Pictures!

These are pretty random; I've had a tough time trying to figure out how to post these on here, so sorry for the haphazardness. I try. (And after checking I realized that the labels for every two pictures ran together. Separated by the period..... I assume ya'll can figure it out.) Peace.

Sculptures by my apartment. An oceanside point by Haeundae Beach.

Me, Bob, Todd hanging Korean style. A distant view of Haeundae Beach area.

Haeundae Beach in Winter. Haeundae. I live somewhere up by the hill.

The port in Japan where I just was. My tiny (but brand new) apartment.

That's my school out the window. Long commute. Night lights near my apt.

More night lights near home. My old apt. New one is just to the right.

FOOOOOOOOOD. The view out of my apartment window.

Address

Several people have asked me what my apartment address is, and I still can't figure it out or get it translated properly into English. So my director said I can just have mail (if any) sent to my school, and the address for that is:

CBS Education Cultural Center (Attention Tyrel)
4-5F Ultra Tower 1461-1 Jwa-Dong
Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea, 612-030

With 612-030 being the zip.

I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone, as well as have some addresses I can send some Korean knick-knacks to. Of course, that means figuring out how to do business at the post office, but it'd just be another ridiculous cross-cultural communicative experience to look forward to.

It's been a while.

Things have been quite busy for me recently with getting set up in my new apartment and settling down at my new school (CBS). Where to start...

CBS is great; wth one week under my belt, I couldn't be happier. I'll admit, I was rather terrified to head into the classroom with the kindergartners the first couple days. Pretty sure the feeling was mutual though, because a couple of kindies burst out in tears when they looked up at me. This in turn started a chain reaction of kids whose goal seemed to be seeing who could wail the loudest. "Oh crap, what did I get myself into?" I was ready to cry myself. But it's a good thing the kids' mothers (who crowd around the door to watch class) take a such great interest--though it adds a certain pressure--in what goes on in the classroom, because they were there to help comfort their kids. I had to remember: most of these kids had never really been away from their mothers at all, much less been in a classroom before. For example, my youngest student is only 33 months old! I couldn't believe it when her mother told me this, especially after (once tiny Sally stopped crying) she started belting out her shapes, numbers, and colors. Apparently most of the parents have already taken the initiative to teach their little ones some basic English, which makes things much easier on me, considering I know next-to-nothing in Korean. But, long story short, the kids warmed up to me and things are great now.

I can fit my entire classes on my body, and I stomp around the classroom with 10-or-so of them clinging to me while we all make various animal noises. We do the hokey pokey and I crack up at how excited they get when it comes time to "shake it all about." Things like that make it totally worth it, and though I'm sure it's nothing especially unusual for kindergarten classes anywhere, it's all new to me and I've taken a complete loving to the kids and the relationship we're building. The progress we can make each day (the kids' minds seem to be made of sponges) is incredible and fascinating. And I'm learning a lot too, about patience and sensitivity, and about cleaning Korean baby snot off myself.
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A nice Christmas surprise for me was when, about a week ago, my good buddy Bobby from school let me know he'd just purchased a ticket for Korea and would be coming to visit in two days. Yep, that seems like typical Bobby style, I thought: planning a three-week trip with only 2 days notice. So I picked him up in Pusan, and have since been showing him around my new home and introducing him to my new friends--he also knows my friend Todd from school, so it's cool to have three of us from UW-L here. Also, it's been a blast watching in him the bewilderment and fascination I remember feeling my first few weeks here. And showing him around has made me realize: I've learned a lot more about the language, customs, geography, and people than I'd given myself credit for.

Wow, I just realized I'm absolutely starving and need to go eat. Something raw sounds good. More on Korea later.

Good Grief

Well, I managed to lose my job, interview for two new ones, and get hired at a new school all in the course of one evening.

Yesterday I got to work to see an email from Su, my recruiter: "Tyrel, please call me ASAP," and upon calling her was informed that my director can no longer afford to pay me due to the decrease in student enrollment at my school. Apparently, the economic crisis in Korea is causing many parents to pull their kids out of private academies. So I get canned as a result; there are simply not enough students at Young Jae to fill my classes and make my position on the payroll worth it to him. Super. Immediately I'm stressed to the max: "I'm now unemployed and broke in Korea, with no way to get home," I kept repeating to myself.

Well, the stress was short-lived. After a quick meeting with Su, I had two interviews with other academies lined up. I met the directors shortly after, and both places offered me positions. Today I signed a new contract that starts Monday; my last day at Young Jae is Friday. Talk about a ridiculous, light-speed-paced string of luck. And I couldn't be happier with my situation; for one, I'm moving to a brand new apartment building right next to the one I currently live in. In fact, I think they told me I'll be the first one to move onto that floor. I just did a walkthrough about an hour ago, and the apartment is incredible. Still not very big, but I have floor-to-ceiling windows with a view (my current apartment looks at a wall), and brand-new everything. They are going to fully furnish it tomorrow, and I should be making the whole quarter-block move by the weekend. Sweetness.

My new academy is also very modern. Built just over a year ago, CBS (no it's not a television studio) blew me away in terms of what they offer their students compared to where I am now. It seems more like a breeding ground for creativity more than an actual school: musical instrument rooms, art workshops, exercise rooms, dance studios, etc. And most of the Korean teachers there seem to speak English very well, which will be a nice change. The part that makes me giggle most is that I'm now going to be a kindergarten teacher. Monday will be the "Kindy's" very first day of school ever, so now instead of teaching the difference between, say, subordinate and independent clauses, I'll be teaching the ABC's, dancing, and singing songs. I'm pretty excited, although this will definitely be more of a test on my patience. And I'll need to remember to watch my step -- these Korean kiddies are pretty tiny, and I'd hate to be let go on account of crushing one of my students.

So all in all, things worked out pretty well. It's amazing how quickly it all went down, and how smooth of a transition it's going to be.

Hope you're all enjoying the negative temps back home! Annyong!