TravelBio

The first leg of my journey following a year teaching in Korea was the Philippines.  I knew I wanted to go to a warm country, and SE Asia had been the plan for some time.  I also figured that the Philippines would be a good country to travel before heading to Germany, because it is geographically separate from the mainland SE Asian countries I want to visit (Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam). The Philippines is a collection of over 7,000 islands and 100 million people.  It is no surprise then that I wouldn't be able to see all of the country; I would have to select a few places to key in on for my travels.  The central region of the Philippine islands, known as the Visayas, was where I planned to start.  The largest city in the Visayas is Cebu City, appropriately on the island of Cebu.  It probably has over a million people in the metro area, but pales in comparison to the Manila capital region, a collection of cities that total over 20 million people. Th

I realized that I haven't disclosed my plans yet, and felt like sharing since I have extra time here at Starbucks.  As you know from the last post I am leaving to go to the Philippines.  I fly Seoul to Cebu with a transfer in Manila.  On December 18th I have a flight from Manila to Frankfurt via two stopovers (Bangkok and Kuwait).  So beforehand I have two and a half weeks of free time in the Philippines.  I will try and stay with some locals via Couch Surfing (if you don't know about it check out their site - this will be my first time but my friends who've tried all highly recommend it). I could get used to this! I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing and getting some needed sun on the beach.  Right now if I had to pick a shade for my skin tone it might be neon white.  Not that I tan much, but the beach should do me well (I'll need lots of sunscreen!).  While in the Cebu area I'll try and hop around to a few of the nearby islands.  FYI the Philip

I was hoping to post this earlier, but haven't had Internet access at the places I've been staying.  Here is what I wrote almost two weeks ago: I am sitting at a Starbucks in Seoul with a bit of time on my hands before I head out to the Philippines, so it seems like a good time to write a blog.  Unfortunately I can't get Internet access so this might not be posted for awhile.  The last week has been hectic to say the least.  Last Wednesday my replacement arrived and I showed her the ropes for three days.  My coworker, Matt, is also leaving so there were two new teachers to train.  My schedule was broken up between the two, with one getting the bulk of my morning classes and the other most of the afternoon ones. Both the new teachers are women from England.  I don't know if I feel good or bad for James, the only remaining male!  All of the Korean teachers are female too, and the school will also have no Americans on staff (simply because of the size of the US i

When I first came to Korea I knew absolutely no Korean, but like many newcomers was determined to learn at least the basics.  I picked up the alphabet rather quickly (which is not saying much; it is easy to do!) but didn’t make much progress in December.  I learned days of the week, simple counting, and a few basic phrases. Matt, my coworker who also arrived in late November, bought a Korean language book that seemed to help his studies considerably.  I decided to do the same, and while at the book store met a Korean teacher who invited me to a language class.  She worked at a public school during the day and in the evenings taught English to foreigners.  Apparently a new beginner class was about to open up, so I agreed to visit the school. When I arrived they gave me a placement test, which was daunting to say the least.  As I expected I was placed into the beginner class.  The school took up one floor of a ten or so story office building, and although small, seemed professio

Sorry for the delays on posting any new info.  My computer's trial version of Microsoft Word ran out, and I've also been a bit lazy of late!  I have a new post saved within Word but can't access it; I will try and email it and open the document up at work to see if it works on another computer. Anyway, just wanted to give a few updates from the past month or so.  There hasn't been anything super exciting going on at work.  We will have a Halloween party on Wednesday, so that means more work for the teachers to decorate and plan the event.  The kids' should have some adorable costumes, so I will try and post pictures following Halloween. A co-teacher named Clair, from Scotland, will be leaving at the end of this month (only three more days, can't believe it is that soon!).  She was here when I started and decided to extend her contract by three months before heading home.  She has been teaching in Korea for over two years and was a big help for me, a w

I was planning on posting about my Korean class, but figured that beforehand it would be good to put up info on the Korean language.  Not that I can teach you much, but I find it to be quite interesting. No, Korea is not part of China Most Americans know nothing about Korean language, let alone the country.  Before leaving the States a few friends, or rather acquaintances, asked me whether I would be teaching in North or South Korea.  And, although it may be hard to believe, my social circle is well informed compared to the average American.  Other teachers I know in Korea got asked questions such as, “Oh, what part of China is Korea in?” “what language do they speak?” and, the best one I’ve heard, “why do you want to teach in Africa?”  I really hope that these responses aren’t common and just the outliers that make for humorous conversation. Regarding knowledge of the language I wasn’t much better than many of my friends back home.  I didn’t even know that Korean was, unl

 M ost of you who know me know that I love sports.  And so naturally the Olympics, especially the summer Olympics, are an exciting time for me.  There are widely recognized sports that I enjoy such as basketball, soccer, and tennis, as well as the ones that most people see only every four years.  How many people passionately watch archery or competitive walking any other time?  Only during the Olympics could a strait man ask the bartender to turn on rhythmic gymnastics without anyone batting an eye. Stateside the time difference for this year’s Olympics was convenient enough – you may have missed out on the morning sessions, but at least most of it was on during the day.  I heard though that NBC did a pretty good job of screwing up the coverage.  Korea, on the other hand, is 8 hours ahead of London.  So that means the primetime events, say at 8 pm, were on here at 4 am.  That really put a dent in my Olympics viewing time.  I saw some live coverage in the evenings, but a lot of it

Early Friday afternoon my dad ad uncle flew from Osaka to Seoul.  I had to teach until 6:40, so the plan was for them to look for a hotel or come back to my apartment if they didn’t find anything.  At around 4:30 I got a call from them telling me that they had booked a hotel in Myeongdong. After work I went to the hotel and spent the night there too. The Seoul metro map...crazy huh?  Myeongdong is centrally located (Jamsil is in the southeast, where the green and pink lines meet) Myeongdong is a busy shopping area of Seoul north of the Han River.  My apartment, south of the river, is not as centrally located.  Myeondong is close to downtown and the attractions that I wanted to show my dad and uncle, so it made more sense to stay there as opposed to Jamsil. By the time we got dinner and walked around the narrow, packed streets in the shopping district of Myeondong it was already after 10 pm.  The following morning we had to get up early for a DMZ trip with the USO,

Even before I left for Korea last November, my dad had mentioned that he might try and visit me.  In the past he has suggested trips only to say that it was just a hypothetical later on.  So when he finally booked a flight for a visit in the summer I was quite surprised.  Both he and my uncle flew in to Seoul on the 31 st of July and then also went to Japan together for four nights.  Here is a recap of their visit: My uncle (far right) and dad (second from right) were headed to Seoul! Korean public schools get over a month off for summer break in late June and August.  On the other hand, the private institutes (like the one I work for) often have much shorter breaks.  During the summer break from public school parents sign their kids up for extra classes at our school, so we actually are busier!  What a great vacation for the students – a full day of English classes!  My break was four days long (well six if you count the weekend), from Tuesday, July 31 st th