Korea!!

This is my first blog from Korea (and, to be honest, my first true blogging experience).  I feel a little overwhelmed, because I have been meaning to blog all along, and here it is, three weeks into our trip, and I haven't written a word yet.  I have so much to write!

Caroline also has a blog, which is worth checking out (http://kneuroknut.blogspot.com).  She's writing on her take of our experiences here, which is interesting because it's from her point of view, and she's a better writer than I am.  Anyway, check it out.

I don't think I'll go into a great amount of detail about everything that has happened since we first arrived a couple of weeks ago, but there are a few things I would like to touch on that have really stood out in my mind.  Caroline's blog will hopefully fill in any gaps in my stories.

We are here in Daegu, South Korea, teaching English at the Ding Ding Dang English school.  We weighed a few different factors before choosing this particular school, but mostly Caroline liked the name and their cartoonish website (dingdingdang.com).  We still smile when we say the name of our school.  We are here for a year, and the kids we are teaching range from pre-school (3 or 4 years old) up to about junior high (12 or 13 years old).  It turns out that Koreans measure their age differently than we do- when they are born they are 1 year old, and then they add another year to their age with each calendar year, regardless of when their actual birthday is.

Getting here was ok- the flight from Vancouver was great- we got the emergency exit row (lots of legroom!), and the Air Canada staff was friendly and accomodating, and offered us lots of tips about Korea.  The Incheon airport wasn't much of a shock- extremely clean, with fancy widescreen TVs every 20 metres.  There were lots of westerners too- most of them U.S. military people coming and going.  We ended up taking a five hour busride from the airport to Daegu, where we were met by Michelle, the director of our school, who seemed slightly annoyed at having to come pick us up at midnight (I wonder how she thought we felt after traveling for more than 24 hours with no sleep). 

Anyway, we're staying in a 2-bedroom apartment that's walking distance from the school.  We live above a corner store owned by our landlord, Mr. Lee.  He and his wife live on the top floor of our building.  Our "street" looks like a back alley, and could easily be mistaken for one if it weren't for all the houses, shops, and restaurants along it.  To get to our place from the street you enter through a silver gate into a small courtyard (don't get the wrong impression- it's a tiny concrete rectangle filled with surplus goods for Mr. Lee's store, flattened cardboard boxes, plastic crates of empty bottles, and, of course, Stinky.  Stinky is Mr. Lee's dog- some all-white Korean breed (at least I think that's what he was trying to tell me in the store the other day) with pointy ears and a long tail.  You can probably guess how we started calling the dog "Stinky".  Let's just say that Korean summer heat, a small concrete space, and a dog and her four pups don't make for the best smell.  Oh yeah, the puppies.  Stinky has four of the cutest puppies I've ever seen- little white furballs that tumble and frolic and lick our toes when we come in at night.  Caroline hinted yesterday that maybe we could "adopt" one of the puppies, but I think Mr. Lee has plans to distribute them throughout the neighborhood (and that's fine with me).  They are definitely cute though.

Our first day of school was enlightening.  We walked into our school, and were met by a hundred pre-school kids all running and screaming and climbing all over each other.  Most of the kids are very cute, and are energetic and enthusiastic about learning English.  There are five "foreign" teachers at the school (that's us in this case): the two of us, a couple from New Brunswick named Ryan and Andrea (who have been really great to us), and an Irish girl named Eileen (who happens to be our next door neighbor, along with her Irish friend, Maebh).  Then there are about ten Korean teachers who co-teach the classes with us.  They all seem very nice, and are usually eager to help where they can.  There are about 600 students in all at our school, and I am responsible for around 90 students.  As Caroline mentioned in her blog, they are all assigned English names when they start at the school, and there is a core set of names that are recycled through all the classes- names like Alex, Leo, and Peter for boys, and Kate, Sally, and Molly for girls.  Every once in a while you encounter a kid with a name like Wally or Pedro or Hans, and you know that whoever named them had a pretty good sense of humor, or was just trying to think outside the box.

We have TV and a bunch of channels, and there are even a few English channels.  The one we watch most often is AFN, the American Forces Network.  They keep us in touch with "back home" (sort of) and show programs like Letterman, Leno, all the Fox reality shows like "Who Wants to Marry My Dad" and "My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiance", and of course Dr. Phil and Oprah.  They also occasionally show SportsCenter and CNN.  I haven't had a TV since I came back from Africa two years ago, but I'm enjoying being able to unwind with some of these shows, and it makes me feel a bit more connected to North America.  There are also tons of military commercials (why are they still showing recruiting commercials- isn't that preaching to the choir??) and public service announcements, reminding soldiers about things like using the buddy system, not drinking and driving, not buying things on the black market, and remembering to drink enough water on hot days.  It's kind of strange, but I am still grateful to have it.  Who ever thought I would be so grateful to the U.S. military?!

Caroline just set up a photo album of pictures that she has taken over here.  She bought a digital camera right before we came, and it's been so great to have.  She will hopefully be updating the album periodically.  To view the pictures, go to http://groups.msn.com/carolinescapturedlife   Click on photos and then Korea.  I'm ending this posting for now, but have plenty more to write, so I'll do that soon.