My First Real Week in Korea

August 30, 2011June 1, 2013Leave a comment

Since my last post I have successfully ridden the bus to and from school and got off and on at my correct stops and transfers, I’ve figured out the heating system so I have taken many a hot shower in my smelly bathroom, I figured out how to open my washing machine after washing one load twice because I can’t read the Korean on the machine, I’ve gone grocery shopping for some necessities, and even cooked myself dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Looks like I’m settling in. Here are some pix of my new digs and my new friend Marky Mark as the model.

ANYWAYS, here I am, sitting at my desk, doing what they like to call “desk warming.” Basically, this whole first week I’m doing nothing. My 2 co-teachers teach their classes English lessons for the week while I kinda grab my bearings, though I must admit, I’m still completely lost about where to begin. I haven’t observed any classes, but I’ve perused the teacher’s manual from a couple years ago because it’s all in English, but I haven’t really seen a class book or anything. However, it wouldn’t make a difference because their English books are in Korean. It’s weird, but I guess it works for them? Thankfully the previous English teacher left tons of powerpoints and lesson plans to go off of. Thank you Shana!

Now let me recap the past week or so since I’ve lagged hardcore on the updation (yes I made that word up) of this here bloggy blog. This past weekend was my first official weekend out on my own in this big city. Luckily some of my friends live within a few subway stops from me, so we all met up at Nowon Station (2 subway stops from most of us) and then headed out to Hongdae on Friday night. It took us a little under an hour to get there. We started with dinner, where I got mad at Jason (my Aussie friend) because I really wanted Korean bbq, but he just hopped up, pointed at the concoction on the next table over’s table and said “We’ll have THAT!” Turns out it’s soldier’s soup and it has something like cut up hot dogs, Spam and ramen noodles and it’s in a spicy broth. I did not eat this because I don’t do the pork sitch. We did however also order some bbq so that satisfied my craving. Between 5 of us, we downed 4 bottles of soju and went on our merry way to the bar Zen. This was a fun night for all, and an interesting night for some boys who cry in alley ways. It ended up being a 35,000 won cab ride back to North Korea (aka Danggogae aka my apartment), and luckily I had a homeless friend to split it with me. We couldn’t take the subway because it doesn’t open til 4am and we were pooped.

The next day my new friend Mark, who might be one of my new favorite people, played tour guide. He was here 2 years ago, so he knows a thing or two about a thing or two. We went to see the huge golden statue of King Sejong which lies in front of Gyeong Buk Do Palace. It was so breathtaking to see, because I really have always looked at Asian palaces in textbooks and could only imagine the magnitude and intricacies of the structures, but now I was standing in it. Pretty sweet. Here are some shots of me and some of my new seoul sistas in front of the statue and then in this gorgeous and serene (and humid) palace.

Later that day we went to a Canadian bar in Itaewon, and turns out my new friend Liz had a friend who was going to the same party as my friend-thru-the-Dicecca’s, Andrew. I don’t know if she met her friend because we were literally there for maybe an hour, but I finally met Andrew in person for like 5 minutes and then we were off. Hopefully I’ll get to hang out with him more before he leaves (he’s been here for 3 years!) We ended up meeting up with a bunch of other people from orientation, went to some Korean BBQ and then went out to the most ghetto bar ever. It was super weird and had quite the poopoo platter of people. Itaewon at night kind of reminds me of Hollywood Blvd. Super dirty and kinda grimy. But it was awesome during the day! But I was in a funk that night and my feet felt like I had rocks in them and I just wanted to bounce. So after some super spicy schwarma we bounced on back to North Korea.

Now for the reason I am living here!! My school! I have such an amazing classroom that these pictures don’t even do it justice. One of my co-teachers told me that my English room is the best in Bukbu. So much for the name “Nowon” because apparently they spent Lotsowon on this room. Check it out!

I have 2 co-teachers and their names are Chan Young (or Leni) and Jin. Leni is 27 and Jin is 29 and they are both single and both super sweet pretty girls. I’m so excited to get to work with them! In the classroom the students are supposed to call us Miss Danielle, Miss Leni and Miss Jin. This is different because everyone else tells me that the students say your name and then teacher, so Danielle teacher. I think that’s more fun, but whatevz. Since I haven’t been teaching, the students are still super curious about me. During their breaks they poke their heads in my room and yell “HELLO TEACHER! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?” Some ask how old I am, most stand and giggle and stare, some come in and run around the room and play tag, and one little boy already told me he loves me. Aw shucks.

I took a break from Facebooking for the day on Monday when Leni and Jin took me on the long haul down to the Immigration office to get my Alien Registration Card (ARC). I don’t know how I would have done it without them since I don’t think the people there speak English. I also probably would have gotten stuck making the trek back 2 weeks later, but Leni told me to pay 4,000 won so I will get it mailed to the school within the week! Then I can get a cell phone and open a bank account. AHH!! Aside from me getting to be a real person in Korea, it was a great trip because we had lots of girl-talk, figured out that Jin and I are both obsessed with Dexter, and even talked about our blood types. In Korea, asking someone “what is your blood type?” is like asking someone “what is your sign” in America. Blood type tells a lot about you apparently. I’m O+ which according to Korean culture is very desirable and means I’m outgoing, trustworthy, loved by all, and will never get passed over because apparently I stand out very much. Well, blood type, thanks for the ego boost!

Now it’s Wednesday, I’m still sitting at my desk keeping it warm and attempting to figure out how to put together a lesson plan. I think I know what to do but I feel like I don’t have a jumping off point. I’ve also been working on my About Me power point for when I officially start teaching next Monday. Tonight I’ll be going to dinner with the other teachers since it’s my Vice Principal’s last day. I’m sad because she has been so sweet to me in just the few times we’ve met. My co-teacher even told me I didn’t need to come tonight because they will be eating pork and they know I don’t eat that (proving to be quite difficult!). I told them I don’t want that to be a reason I don’t come to things and she was so excited and told me I’m awesome 🙂 So, I will be eating rice and kimchi for dinner. Tomorrow I will also be broadcast to the entire school and introduce myself to them. The school has a fancy broadcast room and I sit at a big chair behind a huge desk. I feel like I look like FDR having a fireside chat or something. I will be doing this every 2nd 4th and 5th Monday of the month. I guess I’m supposed to tell 5 minute stories and play true/false games to get the kids excited about learning English. Wish me luck!

Well, I’m off to go try and do some work. Hopefully the next post will be sooner and not as long. Sorry, I’ve just been running around like a mad woman. Oh, and Jeanette is coming to visit me this weekend! AHHHHH!!!

Ok, PEACE!

I am alive and in my apartment!

August 25, 2011June 1, 20131 Comment

Yes! I am in my apartment and it’s way bigger and nicer than I had anticipated. I’ll show pictures of it later because I feel all discombobulated and don’t know where the heck I am and it’s giving me anxiety. But, I just wanted to update all you peeps that yes, I’m in my apartment, yes, my 2 co-teachers are angels and I have an AMAZING classroom (pictures to come soon!), yes I took a freezing cold shower this morning because I couldn’t figure out the heating system, and yes, I got ridiculously lost on the bus today. Eeep.

My apartment is in Nowon-gu, in the neighborhood of Donggogae in the bigger neighborhood of Sanggye-dong. Lots of dongs and lots of neighborhoods are confusing me. I’m still not entirely sure of what my address is either. I kind of feel like no one I know is super close to me, but maybe that’s just because it’s the beginning and everyone is also disoriented. Blah. Anyways, tonight I’m gonna be going out with some friends to Hongdae which is apparently the poppin spot, but it’s like 45 minutes-1 hour from me by subway. Wish me luck that I get there in 1 piece.

More to come, but I must get back to tending my laundry and making my bed so I can kick this anxious feeling.

I have arrived and am getting ORIENTed.

August 19, 2011June 1, 20135 Comments

After a waterworks show on the way to the airport, at the airport, and on the plane, I have arrived in the hot box sauna that is S. Korea. I am not over exaggerating when I say it feels like living in a sauna 24/7. It is so humid and muggy!!! My hair is definitely going to love it here. Anyways, I got here safe and sound and am staying at Kyung Hee University until August 24th for orientation. I wanna say my flight was under 12 hours. I also highly recommend Asiana Airlines if you come visit me because it was so great. The flight attendants are so attentive and walked by like every 5 minutes with drinks for you, and then the coach seats are SO ridiculously roomy. The food wasn’t too shabby either. I passed the time quite quickly by catching up on lots of movies. I started my journey with a 23 minute bio/interview short about Justin Timberlake. I really needed something to bring me out of my waterworks funk, and his face sure did it. I then proceeded to watch Water for Elephants (yay), Soul Surfer (Kevin Sorbo/Hercules is in that. So weird that I ran into him at the Apple store a week or so ago), and Date Night (I think Steve Carell and Tina Fey should date after seeing this…). End of story, it was a lovely flight and I made a cute little Korean guy friend wearing skinny jeans on the flight who helped me with my heaping amounts of luggage. I have never traveled so heavy in my life, and I must say it’s really annoying.

Here’s a little recap about orientation so far. After wandering through the airport aimlessly, I was picked up along with a bunch of others from Incheon Airport by EPIK and drove for about 1-1.5 hours to our orientation site at Kyung Hee University in Suwon. We got here and found out that the boys are in dorms in a separate building than the girls. I don’t even think it was that segregated when I went to Washington DC in 8th grade. We also have a curfew of midnight during orientation and no alcohol is allowed in the dorms. I should just throw away my ID right now. Ahhhhh. ANYWAYS, we shlep our luggage off the bus at our designated buildings and then all shuffle into the Multimedia building where we found out our groups and got our name tags, keys to our rooms and met our roommates (mine is named Tracy), get a sweet orientation textbook that is huge, a few towels with the EPIK logo, an EPIK pen and alarm clock, 2 rolls of toilet paper, an adapter, a bar of soap, an EPIK t-shirt and a bottle of water which we are then told we cannot drink because we have medical checks in the morning so we can’t eat or drink. AWESOME! We then proceeded to shlep our bags up to our rooms where we are finally obliged with a shower, which was magnificent. The shower, as you can see in the pic below is the entire bathroom and I think it’s so fun!! You can shower and clean your bathroom at the same time, but don’t leave your shit out or it’ll all get wet! The beds are also hard as a rock, and we were provided two comforters, one to sleep on and one to cover. Of course there isn’t a fitted sheet, and if you know me, you know I then wake up on a bare mattress because I sleep like a tornado. Here are some pics of the dorm room to tickle your eyes. Don’t mind the mess.

The next day I had to be at my medical check at 9am. Of course we were all starving because most of us hadn’t eaten since about 5:30pm or so the day before on our flights. The medical check consisted of a urine sample, which many had trouble with seeing as we couldn’t even drink water before, measurements of height and weight, an eye exam which I think I failed, getting 4 freakin vials of blood drawn (I still have a little bruise), a “q&a” about your health with the dr. and finally a chest x-ray, where all the girls had to change into a sexy pinkish frock which was awful in the heat. It took about 2 hours or so to complete, and then we were finally rewarded with a box of orange drink (yes, drink) and this delicious french pastry/peanut buttery/scone thing. Nomz.

After the exam we got to head on over to lunch, which was meh. Meals here typically consist of iceberg salad with some sort of trying-to-be-Americanized dressing which is usually pretty good, some sort of gross pork dish which I stay away from, maybe an egg dish, maybe some fried chicken or bulgogi, some type of noodle, I think vermicelli usually which are pretty good, rice, french fries (!!!), some sort of soup which is usually in a fishy broth (ick), always kimchi, and watered down coffee in the tiniest cups ever. I can’t wait to get out into the real world here and eat food!! Here’s a picture of some food, I think this was our first lunch meal. Meet some of my friends, Jason and Katie. He hasn’t eaten his food because he talks too much.

After eating we had our EPIK/SMOE welcome ceremony and overview where we went over basics of the program, contract, vacation days, etc. and we watched these high schools boys play a traditional drum song, the name of which is slipping my mind. It was actually really cool, and those kids got SO into it, and their bowl cuts were whacking like crazy!

The rest of the day was pretty open for us to hang and do whatever. We had dinner and then a group of us ventured out of this university bubble that we have been cooped up in. We went out into the city of Suwon and the lights are SO BRIGHT!!!

We walked all the way to HomePlus, which Canadians were comparing to Walmart, but I didn’t see any of “those people” wandering the halls. This place is so awesome and bustling still at 9pm. It’s like 3 floors of awesomeness. Restaurants on the 1st floor, grocery store/department type store on the 2nd floor and then electronics and clothes on the 3rd floor. It was pretty awesome and we bought bottles of soju for 910 won, which is under $1! It’s also legal to walk around and drink outside in public, so we sat outside of HomePlus for a little bit and tried our soju, which tastes pretty much like a watered down vodka. We then ventured to FamilyMart, which is sort of like a 7-11 and they have tables and chairs outside for you to sit, talk and imbibe. It was really cool, but I was so exhausted and I swear I had the eyes-are-closing-jolt a few times. Hello jetlag! Anyways, here are some pictorals of things I thought were cool on our journey through Suwon and HomePlus.

Today was a jam packed exhausting day. We had lots of classes about how to teach secondary levels (middle school/high school), how to create lesson plans, how to make English more comprehensible by Korean students, which was super interesting, and then Korean class tonight. I was so tired by the time we got to Korean class. All the other classes were almost 2 hours, and Korean class was about an hour. Maybe I’ll Skype with someone soon and practice my Korean – an-nyung-ha-se-yo (that means hello). I also found out that I will be teaching Elementary school! Yay for little kids!! Now I’m back at the dorm and ready to konk out at 10:30pm. There is a full day of classes tomorrow in true Korean fashion, so I will leave you with this happy t-shirt from HomePlus modeled by my new Canadian friend Matt.

I’m off to teach kids how to speak…American!…oops

August 16, 2011June 1, 20131 Comment

It’s 3:02am and I’m wide awake. Well, I’m exhausted but can’t fall asleep. Sista and I are having a slumber party with Presley and Cilla, all of which have been passed out for a couple hours now. Damn adrenaline or nerves or whatever the hell you are! That means tomorrow I’m leaving, getting up at 7:30am and then shlepping my ass to the post office to see if my freakin debit cards are going to be delivered to me today. I want to try and catch them before I leave, since knowing my luck they’re gonna come in the mail tomorrow right after I touch off the ground. Ugh! To catch you up to speed if you don’t know, my debit card was somehow involved in fraud and someone in NY (Park Ave. might I add!) tried to withdraw $500 from my practically non-existent bank account. How? I have no idea. So now my debit card is shut off and I have a stupid temp one that only works at ATMs, so unless I miraculously can intercept my card at the post office in the morning, Mama Schaeff is gonna have to mail it to me. MAJOR UGH!

Moving on to the goodbyes, ugh I hate goodbyes because I am such a cry baby. I had goodbyes with several lovely men in the past couple weeks which was delightful. Sam Alavi and I went to Woodranch for some delicious sandwiches, greasy garlic rolls and good old fashioned dirty catch up. We have the best catch ups ever. I miss that kiwi boy. Then I finally was taken to Umami by Mr. Jared Franco who I haven’t seen in a year (eh hem mr.!) It was lovely and really nice to see him and the food was bomb diggity. I even left with my cute lil Dr. Pepper bottle. Maybe upon my return I’ll put a flower in it or something. Who knows. Then there was a fan-freakin-tastic goodbye that rocked my socks off! Saturday morning Mama Schaeff and I did our 3rd and final garage sale (SO SLOW!) and Trevor Martin (my 8th grade, red headed love affair) came to say bye to me. Probs the sweetest thing ever considering we haven’t seen each other in like 8 or so years? Needless to say, we did a ton of reminiscing and he really boosted my ego with some delightful compliments 🙂 It’s really great to know that even after so much time has passed you can really see who cares in times like these. Totally made my day. In addition to the boy goodbyes, I had a wonderful pho date at Pho 99 with my twin asian princesses, May May and Wawa. They started my love of the pho and my love of the asian, so it’s only natural for it to come full circle. The little man that works there was also very excited to see me, and seemed concerned when I told him I was moving to South Korea. Perhaps he is just sad he’ll miss my frequent business. Friday I also had a 3 hour long gvideo chat sesh with my other azn, Jnet and Jessiiiiii!! It was amaze, and I felt like we were hanging out. I miss them 😦

Saturday night I also had my going away party. We did dinner at El Cholo and then relocated to the lovely Hideout, which has since become quite the goodbye venue. That place is so fun. Lots of people came, some didn’t come (one terd of a boy didn’t come…eh hem Mike ATO eh hem…), and some people I totally didn’t think would come came which was awesome. I didn’t even realize Mike hadn’t come until about 1am, after which I proceeded to send him a very mean text, and then he drove up to Agoura tonight to come say bye so I forgive him 🙂 I continued to make the rounds on Sunday, said bye to my little baby boyfriend Baird and the Conroy clan, then scampered off to dinner at where other than Buca di Beppo for some Macaroni Rosa with the fam, Cori, Joel and Michelle. Probs the best dinner in a while, despite my gross hangover headache from the night before and my anxiety over my stupid debit card. Those 3 lassies also got me a lovely gift of drugs, tampons and foot deodorizer…what more could a girl ask for?!

Alas we come to today, my last full day in these parts. I ran around doing miscellaneous things that didn’t require me to use my debit card (ugh). Got extra passport photos, had Papa Schaeff buy me my Korean phrase book to soak up on the plane ride, ran into good old Christian Stavro, came home to a pantry my mother packed for me in a duffel bag, rearranged my packing sitch with the help of Mama Schaeff for the rest of the afternoon before more last minute visits from my lovely Zumba buddy Alessandra, and then hung out the rest of the night with Cori and Mike (who if no one is aware, my mom thinks is way cute lol). Wow that was a long run on sentence! And now Jacq is over with the little puppy lovies and I should really get to bed.

Well, that’s it folks, I’m off tomorrow at 1:40pm. No more smartphone for a bit (omg how am I going to survive without checking into Incheon Airport on Foursquare?). Add me on Skype (dtschaeff), download Whatsapp and I’ll holler when I enter the new world of iPhone on the other side of the world.

Love you all and now I must sleep. MWAH!!!

This begins the goodbyes section

August 5, 2011June 1, 2013Leave a comment

Whoa, 12 days left. That’s it folks! If you haven’t gotten in your quality time yet I don’t really know what to say except…you snooze you lose 😉 But seriously, my calendar is so packed I don’t know when I’ll actually have time to pack. I guess it was a smart idea to pull all my desired clothes for the next year off their hangers today. This is going to be one fun obstacle. Not. Ugh. I’m so overwhelmed!! At least the mounds on my neatly made bed have turned into orderly stacks on my couch. I need order or it gives me anxiety. And who needs anxiety when you are already feeling happy, sad, nervous, excited, anxious and WTF all at once?! It’s seriously the weirdest feeling I’ve ever felt. I guess that’s a good thing?

Like I said, the count down has officially begun and time is a tickin’. The first of many goodbyes was with Chiz in his orange sunglasses on Sunday, and I was quite the sad little duckling in my hot pink sunglasses. I’m gonna miss that cute boy. *sigh* Goodbye cutest boy I’ve ever known. No, see ya later. That’s better. I also said see ya later to deBarros on Sunday too. Too bad he wasn’t wearing his sunga. That would have been the best farewell present EVER. However, instead of a sunga, he gave me quite the sweet goodbye. I must admit I was quite touched when he said he admired me for taking a shitty, jaded situation and turning it around into something totally amazing and life changing. I guess that’s a sweeter goodbye than a man in a sunga (to those who are confused as to what a sunga is, it’s like tiny shiny boy shorts that men like to wear in the southern hemisphere while frolicking on the beach). Moving on…..sista and I also had dinner with Danny (my favorite cousin who I haven’t seen in like, 3 years or something) and his gorgeous and lovely girlfriend Nicole. The last time I saw them I was pretty intoxicated and Jeanell gashed her foot on a piece of glass walking barefoot through ghetto Busby’s on my 24th birthday. We reminisced about that. And basically it was just an awesome time and I’m sad I never see my own cousin who lives so damn close to me. Ohhhhh family dramz 😉 Needless to say, I’m glad we caught up before I ship off to be a mail order bride in the Orient…. jk (that’s just what he thinks).

schaeff & the chiz bidding farewell at ginger rogers beach

In other news, let me tell you about all my celebrity sightings in the past month! I must say, I’ve been taking full advantage of this tinsel town of which I live in. In a nutshell, I have been quite the tourist in the past few weeks. For starters, sista and I saw Tori Spelling at Malibu Mart a few weekends ago. Jacquie however doesn’t know how to act like she’s from LA and impulsively screamed out amidst all the paparazzi “Tori! I love your hair!!” Oy. Really? That’s all you could think to shout?! Then, 2 weeks ago Cori took me to So You Think You Can Dance, where I met the distinguished Nigel Lythgoe!! I wish it were socially acceptable to say the old man made my heart skip a beat when he called me “young lady.” Screw it, it did. I also admired the dapper Neil Patrick Harris from afar. Too bad his “people” whisked him off to his dressing room before I could politely ask for a photo. Moving on to the best sighting of them all…..Evan Handler!!! Who is that you ask? HARRY GOLDENBLATT (or Charlie Runkle!) For those of you who still don’t know, Charlotte’s bald husband on Sex and the City, and the sexy David Duchovny’s slimy sidekick on Californication. And yes, the stories are true, I fell off my stool after asking for a photo with him. It’s all true, and he still took the picture with me, and it was amazing. And I also had nothing to drink. And lastly, I got super touristy and took myself solo to a taping of Conan where I almost lost my shit when James Franco was the surprise guest interview. I literally lept out of my seat. I was the only one who stood up!! Pitter patter!! Not to mention, I love Conan! And then this week Mama Schaeff and I went to see Leno and Katie Holmes was a guest! All in all, this has been a not-t00-shabby last month in the city of Angels.

More goodbyes to come, for sure. This weekend I’m sure I’ll cry when I see Bret. But not before I watch his sweet dance moves and capture them for everyone to see.

Now I’m tired. Off to bed I go. Gotta get up early for a focus group I’m doing tomorrow. I had homework and had to write a love letter to my razor. You read that correctly. And yes, I felt like an ass writing it, but whatever. It pays $150 or 160,124.10 won. Night!