Tuesday, November 24, 2009

English Teacher

I'm still in Korea. Now I'm teaching English for 2 weeks. It's a way to make a few $$$ (quite a few actually :)) and to stay here longer. My job is very easy but it's alright, relaxing and enjoyable. I'm teaching M/W/F from 230-800 and for half of that time I just read because there are not enough students to teach (at least this is how my first 2 days have been). My main goal in teaching is just to have the kids speak. People study English here starting at 6 or 7 years old and still so many people don't speak a word of English. I think it's because the schools focus too much on grammar and writing but the students never hear the language or speak it.

So I'm still having a great time here. I continue to eat good food, meet great people, and have partied quite a bit recently.
They have a drink here called Soju that I guess can be called 'Korean Vodka'. It's usually not as strong as vodka. And it tastes better than vodka in my opinion, but still it's not good by itself. But that's why they have 'somec'. Somec is a mixture of beer and soju. The Korean beer is pretty weak and taste isn't amazing (either that or I've been spoiled by Matt and Steve's homebrews in Philly), but when you mix the soju and the beer it actually tastes better than either one individually and is pretty strong. Actually it can be a bit dangerous haha. Soju can really surprise you after a couple of bottles. Before you know it you're as drunk as ________. But it does lead to some good fun.

Last week I bought my plane ticket to leave Korea. I don't really want to leave, but I guess I have to at some point. The good thing is I'm going to more awesome places. On Dec 9 I'm going to China for 8 days. And from there I fly to Uzbekistan ohhhhh yeahhhh.

and btw, my first album of pics that I put a while ago on facebook is at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2192840&id=10506799&l=1fb4a425af

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Korea!!

Hello, it's been a while but I'm writing again. Let's see... since I wrote last time I've been to Belgium, Amsterdam, London, Milan and in a small city in a valley in the Alps. Then I was back in Philly for less than 2 weeks which consisted of quite a bit of work, more drinking and seeing some of you guys. Now for the past 2 weeks I've been in South Korea!

I love it here! So far I've been to a few cities and have been couchsurfing the entire time until today. I was trying to go to an island today but by the time I got to the place I'm at now the ferries had stopped running. Now I'm in a motel for the night and will go tomorrow. Actually It's good that I got stuck here because I can just sit and relax for a night.

So what's so great about Korea..... first of all, people here are sooo nice. From the second I arrived at the airport everyone has been really helpful. Just about any person on the street will let me use their cellphone, when I wasn't sure where to go some people have walked me to the place I was looking for even if it was 10 minutes out of their way and I've been invited out a few times by random people. One night I was walking home and an older man said hello to me and then took me for some food and drinks. The day after that, 2 ladies in their forties bought me some coffee as we tried communicating with their little bit of English and my non-existent Korean. That evening a younger couple asked me to take their picture and then they took me out for dinner, drove me around the city a bit and we got some ice cream. The next night I went out with some CSers and I know some people were buying me drinks mainly because I had almost all the money I went out with the next morning. And last night... I really don't remember much and neither does anyone else.
Also the food is really good here. I've tried a bunch of new dishes but don't know all of the names. And there's a spa culture here that's really different from anything in the US. It's interesting, a bit strange at first but you get used to it. But I'll explain it another time or you can google it if you really want to know now. There's lots of places to go hiking here, lots of temples and other places to go sightseeing and the Korean girls are really pretty.
Hmmm what else,

Most of the couchsurfers here are English teachers from the US and Canada (I want to come back and do that for a year or two). And for the most part, the teachers here are living it up. Even with no special qualifications, we can get paid more for teaching English than what a Korean would make at a job after university. And on top of that, housing and insurance are provided for the teachers so there's a huge cost that's gone.

Alright, now I'm going to go sleep so see you later