Teaching (and Learning) in Korea

South Korea: the tiny peninsula where kids are mysteriously driven to put their fingers between teachers' buttocks and where the most popular food is dried squid.
I spent three months teaching English at a private school in Gwangju, and many of my life's most amazing, hysterical, and touching moments took place during that stay. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I came back to America with not only a new pair of chopsticks (and the newly acquired know-how to use them!), but a renewed sense of optimism and a greater understanding of the incomprehensively huge world in which we live.

Living and loving it
My living situation was just about what I expected: a small furnished studio apartment. However, the "shower" was just a little head attached to the bathroom sink faucet. To shower, one would stand in the middle of the bathroom, aim the shower head at oneself, and hope it didn't go all over the bathroom. The water went into a drain on the floor.

My first time doing laundry in Korea was quite the experience: everything on my washing machine was in Korean characters. For about ten minutes I stood in my tiny laundry room trying to figure out what a big red button said. I assumed it was "on," but wanted to be absolutely sure it wasn't "pulverize contents of machine." I looked through my Korean-English dictionary for the exact word, but couldn't find it. The closest I did find was "ping-pong."

Frustrated, I gave up and pressed the big red button. Next, the machine did something frightening: it jiggled everything around a few times and then the number "47" popped onto the display. Then it started running just like the washers in the good ole' States. I sighed a big sigh of relief.

The apartment building was very nice, clean, and new. Two other foreign teachers, from Texas and South Africa, lived in the same building and the other ten or so were all within walking distance.