The First Week

Well I’ve been here for one week, but it seems like a lifetime of activity has happened during that time.  I’ll try my best to recap for ya!

I arrived in Seoul at Incheon airport on a Friday afternoon and promptly jumped on a train that took me all the way across the country to my new hometown of Ulsan.  I had joined Ulsan’s ultimate Frisbee team (go Narwhals!) back in January when I first found out my placement.  As it happened, our first Frisbee weekend was also the weekend of my arrival.  And so I was greeted at Ulsan’s train station by two teammates with Soju and beer, not a bad welcome!

We then hopped on a bus and headed into the university area of Ulsan for my first in-country meal of barbecue, 100 pounds of luggage in tow.  Food was delicious and drinks aplenty!

Finally, exhausted, we headed back to my friend’s apartment around midnight and I promptly crashed… and after a luxurious 5 hours of sleep we were back up and out the door!

The ultimate Frisbee matches were being held a 4-hour drive away in Heongseong, so I met a few more of my teammates early the next morning in a crammed minivan, jet-lagged, and a wee-bit hungover.

We played 3 games of ultimate on Saturday of which we won the first, but lost the second two.  However, we played the second two games without any subs due to a couple injuries on our team.  All told we did a pretty outstanding job considering this was the first time we all played together as a team.

We spent Saturday night in a 400-year-old guest house in Heongseong.  According to the owners it belonged to the town’s mayor way back when.  I could barely make it past dinner before I pretty much dropped dead from exhaustion.

On Sunday we roadtripped back to Ulsan and I spent most of the day just bumming around my friend’s apartment…I was too tired to do much else.

Monday morning, I met my co-teacher at the immigration office and she helped me get registered with the authorities.  After that she took me around my neighborhood and showed me my apartment…pretty sweet!  I still don’t have internet, but the apartment is really nice and has a good view of the river below.

I also learned on Monday that I would be teaching at Beomseo Middle School… or teaching Beomseo Middle School rather because I see every single student in that 800+ middle school in my 22 class periods each week.  Since none of my classes repeat themselves, I have to give my same introductory lesson 22 times over…it was fun for about the first 3.

I started at Beomseo on Tuesday and am currently through 14 of those 22 classes.  Beomseo hasn’t had a foreign English teacher in quite a few years, so I’m still a bit of a novelty to the students and staff.

My co-workers are great and each day someone usually brings in a treat for the whole office.  Today one teacher brought in hard-boiled eggs for everyone…I’m not sure what to do with it so it’s still in my fridge.

My co English teachers are all very nice and helpful.  A couple of them have worked with other native English teachers before at other schools, which is nice.  They all took my out for dinner and coffee yesterday and taught me how to write my name in Korean!

To say my first week here has been busy would be an understatement.  I haven’t had the chance yet to really digest the fact that I’m living in Korea.  I’m sure I’ll get that inevitable culture shock and homesickness that comes with every kind of trip like this soon enough, though.  Nonetheless, I’m alive, happy, and most of all thankful to be doing what I’m doing.

Shred gnar,

Teacher Ryan

Many Goodbyes, One Giant Hello!

Greetings everyone!

Well, in my quest of escaping adulthood and shirking typical entry-level positions for recent college grads, I have found the wonderful country of South Korea.  It is there to which I will depart in exactly one week for a year (maybe more?) of teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language).  I’ll be teaching in a public school in the city of Ulsan (most likely middle or elementary), but I won’t know for sure until I actually arrive.

The program I’m going through is EPIK (English Program in Korea), which is a government sponsored program that places native English teachers in the public school system throughout South Korea.

Instead of applying to EPIK directly, you can apply through recruiting agencies as well, which is what I did.  From what I gather, some people like recruiters while others despise them.  Personally, I had a good experience with mine.

Now, how did I get to this point?  Let me explain…

It was around the Fall of 2015 during my second to last semester at GVSU that I called my parents for our usual Sunday evening conversation.  During one particular conversation, my father asked me something along the lines of, “So Ryan, have you thought about what you’re going to do after you graduate?”  The better question to have asked would have been, “So Ryan, do you know what you don’t want to do after you graduate?”  The answer to the latter was simple; shave, cut my hair, stop shredding the gnar.  The answer to the former was a bit harder.  I knew I wanted to ultimately work in the field of international education, but wasn’t quite ready to really set down roots anywhere.

Panicked, I binge-google searched for a couple of hours after that trying to find an answer to my father’s question.  It was during that search that I came upon some sites advertising teaching EFL in Korea.  Free housing, good salaries, the chance to work with kids.  I was all in.

So 2016 came around and I spent the first four months of it finishing up my last semester of college in Bhubaneshwar, India.  Feel free to read about that experience here. 

Following that, I worked as a German language teacher at Waldsee, part of the Concordia Language Villages.  This was a trial by fire experience of lesson planning, teaching, and grading students of a foreign language.  As stressful as it was, I really loved seeing the progress my students made throughout that 4-week camp.

Waldsee took up the first half of my summer; during the second half I became an assistant hiking guide with Alta Expeditions for Germans and Austrians visiting the Canadian Rockies.  In all I went on two separate 2 and 3-week tours.  We visited Banff, Jasper, and a bunch of other national and provincial parks; we even visited a lake with water so pure you can just drink it straight!  And of course, we encountered bears.  If my favorite Bavarian hiking companion is reading this, Bergheil!

Following the guide season, I had a brief stint of Funemployment in which I played a stupendous amount of Age of Empires

From around September up until today I’ve worked as a substitute teacher, associate at Aldi, and truck loader at UPS in order to save up for Korea.  I also started the 6+ month long process of applying to the EPIK program at this time as well.

So now you’re up to speed!

As you might expect, I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited.  Korea is place I previously did not know much about.  However, the more I learn about it, the more excited I am to go!  So, if you ever happen to be around Ulsan next year, you’ve got a free place to crash.

Side note:  Bumming around the world and exploiting local populations is not what I’m about.  While I’m all for extended travel, it needs to be done with a conscience.  Because demand for English is so high around the world, pretty much any shmo with a Bachelor’s degree and citizenship from an English-speaking country can hop on a plane and fly somewhere where people will pay good money to listen to him/her talk.  Teaching English abroad is a tremendous privilege for the lucky few of us on this planet who were born into English-speaking countries and attended college.  Did I pick Korea mostly because it offers some of the best salaries? Yes.  However, to have a positive impact on Korean children is my ultimate goal when I’m over there.