Well it has been about 7 weeks since I arrived in this fine country. I am pretty settled into my apartment. Yesterday I found a pretty nice orange leather couch outside, which is now in my apartment. Nothing like a free couch. And now I have a place for a visitor to sleep. I have met a couple of my neighbors now too. The building I live in is 20 stories high, with about 20-30 apartments on each floor. Outside my window, I can see many other apartment buildings along with some nice hills, that I have climbed, and will climb again.
My job is going well. It is pretty easy going. I start at noon everyday and get off at 6, so the hours are real good. The kids for the most part are really good. The young ones are a bit tricky because it is hard for them to understand me. I am slowly learning how to deal with 1st graders. I think there is a balance of what you ignore and what you don't. I will get it. I am still eating hot lunch everyday and it is great. The food is very good. Soup, rice, kimchi, and some other main dish. Lots of fish, beef, pork, squid, chicken type dishes. I am part of the clean plate club everyday. After lunch my teaching begins, I have eight, 35 minute classes each day. I start with the little ones and they get older as the day goes along. This is nice because the end of my days are always very enjoyable for me. The kids have the best English and so I can have some sort of conversation with them.
During my week, I stay busy in the mornings, usually playing guitar or doing stuff on the internet. I have biked to school a couple of times, which is has been great. The weather here has been great, it is sunny and 60 most days now. I guess it will get real hot this summer. During my nights, I teach some of my new friends beginner guitar lessons, that is on Monday nights. There is an open mic' on Tuesday nights, Wednesday and Thursday maybe go out and get some beers. People do love to drink here. If you ever want to feel like a freshman in college, come to Korea and teach English for a year. Many similarities. On the weekends, I have been playing gigs here and there, they are steadily getting better every time. I am selling CD's here and there and hope to sell them all, by the time I am done teaching here. During my weekends, I usually go for a hike and maybe go to Seoul and see some sites with friends. I just joined a soccer team also. Our team is the Incheon Internationals. It is a league mostly made of up guys from England, with some Americans, Irish, Australians and Koreans. It is a great time. We play all around Seoul, so I will get to see more of Seoul each weekend. I am pretty stoked to be playing soccer again. I even bought some new shoes for it.
I am slowly learning the language. It is not too easy to learn. I can read most of it, I just don't know what I am reading. I will keep at it though. I find it very interesting learning another language. It makes me want to learn more languages in the future. '
Things that I have tried: I went bungee jumping for the first time here, it was pretty damn sweet. I recommend it to anyone, good for the soul. I ate live octopus, which was okay. It didn't taste like much, but it wasn't bad at all. I got a little ill and went to one of my student's houses. His dad is an acupuncturist. So he gave me a treatment. I do believe it worked well.
Well this is all for now, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me. I will try to get back to you asap. This is the site of my Korean blog, so make sure to check back often. I recommend bookmarking this page. Thanks, be well and in touch.
Mike Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Reply
Mike Brumm / Blog
May 7th, 2009
This past weekend I traveled down to Gwangju for a gig. It is about 4 hours south of Incheon, the city I live in. I left early Saturday morning. When I got there, it was raining so I didn't do too much. I did a short hike through a some small hills. That night I went to the bar called Speakeasy. This was the bar I played at. It wasn't too big, but the night was a good time. I played 3 sets that night alternating with the band "Dr. Bob and Disco Beaver". They played many songs that we all know and enjoy. I had an interview with a man named Doug Stuber, he is a writer for the 2nd most popular English-Korean magazine. So I will have a little article in it about me. Pretty neat. The night was quite a party, I met many new people, I hope to return to play there again. I couch surfed in Gwangju with another English teacher name Natalie, she was a fine host. Sunday morning, I woke up pretty late to climb the city's famous mountain, Mt. Mudeongson. It was a great climb, it was the first time I have heard silence since I got to Korea. It was a great sensation. Got back down and went to Natalie's apartment, we ended up going out with some of her friends on Sunday night, had a real nice time. I got to tell one of her neighbors that her dog was actually a female and not a male dog. She had the dog since September, we all had a great laugh about it. Woke up Monday morning and took a bus back to Incheon. Monday, I went out with friends, it was a fine time. Tuesday played some basketball. We had off work on Monday and Tuesday due to a National Holiday called Childrens Day. It is a day to celebrate the children of South Korea. It was my first long weekend here. I won't have many, so I tried to make the most of it. Now I am back to work. Till next time, be well.
Reply
7 weeks in
Well it has been about 7 weeks since I arrived in this fine country. I am pretty settled into my apartment. Yesterday I found a pretty nice orange leather couch outside, which is now in my apartment. Nothing like a free couch. And now I have a place for a visitor to sleep. I have met a couple of my neighbors now too. The building I live in is 20 stories high, with about 20-30 apartments on each floor. Outside my window, I can see many other apartment buildings along with some nice hills, that I have climbed, and will climb again.
My job is going well. It is pretty easy going. I start at noon everyday and get off at 6, so the hours are real good. The kids for the most part are really good. The young ones are a bit tricky because it is hard for them to understand me. I am slowly learning how to deal with 1st graders. I think there is a balance of what you ignore and what you don't. I will get it. I am still eating hot lunch everyday and it is great. The food is very good. Soup, rice, kimchi, and some other main dish. Lots of fish, beef, pork, squid, chicken type dishes. I am part of the clean plate club everyday. After lunch my teaching begins, I have eight, 35 minute classes each day. I start with the little ones and they get older as the day goes along. This is nice because the end of my days are always very enjoyable for me. The kids have the best English and so I can have some sort of conversation with them.
During my week, I stay busy in the mornings, usually playing guitar or doing stuff on the internet. I have biked to school a couple of times, which is has been great. The weather here has been great, it is sunny and 60 most days now. I guess it will get real hot this summer. During my nights, I teach some of my new friends beginner guitar lessons, that is on Monday nights. There is an open mic' on Tuesday nights, Wednesday and Thursday maybe go out and get some beers. People do love to drink here. If you ever want to feel like a freshman in college, come to Korea and teach English for a year. Many similarities. On the weekends, I have been playing gigs here and there, they are steadily getting better every time. I am selling CD's here and there and hope to sell them all, by the time I am done teaching here. During my weekends, I usually go for a hike and maybe go to Seoul and see some sites with friends. I just joined a soccer team also. Our team is the Incheon Internationals. It is a league mostly made of up guys from England, with some Americans, Irish, Australians and Koreans. It is a great time. We play all around Seoul, so I will get to see more of Seoul each weekend. I am pretty stoked to be playing soccer again. I even bought some new shoes for it.
I am slowly learning the language. It is not too easy to learn. I can read most of it, I just don't know what I am reading. I will keep at it though. I find it very interesting learning another language. It makes me want to learn more languages in the future. '
Things that I have tried: I went bungee jumping for the first time here, it was pretty damn sweet. I recommend it to anyone, good for the soul. I ate live octopus, which was okay. It didn't taste like much, but it wasn't bad at all. I got a little ill and went to one of my student's houses. His dad is an acupuncturist. So he gave me a treatment. I do believe it worked well.
Well this is all for now, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me. I will try to get back to you asap. This is the site of my Korean blog, so make sure to check back often. I recommend bookmarking this page. Thanks, be well and in touch.
Mike Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Reply
Rocking South Korea
These days I am playing all over the great country of South Korea!! Tell you friends, tell your family, and be well, email me for specific dates.
info@mikebrumm.com
Reply