Week 1

After what has been a full week of teaching, I think I can safely say that I’m going to be in for a very interesting year!

I teach grades 5 and 6 at Jaesong Elementary School and everything has been really great so far. My co-teachers are awesome: my primary caretaker and co-teacher has been wonderful in helping me get settled in Busan and at the school. She’s set me up with Wi-Fi, a bank account, alien registration card, bought me lunch, arranged to have my broken windows fixed (which no doubt contributed to my ongoing cold that’s had me in lockdown since arriving here), labelled my washing machine and is in the process of dealing with the administration at my building to uncover the mystery as to why my floor was covered in water when I finally got round to doing the dishes! All these things would have frustrated me endlessly were it not for her help.

The view from my desk at Jaesong Elementary School

My other co-teacher lives a few blocks away from me so she’s helped me in other ways. She’s visited my studio plenty of times just to come and say hi and I got to introduce her to the wonders of rooibos tea (which the previous native teacher – also South African – kindly left me). Likewise, she’s invited me to her place to drink honey and lemon juice when my cold was at its worst and also translate for me at the pharmacy so as to avoid angry old ladies throwing medicine at me! Perhaps the best thing she’s done for me though was help me through the process of buying bedding. It may sound simple enough but quality bedding is weirdly hard to find in South Korea. I was under the impression that living in Busan, the country’s second largest city and therefore (I assumed) having a fairly large Western influence, would make finding these products far easier than it has been. Many Koreans choose to sleep on mattresses on the floor or with very low beds, perhaps to be closer to the ‘ondol’ (underfloor heating!). Fitted sheets are hard to come by and they’re super expensive when you do find them. But after a solid week of sleeping on a naked mattress with a thin, uncovered duvet, I’d had enough and decided I was willing to fork out just about any amount of cash for the sake of comfort! My co-teacher took me to e-Mart which had more variety than the local department store near my studio. Thankfully she was with me and could help me find the perfect set. I paid through my nose for it (the duvet was on special, brought down from R1100 to R650 or so, and the sheet alone cost me close to R400) but I didn’t care. I slept better that night than any other night I’ve been here.

My much improved bedding

As for the actual teaching, it’s been pretty great so far! Jaesong appears to be a really lovely school with friendly co-workers (although there is a Korean equivalent of Mr Beukes – not as demented but just as eccentric) and excellent facilities. On Wednesdays all the teachers get together to exercise through a variety of sports. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what was going on and performed all the stretches a good few seconds after everyone else, just so they could see how terrible I was at doing them. Then we played dodgeball which I actually wasn’t too bad at – one of the older ladies was the most terrifying dodgeball player I have ever encountered... in fact, she reminded me a bit of the Russian woman in the movie, Dodgeball. She flung the ball with such force that everyone would end up huddled in one corner, all trying to hide behind each other. She was a lot braver than me, as I found myself going relatively easy on my co-workers so as to avoid breaking someone’s (most likely the principal’s) nose in my first week! We then did team jump-rope skipping which was quite tiring – I found myself quite drained from the whole experience! I therefore decided to skip volleyball, which I don’t really know how to play anyway.

Jaesong main entrance

The kids at the school are wonderful but I can already tell it’s going to be a long year! They’re not any different to South African kids of that age – too old to be treated like babies, too young to be treated like adults. You have to think on your feet a lot in order to gain their trust and admiration. Fortunately, just by virtue of being a foreigner, I’m pretty interesting (and also a little scary) to them. I got asked all the usual invasive questions that are commonplace in Korea – “how old are you?”, “do you have a girlfriend?”, who was your first love?”, “are you married?” (they asked a lot about my dating history... fortunately there isn’t much to tell!) but what I wasn’t really prepared for were the comments of “you’re handsome”. This isn’t a big deal in Korea and it’s quite difficult to get used to, mainly because it’s often boys saying it! It’s a compliment but it doesn’t have the same connotations as it does in the Western world. The same goes for “you have a small/round face”, which is one of the strangest compliments you hear... fortunately, I apparently don’t possess this trait because no one has commented on it yet. Oh, and one girl also called me ugly so I guess that kind of cancels out all the ‘handsome’ comments!

Unrelated: this was one of my first dinners in Busan - the
only Korean meal I knew - bibimbap!

Oh man, but my real crowning achievement came just a couple of days ago. As I steadily recovered from my cold, which is still persisting through an occasional cough and bloody nose, I found myself wanting to leave the confines of my small studio to explore Busan. Of course, the last time I tried to do that I got horribly lost so I tried to have a goal in mind this time. That goal was McDonalds. Since I’ve been in Korea, I have not seen a single Western restaurant – not one! They’re like these mythical places that people talk about and that you know exist but just never see. So I went onto Google Maps and checked to see how close the nearest McDonalds was... 15 minutes by bus. My Korean was really put to the test as all the street names were written in Hangul but I was determined. I plugged into my MP3 player and set off on a journey of Mordor-esque proportions. For the first time I felt like I really got to appreciate Korea, as the sounds of Mogwai soundtracked the stunning visuals around me. It’s true what people say – everywhere in Korea pretty much looks the same and I’ll admit that it’s not the most scenic country. But coming from South Africa where natural beauty abounds, I was looking for something different. Massive skyscrapers envelop you in a concrete jungle, all bundled together by the impressive mountains that keep it all locked in place. There’s a Paris Baguette or Starbucks around every corner (seriously, it’s ridiculous how many of them there are) and people selling fresh fruit and vegetables out on the streets. It’s not what I’d call pretty but it is what I’d call impressive.

It's true, there is actually McDonalds here!

After what seemed like ages, I finally saw that famous yellow ‘M’. I had made it! I excitedly ordered myself a combo meal of sorts (I just pointed to the picture) and made my way back home. I climbing into bed, ready to begin my feast, and took the first bite... and was disappointed to realise that McDonalds is just as shitty everywhere in the world. It was boring. It was greasy. It was outstanding! I haven’t had a burger since I got here and I was just happy to taste something from back home, even if that something was McDonalds. Fortunately it’s far away enough that I won’t be tempted to order it every night!

...instead I ordered this (I took this picture to tell the lady
what I wanted)...

...and then felt bad that I wasn't eating enough Korean stuff
so I got this weird tea to go along with it. It's super whack,
it's basically cold, milky tea with ice and the 'pearls' are these
black, flavourless jellies that sit at the bottom. They were
pretty awful but it was an experience worth having! 

So that’s my first week. It’s been eventful to say the least. I’m going to sort out my ARC card this week which means I’ll finally be able to get a cellphone contract, which means getting a nice new phone and camera! I’ve held off on taking pictures of my studio, mostly because I want to do it justice. So once I have that you can expect to see many more pictures from Busan!

Until next time.

Lastly, my first attempt at ironing did NOT go well!