planes, trains, scooters and bikes

Our first month has gone by Palle palle palle! as the Koreans would say, sometimes with a "b"others with a "p", but meaning all the same with lightning speed! It has been difficult to write for several reasons, the first being that we still do not really have a home and therefore internet is only
ocassionally available and rarely convinient. The second reason being that all of the free time we somehow thought would manifest in our lives is non-existant, probably better that way for two busy bodies, but we are teaching after school classes on top of our regular hours, playing on sports
teams, training for marathons, trying to learn Korean and accepting every invitation to sing Karaoke all night as we can muster. The third reason for not writing as frequently has been resolved after reading a very inspiring and candid/informative and rather charming blog: Salty Seattle. For myself writing about this experience so far has not come easily because the experience has not been easy,
in fact this has been, and I am speaking for both of us, the most difficult year of our lives and living in Korea is no exception. I have only been inclined to write when I feel that I can muster enough flowery descriptions of the amazing sights, tastes and events here, and there are plenty, but on other days, when all I really want is my local coffee shop, The New Yorker and my dog tied at my feet, writing about how miraculous and life changing it is to be living and working in South Korea, is harder than I thought it would be.
So I think I will have to be more candid and in doing so there will be more blogs, more stories to
share and Matt and I will have concrete evidence that we did indeed do this and that it has already changed our lives.

With that said we have been extremely mobile in the last two weeks, hopping on
trains to Seoul, hitching rides up the coast, biking through tombs in Ghyonju and mobbing around town on our new scooter! The scooter has been a fantastic purchase and inspired so many other teachers that we have a bit of a scooter gang now here in Ulsan. Matt rode one back in Bellingham and I assumed my position on the back of the bike. I had planned to be a passenger here as well but then with the after school classes and our need to at least have a few of our own extra-curricular activities, I decided to try and take the scooter out on my own. I'd like to say for the record that I did live in Italy for almost a year and have braved the traffic in Naples as well as road tripped a bit in Costa Rica and was feeling prepared to take on the Korean street laws..and then I found out there were none. The Korean drivers are completely unique to any other drivers anywhere I have seen, and at the same time completely in control, they drive on sidewalks, through parks, wiz through round a bouts and stop in the middle of the road to say hello to someone. I took the scooter to school last week, dropped Matt off and was thrilled to pull up to Okdong middle school and really impress my students with my independance and cool. I was soon reminded that out of the two of us Matt has always and will always be the cool one and my place as a passenger on the back of the bike is well deserved. After school my students flocked in a heard to watch their new English teacher pull away, I got nervous and couldn't get the bike started, the students then started chanting "boo teacher!" making things worse, so when I finally did get going, I really got going! Right into a cement wall, in front of nearly the entire student body. The scooter crashed, the fender cracked and fell to pieces and I wiggled out from under the wreage with very minor bruises and a very red face.

In Korea scooters and motorcycles are banned from the highways, so last weekend we were doing a little exploring, staying on the main city streets until suddenly the street truned into a highway! We were up to 90k trying to keep up with the traffic and searching for an exit when we
In Korea scooters and motorcycles are banned from the highways, so last weekend we were doing a little exploring, staying on the main city streets until suddenly the street turned into a highway! We were up to 90k trying to keep up with the traffic and searching for an exit when we got to a toll booth. The only way to get back to Ulsan was to lift the bike up and over a highway median and hope no one saw us. We made it back to our neighborhood and not a monent to soon as our muffler fell off as we pulled into the apartment complex.

Ulsan is bustling preparing for Chuseuk, the Korean Thanksgiving where families visit their ancestor's grave and prepare a weekend of large, traditional Korean meals. We have not made concrete plans for the long weekend yet, but are very excited for the break from work and to celebrate our first Korean holiday here!
Happy Fall to everyone, we are missing the start of Fall quarter at WWU and making our Halloween costume plans.
All our love, Matt and Emily

Singing rooms with the principal and smart boards

We have completed our first week of teaching here in Ulsan and learned quite a deal about the Korean culture. Matt has bonded quite well with his principal and staff, he has joined the volleyball team, is helping coach basketball and is teaching an after school class at Sinjeong middle school. My students know Matt by name even at the next middle school over as "sexy man!". On his lunch break today, to help with the commute between schools Matt bought a 125cc scooter and has been braving the crazy Korean traffic (I thought Italy traffic was nuts until now!) We have been out nearly every night this last week with Matt's staff of teachers, eating, drinking soju and singing in the norrebang (singing rooms). It is a HUGE insult if you do not sing infront of everyone in the singing room so Matt and I were a hit with "Thriller" "Like a Virgin" and "Yesterday".
I am teaching ages 14 and 15, mostly boys, class size is around 40 or more, did I mention I have no idea what I am doing?! My voice is about gone from yelling at them to stop
beating eachother up in class, but I think very slowly I am gaining their respect through youtube videos and soccer references. The swine flu is on red alert here and so we get to school around 8:15am and stand in line to get our temperature taken, then there is about five minutes of good morning head bowing and us trying to speak in whatever polite Korean we have managed to pick up, and then the first gang of students come crashing into our classroom. It is really nice each having our own classrooms, they are brand new with top of the line technology equipped with a smart board and great sound system. Lunch time is unique not so much in the chaotic atmosphere present at most
middle schools but in the force feeding of Kimchi and mandatory teeth brushing afterward. We teach from 9am until 4:30 and then Matt and I have each taken on extra after school classes which are smaller and with younger students, so those are more extra curricular and really fun.
In our free time we have been hanging out with many of the other teachers we met at our EPIK orientation
"teacher's camp". We've been going to the Spa, a soccer game, the national archery championship and we even managed to fit six of us in our tiny apartment for a sleepover. That brings us to our first home together, or as we have been calling it: "The windowless box". It's a bit smaller than we had expected but we are making it home with photos of all our friends and family from home and even a few guilty pleasure American comforts that we didn't even partake in back at home (America's next top model and dunken doughnuts). Matt and I are doing pretty well, trying to help one another with different side effects of culture shock and homesickness, both debilitating and contagious at times.
The scooter was a great purchase to help us get out of our apartment and explore our new city. Ulsan is a fantastic place with all of the life of a big city and the ecclecticism of a university town. We are living right next to the University, a giant park the swimming pool and a great shopping center with bars, restaurants and markets. This weekend we will head with some of the other EPIK teachers on the midnight train to Seoul to see what the heart beat of South Korea looks like and to visit our teahcer camp leaders Nicole and Zeno.

(Korean soccer mascots)

We will surely have an update after our visit to Seoul and until then, missing you all and we will let you know when our SKYPE is working properly.
Lots of Love, Matt and Emily