Classes and Kuh Pee!

I feel like I am back in college with the hum of student life all around me. My day starts at 6 in the morning when I wake up to the cicadas and birds outside. There is also a Colosseum-esque soccer field in the middle of campus (with stone benches carved out in a high ring all around the field), so I can constantly hear Korean university students chatting, running and practicing soccer. I should mention that I can hear all of this commotion so well because we are sleeping with our windows open- there is no AC at night! I felt terrible for Corinne because she woke up this morning looking like she had the chicken pox from so many mosquito bites. She's black, and we keep joking that mosquitos must like that exotic dark meat because I don't have a single bite.

Since breakfast is not served until 7:50, I decided to strike out and find some coffee. They have it here on campus, but it is mostly instant coffee (and I prefer not to chew my morning brew ;o) ) Luckily, there are two coffee shops directly across from campus. TomTom Coffee and Dunkin' Donuts. To cross the street, you have to use an underground tunnel that goes beneath the intersection. If this seems extravagant, I assure you it's quite necessary. Korean drivers are maniacs, so there is constant horn-honking and cars and buses cutting each other off in daredevil moves. When you resurface on the shopping side of the street, it's like playing a game of vertical limbo. You have to bend and weave in and out of the crowds or risk getting mowed over by a 70-year-old Korean Grandma who is out on a mission to go visit her neighbors, walking as quickly as though she were jogging!

Unfortunately, TomTom's was closed, so I moseyed on over to the neon orange Dunkin' Donuts, which had a Star Trek door that you waved your hand in front of to make it open without touching it. One thing you notice straight away in Korea are all the funny English sayings on shirts, billboards, t.v., everywhere... So I immediately noticed a sign for a smoothie called "Vitamen good drink" This sort of stuff always makes me smile. I actually had called a friend earlier and offered to get her some coffee too, so I had the added challenge of ordering a caramel latte, no whip along with my plain black coffee. Let me tell you, there was a ton of gesturing, funny faces and exasperation. Coffee is pronounced "Kuh Pee" in Korean, and sentence structure is backwards ("Coffee I would like from you please") So I am pretty certain I bombed it. The girl who took my order was in training, so the manager ended up having to come out and he clearly was not impressed with my ordering skills. I stole as many sugars out of a box as I could (there was no cream and sugar is sooooo hard to find), threw 10,000 won ($10!) at them and rushed out. I brought my coffee with me to the cafeteria and my sugary cereal just in case breakfast was weird again and lo and behold: breakfast was deep fried calamari, shredded lettuce with cabbage and butternut squash soup. Everyone was giving me the stink eye as I munched on my frosted flakes and sipped coffee. Mwahaha!


The pictures are some random shots of campus. The path is the walk I have to take to get to the cafeteria (winds you every time!)I don't know why they happened to be throwing out all of those desks, only that one nearly decked Stephanie (The girl beside me) in the head while we were taking that picture. The picture of the card is to show you how I have to power our room. Koreans are very conservative energy-wise, so I have to put my room key in that slot to power the lights and fans. As you can see, it's veerrryyy tiny, so Corinne and I are in eachother's space whenever we are in the room at the same time. My phone (yes, I got a cellphone!) is somewhat temporary. I bought a used, prepaid phone so people can call me whenever. It was 50,000 won (about $45), and will last me until I decide to get a plan. I cannot apply for a plan until I have my alien registration card and even then I would have to add myself on to a Korean citizen's plan. The funny thing is, even though this is a "crappy" phone, it is soooo much cooler than any phone in the states. It was a live subway map, showing me what time the train will come in, a live TV function, voice recognition, an awesome camera, an mp3 player and a bajillion other nifty functions! Did I mention that a little man will speak the numbers when you dial them? It's great practice for learning them.





Classes are hit or miss here. Some are taught by legitimate teachers at the university while others are taught by someone my age standing at the front, looking embarrassed and apologetic. And a funny thing I should mention: the coordinators for TaLK all wear Lakers basketball jerseys. I haven't the faintest why this was the uniform of choice, but it's hilarious to see a bunch of Asian kids dressed like Lakers players trying to teach classes of 40-50 people.

Today, we had a class where we signed forms to open up our bank accounts and a class that gave us pointers for how to keep the kids interested and moving (literally doing physical games) in class. Since these are little kids and it is an after school class, one of the teachers was saying how we need to get the kids to walk around and get energized enough to pay attention. We got to watch videos of lots of little Korean kids milling around a teacher, chanting "Herro teacher, herro teacher, we see you, we rove you!". It's too fricken cute. But some of the older, more professional lecturers have tried to impress the point that some of these kids may be coming from very poor circumstances and could have learning disabilities, abusive parents and be entire grade levels below their peers. I never expected to feel so much concern for these children! Now that I am over here though, I feel this incredible urge to give these kids my all. I'm talking overtime and tutoring lessons at every possible turn for as many kids as I can manage. Some of these kids will never get an opportunity to escape their rural homes and English is power in Korea, so I will try my hardest to make this a great experience for them.

It's one thing to look at Korea as this minuscule country that is relatively unimportant on a global scale (at least that's how I somewhat viewed it before coming here) but quite another to be here. To hear actual Korean teachers stand up and talk about running volunteer rescue missions to extract children form North Korea and try to bring them to the South and give them a better life. It's amazing. You begin to realize where this mania over education stems from. Korean parents want their children to have better lives than they do, and they see English as the means for that better life.

Some people are here to get blasted off soju every night and maybe teach the English names of colors to the kids if they aren't too hung over the next day. It's apparent in class who these people are because they are snickering in the back, making fun of people's accents and whining about how much they are getting paid. For all of you who know me well- you know that shit won't fly with me! Asian women seem to shy away from confrontation, so I feel it is my duty as a crass American to turn around and tell these people to shut the Hell up when they begin to interrupt the nice little Korean lady at the front of the class. Sometimes it's great to be American :)

I am heading out to the gym now to work out some before dinner. Tonight I will be taking my second round of Korean classes. Part of the reason TaLK is so great is because they fund a Korean cultural hobby. I can pick up brush writing, a traditional Korean instrument, Tae Kwon Do or Korean lessons for free. I think I will choose Korean lessons just because it makes it so much easier to get around. But with 20 vowels and over 30 consonants (all shapes, not letters) it's going to be difficult.