Swimming with Sharks

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me about his plans for the upcoming winter break, and he mentioned that he was going shark diving. Always a sucker for adrenaline, my ears immediately perked up; shark diving?! where?!

Yesterday we went on our dive, and it was a really awesome experience. It was at the Busan Aquarium, which was fine with me, as this was my first time scuba diving and I did not want my first time to be out in the ocean somewhere!

At first I felt pretty non-chalant and cool about everything, but once the instructor started discussing the different technical aspects of the equipment and all the hand signals, I started to get kind of anxious. My anxiety only grew, as we stepped into the tank to practice some techniques before heading further down. It had never occurred to me that it would take so much mental stability. When I tried to go under and breathe normally, I felt panicked, almost as if I were breathing too slowly and that I would somehow choke. The instructor was very calm and knowledgeable, and could tell that I was very nervous. We practiced going down again and again until I started feeling comfortable. When we started off, I still didn't feel 100% comfortable, but I felt like a lot of it was just me psyching myself out. Thinking about thousands of gallons of water above me, and what if something happened and I couldn't breathe and what if what if what if?!

As we explored the tank, things got a little easier. There were a few times where I felt myself on the verge of panic, and I couldn't look up because it freaked me out. But I calmed down, and just breathed into the respirator. I finished the dive and was really proud of myself that I had done it. The sharks themselves were pretty low-key, and it was definitely interesting to see them just kind of ignoring you really, though they definitely knew you were there. You usually only see sea-life behind glass or from above, so it was definitely cool to be in it.

You can still be fabulous underwater.

Afterwards, my friends and I went to Spaland at Centum City, which I will dedicate a whole other post to next time. It felt great to bathe and wash off all the salt water and fish crap that I was probably swimming in. After that, my friend Jess and I went to a WordZ Only spoken word event at a place called Cafe Radio in KSU. Really great stuff, everyone there was fantastic! My friend Jess read, and I filmed it. You can read more of her poetry and see the vid at her blog: Jessica Moves to Korea. 

I walked away from the open mic night feeling really inspired! It's great to hear other people get up and read what moves them, I so often wish I had the courage to do so myself. Maybe one day. 

Until next time,

안녕!

Sam

P.S. If you're interested in doing the shark dive, or getting your scuba certification, this is the instructor's website: http://aquaticfrontier.com/. Enjoi!

Graffiti Project

Greetings and Happy New Year!

After some time, I am back in the blogosphere. Here to reveal my latest endeavor.

When I first arrived in Korea, I was starting the teacher orientation in Jeonju. We were all being house at Jeonju University, and one of the first things I noticed was that in the parking lot there were these large, manga-style murals. I have always loved street art and graffiti and loved the idea of anonymous people tagging in a place that generally prides itself on its low crime rates and homogeneity. I'm still not sure if tagging is a crime in Korea, but it seems to be less frowned upon that it is back in the states. But after that, it made me curious about what kind of street art was being produced here and what aspects of Western art had been fused with Korean style? Thus began my graffiti project.

I haven't done too much traveling around Korea so far, but I have been collecting images of graffiti in some spots around Busan. I am starting my 2 week-winter vacation this week and instead of jetsetting to other lands, I will spend it traveling around Korea in search of graffiti. I want to see what Korean artists are producing and what they are bringing to the table.

I've started a tumblr, which will serve as the space to host all of my images, but I am considering switching to Instagram for easier access and reach. In the meantime, enjoy the slim pickins so far and let me know if there is any graffiti near you!

http://koreangraffiti.tumblr.com/

안녕!
Sam

Rolling in Busan

My most recent update has everything to do with activities. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I like to stay busy and I am a woman of many (many, many) interests. Being in a foreign country hasn't stopped me from pursuing my interests!

In addition to buying a sewing machine (yay!), I have begun playing Dungeons & Dragons on Thursdays with a group of friends. I've always been curious about it but never had the chance to play, and here I am! It is pretty entertaining, I'll give it that. Though I'm not sure how exciting of a player I am, given that I am usually zapped by the end of the day.

There is finally a burlesque class in Busan that also offers pole and is near me, so I am going to check it out this weekend and see if it is up to snuff. A friend of mine from D&D has started a Sacred Harp singing group, which I have yet to experience but am looking forward to, and I am also adopting a cat next weekend! So I will have a lovely kitty friend to come home to on these long winter nights.

But my main activity as of late, and one that I hope to really pursue steadily from now is, is roller derby.

I was first introduced to roller derby when I was in high school and my best friend took me to a bout. I had never even heard of it before, and it was an amateur league in Phoenix that was just skating flat track at a tiny hockey rink. I was immediately fascinated and actively went to bouts throughout the years, and have always wanted to join, but always found some reason or another not to (money, transportation, etc.). That league now plays at one of the biggest stadiums in Phoenix and draw loads of people and vendors to their bouts (this is the Arizona Derby Dames btw), and they even have a traveling team.

Before coming to Korea, I had done some research on my own, in pursuit of a derby league and was happy to discover the ROKD (Republic of Korea Derby). However, much to my disappointment, they only had teams in Seoul and Daegu. How could they not have a team in Busan?! So I e-mailed them asking for more info, and was met with "Well, if you can get enough girls interested, then you can start a Busan team!" Eehh, not exactly what I wanted to here after being here for only 2 months. But I thought, you know what, it's worth a shot, so I posted in a bunch of the Busan Facebook groups, asking if anyone was interested and I got a good number of responses.

We now have 8 skaters (we need 6 more to be an official team, so if you know anyone!), of all different levels, and I can honestly say that it is one of the best things I've ever done with my spare time. At first it was kind of daunting, having last been on roller skates when I was about 12, but with some practice and confidence, I think I'm a pretty decent skater! I had always wanted to play sports as a kid, but never really had the opportunity, and now I can finally revel in the feeling of athleticism that roller derby gives me. Not only is it a great workout, but it's great to be on a team and to be playing a game and getting that rush. All this, and I haven't even played in an actual bout!! I also got nominated to be the team's treasurer, so that's lovely too! I can't wait to see where this takes me :D

So naturally this was a shameless plug for the team. Anyone who is even vaguely interested should come out and give it a go, you've got nothing to lose (except maybe your balance).

안녕

Sam

Culture Shock: The Changing Tune

So over the past two weeks, culture shock has been hitting me pretty hard. My first month was nothing but sunshine and rainbows and discovery. Then slowly things started irritating me; why does my coteacher not take any of my suggestions? Why is my head coteacher making this so complicated? Why can't people understand me when I try to speak Korean? Why are the students misbehaving? How come they don't listen to me? Why are we teaching the students this? It isn't even correct! This is so frustrating! I'm so frustrated, nobody talk to me. Why does everyone keep talking? Will my head coteacher please just stop mothering me?! To add insult to injury, I got a cold last week which has put me in an even worse mood. At work I began to feel as if my lack of pep was making my coworkers uncomfortable. I became kind of paranoid that they were throwing shade in Korean, while I sat, isolating myself with my headphones because I would rather be isolated with English audio than isolated in a Korean conversation. It feels like time is on warp speed, and I'm not appreciating any of it.

I have noticed that things haven't been peachy, and I definitely haven't, but I didn't want it to stay that way. It's so easy to feel isolated from Korean society, not knowing the language. But to some degree, I will always be isolated, because I'm not Korean and I never will be. However, that shouldn't mean that I should be crabby with people at work for no reason! And I realized this and it was plaguing me. Yesterday, I hit a switch.

I went to my first roller derby practice in Daegu. My first time in Daegu, I didn't really see much of the city. But something about it, being so small and slow, not like Busan or Seoul which are bustling constantly. Something about that really struck a chord, where I just felt the urge to slow my mental gears. To stop overthinking and getting worked up about all the things that have been bugging me. I started to play a song in my head, and it just fit the feeling I had inside. Each place I've been to belongs to a song, and I found the song for South Korea and it changed my attitude in an instant. If I were back home in the states, working a new job, sure there would be little things that bug me about my coworkers, but would I let it plague me this? Hell no. So why should it be different here? I do my best at my job, and I try to be as friendly as I can. What more could I do? Why should I think that my coteachers don't have enough things to worry about, that they would have time to secretly talk shit about me?

I had a lovely weekend, and I am back to starting to feel physically active again (playing roller derby and soccer on the weekends), and it is doing me a world of good. I'm trying to manage my time so I can spend it really doing the things I love. And I'm going to try to make an effort to get out more on my own and see things through the Sam lens, not in a group lens.

So the new vibe for me is what I tell my students:

CHILL

Here's to person adventures!

안녕
Sam

P.S. Here's some pictures from last weekend's Herb Festival in Yeongcheon.

Sand mermaid at Haeundae Beach <3

Yeongcheon

ImGo Traditional School

More ImGo

and some more

at the Herb Festival

bridge at the festival

Chuseok: To Everland & Seoul!

Last week I had my first Chuseok experience. Chuseok is this big Korean holiday, kind of like the American Thanksgiving. Everyone gets together with their relatives in their hometowns, eats more than is humanly possible, and hangs out. This year Chuseok gave us a 5 day holiday, so woohoo! In honor of this, my friend Eric and I took off to Seoul for a few days to inspect things and to check out Everland. Everland is like Korean Disneyland (sort of) and they were having a special event Chuseok price for foreigners, so we were all over it!

We took the train to Seoul on Wednesday, which was so absurdly long, and then stayed in a hostel called Seoul Base Camp. It was actually kind of like a camp, with no real walls (more like thick canvas curtains), but it had everything one needs and everyone was lovely and helpful so no complaints here.

Thursday morning we set off for Everland. Allow me to elaborate on the hectic process of getting there. There is a subway line that goes straight there, but it does take a bit of time. Not as much time as you'll spend trying to take the bus tho! We got to Gangnam Station (shameless photo below...) around 10:15, and the bus arrived.

Oh but buses here... basically, the bus is going 70 mph, it stops somewhere on the bus stop and everyone clamors to get onto it. No order, no line, just bodies on the bus until it is full (and I don't mean legal safety full, I mean, there is no more floor space anywhere, including the exit steps). We missed 2 more buses due to this crowded mess, but eventually caught one around 10:45. While waiting at the stop we got chummy with some Eastern Europeans, with whom we shared the floor space (including one dude who was sitting on the exit steps).

The whole trip took about 2 hours, and once we got to Everland, I immediately proceeded to buy some cat ears because I couldn't help myself. Just like any amusement park, everything was overpriced. We wandered, went on a few rides, ate some peanut butter roasted squid (which was just absurdly delicious, let me say) and had an all around good time.

Friday we spent wandering around Seoul, checking out Seoul tower (which is on a giant hill by the way, which was torturous for me to climb, also by the way. I don't hike), scoping Itaewon and generally doing quite a bit of walking. Good times all around tho, and I can say that I have been to Seoul.

Real talk: Most of the time I was in Seoul, I forgot that I was in Seoul. Going anywhere in Korea, it seems, is just kind of like this huge bombardment of flashing lights and neon, so there's nothing particularly unique about streets in Seoul versus streets in Busan. I mean, I didn't spend that much time in Seoul, but I would be down for Busan in a heartbeat. It's basically got everything Seoul has, but with a beach! You can't go wrong.

Now it's almost the weekend, and the next 2 weeks are bringing more holidays so bring on the fun!

At the top of N Seoul Tower

Delicious squid

Meep!

Walking towards the tower

Gangnam Style dance...I had to...

Not in Seoul, but a "wild" shrimp burger + snow crab nuggets from Lotteria

At Busan Station!

On the roof of the hostel

Eric and nice girl from Slovakia

Pretty Czech guy who got stuck on the exit steps

Everland! Yes!

Holiday tree!

My magnificent cat ears. 

Waiting for the T Express will put you up to this.

Korean BBQ, Gangnam Style

On Namsan mountain!

Panorama of one small (small, small...) part of the city

View of N Seoul Tower from Itaewon

and beer and soju and ramen 

I was drunk, but this guy was soooo trashed

Bye bye Seoul!

Until next time!

안녕

Sam

Peculiar Peculiarities

Greetings readers!

Well, I've been here officially 2.5 weeks and I'm loving it. I'm learning Korean and things are going really well at work! I didn't know that Korean (elementary school) English teachers aren't required to know English haha. So that's been an experience. English learning here is a foreign language, not a second one, so most of the class is taught in Korean. Hey, it is what it is! 

I teach 5th and 6th grades. The 5th graders are amazing and great, so dedicated and cute. The 6th graders are....a nightmare, as they talk (not quietly) in class during the lessons and are just generally nonchalant about everything, but I pin it on us not having a lot of room for creativity with the curriculum, as they all are basically working towards standardized tests all the time. Lame! 

I'm taking Korean classes, and I'm picking it up pretty quickly. I've got a decent handle on the alphabet, which is of the utmost importance. I mean, charades will get you a long way, but it's so much nicer being able to communicate. I can practice reading everywhere I go though, which is great! Yet I feel super silly doing that, as I feel just like I'm little again haha I haven't had to deal with being illiterate since first grade!! 

Other interesting things about Korean life

• You can't flush toilet paper, you have to throw it away. 
• McDonald's delivers on a scooter. 
• Good luck finding cheese. 
• People will stare at you. All the time.
• People will also compliment you on the most random things. I've been told that I have a small face, that I'm "very active", that I'm "diligent." Korean compliments, gotta love em. 
• The trash system is no joke. There are few (and I mean like 3) public trash cans. And at home, you have to separate recycle from non-recycle and food waste, and then go to the sorting facility in the basement and sort it out yourself. It's cool but also bahh!
• Driving here is insane. Scooters drive on the sidewalk, sometimes cars park on the sidewalk, sometimes they park on street corners at an intersection, like it doesn't make any sense haha. But that's Korea for you!
• 

This is definitely not a parking spot.

Driving in Korea, not for the faint of heart!

I have my little "foreign family" which is great, it's so wonderful to have a group of people to share the ups and downs with. And, no offense to my co-teachers, it's great to be able to speak in English without having to think about it. I'm petitioning to get an after school drama club started, as a good way for the kids to get to know me better and for them to have a space to come out of their shells a bit (99.9% of my students, and perhaps Koreans in general, are almost absurdly shy). Plus it's got music, dancing, costumes, woooo! Could be great!

Chuseok holiday is upon us, so I'm off to Seoul tomorrow night. Let's see what else Korea is cookin up for me.

Until next time!

안녕
Sam

Greetings from the East

I have arrived! In one piece, with no problems J I am currently at orientation at Jeonju University, in Jeonju City, doin the damn thing. So far, things have been kind of a blur. My roommate is cool, internet is working, Korean TV is entertaining, the humidity is...high.

Feelings so far? It's hard to say. Now that I have internet access, I do feel better, as it was making me kind of anxious not being able to talk to friends and family and let them know that I'm okay. That, the jet lag, and the jam-packed orientation schedule was making me feel just exhausted, mentally and physically. Today feels better, as I slept like 9 hours and I think my jet lag is just about gone, and I'm getting into the step of things. I was e-mailed by the teacher I'm replacing at my school in Busan, and she let me know almost everything I'll need to know about my apartment/school/grades I'll be teaching/etc. Super helpful! Except that my new co-teacher would like me to make an appointment at the immigration office for the day I arrive, and the website is entirely in Korean. Yikes! Another unnecessary stress factor that I would like to eliminate as soon as possible!

I do really miss my fam and friends. It's only been 2 days and I already can't wait to talk to them on Skype. Orientation classes start today, which is good, because I am feeling very intimidated right now. It seems like so many of the people here are not nervous at all and I feel like I am the only one who feels like a deer in the headlights. I have taught a bit before, but I've never had a job outside of school so not only is this my first time really teaching, it's also my first real job so I am beyond nervous. I remember my first job (hostess at a restaurant in high school) and the first day when they tried to explain everything to me; I immediately felt confused and terrified because I thought Oh my god, I can't do this. But I had to do it, and eventually it became easy and habit. I'm expecting this will be a similar experience, and I hope to do as much prep work as I can to make it a little less painful. First stop: Make a powerpoint!

In other news, I need to learn Korean on the double. Last night I went with my roommate (who is ethnic Korean and speaks some) to the cafe across the street, and felt too intimidated to say 'Lemonade.....kamsahamneda', so she ordered for me (using many more words than I could have concocted). That feeling of dependency and total ineptitude on my part brought memories of being younger, before I could speak Spanish well, and visiting El Salvador. I had to follow my mom everywhere because I wasn't able to communicate with people, and I hated that feeling so much that I vowed to learn Spanish upon my return (y aquí estoy yo). Now that fire has returned, and my next conquest is Hangul. Bring it on!

Now I'm going to lay down in front of the A/C unit, because it is as humid as Virginia right now, and watch cute K-Pop stars on TV. 

Until next time!

안녕

Sam