Settling in before Chusok

With the first 3 weeks of school finished, we have a long 5 day thanksgiving type holiday called Chusok starting tomorrow. We still haven't figured out where we're going to go yet and it's Friday night already. Everyone in the country it seems travels on this holiday to visit their parents and grandparents so it's a very busy time to travel, but the only chance we'll get until Christmas. We're considering Pusan (a large port city with a huge seafood market), Gyeongju (capital of the one of the most famous empires in Korea's history) and Oedo ("Paradise Island"). We were very excited about the idea of Oedo until I read the information in the Lonely Planet guide book where we learned that the island is man-made, crowded and expensive. During Chusok it's likely to be even more so. However the other islands around the area of Oedo sound interesting enough to go to.

I've really enjoyed teaching recently as I have several middle school classes who speak English well enough for conversations and they understand my jokes. When I taught in Gunsan in 2002/03 all of the students were given English names so within a couple weeks, I knew most of the students names. 3 weeks into this experience, I know maybe 10% of my student's names. I'm trying to learn their Korean names but it's difficult. The students often correct my pronunciation of their names and every name is strange to me so they're difficult to remember.

Korean classes are getting better as we finished the alphabet after 2.5 weeks so now we learn useful phrases every day. I met another English teacher in my class. He's from the U.S. and is also married to a Korean. We talk every day before and after class. It's nice to have somebody to talk to who I don't have to speak simply and slowly to.

I've been a bit paranoid about mentioning names in my entries so far. I want to make them more personal but I feel a bit nervous about it after a situation that occurred over the summer. I posted an entry on a web site asking a question about a certain school. 2 weeks later my wife called me and told me that the owner of the school called her and yelled at her...apparently a teacher read my entry, told a recruiter that he wasn't interested in the school, the recruiter told the employer, the employer called my wife, and my wife called me. We sorted everything out in the end (I removed the name of the school from the entry) but there was nothing connecting me to the entry as it was anonymous...except that I had been in negotiations with the school. So it creeped me out how easily I was tracked down and unfortunately my wife was pulled into the situation too.

So anyway I'm hoping to get a little more personal with my entries but it's difficult. I feel if I do, then I can't accurately report certain events without getting in trouble. However if I don't get more personal then my writing won't have the warmth that it should have, given that I'm writing mostly to my family and friends. I'll figure it out sometime.

We found a shop fairly close to our apartment that sells western food so we're chowing down on nachos and cheese with salsa at the moment. Sooo good. Cheese is one of the foods I miss most and now I can have it often, especially now that I have something to eat it with! I was excited to find Oreos (and cheap!) but they're not quite the same...a little more soggy than at home. Also: Pringles, M&Ms (no Smarties), Snickers, Skittles, Hershey's Kisses and all kinds of Kellogg's and Post cereals. Sometimes I crave a good steak or pasta but they're not too hard to find if I'm willing to go downtown and pay a little more money (well, probably the same price as in Canada but if I order a Korean dish, it's about half as much so it just seems more expensive.