AmeriCanada Barking Spiders

Here's another video I put together from months 3 and 4(May and June).

I'll run through a quick list of what I've been up to/what's in the video..

In no particular order...

1. Went to Namhae.  Namhae is an island down south.  Beautiful place.  Went with friends, who have a friend who lives down there.  Bunch of people.  Spent some time on the beach, in the water, although it was pretty cold, paddle boarding, my new favorite thing, making s'mores, and just hanging out.  Great weekend.

2. Went to visit my old neighborhood and run a 7k in Seoul.  It was both awesome, and really hard to go back to the old stomping grounds.  Nothing had changed, but everything was different.  When I left that place, I don't think I ever thought I would go back, and there I was drinking a beer outside the big GS.  Like I said, awesome, and difficult at the same time.
    The 7k was really fun.  So happy I had an old friend, Jen, to cheer me on.  It was an all women's run sponsored by Nike.  Tons and tons of women doing the race.  Couldn't really ever get into a rhythm as there were people with their hair down, wearing jean shorts and kakis, running and stopping and running and stopping all over.  Fun, Fun time despite.

3. Went to Busan for the first time!!  Everyone always says it is their favorite place in Korea, and I finally understood why.  The beach is great, the restaurants are great, the bars are great.  Went with a group of people for a friend's birthday.  Shot fireworks off from the roof, hung out on the beach.  Another great weekend.

4. Didn't make the video, but...the AmeriCanada Barking Spiders are the Summer 2012 Beer Olympics Champions, and yes, I was a member of AmeriCanada!  Beer Olympics was put on by one of 2 bars foreigners hang out at in Gumi.  The team consisted of 3 Canadians, and 3 Americans (2 from Iowa, so we all know who carried the team), and a great cheerleader, also from America.  I won't bore you with the details.  All you need to know is that we won, and our prize was a flask.  The first flask I've ever owned.  Pretty exciting.




4. Went on an "Extreme" Weekend to Dangyang.  The weekend included rafting, paintballing, ATVing, and tubing.  Another fun weekend!  It was a beautiful area.  I really liked the ATVing.  We rode on a path through a bunch of fields, surrounded by mountains.  It was really amazing.  My favorite part of the weekend.  One good lesson learned, that I pretty much already knew, but I guess it was reaffirmed, I am not a good packer.  I almost always overpack.  It's something I need to work on.  For example, for this trip, I packed 2 bags.  I wore the EXACT same clothes the entire time.  Swam, slept, hung out in the same clothes.  Gross, oops.  Better luck next time.

5. This past weekend I headed down to Jinju for a 10k.  I was really excited, as I was doing this run with a friend.  All the other runs I've done here have been by myself, and it is so much more fun to do races with others.  Got there on Saturday afternoon, met up with my friend, and her friends who were also doing the race.  Took a look around the fortress in Jinju, ate dinner, and went to a movie.  We went to Prometheus, which was pretty good, but gave me rather vivid nightmares, including one where some weird animal ran across my face.  I woke up and thought I could feel where the animal's claws had scratched my face.  Needless to say, I did not sleep well.  Anyways, we woke up early Sunday morning and headed to the race.  We knew it was going to be a bit of an uphill run.  However, it wasn't a bit uphill, the first half was entirely uphill.  To be precise, we ran half way up a mountain.  It was beautiful, as well as somewhat painful.  Tons and tons of fun though.  I never once had that feeling of not wanting to be doing what I was doing.  As I was ascending the 2km uphill trail, I might not have been smiling, but as a whole, the race was amazing!

You might have noticed that the only things I walk about are the weekends.  I am doing some teaching, and I am enjoying my job.  However, having 750+ students I see for 45 minutes a week, and some every other week, is difficult.  It is hard to get to know students, and hard to feel like you are helping them learn at all.  For the most part, classes are pretty fun, and students are great.  The past 2.5 weeks I have been giving speaking tests, where 1 student comes into my office, I ask them 5 questions, and give them a grade.  Here are a couple memorable stories from that:

One girl came in, and she is a pretty outspoken girl during class.  One of the few who isn't afraid to try to speak English.  For her last question I asked her who her role model was.  She said, "You because you are beautiful!".  Then she just starts cracking up, as I am doing the same.  I tell her good job, give her a hi five, and send her out the door.  As the next person is coming in I hear her laughing and talking to her friends, probably telling them how she's gonna get an A because she told the foreign teacher she was her role model.  And she would be right.  She got an A.
On the flip side...yesterday was my last day of giving speaking tests.  I was getting myself all pumped up to finish them up.  Then the first girl came in and I asked her to tell me a time she was sad (I don't make up these questions.  The Korean English teachers write about 30 questions, the kids come in and pick a stick with 5 numbers on it, and those are the questions they must answer). So, I ask her about a time she was said.  She said, "when my mom died."  Then started crying.  I said, "I'm so sorry.  That is really sad." Needless to say, I gave her an A, and didn't ask that question to anyone else.

To wrap it up...the weekends are AMAZING.  The weekdays are rather dull, and sometimes a bit lonely.  I am enjoying my time, and I'm thankful for the different experiences I'm having this time around.

One thing that is both good and bad about this life, is that people are always coming and going.  Last week one of the better people I've met this time around, finished his contract and went home.  He lived in my area, and as there are only about 5 of us, only 2 of which I ever actually see, it was hard to see him go.  Someone will be replacing him in July, though, so there's always hope they will be just as good of a person.  Here's a pic of us at our favorite restaurant for his last supper.

David, the one who left, is behind me.  The other two are Andrea and Craig, also great people.  Luckily they will be around for a couple more months.  Once again, I find myself hanging out with a bunch of Canadians;)

Sooooo, that is about it.  I might try to be better about updating the blog, but I make no promises.  It's not like I don't have time.  I just lack motivation.

I hope you all are good.  I love hearing from people.  Facebook me, email me, skype me...whatever.  Peace out.

Video #2

Here is the link to my video from Month 2...will write a post about it soon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTFpfahUXno&context=C458ba73ADvjVQa1PpcFOxzu6H2KxzY7Yfn2toAH__Vixr9gj1c0w=

Holler Back...

Been awhile.  I've no excuse, other than laziness.

I made a video with random things from first month.  The video includes orientation, where we dyed scarves, learned how to make tofu, did a little farming, and played traditional games.  Part of the video shows a little around the area I live.  The mountain and farm shots are the view I have on my runs each day!  It is really beautiful, and I hope I never get bored of the beauty.  The very last part of the video is a "salmunori" presentation from a group of high school kids.  This was part of orientation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_gtIqEtys8&context=C49b52daADvjVQa1PpcFP_qPj-4RhTmkUmBtyqH3UyZQ7OqzB0d9I=

Can't figure out how to put a link on this page for some reason.  Well you can just copy and paste the link, or you can go to youtube.com and search mrwilson35253.  I only have 1 video so you should be able to find it easily.


So.........things are going pretty well.  I have not seen any other foreigners in my little town yet, but I have met one guy who lives in the area.  I am slowly meeting more people.  It is much different than last time.  Last time I worked with 5 other foreigners, so I had 5 instant people to hang out with.  I've never had to work so hard to make friends, but I'm alright with that.  I wanted this experience to be new and different, and it certainly is.

School is going fairly well.  It definitely has it's ups and downs.  I had a really bad day last week, for no particular reason(think I might have just been PMSing), but this week has gone remarkably well.  One of my co teachers actually told me my teaching style was very good.  It is somewhat hard to tell when a Korean's compliment is genuine, because they sometimes say something when they are actually thinking the opposite, but I think she was genuine.  That's what I'm gonna roll with anyways.
The actual teaching this time is a bit different.  Last time I was at a private school, called a hagwon.  Hagwons are run as a business more than a school, because in the end, they are businesses.  Every thing at a hagwon is about pleasing the parents.  Fortunately, I was at a really great hagwon last time I was in Korea.  However, being at a public school definitely has it perks.  Less working hours, more vacations, no demanding parents, etc.  This is just my third week teaching, and I have already had 3 random classes cancelled, of course I'm never told why, but I really don't care why.  It is a free period for me!  I teach anything from 2-6 classes per day.  On average, there are about 33 kids in each class.  I only see each class once a week, and some I only see once every other week.  Doing the math, I have about 825 students.  In the hagwon, there were kids I saw every day, and could really get to know.  It will be much more difficult to get to know 825 kids I see only once a week.  There are a couple boys who love coming to my office after lunch to chat, and it's pretty easy to pick out the annoying kid in each class.  It will take some time, but I hope I will be able to get to know at least some of them.

Okay gonna wrap this up.  Last thing for now.  I heard a lot of complaints about school lunches before I got here.  I was scared about having to eat octopus and squid and fish with bones in it everyday or something.  However, my school lunches are AMAZING!  Lunch is the best part of my day.  With that said, there have been two somewhat iffy things on my tray.  We have soup every day, and on Tuesday I was eating my soup, and saw these little black things.  They kinda looked like wild rice, where sometimes it's black and kinda splits and curls up.  You know?  Well, I must have been making some sort of face, because my co teacher asked if I knew what it was.  I said no.  She proceeded to tell me, "shells from the river".  I'm thinking snails or something?  Whatever they were, I ate them, and they weren't too bad.  Today, there was another weird looking things.  I thought maybe they were little minnows fried up in a sauce.  I tried them and they weren't too bad.  I asked my co teacher what they were: "Umm well, in Korean ________.  Umm glow strings, maybe?  Glow strings."  I just said, "Okay."  I've just made a deal with my stomach, I'm not gonna ask, I'm just gonna eat, please don't disagree.  So far so good.  Knock on wood, fingers crossed.
On a somewhat related note, I have managed to find a regular toilet in my school.  Most of the toilets are squatters, which I'm not a fan of.  After 2.5 weeks of holding my pee all day, I've found relief!  Twas a good day for me.

Again, much longer post than intended.  Must be better about writing, then they won't have to be so long.  Hopefully you can check out the video.  I'm gonna have to try to figure out how to load it on this page.  It is nothing too special, but I'm hoping my video/editing skills will bet better as time goes on.

Hope this finds you well...Talk to you again soon...

An yeong from Seokjeok-eup, Korea!!!!!!!!

Here we go again...

So I have been back in Korea for about a week and a half now.  Things have been going pretty well.  Here's a little run down of what has been going on since I've been here.

I landed in Seoul on February 20th.  Got on a bus with a bunch of other people and headed to orientation in Daejeon, which was about a 3 hour ride south.  This time around I am working in a public school.  They have two main hiring times, so there are tons of people coming at the same time to start their jobs.  People know the provinces they are place in, but no one knows the exact town.
Anyways, this whole thing is organized by a government program called EPIK.  There were about 240 of us participating in this 8 day orientation in Deajeon, and there were 2 other orientations happening around Korea at the same time.

We arrived at the orientation site around 9:30pm, they gave us all a welcome gift consisting of a Snickers, a towel, and an EPIK sweatshirt among other things.  We had a medical check up the next morning.  We had to pee in a cup, pour it in a little vial, then bring it out to the main room where they kept all of them.  So...you could see everyone's pee just sitting around hanging out.  I will spare you the details, but I will just say people have some funky looking pee.
We also had our blood pressure, eyes, and ears checked.  They also took some blood, and I still have a bruise from that.  They always have trouble finding my veins.  The lady just kept saying, "So small, so small", and changed arms like 3 times.  I am happy to report I am AIDS and Syphilis free!
Orientation mainly consisted of lectures about lots of topics ranging from Korean Customs to Technology in the Classroom, to Getting Along with your Co Teacher.  The lectures were very informative for the most part.
We also had a field trip to a farm village one day where we dyed scarves, learned how to make tofu, and made cell phone charms.  We also played some traditional Korean games.  I tried one that was really fun.  It is sort of like a see-saw except you are standing and you basically try to time your jumps with the person across from you so that you launch each other into the air.  It was pretty fun.
The other high light of the week was taekwondo class.  Taekwondo was invented in Korea, so they are pretty proud of it.  The class was actually a pretty good work out.  I did end up with a floor burn on my right foot, but I'll get over it.  It just hurts when water hits it in the shower ((((jkjk, but it does actually sting a little.
By about the fourth day of orientation I was ready to get out of there.  I was just tired of living out of a suitcase, and not know where I was going to be and such.  I just wanted to be able to settle in and get going.

They do not tell us where we are placed until the second to last day.  I don't know why.  They say it is because they do not know, but I'm pretty sure that is not true.  So, finally, on Monday I learned that I was placed in Chilgok at a middle school.  My first choice was elementary, but who knows, I may end up loving this age group.
I was pretty happy because I looked on a map and Chilgok looked to be really close to Daegu, which was my first choice in placement.  Turns out Chilgok is a county and not a city.  So...my city is a very small place called Seokjeok-eup.  It is right outside a city called Gumi.  I think there are only 2 other foreign teachers in my town, but there are quite a few people I met during orientation who are in Gumi, so a lot of my weekends will probably be spent there.
We left the orientation site yesterday, and they took us on 4 buses to Gumi.  When we arrived there, they told us to get our luggage and stand in front of the buses, and our co teachers would have signs with our names on them.  Co teachers are important people to us here.  We team teach with them, and pretty much rely on them when things arise that we cannot deal with because we don't know the language.  They pretty much told us at orientation that co teachers can make your life awesome, or not so awesome.  So we were all nervously waiting with all of our luggage, feeling like we were back in elementary waiting to get picked for the team, but this time waiting to see if we are gonna get a good co teacher who makes life easier, or a bad one who makes life much harder.
After waiting for what seemed like forever, I finally saw my name.  Two teachers came to pick me up.  They seemed pretty nice, but talked to each other a lot in Korean, and didn't at all attempt to fill me in on what they were saying.  Then one of them told me that I had a choice.  I could either live in a 3 bedroom apartment with another teacher from the school, or have my own 1 room place.  I was not expecting that at all.  I told them I would rather have my own place.  They said that was fine, but I would have to live at the other place for a few days until they find an apartment for me.  I felt bad because every one said you need to make a good impression and be really easy going so they will like you.  I didn't want them to think I was really picky, but I also really want my own place.  I am pretty sure they are not at all upset by it.  They told me it may take a few days because they don't just want to find any place, they want to find a place I will like.  So, I don't think I have caused them too much of an inconvenience.  I met the principal, told him "I look forward to working with you" in Korean, and gave him a bottle of Iowa whiskey.  My co teacher told me she thought I impressed him.  That was the plan;)
The school also bought me a brand new bed set with a pillow, comforter and all.  I was not expecting that at all.  The rest of the day was spent with the younger of the two who picked me up.  Her English name is Jenna, and she speaks very good English.  She is only a year older than me.  I am pretty sure she is the one who is assigned to taking care of me, as they apparently give that job to the lowest person on the totem pole, and this is her first year at this school.  She showed me around the town a little and took me to dinner.  It was an amazing dinner.  My first authentic Korean food since arriving.  All other meals were from the cafeteria at the orientation site.  Not the best food.
Jenna took me to apply for my Alien Registration Card today.  I won't get that for a couple weeks, and then I can set up a bank account and get a cell phone.  I do not have to go to until Friday.  Thursday is a holiday, so the new semester doesn't start until Friday.  This is actually the start of the new school year, so I think there are a lot of ceremonies going on that day.  I was told to have an introduction power point presentation ready, so I will be working on that tomorrow.
I went for a short run today through the town.  This town is MUCH smaller than where I was before.  I definitely get more stares, and little kids point and snicker much more than when I lived outside of Seoul.    I guess there are 2 other foreigners who live here, but I have yet to run into them.  Even though it is small, it seems like a pretty nice place.  There are tons of restaurants and shops all around, and it is only like a 20 minute bus ride into Gumi, where there is a lot more stuff around.  One really nice thing is that there are way more mountains here!  They are basically in every direction you look.  It is very pretty in that way, but one thing that is not so pretty are all the factories.  Samsung and LG both have factories here.  Apparently Gumi accounts for like 90% of Korea's exports, so there are quite a few factories.
Forgot to mention that we had 3 survival Korean classes during orientation.  They were great!  I learned, and have used, more Korean while being here for a week and a half, than I did my entire year last time.  Tonight I was walking along the street and passed a little old lady selling fruit.  I was able to ask her how much for the oranges, and understood her answer.  It was great!  I think I will make more of an effort to learn some Korean this time around.  It certainly makes life here much easier.
Right now I am in my room enjoying Cass(Korean beer) and watching Korea play Kuwait in a World Cup qualifying game.  Koreans love their soccer.  Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday night.

Well this post was much longer than I intended.  I guess quite a bit has happened;)  I will post a picture that shows the general area of where I am.  I will also post a link that shows a map of Gumi.  My city is basically connected to the south east part of Gumi.  It looks like a little tail coming of the the southeastern part.
My goal is to make videos of some of my experiences this year.  I have quite a few now, so I will hopefully be putting them together into a video in the next week.

Hope this finds you well...talk to ya later!

The star is roughly where I am.

Here is a link to a better map...

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=gumi&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=lCJOT9fPBsuviQeYhYBG&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=3&ved=0CCIQ_AUoAg

Just zoom in to the south east part of Gumi, the tail looking thing in the south east part is my city.

"IS THE 4TH OF JULY A BIG DEAL THERE?"

Haven't written in awhile. Guess I've just been doing more living, and less reflecting, which is a good thing I think.

Had a few noteworthy events in the last few weeks. Did a scavenger hunt a few weeks ago. It was organized by a few friends. There were probably like 10 teams consisting of about 5-7 members. There were a bunch of tasks we had to do around Seoul ranging from drinking soju with a stranger, to giving a stranger a piggy back ride, to getting a piercing somewhere other than ears. It was a pretty fun day that ended with us looking around desperately for a piercing shop. We found one, but it wasn't open. We talked to a guy that had a shop right next door and he called the people to come open it for us. While waiting we hung out with this guy named Mickey. He spoke pretty good English, and had this really cool, random place in this alley where as far as we could tell he smoked, drank, and worked on old motorcycles. We completed a few tasks while waiting at his shop, one being making a human pyramid with a Korean on top...

To make a long story short...we ended up getting picked up by one of Mickey's friends named Mr. No, to go to his piercing shop. So all 7 of us crammed into his friends Chrysler 300 that was all decked out in complete leather interior, TV's, and a rockin' sound system. And what, might you ask, was Mr. No rockin' out to? None other than The Backstreet Boys. Epic. Well 2 teammates ended up getting 6 piercings between the 2 of them. They couldn't be on ears so I'll let you imagine where the piercings went. After all that trouble we actually ended up only getting 3rd place. We were a little disappointed, but it was an awesome day!

The same day of the scavenger hunt was the start of the World Cup. I have never really gotten into the World Cup before, but it was impossible not to get excited while here. Everyone was into it. Almost all the restaurants around here have outdoor seating, so they all had TV's set up, and some even had projector screens. It was a really fun atmosphere to be a part of. Korea ended up playing 4 games before they got beat out. We had different, fun experiences for them all.

The first one was at 8:30pm on a Saturday. A bunch of us decided to go into an area of Seoul called COEX. As the cabs pulled up to drop us off all you could see were thousands of people on the street. It was pretty awesome. It was raining, but nobody really cared. Korea won that night, so it was super exciting. All of us bought Korea jersey's, and we got a lot of attention from people, being a bunch of foreigners cheering for Korea. We even made it on an online newspaper sight.

It was a pretty unbelievably fun time. Memorable night for sure.

The next game was on a Thursday night at 8:30. A bunch of us decided to go to the local park around here, that was showing it on a big screen. The park was packed so we tried to go to some of the local restaurants. They were all packed with tons of screens set up outside, so there were just tons of people in the street watching the game. Korea lost that game, but it was still exciting to be around so many people all cheering so hard for their team.

The next game was at 3:30am on a Tuesday/Wednesday morning. We watched that one at the movie theater here. It was pretty awesome. It was the first game that we could all actually sit down and watch from start to finish. It was a late night, but fun to watch.

The last game was at 11:00pm on a Saturday night. We went to City Hall in Seoul, which is the big place to watch it. It was raining again, and there were so many people we couldn't really see the screen. So we all decided to try and find a restaurant to sit down at and watch it. It took us probably 10 minutes to find any place where we could sit down. We finally found a place down a random side street. There were about 20 of us foreigners watching it with about 10 Koreans. They had a pretty good time with us. Koreans are really nice people, and are genuinely happy to share their culture with foreigners. They had fun cheering, and drink soju with all of us. It was a really good game, but unfortunately Korea lost, and that was the end of their World Cup run. I'm really happy I was able to be here during World Cup. I will for sure get into it a lot more in the future.

Watched a few of the American games too. A lot of them were on at 3:30am after Korea games. It made for some long nights, but it was worth it. Lots of fun!

Last weekend we went to a B-Boy competition. B-Boy is what the break dancers are called here. Korea is pretty well known for their B-Boys. I've never really seen anything like that in person. It's pretty amazing what those guys can do. They also had some cool martial arts, and other dance performances too. Fun, interesting time.

Well that is about it. We are all counting down the days till vacation. Eleven more teaching days....then Philippines here we come. I think there is a group of almost 15 of us going now. I'm sure it will be a pretty fun time. Can't hardly wait.

Hope everyone at home is doing well. Talk to you again soon...

"YOU CAN TELL BY HIS FACE THAT HE SUCKS."

Couple little things to report.

Did a 10k last weekend. It was just a fun one organized by another teacher here. I think there were about 20 of us running either a 10k or 5k. I did the 10k, but walked a few times. It was pretty hot out, but it was super fun. We ran around this lake park that I always run at. We got many stares as we all took off together. I think most of the Koreans thought we were crazy. The best part(besides the Sunday Funday that followed the run) was playing in the fountains after we were all finished. Great way to end a hot race.

Here's a pic in the fountain after the race...I'm way in the back, can only see half my face...fun time for sure!!!

It has been hard going to work as the weather has gotten nicer. I'm finding that I'm actually missing working at the pool. This is the first time in 6 years that I haven't spent my days at the pool. However, what is making the days bearable is that fact that we have a week off in July, and a bunch of us booked tickets to the Philippines last week!!! I've looked at a few pics and it looks beautiful. We are going to Borocay, which is a pretty popular place. We are all pretty darn excited. I think we have about 35 teaching days until we head out. Not that we're counting.

Well that's about it. The weather has warmed up quite a bit, and even though it pretty hot during the day, it's worth it for the nights. Pretty much all the restaurants have seating on the sidewalks, so people basically sit outside all night drinking. It's a fun atmosphere. Oh and also, the World Cup starts this weekend. I usually don't get into that too much, but they go crazy for it here. Korea plays at 8 30pm on Saturday. They have a huge area in Seoul where they set up screens and such. Someone said about 100,000 people go to watch it there, so I think we are gonna try to check that out on Saturday. Should be a good time.

Okay well I hope this finds you well. Talk again later...