Television

So, I was fortunate enough to have an (albeit inferior) TV in my apartment. However, my viewing selections are limited by my lack of Korean skills. Though I'd like to watch the news to find out what's happening on the peninsula, I usually end up watching the following:

EBS
I think "Educational Broadcast Station" or something like that. Basically, if they're teaching English, I watch them teach English. Pathetic, but its the most advanced Korean program I can understand. Any words I don't catch are usually translated in the story they're explaining, so I usually walk away having learned a little something. There's a lot of repetition too, so I get practice. EBS also provides entertainment value, as I get to laugh at the failed TV actors who came over here to read dialogue scripts.

Of course, I have to watch people like this guy...

M-net
This is the Korean MTV. That's right. Option 2 is K-Pop. Its just that they use the same words over and over again. I can actually comprehend most of whats going on. The downside is its K-Pop. For example: the conspicuously homosexual, Michael Jackson wannabe WheeSung:

or the plastic surgery binging "Girl's Generation":


At the very least, this channel keeps me current with what the kids are asking me in class. Everyday it's "Teacher! You know Wonder Girls (Wunduh Gulj)? Teacher! You know Big Bang (Beak Beng)?"

Tooniverse
The Korean Cartoon Network known as Tooniverse serves two primary functions. The first is a morning function. For all the stay at home toddlers and white guys who work nights, Tooniverse offers a variety of educational baby shows. This is the level of Korean I can speak fluently. Sesame Street. So depressing.

The second function is an exhausted, after work one. Every night from 11-1, Tooniverse airs 4 episodes of subtitled The Simpsons. In beautiful, beautiful English. Thank you Matt Groener for preserving my sanity.

www.KoreanEssays.com

If I may, a direct transcription of one of the essays I spent my weekend correcting (bearing in mind that the topic was in fact the title of the first chapter in their book, and all they really had to do was copy the chapter exactly):

I'm grave computer but I play soccer and paseball beacause as Tim as displesed become I very well school and many not sick and computer moment minutes.
Tim is very not good and mental disorder because mother and father bye bye bad so is mental disorded Me very well study and play, music art very well become so many money burn. So my grandpa, grand ma comfort give up. and my home very good.

That's 100% direct quote.

Finally!

I have home Internet at last! After more than a month of being here I've got so much to say!


That's the problem with those smaller airports:
There were complications at the airport, as such a day must always entail. This time it's actually funny in retrospect.

Being that I distilled my life down to three bags and a personal item, I was right on the money for the weight allowance of 50 lbs per bag. After some adjustments, my two pieces of checked luggage equaled out to 50 and 49.5 lbs. I boarded at Hartsfield with a duffel bag in one hand and a bookbag on my back, each bursting at the seams.

I flew into Chicago O'Hare on my way to Japan on my way to Korea, and with my five hour layover I decided to leave the airport security bubble and meet my friend Chiasa for breakfast.

After eating, however, Chicago wouldn't let me back in. You see, my bags were too large to be carry-ons. I tried to explain that I had already been on one plane that morning and that I was about to get on an even larger plane, so the baggage shouldn't be an issue. Of course that was all in vain. To my complaint that Hartsfield had already allowed this baggage I was told only, "That's the problem with those smaller airports." LOL!

Hartsfield larger than O'Hare in acreage, flights per day, and passengers processed per year. You know what the real problem with those smaller airports is? They charge you an extra $200. In the end it was nice to not have to lug that duffel everywhere with me (which was also 47.something pounds...), but not 200 dollars nice.

Ah, the spacious airplane ride.

Avalon:
The school where I'm teaching is called Avalon (pronounced Koreanly: Ah-bah-lone) and it is a sort of chain tutoring school for elementary and middle school students. After they get out of public school, they go to Avalon locations all over the city for extra school.

I teach 7 classes (4 on TTh, 3 on MWF) and the levels are all over the place. I have kids who are still practicing capitals versus lower case. I have medium level kids who are reading about class schedules and phone conversations. I even have the class where all the kids have lived for several years in an English speaking country! I'm not even teaching them English but rather public speaking. I think the management is just spreading me around to see how I do.

I'm on a team with 6 other western teachers (depending on the mood we're called either the foreign teachers or the native teachers...which seems contradictory). We are all American save for one Torontan. In fact, there are two other Georgians in the group (Marietta and Savannah). Everyone's nice enough but I've got my work cut out for me: not only do I have to learn their names but there are 3 bosses, the Korean desk staff, the TA's, and the Korean teachers (who teach the kids grammar and vocabulary whereas we work on listening and conversation). Did I mention that there's another division of the building for the middle school kids? So, all that times 2. Plus 7 classes of kids (though most of them are named John and Sally). I'm not even that good with remembering my close friends' names...

My smartest kids giving speeches

Korean Life:
I'm resettling nicely. Words continuously trickle back in to my brain without me even hearing them, which I find odd. I'll just be in my apartment, then suddenly *poof* 한가한 (having spare time). It's like the environment has reactivated that part of my brain. I won't know what the words mean, just that I used to. Then I'll go look up the word and kick myself for not remembering on my own. It's been kinda weird.

I fully expected to be treated like a Korean in respect to accommodations, but I should have guessed that a school that regularly employs foreigners would be used to how we like things. For example, I thought I'd be crashing on the floor but in fact there was a bed in my apartment! A welcome surprise. In fact, I had a lot more from the get go than I had imagined. The school bought some dishes and cookware for me, there was a refrigerator, and even a TV. The room was more spacious than I predicted as well. Location is almost perfect too, so definitely no complaints in the housing department.

In a lot of ways I feel as though I never left. I'm back in the same part of town, contacting my Yonsei friends, and not nearly as crippled by months of language atrophy as I feared. It's as though my American life and Korean life are two seperate consciousnesses, between which I can switch without making effort or  feeling the passage of time. I can't really explain it well, but suffice it to say that I'm comfortable.

Now that everything's working in my apartment internet-wise, I'll be posting regularly and in more detail again. Just wanted to get something out here so everyone knows the basics: I'm here, I'm working, and I'm happy. Talk to everyone soon! Psst me for a skype date.