After School EPIK Workshop

I'm becoming a bit of a connoisseur of EPIK workshops. Even though I enjoy getting out of school to go kill some time in the local education office, these events are usually tedious.

My first EPIK orientation featured a lady reading our contracts to us, and a panel of other EPIK people answering our questions with many "I don't knows" or "Ask your co-teacher when you meet them. "

It seems that being a regional director for EPIK is a terrible job since there have been four in the four years that I have worked here. Either that or it is a stepping stone job that leads to greater things in the world of Korean public school administration.

Yesterday the folks in Jinju were entreated to a new lady who gave us a nice power point presentation that featured some nice hints for having a successful time in Korea. Even though I understand where she is coming from, I'll share some of tips.

1. "You have to get used to the Korean work ethic. You know, you have sick days, but you know Korean teachers still come to school even when they are sick. Korean teachers only use sick days when they are really really sick that is our culture."
Ouch. Yeah that might be, but people in other countries don't skip school when they are sick because they are lazy, or that it's part of their culture, it is about trying not to spread disease.

2. "You know your Korean co-teachers are much more qualified than you are.
Nice way to make a guy feel welcome.

3. "You can save a lot of money here, some times Korean teachers wonder if you are worth all of the money that we pay you."
This quote was said with a picture of Scrooge McDuck jumping into his money bin. Now I'm not going to debate the fact that you can live a comfortable life in Korea or that you can come out of the EPIK program with more money than you had before, but 1st level ELT's only make about 1.9 million won a month. Converted to dollars that's about $1500, which is about what a manager of McDonalds makes in a month. Sure we don't pay rent, but it still isn't ALOT of money. She also made the claim that Korea pays more than other countries, that's not entirely true. These days EPIK's counter part JET pays 300,000 yen per month. With the strength of the yen that is considerably a lot more.

4. You have to participate in school events. Even though it isn't in your contract you are a part of the school family. You should go out for dinner with your coworkers.
That's a fair point.

5. You have to get used to the frequent schedule changes and appreciate how flexible your Korean coworkers can be when schedules change at the last minute.
Well this has worked out to my advantage in the past. I do appreciate how flexible people can be, but still it is a fair complaint to make.

To be fair the local guy in charge of foreigners in Jinju is a good guy. We have had two so far that can't speak English, but both of them seemed to be pretty good people people, which is probably the best attribute for the job. I really think that people in high positions in Korea could benefit from reading "How to make friends and Influence People." I've mentioned this before, but it get's kind of tiring to hear lectures about professionalism, then five minutes later hear a Korean history lecture that starts out with a guy saying, "Why do Korean people seem to hate Japanese people, but act so friendly towards tourists?"

Geumsan Restaurant Review 태우 만두

It has been a while since I have posted a restaurant review on this blog. I tend to only review restaurants in Geumsan Myeon in Jinju, because I work in the region. This Geumsan is not to be confused with Geumsan county in Choong Choong do (possibly Jeon-buk) that is famous for ginseng. This Geumsan just happens to be a newly developed region in Jinju that boasts breathtaking vistas of Wol ah san, and a small lake called Geumho Ji.

Anyway, Geumsan is known in Jinju as being famous for duck meat. I have never been to the famous duck restaurant out here, but I do eat lunch at many of the different places to have lunch. Today I went to 태우 만두 (Tay-oo man-du)

This spot only blipped up on my radar a few months ago while I was teaching some horrendous night classes. One rainy night I decided that having a nice and greasy order of fried mandu sounded good so I tried to go to a local Jja Jjang myun place. It turned out that that place was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so I walked down the street a pace. Right in front of the main bus stop in town the Mandu place jumped out at me.

Recently the place changed its facade and started serving mandu. In times past they served Ggojji and corn dogs with french fries sticking to them. I think that the owners stayed the same and just started making mandu. Interestingly enough, their new sign reads 30년 정통, despite the sign being brand new and anyone who has lived or worked in Geumsan knows that that place hasn't been there for 30 years.

All of that aside, the mandu is delicious. I think the difference in good and merely palatable mandu is if it is home made or not. Most Chinese delivery places or Naeng myun places that serve mandu just plop a bag of frozen mandu into a vat of hot oil or hot water and serve that, but home made mandu is really something special.

For myself I have ordered four different kinds of mandu in my history of dealing with Tay Oo mandu.

왕만두 King Mandu I was able to eat this after few times of going there. They only have this one sometimes. The time that I did have it, it was alright, but I'm not a big fan of "King Mandu." However, if you go to Mister Donut franchises in Japan, the king mandu, or big gyoza that you get there are fantastic.

김치 만두 Once again, not always available but always pretty good. The outer noodle is nice and tender and the Kimchi barf inside is nicely seasoned. Served with 단무지 (yellow pickled radish) this meal is a winner.

군 만두 My only disappointment with the deep fried mandu from Tay-oo mandu is that I can't get the things "to go," so that I can take them home to eat them while drinking a beer in front of the television in my underwear. I suppose that I could, but i live a good 25 minute bus ride from Geumsan and part of what makes this mandu so nice is that it is fresh. If I took them home they would probably get all cold and greasy, also put me off of eating mandu. My wife would also yell at me for being so gross. But a good hand made fried mandu is nice and tender in the middle and crispy on the outside.

비빔 만두 This bibim mandu is simply the fried mandu with pepper paste and vegetables on the top. It is pretty good compared to other versions of bibim mandu where places just take the mandu skins, deep fry them, and then put some vegetables and pepper paste next to the Mandu skins.

Service The lady who seems to be the owner of the place, doesn't seem to be the happiest person in the world, but she fills the orders quickly and is responsive to problems that might occur. I had some Kimchi mandu today that was a bit cold in the middle, so I complained about it and she fixed the problem right a way. Also not a place for people who can't read Korean.

Next time you are in Geumsan and want a nice snack, stop by Tay Oo mandu. I would recommend any of their fine mandus with a nice cold hite or what ever Korean beer they sell there.

Adendum to Murphy's Law

Got to school early today, rushed through a few oral tests. It turned out that the first hour class was canceled. My computer is on some kind of fix so that it always prints things backwards and I just have to select something so that it doesn't do that. Any how, I got the thing all worked out. the Addendum to Murphy's Law in this case is that I usually get a piece of luck, like a class being canceled.

Murphy's Law of Trying to Get Work Done

I usually get stuff done at school, but the universe also tends to try to c.f. me at the last second.

In the last semester I have lost two U.S.B.'s, and have had to rely on emailing myself documents in order print them.

Why do I have to e-mail myself documents to print them? Because the computer that I use at school just likes to mess with me like that. It likes to suddenly decide not to print things. Last week it decided to start printing things backwards. I got that fixed today, but then after that all of the printers just decided not to print things.

No worries I'll just e-mail the stuff home and use the home office. Oh yeah, out of ink at home. On top of all of that I have to get to work early tomorrow so that I can do some oral tests before the first class.

I should just get an old timey typewriter.

Totally Forgot

I totally forgot to mention the hot fashions that can be purchased outside or in markets just meters from buckets of pig heads or squid.

A few years ago I bought a Hawaiian shirt in Jinju's central market. Koreans told me that I looked like an "Ajeoshi," but in the summer of 2008, I went home to Michigan for a couple weeks. While in Michigan, my wife and I took a two day trip to Chicago for some sight seeing, I was wearing that shirt, and two people, two complete strangers, one woman who worked at a lucky brand shop, and just some dude walking around a sack fifth avenue gave the shirt some mad props. The guy even asked me where I got it, and I was like, "Sorry man, you gotta go to Korea."

Anyway don't look over the road shops, or the clothes that the old guys wear, because it seems that that type of fashion is all the rage in Chicago.

The Men's Fashion Edition

One thing that I love about Korea is the fashion. I can't claim to have any good fashion sense, since I spent a good part of my life wearing flannel shirts, but these days I love going to department stores and seeing what is available. Korean men's fashion ranges from being awesome to silly. The silliest Korean fashion that I can remember in recent history were these horrible bow ties. I don't know what the things were called, but they were all of the rage in 2007-2008, and then they just kind of disappeared, thankfully, people really looked silly in them.

Around 2005-2006, I remember kids trying to look all emo with black and white stripey shirt and black vest combos. People at least looked okay in those outfits, but the sheer numbers of people dressed like that was discouraging.
I also don't really like brands like "Bean Pole," or "Polham." To me this represents Korean boredom clothes. Kind of like Abercrombie and Fitch in America. I remember being in high school and seeing people wear Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts and thinking that those people were shilling for corporate masters. Besides that, Abercrombie, Jeans are okay, but also back in those days I remember people wearing Tommy Hilfiger, and Calvin Klein stuff, that simply had the name of the designer all over the place like on t-shirts or something. In full disclosure I have grown to like Calvin Klein stuff, but not gawd awful gray T-shirts that have big C.K.s on them, I'm talking about other stuff. I have a pretty cool corduroy Calvin Klein Jacket, a Swiss made Calvin Klein wrist watch, and a winter Jacket. I prize all of those garments.
Korea has it's own high end brands that are pretty dope though. Last year I got married. My mother in law gave my wife a whole bunch of money to make me look good. The result of this money was a Renoma suit.
In Jinju, we have a Galeria department store. For the longest time I had my eye on the corner "Renoma," shop, because all of their clothes looked pretty sharp. About a week before we finally went to the Renoma shop, we went to the "Cambridge," shop on the same floor as the Renoma shop.

The Cambridge Members Disaster

Sometimes Korean shop salesmen can be a little high pressure. I have found this to be the case when the workers work at a place that has boring clothes. The suits at Cambridge Members are okay, but they aren't anything special, and I wanted something special because I was getting married.
I tend to shop quickly. I look at clothes quickly but carefully and make decisions about stores and clothes based on certain criteria and I move on quickly. I either like things or don't like things. Sometimes, sales people follow me around, and even stand between myself and the rack of clothes that I'm looking at so I can't see touch the products. Sometimes they even pick up something that I have absolutely no desire of purchasing. I have to shake these people off and emphatically say "no," to what they are showing me. Not only is it annoying, but it distracts me from actually finding something that I want. One time I was trying to buy a neck tie, and the woman was holding up all of these pink and purple monstrosities that I wouldn't buy in a million years, she was getting in the way, making it hard for me to look for myself.
But the Cambridge members incident took this type of behavior to a whole new level. One of the biggest problems was that my wife was with me, and she wouldn't let me just walk away, but I'm not going to blame her for this, most of the blame was with the salesman.

So we showed up at Cambridge members, and were quickly entreated to celebrity treatment. The salesman gave us a lecture about the different suit characteristics, like weather or not the jacket had one slit in the back or two. He told us his life story about how he was a suit salesman in Seoul and about how he really knew about suits. I ended up trying on three or four different suits, none of them I wanted. I started getting angry because I didn't want anything that they were throwing at me. All of the suits looked the same, except they were different colors. I tried to make it clear that I didn't want anything. I spent about 30 minutes there, 28 of which were wasted because I knew after 2 that I didn't want anything there, but the guy kept on insisting that I try stuff on. Finally, I guess my wife sensed that I was near the tipping point and we ended up leaving.

Renoma

A week later we ended up at the Renoma shop finally. I tried on one or two suits. They were so slick that there wasn't much hesitation in buying a nice one button black suit. The thing made me look thin. Very nice, very Templeton Peck. A friend of mine remarked about how his Korean in laws got him a Renoma Jacket for his wedding gift. He said that he felt like a Chaebol heir. When I wear my Renoma, I feel like can stop international madmen from taking over the world with some kind of hair brained scheme. The problem with Renoma is the price. A simple button up shirt can run about 110,000 won. Ties can be as much as 80,000 won. A full suit is around 600,000. The quality is definitely on a different level though. The clothes look like they cost that much.

Custom Ellow

Custom Ellow is an interesting brand owned by the Kolon group. Don't be intimidated by the website. The clothes are quite nice. I have this jacket:Now, yes this guy does look a bit like he got all dressed up to go play star craft with his male friends, and he may even enjoy spending hours taking pictures of himself with his phone, but the point is the jacket. To his left hand side, there is one breast pocket that has something like a pocket square. Except it isn't a pocket square, it is a little envelope that can hold a pair of glasses or sunglasses. Pretty geek sheik if you ask me. Another thing that drew me to the jacket was the brown buttons. I thought that that accent made the Jacket suitable for activities like sailing, or just standing on boats looking rich. Once again though, I recommend going straight to the department store and not looking at the website. The clothes look great in the department store.

My only problem with some of the clothing is that it isn't very comfortable. The shoulders are a tad restricted, but the garments are all adjustable. I bought this particular item in the Lotte department store in Busan at Centum City. The guys took some measurements, placed an order and then mailed me the altered garment after a few days. Pretty sweet.

Awesome Blog from a Friend

My internet alter ego 3gyupsal has created a new blog about his adventures as a Korea trained ESL instructor in the ancient Aztec city of Teotiuacan. Check it out.