Korea-First Impressions

This post is going to focus primarily on my first week in Korea and my experiences and thoughts during that time period. I will do a longer post about the school and my classes later on, as I am still getting a feel for how everything works. I know some people (Mom) are antsy to see pictures of cute Asian children, so I'll give everyone a teaser to start, then begin my post.


After observing my first class, all the new teachers that had arrived that day went out to lunch with the director of the school. We had bi bim bap (which was the same thing I had on the plane), but it was something we were all familiar with and liked. Finally we were able to go home and get cleaned up before returning to the school to talk to administrators and observe a little bit more. Basically the first week in Korea at the school was really overwhelming. We were told we needed to plan all of our lessons for a month, despite not knowing our kids at all. We were given piles of books and workbooks to use for different classes and it was a complete information overload. On top of that all of the school policies and routines were being explained to us for the first time; it was just a lot to remember. After our first day on the job Dara, Alexa, and I (the Canadian couple, Ian and Kristy, had not arrived yet) decided we needed to unwind. We bought a couple bottles of beer and a bottle of Makolri (very cheap rice wine) and took it back to our rooms.

Because we arrived a week early to observe classes and go through our orientation, the teachers we were replacing were still living in their apartments. Thus we could not simply begin to unpack and set up our new place. So for a week the school put us up in a hotel. But this was not just any hotel. This was a "love motel," which is exactly what it sounds like. In Korea, people traditionally live at home until marriage. This chaste practice is only a guise because there are plenty of these love motels were you can get a cheap room for a night (or an hour). The room looks like a normal hotel, except there is an assortment of beauty products and condoms on the dresser. Also, you might think that a love motel would pride itself on the comfort of its beds if nothing else. This was not the case. The bed was basically a spring box.








After enjoying our drinks in the love motel, we headed out for dinner. Not knowing what restaurants were good, where we were exactly, or how to read Korean, we wandered the streets exploring for a bit. Fortunately met one of the teachers (Jared) at our school on his way to the gym. He showed us into a restaurant and ordered us dak galbi with cheese. I promise there will be an entire post dedicated to food, but I don't have the space for it here. At night the streets of Gangnam (my neighborhood) come alive with street vendors, neon lights, and bar hoppers. After eating we continued to wander around exploring the area.

The first few nights of being in Korea all ended very early due to my jet lag. I would wake up at 5 or 5:30 and not have to be in at work until 9:15. After three days of observations, meetings, and lesson planning, I was definitely ready for the weekend. Friday night we had a full staff party, which meant that all of the teachers, administrators, and secretaries went out for Korean BBQ and drinks. The food will be discussed in a later post, but it was very delicious. After the restaurant the entire staff of GDA (my school) headed to a noraebang, which is a private karaoke room. As someone who loved karaoke night at Charley's back in Ann Arbor, this was a dream come true. They have both Korean and English songs, so most of the Korean teachers sang Korean pop, while the American and Canadian teachers performed Western music. I decided to go with a tried and true karaoke classic, Billy Joel's "Piano Man." To my surprise, 15 seconds into the song my school's director, a Korean woman in her 40s or so, exclaimed, "I know this song!" and picked up the other mic and sang with me. Going out for drinks and karaoke with your boss and all of the staff you just met would probably be a bad idea in the US, but in Korea it was totally acceptable and everyone had a great time.

On Saturday I hung out with the American and Canadian teachers again, but called it a night early because I was very tired. The next day was the infamous America v. Canada gold medal game. While there are other American teachers at my school, they are all from California or Virginia, and, needless to say, do not care about hockey. So I headed over to the apartment of a couple of outgoing Canadian teachers to watch the game on delay (one of them had recorded it and could watch it on his laptop which was hooked up to the TV). None of us had checked our email or even used the internet at all, so we could watch the game without knowing the outcome. All of the incoming and outgoing Canadian teachers showed up and I was the only American. When we scored with 15 seconds left I was jumping up and down in the midst of their collective groaning, but they got the last laugh.

As long as I'm on the topic of the Winter Olympics, Korean figure skater, Kim Yu-Na, is a huge celebrity here, like Michael Jordan was in the US in the Nineties. She's all over the ads on TV and posters, endorsing everything from facial cremes to bagels. At the gym I joined (called the Muscle Factory with shirts that say, "Pride Your Body") there are entire walls with her picture plastered on them. During her performance I was at school, and all of the Korean teachers were huddled around the computer watching her long program, and clapped loudly when she finished. Even the older man working at the love motel grumbled angrily during the Japanese skater's short program (there's some resentment in Korea towards Japan because Japan occupied Korea for basically the first half of the 20th Century). OK, I think that's all I have time for tonight, but I promise posts about the school and food will come soon.