Photo Diary #3

Just a quick update to show some pictures of the past couple of weeks. Been very busy getting acquainted with the school and teaching english and exploring this huge city.

Teaching english thus far been a unique and rewarding but frustrating experience. From my employment as a swimming instructor I would have expected some skills to carry over but the learning curve was much steeper than I thought. The language barrier makes it very tough to explain yourself and the younger classes can be absolutely insane. These kids go to school all day, come to english class, leave 5 minutes early to catch a bus to head math prep, and then study all night. Most elementary schools have Saturday classes every other week, and totally unrealistic homework demands.

I teach kindergarten classes after lunch; we're doing a skit of 'The Tortoise and Hare'. I then teach a 'chant' class with first and second grade students three days a week. The bulk of my teaching time is spent doing 'listening' and 'storybook' classes with third and fourth grade students. I'm the defacto accent specialist at the school as all the other teacher's first language is Korean. Questions like "How many syllables does the word 'dodge' have?" are regular.

In the picture below I'm teaching a 'chant' class to the Beta group, they're in grade one and two.




Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving, was on the weekend of the 14th of September. The kindergarten kids came wearing Hanbok, the tradition dress. I look like a bit of a plug, it was a very long day. My boy Kevin is on the right. The little girl with her tongue out is 'Cindy'. She's my favourite.




Last weekend I went out to visit a palace and a museum at Gyeongbuk-dong. As most are well aware, the US has been in a bit of an economic pickle lately. SK is financed very heavily by American investment, so their market is very susceptible to any fluctuations. I watched the Won evaporate by 12% over the weekend Lehman crashed, much to my chagrin(I'm paid in wons). Riot cops were out in full force all over the city to lock any shit down. Koreans have a long and proud history of taking to the streets; it's a sort of right of passage I think. Last time they did was the huge beef protests against importing american meat

Outside the 700 year old Joseon palace of Gyeongbokgung was a half dozen of these armored busses and maybe 250 odd cops. I was a little apprehensive of taking a picture of them, but I snapped a shot of their equipment stacked outside the bus.




The people know how to riot, and the cops know how to fight back. Billy clubs? Truncheons? Night sticks? Nah man, we go straight for swords. Seriously. I wouldn't want to face off against a pissed off SK Riot Cop in full gear with a hard rubber katana.




Went out for beer and samgyeopsal later that night with a bunch of friends. Samgyeopsal is uncured strips of pork belly, a little thicker than bacon. It's served to you raw and is cooked at your table on a little butane bbq at the modern places, or a sunken charcoal grill at the more traditional restaurants. From the left, Vincent, Emily, Evan, Min-Jae and Kevin. The Asian 'V' is obligatory in photos. If you don't do it, it seems to mean you aren't enjoying the picture.




On last shot, apologies for the shaky photog skills. Coming out from a bar around 1AM to the main drag and a nice view of maybe two dozen standard armored police busses. Kevin wasn't too interested when I suggested we find/start a riot.


This weekend is 'National Korean Foundation' day. From wikipedia: The day celebrates the foundation of Gojoseon, the first state of Korean nation. According to Samguk Yusa, Dangun founded Gojoseon on the 3rd day of 10th lunar month, 2333 BCE.

We get a 4 day weekend so we're heading down to Pusan on the south east corner of Korea. It's the world's 4th busiest sea-port so I'm sure I can get into lots of trouble. Will return with pictures and tales.

Evan.