Update, and Some Highlights

This is long overdue on my part, as it has been several months since my last post. I have been in Korea for 9 months now, which means I have 4 months left (no, not 3). Two months ago the opportunity came up to leave KidsApple, and go to a different school. So, now I am at a job that I not only like a lot better, but one I think I am much better suited for. Instead of teaching math to 3 year olds, and US social studies to Korean 4th graders, I teach speaking and debate to middle schoolers. The classes are longer (one hour instead of 35 minutes) but I teach way less of them a week, and have a lot more time to prepare. Also, the school is just better run in general. It’s part of a big chain, but run independently. There’s around 25 teachers instead of 8, and I get things told in advance, instead of last minute. I also have my own classroom, with a flat screen to hook up to my computer for all sorts of educational fun. Most importantly, my new boss is not a tool, and actually seems to know what she’s doing. I was 7 months into my old contract and signed a 6 month contract, hence the one month extension of my stay.

As far as what we’ve been up to, I’ll stick to some of my favorites. We’ve done a bit more traveling, but nothing too extensive as there is a constant struggle between the desire to save, the desire to travel, and the lack of drive to plan far enough ahead for things to be well organized and cheap. We have hit two spots that we really wanted to: Busan, Korea’s 2nd biggest city, and Jeju, Korea’s biggest island. The trip to Busan was only one night, much too short to really take in a city of 3 and a half million. But what we saw was lovely. We went with a friend and his friend, and met one of our coworkers there, who went to college in Busan. We stayed at this place on a hill, about a block from the beach, with a fantastic view of the ocean. The whole vibe of the city was very relaxed, and easy. Definitely a place I would like to return to.

Jeju was a group trip made during the Korean harvest festival, which was a long weekend. It was a trip organized basically for foreigners who weren’t going to see their families during the very family oriented holiday. So, with a bunch of friends we spent four lovely days in Jeju. One very nice part about the trip was that someone from BC 2010, who I knew in passing, is teaching in Jeju, and we got to hang out, and have hung out several times in Seoul since. A couple of times there’s been 5 of us from our graduating class, hanging out together, which has been really great.

Other than those two places, most of our travels take us to Seoul, a city which I have really grown to love. It’s a very interesting mix of very modern-often well ahead of what I’ve seen in the US-and very traditional. Huge chain stores and restaurants mix with tiny traditional Korean restaurants. It’s a huge city. As if when people said they spent time in NYC they didn’t mean just Manhattan around 90% of the time. The whole place is a very urbanized. It’s 20 million people of metropolis. Always some crazy new spot in a neighborhood we’ve been to, or a great new neighborhood we didn’t know at all. You could spend thousands on a weekend there, or have a great time for about $25, including lodging and all. For such a homogenous country, its capital offers quite a spectrum of enjoyments.

We also climbed Korea’s tallest mountain, on a sometimes fun, sometimes not at all enjoyable, ten-hour hike. We’ve gotten more familiar with Korean food, and the more we do, the more we seem to like it. Otherwise, it’s been a pretty easy time. They country is safe, the work is enjoyable (although not always enjoyed) and the conveniences of a Korean city can hardly be overstated. Nothing I need is ever more than a few minutes away. Of all the things that can be said about being in Korea, challenging is hardly one of them.

“Pedro, here in Korea…”

I am slightly more than a month into the Korea experience now, and things continue to go well. I got through my first full month of teaching, along with the last few days, which included monthly tests and report cards, all of which was terrible. The final day of writing report cards was a solid 12 hours of work. Not fun. Then, the new school year started, which meant a lot of new students, as well as some of the kindergarteners moving up to elementary classes, and a wave of super new, extra tiny Korean kindergarteners (some of whom are incredibly adorable).

This is one of the cutest new kindergarteners. Her English name is Sara.

Our schedules changed a lot and are actually a bit heavier-around 1 extra class a day. We’re well into the swing of our routines, feeling pretty comfortable. I know I am acquiring some flow with the teaching, learning to explain things a bit better. I’ve also learned some key phrases in Korean, which I often yell in class: be quiet, sit down, and English! being the starters in the rotation.

We also got phones since our last post. Phones in Korea are incredible. We had to find a place that would give us one year contracts, and LG Telecom was able to do so. We were not able to get smartphones with the 1 year contract however. They pointed to a section of phones we could get and I looked around and picked up a promising looking handset. It has a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5 MP camera (providing the pictures I will post), full web browser, full touchscreen, 3G, WiFi, GPS, MP3 player, the ability to watch DivX and flash videos, a Korean to English dictionary, a front facing camera for video calls (pretty standard feature on Korean phones) and live tv, which practically all phones have here. So basically, this pretty standard non-smartphone is what I imagine will be standard in the US in like 3 years. It also has a load of features which fall into either surprisingly useful or hilarious (or both). Having phones again is great, making plans is a lot easier, and the 3G is much faster than what I’ve experienced in the States. Here you are never out of range of a strong signal- that includes elevators and the subway. on the floor we live in I counted 5 3G  and cellphone antennas. It is fantastic. Jacqui opted for a cheaper phone. Just a simple flip phone, which also has video calling, internet and so forth. It is also covered in rainbow LED lights which light up for any and every reason.

Besides providing fantastic phones, our acquisition process also provided the best shopping experience of our lives, as the LG employees heaped wonders on us. Every time they didn’t know how to say something in English they apologized several times as they looked for the words on their phones. We laughed and tried to explain that we should be apologizing as we were the ones walking into a Korean shop knowing less than 50 words in Korean. We were given tea, 3 salesmen to help us as soon as we walked in (one for me, one for Jacqui, and one who spoke the best English bouncing between the two) and just the nicest, most helpful experience I’ve ever had buying something/signing a contract. We talked to 2 of the salesmen as we were waiting for paperwork/phone programming. We got to choose the last four digits of our numbers, and after I wrote mine down, they asked if we wanted a “couple number.” Here in Korea, even though PDA is very much frowned upon, all other things coupley are very much de rigueur. People wear couple underwear, couple outfits, have couple everything. So, the salesman’s first question when I wrote my number down was if we would want the same last four digits. We laughed and politely declined.

The salesmen were so nice and so funny that I asked for their numbers and told them we would like to get drinks sometime. They looked delighted and obliged. So we exchanged numbers with a promise to get drinks. It was a good thing we did, as shortly after leaving the store I got a text telling me I had left my hat at the store, and promising they would take care of it until I retrieved it.

So, yesterday, having no plans Jacqui and I decided to ask the two salesmen to get drinks. We texted an invitation and they agreed, telling us to meet them at the store at 9, when they got off from work. We did so and had a great night with our first two genuine non-work-related Korean friends, Young Nam and Dong Won.

Our new friends Lee Dong Won and Kim Young Nam

We headed over to a “Hof”- basically a sit down bar  focusing on beer. We were having a great time, and laughing with our two new friends, who are hilarious, even with limited English. After about an hour, we texted Sun, one of our coworkers, who is closest in age to us (she is 25). She met up with us and we continued on to another bar.

Jacqui and our work friend Sun at 'Garten Bier' (yup)

We drank and ate more, and then got a message from Brody, another coworker, who lives on our floor, and was out in the same area with his wife and a friend. So we met up with Brody and his wife Shin, and went on to another bar, this one closer to a dive, although not quite. We were now a group of eight and were all pretty buzzed and the night continued wonderfully. We played some loud drinking games, told some jokes which were quickly translated from English to Korean/Korean to English, and all-in-all had a wonderful night. At around 3 we all decided to go home as we’d been going for a while.  Jacqui, Brody, Shin and I took a cab home, and Jacqui and I then proceeded to sleep for 13 hours. It was all glorious.

Today we got a text from our two Korean friends telling us they had had a great time and to let them know when we wanted to go out again. So it seems we have been successful in our quest to start making some Korean friends.

If you read this far into my completely-irrelevant-to-you-life post, thank you!

From Manayunk to Daejeon, What a January

My January was, as far as I can remember, the strangest and craziest month of my life.

Jacqui and I welcomed the new year in Manayunk, Pennsylvania with Bics and some of the fine folks of NFL Films. First a house party, then a bar until last call. It was all a good time. Then a train back to Cherry Hill and to sleep in the Geaney house. the first two days of the New Year came and went sleeping off the celebration and running errands in preparation for Korea. I was also getting ready to begin a sort of farewell tour, by going to State College, PA for a couple days to say goodbye to Mr. Joe Stroffolino. However, when I returned to Jacqui’s house on the night of the 2nd an e-mail awaited me from Jeff and my mother telling me that I had until 9 pm the following day to get all my things out of the house or it would all be thrown away, and that they wanted money for cell use and health insurance. The kicking out was pretty surprising, since I was planning on leaving for Korea in less than two weeks and would be gone for a year. I wrote back saying that I had no way to get all my things out of the house, since I did not have a car and Jacqui was babysitting for some people in her town, and to tell me how much I needed to pay and they would get it. I got a reply telling me to get it out or it was all going in the garbage. This would include my passport (which I obviously needed to get to Korea). So, Jacqui being wonderful as she is, agreed to drive an hour home, help me pack and drive an hour back that night.

Packing went pretty smoothly, due in no small way to the efforts of Jacqui and Jannah Tabb., who came to say goodbye and got much more than she bargained for. So off we were, and I was back on track. It was off to Penn State or a very calming 3 days after getting an unexpected boot from the house. Joe and I talked, watched movies, smoked hookah and ate. All in all, very pleasant.

So, I was at the 30th street station in Philly, waiting to take a train, when my phone was disconnected. This was also surprising, since I had never heard back on how much I needed to pay for service after I asked. I continued my rounds and took a train to Bics’ house to say goodbye. Then it was off to New York in the morning for our visa meeting at the Korean consulate. But, before we left, we realized Jacqui’s passport was nowhere to be found. We tore her room apart to no avail and left with different plans. I would get my visa, leave before her and she would get a new passport. So, I had my meeting and was told to come back on Monday to pick it up. And so we started what became an 8 hour trek through a snow storm to Boston. Instead of arriving at 8 as planned we got in a bit after midnight. Kevin, Tree and I were out the door by 5, driving up to Maine for a weekend of skiing. It was great. We spent the night at Kevin’s house in Kennebunkport, and got up to ski more on Sunday. Then we headed back to Boston to watch the Kraft Bowl between BC and Nevada at Roggie’s (oh, college). Sadly, after a valiant defensivve effot, BC lost to the 12-1 Wolfpack.

So, back to New York in the morning to pick up my passport, then off to Newark International to catch a flight to Miami. I was in Miami by midnight, which was the second time I did Boston, NYC and Miami in one day (0h, college). Took a cab to my grandmother’s apartment and spent some time with my family. Saw my aunts, uncle and some of my cousins. Meanwhile, Jacqui was able to get a new passport in a day (they can do that) and got her visa that same week. Now she was going first so that I could got to Venezuela and see my other grandparents and my father. So on Friday I flew Miami-San Jose and San Jose- Caracas and got in at 3pm. Once home I realized I had forgotten my backpack in the airport when I went into a phone booth to call my father. Through some pretty heavy good luck I got my bag back with laptop and camera still inside.

A week flew by in Venezuela spending time with grandparents, my father, family and some friends. Meanwhile, Jacqui got to Daejeon and was filling me in on what it was all like. Sunday it was off to the airport at 3:30 am, I flew to Bogota, and flew Bogota-Miami. I got to Miami at 2:00 pm and spent the day watching the playoffs and repacking everything into 3 large suitcases.

At 4:30 am it was back to the airport to fly to JFK and then the 15 hour flight from JFK to Seoul. The flight was on Asiana Airlines, and all things considered was delightful. The food was miles above what I’ve had on western airlines as was the service and the amount of room given. I landed in Seoul at 5:00 pm Tuesday, went through customs, got my bags and took a 5:50 bus to Daejeon, which took about three hours. Jacqui was waiting for me when I got off the bus, and off to the apartment it was.

I went to school the next day, was introduced to everyone, got my health check and did some classroom observation. Thursday and Friday it was more observation, and some guided teaching. Over the weekend Jacqui and I did some walking around, some shopping. We went to Costco, signed up for our memberships and walked into a warehouse devoid of food. It turned out there was another warehouse underneath the one we were in, high ceilings and all, with all the food. At night we went to Time World, a few blocks filled with bars and eateries.

Monday was my first full day of teaching. I had my lesson plans, my materials, and it all went pretty well. The kids are between 7 and 12 years old. Some vocab, some phonics, some spelling. All good stuff.

Monday night the teachers went out to eat and get drinks as a greeting to me and a farewell to a teacher that was leaving. The people we work with all seem really great, and have been incredibly helpful and welcoming. Practically everyone in Korea has been. Everyone seems more than happy to work with our lack of Korean. They smile as they struggle with us until understanding is reached. The first week has been great, and a nice end to a truly hectic start to the year.

Contracts and Haggling

Miss J. Geaney and I have been offered three contracts to teach in lovely South Korea as of this morning. Which is a relief. We sent all our documents over there and the visa process will be under way. Right now we’re trying to negotiate our contracts, and iron out some clauses we’re not fans of. Hopefully it will be done in a day or two.

On a separate and egotistical note, I received a lot of positive feedback regarding my angry rant. Which strengthened my belief that I don’t make my opinions know enough. So, I figured I’d ask for opinions as to whether I should, either here or on a separate blog, write more entries that have less to do with the events of my day to day existence. If you have an opinion either way, feel free to let me know.

Plans and Sad, Angry Venting

This post is going to be dual in purpose: both a short update and a long rant regarding the tax compromise that was announced yesterday by the White House. I am doing it here because it is a forum already set up and because I feel I need to write. however, I know the few that read might not want to in this particular instance, so I will leave my politically minded musing until the end.

Jacqui and I have all the necessary documents to begin our visa application. I was on the phone for a long while last night with the HR department of one of the companies were are looking to work for. It is a large corporation with dozens of schools around South Korea, YBM ECC. We talked about the positions that are currently available, particular in places where multiple post are available in the same school or close to each other. Right now it looks like we could be headed to Ilsan, a planned city directly northwest of Seoul, connected by subway. This is still quite tentative, but the picture should rapidly become clearer over the coming days.

Now, unto my anger. As many should know, the White House has announced a planned compromise regarding tax policy for next year. The Bush tax cuts are set to expire on December 31st and unemployment benefits are expiring for workers across the country right now. The Republicans are unwilling to extend unemployment benefits, and the Democrats are unwilling to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2.1%-those making over $200,000 for individuals or $250,000 for families. Or so it was. Yesterday the White House announced a compromise.

This compromise extends unemployment benefits another 13 months, reinstates the estate tax at 20% lower than it was set to, with a threshold of five times greater (from 55% to 35% with the threshold at $5 million from $1 million). In addition, many tax credits will be instituted, including payroll taxes. All in all, this will add $900 billion to the deficit. The majority of these benefits-at least a quarter-will go to the richest 1%. Again, those at the bottom are getting screwed. In fact, while that top 1% (those making above $564,000) are getting a tax breaks of around $70,000 a year, the people at the bottom will in fact see a slight rise in their taxes.  This is bullshit.

President Obama instituted the Making Work pay credit last year- $400 for individuals and $800 for families. This is expiring, and supposed to be replaced by the new tax breaks. However, for individuals making $20,000 a year, the cuts will be less than $400, hence a rise in their taxes. But don’t worry, those that really need it, the rich, will be seeing tens of thousands of dollars in tax cuts. And as we know this is great because tax cuts for the rich are literally the worst investment the government can make. This is not hyperbole, it is known economic fact. The point of tax cuts is supposedly to shore up the economy in troubled times. To stimulate growth and spending. The poor spend practically 100% of their money. Saving is a luxury not available to them. The rich on the other hand, spend a smaller percentage of their money than anyone else. The return on tax cuts for the rich is about 30 cents on the dollar. That is not a very good investment. The argument that tax cuts for the rich pay for themselves is nothing but self-serving bullshit.  The bottom line is, the federal debt grows more during Republican administrations and the GDP grows more during Democratic administrations. That is another fact. We know what fiscal policy works, even if the right has managed to hide it thanks to the public’s distaste for voting on hard numbers and long term plans and their preponderance for voting based on their gut, since facts are boring and elitist. It is the truthiness, not the truth that matters. This is how’s it’s been for a while, and this is what drives people to clamor that tax cuts for the rich are the best way to help everyone.

The fact is, this is a loss for this entire country. As long as the Republicans are wiling to cause damage to the majority of the country and Democrats give in before the right is made to account, and before their wrongs can be brought to light, the Republicans will continue to win. I have spent a year now defending this administration, but this is truly the first action by President Obama I have little desire to defend. Republicans are willing to hurt the middle class, and the middle class needs to see that. The Republicans are smart. As long as Democrats continue to shield them, they will continue to hide and remain unstained in the eyes of the public.It is very possible that bringing the wrongs of the Republicans to light will hurt, but once again, that hurt won’t come today. The Democrats lost the game of chicken, showing, as they always seem to, that they don’t have the stomach for it. Truly caring about people is one of the things that makes the Democrats the  party with the right sense of ethics, but it is also what makes them weak. Republicans are more than willing to punch the middle class in the gut for richer rich people, but the Democrats consistently give in to keep the punch from landing.

This deal is not all bad. The extension of unemployment is important, and some of the breaks are good. But overall, I think this does a lot of damage.

If the compromises are this big now, when Democrats hold control of both houses, I shudder to think about the state of affairs come next year. If not now, when? Two years from now when Republicans control the House? I don’t see that being even a remote possibility. I was truly saddened to read about what the President had to say yesterday, and am sorry to say that I lost some faith and respect in the President.

If you read this far, congratulations and thank you.

Looking Forward

It’s been a month since we got back from Costa Rica. A month that quickly came and went with staggered progress. Fingerprints were taken, processing fees were paid, documents were mailed, and job listings were scoured. Over the weekend our NJ background checks came back, so today we headed to Trenton to get them and copies of our diplomas apostilled. They will be mailed back to us tomorrow and hopefully within our possession by the end of the week. These documents will make it possible for us to apply for work visas. Right now it’s looking like those visas will be for Korea (South). The jobs there are available, they pay well, have good benefits, and we’d be living in a major city in a developed country.

The last few days have seen the Koreas in the news due to recent altercations. People have expressed worry, but shouldn’t. Little will come of this current spat. These two countries have officially been at war for like 65 years. South Korea is a country of 50,000,000 with compulsory military service, a GDP of almost a trillion US dollars, and the full backing of the international community. North Korea is a country stifled by an oppressive megalomaniac. It has 25,000,000 people and a GDP of $40 billion. That comes to less than 1/10 the per capita GDP of it’s Southern brother. South Korea has no desire for war, it stands to gain nothing, and North Korea stands on little more than pride and the fear with which it rules. Any attempt at aggressive military action would be quickly trampled (Six-Day War anyone?). So fear not for us if we do end up there.

If we do end up there, it will probably be at a private school in Seoul for a year. This is a long time, and is scary, but I welcome the radical change of scenery. The current situation certainly isn’t working out. Well, let’s hope for the best, whatever that may be.

Costa Rica Out

Our time in Costa Rica is almost up. We finished the TEFL course this past week. We taught one hour of class and then had 3 hours of  TEFL per day. It was a bit rough with the lesson planning and work we had to do. We had to put together a portfolio with everything we’ve done, all our lessons and essays and so forth. It was great to get the teaching experience, to have kids in front of us for that hour every day. The teaching went pretty well for both of us. Neither of us is a huge fan of the teaching method they taught us, but there was definitely a lot of useful stuff to be gleaned from the class. We hung out with our class the last couple nights, and it was a lot of fun. We became pretty good friends with a few of the people. Definitely some nice, fun folk.

Leaving tomorrow  feels like a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s great to be somewhere new, with new people, semi independent, with a steady schedule. Being in class by 9:00 every morning until 4, 5, or 6 has felt good. It’s been good to be busy. On the other hand, neither of us is in love with San Jose. It’s not a great city. It’s small and run down and underdeveloped. The surrounding areas are a lot nicer. The two weekend trips we made were both great, and today we made a short day trip to Cartago, a small town right outside San Jose. We were hoping to go see a volcano, but got there too late to take a bus. It was still a nice trip, and the town is much nicer than San Jose. Now we’re looking at jobs. We’ve sent a couple resumes out, but nothing yet. Right now it’s looking like maybe Asia, since that’s where they pay best and where there seem to be more jobs. We shall see.

Monteverde 2

I watched the BC-ND game on ESPN3. Not a great experience. Rettig seemed like he was getting into a rhythm when he hurt his ankle. This is not our year. Montel also struggled all night. Our linebackers and Gause seem like the only bright spots. Not our season so far.

We met 2 crazy Irish guys (they’re everywhere) who’d been traveling Latin America for 14 and 6 months respectively. Talked to them until late, then up at 5:30 to catch a bus. We ended up taking our time because some Israelis at the hostel were headed the same way and offered us a ride, so no bus needed. We spent the morning walking around the Monteverde Could Forest Reserve, which was pretty sweet. Basically a rain forest in the clouds with all kinds of crazy trees. No cool animal sightings, but it was very worthwhile nonetheless. We got back to the hostel and realized we had no time for the sky walk, so we got out money back and walked around town for a while. We had lunch at what was basically a counter, behind which the cook/server was sporting a Virginia Tech t-shirt. Seriously, of all places. After a very pleasant lunch we went to the hostel to wait for our 2:30 bus. Got home safely, took another bus home from San Jose. All in all, a very enjoyable trip. This is where a Costa Rican would say Pura Vida. Ridiculous.

Monteverde

We woke up at 5:30 this morning to catch a 6:30 bus. We missed the bus by seconds, but a guy at the station told us he could catch us up with the bus at the next stop. As he’s speeding through side streets to the outskirts of San Pedro he called someone to hold the bus up. It was all pretty sketchy. Especially when he told us it was going to cost 25000 Colones ($50 US). I told him this was ridiculous and that I’d give him 5000. He got really upset, but he got us to the bus on time, and we were rushed so I gave him 10,000. We got on the bus to Monteverde, which is a small seclude town, high up in the mountains, surrounded by cloud forests (which are not the forests of air nomads, which is the first thing that popped in to my head) and natural preserves. The ride took four hours and cost $9 total, both of us, which seems like the cheapest transportation I’ve ever taken. The highways are all in good shape, and it was a smooth ride. When we got off the highway though it was a brand new road-one that wasn’t completed, so the last 16 miles or so took an hour up the unpaved, uneven mountain road.

We arrived in Santa Teresa, which is the actual name of the town, ate and went to a hostel Jacqui had looked up. It is awesome. From the outside it looks really rundown, but inside it’s exactly what you’d imagine a nice Latin American hostel to be. For a private room with two beds it’s $15 for the night. I don’t know how they make any money. It’s all young Europeans and a couple of people from the US it seems.

We put our stuff down and practically immediately went out to do the canopy tours (zipline). They picked us up and drove us even further up the mountain. We paid for the canopy tour as well as a “skywalk” which is jsut a bunch of metal bridges high up above the jungle. The zipline was awesome, as we zipped through 2 miles of jungles cables in an hour. The views were great,with the jungle below and around us along with a thick cloud cover. It was beautiful. Then, as usual, it started to rain. They told us we couldn’t do some swing thing at the end because of the lightning, so they gave us lunch instead. We waited around for a bit to see if the rain would let up do we could go on the skywalk, but no luck.

We had also planned to go on a guided night walk to see some sweet nocturnal animals, but again, the rain seems to have foiled out plans. Tomorrow we’re getting up early again to catch a 6:15 bus to Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, which is supposed to be incredible, then maybe doing the skywalk, and taking a 2:30 bus back to San Jose. We’ll see what’s in store for tonight. (Maybe a little BC-Notre Dame on ESPN3 if nothing else comes up?)

Sorry about the overly long and winding post, it’s my first. They might get better as I go, but probably not.