Extra Teaching Assignments

There are a couple opportunities to make extra through the MOE here, which I decided to take this past weekend.  I made extra money 4 days in a row this past week! 

• I had a training course for 12 hours last Wednesday and Thursday in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language).  This one was not an option, but I was compensated 20,000 Won a day for transportation and food, but it only cost 4,000 Won in bus fair and the money I would have spent on dinner anyways.  I learned a few new techniques that I can use in my classroom, and gained a better understanding of what the other native English teachers are doing in Ulsan.

• On Friday I participated in the "English Village" that I signed up for a few weeks ago.  That paid 80,000 Won for just 5 hours.. of playing guitar!  It was great, the day before I was told to bring my [co-teacher's] guitar and be prepared to play 2 different children's songs.  I arrived at Ulsan Grand Park on the other side of town for the festival, and found that 3 other native English speakers like myself were also working (2 of whom I already knew).  The set up was like a little festival with many tents for the students to visit, and our tent had 4 activities for students.  There was a story reader, a magic show, a Halloween themed ghost sucker making table, and then me playing sing-a-longs.  It was very cool, I know "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "The Hokey Pokey."  At one point someone requested B-I-N-G-O and I didn't know it, so during some down time I looked it up on someones smart phone, so now I know 3 children's songs!  It was fun but was quite tiring.  I caught a break though and had the morning to mostly relax since my 6th graders were taking mid-terms.  I left the school at 11:30, got lunch and did the English Village from 1-5.  Pretty cool getting paid double to play guitar for 4 hours!

This is the area right outside of our tent where I did the sing-a-longs.  From the left is my friend Maury, a wonderful MOE lady Shin He San, a very nice Korean worker Joon Young Jeung, my friend Pete, and then myself in the front.

Maury and I actually sang the songs together, and this is us with 4 of the children.  She was a huge help in teaching the dances (right arm in.. right arm out.. etc.).

• On Saturday I was a judge in a English Speaking Contest at a school I'd never been to before.  I got a ride with my co-teacher Mr. Cheung who was involved in the competition, and when I got there 3 other Native English teachers were there, all three of which are my good friends from a post or two ago!  It was pretty cool to be the judge and debate moderator, and I got paid 50,000 Won to do this from 1-5.  It made for quite a busy and tiring week, but I had some really good experiences and some extra cash!

Quick Update

I have a lot going on still, so I'd like to give some quick updates!

• Taekwondo: After 4 weeks of going 3 days a week I took and passed my first belt test, and earned my yellow belt!  This happened this past Wednesday, and today (Monday) I will start learning my requirements for my next belt.  I took a video of my whole test on my phone, but as you will see in the next bullet point, I can't put that up on here :(
• I actually just LOST my phone on Saturday.  It fell out of my hoodie pocket on the bus, and it appears that it is gone for good.  I am going through all of the fun hoops necessary to cash in on my insurance for a new phone, but at least I got the insurance!  It will probably take about 7-10 days to get the new phone and cost 50,000 Won, so I may get a cheap temporary phone tomorrow.  I guess that is just a few thousand Won per month (a few dollars).
• I am still enjoying my teaching though, and playing guitar nearly every class, so I am very happy with that. 
• My social life is continuing to be satisfying, especially since I am getting tighter with my new friends and using Skype to chat and jam (on guitar)
• Another unfortunate thing that has just recently happened is I blew my guitar amp!  Agh I just got it shipped from home for about $75 a couple weeks ago too.  Because the amp needed a power converter, and an adapter for the 3 prong plug, I had to use a couple adapters and a converter to power it.  I tried using just one of the adapters (that I thought was a converter from 110V to 250V) and I blew it.  Darnit! 
• I have been practicing and working hard at volleyball since that is such a big deal here, and I am told I am becoming one of the best players here, and soon I will be one of the best 'Strikers!'  I was so frustrated that my volleyball 'skills' were laughable 2 months ago, so this is pretty big news for me!

So out of all the things going on, most of them are good!  Hopefully everything with the phone gets sorted out soon, and I'll have some new pictures up shortly :D

Paraeso Falls!

I just had one of the most fun Saturdays ever, right here in Ulsan!  Ulsan is actually both a city, and a province, so 'right here in Ulsan' was actually over an hour away by bus.  I met up with a group of friends (becoming my best and favorite friends here!) at suknam-sa temple near Paraeso Falls. 

Random tub of drinking water!

My friends walking to the temple.  From the left we have Julia, Amy, Connie, Erin, Kathrine and Howard.  (also it looks like I will be vacationing to Thailand in December with Connie and Erin!)

There's this thing called 'owling' where you crouch like an owl.. I guess that's all I have to say about this one.. LOL

We met at Suknam-sa temple around 11:00 am, and explored it for a couple hours.  We walked around, met some nice Korean ladies that who were having a picnic and exchanged some food, and actually went inside the temple with a Buddhist monk.  She was very nice, and even though she was speaking all in Korean, we seemed to understand the message she was trying to convey about spirituality and the heart.  (very touching)

Wish we would have gotten a good picture with all of us, but here is 4 of us in the temple.

Temple from the outside.

We walked back to the road and caught a bus to Paraeso Falls which is a tourist attraction here in Ulsan, and had a hike there.  After hiking upwards for about 20 minutes we reached the waterfall which was very cool.  We had a little picnic there and waded in the FREEZING water.  We decided to pass on swimming, haha.  We hung out there for about an hour and then headed back to the bus stop.

Howard and I decided it necessary to climb nearly every large rock on the way to the Falls.. including this one!

Beautiful view.. oh yeah, and Howard!

Like I said.. FREEZING!

My group attempting to get a 'jump shot' ... 3 of them succeeded! (The girl third from the left is Jenna, and all the way to the right is Ashley)

If it isn't obvious yet, we started getting pretty silly by the time we were leaving.  We all decided we should skydive together, and that inspired this little video, lol

Next we all took a bus to Andong, which is a small town on the way back to the city, where 2 of our friends live.  We stopped and ate at ______, a Vietnamese style restaurant which was really good!  We ate and visited there for quite a while, then those of us who live near the city caught the bus that way.  We stopped in 'New Downtown' or 'Samsandong' to transfer buses to my friends neighborhood, but ended up going to a dance club there, which was lots of fun!

Getting ready to leave Paraeso Falls.

My friend Amy about to eat a little octopus.  (She actually refused to eat it, but posed for the picture :)

Our whole group at dinner minus Howard and Jenna.

I had planned on being home by mid to late afternoon, but I got home a little after midnight!  It was really great and I plan on hanging with this group all the time, they're the coolest! :D

Korean and Honguel

I have been learning some Korean and I'm getting better at reading Honguel, the alphabet system here in Korea.  I would like to get much better at both, so I am going to start studying on this website: http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/ 

So far my co-teacher Mr. Park teaches me some things, but it is still very foreign to me.  Here are some of the words and phrases that I have learned!

Basic:

ahnyung-haseo = Hello
ahnyung-ge-seo = goodbye (if you are leaving)
ahnyung-ah-seo = goodbye (if other person is leaving)
go-eye-o = I like (this or that)
gham-sa-ham-nida = thank you
yeh (or neh) = yes (or ok)
annio = no
sun-seng-nim = teacher
yo-gee-yo = here (say it at restaurant to waiters, where to stop for cab drivers)

Family:

apa = dad
uma = mom
abogee = father
o-mon-ee = mother
har-abogee = grandfather
har-mon-ee = grandmother
emo = aunt (on mother's side)
goma = aunt (on father's side)
sam-chun = uncle (on father's side)
wa-sam-chun = uncle (on mother's side)
luna = older sister (if you're a female)

There are lots of different words for brother and sister based on gender and age.. and I don't remember many of them!

Numbers:

yung = zero
il = one
ee = two
sam = three
sa = four
o(h) = five
yuk = six
chil = seven
pal (or par) = eight
gu = nine
sip (or ship) = ten

sip-il = eleven
sip-ee= twelve
etc.

ee-sip = 20
ee-sip-il = 21
etc.

Also there are 'primary' numbers that are often used.  When counting off at Taekwondo for stretches we use these.  It's still confusing when to use these versus the previous numbers.

hannah = first (1)
dual = second (2)
set = third (3)
net = fourth (4)
da-sut = fifth (5)
yah-sut = sixth (6)
ilgo = seventh (7)
yo-dur = eighth (8)
aho = ninth (9)
yuell = tenth (10)

Hanguel:

Vowels:  ㅜ ㅠ ㅗ ㅍ ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅐㅔ ㅣ ㅡ ㅇ

Consenants: ㅂ ㅈ ㄷ ㄱ ㅅ ㅁ ㄴ ㄹ ㅎ ㅋ ㅌ ㅊ

I am not an expert on Hanguel yet, but if you are interested you should check out the link at the beginning of this post, and watch the Hanguel lessons (part 1 & 2). 

Taekwondo!

Master Lee.

Taekwondo has been awesome, and intense!  I am about to begin my 4th week of it and I will be taking my yellow belt test this week.  I have been doing fairly well at the kicks and the sparring, but for the belt I have do a series of punches, blocks and kicks.  The punches and blocks are the newest things to me, and while learning them, I have to learn the whole sequence, which is pretty difficult for me.  I video taped Master Lee doing the sequence last Wednesday so that I could practice it.  I had one picture with lots of the other Taekwondo students, but it was accidentally deleted from my phone.  (I have experienced some problems with my camera, phone and laptop lately.. if you know me well, you know that I hate relying on technology, for that reason.)  Oh well, I'm sure I'll get more photos with them soon!

In full sparring gear here!



Here is the video of Master Lee demonstrating what I have to learn to pass the yellow belt test.  Please excuse all of my "mmmhmm"s :)

Busan Aquarium Field Trip!

This past Tuesday instead of teaching 5th graders I got to go to Busan for a picnic field trip!  It's about an hour bus ride and we were gone from 9-3 like a normal school day.  First we went to the aquarium which was awesome!  I really should go to aquariums and zoos more often because they are very enjoyable for me.  The kids had a blast as well :]

Right outside of the aquarium.

Busan! 

Some awesome students :)

Big big turtle.

Mr. Cheung and his son.

BIG shark.

This is a fail, I was trying to get a picture with the shark's head right in front of my face while looking terrified.. but there were so many kids running around and no English speakers to help take it lol

Mmm, looks delicious..

Outside (after) the aquarium.

Next we went to a power plant right around lunch time, which I thought was bizarre, but we had our picnic right outside this nuclear power plant. Nobody explained what we were doing there to me, so I just went with the flow. We went inside and watched a 20 minute video about the power plant that was entirely in Korean, so I didn't understand a word of it. Afterwards we went to another part of the plant and it was like a little science/electricity museum! It reminded me a lot of the Great Lakes Science Center, but smaller. This was very cool for me, and I took a couple really good videos of it all on my phone, but I'm still working out the kinks on uploading them. In the mean time there are plenty of photographs, and hopefully videos soon!

SO I HAVE THE VIDEOS! But with some glitches...

Picnic at the power plant with other teachers.  The teacher in the blue across from me is the volleyball coach who was originally giving me some attitude, but now we're really cool.  I've been practicing and I'm pretty good at volleyball now, I guess that's the golden ticket!  haha

Where we saw the video at the power plant.

Another gripe with technology.. my brand new 'smart' phone took this video and glitched in the beginning. Because of this, all of the audio is about 10 seconds behind, so if you pay close attention you can tell when my remarks are supposed to be playing.

 

Student exploring at the science center.

Students taking a photo outside the power plant.

Korea's got Seoul! Part II

The first trip to Seoul was fun, but since it was with the MOE for the Spirit festival, I did not have an opportunity to explore at all.  I made a trip back out to Seoul the very next weekend for Global Gathering Korea, a huge electronic music festival.  I had known about this since I arrived in Ulsan, but had no plans of going.  My friend Connie (I'll have to post about her soon, she's one of my good friends here) talked me into going on the Tuesday or Wednesday before the concert.  The tickets would have been cheaper in advance, but Mr. Park was going to Seoul with his family for a wedding that weekend, so I was able to catch a free ride with him! 

If I took the bus it would be about 5 hours to Seoul, and cost about 50,000 Won ($50) round trip.  If I were to take the KTX (Korean speed train) it would take a little less than 3 hours and cost 100,000 Won.  In this case I just gave Mr. Park 10,000 Won for gas and tolls to be courteous. 

I had a blast at the concert and met up with many of my friends from orientation.  When I first arrived it was about 4 pm and I was to meet up with Connie.  She was already at the concert venue with some friends, but she did not answer her phone when I called.  Because of traffic and Mr. Parks children (Chan-hee & Chan-yuk)  we were running a little behind schedule.  Since this was the case Mr. Park just dropped me off and I had to find my way, which was exactly what I wanted!  I was alone in the big city, and my contact was not answering, awesome! 

My first time on a subway (unless I was on one when I was very young in Chicago, don't remember)

This is where I emerged from the subway to meet "Conda."

Well I did want to wander and explore on my own, but I also did not want to be late to the music festival, so I walked around and called a couple other friends who were in the city.  I got ahold of a friend whose name is Ryan Forrest, and he was just about to leave his hostel for Global Gathering.  He put me on the phone with the hostel owner, and he gave me directions to get there.  I went down to the subway, and figured out how to buy a ticket at the automated machine, and asked 3 people on the way to the correct subway, 1 Korean worker and 2 random foreigners.  It was pretty cool just finding my way to my destination, then the hostel owner (whose English name is "Conda" short for "Anaconda" after the movie) came and picked me up at a meeting point a block or two from the hostel. 

This is Conda at the hostel.

I didn't know what to expect at the hostel, and my friends took a cab to the music festival when I got scooped up, but it was really cool!  There was a traveler from Germany who I talked to and a couple Koreans who were very nice.  I charged my phone for a bit (oh yeah, my phone charger was unplugged the night before, so at the worst time ever I was on a low battery all weekend!) and took a cab to the festival.  It was SO much fun, and there were 5 different stages playing until 4 am! 

That is my friend Connie sitting, and my new friend Marc (who didn't know I was taking this photo, lol)

This is our blanket spot where we relaxed between dancing sessions!  That is Mike and two Korean friends, all of whom I met at the festival.

This is a shot of the main stage :)

 

 

The next morning I walked out of the bedroom to the living room and there were 3 foreign teachers from Ulsan that I know, and we had no idea we were all in the same hostel!  It was such a small world, they were like "Ryan, you did not just walk out of that room just now!"  We ended up hanging out for a few hours with them (from England), my two friends that invited me to the hostel (one from England, one from Minnesota), two Hispanic girls who were studying in China (one was from Colombia and the other was from Argentina), and the hostel workers who were Korean (Conda and 2 others).  It was so fun talking about various topics, getting different world perspectives.  As people started leaving the Colombian girl started giving me and the Pete (from Minnesota) a Spanish lesson, since we both have studied it and want to become fluent.  This whole experience reminded me so much of my father Mike Manary who shared similar stories of when he backpacked across Europe at my age. 

From the left is the girl from Argentina, a random Korean girl, a very nice Korean gentleman, the Colombian girl, my friend Pete, my friends Stacy and Nathan from England, then me.  Everyone was not in this photo.

Stacy, Pete, Nathan, and breakfast (that the hostel provided!)

I was supposed to meet up with Mr. Park at 4 pm to head back to Ulsan, but I was late.. because I took a train instead of the correct subway!  To meet him I had to take two different subway lines, and Conda gave me pretty good directions (plus I had a smart phone), so I don't know how I messed it up.  I went with my two friends Ryan and Pete to the station, and on the first subway.  For the second I was to find the blue line, #4 on my own.  I was following the signs, and eventually was just following the blue signs, that didn't say #4.  I can't believe I didn't notice.  So I got to the train station that I thought I needed to be at, and waited for a WHOLE HOUR!  Just to find out as soon as we departed that I had gone the wrong direction.  So I got off, went the other way, and when I got back to the station it was the last stop, and I realized I had taken the wrong line all together!  I felt so bad because I was holding up Mr. Park and his family, and I still wasn't at the meeting place! 

This was after I took the first subway, and right before I wasted an hour waiting for the wrong train.

The wrong train. 

I stopped a young lady and asked for help; I thought a university student was best since maybe she had been studying English.  Well she didn't speak much English, but she was going to almost the same destination that I was attempting to reach, so she led me there.  Her name is Eunji (the 3rd Eunji I have met now) and we are staying facebook friends.  She can help me with learning Korean, and I can help her with learning English! 

Eunji and I on the RIGHT subway :]

I finally made it to the meeting place at 6 pm, two hours late!  Ugh, I felt bad, and got back around 11:30, but it was a fun weekend, and Mr. Park and I had a great discussion about Asian history on the drive home.  We discussed Vietnam, China, Japan, and North and South Korea.  It was so interesting getting his point of view, especially when discussing conflicts of these nations when the United States was involved (so.. most of the time).  I have to say some of what we learn in the United States is biased, and some of what he told me was biased, but it's good and fun to hear both sides. 

In any case, I learned that Korea has got Seoul power!

Korea's got Seoul! Part I

One of the things that I have not done enough yet, is travel around S. Korea.  I've been exploring Ulsan and getting very involved with the culture, but I have friends who are visiting Busan, Daegu, Andong, Seoul, etc.  It has been difficult because of how busy I am, but I managed to make it to Seoul twice this past week!  (Well I was in Daegu and now Busan on a field trip, but going with friends to explore is very different!)

The first trip was Monday a week and a half ago when I was invited by the MOE ("Ministry of Education") for a national holiday ceremony.  October 3rd is "Korea's birthday" so we had no school and I accepted this invitation.  All expences were covered by the MOE, so the bus tickets, the SPIRIT FESTIVAL tickets, lunch and dinner were all included.  It was nice because my neighbor Tamara (an American native English teacher like me) went as well, so we split a cab to the meeting place both in the morning and evening.  I'll be honest the Spirit Festival was fairly dry for me, but the trip was fun and they had side activities that we participated in (like drumming and cup stacking competitions).

The MOE had many Korean student volunteers come with us that ranged from middle school students to university students.  These are two of the volunteers, the one in the yellow's English name is Toni, not sure the other's.

This is Ji, the main MOE lady that I email about events and extra teaching opportunities.

The Spirit Festival was held in the old olympic stadium from the 1988 olympics.

Bad lighting here but I am in the stands on the middle level, then you can see the spectators seated on the field of the stadium.  You can see the stage on the opposite end.  The reason it was a little dry was because there were a lot of speakers, speaking only in Korean.  (even the Koreans that we were with were bored)  There was some chanting and dancing that we learned on the bus though, and there was a band.  However we missed the band when we went walking around. [bummer]

Here is Toni, Kristy, an awesome yellow mascot and Virginia.

Love this!

I was gettin' down on the galgo!

Me with the big blimp that was floating around the stadium :D

Notice the guy with white gloves!

He was helarious!

The different groups had signs to stay together, and it looked like a huge protest for a bit.  By the time I got this picture taken it had thinned out.. now I'll just pretend I'm a 99%er!

Some other native English teachers.