Gohyeon Church

Sunday was church and so for my first service Mrs. Kim, my boss, insisted that she pick me up even though I can see the steeple from my building. Either way they came and, like every other time they have come, dropped off a bunch of stuff for my house. This time it was a dish rack, chair booties, a toilet cleaner and other stuff. Last time it was a bunch of food, some extension cords and dishes, they really have been so kind to me.

Here is the church from the window of my apartment building, not a long walk. (the red cross)

Because of the holidays the people from the church's foreigners service were challenged to invite others and so there were many other people who were there for the first time. There were about 30-40 people in attendance and we worshiped together in English! It was very refreshing. Then after the service the church had prepared some food and some games in which we could take part in and so it was a great time of fellowship, talking with some of the other Christians who are teaching in Geoje and learning about what life has been like for there here. For the games there were prizes and the team I was on ended up winnipeg every game so I got a hand full of stuff including a toiletries box, some socks and thanks to Caleb Button a large box of treats.

It was neat in that I wasn't the only one coming for the first time. What I only thought of later was that many of the people that I met might have just come to this church for this special event and not attend regularly.  This means that I am not sure who will be there next Sunday, I guess I will have to go and find out. Continue to pray that I would be intentional about my role in the church and willing when there is a need.

What starts with Bus and ends with an?

Before I came to Korea there were two Korean people that I knew from Canada, one is still in Canada and the other is living in Gumi, South Korea. Knowing that it would be holidays the friend in Gumi invited me to come for a visit, which I thought would be a good idea so we had planned to meet on Friday and I would stay with her family till Saturday.  Due to a miscommunication this was no longer the plan and so still  wanting to see part of Korea I decided to head out to Busan.

Busan is in the south east corner of South Korea, it has a population of 3.6 million people, a 4 line subway, the fifth largest port in the world, and it is only a 1 hour bus ride from Geoje. So after checking a few details out before I left I hopped on a bus. On the way we crossed over the Busan-Geoje Fixed Link which is a 8.2 km long bridge-tunnel combination in the north east corner of the island. The route shortens the journey to Busan from what was 3 hours down to a mere 1 hour. (In the picture you can see that after the second bridge the road tunnels under the water)

I reached Busan a little later than expected due to holiday traffic and took the subway to Haeundae Beach where I wanted to take a picture of the sunset for my old roommate Jon Monkman. Being winter it was dead but he said that in summer you can call in your order to a restaurant and they deliver it to you on the beach, I will have to try that.

My father had asked if I had found any Mexican restaurants in Korea and so I had planned to go to a place called Taco al Puebla for supper but unfortunately my directions did not lead me to any taco places.(as I found out later it has moved to a new location). I will get you a picture one day dad. So as a back up I found a place with a picture menu and pointed to what I wanted, some kind of breaded fish that tasted pretty alright. I also passed a History of Photography Museum and was going to take a picture for you Ryan Bergen but then I didn't. Next time.

Before coming to Busan I looked at affordable accommodations for the night and found something that was very affordable but possibly a bit uncomfortable but I decided to give it a try. In Korea they have something called jjimjilbang, which is a public bath, from what I have heard it is an important tradition and many people go as a family once a week. You might be saying to yourself, "Doug that doesn't sound like a place to sleep." you are very observant. 

Let me tell you about it, I went to a place called Haeundae Spa Center it is a 24 hour jjimjilbang and was near the beach. Fourth floor was for women, fifth floor was men. They had several different temperatures of baths, showers and saunas that you can bath in. After you are finished bathing you are given a baggy shirt and baggy shorts to wear and you go upstairs to a large common room where people were hanging out with their families/friends watching tv, playing games and talking. You are given two thin sheets and a soft block, this is your mattress, blanket and pillow. I went to sleep early and the room was about a quarter full but when I woke up just before 6 the room was full, I had to step over bodies to get out. As it worked out for about $8.00 I had a hot bath and a place to sleep.

Then it was on to Gumi, I caught the sunrise at the train station in Busan

Took the train the two hours to Gumi.

Hyekyoung met me at the train station and it was off to check out Gumi. We went to a park with a lake:

It was nice to speak English with some one who understood Manitoba, and she is teaching right now so she gave me some heads up. For lunch/supper we went to this incredible barbecue place and had duck and pork, with a side of jellyfish and squid. I really wish I would have taken a picture of the food, it has to be the BEST food that I have eaten since arriving in Korea! Whoever comes to visit be warned/excited, we are going for Korean barbecue! We toured Gumi which has huge LG and Samsung factories, I met her family, they gave me a very large box of seaweed to eat with my rice. Then because I wanted to be in church in Goeje on Sunday it was out for the trek back home.

NOTE: If any one has any questions about Korea or my experience feel free to ask, I will do my best to respond. If have something that you would like me to do(location, event, food) while in Korea let me know and I will try and fit it in and take a picture for you.

HOUSE TOUR COMING: I have not forgotten about the video tour of my apartment, I just want to do it while the sun is up so it is brighter, this might end up being next week Saturday or Sunday. Stay tuned!

Mountain Climbing with Mr. Ock

As you already know it is Lunar Holiday in Korea, everything is closed and the streets are quiet which means I don't see a lot when I go for a walks. This also means that I have had very little to do but Friday Mr. Ock my boss invited me to go climb one of the mountains in the area with him so I agreed. Though his English is not great we managed to talk for a bit and he taught me a bit of Korean. I am finding that in order for the Korean to stick I need to see it written down, if I just hear it I will only remember it for a few minutes. Needless to say if there was a test on what Mr. Ock taught me I would do very well.

This is a picture of the forest we walked through, while this picture doesn't show it very well, it reminded me of a combination of a place Josh Morris took me hiking South Carolina and the Pembina Valley.

The first two thirds of elevation were in the forest and the last thirds was on rocks that reminded me of the Whiteshell. The mountain was 566 meters high as this marker will attest to.

Also had we taken a different trail we would have started about 3 blocks from my apartment so I plan to climb it at least once or twice this year. Right now I am thinking that it might be nice to climb it every Sunday morning seeing that the English service at my church starts at 1:00 but don't hold me to that. From this point I could see my apartment but as you can see it is a little foggy, had it been clear we would have been able to see the ocean.

This is Mr. Ock.

Well maybe next time...

Is it just me or do all English teachers who come to Korea put the word adventure in the title some where. I have just started looking at some blogs from other teachers in Korea and it seems to be a trend, that would have been great to know a month ago when I chose the name for this blog. Well maybe next time...

It has been a couple of days and I am settling in to my apartment. This means that I am unpacked and familiar with where everything is in the apartment but I am still learning what everything does. Take the thermostat for example it has many different lights and buttons but I am not sure which button does what which is partly(wholly) to blame for me having cold showers the past three days. I have to push the right buttons to get hot water for the shower and I haven't got the combination right yet. Well maybe next time...

It has been a quite couple of days for me as there have been holidays and so I decided to see how long it takes to walk to the school from my house, a 25 minute brisk walk, which means I will need to give at least 30 minutes to get to school.

Having been here a few days and eating virtually only rice I decided to get some take out yesterday, I knew it was holidays but I saw that some places were still open. While working at Tim Hortons I had often looked at people who had minimal English and joked with my co-workers, "that will be me in Korea" well today was that day. I had wanted to go to a shop just down the street from my house that had pictures with prices on them so what I planned to do was point to what I wanted, easy. Well that place was closed so I went to a restaurant that had people in it across the street. I walked in said hello and realized it didn't have any pictures to point at, also the people that were in the restaurant were the owners, they were just planning what to do for their supper. As it turned out they did not speak any English, they tried speaking to me in Korean but I don't understand any Korea. So I did the only thing I could think to do, I said the three words of Korean that I know, "Hello, thank-you, good-bye" and left. I went home and made myself a bowl of ramen. Well maybe next time...

Today my boss invited me over to their house for lunch, when they picked me up they dropped off a bunch of great stuff, some food(already made) and housewares I was needing. At their place we took the elevator to their floor and there were only two doors, they had half of a floor in this building, their apartment was huge, their kitchen is bigger than my whole apartment, their living room was almost the size of two of my apartments, then 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms and some storage space. Needless to say I was blown away! Oh yeah, lunch was good too.

Hospital Trip

Today was my first day in Geoje and was picked up before school by my Boss and family. They are incredible, the mother Mrs. Kim was the one to get my apartment ready for me, her son Sungmoon who picked me up from Ilsan, and the father Mr. Ock, who drives us where we need to go. Inju was the only other person at the school she will be teaching the 5 year old. As you probably guessed by her name she is Korean but has great English.

I got the tour of the building which is purposely very similar to it's sister school in Ilsan and then it was down to business. As I thought I am the first westerner to arrive at school, there will be one more coming possibly in two weeks or so. As I thought school will start in the beginning of March. But I just found out that because this is the first year the school is open we will be doing a pre-start school meaning that for the last two weeks of February we will be running classes. But as I was told they are to be fun classes so that the kids are excited to come to school when it actually starts in March. This would be great except for the fact that I have to write the curriculum for these two weeks, I have one week to prepare my classroom and two weeks of school. I won't be looking for things to do that is for sure.

Also today I got my Korean medical test over with, as Mrs. Kim told me, "Many teacher who come to Korea have AIDS, that is not good, we will find them." For the test I got to pee in a cup, it was my first time, it is quite the experience. Side note it looked like I was dehydrated but when I put it next to the Korean cups mine was the clearest. It made me wonder, "What are the Koreans drinking?" Not enough water that is for sure.(to much information... maybe)

On with the test, they have this scale that you stand on with a pole and a bar comes down and hits your head, it measures height and weight. Took the hearing test which was just a rhythmic beep that got quieter with every beep, they said I had excellent hearing, more like excellent timing. Then a blood test and an x-ray for TB and I was back at school working.

Lunch was a trip to the bakery that is located the floor below the school, I will tell you more about it another day.

We called it quits around 5 and went to Home Plus which is similar to a WalMart or Superstore to get groceries and then off home. Sungmoon came with me and helped me with the shopping and then walked me home. Class act.

Wednesday till Sunday Korea celebrates Lunar Holiday(Chinese New Year) so after two days of work I have the rest of the week off. What to do?

North Korea!

I forgot to post this earlier but here it is! This is a picture taken from the plane in the direction of North Korea, the lights you see are a small town on the ground.

Unfortunately this is just a town in China, we were headed straight for North Korea and then with out warning changed course to go around. Sorry to disappoint you, maybe next time.

Train(ing)

So it may look as if there are two blogs in a row with a similar theme but trust me it's not plus if you read the last one I can (30 day money back guarantee) you will enjoy this one just as much or more.

Today was training day so armed with the address of the school that I got from my boss I headed out to look for a taxi. I went to the main road where I thought they would be a plenty but all of them were full. Now I don't know very much about Korea but I assume that it was prime time for a taxi and so I started walking. I had a general idea of where the school was and I had left early but not early enough to walk to the school. After about 15 minutes of walking I managed to corner a taxi as the other passenger was getting out and claimed it. I showed him the paper and we were off.

Now I had been at the school the day before and so on exiting I made note that there was a Catholic Church with fancy lights across the road from the school. Now on the way to school the taxi driver was having a bit of trouble, we were on the right street but where was the school.

Korean Lesson: In Korea as I have been told when they number the buildings they give the oldest building the lowest number and so if a new building was built between two older buildings it will have a higher number. Logically I don't know about that system but that is the way it is.

Thankfully I spotted the church across the road and I hopped out just in time for school.

Upon arrival I was greeted by Michael a native of British Columbia who has taught in Korea for 10 years or so, I would be his shadow for the day. The school year here runs from the beginning of March to the middle of February so the class was advanced and wrapping up for the year. Between activities Michael would explain different workings of the class. As it turns out he wrote the curriculum for the school and because I will be teaching at a sister school he wrote my curriculum too. School ran till 2:30 but just as we were about to look in to what I needed to know the director from the school at Geoje Island showed up and said that my training was over and that we would be leaving by 4:30.

While I have to admit that I have not been told a lot of details I expected more than 1 day of training, so Michael and I went down stairs to talk over coffee. Talk we did, he tried to jam everything I would need to know in to the next hour.

4:30 and off we were, back to the apartment to change and pack then it was walking the mile to the subway with my 100+ pounds of life for a year. We caught the subway just in time to connect with our bus to Geoje. 4.5 hours later we were in the room that I will be calling my home for the year.

Wallpaper in my apartment (stay tuned for a video tour)