Tag Archives: Korea

Back to School

Posted on by
1

I’m going to attempt to do a few feature on my blog… weekly wrap ups. I guess most people would just call it updating on a regular basis.  I will be giving a weekly update of what goes on in my life. That way people at home can get a sense of what my day to day life is like, rather than just hearing about things I randomly throw up here.

Sunday, September 18

I was finally feeling a little better over the weekend (after having my ear surgery on Wednesday) so I did some much needed cleaning in my apartment and watched shows and movies online.

Monday, September 19

Monday was my first day back at school after being off for just over a week (for Chuseok and ear surgery).

6th grade student: Meagan Teacher! How are you feeling?
Meagan Teacher: I’m okay now.
6th grade student: I love you! [giant hug]

I saw the same girl again on her way to art class and she told me that it’s okay that I’m bad at art because I’m beautiful and art would be a drawing of my face.

Tuesday, September 20

On the back of a 3rd grade boy’s jacket: Bride Girl
It’s the small things in life that make me smile inside.

Every time I walk down the hall, almost every student I see says hi or hello to me. I heard that this was common before I came to Korea, but that the new would wear off and the kids wouldn’t care as much as time went on. That hasn’t happened at my school. The kids are as excited as ever to see me. In fact, on Tuesday as I was walking down the hall I was mobbed by 1st-3rd graders. I mean, literally surrounded by tens of tiny little people saying, “Meagan!” “Hiiii!” “Hello!” It was a bit overwhelming.

Wednesday, September 21

I have 4 classes of 5th graders that I teach every Wednesday and Thursday. I know you’re not supposed to have favorite classes, but I think every teacher does. For me, it’s 5th grade class 4. They are my last class of the day and they just make me feel like the Heavens have opened up just to shine down upon them. They are fun and they love English. They all participate and they answer questions with joy! Their level is overall fairly high so they understand more than other classes. On Wednesday they had a spelling test and they wanted to try to buy as much time as possible so they decided to ask me questions. It started with the typical “How are you?” Then, they asked me if I like tests.

Students: Do you like tests?
Meagan Teacher: Yes, I LOVE tests!
Students: [gasp] Teacher! Why?
Meagan Teacher: Why do I love tests? Because I am sooo SMART!
Students: [gasp and laugh] ……….Do you Korean knowing?
Meagan Teacher: No, I don’t speak Korean.
Students: If you so smart, why you don’t know Korean?

Touché, little ones. Touché.

Thursday, September 22

One of the hardest things about my job is when I see kids crying in the halls and the language barrier prevents me from providing any help or comfort to them. This happened to me on Thursday. I was walking to my English classroom when I passed by some 6th grade boys that were surrounding a girl that was crying. The boys stopped me by saying, “Teacher! She is cry.”

They tried to explain what happened. I think one of them was running and knocked her down on accident. I was proud of them for staying with her and actually caring that they hurt her. I didn’t know what to do so I just asked if she was okay. She didn’t respond so I just rubbed her back and said it was okay. She was still crying to I opted to hold her books and then after a few minutes I helped her up and she stopped crying. I asked her again if she was okay and she said yes and went on her way.

Friday, September 23

When asking a 6th grade class, “How are you?” one boy said “Not so good!” When I asked why, he started saying 똥 (poop) and ran out of the classroom.

My 6th grade students have started writing letters and postcards to 6th grade students in the United States. They are sooo excited to make new friends in America. The letters are adorable. I am worried that the class I was hoping to exchange letters with may flake on me, but I do have a backup plan though.

TGI Payday!!! I was down to 1,315 won (just over $1) in my bank account. I was in desperate need of that paycheck.

Saturday, September 24

On Friday afternoon when I went to the doctor he said “So you don’t have any plans for the weekend, right??” So I took that as his way of telling me that I need to take it easy. The only thing I did all day was buy some groceries, do laundry and clean.

Ups and Downs

Posted on by
1

I went to the doctor again today and he said the graft on my ear looks better than yesterday. He has a camera hooked up to where you can see inside of your ear on a monitor on the wall. He had me look yesterday and it was obviously very pink and inflamed and today you could tell it wasn’t as irritated. He said it was turning back to white, which is good.

He’s really nice. He said, “During the recovery process there will be ups and downs. The past few days we experienced some downs, but we’re working through them.” I go back again tomorrow and probably Monday too.

Afterwards I went to my favorite neighborhood restaurant. It’s a small hole in the wall kinda place. It’s the Korean version of fast food restaurant (no drive thru, but they do deliver). The most expensive thing on the menu is 5,500 ₩ which is just over $5. That is a sweet potato and cheese stuffed fried pork cutlet. It’s much better than it probably sounds. Today, I got 제육덮밥 (jae-yook-dup-bap).  It’s basically stir fried pork and veggies in a red sauce that’s a little bit spicy served with rice. It also comes with miso soup and a tray of side dishes. Every Korean meal comes with side dishes. Today’s sides at the restaurant were kimchi, some kind of potato/macaroni salad thing, fish cakes, and dried anchovies mixed with some sort of green veggie. All that for 4,000 ₩ (about $3.50).

I had to go to a cheap place because I am skint (my new English word for broke). After what I spent today, I only have 1,315 ₩ (less than $1) in my bank account. Thank goodness tomorrow is payday!

Ear Surgery in Busan Korea

Posted on by
3

Medhelp.com says:

“A ruptured eardrum is a perforation of the thin membrane that separates the outer ear from the inner ear. Symptoms of a ruptured eardrum include severe pain, hearing loss, discharge from the ear, or ringing in the ear. A ruptured eardrum may be uncomfortable but will usually heal on its own within a couple of months.”

As you may know, I suffered an ear injury about 8 months ago, before I came to Korea. The quote above says that the eardrum usually heals within a couple of months, but my hole was too big to heal on its own. It was actually about half the size of my eardrum. I got used to it and it didn’t cause me any problems other than a slight hearing loss in that ear and I had to protect my ear when showering.

The surgery back home would have cost me several hundred dollars (maybe up to a thousand) so I opted to wait until I got to Korea. I found a great doctor that speaks perfect English. He only performs surgeries on Wednesday mornings so it was a while before he could fit me in. Last Wednesday was the big day.

ear doctor in Busan Korea

The doctor gave me a mild sedative to take the night before and the morning of the surgery. I went in at 8:20 and was given some scrubs to change into.

ear doctor Busan

Next, I waited in the recovery room until they were ready to take me into the operating room.  In the operating room before the surgery, the doctor made small talk with me and held my hand for a bit to make me feel comfortable. He asked me if my parents were worried and asked if we were Christians. He said he was too. They then attached me to a valium IV and it was go time. The doctor said a prayer for me. It was in Korean so I didn’t really know what was going on until he said, “In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

The surgery was simple and involved grafting some of my own skin, taken from the tragus part of my ear and attaching it to my eardrum.

(this is not my actual ear)

I was awake during the surgery, but very relaxed thanks to the sedative and valium. As I was getting up from the operating table, I realized that I was pretty out of it. With the help of the nurse, I walked like a drunk person back into the recovery room and laid down. After the nurse left, I realized I really needed to go to the bathroom, but I was still connected to the IV and knew that I needed help walking to the bathroom so I laid there and contemplated what to do. Finally, I decided to reach up and knock on the door to the operating room where I could hear the nurses cleaning up. It took 3 times for them to realize that I was knocking.

ear doctor in Korea

When the nurse came in, I tried to explain that I really need to go to the bathroom, but the nurse didn’t understand. I pointed to the bathroom door and she thought I was pointing to the other bed and tried bringing me a pillow. You’d think after being in Korea for 7 months that I, of all people, would know the Korean word for bathroom, but I never learned it because it was kind of long and difficult to pronounce. I did learn to read Korean and fortunately for me the Korean word for toilet was written above the English word on the sign on the door. It read “화장실” so I slowly sounded out “hwa-jang-sil.” She quickly understood and she unhooked my IV bag from the stand and I was able to use the bathroom.

I was very nauseous after the surgery. I tried telling the nurse I felt sick and might need some sort of bowl or something just in case, but she was completely lost. That’s when my awesome charades skills came in handy. I got to act like I was getting sick and then motion like I was doing so into a bowl of some sort. She brought back a plastic sack… and the doctor. The doctor said it was probably due to the temperature difference in the gel packing he put in my ear. I think it was probably the valium. The nurse gave me a shot in the bum for the nausea and they took me off of the valium. It helped.

I had a difficult time sleeping because I was in a lot of pain. I dozed in and out and might have though a lot of expletives to cope with the excruciating pain. I was given another shot in the bum around 3pm. This one was for pain and it did the trick. I laid there for a bit longer and then I was able to change clothes and wait to see the doctor in his office. He knew I had planned to walk home (about 7 minutes away) and asked me if I felt well enough to do so. I said yes and he cautioned me to hold on to the handrail very tightly as I was walking downstairs. I paid at the front desk on the way out. The surgery was 84,000 won, which is just about $75.

I was pain free most of the day on Wednesday, but found that I was in a lot of pain that night and that carried on into the next few days. The doctor prescribed me antibiotics, an anti inflammatory and pain medication and also gave me a sedative to sleep better the next day.

Finally by Saturday I felt well enough to get up and do some actual cooking and today (Monday) I am back at school teaching.  I feel so much better. The only problem I’m having is that I really can’t hear out of my left ear, but that’s probably due to the fact that I have gauze packed in my ear and my ear is covered by band-aids. I have seen the doctor almost every day since the surgery (except Satuday and Sunday) and he’s going to keep a close eye on me. I pay 3,800 won each time (just under $3.50).

The success rate of the surgery is 80% so everyone send positive thoughts my way. I do not want to be one of the 20% that has to do this again.

The doctor gave me a picture of my eardrum after the graft. I have made the size really small in case you’re squeamish. You can click on the picture to see it in full size.

eardrum graft in Korea

If you found this blog post because you’re looking for an ear doctor in Busan, here is my best attempt at giving directions:

I don’t have the address, but here are the coordinates: 35.207421, 129.071156
The closest subway station to the office is Minam Station (on the brown line). I believe the subway exit number is 12, which is at the intersection of Minam-ro and the road towards Dongnae Station.
You want to walk towards Dongnae Station (away from Mandeok/Deokcheon) on the left side of the road. If you aren’t familiar with the area, there should be road signs that help direct you. There should be a bus stop not that far ahead, the doctor is right behind that.
Other things to look for: The doctor’s office is right before SK Oil and across the street from GS25 and GwangHye General Hospital.
To get to the doctor’s office, go in the last door on the building (closest to SK Oil), right after the pharmacy (it’s the glass door with yellow letters on it, there’s a photo above) and go up to the 2nd floor.
If you found this post helpful, please let me know. And if you went to this doctor after reading my post, please let me know how your experience was.

Chuseok

Posted on by
Reply

I am off work Friday – Wednesday for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). I am heading to Japan in the morning and I get back to Busan around noon on Monday. The actual Chuseok holiday falls on Monday and Tuesday. I don’t really have anything going on during that time, but on Wednesday I have ear surgery and I took off work on Thursday and Friday to recover. Sooo… I have the next 10 days off. It’s the longest amount of time I’ve had off work at once since coming to Korea just over 6 months ago. I’ll post pics from the Philippines and Japan when I get back.

さようなら
Sayōnara!

Baseball in Busan

Posted on by
1

Thursday, April 14

So… I am still trying to play catch up on here so this post is about a baseball game I went to back in April.

Baseball is very popular in Korea, but Busan is especially famous for baseball and it ‘s not because they have a good team (they have lost 2 of the 3 games I’ve been to). The Busan Lotte Giants are famous for their cheerleaders!

The cheerleaders even change outfits throughout the game!

The great thing about baseball games in Korea is that you can bring in your own food and drinks. Yep… even beer! And people don’t hold back. I have seen small groups of people carry in cases of bottled water and beer. I mean, seriously… how much water can you really drink in a 3 hour span.

Another thing that’s quite popular are these newspaper pom-poms. People tear up newspaper and make pom-poms out of them. This one was generously given to us by a friendly Korean at the game.

Here are the gals at the game.

Ben, Chris and Stella

We made friends with the girls behind us…

And the guys in front of us…

You might be wondering why everyone’s putting orange sacks on their heads… you are, right? Towards the end of the game, they pass out these sacks so everyone can put their trash in them to make it easier for the clean up crews after the game. Somehow people decided to make hats out of them and wear them until they were ready to dispose of their waste. It caught on and now it’s just a thing you do at Lotte Giants games.

You can also make cute bows out of the bags. That’s a bit more than I am capable of, but Chris and Stella seemed to figure it out.

Hanging with the guys… Tim & Justin

It was a great time… baseball in Busan is so much fun!

Go Giants!!

One final interesting fact about baseball teams in Korea:

Back home, teams are named after the city they are from and the stadiums are usually sponsored by and therefore named after companies. Here, it’s the opposite. The Lotte Giants play at Busan Stadium. Lotte is a HUGE company here. It is the name of the major department store chain and you see that brand name every day. Some other baseball teams in Korea are the Samsung Lions (from Daegu), Kia Tigers (from Gwangju) and LG Twins (from Seoul).

Advice for an EPIK applicant

Posted on by
12
**Please note that contract details and application requirements have drastically changed since I applied (and are constantly being changed), but let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to help.**

I was recently asked by Emma of Emma’s New Groove if I have any advice for someone applying for EPIK (English Program in Korea). I definitely do!

reflections

My first bit of advice is get your documents together…. NOW! Recommendation letters, background check, passport photos, etc. I applied through a recruiter (Korvia) because the process intimidated me and I wanted someone to hold my hand along the way. As I was in the process of applying, I wished I had gone through EPIK directly (http://www.epik.go.kr/).
Busan burial mound Bokcheon
Decide which level you want to teach. Every level has its ups and downs. The up side to elementary is that you will more than likely have an active co-teacher, meaning you will literally be CO-teaching. The down side is that some of the co-teachers are crotchedy and stuck in their ways, but it’s just the luck of the draw and every level has good and bad co-teachers. In middle and high school you will more than likely be teaching alone. If your co-teacher is in the class, he or she will probably only be there to play the role of disciplinarian. You may or may not be teaching out of the book. Some people like the freedom of not having to work out of a book, but you have to come up with all new ideas every week. The good news is that there’s a large community of English teachers in Korea that are more than happy to share ideas.
Teach English in Korea EPIK
Decide where in Korea you want to work. Do you want to go urban or rural? Do some research. If you can swing it, try rural. You get paid more and a lot of times the rural cities aren’t as small as you’re afraid they will be. Korea’s a small place so it’s fairly easy to get around on the weekends. I chose urban and ended up in Busan. I love Busan. I think it’s great and would highly recommend it to anyone. It’s not as hot in the summer here, but it is very humid. I’ve been told it doesn’t really snow here in the winter, but it is quite windy so the cold is a bit bitter. I’ve heard that Busan is quite popular so if you’re interested in working here, APPLY EARLY. **On your application you’ll be asked to pick one preferred office of education to work for. The next question asks if you are willing to work in other provinces or if you’d like to withdraw your application if the office of education to selected is unavailable.**
Capture the Colour 2013 Green

Boseong Green Tea Plantation

Be patient. This application process is one of the most painful things you can go through. It will stress you out like no other. The best way to experience the least amount of stress is to apply early. It’s still going to take you forever to find out if you got a job, but your odds are better. If you apply early, pass your interview and send your documents in right away, you are probably going to get a position. You probably will not know if you have gotten a position until a month before it’s time to go to Korea. For the fall intake, I think some didn’t find out until a week or two before.
Take a picture of 2 family mart employees making a heart with their arms- 50

Scavenger Hunt – Take a photo of convenience store employees making a heart with their arms

Get doubles of documents. Ask for 2 (or more) copies of the same recommendation letter, get at least two background checks, apostilled copies of your diploma and transcripts. If EPIK falls through and you’re still serious about going to Korea, you’ll need backup documents because EPIK won’t be returning what you’ve already submitted. You don’t want to scramble at the last minute. Also, if you’re in Korea and want to change jobs for the second year, you’ll already have extra documents and it will make the application process much easier.
day 67
Look online for a Facebook group so you can share your experiences with other people that are going through what you are. Other places like Daves ESL Cafe and Waygook.org can be helpful, but once you apply it’s nice to be able to cut out all of the crap and just talk about what you want. It can also be a good way to network and make friends before you go. Most of you will be going alone so it doesn’t hurt to make all of the friends you can.
Making a toast

Thanksgiving pot luck

EPIK has now started making “official” facebook groups for applicants that are monitored by them. It’s nice that they see the need for it, but I think it’s much nicer to be able to form a community with your peers rather than being in a group formed by EPIK. If you agree, don’t be afraid to make your own group for your intake. EPIK does have an official facebook page with a lot of great information so be sure to check it out.
144
I hope this is helpful to any people thinking about applying to EPIK. Korea is amazing and I think it’s well worth the journey. It will be a year of your life that you’ll never forget. If you have any more questions, please post a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Jusanji Korea at sunrise

Summer Camp, the Conclusion

Posted on by
1

During the 2nd week of camp, I taught 3rd & 4th graders. I had a lot of fun. The 3rd and 4th graders are the highest level for their age and it’s a lot easier to plan activities for them. Here are some pics…

  

  

My absolute favorite!

  

During week 2 the students “graduated” camp with certificates from the vice principal. On the last day of camp, the vice principal also invited the 3rd and 4th graders to come back to camp the following week along with the 5th graders. For me, this meant I had to make all new lesson plans at the last minute. In the end, everything went well and I had a great time at camp. But I am glad that I don’t have to do that again until the winter!

Week 3 Pictures…

We played a “Trash Ball Game.” The students answered questions for a chance to throw wadded up paper into a box.

  

These boys said the book was easy so I made them read it to the class.

During week 3, the principal handed out the certificates.

We also gave certificates to the parents.

Summer vacation!

Posted on by
Reply

I have been looking forward to summer vacation for MONTHS! JuHye and I booked a trip to the Philippines back in early May. We have been waiting so long to go that it almost feels unreal that it’s finally here!

We met up on Tuesday evening in front of Paris Baguette to take the bus to the airport. The weather was rainy and gross so we were both excited to get out of Korea for a while.

The four hour flight to Cebu was very smooth. We had seats in the exit row and that seemed great in theory, but the leg room wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that our seats didn’t recline. I can’t complain though. One of my favorite parts about the plane ride was that everything was in English! It’s amazing the great feeling you can get from something that simple. After being in Korea for 6 months, it was wonderful to be around other English speaking foreigners.

We got into Cebu around midnight and then we had to go through customs. The line was long, but the process was pretty painless. We walked out of the airport to find a taxi to the hotel when I heard JuHye say, “That’s my name!” She kept walking and I was looking around to see what she was talking about when I saw a man holding a sign that said “JuHye Lee.” Upon further inspection, I noticed that the sign said the name of the hotel we had booked for the night. I said, “JuHye, that IS your name!” We had a free hotel shuttle service and we didn’t even know. It was great.

The hotel we stayed at on Tuesday night wasn’t great. We booked something cheap and close to the airport because we knew that our flight didn’t get until late so we wanted to save some money. We slept with the window open and we woke up with the roosters. They have been crowing ever since. The room came with free breakfast, which was nice. The menu was pretty hilarious. It had breakfasts to suit every taste. There was the “Kim” that was a Korean style breakfast that included panjeon (seafood pancake) and rice. JuHye had the Lulu that was a pancake and fruit. I had the Diego, which was an omelet with salsa. There was also the “Joe” that had steak, gravy and french fries. Too funny.

I am posting this from my phone at the restaurant at the hotel we are staying at. I’m not sure if the next hotel will have wifi so this may be the last post for a while.

20110824-123355.jpg

Urban Hike

Posted on by
4

I recently ran across a Busan etour website and found my neighborhood and discovered all sorts of things that I never knew existed. On Sunday I decided to set out alone to explore my area.

Dongnae Station is in the middle of the map. I live near Minam Station (left of Dongnae), which is about a 15 minute walk from Dongnae Station. I make this walk all of the time. If you look at the map, you can see that there are all sorts of landmarks in the area behind Dongnae Station so I decided to go exploring and see if I could find any of the things listed on the map.

I was basically wandering aimlessly. I just started walking in what I thought might be the general direction of things and hoped eventually I might run into something on the map. The first thing I came across wasn’t actually on the map.

   

  

The cool thing about this place was that it was tucked away in the middle of an outdoor market that I just happened to decide to walk through.

Next, I saw something that looked interesting so I walked up the winding driveway and it happened to lead to a Buddhist temple. The temple was quite busy. I saw many people heading up the stairs and there were women out front greeting people as they entered. They bowed to me when I walked up so I said, “annyeong haseyo” (hello) and they all giggled. They were super cute so I decided to try to ask them directions to one of the places on the map. I showed them the map on my iPhone and they all discussed things amongst themselves before they called over another woman who spoke a bit of English. That woman asked me where I was trying to go and then walked me back down the winding driveway so she could give me better directions. Her directions weren’t extremely clear so I ended up getting a bit lost.

I was trying to find Beokcheondong Gobungun Ancient Tombs. The woman told me that I should walk past these apartments so that’s what I did. If you click on the picture, you can see that the tombs are in the background, but there’s just no way to get to them from where I was. I kept walking up and behind this area, but it came to a dead end. It was so frustrating because I could see the tombs and the museum… I was walking all around them… but I just couldn’t figure out how to get to them.

  

So I went back and decided to keep walking even farther past the apartments on the main street. It worked out for the best because I came across some other nice finds, including a Confucian school and this man, decked out in full hiking gear, that I though truly represented my “Urban Hike” theme.

  

  

I had been walking for a few hours at this point and I was beginning to get exhausted, but I was determined to find the tombs before heading back home. I followed the road and took the first right at the next major intersection and I just kept walking…

 

I was so close to quitting, but I didn’t. I pushed through and I’m so glad I did because after the bend in the road, I finally found what it was I was looking for (and more)!

First I walked up the trail…

  

Then through the Dongnae Eupseong Fortress and Science Park…

  

As I walked a little further, I knew I was in the right place!

  

After the long journey I had just endured, it felt AMAZING to walk across this bridge because it led straight to the tombs. Success!

  

  

Sunday’s hike was so much fun. I can’t wait to get out there and explore some more!

I hope you clicked on some of the pics. I know the pictures don’t really do it justice, but the views were truly amazing.

Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

I have been wanting to join a gym since I got to Korea, but there aren’t really any near where I live so I opted to workout at home. It’s been a bit of a struggle because my motivation comes and goes. A few months ago I went to Daegu and saw a flyer for Curves. I didn’t even realize there were Curves in Korea.

On Saturday morning I searched the Curves website to see if there was one near me. The website showed an address (in English) for one in Sajik, which is just one subway stop away from where I live. The problem with finding addresses in English is that it makes it somewhat difficult to locate the place on a map. I had to use my very minimal Korean skills to translate at least part of the address into something I could input into the GPS on my phone so I could figure out where the Curves was located. It took awhile, but I was able to locate what I thought was Curves with my phone. It definitely felt like quite an accomplishment.

I set out to find the Curves and was successful! The building wasn’t where I thought it was, but it was closer so that was a good thing. I didn’t remember to time it, but it was probably about a 15-20 minute walk from my apartment. I wasn’t really expecting them to be open (it was about noon), but they were. I ended up signing up. The woman that was working was really nice and she knew enough English so that there were no problems. I’m going back Monday for my first workout. I am familiar with all of the machines because I worked at Curves for several years. The only thing that they have that I’m not familiar with is the stretching machine. I’m excited to try it out.

Immediately after I signed up at Curves I headed to the subway station and went to meet up with some friends to go see a show called “Ballerina Who Loves B-boy.” It’s a non-verbal dance show where a ballerina falls in love with a b-boy and quits ballet so she can dance (really terribly) with her b-boy boyfriend. The b-boys were great, but the story wasn’t very good. There was definitely room for improvement. It was a fun show though and I stayed entertained through most of it, but there were a few odd “I don’t know what’s going on right now…” moments. We paid 50,000 won ($47.50) for our tickets and we had amazing seats. Afterwards Faith and I went to Nampodong to do some shopping and have dinner and then we both headed home.

Coming up next: Sunday

On Sunday I decided to go exploring in my neighborhood and it turned into an amazing 4 hour urban hike. Come back tomorrow to see the pics.