Seoul sojourn - lots of pictures (click to see full size!)

That's me, on the roof! This is the view from Kyle and Charisa's apartment in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, Seoul.

This past weekend (the weekend of September 15-16th) we went on a trip to Goyang in Seoul to visit some friends from college that came here about 6 months before we arrived. They also attended the same college we went to and we both had classes with Charisa (anthropology, woohoo). Our conversations with them first started back in February when they had first arrived in South Korea and that's when we started our own process and now here we are. We were finally able to come see them in Seoul!

We started our trip by bus kind of late due to Zach still working at the school teaching adult classes later in the evening. Our boss took me to go pick him up and she helped us get bus tickets. We were going to try to get into the Gangnam Express Bus Station, but were informed that the buses to the Gangnam station were no longer running for the night (it was about 9pm by this point). Instead we ended up taking the bus to Nambu Station which is not far from the Gangnam station. So we were ushered onto the bus by our boss, instructed to fasten our seatbelts (I'll get pictures sometime, they're interesting), and hugged. Then she even decided to go next to the bus and wave as we were leaving... it's okay other mom, we'll be alright.

So then we were on the bus for about an hour and a half and the ride was really pretty. I wish I had taken some pictures, but we just ended up chatting on the way there. The bus ride is cheap too, we made it up to Seoul for only 7,400 won which is pretty nice.

Having called Kyle and Charisa beforehand to let them know we'd be going to a different bus station, they met us there at the terminal and I was probably way too excited, but I couldn't help it. It's just so exciting to see familiar faces. Again, there was that sense of everything being so very foreign since we were in a city that wasn't our own, so it took some adjusting.

Seoul has an amazing metro system though and that's how we got back to Kyle and Charisa's apartment. We had hand me down T-Money cards for the subway system that we just loaded (more) money onto and then we were good to go.

We were just further down on the orange line which was good for us because that's the line we needed to get back to their apartment. So we hopped on and stood or sat (depending on opportunity) and rode the hour or so back to their place. The traffic picked up on the subway as we progressed through busier parts of Seoul and then dispersed as we got further away and closer to Goyang. Finally we reached the end (well, near the end of the orange line, there were a couple more stops) and got off and went to go have dinner. 

Dinner was at a small local place and we shared an entree and a salad with fruit. They also had these puffed rice snack-y things that are like small tubes and dried seaweed strips with some soy sauce. I may have made the seaweed disappear. Having mentioned sharing, that's just what you do here. You're going out for a meal? You order several things and everyone shares. This is my kind of place. The chicken/shrimp we had was delicious and the salad was a pineapple salad with fruit including kiwi, some mozzarella balls, and small tomatoes. We also had kiwi soju which was essentially soju with kiwi juice. It was really good. That said, I've been informed that soju by itself is terrible, but with things you don't even know it's there which is why it's so dangerous. The Koreans are good at drinking. That reminds me of something else to, we saw this incredibly smashed lady being held up by a man and a woman outside of the restaurant we were at. She was so gone she couldn't stand up and just crumpled to the ground without support. Hurray drinking culture?

After dinner we walked up to their apartment which is a small building sandwiched between many others. Since it was probably closer to 1am at this point we decided that talking and catching up was the best route and finally settled in to sleep at 3am or so. We talked about living in South Korea, their plans, grad school, Zach and Charisa talked anthropology and classmates while Kyle and I talked games and life in college. 

 It was good, plus we got to meet their pet snails. Then we finally did that sleeping thing (yes, I know I mentioned that above).

The next day Kyle had to run out to take care of something in the morning and we slept kind of late, but we went out to get breakfast with Charisa and wander around Goyang. First things first though, we went up and took pictures on the roof!

After taking some time on the roof we finally decided to go get breakfast and walked through a really neat local market. I wish I had my camera because it was so very interesting. We did see some cool things that I did get a quick picture with though.

Kyle made it back to the apartment before we had, so we just hung out for a while and they showed us their pet snails (for a Dream Science project at school) and then we decided to head out and go exploring. First things first were lunch and stopping at the iPark mall. In order to do that though, it was back onto the metro!

We did some line hopping from the orange line to a few others to get where we needed to go. The metro system is interesting because in order to figure out if your train is coming you need to listen and know which way you're headed. Trains heading in to Seoul have accompanying music that sounds like a happy trumpet march when you know your train is close. The other one, which is harder to explain, is more mellow and that indicates that the train coming is one that is headed away from Seoul. 

As a side note, the subways were interesting, there were ads everywhere and on one of the ones with video there was an ad for the new World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria. There were also ads for some super anime game which I assume is for your smart phone. Speaking of phones too, everyone on the subway is either reading, listening to music, watching a show on their phone, playing on their phone, texting, or some combination of the former. 

Then we got lunch! It was delicious and they make it right in front of you. 

There was so much food, we didn't finish it all by any means. 

After that we began our trek to the iPark mall which is close, but not close enough that we avoid the subway, so subway it was. The iPark mall is huge and confusing and you can probably find anything you could ever need there. There is a map and the map is even confusing. While picking our way around we passed by the cosmetics and purses and designer clothing (I saw ads with Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio in one store). After failing to get where we needed to go we left the building and went in somewhere else and got to the more interesting part of the mall. 

We had been discussing computers the night before and the fact that Charisa had gotten a really nice computer from the iPark mall and got a really good price since you can haggle and get them to drop the price down. Well, SOMEONE, I won't name names, decided it was a good idea to get one for me. An elaborate (okay, not that elaborate) scheme was hatched to keep me busy while SOMEONE and Charisa went to get the computer for me and Kyle took me around the mall. 

In the end I was given a really nice computer (so now we can play games together when it gets cold and miserable out since mine was on its way out) and we had a good time at the mall. At least I got a nice tour of the mall while we were exploring! You can get married on the 6th floor and then go to a Starcraft tournament on the 7th floor! We went outside onto the roof from the 7th floor and checked out the view. 

This is the courtyard of the iPark mall. The place seriously has everything.

Then, with laptop in tow (with some cool extras) we hopped back on the subway so we could make it to the Han River trail so we could watch the water show on on of the bridges once it got dark out. 

Off we went! Little did we know that we would meet a super cute dog whose owner was really nice. She liked us a lot for whatever reason. 

That's Seoul Tower on that smaller hill. 

She had recently gotten a new camera, so we were out taking pictures.

The view on the Han River trail is gorgeous.

The lighting is weird, but I love this picture!

Taking a picture of Zach taking a picture of Charisa taking a picture of the sunset. 

Then we decided to keep walking further down the trail, closer to the bridge where the show would take place. There were lots of people around and some had tents where they were just hanging out. There were some kites in the sky since it was so nice near the river. We discovered that we could get a kite of our own, so we did!

Kyle and I were experts (haha) so we decided to teach Zach and Charisa our mad kite skills. We also hatched a plan to open a kite shop with a few additional stores. 

Kite master!

Yes, that blur is Zach trying to capture the kite. 

After that we decided to wait for the show and went to one of the lookouts near the river. It was surprisingly cool and the temperature dropped pretty fast. 

The view of Banpo Bridge (above) and Jamsu Bridge (below). The two bridges connect Yongsan and Seoncho districts.  When there's flooding Jamsu Bridge is closed and all the traffic goes on the Banpo Bridge instead.

After the show we started walking toward Itaewon which is the big foreign district (with the army base nearby and all) to stop for something to eat for dinner. On the way though we saw some really interesting graffiti. 

Anyway, we walked to Itaewon and grabbed dinner at this small pub which had American food and was kind of cute. They played popular music from a variety of time periods. We were going to go check out the red light district but decided not to since we had a train to catch in order to get back to Goyang. 

Speaking of the train, we realized we were running out of time to catch the train back to Goyang, so we had to rush. We were counting down the stops until we could get off and change train lines and we were worried we would miss it and have to take the bus which is complicated. So what did we do? We decided that we needed to run. We hopped off the train as soon as the doors opened and ran up several flights of stairs, up an escalator, around a few corners and... we got extremely lucky. The metro, which is usually on time and very precise, was a few minutes/stops late, so we didn't even need to run. Charisa had said that we scared some other people into running, actually. By the way, I was dead last. 

This is one of the advertisements for a game. We looked at the picture and it really makes no sense.

Fortunately we hopped on our train and settled in for the 45 minute trip back to the apartment. We finally returned and we started getting the new computer set up and they decided it was time to walk the snails. 

After listening to some music, some snail walking, and relaxing it was time for bed again after the long day. We decided that we would leave the following day after grabbing breakfast. We attempted to leave from the Gangnam Express station again, but couldn't find it and just ended up leaving from Nambu Station. We grabbed Burger King for lunch since it was right there anyway (it was deeelicious) and then waited for our 12:30pm bus to arrive and take us back to Cheongju. 

We started getting some rain on the way back since it was part of the outer rings of one of the typhoons, but we otherwise made it back safely, if a bit soggy. Since we didn't have much to eat at the apartment we stopped at a small store, grabbed some food, and then headed back to relax. 

We had a good time and we're definitely looking forward to visiting Seoul again!

Hello Cheongju! (Manda's version of the trip)

This was one of our first views of Choengju.

We finally made it to our destination! Said destination being Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea. It was a very, very long trip, but we're glad to say that we did make it back in one piece.

First things first, we made it to the Philly airport around 2:30am or so (on very little sleep), which meant we had forever to wait. Luckily for us, the airline had a way to make us be patient and wait. By that I mean that we waited around for an hour for the person from United Airlines to check us in until probably 3:30am. Then we finally waded through security with no issues and waited for the plane. We did manage to grab a quick breakfast before the 6 hour flight, which was great because the trip did not include a whole lot of food in general. So breakfast was an egg and cheese sandwich and a smoothie. 

Then we boarded the first flight, which was okay, but not my favorite thing ever. Sleep was kind of an off and on thing all day, but nothing major so we were already getting tired.  The flight was pretty non-remarkable though, which is fine. Though Zach just reminded me that there was a pretty white and black kitty across the aisle from us in a carrier. It was so good, it didn't even make a peep. 

At that point we had made it to San Francisco and had little time to spare since our layover was only for an hour and twenty minutes. We had just enough time to grab something to eat (which we didn't even have time to eat all of our sandwiches!) and get to the terminal before it was time to start boarding. In that time we also had calls and texting to do, plus I was able to just make it to suspend our phone accounts so I won't be billed for 3 months and we can still use them in South Korea by picking up free wifi. So we fit all that into the tiny bit of time and then we boarded the plane.

Did I mention that the plane is huge? 

As weird as it is, I actually enjoyed the longer flight more than the smaller one (mostly). The lack of leg room was already bad and the guy in front of me leaned back his seat so I stuck my legs into the aisle as much as possible. I guess there's only so much you can do when you pack approximately 300 people onto a plane though. 

Really long flights are interesting in my perspective though. I feel like you absolutely hate it and the time drags in the first 3 or so hours, but then you reach the point where you're just like, "well, I'm here, might as well just suffer with everyone else" and then it isn't as bad. Then you just watch the crappy movies (we got to watch The Avengers though, so that was pretty nice), eat the kind of crappy meals (first it was chicken and rice or beef bolgogi and rice, then it was either a turkey sandwich or noodles and potstickers; they even gave us a late night snack!), and learn little things about the people around you just by being in close proximity. 

You can see Zach in the picture above (on the right side with the plaid/stripey stuff going on), to his right was this short woman with an accent I didn't recognize. She had brought her own slippers and had a stuffed moose that she cuddled with. She was nice. Then you can see the guy across the aisle from me in the white shirt. He was alternately on his iPhone or his Mac and did some reading on a few powerpoint presentations, so I'm thinking he was a student. One of the papers he was reading was about Buddhism and Chinese writing or something. The rest was in Korean so I had no idea. 

I think we both catnapped off and on, but it was very hard to sleep for longer periods because the lack of leg room makes your knees and legs ache. I got up pretty frequently, especially later on, because sitting there not being able to get comfortable can drive you crazy. All things considered, not a bad flight.

Just flying over Japan, no big deal.

So I finally took the picture above near the end of the flight as we were going over Japan. That was pretty neat and the mountains were gorgeous. 

I wish I had taken some pictures at the airport in Incheon, but I didn't as I was mostly just trying to get on the wifi to send emails to people to let them know we made it (okay, and I checked in on Foursquare, I will admit it). Then we shuffled through immigration and downstairs to gather our luggage. After that we just turned in our information to customs and went through were we met a man who helped us buy a bus ticket to Cheongju and waited until we left. Zach ran back into the airport while we were waiting to get a bottle of water as we both needed it, and it was 1,000 won, which is about $ 0.88 USD, which isn't bad. 

You need one of these to hop on a bus. 

The bus ride was interesting, we went through Incheon and then Seoul, watching the buildings and signs. There are so many buildings and so many businesses in buildings everywhere. On the way through that area I saw a Papa John's, a Dominoes, and tons and tons of other businesses. There was also this really neat children's library that was round and kind of made me think of the Death Star from Star Wars. The architecture around here is really neat though, lots of big artsy buildings and art and generally interesting things. 

This was just as we got on the bus, shortly after leaving the airport.

At this point, I have to say that things were less interesting for me, because I fell asleep. After being awake and traveling for more than 24 hours (we're clocking closer to 30 hours at this point in the trip), it just caught up with me and it was time to sleep for a few. We both fell asleep off and on while we were on the bus and and about 2 and a half hours after we boarded the bus we were off and at the bus station in Cheongju. 

We weren't sure what was happening at that point as we thought that we would be meeting the director at the bus station. Instead we met Christina who is a part time teacher at the school. She was very nice and got us where we needed to go, after a little confusion. 

Cheongju welcomed us with a rainbow!

Just in case you needed to know where you were.

Finally, after the short drive we made it to the school and found out that we're going to be living upstairs, above the school. We're on the 3rd floor of the building, which is kind of neat. As far as location, we're located on the southern side of Cheongju (I think) near the outskirts, which has its advantages and disadvantages. 

We had a quick dinner at a local restaurant and had pork and the other usual Korean fare, which we will get into more later on. We also met the current foreign teachers that live here, they will be leaving in a week to head back to the states after being here for 2 years. I am really hoping that they will be able to show us the ropes before we go so we aren't flailing quite as much. We are actually shadowing them today (it's 9:30am here, so almost time for classes to start). Since we have had so much morning downtime we've been listening to dogs bark and I've been doing some bird watching (there are some noisy black and white birds outside that I've been watching).

After that we fell into blissful sleep after an exhausting day. Once we were told how to turn on the air conditioner it was even better. It's apparently been hot and wet here, so I guess we'll get used to that. In fact, we're expecting this early next week...

This is Bolaven apparently, which will hit us on Monday.

I will update this again soon (and add what I probably missed), for now it's time to start the day's adventure though and hope we make it through in one piece. ^-^

Our final date and prep, also Pennsylvania (again)

So this blog post is from the magical and mystical realm of Pennsylvania.  We decided for several reasons it would be best to leave from Philly airport even though it would add an even longer flight before our already 12ish hour flight from California to Incheon international airport.  There at the airport one of the recruiters from Starteachers is going to meet us and make sure we get on the correct bus to Cheongju, where the director of the school will meet us at the bus stop and everything will be fabulous.  We still have not actually seen pictures or know any sort of layout of the apartment we will be staying in but we are optimistic that it will be nice.  The first few months are going to be an adventure of not knowing any of the language, not knowing our way around, and not being terrible teachers to the poor students under our care.  We are also going to be provided two cellphones from the school, we are not sure yet whether we will be paying for the monthly or if the school will foot the bill for that particular expense.  Our official leaving date is Wednesday the 22nd around 6am.  We will then spend about 20ish hours total until we reach our destination on minimal sleep and extreme stress.  Luckily when we arrive in Korea it will be early evening so it will be easy to crash and get on their sleeping schedule (hopefully).  

Its hard to describe how excited I really am at the prospect of the trip.  It has been such a long and drawn out process just getting to this point, and more expensive than I would have liked.  Despite everything that could have gone wrong we have our visas in hand, and we have our tickets all paid for and a car coming to get us at 1:30 in the morning Wednesday (yaaaay).  It is going to be 20 hours in the air and about a three hour bus ride.  This will be the longest I have ever traveled straight and I will probably be super cranky and tired.  I will be sure to fill this blog with all my travel comments minus the copious amounts of expletives I will likely use.

In other news there is an island in Japan called Cat Island (Tashiro Island) which is filled with old people and kitty cats.  I have decided I must go there and pet all the cats.  I have not decided whether I will attempt to pet the old people or not since I am not sure if they have their rabies shots yet.  I will ask their cat owners if the elderly are up on their shots when I go there.  CAT ISLAND

CAT ISLAND








CAT ISLAND

What do I want out of this whole thing?

I feel like one of these right now. Busy busy busy (and kinda sweet).

So it's probably pretty obvious that one of the primary reasons we're going over to South Korea is to teach English and work full time in a new culture. One thing I've been thinking about though is what my personal plans/goals/ideas for South Korea are.

I've had to come back to this blog entry, so it's probably kind of disjointed, but things have been even more busy. Things have been changed around a bit and we are now leaving later since our flight has been moved and we both got colds! I still have some plans in mind for South Korea though.

So why do I want to go to South Korea? Well, I find people and culture very fascinating, including our own culture here in the US. While there are lots of types of adventures to be had in a foreign country, I am also just really interested in visiting the neighborhood. I would love to travel and see different parts of South Korea, which I am sure we will do, but I'm looking forward to just going shopping at a local store or walking around in the city. I am fascinated by the food and the people and historical sights, museums, lots of small things that aren't something you may really even think about. Those are the things that I'm hoping to capture and bring to this blog, because it's always more fun with people who can (sort of) experience things with you!

Anticipation and interviews

Feeling a little sheepish about interviewing?  More information on the 10 o'clock news!

It's been a rather exciting couple of days for us. By exciting I mean that we've been talking to recruiters and emailing them back and forth about possible options and things seem pretty neat. There are still quite a few steps ahead of us, but it's exciting to be speaking to representatives and interviewing (by phone) for potential positions in South Korea. 

Tentatively, we're going to be speaking to people from schools in Gangdong-gu, Seoul and Daejeon, both of which have their positives and negatives. One would have us at the same school, but starting more immediately than may be good for us; the other would have us at two different schools owned by the same person, but would start at a more convenient date and puts us closer to the middle of the country which makes areas accessible by bullet train. Of course, we have to get through the interviewing process and then tackle contracts and visas, but one step at a time right?

As far as interviewing goes, that whole thing that this entry was supposed to be about, it seems like there really is no standard. My reading has lead me to believe that there really is no consistency and that schools really want to hear that you're enthused about teaching and working with the children. It's also good to ask questions because hey, there is probably a lot of information you want to know, right? and to show them that you're interested. I know that I want to know more about available resources, class sizes, what the day looks like, etc. Plus, it's nice to have some clarity of how things work both at the school and with housing and your location.

We will be keeping logs of questions and things discussed for the interviews as well so that we can share them on here later. Good for anyone who might be curious and also good for us for future reference for other interviews we will more than likely have.

Waiting sucks! Also trip to Pennsylvania

So Amanda and I went on a nice trip to Pennsylvania (my homeland) to visit my family and have my super special 27th birthday.  While the trip was fun it made me realize how much I miss PA, which I am sure will only get worse once we are in South Korea.  It has really made me at least start beginning to shape our plans  for once we get done with teaching in South Korea.  Perhaps we will begin to look for positions out on the east coast for when we get back.

That is one of the nicest things about the ESL Honeymoon, it gives us things to look forward to when we get back.  I am sure that we will be homesick when over there but luckily we will also be together which will make it easier to bear.  

                                                                  one of these things

As for the update on our positions we are still searching for the position which would be right for us.  We are currently going through a few agencies to find the positions which would fit us best.  Otherwise not much to report, but here are some more pictures of bears I got off of Google image search!

Look at these fabulous bastards

Thinkin' about honey and eating faces

You're not even a bear, why are you here?

Look at that rainbow, KABLAM

Anywho I will try to get around to updating more again, I just must stop being lazy.  Till next time!