Christmas in Korea

We had a great (but very different to normal) Christmas in Korea. Christmas eve we had dinner, some beers and a Secret Santa with a few of our friends. Then it was off to bed early, so we could be up bright and early for snowboarding Christmas day.

Brenton's present:
Snowboarding survival kit + a random toilet sign.

Ashley and James presents.

Desk warming survival kit: ramon, coffee and alcohol

Christmas Day we were up earlier than I ever was for Santa (3:45am) and on the bus to High1 resort at 4:30am. We reached the resort and were ready to hit the slopes by about 9:30 am. It was a beautiful clear day, but really cold (about -12). I think I did ok for my first attempt at snowboarding. I made it down the Jupitar run (about 900m) 3 times before lunch and once after lunch. Snowboarding is hard work! I fell over a lot and everything is sore now!

Korean medical system

Today I had my first visit to a Korean doctor. I have had a cold for almost 3 weeks now.  I don't really feel that sick. Although, in the last few days it has developed in to a bad cough, so today I finally followed the advice of all the Korean people I know and went to the hospital. It's not as dramatic as it sounds, in Korea you go to the hospital for anything. It's just liking going to the GP but they are at the hospital. I have heard a lot about the Korean medical system, like how cheap it is and that you always get a needle in the butt. So I was expecting to be sitting in a busy emergency room, see a doctor, get a needle in my butt and walk away wearing a little boot (judging by the amount of kids at school that are wearing booties I have developed the assumption that no matter what is wrong with you, you get one).

My experience wasn't quite like this. The hospital I went to was more like a large GP surgery, there were no emergencies getting wheeled in or blood anywhere. I went without an appointment and only had to wait 5 minutes. I saw the doctor for about 3 minutes he diagnosed me with a swollen throat and printed me a prescription. I didn't even get a needle in the butt or a bootie! This only cost me 3,400 KRW ($2.90). My prescription cost 4,700 KRW ($4).

They don't hold back with the drugs over here. For my swollen throat I have cough medicine I need to take 4X per day and tablets 3X per day. Not only that, but each time I take my tablets, I take between 3 and 5 different ones! I don't know what they all are but I hope they get me healthy before my Christmas snow boarding trip. The doctor also recommended that I wear a mask (uh.... not happening) and I don't go out in the cold (a little hard when its only 4 degrees during the day and I don't have a car!)

3 days worth of medication

My cough syrup and a
free ("service") vitamin drink

Supergook: Episode 1

This is a TV series that has been made about English teachers in Korea. If you are wondering what life is like teaching in Korea....this is the closest thing I have to show you how it is.

All of the things that they are forced to eat and drink, I have eaten/drank. Including moving octopus and silk worm larvae.
Loren and I actually went to the town where this show is set for my birthday. We drank at the same pub that is in many of the scenes.

I'm looking forward to the next episode of this show to come out. Enjoy.

Korean Study

The Korean education system is very effective. The latest generation to graduate from high school have had a very intense educational experience and in comparison to the US, Australia or the UK, Koreans are learning more at school. But at what cost? The average Korean student will study for a minimum of 12 hours a day. Stressful exams start for these students in grade 1 of primary (elementary) school.

As you can imagine, studying for 12 hours a day would be very tiring work. This of course takes its toll on the students. My students will fall asleep if I give them more than a 30 second break in between activities. I kid you not. I have an average of 5 students falling asleep in classes with no breaks.

Ok, so the Korean education system is very effective and produces some excellent results...but is it efficient? Definitely not. Students are studying all day but are only running at 20% as they have a lack of sleep and are constantly over worked. So students sit in class all day but pay attention 20% of the time.

The average Korean middle school student will arrive at school at 8:10am in the morning and stay at school until about 4:10pm. Next it is time to go to their first academy. Most students attend several academies with dinner in between and won't make it home until after 10pm.

Do the students like this? Would you? Sure studying all day makes you intelligent but also unhappy. Not to mention the amount of stress that is put on these kids. It is no surprise that Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

Things I Love About Korea: #1 Love Motels

There are a lot of things I love about Korea. Brenton's posts tend to be on the negative side (he said "I can't write something interesting without it being negative"), so I decided to write a post about things I love about Korea. One of the things I love most about Korea are love motels. They might sound a little sleazy and really they are, but you get so much for such a cheap price.

Love Motels can be rented by the hour or overnight. In Korea people tend to live with their parents until they are married, so privacy is pretty difficult to come by. When I have stayed in Love Motels most other people there seem to be young couples. Although, I am sure they are also used by people having affairs and people paying for girls and the room by the hour. There are lots of dodgy Love Motels in Korea, but in my experience if you choose one that looks new and has lots of neon you are going to get a great room (Although, a more expensive room than the dodgier ones).

Love Motel's in Gyeongju

In mine and Brenton's experience really nice Love Motels cost between 50,000 and 120,000 Won ($43-$105) per night depending on location. For that price you can expect a room that averages between 2 and 3 times the size of our entire apartment here. You will also get a spa in the bathroom, a bigger than king size bed, 130cm+ flatscreen TV (with multiple channels that show English shows), free mini-bar (no alcohol), all the bathroom products you need, and 2 computers with internet.

Love Motel in Chuncheon:

Love Motel in Pohang:

A couch! A luxury we don't have in our apartment.

Free wine! It was pretty gross wine, but most wine is in Korea.
 It was re-stocked every day too.

Our Love Motel was right on the beach (the 2nd tallest building).
We had great views from our  room.

So basically Love Motels have better facilities than most "nice" hotels (like the Novotel or Rydges) for a fraction of the price. So if you can get past the renting by the hour and the tackiness of Love Motels they are the perfect accommodation in Korea. I am really going to miss them when we are slumming it in hostels around Europe for a similar price!.

Skipping class while attending class

by: brentbuzz86

Korean temperature Part 2 of 2

A short time ago, the temperature was about 25-30 degrees everyday. The sun was out, the birds were singing, it felt good to be alive. I opened the windows to my classroom so I could enjoy some of the great weather while I was at work. Sadly, my windows were closed shortly after they were opened as most of my class were complaining that it was to cold. I could not get my head around this. When it is above 30 degrees it is too hot, but 25 degrees is too cold? WHAT? WHEN ARE YOU HAPPY???

Lately, I have been enjoying the nice Autumn temperatures. It has been between 20 and 25 during the day, which in my mind is perfect. I am walking around in jeans and a t-shirt, sun glasses on and a big smile on my face. The rest of Korea is wearing 3 layers of clothing including a coat with the option of a beanie
or scarf. Once again, this gets me thinking. WHAT? WHEN ARE YOU HAPPY???

Me enjoying the sun...while we are trying to discreetly 

take a photo of the couple behind me in matching outfits. 

The temperatures outside are good. However, if you go inside anywhere where a Korean is controlling the temperature you will get hot. This includes everything like supermarkets, restaurants, coffee shops, buses, taxis and the subway. So the temperature is back up to about 30 degrees. Logically, you'd think if you had a big coat on outside and you got onto a bus that is 10 degrees warmer, you would take off the coat. Right? WRONG! You would leave the coat on and stare at the waygook (foreigner) who is in just a t-shirt.

Speaking Tests (Round 2)

This week my students had their semester speaking tests. Instead of normal classes they would each come talk to me in my office for up to one minute. I would then ask them a question and give them a score.

Most of my students did very well and told me some interesting stories. However, some students didn't go so well. Here are some of the funny things that I was told this week:

Student: .....and that's why my brother is my role model.
Me: Good. How many brothers do you have? 
Student: 26
Me: (Big family)

Student: My favourite book is Harry Potter and the order of Penis. 

Student: My weakness is that I have small eyes. So I do eye exercises everyday to help make my eyes big and wide. 
(This was followed by the student performing a demonstration of this by looking all around the room)

Student: Hello Mr Parry. My name is Dum Bit Cher. 
(This was funny last speaking tests and was funny again this time.)

Student: Books are good and are very impotent. I like to read books because they are impotent. 

8:20 - Walking into school
Student: Teacher I have a speaking test today.
Me: Oh ok. Good luck.
Student: You are very handsome.
Me: (Smile)
Student: Do I get a 10 out of 10 now?

Student: My favourite movie is Narnia. I don't like that movie.
Me: (Make up your mind...)

Student walks into my office for the test
Student:  I'm sorry Mr. Parry but I do not speak English very well. 
(Note: This sentence was spoken in perfect English)
Me: So you didn't prepare anything?
Student: No, I am sorry. 
Me: Ok...thanks. 
Student leaves my office
(Unfortunately this happened maybe 2-5 times per class)

Student: My main worry in my life is my face.

Korean temperature Part 1 of 2

Summer has come and gone and I am beginning to feel winter's icy hand effecting the neighbourhood. The trees have all gone from green to orange and the mornings are now very chilly. In a few weeks my walk to school may require ice skates.

Put on your warmest clothes. Winter gets well below zero degrees in Korea.
It is funny, Korean people are always bragging about how they have "4 unique seasons". After asking, they will give you a big speal about Korea being special because they have Summer, Autumn (Fall), Winter and Spring. My reply to this is usually "Yeah, so what. So does half of the rest of the world". But this bragging is silly for more reasons than just that. In Korea the winters and summers are very long. It seems that Autumn and Spring only last for about a month each. Just as winter ends you will only get a good month of Spring before summer starts. This has got me thinking that maybe they should stop bragging until all seasons are similar lengths. At the moment it seems more like 2 seasons with a short "half time show" in between.

Some drinks on a hot summers night.

The little things

It is the little things that make teaching in Korea so great. The funny things the students say (like "shit down"), students yelling things (like "Oh, hi Loren Teacher. I love you") from across the road and the nice presents they give you. Here is just a couple of things that our students have given us since we have been here:

A letter one of my 3rd grade girls (Che Won) gave me today.
 Nuri is the name of the after school program  I teacher her in.

The second half of the letter, written by Kyung Jun

A present I got for Chuseok

A portrait Brenton's students drew for him.

A weekend in Taipei

I am too lazy this week to blog about my weekend trip to Tapei, so I am just going to link to Amy's instead! We had a wonderful 1 1/2 days in Taipei and it was totally worth the time spent getting there!

Good times. Great taste.

Soju Bombs

The highlight of Jeju-do (ok, maybe the low light)

We did a lot of fun stuff during our recent trip to Jeju Island. We saw waterfalls, hiked up a volcano, watched an acrobat performance, drank, ate, the list goes on. But by far the worst thing we did was visit the chocolate museum. The sign said it was in the top 10 chocolate museums in the world, after seeing it we concluded that there must only be 10 chocolate museums in the world. Even the free chocolate sample at the end didn't justify the 30 minutes we wasted in this place.

Amy was nice enough to put together this movie so you can really get a feel for the fun that is the chocolate museum:

Google translate fail

Couple's outfits

Korean fashion is a bit different to back home. Clothes have English slogans on them that range from slightly strange to down right hilarious (e.g. an old chubby grandma wearing a t-shirt that says "skinny bitch") or that just make no sense at all. The women wear gigantic heels everywhere (including hiking), mismatched is in style in a big way (cute spotted pink dress with a red stripy backpack), there is a lot of glitter and rhinestones, and men's outfits could often be mistaken for women's.

One of the biggest differences is couples outfits. You see them everywhere. They range from matching T-shirts/jumpers to an entire matching outfit (right down to the shoes, socks and underwear). Shops downtown sell matching watches, rings, glasses, underwear, shoes, jumpers, hats, bags. Basically anything you wear you can buy to match your partner. I cannot imagine Kate and Steve, Jac and Will, Taryn and Dale, Nikita and Matt, Fraser and Ange or any other couples I know rocking up in a matching outfit but here in Korea that is normal.

We have managed to snap a few photos of couples outfit while we have been here and I will add more to this post as we get them:

Just a t-shirt

colour coordination

Again another t-shirt

just the jumper

An entire matching family!

Brenton and I testing it out. Don't worry I wouldn't let Brenton buy it!

School Functions

Like most workplaces Korean schools have a variety of staff functions. Unlike most (Australian) workplaces staff (or maybe just the non-Korean speaking staff) are not told about these till the last minute.This week we had a going away function for my vice-principle who is retiring. It was mentioned briefly to me last week and then confirmed on Monday afternoon that there would in fact be a going away function tonight at 5pm. Too bad if you have made other plans!

The school functions are a good opportunity to spend some time with the other teachers and try all sorts of different foods (Brenton tried octopus that was so recently killed that it still had muscle spasms earlier this year at a teacher dinner). They are also a good opportunity to spend a few hours sitting around while everyone else is speaking in Korean. Luckily at my school there are 2 native English teachers so I have someone to talk to.

The vice-principles going away function was held in a Korean wedding reception venue. It looked classy and nice from afar, but up close was another story. Korea does tacky pretty well and this place was probably 20% nice and 80% tacky. The nice looking chairs were actually plastic, the glasses were mismatched beer glasses and there were plastic napkin holders on the tables. First up was an hour of speeches in Korean (it may have been shorted, but when you can't understand any of it it feels like a life time). During the vice-principles extremely long speech my co-teacher kept me updated on the topics. It started out pretty normal: the schools he had worked at during his career, then moved to religion (fair enough because he is apparently really religious) at about the 15 minute mark it some how moved to organ donation (including his eyes!). Finally once he wrapped up we could stuff ourselves with the buffet.

At my first teachers dinner we went out to a Nori-bang (Karaoke) after dinner and I was forced to sing a song in front of the principle, VP and all the teachers. Very embarrassing! Monday night there was of course Karaoke. This time no nori-bang, we just sang in the function room. Every year level had to get up and belt out a song. I thought I had escaped the worse of it, but the principle made Ashley and I get up with him and the VP. Luckily I didn't have to sing, but I still had to dance. All of this was caught on video camera too! After the Karaoke we all stood in a circle and sang together and then did a strange hand shake train thing. Interesting night ... :-)

Vacation to Busan and Japan

Brenton and I went to Japan for 7 nights over our summer vacation (via a few nights in Busan and the Ferry). This blog post will probably end up being quiet wordy so if that's not your thing stop reading now :-)

We spent 2 nights in Busan. The weather was terrible so no beach time for me :-(. On the Monday we went to Hyundai beach (in the rain) and to the aquarium there. That night we met up with our friends orientation (2 couples) and had dinner and a few drinks. It was really nice to see them. I thought it would be strange, seeing as we only knew them for 2 weeks 5 1/2 months ago (we have only kept in touch a little bit over facebook), but it was great. We went right back to sharing stories about our first days at school. It was like orientation was only a week ago! Hopefully we will get to see them some more over the next 6 months! 

Leaving Busan on the ferry

Tuesday we caught the high speed ferry to Japan (to Fukoka). I guess the ferry was really fast (it took about 3 hours), but it is hard to tell when there is nothing to judge the speed against apart from open ocean! It took us a bit longer to leave Fukoka than we had thought (it was hard finding an ATM that accepted foreign cards and we had no Yen) so a bus ride and 2 train trips later we were in Kyoto, we got there a little after 11.

Leaving Busan on the ferry

A high speed ferry going the other way

Kiyomizu-der Temple

Wednesday we did the suggested walking tour in the Lonely Planet, which included a few temples and walking through a couple of tradition neighbourhoods. It was really nice, but also really hot. The heat made the entire trip not quiet as enjoyable as it could have been. It was 35-40 everyday with the same level of humidity as Daegu. Because things are so much more expensive in Japan and we were trying to not spend to much it meant we didn't take as many breaks in coffee shops and the like as we should have!

Kiyomizu-der Temple

Thursday we hired bikes and rode to the Manga museum and another temple complex. Bikes were much better than walking because Kyoto is so flat it meant you could get out of the heat quicker! That night I went to have a look around a traditional night-life area. When I was riding my bike back to the hostel I went down some back streets and saw a Geisha walking towards me! She went into a house before I could get a photo, but pretty cool none the less!

Traditional night life area in Kyoto

Traditional night life area in Kyoto

                                                                         

Friday we were meant to go to Tokyo but I accidentally told our couch surfing hosts Saturday and Sunday so we stayed in Kyoto another night. 

Saturday we finally made it to Tokyo. I was worried we wouldn't be able to as apparently that weekend is the busiest for people going on holidays and all trains and flights out of Tokyo were full booked and there were 40 km traffic jams! Not as many people were going to Tokyo, so we only had to wait 45 minutes for a train with free seats. That afternoon we went to Shibuya crossing, a park and the observation deck in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

Bullet train to Tokyo

Shubya Crossing

View from the government offices

Sunday we visited the Sony display centre, the Imperial Palace East Gardens, and an area where all the Cosplay girls apparently hang out (we only saw 2, but it was an interesting shopping area full of alternative kind of things).

Imperial Palace East Gardens

Cosplay Girls

Monday we moved from the couch surfing to our hostel. Then we went to electronics town and explored a bit. That night we went to Tokyo's oldest temple.

Tuesday was home again! So there is it a quick (ish) summary of our trip to Japan. Overall it was a really good trip, but like I already said the heat took it down a bit. It was really interesting to see the differences between Korea and Japan, I thought they would just be the same! Japan had a lot more varied fashion, obeyed road rules and the architecture was more varied than your standard grey apartment block. Korea does have some things over Japan, the public transport systems are much easier to navigate!