A Dutchman in Korea

There's a lot of random stuff I want to tell you guys about, but I just can't find the time to properly type everything out.
We went mountain climbing today, but I'll definitely make another post about that since the pictures are glorious.

I wanted to tell you something about Korea and our work though.

One of the things I've noticed is that Lee SeungGi (I love him so much) is EVERYWHERE:

Another thing is that Chimaek (Chicken and Maekju) is FRICKIN' AWESOME.
Basically you just go to the Chicken place in the middle of the night and order chicken, fries and a lot of beer and..well..consume it.

I was also going to tell you about some of our students, but it's getting late so I will keep that for the next time.
Here's some pictures of our beautiful Wando-Eup that I took yesterday though:


[Our street]

[Our Church]

[The National Flag hanging out for today's holiday]

[Wando Tower in the background]

[The fish market, where you can pretty much get anything that's creepy and squishy]

[Welcome to beautiful Wando county!]

[One of the PC Bangs here in Wando where kids can go to waste their time and money on crappy online games. I'll go visit one somewhere this week :3]

[First, in unrelated but somewhat interesting news; what you heard about Korea's weather is true. Just a few days ago, it was 26 degrees during the day and 20 during the night, and now it's suddenly like 22 during the day and 14 during the night. Fall just slammed down on our little country.]

This saturday, we visited GaHui's parents in their home near Mokpo.
Mokpo is pretty near to Wando, but using public transportation it still took us two and a half hours to get there. We ended up arriving kind of late for some reason; we got there around 20:00.

As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by GaHui's mother, who had prepared a feast for us. Their dining table wasn't even large enough to hold all the delicious food she had cooked for us.
As we were eating, she'd come in every now and then with even more food, telling us to "Mani Mogoyo" (eat a lot). GaHui's dad, who we had met before when he dropped off GaHui's luggage a week ago, came in every now and then too to hone his English skills and to remind me we'd be drinking together this evening.
"You and me....soju...ONE SHOT!"
-Okay okay okay!
(There's this Korean way of saying okay which is just 'okay' three times really fast, so I took that over =p)






I purposely left some room in my stomach for the undoubtedly significant amount of soju I'd be consuming later that evening, even though it was quite hard to leave the great food alone. This was also the first time I'd eaten meat 'Korean style', by the way. Koreans usually don't eat their meat 'straight up', they wrap it into lettuce together with some pepper sauce and some vegetables. Just as I was telling GaHui about how I thought this was such a waste because it ruins the meats taste, I realized I'd never actually even tried it, and when I did it turned out to be pretty awesome, although of course some of the meats taste does get lost in the process.

GaHui's parents own a 'Screen Golf' business, which is like indoor golf on a big virtual course. So after dinner, we were invited to sit with her father (who, funnily, is called Hyung, which means 'big brother' in Korean and is what males use to address older males) who was playing golf with his friends.







As soon as I walked in, he had the bottle of soju ready, and I saw there were already about 6 empty bottles on the floor.
Describing soju is a bit hard, but a lot of people call it Korean vodka. It really doesn't taste much like vodka, but I guess it is the only close comparison one could make. Needless to say though, drinking a lot of it will get you drunk properly, and GaHui's dad definitely didn't look like he'd be stopping to pour my drinks any time soon.

It's a Korean custom to always pour each other's drinks. If anyone at the table is pouring their own drink, everyone else should be ashamed because they did not properly take care of him or her. GaHui's father was surprised that I knew about Korean drinking customs as I held my glass with both hands as he poured my drink, and held the bottle with both hands as I poured his, as a sign of respect.
I think I also left a good impression by the sheer amount of soju I could take, as he seemed to be very fond of getting me to 'won shottu' my drink and always looked very pleased as I slammed the glass down with a 'TSSSCHHJJAHHH'.






We showed GaHui's cousins my book about the Netherlands, and they were quite curious about the foreign people that were suddenly in their aunt's home. GaHui's father as well couldn't stop asking us questions in his awesome broken English, which ensured much hilarity with his hyungs who told him to just shut up and play golf already.





All in all the night in Mokpo was amazing. I felt so welcome there, and this was the first time I'd actually felt that famous Korean hospitality you hear so much about. They're not just shoving all kinds of food and drinks under your nose because it makes them feel good, they do it because they want you to feel good, because you are their honored guest.
So even though we only slept 4 hours that night because we had to be back on time for the Mass on sunday, and even though I was like a zombie after that for an entire day, this evening in Mokpo was definitely my best memory since I've arrived in Korea.





Gombae!

Just a quick random update because I have some time right now~

My brain is kind of dying at the moment since we worked a lot tonight and I had some makgeolli, but I wanna tell you about something that happened last night when I went to get some groceries after work.
I was kind of stressed from the day, so when I asked GaHui "Do you want anything from the store?" and she replied "Mmmm....maybe....beer and cookies?" I thought I was in heaven. Best answer ever.
On the way to the store though (Family Mart ftw!) I ran into some of my students in front of the Church. They were just hanging around bullying eachother (Korean kids get quite physical with eachother and they love running around and punching everyone, but they never get angry, it's kind of strange) so I stopped to have a talk with them. TEACHER RIESJAADU, TEACHER RIESJAADU, BOXING!! (When they say Boxing, basically they mean they want me to punch someone =p)

Then while we were running around, some middleschoolers (age 16+) came out of the Church and they were like "Oh! Sonsaengnim!" The middleschoolers had been quite interested in us for the past few days but because we didn't have any classes with them, we only saw them during lunch and we had to sit with the children, so they couldn't get to know us yet. So when they saw me outside I just got a barrage of questions.
"Hello! What is your name? Nice to meet you too!" They were just firing all the English they knew at me.
"Ohhh, you are from Nesserlansu? Guus Hiddink! Orangi!" When I showed them the few eurocents I still had left in my wallet they got so excited! It was cute to see grown guys being so childish over a few cents. "Ohhh Daebak! Daebak!"
They kept telling me how handsome I was, and how much they wanted to have a beard like mine. This was probably the first time anyone had ever told me I was 'handsome', lol. It felt a little weird because there were just these 5 guys staring at me and also the 10 kids who still hadn't left. Actually, one of the moksaengnims made them greet me in the formal way, like all five of them bowing deeply at the same time saying "ANNYEONGHASEYO RIESJAADU SONSAENGNIM!"

When I told them I had to go to the store, they were only too happy to accompany me, especially after I told them I was getting Maekju and Makgeolli.
In Korea, you can't drink until you're 20, and you can't smoke until..well..until you finish highschool. One of the guys was a smoker, so he proudly showed me his one cigarette that had been hidden somewhere in his pants for a day in a "OHYEAHHH I KNOW I'M BADDD" kind of way. So when I told him that in the Netherlands everyone can drink and smoke from 16 and up they literally fell to the floor (this is something really Korean to do, it's like overreacting to show your surprise). When I told them, they were like "Well..in that case...hyung...can you buy us some beer?"
They'd been pretty cool, so I thought 'Oh well, why not?'
They hid the beer under their shirt and thanked me like a thousand times.

So within my first week of living in Wando, I already helped minors break the law.
I wonder what the future holds.

This week's words: Uhn (I use this at least twice every minute); Oh! (Once every minute); DO YOU KNOW ___?
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Annyeong yorobun~!

Sorry it has taken a while for me to finally sit down and let you know what's going on in Korea.
We have been super busy the past week, and even right now it's actually already 23:30, so I'm going to keep this post a little on the short side. Mianhae.

Anyway, I will give you a giant-ass rant about my flight from Schiphol, Amsterdam to Incheon, Seoul on my regular blog (if it EVER comes back, what the hell?) but for now this will suffice:

36 hours instead of 12.
Yup.
I missed my flight because Frankfurt is retarded, so I had to SLEEP IN AN AIRPORT CHAIR to catch a flight 24 hours later ;_;

This on the left was my dinner. Seriously. Two awful buns and an overpriced beer. I have a picture of my 'accommodation' here somewhere, but it's on my phone and I don't have my transfer cable with me right now so you will get to see my agony later.
When I finally got to step in line for the Asiana flight to Seoul, I was so happy I didn't even mind all the ajummas cutting in front of me.


Okay, so, when I arrived, I had a giant jetlag (Korea is +7 hours from Holland) plus I hadn't slept much (I couldn't really sleep well in the plane, and the night before I slept in the airport) plus I hadn't showered in three days and was still wearing the same clothes I had on when I left home. And of course when I got to Incheon I didn't have even a second to collect myself because I was already late for the IWO Orientation.

Incheon Airport is actually supposed to be one of the most beautiful and awesome airports in the world (it's like in the top 5 of the official Best Airports list) but I could hardly see any of it since I had to catch the train to Seoul right away..
Also, LOOK AT THAT GREASY HAIR GODDAMN WHAT THE FUCK. This is why we shower, kids.


When I finally got to the IWO building in Seoul (it was not that hard to find, luckily) looking (and smelling) like a dirty bum, I met all the other volunteers. It was pretty weird to just drop in halfway through the ice breaking, so I was a bit worried, but it turned out everyone was super awesome and we had a great time even while listening to boring lectures about 'what kind of things to expect from volunteer work' and stuff like that.

We had a LOT of food together (Korean food is crazy; they eat a full meal 3 times a day and in between they eat lots of snacks), and obviously also a lot of alcohol since, you know, it's Korea!
You can't go to Korea and not have Soju and watery beer.
We kind of ended up having a bit too much of..well..all of it..but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The last night of Orientation, we decided we should go Noraebang (Karaoke) because it would be the last night with all of us together. Supposedly you've already seen some of the youtube videos, but in case you missed them, here's some highlights and pictures:

By then, the maekju and soju had already been flowing quite generously, but the night was still young!

So most of us went on to go to a bar and have some more Max and Cass beer and proceeded to get crazy-ass drunk.
Actually, the main reason I got crazy-ass drunk was because of Incheol's 'Daegu Stylu~'. Basically, you get a shot glass and fill half of it with soju and the rest with maekju, and then..well..you chug it. DAEGU STYLE, YEAH!

Incheol is my donsaeng (younger brother) so it was awesome when we were getting drunk together and he was like AHHH HYUNNGGG (older brother). It's surprising how much Koreans loosen up when they drink a little. They get very physical too, and it's pretty funny. Actually, with my students as well, it's very normal for donsaengs to hug and hold their hyungs or unnis (older sister), you just won't see a guy holding a girl very often.
This is a good example of what happens when you enjoy DAEGU STYLE a little too much:

By the time we left (which was WAY too late, because we had to get up early to leave for our projects the next morning) we were so drunk that we decided it would be good to just ask any random girls to take pictures with us on the street. And, surprisingly, there wasn't even one who said no.

Also, when we were bothering some staff at 'Paris Baguette', a very famous chain of bread and pastry stores, for some reason they gave us a free cake! Being white kicks ass!

The night was rather uncomfortable since I drank too much and my stomach was already bothered by getting used to Korean food, and I sleeptalked like crazy as well, but in the end we all survived to get on our ways to our projects all over Korea.

I thought my fellow volunteers would be guys since I couldn't participate in my first choice project because there was already a girl located there, but it turned out I was going to Wando with a French (Anne) and a Korean (GaHui) girl. Which could've been a nightmare, I guess, were it not for the fact that they were both pretty damn awesome.
The trip from Seoul (almost in the utter North of Korea) to Wando (almost the most Southern point) took more than 6 hours, but it was well spent getting to know the girls better and catching some well earned sleep.

When we arrived at Wando though, there were some unpleasant surprises.
First of all, it turned out IWO hadn't been completely honest when they said the Children Center was just funded by the church and not actually religious. Because it is. Like crazy fucking indoctrinating children religious.



That also meant I couldn't stay in the same apartment as the girls (they had told us we'd just live with 2 separate bedrooms) and I had to sleep in the Moksaengnim's (pastor's) apartment. Sounds pretty bad, right? Actually, it's kind of okay, to be honest. The pastor is from the Philippines and is also an English teacher, so he speaks English fluently and not living with girls means I don't have to worry about my snoring and going to the toilet :3
The Religiousness of the project does have some other consequences though. For instance, we're not really supposed to drink (although it's not like they will constantly check our fridges or anything) and we're forced to go to service on Sunday. Yesterday, we went to friggin' service from 9:00 to 15:00! Supposedly, we can dodge going to service every other weekend, but it's still quite tiring because the services are very long and very much in Korean so it's even more boring than a regular service.

Anyway, the apartments we're staying in are quite fancy. We have our own bathroom, kitchen, and washroom, air conditioning (but not in my bedroom, FFFFFFF) and they are very spacious, especially compared to some of the other..hallways..volunteers of other projects will have to sleep in.




The center itself is very modern and nice as well, just like the church. It's not some run-down backwater place like we expected; it's actually really fancy and well equipped.
The children are also much better at English than we expected. That's actually due to Johnny Moksaengnim, the Philippine English teacher, because he has already been teaching them for over a year. The kids are also so incredibly cute. Personally, I like the older ones that are good at English because teaching them is quite easy, but the young ones oh my God they are so incredibly cute I could die!
At the same time they are little devils though, don't get me wrong.
Some of the children are extremely shy, while others are very outgoing and wanting to know everything about us. Most of them keep thinking me and Anne are a couple for some reason -.-' While we were eating (lunch and dinner is provided by the center) some kids were behind us all like "OOOOHHHHH~ SARANGHAAAEEEEE~" It was funny at first, but it kinda got old fast -.-'

Teaching here is a lot harder than I wished it was, but that's mostly due to internal problems. Moksaengnim knows well how to teach the children, but the other Moksaengnim's wife, who runs the English program, has a very Hanglish way of teaching, which means BALLI BALLI BALLI (hurry hurry hurry) and who cares if it's done right. The Moksaengnim's wife actually only started to interfere with the lessons like 2 weeks ago, so Johnny is kind of venting his frustrations and we're caught in the middle. Especially GaHui, who can speak korean and english well, is kind of suffering from this because he hopes he can make her talk to the Moksaengnim's wife. I'm worried...



Anyway, the teaching is pretty crazy due to all of this. Kids keep walking in and out, they have to learn how to do everything in like 20 minutes (reading, writing, comprehending, pronouncing) and we don't even have time to think while we're doing 'conveyor belt teaching'.
Maybe it will get better the coming few weeks, but I have a distinct feeling we should just DEALWITHIT.jpg.
At least some of the children are already very good in English, so it's fun to talk to them.

Our island, Wando, is extremely beautiful.
When I read and heard about it, I thought it would be a tiny-ass little town, but it's actually quite big, and it has anything you could need but a stage for Kpop singers to perform on.
The nature is also absolutely stunning. Wando is an island with a lot of height differences, so wherever you go, there's always a lush green mountain in the background to greet you.









The people have also been very friendly so far. The island is mostly inhabited by really old and really young people, so there's no one to hit on, unfortunately, but everyone seems genuinely happy to have us here, and the children are very impressed when we talk some Korean to them.

The culture shock is quite minimal, I think, since I already knew so much about South Korea.
Sure, sometimes I forget to take off my shoes when I go inside, and maybe I can't eat all the food without drinking half a gallon of water, but overall I think I'm doing fairly well.
Anne has been in Korea for over a year, studying here, and GaHui is Korean, obviously, so I am a bit of the third wheel when it comes to Korean conversation, but GaHui is very kind and makes sure to translate all the important things for us. I do feel quite bad for her though, because since she's the only Korean in our group and she also speaks English well, she has to do a lot of work.



Now it's about 1:30 at night so I'm gonna wrap it up here.
Maybe I will elaborate on this post a bit and fix my grammar (in this one week my English has already gone from pretty awesome to explaining-stuff-to-Koreans level) tomorrow, but honestly I'm already glad I could even find the time to get this much on here.


Expect many more pictures and hopefully some good news regarding the teaching situation next week!

Groetjes uit Korea~







p.s.

Today I finially managed to stuff everything I wanted to take into..well..something.

I now have: one Carry-on that weighs 9.8kg (allowed weight: 10kg) that has clothes for about 4 days in it and some documents I will be needing plus my camera; one check-in suitcase weighing in at 19.9kg (allowed weight: 20kg) which has the rest of my clothes in it and another pair of shoes (praise goes to Ghislaine for providing this suitcase, because if it weren't for her I'd be stuck with my extremely awesome but also extremely heavy manly suitcase that wouldn't have been able to fit all this stuff in and still weigh under 20kg); one laptop bag housing a laptop, mouse, adapter, 2.5" external harddrive, most of my chargers and a Nintendo DS I hope no one will bitch about and one Amazon.com XL box that holds all the books I need for teaching (paper is fucking heavy so there was simply no way to bring it in my suitcase) plus some winter clothes, weighing 9.9kg (weight for the €58,30 class: 5-10kg. Anything over 10kg will make shipping cost €105).

So in the end I didn't have to leave anything behind, but it did take quite a lot of relocating, weighing, relocating again, taking out of packaging, etc. Hopefully I can leave a bunch of stuff behind when I leave (I'm definitely leaving the books for the kids, Sojung (the coordinator at IWO) told me they have their own little library, so it'd be cool to have my books in there so they can pick them up and look at the pretty pictures after I'm long gone) because I'm planning on buying a lot of useless shit when I have the chance (would you expect anything less of me?).

Anyway, I'm currently sitting here in front of my computer contemplating the time at which I'm going to bed. I should go to bed early so I can wake up early and get sleepy early tomorrow so I can sleep on the plane, but if I wake up early, what am I going to do until I leave?
Stress the fuck out, that's what.
But I guess I'll just watch some Family Outing and head off.

Next post will be from Korean soil!