Things are going well here. I'm starting to settle into a crappy split-shift schedule. At least it keeps me from going out every night. I'm up at 5:30 in the morning. I teach from 7-12 then go home for a nap and lunch. I come back at 5 pm and teach til 8, then head back home for dinner and a shower. I hit the sack and read for awhile, trying to be asleep by 11 so I can get at least 6 hours of rest. It kinda sucks right now but once I join a gym I think it'll get better. At least I'll have something to do in the afternoons then. As it is, my afternoons are pretty boring and I end up taking long naps, which interfere with my nighttime sleep schedule.
My coworkers are great, and my students are fantastic. I love my classes, and just like in KY and IN, end up spending a lot of classtime laughing my head off at the crazy stuff that students come up with. One day a really homely-looking student said something that had me rolling for several minutes. Each student had to think of a product and describe the way it looks, tastes, smells, etc. Then the others had to try to figure out what the product was based on the information provided. When it was her turn, the shy, homely girl said, "It smells like beer. It smells disgusting. And it tastes disgusting." Another student asked, "Is it a drink?" "No," she replied. Another asked, "Is it food?" "No," she says. The other student said, "But you said it tastes disgusting...have you ever eaten it?" Homely girl responds, "Yes. Once. A long time ago." The student then asked, "Is it...pee?" Homely girl: "Yes." Oh my god, I laughed sooooo hard. That same girl is obsessed with bowel movements too. She's always talking about constipation. When asked to give an example of somthing that makes their skin crawl, she cited the example of when she's constipated. I don't think she quite grasps that idiom yet...or maybe she does perfectly. Once they had to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of alternative lifestyles, like treehouse life. Homely girl was quick to point out that treehouse living could cause constipation due to sketchy toilets in trees. That's the kind of student that makes my job worthwhile.
The other night I went walking around my neighborhood in hopes that I'd wear myself out before my 11:00 bedtime. I stopped into a cosmetics store just to have a look around, and came across one of the saddest things I've seen in Korea. The brand 'Nuk' (the same company that makes baby pacifiers) has a Baby Whitening Powder Compact. If you think racism is bad in the U.S., come to Korea, where they apply sunscreen not to combat skin cancer but to make sure they don't get brown. The skin-whitening industry is a lucrative business here, and you wouldn't believe the amount of powder the women cake onto their faces trying to look more white.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
SoKo baby!!!
Back by popular demand, a new post! Well, I guess you could call two whole people reminding me that I haven't posted in awhile 'popular demand.'
A lot has happened since my last post. I've moved into my brand spankin' new apartment, which is slightly larger than a shoebox but squeaky clean with lots of storage space to house my imaginary possessions. It's unfurnished except for a built-in desk and bookshelves. To save on space, instead of buying a bed, I bought a floormat that can be easily rolled up and shoved behind my imaginary lazyboy, which I recline in while watching my imaginary tv or listening to my imaginary radio. I don't get paid until November 7. Until then it's me, my floormat and books. Lots of books. Luckily I've found an English bookstore that sells used books for less than $10 each. Good thing, as I go through about three books a week.
I started work on Monday, and am on vacation the rest of the week. It's Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving. I can't say it's a much-needed or well-deserved vacation, given that I haven't worked since June. I wish I could transport these days off to Christmastime, where I will get a measly one day off. I don't get to choose when I take my vacation time. I get about one day off a month, designated by my company. I don't know when I'll be able to come home.
Judging from one day of work, I can tell it's not going to be tough. My largest class size is seven people, and the smallest is two. There's no testing and no grading to be done, and minimal preparation for each class. I teach six conversation classes: a level six (advanced), three level fours and two level threes (both intermediate). My students are mostly in their twenties, with the exception of one businessman in his late thirties, Felix (which he pronounced "Palex"). Stammering through our first conversation, he apologized, fanning his face: "I am sorry. You are so beautiful." It's funny to think that here I'm the exotic one.
I've met loads of other teachers and foreign professionals here, and I am slowly acquiring the skill of distinguishing between Australian, New Zealander, British and South African accents. I'm still pretty pitiful at it, so to be on the safe side I never guess aloud. That's a quick way to piss off an Aussie: ask them if they're from New Zealand, or vice versa. Canadians sound just like Americans til they let an 'eh' or an 'aboot' slip out, and apparently, just like the Aussie-New Zealand thing, they also get pissed if you call them American.
Seoul really is a city that never sleeps. Well, that's not true. People sleep, only they do it on the subway. More than once I've had to gently shrug the head of a snoring student or businessman off my shoulder. It's not uncommon, either, to see sharply-dressed businessmen in pinstriped suits passed out on a curb with a briefcase as pillow. Cars drive by, barely missing a splayed arm or leg. Such a sight is the result of too much soju, a Korean vodka-ish drink that I affectionately call the Drink of the Devil. In one of my classes on Monday a student asked me if I had ever tried soju. When I responded affirmatively, all my students let out a long collective 'ohhhhhh.' I've heard of people blacking out while on soju, losing three-hour-long chunks of memory to the soju demons. Being the responsible drinker that I am, this has not happened to me. Yet. The thing is, soju isn't really a strong drink. You can drink shots of it without too much of a burn going down. That's the problem though: it sneaks up on you. Again, being the responsible drinker I am, this has not happened to me. But from what I've heard, one moment you're fine, sipping soju at a restaurant, and the next moment you're up on a table at a karaoke room, throwing the microphone into the tv, and then shelling out big bucks to pay for all the stuff you broke. From what I've heard.
A lot has happened since my last post. I've moved into my brand spankin' new apartment, which is slightly larger than a shoebox but squeaky clean with lots of storage space to house my imaginary possessions. It's unfurnished except for a built-in desk and bookshelves. To save on space, instead of buying a bed, I bought a floormat that can be easily rolled up and shoved behind my imaginary lazyboy, which I recline in while watching my imaginary tv or listening to my imaginary radio. I don't get paid until November 7. Until then it's me, my floormat and books. Lots of books. Luckily I've found an English bookstore that sells used books for less than $10 each. Good thing, as I go through about three books a week.
I started work on Monday, and am on vacation the rest of the week. It's Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving. I can't say it's a much-needed or well-deserved vacation, given that I haven't worked since June. I wish I could transport these days off to Christmastime, where I will get a measly one day off. I don't get to choose when I take my vacation time. I get about one day off a month, designated by my company. I don't know when I'll be able to come home.
Judging from one day of work, I can tell it's not going to be tough. My largest class size is seven people, and the smallest is two. There's no testing and no grading to be done, and minimal preparation for each class. I teach six conversation classes: a level six (advanced), three level fours and two level threes (both intermediate). My students are mostly in their twenties, with the exception of one businessman in his late thirties, Felix (which he pronounced "Palex"). Stammering through our first conversation, he apologized, fanning his face: "I am sorry. You are so beautiful." It's funny to think that here I'm the exotic one.
I've met loads of other teachers and foreign professionals here, and I am slowly acquiring the skill of distinguishing between Australian, New Zealander, British and South African accents. I'm still pretty pitiful at it, so to be on the safe side I never guess aloud. That's a quick way to piss off an Aussie: ask them if they're from New Zealand, or vice versa. Canadians sound just like Americans til they let an 'eh' or an 'aboot' slip out, and apparently, just like the Aussie-New Zealand thing, they also get pissed if you call them American.
Seoul really is a city that never sleeps. Well, that's not true. People sleep, only they do it on the subway. More than once I've had to gently shrug the head of a snoring student or businessman off my shoulder. It's not uncommon, either, to see sharply-dressed businessmen in pinstriped suits passed out on a curb with a briefcase as pillow. Cars drive by, barely missing a splayed arm or leg. Such a sight is the result of too much soju, a Korean vodka-ish drink that I affectionately call the Drink of the Devil. In one of my classes on Monday a student asked me if I had ever tried soju. When I responded affirmatively, all my students let out a long collective 'ohhhhhh.' I've heard of people blacking out while on soju, losing three-hour-long chunks of memory to the soju demons. Being the responsible drinker that I am, this has not happened to me. Yet. The thing is, soju isn't really a strong drink. You can drink shots of it without too much of a burn going down. That's the problem though: it sneaks up on you. Again, being the responsible drinker I am, this has not happened to me. But from what I've heard, one moment you're fine, sipping soju at a restaurant, and the next moment you're up on a table at a karaoke room, throwing the microphone into the tv, and then shelling out big bucks to pay for all the stuff you broke. From what I've heard.
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