The Crib

(Beautiful view from my window)

Ahn-nyong-ha-se-yo, I have been in Daegu for 5 days now and am still baffled by the fact that I am in Korea. I have been getting along fine and had a jovial journey over here. Most of the trans-pacific flights seem to leave late at night in the U.S. and get in early in the morning in Korea, thus it is night time the entire trip and much easier to sleep. I was met at the train station by my schoolmaster, Lana, who is married to a Bostonian, and she zipped me over to the school to meet all the teachers and the high-master and owner Mr. Kim. After that I got some much needed sleep and came in the next day, friday, for training and medical exams. I guess the training went pretty well because they had me teaching the last class of the day which was difficult but certainly not over my head. The main problem I am going to have is using words that the kids understand, as I have no idea how big their vocabularies are. The structure of the school is pretty confusing, but I think I understand it now and will write about it next time. This time however, I thought I would introduce you to my living situation:

I have been put up by the school in a studio apartment in the southern outskirts of Daegu (though it still feels like the middle of a city). My pad is about a five minutes walk from the school and is just off a major road and subway stop, so it is a great location. There are about 100 restaurants, 20 cell phone stores and 5 English language schools within a 5 minute walk. Unfortunately I do not live in the same building as the other teachers, but they are not too far away either. The apartment is a linoleum shrine with 3 rooms. The main room has the bed, dining table and refrigerator. The kitchen has the washing machine, stove and sink. And the bathroom is a just a bathroom. Though, bathrooms are totally ridiculous here as they also double as a shower. Just turn on the faucet and you're taking a shower right there where you would brush your teeth and the water drains through a grate in the floor. Though the system does encourage water conservation, the problems with it are that it is difficult to take a shower without soaking your towel or toilet paper or other bathroom goods, and the bathroom floor is usually wet, depending on how often you shower. Thus the floor would seem a good breeding ground for mosquitoes, bacteria or other foul (yet important in their own right) life forms.   

While my stove doesn't work and I don't have a drying rack to do laundry yet, I do have cable TV which is a completely ridiculous entity in Korea. The good news is that there are always lots of sports on the tube, however, they are always centered around Korean teams and/or players. So, if I am watching Premiership highlights, I am pretty much only seeing the teams that have a Korean player and that player's most significant contributions. Oh and every time I check the stations, at least one channel is showing the Korea vs. Cuba gold medal baseball triumph. Also there are two channels that show video games 24-7 (either Starcraft, Warcraft, or CS) and yes I do know who the current Starcraft champion is (I just can't make out his name). Oh and for those Food Network fans, the U.S. can't even touch the outrageousness of these food shows. All the seafood is usually alive and moving and some strange breed that is unrecognizable. It is thrown in a stir-fry and then is still moving as the ingredients are sprinkled on top of it. Then it is piled on to a serving plate as it crawls and wiggles around and is then devoured by the hosts as they go wild explaining something in Korean.

Friday night, I was taken out to a traditional dinner by my fellow teachers and we feasted on pork that we cooked ourselves on our own hibachi and a million side dishes. Side dishes are the main attraction for most of us foreigners as they are free and are brought out until you can stomach no more. Oh and vegetarian food is hard to come by, but hopefully I will have it figured out in a few weeks. After that, two guys and I hit the subway and went downtown to see the late-night scene in Downtown Daegu. We met and raged with most of the young foreigners in Daegu who are either English teachers or study-abroad students. One of the main differences between living in Seoul and in living in a different Korean city is the number of foreigners. I have heard that the number of foreigners in Seoul is pretty formidable compared to the number in Daegu, so it is much more likely that you will see the same people out at the bars and clubs. I guess it is similar to the whole large vs. small-college debate. So, once again I am at the small college.

On Sunday, we took a hike up to the top of the 3,000 foot Mt. Apsan which is just south of Daegu. Korea is a very mountainous country, though the mountains are not that high, though a lot have temples at the top, so that makes up for their lack of elevation in my mind. Anyway, there is a cable car to the top but we opted for the almost 4 hour round trip hike. I am impressed by how fit the older Koreans are (younger Koreans seem to be more interested in fashion or video games). Many of them would hike halfway up the mountain to where the city has outdoor weight lifting areas and then workout. Also, we would often see large families hiking to the top and stopping for a picnic in the woods. From what I've seen and heard the Koreans are ambitious and on-the-move people. I have heard about five times now how they have built their economy from scratch in the last 30 years.

OK, so it is off to class for me, I will try to explain what it's like to teach young Koreans next time after I get a few more classes under my belt. Oh and no, I haven't hit any students yet.