The Bad Week

They said it usually happens around Christmas in your first year teaching overseas, but I definitely had my "freak out" week a bit sooner than many. While many people have had their issues adjusting to a new culture, new food, new lifestyle, new langauge, and an all-around new way of doing things, my biggest struggle has actually been with the people I am working alongside at my elementary school. The country and culture itself is fascinating, and I truly LOVE it here!! Work it seems...ain't so great at the moment. The people at my work are not bad people inherently and my issues have not been related to culture so much as they have been towards the all-around lack of communication, assistance, and effort being put in to an average day of work by my main co-teacher and the immediate surrounding staff. She is a sweet lady and a very nice and social person at times, but she has very poor communication skills (and I don't mean in terms of language/dialect) in the sense that she does not share things with me and does not inform me of things, and several times I've ended up teaching a class solo because she has shown up to work an hour or so late. It figures that I would travel to the other side of the world and end up working alongside the one lazy Korean in the country, and the one that reminds me most of the people I have struggled working alongside at several jobs back in the states. In addition, due to my co-teachers overall lack of communication and attention to details, I was paid a week late, and the only reason the issue was even resolved was because I eventually had to get help being paid from another nearby elementary school. Otherwise, I may never have gotten paid. I still haven't received the full amount of my first paycheck, but I'm choosing to be thankful I have any money at this point. The biggest roadblock I hit this week was that I was told by my co-teacher that I am no longer permitted to lead-teach any classes or plan the lessons, and that I now have to serve as the assistant to my co-teacher, the same way I mentioned above who has issues with responsibility. It wasn't for anything I did or didn't do. It was just a decision that was never passed down to me, and I had apparently already done above my pay-grade in the classroom. Now all of this above may sound (and basically is) a mental vomit of a terrible week in the life of someone living in Korea, but I certainly hope I don't give off such a negative vibe that people think I'm starting to hate being here. It's not that at all. I LOVE KOREA!  What all this above has taught me is humility and patience, both of which I would be lying if I told you I have attained from all of this, even as I type this. I have learned that an English teacher overseas needs these two qualities to survive, to remain sain. Otherwise, you will expect way too much and be way too disappointed. The moral of the story- "go with the flow". This was actually the first English phrase I taught my co-teacher when I arrived here, and now it is my daily motto for life as an ESL teacher. You're not going to have everything fall into your lap, and many times this job will disappoint you, even crush you. The question is- what do you do to get back up and how do you respond? You're not going to be the world's best teacher, and you're certainly not going to Robin Williams your Korean school Dead Poet's Society-style! :) If you keep things in perspective and allow mistakes to be made by both you and others, you can grow in immense ways and learn more about yourself than you ever really cared to. The bottom line- you're going to have a week like mine. You're going to scream and curse and want to rip your hair out. You're going to want to quit the job and grab the next flight back to your home. Don't. Don't give up. Don't give in. Do exactly what you expect your students to do every time you step into a classroom- LEARN.

Korean Baseball is the Real Deal

Last night we went with a group of friends to our first ever Samsung Lions baseball game in downtown Daegu. The Lions represent the province of Daegu in an 8-team Korean major league.

Needless to say, baseball games in South Korea are an incredible experience in and of themselves for several incredible reasons:


1) Tickets are dirt cheap! We paid 7,000 won per person (which is approximately $7) to get in. Cheapest baseball game I've ever gone to.


2) Seats are on a first come, first serve basis. This is something we didn't know this past outing but something we will definitely take advantage of in future baseball outings. 


3) Food and beer is cheap! It's literally chump change to have a classic baseball meal during the game. For a delicious hot dog, a huge bag of Sun Chips, and a can of beer, I paid 6,000 won ($6 in American money!!!) It's absolutely absurd how cheap this outing was...especially for how much fun we had!


4) There is non-stop fan participation/entertainment. During the entire game, there was literally a guy (who played the role of a Korean Ryan Seacrest) basically doing different chants and songs to get the crowd pumped up and into the game. They have cheerleaders and dance teams and mascots that rival the ones in the MLB. It's literally a tecno dance party combined with good ol' fashion baseball!!


5) The Samsung Lions are INCREDIBLE! Currently in first place, we were fortunate to watch the Lions play one of the last 3 games of the regular season and pound their opponents 10-0. 

All in all, this is an experience I would take way more advantage of in the 2012 season this upcoming summer. 


To all my fellow Clevelanders, I also found out that Ryan Garko (who played for the Indians in the mid-2000's) was recently cut from the Samsung Lions. What a fall from grace!


If you enjoy baseball, this is a must-do outing!!!

Jesus & Pasta

One of the things that I am learning quickly here on the other side of the world is that it can be very easy to lose faith, struggle with God, and watch your spiritual life go to crap...even when everything else in life is great, possibly even better than before.

The reason I believe this happens is because of how much effort it takes here and how intentional one has to be in their spiritual discipline.

Korea is a very social environment, and there is very rare moments in life these days where I find myself alone, much less alone with God. When these brief moments do crop up, I usually find myself checking my Facebook page, getting caught up on e-mails, or sitting here typing a blog just like I'm doing right at this very moment.

In America, a spiritual life and faith-based discipline is difficult, no question, but here in Korea the training wheels come off very quickly. Because there are only a handful of English-speaking church services in the entire province of Daegu, the church selection is very limited. Unlike in America, we don't get the luxury to analyze whether or not we enjoy or relate to the sermons being preached, we can't much criticize the worship style or format we encounter. Our brothers and sisters in faith whom we come across in the church won't all rub us the right way, and we don't have the ability to isolate ourselves from them or pick and choose who we associate with and worship alongside and still expect to have any type of Christian community left.

And as depressing as everything above sounds, I love it! It's not easy right now, and I'm definitely not happy with how my faith has sort of been on "sleep mode" since I got here a month ago. However, the opportunity to grow seems so much more available in the midst of this hardship, and the beauty of diversity and the complexity of fitting into the church body reminds me much of how the Bible depicts the early church being. It wasn't a bunch of people who all thought the same way, had similar personalities, liked the same things, had the same color skin, spoke the same language, and had the same style of worship or understanding of God. The reality is, they had to make it work. They had to try that much harder. They had to discipline themselves that much more maticulously to be both in community and alone with God. I've never had more respect for the early church than I do at this moment, and I'm saying this as I try to lift my heavy leg back up onto the stirrup. I'm not even back on the horse yet. :)

There is such a beauty to behold in the idea that being the church has to be intentional, being alone with God and in the Word is a real-life discipline, and making the effort to grow spiritually could never be more challenging and self-sacrificing. There's a comfort in knowing that church (much like life) is tough, that Rob Bell and Francis Chan (and all the amazing spiritual voices in America and other Western cultures) aren't here constantly babysitting my infant faith. I'm excited to start the growing pains.

One of the best pasta dishes I've EVER had!! Thank you, Alban!!

On a much lighter and completely separate note, this week Sarah and I had the most INCREDIBLE Italian food I've ever had at place by Duryu Park called Alban. I'm not even exaggerating. I had this diced chicken pasta with spicey marinara sauce and sweet garlic bread (YES, SWEET GARLIC BREAD!!!). I want to apologize to all of my Italian peeps, but Koreans cook one of the meanest and most delicious dishes of pasta I've ever had. My good friend Drew corrected me though in that my wife's chicken pesto pasta is actually the best Italian dish out there, and I humbly stand corrected- Lebanese people cook the meanest and most delicious pasta on the planet!! Thank you, Sarah!

We have Korean friends...FINALLY!! :)

Don't ever let anyone tell you that a 2-day week of school is easier than a full one. Heading into our first class of the week this past Thursday, Sarah and I thought the Chuseok break would make for an easy week shortly before another weekend. Oh, how we were wrong. 


It turns out that when you have less time at your desk in a week, there's less time to prepare the lessons and therefore much more to get done in a much shorter period of time. Nevertheless, We both rose to the occasion and gave 110%, only to fall face-first into our beds much of this weekend from exhaustion. I was also able to hand out my first punishments to some bratty 6th graders this week, something that I am learning very quickly that many public schools here are not very familiar with. Punishments as consequences for misbehaving in class is not popular at my school, and therefore was very shocking to receive as a student. Nevertheless, it was almost immediately easy to see that discipline and punishment go a long way in keeping these kids in check. I am also in the midst of planning and organizing a week-long English Festival in October, something I was told about only days ago. However, I'm excited for the opportunity and am grateful for the responsibility being entrusted to me. Being an ESL teacher is a fun exhausting job. It's hard but the hard is what makes it great (a little quote from a great movie called "A League of Their Own"...thank you, Tom Hanks!)


Earlier in the week we had a chance to go to our first movie in the downtown Daegu theatre. We saw "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (which p.s. was AWESOME!!) and got a little taste of Western cinema. The nice thing is that all of the American films are in English with Korean subtitles. This was great news to discover, as I am personally anxiously awaiting the release of "The Hunger Games" movie this summer!! :)

Go see this film!!

One of the things that Sarah and I have been really wanting since arriving to our new home in Daegu is Korean friends, people our age who live in Korea, speak both English and Korean, and most importantly are fun and cool people who we enjoy being around. It's not that we don't love our other friends here (because they are our life support here, believe me!), but we were so excited when this week we were finally able to hang out with several of the native Korean teachers and just have fun in community with them.

Out for food and drinks with our awesome group of friends!!

We definitely hit the jackpot in this regard! This past Friday we went out with Sarah's good friend and co-teacher Sue and our other new friend Fintan's co-teacher, a really cool guy named Steve. We first went out and had some delicious Korean veggie pizza and rice wine, and then it was off to karaoke at one of the coolest and most affordable Norabongs I have ever been to. We spent 2 good hours singing English and Korean pop songs, singing and dancing our butts off, and just having a good time with quality friends that make up our diverse group of awesome people!!! :)

KARAOKE BABY!!

If I could give any relevant advice to new English teachers living in a foreign country, it is this: Be intentional about being in the midst of the culture you are in. It is very easy to make friends only with other Westerners, go to Western places, do Western things, and stay inside an American bubble on the other side of the world. All of these things are important to have because they give you a community of friends and support, but at the same time, you have to find ways to try new things, meet people different from you, and experience life in new ways. The bottom line- find time and opportunities to do both! Enjoy them both! Appreciate them both! BUT above all- DO BOTH!

Vacay in Busan & Mountain Climbing

During this past Chuseok holiday weekend, which is the Korean Thanksgiving holiday, Sarah and I spent the weekend vacationing in Busan. Busan is a beach province/seaport about 90 minutes away from our home in Daegu.

Sarah and I at Haeundae Beach in Busan

Saturday morning we boarded a train and traveled out there to stay with our good friend Huy. Huy treated us to an incredible weekend of beach wandering, fish markets, good food, and cave bars...yes, cave bars!!! :)

Saturday was mostly exploring Busan and the nearby beaches, which are equally beautiful in the day time and in the evening. Saturday night we went to Dragon's Cave, which is a bar/restaurant literally built into a cave. It was incredible. Even the tables and chairs were made out of natural stone. Super fun!

Inside Dragon's Cave in Busan

On Sunday we went to the big fish market with a group of our friends. We got to pick out some good fish (mainly flounder) while it was still alive and then eat it minutes later which turned out to be the most delicious, fresh fish I have ever tasted!!! I highly recommend this experience!!

The indoor fish market in Busan

Eating our delicious, fresh fish!

Monday morning we headed back to Daegu, and later in the afternoon we went and climbed Apsan Mountain, a huge mountain near Camp Walker in Daegu. What an adventure! We took a cable car up the mountain (mom, you would have been SO proud!!) and then hiked around the peak and then down the mountain. My knees are killing me today!!!

At the top of Apsan Mountain in Daegu

All in all it has been an incredible Chuseok break from school...and we still have 2 days off to enjoy and relax. Today we are most likely going to go to a natural hot springs in Daegu and vedge. Tomorrow we may explore Seomun Market, and as always we'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

On a sad note, we learned this week that our cat Seth (who was adopted by a friend in Chicago) has leukemia, and it isn't looking very good. Hard to deal with on the other side of the world, but we are SO grateful and eternally in debt to our friend Jenn for taking care of him while we are away. We can never repay that!

Teaching, Teaching, TEACHING!

Another week is almost in the books, and Sarah and I feel pretty comfortable calling ourselves English teachers at this point. We each probably have about 10 lessons or so under our belts at this point, and we have sort of spent this week growing more accustomed to the routines and daily schedules at our schools.

The beginning and end of my week seem to be the busiest, with 4 classes in a row first thing Monday morning, and 6 classes in a row to finish off every week on Fridays. All in all, we plan roughly 7 or 8 lessons every week, and we execute them in about 22 classes over the course of each week. For having zero teaching experience prior to coming to Korea, it’s very much baptism by fire. Nevertheless, Sarah and I both feel energized and full of life having the opportunity to teach these incredible kids.

I have slowly discovered that 5^th grade students are my favorite to teach (Yes, I know you are not supposed to have favorites, so sue me! J). 6^th graders are at the age where it is starting to become cool to disrespect the teacher, not pay attention, and care less about doing the work and making the effort. Many of the older students are also still very low-level English students, so by 6^th grade they sort of have the attitude of giving up. Obviously, this motivates me to change that mentality, but nevertheless it makes this grade a tough one to teach across the board.

Sarah and I have also both had our unique challenges in our schools. While Sarah’s is a very large school and she has to juggle and plan with several teachers and handle more grades (1^st through 6^th) as well as after school programs, I have a small school with lower level students, and much of the work rests solely on my plate. In fact, just yesterday I was informed that I have to present a proposal this Friday to my principal for an English festival in early October, which I was just informed about last night. Needless to say, Sarah and I keep busy in our own challenging ways. We both love it though and find the challenge exciting and engaging! It’s a job that gives us purpose and lets us know we have a chance to impact lives as well as change the systematic trappings of ESL classes in foreign countries.

The center of downtown Daegu....beat that, Chicago!

Last night, we gathered with our good friends for our first outing of “Western Wednesdays”, a weekly event in which we all get together in downtown Daegu and eat dinner at a restaurant that reminds us a little more of home. Last night we went to a diner and had burgers, fries, and Coca Cola….MMMMMM! It was excellent!!!

A little taste of home :)

We were originally going to eat at a Bennigans (yes, they have that here), but it was $17 for a club sandwich…and much more for everything else.

The gang at the Western diner in downtown Daegu. Good times!!

This upcoming weekend is Chuseok, which is the Korean version of Thanksgiving. We get off work from Saturday September 10^th through Wednesday September 15^th. We go back on Thursday next week for a very abridged week. We need to start celebrating this in America, I think. He he he!

This weekend we are traveling to Busan (a large East coast beach city about an hour away) to hang with some friends and enjoy the long weekend. Looking forward to some R&R, and I’m sure we’ll have some great pictures and stories to tell when we get back.

Happy to have had another productive, safe, and fun week in our new home!!! Lots more to come!!!

What a Weekend!

After a busy but great first week of school, Sarah and I were blessed enough to take in an incredibly fun and fun-packed weekend with our good friends and fellow teachers.

Saturday morning we attended our first Korean language class at Dongshin Church. It was incredible! We spent the lesson learning the Korean alphabet and Hangul lettering. It's very challenging, but the class has a 3 to 1 student to teacher ratio. Sarah, myself, and our good friend Jen had our own teacher working directly with the three of us. It was so nice to have this close interaction and hands on interaction with the language. We can't wait for the next lesson!

In downtown Daegu with a...um...mascot???

Saturday afternoon and evening we hung out with friends in downtown Daegu, which is absolutely incredible and jam packed full of fun things to do. We spent most of the day wandering from shop to shop, and we even got to see an incredible dance performance. We found an English-speaking movie theatre, and we even got to eat Mexican food for dinner...YUM!

Incredible dance performance we saw in downtown Daegu...AWESOME!

Today we spent the day with our good friends Chris and Kat on the U.S. military base, Camp George. We attended a Catholic mass, ate at Taco Bell, and had a great time getting to know our new friends a little bit more.

Thankful for another incredible weekend here in our new home, and so grateful for a foundation of friends to keep us company in this big new world!!

A Week Under Our Belts! :)

Sarah with 2 of her co-teachers With a week nearly in the books, Sarah and I are now full throttle into our new and exciting adventure as English teachers in South Korea. We started our new jobs this week at our posts in the district of Seobu, which is located on the west side of Daegu very close to downtown. Me with my 5th/6th grade teacher, Nana at the IAAF World Championship This week I had an incredibly full schedule, teaching 2 days worth of 6th grade classes, 1 day of 5th grade classes, and 1 day of 3rd grade classes, along with all the immense amount of lesson planning that we have to squeeze into what's left of each day. Needless to say, by Friday I am exhausted. Sarah had a little bit slower start to her week but is also full force into teaching as well. We both have kept very busy in and out of the classroom at our schools. I have a feeling we will get the full effect of our jobs next week when we have our full schedule in play Monday through Friday. Time to go to war! Haha! Life in Daegu has been pretty good so far. The place we have found to be the most challenging is on the bus rides to and from school. They are very overcrowded and the older people that ride the bus are particularly grouchy and impatient, especially with us foreigners. We are gracious and understanding of them though. It just makes me think hard about how we treat foreigners in America. Sometimes we can be just as impatient, and many times much more so. The food has been great, our apartment is a wonderful and spacious place to come home to at the end of a long and hard-working day, and the city itself is alive and full of things to do. We have an incredibly HUGE park right down the street (which you'll see in our You Tube vlog sometime in the next week or so), and the IAAF World Championships (track and field competition) are being hosted in Daegu this year at the nearby stadium. In fact, my school took me to dinner last night and then treated me to a night at the stadium to watch some of the track and field events (high jump, triple jump, 400 meter hurdles, 1500 runs, javelin throwing, etc.). We even got to see several Americans take home gold (high jump and women's 400 meter dash. It was a fun and equally exhausting day! Outside of Daegu Stadium, host of the 2011 IAAF World Championship  One thing that struck me very impressively and humbled me was how supportive the people of South Korea are for all the nations competing in the events. Yes, they loved and rooted for the Americans, but they cheered equally as loud for Russia, England, the Ukraine, France, Jamaica, Kenya, China, Japan, and South Korea (who only had 1 single competitor in the entire weeklong championship)...and that's just to name a few. They take unbiased pride in the sport of world competition, and they play no favorites. It is something all of us can learn from, and it made me feel very good on the inside. No enemies, no favorites, no bitterness...just unreserved immense love and support. Very much a feel-good evening!  Men's 1500 meter distance finals at the IAAF World Championship This weekend we are hoping to hit up the center of downtown Daegu for the first time and maybe even catch a free KPOP concert (Sarah is grinning ear to ear at this very second...he he!)! Hopefully we'll have LOTS more to share after another exciting weekend in our new hometown!