You Know You're In Korea When...

1. When you read a sign that's completely in English and you still have absolutely not idea what it's saying.

2. When every meal cooked at your apartment consists of one, if not all of the following ingredients: peanut butter, noodles, eggs, and milk.

3. When moving your couch two feet to the left creates an entire new room in your apartment.

4. When an 80-year-old woman elbows you in the kidneys just so she can relish in the pleasure of being the first person off the bus.

5. When words like "intefrity" are a perfectly legitimate part of the English vocabulary.

6. When "traffic laws" are created solely for drug control and not motor vehicle safety.

7. When you go to buy a fancy beer for dinner and return with a can of Budweiser.

8. When 85% of all restaurants sell basically the exact same thing.

9. When you believe you are biting into a scrumptious chocolate filled pastry only to be fooled yet again, as the inside is actually stuffed with red bean paste.

10. When Leslie is the only woman over the age of 15 wearing tenni-runners.

11. When the white Anglo-Saxon Christian guy ALWAYS stands out.

12. When you begin to notice the innumerable subtleties found within the smell of rotting garbage.

13. When there is a mandatory law to re-wallpaper every apartment, but no law what-so-ever for the installation of smoke detectors.

14. When absolutely everything can be delivered to your home.

15. When your job demands professional expertise in the arts of pictionary and charades.

Chu-Suk

Fall has finally arrived and fortunately the cooler weather has arrived too. We were getting extremely tired of the heat, humidity and mosquitoes. However, we have been told to enjoy these few weeks of Fall weather because Winter apparently hits hard and quick here.
Fortunately, Korea recently had its Thanksgiving holiday called Chu-Suk, which meant that we got the entire weekend off! Yes, we got an entire Saturday AND Sunday off. While that seems like a very short holiday to most, to us it was unbelievably amazing and seemingly long. Since the big city wears on us a bit, we decided our holiday vacation would be spent venturing outside of Seoul.
Since most of the two-way train tickets out of Seoul were booked we decided to try our luck with riding a bus. After reading through our Lonely Planet Korea, Ian decided we would attempt the hour and fifteen minute bus ride to the town of Chuncheon. So, in the morning we made ourselves a tasty lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two cookies and two apples. Excited and a bit nervous we set out on our adventure!
In order to get to the bus station, we had to take a bus ride and then a thirty minute subway ride. We actually found the bus station with considerable ease and were able to buy our tickets without any trouble. Spending only 9,000 won for the bus ride was a little disconcerting at first, but to our surprise it was clean and the seats were very comfortable!
Driving to Chuncheon was extremely relaxing. Korea’s landscape consists mostly of very densely forested mountains. The trees almost look like a mixture of pine trees and oak trees. The mountains aren’t huge, but are relatively big. The foliage is so dense that hiking within these mountains seems impossible.
After an hour and fifteen minute bus ride we finally arrived! Our first stop was to the Tourist Office. The employee knew a small amount of English and was able to give us a Korean map of the city. We eventually took a public bus and a taxi (definitely got a bit lost) to one of the four lakes that surround the city. Fortunately, there was a walking path around the lake, so we took full advantage of it.
After walking along the lake and seeing parts of the city, we decided it was time to make our way back into the depths of Seoul. Since getting to Chuncheon was so easy, we figured that getting out of Chuncheon would be just as easy! We learned very quickly that was not going to be the case. We asked the ticket office employee for two tickets back to Seoul. She proceeded to tell us something in Korean and then gave us two tickets for the total price of 3,400 Won. Remember that we were a little concerned only paying 9,000 won to get to Chuncheon. Paying half of this amount made us even more concerned. So, we immediately thought she gave us the wrong tickets causing us to ask one more time “Does this take us to SEOUL?” Again, she rattled something off in Korea and motioned us to get out of the way for the other customers. In a mild panic, we decided to ask the employee at the Tourist Office. We very slowly asked if these tickets would actually take us all the way to Seoul. She also nodded her head and said in broken English to take bus 3.
Before getting on bus 3 we saw a sign above the bus that said “Seoul” but it also had two other destinations below it. We were immediately relieved and thought “Of course! This bus must stop two other places and then proceed to Seoul. It must just take longer.” We were then very pleased that we only spent 3,400 Won to get back to Seoul.
While getting comfortable in the bus and enjoying the scenery Ian and I relished in the fact that we were able to get to and from Chuncheon with very little hassle and spending very little money. Boy, were we wrong! After fifteen minutes of driving the bus abruptly stopped on the side of the rode and the driver proceeded to yell something in Korean towards our direction. He then opened the door and pointed outside. In a panic, we got up and showed him our tickets. At this point other Korean tourists are yelling in Korean to get off the bus, and to tell us that our 3,400 won tickets are only going to take us this far. We attempt to give the bus driver more money, but he shakes his head and points to the door.
So, we were left on the side of the rode near the outskirts of a town we didn’t know the name of or where it was. Fortunately, I saw a sign that said Station, so we made our way there. We were able to find a train station, which had two available seats for a train that left in an hour. Relief finally set in again and we walked around the town. To our amazement the town was very quaint and had delicious dakgalbi (a Korean mixture of fried vegetables and a spicy red pepper sauce). We then sat out in front of a convenience store, had some drinks and people watched.
Surprisingly, the best part of our entire adventure started after getting kicked off the bus. Enjoying our dakgalbi, drinks, and people watching was definitely not part of the plan, but was well worth the mild panicy feelings! While our trip didn’t go as planned, we found a new town that we will definitely be visiting again and have learned that when you think you’re getting a great deal you’re either going to be kick off the bus early or going somewhere not expected.

Healthy Korea

Well, we're almost at the three month mark and we are enjoying Korea more and more. It was definitely a difficult transition at first, but we are starting to find our rhythm and settle nicely into the pace of life here. This "settling" hasn't always been easy, greatly due to our new environment, and equally as much to the cultural divide. We would like to highlight for you one example of this cultural difference, so that you can get a glimpse of the"Korean mentality." This example mostly highlights some negative aspects of Korean culture (there are many positive ones that we hope be come forth in other posts) and definitely does it share of generalizing, as any reflexion on an entire nation will tend to do. But we still think it paints a relatively good picture, so here it goes!

In short, Koreans seem to continually obsess about their health, and the H1N1 swine flu virus has only amplified this obsession. While swine flu, at least so far, has not shown itself to be more virulent that other forms of flu, Korea has gone berserk in an overblown, illogical, hypocritical, hopeless and at time racist effort to prevent its spread.

When we first arrived in early July, our temperature was taken as soon as we disembarked the plane. I'm not sure what would have happened if we had a fever, but thank God we didn't. We were then technically "quarantined" in our hotel for 4 days, which simply went that we were forced to take our own temperature twice a day, and email it to Chungdahm (our employer). After quarantine we went to training and were forced to wear masks all day while we studied and practiced teaching, and had to sanitize our hands every hour. We also had to take lunch in shifts and could not use the stairs, so as to not infect the other occupants in the building. Now, while we teach we have to sanitize our students' hands three times a class, and also have to take their temperatures.

Oh, and did I mention that every foreigner that came to Korea during the summer had to go through some kind of quarantine, but any Korean who came home after traveling abroad for any period of time was quarantine free!

Also, for being a highly developed country with a health obsession, Korea's general population still has many backwards views on disease prevention. For instance, it is always a gamble whether you will find soap in the bathroom (including at our school), and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze is definitely an unknown thing here. Further, we've been told by Koreans that you could not possibly catch swine flu in Hawaii because "it is hot there," or in Japan because it is in Asia. The notion here is that foreigners and western nations are more susceptible to this flu. Why?, who knows!

Perhaps the best example of Korea's unique stance on health would have to be "fan death." This episode occurred when a Korean air conditioning company, in a effort to boost sales, paid doctors to go on TV and say that fans kill people because they suck all the air out of a room, thereby slowly suffocating their victims. Some people here believed this, thinking that doctors could not lie to them, and fan sales dropped throughout Korea, or so we've heard. However, this scam was ultimately exposed and thankfully fan sales today are as strong as ever.

We hope this post showed how problems can be addressed over here, and why adapting to this culture has taken both time and a generous serving of patience. Overall, Koreans are a kind and wonderful people, and it is a joy to be around them, especially the younger generations. Just make sure if you come and visit us that you don't have the flu!

Another Slideshow

We've posted another slideshow to go along with this blog post. You just have to click on the slideshow, which will link you to Flickr. Then you need to click on the box that says "17 items" (it's on the right side of the pictures). Enjoy!

Biking, Parties and Musicals...

Fortunately, our boss and her boyfriend have been kind enough to take us under their wings and show us more of Seoul. They have shown us some of their favorite restaurants, bars, and outdoor activities. Since they will be leaving Seoul in February, they are trying to get all of their favorite outdoor activities done soon. So, the four of us ended up biking along the Han river.

The walking/biking route along the Han attracts thousands of Koreans each Summer weekend. There are even bike rental shops along the river, so we were able to rent bikes for 3,ooo Won each. Even though they were crappy bikes (my seat wouldn't raise and Ian's gears wouldn't move), they were cheap! We ended up biking about 14 miles and enjoyed every second of it. It was one of the first moments that we didn't feel completely surrounded by a gigantic city. However, the best part was that the Korean families didn't bring a typical blanket to sit on while enjoying the sun. Rather, they brought camping tents! They put in the effort to set up an entire tent just to get absolutely NO sun rays. Apparently, getting a sun tan is not as popular as it is in the states.

This past week, a couple who works at CDI took their vacation to get married in Hawaii. Since they didn't have a bachelorette/bachelor party, our co-workers decided to throw them one. Ian and the boys first went to a casino. Suprisingly, it is illegal for Koreans to gamble, so it was built just for the foreigners. Ian enjoyed it thoroughly, especially since you get free food and drinks while you're there! After loosing some money, they decided to experience a Korean arcade. Just imagine lots of bright lights, sounds, and some really weird video games, like firefighting and river-rafting games. After the arcade, they went to a couple of bars and ate some street food.

The ladies (myself and six other women) went to dinner to at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious and suprisingly not too expensive. We then made our way to a couple of bars. I think the bride had fun, which was the most important part.

The following day we went to the play RENT. It was the actual broadway cast, which was exciting. Ian and I really enjoyed just sitting and listening to people talk/sing English for an entire two and half hours. We felt right at home! The only aspect that brought us immediately back to reality was that Koreans get REALLY into broadway musicals. They basically act like they are at a concert. The audience clapped during most of the songs, screamed like little girls when the band started to play, and the front row even had RENT posters. It was definately something we were not expecting. But as we have now learned, you should never have set expectations in Korea because they will most likely always be different or the opposite from what actually happens! Korea has definately suprised us at times, from tents in a park to hooting and hollaring during a broadway show.

B-Ball Korea Style

Luckily for Leslie and I, we live within a five minute walk of Yonsei University, "The First and the Best" university in Korea, as the banners all over campus not so subtly point out. Especially lucky for me, this old and prestigious university has a set of outdoor basketball courts that pass no judgement on who pays tuition and who gets to play upon them.


So as you can probably imagine I've ventured over there quite often with some of my friends from work to shoot around and take on a few Koreans on their home turf. Now, you may think that basketball is basketball, regardless of your global location. You just bounce the orange ball and put in through hoop right? Well, not really. In many ways, Korean basketball can be a game unto itself.

As we've said before, Westerners are a rarity in Korea, so we sometimes get stared and pointed as we go down the street. This trend continues on the basketball court, where sometimes a small crowd of kids will gather to watch us play, cheering when we make a shot, booing when we miss, and yelling the usually few English words they know in know particular order.
Playing in Korea helps you practice your shots under pressure, as you feel like you need to give these kids their moneys worth.


My friends and I have scrimmaged with Koreans on multiple occasions and so far I've learned a few things about Korean pick-up basketball. First, I think Koreans divide basketball into two parts: "offense," and "the time when you're not playing offense." Us westerners call this time "defense" but Koreans seem to have no such notion. Okay, maybe its not quite that dramatic, but still a lot of Koreans won't start guarding you until you cross the free-throw line, and even then will not touch you in even the most delicate way, unless by accident. I do think though that this lack of physical contact might have more to do with the fact that Korean summers are hot and humid, and we westerners look more like displaced ocean mammals than basketball players. I mean, I wouldn't want a guard a panting, sticky, smelly, sweaty mess of a man either!


Finally, Korean ballers are extremely polite on the court. If I miss a shot, which happens most of the time, they often apologize and say it was their fault that I missed, not my poor skills. I had one incident that probably sums up best the Korean basketball mentality and the problems of a language barrier:
I was playing two on two with three Korean guys one afternoon. A man on the opposing team drove to the basket and I fouled him. Not much of a foul really, but I decided to give it to him anyway. He thanked me and then on the next play proceeded to drain a three pointer. Jokingly I told him: "Hey, I gave you the foul call, but you weren't supposed to do that." Then a worried look came over his face, and on the next play he instantly jacked up a wild three pointer that smacked hopelessly off the backboard. I tried to explain that he didn't need to do that, and that I wasn't serious, but it was no use. Koreans are just too nice when they play ball.

Chungdahm Institute

We have officially started the new term. This means that we get new students, new material, and that we finally get to be on the same schedule! Ian and I were hoping to get the weekends off, but it turned out that our branch is at capacity, so we were given more hours than expected. That was both good and bad news. It just means that we will have to explore the rest of Korea later in the year. With this post we mainly want to explain our jobs and to let everyone know exactly what we will be doing here for the next year!

Our employer is called Chungdahm Institute (usually shortened to CDI). CDI is a private english institute and has branches throughout Korea. In fact it is the most popular English institute in Korea. Fortunately, Ian and I work at a franchise. This means that our boss bought a branch of CDI, making it so we teach CDI material and have CDI regulations, but she owns and runs the company herself. We have been told that franchises are the best situation because instructors don't have to deal with the nuances of headquarters.

There are several class levels that CDI offers. They include:

EC2, EC3, EC4, MM, MG, MT, Bridge, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albetrose, Masters

As you can probably guess EC2 is the lowest level and Masters is the highest. Fortunately, Ian and I were given pretty good classes this term. For being newbies we were very suprised! We are teaching:

Ian - EC3, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)

Me - EC2, EC4, Par (Reading & Listening)

We each teach a total of 7 classes, so that about 80 students to remember!



Our schedules basically consist of half younger students (11 years old and younger) and half older students (12 and older). The material in EC consists of reading a few pages of a storybook, answers reading comprehension questions, playing some games, and completing a project or two. Par, on the other hand, is extremely fast paced. The students either have to listen to several story passages and complete questions, or have to read passages and complete the questions. Teaching par expects us to teach how to analyze a passage, find the topic, main idea, and details. We then discuss the topic and outline the ideas on the board. This week we read about stem cell research and the history of media. Even though it's a lot of work for the students, they keep up!


While our classes have been great so far, we are extremely busy! We are working 6 days a week, so we will be working over 40 hours a week. This week we had so many new classes to prep and seminars to attend that we arrived to work around 1:30 and left about 10:15 every day. We are absolutely exhausted, but it's definately worth it!

Even though we are busy, we can't even compare to our students. The younger students go to regular school all day and then attend CDI from 4pm-7pm (two days a week). The students usually attend other institutes, including history, math, chinese, or music. The older students attend school all day and then attend CDI from 7pm-10pm. They are lucky if they get home by 10:30pm. Korean students are constantly either attending school or a private institute, studying, or practicing an instrument! They have very little down time. Despite being ridiculously busy, most students are willing and even excited to be at CDI.
This doesn't explain everything about our jobs but it should give a little insight into our lives here in Korea. Pictures to come on Sunday!