Survival Techniques

Today is Monday of our third week at work.  The first week we didn't do too much, mostly just observed the teachers who work here and learned our way around.  These past two weeks we've been spending working one-on-one with several students, giving English lessons more or less.  Work is going well, but it has taken some getting used to a new schedule and new responsibilities, just as with any new job.  We are getting the hang of things quickly though and soon enough we'll be ready to take over full teaching responsibilities in March.

We were talking the other night about finally feeling like we were getting out of "survival mode", meaning that we were finally feeling comfortable with getting around here and not feeling like total strangers in a strange land.  I thought I might write a little about what we did to survive so that anyone else doing something similar might find some information and those just reading along with our experiences can know what we are up to.

How we made it (much credit goes to our foreigner friends who were here before us and helped us get on our feet!):

1- First priority is communication.  The first thing we wanted to do was contact friends and family back in the States to let them know we'd made it.  We tried to use a calling card at the airport but realized we had not activated it prior to leaving the country so we were out of luck.  Luckily the recruiter had sent someone to pick us up and he gladly let us use his cell phone to call home quickly.

To prepare- make sure you know the country codes and calling procedures for calling your home country from South Korea.  All it takes is a quick google search.  For us, it is 007-001-area code-phone number.  It may be different for you depending on where you are calling.  Interestingly, we were able to send text messages home on our Verizon phones but couldn't call.  Finding a calling card is easy.  There are tiny stores around that advertise calling cards, just make sure to point to one on display and ask "United States?" or use the Korean word for American "Miguk?"  Ours has a big A+ written on it and gives 200 minutes for about 13,000 won (roughly $13).  The dialing instructions are easy from there.

If you are without internet, not to worry.  There is access to the internet nearly everywhere.  Most coffee shops (that are on nearly every block) offer wireless, though you may have to register through Alleh or Boingo to use the service.  A Cafe Bene near us offers free wireless and that is a pretty popular chain here.  If you are in a fairly populated area with a section of town with huge buildings around just look for the words "PC zone" or some variation of that.  Anywhere you see the letters PC there will be a huge room filled with computers and people on them, mostly smoking and drinking coffee and playing games.  But we paid 1,000 won for an hour on internet time (before we found the ethernet cord in our hotel room) and it was a quick easy way to get online.

While some may differ, I maintain that communication is key because staying in touch with our family and friends was very important.  Next most important?

2. Food.  The feeling of a full stomach is centrally related to feelings of comfort.  It took us a week or two to find some items that we enjoy eating.  Here are some tips on finding good food:

-Find a place that offers picture menus.  You can find these places around mostly by looking in the windows.  If you can see something you like and point to it, odds are you'll end up with something decent, although I once pointed to something that I thought looked good and it ended up being something with tentacles, so a picture menu with some English translations is best.

-The two places with the most basic and cheap food are Gimbap Changuk, an orange and black sign and they are everywhere.  Also the Hongchuni Gimbap (the character on the storefront is a strange looking woman with black hair and giant mouth) is a cheap place with gimbap and ramyan soup bowls)

-If you are like us, you are afraid of meat of dubious origins.  An easy to find, easy to order, and very cheap vegetarian meal is Dolsot Bibimbap.  A very basic steaming hot bowl of veggies and rice with an egg on top, does it get better than that?  It is always cheap, around 3,000 won, and it is easy to remember and say (I think of it as a Star Wars character).

- Nikki wrote earlier about other good foods we've found to eat so I won't belabor the point, but good, cheap, hot food is easily found, there is probably an eats place every 3 storefronts even in our smaller town of Jinyeong.  Also, Lotteria is a decent knockoff of American style fast food, burgers and fries.  If you happen upon a Honey Honey Hotdog they serve decent hotdogs with all sorts of toppings (picture and English translated menu).  There are also countless bakeries and cafes in which sandwiches, cakes, coffees, and cookies can be found.  Needles to say, for the famished traveler there will be no starving in Korea.

3.  Money-  I think that the rule is that banks will change currency on Fridays.  I could be wrong but that is what we did.  No Korean needed, we just walked up to the bank and showed our U.S. dollars and said "Won?" and they handled it from there.  The won is easy to exchange, it is nearly 1,000 won = $1, so that makes things easy while shopping.  We also discovered that the best way to get out cash from your U.S. bank account is to use an ATM at either a Family Mart (one on every block) or a 7-11, which are less popular but have easy to use ATMs.  The fee transaction at Family Mart was about 3,000 won, so it was nothing extreme.  We also have used our Visa card at many places with no issues.

4. Transportation- Taxis and buses and trains abound in Korea and they are cheap and easily accessible.   You can find a taxi by looking for the red light flashing in the windshield of a nice looking black Hyundai luxury car.  They are cheap and never ( at least so far in our limited time here) hesitate to pick up a foreigner.  I'd recommend grabbing a business card from your hotel or having a Korean person write down your address for you if you can, so it will be easy to let the driver where you want to go.  If you've got neither of those just memorize the biggest most popular place nearby and tell the driver that.  Buses are incredibly cheap and run frequently, just find the terminal and buy a ticket.  The only bus station I've really had experience with is the one in Busan, and it was easy.  It had English town names under the Korean names so it made buying tickets easy.

Well, that is all I can think of for now, and if there are any corrections you find please let me know so I can fix them!  If you have any other suggestions please leave a comment!!!!!
teaching english in korea. 
blogging here: www.teachingintherok.blogspot.com