The rest of orientation was all lectures, bad food and going out for drinks...pretty much like being a child dependent on a drunk I suppose...yeah, I said that.
The lectures were like something from Guantanamo Bay, right up there with waterboarding. Whenever I sat down, I would start falling asleep. There was a constant internal battle during class and I would often succumb to it willingly; this is known territory for me though, many of my previous co-workers would confess that I am notorious for falling asleep in meetings (I like to think that I am subtly expressing my opinion).
The teachers are a good group of people, some of the Americans couldn't understand my accent at times though, some seemed to struggle with a few accents actually and one also lay claim that the South African accent is the heaviest, yeah, sure, what a tall glass of wadder that guy was. Met some really cool people but I tried keeping a low profile, still had to determine what the score was (barely even got tipsy and I was so reserved that I hardly offended anyone :)...you know, suss things out before you break out. I will mention these cool people if they ever pop up again, else to hell with em, in a really nice way of course. No seriously, I'm not going to ramble off a list of names here.
Lectures were in Seoul, very big, very busy city. I discovered that the statistics about the average height of the men were distorted by all the short old men and that the younger generation were actually surplisingly tall. All the Koreans dress very nicely, even those who just projectile vomited against the wall of a club...inside...three awkward steps from the loo...blech!...and it was a chick...
That happened at The Bunker, very cool place, listened to some cool Korean rap until the DJ spotted us, then it was Britney Spears and pop music, yay! I confirmed that I still can't dance to that music...can you say "uncomfortably sober"? My favourite dance move is saying that I can't dance to that music (which is actually a very effective move when there's some dude breakdancing in front of you). The Bunker was located at the end of gigawatt road or whatever it was called, it's a street that would scar your retinas if you chose to read all the adverts. A place where you should wear shades round the clock. A place with many clubs, dvd lounges and people dressed up in costumes advertising beer.
On our second last day, we went to a museum, and it bored the hell out of my skull to be honest, mostly pots and other clay things, many paintings that are drawn in the exact same style (imagine flipping through a Zoolander-style calendar) and a few cool buddha statues. Then we missioned to a palace, which was a better experience as I enjoy the outdoors. I was peer pressured into watching the changing of the guards, yeah, I wish they would just have run up and skewered me, super boring, but oh so very cultural the posers would tell me. At this point of the day, Inga (cool guy from Eastern Cape) and I believed that all was lost. There was a hanta show later on. A co-ordinator had told us hanta rocked and we had seen a show with him on our second day and it did not in fact rock, in fact it had sucked...hard. He was also the one that told me the changing of the guards was awesome. Unbeknowest to me, there genuinely was a cool show waiting on us. Hanta is basically the Korean word for a percussion show, but man oh man, was this group great, nay AWESOME! Check out the youtube link below if I ever get around to adding one. One of the BEST shows I have ever seen.
The last day of orientation I got on a bus and that closes this chapter.
Wow, that makes for some quick reading and that's pretty much how it felt...like I got there and the next moment I left...whooosh...
Soon I will post photos, but I was lazy and took none.
My next post will be covering this week, my first week at the school. Lovin it!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
South Korea - Orientation Day 1
They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline. I am surprised to learn that the word Samurai means, 'to serve', and that Katsumoto believes his rebellion to be in the service of the Emperor.
Okay, so I stole that from The Last Samurai, but they are people and I really was surprised to hear that the word Samurai means 'to serve'.
The Koreans are really friendly, well, the younger generation and most of the older women that I have met are anyway. A few of the older men grunt at me when I walk past them in the street, not all of them, just some; others simply don't acknowledge me (which is kind of cool, I like to think that I'm a young Patrick Swayze out looking for my Whoopi Goldberg, wait, maybe that's not cool :). My original response was to grunt back, but luckily I stifled that impulse...Ahh,the grunting...Based on my personal experiences I initially concluded that it was the indigestion from their superhot food, but apparently it voices their disapproval or disgust, thanks, thanks for judging me. Nevertheless, they are polite and I have met old men that are really cool, for instance, when I got to my school I was introduced to several teachers and this one dude kept on pointing out all the single chicks very loudly. Rock on! Just get that out there, right off the bat :D
Enough intro. Let's get to the first bit of this trip. I'm gonna make this quick and as painless for me as possible (as this will undoubtably be the least eventful part of my experience). I'm going for a very rushed, cluttered writing style, as this is pretty much how it all felt. That's great you say, but I don't actually care, so get on with it already :D
I would recommend SingaporeAir, for they absolutely rocked. Loads of entertainment, good food and the seating wasn't bad either. Met up with other teachers from South Africa and Suzanne and I actually finished a bottle of Jim Beam in the back by the galley on the first leg of the flight :D.
They really won me over when, at 11am, I said: "Is it too early for a Jim Beam?" to which the attendant coolly replied: "It is never too early, sir." My kinda people. I shared a few laughs with the passengers sitting next to me, which might have been directed at me cause I vaguely recall slurring :} (i blame it all on lack of sleep!). One of them was a hot Fillipino chick, sadly her husband sat behind us, sad for him I say! She was not the only flirty one on that flight (this was when I was still sober before you shake your head at me).
Anyway, so, I got to Korea and my EPIK (English Program in Korea) orientation after a 20 hour flight or something like that, with about 3 hours sleep in 50 hours, ouch (couldn't sleep the night before I flew, too busy packing and I went out for beers and such things with Dean in the wee hours). Despite this, in true Saffer style, the first thing I did was to go out for beers and I ended up getting lost on the way back.
Being lost in a foreign country is not as much fun as not being lost, but close.
I have a very good sense of direction so I wasn't actually "lost" per say, it's just that my building was tucked behind another building and being ricockulously tired I had not paid enough attention; later, I would discover that I was mere footsteps away from it (damn jetlag, curse the extended period of boozing and to hell with that three passage labyrinth). After 40minutes of walking up and down I was forced to use a tree as a urinal, fear had gripped me, what if I got caught, what then, how would I explain? What would come next? Luckily, that never happened and hopefully I will never need to know.
I spoke to people, but no-one understood me and just when I lost all hope of finding the place, my roommate came walking down the street. It was serendipitous, for I had not met him before and also because I don't think I entirely understand the meaning of that word. It was truly fortunate as my original plan had been to wait in the main road for 3 hours until the EPIK curfew forced the others to head back; by then I would probably have been an icicle and one of the drunk ones would no doubt have needed to cut me loose with a yellow sword. All was well. Well, almost...my roommate snores (continuous tense)...now, I know that I snore but this was something else for he had been feeling ill the one evening, sinuses...Henceforth, he shall be known as The Rattlesnake. Also, at times he very much resembled a cat purring under water, drowning contently.
And on that night, Marius slept like a baby...so what, he was constantly waking up, crying, screaming and kicking (never got that saying to be honest)?
Okay, so I stole that from The Last Samurai, but they are people and I really was surprised to hear that the word Samurai means 'to serve'.
The Koreans are really friendly, well, the younger generation and most of the older women that I have met are anyway. A few of the older men grunt at me when I walk past them in the street, not all of them, just some; others simply don't acknowledge me (which is kind of cool, I like to think that I'm a young Patrick Swayze out looking for my Whoopi Goldberg, wait, maybe that's not cool :). My original response was to grunt back, but luckily I stifled that impulse...Ahh,the grunting...Based on my personal experiences I initially concluded that it was the indigestion from their superhot food, but apparently it voices their disapproval or disgust, thanks, thanks for judging me. Nevertheless, they are polite and I have met old men that are really cool, for instance, when I got to my school I was introduced to several teachers and this one dude kept on pointing out all the single chicks very loudly. Rock on! Just get that out there, right off the bat :D
Enough intro. Let's get to the first bit of this trip. I'm gonna make this quick and as painless for me as possible (as this will undoubtably be the least eventful part of my experience). I'm going for a very rushed, cluttered writing style, as this is pretty much how it all felt. That's great you say, but I don't actually care, so get on with it already :D
I would recommend SingaporeAir, for they absolutely rocked. Loads of entertainment, good food and the seating wasn't bad either. Met up with other teachers from South Africa and Suzanne and I actually finished a bottle of Jim Beam in the back by the galley on the first leg of the flight :D.
They really won me over when, at 11am, I said: "Is it too early for a Jim Beam?" to which the attendant coolly replied: "It is never too early, sir." My kinda people. I shared a few laughs with the passengers sitting next to me, which might have been directed at me cause I vaguely recall slurring :} (i blame it all on lack of sleep!). One of them was a hot Fillipino chick, sadly her husband sat behind us, sad for him I say! She was not the only flirty one on that flight (this was when I was still sober before you shake your head at me).
Anyway, so, I got to Korea and my EPIK (English Program in Korea) orientation after a 20 hour flight or something like that, with about 3 hours sleep in 50 hours, ouch (couldn't sleep the night before I flew, too busy packing and I went out for beers and such things with Dean in the wee hours). Despite this, in true Saffer style, the first thing I did was to go out for beers and I ended up getting lost on the way back.
Being lost in a foreign country is not as much fun as not being lost, but close.
I have a very good sense of direction so I wasn't actually "lost" per say, it's just that my building was tucked behind another building and being ricockulously tired I had not paid enough attention; later, I would discover that I was mere footsteps away from it (damn jetlag, curse the extended period of boozing and to hell with that three passage labyrinth). After 40minutes of walking up and down I was forced to use a tree as a urinal, fear had gripped me, what if I got caught, what then, how would I explain? What would come next? Luckily, that never happened and hopefully I will never need to know.
I spoke to people, but no-one understood me and just when I lost all hope of finding the place, my roommate came walking down the street. It was serendipitous, for I had not met him before and also because I don't think I entirely understand the meaning of that word. It was truly fortunate as my original plan had been to wait in the main road for 3 hours until the EPIK curfew forced the others to head back; by then I would probably have been an icicle and one of the drunk ones would no doubt have needed to cut me loose with a yellow sword. All was well. Well, almost...my roommate snores (continuous tense)...now, I know that I snore but this was something else for he had been feeling ill the one evening, sinuses...Henceforth, he shall be known as The Rattlesnake. Also, at times he very much resembled a cat purring under water, drowning contently.
And on that night, Marius slept like a baby...so what, he was constantly waking up, crying, screaming and kicking (never got that saying to be honest)?
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