This week has been pretty busy.

Monday - Victoria and I went to the Music cafe. I had a bit of a moment while we were there. People have lessons in the cafe, so we saw a flute lesson and 2 old men had a singing lesson. The singing was so beautiful and amazing. It made me have an 'oh my goodness I am in Korea moment' Then the owner tried to show us how to sing. Every time we go he always trie to teach us something. He also gave us some corn on the cob grown from his own allotment.

Tuesday - I had Korean lessons with Jo and Louise. Apparently I was supposed to have them with KM but either she didn't tell me or as usual there was a miscommunication. She was not to happy and it all included some table banging and questions about if I was seeing a boy.

Wednesday - Jo and I went to the the gym at 6.30am!!! because we and a few of the foreign teachers were going for Pizza hut that night. So we completely over ate, then headed to a bar with a beer garden. We bumped into some more teachers and all got bitten to death by mosquitoes together!

Thursday - I asked again for my payslip, which I have still not received and was laughed at! Got a little frustrated with Korean culture today and just the fact that KM and I really struggle with communicating with each other. I was asked to great some sentences for 'Snack time' activity. I had taken a couple from the book the uni has produced. It said 'I couldn't take a milk/bread' I said that it was incorrect English, and was told it was American. Even if it was, it would still not make sense, so I was told it was Canadian!!! Either way, I will not teach it as it is completely incorrect! I also found out from my adults, that my adult class was cancelled for Friday. KM then told me that the main school was closed and I would be teaching at the other school.
I then met Jo at the gym and we cycled for about 15 minutes, all through out Jo kept poking me saying we have both had a bad day, lets go to dinner instead! I finally relented and we went for a really nice meal in Sky Park which has a really nice roof deck.

Friday - I went into work at 11 prepared to sit there until 3 as my adult class had been cancelled and I had no prep to do. To find that the school was locked up with a note in Korean on the door. I wondered over to the other village, to see where I was supposed to be and got sent home until 2.30!! YAY!
So went home cleaned my apartment, did some laundry, did all my ironing and made some tomato soup out of some huge tomatoes Jo had given me!

So some things in South Korea are pretty expensive, like milk , fruit and especially cheese. This milk is about £2.

However some things are not... for examples, Soju, the national drink.
You can buy soju for about 50p!



So if I get paid the wrong amount again.. at least I know I can afford some soju!

Jo and I hit up the 1,000 won shop, the Korean version of the pound shop. I got lots of goodies for my apartment. Then we decided to try out E Mart, where we tasted squid, bread, yoghurt, black bean noodles, ginseng, cereal.

Then we grabbed some dinner, then we didn't want Lotte Mart to feel left out, so dropped in there!

Also available at Lotte Mart...

puppies!



All in all we did shop til we dropped!

Pay day!!!

At last after 6 weeks of working, I have finally be paid. The first time in over 8 months!!!

However, they did not pay me enough.. ha I know no one is ever paid enough. But I was supposedly only paid for one month, they were 'keeping the other 9 days and would give it to me when I finish'. I have to check into this as Jo seems to think this is wrong. However even if I was paid for a month I am still about 300,000 short and I know that is not all tax/pension etc. I tried asking for my payslip but got pretty much blank stares from KM. I know I do have one as I asked the university directly previously to make sure I got one.

I had one of my first really really frustrating moments in South Korea. I have been here for 6 weeks,. I have been doing a good job, so please just pay me what you owe me. Everything here is never straightforward and it can be so frustrating. I just have to remember, it is a different culture and take a deep breath. But at then end of the day I did get paid!!!!

So Jo and I went out for dinner, had a bottle of wine,. We headed down to Eunpa Park.

At night the bridge is all lit up and some ties there are light shows or water/fountain shows. This time there was a concert... aimed at old people. But it was fun all the same. I also 'borrowed' some flowers from some huge flower displays. The are now in a cut up fanta bottle next to my bed!

Then we went to a swanky cafe/bar called Cafe Seventy two. It was really nice with sofas and a huge windows so you could see the street. Definitely felt like I was more in New York.

If you ordered 2 KGB drinks then you got a free gift... of insoles... that added 2cm to your height! Jo was very excited about this!

We then headed off to a very posh noreabang compared to the one I normally go to on Bar Street. The good thing abot being with a Korean at a Noreabang is that even if you sing badly, they don't realise as it's in English.

Today, I have just cleaned my apartment in my underwear (because I can, because I live by myslef! mwhahaha!) I am going to go food shopping this afternoon and then might head to the 1,000 won shop to buy knifes, forks, glasses and other exciting things for my apartment!

More Pay day pics here!

Thunder, lightening and lots of rain... and that was just inside my apartment.

So I joined the gym yesterday, had an hour and half work out, then sauntered home in the rain listening to my music and dancing at the traffic lights in the lightening.
Fortunately I got home before it absolutely started lashing it down - completely monsoon styley.
Then I heard some dripping.... the top of the inside pane of my window had water seeping through it.
I had no idea what to do and ended up calling Saint Jo and asked her to bring some tape around. She came over, by this point it around 11.30 and the leaking had got worse and close the my plug socket.



Her friend, went knocking on all my neighbours doors to try and get a phone number for the owner of the building. She managed to get hold of it and gave him a call. 20 minutes later he was over. The guy above me had already had the same problem, so they were aware of it. He apologised and offered to put me up in a hotel. (Can you ever imagine the Super doing that in NYC - not a chance if it was outside 9-5, he wouldn't even pick up!!!)

They left and came back 20 minutes later with some towels and some tubs to catch the rain. They asked if there were any other problems. I mentioned that there were a lot of mosquitoes in my apartment even though, I kept the screen shut and that they seemed to be a gap in the window. He said he would look at it when he fixed the window tomorrow.

So Jo tried to control the leak until it stopped raining.



I came back from the gym after work today and the tubs of water had been cleaned up, my wet towels put on the washing machine and this note...



So it all worked out ok in the end and I got some flowery smelling mosquito killer!

Locations of my adoring fans!

So I have a stat counter on my blog. I just found out I can see what city people are from who visit my blog. There were some pretty surprising results!
Someone in Spokane Washington is the top visitor.... not sure who that it. And then second is someone in Seoul... again not sure who that could be, unless it is Cho from the Flying Cows office in Seoul!
Vietnam and Mexico also showed up.
Some of them I look at and know who the person is, others I have no idea!
Anyway I though it was pretty interesting.. here are the results.



(Click on it to make it bigger)

Make a comment and identify yourself if you want!!!

*** OO I have just found out how to find the referring link as well.. quite a few hits have come from searches for 'hair braiding in Ghana'. Quite a few from my facebook page but lots of direct links - obviously my more adoring fans!! The Mexico and Vietnam are from some website called the blog fantasy stock market?! Apparently I am valued at B$1,000.00... hmm interesting! Now I am obsessed as to stalking you all!

Games, wrong buses and MUD!

Well activity day is always fun day, but this one was prettty tiring. We did sports and games with the kids outside. I had to do the same games, trying to explain it to them, act it out when they didn't and also join in occasionally, for all 4 classes!

This is a pretty good video of a rely race and gives you a good view of the apartment complex that the students live in. The thing they run around is stairs leading down to where I work!



There are more pictures here.

That night was Helen's last night in Gunsan, as she has a new job in Seoul. So we went out for a few beers which inevitably lead to Noreabang. I love it!! Although looking back at videos and hearing yourself sing is not always a good thing!

Then Saturday Jo and I were supposed to be driving to Mudfest. However there had been something in the news about children getting a rash from the mud and Jo decided not to go. Everyone else had already headed up. I wasn't sure about whether to just spend the weekend in Gunsan or to actually get on a bus and figure things out for myself for the first time! So I decided it would be a challenge and I needed to get to grips with the public transport as opposed to being a sheep and just following everyone else.

So made it to the bus station, asked for a ticket to Deachon, got on the bus and everything was going swimmingly. However, I began to realise this bus was taking far longer than it should do and realised I was heading to Daejon!! The guy had misunderstood me! So I ended up in Deajon, found out I couldn't get a direct bus to Deachon, I had to go to Gongju and get another bus. So what should have been one bus and about an hour ride, took 3 buses and about 6 hours!!!



The green route is the one I should have taken, and the red one is the one I did take!!!

The scenery was pretty spectacular - I saw a suspension bridge that had supports made out of huuuuge chillies.

I also made friends with a couple of Ozzies on the bus. One of the who used to Nanny for Sally who ran the Australia office for Cross-Cultural Solutions!!! Such a small world!

So finally made it there about 8pm at night, meet up with some of the others, had a few drinks and went to a overpriced dive of a night club!

On Sunday as everyone had already done the mud stuff and it was chucking it down, most people went home. Louise came back to the beach with me. We both went to mud jail, where we got buckets of mud thrown over us, then we went to the mud pit, where again people threw mud at you. The mud is not thick but more like runny grey water.



We then rinsed it off a bit in the rain and then ran into the sea. It was pretty choppy and windy and rainy but definitely a once in lifetime experience. I don't have many pictures as I was too muddy. But here are the few that I do!
Then had a super short journey home and just put the washing on!

A very jam packed and entertaining weekend!!

I had my first proper Korean lesson with Jo on Monday ans she set me the task of learning the alphabet.
It is actually really difficult! First you have to learn what the symbol is, then what sound it makes, then what sound it makes with all the other. Each symbol can be combined with other symbols to make a syllable, you then have to put all the syllables together. Then you finally have the whole word and what is sounds like. Then you have to figure out what that sound means!! It is like learning something 3 times!!!
Also some symbols are a G or K, P or B, or an L or an R. Which makes it even more difficult. This also explains why Koreans say lice instead of rice.

It has definitely made me respect my kindergarten classes for knowing their ABC's! And made me appreciate how much the students do know

I had to post this video. It cracks me up sooooo much. Daniel was trying to get the student to write their names but using their hips...
the results are veryyyyyy amusing!



This weekend I am off to mudfest. Yes it does exactly what it says on the tin. Practically every foreigner from the whole of South Korea will be there! The mus is supposed to be really good for your skin. Here's hoping because my face looks like a pepperoni pizza at the moment!

Also on a reflective note.. this week 3 years ago I first moved over to NYC to work for Cross-Cultural Solutions!!! I can't believe that is was 3 years ago! So much has happened since then. I have visited 6 countries, 14 states, moved back to the UK, moved over to South Korea, changed career direction, met hundreds of fabulous people and those are just the main things.

I am very grateful to CCS and everything I learnt there. Especially in regards to cultural differences and being flexible. It is definitely serving useful in dealing with KM! It has also helped me to embrace new cultures and helped me to integrate more efficiently and with less culture shock.
Moving to South Korea was a piece of cake compared to dealing with finding an apartment, sorting out my visa etc like I had to to in NYC! I just wish KM would realise that!

Oo, also managed to figure out how to get my pictures off my camera.
Here are some from the Music Museum on Sunday.

These are the tins for needles for gramophones






Well off to bed, its activity day tomorrow, doing sports with the kids and discussing families with the adults. Let's hope I don't stress out to many foetus'!

Scary foreign teacher terrorises expecting mothers

So after chatting with Jo, I realised I may have been a bit hard on KM. I am her first foreign teacher and am also fiercely independent. We just need to learn each others boundaries and figure out how to work harmoniously with each other.

I went into work today. I answered all of her questions politely. Where did you go what did you do. How many boys were there. How old were they. How many times did you go to the bathroom this weekend... (ok maybe not the last one but nearly)

Then she began to discuss the adult classes with me. I had previous been told that my pub quizzes were stressing out the 2 unborn babies in the class. On Friday I had done an episode of Friends and got them to answer questions about it. It was pretty hard actually. There were no speakers, so they couldn't really hear anything and I realised that it was hard at the time.

She proceeded to tell me, my lessons were to hard, they were scared to come to my activity lessons on Fridays and it gave them all headaches. I am not allowed to introduce any new materials. I am only allowed to use thing from book. I am also not allowed to lesson plan any more.

I was gutted. I knew my class on Friday was hard. I don't know how much of it is true or how much she is just exaggerating. It really knocked my confidence and I was dreading the adult class. I really felt like saying ok you teach the class and I will just assist.
She was just so patronising about it though. She was saying they are mommies they are not very good. For a start, they are mums and also they grasp of English actually very good. They are here paying to learn, so I am not going to be really easy on them as they are here to learn. They have to be challenged in order to advance.

Anyway, we will see if anyone cries on Friday.....

Also on the boy front. She was asking about the boys at the air force base from the weekend and did I fancy any of them. I told her no. She asked why not? Why did I not have a boyfriend. I tried to explain to her that boys were too much trouble and I wanted to be able to go and do my own thing. She responded by going oooo I see you like girls with a shocked look on her face. I tried to rectify the situation by saying, no I like men, black men actually. Her response what black and pretty much utter terror. At this point I was wondering what she would find more accepting.....

Multi cultural celebrations!

This week was lots of celebrations. On Wednesday it was Canada day so we got together with some Canadians, South Africans, Americans, Brits and Koreans to celebrate.



Friday Jo and I went to see Transformers. My first Korean cinema experience. It was great as the movies are in English with Korean subtitles!

Saturday was July 4th. So a few of us headed over to the airbase to be signed in by some guys called Swank, Slick and Riddler. There was lots of drinking, bonfires, dancing and merriment.



Victoria and I decided that we wanted to leave and tried to.... but we could as we had to signed out by Swank... who we couldn't find.. it was all very complicated and confusing and we ended up leaving with out our ID to come back later and get it.

We headed off to 'America Town' which was pretty seedy. There are bars, clubs and shops with 'American sizes.



I got a taxi home and the taxi driver proposed to me several times. I told him I was not interested and only went for black men. This did not deter him and he went in for a kiss goodbye when I got out of the taxi!!!

Today Helen and I had a date day. We went out for lunch, then had a stroll around Eunpa park. We went for a boat ride on the lake in a tiny little boat with a very very slow engine. We may have also broke the steering but it was all ok!
Then we went to our fabulous little coffee shop.


(photo pinched off Helen! Thanks!!!)

They have a music museum above the shop. Basically as you can tell by the picture they collect a lot of stuff.I think the shop and museum is just a front so they have space to show everything.

The museum was pretty amazing. There were old gramophones, wax cylinders and photo lps, all kinds. The woman lived in Germany so she would speak to us in mixed Hangul and German and showed us everything. She kept opening the cases and making us old things from the 1800's! At the end she said htere is no culture in Gunsan, no culture!

So yet another successful weekend in Gunsan!

You say Potato, I say potatah

Had a pretty funny/ embarrassing / culturally insensitive mishap today.
The wheel on my chair broke yesterday, so I want to swap it for another chair that was also in the office. I was told I couldn’t because it was a cheap chair. It looks pretty swanky to me and I needed a chair. Again I was told was not allowed to use it because it was cheap. I have taken to telling KM what I think but really fast in English so she doesn’t understand. Makes me fell a lot better!!
So my response was this is so silly, I need a chair, why can’t I sit on it, you are so silly and flounced off to teach.

So Daniel came over today to fix my chair, again I was like why can’t I sit in that chair. He also said no.

Then during the planning meeting Daniel said he would sort out the chair for and it was a cultural thing that no one sat in the Bosses chair. I was like ok fair enough but I was told I couldn’t sit in it because it was cheap. It turns out KM was saying Chief not cheap!!! Oooops!!!

Random, thoughts, observations and annoyances

You can do u-turn in the road - there is even a lane for it

It seems pretty acceptable, if there is red light to drive down the wrong side of the road and cut in front of the already queuing traffic.

You do not get a cash card automatically with your bank account

You get charged if you take money out, if it outside banking hours

Koreans do not cover their mouths when they cough

It is totally acceptable to have a roll of toilet paper on the table in restaurants

If you got out not wearing a massive visor, gloves, and this random long sleeved sun arm sleeves, you are looked at weird

Small children wear t-shirts with inappropriate English on them. (Think a 10 year old with the F word on her t-shirt)

Soju is cheaper than milk

Everyone knows where Manchester is because of Park Ji-Sung

I am glad I introduce myself as Jocelyn not Joss, as every laughs when I say Joss as they think it sounds like Jaws. Then then do a shark impression

Signs for crab in English are normally spelt crap. For example 'bagel and crap salad' (photo hopefully to come)

Hmmmm those are all the ones I can think of.. I need to write them down as there are some pretty funny ones!