I Got Seoul, but I'm Not a Soldier

So here I am, in ROK (that's Republic of Korea, for those of you who don't know). I arrived on Sunday, August 18th after a 13 hour flight (which really didn't bother me in the slightest - I promptly fell asleep upon sitting down, and didn't wake up until two hours before we touched down. Just in time for breakfast!) Came out of the terminal and was immediately disoriented and confused...I've never been to a place where I can't even recognize the symbols or letters of a language. I'm sure I looked just as confused as I felt, as was immediately approached by a Korean man offering a taxi. I knew, knew that I should turn him down, but was so tired and everything was in Korean and this man was promising me a swift ride to my hotel...so I followed him. Almost instantly knew I had made a mistake, when he lead me down some dark alley to his waiting car.

"How much is the taxi?" I asked.

"Meter," he replied. I breathed a sigh of relief. If the taxi is run on a meter, there's no way this guy can rip me off, I thought. Wrong again.

About five minutes into the taxi ride, the meter was already at 20,000 won (roughly $20). I started to panic a bit, as I knew the airport was nearly an hour from downtown Seoul, where I was staying.

"How much do you think this is going to be?" I asked him.

"Eh?" he replied.

"How much? Money? The whole ride?" I asked again.

"Meter," he said.

"Yes, I know meter. But THE WHOLE RIDE? HOW MUCH?"

"Kom somida gu sayo," is what his reply sounded like to my foreign ears.

When the meter hit 50,000 won I really started to freak out. Eventually, he seemed to understand why I was having a heart attack in his back seat.

"One hundred fifty thousand won," he said. "Maybe two hundred."

$150?! Maybe $200?! For a bleepin' taxi ride from the airport?! Using many hand signs and gestures, I tried to communicate with him that I only had 100,000 won in my wallet. That was about the point he started darting glances to the side of the road, and I worried he'd just drop me off in the middle of the freeway at 5 o'clock in the morning in a foreign city. Luckily, his black heart must have warmed slightly, because he said he'd do a service to his country and "only" charge me 100,000 won for the ride to the taxi. Many thanks, kind sir. How I made it through hitchhiking trips through southern Africa for 3 months but can't get a decent rate on a taxi from the airport in Seoul is beyond me. These traveling pants need to be dusted off, me thinks.

Needless to say, I was agitated when I arrived at my hotel in Seoul. I was staying with about 70 other teachers from CDI (Chung Dahm Institute) who would be going through training and orientation with me throughout the week. After which, we would travel to our respective CDI schools across Korea to begin teaching. We stayed in a really nice area of Seoul called Gangnam, which was bright and buzzing - a million restaurants and cafes and bars all stacked 100 stories high, neon lights blazing and hordes of Korean teenagers walking the streets in the latest Asian fashions (and some seriously high heels on the girls). Once it got light, I hit the pavement and went to my first Korean restaurant, where there were luckily pictures on the menu and I could just point at whatever looked appetizing.

Korean food is seriously spicy, and comes with at least half a dozen side dishes, including the Korean obsession - kimchi (pickled cabbage covered in spices). Like with everything, Koreans are also intense drinkers (you can't even begin to understand the saying "Work hard, play hard" until you've been to Korea). The beer houses and bars are absolutely everywhere, and getting trashed with your boss and co-workers on weekend nights (or any night, for that matter) is commonplace. Soju is the Korean equivalent to vodka, and the stuff is enough to put hair on your chest - they knock it back like there's no tomorrow. On the other end of the spectrum, there is an entire market dedicated to hangover cures - energy drinks, food, special tablets you can take to assist you in drinking MORE, etc.

I really lucked out with my accomodations in Seoul - where almost everyone else shared a hotel room with another teacher, I got a suite with 2 bedrooms and shared with 3 other girls - one girl from Seattle (yay!), another from Texas, and the third from Pittsburgh. We all immediately clicked, and spent the next week studying together, trying new foods, and complaining about our lack of sleep. Because sleep we did not - training was intense. We were divided into sections, and assigned various classes we would be trained in. I ended up in Memory English and Intensive Listening, both of which consist of a lot of memorization of passages from books, listening comprehension and vocabulary. I took classes for about 6 hours a day, and we were put through a vigorous string of tests - grammar, mock teaching, class structure. We were also shipped off to a Korean hospital one afternoon for drug testing, weight and heigh measurements, chest x-rays, blood testing and vision and hearing tests. I could hardly see straight by the end of the week. It may have been an insight into the life of Korean children though - if you aren't aware, Koreans are fiercely serious about education and kids here are subjected to about 15 hour days. They usually attend school from about 8am to 3pm, and then they spend the remainder of the day at "haegwons," or academies. I am teaching at an English haegwon, but the kids will also usually attend a science haegwon and a math haegwon, all of which run about 2-3 hours each. They get home around 10 or 11pm, eat dinner, and then study until 2am or so. Then wake up and do it all over again. Insanity, huh?

After our final tests on Friday, a group of about 20 of us got all dressed up, bought several bottles of soju and hit the town for our first experience of Korean nightlife. Things don't start until late here, around 1am, and people don't stumble home until the subway starts again at 6am. We went to a nightclub called Harlem, and had a great time. Saturday I packed up all my things and got on the bullet train to Busan, in the very south of the country. It's a city of about 3.5 million people on the coast and many people call it the "San Francisco of Korea." There are definitely similarities - it's a large port city, and the views of the water are really beautiful. The dialect is supposedly much harsher here than in Seoul, but my American ears cannot tell the difference.

I am living in the north-eastern part of Busan (the city is fairly spread out), near Pusan National University, or PNU. The area reminds me very much of the U-District in Seattle: slightly scruffy around the edges, with lots of bars and cafes, cheap restaurants and little boutiques. The only difference here is that most of the students are dressed to the nines, and certainly don't slum around in university sweatshirts and sweatpants (I'm going to have to step up my game while I'm here - Koreans are very aware of looks and appearances!)

I am going to be teaching at a new CDI branch a few subway stops from PNU with 3 other American teachers. And even after a week of arduous training, I know everything will be different once I actually step foot in the classroom...that's when the real adventure will begin!