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.