November Recap

It has been a while since I have been able to find the time to sit down and write a blog, but better late than never. I have 3 topics to discuss today: Teaching in Korea, Foreigners (and things we do) in Korea, and Kitty!

First, Teaching in Korea:

Teaching at my school up to this point has gone relatively seemless and without incident. It is surprising even to me to think that I have been teaching at my school for 5 months in 2 weeks. It wasn't until this month that a few issues final arose. Rather than getting into details, there was a miscalculation in my pay for the month and the secretary swore that she was right. It ended with me refusing to work anymore overtime unless I got the money I demanded. After a long drawn out battle, I was awarded the money, although in retrospect I kind of wish I didn't get it.
Shortly after my confrontation with our secretary, one of our foreign teacher needed to go back to Canada because of an emergency situation. This has left us one teacher short, which means: much overtime for me. I am working very long days now (and for the foreseeable future) in order to cover the extra classes. This leaves me with very little time for fun during the week. On top of that, there doesn't appear to be a teacher on the way anytime soon. In fact, I have been put in charging of leading the search. Why? I don't know.. I have only been here for 5 months. Perhaps, it is because I am the one that suffers the most being short one teacher so my need and drive to find a new teacher is the highest. I do enjoy getting paid overtime, but sometimes the money isn't worth the free time you are forced to give up.
I am hoping that we will find a new teacher soon because there is no break in sight. Our winter vacation does not start until the first week of January... an eternity from now! I am still trying to decide where to go for the vacation. If anyone knows some good places in South East Asia, I am open to ideas.

Foreigners (and things we do) in Korea:
The foreigner community in my city is really good. We have a website dedicated to events for foreigners, a homestyle breakfast (rare in Korea) every Sunday at the local foreigner bar and even a monthly quiz night to show off your useless knowledge. I also play on a recently formed foreigner soccer team here. Our uniforms will arrive this week and we will have our first (official) game against a Korean team on Saturday. It is even on a grass field! There aren't many of those here. We have been practicing and playing other teams every Saturday, so we are hoping we will be able to make quick work of our first opponent.

I have recently started taking Korean lessons at a school every other Saturday morning for 2 hours. Saturday morning.. I must be dedicated. We even have a text book and it is written all in Korean. I take it with only 2 other foreigners, but it seems like we will have a good class together. I just hope I can wake up that early on Saturdays.

Going out with foreigner friends is always a good time. It seems that every Saturday night is a huge spectacle. For more weeks than I can remember, we end up at this one bar with 20-30 foreigners sitting along a big, long table. To add a foreigner twist to things, we end up playing the 'flip cup'. For those that don't know what it is, it is a game that is a race between two teams of equal players. All players must drink their beer and then 'flip' it over to the side of the cup. The person beside you cannot start drinking until you have successfully 'flipped' your cup. Our games have gotten crazy big with teams of 15 shouting the "Ole" song at the beginning (as is tradition).

Kitty:

I have adopted a kitty. A student at my school found a young kitten abandoned without his mother and needed to give it a home. After much internal debate, I decided to rescue the kitty. Perhaps it is good that the kitten has fallen into my hands because due to its malnourishment, it has needed various medicines and surgery and even a 4 day long hospital stay. Needless to say, it has been expensive. But now he is home resting and recovering. The name of the cat now is (Korean pronunciation) Kay-Go-gi, which means Dog meat. Although I may soon change it to gong-dung ja-goom (means kitty in Korean), although it is quite long and difficult to say for something that means 'Kitty'. The kitten is quite small due to his malnourishment. Although he is two months old, he can still stand in the palm of my hand and he is black in color. I will try to take and post some pictures of him as soon as he recovers (and gets his stitches removed).

That is everything that I wanted to discuss today. Random things to mention: I still have my motorcycle, getting colder, but its still the best way to get around town. I bought my first Korean clothing the other day (a sweater) because of the falling temperatures. And lastly, I really want to see the Borat movie. That catches you up on life in Korea... until next time.

End Note: Please leave comments. I enjoy reading what you have to say and telling me what's new back home but the comments have been declining in recent posts. Keep me informed!

Halloween in Korea

Unbeknownst to me, halloween is a largely North American custom. The popularity and even knowledge of the holiday belongs to only a small percentage of the Korean population, mainly the foreigners. My school does an annual haunted house for the students as well as the public in order to show Koreans what halloween is all about. While it was fun, it did cut into more of my free time than I would have liked, especially when on the Saturday I had a halloween party to get to but was stuck cleaning up until 11pm. Needless to say, I am glad its over now. My costume was Batman. Quite a strange costume to find here I thought so I had to buy it.

On my way to the big party...

At the halloween party, I did something I was quite proud of. I came in 2nd place in a limbo contest! I never thought I would be able to do that since I am on the taller side, but I think the Batman costume helped a little. I should also mention who I lost to: a five foot tall Korean gymnast. Enough said...

A few friends and I decided to hit up a Korean bar after the costume party decided to get a little scarce. Remember... halloween is basically non-existant in Korea, so they were very surprised when Batman suddenly showed up at their bar. I wish I was joking when I say that they really thought I was Batman, but I'm not.

All and all a fun halloween weekend in Korea. This is the first halloween I can remember in a long while that I could actually go out for because I didn't have crazy amounts of essays and/or exams to worry about. It's a fun time!

Next up: A recap on teaching in Korea after 4 months.