Last March, Maren and I drove from Las Vegas to Palo Alto. We stayed with her cousins Kendra and Abhi. While we were there, Maren and I did a lot of great stuff - walking around Stanford, visiting Alcatraz, ate Hot Cookie in front of the Full House houses, enjoyed a famed Irish Coffee and sourdough bread down by fisherman's wharf. Besides those really shining moments, what I remember are some conversations with Abhi. He had moved here from India (after completing university there) and had some very interesting thoughts to share with me on assimilating to a different culture. The simplest and most true thing I remember him saying is that I would "relearn everything - even the simplest thing like how to walk on a sidewalk".
He was scarily accurate.
I'm at the point where most things in my life are starting to feel normal. Being pushy (by my Midwestern standards), standing on the bus and NOT falling over at every stop, sitting next to strangers on the bus and subway, putting coins in for a shopping cart, buying my district's trash bags at the 7-11 downstairs, smelling that flattened cooked fish on my walk home every night (not that I like it, it's just no longer abnormal...). The novelty is wearing off - I'm starting to feel the rhythm of this chapter in my life. I no longer know how to answer the question "What's the weirdest or most different thing about living in Korea?". I suppose the next time it'll really be in my face may be when I'm back in the U.S. (unless I have a serious cultural difference moment between now and then...).
He said that I'd notice that something was different and that it'd be important to not make a valuative statement. I've found myself doing exactly that. I buy a Korean Frappuccino thingy, and I notice that uff da- that thing is SWEET (not "ish this tastes different than at home"). I maneuver my way down the street, weaving in and out of people because they're walking at a different pace thinking about where I'm going, rather than thinking "people here walk SLOW". Less me vs them, usa vs korea. More open minded. Just doing what I do and learning about the people around me doing what they do.
I am however still at the stage where I look for things from home. I am not sure that will wear off - food preferences formed over 23 years can't just be shaken without some emotional implications (at least for me....). I DO hope that it decreases and that I learn more about Korean food. In the last couple years I've been more courageous in trying new foods. I previously wouldn't eat any seafood and now I'm at the stage where I wouldn't order it, but I'm willing to try someone else's. It's just that things I'm not familiar with are hard for me to trust! Meat especially. I just get so anxious because I don't know food safety common practice here. Anyway - most everything I've tried has been delicious... but I've had to ask someone near me "what's in this dumpling?" or "did that taste fishy?".
Some of my favorite "food from home" finds :
string cheese
(generic) Wheaties; my favorite cereal, thus a serious victory.
cheddar goldfish crackers!
I've started seriously looking at my holiday plans - I'm getting ready to buy my ticket home for Christmas! The tentative plans are for me to go home for Christmas 2013, and then for Christmas 2014 to have my family come to Korea! So many exclamation points!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Speed
It's very interesting - time in Korea.
Some things seem to go slow as the days leading up to finals, and others as quickly as the taxis in traffic.
Some of that is my own perception, but part of it is also that South Korea went from being a third world country to its current bustling, current state in such a short amount of time.
There is still evidence of the mindset of scarcity - parents and grandparents of my students lived in a time when they earnestly worried that their children would not have food to eat. In current day Korea, my sense is that they no longer worry about their children's basic needs - they've set their sites higher.
Some things that remain from that mindset and time period are the lack of clothes driers. No one has a clothes drier here. In the states, I would put my clothes in the washer and then come back in 40 minutes and move them to the drier. Not a thing here. Everyone line dries everything - it's common to see wash clothes and table materials drying outside of a restaurant in the morning.
Copyright laws are not so common place here. I've read a few blogs and seen a couple youtubes on this topic. What others have said is that you can buy character goods (non licensed) in any market. Also, peoples youtube videos are used for news shows without permission, and downloading is INCREDIBLY common here - and no one has ever heard of consequences for these actions. It just sort of makes sense to me that this lack of policy is due to uncontrollably fast growth. Mandating or regulating that growth could have stunted it (I'm no economist or lawyer... just sayin).
Also. Appliances.
Not included.
It's fairly common here to have your washer in the kitchen - it struck me as odd when I arrived but now it just seems so normal. My school equipped my apartment with a two burner gas stove, a large fridge, a microwave, a sink, and an air conditioner (among many other smaller things). Notice, no oven or toaster. Floors are heated here, and air conditioners are more like space heaters or portable AC units at home. Very few things are built in or included in apartments when you purchase them. Maybe that's different if you're in a more up-scale situation... who knows. I went to a target/walmart equivalent here and found everything you could imagine as a plug in appliance - burners, rice cookers, ovens, toasters, toaster ovens... everything that I think of as "normally" a plug in appliance from home, and then some.
And yet, we are very much so in the 21st century.
All of my students have smart phones (that happens in the US, as well). Also, most of those phones are as big as their faces. Samsung and other companies make BIG PHONES!
I went to a chicken restaurant owned by Samsung. Yes. Samsung Chicken. WHAT?
No one uses keys for their apartments here. Why bother with silly keys that you'd need to keep track of when you can just install a key code lock?
You can get ANYTHING delivered. Seriously. There aren't drive-throughs, but everything delivers, including McDonalds.
I live next to a movie theater, and the same company is putting in ANOTHER movie theatre two blocks over. I live in a suburb. What?!
Where I live definitely comes more alive at night time. I'm not sure if it's due to the heat and humidity, but it is quite quiet in the morning, and starts getting wild at like 8 or 9pm.
I haven't seen any Hanboks outside of museums or attractions, and yet I feel there are elements of the older times mixed in with current times. I'm sure that's true anywhere, but because I'm new to this place and many cultures that I'm immersed in, I notice it more than I would at home.
In recent news:
I joined a CHOIR - a fun outlet and opportunity to meet other expats (who I don't work with!)
I visited the (Japanese?) dollar store - Daiso. Seriously awesome.
All The Single Ladies (Meg, Meg, Jen, Becky, and I) are booking our Chuseok trip to Tsushima ( Check This Map! ) today after school. It'll include bikes, ferry boats, ladies, nature, and laughter. GAME ON!
I awoke salivating at 5:30am from a dream which consisted of eating chipotle with my family. I'm serious. I'm now consequently really missing sour cream and my peoples. Ugh.
Some things seem to go slow as the days leading up to finals, and others as quickly as the taxis in traffic.
Some of that is my own perception, but part of it is also that South Korea went from being a third world country to its current bustling, current state in such a short amount of time.
There is still evidence of the mindset of scarcity - parents and grandparents of my students lived in a time when they earnestly worried that their children would not have food to eat. In current day Korea, my sense is that they no longer worry about their children's basic needs - they've set their sites higher.
Some things that remain from that mindset and time period are the lack of clothes driers. No one has a clothes drier here. In the states, I would put my clothes in the washer and then come back in 40 minutes and move them to the drier. Not a thing here. Everyone line dries everything - it's common to see wash clothes and table materials drying outside of a restaurant in the morning.
Copyright laws are not so common place here. I've read a few blogs and seen a couple youtubes on this topic. What others have said is that you can buy character goods (non licensed) in any market. Also, peoples youtube videos are used for news shows without permission, and downloading is INCREDIBLY common here - and no one has ever heard of consequences for these actions. It just sort of makes sense to me that this lack of policy is due to uncontrollably fast growth. Mandating or regulating that growth could have stunted it (I'm no economist or lawyer... just sayin).
Also. Appliances.
Not included.
It's fairly common here to have your washer in the kitchen - it struck me as odd when I arrived but now it just seems so normal. My school equipped my apartment with a two burner gas stove, a large fridge, a microwave, a sink, and an air conditioner (among many other smaller things). Notice, no oven or toaster. Floors are heated here, and air conditioners are more like space heaters or portable AC units at home. Very few things are built in or included in apartments when you purchase them. Maybe that's different if you're in a more up-scale situation... who knows. I went to a target/walmart equivalent here and found everything you could imagine as a plug in appliance - burners, rice cookers, ovens, toasters, toaster ovens... everything that I think of as "normally" a plug in appliance from home, and then some.
And yet, we are very much so in the 21st century.
All of my students have smart phones (that happens in the US, as well). Also, most of those phones are as big as their faces. Samsung and other companies make BIG PHONES!
I went to a chicken restaurant owned by Samsung. Yes. Samsung Chicken. WHAT?
No one uses keys for their apartments here. Why bother with silly keys that you'd need to keep track of when you can just install a key code lock?
You can get ANYTHING delivered. Seriously. There aren't drive-throughs, but everything delivers, including McDonalds.
I live next to a movie theater, and the same company is putting in ANOTHER movie theatre two blocks over. I live in a suburb. What?!
Where I live definitely comes more alive at night time. I'm not sure if it's due to the heat and humidity, but it is quite quiet in the morning, and starts getting wild at like 8 or 9pm.
I haven't seen any Hanboks outside of museums or attractions, and yet I feel there are elements of the older times mixed in with current times. I'm sure that's true anywhere, but because I'm new to this place and many cultures that I'm immersed in, I notice it more than I would at home.
In recent news:
I joined a CHOIR - a fun outlet and opportunity to meet other expats (who I don't work with!)
I visited the (Japanese?) dollar store - Daiso. Seriously awesome.
All The Single Ladies (Meg, Meg, Jen, Becky, and I) are booking our Chuseok trip to Tsushima ( Check This Map! ) today after school. It'll include bikes, ferry boats, ladies, nature, and laughter. GAME ON!
I awoke salivating at 5:30am from a dream which consisted of eating chipotle with my family. I'm serious. I'm now consequently really missing sour cream and my peoples. Ugh.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
I Could See For Miles
It's been 5 days since I last blogged - doesn't seem like long but so much has been happening that Saturday feels like forever ago.
Sunday I woke up and went right into school - spending a long time on the internet just being social with people at home rather than getting my work done. I eventually DID get my work done and went home around 4. I went down one floor to Meg's apartment and we had breakfast for dinner (including BACON!) and did some arts and crafts. Meg's the new art teacher - she was a great host.
Preface: If you're not interested in orchestra grades 2-12, this might not be the most entertaining post.
Monday: School day No. 2. I had grade 5 for the first time. Most of these students had been playing in orchestra last year, but I had 3 new students who had not played in orchestra at my school last year (including my ONLY violist grades 2-12). Because it was our first class time together, we just did the usual (locker assignments, syllabi, get to know you time, etc). I also saw my second section of grades 6-8 orchestra on Monday - same drill. This group of 6-8th grade has two cellos! My other section as only violins, so a little diversity in instrumentation is exciting! I heard my high school group for the first time (the first day we didn't play), and I was seriously impressed. I chose an arrangement of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D Minor that was programmed last year. They did pretty well but mentioned that their orchestra teacher last year didn't have them perform this because they weren't good enough at it - a last minute cancellation, because it was in the programs the previous orchestra teacher sent me... anyway - good playing.
That night I decided to put my big girl pants on and go exploring on my own. I didn't go far - I wanted to get a little more of an understanding of my neighborhood. I went to the 1st floor and basement floors of my apartment building which is more like a shopping center. I found a yoga studio, virtual golfing, lots of food, tons of sparkly things for sale, and clothing. When I came out of the building Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch" was playing outside of the cell phone store. That was a shocker. I moved on, crossing the park towards the apartment building where a lot of my coworkers live. I went into "the pink building" and decided to go up and see what was around. I found a lot of furniture and bedding, but what I was looking for was FOOD! I was hungry! After going up three floors, I found what I thought would be a great idea. Turns out its a really ritzy buffet - the school takes us there for holidays usually (I found out later). It's an international chain called Todai (go ahead and google it). Didn't really intend to pay 35 dollars for dinner but WHATEVER. YOLO. It was my mom's birthday back home, so I told myself I celebrated it without her? Cause that made me feel better about going to a place where people normally would stare at you for being alone, and then add on that I'm the only foreigner. I had a hard time not laughing at myself for getting into that situation.
Tuesday: School Day No. 3
I (re)arranged a fiddle tune for my grade 6-8 group - turned out being way too easy for them. Woops! I saw my second grade group for the first time on Tuesday and man was that an eye opener! I was surprised at their behavior - I think they get away with more because they're such small classes. The entire second grade at my school is 8 students. They can blurt out much more easily because their actions only affect 7 other kids instead of 20. Anyway - these little ones are SUPER excited about playing violin. And they're SUPER cute to boot. We're gonna have some fun... once they show me their musicianship skills and improve their behavior. :) The high school ensemble finished up reading Bach and we moved on to a piece arranged by one of my college professors (La Sortija). I was jacked about it - the kids thought it was fun, but too easy for them. Until our playing test on Monday, I told them we're just gonna sight read so I can learn more about my school's library and they get good practice! Anyway, I'm excited about that piece for middle schoolers.
Tuesday after school, I asked Sharon to go with me to a yoga studio for a class. We got there and it turns out you can't just go to one class - you're required to buy a 3 or 6 month membership (about $420). I was not prepared to drop that... so we went over to a previously organized "ladies night". I picked up mandu on the way and ate almost allllll of it. So yummy - I tried gogi AND kimchi mandu.
Wednesday: School Day No 4.
I feel like such a weirdo recounting every school day to you - but I've been taking notes so I can at least have a shred of memory next year when I do this all over again. I think the most notable thing that happened in school on Wednesday was that my middle schoolers played an arrangement of The Great Gate Of Kiev. They weren't so into it, and I didn't LOVE the arrangement, but it was fun to realize that my job - my life - my future - will be centered on classical music that I LOVE! I went out for some coffee during one of my free periods and ended up getting what was essentially an oreo milkshake. It was a nice break in the day - got some great sunshine and my sugar fix :) That day, we continued on La Sortija, working on counting some of the more challenging rhythms. It came together well right at the end of class, conveniently as I was being observed by one of my administrators.
After school Meg, Meg (yes there are two!), Becky and I headed off to start our weekly "subway roulette". We chose a subway line in advance, so it would be easy to get home, but once we got on we just waited until we felt like it and got off the subway. We ended up by Korea University (which looks like Hogwarts?), and had a great time. We had sashimi, and by "we" I meant they. I've been dipping my toe into the world that is consuming sea food... but I haven't gotten to the point where I'm comfortable just eating a slice of raw fish. Maybe throw in some rice and I'm good! Sooooo we found a coffee shop afterwards that sold "honey bread" and had alcohol AND SWINGS! We made our way home and I fell asleep super quick.
Thursday: School Day No. 5
Today has been the first day I felt like I get it; like I'm actually a teacher and not someone managing many crises. I'm starting to sort out students' ability levels and get an idea for what I should have ordered for ensembles to be playing (woops!). We worked on Newbold's "Iditarod". I'm just gonna keep being a nerd and tell you that that piece rocks. I'm really excited about it. It's too easy for some of my students, but I think that's alright. I have some stellar players, and I also have a couple kids who are coming back to the violin after not playing for a couple years. It's a challenge to balance those needs within one ensemble.
Tonight I'm going home to clean up my apartment, cause it's a giant mess, and cook dinner for Jen and I. Get excited.
As I write this, its after school on Thursday which pretty much means ITS FRIDAY!
Sunday I woke up and went right into school - spending a long time on the internet just being social with people at home rather than getting my work done. I eventually DID get my work done and went home around 4. I went down one floor to Meg's apartment and we had breakfast for dinner (including BACON!) and did some arts and crafts. Meg's the new art teacher - she was a great host.
Preface: If you're not interested in orchestra grades 2-12, this might not be the most entertaining post.
Monday: School day No. 2. I had grade 5 for the first time. Most of these students had been playing in orchestra last year, but I had 3 new students who had not played in orchestra at my school last year (including my ONLY violist grades 2-12). Because it was our first class time together, we just did the usual (locker assignments, syllabi, get to know you time, etc). I also saw my second section of grades 6-8 orchestra on Monday - same drill. This group of 6-8th grade has two cellos! My other section as only violins, so a little diversity in instrumentation is exciting! I heard my high school group for the first time (the first day we didn't play), and I was seriously impressed. I chose an arrangement of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D Minor that was programmed last year. They did pretty well but mentioned that their orchestra teacher last year didn't have them perform this because they weren't good enough at it - a last minute cancellation, because it was in the programs the previous orchestra teacher sent me... anyway - good playing.
That night I decided to put my big girl pants on and go exploring on my own. I didn't go far - I wanted to get a little more of an understanding of my neighborhood. I went to the 1st floor and basement floors of my apartment building which is more like a shopping center. I found a yoga studio, virtual golfing, lots of food, tons of sparkly things for sale, and clothing. When I came out of the building Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch" was playing outside of the cell phone store. That was a shocker. I moved on, crossing the park towards the apartment building where a lot of my coworkers live. I went into "the pink building" and decided to go up and see what was around. I found a lot of furniture and bedding, but what I was looking for was FOOD! I was hungry! After going up three floors, I found what I thought would be a great idea. Turns out its a really ritzy buffet - the school takes us there for holidays usually (I found out later). It's an international chain called Todai (go ahead and google it). Didn't really intend to pay 35 dollars for dinner but WHATEVER. YOLO. It was my mom's birthday back home, so I told myself I celebrated it without her? Cause that made me feel better about going to a place where people normally would stare at you for being alone, and then add on that I'm the only foreigner. I had a hard time not laughing at myself for getting into that situation.
Tuesday: School Day No. 3
I (re)arranged a fiddle tune for my grade 6-8 group - turned out being way too easy for them. Woops! I saw my second grade group for the first time on Tuesday and man was that an eye opener! I was surprised at their behavior - I think they get away with more because they're such small classes. The entire second grade at my school is 8 students. They can blurt out much more easily because their actions only affect 7 other kids instead of 20. Anyway - these little ones are SUPER excited about playing violin. And they're SUPER cute to boot. We're gonna have some fun... once they show me their musicianship skills and improve their behavior. :) The high school ensemble finished up reading Bach and we moved on to a piece arranged by one of my college professors (La Sortija). I was jacked about it - the kids thought it was fun, but too easy for them. Until our playing test on Monday, I told them we're just gonna sight read so I can learn more about my school's library and they get good practice! Anyway, I'm excited about that piece for middle schoolers.
Tuesday after school, I asked Sharon to go with me to a yoga studio for a class. We got there and it turns out you can't just go to one class - you're required to buy a 3 or 6 month membership (about $420). I was not prepared to drop that... so we went over to a previously organized "ladies night". I picked up mandu on the way and ate almost allllll of it. So yummy - I tried gogi AND kimchi mandu.
Wednesday: School Day No 4.
I feel like such a weirdo recounting every school day to you - but I've been taking notes so I can at least have a shred of memory next year when I do this all over again. I think the most notable thing that happened in school on Wednesday was that my middle schoolers played an arrangement of The Great Gate Of Kiev. They weren't so into it, and I didn't LOVE the arrangement, but it was fun to realize that my job - my life - my future - will be centered on classical music that I LOVE! I went out for some coffee during one of my free periods and ended up getting what was essentially an oreo milkshake. It was a nice break in the day - got some great sunshine and my sugar fix :) That day, we continued on La Sortija, working on counting some of the more challenging rhythms. It came together well right at the end of class, conveniently as I was being observed by one of my administrators.
After school Meg, Meg (yes there are two!), Becky and I headed off to start our weekly "subway roulette". We chose a subway line in advance, so it would be easy to get home, but once we got on we just waited until we felt like it and got off the subway. We ended up by Korea University (which looks like Hogwarts?), and had a great time. We had sashimi, and by "we" I meant they. I've been dipping my toe into the world that is consuming sea food... but I haven't gotten to the point where I'm comfortable just eating a slice of raw fish. Maybe throw in some rice and I'm good! Sooooo we found a coffee shop afterwards that sold "honey bread" and had alcohol AND SWINGS! We made our way home and I fell asleep super quick.
Thursday: School Day No. 5
Today has been the first day I felt like I get it; like I'm actually a teacher and not someone managing many crises. I'm starting to sort out students' ability levels and get an idea for what I should have ordered for ensembles to be playing (woops!). We worked on Newbold's "Iditarod". I'm just gonna keep being a nerd and tell you that that piece rocks. I'm really excited about it. It's too easy for some of my students, but I think that's alright. I have some stellar players, and I also have a couple kids who are coming back to the violin after not playing for a couple years. It's a challenge to balance those needs within one ensemble.
Tonight I'm going home to clean up my apartment, cause it's a giant mess, and cook dinner for Jen and I. Get excited.
As I write this, its after school on Thursday which pretty much means ITS FRIDAY!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
So many things!
I have so many things to tell you!
1) Cost(uh)Co.
I think two blog posts ago I mentioned I was venturing to CostCo with Melinda and Don (Melinda teaches music and is married to Don who is absolutely hilarious and does learning support (special ed)). We took the greenish line just 3 or 4 stops south of Hagye (where I live), walked up some steps, down one block and BOOM! CostCo!
Side story: Language
in Korea, CostCo (pronounced "cosscoh") is pronounced costuh co. Double consonants and ending words with consonants aren't really done here. If you wanted to go to Target, you would get into a taxi and say "targetuh". Thusly, costuh co. Now back to the main story.
We went in, using their membership, and were one of two floors. The ground floor, where you enter and exit is the clothing, office supplies, vitamins, pet supplies ... pretty much anything but food. We weaved through the aisles, not really finding anything we couldn't live without. We mainly went to explore, rather than purchase. We came prepared with bags, just in case, but wanted more to do price comparisons and see if things existed within costuhco that weren't distributed elsewhere in korea. It was crazy packed in costco. So many people. What surprised me is the scarcity of white people - I thought that because it's an American institution that all the american people within Seoul would be flocking to it. Not true. Saw two white dudes... kinda bros, buying wine. Anyway, it was PACKED. so hard to get anywhere, and I wasn't even driving the cart. We found some great stuff like TRUFFLES! Chocolate here is not so excellent. I bought a 2 pound, 9 dollar brick of colby jack. Worth it. Melinda found plain yogurt from denmark. So fancy! There were a bunch of things from home, but also a lot of things I'd never seen, like pickled pollack guts. yum! I saw Einstein bros. bagels and seriously considered purchasing them, but cream cheese here is SO expensive, I decided it really wasn't worth it. Things I saw for the first time since leaving america: bacon, frozen pizza, whipping cream (which I later found in my local grocery store), avocados, so many kinds of cheese, kettle chips, and so many other things. It took a lot of energy, finding a new place, waging war on other carts, toting all the stuff home on the subway - but it was a great adventure. I don't think I could've done it without Don and Melinda though.
2) First day of school
Friday was our first day of school. I went outside to welcome the students in and had a great time. My first class wasn't until 1:10, which gave me time to edit my syllabus again and get stuff in order. Normally my schedule isn't that light, but it was pretty nice to start with a lighter day. I learned that most public school students wear uniforms but that private and international schools don't usually wear uniforms. That's the opposite of home, which intrigued me. I had one of my middle school ensembles (6-8 is a mixed grade ensemble, divided by skill level), and the highschool ensemble. In the 30 students I taught on Friday, none played viola.
What I had us do was first get lockers for instruments, then go through the syllabus. After that we had some time, so I had a couple maps and photos up on the Smart board to tell them about myself. I asked them to tell me about themselves - particularly what made them an international student, along with their favorite flavor of ice cream. These students have such international and interesting lives. I had students who were born in minnesota (YEAH MINNESOTA!) or lived all over the states, and some who'd lived for years in thailand, australia, england... incredible. The admissions requirements for international schools that are set by the Korean government are that the student either has an international passport (born in another country) or has lived in another country for 2 (or 3, I've heard different facts) years. I had a couple issues in my high school course with students speaking Korean, but that's a pretty consistent challenge through out my school. The woman who held my position before me is rumored to have taught in Korean, which really doesn't help me, but I'm sure we'll get that sorted out soon :). At first I was really uncomfortable, sure that the students were speaking about me. What I've realized through conversation is that this most likely is very untrue - the students I teach are bilingual. Their brain sometimes cannot distinguish between what language they're speaking because they're so comfortable with both. Impulse may be deciding what's happening - it may not be a conscious choice. So moving forward, I'll try to be understanding and friendly, but consistent in insisting that they use the language of inclusion.
After school a bunch of teachers walked to a neighborhood convenience store (Family Mart) to hang out. That seems like a weird concept when I think about it happening in Minnesota... but its pretty normal here. The convenience store has tables and chairs outside like a coffee shop or restaurant would. We enjoyed some beer and snacks. The first thing I went for when I got in the store admittedly was a snickers ice cream bar and cheesy popcorn. I later bought myself a hard cider, justifying the higher price by it being a celebration of the first day of school. I've been fine with beer here, but back home.. I definitely went for cider more often. Here there's a huge price difference.
More and more people showed up, an adjumma kind of stalked us... it was a good time. I was really glad to have a lot of people around who were buying the snacks, because I got to learn about them. I now know that cheesy pretzles are the bomb, and not to buy popcorn if there's a picture of corn on it. It tastes like creamed corn. I'm all about snacks, and now have the knowledge to make good snack choices. awesome. We eventually made our way home, and I bought a pizza (with corn...) to eat with two other great teacher ladies. We stayed up for a while talking and eating. It was great to have some smaller scale social interaction and great conversation, even if my cheese pizza did have corn on it.
3)Mountains and Cheeseburgers
Saturday morning, I got up early and met a bunch of other teachers to go hiking. We rode the subway 3 or 4 stops north to Surakson, and hiked up Surakson (conveniently the name of the subway stop AND the mountain!). Historically, I'm not really hiker. I was nervous I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it went really well. I found it pretty challenging, but man did it feel great to be surrounded by trees rather than buildings. It was a great group of people - we hiked for 4 or 5 hours, up the mountain and back down. There were sections that they had put up ropes for you to use in order to climb up some tough stuff. I chickened out at the end, after I had tried to get to the tippy top and had to come back down. Going up was in many ways easier than coming down. Just skooching down a steep little thing scared the crap out of me, so I didn't try the other route up to the top. Marcell (another new hire, from Romania) and I stayed near the top and chatted for a while. It was a beautiful little perch, and it was great to get to know him a little better. We stopped for a popsicle about half way down - there was a man who had packed and carried up a ton of popsciles and was selling them. Mine was a creamy melon? Made it all the way back down and got on the subway back to Nowon. We were so hungry, we went for burgers across the street from our apartment. Kraze (krah-ze) Burger sells pretty good burgers, or so I had heard. Mine came with strawberry jam, mayo, and some red goop that wasn't ketchup or red pepper paste (and pickles, even though I requested they not be included) - and that was just the basic burger. I scraped off all the sauces, as I am not a fan of sauces, and enjoyed my cheese burger. So yeah. jam. on a burger. it happened.
4) Itaewon
We journeyed to Itaewon (the international district near the us army base) for a pop up barbeque by a friend of the art teacher's. This man, Linus, made incredibly delicious alabama style barbeque. It was unbelievable. I enjoyed coleslaw for the first time ever. We popped around, checking out a couple different bars, learning which place was what scene, and decided to stay at Hollywood where the focus was the football (soccer) game. Becky, Meg, and I cabbed home after we bought some Taco Bell. Yes, Taco Bell. good choices all around. I guess I ate all the food from home that I could yesterday - burgers, barbeque, a red velvet cupcake, and taco bell. Woops!
1) Cost(uh)Co.
I think two blog posts ago I mentioned I was venturing to CostCo with Melinda and Don (Melinda teaches music and is married to Don who is absolutely hilarious and does learning support (special ed)). We took the greenish line just 3 or 4 stops south of Hagye (where I live), walked up some steps, down one block and BOOM! CostCo!
Side story: Language
in Korea, CostCo (pronounced "cosscoh") is pronounced costuh co. Double consonants and ending words with consonants aren't really done here. If you wanted to go to Target, you would get into a taxi and say "targetuh". Thusly, costuh co. Now back to the main story.
We went in, using their membership, and were one of two floors. The ground floor, where you enter and exit is the clothing, office supplies, vitamins, pet supplies ... pretty much anything but food. We weaved through the aisles, not really finding anything we couldn't live without. We mainly went to explore, rather than purchase. We came prepared with bags, just in case, but wanted more to do price comparisons and see if things existed within costuhco that weren't distributed elsewhere in korea. It was crazy packed in costco. So many people. What surprised me is the scarcity of white people - I thought that because it's an American institution that all the american people within Seoul would be flocking to it. Not true. Saw two white dudes... kinda bros, buying wine. Anyway, it was PACKED. so hard to get anywhere, and I wasn't even driving the cart. We found some great stuff like TRUFFLES! Chocolate here is not so excellent. I bought a 2 pound, 9 dollar brick of colby jack. Worth it. Melinda found plain yogurt from denmark. So fancy! There were a bunch of things from home, but also a lot of things I'd never seen, like pickled pollack guts. yum! I saw Einstein bros. bagels and seriously considered purchasing them, but cream cheese here is SO expensive, I decided it really wasn't worth it. Things I saw for the first time since leaving america: bacon, frozen pizza, whipping cream (which I later found in my local grocery store), avocados, so many kinds of cheese, kettle chips, and so many other things. It took a lot of energy, finding a new place, waging war on other carts, toting all the stuff home on the subway - but it was a great adventure. I don't think I could've done it without Don and Melinda though.
2) First day of school
Friday was our first day of school. I went outside to welcome the students in and had a great time. My first class wasn't until 1:10, which gave me time to edit my syllabus again and get stuff in order. Normally my schedule isn't that light, but it was pretty nice to start with a lighter day. I learned that most public school students wear uniforms but that private and international schools don't usually wear uniforms. That's the opposite of home, which intrigued me. I had one of my middle school ensembles (6-8 is a mixed grade ensemble, divided by skill level), and the highschool ensemble. In the 30 students I taught on Friday, none played viola.
What I had us do was first get lockers for instruments, then go through the syllabus. After that we had some time, so I had a couple maps and photos up on the Smart board to tell them about myself. I asked them to tell me about themselves - particularly what made them an international student, along with their favorite flavor of ice cream. These students have such international and interesting lives. I had students who were born in minnesota (YEAH MINNESOTA!) or lived all over the states, and some who'd lived for years in thailand, australia, england... incredible. The admissions requirements for international schools that are set by the Korean government are that the student either has an international passport (born in another country) or has lived in another country for 2 (or 3, I've heard different facts) years. I had a couple issues in my high school course with students speaking Korean, but that's a pretty consistent challenge through out my school. The woman who held my position before me is rumored to have taught in Korean, which really doesn't help me, but I'm sure we'll get that sorted out soon :). At first I was really uncomfortable, sure that the students were speaking about me. What I've realized through conversation is that this most likely is very untrue - the students I teach are bilingual. Their brain sometimes cannot distinguish between what language they're speaking because they're so comfortable with both. Impulse may be deciding what's happening - it may not be a conscious choice. So moving forward, I'll try to be understanding and friendly, but consistent in insisting that they use the language of inclusion.
After school a bunch of teachers walked to a neighborhood convenience store (Family Mart) to hang out. That seems like a weird concept when I think about it happening in Minnesota... but its pretty normal here. The convenience store has tables and chairs outside like a coffee shop or restaurant would. We enjoyed some beer and snacks. The first thing I went for when I got in the store admittedly was a snickers ice cream bar and cheesy popcorn. I later bought myself a hard cider, justifying the higher price by it being a celebration of the first day of school. I've been fine with beer here, but back home.. I definitely went for cider more often. Here there's a huge price difference.
More and more people showed up, an adjumma kind of stalked us... it was a good time. I was really glad to have a lot of people around who were buying the snacks, because I got to learn about them. I now know that cheesy pretzles are the bomb, and not to buy popcorn if there's a picture of corn on it. It tastes like creamed corn. I'm all about snacks, and now have the knowledge to make good snack choices. awesome. We eventually made our way home, and I bought a pizza (with corn...) to eat with two other great teacher ladies. We stayed up for a while talking and eating. It was great to have some smaller scale social interaction and great conversation, even if my cheese pizza did have corn on it.
3)Mountains and Cheeseburgers
Saturday morning, I got up early and met a bunch of other teachers to go hiking. We rode the subway 3 or 4 stops north to Surakson, and hiked up Surakson (conveniently the name of the subway stop AND the mountain!). Historically, I'm not really hiker. I was nervous I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it went really well. I found it pretty challenging, but man did it feel great to be surrounded by trees rather than buildings. It was a great group of people - we hiked for 4 or 5 hours, up the mountain and back down. There were sections that they had put up ropes for you to use in order to climb up some tough stuff. I chickened out at the end, after I had tried to get to the tippy top and had to come back down. Going up was in many ways easier than coming down. Just skooching down a steep little thing scared the crap out of me, so I didn't try the other route up to the top. Marcell (another new hire, from Romania) and I stayed near the top and chatted for a while. It was a beautiful little perch, and it was great to get to know him a little better. We stopped for a popsicle about half way down - there was a man who had packed and carried up a ton of popsciles and was selling them. Mine was a creamy melon? Made it all the way back down and got on the subway back to Nowon. We were so hungry, we went for burgers across the street from our apartment. Kraze (krah-ze) Burger sells pretty good burgers, or so I had heard. Mine came with strawberry jam, mayo, and some red goop that wasn't ketchup or red pepper paste (and pickles, even though I requested they not be included) - and that was just the basic burger. I scraped off all the sauces, as I am not a fan of sauces, and enjoyed my cheese burger. So yeah. jam. on a burger. it happened.
4) Itaewon
We journeyed to Itaewon (the international district near the us army base) for a pop up barbeque by a friend of the art teacher's. This man, Linus, made incredibly delicious alabama style barbeque. It was unbelievable. I enjoyed coleslaw for the first time ever. We popped around, checking out a couple different bars, learning which place was what scene, and decided to stay at Hollywood where the focus was the football (soccer) game. Becky, Meg, and I cabbed home after we bought some Taco Bell. Yes, Taco Bell. good choices all around. I guess I ate all the food from home that I could yesterday - burgers, barbeque, a red velvet cupcake, and taco bell. Woops!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Teacher as learner
I thought I came here to be a teacher but i find more and more every day that I am here to learn. I am continuously flowing from challenge to ease, from wanting to fly home to feeling okay about calling this place home, from feeling alone to surrounded with support. It's a very jarring experience - moving to a new country to start your career. I continue to learn about myself, my surroundings, my profession, and my colleagues.
Something I'm working on overcoming: my tendency to shut down.
I discovered this while grocery shopping (which seems to be an emotional experience for me these days) after work on Monday. I had finished choosing some plain Ts ((which was hard because they come in baggies!?), and found another new hire, Jen, on the escalator down to the food section of the store. We were looking at the food and she was going for it - I admired her courage in just picking things out that didn't look familiar to me. I moved on and wandered around for a while, stopping to look at the milk. I had a short list in my head before coming to the store, but it had left me in the trum of picking out shirts in baggies. All I could remember was milk. There are so many options when it comes to milk here - at least more than we're offered in Minnesota. And they're all in Korean (or have 3 words in English on them, none of which pertaining to milk fat content), so I stood there staring at the many milk bottles for quite some time. Recounting the situation, watching myself at the dairy case, I'm encouraging the main character, saying "grab that milk! It can't be that bad! You'll be fine" but real time emmalee was all like "milk milk milk I have no idea I'm going to die if I get the wrong kind cause what if its live culture and I'm not live culture friendly and what if its already bad cause my last milki bought tasted kind of bad...." On and on. So I just walked away. I shut down. I couldn't make a choice, so decided make the choice to not buy milk. (The teacher in me is shouting "not making a choice is making a choice,") I mean, my life doesn't SUCK without milk.... But why didn't I have the hutspa to pick out some dang milk? Maybe it's because I didn't have my headphones with me haha. Anyway, I feel like an addict - the first step in solving a problem is being aware of the problem. So, I'm working on it. I'm working on my courage in everyday life situations. I'm trying to silence my nerves in a safe way in order to great the most out of my life, and in order to be more comfortable and happy.
I don't mean to emote too much, but I'd be lying if I told you this giant triple transition was easy. I'm living on my own for the first time, in a new country, as a first year teacher. But today was one of the best days I've had so far. The other music teachers (Melinda and Sophie, who at EXCELLENT) and I worked on stuff together for a lot of the afternoon. I shared with them that during my three student teaching experiences I learned that the biggest factor in how happy my job made me was my colleagues. I worked in 3 schools, paying attention to how the work, students, materials, environment and other factors impacted my satisfaction and quickly made the conclusion that the music team/ department had to be fun and hard working in order for me to be satisfied. I can work with difficult students. I can fundraiser for better instruments. I can make order out of a messy classroom. I cannot work without a supportive and fun team. I felt so affirmed in my decision to come heard today as we worked together. I am so pleased to be working with such knowledgeable and accepting educators. I'm comforted and inspired by our work together thus far and have high hopes for my time here.
So it's really happening. Friday is the big day. I'm writing this Tuesday night - one more work day (Wednesday) before new student orientation on Thursday and then the first day on Friday!
I've heard such great things about our students and have got some pretty fun things planned for us :)
Can't wait to tell you all about my first day as Ms. J half way around the world :)
Friday, August 9, 2013
Fearless?
So.
This week we did a staff retreat to Mirinae Camp which is about 3 hours north and east of APIS. My understanding is that we were near the east coast of Korea and sort of near to North Korea. Normally I would have known more, but without data on my phone, I was unable to map it. Something that surprised me about Korea is that they don't really use addresses like the US. The city of Seoul has been naming its streets within the last couple years and sending notifications to people about what their new address is. So, google-ing places or trying to map stuff can get interesting. Anyway, we went out into rural-ish Korea and it was beautiful - very mountainous and filled with small towns. We did a high ropes course, which scared me WAY more than I anticipated, but I'm glad I went through with it. 30 feet up in the air, walking across a log, I was really ready to say "Uh, no thanks! I'll come back down!", but whatever. We also went white water rafting which was awesome. The guides were really similar to those I met in Colorado - biiiiiig jokesters. We had a lot of fun - swimming in the river, turning the boat over to make it a water slide, singing songs, giving the guide crap even though we didn't speak the same language. Between all the planned fun stuff, we had meetings that helped me to understand more about APIS, the people I work with, and the goals we work toward as a team. We stayed in little houses in groups of four - I was really fortunate to be staying with the other two music teachers, so we got to talk about a lot of my questions and stuff.
Traveling/ moving to another country teaches you a LOT about yourself. For instance, I've known that I'm a tad more introverted than extroverted - but I didn't know how much I don't like masses of people. When I encountered crowds at home, they were always kind of fun, like at big concerts or the state fair.... but here... it's inescapable it seems. The constant stimulation and demand of my attention is a big change from life in Minnesota. I feel a little too proud of myself for finding a great coping mechanism almost two weeks into moving here - headphones. Headphones are sent from heaven above. I went to HomePlus yesterday (sort of like a walmart or target) with headphones in. My life was SO AWESOME. Previously, I've felt like sitting down and crying in the middle of grocery aisles, but with headphones... Run DMC and I were picking out carrots. It was excellent.
We went to Everest last night, an indian restaurant near Dondaemun (the big west? gate where my mom and I went to the fabric market). It was so delicious - and I got to use a fork! (it's the little things that count) Afterward, we bought a couple beers and "hiked" up a mountain. We had some great conversations, and saw a lot of cute puppies and babies. I feel the need to explain though, that this "hiked a mountain" concept was not what I assumed it would be. It was like.... let's walk up a giant hill on a paved path, and chill at this park up here. It was beautiful to see some nature contrasted against the bright city lights. Eventually we went on to Noraebong - karaoke but in your own little rooms. I'd never seen anything like it but it was pretty excellent. Walking in was sort of like walking down a hallway of practice rooms, but the sounds coming out were NOT mozart or beethoven - it was karaoke.
Overall, things are continuing to go well. I'm still learning, and I'm sure there's more to come! We have 3 work days before students come!
I'm off to Costco with Melinda - the wonderful new general music teacher. Gonna see what's available there that I haven't found anywhere else. It's sure to be an adventure :)
This week we did a staff retreat to Mirinae Camp which is about 3 hours north and east of APIS. My understanding is that we were near the east coast of Korea and sort of near to North Korea. Normally I would have known more, but without data on my phone, I was unable to map it. Something that surprised me about Korea is that they don't really use addresses like the US. The city of Seoul has been naming its streets within the last couple years and sending notifications to people about what their new address is. So, google-ing places or trying to map stuff can get interesting. Anyway, we went out into rural-ish Korea and it was beautiful - very mountainous and filled with small towns. We did a high ropes course, which scared me WAY more than I anticipated, but I'm glad I went through with it. 30 feet up in the air, walking across a log, I was really ready to say "Uh, no thanks! I'll come back down!", but whatever. We also went white water rafting which was awesome. The guides were really similar to those I met in Colorado - biiiiiig jokesters. We had a lot of fun - swimming in the river, turning the boat over to make it a water slide, singing songs, giving the guide crap even though we didn't speak the same language. Between all the planned fun stuff, we had meetings that helped me to understand more about APIS, the people I work with, and the goals we work toward as a team. We stayed in little houses in groups of four - I was really fortunate to be staying with the other two music teachers, so we got to talk about a lot of my questions and stuff.
Traveling/ moving to another country teaches you a LOT about yourself. For instance, I've known that I'm a tad more introverted than extroverted - but I didn't know how much I don't like masses of people. When I encountered crowds at home, they were always kind of fun, like at big concerts or the state fair.... but here... it's inescapable it seems. The constant stimulation and demand of my attention is a big change from life in Minnesota. I feel a little too proud of myself for finding a great coping mechanism almost two weeks into moving here - headphones. Headphones are sent from heaven above. I went to HomePlus yesterday (sort of like a walmart or target) with headphones in. My life was SO AWESOME. Previously, I've felt like sitting down and crying in the middle of grocery aisles, but with headphones... Run DMC and I were picking out carrots. It was excellent.
We went to Everest last night, an indian restaurant near Dondaemun (the big west? gate where my mom and I went to the fabric market). It was so delicious - and I got to use a fork! (it's the little things that count) Afterward, we bought a couple beers and "hiked" up a mountain. We had some great conversations, and saw a lot of cute puppies and babies. I feel the need to explain though, that this "hiked a mountain" concept was not what I assumed it would be. It was like.... let's walk up a giant hill on a paved path, and chill at this park up here. It was beautiful to see some nature contrasted against the bright city lights. Eventually we went on to Noraebong - karaoke but in your own little rooms. I'd never seen anything like it but it was pretty excellent. Walking in was sort of like walking down a hallway of practice rooms, but the sounds coming out were NOT mozart or beethoven - it was karaoke.
Overall, things are continuing to go well. I'm still learning, and I'm sure there's more to come! We have 3 work days before students come!
I'm off to Costco with Melinda - the wonderful new general music teacher. Gonna see what's available there that I haven't found anywhere else. It's sure to be an adventure :)
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Learning!
School Things:
I've just completed day no. 3? of new teacher orientation. I've been here for a full week and I already feel like I have learned a lot. There's just one more day of new teacher orientation, then begins all staff orientation for the year. We'll be going on a retreat in the north eastern mountains 3 hours from school. High ropes and white water rafting are included. Awesome. That'll be Wednesday through Friday.
Through our sessions and meetings during new teacher orientation, I've found a lot of information and inspiration. I believe I am a part of a wonderful school with an administration and staff of integrity and compassion. I can't wait for school to begin! I've been coming up with some fun stuff for my students and I to do together - I hope we learn a lot from each other.
We've gone through the three books they sent us to read over the summer:
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
Mindset by Carol Dweck
There are so many implications for teaching and learning that come from these three books and I'm very excited that they are being implemented as a part of my school's culture.
Some things are still changing in my teaching schedule, including the addition of something called "Directed Study", and the elimination of 4th grade orchestra. So I'm not really sure what my days and classes will really look like at this point. A complicating factor in planning for me is that I am not responsible for my materials. There's a cultural difference somewhere in the school systems that means that I am required to check out my scores from the school library. The materials I ordered about a month ago were not placed in my classroom or mailbox when they arrived - they were brought to the library to be catalogued, put into their system, labeled (each piece of music, even the students' pieces... numbered, labeled, etc), and put on the library shelf. This includes method books, teacher's editions, scores... everything. So most of what I have in my classroom is students' binders of copies of music they've played at some point. I'm putting pieces together, and the staff at my school have been very helpful, but that was one major difference that I didn't anticipate as an educator.
Life Things:
While my mom was here, we made sure to check a couple things off the tourist list. We balanced our time between school, home, and adventure pretty well. We made it to Dondaemun Market - a giant fabric/craft market and Gyeonbokgung, one of the historic royal palaces. We partook in Shabu Shabu and Korean BBQ with my colleagues and administrators, as well as venturing out on our own to try some gogi mandu. Seriously, I thought, "hey! Maybe I'll drop a few in Korea!" NO. definitely not. There is food EVERYWHERE here, and most of it is pretty darn delicious. I mean, I ate a quarter of a pineapple on a stick at the market yesterday. as a snack. HEAVEN.
Yesterday, I dropped my mom off at the airport. The rest of the new hires who are going through new teacher orientation with me knew this would be hard, so they planned some stuff to keep us all busy. What good friends! I went to a tofu house for lunch (which was quite an adventure...), headed off to the oldest and largest market in Seoul (which was low key because it was Sunday, Thank the Lord) and then hung we hung out in each others apartments, having a great time. I had a chance to use a couple of my birthday presents last night - I made popcorn for my friends! Carah gave me some butter flavored olive oil and popcorn seasonings which made it even better - and we used the Minnesota coasters Maren gave me for my birthday. I am surrounded with love from near and far!
I've been consistently surprised by how urban of an area I live in. I am in Nowon-gu, near the Hagye (hag-eh) subway station. If you look on a map, you'll see that it's quite north of the Seoul city center. Because of my twin cities understanding of city and suburb, I assumed I'd really be walking far to get to the subway and that it'd take an hour to get downtown by subway, and that I'd have to go pretty far to do my shopping. All of those things are false. I live in a densely populated area with MANY businesses, including a dunkin doughnuts below my apartment :) If you walk 1.7 km (1 mile) north of my apartment building it's like times square. At least to my suburban brain. That area surprised me in how many western things were present - there's a mcdonalds (I have another one even closer to my apartment), Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and Krispy Kreme. It's not all western by any means, but I really didn't expect this level of western influence in the suburbs. Overall, though, I've been able to get things here that I was told would be impossible to find (string cheese, cheese in general, butter, oatmeal, etc). So, it seems it's a much smaller world than I had realized!
I've just completed day no. 3? of new teacher orientation. I've been here for a full week and I already feel like I have learned a lot. There's just one more day of new teacher orientation, then begins all staff orientation for the year. We'll be going on a retreat in the north eastern mountains 3 hours from school. High ropes and white water rafting are included. Awesome. That'll be Wednesday through Friday.
Through our sessions and meetings during new teacher orientation, I've found a lot of information and inspiration. I believe I am a part of a wonderful school with an administration and staff of integrity and compassion. I can't wait for school to begin! I've been coming up with some fun stuff for my students and I to do together - I hope we learn a lot from each other.
We've gone through the three books they sent us to read over the summer:
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink
Mindset by Carol Dweck
There are so many implications for teaching and learning that come from these three books and I'm very excited that they are being implemented as a part of my school's culture.
Some things are still changing in my teaching schedule, including the addition of something called "Directed Study", and the elimination of 4th grade orchestra. So I'm not really sure what my days and classes will really look like at this point. A complicating factor in planning for me is that I am not responsible for my materials. There's a cultural difference somewhere in the school systems that means that I am required to check out my scores from the school library. The materials I ordered about a month ago were not placed in my classroom or mailbox when they arrived - they were brought to the library to be catalogued, put into their system, labeled (each piece of music, even the students' pieces... numbered, labeled, etc), and put on the library shelf. This includes method books, teacher's editions, scores... everything. So most of what I have in my classroom is students' binders of copies of music they've played at some point. I'm putting pieces together, and the staff at my school have been very helpful, but that was one major difference that I didn't anticipate as an educator.
Life Things:
While my mom was here, we made sure to check a couple things off the tourist list. We balanced our time between school, home, and adventure pretty well. We made it to Dondaemun Market - a giant fabric/craft market and Gyeonbokgung, one of the historic royal palaces. We partook in Shabu Shabu and Korean BBQ with my colleagues and administrators, as well as venturing out on our own to try some gogi mandu. Seriously, I thought, "hey! Maybe I'll drop a few in Korea!" NO. definitely not. There is food EVERYWHERE here, and most of it is pretty darn delicious. I mean, I ate a quarter of a pineapple on a stick at the market yesterday. as a snack. HEAVEN.
Yesterday, I dropped my mom off at the airport. The rest of the new hires who are going through new teacher orientation with me knew this would be hard, so they planned some stuff to keep us all busy. What good friends! I went to a tofu house for lunch (which was quite an adventure...), headed off to the oldest and largest market in Seoul (which was low key because it was Sunday, Thank the Lord) and then hung we hung out in each others apartments, having a great time. I had a chance to use a couple of my birthday presents last night - I made popcorn for my friends! Carah gave me some butter flavored olive oil and popcorn seasonings which made it even better - and we used the Minnesota coasters Maren gave me for my birthday. I am surrounded with love from near and far!
I've been consistently surprised by how urban of an area I live in. I am in Nowon-gu, near the Hagye (hag-eh) subway station. If you look on a map, you'll see that it's quite north of the Seoul city center. Because of my twin cities understanding of city and suburb, I assumed I'd really be walking far to get to the subway and that it'd take an hour to get downtown by subway, and that I'd have to go pretty far to do my shopping. All of those things are false. I live in a densely populated area with MANY businesses, including a dunkin doughnuts below my apartment :) If you walk 1.7 km (1 mile) north of my apartment building it's like times square. At least to my suburban brain. That area surprised me in how many western things were present - there's a mcdonalds (I have another one even closer to my apartment), Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and Krispy Kreme. It's not all western by any means, but I really didn't expect this level of western influence in the suburbs. Overall, though, I've been able to get things here that I was told would be impossible to find (string cheese, cheese in general, butter, oatmeal, etc). So, it seems it's a much smaller world than I had realized!
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