Shanghai part 3

Before continuing with the story, here is the lovely view outside my hotel room.



Anyway, I met H.L. outside my hotel and we went to Yuyuan Garden. It was hidden inside a very touristy place with plenty of overpriced souvenirs. When we got there H.L. warned me, "Watch your wallet". This became a commonly used phrase whenever we went to the subway, bus stop, or large crowed. Pickpocketing is big business.

Here are some photos of the area around Yuyuan Garden.



















Tomorrow I'll post pictures from inside the garden, The Bund photos part 1, and perhaps the Shanghai Museum pictures.

Shanghai part 2

So, to clarify about the taxi ride. I paid 715 yuan which is about $94. I should have paid about 76 yuan which is about $10. Now you can understand why I was so freaking pissed.

Before I continue I should probably tell you a little bit about my friend H.L. I met her about 4 months ago here in Korea. She had just recently arrived here to attend University. I met her online and we hung out about once a week. She was in Shanghai for summer break and suggested I go there for my vacation. She's a good friend but I don't really think of her as anything other than a friend. This would cause some friction a little later during our trip.

Anyway, on with the story.

Lets pick up the story during my first night there. After the taxi ride and dropping my stuff off in the hotel, I went with H.L. and her friend Ally to a nearby restaurant. I found Ally to be a really cool girl, even though she had just started learning English 3 months prior. I tried to talk to her as much as I could to help her practice and get to know her better. Ally was very friendly and flirtatious, completely different from the many Korean girls I had met before. However, after a bit I noticed my friend H.L. was starting to get a bit upset so I just concentrated on my food and let the two of them chat for a bit. After finishing I made plans to meet H.L. the next day about 11am for a day of site seeing. We left the restaurant and went our separate ways.

The next day I went downstairs a bit early to walk around, take some photos and get something to drink. The first thing I noticed when I went outside was the sweltering heat. It was a completely different sort of heat than what I was used too. Coming from Arizona I'm used to very high temperatures and very low humidity. This heat had a very high temperature and very high humidity. I began to sweat immediately. Here are some photos of the area around my hotel.

The entrance to my hotel is right next to the man standing on the left, looking in the opposite direction. On the right is some sort of bus station. It LOOKS like Korea, but my god it feels COMPLETELY different.




This next picture is from the hotel entrance looking to the right across the street. While the building looks run down, based on what I saw in other parts of Shanghai I would say this building isn't too bad. I did see some third world slums but I did not take any pictures of them for several reasons.



This picture also looks a lot like Korea. However, what you don't notice is the deafening sound of the insects in the trees, the pollution, and the raw sewage smell. It's not a pleasant place.



Same street different direction. I love the clothes hanging outside the windows.



I have to apologize for my pictures. I have really lost my creativity when it comes to photography. These days when I take photos I try to not focus on a subject, rather I want to get a general feeling for the area that I am in. I want to take people who see my photos to the place I am at. So I try to just take general photos of an area which will hopefully give you some idea of the surroundings. The only problem with this is the photos tend to be general boring, and you can only experience the visuals, no smells, sounds, or physical feelings. I did take some short videos, but they didn't turn out very well, one of them you can hear the sound of the insects in the trees, but its a little muffled and doesn't really give the full experience of the sound.

With that said, as you view my photos of Shanghai (minus the museum photos) I want you to imagine the smells of raw sewage, car and factory pollution, noise pollution from cars, insects, people, and construction, and a broiling heat that quickly overwhelms you. Enjoy.

End part 2. More story, photos, and videos coming shortly.

Shanghai part 1

Okay, so I got back from Shanghai yesterday and it was quite an experience. I didn't go by myself. My friend H.L. a Chinese student studying in Korea agreed to be my guide. She made sure I had the address to the hotel and some phone numbers incase I needed some help. Overall I'm very glad I went, but I had some major problems and a pretty bad case of culture shock as you will soon find out. If anything, my experience has made me want to live in China even more, as I know it will be challenging in ways that Korea never was.

I made it to Shanghai with no problems. As soon as I got to the airport I called my friend to let her know I was there. She instructed me to get a taxi and call her as soon as I got to my destination. I bought some water before leaving the airport and headed out to find a taxi.

After living in Korea for over 9 months, I was feeling very confident and safe. Nothing seriously bad has happened to me in all this time in Korea. No violence, nothing stolen etc. Korea has really been kind to me in that regard (non-work related). When I first came to Korea I was paranoid about crime thanks to the American media and there was NO WAY anyone would get the better of me. Living for so long in the Land of the Morning Calm, I was lulled into a relaxing sense of safety. The worst that could happen to me is people staring, yelling "hello", or the occasional bump with no apologies.

China isn't Korea.

As soon as I walked outside a man came up to me and asked if I was looking for a taxi. "Yes", I said.

"Great, good I'm a taxi driver follow me".

"Where are we going?", I asked.

"Get a taxi".

Hmm I thought. Why can't we take one of these? There are about 4 just sitting here. But I decided to be adventurous and follow him. After all nothing bad ever happened to me in Korea.

We started walking into a car garage and I figured it was either because he would try to mug me, which I felt was unlikely this close to an airport, or his taxi was parked in the garage. I promised myself I wouldn't get into his taxi if it wasn't clearly marked, oldest trick in the book. Also, with 2 years studying Wing Chun under my belt a little violence with no weapons really didn't concern me too much. (On the other hand, with a weapon I would have been putty in his hands).

Anyway, he turns around to me and says "Are you American?".

"Yeah I'm from America, from Arizona". (You'd think a red flag but *EVERYONE* asks this question).

"Ah great, China America friends!", he exclaims happily.

I nodded in agreement and laughed with him.

We finally got to the domestic terminal and I started wondering why we walked from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. I started to get nervous and I asked him "How far is it to the hotel?".

"I'm not sure".

"Ok, how much does a taxi cost".

"We will talk to the driver". (Should have been another red flag but I was too damn tired).

We got into a taxi and the man talked to the driver for a bit in Chinese, I showed him the address again and they talked some more in Chinese. The driver seemed to argue a bit with the other guy. Finally they stopped the car on the highway just outside of the airport. The first guy turns to me and says, "Ok, it will cost you 11 yuan for every kilometer. It's 66 kilometers to the hotel, so the total is 715 yuan".

Hmm, 11 times 66 doesn't equal 715, but the error is in my favor and bartering is ok here. I couldn't remember the exchange rate and I forgot what the maximum I should pay for a taxi was. I had a feeling he was ripping me off but the car was stopped in the middle of a busy highway, there was two of them, I was tired, hungry, and didn't know the exchange rate, they had me and I knew it.

"Ok", I said.

"Good, give me the money, quick, do you want a receipt?"

"Yeah, sure".

I gave him the money, he gave it to the taxi driver, the driver gave some money back to the first man. He turns to me again, "Uh, 200 yuan more for highway".

"What?"

"200 yuan, for highway". Um, highway robbery maybe?

"No."

"For highway, fast".

"*NO*."

"Ok, he will take you to the hotel". He gave me a fake receipt, then got out of the car and walked away. The driver began to drive at break neck speed.

Damn it, I just fell for a scam hook line and sinker. I was pissed and it almost ruined my entire trip.

30 minutes later after the wildest car ride I've ever had, almost dying 3 times, I made it to the hotel where I met my friend H.L. and her other friend Ally (her Chinese name is unpronounceable unless you practice it) and I told them the story. They felt pretty bad for me and helped me into my hotel room. We then went out for some dinner, talked a bit, and called it a night.

End part 1.

No pictures for part 1, but more pictures for part 2 and 2 short videos.

Off to Shanghai

Off to the inferno known as Shanghai, be back in a couple of days.

It just keeps coming

Why don't they just kick us out already?

Foreigners Face Restricted Banking

The job makes or breaks the experience

So basically for me it all boiled down to the job. When the job started to suck, I started to become very unhappy with my situation. If my job situation had been better, I probably would not be so unhappy. I was planning on staying another year and studying Korean at a university here, but whats the use? When you start to become unhappy with a situation, you leave the situation, unless the benefits of staying outweigh the costs. The benefit of staying in Korea is the ability to save money. Considering I didn't come here for that purpose, staying here is now pointless.

I tried to find interests in other areas, culture, history, language etc. I went to museums and historical sites, but I found them to be rather small, lacking, and uninteresting. I have found Korean tv to be very entertaining but English subtitles are hard to find. I haven't been particularly enchanted with Korean history like I was with Chinese history, which I studied briefly at my university. No matter how hard I try I just cannot find the motivation to study the language. And it's all because of the job.

In other news, my camera broke and I need to buy a new one for my trip to Shanghai next week.

Anti-Foreign Sentiment Scares Away International Investors

Another example of whats been bothering me about this country.

Anti-Foreign Sentiment Scares Away International Investors

"He noted that the best negative example is regulators' probe of the legitimacy of Lone Star's takeover of the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) in 2003. ``Through this incident, the international community thinks Koreans believe that non-Koreans making money in Korea is like committing a crime, which drives away potential foreign investors.''"

This comes directly from a Korean newspaper no less.

---------------------

In other news, I read this nice little quote from one of my elementary student's journal.

"But (name left blank) is ugly. She is from china. Chinese are ugly. But we are pretty..."

Just an elementary school student, they start them young here.

Good example of why I'm leaving

Teacher sent to prison

Here is a perfect example of why I am leaving. This is a Canadian teacher who had a fake diploma, got caught, and is now going to spend 6 months in prison. Should he be deported? Absolutely. Should he be banned from ever coming back to this country? Absolutely. Should he be fined an obscene amount of money? Absolutely.

Should he spend 6 months in prison? No, just execute him instead for being a foreigner. He probably had sex with Korean women too.

Nationalism starts young here. I was going over a geography unit with my elementary students, and we were talking about countries, and one of my students asked me where Korea was. So I showed them where it was, a few seconds of shocked silence then students started yelling at me "why is Korea so small!" "where is jeju-do!" "Where is dokdo!" Then I made the mistake of saying, "Well, actually you need to cut this little square in half because the top half is North Korea", big mistake. Anyway, my point is, it's not fun living in a country that has an intense love/hate relationship with you.

In other news, I will be going to Shanghai at the end of the month with my friend, shes going to show me around her city. I'm trying to decide if I want to go to Beijing, Shanghai or Taipei next year.

Only a few more months

Three and a half months left, I'm so excited. My plans have been changing week by week, but right now my current plan is to go home in October, stay there for a month or two, then go to Taiwan and continue teaching. I'm not quite done teaching and traveling, but I am quite finished with Korea.

I enjoyed the first 4 months, but it went downhill after that. While on the surface I find this is a good place to live, if you scratch below the surface things aren't so nice. I have a good friend from China who is routinely subjected to racism, it's pretty depressing. I keep seeing these "news" reports on the evil foreign English teachers and how we are corrupting this society. Every time I go anywhere with an Asian girl I get stared at, she gets stared at, and it's just not fun. I even had this one teacher I work with follow me to a restaurant where I was meeting this girl we both know, the guy walked by the window with his arms crossed (very aggressive posture) staring into the restaurant trying to see who I was having dinner with. This same guy demanded all the female teachers at our school get into his car and all the male teachers get into another car, after all he must protect the women from us foreigners, right? I got turned down for a date once because, "someone might see us". Someone might see this Korean girl with a foreigner and assume shes a "bad girl". And I thought I heard them all. I can't even go get a new cell phone. I have to get a used cell phone because they don't give new ones without signing a contract and I'm a foreigner so I can't sign one.

I'm not even going to talk about what people from poor countries go through, I get it easy because I'm from a rich country...sigh.

Anyway, I'm going to have to start taking more pictures, I only have three months left.

So, what have I been doing lately?

Not much. I've learned I really don't like teaching middle school students, they are too moody. Elementary school students can be a handful, but they never really get hostile, they might get upset but I haven't met one that got really hostile. Teaching middle school students is like walking through a minefield.

I will probably only teach for one more year. It's just not something I want to do long term. I would like to try to find another job in Korea that doesn't involve teaching. We'll see how that goes. I will move to Seoul in October and see how things turn out for me there. But I am going to give this country at least one more year before moving on. If things just don't work out then I will go somewhere else.

asdf

I guess I'm just not much of a blogger. Haven't really felt the desire to post anything.

One year ago today...

One year ago today, a person I have never met, nor even sent an email too, ended his life in Beijing China. This person is the reason I'm living in Korea today. When I was a University student I knew when I graduated it would be tough to find a job, America was in a recession at the time. I started looking at other things I could do, the only idea that came into my head was travel. I started reading people's blogs and eventually came across the Korea Life Blog. The blog was funny and informative, full of pictures and was updated every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I quickly became a daily reader and started thinking about teaching ESL myself. Well here I am.

There are a couple things I really liked about Shawn's blog. The first is that he updated almost every single day. I knew without a doubt that there would be something new to read every time I checked his blog. The second thing is that he always had a positive humorous way of writing about the most difficult situations. He kept his writing positive even when he was having a rough time. Third, he wrote in a personal way, he gave details about his life that I would never do. Finally, a lot of his posts were written in story format. He would have characters, and pictures, and I often felt like I was reading a book.

Shawn eventually wrote a book about his time in Korea. You can buy it here. He was a very talented writer.

He eventually moved to China after living in Korea for 5 years. He ended his life one year ago today. Someone archived Shawn's China life blog, you can read it here. Even though Shawn's Korea life blog has been deleted, through the magic of the internet you can still read it here.

I've been here 7 months now, I've had good times and bad. I've seen things, learned things, and met people that have already changed my life forever. My world view has been expanded. I now realize just how big the world is. I'm still struggling as a blogger, I can't seem to find a good format. I don't think I would be able to emulate Shawn's format, he was just too talented a writer. I've thought about only focusing on Korean culture, maybe food or history, but thats already been done. The only unique thing I can offer is my experience in Korea. So I will write about that, the good and bad, the negative and the positive. I will try to write honestly so I don't give anyone false impressions that this place is paradise. Most importantly, I will try to update every day, even if it's just a couple pictures or sentences.

Well, I never knew you Shawn, but thanks for everything man.

Finally figured it out

Funny how you learn new lessons in life. I really wonder if I would have ever figured this one out if I never came here.

It's not about how good you are at your job, or what you look like, or anything else, it's how you make people feel, period.

First day at work with my new strategy worked very well. I was all smiles, talked to the boss, made sure to wish him a good weekend, and he was happier than I've seen him in a long time. It's not about how much the kids love me. It's about paying my respects to "the man".... and let me tell you it's not easy for me, because I have a serious thing against "the man". Some people call it a "problem with authority" some people simply call it "rebellion" but I call it "self-respect". Lets see if my new strategy works for the next 5 months.

So I've decided on what to do...

I'm just going to play nice, not worth the hassle. I figured it out last night, my kids love me, the other teachers love me, but I never pay attention to the boss. Face/honor is very important here, by not paying much attention to the boss he loses face/honor. I know what he's been telling me is BS, he's used the same lines with other teachers, they are just better at ass kissing. Guess it's time to learn a new skill.

Work situation continued...

Went out drinking with one of my co-workers last night after work. We talked about my situation and he gave me some advice. Basically he said that it's all just a game, he suggested I just tell my boss what he wants to hear. But frankly I don't care. If I get fired it just means I can find a better job in a better location where I don't have to work on Saturday. The whole hypocrisy thing just really pisses me off though. My boss keeps telling me I can't control my classes, when my classes are completely silent so he obviously is lying. When I have a noisy class I am always able to discipline them and quiet them down. However, whenever I do that he tells me I can't discipline the kids, I can't make them stand outside the classroom for 5 minutes, I can't make them stand in the corner, all I can do is write down their names and tell a Korean teacher. However, all the other foreign teachers can discipline their kids anyway they want.

I think that basically the boss just wants control. I'm really the only foreign teacher who doesn't kiss his ass. I'm just not an ass kisser, if you're a good person I will respect you very much, but it's something you need to earn. I don't care about your title or how much money you have or how anyone else treats you.

Oh, I found out why he asked for our diplomas last week. Our boss (a male) has been making sexual advances on the eldest and newest foreign teacher here. Last week he sent a text message to him asking if he could come upstairs to his room. The next day he asks for our diplomas as a cover incase the teacher (who told me this last night) asked about the text message. I learned this last night as we both spilled the beans on everything thats been happening lately.

I'll tell you what, I knew kind of what to expect when I got here. I've heard and read about some really crazy stuff that happens, but I really never expected to be living through something this strange. I guess it's all part of the adventure, and it's definitely been an eye opener. I just hope I don't end up thinking this was all a mistake when my adventure is finally over.

Work situation

So I asked for my diploma back, which made my boss very nervous, he is going to make me wait until next week for it. Another teacher was made the supervisor of the foreign teachers, which I think is a desperate attempt to not have all of us leave at the same time.

I'm starting to wonder if I want to stay here another year or just leave.

What to do...

Just found out my slimy boss didn't enroll us in the national health insurance plan, which is required by law, and is stated on my contract. I have a feeling he hasn't been paying into our pension plan as required by law until very recently when he asked us to sign a form for the pension plan. The question is, do I tell my co-worker who was told he'd have to pay $500 a month for insurance. We only have to pay about $50 bucks a month for it. Hmm, what should I do...

Cold

So I'm working on my 4th cold since moving here, my yearly average is 1 and I've only been here 7 months.

My boss is a slimy bastard, but he's so subtle about it, which makes it extremely infuriating. He asked for my original diploma one week before threatening to fire me, a common control tactic, I gave him a notarized copy since I have like 5 of them. My other co-worker just lied to him and said he mailed his home. I don't have problems with pay, but his motivation tactics to make us work harder really tear down our self-esteem. I didn't realize it until a new teacher came here and he went through the exact same stuff. I think it's time to start taking inventory of my things, and preparing for all eventualities, such as how to get to the airport, immigration office and how to send my money back home.

asdf

Besides work my life here has been pretty good. I've been busy these past couple of weekends since the weather is much better. Went with a friend to Itaewon to have a western meal, then headed to Insadong area to walk around. There are definitely advantages to hanging out with the locals.

Anyway, today I was actually threatened with being fired. I looked at my boss and said "ok", he paused a moment and said "if you agree to the terms you can keep working here". I didn't answer him as I tried to think where I should work after being fired. Realizing he had over played his hand he tried another tactic, "you only have 5 months left on the contract, I think you can endure it"..."just endure it". Again I didn't answer. He repeated again that I only have 5 months left, I can endure it. Persuaded by the fact that by my very nature I'm lazy, I agreed to stay. Now let me qualify this by saying the blame for this incident isn't completely on him, I did make a mistake. I am not completely blameless in this incident. However, what I find amusing is that if I was a Korean teacher it wouldn't have been a problem at all. Being a foreigner I am under a constant microscope and the smallest thing is blown out of proportion. One of my co-workers has it worse though, almost everything he does our boss tells him to stop, they really try to beat his personality out of him. Kinda messed up. I can't wait till my contract is finished.

Vacation days

These past 2 weeks I've been working about 3hrs a day. This happens every time our middle school students prepare for tests. From April 26 until April 29 my boss gave me a vacation. One of my co-workers took the opportunity to visit Japan, he went to Tokyo and Osaka. I stayed here and went to the Korean Folk Village with a friend on Thursday, and Saturday we went to 여의도 (Yeouido Park). The Korean Folk Village was interesting but it was jam packed with kids, it must have been kids day or something. I have never ever seen so many kids all in the same place before. I think we picked a bad day to go, but neither one of us knew so many kids would be there. We had a really good time though. Here are some pics.

Look at all these kids!!!




A traditional wedding.


Temple.


Inside the temple.


Seesaw Traditional Korean style.