Last weekend I headed up to Seoul for the first time, to properly see it, not just go to to go somewhere else. SOO much fun, I felt like I was back in New York, everyone spoke English, lots of shops I recognised, the subway was so easy, as it was in English.
I did a lot of shopping as found clothes and shoes to fit me, went to see Handel's Messiah and went out for some drinks. It felt like I was on holiday being away from the Goon!
This week the 'Christmas Parties' set in.
On Wednesday I went out for dinner with my adult class. I love my adult class, they are a bunch of housewives in their late 30's early 40's. They were very excited to be out without their husbands or children!
Some of the teachers were out in Bar street, so after I headed over to see them. This descended into random balloon animals, shots and a fire show.
I didn't end up getting home until 3am and on a school night!
Christmas Eve, again headed out to Bar Street and met up with some friends and also didn't get in until 3am!
Christmas day, I invited Jo, Elizabeth and Jimmy over and extended it to any of the other expats in the Goon. This descended into party of 15 people in my tiny studio!
We had our Christmas dinner -
Did some push ups - Some arm wrestling, Brittany Spears games and dancing!
Then we headed to Bar street - again.
This was definitely the strangest and most nontraditional Christmas I have ever had but a good time was had by all!
I got home the other day to find 1 HUUUUUUGE parcel, 2 smaller parcels and a Christmas card.
The huge parcel was off a friend who had to leave South Korea suddenly for me and Victoria who had sorted out her apartment after she left.
Victoria came round last night to open it and for our usual veggie British dinner.
Let me set the scene.....
It had started to snow in The Goon and we had the Christmas tree lights on and some Christmassy music on.
It didn't take us long to rip through the massive parcel that held Christmas crackers and lots of individual presents, containing much needed and missed items in South Korea.
Such as falafel, English Chocolate, nutroast, tampons and Irish socks. Things that South Korea either does not do or does not do well!
The gift we were most excited about though was ......
Our onesie pajamas!!!!!
We sat down to veggie toad-in-the whole and Earl Grey tea listening to 'White Christmas' feeling like Christmas had finally arrived in The Goon! The only thing that was missing was Eastenders on the TV for us to fall asleep afterwards too!
Monday, December 14, 2009
This weekend Jo and I went to Boryeong for the Cheonbuk Oyster Festival. We got there at the end but still enjoyed a MASSIVE bucket of oysters.
It was huge. We had our own grill to grill them on and then kept popping and spitting water. It was a pretty fun experience. And surprisingly we managed to eat our way through them all!
After we went for a coffee at Gunsan Migratory Bird Observation. They have a rotating restaurant on the 10th floor, which gives you pretty good views of Gunsan.It was at this point that I realised how small Gunsan is, how often I eat out or how famous I am!! The waiter was talking to Jo in Korean and kept looking at me.Turns out he was a waiter at Green Sky (the restaurant in the same building as my gym, that I always go to and the chef always gives me freebies.) and recognised me!
Well, this week marks my 6 months in Korea!! SIX MONTHS! I am half way through my contract!!
This time 2 years ago I was in Guatemala, this time last year, I was in Spain and about to go to Ghana! I wonder where I will be this time next year!
I never would have guessed that I would end up in South Korea, NEVER in a million years did I think I would live in Asia for a year. I have never had an interest in Asia and I now I live here!
Not much been happening this week, I broke my chair at work - extremely embarrassing but never mind.... been stalked by KM. Turns out she now goes to restaurants near my apartment and asks if I have been in!!!
Also booked tickets to Thailand for February!!!!! I am meeting a friend I met on my Guatemala program with Cross-Cultural Solutions. Really excited about seeing her again and also travelling with someone, as opposed to by myself like for the past 5 years!! It has been 5 years since I took an actual holiday with someone, instead of going to visit family or volunteer!
So considering I'm not interested in Asia, I doing pretty well at getting around it!
My journey started off at 4am, I went to try and find a taxi to take me to the bus station. Being 4am in the morning I knew this was going to be a difficult task.
I finally got a taxi, which then proceeded to go and pick up some really drunk Korean woman who stank of booze. I finally made it to the bus station to find it was closed, by this time was 5am and I knew there was a bus at 5.30. I wondered around for a bit and then found an open café and managed to get some help off a couple of older men in there. One of the men had ok English and helped me buy my ticket, sat with me until the bus came, declared he was my friend and when saying good bye hugged me and went in for a smooch!!!
The bus journey was about 4 hours long and I was the only one on the 50 seater bus. Made it to the airport and checked in and tried to go through immigration. Turned out I had printed the wrong thing off for my multiple entry visa back into Korea and had to go over to the immigration office to sort things out.
The flights were fine, I kept being asked if I had ordered a special meal, which I had – vegetarian, but they kept bringing me chicken, cocktail sausages and beef.... Both of them were delayed, which meant I didn’t actually get into Xi’an until about 11pm, when it should have been 8.30.
When I arrived in Shenyang, I wasn’t expecting much culture shock. I was just going from one country where I didn’t really understand anything to another!
I was a little bit nervous getting off the plane and going through immigration. There were lots of guards standing around in very smart uniforms, looking very imposing. A few people ahead of me had been sent back and they were studying the passport photos very intensely. I got through immigration fine and even got a smile off the officer and picked up my luggage.
There was quite a lot of snow when I landed which made me realize this was going to be slightly colder than Ghana!!
Sunday 22nd November First full day in Xi’an! We spent the morning cycling around the city wall, it was about 6 miles and sooo much fun. Sarah and I had a tandem bike and were surprisingly good. We didn’t fall off once. We had a little trouble starting but the stopping part we had down.
The view from the wall was really interesting, we could see the Bell tower and also saw the only Buddhist temple in Xian. It was such a beautiful way to see the city, the weather was cold and really crisp with some remnants of snow about.
In the afternoon we had orientation, which was really interesting. We skimmed the surface of some of my many questions. The answer was mainly the same though – Chinese people are obedient! I didn’t realize what I rebel I was as I was like what if you don’t agree, what if you don’t love the communist party. Jerome’s answer was but we do, we just know the reasons. The kids are pretty much brainwashed into thinking what the government want.
There is also a saying about do not be the first bird to put your head up in a flock, as you will get shot. Basically any sort of individualism or creativeness is not encouraged in China. It is so difficult for me to get my head around this!
Monday 23d November
In the morning we headed to Xing Quing Palace park.
It seems like all the elderly population gathers here in the morning for tai chi, sword dancing, singing, and badminton. It is a huge social event and is very important as most people live in apartments here and do not get the opportunity to socialize with their neighbors.
One thing that has struck me, is the smog/mist/fog. As it is so cold it lingers and makes Xi’an seem pretty depressing. The amount of pollution is here is tremendous with all the trees at the side of the road being covered a layer of grey grime. I can really feel it in my lungs sometimes.
We also had a mandarin lesson. The characters here are so complex and really makes me appreciate Hangeul!! Originally some of the characters were pictograms with the character representing the thing it was trying to depict, gradually they got more complicated – even though now they use simplified Chinese. There are still over 1,000 characters!!! There are also 5 tones which can completely change the meaning of the word. For example ‘ma’ depending on the tone it can mean mother, spicy, horse, when you are scolding someone or used to make a sentence into a question!! Not much difference at all!
In the afternoon it was our first time at placement! We worked with about 13 kids to help them practice Snow White.
The school is government run and has about 2,000 students in total. Each class has about 60 students in!!!! The students have different teachers for each subject and move around from class to class. It is pretty open and as a result is FREEEZING! It doesn’t seem very welcoming in that it is quite grey and not many posters/pictures everywhere. But the kids seem very well treated.
After rehearsal we spent a few hours with the teachers helping them with questions they had about English. They had questions about how to teach phonics and also how to write the alphabet. Because Chinese characters are so complex with many strokes they were worried about what was correct. Adding a line here or there in Chinese can completely change the meaning. We explained that it was just different styles and all of them were right.
In the evening we had a performance by some local music students. They played the Er Hu and Pi Pa. It was pretty amazing and really difficult!!
Tuesday 23rd November In the morning we went to Shaanxi History museum. Xi’an had been around for 13 dynasties, so the history of Xi’an is pretty much the history of China. There was a lot to take in but it was extremely interesting.
In the afternoon we practiced the play with the kids again and then helped grade 3 and 4 practice their speeches for the speech competition. The level of English is pretty good. When you walk into the school you feel a bit like a celebrity. All the kids stare at you in fascination and shout hello, what is your name. When we arrive it is break time, so there are hundreds of kids running around shouting and waving at you. They are so cute!
In the evening we had a lecture about traditional Chinese medicine, which includes things like cupping, acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine, moxibustion and massage. All of these are available and patients can choose whether to have traditional treatments or ‘western’ treatments. There is no bias on what can be chosen. Typically older people will go for more traditionally methods and the younger people for western.
After the lecture we headed to Trust Mart to buy some chocolate, where Nicole nearly got arrested for stealing chocolate! They had security tags on the bars of chocolate and it had not been deactivated. It caused a bit a scene but we managed to get away!
Wednesday 25th November
In the morning we had a lecture on the history of China and the one child policy. The one child policy or ‘Family Planning policy’ fascinates me. It was established in 1979 and was to encourage later marriages and late births. (By late they mean aged 23-25!) It was supposed to promote less but healthier children and to slow down the population growth.
Again, at placement we practiced the play and helped some students with their speeches. We actually had the contest for the younger ones, they were really good. We had to mark then on appearance, their introduction, the text/story they read and then how well they answered some questions we asked them. Some of them got total stage fright and it was so awful to watch. But they were really good.
In the evening we had a calligraphy lecture, which was really interesting to learn about the history of the Chinese characters. The characters originally started off as pictograms, so that the words would look like what there were trying to say. We had fun guessing what certain characters were not too much success though!
Thursday 26th November In the morning we headed over to the Terracotta warriors. It was about an hour drive (with no traffic!) from the home-base.
The warriors were pretty impressive, there are over 2,000 of them and each one is different, different clothes, facial expressions, hair etc. The detail on them is amazing. The mausoleum was started when the Emperor was 13 years old and he died when he was 50. I find it slightly morbid that they start preparing his mausoleum before he is even dead, but after seeing the amount of work that went into it, it is understandable!
In the afternoon it was the 5th an 6th grades speech competition. Some of them were really good, others were so nervous and forgot their speech it was awful to watch. To stand up in front of a group of people and do a speech is bad enough, but to have to do it in a foreign language – I’m glad I didn’t have too!
The Snow White performance went really well, I was so proud of the kids! I t was pretty sad to leave them even after only working with them for 4 days.
In the evening we had English Corner, where students from the local area come and practice their English with the volunteers. It was pretty interesting to hear some of the questions that they had.
Friday 27th November We had the morning free to go and do some shopping. We headed down to Muslim Quarter and shopped – a lot! We somehow managed to get lost and ended up in the meat and slaughtering section – not very pleasant to see sheep being dragged down the street to their death.
In the afternoon we went to a foster home, it is run by a South African lady in 2 apartments. There are about 50 children in total ranging from babies up to about 2/3 years old. They all have disabilities some of them have heart conditions and have been abandoned. Other ‘disabilities’ include a cleft pallet. I was shocked to learn that children were abandoned because they had facial disfigurements. People cannot afford the surgery, so they abandon them. They were so adorable and it was great to get some cuddles in off them all!
In the evening we all headed out for dinner. We had hot pot where we all our own individual pots and we cooked fish, potatoes, spinach and lots of other delicious food! After Nicole, Makayla and I headed to Karaoke! It was super swanky place with some one to carry your beer from the shop to your room, open your beer, escort you to the bathroom! The doors had small circular windows a man walked past, happened to glance in and saw a bunch of foreigners and kept trying to come in to have his photo taken with us. We ended up having a body guard out side the door to stop them from coming back!
Saturday November 28th Last day - L Nicole, Eva and Johanna left at 6.30, so just Sarah and I were left in the morning. We had a wander round and went to get a massage. For one hour it was 5 pounds 50! Not bad, it was pretty intense but for 5 pounds you can’t complain!
I also went and got my hair cut, £1.50 later I was pretty much scalped. He didn't understand the term 'I want to keep as much length as possible'!
Then 3 planes, 2 taxis, a bus and 24 hours later I was back in The Goon.
This week I have been a bit of a domestic goddess, making Birthday cakes, scones, cleaning, laundry and sewing on buttons.
On Wednesday there was the Leonid Meteor Jo and I got up super early to watch it in the freezing cold and saw....... nothing.
This is what we should have seen:
So, 2 days until China! I am so excited. I am looking forward to travelling again and experiencing a new culture. As I previously mentioned I have never had an interest in China but I have been reading up on some things. I actually have about 4 pages of questions to ask and talk to the staff about when I get there. I am not sure whether I am maturing and appreciating different cultures more but China has really intrigued me.
The biggest thing that interests me is the one child policy. Obviously I do not know the ins and outs but the title is pretty obvious! What I found interesting is that if a couple has 'a girl or or has a physical disability, mental illness or mental retardation' they can apply to have a second child. This leads to a lot of female infanticides. I am really interested in talking to the staff about what they think of this and getting actual real peoples opinions rather than information from the media.
Another thing is that Facebook is blocked in China. Shock horror for a TEFL teacher who spends at least several hours on it a day. (Yes teachers in Korea have a lot of down... err preparation time). Twitter, Youtube and many other. See here for a list.
It amazes me that hotmail and gmail have also been blocked at some point. In a world where freedom of speech is a human right and that a government can be publicly so controlling, is a little scary.
I have also been reading about the death penalty and 'black jails' and the fact that there is a generation of people that do not know about the Tianamen Square protests because all the information is blocked in China.
Obviously I do not know everything and am only summarising some the articles that I have quickly scanned,. Some of this information could well be wrong but it definitely has got me thinking of questions to ask people and really wanting to learn more.
I do not want to focus on the negative as I have also read about the rich and interesting culture it has, how it is one of the worlds earliest civilisations, the beautiful calligraphy they do, the Beijing Opera and much more.
I am definitely excited and intrigued to learn more! That is another thing I love about Cross-Cultural Solutions, I can just turn up at the airport and know there will be someone there to pick me up. I don't have to worry about all the logistics, I can really focus on volunteering, immersing myself in the culture and pestering the staff with my questions!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
On Wednesday it was Pepero Day. A bit like Valentines day for Koreans where they give each other this snack that are sticks, that look like 11/11 hence why they are given on 11/11! I got 2 packets, one off a student and one off my co-worker.
This week was an interesting one work wise. I went for dinner with one of my adult students, which caused more trouble that it should have because of.... yes.. you guessed it KM!
I was doing L blends with my phonics class - black, sleep etc. The l and r have the same character in Korean, which caused a few mispronunciations. I was getting the students to repeat the words after me. Me - black, my student - Black. Me - clap, my students - crap. Me no no cLLLap. My students - crrrrap! They couldn't understand why I was laughing.
Then with my Kindergarten doing sh blends. Shake was one of the words. One of the kids recognised the word and proceeded to tell me to 'Shake my bon bon' which of course made me laugh, so she proceeded to tell me again, and again, and again!
Last week one of the kindergartners came in with a 'little black book' I often have deep and meaningful conversations with my kids where they just stare at me blankly or laugh at me while I talk at them. I was talking to her about her little black book and asking if she had many men in there and if she had been on any hot dates recently. One of the other students recognised the word 'man' and replied 'oh superman superman!' So apparently one of my kindergarten students is dating superman!
It always surprises me how some of my kids know no English but mention homework or something they do not like and I receive the response 'oh my god! Oh my god!'
One of my students came to talk to me at my desk and I got a huge whiff of alcoholic, not wanting to judge my 11 year old student for drinking at 4 in the afternoon or accuse of her of being an alcoholic, I carried on talking to her. Then she pulled something out of her pocket and said 'Jocelyn teacher'. It was hand sanitiser and proceeded to squirt it all over my hands! Turns out she wasn't a wino just another paranoid swine flu fearing Korean!
Yesterday, I went on base for 'Save your Bacon'. It is basically a scavenger hunt, that involves finding different locations, where there are drinking games and lots of pork products. At the end everyone ends up at the Delta Bar where there is huge roasted pig. Even being vegetarian I had fun and especially enjoyed the veggie BLT's! We had a poker game, the price is right, golfing, 80's quiz, beer tasting and dancing to the Birdie song.
I also got a proper look on base and saw what the dorms were like and the food court. The dorms were very much like halls of residence, lots of little studios but with a small kitchen, rather than a shared kitchen, like I had at good old Storthes Hall in Hudds! Some of them were one bedroom apartments. The food court had a Burger King, Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, Pizza etc etc. You have to pay for everything in American dollars. It is such a little bubble of America. I met one GI in bar street in Naundong. He was leaving in a week and this was his first time on Bar street. Some of the guys never really leave the base and have no clue about what Korea is like!!
It has been just over a year since I left NYC and Cross-Cultural Solutions. I cannot believe it has been a year, or what has happened in that year. Since leaving I have been to Spain, Ghana, moved to Asia and changed career paths!!
Out of all the CCS programs I was never very interested in China or Thailand and had no interest in Asia what so ever! So what do I do... I move to Asia for a year!
I am really excited to visit China. A - to see another part of Asia, I think that South Korea is very erm.. unique.. and it will be interesting to see another part and compare. B- it is nearly 6 months that I will have been here, that is the longest I have been in one spot and not travelled outside the country/state for a LOOOOOONG time. Getting 'cabin fever' slightly so looking forward to travelling.
I also received my placement today! I will be volunteering at a school!
The school was established in 1957. It is located in western part of Xi’an and covers an area of 8,000 square meters. Presently, it accommodates around 2,200 students who are divided into 36 different classes according to their ages.
The content of the volunteer work at School is composed of 3 sections: l Rehearsal of a short stage play l Coach the students for an English Recitation Contest l Judge in the English Recitation Contest
Volunteers help students rehearse the play Monday through Wednesday and the play will be acted on Thursday. The Recitation contest will be on Wednesday and Thursday.
Approximately 30 students from Grade 3 to Grade 6 will take part in the English Recitation Contest. And the volunteers will be divided into 3 groups to help different students with their pronunciation, grammar, and presentation skills if possible. The students can choose either a text from their book, or one of their favorite stories to be the content of their speech. Each student is expected to finish their speech in no more than 4 minutes and it should last no less than 2 minutes.
So on my week off from teaching English, I will be ... teaching English! It is going to be pretty interesting to see the differences between teaching here and in China. For the first time I actually feel qualified for my placement! I remember when I got my placement for Ghana, I was so nervous about teaching!
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Saturday, I spent all afternoon and I really mean all afternoon sitting in a 'Bean and Bean' drinking tea and coffee. It is a really nice coffee shop, with outdoor seating and blankets, a really good chocolate latte with grated white and dark chocolate on and a very nice English speaking owner.
It is round the corner from Wow and Joy, which I have decided is to be my new local, another bar, Lotte Mart and a nail place. Susong-Dong is definitly an up and coming area! They are building a huge funky looking building across the main road from me. I'm excited to figure out what it is as it has quite funky architecture.
Sunday I was thinking of going to Daejon but the weather was awful. I ended up seeing the worst movie ever.
I then went to Jinpo Marine Amusement park. It had a huge old ship, and some planes. Not much of an amusement park but was pretty interesting for about 30 minutes.
After this Jo and I headed to Deachon. These were the 2 places I mispronounced and lead me on a six hour detour. Just to emphasis how easy this is is -
Daecheon 대천 and Daejeon 대전.
See the difference!!!!?? The little hat on the 천 part!
We headed to the fish market and bought 2kg of shrimp for about £7 and then got them cooked for us at a restaurant. It was a traditional Korean restaurant where there were long table and you sat on the floor. We ended up sitting next to 2 couples, one of the guys had hit the soju pretty hard and proceeded to entertain us through the whole meal and shared his food with us. We did shots of soju and beer together and he then asked me to dance.. in the restaurant.. with no music.. so I obliged! One of the waitresses, an older lady kept telling him off for pestering us but then proceeded to hand feed him the heads off our shrimps. As we were leaving we found out that they had paid for all our meal!
Definitely one of the most random nights ever!
Also, just a few random things that I learnt/found out/ have been thinking about:
I asked my adults if they wanted to new husbands, and if they did who, the speedy responses were Brad Pitt and Jonny Depp.
I was discussing holidays with my grade 6 class. Mother's Day came up and how you could create a book of tickets for your mother, with tokens such as breakfast in bed etc. One of my students said she had made one for her mother. I asked what kind of things she had written. One of them was a ticket to pull out all of her mother's grey hairs!!
Gunsan has the most number of churches in South Korea.
Korean is finally starting to sink in. I was speaking to a friend and kept answering in Korean!
Friday, November 06, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Saturday, I went to the air show on base. Kunsan air base is pretty small, there were a few stalls selling BBQ food and american sweets, there was a static display of different planes and lots of American military and airforce to ogle!
The actual airshow was at along Saemangeum Seawall, seeing as we had enough difficulty actually finding where on base the static show was (Not even the guys at the main gate knew directions!) , we didn't really see much of the air show.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
This week has been a pretty productive week. I got my Chinese visa, fixed my bike, transferred money (all by myself), made homemade pasta (a bit of a disaster but good tip - a bottle of vodka is a good substitute for a rolling pin!), been to the gym at 7am a few times (despite not starting work until 1pm).
Then, today I received a phone call saying not to go into work until 3pm, so I decided to plonk myself down and write a post.
Teaching this week has been pretty quiet because a lot of swine flu cases. One of my student's sister had it but she is fine. However KM would not go near him, or touch his textbook as result. She was saying how scared she was and how I had to 'put the gas on at home' so I didn't 'get cold' as it is 'dangerous'. Some of my friends have had to wear masks at school, and people are continuously using hand sanitiser left right and centre.
I don't know if I am being completely blase about it all. I am washing my hands etc, but as I always do. I am not going to panic and stay at home and not live my life though. The majority of Koreans seem to be pretty hysterical about it all though.
It is being suggested that schools should close as written in the Korean Times.
Next week all the students take College Scholastic Ability Test and people are worried that students will be ill and unable to take the exam. This test is a huuuuuge deal here. Businesses open later and planes are not allowed to fly during listening sections of the test. Read this article here about it, it is pretty insane.
This also leads me to think about the pressure the kids are under here. My students will go to school, come to my academy, go to math academy, Taekwondo, science club and not get home until 8 or 9 at night. The children are under so much pressure to achieve high grades and study, that they don't have any time to play and be kids.
Korean culture is definitely in a league of it own! I am excited to go to China and see what other parts of Asia are like - 3 weeks to go!
Monday, October 26, 2009
This weekend Jo and I spent the weekend at Mary's mother's house in Jeongeup . Her mother lives in a traditional Korean house called a hanock. We spent Saturday night drinking beer, with her mum and her friend who is Korean but lives in Brazil! Her mum was doing palm readings for us. Bearing in mind we could not communicate at all because of the language barrier, this is what she told me.She told me I had 2 boyfriends at the moment but I needed to be careful, as they would try to take money off me.I would have a long successful life.I would marry at 30 and have 3 children, the first being a very strong boy.So let's see what happens!
On the Sunday we went to Neajansan National park. It was sooo beautiful because of all the autumnal colours. We didn't really hike that much but did make it up a smaller peak. Once my my super expense 60p card reader arrives from Hongkong I will add the photos!
Also on the way to work this morning, I counted 7 new buildings that were being constructed in my area. The other night I found a few new bars behind Lotte Mart. on being Wow and Joy. Think an American style sports bar with greasy fired food and super cheap international beers. I think I have found my new local! The owner also speaks some English which is always a bonus!There is an other bar, that I haven't tried that looks really nice with an outdoor patio, which will be nice when it gets warm again. The rate that buildings go up here is so fast, one minute there are allotments next to you, then there is another apartment building!!
This week has been pretty quiet in the Goon. Last weekend, we took a trip to the fish market and cooked up a seafood storm! I ate mussels, scallops, shrimp and crab. It was all pretty 맛있은 (delicious). I did have some photos of still squirmy octopus and crabs etc, but my camera is playing up and won't let me download them.
The still alive comment refers to yesterdays activity. I was with KM and we had a cooking day. The vocab sheet you gave to me included phrases such as 'it's yummy, it's yucky' and my personal favorite 'it tastes like feet'. That one really made me laugh!
We were making dokbokki (thick rice cake noodle things in a spicy sauce). My first concern was the gas camping stove thing with boiling water in the middle of a table with 6 kindergarten kids running round. When I got over this fear. I saw KM trying to light another gas stove using a twisted piece of newspaper lit from the other stove. The gas wouldn't turn on and the flames were getting precariously close to her finger, so she proceeded to waft it around and then drop it in one of the kids plastic bowls. She then ran out with the flaming plastic bowl. As that attempt to kill us didn't work, she had left the gas on while trying to sort of the flaming plastic bowl. Fortunately one of the parents had stayed, smelt the gas and turned it off. Crisis averted.. until next class.
This time she couldn't turn on the stove and kept clicking the gas on, as you can imaging the kids are very excited and curious and all peering pretty closely at the stove, next thing the gas lights and whooomph flames gush out. Fortunately everyone kept their eyebrows!
Seriously though, I do not know how this woman has not had a serious accident! Things have been pretty well with her though, apart from her reading my emails and opening attachments while I am teaching, rooting through my rubbish and telling me I am 'sexy, sexy'!!!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
I nearly had a panic attack this week. My co-teacher was saying 'oh you went to the University of Huddersfield, and volunteered in Brazil and Costa Rica. I see from the website!' Thinking he had found my blog, I had a mild panic attack, but it turns out I am actually on the University website.
My week was also quite entertaining. We were discussing a folk story about an indian who found his grandfathers coat, made of animal skin in a bag. I asked the students what the coat was made out of, expecting the answer to be animal skin, wolf skin or something similar. One of my students chirped up with' His grandfather.' It completely cracked me up, made me cry with laughter in front of the class and lose complete control for the next 5 minutes.
In another class, one of the kids called me an adjuma (meaning old woman) and then proceed to 'pass wind'. One of the students ran off to tell my co-teacher, who then asked after class, 'was it true one of the students sh*t' their pants?'
I also got my hair cut this week, which was badly needed and I had been putting off because of the language barrier. Fortunately Jo came with me and a fiver later, I had a swanky new hair cut.
I went into work at 11 on Friday as I was not sure if I was supposed to go in at 11 or 1 and thought it would be better safe than sorry. KM was hoovering when I got there, so she did not hear me announce myself. A few seconds later she turns rounds, gets the fright of her life and squeals. The second time, I nearly wet myself laughing in twice as many days!!
On Saturday, I went into Jeonju. We had a look around the Hanok Folk Village and then headed to the Zoo. We then found a battle of the bands that seemed to be happening and sat and watched a screeching Korean girl 'sing' for a bit.
Sunday, Jo, Elizabeth and I had decided to cook different types of food and have a multicultural meal. I was cooking and dancing to music semi-naked (I can do this as I live by myself!!) before they arrived, when there was a knock on the door. It was Cindy from 202. Her boyfriend lives in my building and she is studying English in Busan and needed some help with an assignment. I told her to come back, I got dressed, tidied up and then helped her translate some phonic stuff. She is super sweet!
Thursday night, I met up with Joanna and Elizabeth. Elizabeth just bought a moped and lives near me, so she gave me a lift home!
I was a little nervous!
But it is actually really good fun!
On Friday I spent the day at Jo's Aunt's house, which was way out in the country! We spent the afternoon making songpyeon which is a traditional Chusok ricecake.
We made hundreds!!!
Saturday, I went for a wander around the park with some expats, and then had dinner at Joanna's with the most delicious fresh shrimp I have ever had!
Saturday, I ended up seeing Fame with Jo, drinking coffee while sitting over looking the lake. My life is tough!
Then went out for dinner, Gunsan is famous for its seafood. So we went to a seafood restaurant. I ate all kinds! This octopus that is cut up yet still moves on your plate, sliced raw fish, oysters, fried tuna fish head, crab, these crunchy fish things. All kinds!!! Needless to say I have ticked that box and probably will not repeat most of the experiences but at least I can say I have tried it all!
This week was another 4 day week because it is Chusok, basically the Korean thanksgiving.
I went for coffee with Victoria last night and she gave me a pear and an apple as a Chusok present. KM today gave me a gift set containing 6 tubes of toothpaste, moisturiser, shampoo and conditioner.
(The Koreans loooove their toothpaste and always brush their teeth after every meal, so I am assuming why there were 5 tubes in the gift set.)
One of my adult students made me some biscuits, as she handed them to me she told me 'they are not delicious'. Actually they were pretty good.
Also speaking of pears, Korean pears are HUGE. Jo brought me three over and they are MASSIVE!!!
I tried to make a pear cake to use some of the pears, but the oven is not really working out. It burnt the outside, and the inside was uncooked. :(
However the bonus is that is it a diet oven, so obviously everything that comes out of it has no calories!
Tonight I went out for dinner to Green Sky, Jo and I were there on Saturday as well. It is also the place I went for my Birthday. Turns out the staff remember me, especially the Chef. He actually speaks really good English and loves Manchester (yay for Park Ji-Sung, alll Koreans know Manchester now). He actually came over to our table and gave me coupon for a 30% discount!
I was also given a bonus this week, handed to me in cash... in a blank envelope... Jo said this is the way Koreans do it, but still seems a little dodgy!
So life is pretty good at the moment, I really have nothing to complain about! :)
I have been toying with the idea of going to China during my next week off and doing a Cross-Cultural Solutions Insight program. I have been receiving fare alerts from Kayak to keep an eye on the flights. They had been about £350-400. Yesterday I got an email saying flights had dropped to £143!!! Needless to say I got VERY excited. After searching a bit more, the flights were coming out around £300, Kayak lied. I then tried Expedia which had shown up in the Kayak search and low and behold a flight for £143. So I pretty much booked it straight away!!
Unfortunately I cannot enrol in the CCS program until 60 days beforehand, and they may or may not even be space for me but the flight was too cheap to miss!
So either way in November I will be spending a week in Xian!
So we finally made it to Seonyudo Island after the taxi driver tried to take us to the bus station instead of the ferry terminal! We got on the ferry about 11.30 and the grabbed some seats on the deck upstairs. Next to us was a big group of Koreans who cracked open the soju and offered me some, as soon as we set off. There was also a big hiking group decked out in all their hiking gear. We later saw them having a picnic on the beach and also then having dinner. Not really doing much hiking!
The island was pretty small but very tranquil and beautiful. To be fair we didn't see that much. We found a restaurant and settled there by the the sea, ate some crab and other random stuff and had a few beers.
On the ferry home, I was sitting down when I was suddenly surround by Koreans. Two women plonked themselves next to me, put their arms around me and the photo shoot began. I was asked if I wanted to be a mans third wife, had my boob grabbed by a very drunk Korean, had a discussion about Hangul, was invited to another island and arm wrestled. All things you would expect on a ferry ride!!
Headed out in the Goon for a few drinks in the evening which of course lead to noreabang. I think I pretty much lost my voice by the end of the night!
Pictures of the weekend here!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Well, this past week and weekend has been pretty eventful and busy.
Last Friday, a newbie arrived, who I had been in touch with prior to her arriving. Unfortunately her apartment wasn't ready, so she spent the weekend at mine.
On the Friday night Louise and I had planned a couple a girl make up evening, then out in 'The Goon'. This managed to turn into an impromptu gathering of teachers and a few guys from Base in my little studio! The most people I have had in here yet.
I also webcamed with come of my colleagues from Cross-Cultural Solutions. It was soooooo good to see them all and made me cry! I love travelling, going to new places and meeting new people. But it also means you leave lots of good friends behind!
We decided to head out (by this time Joanna's jetlag had hit and she had passed out on mu bed!) We went out for a few drinks, then headed to Noreabang. I cannot express my love for noreabang in words. I am an awful singer but it is just sooooooo much fun!
This is an action shot of us being hit by a fabulous wave of noreabang while singing Bohemian Rhapsody!
The next day I was feeling pretty tender but as it was Joanna's first proper day, we went for a trundle around the Goon. We went to the fabulous Music cafe for a few hours and chatted to the owner through his 8 year old son, went for a wander around Eunpa Park and then went for some dinner.
We then met up with some other teachers for what was going to be one drink, then we met up with some other teachers. Then a car drove past, shouting my name and it was the guys from Base from the night before, so they joined us. Before I knew it, there was a huge crowd of us and it was 3am!!
On the Sunday we pretty much chilled for most of the day and then headed to Lotte Mart. For .... FOUR HOURS!!!! Joanna wanted to look at everything and I wanted to shoot myself!!
The nit was back to work. I think work is a little worried about me leaving because of the 'personality conflicts' between my co-workers.
They have said I can do flexi-time and come in at 1 most days instead of 11 and are also giving me a small bonus. To be honest it is not that bad. I have dealt with much worse but it is a little childish and unprofessional with games of 'He said/she said'. I am just keeping my head down, working hard and trying to not get involved.
I was also asked if I was going to renew my contract..... I am happy here, I am really enjoying the teaching, love have my studio etc. But I am just not feeling South Korea. When I was in Brazil and Ghana, I LOVED it. I just don't have that same passion for South Korea. If this job and situation were in Brazil I would re-sign immediately! I am definitely thinking teaching/teaching English is the route I want to take but I just need to decide where!!!
Victoria brought me round an oven last week so with all this spare time, I decided to bake a cake.
First of all it is mainly a rotisserie oven. Second the instructions are in Korean. Third there is no temperature adjustment. I also have no scales, so measuring out the ingredients was a guessing came also.
So I had finally made the mixture put in the oven on the rack, thinking it would be best near the top. Turned the oven on and the rotisserie think kicked in. The cake turned upside and spilt most of the mixture. Cleaned it up sorted it out and put it back in. The smoke started to come from the oven. I had not got all of the mixture off the oven.
Then I burnt one side of it, then the top. But still not a bad effort for my first try. I think I have an idea of how to control it all now!
Not too bad for my first attempt and not understanding how to use the oven!!
This weekend I am heading to Seonyu Island to see it before it starts to get cold. The weather has really started to cool down and is really lovely at the moment. It is sunny and nice but I am not sweating profusely like previous months!!
Well, I keep trying to post photos as I realised I have not even posted photos of the speech contest and also my birthday. But the Internet is not being very cooperative!
My first week back at work was hectic, with new students, new schedule and new textbooks. I am still adjusting now.
I have some new adult students. Some of my older ones left as they were too busy popping out babies. The new ones have come in the hope of getting pregnant, as most of my class has been pregnant, they are hoping they will too!
I can see the slogan now 'Learn English and get preggers too'!!!
My birthday was a lovely affair, no other way to describe it. I had a lovely dinner with a few friends and ended up with 2 cakes, being sung to in Korean once and English twice. We had a few drinks at a nice roof top bar afterwards. I was thinking about how I spent my last birthday. It was at a kids party with Cass and Laura in a park in Brooklyn with NYC and UK friends - how things change! This one was celebrated with Koreans, Irish, New Zealand, American and South African people!!
Last weekend, I went to a house party on the Friday night and got involved in lots of drinking games.
Friday was also my 4 month anniversary!! 4 months I have been here! The time has gone so fast, yet it feels like I have been here a loong time. I do feel settled and like this is home. albeit a temporary home but I feel settled.
I spent Saturday cooking veggie burgers and other veggie delights. I am getting a bit fed up with the limited options. Especially, as when I come home I usually run in, get changed and go the gym, so things have to be quick!
Sunday I went on a bike ride and then went over to a friends to watch American college football and drink beer!
Then it was back to school for another week, which is already half way over.
Tonight, I am cooking dinner tonight for 2 veggie friends, we are rotating around each others houses, eating veggie food and gossiping!
Just thought I would do a quick update. I will try and sort out the photos soon!
So this past week I have spent on my jolly hollies in Jeju Island I had tried to book some hotels but all off them seemed to be full, so I decided to wing it and just turn up and find some places to stay. I am normally a pretty organised and planned person so this was a little outside of my boundaries. But still as my new mantra in South Korea is 'It's a challenge, it's all a learning experience' I decided to go for it. Plus I was not going to sit in 'The Goon' for a whole week.
So this was the route I took over the 5 nights I was there.
So a run down of the week...
Sunday The flight was so short, I wish that all my flights were only 36 minutes long! There was the favourite korean game of rock scissor paper to win tickets for some show. Unfortunately I fell asleep so missed out. I arrived at the airport, picked up a map and jumped on the number 600 bus. My original plan was to get of at Jungman Resort. I thought seeing as this was a touristy area so the best place to find a hotel. Nothing really took my fancy, as it all seemed like really expensive hotels. I stayed on the bus and eventually got off at the world cup stadium. I had a look around and then met a girl from the US. She pointed me to Seogwipoand I ended up meeting her that night to watch her sing and some of her friends do some readings. I booked into a hotel, feeling pretty happy with my self that this was all turning out ok and I had somewhere to sleep. I headed down to the harbour and went to Choenjiyeon water falls.
Monday I decided I wanted to go to Jeju Sculpture park, the woman at reception did not really speak much English but pointed me up the hill to the bus station. After waiting fro 10 minutes at a bus stop, I asked some and realised I was on the wrong side. I went over to the other stop, stood there for a few minutes, and found out I was still in the wrong place. Fortunately a lady, literally took me and lead me round the corner and I found the actual bus terminal!! I was told I had to change buses somewhere and hopped on a bus. After about 20 minutes on the bus, I saw tourist information centre and thought someone there would speak English. Bob's your uncle I was also sorted and get back on the same bus number that I had got on before brandishing a note in Korean that said Sculpture park, which I waved at the driver. After another 20 minutes the driver stop and waved at me and pointed around the corner. I was there!! After about 2 hours, I had finally made!! I was soooo proud of myself. To top it off the place was beautiful and empty. I spent a several hours wandering around. and was chased by some ducks!
Tuesday After being groped by an adjama (a little old lady) at the bus stop, I was on my way to Pyoseon. I went to Jeju Folk Village and then spent the afternoon at the beach.
Wednesday The plan was to head to Gimnyeong, find a hotel and then go the Manjangul caves. However after getting off in Gimnyeong, I couldn't find a hotel, so got back on the bus and headed to Hamdoek instead. Found a hotel then got back on the bus to go back the way I had come previously! I got off the bus at the entrance of the caves, which was about a 30 minute walk down a road and was chased by 2 Korean sisters who kept saying walking walking and marching on the spot. We finally figured out we were going to the caves so shared a taxi and wandered around the caves together. We then went to Kim Nyoung Maze park. The girls lived in Busan so now I have people to stay with when I go there!
Thursday I made my way to Jeju-Si for my last day before heading home. The bus driver had plonked me in the front seat and kept pointing at things I should look at. I found a 'hotel' near the bus station to make it easier to get to the airport the next day. I went fora wander around and walked down to Tapdong. Then it started to chuck it down. I mean it was thundering, lightening and CHUCKING it down.
Fortunately I had booked tickets to see Nanta so went off to sit in a nice dry theatre. The show was amazing!!!
So that was it! Originally I was pretty nervous about traveling around by myself, but it was actually fine! I could do what I wanted, when I wanted. It was also a huge confidence boost knowing that I can successfully travel somewhere where I don't even speak the language, by myself and have a great time! Yay me!
This weekend I headed to Gurye-gun. A friend is part of Korea on the Rocks and they were going climbing at Youngseo Popko (The Forgiving waterfall) everyone had gone down on Friday night, so I had to head out.. on public transport.. by myself. We all know what happened last time I took public transport on my own... I ended up taking a 6 hour detour!So I got to the bus station, managed to but a ticket to Iksan, got on the bus, got to Iksan bus station, managed to Iksan train Station, got a ticket and was on a train an hour earlier than predicted and managed to get a seat! Yay me!!!
While on the train I managed to pick up 2 English guys who were also part of the climbing group.We got a taxi to the water fall and it was beautiful. For the whole weekend, I basically just lay around in the sun, read my book, socialised and enjoyed being out of 'The Goon'. There was about 30 'yong-gooks' and quite a few Brits there, which was nice. I also met an American whose Grandmother lives in Chester!!!Louise and I hiked up to the top of the waterfall to watch the sunset and take some photos. Then in the evening we had a camp fire and some singing. As there were a lot of people, it turn into slightly like spring break but on the rocks so there were a few 'men down' because of too much booze, too many rocks and lack of light.I ended up camping in Louise's tent with her and doing pretty much the same relaxing as on Sunday.
We headed home and only managed to standing seats. We managed to find a ledge to sit on in one of the cars, however it had a full view of the men's toilets, where the men never seem to be bothered to close the door!
Why do the traffic lights on the 6 lane road I have to cross on the way to work, never work in the mornings.
There seems to be a competition as to who can have the smallest pencil case. Mine is big enough to carry a small Chihuahua and amazes the kids.
Women tend to find the shortest shorts they can and wear high heels to go hiking in. You can have the shortest shorts ever but you must wear a baggy top with them. Shoulders must be covered.
There are at least 3 Lotte Mart shop assistants in every isle, ready to help you - whether you want it or not.
Some Koreans do not say excuse me. They either wait 20 minutes for you to figure out they are there. Or completely shove past you.
Rock scissors, paper stone, sorts out every small child's arguments. They completely abide by the outcome.
Some Koreans like you to see what they are eating, after they have chewed it for a few minutes. They talk with their mouth open all the time.
The majority of Korean construction is baddd - including my leaking window, handles falling off the door at work, the floor flooding and bad ventilation, so the tables grow mould!
When Koreans gets a snotty luggie in their throat, they just hack it up and if you are like my co-worker spit it in the bin next to my desk.
If you have a sofa delivered or something equally big, it is delivered through your window, on a lift that whizzes it up the outside of the building. This is pretty impressive when it is on the 15th floor.
People - especially women smoke in bathrooms. Including my neighbour, so it drifts through the air vents into my bathroom.
Bathroom stalls have mirrors in them. Like - on the back of the door so you can do your make up and pee at the same time! Or at Thursday Party, the mirrors are that bug you can watch yourself pee... just what you have always wanted!
***Dislaimer - Please note these are my observations and do not apply to every single Korean - just the majority!!!!
For my first doljanchi, this was pretty spectacular, the parents had gone all out! They had hired a huge hall in 'Korea Wedding'. At the entrance there was a table with a very expensive looking photo album of the baby, photos printed on to ceramic plates and a gold cast of the babies feet and hands.
There was a huge buffet, spread along the back of the hall, with an open kitchen will people cooking more food. There were balloon displays, 2 projector screens, running a video and photos of the baby, a stand up poster screen with a picture of the baby.
The food was AMAZING! There was sushi, caviar, oysters, shrimps, all kinds of rice cakes, fruit, salad, kimbap fried vegetables, soups, kebabs. ALL KINDS!!
We then sang happy birthday and the doljabi took place.
This is a video of the Doljabi, where the baby picks the object,
He picked up the string which signifies a long life but also picked up a mouse as well, showing he would get a job in technology.
It was a pretty interesting experience. When we left, we were given a box of rice cake and a towel, with the baby's name embroidered on!
Well this week has been challenging to say the least!! A few issues at work which actually haven't made life that difficult for me but caused a lot of shouting at each other between my co-workers.
To be honest it is all pretty ridiculous and petty but I am very proud of myself and the way I have reacted. Instead of screaming back and throwing a strop. I aired my views calmly and clearly. I have found that I am standing up for myself in a quiet and mature way. Before I would have moaned about the issue to my friends and not done anything about it. Now I am confronting them in a composed and restrained manner. Or so I like to think!!
Well, we all have a meeting at 9am on Monday with the Dean to discuss everything, so we will see how it goes!!
I think out of all the countries I have visited, this one is testing me the most. It is testing my working relationships and how to deal with pesky co workers. It is testing me on how to live alone. It is testing how I cope with a completely new culture, that I have never experienced before. It is testing my communication skills at work and in general day to day life.
However despite all of this, I am actually enjoying being here! I enjoy being challenged every day and experiencing something totally new and different.
So this weekend is going to be slightly more laid back than last weekend. I am going to a Jo's friends babies first birthday party. Otherwise known as doljanchi. It is a pretty big deal here. So should be interesting!
Monday, August 03, 2009
Well what a mammoth weekend!!
Friday started off pretty busy as KM had decided to combine the lessons in the morning. The meant I was teaching the adult and 5/6 grade class together for 90 minutes and then the kindergarten joined towards the end as well. So after scrubbing the underneath of all the tables because they had a thick layer of mould growing on it, (The joys of working in the equivalent of a cellar in wet humid Korea) I got to go home at 4.30!!
Jo and I were heading to Seoul for the weekend end to go to her directors restaurant and some workshop, I want really sure of the plans. She picked me up atand we headed off to Deachon. (Remember the place that took me 6 hours instead of 1!) We picked her another teacher and her 2 children.
We got to Seoul about 12 and went night shopping Dongdaemun Shopping Center we shopped there until about 3am and then continued to the restaurant. We got to Yangju-si at about 5.30am and settled into our room above the restaurant. We were then brought beer and proceeded to actually get very drunk considering it was now 6am!!
About 11.30, a woman came into our room and started to literally pull the blankets out from underneath us. She needed to clean the room for the next people and considering we were staying for free, we obliged. We were then sent into the roof which had a deck type thing with a cover and we slept there for another few hours. It was all very bemusing and comical.
We then woke up again at about 1.30, when Jo's director came up and we had some lunch. The workshop never really happened as we were too hungover and the person who was running the workshop didn't arrive.
We left abut 5 o'clock to make our way home. However we found a really nice Sculpture park and went for a wander around that.
We then found another sculpture park and art museum called Jangheung art park and looked around that one.
Then we found some amusement arcades and stayed there for a couple of hours. By this time , it was about 8.30, we decided it would be easier to stay and go home the next day.
However this weekend was a holiday weekend so all the rooms were booked up. We got back to the restaurant and slept for a bit in a tiny tiny room. We were then woken up again about 2am, and told the room was too small for us and we were to go and sleep in the restaurant. Fortunately part of the restaurant was Korean style so it had underfloor heating. We all went back to sleep in the restaurant - including the director and his wife!
I have begun to realise that I never know what is going to happen in Korea, so you just have to go with it!!!
On Sunday we set off around 10am and headed to Cheongam folk museum.
After this we drove to a pottery place. Which was really nice but after waiting an hour and 20 minutes for the girls to decide what colour pottery to buy in one of the shops, I was ready to leave.
By this time it was abut 4.30, the kids were really tired and whiny (as they had been most of the weekend, but that is a different story) I finally thought we were heading home.
Then I see a Hollywood style sign saying English village. Next thing I know we are driving up to it and parking. The English Village is really well known in Korea. It is basically a specially build village all in Englsih style where kids can go and learn English. Then Jo tells me were are only about and hour and half from the North Korean border! So I was estimating it would take about 4 hours to get home. THEN, I find out they want to look around the village but you have to pay to get in. BUT if you wait until 5 you can go in for free. By this point I was guessing I would not be home until 12/1 o'clock and was seriously annoyed.
We had a wonder around, it actually was pretty interesting but mainly amusing to see how thy had interpreted how an English village should look! There were a couple of Romania's working there, that I had a chat to in English also.
Finally we left at about 7pm and started on the way home. Having had enough of the kids, I plugged in my ear phones and tried to get some sleep.
Before I went to sleep, I noticed that the river we were driving along was protected by barbed wire and ahd military watch posts every so often. It turns out it was the Han River and the North Koreans would try and attack by the river.
So I finally got back to 'The Goon' at about midnight. I have never been so happy to be home. It was a fun weekend but a looooooooooooooooong weekend!!
Some of the teachers were out in Bar street, so after I headed over to see them. This descended into random balloon animals, shots and a fire show.
We had our Christmas dinner -
Did some push ups -
Some arm wrestling, Brittany Spears games and dancing!
It had started to snow in The Goon and we had the Christmas tree lights on and some Christmassy music on.
And surprisingly we managed to eat our way through them all!
The view from the wall was really interesting, we could see the Bell tower and also saw the only Buddhist temple in Xian.
Definitely one of the most random nights ever!
Not too bad for my first attempt and not understanding how to use the oven!!
