South Africa to Korea... Part 1

A little over two weeks ago I moved to South Korea, and a little over 100 days ago, I left South Africa. Since arriving, many of my friends and family have asked me how South Korea compares to South Africa...

1. Packing
Packing was essentially the same, except that I included a lot of coats, tons of thick leggings, and scarves. I haven't lived in a snowy region since high school, and I'm a bit worried how I will do while living here. Luckily, unlike in South Africa, I will have heating in my school and apartment! No more wearing my coat during classes (or while sleeping!!!).

2. The school
My school in South Africa was located in a rural village 30km outside of Polokwane (the pseudo capitol of Limpopo Province). My class size ranged from 24-42 students, and I taught students as young as 4, and as old as 22. I had a lot of freedom in my classroom, and was able to bring in other programs to help teach English (i.e. SOUNS), and HIV education (i.e. Grassroot Soccer). I also was able to start after school programs (i.e. running club), and opened a library.

My school in South Korea is located in a suburb of Seoul. My class size ranges from 3-11 students, and I teach children as young as 3 and as old as 11. I don't nearly have a much freedom in the classroom, and I teach from a program that has been predesigned for me. This makes teaching a lot easier because I don't have to spend my nights preparing for classes. I have a designated time during the school day to grade papers, and print out work for class. I teach with four other foreigners (two Americans, one South African and one Canadian).

3. Vacation

My vacation days in South Africa were unbelievable. I got off a whole month for winter break, a whole month for summer vacation, a three weeks for fall break, one week for spring break, and lots of little South African holidays in between. I was able to travel, and explore South Africa like a pro with all these vacation days!

South Korea, does not have such wonderful holidays. My summer vacation is a total of six days... and that includes the weekend...

How I spent my summer vacation, site seeing, and taking too many snapchats.

4. Pay

Although I might not have so many holidays, but South Korea definitely pays a lot better than what I was getting paid in the Peace Corps (obviously). I still get accommodation like I did when I was in South Africa, but I also get paid almost 10 times more than what I got paid in South Africa, and to me, that's a huge win!

This is going to be me on my first pay day. 

5. Transportation

Many of my peace corps friends can attest to the fact that I avoided traveling in South Africa, unless I had a friend who could pick me in a car. Most transportation is by taxi, and not like a yellow cab taxi that you find in the states, but a 16 passenger taxi that fills up and drops people off along a route. I hate these taxis, they were unsafe, you were usually handed a baby, and you were always squished between a extremely large woman eating a king pie and an overly drunk and boisterous man.

The transportation in South Korea is an absolute dream! There are subways that run from 5am-midnight, and buses, and taxis (like the taxis we have in America!). The subways are crowded, but the subway gets you where you need on time, without the possibility of breaking down in the middle of south of nowhere Limpopo! I'm just waiting to encounter my first drunk on a subway, because I know that's bound to happen.

6. Running

Like South Africa, South Korea has running clubs all over. Sadly the best running club I've found thus far is an hour subway ride from my home, so I've been too lazy to make it out to one of their group runs yet. But I was able to post on their Facebook page, and found another runner who lives 2 subways stops over who is now my new running buddy! Sadly there aren't any rhinos, giraffes, or kudu sitings on my runs anymore.

7. Language

During the first three months in South Africa, I was given lessons in Sepedi, the local language of where I was going to be stationed. Although I was given these lessons, my Sepedi was absolutely horrific, and luckily a lot of people in South Africa can speak English, since it is one of the eleven official languages.

My attempt to learn Sepedi. 

In Korea, the language is Korean, and sadly I do not get free Korean lessons here. English is not nearly as widely spoken here as it was in South Africa, but you can definitely get by without the language. I am still struggling to learn how to read Korean, and learning basic salutations, but everyone knows how horrible I am with language skills.

My attempt to learn to read Korean

More to come...

Once Upon a Time in Pondo Land

My favourite trip in South Africa was hiking The Wild Coast with a group of Peace Corps volunteers and our tour guide Jimmy.

I've always said that it doesn't matter where you are, it just matters who you're with... and I know I've been very blessed to be in the best peace corps cohort ever created, and we can have fun anywhere we go, The Wild Coast, was by far the best.

The hike started in Port St. Johns and ended in Coffee Bay, a 60km (40 miles) hike that spanned over five days. The terrain was mixed, from rolling hills, to flat, to wading through streams, to walking on the beach, to taking 'ferries.'

 

Each night, we slept in home stays in little villages that were scattered along the coast. At the home stays, we were prepared dinner (usually samp, pap, and some meat), and breakfast (usually fat cooks, porridge, bread). 

 

And each night before we went to sleep, Jimmy, our tour guide, would tell us a story that always started out “Once upon a time in Pondo Land...” and he would tell us hysterical stories about his childhood, and what it was like growing up in the wild coast.

Jimmy, himself, could have a whole book written about him. He talked about the most outrageous things, and would say words like 'exactle', and would tell stories about the times he used to wet the bed as a child (his solution was to tie a piece of string to the end of his penis to keep pee coming out... you can imagine how that ended!). You would think that Jimmy, a hiking guide, would be extremely fit. You are so very very wrong. Jimmy had a beer belly, and would struggle up every mountain, but the whole time he would be laughing, and telling stories.

The Wild Coast is possibly one of the most gorgeous pieces of landscapes I've ever seen, and it's so beautifully untouched. We swam in the ocean off beautiful beaches that have few visitors every year. 

We didn't see any trash along the hike (something of note, since Limpopo is littered with garbage). We saw birds, and weird bugs, and tons of beautiful trees and plants. Due to the fact we were pack backing and were staying in home stays along a unpopulated area, there was no place to charge our phones... and really no use since there was no signal. In a lot of ways this made the trip better, because we were able to spend the entire trip focused on the hike and staying up late laughing with each other... 

 

...but it made it so that my phone was dead the entire time... so I only took one picture (all the pictures in this blog were taken by friends).

When we made it into Coffee Bay we were all exhausted and excited to spend a few days relaxing by the beach. We stayed at Coffee Shack backpackers, where we all excitedly ordered a Savannah Dry (a refreshing cider, which was much needed). While there we visited Hole in the Wall, ate tons of pizza, met some very eccentric people, and laughed... a lot.