Typhoon Let Down

Well, Typhoon Bolaven has come and gone and I am still here in one piece. Minus the fact that we had a little wind and rain, Bolaven was quite the disappointment for my first typhoon. This picture pretty much sums it up:

                                                 Ripped off from my friend Jamie in Yongin

Typhoon Bolaven

So, if some of you haven't been paying attention to the weather in Asia, I would NOT blame you (if I weren't here, I would be oblivious), but we are bracing ourselves for Typhoon Bolaven. The typhoon is said to be the strongest to hit South Korea since 1956. Currently Bolaven is heading our way, we are to get the winds by tonight (Monday) and be in the midst of the typhoon by Tuesday. They said we could get anywhere from 20 inches of rain to 40 inches. All of Geoje (Ko-jay) public schools will be shut down tomorrow and many may close tonight, if the winds pick up. However, our director says that he will let us know if we will be shut down. = S 

The crazy thing about Typhoon Bolaven is that it will affect two members of our family. Kory's husband, BJ, is stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and was the first to experience Bolaven. 

As of right now, we are just getting the start of rain and a slight wind. You can defiantly tell a difference in the people on the island though, I feel like I should be taking this more seriously. But, Scott and I went grocery shopping yesterday and have enough water, raymen (much like ramen noodles but spicy) noodles and eggs to last us a good week and we live on the third floor. = )

Nothing real cool to report on for this past week. We have become badminton enthusiasts (our apartment is located one block from the REALLY nice apartment complexes and we sneak in to use their badminton courts and the free gym).  Scott was really excited about finding the free gym, I was excited that I beat him 3/5 games in badminton! With working 3-10pm, most of my days are just dedicated to being in the hagwon and spending time getting to know my students. 

We have been working on pronouncing the different letters. We have been having the most trouble with the 'L' sound (it comes out as an 'R' sound). Example: 'Literally'--> Riterarry. So I have a worksheet of all 'L' words I could think of planned for this week. Hopefully that will help! = ) 

A funny story to share from my last week: 

On my first Friday here, I had taught my students the acronym T.G.I.F.  This Friday in the halls I was hearing "T.G.I.F .... Friday!" from all of my students. We will keep working on that one. 

In all actuality, this whole teaching experience has been trial and error so far. I have an assortment of different level of English speakers in my class, some come once a week, some come five times a week, so it has been quite difficult but I seem to have found my sea legs. 

Hope everyone is doing well back home and I miss you all like crazy!! 

-C 

Pictures from Geoje

Our first picture together in Korea. 

Our neighbor has this beautiful gate. The flowers are in full bloom now, the picture does not give it justice.

The river by our apartment has this stone walking bridge. By far the most beautiful thing we have stumbled upon in Geoje.

Blunders of a Blonde

1. Eating PORK STOMACH out of an ASHTRAY.... The ashtray was sitting on the table like a plate (which in Korea, you usually don't get your own personal plate, so that should have been a clue!) and I used as such. WHOOPS!

2. Knowing that our ONLY friends in Geoje (Ko-Jay) are my director, his wife and their seven year old daughter..... We REALLY need local friends!

3. Finding a cockroach in our apartment and attempting to make a joke out of the awkward situation, only to find out,  you don't joke about cockroaches. 

4. Telling everyone "hello" instead of "thank you" for the first two days..... I need to pick up more Korea, FAST!

5. Beginning stages of the Outsider Complex are setting in. I am constantly being starred at, honked at or admired. Even had a co-teacher tell me that I am "hot" and his wife, well,  is not. Weird!

6. That awkward moment when someone expects you to know Korea to answer their question and you just give them that blank stare.... followed by, "English?" 

7. Eating things with eyes..... I don't want to, but I do.

8. Shooting a piece of meat at my director's wife while trying to maneuver my chopsticks..... They really aren't kidding, I have not seen a fork! 

9. Giggling has become second nature if I don't understand..... Then the realization that the giggling reaction is universal. People are "laughing" all the time when I speak over here!

10. Lastly, finding coins in our doorway and believing that it was some kind of "Korean superstition", and leaving them there....... Only to find out that someone just left us some old, fake money.


Laughing at myself through this all has made it a lot easier to assimilate myself into their culture. I may not know it all right now. or even a year from now, but at least I am giving it everything I have to make this the best it can be! 

Hope you were able to laugh as well,

-C 

My Academy

A little background information to better understand my academy students and what a Korean academy really is:

The Academy

Korean Academies are set up to help students learn English. Why this is so important is because students have to take the TOEFL exam when they are nineteen years old. The TOEFL is strictly an English exam and if they do not pass the reading, writing and speaking sections, their choices for colleges drop drastically. You have to pass, with a good score, to get into any Korean University or any foreign University. 

A Day in the Life of my Students

First, my students go to public school from 8:30am - 4:30pm. From there, they are picked up by an academy van and rushed to their academy. Students will complete either one or two, fifty minute classes at that said academy and then will be picked up by another van and taken to their next academy. This is usually repeated two or three times through out the night. Hence my odd working hours (3pm-7pm).

By the time I  see my advanced students, they have already been to two or three different academies and had 12+ hours of school....... and are still willing to learn and participate in my class. 

With everything that I have learned in my first week about my students and their hectic schedule, I have so much respect for them. If I would have put forth even 1/5 of the dedication they show toward my schooling, I would have been on the Dean's List a lot more!! 

With that being said, my students rarely have a free minute to themselves where they are not dedicated to school, being a kid is taken up by schooling. 

A Day in the Life of Ms. Carrie or "Teacher, Teacher"

Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I have a full day of classes with a twenty minute supper break. I start my first class at 3:30pm. I begin with teaching lower level student until about 8:30pm. From there I teach the students from a textbook about American History and our political system (right up my alley) from 8:40-10pm. 

Tuesday and Thursdays are more relaxed. At 3:30pm, I have a one-on-one grammer class and at 6pm Scott and I co-teach debate. (I have a very intelligent bunch, I look forward to our upcoming debates.) At 8:40pm, I teach four, fourteen year old students critical lessons for the TOEFL exam they take at nineteen!! That's correct, these students are studying for their exam five years before!! 

So, that is what I am doing over here. Keeping busy and saying out of trouble!

-C

We're FINALLY here!!!!

It is hard to believe that we have only been here one short week! Already 5 of those days have been spent in the classroom! 

Getting to Korea

Saying 'Good Bye' to my family was the hardest leg of the trip. After being "that bawling girl" in the security line and the security workers being nice enough to give me just enough shit to remind me that I was only going to be gone for one year, we boarded our plane from Minneapolis. 

One uneventful flight to O'Hare and a nice woman that tried (unsecussfully) to get our overweight carry on comped from the airline and we were on our Boeing 777 destined for Korea.

Let's just say, the excitement wore off about an hour into the flight. (Especially when your flight buddy is sleeping mouth open the entire flight... I wish I would have taken a picture!)

The nice thing about the flight to Seoul, any white person was pretty much going there to be a teacher. I think they even sectioned out the back 1/3 of the plane for all of us white people! We met a lot of  nice people taking on the same adventure as us, which was reassuring.

On the flight we were served two decent meals. I, of course, had the Western meals (steak and then chicken), I thought of them more as my "last meals." Scott, of course, had the Asian meals! Bimbim Bop (which is a spice rice with veggies) and then........ OCTOPUS as his second meal. I was very glad I opted for the chicken = D 

Four in-flight movies (all of which have not come out in the the US yet, celebrating the small things), and an infinite amount of attempted naps and watching the distance, altitude and time tracker to near insanity and we were in Seoul! 

We sat ahead of a guy from Michigan named Marshall, going to be a teacher as well. Together we lead each other astray as we made it through immigration, baggage and customs (in less than 30 mins!!).  

We were met by our shuttler, Mr. Joe. He hurriedly drove us through downtown Seoul to the bus depot (nearly didn't make it on time), bought our tickets, put our luggage under the bus and told us, "Geoje, 2 stop." A five hour bus ride and the second stop later, we were in Geoje (Ko-Jay).

We were picked up by our recruiter, Thomas, from the bus terminal at 11pm (we had been up for 26ish hours) and taken directly to our academy to met our director. THANK GOODNESS I brushed my teeth once at  O'Hare and once on the plane!! The meeting was brief, Mr. Gwak showed us our rooms and offered to take us out for lunch the following day (Sunday).

FINALLY, we got to our apartment around midnight. We showered, brushed our teeth and climbed into our rock solid bed and slept clear until 7am....

I will post my pictures in my next couple of blogs. Scott and I have been sharing an SD card so we need to split up the pictures. 

I want to thank everyone that came to my going away part and everyone that has given me support through this process. There is no way that I would be sitting here on a Sunday afternoon typing this blog if it wasn't for all of you. You mean the world to me and I hope that you are making your own great memories to share with me when I get home!! 

Love,

-C 

Frequently Asked Questions

HOW ARE YOU GETTING TO KOREA?

Our recruiter, Thomas (who has been so awesome), has set us up to fly out of Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on August 10th, 2012 at 7:35am. We land in Chicago (O'Hare) an hour and half later and leave for Korea at 12pm Friday. We arrive in South Korea on Saturday, August 11th at 6pm. (Time difference: Korea 14 hours ahead) 

All-in-all, the trip from Chicago to Seoul is 6,538 miles and 14 total hours!! I may not be looking forward to 14 hours in a plane but am excited to be riding in a Boeing airplane! 

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING?

I will be teaching 11-16 year old Korean students at BK English Academy in Geoje, South Korea. Scott and I are working in the same academy, have the same teaching hours (2:30pm-9:30pm M-F), and teaching the same age students. The reason we teach so late in the day is because students in South Korea go to their normal school from 7am-2pm and then their parents send them to a private academy to better their English skills. Many students spend over 12 hours at school. 

BUT YOU DON'T SPEAK ANY KOREAN?

That is correct, my director actually doesn't want us to speak any Korean. I am sure anyone who had Spanish 4 or took any kind of foreign language in college knows that you don't speak English. That is the main reason my director wants me, I can't "break" and speak to my students in Korean. As for getting around, I downloaded iTranslator on my iPod and will try to use that as much as I possibly can! = ) 

WHERE ARE YOU LIVING?

Scott and I will live in separate apartments provided by the school. Yes, they pay our rent! (this is a huge relief from the 600 USD I was paying in Iowa City per month!) We do have to pay for our utilities. Right now, I do not know where our apartments are located or if they are close to the school or close to each other. All I know is from Thomas (recruiter) that it is a very nice apartment and is furnished with a bed, stove, pans/cooking utensils, refrigerator. 

WHAT IS THE WEATHER LIKE?

The weather, from what I have read, is common to that of Iowa. Currently, it is humid and VERY hot. Winter is a little more reasonable over there, the temperature only gets down to 30F. But unlike Iowa, South Korea has a monsoon season. In May-June they get most of their precipitation for the year.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO EAT?

If  you know me, I am an extremely picky eater (my parents would probably say that was an understatement), but as of right now, I am keeping an open mind and am willing to try new things. I want to experience Korea and I can't experience Korea if I am eating at Subway and McDonalds!

Hopefully I can answer these questions better when I get there in....... FIVE (5), Tatsot (5 in Korean) days, for right now, I can answer these questions to the best of my knowledge. 

And hopefully, I haven't bored you yet and you keep reading because in five days it will get less boring, I PROMISE!!

Getting the Ball Rolling

So, after we applied to Teach ESL Korea the ball was in our court. Let me just warn anyone who is looking into teaching abroad, this is NOT going to be a cheap/easy/fast way to go teach in another country! I honestly did not know the cost that we would be looking to upfront so I want to help anyone that is looking into teaching abroad.

Korea Expenses

1.       FBI Background Check

a.       Mail order                           18.00 USD

b.      Postage                                 22.00 USD

2.       FBI background Check Apostilled

a.       US Legalization                  37.00 USD

(Money Order)

b.      Department of State        8.00 USD

(Money Order)

c.       Postage                               45.00 USD

(Speed Service)

3.       Degrees (4) Notarized and Apostilled

a.       Notarized                             0.00 USD

(Free at bank)

b.      Apostille                               5.00 USD/photocopy (4)

c.       Gas                                        40.00 USD

(Faster)

4.       Passport Pictures (6+)

a.       Set of two 2x2                   10.00 USD

b.      Photo paper                         7.00 USD

(Cheaper to copy)

5.       Sending Documents to Korea

a.       Postage                                60.00 USD

(Speed Service)

6.       Korean Consulate Visa à Chicago

a.       Tolls                                       12.00 USD

b.      Parking                                 20.00 USD

c.       Gas                                         57.00 USD

d.      Visa Fee                               45.00 USD

e.      Prepaid Envelope            60.00 USD   

That is the complete process that you will need to go through to get to South Korea.  If you added that all up, you are looking at around 500.00 USD. Granted, we were under a time constraint so we did opt for speed service postage and we drove to Chicago, you could get by cheaper but this is a process that will add up quickly.

With that being said, I honestly could care less what it will cost me up front, I cannot wait for this experience of a lifetime!  I hope that this post helps people looking into teaching abroad. And if anything, it will show you the steps to go through in getting you there.