Interesting things in day to day Korean life!

Ok all you blog fans, it is I, Gar... As we have had a bit of a quiet spell here in the Dags (that is my lovely short form for Daegu) other than work and the occasional trip downtown for the night, I felt maybe it was necessary to show you all a little bit about what everyday life here in Korea is like! Aside from the post Jay put up about the crazy shopping cart driving at Costco (and really, all driving for that matter) we have noticed a few more interesting/strange things about our existence day to day.

This whole idea stemmed from what is happening outside my house as I write... my neighbour is moving. It sounds regular enough, but of course there is a little bit of a Korean twist on the process. Due to the fact that we live in a high-rise (like pretty much every other person in Korea) moving can be a bit of a pain... 14 floors is a long way to move heavy things, especially when the elevator is the size of maybe a small bathroom. I mean you can fit maybe 7 people in the elevator, that is if you are feeling adventurous! (it does tend to feel like the cable might let go at any time even when you are the only one in it) So they have invented a way to move things down a long ladder type thingy that has a platform attached to it! I know that is not a very useful description so I decided that I would be "that crazy foreigner" who takes pics of people moving!

Ok so then once they have loaded up the little platform thingy it moves down the long ladder to a waiting truck! I am pretty much amazed by the ingenuity of this invention (even if Jay wasn't nearly as excited as I was!)

Seriously though, how cool is that? Just wanted everyone to get a chance to see what we see everyday here in Korea!

Our First Hike -- Janaury 21st 2008

We are now starting to form a daily and weekly routine that involves working five days a week at the same time everyday, grocery shopping, eating out, performing household tasks and now we have now added an outdoor activity, hiking. On Sunday, we decided that we would go for a hike up into the hills that are only about a ten minute walk from our house. We packed a backpack full of water bottles, some fruit and a couple of extra layers of clothing. As we walked up the hill there were paths to follow but the hill was fairly steep. In the most steep of these areas there was even a rope that acted as a banister to hold onto while you climbed your way up.
Along the way up there were a few things that we did not really expect to see. The first was a little creepy but interesting none the less. Since Koreans do not really have the tradition of burying the deceased in cemetaries, they seem to make use of some of the mountainous areas in our city. This is the reason that we saw grave stones of all shapes and sizes. The interesting thing to note about the burial process is that they do not seem to plant the dead bodies six feet under like the North American tradition because there are big humps right beside the grave stones. We are not even really sure that they technically bury them underground at all. It very well could be that they leave them at ground level and just pile dirt on top them and allow grass to grow on top of the hump.
Along with the burial places we also noticed that there must be many different hiking groups that have formed. They seem to advertise by posting flyers on random trees to let people know where they will be meeting, as well as what times and days they will be hiking as a group. They actually were hiking the same day as we were but unfortunately they were about six hours ahead of us and therefore we did not get the chance to meet the group. Maybe next Saturday night we can stay up late enough that we can actually just head to the hill to meet the hiking group before calling it a night.
The third and most interesting thing that we found on our hike was the outdoor gym equipment that we found along the paths. The first equipment that we came across was pretty basic, simply consisting of a rope tied to a tree, a couple of giant hoola hoops and a few clocks (some of which did not work). However the equipment defintely got more impressive. The second area intended for working out consisted of ab machines, a number of bench presses, some inverted benches for doing sit ups, hoola hoops, as well as free weights that could accomadate at least ten or twelve people at a time. The third area that we came across was not as big as the second but at least half the size and therefore very impressive.
We have come to the conclusion that Koreans are very much interested in physical fitness judging by the number of people that we saw hiking the same paths as us and the large number of people using the gym equipment. This is especially impressive considering the fact that it snowed for the first time since we have been here yesterday and up in the hills it actually accumulated on the ground!

Round-up on the first week!!! -- January 13th 2008

Well, we made it through the first week! We didn't die, we haven't gotten sick, we didn't even get hurt (knock on wood, of course). It has actually been a fantastic week! Gar started work (which she wrote about) and I (Jay) did a lot of exploring around the neighbourhood which was awesome. We also learned how to take a cab and the bus (to many different destinations), how to sort the garbage (I know it doesn't sound tough but it is a hell of a process here!), where to buy groceries and household items (I'll get into that soon) and most important of all we have learned to always be aware of where the motorbikes are.
As far as transportation is concerned, we are very impressed! The buses are extremely frequent, clean and cheap. The drivers do not speed and the buses are in great condition (unlike other countries we have visited, haha). We have a bus stop just outside of our apartment building and we can catch a ton of buses there to go to many different places. The funny thing about the bus however, is that if you don't pay the right amount, the driver does not seem to mind. At the begining of the week I asked my boss how much the bus cost to ride and he told me he does not ride the bus but he was pretty sure that it cost 1000 won (a little over a dollar) so when we went to get on the bus we put 1000 won in the box where the money goes and the bus driver never said anything so we assumed that we had paid the right amount. We have done the same thing all week and it wasn't until today when we were sitting near the front of the bus that we noticed someone else put 1100 won in the box. We felt bad about the mishap and we will now be paying the full amount to ride the bus everytime, however it is nice to know that if we are for some reason short then it's not a big deal.
Cabs so far in Daegu have been amazing! The cab drivers speak varied amount of English ranging from absolutely none to a couple of words, to phrases and expressions. No matter how much English they speak however, they have all been very polite and helpful. Since we don't know how to say our address in Korean, we carry around a laminted piece of paper with our address on it and just give it to the cab driver when we want to go home. It feels a bit strange but we don't really have much choice in the matter at this point. The cost of a taxi ride is also very reasonable. It costs us no more than 7000-8000 won (~$7.50-$8.75) to get downtown which is about 20 minutes away.
One of the places that we have taken the cabs and buses to is E-Mart. This is now my favourite store in the world! This store is very similar to a Wal-mart Superstore. You can buy everything from kitchen items to appliances to clothing, to gorceries, liquor and beer and even treadmills and other sporting goods. It is 3 levels high and must be 5 million square feet (thats an educated guess, haha). This is where we have gotten most of the things that the apartment lacked when we got here to make it feel more like our home. We have also gotten a ton of Western food at E-Mart at very reasonable price. Another place that we have done quite a bit of shopping is the Dong A Department store. This is a very high end department store that also happens to have a grocery store in two underground levels. This store is very convenient as it is right at the end of our street. Today we took the bus to Costco. We have our membership card from Canada and it also works here. When we walked in, it was absolute madness. If anyone ever wants entertainment, the best form can be found at Costco in Daegu, South Korea on a Sunday afternoon. The place was just absoultely packed with people. Koreans, although very nice seem to always be in a hurry and whether they are driving a car or if they are pushing a shoping cart they are going to get where they are going and there isn't anything that anyone can do to stop them. If you stop to look at something in a aisle they will bump you with their cart. This happened to us a number of times today as we were in no hurry at all. On one such occasion the guy bumped me with his cart and not five seconds later he SMASHED into a lady's cart in front of us. It was pricelsss and we couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Living in Korea can also be a lot of work sometimes. Because there are so many people (just a hair under 50 million) in such a small place (99 617 square kms) they are extremely careful about how they dispose of waste and organize garbage and of course recycle. When we bring garbage down to the waste area at the front of the building there are about 5 or 6 different sections to divide the garbage into. Therefore we now make sure to keep everything divided in the apartment so that it only takes us a few minutes to sort things out once we get downstairs as opposed to the nearly 2o minutes it took us the first time we brought garbage down (lesson learned).
One of the other things that still puzzles us about this country is the traffic laws. Because we live in a major city the main streets are all at least 5 or 6 lanes wide and there are a ton of strange intersetions. This makes it very difficult to try and figure out which traffic light pertains to people driving in each direction. Also there seems to be a lot of advance lights for people driving in each direcrtion but it is almost as if it is completely random and the lights never turn the same way twice. The other really funny thing is that there is obviously not even close to enough parking in any secton of the city because people park in the most ridiculous places. As you can see in these pictures, some park on the sidewalk while others double and triple park people in and it is never out of the question to see someone parked just randomly in the middle of a street. It is safe to say that we will never drive a car here. However, that does not ensure our complete safety. There are many motorbikes and moped type bikes here and some of them drive on the road but do not seem to obey the traffic lights or speed limits what so ever. While others drive on the sidewalk, which seems dangerous to begin with but add to this the fact that they are not very loud so if you are walking down the street listening to your ipod or even just generally not paying attention then you might not even realize that one is sneaking up behind you and they can just whiz by going 90 miles an hour. The lesson here is to be alert at ALL times.
Everyday we learn something new, and I think (and hope) that this will continue to be the case. Week one was a great success and hopefully that will continue!

Starting school!!!

So this week I (Gar) began teaching my English classes... so far it has been a very exciting (but tiring) experience. I came into work on Monday at 11:30am expecting to teach at 1:30 and get some sort of training (or at least a run down of how things worked at the school) before that but I was mistaken! I actually had a class at 12:30 so we would have to do the abbreviated tour. Jesse (my head teacher's English name) showed me my new digs... classroom 605. It is definitely bare bones but I am allowed to decorate any way I please. I have a whiteboard, 2 maps of the world, 7 desks and a teachers desk as well as every ESL book you could possibly think of! That sounds like a good thing however it just means that I have basically a different book for every class! It's a little hectic but I am figuring it out....
So then I was handed my attendance sheets and on them was a list of the students names, the books I needed for the classes and the times the classes started and finished at. This was pretty much the end of my preparation. Jesse was extremely helpful in that he sat in the first 3 of my classes and helped me introduce myself to the younger kids (because they do not speak much English) and then he went back up to his office! Pretty much I was just thrown to the wolves (so to speak). Luckily my kids were all very nice and helpful... some of them are extremely shy in terms of speaking English but I can already see a difference between the way they act around me today (Wed) and our first meeting.
So far the whole experience has had a very steep learning curve but I am figuring out things as I go and any questions/concerns I have are very quickly answered by Jesse!

The Journey to the Other side of the world -- January 6 2008

On Friday Janaury 4th we finally began our journey. We left the house in Barrie at about 2 am and after a couple quick stops (including our last Timmy Ho's visit for who knows how long) we were on our way to Pearson airport. We checked in as soon as we possibly could and then said goodbye to the wonderful people that came to see us off. To these people (Mama Jude, Papa Tom, Grandmas Males and Scull and Sumo-G) we thank you very much! After we said our goodbyes we headed towards the customs booths. We got through with no problems and then went towards the area where we waited for the shuttle that would take us to the plane. This plane took us to JFK Airport in the Big Apple, New York City. The plane ride was about an hour long and was smooth sailing. When we got to JFK we ran into a girl named Miriam who was also on her way to Daegu and also got her job through Shane (our recruiter). She was extremely nice and for the rest of the trip we basically went with the three's company theory of three heads are better than two (or one in Miriam's case). We took it easy inside JFK for a while grabbed a little McDonald's breakfast (Yea, thats right Margaret ate McDonald's) and then headed through security once again and onto our plane. This time the plane ride would be much longer. We were taking off at 12:40 pm and we were to land in Daegu at 8:15 pm Saturday local Korean time. This is where things were going to get interesting. A 14 hour and 40 minute flight was going to be extremely difficult. When we got on the plane we were pleased to see that each seat had its own individual screen and that there were T.V. shows, movies games, and flight information available to everyone at the touch of the screen. Although we all took advantage of this service we also decided it would be good to sleep as much as possible so that the time would pass quickly. We also received two meals on this leg of the trip.
By the time the plane landed it felt like we had been on there for days. Needless to say our plan for the time to pass quickly did not work out as well as we would have liked. But after nearly 15 hours and very little movement we were finally in Seoul, Korea. This meant it was only one more plane ride until we were in Daegu. We got through immigration extremely easily without even speaking a word and then headed down an escalator toward the baggage conveyor belt. The allowance for us as far as luggage was concerned was two bags each. We spotted and grabbed five of our six bags extremely easily and somehow we could not find the last one. At this point we were extremely worried that someone had either mistaken Jay's bag for their own and taken it or that in some freak luggage accident one bag had made a wrong turn somewhere along the way. After getting directions to the lost and found, miraculously the last bag dropped onto the conveyor belt and we all breathed a sigh of relief. After we grabbed the last bag we headed toward our last stop at security, dropped off our bags and headed towards the waiting area for our last flight. Shortly after arriving we boarded the plane headed for Daegu and in what seemed like an instant we arrived in our new city. We left the plane, got our bags and this is when we parted ways with our new travelling buddy, Miriam. We did however get her phone number so we will meet up with her when we are all settled.
Jesse, the Head Teacher at Margaret's school picked us up at the airport. He was extremely nice and his english was top notch considering that he has lived in Korea for pretty much his whole life (oddly, he did mention that he was in Toronto for a very short period of time years ago). He took us to our new apartment, helped us bring our bags upstairs and then took us for a drive to see where Margaret's school was located. After that he brought us home and ran out to grab us some groceries. About 10 minutes later he came back with a litre sized bottle of water, 4 cans of beer, a litre of coke, some cookies and ice cream. He also gave us 70 000 won (about $75) to get us started on whatever we would need for the apartment. After he left we decided we would like something a little bit more substantial as far as food went so we walked down the street and got a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Bingo for 6000 won (about $7). It was large enough to feed us both and we had left overs. We also got about a dozen oranges for 3000 won (about $3.50) which we decided we needed for breakfast. After we came home and ate the pizza, we made up our bed and quickly fell asleep.
We awoke bright and early in the morning, very excited to set up (and clean) our apartment and explore our new surroundings. By 9 am we had unpacked our suitcases, moved some furniture around, eaten an orange and the leftover pizza, showered and made a list of things to try and find on our venture in town. When we left the apartment our first task was to time how long it would take to get to Margaret's school so she could walk there on her first work day. That went very well except for the dilly-dallying that we did on the way there due to the fact that everything seemed so amazing to us that we had to stop and check it all out. When we arrived at Margaret's school we decided that we would head back in the direction of the apartment as we knew that there were some stops we could make on the way to accomplish some goals we had set for ourselves.
Our first stop ended up being at an internet cafe. We went inside, made some hand getures that seemed to get our point across and ended up using computers for what seemed like it must have been a half hour or so, sent some facebooke messages, talked on msn and wished our good friend Downtown a happy birthday. When we went to leave we discovered that we had only used 1400 Won ($1.50 at the most) worth of computer time between the two of us which meant to us that internet cafes were cheap. After that we continued on to Dunkin Donuts and got a cup of coffee (which was much more expensive then the internet usage) and then headed to the department store. We entered in the front doors and saw brand names like Burberry, Chanel, and such everywhere and knew that this was not going to be somewhere that we were going to find ourselves very often. However, the two underground floors of the department store were where the grocery items were located. It took us a good hour or an hour and a half but we managed to check out pretty much the whole thing and got most of the items that we decided we needed (minus pillows [our apartment only has one], an iron, and a laundry basket). We felt that we had done pretty well and were especially pleased with the cleaning supplies that we had found. After this we headed home, put some tunes on and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom.
In the middle of the cleaning frenzy I decided it was about time that I called my director and let him know that I had arrived safe and sound. I did this and he told me that he wanted to see us later and that he would call our apartment when he was in the area. Just as we finished our cleaning and were sitting down to have some lunch (yogurt and an orange), the phone rang and it was Mr. Kim (my director). He asked us to meet him at Margaret's school as this was pretty much the only thing we had land marked thus far. We headed out immediately and met him at the location agreed upon. We got in the car with him, did some introductions and then we showed him where our apartment was located. He then took us for a drive and we went and saw where my school was located. We also got to see much more of the city then we had been exposed to up until this point. He then offered to take us for a little tour. We saw where the subway stations were, he pointed out some major landmarks and then we decided to go downtown. When we got there it was everything we expected, a million stores and jam packed full with people walking in every direction. Mr. Kim then stopped suddenly and said that he would be right back. He went into a cell phone store, spoke to one of the sales people and then came back and asked us if we would like to arrnge to get a phone. We graciously accepted his kind offer andwent with him inside. We checked out the phone he had offered to arrnage for us, which as a slider video phone (SWEET!). The phone was free as long as we agreed to use it for six months (also SWEET!). The plan was pretty basic, 200 minutes for 30 000 Won (about $35) per month and text messaging cost is 20 won per message (about 2 cents) and since Mr. Kim was arranging everything for us he said he would just take the bills off of my pay. After we were done getting out phones we took a cab home for the first time which meant we got to see even more of the city which was amazing!
When we got home we wanted to make some dinner with the groceries we had bought but unfortunately we couldn't figure out how to work our stove so we went out and got KFC (yea, thats right Margaret ate KFC) and then called it a day. All in all a pretty successful first 24 hours in Daegu!!!

We have Visas and and flights!! -- Janaury 2nd 2008

Well, the pieces have fallen into place. We were able to check our visa status online and found out late this morning that our visas were in fact ready for us to pick up. So, this afternoon that is exactly what we did. As soon as we discovered that our visas were ready we called Shane (our recruiter) and he looked into flights for us. We then made our final trip down to Toronto and visted the good ol' Korean Consulate on Avenue Road. It was by far the easiest time we have had there in our experience with the visa process. We simply walked in, showed I.D., and they gave us our passports that contained our work visas. We then drove back to Barrie and waited to hear from Shane about our flights. Around 8:30 pm we heard from Shane and found out that we will be leaving early in the morning on Friday January 4th. So that is going to be the start date for Jay and Gar's Excellent Adventure --Korean Style!!! Stay tuned, enjoy and live vicariously through us as we teach, learn, travel and explore!!! We hope that you enjoy!!!