McDonald's in the airport. We saw this when we went to pick up our friend Andrew on Thursday morning bright and early. Sam and I woke up at 5 am to take the "airport limosine" which was a purple bus that took 1.5 hrs-2.5 hrs depending on traffic. We at some noodles before meeting him after customs. We did not even see him walk through the doors because we were concentrating so hard on deciphering some korean writing on the panel above the doors. He is a hard guy to miss--a lanky over six foot tall white guy in a sea of smaller and darker koreans.


A scene on the bus ride on our way to meet our friend Andrew. As a side note, on our way back from the airport to Bundang (area or neighbor hood of), Seongnam City (sp?) (which is a suburb of Seoul), Andrew started feeling really sick. He almost had to poop in a plastic bag at the back of the bus since there was no toilet on board! it was hilarious and disgusting all at once. I took my quick guide how to speak korean up to the driver and was trying to tell him the word for toilet. I've discovered even if I speak with perfect intonation or terrible intonation, Koreans will not understand me yet. Anyhow, one of the space age looking stewardess was on our busride and she came up and described the situation. There was nothing we could do since we were in gridlock traffic on the highway from Incheon airport to Bundang. On the side of the freeway was a drop off, i'm pretty sure. And i think there was about 6-8 lanes of traffic. Later on, after we passed a toll stop, our driver pulled over but by that time, the immodium had kicked in and Andrew decided to take a chance to see if he could make it home. At that point we were in the clear. Until I got back to the apartment and had the kimchi splatters.


If you can read this sign, please notice that they have EVERYTHING at this airpot. It is rated as one of the best airports in the world. Rated by whom and based on what, i have no idea. it is just one of the many factoids i get from sam. It reads: "Hospital, Pharmacy, Billards, Sauna, Bank, Supermarket, Beauty Salon, Barbershop, Laundry, and Optician."

Need I say ANYTHING about this photo? I mean, really... drinks AND you can make a phone call all at the same time. Genius, pure and utter genius.

I can't remember for certain, but I think this is the Sunae stop on the Bundang subway line. This is at about 11 or so pm and everyone is out eating and drinking. Tonite, Saturday, we noticed that restaurants were actually closing down a bit early. It was 10pm and we expected to be able to go out and eat wherever and whenever. boy, we were wrong. instead we had meat dumplings. i forget what they are called in korean.

Sam purchasing individual lettuce leaves at the Carrefore. This is a french store, but I hear it has been bought out by Kmart. It is essentailly like a super walmart. There are attendants everywhere and they weigh and price your selection before you go by some stuff at the 1,000 won section (dollar store), or clothing, etc.

These are some of my fellow teachers at Avalon School Imae. There are seven branches of my school. Krista is in the middle, she is a Kanuk, and it was her last day on Friday. It's too bad b/c she is really a cool girl. But myself and another woman were hired to replace the only other two women foreign teachers. That is not a coincidence. There are 4 male foreign teachers and two female foreign teachers. The Korean teachers are mainly women. I hear they just take that job as they wait to get married. Two of the Korean women teachers were wearing playboy t-shirts on Friday while teaching. I asked them if they knew the significance of the shirts. They said yes. After they left the room I heard them laughing outside and speaking in Korean. I know that wouldn't fly in the American teaching system. But I guess it is just fashion here.


This is a classroom at my school, although I do not teach in it. My schedule (Sam's is the same although he works at the branch nearby our apartment. My branch is five subway stops away) is that I arrive to school at 3pm. The first classes start at 4:10 and we are supposed to use that first hour to plan our lessons, but many eat lunch. You can teach up to four 1.5 hour classes a day. The students come after their regular schooling and whatever other lessons they take--Tae Kwon Do, soccer, piano, etc. The students are taught 1.5 hours of conversational english with a foreign teacher and they also take 1.5 hours of classes with a Korean teacher who teaches more grammer. The other day one of the foreign teachers asked me in front of our boss, "Have you teached before?" I started laughing SOOOOOOOOOOo hard. One of my students answered the question, "What are they doing in this picture?" with "They are looking at boobies (movies)." But it sounded just like boobies. Sometimes it is very hard to keep a straight face. The most that happened yesterday, friday, before their summer vacation was that a boy punched this girl in the face. I didn't see it except for the aftermath of tears and shame. For the most part, the students are very well behaved and nothing in comparion to the apathy of the migrant children I used to teach.

This is the hallway and front desk at Avalon school. When I get to work at 3pm I feel like it is early morning. The weird fluroscent lighting makes me feel awake for the first part of the day at least. It is strange working from 3-10 pm M-F. The best part of the day is hopping onto the subway at night and the smell of soju just leaking out of the men's pores. It is very common for men to work all day and then come home only after hanging out with their buddies drinking, etc. Most of the time they do not spend any time with their wives or children. I have heard of english teachers giving private lessons to korean women but it mainly consists of being paid to have coffee and talk in english--probably b/c the woman is very lonely.