My Firsts of Korea

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Where am I located?
Right BELOW Suwon, so 30 minute bus from Seoul. Hwaseong-Dongtan is a new city which features one of the highest residential buildings in all of South Korea: Metapolis. It's clean, quiet and so in other words, perfect for Marilyn.



Sat Feb 27/10

After 11 sweet hours of sleep, I woke up to the sound of a man's voice on a speaker.

Korea Tidbit #2: There is a truck that drives around that makes announcements selling various things. It's like an ice cream truck, but instead of a cute jingle, you hear an annoying Koean man on a speaker shouting things out repeatedly.

This is where I live. I had to take a picture of it so that I could find it later on. I went shopping by myself, bought groceries and toiletries and explored the area.

Kim's Mart is my #1 stop for groceries. By now, I've tried all of these cereals. I just stick to Special K.

Korean snacks are my vices, but I much prefer Chinese snacks. Somehow Kimchi flavoured everything is not so appealing.

My first view of Central Park. Not so pretty in February, but quite beautiful and bustling in the summertime.

A view of the four Metapolis buildings from the main road

CCTV's (or surveillance cameras) are everywhere and they are watching you

Having lunch at the only place I knew with an English menu and pictures. Not knowing a lick of Korean sucked really hard in the beginning.

I didn't have internet at my place but Skype somehow worked, so I talked to my parents. I began settling in to my place. In the evening, I had mondu at Myungin Mondu with Mike Gotsch. We went to WaBar and met up with Mike Porzio & Sarah, Quinn and Nicole and Blake (all of whom are now gone.) We then went bowling where Sarah was chugging vodka from a travel mug. I sucked terribly and it turned me off bowling for a while until Stephanie dragged me back in and I realized I'm not as terrible as I thought.


Sun Feb 28/10

I woke up early to find a church and passed through Central Park, wondering if anyone else lived in this ghost city.

I found this church and during the service, I found myself crying. No one spoke English so I eventually left to go to work and headed to find Chungdahm.

I passed through this pagoda in Central Park to head in the general direction of work, not knowing where the heck I was going. I went to a PC bang to get the address and a girl pointed me in the opposite direction of where I should be going.

Korea Tidbit #3: PC Bang (Korean for "room") is like an internet cafe, except people usually come to play computer games against each other for a small price. It's about $1 for an hour

After wandering for a while and asking various people for contradicting directions to where this place was, I finally decided to call my boss Jason and ask using Porzio's phone. I didn't really know Jason and was somewhat intimidated by his initial demeanor so I didn't want to bother him unless I absolutely had to.

The whole day was me being trained by Rayna, and printing out materials for our first week along with the other new teachers, Dan and Ken.

For dinner, Jason took us all out to eat dak galbi

Korea Tidbit #4: Dak Galbi is one big stir-fry of chicken, Korean red pepper paste, cabbage and dok (rice cake) among other things. It is famous in the city of Chuncheon

Adding cheese in the end to make one amalgamation of deliciousness. When there is a little chicken left, you add rice with kim (seaweed) to mix in afterwards

My first classroom. Oh, memories.

We were at school all day because me and the other new teachers were super confused when 100 new things were being thrown on us (training didn't do a great job in preparing us for anything). They took us to E-Mart which is a 3 story department store in the same vein as Wal-Mart, but not as cheap. I ended up getting home at 10PM, went to bed and woke up at 6AM to prepare prepare prepare. I remember practicing my lessons in front of a mirror.


Mon Mar 1/10

It was raining in the morning, I ran out to buy some disgusting milk and cereal. I met up with Dan and Ken and they helped me buy this bicycle:

My first bike of Korea... STOLEN FROM ME!

We got pizza together. At school, I was super nervous and I practiced to an empty classroom. My first day went okay: I had two Memory Tera classes, one for elementary and one for middle school. The first one was noisy, the students complained a lot but there was good participation. My head started bleeding in the middle of it and I remember a kid yelling out, "Teacher! Bleeding!" The second class was hell. No one participated, no one answered questions and no one opened up.

Information about Chungdahm.
These are the different classes we offer.
  • EC1-EC4 - beginner English for the young'ns
  • Memory (3 levels: Mega, Giga, Tera) - we read a story and answer questions about it, then they learn how to summarize the information
  • Bridge - the "middle ground" between the lower levels and higher levels. teaches them test taking skills they will need for later on
  • Interactive Learning: Reading/Listening (levels: Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albatross, Alba+) - reading classes teach reading skills, listening class teach listening skills :) As the levels go up, the material gets more and more difficult. Usually, Eagle students and up are proficient in the English language and sometimes consist of students who studied abroad
  • IBT1, IBT2 - TOEFL skills class
  • Masters - the highest level. like a real highschool English course, teaching about literature, writing essays, analysis of themes, etc.

After first day of classes, Dan, Ken and I ate at Myungin Mondu.

Pictured from left to right: Laboki (combination of dokboki + ramen), mondu and kimbap. Afterwards, we went to Dan's place to chill for a bit.


Dongtan... home away from home.

The mini grocery mart outside my house burned down, I spent some time just watching everything unfold.

Dunkin Donuts is pretty popular around Korea, but in no way do they live up to Tim Hortons

Mr. Big is a delicious burger joint in our "village." Their meat is imported

A night out with Dan and Ken, eating this delicious chicken at a bar.

Trying raw tuna for the first time.

Skyping with Mercedes.

pt 2 - training HELL

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commencing the training week OF HELL...


the sad thing was, we all knew how tough it would be: we had an insider - audrey - who just finished her training the week before.


feb 22/10

it started off with the medical exam. standard stuff: blood test, eye exam, breast exam, took blood and urine sample. afterwards, all the trainees grouped up and collectively took the subway to our training area and broke up to find a place to eat

ddokboki in soup, don't know what it's called, don't want to know. this was bland and disgusting

at least i had good company

our teams for the introduction meeting with maria kwak. 18 people x 6 groups = 108 fellow trainees. we did the quiz that we all studied so darn hard for and i ended up passing grammar without a hitch but failed the reading portion! that quiz was NOT easy


feb 23

this is when the real training began. i was so unlucky to get two 3 hr training sessions, one first thing in the morning and last thing at night. i was under a lot of anxiety and had lack of food and sleep. in the morning, there was training for Par Reading. the training taught me nothing and only left me more confused. i didn't know what the hell i was doing or whether or not i was doing it right. we had to mock and i was pissing my pants in fear, i totally botched it up and made myself look like a fool

oh wells, lunch time!

i had kimchi fried rice

we found this quaint cafe that i fell in love with, and it turned into our daily hang out spot where we made our practice lessons before our next nightly training sesion

these cupcakes were so bomb

Listening Par training was more interesting. my trainer Eugene had this laid-back, Californian attitude. he was a cool guy but he did not make training any more easier. again, i had no idea what we were supposed to do. we took a 40 minute subway back to the hotel and i stayed up all night with no sleep or dinner prepping my lesson plans that we had to mock the next day. it's a tad difficult when you have to mock your own bullshit


feb 24

my tweets @ the time:
wtf why is teaching so hard...... harder than any business class i ever took

WORSE LIFE EVER. HELL WEEK HELL!!!! NO SLEEP FOOD OR LIFE. only WORK!!! DEATHH kill me

reading mock i effed up, and listening mock i EPICALLY effed up. i messed up so bad that my trainer had to stop me mid mock and question what the HECK i was doing. then he proceeded to give a long rant to everybody about how we should thoroughly prepare... but I DID! i just had no clue what i was doing and just when i thought i was getting it, i wasn't.

you see, guys. at Chungdahm, we don't teach English. we teach test-taking skills IN English. we learn transition words, patterns of organization, verbal cues, context clues, annotating main ideas and major details of a passage... of course, i know and understand all of these NOW. in training, they throw these terms at you with lack of explanation and clarity and expect you to understand what the heck they want from you. so you can see where things got super confusing... and the lack of food and sleep didn't help my situation either.

oh wells, lunch time! some jigae (soup) and mondu (dumpings)

me, Karla, Omari and Mike roaming the training centre area

another day of prepping. these guys are so lucky they have memory


feb 25

this day started off rough. my reading mock went terrible, again. our trainer asked us to mock on the spot and i just froze and gave up mid-mock. everyone else seemed to make a big improvement and i was seriously falling behind

i hate you

Mike Lee posing as a trainer. to add to our miseries, we had to go through a Critical Thinking Project seminar in my free time between both lessons...thus, seriously cutting down precious and necessary prep time

green tea Mcflurry to console myself

they called me in to talk to Ben Ha, one of the recruiters. apparently my trainers informed him that i was struggling and had a chat with me to basically up my game or else i would fail training. after this talk, i went into hyper panic mode (not that i wasn't already suffering from enough anxiety already)

i upped my game for listening class. i literally recorded the entire training session on my MP3 and copied exactly what my trainer did, word for word. my mock went extremely well and even Eugene was shocked, saying i did a complete 180. this is the moment when listening kinda clicked in for me

feb 26
DO OR DIE DAY.

my twitter:
final mock for tmr... PASS OR FAIL TIME

ONE MORE MOCK. KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME....... 1 hr of sleep. 0 food. training week = skinny marilyn

i somehow missed the memo that we were all supposed to pack and have our stuff ready downstairs by morning. i went downstairs and saw everybody with their luggage waiting by the bus and was like, o shit damn son. i ran back up and threw EVERYTHING in my suitcase last moment in even more panic. with the help of linze, i was able to do that in 2 minutes and went back down and thankfully everybody was still there. while waiting, i was studying for the test that i didn't even bother to look at while up all night vigorously prepping for the final mock.

Reading Mock - FAILED.

listening group which i preferred 100x more

Listening Mock - PERFECTED. Eugene said i taught like an experienced pro and he even told me that i was going to fail training because of my reading mock, but my listening mock picked me up so much that i was able to scrape by. which meant...


I PASSED TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

goodbye Karla and Melissa, my two pillars of support through this arduous ordeal

breathing a sigh of relief during the "passing party" where they showed us videos, gave out awards, made us sign our contracts and said our goodbyes...

i found it particularly funny that they mentioned PURPOSELY making the training week arduous just to put us in the shoes of our Korean students (who go to school all day only to have to go to private schools late into the night with barely any breaks). that comment made me frustrated... so basically, we didn't HAVE to go through hell?!


no matter. the hardest part was over. they stuck me in a taxi headed to Hwaseong. fully expecting to live in a rural town somewhere in the mountains (man did google steer me wrong), i arrived at this quaint metropolis known as Dongtan.

Mr. O greeted me downstairs, took my luggage to the 6th floor right as everyone was finishing class. briefly met everyone and then headed to get a MUCH NEEDED rest in what i would call home for the next 12 months of my life...

home away from home. i miss the days when there wasn't junk all over my floor... maybe i should go clean right about now.

training week pt 1 [feb 19-26]

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coming to Korea was an eye-opening experience. it would mark the first time i would live in another country and be truly exposed to a culture nearly foreign to me. i entered this country with my two phrases, "annyeong haseyo" and "jugulle" (p.s. who taught me that?), knowing absolutely no one and having absolutely no idea what i'd be exposed to. i still have no idea what i'm doing.


feb 19/10
took an 8AM flight to Washington D.C. Dellus airport, only to take another flight that went back up past Toronto to Korea. the flight was long but i <3

it's been years since I've been on a long flight. technology certainly improved in the last 10 years... these games are awesome

they had bibimbap as a meal... i was pleasantly surprised. no chicken or fish option for me


feb 20/10
arrival in korea. first thing that popped into my head as i exited the arrivals door with no one to greet me: i am alone in this foreign country. hopped on a bus to "City Air Terminal" in Seoul wherever the eff that was.

the airport limousine bus took forever because we were stuck in mad traffic. staring out at korea and seeing bland looking everything and ugly buildings and nothingness, my first impression of this place was... damn, korea is uglaaay.

arriving at the City Air Terminal, i was supposed to take some "Call Taxi" to get to Coatel Hotel. i spent a good half an hour trying to figure out where the heck i was supposed to go, going up and down the darn stairs with all my luggage and koreans not being too helpful with the situation. thankfully, the taxi driver found me and off we went on a taxi ride of HELL.

Korea Tidbit #1: Taxi drivers are crazy. They speed, they drive dangerously, they run red lights and they almost kill people. They give us foreign passengers a heart attack.

upon arriving in Seoul, i just remembered thinking... wow, this place is bustling. it reminds me of downtown Toronto, except everything is in Korean. tall buildings, lights everywhere, tons of people roaming around in the late hours.

arriving at Hotel Coatel (4 star hotel.) i stepped in and i was in awe... heated floors?! what the what! i truly believed i had this suite all to myself... until about an hour later when 4 more girls walked in and i was like, poo.

i loved the bathroom. a toilet with heated seats that could also massage your butt? hell to the yes.

enter: Linze and Channon, the sisters from New York. Anna & Christie, more cool American chicks. we are the roommates. i love these girls. this was our first meal fresh off the plane all gross and tired

my first authentic Korean meal


Feb 21/10

sunday was our day off to wander the Gangnam area of Seoul with the other trainees. it turned out to be a warm day (damn you erratic weather).

Gangnam [pronounced Kang-nam] is a bustling part of the city with tons of shops, restaurants and entertainment. everyone is young, beautiful and fashionable... you can spend forever just people watching here.

the roomies eating street food, where i tried (sweet and spicy rice cake) ddukboki for the first time

closeup of the ddukboki

we wandered around and found a mini-mall indoors. i saw this colorful assortment of ddok (of course at the time i had no idea what this was)

love korea for being so gosh darn efficient. you stick your wet umbrella (why does this sound wrong?) into the hole with the bag and pull out (i am really not trying to make this sound dirty)

Paris Baguette - one of the biggest carring an assortment of baked godos. you can find this, and another called Tour Le Jours at every corner of any Korean city. i always come here for the BLT brunch on Sundays before church

the back streets of Gangnam where all the restaurants are located. you can find all types of food here

us stopping at one of the "entertainment" booths on the street where you can take pictures, play games, send e-mails, etc. among other things

bahaha. COCK BRUSH

Korea is known for its CUTE THINGS. Hello Kitty is at the forefront (Carol Tang, you need to be here)

for lunch, I had pork kimchi dolsot bibimbap... my initial favourite food upon entering Korea. my Welcome Letter to children at our school still has this listed as my favourite, but I haven't had it in months. not so big on the bibimbap anymore

at night, we met up with Audrey and chilled at the Dr. Fish Cafe where you pay for a drink and spend an extra 2000 won to get Dr. Fish. then after you finish your coffee, you stick your feet in a pool with these fish that bite the dead skin off your feet

it's such a weird, strange, tingling sensation

me and fellow trainees. i look calm here but i was the one freaking out the most

back streets of Gangnam @ night, i was absolutely in awe of all the lights. the city really does come alive at night

that night, we all stayed up well into the night watching stupid ass grammar videos, reading documents, taking practice tests and studying hardcore for our grammar test the next day. as grinding as it was, all of us got to spend some quality time with each other and had a good time studying. felt just like university days in the atrium with the business kids all helping each other out the night before an exam.

good night! i took the couch/cot and bundled up a bedsheet to make myself a Justin. tomorrow: First day of training, aka... HELL WEEK.

tbc.