Field Trip!

Today we took a little break from the lectures and went to visit a Korean Folk Village. We loaded into charter buses and drove about an hour to Yong-In City to visit the village. Obviously I was a first timer to a "traditional" Korean folk village so my initial thoughts were of little old Korean ladies churning butter or grinding flour on a stone wheel. I soon realized that the folk village was nothing more than a tourist destination that I liken to visiting the Cherokee Indian Reservation. It was even complete with a theme park (see image below). Our tour guide was a well dressed older Korean gentleman whose English was limited so our group did a lot of head nodding as if we had some clue as to what he was saying. The highlight of the day, aside from the bumper cars, was the traditional Korean performances which included some music and dance, see-saw flyers, a tightrope walker and some equestrian "feats" as described in the brochure. I didn't take any pictures of the village itself, however I did take some shots of the performances along with some video. You can check out the village at http://www.koreanfolk.co.kr/

Our tour guide.

Recognize these people? This mural was on a ride at the theme park in the village.

They took see-sawing to a whole new level.

A little Korean song and dance.

A few thoughts on my first week in Korea

Welcome to Orientation!

View of Cheonan City from Dankook University's campus.

Dankook University. My home for my first week in Korea.

Lake in the middle of campus.

The temperature hasn't gone above freezing since I have been here.

So far orientaion is going really well. I have met some very interesting people from all over the world. They each have a different story to tell as to why they ended up in South Korea to teach English. Some of them have taught abroad before and some have never left the country they came from. Korea's national motto is "Dynamic Korea" and I am starting to figure out why. Korea is a constantly evolving country and has come a long way in the 50 or so years since the Korean War. It went from being one big rice field into a major global economy in a very short time. Since arriving I have had the chance to talk to a few native Koreans who speak good English and I have been very impressed with their level of knowledge on all things American. One guy (who chose the western name Mike, since he was a big Michael Jordan fan) in particular knew more about American politics than I could dream of knowing. He knew all of Obama's cabinet members and what they did but I was particularly blown away when he started spurting off the Declaration of Independence from memory. Mike also asked me if I was related to Stone Cold Steve Austin (the wrestler) as well, but I informed him that "Osteen" and "Austin" were pronounced totally different and that the only thing we had in common, aside from our massive musculature is a nicely shorn head. I have seen quite a few Korean guys wearing hats and shirts with different American sports teams represented but most of them have no clue who the team actually is. I saw one Korean guy wearing a US Army hat so I pointed at his head and gave him a thumbs up but he didn't seem to catch on to the acknowledgement. I am heading into Cheonan City tonight for a traditional Korean meal and my first taste of soju. If you aren't familiar with soju, google it, it's the Korean's beverage of choice.

Traveling is for the birds...

First, let me confirm that I arrived safely to Incheon International Airport yesterday at 5pm local time (3am EST) yesterday. Incheon is an island located an hour by subway west of Seoul. I boarded the plane in Atlanta at 10:15am on Tuesday morning with a 10:45 departure. All seemed to be going well until the pilot came on the PA at 10:40am and announced that one of my fellow passengers had decided at the last minute to not make the trip to South Korea. Now, under normal circumstances this wouldn't have been a big deal, but since all of the pasengers luggage had already been miticulously placed beneath the plane, the crew had to go in and locate this individuals bags. The flight was very near full which means there were close to if not more than 300 people aboard. Each passenger was allotted two checked bags and I was never good at math but that is a lot of luggage to search through to locate two bags that I'm sure looked just like the other 600 on board. Long story short, the crew located the bags after an hour of searching and we took off around noon. The actual flight itself, which took 15 hours was fairly uneventful. I sat next to a Korean guy who watched Nights in Rodanthe twice and High School Musical 3 once. Did I mention this person was male and in his 30's? The gentleman next to him slept at least 13 of the 15 hours we were in the air. This was no small feat as I took a sleep aid and only managed to sleep an hour the entire flight. After we landed I learned that he works for the World Health Organization and had been on five different continents in the past 10 days. That explained his commotose state. Once I went through customs and collected my bags, I headed outside for my first taste of Korean air. I am not real sure what I was expecting South Korea to look like but I was not as shocked as I originally thought I would be. Aside from everyone being Korean, speaking Korean, and the signage being written in Korean, this place could pass for most cities in America. So far all the Koreans I have come in contact with have been very friendly and super helpful. I was lucky to have bumped into the recruiter I used to obtain this teaching job after I arrived to the hostel last night. He (who is based in Vancouver and is in town to help his clients get settled) and one of his Korean friends took me and another fellow American into Incheon City for our first Korean meal. It consisted of noodles in a dark brown sauce with various bits of seafood tossed in for good measure. It was very good and only cost around 6,000 korean won, which is about $4 dollars. I crashed after we got back around 9pm and was wide awake at 4am this morning. Thankfully I don't feel terrible like most people said I would. Obviously my body knows something is off but I am trying not to think about the time difference. I will stay at the hostel again tonight and will catch a bus to Cheonan City tomorrow morning for orientation. Look for an update within the next week. Hope everyone is well!