Rainy Season Is Almost Here

Everything has finally fallen into place. I got my ARC (Alien Registration Card) this past Monday at the local immigration office. Apparently the reason why it takes two weeks now is that the cards are now processed and made by the Korean Mint. The cards do look quite a bit different and are apparently now harder to counterfeit.I also went to the bank and set up a bank account on Tuesday. I feel a lot more secure now with almost all of my money in the bank.

I also went to the weekly Teacher's Meeting held on Wednesdays even though I only have to go for the last 5 minutes. I found out that I have been guilty of letting some of my classes leave five minutes early which the previous teacher who was leaving told me I had to do because the kids had to catch the bus home. The kids of course were also convincing that I was going to make them miss the bus if they didn't leave early. I have no idea why they waited for five weeks to pass before I was told any different. There were no problems or fallout as I explained that I was simply doing what I had been told to do and nobody bothered to tell me any different. The NHL season is now over so it's back to the gym full time starting tomorrow. It certainly sucks that the Bruins had to win another Stanley Cup in my lifetime. The last time they won the Stanley Cup was just before I turned two years old!

I went back to Asan today and went to the Oeam Folk Village(see pictures above) which was nice as it wasn't quite as "touristy" as the Yongin Folk Village although I liked the Yongin Folk Village better as there was more to see. You can check out the rest of the Oeam Folk Village pictures on Facebook.

I also went to the Onyang Folk Museum (see pictures above) today which was the nicest Folk Museum I've been to in Korea as the museum that they have is quite large and covers most aspects of Korean life as even I learned some new things there today even though I've been here for 14 years now. You can check out the rest of the Onyang Folk Museum pictures on Facebook. The grounds surrounding the museum are really beautiful as well.

Unfortunately, starting Wednesday here in Choenan we are supposed to get approximately 50 - 80 mm of rain every day for a solid week so I guess I'll spend more time next weekend being a drinker rather than a tourist so these will be the last pictures for a while.

CHOENAN DUDE

Seoul Train

Another week of work has flown by greatly aided by this past Monday being a holiday. I've finally started back at the gym and will be there on a full time basis once the Stanley Cup Finals are over. My boss took a bunch of us out to lunch this past Wednesday at a place called Angela's at the Galleria Department store which has a great buffett and a wide variety of food. I also found out that I should finally be able to get my ARC this coming week.

I have gotten a couple of new classes at work so my two hour work day on Tuesday is now three hours and my two and a half hour Thursday is now three and a half hours . I have to start Tuesday an hour earlier now at the ungodly hour of 4:40pm and Thursday I finish at 7:50 pm instead of 6:20 pm. I also have to start going to the weekly teacher's meetings on Wednesdays now and am supposed to go to Seoul in the next week or two for a 90 minute seminar about the books we teach.

On Saturday I went to Hyeonchungsa in Asan which is a shrine to Admiral Yi Sun-sin who is credited with the creation of the "turtle ship" which led to naval victories over the Japanese. If you want more information about the turtle ship or Admiral Yi you can just google them. As a child in his younger years Asan is where Admiral Yi grew up. The rest of the pictures of Hyeonchungsa are on facebook but I'll put some pictures here as well as a replica of a turtle ship.

Today(Sunday) I went to Seoul to Itaewon more specifically to pick up some deodorant at one of the black market stores. I was very happy that I only had to pay about six dollars each for deodorant as opposed to the eight or nine dollars you usually have to pay in Daegu. I also went to What The Book bookstore and picked up Amy Chua's new book Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother about her own cultural clash between Chinese parenting and American parenting and what we can perhaps learn from each one. I saw her on Real Time With Bill Maher a few weeks ago and was intrigued by her interview. I'm looking forward to start reading it probably tomorrow.

Since I was already in Seoul I decided to go to Seoul Zoo today at Seoul Grand Park since I had to pass by it anyway on the subway ride back to Choenan. You can check out the rest of the pictures from Seoul Zoo on Facebook.

CHOENAN DUDE

Payday Finally Arrived

It's hard to believe that I've already been back just a little over a month now. I finally got my first months pay on Friday. I went out and had a few beers Friday night after work and quickly realized now that my pro drinking career is over. I won't go as far as to say that I'm retired but I get drunk much easier and much faster now. On Saturday I went to Yongin and checked out the Korean Folk Village which I must say was really cool and a great place to go for some fresh air. I have posted the rest of the pictures of the Korean Folk Village on Facebook.

On Sunday I watched the Bruins lose again. It really sucks that they won 8-1 at home today. On Monday which was a national holiday here in Korea I went to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon and walked around most of it which easily took up a couple of hours. On the way to Suwon from Choenan there was some kind of train accident which happened north of Suwon which caused my train to stop at the station just before Suwon for about 30 minutes. I found Hwaseong Fortress actually to be a little overrated. You can also check out the rest of the pictures of  Hwaseong Fortress on Facebook.

Today I signed up and got back in the gym for the first time since I've come back and while I am a little sore it did feel great. Also went to immigration this morning to check out the situation with my Alien Card. It turns out that it takes two weeks to get your ARC instead of the two days that my boss told me. I guess my boss meant to tell me two weeks instead of two days. I should finally have my ARC by the end of this week possibly this coming Friday. I also just found out that I'm gonna have an extra class on Thursday now so my two and a half hour Thursday will now be a three and a half hour day. Life is so cruel sometimes!

CHOENAN DUDE

Almost Legal

The weeks just seem to fly by. Finally got the results back from the health test on Tuesday and went to the local immigration office on Thursday to apply for the ARC(Alien Registration Card) which I should get by Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Then, at that point I will be officially legally in the country. I also found extremely cheap called cards at the immigration office 10000 won for 300 minutes to Canada or the United States which are much cheaper than the phone cards at Costco. One less thing I have to buy at Costco now.

I went to Suwon on Saturday and went to Hwasung Palace. You can check out all of the pictures on Facebook. It costs 2200 won to get there on the subway which takes 62 minutes on the subway. I didn't really check out the whole area which includes Hwasung Fortress because I didn't leave until the early afternoon. I had to watch Game 7 of Tampa Bay and Boston and what a travesty of a game it was. I may never set foot in Bonavista again if the Bruins beat the Canucks.

On Sunday I left Choenan and following the directions from the KNTO (Korean National Tourism Organizaton) went to Jochiwon by bus to get to Beartree Park. It turns out that the information on their site is old and outdated. When I got off the bus at the Jochiwon Bus Terminal there was no Family Mart across from the bus terminal which was where you were supposed to get a shuttle bus which runs every twenty minutes to the park. At this point I decided to head to the Jochiwon train station about 10 minutes walk away and of course the Family Mart was across from the train station. I now figure this is going to be easy. As it turns out there is also no shuttle bus which goes to Beartree Park so since the website mentoned that it only takes 10 minutes to get there by bus I decide I'll just take a taxi. A ten minute ride won't be that expensive.

The taxi has to take the highway to get to Beartree Park so it's actually almost a 25 minute taxi ride which now ends up costing me about 15,000 won. At least now I'm finally there but it is actually located outside of a small town so there are no buses or taxis in the immediate area. I go into the souvenir shop and find out that I should have taken the bus from Choenan to Jinwi which would have been a 20 minute shorter trip and then take a taxi from the Jinwi bus terminal which would have cost me only 3000 won. The owner of Beartree Park who spoke really good English comes into the shop and I explain to him that I got there from Jochiwon. To make a long story short he thanked me for coming there and let me in for half price. He then told me that if I liked the park I should tell people about it. It really is a beautiful spot out in the Korean countryside. They get a ton of business from various tour bus companies which come there from as far away as Busan and Gwangju. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook. Next weekend is a long weekend but it's supposed to be rain for Sunday and Monday. I guess I'll have to do some clubbing on Saturday night and I am not referring to seals.

Things Finally Moving Forward

This past week at my school they had special classes for the parents of the students which meant in some cases that I had longer classes than usual which also meant I had no breaks during the day. Although teaching from 3:50 to 10:10 might not sound like a long time it certainly feels like a long time when you have no breaks at all.Thankfully the week is over and now the schedule goes back to normal.

Even though I only see each class once a week I am happy now that I am slowly starting to remember some of the sudent names in each class. Thankfully, they all have English nicknames. I saw one of my students before class on Monday drinking coffee. She came up to me and asked me "Teacher, do you like coffee?

I told her " I might drink coffee 4 or maybe 5 times a year". She then told me that she drinks coffee everyday because she loves it. The thing is she's only 10 years old. I guess on the bright side it was cream coffee and not black coffee.

Finally, went for the health check early Wednesday afternoon. Regulations have certainly changed as now you have to go to designated hospitals and instead of about 50,000 won they now cost 140,000 won. As a rough guide 1000 won is about a dollar. After the eye test, blood test, and urine test they now send you to a dentist as well for a quick look and it turned out I had two small superficial cavities which I took care yesterday. Everything came back fine but I have to wait until Tuesday for the results of the blood test. After I get that back then it's off to immigration to register and get the ARC (Alien Registration Card) and then I truly become legal and can then set up a bank account.

I saw the dentist on Friday morning. They took an x-ray and took care of the cavities and the total cost was 28,800 won about $28. If I had health insurance which I can't get yet until I get my ARC it would have been even cheaper. I'm supposed to finally get the apartment set up for a phone today. I wasn't really looking forward to hanging around the apartment on a Saturday but it's raining here again today so I wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so I'm going to head to Suwon tomorrow and check out the Hwaseong Fortress so expect some more pictures soon.

Choenan Dude

Finally in Choenan

Sometimes it felt like I was never going to get here but finally arrived in Choenan on May 3rd after flying for about 21 hours on Air Canada and then a two hour bus ride from the Incheon airport to Choenan. Flying from Newfoundland certainly does suck. My plane had to get its wings de-iced in St. John's before we even took off for Toronto. A wonderful delay of about 40 minutes and I'll give three guesses as to whose luggage didn't show up in Incheon as a result of this and the first two don't count.

On the positive side at least I did make all of my connections. My boss picked me up in Choenan and brought me to my apartment on Tuesday night at about 7:30 pm. I had trouble sleeping for the first few nights as there is about a 12 hour difference between Korea and Newfoundland meaning your body is telling you you should be awake when you're asleep and you should be asleep when you're awake. The school is great so far and I actually have my own classroom for the first time ever. On Monday - Wednesday-Friday I work from 3:50pm to 10:10 pm, Tuesday 5:30pm to 7:10pm and Thursday 4:30pm to 8:40pm.

Now that I've finally got reimbursed for airfare I'm really looking forward to exploring a whole new area of Korea. Choenan is part of the Seoul subway system and is also a part of both KTX lines so there are plenty of travel options. Stay tuned for more pictures and posts as my Choenan life moves forward.

Choenan Dude