Merry Christmas!

It was a fantastic December. I want to post the Christmas photo while the date is still the 25th. I will get back to post stories from the past month once I have finished my lesson plans.

A Month of Mustache and Merriment

November has been very exciting! As I've gained a better rapport with my students, I've accepted some additional responsibilities around my school as a mentor and caregiver. This is a photo of my guitar beginners at the "Dream High" talent demonstration for elementary schools. Other schools' acts included traditional Korean drummers, cultural dancing, choral music, and comedic skits. Learning to play guitar while singing in Korean language was a challenge!

November 11th is called "Pepero Day" in Korea. Because the date is 2011, it was an extra special Pepero Day (11/11/11). The "11" is supposed to represent two lovers about to embrace. This unofficial holiday is akin to valentine's day in the U.S. and elsewhere. Everyone buys these candies called Peperos and gives them to their friends and sweethearts. According to rumor, the company that makes these candies started the whole craze to boost their sales. Instead, the resulting consumer trend is to only buy peperos around this time of the year. The company makes about 70% of their annual profit in a three-day period. I received quite a few from my students, and gave a bunch to the members of my badminton club.

This month brought my first serious battle with illness since I have been here in Daegu. The image above is an example of what a round of medication looks like in Korea. Each packet is to be taken with one meal. While I cannot be sure, my guess was influenza. I was running a fever of 102, headaches, nausea, sinus drainage, cough, and congestion. When I visited the doctor, he immediately gave me an injection in my rear end and put me on an interveinous drip (IV) for four hours. While this seems drastic, I can offer this explaination. In Korea, nobody has time to be sick and miss a bunch of work or school. They give you horse's dose of medicine so that you can beat the illness as quickly as possible. After the fact, my coteacher told me that the injection was probably a mixture of immune booster and steroids. All said the illness lasted about one week with the worst 3 days in the middle. Now instead of high fives, my students and I knock elbows to celebrate a job well done :)

Spending a week cooped up in my apartment called for some much needed outdoor fun. The following weekend I visited a theme park in Daegu with my friend Heather. We rode roller coasters and played parlour games for the afternoon. As the sun was setting, we rode the elevator up the 83-story observation tower of Woobang Land. And then...
We JUMPED! It was a very intense rush of adrenaline. Once you're harnessed in and clipped up, the safety attendant leads you to the edge of the platform in the photo. He asks you, "All you leady?" Ready to plummet to your doom? Ready to ride down the elevator in shame? There's no time for clarifying questions. He says, "1, 2, slee!" and then you dive :)

Most of the time when I get together with other English teachers during my free time, it's not as action-packed as the Skyjump from Woobang Tower. My friend Barrington, from Indiana, has gathered fees for entry into a bowling league. Soon enough, I will have a nifty bowling shirt with my name on it.
Thanksgiving was a splendid time! While I DEFINITELY missed the opportunity to gather with my family as well as the sacred American day of football viewing...I got together with some other foreigners. We had a big potluck, and everyone was able to get a good meal. My friend Rawiri (proudly sporting the 'Mo' to raise awareness for prostate cancer) from New Zealand taught me some proper Kiwi toasts, and we burned the midnight oils with belly's full of turkey and foamy apple juice (pictured above) *wink*
Hiking is the national pastime, and it gives me the opportunity to practice putting one foot in front of the other, both literally and figuratively. Walking up mountains on the weekend is a great way to gather your thoughts, practice your understanding of Korean language, escape the noisy city, or muddy your shoes. South Korea is pretty splendid.
To my friends and family who are reading the blog: I love you very much! Please send me emails with ideas for your Christmas gifts. But remember what Korean Santa says. "You must be the good behave if you want I bring you the playthings."

Happy Halloween!

Hello from colorful Daegu! I had intended to be publishing more often on this blog, but I stay pretty busy. This is a photo of my classroom (note the halloween decoration). Myself and my coteacher, EunMi have just completed our demonstration class. It involved an audit from the district directors and the Korean Ministry of Education. It was a smashing success!

I had the opportunity to visit Busan for the international fireworks festival. Although the weather was rainy, it was the most impressive fireworks show I have ever seen, beating out Disney and any 4th of July back home. I traveled with some good friends, and we spent the night out on the town.

Busan is a coastal city, somewhat larger than Daegu. With the festival, the crowds were MASSIVE. Millions of people stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the pouring rain for about 50 city blocks along Gwangalli beach and the surrounding avenues to watch the worlds most massive fireworks display. I rode on a subway that was literally stuffed full of people by the coachman.

After the fireworks cleared some, my travel buddies and I donned our halloween costumes and went out on the town for some cocktails and dancing. We ended the night soaked and exhausted, so we checked in to a 24 hour spa for some serious r&r. The price? about 6 dollars US :) I got to have a hot bath and a steamy shave. The ladies paid about 10$ but they got full massage and facial pampering. The next morning we caught the KTX (high speed train) back to Daegu.

This is another one of my coteachers. Her name is ImSun, and she likes to be called Sunny. She is a wonderful young woman in her early 30's with a husband and a daughter. She has a marvelous sense of humor. Her assistance is invaluable with navigating and learning to speak Korean :) EunMi also. These two are like my older sisters. In fact, I call them each 누나 sounds like "New Nah" and means a man's older sister.

During a cultural field trip to a city called Gyeongju, I got to snap this wonderful photo at a Buddhist temple. The courtyards are very quiet and serene, and inside the buildings I was able to learn a whole lot about the teachings of Buddha. At this particular temple, there is a 4000-year-old bronze statue representing the Buddha of compassion. His bodily form on earth is the Dali Llama

On the same field trip, I visited a cultural center in Gyeongju where we learned different aspects of traditional Korean culture and history all the way back to the Silla dynasty (about 5000 years ago). Fellow English teachers and myself got to make traditional Korean soap, try using a Gayageum and other traditional Korean musical instruments, and visit the burial tombs of ancient kings. We also made our own kites. After making the paper structure, the creator writes his or her wishes on the kite. When we went to the beach to raise our wishes to the heavens, we found an old man with this SUPERKITE. It flies with about 150 panels that reach maybe 400 ft into the sky. I told him he should use one kite and just wish for more wishes.

This photo is from the Daegu International Bodypainting Festival (mentioned in a former post). Hosted in Duryu Park, it was a hybrid between a fashion show, a concert, an art show, and a graffiti bash. It was quite an experience.

I've been playing in a foreigner's soccer league. I play with a pub team called 'Sydney Street.' These are my teammates. We aren't the best, but we certainly aren't the worst. This photo came from our weekend travel game in Gupo. The entire squad couldn't make it to the game, so more photos to come.

The second weekend in October, I had the chance to visit my friend Yongsung in Seoul. I rode the KTX up for the weekend. He and I went to college together at the Ohio State University, and he showed me a wonderful time in Seoul. Interesting anecdote: Koreans are VERY sensitive to changes in the temperature. While the weather to me seemed nice and comfortable (about 60 F or 15 C), the manager of the bar was handing out blankets to the patrons. Anyways, we spent most of the evening in Itaewon, the foreigner district of Seoul.

The next night I met with some friends from Daegu to go to an electronic music dance festival. Global Gathering hosted DJ's and musicians from all over the globe, and by the end of the evening we were sore from dancing all night. Thankfully, Yongsung let me crash at his place. After a hot shower, I hit the soft bed and was out like a light. I'll post the link to the festival below if anyone is interested.

http://vimeo.com/30770848

Orientation Closing Ceremony

so this video is from quite a while ago, but I thought my mom might like to see it. love you mom

Jeonju University EPIK Orientation Group 8

September FLEW by.

Hello! I'll begin my blog post with a quotation from Kermit the Frog: "Time's fun when you're havin' flies!" The month of September seems to have begun just yesterday. Where the time has gone, I cannot say.

During the week, I work hard with all my students to develop speaking ability in English. They are pretty excellent at reading and writing in English, so I am mostly working with them on having confidence in the face of public speaking using a foreign language. I've just completed my demonstration class; it involved teachers and administrators auditing my sixth grade class and evaluating my abilities as a teacher. I believe it was a smashing success. At school I have also begun working with the music department on guitar, piano, and voice performance with my kids. It also creates a really relaxed environment for them to ask me questions about myself or my country or the intricacies of the English language. I really love my job; while it can be exhausting at times, I thoroughly enjoy my work as an elementary teacher at Dukin Elementary.

I am lacking photo's of my school, and for that I apologize. I am working on selecting a digital camera to purchase for my personal use and enjoyment. Speaking of my enjoyment, the weekends here are fantastic! Tons of opportunity to travel or explore have presented themselves; I've been trying new things and getting lost in a different culture.

I've just returned from a weekend visit to Jinju for the lantern festival. I won several hundred thousand won (several hundred dollars) playing some blackjack at the Daegu casino, and decided to use the money for a weekend trip to check out a traditional Korean festival. My travel buddies and I spent the night at a 24-hour spa called "chim-ji-bahng," 찜질방 and we've just arrived back in Daegu. Today is a federal holiday for national foundation day, the day that the Korean people celebrate the entire Korean peninsula springing up out of the ocean.

There are many things in the world. One of the things is the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival. I recommend that if you are ever in the neighborhood, you check it out. If you are not in the neighborhood, give the website a glance. http://www.yudeung.com/

Slowly I am becoming more skilled at navigating my city (Daegu), but it is certainly a fun challenge to drop into a different city and try to make your way around town. The weekends are always full of exciting adventures. The downtown area, Banwoldang, is always a busy spot during Friday and Saturday evenings. The area is filled with restaurants, bars, dance clubs, karaoke rooms, etc... so it is a popular rally point for people on the weekend.

I've begun taking Korean language class twice each week. Once on Friday afternoon and once each Tuesday evening. The classes are from different organizations, so sometimes there is overlap between teaching materials. However, I am quickly increasing my skills in reading Hangul (Korean script) and have been practicing my pronunciations with anyone who has the patience to listen to my drivel.

I've just begun to play soccer with a group of Australians. We "Sydney Street Studs" play our matches near Keiymyeong University campus every Sunday. Next week we play against the regional champions of the foreign leagues. Also giving me some modicum of exercise, hiking provides some superb views of the city and surrounding areas. My personal recommendation is to pay close attention to the suggested difficulty of a hike and bring plenty of water (note the sweaty exhausted hikers above)

Korean's decorate every piece of their temples from top to bottom. Planning enough time to appreciate and examine the minutia of the art and architecture is essential for a satisfactory visit to any place like this (pictured above is a structure of Jinju castle/fortress)

This tunnel is made of wishes! Lanterns to transport wishes decorate this tunnel. I sent my wishes on a floating lantern that went bobbing down the river in Jinju.

The Koreans LOVE to swim...in the sea, in mountain streams, swimming pools, etc. Outside the temple that is the birthplace of circle buddhism, I couldn't help myself but to join them!

So a brief anecdote, unrelated to any of the photo's. The night taxi's in Daegu are known as "bullet taxis" because they travel so quickly across town. If you miss the last subway 11:30pm, these taxis are the ones that will get you home. BUCKLE your safety belt and hold on to your peaches! The ride in this taxi exceeds the excitement of riding some roller coasters in my mind.

Got to do some climbing/ziplining with my free time on one of my weekends. We all had fun celebrating successful completion of the "expert" course at Herb Hills with a nice dinner and drink, right on top of a mountain!

There are a gazillion things to do with your free time. I've checked out the new Daegu Art Museum. While it was swell, I am something of a gourmand when it comes to visual arts (anything goes and I enjoy it all). My favorite part was the female piano/cello duet playing music in the main atrium (it also didn't hurt that these two musicians were incredibly attractive). I've been fortunate enough to meet other people who share my love of music, and I've been playing some guitar in a group with some other foreign English teachers.

While this piece of fun is certainly overpriced, the shooting range is a hoot. When I was selected first to try my skill with pistol accuracy, I felt some nerves. I am experienced with firearms, but I would have preferred someone else go before me as a reference point. When the instructor put a bulletproof vest on me to go inside the pistol range, I was terrified. I was under the impression that the firearms instructor was going to shoot AT me. Hilarity ensued. Koreans wear protective gear for ANY activity. Anyways, it turns out I am deadly with a 9mm beretta as well as the 12 gauge.

Three Weeks of Daegu!

My apologies as this post will be absent some very interesting photos. For those who know me well, you will remember that I love to use disposable cameras. I have three awaiting development, but I have not had time to find the photo shop. Before I begin, a special hello and hug to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Pearson. I love you and miss you very much.


And here's what I've been up to ^^ (this is the korean's version of a smiley face emoticon)


I live in the Dalseo-gu west district of the city in a single bedroom apartment near to my school, DukIn Elementary. My apartment is not swell, but not too shabby. I am working on cleaning the roof of my building so that I can have a nighttime barbeque with friends sometime this winter. At school, I am the English teacher for grades 3,4,5,& 6. I also teach two kindergarten classes, but it is less teaching and more storytime/wrestling match. My school has about 450 children, and I teach 23 40-minute classes each week from Monday through Friday. I have three female coteachers; Mrs. Jung, Mrs. Choi, and Mrs. Lee. They are each mothers in their 30's (or so I believe...it is quite rude to ask the age of your elders). Together we work with classes of 20-30 students on varying levels of difficulty with English skills (reading writing speaking and listening). Just to give you an idea, my sixth graders are just getting into the past tense (i.e. "how was your weekend?") I am very good friends with the gym teacher Mr. Yung. Together he and I are coaching the elementary soccer team. Mr. Yung was kind enough to invite me to join his badminton club. To my surprise, it is quite a workout. 3 hours of intense sweat 3 times a week in the evenings. Koreans, however, do not sweat. I am the only sweaty one after badminton practice. As for the city, Daegu has some fantastic things to do. The first weekend I was here, I went to see the international bodypainting festival in Duryu Park. Daegu is known as the fashion capital of Korea, and this event proved it for me. Teams of competitors representing nations all over the globe painted and decorated their models and then sent them on a fashion runway walk with thousands of cameras flashing. That same week was the IAAF international track and field competition at Daegu National Stadium. I got to see Usain Bolt (a jamaican sprinter), the "fastest man on the planet" compete in the men's 200 meter race. Also quite a spectacle. The second weekend, I got to go visit an ecology park called Herb Hills. It is a beautiful nature park with gardens that is situated on the side of a mountain. Come to think of it, a relevant statistic is that over 70% of the Korean landscape is mountainous. The views are spectacular. At Herb Hills, some friends and I got to have an adventure doing a high ropes course that involves climbing and ziplining through a forest high atop a mountain. This weekend is Korean thanksgiving (Chuseok "chew sock"), so I have had a marvelous time relaxing with other English teachers. Yesterday I watched the world cup rugby tournament match between Wales and South Africa. The United States squad having been defeated, I allowed my friend Braam to convince me to cheer for his south african squad. Tomorrow, I am hiking with my friend Che up Mount Apsan. The country is really a wonderful place. I have only here given the brief synopsis...because I've left my travel journal at my apartment. Tonight I am just getting back from a Texas HoldEm' poker tournament with some Australians near Kimyeoung University. Sadly, I lost 10,000 Korean Won. (about 10 USD). I went "all in" on a hand with King diamond and 7 spade where I had a pair...but I lost out to the spade flush (terrible)"Hyong Pyon!" as they say... It's very late here and I must be awake in a few hours to start my hike. I will come back to the blog later and give more detailed versions of these stories. This is just an appetizer. I hope that you are all doing very well. I am posting my contact information below. All the best! -David-

대구광역시 달서구 본리동 405-3 아인아트빌102호
Dalseo-gu bonri-dong 405-3 Ain art ville 102, Daegu, Republic of Korea704-914
(the address is listed twice above first in Hangul and next in english.)
cell phone 010-2999-1431 (korea)
email: dave.minervini@gmail.com
skype: "eyelikethabeatles"

Orientation at Jeonju University

So, I have been here in South Korea for five days. When I departed from Detroit, I had the good fortune of sitting next to two young ladies from Daegu, South Korea. Dajeong and Soojeung are 21 and 19 respectively, and they are international students at Eastern Michigan University. They helped me to learn some survival Korean phrases and told me some invaluable details about the city in which I will teach English. After landing in Incheon, I completed the final smattering of bookkeeping (registry for EPIK, currency exchange, application for ARC, setup Korean bank account). I road a bus with other teachers like myself to Jeonju University in the northern part of Jeolla province. I have been here since working with about 200 teachers of similar age from all over the English speaking world (primarily UK, U.S., Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia) to prepare for teaching English in a foreign nation. Each day I take classes around the campus, eat meals in the cafeteria, and sleep in a dormitory. My roommate, William, is from Ottowa Canada. He has done the EPIK program before, and has been a tremendous help getting acquainted with the new surroundings. So far, the experience is reminiscent of the first week of university. Its wonderful making new friends and navigating unfamiliar territory together with them. Each day brings new challenges and new experiences, some of which include (but are not limited to): my first lesson in taekwondo (from the premier instruction team in the entire nation), tasting korean food and drink (Kimchi, Bee-bim bop, Soju, Gogi Gui, Kim Bop, etc.), and a visit to a Confucian Buddhist temple that is thought to be the birthplace of Circle Buddhism (Wonbulgyo). The cultural faux pas' abound, and I will not attempt to list them all immediately. But I will include this one for a fun anecdote. In Korea, a woman is known as "ajuma" once she has passed her middle age. Some people even consider an ajuma to be a third gender (a somewhat androgynous gender). While this term can be endearing, it often has negative connotations. An ajuma is somewhat who has carte blanche to do whatever she chooses in public (this includes using her umbrella to swat foreigners). When you meet an ajuma, politesse serves only to aggravate her already delicate nerves. When you take a sip from your water bottle, it is essential that you face perpendicular to her line of sight. That is all for now. The photo's, I hope, are self explanatory. More to come next week from Daegu.

Warm regards, -David- aka 데이비드(Day-bee-duh)

Departure Day

Greetings to my family, friends, and contemporaries! My name is David Klyce Minervini. Today I am beginning a journey to South Korea! I have accepted a position teaching English under the South Korean Ministry of Education's English Program in Korea (better known as EPIK). According to my contract, I will complete a 10-day orientation program at Jeonju University (located in Jeolla province) and then begin my teaching job in a city named Daegu. I have designed this web forum to provide anyone interested with some weekly updates and anecdotes concerning the unique experience of working in a foreign nation. I intend to include some photos and videos along the way, so I hope you'll enjoy what I have to share. Today, August 17 2011 I will depart the United States on an international flight from Detroit, Michigan, and arrive at Seoul-Incheon International Airport tomorrow afternoon. As always, I will be keeping a travel journal. More details to come! -DKM-