Settling into Ulsan life

Ulsan is pretty amazing. I've officially been in Korea for over a month (already?!), and in Ulsan for almost 4 weeks now. I find that I'm settling into life here really well. On top of the friends met at orientation, I've met a bunch of really awesome people while here in Ulsan. School is going great, and I'm starting to get the hang of teaching the Korea way. I was really stressed for about the first 2 weeks of teaching, always coming home after an afternoon of lesson planning, only to lesson plan up until I go to sleep. I now don't take school work home with me and am able to enjoy my free evenings exploring Ulsan. And I've really REALLY enjoyed it. 

A few highlights (and maybe a lowlight) of my life outside of school (cause let's be honest, those are some of the most memorable): 

- I finally mastered the bus system! Ulsan is the only metropolitan city that doesn't have its' own subway system, meaning having to rely on buses to get from point A to point B. Most everywhere I've gone in Ulsan is too far to travel by foot, apart from my neighborhood and school. I've thought about getting a bike, but to get anywhere else in Ulsan other than my neighborhood, I have to go down the huge hill where the sidewalks aren't the greatest. Walking my bike up said hill would be a nightmare. I may be looking into getting a scooter, but I'm still undecided. Drivers can be pretty crazy. The buses aren't as terrible as I thought they would be. I've managed to find my way to CostCo, Home Plus, Ilsan beach, new downtown, and to a few friends' neighborhoods. Haven't gotten lost yet, or on the wrong bus! 

- Had my first CostCo experience!! I've never been to one in the states, so I think it's funny that my first time is in Korea. I have a feeling I will be making many many trips. During our first week of arriving in Ulsan, a bunch of orientation peeps thought about getting memberships and making the trek over there together. Shopping in a group was a wonderful idea, as we were able to split a lot of the stuff we bought. My haul consisted of lunch meat (Hormel brand even!), sliced deli cheese, pasta, peanut butter, grapes (which were cheaper than what I would have paid back home), a few bottles of wine, beer, and COFFEE. I was on a mission to find good, REAL coffee, as whatever I've found in the shops here is instant and loaded with sugar. I was successful! Found a box of Starbucks ground coffee, which had 3, 1 pound bags of ground coffee. The cost was......... 30,000 Won, or just less than 30 US dollars. Ouch. I need my coffee, so I was more than ok paying that much. You go to any coffee shop for a GOOD coffee and you end up paying at least 5,000 Won anyway for a tiny cup. I'll try to make it last, but no promises :) CostCo will also be the place I go to for cheap, REAL pizza. Their food court was worth the 3+ hour trip alone. 

- Old downtown is where it's at. I've made the short 10 min bus ride into Seongnam Dong, or old downtown, the most during my non-school hours. Most of the time I meet up with Starr and/or Courtney for dinner, drinks, or shopping. It's normally a busy, bright, k-pop blaring place. I love it. There was also an outdoor festival held in that area last weekend, so Courtney and I went together. Never have I seen more foreigners in one place. It was a strange feeling. We also hit up the latest Bourne movie (in English!) and a foreigner bar. Again, I've never seen more foreigners in one place. It was also the largest post-orientation get together. It was great seeing so many familiar faces. Seongnam Dong, I love you. 

- I survived my second typhoon!! Our first day in Ulsan was highlighted by Typhoon Bolaven, and 3 weeks later, we were hit with another one, Typhoon Sanba. Last Sunday, we found out school classes were cancelled on Monday due to the impending typhoon. I went into school on Monday, walking through the crazy winds and rain downpour. That was a trip. Had my first true experience of desk warming, as only the teachers were at school. Coffee, a blanket, and Harry Potter were on the agenda. I didn't complain. The weather cleared up by the time I left school. The only casualties of the day were a leaking window at school and my wet socks. 

- I've kept in contact with a lot of the orientation group. I've ventured into Buk-Gu for dinner and drinks with Bex and Dylan, had pizza and coffee on the beach with Olivia, and Indian food in new downtown with Steph, Gema, and Emily. Apart from the group get-togethers on the weekends, it's really really nice getting together during the week. Helps me keep my sanity. It's also nice keeping those connections. It's a fun crew. 

- On a low note, I've already had an injury. Walking home from school one day, I tripped/stepped into a hole in the sidewalk. Great. Got home after hobbling, to find it was swollen about 5 times larger than normal. Spent the night lounging in bed, foot propped up on my pillow with an ice pack. 2 weeks later, it's completely better. Bruising is gone, pain is gone, swollen slightly still thanks to spending all day on my feet. I now have health insurance after getting my alien registration card, but hopefully I'll never have to rely on it. 

- I've had a lot of really amazing, one-of-a-kind experiences with Starr. We ventured to Ilsan beach one day, only to end up sitting at the top of the hill that overlooks the beach with 2 older gentleman, sharing soju and fish. We also found the bamboo forest, which included a workout on the outdoor gym equipment (beer included), as well as chatting with the owners of the small shop on the sidewalk as we held their adorable puppy and got free ice cream. This lady rocks. I'm so lucky she lives so close to me. Lots of adventures to be had :) 

All in all, I'm loving my time in Ulsan. Life is good. Really good. 

Skool Dayz

School post! It's been about a week since I've blogged, and I didn't include anything about my first full week at Seongan Elementary... and now I'm at the end of my second! This might be long! A summary of (most) everything thus far!

Routines/Things that have stressed me out:
- 5th graders are awesome... and I'm slowly starting to despise 6th grade. My first lesson with them, my introduction, was painful to say the least. When teaching, I'm usually always energetic and love getting students interested in the material. It was my introduction, so this is probably as energetic as I get. If this were a sitcom, you would have heard crickets. They didn't really care about anything I had to say. Like my intro to my 5th grade classes, my coteacher (Jenn) translated most of it. They still didn't care. Some did, don't get me wrong, but the majority of the students/classes did not. Jenn and I had a chat later on, and she said that she doesn't even like teaching 6th grade because the students just don't care about learning English anymore. I find this to be shocking, as a good 3/4 of 5th graders are constantly participating, raising their hand, answering questions, etc. This may be an interesting experience with the 6th graders. There are some students I absolutely adore though, so I'm hoping that group expands throughout the school year. Trial and error: my new 6th grade motto.
- The Sunday night before my first week teaching, I started feeling a tickle in my throat. Not good. I woke up Monday morning with barely a voice. Super. I still powered through my introductions, and my first after-school class (4th graders are wonderful)! By Tuesday, my voice was completely gone. Not sick at all, just no voice. All my co-teachers were worried, encouraging me to go to the hospital. In Korea, they go to the doctor for ANYTHING. I reassured them I was fine, but they were still persistent. I spose this might come in handy if I ever do need to go to the hospital for anything (more on that later). I observed most of the week, assisting when needed. Even though I wasn't teaching per se, it was still stressful because...
- My co-teacher for 5th grade, Joy, is very specific when she write and executes lessons, and she had me write a few for my classes. I didn't have the teacher's guide book at this time, so it was really really hard to plan a lesson, when I don't know what I'm supposed to be teaching. I had the student text book, but pictures  can only tell you so much. The minimal writing that's in the student book, written in KOREAN, doesn't help either. I made, what I thought, was a pretty awesome lesson. Brought it to her the next day, and she basically disapproved of everything I had on there. 2 hours wasted. She made an outline for me of what she wanted the lessons to look like, which I'm still trying to get the hang of since I've only been in 5th grade half the week, so I did my best to go off of that. I re-did it and spent another 2+ hours trying to perfect it. She didn't like that one either. So I tried yet again a 3rd time... came to school the next day and she said she already had it planned. At this point, I was about ready to punch a wall. I know it's a totally different culture and way of teaching (or just way of life even) so I'm trying to use all the patience I have and learn from the experiences. As well as not taking everything so seriously. As of now, I think I have a better sense of how she teaches and what she expects of me. Taught a lesson (a Joy approved!) this week and I had a blast. The kids loved it, and Joy seemed to as well. Baby steps.
- My main co-teacher Jenn is an absolute HOOT. She's super supportive and is totally understanding of my current state of being overwhelmed. I think we'll have fun this year.

Interesting things I've heard/seen/experienced at school:
- "Teacha! Teacha! WWE!!" - after school student. Pretty much the only 2 things I've heard him say in class when he's not speaking Korean. I do the whole X arms, "anniyo," thing but he's very persistent. I try to be stone faced, but it's hilarious.
- "Teacha! Trick or treat!" - 6th grade (brat) student loudly while trumping into my library ... only for me to say trick (in a playful way). But I ain't giving you candy when you roll your eyes at me and throw things in my class. Cue annoying whine as she stomps off. Then she brings 3 friends in, and they all swarm around my desk. "TEACHA!! TREAT!!!" I tell them, in a friendly tone mind you, that I have no candy. Cue 4 girls rolling their eyes. They then decide to hang out in my library (I say 'my' cause it's the English library and where my desk is) and be the absolute loudest they can be. I have a few rules if students want to hang in the library, since when I'm in there I try to lesson plan. They can do one of two things: 1) Read English books, 2) Talk/converse in English (whether to me or other students). They were being obnoxious and loud while on their phones (which I also banned from the library). I reminded them of what they can do in the library, in a kind tone though I was fed up at this point, and they said "yeah yeah" and went back to being obnoxious. I kicked them out. More eye rolling. I didn't even care at this point. I don't want to be the teacher who's a total wench, but this is ridiculous. I also want the library to be an open, welcoming, comfortable place where students can practice English without pressure. When 4 girls are pounding on the computer keyboards while giving me the death glare and giggling, and others are messing with the air conditioning, all the while rattling off in Korean, I have no tolerance. This is why I hate most 6th graders ;)
- The behavior management, or lack thereof, is unreal. I've seen everything from kids full on sprinting through the halls (I've spilled so much coffee/tea because of kids running into me), slamming doors, and punching/hitting/kicking/WRESTLING in the halls and classrooms. I've seen absolutely no management for any of this. One kid had another in an arm lock, sitting on him on the floor, while another kid punched him square in the back. The teacher was standing not more than 5 feet away. She looked at them, laughed, then resumed her conversation with the other teacher. I don't even know what I should be doing. I've stopped a few wrestling matches that have gone on before my classes, letting students know I don't tolerate it in class. It never sticks. And as far as classroom management goes, I've been doing subtle things, like taking the flying pencil cases or books used as weapons out of hands, but my co-teacher told me not to do anything. She wants to do all of the management. And when I say all, I mean ALL. She said that if a student is misbehaving, I should point to the student and let Jenn know that I "don't like what so-and-so is doing" so she can handle it. I mentioned my subtle management strategies, like taking distracting items away, using my "angry Sara Teacha" face, and proximity to misbehaving students, but she doesn't think I should do any of it. We'll see how this goes.

In short, school has been a very unique, random experience thus far. I've already had many ups and downs but it's all part of the learning process. It'll get better. I'm sure of it.

First weekend of many in Ulsan

First of all, I realize I'm awful at regularly posting. My apologies. It's already been a whole week, so I'm totally convinced this year will absolutely fly by. I've been staying ungodly busy. Since last Friday, I've only really had about 2 nights of down time after school. Otherwise I'm on constantly on the run. I'm just gonna bullet point this post to spare time... for both my sake and yours :)

Weekend post!

Last Friday:
- It was my first REAL day of school, not having to sit at my desk all day. I did my introduction powerpoint for my 5th grade classes. All 5 classes, thus far in the game, are wonderful. Easily engaged with the material, love participating, super spunky. It was my first taste of co-teaching, as my 5th grade CT (Joy) translated for the students after every slide. I'm hoping there will be less of that when I actually get into teaching. I think our teaching styles are at opposite ends of the spectrum, so it will definitely be a learning experience working with her this year. All in all, it was a good Friday at school! Nothing too out of the ordinary.
- After school, I met up with fellow EPIK expats in Dong-Gu for Mexican food by the beach. I hadn't taken the buses yet at this point, and I didn't want to risk it since Dong-Gu is a good 45 min ride from my neighborhood and I was already running late. So, I took a cab. It was the most terrifying taxi experience ever. Drivers take red lights as suggestions, and go WELL over the speed limit. I made it in one piece. We met at a place called O'Taco right on the ocean. It was a gorgeous night! I was one of the first to arrive, and the few of us there chatted/ranted/caught up on our first experiences in Ulsan over a few drafts of Cass beer. About 11 of the 17 Ulsanites from orientation showed up throughout the night. We migrated to a foreigner bar in the neighborhood and played a few rounds of pool. I was merely a spectator. Then someone had the 'brilliant' plan of heading downtown. Went to a club, and it was a very very late night. Ulsan knows how to party too.

Saturday:
- Slept in, which was well needed. I didn't do much besides laundry and Big Bang Theory. Exciting stuff, I know. I needed adventure, so I decided to take a tour of Seongan-Dong, since it will after all be my home for the next year, if not longer (... sorry family!!). Despite being kind of isolated, Seongan-Dong is a gorgeous area.  It feels very small town like, while still being in a huge city. The view of downtown Ulsan is a plus. I wanted to venture out more, but no luck. Ended up having a Skype date with Daejeon Rachel, so we were both lame in our apartments. Ramen, gossip, and a movie! It was a fun, unexpected date night ;)

Sunday:
- Fairly low key for the most part of the morning/afternoon. The previous occupant/teacher I've taken over for and I have been messaging, and she got me in contact with a few girls in the same area. I met up with one of the girls, Starr, at the bus stop so we could venture into old downtown for dinner. She lives about 2 blocks away from my school and she is an absolute DOLL! We met another friend of hers, Courtney, at the Paris Baguette. I already love these girls. We grabbed dinner at a tofu joint (DELICIOUS food), then aimlessly wandered throughout the shops. Lots of laughs shared over Engrish spellings. Starr has been in Ulsan for about 2 months, and Courtney for about a month. I think we'll have a lot of fun together. Made it back to my place kind of late. Onto lesson planning!

My first full week teaching was an overwhelming, amazing, strange experience. Blog post coming soon!

Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore...

I started the day with an impromptu Skype session with the fam!! It was great to see them!! Gave them a quick tour of my apartment via webcam and talked a little about my first full day in Ulsan. It's so crazy to think that I'm gonna be here a whole year, and won't be back in MN until next August. It still feels almost like I'm on vacation, and I'll see them again next week. Not the case. Still hard to wrap my mind around living abroad for so long. Thursday was a lot of the same school wise. I desk warmed all day, which gave me a lot of time to work on my introduction powerpoint. I left school fairly early, at about 3, and went straight home. Not having anything to really do or prep for school (powerpoint done!) I decided to venture into main Ulsan. I'm in a really nice neighborhood in Seongan Dong, yet I'm still pretty far from most civilization. I almost feel like I'm on an island, looking into main Ulsan.

A is where my school is located. My apartment is about where the top of the J is in "Jung-Gu". There's only one main road that leads into the rest of Ulsan and Seongan Dong is up on a hill. Like I said: island. 

My adventure took me into old downtown, which took about 45 minutes on foot. I could have taken the bus, but A) I don't know which bus is which, and B) the buses terrify me. Walking down the hill was a bit scary, as there was tons of traffic and only a few cinder blocks separating me from it.  On the 45 minute walk, and even strolling through the covered markets, I did not see ONE other foreigner. I think it finally hit me then; I'm not in Minnesota anymore. Up until now, I had been surrounded by foreigners, both at the hostel in Seoul and at orientation in Daejeon. I was now alone. It was a real eye-opener on just how far away from home I really am. It's absolutely terrifying, yet extremely liberating to be this independent. It's going to be a very interesting year.

From what I saw, old downtown was so fun! I ended up making it to the covered markets, and purchased a few more un-necessary items. Another Korean shirt, a headband, and nail polish remover! Less than 15,000 Won altogether! Score! Also found a cat cafe (!!) and heard Gangnam Style more times within a 50 foot radius than I had since arriving in Korea. I headed back after about an hour and a half of exploring. Found my way without a map, and stumbled on yet again another gorgeous view of Ulsan!

I could get used to this view.

Another great day in Ulsan! Onto the weekend!

Sara Teacha

After a fairly uncomfortable night's sleep (my bed is only marginally more comfortable than the hard floor), I started my first day at Seongan Elementary! I was warned that I would be introducing myself on the morning broadcast, so that was first on the agenda. Jenn brought me to the broadcasting room and once we walked in, we were greeted by the 10 or so students. Bow included! I don't think I'll ever get used to students bowing as they say hello to me. The broadcast went alright, considering the paragraph or so I prepared to say got cut to about 2 sentences and a malfunctioning microphone to boot. Jenn brought me up to the English office, where I met Joy and Soo, who also teach English. I will be co-teaching 5th grade with Joy, and Soo and I run the after school programs. They are both super sweet ladies! Jenn then said I could sit at my desk. So I did that. The rest of the day. Korea has something called "desk warming," where you literally sit at your desk and just warm the chair. I caught up on my blog and did some facebook chat, since I had yet to be informed on what I should be preparing. At one point, Jenn came in and said the 6th grade class wanted to meet me NOW so I went with her to the classroom, all the while wracking my brain as to what to say to the students. She pushed me in front of the class and said to introduce myself. Once I began talking, Jenn booked it out of the room. Great. I asked what the students wanted to know about me, after a brief introduction, but ended up pulling some Gangnam Style dancing. We'll see how effective it was. I'll start teaching these students on Monday, so hopefully it goes better. I ate lunch with Soo, and she's absolutely wonderful! She's been extremely helpful throughout my first few days at school. Great English, super friendly.  I brought ramen for lunch (wahoo!) since Jenn told me to bring my own, but Soo didn't have it. The school lunch was surprisingly delicious! It had rice (of course), a spicy tofu dish, a really tasty fish soup, and lots of kimchi! Soo was surprised I liked it, as apparently everyone thinks it's awful. I guess I'm easy to please.

Later on in the day, during what would be the 'after school' hours, 3 adorable girls came in my library to visit! They've visited me every day so far, and their English is wonderful! We've chatted about the weather, k-pop artists, and their hobbies. One girl in particular, Bonnie, is especially bubbly and friendly. She's hilarious! Every time I see her in the hallway, she greets me and we end up chatting about what's going on in school.

My 3 daily visitors :) Bonnie is in the green! 

Jenn and I left school a bit early to apply for my Alien Registration Card, and open my bank account. This was the first time I really got to experience main Ulsan. Traffic was NUTS, and Jenn is a crazy driver! We made it to the Immigration office and ran into many fellow EPIKers doing the same thing! It was nice to see familiar faces, even though it had only been 24 hours! My ARC is on the way! (Jenn is my hero!) We then headed to KEB, the Korea Exchange Bank, to open my account. It appeared to be closed, but Jenn was determined it shouldn't have been. She made many, many phone calls to get us in. Meanwhile, I met another foreigner (shout out to David!) trying to get in the bank so we chatted for awhile. It was nice to run into another foreigner going through the same process. He came over with Footprints recruiting, and mentioned there were about 25 other newbies that came over with him. Hopefully I can meet some of them soon and make more connections! Jenn got us in some sketchy back door, but I have a Korean bank account! (Again, Jenn is my hero!!) If the day weren't long enough, we headed to Home Plus to buy a few more groceries to get me by, since the convenience store close to me doesn't carry much. Jenn and I had dinner at the food court (bibimbap! yum!) then did some shopping. I ended up getting suckered into a few new tops, since I stupidly underestimated the amount of short sleeve teaching shirts I'd need. Very happy with my 5 shirts, and they actually fit me! Take that, Korean sizes! Some of my grocery items included bananas (thank god for fruit!), noodles and spaghetti sauce, and a 6 dollar jar of Skippy. Ouch.

Long, long first full day in Ulsan. Many more to come :)

Welcome to Seongan Dong!

I'm here! Ulsan, Korea! For the next year of my life, I'll be exploring, teaching, living in this sprawling city of 1.1 million people. I'll start from the beginning of my Ulsan adventure. The post might be long, so heads up :) Once I get my bearings a bit more and establish a routine, I hope to blog more regularly!

Tuesday morning rolled around, rolling clouds and all. Typhoon Bolaven was making its way through Daejeon, where we had our orientation. We were told that its path wouldn't hit our traveling route, but you never know with weather. The 17 of us boarded the bus that would take us to our final Korea destination (so far anyway). We watched the live broadcasts of the typhoon on the bus, and were jolted by the winds more than once. We pulled into the Ulsan Education offices about 3 hours later to meet our co-teachers. One by one, we were whisked away, and the numbers were dwindling down. At one point, a teacher came up and asked for Sara/h. There were 2 of us named Sara/h in the group, and I thought I heard my school's name mentioned. The other Sarah went with her. No problem. About 5 minutes later, another lady walks up with a sign for Sarah. Not me. At this point, the few of us were automatically assuming she took the "wrong" Sarah. Turns out it was one of two co-teachers! Phew! My co-teacher was the last to arrive (go figure. again). Her name is Jenn and I have a feeling she is going to be my Korea mom! She is really concerned about me and staying healthy my first month here :) First, she brought me to my school and I met the principal! He doesn't speak a lick of English, but I think he was impressed with my limited Korean. The school was closed that day due to the impending typhoon, so the visit was brief. Jenn and I then stopped to get bed sheets (thank goodness, since I ditched mine while packing), and then brought me to my apartment! It's in the lower region of Seongan Dong, which is part of the bigger region of Jung-Gu. I'm about a block away from the police academy and only about a 20 minute walk (uphill) to my school. The apartment itself is small, yet perfect! I'd post pictures, but I think a video would do it better justice. Working on getting that done this next week :)

My apartment building! Coffee and beer cafe included! :)

Once we dropped off the luggage, we ventured to the closest convenience store to pick up some essentials. While there, Jenn grabbed a few mojitos for us to sip on while we walked through the neighborhood. I could tell we will get along great! :) She brought me back to my apartment and said goodbye! The rest of the evening was filled with unpacking and settling in. After about half way through unpacking, I decided to venture out to actually find the school, since Jenn's only directions were "Up the hill, take the second right." While walking up the hill, I started taking what I thought was the second right, but it turned out to be the entrance to a temple!

I explored for awhile, amazed at how close this is to where I'm living. It came with a pretty spectacular view of Ulsan as well.

I found the school without a hitch! The walk back was a bit easier (15 minutes all downhill), and I spent the rest of the evening finishing unpacking and a dinner of ramen and Cass :) I think I'm gonna like it here.

My first 3 days at school and weekend post coming soon!