Pictures 5.26.2009

So here are some pictures, they are a bit out of order.

This is one of the people in the parade

This is a picture of the Birthday Girl and her boyfriend

This is Amanda, the girl that I replaced at my school and 2 Korean friends

This is the restaurant that we all went to

This is my friend Kim who is another English teacher

Another boy in the parade

Another 2 parade pictures...

I found this can on my way home from work and I couldn't help but laugh.

This is at the karaoke bar, this is Esther one of my fellow teachers.

You see the tamborines...this is Lia (left) and Kelly (right)

Picture of the room

My co-workers

One of my students, Pinky.

My favorite Korean food, Kimbop (spelling?)

Update

Hello Everyone-I am a couple of days late on the update, but here is my update for the last week.

Things are still going well in Incheon, time is flying by and I am getting settled into life as a teacher. The week was eneventful, teaching during the week and then I had an eventful weekend. It started going out to a "singing bar," which I thought meant going to a bar with a stage for singing Karaoke, with 3 of my co-workers. I was quite surprised when we walked into an upscale place with roughly 25 different rooms. We were escorted into our room which consisted of a couch, a huge flat screen tv, tamborines, maraccas, and a little light show type machine on the ceiling. We sat down and were brought a plate of dried squid, seaweed covered pretzels and some other food that I had no idea what it was. We sat down the other teachers started to belt out Korean folk songs and some other songs that I recognized. The other teachers were very good singers, and I do not know if you know about the Van Popering family singing ability, but I am not anything close to a good singer. It took me awhile to sing, but eveventually I got the courage to attempt John Denver's "I'm leaving on a jet plane," and unfortunately no one has ever heard the song. I sang alone with the other 3 ladies watching and reading the lyrics. I have never sang karaoke before, and there is a reason for this. I began to sweat profusely and when I finished the girls commented on how the the song was so sad. I was thoroughly embarassed and I took some time off from singing and then I got the bright idea of singing my next song and getting it on video. I am hoping that I will be able to put my second musical performance on the blog soon, it is Rod Steward's "Have I told you lately that I love you." I have not dared to watch the video but I am sure it is horendous. The whole experience was surreal, and especially with the other girls singing and playing the tamborines and maraccas along with their songs and actually sounding good. It was a fun night, but I am not sure that we will be doing it again. We were there for about an hour and then the time ran out and it was time to go home. I was almost home and a guy on the street said hello and tried to strike up a conversation. I heard "You are a very handsome boy" repeatedly and I had my first hand-holding with a man experience while he walked me all the way to my apartment. In Korea it is common for same sex people to hold hands in public, but I am not sure I will ever adopt this custom. This man walked me home and I think he wanted me to visit his house and teach his children English. All in all, it was quite an interesting night and I think that it will be difficult to top.

On Saturday I went out with my new friends, there is a group of about 15-20 other English teachers and also some Korean locals. Before meeting everyone, my neighbor Jeff and I saw a festival. There were tons of dancers with what looked like traditional dresses and things on and also many other side shops. I had some type of meat on a stick that was very good and we also bought coconuts that had holes in them with straws to drink the milk. I have never had coconut milk, it was not bad but it reminded me of sun tan lotion. It was a girl's birthday so we met up at her apartment and had hung out for awhile. I saw my first Korean birthday cake, which included full pieces of fruit on the top and also the side. We then went to the same 'foreigner bar' as last week and saw a Battle of the Bands competition. There were two very good bands and I met several new people, some from Korea and others from the U.S. and Canada. We ended up going from that bar to another place to get some food, we had a group of about 20ish people, this was also a very good time.

Upon leaving work today (Tuesday) my boss asked if I would stay away from other foreign teachers for a few days because of the swine flu. I am currently sequestered in my apartment and he asked if I would stay away for a couple of days. It kind of made me laugh, but he said that many parents were wondering about the new foreign teacher because I guess many new teachers have been sick and they are trying to be cautious. My Hogwan (school) is a private institution and I guess that the private institutions are doing the same thing just to be safe.
Anyways, I am going to go and watch TV and head to bed, so thanks for reading and I will upload some pictures and hopefully one video of my pathetic singing soon,

Kevin

Pictures

Well, my parents have brought it to my attention that there are no pictures of my incredibly large kitchen. So I have a few new pictures of my kitchen, I could not fit the entire thing into one kitchen because there is not enough space to get far enough away. It was also laundry day today so I have included some pictures of my drying laundry.

This is my kitchen

A shot of the kitchen from the washing machine

The washing machine. In order to make it work you need to reach behind and turn on the water, which leaks if left on. You need to turn it off each time or the apartment will flood.

Clothes...drying...

This is my stove. In order to use it you turn the red knob at the end of the hose to turn on the gas.

This is laundry...drying... Again...

Well, I thought of a few other tidbits that people might be interested in. I am planning on bungee jumping, one of the people I met knows of a place and he is making plans. Also, I was offered a chance to taste a Korean delicasee...(spelling?)...DOG! Ha, I told them that if I was going to try it that they should not tell me until afterwards. I am not sure how I feel about it but I figure that you only live once and I doubt that I will have the chance to try dog anywhere in the states...

I think that I am going to plan on adding updates to the blog on Sundays, and updates during the week will be less common. I just thought that I would plan on Sundays and that would reduce people looking and not seeing anything new. Anyways, I am about to head to bed so I will hopefully hear from you soon.

Kevin

Sunday - Another Week

Hello Everyone -
I am finished with my first full week of teaching and things are going well. I work from 1:30 until about 9 (Tuesday/Thursday are shorter and Monday/Wednesday/Friday are longer days)

I am starting to find restaurants around work and places to eat near my apartment. I have a Dunkin Donuts near the school and that has become my standard breakfast and I have been eating "Kimbop" (probably not spelled correct) often for lunch. This is egg, vegetables, crab, and rice wrapped in seaweed, it looks a lot like sushi.

Last night I met the girl who had my job before me and also lived in the same apartment. She stayed in Korea and is now teaching adults in a town about 20 minutes away by subway. She came to pick me up with her boyfriend and they showed me several places to go around where I live and we ended up eating together at a restaurant nearby. The food was excellent, the 3 of us sat at a round table with an opening in the middle where the waiter put coals and a grate on which we cooked beef. We were given an entire plate of meat and we cooked it ourself. When the meat is cooked you put it on a piece of seaweed and top it off with rice and some other sauces. The food was excellent and it was one of the first true Korean dinners that I have had. The three of us then took the subway to Buo-Pyong (again, probably spelled wrong) and we went to Amanda's apartment which is above a huge underground mall. The mall was unbelievable, it was almost like a maze with shops everywhere. At night we went out to a "Foreigner Bar," which kind of made me laugh because I guess that there are places that are mainly for foreigners and everyone speaks english. I met several people that are all friends and it turns out that one guy lives right around the corner from me. Everyone was teachers and it was nice to hear some fluent english and hear some stories from people that have been doing what I am doing. We were planning on going to Seoul on Saturday but it rained all day and we did not feel like sight-seeing in the rain. =) I had a great time and I think that I will be friends with these people and be spending a lot more time with them in the future.

It is Sunday night here and I am going to attempt to do laundry, my apartment has a washer and I am hoping that I can figure it out.

I am planning on going to a baseball game next weekend and in July (starting on my birthday) there is a mud festival. It is exactly what it sounds like, everyone goes to this place with their bathing suits and basically has a huge mud fight. I am excited to have met people and they were very helpful with everything so I feel a bit more at home now.

Forgot one thing, after going out we went to another Korean restaurant and at the same type of food as dinner, but this time it was chichen mixed with some type of greens and some very good sauce. The Korean food restaurants are amazing and it is typically cheaper to eat at a restaurant than to make your dinner at home. I was very glad to hear this because my signature entre selections at home are frozen pizza, chips and cheese, and other microwavable things which I cannot make here because I do not have an oven or a microwave.

I guess that is all for now,

Kevin

Pictures

A picture of one of the buildings at night.

This is in the teacher's lounge at school and the women are the other 4 teachers at the school.

Me and my fellow teachers

My address if anyone would like to send me a package...good luck.

On the airport in Japan. They gave everyone masks to wear while they checked everyone for swine flu.

Well, my first weekend in Korea was not a good one. I began feeling sick on Friday and I woke up on Saturday with a bad cold. I have been stuck in my apartment and taking cold pills but I did manage 2 trips out of the apartment, each was a trip to McDonalds for supper. I am feeling better today and I hope that I will be back to normal by Monday.

First Week/School

Good Morning Everyone-
Today is Friday morning in Korea and I am getting ready for my last day of teaching for the week. The first week has been quite interesting and tiring, the jetlag makes forsome very long days. My first day (Wednesday) started out quite funny. The shower here is attached to the sink in the bathroom and there is a small lever that you pull to make the water come out ofthe sink or the shower hose. I was all ready for work except for brushing my teeth, so I went to the sink and turned it on but the water was still coming out of the shower head. The whole left side of my clothes were soaked. Ha, it was a rough way to start the first morning but I guess the only thing to do was laugh. On Wednesday I went to the school and it is very nice. The Director's name is also Kevin, and he and his wife run the school. There are about 100 students in the school but the students come on either Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday. Each class is between 1 and 8 kids, most of them are about 3-4. The kids at school are mostly younger, they range from kindergardeners to 15 years old. One thing about Korean age is that newborns are 1 year old, so I am actually 24 now going on 25 in July according to the people here. The first day they kind of threw me to the wolves, I did not know what was expected so I was standing in front of a class of 4 and just kind of stared. The kids are fun, the younger they are the more wild they are. I think that it is because they do not really understand me, but the older the kids are the more they listen to what I am saying. The school has a syllabus and each student has a list of 3 different books, a Dialogue Book, a Reading Book,and a Phonics Book. I generally start reading through the daily lesson and they repeat asa group and then individually. Then we do mostly the same thing with the other 2 books and then sometimes we would play a game. Their favorite game so far is hangman, they usually pick words out of the lessons and then everyone tries to guess. I am still getting used tothe whole teaching process but I think that it will get easier as time goes on. I finally figured out how to get money, the first few days I could not get an ATM to work and I could not find a bank that to exchange money. I ended up borrowing money from one of the other teachers and bought some essentials. I have been waking up and odd times and going tobed very early, but it has given me some time to walk around the city in the mornings. The city is very nice, there are a lot of tall buildings and everything is really clean. The people are very friendly and they are glad to help. I will take some pictures of school today and also of the city. I will be sure to post them later, I have about 5 hours until school (it starts at 1:30 each day) so I am going to take take a walk and take pictures to show people what it is like in Korea.
Sorry that this post is completely random, hopefully it helps people to understand what it is like, and I be writing again soon. =)

Kevin

I made it to Korea

Hello All -First of all, I just want to say thank you to everyone for the support and prayer that I have received, and I am sure will continue to receive, from everyone. I am officially out of the United States, I landed in Japan about a half hour ago and I am feeling very disorientated (I think it is about 3:00 AM back home) but all that is left is the flight from Japan to Seoul and I will have made it. The flight was very long butuneventful and once we arrived a crew boarded the plane with blue gowns and masks over their faces to because of the swine flu scare. We were on the plane filling out forms and getting our pictures taken for about an extra hour but I have a few hours between flights so it was not a big deal. It was actually quite comical, it looked like a scene out of the x-files. It is hard to believe that I am in Japan today, it is an odd feeling to be on the opposite side of the world. I am nervous/excited to begin this next stage of life and I will keepeveryone up to date on what is going on with my life.
Kevin

I made it to Korea in one piece, I was picked up at the airport along with another teacher from Chicago and I was met by the Director of my school who showed me to my apartment. It is not much more than a room, but it has a kitchen, dresser, etc, as well as a shower attached to the faucet in the bathroom. It is getting close to 1:00 AM and I am hoping the tylenol PM will kick in soon because I would rather not be up all night... Tomorrow I am going out for lunch and a tour with my supervisor and my first day of school will be on Wednesday. I will keep everyone posted and, once again, thank you for all the thoughts and support.