Below are the 4 group emails I've written since being in Korea, it might be a little much to read all at once, but enjoy!

Wabasaiyo! (hello in Korean)

Time for another installment of Stephen's Wacky Adventures in Asia,
and by Asia I mean that cultural, economic, and pickled food
powerhouse, KOREA.

Nothing of great substance has happened since my last email, but
here's a few stories to quench your "where the heck is Stephen" thirst
that I know you all must have.

Hiking!
My city is kinda like a giant Wok, meaning it is a cement frying pan
surrounded by a ring of mountains that contain the sweet and spicy
city-dwellers that lie within. This apparently is a bad thing in the
dead heat and humidity of summer because my city literally cooks due
to lack of wind, but at least I'll be able to barbecue my freshly
caught squid on the roof of any parked car.
These lovely mountains have a ridge line trail that runs along the top
of them and allow for excellent hiking on the weekends. I've
organized a weekly hike called "Stephen's ridiculously hungover nature
hike and circus". I've dragged a few people up these mountains and
the hiking crew has expanded from 2 to 4!! We'll be sponsored soon by
NorthFace.
A recent tale of hiking includes a California girl falling in the mud,
drinking the infamous Soju, Koreans drinking the last of our water,
and not realizing a trail would take 4 hours to hike instead of the
assumed 2 hours. Fun times!!

I judged my school's speech competition, was very proud of my
students. They had to memorize a speech from the new "Rocky Balboa"
movie. It was pretty funny to watch a bunch of Korean kids try
imitate Stallone. One of my students dressed up like a frog for some
reason, and another tried to sing the speech. Good stuff.

My city has a sports park with a soccer stadium, basketball arena, and
cycling velodrome. In the center of all three is a massive plaza that
rents bicycles, skates, electric toy cars, and crazy korean
skateboards. It's quite a scene to look at, hundreds of little kids
in all forms of wheeled vehicles, from razor scooters to gas powered
skateboards. I ride my bike thru the middle to be barraged with
"hellos" and "oooooaaaaahhhhhh Waygook!!!" The little kids then
crash into each other from staring at me and not watching where
they're going. Hilarious.

I learned to "S-board." Imagine a skateboard with only two wheels,
one placed in the center of the board under each foot. The board can
flex to an extreme degree right in the middle, so it's like trying to
stand on a metal pole with wheels on it. Anyway, you'd have to see
it, but it's really difficult and super cool once you've mastered it.
Korean kids love it.

I can't believe how the forests of Korea are similar to those of
eastern Oregon. It's like being home when I take a hike. Except for
all the Koreans of course.

This weekend will be our St. Patty's day celebration at my local
hangout, O'Brian's Irish Pub. They serve a decent Guiness and a
digestable hamburger. Korea is a late night country, it's not unusual
for a bar or nightclub to be empty until at least 1am. The normal
party hours are between 1:30 and 4 am. I suffer from intolerable
insomnia on the weekdays and barely sleep on the weekends.

Well, that's how my life is these days. I get up about 10, hit the
gym, eat some lunch, teach 6 classes, go home, maybe grab a drink with
some friends, and pack my weekends with as much
outdoors-y/traveling/partying as I can. It's a good life at the
moment, spring is here, it's warming up, my only complaint is the lack
of dark beer and digestable dairy products.

Hope you're all doing well. Keep it real and keep in touch.

Ji Seong

Korea, phase 1:

After finishing some gluttonous biscuits and gravy at that
true-American dining establishment, Sharri's, it was time to bid my
farewells to the land of french fries and waffles and cruise over that
blue Pacific at 25,000 feet. Flying NorthWest airlines wasn't too
bad, they had the little computer consoles on the back of each seat
with a plethora of movies and games to choose from, although I'll
admit the selection wasn't very quality. I watched "Into the Wild,"
"Dodgeball," and some other movie, and when those were finished I
still had 3 hours of flying to kill.

An hour layover in Tokyo and I'm in Asia yet again. A man named Mr.
Han picked me up from the airport and took me on a terrifying van ride
to my city, Changwon. I told him I'd been to Thailand and he of
course goes off on a huge rant about Pattaya and the red light
districts of Bangkok, asking me about all the "pwitty ladies".
Perfect, I escape all that swag in Bangkok only to have my first
encounter in Korea be with an old ladies-man. Oh well, he got me to
my school unharmed.

My school is in Dogye-dong, a suburb of Changwon that is on the very
edge of town and is about equidistant from downtown as it is to the
neighboring city of Masan.
It's actually the suburb I didn't want to live in, as it's a little
too far away to walk downtown, but oh well. My dong (neighborhood) is
pretty cool and is near some hiking trails and the golf course. It's
ten times better than my place in bangkok so I'm not complaining.

I work for CNN language institute. I teach 30 classes a week, class
size averaging about 8. It's crazy, Korean children go to public
school, then to about 3-4 more hours of private schooling, such as
English, Math, or whatever. You'll see 10 year old kids walking home
at like 9pm. I'm not sure what kind of effect this has on children,
but 10 hours of school a day isn't what kids do in the West.

CNN is in a 5 story building about 2 blocks from my apartment, and
it's kinda small but I like it. My apartment is interesting to say
the least. The heating comes thru the floor, and when I say thru the
floor, I mean there is a layer of linoleum covering a bunch of heat
coils that warm the apartment. I guess koreans sleep on the floor and
this keeps them warm. I'm not sure how energy-efficient this is, but
maybe I should try sleeping on the floor tonight to get the full
experience. This also forces me to be cleanly, because if I leave all
my clothes on the floor they absorb the heat, but at least my shirts
are warm when I put them on in the morning.
My apartment was obviously a girl's apartment before me because there
is a lot of pink crap. My blankets were white and pink so I told my
school that they weren't warm enough, hoping to get some new ones,
only to receive a hot-pink comforter instead of the old pastel-pink
comforter. I don't know if koreans are just in love with pink stuff
or if they're messing with me. Whatever, pink matches my purse.

I think that I've really lucked out with my school. After speaking
with some other teachers I've discovered that my school directors are
some of the best, and it's a huge plus to have a lot of co-workers
speak really good English. I begin classes on Monday and I can't
wait. Sat. morning I was invited over to their apartment and they
cooked me breakfast. Every meal in Korea is hot, so we had some tasty
seaweed soup, pickled cabbage (kimchi), rice with seaweed wraps, and a
bean sprout salad. Koreans simply love to eat, and I think it will be
difficult to lose weight over here.

My mom gave me some "No Jet-Lag" vitamins which so far have worked, as
my jet-lag isn't too bad. My first day I woke up pretty early as my
body is still adjusting and took a LONG walk downtown. It was about 0
degrees Celsius and clear, and I walked on this great bike path for
about an hour and a half downtown. On the way passing the Convention
Center, football (soccer) stadium, velodrome, and basketball arena.
Sports are huge in Korea. Koreans love their high-rise apartments as
well and there are plenty in Changwon. My city has 500,000 people in
it and I think it has less square milage than The Dalles, OR.
Downtown is cool, a few big department stores, plenty of bars, a
man-made lake which is nice to look at, and a massive traffic circle.

I checked out the foreigner bar on Friday night and was surprised to
see it relatively full of teachers about my age. Met some new people,
drank some obnoxiously pale korean beer, and had a pretty good time.
I don't think I'll hang out there too much, but it's a great way to
find out what's happening when you're a new-comer.

Korea is a late-night country. Nothing is really open before 10am,
and the night life doesn't really start until 11pm. Restaurants will
stay open as late as you want. This is great because I work until
about 9 or 10 at night and I think this lifestyle will suit me. I'm
still in search of a gym (hopefully one with a sauna), a bike store,
and the closest trailhead. It's freaking freezing here but I can't
wait to start running, marathon in October!!

I had a true Korean night out on Saturday night. The other co-teacher
at my school, Miriam, has been great and invited me out with her
Korean friends. We had some chicken, kimchi, egg-drop soup, and
radishes for dinner, followed by a crazy ice
cream/pineapple/tomato/fruit loops dessert. Her friends went off to
play a computer game called "Starcraft" for an hour and we drank a
very traditional Korean drink, SoJu. Now, I've heard about soju from
many friends and was excited to try this interesting
rice-vodka-thingee. It sorta tastes like a light HRD Vodka, with a
little cleaning solution aftertaste mixed with rice. Unimpressed.

We then went to another restaurant and had our 2nd dinner, which
consisted of a light soup, potates, steamed eggs, and fried chicken.
We drank these delicious fruit smoothie contraptions and the night
continued..... We ended up at a Karaoke bar, of which there are
dozens in every city in Korea. I busted out some "Hey Jude", "Under
the bridge" and "Have you ever seen the Rain." The Koreans were much
better singers to say the least.

It's now Sunday and I'm just relaxing around my apartment, studying
some Korean and getting ready for my first day tomorrow. Keep in
touch everyone, my address is:

Teacher Stephen Sessions
Room 201
345-2 Beonji
Dokedong
Changwon-si
South Korea

A very loose and complicated network of people I've just met offered
a ski weekend to me this past weekend and I jumped at the chance.
After a stop at the mall for the essential equipment such as a hat,
goggles, and strangely enough, a pair of ski gloves that say "UCLA
Athletics," I was good to go. The bus left at midnight on Friday, and
drove all night to a big mountain in Gangwon-do province in the north.
I was joined by 14 other foreigners and the trip's organizer's
family. We drank a lovely concoction called SoMek, which is Soju (a
rice vodka) and Mekju (Korean beer). It was a combination of two
terrible tastes that created a reasonable taste for the trip.
At about 3am we stopped for an hour to sleep at a rest stop (which
was the nicest rest stop I've ever seen on the side of a freeway) and
then at 6:30am continued again. I slept for about 4 hours that night,
only to arrive to the base of a mountain that we were to climb. Up we
went, in single file line with hundreds of other hikers, on a
well-trodden snow path. I was wearing sneakers and cotton pants, but
had some great wool socks.
When Koreans go hiking, they hike very easy paths, and travel in
massive groups, and with about 3 times as much gear as they need.
Everyone had crampons, hiking poles, a nice backpack, gators, boots,
and massive digital cameras with tripods. These guys looked like they
were going up Everest and I was in tennis shoes.
It was an easy hike, took about an hour and a half to the summit, and
was well worth it. There were rock temples built at the peak of the
mountain in which many people were lighting candles, eating food, and
leaving food as offerings. We drank more Soju as a victory toast and
then headed down the mountain. Some brought plastic bags to slide
down on, I skied down on my shoes. Many hours of 'boot-skiing'
practice with the TDHS Ski Team got me down the hill in style.
Stuck in traffic for several hours kinda killed our day, but we made
it to Phoenix Park, the ski resort. We rented a hotel room made for 8
people, and shoved 25 in. A large dinner followed, which was at a
Korean BBQ. These restaurants are on every corner in Korea and are a
very sociable place. In the middle of a large table there were three
BBQs in which they placed hot coals a grill over top. Then came
dozens of side dishes placed all over the table and a large bowl of
meat. You cook the meat on the grill, along with a little garlic,
then put it on a lettuce leaf, with whatever side dishes you want.
There was pickled garlic, bean sprouts, pickled crab, pickled cabbage,
hot sauce, rice cakes, and vegetables.
Then to the mountain! I rented a lovely pair of skis and one-buckle
boots, and prepared myself for what they call "skiing" in Korea. We
were lucky because it had snowed about a foot in the preceding week,
which means we weren't skiing on man-made snow. They had about a 30
inch base.
Skiing is incredibly popular in Korea and there were TONS of people
there. Koreans don't go skiing to "get outdoors" or "appreciate
nature," I think they mostly go to show off their new clothes and
their new snowboards. I can't tell you how many beginner skiers and
snowboarders were wearing $700-800 ski suits, with brand new boards,
which they showed off on the bunny hill. They also didn't show too
much respect to their equipment, I would see people dragging their
boards and skis thru the parking lot on pavement.
The mountain was littered with billboards, speaker towers playing hip
hop, and a stadium-sized TV at the base. Snowboarders don't unbuckle
one boot and slide onto the chairlift, but rather take off their
entire board and walk on. This is great because you don't have
snowboarders falling over at the top, but bad because they just walk
up to the front of the line.
The next day we were up early and got in a few empty runs on a
perfectly groomed mountain. By about 10am the place was twice as
packed as it was the previous night. It was like playing dodge ball
going down the mountain. I survived without any injuries, and had
some fun in the process.

The trip back was rather long and uneventful, but I got to see part of
Busan, which is about 40 min by bus from my city. All in all it was a
great trip, met some cool people, and did some skiing.

Love you all, keep in touch.

Korea Phase 2:

Hey everyone. 12 days of teaching down and thus far it's been pretty
cool. I'm still in the "honeymoon" period of my trip where everything
is still new and I haven't had the massive homesickness pangs that are
sure to come. My classes go well, the school is nice, my boss is
reasonable. At the moment I've started a search for a motor scooter,
which will make my life much more flexible and let me take a few more
adventures. There's tons of hiking trails, hot springs, and small
mountains for me to check out, the problem being I'm dependent on the
public transportation system.
This week is the Lunar new year, which gives me a five-day weekend
and a chance to do some traveling. Plan to go to Seoul or the ancient
capitol of Gyeongju.
The following is a few paragraphs I've written over the last week,
not as exciting as the previous emails, but oh well:

Korea's Development
Welcome to the "Korean Miracle." For those
non-international-development-oriented, Korea is one of the 4 'tiger'
economies of Asia, joining Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore in
unprecedented economic growth following WWII. It was a Miracle
because Korea had a later start, following the Korean War, and easily
caught up with the other three, except maybe Japan (Korea was annexed
by Japan from 1910-1945, also hindering its growth).
This incredible growth has done a few things to this country, the
most obvious being that almost every city is just a hodgepodge of
urban sprawl, without planning or organization, and also an
unimaginative idea of architecture, with most building being simple
concrete boxes with lots of apartments (in fact, you'll drive by a
city, see some factories, a few supermarkets, some agricultural
fields, and then the 15 story apartment blocks where everyone lives,
no houses at all). Also creating very un-bike friendly streets, mixed
with insane drivers.
My city of Changwon is supposedly the first planned city in Korea and
you can notice it in the wide streets, public parks, and cool
architecture. This area 25 years ago apparently had only one 2-story
building and a bunch of rice paddies. Now it's a sprawling city of
over 500,000 that's just as developed as downtown Bangkok.
Korea is cool. There aren't really houses with a yard, two-door
garage and the picket fence, families live in apartments and maybe
have one small, ridiculously fuel-efficient car. To me it feels like
everything is super-efficient, without unnecessary waste that you see
in American cities. Also, I live in a pretty small neighborhood, but
there is still such high density of people around that it has
supermarkets, open-air markets, dozens of Korean restaurants, bars,
gyms, and anything one could need.
The foreign teachers here are great. There's one Irish pub in town
that everyone flocks to, and I've met some cool people. It's a good
bar, serves great food, and has Guinness on tap. Everyone there has a
different background but we've all ended up doing the same thing in
this little part of Korea. I firmly believe that English teachers the
world over are just a cool group of people, and these guys hold true.

Schools
Private academies in Korea are large in number, quality, and variety.
After meeting other teachers at other schools I've discovered that
it's a total crap-shoot when it comes to finding a good school and
I've lucked out. I've met people working long hours, weekends and
swing shifts, along with having to write their own curriculums. I've
got a cool school and my director seems to care about how I'm doing
and will help me out with just about anything.
This of course could change abruptly if I were to unintentionally
insult him in some way. The other foreign teacher at my school isn't
liked by many because she's kind of a loner and just treats this as a
job that she has to be at for a few hours a day and that's it. I've
discovered that most asian teachers and schools dedicate a huge part
of their lives to the school and don't do much outside of it. These
Korean teachers are working much longer hours than me and I would
assume not making as much as me either. This makes it a sticky
situation when they ask me about my salary and see me leave everyday a
few hours before they do.
We've all had jobs with a boss, but that word doesn't mean the same
over here. It seemed like most bosses in the U.S. try to be a 'team
player' and don't flaunt their authority everyday. Korea is
different, and so was Thailand. The boss over here is kind of a
demigod to be bowed to everyday and his word is law. I've found it
necessary to make a point of saying hello and goodbye everyday to him,
even though he doesn't speak English. Interrupting him, not holding
the door for him, or forgetting his birthday or something like that is
unforgivable.

Students
The students actually care about learning English! Holy cow, when I
had an eight year old kid say "I think English is important because it
is very international and many countries speak it," I jumped out of my
seat! My kids in Thailand just didn't care in the least, and the
listening comprehension here in Korea is thru the roof! I can speak
naturally and they understand, whereas in Thailand my kids forced me
to say "I like rice, I go to supermarket, I want water."
Unfortunately once the kids hit middle school they tend to completely
close off and it's hard to get them to speak. I don't know if it's
puberty, embarrassment, 'saving face,' or something else, but once the
boys hit about 13 years old they just won't speak. It's so universal
here that I bet psych books have been written about it. Parents are
disappointed in their children for getting less than a 90% on a test,
and my directors assign extra classes for them as often as they can.
I kinda wonder when these kids have time to be kids.
Can you imagine every 6th grader in the U.S. being fluent in a
foreign language and going to school almost year round? These kids
are smart and I'm sure it will carry over into a stronger society.

Pusan/Busan
Korea's second largest city, Pusan, is about a 25 min. bus ride from
where I am and I've been spending a little time there. It has a great
subway system and tons to see.
Koreans are proud of their subways and it's an experience. You see
old ladies wearing conservative dresses sitting next to a younger
generation in mini skirts and hyper-trendy get-ups. People also like
to take naps on the subway which is interesting. How do they know
when to get off? There's also a huge cabinet of gas masks at every
subway stop for some kind of emergency.
Walked thru a famous fish market in Pusan over the weekend, plenty of
fish, seaweed, octopus, eels, or whatever you like for sale.
Apparently live octopus is a delicacy over here, haven't given it a
try yet, but plan to. Dog is also a dish, and I've walked by a few
dog restaurants, but haven't had a dog-burger yet.
Boyfriends and girlfriends that have just started dating over here
wear matching outfits. Shopping is the Korean pastime and I guess
lovebirds go out and get some new clothes together. I try to snap a
photo of them whenever I see a pair, I think it's hilarious and it's a
small bit of racial payback that I enjoy, as Koreans love to take
pictures of me just because I'm white.
Drinking habits are interesting to say the least. The words
"self-control" don't exactly register with some Korean men. I went
out to dinner on the lunar new year's eve, only to see many
well-dressed Korean families out as well. By the end of the night the
women in a few families had to drag home their husbands, sons, or
brothers home after a few too many glasses of rice whiskey.
I took a hike yesterday up Mt. Cheonju, which is only a small trek
from my apartment. Hiking in Korea is very popular and everyone does
it, so much so that trails are ridiculously well maintained to the
point of this mountain being a big wooden staircase right to the top.
On the way I would pass communal drinking stations where mountain
spring water would pour out of a stone dragon's mouth. There were
about 10 plastic cups at each water station that the hundreds of
people hiking were sharing, I stuck to my water bottle.
On the way up I passed two outside gyms with sit-up benches, pull-up
bars, and a few weights as well. Hoola-hoops were there as well. I
also passed this interesting stone path, on which you're supposed to
walk barefoot, to massage your feet in such a way that your entire
body feels better, or so I gathered from this crazy sign with a
picture of a foot and all the muscles in it.


As I read over what I've written I realize that I've made some very
generalized statements about Koreans. I don't mean to offend in
anyway, it's just that I'm in a new culture and these are the things
that I notice.
I hope all are well and keep in touch.