Post # 3 Time Flies When You're in Korea!

Walking on a dock on beautiful Geoje Island July 31, 2011.


It's been entirely too long since I last posted, 71 days to be exact. And i'm dedicating this post to Stephen Hattersley, because he asked me 2 months ago for a post. Sorry for the delay!

Also, this is going to be a long one... So grab a hot cup of coffee (or preferred beverage)
and enjoy!

What my apartment looks like at the moment...

I've been in Korea for three months already, and so much has changed since I last wrote in May. I've fully settled in to my apartment (which now boasts a reclaimed couch, a plant for the center of my kitchen table, and some much needed wall decorations) so it finally feels a bit more like a home! I'm now a functioning employee at Sunflower Language School, no longer the random bearded blonde guy who was stumbling around the school trying to figure out what to do. So things are going exceedingly well there!

I leave for Thailand this Friday with my friend and co-worker Brienna (she's in some of my FB pictures). I couldn't be more excited for this trip! I've heard almost entirely amazing things about Thailand (except that there is potential for crime, something almost non-existent in Korea), so i am cautiously optimistic! : )

I've also been traveling around Korea a bit as well, and I have been pleasantly surprised! The city I live in is admittedly not the most exciting place in the world, and when I first got here I figured I would have to wait for Thailand to see some beautiful sites. I was miles off on that assumption! South Korea is indeed a very beautiful country and it's quite compact as well, so it's easy to catch a 5 hour bus ride to the opposite end (or a 2 hour high-speed rail ride).

Trying to stay dry, but monsoon season can be pretty intense out here!

Two months ago, my director (Suzie) took me, Brienna, and one of our foreign teachers (Julie) to a famous area with a large collection of Buddhist temples that straddle a small river in the mountains; about an hour from where we live. It was POURING the entire time. In fact, it was raining so much that my umbrella couldn't even effectively do the singular thing it was created to, and it started leaking through the center (it's a good umbrella too! haha). But aside from that, the afternoon was great. It was really interesting to see the history and tradition that has been in Asian cultures for thousands of years. They were very welcoming and happy to see me and Brienna visiting their places of worship. We even had tea with Suzie's monk, a very funny man who really enjoyed visiting with us!

Don't worry Mom and Dad, I didn't convert! ; )

A picture with Suzie's monk at the end of our visit.


More recently, I joined the local foreigner soccer team in Ulsan for a friendly against a recreational Korean team. It's a great group of guys who play teams from all over the area. It's off-season right now, so I was able to join the guys in the friendly, which was super nice of them considering none of them had even seen me play before! They put me in at center back (defense) and I basically did just did my best not to screw things up too badly, haha. I played about 65 minutes and we lost 3-2, but it was a great time. It was my first time playing an actual match since my days of kicking the fuzzy green ball around in Modesto youth indoor soccer. So i'm hoping after my vacation that i'll be able to play with the team more and improve my, admittedly, less than stellar skill on the ball!

At school, we held our annual open-house for the morning kindergardeners, and it went really well! It's quite different than an open-house in the US. In Korea, it's basically an excuse to have the parents come in and watch the foreign teachers do, what amounts to, a "mock" class. Everything was well scripted and practiced for about 6 grueling weeks. Yeah, imagine trying to keep the attention of 6 & 7 year olds every day with the same lesson about friendship... That was my reality for a month and a half! But it all worked out for the actual open-house day, and the parents all wrote good reviews, much to the relief of my extremely nervous director. Private schools out here are a very competitive business and many of them fail, so they all try to maintain the image of perfection daily. The one I work at, however, has been around for 25 years in the wealthiest area of town, so i'm pretty sure we've got little to worry about! : )

Julie walking with the kids at the bamboo forest.

The kids also put on a play the following week for their parents. This was all run and organized by the Korean teachers, thank God! haha So me and the other foreign teachers got to sit back and watch them perform Pinocchio and Cinderella. It was priceless to see them on the stage reciting their lines in English! We also took a trip recently to a small bamboo forest that runs along the river front about a 15 minute bus ride from our school.

My wonderful British friend Heather, her friend, Deana, Me, and Brienna at Mud Fest! Heather is sadly finished in Korea and flies out Wednesday. She will be missed big time!

Three weeks ago, about 50 of us foreign teachers rented an overnight noribong bus (Korean for karaoke, the japanese word that we use... haha) and we sang our way up to the Boryeong Mud Festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boryeong_Mud_Festival). It's an event where thousands of us foreigners descend upon a small beach town in North-West South Korea (yes, you should be slightly confused here, lol). The area is known for it's mud that is said to have many benefits for your skin, but that is a side note to what is really just a giant mud party! They have a great beach with restaurants all along it, and one big area with buckets of mud and huge blow-up obstacle courses also covered in said mud. So me and my friends slid the day away through some of the obstacle courses, and wrestled in an above ground pool filled with mud! We then spent the rest of the day on the beach enjoying the sun that finally decided to show up around 2:00. It was definitely a weekend to remember!

Blurry, but that's the tail end of me doing a flip off of one of the smaller cliffs...

The weekend following the mud festival, I went with some friends to go cliff jumping in the mountains about an hour outside of the city. It was a great time. I jumped off a 25 foot cliff with terrible form and suffered from a painful a$$-flop for the following hour, haha. Just this past weekend I was able to go to Geoje Island, the second biggest island in South Korea. It was just a 2 hour bus ride from my area, and it completely surpassed my expectations! I went with some of my favorite people here and we had a great time. We stayed at a cheap "pension" for the night where they give us a room with blankets and pillows, and little else, but it was perfect. Saturday night we sat outside at a picnic table by the beach playing cards until the early hours of the morning. It was a welcomed reminder of the many great vacations I've had with my family, who I was missing a lot since it was my nephew Blake's first birthday party this weekend! : (

Me with my good friends Deana (my left) and Anila. I'm doing what every
Korean does when they take a picture, haha.

We spent a wonderfully lazy Sunday afternoon on Gujora beach on Geoje Island.

Now it's just one more week of work and then i'm off to Thailand!

If you've gotten this far, thank you! I sincerely hope you've enjoyed reading about the last 72 days of my life in Korea! It brings me great joy to be able to communicate and share my adventures with you all. I am humbled and grateful for your readership : )

May 22: We're Still Here!

     Either, the man who predicted the rapture, forgot the part where Jesus said “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36) or he was actually arrogant enough to try and one up Jesus.  At any rate, I’m still in Korea and you’re where you are reading this, so I hope you enjoy!

     Today was a great day for me.  I finally made my way to the only Starbucks in town (about a 20 minute bus ride) and purchased a french press and some decent coffee! This may sound unimportant or uninteresting to some of you, but this was the most important thing I have done since being here.  You see, Koreans have some of the worst coffee I have ever tasted in my life.  They mostly drink instant coffee that comes in little tubes and normally has more sugar than coffee!  If you know me, you know that good coffee is one of the reasons that I wake up in the morning.  I love it.  The smell, the process of making it, the taste, everything.  So the fact that I now have one of my very favorite things at my disposal every morning makes me infinitely happier!

     The job itself is going quite well. I feel as though I am finally settling down and fitting in around here. It has been interesting to become an early bird, waking up every morning and getting ready in time to be out the door by 9 am. The only job i’ve ever had (among my well documented many) with similar 9-5ish 40 hour + work weeks have been construction jobs I used to take on summer vacation from college. I hated waking up for those low-paying, physically demanding days! 

     This job, however, is much more enjoyable. My 15 minute walk everyday is mostly downhill and I am always greeted with warm smiles from my co-workers, a far cry from my groggy tool-belt clad co-workers of summers past.  Each day at noon the school’s english teachers (3 from the US, 5 from Korea) gather for lunch, an almost always, delicious lunch.  This, by far, is one of the biggest perks of the job, I love it!  Then I teach 3-4 more classes (depending on the day), and am always done by 6.

     Some days I walk strait home, some days I take a hike or a nap, but after hours of hyper Korean children I am always lucky enough to be granted moments of solitude. This was one of the strangest adjustments I’ve had to make, living alone, but I have come to truly appreciate this massive blessing!  Not that I don’t miss living with people, I do, but for this year at least I am enjoying this new experience.  One of the best parts about my apartment is that I am minutes away from some awesome hiking trails. I’ve never considered myself much of a hiker, but it is my only way to escape the noisy urban jungle that is Ulsan.  There is a perfect spot to view the sunset (see picture) and it’s not even a 15 minute walk from my place! 

     I’ve met some cool people out here so far.  On Wednesdays a bunch of us teachers get together and go bowling, I’ve definitely been enjoying that!  And *hopefully* soon I’ll be on a soccer team with a group of foreigners that play in a league against South Koreans!  With the nasty humidity that has already begun to set in, I am sure to up against one of the most physically demanding things i’ve ever done, haha, so wish me luck! (I really just want to stay in shape and hone my skills so I can be ready to join and contribute to BAU when I get back!)  

     As I listen to Joel P. West tonight in my apartment, I long for the warm Spring days of Central and Southern California.  For my friends and family who make this life so interesting and enjoyable, for the sunsets on the beach, for the wonderfully long afternoons of volleyball at the Montero’s, for the evenings at my parents’ house with family watching the Giant’s win (but always making it torturously entertaining), for basketball on Wednesday’s with Craig and JLK, for awesome nights in North Park, and for great nights at Wexford’s with endless laughter.   I am ridiculously lucky and blessed to be able to call you my friends.  I am enjoying my time here, and am thankful to have such a wonderful job but I am constantly thinking of you all and fully intend to resume the aforementioned activities upon my arrival 49 weeks from now! 

     I hope you all got to see the album I posted on Facebook, but for those of you who don’t have access i’ll see what I can do about posting it here in the near future. Also, if you have a smart phone please download the free app called “Voxer!”  Craig Allen discovered it and I have been talking to him and JLK almost everyday.  It lets you send free text, voice, and picture messages! I am only able to use it when I have a wireless connection on my iPhone, but that is fairly often.  Anyways, I hope that reading this made your Sunday morning just a little more interesting.  

     Have an awesome, "I just got delicious coffee for my apartment," type of day!

First Glimpse of My Life in Korea!

Well, I promised a blog, so here it is! 

To be honest, I have no idea where to start... I posted once before I left, just to get the feel, so hopefully this will go well and be informative and entertaining.

For the first time since a family trip to Minnesota in the mid-90’s, I did not use my own headphones even once during my travels. See I have flown quite a bit over the past 6 years or so, and plugging myself into my iPod became my sense of comfort in those exceptionally uncomfortable airplane seats.  

This time was different. From the moment I passed security at SFO, I felt at ease, comforted by the sites and sounds of another trip through the airport . Whether it’s SFO, Logan, Frankfurt, or now Seoul, I just kind of feel at home in airports.  I suppose airports are to me what mountains are to hikers, beaches are to surfers, etc.  

My first flight was 45 minutes late to Seoul because strong headwinds and my second flight was cancelled due to driving rains, but they squeezed me (barely) onto a flight 30 minutes early and I made it just fine. Then it was just a 1 hour drive to Ulsan City where I was happily greeted by the queen sized bed in my new apartment : )

The picture on this post is the view from my balcony. The view from my 13th floor apartment basically looks over the entire city, and I love it. The view from the hallway on the other side is of the beautiful hills and mountains in the background, so feel like I got pretty lucky with this set-up!

On Sunday, the school manager took me and another teacher (Brienna) out for lunch. We went to the Green Pig; A Pig Farm. Yes, I typed that correctly, haha. It was fantastic!  We took our shoes off when we entered (as you would at anyone’s home in Korea) and sat down on the wood floor at our table.  My director (Suzie) ordered and they quickly brought out raw meat and plenty of vegetable based entrées. Suzie cooked the meat on top of the hot coals that they put in the center of the table, then cut the meat into pieces with provided scissors and we each grabbed sesame leaves, wrapped up the meat and veggies (we did this about 15 times for the whole meal) and it was amazing! I seriously can’t wait to go back. I need to work on my flexibility so I can actually sit comfortably on the ground, but even considering that it was a great culinary experience : )

My first day went well today.  I am still adjusting to the time difference (I had to force myself back to sleep when I woke up at 4 this morning), but I think i’ll come around in just a couple of days.  I observed a couple of classes taught by my 2 american colleagues (Brienna & Amy; both very cool!), and then I taught my first class of Korean kindergartners on my own. 

THAT was interesting, haha. Turns out I teach mainly 6-7 year old, and then have one elementary (9-10 year olds) class to finish out the day. The older ones were quite refreshing, as they already have a good understanding of English (it also helps that they don’t throw things and constantly try to stand on their chairs! haha). 

I don’t have too much to say about the actual teaching process just yet, but once I get into the swing of things i’ll definitely give a better overview. Hopefully i’ll have some pictures of the kids too, they really are awesome & hilarious!

I’ve heard wind that a local group of foreigners gets together for soccer (and ultimate) on the weekends, so I am definitely going to get in on that action a.s.a.p. (pretty much my main priority! haha). 

I hope this gives everyone a decent idea of what i’m experiencing over here so far. I will have so much more to write in the coming weeks, as i’ve pretty much only been to my apartment and school. I will try to put together a photo album too!

I hope you enjoyed my first official post. I look forward to keeping everyone updated often!

-Matt      (or Mattchew Teacher as I am known here!)

The Waiting Game.

I've had to take a step back this week to reconsider the word patience.  Oddly enough, I've displayed quite an extensive amount of todays vocabulary word when it has come to writing papers or paying bills. In fact, I've excelled in being "patient" to accomplish such tasks, haha.

However, I'm on the other end now. Since telling my employer in October that I would only be working at his establishment for another two weeks, I've been waiting (I say this retrospectively). Of course it hasn't been an entirely un-eventful waiting period for me. I was fortunate to spend 4 weeks in Florence, Italy eating pizza and panini (yes that's the plural form, I just looked it up), drinking Caffè lattes and plenty of vino, dodging vespas and walking everywhere.  I became friends with some truly spectacular people, and experienced my first Thanksgiving abroad (see picture).  

After gaining my TEFL certification in Florence I then travelled a portion of the wonderfully efficient and expansive network of European railways.  From Rome to Pisa, from Munich to Amsterdam, and finally to Siegen Germany where I got to meet up with great friends from my semester abroad in the Spring of 2007 (it's hard to believe it's been 4 years already...).  From Germany I flew back to California for a wonderful Christmas with my family and friends in Modesto.  Since New Year's I have been a sunshine transient, going back and forth from Modesto to San Diego sleeping on my brother's coach on and off for 2 months with nothing but a smile and the "I'm going to teach in South Korea soon" story constantly on my lips. The occasional bottling day at Green Flash Brewery with my brother Kevin was enough work for me and a truly interesting experience.

All of this has lead me here, to the upstairs computer room of 2020 Waterfall Court in Modesto, CA where I wait, patiently, tonight.  I wait for a visa number from South Korean Immigration services so that early next week I may go and have an interview at the Korean Consolate in San Francisco.  This is where I hope to finalize my many months of document acquisitions, at long last enabling me to move to Ulsan South Korea to teach at the Sunflower Language School for the next year. 

I am ready, even anxious, to begin this new journey.  However, I am surprised at my own trepidation.  The past few months have been extremely enjoyable.  I made new friendships and rekindled old ones.  I've seen my nephew, Blake, grow so much (he's coming up on 9 months), and I've spent great times with my family.  I say all of this because I will miss all of these people, alot. I guess I felt differently in October, and to be honest with you I am kind of ashamed to have complained about my position rather than cherish it as I know know I should have. 

But Korea beckons, and I will gladly answer the call. One year is the perfect amount of time.  Enough to create new friendships and see new parts of the world but be back to be with old friends and see the "old" parts of the world before too much has changed : ).