It's Pronounced Dee - Em - Zed

Yesterday, a group of us from Alphabet Street went on a tour of the DMZ. For those of you who are not familiar with what the DMZ is (i.e. if you live under a rock), it is the approximately 4km wide area between North and South Korea that contains the most heavily guarded border in the world.

Though there have been incidents in the past in the DMZ between the North and South (and the Americans), the area is pretty peaceful and I was never really scared at any time (plus, I doubt if there was an issue with security, they would not let two bus loads of tourists up to the demarcation line.

We went to the Joint Security Area (JSA) which includes several buildings that cross between the two countries. We went inside one of these buildings and were allowed to go to the North Korean side of the building - thus, technically, I've been to North Korea. While in the JSA, we saw at least two North Korean soldiers, one even came within a few meters of us (see the first picture, that was taken from inside the meeting room, and that guy walked right up to the line with his binoculars).

The big building (3rd pictures is North Korea and the border is halfway between the blue (UN) buildings. If you look really closely, you can see two North Koreans standing in the middle doorway and the doorway just left of the middle doorway.

The other pictures are of Propaganda village (with one of the world's largest flagpoles and a massive flag - note the haze, visibility was not good), and of the Bridge of No Return. Pictures weren't allowed in many spots (and they wouldn't have been good with all the yellow dust).

All in all, it was a pretty interesting trip, despite the propaganda we were fed. Some other highlights of the trip included: the friendliness of the American Military tour guides (we had three and they were generally pretty nice and even cracked a few jokes), and the trip to the 3rd Tunnel. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the tunnel (it was pretty dark and cramped anyway) or of a few other things.

For 44,000 won ($44) it was definitely worth the wait. The most eye opening fact about the trip was how quickly we got from Seoul to the DMZ. The distance is about 50 or 60km (3rd tunnel is 52km) and that would not give much warning time if something big happened. That being said, the border is extremely well defended by both the Americans and the South Koreans.

A sad addition to the trip were stories of families separated by the signing of the armistice who have not seen or heard from each other since 1953. We saw a short video of one reunion and it was pretty sad.

I would recommend this trip to anyone who comes to Seoul. FYI, we booked through USO, but I didn't do it, so I really can't help you out with that.

Soccer Seoul Style

A few weeks into my stay in Seoul, a few of us Alphabet Street employees decided to go watch a soccer game. The local team, Seoul FC, plays in Seoul World Cup stadium; a pretty cool place as far as stadium's go. It only holds about 30,000 or so, but it has a room over most of the stands, but not the field.

The cost of admission (for the cheapest seats on a weekend game) was only 8,000 won (which is abou 8 dollars). The most expensive seats are 20,000 won. Perhaps next time I will splurge. We'll see.

As you can see from the pictures, the stands weren't exactly packed, but it was only their second home game of the season. The soccer was pretty good (translation: we were entertained) and there was some good food (there were chicken wings and hot chocolate – it was a colder day in Seoul and we had no sun where we were sitting).

Seoul won 3-1 over Daegu (the city I almost went to) and we even got to see a penalty kick. It's definitely something I will go back to and I plan on getting a jersey.

Eating in Korea: Seeing Your Food First

When you first arrive in a foreign country that doesn't even use the alphabet you're used to, it can be very scary to order food (especially considering the fact that foods like squid are common). Unless you make a Korean friend very quickly (or someone who knows their way around), you might want to look for restaurants that have pictures or some other way of seeing the food you're about to order.

These pictures come from the same restaurant The first time Alex and I went out to eat without anyone was here because we could see plastic models of the food (which is fairly common here) and there was a menu that had pictures and a few English words, which helped clear up any possible confusion.

We easily found things we would eat and I must say the food was delicious. We found out a few days later that we actually went to a Japanese restaurant – typically the ones that have the plastic food and the picture menus.

Some restaurants (usually the North American ones) have English versions of their menus which can be helpful; but really, I didn't come here to eat food I could get at home any day of the week.

I will also add a word of warning with these restaurants: look very closely. At this very restaurant I ordered something that I thought was chicken. When it came to the table, it clearly was not chicken – it was squid and other underwater things I never would have ordered. I didn't eat the squid (I had some of the shrimp), but ate mostly rice that night. It was not a fun experience, but now I know not to order that again.

That's it for now, but expect a lot of posts about food – it's perhaps the biggest adventure I've had here in Seoul.

A Few Good Words for Alphabet Street

When I first got offered a job at Alphabet Street, I wanted to make sure I would make the right decision. I went online and tried to find out as much information as I could about the school. There was not much that I could find, though I did find that some people were not quite happy with the school. (I won't put the links, but if you really care you can search for them). There were enough positive responses to the negative comments I read, that I decided in favour of accepting the job offer.

I have been working at the school for just over five weeks now and I have been pleasantly surprised. If you are thinking about accepting a job offer here, this is what I can tell you:

One of the best things about the school is the effort that the administration puts into the running of the school. So much goes on at the school, but the staff works well together to get everything done and to keep everyone informed as best as they can. Another bonus is that there is no shortage of people who speak English and Korean. For the few staff members who do not speak English, there is always a Korean teacher around who can help translate. Though this can make learning Korean more difficult (more on learning Korean in a future post).

On the topic of the staff, the staff is super-friendly and super-supportive. Whenever I had a question, I could easily find someone who could give me an answer or who would help me find an answer. This goes for both the Korean and foreign (they call us Native teachers - I think because we're native speakers of English, even though we would never really consider ourselves Natives in the North American sense).

All of our housing and living arrangements have been carefully taken care of by someone. When we needed to go get a medical checkup for our Alien Registration Cards (again, that will be the topic of a future post), we were accompanied to the hospital by an staff member (Mr. Park - who has been so helpful, he probably deserves a post of his own). When another staff member needed to visit the American Embassy to figure out an issue with a visa extension, Mr. Park drove her.

Despite long days (I usually get in around 8 or 8:30am and leave around 7pm), there are many breaks and we are only on contract to work 110 hours every 20 days, which works out to a nice 5 and a half hours a day. Mind you, that's just hours in the classroom, but the work is much less than a teacher back home (as there is very little planning) and any work over 110 hours results in an increase is salary.

Having more than ten English teachers at the school is also helpful as there is always someone who is willing to show you the ropes in Seoul, or just to hang out with. The second week we were here, the Principal took a group of us to Costco in the school van to buy food. No doubt, the group at Alphabet Street - all of the staff included - has made my life much easier than it would have been.

Now to be honest, there are things about Alphabet Street that are not perfect, but the administration is listening to constructive criticism and from what I have heard from other staff members, changes have been made recently based upon that constructive feedback.

So, while there are many dissenting opinions, it is in my experience that Alphabet Street is a good place to work and you will more than likely enjoy your time at the job.