have!

The two weeks working at the Olympic Parktel camp went by very quickly! On my one day off, I was able to visit Hongdae with one of the TA's, Raven. We took Raven's car (Hyundai, big surprise) to the area, and at the end of the night we hired a driver to drive Raven's car home effectively parking the car at the hotel, giving us the keys, and walking off to drive the next person. The service only cost about 15000 KRW (about $11 to $12), but the experience is one I will never forget. The driver coasted from Hongdae back to the Jamsil area at a measly 150 to 160 kph (93-100 mph). Sure, on the interstate of the United States, this isn't that big of a deal, but around the crowded streets of Seoul, South Korea, this was a huge deal. I couldn't find the backseat belt buckle (the thing that offers the gratifying click) so I, instead, wrapped myself around the strap, literally!

The Karaoke Fiends!

On the last day of our camp, we had our farewell staff dinner, which is always fun and sad, but I had to duck out early. I had a date with my previous Chosun camp colleagues around the Hongdae area. It was great to catch up and sing karaoke with Jonny, Jessi, Misuk, and Sora after not seeing them for two weeks. At the end of the night, we parted ways agreeing to have a UK reunion at some point, but the subway was already shut down for the night. One thing that I think Korea has a bit backwards is that on weekdays the subway runs later (to cater to people who work late, very late), but on weekends it closes early (so revelers are not able to use it). In all honesty, it's probably more intelligent but a bit frustrating. Instead of cabbing it, I made a few new random friends outside the subway entrance near a convenience store, while we sipped beer, munched on snacks, and exchanged stories. I boarded the subway at 5:30am to arrive at Olympic Parktel just in time to say bye to Lauren who was heading for the airport to go back to the US. A fruitful evening/night/morning indeed!

A Trip Back In Time, First Stop Seoul

So my last Korea post had me leaving Gwangju heading for my next camp in Seoul. Let's resume from there. The date would be early September 2009.

Quite possibly the best job I ever had in the history of my life was THIS camp job in Seoul. Let me break it down. The camp was two weeks long for a total of 6 days working, 1 day off, 6 days working, then end of camp. The hours had the potential to be long, but it wasn't that bad, the Teaching Assistants (TA's) got the brunt of the long days. We had three meals provided per day, AND, I forgot to mention, we were housed at the Olympic Parktel Hotel in Seoul near Jamsil. It was supposed to be 2 people sharing each room, but my roommate was married and lived in Seoul and would often just go home after the camp was finished! This left me with my own room, sort of!

There were five native teachers, four from the US: me, Erin, Lauren, and Stanley, and one from South Africa, Richard. In reality, we had four different camps that lasted for 3 days each, but the first day of each camp didn't start till 1pm and the last day of the camp ended around noon. Anyway, I'm complicating things. Bottom line is, life was good. The first day of each camp we'd play games then teach them for one hour, the second day was the long day which included athletic competitions, ice cream, museums, baseball, pizza, ice cream, then late night drinks for staff! Third day was tying up loose ends, then students leaving. Sometimes, naps (for the English teachers) were part of the day to day activities. The poor TA's had to wake up early in the morning and take the students for morning exercise. I tried to get up and go six different times, but I just couldn't make myself roll out of bed. What further complicated issues (for the TA's) was that my room became a sort of late night hang out complete with food, drink, and conversation until 3 or 4 am. Not that big of a deal when you had to report to the camp at 10am, but a bit of an issue when you (the TA's) had to report in at 7am.

My TA and I with one of my classes

At one of the four baseball games we went to over the course of two weeks!

Piggyback racing was a normal daily activity!

By the end, we had been to 3 different museums, a baseball game, and an outdoor sculpture park four different times (one time for each camp)! Nevertheless, the fact that you can get paid to live in a hotel, have all your meals provided, and your work entailing 1-2 hours of teaching English and playing games with kids is just plain awesome!

More photos available at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2559099&id=14815291&l=5121acb2c9