A Typical Day

I don’t think I’ve posted what a usual day is for me, so I’ll do today.

Friday. My alarm is set for 7:10am, but I’ve been watching a friend’s cat who clearly doesn’t like the alarm, so he gets me up a little earlier than that. I have breakfast and coffee, take an elevator down 13 floors, then walk to the bus stop. My walk is uneventful, I don’t live in a busy part of the city and while I see some people, they usually ignore me. Almost every day, I see a woman walking a young girl with incredibly curly hair that reminds me of a friend, Kat, from home.

I take the bus 2 stops, and get in school around 8:40. Depending on which bus I happened to step in, I actually arrive sometime between 8:35 and 8:45, but no one is bothered by this as the late arrivals are rare. When I enter the school, there are usually some grade 6 kids there sweeping, greeting the teachers with “Anyeonghaseyo!” and then “Hello Da nee su!” for me. Some of them can say my name right, but I rarely hear Denise, it’s usually Daneesu, Dennis, and, sometimes, Tennis. Tennis amuses me. I can just imagine that kid trying to tell someone else about their foreign teacher named Tennis.

I make my way up to the 4th floor by stairs, which is a long and agonizing exercise, but somehow, I get there. This is the grade 6 floor, so sometimes I’m greeted by grade 6 girls who say “Danisu! My name is…?” and wait for me to tell them their name. I know about a dozen of them because of this, though they are still impressed for some reason. Only 1 of the boys cares, and for a long time he accepted me calling him Daewoo until one day he realized what I was saying and said “no! Jaewoo!”.

I open the sliding door to the teacher’s room, say hello to whoever happens to be there, and they say hello back. This happens a lot over the next 10 minutes; someone new comes in, we all say hello, they say hello.

In the middle of the room, there’s a big table divided in the middle by a bookcase. I sit on one side beside the grade 5 co-teacher, and have an array of books there. I store my bag and purse in the cabinet, get some water or green tea (or juice, if I’m lucky) from the kitchen area, then look over what I need to do for the day. Usually I have 30 minutes, so I read, or talk with H beside me. Today is grade 5 day, so H and I leave a few minutes before the bell wings.

We go back down the stairs and outside, walking down a covered cement-tiled path to the building that has the cafeteria, and classes for grades 4, 5, and one more that I don’t remember (maybe kindergarden and grade 1). We go all the way back up the stairs to the top, and by then we’re both making faces in shared pain. We joke. We go to the 5-6 room, which is at the end of the hall, away from the others beside the washrooms. There, we greet the 5-6 homeroom teacher, who is a sweet young woman probably my age who has the misfortune of being the teacher for the worst grade 5 class.

Now, it’s not that they’re bad. Not all of them, and some are nice kids, but they are loud. They are also sometimes rude, and they do not listen. I walk in, say hello, and usually they say hello back. Sometimes they will start off with “hello, how are you? fine thank you, and you?” or “hello my name is ____ nice to meet you!”. They are all tiny mimics. I put my book on the desk, write the lesson name and number on the board, and get the computer cd rom ready. I turn on the tv. During this time, H is trying to get them settled in their seats. For 5-6, this can take some time.

When I’m ready, I walk to the front of the class room, look them over, and start trying to get them to quiet down. Sometimes this involves a simple finger-to-lips motion combined with “quiet please! let’s start!”. Sometimes I have to hit the desk bell a few times, sometimes H has to step in further. There are classes that cannot start without my co-teacher making all the students put their hands on their heads and close their eyes while she admonishes them in Korean for about 3 minutes, but that’s grades 4 and 6.

I say hi, ask them a question or two in English, then start the lesson. There’s usually a video on the cd for them to follow, and then listen and repeat where they have to say back what I say. I ask them questions throughout this time (it’s usually about 15-20 minutes) and sometimes H will speak up.

After this, today, was game time. In the back of their book there’s a section with pages of cards for each lesson, so they cut out the cards, and then, in pairs, arrange the cards between them. This took an age for 5-6, for no apparent reason. The idea is that if I say something like “Let’s play soccer!” they need to grab that card, and whoever gets it first can keep the card and say “sure!” The loser says “Sorry, I can’t!”. The actual motivation is stickers; after we play the game once, we play it again with students coming up to call the cards, then H gives the winners stickers. It’s a status thing.

At the end of the class, I attempt to reign them in and say “thank you, see you next time!”. H and I leave and, for this one, we both say “oh my god they were so bad today”, and this makes us feel better.

We go upstairs to a break room with the other grade 5 homeroom teachers, where we will be for 20 minutes. There’s a table, a computer, chairs, a fridge, a kettle, and lots of tea and coffee, as well as a beautiful view of the mountains. Here, they all speak Korean and occasionally say something to me, and they have snacks. Today they have honey in hot water and something that I thought was a normal bun, but had something way too sweet inside.

After 20 minutes, we go down to teach 5-4, and they are angels. Angels. It helps that they are being compared to 5-6, but they’re quiet, without me having to tell them to be quiet. They listen. The only complaint H has is that they are sometimes too quiet and shy.

We spend 10 minutes in a smaller breakroom that has the same things the other one did, and have an orange each. There is almost always fruit on the table here, and I love tangerine oranges. We do 5-5, class goes more quickly so we add hangman at the end of class. 10 minutes in the breakroom again, another tangerine, one of the homeroom teachers offers us coffee just before we leave. We decline, saying we need to go teach.

5-3 is much the same, although I think this is the one that started with a boy walking up to me, doing a little dance while saying “hello, how are you? nice to meet you! my name is ____” before dancing off back to his seat. This is also the one where, during hangman, two boys start saying “oh shit oh shit” because they were wrong.

After that, we had lunch, and it’s disgusting. It involves a lot of seafood and parts of crabs. I have some rice, some lettuce and some salty bean sauce that I forget the name of, then head back to the teacher’s room in the 6th grade floor. I prepare for Monday’s classes by listening to the CDs and looking through the teacher’s guides, make a word search, and plan with my co-teachers there for a few things. I spend most of the time until 4:40 on the computer, writing, knitting while listening to my ipod, and reading.

At 4:40, I walk out of school with H, and at the street where the busstops are we say goodbye, as she is heading back to Changwon. I get on the bus, go 2 stops, then walk home.

Books

Occasionally my raison d’être, at least for a few hours (or more, if it’s a very good book). I love books. Here, surrounded by a language and culture that is not my own, more than ever I love books. I always have at least 3 on my nightstand, and usually find myself with so many that I have to give them away to make room for more.

When I was little, my parents taught me to be frugal. I bought books sometimes with my meager allowance and babysitting money, but mostly I borrowed books from the library. Sometimes I’d trade them in at a second-hand store for credit, to buy more. My father instilled in me early-on the importance of the library and getting books from there, so that was my main source, mostly at school.

When I left home for University, I was into reading long fantasy series’, so I would buy huge paperback books that I would devour long before the next one was released. I was usually reading more than one book at a time for some reason. Then I’d sell them, once on Ebay where I managed to make a lot of money because the buyer assumed I was selling hardcover, and then agreed to let it stand when he realized he had assumed wrongly.

Sometime when I was living in the US, I had an ipod and started listening to audiobooks. I also learned to knit and crochet then, so this combined into the perfect addiction; Jane Austen while knitting. Terry Pratchett while knitting. Now, The Sword of Truth, while knitting. I still read physical books, but audiobooks are their own special category; I don’t think we ever get too old to have a story told to us, or at least, I hope we don’t. I’m 28 and not about to stop.

During this time, between the end of University and up to about 2 years ago, I horded books. Along with my ex and friend, we bought All The Books. I have distinct memories of leaving Books a Million with bags so heavy we groaned all the way back home, not having a car at that point. There were bookcases of manga, science fiction, fantasy, and fiction in the form of physics and game programming books, how-to manuals, and ufo/mystery books. We would move them from apartment to apartment many times, and carefully (with only a tinge of annoyance) place them back on the bookcases. This was usually my job, as I have a Virgoan thing for organizing.

I remember buying a bookcase in Charlottetown that a man made with mahogany wood. It’s still in my parents’ house. He brought it to my apartment himself, and I paid maybe 20$ for something that he had made in his garage, a work of art. I can picture it now, I think it just has knitting books in it at the moment, some piano scores, maybe my Idiot’s Guide to Yoga and some other random books.

Now, in Korea, I have two cases for my books. They’re not “real” bookcases, in the way I’ve gotten used to. The desk that another expat gave me has room for books, and there are about a dozen in it. I also bought a bedside table, which is really just a wooden box that has room for books, and it currently has about a dozen as well. It was stuffed with more last week, but I brought a lot to a knitting meeting and gave them away. Of course, I also came home with 2 others, but I needed more to read.

Here, I give them away. I give books to friends, or leave them at Jazz for someone to pick up. I pay money for books, money that I don’t even think about because it’s disposable, and this is one of my necessities.

My new favourite author is David Sedaris, though I’m also trying many others. Shopping for books in Korea is an interesting experience; usually, in a bookstore, I’ll find the classics in English. I bought and read Little Women because it was there, and I had to do it. There are bigger bookstores, and I’ve embraced using What the Book , which is a store in Seoul that ships to my school within 2 business days if the books are in stock.

Sometimes I go to Daewoo department store and look at the two shelves of books there. Well, two cases, though they don’t get a lot of new ones often, I think.

Right now I’m going through A Thousand Splendid Suns, and listening to one of the Sword of Truth audiobooks.

I heart books.

Busan

Two Saturdays ago I went to Busan with 3 friends. None of them had been there before to just explore, and I hadn’t spent much time there either. I’ve only been to Busan once to get to the fast train, and another time I followed a friend walking around an underground mall, then went to a bookstore. This time, our goals were a temple and a beach.

One of our first stops was a mall to get some food and work out where to go. We found a chess board with 3 pieces, so we set about trying to get checkmate in 7 moves. Turns out that it’s not easy with only 3 pieces total.

After that, we did a Max Rider ride, Alice in Wonderland. Max Rider is basically a car in a dark, curtained off room that shakes you around (the car, not the room). You wear 3-d glasses and watch a movie in front of you while the car jolts about and vibrates. I did one a few weeks ago that jerked around a little too much, but this time was better. I also didn’t wear my glasses this time (my actual ones, I wore the 3D ones) which helped. There was a gaggle of Middle School girls there who tried very hard to tell us things in English and asked how we liked it when we came out.

We went to Burger King next (ew. I had onion rings), then I went on a small trip around the mall looking for a place to buy batteries for my camera. We were in a mall filled with mostly strange designer clothes and jewelry, so I couldn’t find any. Fortunately, we found some in a store on the way to the temple.

I don’t remember the name of the temple, but it’s near Haeundai beach, and very beautiful.

This butterfly was on a stone underneath the buddha and his disciples. I can read hanguel, and R can read some of the kanji/Chinese, but we didn’t have the skills between us to read the whole thing.

While roaming, R met this dog which he named Mu. I was content to have a gate between us, though R reached right in and pet him. I’m not really a dog person.

I went in one of the temples, which had a sea of small Buddha statues inside. While I’m not religious, and not Buddhist, I felt the need to bow as I stepped in. Judo and hapkido training, I guess. I walked around the room quietly, soaking in the serenity as I looked at the hundreds of small, green buddhas lining the wall, stacked up like one side of a pyramid. Before walking out I bowed again.

A lead us instinctively to this market, which we found while trying to get to the beach.

Polka Polka hair club!

I loved the beach the moment I saw it. It’s strange for me to see tall buildings and mountains at a beach. Usually, for me, a beach is out in the middle of nowhere and might have some houses/cottages nearby, and a forest. Even though it was the off season, there were loads of people – most of them dressed in fall clothes. We were down to t-shirts and rolled up jeans, wading in the water.

We noticed a man early on walk by wearing only a speedo. Later, as we were walking down the boardwalk in hopes of finding tourist shops (there were only restaurants), we noticed about a half dozen of these people, which we named the International Speedo Club (they weren’t Korean, as far as I could tell).

After that, we found a place that sold tacos to have supper (I think it’s called The Fuzzy Navel), and I had a veggie burrito, which was delicious.

On the subject of veggie food… it finally happened. With about 3 months left, I made the switch a little while ago from vegan to vegetarian. It was not working, and I had arrived at a point where I wasn’t eating well because I couldn’t find the food I usually go for back home, as a vegan. Even being vegetarian is a challenge here, but it’s easier.

Glasses

Sometime early-on in my hapkido career, before I realized that I should just not wear glasses during class, they fell off during a throw and got a little bent out of shape. I ignored it, this happened a few more times, and then eventually I found myself with a pair of glasses that I hated and needed to be adjusted.

Did I go to the optical store to have this done? No.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I got it in my head that I wanted to try contact lenses. I’ve only had to wear glasses for a few years, and I have to say, I’m not fond. They get dirty, they need to be adjusted, they look funny, they bounce around, I could go on with the whining but that’s probably enough. One of my co-teachers agreed to go with me, as she also wears glasses (and contacts), but the first time we had to cancel our outing because she had sudden obligations at work.

We planned to go two days later, but I was sick. I was sick for the whole next week with a very sore throat and laryngitis (ever have to whisper through classes for a week? It’s surprising how quiet the students will be when they have to be to hear you, I was amazed), so I didn’t go then.

Finally, today after work we took the bus to her optical store, called SunSee. The man working there was very kind, and liked that I was Canadian (he had Canadian brand contact lenses). He tested my glasses for their prescription using some sort of microscope, then ushered me over to a machine to test my vision. I’m not sure how it worked, I sat in front of it with my chin resting on something, and a picture focused and unfocused before me. I’ve used this in Canada before, but I don’t know how it works and it still amazes me. (I tried to ask in Canada, but the nurse claimed she didn’t know.)

After that, I did an eye test where I had to read numbers. During this time, another person working in the store fixed my glasses (I had mentioned that too, at the start). I didn’t notice that it had been done so quickly, so was pleasantly surprised when I put them back on.

They wanted to sell me some glasses, too, and while I was interested in looking, I’m not really compatible with Korean glasses. Most Koreans have “big faces” compared to me, and all of their styles looked ridiculous on me. I eventually declined, and we started in on the contacts.

He again mentioned the Canadian-ness of the brand, and both coteacher and he asked me if I was sure I wanted to try, as this was my first time. I said I was, so I was sat down in front of a mirror, then was told to wash my hands. I’ve never seen a lens in person, so I was surprised at how malleable it was. One was moistened, placed just so on my finger, and I was told to put it on. I watched my coteacher mime how to do it, tried, and… blinked. And blinked again. Dropped the lens, the man picked it up, cleaned it, put it just so on my finger once more. This time I was told to push up on the upper lid, too, so I obeyed. Failed. Tried again, failed. A few more techniques were tried, and eventually I realized that it was not going to happen. I apologized, said that I couldn’t do it, and then we moved on to my coteachers business of getting contacts for herself.

I might try contacts again, but for now, it’s not important.

H1N1

Swine Flu. We joke a lot about how Koreans are overreacting to it here (or not reacting in logical ways, such as the masks that are worn too much, or frequently removed to talk or eat then put right back), but it’s getting to be a problem at my school.

Last week, as I was leaving the building with co-teacher H, she told me that people were coming to disinfect the school. Assuming it was about the flu, I asked if Koreans in Masan were more worried or less worried about it. Turns out they’re more worried. She also told me that a girl in 6-2 (my favourite 6th grade class, who sang Happy Birthday to me in September) had the flu.

I teach elsewhere on Mondays, so when I got there on Tuesday the conversation turned to the flu and I was told that 5 students were out with it now. The others are younger, in grades 1 and 3 (I mean that in elementary school terms, not middle school, so it’s a little more serious since they are small children).

I asked what would happen if there were more cases, and co-teacher E told me they would shut down the school. I admit, part of me would like a little vacation, but I’m more worried about more people coming down with the flu, teachers (and myself) included. Kids are all over each other here, fighting/cuddling during break time or even while I’m teaching, so if one of them has something, they will all have it. It’s only a matter of time.

I sneezed in class today (while teaching 6-2), and the students all gasped. I’m sure they are all waiting, hopeful, for the school to close.

An Interview

I was interviewed about Korea by my friend Lindsay, the talented and inquisitive author of the newly-minted blog Here for the View . You can listen to it here (the first one). We broke away from a party at the lake in Palyongsan, a mountain between Masan and her city (Changwon), and had the interview on a little platform on the water, where we could still hear the drunken revelry going on in the distance.

Be sure to check out her other interviews (and blog posts) when they become available.

Another Year

I had a Korea milestone recently; I’ve been here for 9 months. I have less than 100 days left. So, now is the time that I can start more seriously asking myself, “Do I have another year in me?”

I go through cycles with this. Sometimes I think that I absolutely could not. Sometimes I think, maybe. It’s not that hard living here, and I’ve noticed it’s all about friends. If I have friends that I can spend time with, I can handle it. But then, if I’m relying on English-speaking friends to help me along, am I really appreciating Korea? I could be doing that in Canada. Though it’s not just people from my hometown that I’m hanging around with; I see Canadians from other parts of the country, Americans, Kiwis, Brits, South Africans, a whole range. We talk about our own experiences, our own hometowns, and that is not the sort of thing I would exactly get at home.

Part of me feels like I’m done with Korea. I do like Korea well enough, I recently posted about that, it’s not a bad country. I think it’s a good idea for people to come here and try a year. Some people stay even longer than that, and I have met expats who have been here for 2, 3, 5 years, a couple longer.

Another part of me, the part that likes certain things about this place, and realizes that it’s good money for the job I do, wants to try for another year. What am I going to do at home? I don’t have any plans.

For now, though, I don’t think I have another year. I need to take these last 3 months and get as much out of Korea as I can with them.

Knitting at Work

My first semester here, before summer break, I was hesitant to do certain things during my acres of free time at work. I rarely knit, I didn’t listen to my ipod, and mostly I’d go between writing, studying Korean, reading, and surfing the internet. This semester, however, I decided to add two things; knitting + podcasts or music. Now I’m almost always listening to something, which doesn’t bother anyone fortunately. If it does, they’ve yet to tell me.

At my rural school, I have a lot of free time, especially since there’s a good chance that on any given day one or two classes will be canceled (and the co-teacher I travel with likes to get there an additional 20 minutes early). I don’t have as much space in the teacher’s room there (technically, I have no space. There’s a little cabinet that I can put stuff in, and I can sit wherever there happens to be room), so I go to the library to knit and listen to podcasts.

At first, I’d go in there, sit on one of the comfortable chairs and be more or less undisturbed. This is a tiny school, 72 students, so it’s not too hard to find an empty room. Eventually though, the kids noticed I was there and would approach me to attempt to ask about it. I’d explain, and they’d watch in fascination as I knit and purled. I’d show them the picture of what it would eventually be, and point to which piece I was working on (I’m mostly working on a cardigan now from Japanese Inspired Knits).

Sometimes the librarian would approach me and ask if I wanted copi (coffee). I usually said no to this as there was nowhere to put it, but one day she asked me if I wanted tea with it already in hand, so I accepted it. Lately, an older woman hangs around in there too. I’m not sure what her connection to the school is, but she is really, really interested in my knitting. Knitting, in itself, is not exactly a spectator sport, but she’ll sit beside me, touch the fabric I’m making, touch the yarn, look at the pattern, etc. I try to talk to her, but my Korean is dismal, and she doesn’t seem to know much English. I asked her if she knits, thinking she was pleased to see a foreigner knitting, too, but she shook her head.

At my main school, I get the occasional comment, but they’re used to me now. There’s another teacher who quilts at work, but she’s usually in the other building, so we don’t sit and craft together. It’s great that I can do this at work, it really helps pass the time and keeps me reasonably level-headed. So far this year at work I worked on a pair of mittens, finished a purse (that I don’t use, but it counts), and did most of a fine-gauge cardigan.

A Concert

I went to a concert in Korea for the first time this past Wednesday. While there was an orchestra playing (with one of my students in it), the show’s main draw was a woman from Seoul with only 4 fingers (2 on each hand) playing the piano, who I was told was amazing. Since there were free tickets and one of my co-teachers (H) wanted to go as well, we decided to attend, along with co-teacher’s sister.

Because everyone is still scared of H1N1 here, as we walked in to the Masan Arts Center we were scanned to have our temperatures taken, and I could see our heat signatures on a screen in blue, purple, yellow, orange and red. I was fine, but H had to have her temperature taken manually, then wait, then have it taken again. Of course she wasn’t sick, just warm. While waiting, I noticed some children around who had Down’s Syndrome and other conditions, and was told that this was a concert for disabled children.

The concert was very… English. I could have been sitting in a concert hall in Halifax, except there were more Asian people than usual. It was good, it started with an orchestra that featured a lot of string instruments, and they did 4 pieces, all by European composers. After the intermission, I noticed a short figure in red and yellow walk out. I had thought the star was a young girl from the picture, but she was a woman who had stumps for legs (but could walk). She made her way over the the piano, waving confidently as she walked, then took off her shoes and arranged herself on the bench to address the crowd. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but her piano playing was amazing. I was close enough that I could see her fingers hitting the keys, so while I knew that she was, in fact, only playing with 4 fingers, it looked like she had invisible ones that she was using as well, and that she might have more invisible ones than I had total. Her fingers were very long, and looked double-jointed.

She played European pieces, one of them a variation on Canon that I liked, and played with the orchestra. I had a program, and knew that Amazing Grace and Paul Anka’s My Way were on it, but I didn’t expect her to get up and sing. She sang the first one while someone accompanied her on the piano, and her voice was very powerful, though her forte is definitely the piano. A man, her manager, joined her for My Way, and she was singing something different instead of My Way that I couldn’t pick up (neither could H). It sounded like she was singing “Masah way”. Almost Masan, but not quite.

The Paul Anka piece felt surreal. They encouraged the crowd to rock back and forth waving their hands for it, and a lot of people were reluctant to do so, or switched to clapping instead. It was a good concert in all, about an hour and a half.

I was left a little disappointed that there was no Korean content whatsoever, except for the fact that the performers were Korean, and when the pianist spoke, she spoke in Korean. I know that I’m in a different country here, and there are times when I’m struck by that, but more often than not I’m struck by how much English is here. It’s in the signs, it’s in their music, it’s everywhere. It doesn’t even always make sense, like the tshirts that used to amuse me and now sometimes make me cringe. I’ve only seen actual Korean writing on clothing on things like uniforms, like my hapkido clothes. It’s hard to find actual Korean content, in Korea.

A Korea Rant

But not a bad one. After listening to the latest Seoul podcast where they talked about how no one ever rants about a good experience (not great, just good), I thought I’d give it a go.

It’ll be more of a list, actually:

- I like my school. The kids are good (I have never seen a single Dongchim. As far as I know, it’s something that happens only at other schools, and in the anime Naruto), the teachers are friendly and greet me when they see me, and aside from one rather strange act of being a jerk, my principal is great. Now that doesn’t mean my kids are perfect angels, they are still children, but they are good for kids. I’ve never been attacked, physically or verbally, unless you count the time a little girl said my shoes were ugly. They were crocs, so really, she was in the right there.

- I have acres of free time, which means I can sit at my desk (or on one of the sofas) and knit while listening to a podcast, or read, or use the computer/internet for at least 2-3 hours in the day, outside of whatever lesson planning I need to do. I really recommend taking up a craft to any public school teacher. Another teacher at my school quilts, she gets so much done in between classes.

- While I do contribute some money to the coffee/tea/crackers fund to keep our teacher’s room comfortable, there is also often free fruit and snacks at any time of the day, frequently the first break of the morning. Usually it’s gifts from the parents. We’re a big enough school that we rarely run out of gift fruit.

- I make a lot of money for what I do, I don’t have to pay rent on my apartment, and can use convenient public transportation. I have a little buspass keychain on my phone that I can swipe when I get on the bus, and it can be refilled with money in several convenience stores. I don’t live paycheque to paycheque, I have no debt, and I can occasionally treat myself to something expensive.

- I like my apartment. True, it’s one room plus a bathroom, but it’s clean, it has a great view, I have loads of storage, and it’s (mostly) all I need.

- Seasoned laver (seaweed) is the best food ever. It’s perfect with rice.

- I’m rather short at 5′0″, but here I feel roughly average height. Not a huge deal, but it’s nice to have some people around who I don’t have to crane my neck to talk with. Also, I can easily find socks to fit me, though shoes have mysteriously been more of a challenge.

- On a few occasions while lost, I was able to get help either from a Korean who approached me, or after I asked someone for help. A few of these people have gone out of their way to actually walk me to where I wanted to be.

- My two favourite cities, Masan and Changwon, each have huge lakes. In Masan, there’s the Bongnam reservoir in the Palyong mountains, which features a stunning view and a two-story pagoda with benches and tables. In Changwon, Yonghi lake is inside of the city, and has a large patch of grass (with public washrooms nearby) as well as benches everywhere along the lake.

- I need to mention the mountains again. I can see them from almost anywhere in Masan, particularly the view from my apartment, and they are stunning. Since I’m in a harbour city, I can also see the ocean from some places.

- Dried soybeans almost anywhere. Tofu almost anywhere. Korean pears are delicious.

- The palaces and temples are beautiful, and the drive to my rural school is scenic.

- I have met, hands down, the most fascinating people ever here. Mostly expats, I admit, because interesting things happen when people leave their home country for a year to teach. I have also met some thoughtful, wonderful Koreans.

- Korea has the fastest internet connection in the world, and I can also visit PC rooms if I can’t use it at home for some reason. And while I should be enjoying another country and it’s own shops, I appreciate the Starbucks that are here (in my defense, there are no Starbucks’ in my province, so it’s a new thing for me. We do Tim Hortons where I’m from, and I hate their coffee. Sorry, Canada.).

- I feel very safe here. I know there is still crime, but I don’t feel like I have to guard myself and my possessions at all times.

- I like using chopsticks. I like seeing how other people use them; I learned how to use them in a strange way that I don’t see other people use. I can’t describe it well, but my index finger is between the two sticks.

What are YOUR favourite things about Korea?