Nothing profound

First, I would like to wish my sister, Rachel Friedman, a very happy 22nd birthday!!!!  I wish I could be there to help you celebrate!

Not much has happened since the last post.  I am loving it here!  However, before we arrived in Korea, Zach and I swore that we would study the language and be able to speak and read Korean at least a little.  Since being here, we have done little studying.  After speaking to other couples who came together, we found that is quite common.  We came as a couple and always have each other.  People who come by themselves don't necessarily have people to speak English every hour of the day.  Since we have each other, we fall into speaking English instead of forcing ourselves to learn the language.  The same is true for meeting new people.  If you come by yourself, you are forced to meet people unless you want to be a loner.  Zach and I have each other, so it (kind of) gives us an excuse to not HAVE to hang out with others....which is a bad thing.  We came here to experience new things and meet new people.

The last couple of weekends have been great though.  Zach and I went to a bar last weekend just thinking we would have a couple of drinks and go home.  Well, we met some people and hung out with them all night.  We left the bar around 2am and then went to a Nori Bang (pronounced Nori Bong) which is a karaoke place in Korea.  You can basically rent a room and have your own little karaoke party with your friends.  That was an interesting experience.  Next time I go, I think I'm going to have to be way drunk!!!!

new friends

These new friends also taught us several Korean drinking games.  One game (not even involving alcohol) involves slapping, or rather, hit others' hands.  It can get really violent!

the violent "hitting" game



This past weekend, a girl named Brandy was leaving to go back to the States for a few weeks for a vacation. A few of us had dinner then we went bowling and had a few drinks.

Also this weekend, one of the very first "foreigners" we met in Korea got married.  We couldn't go to the wedding because we were waiting on the electrician (another long story) but we were able to go to the reception.  Normally, Korean weddings don't have receptions but Nic and Se Min rented one of the bars and invited their friends to help them celebrate.  It was great to see them so happy and I met some great new people!!

 The happy couple.  Se Min is giving a speech.

 Just some of the people at the reception.

The Iksan Girls!!

I've had a lot of fun meeting new people and I look forward to getting to know them and hanging out with them more!

The reason we are here...(a couple more things)

There were a couple things I forgot to mention in my latest post.

First, it's winter here, right?!  So it's cold.  Not like Indiana weather, but it's cold!  Our school does not have central heat.  Each classroom has a gas heater but the hallways and bathrooms do not have heat.  I can see my breath while walking down the hall.  However, once the heater gets started in the classroom, it stays pretty warm!  The bathrooms also don't have hot water to wash your hands.

Another interesting thing.  There is not toilet paper in the bathrooms.  The toilet paper is in the teachers' office.  There are also no hand towels to dry your hands.  Also, the soap in the bathrooms is not in liquid, it's bar soap.

I am not complaining about any of these things.  I just wanted to let you know

The last thing I forgot to mention was about learning and remembering the students' names.  Korean names consist of a family name and a given name.  Some of the names that I had to learn and put faces to are:

    So Jae Won
    Park Hun Sol
    Kim Ji Hoon
    Jong Ji Soo

It was pretty difficult at first, but I am really starting to learn their names and can even call out to some of the students by name without looking at my cheat-sheet!

The reason we are here...

As promised, I will explain a little about our teaching experience so far.  I will explain it from my point-of-view.  Zach's experience will probably be slightly different than mine, but probably pretty much the same.

We are English teachers at a hagwon (pronounced hogwon) (an after-school school) called International in Iksan, South Korea.  Here is a picture of the outside of the building.

We are located on the 3rd floor of the building.  The first floor (basement) is a small grocery store.  The second is another hagwon.  Our windows are the white ones below the neon sign.  Depending on traffic lights, it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the school from our apartment.

Since we are an after-school program, we start later in the day after the kids get out of public school (usually around 3:30pm).  Except right now, the kids have about a month-long break from public school and go to camp for a couple hours per day.  So, for the month of January, we start a little after 1pm and get off earlier.

Each class we teach, we have a Korean teacher counterpart.  Every class is about 45 minutes long.  In the lower-level classes, our Korean counterpart has the class for 25 minutes and I have them for 20 minutes.  Some classes I see everyday (the lower-level classes).  Others, I see Mondays/Wednesdays or Tuesdays/Thursdays.  We are really lucky at this hagwon because we have books; some hagwons don't have books.

I start out my day with a phonics class.  These 4 kids barely know any English!  They just spent 4-5 weeks reading one book, The Lion and the Mouse.  It goes like this.....

     Part 1.  Little mouse.  Big lion.  Big, big trouble.  Let me go begs mouse.  Someday I will help you?  You help me says lion.  Ha ha ha!  But lion opens his paw.  He sets mouse free.  Part 2.  Big lion.  Big net.  Big big trouble.  Roar!  Mouse sits up.  He follows that roar.  Help me begs lion.  Mouse starts to chew.  He chews and chews.  He sets lion free.  Lion does not laugh at mouse now.  Now he knows.  Even the littlest mouse can help the biggest lion.  Always help others.

I do spelling tests with them once per week and the and go over pronunciation, etc. the rest of the week.  It's kind of difficult when they have questions for me because they know so little English.  I am really excited because next week we are starting a new book!  It's a Cat in the Hat book!

My next class is also a lower-level class, but they can definitely understand a lot more than my phonics class.  They can read and comprehend a lot of English.  They are learning things like... "Who's he?  He's my father." and "Where are you from?  I'm from France."  They are also learning adjectives and prepositions.  However, we don't use those "English terms" with them.  The next class I have is just a step up from them.  And the class after that is even another step up.  They are all pretty basic classes though.

Then, I have some "advanced" classes.  These classes are 1 1/2 hours.  They have two books.  One has a story (Some are really interesting.  I learned some things about Queen Elizabeth that I didn't know).  They then have about 4 pages of reading comprehension.  I check the pages as they finish and we go over it as a class.  The other book encourages more talking in class.

Finally, I have a middle school class.  They are concerned about passing their TOEFL test (the most widely respected English-language test in the world).  They listen to a CD and fill in the dictation into a workbook.  Zach has 3 middle school classes.


I teach about 6 classes per day.  In all of my classes, I have to remind the students that they can only speak English in my classroom.  It is a constant battle!


Well, I know this wasn't the most exciting post, but some of you wanted to hear about my teaching experience so far.  I really like what I do!  The kids are great....usually!!!  It's fun to watch them learn.


That's all for now!  Thanks for reading!

Holiday time!

Before I left for Korea, I had a cough that I'd had for about one month.  When I got to Korea, it got way worse.  The head teacher at school convinced me that I needed to see a doctor.  I was warned that if I went to a Korean doctor, I would get a shot in the butt....  Luckily that didn't happen.  The head teacher took me to her doctor and helped me with the language barrier.  I sat down and watch a very young boy throw up all over the floor.  I felt so bad him; he looked white as a ghost and very sick.  However, I had to turn my head unless I wanted to get sick.  The doctor called me into his office within minutes (we didn't have an appointment--they don't do that here, I guess).  The doctor spoke just enough English to tell me not to take a shower for 7 whole days!!!  Well, obviously I didn't follow doctor's orders.  He also prescribed me some medicine and that was that!  I only had to pay about $3.50 (U.S. dollars) for the office visit.  I then went to the pharmacy and got three day's worth (about 4 pills, 3 times a day) of medicine.  That only cost $5.00 (U.S. dollars).  The mask was $1.50 (U.S. dollars).  My doctor visit and medicine was a total of $10.00 (U.S. dollars)!!!!!  My cough is basically gone!!

Here is me wearing the mask.  I wore it while walking outside and in cabs.  I should have worn it anytime I was in public, but I had a hard time breathing in it!

Merry Christmas (late)
So, this was our first Christmas in Korea and our first away from our families.  It was a little sad for us, but then again, it didn't really feel like Christmas.  Koreans don't really celebrate Christmas.  It is more of a holiday for young children and young couples - not a holiday for families.  So, everything was open.  In fact, we went grocery shopping on Christmas.  Kind of sad, I know, but there really wasn't anything else to do.  However, we did have to pick up a few things because a new friend invited us over to her apartment for a Christmas dinner.  She had turkey (rare in Korea), mashed potatos, noodles, celery and cheese (which are both rare in Korea) and a couple pies and cookies!!!  About 2 hours before we went to her house, it started SNOWING!!!!  That's when it really started to feel like Christmas!!!

 View from our porch.

 Another view from our porch.

 Waiting on a taxi.

 Slow moving!

Our Christmas turkey!

The day after Christmas, we explored downtown Iksan even though it had continued to snow.

 Downtown Iksan

 Downtown Iksan

Again.

We were hungry after doing so much walking so we decided to "splurge" a little and stopped at a "higher end" restaurant.  We didn't even know if we would be able to order - not knowing if there would be pictures or anything in English.  We lucked out!!!  The titles of the dishes were in English.  However, we didn't know what came with the main dish.  Oh well!!!!  We were pleasantly surprised!!!

 My meal - Korean chopsteak - a little spicy!!!

Zach's meal - Boston garlic butt steak - spicy!!!!!!!

The best part was that our splurge only cost us about $21.00 (U.S. dollars) and Koreans don't tip--anywhere

Well, my next post will be about teaching.  Hope you enjoyed!!

Our apartment in South Korea

I tried and tried to upload this video, but it never worked.  Here is the link to my Facebook account which has the video on it.  If you don't have Facebook you might not be able to view this.  Sorry!!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=508575200793

We made it to Korea!!

Well, we finally made it to Korea!  Actually, we have been here for about six days but I haven't had the chance until now to write.  Before I get started, I would just like to say that we are fine, we love Korea (so far), and we miss you all!

Well, I guess I'll start from the beginning.  On Sunday morning around 2:30am, Rachel and Chris drove us to the Indy airport for our 5:50am flight.  It had started snowing so we left earlier then we had originally anticipated.  Our first flight took us to Chicago - it was only an hour flight.  We then had about six hours to kill until our 14-hour flight.  We exchanged our money to Korean Won and grabbed a bite to eat.  Then....we waited.  Finally our plane came.

Since neither of us have flown internationally before, we don't really have anything to compare it to, but Korean Air is pretty amazing!  I recommend it to anyone flying this direction!  The food was really good!  :)

                                          First meal - we even got an instruction card!!!  hehe

After we got off the plane in Korea, we had to find a bus that would take us to Iksan (the city we are living in).  It really wasn't that hard - I stayed with the luggage and Zach got the tickets!  lol!  The bus ride took about 2 1/2 hours.  Two hours into the bus ride, the driver stopped at a "rest stop" for 15 minutes.  People got out and ordered food.  Zach and I searched for the pay phones.  We had to call our recruiter/helper at work/boss's daughter (a really nice and helpful woman).  It is definitely interesting trying to figure out the pay phones in another country when you don't understand the language!  But, after being cut off twice (because we didn't insert enough money) we finally got across to her that we were on our way.

Our boss picked us up at the bus station and took us directly to a motel.  The couple we replaced needed to stay in their apartment for about one more week.  I will show you pictures of motel.  See if you can catch the differences...

                                                    No shower curtain.  This is actually the
                                                    norm.  I will explain more in my next
                                                    (video) blog in a couple days.

                                          A care package we were given when we arrived at
                                           the motel.  Yes, that is a condom.  We found out a
                                          couple days later that we were actually staying at a
                                          "love hotel".  This is a place where people go to have
                                          affairs and young people to sneak away from their
                                          parents....lol!

                                                    Koreans like small towels....  Not my
                                                    favorite part!  However, since we've
                                                    moved into our apartment, we have been
                                                    able to buy big towels!!!!!


Since we were staying in a motel, we ate out for basically every meal.  However, things are prettey cheap here compared to the US.  Everyday for lunch we walked to E-MART (the Korean version of Walmart).

                                          Snacks from E-MART for the motel room.

                                          A meal from the E-MART food court.  About $5.00
                                          US dollars.

                                          Another meal.  About $5.50 US dollars.

                                          Budweiser at E-MART.  About $1.00 US dollars
                                          for a six-pack.

                                          About $2.00 US dollars for a six-pack of Beck's.

At E-MART, you don't order drinks.  There is a water cooler and you fill up teeny, tiny cups of water.  I make several trips back and forth!!!

We did go to the school where we will be teaching and basically shadowed the people we are replacing.  I am so thankful for that!!!  I am Sam Teacher and Zach is Zach Teacher!  Next week, the students will have "midterms" so we will be reviewing and testing all next week.

Well, I figure this is long enough.  It is 12:00am, Sunday my time - about 10:00am, Saturday Indiana time.  I must get ready for bed.  Zach and I have another adventure planned for tomorrow.  We are going to try to navigate Home Plus ( a place similar to E-MART) and get a couple of things for the apartment.  Then, we want to create a video for this blog to show you our apartment.  Then finally, we will need to prepare for our first week of teaching!!!!

Talk to you soon!

Love,
Sam

Let's try this out!

This is my very first time writing a blog.  It's exciting but I'm kind of nervous about it!  I want to write something that people will want to read.  I want to write often enough to keep you all updated.  It might be easier said than done.  I guess time will tell!  :)

Zach and I will officially the States on December 12th at 5am-ish via Korean Air.  We will arrive in Seoul, South Korea about 4:20pm on December 13th.  We then have to travel a couple of hours to Iksan, South Korea.  The International School, where we will be teaching, will set us up in a hotel for about one week until the couple we are replacing leaves.  We will then move into their apartment (on or about December 20th).

Well, that's about all for now.  I wanted to keep this first post short just to make sure I'm doing this right!  ;)

Let me know if you have any questions.