International Kindness

Friday

I had some of my university classes today. One of them was cancelled but I must have missed the memo, since I showed up to an empty classroom.

After school, some friends of mine took me to a Uniqlo (Japanese clothing brand) store which had just opened up in the city. I don't know how widespread this is, but at this particular store, they sold pants extra long, and when you were in the fitting rooms, they would measure them for you and tailor them within the hour. For free!

Another interesting note about shopping in Korea (at least, at this Uniqlo). Since the store had just opened, they were having a few sales on things. Occasionally, one of the floor staff would yell out something in Korean, and immediately, all the other staff members would echo the same thing. I was curious so I asked my friend. He said they were saying something along the lines of, "This item is so cheap, you should buy lots of them!" or "This item won't be on sale for much longer!"

After shopping at Uniqlo, we went for samgyupsal (I think it's pork belly. You fry it at your table and wrap it in a lettuce leaf. It's delicious!) and they gave me a toast! They welcomed me to Korea and hoped I would have a good time here. Didn't expect such a welcome :)

My roommate went to his hometown today, to visit his mother (he's a really good son, he phones her like 2x a day). She's apparently pretty lonely since both her son and daughter are away at college, and because she is a widow. I showed my roommate where my house is on Google street view, and he was really impressed. Granted, it made me super homesick, because I hadn't seen a picture of my house in awhile.... Regardless, he showed me where he lived as well.

He zoomed in over the tiny town where he's from, and then moved the screen off into the mountains... and kept going.... basically, he's from a tiny mountain tribe in the middle of nowhere XD hahaha, I wouldn't have guessed that!

Saturday

I woke up with a massive head cold :( So I stayed inside all day and ate chicken soup ramen and orange juice, plus some Cold FX pills and Halls.

Sunday

I didn't know how well I would be in the morning, and evidently I needed rest, because I woke up too late to go to church. Nevertheless, I thought I would make the trek out there for next time. I went to the Gwangju World Cup Stadium, since it's very close the church I want to attend here, and walked around the venue.

After visiting the world cup stadium, I went to U-Square, which is the bus terminal for Gwangju city. They had a big movie theatre upstairs (4D for you movie buffs), so I'm hoping I will visit again soon :) Maybe when the Hobbit comes out.

Afterwards, my friend messaged me and asked me to come for coffee in the coffee shop near the dorm.

Here's a free aside: Coffee shops are all the rage in Korea. Coffee is a status symbol in Korea, so people want to make cool caffes for people to be seen drinking their cool caffe in (see what I did there?). In fact, a lot of coffee shops here are little family owned business endeavours. It's really quite interesting, but they all kind of blend together after awhile (especially because the decor seems to be similar).

Regardless, I hung out with him for awhile and then we went to the school's cafeteria to eat. Unfortunately, this cafeteria is one of the worst representations of Korean food ever... it's way more often miss than hit.

After dinner, I went to hang out/lesson plan with Irene and Courtney (fellow TaLK teachers) at... you guessed it! A coffee shop!

Turns out not everyone has such sweet living arrangements/friendly roommates like I do... so if you are the praying type, please pray for God to reach those who are mistreated while abroad, and those who feel excluded. It's neither fair, nor tolerable.

Monday

Today was my first day of real, live, university classes here at university. It was pretty good, I am really excited about my Agricultural Marketing class. Plus, as a bonus, my Teaching American and British Culture class was focused on Canada today! After our final class today, Irene and I went to eat lunch with Miyuki, a Japanese exchange student. We had tonkatsu today! (pork cutlet) It's one of my top 5 favourite Korean meals.... it was very enjoyable!

After school, I went to pick up my student ID card from Shannon and Natasha (international student coordinators here). They told me that I, along with Irene and Kayla, will be starring in a commercial for CNU. Since Irene, Kayla, and I are the only (!) North American students at CNU, we all get to be in the video.

This evening, I went to Damyang with my co-teacher, to locate our elementary school and figure out how to get there from the bus stop. It's a fairly nice school, but we didn't go inside today.

After our clandestine visit to the school, we went to find a nice place to eat in Damyang.

We totally found it!

In Damyang, they have a river that flows through town, but instead of Jochiwon where they let it rot and did nothing to make it livable, Damyang made cycling and walking paths along the river, plus they added natural looking water features to alter the flow (read: mini waterfalls) and to bring people closer or even into the water (read: stepping stones, ramps, steps that are big enough to sit on). In other words, it's a really awesome, livable space.


But more about the restaurant (I feel like all I write about is food....). It was this little guksu (handmade noodles) place along the street overlooking the river. They had platforms outside and you just sat down (that is, cross-legged) at a table and ordered. It was very peaceful.

Those were probably the best noodles I've had in Korea. I've had Korean ramyon (instant noodles) a few times, but that stuff is meant to survive nuclear winter, whereas guksu is meant to be eaten, so it's much easier for your body to digest.

Anyway, tomorrow is my first class, so I'm nervous, as is my co-teacher. Luckily, the clock never stops ticking, so if things go badly, there's always an end to every class! Maybe it's not good for a teacher to be saying such things....

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Miscellaneous cultural notes + experiences!

- There's an interesting relationship here between foreigners and Koreans (it seems all about race, not where you live). For example, sometimes I wonder why people come up to me and talk to me, or want to be my friend. I'm finding it hard to estimate whether they're interested in me and my personality or whether they are looking to practice their English skills. To be honest though, it's kind of a win-win situation. I can help them achieve their hidden goals of practicing English, and they can help me achieve my goals of building a network of friends here.

- Kids here are pretty cute (perhaps I won't say the same thing after tomorrow's class). There was a gaggle of girls giggling and gleefully laughing when I was walking around my elementary school. My co-teacher said they were peer-pressuring each other to say something to me lol ;)

- I ate dinner with someone the other day. Today, I was in a bit of a hurry and was focused on getting to the dorm and blew right past him! He even said hello to me, but I didn't realize who it was until I was long gone :( I'm going to have to find him and apologize.

- A fellow international student, from Indonesia, was late to Korean class this afternoon. Why? Because "[his] roommate is crazy!!" Apparently his roommate was drunk and danced around the room naked last night, keeping poor Calvin awake.

- Some people are either being polite or are actually genuinely astonished.... but I've gotten some comments on my good proficiency with chopsticks. Either way, I thought everyone in the lower mainland has had some experience with chopsticks before...

- This one is kind of a more depressing note: A lot of the friends (well, that is, only the guys so far) I've made here have similar goals. What are they? To become a CEO, to make lots of money, to become a high level manager, to make lots of money, to live in Gangnam (an affluent neighbourhood in Seoul), to make lots of money, etc. Either way, it just seems empty to me, and it makes me sad. Granted, I bet there's a lot of Canadian undergrads who would have the exact same goals.

- This one is kind of funny/embarrassing/strange. Every once in awhile, when I'm out and about here, I will see some 50-60+ year old white people walking around. Sometimes it'll be a couple, other times it'll be just a single person. Either way, I always wonder if they are tourists or English teachers, or whatever they may be doing in Korea. When I see older people together as a couple, I always feel an urge to ask them if they are okay, if they need help :P I never ask though, lest they say in response, "Whatever do you mean? We're fluent in Korean because we've been living here for 40 years! We're Korean citizens!" Or something similar haha. It's just such a weird experience.