We're Not In Minneapolis Anymore...

I found inspiration for my first post regarding some of the differences that have been presented by life in Yeosu. These posts may consist of zany English on a t-shirt, a short story about a ridiculous cultural misunderstanding, a tell-all about some signs of a conservative culture, a step-by-step comparison of how much more difficult (or easy) something is here (like taking a shower), any other slightly impersonal tales that may be interesting to our more casual readers (mostly Sue's friends for now :-D - ha ha). That about sums up what you'll see under the title "We're Not In Minneapolis Anymore..." - but I'm sure a few other random stories will find their way in... Finally - to the story.

Today I walked over to the closest mart, "GS". . This company is owned by LG, for those who follow Korean corporations. If you live in a big city, this might be the equivalent of corner store - like Harvard Market for those who went to the U. At these marts you see many American brands. Heinz, Spam, McDonalds, etc. This time, I wanted to get a pop, and was searching for the cheapest available. Low and behold, for W550 ($0.55)... it was... Mountain Dew!!



The words are literally translated into the Hangul, so this can is read "Ma-un-tin dyu"! The other side says "Mountain Dew" in English. Right at the top says "Original, American Style Taste." Mountain Dew used to be less sweet, because the Korean diet was not adept to sweet flavors. Now, five years later, the Korean demand for the real "Dew" has been met, much to my benefit.

Weekend Update

Hello everyone! Dave here... I will start off this post with a news flash!! I am an Uncle again... .and this time I have a nephew!! My sister, Laura, delivered a health baby boy, Nolan, this week. We are so happy for her over here and cannot wait to meet the little guy!

Moving on... We have been here for one month! That is unbelievable!! I am almost settled in to my role of teaching, and Megan has been thriving (of course)! I have leaned on her for a lot of help and ideas, it has been invaluable. I hope we can get a few school specific posts going, and let you get to know a few of the kids, as well as a bit more about some of the nuances in Korean culture. We are starting to adjust to these, but I think it'd be something really interesting to write home about. For now, I'll just post an update.

Tomorrow marks the final week of "Summer English Camp" aka babysit the poor kids and make them go to school during summer vacation while their parents work, or sit at home and drink 소주(soju, he he). That means that Megan and I will be going on the same schedule, starting Friday. It will also mark the departure of our co-worker Christy. We are sad to see her leave as we've gotten to know her over the past month :-(.

Hopefully the change will allow us to do a few more things during the week, instead of simply punching the clock. We have some plans to begin a morning hike / work out routine at a nearby outdoor workout center. The gym would be W150,000 a month ($150), so it is not an option just yet.

Last Thursday, our co-worker (who also found the job for us) was SOOO kind and took my classes over from 7-9:30PM, which allowed me to go out to dinner with a Korean woman named Silvia, along with Megan, Christy and her boyfriend Marc. It was a delicious Korean BBQ style meal of smoked duck. MMMMM. It was much better then dealing with 2.5 hrs of teaching to say the least! Silvia was REALLY kind, and I think we hope to hang out with her when we are able to. She had excellent English, and loved to get a bit of practice. Her husband and two young children were also with. We went for a quick walk around the park afterward, and then Silvia was gracious enough to give us a ride home after taking us out to dinner! This is something that just wouldn't happen back at home. The kindness is just something else in Korean culture, something Western culture could take a lesson from.

Friday marked the arrival of Jeff, Hyegyong, Hana and Sara. I was so lucky in that I had a few hours left before I had to work, so I was able to get picked up and head over to Weon's house for lunch mere minutes after they returned to 여수 (Yeosu, hehe). It was refreshing to see their faces. The familiarity of someone you know brings an indescribable feeling after a month abroad. Weon also gave us a carpet for our living room, which absolutely rocks. We can sit on the floor now, which is quite nasty w/o it. Weon has been SO kind to us since we've arrived, he has been absolutely great. He is one of the many motivating factors for which I'd like to improve my Korean beyond... "Hello - beer please! Thank you!" (and a few other phrases). We also got a new camera... Thanks Mom, Dad and Jeff for getting that here!!!

On Saturday, we took advantage of our free time and took advantage of a nice, sunny day to get some reading in on our roof top. I finished up Deception Point, recommend it if you are looking for a thriller. I also got a horrible sun burn... Afterwards, we hooked up with Marc and Christy to go for a hike up the big mountain nearby. We walked to the trail, which was probably a mistake, and then went up. Half way up we found (hopefully) our future gym, which you can see in the pictures. We reached the top in maybe an hour, and were afforded AWESOME views of Yeosu. I also ran into one of the guys who went sailing with us at the top of the mountain...kinda crazy! It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. After we were done, we took some time to get ready for the night, and headed to Jeff's for some dinner (Thanks Jeff!). We caught the 4x400 victory for the US Women. It was the first clip of the Olympics either Megan or I had seen (besides Korean archery or ping-pong).

We went out to Ellui at about 10 for the big going away party for most of the public school employees. It was fun to see many foreingers, and to be able to speak English at a reasonable pace, instead of the normal, slow, and deliberate manner... The bar show was excellent and we have some more pictures. You can also see pics of our co-workers Gwen and Christy.

HERE IS A LINK TO THE PICTURES!!

That's it for now, I plan on spicing the blog up with a few more interesting pieces, besides just the standard journal format... That could also go the way of most "internet plans" (down the toilet), but I hope not. If anything, the journal format will definitely continue. We have more stories coming, getting an international license (and maybe a car!! *gasp*), Korean culture gaffs, etc, so keep reading!!

I hope all is well for everyone in the US... Please keep emailing, facebooking, commenting, skyping, calling, writing letters, and anything else. It feels great every time, no matter how long or short the message is.

a three hour tour . . .

So far this holiday weekend has been very adventurous. Friday was the Korean Independence Day and luckily we got off of work for it. We had absolutely no plans besides watching some movies that Dave had recently downloaded (including Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay). At about 2PM our co-worker Liz called me up and asked if we had plans. She told us to be at the yacht club by 3PM because her friends were going sailing. When we arrived at the yacht club we were kindly greeted by her friends, the old mayor of Yeochon called “captain” and with an international public relations retiree named “John.” They told us we would ONLY be sailing on the 20 meter yacht today; tomorrow would be the other boat. Liz could not sail with us, but set this nice sailing adventure up and was very kind about seeing us off and introducing us. Walking down to the bay we saw two boats. They were amazing, and I have never been on a boat this big that one single person owned!

We set sail and it was cloudy but perfect temperature. Three of the men on board spoke good English which was nice and we talked to Dr. Kahn for awhile an OB/GYN at the hospital near our house. We sailed to an island that the captain (ex mayor) OWNED! When we got there some of the men went swimming around the rocks near this island to catch seaweed. Dave was asked and jumped right in. He didn’t have his suit but in Korean culture it is perfectly acceptable to wear clothes when swimming so that is what he did. He dove for seaweed with the ex-mayor of Yeochon! (check out the link below for pictures)

The boat was wonderful, and even though it rained a little it was an exciting experience. You are treated very kindly, like family, in Korean culture when meeting new people. I felt as if these people were taking care of me and it felt good to know they genuinely liked taking two new foreigners out sailing with them. Dave and I were talking and even though they only knew some English we both felt extremely comfortable in this situation because with the lack of verbal communication you have to make up in smiles and other gestures which seems more intimate. We agreed that if we were to have this same experience in Minneapolis with an ex-mayor we would have been extremely nervous and scared.

a few pictures from sailing on the yacht . . .

We went out to eat Friday night which was nice because we could finally watch some of the Olympics. We have a TV at home but we are unable to find stations at the moment. At dinner we were trying to speak in Korean, but our server only spoke to us in English which was a nice gesutre, but dave and I really need more practice with Korean so it was frustrating. We then went out for a few drinks at Ellui and hung out with a few people we have met. It was an early night for us.

Saturday was another lazy day. We have been downloading many movies so while we were waiting for them to finish we watched "Fargo" to remind us of back home. This movie gets better with each viewing. We then walked to Lotte Mart (Similar to a target) to get weekly groceries. We didn't think we would be buying much so we only brought a little money. At the cashier we had to dig for extra money because we fell a little short but luckily we have mounds of change in our pockets that saved us.

For dinner Dave's Korean family took us out to eat at a seafood restaurant. We ate like kings. The meal was wonderful and there were too many courses to count. Communication is hard because our Korean is so limited, but we managed the best we could. There were some unusual dishes on the table, and some dishes were looking at us, eek! I had to do my best not to freak out, haha (I have a hard time with seafood when it's presented to me in the form it was caught). Overall it was delicious and was quite filling, I just wish I could speak more Korean to show how grateful I am to Dave's Korean family. Hopefully when Jeff, Hye Gyong, Hana, and Sara come back we will be able to learn more Korean from them.

Sunday we are relaxing, doing laundry, and possibly trying some different food at the restaurant called "Kimbap Nara" near our house. Next week will be very tiring for us because it is the last full week of summer camp. I cannot wait to not work overtime anymore and be on the same schedule as Dave!

School Daze

We are approaching the end of our second week of teaching. So far it has been a very tiring, confusing, and frustrating 2 weeks. Dave and I have classes that range in size from 1 student to 10 students. The students know the routine which is helpful (while we are still learning) and sometimes annoying because they do not like to stray from the routine very much. Filling the dead time is another story. We are learning early on that we must come up with a repertoire or activities, games, and ideas to use to fill time after a shorter lesson. The students LOVE HANGMAN, but when you play this every day, even though they like it, it gets really old fast. Luckily there is a folder full of ideas at our school that we will take a look at and Jeff will kindly give us access to his long list of activities and games when he returns.

Another hard cultural difference is the fact that the students will not tell a teacher “no” if they do not want to do something or do not understand. This makes it extremely difficult to know whether or not they are understanding what you’re saying and the materials you are teaching. What we have learned is to read the reaction on students’ faces as to whether they understand, usually this works but it is still very hard sometimes.

Like back in the states when you take a language class you get to choose your name in that language. It is the same over here which means that some students have very interesting names. We have heard of students named Dolphin, Raptor, and Bright (who is in Dave’s class). At our Hogwan we have put a stop to unconventional names, but since some students have had their names for many years they were able to keep them. I thought this was rather funny.

The people we work with are really nice and helpful. Dave, myself and Liz are the only foreigner teachers. There are two Korean teachers (in their 20’s) and our boss J.S. who teaches as well. Our dinners consist of a bowl of rice, Korean side dishes (mmmm kimchi) and soup. It is usually a hit or miss with me.

We haven’t done much sightseeing since we started school but I believe in a month when we are on the same teaching schedule we will be taking advantage of not only our free mornings, but the cooler (mid 70 degree) weather. Last Saturday we were able to go out with a couple of foreigners to a Korean barbecue dinner which was delicious. I tried Soju which is a hard alcoholic drink. It is not your typical drink because it is made just from chemicals. It didn’t taste too terrible, haha. It is so cheap that so many Koreans drink it regularly. A 750 ml bottle is $2 at the local mart . . .eeeek. After dinner we sat out on the deck of a newer “foreigner” bar called “Yellow Monkey.” This restaurant looks out at the bay, but it was hard to see the water because it was not lit up with lights (I think they will be adding some lights/attractions soon to this area). I had a $7 corona which I quickly switched to a $3 Cass beer. We were able to sit and talk to many other foreigners who we have not yet met which was really great. We met people from England, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Texas which was really awesome. We were having such a good time that we stayed out until 4 AM which didn’t seem so great the next morning.

On Sunday our boss came over later in the evening to give us a microwave, exchange our washer, and bring over some de-bugging spray. Having a microwave is so awesome!!! We can quickly heat up things! A luxury we took for granted in the states, haha. Dave and I also were able to place our bed on a bed frame lifting it off the ground about 2 feet. This has made all the difference in the world! We no longer feel threatened by bugs when we sleep.

This Friday is Korean Independence day which means we get off of work! I think we really need this day off to just relax and not think of school. The sad part is that our funds are running out and we need to stretch the last of our money for a couple more weeks until we get paid. This means we are going to have to find cheap entertainment this weekend (no $7 coronas haha). My camera is also breaking down which is why there are not many pictures for this blog. Luckily for us we will have Jeff buy us a nice camera back in the states before he leaves. This is really helpful because if we bought a camera over here we would need to buy a converter for it when we moved back home.

A Day at the Beach + Hangin' with Minnie (formely Sun-miyo for those who met her :-D)

Hello again! We are sitting in the apartment on Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow we will begin teaching!! It will be nice to actually have something to do and get in to the rhythm, but we are both nervous to met our students. Megan will have a summer camp from about 9-2 MWF and 9-12 T/TH and then classes from 2-6. The summer camp will go until the end of August since all of the students are currently on vacation. What fun for them, English camp! I will go 3-9 MTWTHF with one hour of prep, which will all be the normally scheduled classes.

Last Thursday, July 31st, Jeff's sister-in-law Gumpil was kind enough to take us out to the beach in Yeosu. The beach is called Mosageum. We were there from about 3PM until 6PM. It was really hot, and the water felt really good. At one point we were offered a "fish sausage" - our recommendation - DO NOT EAT IT!!!! We did have some other delicious snacks, which we proceeded to buy from Lotte mart the next day.



However, the beach and water here is REALLY littered compared to back in USA. We take much better care to keep these things clean. It is nice to know though we have some international image issues, Americans do a few things correctly. As an aside, our cities are also much cleaner, especially MPLS/STP, so way to go us! After we went to the beach, we headed out to dinner. We ate a boiling chicken soup. Literally the entire chicken was in this soup (skinned, cleaned and de-limbed though). It was hard to eat since you have to pick out bones and things. Gumpil had to help us, we felt a bit like children, ha ha!

Friday - Megan went out with the foreigner girls to eat chili and watch the Sex in the City movie. It was good for her to get to meet some of them. I went out with "Evil" Marc and had dinner and them some drinks.



Saturday we FINALLY got the meet up with Minnie. For those who met her in Minnesota, she went by Sun-mi-yo, but has since changed her name to "change her luck." Her English has improved so much and it was a lot of fun to get to hang out with her. We went to a temple, with many pictures in the link below. Afterward we went out to dinner on Minnie's dime. It is almost impossible to pay for things we you go out with Korean family, we offered since she took us out, but she absolutely refused! We had a Korean style meal at a restaurant that, thank Buddha, offered Western style seating in chairs, instead of on the floor. Sometime during dinner I mispronounced a Korean word, and apparently the word I said instead meant something like "F@@@ you"! Minnie laughed sooo much... The dinner was really good - but Korean food always leaves this strange after taste! We then went bowling somewhere around Yeocheon. Minnie and Megan teamed up against myself and Minnie's friend, the loser had to pay. Lucky I pulled out some strikes in the end leaving Megan with the tab! (although we share all money... but it's ok!! It's the principle!) Minnie and co them came back to our house for a rooftop drink in the evening, which is really pleasant. Unlike back home, the temperature at night only drops to maybe the high 70's or low 80's, so with a cool sea breeze nothing really beats it. Sometimes it is still too hot or humid.

It was really a lot of fun because with Minnie we can have ACTUAL conversations instead of really simple, obvious conversations with lots of hand gestures. Her friend was also good at English, but was quite shy. They had studied together in Gwangju at the University. Both are elementary teachers, so Megan and them really hit if off. After that we had the standard fall asleep at about 10PM, big time party people!

Finally, here is a link to the latest round of pictures from the events I've discussed above, this time I made you read my boring stories first...

Click to check them out!

Megan wanted me to be sure and mention that Minnie thought Megan's Korean pronunciation was MUCH better then mine, :-P. Good bye for now. It is so good to hear from so many people, so keep it up.