So, 25 days after my last passage, I’m sitting at my desk, in my office, in the English Centre of Sangju Elementary school. It was a long, eventful, but fairly smooth journey to get here; from the tentative departure from Wexford to the stage where I’m almost totally settled into life in South Korea.
I left Wexford at about half seven on the morning of the 23rd of March, getting the Airport bus, which arrived in Dublin at about half ten. I checked in without difficulty and flew the short distance to Frankfurt, where I partook of three pints of Padeburger beer with a Korean businessman and a French-African guy from the Red Cross. On the flight to Incheon, I sat beside a young Korean student who had spent a year in UCD, and she proved an agreeable companion over a few complimentary beers. I don’t think I slept much, and my legs did start to die towards the end of the ten-hour flight.
Arrival in Incheon on Wednesday morning was slightly disorienting, given the vastness of the terminal, and I faced an anxious wait for my bags once I negotiated the way. Given that my orientation wasn’t due to begin until the following day, I had to fend for myself, and thankfully I was able to get the lovely ladies at the tourist info desk to book a hotel for me, and arrange a lift. And so it transpired that my first night in Korea was spent in a cheap hotel in Incheon.
Orientation started the following day, and the directions EPIK gave were spot on. I arrived in the Korean Open University, Seoul, at about lunchtime. I gave my details and was shown to my dorm, where I met my room-mate, Caoimhin from Belfast. He turned out to be a more-than-agreeable, well-travelled bloke, and we went for a couple of drinks with our ‘neighbours’, Matt and David from the States, before sleeping off the remainder of our jet-lag. The rest of the time in orientation brought back memories of Spain; meeting new people, having a good laugh, a few nights out, misbehaving during classes, and the general euphoria of being abroad. I made friends with a nice crowd; Amy and Geoff from Canada, Joe from the US and Jonni from Norwich. There were a few others from the States, England, and Ireland, but since the five of us were heading to Gyeongsangbuk-do province, it was natural that we latched on to each other. I felt completely re-energised by the whole thing, a world away from the unmotivated dullness I had slipped into in Limerick.
We left Seoul after a long few days. It was only on the bus to Gumi that we were told where our placements would be. Myself and Joe ended up in a place called Sangju. At first, I was a tad disappointed, as Sangju was a completely unknown quantity; also, I would be a considerable distance from Amy and Geoff, and nowhere near the sea. However, I reserved judgement; all would be revealed shortly. At Gumi, I met my co-teacher ‘Patrick’, a very pleasant Korean 30-year-old Glen Hansard fan; within minutes, it was clear that we were going to get on fine.
Patrick showed me my apartment after the 50-minute drive, and I was absolutely delighted with it; spacious, secluded, modern and close to the school and town centre. To my delight, there was an E-Mart (large department store, not unlike Dunnes) nearby, which we visited for the purchase of various moving-in essentials. Therein, I bumped into a couple from the US, who informed me that there was a ‘Wae-gook’ (foreigner) population of about twenty or thirty in Sangju. All in all, the first day allayed pretty much every possible fear I could have had about living in ‘provincial’ Korea. I was literally jumping for joy when I was left to my own devices in the apartment.
I was eased into the teaching process, merely observing for the first few days, while my medical test – and other administrative crap – was undertaken. My co-teachers brought me on the piss the first Thursday night, where I indulged in maekkoli (light, sweet rice wine) and soju (malevolent 20% brew and national institution) for the first time. I hung around the city for the first weekend, which was quite tedious, despite further exploring the small city and watching a few English-language movies on Korean TV. My first full week was handy enough, despite a few badly-prepared lessons. I would only be teaching twenty-two classes a week, and classes would only run to forty minutes each at most. ‘Co-teaching’ actually involves me teaching the class and – generally – the Korean co-teacher translating key sentences and enforcing discipline. There were a few panicky mornings, and often my first classes would turn out disastrously, but steadily improve throughout the day.
The food in the school cafeteria is usually decent enough for Korean fare; I still haven’t got used to kimchi (the national dish), red-pepper paste, nor the novelty of using chopsticks, but my skills in the latter department are slowly improving. Bulgogi (meaty, peppery stew-like concoction) became an early favourite, along with the exclusive meat dishes, like duck and bacon. Soups are decent too, quite thin, but full of whole vegetables, fish and sometimes meat. Western food is available; there is a faux-McDonald’s called 'Lotteria', and several bakeries around the place. I’m going for pizza later on, with my colleagues from English Town, a camp-like institute where I teach every Tuesday. Weather has been quite changeable, ranging from roasting hot last weekend to very cold and sometimes windy this week. The temperatures are set to rise consistently until the peaks of late-July/August.
I went to Daegu last weekend to visit Rob. After a spot of GAA, we went on a storming session, taking in all of central Daegu’s ex-pat hotspots. I was buckled by the end of the night, severely hung over on Sunday and still visibly shaken in class on Monday. I may keep the drinking to more ‘non-Irish’ levels in future, for my own good. Really not able for it anymore; and I’m not helped by the chemical level in Korea’s preferred gargles. My sessions with my North American/British buddies in Seoul seemed to be a lot less debilitating, and just as much fun, so there’s something to be learned in that. I did enjoy my GAA though, scoring five nicely-taken goals in the training match.
Just about to finish my second full week here, and overall, I’m really enjoying it. I’m going to a ‘Maekkoli Festival’ in Gyeongju for the weekend, which should be good craic, but I’ll probably buy a stereo and stay in Sangju next weekend, maybe catch up with some of the other foreigners here. Looking forward to a good, long stay in Korea!
