End of orientation

It ends tomorrow. After nearly four weeks of orientation, three in Suwon, another one here. I think we're all ready. We're all tired, talking about teaching on Tuesday (we think). Talking about how we're going to get to our rooms and close the door and sleep for fifteen hours. This last week has dragged at times. Repetitive classes, locked in a dodgy resort hotel with nothing around for miles, with eleven o'clock curfews and no drinking. The orientation has been a great experience, but more than the training in teaching, it has been the social networking and the cultural lessons that happened mostly accidentally that have made it so worthwhile. I'm glad I found this program.

Homestay turned out to be a good experience for me, and for most of the people here at Gyeongbuk. I was picked up around ten by my family. I was introduced in halting English to "Mother" and "Father" - that was all I ever learned of their names - and was wondering how we would communicate, when Dennis, their twelve year old son, spoke up in fluent English. It was for his benefit that I'd been invited into their home, but there was little he needed from me in the way of English instruction. He spoke slowly and his grammar was occasionally imperfect, but he was completely comprehensible with a vocabulary that was near complete. They're taught by rote memorisation here, and the kids' memories are amazing. During the weekend Dennis asked me for the English words for some things, everyday things like "parsimon" and "pond-skimmer" (a type of bug). I had no idea; his mobile phone gave him the words.

Dennis was a nice kid; I liked him. He was very smart, a little chubby, keen to learn. I asked him if he was the best at English in his school, and he told me that there was a girl who was better. I knew how he felt - my mind going back to the one girl who always beat me in class when I was his age.

We first went to Potech, the university where his father worked as a manager of the maintainance department. The only drawback to talking always through Dennis was that there were a lot of conversations about action movies and computer games. We had a meal in the cafeteria, then went to their home and played Rubikkum (sp?). Everyone found it a little stressful at first, and afterwards the father suggested, "all of us little nap?" to which I enthusiastically agreed.

In the afternoon we went to a traditional Korean village and I talked some more with Dennis. I invented a game he found hilarious, where we would point to modern things in the village and say "traditional Korean fire extinguisher" or "traditional Korean television." At six thirty we went to pick up his eighteen year old sister from high school. Six thirty on a Saturday that is. She was in school uniform and everything. The West is so screwed...

Afterwards we had a huge dinner of salt pork at a restaraunt. I was not allowed to pay for anything the whole weekend. We went back to their place, watched some Simpsons episodes, and I went for a half hour walk to the local park with Dennis. We talked about Korean playgrounds and pets and the like. He didn't have a dog; he used to have pet slugs, but they died, and he told me he thought slugs were not very good pets. We came back, I had a beer with his father, we watched Simpsons episodes then went to bed.

The next day we went to Pohang, and to the easternmost part of Korea - the "tiger's tale" according to a stylised traditional image of Korea, now split in half by the North/South border. It was a really pretty beachside area with a bizarre pair of sculptures of hands, one in the water:



Then had a nice lunch before I had to go back to the hotel.

Dennis sent me an email that night with links to some stuff that we had looked at together on the computer, and a message saying he was sad that I had to go back to the hotel so early, and that if I had holidays I should come visit them again, and he would make me a music box. Sweet.

Me with my homestay family:



What else to mention of orientation in Gyeongbuk? It has, as I said, mostly been repetitive and not terribly useful. But it's been a good chance to bond better with some of the people in my immediate area. I haven't made any new friends - don't really need any more at this point - but have improved a lot of friendships with people I didn't know so well.

Yesterday was a nice day. We had another excursion to watch a demonstration class, then an interminable trip to Posco steelworks, which they are ridiculously proud of around here. But afterwards we had samgyeopsal, my favourite Korean meal (pork belly barbeque wrapped in lettuce with heaps of side dishes), then went to a field of blooming lotuses, then jumped a fence into what looked at first to be a playground, but turned out to be a royal park from the Silla dynasty; it was incredibly beautiful. A really good time with some people here whom I really like.

I met my Korean co-scholar today, who seems nice - it might take a while for us to bond properly, but it looks like we should be able to do so. And I have a place! I haven't seen it yet, but it's a single room flat on the edge of Gumi, close to the Gumi/Gimcheon highway, on which my school is located. A ten minute bus ride from my school, great transport by bus or train to most parts of Korea. This is ridiculously lucky. Others are off in fields, have to get lifts to their school at eight in the morning, need to take three seperate buses to get to any city, or have been told by their Korean scholars that "if you don't have a car, you're basically fucked." So I'm good.

Sorry these entries have been so prosaic and technically careless. Hopefully once I'm settled I'll have time for some more reflective stuff, but so far it's all been written in moments snatched between other activities. After today I don't know how long it will be until I can get internet access, so if I'm a little quiet for a while, don't worry.

Colon Hotel

Really quick update to let everyone know that I am now at the Kolon (aka Colon) hotel in my province of Gyeongsangbuk-do, for the last week of orientation, which takes place in our individual provinces. Our province is one of the largest, or perhaps the largest. There are over a hundred of us here. The hotel, an alleged five-star establishment, is a Fawlty Towers-esque facility where the pool is apparently closed permanently, and where, in my room at least, showers are not an option, and baths must be let out at a rate of a trickle, lest you flood the room.

I feel like I should do a proper update about my weekend trip into Seoul, semi-solo and semi-with my friend Katie and a couple of her friends. There's some stories there. And our last week at Kyung Hee was interesting, too. We went to Lotte World yesterday, a terrific amusement park with the best roller-coaster I've ever experienced. Not that I've been on so very many.

Today was a bit of a mess. We had our final farewell dinner, and it was badly organized. When everyone wanted to sit with their friends who were heading off to other provinces, we were forced to sit with our provinces, who were the people - friends or not - whom nobody needed to sit with, as we are with them for another week. The food half-came out, then stopped, and ten minutes later the Jeju people, who had to catch a flight, started assembling to leave. From there it got messy as people ran around trying to say last minute goodbyes. Lots of people were crying, while the co-ordinators shouted for us to stay with our groups, and then assemble. Somebody called for the Chungbuk people to assemble and nobody was sure whether they said Chungbuk or Gyeongbuk (i.e., Gyeongsangbuk-do; my province.) Then 200 guys tried to get their luggage down the elevators in the same ten minute window, and, well, it wasn't how anybody wanted it to go.

Then the luggage couldn't be fit on our bus so we sat on the bus for an hour (again - but I'm telling my stories out of order) until a hire truck was arranged. Four hours to get to the Kolon Hotel, an OK dinner, a long Q&A session, and now everyone is exhausted but high and wandering around and netting from the hotel lobby, where the wi-fi is.

Tomorrow we have a "cultural experience" - a homestay for the night with families from our province. It's a more than slightly terrifying idea to me, but I'm trying to embrace the concept. Anyway, I'll try to write a more detailed update soon of some of the stuff I've been doing, but it has been hectic, and it might take a while. I'll handwrite it out if I get a chance, on some long bus journey or other.

Cadaverous

While waiting for my laundry to be done on level 12 I thought I'd write a quick update. Things have been so busy here that it has been hard to find time for this. So I thought I might tell you about my day today as an insight into what life is like here at Kyung Hee University (Suwon).

Woke up this morning to the sound of my travel alarm clock, feeling exhausted after yesterday. Yesterday finished in a not atypical drinking session at the notorious Beer Plus (soju/beer bar across from the university gates), this time to celebrate Steph's birthday. Got dressed and slumped down to the convenience store outside the girl's dormitory, had a sandwich, a canned iced coffee, and a cigarette - so much for a healthy lifestyle, although I'm eating well, for the most part. Although I can't seem to put on weight - I must be really burning through calories. Then classes.

The first class was How to approach pronunciation for Korean Elementary School Students, which was actually really good - the lecturer was very engaging, there was lots of stuff derived from Chomsky, and it was useful. It was followed by the legendary "How to Utilize Drama and Storytelling". I'd been warned in advance so got a seat close to the air-conditioners and prepared to catch up on some rest. The nervous Korean woman who gave it read straight from the textbook, then we spent a half hour on a mind-numbing group exercise. Everyone slept through it. After that, lunch - I made the trek across the mountain to the cafeteria, which is such an arduous walk that many people refuse to ever go there. The food is sometimes really good, sometimes not-so-good. Today it was pork stir-fry, again. I ate a whole octopus. It was OK. I then went back to my room to rest up a little in the air-conditioning before...

Tae-Kwon-Do! The organizers have been very diligent in providing us with cultural experiences as well. I have bad memories of tae-kwon-do from childhood (don't ask) but quite enjoyed the class. Except while practicing spinning kicks, when I somehow managed to kick a bin instead of the air I was aiming for. It made a tremendous crash, everyone looked at me, mostly with concern. "Are you OK?" "I'm fine!" I said, perkily - of course my fear of being embarrassed outweighed the considerable pain I was in. I stuck it out for about eighty of the ninety minutes, but quit before the star jumps at the end. Afterwards we had yet another class detailing games we should use with the kids - we've had about six of these and everybody was exhausted from tae kwon do; I can hardly even remember it.

Afterwards I was smoking with my friends and some of the nice girls from my class promised me that they were going to seize my cigarettes whenever they saw me smoking. I went off to eat dinner with Junh - Korean blood sausage, surprisingly good - then the girls turned up and we had a second dinner of massive loads of fried chicken. The conversation turned to rating the current Hollywood super-hunks and that lasted about twenty minutes and showed no sign of ending, so I came back to the dorm to do my washing. Had to climb to the 12th floor to find a free machine. Had two oo-bek-wan coins for the washing machine, but none for the dryer. Came back down to my room; called home. Then went back out to the girl's dorms to find a change machine. Talked to the Unkrainian girl whose name I forget while having a cigarette (of course), about exhaustion, and going too hard. She has an infected wisdom tooth and a fever, and we talked about how we'd both wanted to give it our best shot, but were feeling completely spent.

It is exhausting. Today at least three people said to me, "I can't be bothered meeting new people any more. It's too tiring." It is. There are people I talk to and like, people I don't talk to, and a scarily large group of people who come up to me, know my name, and who I simply can't place. I say, "What's happening, man?" an awful lot. This has been tremendous fun, but I'm looking forward to heading off to my province at the end of next week, although that will provide plenty of new challenges.

Still - tomorrow, up at nine to go into Seoul and do the tourist thing with some of my non-Korean-speaking friends, because I was feeling too insulated by the Korean kids. They're great, but I always end up letting them order food for me. So for now it's suck-it-up and on-with-it. But I'm looking cadaverous.

Orientation at Kyung Hee

Have been having a fantastically good time the last few days. Had a little rough patch last Friday/Saturday when I was very tired, and started feeling like everybody found me annoying, which had its usual perverse consequence whereby I become quite annoying through trying too hard. Had a restup and a think and went back to my call-centre job plan of just trying to relax and focus on each conversation I had with anybody and make it pleasant. Also to stop thinking about social dynamics and how people are perceiving me so much, and be comfortable with being by myself some of the time. On Saturday we went to a Nanda performance (hard to explain: comic buffoonery with elements of tai kwon do and percussion done with cooking instruments, but very enjoyable). Then Saturday I came back to the university, Rosa had bought herself a baby guitar, we sat on the amphitheatre steps with my favourite people here and played. That night we got drunk on soju and beer and did noriban (karaoke), and it was one of the best nights I'd had here. Everybody kept saying it was the perfect group, which made me feel good, because I was feeling that, too. I think it was because all the hyper-extroverts stayed out. Since then the social thing has been fine - I feel very comfortable with my friends here, and there are other people I talk to outside that group whose company I enjoy, and I don't believe I have a bad relationship with anybody. I can't remember going through a process like this since high school - a great sorting-out of a social structure - and it has been fun when it's been going well, and a little stressful when it hasn't. But I think most people have been going through something similar, and it has sorted itself now, and I'm feeling happy both with my friends and with being by myself some of the time. So that's all good.

Had our medical checkup today - tomorrow we are off to visit a school in my province (Gyeongsangbuk-do), then going to a supposedly amazing amusement park, Everland.

Here are some pictures mostly stolen from facebook:

Noriban

Playing guitar on the stadium steps with Jun

Eddie, Jun, Sam? and me in our finery for opening ceremony. It was ridiculously hot for a suit that day and successive photos show me deteriorating and becoming cranky and exhausted, but I looked good here.

What pas
ses for a soccer field at a regional university in Korea; where we mostly hang out


The girls: Blair, Steph, Rosa, Naomi



What soju does to you - I am laughing hysterically because I am unable to make a star corner with my fingers. Very, very drunk.

Assoyo

Yes, I am here. There was some difficulty with power converters, the ones I brought being useless. Apparently those sockets are Old Korea. It seems everything I was told about this country is wrong; everything I was told is Old Korea, or just internet rubbish. I've brought way too much formal wear - it looks like Austinmer in the summertime. Clothes are cheap but cheaply made. Cigarettes are not $20 a pack - they are $3 a pack. This will be problematic. Everyone in my hastily-formed crew smokes; the Korean girls very self-consciously, as it is tremendously frowned upon for them to do so publicly. A three course meal is also about three bucks when split a few ways. Coffee is $4.50 at American-style chains. The bus to Seoul - about an hour and a half from here - is $1.50. Prices, basically, are cheap but erratic.

Four of the Australian TaLK scholars, including me, were seated together on the plane; it took about fifteen minutes for us to work that out. The other two were behind us; that took about six hours to get straight. It was a so-far unique piece of foresight on the part of the organizers of this thing. For all of the first day it was Charming Nicholas, and my god; I felt like quite the experienced traveller. Such a contrast. Once we were in Korea, though, my lack of any language skills became obvious. My new Korean-Australian and Korean-American friends are schooling me up, but I need to throw myself in to the language thing. I feel too dependent at this stage, and whatever this is meant to be about for me, it's something like the opposite of dependence.

The first night here, all of us hitting our third wind, was about a perfect first night in South Korea. Our hastily-formed gang left the university, found the local town, and I was introduced to soju, the national drink, which is so horrible that even Koreans complain about it. Unlike other forms of alcohol, it actually tastes worse the more you drink it. But it's about three dollars for a bottle, containing about six standard drinks. Tastes like nasty vodka. That and some Korean-style fried and barbequed chicken made for a good start, and we bonded. The night finished with karoake. Cool.

The next day Charming Nicholas had mostly dissapeared; me and Junh, one of my new Korean-Australian friends, met up with some American scholars in the morning and I was back to feeling quiet and awkward. I don't know what it is about; something to do with tiredness, some trains of thought, a chemical thing. Some plans were made for a trip into Seoul, but it was day two and it turned out everyone here was ready for the Big Trip Into Seoul. The group became about thirty people, it felt like a high school tour group, and things got ridiculously slow and clusterfucky as we waited for everybody to comprehend the subway system and the like. This greatly frustrated me and two of my new friends, Rosa and Eddie, so we and a few others split off early. Rosa: Korean Australian who speaks a brilliantly fluent Castle Hill vernacular that constantly cracks me up. Eddie: New Jersey Korean-American, who is really lovely and split off early from the Americans and joined our Australian crew, because he was finding the Korean Americans obnoxious.

Those two definately feel like friends, as does Junh. The social thing is definately in flux, though, and it's fascinating to watch as people's truer personalities are revealed and initial relationships change, become deeper or more cautious. So last night, as Charming Nicholas was a bit AWOL, I went back to my room (Eddie and Rosa were staying in Seoul for dinner with relatives). My flatmate is Victor, another Korean-Australian. Victor is lovely but seems very young to me. He thought we had plans with the others, which I thought were vague and not happening, so he went off to meet at the supposed meeting spot while I stayed back. He didn't return until about three in the morning, and I thought I'd got it wrong somehow and had missed a spectacular night, but the reality was different. Waiting alone at the meeting-place, he was befriended by a group of South Korean "students" who took him off into the wilderness somewhere and tried to insist he perform a religious ritual with them. When he demurred and tried to leave they became stroppy and insistent. He had somehow fallen into the clutches of a religious cult and had no idea of where he was, or how to get away. Eventually at three in the morning he "escaped", evading their insistent demands that he now owed them reparation, and threw himself on the mercy of some factory workers drinking at the end of a shift. Who kindly brought him home. Glad I stayed in.

Today it seems Charming Nicholas is back. Shopping at Home Plus this morning with Eddie and Rosa. I insisted on coffee (bringing a bit of my own culture to the table); we merged up with another group of mostly Americans and coffee went for three hours. Back now with my adaptor; off again in twenty minutes for soju at the rather awesome Greek-style amphitheatre in this rather awesome university. The South Koreans do architecture on a big scale.

Serious learning starts tomorrow, but so far, yes, I am having a very good time. Can't believe I am being paid for this - a sentiment a lot of us keep uttering at individual moments of amazement.