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6/3/2005
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KLB - Koje-do
New! Visit the KLB bookstore to download the PDF version of Island of Fantasy - A Memoir of an English Teacher in Korea, the book I wrote about my experience on Geoje-do, Koje-do, Geoje, Koje, Geoje Island, Koje Island, South Korea.
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written by shawn matthews
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6/2/2005
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KLB - John Cooks Dinner
One of the things I was looking forward to about staying with John is that he can cook. He made some pretty good spaghetti for me and Julie before and a couple of other things. Unfortunately he's been on a serious diet for the past month and living on tuna and spinach. Tuna for breakfast. Tuna and spinach for dinner. Maybe a boiled egg for a snack and some beans at night. It's getting hard to watch him eat. Meanwhile, as per usual, I've been stuffing my face with anything I can get my hands on, especially gigantic sub sandwiches from Subway. The Subway in Gangnam rocks, by the way. The young guy in there loads everything up.
Well, finally we went shopping one night and got some fish, which John cooked up after having a few beers. Check it out:
Here he is telling me something or other about the fish. I wasn't listening.
"Yeah, man. If you put your finger in it like this, it feels all weird and squishy."
I never liked fish in America unless it was breaded and fried but nowadays I love it. John is an expert at preparing seafood as he grew up with a family in the seafood business.
Here it is almost ready. There's the inevitable spinach as well. I think John may have put tuna on his fish too, but I can't remember. Anyway, the fish was pretty damn good, even if it was naturally too salty. I should have brought my rice cooker. I like fish and rice, but John can't eat rice on his diet because he can only eat tuna and spinach.
I guess I'll throw in this pic of myself that John took. Something about the new Pantene conditioner I bought or the high humidity has been affecting my hair. The kids keep giggling that I have a "pama" (perm).
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written by shawn matthews
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6/1/2005
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KLB - Open Class
Any teacher's worst nightmare is to have to teach in front of parents. Especially if you're in Korea. Well, once again today was "open-class". That meant that all the parents of the children in all of my classes were free to come in and observe. I'd been dreading it for the past month. Just as I did the last time we had one. But like the last time, it turned out really good and it gave me an opportunity to show how how much progress I've made with their kids.
Can you imagine yourself teaching for 50 minutes in front of this crowd? Look at the serious expressions on their faces. It was really intense at first but after awhile I managed to get them laughing. At one point I almost teered up. The students were on their best behavior and did a fantastic job. I was so proud of them. After my A-class Bonnie remarked that my students are among the best she's seen. Yeah right! - she should be there on a Friday when no parents are around!
I didn't think it was going to be a good day, to be honest. I got to the school about 20 minutes before class and this kid was running all over and screaming. Then he ran up behind me and slapped my back as hard as he possibly could. It actually hurt! Bonnie and his mother just look on and smiled as if to say, "Oh, how cute." I was tempted to throw his ass out the window. He's bad 98% of the time, but fortunately today he was on his best behavior during the class - meaning he only acted like a twerp 50% of the time.
I was so prepared for this open-class I could have taught the kids for 2 hours. After the initial shock wore off, I started getting into it and even enjoyed myself. I felt really good about the progress I've made with them.
Here I am telling some kid to get out and never come back. No, seriously I'm teaching phonics in this pic. Look at these kids. They're totally involved in the lesson. Who's your teacher! Yah!
I taught every class a new song for today. When I first came to Korea singing in front of people terrified me. After awhile, however, I started to enjoy karaoke rooms and nowadays I'm always trying to drag people to them against their will. Kids in Korea love to sing and I teach them a lot of songs. I made each class line up in front of the parents and sing. I sang along too. The parents got a kick out of this.
Here I am meeting the parents after class. I was telling them how important it is their children practice English at home...I don't think anybody understood me, including poor Ally who was wishing she was anywhere but there.
Phew, one class down but three more to go. You can see I look so thrilled!
B class went just as well as A with a few minor interruptions from the usual two trouble makers. I'll get revenge tomorrow, hehe. Minus stickers! In this picture I am teaching phonics again. Like A class, this group can read and spell almost any combination of three and four letters. It took awhile and a lot of frustration, but I'm happy they can read an so are the parents.
Hey, help me out here kid - your father is giving me the evil eye. What am I doing here? Why did I decide to be a teacher? I wish I could go back in time and change majors and, whoa! - class is over. That wasn't so bad! I love my job!
Well, there you have it. Open-class. I'm glad I brought along John's camera. I had almost forgotten to do so. I also managed to take a load of pictures on the way home which I will post over the next few days. Stay tuned!
Oh, by the way, after class Bonnie thanked me over and over for doing a good job. Even though the parents looked so serious all day, they gave the thumbs-up to my performance and said a lot of nice things. Also, it turns out some of the parents were just there to see the program and, impressed, they signed their kids up for next semester.
You can imagine then why Bonnie was thrilled. She begged me to consider staying at the job. I told her I need to get out of the country for a month and she said it was no problem, that she would put in a replacement instead of another teacher if I promise to come back. She would cancel her remaining interviews. After thinking it over I agreed. That way I won't have to worry about my visa or anything like that and I'll have a sure thing lined up for when I return.
So, I'll take a month off then return to Korea and stay on until the end of the contract in September. That works out perfectly. Since I'm not jetting until next Friday, I also agreed to teach until Wednesday and she will pay me for the three extra days along with my month's salary. She was so happy she even drove me all the way back to Gangnam and promised to take me to the dinner of my choice before I leave. I can almost taste the lobster, steak and expensive wine...she also kept offering me all of these high paying jobs working for the Board of Education if I decide to stay in Korea after this contract. And to think, I had contemplated not getting off the train this morning!
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written by shawn matthews
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5/31/2005
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KLB - Gangnam (3)
Well, here are the last of the pics I took the other day. I'll have to get some shots of the nice modern buildings around the area soon. All of these shots of the immediate area. For some reason, of all the places I've lived in Korea, Gangnam has proven to be my least favorite - though that may be just because I'm not an upper class Korean to which the place is suited.
I told you these vendors get busy at night. This is the only area in the country where the street food is priced in a league of its own. O-daeng will set you back 700 won for one compared to 300-500 elsewhere, for example.
Here's a corner down the street from John's house. Surprise, McDonald's and Baskin Robbins!
Here's one of the only shots I managed to get of the modern architecture around here. One of the only good things about living in this area is that it's fairly clean and modern.
This is John's street. It's weird as you're in a quiet residential area like this one minute, then in the thick of the night life the next, all within a three minute walk.
This just pissed me off. Keeping a pig as a pet outside of your pork restaurant is tasteless and cruel.
I told you there are a lot of hip, trendy places to eat around here. Here's a restaurant selling post-modern egg dinners. Which set should I try...
Is it this one? Hmm...that mayonaise looks tastey....
No, no, it has to be one of these. I'm not sure who came up with the idea for this place but do people really find these appetizing? I didn't see anybody eating there when I passed, actually.
Well, that's it for now. I'll get back out there with John's camera to get some better pics than these...
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written by shawn matthews
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KLB - The Catcher in the Gangnam
Living in Gangnam has gotten me thinking about The Catcher in the Rye, one of my favorite books from my university days.
During his psychological battle, life continues on around Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman stuff' that is happening to him - until it begins to encroach on their well defined social codes. Progressively we are challenged to think about society's attitude to the human condition - does society have an 'ostrich in the sand' mentality, a deliberate ignorance of the emptiness that can characterise human existence? And if so, when Caulfield begins to probe and investigate his own sense of emptiness and isolation, before finally declaring that he world is full of 'phonies' with each one out for their own phony gain, is Holden actually the one who is going insane, or is it society which has lost it's mind for failing to see the hopelessness of their own lives?
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written by shawn matthews
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KLB - Gangnam (2)
A nice little place to eat a freshly made donut on the way to work.
I can't remember the last time I had a coffee at this place. While I prefer The Coffee Bean, I usually just have a free cup of Korean coffee at my school.
Here I am at Gangnam Station finally. It's about a 10 minute walk from John's pad.
I took these pics after work that day. These are kids playing outside the school. Almost all schools in Korea have a dirt playing field for soccer. I don't know why us Americans don't play soccer more in public schools. It beats standing in the outfield chasing foul balls for exercise.
A shot of the school. My classroom is on the second floor in the front.
Ally's been working hard on preparing for our "open class" so I treated her to a quick dinner at a "bun shik jeom" (Korean fast food joint). I got mandu (dumpling) soup and she got some kind of bibim bap (mixed vegetables and rice) minus the rice. I get along with her much better than Cathy, but I still would prefer not having an assistant.
At night Gangnam speeds up. You can see the crowds of people on the street.
All of those vendors get really busy when the sun goes down.
Just thought I'd throw in this shot of the Samsung 1GB "Yepp" player I picked up tonight in Yongsan for 250,000 won. I almost went with an iPod Mini, but the harddrive MP3 players are just too big for my taste. Also, I prefer a simple drag-and-drop interface rather than having to use iTunes. This thing also sounds much better, in my opinion, louder with more bass, and comes with a rechargeable AAA battery and charger and a case. I can't put the thing down, to be honest.
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written by shawn matthews
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5/29/2005
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KLB - Gangnam (1)
Here is the first post of three from my second day in Gangnam. I took all these while I was walking to work.
Some nicer cars in this area...here's some kind of roadster BMW thats always parked here...looks like that "sports" massage place is doing quite well.
Or maybe he's the owner of this octopus restaurant next door. Restaurants always have cutesy cartoon characters of the specialty on display. Awe, it's so cute that I just have eat it.
One thing about this area, there are lots and lots of hip new restaurants to try out. Here's a Japanese style place. I love Korean-Japanese food.
I'm not sure about this soup restaurant. Look at the first picture on top. There's a big fish head with the eyes still in it. Mmm...
This Irish bar down the street serves Guiness, as you can see. Too bad it's 12,000 won ($12) per pint. I like Guiness and all, but that's ridiculous.
It's been over 6 months since I've eaten fast food (besides Subway). Up until a few years ago, I used to be a junkie - especially when I lived on my own in America. Even in Korea I ate it a lot. Even though it never made me fat, it's still unhealthy. And after reading Fast Food Nation and watching Supersize Me, I made a vow to stop eating it for one year and to tell you the truth I haven't missed it at all. In America, part of the problem is that besides fast food, there are not many things to eat on the go that are cheap and healthy. In Korea you can eat so many healthy foods under $5. Still, whenever I see this strategically placed banner for a $3 lunchtime Big Mac set, the old craving comes back.
The street vendors are setting up for a long day selling o-daeng and deokbokki.
It looks like Manhatten in this area. Even the brainwashing is westernized...
A business man checks the newspapers at a kiosk...
And another, less fortunate soul, crawls down the road begging for change. I've never understood this style of begging. It's weird and creepy, but it's better than someone walking up to you and harrassing you as they often do in NY.
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written by shawn matthews
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