Everything I know how to say in Korean

It's 6am, can't sleep, luckily I can do this because I don't start work until 4:15pm, middle finger to morning shifts! I'm gonna try to write all the words I know how to say in Korean. Notice I didn't say all the words I know how to write because I know how to say a lot more than I can properly write using the Korean characters. And I will also include "Konglish" words that are a mix between Korean and English because if I didn't know the Korean way to say it, I wouldn't know that the English word was similar. An example is the word "coffee" which is spelled like this: 커피, and pronounced like: kaw-pi. I'm gonna guess before I start, and aim high and say that I know about 200 words/phrases, let's see.

1.hello 2.goodbye 3.see you later 4.today 5.tomorrow 6.tonight 7.breakfast 8. lunch 9.dinner 10. eat 11. I/me 12.you(the word you is not in the phrase "see you later") 13.we 14. I'm hungry 15.I miss you 16. now 17.there 18.here 19.this 20.that 21.excuse me 22.please 23.hello(on the phone is different) 24. leg 25.shoes 26.eye 27.ear 28.head 29.height 30.weight 31.It's cold 32.It's hot 33.How are you 34.Are you alone 35.fork 36.I like/good job 37.internet 38.computer 39.laptop 40.wifi 41.coffee 42.pizza 43.story 44.cell phone 45.read 46.write 47.speak 48.numbers(counting each number i can say would be cheating) 49.times 50.when 51.where 52.who 53.why 54.how 55.what 56.really 57.ok 58.very much 59.decrease 60.You're beautiful 61.I know/understand 62.stupid 63.pants 64.music 65.subway 66.station 67.medicine 68.red 69.black 70.blue 71.purple 72.car 73.airplane 74.woman 75.man 76.boyfriend 77.girlfriend 78.couple 79.honey 80.grandmother 81.old woman 82.old man 83.taxi 84.wait a minute 85.I have to go to bed 86.I want___ 87.My name is___ 88.Nice to meet you 89.bullshit 90.fuck you 91. son of a bitch 92.baseball 93.swimming 94.to beat someone 95.You look cool 96.I have/There is 97.hurry up 98.too expensive 99.straight 100.left 101.right 102.to bend 103.I don't believe you 104.eye for an eye 105.America(and anything related to using the word) 106.Thai 107.Korean 108.Germany 109.Japan 110.China 111.Vietnam 112.fork 113.tell me 114.wish/hope 115.always 116.exactly 117.again 118.meat 119.beef 120.chicken 121.fish 122.tuna 123.vegetables 124.apple 125.cucumber 126.baby 127.eel 128.rice 129.seaweed 130.ham 131.sugar 132.protein 133.carbohydrate 134.fat 135.sodium 136.return 137.follow me 138.dumplings 139.pork 140.beer 141.I love you 142.now 143.tree 144.It's fine/Are you ok 145.thank you 146.let's go 147.my house 148.mountain 149.high 150.English 151.teacher 152.next 153.help 154.piano 155.shrimp 156.take out 157.waste 158.half 159.empty 160.massage 161.hamburger 162.french fries 163.valuable 164. to lend 165.I don't have/There is not 166.sweet/affectionate 167.how much/how long 168. to leave 169.question 170.for/in favor of 171.forever 172.to strive 173.fact 174.to die for 175.together 176.princess complex 177.to recommend something 178.completely 179.year 180.How old are you 181.so what 182.submarine 183.to make 184.person 185.to lie 186.you choose 187.party 188.ideas 189.weather 190.study 191.to teach 192.The food is good 193.dangerous 194.tennis 195.fame 196.reason 197.emotion 198.the end 199.friend 200.investigation 201.nasty 202.smell 203.too much 204.amazing 205.bathroom 206.bottle 207.cancel 208.don't 209.no 210.yes 211.noodles 212.milk 213.cheese 214.tea 215.picture 216.private school 217.north 218.south 219.east 220.west 221.water 222.ice 223.salt 224.egg 225.rain 226.umbrella 227.restaurant 228.cut off 229.bank 230.money 231.year 232.ice cream 233.brother 234.sister 235.mother 236.father 237.I want ___ 238. kiss 239.anything 240.bagel 241.waffle 242.cake 243.book 244.singing room 245.yet 246.I can't 247.I'm sorry 248.strawberry 249.correct 250.incorrect 251.side dish 252.easy tiger!

I could probably try to struggle and think of a few more, but I'm tired, so I quit. But yeah, 200 days here, 250 words, YUUUP! And if you doubt me, call me so I can drop your jaw!

Culture Shock

Disclaimer: I have not experienced the slightest bit of culture shock while here in S. Korea, but I just want to talk about some things that might shock other people, and some things that are just weird, different or funny.

1. I am a gatorade lover, so what if it's taking years off of my life due to the excess sodium and sugar in it. I remember when I used to drink at least 4 32 oz. bottles per day for weeks at a time. My favorite flavors? Anything other than LEMON-LIME. So I'm in Korea, and of course the ONLY FLAVOR they have is LEMON-LIME! Seriously? Did they not get the memo that there's about 20 other flavors??? I'm not happy.

2. Of course crime is anywhere you go, but there's a shortage of it here, well at least for theft. My second day here I was strolling around at night and saw a few kids no older than 10 at the park around 1am with no supervision nearby. Even in grocery stores and malls, parents just kind of let the kids straddle along freely without any worries. I've seen girls at restaurants go to the bathroom and leave their purses at the table with nobody watching them.

3. If you don't like tipping at restaurants, just come here. It's deemed RUDE to tip! And what's sad about it is that I've never had bad service anywhere in Korea. Meanwhile in the states there's your typical rotten waiters and waitresses who know that the amount of money they get is based on how good they serve you but still find a way to give horrible service.

4. Before I came here I heard that deodorant was non-existent. There's a slight truth to that because it's not the easiest or most common item to find. But if you look hard enough it's there.

5. Yeah in Ohio U-turns are illegal and a lot of people still do them anyway. But I was amazed to see it not only legal here, but how often it's done and how normal and safe it looks and it makes me wonder what's the big fuss about it to make it illegal?



6. I'm no longer sure which Asians are known as the "short" race. But it damn sure isn't Koreans. They are tall! Men and women both! I have at least five students that are taller than me. Of course I'm not the tallest guy in the world but still. I don't remember the last time I saw 5 12 yr old American kids in front of me.


7. I was shocked to see a girl at Home Plus(Target/Wal-Mart equivalent) staring at a product. Why? She wasn't really interested in the product. She was looking at her damn hair in the reflection of the plastic on the box making sure she looked okay! Double EUU TEE EFF! Some of these girls are the most superficial creatures I have ever seen! Okay, sorry not some, ALL! There hasn't been a day go by where I haven't seen a girl check herself out in a mirror, cell phone camera, or a reflective surface of some sort. Like seriously? I'm sure you spent 2 hours to try to make yourself feel better before you left the house so just relax and stop worrying for 2 seconds. You're soaked in 6 layers of make-up so the real you isn't even there anyway. Oh yeah let's not forget the guys. I'm not sure if it's just a current trend or if it's always been this way but there's a lot of feminine looking guys out here. So while the girl is checking herself out in the car door reflection, her boyfriend is right next to her doing the same thing. They probably share clothes too. I'm just saying.

8. Now it's mostly just younger guys that act feminine, but I've seen an eerie comfortableness among men in general. Guys holding hands, giving each other massages, feeding each other food, etc. Supposedly it's common among heterosexual men and these guys aren't the slightest bit gay? I wouldn't care if they were but to say it's not is, like I said before, eerie.



9. In the states we use 120v outlets, along with the flat prongs. Here it's 220v with round prongs. I bought a prong converter, my laptop works fine with it with no problems, my iron worked for a while, then literally blew up and caught on fire. Not quite sure why, although I think it was due to the iron having the ability to take the higher voltage for a certain amount of time and then, KABOOM. The same thing happened to my ANDIS trimmers, WHILE I WAS CUTTING MY HAIR! So my clippers blew up mid-cut, and I had a half bald head and half hairy head for a few days. I don't care though I was still sexy.



10. Good luck finding toilet paper in public bathrooms, or even soap. And most of the time when I do see soap it's just a plain old bar of soap witch is downright nasty. I would say about 90% of the public bathrooms I've been in were missing toilet paper. But the restaurants in the same buildings keeps rolls by the door when people need to go, I wish I understood this? Oh yeah, and not only is there no toilet paper or soap, you might find a sexy girlie business card tempting you to call in for some late night, or mid-day nookie nookie.


11. That last picture brings me to my next point. Good 'ol prostitution. By the books it's illegal, but to say the police care about cracking down on it is to say that Kanye West cares about Taylor Swift's feelings(I want to add that this is the best blog of all time)! And there's many different forms of it too. Mostly around here there's girls getting picked up and dropped off in these amazing turbo vans.

A conversation I had with a Korean about language

So I'm not sure if most Koreans feel like this, or if she was just heavily feeling her menstrual cycle this month but she apparently doesn't understand why foreigners can't speak Korean.

have a question

[10/1/2009 4:57:24 AM] AJ Jenkins: yes

[10/1/2009 4:58:15 AM] Frannie Park: do u sometimes hang out with korean friends?

[10/1/2009 4:58:40 AM] Frannie Park: or usually with Enilish speaking friends?

[10/1/2009 4:59:00 AM] AJ Jenkins: mostly with English, sometimes with Korean

[10/1/2009 5:00:27 AM] Frannie Park: b/c oft he language , it's not easy to communicate with koreans, huh?

[10/1/2009 5:01:24 AM] AJ Jenkins: yeah, well some of them are good, like the counselors at my school speak ok English, but they would rather talk Korean with each other

[10/1/2009 5:02:09 AM] Frannie Park: they r koreans that's why they talk in korean
[10/1/2009 5:02:30 AM] Frannie Park: i was surprised to find that
[10/1/2009 5:03:17 AM] Frannie Park: americans expect koreans talk in English each other whenever americans and koreans r together

[10/1/2009 5:03:44 AM] AJ Jenkins: yeah because they know more English than we know Korean

[10/1/2009 5:04:06 AM] Frannie Park: don't take it personally

[10/1/2009 5:04:52 AM] AJ Jenkins: so it's either they don't talk to us at all or they talk to us in English

[10/1/2009 5:05:25 AM] Frannie Park: i'm a little bit not happy for English speakers not to try to pick up some basc korean language

[10/1/2009 5:06:44 AM] AJ Jenkins: you have to figure though most Koreans have been learning English since elementary and middle school
[10/1/2009 5:06:59 AM] AJ Jenkins: so we still won't be able to talk in full conversations
[10/1/2009 5:07:18 AM] AJ Jenkins: I know a good amount of Korean, but I still can't have full conversations

[10/1/2009 5:07:32 AM] Frannie Park: but still E is a foreign language in korea. and most of us don't need to speak E to live on

[10/1/2009 5:08:29 AM] AJ Jenkins: that's why I said it's either no talking at all, or talk in English
[10/1/2009 5:08:43 AM] AJ Jenkins: so if you don't want to speak English then you just won't talk to any foreigners

[10/1/2009 5:09:13 AM] Frannie Park: thank u for letting me know what foreigners expect to korenan people. talk in English ir no talking when we r together

[10/1/2009 5:09:37 AM] AJ Jenkins: so what you expect foreigners to learn Korean in a few months?
[10/1/2009 5:10:03 AM] AJ Jenkins: I'm saying that's the only way possible to speak

[10/1/2009 5:10:09 AM] Frannie Park: basic survival korean such as
[10/1/2009 5:10:21 AM] Frannie Park: 안녕하세요. 고맙습니다.
[10/1/2009 5:10:24 AM] Frannie Park: 잠깐만요
[10/1/2009 5:10:36 AM] Frannie Park: 맛있어요

[10/1/2009 5:10:41 AM] AJ Jenkins: ok but that doesn't mean talking, like I said, I know basic words, but I can't hold full conversations in Korean

[10/1/2009 5:10:44 AM] Frannie Park: 어디로 가나요?
[10/1/2009 5:11:00 AM] Frannie Park: u know what?
[10/1/2009 5:11:29 AM] Frannie Park: u don;t need to keep the conversation 100 % in korean

[10/1/2009 5:12:05 AM] AJ Jenkins: those few Korean phrases you posted will last a few seconds, and the MAJORITY of the conversation will need to be in English
[10/1/2009 5:12:35 AM] AJ Jenkins: that's the ONLY way it will be unless a foreigner is here for multiple years and wants to fluently learn the language

[10/1/2009 5:14:49 AM] Frannie Park: many E speakers including my co-worker in my shool don't know or don't try to learn that basic korean
[10/1/2009 5:15:35 AM] Frannie Park: we don;t expect foreigners talk korea fluently, not at all

[10/1/2009 5:15:56 AM] AJ Jenkins: well if they don't want to, then that's their personal choice

[10/1/2009 5:16:10 AM] Frannie Park: right

[10/1/2009 5:16:10 AM] AJ Jenkins: just like you didn't have to learn English, but you wanted to

[10/1/2009 5:17:14 AM] Frannie Park: but in the work place , as long as they r in korea, they need to follow korean way to keep the rule
[10/1/2009 5:17:36 AM] Frannie Park: i chose to learn E
[10/1/2009 5:17:41 AM] Frannie Park: i like E
[10/1/2009 5:18:17 AM] Frannie Park: bur I mean many foreigners expect every korenas speak E well
[10/1/2009 5:18:29 AM] Frannie Park: for example

[10/1/2009 5:18:36 AM] AJ Jenkins: I can't speak for them, I can only speak for me

[10/1/2009 5:19:25 AM] Frannie Park: ok. it seems to bother u

[10/1/2009 5:20:03 AM] AJ Jenkins: well I'm only ONE foreigner, I can't speak for the thousands of other foreigners that are here
[10/1/2009 5:20:49 AM] Frannie Park: personally i want them to show us respect for korean custom and korean lg.

[10/1/2009 5:22:37 AM] AJ Jenkins: well you should then talk to them

[10/1/2009 5:23:29 AM] Frannie Park: do they know that point when they r told by word ?
[10/1/2009 5:23:37 AM] Frannie Park: it's kind of a common sense
[10/1/2009 5:23:46 AM] Frannie Park: when u r in foreign country
[10/1/2009 5:24:26 AM] Frannie Park: how come they expect the landlady say E fluently.
[10/1/2009 5:25:21 AM] Frannie Park: how com they compalin about other subject teachers don;t speka E when they r together.

[10/1/2009 5:25:45 AM] AJ Jenkins: I, myself, me, AJ, can't answer those questions for you.

[10/1/2009 5:26:49 AM] Frannie Park: i don;t want to have an answer from u
[10/1/2009 5:27:20 AM] Frannie Park: i just don't understand some foreigners' attitude
[10/1/2009 5:27:51 AM] Frannie Park: maybe we can find the solution thru 대화
[10/1/2009 5:28:31 AM] Frannie Park: no offense
[10/1/2009 5:31:52 AM] Frannie Park: nice to talk with u. it was helpful for me to get the idea, '" in english or no talking at all"
[10/1/2009 5:32:39 AM] Frannie Park: have a nice day. sorry , to u, sleep tight~

[10/1/2009 5:32:42 AM] AJ Jenkins: yep


I don't get what was so hard for her to understand that it would take years of learning before foreigners could speak with the same level of Korean, that most Koreans speak with English???

Seven Lucks, minus a lot more luck

So I guess after two months of going awol on here, I'll give a go at writing something. I'll try more, I promise. Although I feel like my pictures and videos give a much more vivid depiction of what I do!

Before coming to Korea, I had only been to a casino once, when I was 19 in Canada. I gave a try to a few different games: roulette, the slots, and blackjack. By the end of the night, I was down $200 and kept it there. The next morning before we left Canada, I went back with $20 and won like $120, eventually to loose it all again. And that was my only casino experience.

When I first got here, I saw this biiiig building saying "Seven Lucks Casino"



It took me like 3 months to make it there, not to mention there's two of them. I'm sure there's more casinos but Seven Lucks is probably the best one. Another odd fact about it is that Koreans aren't allowed to go in. I'm not 100% sure why, but I believe it's just looked down upon for Koreans to gamble I guess. Entrance to the casino is only by having a passport from another country(unless you have a VIP membership card like me) so it's pretty strict. But I just read that there's one casino in a very remote location that Koreans are allowed to go to.

So I go for the first time about 3 weeks ago, with Tommy and Jamie(two other teachers at my school), after much practice at online blackjack and feeling ready to win big money. Mind you, it's about 3 in the morning, and the low betting blackjack tables are all full so we just browse and walk around for about an hour. I finally see a seat open and I rush to it, only to sit down and reach in all of my pockets not to find the 115,000 won that I brought. Salty! Ritz! Crackers! Lawrys! High sodium! Still not exactly sure what happened, but I either was pick-pocketed or I just dropped it somewhere. I should have just not played after that but I did, and I lost. I've decided to keep the amounts to myself, but I lost.

Went back the week after that, I lost. This time we went at like 8 am so I slightly blame it on the alcohol and being dead tired. Plus I played at the high roller tables this time(50,000 won minimum).

This past Saturday, we figured that the Seoul station one was not so lucky so we went to the other one near the Coex mall, I lost. I tried experimenting with 3 card poker and the slots here but mainly blackjack, still, I lost. Crazy thing is, while I'm sitting at the table I have my phone out learning how to count cards, which isn't illegal but if they see me start to win big money then I'm probably going to get a few gut uppercuts in the back room. Either way, I lost. I say I won't go again for a while, but I also said that after the first two times, so I might have a bit of a problem developing here, but let's hope the mind can overcome the matter!

Fear of Public Transportation

I have a long post in the works but due to my superb laziness I keep putting it off. So I decided to write something not so long.

Most people who know me, or probably everybody that knows me knows that I am a daredevil at any time of the day. Say it and I'll do it. I've hung upside down from the outside of a 3rd floor balcony, didn't feel one ounce of fright. I've driven at somewhere around 115mph, felt great. I've lit my hand on fire, blew fire out of my mouth, and all other type of pyro things that should have me looking like the Michael Jackson Pepsi Commercial gone wrong by now. And I've done a countless number of other things that have my friends ready to put 911 on speed dial whenever they're around me. None of these things have scared me the slightest bit.

But public transportation, most notably being on an airplane scares the living daylight out of me. The ride over here was ok, I only visualized the plane crashing about 10 times(messed up I know, but I don't know why I do it). Seriously every time the plane hit the slightest bit of turbulence, my first thought is "Alright here it goes, at least I can swim good." And since the whole Air France debacle, just thinking of the next time I have to be on a plane makes me want to pee my pants.

Even when I'm on the subway, I get these final destination type flashes that the train is about to derail and shred into pieces. EVERYTIME. I'm not like on the subway huddled up in a little corner, the thoughts just come and go every now and then.

Even being on a bus is slightly disturbing. It doesn't help that the bus drivers here drive like they're in the movie "Speed" and can't go below 50mph. It's just something about a large number of people's lives being in the hands of one or two people. It seriously freaks me out that one slight mistake could have devastating consequences. You might say that when I drive one mistake could have the same consequences too, but what gets to me is the magnitude. When the Air France plane went down, so did 228 people. In 1977, 583 people died when 2 planes collided on the runway in the Canary Islands.

Contact Info

If by some chance anybody from the states wants to actually call me instead of using the internet, here is how you do it: dial 011-82-18229-2117.

If you want to take it a step further and send me something, we get things shipped to our school, and that address is:

Chungdahm Institute
3rd floor Jonglo Plaza
715-1 Gojan-Dong
Danwon-gu Ansan city
Gyeonngi-do 425-9404
South Korea

Review of my first month

I meant to do this on the 10th, which would have been a month exactly but of course that didn't happen.


How I felt before I got here?:
Obviously I felt unsure of just about everything. I had heard from others that were here or had knew someone who was here but that all meant nothing in my eyes because I'm my own person and what one person might hate, I might love. That's why I don't understand why people won't see a movie based on a bad review by someone else.


How I feel now?:
Great! If I had to rate my first month on a scale from 1-10, I think it would be a 10. I expected to maybe like somethings here, and feel uneasy about other things. But there hasn't been much, if anything at all that has made me feel like I made a bad decision by coming here.

I've heard of Korean "racism" stories where a foreigner, or more particularly a black person would feel uncomfortable from getting stared at. My philosophy on that is that regardless of where you're at, do you not get stared at? Every black person I walk by, or drives in the states stares at me, so does that mean they're racist? Is it not in a human's nature to stare? Besides, what's in a stare? Could they be admiring you? Maybe, you never know. And if I feel a longer than usual stare from a Korean I just stare them right back down and they're quick to look away.


What have I done?:

-Went through a gruesome week long training program that honestly didn't prepare me much for live teaching.

-Went to a baseball game, and it was the most exciting baseball game I've ever been to.

-Went to a water amusement park, that was also quite amazing.

-Sang karaoke with a live band playing and a drunk 40 something Korean guy as my hype man.

-Strolled out of my apartment at 2a.m. many nights just to walk around for a while.

-Went to this pool that was on the rooftop of a hotel in Itaewon.

-Stayed out til 5/6 in the morning, because the clubs/bars stay open that late, and the subway shuts down around midnight, and doesn't start back up until 5:30a.m.

-Studied the Korean language, I started before I came, and I keep at it now, also take a few classes.

-Walked up to(wait, checks phone) 7 random Korean girls and got their phone numbers(but believe me it's less promising than it sounds).

-Went rollerblading

-Ate various dishes in which I had no idea what it was until after I already swallowed it, some I still have not a clue what they were.

-Got lost about an hour away from where I live, not fun at all, but saw some Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, and Maserati's along the way.

-Had a 9 day paid vacation 1 week after I started due to the almighty swine flu!

-And of course, taught Korean kids the oh so confusing English language.

My family's names in Korean

Sonya: 산야 Arthur: 알써 Toby: 토비

Mika: 미카 Koda: 코다 Reynaldo: 래날도

Rashelle: 라샡르 Mykeila: 마킬아 Marcellis: 말샐릇

Cherie: 츠리 Melissa: 마리싸 Orlando: 오란도

Shyron: 시론 Betty: 뱉티 Teresa: 털이사

Aaron: 매론 Aarian: 애리안 Kenisha: 컨이사

(the twins would be too complicated)

My mind hurts now from typing all that if I missed anybody, let me know and I'll do it for you. And if anybody fluent in Korean sees this and sees mistakes, let me know.

All Of My Videos So Far Gone

Lost In Translation

So a few days ago, I went out searching for the barbershop that I went to last week to no avail. I saw a few other ones but I wanted to go back to the same guy to become a "regular" and maybe get discounts and all that type of good stuff. But I kept walking/searching, and somehow stumbled into a bike shop. I need a bike because I want to be able to just go on 마눈(many) journeys to different places. Yes my Korean is nice, son! So I try telling the bike seller that I was looking for a bike with a low price. And I made a hand gesture moving down like "looooowwww". So he point to a few and says "55" and "59". Which I thought he meant 55,000won, and 59,000 won which is pretty cheap for a brand new bike. So I'm like "bet" I want the 55 one!

He fixes it up a little, and I go to pay for it. They swipe my card and say that I don't have enough money(He knew a little English). And I'm like ???????? Did I get robbed? Because I was sure I had that in my account. Last time I checked I had like 450,000 won, so I was shook! So he points to the print out and it says that 45 went through, but not 55. But he also says I didn't get charged for anything yet. At this point I'm thoroughly confused so I told him I would go to my bank and then come back.

I check my account, and it says 1,061 won. Then the right half of me says "You better pick that up!" Then the left side of me says "Pick up what?" The right side of me says "Your bottom jaw!" Because I was baffled. I go get one of the Korean counselors at my school to come back to the bank with me because the tellers speak damn near no English, and the teller says I have a charge, from a bike store, for 450,000 won. And there you have it, Lost In Translation. This guy was saying 55, 59, which sure does sound like 55,000/59,000 more than 550,000/590,000 to me! Double U Tee Eff! Plus he said that I wasn't charged for anything yet!

So we go back and tell him "Look you playin wit my money, and playin wit my money is like playin wit my emotion!" Lol nah I didn't say that but I just ended up getting a refund for the 450,000 won that he made sound like 55/59, that he also said he didn't charge me for. 정말? I told you my Korean is nice, son! Translate that one yourself! Learn something!

Not sure what else to write so:
That's what it's all about, A.Jizzle out!
(If you haven't noticed by now that's gonna be my famous tag line.)

1st week of teaching and a few other things.

When I started this blog I planned on writing more frequently than I actually did/do. I don't know where my time goes because it only takes a few minutes to throw a few thoughts together and type them in.

With that being said, my first week of teaching is officially over. I was supposed to start my second week, with all new students today but due to a certain reason I'll not mention, I have about a week off.

(Rewind) I'll talk about training before I talk about the first week. This training was possibly the most time/effort I'd put into anything since, uhh, probably never. We had a few different test and had to "mock teach" by standing in front of the trainer and other trainees and teach as if we were in the classroom. The test were fairly easy but the mock teaching is where I started off slow. My main weakness was my energy which I drastically improved on by the end of training which is why I still have a job.

Monday night I didn't study much, because I was hanging out with my flight buddy/tour guide June, but T/W/Th nights I didn't stop studying/prepping till I was dozing off with a pen in my hand. Why? The pressure not to fail was immense because if you didn't pass training, you got kicked out of the hotel, and told to find your own way back home. I know, freaking crazy right? I'm a pretty level-headed guy but that last day of training had me more nervous than 2 girl scouts showing up at R.Kelly's door.

I was also kind of nervous that 1st day of teaching but not so much as training. More so just curious as to how things would go. Overall, I feel like I did a pretty good job teaching and handling the students when they got rowdy. But there were two major hurdles that were kind of hard to overcome. 1. Each term is 13 weeks long, and I started teaching in the last week of a term, the 13th week, and the students took there big test during week 10, so they were sort of like "blaaaahhh" the whole week. 2. They were used to their old teacher(Akil, who is also black, who also is from Ohio(Cincinnati), who also went to Ohio State, what are the odds?) So yeah as I was saying they were used to their old teacher so when I came in doing everything with a different methodology than he did, they would complain because it wasn't what they were used to. I have a lot more patience than most so the complaining and rowdiness didn't really get to me. But there was this one little "Denace the Menace, Problem Child, Bart Simpson, and every other bad character you can think of" acting kid that I just wanted to 4-Horsemen chop across the back of his neck to shut him the hell up!

On to a different subject, I went trying to find a barber shop last week. And was about 96% unsuccessful till I just hopped in a taxi and made a shaving motion with my hand over my head to the driver and said "jalra" "jalra" which means cut. But he still didn't know what I meant. So he called an English speaking service and I told them. After that, the driver still didn't know where to go so we basically drove a round in circles for 10 minutes till he stumbled upon one. I go inside and tried to get the barber to understand that I wanted a bald cut, but it didn't work. There just so happened to be another guy in there getting his hair cut who I presumed to be a white guy who didn't know much Korean. Come to find out, he's 100% fluent in Korean, and English, and 11 or so other languages! So I sit in the chair, say thanks and all that, he asks where I'm from, I say Cleveland. He says "No shit, I'm from Cleveland Hts.!" Can you say the world is smaller than stem cells three times fast? Not only that, we some more and come to find out, he's 100% Indian! But looked like a regular white guy! He showed me a pic of his family and his mom, dad, and brothers are all darker than me! I think he said he had some type of albinoism.

Not sure what else to write so:
That's what it's all about, A.Jizzle out!

Dstination: Incheon Airport/Coatel hotel

So how does a guy with a total of 6 hours of flight time over 23 years deal with 18 hours of flying in one day? I didn’t! The first flight from Cleveland to Chicago had me scared straight just for the simple fact that when the slightest bit of turbulence hits, I think “Uh oh, this is it, we’re going down”. I know that’s a horrible mentality but I can’t shake it! Random fact: the guy next to me was Tom. The flight from Chicago to San Francisco was a little bit better in part because it was a bigger plane and there was almost no turbulence at all, although the engines did sound like they were going to blow at any time. Plus I had 2 seats to myself. And tons of people were walking around the airport with Sub Zero masks trying not to catch the swine flu.

The flight from San Francisco to Korea was a wonderful experience. I got to my seat and saw a blanket and a pillow waiting for me. I had a middle seat on the right side of the plane but I didn’t find being in the middle too bad. I sat next to Dan/Don(couldn’t quite understand which one he said) who was going to Singapore for business and June who was from Korea, but living in the states and going back to Korea f or business. Strangely enough I didn’t sleep at all for the first 7 hours of the flight. I was either talking to Dan/Don and June, watching a movie, playing a game, learning some Korean, on my laptop, grubbing on the free meals(which were pretty good), or sipping on some Singapore Sling which was a dry gin drink mix.

After we landed I felt like I was in a Resident Evil movie because everybody’s temperature had to be checked to see if we might have the “virus”. If I wasn’t with June, I’d probably still be lost at the airport right now, but luckily we had to go to the same place. I got to my hotel, and had a roommate named David who was from Australia, but easily looked like he could have been from Korea because he was Cambodian. I was the last of the trainees to arrive, I didn’t get to the hotel till around 9/10pm on Sunday. So I hit the sheets to get ready for training.

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We found the real 'Hotel California' and the 'Seinfeld' diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.

FAQ

So here I am, 6:26am on Monday and can’t fall back asleep (training starts at 9am).

Here are a few frequently asked questions:

What made you want to go to S.Korea?
Aside from just being a kind of random person, I felt the need for some type of change, and also a challenge at the same time. It’s been almost 2 years since I graduated from college and I hadn’t had a degree-requiring job at all.

How did you come across the job?
I was browsing jobs on career builder. And saw a link from a company called Aclipse for teaching jobs overseas. I applied to it just for kicks, not really thinking “If they call me back I’m definitely going to do this”. But when they called, we had a phone interview and next thing you know they called me back saying it was a success. They had jobs in China, Japan, and S. Korea. I definitely didn’t want to go to China, so it was just a toss up between the two.

Are you nervous?
The only 2 things I was nervous about was the flight because I hate planes, and wondering how I will adjust to teaching, because I have no teaching experience at all. But as far as living here, I’m about to take the city over! Ay yo the city is mine (Which one?) A-N-S-A-N I go, A-J-I-Z-Z-L-E and you know how the story goes. That goes to a song by Drake called “City is Mine”. Check it if you haven’t already.

Don’t you need to know Korean to teach the kids?
No, I guess the children already have a basic understanding of English, we’re just there to sharpen their skills. They’re required to only speak English while in the classroom. It’s kind of like American kids, we already knew English but we still had English class.

And here we go

I'm about 45 minutes from take-off, this video couldn't say it any better.

Post Zero

I figured it was only right to start a blog to tell the tales of my new mission. I used to be on this blog stuff back in '05, before it was popular. Anybody remember Xanga? Yeah that was just about the only blog site open back then.

You might ask: What's soloANSANble? It derives from the term "Solo Ensemble". Obviously I'm going to S.Korea by myself, so that's where the solo relates. And the city that I'll be living in is called Ansan. Check the map.





























It lies south of Seoul, and takes about an hour on the subway(No Jared) to get to Seoul. Jizzle out.