The Boys Of Summer

8-5-2010

Day 154 of 365: For all the things I love about South Korea, I have to say that a 5 week Summer sucks pretty bad. While most kids in America are getting that itch around the month of May to go swimming, attend camps and just be lazy for a few months, kids (and teachers) in SK are barely at the halfway mark in their Spring semester. Our Summer vacation lasts from the end of July to the end of August. My 5 weeks break down like this: 2 weeks of teaching English Summer camp, 2 weeks of vacation, and 1 week of planning for next semester. I'm not a fan of the fact that I only really get 2 weeks off, but the upside is that I will still receive my full month's salary even during the break from school. It's a trade off I suppose. So far I've knocked out 1 week of Summer camp, 1 week of time off with the "boys" (more on that in a moment), and I'm currently in the middle of my planning week as I'm writing this. From what I've learned (and experienced), the end of each semester is generally the most stressful time of the year for most teachers in SK (not sure if this is true in the US or not, but I imagine so). I had both co-teachers jumping down my throat over random things one day and then be totally fine the next. Working on the plan for Summer camp wasn't a picnic either. I took my work home with me for 2 weeks straight so that I could come up with lessons and activities that would be fun and interesting for the kiddos. The co-teachers backed off when they saw how hard I was working, and I hope they will continue to cut me a little more slack come next semester.

I must say that after 5 months of learning a new job, a new language, a new culture, and new ways of getting my butt kicked, it felt amazing to not have to go to school for 9 days.The "boys" are Philip and Uriah, great friends from Austin and my first official visitors in SK. It's hard to believe that somebody loves me so much that they'd come half-way across the world to see me. Actually, it's more likely that they used my being here as an excuse to see what half-way across the world looks like, but I'm not complaining. All I know is that for the first time since I left Texas, I finally have a "posse" again. After walking down these streets alone for the better part of my time here, I finally had a gang to walk with again. It felt good; like a scene out of Entourage, except none of us are that pretty.

The guys had did their homework and had some ideas of what they wanted to do while they were here, and I of course had ideas of my own. We mashed them all together and came out with a packed 8 days and 7 nights. Here are some of the highlights broken down by each day:

Thursday 7/22 - Met the guys at the airport in the evening and rode a shuttle bus back to my place, which is about an hour away from Incheon International Airport. Took them to dinner in downtown Ansan, also known as my "backyard", and had ice cream at Baskin Robbins afterward to give them something a little familiar. We kept the first night simple.

Friday 7/23 - I showed the guys my school and even let them help teach my last day of that week's English Summer camp. Uriah, who has a little girl of his own, jumped right in. Philip didn't do a lot of "jumping", but they both had a good time. Later in the evening we went to a Korean karaoke room, which is called a Norebong (not sure if i've mentioned that before or not). They're super popular in SK, to the point where there seems to be one on every block in the downtown areas of the city. We had dinner that night at Papa John's pizza, the job that we all had in common back in the states. Our pizza had corn on it, along with many other traditional toppings. I think we were all impressed with the result. Afterward we went to Baskin Robbins. Again. Comfort food?

Saturday 7/24 - The first big day in Seoul. We had Mcdonald's for breakfast. It's the American thing to do, especially since Korean breakfasts suck. I haven't mentioned that before, but I'll go into detail another time. We took the subway to Itaewon, which is the foreigner district. Then we took a taxi to the Seoul Tower, the highest point in Seoul. Later we lost money at a casino and got lost walking the streets, only to end up in one of most popular areas of Seoul, Myeongdong. Having many shops, cafes and restaurants, an estimated 1.5 million people traverse this area every day. It's there that we randomly met a guy from San Marcos, Texas and also had Korean BBQ for the first time. We spent 14 hours that day in Seoul, which matches my longest trip in.

Sunday 7/25 - After church in the morning, we headed to the COEX mall, which is the only thing I've seen so far that resembles a mall in the US. Uriah and I won money back at the casino there and then went to Gangnam for dinner and Dr. Fish (Blog Entry: Paging Dr. Fish). Philip moment of the day: P drops his mom's digital camera in his beef stew and then won't let us take a picture of the hilarious moment, which in the end made it even more hilarious. To quote a red-faced P Stylez, "There's not going to be any photographic evidence!".

And on that note I will stop for now. I'll post the second half of the trip in a few days, whenever it's not midnight and I don't have work staring me in the face in the morning. Check the pictures too, I think there are some good ones in there; none of Philip's mom's camera though.