People I've met again

I've met a few Korean people that I haven't seen in ages. Aside from how sick Seoul is, it's also really helping me keep in touch with some old friends.
Myunghe and her mom at a Korean Baseball game:


Also, if anybody remembers this post from back when I was making my way through Europe:

I met up with her again, which is SO sick. There aren't very many people I've been in four countries with.

Downtown Seoul

I've been to Seoul about 10 times since I've gotten here. Which is a lot when you think about it I guess, considering I haven't been here a month yet. So I guess it seems like I'm going every second or third day or whatever.
Couple of shots:
Busy-ass market:


Myeongdong (shopping area). It's ALWAYS this busy. Imagine being the one guy with red hair.
Korean drum dude outside Gyeongbukgong Palace:

Seoul: The perfect mix of: tons of people, modernization, culture, history and nature.
More coming....

Life in Seoul

I've got about a months worth of pictures on my camera... I figure I might as well go through them piece by piece. First post with pictures, I might as well show people where I'm at. I live in a suburb of Seoul, but the suburb itself has a million people living in it (bigger than Ottawa). So it's not like I live in the middle of nowhere. This is the street that I live off of:
... and is also what everything looks like around where I live.

Most nights I'll go for a walk, and study Korean while I'm walking. I usually walk down here:

Me in the morning of my first day of being a working-man:
I've also discovered a new bus that is WAY quicker than the bus that I used to take, and it brings me to a station that is much closer to Seoul. If everything works out and I catch everything on time, I can get to the center of Seoul in 45-50 minutes :).

Seoul, South Korea

Haven't posted in a really long time, although I think most people that follow this blog know/knew that I was moving to Korea to teach. I got here about two weeks ago, but I'm still working on getting errthing figured out (in terms of getting internet at my apartment, getting a phone, and stuff).

I have some pictures, but with no internet at my place (until the 24th of September), I won't be able to upload them.

Some facts about where I'm at:

It takes a little over an hour for me to walk out my door to reach the absolute mecca center of Seoul. I usually go every weekend for either Saturday and Sunday, and sometimes meet up with friends during the week after school.

I'm working at a high school teaching English, and my school, students, coworkers and principals are absolutely amazing. All of my coworkers and especially my principals are incredibly happy/impressed that I've been learning Korean (and about my knowledge/interests in Korean culture). My principal has taken me out to lunch a bunch of times, including today, which was because he wanted to take me out to celebrate 추석 (Korean Thanksgiving). A few minutes ago he invited me into his office because he bought me a present for the holiday.

My vice-principal used to be a Korean teacher. I'm an English teacher. He wants to learn English, I want to learn Korean. Everyday for the past little while we've been meeting for an hour to teach each other. I'm going to suggest to him that this be a daily thing.

Everyday for lunch, my school has 급식, which is essentially cafeteria food, but it's amazing here. For the price of $2, I get a buffet lunch every day, but lunch is only an hour. If anybody knows me, that simply turns into a game of "how much food can I possibly put down my throat in an hour"

I haven't used a fork since I've gotten here. I've only used metal chopsticks, and spoons when I need to (soup, cereal, and stuff like that). I've been to places where they give you forks, but I've asked to have chopsticks instead.

I teach myself at least 10 Korean words everyday. Korean words are easy. Korean grammar is impossible.

To say that my students love me would be an understatement. To say that I love my students would be an understatement.

I teach 22 classes a week, and each time its a different class. So, I have 22 different classes that I teach the same lesson to. 40 students a class, which makes about 900 students. I teach every student in grade 1 and 2 (high school here is three grades, called grade 1, 2, and 3).

I introduced myself to each of my classes in English first, and then in Korean.

At the first staff meeting, I introduced myself to the entire staff (of 90 teachers) in a speech about a minute long - entirely in Korean. At first I thought this was the most amount of people I had ever spoken to, but then I remembered all my Human Kinetics presentations that I did in-front of 200 or so people. Either way, 90 people is the most amount of people I've ever spoken to in a language other than English. :P

I got a present at the bank today because when I talked to the teller, I spoke to her in Korean (poorly, probably). She was so happy she gave me a present - 2 new packages of bank-quality toothpaste. Which is perfect because I was running of out bank-quality toothpaste.

I'm essentially off for the next two weeks, which is unfortunate because I actually love teaching here. The days fly by because I always have so much fun with my students. If I had my passport (Immigration still has it), I'd be on my way to Russia (or something like that) tomorrow.

Sorry, long, boring, I know. No pictures. First post in a while. Just saying what's up.

김 한성