Seeing as I don’t
actually have much time for blogging, I’m going to speed through this!
My first 10 days in
Korea have been absolute madness, in the best way possible. After a long, long
flight in which I slept for probably about 3 hours at most and which lasted
about 31 hours in total (including the 3 hour bus journey to Dajeon), I had
finally arrived. However, at that point I hardly cared anymore to be honest, I
just wanted to go to bed. I gave my roommate Trent a cold hello and went
straight to sleep.
We had an early day the
next morning and I apologised for my horrible introduction the night before.
Trent is from near Los Angeles and he turned out to be a really great roommate,
so I got lucky. Anyway, neither of us had brought towels and we very soon
realised that they were not going to be provided for us. On top of that, the
hot water wasn’t working so my first shower in Korea was a cold one... a very
cold one! Therefore we decided it would probably be a good idea to go out and
get some towels before the day began properly.
After having no luck at
the 7 Eleven, we carried on down the street to a shop that kind of resembled a
Korean version of SPAR. There we found what appeared to be decent enough towels
and we finally got to put our extremely basic Korean to the test! I felt so
proud after greeting and thanking the lady – such a basic action, but so
exciting in a foreign land! Turns out the towels were little more than shitty
dishcloths but hey, they do the trick.
We also had the opening
ceremony and welcoming dinner, both of which were outstanding. The chopsticks
here are really hard to use as they’re metal and difficult to control but I was
getting used to them after a few meals. Fortunately knives and forks were also
provided so if there were any difficulties we could always switch over. The
opening ceremony had traditional Korean dance and music and also a really
excellent first lecture from Walter Foreman, who has been in Korea since 1998
if I remember correctly. All in all, a nice way to start.
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| Traditional dance |
The medical check up
was less fun. It was short but it was still a massive pain in the ass. Having
been unable to take any medication up until that point had been bad enough but
the check up itself is really comprehensive. They weighed and measured us,
tested our eyesight, hearing, blood and urine and took an X-ray for good
measure. I was happy when it was over.
That night we took to
the streets to celebrate. Drinking in public is legal in Korea so instead of
hitting a busy pub or club we drank soju and beer outside the 7 Eleven. Of
course, the EPIK Program is careful not to let anyone get too carried away so
they enforced their midnight curfew strictly. It was good to just feel a bit
free for once, though, and enjoy the night.
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| The morning view from my dorm window |
Honestly, after that
the days kind of start to blur into one so I’m not entirely sure in which order
the next few things happened. On another night I went walking around Dajeon with
two other South Africans. We walked much further than we’d walked before and it
was great to experience more of Korea. We found the local 다이소 (Daiso)
which I had heard is a great place to buy cheap stuff for your home in Korea. I
got a R10 pair of gloves for my frozen hands.
On Monday we had a
field trip to Hanok Village in Jeonju which was pretty sweet. It’s a traditional
Korean village and one of the most popular tourist attractions here. We got to
walk around and see the sights before being treated to a lunch of bibimbap,
which is one of Korea’s most popular dishes. It’s basically just a whole lot of
stuff chucked into a large bowl... sometimes I just chose not to look at what
was between my chopsticks. With that said, it was a pretty good meal and
definitely something I’d like to try again! We then made coasters using some
kind of traditional Korean paper, I’m not too sure how to describe it. Anyway,
it was basically just making cool coasters to remember our time there. We then
saw a b-boy (breakdancing) performance from some professionals, which a lot of
people enjoyed but which wasn’t really my kind of thing. While I appreciated
their skill and technique, it just wasn’t really my kind of entertainment. No
harm done though and interesting nevertheless.
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| Making our coasters in Hanok Village |
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| Statue outside the chapel in Hanok Village |
The next few days were
kind of similar – we had Korean classes in the evenings (from 19h00 to 20h20)
after a full day of lectures and we were also trying to plan our lessons for
our team lesson demos on the final day. The Korean lessons were amazing though –
I was placed in the intermediate class thanks to a fair amount of practice
before getting to Korea and my teacher was Nicole, who was also our class
leader. Just as an aside, I must say that the care and attention we got from
our class leaders was outstanding. Nicole and Minsam (spelling?) were so lovely
to us the whole time and really made adjusting to the new environment that much
easier. Anyway, the Korean classes were just lots of fun – we learnt a lot in
the classes and we basically just played a lot of really fun games! When we
learnt numbers we played a game in which each person is only allowed to say 1,2
or 3 numbers and you just count down the line. The person who has to say number
31 had a predetermined punishment inflicted upon them. Of course, my mates sold
me out a couple of times and I had to do a couple of these – the first, a
relatively tame 10 push-ups but the second a 10-second long sexy dance. My
twerking skills were admired by all but a few people recognised me in the days
to come as ‘that twerking guy’ which was pretty embarrassing.
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| My favourite: a dining hall selfie with Minsam and Nicole |
The last real order of
business was the lesson demo. I was paired up with Krystle, who is from Minnesota.
Needless to say, we had very different opinions about the weather! Most people
were 3 in a group but we were just two. We spent a couple of days thoroughly
preparing our lesson but once we realised that we had the same zany sense of
humour it went all downhill from there. We stayed up late laughing about the
stupidest stuff but our synergy shone through on the day, saving what (I
thought was a) pretty shitty lesson. The class fortunately seemed to disagree –
a win’s a win, so I’ll take it.
That night, after the
excellent closing ceremony and dinner, Kayla, myself and a bunch of friends
went to downtown Dajeon and what a difference it made! Up until that point,
Dajeon had appeared to be a relatively unexciting city considering it’s the 5th
largest in the country. However, we soon realised that that was only because we
hadn’t gone far enough. We caught a taxi and hit the town. Neon lights were
flashing all around... there are just signs everywhere. Each building seems to
have at least five floors all with different stores in them. It was all pretty
overwhelming but for the first time I felt like I was really in Korea. Unfortunately
I paid the price for my revelry and the cold that had been brewing for a few
days finally hit in full force. I hardly slept that night and had a horrible
few hours after that.
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| Downtown Dajeon |
Of course, arriving in
Busan was really exciting and I was glad to meet my co-teacher and discover
that she’s a really lovely lady! The attitude of your co-teacher determines how
your year in South Korea is going to pan out, so I was incredibly happy that
she was so nice. Her English name is Jeanie and she spent the afternoon
introducing me to the principal (who laughed at my poor Korean), hooking me up
with WiFi and teaching me how to use the washing machine. She also bought me
late lunch/early supper at a great Western-style restaurant – what a treat! I
will teach my first lesson with her on Tuesday, as Monday is just a day to get
settled in and perhaps discuss what we want to achieve for the rest of the
year. Apparently we have some troublesome kids in our class so it’s going to be
an interesting time!
Since then I’ve been
hardly able to move, my cold getting the better of me. Fortunately I was a
little more active today but still coughing badly and sneezing a lot. I got a
fair amount of shopping done today, only to get lost in Busan. I still don’t
have a phone so I couldn’t contact Jeanie and I don’t even know what to call my
apartment building. Eventually, after being ignored by a whole lot of Koreans
who were too scared to speak English, some kind older ladies helped me find my
way. Fortunately I remembered that (as far as I could tell) there was only one
Daiso in the area so if I asked for that then I should be able to find my way
back. Luckily I did because I ended up walking past my building before even
getting there. Bless those ladies, I thought I was going to be sleeping on the
street tonight!
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| Even though I've been unable to find a duvet/pillow cover yet, I'm much happier in the bed than on the street! |
All in all, I can say
that my first day and a bit in Busan has been way more challenging than
anything we experienced during orientation – there, everyone could speak good
English and there were always people around to help you. Now there is no one to
direct me, feed me or translate for me. The lady at the pharmacy today
basically threw a box of medication at me out of frustration of me being unable
to understand what she was saying (she didn’t speak English). So now I have a
whole lot of medication but I don’t know how to take it or how often, so I’ve
got to stick with what I’ve got. I’m not unhappy with the experience but I
think it’s indicative of how potentially difficult the first few months are
going to be here. It’s the kind of challenge I was looking for though and I get
to do it in this massive, exciting city that is light years away from anything
I’ve ever seen or experienced before. If I thought downtown Dajeon was huge, Busan just blows it out of the water!
More to come in the
following weeks...
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| After I got lost I took a whole bunch of photos of my building and the surrounding area in case it happens again! |
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| I'm on the 22nd floor - it can be a bit unnerving to look down! |
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| Paris Baguette and Starbucks are close by |
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| Sign next to the lift that takes me up |
