July 2, 2005

Thursday night I went for an hour long walk. I walked from my apartment to Seoul Land which is an amusement park here in Gwacheon. There were many different groups of people out enjoying the evening. I left as the sun was going down at 8pm and by the time I returned at 9pm it was dark. People were out running, inline skating, skateboarding, walking their dogs, or just enjoying the evening with their special someone. There is a chair lift that will take you over the river from the bottom to further up the mountain. At that time of night there was no one on the chair lift. There is also a tram car that drives from the bottom to Seoul Land and then back down again. Both of these cost money to ride. Seoul Land seems to cost roughly as much as Calaway park, though there is a price for just going into the park with no rides. I didn't see much of it from the outside, but the rides did not look very exciting. Most of the people on the road were only concerned with getting their exercise or enjoying their evening. I have no idea how busy the park is, but it seemed dead on Thursday night. I'm sure there are more exciting amusement parks in Seoul.

Friday I noticed a sore throat coming on in the morning. During the day I had to go to the Seoul Immigration Office to pick up my Alien Registration Card (I did this all by myself, it was quite scary). When I got back I spent time at the office trying to organize my thoughts for classes on Monday. However, I was feeling very homesick and so was unable to concentrate. I think the homesick came on because I didn't want to be sick in a place where I had no one to comfort me. Dan and Katherine came to the office that night and it helped to talk to them about Canadian stuff and about my fiance.

Today I went to the Korean War Memorial with two of Eun Ji's married friends that I had never met before. We had a good time wandering around and looking at the many different exhibits. Canada's many small war museums pale in comparison to the size of this place, it is absolutely huge! It records in detail the events of the Korean war and which countries participated. It also relates information concerning other wars that Korea has participated in and some history from when Korea wasn't the country it is today. Today I felt a lot less homesick than I did yesterday. I was able to talk with my parents in the morning, and this evening I spent at home with my host family. I mostly read while my host brothers played piano and drew. In Pyo, the older one is working on a Karate or Tae Kwon Do style comic book. Maybe they were ninjas, I couldn't tell.

June 30, 2005

Well, the last few days have been quite the adventure. At work I started doing what are called level tests. These consist of me having a conversation with a possible student and then deciding what level of English they speak. Usually I scare the students. Which means that they are scared of conversing in English. Hopefully they'll get over that. I'm scared of conversing in Korean, but I'll do it when I have learned a little.

So that was my Monday and Tuesday. Nothing but level tests. Tuesday night a bunch of us went out for Rachel's birthday. She's from Canada as well, but is going home at the end of July. It was interesting. We went to a Korean restaurant and had cake.

Wednesday I went out touring with Rachel and Eun Ji. They went to the Blue House which is where the Korean President lives. I was going to go on that tour with them but I did'nt have any form of identification. I am still waiting for my alien card and while that is happening, Korean immigration holds onto my passport. When they got back from the tour we went for a walk through the nearby palace. It was home to the regions King and Queen in the 1390s. I have pictures up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjfriese. Click on the June 29, 2005 set. After that I went back to the office and Jae Sung, Rachel, and I went out for Korean food that I cannot pronounce. It was pork that you cooked on your table and then wrapped in a lettuce leaf and gobbled down whole. It was very good, but the whole process tool an hour and a half as you have to wait for the pork to cook before you can eat it, and you can only cook one piece of pork at a time. The food here so far has been very good so far. I love all the seafood and the spicyness.

Today Rachel, Eun Ji, and I went to the Korean Parliament buildings. We got to sit in on the National Assembly for about 15 minutes. We weren't even going to that as today was the day that they were going to vote to impeach the defence minister after what has happened in the military over the past two weeks. So, because of this you needed a ticket to get in to see the National Assembly. We didn't have a ticket, but as we were about to leave the building one of the workers came up to us and tols us in broken English that he was going to do what he could to get us in to see the Assembly for a little bit. Finally he came back and told us that we could go in. So, we went with him to his office where he grabbed his suit jacket and we proceeded to the seating area. We got to sit through one vote concerning decorating some famous tombs with flowers. No word yet on the impeachment.

Tonight I think I will go for a walk through Seoul Grand Park (which happens to be right behind where I live) and tomorrow I will head into work again.

From Korea

Well, it finally started raining. Before I get into that, however, I will relate some of what has happened the last few days.

I last wrote on Thursday. Since then I have sat in on more classes and begun to get an idea on what I will be doing when I start teaching on July 4. On Thursday afternoon we had another of the Test of Spoken English classes. I think it went well. The students are a little more advanced and are quite receptive to any help or correction that I can offer them. Thursday night I sat in on one each of Dan's and Katherine's classes. Dan's class was absolutely hillarious. There were only two guys present and apparently they don't usually say much during the class. That day they were joking around with and making fun of each other. I have never seen Korean people behave like that, and it was quite refreshing.

Friday I again sat in on more classes. After the morning basic class we all went out for lunch. It was me and 4 women. We had what seems to be known as "War Stew." The idea is that when the Americans left Korea after the war they left lots of food behind. So the Koreans took all the left over food and combined it with their own food. It was actually quite good. Hot dogs and noodles and generally Korean stuff. We ate this at a chain restaurant which is famous for this type of food. The class itself went better than the one on Wednesday. The students seemed to be more able to focus on the conversation with me there.

The two evening classes went well aswell. The first one was basically a party. Some of the students brought food and drink and we sat around and chatted. I went into the class 15 or 20 minutes before Cheryl and had to entertain the class. We started talking about the weather, and then moved onto Canada, and then onto the recent military accident. The consensus seemed to be that the shooter was unstable and that is why he did what he did. They didn't seem to buy what I had heard which was that the shooter had been poorly treated by his superiors. The rest of the class we discussed fairly simple things including the love of one of the students (he is
married) for what he refers to as the beautiful Korean women. I wonder what his wife thinks?

The last class there was going to be only one student showing up, the same one that took us out for dinner on Wednesday. Cheryl suggested that I spend the class alone in conversation with him. This also went well. We began talking about Canada and how it looks and where I was from. I then directed the conversation towards the work that he does. I had him explain what Intelligent DNS was to me. I was able to help him out in explaining it because of my understanding of technical language. At the end of the class he said he was happy, so I guess I was able to help him better understand how to explain what he was talking about.

Friday night In Pyo went to the hospital. I got home around 10:30 and soon after Hwa Young's sister came over to babysit the Jun Hae, the youngest son. The next day Sang Young (the dad) came home from his trip to Russia. That afternoon we all went to the hospital to visit In Pyo. He looked like he was in bad shape, but his spirits seemed up. He had had surgery to strengthen his upper jaw bone, and I could see bone coming down from just behind his top lip. That evening I went out with the sister and some of her friends. The friends were a Russian-Korean couple attending school in Seoul. We went to a bar and then to a PCbang (PC room) to play some Starcraft. That was my first time in a place like that. It was interesting to say the least.

Today Sang Young instructed me in how to read Korean and he did a pretty good job at it. In the afternoon we went to the local library and then had a quick bite to eat (I feel like I ate an awful lot today). We then wandered the long way home, stopping occasionally to look at and read Korean signs. He always translated for me and prompted me when I wasn't remembering the pronunciation of a letter. I think I have made some serious progress and can sort of remember the pronunciation of some of the characters and what they represent. When we got home we ate some watermelon that he had bought and talked about Korean and Canadian families. I described where my family had come from and he told me about his and about the importance of family in Korea and how this is changing somewhat. We also talked about globalization and what the Americans are doing to the world through the likes of Starbucks and Walmart and the war in Iraq.

I said I'd get back to the rain. It has been raining non-stop here since about 5 or 6 pm and it doesn't look like it will let up any time soon. I guess the rainy season has officially started in Seoul and the surrounding area.

I'm feeling pretty good about staying here so far. I seem to be getting along well with everyone that I need to. I do, however, miss my fiance Iliana terribly.