Small victories

I begin this post with much good news and rejoicing:

1. I have hot water! Woohoo! After more than a week of bracing myself for a cold shower every morning, I no longer face the somewhat ineffectual task of shaving my legs while I have goose bumps. I'm told the gas company didn't want to turn on the gas because they think my landlord is a troublemaker (at least that's how my co-teacher put it to me). I have no idea what changed their minds, but I'm not arguing.
2. On Saturday, I successfully rode not only the bus, but also the subway, to my destination with no problems whatsoever. Score one for me! This may not sound like a big deal, but considering the fact that (a) I am directionally challenged, (b) I have not been able to get my hands on a bus or subway map, in English or Korean, (c) bus signs in English are few and far between, and (d) if I get lost, I may or may not spend hours trying to find someone who can help me get back home....it's a big effing deal. I'm so proud.

The subway is quite nice. I thought perhaps we Washingtonians rag on Metro too much, but the Gwangju subway sets a shining example to be aspired to. It's fairly new and there's only one line, but it's well-lit, well labeled and freakishly clean. My only complaint is that the automated voice doesn't seem to know her left from her right when instructing people in English on which side the doors will be opening. There are boutique shops, food shops, bank branches and plenty of other shops I'm sure I haven't seen yet. Oooh. Aaaah. I wish I lived closer to the subway.

My bus and subway journey on Saturday began an evening of ups and downs, including:
Up: Arriving at my destination unflapped and on time.
Down: Screwing up the bus thing again this afternoon, despite my earlier success (Yes, that's a jump in the timeline, but this isn't about chronology, it's about ups & downs). 
Up: Seeing a "Mexican" restaurant on the way to our movie night at someone's apartment.
Down: Discovering that "Mexican" just meant some sort of fried chicken. The Americans were crestfallen. The Brits didn't care.
Up: Purchasing and naming 6 Russian hamsters that are now living with my friend (Twinkles, Fat Dave, Hector, Speedy Gonzalez, Haile Selassie and Mr. Kim).
Down: Oh, who am I kidding? There's no down for this one. Hamsters are CUUUUTE.

Another teacher and I were discussing this afternoon that it doesn't quite seem like we're living in the real world. I mentioned before that it feels somewhat like being back in college again, but that doesn't quite capture it. In the land of limbo, where we will never quite fit in, you can purchase Russian hamsters for 3,000 won (a little less than $3) each and the cutest, fuzziest bunnies you've ever seen for just 6,000 won. As foreigners, we get to make our own mix of social rules -- a cocktail of British, American, Irish, Canadian, South African and South Korean -- while taking liberties with the surrounding culture by playing the foreigner card. In addition, logic never really made its debut in Korea, so the rules that we play by in the west don't always apply here. Gravity, yes. Aristotelian logic? I think not. Aristotle didn't make it this far. So it's important never to say, "That doesn't make sense." It will never make sense. Just accept it and move on. This alone will keep you sane. However, I do like that Koreans put much more stock in emotions where Westerners tend to ignore them and then suffer the consequences in the long run. I'm sure there's a place where a perfect balance of both logic and emotion are used in decision-making, but I have yet to find that happy little spot.  Humans probably don't live there, anyway.

It's also odd to be living in what functionally amounts to a community of about 200 people, give or take.  Perhaps more if you add in the hagwon teachers, but that's the approximate number of us EPIKers. I feel like I've already met a huge portion of the group of people who will comprise my entire social life for the next year. DC is small town, but not this small. If I screw up with these people, I am socially screwed. At least until August 2011. It's a sobering and somewhat worrisome thought.

Realization of the weekend: All of my students' praise is having an unfortunate effect on me. Now, when a nice young man tells me that I’m very pretty, my immediate reaction is, “You sound like my students.” Picturing overeager Korean ‘tweens every time I’m paid a compliment is surely is not going to be good for my dating life. At least most of the people who have said/will say that to me (outside of the classroom and in English) probably have their own students and understand.

Tomorrow begins my first day of real lessons. No more fun and easy PowerPoint about me, my family and my city.  Lesson planning takes me forever right now, to say nothing of whether the material I come up with is any good. I surely hope I can knock things out a lot faster in the near future.

Never underestimate the importance of pictures

I made it!  Safely, soundly and surprisingly uneventfully.  My international flight experiences are never so simple and smooth, so I'm probably in for it on the trip home.  In the mean time, I'm just thankful that both I and my luggage made it through more than 30 straight hours of travel in one piece.  And without going completely stir crazy.

I've already had my first run-in with cultural differences.  When we boarded the buses to take us from Incheon/Seoul airport to Jeonju for orientation, 8 volunteers were requested to help load luggage on the bus.  I hopped up and went to take my place in the luggage-loading assembly line, at which point the Korean coordinator came up to me and told me that I was the first lady ever to volunteer for that job.  I'm not sure whether that was a nice way of saying "Ladies can't carry luggage" or "You're bucking the system" or if he was simply making an observation.  Either way, it seems I've already overstepped the traditional Korean boundaries for women.  That didn't take long.

I am currently at Jeonju University for a week of orientation, where I will presumably learn how to teach Korean kiddies and survive in a country where I am, at least for now, functionally illiterate.  I have never been so grateful for the little pictures that accompany the words on signs before.  Want to claim your bags at the airport?  Follow the little picture of a suitcase.  Want to find the stairwell rather than wait on the elevator?  Follow the sign with a man running up stairs.  If it weren't for these things, I would be unable to complete the most mundane of everyday tasks (or it would take me two to three times as long).  Case in point: the a/c unit in our room.  It can only be controlled with a remote control, which has no pictures.  We just press buttons until it does what we want it to (sort of.  It seems to only run for so long before it shuts itself off, leaving me to wake up gasping in a puddle of sweat.)  It's a strange feeling, not being able to read.  And even if I could read Hangul, I wouldn't know what any of the words meant.  I have a lot of studying ahead of me.

Upon arrival, we were handed gift bags with an EPIK towel and an alarm clock, both wrapped neatly in pretty paper; some snacks and water; and 3 books somehow related to Korean education and getting by in Korea, all of which I'm sure we'll have to read.  This won't be a lazy man's orientation week.

This is our room.  It's much nicer than I had expected.

I'm staying in a dorm with a large chunk of other EPIK teachers.  My roommate is from Canada, and so far I've also met teachers from South Africa, Ireland, England.....my accent-loving cup runneth over.

The Korean bathroom - no shower, just a shower area and drains in the floor.

One of the desk/storage areas

The view from our window (14th floor)

I know the placement's not so nice looking on those photos - I'm still learning the quirks of this bloggy thing.  And speaking of the internets, can anyone tell me how to make my Google searches show up in English???

Both meals we've had so far have been decent.  We're eating in the dorm cafeteria.  Kimchi, rice and some sort of tofu soup alongside canned peaches, strangely-colored scrambled eggs and slightly soggy toast.  I'm not sure if the eggs and toast are standard or if EPIK is just trying to make us feel more at home.  More kimchi, more rice, potatoes, sweet-ish pickles, macaroni salad, bulgogi, more soups and some slightly unusual-tasting yet yummy spaghetti at lunch.  And watermelon and peach tea - for the US southerners?  It seems they put a variety of vegetables in everything, regardless of what the traditional recipe calls for (see spaghetti, scrambled eggs and macaroni salad).  It also seems that no coffee or related drink (tea, coffee "beverages" in a can at convenience stores, etc.) comes with any less sugar than it takes to rot the teeth out of your head on the spot.  I skipped the chopsticks at breakfast but tackled them at lunch.  Koreans use metal chopsticks, which I find more difficult to manipulate than the wooden kind.  But I certainly won't starve, and there are the fork and spoon backups.

I'm off to the opening ceremonies now, map in hand, which is really just a big, complicated picture.

This might be tougher than I thought...

Almost every interaction I've had with EPIK so far has been great, and I've been impressed with the efforts and planning that goes into the program.  The pre-orientation course was fantastic, giving me extremely useful information (in a fun and interesting format) while also beginning to get me accustomed to Korean culture simply through its appearance and structure ("You must finish your learning!").  The information packet for arrival and the week of orientation is superbly detailed yet concise.  There is also a Canadian-born coordinator for native English teachers in my city who sent a wonderful welcome email.  Things like this make me even more excited about the upcoming year.  Then I read things like this little gem.  This is great information for me to have.  I'm very glad to have it, and I'm sure it will help me immensely.  But it also makes me realize that I'm up for more severe culture shock than I'd realized.

I am a fairly assertive person, independent, [insert other problematic qualities here].  You know, your basic city-dwelling American woman who can get shit done.  I would tend to view many of the expected and accepted behaviors described in the posting linked above as immature and/or unprofessional, and likely keep the person exhibiting those behaviors at arms length.  Obviously this will not be a productive way to deal with Korean working culture.  To make matters more difficult, I have been very fortunate in my supervisors so far, so I am not accustomed to dealing with personality conflicts in the workplace. I am used to working around/pushing though bureaucracy rather than just letting it happen once I've started the process.  I pride myself in solving problems with another person by sitting down and having a respectful dialogue rather than just rolling over.  I can respect the position that a person holds, but I don't put much stock in rank for the sake of rank.  Hierarchy, in my opinion, has its place, but I'll be damned if I will allow someone to walk on me just because (s)he is farther up the chain of command.

A helpful tidbit that a former coworker found useful when working with people from Asia: There are three genders: men, women, and American women.  We really are an entirely different breed in the eyes of a huge portion of the world.

So I guess I will be relying heavily on my ability to adapt (I think I have that ability).  I'll play the game to some extent and find a way to look at this that doesn't make me feel degraded, helpless, etc.  My current strategy: See this as a lesson in backroom politics.

Also, Korean language/writing is incredibly difficult but also kind of awesome.  All of the consonants in Hangul are designed to reflect the shape of the mouth when the sounds are made.  This is probably the coolest thing I have heard in a very long time.  And all of the little letter symbols fit together like a puzzle to form syllables.  I am so lost and frustrated, but I am so fascinated.  I guess in the end it's all ok, since my guide over at Kimchi Icecream says things will go better for me at work if I don't speak Korean (or don't let on that I've learned any if I can figure this stuff out).

I've got to get started at some point.

My English teaching job with EPIK is 99.9% confirmed.  I'm just waiting for that all-important Notice of Appointment so I can quit my job and take care of the bajillion other little (and not-so-little) things that must be taken care of before I leave the country (preferably before I leave DC).  My recruiter, Footprints (who have been amazing, by the way, those crazy Canadians), says there's a package of appointment notices en route to their offices.  Hopefully mine is among the many, and I can get started sooner rather than later.

Something you should know about me: I'm a planner.  I like to plan ahead.  I like to have goals and a map of how I'll reach those goals.  In the latter segment of my life, I've been trying to balance this with a belief in Spirit and the Universe having its own ways, which is pretty tricky.  How do you both plan and "make it happen" while still being open to opportunities that are put in front of you, and back off of plans you were making when the Spirit says, "Um, that's so not gonna happen. Sorry."  So what I currently call flexibility is really more of me making Plan A along with Backup Plans B, C and D.  I'm ok as long as I don't have to resort to Plan E or some variation thereon, at which point I freak out.  But I'm really and truly working on it.  And my entire Korea teaching application process has been a powerful learning tool in this area.

There have been many last-minute scrambles and readjustments of the mental Plan (and Backup Plans) throughout the entire application process.  How does this happen to a Planner who gets started early and researches all the details she can possibly know ahead of time?  Suffice it to say that I had talked a dear friend from high school into going with me who is (a) not as much of a Planner as I am, (b) does not have the same understanding of "make it happen" as I do, and (c) doesn't have the ingrained ability to navigate bureaucracy as I have (something you learn in order to survive five years in the Bureaucracy Capitol of America).  We had our applications tied together so we could go have a grand adventure AND be partners in crime, but then we ended up with somewhat different timing when it came to acquiring and submitting our documents to Footprints, and, well.....yeah.  Our applications aren't linked any more.  God love him, he did try.  My mother was talking of mailing a cream pie to him but couldn't figure out how to get it to launch from the box into his face, so she gave up.  For my part, I'm bummed, but I'm not mad at him.  This whole Grand Adventure of our Late 20s was my idea anyway.  Live and learn.

So, why the name of the blog, you ask?  I'm told that the Koreans are completely uninterested in dairy, particularly cheese (and Mexican food, but that's secondary to the cheese).  And dairy is an inordinately large part of my diet, particularly cheese and yogurt.  Now, I can make yogurt myself; I'll just throw some packets of culture into my suitcase.  But cheese?  I think not.  So I will most likely be spending a proportionate [amount of time:searching for cheese] as [cheese has been:my diet].  And I'll report every delectable (or disgusting) detail back to you, the few readers that I might have, and hopefully I'll be able to throw in some humor/interesting situations/life lessons with it.

Oh, and the kitty needs a new home.  Neither of us is happy about it, but there's nothing much we can do about it.  The Koreans aren't keen on importing pets, which I can understand.  Besides, whether it'd be her or a baggage handler, someone would likely die during Sabina's transit to the other side of the world.  I certainly don't want her to die just so I can spend a year abroad!  So, who wants a charmingly fat, furry, talkative cat??  I'm leaving DC at the end of this month....