Anything but sleeping: Weekends with the Canadians and Brits

Tommy’s family and friends are fantastic, but as if they were not enough, Tommy took the liberty of approaching a foreigner at random so that I might have friends upon my arrival. Two weeks before I came to Jeju, Tommy met Jess at Home Plus (a Korean version of Super Target) and asked if she and her friends would like to go out for dinner. Thus my first foreign friends were made for me (and he couldn’t have picked a more lovely bunch.)

One evening we all met for coffee at the Paris Baguette. Coffee turned into dinner, and after eating I was invited back to the Metro building where many teachers live. Before meeting Jess and her friends I had only seen one white fellow on the island and he zoomed by me on his scooter without any sort of response to my smile and wave - perhaps he is from the East Coast. While it was fun having only Korean friends, I admit it was a relief to meet some fellow teachers and have some great English conversation.

As luck would have it, these friends live only a block away. It is great having so many friends who live so close; yet, I feel fortunate to be the only foreigner in my building.

Weekends are hardly a time for resting. Hanging out with the Canadians and Brits means finding any and all excuses for not going to sleep. For the most part, they have abandoned the Korean tradition of eating throughout a night of drinking, but somehow we manage to power through to Nori bang (kareokee) at 3 o’clock in the morning. I was shy about singing at first, but nothing feels better than a group of friends dancing around a microphone singing “Africa” by Toto.

Typically the lack of sleep comes at from both directions as Saturdays and Sundays have so much to offer. Last Friday Joey and I only got 2 hours of sleep, because we found out about a disc golf tournament that was being hosted on the other side of the island. We boarded the bus at 7:00 and 2 hours (and 3 or 4 incorrect destinations) later, we got to Jeju National University. I didn’t know that disc golf existed on Jeju, and we were both excited to find that ₩20,000 got us a delicious lunch and a day full of one of our favorite pastimes. We played in the amateur devision and I met some really fine folks from the mid-west and Montana. After fish soup, Joey and I played in the finals and ended up taking 3rd and 2nd places respectively. I’m rather accustomed to the relaxed style of the game back in Kansas, and was surprised when the event culminated in a rather elaborate awards ceremony (complete with fantastic prizes). A quick note about Joey: He is the 3rd foreigner I met on the island, and we’ve quickly realized our shared affinities for the outdoors and eating massive quantities of Korean food. He calls Wisconsin home, and I can’t express how wonderful it is to have a fellow mid-westerner around.

Visiting Jungmon beach is another popular way to avoid catching up on sleep. In addition to its stunning beauty, Jungmon is a great place for volleyball, windsurfing, swimming, and surfing. My leg still had a bit of healing when I first visited Jungmon, so I wasn’t able to swim, but I managed to hop around enough to play some vball. Also, Joey and I walked across a field of large lava rocks at the base of a cliff and he showed me an old beach and a waterfall that are a bit off the beaten path.

It is great to unwind and relax with the English and Canadians of Jeju during the weekends. Contrary to life back home, Mondays here are great, because they signal the beginning of the work week (because of a difference in teaching schedules, work days provide me with mornings full of solo explorations and quality Weston time).

My first day of class

Today was my first day of teaching. My first group of children are working with books which deal with simple sentences containing words that are difficult to pronounce. Many of the students have a great vocabulary and can differentiate between each component of a sentence. As I listened to a child read, I would periodically stop them and ask them to point to a word as it was represented in the picture. They were excellent at this and know the meanings of some complicated words. It seems that my job will be to help them with pronunciation and with their ability to form complete sentences.

To start working on this we played the name game. I've met so many people so far, I can hardly keep track, especially because Korean names are difficult for me to remember & throughout the school day there are so many new faces.

I asked questions such as: what is your name in Korean? and What would you like for your English name to be? Then we talked about birthdays and I asked what they would each like to learn to talk about in English. I finished by asking what American food they want to make with me in class next Tuesday. For each question I would ask them to write down their answer in a complete sentence and then take turns saying it out loud. Many were great at all of this while others drew pictures or tried providing one word answers. With a little help finding words or with spelling, almost everyone did a terrific job.

The children are adorable and while many of them are shy, a little one-on-one work opens them up to discussing things.

Mom, you would not envy me for my afternoon class. All of them are boys with the exception of one girl who is my most shy student ( poor girl! ). This class includes Chan-Yeup , whom you will soon hear a lot about, and his peers. When I walked in today they were trying to play indoor soccer in my classroom and it took awhile to calm them down! (I'm going to implement your countdown-to-quite stragegy tommorrow.)

Tommy wanted me to ask about their dream jobs. If my memory serves me correctly I have one baseball player, 4 soccer players, 1 doctor ( Chan-Yeup), 1 dentist, and 2 chefs.

Emperor, the leader of the group, told me good-bye followed by, "I love you teacher!"

I love my new job.

My first weekend on Jeju Island

When I arrived in Jeju, Jimmy, of JejuESL greeted me and away we went across the island to Seogwipo. This was a perfect introduction, because it gave me a chance to see the main city (Jeju City) and the volcano (Mt. Halla) and Jimmy's limited English gave me a preview of what it would be like to communicate with new acquaintances.

I really had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Seogwipo. I had ₩ 100,000, equivalent to $85, in my pocket and a lot of luggage. I had prepared myself for anything (with a little of me holding on to the doubt that the English academy in which I was to teach actually existed at all. ) I knew that Seogwipo had relatively few native English speakers & had read that, while Koreans are friendly and warm, it might be difficult making Korean friends in the true sense of the word - I would soon find the exact opposite to be true.

We arrived at Tommy's English Academy and Tommy was waiting to meet me with grin on his face to match my own. I soon learned that Tommy, who was born in Jeju, spent time living in Minnesota and went to college in the cities. He showed me around the school and introduced me to the children who were there. Invariably these introductions consisted of me saying "Hello, my name is Weston. It is nice to meet you." In response I received wide eyes and utter silence.

After our initial hello, Tommy told me that, though he is my boss, he my friend first. I then met his sister in law and the three of us headed over to the apartment they had picked out for me. My room is better than I hoped for. I love it and best of all I have access to the roof which provides me with an excellent view of Seogwipo and beyond (including Mt. Halla and the ocean.) We left my luggage and headed back to the school to meet the older group of students.

They have all adopted english names in addition to their Korean ones. Friday's class was over by the time we got back so we ordered chicken and pizza and I watched the boys play soccer at the elementary school across the road. Jieun, Tommy's sister in-law took me back to my apartment saying that she would be back in the morning to take me to the store. During the last 36 hours I had only slept for seven, but I needed water so I made my way to King Mart. After I picked out some basic necessities it took me about 5 minutes to make my transaction, because I couldn't see the price on the screen and girl behind the counter didn't seem to speak English or Korean, but only giggled.

I woke up at 5:00 the next morning ( everyday it is 5:00 on the dot ) and I walked up the remaining 5 flights of stairs to the roof to watch the sun rise. Jieun and her son Chan-Yeup picked me up and we went to have my first traditional Korean meal. The table was full of things I had never seen and the owner was trying to tell me what everything was (in Korean). Each time I tried something new Chan-Yeup would look at me and enthusiastically ask, "is it delicious!??." Each time we neared the bottom of a bowl, a new, exciting dish was brought to the table - damn I love Korean food.

Jieun bought me some things at the store and then we went to her home were she gave me some of her things. (The generosity of this women is never-ending.) Chan-Yeup and I spent part of the afternoon playing with magnetic building blocks and then it was time for my first trip to the sea. We picked up snacks at a street stall and walked down a trail through trees I've never seen in my life. Each time I glimpsed the cliffs through the trees I would try to stop, but Jieun would grab my arm and pull me right along. We came to a clearing at the edge of a cliff just as the sun was setting. The cliffs were gorgeous and in the night you could see the lights of fishing boats in every direction.

Though I was thrilled to have made Korean friends I told Jieun that I was very tired. Whether she had understood or not, we went and picked up more children and met Tommy's sister at a restaurant - I wouldn't make it home for another 3 hours, but dinner was incredible and it was great getting to know Chan-yeup's peers.

When I woke up at five on Sunday, I knew I wasn't getting any more sleep so after the sunrise I ventured down to the market. The market is about a five minute walk from my apartment. It occupies around 6 city blocks and is full of everything I can imagine and some things I can't. I collected supplies for breakfast and made my way home. Breakfast was interesting... What I thought to be tomatoes turned out to be parcimon (sp?); a delicious fruit on its own that was never destined for an omelet.

Jieun and Chan-Yeup came upstairs, and as I insisted that I could get settled in myself, Jieun tried to unpack my things for me and clean my apartment (this has become an ongoing battle as she doesn't seem to think that I can do my own dishes or laundry.)

We picked up Kim - Bap and got in the car to go to the Jeju folk village to learn about the local, native culture. As I was looking out the window thinking about the food we had just ordered, Chan-Yeup pulled my seat back and had laid out all of the food in the back seat. In between bites, he would yell something as he shuttled food via chopsticks up to his mother.

The Jeju folk village was fascinating, but this is getting really long...

Sunday night Tommy took me out to meet his two brother laws. We dropped off the kids - the first sign that this was to be a night which would involve drinking. Jieun's husband was very quite for a while, but eventually smiled and told Tommy that I seem very kind and he is excited to have me here. As we ate squid and drank Malaki (rice wine?) and Soju (the national drink of Korea which tastes like vodka and packs half the punch) I learned that Tommy's other brother in-law is a fourth degree black belt and a Tae Kwon Do instructor. Tommy stopped me mid-bite and said that I shouldn't stuff myself, because this wouldn't be the only place we went to eat. He further explained that, because of my jet-lag, we were taking it easy, but eventually we would go to five or six different places and might stay out until four or five drinking and eating.... We had started at seven - holy hell.

At the next restaurant, Tommy's brother in-law told me that while I'm in Korea I am to be his son adding that I should call him "Papa." He said life is all about adventuring, exploring, and experiencing and he wants to help me do these things while I'm around. His son is about my age and teaches Tae Kwon Do as well. I'm to be good friends with him and practice Tae Kwon Do on the weekends.

I'm so fortunate to have Tommy. He has already introduced me to his family, someone who can be my dentist, and on monday we took a break from class and had orange juice in the home of a Jeju State Representative... He also seems bent on being my matchmaker, and while I've tried explaining that I'm quite happy being single, he evidently introduced himself to a girl named Jess at the supermarket and took her friends to a nice restaurant so that I will would have Canadian friends.

Friday morning I found myself on another continent for the first time and didn't know a soul. By Sunday night I felt incredibly blessed to have made friends in the truest sense of the word.

My first overseas flight

My flights to Jeju brought me through Chicago, Seoul, and Busan. As I waited for each flight the ratio of Korean people to white people quickly changed, and while this was to be expected, I thought it would make me more uneasy than it did.

Asiana Airlines is incredible - I've never had a more joyful flight, and my 14 hour journey from Chicago to Seoul ended up being quite a fun experience. As we boarded the plane I felt that I was momentarily teleported to Disney World as stewardesses seemed to be everywhere, happy music rang from the speakers, and everyone around me was smiling. I found my seat (which fortunately for my broken leg was an aisle seat!) and after we were in the air the activities began - while it was nearly two in the morning, apparently this was hardly appeared and, with a bow and a smile, handed out hot towels. As soon as I had finished with it they were back through the cabin collecting the used towels and handing out a package with slippers (which didn't fit), toothbrushes, and sleeping masks. Some people took this as their cue to sleep, but they had forgotten about the " heavy snack ". An enthusiastic gentleman asked me if I would like " Western style beef steak " or Bi bim bap, I choose the latter and thus had my first Korean meal. They served red wine with the meal and I woke up 9 hours later... The person sitting in seat 18-G was having a birthday and so out came the 13 stewardesses (all in costume) to wish the young lady a happy birthday with champagne.

Twelve hours had passed before any of my fellow passengers said hello. The adorable six year old in the group of seats next to mine had stood up from her seat. Standing beside me she smiled and loudly said, "goodbye!". Several people who I had made eye contact with, including her parents, began to talk to me and they were all thrilled to hear that I would be teaching.

Once we had arrived in Seoul, I made my way through customs and withdrew Korean Won for the first time. I then went to Dunkin Donuts in order to combat the fierce jet lag and started my long journey through the airport to the domestic departure gates. This turned out to be much more difficult than I had expected, and with my bum leg I hobbled about for about an hour and a half as I pushed my luggage to the correct Asiana check-in counter.

As I was waiting for my flight to Busan I met Chris. He was the first American I had seen in a day and he was en-route to Busan to teach English. We took turns asking the same questions each of us has been asked for the last couple of months, and he seemed very excited to know somebody in Jeju who he could use to couch surf ( I think I will make a lot of friends this way ). We flew over mainland Korea... wow! But the beauty from high above didn't prepare me for our landing in Busan; a coastal city built at the foothills of gorgeous mountains. And then it was off to Jeju!!!

Landing in Jeju gave me visual proof that I would be living on an island for a year, however, two weeks later, this hasn’t really sunk in.