Video: My life in Korea (so far)

Hello~

I'm always taking random videos of my life in South Korea but I never do anything with them, they just stay on my iPhone collecting digital dust. A couple of weeks ago I actually ran out of storage space on my phone, so rather than deleting all of these memories, I decided to put this together so that I can have it to look back on when I'm old and gray :)

The videos were shot sometime between August 2012 and May 2013 with an iPhone 4 and put together using Final Cut Pro X.

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Music by:

Jess Penner- Life Is Rosy

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9 month update

Hello! Hello!
The winter blues are gone and sprummer has landed in Seoul with full force. I say sprummer because we maybe had two weeks of spring like weather before it started getting way too warm, but it's not quite summer yet because the awful humidity hasn't settled in yet. The last month has been quite busy for me, and also very uneventful at the same time. I don't know how that would be possible, but yet somehow it is. In my last post I was gearing up for my renewal open class, and I'm happy to say that it went off without a hitch. The principal, head teacher and other admins of my school came in to observe, as well as two of the other Korean teachers I co-teach with. At the end my principal and co-teachers said really kind things about my lesson, and I filled out an application to renew, now it seems it's up to the Office of Education and their budget to approve or deny my renewal, but true to Korean customs, I probably will not know their decision until around July.

Aside from working, I've been preparing for summer by buying some new clothes and finally getting the famous Korean Magic Perm. My hair is naturally really thick, and frizzy and although it's tame when I use a flat iron, any hint of moisture in the air turns it into a wild lion's mane. I went to a hair salon in Myongdong about three weeks ago and was greeted by very kind people, however, none of them could speak any English (nor I Korean) so I phoned my friend and she was able to translate what I wanted. Because my hair is so long and thick I was prepared to stay at the salon for nearly five hours, so I was really surprised when an hour and a half into my visit the girl told me I was "finish-yyy". My hair now is really smooth, and I can wash and air dry it and go about my business. The salon I went to normally charges around 150,000 won (roughly 135 USD) but I had a discount voucher and only paid 89,000 won (70 ish USD). My one disappointment with the treatment is that a week and a half after I got it done, I noticed that some parts in the back of my head were starting to get wavy again, so I went back to the salon where my friend once again translated, and I found out that my "foreign" hair is more than the chemicals could handle, and thus, I will never have that pin straight hair that most Korean girls have, but as long as the top of my hair is frizz free, I can deal with it.

Lastly, the last month included a trip outside of Seoul! I haven't left Seoul since early November, so I was really excited to escape the craziness of the city. Two of my good friends Celebrated birthdays recently, so we went to Sokcho, a beach town in Gangwon province which is bordered by the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan). We took a commuter bus Friday evening right after work and the trip took roughly two and a half hours. We stayed at a really nice Hostel named The House Hostel, it was super clean, and the owner was really friendly. This was my first time ever staying at a hostel, so I was a little bit hesitant, but luckily I had a good experience! Sokcho itself is a really quiet town, with not much of a night life, but that was fine since we get plenty of that in Seoul. More than anything, my friends and I were interested in catching some sun on the beach, and some of my friends even hiked Seoraksan, which is said to have the third highest peak in Korea.

Today is Bhudda's birthday, so I'm enjoying a relaxing three day weekend in Seoul. I'll end this now, and leave you with a couple of photos from my weekend getaway to the beach. :)

8 months

Eight months have passed since I first arrived in Korea, and sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday I was getting off the plain at Incheon airport. Talks of renewal has started, and word on the street is that we have about 10 days to confirm if we will stay or leave. I have an open class this coming Tuesday, I'm not sure if my school was aware of the renewal timeframe when they scheduled it, or if it's just a coincidence, but knowing that my performance during the open class will be fresh in my supervisors minds whenever they fill out the renewal paperwork puts extra pressure on me. I'm still 50/50 on wether I want to really stay or not, but I at least want to have the option of staying rather than being told  I'm an awful teacher and be given the boot.

Life in Korea is going on as normal, I know for a while the foreign media had a field day reporting the possibility of a North Korean attack on the South, and to be honest, there were times when I was scared and questioned if maybe I should be taking things a bit more seriously, but when it came down to it, the stress I experienced during those weeks were not because I was scared about a possible attack, but because my mum kept herself glued to CNN and would constantly message or call me to check if I was okay or try to convince me to flee and return home, every time she did that I had to calm her down and explain to her that everything was okay. I'm not sure if North Korea is still talking about launching their missiles, or if the media has found something else to talk about, but for the time being the panicked calls and messages from friends and family abroad have stopped.

It's early Saturday morning in Seoul now, last night I was too exhausted so I laid down for a short rest at about 8 p.m. before meeting some friends, but oops, I ended up sleeping straight through the night and didn't wake up until 7 a.m. this morning. I had planned to go to a soccer match today, but It's raining, so I'll probably find an indoor activity to partake in instead.

<3

KTO Welcome Party

A couple of months ago I joined a community named K-Performance supporters, hosted by the Korean Tourism Organization (most commonly known as KTO). Basically, they provide selected foreigners with entry into various cultural events, such as: festivals, dinners, tours, and music concerts in exchange for us blogging about it, and promoting the event on our various social media outlets. The "ambassadors" as we are called, come from all over the world, so my main reason for joining was to branch out of the comfortable nest I've made for myself with my fellow teacher friends and meet new people, and of course, to experience Korean culture in a way I might not be able to on my own.

This past Friday, April 5th, the KTO hosted a welcoming party for season 2 (my group) and a thank you party for those who had participated in season 1. For this event we were able to bring a guest, so I invited a friend of mine who is also really interested in Korean culture. The event was being held at the Gangnam K-Pop Concert Hall, which is a good hour away from where I live, so I made my way there promptly after school and met my friend at the subway station. The email invitation we received stated that snacks would be provided while we mingled with each other and then the performance would start. So you can only imagine my surprise when I arrived at the venue and realized that the "snacks" consisted of an elaborate buffet dinner, complete with wait staff and fancy tableware. A few of the items the buffet included were: sushi, steak, salad, pastries, bulgogi, and soups.

After everyone had finished their meal, some important people from the KTO went on stage and introduced themselves, most of the speeches were given in Korean so I'm not sure of what was said, but if I had to guess I would say they were introducing the role of the ambassadors and thanking us for attending.. maybe? When the speeches ended, members from season 1 were invited on stage and one past blogger was awarded 500,000 Korean Won (roughly $450 USD) for going above and beyond his blogging duties. After the award was handed out, we were all brought on stage for group photos and mingling. I met some girls from the US whom are currently studying at Korea University, so it made me feel a little bit old, but happy to meet new people just the same.

Once the dinner, greetings, and picture taken were over we were handed tickets to a K-Pop performance and made our way to the third level of the facility. When we walked in, we quickly saw that there was a stage set up with chairs for an audience, lights going and music playing full blast to set the mood. It was a very intimate setting, and before long, the first act took the stage. It was composed of three girls, two of whom played a traditional Korean instrument and one girl who was the lead singer. Unfortunately, I don't recall the name of the group, or the exact name of the instrument that they played but it was enjoyable either way. They blended traditional music with modern day synthesizers, and bass to really amp it up. So after the opening act, there was a series of other Kpop groups, some all girl groups, some all boys, and one or two of mixed genders. None of the groups who performed were groups I recognized, but the friend I brought along seemed to know a couple and explained that they were either rookies (still in the early stage of their development) or just groups who had been around a while but hadn't really managed to take off.  Everyone who performed was very energetic though, and talented in their own way. The highlight of the performance for me was the group of Bboys that took the stage, and really got the crowd excited.

The performance lasted around an hour to an hour and a half, and then the event had come to a close. At the end of the performance I was expecting some sort of acknowledgement that indeed the show was over, and a thank you for coming have a safe journey home, but instead we were just left sort of wondering if there was someone else coming next or if we were free to go. Eventually people started getting up to leave, so my friend and I followed suit.

All in all, it was a very generous event prepared by the KTO and I'm very thankful that I was able to attend and share the experience with a friend, and now you guys reading this. I think that Korea goes above and beyond to make foreigners, be it tourists or expats, feel welcomed and comfortable. The venue of the welcome party was clean, easy to locate, and staffed with very friendly and helpful people. The food was one of the best I've had since moving to Korea seven months ago, and of course, having the opportunity to experience a live K-pop performance in such an intimate setting was very special.

After the welcome party, I am even more excited to be able to attend more KTO events and share those experiences with you!

Below are some photos I snapped. I was too busy enjoying the food and atmosphere that I forgot to take many, plus I only had my cellphone with me but I hope you can still get a good feeling for what I saw that night :).

One of the Kpop groups

With my friend L, and new friend.

Kpop performance stage

K-Performers Season 2 alumni

My company during dinner

Dining hall

Delicious sushi

My friend enjoying the delicious food

Yes sir, I'm one of a kind.

After failing to get tickets for Big Bang in January, and two failed attempts at obtaining tickets to G-Dragon's One of a Kind Solo Tour I was beginning to think I would never get to see a KPop concert. Luckily, on the third night of ticket sales, I was able to get two tickets to the opening show of G-Dragon's solo world tour.

On Saturday, March 30th along with other thousands of fans, I made the pilgrimage to Seoul Olympic Park and anxiously awaited the start of the show. When I first arrived, I had to get in a long line to pick up the tickets, then another line and exchange tickets for a wrist band, and lastly, I had to get in line to get into the venue. Even though the area was crazy busy with vendors and fangirls, everything seemed to go quite smoothly. When it was time to line up to enter the venue, we lined up according to ticket number so I got to go in pretty fast. This was my first time attending a big Kpop show in Korea so I really wasn't sure what to expect. When I bought the tickets I was given a section and seat number, so I assumed I would have a seat. When my friend and I actually walked into the venue though, we soon realized that somehow we had gotten seats in the standing section! We were quite surprised and not sure how things would work out, but we were in the section to the right of the stage and at any given point we were not more than 20 feet away from GD. Almost right before the show started my friend and I noticed that the the people who were standing beside us started taking their cameras out and snapping photos of someone in the crowd. We later found out that the person who had been making her way to our area was a very famous Korean actress named Han Ga In, and neither my friend and I knew who she was so we shamelessly looked her up in google. I was very surprised to find a celebrity standing amongst the crowd and wanting to enjoy the concert just like everyone else. I always thought it would be more convenient for them to watch from a VIP area or behind the stage, since the crowd was all over her. I felt bad, my friend and I kept joking that the safest place for her to be was right next to us since we didn't know who she was and weren't interested in snapping hundreds of photos of her.

Finally, the time we had all been waiting for finally arrived. I was already really excited to see him perform live for a longer time, since when I saw him at the Seoul Music Awards earlier in the year he had only performed two songs with the rest of his Big Bang mates. He started out the concert by performing for the first time his new single titled 미지 Go (Go crazy). The crowd went crazy, and the bass was heavy pumping energy throughout the entire song. The concept for this single seems to be on pair with the title, and I'm really looking forward to it. Immediately after 미지 Go, G-Dragon jumped into one of his older, but still quite popular songs Heartbreaker. He went on for about another 3 songs before pausing briefly to introduce himself. Wherever he went, the standing crowd followed, and at times I didn't think I would manage being squished for two hours, but luckily my friend and I were able to move around a bit and position ourselves in a space that wasn't so bad.

Even though G-Dragon was performing alone in quite a large stage, it never felt empty. He was able to move around, weave in and out of things and make his fans feel like he was interacting with them one on one. His stage presence is definitely one of a kind. During the fourth song he performed Light it Up in which Tablo of Epik High joined in, followed by The Leaders which brought out CL of 2ne1 to perform with him. The last guest performer came about halfway through the show, when label mate Lee High joined him in singing Without You. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the guest performances with the exception of Lee High. In general, I just am not a fan of her music/voice, but after seeing her live I also am not a fan of her as a performer. She didn't smile, and didn't engage with the crowd or even GD; she just kind of stood there with a blank expression on her face and sang.

As the concert was starting to wrap up G-Dragon performed his hit single Crayon and Big Bang's Fantastic Baby. To be honest, when Fantastic Baby started playing I was expecting TOP or Taeyang to surprise us and join him on stage, but he sang all of the parts himself, even playfully mimicking TOP during his part. After Fantastic Baby he disappeared off stage and then returned for an encore by weaving in and out of the crowd and singing Breathe. After his encore performance he paused for about 10 minutes to talk with the crowd. I don't speak Korean, but what I have gathered from reading posts on the internet is that he thanked everybody involved in the process of preparing for the tour, his parents, band, and of course his fans. After that I really thought the show was over because he looked exhausted (I later found out that the poor boy had been battling a bad cold during both Seoul concerts), but he surprised his fans by finishing off the concert by performing his new single one more time.

 Overall, the entire concert experience was memorable. The Korean and international fans went above and beyond to show support for G-Dragon not only as an artist, but as a person. Despite the large crowd, YG did a great job managing things and keeping everything running smoothly, and G-Dragon put on a terrific show! If he decides to wrap up his tour the same way Big Bang did, and having a final concert in the place where it started, I hope I'm still in Seoul and can attend so I can relieve the memories and perhaps see how different the first show is from the last. 

The venue had really strict rules against taking video/photos, so here are the few I managed to snap before/after the show.

G-Dragon closing out the show

Exciting the venue

Crowd exiting the venue

seven months & one year anniversary

March 20th marked my seventh month in Korea, and March 21st marked the one year anniversary of this blog!! This is officially the longest I have ever kept up with a blog/journal type thing, and I'm definitely glad I did it. Reading back on my first ever post, I was reminded of the hard times I was having back then and it really made me appreciate my current situation a lot more! I mean, a year ago, applying and coming to Korea was only a thought in my head, but I did it and now I'm here!  I went for a walk around my neighborhood this afternoon and it was so refreshing, the Korean people are so enthusiastic and interesting. One of my favorite pastimes is people watching, and guessing what their lives are like. I love the area where I live, if I walk along the main road it's busy with people, cars speeding by, and loud music spewing from shops but when I turn the corner into one of the backroads it's so peaceful, kids playing old ladies chatting on the sidewalk. I have five months left on my contract, and honestly, today made me realize that I'm nowhere near ready to leave this place; there is still so much I want to experience!

hello new school year!

When I arrived in Seoul six months ago, I actually came into my school halfway through the academic year (In Korea school runs from early March-early August, then early September-mid February) and just took over whatever the previous foreign teacher had been doing, since it was too late to try to change the rules or start a new routine. For almost two months I didn't teach proper textbook lessons since we finished it early, so instead I came up with filler lessons with games and such, then I was off school for two weeks in which I did a 'staycation' meaning I pretty much just bummed around Seoul and the area near my apartment. So coming back to school last week and getting back into a routine was a bit challenging, but today I completed my first full week back at teaching and I'm happy to report that it all went smoothly. It might be because It's a new year and students are still filling things out, but for the most part it seems that my students this year are really well behaved. The hallway were my office is located is a lot quiet now since the new sixth graders are not as rowdy as last years. But I do miss my students from last year though, they were the first bunch I ever taught and were goofy kids that made my classes really interesting; luckily I see them occasionally around the school when I'm walking home. Also, with the new school year has come the new EPIK intake; New teachers have arrived to start their contracts, and lives in Korea. I've met a couple of them since my building houses several foreigners, and It's almost like dejavu. Everything they're going through I did six months ago, all of their questions I had when I first got here. It seems like a cycle almost, since so many people come and go. There is still so much about Seoul and the public school system that I'm still learning about, but I'm trying to help out wherever I can, but still trying not to say too much and overwhelm them; for me, most of the fun from being in a new place came from getting lost, exploring and figuring things out on my own.

Things this year are really different; the second foreign teacher finished his contract in late February and wasn't replaced since my school no longer meets the guidelines for having to NETs.Now I am all alone in the office, and rather than teaching two grades, I'm now in charge of three, meaning one grade all together doesn't get a native teacher. I'm teaching grades 4, 5, and 6. Because I teach three grades, I only see each grade once a week and I've already noticed that bonding with them is going to be hard. Luckily, my new 5th graders are the same ones I taught during 4th grade last year so they're familiar with me, and seemed excited to have me as a teacher again. I also have three co-teachers now instead of two, and one of my grade 6 classes I teach with a homeroom teacher.
Two of my coteachers are the same from last term, and we are getting along really well. I feel like at the beginning perhaps they were cold/indifferent towards me because I was just another foreigner who isn't really that dedicated to the job, but hopefully by now I've shown to them that I really do care about the students and I want to do a good job so they've started to trust me more. My third co-teacher was a grade 6 homeroom teacher last year, and this is her first time teaching English in a long time. Her English level isn't as high as my other two CTs but we can still understand each other, and she is really sweet. Overall, I feel really lucky to have gotten the school I'm in because even with the language barrier, they're all super friendly and kind to me. I've heard bad stories of mean principals or VPs, and I can honestly say that mine go out of their way to make sure I'm comfortable. This semester I'm going to make a conscious effort to learn more Korean and try to socialize more with the other staff rather than eating and dashing, or staying shut in my office all afternoon. I feel the reason I don't try to talk to the other staff or my VP is because I feel guilty that I haven't learned more Korean, and they probably don't approach me because they're nervous of their English so there's definitely barriers we both need to work on.

It's finally starting to warm up in Seoul now, last weekend it was even warm enough to only wear a thin jacket and go to the park, and go on a hike the next day! There's a rumor floating around that schools typically ask if we want to renew whenever the weather starts getting nice, so I'm expecting it to happen any minute, but I'm still not entirely sure as to what I'll do; I've always been bad at making decisions.
A few photos from my most recent hike: we originally headed off towards Mt Achasan, but it ended up only taking about 40 minutes and wasn't challenging enough, so we kept going onto Mt Yongmasan. It's very clear that Hiking is Korea's national pass time since the minute we stepped out of the subway station there were tons of people decked out in their hiking gear; we actually didn't know where to go once we left the station, so we ended up following the parade in colorful hikers and ended up at the right place. Hopefully I will go on more hikes as the weather improves and will be able to make a post solely on hiking as I think it's a big cultural experience that everyone should experience at least once. Hiking in Korea is not the same as hiking back in the U.S. for sure!

parade of hikers

Seoul from the peak to Yongmasan

Seoul from Achasan & snack time