What Happens in Two Weeks is a Mystery

The reasons for delay in posting was due to illness and some recent events. I have recently encountered a few opportunities from meeting people here and am working on the following:

1. I am helping promote and re-do a bar
2. I am going to be in a Moroccan TV show or movie that is being taped here about two Moroccan guys living in South Korea. I may help in the production of the show as well as being on the show. This is still being worked out but it is a great opportunity none the less.
3. I am looking into starting a tea company here. I can not provide to much information until we have moved further along with it. We will see what happens but that has been keeping me busy as well.
4. Learning Korean so I can speak and understand it
5. Trying to EXPERIENCE Korea

THE RUN DOWN

Wednesday, Jan 28, 2009: I was teaching at my main campus and discovered that the kids LOVE watching video chats. I would bring my Mac (which many people do not own here) to school and would connect to the Internet to call friends and family from home. All of a sudden, the children are swarming around me to see who is talking on my computer. Many of the kids are shy but they still like to see foreigners across the world.

Monday, Feb 2, 2009: This was an interesting day. The director of Bangduk Campus was not there. I usually teach 25 minutes of one class then 25 minutes of another class. This time the director's mother (who I found out runs the campus) wanted me to stay and actually teach some of the classes for 50 minutes which meant the other classes didn't know what to do. It was a confusing day.

Tuesday, Feb 3, 2009: I came to campus and found out that I was going to be evaluated through out the day. The person evaluating me was named Rori (the name from Gilmore Girls). She speaks English very well because she lived in New Zealand for seven years. She can speak Korean but she doesn't know many complicated Korean terms. She had to follow me around and sit in on all my classes. I felt very awkward but I explained to her how this campus was very different than the other campuses.

As we chatted through out the day we discovered that we had a lot in common and she may be teaching at one of my campuses soon. She works in the main GnB office at the moment but is being trained to work as a teacher as well. She ran into some of the same problems that I had when having to do the e-training. We decided to make plans to have dinner the next night.

Wednesday, Feb 4th, 2009: Since Jenny was gone, I had to teach some extra classes. It was back to being thrown into classrooms and not knowing what to go over. Luckily, I can usually ad-lib and teach the lesson without have any preparation. I made it through the day and then met with Rori downtown for some Korean barbecue. She is going to try and introduce me to her Canadian friend who used to work for GnB. He married a Korean woman and is very Christian (this is how she explained him to me). Rori and I are the same age and we live near each other. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time hanging out with her.

Thursday, Feb 5th, 2009: I received a message from some of the people that were involved in the Japan fiasco. There was some drama but I am hoping that things get resolved. I am currently dealing with trying to dispute the charge of $230 for the ferry. I guess some lessons in life can be expensive...

Anyway, I found out I was going to go hiking with some of the GnB managers and staff on Saturday morning! Then that night I had a business meeting with my co-president and financial adviser on what steps we need to start taking with the tea business. It's beginning to look like I am going to be having a busy couple of months. Then I studied my Korean late into the night to prepare for my test on Friday from Violet.

Friday, Feb 6th, 2009: I forgot that Violet was not going to be at work today so looks like I have more time to study my Korean. I made it to the gym and then went to work. I got a shorter schedule today! Apparently my schedule is going to be changing at the Bolli campus. It was an interesting day and I got to see Gael ( the high school girl that is the daughter of the director of the Bolli campus). When I was done teaching, I didn't have much time because I needed to go downtown to help run a bar event with Brandi. I had a quick dinner downstairs from the school with Gael and then was given a ride home. Gael, her mother and her sister invited me to go bowling on Sunday and I happily accepted. I am starting to feel very popular.

Saturday & Sunday: I went hiking at Aspan mountain with my boss's family, the guy I interviewed for GnB (Eddie), Rori, Krissy (she didn't have an English name so I helped her pick out this name) and some other people. (During the hike I discovered I was in really good shape.) I kept trying to encourage Rori during the entire hike. It took us about an hour an a half to get to the top of the mountain and another hour to get back down. Supposedly the whole mountain takes about seven to eight hours. I think the best part was me continually screaming, "Aja!" which means fighting.

After we finished hiking, we went out for some traditional Korean food. Rori helped me understand what people were talking about and everyone kept trying to teach me new Korean words. Supposedly, if you can drink well then you are a whale.
Next day, I went bowling! The bowling alley's are much smaller than what I'm used to. I felt like their bowling alley was a little bit outdated. It didn't matter in the end because at least they seemed to work correctly. What I didn't know was that Gael's family didn't know how to bowl! I actually thought it was a lot more fun that they had never bowled.

After winning two out of three, we went to a restaurant where Gael's family often eat at. It was at this time that Gael asked me if I could fill out a letter of recommendation for her student exchange program application. I really hope that she gets to go to America. She wants to live with a host family in either California, Florida, or Virginia (I recommended that she look into going here). Anyone interested in hosting a smart Korean high school student? I wish I could but I don't think they would allow me...

I tried out one of the DVD rooms! You pay 13,000 won for a room and can watch as many movies as you want. It's so nice!

I think that's mostly everything... I will be moving my blog posts about my adventures in Korea to another location. This blog will return to posts about technology and hopefully I will be able to blog about the interesting technology that Korea has to offer. Like their TV/GPS that is in almost every car. It scares me...

The Pace is picking up!

Sorry for not posting for a week... It was a crazy week. I can't say that anything really exciting happened last week.

Things did get interesting on Thursday and Friday when I tried to finalize my plans to go to Japan with Will, Tim, Jill and Karen! Everyday last week, I tried to get a hold of them to find out where we would be staying and what the plans were for Japan. I finally heard from them on Friday afternoon through Facebook. Will and Tim made the excuse that they wanted to do a boys trip and had thought I was going with Jill and Karen. (I found this interesting since I booked a ferry to Japan online a week ago while I was on the phone with Will. My ferry was the same time as his!) Karen responded saying that her and Jill couldn't go because their visa would not allow them to go. (This later changed at the last minute because their boss gave them a tourist visa in which they could visit other countries.) In other words, I was frantically trying to figure out a way to either book accommodations to go alone or cancel my ferry.

There was a lot of confusion and what I ended up doing was calling my bank and telling them to let me know if I get charged for anything that has to do with Japan. Then, I decided to make other plans for my weekend. (I decided not to go to Japan because I did not want to be stressed out trying to make plans last minute. I would rather have things planned out and feel secure about going by myself)Instead, I went out Friday and met up with my British friends. That night I met a woman named Brandi who is also from Virginia and has been here for five months. She works at a hagwon (private school) but is also a bartender at Club That and Itaewon Crew. She is currently remodeling and updating the club. After chatting for a bit, we became friends and worked out a deal for me to help her re-do the place. (Nice thing to add to the resume). After meeting more people, I made plans to go to Seoul with the Brits the next day.
Sunday: I woke up late and packed all my things and headed to the train station. I was luckily able to buy a ticket at the last minute for the 1 pm train to Seoul. The trip took less than two hours and we were in Seoul! We checked into a hostel called "Inn Dae Won Guesthouse" which cost 15,000 won per night. (VERY CHEAP)

I'm not sure if I can relay all the events that occurred or how much of a character Kirk, Dom and Matt were. Let's just say that; Dom is like Mr.Bean, Matt is like Patrick from Coupling and Kirk is just kooky. Add all three together with me and you get an unforgettable weekend filled with bad english, KFC crime and old Korean women attacking you about toast.

Tuesday: We got back in the evening and prepared for the work week.

A RECAP of the Past Week

I don't think I can give you a detailed account of this week. I can try to summarize and give you the highlights. I have been really busy...

Tuesday: I taught at the new campus (I don't know the name of it yet...) and it was close to the same day I had on Monday.

Wednesday & Thursday: Back to Main Campus! This time, the girl that brought me to the hospital and worked out my verbal contract (Jenny) was back! (The sad part is I didn't remember what she looked like and thought she was someone new! Blonde moment) She has been very helpful in explaining things to me like when I am getting paid, how we can get me a cell phone, what I need to do for the school and what my schedule is. In other words, I had a great day Wednesday and Thursday. I teach about two to three classes on these days and have lots of time to get other things done. The classes I have are designated as mine and so I have more control over them. I like most of my classes but I have one class on Wednesday which I do not fully enjoy. The class is the older class where I have about three troublemakers in the class that can get on my nerves.

Other than that, I am now told that I need to make a teaching plan for each of my classes and have a daily report after each class to turn in. Eventually I will be reporting on student's progress and turning that in for their parents.

Friday: I taught at the Bolli Campus and had my first Korean lesson with my director. I think it's going to be difficult but I am hoping I will learn fairly soon. I have to have the constants and vowels memorized by Friday.

I taught my seven classes today and this time incorporated new learning activities. It was a lot of fun! My first two classes are really young and they are adorable. One of the kids said, "I love Carol." Then for the first time, I found their Korean English accent adorable! It was when they tried to say the word "turtle." I have now begun to really enjoy teaching some of these kids.

I will eventually put up a video of one of my classes but for now I am trying to get everyone here caught up.

Weekend: I didn't do much. I went downtown with my crew (Meaning Will, Karen and Jill) and we met up with the Brits. We started at Itaewon Crew and then moved to this place called BillBow. It's a mix of Billiards and Bowling! It was quite fun. I ended up staying up late enough to be able t take the subway home at 6 am in the morning. The subway closes at 11:30pm everyday here. Apparently, it is because most people do not ride the subway late at night. I can not believe this.

I checked out a church on Saturday that I may serve at. They were late to meeting me but I told them it was okay. The worship director picked me up and took me to this restaurant where I met two of the members. One of them tried to speak to me but he knew very few English phrases. One of them was "I love Jesus." The church members gave us a ride to the church where I was to meet the pastor. The pastor supposedly lived in the US for seven years and speaks English. The worship director and I went to his office where he was "busy". Inside his office, I am told to sit down. The pastor introduces himself briefly then turns his attention to the worship director and speaks Korean the whole time while I sit there looking at the office. His office walls are covered with books in Korean and English. It's a fairly large room for a pastor but he supposedly needs the room to prepare his sermons.

After they finish talking the pastor gives me a gift. A kitchenware set and two stainless steel mugs. I'm not sure why. The before we leave his office he asks me what denomination I am. I reply that I am nondenominational Christian. He responds with, "Oh...I will pray for you." Then the worship pastor shows me around the church and talks to me about teaching some of the kids English and leading a small group. I am not sure what all this entails and I do not want to commit to anything until I have thought about this. Eventually, after he has shown me around a bit. He gives me written directions to the church and his number and walks me to the subway. He said it had really been a pleasure meeting me and hopes to see me tomorrow at service.

Lets just say I didn't make it to his service the next day. I tried but it didn't work out. I felt slightly bad but I want to know more information about the church from a foreigner. I am trying to get in touch with the Daegu Faith International Church and am hoping they can give me some insight. Until then, we will see what happens.

Monday Brings a New School!

Weekend Recap: Didn't do much due to trying to save money until I get paid.
I did venture out to Duryu Park which is beautiful. Then had dinner with the my two Canadian friends (Karen and Jill) that live in the same apartment building as Will.

We had a nice American meal with pasta, salad and cupcakes for dessert. We chatted over diner and decided we try to make plans to go to Japan for Lunar New Years. (Side Note: I am also being dragged into trying Curling while I am here by my Canadian friends.)

Let's bounce to present day Monday! I arrive at my campus to plan for my classes that I will begin teaching this Wednesday. When all of a sudden, my boss comes in and to tell me that I have to leave because I will be teaching at another campus on Mondays and Tuesdays from now on. (Meaning my week is split up into three campuses that I work at.)

I am driven in silence by a gentleman (I can't remember his name!) to another GnB school that is far away. Once I am arrive, I am greeted by the Vice Director Joanne who lived in Australia and speaks English very well. I am told I will be teaching eight classes today and Tuesday. The main objective is to have me work on the kiddies pronunciation. I get to co-teach at this campus. Luckily, I have a teacher that understands English and can speak Korean.

I am being tossed in to classes and I don't know what to do. One of my co-teachers (Milly) has traveled a lot and is a fluent English speaker. She is new to teaching as well which is nice. Otherwise my classes were okay.

It was weird having another teacher in there with me. I keep wondering why they need me if these Korean teachers can speak English. They know Korean and English! Once again, a new school means figuring out what they want me to do.

Organization is the Key to Suceed

Friday was a great day. I taught five classes and I actually used the allotted time that I was given to teach. Usually, I have too much time left and have no idea what to do. I think I have now gotten the hang of this.

The reason as to why I succeeded on this day was because the Director of the Bolli Campus gave me a teaching guide and a teaching plan. Every week she said she will have one prepared for me. I will be able to write down any students that is a trouble makers or has problems in class. The teaching plan tells me what I am to teach and what the homework should be. ORGANIZATION RULES!

Also there was a girl who is in high school who came by (not sure her connection to the office) and she wanted to know more about me. I showed her all my photos on my computer and videos of my friends at parties from home. She really enjoyed that. She told me she wanted to move away from Korea because there are to many Asians. (I found that very interesting.)

My co-workers and I had dinner together in the office. They ordered Chinese food!

Afterward I wanted to go out but I was unsure as to whether it would be safe for me to go downtown alone. Grace said she felt it would not be dangerous and advised me to do so. I tried to explain why I had heard it was dangerous. How my friends told me that I would be raped. (I know this is extreme but this is what a friend of mine actually said to me!). When I told her this she looked at me with a confused look and said, "What is rape?" I was caught off guard and had no idea of how to try and explain this. After saying a lot of things that didn't make any sense, I told her "never mind" Hoping she would forget the word and my lame attempt of defining it. (Anyone have any idea of how to define or explain this word to a Korean!?)

That night I went downtown by myself which was not dangerous. I went to Itaewon Crew Pub a good place where some foreigners go. I ended up meeting a Scotsman named Andy and two Brits (Mak and Kirk). They have all lived in South Korea before but were new to Daegu. They teach English to adults. We met at Itaewon Crew Pub and then eventually went to Commune's. It wasn't to much of a crazy night but I did have a blast making new friends who I could relate to. For example, Kirk loves Coupling and sushi. I am looking forward to spending time with these gentlemen in the near future.

Time teaches all teaching

It's beginning to look a lot like teaching!

(picture of my co-workers)

Today was my first somewhat successful day. I may not know what is happening but I am starting to get a hang of this. I had to teach three classes. One of the classes was my class of thirteen year olds that I have not enjoyed teaching.

I tried something different. I started the class off with an interactive review of the grammar. The grammar was "-est". For example, "biggest" versus "big" and "tallest" versus "tall." I got two of my students to stand up and said, "Steven is the tall or tallest?" then "I am the short or shortest?" I think it got the message across! Then after that interactive activity, they seemed to pay more attention in class.

I am starting to realize the difficulty of being a teacher. I think that in school they should make every student teach a few classes. It might help students realize what teachers have to go through and the difficulty they face. Especially the ones that care and are under appreciated by students. I wish I had made more effort in certain classes where the teacher really wanted to help the students.

The Teaching Rollercoaster Ride!

What do you do when you wake up at 5am in the morning in S. Korea?

You call your lovers in the US to watch the sunset while they watch the sunrise behind you. (DUH!) In other words I woke up at 5am! Had a nice video chat using the wonderful Google video chat option in Gmail. Then I went to the gym by myself around 10 am. Sadly, I did not have my running shoes because they were in a locker with my co-workers shoes and I did not have a key to that locker. I did some casual exercises and once again was offered to take the cycling class. (I couldn't because I had the wrong shoes!)

When I was leaving the gym, another random women named Yongsan started to speak to me. She is a house wife that just moved back to Korea from living in Rochester, Mass. for a year. She had just joined the gym last week like me. We had a short conversation, decided we would see each other at the gym again and get coffee sometime. This is exciting because that means I have another Korean friend who will be able to help me learn Korean! (I'm starting to think that maybe it is better that I make a lot of Korean friends instead of Americans. Not that I have seen many in my area.)

I get to school with no idea of what I will be doing...AGAIN! (I'm starting to learn that I will just have to adapt to the Korean style of doing things last minute.) Dana (my co-worker) tells me that the director wants me to give a presentation to the staff at 7:30pm. (I start freaking out because I have no idea what they are talking about). After we went back and forth trying to understand each other, I came to the understanding that I would be exemplifying my lesson plan in front of my colleagues. (Since I will be teaching two new books to four classes on my own they wanted me to show them how I would be teaching the classes.) I started watching the Korean training video for the book (which didn't help since I don't know Korean yet).

I was told I would be given all day to prepare for the meeting. Next thing I know, I was put in a class to wing a lesson again. Apparently, my director had to speak to some parents and needed someone to stand in for her. Then I had to teach a class that I thought wasn't permanently being given to me. I have come to the conclusion that I will be teaching this class because they keep putting me in the class to teach it. The class is difficult to teach because all the students are at different levels and some are faster than others at learning. (This will be a new challenge for me as a teacher.)

The rest of my day was spent creating an activity for the my presentation. (Which didn't get finished in time but i will get back to that).

Around 7pm I had my favorite girls come by to say "Hello" and talk to me. First, it was Bebe (I think that's her name...) and her group of friends which I really enjoy speaking with. Then my two little ones, Elle and Jennifer (picture to the left), came by to ask me some questions and practice their English. They took pictures of me with their cell phones and told me I was pretty. Then Elle gave me a Christmas present! A Spider man key chain mirror! (It really touched my heart)
The kiddies said goodbye and it was presentation time! I said a frantic prayer for survival and did my thing. Pretending that my boss and co-workers were little obedient and interactive children. I gave the presentation and they said I did a great job. ::SIGH::

Now to finish creating my lesson plan activity... then all of a sudden my co-workers and boss really wanted to help me color my drawings! We all worked together and then had a Korean take out dinner in the office. It was so nice to spend time with them and fell like a part of the group.

I'm starting to think I might be able to get a hang of this! Guess we will see what tomorrow brings!

Last Minute Testing and Teaching

I don't know if you would consider today my fourth day teaching. Let me start from the beginning:

I woke up this morning to a Skype call that partially made my day but also made me miss home. I then met up with two of my Korean co-workers to go to the gym. The gym is called Pop's Italia Gym and it is going to cost me W198,000 for three months or I could pay W90,000 for one month. I agreed to pay W198,000 tomorrow in cash for the three months but now I am thinking I will pay W90,000 for a month and see if I want to continue going there. The gym was VERY different then my gym at home (LifeTime Fitness). It was much smaller and no one runs on the treadmill! All they do is walk! (I would not pay that much for a gym and just walk. I can walk outside for free!) I did a Body Sculpting class which made me realize how out of shape I was. I had tons of endorphins and had to run back to my apartment to change clothes. It's a good thing I ran back because I got a call from my director. She told me she would call back in half an hour for my help for an interview. I had no idea what she was talking about so I waited and got ready in case that meant she was picking me up. My phone rings and it's a gentleman on the phone whom I am to interview to work at GnB. I am to converse with him to distinguish whether or not he can speak English well. He speaks moderatly well but not to the level of a normal American conversation. I would hire him because at least he could understand me where as my co-workers are not exactly able to. Then I get to school late which doesn't matter because my director isn't even here. I am hungry and so I try to ask my co-workers where I could grab some food. They agree to take me to Home Plus Express (Yes, they agreed meaning they didn't understand what I was saying exactly).

We walked to the little food market and I bought some instant noodles (ramen) and some korean Oreo cookies (they were cheaper than Oreos). I came back and relaxed because I was unsure as to what I would be doing today. I was then asked to give my co-workers class their final test. The final test was supposed to take up the whole class time. They didn't do a bad job on the test but it didn't take the whole class time. I didn't know what else to do so I tried to converse with them but there is one kid in that class that will not listen to me. (Same kid, Daniel). About three of the kids told me they do not like English. One was Daniel and I asked him why. He had no response. Thus explains the importance of speaking English. You want to make fun of me or mess with me then learn English!

I retreat to the teachers lounge only to be told that in five minutes I have to teach another class. The class is loud and full of rowdy kids who seem pretty smart. They respond which is what I like. That class made my day. The kids even helped me teach the class. I think they like me.

Next, another last minute teaching assingment to reveiw and test my co-workers class. I am to review the test material for 10 mins and then give them their final test. I reviewed for longer than 10 minutes.... Meaning they only took part of their test which they did very poorly on. I really wanted to help these kids! It was painful to see them fail on something they could do so well if they had extra help or studied.



Maybe I should just put today's behavior by students at looking forward to having a day off for Christmas. I know I am definetly looking forward to sleeping in. It's not like I get to celebrate Christmas here. I'm hoping to find something to do for Chrsitmas and New Years. I don't have that many days off to enjoy. Hoping I can go to Taiwan for New Years, but I have a feeling I may not be able to...



More to come tomorrow!

I then was told that I will be teaching two storytelling books in the beginning of Januaray. I will be teaching four classses that will need to have the stories memorized by the end their last class because they will be presenting the stories to their parents. I guess this will prove whether or not I can teach... Praying I can do a good job and that my kids can learn these story books.

Third Times the Charm...

I'll give you a recap of my weekend. Nothing really exciting. I missed my chance to go to church because I overslept! Must try this coming weekend.

I had my two foreigner friends (Will and Tim) come over to my place on Saturday evening. On Sunday, I went to Seomun Market where Will and I got lost. The benefit of being lost is I found a cheap iron for 15,000 won. Then I got home early to watch another movie and go to bed.


My third day teaching and I got asked to teach a class and review. I didn't really know what to do. I had to give a test which the kids did not do great on. I don't know how the Korean teachers do things which make it difficult for me to know what to do. Luckily, one of the kids tried to help me out. Yet, there was one child named Daniel who kept being a nuissance in the class. I don't know what I am allowed to do to kids when they don't behave. I kept telling him to settle down. Then since we had a min left in class, I figured I could do one game of hangman with their vocabulary words. They lost and so I went over homework and collected their books like I thought I was supposed to. I checked their expression of the day and let them go.

When I handed all the books to my co-teacher, she seemed displeased. She told me they were going to have a test and therfore i was not supposed to keep their books. I asked earlier and they told me I am supposed to collect their books when they finish them! Then my director came in and told me in broken english not to play Hangman but go over parts in the book. For example, read over the material, check kids pronounciation and reading.

My last class, I was told would be at 5:50 but once again it was miscommunication and was at 5:15pm. I felt a little more prepared and decided that if the kids think it's boring then they will just have to deal. I am there to try and help them learn. If they don't want to learn then tough. I made a word search to take up some time. They thought it was difficult. I think I am going to make my own version of worksheets to test their knowledge and see if they are really paying attention to me in class. Next class, those kids are going to have to prove to me that they understand this stuff. I will have to think of a way to make some killer worksheets. For now, I am exhausted and want to go to bed. I will find out tomorrow what I will be doing.

Day Two: New Campus, New Teaching

It was my second day teaching and it was a totally new experience! The first thing I did was run to Home Plus (a store that is like a Walmart here) and buy slippers because all the Korean teachers teach in slippers. I bought some slippers for 5,000 won and then ran to my main campus. (SIDE NOTE: There are 1,700 GnB schools in South Korea. Each school is considered a campus. My main school is Yongsan Campus). When I got there I had 30 minutes to try and figure out what I was supposed to be teaching that day. I was told that on Fridays I would be teaching at another GnB campus. The director of the Bolli Campus, Violet, came and picked me up. She was very friendly and spoke English very well. In her opinion, she is not a good speaker or driver. (I won't say anything about her driving but in my opinion everyone in Korea drives crazy). She took me by Dunkin Donuts where she usually picks up donuts for her co-workers and we chatted for a bit.

Here's a something I learned about Korean culture from "Culture Smart! Korea" by James Hoare: Koreans will ask you many questions to try and establish common links with you. The culture is all about group identity. Therefore, I learned she liked Britney Spears and we both want to learn each others language. She was very kind and helpful. She answered one of my prayers, to find a church. She told me she would make a call and get me in touch with a church she knew about that has English service. She said she would help me in anyway she could and would like us to be best friends. (I have no problem with this).

We arrived at her campus and she introduced me to her Korean staff (Anne, Grace and ____). One of the staff has an education degree and if I need any help or have any questions, she said she would be more than happy to help. They gave me an outline of what they needed me to to do for each class and what I needed to cover. I had six back to back 25 minute classes and two 50 minute classes back to back. All my classes were mainly very young children from Kindergarten to Elementary school age kids. I had to focus on their comprehension, vocab and pronunciation. For vocabulary or memorized speech, I discovered I could play hangman. Otherwise, I mainly repeated words or phrases and then had the children repeat them back to me. In the beginning, the children didn't really respond much. I started to feel like I did my first day of teaching. When I got to my last two classes, things changed. I was mainly guiding the lesson and not reviewing. The kids were more active and seemed to really comprehend what I was saying. It was the best end to my day of teaching.

Afterwards, Violet took me out to have a real Korean meal. She notified me that next Friday I would not be teaching because it is a holiday. Instead, she wanted me to meet her family (her husband and 2yr old son) and show me around Daegu. She wants to help me get a mobile phone and cook me food. I have no problem with this and am looking forward to spending time with her family and staff.

This was exactly what I needed. I want to learn Korean language, martial arts and get involved with a church. Thanks to Violet, I have a feeling I may be able to achieve these goals. (She already helped me understand my washing machine!). I hope the other new school that I will be teaching at is as welcoming as Violet has been. We will see what happens this coming week but for now I am going out looking for more foreigners to meet in Daegu and try out a church. I will let you know how my weekend adventures come along.

Adventures soon to come and hopefully a link to all my pictures....

My first day of teaching

My first day of teaching I taught two classes. I don't think I did a very good job. I try to plan things out but I soon discovered my first class was very bright. They seemed to really understand the material.

For my second class, I was told they had not received their new books so I had review the whole book. The second class was a class of teenagers. They said they were all 13 years old but that's in Korean years. (For example, by this coming year, I will be 24 in Korean years. In American years, I am still 22.) Meaning that the kids should be around 11 or 12. They seemed very disinterested and I had no idea what to really do. I tried my best but it seemed like my beginning as an English instructor was due to failure.

I believe the problem is that I don't know Korean. Even though I'm not supposed to speak Korean, I think it would help. If they don't understand me then I don't know what I am to do. I am teaching the class by myself. When the children don't understand, they just give me a blank stare.

I put up a status on my facebook about my first day failure (i.e. feeling down because her first day of teaching didn't go as planned) and received a lot of great feedback from people I did not expect to hear from. I was told:

• "If everything went as planned life would be simple. Don't let it get you down, but don't take it for granted."
• "In teaching you will have your good days and your bad days. Learn from the bad days and you will have more and more good days. Its all a learning experience. It will get better. Just don't give up."
• "Plans are only guidelines. Remember you're dealing with a bunch of (if as of yet greatly undeveloped) minds and personalities that will change the best of plans. You have the ability to roll with it and adapt to suit."

It was great advice and really made me feel a lot better. I am hoping that my next day at my main campus will go more smoothy. I believe the problem may be in the communication between my main campus director and I. She tells me what to teach and it's not always the correct books or materials. This can cause a problem. I hope that somehow I will find a way to resolve this issue.

I will write more soon...

Weekend Adventure to Busan

After being in Daegu for about 2 days, I decided to take an adventure and go to Busan (Pusan).

I met someone on TravBuddy.com which is similar to couchsurfing.com but it for travelers to meet other people that like to travel. Another niche social network but it worked well for me. (I know it sounds crazy and you must think I'm living a little bit dangerously but I'm in Korea. I don't exactly know anyone and it was dangerous coming here alone in the first place!)

I went to my school Friday and had to watch training videos to prepare me to teach. After watching many videos, I had to go by the hospital and get a physical to show I'm not a drug addict. I went with this new Korean teacher who speaks good English. She lived in NJ for about six years for college and won't start working until after January. It was nice talking to someone who could understand me. My director does not speak very good English or at least she doesn't understand me all the time. (I discovered later that she can read English better than speaking or verbally understanding it). I was tired and got home to catch up on people and finish moving in all my stuff. I still had a little jet lag to get over.

I decided to take a shower which from my video you can tell is very strange. I have discovered that if I stand close enough to my sink then it will be like an American shower (meaning I don't have to take down the hose thing.) I went to bed and decided early in the morning I would meet with my friend from TravBuddy (Will) and his friend (Tim, whom he met at a bookstore) to Busan. I live near the Jukjeon metro station. I met with Will and then we went to the Daegu Train Station:
(I will have to create a page where you can see all my pictures. All my videos are on my youtube page). It took about 45 minutes to get to Busan. We passed a lot of beautiful scenery that showed the country life on South Korea. When we came into Busan, we decided to check out the fish market. The Jagalchi Market (my video) is known for having lots of fish and a very fishy smell (I wonder why...haha). We ventured through the Russian district where it welcomed foreigners. We eventually had to ask for directions but we got to the fish market!:
We found another level to the fish market that was a restaurant. We ordered Sashimi, some Hite (beer), and other food. I ate snails or it may have been sea urchins... Then after a very big meal, we ventured toward the Haeundae Beach (Here's my video). After venturing around we found a fair. All South Korean fair have for games are the stands where you throw something to pop a balloon. (I don't have a picture, sorry). We tried to go to Snow Mountain that is an indoor skiing place but it was closed. We went to all the hot spots that were listed in my lonely planet "Korea" guide book. We went to Ol'55 and the Vinyl Underground. They weren't as exciting as they said but we had fun anyway. Our last event of the night was experiencing a No-Rae-Bong (Korean Karaoke Room). You pay a small amount and get your own karaoke room. Will and Tim drank enough to be able to do it but by the end of the night we had all lost our voice. We went to our hostel: The Actor & Tourist Guesthouse that is run by Mr.Lee. After sleeping in heated beds, we awoke to a new morning of adventures and friends. I got up first and searched for breakfast. I found McDonald's and then almost got lost trying to get back to the hostel. We met a new friend there who was from Holland (I believe) and had just traveled from Russia. HE had been in Busan by himself for a week. The next day he would be leaving for Japan. He came with us to visit the Beomeosa Temple which has Buddha's bones and a lot of history. (This is when my camera died...)After the temple, we went to the cliffs and my friends have a lot of pictures that I will have to add at a later date. It was beautiful watching the sunset from the mountain. There were tons of ships on the water and it made me realize how beautiful God created this earth.

We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to the train station. On our way, the guys were talking about this thing that people eat in the Philippines called Balot. (It is basically a chicken egg but the chicken is in it's trimester and you're eating a baby chicken fetus.) Funny thing is, we found a place on the way that served Balot! I couldn't bring myself to eat it but my friends did. We caught the train and eventually parted ways.

That should be a summary of my weekend in Busan. My next entry will most likely be about my first day teaching English to Korean kids at GnB Yongsan Campus.

I AM IN KOREA

Hello All! This is another personal post about my adventure to teach in South Korea. I arrived after a 13 hours flight then was put on a 5 hour bus. I arrived in Daegu around 1 am and waited for my director to pick me up. They picked me up and told me my apartment was not ready so they had me stay with them at their home for the night. The next day I was able to sleep and get online. I had to wait until around 7:30pm for them to pick me up and bring me to my new home. They picked me up and we went to my new home. Here is a clip of my apartment:


After we put my stuff down, we went to the super market. They bought me some household needs and groceries. Then we went to WABAR (The Western Ice Bar). It's located next to the campus in which I will be teaching at. I had a weird quesadilla that had onions and cheese in it. Then I went home and tried to get ready for my new adventures.

My first problem here as that I couldn't get any money out of an ATM. After speaking to another foreigner on TravBuddy, I discovered that when you use the ATM, you want to find an ATM that takes foreign cards. After learning this, I was able to get money out. I guess My next post will be more descriptive....

Social Media Hits DC with Insight

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to the Social Media Club - DC event at the National Press Building on social searches versus Google searches (not how they phrased it but it addresses the point). The speakers were Chris Seline (@dumbfounder), Laurence Hooper (@lhooper), Jared Goralnick (@technotheory), Greg Gershman (@greggersh) and Aaron Brazell (@technosailor). The reason I have names in parenthesis are because these are all their twitter names. I'll explain that more in a bit.

They started off discussing the difference between social searches and Google searches. There were many conflicting views amongst the board but here is what I got. Google searches will get what you want but it cost time. Social searches are more customized and personalized to the user. Aaron Brazell gives the example of Thomas Hawk whose goal in life is to publish 1,000,000 photos on flickr. He has already posted about 20,000. If Aaron wanted to find a photo that Thomas took of New York a couple years ago then it would take him awhile searching Google to find that pictures. If he searched Flickr then he would speedily find what he was looking for.

These social searches interact with people because the results are based on other opinions. It comes down to the perception of trust in social networks. We tend to put a trust value on the information we find by ratings like Yelp.

Julie Minevich, who also attended, gives a good run down of the remaining questions that were discussed:

• Is there any value in organizing and archiving old social networking actions?
• Are mobile communities the next step in this media revolution?
• What are the ways social networking sites are trying to create revenue?
• Why isn’t Google more involved in this social media space?

I'll try and highlight some of the responses from the panel on these questions from the notes that I took. (Yes, I took notes with a pen and paper! I felt very lame. Especially because it was on an HP paper notepad)

• The reason Google has not gotten involved in social searching is because they have not found a way to make money off of it. They are waiting to see how to make money off of Facebook and Twitter.
• Blogging, twitter and all these other mobile communities are affecting the future by creating a universe in social networks. These social networks describe who we are as a person and/or company. It is becoming a way in which we create our identity.
  
• Some sites for tracking social media: Trakr, Twitterbox, Radiant 6?, Blogpolls? and Relevant Noise (Someone let me know if these are correct...)
• Facebook is behavioral advertising and behavioral marketing. The new form of advertising.
• The great thing about social networks are that they are free. Compared to the past where you would have to pay to go to a social networking event.
  
• Social Networkers are finding ways to make money by finding ways to share ads on things like FanBox.
• Keep an eye out for Aardvark, a new start up that is like Yahoo Answers and Twitter meshed together.
  

The last point of discussion was on what's next. As Aaron responded, "we are finding ways to merge real life and online life. The closer you bring both together is better." We are constantly on our phones and online. For example, the best thing about this meeting was that every person was on their iPhone, Blackberry or mobile device (sadly I have not gotten an iPhone and am very uncool). While the speakers were talking everyone was on Twitter responding and making comments. As Julie said, "It was almost like there were two interconnected conversations taking place concurrently but separately. The second, the one on twitter, was, of course, a result of the in-person discussion and the twitter comments were mentioned a few times in the live discussion, but again, for the most part, they were taking place independently and simultaneously."

By the end of the night, I walked away with more than I expected. The discussion won't end due to all the new twitter friends I have attained. ( Follow me @cbenton!) It gave me a new perspective on the future and my career in life. I am looking forward to more events like these.

What are your points of view on some of the questions.

YouTube gets Political Video Texting

Speech Recognition technology has been brought to YouTube through it's new political section called YouChoose. (Is it just me or has there been a significant rise in people taking interest in political change. In the last couple of years, the younger generations are getting more involved in voting and bringing about their opinion to the public. It started with youth campaigns, celebrities and the major impacter player . . . . drum roll. . . . viral marketing. Funny how things always come back to the Internet. ) What YouTube is doing is, they are indexing all the words used in the clip of a speech. It's like what Google does with tagging. When you go to "Face the Candidates" link at the bottom right link of the page. It brings you to YouChoose which half way down the page it has a search box that says, “What did the candidates say?” Then you type in whatever concerns you, like "health care", "Iraq" or "gas" that brings up a list of videos that use those terms. When viewing those videos, the "playback bar will also have yellow boxes on it that you can mouse over bringing up a pop-up showing you relevant dialog contained in that section."
Read more at Beet.tv

Currently, YouTube is limiting recognition to just the YouChoose political videos. We will see if this changes anytime in the future.

This is a great advance in helping people find what they are looking for. Tags put on videos helps to a degree but with this new way of indexing. It could change the way we watch online content. With the more defined searching there is, the more positive and negatives there are. Some viewers will be narrow minded in the content they see but the other side of things is that people won't waste valuable time looking for exactly what they need. Time is money. . .

Other companies attempting this video search is blinkx.

Guess I should start getting politically involved with my blog. . . actually . . . not THAT involved.

[picture taken from Aquate research]

Stanford Youtube Channel Got Oprah

We all know how Oprah is taking over the world. What does she not already own or have? She is connected or apart of some many different organizations and businesses that this recent news doesn't surprise me much.

Oprah Winfrey's 2008 commencement speech is the highlight to Stanford University's newly launched Stanford YouTube Channel. The new site has more than 150 videos of complete video lectures "by Clayborne Carson on African-American history, roundtable discussions on global issues led by John Hennessy, informative clips on innovation and entrepreneurship, microdocumentaries by marine ecologist Steve Palumbi, and other Stanford offerings from iTunes U." There are plans to continue it's growth of free educational content. tch This is the link to Stanford's YouTube channel.

Now, if you are not a fan of YouTube or you want these free educational videos on the go then hook it up your "pod." (I like calling it a pod but it stands for Ipod. If you didn't get it). Just remember to be careful of updating your Ipod. The difference between what is being offered on YouTube versus Stanford's iTunes U is that iTunes has 20 full-length online courses. Go figure. I guess I wasted a lot of gas going to a university in person.

What i take from all this is that Oprah is taking over the world, including the Internet. Stanford is finally entering the digital age. I wasted time by physically going to college when I could have stayed at home and done YouTube University. last, where is this all going. Does this mean we will no longer need physical universities because everything will be online AND when will college students start secretly videotaping class and putting it online. Darn, why did it take me until after college to come up with that idea. I could have started Secret YouTube college trend!

Another thought! Mobile Education!

MAC Security Breach is taking pictures!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! MAC is supposed to be all powerful and all knowing! How could it be that a Trojan horse has been created? The AppleScript THT Trojan horse is "capable of logging ketstrokes, taking screenshots, turning on file sharing and even taking a picture using the built-in Apple iSight camera." This means that if your Mac starts acting crazy, then be ready to SMILE!

At this moment, if you're starting to freak out because it feels like no computer is safe from the clutches of Darth Virus (get it? Darth Virus instead of Darth Vader! I thought it was funny. . . ), then take a chill pill (someone needs to bring it back). The virus can only be activated if you download and execute it. This means that you need to be careful of what you download. (If you didn't already know that, then WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN.)

Most computer users have been educated at some point that downloading unknown files from unknown people can be dangerous. It's like picking something up from the ground that looks like candy and putting it in your mouth. We have all done that at one point in our lives, but that moment was when we were toddlers. If you are reading this, then you are not a toddler. Unless you are some super baby genius, but we live in reality and not movies.

Back to the point, be careful Mac users because a Trojan is out there to take your picture and virtually stalk you. As if we don't have enough problems with real life stalkers.

Get the Job by Blogging

I found it funny that my assigned class reading for this week's blog entry had to do with employment. The one thing I have become concerned about for these upcoming months. Graduation is approaching and so is the question: what do you plan to do now with your life?

My responses have become a list of ideas or plans that have not yet become determined as my course of action. I am starting to feel like I should come up with some generic response like, “I plan to fly a kite.” It’s short and sweet.

I like that response but it doesn’t address the point I plan to make. In the search for that job or THE job, we discover we need to find a way to differentiate ourselves from our fellow competitors. One might think canceling or deleting their social networking site pages would help, but would it? Does it matter? Are they going to be able to get past my privacy settings? OR Do I need to set-up a blog resume?

Joshua Porter believes it is a good idea and says, “Your blog . . . represents you, is serious business, is an archive, isn’t the only mirror of your life and is your unedited version of yourself.” He makes some very good points but, I cannot fully agree with him. I question the belief that a blog is a pure representation of oneself. With people creating alternative lives online in social networks, then what’s stopping them from creating a fake blog? ^{I know, fake blogging is a bit of a stretch but my point is people could be blog posers.} An example of a blogger that made it big but could have been set for disaster is Glenn Kelman.

To be honest, the way to succeed in getting hired comes down to the company, occupation, market and the person hiring the employees. It depends on whether they are tech savvy or more conservative in their approach to technology. In time, people may find blogging a way to get hired or the thing to give them an edge on the competition.

For all those looking for jobs, this video interview gives some good insight into what I have talked about:

The Perfect Job & How You Get It

After being a part of hosting the PRSSA Regional Activity at AU this past weekend, I found this week's assigned reading very interesting. It tied into what PRSSA and most professionals try to stress: NETWORK!

It's quite simple yet most of the time it is overlooked by students and professionals. The best resource into learning how to network can be found here. The article by Priscilla March is a step-by-step guide to succeed in networking. I wish I had read this before the weekend, but luckily some of the information I already knew.

Another point to add is students or professionals should have business cards. It may sound overrated but I spoke to some professionals who said it makes the student stand out. If you stand out, then you are one step ahead of your competition.

Looking for work in D.C. is definitely competitive so getting an edge can definitely help the odds of getting employed. This would be where networking comes in as a very big component of getting an edge on the competition.



Knowing someone inside a company or knowing the right people can sometimes land you a job you didn't even know existed. I received my previous internship through attending a party. I happened to comment on how I was looking for an internship at the party. I came to find out that the gentleman hosting the party worked at a firm thatwas looking for a new intern. Next thing you know, I was interning at the firm and getting paid.

Eventually, I needed to spread my wings a bit and move on. Therefore, I am back to hoping for another opportunity to reveal itself. The best way to have that happen is to continue networking wherever I go. If it works, then I will be living the high life.

If it doesn't, then at least I will have met some new people and maybe expanded my amount of connections on LinkedIn!

With all that being said, anyone know someone who wants to hire me?

Virtual Reality vs. Reality

Where do we go next in these online worlds? If the majority of people turn to virtual worlds like Second Life and vSide then what will happen to the real world? Will we see only the hick towns or the Amish taking over? All I know is that virtual worlds will not be able to become reality for me. After reading Ellen Lee write in the San Fransisco Chronicle about virtual worlds , it got me thinking about the progression social networking. It seems that all virtual worlds are another form of social networking. The only problem is with so many virtual worlds being made, each site or world will keep users interested for a time period. After that, people figure out that there's more to life than a virtual world that will not help them lose weight while sitting in front of a computer or get married. In a virtual world you can not file your taxes or get married and create an offspring. There are limits to the virtual world and it's sad to see some people taking a virtual world to this extent:



My second concern is with the invention of MyCyberTwin then how do we we are talking to is ALIVE or REAL. I think virtual worlds like SecondLife will stick around for awhile but give it some time and in a couple years it will die. Unless, they are able to create a world where you can walking inside your coputer and become part of it! That would be nice, to have two world instead of one. Or am I overthinking this?