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Published: September 12th 2010
Burger place
hanging out at the new burger place. free wifi. and it's super good.Yes, it's been a while. But, in my defense, I've been THINKING about writing for 2 or 3 weeks now. It's the thought that counts.
A lot has happened since I last wrote. In 5 days we will celebrate 6 months since we flew out of Seattle. I am almost halfway done! It has gone by really fast but when I see pictures of my niece, it seems like it's been a while. She looks like she's 7 and she just turned 2! Other than missing people at home, we've been working everyday, and mostly staying in Cheongju in an effort to save some money. We got two new teachers at our school and that brought with it some changes. We are excited to have some new people around here though! We started a new 13 week term so I got quite a few new students, new classes, and a new schedule. With that schedule, I have a 3 hour break on Thursdays! It's pretty nice not starting work until 7pm and then finishing 3 hours later. However, Head Instructor Jake is working round the clock to keep people happy at school. It's been a rough month for relations between
Bike parts
trying to get jake's bike package home from work... the foreign teachers and the Korean staff. One big cause of that is the fact that they did NOT tell us that we would be required to work 3 Saturdays in a row. We found out through a grapevine with only a month's notice. Wouldn't be a big problem IF we hadn't been planning Jeanne's trip to visit for SIX MONTHS NOW!!! Apparently, we were supposed to be working both of the Saturdays she is here, and the ENTIRE week that she's here. Words cannot describe how frustrated we were/are with that situation. We did some slight yelling at the boss and now Jake and I get 1 Saturday off because the other teachers are helping to cover. We're still working on the other Saturday (her last day in Korea). It would have been nice if they gave us some notice, don't ya think?
Anyway, Jake is working a lot, going in early everyday and watching video of the other teachers and evaluating us. One day this week he had 5 meetings in an hour and a half. Is anyone picking up on the lack of organization at our school? Slightly frustrating. I think Jake is a great fit
Bike parts
...on the scooter, in a dress LOL for the job though, I'm not sure anyone else could handle dealing with these people. (Jake warned me that I'm going to get fired if I keep talking to them the way I do....) I've been so frustrated with the lies and circles they talk in consistently to us. I think it's so disrespectful and it's really difficult for me to respect people who treat us this way. Don't worry though, I'm working on it...
The last week, I think it's safe to say, was the longest week of all of our lives...all of the teachers were frustrated and pretty sure that the week would never end. To top it off, we had a required staff dinner Friday night after work. It was awkward and strange until everyone had enough Soju and then we were all best friends. Sense the sarcasm... Jake is working on a plan to negotiate some things between management and the teachers, so we're hopeful things will get better!
For the sake of any readers I have, I will change the topic to something OUTSIDE of our school! Some of us started taking Korean classes. They are Saturday mornings from 10-12 at the YMCA.
I've gone for two weeks now and we've mostly just been practicing reading and the Korean alphabet. I'm not sure how much of another language you can learn in 2 hours a week, ha ha, but I hope to get some basic phrases and questions down!
Some other good news: hot yoga! Jake and I were planning on doing hot yoga regularly when we got to South Korea but we could never find any places in Cheongju. When we'd go to Seoul, we'd see 10 different hot yoga advertisements...so we were bummed about that for a while....BUT recently, a brand new place opened, minutes from our house. The other girl teacher and I went in and asked when classes are and how much they cost. The place is beautiful! They provide mats and towels and have a nice locker room and shower area. We were so excited to find a place! We went to class the following day with Jake and her boyfriend as well. The Korea girls were a little giggly over two handsome boys being in class but it was fun! The instructor knows a few basic phrases in English: Inhale, exhale. The majority of the class
Jake
1 of Jake's classes is in Korean which forces us to watch everyone else in the class and mimic. Jen and I have been going three days a week and we really like it. I had no idea that it'd cost 100 bucks a month! Wow! At home, we paid $1 a class.
Here's a quick coffee story for you:
I have never been so frustrated with customer service in my life. It doesn't exist here. It's unbelievable but there is absolutely no connection between the customer and the money. If you want the customers money then you please them and treat them kindly. No such thing here! People are often annoyed if they have to make a breakfast sandwich, because you chose that instead of a donut. I can't believe it! THE BREAKFAST SANDWICH COSTS TWICE THE AMOUNT AS THE DONUT!!! You should be happy because you are getting more money! Doesn't happen here.
Anyway: Coffee shops. We have Dunkin between our house and work but the aforementioned story takes place regularly at Dunkin so I was getting annoyed of supporting them. It's the same women everyday and I try to smile and be friendly and use Korean, and I can't get
Me
1 of my classes a single response back from them. I leave sad. Lol! But the coffee is good.
Continuing on, we were THRILLED when we saw a new coffee shop going in right around the corner from Dunkin. Angel-In-Us Coffee. They are a super nice place which is why the prices are ridiculous. Way overpriced. But we were all excited for something new so we started going there and getting yummy frappes (which Dunkin doesn't have). If you get a frappe, you pay 6,000 won. I got a punch card and I was disappointed to see that you have to buy TEN drinks to get one free (8 at dunkin). But I keep going there, forking out cash and getting drinks. Friday comes around and I know I have a free drink! I'm super excited for FREE DRINK FRIDAY so Jake and I scooter there on our way to work. I decide to get a frappe because it's the most expensive. They tell me no. They tell me no to an entire side of the menu. "Aniyo free" I show them my punch card. "Aniyo free drink- frappe" They show me the side of the menu that I can order from: the cheap, espresso side, with americano's. I was quite disappointed but I decided to go with the Vanilla Latte, regular size. "Aniyo regular free" Excuse me, what?! At this point I point to my card and start telling them I bought 10 (show them all 10 fingers) TEN, expensive drinks and I'm here for my free one. They look kind of embarrassed, partly because they don't understand what I'm saying and partly because they know this is ridiculous. Finally, I'm like okay, small size. When my drink is finished 10 minutes later, they hand me a small, iced coffee WITH, ready for this? ONE INCH MISSING OFF THE TOP. My drink is not even CLOSE to full....and it's a small size. And it's FREE DRINK FRIDAY! I was so excited for my free drink and for the weekend and it didn't go very well. I wanted to say something but I knew they wouldn't understand and I would lose. So I grabbed my small drink, that was 2/3 full and I left. And I haven't been back to Angel-In-Us since. And that was 2 weeks ago! Suddenly Dunkin seems like a coffee heaven.
I miss drive through coffee stands at home
I miss spiced chai tea's in the fall
I miss flat sidewalks
I miss places opening before 10AM
I miss common sense
I think now is an appropriate time to let everyone know that it is very common to have these feelings around 5/6 months! Everyone told us....wait until you're at 5/6 months, you start to get slightly frustrated. We have arrived!!!! Ha ha but usually we vent for a little while and then laugh it off. We like it here and we're having fun. And every time we get a jerk taxi driver or a rude, unfriendly person, we find an amazingly kind and sweet person. It's one for one. More than once, I've seen Korean women whispering and staring at me and I get so angry! And then later, one will say, "very beautiful" or "couple? wow! very good!" and point to Jake. From what I can tell, Korean people love couples. It's crazy how much they freak out when they find out we are dating. "Wow, very nice, very beautiful, oh so tall, so handsome, very good!!!" It's the first things the kids ask every teacher: do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend? I'm not sure it's healthy but they definitely love/prefer couples.
Our neighbors have a little girl that's probably just a bit younger than Sofia. She's adorable and we see her out about once a week. She has a plastic pink bike with hearts on it that she rides and she's incredibly cute. Every time we see them, the mom makes her say "hi" and "hello" in English. And then "bye, bye." It's pretty much only that every time because we can't really communicate with the mom but they are so sweet. When they first moved in, we took them toilet paper and laundry detergent because the Korean staff told us that's what you do when people move in. Later they brought us beer, fresh watermelons and baby tomatoes. I thought we were even but since then she brought us a huge bag of potatoes, big juicy peaches, and an entire plate of kimchi (which takes a long time to make and is a super nice gift). So we are way behind on the gifts! My students said you give them something when they give you something....so I'm trying to keep up! Last night we bought the little girl a Toy Story 3 book in Korean. Hopefully she likes it! But I don't know what to give the mom!!! I asked her if she likes coffee and she said no. Maybe a bottle of wine?
I will create another post soon about our trip to Jeju Island! I hope everyone at home is well! We are getting really excited for our first visitor in two weeks!!! 😊
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Jeanne
non-member comment
Bet!! I can't believe I'll be there in less that two weeks!! Thanks for all of the great info on your current status!! I love all the details about life in Korea! And thanks for your email about what to bring, etc. I just can hardly wait to see you and Jake! Take care and keep up the good work!! Love you! Jeanne